River City Hall: Politics and processes
"If the public believes they need to modify the authority granted in the charter, they can start a ballot initiative to change the charter."
---San Jose Councilman Pete Constant said to San Jose Mercury News.
Update: An earthquake has struck Riverside with the epicenter being & miles away from El Cerrito. It measured 3.9 and is likely an aftershock to an earlier 4.2 earthquake which struck the area. More information is here.
The Riverside Main Library isn't quite sure how it's going to commemorate Banned Books Week which is an event sponsored annually by the American Library Association, this year. The first floor employees said that there are no events planned for the library, but that it will be the theme at the Chili Cook Off at White Park on Wednesday, Sept. 26.
The second floor of the library which houses the administration offices had no events planned that they were aware of though they did know that Banned Books Week was coming up on their calendar.
One word of note, if the library's staff does set up its exhibit for the chili cook off on Wednesday, it'll be early. The event is actually being held on Thursday, Sept. 27 according to the Parks and Recreation Department.
It's odd to see the library's staff out of sorts on this event because in the past, it had set up an impressive display in the lobby to commemorate it. After all, this is an event that the library has proudly held for the past 20 years.
Speaking of the chili kickoff event, it's held by the city employees for the United Way and if you pay some money, they give you tickets to try out the different chilies made by the different city departments. They offer chilies with beef, chicken and also vegetarian. Some of them in the past have been very tasty. Some have been most unusual culinary experiences which makes it's a fun event as well.
An interesting debate has been going in different places on about who to support, Councilman Dom Betro from Ward One or Art Gage from Ward Three. Come again?
Even though Betro and Gage are running for seats in two different wards, they have been used in arguments defending the endorsement of one over the other pertaining to the issue of eminent domain.
First, here's a litmus test that might prove useful. Ask yourself would you support or endorse a candidate who voted to file a SLAPP law suit against an individual or community activist organization to stop them from circulating a petition in an attempt to get an initiative addressing eminent domain on the ballot.
The vast majority of those who favor and push for a democratic process and public participation in local governments frown on the filing of SLAPP suits by city attorneys on behalf of elected officials. Some of them have already frowned on the actions taken by Riverside's city council against the Riversiders for Property Rights.
Other cities including those in the illustrious Orange County placed similar initiatives on the ballot including Anaheim and Newport Beach.
Whether or not you support eminent domain is not the issue here, the issue here is whether or not you support the use of the city's funds to file SLAPP law suits. Two of the councilmen who voted to file the SLAPP law suit, Frank Schiavone and Ed Adkison, also pushed to get initiatives on the ballot for a future election. Any criticism of their initiatives was met with cries that these individuals were interfering with the will of the people and the right of the voters to decide for themselves on an issue.
Okay, that's fair enough criticism, but obviously this standard doesn't apply to elected officials in the same manner. However, that's FRED and they're kind of a quirky duo anyway and they'll be election news down the line, no doubt.
Getting back to Betro and Gage, who to support in this example of inter-ward politics? Betro's already off of an endorsement list if you frown on elected officials who support SLAPP law suits. But what about Gage, who after all as people rightly said voted against the SLAPP law suit?
Well, look at his record and his prior support of supporting eminent domain against houses in his ward in exchange for office space coveted by a company which is owned by a well-known developer known for padding the campaign accounts of many an elected official. That developer is Doug Jacobs and his relationship to Gage and other elected officials and candidates is outlined in this excellent letter about the Ward Two elections several years ago. Plus, if you check out his past and current campaign donors, development interests abound like they do on other campaigns in this election.
But factor that in with whether or not Gage has truly learned his lesson on eminent domain as many of his supporters have said and the fact that he was mere votes away from having his keister handed to him on a plate by a neophyte, William "Rusty" Bailey who is end0rsed and funded by a majority of those sitting on the dais including the BASS quartet. The lesson learned might sit for several months or maybe he's truly changed his philosophy on eminent domain for private development. The problem is, no one but Gage knows for sure. So it's a gamble.
Put this together and knowing that most likely, Bailey is too new and too green to be able to come up to speed as quickly as he will need to to just keep up with the city council and you have a very difficult decision to make. He's got to prove he's his own man and not a puppet and that his years spent working in the county's economic development agency under then Director Brad Hudson doesn't mean he's still beholden to him because that's one factoid in his biography that his supporters often leave out.
Also, it would help if he and his supporters learned the difference between an air freight service and a freight train corporation and which one DHL falls into because many residents south of Central Avenue including those in his ward are very aware of the presence of DHL.
And the fact is, it may be between two candidates who are not as greatly separated on the issue of eminent domain as is the case in the other election races with the possible exception of the Ward Five race.
This city is in one of the fastest growing areas of the country and it's hard not to feel like a kid inside a candy store or to see dollar signs and looking at stories about other places, there doesn't seem to be that many where politicians and their supporters don't get caught up in all that. This will make it difficult to find good candidates who don't want to jump on this band wagon who can earn enough money to launch an effective campaign. Which is why launching an education program on eminent domain and its problems is very important, particularly for those it and its cousin, "friendly condemnation" might impact at a future date, which is what they did in some of these areas where eminent domain initiatives were passed on the ballot. An educated populace that votes will help dictate what candidates ultimately succeed in getting elected.
The problem with eminent domain is very similar to that impacting the Community Police Review Commission. Both processes have become very politicized and both processes are entirely dependent on who is in power at any given time and what their feelings are about either.
Do you have elected officials who support eminent domain or oppose it in certain circumstances? What do they say publicly? What do they do privately?
Do you have elected officials who support the CPRC? Do they oppose it? Do they support it in idea and oppose it in reality? What do they say publicly? What do they do privately?
For both, you must ask yourself while looking at your watch or your calendar. Is there a majority of individuals who support this? Oppose that?
There are still many people who don't understand what eminent domain is and how it might impact them. There are still people who are unaware that the CPRC exists.
Any progress for either by any progressive regime, if there ever is any, can be lost or regress when the political tides change at City Hall once again. Two steps forward. Two steps backwards. One majority voted in and then voted out to be replaced by an opposing majority. That's why eminent domain is called something else during an election year and commissioners on a board created by ordinance and cemented by charter are moved around like chess pieces and City Manager Brad Hudson can joke to individuals about how he and his staff are busy in his office micromanaging the CPRC and elected officials can point fingers directly or indirectly at their political rivals for events that transpire after they've left a commission.
In both cases, the local government has taken for its use tools used that impact communities without much in terms of community input whether it's by ballot or by expression. And at least in the case of the CPRC, many community members felt that they've lost an important mechanism in the CPRC to a city leery of more law suits filed against it through its police department.
And wrongful death law suit number six is about to be filed in court joining five earlier law suits filed in connection with four other officer-involved deaths since 2004. Some say that they've heard that the shooting of Joseph Darnell Hill may have attracted more interest in it than the earlier shooting of Douglas Steven Cloud and given the concern in connection with that fatal officer-involved shooting, that's saying a lot.
It's too hard to think that far ahead. It's unlikely the Hill shooting will even receive a briefing before the CPRC by its investigator if he's even still on retainer until next year, given the current backlog in officer-involved deaths faced by the CPRC.
A lot of the turmoil of the CPRC that started after the commission ruled against the department's own finding in the Summer Marie Lane shooting continues as the process involving the April 2006 fatal shooting of Lee Deante Brown proceeds well into its second year. The process involving that shooting has virtually ground to a halt at the level where the CPRC was to draft a public report in connection with it. The tremendous turnover both in terms of executive managers and commissioners alike has created a situation where it's not likely that the second to final door will be closed on the Brown shooting any time soon.
Complaints filed with the CPRC have suffered similar difficulties coming to resolutions given that the average investigation time spent by the department involving complaints is currently fluctuating between 200-370 days, depending on what month it is and these averages are three to six times the recommended time periods for the handling of the more serious category of complaints. Discussion about this situation has led to what the department has called reorganization of its internal affairs division to better handle these investigations.
But given the politicizing of the CPRC, it often seems like it's simply more politics.
What's past is prologue. The solution to both issues is the same, because the problem involving both is essentially the same. Processes which shouldn't be politicized have become nothing but, politics.
The Orange County Register also ran this column about the renaming of a park in Manhattan Beach after a Black couple forced to give up their home during the 1920s to eminent domain.
(excerpt)
The story tells the tragic tale of government stealing the dreams of a minority couple, but although racial attitudes thankfully have changed in the past 83 years, other views are remarkably the same. In fact, in many ways the situation is worse than in 1924. Cities have more power now than in the past to take property by eminent domain from anybody for any reason. Supervisor Chris Norby talks about how cities engage in ethnic cleansing -- i.e., minority neighborhoods often are viewed as, de facto, blighted and therefore game by city officials to take by eminent domain and given to big developers.
Here's a survival guide for those facing SLAPP law suits.
Although there's been a lot of focus on the city council races, there are other elections taking place and some of them are for positions on various school boards in Riverside County.
There are going to be more candidate forums involving these important races coming up.
The League of Women Voters of Northwest Riverside County, The Group and the American Association of University Women will be conducting the following candidates' forums.
Candidates for the Riverside Unified School District:
Wednesday, September 26, 2007 at 7:00 PM at Sierra Middle School, 4950 Central Avenue, Riverside
Candidates for the Alvord Unified School District:
Monday, October 1, 2007 at 7:00 PM at the La Sierra Branch Library, 4600 La Sierra Avenue, Riverside
Candidates for the Jurupa Community Services District:
Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 7:00 PM at the Jurupa Park & Rectreation Center, 4810 Pedley Road, Jurupa
Development projects to build housing in different areas of Riverside County are hitting the skids according to the Press Enterprise.
(excerpt)
Fred Bell, executive director of the Desert Chapter of the Building Industry Association in the Coachella Valley, said developers are forging ahead with planning and approvals.
"But they are not going to move forward until the market changes," Bell said.
The stalled development at Winchester Hills and nearby properties -- together called Winchester Ranch -- has left the landowners with a huge financial burden. Homeowners and businesses that were expected to occupy the development would have repaid the debt on more than $20 million in bonds for extension of nearby Domenigoni Parkway.
Instead, Rancon and other developers who invested in Winchester Ranch are saddled with paying off that debt until the community becomes a reality. Other improvements have been put on hold.
Rancon President and Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Comerchero has asked Riverside County officials to indefinitely delay issuing $12 million in bonds that would have paid for new roads, sewers and flood-control improvements in Winchester Ranch.
Comerchero said he's waiting for better times.
More and more housing projects are coming to Riverside. It's not clear whether any of them have had their schedules for construction impacted by the recent downturn in the housing market that impacts the sales of houses particularly new houses nationwide. The impact is being felt keenly in the Inland Empire. The current problems in the housing market mixed with a record number of foreclosures has attracted increased scrutiny from a variety of circles and experts in relation to this crisis.
Still, Riverside builds on.
More revelations coming out of San Jose through the San Jose Mercury News which just published this article about the city council's vote to expand the powers of its independent monitor's office.
However, Auditor Barbara Attard sharply disagreed, saying that she had lost important ground.
(excerpt)
The council's 10-1 vote calls for the police auditor to sit in on a police-training review panel any time a suspect dies after being subdued with Taser stun guns, batons or other kinds of force. While the auditor already sits on such a panel for officer-involved shootings, there was no similar process for deaths after other uses of force.
But the council also made clear Tuesday that the auditor's role in reviewing death cases is limited to participating in the training panel to determine if policy changes are needed - not, as she believed, to determine whether officers used force according to department policy.
"To be denied audit authority we had for four years is a big step backward," said independent police auditor Barbara Attard.
The vote also disappointed civil rights groups and Councilwoman Madison Nguyen, the lone dissenter, who in 2003 led protests of an officer's fatal shooting of a Vietnamese mother whose vegetable peeler he mistook for a cleaver.
"I think we're moving backward," Nguyen said. "I'm very disappointed."
Attard is to be lauded for her efforts to push for her office's independent oversight of officer-involved deaths. Still, she is met with resistance in her city's government that does not want this extra scrutiny particularly in the wake of five deaths related to taser discharges by its officers since 2004.
It's the controversy over the use of these nonlethal devices which has increased the questions by the residents of San Jose, along with a study of pretext traffic stops done by officers which showed that Black and Latino motorists are stopped and searched at disproportionate rates. That and another study citing that African-Americans and Latinos were more likely to have force used against them by police officers led to the local NAACP calling for a federal investigation.
But San Jose responded saying it was dealing with its "use of force" issues.
In 2006, the ACLU questioned whether the police department was still committed to its traffic stop data studies.
(excerpt, ACLU from Northern California)
“The SJPD was the first police department in California to implement a data collection program in 1999, and it is a shame that the SJPD may be backing away from its public commitment to this innovative program,” said Sanjeev Bery, San Jose Director for the ACLU-NC. “We are also troubled by the department’s repeated failure to comply with our requests for the most recent traffic stop data.”
An early study conducted in 2001 involving the San Jose Police Department is here.
The Riverside Police Department also initiated similar studies in connection with the stipulated judgement it entered into with the state in 2001. The last report generated by the department was in March 2006. The last report released publicly was in March 2005.
The next study is supposed to be released in March 2008 with figures gathered from traffic stops conducted in 2006 and 2007. An email dated mid-April 2007 from the police department stated that there was the March 2006 report was never released publicly that year because the statistics it included were the same as those collected during earlier years.
According to a CPRA sent to the police department in August 2006, the department has $25,000 in its budget earmarked for this study that it received from the city's general fund.
Columnist Sandy Banks from the Los Angeles Times weighs in on the $1.5 million settlement paid out to a Black fire fighter in that city and the impact it will have on the future of that department.
(excerpt)
The antics of some firefighters -- and the department's failure to rein them in -- have cost the city $13.5 million in legal payouts during the last year, including $6.2 million to a black lesbian firefighter whose mouthwash bottle was filled with urine in a station-house prank, more than $2 million to two white male firefighters who were retaliated against for going to her defense, and $320,000 to a female firefighter sexually harassed by her male captain.
The Pierce lawsuit shook loose dozens of photos depicting firefighters -- including Pierce -- engaging in shenanigans, including smearing what looks like mustard on the body of a fireman tied to a chair and pretending to shave another's private parts.
I had hoped a trial would help answer a nagging question:
What's with a bunch of grown men -- highly trained professionals, life-saving heroes who can make more than $100,000 a year -- getting their kicks making prank phone calls; dousing one another with buckets of water; ridiculing blacks, Jews, gays, women . . . and calling it old-fashioned, macho fun?
I was hoping for an answer on Saturday when I met with the city's new fire chief, Doug Barry, over breakfast at his neighborhood Denny's in Lakewood. It turns out Barry doesn't get the humor either.
In his 32 years in the department, Barry never cared much for the raucous firehouse culture. He loved fighting fires, treating the ill and injured, handling dangerous emergency calls, he said. But the "horseplay," as he calls it? "It didn't look like much fun to me at all."
He said he made a habit of walking away rather than participating in even good-natured pranks. It doesn't seem to have hurt his standing with fellow firefighters or slowed his rise through department ranks.
What hurts him now, he said, is the black eye the department has suffered because of the perception that the conduct in some fire stations makes "Animal House" look like a debutante ball. "It's very embarrassing to me," he said. "It speaks poorly of us."
Yes it does, and Banks tries through her interview with the new chief to get her answers and also to find out what the future holds for the beleagured fire department.
The red highlighted section was done by me, because Banks asks a question I have often asked as I'm sure others have as well when these scandals splash the front of news headlines. Why are the telling of racist, sexist, sexual and homophobic jokes considered a bonding experience among both police officers and fire fighters? Why is this considered "macho" behavior and thus acceptable even necessary to be part of a clique?
Why is this behavior when manifested more often rewarded in a variety of ways by supervisors of these individuals while those who report it using processes that are set up to do so the ones who are ostracized and punished both by their peers and by their employers?
Here, there and everywhere. That's what people who protest against racism and sexism in the workplace often say. Look closest to where you are first, then branch outwards rather than just point fingers and say it's happening only in other places.
Local columnist, Dan Bernstein wrote this piece on punctuation in honor of another celebratory seven-day period.
Riverside County Sheriff Bob Doyle who was to depart for his new job on Oct. 12 has decided to quit today, leaving the board of supervisors wondering how to proceed at this point to bring the sudsy drama of the past month to a conclusion.
Visitors to the site this week include the following.
The City of Riverside
The County of Riverside
Universal Studios Vivendi
Burton Snow Boards
Deutsche Telekom AG
Tennessee Board of Regents
Belo Enterprises
The Desert Sun Palm Springs
---San Jose Councilman Pete Constant said to San Jose Mercury News.
Update: An earthquake has struck Riverside with the epicenter being & miles away from El Cerrito. It measured 3.9 and is likely an aftershock to an earlier 4.2 earthquake which struck the area. More information is here.
The Riverside Main Library isn't quite sure how it's going to commemorate Banned Books Week which is an event sponsored annually by the American Library Association, this year. The first floor employees said that there are no events planned for the library, but that it will be the theme at the Chili Cook Off at White Park on Wednesday, Sept. 26.
The second floor of the library which houses the administration offices had no events planned that they were aware of though they did know that Banned Books Week was coming up on their calendar.
One word of note, if the library's staff does set up its exhibit for the chili cook off on Wednesday, it'll be early. The event is actually being held on Thursday, Sept. 27 according to the Parks and Recreation Department.
It's odd to see the library's staff out of sorts on this event because in the past, it had set up an impressive display in the lobby to commemorate it. After all, this is an event that the library has proudly held for the past 20 years.
Speaking of the chili kickoff event, it's held by the city employees for the United Way and if you pay some money, they give you tickets to try out the different chilies made by the different city departments. They offer chilies with beef, chicken and also vegetarian. Some of them in the past have been very tasty. Some have been most unusual culinary experiences which makes it's a fun event as well.
An interesting debate has been going in different places on about who to support, Councilman Dom Betro from Ward One or Art Gage from Ward Three. Come again?
Even though Betro and Gage are running for seats in two different wards, they have been used in arguments defending the endorsement of one over the other pertaining to the issue of eminent domain.
First, here's a litmus test that might prove useful. Ask yourself would you support or endorse a candidate who voted to file a SLAPP law suit against an individual or community activist organization to stop them from circulating a petition in an attempt to get an initiative addressing eminent domain on the ballot.
The vast majority of those who favor and push for a democratic process and public participation in local governments frown on the filing of SLAPP suits by city attorneys on behalf of elected officials. Some of them have already frowned on the actions taken by Riverside's city council against the Riversiders for Property Rights.
Other cities including those in the illustrious Orange County placed similar initiatives on the ballot including Anaheim and Newport Beach.
Whether or not you support eminent domain is not the issue here, the issue here is whether or not you support the use of the city's funds to file SLAPP law suits. Two of the councilmen who voted to file the SLAPP law suit, Frank Schiavone and Ed Adkison, also pushed to get initiatives on the ballot for a future election. Any criticism of their initiatives was met with cries that these individuals were interfering with the will of the people and the right of the voters to decide for themselves on an issue.
Okay, that's fair enough criticism, but obviously this standard doesn't apply to elected officials in the same manner. However, that's FRED and they're kind of a quirky duo anyway and they'll be election news down the line, no doubt.
Getting back to Betro and Gage, who to support in this example of inter-ward politics? Betro's already off of an endorsement list if you frown on elected officials who support SLAPP law suits. But what about Gage, who after all as people rightly said voted against the SLAPP law suit?
Well, look at his record and his prior support of supporting eminent domain against houses in his ward in exchange for office space coveted by a company which is owned by a well-known developer known for padding the campaign accounts of many an elected official. That developer is Doug Jacobs and his relationship to Gage and other elected officials and candidates is outlined in this excellent letter about the Ward Two elections several years ago. Plus, if you check out his past and current campaign donors, development interests abound like they do on other campaigns in this election.
But factor that in with whether or not Gage has truly learned his lesson on eminent domain as many of his supporters have said and the fact that he was mere votes away from having his keister handed to him on a plate by a neophyte, William "Rusty" Bailey who is end0rsed and funded by a majority of those sitting on the dais including the BASS quartet. The lesson learned might sit for several months or maybe he's truly changed his philosophy on eminent domain for private development. The problem is, no one but Gage knows for sure. So it's a gamble.
Put this together and knowing that most likely, Bailey is too new and too green to be able to come up to speed as quickly as he will need to to just keep up with the city council and you have a very difficult decision to make. He's got to prove he's his own man and not a puppet and that his years spent working in the county's economic development agency under then Director Brad Hudson doesn't mean he's still beholden to him because that's one factoid in his biography that his supporters often leave out.
Also, it would help if he and his supporters learned the difference between an air freight service and a freight train corporation and which one DHL falls into because many residents south of Central Avenue including those in his ward are very aware of the presence of DHL.
And the fact is, it may be between two candidates who are not as greatly separated on the issue of eminent domain as is the case in the other election races with the possible exception of the Ward Five race.
This city is in one of the fastest growing areas of the country and it's hard not to feel like a kid inside a candy store or to see dollar signs and looking at stories about other places, there doesn't seem to be that many where politicians and their supporters don't get caught up in all that. This will make it difficult to find good candidates who don't want to jump on this band wagon who can earn enough money to launch an effective campaign. Which is why launching an education program on eminent domain and its problems is very important, particularly for those it and its cousin, "friendly condemnation" might impact at a future date, which is what they did in some of these areas where eminent domain initiatives were passed on the ballot. An educated populace that votes will help dictate what candidates ultimately succeed in getting elected.
The problem with eminent domain is very similar to that impacting the Community Police Review Commission. Both processes have become very politicized and both processes are entirely dependent on who is in power at any given time and what their feelings are about either.
Do you have elected officials who support eminent domain or oppose it in certain circumstances? What do they say publicly? What do they do privately?
Do you have elected officials who support the CPRC? Do they oppose it? Do they support it in idea and oppose it in reality? What do they say publicly? What do they do privately?
For both, you must ask yourself while looking at your watch or your calendar. Is there a majority of individuals who support this? Oppose that?
There are still many people who don't understand what eminent domain is and how it might impact them. There are still people who are unaware that the CPRC exists.
Any progress for either by any progressive regime, if there ever is any, can be lost or regress when the political tides change at City Hall once again. Two steps forward. Two steps backwards. One majority voted in and then voted out to be replaced by an opposing majority. That's why eminent domain is called something else during an election year and commissioners on a board created by ordinance and cemented by charter are moved around like chess pieces and City Manager Brad Hudson can joke to individuals about how he and his staff are busy in his office micromanaging the CPRC and elected officials can point fingers directly or indirectly at their political rivals for events that transpire after they've left a commission.
In both cases, the local government has taken for its use tools used that impact communities without much in terms of community input whether it's by ballot or by expression. And at least in the case of the CPRC, many community members felt that they've lost an important mechanism in the CPRC to a city leery of more law suits filed against it through its police department.
And wrongful death law suit number six is about to be filed in court joining five earlier law suits filed in connection with four other officer-involved deaths since 2004. Some say that they've heard that the shooting of Joseph Darnell Hill may have attracted more interest in it than the earlier shooting of Douglas Steven Cloud and given the concern in connection with that fatal officer-involved shooting, that's saying a lot.
It's too hard to think that far ahead. It's unlikely the Hill shooting will even receive a briefing before the CPRC by its investigator if he's even still on retainer until next year, given the current backlog in officer-involved deaths faced by the CPRC.
A lot of the turmoil of the CPRC that started after the commission ruled against the department's own finding in the Summer Marie Lane shooting continues as the process involving the April 2006 fatal shooting of Lee Deante Brown proceeds well into its second year. The process involving that shooting has virtually ground to a halt at the level where the CPRC was to draft a public report in connection with it. The tremendous turnover both in terms of executive managers and commissioners alike has created a situation where it's not likely that the second to final door will be closed on the Brown shooting any time soon.
Complaints filed with the CPRC have suffered similar difficulties coming to resolutions given that the average investigation time spent by the department involving complaints is currently fluctuating between 200-370 days, depending on what month it is and these averages are three to six times the recommended time periods for the handling of the more serious category of complaints. Discussion about this situation has led to what the department has called reorganization of its internal affairs division to better handle these investigations.
But given the politicizing of the CPRC, it often seems like it's simply more politics.
What's past is prologue. The solution to both issues is the same, because the problem involving both is essentially the same. Processes which shouldn't be politicized have become nothing but, politics.
The Orange County Register also ran this column about the renaming of a park in Manhattan Beach after a Black couple forced to give up their home during the 1920s to eminent domain.
(excerpt)
The story tells the tragic tale of government stealing the dreams of a minority couple, but although racial attitudes thankfully have changed in the past 83 years, other views are remarkably the same. In fact, in many ways the situation is worse than in 1924. Cities have more power now than in the past to take property by eminent domain from anybody for any reason. Supervisor Chris Norby talks about how cities engage in ethnic cleansing -- i.e., minority neighborhoods often are viewed as, de facto, blighted and therefore game by city officials to take by eminent domain and given to big developers.
Here's a survival guide for those facing SLAPP law suits.
Although there's been a lot of focus on the city council races, there are other elections taking place and some of them are for positions on various school boards in Riverside County.
There are going to be more candidate forums involving these important races coming up.
The League of Women Voters of Northwest Riverside County, The Group and the American Association of University Women will be conducting the following candidates' forums.
Candidates for the Riverside Unified School District:
Wednesday, September 26, 2007 at 7:00 PM at Sierra Middle School, 4950 Central Avenue, Riverside
Candidates for the Alvord Unified School District:
Monday, October 1, 2007 at 7:00 PM at the La Sierra Branch Library, 4600 La Sierra Avenue, Riverside
Candidates for the Jurupa Community Services District:
Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 7:00 PM at the Jurupa Park & Rectreation Center, 4810 Pedley Road, Jurupa
Development projects to build housing in different areas of Riverside County are hitting the skids according to the Press Enterprise.
(excerpt)
Fred Bell, executive director of the Desert Chapter of the Building Industry Association in the Coachella Valley, said developers are forging ahead with planning and approvals.
"But they are not going to move forward until the market changes," Bell said.
The stalled development at Winchester Hills and nearby properties -- together called Winchester Ranch -- has left the landowners with a huge financial burden. Homeowners and businesses that were expected to occupy the development would have repaid the debt on more than $20 million in bonds for extension of nearby Domenigoni Parkway.
Instead, Rancon and other developers who invested in Winchester Ranch are saddled with paying off that debt until the community becomes a reality. Other improvements have been put on hold.
Rancon President and Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Comerchero has asked Riverside County officials to indefinitely delay issuing $12 million in bonds that would have paid for new roads, sewers and flood-control improvements in Winchester Ranch.
Comerchero said he's waiting for better times.
More and more housing projects are coming to Riverside. It's not clear whether any of them have had their schedules for construction impacted by the recent downturn in the housing market that impacts the sales of houses particularly new houses nationwide. The impact is being felt keenly in the Inland Empire. The current problems in the housing market mixed with a record number of foreclosures has attracted increased scrutiny from a variety of circles and experts in relation to this crisis.
Still, Riverside builds on.
More revelations coming out of San Jose through the San Jose Mercury News which just published this article about the city council's vote to expand the powers of its independent monitor's office.
However, Auditor Barbara Attard sharply disagreed, saying that she had lost important ground.
(excerpt)
The council's 10-1 vote calls for the police auditor to sit in on a police-training review panel any time a suspect dies after being subdued with Taser stun guns, batons or other kinds of force. While the auditor already sits on such a panel for officer-involved shootings, there was no similar process for deaths after other uses of force.
But the council also made clear Tuesday that the auditor's role in reviewing death cases is limited to participating in the training panel to determine if policy changes are needed - not, as she believed, to determine whether officers used force according to department policy.
"To be denied audit authority we had for four years is a big step backward," said independent police auditor Barbara Attard.
The vote also disappointed civil rights groups and Councilwoman Madison Nguyen, the lone dissenter, who in 2003 led protests of an officer's fatal shooting of a Vietnamese mother whose vegetable peeler he mistook for a cleaver.
"I think we're moving backward," Nguyen said. "I'm very disappointed."
Attard is to be lauded for her efforts to push for her office's independent oversight of officer-involved deaths. Still, she is met with resistance in her city's government that does not want this extra scrutiny particularly in the wake of five deaths related to taser discharges by its officers since 2004.
It's the controversy over the use of these nonlethal devices which has increased the questions by the residents of San Jose, along with a study of pretext traffic stops done by officers which showed that Black and Latino motorists are stopped and searched at disproportionate rates. That and another study citing that African-Americans and Latinos were more likely to have force used against them by police officers led to the local NAACP calling for a federal investigation.
But San Jose responded saying it was dealing with its "use of force" issues.
In 2006, the ACLU questioned whether the police department was still committed to its traffic stop data studies.
(excerpt, ACLU from Northern California)
“The SJPD was the first police department in California to implement a data collection program in 1999, and it is a shame that the SJPD may be backing away from its public commitment to this innovative program,” said Sanjeev Bery, San Jose Director for the ACLU-NC. “We are also troubled by the department’s repeated failure to comply with our requests for the most recent traffic stop data.”
An early study conducted in 2001 involving the San Jose Police Department is here.
The Riverside Police Department also initiated similar studies in connection with the stipulated judgement it entered into with the state in 2001. The last report generated by the department was in March 2006. The last report released publicly was in March 2005.
The next study is supposed to be released in March 2008 with figures gathered from traffic stops conducted in 2006 and 2007. An email dated mid-April 2007 from the police department stated that there was the March 2006 report was never released publicly that year because the statistics it included were the same as those collected during earlier years.
According to a CPRA sent to the police department in August 2006, the department has $25,000 in its budget earmarked for this study that it received from the city's general fund.
Columnist Sandy Banks from the Los Angeles Times weighs in on the $1.5 million settlement paid out to a Black fire fighter in that city and the impact it will have on the future of that department.
(excerpt)
The antics of some firefighters -- and the department's failure to rein them in -- have cost the city $13.5 million in legal payouts during the last year, including $6.2 million to a black lesbian firefighter whose mouthwash bottle was filled with urine in a station-house prank, more than $2 million to two white male firefighters who were retaliated against for going to her defense, and $320,000 to a female firefighter sexually harassed by her male captain.
The Pierce lawsuit shook loose dozens of photos depicting firefighters -- including Pierce -- engaging in shenanigans, including smearing what looks like mustard on the body of a fireman tied to a chair and pretending to shave another's private parts.
I had hoped a trial would help answer a nagging question:
What's with a bunch of grown men -- highly trained professionals, life-saving heroes who can make more than $100,000 a year -- getting their kicks making prank phone calls; dousing one another with buckets of water; ridiculing blacks, Jews, gays, women . . . and calling it old-fashioned, macho fun?
I was hoping for an answer on Saturday when I met with the city's new fire chief, Doug Barry, over breakfast at his neighborhood Denny's in Lakewood. It turns out Barry doesn't get the humor either.
In his 32 years in the department, Barry never cared much for the raucous firehouse culture. He loved fighting fires, treating the ill and injured, handling dangerous emergency calls, he said. But the "horseplay," as he calls it? "It didn't look like much fun to me at all."
He said he made a habit of walking away rather than participating in even good-natured pranks. It doesn't seem to have hurt his standing with fellow firefighters or slowed his rise through department ranks.
What hurts him now, he said, is the black eye the department has suffered because of the perception that the conduct in some fire stations makes "Animal House" look like a debutante ball. "It's very embarrassing to me," he said. "It speaks poorly of us."
Yes it does, and Banks tries through her interview with the new chief to get her answers and also to find out what the future holds for the beleagured fire department.
The red highlighted section was done by me, because Banks asks a question I have often asked as I'm sure others have as well when these scandals splash the front of news headlines. Why are the telling of racist, sexist, sexual and homophobic jokes considered a bonding experience among both police officers and fire fighters? Why is this considered "macho" behavior and thus acceptable even necessary to be part of a clique?
Why is this behavior when manifested more often rewarded in a variety of ways by supervisors of these individuals while those who report it using processes that are set up to do so the ones who are ostracized and punished both by their peers and by their employers?
Here, there and everywhere. That's what people who protest against racism and sexism in the workplace often say. Look closest to where you are first, then branch outwards rather than just point fingers and say it's happening only in other places.
Local columnist, Dan Bernstein wrote this piece on punctuation in honor of another celebratory seven-day period.
Riverside County Sheriff Bob Doyle who was to depart for his new job on Oct. 12 has decided to quit today, leaving the board of supervisors wondering how to proceed at this point to bring the sudsy drama of the past month to a conclusion.
Visitors to the site this week include the following.
The City of Riverside
The County of Riverside
Universal Studios Vivendi
Burton Snow Boards
Deutsche Telekom AG
Tennessee Board of Regents
Belo Enterprises
The Desert Sun Palm Springs
Labels: Backlash against civilian oversight, City elections, consent decrees and other adventures, public forums in all places, racism costs
posted by Five Before Midnight | 8:15 PM
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