River City County's own day of shame
With all the manipulation and string pulling behind the scenes that no doubt took place if even 10% of such allegations and rumors are true, it's a given that there were those who weren't at all surprised by how it played out in the end. This is part of what seriously ails one of the country's largest county law enforcement agencies.
But the public is too often left with the assurances that their law enforcement agencies are in great hands. This morning's session to appoint the new sheriff made it clear that this trust is and was certainly in this case, misplaced and most likely, in other cases as well.
Because if Sept. 17., 2007 is to be remembered for one thing, it should probably be viewed as the first day that members of the public including those among the 73% who voted to give Sheriff Bob Doyle a second term saw the ugly baggage and dirty laundry being aired out in front of them of an administration gone amok and of the sheer danger involved with mixing "at will" management positions with political agendas. When they collide as they did at the Sheriff's Department, implosion and the resultant public embarrassment when such antics are put on display in a forum are probably inevitable.
The first four supervisors to cast a public vote split themselves into two separate sides, the two factions that a couple of them had eluded to during the question and answer process involving the five candidates. The two factions which have divided the agency in half particularly in recent months but even longer than that.
Chair John Tavaglione was finally left the difficult decision of breaking a 2-2 tie between Sniff and current undersheriff, Neil Lingle. But it was also a split between the departing Doyle and the Sheriff Department's bargaining units and when the final vote was cast, the latter won.
Supervisors Bob Buster and Roy Wilson had supported Lingle. Supervisors Marion Ashley and Jeff Stone voted for Sniff. All of them expressed hope that emergency legislation could be passed to allow a special election for sheriff to be held next March, but none were hopeful that this could take place.
What led up to this was a morning session that stretched past the noon hour filled with probing questions and even more disturbing answers regarding an administration that was even more deeply troubled and perhaps corrupt than the public previously was led to believe. Were the supervisors nearly as surprised at the revelations including a couple bombshells that came out of this process as they appeared? If they were, what does this say about the county's leadership?
More to come in further postings about what took place today in the Riverside County's administrative headquarters in Riverside, who won, who lost and how it bodes for the future of the scandal-plagued Sheriff's Department where management promotions may have been bought and sold and the war waged behind the scenes. And that's not the only intrigue faced by the department in light of unauthenticated memos that were leaked from the Riverside Sheriffs' Association making allegations that District Attorney Rod Pacheco and Supervisors Marion Ashley and Jeff Stone were working behind the scenes to discredit Lingle in return for a promise that Sniff and Pacheco would end a probe into allegations of misappropriated funds involving the RSA's leadership.
The RSA's leaders responded by saying these memos were fake.
(Both are pdf files.)
RSA's allegedly leaked meeting notes
RSA's response to alleged leaked memo by its president, Pat McNamara
The RSA's response is signed by other board members and claims the leaked memo was not authored by any of its membership.
Maybe it's time for a federal or state agency to come in and sort out the mess the Sheriff's Department has become and decide what corruption has actually happened and what has not. The taxpayers of this county deserve a Sheriff's Department that does its job in a professional manner, not one that is rife with scandal and politics.
Did the supervisors carry out the will of the people? Did they do what they had to do to try and fix something that's broken?
The selection of Sniff was anticipated here. The blogger, clearly not a Doyle or Lingle fan details his or her version of what was taking place leading up to the final selection process.
(excerpt)
While all appearances will be made for the Supervisors to appear open minded and interested in continuing the Doyle regime, too much has happened in the last two weeks for them to make the appointment. The chief cause of the Supervisors disenchantment with Lingle is the anonymous memo on Riverside Sheriff's Association letterhead that implicates Supervisors Tavaglione, Ashley, and Stone as being corrupt.
While the media and Bob Doyle are stating their concerns about the memo, while legally protecting themselves saying it could be a hoax, the members of the Board of Supervisors do believe the memo is fraudulent. They also believe Neil Lingle was involved in its creation and its circulation. In an attempt to distance himself from this latest scandal, Lingle allegedly told one County Supervisor that he believed Bob Doyle was the author of the memo. And we thought loyalty was more important than competency in the Royal Doyle's Sheriff's Department.
Beyond the memo, the members of the Board of Supervisors have been peppered with letters, faxes, emails, and phone calls from individual members of the Sheriffs Department from the low rank of patrol deputy to the high rank of assistant sheriff letting them in on many of the dirty little secrets that have been hidden during Doyle's reign of terror. All of the information provided to the Supervisors will become public information after tomorrows hearing, so if they appoint Lingle despite the baggage he carries in from the Doyle Regime, they will each have to answer to the voters of their districts come the next election about why they would appoint a person with such tremendous baggage as Sheriff.
And the Press Enterprise's editorial board rightly argued for special legislation to allow for an election to be held earlier than 2010.
But who's going to clean up the mess in the Sheriff's Department in the meantime?
I was thinking about the issue of affordable housing the other day, and remembered an experience I had with this issue in the downtown area, the part of the city where low-income housing apparently is king and along with poor people needs to be "balanced out" by its and their more affluent cousins and counterparts.
I am aware of some of the apartment complexes that lie in the heart of the downtown neighborhood in part because of complaints which had come to the office regarding problems in several of them within the past few years. I have been inside of some of these apartments and they may charge lower rent than others that may be in other neighborhoods, but there are reasons why.
One complex in downtown a stone's throw from the Mission Inn included three basement apartments which were converted from storage space, but with a caveat attached. They were what are called illegal conversions, meaning that no paperwork was filed with the appropriate divisions at City Hall. In fact, the city didn't realize they even existed until two code enforcement officers, Bob Plumb and Todd Solomon came out to do an inspection which was requested by one of the tenants of a basement apartment.
I also spoke with Fair Housing who was providing assistance to these tenants and one employee there told me that the apartment manager had told her over the phone that she had fired and evicted a maintenance employee because there were "too many Blacks around his place". The manager was unaware at the time that she was speaking to a representative at Riverside County Fair Housing which handles discrimination complaints, rather than the Department of Housing, which I guess she believed would be a more sympathetic ear to the practice of evicting people on the basis of them having too many Black friends.
The tenants' apartment leaked feces and other sewage through the ceilings in closets and walls, to the point where they won $5,000 in two small claims court cases in damages, which unfortunately the property owner never paid. I took photographs of the outer walls where sewer leakage could be seen, as dark speckles and streaks on the walls. The apartment was not only in itself illegal, but it also had an illegally converted bedroom, which had once been used as a closet. It was about five feet high in the doorway, and five feet by four feet in area. Enough just to fit a twin-sized bed and nothing else. What made it illegal was the fact that instead of the two required methods of egress(escape) which is required by state law, there was only the doorway, as it had no windows. Why egress is so important became apparent later on.
The couple who rented the home were Black and they were also sick a lot with congested sinuses and lungs, wheezing, shortness of breath and fatigue. The doctors told them it was probably because of mold infestation, which was easy enough to document in the kitchen and in the bathroom, which had only a tub with a broken hot water knob raised on a platform five feet off the ground, with one side missing exposing its plumbing. The wife had just come back from several days in the hospital with pneumonia. One main source of the mold was likely a wheezing air conditioner which was filthy with mildew and spewed as much water out as cold air. Just sitting beneath it for 30 minutes was enough to make you feel ill and itch all over. Despite frequent requests, the apartment manager refused to replace it. By the time they did, it almost killed four people.
The bathroom with sink and toilet had a window. The only thing, is that unlike the other windows, this one didn't have rigid bars, but led to the water heater which was enclosed in a chain linked fence which was locked with only the landlord having the key. No way out there in case there needed to be. When I walk into buildings, I naturally almost on instinct look for means of egress, having been in a fire when I was a child. Fortunately, it wasn't too serious but if you've had that experience, what remains etched in your mind is a means to escape next time, in case there aren't fire fighters there to help you out.
This apartment only had one way out and that was through the front door, which it being a basement apartment was several feet below ground level.
The rent for this somewhat illegal two-bedroom apartment was definitely affordable even if you were poor. In the heat of the summer days and nights, it was pretty stuffy, the tenants said and when I visited them for several interviews, it was stifling and difficult to breathe even with the windows and door open.
Having a roof over your head, even one that makes you sick most of the time, is definitely better most would agree, than not and there are also many people downtown who do not have one at all. They've been steered out of downtown to shelters which the city only sees fit to put in the Eastside, a neighborhood that in 10 years won't look anything like it is now, including in terms of economic, ethnic and racial demographics. If you think I'm wrong, look not just at the city's long-range plans for the Eastside, but UCR's as well.
Look back in 10 years and then say that gentrification hasn't happened and impacted the ethnic, economic and racial demographics in those neighborhoods.
But the apartment had a ticking time bomb, namely the electrical system which like the plumbing system had failed to pass the muster of Code Compliance. The two-page report which cited over 30 violations stated that major changes had to be made to both before the city would determine that the property owner was in compliance. No work was done during most of the 30 day period.
What was wrong with the electrical system was the following. There were only two electrical outlets in the whole apartment and the rest of the wiring was provided through surge protectors and extension cords snaking through the different rooms. Three days after the city's fire marshal warned the tenants of the hazards of not having enough plugs and two days after I talked to the fire marshal, the family went to bed for what they thought was a night's sleep.
What almost killed them and what ultimately saved them was the summer heat.
The heat almost killed them because they turned on the ancient air conditioner which had seen better years and it shorted out, melting the surge protector. Remember too that there was only one method of egress out of an apartment which originally was basement storage space. The smoke alarms had batteries but still didn't go off. The fire extinguishers were well outside the minimum limit of distance from the apartment unit.
What saved the family from dying in the fire which broke out that night in the living room, was the fact that the oppressive heat had driven them all to sleep in the living room. One woman who was visiting that night slept on a chair and woke up to popping and crackling noises, discovering the chair was on fire. They vacated the building and called the fire department which came and put out the fire, but then told them how easily they could have died. If they had been in the bedrooms, they probably either would have died in the fire or if they had awakened, they would have had a fire blocking their only way of escape.
Then while they were gone, the landlord came into their apartment and removed the burned up couch which was the couple's and the burnt to a crisp air conditioner which was the property owner's. We found them and photographed them the next day at the dump which per usual was piled high about three feet in furniture, broken toilets, bathtubs and garbage which overflowed out of the dumpster. The owner had been cited several times for this problem due to not allowing the garbage trucks access to the dumpster.
After the fire, more and more tenants came forward with stories about conditions in their own rental units. Many didn't complain to the code compliance because they were afraid or had been threatened with eviction.
Where was the owner of the property during all this? The city had a difficult time finding him. He had addresses in three cities including Newport Beach and Redlands. He did finally show up and sent painters to give the building a fresh coat one step ahead of Riverside's code compliance officers who came out to do a followup inspection. The code compliance officer picked up his pace and so did the painters.
The next week, one of the neighboring buildings suddenly had its electrical wiring stripped out and tossed in the growing garbage heap adjacent to the dumpster where two more broken toilets had also joined the others. An alert tenant contacted me and the code compliance officer that the manager was having electrical work done on that building without first applying for the appropriate permits, a process made clear to him on the code compliance inspection sheet. The work was halted until the property owner did that.
The couple was forced to move out for health reasons, fortunately to a better rental place outside the city. Many of the tenants went to Fair Housing for assistance for both relocation and filing complaints. Several also filed with Fair Employment and Housing.
People moved back in the basement units and curious, I called code compliance and asked if they had undergone the appropriate process to make it a legal apartment with a safe number of electrical outlets. I asked them if they made sure the unit was safe to live in. The code officer ensured me they did and yes, it was safe.
I hope that he was right. When I walk by that building, I still hope.
The people who lived in a neighboring complex saw what was going on and started telling stories about their apartments and the conditions they lived in and so it went.
This happened several years ago. Back then, the city especially former City Manager George Carvalho's assistant, Troy Brown seemed concerned and provided assistance. But would that happen today, or would the city just use what these tenants faced as an excuse to declare their residential space as "blight" and pursue eminent domain so that they could provide individuals with the high-scale housing that they want to see more to match that which already exists in downtown. Would the choice be to be quiet about substandard even hazardous housing or report it and risk those reports being used to ultimately start a process which would put the tenants out on the streets?
When you see the plans for mixed use development on Market Street, those are not low-income housing projects. They are probably condos or lofts set to sell for at least $350,000 and probably considerably higher. Though it's true that there are several income brackets which would view those prices as good investments for their "disposable income".
Yet for all this talk about how much affordable housing there is for low-income residents in the downtown, there has yet to be a major housing project proposed for downtown(except the one that was pushed not on one, but two major park renovation projects) that includes low-income housing. Sitting through several development committee meetings has been educational watching the city juggle with whether it will push for twice as much low-income housing(30%) elsewhere than would be required downtown, just to keep it out of downtown.
Also, low-income housing including that for seniors is only viable if it's in close proximity to shopping areas where these individuals and their families can buy groceries and receive services that they need including medical or dental care or even to have their hair done. The loss of several of those businesses, which for some reason some individuals seem to believe were all auto businesses, has already impacted the venues available to lower-income people to shop close to where they live, for now. Putting in high-scale restaurants and other vendors isn't going to help much. It would be nice to see which supermarket chain, hopefully an affordable one, will replace the inadequate markets. An announcement will hopefully be made before the end of this year of whether downtown visitors will be frequenting Stater Bros(which usually has the lowest prices), Ralphs or Vons, which are a bit more costly even if you join their discount clubs.
Though my instincts tell me that if a market is downtown, it will be a designer brand like Trader Joe's.
As for the racial aspects of eminent domain and some racist, there's a lot of resources online which address this issue.
And no, eminent domain and gentrification are not necessarily paired together. Eminent domain is a tool for redevelopment including gentrification along with other tools. There's some really good essays in books on both of these issues and how race and class play a role, including an excellent one in Colonize This!, a collection of writings by women of color about feminism.
The Press Enterprise's editorial board weighed in on the controversy involving Riverside's fluctuating electric rates, comparing the public discussions that have taken place on this topic to "satire".
Ouch, not exactly words that you want to hear not even two months before an election. And definitely not the two words, "political pandering", which is essentially what the city council did especially when the city council did as the editorial stated, claimed no knowledge of the rates that it had passed at a meeting last December.
(excerpt)
The council deemed those rates unfair, though the December rate scheme was in fact more equitable than the old residential pricing. And the alternatives hardly seem fairer. Some council members suggested in August that businesses should pay more for electricity, a strange strategy for a city trying to infuse new economic life downtown.
The council last week studied such options as raising rates for all residential customers, which benefits large users by charging more to those who use less. Other approaches included adding a flat monthly fee on all bills or adjusting the rates to spread costs across the year. None of those ideas encourages heavy residential users to cut back, foolish policy for a city struggling to meet power demands.
No one likes paying more for electricity. But neither can Riverside ensure enough power by denying the practical realities of electricity consumption.
The city council candidate debates will be coming to you, courtesy of the Raincross Square Group and California Baptist University, so be sure to come on down and attend them so you can make an informed decision at the polls in November.
They will even be televised by Charter Communications.
Even if you aren't lucky enough to live in an odd-numbered ward, debates still make great theater so you should still come on down to see them. A panel of journalists from the Press Enterprise and civic leaders(which is broad, but appropriately vague in definition) will be asking them hopefully more difficult and probing questions than either entity has been asking so far.
These performances will be coming to you in early October.
Somebody in Riverside likes DHL and has praised them in the Press Enterprise about the company's decision to cut back on night time noise by replacing several DC-9 aircraft with quieter birds.
Actually, that's not really fair. DHL has simply been one player of many in the ongoing melodramatic sudsier, "Nights of our Sleepless Lives".
It's the second highest-rated nighttime soap on the River City schedule.
The beginning of the appointment process for the next Riverside County sheriff as stated began today as county supervisors interviewed selected candidates for the position. The letters to the editor have already begun with one retired sheriff deputy chiming in on his opinions.
The Civilian Complaint Review Board in New York City is seeking assistance from Mayor Michael Bloomberg to define the meaning of police misconduct, according to the WNYC. About 3.5% of all complaints received by the commission are referred to the police department for further investigation.
Four taser hits, 18 baton blows and a choke hold.
That's what a former New York City Police Department officer said that other officers did to his son at a community event, according to this article in the New York Daily News.
(excerpt)
Retired Lt. Alexander Lombard said his son, Alexander Lombard 3rd, 17, was beaten by cops after they arrived at a "community sponsored" barbecue at 126th St. and Park Ave. last month.
"He's truly dismayed by the whole thing," Lombard said, standing next to his son in front of Police Headquarters in lower Manhattan. "He grew up with cops. He was raised to trust cops."
But Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne said in a statement that a police sergeant "employed a Taser against the suspect's ankle" to subdue him after responding to a large disturbance at about 3:30 a.m.
"The sergeant documented the use of the Taser, as required," the statement reads. "The suspect refused medical treatment, was issued a summons and released."
In Boston, the countdown is one year since the city's government promised to implement an independent form of civilian oversight, according to the Boston-Bay State Banner.
Indeed, the panel exists but for one thing, it's located down the hallway from the police department's own internal affairs division, which has led to questions being asked about its independence.
(excerpt)
The reasoning for the suggestion, Masny-Latos said, was not only the potential of police intimidation deterring aggrieved citizens from bringing their complaints forward for appeal, but also the danger of having the objectivity of the ombudsmen compromised by working so closely with the very officers they are charged with overseeing.
“We were a little surprised, because the whole idea behind a civilian review board — the one that we had in our minds — was to create an independent body that would provide some oversight and look at complaints that come against the department or individual police officers,” she said. “How can you have people who are supposed to look at complaints about the department actually work within the department?”
Masny-Latos is quick to point out that her concerns stem not from a negative perception of the panelists’ character, calling them “incredible people” for whom she has a lot of respect.
“I really don’t question their integrity,” she said. “But at the same time, the structure in which they are supposed to function is so limited that it is difficult — for us, at least — to see the role that they can effectively play.”
And these are not the only questions being asked by individuals including some city officials.
(excerpt)
Have any cases been referred to the board since its opening? Why don’t review board members have access to police personnel files?
Perhaps most important: Can a review panel that operates largely in secret, cannot conduct independent investigations, and doesn’t have the power to issue subpoenas truly inspire the community’s trust that their complaints are getting a fair shake?
Menino was unavailable to comment.
Menlo Park, California is going to pay out some serious money in response to a law suit filed by three Black police officers which was just settled, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
(excerpt)
Three black officers - Keith Butler, Joe Hinkston and Kenneth Clayton - will receive $165,000 each, including legal fees. The city has agreed to give each of them $55,000 by Sept. 17.
In the complaint they filed in October 2006, the officers alleged that Sgt. Ron Prickett, their supervisor after he was promoted to sergeant in 2005, insulted and harassed them because of their race. They also alleged that Prickett prevented their promotions within the department.
"Prickett made racially derogatory statements to me nearly every single time I was in his presence," Butler stated in his declaration.
Under terms of the settlement, however, the three officers have agreed to drop all allegations against Prickett and the city, which they included as a defendant. Without admitting guilt, the city decided to settle rather than continue with an expensive trial, said Suzanne Solomon, outside attorney for the city.
"It was a cost-benefit analysis," Solomon said after the closed session.
The civil trial was scheduled for November and witnesses to be called for both sides included past and present employees. Not surprisingly, an internal affairs division investigation cleared the department of the men's allegations against it though the sergeant who is the focal point of the law suit remains on administrative leave.
The settlement comes in the midst of a massive retention problem at the agency which has lost dozens of officers to resignations, retirements and employment terminations.
Grand Rapids Police Department Chief Harry Dolan no longer works there, but even so, he still wanted a turbulent investigation into sexual misconduct in his agency completed before his last day, according to this article in the Grand Rapid Press.
(excerpt)
Meanwhile, five police officers and a male dispatcher remain on suspension after they allegedly had sexual relations with a female dispatcher at police headquarters while on duty.
Belk will send the investigation report City Manager Kurt Kimball, who will decide whether to follow Dolan's recommendation and set discharge hearings for five officers and a dispatcher.
Kimball is in close contact with police and said he has a good idea what to expect. While the fate of the officers and one dispatcher remains uncertain, the female dispatcher has resigned.
The allegations have not been easy for other officers in the department, which has dealt with Dolan's departure and the July 8 loss of Officer Robert Kozminski, killed in the line of duty.
The so-called sex scandal "gives us a black eye," but "there's 300 cops out there, working hard for the city, enjoying their job," a longtime officer said.
It hurt, too, after the community showed such support and caring after Kozminski was killed, said the officer, who didn't want his name used.
Walking for ill 9-11 workers, will be former New York Giants football player, George Martin and his journey will take him coast to coast.
Martin's Web site is here.
In Rugby World Cup news, New Zealand's All-Blacks will ditch the shirts but not the silver fern, a national symbol, when they face off against Scotland. They say it won't affect their playing and you can't get more dinkum than that.
Labels: Backlash against civilian oversight, business as usual, City elections, corruption 101, racism costs
posted by Five Before Midnight | 8:59 PM
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