Chino Mayor Dennis Yates is stepping down.
A 24-year city council member and a Chino resident since 1982, Yates will retire when his term expires later this year, according to the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.
The 71-year-old Yates quipped that he has “contributed enough and done enough damage,” and that he would rather die holding a fishing pole than during a city council meeting, the newspaper reported Tuesday.
He previously retired from Thrifty Corp., the retail chain, where he spent 38 years as an executive.
Yates, who was first elected to the council in 1992, grew up in Pomona and attended Pomona High School, where he played football and ran track.
He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1966 to 1970, achieving the rank of staff sergeant. Yates then attended Chaffee College on the G.I. Bill, where he earned an associate of arts degree, according to the report.