Elections 2007: One round or two?

This Tuesday, the city council and Mayor Ron Loveridge will be interviewing five applicants representing two wards to fill two spots on the Community Police Review Commission.

There are three candidates to fill one seat in Ward Four and two to fill one representing Ward Six.

Favored in the race to fill the fourth ward is former Riverside County Board of Supervisor candidate, Linda Soubirous, who last heard from was appealing the vote in the 2004 election where she lost to incumbent Bob Buster.

Soubirous had not submitted an application to the city clerk's office when two citywide commissioner positions were filled in March but apparently had during this current round of selections which was spurred by the resignations of commissioners, Les Davidson and Ric Castro. What's interesting about it is Ward Four is represented by Councilman Frank Schiavone who announced last week that he was running against Buster in the race for supervisor next year.

Some political watchdogs also predicted that Soubirous might take another run at vying for Buster's seat, but maybe she'll be busy serving as a commissioner instead. Maybe Schiavone hopes that will keep her busy and away from the county's election wars next year.

There's no clear favorites in the selection process for Ward Six as few people applied and even fewer made it through the selection process conducted by the Mayor's Nomination and Screening Committee last week.

CPRC Chair Brian Pearcy said at a recent meeting that he hoped to have the new commissioners seated by June. Two of the standing committees under the commission also have openings that must be filled before they can meet.

Although a legal opinion provided by City Attorney Gregory Priamos apparently means that the CPRC's policy and procedures committee chaired by newcomer Steve Simpson will remain open to the public. At the last meeting, Simpson had asked several times for a legal opinion on whether or not the city had to publish notice when that committee met. Priamos apparently told Simpson that yes, standing committees do need to publish due notice under the state's Brown Act.




Speaking of the Mayor's Nomination and Screening Committee, there's silence on that front about when it will schedule the hearing on the ethics complaint filed by activist Kevin Dawson against Councilman Dom Betro.

Not much word yet from the Press Enterprise on whether or not it will write about the most recent ethics complaint filed against Betro. In many other cities, something like this would be news, but given that the Press Enterprise's editorial board has endorsed Betro, maybe it's not. After all, it's his second one this year, with seven months to go.

Contrast that with Councilman Art Gage who has had his share of election fumbles, some of which became the subject of a piece published by the same newspaper which didn't endorse him. Steve Adams foibles also were fair game in several articles published by the newspaper, first in terms of a thinly veiled campaign flier that was paid for by city funds and then more recently, for allegations that he had claimed to be endorsed by the Riverside Police Officers' Association which had actually endorsed candidate Roy Saldanha.

But Betro's problems have remained out of the press.

News is, that the publication is planning to do an article on campaign sign vandalism and how it has adversely impacted the Betro campaign, even though it appears that sign thefts and vandalism have impacted nearly every candidate in some way or another in this contentious election. However, there's not any apparent interest by the Press Enterprise into the theft of signs or posting signs which state that you are endorsed by individuals or organizations when in actuality, they are endorsing one of your political rivals. Apparently, it's Gage and Letitia Pepper, running in Ward One who have reported the most signs disappearing so far from where they've been posted.

Ballots were mailed out for the elections and must be signed and postdated by June 5 to be tabulated. This contest is a difficult one to call in nearly every ward, in fact it's not clear at this point if it can be predicted which contests will be resolved in June and which ones won't be declared over until November's election.

Speculation is that Betro will probably win Ward One either in June or in November. News is that Betro's camp has conducted an informal poll of voters and have put him in the lead with 40% of the votes, with Pepper just behind and just ahead of Gardner and with Derek Thesier in the rear. As you know, anything less than 50% of the vote tally for the leading candidate necessitates a runoff election and of the four candidates, it's actually Gardner who would benefit most from a runoff election if he made it that far.

Word also is that Betro's camp is warning people to cast a vote for him to prevent him from being forced into a runoff with the "crazy lady" who will ruin the city, in the autumn. Hopefully, that's just a rumor though there's apparently been discussion of what's been called the "Pepper effect" at strategic meetings in the Betro campaign. Pepper will attract a lot of votes but it appears that the Betro campaign is using her candidacy to stir fear in Ward One voters so they will come out for him. Pepper actually talks at the forums as if she's the most informed on many of the issues impacting downtown and knows it, but her strengths are more her legal skills which are quite formidable than her political candidate ones.

Although this poll if it indeed was taken probably seriously underestimated the votes that candidate Michael Gardner is attracting and he's probably the candidate that Betro fears most. Pepper is a threat if she tallies enough votes to force a runoff between Betro and Gardner but perhaps Betro thinks he can siphon votes off from Gardner by presenting Pepper as being on the fringe to scare people off of Gardner by saying that a vote for him is a vote for Pepper. When you're challenged by a moderate, scare people into voting for you by making it appear the candidate you consider more radical will get in if people vote for the moderate. It's a common political strategy used by the two major political parties at the national level as well, both in primaries and final elections.

If a runoff election happens, Betro will already have received most of the votes that he will get unless the turnout is low(which is possible since it's a mail in election) and more people vote in November. Otherwise, expect Gardner to pick up more votes if he goes a second round than Betro will. Traditionally however, the person who wins the first round usually loses the runoff election.



Ward Three is between Gage and neophyte William "Rusty" Bailey who has attracted questions in terms of whether or not he was recruited by the development bloc(as three-fourths of BASS has endorsed him) because of his professional ties with the County of Riverside's Economic Development Agency. Whether it will be a nail biter or a runaway, remains to be seen though it's likely at this point that Gage's door to door precinct walking and his fairly good response to his constituency(who after all, will be doing the voting, not the development bloc) will probably provide him with an advantage. Troubling issues surround Gage's performance on the dais, but then again, they also surround quite a few people sitting there that are also running for office. And Bailey's smart and personable with strong local roots who could attract a lot of votes.


Ward Five looks to be a three horse battle between Donna Doty Michalka, Chris MacArthur and Harry Karuni. Karuni's backed by several members of BASS, while the rumors that outgoing councilman, Ed Adkison's alleged support of MacArthur haven't really produced much. There might be a runoff but it's not clear who it will include though Michalka will probably collect the most votes in the initial round. The mudslinging in this race is pretty extensive if very underreported with accusations against Michalka that she's misusing her late ex-husband's surname and prospective voters being told that Karuni's from Iran. And guess what? Both rumor trails appear to be coming out of the MacArthur camp.


Ward Seven is the most unpredictable contest. The only sure thing is that it's almost guaranteed to go into a runoff. Each candidate including Adams is going to attract key niche voters within the La Sierra area. Adams probably won't be elected to a second term, but who will replace him? And will he make it into a runoff? The predictions are that the runoff will be Adams against Roy Saldanha or Saldanha against Art Garcia, who put himself in the contest with an endorsement from the Press Enterprise editorial board. However, the success rate for editorial board endorsements is usually around 50% and former city councilwoman and mayor, Terry Frizzel can never be counted out because she's got strong support in that ward as well.

Adams' best chance of getting reelected is to win overall in the primary. Even if he makes it to a runoff, his chances will be reduced.




In today's Press Enterprise, there's an opinion piece written by the president of the local bar association, David Bristow and it's about what else? The crisis in the Riverside County Superior Court system where civil trials have just about disappeared as there's not even enough judges and courtrooms to hear the criminal trials. The current backlog of felony trials is well over 1,000 and has remained at that figure no matter what steps have been taken.

All the parties involved in this situation have pointed fingers at each other. Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco blames the judges, apparently oblivious to the fact that the crisis worsened when his office implemented changes in how it handles certain felony cases a little over a year ago. That's what has made the crisis worse than that in San Bernardino County which actually has fewer judges there to hear even more cases yet it has not had to call a moratorium on civil cases like Riverside County has done.

The defense attorneys blame Pacheco, even as the state hasn't matched the rapid growth of the two Inland Empire counties by appointing more judges. The state blames the fact that it's tough to find qualified candidates to be judges who will take a huge cut in their salaries to sit on the bench.

Bristow doesn't care. He just wants something to be done.


(excerpt)



The right to a civil trial in Riverside County is all but suspended. The result? The people's courtrooms have been taken from them, and with those courtrooms goes the ability to protect our rights, property and freedoms.

Our civil courts are where accident victims obtain redress from those at fault, where business owners protect their contracts and their investments, and where employers and employees resolve their disputes. Without a well-functioning civil-court system, our ability to enforce each of these rights, as well as countless others, is threatened.

As president of the Riverside County Bar Association, it is my obligation to reverse this trend and to help ensure the soundness and sanctity of our court system. Every lawyer in this county has sworn an oath to uphold the law as an officer of the court, and must ensure that our courts remain a beacon of justice accessible to all.

The present crisis has transcended a simple lack of judicial resources. As we should all know by now, the two counties of the Inland Empire are grossly understaffed with judicial officers. This problem has resulted from the explosive growth of our region, as well as from a lack of attention to the courts from our local elected officials.

In fairness, this latter point was unanticipated. When control of the courts shifted from the counties to the state within the past decade, no mechanism was created to retain local oversight of our county's judicial health. This failure has led to our current situation. Because there is no such mechanism for identifying, much less solving, any problems within our county judicial system, the current crisis spins further out of control.



Bristow calls on the county's board of supervisors to act, but what are they exactly supposed to do?






The Los Angeles Times published an update to what's going on in the Los Angeles Police Department in the aftermath of the May Day incident where riot officers charged a city park and struck people who were assembled peacefully there with their batons and shot them with their less lethal shotguns.

It discusses the thin blue line that Chief William Bratton must navigate between the concerns of the public over this troubling incident with the furor that is developing among the nearly 10,000 officers in his ranks. And this comes during the point where he's up for reappointment for a second five-year term.


(excerpt)


"It's quite a tightrope he's walking right now," said attorney Constance L. Rice, who has studied LAPD management for years. "Bratton has to signal that he gets it, that mindless unprovoked use of force is not acceptable. But he also needs to reach out to the union and acknowledge that they are partners in public safety who need to get onboard with the program."

Some supporters believe the savvy Bratton will find a way back to safe ground, having benefited from years of experience in the political hothouse of New York, where he previously headed the Police Department in a tabloid-heavy atmosphere.

Those backers point to how Bratton has avoided some of the mistakes of his predecessors by not denying the seriousness of the problem and by putting in motion investigations to hold officers accountable for any wrongdoing.

"I've never seen any public official engage in the outreach over a crisis that Bill Bratton has in the last 10 days," said City Councilman Jack Weiss.



But in the wake of at least four investigations being done by the department or outside of it into the actions taken by its officers that day, activists and community leaders still remain wary and concerned that it is all about window dressing.


The police union is in an uproar with Bratton, telling him that he is treading in "dangerous waters" and talking about no-confidence votes and slowing down their work productivity in response, particularly to comments that Bratton had made like this one.


"One thing I know about [police] is you have to control them, because they go out of control faster than any human being in the world."


Ouch.


(excerpt)




So far, union officials have quashed those proposals out of concern that they would further hurt the image of the police.

"The officers are just outraged," said Bob Baker, president of the union. "To go on a tirade and make accusations about every police officer is not acceptable…. If he continues to go down this road, he's going to be in serious trouble with the men and women of the Los Angeles Police Department."



The Police Protective League sent Bratton a letter expressing their outrage.



(excerpt)


Dear Chief Bratton:

As we move to put the events of May 1st behind us, we had not thought we would have to remind you, of all people, of the importance of protecting the men and women you lead from the kind of broad-brush rush to judgment that can be so devastating to officer morale.

This was why we were upset to read this quote from you in the Los Angeles Times: "One thing I know about them [police] is you have to control them, because they go out of control faster than any human being in the world." What was stunning about this comment, Chief, was that it would seem to indict every man and woman now serving, or who has ever served, or will serve, in law enforcement. We interpret this comment (as do many others) as a suggestion that you believe that every police officer has self-control issues.

We truly hope that this is not how you think of the officers you command. The 9,500 officers of the LAPD are the heart and soul of the best trained and best qualified Department in the country. Either you misspoke or you were misquoted. However, we believe that you owe an apology to the men and women of our Department.

Impeaching the emotional maturity of the men and women who serve Los Angeles under your command only weakens the mutual trust that is necessary to keep this Department working smoothly and protecting the City.

Very truly yours,

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Los Angeles Police Protective League




Bratton defended his comments in the Los Angeles Times article.


(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)



On the "out of control" comment, Bratton said it reflected a reality for police organizations, that strong supervision and management were essential when employees have the power to use deadly force.

"I'm a cop. I love being a cop. I enjoy working with cops and I think after all this time I understand them. I understand as a police leader you have to control them," he said.

That said, Bratton plans next week to attend roll calls at various police stations so he can talk directly to concerned members of the rank and file.

"Cops are hurting. They are wondering, 'Why isn't the chief defending us?' " Bratton said. "I have to be frank about it. There are certain things I can't defend. Where I can defend officers, I will."



More letters were published in the Los Angeles Times today.



In Atlanta, that city's scandal plagued police department is currently under investigation by several federal agencies. Now, it's also facing civil litigation filed by police informant, Alexis White according to this article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

If you've been following the tragic officer involved shooting of Kathryn Johnston by several narcotics officers and the house of cards that came crashing down after it was discovered that these officers lied on a search warrant to get into her house, shot her to death, left her dying and handcuffed on her own floor and then planted drugs in her basement to cover up their actions.

Two out of three of those officers have already plead guilty to felony charges including manslaughter in both state and federal court. They are now assisting the U.S. Justice Department with its own probe into the department.

White stated in his law suit that the officers lied when they said that he had witnessed a drug transaction at Johnston's house.


(excerpt)



Officers later picked up White, drove him around and told him to lie in a cover up.

"Mr. White immediately refused to take part in the cover-up and asked to be let of of the vehicle," his attorney alleges in the court documents.

Instead, the two officers kept him against his will for two hours, threatening him if he didn't lie, Little claims.

"Fearing for his life, Mr. White jumped out of the vehicle on North Avenue," Little said.

White ran through the bustling Varsity greasy spoon and then found a pay phone across the street. He dialed 9-1-1 and was rescued by federal officials.

White, who has since lost his job and remains in federal protective custody, is seeking compensation for his suffering, his lawyer said.



At least he has his life. That's more than can be said about an elderly woman who was too frightened to leave her house, but her fear did not prevent death from finding its way inside it.