Election 2007: Settled by committee?
Update: City of Riverside settles a law suit related to the fatal officer-involved shooting case of Summer Marie Lane for $395,000. More later.
lighting of the Mission Inn drew out thousands despite the fierce winds, who were treated to Santa Claus, a few elected officials and even fireworks. For a few minutes, Riverside was known even on Good Morning America as the "City of the Lights".
Tomorrow, Riverside will be back to being the city of many briefly adopted titles. But before the carriage and horses turned back to a pumpkin and mice, there was a hint of festivity in the air along with many glow-in-the-dark toys and hot fudge and whipped cream cookie sundaes.
Present on a stage where most of those who attended couldn't see them were Congressman Ken Calvert, Mayor Ron Loveridge and City Council Members Steve Adams, Andrew Melendrez and Nancy Hart. No shows included Ward One Councilman Dom Betro and Ward Three Councilman Art Gage. Both were no shows in lighting ceremonies taking place in their respective wards in the past several weeks. Both lost recent elections. It's not clear whether the two are related in either case.
Stopping by City Hall on the way to the festival, I noticed that on the board, was a notice for a Governmental Affairs Committee meeting taking place this Tuesday, Nov. 27 at 1 p.m. This struck me as odd because the committee usually meets once a month and it met last Tuesday. Still, I had a suspicion that a second meeting of this committee would be coming and it would have to do with Election 2007.
You know what? I was right!
On the agenda are two items addressing the most recent election. The first was submitted by Councilman Frank Schiavone and deals with the "conduct" of the election. The second was submitted by outgoing councilman, Ed Adkison and has to do with the "time" of the election.
The links above are the reports on each submitted agenda item and you really should read them to appreciate the angst, commitment to social justice and passion that went into each one. If the election had turned out the way that BASS had wanted it to, would there still have been this concern? I doubt it.
Will as much concern be shown the issues that candidate Terry Frizzel raised in Ward Seven as Betro raised in Ward One? After all, Frizzel has already been labeled as a person with a negative aura. But Frizzel only lost by six more votes than Betro did. Still, it's hard to see the Governmental Affairs Committee rushing off to conduct a meeting to hear the issues that impacted that ward. After all, the concern that this committee had for that ward likely ended the minute Adams was finally reelected.
What's odd is that usually concerns go to city council first and get sent to committees including Governmental Affairs or this committee may recommend items for a future committee meeting at the end of an earlier one. Neither happened here. This item was tossed on a committee membered by Schiavone who chairs it, Adkison who is vice-chair and Betro who is a member. Why do you think this item is on the agenda for Governmental Affairs Committee to deliberate and discuss? Because of complaints arising from the loss of one of the sitting committee members.
This impromptu meeting also was scheduled after a four day holiday week so consequently it will pass before most people are aware of it. One would think that the city council members who are concerned about the voting issues in the past election would raise it publicly in a city council meeting and then refer it to Governmental Affairs which would provide the public with ample notice that the issue is rising. Then those on the Governmental Affairs Committee could perhaps hold public forums on this issue during times when people could actually attend them and listen to input from their constituents.
That's a process that concerned elected leaders would follow. That is not what's happening here. What's happening instead is that a councilman is rushing it to a committee meeting held in mid-afternoon without much public notice after a holiday weekend and a committee which includes the losing candidate that he's most concerned about as a member.
How often do city council members remind the city's residents of all the different means to submit public input into the city's processes and one of these venues to do so has been the city council subcommittees, including the Governmental Affairs Committee. However, here we have this pressing issue and not only is it being discussed in mid-day but not much public notice has been given except that required under the state's Brown Act. That doesn't serve to give the public much in the way of confidence that its elected leadership really wants to listen to its input on actions which might be taken involving one of its most sacred rights.
What it shows is that when the city council makes this statement, it has no intention of backing it up through its actions. Given the quickness of the placement of an agenda item before the election has even been certified or the recounts ordered by two losing candidates has even been completed smacks of opportunism, not concern for the public's welfare and the integrity of the election process.
Because the biggest sign of concern that elected officials could show about the public's ability to have all their votes counted would be to listen to the public first and provide them with adequate and plentiful venues to voice their concerns and suggestions for improvement. Of course, that's obviously not being done in this case.
Here are some ways to show "concern".
1) Take the issue to city council as an "item for future consideration".
and/or
2) Put it on the discussion calendar including a proposal to send it to Governmental Affairs Committee and then take this to a vote of the city council.
3) If it goes to Governmental Affairs, remove Betro from the committee for that specific agenda item and substitute a council member who was not up for election during this past cycle.
4) Schedule several public forums to accept input on the election process this time or past times from members of the public. Hire a court reporter to take a public record.
5) Hold several public hearings before voting on any item to be placed as a charter amendment initiative on a future election ballot.
Ken Stansbury has taken his fight to put eminent domain on the ballot in Riverside to the California State Supreme Court, according to the Press Enterprise.
(excerpt)
The petition filed with the state Supreme Court by Stansbury's attorneys, including Peter Eliasberg of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said lower courts have issued inconsistent rulings in interpreting the law in cases such as Stansbury's, where citizens' right to petition their government clashes with the right to file lawsuits that question the constitutionality of proposed ballot measures.
The state Supreme Court should make the law clear, Eliasberg said.
In an interview, Eliasberg said at least four California cities have filed lawsuits in the past few years similar to the one Riverside filed against Stansbury.
"I think that is a real threat to the initiative process," particularly on the local level, he said.
Citizens without the means to hire lawyers are going to be afraid to circulate petitions for ballot measures unless the Supreme Court reverses the appeals court in the Stansbury case, Eliasberg said.
He also said Riverside should have waited until the measure qualified for the ballot to seek judicial review, instead of suing before Stansbury even began gathering signatures.
A measure in the signature-gathering stage might never make it on the ballot, he said.
Naturally, the city wants to shut that process down further, under the guise of looking out for the city residents of course.
(excerpt)
Riverside City Attorney Greg Priamos said the city's suit was meant to spare residents from the time, burden and effort that would go into an election over a ballot measure that the city believed was unconstitutional.
"If there's a serious question as to the legality of a measure, the city has an obligation to take it to court as soon as possible," he said.
He calls the suggestion that the city's law suit has a chilling effect on free expression, "ridiculous". Actually, no it's called a SLAPP law suit and this situation has attracted the activism of the ACLU to this city again.
But the thing is, when it comes to the city council's direct employees, they respond to the beck and call of the body that hires, evaluates their job performance regularly and can fire them. It will be interesting in the weeks ahead to see what kind of Priamos is giving legal opinions in the face of the changing composition on the dais because he needs at least four votes to keep his job, being an "at will" employee of the city council. Probably, one we haven't seen yet.
Stay tuned in the weeks ahead.
Has there been sightings of Stacey Peterson? The Chicago Tribune asks that question even as her family members say they doubt that she's still alive. Peterson has been missing since Oct. 28, two days after she told one of her sisters she was planning to ask her husband, Drew Peterson, for a divorce.
(excerpt)
Police did not return calls for comment Thursday afternoon about the letter. A state police captain said this week that they have been receiving tips from across the nation.
"Drew was excited that this [letter] could be a glimmer of hope both that the mother of his kids is found and his name could be cleared," Brodsky said.
But Stacy Peterson's family said they're not taking such reports seriously. This week, they received an anonymous call to a tip line from a woman saying she saw the missing mother in Florida.
"I'm sure Stacy looks like a lot of people," family spokeswoman Pam Bosco said. "We want Stacy to come home. But this is anonymous, and we won't believe it until we get a call from police with Stacy in hand."
The unsigned letter Drew Peterson allegedly received Wednesday contained details about Stacy Peterson's clothing and said she was accompanied by a young man, his lawyer said. Brodsky said he hopes her image was captured on a surveillance camera in the store, which is about a two-hour drive from Bolingbrook.
The Florida sighting was more vague, but Bosco said it reflects the type of reports that surface because the case has received national attention. Family members have said they no longer believe Stacy is alive. But, "we're always hopeful that [the disappearance] is not what we think it is," Bosco said.
The Chicago Sun-Times wants to ask Peterson, a former sergeant with the Bolingbrook Police Department, what was in the barrel, Drew. A neighbor saw him and another man carrying a big blue one to his SUV only hours after his wife's disappearance.
(excerpt)
The identity of the second man isn't known, a pair of police sources said. "That's who we're looking for," one of the sources said.
That source described the barrel as blue with a volume of between 35 and 55 gallons. "Big enough to put someone in," the source said.
A Chicago Police Department officer who was off-duty and driving while drunk killed two men in a car accident according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
(excerpt)
John Ardelean, 33, a five-year veteran of the force, will be relieved of his police duties after being charged with driving under the influence and driving left of center in the 3 a.m. crash in the city's Roscoe Village neighborhood, a police spokeswoman said.
A decision on possible upgraded charges is now in the hands of the Cook County state's attorney's office, officials said.
The crash in the 2900 block of North Damen killed Miguel Flores, 22, and Erick Lagunas, 21, two longtime friends from Cicero, authorities said.
A third man, Rey Barajas, told NBC5 he was also in the car but survived. Barajas, his left arm in a sling, said that "all of the sudden the truck just hit us."
"He should know better," Barajas told NBC5, referring to Ardelean. "Why would you be drinking, you know? He cost the life of two people."
Barajas said he was "sad, heartbroken" over the deaths of two men with whom he grew up and went to high school.
"They were my friends," he said.
Some individuals believe that police officers should get a break when they are driving drunk because they apprehend drunk drivers that might have gone out and killed people on the road. However, what can you say in this case? A police officer, on or off-duty who drives drunk has that same capacity to kill people no matter how many drunk drivers they might have pulled over while not drunk.
lighting of the Mission Inn drew out thousands despite the fierce winds, who were treated to Santa Claus, a few elected officials and even fireworks. For a few minutes, Riverside was known even on Good Morning America as the "City of the Lights".
Tomorrow, Riverside will be back to being the city of many briefly adopted titles. But before the carriage and horses turned back to a pumpkin and mice, there was a hint of festivity in the air along with many glow-in-the-dark toys and hot fudge and whipped cream cookie sundaes.
Present on a stage where most of those who attended couldn't see them were Congressman Ken Calvert, Mayor Ron Loveridge and City Council Members Steve Adams, Andrew Melendrez and Nancy Hart. No shows included Ward One Councilman Dom Betro and Ward Three Councilman Art Gage. Both were no shows in lighting ceremonies taking place in their respective wards in the past several weeks. Both lost recent elections. It's not clear whether the two are related in either case.
Stopping by City Hall on the way to the festival, I noticed that on the board, was a notice for a Governmental Affairs Committee meeting taking place this Tuesday, Nov. 27 at 1 p.m. This struck me as odd because the committee usually meets once a month and it met last Tuesday. Still, I had a suspicion that a second meeting of this committee would be coming and it would have to do with Election 2007.
You know what? I was right!
On the agenda are two items addressing the most recent election. The first was submitted by Councilman Frank Schiavone and deals with the "conduct" of the election. The second was submitted by outgoing councilman, Ed Adkison and has to do with the "time" of the election.
The links above are the reports on each submitted agenda item and you really should read them to appreciate the angst, commitment to social justice and passion that went into each one. If the election had turned out the way that BASS had wanted it to, would there still have been this concern? I doubt it.
Will as much concern be shown the issues that candidate Terry Frizzel raised in Ward Seven as Betro raised in Ward One? After all, Frizzel has already been labeled as a person with a negative aura. But Frizzel only lost by six more votes than Betro did. Still, it's hard to see the Governmental Affairs Committee rushing off to conduct a meeting to hear the issues that impacted that ward. After all, the concern that this committee had for that ward likely ended the minute Adams was finally reelected.
What's odd is that usually concerns go to city council first and get sent to committees including Governmental Affairs or this committee may recommend items for a future committee meeting at the end of an earlier one. Neither happened here. This item was tossed on a committee membered by Schiavone who chairs it, Adkison who is vice-chair and Betro who is a member. Why do you think this item is on the agenda for Governmental Affairs Committee to deliberate and discuss? Because of complaints arising from the loss of one of the sitting committee members.
This impromptu meeting also was scheduled after a four day holiday week so consequently it will pass before most people are aware of it. One would think that the city council members who are concerned about the voting issues in the past election would raise it publicly in a city council meeting and then refer it to Governmental Affairs which would provide the public with ample notice that the issue is rising. Then those on the Governmental Affairs Committee could perhaps hold public forums on this issue during times when people could actually attend them and listen to input from their constituents.
That's a process that concerned elected leaders would follow. That is not what's happening here. What's happening instead is that a councilman is rushing it to a committee meeting held in mid-afternoon without much public notice after a holiday weekend and a committee which includes the losing candidate that he's most concerned about as a member.
How often do city council members remind the city's residents of all the different means to submit public input into the city's processes and one of these venues to do so has been the city council subcommittees, including the Governmental Affairs Committee. However, here we have this pressing issue and not only is it being discussed in mid-day but not much public notice has been given except that required under the state's Brown Act. That doesn't serve to give the public much in the way of confidence that its elected leadership really wants to listen to its input on actions which might be taken involving one of its most sacred rights.
What it shows is that when the city council makes this statement, it has no intention of backing it up through its actions. Given the quickness of the placement of an agenda item before the election has even been certified or the recounts ordered by two losing candidates has even been completed smacks of opportunism, not concern for the public's welfare and the integrity of the election process.
Because the biggest sign of concern that elected officials could show about the public's ability to have all their votes counted would be to listen to the public first and provide them with adequate and plentiful venues to voice their concerns and suggestions for improvement. Of course, that's obviously not being done in this case.
Here are some ways to show "concern".
1) Take the issue to city council as an "item for future consideration".
and/or
2) Put it on the discussion calendar including a proposal to send it to Governmental Affairs Committee and then take this to a vote of the city council.
3) If it goes to Governmental Affairs, remove Betro from the committee for that specific agenda item and substitute a council member who was not up for election during this past cycle.
4) Schedule several public forums to accept input on the election process this time or past times from members of the public. Hire a court reporter to take a public record.
5) Hold several public hearings before voting on any item to be placed as a charter amendment initiative on a future election ballot.
Ken Stansbury has taken his fight to put eminent domain on the ballot in Riverside to the California State Supreme Court, according to the Press Enterprise.
(excerpt)
The petition filed with the state Supreme Court by Stansbury's attorneys, including Peter Eliasberg of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said lower courts have issued inconsistent rulings in interpreting the law in cases such as Stansbury's, where citizens' right to petition their government clashes with the right to file lawsuits that question the constitutionality of proposed ballot measures.
The state Supreme Court should make the law clear, Eliasberg said.
In an interview, Eliasberg said at least four California cities have filed lawsuits in the past few years similar to the one Riverside filed against Stansbury.
"I think that is a real threat to the initiative process," particularly on the local level, he said.
Citizens without the means to hire lawyers are going to be afraid to circulate petitions for ballot measures unless the Supreme Court reverses the appeals court in the Stansbury case, Eliasberg said.
He also said Riverside should have waited until the measure qualified for the ballot to seek judicial review, instead of suing before Stansbury even began gathering signatures.
A measure in the signature-gathering stage might never make it on the ballot, he said.
Naturally, the city wants to shut that process down further, under the guise of looking out for the city residents of course.
(excerpt)
Riverside City Attorney Greg Priamos said the city's suit was meant to spare residents from the time, burden and effort that would go into an election over a ballot measure that the city believed was unconstitutional.
"If there's a serious question as to the legality of a measure, the city has an obligation to take it to court as soon as possible," he said.
He calls the suggestion that the city's law suit has a chilling effect on free expression, "ridiculous". Actually, no it's called a SLAPP law suit and this situation has attracted the activism of the ACLU to this city again.
But the thing is, when it comes to the city council's direct employees, they respond to the beck and call of the body that hires, evaluates their job performance regularly and can fire them. It will be interesting in the weeks ahead to see what kind of Priamos is giving legal opinions in the face of the changing composition on the dais because he needs at least four votes to keep his job, being an "at will" employee of the city council. Probably, one we haven't seen yet.
Stay tuned in the weeks ahead.
Has there been sightings of Stacey Peterson? The Chicago Tribune asks that question even as her family members say they doubt that she's still alive. Peterson has been missing since Oct. 28, two days after she told one of her sisters she was planning to ask her husband, Drew Peterson, for a divorce.
(excerpt)
Police did not return calls for comment Thursday afternoon about the letter. A state police captain said this week that they have been receiving tips from across the nation.
"Drew was excited that this [letter] could be a glimmer of hope both that the mother of his kids is found and his name could be cleared," Brodsky said.
But Stacy Peterson's family said they're not taking such reports seriously. This week, they received an anonymous call to a tip line from a woman saying she saw the missing mother in Florida.
"I'm sure Stacy looks like a lot of people," family spokeswoman Pam Bosco said. "We want Stacy to come home. But this is anonymous, and we won't believe it until we get a call from police with Stacy in hand."
The unsigned letter Drew Peterson allegedly received Wednesday contained details about Stacy Peterson's clothing and said she was accompanied by a young man, his lawyer said. Brodsky said he hopes her image was captured on a surveillance camera in the store, which is about a two-hour drive from Bolingbrook.
The Florida sighting was more vague, but Bosco said it reflects the type of reports that surface because the case has received national attention. Family members have said they no longer believe Stacy is alive. But, "we're always hopeful that [the disappearance] is not what we think it is," Bosco said.
The Chicago Sun-Times wants to ask Peterson, a former sergeant with the Bolingbrook Police Department, what was in the barrel, Drew. A neighbor saw him and another man carrying a big blue one to his SUV only hours after his wife's disappearance.
(excerpt)
The identity of the second man isn't known, a pair of police sources said. "That's who we're looking for," one of the sources said.
That source described the barrel as blue with a volume of between 35 and 55 gallons. "Big enough to put someone in," the source said.
A Chicago Police Department officer who was off-duty and driving while drunk killed two men in a car accident according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
(excerpt)
John Ardelean, 33, a five-year veteran of the force, will be relieved of his police duties after being charged with driving under the influence and driving left of center in the 3 a.m. crash in the city's Roscoe Village neighborhood, a police spokeswoman said.
A decision on possible upgraded charges is now in the hands of the Cook County state's attorney's office, officials said.
The crash in the 2900 block of North Damen killed Miguel Flores, 22, and Erick Lagunas, 21, two longtime friends from Cicero, authorities said.
A third man, Rey Barajas, told NBC5 he was also in the car but survived. Barajas, his left arm in a sling, said that "all of the sudden the truck just hit us."
"He should know better," Barajas told NBC5, referring to Ardelean. "Why would you be drinking, you know? He cost the life of two people."
Barajas said he was "sad, heartbroken" over the deaths of two men with whom he grew up and went to high school.
"They were my friends," he said.
Some individuals believe that police officers should get a break when they are driving drunk because they apprehend drunk drivers that might have gone out and killed people on the road. However, what can you say in this case? A police officer, on or off-duty who drives drunk has that same capacity to kill people no matter how many drunk drivers they might have pulled over while not drunk.
Labels: battering while blue, City elections, City Hall blues, public forums in all places
posted by Five Before Midnight | 2:42 PM
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