Assessor’s Office scandal led to sweeping county corruption probe
By Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 11/16/2012 01:58:26 PM PST
Special section: San Bernardino County Watch
Former San Bernardino County Assessor Bill Postmus has agreed to pay the county $300,000 to settle a lawsuit filed against him and four other former Assessor’s Office employees in May 2009 amid a corruption scandal involving the defendants.
Postmus, 41, of Hesperia, signed the settlement agreement Thursday, county spokesman David Wert said.
“This demonstrates that the county was right in pursuing this action, and it also shows the county will not tolerate wrongdoing and won’t tolerate dishonesty against the public,” Wert said.
On May 12, 2009, the county sued Postmus following an extensive inquiry into alleged corruption in the Assessor’s Office including timecard fraud, using the office to run a political operation and the hiring of Postmus’s friends and cronies who were unqualified for the executive-level positions they were given.
It began as an inquiry into questionable e-mails being blasted from county servers in the Assessor’s Office to a full-blown investigation by the Grand Jury and the District Attorney’s Office.
The county also sued Rex Guiterrez, a former Rancho Cucamonga City Councilman who worked as Postmus’s intergovernmental relations officer, former assistant assessors Jim Erwin and Adam Aleman, former taxpayer advocate Greg Eyler, and Michael Richman, a political consultant whom Postmus hired on a controversial no-bid contract for public relations work that was never performed.
Only Richman and Erwin eluded criminal prosecution in the Assessor’s Office case.
According to Postmus’s 7-page settlement agreement, Postmus acknowledged he placed political operatives in paid positions upon being elected county Assessor in November 2006. The intent was to have them work on various political campaigns, political blogs and other political work in order to enhance his political standing.
Aleman remains the only defendant who has not settled with the county in the civil case. He defaulted on the lawsuit and the court entered a judgment against him, Wert said, adding that the county has yet determine how much in damages Aleman should pay.
The county has yet to negotiate with Postmus how he will pay the $300,000 in restitution to the county.
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It is not enough. He should be barred from public office for life. He should go to prison.
I completely agree. What’s more is Burum should share the prison cell with Postmus. BTW, what’s this guy doing to make living these days?
This makes me sick.
Where’s the accountability in the system when the restitution (& I agree with Rob, Postmus belongs in the Federal Pen) is less than half the amount spent by our crackpot DA’s office & County Counsel (thought the legal standard was to not pursue litigation where the taxpayers could not recover the full costs of prosecution?). How has this proved anything (Wert, u r an idiot)… what that the County can make it’s own work to the tune of $750K to pay for a cover-up of the real crime that was going on in the Assessor’s Office?
So Postmus admittedly was running a political shop for selected GOP candidates that worked for the County, to include Kirk and Anderson for ONT CC from the DA’s Office. Since Bad Rex, Postmus and his boy wonder Adam and the rest of the staff were all playing political games, especially with the Colonies project proponents, it’s not hard to imagine that the same type of political misbehavior that was going on with the LA County Assessor was going on in a politicized San Bernardino County Assessor’s office! But DA Mikey is too wrapped-in with Da’ Good Olde Boyz network and was sharing the same political contributions with his fellow GOP thugs, there is no way in hell that he would allow a proper investigation. Both his PIU and the AG’s office were and are handcuffed due to the Mikey and Moonbeam Show over the Colonies Settlement, that resulted in Mikey’s and Hoop’s reelection to their respective offices, and Moonbeam’s election to Governator.
Of ever there was a clear case of election rigging by use of “selective prostitution” of Mikey and Moonbeam’s authority and the public resources at their disposal, this is it… and the fee to the taxpayers for getting bent-over for the last five-years plus is over $750K! Actually, it is a huge violation of the public trust, where Postmus and DA Mikey really are the “untouchable elected” that will keep stealing from us, unless the FBi does it’s job to protect the public from these rouge public officials aka Boyz Gone Wild!
This monster has hurt so many people and he walks way with a slap on the wrist. The lives he has damaged and he gets off with a fine? May God have mercy on your pathetic life.
What about his retirement? Does he still get to keep that?
Don’t forget he is still facing a five year prison sentence for charges that were dismissed against everyone else. He will probably pay two hundreds a week, till he disappears. He’s not the first person to ruin their life through drugs.
Really, just sad.
“There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what
the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be
replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another
theory which states that this has already happened.”
— Douglas Adams