I (heart) the CPRC: The odd one out
If you woke up this morning in the dark in most parts of the Inland Empire, you were not alone. A major power outage hit much of Riverside, Moreno Valley and portions of San Bernardino County including Colton. Many updates as they happened here beginning at 6:45 a.m.
Fire coverage continues at many outlets including the Los Angeles Times and the Press Enterprise.
Six more people have died including four undocumented immigrants. Many others have been injured but the Santa Anas have lessened which has helped the fire fighters somewhat.
The Community Police Review Commission's annual report is interesting reading, particularly a section that was added during one of its revisions involving the relationship between the commission, the police department and the city manager's office which oversees them both.
As you know, every city council member on the dais including several up for reelection have been publicly silent on what has been going on with the CPRC during the past several years.
The response of some campaign camps to this is not to question what their own candidate is doing, but to point fingers at the other guy, in the latest tit for tat exchange going on involving candidates who aren't even running against each other. At least not yet. But the fact is the dais and the campaign trail have been awfully quiet on the CPRC in the wake of six resignations including five commissioners and one executive director.
Several months ago, I requested statistics involving findings recommended by the police department and the CPRC and asked them to be compared to the depositions released by Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis in the city manager's office. The objective was to see how much strength the CPRC's findings had and how much independence it had. The answer was not very much to both questions.
But first getting the statistics to be released by the city manager's office was like pulling teeth.
In 2006, this request was made in writing to the city manager's office and its response was that it didn't keep records of these findings in a way that could provide comparative statistics. Former Executive Director Pedro Payne had wished to compile such statistics but was forbidden from doing so by the city manager's office.
It was odd that this current city manager's office stated that these records didn't exist because prior administrations at City Hall had documented that information and in 2003, provided that information to the CPRC. Now suddenly there was nothing? But perhaps that could be chalked up to inexperience. The current crowd in that office doesn't have much experience in that area, something the current salary of City Manager Brad Hudson for example, doesn't reflect. Before coming to Riverside, he was after all, heading an economic development agency.
The question came up again this past year and this time, the response from administrative analyst and interim executive manager, Mario Lara was different. He wouldn't commit himself to a yes or no answer, preferring to say the middle ground and say his boss's office kept some statistical records.
At a later meeting, which was attended by DeSantis, the same request was made and DeSantis tried to muddle the waters while appearing to do commissioners by "clarifying" the issue. Commissioner John Brandriff and other commissioners said, no we want what was asked for, a response which left DeSantis aback especially when these commissioners held fast. Commissioner Peter Hubbard, who manages a company, American Medical Response which has a public safety contract with the city through that office, jumped in predictably to DeSantis' defense. AMR is grateful enough for its contract to provide ambulance services for Riverside to drop campaign contributions in the majority of the city council members campaigns during the past 10 years.
Is Hubbard really all that much removed from the city manager's office than the current executive manager of the CPRC is?
But with nearly every city council member involved in turning the CPRC's appointment process into a political one including several currently running for reelection, this is what should be expected. That's why you have a body that is more closely resembling City Hall than the community.
So anyway, DeSantis recovered and promised to deliver the statistical information and he actually did. Somehow, the information changed from being about findings, to whether or not policy violations were found but at any rate, it was still interesting to find that even though all three bodies had a fairly close range for agreement on findings, it was the police department and city manager's office that appeared to be almost on the same page.
This is most clear in the chart in the public report that addresses comparisons by finding rather than policy violations as shown in the last posting. There's no chart shown in the report to compare the relationship on policy violations between the police department and city manager's office. Whether that was an accidental omission or a deliberate action is unknown. But if you look at the first table, it does show a similar three-way comparison with the department and city manager's office only one percent apart, at 92 and 91% respectfully while the CPRC checks in at 87%. Interestingly enough, the city manager's office is even better at backing the officers' actions than the department is, which makes sense when you consider the city manager's role in the relationship between the department, the city and risk management issues including civil litigation.
Another interesting statistic was concerned the category of "no finding made" which is when there might be wrongful conduct but there is no written policy at the time to clarify it. The department discovered no instances of this finding in its own investigations of officers with complaints. The CPRC on the other hand assigned that finding to four complaints and the city manager's office to seven. It looks like DeSantis really likes that category but it's not clear what comes out of that disposition. New policies? Changes to old policies? And by who? His office?
After all, didn't DeSantis try earlier this year to change the department's promotional process?
Several commissioners at the last meeting expressed concern that community members are confused or have a misconstrued perception about the role of the city manager's office and the city in general in the citizen complaint process, but that's really not true. Many community members know that the role of the city manager is to protect the city from different forces including the threat of law suits involving one of the departments under its umbrella. And with six active law suits against the city involving four incustody deaths, this has become more critical than ever and the actions taken against the CPRC by City Hall in the past 18 months clearly reflect that.
As does the clear lack of response from the dais.
How do you file a complaint?
There will be a future posting explaining that process and all the different agencies out there which handle complaints that aren't as well known including the United States Department of Justice's Civil Rights division, the State Attorney General's office's Office of Civil Rights and the Riverside County Grand Jury as well as this site. That site also has a blog here.
Campaigning is continuing in the final two weeks until the election. Some folks who have been out surveying Ward One's precincts have said that candidate, Mike Gardner has a lot of support. Individuals surveying Ward Three said that William "Rusty" Bailey is the name on many people's lips.
Councilman Dom Betro's self-identified initialed brigade is still rattling sabers at Inland Empire Craigslist trying hard, I guess, to win him some votes there while their cohorts are out there doing the actual campaigning. If it helps them at all, I'm still dressing down and I'm in jeans and aqua-green today and sneakers that have seen better days but if you have chronic plantar fasciitis, your shoe options are limited.
I made my point about how I feel about creepy online behavior and they believe that it's funny. So I'll leave them to their laughter and just keep doing what clearly pisses them off, which is to blog.
And yes, my name really is Mary. It's a bit funny to hear someone call me that in postings and then question if that's really my name, so much so I couldn't continue reading that posting. Yes, the person who provided that information to you was correct since it's clear that I and this initialed person have never met. I know people who work in the Betro campaign who do not conduct themselves in this fashion and thus I'm not familiar with those who saber rattle behind fake initials at Craigslist.
Fortunately, there are a lot of interesting links at that site to resources dealing with both civic issues and issues in other places.
Signs reported destroyed are several Art Gage signs and I'm still waiting for news from the Press Enterprise's Dom Betro sign watch to see how many are missing or destroyed from that camp because every other candidate has yet to be afforded the courtesy of article coverage and editorial condemnation of the theft and destructions of their signs.
Folks, it should go without saying that sign stealing and destruction is a violation of the free expression and property rights of those who post the signs in their properties. If you support either of these beliefs, you don't do it, period.
A police chief in Pennsylvania is in deep water at the moment.
At WJAC-TV, there is this this video about the Conemaugh Township Police Department Chief Howard Jackson, who is facing at least 50 allegations of misconduct filed by officers in his department.
The Eastside's new youth opportunity center will be opening this weekend to respond to the needs in that community. The idea for the new center sprang after a series of shootings on the Eastside two years ago
(excerpt)
The Eastside neighborhood, where about one-third of the population lives below the poverty line, is home to the city's oldest and most violent gang, whose battles have claimed innocent victims and terrorized the community. But the last killing on the Eastside was in March 2006 and crime has dropped 11 percent over the first six months of this year compared to the same time last year, according to police statistics.
City parks and recreation officials partly credit the increased after school activities and community events offered at the area's parks and community centers.
"If kids have mentors and role models, the dynamics change," Nuñez said. "Kids need places to go that provide a positive outlet."
Once a rundown, mold-infested building, the Youth Center is now an uplifting place where teens can get advice, Nuñez said.
Checked floors; purple, blue and red-painted walls; skylights, a plasma TV, computers and a graffiti-art mural in the center's main room create a teen-friendly place. The community gym, in the same building as the center, also was refurbished.
If the program is successful, centers will be opened in other areas of the city.
Longtime Eastside resident and retired Riverside police Lt. Alex Tortes said the center will give at-risk youth a chance.
"We can't turn our back and walk away from them," said Tortes, who oversees recreation programs in the Eastside's parks. "This will give them another option, another choice."
The memorial for Rialto Police Department officer, Sergio Carrera, jr. is being blogged live here.
(excerpt)
October 26, 2007
Soon to be memorialized
Kling said Carrera, the second Rialto officer killed in the line of duty, would be remembered always once a memorial is erected in Carrera's honor.
Carrera's badge has been retired, Kling said, and will one day be presented to his family.
"The greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing," Kling said, quoting author Leo Buscaglia. "Only the person who risks is truly free."
—Adam C. Hartmann
ahartmann@PE.com
Fire coverage continues at many outlets including the Los Angeles Times and the Press Enterprise.
Six more people have died including four undocumented immigrants. Many others have been injured but the Santa Anas have lessened which has helped the fire fighters somewhat.
The Community Police Review Commission's annual report is interesting reading, particularly a section that was added during one of its revisions involving the relationship between the commission, the police department and the city manager's office which oversees them both.
As you know, every city council member on the dais including several up for reelection have been publicly silent on what has been going on with the CPRC during the past several years.
The response of some campaign camps to this is not to question what their own candidate is doing, but to point fingers at the other guy, in the latest tit for tat exchange going on involving candidates who aren't even running against each other. At least not yet. But the fact is the dais and the campaign trail have been awfully quiet on the CPRC in the wake of six resignations including five commissioners and one executive director.
Several months ago, I requested statistics involving findings recommended by the police department and the CPRC and asked them to be compared to the depositions released by Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis in the city manager's office. The objective was to see how much strength the CPRC's findings had and how much independence it had. The answer was not very much to both questions.
But first getting the statistics to be released by the city manager's office was like pulling teeth.
In 2006, this request was made in writing to the city manager's office and its response was that it didn't keep records of these findings in a way that could provide comparative statistics. Former Executive Director Pedro Payne had wished to compile such statistics but was forbidden from doing so by the city manager's office.
It was odd that this current city manager's office stated that these records didn't exist because prior administrations at City Hall had documented that information and in 2003, provided that information to the CPRC. Now suddenly there was nothing? But perhaps that could be chalked up to inexperience. The current crowd in that office doesn't have much experience in that area, something the current salary of City Manager Brad Hudson for example, doesn't reflect. Before coming to Riverside, he was after all, heading an economic development agency.
The question came up again this past year and this time, the response from administrative analyst and interim executive manager, Mario Lara was different. He wouldn't commit himself to a yes or no answer, preferring to say the middle ground and say his boss's office kept some statistical records.
At a later meeting, which was attended by DeSantis, the same request was made and DeSantis tried to muddle the waters while appearing to do commissioners by "clarifying" the issue. Commissioner John Brandriff and other commissioners said, no we want what was asked for, a response which left DeSantis aback especially when these commissioners held fast. Commissioner Peter Hubbard, who manages a company, American Medical Response which has a public safety contract with the city through that office, jumped in predictably to DeSantis' defense. AMR is grateful enough for its contract to provide ambulance services for Riverside to drop campaign contributions in the majority of the city council members campaigns during the past 10 years.
Is Hubbard really all that much removed from the city manager's office than the current executive manager of the CPRC is?
But with nearly every city council member involved in turning the CPRC's appointment process into a political one including several currently running for reelection, this is what should be expected. That's why you have a body that is more closely resembling City Hall than the community.
So anyway, DeSantis recovered and promised to deliver the statistical information and he actually did. Somehow, the information changed from being about findings, to whether or not policy violations were found but at any rate, it was still interesting to find that even though all three bodies had a fairly close range for agreement on findings, it was the police department and city manager's office that appeared to be almost on the same page.
This is most clear in the chart in the public report that addresses comparisons by finding rather than policy violations as shown in the last posting. There's no chart shown in the report to compare the relationship on policy violations between the police department and city manager's office. Whether that was an accidental omission or a deliberate action is unknown. But if you look at the first table, it does show a similar three-way comparison with the department and city manager's office only one percent apart, at 92 and 91% respectfully while the CPRC checks in at 87%. Interestingly enough, the city manager's office is even better at backing the officers' actions than the department is, which makes sense when you consider the city manager's role in the relationship between the department, the city and risk management issues including civil litigation.
Another interesting statistic was concerned the category of "no finding made" which is when there might be wrongful conduct but there is no written policy at the time to clarify it. The department discovered no instances of this finding in its own investigations of officers with complaints. The CPRC on the other hand assigned that finding to four complaints and the city manager's office to seven. It looks like DeSantis really likes that category but it's not clear what comes out of that disposition. New policies? Changes to old policies? And by who? His office?
After all, didn't DeSantis try earlier this year to change the department's promotional process?
Several commissioners at the last meeting expressed concern that community members are confused or have a misconstrued perception about the role of the city manager's office and the city in general in the citizen complaint process, but that's really not true. Many community members know that the role of the city manager is to protect the city from different forces including the threat of law suits involving one of the departments under its umbrella. And with six active law suits against the city involving four incustody deaths, this has become more critical than ever and the actions taken against the CPRC by City Hall in the past 18 months clearly reflect that.
As does the clear lack of response from the dais.
How do you file a complaint?
There will be a future posting explaining that process and all the different agencies out there which handle complaints that aren't as well known including the United States Department of Justice's Civil Rights division, the State Attorney General's office's Office of Civil Rights and the Riverside County Grand Jury as well as this site. That site also has a blog here.
Campaigning is continuing in the final two weeks until the election. Some folks who have been out surveying Ward One's precincts have said that candidate, Mike Gardner has a lot of support. Individuals surveying Ward Three said that William "Rusty" Bailey is the name on many people's lips.
Councilman Dom Betro's self-identified initialed brigade is still rattling sabers at Inland Empire Craigslist trying hard, I guess, to win him some votes there while their cohorts are out there doing the actual campaigning. If it helps them at all, I'm still dressing down and I'm in jeans and aqua-green today and sneakers that have seen better days but if you have chronic plantar fasciitis, your shoe options are limited.
I made my point about how I feel about creepy online behavior and they believe that it's funny. So I'll leave them to their laughter and just keep doing what clearly pisses them off, which is to blog.
And yes, my name really is Mary. It's a bit funny to hear someone call me that in postings and then question if that's really my name, so much so I couldn't continue reading that posting. Yes, the person who provided that information to you was correct since it's clear that I and this initialed person have never met. I know people who work in the Betro campaign who do not conduct themselves in this fashion and thus I'm not familiar with those who saber rattle behind fake initials at Craigslist.
Fortunately, there are a lot of interesting links at that site to resources dealing with both civic issues and issues in other places.
Signs reported destroyed are several Art Gage signs and I'm still waiting for news from the Press Enterprise's Dom Betro sign watch to see how many are missing or destroyed from that camp because every other candidate has yet to be afforded the courtesy of article coverage and editorial condemnation of the theft and destructions of their signs.
Folks, it should go without saying that sign stealing and destruction is a violation of the free expression and property rights of those who post the signs in their properties. If you support either of these beliefs, you don't do it, period.
A police chief in Pennsylvania is in deep water at the moment.
At WJAC-TV, there is this this video about the Conemaugh Township Police Department Chief Howard Jackson, who is facing at least 50 allegations of misconduct filed by officers in his department.
The Eastside's new youth opportunity center will be opening this weekend to respond to the needs in that community. The idea for the new center sprang after a series of shootings on the Eastside two years ago
(excerpt)
The Eastside neighborhood, where about one-third of the population lives below the poverty line, is home to the city's oldest and most violent gang, whose battles have claimed innocent victims and terrorized the community. But the last killing on the Eastside was in March 2006 and crime has dropped 11 percent over the first six months of this year compared to the same time last year, according to police statistics.
City parks and recreation officials partly credit the increased after school activities and community events offered at the area's parks and community centers.
"If kids have mentors and role models, the dynamics change," Nuñez said. "Kids need places to go that provide a positive outlet."
Once a rundown, mold-infested building, the Youth Center is now an uplifting place where teens can get advice, Nuñez said.
Checked floors; purple, blue and red-painted walls; skylights, a plasma TV, computers and a graffiti-art mural in the center's main room create a teen-friendly place. The community gym, in the same building as the center, also was refurbished.
If the program is successful, centers will be opened in other areas of the city.
Longtime Eastside resident and retired Riverside police Lt. Alex Tortes said the center will give at-risk youth a chance.
"We can't turn our back and walk away from them," said Tortes, who oversees recreation programs in the Eastside's parks. "This will give them another option, another choice."
The memorial for Rialto Police Department officer, Sergio Carrera, jr. is being blogged live here.
(excerpt)
October 26, 2007
Soon to be memorialized
Kling said Carrera, the second Rialto officer killed in the line of duty, would be remembered always once a memorial is erected in Carrera's honor.
Carrera's badge has been retired, Kling said, and will one day be presented to his family.
"The greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing," Kling said, quoting author Leo Buscaglia. "Only the person who risks is truly free."
—Adam C. Hartmann
ahartmann@PE.com
Labels: business as usual, City elections, CPRC vs the city, Making the grade
posted by Five Before Midnight | 12:25 AM
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