Election 2007 and 2008: When elections collide
On one occasion at Craigslist, an individual, a self-identified Dom Betro supporter, even appeared admitting that they were behind the removal and in fact were quite proud of it and quite good at it as well. Everyone should have at least one thing they can be good at and express pride in doing.
What I found very interesting about this criticism is that it brought up a dichotomy that I've often found confusing and that is the one involving Councilmen Dom Betro and Art Gage. Almost as if they were running against each other rather than against other opponents in their respective wards. Yes, there were critical remarks about Gardner but why so much of a focus on Gage?
The answer to that question requires an examination of politics in River City, particularly those surrounding City Hall and all its players both on the dais and off of it.
First of all, it's fairly clear how tightly the campaigns of Betro and Ward Three challenger, William "Rusty" Bailey are wound together and have been beginning not too long after Gage was ousted by the GASS quartet. Most of the people on the dais are in fact endorsing Bailey to replace Gage including former GASS members. Some people believe that's a sign of progress towards a city council that will work well together. Others see it as a sign of cronyism believing that the decisions and campaigns of candidates should be made by ward residents, not by interests outside those wards and that city council members and mayors should be prepared to work with the person who gets elected rather than playing favorites. This act of trading endorsements on the dais shows a move that was tailored by the GASS quartet towards emphasizing city representation over ward representation as earlier quartets had done. In fact, two of its members, Councilmen Frank Schiavone and Ed Adkison, once bunted around the idea of pushing for ward election runoffs to be voted upon city-wide.
Mercifully, that idea didn't get far. Most city residents think that ward representation should come first, then city representation. Most people currently on the dais and their supporters apparently take the opposite view.
People who moaned and groaned about GASS and for good reason don't seem nearly as hesitant to push for one quartet or another which reflects their own interests. What isn't good for the goose is clearly good for the gander. Is this a bit of a double standard? Yes, but it makes for fascinating politics and it's been around since time began. The obvious problem with bloc formation is that doing this leaves the majority of those in a city or county unrepresented by an elected body because quartets are often pushed and work on behalf of minority viewpoints.
So why the Betro vs Gage dynamic that seems to be strongest in the Betro campaign? It's interesting to watch in action and it rivals both the Betro vs Gardner and Gage vs Bailey dynamics that are also playing out this election season. But why is it there? Why the emphasis on inter-ward politics rather than simply those within the two wards?
Because if these campaigns were truly ward-centered rather than city-centered, there wouldn't be so much concern about putting a black hat on Gage and a white hat on Betro by his supporters. The truth, is they are both politicians who badly want to get back in office who pretty much had their keisters handed back to them on a plate by a voting constituency they had perhaps forgotten about that said, if you want our votes, you have to do much better than this.
This wasn't supposed to be. What was supposed to happen was both of these incumbents were supposed to sail through their elections with few if any political rivals and thus save most of their campaign chests for the mayor's race next year. Of course, things didn't quite turn out the way either expected. Betro remained in denial even after the results were tallied. Gage appeared more humble, but of course he was the more obvious loser in the first round.
I remember reading a recent issue of Inland Empire Magazine where indeed both Betro and Gage complete with large-sized photographs were featured talking about possibly running for the mayor's seat in 2008. The article had zeroed on these two men, giving scant attention to other potential candidates in the wings. They were interesting profiles of two politicians who appeared to be very interested in the mayor's seat. Of course, it's one thing to dream, another to actually get there.
Unfortunately for both of them, the preliminary rounds of Election 2007 quickly put paid to any such dreams including putting a lot of the money which would be needed to launch a competitive campaign for mayor, into this election instead. Both Betro and Gage instead faced runoffs with other candidates, one of them grass-roots mirroring Betro's rise and the other, backed by the same interests working on Betro's reelection. And since the current mayor, Ron Loveridge most likely is running again, the two current councilmen with higher ambitions might take a rain check on them. First they must win back their own seats.
But where's the Community Police Review Commission really in all this mix?
When I look at either Betro or Gage, I don't see an ally or friend to the CPRC though there are clearly others who do with Betro. But what has he done or even said lately? For those who spend time in the trenches of civilian oversight, the answer is not much. The poster at Craigslist is indeed correct. I do spend a lot of time involved advocating for the CPRC and yes, I am critical of how City Hall handled the CPRC particularly the past 18 months as anyone following the situation closely should and would be.
Where are the CPRC's supporters at City Hall?
In fact, when I once asked Pedro Payne, the former executive director of the commission early last autumn whether he felt anyone on the dais supported the commission, he answered in the negative.
The truth is, the CPRC has few to no allies at City Hall. There are few or no individuals at City Hall who are willing to advocate for it and the few who used to will offer excuses as to why they are unable to do so. There are even fewer people who truly have the ear of politicians who are willing to publicly advocate for it either. It's almost as if they think to do so would do damage to themselves or as if to do so would be to break a silence that's meant to be there. After all, the silence from those circles in the past year that the CPRC suffered resignations of both commissioners and an executive director because of micromanagement at City Hall speaks volumes. It's a phenomenon that's actually attracted attention from outside Riverside and even this state from other organizations advocating for civilian review. What happened to Riverside and its activism in this area, they've asked, especially those living in cities facing similar challenges only in this case, they acted.
It's not an easy question to answer. It's difficult enough answering that question when it's been asked by several communities closer to home.
Has there been one word from the Betro campaign for example publicly including as its platform a condemnation of the actions taken against the CPRC in the past year, or any real support of it? Has there been much concern raised about the CPRC? How many people in the Betro campaign even know what the letters stand for? A few, perhaps.
This shouldn't be all that surprising considering that even though Betro and his campaign supporters used to waggle their fingers at city council candidates who received campaign donations from the Riverside Police Officers' Association's Political Action Committee and condemn them for it, apparently their own candidate is excused from being judged in the same manner. In fact, last November Betro publicly castigated individuals who had spoken on the RPOA's behalf at an appearance its members made at City Hall, regarding its contract negotiation process. Only four months later, he accepted the same union's endorsement. When he did, you could hear a pin drop.
It's the candidates' decisions to take the money or not and it's the union's decision on who to support financially and who it believes can best serve it. It's also the leadership's decision is accountable to the membership who entrusts it to make decisions. It's not likely that supporting Gardner's campaign was even an option given his past stint as a commissioner for the CPRC. Betro obviously didn't carry that baggage or any baggage for that matter so between the two, he was the obvious choice. But to point fingers at Gage, Schiavone, Adkison and Steve Adams for taking the endorsements and not at Betro, seems a bit disingenuous.
Neither Betro and Gage really has done much to deserve to be included in the role of ally to the CPRC. And the difference between the two, is an important one. Betro campaigned on this issue and was a staunch supporter of Measure II. However, his outspokenness on the issue ended soon after the day City Manager Brad Hudson was hired. Hudson and Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis spent the next year implementing changes to the CPRC which ultimately forced Payne out and led to a flood of resignations from the commission. The commission has nearly turned itself over in the past year.
Several elected officials took advantage of this upheaval in the past several months to place their own political choices on it for very different reasons but that's what politicians do in any city or county. So much so it's pretty much a running joke every place among those who watch what's going on with local politics.
As for known adversaries?
The CPRC has plenty of those as well. Gage must be considered one of them, certainly back in 2004 when his actions precipitated the placement of the CPRC in the city's charter.
Gage never had a love affair with the CPRC, except before his election when I had written that he had opposed it and he said that he wasn't for or against it. It became clear within months of his election how much he opposed it through his overt actions despite what he had said. But ironically, it was because his actions were overt that the community could come out and challenge his actions and push their elected officials including Councilmen Frank Schiavone and Ed Adkison not to go along with essentially dissolving the CPRC by removing its budget. Because his actions were fairly predictable and very, very visible, his efforts were unsuccessful.
That's not the case with the "friends" of the CPRC who if they are doing anything at all, it's much more behind the scenes through providing direction to both the city manager's office and the city attorney's office while publicly proclaiming that even if they don't *like* the CPRC, the voters wanted it so they support it. Consequently, these actions because they aren't transparent, are much more difficult to track.
Whether an elected official is a "friend" of the CPRC or an adversary hasn't made much difference in the past year except maybe in the minds of those who support either.
As a result, both Betro and Gage received grades on the CPRC report card in the D range. Gage did slightly better because he's being graded from a slightly lower scale. And in part because as much as he has disliked the CPRC and overtly opposed it, there was one line that he wasn't willing to cross.
The truth is, if anyone's "grandstanding", it's both or neither of the two men. It's up to the residents of both wards whether they want to keep their elected officials or send them packing. Both wards have already sent a loud message to both of them that they'd better do better. It would certainly be nice to see them, especially Betro do nicer by the CPRC and actively support it. Do I expect to see it even after the election? No, because if he was a supporter you'd have seen more evidence of that before and during the election.
Still, the election remains up to the voters in these two wards as well as the other two up for grabs.
In Ward One, one of the key issues was park land, how it should be utilized and whether chunks of it should be sold off to developers to provide cash back to the city to spend elsewhere. Portions of Fairmount Park were going to be developed for commercial use and also low-income housing which only seems to be welcome inside the boundaries of Ward One if it's located on park ground. The poster credits City Hall for the improvements in these parks when in actuality, it was the community residents including Gardner who launched a very impressive letter campaign, spoke out at meetings including the one at the Riverside Municipal Auditorium on Riverside Renaissance and in other venues. They passed out pamphlets educating the public on what the city was planning to do and what they believed should be done instead. They and Gardner pressured Betro to do what Columnist Dan Bernstein called a "retro Betro". It's a credit on his part and that of the city council if they changed their minds on this issue, but the community members who launched the Tequesquite Park and Fairmount Park campaigns is what put them on that road.
It's not the only issue where a reversal by the city council was seen in recent days or weeks. With two more months to go until the election, don't be surprised if you see more such miracles.
In Ward Three, it's development issues, traffic and other quality of life issues, including but not exclusive to the Magnolia Plaza and other business centers. There may be miracles here as well.
The people pushing the incumbents to give cram courses on how to be responsive elected officials are their political rivals who along with other political candidates pushed runoff elections for all four odd-numbered wards in large part because they are dissatisfied with the current leadership, probably across the board. That's something for the incumbents in the even-numbered wards who come up for reelection in two years to seriously think about.
Maybe city residents felt the line was drawn when the city council members began using the city's police officers as their bouncers, rather than as those assigned there to keep them and the public safe from harm. Maybe while people like the idea of Riverside Renaissance, they're more concerned and cautious about the huge financial investment required by the city in a short period of time and how much it's going to cost them down the road and what will happen to the city's infrastructure in the process. There's nothing wrong with that and those on the dais should stop acting as if it's the worst thing in the world.
Still, elections are ultimately the celebration of the voting process.
What's really disheartening is when I stood close to where a person was gathering signatures for a possible ballot initiative. The first question is asking people if they are registered to vote and many people say yes, but some people don't. When these individuals are asked if they want to register, many say no. But your vote is an important voice that you have and more people need to exercise it. Please register if you have not.
Inland Empire's Craigslist is a very useful resource for information, especially links to other sites including many that I didn't know about. It's exciting to read about different Web sites being established addressing anything Riverside.
However, on this site there appears to be a couple of individuals, both self-defined as being pro and anti-Dom Betro, who are what are called cyberbullies. Cyberbullies are hard to avoid if you are online, especially if you are a female and like to blog on just about anything. The Los Angeles Times and Washington Post both did extensive articles on Kathy Sierra, a woman who ran a blog on computers and was terrorized online to the point where she couldn't leave her home.
More on Kathy Sierra's experience here. Further research shows that her experience was hardly an aberration. Many female bloggers have experienced this, including those who have shut their blogs down.
Their targets are usually women who they feel threatened by and/or despise for some reason or another. They may or may not actually know their victims. The thing that's the most difficult is that these individuals are faceless. They might be at some distant place or they might be closer to home. They slander individuals like the unidentified person who wrote on my blog that I had too many DUIs and had lost my driver's license, write posts or send emails that make it clear that they are watching you by describing your clothing or appearance, they threaten to do harm to you. They often write postings that are pornographic especially that explicit with violence or threats of violence. They may commit crimes including stalking or hacking into Web sites, according to the legal definition.
Cyberbullying
More on Cyberbullying
Take Back the Blog
Having been terrorized by what appeared to be a group of them last year, I dislike seeing cyberbullies target individuals for harassment which is something taking place on Craigslist. And reading the comments of one anonymous individual in particular is like having ice water splashed in my face because his or her writing style resembles one of the unknown individuals who stalked me online last year. Yes you, because I'm aware that you are probably still reading this site.
But experts I've read wouldn't be too surprised if it were the same individuals. Cyberbullies may be serial, meaning they move from one victim to the next. Still, it's difficult to tell because these cowards hide behind anonymity and could be anyone with access to the internet. That's the hardest part of dealing with this atrocious and illegal conduct is that you can't put a face or faces to who is doing it.
To those who wonder why comments have been suspended on this site, it's because the cyberbullies refused to stop posting filth. It was a shame because there were interesting comments submitted as well. But Cyberbullying and Cyberstalking here, on the Inland Empire
Craigslist and elsewhere on the internet is definitely not cool and should not be tolerated.
This just in. Salvador Santana, publisher of The Truth newsletter received a letter from City Attorney Gregory Priamos justifying Councilman Ed Adkison's actions towards Santana at a city council meeting on Aug. 14. If you remember, Adkison had said during that meeting that Santana had been evicted from his residence in the past.
Just one more example that if you want to have a truly accountable ethics process with teeth, you need an independent committee to hear and render decisions on ethics complaints filed in accordance with the ethics code implemented after the passage of the ballot initiative in November 2004. Elected officials can't hold each other accountable for their behavior on or off the dais and the members of the BASS quartet has shown that it needs assistance there. And using the city attorney who is a direct employee of Adkison, Dom Betro, Steve Adams who've all received complaints so far and the other city council members as a buffer is in itself a conflict of interest.
An interesting bit of information is how many ethics complaints have been filed in total since the implementation of the process and what has happened to them? Statistics on these complaints and the process they underwent should be available to the public at least annually.
According to Belo Blog, Former Riverside Police Department officer, Jose Luis Nazario plead not guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter in U.S. District Court. The charges are in connection with a 2004 fatal shooting of two unarmed Iraqi detainees in Fallujah. His federal complaint is here.
The complaint details a narrative of events that the federal prosecutors believed too place in 2004 in Fallujah involving Nazario and other U.S. Marines.
(excerpt, The United States vs Jose Luis Nazario, Jr. )
This document has numerous spelling errors in it.
NAZARIO say something to the effect that they had detained four military-age males, they had found weapons acd amnition, and they had just taker. fire from the house. After ending his radio conversation, NAZARIO said that he was asked, "Are :hey dead yet?" to which NAZARIO responded "Negative." NAZARIO said he was told to "Make it happen." NAZARIO then grabbed one of the two youngest males and instructed - to grab the other and take him into another room. c. Next, heard a gunshot coming from the room where had taken his prisoner. He related that seconds later, he heard the sound of a gunshot coming from oCe of the home's bedrooms. According to - when he turned toward the sound of the second gunshot, he observed NAZARIO lowering his rifle from an "aimed-in" position to a "low-ready" position and saw one of the four detained males on the floor in front of NAZARIO, lying on his back. concluded that the detained male had been shot dead by NAZARIO.
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d. After NAZARIO shot the detained male, he exited the room and asked, "Who else wants to kill these guys, because I don't want to do it all nyself." e. then observed NAZARIO motion to two other Marines in the house to bring the remaining two males to him. According to , one of the males entered the room occapied by NAZARIO while the second waited at the doorway. At this point, rurned to exit the house. As he turned, he heard a gunshot, followed by about a twenty-second pause and a second gunshor . b e l i e v e d NAZARIO shot and killed the two remaining males f. stated that United States Marine Corps shootings occurred. At the time of the shootings, held6. On December 6, 2006, I interviewed United States Marine with , I learned the foliowing information: a. was present with NAZARIO in an unknown house in Fallujah, Iraq, on November 9, 2004, when United States Marines killed four unarmed males b. Someone saw movement from a nearby house and the house. When they entered the house, they encountered and
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detained four males. After detaining the four males within the house, NAZARIO told other Marines to search the house. The Marines found AK-47s and ammunition. NAZARIO then called an unknown individual on his issued radio and told hidher that four males had been found in the house. c. Following the radio transmission, NAZARIO told both m and-hehad been asked, "Are they dead yet?" NAZARIO then indicated to and-that they had to go, using words to the effect of "We can't be here all day." NAZAXO then said, "You know what has to be done." d. NAZARIO then grabbed one of males and led nlm into a room, believed by kitchen. Shorrly thereafter, =heard the four detained a gunshot come from the direction of the kitchen. When looked into the kitchen, he observed NAZARIO standing above the male, who was laying on the floor. From his observations, b e l i e v e d thar NAZARIO had shot the male in the head. Based on the large pool of blood on the floor surrounding the male's head, - concluded that the male was dead. e. NAZARIO then ordered both and0 ttceach kill one of the three remaining detained males. NAZARIO stated that he would kill the last male himself. f. NAZARIO then shot a second detained male in the head with his rifle. After doing so, noticed brain matte1
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and blood on the muzzle of NAZARIO's rifle and all over NAZARIO's boots g. then observed m shoot the detained male under his ( -IS) control with his pistol. h. Next, NAZARIO asked "Yo, are you done yet? We have to go." then took the detained male under his ( ' s ) control and shot him in the back of the head 7. Based on my investigation, I have also learned that NAZARIO has been discharged from the Marine Corps and now resides in the city of Riverside, Riverside County, within the Central Distzict of California. He is currently employed as a sworn Police Officer with the Riverside Police Department, Riverside, California. CONCLUSION 8. Based on the above information. I believe there is probable cause to believe that NAZARIO, while enlisted on active duty in the service of the United States Marine Corps in Iraq, and who presently resides in Riverside County, in the Central District of California, on or about November 9, 2004, in Fallujah, Iraq, while in the heat of passion caused by adequate provocation, did conmit voluntary manslaughter by unlawfully and intentionally killing two unarmed male human beings, without malice, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section
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1112, Voluntary Manslaughter, with jurisdiction arising under Title 18, United States Code, Sections 3238 and 3261(a) (2). Mark 0. Fox Special Agent Naval Crirriinal Investigative Service SWORN AND SUBSCRIBED TO BEFORE ME THIS DAYOFAUGUST, 2007 SOKORABLE JOHN C . RAYBURN, JR. UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE
The longer version of the Press Enterprise article is here.
Presiding Riverside County Superior Court Judge Janice McIntyre dismissed two weapons charges against Chandler William Cardwell who appeared in court today, according to the Press Enterprise. Although the charges were dropped, his bail was not and still remains at $1 million.
Speaking of the courts, a bill may bring more judges to the Inland Empire.
(excerpt)
Lawmakers gave final approval to the measure early Wednesday before adjourning their regular session for the year.
Riverside and San Bernardino counties, which have the largest legal caseloads in the state, are expected receive a total of 14 judges under the bill, the largest shares in the state.
Fourteen more judges! With that many, it would be like having a strike force of them all the time.
More information coming in on the controversy from the newly reformed police department Pittsburgh which drew fire after three officers who had histories of domestic violence allegations were promoted to higher positions. It's attracted a lot of attention including from activists committed to addressing domestic violence committed by police officers.
The National Center of Women and Policing has been keeping a close eye on the promotions done by Mayor Luke Ravenstahl.
Pittsburgh City Council addresses the issue of police-related domestic violence.
Video recording of city council meeting
Pittsburgh residents address the need for changes in how the department addresses inhouse domestic violence.
Video recording of residents' responses on the issue
The chronology of the situation involving the Pittsburgh Police Department, the first law enforcement agency to emerge from a federal consent decree is available at this site.
Some of the articles listed there include the following.
Three Pittsburgh police officers promoted despite criminal charges
Deputy chief defends officers' promotions
Ravenstahl: Officers' promotions were unacceptable
Mayor announces changes to promotional policy
Only 55% of law enforcement agencies in this country have policies dealing with inhouse domestic violence. It's not clear whether or not those agencies include any in Riverside County.
The Office of Professional Standards in Chicago is promising that it will clean up its act under its new leadership, according to the Chicago Sun Times.
Ilana Rosenzweig who now heads the office which has a vacancy rate of 23% said that she plans to do her part to restore the public's confidence in an office which is viewed by it as being too biased towards an increasingly scandal-plagued police department and lenient on its officers.
(excerpt)
It's years of mistrust that have been built up. That's going to be a big challenge to try to overcome those years of mistrust," she said.
Pressed on how she plans to do that, she said, "You do thorough investigations in a timely manner that are fair. You provide transparency. And you hope that, over time, more and more people are able to trust the answers coming out of OPS. I am a new face. I have years of working in this. I have been committed to thorough reviews of law enforcement behavior, doing that in a timely fashion and really effecting change where it's needed. But it will take time."
One of the complaints about the Office of Professional Standards is that complaint investigations took months or even years to complete.
Thousand of miles away in Riverside, California, the police department here has taken nearly as long on average to conduct its investigations of personnel complaints, according to public reports issued by the CPRC for June and August 2007.
Category 1 complaints are more serious allegations including excessive force, criminal conduct and false reporting. According to the department's policy #4.12, category 1 complaints are supposed to be completed within 60 days although that can be extended at the discretion of the Internal Affairs Division.
Category 2 allegations are less serious allegations including improper procedure, poor service and discourtesy. According to the department's policy #4.12, category 2complaints are supposed to be completed within 30 days although that can be extended at the discretion of the Internal Affairs Division.
Clearly some of these complaints have been extended at least several times.
June 2007
Category 1: 390 days(average)
Category 2: 350 days
July 2007(no complaints heard)
August 2007:
Category 1: 290
Category 2: 182
This trend appears to have begun at least last November and continued for the most part since.
Apparently, the department has recently restructured its Internal Affairs Division again. Currently, five sergeants are assigned to that division. However, the vast majority of citizen complaints are investigated by sergeants assigned to the field operations division so it's not clear what measures have been taken here to alleviate these delays on complaint investigations.
The New York Daily News detailed the testimony to the U.S. Congress given by doctors who have treated people exposed to toxic dust at Ground Zero.
(excerpt)
Between April and June of this year, doctors in the 9/11 workers health program overseen by Mount Sinai saw 2,323 patients.
They found:
* Lower respiratory problems in 40 percent of patients. Asthma and asthma-like reactive airways disease were found in 30 percent. Smaller portions of patients had chronic cough - 7 percent - or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease - 5 percent.
* Upper respiratory conditions in 59 percent. The most common condition was runny nose, in 51 percent of the workers, and chronic sinusitis, in about a fifth of them.
* Mental health problems, the most common being post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, in 36 percent of patients.
Landrigan said it is still unclear how many of those patients will continue to experience such symptoms, or how many may develop new diseases like cancer many years after their exposure.
Here's an interesting Web site for Back to the Grind. That's a good place to sit and enjoy coffee and some good pastries.
Labels: business as usual, City elections, public forums in all places
posted by Five Before Midnight | 12:47 PM
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