Politics, Government & Business in California's Inland Empire
Private Sector Expands Slightly, but Governments Cut Jobs; Treasury Yields Dip
AUGUST 7, 2010
By SUDEEP REDDY
The government’s latest snapshot of the job market was bleak, a sign the economic recovery is running out of steam with 14.6 million Americans still searching for work.
In the wake of Friday’s disappointing jobs report, Neal Lipschutz and Phil Izzo discuss new predictions that it could be many years before the nation’s unemployment rate reaches pre-recession levels.
Friday, August 6, 2010 – 10:00 pm
A Superior Court Judge has ordered San Bernardino County to pay legal costs to one of its unions.
Last year San Bernardino County Public Defender Doreen Boxer and County Counsel Ruth Stringer persuaded county supervisors to take legal action to force the San Bernardino County Public Attorneys Association to cease using its Deputy District Attorney members in grievance and disciplinary representation of its Deputy Public Defender members.
10:00 PM PDT on Friday, August 6, 2010
Cassie MacDuff
Helping Ontario International Airport regain flights it has lost since 2008 isn’t top-priority for Los Angeles officials. But LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa isn’t interested in selling the airport to Ontario either.
LA officials may offload responsibility for running the airport to some third party (a private company or maybe the city of Ontario).
10:00 PM PDT on Friday, August 6, 2010
By DARRELL R. SANTSCHI
The Press-Enterprise
Colton voters will not be asked in November to approve a 10-year extension of the city’s utility-user tax.
A proposal to put the tax extension on the ballot was favored by four of Colton’s seven council members — one short of the required two-thirds majority.
10:58 PM PDT on Friday, August 6, 2010
By ALICIA ROBINSON
The Press-Enterprise
Special Section: Police Chief Crash Probe
A former Riverside deputy police chief contends he was forced to retire because he opposed a cover-up of former Chief Russ Leach’s drunken-driving incident.
Pete Esquivel retired in May as deputy chief after a nearly 36-year law-enforcement career. This week, he filed a claim against the city, the Police Department and seven individual city and police officials seeking unspecified damages. He did not return a call for comment Friday.
Kristina Hernandez, Staff Writer
Posted: 08/06/2010 07:46:06 PM PDT
SAN BERNARDINO – Private planes have been taking off and landing at the former Norton Air Force for several months.
On Friday, general aviation here became official.
Michael J. Sorba, Staff Writer
Posted: 08/06/2010 03:39:59 PM PDT
HIGHLAND – At least six candidates will vie for three City Council seats up for grabs in the Nov. 2 election. Winners won’t be determined until then, but one thing is certain, the council will have at least one new member.
Councilman Ross Jones says he will not seek re-election because of health issues in his family. Jones has served seven years on the council.
Sandra Emerson, Staff Writer
Created: 08/06/2010 05:52:11 PM PDT
RANCHO CUCAMONGA – The city of Rancho Cucamonga’s pension fund could be on the hook for more than $125,000 when Bell City Manager Robert Rizzo begins drawing his pension.
Rizzo recently resigned from his position after news of his nearly $800,000 salary outraged Bell residents.
Kurth
Liset Márquez, Staff Writer
Created: 08/06/2010 06:34:22 PM PDT
Rancho Cucamonga will elect a new mayor in November after incumbent Don Kurth decided not to seek another term.
Kurth’s decision comes as the candidate filing period to run for council seats in the Nov. 2 election closed on Friday.
Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Created: 08/06/2010 09:24:03 PM PDT
State and county prosecutors appear poised to obtain privileged legal information regarding San Bernardino County’s $102 million legal settlement with Rancho Cucamonga developer Colonies Partners LP in November 2006.
San Bernardino Superior Court Judge Duke D. Rouse on July 23 ordered that everyone involved in the mediation sessions be notified of the prosecution’s request for the information.
Gutierrez
Mike Cruz, Staff Writer
Created: 08/06/2010 07:11:52 PM PDT
SAN BERNARDINO – Prosecutors refined their case against Rancho Cucamonga Councilman Rex Gutierrez, in a newly filed charging document that details an alleged conspiracy between the councilman, a former assessor and a developer.
A mistrial was declared in the June trial of Gutierrez, a former employee in the county assessor’s office, on charges of collecting a county salary while spending government time working on political matters or other activities.
August 06, 2010 5:08 PM
Brooke Edwards
VICTORVILLE • After 38 years on the city council, Terry Caldwell will not be running for re-election this term.
“Having done this for 40 years, and I had to ask myself the question whether I really was interested in devoting another four years to it,” Caldwell said by phone Friday, shortly after the noon deadline to file. “As I thought through it, I just wasn’t convinced that I wanted to do it for another four years.”
August 06, 2010 6:18 PM
Beau Yarbrough
HESPERIA • There will be 15 candidates on the ballot for the Hesperia Unified school board in November, but none of them will be Robert Kirk.
“I don’t intend to run again,” Kirk said Friday afternoon, blaming “the uncivil nature of politics.”
9 now seek three seats on city council
August 06, 2010 5:49 PM
Beau Yarbrough
HESPERIA • City Council incumbents Ed Pack and Rita Vogler will not seek third stints on the council as nine candidates joined the race for three seats.
“It’s always been my plan to take some time and focus on something else,” Vogler said Friday afternoon, on the phone from Northern California. She said she would elaborate on her future plans in the near future.
August 06, 2010 5:37 PM
Natasha Lindstrom
ADELANTO • Seven candidates are competing for three seats on the Adelanto City Council this November.
With Friday’s filing deadline for candidates, two challengers will seek to replace incumbent Mayor Charley Glasper, and two more candidates are vying for council seats against incumbents Gene Piehe and Trinidad Perez.
Steve Poizner
Posted By: Drew Joseph | August 06 2010 at 05:25 PM
In the latest installment of an intra-GOP feud taking place over the radio airwaves, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner said on Friday that Republican gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman, who defeated Poizner in the primary, “needs to crystalize her thinking. She can’t have it both ways on all these issues that are very controversial.”
Brown
By Steven Harmon
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 08/06/2010 03:58:31 PM PDT
Updated: 08/07/2010 06:15:36 AM PDT
SACRAMENTO — Stung by continued criticism over Meg Whitman’s use of a private airplane for her campaign at a personal cost of $700,000, her political team pounced on a report this week alleging that her Democratic gubernatorial opponent Jerry Brown had made use of a state-owned airplane for official purposes.
L.A. NOW
Southern California — this just in
August 6, 2010 | 3:34 pm
California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown urged a federal judge Friday to permit same-sex marriages to resume in the state immediately.
Brown told U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker that his historic ruling that overturned Proposition 8 probably will be upheld by higher courts. He said his office last year opposed a pretrial request to block Proposition 8 only because the legal and factual issues had not then been explored.
By Sam Quinones, Los Angeles Times
August 7, 2010
In response to the pay scandal roiling nearby Bell, Los Angeles City Controller Wendy Greuel unveiled a public database that she said made Los Angeles “the largest City in America to post a comprehensive list of city employee salaries.”
Although it is unusual for a public agency to reveal all employee incomes in database form — even though the information is public under California’s open records law — at least two private entities had previously posted similar city salary information. And both included each employee’s name, which Greuel’s list does not.
Voter approval was not needed for the obligation, which is more than twice the size of the city’s budget.
By Scott Gold and Kim Christensen, Los Angeles Times
August 7, 2010
The small and cash-strapped city of Bell is on the hook for a $35-million bond debt that voters didn’t approve — and that the city can’t afford to pay off, The Times has learned.
The debt, which Bell took on three years ago to buy land near the 710 Freeway, is more than twice the size of Bell’s annual operating budget. Come November, the city could lose the land to foreclosure. The city’s hope to profit from the purchase fell apart in 2008 after city officials failed to conduct basic environmental reviews.
Several other administrators get six-figure paychecks, and two were given extra payments.
By Jeff Gottlieb, Hector Becerra and Ruben Vives, Los Angeles Times
August 7, 2010
The city of Bell, already under fire for paying unusually high salaries to three top administrators, acknowledged Friday that two more officials were earning over $400,000.
The city’s director of administrative services, Lourdes Garcia, was earning $422,707, and the director of general services, Eric Eggena, earned $421,402, officials said. Those amounts include salary, deferred compensation and some benefits, which city officials did not fully detail.