Sunday, September 25, 2011 – 11:30 a.m.
It was only a matter of time before federal officials descended onto the debacle involving the redevelopment of the former Norton Air Force Base.
The memory of the former Inland Empire military installation deserves better.
I’ve never witnessed a local government agency be used as has both the Inland Valley Development Agency (IVDA) and San Bernardino International Airport Authority (SBIAA) have.
Both agencies are charged with the redevelopment and operation of the former base property and surrounding redevelopment project area.
Last week agents for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) served several search warrants related to activities at the San Bernardino International Airport (SBIA).
The facility and its operations has fallen under intense scrutiny over the expenditure of approximately $200 million in federal, state and local funding.
Need for an Airport
With passenger airlines operating out of Palm Springs, Ontario, Costa Mesa, Burbank and Los Angeles, there was really never any need for such activity at San Bernardino International Airport.
SBIAA and IVDA officials have been told as much on more than one occasion.
Recently, a consultant informed SBIAA that if no passenger airline were secured to operate from the airport by June 2012 the timeline for achieving such a goal would take years.
Questions have steadily persisted over pursuing a reuse model with questionable viability.
Competitive Bidding
Competitive bidding requirements designed to get taxpayers the best price for services performed? Not at IVDA and SBIAA! Both agencies have run amok in ignoring such matters.
Why you ask? To benefit local business players.
Eliminating competitive bidding benefits benefactors while screwing taxpayers.
Forget about any airlines. Who cares?
Just keep dishing out those contracts.
Want to pass on the aforementioned competitive bidding? Just let a contractor or tenant or some other business assign a contract for the work, instead of SBIAA or IVDA, and presto!
Who cares how much it costs taxpayers.
Have a contractor perform work not to code? Who cares? We’ll tear it out and do it again. Paid for by taxpayers.
Build a passenger terminal in the wrong location. Who cares? We’ll build a new one out near Victoria Avenue and Third Street, the location where the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says it must go, at more than twice the price.
Cha-ching!
Focus on Contracts
Expect contracts awarded to local entities such as Matich Corp. and Bogh Construction among others to draw extra scrutiny. Both businesses have benefited hugely from the SBIAA largess, with Matich reportedly garnering near half of all money spent.
The Spencer Factor
One major focus is directed towards contractor Scot Spencer.
Spencer, a convicted felon resulting from his days as an executive at bankrupt Braniff Airlines, has found a way to acquire control of much of the airport facility.
At this point, it’s unclear if Spencer has ever paid any of his own businesses money to SBIAA.
Spencer routinely falls into arrears on his rent payments. Routinely, SBIAA must roll over delinquent payments owed by Spencer into new loan facilities.
Secondly, Spencer seems to be intentionally delaying the completion of the proposed Customs building because the filing of a notice of completion would trigger Spencer’s rent payments to commence.
Third, SBIAA officials have been desperately trying to have the Sheriff’s Department move it’s Rialto Airport-based aviation division into the new hangar adjacent to the Million Air building. The hangar was suppose to house private jets. But as of now the only aircraft stored is Wonder Woman’s plane.
The lease payments paid by the county and subsidized by the IVDA would allegedly cover Spencer’s rent payments for the hangar.
In addition, Spencer reportedly owes more than a half-million dollars in overdue property taxes.
The ‘Schmooze’ Factor
The question of how could elected officials allow this to happen is on many minds.
I call it the schmooze factor.
Yes, it’s the ritual of bringing a new board member, who’s clueless about airports I might add, and bamboozle them with a tour of the facility.
It does look pretty, and it’s truly impressive. But, it’s a loser.
The awed official is then now sold on the airport becoming a commuter hub and blindly follows SBIAA managements every desire.
An embarrassing quandary to say the least.
A Series of Investigations
The active airport investigation now joins ongoing FBI investigations into the settlement between the county and Colonies Partners, Arrowhead Regional Medical Center and the City of Upland.
One would expect the circumstances surrounding the finances of the City of Victorville to become an issue for federal investigators, if it hasn’t already.
Jim
Derry is giving you bad info. We are there to look into allegations but have been looking at some folks for quite some time. Those in trouble will surprise you. In the mean time you are in worse trouble yourself. You know what they say about rocks and glass houses.
You are right about everything execpt the Matich part; they didnt do any of the work in question. Everything else is 100% correct.
The answer to all of this is Don Rogers, a powerful behind the scenes kingmaker who buys and sells our local city council people like you or I would select goodies from a church bake sale. As the Airport executive director and founder of the Airport’s auditor (and SB County’s auditor), he set this whole thing up.
He’s so powerful that he actually pays people to go on blogs like this one and defend him (like this “FBI” clown above). His favorite blog defenses are-
– politics are causing people to say bad things about him ( I guess now they are going to trash derry).
– Everything is fine – the IVDA werehouses, Stator Bros, Matel ect, have created lots of jobs. But the IVDA properies have nothing to do with the airfield side of the SBIA, or any of the deals in question.
Actually, Matich did the runway work!
SBCo needs a clean sweep of all its top elected officials. If DA Ramos was doing his job, the FBI wouldn’t be serving all these search warrants. If he can’t or won’t clean up the corruption, he should step aside so someone will.
Carl
You are a smart man.
Actually, Matich did not do the runway work. A company called NBI did the runway work earlier this year. Out of Redlands. All of the work on the runway and parking lots is concrete. Matich makes asphalt, not concrete.
Actually
I stand corrected. NBI did the runway work for Scot Spencer.