Neil Derry
Supervisor Neil Derry
Posted: 03/09/2010 07:32:21 PM PST
These are indeed troubled times for San Bernardino County.
Again.
Recently, former county officials were arrested and there are clear indications that a multitude of investigations may well lead to more arrests, more exposures of misdeeds, and sadly, continued confirmation to residents here and those elsewhere that this county remains the Wild West.
I ran for supervisor to take on these tough issues. I believe we should dig deeply into these scandals. That is why the voters of the 3rd District elected me.
Since taking office more than a year ago, I have repeatedly attempted to cut wasteful spending, root out corruption and bring greater transparency and accountability to our elected officials and government. My proposal to establish an ethics commission and a Sunshine Ordinance are real reforms that will bring unprecedented levels of accountability and transparency to San Bernardino County.
Following the horrible scandal of the late 1990s, it seemed that the county had begun to rehabilitate its image. The past year shows that clearly more work has to be done and others have joined me in offering up ideas to reform and eliminate future scandals.
Late last month, District Attorney Michael Ramos presented a two-page “white paper.” His ideas include campaign contribution limits, regulation of political action committees, instant online reporting of big-money campaign contributions and prohibition of gifts to elected officials.
His suggestions raise serious concerns about their legality, along with the sincerity of his effort.
Recently, the Supreme Court ruled against campaign limits leading to the rollback of campaign contribution limits in several cities, including San Diego. And proposing to usurp state law and circumvent the Fair Political Practices Commission by regulating political action committees as if it can be done more efficiently and effectively by his office is questionable in light of his own failure to follow FPPC regulations.
Ramos failed to disclose income he paid his wife from his campaign account for “campaign services” in a non-election year on his Form 700 filing.
This is the very same violation he used to arrest some county politicos.
The Internet has greatly enhanced the level of transparency available to county residents and I support the district attorney’s embrace of online disclosure.
I am the first supervisor to ever place copies of all employee expense reports, including my own, and credit card expenditures and statements online for public scrutiny.
So, I must take the district attorney’s zeal for online contribution disclosure with a grain of salt due to the fact that he has repeatedly failed to file his own campaign statements online for the public to read. Nor has he publicly disclosed the expense reports from his frequently used county-issued credit card.
Ramos’ public protestation against elected officials receiving gifts is curious given his propensity to accept them himself. Every single Form 700 Statement of Economic Interest filing for the last seven years shows that he has received various gifts, from golf to tickets to concerts and sporting events.
If he is sincere in his efforts, I urge him to join with me in taking on corruption.
I will unveil my Sunshine Ordinance next week. It will ensure county-generated documents are released to the public in a timely and far more complete manner. It will also require the county to be far more forthcoming with regard to the actions and activities of your government.
The Sunshine Ordinance will go hand-in-hand with an ethics commission, which will provide oversight for the ordinance’s regulations.
I call upon the district attorney to support the creation of an ethics commission and the passage of this Sunshine Ordinance.
To read entire column, click here.
FINALLY… someone with some huevos.
Good going Neil.
Thank you Supervisor Neil Derry.
I am glad to see that a public official has brought Ramos’s obvious hypocrisy to the public.
One of the finest examples of double standards by far.
And a fine example of how Ramos and others like him think all of us are stupid and will drink his kool-aid.
Hopefully the pens full of sheep are getting smaller.
Thank you Mr.Derry.
How do you keep a straight face Neil? The voters elected you to stamp out corruption? The voters elected you because you outspent a lazy incumbent and you used hundreds of thousands of dollars from Jim “Mile High Club” Erwin and his funding sources (who happen to be the source of corruption in this county). You then had the audacity to appoint him your chief of staff and then when he was indicted, Neil the corruption fighter plead ignorance.
Everybody in the political process in this county knows what Jim Erwin does and how the Colonies Partners targeted Hansberger because he opposed the “settlement”. So, yes, the DA is a hypocrite. But so are you Supervisor Derry.
“Hypocrite Derry”:
What? The truth hurts does it?
Derry is right on. What’s good for Ramos isn’t good for everyone else? A “Do as I say, not as I do” District Attorney is a dangerous person. You criticize Derry for hiring Erwin, but at least Derry doesn’t run from it.
Take a look at Ramos’ campaign finance documents.
Ramos has accepted money from SEBA, Jeff Burum, and others you say are sources of corruption in this county.
Isn’t it interesting the county prosecutors union supported Derry, who is the only one on the Board of Supervisors attempting to make a difference?
Who’s the hypocrite now?
I’m glad Erwin helped Derry beat Hansberger.
I think you missed my statement above “So, yes, the DA is a hypocrite.” I am responding to an Op-Ed from a Supervisor who is butt-deep in this garbage and now tries to swat away the flies because he stinks to high heaven.
So let me be real clear — the DA is an opportunistic enforcer looking to take out political opponents through his prosecution tactics. He also seems to be popping viagra as vitamins and can’t seem to realize that they don’t make him invisible. But nobody on that Board can talk about fighting corruption when you look at their campaign coffers and see how they cross endorse, fundraise for one another, and turn a blind eye and a deaf ear when they are hiring their chief of staffs.
Thank you for the clarification.
I think Cialis is more appropriate for Ramos. Isn’t it longer-lasting.
I congratulate Supervisor Derry for his efforts to reform the county government. During the corruption scandals of the 90′s I recommended that the county enact a no gift policy. I didn’t understand why a county official would accept gifts for merely doing their job. It also would have been a demonstrated beginning for a new direction away from corruption. When the Board of Supervisors rejected my suggestion, I enacted a no gift policy in the DA’s Office. Unless DA Ramos repealed that policy, it is still on the books. In that event, it looks like he is violating DA Office policy. It seems a little hypocritical for him to suggest a policy for the county when he violates his own department’s no gift policy.
Hey Dennis…some insight..if you would be so kind?… with so many layers of long term corruption…on as many levels…and the willingness of the AG to play with the tarbaby…that is SBC politics.At what point do the FBI…or the DOJ get involved?
I know many calls have been made to these angencies over the last two weeks.can you share the likely process…if any… they might take?..Thank you
I am not sure how the federal process works now. At one time, to open an official criminal investigation into the conduct of an elected official, the FBI and local US Attorney’s Office had to have permission from Washington. They also had policies that prohibited them from overtly influencing an election. So in the case of someone like Mike Ramos for purposes of illustration only, they would not take any outward action until after the next election. This would prevent the fact that an investigation is underway from effecting the outcome where there isn’t an opportunity to clear someone before the vote.
The Sheriff has no such policy as can be seen from what occurred during the 2002 election. By the time that I was cleared it was too late. The fact that the AG told the Task Force early on that there was no violation of law notwithstanding. They continued for eight more months. They then leaked to the press that they were investigating my office knowing that I would not have the chance to clear myself before the election. Mike Ramos told the voters repeatedly that I was “under investigation”. That mere fact is the sole reason that he is in office today
.
Hypocrite Derry, let’s be fair here and tell what is a much broader picture.
Derry hires Erwin, with the approval of a vote from the other BOS members. I don’t remember them, or the CAO Uffer, County Counsel Stringer, District Attorney Ramos, Sheriff Penrod speaking up to tell everyone Erwin is a crook.
Don’t these fine examples of leadership have a duty to protect the County from a crook?
Now if you want to lump all those people in with Derry’s poor decision making, let’s go back in history some and look at ALL the past Sheriff’s in the County and what they did and who they appointed or help become their successor? All those Sheriff’s have had some serious scandals under their leadership.
Now we can take SEBA President William Abernathie and his endorsement of DA Ramos and Sheriff Hoops, both of which have some serious issues surrounding them. The deeper you dig there, the dirtier things will become.
Other than Ramos and his parade of “I am bitchen” and will clean up corruption, Derry is the only one his is speaking up and don’t have any cover ups or scandals that he created.
Oh forgot to mention some of us are forgetting that Erwin was the one who brought wrongdoing to the attention of Ramos and THE COUNTY had Erwin sign a contract promising not to sue for the issues in the Assessors office.
And I will submit Ramos knew long before Erwin’s arrest about his trip to New York and the colonies issues too. Someone will always yell foul when you choose to stand around with your thumb up your butt and not take action quickly as in this case. People concerned about crime and corruption act quickly, not years or months later.
My point much bigger issues past and present floating around other than Derry hiring Erwin.
I’d pick a stronger platform to complain on, than Derry’s hiring practice.
Ramos fired this scud, not Derry.
Supervisor Derry,
I can only hope that you truly mean what you say and that you are going to clean up the county. I hope that you will also start at the beginning of the alphabet with ARMC and clean up the mess there. This is a matter of patient safety, nothing else.
Thanks Neil. I like you and what you are trying to do. I am not gay either.
Neil is a s much a hypocrite as Mikey. Jim was the sharpest, rusty ole’ tool in the tool shed and Neil wanted to come out swinging to shift power to his position. No surgical precision here, just slash and burn his way to power, ACU. But I do think your inference that there are degrees of “scumbagness” amongst the County puppet masters is duly noted. The only one that is clean is Josie ’cause she is too stupid to get in on the action.
Supervisor Derry,
Many people hope that the BOS and others who read this blog understand that the complaints being brought forward regarding ARMC are about patient safety and about providing the kind of care that we would want for ourselves, our families and loved ones to receive if they were patients at ARMC.
The concerns being brought forward are valid and should be investigated. Hopefully more patients will not be injured or die before something is done about it.
Thank you.