Building Cabinets and Selling Spock in a Recession

UPDATE: Riverside City Council rejects claim for damages filed by former RPOA President and detective Chris Lanzillo in a decision which may have reverberated through the city manager's office up to Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis.


More shuffling as Lt. Bruce Loftus goes to the Personnel and Training office and newly promoted lieutenant, Daniel Hoxmeier to head an NPC?







The Press Enterprise Editorial Board weighs in on the city council and its vehicle perks which have been enjoyed by members of the city council, both past and present. This is in reaction to an article by the publication about the city officials' use of city-owned cars, cold plated or not, and the access to unlimited gasoline paid for by city residents. The editorial board says that program has got to go. Will it be in place or gone by the upcoming election cycle?

If the entitlement remains strong at the 'Hall, then this controversial welfare program for governmental officials will remain in place even though no one can seem to explain how it all got started. But if elected officials remember that voters will be seeking representatives who work for them and not the other way around, then it will go the way of most of the city's orange groves and annual festivals. And it might be done in a grandiose fashion when the timing's right, but regardless it should be done.

People are too busy struggling to pay for their own gasoline to subsidize that of politicians who frankly can pay their own gas or get an allowance that really is less than what they're getting now no matter how some in City Hall have insisted that giving elected officials carte blanche to spend money on gasoline and get cars (which after all have to be maintained and in some cases, repaired) actually saves the tax payers money.

Which as the coverage in the newspaper has shown, just isn't true. And what might help city residents not get upset about these embarrassing scandals and keep focusing (but not too closely) on developments like Riverside Renaissance is if City Hall stops marketing these scandals including their subsidized gasoline during a recession as good for the city residents rather than as the truth which is enhancing political and social status by acquiring perks and in some cases, toys to foster that at the expense of city residents including many struggling now.

And what might also help is if people like Councilwoman Nancy Hart stop channeling historical figures like Marie Antoinette in being dismissive of the concerns of city residents regarding the scandals slipping out from underneath the rugs where they were buried at City Hall.

If that doesn't happen, then don't be surprised if those rugs and the rest of City Hall gets a thorough cleaning out beginning next year.

But per usual, the editorial board had some very strong words to the city and it's correct in that this practice should be stopped especially because there's next to no accountability and transparency attached and the car allowance system should be what's in practice.


(excerpt)

So what are residents to make of the fact that Councilman William "Rusty" Bailey has spent an average of $77.10 a month on gas, while Councilman Steve Adams spent an average of $284.44? Adams says only 20 percent of his driving is for personal reasons, yet he accounts for a third of the total council spending on gasoline in the past three years. Is Adams that much more involved in city business than the rest of the council?

Riverside taxpayers have no way of knowing, as the city does not keep detailed records of council vehicles. The city does not track personal use, but relies on the honor system.

That approach is less than reassuring for a City Hall that has used illegal license plates and does not know how the council car perk started in 2007. City Manager Brad Hudson says one council member asked about car benefits at some point, but he does not recall who that was. Former council members say the council never discussed the matter.

Apparently 2007 was a time before modern memory, and innovation in Riverside does not extend to taking notes. Does City Hall really think such a nonsensical account does anything but make city government look ridiculous?

The appearance of unaccountable privilege is dangerous for any city government, and especially for one that has struggled with civic transparency. Junking the council's car policy would signal a commitment to changing that perception -- and represent a more responsible use of public property.

[Riverside Councilman Steve Adams spent the most money on gasoline and said that only 20% of his vehicle use is to conduct personal business. He had a city-issued and cold plated vehicle towed from where it had been impounded in Newport Beach and allegedly put on Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis' card.]





[Riverside Councilman Rusty Bailey was on the lower end in terms of enjoying free gasoline, does this mean he doesn't get out much or he's more fiscally mindful? It's tough to know the answer based on the limited information provided by City Hall on the allocation of city owned vehicles and gas cards to city officials. At some point, he inherited a cold plated Toyota Highlander driven by at least two other denizens at City Hall before the plates were removed.]

Building a Kitchen Cabinet

[Riverside Chief Sergio Diaz spent a busy first 30 days building his management "cabinet" and promoting 13 officers to fill vacancies in the department resulting from attrition, sudden retirements and a long-time promotional freeze.]




This is the latest unfortunate news coming out of the beleaguered City Hall in Riverside that has people upset and talking about it and the upcoming election. People ask what's coming up next on the horizon involving either City Hall or the police department which lost its chief and several key management personnel earlier this year to rather abrupt retirements in the wake of the Feb. 8 DUI incident involving former chief, Russ Leach. The city hired a new chief, Sergio Diaz who had recently retired from the Los Angeles Police Department as a deputy chief. He took the helm on July 1 and his first 30 days saw the appointment of Capt. Mike Blakely as deputy chief, picking from a roster of captains who outside of Blakely had risen up to that position through very questionable promotional practices including one who was promoted after he "cleared the air" with a councilman at a restaurant all the way in Corona and another who was promoted not long after he allegedly drove to Victorville to pick up an inebriated Leach and take him home. That didn't exactly create a management staff that created much faith in it among those it managed. If you can't trust the process including if what's done isn't actually adhering to the process, then how can you trust its outcome?

That's what appears to have happened in the police department involving its management staff and everyone else. And the impact of City Hall engaging in the promotional process from at least 2005 not to mention promotions allegedly given out for other reasons like who drank with who or who vacationed with which influential person did their damage and likely contributed greatly to a climate that facilitated some of the scandals that took place involving the dynamic between the department and elements from the top floor of City Hall.

Leach had been picked up, this time by a lieutenant watch commander at the site where two of his own patrol officers had stopped him suspecting him of DUI after he had driven his city-issued Chrysler 300 on rims for several miles after an unspecified collision with a stationary object shredded his tires, seriously damaging his vehicle. That lieutenant, Leon Phillips, had several phone chats with then Asst. Chief John DeLaRosa about what to do with the chief who he, then Sgt. Frank Orta and at least one of the two patrol officers had insisted that they told DeLaRosa had been intoxicated or a DUI. DeLaRosa denied ever being told anything about Leach being intoxicated and his contention of events was backed by City Manager Brad Hudson even in the face of three other officers who said differently.

Orta phoned up his sister about the traffic stop and his sister told her husband, who just happened to be Councilman Andrew Melendrez who appeared to have not responded in any official capacity involving the growing scandal. Mayor Ron Loveridge allegedly had his office tipped off (as he was out of town at the time) by a mysterious woman and at some point, the city management was told about it which must have been an amazing feat for Hudson because his city-issued phone that he took with him to Pasadena on business had been shut off most of the day and hadn't made or received any phone calls until in the evening allegedly one hour after he had already somehow reported the incident to his underlings.

City Attorney Gregory Priamos preferred to keep a veil of secrecy around the actions involving his own city-issued phone citing a broad sweeping attorney/client privilege. But of course he had been too busy advising the community police review commission to not violate its bylaws by changing the times of its meetings, diligently locating public documents in his own office and turning them over and keeping the city government advised about how to avoid problems with civil liability by having a chief who had been publicly intoxicated on various occasions and also telling city council members not to violate the city's charter by involving themselves in personnel decisions including the promotional process involving the police department. Of course, he wasn't doing any of the above and the city government which employs him of course never examined the issues. Even his statements early on in the Leach incident to his bosses that alcohol played no role in that incident, no absolutely not.

Concerns have arisen among city residents about what had happened with Leach even before the badges, cold plates and illegally purchased glocks scandals arose even as City Hall said that "mistakes were made" and it had adequately addressed them and others close to City Hall ridiculed city residents for being concerned about corruption in the midst of a building that is owned by city residents and rented out to elected officials on four-year leases. Can't we all just sit around, release some doves and sing Kumbaya? Even as many city residents wondered what Koolaid they had been drinking. Next year, it will be pretty clear what everyone's been drinking when four incumbents contest for extensions on their leases against a growing roster of candidates including some who have announced their intentions already. The city had been riding an anti-incumbent sentiment for at least two election cycles which saw former councilmen Dom Betro, Art Gage and Frank Schiavone all issued eviction notices after elections where at least two of the candidates had been favored to repeat as winners but were unseated by newcomers engaging in very aggressive grass-roots campaigns.

Public safety is always a stalwart issue for candidates, old and new, to run on and promise as a priority when running for election. Yet, the police department which began this year now six months later is in very different straits. Its three highest ranking members including Leach have retired. Three officers filed grievance claims for damages with the city, alleging retaliation by the department and in some cases, city joining two lawsuits which were filed several years ago and settled in April involving two former police lieutenants who had reported the guns, badges and cold plates scandals to an investigator in the State Attorney General's office.

Other officers had sued the department and city in the past for retaliatory practices (mostly after filing grievances on other issues) and in several cases, judges and/or civil juries have said that the allegations of retaliations have been the strongest in the lawsuit or the trial which certainly was the case of the trial proceedings involving Officer Roger Sutton which resulted in a $1.64 million verdict. Yet the department and city often continue to openly engage in questionable practices involving its employees who file grievances or lawsuits as is being shown in various city departments right now. The exact price of this litigation is difficult to even calculate but probably runs in the tens of millions of dollars which is no joke during the most difficult economic period in the city's recent history.

The lack of experienced upper management in the police department due to the agency's highly destructive promotional practices involving upper management personnel in the past several years led Diaz to shop outside for both the assistant chief position and that of one of the deputy chiefs. He opted for a two-time interim chief in Pasadena's police department in Chris Vicino, an officer who was investigated by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office within his first couple of years as a patrol officer for a highly controversial incident where a man lost his sight in one eye after being struck by a flashlight. The DA closed the case in 1989 and he rose up through the ranks of a troubled agency having to temporarily lead it twice in more recent years.

The second time he became an interim, he had been hired by current city manager Michael Beck who as it turns out had last worked as an assistant city manager in Riverside under Hudson. Beck as you've read also was implicated in the badge scandal along with Hudson and DeSantis. The Crown Victoria assigned to him also allegedly had been cold plated at some point. But Beck was also seen as an employee who chafed a bit under the tight control of Hudson, not always wanting to play along. Still people shook their head at the wonder of hiring an "outside" assistant chief with two degrees separation away from Hudson's office. The world can be a truly small place at times.

While Blakely is earning 5% more salary while sitting at his familiar haunt, the administrative and personnel side of the department, Diaz has been shopping around for another deputy chief so that he or Blakely can be assigned to oversee the investigations and field operations divisions. Two candidates allegedly emerged from Diaz' old home, the LAPD and both of them are African-American so if either were hired, they would become the highest level of that racial demographic in the department's history. Last week, Blakely allegedly accompanied LAPD Commander Jeffrey Greer on a tour of police facilities which raised a few eyebrows because why show off the police stations to someone from out of town unless they're a serious candidate for a position? The other candidate that had emerged was Mike Williams who also hailed from the LAPD.




[Commander Jeffrey Greer who hails from Diaz' old haunt, the LAPD was recently seen getting a tour of Magnolia Police Station by Blakely.]





Some people thought it made sense for at least one upper management employee to come from the same agency that Diaz did, much as former Chief Ken Fortier had brought Blakely with him over from San Diego's police department when he was hired in the early 1990s. This time, unlike with Blakely, they will be serving at will, purportedly to Diaz and wouldn't be relegated to the captain rank when their stints ended in Riverside.

It remains of course to be seen who will win the spot of deputy chief but an announcement should be coming soon if candidates are touring the facilities where one of them might be reporting to work soon. And whoever it will be, it will be interesting to see how the dynamic forms between the three members of upper management and their relationship with their boss, Diaz.

Not to mention the captains below them.



[Asst. Commander Mike Williams also from the LAPD is also allegedly being considered for the remaining deputy chief position.]




The shift change began last week and much of the department had already been reorganized with the department's patrol officers at Magnolia Police Center picking up their stakes and moving to Lincoln Field Operations Station where they will all be working, due to concerns raised about a lack of uniformity in terms of information and even training received by officers working at two different facilities. The Eastern Neighborhood Policing Center led by its commander, Lt. Vic Williams will be heading to downtown Riverside to be housed in space next to that held for over a year by its northern counterpart which had moved down there when Williams had been assigned to it. But before Williams and the NPC can set up shop there, the current tenant of that space, which is the Internal Affairs Division has to move elsewhere.

The decision which appeared to have been rashly made and implemented to move the administrative investigative division to the bus terminal had been controversial and made the first few months it spent in those digs (which were much different than the rental space it enjoyed near the Riverside Plaza) very rocky indeed with people banging on its doors confusing it with the Greyhound Bus Station and with equipment problems including with its computers for several months. Concerns were raised by its close proximity to a field division which were countered by the belief that the field officers were essentially serving as "bodyguards" for the Internal Affairs Division. The General Services Division had been given the unenviable task of handling the relocation of the Internal Affairs Division with about a two week turnaround before its office lease expired. It's not clear yet where this division will be housed but it could be at its old location in Orange Street Station, the Magnolia Police Station or elsewhere.

Special Operations had been staffed by Capt. John Wallace who had been promoted to that position while still in his thirties and had been assigned by Leach to oversee both that division and Investigations in the wake of Capt. Mark Boyer's abrupt retirement after there had been tension between him and Leach who allegedly never got over the veto by City Hall of his promotion of Meredyth Meredith in late 2005 which was given to Boyer instead. Wallace focused the vast majority of his time and writing skills on Special Operations which watched two of its three assigned lieutenants retire in late 2009 leaving Lt. Larry Gonzalez as the only one a mere six months after he had been assigned there after working as the NPC East commander for several years.

That left Lt. Mike Perea, who worked in Investigations the task of essentially running it. Perea had just come out of a stint in Personnel and Training where he had worked under DeLaRosa and Blakely. Personnel and Training would turn out to be lucrative for those who worked in the past few years when it came to being promoted to the ranks of sergeant and lieutenant whether those candidates succeeded in that assignment or not.

With the reorganization, Carpenter who had worked as a field operations captain with Meredith was reassigned to Special Operations while Wallace was assigned to oversee the entire field operations division ...except one. Soon enough after Carpenter began reporting to Blakely, he received an increasing workload and quite a bit of pencil whipping assignments, including not only all the divisions in Special Operations which ranges from SWAT/Aviation to Traffic but he received all four of the city's NPCs as well.

Which meant that Carpenter was going to be rather tired at the end of the day.


[Capt. John Carpenter who heads Special Operations is getting even more assignments piled on his increasingly busy plate by taskmaster Blakely. ]




And Carpenter's promotion to captain had encountered a degree of controversy when it came to light in sworn testimony including his own that some interesting events had taken place during that process. His name had been put out by Leach as the one he wanted promoted to captain and that had run afoul with a member of the city council, former officer Steve Adams who had allegedly asked Hudson to remove Carpenter from consideration for presenting an anti-gang initiative to the city's Public Safety Committee which instead was done by a higher ranking officer in the department. Adams' beef with Carpenter had allegedly been that he had hung out with former Riverside Police Administrators' Association President Darryl Hurt and PAC member Tim Bacon when that union's political arm decided to back another candidate besides Adams for city council in 2007.

Carpenter's name had been caught up in that hailstorm and that had put him on Adams' not-so-favorite-police-officer list. Carpenter's promotion spent some time in a holding pattern until not long after Leach had former Deputy Chief Pete Esquivel who's close friends with Adams, broker a dinner at a Corona restaurant to "clear the air" between both parties. And that apparently is what happened between the two former friends. Not long after that, less than 24 hours allegedly, Carpenter was promoted to captain.


The captains besides Blakely had put in haphazard work time until the news came that a new chief would be on the horizon so heads went to the grindstone and the others began to try to catch up with Blakely who clocked in and worked diligently from the time he arrived to when he clocked out. While the captains had been fretting and sweating during the months following the Leach incident, Blakely came to life and flourished in his role of essentially running the agency after DeLaRosa got knocked out except in rank only by his cell phone records and often deferred decision making to his mentor.

DeLaRosa and Blakely kept the Internal Affairs Division very busy with investigations opening up and being prioritized seemingly based on which police employee had run afoul of the new interim management whether it was former Det. Chris Lanzillo who talked back to DeLaRosa during one of his roll call bull sessions or Esquivel who flirted with putting his name in for the permanent chief's position during a time that Hudson had been touting DeLaRosa. Officers with long histories of no internal investigations and/or no discipline found multiple cases opened on them and some like Officer Neely Nakamura had to sit and be probed by "graphic" questions about sexual relationships with other employees. Even after she had admitted to a relationship with the higher ranking Esquivel, she sat there and had been compelled by that division to answer questions essentially meant to embarrass her by division head, Lt. Mike Cook who incidentally served on Hemet's Unified School District board with DeSantis. It apparently didn't take long for the contents of the interview to make the rounds of the rest of the police department which might have been the point behind it.

But apparently when it comes to relationships like these within the ranks, it's the female and often subordinate officers who get these types of interviews so Nakamura's experience isn't exactly without precedent. But then to be a female officer in any agency including the Riverside Police Department often means being better than the men and unable to make mistakes. Take Kim Crutchfield and Cliff Mason for example, both former sergeants who were demoted, she for failing probation and he for an on-duty incident where he failed to properly supervise. Mason was promoted back to sergeant 18 months after his demotion while Crutchfield was promoted too, as a detective with some wondering if the former was done a bit too soon after the demotion.

Only time will tell and hopefully that hasn't been the case but given the department's checkered history with addressing the issue of sexual misconduct on duty, it's quite interesting. Last week, I received a complaint from an individual livid about having heard from a friend about an alleged sex on duty incident he witnessed that had been done recently in the western area of the city at the same time that he had learned about Mason's own history the last time he had been in patrol supervision. Not exactly something the public wants to see from an officer but it did bring up some questions in the wake of what standards are held for particular types of misconduct and how they're applied.

It's very difficult to know what to say about the former alleged incident in the reality of the latter being dealt with only by an 18 month demotion because what the standards are set for supervision and management ultimately define the department's stance on the behavior it expects from everyone. Not just in terms of addressing whether it's right or wrong to make the decision to promote an individual who engaged in that conduct rather quickly but just to know what to say to individuals in the city population when it comes up as an issue or a question, period.

Does the department take this type of misconduct seriously or not and does it apply a standard of conduct that's consistent up the ranks of its officers? How it treats its officers but especially those who are encharged to lead, manage and supervise (especially in terms of imposing double standards) speaks greater than any words or pledges made to promote accountability and professionalism through the ranks.

Why file a complaint about that type of misconduct if the department treats it like that? Even as a woman closer to City Hall had allegedly been stopped by an officer allegedly to only obtain personal information about her. That's been treated as serious misconduct in other cities including Wallkill, New York which wound up being just behind Riverside in terms of obtaining a state consent decree against it after an investigation was launched into allegations of "driving while female" were made. It was interesting if disturbing to hear accounts of both alleged incidents involving officers and members of the public fairly recently in the wake of a promotional process where at least two of those promoted had been disciplined to varying degrees in relation to sexual misconduct.

But what the public's been picking up because it's not particularly stupid is that when it comes to misconduct in the police department, the expectations of responsibility and accountability seem to actually lessen the higher up in rank held by that employee and that definitely extends outside the department itself into City Hall. That's one of the most disturbing revelations coming out of the Leach incident where the watch commander received discipline that possibly rolled his retirement salary downward while the higher ranking employees in the incident retired with their salaries intact as if it had never happened at all. That lesson that management accountability is apparently lesser than at least supervisory was one that many people picked up on and that's one of the main patterns of behavior that has to be changed if the police department is to regain the public trust lost through the Leach incident and its aftermath.

When accounts of incidents like these come in, it's difficult to know whether it's worth addressing them as the misconduct that they are if they are true allegations when a wink and a nod is given to those in the higher ranks. And that's unfortunate because even though a very tiny number of officers in an agency might be engaging in this form of misconduct, its impact and often the fallout affects everyone working around them. That proved to certainly be the case in the handling of the infamous Leach incident where the actions of very few impacted how city residents looked at the department as a whole and those who work there. One of the reasons why it's critical to address any misconduct issues in an accountable fashion before they became major incidents.

Also compare and contrast the experience of Carpenter and Meredith when it came to having their promotions objected to by Adams according to sworn testimony and which one of the two was able to meet with Adams to "clear the air" and which one had that door slammed in her face and was referred to as a "fat bitch" allegedly by a sitting city council member? But ironically Carpenter had been part of a quickly settled reverse discrimination lawsuit in 2000 and one of the promotions being objected to by the litigants? The July 1999 promotion of Meredith to lieutenant. So their paths had crossed before.

But if Adams' issues with both candidates for promotion did sway Leach and Hudson in their decision making then Adams' actions were in violation of the city's charter against administrative interference. At any rate, it would have put both candidates in positions they never should have been in.







[The police department's highest ranking female is Capt. Meredyth Meredith whose proposed promotion by Leach in late 2005 led one councilman to allegedly say there was no way that "fat bitch" would get promoted. But Meredyth was elevated to captain six months later after telling Leach she had grounds for a "discrimination" lawsuit.]



While women dominated the latest lieutenant's list, they haven't fared well in the promotional process with only one of them, Melissa Bartholomew, ranked at fifth, being promoted before Diaz arrived. And even though the histories of other candidates on the promotional lists were a major criterion for eligibility for promotion, several officers on different lists hadn't even received performance evaluations 18 months or longer by Blakely or anyone else encharged with that responsibility before this latest round of promotions. So if an officer up for promotion is being evaluated on their histories, wouldn't you think that a recent evaluation might be a little bit helpful in that process? And the problem is that if recent histories aren't there to be reviewed because the performance evaluations that are supposed to be done are left undone, then that leaves their "histories" to be reported by those who failed to perform timely evaluations of these employees without providing any written record documenting these recent histories.

Then again, the thrust of Sutton's major payday at his trial had believe it or not, been more than 10 years of written evaluations placed one by one for over an hour on an Elmo for the jury to read for itself that yes, he had exceeded or met standards on almost every single one. That made the city's attorney's promises to expose Sutton as the worst rogue officer in the department's history fall somewhat short because written records are that powerful in people's minds when compared to recollections provided by witnesses on the stand of someone's performance. In the face of the written history of positive evaluations, what's the city to do to counter that? Because if an officer's so bad in the field, why would his supervisors be giving him positive or passing evaluations? There's no answer to that question that just doesn't make that process and essentially those encharged with performing evaluations look just awful.

But the city put itself in that unenviable position by its own actions.

If performance evaluations were taking 18 months or longer to be done, that would truly be disappointing to former State Attorney General Bill Lockyer who cited the failure of regular evaluations being conducted on officers as an allegation of misconduct in his lawsuit against the city of Riverside which resulted in the stipulated judgment in place between 2001-06. Under the judgment, evaluations on officers were to be performed on an annual basis. Apparently not the case with some of the officers up for promotional spots.

And there needs to be an accounting for that if that's what is taking place from the departmental management if that's a process that needs to get back on track.

Beam Me Out Scotty?

Riverside's Star Trek exhibit isn't attracting the numbers that were hoped. But at $15 a head in the middle of a recession, is that really that surprising? After all, the Fox Theater's numbers are down for similar reasons. People just aren't spending major bucks for entertainment right now. After all, it's not like the public's getting free tickets, they're just paying for them. Maybe if they used that instead to lower ticket prices for some events and exhibits at least on special days, hey might see larger crowds. That's the only way the exhibit will make money is if it dropped its admission price to something a bit more affordable for prospective visitors. After all, all the arts, culture and innovation in the world isn't worth much if people can't afford to enjoy it. And it doesn't look like the anticipated crowds from Los Angeles or Orange Counties are flocking the exhibit either.

But if people are barely holding onto their homes and losing jobs in a region with a 15% official unemployment rate, that usually results in less money spent for entertainment including overpriced museum exhibits. Besides hundreds of prospective arts and innovation fans were applying to compete for 30 positions at a seasonal store so they couldn't make it to the Star Trek exhibit.

But here's a suggestion, maybe have a job fair and promise everyone an interview who pays $5 to attend the exhibit and the city just might see the crowd that it covets.





Residents of Perris struggle with sewer fees.



More furloughing in San Bernardino?

Transfer of Power

[In about 18 days, the city will assume control of its Wi Fi network from AT&T, hopefully without too many problems. A semi-transfer of the network that took place in July 2009 led to two weeks of outages. The city has applied for a grant which if won, will allow it to expand its network.]




Hemet's the best place in the state to cool off if the power fails.



Candidates lining up for San Jacinto's recall election.