Goodbye, farewell and amen from the dais

Riverside Councilman Dom Betro conceded the Ward One council race to Councilman-elect Mike Gardner, according to the Press Enterprise.


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In a statement, Betro said the conduct of the election and the results still are open to dispute but "my family, friends, supporters and the voters have been put through enough."

His decision came 19 days after Gardner was declared the winner and six days after a recount confirmed Gardner’s victory by seven votes.

"I want to thank the residents of Ward 1, all the terrific city workers, and my council colleagues, for supporting the progressive accomplishments of the past four years," Betro said in his statement. "I wish the good people of Riverside all the best and a hopeful future."



The agenda for the city council meetings was sparse, bathroom breaks were at a minimum but it gave plenty of time for three city council members to say their goodbyes, as Dom Betro, Art Gage and Ed Adkison stepped off the dais after their final meeting in at least their current elected positions.

Listening to Adkison excuse himself from voting on several consent calendar items because his company, Adkans Engineering is involved for the last time was almost downright nostalgic. But he's truly been a presence on the city council since the last century.

Betro and Gage both thanked their supporters and city staff people while also expressing the hope that they wished they had left the city better than they found it. Gage received a bouquet of flowers from some city residents and certificates during public comment.


Councilman Steve Adams of Ward Seven said he was the last one standing after an arduous election but kept his comments brief.


Frank Schiavone said that "FRED's dead" invoking an acronym which he had decried in the past as being inaccurate in describing and defining the complex relationship between the two men but this past evening, he appeared to embrace as an invention of Asst. City Manager Michael Beck. One item of speculation is what Schiavone will do as the city council's most senior member. Don't be surprised if he does some strategizing with Adams, as these two are the remaining two members of the short-lived BASS quartet.

It was interesting to see the expression on Schiavone's face when Councilman Andrew Melendrez spoke of being one of the senior council members now. Some interesting dynamics will play out in the weeks and months ahead to be sure, beginning when the all important committees are redrawn including the Governmental Affairs Committee. This committee is usually comprised of the most senior city council members though exceptions have been made. It's speculated that Melendrez is interested in this committee which is again, expected to be headed by Schiavone and he'll probably be joined by Councilman Steve Adams. It's not clear whether the city council's sole woman, Nancy Hart will break the gender barrier and be a member of this committee. The organization of the committees is must-see politics in action. You could write a thesis just about this process that would do Mayor Ron Loveridge, a UCR professor, proud.


Chief Russ Leach came out of the station to make a rare city council meeting appearance to address allegations raised at the Nov. 27 city council meeting that the police department and code enforcement forced the homeless population living in the Santa Ana river bottom in tents on Thanksgiving Day. Leach informed the council that an investigation had been conducted by the department into its activities and the allegations were determined to be false. He cited the relationship that he had built with the homeless as being a positive one and that his department had aggressively solved crimes impacting the homeless. The police department wasn't after the homeless but the criminals and parolees who were hiding among the homeless, Leach said.

He also said he was there to express his "outrage" along with Rev. Bob Smith one of the local religious leaders who interfaces and ministers to homeless people. Smith agreed with Leach that nothing had actually occurred on Thanksgiving Day but that the actions to push homeless people out of the River Bottom had occurred two days earlier than the holiday itself. He expressed his concern that homeless people were being displaced and had no place to go. He asked the city where they were supposed to live. Smith also explained that his role and that of other religious leaders was to do as Jesus did and treat the less fortunate among us with dignity and concern.

Mayor Ron Loveridge raised his hand and told him to wrap his comments up. The concerns about the homeless have a time limit unlike the city's development projects. So a minister talking about homeless people is shushed up more quickly than a developer from Orange County would be. In a sense, given Rose Mayes who heads the Fair Housing Council who spoke on the massive foreclosure numbers expected in early 2008, it was interesting that the city wants to combat it with building more high-priced housing within the city limits.

Other individuals spoke their concerns and their experiences, which elicited laughter from several on the dais who shook their heads in disbelief. Whether the information provided by several of these speakers who tried to research the situation themselves after hearing the comments was what actually happened or not, doesn't diminish the concern of one elderly woman who spoke on it and was laughed at. One of the problems with this situation is that it's not clear where the allegations are actually coming from and how many people have passed them down to other people.

If there was an attempt to clarify the comments last week, there was some success in that area but more confusion was created as well.

Leach did remind the city council that he didn't work for the city council but for "my boss", the city manager. That's true and how it's designed to work out but the role of the city manager's office in the police department has been one of the searing issues during the past 12 months.


Adams pressed his button early on but had to wait until the end of the meeting to say that he wanted to add an item on the agenda where he could display pictures of illegal gambling, drugs and prostitution to show what was going on, which makes it appear as if an action of some form had occurred to be "defended". When someone from the audience asked if these people were homeless, Adams nor anyone on the dais had any answers which particularly in the case of Adams isn't surprising.

If Adams or other city officials sponsor such an agenda item or "report", it should be included on the discussion calendar and representatives from the homeless, police department, code compliance, the homeless task force, religious leaders, homeless outreach workers and city and county employees and representatives of agencies should be invited to provide presentations on exactly what their respective roles are when interfacing with the homeless. In the interest of educating elected officials and the public, these entities should be more than happy to do just this.



Speaking of Governmental Affairs Committee meetings, does anyone think it will actually meet on its next scheduled date of Monday, Dec. 24? Odds are less than even that this meeting won't be postponed.




To no one's surprise, the city council voted to raise electricity rates, according to the Press Enterprise.


The vote was taken nearly a month after the last election. About 50 people attended and about a dozen spoke on the issue. Everyone quoted in the article approved of the increase.



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Escrow company owner Sharon Tyrell said the electrical blackout on Oct. 26 that cut power to the entire city hurt every business in one way or another. The city needs reliable electricity, she said in support of the rate increase and reliability fee.

Including the reliability charge, here are some examples of what bills will be by the third year of the increase:

A resident in a small house using 750 kilowatt-hours will have a monthly bill in summer of $87.62 for electricity.

A resident in a medium or large house using 1,500 kilowatt-hours will receive a monthly bill of $267.50 or $277.50 in summer.

A resident in a very large house using 3,000 kilowatt-hours in summer will have to pay $601.

Councilman Frank Schiavone praised the Board of Public Utilities for its work on the plan.

"I think you hit a home run here," he said.



What used to be Chinatown may soon be developer and campaign contributor Doug Jacobs latest project, a medical center, according to the Press Enterprise.


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An archaeological dig in the mid-1980s unearthed 3 tons of artifacts. But parts of the 3-acre site, on the northwest corner of Tequesquite and Brockton avenues, were left unexplored because they were too difficult to access.

City planners have contracted with environmental consulting firm Jones & Stokes to look at the potential impact of building on the site.

Yvette Sennewald, a Riverside senior planner, said an archaeological dig will probably be required in advance of construction if the medical office is built right at the corner -- the area that wasn't explored in the 1980s.

A second option is to build the medical office on a less-sensitive part of the site, keep the artifacts buried and pave over them with a parking lot.

A third option is to not build at all.









"This lawsuit will change the landscape of the Police Department and the city of Minneapolis. And it's high time for change."


---Attorney John Klassen, who represents the officers.




"Whenever there are lawsuits involving the Police Department, it can affect policing. These are serious allegations going back a long period of time, and it puts into question the way things are getting done."

----Lt. John Delmonico, who heads the Police Federation.




Five high-ranked Black Minneapolis Police Department officers have sued that department and city alleging racial discrimination and workplace harassment according to the Star- Tribune.


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Within the past year, two of the officers, Lt. Don Harris and Lt. Lee Edwards, were demoted by Chief Tim Dolan. Harris had been one of the department's three deputy chiefs, and Edwards was in charge of the city's Fourth Precinct, which encompasses north Minneapolis. A third black lieutenant not named in the suit has also been demoted by Dolan.

The lawsuit caps a contentious week in which Sgt. Charles Adams was transferred out of the homicide unit, according to Dolan, for a series of insubordination incidents. That included contradicting his supervisor in a Star Tribune article about the motive surrounding the death of bicyclist Mark Loesch. Adams is one of the officers suing the department.

He has never been disciplined in his career, and the Minneapolis Police Federation is in the process of filing a grievance on Adams' behalf.


The allegations raised by the officers who filed the law suit included the following.



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The suit claims that black officers received fewer training, detail and overtime opportunities as well as fewer appointments to key units than white officers. It also claims that the department has failed in several areas of diversity required by a mediation agreement brokered with the help of the U.S. Department of Justice.

The suit details patterns of alleged discrimination involving each of the five officers. Arradondo, head of the Fourth Precinct's community response team, was refused overtime pay for the key role he played with critical incidents, the suit alleges. Harris, a Fourth Precinct investigator, was passed over for appointments in favor of white officers, the suit said.

While several white homicide officers received more than 150 hours of overtime during the Interstate 35W bridge collapse, Adams was never informed of the overtime opportunities until the last days of the detail, the suit said. Hamilton was fired for misconduct that for some white officers resulted in a lower level of discipline, the suit said.



This is hardly Minneapolis' only experiences with problems within its agency including allegations of racism. People watching this situation said that it showed a serious lack of confidence in the management of this police department.





In Pittsburgh, the city has finally approved the domestic violence investigation policy for its own officers, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.


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There is a great deal of interest in this legislation. It is the right legislation. And it accomplishes the goals we set out to do in the beginning," said Council President Doug Shields. "You don't hit people. You be nice to people. And if you need help, go get help."

The unanimous vote was followed by sustained applause from an audience in Council Chamber that consisted mostly of advocates for women.

Approval came after two amendments to legislation tentatively approved on Wednesday. A provision that would compel the removal of the service weapon of any officer accused of, but not arrested for, domestic violence was removed, as was a requirement to provide all reports of abuse to the Citizen Police Review Board. Instead, a reference to existing laws on what information the review board should receive was inserted.

"It has been 167 days since we started this journey together," said Christine Stone of the National Council of Jewish Women, as a crowd of advocates gathered in front of Council Chamber prior to council's meeting. The ordinance "will go a long way toward explicitly acknowledging the seriousness of officer-involved domestic violence."

"We think there's too much discretion left in [the ordinance], but it's a good start," said Elizabeth Pittinger, executive director of the Citizen Police Review Board.



This important vote stemmed from a controversy that struck when it was revealed that a number of officers promoted to higher ranked positions in the department had domestic violence histories involving spouses or children.



In Bolingbrook, Lt. Ken Teppel must be blue in the face explaining that allegations of rampant abuse of the department's databases by police officers is false, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. It turns out that the internal investigation being done of Peterson before or around the time of his wife, Stacey's disappearance had to do with allegations that he had misused the database himself to get information on people including a male friend of his wife's.

If this is true, it's hardly surprising given that problems with database abuse often surround cases of police-involved domestic violence according to expert, Diane Wetendorf.


Investigators conducted another search of Peterson's home on Dec. 4.









In Chicago, the mayor, Richard Daley, defended the high salary of the new police chief according to the Chicago Tribune.




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Mayor Richard Daley made no apologies Tuesday for making Chicago's new police superintendent the highest-paid employee on the city payroll, insisting the $300,000 a year that Jody Weis will receive is warranted for his responsibilities.

Justifying Weis' salary is "very, very easy," Daley said. "Highland Park—$126,000 for a police chief. How many people live there? Lake Forest, $119,000, Barrington, $113,000, Los Angeles, $300,000."

The Los Angeles figure includes certain fringe benefits paid to Chief William Bratton.




"This man could go anyplace within the FBI," Daley said of Weis. "He could go outside [to the private sector]. I am very responsible paying him that much money."

Assuming City Council approval, Weis will be paid both for his police duties and for serving as the city's chief emergency officer, in charge of disaster planning, coordination and response.

"When you want to get the best, you get the best," Daley said.

The annual salary of former Police Supt. Philip Cline, who retired this year, was about $186,000. Daley's office said officials involved in the search for a successor found that many potential candidates, including Weis, were paid more than that in their current positions.