Riverside Renaissance by the numbers
Tuesday, means another city council meeting and here's this week's agenda. You can either attend in person and experience the full ambiance of the meeting or you can watch it on Charter Communication Cable live on Tuesdays or rebroadcasts during the week or through web stream on the internet.
At other venues, you have the comforts of the couch and the pork rinds (as one of my anti-fans has stated) or another snack (and popcorn appears to be a popular one) and you can watch the actions of your city government. If you appear in person, you'll get the experience and see the nuances that the cameras don't capture but you have to risk being insulted by one or more elected officials who's piqued at something and then get a barrage of hate rantings during the weeks afterward through the internet. And so on.
Since most of the business it seems is conducted at City Hall way before it gets to the city council, the meetings have a feel of a staged production rather than a governmental affair. The meetings which are the most important to attend such as city council subcommittee meetings are either scheduled when most of the public can't attend or it's not invited to attend because these meetings are behind closed doors. That's the sentiment of a lot of people when asked about the city council meetings even those who don't attend regularly or have never attended them but watch them at home.
It's too early in this latest rendition of the city council to come up with any particular quirks to look at let alone set up rules for the city council drinking game.
If you do attend a meeting, here are some tips.
Bring a book, because the one thing this city council likes to do is take breaks. Lots of them to break the meeting into manageable chapters and to usher as much of the audience as they can before the public comment period. Public comment is actually fairly late in a meeting that runs long but can come up quickly if it's one of those meetings that's over in a few blinks of an eye and early enough for everyone to hit the social hours at nearby food and drink establishments afterward.
Bring some liquids for hydration as the city's water cooler in the chambers doesn't always come with cups and every once so often, the meetings last longer than 45 minutes. Between the length and the bright lights, it's important to remember to drink your water. Some light snacks until the city gets smart and puts out one of those mobile coffee and hot dog carts outside the chambers can also provide some energy for you to get through a long meeting.
Bring a sense of humor, because there will be a day when you've pushed the button of an elected official, whether it's on the expenditure of Riverside Renaissance, the cuts on city departments' budgets or the passage of Measure II by the voters and they will dash off some quick retort to make some points with the viewing audience at home. Just smile, tell them how much you appreciate what they've said (even if it's that you lied which happened several times to speakers), say thank you to the rest of those on the dais who don't engage in that form of behavior and show them through example how they themselves should be behaving.
Sit in on some Early Childhood Development Study classes because what you learn there will definitely help you at the podium when addressing some of those sitting on the dais who have a hard time listening without engaging in an assortment of behaviors like eye rolling, discussions amongst themselves or paper flipping along with grimaces, grunts, sighs, snorts and other verbal and nonverbal expressions.
If you have a blog, be sure to let the city council know about it, so one or more of them can provide a public service announcement during the meeting about it. It's a boost to readership to be panned by elected officials so don't despair if it should happen to you even if you do get a barrage of hateful rants including ones with your photograph on them. It's not clear what impact it might have on your readership if city officials praise it.
If you're elderly and female, bring bail money because most of the people who the police officers have been ordered by the city council to escort from the podium or eject have been elderly women. It's called Gadflying While Elderly. No one's been arrested yet but one 89-year-old woman had to tell two police officers that they would have to carry her out of the chambers during one of the city council's crackdowns on uppity elderly women at a city council meeting in 2007. Another was removed by an officer from the podium for exceeding the three-minute speaking limit in 2006 while talking about damage a city-owned pipe had done to her property when it ruptured.
Any rumors that the consultant who's teaching dais decorum to the elected officials down the road in Colton might sit in on a meeting in Riverside are just wishful thinking.
The agenda's not packed but includes some interesting items, most of which won't be discussed because they are on the consent calendar and as you might know, members of the public have been barred from pulling items off the consent calendar for discussion since July 2005. Included on the consent calendar are often some hefty priced items including those involving Riverside Renaissance. The reality that it's expected by those who set the agenda each week that these high-priced ticket items wouldn't elicit any discussion or questions from elected officials is somewhat disheartening in terms of having an open and democratic local government.
A city employee, George Valencia, has a worker's compensation case which will be discussed by the city council in closed session.
One of the items in the discussion calendar will be this update on the implementation of the recommendations for Fairmount Park's renovation. These recommendations were made by the task force that was assigned the task of addressing what to do with Fairmount Park.
Projects that have been implemented is the dredging of two of the lakes which doesn't seem to bother the ducks at all. The beginning of that activity to restore the lakes to their pristine condition was celebrated through a luncheon ritual that included on its guest list, city officials and city employees who dined while watching as icky looking stuff was sucked out of the lake. It's not known yet whether this will be an annual event.
The episode with the Fairmount Park Task Force played out last summer when it took front and center stage not long after the first round of elections which resulted in a runoff between incumbent at the time, Dom Betro and newcomer Mike Gardner for the seat in Ward One where Fairmount Park resides. If you care about the present and future of Fairmount Park, it's important to keep yourself informed on this ongoing issue and if the city takes the proposal in some strange direction or implements what it wanted but yells "no money" when it comes to implementing recommendations made by the city residents, pack those chambers before the city manager's office dares you to do so as it has on several occasions on other issues according to community leaders and speak on these issues.
Earlier in the city council meeting will be the latest report on Riverside Renaissance. The one program in the city that will be moving forward despite the budget cuts because the city manager's office and city council have said that no general fund money is used to finance it. Actually, the correct term is that no general money directly funds it.
On page 2, the report on the renaissance kindly outlines several reasons why the cost has inflated from the initial $750,000 to nearly $2 billion (although the report states a price tag of $650 million less). Refined estimates and the addition of other projects were two of the causes.
Here are some interesting statistics on Riverside Renaissance from the report.
The Top Five Project Categories:
Public Utilities: $658,648,000
Transportation: $211,185,000
Sewer: $183,895,000
Grade Separation: $182,311,000
Park, Recreation and Community Services: $180,905,000
Redevelopment: $135,495,000
How Riverside Renaissance is funded (according to the city):
Certification of participation proceeds: $ 115,934,000
County/state federal (including anticipated grants): $353,384,000
Development impact fees/Other city funds: $147,681,000
Electric, water and sewer rates: $778,556,000
Land sale proceeds: $33,890,000
Private: $59,950,000
Redevelopment Agency bonds sales or land sale proceeds: $238,667,000
Unfunded: $52,300,000
The above statistic is important because it's clear who will be paying the tab on the renaissance and that's the city resident especially property owners and public utilities consumers not to mention future generations. Many of the projects under the renaissance have been worthwhile, overdue endeavors but there's been lots of concerns expressed no matter how unpopular it is during meetings at City Hall to do so about where the money's coming from. How much of it's borrowed. What will be used to pay off borrowed money plus the interest. What the city's current credit rating is. That's for starters.
Not to mention that redevelopment probably shouldn't be getting a dime but that's another topic. But it's important because occasionally the Redevelopment Agency has to get bailed out (but never completely so because then it couldn't really exist) and it's important to pay attention to where this money is really coming from.
These concerns have increased during these fiscally difficult budget times that are expected to last for several years. If you're concerned about the city's budget, it's important to pay attention to how it plays out during the creation of the budget for the next fiscal year which begins July 1. Already cuts are anticipated in most if not all city departments, from the 5% to 15% range, with positions being left vacant and promotions frozen.
The police department for example had a deputy chief position frozen when that individual took another job and given that the current assistant police chief has been out for a while due to serious illness (and hopefully will have a good recovery and be back so keep him in your thoughts), that leaves one deputy chief filling those management responsibilities.
Coming off a month break, will be the finance committee on March 10 which of course is scheduled at a time when no one can attend. It' s chaired by Councilman Chris MacArthur and includes Council Members Nancy Hart and Mike Gardner as members. A formal agenda hasn't been announced yet but the talk all over the place right now is the city's annual budget both for the remainder of this fiscal year as well as the next one.
Riverside Unified School District says it won't be cutting 154 positions that it had planned to cut. The news isn't clear yet about Alvord School District.
Colton will vote on whether or not to recall the mayor on June 3.
(excerpt, Press Enterprise)
Financially, the June 3 date is a bargain. The city can combine the recall election with the statewide primary at a cost of about $22,000, according to a staff report. If the council does not approve the June 3 date and submit its plan to the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters by Friday, a special election would be required at a price tag of more than $96,000.
On the ballot, voters will be asked if Chastain should be recalled from the office of mayor, City Clerk Caroline Padilla said in the report. Those who vote yes will then choose one person from a list of candidates.
After the election date is set, any registered voter in Colton can obtain papers at the city clerk's office to run for mayor. Candidates need to collect 20 valid signatures, Padilla said.
Chastain was elected mayor in December 2006 to a four-year term. She previously served three terms as a councilwoman.
She said she is frustrated by the recall.
"I have a lot to do," Chastain said. "I'll continue to do the work of the city, but now I have to work on a campaign, and this is no ordinary campaign."
She said she will fight for her seat and expects the campaign to "get down and dirty. I really hope it doesn't. I'll plan for the worst and hope for the best."
Dana Parsons, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times ponders what qualities he'd like to see in the Orange County sheriff.
The San Francisco Chronicle published the latest development in a court case that could impact how police officers are disciplined in several major cities.
(excerpt)
At issue is how a state law governing police officer rights is being implemented by the Los Angeles Police Department and, by extension, San Francisco's, with its similar police disciplinary system.
So far, three state appellate court rulings have sided with Los Angeles officers, who said their rights were violated when they were not told of the specific penalty they faced when charged with misconduct.
The courts have tossed out their discipline as a result, putting as many as 30 similar San Francisco cases at risk.
"This is a potential tragedy for police accountability," said Police Commissioner Joe Alioto Veronese.
Mark Schlosberg, a police practices expert with the ACLU, called the prospect of the high court upholding the appellate court rulings "very troubling."
"The potential impact ranges from a whole bunch of cases being dismissed to some other outcome," he said. "But we just don't know."
The latest development in San Francisco's so-called "Fajitagate" case is playing out at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
(excerpt)
The officers - Matthew Tonsing, David Lee and Alex Fagan Jr., son of then-Assistant Chief Alex Fagan - denied attacking the two men and were acquitted of criminal charges. But a Superior Court jury found in 2006 that Fagan and Tonsing had used excessive force and awarded $46,000 in damages.
Snyder and Santoro also filed a civil suit against the city, claiming that a Police Department habit of condoning excessive force had led to their injuries. They cited police records showing that Fagan Jr., as a rookie officer, had used violence in 16 incidents in the 13 months before November 2002.
His supervisor had proposed counseling in September 2002, saying Fagan showed a "lack of anger management" and refused to follow orders, but the department had not carried out the plan at the time of the brawl, the plaintiffs noted.
The medical workers who tried to save Sean Bell's life testified at the trial of three of the New York City Police Department officers who shot and killed him November 2006 outside of a nightclub in Queens.
(excerpt, New York Times)
One technician administered C.P.R. while a paramedic leaned into the back seat and reached over with an air balloon to try to resuscitate him.
On cross-examination, the paramedic, Lt. Elise Hanlon, testified that when she arrived on Liverpool Street shortly after receiving the call at 4:14 a.m., there was another ambulance parked roughly in the area where most of the 50 police shell casings would later be found. The defense is expected to raise the possibility that the scene was contaminated, and that evidence was moved and jostled in the hectic moments after the shooting.
“As you were walking by, did you notice any ballistics evidence in the street?” the defense lawyer James J. Culleton asked. Lieutenant Hanlon said she did not.
Firefighter Mark Massa, an E.M.T., helped treat Mr. Benefield, who had run from the car during the shooting, fleeing south on Liverpool before he fell or was stopped on the sidewalk. As they placed Mr. Benefield in the ambulance, a crowd gathered, he said.
“They had a phone, and they wanted to let Trent speak to his mom,” Firefighter Massa said. He held the phone as Mr. Benefield spoke, he said.
An undercover detective said that Bell and one of his friends had mentioned getting a gun before going to their car, according to the New York Daily News.
(excerpt)
Detective Hispolito Sanchez said Bell and Joseph Guzman confronted a man in an SUV outside the Jamaica strip club where they just finished a bachelor party.
"(Bell) said, 'Let's f--- them up,'" Sanchez, 36, testified. "(Guzman) said, 'Yo, go get my gun.'"
Sanchez, the first of the detectives who had been inside the Kalua Cabaret to testify, said Bell and Guzman walked away when the driver put his hands in his pockets as if he had a weapon.
The pair returned moments later and repeated the same threatening comments, Sanchez said.
Also in New York City, a body that monitors the city's police department for corruption approved of the department's overall performance but criticized it for not disciplining its officers properly, according to the New York Daily News.
(excerpt)
The commission examined nine cases of off-duty misconduct involving firearms and found that the penalty imposed was too lax. For example, two off-duty cops who waved their firearms at civilians without justification were each punished with a loss of only 20 days of pay.
The commission also criticized the NYPD for failing to determine whether the incidents involved alcohol.
The commission examined 48 cases in which cops were involved in domestic disputes. The incidents ranged from disputes involving verbal threats to physical assaults to violations of orders of protection.
Nine of the cases involved cops with prior, substantiated allegations of domestic incidents.
Two of those cops were put on an unknown period of probation. One retired. In the six remaining cases, the cops lost vacation days or were suspended.
Out of 22 officers who falsified department reports, only two were fired. The commission determined that three other officers should have been terminated.
The police department is also examining how it handles stop and frisk stops.
(excerpt, New York Daily News)
"The department is currently examining ways to implement all of the recommendations, including ways to flag anomalous stop patterns by individual officers," said Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne.
In recent years, blacks and Hispanics have made up a greater share of the stops than their percentage of the general population, prompting charges of racial profiling. The department has denied racial bias, saying the stops were based on descriptions of crime suspects, a large majority of whom were described as black or Hispanic.
The NYPD, which stopped more than 500,000 New Yorkers in 2006, commissioned the Rand Corp. to perform the review. It concluded that the NYPD's tactics were race-neutral.
Rand researchers called it "problematic," however, that 15 cops stopped substantially more minority pedestrians than other officers and suggested tracking individual cops.
New York City's government is asking questions about how the police department handles mentally ill individuals.
(excerpt, NY-1)
"When there is time to negotiate, take all the time necessary to ensure the safety of all concerned," said NYPD Chief Robert Giannelli. "Deadly physical force will be used only as a last resort to protect the life of the persons present."
However, council members say more can be done. They say police need updated computer and tracking systems when responding to calls where someone may be emotionally disturbed.
"They have no way of knowing the history of this person, if they have been violent in the past or non-violent," said City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. "That is for two reasons. One is that police technology is not up to date."
The second reason, police say privacy laws make it hard to get medical records. Others believe police need to call mental health experts to the scene.
"They should be involved whenever possible," said Councilman Oliver Koppel. "We do have cases where the police may have acted improperly, where the police, because they don't understand the condition of the person that they are approaching, may have over reacted."
"We believe crisis intervention teams are the solution," said Lisa Ortega, an advocate for the mentally ill. "There has been resistance from the NYPD to implement anything other than the military style they have of circling and apprehending people."
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on how the handling of complaints against police officers is going to change in the wake of a federal trial.
(excerpt)
"This is extremely important to the Department of Justice," said Richard Ruminski, head of the FBI's office in Milwaukee. "(Police) have a tremendous amount of trust. You can't have individuals betraying that trust. People depend on police and other public officials to serve, and when they violate that trust, it requires a response."
Ruminski and Biskupic cautioned that they can't take on every complaint against Milwaukee police or any department. They don't have the people to do it, plus there are few federal laws to prosecute police, with the burden of proof high.
Federal authorities typically monitor such cases and get involved if there isn't a satisfactory outcome, as happened with Jude, Biskupic said. They reserve the right to get involved in any case at any time, but focus on the major cases, he said.
"The Jude case was not something close to the line," Biskupic said. "Nobody wants to be in the business of second-guessing a police officer breaking up a fight. That is not what the Jude case was or the cases that we are looking at. I hope the good cops know that."
Support remains strong for the family members of Stacey Peterson who hasn't been seen since last Oct. 28. Her husband and former Bolingbrook Police Department sergeant, Drew Peterson remains a suspect in her disappearance.
At other venues, you have the comforts of the couch and the pork rinds (as one of my anti-fans has stated) or another snack (and popcorn appears to be a popular one) and you can watch the actions of your city government. If you appear in person, you'll get the experience and see the nuances that the cameras don't capture but you have to risk being insulted by one or more elected officials who's piqued at something and then get a barrage of hate rantings during the weeks afterward through the internet. And so on.
Since most of the business it seems is conducted at City Hall way before it gets to the city council, the meetings have a feel of a staged production rather than a governmental affair. The meetings which are the most important to attend such as city council subcommittee meetings are either scheduled when most of the public can't attend or it's not invited to attend because these meetings are behind closed doors. That's the sentiment of a lot of people when asked about the city council meetings even those who don't attend regularly or have never attended them but watch them at home.
It's too early in this latest rendition of the city council to come up with any particular quirks to look at let alone set up rules for the city council drinking game.
If you do attend a meeting, here are some tips.
Bring a book, because the one thing this city council likes to do is take breaks. Lots of them to break the meeting into manageable chapters and to usher as much of the audience as they can before the public comment period. Public comment is actually fairly late in a meeting that runs long but can come up quickly if it's one of those meetings that's over in a few blinks of an eye and early enough for everyone to hit the social hours at nearby food and drink establishments afterward.
Bring some liquids for hydration as the city's water cooler in the chambers doesn't always come with cups and every once so often, the meetings last longer than 45 minutes. Between the length and the bright lights, it's important to remember to drink your water. Some light snacks until the city gets smart and puts out one of those mobile coffee and hot dog carts outside the chambers can also provide some energy for you to get through a long meeting.
Bring a sense of humor, because there will be a day when you've pushed the button of an elected official, whether it's on the expenditure of Riverside Renaissance, the cuts on city departments' budgets or the passage of Measure II by the voters and they will dash off some quick retort to make some points with the viewing audience at home. Just smile, tell them how much you appreciate what they've said (even if it's that you lied which happened several times to speakers), say thank you to the rest of those on the dais who don't engage in that form of behavior and show them through example how they themselves should be behaving.
Sit in on some Early Childhood Development Study classes because what you learn there will definitely help you at the podium when addressing some of those sitting on the dais who have a hard time listening without engaging in an assortment of behaviors like eye rolling, discussions amongst themselves or paper flipping along with grimaces, grunts, sighs, snorts and other verbal and nonverbal expressions.
If you have a blog, be sure to let the city council know about it, so one or more of them can provide a public service announcement during the meeting about it. It's a boost to readership to be panned by elected officials so don't despair if it should happen to you even if you do get a barrage of hateful rants including ones with your photograph on them. It's not clear what impact it might have on your readership if city officials praise it.
If you're elderly and female, bring bail money because most of the people who the police officers have been ordered by the city council to escort from the podium or eject have been elderly women. It's called Gadflying While Elderly. No one's been arrested yet but one 89-year-old woman had to tell two police officers that they would have to carry her out of the chambers during one of the city council's crackdowns on uppity elderly women at a city council meeting in 2007. Another was removed by an officer from the podium for exceeding the three-minute speaking limit in 2006 while talking about damage a city-owned pipe had done to her property when it ruptured.
Any rumors that the consultant who's teaching dais decorum to the elected officials down the road in Colton might sit in on a meeting in Riverside are just wishful thinking.
The agenda's not packed but includes some interesting items, most of which won't be discussed because they are on the consent calendar and as you might know, members of the public have been barred from pulling items off the consent calendar for discussion since July 2005. Included on the consent calendar are often some hefty priced items including those involving Riverside Renaissance. The reality that it's expected by those who set the agenda each week that these high-priced ticket items wouldn't elicit any discussion or questions from elected officials is somewhat disheartening in terms of having an open and democratic local government.
A city employee, George Valencia, has a worker's compensation case which will be discussed by the city council in closed session.
One of the items in the discussion calendar will be this update on the implementation of the recommendations for Fairmount Park's renovation. These recommendations were made by the task force that was assigned the task of addressing what to do with Fairmount Park.
Projects that have been implemented is the dredging of two of the lakes which doesn't seem to bother the ducks at all. The beginning of that activity to restore the lakes to their pristine condition was celebrated through a luncheon ritual that included on its guest list, city officials and city employees who dined while watching as icky looking stuff was sucked out of the lake. It's not known yet whether this will be an annual event.
The episode with the Fairmount Park Task Force played out last summer when it took front and center stage not long after the first round of elections which resulted in a runoff between incumbent at the time, Dom Betro and newcomer Mike Gardner for the seat in Ward One where Fairmount Park resides. If you care about the present and future of Fairmount Park, it's important to keep yourself informed on this ongoing issue and if the city takes the proposal in some strange direction or implements what it wanted but yells "no money" when it comes to implementing recommendations made by the city residents, pack those chambers before the city manager's office dares you to do so as it has on several occasions on other issues according to community leaders and speak on these issues.
Earlier in the city council meeting will be the latest report on Riverside Renaissance. The one program in the city that will be moving forward despite the budget cuts because the city manager's office and city council have said that no general fund money is used to finance it. Actually, the correct term is that no general money directly funds it.
On page 2, the report on the renaissance kindly outlines several reasons why the cost has inflated from the initial $750,000 to nearly $2 billion (although the report states a price tag of $650 million less). Refined estimates and the addition of other projects were two of the causes.
Here are some interesting statistics on Riverside Renaissance from the report.
The Top Five Project Categories:
Public Utilities: $658,648,000
Transportation: $211,185,000
Sewer: $183,895,000
Grade Separation: $182,311,000
Park, Recreation and Community Services: $180,905,000
Redevelopment: $135,495,000
How Riverside Renaissance is funded (according to the city):
Certification of participation proceeds: $ 115,934,000
County/state federal (including anticipated grants): $353,384,000
Development impact fees/Other city funds: $147,681,000
Electric, water and sewer rates: $778,556,000
Land sale proceeds: $33,890,000
Private: $59,950,000
Redevelopment Agency bonds sales or land sale proceeds: $238,667,000
Unfunded: $52,300,000
The above statistic is important because it's clear who will be paying the tab on the renaissance and that's the city resident especially property owners and public utilities consumers not to mention future generations. Many of the projects under the renaissance have been worthwhile, overdue endeavors but there's been lots of concerns expressed no matter how unpopular it is during meetings at City Hall to do so about where the money's coming from. How much of it's borrowed. What will be used to pay off borrowed money plus the interest. What the city's current credit rating is. That's for starters.
Not to mention that redevelopment probably shouldn't be getting a dime but that's another topic. But it's important because occasionally the Redevelopment Agency has to get bailed out (but never completely so because then it couldn't really exist) and it's important to pay attention to where this money is really coming from.
These concerns have increased during these fiscally difficult budget times that are expected to last for several years. If you're concerned about the city's budget, it's important to pay attention to how it plays out during the creation of the budget for the next fiscal year which begins July 1. Already cuts are anticipated in most if not all city departments, from the 5% to 15% range, with positions being left vacant and promotions frozen.
The police department for example had a deputy chief position frozen when that individual took another job and given that the current assistant police chief has been out for a while due to serious illness (and hopefully will have a good recovery and be back so keep him in your thoughts), that leaves one deputy chief filling those management responsibilities.
Coming off a month break, will be the finance committee on March 10 which of course is scheduled at a time when no one can attend. It' s chaired by Councilman Chris MacArthur and includes Council Members Nancy Hart and Mike Gardner as members. A formal agenda hasn't been announced yet but the talk all over the place right now is the city's annual budget both for the remainder of this fiscal year as well as the next one.
Riverside Unified School District says it won't be cutting 154 positions that it had planned to cut. The news isn't clear yet about Alvord School District.
Colton will vote on whether or not to recall the mayor on June 3.
(excerpt, Press Enterprise)
Financially, the June 3 date is a bargain. The city can combine the recall election with the statewide primary at a cost of about $22,000, according to a staff report. If the council does not approve the June 3 date and submit its plan to the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters by Friday, a special election would be required at a price tag of more than $96,000.
On the ballot, voters will be asked if Chastain should be recalled from the office of mayor, City Clerk Caroline Padilla said in the report. Those who vote yes will then choose one person from a list of candidates.
After the election date is set, any registered voter in Colton can obtain papers at the city clerk's office to run for mayor. Candidates need to collect 20 valid signatures, Padilla said.
Chastain was elected mayor in December 2006 to a four-year term. She previously served three terms as a councilwoman.
She said she is frustrated by the recall.
"I have a lot to do," Chastain said. "I'll continue to do the work of the city, but now I have to work on a campaign, and this is no ordinary campaign."
She said she will fight for her seat and expects the campaign to "get down and dirty. I really hope it doesn't. I'll plan for the worst and hope for the best."
Dana Parsons, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times ponders what qualities he'd like to see in the Orange County sheriff.
The San Francisco Chronicle published the latest development in a court case that could impact how police officers are disciplined in several major cities.
(excerpt)
At issue is how a state law governing police officer rights is being implemented by the Los Angeles Police Department and, by extension, San Francisco's, with its similar police disciplinary system.
So far, three state appellate court rulings have sided with Los Angeles officers, who said their rights were violated when they were not told of the specific penalty they faced when charged with misconduct.
The courts have tossed out their discipline as a result, putting as many as 30 similar San Francisco cases at risk.
"This is a potential tragedy for police accountability," said Police Commissioner Joe Alioto Veronese.
Mark Schlosberg, a police practices expert with the ACLU, called the prospect of the high court upholding the appellate court rulings "very troubling."
"The potential impact ranges from a whole bunch of cases being dismissed to some other outcome," he said. "But we just don't know."
The latest development in San Francisco's so-called "Fajitagate" case is playing out at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
(excerpt)
The officers - Matthew Tonsing, David Lee and Alex Fagan Jr., son of then-Assistant Chief Alex Fagan - denied attacking the two men and were acquitted of criminal charges. But a Superior Court jury found in 2006 that Fagan and Tonsing had used excessive force and awarded $46,000 in damages.
Snyder and Santoro also filed a civil suit against the city, claiming that a Police Department habit of condoning excessive force had led to their injuries. They cited police records showing that Fagan Jr., as a rookie officer, had used violence in 16 incidents in the 13 months before November 2002.
His supervisor had proposed counseling in September 2002, saying Fagan showed a "lack of anger management" and refused to follow orders, but the department had not carried out the plan at the time of the brawl, the plaintiffs noted.
The medical workers who tried to save Sean Bell's life testified at the trial of three of the New York City Police Department officers who shot and killed him November 2006 outside of a nightclub in Queens.
(excerpt, New York Times)
One technician administered C.P.R. while a paramedic leaned into the back seat and reached over with an air balloon to try to resuscitate him.
On cross-examination, the paramedic, Lt. Elise Hanlon, testified that when she arrived on Liverpool Street shortly after receiving the call at 4:14 a.m., there was another ambulance parked roughly in the area where most of the 50 police shell casings would later be found. The defense is expected to raise the possibility that the scene was contaminated, and that evidence was moved and jostled in the hectic moments after the shooting.
“As you were walking by, did you notice any ballistics evidence in the street?” the defense lawyer James J. Culleton asked. Lieutenant Hanlon said she did not.
Firefighter Mark Massa, an E.M.T., helped treat Mr. Benefield, who had run from the car during the shooting, fleeing south on Liverpool before he fell or was stopped on the sidewalk. As they placed Mr. Benefield in the ambulance, a crowd gathered, he said.
“They had a phone, and they wanted to let Trent speak to his mom,” Firefighter Massa said. He held the phone as Mr. Benefield spoke, he said.
An undercover detective said that Bell and one of his friends had mentioned getting a gun before going to their car, according to the New York Daily News.
(excerpt)
Detective Hispolito Sanchez said Bell and Joseph Guzman confronted a man in an SUV outside the Jamaica strip club where they just finished a bachelor party.
"(Bell) said, 'Let's f--- them up,'" Sanchez, 36, testified. "(Guzman) said, 'Yo, go get my gun.'"
Sanchez, the first of the detectives who had been inside the Kalua Cabaret to testify, said Bell and Guzman walked away when the driver put his hands in his pockets as if he had a weapon.
The pair returned moments later and repeated the same threatening comments, Sanchez said.
Also in New York City, a body that monitors the city's police department for corruption approved of the department's overall performance but criticized it for not disciplining its officers properly, according to the New York Daily News.
(excerpt)
The commission examined nine cases of off-duty misconduct involving firearms and found that the penalty imposed was too lax. For example, two off-duty cops who waved their firearms at civilians without justification were each punished with a loss of only 20 days of pay.
The commission also criticized the NYPD for failing to determine whether the incidents involved alcohol.
The commission examined 48 cases in which cops were involved in domestic disputes. The incidents ranged from disputes involving verbal threats to physical assaults to violations of orders of protection.
Nine of the cases involved cops with prior, substantiated allegations of domestic incidents.
Two of those cops were put on an unknown period of probation. One retired. In the six remaining cases, the cops lost vacation days or were suspended.
Out of 22 officers who falsified department reports, only two were fired. The commission determined that three other officers should have been terminated.
The police department is also examining how it handles stop and frisk stops.
(excerpt, New York Daily News)
"The department is currently examining ways to implement all of the recommendations, including ways to flag anomalous stop patterns by individual officers," said Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne.
In recent years, blacks and Hispanics have made up a greater share of the stops than their percentage of the general population, prompting charges of racial profiling. The department has denied racial bias, saying the stops were based on descriptions of crime suspects, a large majority of whom were described as black or Hispanic.
The NYPD, which stopped more than 500,000 New Yorkers in 2006, commissioned the Rand Corp. to perform the review. It concluded that the NYPD's tactics were race-neutral.
Rand researchers called it "problematic," however, that 15 cops stopped substantially more minority pedestrians than other officers and suggested tracking individual cops.
New York City's government is asking questions about how the police department handles mentally ill individuals.
(excerpt, NY-1)
"When there is time to negotiate, take all the time necessary to ensure the safety of all concerned," said NYPD Chief Robert Giannelli. "Deadly physical force will be used only as a last resort to protect the life of the persons present."
However, council members say more can be done. They say police need updated computer and tracking systems when responding to calls where someone may be emotionally disturbed.
"They have no way of knowing the history of this person, if they have been violent in the past or non-violent," said City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. "That is for two reasons. One is that police technology is not up to date."
The second reason, police say privacy laws make it hard to get medical records. Others believe police need to call mental health experts to the scene.
"They should be involved whenever possible," said Councilman Oliver Koppel. "We do have cases where the police may have acted improperly, where the police, because they don't understand the condition of the person that they are approaching, may have over reacted."
"We believe crisis intervention teams are the solution," said Lisa Ortega, an advocate for the mentally ill. "There has been resistance from the NYPD to implement anything other than the military style they have of circling and apprehending people."
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on how the handling of complaints against police officers is going to change in the wake of a federal trial.
(excerpt)
"This is extremely important to the Department of Justice," said Richard Ruminski, head of the FBI's office in Milwaukee. "(Police) have a tremendous amount of trust. You can't have individuals betraying that trust. People depend on police and other public officials to serve, and when they violate that trust, it requires a response."
Ruminski and Biskupic cautioned that they can't take on every complaint against Milwaukee police or any department. They don't have the people to do it, plus there are few federal laws to prosecute police, with the burden of proof high.
Federal authorities typically monitor such cases and get involved if there isn't a satisfactory outcome, as happened with Jude, Biskupic said. They reserve the right to get involved in any case at any time, but focus on the major cases, he said.
"The Jude case was not something close to the line," Biskupic said. "Nobody wants to be in the business of second-guessing a police officer breaking up a fight. That is not what the Jude case was or the cases that we are looking at. I hope the good cops know that."
Support remains strong for the family members of Stacey Peterson who hasn't been seen since last Oct. 28. Her husband and former Bolingbrook Police Department sergeant, Drew Peterson remains a suspect in her disappearance.
Labels: Backlash against civilian oversight, City Hall 101, judicial watch, labor pains, public forums in all places
posted by Five Before Midnight | 11:29 AM
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