RPD: The Department Promotes and Reorganizes

[The police department's Orange Street Station where it houses its administrative headquarters and where decisions are being made on promotions and reorganization.]




There's been reaction to the recent spate of promotions made by Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz, his first such action since he took the position on July 1. His only other officially announced action involving personnel had been to appoint Capt. Mike Blakely as his deputy chief. And it certainly appears from the promotional list released that Blakely welds some influence with Diaz as the list of promotions includes quite a few officers that were mentored in their careers by Blakely and outgoing Asst. (and acting) Chief John DeLaRosa who was a key part of Diaz' transition team during his first weeks in the department. Quite a few of them have SWAT backgrounds or worked in the Personnel and Training Division under Blakeley and DeLaRosa's tutelage. Just as had been the case with individuals promoted during the first round this year in back in February where DeLaRosa promoted the sergeant who had worked under Blakely and him in personnel and training and an officer with an expunged termination from the department.

More promotions took place in the following months and the department actually broke long standing droughts in the promotion of Black male officers and female officers into the supervisory ranks with the promotions of Lt. Melissa Bartholomew, Sgt. Linda Byerly and Sgt. Brian Dodson. Ones that extended back to the dissolution of the stipulated judgment with the State Attorney General's office in early 2006. But even with the promotions to fill these supervisory positions, the vacancies at the lieutenant and sergeant's levels continue to climb. In fact, the lieutenant's vacancy rate consistently rested at about 33%, leading to shortages of individuals to staff the watch commands for the different work shifts.

Also low both in numbers and proportionately were sergeants who had at least five vacancies with more probably to come by the end of 2010. The latest rounds of promotions do address the staffing shortages at the supervisory ranks which is important in a department with a fairly "young" patrol division due to very high departmental turnover earlier in the decade and several hiring waves later on.

But they have also created new vacancies at the bottom officer level, five more of them which will have to be filled through the creation of more officer level positions to address staffing shortages at this level. Staffing levels of patrol officers on some of the shifts is lower than in some cities smaller in population than Riverside. The city is currently engaging in a hiring plan to fill officer positions also vacated by attrition including recent retirements as well as back flowing officers in the patrol division.

The city council has approved the creation of 15 positions and had begun hiring to fill some of the patrol level positions vacated by attrition but it's not clear whether the city's paid for those 15 positions or is relying on receiving grant money from the COPS office in Washington, D.C. which it already has applied to for the second year in a row. Last year, Riverside didn't receive any funding where demand was so high that each $1 allotted by the COPS had received about $9 worth of requests by law enforcement agencies across the country.

But at any rate, the police department led by Diaz did promote to fill about 14 vacated positions. He said that he participated in interviews of the eight captain's candidates along with DeLaRosa and Blakely after reviewing personnel histories, places worked and assignments held by the candidates. Perea's assignment will be inside the department's administrative division.

For sergeants and lieutenants, Diaz said he used the existing lists and made the decisions based on reviewing personnel histories, work assignments and their folders to make the decisions to fill those vacancies.

Diaz said he is also in the process of meeting with Human Resources Director Rhonda Strout to discuss the recruitment and ultimately hiring process of both an assistant and deputy chief.




[Deputy Chief Mike Blakely's words obviously carried great weight with Chief Sergio Diaz during the promotional process as quite a few of his protegees including two of the three new lieutenants made the cut this round.]



The promotions on July 30, 2010 were as followed:



Captain Mike Perea: One of DeLaRosa's protegees, currently running the Investigations division as a lieutenant. Moved to personnel.



Lt. Bruce Blomdahl: Former SWAT officer, later in Personnel and Training which lost its lieutenant, Gary Leach, this spring and Blakely's protegee.


Lt. Eric Charette: Current SWAT sergeant and allegedly Blakely's protegee

Lt. Dan Hoxmeier: Former PACT sergeant, later replaced Sgt. Lisa Williams in Communications by Blakely and DeLaRosa to allegedly provide him greater visibility internally


Sgt. Carla Hardin: Long-time on list, first female motor officer in department's history


Sgt. Cliff Mason: RPOA president, demoted to detective in 2009 for failure to properly supervise and currently in the first year of his term as president.

Sgt. Brian Smith: RPOA vice-president formerly in the gang unit

Sgt. William Crutchfield: Former PACT and SWAT member, promoted to detective several years ago.

Sgt. Don Nelson: investigator in Sexual Assault and Child Abuse, promoted in February 2010 to detective by DeLaRosa

Det. Karla Beler Former school resource officer

Det. Kim Crutchfield: Former sergeant promoted in 2005 who didn't pass probation

Det. Phil Fernandez: Former public information officer

Det. Nick Kean: Patrol







As usual, the promotions have proven to be very interesting and the topic already of much conversation in this city. Some people were very surprised at the promotional list, while others not so much. But one thing that was noticeable right off the bat were the clear influences of two people who hold or held high ranking positions in the police department which were former Asst. Chief (and acting) John DeLaRosa who retired on July 23 and current Deputy Chief Mike Blakely. Both were part of the transitional effort for Diaz even before he officially began his job and continue onward. DeLaRosa worked closely with him until the date of his retirement after his 30+ year career with the department ended rather abruptly after his involvement in the mishandling and attempted coverup of the DUI incident involving the former police chief.


[Former Asst. Chief John DeLaRosa's influence in the police department has outlived his career as shown in the most recent round of promotions by the new chief, Diaz on July 30 including one of his protegees, Mike Perea to captain.]





The promotions were especially large in number to address the critical shortages in the middle line positions in the police department due to attrition, budgetary cuts and short sightedness by the city manager's office who was pushed by the city government (minus the mayor) to fill these positions despite his high reluctance. The lieutenant and sergeant ranks were frozen for several years until actions were taken behind closed door to pressure City Manager Brad Hudson to unfreeze them. That allegedly came close to fruition in December when two sergeant position and one lieutenant position were scheduled to be unfrozen but apparently Loveridge put his foot down regarding that and they were then set to be unfrozen in January after a closed session was held between the city council, the management and representatives of the police associations. Two weeks before the DUI incident involving former Chief Russ Leach, a meeting took place involving Hudson to negotiate for the unfreezing of at least two sergeant positions.

And in early February amidst the growing scandal, a lieutenant and three sergeants were promoted. More promotions followed in the months of limbo while the city scrambled around to hire its next police chief. But even as supervisory positions were filled in increments, the attrition rate continued undoing many of these gains quite quickly.



As far as the promotional lists went, they didn't carry much weight in this round of promotions except for the detectives list. For that rank, those who are listed at its top are customarily promoted in that order. For the ranks of sergeant and above, selections can be taken from anywhere on the promotional lists. Two candidates who were promoted, a lieutenant and a sergeant, ranked near the top of the lists whereas other applicants were taken from other positions on the list particularly involving the lieutenant's list the value of which has appeared to change. There was testing for the detective's rank (which still promotes straight off the list) in July and the other two positions will test in August with the list whatever it's worth to be finalized in October. Some had said that the format of the written test would be changed from its previous test which left people wondering how they would fare the next time around. Will the test matter or not matter, that will be interesting to watch in the months ahead because at this point, it's anyone's guess. And what will become of the lists themselves?


And that's ironic after having listened to chiefs, all past along with more than a few deputy and even an assistant chief tell me or others that in the case of women that if they want to get promoted, more of them have to appear near the top of these promotional lists. Otherwise known as the "low numbers" argument that's commonly used. Well, three women in the Riverside Police Department did that and dominated the top five including two in the top three of the lieutenant's list and then suddenly it seemed as if the lists didn't seem to be nearly as important anymore.

One problem off the bat, race and gender aside, is that the department and city residents have already witnessed what happens when the promotional lists suddenly become worthless and the power shifts to those making decisions which are more and more subjective. And at least in the case of the captains came more and more from outside the police department. Of the last four captains promoted, how many of them were selected by former Chief Russ Leach? Well, according to sworn testimony taken from depositions we have learned that apparently Leach did select both Meredyth Meredith and John Carpenter to be captains. But a provision in the city's charter gives City Manager Brad Hudson the "final say" in promotions made by department heads including the police chief. The only thing is that we know now that not even Hudson had the final say in the promotions of Meredith and Carpenter as apparently those decisions were ultimately left to of all people City Councilman Steve Adams who vetoed Meredyth and approved Carpenter but only after a reconciliation meeting between him, Adams and former Deputy Chief Pete Esquivel at a Corona restaurant.





[Capt. Meredyth Meredith was Leach's choice for promotion but her first go was vetoed by City Hall in the final hours. Only an alleged threat of litigation by Meredyth led to the creation of the captain of Communications about six months later.]




[Capt. John Carpenter's promotion was allegedly and initially not fancied by Councilman Steve Adams but the two made up at a restaurant in Corona not long before Carpenter's promotion went through.]


After watching the train wreck that the captain's promotional process has become since the tossing of the captain's list or the elimination of its ranking process, one wonders why anyone including at City Hall would be in such a hurry to bring this same dysfunctional practice which ripped the highest ranks apart and created a sea of infighting and turmoil to the supervisory ranks. The situation involving the promotions into management also created a big gulf between that level and any promising leaders who could someday make excellent managers. This was due to the lack of collaboration and cooperation among the management level employees who instead became mired in competition that appeared more destructive and divisive than anyone else. It is hoped that the department will engage more including at the top in behaviors encouraging the next generation of its leaders, management and supervisors rather than having individuals pull up the ladders after they climb them.

But then this is Riverside and one learns to expect the unexpected or what on its face appears to be illogical. Something that has to change but it remains to be seen whether that will take place at the top.

But anyway, what's interesting about the situations involving the lieutenant and sergeants' list under this system adopted individually for both within the several years is to watch closely for the role played (or not played) by the so-called promotional lists for both positions. On the sergeants side, most of those who topped the list have been promoted in the past six months. Not so is the case with the lieutenant's list which is the rank with a firm foot in supervision but another foot involved at the management level though that's more with the responsibilities than the perks.

Here's the top portion of the list and the fate of those who were on it at the beginning of this new year, before all this recent intrigue really started playing out in a more public forum.

Police Department's Lieutenant list (Feb. 2010)

1) Jaybee Brennan: (white female) transferred from Chief's office to patrol

2) Daniel Hoxmeier: (white male) transferred to Orange Street, promoted July 30

3) Lisa Williams: (white female) transferred from Orange Street to patrol

4) Val Graham: (black male): Internal investigation allegedly opened up on him eight months after an already investigated incident by Blakely and DeLaRosa

5) Melissa Bartholomew: (white female) promoted in spring 2010

6) Andy Flores: (Hispanic male) promoted in January 2010


#11) Lt. Leon Phillips' rank on his candidate list when promoted on July 1, 2008 by Leach





As stated earlier, it's interesting to watch the fate of the list and those on it over time until it phases out later this autumn to be replaced by a newer list created through the next round of promotional processes which begins of course long before the promotions are picked by the chief whose promotions of course have to pass the muster of city management. It's not clear at this stage of Diaz' tenure the role of the city management in this process because it all happens behind more than one closed doors and is not transparent to the public including the involvement of individuals at City Hall. Not any more transparent than the promotions allegedly vetoed or not by individuals in City Hall for captains were known by the public until they were revealed through sworn testimony in relation to two lawsuits filed by former Lts. Tim Bacon and Darryl Hurt settled earlier this year.

But it's up to the elected government to ensure that the city management doesn't micromanage city departments and it could be visible readily enough certainly by the beginning of next year's election cycle for four of the council seats whether this is being done by the city council or not.

Promotion, Probation and the RPOA

Another fascinating aspect of the latest round of promotions were that involving the sergeant ranks which saw the two highest-ranking leaders of the Riverside Police Officers' Association promoted to that level. Those were current president Cliff Mason and vice-president, Brian Smith. Since both have been promoted to this rank, they have been placed on the nine months of probation pursuant to changes made under the 2001 stipulated judgment with the State Attorney General's office. Meaning that they can be demoted without cause for allegedly failing the terms of their probationary status. It's the first time the RPOA has had a president on sergeant's probation since prior president Pat McCarthy was promoted during his second term in that position around 2005. Some said that it was his promotion and the subsequent probationary period which made him vulnerable to being ousted from office when he ran for his third term as president later that year. He ultimately lost the election to Det. Ken Tutwiler who was elected and served one full term. It's not clear in recent history whether there's ever been a situation when both the president and vice-president were promoted to sergeant at the same time or even during times where probationary statuses overlapped.

Historically, the situation involving union leaders and promotions has been interesting to follow as it seems that the majority of past union presidents of the RPOA and even the Riverside Police Administrators' Association either get promoted out of their ranks or they get forced out of the department depending on their relationships with police department leadership and management as well as with individuals at City Hall. It can be related to contentious issues that arise between the different entities including those which are labor related or the relationships themselves. Given the rather insulated nature of the RPOA which deals with the even more insulated issues of police personnel contracts, grievances and issues in general often behind closed doors with city and/or departmental management, it's not clear to those outside of it the kinds of relationships that individual leaders had with those they interfaced most often with over these sometimes tumultuous issues.



Let's look at the RPOA's own history since 2001.





Sgt. Jay Theuer: Promoted to lieutenant in 2001 while acting president of the RPOA


Pat McCarthy: Elected to two full terms, promoted to sergeant then voted out of office by membership


Ken Tutwiler: Elected to one term as president and Brian Smith elected to vice-president replacing Chris Lanzillo


Chris Lanzillo: Elected after defeating Tutwiler and serves one two-year term. Later files lawsuit alleging retaliation for union activities. Fired by one of the defendants, DeLaRosa not long after.


Cliff Mason: Elected over Chris Lanzillo in late 2009 after demotion to detective, Promoted back to sergeant in July 2010




With the RPAA, the history's less clear but it appears that so far one of its presidents, Lt. Darryl Hurt who was at the helm during probably the most tumultuous period in terms of issues directly impacting that union and its leadership including the 2006 contract negotiations and the 2007 "at will" situation involving upper management was retired out of the department after suing for retaliation by department management, city management and members of the city council for his union actions. The RPAA so far hasn't shown a similar history of its leadership getting promoted out of its top positions into management, given that the majority of past RPAA presidents have been lieutenants.



Mason's promotion was particularly interesting given that it came about a year after he had been demoted from the sergeant's rank he had held for about eight years allegedly for harassment and failure to supervise involving an onduty incident with him, a woman and two patrol officers called by a neighbor to investigate a possible prowler. Allegedly both DeLaRosa and Blakely had recommended his termination from the department but was overruled by Leach who demoted him instead. Now a little more than a year later, he's been promoted back to the sergeant's position which justified or not has created a bit of a stir already. Not to mention that the situation involving the illegal gun sale between the city management and the police department, meaning the one that had to be "redone", had him listed as the actual seller on some paperwork filled out by either city management or the police department on the original and very problematic to say the least, sale. There's been no public response from City Hall on the whole issue of this illegal transaction and none from Mason about his own role in it.

It's not a completely fair position for Mason because most likely he was ordered to perform or place his name on the record of sale which was initially listed as involving a "private party" and it's more than likely that City Hall including the parties involved and possibly even the city attorney's office have placed a gag order as they would on any city employee in that situation which prevents him from talking about it publicly to explain his role. So he's powerless to lift the cloud of suspicion regarding his role in a gun sale which created problems for an outside law enforcement agency and that's a situation that's out of his hands. He will however have to be extra conscientious to prove to city residents that his newly regained rank is the appropriate one which means he will have to have gained considerably more appreciation for that rank than he showed last year.

But with any promotional process, it remains to be seen what will happen next and how the dynamic of the recent promotions will play out including inside the RPOA. How will the membership react to the promotions and probationary periods of two of its highest leaders, that is very difficult to call at this point but will be interesting to follow in the weeks and months ahead. Labor dynamics being such that there's often a culture which separates management and even supervision from the ranks below them which is systemic in many business cultures and also law enforcement as well. That creates a challenging situation indeed as history has indeed shown during the past 10 years.

Department Undergoing Reorganization

Chief Sergio Diaz has released information about some of his plans for reorganizing the department, some of which has already taken place while others are to be implemented before the department's shift change later this month. It will be part of a multi-phase process that will take place over time with primary focus being on promoting to fill vacancies and in restructuring field operations.

He said that most of his focus would be in creating resources for the department's field operations division which is undergoing quite a bit of reorganization in the upcoming weeks and months. One of the most significant changes involves management over that division. Currently, the field operations division was overseen by two captains who divided the city up into two relative halves between them. Capt. John Carpenter oversaw two of the city's four precincts, north and east while Capt. Meredyth Meredith oversaw those of central and west. Under the new system, there will be only one field captain and that will be John Wallace overlooking all four areas of the city included in both halves. Carpenter will be moved to Special Operations while Meredith will oversee Investigations. Perea, the newest captain will be working under Blakely in Administration/Personnel. All of these divisions are undergoing reorganization as well.

The four Neighborhood Policing Centers and their respective area command positions will remain intact but the East NPC will move into space shared with the North NPC in the downtown bus terminal while the bulk of field operations will be moved to Lincoln Station. The logic of moving the East NPC to downtown is that it will be located closer to the area that it serves as Lincoln Station actually resides inside the Central NPC.

All of the remainder of the field operations division will be moved to Lincoln Station and housed there under Wallace and six watch commanders plus an executive lieutenant to handle its higher administrative responsibilities. Disparities of information and training by officers assigned to the two different stations led in part to this movement to place all of field operations minus the four NPCs at Lincoln. The sergeant/officer ratio will continue to be recorded by the watch commanders on the documentation they fill out during their respective work shifts.


The Internal Affairs Division will likely be moved away from the bus terminal office space where it's resided since late 2008 and move either to Orange Station, the Magnolia Policing Center or in another location. It will remain staffed and eventually its operations will be more closely examined and this will hopefully include taking necessary steps to reduce the exorbitant time spent investigating or processing citizen complaints, the average of which is about 150 to 200 days spent before they even reach the Community Police Review Commission. That puts a strain on all the parties involved and risks violation of state laws including Governmental Code 3304(d). Ideally, Internal Affairs should be separate from any field operations division, contain a secured storage area for personnel information and be accessible for everyone that needs to do so. The office space near the Riverside Plaza provided a good location for the division but the rental costs were prohibitive in a budgetary time of difficulty. Combining the positive elements of that location for that division along with fiscal prudence would probably provide the best outcome.

Special Operations which will be under Carpenter will also be undergoing reorganization and will be mostly overseen by Lt. Larry Gonazalez but Lt. Guy Touissaint will oversee the traffic division.

Media relations and the Audit and Compliance Bureau are currently unstaffed and will be addressed after the issues with Field Operations have been resolved. Diaz said that he didn't believe that the Audit and Compliance Bureau performed any "highly significant" work and will be reconceptionalized to examine operations, training, best practices and risk management. He said that Blakely and Perea will be very busy at changing operational procedures, supervisory training and on completing the "overdue" Strategic Plan.







Former Riverside County Sheriff Deputy Angela Parks is going to state prison.





The city council in San Bernardino will consider sponsoring a ballot initiative that would change some elected positions to being appointed including that of the city attorney.



Press Enterprise Columnist Dan Bernstein writes about the relationship between Best, Best and Krieger law firm and several city local cities in the news lately



What are Inland Empire city governments paying their top level employees?

Why Was the CPRC Allowed by City Staff to Violate Its Own Bylaws?

UPDATE: PROMOTIONS IN RPD ANNOUNCED

Captain Mike Perea

Lt. Bruce Blomdahl

Lt. Eric Charette

Lt. Dan Hoxmeier

Sgt. Carla Hardin

Sgt. Cliff Mason

Sgt. Brian Smith

Sgt. William Crutchfield

Sgt. Don Nelson

Det. Karla Beler

Det. Kim Crutchfield

Det. Phil Fernandez

Det. Nick Kean



More to come...

Early notes:


From Blakely's mouth to Diaz' ears?


Promotions, Probation and the RPOA Leadership


Filling the vacancies from top to bottom


What does the future hold?











[The former chair of the Community Police Review Commission Peter Hubbard listens to a discussion during a past meeting. He had voted in favor of changing the commission's general meeting times to earlier in the day, an action which apparently violated the commission's own bylaws.]




A somewhat shocking event took place at the July 28 general meeting involving the Community Police Review Commission when the body was forced to reinstate its original meeting time of 5:30 p.m. after one commissioner pointed out that the prior votes to change the meeting times to earlier in the day violated the commission's own bylaws. Actually it's only shocking until you examine it outside of the context of the actions and behaviors which have been taking place at Riverside's very own City Hall this year, most of them under the tutelage of the city manager's office which micromanages the commission as heavily as it has done with the police department.

I mean this is a City Hall where violations involving the issuance of badges, cold plates and guns have taken place not to mention the alleged destruction of public documents. And it's more than likely that the problematic actions in the city include more than just what has come to public light. Because after all, the public was never supposed to know about the badges, guns and cold plates scandals so what else hasn't the public been allowed to know? How big is this iceberg anyway and how much of it remains unexposed? That's a commonly asked question these days.

And by the time some of these scandals came to light, one of the parties implicated in the cold plates incident, Councilman Steve Adams dismissed it as "old news". Also still unaddressed publicly by the city government are the contradictory accounts given by various city employees who gave sworn testimony through depositions in relation to lawsuits filed by two former police lieutenants.

But when you examine the larger picture of misbehavior and even illegal acts committed by some denizens of City Hall, the news that one of the city's commissions that is supposed to help ensure accountability is instead violating its own rulebook. In fact, unfortunately it's to be expected.

Article VII (Section 1) of the commission's bylaws clearly states when the monthly public meetings are to be held and that's on the fourth Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers.While the Section does allow for meeting times to be changed, it's when the commission agrees ahead of time which indicates that a general consensus has to be reached by the commission to take that action which has hardly been the case here. In fact, all the votes to change the meeting times have been simple majority votes taken among less than the full commission on most occasions. And the one thing that the commission hasn't done on this contentious issue is to actually "agree" on the meeting location. A simple majority vote by its nature is the opposite of a commission "agreeing" to change the time of a meeting.

This violation shouldn't have been news to the commissioners who voted to change the meetings nor the city staff because it was actually brought up some time ago.

Hardly a consensus reached by a fractious body, especially if several members of the commission were prohibited from attending the meetings because of their jobs or could only attend if they used up sick or vacation days. Of course those commissioners who told the ones who had to do that in order to make sacrifices somehow never had to make any themselves.

Many people believe that the commission's vote to change its meetings to be held earlier in the day was a deliberate action not only to discourage city residents from attending but also to infringe on the ability of sitting commissioners who work until the evenings to be unable to attend as well. Some of the commissioners certainly didn't appear that concerned that some of their members could no longer attend regularly.

But how was this apparent violation of its own bylaws by a voting bloc of the CPRC which aligns itself with City Hall interests allowed to happen? After all, the commission's executive manager Kevin Rogan authorized the votes that were conducted change these meeting times as did City Attorney Gregory Priamos who attends meetings regularly along with one of his deputy city attorneys. Priamos was in Utah when the latest CPRC meeting took place but his standin was unable to answer basic questions asked by several commissioners who pointed out the violation in the bylaws. Why didn't Priamos, the legal advisor to the commission advise the body that it was essentially violating its own bylaws? Priamos if you recall did the opposite by telling the commission that changing its general meeting time to earlier in the day was perfectly okay through a simple majority vote. When in actuality, the process for amending or changing even the commission's written policies and procedures let alone its bylaws is much more complicated as had been explained by Priamos and Rogan when it came to discussing changes to the investigative protocol involving officer-involved deaths several years ago.

Apparently according to some discussion on this issue which allegedly took place at the July 28 meeting, the process of changing bylaws was simplified somewhat by city staff members so that a simple majority vote of changing the meeting times or even the bylaws was adequate. But the end result for now is that the commission's meetings had been moved back to their original time of 5:30 p.m. Three individuals did appear at the commission's meeting (held this month at 3 p.m.) for the first time to voice their opinions that the meetings should be moved back to noon. a

Even after the situation was resolved by pushing the commission back in compliance with its own established bylaws, questions continued to be asked.

And one person to ask questions of is clearly Priamos and why he allowed this violation of the bylaws to take place on his watch. Because not only didn't he advise commissioners about it ahead of time, he endorsed the decision by the commission to take the votes to change the meetings more than once. Once again, Priamos' own behavior shows why the commission needs its own independent counsel.





[City Attorney Gregory Priamos (r.) authorized several votes taken by members of the Community Police Review Commission to change its meeting times in violation of its own bylaws. If Priamos is the designated legal adviser for this commission why did he not bring up the conflict with the commission's bylaws?]






Not to mention Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis who apparently authorized the movement of CPRC meetings outside of City Hall's city council chambers and more lately into the Public Utility Board Room off-site. During at least one earlier meeting held at this venue, the recording equipment failed to function property which led to no available recording of that meeting. DeSantis also apparently failed to ensure that his manager was cognizant in the commission's own bylaws and was performing his role of making sure the commission wasn't violating them.


[Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis allegedly ordered the CPRC to move its meeting to the Public Utility Board Room even though the bylaws state that the meetings are to be held in the city council chambers unless "agreed" upon in advance by the commissioners.]







And then there are some of the commissioners themselves including those who voted to change the meetings after knowing that many city residents and even members of the commission were unable to attend the meetings at earlier times at all or without using up their sick or vacation days to attend. Commissioners Art Santore (who allegedly is thinking about running for city council in 2013), Peter Hubbard (whose employed by American Medical Response, which has a contract with the city manager's office), Robert Slawsby (who has ties to political consultant Brian Floyd) and Kenneth Rotker voted repeatedly to move the meetings away from the time set in the commission's bylaws. The commission through its chair Brian Pearcy has yet to issue any type of public statement as to why the majority of its voting body voted to change the meeting times in violation of the bylaw and the city management and city attorney's office have yet to explain why either their department heads or their designated employees have participated in the commission violating its own bylaws.




[CPRC Commissioner Kenneth Rotker (r.) cast a vote to change the meetings to earlier in the day, an action that apparently violated the commission's own bylaws.]









[CPRC Chair Brian Pearcy listens to discussion at a recent meeting held at noon inside the cramped sixth floor conference room at City Hall regarding the scheduling of the commission's general meetings.]

City Manager Brad Hudson Passes Performance Evaluation Despite Scandals

[City Manager Brad Hudson survived his first performance evaluation since the guns, badges and cold plates scandals broke. Several elected officials said they had questions but most appeared simpatico with their direct employee. ]








To Bob,
I wish you knew what I know about the City Mananger, Mayor and City Council. So here are a few tid bits.

In spite of what is presented publicly, the Mayor runs this town and the Council. Read the city charter. The mayor plans the CC meetings and determines what is put on the agenda. The City Manager is doing what the mayor wants done and has staff prepare reports for the CC on issues of importance to the mayor. The mayor can block any councilmember's suggestions from going forward. You may hear a contrary comment or suggestion at the council meeting. However, if the mayor sees fit he will block it from coming back for a vote. This power allows him to work the council(politics). "You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours."
Remember city manager Caravalos from 2005? I believe he was fired for not wanting to go forward with the mayor on unlawful funding of the "Renaissance". He put together the mayor's Renaissance Plan and had it in the adopted 2006 budget including the unlawful taxes to fund the borrowing of $1 billion in Certificates of Participation. The mayor and CC hired Hudson to push the plan forward. Hudson is smart and gets what the mayor wants completed. His problems seems to come from a lack of ethical limits. If the Mayor wants it done Hudson will get it done (legal or not).
The Mayor is in his seventies. He is a tenured UC Proffessor of Political Science. Your should read his writings and teachings. He is all about "how to run local govt." Being mayor has been his professional hobby for the last 16 yrs. The re-branding of Riverside from the Citrus heritage model to the City of Art and Innovation model is the begining of his dream to have the politically perfect model city government. He is determined to succeed in his dreams. His dream has saddled us all with $1 billion (for 30 yrs) of renaissance debt and has unlawfully taken almost $400 million from the people of Riverside in the last five yrs. The city continues to tax you at a rate of at least $75 million per yr. in hidden taxes. This is killing our local economy. Businesses are failing in the city, Families are failing too. Homes are foreclosed every day. We have to stop our city from taxing our local economy and the people to death!


----"Gray Panther" at PE.com




Riverside City Manager Brad Hudson's performance evaluation behind closed doors at City Hall came and went on July 27 during the city council's afternoon session. The legislative body listened and decided on a public hearing lasting 90 minutes before adjourning to the conference room. Some elected officials including Councilman Paul Davis had said that they had concerns to raise and questions to ask regarding Hudson and DeSantis in light of the scandals that broke recently regarding guns, badges and cold plates. However, Councilman Andrew Melendrez told the Press Enterprise that his concerns didn't weigh too heavily on his belief that they would impact the city manager's performance and Council members Steve Adams and Nancy Hart have said that they hadn't received any complaints from their ward residents on the matter. Their responses tell you pretty eloquently what's wrong with the city government's dynamic and why scandals can take place and even take root. The most popular defense is to just ignore the scandals, write them off as "mistakes" that were "corrected" and focus on Riverside Renaissance (without of course addressing the massive debt ahead).

Adams will be able to put that the assertion that frankly no one in Ward Seven gives a damn to the test next year when he's up for reelection to his ward seat. So far John Brandriff, a member of the CPRC has announced an intention to run against Adams but the election cycle hasn't really begun yet so others could come out of the woodwork as well.


Deborah Wong from the coalition of community organizations discussing these troubling issues spoke before the city council during its afternoon session. But in the end despite getting clamored by city residents to address these issues which have shaken Riverside and damaged public trust in City Hall and the police department (which is undergoing its second major reorganization in a decade) by city residents.

Upcoming Meetings on Ethics Code Review

Wednesday Sept. 1 at 4 p.m., the Governmental Affairs Committee will be conducting its annual Review of the Ethics Code and Complaint Process at City Hall in the Mayor's Ceremonial Room on the Seventh Floor.


Tuesday, Sept. 21 at approximately 7 p.m. the city council will be discussing the annual review of the Ethics Code and Complaint process including any recommendations it receives from the Governmental Affairs Committee.


With all the interesting events that have been coming out of City Hall and elsewhere in the past six months, a lot of people have raised concerns about the ethics of those residing at City Hall. This is one of the hottest tickets in town, especially considering who serves on the Governmental Affairs Committee which includes Councilman Steve Adams, implicated in the cold plates scandal.

Press Enterprise Columnist Dan Bernstein writes about the transition taking place between the incoming and outgoing district attorneys in Riverside County. As usual, what's most interesting about when he writes about the D.A.'s office is reading the comments thread where someone stated a rumor that top prosecutors under outgoing DA Rod Pacheo including Bill Mitchell, Kelly Keenan and Sara Danville are being asked to resign or be fired.





The so-call hotel bed tax will go to the voters in Riverside this November.


The Lunar New Year's Festival is coming to Riverside beginning on Jan. 29, 2011.

Campaign Fundraising Events

John Brandriff, Ward Seven:

August 4 at 6pm at the Kountry Folks Homestyle Restaurant at 3653 La Sierra Avenue



Steve Adams, Ward Seven:

August 5 between 6-8 pm at Ciao Bella Restaurant on 1630 Spruce





Ed Adkison, Mayor:

Oct. 6 between 6-8 pm at Victoria Club on 2521 Arroyo Drive

Riverside's City Goverment Evaluates Its City Manager

"I have received many, many e-mails and phone calls from my constituency"

---Riverside City Councilman Paul Davis on the response of his ward's residents to various City Hall scandals






[Riverside City Manager Brad Hudson's not quite making as much as his counterpart in Bell (yet) but he's facing some scrutiny perhaps for the first time during his performance evaluation behind closed doors today by the city council and mayor.]





The city council and Mayor Ron Loveridge were set to evaluate City Manager Brad Hudson on his job performance, his first such evaluation since the breaking of the guns, badges and cold plates scandals, which was then promptly followed by the alleged destruction of public documents that had been requested through the California Public Records Act by the Press Enterprise not too long ago. This evaluation comes along annually but rumor is that it was expedited this year by concerns raised by several elected officials. And if that's true, then it's about time the city council and Loveridge have listened to city residents in this city who have raised concerns about what's been going on in Riverside during the tenures of City Manager Brad Hudson and Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis. It had seemed that even as anger and outrage was felt across the city since the DUI incident involve former police chief, Russ Leach in Feb. 9, that the city council and Loveridge occupied space in an alternate universe. That they either condoned what had been taking place and what had been unfolding in recent weeks and months or they didn't care. Loveridge of course has been focusing most of his energy and time on business conducted as president of the League of Cities which of course is much more important than just one city, Riverside. Even as the exploits in Riverside hit the national airwaves.

One city council member, Paul Davis from the fourth ward said that he had been getting bombarded with communications from irate residents about what's been taking place at City Hall and apparently he's been paying attention to what's been going on and has pushed for the closed session evaluation of Hudson. But he would need support from Loveridge or the Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Hart to even get it on the agenda. And it's not likely that support came from Hart who has had very little to say since this all started except that she has a problem with people getting public documents from the city if they are trying to catch "it" doing something.

I'm not surprised that Davis has received so many emails and phone calls because I've talked to many residents in the forth ward but really, he's not receiving any more complaints than are likely being received by other elected officials in this city. He's just admitting it. Having heard complaints and concerns from residents of all words (yes, even Adams' ward), it's a focus of great concern in this city particularly the city government's lack of response or even words on everything that's transpired so far this year. And unfortunately, there's more to come down the pike. Because when it rains, it pours even in Riverside.



But if Davis asks any questions of his employee Hudson, will he receive any dais support? That's not very likely. Because several elected officials have already put themselves in a corner by praising Hudson in the media and for some reason, the majority of the elected officials who have spoken on theses troubling issues including the guns, badges and cold plates don't seem to think it's much of a problem and their silence has spoken volumes mostly to their constituents.

Unfortunately there's this strange kind of what's called group think going on with the leadership at City Hall that dictates what takes place in the decision making process. This is also known as the "go along to get along" philosophy. It's the perfect environment for scandals to take root in and grow due to the dearth of leadership because everyone's more worried about rocking the boat and there's a reluctance to second guess direct employees. As long as the city government operates under Group Think, more of this type of behavior will continue to take place. Just as more scandals have probably taken place than the public knows, being only able to take a peek at the tip of the iceberg while the vast majority of its shape remains hidden from view.




[Riverside Councilman Paul Davis has quite a few questions to ask his direct employee, City Manager Brad Hudson about how he's managing the city government, not to mention a scandal here and there.]






But Davis is right to be concerned about what's been taking place with high ranking city employees including one hired by the city government and he mentions the very disturbing discrepancies provided in sworn testimony provided by both Leach and DeSantis in depositions taken as part of the lawsuits filed by former Lts. Tim Bacon and Darryl Hurt. One area of contradictory testimony took place when the issue arose about the issuance of cold plates to city management employees and several elected officials. In his deposition, DeSantis said that Leach had suggested that he be issued cold plates for his city-issued vehicle. However, Leach said that it had been done by the city management without his knowledge until after the fact when it came to his attention. Other accounts contained in written documentation in the lawsuits stated that Leach had come to several police employees concerned that his bosses, Hudson and DeSantis were overriding him and having him do things that he believed could be illegal. This concern was allegedly raised involving the issuance of the cold plates by the city and police department fleet yards.

Leach had allegedly provided a list of vehicles that were cold plated to police employees who then forwarded their concerns to the State Attorney General's office's criminal division once they were able to ascertain through examination of the state's vehicle code that issuing cold plates to civilians was in fact illegal. The cold plate list includes a listing that was added as "pending" to the list per DeSantis so if DeSantis had his car cold plated because Leach suggested it, then why was DeSantis apparently authorizing it to be done to other city vehicles?

And Leach's account was backed up by another former police management employee.

Former Deputy Chief Dave Dominguez, now the chief in Palm Springs, backed Leach's account that the city management had been responsible for the issuance of cold plates, not Leach. DeSantis responded by calling Dominguez a "disgruntled employee" who had lost out on a promotion to assistant chief. Well this opened up quite a can of worms because it seems illogical on its face. If Dominguez had been "disgruntled" about the promotion and was coming forward under that motivation, one would guess that he would agree with DeSantis and say that yes, the chief had been responsible for the illegal use of cold plates. Because after all, if he had been upset and "disgruntled" about not being promoted then Leach as the police chief who makes promotions would be the focus of that ire. Unless of course, Leach had nothing to do with those promotions as many people believed and Hudson and DeSantis had actually been the ones doing the promoting. But DeSantis didn't explain why a "disgruntled" employee like Dominguez would actually back and defend the assertion made by the individual that he would have been "disgruntled" at.

Another former employee, Richard Dana, now Hemet's police chief, said to the Press Enterprise that he acted to remove cold plates from vehicles driven by people from Hemet's City Hall after discovering it was an illegal practice. He said that city officials in Riverside had been issued cold plates while he had been employed there.

So given the discrepancies in the testimony of individuals who took an oath to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, it appears that at least one party didn't take that oath very seriously. And for most mere mortals, meaning those who aren't in high ranking positions of leadership and power, perjury is a crime punishable by law. And yes, you can be charged and prosecuted for perjury involving civil depositions, as a former Riverside Police Department officer had been in 2006 in relation to a workman's compensation case. So this former city employee gets prosecuted and later convicted, but the contradictory statements in the depositions involving Leach and DeSantis and others as well don't even warrant an investigation? Is that the privilege of power?


But if Davis is concerned about what's taken place, it appears so far that he's the only one. After all, dais mate Councilman Andrew Melendrez told the daily newspaper that he had some questions about the whole badges, guns and cold plates to put that situation to rest but that it's not enough to impact Hudson's city management. What these comments do unfortunately is to explain how this type of behavior by city management personnel was allowed to take place in the first place. Why city officials were able to try to equip themselves with illegal badges and cold plates (which are mostly untraceable) and it's why the use of the police department as an unlicensed gun vendor to sell guns to city management employees was able to go undetected by the city government for at least a year or longer. Ironically, it's possible that Melendrez might have been the first elected official notified about Leach's DUI incident because according to former Sgt. Frank Orta's interview with California Highway Patrol investigators, he had called Melendrez' wife within several hours and then later spoke with Melendrez about the incident. As it turns out, Orta is the brother in law of Melendrez and he provided one of the most interesting accounts of the incident of those interviewed by the CHP's Riverside division.

Yet what did Melendrez do with this information of possible illegal conduct involving a city department head, let alone one in charge of the police department? This may have been around or before the time that Loveridge received the information on the incident from an anonymous female caller and it's not clear what if any steps Melendrez took to investigate further what happened as Loveridge allegedly had done. Did he look into it or did he do nothing?


And there are probably more people like Melendrez on the dais than Davis because if there had been city governmental leaders who had been paying more attention to what their direct employees had been doing since they first arrived, incidents like those involving Leach would have been less likely to happen. And scandals such as the guns, badges, cold plates and such probably would have never taken place and if they had, they would have been dealt with much sooner by the city council (who after all, employs Hudson) than several years later.


Some City Council members and Loveridge have praised Hudson in recent retrospective articles about his tenure with the city that were published in the Press Enterprise not long before the guns, badges and cold plates scandals unfolded in a public arena. These scandals weren't really news to these elected officials at this point, because remember that one of the councilmen, Steve Adams dismissed the disturbing scandals as "old news". But the scandals were believed to have been safely kept under wraps by the city before they became exposed. That's why they're "old news" to people like Adams who were either privy to them or actually implicated in them and new to most of us. It could have been worse, because it appears that City Hall hoped that they would become "buried news". The best laid plans of mice and men...well anyway, the public did find out about these transgressions anyway.




[Councilman Steve Adams implicated in the cold plates scandal has claimed that none of his Ward Seven constituents have registered any complaints with him by what's been going on in Riverside.]




Adams, what can you say about him except that he claimed that none of his constituents in Ward Seven complained to him about all these scandals taking place including the cold plates one that implicated him. After all, when he had his incident in Newport Beach when his car got impounded or towed and allegedly charged on DeSantis card, the plates on the cars were allegedly cold plated. Leach had testified that Adams had identified himself as an undercover officer which Adams didn't mention in his own sworn testimony. However, the watch commander in the Riverside Police Department was notified by someone associated with Newport Police Department and asked about Adams. Leach was asked in his deposition why Adams wasn't investigated for impersonating an officer and Leach simply said it hadn't been in his jurisdiction and had to be decided by the Newport Beach Police Department.

But Adams has also benefited from the fact that only a few of the scandals have come to light. The larger ones involving his alleged involvement in Riverside's police department including whether or not he approved or vetoed between two to three captains' promotions have so far stayed out of the mainstream press though they have been blogged about here. Though judging from the response I received about people concerned about possible micromanagement of the department by Adams, this is an issue of great concern.

Given the furor that's struck the rest of Riverside, the fact that Adams is saying he hadn't received any complaints about it just makes one wonder how much in touch he is with his constituents. Because there have been people complaining in many different wards so why wouldn't they be complaining in the seventh ward given that their own councilman was implicated with having cold plates. The former police officer who one would think might have the most access to information regarding the legality of the issuance of these plates than would other elected officials.

But most of the time when elected officials claim they hadn't received any negative response, it's just bull. It would be extremely odd if he hadn't received at least one complaint when someone like Davis is getting showered with them. But then there were several former elected officials who would often claim while discussing controversial issues that they hadn't received a single negative email or phone call involving an issue that the councilmen supported. Nor did they receive any emails or phone calls complaining about their actions or a stance they had taken on an issue which just about never happens in civics or politics. But interestingly enough, some of these Riverside city councilmen were then pink slipped by voters during the very next election cycle they faced. And those that were pink slipped were essentially buried or done in by the very same issues that they claimed they had never received complaints about, whether it was the use or threat of use of Eminent Domain, actions to minimize the Community Police Review Commission or the uses of March Air Reserve Base as an airport for DHL. So were constituents making their opinions known all along or just reserving them to take to the polls, that would be an interesting question to answer.


But one of the most interesting personalities in this dynamic called City Hall is Loveridge who's been in politics longer than some people have been alive. And he's been mayor since 1994. Some people really believe that this is last term of office but you can never be too sure. Already half of Riverside's political crowd is either running for mayor or thinking about it. But Loveridge, you just can never really tell with him.


[Is Mayor Ron Loveridge beginning to get a little concern about the tarnishing of his legacy in this position since 1993?]


Lately, Loveridge has had his mind on other things, largely League of Cities issues while some say he's been playing the role of Nero and Riverside's standing in for Rome. It's not clear if that's quite the case but it's interesting to ponder Loveridge as being an academic turned politician in the twilight of his long career and then having to serve as the city's ribbon cutter under a city council/manager system. But Loveridge has done very well for himself in terms of turning himself into a true player in the leadership of the city mostly by working behind the scenes in between public appearances. Still, if this is one of the last years he'll be spending in office before a political retirement, it's not the type of year that anyone would want to serve as the final act in their legacy.

But it didn't have to be this way. Loveridge could have taken a leadership role over the rudderless city council and perhaps created a mechanism for inviting citizen participation into examining what has taken place in the past several years and then come up with recommendations on how to address these problems. Much as he did when he created the Mayor's Use of Force Panel to examine the police department in the wake of a fatal officer-involved shooting in 1998. He could have pushed for providing the currently diluted and ineffective ethics code and complaint process with some real teeth. That could have afforded him a great legacy.

But he hasn't done any of these things and instead acts as if he lives in an alternate universe to most of the rest of the city that is frankly disgusted and embarrassed by what has taken place. And if the city government which seems to be somewhat slow on the uptake in this crisis won't figure that out, then they probably will the day after the ballots are counted during the various city elections next year.

The upcoming election year is expected to be vigorously contested as it should be because there's serious questions asked and concerns raised that have yet to be addressed by civic leadership let alone even commented on. Davis has taken a step in the right direction but it's likely that at least for now, it's a step taken alone.







The downtown metropolitan museum will be repaired but not renovated. The city's too broke to make the major changes that were promoted by city residents. Check back in a few years.




Press Enterprise Columnist Dan Bernstein compares and contrasts the spending by Riverside's city government on its own headquarters versus that of the library. It really would be interesting to see what would happen if the denizens at City Hall and the downtown library traded places for several weeks. Though as an update, the leak on the second floor study area of the library no longer drips water down and the men's bathroom is actually not out of order today.

But it's interesting how the city attorney's office can get $50,000 to spiff up its law library when the downtown library is as Bernstein described it and how parks like Orange Terrace and Andulka have more city employees working there that have been transferred out of parks in the Eastside. Some of the Eastside's parks haven't been renovated in ages.




Newly elected Riverside County District Attorney Paul Zellerbach begins the first transitional period in over 100 years. Outgoing DA Rod Pacheco hasn't had much time to offer any help to Zellerbach in his transition because he's already signing up to work on the campaign of a Republican Party candidate for state attorney general.



San Bernardino County doesn't want its residents to know how much is being spent on litigating corruption cases. Maybe they don't know this but records pertaining to legal expenses in connection with such litigation don't fall under attorney/client privilege.


Speaking of corruption, an ex-Grand Terrace councilman gets probation.



How much money are your city officials being paid?








Moreno Valley, two women disappeared in two different Julys five years apart



Kristine Nichole Hamilton July 5, 2005, still missing


Norma Lopez July 15, 2010, discovered dead on July 20.

River City: Your Government is What You Make of It

[Riverside's Finance Committee holds another meeting, this time to discuss the proposed increase of the hotel tax which will be up for vote in November 2010.]






Riverside's Finance Committee which rarely meets voted 3-0 to forward to the full city council a proposal to put a proposed increase in the hotel tax paid by visitors on the November 2011 ballot for the voters to decide. It was an interesting meeting, mostly because it took place. The hotel owners who had objected to the transit occupancy tax earlier were more happy now that it had been staggered out over several years beginning in 2012. One person, Jim Martin, spoke in opposition to it by saying that it didn't account for the economic law of supply and demand and would contribute to the creeping inflation rate.

It's amazing that the Finance Committee's even meeting because it went 12 months without holding a single meeting from December 2008 to nearly the end of 2009. Since then, it has met several times discussing budgetary issues and user fees. And it's met because of pressure from city residents who were concerned that the financial advisory committee had been housed in mothballs as yet another accountability mechanism handed off to the city manager's office by the legislature body that ultimately oversees the city's annual fiscal budget. So yes, people in this city who are actively involved in city government oversight as residents of the different neighborhoods definitely can make an impact even when they are treated as butting in where the city and their syncopates would rather they did not. The single most important lesson that City Hall after all needs to be reminded of is that they work for the city residents not the other way around.

And that's one of the questions I get asked by people who are very concerned about what's transpired in the past six months in Riverside and about the *pin drop* silence from City Hall about it. How do they get in touch with their elected representatives and whether or not they will even care about their concerns and opinions on these troubling issues during this turbulent era in Riverside's history. Because while there are individuals close to those who have come under the microscope telling people in Riverside to look away from all this bad behavior, many city residents are concerned about what's been going on and especially what's been going on that they haven't found out about yet. Is what's come to light the tip of the iceberg? That's another commonly asked question by city residents who have been following the developments including these scandals.

One elected official said yesterday that he has been inundated with contacts from his ward constituents complaining about what's been going on at City Hall in the wake of the Feb. 8 DUI incident involving former Police Chief Russ Leach not to mention the recent scandals coming out of City Hall involving among other things, the illegal acquisition of guns, badges and cold plates. And if that one elected official is receiving an onslaught of missives from his constituents then the others probably are receiving a good share of them as well. And if that's the case, then why are they receiving emails and phone calls complaining about what's transpired and still remaining silent to their constituents and other city residents about what's happened and what actions will be taken?

Because if one elected official is getting flooded with complaints on what's happened, then surely the others must be including Councilman Steve Adams who was implicated in the cold plates scandal and whose only comment about the situation in public was to condescend people including those in his ward by calling it "old news". If that's the case, it's only because he and other elected officials made decisions behind closed doors to ensure that it would not only never really be even "old news" but "no news". But as it turned out, they were unable to succeed at doing that but it's not for lack of trying. The revelations not surprisingly including to them (because why else try to hide them from public view) have triggered anger and consternation from many different corners.

This outrage isn't surprising because since earlier this year, I've talked or received comments from individuals in this city as well at how dismayed they are about what's been taking place and especially by the silence coming from the dais of leadership. You might think it would diminish over time but that hasn't really happened.

But these people are complaining to various venues because they care about this city and its future. They are upset by the apparent lack of accountability at City Hall. The lack of transparency which has come to light because of the apparent destruction of public documents by individuals at City Hall after the Press Enterprise had requested them.

On Tuesday, July 27, the city council will be meeting in closed session in the afternoon to perform an evaluation on Brad Hudson as city manager and one elected official said that there will be quite a discussion on this issue and questions will be asked. And if so, it's about time after everything that's transpired. Not to mention "old business" as Councilman Steve Adams called it that's come to light in recent months despite the city government's attempts to keep it under wraps.


If you're concerned about what's going on at City Hall, your City Hall, contact the following residents who are leasing the space that you own.




Mayor Ron Loveridge: rloveridge@riversideca.gov



The City Council:


Phone: 826-5991


Mike Gardner: mgardner@riversideca.gov

Andrew Melendrez: asmelendrez@riversideca.gov

Rusty Bailey: rbailey@riversideca.gov

Paul Davis: pdavis@riversideca.gov

Chris MacArthur: cmacarthur@riversideca.gov

Nancy Hart: nhart@riversideca.gov

Steve Adams: sadams@riversideca.gov






It's important to contact elected officials even if they ignore you or belittle your concerns about what's been taking place at City Hall on their watch involving their own direct employees including one who will be evaluated by the mayor and city council during the closed session at the July 27 City Council meeting. It will be the first evaluation of city manager, Brad Hudson since the Feb. 8 Leach DUI incident not to mention all the scandals that came to light since then.


[Riverside City Manager Brad Hudson will be undergoing his first performance evaluation in that position since the revelations involving the guns, badges and cold plates scandals not to mention the alleged destruction of public records by one of his staff members.]



[Riverside Councilman Paul Davis said that he has some questions to ask about the concerns to him expressed by Ward Four constituents about issues involving Hudson including the guns, badges and cold plates scandals. Will other elected officials also ask questions or will they circle the wagons against him?]



But the city council needs to remember that they were elected to represent the city's residents and that they hold leases not ownership of City Hall and that those leases come up for renewal every four years by their ward residents. Including four seats in the election cycle next year where candidates are already beginning to line up for a chance to run.

The First Month of a New Police Chief Passes

Meanwhile at the police department, the tenure of new chief, Sergio Diaz continues and people are hopeful yet watchful of what's going to transpire with the future of the police department. Promotions are expected to be announced in the next several weeks, hopefully to fill some of the vacancies in the sergeant and lieutenants' ranks. With Asst. Chief John DeLaRosa retiring on July 23, it's expected that at least one or two more positions will be filled by Diaz at the upper management level and it's most likely that given the most recent changes in the classifications for assistant and deputy chiefs hired from outside the agency, that these positions will be filled by individuals outside the Riverside Police Department.

That would be the smart decision given the dearth of leadership at the highest levels of the police department given how quickly they fell as dominoes in the wake of a series of internal investigations including those involving the Leach DUI investigation and power plays within the department. The rest of the dominoes near the top appear to still be standing erect for now but it still remains to be seen what will happen in the next weeks and months. Especially when it becomes more apparent what the role of City Hall including that of Hudson will be involving the police department and whether Diaz will face similar micromanagement as Leach faced once the "honeymoon" period ends. It should be more than abundantly clear to Loveridge and the city council how damaging the micromanagement of the department by Hudson and his underling, DeSantis has been since 2005. What with different investigations or "inquiries" as the city management calls them by representatives from the criminal division of the State Attorney General's office.

All of this taking priority while the mishandling of the police department caused it to slide into an abyss which came to light in the wake of the DUI incident when the department was operating with both civilian and sworn positions critically low and after cutting its training budget by around 25%. Signs which had appeared not long before the last time the department had experienced serious problems. Yet the city manager's office was more concerned with equipping itself, laws be damned, with police paraphernalia than in the well being of the police agency itself. Involving it as an agent in an illegal guns transaction became paramount to ensuring that it was appropriately staffed and supervised. Some have praised Hudson and DeSantis for exhibiting excellent administrative skills with the police department's reorganization forgetting that if it weren't for in large part these two individuals, the police department would never have been pushed into this position of having to be essentially reorganized for the second time since 2001.

Hopefully in the round of promotions purportedly coming up in the new several weeks that some of these critical vacancies will be filled. Hopefully it's the new police chief who will promote them. That seems academic to say that but past practices...well they were what they were with even elected officials like Adams apparently getting involved in the process.







[Deputy Chief Mike Blakely (l.) who was recently appointed again to that position by Chief Sergio Diaz has elicited some degree of controversy through his selection but more than a couple individual said that he knows where all the bodies are buried in the department and how to find them. Others have said that Diaz will need to watch his back with him. It remains to be seen exactly what will happen to Blakely who after all, had more experience than anyone else at the captain's level to fill the position. Only time will tell.]



The decision by Diaz to elevate Mike Blakely to fill the deputy chief in charge of administration position was greeted with interest by people after they heard about it. The best person to find the bodies buried in the RPD, some have said so if Diaz wanted to clean house, then Blakely is his best bloodhound. Yet others said that if Diaz doesn't bring in at least an assistant chief from the outside that he could run into trouble with Blakely who is viewed as being intelligent, very hard working (on the full 10 hour work schedule) and loyal to no one. It should be interesting to see which direction that the department takes under the developing dynamic including that involving its newest deputy chief.

Blakely after all came aboard along with former chief Ken Fortier (who hailed from San Diego's police department) in the early 1990s as an outside deputy chief. He remained in the department albeit as a captain even after Fortier retired in 1997 and worked in a variety of assignments including overseeing both Investigations and Personnel which includes the department's Internal Affairs Division. Giving him plenty of time to store up a lot of knowledge about the department and its operations, not to mention its cast. And any competition he would have had for this position has retired in both cases rather abruptly.



But allegedly the State Attorney General's office including its civil division is one agency playing close attention to how all this plays out involving the police department and City Hall in the next few months. Because even though the stipulated judgment was dissolved between it and the city involving the police department in March 2006, didn't mean that office stopped paying attention. In fact, actions by City Hall that were counter to the city council's vote to ensure further intention of the original Strategic Plan attracted the attention of that office in the summer of 2006.

In many ways, the next few months could prove to be the most critical of all.





Riverside's Fox Theater is underperforming in the fund raising area. Many prospective donors want to see how the rest of the first season of the theater as a performance venue goes and they're a bit nervous about the ongoing recession. Not to mention the ongoing issues with the theater's consultant William Malone.





How to water the greenbelt is being examined in Riverside.





Jurupa may become Riverside County's next city. Voters will decide in March 2011.




How to know when someone's drowning. It's not as easy as you think.

Public Meetings

Tuesday, July 27 at 3 pm and 6:30 pm, the Riverside City Council meets to discuss this agenda.And included under the closed session issue is the first performance evaluation for Hudson that takes place after the revelations of the guns, badges and cold plates scandals involving him and DeSantis. At least one city councilman said that he's going into that meeting to have a discussion and ask questions about concerns raised by constituents.

Also on the discussion calendar are proposals for the development of Tequesquite Park and the Metropolitan Museum. Two projects that have a lot of city residents paying very close attention to them. Including individuals concerned about recent directions both projects have been taking.

The agenda originally was posted without a date of the meeting but after calling the city clerk's office, it was corrected in less than 15 minutes. That's quick, and thanks to the city clerk's office.





Wednesday, July 28 at 3pm, the Community Police Review Commission is having its monthly general meeting this time in the Public Utilities Boardroom on Orange Street near City Hall. This agenda will be discussed and the CPRC's constantly meeting at different times because it hasn't yet scheduled its "special" meeting in order for the commissioners to be able to come up with one particular meeting time. An active minority wants to keep the meetings during the day when community members and some of their own commissioners can't attend. A clear majority (or it would be if the members could attend) want to move the meetings back to their regularly scheduled time at 5:30 p.m.




[Former Community Police Review Commission chair listens to discussion held from other members in terms of when the panel will conduct its general meetings for the public. The commission has not set on a specific time as of yet.]

This mess was brought to you in part by how City Hall chose to enforce Measure GG involving ward representation on the boards and commissions. Instead of making it truly representative, several city council members took advantage of it to thoroughly politicize the process that now most of the people who serve on the CPRC have been political appointments closely aligned to City Hall. Even one of political consultant Brian Floyd's buddies was able to become a member.

Under outreach, here's the draft document instructing people on what to do if stopped by police which will be up for discussion again by the panel.