Kelley

Josh Dulaney, The (San Bernardino County) Sun
Posted: 11/07/2011 11:33:29 PM PST

SAN BERNARDINO – Fifth Ward Councilman Chas Kelley blasted Public Works Director Nadeem Majaj at the City Council meeting Monday night for what Kelley described as the smearing of a prominent asphalt contractor’s reputation.

The issue arose last week after published reports of an Oct. 5 meeting at which Majaj says City Attorney James F. Penman intimidated him when asking questions about a police report involving allegations that Majaj’s predecessor showed favoritism to Matich Corp., a longtime asphalt producer in the region and a contributor to Penman’s campaigns.

Majaj said in a phone interview that he had “stopped the flow of millions of dollars of a local powerful contractor,” it was reported last week.

Kelley used part of his public announcements time on Monday to express outrage over the matter.

“Given the enormous contribution of the Matich family to the welfare of San Bernardino, I was therefore very disappointed to see a department head of this city use his position to smear their reputation in our local newspapers,” Kelley said.

Penman faces David McKenna in the city attorney election Tuesday. Kelley is running against Larry A. Lee.

“We owe the Matich family a public apology,” Kelley said. “This unhealthy and obsessive hatred of San Bernardino’s city attorney is causing some to act in a manner that harms our entire community.”

Majaj said he believes Penman was retaliating against him for canceling a lucrative contract with Matich Corp.

Penman has said that he has recused himself from contracts involving Matich Corp. during his campaigns.

“I’ve always conflicted off on matters involving the Matich family except for a period from July 2005 through October 2010 during which I did not receive any donations….” Penman said at Monday’s council meeting.

And as he did when the issue erupted last week, Penman placed the blame on Mayor Pat Morris for a leaked memo in which Majaj told Penman he was “especially concerned by your outward threats and the anger you displayed toward me during this meeting,” and that he did not feel safe conducting business with the City Attorney’s Office.

Kelley said he was “ashamed by the actions of this administration in leaking classified city documents” to the media.

To read entire story, click here.

BY JIM MILLER
SACRAMENTO BUREAU
jmiller@pe.com

Published: 07 November 2011 06:12 PM

The San Bernardino County Republican Central Committee ended its latest campaign-filing period with $15,000 on hand.

The party raised no money and reported about $1,250 in expenses from Sept. 25 through Oct. 22, according to last week’s report. It has $2,500 in unpaid bills for expenses by the party’s federal account.

The party’s executive committee meets tonight in Upland.

Joanne Genis stands in the shadow of one of the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project’s high-voltage line towers near the front yard of her home in Chino Hills on Tuesday. The City Council has made available an additional $100,000 for work by their legal council to continue the battle against Southern California Edison’s project. (Thomas R. Cordova Staff Photographer)

Canan Tasci, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Created: 11/07/2011 11:36:13 AM PST

CHINO HILLS – The cost to fight the installation of high-voltage power transmission lines in this city has not come cheap.

City Council members late last month made an additional $100,000 available to continue efforts to curtail Southern California Edison’s route in the city for the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project.

The battle between the city and the Edison started four years ago.

The city’s bill so far: $2.4 million.

The money has been coming out of the city’s general fund reserves, which totals about $14 million.

But with cities struggling financially during tough economic times, Mayor Ed Graham said he recognizes that some residents may soon begin to fret that the city is spending too much on this fight.

“However, I haven’t heard that yet, but I think with everything else there comes a time to fold your cards, but you fold your cards when you have no possibilities,” Graham said.

“Right now, though, we have a possibility of changing things so it makes dollar sense for us to reactivate the fight.”

The California Public Utilities Commission last month ordered Southern California Edison to temporary stop construction of the towers in the city because they don’t have appropriate lighting – a violation of Federal Aviation Administration requirements.

City spokeswoman Denise Cattern said the $2.4 million has been spent on anything related to the project, such as a variety of consultants, experts and legal costs.

“This also includes our legal fees for our city attorney and the attorney we hired as a consultant for expertise working with CPUC,” Cattern said.

“This does not include environmental studies – that would have been done as part of the CPUC process that SCE went through.”

City Manager Michael Fleager said the $100,000 that the council approved in October is for additional work by the city’s special counsel and consultants.

“Maybe we spend $10,000 or $20,000. There’s not a specific price tag. It’s just making sure we have that much available up to that point,” Fleager said.

To read entire story, click here.

Joe Nelson, The (San Bernardino County) Sun
Created: 11/07/2011 06:53:01 PM PST

The remaining search warrants served in a sweeping corruption probe involving a legal settlement between the county and a Rancho Cucamonga developer were released Monday.

The warrants were served between Dec. 2, 2008 and Oct. 22, 2010, in an investigation into the county’s landmark $102 million settlement with Rancho Cucamonga developer Colonies Partners LP in November 2006. They detail contributions made by the developer to political action committees following the settlement, as well as land deals involving former Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Postmus and his business partner, John “Dino” DeFazio, who faces separate criminal charges for allegedly lying to a grand jury.

Former County Assistant Assessor of Support Adam Aleman provided the information to district attorney investigators as part of a plea bargain with prosecutors.

Aleman told investigators that Postmus, while serving as chairman of the Board of Supervisors, conspired with Colonies’ co-managing partners Jeff Burum to steer the settlement the developer’s way in exchange for bribes and political favors.

The settlement ended nearly five years of heated legal battle over flood-control easements at the developer’s 434-acre Colonies at San Antonio residential and Colonies Crossroads commercial development in Upland.

Burum, former county Supervisor Paul Biane; former Assistant Assessor Jim Erwin; and Mark Kirk, former chief of staff for Supervisor Gary Ovitt, are charged with conspiracy to commit a crime and conflict of interest, among other charges. They deny any wrongdoing.

A judge has dismissed five of seven counts against Burum, including bribery.

To read entire story, click here.

City expects decision on appeal of EB-5 termination Dec. 2
November 07, 2011 7:23 PM
Brooke Edwards Staggs
City Editor

VICTORVILLE • A judge has agreed to pause Victorville’s lawsuit against the federal government, waiting to see if the city first succeeds in overturning the termination of its EB-5 visa investor program through an administrative appeals process.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services approved Victorville’s EB-5 regional center in 2009, allowing the city to solicit loans from foreign citizens in exchange for green cards, so long as the loans helped create 10 local jobs. Then, in a precedent-setting move, USCIS terminated Victorville’s program in October 2010 due to “material factual discrepancies” in related financial reports.

Victorville expects to hear back Dec. 2 from USCIS’ Administrative Appeals Office, but appears ready to move forward with suing the federal agency if the termination is upheld.

“What we care most about is keeping the regional center and being able to use it at a future date for some future project,” Mayor Ryan McEachron said Monday.

The city built its wastewater treatment plant primarily using interfund loans, pledging to pay them back in part with EB-5 funds. McEachron said they’ve accepted that’s not going to happen in light of the termination, with all $9.5 million in loans Victorville had collected now refunded to investors.

Now the city is hedging its bets on plans to sell the plant to the regional Victor Valley Wastewater Treatment Authority. So far, that deal has stalled based on a substantial gap between what the city wants to get for the plant and what VVWRA is willing to pay.

Still, Victorville wants to use EB-5 funds for future projects at Southern California Logistics Airport. And so a split City Council voted in June to sue the federal government over the program’s termination.

For more about the city’s battle with USCIS, read the full story in Tuesday’s Daily Press. Get complete stories every day with the “exactly as printed” Daily Press E-edition, only $5 per month! Click here to try it free for 7 days. To subscribe to the Daily Press in print or online, call (760) 241-7755, 1-800-553-2006 or click here.

Brooke Edwards Staggs may be reached at (760) 955-5358 or at BEdwards@VVDailyPress.com.

The day after Occupy Redlands organizer Keith Jackson drafted an official statement of non-violence, he and about 40 other Occupiers from around the Inland Empire were put to the test.

Just after a Sunday meeting of the Fontana, Redlands, Riverside and Victorville groups under an overhang at Riverside City Hall, mingling turned into an impromptu protest that led to 11 arrests.

The statement of non-violence was written Thursday after Occupy protests in Oakland turned violent.

“You can’t condemn violence of the police and ignore violence done under the banner of Occupy,” Jackson said. “We wanted to publicly take that stand.”

It was presented Saturday to a general assembly meeting of about 70 people at Redlands’ Ed Hales Park after the day’s Occupy March.

Then on Sunday, people from four Occupy groups held an organizational meeting in Riverside. The group met near the only Occupy encampment in the Inland Empire, comprised of about five tents and a collapsible shelter that covered the camp’s communal kitchen.

“We were there to have a meeting about how we could support each other,” Jackson said. “The meeting had broken up, and we were feeling really good.”

That’s when officers arrived.

Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz said officers had told protesters beginning Friday their tents had to come down because of city ordinances.

“The officers asked, `Whose tent is this?’ and people were saying, `It’s our tent’ in unison. `It’s the people’s tent. It’s your tent. It’s the tent of the 99 percent,”‘ Jackson said.

When men who accompanied the officers began to take down the tents, several Occupiers formed a human chain around the encampment’s communal kitchen. They linked elbows.

Not everyone from the meeting joined the chain. It was mostly Riverside people, but one Victorville Occupier and one Redlands Occupier joined, according to Jackson.

To read entire story, click here.

The Harborside Health Clinic in Oakland is a $20-million-a-year dispensary. (Robert Galbraith / Reuters)

By John Hoeffel, Los Angeles Times
November 7, 2011, 7:45 p.m.

Medical marijuana advocates have filed lawsuits in California’s four federal judicial districts aimed at quickly winning court orders to halt the U.S. attorneys from closing dispensaries.

The lawsuits are the second legal challenge to the stepped-up enforcement efforts that the four prosecutors announced last month at a high-profile joint news conference in Sacramento.

Matt Kumin, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuits, said that Tuesday the plaintiffs plan to ask the judges assigned to the cases for temporary restraining orders halting the crackdown.

“The government has gone well down the road to allowing medical cannabis in the United States,” he said. “It can’t reverse itself now, particularly because of the promises it made to the American people and the federal judiciary. They’re stuck.”

The 13-page lawsuits argue that the federal government’s threats to prosecute dispensary owners and their landlords conflict with an agreement that led a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit by patients with the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Santa Cruz. In that case, the government said it would not use federal resources against medical marijuana patients who complied with state law.

“You tell people, ‘Hey, you can do this,’ and they rely on it, and the next thing you know, they can get arrested. It’s entrapment,” said Kumin, a San Francisco lawyer working with a team of attorneys who specialize in medical marijuana litigation.

The lawsuits were filed Friday and Monday against U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder, Drug Enforcement Administration head Michele Leonhart and each of the four federal prosecutors, including U.S. Atty. Andre Birotte Jr. in Los Angeles. Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for Birotte and the Justice Department, said he could not comment on the lawsuits.

At their news conference, the U.S. attorneys said they would target dispensary operators and growers who were violating state law, which prohibits for-profit sales. The prosecutors have taken different enforcement approaches, including sending letters to dispensary landlords threatening to seize their property. Birotte has focused his efforts in the Central District on shutting down medical pot shops in cities that have banned them.

In the lawsuit filed in the Central District, the plaintiffs are Conejo Wellness Center Cooperative in Agoura Hills; the dispensary’s landlord, Executive Center of Simi Valley; and Billie Jo Maisonet, who has a doctor’s recommendation to use medical marijuana.

Joe Elford, chief counsel for Americans for Safe Access, an advocacy group that filed a separate lawsuit last month, said he was surprised that more lawsuits have not already been filed. “We certainly welcome other challenges,” he said. “If any of us win on any theory, we’re all better off.”

To read entire story, click here.

Saunders

Debra J. Saunders
Tuesday, November 8, 2011

“I have great respect for each of you individually, but collectively I’m worried that you’re going to fail – fail the country,” former Bill Clinton chief of staff Erskine Bowles said last week to the 12-member joint congressional supercommittee tasked with cutting the federal deficit by some $1.2 trillion over 10 years.

The safe money in Washington is betting on failure. On Monday, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., predicted that the supercommittee will fail, and he blamed Republicans for a failure that has yet to occur. Apparently Schumer represents the branch of the Democratic Party that cares more about blaming the GOP than doing something about the deficit.

There are Democrats – and Republicans – who understand the high stakes involved. Last week, Reps. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., and Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, joined 98 other House members in a letter that urged the supercommittee to go big – to shave $4 trillion off the deficit. The letter noted that “all options for mandatory and discretionary spending and revenues must be on the table” – which Washington took as a green light for tax increases.

Now I don’t understand why House members would push for a $4 trillion package when insiders think the $1.2 trillion plan won’t fly – other than to grandstand. But I have to agree that, at the end of the day, serious deficit reduction will have to include both spending cuts and revenue increases – although better to put off serious revenue increases until the economic recovery is solid.

Note: Revenue increases aren’t necessarily tax increases. Congress could raise revenue by eliminating tax breaks. As Simpson told Fox News, “Nobody is in favor of increasing tax rates. But we are in favor of increasing revenue.”

At a GOP debate last summer, all the GOP presidential candidates raised their hands when asked if they would reject a deficit-reduction package comprised of $1 in tax increases for every $10 in spending cuts. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, was one of them.

To read entire column, click here.

Sharon Bialek goes public with claims of sexual harassment by Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain — the first of his accusers to do so. (Richard Drew, Associated Press / November 7, 2011)

By Robin Abcarian and Geraldine Baum, Los Angeles Times
November 7, 2011, 10:17 p.m.

In an escalation that sent Herman Cain’s presidential campaign into dangerous new territory, a woman offered a graphic public account of being groped by the Republican candidate 14 years ago during the same period in which three other women have anonymously claimed he harassed them.

With women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred at her side in New York and a national television audience watching, Sharon Bialek said she went public Monday to “give a face and voice to those women who cannot or do not wish to come forward.”

At the time cited by Bialek, Cain, the married father of two, was head of the National Restaurant Assn. in Washington and Bialek had recently been laid off from the association’s educational foundation in Chicago. The two had met at the group’s national convention earlier in 1997.

Bialek said she went to dinner with Cain to ask for help finding another position. After driving from the restaurant, she said, Cain parked the car and then “suddenly reached over and put his hand on my leg, under my skirt and reached for my genitals. He also grabbed my head and brought it towards his crotch.”

When she expressed shock, she said Cain told her, “You want a job, right?”

Bialek said that she had traveled to Washington after setting up a meeting with Cain through his secretary. When she checked into the Capital Hilton, she was astonished to find herself in a “palatial suite,” she said, and assumed that her boyfriend had surprised her with the fancy room. But after Cain asked her how she liked her room, she said, “Mr. Cain smirked, then said, ‘I upgraded you.’ ”

Bialek said they then had drinks in the hotel bar and dined at an Italian restaurant. After dinner, Cain offered to show her the National Restaurant Assn. offices, and it was during the trip there that he stopped the car, she said.

The televised accusation vastly complicated Cain’s difficulties, replacing anonymous critics with a woman willing to be identified — and filmed — as she accused him. Moments after the news conference, Cain’s campaign emailed a denial. It did not address specifics.

“Just as the country finally begins to focus on our crippling $1.5 trillion national debt and the unacceptably high unemployment rate, now activist celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred is bringing forth more false allegations,” wrote Cain’s spokesman, J.D. Gordon.

Later, the campaign sent a statement to supporters blaming the newest accusations on Politico, the website that reported the first allegations a week ago, and ignoring the turn to a named accuser.

“It’s easy to make accusations when, by virtue of your anonymity, you don’t have to be held accountable for the claims you’re making,” the statement said. “It’s easy to publish them when, like Politico, you don’t follow basic rules of journalism by naming your sources or giving any details whatsoever about what supposedly happened.”

Bialek said she did not plan to file a lawsuit or seek compensation but wanted Cain to acknowledge his behavior. “Unfortunately, he is still in denial,” she told CNN on Monday night.

Cain kept a normal campaign schedule, including fundraisers in Los Angeles, but late Monday his campaign announced he would speak to reporters Tuesday in Arizona.

The three other women who have accused Cain of inappropriate sexual behavior worked for the National Restaurant Assn. during the time he ran it, from 1996 to 1999. Two have received settlements that required them to remain silent, according to news reports. Another told the Associated Press that she had not filed a formal complaint but had been harassed.

The attorney for one unnamed accuser, Joel Bennett, said Monday in an email message that the behavior alleged by Bialek “was similar” to what his client experienced before receiving a settlement.

As the only named accuser, Bialek and her background were at center stage Monday.

To read entire story, click here.

BY BEN GOAD
WASHINGTON BUREAU
bgoad@pe.com

Published: 04 November 2011 07:58 PM

WASHINGTON — Inland Southern California’s reshaped political landscape figures prominently in congressional Democrats’ plans to take back the House in 2012, party leaders said Friday.

Democrats need a net gain of 25 seats to reclaim majority status, which they lost two years ago in a tea party-fueled drubbing. As many of five of those seats could be in California, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman Steve Israel told reporters during a Capitol Hill briefing.

The party is looking for some of those gains to come in the Inland area, which has long been a Republican-dominated area.

On Friday, the Democratic committee launched radio ads targeting 25 GOP incumbents, including Rep. Mary Bono Mack , R-Palm Springs . Bono Mack handily won her last two elections, despite similar attacks from the Democrats. But officials said her district — which now will include Riverside County’s desert communities, Hemet, San Jacinto and The Pass — is less heavily Republican, thanks to the recent redistricting.

Israel pointed to generic polls showing that voters now favor Democrats over Republicans as evidence that the GOP incumbents are in trouble. Democrat Raul Ruiz, an emergency room doctor at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, is running against Bono Mack.

“People want problem-solvers — they want less ideology and more solutions,” Israel said. “There’s no ideology in trying to help somebody who comes into the emergency room.”

Bono Mack’s chief of staff, Frank Cullen, said the lawmaker is taking the race seriously but remains focused on her work representing her constituents.

“Voters recognize that she’s more interested in … working on their behalf than speculating on how these races are going to go,” Cullen said.

To read entire story, click here.

Huff and Dutton

By Neil Nisperos Staff Writer
Created: 11/04/2011 10:13:19 PM PDT

From boondoggle to significant?

The man who many believe will be the next Republican leader in the state Senate has a completely different viewpoint on the state’s proposed high-speed rail plan than the current holder of that position.

Sen. Bob Huff, R-Walnut, sees the plan as critical to improving the California economy. The man he may replace as GOP leader, Sen. Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, sees the San Francisco-to-Anaheim line as simply a waste of money.

Dutton’s opposition didn’t change this week following the release of a business plan that gave a detailed look at the project and pegged its cost at nearly $100 billion over 20 years.

“Even before the first shovel of dirt has turned, the cost estimates have nearly tripled,” Dutton said.

“The high-speed rail is a boondoggle that needs to be derailed.”

Huff called the draft business plan released Tuesday a positive step in framing a larger discussion about the viability of high-speed rail.

“Every demographic model shows the state’s population continuing to grow, with no parallel investment to accommodate that growth in our transportation systems,” he said.

Huff added that improving transportation infrastructure is critical to the Golden State’s future.

“High-speed rail is poised to fill a significant part of this need, but we must proceed with a good business plan built of accurate data and assumptions,” he said.

A recent
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preliminary caucus vote indicated Huff has the necessary votes to take over as leader of the 15 state Senate Republicans. Huff is currently chairman of the caucus, or second in command to Dutton.

Jack Pitney, political science professor at Claremont McKenna College, said the differing opinions of Dutton and Huff is a case in which legislators have to balance local interests and state interests.

“Bob Huff is serving the interests of his constituents who could benefit from the high-speed rail line,” Pitney said. “On the other hand, a lot of Republicans see this as a huge burden on the state. So again, every member has to balance local interests and state interests.”

To read entire story, click here.

Aaron Sandusky, from Rancho Cucamonga, stands at the Bud Bar of G3 Holistic Inc. in Upland Friday November 4, 2011. Sandusky had all 3 of his medical marijuana despenceries (Moreno Valley and Colton), along with a warehouse in Ontario, raided and shutdown by federal and local officials. (Will Lester/Staff Photographer)

Marijuana clinics owner ‘in a pickle’
By Wes Woods II, Staff Writer
Created: 11/04/2011 06:49:25 PM PDT

Aaron Sandusky has had a rough week.

Sandusky, 41, has been trying to keep his medical marijuana dispensaries open in Upland, Moreno Valley and Colton.

On Tuesday, raids were conducted on the three dispensaries as well as his Rancho Cucamonga home and the Rialto home of his partner John Nuckolls.

On Wednesday, Sandusky, the president of G3 Holistic Inc., was involved in a 4th District Court of Appeal case in Riverside that could determine if Upland can legally ban his marijuana dispensary and ultimately set a precedent in the state for how cities and counties regulate marijuana dispensaries.

“I’m in a pickle,” said Sandusky, a former real estate agent, on Friday.

Sandusky said his father died of brain cancer when he was 8 years old and was raised by a single mother.

He attended Gladstone High School in Covina but he dropped out and did not graduate.

Sandusky, who is single with no children, said he later got his real estate license and eventually worked in Rancho Cucamonga for now-Assemblyman Mike Morrell, R-Rancho Cucamonga.

In 2008, Sandusky’s life started to change when the booming real estate market went bust.

Soon thereafter, he received a recommendation for a medical marijuana card to fight gout when other medications didn’t work as well.

Sandusky decided to try his business hand at operating a medical marijuana dispensary after finding other facilities were not up to his standards.

“We put in our money to get started and got additional support from other members,” he said.

“It’s expensive to operate. Imagine talking to a landlord and saying you are a medical marijuana cooperative. In some cases, they try to double the rent because of the (negative) exposure to them.”

At Sandusky’s Ontario warehouse where the marijuana was grown, the electricity bill was $20,000 a month and workers would spent up to 13 hours a day to maintain the product.

“We have a lot of patients to provide for,” Sandusky said.

Sandusky estimated he made a salary of about $85,000 last year from running G3. His organization had 50 employees who no longer have employment or health insurance since the raids.

G3 Collective opened at Suite F4 at 1710 W. Foothill Blvd. in Upland in 2009 and closed in August 2010 after the city filed an injunction in West Valley Superior Court in Rancho Cucamonga.

During the closure, G3 opened another facility in Moreno Valley at 12276 Perris Blvd., Suite B. The landlord was the same as the Upland facility.

In 2011, G3 opened a facility at 1231 E. Washington St., Suite D in Colton.

Sandusky filed a stay against the Upland injunction and is appealing the city’s prohibitions of medical marijuana dispensaries in the court in Riverside.

A stay was granted on June 20, allowing the cooperative to operate until Sandusky’s appeal on Wednesday was heard. A decision is expected with 90 days.

Handcuffs at warehouse

To read entire story, click here.

Bill Postmus and Jim Erwin

BY IMRAN GHORI AND DUG BEGLEY
STAFF WRITERS
ighori@pe.com | dbegley@pe.com

Published: 04 November 2011 09:59 AM

Search warrants released Friday provide more details of former San Bernardino County assessor and Supervisor Bill Postmus’ struggles with hiding his homosexuality and drug addiction as he was under scrutiny by authorities who suspected him of abusing his public office.

The documents also show that Jim Erwin, former assistant assessor for Postmus, used political action committees to help pay legal bills while he was under investigation. While not illegal, the practice caught the attention of investigators because of potential links to suspected bribery involving a Rancho Cucamonga developer.

Judge Michael A. Smith ordered 11 search warrants from the investigation unsealed Friday, about two weeks after they were provided to defense attorneys in the Colonies Partners corruption case by the district attorney’s office. The documents cover the period from December 2008 to October 2010.

The 264 page of documents include descriptions of what investigators sought and what they found, copies of checks, cell phone and computer records and investigative reports. Only six of the warrants were available Friday from the court clerk’s office; the rest are expected to be available Tuesday.

The district attorney’s office first began investigating Postmus in November 2007, looking into allegations he was using the assessor’s office for political purposes. He was arrested in January 2009 on drug charges and subsequently resigned. He initially faced charges of misuse of public office, but a year later the case was broadened to include charges of bribery related to the county’s $102 million lawsuit settlement in November 2006 with Colonies Partners. Postmus voted for the settlement while he was a county supervisor.

In May, a grand jury indicted Erwin, Colonies co-managing partner Jeff Burum, former county Supervisor Paul Biane, and Mark Kirk, former chief of staff to Supervisor Gary Ovitt, on bribery and conspiracy-related charges for their alleged role in the Colonies case. Among other allegations, prosecutors contend Colonies Partners funneled $400,000 to political action committees controlled by Biane, Erwin, Postmus and Kirk as payment for yes votes on the settlement.

The search warrants released Friday focus mainly on Postmus and Erwin during the early stages of the corruption investigation.

Postmus was among 45 witnesses who appeared before the grand jury, testifying that as chairman of the Board of Supervisors, he voted for the settlement because of promises from Burum to support him financially for the rest of his life and threats to expose him if he didn’t back the deal. He said he feared that Erwin, acting on behalf of Burum, would reveal that he was battling a methamphetamine addiction and was secretly gay.

The court documents include several pages of text messages and Internet chat records from a cell phone, Blackberry and computers seized from Postmus by investigators.

The night before his arrest at the court hearing, Postmus anticipated he could face further conspiracy charges, according to text messages. In the exchange with someone identified as “Jim,” Postmus speculates over recent developments in the criminal case.

“If they charge me, they better charge Jeff,” Postmus wrote the night before the hearing, alluding to Burum.

Other text messages and Internet chat records show numerous discussions – often explicit – of apparent attempts to arrange sexual trysts in exchange for money and to purchase drugs.

Postmus’ attorney, Stephen Levine, said prosecutors included those details to “malign his character,” noting that Smith ruled the evidence was inadmissible during Postmus’ preliminary hearing.

PACS Pay

The search warrants relating to Erwin focus primarily on financial records and a trip to New York he took with Burum in January 2007. As a result of that trip, prosecutors indicted Erwin on several felony perjury charges, accusing him of failing to report a $12,750 gold Rolex watch and other gifts on statement of economic interest forms government employees are required to fill out.

Patrick O’Reilly, who served as a consultant to Burum during the Colonies litigation and accompanied Burum and Erwin on the New York trip, has been named by prosecutors as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case.

To read entire story, click here.

Joe Nelson and Mike Cruz, The (San Bernardino County) Sun
Created: 11/04/2011 10:56:54 AM PDT

SAN BERNARDINO – Eleven search warrants served over a two-year period in a sweeping corruption probe tied to a legal settlement between the county and a Rancho Cucamonga developer were ordered released Friday by a Superior Court judge.

Read the documents: 1 | 2

(Disclaimers: Document #1 contains explicit language; pages containing private information have been removed from Document #2)

Judge Michael A. Smith ordered the search warrants released Friday after defense attorneys did not appear in court to object to their release or request redactions be made to the documents.

Six of the 11 warrants, which span from Dec. 2, 2008, to Oct. 22, 2010, were released. The remaining five are expected to be released early next week.

The documents provide a glimpse into the private life of former county assessor and former Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Postmus.

A laptop computer, mobile phone and Blackberry seized from Postmus during searches by district attorney investigators turned up explicit communications between Postmus and men he met online, where Postmus solicited drugs and sex, according to the search warrants. On one occasion, Postmus, on the gay dating website Adam4Adam, allegedly offered a man $500 to spend the night with him.

Prosecutors have alleged that Rancho Cucamonga developer Jeff Burum was on the verge of using lurid details about Postmus’ private life against him in order to win a favorable settlement.

Investigators also turned up information showing that former Assistant Assessor Jim Erwin allegedly used at least three
political action committees to pay for legal expenses to Temecula-based attorney Alan Mohill.

One of the political action committees Erwin allegedly used to pay his legal expenses included the Committee for Effective Government, which prosecutors allege was used to funnel a $100,000 bribe to Erwin from Burum.

Erwin, Burum, former county Supervisor Paul Biane and Mark Kirk, former chief of staff for Supervisor Gary Ovitt, have been charged with conspiracy and conflict of interest, among other charges, in connection with the county’s Nov. 28, 2006, legal settlement with Rancho Cucamonga-based investor group Colonies Partners, LP, of which Burum is a co-managing partner.

State and local prosecutors allege the settlement was tainted by bribery and conspiracy. The FBI has since launched a separate investigation into the settlement.

In August, a Superior Court judge dismissed five of seven charges against Burum, including all bribery counts.

In March, Postmus struck a plea bargain with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to accepting a $100,000 bribe from Burum, in the form of two $50,000 contributions to political action committees he secretly controlled, in exchange for reduced charges.

To read entire story, click here.

Gomez

November 04, 2011 4:53 PM
KAREN JONAS
Staff Writer

SAN BERNARDINO • Nearly two years after Barstow Mayor Joe Gomez was charged with touching a woman inappropriately, his defense attorney said the incident was consensual at a hearing Friday morning in San Bernardino.

Gomez has been charged with misdemeanor sexual battery after he allegedly touched a woman intimately on Dec. 18, 2009 “for the specific purpose of sexual arousal, sexual gratification and sexual abuse.”

There have been several pre-trial motions since charges were filed against him, but Gomez’s defense had not made a statement in court about the victim’s claims until Friday.

John Dorr, Gomez’s attorney, requested medical records from the alleged victim’s counselor on Friday in the hopes the documents would help prove the incident was consensual.

Dorr said Gomez and the victim knew each other very well and that Gomez, his significant other, the victim and her husband would often hang out together.

Dorr also mentioned a specific incident that happened the day before the battery, where Gomez and the victim went out for drinks together. On Dec. 27, 2009 the victim was joking about the night of the incident with a friend, according to Dorr.

If convicted, Gomez could face a fine of up to $2,000 and a six-month jail sentence. He would also have to register as a sex offender.

To read more about the trial, see the full story in Saturday’s Daily Press. Get complete stories every day with the “exactly as printed” Daily Press E-edition, only $5 per month! Click here to try it free for 7 days. To subscribe to the Daily Press in print or online, call (760) 241-7755, 1-800-553-2006 or click here.

Karen Jonas may be reached at (760) 256-4122 or kjonas@DesertDispatch.com.

BY JIM MILLER
STAFF WRITER
jmiller@pe.com

Published: 04 November 2011 12:25 PM

The San Bernardino Community College District has agreed to pay $2,000 as punishment for sending a newsletter that violated state political reform laws.

The Fair Political Practices Commission is scheduled to consider the $2,000 fine when it meets next Thursday.

In mid-March, the college district spent $24,025 to send a Spring 2011 newsletter to 202,000 households in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, according to the FPPC.

The newsletter, however, violated state rules on taxpayer-funded mass mail because its front page featured the names and photographs of the district’s seven-member Board of Trustees and there also was a letter and photograph from the board president.

PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State
November 4, 2011 | 4:37 pm

The state’s ethics watchdog panel is considering what its chairwoman calls “a complete overhaul” of regulations on gifts to public officials, and some of the proposals drew objections Friday from open-government advocates.

California Common Cause welcomed many of the changes for making the rules clearer but worries that others could create loopholes allowing special interests to try to exert undue influence through gifts.

“Unfortunately, in some cases, more specificity can potentially open up more opportunities for special interests to ‘game the system,’”wrote Phillip Ung, the group’s policy advocate, in a letter to the state Fair Political Practices Commission on Friday. The panel is set to vote on the changes Thursday.

Commission Chairwoman Ann Ravel said Friday the changes proposed by the staff are aimed at making the gift rules “more clear” and more reflective of the law and advice the agency has provided to public officials over the years.

Currently, public officials are prevented from accepting gifts worth more than $420 from a single source or $10 from a registered lobbyist, and must publicly disclose gifts. The new rules would clarify that gifts from family members, longtime friends and someone the official is dating are not subject to reporting requirements.

To read entire story, click here.

Bank of America’s now-scuttled $5-a-month debit card fee was peanuts compared with the management and marketing fees that many mutual fund investors are paying.

By Tom Petruno Market Beat
November 4, 2011, 7:48 p.m.

Popular outrage forced Bank of America Corp. to drop the idea of a $5-a-month debit card fee.

Now imagine what that outrage could achieve if it were let loose across the financial industry.

How many mutual funds, if faced with that kind of people-power backlash, could justify the management and marketing fees they’re charging investors?

How many banks would find their deposits running out the door if savers really took the time to shop around for the best rates?

How many company 401(k) retirement savings plans would offer better investment choices if workers took an active role in monitoring the plans and agitating for improvements?

None of this is easy — certainly not as easy as posting an angry comment on a blog trashing BofA.

But the potential savings or added income for investors, savers and borrowers could far exceed the $60 a year that BofA would have siphoned away with the debit card fee.

“Far too many consumers are sloppy with their finances,” says Greg McBride, senior analyst at Bankrate.com.

And we aren’t just talking about the poor or uneducated. Plenty of middle- to upper-income people could do a far better job with their money. You know who you are.

For investors and savers, one argument against bothering with trying to improve their lot is that returns are so puny it isn’t worth the effort.

How about turning that around: Lower market returns make it even more imperative that you try to limit the money that banks, mutual funds and other financial-services providers try to hive off from you.

Where to start? Let’s go from not very difficult and move up from there.

Bank savings. You aren’t going to earn much in cash accounts no matter where you go, with the Federal Reserve holding its benchmark short-term interest rate near zero. Worse for savers, the Fed in August said it was likely to keep short-term rates at these levels for at least two more years.

Still, some financial institutions will treat your money far better than others.

Among the top 50 U.S. banks, the average annualized yield on money market deposit accounts — basic savings — is just 0.29%, according to Informa Research Services. But go to Bankrate.com and you’ll see more than a dozen banks paying 0.80% or more.

For older people who keep significant sums in bank accounts to have the safety of federal deposit insurance, the difference between 0.80% and 0.29% can be substantial. On a $50,000 deposit, that’s $400 in annual interest versus $145.

McBride has two tips for savers in this dismal environment. First, avoid the banking titans. “The biggest banks have the least competitive rates and are swimming in deposits,” he said.

Second, look to credit unions if you can. (They are the intended beneficiaries of today’s Bank Transfer Day, a movement to encourage Americans to abandon banks.)

It isn’t a myth, McBride said, that credit unions tend to pay more on deposits than banks. Why? Because credit unions are not-for-profit organizations. But they offer exactly the same kind of federal deposit insurance as banks.

Money market mutual funds. The funds are major casualties of the Fed’s near-zero rates. They can pay out only what they earn on short-term securities. Because they’re earning practically nothing, they’re paying practically nothing.

To read entire story, click here.

BY DUANE W. GANG
STAFF WRITER
dgang@pe.com

Published: 01 November 2011 08:56 PM

Overcoming Riverside County’s $80 million budget gap for next year could mean as many as 650 additional layoffs, county officials said Tuesday.

During more than an hour of discussion on the county’s finances, officials outlined the options supervisors have to balance their budget for next fiscal year, which begins July 1. Those include making cuts and seeking efficiencies and new sources of ongoing revenue.

The cuts — 3 percent from public safety departments and 28 percent from other county agencies — would amount to $40 million and would help align the county’s spending with pre-housing boom levels, Chief Financial Officer Ed Corser said. Officials hope to achieve $20 million in labor concessions and carry over $20 million from this year to balance the budget, he said.

If all $40 million in cuts came through personnel reductions, that could mean 650 layoffs, Assistant County Executive Officer Jay Orr told supervisors. But other types of savings could eliminate the need for such a drastic number of layoffs, he said. The county’s current workforce stands at 17,894.

“I don’t see any way we are going to have a soft landing,” Supervisor Jeff Stone said. “All the variables, at least in my view, point to a crash landing. We are only going to have a fixed amount of income.”

The county has struggled in recent years to balance ongoing expenses with declining revenues. Discretionary revenue, which funds basic services such as police and fire protection, has dropped by $200 million from its peak in fiscal 2006-2007. At the same time, the county’s reserves have plummeted from $350 million to $125 million.

“I hope we can get through this year and next year without crippling functions,” board Chairman Bob Buster said. “The urgency of this goes beyond anything I have seen in the past. That’s the reason why we cannot dilly-dally any longer. We don’t have the luxury.”

To read entire story, click here.

Spencer

Joe Nelson and Josh Dulaney, Staff Writers
Posted: 11/01/2011 05:59:53 PM PDT

Embattled San Bernardino International Airport developer Scot Spencer has racked up roughly $545,876 in delinquent property taxes since 2005, of which $31,618 has been seized by the county tax collector.

According to records provided by the county Tax Collector’s Office, Spencer began defaulting on his property taxes in 2005, when he first contracted to develop the airport. He owes $194,140 from that year, records show.

Spencer, who did not return repeated telephone calls seeking comment, continued that trajectory over the next four years. He now owes a total of $544,876, officials said. Last week, collections officers seized $31,617.51 from Spencer.

County Tax Collector Larry Walker said the taxes Spencer owes – unsecured property taxes – are the most difficult to collect.

“We’ve been able to get $30,000 from Mr. Spencer or related entities,” Walker said, “and we’re going to continue to work every possible option in terms of attempting to collect the full obligation from him.”

An unsecured property tax is one that is not secured by real property such as a piece of land, and liability falls solely on the person or entity assessed for the tax.

Spencer’s back taxes are for space and equipment, including aircraft, at a hangar at 255 S. Leland Norton Way.

As of Tuesday, Spencer had made no additional payments to the Tax Collector’s Office, said Matt Brown, assistant tax collector.

Property tax is not the only financial problem facing Spencer, who served five years in a federal prison for bankruptcy fraud involving a former soured airport deal.

According to Mike Burrows, the assistant airport director, Spencer owes roughly $650,000 in rent on buildings and hangars at the airport, including Million Air, the Houston-based provider of terminal and fueling services for private aircraft.

“It’s pretty substantial and we’re obviously working to enforce those contracts,” Burrows said. “We’ve got late fees and interest charges.”

Burrows said the airport has begun the process of working through the rental agreements, each of which have their own timelines for settlement, given the terms and conditions.

“Then our commission,” he said, referring to the San Bernardino International Airport Authority board, “will need to make a decision about what enforcement actions they’ll need to take.”

To read entire story, click here.

Mike Cruz, Staff Writer
Created: 11/01/2011 06:25:06 PM PDT

In a rare move, federal prosecutors have agreed to return materials to a Rancho Cucamonga developer that were seized in September as part of an investigation into alleged corruption surrounding the $102 million lawsuit settlement between Colonies Partners LP and San Bernardino County.

The materials were seized by FBI agents serving search warrants at the offices and home of developer Jeff Burum, Colonies co-managing partner, and looking into alleged bribery and conspiracy related to the landmark 2006 settlement.

Stephen Larson, Burum’s attorney and a former federal judge, argued in the days after the Sept. 15 search that agents erred by taking documents and other materials not covered under the warrant.

The materials now will be returned as part of a written stipulation, or legal agreement, between Larson and federal prosecutors. The stipulation was signed Monday by U.S. District Judge S. James Otero.

Larson declined to comment.

The stipulation comes about three weeks after prosecutors admitted to providing incorrect information to a federal judge about the search of Larson’s office at the Diversified Pacific building in Rancho Cucamonga.

FBI agents erroneously told Judge Oswald Parada that they did a walk-through of Larson’s office, with Larson’s consent and in his presence, on Sept. 15. In a motion filed Oct. 11 in U.S. District Court in Riverside, prosecutors and agents admitted the information was incorrect.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said nothing in the agreement reached with Burum’s attorneys indicates the search was not properly conducted.

“We continue to maintain that the search was constitutional,” said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. “There’s nothing in the stipulation that suggests that the government is admitting, in any way, that the search was improper.”

Prosecutors will continue to oppose Burum’s motions in relation to the search warrant, Mrozek said.

To read entire story, click here.

Published: 01 November 2011 09:35 PM

The U.S. Attorney’s office will return materials seized in mid-September from Rancho Cucamonga developer Jeff Burum during an FBI search at his home and business, according to an order approved by a federal judge Monday.

The order – a result of a stipulated agreement between the U.S. Attorney’s office and Burum’s attorney – represents a reversal by federal officials who in court documents had defended the search as proper and initially rejected requests for Burum’s property to be returned.

As part of the order, the U.S. Attorney’s office also agreed to allow for the appointment of a special master to review material that Burum’s attorney believes is protected by attorney-client privilege and should not have been taken.

“The government’s unprecedented concessions constitute a tacit admission that its warrants are fatally flawed and its agents’ conduct was egregious,” Burum’s attorney, Stephen Larson, stated in a court motion, seeking to bar officials from using copies of the material seized during the searches.

That issue will be heard in U.S. District Court in Riverside on Nov. 10.

Federal agents stated in court papers that they had a separate team of attorneys to ensure that that no privileged material was taken, a procedure commonly followed in federal investigations.

Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office, said the stipulation represents a compromise.

“It’s an agreement to advance the ball in litigation,” he said. “We continue to maintain the search was constitutional.”

To read entire story, click here.

San Francisco auditor to investigate
November 01, 2011 5:45 PM
Brooke Edwards Staggs
Timeline of grand jury investigation:

VICTORVILLE • The new grand jury has picked up a probe into Victorville spanning more than two years, hiring an independent firm to audit the city’s operations, accounts and records.

San Francisco-based Harvey M. Rose Associates will also review records for the Victor Valley Economic Development Authority, a regional redevelopment group that’s been headed by Victorville for 20 years — with controversy during the last two.

Victorville received the news Monday in a letter from Edward Burgnon, foreman of the 2011-12 San Bernardino County Grand Jury. It’s the first indication the city has had that the current watchdog group plans to continue an investigation into city finances and practices first launched by the 2009-10 grand jury.

Burgnon said the new audit is intended to “complement” a year-long forensic review of city books conducted by New York-based Kessler International.

“Inasmuch as the investigation was never concluded we are hopeful the work to be done by Harvey M. Rose Associates, LLC and the 2011-2012 San Bernardino County Grand Jury will finally conclude this investigation with a public report,” the city said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon. “The city and its employees stand ready to fully participate and assist in any way in the completion of this investigation.”

To read more about the investigation, see the full story in Wednesday’s Daily Press. Get complete stories every day with the “exactly as printed” Daily Press E-edition, only $5 per month! Click here to try it free for 7 days. To subscribe to the Daily Press in print or online, call (760) 241-7755, 1-800-553-2006 or click here.

Colton police were on the scene while the Drug Enforcement Administration raided a G3 Holistic medical marijuana collective Tuesday in Colton. (LaFonzo Carter Staff Photographer)

Ryan Hagen, Staff Writer
Created: 11/01/2011 07:36:14 PM PDT

Federal agents on Tuesday raided an Upland location and five others associated with Aaron Sandusky, whom they believe are illegally selling marijuana to the general public.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, aided by sheriff’s deputies and police, searched the six locations connected with Sandusky and John Nuckolls, the president and chief financial officer, respectively, of medical marijuana dispensaries in Upland, Colton and Moreno Valley.

As a result of Tuesday’s raid, Christopher Kenner, a client of G3, said he will organize a boycott of Upland in coordination with the collective’s 8,000 patients.

Kenner, who said he had used G3′s Upland site since it started in November 2009, said the boycott would start after this weekend.

“If 8,000 people don’t spend money in the downtown area, I want (Upland mayor) Ray Musser to know why,” Kenner said.

Sandusky, who said he will reopen today at his locations, has run the area collectives openly, saying California allows the use of marijuana when recommended by a doctor, though still illegal under federal law. .

However, that’s not all that was going on at G3, Special Agent Patrick Kelly said in a 27-page search warrant affidavit.

“Based on my investigation, I believe that the G3 stores operate to make a profit and attempt to disguise the breadth of their criminal activity by claiming that they cater exclusively to persons suffering from medical illnesses, when in fact persons without any medical condition can purchase marijuana at these retail establishments,” he said in the affidavit.

Undercover deputies with no health conditions but fake recommendations were able to buy marijuana from all three collectives, according to the affidavit.

Sandusky said Tuesday that he checked the license and background of all recommending doctors but could not verify the health of every one of his patients — more than 9,000 in Colton and about 8,000 in Upland.

“How do you see cancer? My dad died from a brain tumor and he couldn’t see it until he died. It’s the doctor’s job to find those things,” he said.

The warrant was issued to find evidence of possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute it, conspiracy to distribute marijuana and maintaining drug-involved premises, authorities said.

In addition to the three dispensaries, agents searched an Ontario warehouse believed to be used to grow marijuana. They also searched the Rancho Cucamonga home of Sandusky and the Rialto home of Nuckolls.

To read entire story, click here.

SAN BERNARDINO – Jim Mulvihill, an urban planner and a member of the Planning Commmission, is challenging City Council incumbent Wendy McCammack in the 7th Ward election on Tuesday.

Question: What is the most pressing problem in your ward and what have you done to address the problem?

McCammack: Excessive low-income housing is a growing concern for 7th Ward residents.

City officials such as my opponent are trying to locate additional low-income housing in the ward, which diminishes property values in surrounding neighborhoods and attracts parolees and gang members to our city.

It was just announced that San Bernardino County has the third-most gang members in the U.S.

Instead of building more low-income housing that attracts gang members, San Bernardino should be building quality housing to attract higher income residents and working professionals.

I support expanding the city attorney’s successful Administrative Civil Penalty Program to crack down on irresponsible out-of-town low-income landlords who fail to clean up blighted properties that harm the quality of life for the rest of us.

Mulvihill: The most pressing problem in the 7th Ward is crime – burglaries and auto thefts. The ward has some of the highest crime areas in the city; that finding was from research conducted by Professor Larry Gaines, chair of the Department of Criminal Justice at Cal State San Bernardino.

To read entire story, click here.

SAN BERNARDINO — Pharmaceutical salesman John Valdivia is challenging 3rd Ward Councilman Tobin Brinker in the Nov. 8 election.

Question: What is the most pressing problem in your ward, and what have you done to address the problem?

Brinker (left): The city’s ability to provide basic services, like getting street repairs, fixing street lights, or cleaning up blight from foreclosed homes has been severely compromised because of employee furloughs and budget cuts.

I have proposed a pension reform plan that would end furlough days and put employees back to work by asking city employees who earn over $100,000 to pay the employee share of pension costs.

Employees are working 10 percent less because of furloughs.

Rising overtime costs have reduced expected budget savings.

Pension reform would end furloughs, stabilize the city budget and get more work done around the city.

The police and fire unions are opposing me in this election because they earn over $100,000 a year and don’t want to pay the employee share of pension costs.

Ninety percent of their members do not live in San Bernardino, so they don’t care about service reductions for our residents, because it isn’t their neighborhoods that are being affected.

I am the only candidate with a plan to increase service delivery, balance the budget and put residents’ needs first.

To read entire story, click here.

A freight train rolls past the Buena Park Metrolink station. Initially, bullet train service would be blended with the existing Metrolink network in Southern California. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times / February 18, 2010)

By Ralph Vartabedian, Dan Weikel and Richard Simon, Los Angeles Times
November 2, 2011

The ambitious plan to connect Anaheim and San Francisco with high-speed trains has encountered plenty of obstacles, including intensifying resistance from wealthy and poor communities lying in the track’s path.

But the bullet train’s biggest threat could be its ballooning price tag, which this week doubled to an estimated $98 billion.

Backers on Tuesday announced a major strategy shift, unveiling a reworked blueprint for the first leg that would delay completion 13 years to 2033.

Proponents of the project say the higher cost of their proposal represents a more realistic outlook, adding billions of dollars for future contingencies and time for potential delays.

In addition, the new plan initially would blend bullet train service with the existing Metrolink network in Southern California and the Caltrain system in Northern California, stretching out the need for financial outlays and better using existing rail systems.

“This is not a train to nowhere,” said California High-Speed Rail Authority board member Dan Richards, a finance expert appointed to the rail agency’s board this summer by Gov. Jerry Brown. “It will be a train to where trains are waiting. That is the new strategy.”

The extended construction scheme still would begin next year with a controversial spine of track in the Central Valley, leading to initial operation of 220-mph trains to either San Jose or the San Fernando Valley in roughly a decade, officials said.

However, the new construction schedule would lead to dramatically higher costs at a time when California’s heavy debt load already has yielded one of the lowest credit ratings in the nation.

Opponents warned Tuesday that the system had become even more objectionable, and they vowed to redouble their efforts to kill the idea.

“The new projected cost to build California’s high-speed rail project is astronomical,” said Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), the House majority whip, whose district would be served by the rail. “But whether $43 billion or $100 billion, questions persist about the viability of the project.” McCarthy is pushing legislation to freeze federal funding until auditors examine the project’s feasibility.

The rail project had counted on Congress to provide the bulk of funding, but both the House and Senate in the last month have staunched the flow of money. About $3 billion in federal grants from the economic stimulus legislation is in hand, along with $9 billion

in funding from a bond measure passed by voters in 2008.

On Thursday, the authority is supposed to unveil a separate funding plan that would show how it would pay for the rest of the system.

The lack of certainty about the funding is likely to come under close scrutiny in the next 60 days as Brown and the Legislature weigh whether to appropriate the money to start construction next year.

Brown reiterated his support for the rail proposal on Tuesday, saying, “California’s high-speed rail project will create hundreds of thousands of jobs…. The High-Speed Rail Authority’s business plan is solid and lays the foundation for a 21st century transportation system.”

To read entire story, click here.

Jim Penman (Kurt Miller/the press-enterprise)

BY BRIAN ROKOS
STAFF WRITER
brokos@pe.com

Published: 28 October 2011 04:02 PM

San Bernardino Public Works Director Nadeem Majaj said he’s afraid City Attorney Jim Penman will send armed investigators after him because Penman threatened to raid Majaj’s home and car after Majaj refused to turn over a police report.

Majaj wrote in an Oct. 11 memo to Penman that he believes Penman confronted him over the police report at an Oct. 5 meeting as retaliation for Majaj’s canceling a $2.5 million city contract with Matich Corp., which has contributed thousands of dollars to Penman’s election campaigns.

“In an intimidating tone, you questioned me as to why I terminated the Matich contract and asked when I will restore it. I could not believe what I was hearing and I realized that this meeting was all about restoring the contract,” Majaj wrote. “I believe that it is inappropriate for you or any other elected official to be involved with ‘steering’ City staff toward contracting with one of your major contributors.”

Matich has contributed at least $3,500 this year to Penman’s campaign for a seventh term, according to campaign finance disclosure forms. Matich has contributed at least $6,000 since 2002, according to the California Secretary of State website.

Penman, in an interview, said Majaj was overreacting and that Majaj’s memo, which was obtained by The Press-Enterprise, was politically motivated. Penman would not comment on the allegation that he was retaliating, citing an ongoing investigation. A memo that Penman wrote to City Manager Charles McNeely said Penman’s office is probing Majaj’s delay in turning over the police report.

The police report contains Majaj’s name as well as the names of other public works employees who discussed with police their allegations that Majaj’s predecessor, Randy Kuettle, accepted lavish gifts from Matich Corp. and removed an inspector who questioned the work on one of Matich’s road-paving jobs.

Matich Corp. Vice President Robert Matich said in an interview that those employees either mischaracterized the gifts or were completely wrong. He said his company’s work is legally and ethically sound.

A Police Department investigation determined that neither Kuettle nor Matich committed any criminal wrongdoing.

Majaj wanted to keep the report, sought by Kuettle in a public records request, confidential to protect the witnesses’ identities. The city attorney’s office sought the report to determine whether it could be legally withheld. Majaj said Penman refused to redact his name from the report.

“Your assertion that my name will not be confidential, or protected, troubles me and demonstrates that you are inconsiderate for my safety and the safety and welfare of my family,” Majaj wrote to Penman. He concluded: “If anything adverse was to happen to any of the witnesses, myself or my family, I’m confident that due to your history, clear retaliatory actions, threats, abusiveness towards me, you will become the first subject of a new investigation.”

Majaj, in an interview, could not say exactly what harm he thought might come to him or the other witnesses.

“All I know is I have stopped the flow of millions and millions of dollars,” Majaj said. “And I was being attacked by a person who is known for his fear mongering and intimidation tactics.”

Responded Penman: “The last time I can remember threatening harm to someone was a few seconds before getting my tail kicked on the playground when I was in the third grade.”

MEMO ‘MISLEADING’

The Oct. 5 meeting was held to prompt Majaj to turn over the report, which Majaj kept outside of City Hall. Penman eventually obtained the report with the help of the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office, a memo from Penman to City Manager Charles McNeely shows.

Penman then referred Majaj’s complaint against him to the district attorney’s office. In an Oct. 12 letter to Assistant District Attorney Dennis Christy, Penman wrote that Majaj’s Oct. 11 memo “is replete with misleading, inaccurate, false statements, accusations and conclusions.”

In an interview, Penman said Majaj should not have been offended by being questioned.

“Speaking in general terms,” Penman said, “when we do investigations of possible wrongdoing of city officials, some of the city officials who are not used to having to answer questions often think they should be telling us what questions to ask them and how to ask them.”

Penman added that he believes that Majaj’s memo was designed to discredit Penman, who faces former San Bernardino County Public Defender David McKenna in the Nov. 8 election.

“This is the third election in a row where people under the mayor either directly or indirectly have allegedly written documents that have been leaked to the press, and this year it’s more than an attempt to influence the outcome of the election, it’s an attempt to direct attention away from the fact that the mayor (Pat Morris) is under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” Penman said.

Morris is president of the San Bernardino International Airport Authority and co-chairman of the Inland Valley Development Agency, which oversees the development of the non-aviation functions of the former Norton Air Force Base. Federal authorities are investigating airport operations and its developer, Scot Spencer. Morris was among those mentioned in search warrants.

Penman and Morris are political archenemies, having opposed each other in a mayoral campaign and on a ballot measure to make city attorney, city clerk and city treasurer appointed offices, a proposition that likely would have put Penman out of a job had it passed. Their feud has included bitter exchanges at City Council meetings.

Morris said through his chief of staff, Jim Morris, that he didn’t know anything about Majaj’s complaint until Penman informed him and the City Council on Oct. 14.

“Sadly, the complaint by the Public Works Director of abusive treatment and threats from the City Attorney is similar to the complaints made by the recently retired Police Chief, and it stands in a long-line of similar complaints from many professional managers who have come and gone in our City over the past two decades,” Pat Morris said in a written statement.

Majaj said in an interview that he did not write the Oct.11 memo to hurt Penman’s chances in the election and that he has never met McKenna.

“I have no connection to any of the politicians,” Majaj said. “All I know is I was attacked by this guy. I’m a public works director, an engineer. For me, it’s not politically motivated.”

Both sides of the Majaj-Penman dustup were argued mostly via leaked documents, with memos stenciled “confidential” delivered to a reporter in a clandestine interview and to the newspaper office by an unknown person.

MCCAMMACK’S ADVICE

Majaj was hired as public works director in November 2010, and Kuettle, who had been interim director for two years, became deputy director under Majaj.

To read entire story, click here.

Riverside County Supervisor Marion Ashley

FROM STAFF REPORTS

Published: 30 October 2011 08:05 PM

The California Supreme Court felt otherwise, but part of the unsuccessful court challenge to the Citizens Redistricting Commission’s state Senate plan centered on complaints about what the maps do in San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

The redraw puts San Bernardino County, which has more than 2 million people, into parts of six Senate districts of about 931,348 people apiece. One of the districts, the 23{+r}{+d}, wraps from Rancho Cucamonga all the way to Menifee in Riverside County.

“Like other San Bernardino County districts, this district absorbs distant communities with nothing in common,” the suit reads.

The map also created a Riverside County district, the 28{+t}{+h}, that extends from Riverside’s Woodcrest neighborhood to the Arizona border.

“The Commission has drawn elongated and illogical districts throughout the Inland Empire, and Senate District 28 is the example in Riverside County,” the suit reads.

Some Republicans fear that the Senate maps give Democrats a strong chance of achieving a two-thirds majority in the upper house. With last week’s Supreme Court decision to not hear the suit, GOP opponents of the Senate plan continue to collect signatures to block the plan at the ballot box.

The failure of the legal challenge disappointed former GOP redistricting staffer Tony Quinn, the expert witness in the case. But he still has high hopes for qualifying a referendum on the plan, which he expects will trigger a new Senate map for next year’s election.

“The courts have gotten into this only when they are forced to,” Quinn said

CAMPAIGN QUESTIONS

When news broke last week that Rep. Connie Mack, husband of Inland Rep. Mary Bono Mack, was going to enter Florida’s U.S. Senate race, Democratic circles in Washington were abuzz with questions about what the decision might mean for the seven-term Palm Springs Republican.

“What does this mean for Rep. Mary Bono Mack?” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokeswoman Jennifer Crider questioned via Twitter early Thursday.

It didn’t take long for Bono Mack to answer.

“What does it mean? It means I will run, and run a great race and plan to win in November,” she said in an interview a few hours later.

Bono Mack, who often sits next to her husband on the House floor, quickly dispelled any notions that she would seek to follow Mack to the other end of the Capitol Building, if he is successful. She said she has no plans to take on Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., next year.

“I’m very happy where I’m at,” she said.

OPTIONS APLENTY

Speaking of congressional races, another week went by without an announcement from Rep. Jerry Lewis about which — if any seat — he will run for in 2012.

To read entire column, click here.

Thomas

Thomas returns to water board

Filippi questions ethics of ex-councilman from Upland
Sandra Emerson, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Created: 10/30/2011 09:45:44 PM PDT

UPLAND – A former councilman’s appointment to a water agency board was narrowly approved last week by the City Council.

Three council members carried the vote to appoint Tom Thomas as the city’s proxy to vote all shares at the annual shareholder’s meeting of the Pomona Valley Protective Agency, a duty Thomas has performed for several years.

But Councilman Gino Filippi did not approve the appointment, saying he believes Thomas is ethically challenged.

“My concern regarding his ethics and integrity stems from an incident when I ran for City Council last year,” Filippi said.

Filippi said Thomas asked him not to run for City Council in 2010 and that he would facilitate an appointment to the council.

Filippi also questions Thomas’ involvement with a loan given to the Grove Theater in the 1990s from the city’s Redevelopment Agency.

“I have requested all Grove Theater documentation from the city clerk to determine what role the former councilman played,” Filippi said.

Thomas, who was on the council for 20 years, was voted out of office in November 2010, when Filippi was elected.

“I ran seven elections, and never once did I seek out someone and seek them not to run,” Thomas said.

Thomas said Filippi had approached him at an event telling him he may run for council but did not think he would win.

“He said he was thinking about running, and I go `Oh really, why do you want to run?”‘ Thomas said. “What he told me was he knew he couldn’t win, but if he came in fourth he’s pretty sure (John Pomierski) would resign and we’d appoint him.”

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