City Hall 101: The one way to be heard is to pack the chambers
"DHL is hemorrhaging. We should help DHL get out of their contract."
---Catherine Barrett-Fischer, group leader of resident protesting DHL
"Things may take care of themselves. "$900 million is a tremendous loss for any company to sustain."
----Ward Five Councilman Frank Schiavone, chair of the March Joint Powers Commission
"Everything was all hinged around DHL."
---Riverside County Supervisor Bob Buster, a critic of the DHL Plan and member of the MJPA Commission
But first the library....
Apparently, City Manager Brad Hudson discovered that the expansion and renovation of the downtown library could attract a crowd to a public meeting discussing its placement under the umbrella of the Riverside Renaissance as well as plans to combine the renovation of the library with the museum. If Hudson said that the chambers would have to be packed for him to pay attention, well packed they were. What remains to be seen is if he actually paid attention. "Public comment" may not be two of his favorite words, some have said, but the crowd that appeared at the city council chambers before the joint session of the Board of Library Trustees and the Metropolitan Museum Board sent him a message loud and clear.
And sure enough, over 300 people filled the chambers to tell the two boards that they wanted both expansion and renovation projects done separately. one major question remains:
Will City Hall listen to the people?
(excerpt, Press Enterprise)
In the second half of the meeting, 28 members of the public spoke. Many said the library and museum both deserve their own unique expansions.
Kathryn Safford, a former museum board chairwoman, likened the proposed joint expansion to cutting a coat in half to give to two children.
Roger Cheng said the project, which would extend to the sidewalk on Mission Inn Avenue, would block views of the Mission Inn.
"Are we killing our treasure?" he asked.
It also would require moving the Chinese Pavilion to a new location when previous city leaders had committed to keeping it where it is, Cheng said.
"A commitment is a commitment," he said.
Councilman Mike Gardner told the audience that the city has not decided where to move the pavilion, and he promised to involve the public in the decision, should it become necessary.
Some residents said more community discussion is needed on the expansion.
"I call for ... the organization of a citizens' dialogue on the definition of a main library and a Metropolitan Museum that will best meet Riverside's highest destiny," downtown resident Wally Longshore said.
One more meeting has been promised. Hopefully, there will also be an evening session to receive public input on these projects. One question which was asked, is the fate of the Chinese Pagoda that rests on the front lawn of the library. The latest rumor is that it's being relocated to a spot near where the city's China Town neighborhood once stood. Maybe they should put it where the Kawa Market once stood.
Belinda Graham, who heads city development, had this to say.
(excerpt)
"I think there's going to be a lot of reflection going on," she said.
Which means if you want to know if the city is going to honor the wishes of the people on these two important projects, there's probably going to be a long wait while the city ponders over its options of either listening to the people and changing direction or trying to come up with a good way to ignore them and plow ahead with the joint development project tacked onto the growing list of Riverside Renaissance's "To Do" list.
You can't really blame Hudson. He will only be as "community input-friendly" or even, "labor union friendly" as the majority of the city council wishes him to be. If he's not responsive in these ways, it's because the city also has a city council which is not.
The same ones who will vote at designated times during the year to determine whether or not he remains in their employment and the guy wants to keep his job until he's ready to move on. That's the nature of having an "at will" employee working for the city council.
Graham did add that discussion on the projects would take place at future meetings of the two boards.
Here they are and where you can find information to be involved in this process. Showing up once is very good but there are individuals at City Hall who don't think or even believe that city residents will show up twice on an issue that concerns them. So stay involved.
Board of Library Trustees which meets at 4:30 p.m. the fourth Monday of each month in the Main Library Board Room.
Its contact information is: Heather Firchow at 826-5388
Metropolitan Museum Board which meets at 4:00 p.m. the second Tuesday of each month in the Metropolitan Museum Conference Room.
Its contact information is: Toni Kinsman at 826-5273
But you have to ask yourself this after yesterday's meeting and turnout, has there ever been a housing development project or even most commercial development projects whether they are included in Riverside Renaissance or not that has ever drawn this type of crowd to support its existence?
They might have opposed the city manager's office's plan but they supported the institutions.
Partly, people appeared because it's the library and it's the museum, but mostly they appeared because the city residents are very concerned about the future of their basic public services which include but not only include, libraries and museums. People do value their public services, probably over these expensive development projects. That's something the city officials should take away from meetings like yesterday's and other entities that provide basic city services should keep in mind.
So what will happen with those who frequent the library plaza?
The sundial, the Chinese Pagoda and most of the front outside area will be gone. Many homeless and young people frequent the area, during the day. The police department stated that there's very few problems. So if city officials try to paint them as major problems, one city department has stated otherwise.
(excerpt, Press Enterprise)
It also means that it could soon be time for the folks who gather there to move on.
"Those that are using it as a place to hang out on a daily basis are going to need to find new accommodations," said Wendell Tucker, president of the library's board of trustees.
Outside the library on a recent weekday, the idea of losing the plaza was not a happy topic.
"I spend every day here. I read," said Torrance Edwards, 53, a wiry man in a gray baseball cap and jeans.
The homeless man said he does landscaping or other labor when he can find work. The rest of the time he can be found either inside the library -- catching up on the newspapers or the latest copy of Jet magazine -- or outside in the plaza.
"You get chased off everywhere else," said Mark Middleton, 20, who was riding a skateboard up and down the concrete walkways.
On Jan. 15, the city council to renovate the downtown pedestrian mall to Elite Bobcat Central, according to the Press Enterprise. The company was awarded a $6.9 million contract to do its part of a $12 million renovation project that will take several years.
It's hard to know what elected officials and the public thought about it unless you were there because the only one mentioned in the article is Asst. City Manager Michael Beck and it's pretty clear that he's not the only one who attended the meeting.
Other city council actions filled the evening.
Speaking of meetings, the Riverside Unified School District Board met to among other things prioritize their upcoming projects.
What's missing from the article is that one of the projects discussed was Elementary School #34, otherwise known as the school that was scheduled to be built in the Eastside to ease the overcrowding at Longfellow Elementary which has led to busing students all over the city. The district was having trouble picking parcels of land in which to build and at one point up to 25 homes were facing eminent domain for public use. The $12 million is kept in a fund as a "place holder" until the property can be found on which to build it.
The vote was 3-2, with the three newest members including Gayle Cloud and Tom Hunt voting to work more with the city and county to find land. Board Chair Chuck Beaty, formerly a city councilman, told the others that they were newer to the board and had not seen all the work being done to try to bring the elementary school to the area.
Sleeping in southern parts of Riverside has been difficult for several years now and to add insult to injury, DHL, the source of the noise has just found out it's doomed to fail in the United States unless it drastically changes its business strategy.
The problem is and always has been that DHL is very successfully internationally but domestically, it runs up against competition in the form of Federal Express, United Parcel Service, the United States Postal Service and so forth that are firmly entrenched in the market. One recommendation by an analyst was to stick to international delivery. Of the three, that was probably its most feasible option.
So far, there's only one international flight that DHL departs from March which of course is in the middle of the night. They might add more flights to Asian countries in the future. If so, then that means that they will have to change their fleet at the airport to aircraft models that can handle long hauls. The company had been phasing out its serious noise makers like the ancient DC-9 which was lifting off over Riverside at 2:55 a.m. six days a week. Hopefully, the newer 767 models that they have been integrating into the fleet aren't replaced by aged wide-bodies like the older 747 models and the defunct DC-10.
The residents of the neighborhoods said they knew that DHL wouldn't survive against the local freight delivery customers and the company already had hubs in other nearby major airports in Southern California. Some of the members of the commission that were instrumental in bringing DHL to Riverside County admitted that more homework should have been done first.
DHL naturally says the picture's not that bad. Most of the money it's invested so far in its domestic service including at March has been building infrastructure.
Anything having to do with DHL since the idea first arose to bring it here has been fraught with controversy and so small amount of deception on the parts of some of the players including GlobalPort.
The issue may come to a head at the time two of the commission members are running for elected office against each other. Fingers can be pointed at guilty parties like GlobalPort but fingers can be pointed back by voters including those whose lives and sleeping patterns have been totally disrupted by the DHL early morning flights at the elected officials. Now is not a bad time to come forward and address this situation in a direct and honest fashion, as a united MJP Commission, not divided by politics. The public deserves nothing less than a full accounting of this mess from beginning to end.
Many of those people in this city and others were ridiculed, even called crazy for far too long on this issue when all they wanted was one good night's sleep for themselves and their families. They didn't complain about the military flights out of March Air Force Base because they don't consider the military's use of the base and the commercial use of this new airport to be in the same category. Even when they were being lied to, people were telling them it was all in their heads. Perhaps, their ethics and integrity were challenged as well as they often are by elected officials these days. But they also know that true leaders do not engage in this type of juvenile behavior, that's the bottom line and that's as clear as the skies in Riverside sometimes get. These people were hoping their elected officials would protect their right to live comfortably in their own homes and waiting and waiting....
The best leaders already know this to be true, will have learned from the deplorable history already laid out and will act accordingly. We'll see what actually happens.
Riverside's first marijuana referral service is opening up in the Northside. It doesn't provide marijuana but writes letters to refer people to purchase it elsewhere for medicinal use.
In San Bernardino, Police Chief Michael Billdt is promising Westside residents that he's going to boost programs to help improve his department's relations with the community.
Conflict resolution, cultural sensitivity training and training to officers to avoid racial profiling are on his list, he told over 60 people attending a meeting.
(excerpt, Press Enterprise)
Witnesses said about 20 officers attacked residents of the Dorjils apartment complex who had gathered for a candlelight vigil after the shooting death of a neighbor. The officers struck people without provocation, used pepper spray indiscriminately and verbally abused neighborhood children, witnesses said.
Police officials say the department is investigating the allegations.
Such excessive force is commonplace, activists said. They organized a series of meetings that culminated in a mediation effort by the U.S. Justice Department.
Rich Lawhead, president of the city police union, said all police supervisors already attend seminars at a leadership training academy, and officers do receive sensitivity training. He said he would welcome more such training.
"We get all kind of sensitivity training and cultural awareness training already. You learn something new at every class you go to, and it does help," he said.
Both Billdt and Lawhead seem to embrace the new training which is a good sign and a start. This type of training enhancements isn't always embraced. So these two men took a positive step in their announcement that they do support it. Now they need to follow through with delivery and start dealing with serious issues in the police department that run a wide range from staffing levels to serious dysfunction between the agency and the community.
In Temecula, a developer and a property owner are in disagreement about whether to push the Press Enterprise to issue a retraction about statements it wrote linking that developer to members of the city council, according to the Press Enterprise.
The article was the one that drove the Temecula City Council into enough of a snit to demand that the publication issue questions to it only in writing. No other media outlet was given this set of terms. Expect more drama to be unfolding in Temecula in future weeks.
But first, here's the Press Enterprise's Editorial Board weighing in on the issue.
The Press Enterprise has published some interesting local opinion pieces on the housing market and foreclosure crisis which has hit the Inland Empire harder than in many other regions.
Remove barriers to home ownership.
Deter foreclosures.
If you want to comment on the housing crisis, here's one place to go. There's been quite a few responses.
A new device being used by the Los Angeles Police Department can help its police officers communicate in different languages.
(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)
The LAPD bought four of the $2,500 devices, which at first glance look like Palm Pilots on steroids, and stored 35 crowd control and other commands: "You must immediately leave the area," "Get down from the pole" and "This area has been declared an unlawful assembly."
They've been used at anti-war and immigration rallies in Koreatown and downtown Los Angeles. To reach the crowds, officers broadcast the translations through speakers that can send sound about half a mile without loss of clarity.
An important use, Kato said, could be during natural disasters.
"In Los Angeles, we run into so many languages, and the ability to ask someone you are helping, 'Are you injured?' is so important," he said.
The captain said the system isn't a complete answer to communication breakdowns. The translation function is one-way; it can issue orders but can't decipher responses.
The new interim Orange County sheriff has the backing of the board of supervisors, according to the Los Angeles Times.
(excerpt)
Supervisors now find themselves in the delicate position of appointing someone to a position that's normally determined by voters.
Board Chairman John Moorlach welcomed Anderson to the job, saying that despite the questions over whether the succession had been handled properly, he was supporting Anderson "in the interests of moving forward."
In his final hours in office, Carona demoted Undersheriff Jo Ann Galisky, fired another member of the command staff and then appointed Anderson second in command, putting him in line to become acting sheriff.
Under state law, the successor in the event of the sheriff's resignation is the department's undersheriff. Anderson, though, does not meet county requirements to be the undersheriff.
Carona, facing federal felony charges that he sought to enrich himself, his wife and his former mistress by trading official favors for cash and gifts, stepped down Monday. All three have pleaded not guilty.
In interviews, supervisors and their top aides said they were troubled by the appearance of the sheriff's last-minute reshuffling of the department command staff.
"It's a legitimate question," Supervisor Chris Norby said. "I think the board is concerned about that."
This sounds more than a little bit similar to the situation last year in Riverside County after its sheriff, Bob Doyle, stepped down mid-term to accept a state position. Very much so in terms of the decision making process. Will there be a power struggle as to who should be appointed as there was in Riverside County?
Stay tuned.
---Catherine Barrett-Fischer, group leader of resident protesting DHL
"Things may take care of themselves. "$900 million is a tremendous loss for any company to sustain."
----Ward Five Councilman Frank Schiavone, chair of the March Joint Powers Commission
"Everything was all hinged around DHL."
---Riverside County Supervisor Bob Buster, a critic of the DHL Plan and member of the MJPA Commission
But first the library....
Apparently, City Manager Brad Hudson discovered that the expansion and renovation of the downtown library could attract a crowd to a public meeting discussing its placement under the umbrella of the Riverside Renaissance as well as plans to combine the renovation of the library with the museum. If Hudson said that the chambers would have to be packed for him to pay attention, well packed they were. What remains to be seen is if he actually paid attention. "Public comment" may not be two of his favorite words, some have said, but the crowd that appeared at the city council chambers before the joint session of the Board of Library Trustees and the Metropolitan Museum Board sent him a message loud and clear.
And sure enough, over 300 people filled the chambers to tell the two boards that they wanted both expansion and renovation projects done separately. one major question remains:
Will City Hall listen to the people?
(excerpt, Press Enterprise)
In the second half of the meeting, 28 members of the public spoke. Many said the library and museum both deserve their own unique expansions.
Kathryn Safford, a former museum board chairwoman, likened the proposed joint expansion to cutting a coat in half to give to two children.
Roger Cheng said the project, which would extend to the sidewalk on Mission Inn Avenue, would block views of the Mission Inn.
"Are we killing our treasure?" he asked.
It also would require moving the Chinese Pavilion to a new location when previous city leaders had committed to keeping it where it is, Cheng said.
"A commitment is a commitment," he said.
Councilman Mike Gardner told the audience that the city has not decided where to move the pavilion, and he promised to involve the public in the decision, should it become necessary.
Some residents said more community discussion is needed on the expansion.
"I call for ... the organization of a citizens' dialogue on the definition of a main library and a Metropolitan Museum that will best meet Riverside's highest destiny," downtown resident Wally Longshore said.
One more meeting has been promised. Hopefully, there will also be an evening session to receive public input on these projects. One question which was asked, is the fate of the Chinese Pagoda that rests on the front lawn of the library. The latest rumor is that it's being relocated to a spot near where the city's China Town neighborhood once stood. Maybe they should put it where the Kawa Market once stood.
Belinda Graham, who heads city development, had this to say.
(excerpt)
"I think there's going to be a lot of reflection going on," she said.
Which means if you want to know if the city is going to honor the wishes of the people on these two important projects, there's probably going to be a long wait while the city ponders over its options of either listening to the people and changing direction or trying to come up with a good way to ignore them and plow ahead with the joint development project tacked onto the growing list of Riverside Renaissance's "To Do" list.
You can't really blame Hudson. He will only be as "community input-friendly" or even, "labor union friendly" as the majority of the city council wishes him to be. If he's not responsive in these ways, it's because the city also has a city council which is not.
The same ones who will vote at designated times during the year to determine whether or not he remains in their employment and the guy wants to keep his job until he's ready to move on. That's the nature of having an "at will" employee working for the city council.
Graham did add that discussion on the projects would take place at future meetings of the two boards.
Here they are and where you can find information to be involved in this process. Showing up once is very good but there are individuals at City Hall who don't think or even believe that city residents will show up twice on an issue that concerns them. So stay involved.
Board of Library Trustees which meets at 4:30 p.m. the fourth Monday of each month in the Main Library Board Room.
Its contact information is: Heather Firchow at 826-5388
Metropolitan Museum Board which meets at 4:00 p.m. the second Tuesday of each month in the Metropolitan Museum Conference Room.
Its contact information is: Toni Kinsman at 826-5273
But you have to ask yourself this after yesterday's meeting and turnout, has there ever been a housing development project or even most commercial development projects whether they are included in Riverside Renaissance or not that has ever drawn this type of crowd to support its existence?
They might have opposed the city manager's office's plan but they supported the institutions.
Partly, people appeared because it's the library and it's the museum, but mostly they appeared because the city residents are very concerned about the future of their basic public services which include but not only include, libraries and museums. People do value their public services, probably over these expensive development projects. That's something the city officials should take away from meetings like yesterday's and other entities that provide basic city services should keep in mind.
So what will happen with those who frequent the library plaza?
The sundial, the Chinese Pagoda and most of the front outside area will be gone. Many homeless and young people frequent the area, during the day. The police department stated that there's very few problems. So if city officials try to paint them as major problems, one city department has stated otherwise.
(excerpt, Press Enterprise)
It also means that it could soon be time for the folks who gather there to move on.
"Those that are using it as a place to hang out on a daily basis are going to need to find new accommodations," said Wendell Tucker, president of the library's board of trustees.
Outside the library on a recent weekday, the idea of losing the plaza was not a happy topic.
"I spend every day here. I read," said Torrance Edwards, 53, a wiry man in a gray baseball cap and jeans.
The homeless man said he does landscaping or other labor when he can find work. The rest of the time he can be found either inside the library -- catching up on the newspapers or the latest copy of Jet magazine -- or outside in the plaza.
"You get chased off everywhere else," said Mark Middleton, 20, who was riding a skateboard up and down the concrete walkways.
On Jan. 15, the city council to renovate the downtown pedestrian mall to Elite Bobcat Central, according to the Press Enterprise. The company was awarded a $6.9 million contract to do its part of a $12 million renovation project that will take several years.
It's hard to know what elected officials and the public thought about it unless you were there because the only one mentioned in the article is Asst. City Manager Michael Beck and it's pretty clear that he's not the only one who attended the meeting.
Other city council actions filled the evening.
Speaking of meetings, the Riverside Unified School District Board met to among other things prioritize their upcoming projects.
What's missing from the article is that one of the projects discussed was Elementary School #34, otherwise known as the school that was scheduled to be built in the Eastside to ease the overcrowding at Longfellow Elementary which has led to busing students all over the city. The district was having trouble picking parcels of land in which to build and at one point up to 25 homes were facing eminent domain for public use. The $12 million is kept in a fund as a "place holder" until the property can be found on which to build it.
The vote was 3-2, with the three newest members including Gayle Cloud and Tom Hunt voting to work more with the city and county to find land. Board Chair Chuck Beaty, formerly a city councilman, told the others that they were newer to the board and had not seen all the work being done to try to bring the elementary school to the area.
Sleeping in southern parts of Riverside has been difficult for several years now and to add insult to injury, DHL, the source of the noise has just found out it's doomed to fail in the United States unless it drastically changes its business strategy.
The problem is and always has been that DHL is very successfully internationally but domestically, it runs up against competition in the form of Federal Express, United Parcel Service, the United States Postal Service and so forth that are firmly entrenched in the market. One recommendation by an analyst was to stick to international delivery. Of the three, that was probably its most feasible option.
So far, there's only one international flight that DHL departs from March which of course is in the middle of the night. They might add more flights to Asian countries in the future. If so, then that means that they will have to change their fleet at the airport to aircraft models that can handle long hauls. The company had been phasing out its serious noise makers like the ancient DC-9 which was lifting off over Riverside at 2:55 a.m. six days a week. Hopefully, the newer 767 models that they have been integrating into the fleet aren't replaced by aged wide-bodies like the older 747 models and the defunct DC-10.
The residents of the neighborhoods said they knew that DHL wouldn't survive against the local freight delivery customers and the company already had hubs in other nearby major airports in Southern California. Some of the members of the commission that were instrumental in bringing DHL to Riverside County admitted that more homework should have been done first.
DHL naturally says the picture's not that bad. Most of the money it's invested so far in its domestic service including at March has been building infrastructure.
Anything having to do with DHL since the idea first arose to bring it here has been fraught with controversy and so small amount of deception on the parts of some of the players including GlobalPort.
The issue may come to a head at the time two of the commission members are running for elected office against each other. Fingers can be pointed at guilty parties like GlobalPort but fingers can be pointed back by voters including those whose lives and sleeping patterns have been totally disrupted by the DHL early morning flights at the elected officials. Now is not a bad time to come forward and address this situation in a direct and honest fashion, as a united MJP Commission, not divided by politics. The public deserves nothing less than a full accounting of this mess from beginning to end.
Many of those people in this city and others were ridiculed, even called crazy for far too long on this issue when all they wanted was one good night's sleep for themselves and their families. They didn't complain about the military flights out of March Air Force Base because they don't consider the military's use of the base and the commercial use of this new airport to be in the same category. Even when they were being lied to, people were telling them it was all in their heads. Perhaps, their ethics and integrity were challenged as well as they often are by elected officials these days. But they also know that true leaders do not engage in this type of juvenile behavior, that's the bottom line and that's as clear as the skies in Riverside sometimes get. These people were hoping their elected officials would protect their right to live comfortably in their own homes and waiting and waiting....
The best leaders already know this to be true, will have learned from the deplorable history already laid out and will act accordingly. We'll see what actually happens.
Riverside's first marijuana referral service is opening up in the Northside. It doesn't provide marijuana but writes letters to refer people to purchase it elsewhere for medicinal use.
In San Bernardino, Police Chief Michael Billdt is promising Westside residents that he's going to boost programs to help improve his department's relations with the community.
Conflict resolution, cultural sensitivity training and training to officers to avoid racial profiling are on his list, he told over 60 people attending a meeting.
(excerpt, Press Enterprise)
Witnesses said about 20 officers attacked residents of the Dorjils apartment complex who had gathered for a candlelight vigil after the shooting death of a neighbor. The officers struck people without provocation, used pepper spray indiscriminately and verbally abused neighborhood children, witnesses said.
Police officials say the department is investigating the allegations.
Such excessive force is commonplace, activists said. They organized a series of meetings that culminated in a mediation effort by the U.S. Justice Department.
Rich Lawhead, president of the city police union, said all police supervisors already attend seminars at a leadership training academy, and officers do receive sensitivity training. He said he would welcome more such training.
"We get all kind of sensitivity training and cultural awareness training already. You learn something new at every class you go to, and it does help," he said.
Both Billdt and Lawhead seem to embrace the new training which is a good sign and a start. This type of training enhancements isn't always embraced. So these two men took a positive step in their announcement that they do support it. Now they need to follow through with delivery and start dealing with serious issues in the police department that run a wide range from staffing levels to serious dysfunction between the agency and the community.
In Temecula, a developer and a property owner are in disagreement about whether to push the Press Enterprise to issue a retraction about statements it wrote linking that developer to members of the city council, according to the Press Enterprise.
The article was the one that drove the Temecula City Council into enough of a snit to demand that the publication issue questions to it only in writing. No other media outlet was given this set of terms. Expect more drama to be unfolding in Temecula in future weeks.
But first, here's the Press Enterprise's Editorial Board weighing in on the issue.
The Press Enterprise has published some interesting local opinion pieces on the housing market and foreclosure crisis which has hit the Inland Empire harder than in many other regions.
Remove barriers to home ownership.
Deter foreclosures.
If you want to comment on the housing crisis, here's one place to go. There's been quite a few responses.
A new device being used by the Los Angeles Police Department can help its police officers communicate in different languages.
(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)
The LAPD bought four of the $2,500 devices, which at first glance look like Palm Pilots on steroids, and stored 35 crowd control and other commands: "You must immediately leave the area," "Get down from the pole" and "This area has been declared an unlawful assembly."
They've been used at anti-war and immigration rallies in Koreatown and downtown Los Angeles. To reach the crowds, officers broadcast the translations through speakers that can send sound about half a mile without loss of clarity.
An important use, Kato said, could be during natural disasters.
"In Los Angeles, we run into so many languages, and the ability to ask someone you are helping, 'Are you injured?' is so important," he said.
The captain said the system isn't a complete answer to communication breakdowns. The translation function is one-way; it can issue orders but can't decipher responses.
The new interim Orange County sheriff has the backing of the board of supervisors, according to the Los Angeles Times.
(excerpt)
Supervisors now find themselves in the delicate position of appointing someone to a position that's normally determined by voters.
Board Chairman John Moorlach welcomed Anderson to the job, saying that despite the questions over whether the succession had been handled properly, he was supporting Anderson "in the interests of moving forward."
In his final hours in office, Carona demoted Undersheriff Jo Ann Galisky, fired another member of the command staff and then appointed Anderson second in command, putting him in line to become acting sheriff.
Under state law, the successor in the event of the sheriff's resignation is the department's undersheriff. Anderson, though, does not meet county requirements to be the undersheriff.
Carona, facing federal felony charges that he sought to enrich himself, his wife and his former mistress by trading official favors for cash and gifts, stepped down Monday. All three have pleaded not guilty.
In interviews, supervisors and their top aides said they were troubled by the appearance of the sheriff's last-minute reshuffling of the department command staff.
"It's a legitimate question," Supervisor Chris Norby said. "I think the board is concerned about that."
This sounds more than a little bit similar to the situation last year in Riverside County after its sheriff, Bob Doyle, stepped down mid-term to accept a state position. Very much so in terms of the decision making process. Will there be a power struggle as to who should be appointed as there was in Riverside County?
Stay tuned.
Labels: business as usual, City Hall 101, public forums in all places, what culture
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