Riverside City and County: The Day After
I received a weather update this morning and sitting off the coast of Western Canada is the worst September storm to hit the golden state in many years. It has a 40% chance of hitting Riverside on Thursday and Friday. Will it live up to its hype? Will the incoming La Nina keep it up north of Santa Barbara?
We'll see.
In Peru, there are different problems with falling objects, as there are people becoming sick after a meteorite crashed there.
Speaking of crashes, one has hit Riverside County which is still reeling from yesterday's close vote to pick the next sheriff.
What: Board of Supervisors Appointment of a new Sheriff
When: Monday, Sept. 17, 2007, beginning at 9:30 a.m.
Where: Riverside County Administration building, Riverside
"I've become the poster boy in the removal of at-will positions in the Sheriff's Department."
---Former Assistant Sheriff and current Sheriff Stanley Sniff
"If I give you the promotion, I need a promise that you will retire by the end of the year, 2007."
---Assistant Sheriff Valerie Hill relates conversation with Sheriff Bob Doyle before her promotion to that position. She has rescinded her resignation.
"What the department needs to do is remain transparent."
---Former Asst. Sheriff and current candidate, John Boyd
"I just think it's the most unethical thing in the world."
---Riverside County Supervisor John Tavaglione, on accepting campaign contributions from department employees.
"We keep thinking about a blood bath because there are two distinct sides."
---Tavaglione
"Let the healing begin."
---Supervisor Jeff Stone, after his vote for Sniff
Everyone loves a good comeback story and the Press Enterprise took that angle when it published this story on the Riverside Board of Supervisors' narrow decision to appoint fired assistant sheriff, Stanley Sniff to replace the boss who fired him last year.
Sniff steps into what some supervisors mildly described as a "department in turmoil" where many people in administrative positions have resigned or retired and where the labor unions and Doyle's administration have been at war since he was elected. The latest being a leaked memo claiming an ongoing conspiracy between one labor union, Sniff District Attorney Rod Pacheco and two county supervisors which was countered by a letter from the involved union claiming the letter was essentially a forgery.
The portrait that was painted during what was supposed to be an interview process for five law enforcement candidates to replace Sheriff Bob Doyle was much more dismal.
(excerpt)
Assistant Sheriff Valerie Hill, one of five candidates to be interviewed by the board, said Doyle sent out a letter during a November leadership retreat saying he valued loyalty over competency.
The same letter, Hill said, contained orders that top sheriff's executives not speak to certain individuals, including leaders in the Riverside Sheriffs' Association, which represents thousands of deputies and investigators.
That letter has never been made public.
Hill has been with the department for 30 years and oversees the county's crowded jail system. She said Doyle approached her last year and offered her a job as assistant sheriff if she promised to retire at the end of this year.
"I thought about it long and hard," Hill said. But Hill said she changed her mind once Doyle announced his plans to leave the department.
Doyle said the timeline for Hill's departure was based on her own decision about when to retire. He acknowledged sending a letter to his executive staff but said he didn't recall demanding loyalty over competency.
Doyle who is heading off to fill a position with the state's parole board didn't attend the meeting.
One of the reasons why the Board of Supervisors and those who attended the meeting yesterday were treated to the latest performance of the local agency gone amok was because four out of five candidates for the sheriff's position were players in what's been going on inside the administration of the Sheriff's Department in the past several years. And although it's an agency that's run on tax dollars paid for by the residents of this county, most of what happened was veiled behind the walls of secrecy laws which given the scandal after scandal that has plagued law enforcement agencies just counting the state of California are making less and less sense.
If the public had any clue of what was playing out, they might have been shocked years ago, but with scandals like Maywood Police Department and others coming to light just this past year alone, perhaps people have become jaded. This latest battle between the management of a law enforcement organization and its rank and file labor union differed from others only in that the management union and most of Doyle's management team had jumped ship as well.
The thing is, that if the soap opera playing itself out at the top level, with its suds pouring out and being put on display at the board of supervisor meeting hadn't impacted the department's morale as well as how its members did its job, it would have soon enough. After all in cases like this, it always does in law enforcement agencies from coast to coast.
That's something that often both warring sides forget, but are ultimately reminded of when things go really bad in the midst of a law enforcement agency's implosion. Like in the city of Riverside for example not too long ago.
Knowing full well about the Riverside Police Department's own turbulent history and many say, its struggle to right itself, is part of what made the spectacle yesterday so difficult to watch.
Some people in the audience called it a train wreck, something that is too horrible to contemplate let alone watch, yet at the same time you can't look away. That is what the Riverside County Sheriff's Department had become, during the same time that the supervisors who criticized it loudly and finally yesterday were talking about how great things were going inside that agency and in the county at their public meetings. How could they not know? Did they know? How well did the Sheriff's Department keep its problems under wrap?
As often happens, the public face was more important than the truth behind it. But it's like Martin Luther King, jr. said, no lie lives forever.
As even more horrendous as some would call it, perhaps the Sheriff's Department should not have been handed off to one of what several supervisors called, "two distinct sides" as some sort of prize in a contest. Perhaps if the board was going to take over the selection process for sheriff, it should have pushed it further by picking an "outsider" to bring in a "new culture" and "fresh eyes" to the situation.
But the only applicant outside the Sheriff's Department was Lt. Craig Herron, a Los Angeles Police Department protege of his chief, William Bratton who allegedly had ties to one of the supervisors. He seemed intelligent, was praised profusely by the board even though he wasn't taken seriously by it and gave a good interview but as a lieutenant whose boss is appointed by a governmental body appeared too much in what he admitted was foreign territory for him.
Maybe it will seem less foreign to him and he could quit the LAPD and come work for another agency with a "chief", not a sheriff. It's too bad that state law won't allow for a special election before 2010.
Coming back into town just in time to comment on this, was Press Enterprise Columnist Dan Bernstein who addressed it in his first article back on the beat.
(excerpt)
I got back to town Saturday and discovered RivCo DA Rod Pacheco still hadn't picked a new sheriff. How long would he let this drag on?
Then, Monday, white smoke from the Big Glass House! The Board of Supes -- a subsidiary of the DA's office -- appointed well-regarded Stan Sniff, reportedly Pacheco's No. 1 man.
Just like that, Pacheco dropped plans to file an injunction that would have stopped the supes (a.k.a. RivCo Riva) from meeting in public.
Just like that, the mantle of RivCo sheriff ceased (momentarily) to be a royal hand-me-down, passed from one sheriff to his hand-picked heir. Monday's public job interviews before the RivCo supes didn't merely showcase the candidates; they described a sheriff's administration hollowed out by the dual values of self-preservation and self-perpetuation. Oddly, this cycle ended only because ex-Sheriff Doyle bailed one year into a second four-year term. He had it made. Then he chucks it for a job on the parole board? Doesn't add up.
Welcome back, Dan. The city and indeed the county's not the same without you.
The Los Angeles Times also appeared and published this story on what took place and Doyle's reaction to the allegations made against him both by members of his former management team and by several supervisors.
(excerpt)
Doyle said he was not surprised by the description of his department.
"You've got two people on the inside who want the position -- they have got to separate from the administration, and bad-mouth and carry on," he said. "It's unfortunate, but that's what happens. I'm very proud of what we've accomplished."
He noted that under his leadership, the department had attracted some 500 new deputies to staff unincorporated areas.
"Look at our retention rate. They are not going other places for greener grass. . . . That doesn't add up with having a morale problem," he said. "The only issue here was the union board that was driving the misinformation. They put it out and fed it to the board."
Inside Riverside, which apparently is an unofficial blog created by the RSA hasn't been updated yet to include yesterday's event.
What remains most vivid from the meeting that took place to appoint a new employee to what has always been considered an elected position is how when all was said and done, a bit of legislative activism carried the day. The Board of Supervisors took over a process that belongs to the county residents, but was it one that could have been avoided, given that if Lingle had gotten the job the agency probably would have imploded from within long before the 2010 special election?
Police chiefs of municipal law enforcement agencies usually get appointed by the city government. County sheriffs usually get elected by the voters in their jurisdictions. But yesterday, Riverside County broke with that tradition by appointing Sniff to succeed Doyle.
Actually, some said the vote took place not only in the chambers of the Riverside County Administrative headquarters but in a meeting held by the Riverside Sheriffs' Association's Board of Directors earlier when it voted to endorse Sniff. That may have been a major step in that direction, but the supervisors took the final vote.
Also warranting further discussion is the role of "at will" positions in management of law enforcement agencies, which began in Riverside County in 2002, though not for the first time. When "at will" positions collide with political agendas, what you get are either puppets to those agendas or a spectacular fiasco like was aired yesterday.
Earlier this year, the Riverside Police Department faced an attempt by former Riverside County employee and current City Manager Brad Hudson to introduce that practice in the city. He didn't succeed but what would have happened if he had?
After watching what happened yesterday, it does make one wonder what could have been, given how many puppeteers there are at City Hall on one floor alone waiting to line up for a chance to pull some strings some where.
Anywhere.
What is past, what is present is often prologue.
The League of Women Voters held the first two city candidate forums and alas, though I couldn't attend, both lived up to the hype of being the latest installments in the not quite ready for prime time drama, Election 2007. One circus in one day was more than enough and I'm still recovering from some information coming out on some antics that took place on the top level of City Hall during this summer involving several elected officials, including ones who unfortunately aren't up for reelection yet and directives they allegedly gave to employees involving the Community Police Review Commission. You know what they say, when it rains, it pours and eventually the floodgates will open. It's like that when the light is shined on things.
This organization which sponsored the forums holds interesting, if tightly structured forums but its individual members tends to lean towards supporting one candidate over the other even if the organization itself doesn't endorse. In fact, at one forum held last autumn involving the candidates from the Riverside Community College District's Board of Trustees race, Councilman Dom Betro's very own legislative aide was holding the time cards to inform candidates addressing the audience how much time they had left to speak.
In some ways, people say this is a metropolis on its way up but in several fundamental ways, it's still a small town.
That aside the league is a very important organization which has spoken out on the sunshine laws both locally and in the state at different meetings. They do provide an opportunity for the candidates to put on a show and the city residents to get more information about the candidates running in their wards. But if you have watch dog organizations overseeing various civic or state issues, it's best for the members to sit on the sidelines when it comes to favoring one politician over another except at the voting polls.
Even during forums which are pretty close to spirited debates and occasionally close to verbal brawls, the Press Enterprise tends to portray them as cotillions or afternoon tea parties, this one apparently being no different. But there's a discussion going on about it here.
Ward One was first on tape, with Betro facing off with challenger Mike Gardner.
(excerpt)
In the Ward 1 forum, Betro said he has had the guts to push for difficult decisions, such as renovating the Fox Theater for use as a regional performing arts center, which past councils avoided making.
He said eminent domain is a useful tool in redeveloping properties that have been plagued by criminal activity or blight but he said the city has not taken one property by court order in an eminent-domain case.
Gardner said he opposes eminent domain for redevelopment but he deflected a question about abolishing the city's Redevelopment Agency by saying he needed to know more about the agency's benefits.
Gardner said he wants to restore openness and trust to the council. He said he favors luring employers that hire lots of people to work in relatively small amounts of space as compared with warehouses that take up lots of space and hire few workers.
Some interesting comments made in the Ward Three candidate forum made it into the news article.
(excerpt)
In the Ward 3 race, Gage said his top priorities remain public safety, improved traffic flow and making the city more livable by trimming trees more often and fixing potholes as soon as citizens call in about them.
He said that too many decisions are made in the city manager's office and at The Sire bar, where some council members go for drinks. An executive recruiter, he emphasized his business background and said the city needs experienced leadership.
Bailey, a Poly High School teacher running for office for the first time, said he would walk the ward all four years if elected to hear the concerns of his constituents.
He called for City Council meetings to occur once every other month in a different ward -- the city has seven council wards -- and he also promised to hold regular office hours in various locations within the ward.
Gage dated himself when he made that comment about Sire's restaurant being the popular backroom for city political soirees. Actually, the Falconer, which is allegedly owned by Councilman Steve Adams is the up and coming place to politick but then this information is almost certainly outdated as well. That's the fluid nature of local politics and their watering holes.
The Press Enterprise's editorial board spoke out again, this time in favor of adding 50 new judges to the state's court system.
The board went further, stating bring on 50 more.
(excerpt)
The effects of the judicial shortage extend far beyond harried judges. Riverside County, for example, halted civil trials temporarily in 2004 and 2005 to handle a crush of criminal cases. But that strategy shoves aside the adjudication of matters such as wrongful-death disputes, divorces and mental-health hearings. And the push to resolve criminal cases still sidelines most civil trials in the county.
A functional court system needs the capacity to deal with more than just criminal prosecutions. And additional judges are a necessary part of any solution.
California cannot prosper by neglecting the state's legal system. The new judges are a welcome addition -- but the Legislature should not think that step closes the case on the judicial shortage.
In Columbus, Ohio, a female officer who had been rejected by an evaluation board was years later investigated for making racist videos according to the Columbus Dispatch.
This is what was said about prospective hire Susan L. Purtee in 1991.
(excerpt)
Speaking for the three-member board, Lt. Rickert M. Shewring wrote of Purtee:
"Undependable, walks off the job (quits) when things don't go her way; job history is deplorable, has not had a steady job for any length of time; several references of insubordination. She claims that she has had so many jobs because she doesn't like direction…
"Has worked 20 years and has nothing to show for it (heavily in debt)," he continued. "Applicant is shallow and does not accept criticism well."
Okay, so there were a few problems with her record but the city didn't mind and gave her the job anyway. So now, she's being investigated and is currently on desk duty after she and her sister posted YouTube vidoes demeaning Jews, African-Americans, Cubans and immigrants. Hopefully, Columbus isn't dusting off its excuse that it didn't see trouble coming.
Another Columbus Dispatch article stated that Purtee is resigning and may be receiving disability benefits.
(excerpt)
Purtee will be paid through Sept. 22 and can seek retirement benefits "based on a disability she has," Ford said. "I don't know what that disability is. That's just what I'm hearing."
Jim Gilbert, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge No. 9, said, "Normally officers retire when they reach 48 years of age and have 25 years of service. That's for normal retirement."
He said the union doesn't assist with retirement paperwork, which is up to the individual officer.
"We are obligated to represent her through the administrative investigation which was taking place," Gilbert said. "She has had limited contact with the union since this all began. She had an interview with internal affairs this past week at which the FOP represented her.
"The FOP does not condone anti-Semitic comments or the views of Officer Purtee," he said. "We are obligated by contract and law to represent her administratively."
Indictments are coming down against two Greensboro(NC) Police Department officers, after a probe was conducted into the department's special intelligence unit.
(excerpt)
The suspended officers, Sgt. William "Tom" Fox and officer Scott E. Sanders, face charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Sanders also is charged with hacking into a computer issued to another local officer by the federal government.
The six indictments sketch out a series of events in which Sanders, who faces four of the felony counts, is accused of knowingly deceiving fellow law enforcement officers at all levels of government — local, state and federal — while working to illegally gather information about or besmirch the reputations of three black officers.
Sanders said through his attorney he is not guilty. Fox's lawyer declined to comment until he can review the indictments.
"Officer Sanders will plead not guilty because he is, in fact, not guilty and we are confident that when this case comes to a close, a jury of his peers will vindicate him," said his attorney, Seth Cohen.
We'll see.
In Peru, there are different problems with falling objects, as there are people becoming sick after a meteorite crashed there.
Speaking of crashes, one has hit Riverside County which is still reeling from yesterday's close vote to pick the next sheriff.
What: Board of Supervisors Appointment of a new Sheriff
When: Monday, Sept. 17, 2007, beginning at 9:30 a.m.
Where: Riverside County Administration building, Riverside
"I've become the poster boy in the removal of at-will positions in the Sheriff's Department."
---Former Assistant Sheriff and current Sheriff Stanley Sniff
"If I give you the promotion, I need a promise that you will retire by the end of the year, 2007."
---Assistant Sheriff Valerie Hill relates conversation with Sheriff Bob Doyle before her promotion to that position. She has rescinded her resignation.
"What the department needs to do is remain transparent."
---Former Asst. Sheriff and current candidate, John Boyd
"I just think it's the most unethical thing in the world."
---Riverside County Supervisor John Tavaglione, on accepting campaign contributions from department employees.
"We keep thinking about a blood bath because there are two distinct sides."
---Tavaglione
"Let the healing begin."
---Supervisor Jeff Stone, after his vote for Sniff
Everyone loves a good comeback story and the Press Enterprise took that angle when it published this story on the Riverside Board of Supervisors' narrow decision to appoint fired assistant sheriff, Stanley Sniff to replace the boss who fired him last year.
Sniff steps into what some supervisors mildly described as a "department in turmoil" where many people in administrative positions have resigned or retired and where the labor unions and Doyle's administration have been at war since he was elected. The latest being a leaked memo claiming an ongoing conspiracy between one labor union, Sniff District Attorney Rod Pacheco and two county supervisors which was countered by a letter from the involved union claiming the letter was essentially a forgery.
The portrait that was painted during what was supposed to be an interview process for five law enforcement candidates to replace Sheriff Bob Doyle was much more dismal.
(excerpt)
Assistant Sheriff Valerie Hill, one of five candidates to be interviewed by the board, said Doyle sent out a letter during a November leadership retreat saying he valued loyalty over competency.
The same letter, Hill said, contained orders that top sheriff's executives not speak to certain individuals, including leaders in the Riverside Sheriffs' Association, which represents thousands of deputies and investigators.
That letter has never been made public.
Hill has been with the department for 30 years and oversees the county's crowded jail system. She said Doyle approached her last year and offered her a job as assistant sheriff if she promised to retire at the end of this year.
"I thought about it long and hard," Hill said. But Hill said she changed her mind once Doyle announced his plans to leave the department.
Doyle said the timeline for Hill's departure was based on her own decision about when to retire. He acknowledged sending a letter to his executive staff but said he didn't recall demanding loyalty over competency.
Doyle who is heading off to fill a position with the state's parole board didn't attend the meeting.
One of the reasons why the Board of Supervisors and those who attended the meeting yesterday were treated to the latest performance of the local agency gone amok was because four out of five candidates for the sheriff's position were players in what's been going on inside the administration of the Sheriff's Department in the past several years. And although it's an agency that's run on tax dollars paid for by the residents of this county, most of what happened was veiled behind the walls of secrecy laws which given the scandal after scandal that has plagued law enforcement agencies just counting the state of California are making less and less sense.
If the public had any clue of what was playing out, they might have been shocked years ago, but with scandals like Maywood Police Department and others coming to light just this past year alone, perhaps people have become jaded. This latest battle between the management of a law enforcement organization and its rank and file labor union differed from others only in that the management union and most of Doyle's management team had jumped ship as well.
The thing is, that if the soap opera playing itself out at the top level, with its suds pouring out and being put on display at the board of supervisor meeting hadn't impacted the department's morale as well as how its members did its job, it would have soon enough. After all in cases like this, it always does in law enforcement agencies from coast to coast.
That's something that often both warring sides forget, but are ultimately reminded of when things go really bad in the midst of a law enforcement agency's implosion. Like in the city of Riverside for example not too long ago.
Knowing full well about the Riverside Police Department's own turbulent history and many say, its struggle to right itself, is part of what made the spectacle yesterday so difficult to watch.
Some people in the audience called it a train wreck, something that is too horrible to contemplate let alone watch, yet at the same time you can't look away. That is what the Riverside County Sheriff's Department had become, during the same time that the supervisors who criticized it loudly and finally yesterday were talking about how great things were going inside that agency and in the county at their public meetings. How could they not know? Did they know? How well did the Sheriff's Department keep its problems under wrap?
As often happens, the public face was more important than the truth behind it. But it's like Martin Luther King, jr. said, no lie lives forever.
As even more horrendous as some would call it, perhaps the Sheriff's Department should not have been handed off to one of what several supervisors called, "two distinct sides" as some sort of prize in a contest. Perhaps if the board was going to take over the selection process for sheriff, it should have pushed it further by picking an "outsider" to bring in a "new culture" and "fresh eyes" to the situation.
But the only applicant outside the Sheriff's Department was Lt. Craig Herron, a Los Angeles Police Department protege of his chief, William Bratton who allegedly had ties to one of the supervisors. He seemed intelligent, was praised profusely by the board even though he wasn't taken seriously by it and gave a good interview but as a lieutenant whose boss is appointed by a governmental body appeared too much in what he admitted was foreign territory for him.
Maybe it will seem less foreign to him and he could quit the LAPD and come work for another agency with a "chief", not a sheriff. It's too bad that state law won't allow for a special election before 2010.
Coming back into town just in time to comment on this, was Press Enterprise Columnist Dan Bernstein who addressed it in his first article back on the beat.
(excerpt)
I got back to town Saturday and discovered RivCo DA Rod Pacheco still hadn't picked a new sheriff. How long would he let this drag on?
Then, Monday, white smoke from the Big Glass House! The Board of Supes -- a subsidiary of the DA's office -- appointed well-regarded Stan Sniff, reportedly Pacheco's No. 1 man.
Just like that, Pacheco dropped plans to file an injunction that would have stopped the supes (a.k.a. RivCo Riva) from meeting in public.
Just like that, the mantle of RivCo sheriff ceased (momentarily) to be a royal hand-me-down, passed from one sheriff to his hand-picked heir. Monday's public job interviews before the RivCo supes didn't merely showcase the candidates; they described a sheriff's administration hollowed out by the dual values of self-preservation and self-perpetuation. Oddly, this cycle ended only because ex-Sheriff Doyle bailed one year into a second four-year term. He had it made. Then he chucks it for a job on the parole board? Doesn't add up.
Welcome back, Dan. The city and indeed the county's not the same without you.
The Los Angeles Times also appeared and published this story on what took place and Doyle's reaction to the allegations made against him both by members of his former management team and by several supervisors.
(excerpt)
Doyle said he was not surprised by the description of his department.
"You've got two people on the inside who want the position -- they have got to separate from the administration, and bad-mouth and carry on," he said. "It's unfortunate, but that's what happens. I'm very proud of what we've accomplished."
He noted that under his leadership, the department had attracted some 500 new deputies to staff unincorporated areas.
"Look at our retention rate. They are not going other places for greener grass. . . . That doesn't add up with having a morale problem," he said. "The only issue here was the union board that was driving the misinformation. They put it out and fed it to the board."
Inside Riverside, which apparently is an unofficial blog created by the RSA hasn't been updated yet to include yesterday's event.
What remains most vivid from the meeting that took place to appoint a new employee to what has always been considered an elected position is how when all was said and done, a bit of legislative activism carried the day. The Board of Supervisors took over a process that belongs to the county residents, but was it one that could have been avoided, given that if Lingle had gotten the job the agency probably would have imploded from within long before the 2010 special election?
Police chiefs of municipal law enforcement agencies usually get appointed by the city government. County sheriffs usually get elected by the voters in their jurisdictions. But yesterday, Riverside County broke with that tradition by appointing Sniff to succeed Doyle.
Actually, some said the vote took place not only in the chambers of the Riverside County Administrative headquarters but in a meeting held by the Riverside Sheriffs' Association's Board of Directors earlier when it voted to endorse Sniff. That may have been a major step in that direction, but the supervisors took the final vote.
Also warranting further discussion is the role of "at will" positions in management of law enforcement agencies, which began in Riverside County in 2002, though not for the first time. When "at will" positions collide with political agendas, what you get are either puppets to those agendas or a spectacular fiasco like was aired yesterday.
Earlier this year, the Riverside Police Department faced an attempt by former Riverside County employee and current City Manager Brad Hudson to introduce that practice in the city. He didn't succeed but what would have happened if he had?
After watching what happened yesterday, it does make one wonder what could have been, given how many puppeteers there are at City Hall on one floor alone waiting to line up for a chance to pull some strings some where.
Anywhere.
What is past, what is present is often prologue.
The League of Women Voters held the first two city candidate forums and alas, though I couldn't attend, both lived up to the hype of being the latest installments in the not quite ready for prime time drama, Election 2007. One circus in one day was more than enough and I'm still recovering from some information coming out on some antics that took place on the top level of City Hall during this summer involving several elected officials, including ones who unfortunately aren't up for reelection yet and directives they allegedly gave to employees involving the Community Police Review Commission. You know what they say, when it rains, it pours and eventually the floodgates will open. It's like that when the light is shined on things.
This organization which sponsored the forums holds interesting, if tightly structured forums but its individual members tends to lean towards supporting one candidate over the other even if the organization itself doesn't endorse. In fact, at one forum held last autumn involving the candidates from the Riverside Community College District's Board of Trustees race, Councilman Dom Betro's very own legislative aide was holding the time cards to inform candidates addressing the audience how much time they had left to speak.
In some ways, people say this is a metropolis on its way up but in several fundamental ways, it's still a small town.
That aside the league is a very important organization which has spoken out on the sunshine laws both locally and in the state at different meetings. They do provide an opportunity for the candidates to put on a show and the city residents to get more information about the candidates running in their wards. But if you have watch dog organizations overseeing various civic or state issues, it's best for the members to sit on the sidelines when it comes to favoring one politician over another except at the voting polls.
Even during forums which are pretty close to spirited debates and occasionally close to verbal brawls, the Press Enterprise tends to portray them as cotillions or afternoon tea parties, this one apparently being no different. But there's a discussion going on about it here.
Ward One was first on tape, with Betro facing off with challenger Mike Gardner.
(excerpt)
In the Ward 1 forum, Betro said he has had the guts to push for difficult decisions, such as renovating the Fox Theater for use as a regional performing arts center, which past councils avoided making.
He said eminent domain is a useful tool in redeveloping properties that have been plagued by criminal activity or blight but he said the city has not taken one property by court order in an eminent-domain case.
Gardner said he opposes eminent domain for redevelopment but he deflected a question about abolishing the city's Redevelopment Agency by saying he needed to know more about the agency's benefits.
Gardner said he wants to restore openness and trust to the council. He said he favors luring employers that hire lots of people to work in relatively small amounts of space as compared with warehouses that take up lots of space and hire few workers.
Some interesting comments made in the Ward Three candidate forum made it into the news article.
(excerpt)
In the Ward 3 race, Gage said his top priorities remain public safety, improved traffic flow and making the city more livable by trimming trees more often and fixing potholes as soon as citizens call in about them.
He said that too many decisions are made in the city manager's office and at The Sire bar, where some council members go for drinks. An executive recruiter, he emphasized his business background and said the city needs experienced leadership.
Bailey, a Poly High School teacher running for office for the first time, said he would walk the ward all four years if elected to hear the concerns of his constituents.
He called for City Council meetings to occur once every other month in a different ward -- the city has seven council wards -- and he also promised to hold regular office hours in various locations within the ward.
Gage dated himself when he made that comment about Sire's restaurant being the popular backroom for city political soirees. Actually, the Falconer, which is allegedly owned by Councilman Steve Adams is the up and coming place to politick but then this information is almost certainly outdated as well. That's the fluid nature of local politics and their watering holes.
The Press Enterprise's editorial board spoke out again, this time in favor of adding 50 new judges to the state's court system.
The board went further, stating bring on 50 more.
(excerpt)
The effects of the judicial shortage extend far beyond harried judges. Riverside County, for example, halted civil trials temporarily in 2004 and 2005 to handle a crush of criminal cases. But that strategy shoves aside the adjudication of matters such as wrongful-death disputes, divorces and mental-health hearings. And the push to resolve criminal cases still sidelines most civil trials in the county.
A functional court system needs the capacity to deal with more than just criminal prosecutions. And additional judges are a necessary part of any solution.
California cannot prosper by neglecting the state's legal system. The new judges are a welcome addition -- but the Legislature should not think that step closes the case on the judicial shortage.
In Columbus, Ohio, a female officer who had been rejected by an evaluation board was years later investigated for making racist videos according to the Columbus Dispatch.
This is what was said about prospective hire Susan L. Purtee in 1991.
(excerpt)
Speaking for the three-member board, Lt. Rickert M. Shewring wrote of Purtee:
"Undependable, walks off the job (quits) when things don't go her way; job history is deplorable, has not had a steady job for any length of time; several references of insubordination. She claims that she has had so many jobs because she doesn't like direction…
"Has worked 20 years and has nothing to show for it (heavily in debt)," he continued. "Applicant is shallow and does not accept criticism well."
Okay, so there were a few problems with her record but the city didn't mind and gave her the job anyway. So now, she's being investigated and is currently on desk duty after she and her sister posted YouTube vidoes demeaning Jews, African-Americans, Cubans and immigrants. Hopefully, Columbus isn't dusting off its excuse that it didn't see trouble coming.
Another Columbus Dispatch article stated that Purtee is resigning and may be receiving disability benefits.
(excerpt)
Purtee will be paid through Sept. 22 and can seek retirement benefits "based on a disability she has," Ford said. "I don't know what that disability is. That's just what I'm hearing."
Jim Gilbert, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge No. 9, said, "Normally officers retire when they reach 48 years of age and have 25 years of service. That's for normal retirement."
He said the union doesn't assist with retirement paperwork, which is up to the individual officer.
"We are obligated to represent her through the administrative investigation which was taking place," Gilbert said. "She has had limited contact with the union since this all began. She had an interview with internal affairs this past week at which the FOP represented her.
"The FOP does not condone anti-Semitic comments or the views of Officer Purtee," he said. "We are obligated by contract and law to represent her administratively."
Indictments are coming down against two Greensboro(NC) Police Department officers, after a probe was conducted into the department's special intelligence unit.
(excerpt)
The suspended officers, Sgt. William "Tom" Fox and officer Scott E. Sanders, face charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Sanders also is charged with hacking into a computer issued to another local officer by the federal government.
The six indictments sketch out a series of events in which Sanders, who faces four of the felony counts, is accused of knowingly deceiving fellow law enforcement officers at all levels of government — local, state and federal — while working to illegally gather information about or besmirch the reputations of three black officers.
Sanders said through his attorney he is not guilty. Fox's lawyer declined to comment until he can review the indictments.
"Officer Sanders will plead not guilty because he is, in fact, not guilty and we are confident that when this case comes to a close, a jury of his peers will vindicate him," said his attorney, Seth Cohen.
Labels: business as usual, City elections, labor pains, public forums in all places
posted by Five Before Midnight | 9:46 PM
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