Bits and pieces from Riverside and elsewhere

"They will have to tear it out of my hands"


--- Gerry Douglass who owns Aamco Transmissions about his planned response to the Redevelopment Agency's plan to use Eminent Domain on his business to hand it off to developers.





Sentiments are very mixed among downtown business owners about the controversial Fox Plaza project, according to the Press Enterprise.



(excerpt)



Cindy Roth, president of the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce, said downtown needs to add residents with disposable income who will help draw new restaurants and stores.

"This brings that forward," she said of the plaza project.

Neena and Giampaolo Dorigo, owners of Via Veneto Trilussa restaurant on Main Street at University Avenue, said they are hopeful Fox Plaza will bring new customers to their struggling restaurant.

"It's about time they wake up in Riverside," Giampaolo Dorigo said.

But other business owners expressed doubts.

Terry Elliott, owner of women's clothing store Parrott on Main and Sixth streets, said she foresees few buyers for Fox Plaza's condominiums.

"I think they'll end up empty," she said.



Riverside's quest to bring new residents with "disposable income" to the city where no one else apparently has money to spend continues while it's pushing poorer people especially seniors out of the city especially through gentrification of several neighborhoods and decisions like another decision made at June 10's city council meeting which may decrease viable city to city transportation for these and other folks. But given the current housing crisis and the current glut of condominiums in the housing market, Elliot may be right. These are high-ticket condos which will be located on top of businesses. Will people want to spend their money on them especially if there's limited parking for their vehicles? On the bright side, the city could be seeing the worst of the housing market crisis behind it by about 2013, so they might only be empty for a few years.

Hopefully, if they do stand empty, the owner of the project will keep them up to standards and not allow them to get run down from neglect like is happening to many of the foreclosed houses in town.



In the meantime, more people especially people of color who own businesses in the downtown are losing them to developers with the agency acting as the middle man. With no entity to advocate for them because the Riverside Downtown Partnership which takes their business tax money and the Greater Chamber of Commerce which purports to represent this city's businesses have never been friends of theirs.




The Press Enterprise weighs in on the controversy surrounding Mayor Ron Loveridge's support of a Republican candidate in the county supervisor's race.



(excerpt)



Infusing those discussions with partisan politics threatens to make local government about as effective as the Legislature, which is so politically polarized it cannot address crucial state needs. And while taxpayers might ignore the distant political yammering in Sacramento, they will care about the break-in next door or the need for a stop sign at the corner.

Local government is better off without the distracting presence of partisan politics. Voters' choices for local offices should turn on candidates' qualifications, not on party identification -- even in hotly contested county supervisor races.




People are still weighing in on the issue here.



Keep the library and museum expansions separate, so says the president of the Raincross Group's library and museum committee. Most everyone except for City Manager Brad Hudson has said this over and over. Hopefully, the city council will listen to the people including the mayor's own blue ribbon panel and not opt for Hudson's plan. After watching the current state of the Community Police Review Commission as it is after nearly three years of being under Hudson's office, he's either very good at his job or very poor at it depending on how you look at it.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)




Both the library and the museum have been operating in their current facilities since the mid-1960s, when Riverside's population was about 100,000. This alone justifies expansion.

Moreover, citizen groups, the boards of both the library and museum, and several recent studies by experts all conclude that a major expansion is needed for both facilities. The library board of trustees suggests that 62,524 square feet be added to the main library. The 2006 museum site-selection survey shows that a three-story museum addition can be built on the adjacent parking lot.

The needs of our residents -- not the arbitrary $25 million Renaissance funding figure -- should dictate these expansions. We believe that both institutions should remain on their existing sites, contributing to the historic fabric of downtown.







There will be a public hearing at City Hall on Wednesday June 18 between 6 and 8 p.m. So if you want to provide comments on the report put out by the panel, this is one important opportunity to do so. Here's the information that's included on the panel's draft.











Highgrove Happenings is for those interested in the latest news from Highgrove.



Police officers stop idling their squad cars in some places due to the high gas prices.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



"If you leave the cars running, it's not only wasting gas, it's basically frying some components in your engine," Banning Police Chief Leonard Purvis said.

Only the Banning K-9 units are allowed to keep their cars running, to provide cool air for the police dogs, Purvis said.

In Fontana, patrol officers are supposed to turn off their police cruisers during a call, Sgt. Jeff Decker said.

Police detectives drive fuel-efficient Hondas. The department is also looking at purchasing Segways, two-wheeled electric vehicles, to patrol the downtown area.

Some police agencies are more flexible when it comes to allowing cars to idle.

A Riverside police officer recently left his vehicle idling for at least seven minutes while he went into a Carl's Jr. to order a cheeseburger combo meal.

Steven Frasher, a police spokesman, defended the officer's actions. Police cars are equipped with a lot of electronics, he said. Repeatedly shutting off and turning on that gear will suck the life out of the car's battery.

In addition, the electronic equipment doesn't immediately turn on when the car is started, which could delay an officer's response to an urgent call.

The Riverside Police Department expects to spend $1.2 million for fuel this fiscal year, about 6 percent more than what it budgeted, said Austin Carter, a city spokesman.

Hemet police will continue to keep their cars running to keep sensitive computers cool during the summer heat despite the higher fuel costs, Hemet Police Chief Richard Dana said. The vehicles' computer systems can be damaged if they are left in intense heat, Dana said.







Los Angeles Times columnist, Dana Parsons muses about Sandra Hutchens appointment as the Orange County sheriff.



(excerpt)


All of which puts Hutchens in the catbird seat. She inherits a damaged department, which means the only direction to go is up. Assuming she can avoid scandal and any palpable incompetence, being an incumbent sheriff historically gives her a giant advantage when the 2010 election rolls around.

At first blush, she exudes confidence and management style. She spoke easily with cameras in her face and appears to be one of those people comfortable with themselves.

Even when she told reporters, "Yes, there will be some housecleaning," it didn't sound vindictive or power-grabbing.

Rather, she sounds like someone the public will like.

Imagine how grateful she must be to Mike Carona for giving her the chance to shine.



Red Country blogs on the Hutchens appointment from end to beginning.



The public weights in on the appointment.






A better working environment for gay and lesbian police officers is one of the goals of the Philadelphia Police Department.



(excerpt, Philadelphia Inquirer)



Within his own ranks, Charles H. Ramsey wants to make it safe for gay and lesbian officers to be out of the closet amid a macho culture that, he acknowledges, keeps most of them in hiding.

"My goal is to create an environment where officers don't feel intimidated in any way," Ramsey said in a recent interview. "If they want to acknowledge [their sexuality], they should feel comfortable doing it."

In another trust-building initiative, Ramsey is considering launching a full-time unit dedicated to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

Modeled on the pioneering, award-winning detachment he created in Washington in 2000, it would include two or three officers and a base in Center City's "gayborhood," roughly bounded by 11th, Broad, Chestnut and Pine Streets.

Many say such a unit would improve the under-reporting of hate crimes and domestic disturbances by the city's LGBT residents.

"They don't have faith that the police will do something," Ramsey says. "We want to make sure they feel comfortable telling us about any issue that needs to be addressed. . . . We need to be very sensitive to that."






A deputy chief for the California Highway Patrol settled his retaliation law suit for nearly $1 million.





Different perspectives about the use of a taser in Eugene were told at a city council meeting there.




Sovereignty is the focal issue stemming from the ongoing situation among leadership of Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians including Robert Salgado and the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.




(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)



"I'm not talking about them bending over backwards for us, but the Justice Department has told them in these meetings that, as chairman, I am like the president of the United States," Salgado said. "We are a sovereign nation."

An agreement is expected as early as Wednesday.

"We are dotting the I's and crossing the Ts now," Salgado said, sitting at his kitchen table. "It will be a memorandum of understanding about how we communicate in the future."

Salgado still bristles at how deputies responded to last month's shootings, how he's been treated and some of what's been said about the tribe.

He's also unhappy with Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone, who urged the tribe last week to boot him out as chairman and bring in "new blood."

"I don't think we will see an end of this unsettling loss of life on the reservation until there is a change of leadership," Stone said in a recent interview. "I have met with Salgado over the years, and our encounters have been professional; but I witness him in public and he reverts to this whole cowboys-and-Indians thing. We all understand what happened in the past, and we can't change it. We need a new generation looking forward."





At least 21 police officers in Utah were disciplined for misconduct after further changes in the guidelines were made at the state level.



(excerpt, Deseret Morning News)





During the Utah Peace Officer Standards and Training Council's quarterly meeting on Monday, council members voted to make consensual sexual misconduct on duty and lying to POST or internal affairs investigators offenses that could merit a three-year certification suspension.

That same day, 21 officers were disciplined for various forms of misconduct, ranging from drug use and DUI to sexual misconduct, both on and off duty. Some received suspensions, others had their peace officer certifications revoked.

A few officers challenged the decisions made by POST Council. Former Helper Police Chief George Zamantakis asked the council to reconsider a decision to revoke his peace officer certification. The former police chief acknowledged having an affair with a former secretary and initially lied to POST investigators about it. He did it to protect her privacy, Zamantakis' attorney said.

"I made a mistake and I'm wrong," Zamantakis told the council. "There's a lot of things I wish I'd have done differently."

Zamantakis had the support of his wife, who held his hand as he sat throughout the meeting.

"He is not only a wonderful man, he is a wonderful officer with lots to offer the whole community," she said tearfully. "If I can forgive him, I hope that somewhere you guys can give him a second chance."

The ex-husband of the woman involved in the affair stood and told the POST Council to hold the chief accountable. Ultimately, the council upheld the decision to revoke Zamantakis' certification.








Two dead people and one deputy. Such is the case in Georgia where DeKalb County Sheriff's Department Deputy Derrick Yancey shot and killed a man who he claimed came into the house and fatally shot his wife, Linda during an attempted robbery.

The dead man was not identified but Yancey said he was a day laborer hired to do landscape work.



(excerpt, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)



Yancey, 46, had picked up the man "to help him do some work around the house," the police says. "(He) said the male had tried to rob him and shot his wife. (He) said he then shot the male."

Details of what Yancey said happened inside the Stone Mountain home Monday afternoon emerged as other records show that Yancey was arrested twice in 2006 on domestic violence charges for confrontations with his teenage son. Charges were dropped in both cases.

After Monday's shootings, neighbors said Yancey previously had hired day laborers to help with landscaping at his home. Yancey told police he did not know the man he hired on Monday.

He called 911 after the shootings and led an officer to the basement. The officer saw an Hispanic man lifeless on the floor, "with a silver revolver lying on his left side," according to the report. Linda Yancey was lying in an adjacent doorway.

The officer spotted at least one silver shell casing on the floor, as well as a "large roll of bills, including $50 and $100 dollar bills," the report said.


Yancey's employer is conducting investigations into both shootings as well as an administrative investigation to determine whether or not Yancey violated departmental policy when he used his gun.


As stated in the article, Yancey has also been arrested at least twice himself.



(excerpt)



Neither the sheriff's office nor county police officials would comment on Yancey's arrests in April and November 2006, in separate incidents involving his son Karron, now 18.

Police reports, which include some improperly redacted information, show that, in the April incident, Yancey told police that his son hit him in the face when he tried to take away the teen's cell phone, as punishment for downloading "dirty music" on the family computer.

A relative who was at the home called police, saying Linda Yancey said her husband chased their son out of the home with his pistol and threatened to "blow her son (sic) head off." Linda Yancey later confirmed the threat but said her husband was not armed when he made it.

Yancey was charged with making terroristic threats.

In November, Yancey and his son had another blow up over music. Yancey said he returned home to hear offensive music playing and confronted his son. The teen said Yancey hit him and threw his computer keyboard down, according to the report.

Police charged Yancey with simple assault and battery.

Although prosecutors dropped both cases, the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council has an open investigation into Yancey on at least one of the incidents.





In Pennsylvania, Sheriff John Green put his job on the line to save people's homes from foreclosure.