How did the city council reach a consensus on the CPRC?

"It's all a complete lie."


---NYPD Officer Richard Kern, about the allegations that he sodomized a man with a piece of his officer equipment in a subway station.






"Why would you certify anybody to be assistant chief who's about to retire? That doesn't make sense."


---Wendy McCammick, San Bernardino Councilwoman, seventh ward about Billdt's temporary promotion of Mitch Kimball





"I'm a people pleaser by nature. I've discovered it's hard to disappoint people."


----Riverside Councilman Rusty Bailey, third ward to the Press Enterprise.




"People are suckers for the truth. And the truth is on your side, Bubba"


---JFK






There's a discussion going on here about the latest conflict between the Community Police Review Commission and the city council which still hasn't explained how Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem Rusty Bailey was able to issue a letter on its behalf that either he had discussed with other city council members ahead of time without benefit of a public forum or had submitted without calling for a public meeting of the city council that as mayor pro tem he was representing when he made a phone call to CPRC Chair Brian Pearcy on its behalf. According to statements they made to the Press Enterprise, at least two councilmen Mike Gardner and Andrew Melendrez said they had no idea that Bailey had taken such a step and both of those elected representatives have urged a public discussion at the subcommittee level.

These two men are actually both members of the city's Public Safety Committee but apparently Governmental Affairs Committee Chair Frank Schiavone has allegedly broken his silence going back several years and alleged that only his committee has jurisdiction over any discussion involving boards and commissions. Which of course is interesting given that the Public Safety Committee chaired by Melendrez has received reports from the CPRC on a fairly regular basis in 2006, 2007 and 2008 without a peep of complaint out of Schiavone or anyone else on the dais. In fact, consultant Joe Brann made two appearances to present the results of his analysis of the CPRC and his recommendations before that committee without eliciting a major protest from Schiavone and other council members on the basis of any jurisdictional challenge.

In fact, one would guess that the CPRC wound up in Public Safety Committee for regular reports because it was chaired by perhaps the only sitting council member to be concerned about the well-being of the CPRC at that time. There were certainly no cries from the chairs of any other committees to bring it up for discussion at their meetings, let alone set a mandate that only their committee could receive reports from the panel.


If you're interested in knowing when these Public Safety Committee meetings took place, here they are:



Aug. 21, 2006 agenda


Nov. 20, 2006 agenda

Jan. 22, 2007 agenda

April 17, 2007 agenda


Feb. 19,2008 agenda



There were written reports for most of these meetings which were brief but clearly stated the purpose of having these regular reports on the CPRC to keep the city council current on the issues impacting it.



Aug. 21, 2006 report


Nov. 20, 2006 report


Jan. 22, 2007 report


Feb. 19, 2008 report




This drama's been playing out for the past several months after both Hudson and City Attorney Gregory Priamos (who has been seeing red ever since his legal prowess was challenged by an out-of-town ACLU attorney) decided to essentially shut down the CPRC's ability to effectively and timely investigate officer-involved deaths after six years of there being no reported problems with the CPRC's investigations of 11 such incidents. Whether or not they were acting alone, in tandem or after being ordered by members of the city council's not clear yet.

Pearcy had drafted a six-page letter on behalf of the commission presenting its case to the CPRC and asking for more clarification of how to carry out its charter-mandated power to investigate officer-involved deaths in the face of a directive from City Manager Brad Hudson barring them from doing such investigations until the police department has completed its own investigation. The commission hadn't had much success at eliciting any response from the city council which seems thoroughly confused in terms of who's in charge of the city, itself or Hudson. But Pearcy who's done his share of flip-flopping on CPRC issues lately (including voting for the dissolution of a committee he himself had created as chair), put out several days worth of work and put out a fairly good and strongly worded letter on behalf of the commission. It's the finest piece of prose put out so far, blowing the op-ed piece written by a trio of council members out of the water and rendering that article an even bigger embarrassment than it had been already.

It's a common joke in political watchdog circles that while the city's hierarchy might dictate that the city manager serves at the will of the city council, that in actuality, Hudson is the one calling the shots for the city council. After seeing the reduction in quantity of most standing committee meetings during the past two years not to mention the often very brief city council meetings, that's an image that is hard for many people to shake. If business isn't being done at the standing committee level very often, when and where is it being done? That's a popularly asked question these days.

Another thing City Hall loves doing is taking historical events and rewriting them. Such has been the case with the CPRC since its inception but never more so than in the past year or so. The best example is this horrific vision that's been spouted of the CPRC's hired investigators wandering into and trampling "crime scenes" right after an officer-involved deaths. This fabrication was first blathered by Councilman Steve Adams at a Public Safety Committee meeting in early 2007 when he said he had received information that was false about investigators doing any such thing. That was back when several commissioners became very suspicious of the sudden resignation of one of their own, Frank Arreola who soon enough was hired as Adams' legislative aide.

Now, the quick and surefire way to clear up that myth would be to ask the Riverside Police Department investigators to provide copies of their login sheets that all individuals who are authorized to be present at one of these crime scenes are required to sign their names on along with the times they arrive and leave the scene. Then perhaps the elected officials can count the examples of CPRC investigators either signing in and out on these log sheets for the 12 officer-involved deaths that took place before July 2008 and check to see if any police investigators or their supervisors made notations of seeing any strange investigators running around trampling the crime scene or interviewing witnesses for the CPRC investigation on the day an onduty death incident takes place.

That would go a long way in setting that tale to rest but that won't be done because the city officials who in the past or present through intimating that this has been done or could be done in the future don't want to provide any evidence to prove their points.


They don't believe they have to, because they are apparently operating under another misconception and that is that the city's residents including the voters work for them rather than the other way around. Election 2007 and its ouster of two incumbents and nearly a third went some way towards dispelling that belief system but Election 2009 could clear the confusion around elected representatives' responsibilities even further.


In fact, the average elected official doesn't know very much that's true about the CPRC and even less about how it conducts independent investigations of officer-involved deaths in accordance with the city charter's section 810(d). The only elected official who has a lot of knowledge on the issue is Gardner who served on the commission including as its chair.


You can't blame people for being confused because for years, the CPRC had been conducting its independent investigations of officer-involved deaths without eliciting any complaints from any of the following individuals in a public forum. Of course, there could have been discussions taking place behind closed doors (where it seems more and more city business is being conducted these days) but only public declarations will be discussed at this time.

The time frame is from June 2000-July 2008.


Police Chief Russ Leach
City Attorney Gregory Priamos
City Manager Brad Hudson
Interim City Manager Tom Evans
Former City Manager George Carvalho
Former City Manager Larry Paulson
Former Interim Asst. City Manager Jim Smith
Former Asst. City Manager Penny Culbreath-Graft
Mayor Ron Loveridge


The Riverside City Council including the following:


Dom Betro
Chuck Beaty
Mike Gardner (who also chaired the CPRC for three years)
Ameal Moore
Andrew Melendrez
Joy Defanbaugh
Art Gage
Rusty Bailey
Frank Schiavone
Maureen Kane
Ed Adkison
Nancy Hart
Terri Thompson
Laura Pearson
Steve Adams (with one exception when he made some comments at a 2007 Public Safety Committee meeting threatening CPRC investigators or anyone else with arrest for "interfering" with an investigation)


As far as executive directors or managers of the CPRC, neither Don Williams or Pedro Payne objected or complained about investigations being done within days of the officer-involved death. In fact according to the CPRC minute records, both appeared to be strong advocates of initiating the investigations early on.

The first to object to conducting them is current executive manager, Kevin Rogan likely upon order by Hudson and Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis if precedent is any indication. After all, as he said in an earlier CPRC meeting last week, he wouldn't even need to go confer with Hudson or DeSantis on the issue of initiating independent investigations because he was sure the directive applied to all cases. But it's just as likely he's probably already been given his acting instructions by Hudson and/or DeSantis if history set any precedents.

It became clear with what happened when Payne was the manager that the tether on these employees is only so long in terms of what they are allowed to do. If Hudson and DeSantis decide they don't think community outreach is cool, they just pull back on the leash and ban their direct and "at will" employee from doing public outreach as they did with Payne in 2006. If they decide overnight that they don't want investigations done of officer-involved deaths until months or even years later, again they issue the order for their direct and "at will" employee. Unfortunately, if you're a direct employee of the Hudson and DeSantis team, you're probably going to be on a tight leash.



Political angst and intrigue aside, one anonymous commenter saw fit to take a pot shot at one of the commission's founding members and original chair, retired police chief, Bill Howe.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



People who snivel about the police being corrupt make me laugh. The vast majority of them speak without thinking and with no personal knowledge of the facts.

The police review commission is a group of folks who have no idea what they're doing. The biggest loser of all who was on that commission was Bill Howe. He ran around trumpeting himself as an expert on police issues when his experience consisted solely of campus police work. Full time sworn officers on the street working for a municipal police department or a sheriff's department view campus police as a joke. The hiring standards for campus police are nowhere near as stringent as for municipal police. But Bill Howe bs'd a lot of people who simply didn't know any better.




First of all, this anonymous commenter has misrepresented Howe's qualifications as a former law enforcement officer stating that his experience consists "solely of campus police work". After serving a stint in the United States military, Howe worked years with both the Riverside County Sheriff's Department and the Corona Police Department before being hired to lead UCR's police department. He broke racial barriers in both law enforcement agencies when he worked there. Relatives including his own children and grandchildren have also worked as law enforcement officers as well.


If you want to learn more about Howe's experience in law enforcement from a slightly more informed source, you can read this article.

Howe's passionate about law enforcement having worked as a police officer and about community issues having been a very active community and church leader for many years. In 2000, he applied for a position on the newly created CPRC and after being selected for interview by the Mayor's Nomination and Screening Committee, he was interviewed by the full city council and Mayor Ron Loveridge.

Not long after the commission began hearing cases, he was elected to serve as its first chair which he did. He served a full term on the commission before stepping down in 2004. The city placed him on contract after that to train then executive manager, Pedro Payne.







How will all the new bushy tailed and bright eyed political leaders fare now that they've been elected to positions in government throughout the Inland Empire? Some seasoned politicians say they will do just fine learning on the job.


Even politicians in Riverside who've been sitting on the dais almost an entire year still are learning the ropes.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)

Since he took office Dec. 11, Mike Gardner, a Riverside councilman for Ward 1, said he's still on a learning curve. Because of scheduling conflicts, he couldn't attend training sessions sponsored by the League of California Cities.

His greatest surprise as an elected official?

That ward members presume their council member can wield so much power, Gardner, 60, said.

For instance, when someone pushing a project asks his opinion of the architecture, Gardner said he reroutes the person to the city's Cultural Heritage Board or the Planning Commission.

"I'd never say, 'Make it look like this or that,' " Gardner said. "Just because I like or dislike something doesn't matter. I might say, 'It's not a good match for this reason.' "

San Bernardino Police Department Chief Michael Billdt assigned two members of his management team higher ranks. At least temporarily.



(excerpt, San Bernardino Sun)



Billdt certified a captain and a lieutenant to higher positions. Officials stressed that these are not promotions, but rather a filling in of positions for 60 days.

Capt. Mitch Kimball is now the acting assistant police chief since Assistant Chief Walt Goggin is on medical leave.

Lt. Scott Paterson, who also serves as the Police Department's spokesman, has slipped into Kimball's role as captain and will now be the investigations commander.

Paterson's lieutenant position has not been filled.

"We run a public safety agency and these are critical positions," Billdt said. "I need to have people assigned to each of the positions for continuity in the department."




Billdt as you know will be leaving the embattled police department in March and it's not clear who will step into his shoes but most likely, the city will be conducting a search to hire a replacement from outside the department.







At the Mt. San Jacinto College's police department, former employees alleged that there was serious misconduct by the police chief and his staff.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)





College officials were asked to convey a message to police employees seeking comment on the allegations Wednesday, but no one responded.

Among the allegations:

Navarreta alleges that police Cpl. Mark Medina bragged about an extramarital affair with another college employee and had sexual encounters in police offices and elsewhere at the Menifee Valley campus.

The claims allege Medina told probationary officers he could get them fired if they reported it.

Kuhl said he was told by college Police Chief Kevin Segawa that if he impounded 100 vehicles he would be able to use a Honda motorcycle as a patrol vehicle, and he was instructed to use one San Jacinto tow business for all tows, even for vehicles impounded at the Menifee Valley campus, according to the claim.

The claim of Gonzalez alleges Segawa notified immigration officials about an off-campus ice cream vendor he suspected was an undocumented immigrant and confiscated the vendor's ice cream-filled push cart "as evidence."

The claim states that the chief, within view of Gonzalez, Kuhl and another officer, loaded the ice cream into trash bags. The chief asked Gonzalez to help him unload the ice cream into freezers at Segawa's residence.

The claim stated that Navarreta was terminated after another officer filed a hostile work environment complaint against him, alleging he used offensive racial and sexual language.

Navarreta called the allegations baseless.







In New York City, the police officer accused of sodomizing a man in a subway station spoke out for the first time and said the allegations were fabricated.



(excerpt, New York Daily News)




"I did absolutely nothing wrong," Officer Richard Kern said in his first public statement about the Oct. 15 attack.

"I am innocent of any charges that may or may not come down. It's all a complete lie," he said.

A county grand jury is investigating the Oct. 15 encounter between Michael Mineo and several NYPD officers including Kern but has made no decision yet.




The Press Enterprise isn't the only publication facing layoffs. No indeed.

City Hall Blues: The layoffs begin...

Unfortunately this morning, there was a bad two-car collision near the Parkview Nursery on the intersection of Chicago and Enterprise. In fact, a pickup truck had plowed into the section of the gate of the nursery on the street corner. The collision was between the truck and a smaller vehicle driven by a young man who fortunately had an air bag installed in his car which was totaled in the accident. Without the air bag, he would suffered more severe injuries by his impact with the truck.

When you get in a car, don't forget your seat belt.

The gentleman had few obvious injuries but was shocked by his first accident. He was able to recall what happened, what day it was and what country he lived in.

The two people in the truck, both elderly, were both injured and trapped in the vehicle by brush surrounding the doors. They were extracted and transported by Riverside County ambulance services to a nearby hospital.

UCR's police officers responded to the accident scene and took witness statements until the Riverside Police Department officers arrived including one from UNET.

The Parkview Nursery employees were understandably shocked by the accident but were much more concerned about the welfare of those in the accident than the damage to their property.





The city of Riverside has apparently began laying off employees, beginning with between four and six employees, in three different departments. Some employees who were independent contractors with the city have also been let go. I spoke with individuals whose family members were independent contracting employees with the city and they were already laid off.

But these are believed to be the first direct, full-time employees.

Two information technology employees, one museum employee and at least two others are allegedly gone so far. At least one was a management level position. They're probably not the last positions to produce layoffs and likely freezes of the involved positions. Several of these employees were probational and officially the firings were attributed to failures to make probation. If an employee fails to make probation, then the position can be frozen. If they are "laid off", the city has to keep the position open for a period of time. Another option that might be used by City Hall to explain layoffs is that they are merely contracting employees out. In order to do so, the city has to provide a 60 day notice beforehand in writing according to the latest MOU from the SEIU.

It's hoped that the city is abiding by the terms of all the MOUs negotiated and voted on by the city government, with the different labor units during this difficult time. It's hoped that actual layoffs aren't being disguised or explained away as less than what they really are.

But as stated earlier, they had already begun. A better picture of this situation as well as the budget picture overall might be apparent in January when the city hits the midpoint of its current fiscal year so stay tuned to what's going on during that time period.

Earlier this fiscal year, about 30 part-time library pages had already been laid off. They were replaced by volunteers.


There's been a lot of boasting about Riverside not resorting to layoffs but this city apparently will not make it through its fiscal year without laying people off. It's very true that other cities like Moreno Valley, Hemet, Corona and others will probably have a worse time of it during these difficult economic times where sales and property tax revenues will take a nose dive as consumer confidence drops as do property values. However, it probably was too early to count chickens before they hatched when it came to claiming that Riverside wasn't going to do layoffs and that people's lives aren't going to be impacted by that.







Not being laid off but leaving the city employment anyway is Riverside Police Department Officer Robert Forman who's apparently been fired. Earlier this month, he was arraigned on three felony charges in relation to sexual assaults of three women while onduty between February and April in 2008.

The Press Enterprise won its motion to unseal his arrest warrant which provided some details (with names and identifying information redacted) about the three alleged contacts that Forman had with three different women where he either provided them with drugs he carried with him or coerced them into performing sexual favors. An investigation into any other possible misconduct committed by him is still ongoing.





In Lake Elsinore, the mayor vows he'll keep his stipend.


This is how it allegedly all went down. Lake Elsinore has been hit hard by the economic crisis and in fact, one of its zip codes has among the highest foreclosure rates in the nation with 71% of homes in the negative equity situation. Employees are being laid off, services and salaries cut and initially, it appeared that the city council was going to cut their own pay to zilch for nine months to support their employees.


Now at least one of them, Mayor Darryl Hickman is changing his mind.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)




Hickman said he spends about as much performing city business each month as the stipend pays. This includes volunteering for nonprofits and contributions he makes to charitable organizations.

"I spend more than $400 doing things for the community," Hickman said. "It is just a drop in the bucket compared to the budget."

Lake Elsinore elected officials get paid about $24,000 combined annually. Union representatives said the pledge to forgo the stipend was never about the money but the spirit of the gesture.

"I am sure that everyone appreciates everything he does, but the issue here was not really about how much money was going to be saved," said Kathy Delgado, a labor negotiations representative with the Laborers International Union of North America Local 777, which represents the city's union employees.

"It was the gesture of the council that said to the employees 'We feel your pain, too,' and for him to say he is not going to do it really contradicts that sentiment."


That's because he probably didn't mean it.





The Inland Empire's unemployment rate is one of the highest around, higher than any other metro center in the country.



(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)



If the Inland Empire is one of the birthplaces of the current recession, it is also at the forefront of the nation's growing pain over joblessness -- with the highest unemployment rate of any large metropolitan area in the country.

State numbers released Friday show the Riverside, San Bernardino and Ontario area is now suffering from its highest unemployment rate in 13 years at 9.5% in October -- 3 percentage points higher than the national rate and 1.3 points higher than the state's rate of 8.2%.

Ignited by the collapse of the local housing market, which decimated the construction and lending industries, the wave of unemployment has trickled into almost every area, including retail, manufacturing and local government.

The region's troubles are set against a backdrop of growing unemployment throughout the nation. The U.S. Department of Labor reported last week that a growing number of jobless Americans are turning to government assistance. The number of workers collecting unemployment insurance payments has now reached a 25-year high at 3.95 million.

Meanwhile, the percentage of people unemployed in the Inland Empire has more than doubled from a year ago and some experts predict the situation will worsen before it improves.

"It's a perfect storm," said Brad Kemp, director of regional research for Beacon Economics, which recently conducted the second annual Inland Empire Economic Forecast Conference.

"It was one of the fastest growing places in America," he said "And when you have that kind of growth, you have the potential for loss."




Riverside's not immune from being located in the recession capitol of the country.



(excerpt)



"You see less people at the restaurants and car washes," said Riverside Mayor Ronald Loveridge. "There is real pain almost everywhere you turn. My daughter is a counselor at Riverside Community College and she told me she met a [student] whose house was up for foreclosure. Her last resort would have been to move in with her parents, but their home is up for foreclosure. All over there are statements of personal tragedy."

Loveridge said he was girding his city for a $14-million cut out of its $214-million budget. And Riverside is but one of many local governments reeling from the state deficit and decreasing tax revenues brought on by the real estate crisis.


After Torrance Police Department officers falsified information, a suspected drug dealer was released.



More information on that case here.





The prosecutor's star witness in the federal corruption trial of former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona wasn't fazed much while being cross-examined by Carona's attorneys.



(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)




Defense attorneys can never be sure how witnesses will react to cross-examination, and Rawitz couldn't know at the outset that Haidl, a 10th-grade dropout who made millions in business, had a tough hide that belies his unassuming physical appearance.

But as Haidl's stoic unflappability on the witness stand became more obvious, Rawitz -- no shrinking violet himself -- drew back from the edgy aggression that marked his opening thrusts. He became more judicious in picking spots to try to rattle Haidl, but never made him squirm.

I'd venture to say that the two -- each with a streak of street tough in him -- enjoyed the skirmishing that ended Thursday afternoon. For example, during one otherwise nondescript interlude between questions this week, Rawitz referred to Haidl as "the defendant." No one caught it, except Haidl, who interjected, "the witness." As the judge acknowledged the error, Rawitz said, with a grin, "I'll pass on my thoughts on that."

During another exchange, an impatient Haidl said to Rawitz, "Please, I don't mean to be rude. I think I've answered the question five times already," to which Rawitz retorted: "We may have to do it a sixth time, because I don't understand your answer."

Another time, Rawitz informed Haidl in advance about his line of questioning. "I just wanted to tell you where I'm going," Rawitz said.

"It doesn't matter to me where you're going," Haidl replied stonily. "I'm just here to answer the question."




Over 180 Atlanta Police Department officers are going back to school through a special program.




(excerpt, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Since it began, the Scholarship Reimbursement Program has handed out $254,433 in scholarships, said Dave Wilkinson, president of the Police Foundation.

Though many do, officers don't have to get a degree in criminal justice. To be eligible, they must attend an accredited university, maintain a 3.0 grade point average, have been with the Police Department for two years and agree to stay for three more, Wilkinson said.

Police and college is a marriage that began in the 1980s, and the union gets stronger with each passing year, said Peter Fenton, a criminal justice professor at Kennesaw State University.

When Fenton became a Cobb County police officer in 1980, officers who had college degrees were rare.

But an increasing number of rookies have them, and more veteran officers are returning to school to get degrees, too.

"People are realizing that law enforcement today is different than before," Fenton said. "It really is more about being smart than it is about being tough."

Receiving its first cases will be that new civilian review board in Atlanta.

Riverside's own ongoing serial in more ways than one

The Riverside City Council in a matter of speaking responded to the questions raised by the Community Police Review Commission by saying that it must remain barred from independently investigating officer-involved deaths until the police department is finished with its own investigations. How the city council managed to come to some sort of consensus on this so that one of its members could speak for it in the absence of a public meeting remains a mystery.

It's not a mystery it really chooses to answer. Because as some people have been saying, the city council serves at the pleasure of the city manager and city attorney? Perhaps because it's forgotten that it serves the people of this city, not the other way around? Perhaps it's because we have elected officials who when they speak at all on this issue to the city's residents, it's through the media and not to the people they are accountable to and who pay their salaries (and those of their legislative aides as well).

The whole sorry ordeal continued onward this week.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)

That ended with Mayor Ron Loveridge and Mayor Pro Tem Rusty Bailey writing a letter requesting the commission follow the 2001 written policy that investigations will commence after the law enforcement investigation concludes.

The item was never requested for the City Council agenda.

That led commissioners to write a letter to the mayor and council outlining their concerns and the conundrum of being instructed by the charter to investigate and review such deaths and then having an order from the city saying to wait on the investigations.

"No reasonable justification has or can be provided to cause the Commission to wait more than six months (long after memories have started to fade and contract trails have time to go stale) before it can act, as it is duty-bound to do under the Charter," Chairman Brian Pearcy wrote in the letter filed with the council Friday.

Before Wednesday's commission meeting, Pearcy was called by Bailey and told the letter had been reviewed by the mayor and City Council and that it is being treated as "received and filed."

On Thursday, Bailey said most council members he spoke to read it and agreed.

He said he did not remember which council members he spoke with. "We understand we've given them enough direction," Bailey said Thursday.

Councilmen Andy Melendrez and Mike Gardner, a former commissioner, said they were not aware of Bailey's response and would like to see the issue discussed at the council committee level for clarification.

What's interesting here is that Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem Rusty Bailey admits to having some sort of discussion with other elected officials on the issue of the directive issued by City Manager Brad Hudson which barred the CPRC's investigations of officer-involved deaths for six months or longer. He doesn't say who he discussed the directive with or how many city council members he had spoken with (which makes a rather big difference in how appropriate these discussions were). Is it because he's gotten amnesia suddenly or is he being elusive? After all, his previous case of amnesia took place when he forgot every statement he made about supporting the CPRC and reinvented himself on the issue after he won his position on the dais.

What's interesting here too is that Bailey called up CPRC Chair Brian Pearcy and said that the CPRC's letter asking for clarification had been read by the mayor and the city council. He had said that they had received, reviewed and filed it yet with no explanation how the city council received a consensus on this issue and whether or not any discussion took place. The only thing the public does know is that not at any time since this fiasco begun, was there or has there been any public dialogue by elected officials at any public meeting. That's the only thing at this point the public can be sure of. The rest of what happened is much more nebulous and this situation has raised some issues including those involving the Brown Act that need to be answered.

Two city council members, Mike Gardner and Andrew Melendrez when interviewed said that they had no idea what Bailey was doing at the time Bailey was saying to Pearcy and the Press Enterprise that the city council had received it, reviewed it and filed it away which is another way of telling the commission and the community it serves to essentially take a flying leap off a moving train or something equally descriptive. Who knows? Perhaps the city residents can respond in a matter of speaking during next year's elections at the polls.

Because of the lack of leadership and insight of our city government as a whole and the accompanying utter lack of accountability and transparency (both necessary for good government), the public now needs the answers to two areas of concern. The first being the original area of concern surrounding Hudson's directive obstructing the CPRC from carrying out its charter-mandated responsibility in an effective, meaningful and timely manner. The second being, just what kind of city government comes to a consensus to "receive, review and file" a letter by a commission without holding a public vote or a public discussion? What kind of city government has a representative running off and behaving as its representative leaving at least two city council members in the dark?


What kind of city government has elected representatives who are more profuse with their verbiage through the media than they are with the commission? Than they are with the city's residents including the 60% of the voters who passed Measure II precisely to avoid these kind of embarrassing situations where political manipulation is about as subtle as an 800 pound gorilla?



So we have Bailey and his convenient amnesia over how many council members he spoke with and who they were, we have council members who were apparently clueless about what another one of them was doing while purportedly speaking on their behalf. And who can forget that Council Members Frank Schiavone, Steve Adams and Nancy Hart had some sort of earlier discussion on the issue when they collaborated on an op-ed article published in the Press Enterprise. If they hadn't, how would they have all signed on to the article?


Not to mention an earlier letter signed by Mayor Ron Loveridge and Bailey (as Mayor Pro Tem, a title usually not used in the company of the real mayor) which spoke for the city government that again somehow reached some sort of consensus, again without public discussion in a public forum.



Gardner and Melendrez talk about taking the issue to one of the city council subcommittees. Gardner belongs to and Melendrez chairs the Public Safety Committee which had in the past received reports from the CPRC, including when consultant Joe Brann was hired by the city to do a study of the CPRC and issue policy recommendations. Not one peep ever arose the dais challenging this committee's right to do so any more than any peep rose anywhere in the city challenging the status quo situation of the CPRC's investigation protocol, however in recent weeks, the Governmental Affairs Committee Chair Frank Schiavone has claimed jurisdiction.

There's not much in writing about what subcommittees do, what they oversee and where any jurisdiction lines lie. Nothing in the city's charter, nothing readily visible in the city's ordinances either. But then the manipulation of the city's charter in terms of Section 810(d) which governs the CPRC's officer-involved death investigations documents exactly how much value the city's constitution has with its current sitting government.

Will there be a tussle over jurisdiction of the CPRC among two different committees? Not likely, you have one or two city officials determined on one side (just as they have been the past couple of months on this issue) and others who will cave to their wishes (just as they've been publicly silent on this same issue mistaking having a minority opinion with keeping their mouths shut). They may have blown the doors off of the state's "sunshine" laws. Perhaps not, considering how opportunistically diversified the legal opinion of City Attorney Gregory Priamos is on these issues. The only city attorney in the state of California who actually hides behind the Brown Act to restrict the public's rights to expression as well as open meeting laws whereas most interpretations err on the side of protecting public access to city government and the transparency of that government.

If the CPRC goes to Governmental Affairs Committee which could happen as early as December if that committee is inclined, it will be facing the conveniently amnesiac Bailey and its two strongest opponents most likely beginning the day they both took the oaths into office. It will also be facing the only three people on the dais perhaps willing to discuss it if only to further dismantle it from within.

In the meantime before that drama plays out if it does, the CPRC has gone against the consensus of the city council which never met to reach one. Who will spank the eight-year-old upstart panel next? Nominations will be forthcoming.




With one election tight in Colton, the incumbent councilman considers a recount.






The presiding federal judge of the corruption trial involving former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona scolded his attorneys.



(excerpt, Orange County Register)

"This will be the fourth time the jury has heard this,'' said U.S. District Court Judge Andrew J. Guilford, before the playing of one exchange -- this time requested by the prosecution --between Carona and his former assistant sheriff Don Haidl.

"Please play the tape,'' he added in a resigned tone.

Jurors seemed to share in the judge's frustration. Several of them fidgeted, yawned, rubbed their eyes or rocked in their chairs as Carona's attorney, Jeff Rawitz, replayed excerpts of three secretly-recorded conversations between Haidl and Carona.

One male juror seemed to nod off at times. At one point, an alternate juror covered her eyes with her hands as she bowed her head.

When the jury was out of the courtroom on a break, the judge said he thought the defense could be losing the jury.

"I'm worried about retaining the attention of the jury ... so keep moving it along,'' the judge urged Rawitz.

The city of Los Angeles might pay up to $13 million to settle claims filed in connection with the police department's actions at MacArthur Park during a May Day event.



(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)

A settlement in the case would go a long way toward closing an embarrassing and damaging chapter in the LAPD's recent history, department observers said. The proposed agreement still must be approved by the City Council, the mayor and the judge overseeing the claims against the city.

Longtime LAPD observer Merrick Bobb, executive director of the Police Assessment Resource Center, said a settlement, following the punishment of officers and changes in LAPD procedures, is a necessary last step for the department.

"It allows the LAPD . . . to move forward having learned its lessons and tied up the loose ends it opened," Bobb said.

Sources familiar with the deal declined to provide details and spoke on condition that their names not be used because the terms of the agreement were confidential pending the council's approval. Several of the sources, however, confirmed the size of the proposed deal at $12.85 million.

The council was scheduled to discuss the settlement in private Wednesday, but emerged without voting on whether to approve it. The council is expected to take up the matter again in the near future.

City Council members, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief William J. Bratton all declined to comment. Representatives from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, a major Latino advocacy group that has been involved in the settlement talks, also declined to comment.






The Memphis Police Department officer charged with civil rights violations in connection beating a transgendered woman, Duanne Johnson, an act which caught on video tape, was arraigned in federal court and plead not guilty.


Johnson was shot to death not long after the beating and after filing litigation in relation to it, an incident which led to calls for investigations into the Memphis Police Department.

CPRC to City Council: We're going to investigate OIDs

"The people who appointed me are the ones who call the shots."


----Community Police Review Commission member, Kenneth Rotker in terms of who he answers to.



"I say we move forward with the three OIDs."


CPRC Commissioner Art Santore




"The reason we're in the charter is precisely so this kind of thing doesn't happen. The city manager, city attorney even the city council don't mess with what we're supposed to do."


---CPRC Commissioner John Brandriff




"The city manager might have stepped one or two steps too far. It might be necessary to take one or two steps back."


----CPRC Chair Brian Pearcy




"In court."


---Former CPRC Commissioner Steve Simpson responding to where the thrust of the directive might ultimately be decided.


*crickets chirping*


----Riverside City Council and mayor




The Community Police Review Commission in Riverside voted 5 to 1 to initiate independent investigations into three officer-involved deaths that have taken place in recent months. After an impassioned discussion, Commissioners Brian Pearcy, John Brandriff, Linda Soubirous, Art Santore and Chani Beeman voted to order staff to initiate investigations into the officer-involved deaths of Carlos Quinonez, Fernando Luis Sanchez and Marlon Oliver Acevedo.

Voting against the motion was Commissioner Kenneth Rotker.


However, when one commissioner asked Executive Manager Kevin Rogan if he would call up investigators to carry out the commissioners' mandate, he said, no I will not. Rogan said that he wouldn't need to go as far as to consult with his bosses as he believes that the directive pertains to all officer-involved death cases. But everyone pretty knows that the city manager keeps a tight hold on its management employees particularly those who serve at "their will". Hudson once said that when he's offered the option of being "at will" management positions to department heads and their subordinates, they gratefully and immediately accept them. Which is odd indeed because the two most feared words in the employment ranks (besides "lay off") appear to be "at will".


Still, the commission which was very unhappy by the city council's nonresponse on this issue decided to press the issue further through initiating the investigations. But it's not clear if the city council will respond and if so, who will speak for the body because the fact is, there's probably not one unified voice on the dais regarding this issue. There are obviously elected officials who are more actively involved in manipulating the eight-year-old panel but it's less clear whether others are quiet because they are part of a silent majority, are not educated on the issue (in at least one case) or feel they are part of a minority of one.

Some theorize that several elected officials might not want to make any public statements let alone bring this issue to the full city council because they are up for election next year and are loathe to turn the CPRC and its position in the city's charter into a front and center campaign issue. If the city council and mayor keeps acting the way it's been acting on this issue, there are four politicians who shouldn't be all that surprised if this turns out to be the case when they run to keep their political seats beginning next winter.



It all started when Pearcy wrote a six-page letter outlining the reasons why the CPRC was asking the city council for clarification on the directive issued by City Manager Brad Hudson to cease investigations on officer-involved deaths until the police department and his office essentially gave them permission to do so. If they tried to disobey him, then City Attorney Gregory Priamos would essentially cut their purse strings. Pearcy's letter with its documentation and research certainly put any prior written statements by elected officials to shame. Not that this was difficult to accomplish but it was still a very solid effort.

The only response the commission received was a nonresponse through a phone call the afternoon on Nov. 19 by Mayor Pro Tem Rusty Bailey that the city council had received the letter, reviewed it and filed it away. So essentially, the governmental body of this city resorted to passive-aggressive tactics to deal with the CPRC which has been unable to perform its charter-mandated duties under Section 810 (d) to review and investigate officer-involved deaths since Sept. 1.

The city council has refused to discuss the issue in a public forum even as some of them have used public forums to engage in one-way communicados with the city residents including the 60% of all voters who passed Measure II to prevent exactly the type of behavior that city officials have been engaging in since 2006. Back then, the officer-involved deaths of Lee Deante Brown, Douglas Steven Cloud and Joseph Darnell Hill had the city up in arms in large part because all three men were at least initially unarmed when they encountered police officers and because lawsuits were filed in two out of the three cases.

Still, despite behind-the-scenes antics by Hudson, Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis among others which led to the "resignation" of then Executive Manager Pedro Payne and nearly half the commission, the panel was able to investigate the three deaths that took place in 2006.

However, in the face of four officer-involved deaths in the latter half of 2008, the city has stymied the commission from carrying out its responsibilities that it had been doing unchallenged and certainly unmolested by elected officials, city employees and others for nearly seven years. But that was then and this is now and in 2008, Riverside's got to face the fact that it's paid out nearly $1.5 million in wrongful death lawsuits and it's not even through with them yet. Yet despite this or maybe because of it, city officials who are johnny-come-lately to the CPRC saga are trying to rewrite its script including its history.

Hudson issued a directive after the CPRC decided to initiate an investigation into the officer-involved death of Carlos Quinonez, sr. However, the tussle really began after the death of Martin Pablo. Not long after the CPRC received Hudson's directive, it voted to disband its own ad-hoc committee.

But this latest letter by the city council representative providing its non-response (yet failing to explain how the city council came to this group consensus) ticked some people on the commission off. Enough to take the issue to the next level.

Art Santore said that the commission needed to put the ball back in the city's court by initiating the investigations into the three officer-involved deaths and thus force the city's hand on the issue.

Commissioner John Brandriff (who if you remember is on one councilman's "naughty" list) said that he had questions about how the city council could vote to "receive and file" without doing so in a public forum.



"If they are discussed it outside of a public forum, that's another situation," Brandriff said.



Brandriff also said that the latest round of actions is why the city's voters passed a measure to put the commission in the city's charter.



"I have a difficult time with where your loyalties lie," Rotker said in response to Brandriff.



But even Rotker admitted he was very disappointed in the city council's lack of response and said it went against what he'd expected. Still, he said the commissioners were appointed by the city council and could be removed "at will". Someone on the commission took some time to set him straight on that. While the city could require that some of its employees serve "at will", commissioners could only be removed through cause and the list of reasons to remove commissioners was intentionally quite narrow. But who can blame the guy for being confused given the thinly veiled threats by at least one elected official through written letters to essentially remove commissioners including through ethics complaints sent to the Mayor's Nomination and Screening Committee (which isn't the proper original jurisdiction for complaints against commissioners but that's another dysfunction).


Commissioner Chani Beeman said if they stopped now, they would not be fulfilling their responsibility under the charter.


Pearcy said that historically, no vote had to be taken to initiate an investigation but that they were initiated through the understanding of a prior vote.



Rotker kept saying that he disagreed with the motion because it was disrespectful to the city government.



"It's an act of futility or defiance," Rotker said.



During that discussion, Rotker uttered the line of the evening about answering to the people who appointed him. Pearcy merely said, that was an interesting statement but members of the audience gasped. The fallout from the passage of Measure GG raised its head once again.


Earlier in the evening before this drama really got started, a mystery was solved and that was which commissioner had placed an item on the agenda to discuss the "modification" of public speaking limits. This item had been on the agenda once, then pulled and it was back on the agenda again, placed there by the oft-absent Peter Hubbard. It was tabled even though Hubbard is 0-2 for attending meetings where his agenda items had been scheduled for discussion.

Last month, former commissioner Gloria Huerta had spoken passionately against limiting public comment as she did along with other former commissioners about seven years ago, the last time the issue came up. But it's clear that there are commissioners that wish the public wouldn't even show up and Hubbard happens to be one of them. But then Rogan's not the only individual in the meeting room who has to answer to Hudson in a matter of speaking.







The city council voted on Nov. 18 to give three business owners 30 days to agree to sell their properties or face Eminent Domain in connection with the Fox Theater project.


(excerpt, Press Enterprises)

The matter will come back to the council in 30 days for an update on the negotiations. The council will decide whether staff should continue negotiating or file the eminent domain case.

The motion made by Councilman Mike Gardner and approved by the council called for trying to reach a deal with Dhalla that would allow him to continue owning the historic storefronts on Market Street between the Fox and Sixth Street.

Three antiques stores occupy the storefronts, but the city is hoping for businesses more compatible with a performing arts center, such as restaurants or coffeehouses.

Gardner's motion also called for saving a Spanish Revival-style building on Fairmount Boulevard now occupied by an antiques store and a botanica, which sells religious items and alternative medicines.

Before the council meeting, Gardner said that last building could be used as storage for the Fox.

In September, the city bought 20,000 square feet of space for the proposed garage at the corner of Sixth Street and Fairmount Boulevard. The price was $2 million.

The structures on that land house the Riverside City Mission and an automotive repair business, both of which would have to be relocated.

The Old Riverside Foundation asked the city council to preserve the city's historic buildings.




Bye, bye DHL, as the planes which serve as the work horses for the domestic freight services will be departing March Air Reserve Base for good.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



"At the time March made their play on DHL, the number of integrators was already down to DHL, FedEx and UPS. UPS already has its regional hub at Ontario, FedEx has its western regional hub at Oakland and a smaller hub ... at LAX," said Webber, who is based in Prairie Village, Kan.

Redevelopment teams at the three former Inland air bases -- March, Norton and George -- believed air cargo held the key to restoring thousands of jobs lost when the military moved out. DHL may have been March's last chance.

"Maybe this is a plus," said Riverside County Supervisor Marion Ashley, a member of the March Joint Powers Authority. "We get to really start from scratch now."




The city of Moreno Valley's coffers will be $5 million short. It took them a while to figure it out.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



"A significant new shortfall for the year is to be expected," Elam said Tuesday.

At the beginning of the 2008-09 fiscal year, the City Council balanced the budget using $3 million in reserves and savings carried over from last fiscal year, he said.

However, revenues are now expected to fall far short of the budget estimates, Elam said.

Sales-tax revenues are down because consumer spending has dropped and retailers such as Mervyns, Ralphs and Circuit City have closed or will close stores, he said. The closures also will lead to a decline in utility tax revenues.

Property-tax revenues are expected to decline next year as property values are reassessed downward, Elam said.

The city should plan on a deficit of at least $5 million in the 2008-09 year, he said.

Elam did not recommend using more reserve funds, saying the city might need the money for the 2009-10 year, which is expected to be even tougher.

"We're going to need aggressive cost-cutting measures to offset the shortfall," he said.





What will be the final payout in terms of settlements in connection with the infamous May Day incident where a team of Los Angeles Police Department officers stormed McArthur Park, injuring people there including media representatives.


Right now, it looks like at least $10 million. That's just for claims and doesn't include actual lawsuits filed by news reporters in the courts.





The effect of Copley Press on the inability of public hearings to be conducted regarding the May Day incident is written about here.



But the LAPD wasn't done that day. The city also paid out $2.5 million on a sexual discrimination, harassment and retaliation case filed by a female officer in the canine unit.



(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)




Officer Patricia Fuller said she was repeatedly cautioned that the LAPD's canine bomb unit at Los Angeles International Airport, where she was the only female canine handler for six years, was an "ol' boys club" and not "female friendly," according to court documents filed in 2006. When hired in 1999, she was the squad's second female canine handler in Los Angeles Police Department history.

Fuller alleged in her lawsuit that men in the unit took items from her desk and the women's locker room, used her shower and hygiene products, exposed their genitalia, made offensive and sexually explicit remarks, and excluded her from training exercises and other opportunities.

Some offenses Fuller described in court documents included an office bulletin board on which colleagues posted sexually explicit cartoons and images, racial epithets and derogatory images that her supervisor said "built camaraderie." Male colleagues also barred her from "cigar meetings" they held to discuss training issues and practices, and would then blow cigar smoke in her face.

Additionally, Fuller said a colleague once told her that another officer had rubbed his penis on her phone. Although she did not report the incident, Fuller said that when she made other complaints, she was told she was too "anal" and to "stay out of the guys' business."

Fuller said complaining to colleagues and supervisors only intensified their harassment of her. She was falsely accused of misconduct, denied a promotion and paired with a "substandard" partner, according to court documents.




Some law enforcement officers in Wilmington, North Carolina will be disciplined for tasing a pall bearer at a funeral.



(excerpt, Associated Press)



Relatives said two deputies dressed in coats and ties grabbed Russ and kneed him in his back before using a Taser on him. One deputy's gun fell out of its holster.

"Everybody was so scared. We thought it was a drug deal gone bad," said Ronnie Simmons, another pallbearer and Russ' brother-in-law. "We almost dropped the casket."

New Hanover County Sheriff Sid Causey told The Star-News of Wilmington that five of the officers involved would be disciplined, although he wouldn't say what punishment they would face.

"I apologize to anyone that was there," Causey said. "Family, friends, relatives. ... That was a bad decision."

An economy (and protest) that's never been seen before...

"Certainly cuts are going to occur at any rank. ... We're looking at management personnel, supervisors, detectives, officers, all of them."


---Hemet Police Chief Richard Dana to the Press Enterprise





"Make no mistake about it. We haven't seen an economy like this before.
The steps that we need to take now are going to hurt."


---County Executive Officer Bill Luna told Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco.






Not long after Hemet's decision to actually eliminate about 20% of its law enforcement positions, more bad news is coming to Riverside County's own public safety departments. There had been rumors for awhile that the Sheriff's Department would be seeing cuts including possibly in its staffing but it appears that with a vote, the board of supervisors made it clear that these were no longer rumors.

This comes after the Board decided to change its course away from excluding the public safety departments from staffing cuts. Instead, all hiring levels have been capped to where they stood on Nov. 5 until further notice.


At least one department head was unhappy with that news.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)

Pacheco said the county's hiring cap was set for the number of working employees as of Nov. 5. It did not account for hiring and promotion commitments his department made before then. He said his office had already hired and promoted a chief deputy district attorney and several investigators with start dates after Nov. 5.

He told supervisors that he had offered jobs to some of those people on Nov. 5, the day after Luna announced he was planning to cap hiring.

Pacheco also said he had long promised employment to the law students, now working temporarily as clerks, if they pass the bar, he said.

"It creates -- what I consider as a lawyer -- serious liability for the county because commitments have been made and they are longstanding commitments," Pacheco told supervisors.

"This really -- and the law clerks are a perfect example of it -- is about fundamental fairness."

But county supervisors referred Pacheco's concerns back to Luna and gave Luna the authority to negotiate with Pacheco.

Luna said many county departments are struggling with the same issues, and it is just part of the pain of limiting hiring.

Supervisor Bob Buster said Pacheco's was a tough story, but it will be a worse situation if the county finds itself having to lay off employees and cut services to the public to balance the budget.

"That's going to be the much tougher story, one that I want to avoid at all costs, even though we may upset ongoing plans of important department heads like yourself," he told Pacheco. "Those people who have been hoping for a job here may have to change their plans, but we have got to meet these budget targets."

Previously, the Sheriff's Department in particular had been busy hiring new deputies, mainly to staff new jails that it planned to build but to also dispatch out into the field of the county's incorporated regions and contract cities. More academy classes were added to the roster at the county's training center for law enforcement officers, the Ben Clark Training Academy. Now, there might be fewer cadets filling these classes.

Now, is there going to be a hiring freeze in the Sheriff's Department? Based on what the supervisors seem to be saying through their comments and their votes, is probably yes. It's not like Hemet where officers will likely be laid off but positions that are vacated won't be refilled.


The supervisors also voted to approve an early retirement incentive package but the vacancies created by any law enforcement employees who took it would not be filled. Which sounds similar to a buyout with benefits to add to the unfunded positions.

The Riverside Police Department had already been in the midst of its own hiring freeze since at least last spring, opening up only eight positions vacated through attrition but leaving some positions which had been approved by the city council in previous years unfilled. As senior officers in supervisory and management positions retired this year, most of these positions including one deputy chief, one lieutenant and four sergeant positions were left vacant. At least 25 civilian positions remain vacant and there may be up to 28 temporary (through disability and other leaves) or permanent vacant positions in the department's patrol divisions.

In June, consultant Joe Brann cautioned the police department that it needed to immediately address its staffing issues. He told the city council and representatives of the city manager's office and the police department's command staff that while the city had to be mindful of fiscal budget limitations, it was important to insure that these shortages did not become long-term issues. Whether it's fewer officers covering larger areas, high officer to supervisor ratios or lieutenants working double assignments, it was important to avoid any serious problems stemming from these situations as well as any shortages on the civilian employee side.

Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis replied by saying that the department was fully staffed and trained. At the time, there were vacancies that had not been filled resulting from the retirements of three officers at the management or supervisory level. Only one of those vacancies was filled by a promotion on July 1, but the promotion created another vacancy at the sergeant level. Then two more sergeants retired and another lieutenant.

In total, a deputy chief, two lieutenants and three sergeants retired so far this year. Another sergeant was transferred to head the Communications division. Out of the two vacated lieutenant positions, only one of them was filled and the other remains empty. Another sergeant postponed his planned retirement until late next year.


Amid this freezing inside the Riverside Police Department emerges the dilemma of what to do with several former police officers applying for reinstatement in the police department after either being acquitted at trial or having their firings reversed by arbitration and/or the state courts. Where do they fit in? Do there need to be vacancies to be filled before they get reinstated? Will there be new positions created for them?


Former Riverside Police Department officer Jose Nazario was fired while working as a probational officer several years ago after being arrested by NCIS agents while signing a personnel evaluation form at the downtown station. Earlier this year, he was acquitted by a federal jury of voluntary manslaughter charges filed against him in connection with the fatal shootings of Iraqi detainees in Fallujah.

After his acquittal, Nazario and his lawyer walked on down from the U.S. District Court to the police department's administrative headquarters in downtown Riverside to get his job back.

One individual stated that if Nazario is not rehired by Chief Russ Leach or City Manager Brad Hudson, then Riverside's City Hall will see a protest like it hasn't seen before by police employees and organizations. The argument presented is that Nazario was promised his job back by Leach and Hudson if he got acquitted and when he dropped by the station, a captain and lieutenant allegedly informed him that his process would be expedited with his background being updated. However, Hudson said that it depended on whether or not there was a position available because he wasn't creating a new officer position. Allegedly, it's been left up for Leach to decide and it's part of being a police chief to decide who's hired. But what will Leach decide?


Potential problems emerged even before Nazario's acquittal when this article was published which included comments that Nazario allegedly made that were taped by NCIS investigators with the assistance of another Marine sergeant who would later go to jail for him.


(excerpt, Wall Street Journal)



During his time in Riverside, Navy investigators arranged a surreptitiously taped phone call between Mr. Nelson and Mr. Nazario, during which Mr. Nazario described his work. Saying his job was much like the television show "Cops," he told Mr. Nelson that he regularly would "beat the s- out of" a criminal, finding "a reason to take him to jail" later, according to a transcript of the conversation.




The department was left to comment on this situation to the Wall St. Journal, one of the nation's highest-circulated publications and said it couldn't respond due to departmental policy on personnel matters. Not much was said about whether or not Nazario would have a future in the police department.

If the department's hiring him back, it's clear that they've already thoroughly investigated whether these unfortunate comments pose any type of problem in the future if Nazario returns and the command staff are satisfied that they do not and are willing to take the responsibility to ensure that they do not. If there are any problems in the future stemming from that bravado then those who made the decision to rehire him have clearly also taken full responsibility for them as well. Because if there are any problems, next time it's probably the tax payers who will be paying for any resultant litigation that's filed involving Nazario's work as a police officer. Those who have made the decision to reinstate him if that's their decision, should remove that burden if it arises from city residents and make sure the city has proper financial liability insurance again if problems do arise from Nazario's unfortunate choice of words about his stint at the police department.

Maybe his comments arose from bravado or maybe they just means that he's a good fit and don't matter much to those in positions of upper management. If Leach, Hudson and the department's management have rationalized that hiring Nazario is the right thing to do, then it's surprising that it hasn't been done yet. After all, it's not like the department would make a poor hiring decision or expedite the hiring and background update if it wasn't sure it was doing the right thing?

Right?

That's never happened before.

Right?


The answers to these questions by everyone involved should be, right.

If the department does reinstate Nazario, then Leach and Hudson should also go to the communities where complaints of excessive force and false police report writing are made including complaints that don't make their way to the department or the Community Police Review Commission and explain the appropriate context of Nazario's bravado comments and explain the process of their determination that it was just bravado or what Nazario told the Wall St. Journal was two guys "talking tough" about "untrue stories". That shouldn't be all difficult for them to do if they are assured that again, bravado drove what Nazario said. In fact, it should be quite easy if they believe that they've made the right decision to hire him back. They could start the day after the decision is made to bring him back if that's what happens.

The officers clearly haven't marched at least not yet. Does this mean that the situation is playing out to their liking? Does it mean that there's less of a unified front than is being presented? Is the situation in limbo?

It will be interesting to see if the officers do march in protest of this situation because that's democracy of sorts in action if the majority of them feel emboldened and inspired enough to do so. If they feel so strongly about this, they should march the streets in front of the world. Still, given the controversy about Nazario, it's not clear that if they do exactly what message they would be sending. They might want to include a press conference with any demonstration so the viewing audience is clear on what they're marching for and what their points of unity include. Perhaps they can also march from community to community, neighborhood to neighborhood and present the same press conferences at the community centers in each one to facilitate the understanding of why they march.

Other than that, wearing sensible shoes to walk in and toting plenty of water bottles in this unseasonably warm weather might be wise choices as well.




Also applying for reinstatement with less fanfare is Officer Vince Thomas who was fired about five years ago after being charged for child molestation of a teenaged girl under his guardianship. His case went to trial twice in San Bernardino County and resulted in two hung juries. He appealed his firing through arbitration and was reinstated with years of backpay.

The city appealed in Riverside County Superior Court and later in the Court of Appeals a couple blocks away but lost both times. In July, the State Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court's ruling and reinstated Thomas to the police department will all his back pay. The city council probably will install Thomas back in the police department given that he's fairly young to be paying off with a retirement which is the city council's only realistic alternative.


So as Riverside heads off into the great unknown of what Luna described as an economy as we've never seen before, it's clear that many questions remain unanswered and the road remains unpaved, even with good intentions.





Oh, the dilemmas of being a new city! Menifee's elected its new mayor but how will it divide up into its districts?




This Murrieta blogger has updated on the past election on how the ballot measures fared with the voters.




What's San Bernardino Mayor Pat Morris' vision for downtown?






Testimony continues in the federal corruption trial of former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona. A millionaire testified that he used a political favor from Carona to get a man out of jail after a drunk driving arrest. He received the favor after assisting in the fund raising for Carona's campaign to run for sheriff.



(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)



According to Haidl's testimony today, a friend he identified as Joe Kowal called and asked him to help secure the release of a friend of his who was in County Jail on a charge of driving under the influence.

Haidl said Kowal indicated that his friend was afraid for his life because of gang activity inside the jail, and "was there anything I could do about it." Haidl said he could not remember the friend's name.

Haidl said he called then-Assistant Sheriff Rocky Hewitt, who talked to a commander at the jails, and the defendant was released.

"There was some technicality where the Sheriff's Department could release him on work furlough," Haidl testified.

Rawitz grilled Haidl about why he had never before in any interviews with the government or his direct testimony reveal that he helped get the DUI defendant out of jail.

"I just remembered it," Haidl said.





Relatives of Sean Bell are meeting with federal prosecutors to see if that office will file charges in relation to the fatal officer-involved shooting of Bell by New York City Police Department officers.



(excerpt, New York Daily News)

The feds offered no timetable on the completion of its probe of the shooting, but family members remain patient in their quest for justice on the eve of the 2-year anniversary of the shooting, lawyer Michael Hardy said.

"There's a very serious and determined investigation that appears ... to be moving in a forward direction," Hardy told reporters outside the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office.

"Justice has not been done and the family is very committed to seeing that justice is done."

Three NYPD detectives were acquitted of state charges in April in the shooting that left Bell dead and seriously wounded two of his friends outside a Queens strip club on Nov. 25, 2006.

The feds announced a review of the shooting immediately after a Queens judge handed down the controversial verdict.

Prosecutors may seek to speak with Bell friends Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield next.

Attending Tuesday's meeting were Bell's parents, William and Valerie Bell; Bell's fiance Nicole Paultre Bell and her parents.

They met with a roomful of senior prosecutors, including Brooklyn U.S.. Attorney Benton Campbell and chief of the civil rights division Pamela Chen.

Nicole Paultre-Bell said she told the feds that "Sean was a person, not just a name."

A group of officers in San Francisco filed an age-discrimination lawsuit over the promotional process used by that department.



(excerpt, San Francisco Chronicle)



The officers, who have been on a waiting list since they passed an inspector's exam in 1998, were stymied by "unchecked age bias that pervades the culture of the department," their lawyers said in papers filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

Instead of promoting longtime officers to a position that offers more responsibilities and higher pay, plaintiffs' lawyers said, the Police Department began to assign some of its sergeants last year to inspectors' jobs at its investigations bureau. The sergeants are younger and less qualified and have never taken an inspector's exam, the suit said.

"They're excluding all the older people now, trying to put in younger people and just leave us on the vine," said the lead plaintiff, Juanita Stockwell, 60, a police officer for nearly 29 years.

Sgt. Lyn Tomioka, a police spokeswoman, said the department would not comment on the lawsuit or the accusation of age discrimination.

The 34 officers have an average age of 52, while the sergeants assigned to inspectors' jobs average 37 years old, said Richard Hoyer, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. He said his clients would seek class-action status on behalf of all San Francisco police officers over 40, the minimum age covered by federal discrimination law.

Inspectors follow patrol officers to a crime scene and supervise investigations. Stockwell, a patrol officer, said she handled inspections during a nearly three-year assignment to the department's gang task force and decided that was the job she preferred.

"You supervise crime scenes. It's a very interesting job, much more diverse," she said. "As a patrol officer, you take an initial report, and then inspectors come out and do the rest of it. That's the part that I like. Patrol is fun when you're new, the first 10 to 12 years. After that, you want to move on."

Shaking and baking and that's just the CPRC

Yes, that was an earthquake in the early morning hours of Nov. 17 and you can discuss it here. It's noted here at the United States Geological Survey's earthquake site. It was 4.1 and felt over a wide region of Riverside County.



The earth kept quaking later into the morning with this 3.8 quake at 9:41.




The Riverside City Council will be meeting again after a bit of a sabbatical this month. This meeting looks like if you blink your eyes too long, it will be over.

But not before the city council or redevelopment agency (given that the faces are the same, it's understandably difficult to tell the two entities apart), decides whether or not to use more Eminent Domain to get the Fox Theater project off the ground after already spending about $30 million so far.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)

V. Prabhu Dhalla, who owns or co-owns the three targeted parcels, said his negotiations with the city haven't made any progress.

The city hasn't even proved the land behind the storefronts is the only suitable space for the parking structure, Dhalla said.

He sent a letter to the council calling a vote on eminent domain premature.

City staff doesn't want to postpone the vote even though officials will continue to negotiate with Dhalla, Graham said.

"We're asking that the council move forward," she said.

Graham said the city is hoping to make the garage no more than three stories tall to avoid blocking the Fox.

The goal is at least 400 parking spaces but "if more can be accommodated, we would like that," she said.

The garage probably wouldn't be ready for use before late 2009, interim Development Director Conrad Guzkowski said.

The casualties this time might be three more downtown businesses.


This discussion will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 4:30 p.m. at City Hall. This report covers the issue from the city council's perspective.






On Wednesday, Nov. 19, the Community Police Review Commission will be meeting again in Riverside and discussing a rather full agenda which means that it's another meeting that will go late into the evening. If you've been attending its meetings the past several months, they are often four to five hours in duration mostly because of the higher number of officer-involved deaths being discussed on the meeting agendas. The deaths include the following.



Douglas Steven Cloud: Oct. 8, 2006

Joseph Darnell Hill: Oct. 19, 2006

Martin Luis Pablo: July 11, 2008

Carlos Quinonez, Sr.: Sept. 1, 2008

Fernando Luis Sanchez, Sept. 11, 2008

Marlon Oliver Acevedo: Oct. 31, 2008





Investigations into the first two deaths were initiated before City Manager Brad Hudson issued his directive barring the CPRC from initiating investigations into officer-involved deaths until it was cleared to do so by his office and/or the police department. If the CPRC tried to initiate any investigations into any incustody deaths, City Attorney Greg Priamos would cut off its allowance.


Commissioners fought with commissioners. Commissioners verbally tussled with Executive Manager Kevin Rogan on the dais. Commissioners initiated motions to carry out the charter-mandated responsibilities to launch independent investigations and couldn't receive seconds to their motions. Commissioners barely discussing then voting that shootings were in policy as in the case of the Cloud shooting.

Earlier this year, the city essentially issued its own separate finding on how it viewed this shooting by paying off the second highest settlement for a police-related incident in recent history. Only the $3 million settlement in the case of the fatal 1998 shooting of Tyisha Miller is higher than that of Cloud. That settlement sent a much louder message about the unofficial finding released by the city than any that could possibly be made by the police commission. The city justifies each shooting, then runs off behind closed doors to settle it for six-figured amounts or vice versa. To say that the city government has been sending mixed messages on this issue would be very generous.

Some say, it's to avoid the hassles and further expense of prolonged litigation which works until you contemplate that these are fairly hefty amounts. And in the case of Cloud, apparently there was an agreement made in the settlement to work on improving training and using the Cloud case as a training scenario on what not to do.

Interestingly enough, the city once had an opportunity to pay Officer Roger Sutton $200,000 which was an award issued by an arbitrator to settle his lawsuit. Doing so could have served to reduce further litigation costs of a prolonged process yet the city refused to do so even opting out of waiving the five-year statutory limit for trying the case and wound up losing big at trial to the tune of $1.64 million.

Usually the city fights the cases it believes it can win fairly tenaciously. Just ask the plaintiffs in another lawsuit which was litigated over 10 years to the tune of over $700,000 before it was finally settled.

The drama that took place continued as time went on including by elected officials who when push came to shove showed that their voiced support of the CPRC in the face of the passage of Measure II in 2004 was just that, voiced support.

Commissioners fired off letters to city council members who filed off letters to commissioners warning them that they could be removed albeit through an incorrectly defined process. It was like watching a strange municipal version of Survivor Island during the past six months.

Commissioners who were outvoted at ad hoc committee meetings turned the tables at full commission meetings to vote to eliminate or put in limbo the ad hoc committee. They eliminated standing committees and are now trying to resurrect them, the latest one being the formerly late Policies and Procedures Committee most likely in an attempt to rewrite the bylaws, policies and procedures. It will be interesting to see if this committee gets stacked by individuals who voted to eliminate or put on hiatus at least, the ill-fated ad hoc committee. Some commissioners tried to do the right thing but they were the ones targeted by a city council member for possible removal.

But the commissioners were left with some questions to answer in the midst of all this.


To be in line with the city's charter or to follow the dictate of City Hall? Watch dog or lap dog?

These questions remain to be answered by the commissioners even as they are being discussed out in the communities of Riverside. There also seems to be the deep divide among commissioners, which has asked the city government for clarification on how to precede in the face of being barred from investigating by Hudson.

But that's not where all this drama stopped as one elected official after another fired off correspondences, most of which were jointly signed to the point where people asked whether the city government was infringing upon or had even violated the serial meeting provision of the Brown Act.

Mayors, both permanent and pro tem fired off letters to commissioners. Council members fired off opinion articles to the Press Enterprise in response to an article written by the publication's editorial board. Here are the elected officials who signed on to written statements, published or otherwise, which addressed the same issue, the interpretation and implementation of Sect. 810(d) of the city's charter that governs the CPRC's investigation into officer-involved deaths.


Councilman Frank Schiavone, Councilman Steve Adams and Councilwoman Nancy Hart all signed onto an op-ed piece published in response to an editorial published by the Press Enterprise several months ago.

Mayor Ron Loveridge and Councilman (and Mayor Pro-Tem) Rusty Bailey signed on to a similar letter written to the commissioners written more recently. Allegedly this was done in response to the CPRC's request for more guidance (or any guidance) from the city council in terms of how to treat Hudson's directive.

Only one city council member so far supports the CPRC maintaining its status quo of investigating officer-involved deaths in the beginning (though not the day of the incident) and that's former CPRC chair, Mike Gardner. The sentiments of the others who didn't sign off on written statements is less clear and they haven't issued any public statements. It's also possible that one or more elected officials may have even directed Hudson to issue the directive in the first place. After all, he had been defined by some as a toy you wind out and point in one direction or another. A toy that can easily change direction depending on who's winding it up.

When it comes to analogies about the halls of power at City Hall, that's one of the more interesting ones that's told.

There's also a tussle between two city council committees on which one will review issues involving the CPRC. For several years now, Public Safety Committee Chair Andrew Melendrez has brought the CPRC for discussion including the deliverance of quarterly reports on its progress. The Public Safety Committee even hosted a meeting to hear a report issued by consultant Joe Brann who was working on a series of recommendations for the CPRC. There was never a peep by any chair of any other city committee expressing any interest let alone mandate that the CPRC would be only under the jurisdiction of their particular committee.

Until now, apparently.

Schiavone who chairs the Governmental Affairs Committee wants in on the issue too.
The apparent rationale being that only his committee has jurisdiction over the city's boards and commissions which is news, given that the Public Safety Committee has received reports from both the CPRC and the Human Relations Commission without any complaints from any elected official including Schiavone. It's news given that there appears to be no written language in the city's charter or municipal code that addresses the standing committees' jurisdictions when it comes to issues.

It's interested that the latest power play involving the city government's current favorite toy (especially now that Riverside Renaissance is being trimmed back) may just play out in a subcommittee or two.

There's likely much more to come on this ongoing saga.







Press Enterprise Columnist Dan Bernstein provides an update on the progress of the library expansions.



(excerpt)




Another Riverside library has come into the world -- in the Orange Terrace Community Park out in Orangecrest. It's a winner. Lots of natural light, computers and actual people, including father-son chess duelers. On a Sunday! A reading "grove" (built to scale) for kiddies. And a hint of a book collection. (Librarians say shipments have been slow.)

No progress to report on Marcy branch library's move to a secure, previously disclosed Mag Center location: the ex-Auto Club digs. Councilman Rusty Bailey: "There are no plans on paper yet." No "physical improvements" till July.

Main Library expansion now on recessionary hold, but Judith Auth says the renew-the-library folks want the "design process to begin immediately." Says there's voter-approved money for it, and fears voters won't approve more money a few years hence unless there's a tangible (and tantalizing) plan.




He also seconded an item that was included in yesterday's posting about the proposed departure of Greyhound Bus Lines when it comes to the rumors flying around about the Riverside Police Department moving some of its operations to where the bus terminal stands now. That particular rumor's picked up steam in recent weeks. If true, it's actually another installment in the story which was started several years ago when the police department had last contemplated moving its Orange Street operations to a building on that parcel of land.



(excerpt)




Rennysance update: RPD police HQs soon will occupy office space right next to the downtown Greyhound station. That "security" rationale the city's using to boot the hound is starting to smell like exhaust.




Actually it smells more like rotten eggs. How can you justify ousting a bus service from downtown by calling it a magnet for crime and then when it's gone (and so by the city council's reasoning will be the crime it allegedly attracted)move in the police station? It does sound more and more like it's true that ousting Greyhound was all about removing undesirables from downtown Riverside. But in this case, the "undesirables" were actually seniors, poor families and/or disabled individuals. To the tune of over 80,000 "undesirables", the majority of which are from one or more of these demographics.




Will Temecula continue its annexation plans?




The city of San Bernardino scratches its head as it tries to solve the Mystery of the Expanding Budget.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)

"I think 'perplexed' is probably a good way of putting it," Councilman Dennis Baxter said. "There are no good choices. I think it's going to get worse before it gets better."

In August, one month after the end of the 2007-08 fiscal year, City Council members filled the hole left by dwindling tax dollars with an 8 percent cut in their work force. Officials also borrowed $2 million from city reserves.

But revenue continued to fall in the July-September quarter of the current fiscal year, according to a report prepared recently for the council's Ways and Means Committee.

The total shortfall was about $2.2 million. At the same time, city departments have been spending money faster than last year. By the end of September, they had spent about $42 million, or 29 percent of their budget. In the same period last year, the departments had spent $33.7 million, or just over 23 percent of their budgets, the report shows.

Is your county outsourcing its public relations division? What's interesting is that both Riverside and San Bernardino Counties have their own employees on staff to perform these job duties.


Riverside's Community Police Review Commission might be a rather passive body but thankfully that's not the case in Eugene where the commission has asked the city government to slow down a bit in changing the role of the police auditor. One of the major reasons for asking for the delay is so that more time can be spent eliciting public input. Now there's a novel concept!


(excerpt, The Register-Guard)

A narrowly divided City Council has said it wants to vote on changes in three weeks that would clarify and, in some cases, strengthen the police auditor’s role in the classification, investigation and monitoring of complaints against police officers.

The council on Monday night is scheduled to discuss those changes, which were proposed by south-­central Councilor Bonny Bettman, a strong oversight proponent.

In a close vote last Monday, councilors decided to have a Dec. 8 hearing for public comment on the proposals. A final vote is to be taken two days later, on Dec. 10, during the council’s last meeting of the year.

The 12-member police commission advises the council on police matters. At its Thursday meeting, the group agreed to send the council a letter, recommending that councilors provide more chances for public response before making changes.

It took the police commission 18 months to help create the framework that established the auditor and civilian review board, commission chairwoman Tamara Miller said.

“We’re just asking to have the process slowed down to allow stakeholders the opportunity for input and dialogue in the proposed changes so we make sure police oversight is reflective of our community values,” Miller said.

Another Los Angeles Police Department officer has been indicted on sexual assault charges stemming from two incidents that took place while he was onduty.



(excerpt, KCBS)




Prosecutors allege Mecano told an 18-year-old woman in May that he would not arrest her for having a marijuana pipe if she had sex with him. Mecano then allegedly sexually assaulted the woman near a library.

Mecano is also accused in October 2007 of seeking sex from a 20-year-old transient following her arrest for battery. Prosecutors say he gave her $200 and told her to meet him at a motel, but she instead reported Mecano to police.






The controversy about whether off-duty law enforcement officers should bring their guns when they go drinking at bars continues.



(excerpt, St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

"That should be discouraged," said David Klinger, a former Los Angeles police officer and an associate criminology professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

He said most departments allow or even require officers to carry firearms while off duty - and few prohibit it. But officers who carry should be able to demonstrate good judgment, he said.

The St. Louis Police Department lets off-duty officers decide whether to carry their weapons. But their trainers preach that "combining weapons and intoxication is a potentially deadly and potentially career-ending mix," said police spokeswoman Erica Van Ross.

Pour graduated at the top of his Police Academy class in July and started on patrol in the city's 4th District, which includes downtown.

Said Watkins: "You've got a young man who graduated magna cum laude in aeronautical engineering from St. Louis University. He has no prior anythings - nothing but a stellar reputation."

Now Pour is waiting for prosecutors to present facts from the incident to a Madison County grand jury. He was released from jail without bail Monday while investigators with the Illinois State Police sort out what happened. His employer immediately ended his short career.

As a probationary officer, Watkins lamented, Pour has no recourse to get it back.

Bob Douglas, a retired Baltimore police officer who speaks at training seminars about the relationship between drinking and police, said what happened in Pontoon Beach appeared to be another chapter in tragic police history. Drinking is ingrained in the culture, he said.

Douglas, executive director of the National Police Suicide Foundation in Pasadena, Md., has simple advice for officers: "Stay out of the stinking bar."

Another law enforcement officer from DeKalb County Sheriff's Department may be facing criminal charges. This time, it was for sexual assault while onduty. Earlier this year, Deputy Derrick Yancey was indicted by a grand jury for murder charges in relation to two deaths including that of his wife.


Oh dear, that's two cases of sexual crimes involving police officers that I've mentioned in this blog. You know, if there weren't about a half-dozen cases being reported across the United States each day and if these officers could pardon the bluntness, keep it in their pants, then it wouldn't be written about anywhere.