Election 2009: Show us the money, again

Just when I thought that blogging about the Riverside City Council elections of 2009 could never top the experience of blogging about the District One Riverside County supervisor contest last year at this time, along comes another series of anonymous rants at Craigslist to put that belief to the test. My vertigo puts me to bed earlier than I would like so I don't see most of these visits to the site done at the wee hours of the morning and it's hard not to be shocked at the obsessive nature of an often long list of postings with my name or "FBM" in their title. It's kind of freaky sometimes especially when you consider the content of a lot of these postings, but what's strangest of all, is where they come from because after a while spent reading dozens if not hundreds of these often incoherent rants, it's harder not to know who's writing them.

Especially since one of the most important things to do is just keep your ear to the ground (the non-vertigo ear of course) and just wait for these anonymous folks to be so filled with themselves that they think they will burst if they can't tell someone what they've been up to. That apparently happened in this case and the identity of that individual would have been a lot more surprising a few weeks ago or maybe if I learned it while they were engaging in similar activities just one year ago on behalf of the candidate running for a different elective office.


Craigslist had been quite busy since the posting that was done on this site yesterday, with anonymous members who appear to be among Councilman Frank Schiavone's supporters writing on that site that I have been convicted of felony burglary in 2000 and also this infraction for being an unlicensed driver. They post a link to the Riverside County Superior Court site to support their allegations. I read it and thought, wow these people really don't have much faith in their candidate's chances of winning reelection. I probably believe it's a more likely outcome of the election than they apparently do. It seems that the more desperate they feel, the uglier and more frequent their anonymous rants become on that site.

But alas, that individual that they listed is not me.

For one thing, I'm not 65 years old like the convicted burglar nor am I brown-eyed and 5'0 like the second offender. My address doesn't match that on any of the documents involving either case. It looked like a lot of people were shocked by the posting and I had people ask me if it was me. Most people who've been following what's been going on Craigslist know that I've been one of the main targets of hateful and frankly, sickening posts there by people purporting to be Schiavone's supporters and that this is just more of the same. But I'm not the only one that they've targeted there. When faced with their own behavior, they whine that the "other side" has done the same thing but the proof just isn't there because if you look at the long list of postings done on Craigslist during Election 2009, you will find the vast majority of the negative ones written by individuals claiming to be Schiavone supporters. The proof is in the pudding as they say.

And when they're not ranting anonymously about people's personal hygiene or choice in lingerie, they're flagging posts for removal anonymously because they don't trust the readership at Craigslist to be able to read them for themselves and formulate their own opinion. That's really sad that there's individuals who try to dictate what you will read and what you want on a Web site like that which has served as a forum, both good and bad, for people to post events, election information and most of the time, opinions.

Not surprisingly any link to this site has been flagged for removal many times. People email or send me the links to the flagged posts to prove that they existed if I hadn't seen for sure myself. Again, this is being done by people who don't trust the other readers on the site to be able to formulate their own opinions on issues and other people's opinions themselves and want to shape the opinions of these people by pruning the site of any postings that they don't feel people should read and every single time, it's a posting that they disagree with themselves like this one which when posted was linked to this particular posting on this blog.

So it's one thing when trying to remove content that you disagree with and then harassing those who write it is done online but it's another when there's been parallels in Riverside's city government where more and more business seems to take place behind closed doors in secrecy like that ad hoc "research" committee created by the Governmental Affairs Committee (chaired by Schiavone) addressing investigative protocol of the CPRC. The public was never notified when and where those meetings took place, given a list of the committee's members ahead of time let alone invited to sit in and watch, let alone invited to participate. In fact, it's a good bet that most of the city's residents didn't even know that the committee had been created at all. And this is simply one example of how secrecy and opaqueness is being the rule and not the exception at City Hall, leaving the tax-paying public uninformed about a lot of what's going on.

And let's see, when it comes to harassment, look at how people who've spoken critically of city government have been treated by the city council. They're subjected to paper shuffling, sidebar conversations, name-calling and other behaviors by a city council which is similar to what has happened in other cities but at least Colton had the sense to hire an etiquette expert to give its city council members recommendations on how to behave during meetings. Riverside's city council nearly always tones down its own behavior during respective election years and this behavior usually subsides but after all the votes are counted, it will pick up right where it left off.

I'm used to their tactics because this is how these Schiavone supporters who appear by the way to be very privy about the details of his campaign have been behaving since I guess they discovered that Craigslist provided them with a venue to spew hatred and garbage anonymously as described by this unsigned person. They've gone after other people as well including Mary Humboldt, Yolanda Garland and Terry Frizzel, all women, simply because they don't like what they've said at city council and other public meetings. So instead of criticizing their stances on civic and political issues face to face or at least online, they instead place them on "filthy five" lists and make fun of their mental status, personal hygiene and whether or not they wear a bra or not. That's not a tactic one uses when you hold a political disagreement or difference of opinion with a person, that's when you just like to make personal attacks that can't be traced back to you.

It shows how out of touch not to mention how juvenile the behavior of these individuals is, because they must really believe that postings like that are going to win their candidate votes when most people vote by the issues and how they impact them and their families, and most people tend to be turned off by personal attacks on people's looks which are clearly intended to try to shame people from expressing opinions different to their own.

One unsigned person did have a response to all this.


(excerpt, Craigslist)


If no crime was committed then why is Schiavone, Priamos, Morales, and all you mud slingers acting like a deer in the headlights of a speeding car lately? Nobody has anything real to say. You're all just a bunch of little pre-schoolers throwing insults. Making up pretend stories and talking about showers and bras and body odor.

Are you really that blown away that you can't come up with an intelligent, cohesive, adult thing to say? Isn't anyone on Frank's side mentally older than 12?

Is this really Frank campaign? Is this what it's come to?



Of course, predictably the response to this post was the "I know you are but what am I" line that most of us used at one time or another when we were under the age of 12. After all, that's the age range where mirroring behavior like that exhibited in the posting below first appears.



(excerpt)


There was no crime committed and nobody resembles any deer except Davis. Davis has nothing real to say.

Talk about pre-schoolers throwing insults, Davis' people are pretty damn good at it themselves, without regard for the truth I might add. They just throw it on the wall to see if it sticks.

Is Davis really that blown away that he can't bother with the facts? Is anyone on Davis' side even mentally stable, let alone 12?

Is this really what Davis' campaign has come to? Sad Indeed.

Nice Try.



You can argue about whether or not any crimes were committed in the Bradley Estate Affair but what's difficult to argue against are the statements that these anonymous people who are obsessed with bras and deodorant have never written anything of any substance while they've been on Craigslist. And the sad thing is that they had many opportunities to do so, by selling the positive attributes of Schiavone of which there are some, but apparently they don't even seem to agree with that because why be nasty as they have been when it would be much more effective to sell their candidate as the best man for the job?


These allegations raised by unsigned members of the Schiavone campaign are interesting but their actions, not exactly surprising. Fortunately, there's only several weeks of this election left and then they'll disappear beneath the rocks from where they came from. They always do.

And what's interesting is how this type of behavior is rewarded publicly as well. Just witness the case of Migual Morales of the so-called "Riverside Press Club" who stood up at a city council meeting and called community activist and "Friends of the Hills" member, a "liar" and soon afterwards, was seen being embraced in the back of the chamber by Schiavone's legislative aide.

But then judging by some of the unprofessional behavior by several legislative aides, maybe it's time to revisit the issue of whether or not this city can afford to pay out $49,000 plus benefits for positions that are exempt from a competitive recruitment and hiring process and seem to have no list of professional standards for conduct. What often happens is that the winning politician of an election gives the job as a reward to one of his campaign workers and that type of action can be problematic as quite a few governmental corruption scandals have begun through similar circumstances when accountability, fair labor practices and transparency is taken out of the hiring processes of legislative staff. Having legislative aides set up the way that it currently is just smacks of rewarding campaign workers with jobs at City Hall.

This behavior was in response for writing about the most recent mailer circulated by the Paul Davis campaign which discusses Schiavone's "other resume" including a 1999 bench warrant allegedly filed against Schiavone on a civil case for $1,500. Anonymous individuals on Craigslist insist that there's two Schiavones and that the one in that case is probably the one from Rancho Cucamonga, not their Schiavone. Still, being anonymous, it's hard to know what to think except that if their truth were so compelling, it's still not enough for any of these rock dwellers to garner much strength to it by identifying themselves and bringing it to light. Granted, it would be tough at this stage of the game after seeing how some of them have conducted themselves at Craigslist especially if as some people suspect, they do occupy high places in the Schiavone campaign. Being anonymous, it's hard to know for sure who they are but it's also hard to overlook the postings they write which include campaign information that most of the public just isn't privy to. And it's harder when quoted material from some of those anonymous posts winds up being included on campaign mailers.

As for there being more than one Schiavone, that's already been established. There's at least two of them. One who supports the CPRC and one who opposes it, for example.



As far as cute little postings at Craigslist, this one gets honorable mention for being well, intelligent.


(excerpt)




Traffic must be slow at the FBM blog when Mary at FBM must bring her demented philosophy to Craigslist.
If I wanted to know your opinion, I'd read your blog.
Can't you make your point in a brief paragraph ? blah blah blah Shut Up!


Unfortunately, I had to stop comments on my site in part to get him to "shut up". But he found himself a new hovel to reside in and some leaders to follow.




In Election 2009, Schiavone's raising the most money for his campaign. Again, the figures generated in these fund raising drives pale beside those raised by several incumbent councilmen and their challengers in the city election two years ago when campaign war chests containing money in the six-figures wasn't an uncommon thing.

But it's likely to be a shorter election cycle with fewer candidates and one fewer seat up for grabs. Unlike the last election cycle, this one's taking place during a recession, which is impacting donations certainly from the developers who usually bombard campaign war chests. However, the money spent this time around is certainly less than just two years ago.

Throw in the fact that one city council member, Mike Gardner, who ran a grass-roots campaign ousted one of Election 2007's biggest earners, Dom Betro and another grass-roots candidate Terry Frizzel nearly unseated Steve Adams, have changed the way that money's raised these days.




(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



Schiavone, who is seeking a third term, started the campaign as the leading fundraiser and has not relinquished that position.

Major contributions to Schiavone include $1,000 from the Riverside Police Officers Association, $1,000 from citrus rancher Janet Gless, $1,000 from the Service Employees International Union, Local 721 and $1,000 from Moss Bros. Dodge in San Bernardino.

For the filing period, Schiavone reported $37,071 in expenditures with $11,512 in unpaid bills.

Schiavone's challenger, small-business owner Paul Davis, raised $6,600 for the filing period.

Major contributions included $2,500 from Rent-A-Center and $500 from friend Ethel Harmatz, of Oceanside.

Davis reported $7,454 in expenditures for the filing period.



Fundraising in the other two ward contests also continued.


Ward Two

Andrew Melendrez: $8,214

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers: $500

Carolyn Young, developer: $500


Ahmad Smith: No donations


Ruben Rasso: $4,970

Southern California Braiding Company: $1,000

Brown Insurances Services: $500




Ward Six:


Nancy Hart: $2,800

Riverside Police Officers' Association: $1,000

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers: $500

Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1277: $300

Ann Alfaro: None

Bill Scherer: $80






The downtown new office towers which were to become Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco's new palace is expected to weigh in on the recently released grand jury report discussing problems in the District Attorney's office. Let the games and gamesmanship begin.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)

The report, released late Friday, says the district attorney's office could and should eliminate its nine-member executive division, which cost the county half a million dollars this year. The savings would help the county tackle its mounting financial crisis, the report says.

The grand jury said the division replicates duties previously performed by existing staff.

Pacheco's office responded in a letter, rejecting the report's recommendations and telling the grand jury it failed to recognize the executive division's essential communications, outreach and victim support work.

County supervisors are expected to discuss the district attorney's executive division and decide how to handle the report at the June 2 board meeting, officials said.

"Some kind of independent review ought to take place, but that is going to take time," Supervisor Bob Buster said. "But for the short term, all the indications are that the district attorney can cut his budget back to the required amount without undermining essential prosecutions."

If supervisors opt to follow standard procedure, County Executive Officer Bill Luna and his staff will draft a response to the grand jury report, said county spokesman Ray Smith. Supervisors must then approve the response before it is sent back to the grand jury, he said. The response deadline is Aug. 18.

Perris is another city considering early retirement packages for its employees.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



City officials hope the early retirement offer will cut long-term costs and keep them from laying off workers. The long-term cost-cutting move is just one way the city is trying to keep its expenses in line with plunging sales and property tax revenues.

"We're facing the fiscal impacts of this economy. Other cities have been laying people off for the last 12 to 18 months and now it's catching up to us," said Councilman Mark Yarbrough. "Tax bases have dried up and there are no building fees to speak of."

He said so far the city's $15 million reserve has spared officials from having to look at layoffs or cutting services such as parks, recreation and police or fire protection.






The recall effort against a Moreno Valley Councilwoman has three elected officials supporting it.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



Mike Rios, former Councilman Frank West and Robert Burks said in separate phone interviews that they believe Hastings misled the public by saying during the campaign that she would not support anything that would harm the community, and then voted for a warehouse project that includes a large Skechers distribution center after she was elected.

Burks noted that the project developer, Highland Fairview, donated money to the Moreno Valley Taxpayers Association, which spent money independently in support of Hastings' election -- something that Hastings said she didn't know about until a candidate forum.
Story continues below

"I think that's a real big issue. You tell people you know nothing about it, then you end up doing things to benefit (the donors)," Burks said.







There's a shortage of deputies in Highland, a city located in San Bernardino County.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



In Highland, a city of 52,000 with sometimes as few as three patrol deputies, such scenes can trigger an unwelcome domino effect.

"Imagine trying to control that," said Art Alvarado, a San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy assigned to Highland who responded to the Feb. 1 killing with help from deputies from the sheriff's Central Station. "Three people can't do it."

That chaos is rare, but the issue it creates across the 18-square-mile city is not.

"Now you've got us and Central (station deputies) tied up," Alvarado said. "Think about it. Who's handling all the other calls?"

Almost every Inland law enforcement agency is competing for federal stimulus dollars to hire more officers. Some say Highland, which pays the sheriff to patrol the city, has the most pressing need.

Adding three deputies through the grant -- as the city hopes to do -- would bring its total to 25. When the station's captain, lieutenant, five sergeants and two detectives are included, Highland has 31 full-time sworn officers, a ratio of about 0.6 officers per 1,000 residents.

The national average is 2.4 officers per 1,000.






More information about the alleged hit that former Bolingbrook Police Department Sgt. Drew Peterson might have ordered against his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Currently, he stands indicted and facing prosecution in her murder.


(excerpt, Fox-News)

JAMIE COLBY, FOX NEWS GUEST HOST: We’re talking bombshell, bombshell news today. The Will Country state's attorney said the Drew Peterson tried to hire a hitman to kill third wife, Kathleen Savio, that Peterson offered 25 smackers for the murder of his wife.

The state's attorney also said Peterson told a fellow police officer in 2004 that the divorce from Kathleen was going to ruin him financial, and that his, quote, "life would be easier if we were just dead."

FOX News’ Jim Murphy, our producer inside the courtroom in Illinois, is joining me on the phone. Jim these are stunning statements from the state's attorney. Is this something you think was presented to the grand jury?

JIM MURPHY, FOX NEWS (Via telephone): It was not discussed in court today whether or not that would presented to the grand jury. But I think you described it perfectly. It certainly was a bombshell.

When I came into the courtroom today, I was sitting near, relative to Stacy Peterson as well as the Savio family. Obviously, there could be very visible reaction, but you could tell there were shaken by that news today.

COLBY: Absolutely. And the timeline of when it happened, the potential purchase of a hit man for $25,000 was just weeks before she was found dead in that dry bathtub. And then the comment to the officer also around the time that there were about to decide how much alimony he was going to have to pay.

The judge denied reducing a $20 million bail, and $20 million is considered high in that state for what he is indicted for, these charges.

So do you know why he did it? Did it have anything to do with the fact that Drew Peterson benefited financially from Kathleen Savio's death and that money might be used for bail?

MURPHY: Certainly. There were a couple of strong points that James Glasswell (ph) the Will County state's attorney made today, one being that Drew Peterson violated a very serious oath, that to serve and protect as a police officer. And he thought he should be held to a higher standard.

Meanwhile, the body recovered near the Des Plaines River in Illinois yielded few clues and many unanswered questions remained including its identity.



(excerpt, Chicago Tribune)



Even if the body is identified, further investigation will likely be needed to tell how long it was in the water, or when the person died, said noted forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, who is familiar with the cases of missing Will County women Stacy Peterson and Lisa Stebic.

Baden, who is not involved with last week's discovery, said the cause of death may never be known.

"This is the kind of body that could be in the water for one year, or five years, because there was a lot of destruction from the body," he said. "The first thing is, who is it. Once you know who it is, you can get a better determination of how the body got there."

The DNA could be extracted from bone marrow or other cells, experts said.

"Frankly, you've got bones," said Dr. Peter G. Candel, a pathologist and senior partner at Holy Cross Hospital who is not involved in the investigation. "There is residual cellular material that can be found in the marrow, the bone itself or adherent tissues. ... You just need to get molecules of DNA out to do comparison."

Did a Chicago Police Department officer charged in the fatal hit and run of a teenaged boy receive preferential treatment from the justice system? His blood alcohol tested just a hair beneath the legal level for intoxication but the test was delayed over 12 hours.



(excerpt, Chicago Tribune)

Asked if Officer Richard Bolling received preferential treatment, Daley replied, "I hope not. I know the superintendent will be looking at that as quickly as possible ... They will have to investigate that, definitely."

To this date, the police department has refused to identify Bolling as the off-duty officer who allegedly was behind the wheel of the speeding car that struck and killed Trenton Booker.

The officer's identification was supplied by the Cook County state's attorney's office after he was charged with aggravated driving under the influence, leaving the scene of an accident where a death or injury occurred and reckless homicide.

There are also questions why the department waited four hours after the accident before administering a Breathalyzer test, and waited another eight hours before drawing blood to test Bolling's alcohol level.

And relatives of the boy claim the officer's court hearing was moved up an hour over the weekend to avoid them and the media.

Bolling is a 17-year veteran assigned to the narcotics and gang investigation section. His father is Douglas Bolling, a former Wentworth Area commander, a former Harrison district commander and a former tactical officer.

In refusing to identify Bolling, a police spokeswoman on Saturday said in a news release that the department was "unable" to disclose his name "per union contract."

But police sources said there is no contract provision that bars disclosing the name of an officer who has been charged with a crime, and one source lamented the impression of favoritism the action made.

Labor conflicts and the demise of investigative reporting at the PE?

****UPDATE**** Former Moreno Valley Police Department officer, David Kushner convicted of two felonies and acquitted of 16 others.




The Riverside Wi Fi system was repaired by early Monday morning after having a structural issue which led to the internet outages impacting at least 24 access points in several neighborhoods including the downtown. The outages which began at 3:39 p.m. on Sunday led to numerous SOS emails being sent by the troubled routers which were installed on the city's light posts to command central, according to Riverside's 311 Center.

Portions of Canyon Crest had an unrelated outage later Monday after one of the access points in the neighborhood experienced some problems which had plagued it earlier. It was up and running again in less than two hours.




The Riverside City Council is holding another meeting. The agenda includes two discussion items including this resolution that the city will face severe financial hardship if the state takes anymore of its property tax revenue away. Also being presented is an oral report on the Riverside Police Department's "family justice center programs" which is located in downtown Riverside. Then there's a bunch of consent calendar items, some with sizable price tags and the closed session items which includes the discussion over the lawsuit filed against the city of Los Angeles over the port authority.

City Council meetings at this point in the election cycle tend to be chock filled with items including lots of "file and receive" reports which help benefit the status of the incumbents including those running for reelection and city residents have noticed that in the past several weeks. Still, with May winding down and June 2 almost upon the city, within a month, the winners of all three city council contests will probably be tabulated and announced. It's more than likely that the first round of Election 2009: The City Council will be its final round given that there doesn't appear to be candidates in two of the wards who are strong enough to pull enough votes away from incumbents Andrew Melendrez and Nancy Hart to require runoffs in November. Still, you never really can predict what will happen. Usually one might speculate based on past history that Ward Two candidate, Rubin Rasso would at least force a runoff in November but that was a Rasso who ran a more aggressive campaign with a much bigger warchest (courtesy of the law enforcement associations) than the shoe string budget he's utilizing now. That goes to show how much confidence Melendrez has garnered from some of Rasso's former die-hard supporters even though some labor associations like the Riverside Police Officers' Association didn't really give him very much money at all at least according to the most recently released campaign donation disclosure statements.

In Ward Four, both sides remain confident that their candidate is going to be the victor and that race will be decided unless it's very close and becomes controversial in the sense that the Ward One council race involving former Councilman Dom Betro and then-challenger Mike Gardner did two years ago in its final round. Schiavone received the endorsements from the Riverside Firefighters Association (which traditionally endorses incumbents), the Riverside Police Officers' Association and the Riverside Police Administrators' Association.

A hot potato called Bradley Estates

In the meantime, this site has researched a very interesting article about the issues surrounding the development of Bradley Estates which was allegedly owned by Schiavone and the twisty trail that it took through various channels of city government to wind up costing tax payers over $100,000 in non-city related legal expenses. It doesn't paint a very flattering picture of the actions of either Schiavone or City Attorney Gregory Priamos. More importantly what it does raise is many questions about exactly what happened and there needs to be a serious attempt to get to the bottom of the situation and let the public know how much if any tax payer money was misspent.

One local newspaper put a lot of work into finding out what, when and why, only to apparently run into the brick wall that shoots in your path anytime you are writing about people in positions of political power in a way that might not cast them in a good light. They started working on this story a while ago and two weeks ago, it was allegedly scheduled to be published as several articles. Then not long after that, whether or not it would be published at all became more in doubt.

The Press Enterprise had apparently been doing its investigative story on this situation very enthusiastically, certainly in the beginning and had assigned two reporters to work on it. That story was completed by these two journalists and then underwent the vetting that all news stories usually go through and then some extra vetting which was to be expected. One of the reporters allegedly went from knowing when it would be published to not having a clue, all within the scope of about a week. So what happened in the meantime? What happened somewhere in the chain of command at the city's only daily newspaper?

However, unlike other news stories that examine other questionable land deals outside of Riverside, this story was most likely killed or at the very least stalled at some level. Rather than appearing in the newspaper to outline what exactly did take place during the episode involving the Bradley Estates project, it's disappeared or gone into some sort of purgatory reserved for stories that are too "hot" for mainstream publications to print.

And that's a shame because the report raises some issues that need to be addressed by all parties involved in a public forum especially if tax payer money was involved and it seems that now, that won't take place. And by investing a lot of time, energy and no doubt money into an extensive investigative story, the Press Enterprise is contributing to the environment of question raising being done as the Bradley Estates brief gets put into larger circulation. Should the issues included in the Bradley Estates brief be raising any questions? Is the newspaper's unwillingness to publish its investigative series about the Bradley Estates situation contributing to this sentiment or alleviating it?

The alleged series of articles' initial release date was to have been several weeks ago, then it became unspecified as to when they would be released. It will be very surprising if these articles in any form appear in the newspaper at least before June. You won't see any version that casts Schiavone in a negative light in this situation but apparently you won't see one that paints him in a positive light either because if that were the case, it would have been published by now. And that's what's most troubling at all, is that the newspaper had completed its story and hasn't published any version of it so that readers can learn what the fuss is all about. So why is the newspaper holding back on a completed investigative story? Is it because the news is bad? Would it do the same if all the investigating and researching of the Bradley Estates affair placed Schiavone in a more positive light?

The actions of the Press Enterprise just appear to be that they are preventing some form of exposure of a candidate that its Editorial Board recently endorsed for reelection which is bad if something inappropriate did happen with that land development deal and also bad if nothing inappropriate happened with that land development deal because they've left a lot of questions unanswered. Well, maybe the newspaper knows what the answers are but it's keeping them to themselves or sweeping them beneath the rug.

Sources say that this apparently stalling of the release of the completed story begun at the news editor's level. But even if it made it that past this person, it probably would have been halted by a higher editor, the publisher, perhaps even the very influential Editorial Board which if you recall, had endorsed all the incumbents including Schiavone during this election race.

How influential are members of this Board?

A story circulated once that a reporter was sent out to cover a story in Riverside about residents of an up-scaled neighborhood who were supposedly up in arms about one of their neighbors who instead of a mansion owned a trailer on his property. The reporter went to interview these residents as all reporters do to find out if they were upset about the trailer in their midst and if so, why? Well, to make a long story short it turned out that the only resident who was upset about the trailer in the entire neighborhood was the next door neighbor. And who was that peeved off neighbor? A member of the newspaper's Editorial Board who forwarded a "story" to the news division's editor without mentioning their own conflict of interest situation in that same story. That's a marriage between news and editorial divisions that in most professional dailies would never have been allowed to take place but apparently it did with the Press Enterprise at least once. And the Press Enterprise might be involved in more than one "marriage" as it struggles to survive in an economic environment brutal to daily print journalism.

At any rate, the above link features all the information including links to public documents used to research what it called a serious case of conflict of interest and chock with legal issues. It's an interesting read and it makes you think about a lot of things but one of them should be that the only place you could read about it wasn't in a daily newspaper or even a weekly one but through an alternative media outlet.

The Press Enterprise should have done its job, done a thorough investigative reporting job (which apparently David Danelski and Doug Haberman did) and had allowed the readers to decide what to make of the situation instead of burying it in the newspaper's own version of a morgue. Instead from Editor Cathy Armstrong and the newspaper's leadership on up, the message had been sent that the article won't be running any time soon, probably not even this month.

The people lower on that food chain at the publication are just the messengers simply relaying and carrying out the orders of what they've been told by the more powerful players in the Press Enterprise. But it's a shame that the Press Enterprise instead of being an objective, investigative, news-gathering publication now appears to occupy its own position on the city council dais. This newspaper's personnel had always claimed they weren't afraid of a story. Well, let's just say this apparently wasn't the first time.

The "Fourth Estate" indeed! Not that the Press Enterprise hasn't had its moments when it carried out that tradition in grand fashion. Two U.S. Supreme Court decisions on the freedom of the press inside court proceedings trace back to this newspaper.

When it was family-owned, rather than Belo-branded, it had its stumbles but in the past year, the Press Enterprise has either laid off, bought off or chased off most of its experienced reporters and photographers, not to mention editors. Its pages are filled with tales about how effective Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco has been at causing massive resignations in his office among his more experienced employees but he's still a distant second to the Press Enterprise in that area.

Whereas prospective reporters once needed at least five years in the profession on their resumes to get an interview, let alone a job with the publication, now the newspaper focuses on hiring journalists fresh out of college programs. At least one veteran former reporter from the Press Enterprise said this might cause problems when they're assigned to city government beats, because the new hires are more naive and trusting of what people in the halls of power like elected officials might say and it takes a couple times of realizing that they've been lied to for it to sink in and they realize that not everything about of the mouths of politicians is the Gospel truth. They become more jaded but that is a trait really needed to sink your teeth into covering a City Hall beat. Politicians don't always tell the truth is the first lesson many journalists covering city and county beats learn fairly early on but it can truly test one's faith in the government that they both live under and also write about.

That's what makes readers like me nervous when we see reporters slapping politicians on the back and we see people endorse political candidates essentially because they're nice to them and give them the time of day or maybe they pay them money through advertising to do so. But it's hard to be critical of a political candidate, incumbent or otherwise, when you've taken money from them for advertising or your Editorial Board has just given them a resounding endorsement.

The Press Enterprise should have trusted the readers enough to decide what to think of an investigative story instead of sending out the message that what must have been that story might have cast Schiavone in a negative light during his reelection bid because the truth is, if the story had put him in a positive light, it would have been released the same day as the Editorial Board endorsed him and as of yet, no such article has been published either. So if there's no article stating that what happened with the Bradley Estates situation was a-okay (and maybe that's the case after all), what does that mean exactly again if the investigative story in question has been completed?

But at any rate, the newspaper has a history of writing hard-hitting stories about any place on its beat but Riverside, which is its headquarters. And it's becoming clear that it's more likely that the Editor and Chief of the Press Enterprise doesn't reside on 14th Street, doesn't reside even in Texas but unfortunately, more editorial power might be waged in a building several blocks to the north-west and if that's true, then that's a really sad state of affairs for democracy in this city and in this country.



One of the Editorial Board writers for the Press Enterprise who authored a recent piece ended it by musing about why there were only corruption and political scandal in San Bernardino County and not its neighboring county in the Inland Empire. That's an interesting question, but not really much of a mystery and it's not even the right question to ask. In further postings, I'll explore some of the factors that play into not only politics in both counties but also just as importantly, the media's coverage or not involving municipal politics.

Rumors also are that the newspaper is in serious financial trouble and has put its newly constructed building up for sale and has already started leasing out entirely empty floors inside of it. For the first time, rumors about the very survival of the Press Enterprise itself have taken on an alarming frequency but if the newspaper is sitting on major stories that more responsible newspapers would report on to keep the public informed especially what's going on with its tax money, then bon voyage and hopefully the city will get a newspaper that reports on Riverside and isn't married to its power structure. A newspaper that's bold enough to write the truth including about the power structure inside Riverside. Hopefully that will take its place if the Press Enterprise can't fill that role because it's too intermeshed with City Hall to take a step back and write about it.

If you have questions to ask about the decision not to publish anything on the Bradley Estates issues, contact the Press Enterprise news desk at: 951-368-9460. Ask to speak to the Editorial Board because they probably know more about who makes new content decisions than anyone else.







Labor negotiations are heating up again for Riverside County's employees. The county's getting even less revenue from property taxes than it thought and the state government wants to tap into more local revenues so what's going to happen next? No one at the table wants to say the words, "pay cuts", at least not yet.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)

Earlier this month, three of the county's five supervisors said proposed 10 percent cuts to the budgets of the Sheriff's Department and district attorney's office would risk public safety. Supervisors Marion Ashley, Roy Wilson and Jeff Stone said ongoing union negotiations could make up nearly $78 million in projected revenue shortfalls in those departments.

Supervisors John Tavaglione and Bob Buster disagreed.

"I can't compromise on public safety," Stone said as the board considered an early retirement program for law enforcement that would have included the Sheriff's Department. "The county can't withstand any loss of personnel without a risk to public safety."

On Tuesday, county CEO Bill Luna will present an update based on 2009-10 budget hearings held earlier this month. The supervisors directed Luna's staff to re-examine budgets proposed by the Sheriff's Department and the district attorney's office.

"Paying for the Board's required changes will likely call for a combination of enhanced revenue recovery, cost savings, reserves and some layoffs elsewhere," Luna states in his report to the supervisors. "Collective bargaining is actively under way with three unions. It is the slated goal of the Board to seek universal labor concessions as part of an effort to protect onboard staff while aligning ongoing expenses with discretionary revenue."

The county is negotiating with Local 721 of the Service Employees International Union, the Riverside Sheriff's Association and Deputy District Attorneys Association, according to Luna's report.

Press Enterprise Columnist Cassie MacDuff wrote that the San Bernardino County District Attorney's office needs to get off the fence regarding corruption within that county's government.



(excerpt)



Hueston took less than four months to document the chicanery. The DA has been at it since 2007. Sure, prosecutors have to prove their cases beyond a reasonable doubt. But come on ...

The only charges filed against former assessor officials so far are tangential: Adam Aleman, tampering with evidence sought by the grand jury; Jim Erwin, failing to properly report a Rolex watch and a trip to New York; Postmus, arrested on suspicion of possessing drugs but not charged yet.

Mickey said no charges will be filed until the investigation is completed. Prosecutors, she said, "are not going to piecemeal it."

They might want to rethink that.



MacDuff also spanked the board of supervisors.




The former San Bernardino County Sheriff deputy who shot a U.S. airman during an incident caught on video camera has been dropped as a defendant in a lawsuit filed against him by the man he shot.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)




That may or may not be a problem for (Carrion) to put on a case," Wright said as he ruled that Webb was "neither necessary nor indispensable" for Carrion to prove his case. The ruling was made without prejudice, meaning Wright can revisit it.

The motion to delay the trial was denied because "This could go on indefinitely," Wright said of the three-year-old lawsuit. He said he would mail attorneys a notice for a trial to begin in 90 days. No trial date was set in court.

Webb attorney Eugene Ramirez said outside court his client was satisfied with the ruling.

Carrion's attorneys had sought a trial date 120 days out, but Carrion attorney Luis A. Carrillo said outside court he was satisfied with both rulings.

"It's good news for us," Carrillo said.





Colton's controversial city manager is planning to exit.


(excerpt, San Bernardino Sun)



City Manager Daryl Parrish will depart sometime this month to become city manager of Covina. He was a major player in the creation of two development projects in the works, the Superblock and Pellissier Ranch.

Those projects won't stumble in the wake of Parrish's departure, and the plan is to push them forward full bore.

"We still have a vision for creating revenue and jobs in our city," said Councilman Vince Yzaguirre. "The specific plans for the Pellissier Ranch and Superblock will still move forward and are visions that are healthy and good for our city and our citizens."

On Wednesday, the City Council and Planning Commission held a joint workshop to discuss the West Valley Specific Plan Amendment, which will lay the groundwork for land-use designations in the Superblock.

Both bodies were presented with a draft copy of the West Valley Specific Plan for a 60-day review period, Mayor Kelly Chastain said.




More controversy in San Bernardino with this time, the city's fire chief being accused of failing to apply for hefty grant money.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)









The Los Angeles Police Department's goal of hiring 12,000 officers collided with the budget cuts coming out of the current recession. The city for a while was even looking at freezing vacancies but a last minute compromise was raised by the department, the mayor and the city council.


In the meantime, LAPD Chief William Bratton is hoping that a study he supported will end the department's eight years and counting federal consent decree.



(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)



In asking for the study and giving researchers unusual access to the department, LAPD Chief William J. Bratton had hoped it would find that the LAPD has changed for the better since being forced eight years ago by federal officials to adopt a sweeping set of checks and balances that resulted from the Rampart corruption scandal. Bratton increasingly has chafed under the stigma of federal oversight and, in recent months, has been waging a public campaign to convince federal officials that the department is fit to keep its own house in order.

However, with budget debates raging at City Hall and the City Council considering a proposal to freeze the hiring of new officers, Bratton and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wasted no time using the report to serve a more immediate need.

"After all the hard work to turn this department around, the years of fighting and struggling and striving to build a larger, more progressive police force, we cannot turn our backs on our officers now," Villaraigosa said at a news conference at which the study was released. "This is not the time to go back to the old ways of the LAPD, to the days when the cops were underfunded and under-equipped, overworked and overextended, pushed to the limit and stretched far too thin. This is the moment to recommit ourselves . . . to a larger LAPD."



The department's next day of reckoning concerning its consent decree is a hearing in federal court next month.






The BART Police Department comes up with a blueprint for an auditor's model.



(excerpt, San Francisco Chronicle)




The police auditor, modeled after a similar system in San Jose, would be charged with investigating all citizen complaints alleging excessive or unnecessary force, hate crimes, racial profiling or racially abusive treatment.

The auditor also would have authority to review the BART Police Department's internal investigations into complaints involving its officers and request further work if the probe is deemed incomplete.

But the auditor would not have the authority to discipline officers. That power would remain with the police chief and the BART general manager.

The auditor would recommend changes to police policy, procedures and report directly to the elected BART board, under the draft proposal.

A citizen advisory board related to police matters also would be set up under the plan.

BART held its second public forum Friday on creating a police oversight system. BART spokesman Linton Johnson said more modifications are anticipated before the governing board weighs in.






Former Bolingbrook Police Department Sgt. Drew Peterson was arraigned today on murder charges in relation to the 2005 killing of his former wife, Kathleen Savio. To no surprise, he plead not guilty.


(excerpt, Chicago Tribune)




Defense attorney Joel Brodsky entered a not guilty plea on Peterson's behalf as his client stood silently in court Monday, wearing a blue jail jumpsuit and shackles.

Prosecutors then asked that Judge Richard Schoenstedt be removed from Peterson's case. Brodsky is challenging that move, and Will County Chief Judge Gerald Kinney is slated to hold a hearing on the issue Thursday.

Peterson has been in custody since his arrest on first-degree murder charges on May 7 in the 2004 death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Savio's death was originally ruled an accident.
Brodsky has said he will move to get Peterson's bail reduced to somewhere between $100,000 and $500,000. He asserts Peterson isn't a flight risk, saying that if was going to flee, he would have done so long ago.




What Peterson said could go a long way at trial. Even if he doesn't plan to testify in his defense.


(excerpt, Fox News)

In fact, he's seemed to relish the spotlight, often giving reporters a joke or smart-aleck remark — like smiling and calling his handcuffs "bling" when he was led to his first court appearance earlier this month.

And that, attorneys say, could be one of Peterson's biggest problems.

"If one wife goes missing and (another) wife is dead, those aren't usually the subject of jokes," said Roy Black, a defense attorney whose clients have included Rush Limbaugh and William Kennedy Smith. "People are going to think this is a very bizarre person, who's more likely to have committed murder than someone who is in mourning."

Peterson is accused of drowning Savio, who was found dead in a dry bathtub in 2004 with a gash on the back of her head. Her death was initially ruled an accident, but after Stacy Peterson went missing Savio's body was exhumed and authorities ruled her death a homicide staged to look like an accident.

Marilyn Brenneman, a senior deputy prosecutor in Seattle's King County, once won a murder conviction after showing jurors a video of a news conference given by a man charged in a drowning death.

"We used it to show his attitude was blase," she said. "He was kind of wooden and didn't show any emotion. ... That is not really an appropriate response."

Injustice Everywhere has launched! It's an excellent site on police abuse and misconduct at the national level and was created by the author of Injustice in Seattle. So check it out, check both sites out. Feeds involving police incidents all across the country as well as links to resources on these critical issues are available.



Another excellent site, is Blue Must Be True which is a blog created by a former law enforcement officer and whistle blower of corruption and misconduct in his department. Now he's an instructor for law enforcement officers on subjects such as ethics. His site is excellent and features lots of videos depicting police actions where he asks for and also provides analysis.



Carlos Miller's blog is another excellent one addressing police abuse and misconduct.





Cast your vote in this special state election on Tuesday, May 19.

Election 2009 and the CPRC: The downward slide continues

After the 5-1 vote to exonerate Riverside Police Department Officer Jeffrey Adcox in the 2006 fatal shooting of Joseph Darnell Hill, dissenting commissioner Chani Beeman has decided to draft a minority report. There were many questions asked by the public and even a brave commissioner or two but seriously, the majority of the commission had their minds made up the first day including Art Santore whose comments in the article almost mirror the ones he first made months ago. But he's got his roles mixed up, in that the commission's role is to define whether the officer's actions were reasonable (as defined under state law and case decisions on the use of lethal force) not those of the deceased. The latter are considered but it's the answer to the question of reasonableness by the former that defines the finding of either the police department's own investigative and review process and what's left of that by the CPRC.

It's not surprising that mishaps and misunderstandings of the roles of the commissioners in this process take place including so publicly through a comment in the press. None of the current commissioners received much or any training on how to investigate, process, review and deliberate over an officer-involved death from an administrative perspective. None of them received it because current manager, Kevin Rogan (who receives a hefty six-figured salary for about 20 hours of work a week) hasn't made it a priority and he hasn't done so because his boss, Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis clearly wants to keep the commissioners in a position where they can't make informed decisions after reviewing the case book submitted by the police department which gets more and more redacted each time it goes back to the department for "review".

Santore's comments to the press or during that meeting show the cost of not properly training commissioners to perform their charter mandated functions but then again, how many of these functions in the charter has the CPRC been allowed to do unmolested by factions at City Hall?

Not very many. Its biggest claim to fame is that it can review complaints that are months or even a year old.

Okay, if you were the city manager, would you pay someone six-figured salary for about half-time work if they failed to produce an annual report to the point where it had to be biennial (and that's assuming that there is a report released), failed to do any meaningful public outreach in the community during the past year except to show up at meetings and rebut the comments made about the CPRC in those meetings, failed to follow a majority vote directive by the CPRC to investigate officer-involved deaths three times and argues with commissioners during meetings. You would if you wanted a commission that was to run aground and not function very well at all. And City Manager Brad Hudson, DeSantis and several of their handlers on the dais have never been great fans of the CPRC. They downplay their dislike for it during election years because even as they've disregarded the majority vote that passed Measure II for their minority constituents, they do realize that it's important for them to at least look like their hands are empty.

But despite the fact that the commission hasn't been able to do much that is useful let alone much of its duties under the city's charter, you actually have elected officials including those running for election praising it for functioning very well. Which is kind of true, at least in terms of how they hope that it functions as a form of civilian oversight...or doesn't.

Anyway here are some commissioner comments about the meeting. Don't be surprised if Beeman gets another letter from an elected official scolding her for what she said. It's not like there's a complete lack of precedent for that, as we all know.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



Commissioner Chani Beeman said she would be filing a minority report explaining her dissenting vote and concerns that the officers did not do enough to lower the tension earlier in the interaction.

Commissioner Art Santore said they cannot explain why Hill acted as he did but the actions were unreasonable.

"I'm sorry to see this man had to lose his life but what citizen acts this way?" he said.

Two commissioners were absent.

In the months the commission has debated the shooting, concerns arose as to why Officer Jeffrey Adcox pulled Hill over three times in the half hour before the shooting.

Police have never released why Hill was pulled over. In addition, the officers' voice recorders were not on at crucial points as required by department policy.



Perusual, quite a few comments on this article including some who ask the questions the City Hall-manufactured CPRC dare not to, already.




One brother killed by Deputies and one killed by RPD? Seems like this family thinks it's ok to fight with cops. I'd be questioning their upbringing if I was the sister.

Looks like corrupt police to me. Pulled over 3 times in a half hour, and critical voice evidence happens to be missing? Don't try to use a taser in a gun fight.

sounds like crooked cops to me too TFY2... sounds like they were following him just to piss him off





Another city manager resigns, this time in Loma Linda but Norco may have its new interim city manager by next week.




Park land can be sold without the approval of the voters.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)




The decision, which overturned two lower court rulings, comes nearly five years after Gerard Ste. Marie filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent the Riverside County Regional Park and Open-Space District from selling land in Wildomar to Mt. San Jacinto College for a future campus.

In the opening line of a 7-0 opinion, the state Supreme Court noted its decision "will have a profound effect on how regional park and open space districts can manage their real property holdings."

The code governing park district land use says in one place that purchased land was "dedicated" for park use, and in another place that the land had to be "actually dedicated."

Ste. Marie, who could not be reached for comment Thursday, contended there was no difference between the single word and the phrase. Lower courts agreed, contending that once land was purchased by the district, it was automatically "actually dedicated" for park use and could not be sold without an election.





San Bernardino County wants to recoup some of its financial losses in the wake of the scandal involving its former assessor, Bill Postmus.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)




Available financial records for the defendants show that most have few assets. In a previous county lawsuit against other scandal figures, San Bernardino County received millions of dollars in damages, but only after years of litigation costing $6 million.

Postmus, four former assessor's employees and a consultant hired by him are accused of defrauding taxpayers and improper use of public funds in a lawsuit filed Tuesday. An investigative report by attorney John C. Hueston, released that same day, found widespread time-card fraud in the assessor's office and a conspiracy by Postmus to use his elected position to further his political goals.

Postmus has denied any wrongdoing.

The suit seeks repayment of salaries that Postmus and his executive staff were paid but for which county officials say they never worked. In addition, the suit claims the county should receive, under the California False Claims Act, damages of three times the amount lost, civil penalties, attorneys' fees and punitive damages.

The county has not provided a total figure that it is seeking, but officials expect that damages will be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The defendants' county earnings ranged from $47,910 to $284,893.

"If you commit these types of acts against the taxpayers of San Bernardino County, we're going to be looking to be made whole," Supervisor Paul Biane said.



But Postmus says the county waived all its rights to sue him.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)




He reached a settlement with the county that allowed him to be on paid leave from November 2007 to May 3, 2008, when he resigned from his post. He received $63,000 through the deal.

In the settlement agreement, both Erwin and the county agreed not to sue each other.

The document states that Erwin and the county agreed that the settlement would apply to all "unknown, unsuspected and unanticipated injuries and damages" that may arise from his time at the assessor's office.

"It is a breach of contract. It is malicious prosecution," Erwin said in a telephone interview. "They have a history of violating contracts and they have done it again. It was done to further damage my credibility."

County spokesman David Wert said Thursday that the county disagrees.

"That will be addressed during the litigation. The agreement didn't apply to fraud," Wert said. "That's about all I can say at this time."



All this is happening while the county faces furloughing off workers to try to balance its budget.




(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



In a memo sent to department heads Wednesday, County Administrative Officer Mark Uffer said the county would cut two hours a week from employees' schedules starting June 20. He said the county was forced to take the step after the San Bernardino Public Employees Association failed to vote on a proposal to defer 3.25 percent salary increases that go into effect the same date.

County offices will not close to accommodate the change, he said. Instead, employees' schedules will be adjusted.

The county is facing a $78.1 million budget shortfall for the next fiscal year but has been able to narrow the gap through a number of measures, including an 8 percent across-the-board cut for all departments. However, it must still reduce salaries by $18.2 million, county spokesman David Wert said.

The county's preference was to defer the previously negotiated cost-of-living increases, but that requires union approval, he said. Without that action, the county had to look at its next option, he said.

"The reduced work week was the least painful way to address this fiscal crisis," Wert said.







In an economy where law enforcement officer positions are being frozen and in some cases even laid off, the Los Angeles Police Department was looking at cutting its hiring numbers. Not surprisingly, that proposal has come under some fire and tempers are rising all over the place.



(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)




Last night, Rosendahl provided the tie-breaking vote on the council’s Budget and Finance Committee, which split 3-2 to halt Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s LAPD hiring plan as a way to avoid layoffs. Although he is a longtime Villaraigosa ally, Rosendahl bucked the mayor by agreeing to halt the effort to continue expanding the department by 1,000 officers.

Rosendahl, who represents the city’s coastal neighborhoods, described last night’s vote as the toughest of his four-year political career. But he said he felt a need to end the “smoke and mirrors” in the budget.

“What put me over the top was, where are we going to get the money to run the city?” Rosendahl said this morning. “I don’t want to lay off 1,200 workers, and I don’t want to furlough people 40 days. We need basic city services, and we don’t need to fire all these people.”

Rosendahl took his vote after the council’s policy analysts said that every new hire, at the LAPD or elsewhere, would cause the city to pursue a layoff elsewhere. Rosendahl was joined in his vote by Council members Bernard C. Parks and Greig Smith. Two Villaraigosa allies – council members Wendy Greuel and Jose Huizar – voted against the LAPD cut.




More fallout in the case of an El Monte Police Department officer caught kicking a man in a head by a helicopter camera.



(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)



Samuel Walker, a criminology professor at the University of Nebraska and an expert in police oversight and force, said the officer's kick to the head was “unprovoked and unnecessary," calling the actions "one of the worst incidents of this kind that I've seen."

“The person on the ground was surrendering. There was no threat [seen] in this video,” said Walker.


Geoffrey P. Alpert, professor of criminology at the University of South Carolina, said that, while video may miss some things, it appears to show “that the officer lost control.”

“It appears that the suspect was motionless, under control and nonthreatening,” Alpert said. “If that’s the case, what the officer did was totally outrageous. From what we see, he overreacted.”





Another job opening in civilian oversight.




DEADLINE: June 19, 2009, 5:00 p.m.
POSTMARKS ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE

Position: Independent Reviewer

Salary: D.O.Q

____________ _________ _________ _________ _
THE POSITION
UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY

Fresno: A culture of excellence where people get the best every day. As an agency, our key objectives are to satisfy the needs of the public and of our employees, while managing our financial responsibilities.

The City of Fresno is seeking a professional with significant experience in performing specialized audits of investigations involving highly confidential issues of significant scope. This position requires excellent communication skills as the incumbent serves as a liaison and resource to the community with the goal of strengthening the partnership between the community and the Police Department. Additionally the incumbent serves as a resource to police officers and managers for consultation regarding recommendations for changes to policies. If you are a highly experienced and knowledgeable professional in this field, and if you value responsive government and solution-oriented leadership, we invite your continued interest.
THE REQUIREMENTS
Must be experienced in and knowledgeable of police procedures, legal research, and analyzing criminal, constitutional, labor, and civil rights law. A law degree from an accredited college or university is desirable. Special Requirement( s): Possession of a valid Class C California driver's license may be required at time of appointment.
EXAMINATION PROCESS
Following the filing deadline, individuals whose experience most closely meets our current needs will be invited to participate in one or more interviews involving City staff, stakeholders and community members with an appointment anticipated shortly thereafter, upon the completion of a thorough reference and background check.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

To be considered for this outstanding career opportunity, please submit your Resume, Cover Letter, and current salary by 5:00pm, Friday, June 19, 2009. Resume should include detailed information regarding experience and reflect scope of recent responsibilities, as well as years and months of beginning/ending dates of positions held.

Submit to:

Robert L. Rodriguez, Senior Human Resources Analyst
City of Fresno Personnel Services Department
2600 Fresno Street, First Floor
Fresno, CA 93721-3614
(559) 621-6966 – Fax: (559) 498-4775
Robert.rodriguez@ fresno.gov

CPRC votes to exonerate Riverside Police Department officer in 2006 shooting of Joseph Darnell Hill

The Community Police Review Commission voted 5-1 that the shooting of Joseph Darnell Hill by Riverside Police Department officer Jeffrey Adcox was within policy at its May 13 meeting.

The sole dissenting vote was cast by Chani Beeman. Voting in favor of Adcox were Chair Sheri Corral, a current Riverside Community College District Police Department officer, Vice-Chair Peter Hubbard, the director of American Medical Response which has a public safety contract with City Manager Brad Hudson's office, Ken Rotker, who believes he's there to do what his city council member tells him, Peter Santore, wh0 c0mplains about community members dragging down meetings and Robert Slawsby, who endorsed the councilman, Frank Schiavone, who appointed him not long after being appointed and is said to be tight with Schiavone's political consultant of choice, Brian Floyd.

Missing were Commissioners Brian Pearcy and John Brandriff, who were absent for unknown reasons. It's an almost certainty that they would have voted alongside the majority. The commissioners still have to review the administrative review of the Hill case submitted by the Interal Affairs Division and then vote in closed session on whether it's in policy but since Internal Affairs is even more inclined to rubberstamp what its officers do, this will be a much faster vote than the one at the public meeting.

Beeman's vote was surprising but there's a sense that she regrets her quick decision to exonerate the officers who shot and killed Douglas Steven Cloud in a vote which came up with little warning to the seven people in attendance at a meeting that was never actually caught on audio tape at all due to "technical problems". She never actually said she would have changed her vote on Cloud given a second chance but she, Brandriff and former Commissioner Jim Ward did try to bring the Cloud case back for a second look at the decision making stage.

Whether they exonerate officers or sustain against them, any finding coming out of the CPRC is essentially meaningless due to the violation of statuatory limitations set by Governmental Code 3304(d). Hill took place on Oct. 19, 2006 and this recommended finding was issued by the CPRC on May 13, 2009 and no exceptions were waived from the state code language in the Hill case. And this is just the way the factions at City Hall like it. This is what they call an effectively running commission including in their campaign literature. And from their point of view, they're not lying because there's no doubt that there are elected officials in City Hall who want the diluted and disembodied commission that they have recreated to provide for their city residents during the past several years. The violations of governmental code are just one of many examples of the "good" work being done by elected officials who label themnselves during election years as staunch advocates and guardians for the CPRC.


(excerpt, Governmental Code)




3304. (a) No public safety officer shall be subjected to punitive
action, or denied promotion, or be threatened with any such
treatment, because of the lawful exercise of the rights granted under
this chapter, or the exercise of any rights under any existing
administrative grievance procedure.
Nothing in this section shall preclude a head of an agency from
ordering a public safety officer to cooperate with other agencies
involved in criminal investigations. If an officer fails to comply
with such an order, the agency may officially charge him or her with
insubordination.
(b) No punitive action, nor denial of promotion on grounds other
than merit, shall be undertaken by any public agency against any
public safety officer who has successfully completed the probationary
period that may be required by his or her employing agency without
providing the public safety officer with an opportunity for
administrative appeal.
(c) No chief of police may be removed by a public agency, or
appointing authority, without providing the chief of police with
written notice and the reason or reasons therefor and an opportunity
for administrative appeal.
For purposes of this subdivision, the removal of a chief of police
by a public agency or appointing authority, for the purpose of
implementing the goals or policies, or both, of the public agency or
appointing authority, for reasons including, but not limited to,
incompatibility of management styles or as a result of a change in
administration, shall be sufficient to constitute "reason or reasons."

Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to create a
property interest, where one does not exist by rule or law, in the
job of Chief of Police.
(d) Except as provided in this subdivision and subdivision (g), no
punitive action, nor denial of promotion on grounds other than
merit, shall be undertaken for any act, omission, or other allegation
of misconduct if the investigation of the allegation is not
completed within one year of the public agency's discovery by a
person authorized to initiate an investigation of the allegation of
an act, omission, or other misconduct. This one-year limitation
period shall apply only if the act, omission, or other misconduct
occurred on or after January 1, 1998. In the event that the public
agency determines that discipline may be taken, it shall complete its
investigation and notify the public safety officer of its proposed
disciplinary action within that year, except in any of the following
circumstances:
(1) If the act, omission, or other allegation of misconduct is
also the subject of a criminal investigation or criminal prosecution,
the time during which the criminal investigation or criminal
prosecution is pending shall toll the one-year time period.
(2) If the public safety officer waives the one-year time period
in writing, the time period shall be tolled for the period of time
specified in the written waiver.
(3) If the investigation is a multijurisdictional investigation
that requires a reasonable extension for coordination of the involved
agencies.
(4) If the investigation involves more than one employee and
requires a reasonable extension.
(5) If the investigation involves an employee who is incapacitated
or otherwise unavailable.
(6) If the investigation involves a matter in civil litigation
where the public safety officer is named as a party defendant, the
one-year time period shall be tolled while that civil action is
pending.
(7) If the investigation involves a matter in criminal litigation
where the complainant is a criminal defendant, the one-year time
period shall be tolled during the period of that defendant's criminal
investigation and prosecution.
(8) If the investigation involves an allegation of workers'
compensation fraud on the part of the public safety officer.
(e) Where a predisciplinary response or grievance procedure is
required or utilized, the time for this response or procedure shall
not be governed or limited by this chapter.
(f) If, after investigation and any predisciplinary response or
procedure, the public agency decides to impose discipline, the public
agency shall notify the public safety officer in writing of its
decision to impose discipline, including the date that the discipline
will be imposed, within 30 days of its decision, except if the
public safety officer is unavailable for discipline.
(g) Notwithstanding the one-year time period specified in
subdivision (d), an investigation may be reopened against a public
safety officer if both of the following circumstances exist:
(1) Significant new evidence has been discovered that is likely to
affect the outcome of the investigation.
(2) One of the following conditions exist:
(A) The evidence could not reasonably have been discovered in the
normal course of investigation without resorting to extraordinary
measures by the agency.
(B) The evidence resulted from the public safety officer's
predisciplinary response or procedure.
(h) For those members listed in subdivision (a) of Section 830.2
of the Penal Code, the 30-day time period provided for in subdivision
(f) shall not commence with the service of a preliminary notice of
adverse action, should the public agency elect to provide the public
safety officer with such a notice.


Vertigo kept me away from the meeting so I missed most of the discussion but if you've attended meetings recently, that doesn't mean that you're missing all that much.

No Ward Two eligible commissioner has been appointed yet by city council. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the city were waiting until after all the votes in the Jan 2 mailin election were counted so it could appoint retired Riverside County Sheriff's Department Deputy Ruben Rasso who actually has an application still on file. The other odds-on favorite for appointment is Dell Roberts who served on the top-secret ad-hoc committee that Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis put together on direction of the Governmental Affairs Committee to put together a very stacked "report" for the investigative protocol involving the CPRC.




Work on the Chinatown site will not be resumed according to the Riverside County Superior Court.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



An appeals court on Wednesday denied a request to overturn a judge's order that halted work at the site of a former Chinatown near downtown Riverside.

The Riverside County office of education filed the request. The office owns 2.3 acres of the 4.2 acres on which developer Doug Jacobs plans to construct a medical office building.

The sale of the 2.3 acres to Jacobs is in escrow, and the March 20 order by Riverside County Superior Court Judge Sharon Waters is preventing escrow from closing, the education office said in legal papers.

The education office said it wants the sale to close because it urgently needs the proceeds to buy property for an educational facility it plans to build in Indio.

The 4th District Court of Appeal, Division 2, did not explain its decision.


This comes one day after another demonstration at City Hall and during the city council meeting by representatives of Save Our Chinatown Committee and community residents.




Ballots are still being collected in the Riverside City Council mailin elections for Wards Two, Four and Six so hopefully voters in these wards have gotten their ballots already and are filling them out, signing them and sending them in or dropping it off at designated spots on certain days.




Support of the so-called Perris Metrolink line is coming from some corners of the Riverside County Transporation Commission but more study is definitely needed.




Who will succeed ousted San Bernardino County Assessor Bill Postmus? No one knows. Did his staff use county money to pay for a political blog?



(excerpt, San Bernardino Sun)




The purpose of the Web site, according to...(witnesses), was to raise the public profiles of certain individuals and to harm those of others," the report states.

Aleman could not be reached for comment for this article. In a statement, he said "I never knowingly authorized payment for political work and if known, insisted that vacation time be taken."

The allegations related to Red County, if sustained, would mean that Aleman and others misused county resources in a highly public manner.

Jessica Levinson, political reform director for the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles, said she was familiar with controversies surrounding Postmus' time as assessor, but was not immediately aware of a government employee getting in trouble for improper blogging.

Levinson said it appears county officials are taking corruption allegations seriously, but the paid blogging issue could be the subject for future ethical research.

"At the very least, I need to get an intern on it," she said.

San Bernardino County filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Postmus, Aleman and former staffers Gregory Eyler, Rex Gutierrez, and James Erwin as well as political consultant Mike Richman. The county alleges that Postmus and former staffers claimed county paychecks for "time spent performing impermissible political tasks."

"At Aleman's direction, employees spent at least 15 or 20 hours per week on activities related to RedCounty.com," the lawsuit says echoing the Hueston Report. Aleman is the only defendant named in connection with RedCounty.com in the lawsuit.

Erwin said Tuesday the Web site was Aleman's "life's blood" and that other Assessor's Office workers had a cavalier attitude toward political activity while on the public's dime.

"It wasn't like, `We're going to do this, but we've got to be hush-hush.' (It was) `we do this all the time,"' Erwin said.

Erwin, as well as Postmus, Gutierrez and Richman were listed as members of Red County's "blogpen." Erwin said he never blogged on county time.

But Ted Lehrer, former assessor spokesman, was not sued. He disputed the Hueston Report, which stated he worked up to 20 hours per week on the Web site.

The report stated Lehrer did most of his blogging on county time, but he said he used vacation hours to work on the Web site.

"I never claimed hours that I did not work, and I completed all work for which I was paid," he said.

Red County was launched in Orange County and has Web pages dedicated to regions in California and other states.

Aleman made his debut in April 2007, but was dropped from the blogpen after being arrested in July 2008, about two months after another editor was named for San Bernardino County postings.

"He just wasn't posting much," executive editor Matt Cunningham said. "We needed somebody who was doing it on a daily basis."

Asked if he was then aware of any suspicions that Aleman may have been using county resources to blog, Cunningham said, "I assumed he had enough sense not to do that."



At any rate, the District Attorney's office has widened its probe/


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)


A nearly two-year criminal probe into former San Bernardino County Assessor Bill Postmus has expanded in scope beyond the assessor's office, the district attorney's office said Wednesday.

"As with any criminal investigation, especially one as complex as this one, we have to follow the facts and evidence wherever and to whomever they lead," said Susan Mickey, a spokeswoman for District Attorney Mike Ramos.

"In this case, what began as an investigation into the assessor's office has led to several other areas. I won't go into any further detail at this time, but this investigation has become broader in scope than at the outset," Mickey said by e-mail. "Therefore, it is impossible to say when it will all conclude."

On Tuesday, county supervisors released a report by attorney John C. Hueston that detailed widespread time-card fraud in the assessor's office and a conspiracy by Postmus to use his post to further his political goals.










An El Monte Police Department officer kicked a man in the head after he had surrendered to police. And Fox of all people captured the controversial incident on videotape.



(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)


Video from Fox 11 News showed the incident at the end of a car chase that wound through the San Gabriel Valley earlier this afternoon, ending in a collision in Pico Rivera. The suspect jumped out of his car and ran. He eventually stopped and dropped to the ground on his stomach, with his hands flat to the ground and above his head. The officer ran up to him and kicked him on the side of the head.

Lt. Chuck Carlson of the El Monte Police Department said his officers made the arrest, and the internal affairs department is investigating the incident.

Carlson said internal affairs will review video of the incident and also take statements from officers.

The suspect is a 20-year-old man who was on parole. He was taken to Greater El Monte Hospital. But it's unclear whether his injuries were sustained by an earlier car crash or from the blow to the head.

The officer appears to high-five another officer after the suspect is cuffed.





The Los Angeles Police Department might have to take a different look at its ongoing expansion in the face of a budget crisis.



(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)




To close the city’s estimated $529-million budget shortfall, the City Council today will consider imposing a hiring freeze on the police and fire departments. The recommendation comes from the council’s chief analyst, Gerry Miller, and will be considered by the budget and finance committee this afternoon.

Miller also recommended laying off 800 civilian city workers, and mandating that all civilian employees take 26 unpaid furlough days during the fiscal year that starts July 1.

Those numbers would be greatly reduced if the city employee unions agree to salary and benefit concessions, he said. The mayor’s office is pushing the unions to consider salary freezes, buyouts and increased employee contributions for health care and pension benefits.

“We recognize that these recommendations are drastic and will have major impacts on city services and on city employees," Miller said in his budget recommendations to the council. “However, given the significant risk to the city’s financial solvency ... we believe that the actions contained in this report are essential."






Residents of Erie, Pennsylvania are writing letters about the necessity for civilian review in their town.