Thursday, December 16, 2010 – 03:45 p.m.
The dust from San Bernardino County Public Defender Doreen Boxer’s ouster hasn’t even settled yet and already information on what actually transpired in her department is starting to float to the surface.
Sources say San Bernadino County will now review personnel actions Boxer took against members of her staff, which resulted in employee discipline.
Terminated employees may be offered their employment back, including lost wages.
However, some serious questions need to be answered here.
The big $10,000 question hanging out there? Where was county human resources during this management meltdown?
Now, since Boxer was not an elected official, her personnel actions should have been reviewed and administered by county human resources. This begs the question as to how such shenanigans could take place without the county knowing about it?
Was there a Human Resources Officer assigned to the Public Defender’s Office?
Did someone in county management look the other way on Boxer’s indiscretions?
Did Boxer have any relationships which compromised county oversight of her operation?
How was Boxer allowed to use personnel from her Bureau of Investigation to dig up dirt on her own attorneys?
Did operational mismanagement lead to ineffective representation of clients?
Will county supervisors be told everything that occurred here?
Was Boxer given a hold harmless release?
Inquiring minds want to know……..
Andrew Lamberto, who was likely sexually involved with Boxer, allowed her to ride roughshod over the department with no concern for personnel rules. His lead hinchman, Mark DeBoer, has no qualms whatsoever about falsifying information so to increase the amount of punishment meted out up to and including termination. No one will believe the Board of Supervisors is serious unless these two are also fired for wrongdoing.
So many people were written up by Ms. Boxer and Ferguson that the County will have to hire extra help to go through it all. An excellent, albeit, arrogant lawyer, was fired, WHy? He dared to tell Ferguson the truth about herself and how she managed the department. So, the truth comes out. Boxer was involved with Ramos, Big Jim and now Lamberto?? Boxer is a woman who covers up her insecurity by sleeping with men. Ferguson was out of control because it is in her nature to be that way yet it was Boxer’s job to manage the office. She failed. I have never seen so many people applaud as I did when it was announced that they would leave. I applaud Ms Morris for taking care of this outrage.
Thank you Phyllis Morris for clearing up the abuse of the prior PD. Ferguson is a psychopath.
Why doesn’t Ms. Morris pull out all the disciplinary reports on staff members who were punished by Boxer/Ferguson. Then, insert into Boxer-Ferguson personnel files, all the negative comments made about them on this blog. Serves them right. After all, both of them dished it out. Now the truth comes out, Lamberto was protecting Boxer. That should go into her file. Serves them right, they dished it out. Their files should read: DO NOT RECOMMEND, DO NOT REHIRE.
I read this post with delight. Most of the people who were disciplined did not deserve what they got. One guy, a good lawyer, was really fired because he told Lauri the truth about her reputation. He was fired. If we get him back, that would be a good thing because he is a good lawyer. He needs to do a personal inventory because he thinks that the sun, moon and stars revolves around him. I guess his mama told him he is God’s gift to the rest of the staff but I assure you he is not. I do not think he should have been fired but I am tired of his “s-it starter” personality. The rest of us have families and lives and don’t care about how “special” he is. He didn’t deserve to be fired but most of us just want to do our jobs without the prima donas of the office. Hopefully, justice can be done and the office can work on restoring morale.
I have read a lot about Boxer, she did this and that! Where are the facts, surely, those who are defending these people know the charges and why they were fired? How many attorney’s were fired? Not the ones that did not pass probation.
Instead of addressing these one sided issues, Ms. Morris should Concentrate on the PD office and all the employees. I was told that in the past, if you were not an attorney, you were treated like a second class citizen? Is the office going back to that? I don’t believe we will ever be told about the cause of these firings, because they don’t what us to know and they will hide behind the so call ” it’s a personnel action”.
So what do we have? a union running the Public Defender’s Office, for the benefit of the attorneys. I say if these firings were groundless, then let the civil service commission review them, so the proceedings can be open to the public. Ms. Morris should avoid the conflict, since she knows or supervised the attorneys who were fired. I see a witch hunt about to get started. I don’t see why we can’t be told what the charges are, without revealing their names? And how many were fired? What’s the secret? Isn’t this what everybody wants? An open county government.
Johnny, Just because you didn’t get wet doesn’t mean it wasn’t raining. Doreen gave many people the option to “quit” or they would be fired and then it would be harder to get a job. If you look at a phone list from when she started for any office and then compare it to today you will see about 1/2 or more of the attorney are gone. In the horrible economy we have now why would so many people choose to “quit?”
I also disagree with your assumption that just because a person was not off probation it was okay to fire them. Doreen fired people who worked for us for over 2 years, not because they did a bad job, but because she was hoping to hiring someone from a “better school.” When you show so little loyality to those who work hard for you, the remaining ones, including me, will have no loyality towards you.l
Second, the PD is a law firm. Our job is to protect our client. The attorneys are the ones who are responsbile for the case. If the case is done incorrectly, an attorney can lose the ability to practice their profession. Because they are responsible for the work, they should be able to direct those who are suppose to be helping them do their jobs. This doesn’t make the clerk or the investigator “2nd class.” Ideally everyone should be working for the same goal. But, when push comes to shove, the person who is responsible should be the one who calls the shots.
Finally, it is nice to know that there may be eventually redress for those who were wronged. But, what I don’t understand, is why you have such faith in the firings, but none in Ms. Morris. She has been with the office since 1984(?). She wants what is best for it. She is not going to re-hire someone who would hurt her office or, for that matter, hurt her new position. Doreen, on the other hand, worked for the office for almost five years yet never even bothered to move her. She came here to work but when to her home in Orange County when work was over. Logically, who do you think cares more for the PD office?
Paul, excellent points.
Once the ‘team’ concept catches on around here, it’s should be nice. When I started here as a nominal ‘second class citizen’ some years ago, it was Phyllis who came by and made me feel like part of a team. Always time for a kind word and a smile, yet with a work ethic above reproach, and a zeal for the job that many would have lost in their FIRST two decades of their career. She has all the attributes of the right person at the right time. I hope the BOS can figure out a way to drop the interim from the title.
just sayin’
The PDs office has a lot of dedicated, effective and professional staff, both lawyers and others. They have been through a lot with this last group of administrators. And, Johnny, the Public Attorneys union doesnt run the pds office. They merely represent their members as they should. You are obviously both ignorant and stupid.
Does anyone know if Boxer and Ferguson were given a hold harmless release when they resigned? If so, that would be a travesty. These two destroyed people’s lives to advance their own power mongering. I hope that the staff who were victimized have the right to sue these two as individuals. The County should not have to indemnify either one of them especially if Boxer was sleeping with Lamberto the HR rep. If she was sleeping with him, then how fair were any of the disciplinary actions? Now that the evil twins are gone, the story goes away even though it shouldn’t. I hope that the blog keeps this aspect alive.
This blog has chastised Ramos for seeing his “honey” in Sacramento while on the County dime. What about Ferguson? She went recruiting in D.C. but her real objective was to see her honey. What is the difference? Shouldn’t the County get reimbursed. What about her use of County employees on COunty to set up a private fundraiser? Isn’t that a theft of public property. The statute of limitations may have passed but if she did it once, she probably did it a lot more times because people were too afraid to question her. I hope the blog brings out more instances of abuse by these two and others.