Rebuilding the RPD From the Inside or the Outside?

UPDATE: BART Police Officer convicted by jury of involuntary manslaughter in onduty fatal shooting of Oscar Grant.







[Capt. Mike Blakely(l) is now after 13 years, once again a deputy chief serving at the will of Chief Sergio Diaz .]




The news that Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz began picking his management team by appointing Capt. Mike Blakely in a deputy chief position has attracted a lot of attention. It's the first time that Blakely has held this position in about 13 years and it's the second chief who has appointed him to his upper management staff. His promotion is scheduled to take effect on July 16 though he'll be included in the agenda of the city council meeting on July 13. Before the appointment, Diaz allegedly had interviewed all the captains in depth.

The city was also rumored to have hired two more employees to staff in the police department, possibly the new assistant chief and another deputy chief. But if those positions have been filled, the city hasn't said anything officially about it. Blakely's appointment to the deputy chief position makes it more likely that the assistant chief position will come from outside the agency which is probably necessary given the dearth of leadership at the top due largely to dysfunctional practices involving the department in the past five years or so including by City Hall and the failure to mentor future leaders inside the department by those at its helm.

Blakeley had by far the most experience of any member of the captain rank and is its only member who wasn't promoted to that position during the stormy period of former Chief Russ Leach's tenure when those promotion decisions were coming out of City Hall rather than the police department. Whereas two captains allegedly had the "final say" of their promotions (or not) made by a sitting councilman, that individual wasn't even in office when Blakeley came to town. So in a sense, Blakely is outside of that political crisis that still has yet to completely play out in the public arena.

During his tenure with the police department, he's been in a variety of assignments including Investigations where as captain, he had allegedly recommended to Leach that a sexual assault and child abuse detective who had sexual relations with the victim of a rape case assigned to him receive a written reprimand which contradicted a departmental policy which required a minimum disciplinary measure of suspension. Leach ultimately fired Det. Al Kennedy though the city council reinstated him after fighting it in Riverside County Superior Court and issued him a retirement package. He also worked in the Personnel Division where he oversaw the Internal Affairs Division as well as the Personnel and Training Division.

Blakely was often seen as the member of the management staff who would carry out assignments or actions that no one else wanted to touch and some say, he essentially ran the police department during the past several months including after his alleged protege, Acting Chief John DeLaRosa's city-issued cell phone records became public. Together, it was alleged that they were busy firing a detective and former Riverside Police Officers' Association president, Chris Lanzillo who had criticized DeLaRosa during one of the his appearances at roll calls soon after the Leach incident to circle the wagons so to speak. And reorganizing the assignments at Orange Street Station essentially sending two female sergeants ranked in the top three of the current lieutenant's list out to field assignments not too long before Diaz arrived and opening an internal affairs on another lieutenant's candidate high on the list. There were also concerns that the current lieutenant's list would be prematurely retired even though it's good until October with retesting set to begin in August.

But Blakely also exercised the hardest work ethic of anyone at his level of management although others at his rank tried to match it when the new chief came to town. He also appeared the most comfortable and confident at his rank, and would probably be able to express that most clearly when asked.

Despite Blakely's appointment, it appears quite probable that other appointments in upper management in the department could come from the outside. With members of the department's upper management falling like a line of dominoes with it not clear whether the end's in sight, there's not as much to draw from. And many people feel that the only way to truly straighten out the RPD and get it on its correct path, is to bring in more than just a police chief from the outside. Whether it's to keep an eye on Blakely and the inhouse captains keeping them in line with the program and to watch his back inside an agency where though it's time to put the stilettos back in the toy box, it's not clear if that's been happening at the highest levels.


Actually, if the department's going to staff another deputy chief as it had several years ago, it makes sense to hire one from the outside rather than appoint from within. It costs money either way but by hiring a new person, it prevents the department from further depleting its lower ranks to fill the vacancies which result when there are promotions at the top of the food chain. If Diaz were to promote another captain to add to Blakely, then that would create more vacancies in the captain's level and if the city promoted to fill those, then it would drop the lieutenant's vacancy rate down to nearly 40% and so forth, eventually tapping into the diminishing supply of officers in the patrol division who because of an MOU involving the mandatory filling of detectives' vacancies are the ultimate source in one way or another of most of the department's promotions.

But Blakely himself was once an "outsider" who lateraled in during the years of former Chief Ken Fortier as his deputy chief although Fortier had initially brought him in as a captain from San Diego Police Department where Fortier himself originated. One of several high ranking laterals who came in the department at that time period, with another being then Lt. Dave Dominguez who came in from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department and retired as a deputy chief several years ago before becoming Palm Springs' police chief.


He was extensively quoted in this 1998 National COPS Evaluation done on the Riverside Police Department by a fellow at the Urban Institute which focused on the years of the Fortier regime.

Blakely talked about how changes were made in the department's organizational structure in the early 1990s.


(excerpt)



It’s changing from a watch mentality to the area mentality. I’m not responsible just on my eight or ten hour watch when I’m responsible for this part of the town. [I’m responsible for it] seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day. And [it’s] giving people personal ownership, so it wasn’t just a matter of holding the fort till my watch gets off: Your watch never got off. So you had a vested interest in looking for long term solutions and not short-term solutions.



Which might have been true for Blakely who among the captains, put in a 10 hour day even before Diaz showed up.


Fortier talked about how the art of grooming leadership by himself and Blakely. But while he had administration skills, Fortier lacked the personalization skills to bear fruit in many of the areas he allegedly specialized in during his stint with the police department. And as an outsider, he needed those skills. Diaz will need them too.



(excerpt)





Mike and I were trying to groom certain people, and we’d look at a Sergeant who was up for Lieutenant who had all of the tools, but maybe . . . he just didn’t seem to understand community policing—the culture was real strong in him. And I put him in charge of the POP [Problem-Oriented Policing] team, and I’d have him in personally, and say, “It’s a different role now, let’s see what you can do in community policing.” . . . [We] did that a few times, where we would take them out of the field and say, “Well, you said you want to be promoted, you’ve done all this to get prepared: This the chink in your armor. This is the area we need to work on. Let’s put you someplace where you’re really forced to do it and let’s see what you do.” I was very honest with him, we weren’t being Machiavellian about it. But we said, “Let’s see if you can show us that you in fact understand community policing.”




"Tough Love" involving adopting community policing philosophy, did it work or did it not? Because though there might have been some mention of community policing successes in the Evaluation, the State Attorney General's lawsuit against Riverside in 2001 pointed at its inadequacies due to insufficient staffing levels and other reasons. Community Policing then became one of the focal parts of reform within the RPD pursuant to the stipulated judgment. But as a philosophy it needs to be treated more than a dose of distasteful medicine to be stomached or that "watchman" style of policing won't be replaced by more community involved collaborations between city residents and the police department.

Which if this was how the department's been doing business in the past, it's not been seen much of in the past 5-10 years, as community policing fell apart as a philosophy at about the same time that the department "decentralized" it by disbanding its Community Services Division and positions were vacated at all levels and left unfilled by the city manager's office and city council. Some say when the budget cuts started coming from City Hall, that community policing went first. Because after all, with the state not looking over the shoulders of Riverside anymore, it didn't feel it needed to even follow the Strategic Plan. The lack of commitment especially with the city manager's office to those efforts was very palpable. It's hard to expect the police department to commit itself to those efforts if City Hall isn't doing anything remotely close to its part in the equation.

It's not clear what the future is of community policing in this city, whether it will find its way again or continue to deteriorate as even a "program" let alone a philosophy. For the outside agencies that are paying close attention to the police department and City Hall right now (and oh, they are including the most familiar babysitter), the area and future of community policing might be one of the key areas of the department of focus in the upcoming weeks and months. The department had made great strides in this area in the earlier years of the last decade before things began to fall apart later on.



More promotions are possible during the first 30 days of Diaz' tenure as the department is operating under a very high rate of vacancies in many of its ranks, not to mention inside its civilian division. Diaz allegedly plans to interview the candidates for promotion himself, a deviation from Leach's practice of only having done that once in 2001. Complaints arose in the police department as early as December 2005 that Leach promoted personal friends or individuals that he had gone drinking with or on vacations. Interviewing the candidates himself is probably the best direction for Diaz to head in given that he's relatively unfamiliar with the candidates and the police chief should participate in this process anyway. In past years, it became clear that at least at the department's highest levels, Leach played very little role in the promotional process which was essentially handled by individuals at City Hall including the city management team and elected officials, most notably Councilman Steve Adams.

Has that dynamic changed? Is there enough pressure from the elected leadership at City Hall to ensure that it won't be business as usual? It's difficult to believe that's the case given that the elected leadership hasn't been able to keep its own members in line including Adams who has been implicated in both the cold plate scandal and in involving himself in the promotional processes of at least two captains in the department. Not to mention the efforts and expense that the city government as a legislative branch of representatives of the city residents went to keep all this a secret.

Which didn't quite work as it turned out.




This organizational chart from February 22, 2010 is already outdated and is certainly more likely to become that in upcoming weeks. With a shift change coming up some time this month, will there be any major shifts in assignments? How will the shortages in the watch command division be handed? Will Special Operations which lost two lieutenants to retirement last year (but received one in return) undergo reorganization again? Will Investigations get its own captain?

The Fate of Leon Phillips?

Rumors had been that the threat to terminate Riverside Lt. Leon Phillips last month was a power play to get him to accept a demotion to sergeant which he had been allegedly planning to contest. When he didn't want to accept the demotion, then he was given a notice of intent to terminate and a postponed Skelly Hearing. It's the equivalent of charging someone with a felony to get them to plead to a misdemeanor. but apparently Phillips wasn't moved either way, but intends to contest whatever discipline he does receive from Hudson's office.

The Press Enterprise wrote about his alleged demotion and what's also interesting about the article is the photo of a group of officers from a religious ministry organization that Phillips belongs to called Cops Out Preaching Salvation who travel across the country and provide ministry to prison inmates at different institutions. Phillips has participated in that ministry.

Phillips has said that he still plans to fight it and sources say that he's held up remarkably well during this situation.


What's disturbing about Phillips' situation is that by throwing the book at him (while letting his superiors off the hook), it's sending the message that there's little or no accountability at the management level. Let's see here, Leach breaks the law, gets convicted and gets a medical retirement. DeLaRosa who supervised Phillips that morning allegedly also received a notice of intent to terminate the same day as Phillips but is given the option of a full retirement at a sweetheart deal as assistant chief. Phillips is several years within retirement age so unlike DeLaRosa, he will likely retire at his demoted rank. So the supervisor gets a rather hefty punishment (with allegedly an 80 hour suspension thrown in for good measure) but the two management employees above him including one who was convicted of a crime and another who apparently deterred an investigation of a crime (being a DUI) being allowed to receive generous retirement packages. Phillips should be disciplined but it should be proportional to that received by others above him in rank who were involved in the incident or the decision making behind its mishandling. And what has happened here is that the buck stopped in mid-line supervision while the leadership and management both in the department and in City Hall got off with much lessor. Their retirements were not endangered or lessened in their value by their involvement in the notorious incident. Not so the case with Phillips who is nearing retirement.

What City Manager Brad Hudson and Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis have done is essentially send the message loud and clear is that management will never be held accountable for mismanagement or other bad deeds especially when you can find a subordinate to serve as a scapegoat. Phillips was essentially branded a liar by Hudson because of contradictory statements (of which Hudson didn't explain further) but what about DeLaRosa whose recollection of whether or not he heard intoxication mentioned in connection with Leach was contradicted by at least one responding officer and former Sgt. Frank Orta?

But while this might seem crazy on its face, it totally makes sense in River City. Why, because in the context of the DUI incident and all its players, you have what unfolded later, which was the guns, badges and cold plates scandals. In those situations, Hudson, DeSantis and at least one elected official got essentially caught red handed including by the State Attorney General's office with breaking laws and when asked about culpability, in each case they pointed the fingers away from themselves and at any convenient subordinate in range, be it Leach (cold plates), the Community Development Department (badges) and the police department (illicit gun sales). These two management employees who are paid very good money to administrate the city do not for one second take any responsibility for their illegal behavior. There's always someone else lower on the ladder to blame instead.

So in that context, place the same dynamic when it comes to doling out blame and punishment in the Leach incident. Another example where the management employees who are more culpable than the supervisor get the retirements and no discipline whereas the subordinate employee receives the punishment as Hudson's scapegoat. And while the city management employees violated state laws to equip themselves like the cops they consider themselves to be due to their micromanagement of one police department, they later make statements about everyone being treated equally under the law . Unintentional humor during a very serious crisis in this city, for sure.

Pattern and practice in River City.





Replace scandalized local officials was suggested because it's interesting how like stated earlier the book can nearly be thrown at an individual like Phillips who served as watch commander during the infamous Feb. 8 incident with Leach yet those higher up at City Hall are not able to decide which laws they choose to follow and which to disregard, but then these same individuals waggle fingers at others citing some mantra about equal protection (and accountability) under the law. Leach was held accountable by the legal system for his DUI incident, only after the threat of public exposure forced the hand of both the police department and City Hall. For all the tossing out of the twin words, accountability and transparency, from City Hall, those there didn't want anyone to know what happened with Leach and his DUI incident and traffic stop.

After all, the Monday morning of Feb. 8 passed quietly with no trace of any press releases being distributed by City Hall about Leach's accident and traffic stop. Even though Mayor Ron Loveridge was tipped off by a not so mysterious woman, did he take any steps to inform his constituents? Of course not, he went to the city manager's office for information but he likely didn't intend for the public to find out, certainly not while he was serving as the president of the National League of Cities. How embarrassing would that have been on his watch over all the cities! It's hard to know what City Manager Brad Hudson would have done because he purportedly had his phone turned off the entire day, didn't make or receive any phone calls yet somehow had been informed of the Leach incident anyway.

Tuesday became somewhat more frantic certainly by afternoon, when media outlets began burning the phone lines at both City Hall and the police incident over news of Leach's accident. So it's then that City Hall acted like it had never attempted to contain the situation. It preached how accountable and transparent it was by cloaking everything even public documents under a confidential internal investigation where as much energy was expended hunting down any whistle blowers as it was trying to figure out who did what on Feb. 8.

Not exactly the example to show the city residents who want some changes in how business is conducted at and by City Hall, hopefully in time for next year's election cycle. If not, there might be some more new faces appearing on the dais by the end of 2011.



Press Enterprise Columnist Cassie MacDuff writes about city officials in Riverside and San Bernardino and their guns.


(excerpt)

As for Riverside's top brass, they come across as the gang that couldn't keep their stories straight.

In depositions, former Police Chief Russ Leach and Assistant City Manager Tom DeSantis contradict each other about how civilians' vehicles came to have "cold plates," illegal for any but law enforcement officers.

Leach said he didn't know about the plates until after they were issued. DeSantis said the cold plates were Leach's idea, as were concealed-weapons permits he urged on DeSantis and City Manager Brad Hudson.

DeSantis told me Wednesday there was no purpose for cold plates because city cars are registered at the city's address, not officials' homes.

The Police Department illegally sold guns to DeSantis and Hudson, then had to retrieve them and have a gun dealer sell the guns to them.

The badge episode was nipped in the bud when the attorney general noted it could be a misdemeanor to deceive ordinary people into thinking city administrators were peace officers.

The high jinks are making Inland cities look ridiculous. They need to end.

DeSantis' helpful comments about why cold plates aren't needed on city-issued cars begs the questions, why were they then issued? And why are the accounts provided by the involved parties so contradictory even those taken under the penalty of perjury in depositions related to the lawsuits filed by two former Riverside police lieutenants?







A look back at a community policing program instituted with the assistance of a former councilman back in the 1970s. This program was actually featured in a Time magazine article.

Fox Theater Update

The Press Enterprise discusses the free tickets elected officials receive for shows at the Fox Theater in downtown Riverside, with Council members Paul Davis and Nancy Hart at the front of the pack and elected officials Chris MacArthur and Mayor Ron Loveridge trailing the field. Loveridge of course is too tied up with the really important activities of his stint as president of the League of Cities, too much so to do much else. But then the city of Riverside borrowed money from the future generations of Riversiders to buy itself a movie theater...then a hotel...then...

While the library and museum downtown languish awaiting promised funds to renovate both institutions which have lost much of their operating personnel. It's mind blowing how the library and museum are being operated by skeleton crews. Yesterday, for example the wireless internet network went off-line and people were trying to figure out who to notify about it. It was an interesting primer in just how much the library has suffered from the last couple rounds of layoffs and other budget cuts.

Because it's interesting but mostly unsettling how inside a library, there are very few...librarians. Interesting, because most people would think that libraries would be staffed by plenty of librarians...not the case in Riverside these days.

Most of the workers there were doing two or three things at once and some didn't even know the library had a wireless network. One gentleman checked and found that some people had intermittent connection (which was because they had been logged in before the network's router somehow changed its setting which occasionally happens with most wireless networks) so he presumed it was fixed. When in reality, what would probably have "fixed" it would be to turn off the router for 30 seconds and then restart it to allow it to reset itself.

Then that man went home and none of the other employees knew what to do. So finally 311 was called to log a report of the outage but it was sobering for people to realize that most of the actual librarians are gone.

But anyway, as someone once commented, the city government and city management can't be concerned about the libraries and museums they don't themselves attend or visit. It might make more sense to spend $30 million to renovate the theater for the wealthier residents including from Orange County (who are more likely to commute to L.A. County to enjoy theater but anyway) and then pay even more money for the theater to be mismanaged than it makes to put even a small percentage of that funding into the downtown library or museum or on keeping some employees with expertise in running both.


Now the Fox Theater's nice to look at and I enjoyed going to a film festival back during the opening feature, the riotous Strictly Ballroom when it was kind of a decaying relic of the past because that's when most people could afford to actually step inside its hallowed doors. Now these days, the ticket prices are a bit steep and the selection of entertainment a bit narrow for many Riversiders to support a government subsidized at tax payer expense, theater. So the better the Fox Theater looks on the outside (and probably on the inside as well) not to mention the more seismically safe that it is (and yesterday served as a good reminder why that matters), the fewer city residents can afford to frequent it for entertainment purposes. Much fewer than could in the past.



Visiting the Fox Theater will be on the itinerary for the visiting league of cities which will hold some kind of meeting this weekend. Do they have to pay for that? I would guess not unless it's included in their conference or meeting fees.

Free Entertainment for All

But for the tops in entertainment, the popular game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire is on trial right here in Riverside. It promises to be the biggest showdown in federal court since the Barbie vs Bratz bout some while back.

And in this venue, there are free tickets for everyone who attends.







More details revealed which surrounded the arrest of two men charged in attacks against Hemet Police Department and its officers. Both men have ties to white supremacist gangs (not "groups", Pacheco), It's too bad that if Hemet's city council had to pass a resolution at all, it wasn't against such "groups".







Another city leader in Perris died in a motorcycle accident, the second in recent weeks.

Will the Guard Change at the RPD?

Is former Lt. Leon Phillips now a sergeant? Nothing official but word is that he's been demoted. If so, not surprising as it was believed that the threat to terminate was a power play used to try to get him to accept a demotion.


Update: Nice little earthquake there....always good to test those reflexes...10.1 on the scale...no actually about 5.4


UPDATE: Diaz has picked a new deputy chief and it's...Mike Blakely!

Rumors are that an assistant chief and another deputy chief might be hired from outside the department in the next two weeks.




[The administration of newly hired chief, Sergio Diaz began on July 1 and what happens in the first 30 days could shed a lot of light on the department's future direction.]





On June 30, 2010 newly hired Police Chief Sergio Diaz was sworn in as Riverside's latest police chief. Some say that originally he was supposed to have been sworn in on July 1 but the date had been changed to accommodate Councilman Steve Adams' stint as mayor pro tem which expired on June 30. Adams had stepped in for Mayor Ron Loveridge who had other things to do which required him to be out of town on the date the chief would be sworn in and then replace former chief Russ Leach who was medically retired after his involvement in the infamous DUI incident.

But it was ironic and more than a little disturbing (as noted by others too including Press Enterprise columnist Dan Bernstein) that Adams would be assigned this role of swearing Diaz into office, given the most recent revelations about questionable conduct involving the seventh ward councilman. To give a newly hired police chief an oath to uphold and enforce the law when Adams was implicated in the cold plates scandal. Not to mention having allegedly involved himself inappropriately in the promotional process of at least two police department captains while testifying under oath in a deposition that to do so violated the city charter and possibly even state law.

Testimony strongly indicated that he had essentially vetoed the December 2005 promotion of a female captain and had also been tied to the January 2008 promotion of a male captain who had strained relations with Adams but was promoted shortly after meeting with Adams to "clear the air". It didn't seem odd to any of the parties involved and deposed on this in a court of law as to why a promotional candidate had to meet to "clear the air" with an elected official in the first place at the same time he was undergoing the promotional process and that was in itself, disturbing and indicative of a pattern and practice that might be deeper than most people know.

But anyway Diaz was sworn in and is set to begin his first 30 days as the city's new chief and many city residents are watching to see how he will make his mark from the very beginning. The department's experienced many serious problems in its infrastructure in large part due to actions taken during the past five years or so involving the dynamic between the department's upper management and some elements inside City Hall. Allegations of micromanagement of the police department by different individuals including at least one or two current and former elected officials at City Hall had been made including that Leach had very little actual involvement in the promotions at the highest level including those of several captains and his assistant chief and one deputy chief who were promoted in March 2007 when he hadn't even been in town. Leach had also allegedly faced severe pressure from the city management to demote former deputy chief Dave Dominguez who later retired and became chief in Palm Springs.

So what will be the fate of the new police chief in the face of the city's history of factions at City Hall getting involved in police personnel decisions that began even before City Manager Brad Hudson's arrival?

An Early Primer on City Hall Micromanagement

The dynamic of micromanagement by City Hall of the police department actually goes back to at least 1999 when the city council tried to settle a lawsuit filed by a group of white male sergeants by not only trying to create new lieutenant positions but by deciding who would fill those positions which is that was the case, would have violated the city's charter.

The sergeants including five who were later promoted to lieutenant had alleged reverse racial and gender discrimination in protests of former chief Jerry Carroll's decision to promote Alex Tortes, Ron Orrantia and later, Meredyth Meredith. After they filed lawsuits, the city government led by Mayor Ron Loveridge in closed session had discussed creating at least two new lieutenant positions. That in itself is within the scope of the city management to recommend and the city council to decide whether or not to finance through budget allocation. However, Loveridge and the city council allegedly went further by trying to decide who would fill those positions, in essence involving themselves in the promotional process, in this case "promoting" Jay Theuer and Wally Rice to fill those positions. After all, it's one thing to create new personnel positions within the police department even at the supervisory and management level, it's another to decide who will fill them. Carroll retired not long after this situation erupted publicly, his regime ending as the camel with his back broken by the final straw.

When Leach came on board in the autumn of 2000, he promoted two groups of supervisors and management in early 2001 including four of the suing sergeants. Two of them, John Carpenter and Mark Boyer later became captains and one of the focal points of their lawsuit, Meredith became a captain as well. Though ironically or not, Meredith had been cut off at the pass at her first "promotion" in part by Boyer. It's interesting how the interactions of the initial lawsuit and captain candidates on both side of it would play out years later as once again, elements at City Hall involved themselves in the matter of promoting police officers at the highest levels.

So there's some precedence in the city government in a round about way involving itself inappropriately in the promotional process. In a way, that helped set the tone for what was to follow because there's one major common denominator in all this and that's indeed Loveridge who for years has been busy behind the scenes as the city's compass. And it's not clear whether or not City Hall learned from the latest lesson on the problems associated with micromanaging the police department including its promotional processes because as stated earlier, it clearly didn't learn from the lesson which preceded it.

But below are the stake holders involved in the latest round of whether or not City Hall has learned from its prior actions and foibles or not. And whether or not the city council including those members up for election again next year have any clue about how concerned people are about this situation and that they plan to take some of these concerns to the ballot box with them next year.

The Power Brokers

[Chief Sergio Diaz addressing an audience of several hundred individuals after being sworn into his new position as Riverside's top cop. The question has been asked in different circles, how autonomous will he be?]




Diaz has begun his job at the department and immediately faced a dearth of upper management personnel given that they had begun to fall like a row of dominoes and it's not clear whether that has finished or not. Regardless, as the new chief, he has the right to pick his immediate management staff including any assistant and/or deputy chiefs if City Hall allows him to exercise that right which in itself remains to be seen. Riverside's interesting because it has this unfortunate history of attempts by other individuals at City Hall to control the promotions of assistant and deputy chiefs, what with the city management's attempts to turn these positions into "at will" classified ranks rather than non-classified appointments. But assuming Riverside's learned from that disaster, the police chief will get to pick those he surrounds himself with and often that's the strategy to appoint individuals that can be trusted to among other things, watch the new chief's back from any stiletto planting by management subordinates if they have such designs.

The most oft-asked question so far by nearly everyone is whether or not Diaz will appoint key management personnel from inside the department or bring them in from the outside. Former Chief Ken Fortier, an "outsider" from San Diego's police department, brought in key personnel including Mike Blakely as deputy chief and Dave Dominguez as a lieutenant. But the other most recent "outsider" Leach didn't bring anyone from the outside to fill his key positions as his assistant and deputy chiefs included inhouse people like Mike Smith, Audrey Wilson and Andy Pytlak.



[Former Deputy Chief Andy Pytlak was promoted by Leach to that position in 2003 from inside the police department but ultimately retired.]



But apparently Diaz' comments on that is that he hasn't ruled out bringing in at least one outside person to fill a key management personnel position and many people believe that would be the smart move to make as many people believe there's a lack of experienced and qualified people at the highest levels of the police department to fill that role. They also believe that it's necessary for the department to look outside given that the trust in upper management isn't at a very high point internally or outside the department either. At the swearing in, there was a contingent of several dozen police officers from the Los Angeles Police Department where Diaz worked until he retired as a deputy chief in April 2010. Many of them held the ranks of captain and above and it's even quite possible that one or more of them could be hired to work in Riverside's police department.

Some have said that Diaz particularly in his early days and weeks needs to have someone that he can trust to watch his back from those immediately around him especially if he's trying to institute any reforms (and Diaz' reputation of doing that in the LAPD has been mentioned by those who work there and those outside the LAPD) in the police department which sorely needs some in the wake of recent incidents and several years of being mishandled by the city.

One person said he probably learned from the example of former LAPD Chief Willie Williams who came from the outside too and didn't bring anyone from the outside into his management staff. He then had problems with higher ranking people who sabotaged him during his rather short tenure with the department that ended after five years. The LAPD also fosters an environment of offering retirements to officers deemed to be obstructionist to attempts to institute changes or reforms to the police department. And Diaz is well aware of controversy when it arises within an agency having been promoted to deputy chief in the wake of the controversial 2007 May Day incident involving the LAPD which led to over $13 million in lawsuit settlements involving excessive force including against journalists.


But the police department has had a history of having an assortment of chiefs at its helms, some official, some not. And as the city residents have discovered in recent weeks, some of them like to dress and look the part.





[Diaz' boss, City Manager Brad Hudson has taken a more "hands on" approach to the police department than any other city manager in recent memory. Of course as it turned out, he had his hands on other things like cold plates, flat badges and guns allegedly sold to him and one of his staff members by the police department in what would have been an illegal transaction.]


Hudson has involved himself rather heavily in the police department and he's one of those who likes to look the part having had a badge created so he could remove illegal signs from city property and exert his authority when confronted. He has allegedly had a cold plated Toyota Highlander (though he had no knowledge of it) and purchased a Glock handgun from the Riverside Police Department, all actions which attracted attention from the criminal division of the State Attorney General's office several years ago. He's been reputed to have micromanaged Leach while he served as police chief waving a provision of the city charter that states that the city manager has "final say" in promotions at Leach whenever the former chief wanted to make a promotion.

He had the tacit blessings of the members of the city government who weren't also involving themselves in the promotional process. But with all the scandals that have come to light involving the actions of some at City Hall, will the city council send Hudson the message that they hope that the police chief has some autonomy? Including those who praised Hudson as the best city manager ever (including the mayor who made similar comments about former employee, John Holmes) right before the scandalous behavior came to light. And one elected official recently interviewed said that Hudson's a wind up doll or something of that ilk that can be pushed in the decision he needs to head. Okay, that's fine and everything but if that's the case, then which elected officials wound up Hudson and steered him and his minions in the direction of getting badges, cold plates and emergency equipment including allegedly flashing lights and police pursuit tires for their vehicles?

If the city officials who are up for election don't want to be handed pink slips by the voters, it might be something they want to think about carefully, given the mood of city residents since Feb. 8.



And as you know, the S.S. Hudson has an assistant who he plucked from San Bernardino County and allegedly out of some static there to work alongside him as his troubleshooter. And most recently, the former public information officer for Riverside County proper had been apparently involved in some public document damage.


[Hudson's henchman, Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis who had attracted attention during jobs held in both Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. His latest action, was allegedly destroying public records on the city's automobile fleet that were requested by the Press Enterprise.]






DeSantis apparently according to testimony was the point man for the 11th hour cancellation of one captain's promotion in the police department. But if so, that's hardly surprising given his micromanagement of police department to the point where some said if the department wanted to buy a ream of paper, they had to run it past DeSantis first. But what's so very clear is how the department has thrived since DeSantis began his "management" of it in 2005. Four years out of a consent decree with the State Attorney General's office and it had already run in enough serious problems to prompt multiple complaints to various outside agencies with one of them in particular paying a very close eye on what happens next with the department. And if any outside agencies were investigating the department or even the city at this time, few people would even know. But if that's the case, one of the entities on the list of those to thank would be the city management. For essentially squandering $26 million dollars and much hard work done (most of which took place before Hudson and DeSantis even arrived on the scene to muck it up) to move the police department in the direction it needed to go.

Four years after the consent decree's dissolution and nine years after its enactment, the police department's left in some ways to start over again.





[Councilman Steve Adams drove a cold plated city vehicle in violation of state law and also apparently engaged in some city charter bending by exercising more involvement in the police department's promotional process at its highest levels than he ever could as a former police officer. In what must be the ultimate irony, he administered the oath of office to Diaz.]




Retired police officer, Adams has a brother Ron, who also works for the city in its red light camera program at City Hall and who was one of the defendants in a sexism lawsuit filed by a former female police sergeant. A lawsuit which had a huge six figure payout after relatively little money spent litigating it in the courts. But Adams gives admonitions to criminals and "bad guys" including at the swearing in and in fact, was recently endorsed for reelection by the Riverside Police Officers' Association even as he was caught violating the law by driving a car with cold plates as a civilian. And Leach testified in his deposition given for the lawsuits filed by former Lts. Tim Bacon and Darryl Hurt that Adams during an incident where his cold-plated city-issued car was impounded in Newport Beach had identified himself as an undercover police officer which meant that the watch commander at the police department in Riverside received a phone call from the Newport Police Department asking for clarification. When asked whether Adams was investigated for impersonating a police officer which in itself is a crime, Leach said in his testimony it was the NBPD's call leaving that rather curious incident unresolved.

But it's ironic that Adams has apparently been more involved and exercised more power over the police department as a councilman than he ever did as a police officer. This includes allegations that he involved himself in the promotions of between two to three captains from December 2005 to January 2008. Has Adams left these proclivities behind or will he continue his passionate involvement in the department's operations? After all, Leach had testified that Adams had been one of two elected officials heavily involved in the police department's affairs. But it's interesting to see how quiet those on the dais have been about about Adams and his actions taken including those involving cold plates and promotions. And in what can only be described as very fitting for River City, Adams got to handle at least one ethics complaint involving another elected official as a member of the Mayor's Nomination and Screening Committee even after the news about his own actions as an elected official broke into the public arena.

So it remains to be seen what's next on the agenda for Adams and whether he decides to try to involve himself in the department's operations. He's up for reelection next year in Ward Seven and last time in 2007, he only won by about 13 votes so even he must realize he's vulnerable.




[The city council hasn't been very vocal about the situation involving Leach and its aftermath, in fact you could hear a pin drop at the 'Hall, including on the latest revelations of scandalous behavior from within its walls. Will this nonchalant attitude help or hurt some of its members during the election cycle next year?]


As for the rest of the city council, three others besides Adams are up next year and several could face tough reelection battles as the candidates have already began coming out of the woodwork including Marisa Yeager in Ward One and John Brandriff in Ward Seven. Not to mention other unofficial candidates in wards one, three and possibly five and seven as well.

But as Diaz begins his process of filling his management team with or without the ahem, assistance of outside players, there are some challenges given that the highest ranking individuals in the police department, both the assistant and deputy chiefs, have retired or are about to retire. One of them was implicated in the mishandling of Leach's DUI incident and opted to retire rather than face disciplinary action which could have included termination. The other had been positioned very well to make a run for the top spot but then abruptly announced his retirement and left two months ago after over 30 years in the department. The only other management level position had been vacated several years by the retirement of Dominguez.


At the beginning of 2010, could it possibly have been anticipated that the upper management level of the police department including the police chief would be packed off and sent to retirement?

Oh how quickly everything can change...especially when it comes after years in the making.

The Departed

Former assistant and acting chief, John DeLaRosa kept himself busy in his final month while running Orange Street Station by firing a detective who had sued him, transferring key female personnel out of the facility and opening internal investigations on different individuals. His final date as an employee is July 23.]





[Considered a contender for the chief's job until someone said, checkmate to him by opening up several internal investigations against him including one involving the use of his city-issued cell phone. Within a month, he was gone.]






In the acting capacity had been Asst. Chief John DeLaRosa who was placed in that spot before the call log for his city-issued phone implicated him in the scandal surrounding the handling of Leach's DUI incident and its attempted cover up. He allegedly had wanted to stick around and not make any plans to extricate him from the department done easily. Rumor has it, that he had been issued a notice of intent to terminate on the same day as both former Lt. Leon Phillips and Det. Chris Lanzillo had received their papers. DeLaRosa's final months in his 30+ career with the police department that witnessed his rapid trajectory up to its highest levels left many an employee feeling as if they were walking on egg shells as the acting chief and his mentor, Capt. Mike Blakely were allegedly busy opening up internal investigations on people and transferring officers to Orange Street Station including both Phillips and Lanzillo for disciplinary reasons. When allegations were raised that DeLaRosa had transferred Phillips to Orange Street Station for discipline here, DeLaRosa traveled across town to attend roll call telling officers there that Philips hadn't been transferred to Orange Street for discipline but to be trained for a "special assignment".

Within two weeks, Phillips was given his termination notice from his "special assignment" for his involvement in the Leach incident. Makes you wonder why they would have bothered to transfer him to the station for training him for a special assignment then. But anyway, that's Riverside and how business is conducted.

Not long after, DeLaRosa abruptly announced his retirement the same day Hudson picked his new police chief.

What was really sobering was watching the power play that took place within the ranks that apparently ended the career of Esquivel. He was a very popular officer in the community including during his stint as the area commander of Casa Blanca and in a variety of assignments. He was the yin to DeLaRosa's yang, being placed in more community oriented assignments for longer stints while increasingly DeLaRosa was floated around doing short stints in a variety of administrative jobs while he zipped up through the ranks as "Johnny Who". The rapid advancement while heady at the time might have ultimately been DeLaRosa's undoing while Esquivel's decision to consider filing for the chief's position turned out to be his, as this catalyzed internal investigations including at least one dated one against him.

Rather than go through that process, Esquivel apparently opted to retire, again abruptly. If high ranking officers engage in misconduct, then that's their responsibility but it was still unnerving to see how the highest level of the department engages in its own version of "Survivor Island" to thin its own ranks. It's to the point where anyone at any sense at that level would duck for cover.

One person when learning of the antics of the captains through the events which have transpired recently viewed them as a pack of cutthroats and unfortunately, the department's seen quite a bit of that behavior up at top. Some of the issues that Diaz raised astutely in his opening address on June 30 seem to refer to the infighting which had begun to define the RPD even to those outside of it. Clearly the man's done his homework.

But what's to be done when the department's now in a reorganization process which is sorely needed and has been for a while? Will the same cutthroat tactics to elevate through the highest ranks be seen again? They're a byproduct of how the department and city has conducted the promotional process involving the upper ranks for the past five years.

It's been said that the captain contingent has never been more industrious with its work activities than it has been since Diaz first arrived, clearly its members are trying to impress him as he makes his decisions regarding the department and who will serve as its management team. Probably the most critical and the most immediate decisions to be made about the department which has been essentially rudderless for quite some time. A dearth of leadership within its ranks including its helm (and micromanagers are not really equivalent to leaders) and a complete failure to mentor the next generation of leaders as its pattern and practice. But then the people entrusted to do that are too busy trying to cut each other's throats and undermine one another, not to mention pulling up the ladder behind them when they advance. They're intelligent, experienced police officers granted but they've apparently made the choice to behave otherwise to get ahead of the next person.

What was clear about the very diverse contingent of LAPD personnel that attended the swearing in was that Diaz has a history of mentoring others as many of those in attendance grew to know him in part that way. Many of them were women, or individuals of color as well as White. Diaz didn't need to mention in his speech about valuing diversity because clearly his actions and results speak louder than most of his predecessors' words. Diversifying the police department from top to bottom to better reflect the communities it serves was a key objective in the original Strategic Plan and allegedly had been an integral part in the draft of the followup plan (which is now somewhere in River City's version of the Bermuda Triangle) until it possibly was excised after that draft had been completed. It's currently believed to be missing in action.

It's enough to know that this component was in the early draft of the Strategic Plan because if it's missing in the final version, it will be very clear that it was removed and then the questions will have to be asked why this happened. That was certainly a strong component of community generated feedback.

But one action that will allegedly be taken by the end of the 30 day period could be some promotions to fill some of the vacancies in the police department given that some ranks are very critical including that of lieutenants where the vacancy rate stands at around 33%. But it will be challenging to fill many of these positions given that ultimately the rank that thins out to fill them is the officers' level which is also critically short resulting in staffing shortages in comparison to police department's in some cities even smaller than Riverside. Also negatively impacted by attrition and positional freezes have been the civilian ranks which currently stand at approximately 19% vacant.

Loveridge prattled during one city council meeting that he couldn't think of a more important position in the department than the area commanders as all four attended one meeting for an update on Safe Parks. But seriously, all the department's positions are important and all of them are interdependent and heavily reliant on other positions within the organization even for safety issus (i.e. officers depending on information from dispatchers). It's important to think of the department as an entity of many important parts rather than just its individual parts.

But while it's possible and probably wise for Diaz to bring in at least one person from outside to fill a high ranking position, possibly the highest next to his own, the futures of the management team have yet to be decided in terms of who will serve the agency, where. And that has the remaining four captains more than a little reflective about their own situations in recent weeks.

Here are the contenders at the captains' ranks but it's too early to assign odds as to their probability of career elevation. Diaz has apparently interviewed the captains at least once and he apparently has decided to interview the candidates for promotions at the supervisory ranks as well which is prudent not only for a newly arrived employee to a department with people he hasn't gotten to know but for the process itself to be a better one. Because the top of the chain of command, the chief, really should be interviewing the candidates.

It would serve as a contrast to how promotions were conducted under Leach who hardly ever interviewed candidates but would pick people off the lists from different rankings based on how well he already knew and liked them. Leach in fact, only engaged in interviewing candidates for the lieutenant's rank back close to when he first arrived and only a few candidates omitting many of them with higher placings on the lists. This led to a great distrust of the promotional process within the department and much of the infighting in the ranks among those competing for those few positions.

Captain Contenders?

[Capt. Mike Blakely (l) is the most seasoned captain by far in the department and came into the department as one of its "outside" chief's deputy chief. He has by far, the most administrative experience and the most practice. But some say that Diaz will need someone close to him just to keep an eye on Blakely.]








[As of late, Capt. John Carpenter had been explaining to individuals his version of events during the meeting between himself, Steve Adams and Pete Esquivel at the Corona restaurant which was conducted to "clear the air" between him and Adams just before Carpenter's promotion to captain. Shortest on experience at this level, Carpenter's been especially industrious at the office in recent weeks to try to prove he has the right stuff to move up. Will it and ambition be enough? ]






[Capt. Meredyth Meredith's promotion to lieutenant helped spark a lawsuit against it and the blocking of her promotion to captain in the 11th hour by City Hall nearly spawned another but it remains to be seen what the cards hold in store for the department's highest ranking female officer. Will she move up, stay where she's at or retire?]






[Easily one of the most ambitious of the captain contingent as its youngest member, John Wallace even put in for and made the final round of interviews for the chief's position. He's a talented writer and he's working double duty now running special operations and investigations (which no other captain's coming close to doing) but questions remain about an alleged early morning errand he did to pick up an inebriated Leach in San Bernardino County. Still it wouldn't be a complete surprise if he did move up as when it comes to ambition, he's second only to Carpenter and he had experience doing work on the attorney general's task force/audit and compliance panel.]



A lot will be taking place in the next month or so in this city and its police department but it remains to be seen exactly what these actions will entail.

City Too Broke For Library, Museum Expansion Projects

Riverside's coffers are still flush enough to make private developers happy but alas, no money left for the library or museum and members of the Metropolitan Museum Board have sent out urgent missives to help save the museum which they feel has little or no support from the city leadership even though Riverside adopted its latest logo at some taxpayer expense, of being the City of Arts, Culture and Innovation. There was huge fanfare only months ago about the plans to rebuild the downtown library building from scratch and to add onto a separate building which houses the museum. But both institutions have seen both their operational budgets and staffing get slashed, including the museum which lost half of its employees and the library which lost most of its accredited librarian experts.

The loss of such key staffing positions and individuals shows the ignorance of the city management in this city when it comes to staffing individual city departments with the people needed to do the job. But then the city management team has stumbled over labor issues since it was hired in June 2005, beginning most people thought with the highly contentious labor negotiations with the city's major bargaining units during the long, hot summer of 2006. Unions were locked out of negotiations after complaining about unlawful negotiation practices by the city management and some sued, took strike votes and staged rallies at City Hall including one held by the Riverside Police Officers' Association, the Riverside Police Administrators' Association and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers that September. Negotiations only continued with some of the unions after DeSantis was removed from the negotiation process after unions complained that he would put something on the table, the union would accept and then he would summarily remove it from the process.

But it's clear that at least the majority of the city council and certainly the mayor have been paying little attention to what the city management has been doing. After all, even when Hudson and DeSantis engaged in highly questionable and in several cases, illegal conduct, the city government either opted out of taking responsibility for ensuring the public that this wasn't going on or it failed to this day, to take any action.




Dan Bernstein of the Press Enterprise addressed the curious interaction at a city council meeting between several council members and their boss, Hudson.


(excerpt)



Manager/developer Hudson wasn't about to let Councilwoman Nancy Hart throw him off stride when she asked how a new library and rehabbed museum 'n' muni auditorium fit into the picture. He didn't answer, rambling on about financing the convention center until MayorLuv asked, again, about the library, etc.

Hudson's nonanswer: "The financing of this would not affect those projects."

When Hart began to ask again, Hudson interrupted. "I don't have an answer to that right now or they'd be under construction."

Then Hart asked about bonds for the library, etc. Hudson: "There doesn't seem to be much community support for that kind of big bonding." Not much support from the top, either.

These big development schemes seem driven more by available money than what citizens might actually want. As Councilman Bailey lamented during his futile pitch for that arena, the convention center "services people from out of town. What is servicing our residents in this space?"

That wasn't an easy money question. That was a tough leadership question. Nobody answered.



And as he often does, Bernstein nailed it right in the head. There's really no leadership at the 'Hall, certainly not from the legislative body of the city government. But at least Hart's been more inquisitive into getting to the bottom of the decision than she has been involving the mothball storage of the Finance Committee that she chairs. It's interesting how when she asks Hudson a question as one of his bosses after all, he just ignores her until a male elected official asks the same question. And his response to the same question only gets slightly better. But then the way for the bosses to address that is to hold expectations that Hudson as their direct employee will answer a question when asked. It's clear from this discourse who's running whom.




And speaking of performing arts, the Press Enterprise had more harsh words to say about the Fox Theater and its handling by consultant, William Malone. But the problem's not really Malone as it is the leadership decision to hire him and the process inside the city management through its Development Department including representatives, Asst. City Manager Belinda Graham and Development Director Deanna Larsen. And until the integral issues are addressed in this situation including the questionable practice of a city owning and running a theater, little will change.



What should happen with UCR's stalled medical school development according to one former state assemblyman.



Another possible attack in Hemet involving a suspicious device found on a vehicle.

Happy Birthday! Wildomar celebrates two year of cityhood.

Funeral Information for Rev. Jerry Louder

Friday, July 9 from 3-8 p.m., the viewing will be held at New Jerusalem

Saturday, July 10 at 10 a.m. the funeral will be held at Grove Community Church

That Sound You Hear at City Hall is the Shredding of Documents

UPDATE: The Reverend Jerry Louder passed away from colon cancer at the age 0f 63.

"Riverside is just like San Bernardino but with more layers..."

---Riverside attorney




"This is a campaign to pack City Hall Council Meeitng on July 13 at 6pm to say "enough is enough" and demand the resignation of Hudson, Adams, DeSantis -- their alleged criminal activities and unethical behavior and arrogance cannot and should not be condoned by the City Council or Mayor Loveridge who is also President of the National Leaque of Cities.

TIME TO ACT and TAKE BACK OUR CITY - PASS THE WORD ALONG!"




---Commenter at Pe.com







[City Hall, where silence speaks louder than the words which are shredded within its walls. Revelations came to light that Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis allegedly destroyed public records that were the focus of a acquisition request by the Press Enterprise.]

[Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis allegedly destroyed public documents that were requested by a local publication.]

In today's edition of the Press Enterprise, it came out that Riverside's assistant city manager, Tom DeSantis allegedly destroyed public documents after they had been requested by the publication. After all the sordid incidents which have unfolded in recent weeks about what's been taking place on the Seventh Floor at City Hall, is there anyone left who's really all that surprised that there's more to come?

DeSantis tries to explain in his own words by phone and by email exactly what took place in terms of how some records that are protected by state laws somehow ended up...destroyed on his watch.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)

The official, Assistant City Manager Tom DeSantis, told a reporter by phone Monday that the city kept track of vehicles the council members used with handwritten notes. In response to the newspaper's request, he said, he transferred information from the notes to a spreadsheet, which was released to the newspaper. The notes, which contained his handwritten "scribbles," were destroyed, leaving the spreadsheet as the only available record of council members' use of city vehicles, DeSantis said.

Attorneys for the newspaper and a state group that advocates transparency in government say the documents used to compile the spreadsheet fell under the newspaper's public records request and should have been made public.

DeSantis did not return repeated phone calls Thursday. City Attorney Gregory Priamos also did not return a call, nor did he respond to an e-mail.

In an e-mail Thursday, DeSantis said the newspaper "may still be under the misconception that I or someone else at the City 'destroyed' ... public documents. ... This is not the case."

The man doth protest too much. But what's hilarious is that he's trying to make it look like the destruction of public records potentially incriminating to his office or the city came about while he was trying to be helpful and well, oops! But don't believe a word of it, because before being pulled out of virtual exile by his boss, City Manager Brad Hudson to come to work in this job in Riverside, DeSantis did a lengthy stint as the public information officer for Riverside County (where his job included spinning the tragic incident involving Gloria Ramirez and the emergency staff at Riverside General Hospital into a bizarre tale that the show, X-Files used in one of its episodes).

But being a public information officer, DeSantis would be required to have been well versed in the appropriate procedure to be in compliance with all relevant disclosure laws including the California Public Records Act. So he would know that the Act doesn't just apply to documents but to "post it" and "handwritten notes" as long as they dealt with work-related issues. In this case, they clearly do if associated with the allocation and recording of city-owned property. For him to say that handwritten notes aren't covered by the act is not true and he knows that it is not. What he's hoping is that the average city resident won't know.

DeSantis' latest explanation for allegedly doing something unlawful (and the destruction of public documents so they're not accessible is unlawful) is interesting in the wake of his other excuses when he or other employees from the city manager's office including his boss Hudson have been tied to other highly questionable conduct. He had a special badge made for him and oops, the community development department made him do it, at least until another assistant city manager, Michael Beck who's now the city manager of Pasadena said that he had suggested it. DeSantis and Hudson needed badges because they had to occasionally get out of their city-issued vehicles and take down illegally posted signs within the city limits.

Then the police department was blamed for the illicit gun sale which involved the police department and one of its employees acting as an unlicensed vendor for selling guns from its own inventory to Hudson and DeSantis. The city had to confiscate the illicitly gained firearms and then essentially "launder" them through a resale, this time using a local gun dealer. I guess as a population, city residents should just ignore all this illegal activity and be thankful that the city employees "shopped Riverside" (well except that the guns and other equipment including holsters originated in San Jose).

Then of course, there are those darn cold plates, you know the ones that city officials had placed on their city-issued vehicles that can't be easily traced. This took place sometime in 2007 and first was uncovered in early 2008. But how that came was told differently by different people. DeSantis testified in a deposition that former Riverside Police Chief Russ Leach suggested that he cold plate his city-issued cold plates. But in interviews to the Press Enterprise in 2010, both Hudson and DeSantis said that the police department had cold plated the cars to facilitate the movement of them from the city's civilian car fleet to its police car fleet. However, in the same article, Councilman Steve Adams whose city-issued car had been cold plated said that the vehicles used by the elected officials had too many miles on them to be effective for police work.

Okay so much for that excuse then, but then Hudson and DeSantis insisted it was the police department's doing whereas Leach had testified that he had discovered the vehicles had been cold plated after the fact and that he had been left out of the loop. He had allegedly taken his concerns about the illegal practice to two police lieutenants in the department and said that DeSantis had been circumventing him by trying to get cold plates, emergency lights and other police-assigned equipment added to his vehicles and those of other city employees and elected officials.

Hudson naturally said that he had no idea it was going on and that he didn't know if his car was cold plated or not.


But then former deputy chief, Dave Dominguez said that the city management team wanted cold plated cars. He was called a "disgruntled employee" by DeSantis. But then Hemet Police Chief Richard Dana had to remove cold plates from the cars of city officials there after discovering it was illegal. He said that when he had been a commander in Riverside's police department that he had been aware that people outside the police department including city officials and city management personnel were using cold plated vehicles. Okay so now you have two former employees talking about how cars were cold plated in Riverside's City Hall?

This is what Dominguez said in the news article.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)

Dominguez said he was concerned when he first learned about such requests and discussed the matters with former Police Chief Russ Leach on more than one occasion.

"I recommended that would it be totally inappropriate. It would put the Police Department on the path toward penal and vehicle code violations ... " he said.

"It jeopardized the city. It jeopardized the Police Department, and it ultimately jeopardized the City Council."

Dominguez said the chief acknowledged that Hudson and DeSantis wanted cold plates, which under state law are reserved for police work. The chief was under a lot of pressure, he said.

Leach had allegedly told others that the city management was trying to get him to do different things that he felt "powerless" about. He forwarded information about the cold plated vehicles after they'd been done and asked for assistance in dealing with the situation.

So you most definitively have a "he said, he said" situation and you have conflicting testimony which was given under oath during the deposition process so much so that it's clear that at least one party appears to be lying, which means that they're committing perjury or would be if they were mere mortals. But was any investigation ever done by law enforcement authorities including those with the State Attorney General's criminal division to determine who was telling the truth and who was not while under oath? And the balance of evidence seems to be in favor of Leach. After all, there's at least one past employee who said that Hudson and DeSantis had wanted the cold plates. Adams contradicted their reasoning for getting the plates to facilitate the interdepartmental transfer of vehicles with his own comments. And then there's the list of vehicles which were cold plated by the city which the State Attorney General's office ended up finding out about to do its inquiry.



Below are two different photos taken of a list of city-owned cars which were or were to be cold plated through the city fleet yard and the police department yard. The document were not shredded by DeSantis or anyone else at City Hall. This document casts some serious doubt on the statements made by Hudson and DeSantis.













If you look at this list, you'll see the types of cars that have been submitted to be cold plated by the city including these vehicles:



2006 Toyota Highlander

2006 Chrysler 300

2003 Mercury Grand Marquis

2003 Ford Crown Victoria




Then guess what, you find out that Hudson was assigned a Toyota Highlander, DeSantis a used Mercury Grand Marquis and Asst. City Manager Michael Beck, a Crown Victoria. Adams was given a Dodge Charger that had been cold plated, and guess what there's one of those on the list as well. Amazing coincidence, naturally. The city should provide information on which individual either representing or working for the city was tied to which vehicle on this list in cases where the cold plating violated the state's vehicle codes for assigning such plates. That is, if the city hasn't shredded all those public records already.

But it would be interesting to see if the Toyota Highlander on the list was the one assigned to Hudson especially since he has issued a denial of even knowing his car had been cold plated. What would you think?

Of course, if you remember DeSantis had denied taking any initiative to cold plate the city-issued vehicles in question and had said that Leach had suggested it to him. But if you look at the two photographs, you'll see where it describes the make of a vehicle assigned to a former city council member with a status of "pending" and right after his name is that of DeSantis. From the document's format it looks like the handwritten name of that former councilman, Frank Schiavone, was added "per" DeSantis which if true, would indicate that he had authorized the cold plating. Schiavone has denied that he had a a cold plated vehicle.

So what was DeSantis saying again? And now that the issue of the destruction of public documents has come out, both he and City Attorney Gregory Priamos have not returned calls to the Press Enterprise nor have any of their denizens. Perhaps they are working on a script of what to say next. It's ironic that DeSantis was allegedly hired to run interference for Hudson when in reality, DeSantis has needed an employee of his own to do the same for him including around the time of the disturbing altercation he had with a woman in a parking lot in Hemet, where she alleged he yelled at her, threatened her and then went to his car to retrieve a firearm in a holster and some handcuffs. Some might have thought that sounded silly but not really, when you look at the emerging trail of how he and Hudson were running around trying to equip themselves like police officers. I guess when you're micromanaging a police department, it's easy to slip into the delusion that you are entitled to police equipment and the powers that come with it.

With this latest incident coming out of City Hall which has seen too many similar incidents originating from inside its walls, there's been even more concerns raised and questions asked by city residents about the accountability and transparency within its walls and whether the city government is more interested in writing off this corruption as mere inconveniences or in sweeping it under the rug.

But with the next round of elections coming up next year, how long will the city be able to engage in that behavior?

What will the voters say in response and how will they vote?

Who's Watching the Shop Called City Hall?

[Here are some city officials who may or may not have had their city-issued vehicles cold plated including Councilman Steve Adams who did. Ironically, this picture captures a moment from a recent meeting of the Mayor's Nomination and Screening Committee where it reviewed and decided upon an ethics complaint filed by a watchdog organization alleging conflict of interest.]


It's amazing how quiet it's become at City Hall in the wake of revelation after revelation of all the emerging scandals which have finally erupted in recent weeks and months with more to come because what's been seen so far no doubt is but a tip of a very huge iceberg. It's been dismissed as "old news" by the city management personnel and by Adams but that's only because they tried so hard and so long to hide it. And they were mostly successful but in the end, not so much as it's been spilling out in the public forums from inside the halls where it was carefully locked away.

Both Hudson and Priamos are direct employees of the city council and mayor and DeSantis is a direct employee of Hudson and yet the city council and mayor have had little to say as a city government about everything that's been going on even as city residents have voiced anger and concern and have asked questions in different forums and venues. The one thing that can be known for sure is that City Hall isn't being quiet on these scandals because city residents don't care and haven't been complaining about them. Because both the police department and City Hall have had their phones light up since the Feb. 8 DUI incident involving Leach and the calls and missives have been intensifying whenever there's been new revelations released on what has been going on at City Hall in the past several years, especially since Hudson and DeSantis came to town. If City Hall is indeed being quiet and indeed you can hear a pin drop there, it's being quiet to protect itself, even if that's at the expense of the city's residents including the constituents of those who voted the officials into their positions.

Some say the city council is reluctant to rein in its city management because they're concerned that if they say anything then their projects in their respective wards won't get as much attention by Hudson's office as they would otherwise. And Hudson knows how to play his bosses by stroking their egos through the placement of marquee signs all over Riverside featuring them as star players in assorted Renaissance projects and that's like free political advertising during election cycles. Some say that Hudson has made references that certain city officials won't be in office another term if they oppose him.

Others say that Hudson is like a ship that is steered in the direction that it's intended for him to go by one or more of his bosses. If that's true, then which elected official or officials steered him in the direction towards cold plates, badges and police paraphernalia? After all, allegations had been raised in lawsuits filed by former police lieutenants, Darryl Hurt and Tim Bacon that at least one elected official had said that he had the power to get rid of people that opposed them and provided former city manager, George Carvalho as an example. But in a town where most of the power brokers both inside and outside of City Hall function under the adage of "going along to get along" which is the dominant working philosophy that is practiced by them in this city, there's also going to be a big push to not address these disturbing issues. City Hall has its apologists after all but it seems that the more cover up and suppression of what's going on that takes place, the more information slips out anyway.

That's why the status quo that some might think is new but has actually been going on forever in River City continues unchecked. But it's because of all these dynamics that the city government won't really comment or take any action involving its direct employees unless the actions of those they employ threaten to put a serious dent in their reelection bids beginning next year. Until they're reminded of the albatross around their necks.



One city council member, Mike Gardner commented in the news article.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



Riverside Councilman Mike Gardner said: "I would be concerned if records that should have been retained were destroyed. Obviously, the city has to comply with the law and if the city didn't, that's a problem."




Actually, it's not a "problem", it's a violation if state law particularly if it places the city in a position where it can't accommodate the enforcement of a state law. And it's always very interesting that whenever the city gets into a position where it's violating a law or pushing the boundaries of one, Priamos never seems to be able to return his phone calls even though he's the city's legal eagle including on these issues. Maybe it will take the crew the entire holiday weekend to know how to respond on this latest crisis of public trust.

At any rate, as always, it will be very interesting to see what unfolds next even as City Hall continues to circle its wagons, city officials continue to deflect and Mayor Ron Loveridge takes trips out of town to keep rewriting his legacy.




The Riverside County Grand Jury has issued a report on the use of tasers by the Riverside County Shreriff's Department this week.


The grand jury report is here and it includes issues with the department other than tasers including the filing of harassment complaints by employees. Riverside County and the Sheriff's Department will have opportunities to respond to the report in writing.


Votes cast in Riverside County's elections will not be certified until there's a ruling on the fate of over 10,000 botched mailin ballots.



The death of Riverside County District Attorney's office prosecutor John Ruiz is being investigated though some sources told NBC that it appeared to be a suicide.




Closing arguments are given in the murder trial of a BART officer charged of shooting an unarmed man on New Years Day last year. The trial was moved out of the Bay Area to Los Angeles after a change of venue motion was granted. Prosecutors




If you go swimming in the ocean, be careful this time of year because the great white sharks are out there.

Have a happy and safe holiday weekend!