Louder than words: Actions and reactions

The promised battle with the railroads didn't quite take place at the Governmental Affairs meeting although representatives from both BNSF and Union Pacific railroad companies did make appearances to just listen in on the discussion taking place at City Hall.



Lupe Valdez, from Union Pacific said, "We don't like our trains stopped" and told the audience of 20 people crowded in the Mayor's Ceremonial Room that the railroad blockages which have plagued Riverside's streets for years was bad for business.



The BNSF railroad representative reiterated Valdez's comments and said she was just there to listen, though people attending the meeting know that the railroads will not take this development sitting down and will probably launch a preemptive strike before any initiative makes it on the ballot.



Perhaps, they will file a law suit challenging the legality of an initiative and then say they are doing it to "assist" the city. Maybe, they'll attach a request at its end that they will be suing to have the city pay their attorneys' fees.



It was interesting seeing Schiavone decide to fight the railroads which have turned this city's intersections into their personal parking lots. But if his response to challenges to his planned initiative is to say, let a judge decide after it's passed, why can't that same strategy be implemented for a proposed ballot initiative addressing eminent domain that has been stonewalled by the city and its attorneys?

The city filed a SLAPP suit against a community organization to "assist" it in terms of determining whether or not its proposed ballot initiative to regulate the use of eminent domain in cases involving private development was legal. So why shouldn't the train companies adopt a similar strategy to determine whether or not the city's proposed initiative is legal?



Although speakers are usually given three minutes time to address the committee with their concerns, that time has been abbreviated until the committee's chair, Frank Schiavone has heard enough and then he cuts that person off and moves onto the next person. Several different theories were bounced around as to why that was at this particular meeting.

The Press Enterprise covered the meeting, in some detail and included the opposition to the measure by the state's utilities commission which said it would have no teeth.


(excerpt)


Public Utilities Commission spokesman Tom Hall said a city law like the one Schiavone is proposing is not allowed.

Federal and state laws and regulations take precedence over local laws on this issue, he said in an e-mail.

The Federal Railroad Administration says on its Web site, however, that it does not regulate the length of time a railroad may block a crossing and it's also not clear if the states can do so.



Uh oh, it looks like the city may need to go to Ken Stansbury, formerly of Riversiders for Property Rights for legal strategy in terms of how to file a law suit challenging the legality of an initiative it wishes to place on the ballot.

Because in all likelihood, the representatives from the train companies did not attend the meeting just to observe but to report back to their bosses who could very well initiate legal action blocking the proposed initiative way before the election.





Schiavone's new public speaking policy became more apparent during the next agenda item which discussed relaxing the policy on reporting excused absences from the city's boards and commissions. That item was introduced by Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis who said that the charter allowed for those rules to be relaxed to allow for emergencies inside the 24 hour notification period.



However, what could have been a mundane housekeeping chore became more interesting when Councilman Ed Adkison started talking about it.



"Why do we need the H.R. Board," Adkison asked, not for the first time.



*pin dropping*


Well, because it's included in the city charter and thus can only be disbanded by the city's voters, answered someone not for the first time. However, the city's charter only technically gives boards and commissions an extra layer of security from the whims of the city government. In reality, their roads seem to become more difficult when they receive charter protection from the city's voters. As the recent events surrounding the CPRC under the current city management can attest to.



Then City Manager Brad Hudson said kind of out of left field that the Human Relations Commission was not in the city's charter. Better batten down the hatches on that commission, some observers warned.



Adkison kind of did an interesting soliloquy on why the turnover rate is so high on the HRC, because in his view, the commission is the toughest to serve on because it doesn't bring immediate gratification. Given that the most recent rumors have Adkison throwing his hat in the mayoral race, his comments attracted some attention given who currently oversees that commission.

No one's surprised at the latest round of rumors about Adkison's political ambitions. On June 30, Adkison will have to surrender his gavel as the mayor pro tem and some have said that won't come easy, but thoughts of perhaps a more permanent stance may cheer him up.

But what does that mean for the HRC?

This "most important" commission is currently under the protection of Mayor Ron Loveridge after its transfer to his office that took place not long after Hudson cut its staffing. Some commissioners said that they believed it was in response to a letter written to Hudson addressing the situation involving the demotion, firings and resignations of Black and Latino employees at City Hall.



However, one commission that delivers more in that area in terms of assigning more tasks for it to carry out has a higher turnover rate than the HRC and that is of course, the Community Police Review Commission which has seen four resignations in six months.



Schiavone didn't get too far into that area, for reasons that remain unknown but he clearly didn't want to hear or participate in much discussion on this item or he was in a hurry to adjourn the meeting. Why, may be come more clear when Councilman Dom Betro returns to town after his post-election vacation.


Columnist Dan Bernstein from the Press Enterprise took on both the railroad and the CPRC issues in one swipe. On trains, he provided a few alternative endings to Schiavone's campaign to take on Union Pacific. The following was my favorite.



(excerpt)


Version 3. Minutes slogged by as the stranded Schiavone thought things through. My Riverside Renaissance homies have been squeezed into runoffs. I'm running for county supe against a guy who has demonized DHL. Those night flights are killing me. I might lose my own ward.

"That's it!" Schiavone exclaimed. "I'll switch to trains! I'll be the Bob Buster of box cars! They'll call me "The Man Railroads Fear Most." They'll make a movie: "Young Frankenfine!"





On the CPRC, Bernstein related the incident at the last(chronologically speaking, not literally)special meeting of the CPRC involving the Lee Deante Brown shooting.

(excerpt)



Riverside's Community Police Review Commission doesn't seem to do much (which suits the RPD and City Hall nano-managers just fine), but it can be darned entertaining.

During a recent jaw-jaw about whether minority reports should be part of final reports, Commissioner Steve Simpson, unimpressed by what he took to be questionable advice, asked City Attorney Greg Priamos, "What kind of cigarettes do you smoke, young man?"

First thing you hear on the tape is a SLAM. Then someone says, "Are you trying to be funny, Mr. Simpson?"

Simpson, a recent appointee, apologizes a few times as he is urged by someone to "please use some decorum."

City Attorney Priamos: "If you have a legitimate question I'll be happy to answer it, but... we (as staff) expect the respect that we show you."

I'm with Priamos. Except maybe on a slow day.





That meeting was on a slow day and most of the people in the audience have lost count on how many legal interpretations have been provided regarding minority reports, what they are, who can issue them and whether the majority of a body has to improve their content before agreeing to release them. Simpson was simply saying what most of the audience and most likely other commissioners are thinking. It's nice to know that at least one commissioner hasn't been virtually silenced by the repressive environment that pervades that commission.

One thing that Bernstein is always excellent at doing is hitting the nail on the head and he did just that when he created a new term for what the city manager's office has been doing with the CPRC and that's nano-management.

He's right in that the police department is perfectly happy with its current status as is the city manager's office which has nano-managed it into a shell of its former self while trying to tell everyone how much better it's doing under its watch. It's fascinating how the police department and the city manager's office can be in agreement in one area and at odds when it comes to another one. Like how the police department will be run and who will run it.

That dynamic burst onto the public scene several months ago when employees from the police department came down to City Hall to protest the creation of several "at will" positions in the police department. The city manager's office blinked after even the city council awoke from its ennui regarding its employee and began asking pointed questions. And then a crowd appeared before the dais and so forth.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, seems to be the common adage regarding the CPRC on several different fronts these days.

Still, it will be interesting to see what the future brings.





Speaking of the CPRC, four candidates remain in the running for the executive manager position of the CPRC. The final interviews will be held by the city manager in upcoming weeks.



Still, it's not clear where the new executive manager will be based with some individuals saying that there might be room on the seventh floor which is still quite crowded from all the renovation. Others say, that they might kick out someone in the fifth floor and give the executive manager some nicer digs.



Just kidding.



Unable to comment on this issue was DeSantis, who is being a lot more choosy about who he gives public information to these days. Some say he's chafing over the increasingly elevated role that Asst. City Manager Michael Beck, who after all came to City Hall to fill a tailor-made position titled, deputy city manager, is playing in Hudson's office.



Even on an item which Beck had no role in, Hudson asked Schiavone to wait for him to return into the ceremonial room.



At any rate, by the end of July there will be a new executive manager in place for the CPRC and that this individual will be assigned appropriate office space in which to perform his job responsibilities.



Whether that fortunate employee will be functioning as an independent director of the CPRC or as DeSantis' marionette, remains to be seen though some individuals are praying for the former and bracing for the latter. There's an ongoing poll in the community which is currently accepting and tabulating input on this pressing issue.





The Press Enterprise has done an excellent article on the Riverside County Sheriff's Department which has one of the highest officer-involved shooting rates in the state. With fatal nine shootings in 2005 and 12 in 2006 plus many more shootings both years, the department has attracted some attention from use of force experts.

This comes as Sheriff Bob Doyle is going to the County Board of Supervisors to ask them for funding to buy tasers, a less-lethal option.

Doyle denied there were any problems with this trend.


(excerpt)


Riverside County Sheriff Bob Doyle said his agency does not have an excessive number of officer-involved shootings when considering the growth in population, which has increased the number of calls for service.

"We don't have a bunch of trigger-happy deputy sheriffs," he said. "They're using their weapons appropriately when they're in those shootings. We're not seeing any kind of trend that would lead us to believe that we've had a breakdown in training."

The newspaper's analysis shows that the county's fatal shootings have increased at a greater rate than service calls have. From 2002 to 2006, calls for service rose 36 percent, but fatal officer-involved shootings increased more than 100 percent.

"If they shoot more people than LA (Sheriff's Department), that raises a red flag with me," said Samuel Walker, a national expert on officer-involved shootings.





The list of fatal officer-involved shootings can be found here. A bit of historical information. The Riverside County Sheriff's Department may have a higher shooting rate than its counterpart in Los Angeles, but traditionally has placed third in the Inland Empire behind two other law enforcement agencies, one in each county.

The article also discusses the pros and cons of the use of Taser International, Inc.'s stun guns, citing studies by the ACLU and Amnesty International which question the safety of the device and whether or not its use played a role in officer-involved deaths.



Closing arguments are set to be heard in the trial of Former San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department deputy Ivory J. Webb today. In January 2006, Webb shot Elio Carrion three times while ordering him to get up.

After the arguments are presented by both sides, the case finally makes it to the jury for deliberation.