Will Riverside's residents be reinbursed for Bradley Estates?

Yesterday's posting on the situation involving the Press Enterprise and the Bradley Estates report attracted quite a bit of traffic to the site including apparently employees from that publication, including that coming from and going to the Save-Riverside Web site. If you haven't been to that site already, you should visit it and read the Bradley Estates Report and the links to the public documentation referred to in the extensive and very interesting document about how one land deal involving a councilman's property apparently wound up having a lot of its legal bills paid by the city. Not to mention allegedly violated state laws in the process according to the authors of the Bradley Estate report, an issue that the Press Enterprise's article didn't even address. Fortunately, the Bradley Estate report does address these issues and provides documents to support its arguments.

As to what happened, each person who reads the documentation can decide what they think about it. But now apparently, the Press Enterprise has decided to stop delaying and dragging its feet on its coverage of this issue and within 24 hours of the Bradley Estates brief being circulated after being posted on the Save-Riverside Web site, this article has been published tackling the issue.

Would the Washington Post have dragged its feet so long? How about the New York Times? But the Press Enterprise is a newspaper struggling to survive financially having lost most of its veteran reporters in one purge or another and rumors say that its own work facility, that shiny new building on 14th Street, is up for sale or at the very least, renting out its space for retail.

So now people can read the article that's the final product that was initially completed quite a while ago by the newspaper in some form and then published in a quite different and more washed out form and see what they think. If you stack it against reporter Dave Danelski's other articles about what's been going on in other cities, it's a bit more tepid than his usual hard-hitting work product. Some say it was the most rewritten article in recent history, but who's to know for sure?

But then it appears that covering River City for the only daily within miles is somewhat different than covering the rest of the Inland Empire. Why that is exactly will be the subject of future blog postings.

At any rate, quite a quick turnaround for the newspaper, don't you think? Kind of makes you wonder but then take a look at the article.

The usually quiet and reflective City Attorney Gregory Priamos does most of the talking in this article, on behalf of one of his employers, Councilman Frank Schiavone who benefited from the city spending over $130,000 to defend his development project, the Bradley Estates, in a lawsuit. It's doubtful that Priamos has ever been quoted so much in any news article before this one.

He definitely earned his paycheck being interviewed for the article but it and his own comments still raise challenging issues including why do the city's residents had to pay the legal expenses for settling a lawsuit involving Schiavone's own property, the first time anyone can remember the city ever doing so.

The fact that this settlement had to be passed by the city council at some point or it had to authorize a settlement range is disturbing as well and makes you wonder if this city council that "works so well together as a unit" enough so that it endorses incumbents against any outsiders is really what the city residents need. Maybe a little bit of conflict and difference of opinion, even boisterous (as long as it's respectful as opposed to San Bernardino and Colton) is just what the city needs. Maybe more diversity of opinion is just what's in order. The voters will decide if that's the case in the current election. And the voters who will decide who represents them in the fourth ward but if this disturbing episode turns out not to be the only one, then the one thing that they can't say is that they were left in the dark the next time something like this comes to light.

So how does Schiavone react? He thinks of how it affects his election bid first which is in a sense, natural because after all, the Press Enterprise rather surprisingly published its articles while ballots are still being marked by voters and sent back to be counted on June 2. But you wish he would have put the city residents first before his election ambitions, by offering some sort of restitution for the legal fees spent on his behalf with our money. That would have been the way an elected official should act, except for the fact that this whole episode shouldn't have been allowed to happen at all. And it's a lot better than having Priamos fall on his sword, by trying to explain it all away because if you noticed, nobody denied it in the article.



Schiavone calls it a deliberately well-timed smear job against his reelection campaign and says nothing about whether or not he plans to reimburse the city's residents for his share of the legal funds but instead insists he's the victim in all this, even though earlier documentation showed that he didn't appear to come forward and claim that he was the owner of the land being developed in the earlier stages of that process. If his land project truly got devalued $400,000 and cost him money, that's part of the game of real estate speculation especially during these trying times. Land's just not worth as much as it used to be. Maybe it will be once again, but if so, those days are quite a bit into the future. And any type of ownership of real estate has always been a bit of a gamble as much as an investment, kind of like the stock market.

No, if there are victims, they're the people who live in this city who had their tax dollars spent defending an elected official's development deal without any chance of reimbursement. And it's telling that the first thing that this councilman does when it comes to public attention, is to label himself the victim of a smear campaign. Frankly, I thought Schiavone would actually be signing his first check to provide funds of reimbursement for what the city gave him but I guess that's not in the cards. I had hoped that he would have gone a different route in his response to this issue and this news story. But it is, what it is.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)

Kevin Dawson is a member of a citizens' group called Save Riverside that obtained information about the lawsuits through the state public records law. He contends that only Schiavone's company benefited when the city paid legal expenses in the case.

"In this instance, it didn't serve the public or serve the city," Dawson said. "It was to serve the developer."

Schiavone countered that his political enemies timed the release of documents in an effort to smear him politically just before ballots in Riverside were placed in the mail. Dawson contacted The Press-Enterprise in late April; he said the group did not have all the documents earlier and needed time to make sense of the ones they had.

A two-term incumbent for the city's Ward 4 seat, Schiavone faces a challenge from Riverside businessman Paul Davis. Ballots are by mail only. The city sent them to voters on May 4; the deadline to return them is June 2.

The "Friends of the Hills" thought the blanket settlement which added the Bradley Estates project to the list was pretty odd.



(excerpt)

The environmental group's attorney, Temecula-based Raymond W. Johnson, said the legal challenge to Schiavone's Bradley Estates didn't affect the other two suits and that city officials insisted the three cases be settled at the same time.

"The Bradley suit didn't seek changes to the city code," Johnson said. "It said the Bradley project was inconsistent with the existing code."

Johnson really seemed perplexed by the whole thing.


(excerpt)

In the suit over Schiavone's project, the city paid $86,262 in legal fees charged by Best, Best & Krieger, according to invoices to the city from the law firm. The city paid another $50,000 to cover the Friends' legal costs as part of the settlement signed Oct. 15.

Johnson said his firm logged 172 billable hours in the Bradley lawsuit, which included roughly 10 hours in negotiations with city officials.

"What the case got down to was the issue of nine lots verses eight lots," he said.

When the city wired the settlement money to the law firm, Johnson said, he was surprised to see that the $50,000 for the Friends' legal cost came from the city. He said he has represented clients challenging land-use decisions in several Inland cities for 12 years. The Bradley suit was the only instance in which he has seen a city pay legal costs, he said.

Responses to the article so far are interesting.


(excerpt, comments)

Mr. Schiavone should have been treated as a developer in this instance, not a councilman. With the city complaining that revenue is down due to the economy, why are they paying for legal bills that obviously do not belong to them. This is another example of how those at City Hall take care of each other and think that we will never find out. Please vote this man out and all those who helped him. I am sure he violated state laws because of this.

Priamos needs to be held accountable for this also. Who overlooks the Citys dealings? We have a tight group who work together much of the week. What else has been going on in City Hall?

Another taxpayer shakedown.

NO MORE SCHIAVONE !!

Make him pay his own legal bills on these shaky deals. Pay back the taxpayers !! Then get out of City Hall for good.




But one of the most interesting comments is this rebuttal to the ones posted before it.

(excerpt)



Missing is the acknowledgement that this private group "Friends of Riverside's Hills" has been running on all Riverside an extortion game for its self-aggrandizement.

Now trust me, I'm no friend of Schiavone, but the case's end result was what? Eight lots, instead of the nine proposed by Schiavone AND approved by Planning Commission; incurrence of $132,000 in legal fees; and a $50,000 pay-off/bribe to "Friends of Hills" to go away. Once again:

ONE LOT LESS, that cost the City $132K, and resulted in a $50K payoff/bribe to "Friends"!

I detect a huge amount of BS here, but mostly not from the City. It's from the group that uses lawsuits to supplant the normal planning policies, to tie up the City, to extort private developers, and ultimately to cost the ordinary, end-use homebuyer a bunch of dough!

I have no way of knowing if Schiavone's estimate of $400K "devalue" is right, but let's say that the total legal costs and everything was just $200K. At eight lots, that means $25,000 extra was passed on to each homebuyer in the cost of their homes!

It would be different if "Hill Friends" really won anything of substance here. But instead they just got a reduction of ONE LOT!

Meanwhile, their EXTORTION costs regular people $25K each (and what's the bigger tragedy is that $25K each just goes into the wallets of fatcat lawyers). The Extortion is the REAL scandal, that is unconscionable!



This comment calling a group of community activists a bunch of "extortionists" is just ridiculous. It speaks volumes about exactly where the democratic process in this city has gone and that's into hiding.


Actually, if the city simply abided by the growth-control measures C and R passed by the city's voters instead of either challenging or defying the will of the voters without use of the ballot initiative process, then this "extortion" as you call it, would probably end.

If the city government doesn't like C and R, why not sponsor a ballot initiative process to bring the issue back to a vote? That would be something more akin to a democratic process?

The city settles or loses its battles with "Friends of the Hills" because the court backs those growth control measures that were passed by city's voters.


And if the "Friends of the Hills" are a group of extortionists preying on the city, they are the first band of them who pay their legal bills by holding yard sales in between court appearances. It's a good thing to have citizens like them committed to ensuring that the city council stops trying to fight the implementation and enforcement of voter-backed initiatives in ways that are somewhat less than democratic.

It was also good to see city residents turn out to show concern about the city council's attempts to do like against another voter-backed initiative, Measure II which was intended to protect the Community Police Review Commission from City Hall.



Inland Empire Craigslist which is where some anonymous members of the Schiavone campaign hang out mostly to insult people had this to say about the whole affair.

(excerpt)


WOW, someone is getting really desperate! What a shame that you have to resort to a massive smear campaign at the 11th hour.




The above comment's useful mainly in terms of its comedic value because one response to it and its anonymous author could be the following. Oh, you mean as opposed to resorting to a "massive smear campaign" during hours one through 10 and going strong of the election? Even if this article were a "smear campaign", is this a sign that you can dish it out for weeks ad nauseum but can't take it?

One can hope that the attitude that analyzing a thorny issue like the Bradley Estates affair is akin to a "smear campaign" doesn't permeate any higher in the hierarchy of the Schiavone campaign than this rock dweller who's been working so hard on its behalf. But after learning some of the names of strangers to me (well except for one past harasser) who might have participated in harassing me because I blog on the city's election, it's just amazing that these same individuals would accuse anyone else of doing a "smear campaign".

It seems that the entire Schiavone campaign from the start beginning with the lawsuit was about smearing his opposition. After all, read his campaign disclosure statement and look what firm he hired to do his campaigning him, one which people say has a history of using smear tactics and mudslinging in its campaigns, most of which at least locally have been losing ones including those involving Ruben Rasso and Sam Cardalucci, who ran against Schiavone four years ago.

I was very disappointed in Schiavone's last two campaigns, this one and his one last year for county supervisor just as I was disappointed in Supervisor Bob Buster's campaign in that race as well. Schiavone really is capable of much better than what he's shown and I think if the Schiavone who first ran for office would even put himself in a position like what happened with the Bradley Estates, he would step up before his voters in his ward and the city residents at large and pledge to make inroads to pay off the city's money that went towards his legal expenses. Just like he came forward and pledged to donate the $25o he received from developer Doug Jacobs to the Save Our Chinatown Committee's efforts to save that piece of history.

And as someone who's been on the receiving end of smear tactics by members of this campaign myself, including some who apparently are so proud of what they've done they tell people what they've done which in some circles, isn't the most prudent choice of actions, I can read a comment like this and just think how pathetic and ridiculous that it is.


Then there's this comment which by invoking the word "losers" in caps no less, just comes off as sounding like junior high.

(excerpt)



The man has no campaign platform.
The man is unprofessional, unethical and unreliable.
Don't quit your day job Paul Davis, your going to need it.




Doesn't really say much either. Davis' platform is on his site under "issues". Agree or disagree with him, there they are and it's doubtful this anonymous commenter ever spoke with Davis to ask him any questions about where he stood on the issues before claiming he has no "campaign platform". But then this guy only shows up to slam people like Davis or myself online when someone else does it first. As for the rest of it, no one anonymously or otherwise has been able to cite any reliable sources to the personal attacks they made about this individual apparently on behalf of the Schiavone campaign.

Indeed it would be refreshing if candidates ran on the issues and solely on the issues but that hasn't happened in Election 2009 except much more quietly in the other two ward elections where the supporters of all those candidates have been very civil and haven't engaged in harassment of the opposition candidate or anyone perceived to be critical of their own candidate. Sadly and it's very sadly, this didn't happen in the more hotly contested Ward Four council race.






Press Enterprise Columnist Dan Bernstein writes about Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco and his 'domed' building.



The jury hearing the case of the former Moreno Valley Police Department officer, David Kushner on trial for sexual assault under the color of authority released a split verdict being convicted on two out of the 27 felonies he was charged with committing. These verdicts came after about 11 days spent deliberating.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



After the verdict, jurors said they found Kushner guilty of the two counts because the prosecution presented more evidence corroborating the victim's testimony including a timeline and log entries. Jurors recounted taxing days of deliberations that required time outs from heated discussions.

Morgan said this was the longest a jury in his courtroom has deliberated in his more than 20 years on the bench.

Defense attorney Virginia Blumenthal was pleased with the outcome because her client no longer faces a life sentence.

She said the challenge in this case was the sheer number of witnesses who testified over the two-month long trial.

"I'm disappointed in the two guilty verdicts because I really, really believe Mr. Kushner is innocent of those I'm very pleased with the remainder of the verdicts," Blumenthal said.

Deputy District Attorney Michelle Paradise said it was difficult to encourage reluctant victims to testify when they feared retaliation from Kushner's colleagues at the Moreno Valley Police Department.

"To me, in this case each of the victims deserved equal justice and I don't think that happened," she said.



Some comments were left on an earlier posting at the newspaper's blog.


(excerpt, Belo Blog)


jason on May 19, 2009 6:47 PM said:

what kind of reporter writes an article that fails to list the actual counts he was found guilty of?


Juror Number on May 19, 2009 7:21 PM said:

First, he was found guilty on 2 out of 18 counts.
One count was undecided. Guilty on one count of simple kidnapping and one count of oral copulation.










Many law enforcement agencies are being forced to cut personnel and budgets from coast to coast in light of the recession.


(excerpt, U.S.A. Today)

"For the first time, because of the economy, police departments ... may have to change how they do business," says Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a law enforcement think tank. "People will see a change in the basic delivery of services," from longer police response times to a dramatically reduced police presence in some communities.

Harlan Johnson, executive director of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association, said political leaders are "choosing whether they keep the streets open or the police on patrol," though it's too early to tell whether the changes will increase crime.

The Obama administration's $787 billion stimulus plan gives about $4 billion to local law enforcement, including $1 billion to hire and retain officers. But the hiring money has not been distributed, and applicants have requested more than is available.

Among the recent cuts:

*In Pennsylvania, 19 suburban and rural police agencies have closed in the past 15 months, and seven others have cut patrols. The "unprecedented" closures and cuts have forced the state police -- who face their own budget struggles -- to assume full or partial public safety responsibility for about 54,000 more people, says Lt. Col. Lenny Bandy, deputy commissioner of operations for the state police.

*In Minnesota, nine small police agencies have closed in the past five months, leaving sheriffs' departments to protect the public. The Elko New Market Police Department was briefly the 10th shuttered agency, until residents last month demanded that the City Council reverse its 2-week-old decision to eliminate it. "A lot of people felt that we were sending a potentially dangerous public message ... without a police department," says Mayor Jason Ponsonby, who opposed the closure.

*In Portland, Ore., police are consolidating operations by eliminating two of five patrol precincts. Portland police spokesman Greg Pashley says some residents fear response times will rise and established officers will be replaced by others who are unfamiliar with local problems. He says the move, which takes effect in June, was needed to cut costs, but he believes it will not compromise safety.

*In Southern California, Indio and its neighbors Palm Springs, Desert Hot Springs, Cathedral City and Beaumont have merged some key functions and also plan to combine dispatch operations to increase efficiency. "It's the legacy of the budget crunch," Indio's Capt. Richard Banasiak says.

Making cuts in the Inland Empire were Hemet which cut officer positions and Corona which cut civilian positions. Many other departments have either frozen both civilian and sworn positions or instituted furlough programs.

Many agencies are applying for the new federal COPS grants out of that office in the Department of Justice. However, some agencies have been banned including these in Illinois.


(excerpt, Chicago Sun-Times)



The Chicago Police Department stands to gain $20 million in stimulus funding to buy sport-utility vehicles, equip cars with video cameras and pay overtime.

But Harwood Heights, Calumet Park and Stone Park are among 26 departments across the country that have been barred from stimulus funding because they had failed to meet the guidelines of the Community Oriented Policing Services program.

COPS was formed in 1995 to allow police departments to hire more than 100,000 officers, authorities say.

"They are lucky in one way: typically, grantees that misuse funds have to pay them back to the federal government," said Edward T. Waters, a co-managing partner at Washington-based Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell and former president of the National Grants Management Association.

"Here, the Justice Department, in an unusual move, allowed the departments to agree not to take any federal funds for three years rather than having to actually repay the money.


Riverside's police department is currently in the process of applying for grant funds to thaw out 15 frozen entry level sworn positions but it remains to be seen who will get the money as this newly passed stimulus package is not as large as a similar one passed in the 1990s.



Also laying off police officers is Orlando which is laying off 15 of its officers. Orlando is one city which has been hit hard by the recession. It will be applying for federal grant money to try to avoid the layoffs.


(excerpt, WFTV)




“It doesn't sound like that many but we need them,” one resident told Eyewitness News.

The Fraternal Order of Police is upset because both the union and Police Chief Val Demings have submitted budget proposals that did not require cutting actual officers. But the union says the city rejected those ideas.

The police union thought the Orlando Police Department was only cutting certain programs and vacant positions. Now, city hall is hoping to save an additional $100 million in OPD's budget by putting 15 officers on the chopping block.

“I think we should look at other ways to try to cut the budget,” one resident told Eyewitness News.




Two off-duty Atlanta Police Department officers were among four people arrested for shooting at a lake.


(excerpt, WSBTV)



Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office deputies were called to a Lake Allatoona community early Monday morning after receiving numerous 911 calls about gunshots in the area. While patrolling the area, deputies heard additional shots and were able to determine it was occurring at a home on Cedar Drive.

Residents at the home were shooting guns into Lake Allatoona, police said, near where other people were fishing.

Four people were arrested, including two off-duty Atlanta Police Department officers. The two officers, Dan Rasmussen, 43, of Woodstock, and Chad Armstrong, 31, also of Woodstock, were both charged with reckless conduct.


Gallatin County Sheriff Raymond Martin in Illinois was arrested after getting caught selling marijuana off-duty.




Pleading guilty were two off-duty Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies who beat up an off-duty fire fighter.



(excerpt, San Gabriel Valley Tribune)



Deputy Joshua Titel, 32, entered a guilty plea to a misdemeanor count of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury, Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Shiara D vila-Morales said in written statement.

Deputy Brian Richards, also 32, entered a guilty plea to a misdemeanor count of battery in connection with the attack on the off-duty firefighter, she added.

"Norwalk Superior Court Judge Beverly Reid O'Connell took the plea and immediately sentenced each defendant to three years of probation," D vila-Morales said in the statement.

The firefighter required several weeks of medical treatment before he could return to work, District Attorney's officials said.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore said the deputies have been relieved of duty without pay since criminal charges were first filed against them, which occurred in October of last year.

"Nobody's above the law," Whitmore said.

Drops in the bucket in the Inland Empire

“I have never, in my experience, seen a research design [treatment plan] that included an explicit and detailed plan to justify the disposal of artifacts even approaching what is in this plan. This is clearly a plan for disposal rather than a plan for preservation.”


--- Dr. Scott Fedick, Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology at UC Riverside on the Chinatown site.




"So my son went out and had a couple of drinks. He deserves to have a good time now and then."



---Mother of New Jersey Police Officer Martin Abreu who while driving drunk struck a couple, killing a young woman.








Over 500 people marched through the rain down University Avenue in Riverside from City Hall to the U.S. Border Patrol on Spruce to protest a Jan. 29 raid that took place at a day laborer site in the neighborhood of Casa Blanca in Riverside.

Riverside Police Department Lt. Bruce Loftus who serves as the commander of the Central Neighborhood Policing Center explained the relationship between the two law enforcement agencies and how they began working together. One area? Translation of the Spanish language.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)

Police Lt. Bruce Loftus said he called the agency because his officers did not have time to verify the identity of the 12 men, and because the Border Patrol has experience in identity checks. The Border Patrol arrested 11 of the men on immigration charges.

Loftus said he called the Border Patrol to verify the suspects' identity but acknowledged "we know there's a chance people might be illegal aliens and we know Border Patrol has to perform their duties."

Loftus, commander of Riverside's central area, said he was among high-ranking police officials who met in November to hear the offer of assistance from the head of Riverside's Border Patrol office, Ramon Chavez.

Loftus said Chavez presented his offer as a way to assist local agencies with their day-to-day operations and barely mentioned enforcement of immigration laws.

Loftus said he told Chavez that police do not want crime victims to worry about being grilled on their immigration status, although he did not explicitly bar Border Patrol from asking such questions.

People have expressed concern about whether or not the Riverside Border Patrol office is operating under its illegal quota system which led to grievances being filed by some of its agents to their union.


Others expressed concern about the silencing of crime victims not just from the undocumented immigrant population (who some say are preyed upon by White Supremacists) but from legal residents and citizens who are Latino. Latinos have expressed fear of being stopped while walking without identification or that which is expired even if they are citizens or have residency papers. Neither the police department nor Border Patrol has done much or said much to allay these concerns.




Here is an account of the Jan. 29 raids conducted by Riverside Police Department and the Riverside office of the United States Border Patrol.

Included is a video where you can watch the same male Latino wearing a red cap in a bicycle get stopped by four different sets of police officers for riding a bicycle on the sidewalk (which is endemic in the area around UCR by the way so hopefully there will be a multi-agency operation against these lawbreakers) even though he is carrying an identification card and as one observer said, "has papers".






The Riverside City Council is meeting again this Tuesday for both afternoon and evening sessions. It's free but there's still no snack bar open during intermissions.

At 3:00 p.m., the plaintiffs in the lawsuit trying to save the Chinatown site will face off against developer and campaign donor, Doug Jacobs. The city council has been advised by its Land Use Committee through Chair Rusty Bailey to deny the appeal filed by the plaintiffs and to go through with the archaeological treatment plan submitted by Jacobs.

Are any of the plaintiffs who are trying to save Chinatown included on Bailey's endorsement list? Of course not but guess who is.

And this item is on the consent calendar which if passed will authorize funds raised by several private organizations which advocate for the city's libraries to supplement not replace money in the city's budget for the library. Which is kind of funny considering the major cuts made to that department's budget. Any money added to that budget from whatever source will be replacing money taken out through budget cuts no matter what it's called.





Riverside County shouldn't be pushed into not making cuts in public safety. So stated the Press Enterprise Editorial Board.



(excerpt)

Those numbers hardly suggest that finding savings in the sheriff's and DA's budgets will put the public in peril. And Luna's figures raise particular questions about the district attorney's request for more money when the county faces a large shortfall. The DA's staffing expanded by 69 percent from 2003 to 2007, yet the number of concluded cases only grew by 14 percent.

In neighboring San Bernardino County, hardly soft on crime, prosecutors matched that growth in case dispositions with only a 17 percent staffing increase. So how can San Bernardino County prosecutors manage that feat, while Riverside County's DA needs more money and people?

Supervisors, to their credit, did not buy the scare tactics. Supervisor John Tavaglione, for example, said the sheriff and district attorney could make cuts without affecting public safety -- and that the board should insist upon that action unanimously.

He is correct. Riverside County supervisors have a record of strong support for public safety, and any suggestion that the board is soft on crime is ludicrous. Yes, county sheriffs and district attorneys have traditionally been able to play on public fear of crime to protect their budgets. But as Supervisor Bob Buster noted, "this time is different and they are going to find that out."

The supervisors need to stick to that sensible position, no matter what public pressure the sheriff and DA generate.

The county's yawning budget gap leaves no room for officials' self-serving posturing on public safety. Every segment of the county needs to be part of the solution.

More comments on the Press Enterprise article which led to the editorial.





(excerpts)




Keenan cracks me up. "What crimes do you not want us to prosecute?"Well.........how about exercising some brains and not filing on loser cases? There's one kid who was in jail for years and the D.A. had rock solid exculpatory alibi information that established he could not possibly be a suspect. Yet they tried the case anyway and the kid was acquitted last week.Pacheco himself is a real piece of work. Ol' Fat Boy could cut costs by terminating the new hires, and reducing administrative staff by attrition. He himself could take a pay cut and urge his staff to do the same. Obviously, he's not starving. Lots of people really hate that guy and it's his own fault.









Pacheco shows up without a plan and asks for more money. That shows a lot of gall. I wonder how he gets in his car every morning with a head that big! He can cut his budget by being selective about the cases he prosecutes and stop wasting our money on cases that can't be won. He can try being a little nicer to his staff and cut the personnel cost that must be through the roof... I miss Grover!

RSO needs to makes cuts at the top. To many chiefs. Take away their take home cars and save on gas and vehicles, insurance etc. Post a list of what the top positions get paid. The deputies and corrections are the blood line of that Dept. Clean up Admin and they will be fine.

Rod wants to know what cases not to procute? How about any cases where the death penalty has already been invoked, extradition from another state will be required and we (Riverside) will not get to impose the actual death sentence on the criminal. How much would that save? Then, Rod, here's an idea, why not fire your $500,000 (probably closer to 1,000,000 with benes) press staff. As a last and final resort to save money, Rod, why don't you stop grand-standing. These 3 items along will balance the county budget without Sniff needing to make any cuts in the real public safety.

Riverside County might be phasing out its overtime program.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



The elimination of the mandatory overtime hours is welcome news, said Jim Cunningham, executive director of the Riverside Sheriff's Association, which represents more than 2,000 employees in the sheriff's department, coroner's office, district attorney's office and probation department.

While personnel learn to adapt to the extra hours, there have been ongoing concerns about officer fatigue and safety. Cunningham added, however, that an earlier program that required personnel to work a fifth 10-hour shift -- also known as "yellow days" -- generated far more complaints because it eliminated one of their three days off and affected deputies' quality of life.

In an article published in 2008 in The Police Chief magazine, Jon Sundermeier, chief of the Lincoln, Neb., police department wrote about his department's yearlong experiment with 12-hour shifts.

Sundermeier wrote that fatigue is a factor for officers, but not to the degree that it affected job performance.

In a survey of his department's officers, 75 percent reported being "somewhat tired" after a shift, and six percent reported being "very tired." The rest reported no fatigue.

Lt. Rick Ells, a spokesman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department, said he is unaware of any stations in his department asking their patrol staff to work regular 12-hour shifts.







How much money was spent by candidates running in the Board of Supervisors races for both inland counties. A hell of a lot.

And what were the tabs in Riverside County?



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)





In Riverside County, 1st District Supervisor Bob Buster spent $710,518 last year.

His unsuccessful challenger, Riverside City Councilman Frank Schiavone, spent $315,715.

In Riverside County's 3rd District, Supervisor Jeff Stone spent $458,900 last year.

He won re-election against an opponent who did not raise money.




Riverside, the city will be holding its own elections this year for mayor and city council. The fundraisers have already gotten started including those for candidates affiliated with the Michael Williams Company. Some have already taken place but never fear, more of them are on the horizon.




Feb. 12: Councilwoman Nancy Hart (sixth ward) at 6-8 p.m. at the home of Judy Teunissen and Jay Lood


Feb.26: Councilman Andrew Melendrez (second ward) at 6-8 p.m. at American Eagle Wine Making Company Canyon Crest Winery.


March 12: Councilman Frank Schiavone (fourth ward) TBA


April 30: Mayor Ron Loveridge at 6-8 p.m. at Marriott Riverside.




San Bernardino held its annual Black History parade and in Riverside, so does the Dickens festival.





A police officer in New Jersey got drunk and drove, hitting and killing a pedestrian who was walking home with her boyfriend who was injured.



(excerpt, New York Daily News)



Marilyn Feng, 26, who recently finished New York University Law School, and boyfriend Dennis Loffredo, 26, a hedge fund analyst, took tango lessons nearly every weekend, friends said.

After dancing the night away, they were walking back to her apartment near Battery Park City around 3:40 a.m. when the driver of a 2007 Toyota Camry slammed into them.

Feng, who came to the United States from China to study and was about to start a new job, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Loffredo was in critical but stable condition with a broken leg at St. Vincent's Hospital, where family members didn't have the heart to tell him Feng was dead.

"You wouldn't see one without the other," Loffredo's mother, Diane, said of the couple. "I think they were going to get married."

Cops charged the driver, Martin Abreu, 25, of Jersey City, with vehicular manslaughter and assault and driving while intoxicated. He has been a Jersey City cop since 2005 and has been suspended, officials said.

"He's a good cop, and a really good guy," said Robert Reyes, 28, a Jersey City resident. "This is all just a big shock."



The officer's mother is blaming the couple by saying that her son did nothing wrong.

Eminent Domain is here, the CPRC gets a breather and yes, rain is wet

"A black killer in Texas 20 years ago had a fairer hearing before he was lynched than the Ridgeline Ordinance."


---Former Canyonlake City Councilman John Zaitz in an email to elected officials that led to protests that he had included racist and homophobic comments in emails.




****** UPDATE*******

San Bernardino County Assessor Bill Postmus resigns.





An issue arose during the Governmental Affairs Committee meeting after Riverside Police Department Chief Russ Leach dropped a bomb when he blamed the members or one specifically unnamed member of the Community Police Review Commission for authorizing the posting of autopsy photos in one of the officer-involved deaths on the internet. He said it was the most despicable act and used it as an argument against the commission launching its own parallel investigation into officer-involved deaths.


Some of the commissioners in attendance were surprised at his words because apparently no one from the police department had addressed the commission on what had happened in a similar fashion. And Councilman Frank Schiavone prevented Commissioner John Brandriff from speaking in that meeting to provide an account of that incident, but then Schiavone has shown that he would rather the commissioners be seen and not heard.



Perhaps if someone had been allowed to speak, they would have realized what had actually happened. The way Leach painted it was that one particular commissioner was advocating specifically for the photos to be posted when in actuality, several commissioners simply asked that the police department's own investigative case book become accessible for the public when it became a public document. The commissioners said that either the members of the public should be able to check the book out and read it in the CPRC office or access it online at the commission's Web site. So they decided in unison as a body to direct the staff of the CPRC office to do such. Not one person specifically mentioned the autopsy photos either from the CPRC staff or the commission and maybe that's where the problem started in that a discussion didn't take place on that issue.


The police department is not responsible for posting the autopsy photos online because it didn't even know that this decision had been made. The commissioners had only asked to increase accessibility to the case book and asked their staff to facilitate that and the staff did that by posting the case book. Once the commissioners became aware that family members of the deceased person were upset by the photos, they authorized the casebook to be removed from the Web site and sent it off to the CPRC and the police department for redaction. And when the commission posted the case book for the Joseph Darnell Hill case, the police department had redacted material including autopsy photos.



Commissions aren't the only entities that post autopsy or crime scene photos of murdered individuals online. It's pretty clear how many crime scene photos from major police departments make it into books and online different sites especially those involved with high profile murder cases. Most of these cases have gone to trial and it might be within policy to do this but it doesn't make it less jarring. I had to do a research paper on a serial murder case in Los Angeles that took place during the 1970s and one of the source materials, a book about it had photos of naked women lying dead on hill sides, any one of whom could have been the daughter of a family friend. So the issue that Leach speaks to is not just restricted to civilian review boards.



But the larger issues here are that commissioners and one commissioner were slammed for something that they didn't do and did any of them know that Leach or the police department felt this way? Did they know that this issue would arise at the Governmental Affairs Committee meeting?



Considering that I had one high-ranking city employee tell individuals at a meeting held in early 2007 that I was trying to "instigate something" or was "almost criminal" (whatever that means) for reading a public record which was the Lee Deante Brown case book, I find it interesting that the attitude towards posting the case book and making it accessible has become an accepted practice as it should be. Both the commission and police department are to be given credit for facilitating this process.



But what Leach said at the public meeting could have just as easily been said through a phone call to the CPRC or an appearance at their meeting saying that he was concerned by what had happened with the posting of those photos rather than using it to drop a bomb at the Governmental Affairs Committee meeting months later to help sell the investigative protocol of his employer. It was something that they should have sat down and talked over first. But did that take place or was this the first time that any of the commissioners had heard about it?



Leach lamented what he said was the loss of communication with the CPRC since the early days when Bill Howe chaired it and it's true that he definitely seemed more invested in enhancing that communication back then. But communication is a two-way street, in any relationship between two people and even two entities like the commission and the police department. He could facilitate that development or redevelopment in different ways, such as presenting an annual report to the commission on a topic that is relevant to both of them or inviting them to special events. If Leach wants to rebuild his relationship with the commission and it with him, it begins one step at a time and if either waits for the other to do it, it won't get done.




The Governmental Affairs Committee meeting as reported played to a full house for nearly two hours. Two of the committee members had signed (with a third council member who later contradicted herself in the daily newspaper) onto an opinion piece only last summer touting the Hudson Directive to bar the commission from initiating any investigations into officer-involved death until both the police department and City Attorney Greg Priamos provided their blessing.

A six-page report trumpeted the Hudson protocol which was to hybridize the Community Police Review Commission even further by injecting the dose of Long Beach's commission which he felt was sorely missing from the provision in the charter which governs the commission's investigations of officer-involved deaths. It's probable that the two city council members who have long been backed by the Riverside Police Officers' Association in part due to their not so friendly stance on civilian review were hoping to ride that horse all the way to a future city council meeting and thought that the committee level would be the way to start.

The meeting started with a scolding from Schiavone about how "miscommunication" had led to "controversy" when actually it was pretty obvious to many people who have been following civilian oversight, the CPRC and its up and down struggle in this city for eight years what was going on. No one in that room and many people outside of it don't need elected officials telling them what is going on with civilian review in Riverside. Many of them get it. It's the city council and its direct employees who don't get it. If an elected body violates a long-established precedent of allowing the CPRC to set its own bylaws, policies and procedures without interference from City Hall, then it's puzzling that they think no one is paying attention and believe that any questioning to that amounts to "controversy".

Then the audience had a survey of California oversight mechanisms which conduct parallel investigations change into a survey of California oversight mechanisms which conduct parallel criminal investigations with a deft slight of hand. Parallel criminal investigations do exist for officer-involved shootings and/or deaths but are not commonly associated with civilian review mechanisms. Parallel criminal investigations in these cases involve having city or county police agencies and/or prosecutor's offices conduct an investigation and then having federal or state law enforcement agencies conducting a separate investigation.

Then several committee members seem to label themselves as "police advocates" and it's interesting how they never advertise themselves at meetings like this as being "community advocates". Some people in the audience turned to each other and said, they were police advocates too. If there's a rule book attached with having that title, they didn't know it.


The surprise of the meeting was Public Safety Committee Chair Andrew Melendrez who delivered what he had promised the previous day and that was a lively conversation. He asked questions about logistics which appeared to put the other two members off guard and that spearheaded the vote to send the issue of investigation protocol to a committee consisting of Leach, CPRC Manager Kevin Rogan, more city staff and community members. Chair Frank Schiavone came up with this committee deal and despite tripping over the Brown Act a few times, instituted it. Maybe the committee members aren't sure where the rest of the city council lies on this issue. Maybe it's becauses it's election year. Maybe their hearts are in the right place. The truth will tell.

It remains to be seen where this process will go.







Eminent Domain is rearing its head in downtown Riverside.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)




Dhalla bought some of the property next to the Fox in the 1980s and leased the space to antique stores. He also owns or co-owns three parcels that the Redevelopment Agency wants for the garage.

The City Council, acting as the agency board, in November authorized the use of eminent domain to acquire the property but asked city officials to try to negotiate a deal with Dhalla before filing a court case.

An appraisal for the agency valued the property at almost $3.2 million. Dhalla paid for his own appraisal. There is a difference of more than $1 million, said Councilman Mike Gardner, whose ward includes downtown.

"My objective is to reach an amicable agreement with the doctor," Gardner said.

Dhalla backed Gardner in his successful 2007 campaign to unseat Councilman Dom Betro.

Dhalla said he believes there is plenty of parking space for the Fox, either in existing garages or on land other than his where a garage could be built.

But Dhalla said he is still trying to reach an agreement and thinks he can if the city is reasonable.

"I think it will be resolved," he said.






Both Riverside County Sheriff Stan Sniff and Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco said no to 10% budget cuts.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



But county supervisors and County Executive Officer Bill Luna say all departments must slash their spending in order to balance a stretched but shrinking county budget. They say Pacheco and Sniff can accomplish their share of cuts without risking residents' safety.

Luna reviewed reports from all department heads stating how they will cut their county spending 10 percent next year.

Sniff said he could only do it by scaling back on deputies patrolling unincorporated Riverside County.

Pacheco did not present a plan to spend less next year than this year. Instead, he asked the county for almost $7 million more.

Assistant District Attorney Kelly Keenan said the department is still looking to make cuts but that it will be difficult.

"Is there some victim you want us to tell that we shouldn't prosecute their case? That's what we do," Keenan said. "Everything in our office supports that mission of trying to keep this community safe by providing justice. What crime don't you want us to prosecute?"




Another question is what do you tell crime victims when you've lost about 20% of your legal work force through attrition including some of your most experienced attorneys and can't adequately prosecute cases?






More protests against the raids of a day laborer area in Casa Blanca in Riverside took place at the Border Patrol Station in Riverside in the wake of allegations by agents there that they were required to fulfill quotas or face punishment by their supervisors.




If you missed Mayor Ron Loveridge's state of the city address at the Riverside Convention Center last month, here is part of his speech.






Press Enterprise Columnist Dan Bernstein takes on Border Patrol and the Riverside County District Attorney's office.

He commented on the depletion currently taking place in the D.A.'s office since Rod Pacheco took over the top position. The office has also seen its conviction rates for felonies taken to trial (which is nearly every felony these days) go into a free fall.


(excerpt)



Item de News: More than 60 prosecutors (out of a staff of 250 lawyers) have parted company with RivCo DA's office since Cuddles took over in 2007.
Impressive stat. With defense lawyers piling up so many not-guilty verdicts, look for the DA Rod Pacheco to downplay his conviction rate and start touting his attrition rate.

DA ADD -- I was a little worried about the thinning ranks in the DA's office (would there be anyone left to fill that new $126 million palace?) until I read the P-E account of the choreographed arrival of the extradited Joseph Duncan, accused killer of 10-year-old Anthony Martinez back in 1997.

"The news conference Friday was attended by several of Pacheco's staff members, including two public information officers, a staff writer/photographer, audio-visual experts and a legislative aide."

Not to mention a huge rostrum displaying the DA's name in big block letters. (The letters on the roof of his building will have to be much bigger.)






Bernstein's colleague, Cassie MacDuff wrote about the new sheriff in town in San Bernardino County and the old one who's left the building.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



Make no mistake, Penrod could make the tough decisions, giving free rein to investigations of his friend Tidwell over hundreds of weapons missing from the property room and of Tidwell's sons in a jailhouse bail-bond scheme.

His tenure wasn't without controversy: He endured criticism for receiving a $21,000-a-year stipend for heading a "security" office that had no staff or budget.

His retirement mid-term enabled county supervisors to appoint the successor he recommended, Assistant Sheriff Rod Hoops.

Such maneuvers deprive voters of the free elections intended to winnow the best leaders. On the other hand, they avoid putting people like Assessor Bill Postmus in office.

Hoops takes the reins at a challenging time, when the tanking economy makes initiatives like the ones Penrod spearheaded unlikely.

But Hoops has promised to continue Penrod's legacy and try to avoid layoffs. I wish him the best of luck.







Another columnist muses about the situation involving that county's assessor, Bill Postmus.


As for labor leaders, they want Postmus gone.






To win an election in last year's Moreno Valley city council race, challengers had to outspend the incumbents.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



Jesse Molina and Robin Hastings spent about four times more than incumbents in their run for the Moreno Valley City Council last year, according to the latest campaign finance reports.

Molina, who won the 1st District seat, outspent incumbent Charles White $43,724 to $10,995.

Hastings, who won the 3rd Council District seat, spent $102,790 last year, while incumbent Frank West spent $25,906. Hastings reported having $69,286 in unpaid bills submitted by various vendors, but said she is disputing some of those expenses.



A former Canyonlake city official is upset because people are upset with him for sending racist and homophobic emails to other elected officials.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)




When asked about his e-mail, Zaitz said the comment about gays was meant as a joke, and the lynching reference was to illustrate the unfairness of the proceedings.

"I don't think what happened in Texas is any different than what is happening here," Zaitz said. "There is no innocent or guilty, right or wrong; they just have to stop Goat Hill."

The Goetz Hill development is known among locals as Goat Hill.

"The (gay) remark was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, similar to if I were to say that I am a guy and don't understand ambiance," he added. "It was a personal thing, I thought, between three people."







The shooting of a young man by Chino Police Department officers has sparked controversy and criticism against the department.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)


"He was never told to stop, never told to get on the ground, just shot," said Algorri, adding that he plans to file a claim against the city, likely next week.

The 23-year-old Balandran and a friend went to the McDonalds on Central Avenue after inline skating at a Chino skate park, Algorri said.

After going through the drive-through, they were sitting in their car eating when they heard gunshots, saw a shootout at the neighboring Papa Johns and tried to get away, Algorri said.

The two got out of the car and were headed away from the shooting when they encountered two police officers coming around the corner of the McDonalds.

Balandran was shot and later pronounced dead at the scene. His friend, whose name has not been released, was handcuffed but later released.

"They made a mistake, a tragic mistake," Algorri said.





Civilian oversight in the United States was discussed in many places today besides Riverside.





In Eugene, a review committee has urged the city government there to pass an ordinance ensuring that the independent police auditor's office is adequately funded.



(excerpt, Eugene Register-Guard)

It’s a worst-case scenario for Eugene police oversight advocates: A hostile city manager or City Council shrinks the budget of the police auditor, making it difficult for the auditor to monitor complaint investigations against police officers.

To prevent that, a proposed ordinance requiring the auditor’s office to get a sufficient budget to “carry out all duties” dictated by the city charter should be sent to the City Council, an advisory group indicated Thursday.

The idea was one of two tentatively endorsed by the police auditor ordinance review committee appointed by Mayor Kitty Piercy and the council.

“The intent here is to prevent the city manager from woefully underfunding the auditor’s office,” said City Councilor Alan Zelenka, a committee member.

Good luck with that endeavor if that office is occupied with anyone like Hudson. The city council in Riverside had tried to cut the CPRC's budget in 2004 after Councilman Art Gage, a known foe of the CPRC, made a motion to cut its budget by up to 80% during budget reconciliation hearings. That motion was seconded by Councilman Steve Adams and threatened with a veto by Mayor Ron Loveridge who had never issued a veto during his entire mayoral career. Any hopes the then GASS quartet had of defunding the CPRC in one swift vote died because there was no fifth vote on the dais at that time to back up Gage's motion.

Schiavone tried to portray himself as the savior of the CPRC during that episode but did he and the two remaining quartet members really decline to support Gage due to their consciences or because they knew that it would never pass? That question has in a sense been answered during the past several months.




Fresno is pressing onward again to adopt a form of civilian oversight over its police department.



(excerpt, ABC Local)


Former mayor Alan Autry pushed the idea four times while he was in
office, but it fell short in city council. Now, the faces on council
have changed, and three members who fought the auditor are gone.

There's a new mayor too, and Ashley Swearengin says she's in favor of
a police auditor. But with a tough budget already looming, she's not
focusing on it right now -- and when she does, she may find just as
much resistance as the former mayor faced.

Introduction to board and commission micromanagement: Let the games begin

But February made me shiver
With every paper I'd deliver.
Bad news on the doorstep;
I couldn't take one more step.

I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride,
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died.



---Don McLean, "America Pie"


The day the music died...

(Feb. 3, 1959-Feb. 3, 2009)






The city council in Riverside interviewed a select group of city residents to fill vacancies on both the Board of Public Utilities and the Community Police Review Commission. First the city council and Mayor Ron Loveridge went through the arduous process of interviewing and selecting a Ward Five specific member for the Board of Public Utilities and decided on Gustavo Segura. That no doubt won't be good news for former CPRC commissioner Jack Brewer who had been lobbying for the position for a while.

The city council couldn't come to a consensus on the citywide vacancy for this board so they postponed it to fight it out another day and moved on to the increasingly politicized CPRC after lunch.

Only two candidates showed up for their interviews. Riverside County administrative manager Robert Garafalo and ESPN associate director, Robert Slawsby. Neither of them seemed to really know much about the CPRC. In fact, one of them, Garafalo said that he believed that Riverside had a civilian review board for about 15 years.

Wrong. Many community members who could never get an interview before the city council know it was created through ordinance in 2000. Some of the city council members actually seemed to know this which makes it hard to understand why they nodded their heads in agreement with Garafalo's assertion that it's been around since the 20th Century. Maybe the reason there's so much rewriting of the CPRC's history is because not everyone on the dais knows about the real history.

Garafalo begin his interview earlier than the scheduled time on the agenda. He didn't seem to know very much about the CPRC but talked about similar review mechanisms in different places in Florida so he had some clue about what civilian oversight was about. He believed it should function as a single unit and that the opinion of it probably changes over time.

Some of the elected officials said they just about fell out of their chairs when they found out he worked with former county supervisor Tom Mullin. Not exactly in those words but close and it's a head scratcher to think about why they would be so surprised given that he did work for Riverside County where guess what? Word has it the supervisors work there too.

The interview process stayed exciting when they parted ways with Garafalo and brought in Slawsby who works for ESPN which elicited the obligatory talk about NCAA basketball. In fact, Slawsby had just flown in from Waco, Texas to this interview after covering a basketball game. Given his propensity for traveling around the country for his job, he did say that the time commitment for serving on a board or commission (in general) and perhaps the CPRC (in particular) would be the biggest problem. And no one bothered to tell him that he would be putting in a minimum of 30-40 hours a month. Too busy being excited about having a real live ESPN employee in their midst.

For a while, it appeared indeed that the electeds seemed more enamored that he worked for ESPN than in his qualifications as a CPRC commissioner.

But he did bring some City Hall connections as well.

While he lived in Ward Three, Slawsby ran for city council in 2003, a race which was ultimately won by Art Gage. He also served on the Charter Review Committee several years ago.

They actually did ask him some questions about civilian oversight and the commission in Riverside. It's hard to watch this part of the interviews because it's painfully clear that not all the elected officials are up to speed about the CPRC as outlined in the city's charter. Like Garafalo, he'd been appointed to different commissions including the Airport Commission which is along the lines of the CPRC turning into an "insider's" club with prior commission experience being more important than actual knowledge about the CPRC.

Slawsby said that his work in sports journalism made him objective and unbiased. He added that the commission was "complaint driven" (borrowing from someone's words) which it's not but then some of the city council members are still grasping with understanding that fact.

Someone asked Slawsby how he would work towards getting police officers to like the commission. He laughed.



"I don't think you'll ever be able to do it," he said.

He added that the police were so to "policing us" that the role reversal was somewhat wierd for them and considered the commission a "public relations tool". No wonder the members of the Governmental Affairs Committee swooned and voted as a unit to pick him.


The voting was hilarious if somewhat scary to watch. Eight elected officials (including one with a Phd in Political Science) could not figure out after all this time, how to vote by paper ballot. Some voted twice. Some forgot to put which ward they represented. Maybe they forgot what ward they represented. Three rounds were necessary before they could effectively count the votes for the first round.

When the dust settled and the confusion abated, the vote was 4-4 with the following elected officials casting the following votes.



Mike Gardner: Garafalo

Andrew Melendrez: Garafalo

Rusty Bailey: Slawsby

Frank Schiavone: Slawsby

Chris MacArthur: Slawsby

Nancy Hart: Garafalo

Steve Adams: Slawsby

Ron Loveridge: Garafalo





With an even numbered governmental body there's always the possibility of a tie which totally happened. So the city council and mayor were left with the dilemma of having to vote again. But how to break the tie? Schiavone said it's my ward and I vote for Slawsby. Hart then said, "I have to problem at all." Then Schiavone said, "There's your vote." To make it all official, they went through the motions of trying to cast more paper ballots and this time, they had shown that they mastered that skill at last.




Mike Gardner: Garafalo

Andrew Melendrez: Garafalo

Rusty Bailey: Slawsby

Frank Schiavone: Slawsby

Chris MacArthur: Slawsby

Nancy Hart: Slawsby

Steve Adams: Slawsby

Ron Loveridge: Garafalo



So essentially despite all the bells and whistles of trying to make it seem like the CPRC was being done through an interview and voting process, it still all comes down to a city council member appointment. So that is how the city council appointed in a new commissioner whose version of the CPRC resembled LEPAC (review polices and make recommendations is main function) than what's in the city's charter. But perhaps that's how the city council wants it.

The appointment of the new commissioner came about 24 hours before the Governmental Affairs Committee will likely adopt Hudson's Long Beach template approach to how the CPRC conducts its investigations of officer-involved deaths. The meeting will be the first stage of the latest round of micromanagement of the CPRC by Hudson, City Attorney Gregory Priamos and several city council members, with the next stage likely to come when the Governmental Affairs Committee tries to push the Hudson protocol to the full city council which pretty much follows the dictate of its direct employees who of course most likely are following the directive of one or two city officials on the dais. So essentially you have several city council members dictating and others submitting to that direction with two direct employees as conduits to that process.

Hudson wrote a six-page wrote rife with inaccuracies and revisionist history. You can't blame him for that because neither he, nor executive manager, Kevin Rogan nor Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis were in the vicinity let alone City Hall when any of this history was unfolding. Still as one observer pointed out today, it's their responsibility to learn the history through responsible research methods and to not misstate it because this person said that he or she hadn't been here when it played out but was aware of it because of doing the research to find out what actually did happen.

That research wasn't done here. The most in depth research done on the report was to dig up some article about the disgraced governor or Illinois which has nothing to do with the issue at all. As someone said, you throw a lot of [insert word of choice] just to see what will stick.

This latest episode does provide an accurate historical repeat event. It provides a blast from the past back when the city council tried to weaken the CPRC's predecessor, the Law Enforcement Police Advisory Committee (LEPAC) which is the model that several city council members wish to mold the CPRC into (city charter be damned) while neglecting the police department. Toss in a budget crisis even worse than that which produced sizable budget cuts and you very well might have what community leader Mary Figueroa called the "perfect storm".


The Press Enterprise writes about the upcoming Governmental Affairs Committee meeting here.

News that the city council had apparently amended an ordinance in 2006 which stripped the Human Resources Board of its investigative powers (or so it thought, as the wording is gone but the powers are included in an "others" clause) has created a bit of a shock wave. The board just found out three years after the fact that this had happened. At first Chair Erin House said that he had received a new amended charter and that he thought the charter had been amended as an offshoot of the Charter Committee Review Process in 2004. But that committee never made any recommendations to change the function of the Human Resources Board and the changes were made one year after the new charter amendments passed in the November 2004 election went into effect.

So at that point, Deputy Human Resource Director Jeremy Hammond piped up after the meeting and said it was done through the municipal ordinance. House said he's going to do his own research to find out what happened.

The Human Resources Board has been making increased efforts to tackle some more information gathering about the state of the city's labor force in recent months. But standing in its path (as has been the case of the CPRC) are the dynamic duo of micro managers, Hudson and Priamos. They denied the board access to statistics on lawsuits filed against the city by employees stating that to ask for this information (which is public right down to the individual lawsuits by the way), puts the board in the position of acting outside of its purview. Sounds familiar? The CPRC had been listening to the same song and dance for months now. Like the CPRC, the Human Resources Board is taking the issue to the city council.

One individual upon hearing of the chain of events said that the reason why the city doesn't want the Human Resources Board to view even the general statistics is because of the sheer number of labor-related lawsuits that are and have been filed against the city especially since the hiring of both Hudson and DeSantis several years ago. Lawsuits that no doubt if they are as numerous as claimed have all been viewed by the city council (through Priamos) as being "meritless" and "frivolous" as were other lawsuits filed before them which were quickly and quietly settled even after the claims that preceded them were rubber stamped, denied.

It will be interesting to watch and see how quickly and quietly they are settled by the same city.

At one point and more than once, the racial discrimination, harassment and retaliation lawsuit filed by police officer, Roger Sutton was viewed the same way, but a $1.64 million jury verdict in 2005 might not have made a liar out of the city but it helped put those words, "frivolous" and "without merit" or better yet, "completely without merit" in doubt.

And speaking of lawsuits, was the one filed by Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Wayne Guillary who sued the city alleging he was racially profiled by the Riverside Police Department, the only one of its kind in the works? Was he the only off-duty Black law enforcement officer to raise these allegations in Riverside?







Ward Six city council candidates, Nancy Hart and Ann Alfaro discussed another candidate named James Perry during a break in the interview schedule to fill spots on the city's boards and commissions, with Hart saying, "Hmm, never heard of him." Alfaro who ran against Hart four years ago is throwing her hat in the ring. And not much is known yet about Perry.

More rumors that the city's laying off more people that aren't being counted and that many of them are men and women of color. But officially only one full-time employee, a senior librarian was laid off this week. The city is trying to see if it can move the business/reference desk person to another position in the city. It's hard to be fully comfortable and confident with the city's rosy picture of the layoff when you consider that only some employees are counted among those layoffs while at the same time these same city officials are including freezes, part-time employee layoffs, contract employee layoffs along with full-time employees in the totals for cities like Corona.










San Bernardino County swore in its new sheriff, Rod Hoops.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



Hoops thanked Penrod, who supported him for the top job.

"He promoted me four times," Hoops said. "So Sheriff, thank you."

Hoops said a few words afterward, beginning his tenure as Sheriff on a humorous note.

Gesturing to his mother, Hoops joked "My Mom was 17 when I was born. Thanks for keeping me."

Hoops said his most pressing priority would be budget cuts. County authorities are expected to ask for 8 percent across-the-board cuts for all county departments. Hoops said he would seek to keep deputies on the street and find savings in other areas of his department. County authorities have said public safety would be spared cuts, but Hoops wants to be prepared.

"I don't think that any department is going to be exempt," he said.




Hoops discusses the budget crisis.






This might be difficult to believe but votes from last November's election are still being counted in Riverside County.





A fire department employee in Temecula has filed a harassment lawsuit.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)




The lawsuit accuses Buckley of creating a hostile work environment based on Beauchamp's sex and age. Buckley would belittle Beauchamp to the point where she cried daily, the lawsuit alleges.

"(Buckley) would scream and yell at plaintiff and call her stupid, telling her that she couldn't do anything right," the lawsuit reads. "He told her to get on her hands and knees and clean the scuff marks off of the floor and to clean the (urine) off the bathroom floors."

The lawsuit also alleges Buckley had a personal relationship with another woman and "he would yell and scream at plaintiff for telling his wife (when she called) that he was not there, because plaintiff refused to lie."

Buckley was eventually removed as Beauchamp's supervisor, but he continued to demean her by calling her new boss and telling him her work was "all wrong," the lawsuit alleges.



Corona says bye bye to its police helicopter.




About 130 jobs will be cut by the city of San Bernardino. No one will be spared including 29 police officers and 10 fire fighters.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)




Because senior city employees have the right to "bump" employees with less time on the payroll, Weinberg said he doesn't yet have a breakdown on how many vacant positions will go unfilled and how many people will lose their jobs. Weinberg said he'll present a list at the Feb. 16 Council meeting.

Rather than cut public safety hours, Weinberg is seeking a 10 percent pay and benefits concession from the police and firefighter unions.

If they balk, Weinberg said he'll have to request "dozens" of additional job cuts.




Riverside County's board of supervisors voted to sue the state of California for millions of dollars being withheld to pay for state-mandated programs. But the supervisors also voted to take some of the most vulnerable residents of the county, including the disabled, mentally ill and poor families and seniors hostage as well.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)




Supervisors also voted to take legal action to relieve the county of the responsibility to provide those state-mandated services, such as welfare, assistance for disabled people and mental health services, if the state does not fund them.

"The action was taken despite grave concerns about the effect on the programs that serve the county's most needy and vulnerable residents," county counsel Pamela Walls said at Tuesday's supervisors' meeting in Riverside. "However, the county cannot bear the overwhelming costs of taking on responsibility for programs that the state is obligated to fund."

Supervisors voted 4-0 during closed session to authorize Walls to file or join existing lawsuits on behalf of the county.

Supervisor Roy Wilson was not present for the vote.

As part of its reform effort, Maywood's police department is preparing criminal cases against some of its worst officers in a department which hired officers who had been fired, failed to make probation or even prosecuted while working elsewhere.

The latest case involves an officer accused of four sexual assaults.

More naughty behavior by Orange County Sheriff Department officials who sent derisive text messages during a marathon meeting of the board of supervisors.



(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)



Sheriff Sandra Hutchens decided to review and tighten the department's policy on the permits given out under former Sheriff Michael S. Carona. At the Nov. 18 meeting, hundreds of permit advocates showed up to oppose the review in a meeting that lasted about eight hours.

"We are locked in mortal battle. . . . It is ugly. We will survive, however," wrote Asst. Sheriff Mike Hillmann on his BlackBerry at 1:17 p.m. as he sat in the audience.

In another message, sheriff's spokesman Damon Micalizzi wrote, "Is that Elton John?" in reference to one of the speakers who wore a bow tie and tinted glasses.


At 4:59 p.m. Hillman wrote: "I may just take myself as hostage for 'good cause.' Then I intend to revoke my sanity. Following this I believe we should consume a glass of wine."

"Good plan," wrote Undersheriff John Scott.

"I hope Janet has a pet she can call a friend," Hillman wrote back, referencing Supervisor Janet Nguyen. At 6:44 p.m., Hillman wrote to an FBI agent: "No end in sight. This has been unbelievable. Am ready to stick a pencil in my eye."

Supervisor Chris Norby said Tuesday that the transcripts reflect a "contempt and cynicism toward the whole democratic process."

"We had a six-hour public hearing with a lot of people there, and a lot of them took time off of work at their own expense," Norby said. "They should be heard with respect, not belittled behind their back at taxpayer expense."

The county also voted in an amended budget which would lay off more than 200 county employees by next year.

In the trouble-plagued Minneapolis Police Department, another officer has been suspended for being all wrapped up in yes, a corruption scandal.


(excerpt, Minneapolis Star Tribune)




Lt. Lee Edwards, 51, began the suspension this week, but the length of the disciplinary action was not disclosed. The department's Internal Affairs Unit found that Edwards violated codes of conduct and ethics in dealing with a high-ranking member of the Gangster Disciples street gang. He faced six Internal Affairs allegations; four of them were sustained in a report completed last summer.

Edwards was the main target in an FBI probe of police corruption as alleged by Taylor Trump, the gang member. Trump, a convicted drug dealer who is awaiting sentencing on federal mortgage fraud and drug charges, told authorities in June 2007 that he had knowledge of at least six Minneapolis officers who gave him information to protect his criminal enterprises.

Edwards, a former commander in the Homicide Unit and inspector in the Fourth Precinct on the city's North Side, was taped by the FBI conversing with Trump and providing him with the license plate number of a city-owned vehicle.

The Internal Affairs report stated, "Edwards should know that a vehicle listing to the City of Minneapolis Equipment Division is likely to be an unmarked squad and that revealing this information to a known gang member and drug dealer could result in physical harm or death to an undercover police officer."




The feds let him off the hook but the lieutenant is still facing ethics violations.






A story coming out of Miami is about what happens When an Internal Affairs Division gets too cozy with the police officers it investigates, only in this case it means that literally. One department's Internal Affairs commander wanted to get lucky with a female officer so he started spilling information about investigations to impress her.



(excerpt, Miami New Times)



The sordid saga involving Pichardo and Rifkin
began in February 2008 when she and her estranged ex-husband, Richard Pichardo, a former chief of the county police's Cutler Ridge district who retired in April last year, were having problems. According to court documents, the ex-beaus filed for restraining orders against one another last February 19 and 20. In addition, the Pichardos were being investigated by the Professional Compliance Bureau on several matters, including domestic violence and fraud.

Shortly after the IA investigation into her began, Pichardo received a phone call from Rifkin inviting her to lunch, according to the FDLE's report, which was released to Miami New Times today. Pichardo and Rifkin had two meetings, one at Café Italia and another at Las Delicias Peruanas, both located on Hollywood Boulevard. The encounters took place this past March 23 and July 13.

During their first encounter, Rifkin -- without being asked -- brought up the two cases against Pichardo's ex-hubby. One involved allegations of domestic violence against Richard by his current wife. The other inquiry was into allegations he was using steroids. Pichardo alleges Rifkin informed her that internal affairs was consulting with doctors to determine what the steroids "were intended to be used for." According to Pichardo's interview with FDLE, "Rifkin walked her to her car and hugged her really tight, squeezing her breasts."

When they met at the Peruvian seafood joint over the summer, Rifkin gave Pichardo a copy of an email Richard sent to Miami Beach Police Chief Carlos Noriega, Miami-Dade Police Director Robert Parker, and County Manager George Burgess. Rifkin also divulged that Richard was under investigation for allegedly forging a signature on a quit-claim deed. Pichardo claims she never asked Rifkin to give her the intel on her ex-hubby.

After the last meeting, Pichardo said, "It became clear what his intentions were as he became more aggressive with his text messages," including one this past July 30 asking her to take a day off "so he could come over and rub her neck and feet."





Over in Hawaii, a police sergeant was fired for sexual assault.



Fort Myers, Florida may be getting its civilian review board at last. The city council is preparing to draft its ordinance.