Riverside Looks at Its Charter Review Process

UPDATE: Retired Judge Victor Miceli died.






[Mayor Ron Loveridge along with several city firefighters watch the 9-11 anniversary commemoration program in downtown Riverside. ]





The ninth anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks were commemorated in different ways in different cities in the Inland Empire and the nation. In downtown Riverside at City Hall, about 100 people turned out for the event where booths were featured including those which provided emergency services. The fire department had a booth as did the police department staffed by Community Services Division Officer Neely Nakamura and a K9 demonstration was done by Officer Brad Smith and Rocco along with the division's newest officer, Kevin Feimer who beat out five other candidates for the position vacated by the retirement of Alan Jaekel. The city council will be voting on the purchase of a new dog and declaring another one surplus property at this week's meeting.






The city council will be voting on whether or not to revive the old deputy city manager position which naturally means that the city will probably have a deputy city manager pretty soon. In fact at the Human Resources Board meeting this week, Human Resources Director Rhonda Strout said that the plan is to have one assistant city manager and two deputy city managers.

City Charter Review Approaches

Sometimes it seems that the city's last charter review period happened just yesterday but although it traditionally takes place around every 10 years, this time it will begin sooner because its timing is set upon when the mayoral election takes place and that election date has been changed by the city's voters to November 2012. So this November, the mayor and city council will be appointing its charter review committee. This committee will meet regularly in public sessions to address proposed charter initiatives then it will vote as a committee to decide which ones to forward for review and ultimate decision making by the city council.

So the city's charter has popped up in conversation a lot lately including during the discussion which took place at the recent Governmental Affairs Committee when it conducted its annual review of the city's Ethics Code and Complaint Process.



Riverside Councilman Paul Davis is pushing for a charter ballot initiative to make serving on the city council a full time job.



[Riverside Councilman Paul Davis makes some proposals for initiatives to change the city's charter.]




Some have seen it as a way for the city council to push for a higher salary compensation package that would be tied in to the job being identified as being full-time rather than part-time. But Councilman Rusty Bailey apparently has given this issue some thought and has said it would be "political suicide" for the city council to vote itself a pay raise right now and he's absolutely correct. If they voted to do so while the city laid off employees and froze vacancies, then those who cast the vote for a higher salary most likely would be given a pink slip in their wards instead. And most or all of them probably are aware of this reality.



[Riverside Councilman Rusty Bailey believes that asking for a salary increase for the city council would be "political suicide"]



But what's kind of interesting is this statement made by Davis to the Press Enterprise reporter.
And you'll find it so if you remember some of the discussion that's taken place by elected officials serving in committee or on the dais about the ethics code and complaint review in general and one provision in particular.


"For somebody to say that this is a part-time job, that is absolutely not the truth," said Councilman Paul Davis, who also runs a furniture and appliance sales and leasing business. "To be an appropriate representative, you have to be available 24/7."



The one phrase which should stand out here is "you have to be available 24/7" to your constituents. If you'll recall, this phrase was used in relation to a controversial clause in the ethics code and complaint process that stated that an elected official could only be bound to the code if he or she was carrying out his official capacity and duties as an elected official at the time. This clause wasn't part of the original resolution which outlined the provisions of the ethics code and complaint process but was recommended to be added by the Governmental Affairs Committee through the actions of it then Chair Frank Schiavone and member, Dom Betro. Betro had been the subject of a complaint of a code violation by Save-Riverside's Kevin Dawson that had been nullified by City Attorney Gregory Priamos as not being held to the complaint process even before the language had been added to the code.




[Riverside Councilman Steve Adams is the most adamant opponent to striking the controversial clause from the ordinance which outlines the ethics code and complaint process.]




Last year, the recommendation to strip that amended language out of the code's resolution led to a boisterous discussion on the dais with Davis, Andrew Melendrez and Mike Gardner believing that a councilman was on duty 24/7 and the majority including Councilman Steve Adams adamantly opposing that proposed striking of that language.

Nearly a year later, it's pretty clear by all the revelations which have unfolded why Adams objected to being a councilman 24/7. Councilman Chris MacArthur also opposed the striking of the language because he feared that he might be out on the reelection campaign trail and not be able to campaign as he would like without fear that someone would file an ethics complaint as a councilman. Given that he hired political consultant Brian Floyd whose reputation for his strategic tactics during elections is well known as being mudslinging, maybe that's his real concern. Councilwoman Nancy Hart and Councilman Rusty Bailey had joined in on that group-think and the motion to strike the language failed.

But it returned during the first round of the ethics code and complaint review process which began at the Governmental Affairs Committee where they tried to divert the review process by sending a motion to instead assign the annual review process to a committee of city residents, a lengthy process which many saw as a means to delay enforcement and genuine improvement of the ethics code and complaint process until after at least the first (and possibly only round) of next year's city council elections.

In the meantime, the discussion also centered on the 24/7 issue which returned and Melendrez, the committee chair, proposed a motion to recommend the striking of the language again to the full city council. Mayor Ron Loveridge had submitted a letter in support of the language being struck from the resolution. However, Melendrez motion died for failure of a second.

Will it be brought back forth on the dais at the Sept. 21 city council meeting, and if so by who? If so, expect a boisterous round of discussion again, this time in an environment where the city's been hit hard by loss of confidence and trust as a result of a series of scandals which have been uncovered and in the autumn before an upcoming election cycle. Conventional wisdom states that any effort to pass this recommendation will fail because the learning curve for much of the city council hasn't been as high as hoped. But in the end that might matter because the learning curve during next year's election cycle might then be much steeper.

But that aside, what's really interesting is one of the other recommended provisions which is to mandate that the financial manager report directly to the city council and mayor and not just the city manager's office. Actually, this is similar to how the organizational structure inside City Hall had worked before City Manager Brad Hudson and former Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis came to town.




(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



For the 2011 review, Davis said he'll also propose that the city's head finance official report directly to the council, like the city manager, city clerk and city attorney do now.

Currently, Chief Finance Officer Paul Sundeen is under the city manager's supervision.

The city manager would still set the budget, but the controller/auditor, as Davis would call the head finance position, would report on it independently.

"It sends a clear message to the public, in my opinion ... that it is very transparent and without undue pressure or influence from anyone else," Davis said.

Gardner said it's time to review the charter language on the relationship between council and staff. The current structure "places staff in a leadership and decision-making role, I think, more than the public wants them to be" and can make it harder for council members to solve constituents' problems, he said.

Bailey said he worries that electing the mayor on the same ballot as the president could make city elections more partisan. The 2012 elections will be the first voting cycle to test the switch.




Because there once had been a chief financial officer who was really in that position and not also an assistant city manager. It was only when Hudson became city manager that the formerly independent finance department was put under the control of the city manager's office. That decreased the transparency over the city's spending and was the first of several different ways that the city council surrendered often willingly some of its mechanisms to help promote financial accountability and a checks and balance system with the city management. Not coincidentally, this all began to take place before the launching of what turned out to be the $2.1 billion and growing Riverside Renaissance. The city council also voted to change its oversight of the use of interfund transfers between money budgeted for different purposes (i.e. the oft-depleted sewer fund) and the $50,000 spending by the city manager. And for a while there, the Finance Committee now chaired by Councilwoman Nancy Hart had been packed up in mothballs.

But is the city council ready to even consider taking back the reins of financial accountability? Even in the wake of what's transpired so far in 2010, the year that shook River City, it's not likely there's yet a majority on the city council that would support such a bold move.

Not yet, but 2011, now that's a different year.





I caught this conversation at officer.com about hiring in the Riverside Police Department where my blog and my name came up. The most interesting contributions being by TheInlandEmpire (who has a cool avatar) whose writing style is quite familiar having seen it before here. So being called "idiot activist" isn't that surprising and it's a variation somewhat from "whore" and a few other names. Still, the proper term is "idiotic activist" not "idiot activist" or perhaps "idiot" and "activist" separately as two nouns together just don't work as well.

But it's kind of funny because TIE (who might ironically be viewed by some as "disgruntled himself) and I do agree on some fundamental issues which are that the RPD's most serious problems were found in the top levels of its administration in management more so than its lower ranks. But when you've got problems up top, it's very difficult to keep them entirely out of the lower ranks because of the dynamics that exist between the different levels in the chain of command. After all, even this guy knows what happened to one of his former division cohorts when he challenged that old administration. TIE was once quoted as saying the rain would come down on City Hall from the protest over the firing of a probational officer in 2007 including on the police administration which is a pretty radical statement to make. But he turned out in the end to be correct about that, albeit regarding a different situation.

As far as all the officers that were arrested and prosecuted, six including former Chief Russ Leach were during a 14 month period that ended in December 2009. But there have been clusters of arrests in the past including at least five arrested and prosecuted between 2003-2006 for DUI crashes, road rage incidents and two for child molestation. So the cluster of arrests and prosecutions of officers that took place most recently wasn't as much an anomaly as people think. People can argue and debate and discuss why these clusters happened, the only thing that's factual is that they did happen, based on court records that are public documents for anyone to review. But then there's the issue of discretionary powers in arrest and prosecution which were clearly seen in how the DUI incident of the department's highest ranking officer was handled and whether that's more favorable to officers higher up in the hierarchy rather than those who are below them is a factor that needs to be considered as well. And whether or not supervisory or management issues play a role in arrest clusters should be considered as well.


The thread is very interesting and brings up some issues which will be discussed here about the recent testing that took place last month, the applicants it attracted and what kind of police department the newly hired will be facing. Because that's a very critical issue both for the present and future of the department as well as the city residents it serves. What will it look like and which direction will it be heading? A lot of people play a role in that process.


And what's interesting about the Jose Nazario angle of that discussion is that there's one important element of the Nazario's rehiring strategy that was omitted by one of the posters there and that is that Nazario apparently failed his background check when he reapplied for an officer position.

Because of something that apparently appeared in the court records back in New York state. Something that both disqualified him and provided the department with an easy out of a contentious situation partly of Nazario's own making when he talked over the phone about his view of working at the police department. He had told the sergeant that it was like the television show, Cops that they beat the shit out of criminals and then found a reason to take them to jail. Yes, a statement like that is going to concern the employers as well as the city government that holds indemnity over the police department in terms of civil liability. It's a little difficult to navigate around that especially when it winds up in a national publication.

The sergeant he was talking to had been involved in a sting conducted by the NCIS and the transcript of the phone call somehow wound up in the hands of a reporter from the Wall St. Journal. But the point apparently became moot when Nazario was allegedly disqualified from consideration in relation to his one-year background screening that the department required him to undergo to be rehired.


And to FutureRPD, good luck to him or her on the process ahead. The police department opened up the hiring process for between 12-15 positions and hopefully more of them in the future as the department needs to address vacancy rates at the entry levels in the sworn division and also those that have driven the civilian side of the department to a vacancy rate of around 19%.



Hemet's looking at management salary cuts. And standing room only is expected for the city's next council meeting to discuss what's happening with the library.






[Since Thursday, Sept. 9, the city's wi fi network had been experiencing some technical difficulties related to repeated logins and limited connectivity cycles. Us Internet investigated it and apparently fixed it sometime yesterday. The city's response was fairly quick on this issue. ]






[The city's wi fi log in page which is now back to being seen once daily but this is what you should see when you activate your browser after connecting to the Smart Riverside network. The login portion is at the very top of the site page.]






[Here's a wireless list on a computer linked to an AP near Chicago and MLK that shows three SSIDs for the wireless networks that appeared in that particular location. The one at the top is the official name of the free wi fi service and that's the one to click. The other two are identifiers for the old networks that apparently haven't been removed or replaced on one or more access points but when they are present, they may interfere with a computer's ability to auto-connect with the real network. If you're using the public wi fi, the network you want to click onto is the top one and it will tell you if the connection is successful or not and its status. If you see the other two names on your wireless list, then report it and the location to the 311 call center.]

RPD Press Release

Riverside , CA -- On Tuesday, September 14, 2010, at approximately 2020 hours, the Riverside Police Department’s Communication Center received a call of a kidnapping and rape that just occurred in the area of the University corridor in the East Side Neighborhood of Riverside. Officers responded and contacted the female victim.





Detectives from the Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Unit responded to the scene.

# # #

Based on the preliminary investigation, it appears that the victim was kidnapped at gun point outside of a fast food establishment and driven to a separate location off of Chicago Avenue , where she was sexually assaulted and then let go. The suspect then fled the scene in an unknown direction in an older model tan minivan with tinted windows.



The suspect is described as a male Hispanic in his early to mid thirties. The suspect is approximately 506, 160, with a mustache and dark hair combed back.. He was last seen wearing a white t-shirt with blue jeans.



Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact Detective Laura Riso at (951) 353-7126.

The Chief Gets Welcome and His Cabinet Gets Settled

[My sister took this photo of what Bridge Street looked like after the Christchurch, New Zealand 7.1 earthquake earlier this month. Her house survived with some cracks and many broken things. This is an important bridge at getting from point A to point B and normally heavily traveled.]









UPDATE: Wi Fi network in Riverside is experiencing technical difficulties involving the network apparently dropping the IP addresses and going down for a period of time and requiring people to log back in since the evening of Sept. 9 in at least several areas of the city. It's also experiencing an apparent outage near the University Village and Iowa Avenue.

This issue with the system is entering into its second day. ETA of a fix is not available.

Some field testing today produced some interesting results. Appearing on the wireless network list at Chicago and MLK was ATTMETROFREE instead of Smart Riverside. When the list was refreshed, it automatically switched back to Smart Riverside but the ISP was offline and unusable for 30 minutes and then came back on requiring another login. Later review of the network list on the computer showed that ATTMETROFREE had recently been added to that network list during that time even though the computer hadn't actually been connected to the network. So I'd look for an IP address or network name conflict on the system between the old ATT address and the new city-owned one.

If anyone reading tries to use the Wi Fi and reports multiple logins or timeout internet connections, call the 311 center.


Interesting.







[Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz, his wife and one of his daughters are welcomed by community residents at Zacatecas in the Eastside.]




[The emcee greats about 50 people attending chief's welcoming at Zacatecas]





A group of community residents, leaders and elected officials appeared at the Latino Network's welcoming for Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz that was held at Zacatecas in the Eastside. Musical entertainment and food was provided and Diaz, his wife and one of his daughters were introduced to the crowd. Diaz told people there that everyone who he meant (most of whom were lifelong Riversiders) had been very welcoming to him and that the department was doing very well at the street level and receiving calls for service and responding to them as well as investigating them at the detectives level.

The Construction of the Cabinet is Complete

Assistant Chief Chris Vicino

Deputy Chief Mike Blakely
(l.)

Administration and Personnel

Deputy Chief Jeffrey Greer

Field Operations and Investigations

Chief Sergio Diaz had said to the Press Enterprise that his command staff wouldn't be traditionally organized. He explained it in the following way.



(excerpt)



What I have in mind right now is not easily describable as a 'second-in-command' or 'chief of staff,' " Diaz said Thursday. "It'll be all those things. My goal is to develop a team that will work collaboratively. The lines are going to be a little bit blurry."



Apparently meaning that the chain of command at the management level below Diaz might not be rigid in structure but more blurring between the lines that separates the different rungs on the ladder. It will be interesting to see what unfolds and how the various personalities that comprise the management cabinet interact with one another. Will it be a more productive way of doing business and delivering on services, or will it be mired as individuals more used to rigid command structures struggle in newer roles? Will it enhance relationships between three very different individuals with different backgrounds who never worked together before next week or will it see power plays? It's too early to tell but how the management staff works together or not is very important. Two of them come from different agencies with essentially blank slates at this one but given the history of dynamics at the top, it's hard to take it with anything different than a watchful eye.

The only one who has had any prior affiliation to Diaz is Greer through working for the same agency as both have lengthy careers there. But for the most part, everyone is on new footing in a police department which has faced a lot of internal turmoil in the past eight months and witnessed its management personnel topple over like dominoes leaving a big hole behind because they were built and set up that way.

Very interesting will be how Blakely and Greer interface. Whether a traditional organizational hierarchy is followed or a different one as referenced by Diaz, their positions will place the two men at an equal level, while they preside over different divisions of the police department. Greer is the department's first Black deputy chief and the highest ranking Black officer in its history. He holds a rank higher than the department's only two Black captains Lee Wagner and Jim Cannon though he's an outsider. In the mid-1990s upheaval surrounded the departure of Wagner under Fortier and some say that Blakely played a role in it. The National Cops Evaluation done by a fellow at the Urban Institute provides some details about the departure of Wagner. Blakely's portrayed in the study as Fortier's right hand man who's out to wipe the slate clean on the department and start over again with the Fortier plan. The problem is that while Fortier had strong administrative skills, he had relatively poor interpersonal communication skills and alienated most of the people around him.


(excerpt, Urban Institute)



There was no panic. We knew these types of changes were going to result in the kind of responses we received. I think we did a good job of educating our bosses, the city hall and the council, as to what to expect. We were not surprised . . . As that path took its course, we were able to continually point back to our projections on what would transpire. And we established greater credibility in the eyes of city hall and the Council as they saw that what we had predicted would happen did happen. . . . Examples that we pointed out would be that we’d be better on liability issues: We would develop an internal control mechanism and there would be a greater willingness to stay within the confines of the law. We reduced our awards, and we could become more assertive in defending ourselves as opposed to having to settle.



In the aftermath of Wagner's departure, a group of community leaders including retired UC Riverside Police Chief Bill Howe called for an investigation into the department's personnel practices and the Human Relations Commission did research it and provided recommendations which according to the Urban Institute study were pretty much ignored by the city government. But then that's pattern and practice for this city in terms of any type of recommendations issued out on any topic by a board, commission or ad hoc task force.




In 1999, Blakely as a captain assisted a group of white male sergeants who were suing the police department and city in a reverse racial and gender discrimination claim and then lawsuit (over the promotions of two men of color and a White women) by overriding Carroll's upholding of his promotions and dismissal of the complaints and taking them to the Human Resources Department. In an act, some might view as insubordination against the police chief.

The only two players in that situation still in the department today are now Capt. John Carpenter who was in the group of suing sergeants and Capt. Meredyth Meredith whose July 1999 promotion to lieutenant was protested by the group of sergeants. Carroll was hanging onto his chief's position by a thread at that point but that had been the final straw for him after he apparently discovered that the city council and Mayor Ron Loveridge were in negotiations with the white male sergeants and offering two of them lieutenant positions behind his back. If this is the case, then the city government violated the city's charter against administrative interference by specifying who would be placed in the newly created positions. Naturally once word got out the whole situation blew up in a major controversy which was the last thing the city needed at that point.

So the long-time police employee who had come out of San Diego witnessed the contentious departure of one police chief and allegedly participated in the downfall of his replacement. Under Leach, he remained in different divisions including overseeing Investigations and spending a lot of time as the personnel captain. He had a tremendous work ethic working from the time he got on duty to the time he was off in contrast with other captains who put in much fewer hours during the day and even took time off to play golf in the afternoons. That put him as the only candidate from inside the department to elevate to the position he's already held years ago. If Diaz had planned to pick one of his cabinet members from within the captain's rank of the department, there wasn't a large pool to draw from and that didn't leave much of a choice. He was the only one qualified to step in that position from inside.

And in a department where alliances and loyalties to one team over another defined it, Blakely was an anomaly certainly at about his level in the chain of command as captain.

Because he was loyal to no one in the department, though he mentored officers including DeLaRosa who apparently felt inadequate in Blakely's presence even when he outranked him.

Blakely's loyalty isn't going to be bought with pay increases or that in rank. He'll sink someone's ship because as a long-time player in the department who has often been viewed as an outsider, he has the information on just about where every body is buried and he has no reluctance to go after what he wants at a given time no matter whose in front of him. He's been called a "snake in the box", the management member that people use to do the job they don't want to do and he does it if he chooses but he's smart enough to make his own moves. Others say he's a hard taskmaster but doesn't ask anyone to work harder than himself or demand anything greater. These days he's been piling his captains most particularly John Carpenter with heavy workloads.

And some say the combination of the different traits made him ruthless including inside the interrogation room of personnel investigations or outside of them when he handed the scripts to both his "bad cop" and "good cop" sergeants inside the Internal Affairs Division. To ask questions in interviews that the interrogators would apologize to the officers involved before asking them says something. To strike back against those who he believed wronged him and during the period of times between permanent chiefs, to essentially run the police department in a department where historically others in high places have done like. But DeLaRosa's indecisiveness after the revelation of his cell phone records tied him irrevocably to Leach's non-DUI traffic stop and left a huge vacuum of leadership open and when Esquivel made a play for it, he found that those who held the keys to the department's internal affairs division either opened up or revived investigations involving him without hesitation. Det. Chris Lanzillo after he left the presidency of the Riverside Police Officers' Association and also had a verbal confrontation with DeLaRosa about his handling of the Leach incident in roll call discovered that quickly enough too.

His 18 year career lasted about four months after that roll call session.

Officer Neely Nakamura saw that side in her interrogation by Internal Affairs Lt. Mike Cook who grilled her about graphic sexual acts with Esquivel even after establishing through questioning that the two had a consensual relationship.

Since that had been done, it's hard to view these additional questions which Cook qualified with an apology as being asked for any reason but for the purposes of embarrassment and intimidation. Whether or not they were "sensitive" relatively speaking according to Diaz, the intent clearly was not. And inside a police department where it's not clear exactly how many management employees had sexual relationships with other police employees, it's not clear who is on the moral or departmental policy high ground to serve in judgment inside or outside the interrogation room. Considering that several employees who had onduty sexual encounters with women were able to continue their upward development with perhaps brief interruptions, it makes one wonder if the department only takes this situation seriously or not unless there's a political reason tied to it. Meaning it's nudge, nudge wink wink in one circumstance and a capital offense in the next and it can even change from one to another in the same individual depending on the political climate or someone's game plan.

It just seems that history has shown that subordinates in the lower ranks, most of which are female in part because of their lower numbers overall and concentration in the lower ranks, are judged more harshly where those in management seemed to have advanced with either their inhouse sexual relationships not harming their upward enhancement or perhaps as some have said, it's even been beneficial to their career advancement. Is engaging it truly beneficial to getting ones stripes, bars and higher than that or is it known about but just ignored until it becomes a political chip for one side to use against another? And if so, how does a system built on that rather than building the department's leadership through developing skills and experience in management in the next generation of officers impact the majority of those who serve under it?

But the people asking the questions of the officer in the hot seat are in the position of power.

After all, if asked questions in an administrative investigation, an officer has to answer them or be charged with insubordination and possibly fired. If she had violated any existing fraternization policy then it's clear in the excerpt of her interview included in the personnel claims that this had already been satisfied.

It also begged the question as to whether higher ranking male officers in these consensual relationships like Esquivel are grilled nearly as intensively or treated in a similar fashion to subordinate female officers like Nakamura. Apparently her experience isn't exactly unprecedented.

Despite being labeled only as a "witness" by investigators, she apparently couldn't even go to the bathroom without Sgt. Frank Assumma "babysitting" her and having her personal phone confiscated. The only advice in the future would be if interrogating and treating a person as a criminal suspect, be up front with the employee and say that's what they are rather than diluting what's being done by telling them they are witnesses. Nakamura had the added embarrassment of being interviewed one day and within several days, everyone apparently knew about the content of her interview. The department's application of the fraternization issue or any policies from what little is seen hardly seems uniform even with onduty sexual conduct.

The DeLaRosa/Blakely months were striking to watch as the dynamics including those which had probably taken months or longer to build played out in full frontal display. City Hall was actually too busy addressing its own scandals for some elements to engage in much micromanagement of the police department. But based on revelations of all the wheeling and dealing that Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis was doing or apparently trying to do with different police employees, what is becoming clear is that the financial costs of this brief regime might be quite high.

This year has seen numerous individuals in the DeLaRosa or Blakely camp promoted even after DeLaRosa had departed for retirement. Not that DeLaRosa has disappeared from the canvas as he's been busy lunching with key department personnel including newly arrived Asst. Chief Chris Vicino who mentioned that at a meeting he had with some RPOA members.

But Blakeley's colorful history aside, what will be the interplay between him and Greer, who after all has become somewhat of a pioneer though ironically one who moved up through the ranks of an entirely different law enforcement agency with its own complicated history including involving race relations, an area that the Riverside Police Department has been called on the carpet by community leaders in past and recent history. Chief Russ Leach as a parting shot had said there was racism and sexism in the department along with infighting in a Press Enterprise but never elaborated even when asked by RPOA President Cliff Mason asked him to do so and never said whether he had addressed it within the department or not. Did he address the problems or did he do nothing or contribute to them? In the area of infighting, it appeared to have been the latter and that's a problem in itself. As a management head, it would seem that if you identified a problem or problems, it might be helpful to say the steps or strategies that you took to address it to move it towards resolution or whether your own actions allowed it to fester instead but to this day, Leach hasn't done that.



Greer was a member of the Oscar Joel Bryant Foundation whose president Ronnie Cato had some pretty stern words to the Los Angeles Police Department in the areas of racism.


(excerpt)


While racial insensitivity continues to be the primary barrier affecting African American employees on this Department, it is not the only issue confronting us at this time.

We must work together to expose the obvious double standards in the area of discipline, recruitment, pay grade advancement, promotions, selections to coveted positions and selections to specialized units.

These are just a few of the areas in which African American employees have experienced double standards on the LAPD. We must not forget about the other areas less likely to be detected because of the way they are crafted behind the scene.

OJB promotes and advocates the best interest for African American employees on the Department. We cannot achieve our full potential, in the battle to promote fairness and equality for our members, without the full support of our membership.

Every minority group of employees has an organization representing their interest, we as African American employees will continue to be left out of the main stream, unless we fully recognize the value of unity.

Sincerely,
Ronnie Cato, President



So did Greer share these beliefs and if so, how did that impact his tenure at the LAPD? It's good that he's being read by many as a "qualified" deputy chief who has yet to take the helm of his position at his new job which starts on Sept. 17. Will Blakely take any initiative to show this newcomer the ropes or will he leave him to figure it out on his own, which being a long-time LAPD officer with his background as an officer, he will quickly enough. Having two former LAPD officers at and near the top of the department brings an interesting and outside dynamic to the department which witnessed the implosion of most of its own home-grown upper management due to a variety of factors that arose from Leach's tenure particularly the micromanagement of the department by current and former city management employees at City Hall.

And in that high ranking position inside a police department that hasn't seen a third Black captain rise up through the ranks yet with the highest ranking Black officer being Lt. Vic Williams. When Blakely meets up with Greer in a working environment where the two of them in any organizational system will be essentially equals, how will Blakely relate to Greer and vice versa? That will be interesting to see how it unfolds and how quickly it does so. Because if Greer's race is an issue with anyone near the top, he'll likely pick it up quickly and he'll probably deal with it in some way.

It's not likely that the majority of officers will give Greer much second thought especially those at the lower ranks because they usually tend to focus more on supervisors than management personnel several steps above them and whether they are adequately equipped and staffed to do their jobs in their positions including in patrol. That appears to be the nature of fairly rigid chains of command. Moving up the organizational chart is when the situation changes as employees become more concerned about personnel serving in management or at least more interested and what happens at the mid-supervisory and management levels will be interesting particularly given that their ranks have been filling with members of the DeLaRosa and Blakely teams. If any issues arise over Greer's race, it probably won't be from those at the bottom but quite a bit higher up.

So the Blakely/Greer dynamic will definitely be one to watch. It's not likely they'll be assigned to the same facilities. Most of Blakely's divisions are located at the Orange Street Station though Internal Affairs might soon be heading to most likely, the Magnolia Police Station whereas Greer's divisions are located both at Magnolia Station and Lincoln Field Station.

Another will be the addition of Vicino to the more collaborative structure that Diaz has in mind including the role of the assistant chief.

Traditionally, the police chief had only one deputy chief that served under him. Chief Ken Fortier had Mike Blakely, Jerry Carroll had Gary Barnes and Michael Smith.

Under Chief Russ Leach, the structure changed so that Smith had been appointed to become the department's first assistant chief partly as a reward by Leach because he had served twice as acting chief for the department in 2000 after Carroll retired. Leach also filled two deputy chief positions and a commander position with various personnel including Dave Dominguez, Pete Esquivel, John DeLaRosa, Audrey Wilson and Richard Dana. DeLaRosa was later elevated to become the department's second assistant chief in March 2007 at the time that Esquivel had been moved up to deputy chief during the "at will" controversy that shook City Hall.

Vicino is the department's third assistant chief and he comes into that position as a former deputy chief in Pasadena's Police Department who served twice as interim police chief including last time out when he had been appointed by City Manager Michael Beck who had served in the assistant city manager position in Riverside. Vicino has been making the rounds and started work on Sept. 3. He hit a meeting by the RPOA and told them he was hoping to be stationed near the front-line "troops" but it's not clear where he will actually be assigned office space. Interestingly enough, he allegedly told the RPOA that he didn't think that the lieutenant (Leon Phillips) should have been given all the blame in the Leach incident.

His interaction with Blakely will also be interesting to see unfold given that Blakely pretty much took control of the police department after Leach's retirement and DeLaRosa's withdrawal to the Orange Street Station. Will Diaz have Vicino as an assistant chief serve as a buffer between him and his deputy chiefs or will they be any interplay between the two of them as to how they serve their roles since Blakely will be sharing administrative and personnel responsibilities with an assistant chief that he didn't mentor through the ranks. But Vicino seems to be trying to align himself somewhat with the street level police officers and supervisors or at least try to foster good relations with them including through their labor union and Blakely traditionally has been more internally focused in the administrative side of the department's operations.


Speaking of organizational structures, the police department's Web site removed the old one dated Feb. 22, 2010 which is of course outdated. Hopefully a new one will be posted soon that reflects the department's organizational structure which has elicited questions in terms of who is working what assignment where and whether any vacancies remain in the organizational command structure.








Pending federal lawsuits filed against Riverside include a few familiar names. As are these filed against the Riverside Police Department including this older one by the Riverside Police Officers' Association against POST.

City Employee Resigns

Riverside's Art and Cultures Manager Jonathan Yorba resigned from his position two weeks ago. He joins the recently announced resignations of Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis and Community Police Review Commission Manager Kevin Rogan.

When it rains, does it pour in River City?

Councilman Steve Adams Attends Community Meeting in His Own Ward

[Riverside Councilman Steve Adams allegedly had a busy time at a recent meeting of LANA which he appeared at with City Attorney Gregory Priamos in tow.]



Speaking of Councilman Steve Adams The Web site Our La Sierra posted this crazy episode from his stint as an elected representative when he attended a recent meeting of the La Sierra Arlanza Neighborhood Alliance and commandeered it.

No doubt warming up for the upcoming discussion on the ethics code and complaint process by the city council and mayor on Sept. 21 at City Hall.





Riverside County's financial officer says no massive hiring at the District Attorney's office. Which actually makes sense because if you have a massive exodus leaving it, it's probably going to be hard to find anyone to come aboard at this point in time anyway.






Moreno Valley's interim city manager responds to that whole hiring fiasco involving a more permanent one. His own desire for the job generated a lot of the controversy and no shortage of upset from a citizen panel entrusted in the search. But the search is back on.




Another kind of "gold parachute" than the one we're more familiar with these days.






In Hemet, employee layoffs loom and Hemet Police Chief Richard Dana goes on medical leave. Hopefully he will be taking that week long vacation that he hasn't had since 1982, important for any healing process.

City of Riverside - Code of Ethics Review - September 21

The City of Riverside will be conducting its annual Code of Ethics review Tuesday, September 21, 2010, at 7:00pm, as required by our City Charter. This year, as well as in past years, a few questions will need to be addressed:



1. Are city elected officials bound by the Code of Ethics 24/7, even though the Charter states a Council Member is a part time position?

2. Should the City Council consider including our appointees, such as the City Manager, Attorney, and Clerk, within and bound by the Code of Ethics?



3. Shall an independent panel hear complaints filed against the official, or to continue with the Mayor's Nominating and Screening Committee, who is currently charged with this duty?



4. If it is to be an independent panel, then what should the panel make-up be and how should they be compensated?



What's your opinion?

As your representative it is imperative that I get your input into these matters and to help me formulate my directives and response.

Please feel free to contact me:

E-mail at pdavis@riversideca.gov

Call 951-453-1625.

Paul Davis

Council Member - Ward 4

City of Riverside

Public Meeting

Tuesday, Sept. 14 at 3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., the Riverside City Council meets to discuss this agenda which is pretty slight save for the consent calendar which includes this item on giving Asst. City Manager Belinda Graham the authority to be interim city manager when necessary.







Female United States Swimmer to train for sixth Olympic Games at 43.

River City: The City Council Reacts to Falling Dominoes

[A Bee Hive of Activity Lately ]

Last week, the announcement came at the top floor of Riverside's City Hall that Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis who had been employed by the city since 2005 will be resigning over a series of steps through the next few months. He's been relieved of his post and placed in "special assignments" a euphemism for placing an employee in some assignment at tax payer expense without the tax payers having any idea what he'll actually be doing. From a City Hall that avowed to be newly committed to its newest buzz word, "transparency", it has placed another veil of secrecy around the status of DeSantis.

After that, he'll take what his boss, City Manager Brad Hudson called a "well-deserved vacation" and then it's off the canvas and onto something else for a man who was after all, hired by City Hall after Hudson found himself a Human Resources director who would be amiable to changing the job description for the assistant city manager position to one not requiring a Master's degree in management. Sometime around his hiring, the human resources director at the time, Art Alcaraz was relieved of his duties, hired as a "consultant" for about six months and then departed the city with a severance package which included him signing a nondisclosure statement. He was then replaced by current director, Rhonda Strout before a flood of Riverside County employees came to City Hall.



The announcement of DeSantis' eventual departure apparently came to some degree of shock to members of the city government some of whom were quoted by the Press Enterprise. Even though there had allegedly been some sort of dialogue between DeSantis and members of the city's legislative body behind closed doors on Aug. 24 over a tentative settlement that DeSantis had brokered involving the personnel claim filed by former Riverside Police Officers' Association President Det. Chris Lanzillo. It amounted to about $125,000 and a medical retirement but when DeSantis hit the closed session, the city council didn't want to hear about it. They allegedly wanted DeSantis not to manage the department and it to go off to Chief Sergio Diaz who had allegedly told the police union leadership that the Lanzillo issue was out of his hands. But still some at City Hall apparently wanted him to be clean up crew for the messes that arose before he even arrived here.

The one of a few deals that DeSantis had allegedly made or tried to make with former or current police employees and the only one that apparently imploded in City Hall.

But about an individual who had a laundry list of troubling incidents stemming back not long after he arrived, the city council at least some of them appeared to sing his praises. Which tells you something about some on the city council.



[Riverside Councilman Steve Adams called the departing DeSantis "multi-talented" and a "tremendous asset to this city" and Adams should know, having had his city owned car towed through his efforts at least once.]




Councilman Steve Adams had very good reason to call DeSantis "multi-talented" because DeSantis had apparently helped him out when his city-issued and cold-plated vehicle had gotten impounded in Newport Beach on an unspecified date. Allegedly DeSantis had responded to that situation and arranged to have the car towed back to Riverside. It's not clear why if the car had been only impounded and not damaged as to why it couldn't be released from impound and then driven back to the city. During this incident which allegedly involved him parking illegally (or not, the accounts differ) in front of a garage within the confines of a home owner association, Adams had allegedly identified himself as an undercover police officer according to testimony given by former Chief Russ Leach in a deposition in connection with the lawsuits filed by two former police lieutenants. A call to the watch commander at the Riverside Police Department on that issue apparently cleared it up.

Also, Adams has been plagued by incessant rumors that another vehicle driven by him had been involved in an off-road driving incident and heavily damaged to its undercarriage.

Not to mention that Adams apparently had the neat benefit of being able to offer up his input in the promotional process involving several police captains between December 2005 and January 2008.

So yes, he's going to be more inclined to praise DeSantis as a tremendous asset to the city.




[Riverside Councilman Andrew Melendrez who's running for mayor in 2012 called outgoing DeSantis "multi-talented".]



Councilman Andrew Melendrez walked a tightrope while chairing the recent Governmental Affairs Committee when it conducted its annual review of the Ethics Code and Complaint process on Sept. 1 at City Hall. He pushed for the removal of the text of the code that had been added to state that complaints could only be filed against elected officials if they were officially acting as elected officials. Melendrez put up a brave motion to have that portion of the code stricken and couldn't even get a second by either Adams or Councilman Rusty Bailey until the collective groans among city residents at the meeting prompted Bailey to say he'd second the motion albeit for discussion only at the Sept. 21 city council meeting. Bailey repeated several times that he only wanted it on the agenda for "discussion" in case people didn't hear him the first two times.

But Melendrez has one foot in his council position and the other in a planned run for the mayoral seat against former Councilman Ed Adkinson whose got a facebook page and anyone else who decides to run. So he's being cautious, to the point where it might be doing him more political harm than good because in the year of scandals that have rocked this city, there needs to be city officials stepping on the plate to address what's been going on in a public setting. As chair of the Governmental Affairs Committee, he has some advantages to help him play this role but unfortunately he's already labeling himself as the elected official who responds with inaction.

But Melendrez who had a lot of grass-roots support at one time seems to have settled into the "go along to get along" group think way of conducting business that's interwoven so tightly with this city government. Which is unfortunate because occasionally he acts in ways that help promote accountability but then falls back again. It will be interesting to watch him and his actions as councilman including as chair of the Governmental Affairs Committee to see how he acts leading up to the 2012 mayoral election cycle.

As for the ethics code and complaint process, the Governmental Affairs Committee passed a proposal pushed by Bailey to create some ad hoc committee to perform the review that was supposed to be conducted by the city council which because it will be a lengthy process was clearly done to tie up the ethics code and complaint process and avoid implementing the three suggestions by community organizations until after the completion of at least the preliminary (and possibly final rounds) of Election 2011. The three provisions were:


1) An independent panel to hear and advise on complaints involving elected officials

2) Expand code to include city administration

3) Strike the language restricting the complaints against elected officials




It all comes up for discussion on Sept. 21 for a discussion and more binding decision by the full city council. Do not miss this grand event, to see the city council and mayor grapple with the ethics code and complaint procedure when most of them have been silenced or have stumbled over the laundry list of ethical gaffes involving local government that have taken place so far this year. However, several council members have their own ideas about what will be taking place at the meeting so hopefully it will be quite interesting.





When it comes to DeSantis' departure, others like Councilman Mike Gardner appear to be more cautious in their comments and his comment was the following:




(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



"It's his prerogative and his responsibility to manage his staff as he thinks is appropriate," Councilman Mike Gardner said.





Gardner had said he had noticed and been concerned about a form of entitlement by some at City Hall and that the city government had been working on addressing that issue but the city's residents have noticed that as well and that's partly why many of them have been very upset about the events of the past six months.


[Councilman Mike Gardner (l. with Councilman Paul Davis at the 2009 Regatta) said it was up to Hudson to make decisions about his own staffing.]



But it's not lost on people how quickly the dominoes have started falling, beginning in the police department and then moving on to City Hall which is a natural outcome and testimony to the unhealthy dynamic connecting the two. If one sinks, the other one will as well and to deal with the problems with one, you have to address both.



Waxing the greatest praise for the right hand man of his who he essentially told to take a trip is of course Hudson who's now got one less employee to throw under the bus if the occasion should arise.

[Riverside City Manager Brad Hudson praised the assistant manager he had just pushed into resigning from the Seventh Floor of City Hall not long after he pushed him under the bus on the cold plates scandal.]


Hudson said to the press that the decision for his right hand man to leave the city was a mutual one between him and DeSantis but it's clear that some form of writing had been on the wall since Hudson blamed DeSantis along with Leach for the cold plates scandal. The troubling contradictions from the testimonies offered by both Leach and DeSantis in their depositions lingered and despite the fact that both versions can't be true, apparently no investigation into perjury was ever conducted by any agency including Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco.

But it's been said that depositions which are set to be taken in one of the outstanding legal actions against the city will shed some light on who really ordered the issuance of cold plates on city vehicles. Was it Leach, or Hudson? My money's on that it was Hudson through DeSantis that ordered them. Leach worked under five interim or permanent city managers and only one of them apparently cold plated his car along with that of his assistant city managers.

CPRC Manager Kevin Rogan To Depart For Another Gig

[CPRC Manager Kevin Rogan to leave his post after three years to take a job with the police commission in Los Angeles.]





The manager of the Community Police Review Commission, Kevin Rogan, is departing after only three years on the job and taking a job with the commission in Los Angeles. The announcement caused some ripples in the city's fabric. It comes not long after the controversy that arose from the commission's violation of its own bylaws for changing the time and location of its meetings from evenings to various times earlier in the day. It was only after the debate when a commissioner saw the language in the bylaws governing the meetings that this transgression that had been overlooked by both Rogan and City Attorney Gregory Priamos came to light. At a later meeting, Rogan publicly took responsibility for the situation calling it his fault. But apparently some time ago, Rogan had been seeking out other pastures and the announced departure of his immediate boss, DeSantis who pretty much had the CPRC in a choke hold since late 2005 just preceded his own announcement by barely a week.

There had been some rumors that something major was coming down the pike this week from the CPRC and apparently this was it. It's probably not surprising that he's leaving in light of all the upheaval shaking the city since Leach's DUI incident on Feb. 8. But while the city adds another management position to the list that it will have to fill, many concerns will no doubt be raised about what will happen to the CPRC in the meantime. After all, besides the police department, the CPRC was the second favorite toy of micromanagement by Hudson and DeSantis and like the police department, the CPRC hasn't been the better for it. It's amazing if a bit puzzling that two agencies, the police department and the civilian oversight of it, have both been badly damaged by micromanagement and politics from the Seventh Floor at City Hall with some help from two floors lower.

Did Rogan see the writing on the wall and go job hunting? How many others are reading the wall right now?

Riverside Police Department Sergeant Files Claim Against City

Riverside Police Sgt. Val Graham filed an FEHA claim with the city alleging racial discrimination and retaliation involving upper management inside the police department including Chief Sergio Diaz and also management at City Hall. Graham alleges that since 2001, he has been routinely passed over for promotion to lieutenant despite ranking high on the lists including #4 on the most recent list and having a history of excellent or outstanding evaluations.

What's interesting is that the city has forgone its standard practice of having City Attorney Gregory Priamos comment on claims or litigation which has been initiated involving the department and has instead handed that job off to Chief Sergio Diaz. That happened earlier when the city had two personnel claims filed against it by former Deputy Chief Pete Esquivel and Officer Neely Nakamura. It'd be interesting to find out whether Priamos is relieved or piqued he doesn't get to tell the media anymore that lawsuits and claims involving the department are "frivolous" or will be aggressively litigated by the city.

So it was Diaz who responded to the news of another claim being filed by a police employee.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



"I know what factors guide me, and certainly it was not racial bias," Diaz said Tuesday of his promotions.



Diaz had said that he had based his promotions on reviewing factors such as employee histories (which likely would include the annual personnel evaluations), types of assignments and after discussing candidates with his management team. In the case of the captains' promotions, he also interviewed candidates. There had also been a lieutenant's list from written testing and oral interviews and during the past eight months, the five lieutenants had come from different rankings on that list. These were #2, 5, 6, 9 and 12. Several lieutenant candidates had been promoted who had failed the tests in prior years and who had problems completing prior assignments.

Two candidates off the latest round of promotions from captain to detective had onduty sexual misconduct incidents while they had been sergeants. One was demoted and then re-promoted within two years, while the other received a written reprimand. One officer promoted in a former round had a prior firing that was overturned at arbitration so clearly the candidates who were promoted came from an assortment of backgrounds. Assignment-wise, most of those promoted had either worked personnel and training or SWAT and quite a few, in both. Some officers had worked back to back "special assignments" with little or no assignment time in patrol in between. Considering that the patrol division has been promoted as the department's backbone by many a leader at City Hall and from within the department's own ranks, patrol officers and supervisors who spent considerable time there didn't appear to advance to the next rank as much as those in "special assignments" in this year's promotions.

Most newly promoted sergeants or lieutenants go into field positions including watch commands if they are lieutenants often on the night/early morning shifts. This time around, one of them, Daniel Hoxmeier was transferred to serve as an area commander of the Central Neighborhood Policing Center while Lt. Bruce Loftus was transferred to the Personnel Division.


The severely outdated organizational chart shows what the department looked like in late February this year.

This claim along with the others filed so far will be followed to see how it progresses and will be included under this blog's new subcategory, "RPD Claim Watch".

Asst. Chief Chris Vicino Visits RPOA, to Lunch with DeLaRosa?




[Riverside's new assistant chief, Chris Vicino just arrived.]

Newly hired assistant chief, Chris Vicino who hailed from Pasadena's police department had a meet and greet with members of the Riverside Police Officers' Association recently to share his thoughts on his new job and what he hoped to accomplish. He wanted to be housed near the front line officers at one of their stations, possibly Lincoln but whether he winds up there or closer to his boss, Diaz at Orange Street Station remains to be seen. Also in the plans apparently was a lunch meeting with former Acting Chief and now retired Asst. Chief John DeLaRosa who's been lunching with quite a few higher ranking police personnel lately.

Community gardens coming to the Wood Streets.

Public Event

Meet and Greet Police Chief Sergio Diaz

by Latino Network

at

Zacatecas Restaurant from 6-8 p.m.

Another Domino Falls: Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis on his way out

UPDATE:

On the heels of the announcement of DeSantis' departure, CPRC Manager Kevin Rogan to leave his position for a job in L.A.




UPDATE:


Riverside Police Department Sergeant Val Graham files FEHA claim with the city of Riverside for racial discrimination and retaliation including in relation to the department's promotional process.

[Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis is being phased out of his employment with the city, in what's likely a severance deal.]




[Riverside City Manager Brad Hudson (center) tendered the drawn-out departure of his right hand man, Tom DeSantis. If the guns, badges and cold plates scandals had nothing to do with it what did? And when there's no one left to throw under the bus, what do you do the next time scandal breaks?]





Some shock waves abounded when City Manager Brad Hudson announced that his right hand man, Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis was apparently resigning at some point after a stint in a "special assignment" (which has a variety of different meanings in Riverside) and a "well-deserved" vacation. His pending departure, the latest in a series of them, comes after six months of scandals which started breaking one by one after the infamous DUI incident involving former Riverside Chief Russ Leach on Feb. 8. DeSantis oversaw the beleaguered police department that only recently had a new chief, Sergio Diaz, at its helm who announced several days earlier that former LAPD commander Jeffrey Greer would fill out his management cabinet, joining former Pasadena Police Department Deputy Chief Chris Vicino and Deputy Chief Mike Blakely.

The news spread like wildfire after the announcement and there were a variety of theories about what really ended the five year tenure of DeSantis as the city's assistant city manager of administration and personnel. Revelations about unethical and illegal conduct had broken about the guns, cold plates and badges scandals as well as problematic contradictions on sworn testimony provided by DeSantis and Leach involving the issuance of illegally used cold plates. Then there was all the intrigue about the destruction of public records under request and post-it notes by a former Riverside County public information office well versed in the CPRA. There were unanswered questions about his involvement in an incident involving a councilman, a city issued car with cold plates and Newport Beach.

Then there was the reports of discussions or meetings with police employees who had either filed litigation or threatened to do so, including two deals apparently made with employees including the one that apparently imploded inside a closed session of city council last week as reported here earlier.

That incident centered around the claim for damages filed by former Riverside Police Officers' Association President Det. Chris Lanzillo who had been fired by then Acting Chief John DeLaRosa eight weeks after confronting him in a roll call bull session that DeLaRosa and the management staff had engineered to help circle the wagons at the police department against the world. Even though Lanzillo appealed to Hudson for an outside party besides DeLaRosa to hear his Skelly hearing, Hudson denied that appeal and DeLaRosa heard it and then terminated Lanzillo within 15 minutes of the end of the hearing.

Lanzillo filed two claims for damages against the city, the first was denied within five days, the second took a little bit longer. But DeSantis had allegedly promised Lanzillo a medical retirement and about $150,000. The deal was then brought to the city council by DeSantis to essentially be stamped over and done with by the governmental body. That didn't happen but the city council allegedly then told DeSantis it didn't want to hear about the settlement because they didn't want him managing the police department. It wanted Chief Sergio Diaz to handle it.

At some point, the RPOA asked Diaz what he wanted to do with Lanzillo's case and Diaz purportedly said it was out of his hands and he wasn't going to deal with it.





[The Riverside City Council allegedly nixed a deal brokered by DeSantis with Lanzillo and then wanted Chief Sergio Diaz to handle it but apparently Diaz wisely vetoed that suggestion.]




It's interesting the alleged interplay that took place between the city council, DeSantis and Diaz with Lanzillo's litigation. The city council correcting DeSantis on his involvement in the police department after through its handling of Hudson either giving DeSantis carte blanche the past five years to do that or with individual elected officials using him for the purpose of micromanaging the police department. Whether it's through the influencing of the upper level promotional process or the ordering of what are called "election deployments" where officers are moved to wards of council members running for office from other higher priority crime areas to make it look like the elected official is "tough on crime". Even allegations as to whether some employees were pushed through the employment process without appropriate background screening which are called "political emergency" hirings or even given hiring bonuses from funds that had been frozen due to budget cuts after being hired. The latter being conducted in a public safety profession could be hazardous to both other employees and the public so one hopes that wasn't the case.

It's good to see that the city government finally realizes the value in a paid department head actually running his department and not being micromanaged by City Hall. Better late than never but in this particular situation, the order that Diaz deal with the aftermath of one of the actions taken out during the interim reign of DeLaRosa just seems problematic. After all, why isn't it Hudson who's the one issuing the order to DeSantis not to involve himself in police personnel management issues rather than his bosses on the city council? Where was Hudson when all this was transpiring behind closed doors at a city council meeting?

Did Hudson know that DeSantis was brokering or trying to broker deals or did he order DeSantis to do so?

But to drop this on Diaz' lap is in its own way micromanagement. Because Diaz isn't responsible for the actions corrupt or otherwise that took place before his arrival. What the city council should be doing is taking its direct employees and itself to task for the mishandling of the police department that goes back to at least 2005. Hudson appointed DeLaRosa to be acting chief of the department despite knowing that DeLaRosa played a significant role in the mishandling of Leach's DUI incident and he had the city government's blessing (through its collective silence in the face of scandal after scandal). DeLaRosa engaged in a series of decisions which apparently led to increased civil litigation from that agency at various levels including near the top.

The claims that were filed were denied, the concerns raised were ignored and now the city's at the stage where the claims will become lawsuits which will be of course refuted in the beginning as "frivolous". But then the civil lawsuits, be they federal or state, begin the process of taking depositions and that's where things really get interesting. Depositions are taken as prior testimony of fact and recollection which are then used in trial to impeach witnesses on the stand or more commonly as leverage for the settling of litigation. This happened in the lawsuits filed by former police lieutenants, Tim Bacon and Darryl Hurt where extensive depositions were taken from city officials and police employees, detailing among other things micromanagement of the police chief by denizens at City Hall and the guns, plates and badges scandals.

Moving on towards that route is Lanzillo's lawsuit for example. Because Lanzillo was involved in the addressing of the cold plate issuance (and that of other police equipment) by city officials back when it took place as evidenced in CPRA emails submitted by him to DeSantis while he was RPOA president, that area is included in his retaliation and wrongful firing lawsuits. And if you'll remember from following that particular scandal, DeSantis and Leach pointed fingers at each other regarding who forced or suggested the other to obtain plates. There's a document where DeSantis' name appears as apparently authorizing cold plating but none so far with Leach's authorization. In fact, there's ample evidence that Leach actually was the source of the cold plating list that wound up at the State Attorney General's office after being submitted by other parties. Or was it Hudson who ordered DeSantis or anyone else to get the cold plates?

And if there were a participant or witness to that, what would happen if this person were deposed in say, an act of civil litigation? What would happen then?

Why does this matter? It actually matters because of the earlier lawsuits that were filed and the depositions which were taken including ones by DeSantis and Leach which provided contradictory testimony about who authorized the issuance of the illegal cold plates. DeSantis said it was Leach who said it was city management. This contradictory testimony came up under that taken under penalty of perjury which is a criminal offense. So if both sides are telling vastly different stories, then one of them is telling the truth and the other is lying. Or both of them are lying and the truth is something else.

The one scenario which can't be the case is that both are telling the truth under oath under penalty of perjury. So why then isn't anyone conducting a perjury investigation? Before anyone says that it's because it's just lying under oath in a civil case and doesn't count, it's true that it's testimony in a civil proceeding but the testimony is about the commission of an action that is in violation of the state's vehicle code and thus a crime.

Also people can and have been prosecuted for perjury on a deposition for a civil proceeding including a former Riverside Police Department officer named Laura Digiorgio. She was convicted in her trial on multiple counts while being prosecuted in San Bernardino County. Yet there's not even any inquiries or investigations done to look into why contradictory testimony has been given in the Hurt and Bacon deposition processes in responses to questions on criminal violations.


Diaz was hired when the house of cards in the department and City Hall began to fall apart faster than they could be propped up. He was hired because of a mess of City Hall's making blew up after simmering for some years with illegal conduct and other intrigue taking place out of public view. Now he's the one who's supposed to address and correct its fallout and clean it up, rather than the ones responsible for creating the mess? That's just ridiculous. The folks who insisted on micromanaging the department and exploiting its resources for their own personal use including the violation of state laws made their corrupt, dirty nest now they and those who pretended not to see what was going on and act on it need to either clean it up or lie in it until the city's populace replaces them at the polls.

Diaz was hired to run the department as it was July 1, 2010, albeit beleaguered with some scandals and mired in piles of civil litigation. His role is to try to rebuild it from where it was and to get it in the direction it's supposed to be going and that's what he should be graded in is his performance at fulfilling that task. Not for serving as clean up person for the city's own embarrassing scandals caused by either its own actions or through its failure to keep its own direct employees in line and obeying the laws.


One of the most interesting developments involving DeSantis and a police employee has to be the situation surrounding Lt. Leon Phillips who was if you'll recall the city's fall guy in the mishandling of the Leach DUI incident. Not that he didn't bear responsibility for his actions but it was interesting but troubling to see him faced with a hefty suspension AND demotion to a lower rank while his superiors received retirements that preserved their salaries. Under that discipline, it was probable that when he retired, Philips would have been the one involved party to take it factoring on a lower salary than he earned pre-Feb. 8. The city showing that the buck stops at mid-line supervision.

But apparently, Phillips and his lawyer had other plans....



[Lt. Leon Phillips and his attorney allegedly had their own behind closed doors meeting with DeSantis and brokered a deal. Was one of the provisions, a promise in writing that Phillips never have to work under Deputy Chief Mike Blakely, and if that were the case, why? And if that promise were made would it interfere with Diaz' power of making personnel assignments?]



Phillips allegedly met with DeSantis and through their arguments, he and counsel were able to turn the tables on several former and current key management personnel within the police department and allegedly block his disciplinary action or reduce it. He also allegedly brokered out a deal with DeSantis not to work with one of those management personnel ever again. Phillips had been painted as the kingpin in the Leach scandal who was giving inconsistent accounts while Hudson praised his supervisor that early morning, DeLaRosa as the one who kept his accounts straight.

But apparently Phillips had a successful counter argument to that and made his point, adding another interesting chapter to this ongoing saga which is part and parcel of residing in River City.




Press Enterprise Columnist Dan Bernstein addresses DeSantis' departure.




On a somewhat related subject...






It was sounding a lot like election year as Riverside's Governmental Affairs Committee conducted its annual review of the city's ethics code and complaint process. It was pretty much an opportunity to see three city council members, Chair Andrew Melendrez, Rusty Bailey and Steve Adams show how little they've learned in the past six months and basically stall the process of responsibly implementing the code and complaint process ----until safely after the first round of elections next year.

The ordinance states that this committee is supposed to conduct the annual review to see how well it's working and whether or not anything needs to be changed, improved or "tweaked".







[The Governmental Affairs Committee discusses the reviewing of the city's ethics code and complaint procedure.]





[City Attorney Gregory Priamos (1.), and Council Members Steve Adams, Andrew Melendrez and Rusty Bailey listen to public input from over 30 city residents about what should be done to improve and strengthen the process.]



[City Residents filled the chairs and stood behind the room to participate and witness the annual ethics code and complaint process.]



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)

"I'm very disappointed that today you're putting everything on the council," said Jennifer Vaughn-Blakely, who leads a community issues forum called The Group and headed the committee that wrote the ethics code.

"What it now has been made to look like is we're a bunch of disgruntled gadflies who are showing up to complain."

The thing that needs to be remembered is that people who criticize the local government are always painted as a handful of people, a minority, a disgruntled group of gadflies and so on which is done by city officials and their syncopates when things are being done that are wrong. But what often happens is that this either shows how out of touch elected officials are or that they are calling a bluff to hope that the city residents don't believe that it's really a majority or very large group of people are concerned or upset.

But history has shown, this bluffing or denial or whatever it can be called is usually determined to be much different around the time of municipal elections. Several elected officials in Riverside pooh-poohed concern about issues whether they be about parks like Tesquesquite Park or quality of life issues including those associated with the presence of DHL at March Air Reserve Base. Then when election time comes around and they realize that these issues are much larger than they think or were willing to admit publicly, they suddenly become more interested in them. But the voters in this city are much smarter than they're given credit for and they've acted accordingly at the polls in the 2007 and 2009 elections.

Chief Sergio Diaz Picks His Deputy Chief

Future Deputy Chief Jeffrey Greer

Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz has completed the appointment process involving his top management team by picking Jeffrey Greer, a high ranking employee at the Los Angeles Police Department, as deputy chief. Greer who's set to start work on Sept. 17 will join former Pasadena Police Department Deputy Chief Chris Vicino and the inhouse selection, Deputy Chief Mike Blakely.

Another Federal Lawsuit Filed in Robert Forman Case

A third civil action has been filed against the City of Riverside and former Officer Robert Forman in relation to the former officer's criminal case which involved three women he was charged with sexually assaulting under the color of authority.

Tessa Garcia filed a federal lawsuit against the city in U.S. District Court joining Kathryn Boesen and Nadia Ishak. Forman's case went to trial where he was convicted of oral copulation against the color of authority involving Boesen and acquitted of a similar charge involving Ishak. He received a hung verdict in the sexual battery charge involving Garcia and a related conviction on misdemeanor petty theft.

Without considering Garcia's lawsuit, about $11.9 million in claims were filed against the city in connection with the Forman case. The claims were denied.

City Takes Over Wi Fi System Amidst Interruptions and Outages and Upgrades

[This Wi Fi access point now is maintained by the city of Riverside after the impending departure of AT&T but the service has been hit with outages and time outs on network logins since about an hour after being transferred over. Some issues were repaired and the process moves into its next stage. ]



The city now maintains and manages the Wi Fi network amid the departure of AT&T and brought it up line yesterday amid the system timing out on user cookie sessions and outages in at least one neighborhood that's been in the dark since an hour after the service was changed over at 8am yesterday. That outage has been identified and will be repaired. Service might be slower on other parts of the city until the network has been capped in future weeks to limit heavy duty downloading of files which hinders the network's performance. More upgrades will be taking place in the next few months.


But there's been reports that while the Wi Fi works during the portions of the day, it's virtually unusable at night. Tests show that page loading at night takes about 15+ minutes as opposed to about 30 seconds in the morning with about 15% pages loading successfully in the evening versus about 95% in the morning.






Some former San Bernardino County officials tied up in a corruption scandal trying to get the charges dismissed.






Will San Bernardino Police Department be laying people off?

Public Meetings

Tuesday, Sept 7 at 3pm and 6:30 pm, the Riverside City Council will conduct another meeting at City Hall and discuss this agenda.

Former Det. Chris Lanzillo's lawsuit filed in United States District Court comes up for discussion behind closed doors and the Governmental Affairs Committee has apparently recommended enhancing commenting on its internet site.