Supervisor Josie Gonzales

BY IMRAN GHORI
STAFF WRITER
ighori@pe.com

Published: 24 January 2012 07:08 PM

San Bernardino County supervisors moved forward Tuesday with a proposal to require voter approval of future pension increases but face opposition from employee unions who quickly announced plans for a competing measure aimed at supervisors.

The board agreed to have county staff draft a ballot measure requiring voter approval before retirement benefits for county employees, legislative officers and elected officials could be increased. But final approval is not assured with supervisors split 3-2 on whether to consider the proposal.

Board Chairwoman Josie Gonzales, who cast the tie-breaking vote, expressed serious misgivings but said she would wait until seeing the ballot measure language before making a final decision.

Supervisor Janice Rutherford said the measure allows voters a say in long-term costly financial decisions. For every dollar the county spends on salaries, 27 cents is paid for pension costs for general employees and 47 cents for public safety employees, she said.

“This is simply insurance for the taxpayers who will be footing the bill long after politicians and union leaders are out of the picture,” Rutherford said.

She said she hoped to have the ballot measure ready for the June election. She noted that other counties, including Riverside and Orange, have enacted similar measures.

But leaders for the two largest unions representing county employees said it could hurt the county’s ability to work with the groups in the future.

“Do you not trust your own ability to make decisions you were elected to make?” Bob Blough, general manager of the San Bernardino Public Employees Association, representing about 11,000 county employees, asked them.

Laren Leichliter, president of the Safety Employees Benefit Association, representing about 3,100 public safety employees, echoed those sentiments. He said unions would not be able to trust negotiations with the county, knowing that it could ultimately hinge on an election campaign.

Rutherford said the proposal does not take away employees’ benefits but merely requires them to make the case for any increases to voters. However, only Supervisor Gary Ovitt, who co-sponsored the measure, expressed support.

To read entire story, click here.

Two San Bernardino County supervisors are requesting that benefits for all county elected officials, not just the Board of Supervisors, be reduced to be in line with elected officials in other counties.

Supervisors Neil Derry and Janice Rutherford are pushing for the ordinance, which comes less than two weeks after the board approved a similar ordinance that reduced total compensation for future supervisors by roughly $48,000 annually.

Derry argued that ordinance didn’t go far enough and that benefits for elected San Bernardino County officials far exceed those of officials in comparable Southern California counties.

Rutherford wants county administrators to review compensation for elected officials in Riverside, Orange, Los Angeles, Kern, Ventura and San Diego counties and report back to the board with a draft ordinance.

The county’s other elected officials are: Auditor-Controller/ Treasurer/Tax Collector Larry Walker, Sheriff Rod Hoops, District Attorney Michael A. Ramos and Assessor/Recorder/County Clerk Dennis Draeger.

If such an ordinance is adopted, benefits would remain at a level necessary to attract candidates to run for office, according to a report prepared for the board.

Derry voted for the benefits cuts to supervisors at the Jan. 10 board meeting but argued the cuts should apply to all elected officials in the county, whose benefits far exceed those of their counterparts in Riverside, San Diego, Orange, Los Angeles, Kern and Ventura counties.

For example, Walker has a benefits package totaling $178,364, while his counterparts in Riverside County bring home less than half that amount in benefits: $73,105.

Draeger collects $151,694 in benefits annually, while his counterpart in Riverside County collects $73,105.

To read entire story, click here.

Monday, January 23, 2012 – 09:30 a.m.

An anti-recall effort meant to protect certain members of the Fullerton city council flopped last week when recall backers turned in an overwhelming number of signatures to qualify a recall ballot.

The city council targets?

• Don Bankhead: 17,064 signatures
• F. Richard “Dick” Jones: 17,587 signatures
• Patrick McKinley: 17,603 signatures

Of interest is news that the anti-recall effort was mounted by a figure familiar to San Bernardino County political circles.

That figure, David Ellis, owner of Delta Partners LLC, is political consultant to San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos and Sheriff Rod Hoops.

Ellis was probably paid a pretty penny for his failed effort.

Ellis can also be credited for Ramos and Hoops opposition to cuts to there own benefits under the disingenuous guise of “It affects are independence as county-wide elected officials”.

Anyways, here is the link to a post at FullertonsFuture.org

Derry

Saturday, January 21, 2012 – 06:15 p.m.

The highway funding arm of the U.S. Department of Transportation has cleared San Bernardino County Third District Supervisor Neil Derry to resume voting on federally-funded expenditures in his duties as an elected official.

The Federal Highway Administration gave Derry the green light effective Friday.

Derry lost his voting authority last year after he was charged with two felonies and a misdemeanor for failing to properly report a single $5,000 campaign contribution.

The charges arose when Derry fell prey to San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos, who pushed a politically-motivated investigation of Derry to the state Attorney General’s office with a request that Derry be charged.

Former Senior Assistant Attorney General, and Ramos friend, Gary Schons agreed.

A move designed to hurt Derry’s reelection bid and assist Ramos’ friend and political ally James Ramos.

Ramos, a life-long democrat and chairman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, is trying to unseat Derry in June.

However, a San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge saw through the sham and forced the dismissal of both felonies and refused to strip Derry of his right to hold office and seek reelection.

Confidential sources say Ramos’ own campaign polling shows the legal blow leveled against Derry has had little effect on his positive name identification with voters.

The fed move officially closes the door on the matter.

San Bernardino County Auditor/Controller/Treasurer-Tax Collector Larry Walker

BY IMRAN GHORI
STAFF WRITER
ighori@pe.com

Published: 21 January 2012 05:49 PM

After slashing their own benefits earlier this month, San Bernardino County supervisors on Tuesday will start taking aim at extra compensation for other county-wide elected officials.

The board will vote on a proposal by Supervisors Janice Rutherford and Neil Derry to direct the county administrative and counsel offices to prepare an ordinance that would cut benefit packages for the assessor-recorder, auditor/controller/treasurer-tax collector, district attorney and sheriff. If a majority of supervisors agree, the ordinance will return to the board at a future meeting for a vote.

The agenda item does not provide a specific amount to cut but seeks to bring benefits, which include supplemental retirement and medical payments and car and cellphone allowances, in line with comparable Southern California counties.

“It’s very clear from the information we have already, our benefits are out of line for all elected officials,” Derry said.

Supervisors’ benefits were cut by about $48,000 — a 39 percent reduction — in the ordinance, which will return for a second reading Tuesday. A survey of supervisors’ compensation in surrounding counties found that San Bernardino officials received the second highest salary and benefits among seven Southern California counties.

A similar draft study comparing the other four elected officers with their counterparts found that for all but one of those positions, San Bernardino County paid the highest amount of benefits in the region and twice as much as Riverside County in some instances.

In San Bernardino County, the assessor-recorder receives an annual salary of $204,352 plus $151,694 in benefits. By comparison, Riverside provides $73,105 in benefits and Los Angeles, the second highest, offers $132,386. The average benefits paid in Ventura, Los Angeles, Riverside, Kern and San Diego counties is $97,440.

For the auditor/controller/treasurer-tax collector, San Bernardino pays an annual salary of $252,288 plus $178,363 in benefits. Riverside pays $73,105 in benefits while Los Angeles provides $141,769 in benefits. The five-county average is $96,536.

San Bernardino County pays the district attorney $208,458 in annual salary and $152,821 in benefits. Riverside provides $86,869 in benefits while Los Angeles offers the highest in the region, $181,762. The five-county average is $117,826.

To read entire story, click here.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012 – 11:25 a.m.

The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, while adopting cuts to their own benefits package, wouldn’t go near a proposal by Third District Supervisor Neil Derry to have the cuts apply to all of the county’s elected officials on Tuesday morning.

Derry was unable to obtain even a second to his substitute motion to include Sheriff-Coroner-Public Administrator Rod Hoops, District Attorney Michael Ramos, Auditor-Controller-Treasurer-Tax Collector and Assessor-Recorder Dennis Draeger in the reductions.

Supervisors Josie Gonzales and Gary Ovitt spoke in favor of delaying any action and to have the matter studied further.

Gonzales also spoke in favor of not cutting benefits of the other officials.

Even though the county human resources staff had already completed a survey of surrounding counties.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the reason the supes are afraid.

But, Ovitt did state for the record to the county-wide officials that no one is elected to public office for the money, but to serve the taxpayers.

Supervisor Janice Rutherford commented that the benefits of the others also appeared out of line.

The approved cuts are indeed a long time in coming and will save county taxpayers about a quarter-million dollars per year.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012 – 08:30 a.m.

The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors will consider slashing their own lavish benefits package Tuesday morning.

A benefits package unmatched anywhere in the state and possibly country.

The key being their “own” benefits.

Supervisors have been reluctant to apply the same cut to the offices of Sheriff-Coroner-Public Administrator, District Attorney, Auditor-Controller-Treasurer-Tax Collector, and Assessor-Recorder.

All high-paying positions.

Supervisors appear fearful of backlash from certain members of the group.

The county has examined the compensation of the four countywide elected officials and the results show the need for the same reduction.

Will it happen?

Probably not.

Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands

BY BEN GOAD
WASHINGTON BUREAU
bgoad@pe.com

Published: 09 January 2012 09:29 PM

WASHINGTON — The field of Democratic candidates for California’s new 31st Congressional District is quickly solidifying, but potential GOP candidates appear to be awaiting a decision from incumbent Rep. Jerry Lewis before entering what is certain to be a high-profile race for the seat.

Redlands Mayor Pete Aguilar, a Democrat, confirmed in recent days that he is exploring a run for the seat, which includes Redlands, San Bernardino, Rialto and surrounding communities. He would join businessman Russ Warner and non-profit founder Renea Wickman on the Democratic side of the ticket.

While there’s plenty of rumor and speculation on the Republican side, no candidates have formally declared intentions to run. Lewis, R-Redlands, the most senior of California’s House Republicans, could seek election to the seat, which likely would keep other would-be candidates out of the race. Lewis has until March to announce his intentions.

San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos, a Republican who describes Lewis as a mentor, has expressed interest in the seat but said he would stand down if Lewis wants another term. The seat also is seen as a potential place to land for either Rep. Gary Miller, R-Diamond Bar, or Rep. David Dreier, R-San Dimas. The state panel created to establish new political lines over the summer drew both Miller and Dreier into tough spots.

To read entire story, click here.

Assemblyman Paul Cook, R-Yucca Valley

Monday, January 9, 2012 – 10:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, January 9, 2012 – 11.24 a.m.

According to the Z107.7 website in Morongo Basin, Assemblyman Paul Cook (R-Yucca Valley) has dropped his bid for a seat on the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors.

The radio station apparently let the cat out of the bag early.

Instead, Cook has announced he will run for the newly created 8th Congressional District.

A seat covering the conservative Desert Communities, and one well-suited to Cook.

The Cook switch-over leaves County Supervisor Neil Derry with one opponent.

That being James Ramos, Chairman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians.

Ramos, who was goat-ed into running by District Attorney Mike Ramos, has the backing of former Supervisor Dennis Hansberger.

Hansberger was defeated by Derry in June 2008.

Today’s news makes the Ramos bid problematic.

In a currently head-to-head contest, and considering Ramos’ baggage, it’s hard to see him pulling off a primary election victory against Derry.

Ramos’ own polling, conducted about a month ago, says as much.

Ramos’ vulnerabilities include admitting the existence of Mexican Mafia activity on the reservation, earning more than $1.5 million annually without paying state income taxes, operating failed businesses, poor name identification with voters, being the leader of a gaming tribe, and not-to-mention, a life-long democrat running in a highly republican district.

Also of interest is the announcement that Chad Mayes, Chief of Staff to Second District Supervisor Janice Rutherford, will be Cook’s campaign manager.

The news is surprising since Rutherford, who has been touting campaign and ethics reforms in county government, has railed against board staff working on political campaigns.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012 – 3:30 p.m.

Another blip has showed up on the San Bernardino County political radar.

Thursday’s agenda for the San Bernardino County Employees Association (SBCERA) contains an interesting little tidbit.

The son of a former trustee is being appointed to the panel hearing disputed disability retirement applications.

Michael Reiter, son of former retirement board trustee Marvin Reiter, is one of five hearing officers to be appointed under agenda item 14b.

Last year, the elder Reiter, who is also District Attorney Michael Ramos’ campaign treasurer, was not reappointed to the retirement board by county supervisors.

Monday, January 2, 2012- 1045 a.m.

The fight over the future of Victor Valley Community Hospital (VVCH) has some interesting twists.

Dr. Prem Reddy, who operates Prime Healthcare Services, wants the bankrupt facility as part of his network of highly-profitable hospitals.

However, California Attorney General Kamala Harris wants a different owner because of Prime’s history of dumping less-profitable forms of insurance coverage, which has caused community access issues.

The hospital chain is also under scrutiny for alleged billing and patient care issues.

The hubbub comes after a tentative deal with KPC Global, owned by Dr. Kali P. Chaudhuri fell through over alleged problems with VVCH’s financials.

Chaudhuri and Reddy, according to sources, don’t care much for each other.

AG Harris has steadfastly refused to sign-off on the Prime acquisition of VVCH.

A legal requirement in California.

But this fact hasn’t stopped Reddy or the VVCH Board of Directors.

Prime has been the beneficiary of management contracts approved by the VVCH board, while at the same time being permitted to loan the facility funds to continue operations.

All with the backing of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court and a local Superior Court Judge.

In other words Reddy has been allowed a foothold.

What’s even more interesting is who sits on the VVCH board.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Fermin, the number two man in the DA operation,  is currently on the hospital board. Fermin’s family has been a part of VVCH for years.

Fermin has recently enjoyed a meteoric rise to his current position by vaulting from a Supervising Deputy District Attorney to Assistant DA in the blink of an eye.

Reddy has been a staunch financial backer of District Attorney Michael Ramos. And Fermin, who wants to be the next DA, knows this.

In another development, the latest news coming from sources at VVCH involves former San Bernardino County chief executive Mark Uffer.

Uffer who just stepped down from his role at Colorado River Medical Center in Needles is, according to sources, slated to join VVCH.

Uffer is to be charged with prepping the facility for a potential sale transfer.

The move brings Uffer closer to his home in Highland.

From left, Mark Kirk, former chief of staff to Supervisor Gary Ovitt, developer Jeff Burum, former assistant assessor Jim Erwin, and former supervisor Paul Biane, at an August court appearance.(STAN LIM/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)

BY IMRAN GHORI
STAFF WRITER
ighori@pe.com

Published: 31 December 2011 05:39 PM

A panel of California appellate judges could soon be deciding how, and possibly if, the Colonies corruption case will proceed to trial.

The Fourth District Court of Appeal in Riverside is considering an appeal filed by the San Bernardino County district attorney and state attorney general offices seeking to restore charges that were dismissed in August against Rancho Cucamonga developer Jeff Burum, former Supervisor Paul Biane, former Assistant Assessor Jim Erwin and Mark Kirk, former chief of staff for Supervisor Gary Ovitt.

The court completed briefings from prosecutors and defense attorneys on the appeal last month and also agreed to consider writs of mandate filed by the defense seeking to have more charges dismissed against the four. A decision is expected in the next few months.

The defendants will be returning to San Bernardino County Superior Court on Jan. 6 for a status hearing but the main focus now is at the appellate level. Except for discovery issues, further proceedings in the case have been suspended pending the outcome of the appeal.

Prosecutors have argued that the lower court erred in dismissing five of the seven counts against Burum and one count each against Biane, Erwin and Kirk from the original 29-count indictment that a grand jury returned in May.

The defendants are accused of taking part in a scheme to net Burum’s company, Colonies Partners, a $102 million legal settlement. Prosecutors allege the deal, approved by the Board of Supervisors in November 2006, was a result of extortion and $400,000 in bribes by Burum and intermediaries acting on his behalf. The settlement ended a lengthy legal battle over flood-control improvements on a Colonies’ development in Upland.

To read entire story, click here.

From left to right: Colonies scandal defendants Jeff Burum, Mark Kirk, Jim Erwin, and Paul Biane stand during a motion to delay their arraignment hearing in a San Bernardino Superior Courtroom

Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Created: 12/30/2011 11:37:49 AM PST

Investigations into corruption in San Bernardino County advanced in fits and starts over the past year.

Prosecutors gained ground when former Supvervisor-turned-Assessor Bill Postmus agreed in March to plead guilty to bribery, conflict of interest and misappropriation of public funds and to cooperate with the ongoing investigation.

His testimony bolstered the case and resulted in charges against Rancho Cucamonga developer Jeff Burum and three other former county officials – former county Supervisor Paul Biane and former supervisorial chiefs of staff Mark Kirk and Jim Erwin – related to the county’s $102 million legal settlement with Colonies Partners LP in 2006.

A few months later, in August, Judge Brian McCarville dealt investigators a major blow when he dismissed five of the seven felony charges filed against Burum, citing insufficient evidence or prosecutorial error.

McCarville also dropped one charge of misappropriation of public funds against each of the other defendants.

Prosecutors have appealed McCarville’s August dismissal of the charges, while Burum’s attorney, Stephen Larson, has appealed McCarville’s upholding of the two remaining charges against Burum.

“Frankly, the last seven months have been very difficult for Jeff Burum and his family,” Larson said. “Jeff’s been accused of crimes he did not commit. We’ve known that from the start, and now it’s becoming increasingly clear to the community as the evidence and prosecution’s tactics come to light.”

State and local prosecutors maintain their case is on solid ground.

“We continue to be confident in the facts of this case, and in order to protect the integrity of the case and each defendant’s right to a fair trial, it would be inappropriate to comment any further,” District Attorney’s officials said in a statement earlier this month.

Just weeks after McCarville dismissed the charges against Burum and the other defendants in the Colonies’ case, FBI and IRS agents served search warrants at the homes and businesses of the four Colonies’ defendants and other figures tied to the investigation, including the Fontana home and business of former state Sen. Jim Brulte and the Riverside office of publicist Patrick O’Reilly.

O’Reilly’s attorney, Bill Lehman, said he was told by the FBI that O’Reilly is a witness, not a suspect, in the investigation.

Federal agents sought evidence of bribery, extortion or fraud, including “cash in an amount or concealed in such a manner as to indicate it is proceeds of criminal activity” according to one of the search warrants.

The momentum of the investigation this year seems to stem from information provided to investigators by Postmus, who pleaded guilty in March to 15 felonies tied to scandals at the Assessor’s Office and the county’s 2006 settlement with Colonies.

The settlement ended nearly five years of heated legal battle over who was responsible for paying for flood control improvements at the developer’s 434-acre Colonies at San Antonio residential and Colonies Crossroads retail center in Upland.

To read entire story, click here.

Eyler

Mike Cruz and Joe Nelson, Staff Writers
Posted: 12/09/2011 12:50:39 PM PST

Greg Eyler
SAN BERNARDINO – Gregory Eyler, a former taxpayer advocate for the San Bernardino County Assessor’s Office, pleaded no contest Friday to an allegation that he drew pay from the county for work he never performed.

Under a plea bargain with prosecutors, Eyler, 35, pleaded no contest to one misdemeanor count of presenting a fraudulent claim. He was initially charged in July 2009 with felony grand theft and public officer crimes.

Prosecutors alleged Eyler was given the job, which paid $130,000 annually, by his boyfriend and then newly elected Assessor Bill Postmus. But Eyler seldom showed up for work and when he did, his work product was minimal, they said.

Under the conditions of his plea agreement, Eyler will serve 120 days on a home-monitoring program, to be completed by July, and serve one year of felony probation.

“(Plea) discussions have always been a part of the process as this case has gone on, but it hadn’t gotten to the point of being resolved until today,” prosecutor Lewis Cope said.

Eyler initially faced a maximum of three years in prison.

He was charged in 2009 along with Postmus, who faced greater culpability in the crimes. Postmus faced additional charges of misappropriation of public funds, perjury and drug possession.

Postmus pleaded guilty in March to the charges in the Assessor’s Office case and a separate scandal relating to the county’s $102 million legal settlement with Rancho Cucamonga investor consortium Colonies Partners LP in November 2006. Postmus served as chairman of the Board of Supervisors at the time of the settlement.

Prosecutors allege the county’s settlement with Colonies was tainted by bribery and extortion, and that Colonies’ co-managing partner Jeff Burum offered Postmus $100,000 in exchange for Postmus’ vote in favor of the settlement.

Burum and the other three defendants in the Colonies’ case – former county Supervisor Paul Biane, former Assistant Assessor Jim Erwin and Mark Kirk, former chief of staff for Supervisor Gary Ovitt, deny any wrongdoing and are fighting the charges.

To read entire story, click here.

Sunday, December 4, 2011 – 12:30 p.m.

Now San Bernardino County supervisors want to cut their benefits package again.

They shouldn’t think twice about.

The benefits package afforded the county’s elected officials is the richest in the state, and can be adjusted by a mere majority vote of the supervisors.

Interestingly, the last time the Board of Supervisors voted to cut the benefits of all elected’s, they had to be shamed into it.

It’s still uncertain as to whether or not county supervisors will actually go through with it. Since the proposed ordinance will not come back to the body until sometime next year.

It should be noted that it doesn’t really take any time or effort to make changes to the county’s exempt compensation plan and related ordinance.

How about as little as two weeks?

This new proposal was brought forward by Second District Supervisor Janice Rutherford. So far Rutherford has made several grandiose proposals attracting her positive press coverage. But, so far, those proposals have failed to materialize into official actions.

The newly-proposed cuts won’t affect anyone currently seated, unless the individual official accepts the cuts voluntarily.

Any new changes would only take effect on the official assuming a new term of office.

Another interesting twist is the fact the supe’s appear resistant to cutting the benefits packages of Assessor-Recorder Dennis Draeger, Auditor-Controller-Treasurer-Tax Collector Larry Walker, Sheriff-Coroner-Public Administrator Rod Hoops and District Attorney Michael Ramos.

The four represent the highest-paid elected officials in the county, and any cuts to countywide elected officials is either all-or-none..

Earlier this year, Ramos and Hoops declined to accept voluntary pay cuts that all other officials agreed to.

It’s uncertain as to whether Draeger will seek a second term. Walker, who is on pace to be the county’s highest paid retiree, is likely to seek reelection. And all in-the-know say Hoops will not seek a second-term, and may actually want to get out of town early. Ramos currently intends on running again, unless another opportunity comes up. It’s no secret Ramos has aspirations for higher office.

The resistance to cutting the compensation of the countywide’s is no secret. Sources, both inside and outside the county government center, say some supervisors want nothing to do with cutting the compensation of Hoops or Ramos out of fear of retaliation.

Ramos, who never seems to be able to make enough cash, reportedly pretty much blew a gasket when Third District Supervisor Neil Derry was able to push through limited cuts prior to his (Ramos) assuming a new term of office.

Derry, for his efforts, ended up being on the receiving end of a criminal complaint and booking number, via former Senior Assistant Attorney General Gary Schons, and courtesy of an investigation conducted by Ramos’ Public Integrity Unit.

Schons, who had developed a close relationship with Ramos, now works as a Deputy District Attorney in the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office.

San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos

By Mark Gutglueck
Friday, December 2, 2011

Federal prosecutors have horned in on an unprecedented number of high profile political corruption cases that would otherwise be handled by the district attorney’s office in San Bernardino County. In some matters, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has wrested from district attorney Mike Ramos prosecutorial authority or has opened with the FBI parallel investigations into issues Ramos or the San Bernardino County Grand Jury have delved into without reaching a successful conclusion. In at least three matters, federal prosecutors and investigators have taken on probes or investigations of elected officials or political donors with whom Ramos was politically aligned.

In total, five matters in which current or former elected officials are alleged or suspected to have engaged in bribery or some other form of wrongdoing are being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney or being reviewed for their prosecutorial potential by the FBI.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in February and March 2011 obtained from a federal grand jury indictments in the Upland corruption case, in which former mayor John Pomierski, his appointee to the Upland Housing Authority, John Hennes, and their associates Anthony Orlando Sanchez and Jason Roy Crebs have been charged with participation in a bribery and extortion scheme allegedly involving using Pomierski’s authority at City Hall to shake down businessman with permit applications pending before the city. Pomierski and Ramos were political allies. Ramos endorsed Pomierski in his successful runs for mayor in 2004 and 2008. In 2010, Pomierski endorsed Ramos in his run for reelection for district attorney. Two days after Ramos held back two challengers in the June 8, 2010 election, the FBI and IRS served search warrants at Pomierski’s home and at Upland City Hall, seizing documents and other evidence used to convince a federal grand jury in Los Angeles to indict him a little less than nine months later. Part of the formula Pomierski and Hennes were allegedly able to apply in extorting money from their victims was the claim that Pomierski functioned under an umbrella of protection provided by the district attorney’s office. And indeed, Pomierski had enjoyed an uncommon degree of tolerance from San Bernardino County’s highest law enforcement authority in perpetuating his alleged depredations. Despite widespread whisperings heard as early as 2006 that Pomierski was on the take, Ramos went out of his way to endorse him in his electoral effort against councilman Ray Musser in 2008.

In addition to accusations that Ramos deliberately obstructed justice in curtailing the investigative and prosecutorial processes from running their course with regard to his political ally Pomierski, there is further information to suggest that Ramos acted to prevent the wheels of justice from churning through several top county officials who had been accused of bastardizing the function of the county hospital, which is intended to provide care for the county’s indigent population. Located in Colton and known as Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, the county hospital has allegedly been exploited by current and former hospital officials for their own personal and financial benefit, as well as by elected officials, who used their position of authority over the hospital’s administrators to obtain free medical care.

As early as 2007, Ramos, his public integrity unit and the grand jury were informed of a circumstance which involved the city of Colton in a highly questionable acquisition of an eleven acre parcel from Retail Development Group, an outfit owned by Gary Schafer. The $3.65 million purchase was championed by then-Colton assistant city manager Mark Nuaimi, who justified the acquisition as a strategic move that would satisfy the U.S. Fish & Wildlife’s requirements that habitat for the endangered Delhi Sands Flower Loving fly be preserved, and thereby allow other development in the area to proceed. But the property Colton acquired from Schafer was not prime Delhi fly habitat. Nor did the city do an adequate appraisal of the property, as was legally required, and instead, Nuaimi substituted a $3.8 million offer on the property, which was of unsubstantiated provenance, as justification for the sum paid. It would later turn out that the property was coveted by Dr. Dev GnanaDev, Arrowhead Regional’s medical director, who was looking to have the city of Colton write down the cost of the property and sell it to him so he could house his own surgical group’s operations there.

Dr. GnanaDev, who in addition to being the medical director at Arrowhead Regional, owns and controls Arrowhead Regional Surgical Group, Inc., with which the county hospital has a $1.343 million annual contract for the provision of administrative, supervision, secretarial and directorship services for the hospital’s general surgery division, including the trauma, otolarynology, burn surgery, oral surgery, neurological surgery, plastic surgery, opthalmologic surgery and transplant surgery departments.

GnanaDev’s actions in his capacities as both medical director and provider of service to the hospital, like his involvement in the questionable land deal involving the city of Colton and Schafer, was widely perceived by doctors working at the hospital as improper, involving a conflict of interest they felt compromised the quality of medical care and patient safety at the institution. Like the land deal, that conflict became the subject of complaints to the district attorney’s office’s public integrity unit and the county grand jury.

According to doctors and other staff members at the hospital, Dr. GnanaDev not only wrote the contract for his own surgical group, he has his own medical billing company which he utilizes to divert large amounts of money from the operations at the institution into his own accounts. Some of those doctors maintain that GnanaDev improperly used his status as medical director and his domination of the man who is supposed to oversee his function for the county, Arrowhead Regional executive director Patrick Petre, to punish doctors who refuse to use his billing company by having those doctors’ contracts with the hospital terminated.

Doctors and other medical professionals allege that in his rush to enrich himself, GnanaDev compromised the quality of care, and his policies resulted in scores of lapses in professionalism and medicine jeopardizing the well being of the patients at the facility. On multiple occasions, that negligence and malpractice resulted in severe injury and death, they say.

A report consisting of a “stack” of 40 to 50 cases was prepared by several doctors at Arrowhead Regional and delivered to Petre, in which specific acts of medical malpractice involving the action of several doctors including those in the obstetrician unit and Dr Guillermo Valenzuela, the head of the ObGyn department, were alleged. Petre then turned the information over to Dr. GnanaDev, who, according to several doctors, attacked the doctors who had prepared the report. At least four of the cases involved patient deaths. After Petre took the matter no further, several of the doctors went to the district attorney’s office and the grand jury with the report.

Those doctors were frustrated in their quest, however, when the district attorney’s office and the grand jury, which is advised by a prosecutor from the district attorney’s office, took no action.

Doctors and other professionals at the hospital have pointed out that Dr. GnanaDev uses some of the proceeds from his business and work for lobbying and making sizeable contributions both directly and through others to members of the board of supervisors as a means of compromising them.

According to Arrowhead Regional personnel, high ranking county officials, including members of the board of supervisors and former county administrative officer Mark Uffer, who prior to being elevated to the senior administrative position in the county had served as the hospital director, received treatment at the hospital to which they should not have been entitled. Both Petre and GnanaDev facilitated this or allowed it to take place to ingratiate themselves with the county’s decision makers and benefit themselves and the institution, those doctors alleged.

According to those doctors, GnanaDev bent or broke hospital rules, protocol and the law when he provided free care to former supervisor Paul Biane, current board of supervisors chairwoman Josie Gonzales and Uffer and at least one other member of Uffer’s family. In addition, those doctors have alleged, GnanaDev instructed hospital personnel to generate no records with regard to this specialized treatment and no bills were sent. The treatment included MRIs and surgeries, the doctors said.

According to doctors, GnanaDev, who was president of the California Medical Association from October 2008 to October 2009, arranged to have Petre remove a clause from the contracts of full time physicians working at Arrowhead Regional which prohibited those doctors from working at other hospitals. While president of the California Medical Association, Dr. GnanaDev maintained his role as medical director and chief of surgery while spending no more than three to four days per month at the hospital, those doctors said. He delegated very few of his responsibilities to others, physicians reported, reducing oversight of the doctors working at Arrowhead Regional to a dangerously low level.

By allowing a large number of the physicians who were the heads of the various medical groups at Arrowhead Regional to work at other sites, doctors report, GnanaDev facilitated them in receiving hospital subsidy money directly. Those heads of the individual groups were then able to pay lesser-experienced physicians who work for them bottom dollar for their services, increasing the profitability of the head physicians, the doctors reported to the grand jury and district attorney, leading to an absence of physician presence and an absence of quality physicians at the county hospital. In this way, the doctors alleged, GnanaDev had shirked his responsibility as medical director to audit the work of the groups the hospital contracts with to ensure the hospital’s operating funds are properly dispersed and that the hospital was getting the quality of care taxpayers were paying for. This has led to a situation at Arrowhead Regional, the doctors alleged, where it is common for respiratory therapists, nurses, and other personnel to function like physicians throughout the hospital, practicing, on a daily basis medicine without a license. In some cases, the doctors charged, the unlicensed staff members were teaching the student and resident physicians how to take care of patients.

It was also alleged that Dr. GnanaDev allowed the doctors employed by his surgical group to monopolize most of Arrowhead Regional’s 19 operating suites, such that a large backlog of orthopedic and urology patients developed, so they had to wait months for their surgeries. This led to the state citing the hospital for the backlog of orthopedic patients awaiting surgery.

Doctors who complained to the district attorney and grand jury about GnanaDev were also critical of his policy of accepting all trauma patients even though Arrowhead is not equipped to handle pediatric and major chest trauma. Doctors said they had witnessed incidents in which Dr. GnanaDev, who is recognized as a surgeon of considerable skill, perform surgeries on children less than two years of age using adult laparoscopic equipment and on other occasions using adult equipment on very small children. Doctors said that GnanaDev resisted transferring pediatric patients to other hospitals that were better equipped to operate on them because he was seeking to enhance the earnings of his own surgical group. Having pediatric patients in Arrowhead Regional’s intensive care unit in many cases resulted in injury or damage to patients through improper management and improper care, doctors reported, and in some cases children with severe brain injuries or other trauma who were improperly treated at Arrowhead died.

Between 2004 and 2010, at least 95 complaints pertaining to Arrowhead Regional were filed with state regulators, of which 28 were determined to be substantiated.

Jorge Valencia, the official spokesperson for Arrowhead Regional, said attacks on Dr. GnanaDev alleging he puts profit above safety, utilizes equipment that is not suitable for the operations he or others are performing or does not adhere to professional medical standards are unfounded. Reports that GnanaDev is involved in any form of conflict of interest or being investigated along those lines is also inaccurate, Valencia asserted. Valencia further denied any relationship between Arrowhead Regional and GnanaDev’s billing company. And though Valencia did not dispute that a number of deaths had occurred at the county hospital, he insisted that “concerns regarding patient care are handled by the medical staff through the peer review process. He said that the review was “comprehensive” and “governed by the bylaws of the medical staff and various other rules and regulations.”

But in the perception of many of the medical professionals working under GnanaDev, there had been inexcusable deviations from medical standards driven by the profit motive that had resulted in deaths and injuries and crossed the line into criminal conduct.

It is believed by at least some of those knowledgeable about the situation that Ramos was reluctant to act with regard to these issues because one of those implicated in the scandal at Arrowhead Regional is supervisor Josie Gonzales, a key Ramos supporter on the board of supervisors.

In the late winter of 2010, after the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office had failed to take action on the matter, doctors approached the FBI, passing along much of the same information to the federal agents that had been provided to the district attorney’s office and the grand jury. On November 4, 2010, a team of FBI agents, armed with search warrants, swooped down upon the county hospital, seizing documents relating to its operation and GnanaDev’s role in overseeing the 456-bed facility, in particular.

As of this week, no charges have been filed in that matter.

In November 2006, after litigation between the Rancho Cucamonga-based development company Colonies Partners and the county over flood control issues at the company’s Colonies at San Antonio development in Upland had dragged on for four years, a three member majority of the board of supervisors – then supervisors Bill Postmus and Paul Biane and supervisor Gary Ovitt – voted to settle the case by conferring a $102 million payment on the company.

More than three years later, in February 2010, the district attorney’s office joined with the California attorney general’s office in obtaining an indictment against Postmus and his one-time political associate, Jim Erwin, which alleged a criminal conspiracy involving an effort by Colonies Partners’ managing principals Jeff Burum and Dan Richards to first extort Postmus and Biane, and then bribe them to obtain the settlement. Prosecutors alleged that Ovitt’s chief of staff, Mark Kirk, was also bribed. While Postmus and Erwin were criminally charged, Burum, Richards, Kirk, Biane and the Colonies Partners’ public relations consultant, Patrick O’Reilly, were identified as unnamed and unindicted co-conspirators.

In May of this year, less than two months after Postmus pleaded guilty as charged and then testified in April and early May along with 44 others before a specially-impaneled grand jury, Burum, Kirk, and Biane were indicted, along with Erwin, who was reindicted. That indictment alleged that separate $100,000 contributions Burum and Richards made in 2007 to each of three political action committees founded, controlled or secretly controlled by Erwin, Biane and Kirk were bribes, and two $50,000 contributions made to political action committees controlled by Postmus also constituted bribes made in return for the settlement vote. Burum, according to the indictment, had served as an aider and abettor in the delivery of the bribes.

At once, the timing of the indictments fell under question. The original case against Postmus and Erwin had not been filed for more than three years after the November 2006 vote. And the superseding indictment came nearly four-and-a-half years after the vote. A major technical legal issue in the case was the elapsing of the statute of limitations, an issue seized upon by the lawyer for Burum, former U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Larson, who pointed out in court papers that “the prosecution is improperly attempting to charge Mr. Burum under conspiracy and aider and abettor theories because the statute of limitations had run on direct charges of bribery,” which Larson pointed out, “if timely brought would not have been precluded under the allegations of this indictment.”

Thus, the more than four-year delay in obtaining the indictment against Burum appeared to be a trap door built into the charges that in time will bring about the collapse of the case.

While the district attorney’s office’s temporizing appeared inexplicable to many, an examination of Ramos’s campaign financing records provided a possible explanation of the delay which appeared to be a fatal flaw in the case. Burum, over the first six years Ramos was district attorney, was a major contributor to Ramos’s electioneering fund. On May 14, 2003, a little more than four months after Ramos became district attorney, one of Burum’s companies, Jeffrey Burum Enterprises, provided Ramos with a relatively modest $1,500. On September 10, 2003, Burum provided Ramos with another $1,000. On November 22, 2005, another of Burum’s companies, Diversified Pacific, donated $10,000 to Ramos’s political war chest. On July 13, 2007, Diversified Pacific endowed Ramos’s campaign fund with another $5,000. On May 27, 2008, Diversified Pacific provided Ramos with $7,000.

In addition, over the last eight years, the Colonies partners and Burum donated over $400,000 to the political action committee controlled by SEBA, the San Bernardino County Safety Employees Benefit Association, which serves as the union for San Bernardino County’s sheriff’s deputies and district attorney’s office investigators. In 2010, the SEBA PAC gave Ramos $42,947.41 toward his election effort that year.

Unwilling to simply allow Ramos’s office and the state attorney general to usher what was increasingly viewed as a flawed case through state courts, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in September obtained search warrants that targeted the offices and/or homes of Burum, Kirk, Biane, Erwin, and O’Reilly, as well as the home and office of former state assemblyman and state senator Jim Brulte, a Colonies Partners consultant whose aggressive lobbying of Postmus and Biane and other county officials in an effort to obtain the settlement had been overlooked by Ramos’s investigators. Those warrants were served on September 15, signaling that federal authorities are now second guessing the district attorney’s office and the state attorney general’s office with regard to the Colonies settlement case.

In Victorville, a series of actions widely characterized as mis- or malfeasance by public officials has garnered the attention of citizens for some time. In response to citizen complaints, the 2009-10 first took up a probe of that city’s handling of its finances, along with the mismanagement of an effort to build an electrical generating plant, the misapplication of sequestered project funds, securities fraud, and improprieties with regard to a foreign investment program. When the 2009-10 grand jury concluded its session without taking any action with regard to Victorville or delivering a report about its investigation, the 2010-11 grand jury took that matter up where its predecessor had left off. But at the conclusion of its term on June 30 of this year, the 2010-11 grand jury had not come to closure on any of the Victorville issues. Likewise, the district attorney’s public integrity unit, which had also been vectored into Victorville to look at the situation there, took no action. On October 31, 2011, Ted Burgnon, the foreman of the 2011-12 San Bernardino County Grand Jury, in writing informed Victorville city officials the current grand jury is extending the two-year running probe into city finances and actions.

Well before Burgnon’s announcement, however, it was known around Victorville City Hall that federal officials have taken an interest in reports of violations of the public trust that have allegedly occurred within its confines.
Victorville delayed for two years an audit pertaining to its 2007 operations, leading to suggestions that city officials were seeking to hide information that was embarrassing, incriminating or both. Upon release, that audit showed the city had mounting financial problems. Another audit, completed by the firm of Mayer Hoffman McCann and released in March of this year, indicated those problems had worsened, and its authors expressed “substantial doubt about the city’s ability to continue as a going concern.” According to Mayer Hoffman McCann, it uncovered tens of millions of dollars in internal loans that were never approved, three funds that were $180 million in the hole and dwindling cash reserves.

As of March 2011, Victorville’s utility fund was $78 million upside down, while cash in the water district had dropped from $15 million in 2009 to $8 million as of June 30, 2010 despite a $20 million loan made to the district from the Southern California Logistics Airport Authority, the entity that oversees the effort to convert the former George Air Force Base into a civilian airport.

City officials have now reluctantly acknowledged that Victorville has lost an amount approaching $200 million on two abandoned power plants, an outgrowth of the city’s effort to create an electrical utility division, the Victorville Municipal Power Authority.

The Foxborough power station, which the city initiated in 2004 as what was supposed to be a $22 million, 14-megawatt electrical generating plant that would bypass the state power grid to provide affordable energy to industrial users and thus attract employers to the city and spur economic growth, has cost the city a whopping $126 million without being completed. Mismanagement of the project came in multiple stages, first at the hands of community services director Richard Bunnell; then deputy city manager Doug Robertson; followed by Wayne Campbell, who was hired as the plant manager in 2005; and then Glen Casanova, who was hired to replace Campbell as municipal utilities director in 2007.

By October 2006 the price tag for the project had escalated to over $54 million.

Construction delays and changes in state law that mandated that at least 20 percent of all energy produced in California by 2010 come from renewable sources resulted in the city jettisoning earlier plans for gas-fired combustion turbines, the pricey components for which were already purchased, and substituting in even more costly generators capable of running on biodiesel. The unused original equipment had to be sold at a substantial loss.

In addition to the initial and then follow-on equipment acquisition and construction costs, the utility division in 2005 incurred an operating deficit for the plant of $4.5 million. That hemorrhaging of red ink increased each year thereafter such that it had reached an annual operating deficit of $8 million by fiscal 2007-08. By 2007, the city began borrowing from its general fund to shore up the project. The city council, as quietly as it could get away with, issued $90 million in bonds to cover the entire cost of Foxborough. By May 2008, all of the bond money had been eaten up by the Foxborough power plant project and another $5 million beyond that was consumed, bringing the total cost on the facility to $95 million even before the facility’s permanent turbines had begun to generate electricity. At that point the city abandoned its initial intention of having the plant bypass the state power grid and avoid the imposition of a ten percent energy delivery fee being tacked onto the price of the power. Instead, the project was then scheduled to be hooked up to the state power system, canceling in the process the delivery of low cost energy, which had been the justification for the project in the first place.

Seven years after the project was undertaken, the city has failed to see that project through to fruition and the city council abandoned it altogether, after having sunk $126 million into the project.

The city is currently in default on an $83 million bond for Foxborough.

The city was simultaneously pursuing the development of another, much larger power plant, dubbed Victorville 2. The city was assisted in developing that plant by Newport Beach-based Inland Energy, which had successfully developed the 830-megawatt High Desert Power Plant with Baltimore-based Constellation Energy Group a decade ago. The High Desert Power Plant is now referred to as Victorville 1. Inland Energy had also served as a consultant with regard to the development of the Foxborough plant.

In November 2007 the Victorville city council authorized a $173 million purchase of natural gas-fired turbines from General Electric for the 563-megawatt Victorville 2 plant.

The city, which owed $126 million to General Electric for equipment for the Victorville 2 power project, fell into arrears on its payments to General Electric and in May 2010, simply surrendered a $50 million deposit it had made with the company for components. The Victorville 2 project was originally scheduled to include a 513-megawatt natural gas-fired generating plant on 133 acres coupled with an adjohining 250-acre solar power field capable of producing 50 megawatts of electricity. The solar component of the project has since been entirely abandoned and the remainder of Victorville 2 shelved, although in recent months some discussion has taken place between the city and Massachusetts-based QGEN about that company taking on the completion of the project.

Robertson has since been promoted to Victorville city manager.

In the summer of 2010, the Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation focusing on Victorville’s issuance of bonds and how that bond funding was spent. In May of 2010, the board of supervisors acceded to a grand jury request that the county retain the forensic auditing firm of Kessler International to review the city’s finances. The board did so, authorizing $195,000 for that audit. Kessler has not said whether the audit is yet concluded.

In making his announcement on October 31, grand jury foreman Burgnon indicated the grand jury has retained the independent San Francisco-based auditing firm of Harvey M. Rose Associates to go over both the city’s books and those of the Victor Valley Economic Development Authority, a joint powers authority involving the county, Victorville, Apple Valley, Hesperia and Adelanto which is involved in the provision of infrastructure to support Southern California Logistics Airport. It is not clear to what extent the ground covered by Kessler will be revisited by Harvey M. Rose.

It is known is that more than $80 million of the $300 million in outstanding bonds floated specifically for airport operations actually funded city of Victorville operations or projects off Southern California Logistics Airport property, including $1.8 million utilized to acquire land for a city library. According to Mayer Hoffman McCann, at least $21.8 million was not spent in accordance with the bond covenants. Other airport money was used toward work on the Victorville 2 power plant. The city also loaned $20 million in 2007 airport bond proceeds to the water district to help build a wastewater treatment plant. Those expenditures were made without informing or getting the consent of the bonds’ insurer, Radian.

The Southern California Logistics Airport Authority (SCLAA) has accumulated debt of $102 million, twice the burden it had in 2009-10.

Mayer Hoffman McCann reported that Victorville officials have not properly documented and sought city council approval for the city’s numerous interfund loans. The city had nearly $90 million in outstanding interfund loans as of last June. But only $30 million in loans had been formally approved by the council, according to the audit report.

Another issue dogging Victorville is its now-dormant EB-5 program. The EB-5 program is a federal one that allows entities such as cities or redevelopment agencies to arrange for the provision of visas for foreigners who invest at least $500,000 in projects pre-qualified by the federal government. In April 2008, the city entered into a relationship with CMB Export, LLC to manage an EB-5 program for Victorville at and around Southern California Logistics Airport. The city, however, abrogated that contract in June 2008 and in December 2008 CMB filed a $33 million lawsuit against the city claiming breach of contract, fraud, unfair competition and business interference. CMB refiled the claim in February 2009, including charges of misrepresentation and fraud by former city manager Jon Roberts and former mayor Terry Caldwell.

In April 2010, the city settled that lawsuit with CMB for $200,000. The following month, however, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service suspended Victorville’s EB-5 program, stating that city officials had misrepresented the projects to be funded by the investment program. It was the first time the federal government had moved to terminate an entity’s EB-5 authority.

The U.S. Attorney’s office, alarmed at the wholesale squandering of financial resources in Victorville’s municipal operations as well as blunders with regard to federal law governing securities and its foreign investment programs and further dismayed by the inability of the local district attorney’s office and grand jury to take action, leapt into the breach and has now assigned FBI agents to examine Victorville with a scrupulously mean eye.

On September 21, 2011 the FBI served as the lead agency in serving search warrants at the headquarters of the San Bernardino International Airport Authority [SBIAA] and the Inland Valley Development Authority [IVDA], the joint powers agencies involving the county and the cities of San Bernardino, Colton, Loma Linda and Highland in the conversion of the former Norton Air Force Base into a civilian airport and the redevelopment of the surrounding property. Warrants were also served at the offices of the San Bernardino Million Air Franchise; three hangars, including Hangar 763, where two companies affiliated with the airport’s contract developer, Scot Spencer, Norton Aircraft Maintenance Services and SBAM Technics, are located. According to the search warrants, the authorities were seeking information regarding suspected misuse of federal funds, bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy.

Of interest to investigators were Spencer; SBIAA executive director Donald L. Rogers, who has since resigned; assistant SBIAA executive director Michael Burrows; aviation director Bill Ingraham; former SBIAA and IVDA director and current SBIAA and IVDA consultant T. Milford Harrison; San Bernardino International Airport Authority counsel Tim Sabo; San Bernardino mayor and SBIAA and IVDA board member Pat Morris; county supervisor and SBIAA and IVDA board member Josie Gonzales.

Spencer entered into the agreement with SBIAA and the Inland Valley Development Authority to oversee what was supposed to be a $38 million renovation of the airport’s passenger terminal and a $7 million development of its concourse. Spencer undertook that appoinment amid confident predictions that upon completion of those assignments the airport would attract at least one passenger carrier and as many as a half dozen airlines. The cost of the passenger terminal and the concourse escalated to $142 million and the airport has yet to host any commercial airlines, although corporate jets and other private pilots have been landing at the Million Air corporate aviation facility, for which Spencer is the franchisee, since last year.

The cost overruns for the terminal project, the failure of San Bernardino Airport to attract commercial airlines and Spencer’s relationship with Rogers, Harrison and SBIAA and IVDA counsel Timothy Sabo have raised eyebrows and brought SBIAA and IVDA under increasingly critical scrutiny.

On June 30, the San Bernardino County 2010-11 Grand Jury delivered a report that questioned several elements of Spencer’s performance and that of Rogers, calling into question what was characterized as lax oversight of the airport’s operations and favorable treatment accorded Spencer with regard to leasing arrangements.

Spencer’s influence over operations at the airport, where several companies he owns are housed, is increasingly perceived as being in conflict with and counterproductive to the goal of bringing in aeronautics oriented companies interested in remaining at the airport for the long term. In some cases, Spencer’s pursuit of his own imperatives conflicted with the corporate aims of others companies functioning at the airport, resulting in those companies departing.

Spencer now owes the county more than $604,000 in unpaid taxes on property and equipment at the airport since 2005. The county had made no effective effort to collect on those unpaid taxes until three weeks after the September 21 FBI raid.

The FBI’s action at the airport was taken as yet another indication of federal prosecutors’ lack of confidence in the San Bernardino County district attorney’s ability, willingness and resolve to aggressively act with regard to issues involving malfeasance on the part of local governmental officials.

At the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office, Ramos and other officials were reticent about what the federal government’s active interest in local political and public agency corruption cases signifies. “That sounds like a question for the FBI,” district attorney’s office spokesman Christopher Lee told the Sentinel. “We’re not going to speak about another agency’s handling of cases in our county.”

Lee said he could not say whether information churned up by the FBI will be used exclusively by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in any criminal cases it elects to pursue or whether the information might be provided to his office for potential prosecutions in state court.
“I don’t have that knowledge,” he said.

A defendant in the Colonies corruption case wins the unsealing of comments from a different grand jury

BY IMRAN GHORI
STAFF WRITER
ighori@pe.com

Published: 29 November 2011 09:29 AM

A San Bernardino County judge on Tuesday ordered the grand jury testimony of a former county official unsealed as part of a government corruption case.

Superior Court Judge Michael Smith agreed to release the testimony after a request by defense attorney Stephen Larson, who argued in a motion that it may include evidence helpful to his client, Rancho Cucamonga developer Jeff Burum.

In May, a criminal grand jury indicted Burum, former county Supervisor Paul Biane, former Assistant Assessor Jim Erwin and Mark Kirk, former chief of staff to Supervisor Gary Ovitt, on conspiracy and bribery related charges. They have all pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors have alleged that a $102 million settlement the county approved in November 2006 with Burum’s company, Colonies Partners, was the result of bribery and extortion.

James Lindley, who worked for the county for five years, most recently as public health director until he was fired in March 2010, testified before a separate civil grand jury in April, at the same time the criminal grand jury convened.

Lindley’s testimony was not presented to the criminal grand jury, but Deputy District Attorney Lewis Cope summarized some of his comments to the panel toward the end of the proceedings — a decision questioned by defense attorneys.

“Mr. Burum is anxious to obtain all of the discovery and all of the grand jury testimony,” Larson said. “We continue to believe once all of the evidence is out in the open it will be clear that Mr. Burum did nothing wrong.”

Prosecutors did not object to the request to unseal the testimony. Cope said under state law only the presiding judge can unseal grand jury testimony so that it’s available to attorneys on both sides. In this case, Smith said Presiding Judge Douglas Elwell relayed to him that he had reviewed the testimony and gave Smith the authority to have it released.

Lindley’s testimony became an issue because of a comment attributed to him by Dennis Wagner, a former county counsel. Wagner testified that Lindley told him he had overhead Burum say he had golfed with one of the judges who heard the Colonies civil case.

To read entire story, click here.

Saturday, November 19, 2011 – 05:00 p.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, November 20, 2011 – 05:10 a.m.

The suspense if finally over.

After months of rumors swirling within Inland Empire political circles. The much anticipated event ended up being anti-climactic.

What you ask?

The just-announced appointment of San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael A. Ramos to the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, otherwise known as the P.O.S.T. Commission.

Last week, Governor Jerry Brown, a democrat, appointed Ramos to the commission charged with administering uniform standards for the training and conduct of peace officers statewide.

It’s been rumored for months that Ramos, a republican-in-name-only, was being slotted for a six-figure full-time Sacramento gig in an effort to bail him out of a political time-bomb, commonly known as the Colonies prosecution.

Looking at the make-up of the current commission, we’re sure they must be just tickled by the news of Ramos’ impending arrival.

The P.O.S.T. commission appointment is a non-compensated position requiring confirmation from the democrat-controlled Senate.

Which should be no trouble for Ramos.

But, at least it’s another excuse for Ramos to travel to Sacramento.

How disappointing.

“There really is no such thing as insider trading for real estate,” said Milsap. “It goes on in real estate all the time. That’s the benefit of local knowledge.”

Ryan Milsap, Adjunct Professor at USC School of Real Estate and Broker

Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 11/14/2011 08:19:46 PM PST

Authorities looked hard at several land deals involving former San Bernardino County Assessor Bill Postmus during their investigation of the county’s $102 million legal settlement with Rancho Cucamonga developer Colonies Partners LP, according to recently released search warrants.

The District Attorney’s Office, however, was unable to provide sufficient evidence to charge Postmus or his business partner, John Dino DeFazio, with any crimes. Postmus was the assessor at the time he and DeFazio acquired the six parcels through their company, Tri-Land Inc. between August and December 2007.

“I think the DA made the decision that there was no case and did not file in that regard,” said Postmus’ attorney, Stephen Levine. “And I tend to agree with them that there was no case.”

Prosecutor John Goritz with the district attorney’s Public Integrity Unit declined to comment due to the ongoing criminal cases.

Postmus has pleaded guilty to felony charges stemming from corruption cases in the Assessor’s Office and the Colonies settlement. He admitted to voting in favor of the settlement in exchange for a $100,000 bribe while chairman of the Board of Supervisors and has agreed to testify against a Rancho Cucamonga developer and three former county officials in exchange for reduced charges. All four defendants have denied any wrongdoing.

DeFazio is facing two felony counts of perjury for allegedly lying to the Grand Jury about control of a political action committee that received one of the alleged bribes in the Colonies case. He denies any wrongdoing and is fighting the charges.

Several things about the land acquisitions raised an eyebrow with district attorney’s investigators, mainly Postmus’ failure to disclose certain information about the acquisitions on public financial disclosure forms known as statements of economic interest, or form 700s.

Postmus and DeFazio formed Tri-Land Inc. in May 2007, and though Postmus disclosed on his Form 700 that he was a partner in the company, he was not listed as a principal officer on incorporation papers filed with the state, according to a March 2009 search warrant.

Former Assistant Assessor Adam Aleman, a key witness in the corruption cases involving the Colonies settlement and the Assessor’s Office, told investigators that Tri-Land acquired the Adelanto parcels because Postmus had inside knowledge that the Upland-based Lewis Group of Companies was going to install large-scale infrastructure in the area, according to the search warrant.

Randall Lewis, executive vice president for the Lewis Group of Companies, said his family’s company purchased more than 1,000 acres of land in Adelanto in 2005 and 2006 for residential and commercial development. He said the High Desert was a mecca for real estate investors at the time, and it was no secret what his family’s company was doing, as well as other developers.

To read entire story, click here.

Dreier

Sunday, November 13, 2011 – 01:00 p.m.

All the wild speculation continues in regards to who will run to replace Congressman Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands), should he retire.

While there is much chatter about District Attorney Michael A. Ramos being the anointed one.

It hardly seems likely due to GOP cross currents.

The main factor being there is two other House members sitting in the wings looking for a place to go.

Congressman David Dreier (R-San Dimas) would be the guy likely to jump in to fill the void.

The second possibility would be Congressman Gary Miller (R-Diamond Bar).

Redistricting has put Dreier, who currently represents CD-26, out in the cold and has pitted Miller against Congressman Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) in June.

A match-up that may likely prove difficult for Miller to win.

Both Dreier and Miller have hefty war chests, not to mention seniority status, and either one would receive strong GOP backing in the Lewis seat.

That is unless Ramos figures out some way to file charges against both men.

Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 11/12/2011 06:12:51 AM PST

The ways money flowed to candidates and political action committees and alleged acts of blackmail are detailed in search warrants in San Bernardino County’s $102 million legal settlement with Rancho Cucamonga developer Colonies Partners LP in November 2006.

The warrants, released last week, also describe what led authorities to suspect a county supervisor’s former chief of staff of criminal activity before he became a witness for the prosecution.

The settlement ended nearly five years of legal battle over flood-control easements at Colonies’ 434-acre residential and commercial development in Upland.

In May, state and local prosecutors charged Colonies co-managing partner Jeff Burum, former county Supervisor Paul Biane, former Assistant Assessor Jim Erwin and Mark Kirk, former chief of staff for Supervisor Gary Ovitt, with criminal conspiracy, conflict of interest and other charges in a corruption case they are calling the biggest in county history.

The four are accused of conspiring to facilitate the historic settlement, in the developer’s favor, in exchange for bribes and political favors. All four deny any wrongdoing.

PAC contributions

Within a year of the settlement, Colonies Partners contributed a total of $400,000 to five political action committees prosecutors say were controlled by the three supervisors who voted in favor of the settlement – Bill Postmus, Biane and Ovitt – or members of their staff.

Three of the political action committees – Alliance for Ethical Government, San Bernardino County Young Republicans and the Committee for Effective Government – each received $100,000 contributions from Colonies. Kirk controlled the Alliance for Ethical Government PAC, Biane’s chief of staff Matt Brown, the San Bernardino County Young Republicans PAC, and Erwin, the Committee for Effective Government PAC, prosecutors allege.

Postmus controlled the Inland Empire PAC and Conservatives for a Republican Majority PAC, each of which received $50,000 contributions from Colonies following the settlement.

In March, Postmus, who is also the former county assessor, pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the Colonies case and a separate case in which he admitted to running a political operation out of the Assessor’s Office at taxpayer expense. As part of a plea bargain, he has agreed to turn state’s evidence in exchange for reduced charges.

Postmus’ longtime aide and protege, Adam Aleman, pleaded no contest in June 2008 to felony charges related to the Assessor’s Office scandal, including falsifying minutes to executive meetings for the Grand Jury and destroying evidence in the investigation, i.e. the hard drive of a county-owned laptop computer.

Aleman has also agreed to testify against defendants in the Colonies’ and Assessor’s Office cases as part of a plea bargain. He approached investigators five months after his arrest saying he had information about the controversial Colonies settlement.

Money trail

Within a year of receiving the contributions from Colonies Partners, money flowed from the PACs to political campaigns and activities directly related to those who controlled the PACs, according to the search warrants.

Brown’s PAC doled out more than $11,000 to Biane’s campaign for supervisor. More than $11,000 was doled out to Brown’s campaign for the Republican Central Committee, and more than $2,600 in expenditures were taken from the PAC for fundraising events and travel and lodging expenses for Brown and his wife, according to the warrants.

Kirk’s Alliance for Ethical Government contributed $10,000 to Gary Ovitt’s campaign for supervisor and $3,200 to Ovitt’s campaign for Republican Central Committee. In addition, five contributions totaling more than $1,700 were made to the campaign of Ovitt’s wife, Sue Ovitt, for a spot on the Republican Central Committee, and 11 contributions totaling more than $7,000 were made to Kirk’s campaign for the Central Committee.

To read entire story, click here.

Monday, October 31, 2011 – 03:30 p.m.

As predicted the U.S. Department of Justice has a task force examining the financial situation of Victorville, California.

The Daily Press, in a late morning story, is reporting the existence of a Joint Task Force involving at least the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the San Bernardino County Grand Jury.

The article also says the focus extends as far back as former city manager Jon Roberts.

Expect the examination of Roberts to spread to former Mayor Terry Caldwell, who abruptly decided to not seek reelection last year, and William “Buck” Johns, chief executive officer of Newport Beach-based Inland Energy.

Johns has been enjoying the cover and counsel of Tustin-based political consultant David Ellis.

Ellis, who operates under the name Delta Partners LLC, is a close friend and political advisor to San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael A. Ramos.

The Victorville nows joins other FBI probes of San Bernardino County, San Bernardino International Airport, Arrowhead Regional Medical Center and the City of Upland.

Developing…

Published: 24 October 2011 12:23 PM

A San Bernardino County Superior Court judge ruled Monday that he will not prevent about 2,700 pages of grand jury testimony in a corruption case from being used in a related civil case.

Judge Douglas Elwell said the question of whether the documents, which were unsealed in July, can be used in another court case is a decision for the civil case judge.

Elwell made the ruling during a court appearance by Rancho Cucamonga developer Jeff Burum, former county Supervisor Paul Biane, former Assistant Assessor Jim Erwin, and Mark Kirk, former chief of staff to Supervisor Gary Ovitt.

The grand jury heard four weeks of testimony from 45 witnesses and in May returned a 29-count indictment on conspiracy and bribery-related charges against Burum, Biane, Erwin and Kirk. Prosecutors have alleged that a $102 million settlement the county approved in November 2006 with Burum’s company, Colonies Partners, was a result of bribery and extortion.

The defendants have pleaded not guilty.

In a separate civil case, the county is suing the San Bernardino Associated Governments, Upland and Caltrans, alleging they had a role in causing flood basin problems at Colonies’ Upland housing and commercial development that led the company to sue the county. That case is being heard in San Diego County Superior Court and is tentatively scheduled to go to trial next April.

Last month, San Bernardino County lawyers asked for clarification as to whether the grand jury transcript and related exhibits can be barred from the civil trial. The county waived attorney-client privilege and allowed its attorneys to speak to the grand jury with the belief that the testimony could not be used beyond the criminal case, lawyer Jerome Friedberg said last month.

As part of the civil case, the county is defending the Colonies settlement, but during the criminal grand jury testimony several of its attorneys testified that they opposed the deal.

To read entire story, click here.

Friday, October 21, 2011

The California Attorney General’s Office’s filing of charges against Third District San Bernardino County supervisor Neil Derry six months ago has opened up a can of legal and political worms that is likely to complicate the future political landscape for not only Attorney General Kamala Harris, but San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos and at least two of Derry’s colleagues on the board of supervisors.

At issue is the discrepancy in the standard applied toward Derry and supervisors Brad Mitzelfelt and Janice Rutherford, who, like Derry, solicited political campaign contributions from individuals or companies reluctant to be identified as donors who then provided money through a third party to launder the political money. While Derry was prosecuted for having gotten caught up in this circumstance, Mitzelfelt and Rutherford so far have avoided being criminally charged. Nevertheless, the apparent double standard being applied to them by state and local prosecutors and the publicity attending this disparity has come to be widely perceived as a matter of political favoritism and selective prosecution that implicates all involved in the corruption that in recent years has become synonymous with San Bernardino County governance.

This spring, San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos detailed one of his office’s investigators, Hollis Randles, to look into the circumstances pertaining to a $5,000 donation to Derry’s successful 2008 election campaign for supervisor that originated with Arnold Stubblefield, the owner and developer of the Highland Town Shop. Randles interviewed Derry, Stubblefield and several others involved in or knowledgeable about Derry’s receipt of that money. The district attorney’s office did not file a case against Derry and instead turned the matter over to the California attorney general’s office.

According to a report Randles passed along to Shannon Williams, a special agent with the California Department of Justice’s bureau of investigation and intelligence who doubles as an investigator for the California attorney general’s office, Stubblefield told investigators that on May 31, 2007, he wrote a check on a business account of Highland Town Shops for $5,000 payable to the Inland Empire Political Action Committee, a political action committee (PAC) controlled by then-county assessor and former chairman of the board of supervisors, Bill Postmus. Stubblefield indicated it was his actual intent to make a contribution to Derry’s campaign but that he was reluctant to do so directly because at that time the incumbent Third District supervisor was Dennis Hansberger, whom Derry was challenging. Stubblefield said he understood that by providing the check to Postmus’ PAC, the money would be passed along to Derry. According to Randles, Stubblefield did not recall who told him to make the check payable to the Inland Empire PAC and he did not know that it was Postmus who controlled the Inland Empire PAC, but he remembered either mailing or handing the check to Derry.

The Sentinel has learned that at least some of the communication between Derry and Stubblefield did not occur directly but was relayed though Tom Parrish, the business manager at Highland Town Shop.

According to an affidavit by Williams completed at the behest of the state attorney general’s office, when Derry was interviewed about the matter, he told Randles “that he contacted Stubblefield during the campaign seeking a contribution. Derry related that Stubblefield told him that for ‘political reasons’ he did not want to show up on campaign reports as supporting Derry, and asked if there was a PAC he could donate to (which was supporting Derry). Derry said he told Stubblefield it was his understanding the Inland Empire PAC was ‘probably’ going to support his campaign. Derry did not remember how he received the Stubblefield check. However, Derry admitted he gave the check to Postmus, who he knew controlled the Inland Empire PAC. Derry admitted his campaign later received contributions from the Inland Empire PAC. Derry admitted that it was ‘understood’ that the Stubblefield funds were to support his campaign.”

Further, according to Williams’ affidavit, “In June, 2007, Derry was at a lunch meeting at a San Bernardino Coco’s restaurant, with Jim Erwin, Mike Richman, Bill Postmus, and Postmus’ associates Dino DeFazio and Adam Aleman.” Erwin was a former sheriff’s deputy union president who had worked with Postmus on his political campaigns and had been hired by him as one of two assistant assessors and was also managing Derry’s campaign and would subsequently be hired as his chief of staff upon Derry’s election as supervisor. Richman was a political consultant. DeFazio was one of Postmus’ business partners on real estate ventures. Aleman had been a member of Postmus’ staff when he was supervisor, his campaign manager when he ran for assessor and was, like Erwin, hired by Postmus as one of his assistant assessors. According to Williams, “Richman, Aleman and Postmus told investigators that on that occasion Derry gave Postmus a number of checks made out to the Inland Empire PAC, including the Stubblefield-Highland Town Shop check for $5,000.

Postmus indicated he believed Derry provided checks totaling $10,000. Postmus did not recall the names of the donors for the additional $5,000. Postmus told investigators that at the behest of Jim Erwin, who was working on Derry’s campaign, he agreed with Erwin and Derry to ‘launder’ $5,000 of contributions intended for Derry’s campaign through the Inland Empire PAC. Postmus understood that Derry did not want to receive (and be required to report) these contributions directly to his campaign, and so Postmus agreed with Derry to accept the contributions into the Inland Empire PAC and then to pay out that amount to Derry’s campaign. Political Reform Act (PRA) reports and bank records of the Inland Empire PAC reflect that on June 25, 2007, the PAC deposited into its account the May 31, 2007, $5,000 Stubblefield-Highland Town Shops check. E-mails reflect that Postmus directed the Inland Empire PAC treasurer to draft a check in the amount of $10,000 to Derry’s campaign on June 28, 2007. Bank records and the Inland Empire PAC PRA reports reflect that the PAC issued a check (#1011) in that amount to Derry’s campaign on June 29, 2007. Bank records reflect that the check (#1011) was deposited into the Derry campaign account on July 11, 2007.”

According to Williams, Derry completed and compounded the crime of political money laundering by completing and filing a campaign finance disclosure statement that omitted that Stubblefield was the origin of the money brought into his campaign through Postmus’s political action committee.

“On July 25, 2007, Derry signed a recipient committee campaign statement (Gov, Code, §§ 84200-84216.5) Fair Political Practices Commission (“FPPC”) Form 460 under penalty of perjury,” Williams wrote. “On July 31, 2007, the report was filed with the San Bernardino County registrar of voters. The report reflected that the campaign received $10,000 from the Inland Empire PAC on June 30, 2007. The report failed to reflect that the campaign received any amount from Stubblefield-Highland Town Shops.”

In April of this year, the California Attorney General’s office filed three charges against Derry, which consisted of one felony count of perjury, a second felony count of filing a false report and a misdemeanor violation of failure to report a campaign contribution. Conviction of either or both felony counts would have resulted in Derry’s removal from office.

In July, Derry, under an agreement with prosecutors accepted by the court, entered a single guilty plea to one misdemeanor count of failing to report a campaign contribution. The two felony charges were dismissed. Derry was ordered to pay a total of $10,000 in fines and fees to the Fair Political Practices Commission and the court. He was given three years probation and permitted to remain in elected office with no restriction on his ability to run for reelection.

Derry’s very public ordeal instigated wider and critical scrutiny of the fundraising efforts of other local politicians, in particular, other members of the board of supervisors. Looming into focus of a sudden was Brad Mitzelfelt’s receipt of money from Young Homes, a major developer in San Bernardino County.

In the run up to the 2008 election, Young Homes would provide Mitzelfelt with a whopping $110,000, of which $50,000 was laundered.

Campaign finance disclosure documents show that Young Homes provided Mitzelfelt with $60,000 used toward his 2008 reelection campaign. But the company also provided him with another $50,000 through entities that were set up by Young Homes vice president Reggie King. Those entities appear to have existed for no other purpose but to obscure the true source of the money given to Mitzelfelt.

Mitzelfelt held the power of incumbency in that he had been appointed to fill out the two years remaining on the supervisorial term of Postmus, who had resigned the First District post in January 2007 to become assessor. On December 17, 2007, Mitzelfelt received $60,000 from Young Homes for his electioneering effort in 2008.

On December 31, 2007, Rancho Cucamonga-based Neoteric Entertainment, Inc. cut a $40,000 check to Mitzelfelt’s campaign. On the same day, Avenal Finance, LLC, also based in Rancho Cucamonga, gave him $10,000.

Neoteric Entertainment was not transacting business in Rancho Cucamonga and did not have a business license. Avenal Finance, which ostensibly existed to arrange loans for the purchasers of housing sold by Young Homes, did obtain a Rancho Cucamonga business license.

The California Secretary of State’s business portal shows that Neoteric was incorporated in Nevada. Listed as agent for service of process for the company was Laurie Larue of Fontana, who functions out of a single family residence in that city. Neoteric has no business license in Fontana, either. Two addresses are given for Neoteric Entertainment, 7083 Hollywood Blvd. Suite 180 Los Angeles, Ca 90028 and 10407 Trademark Street in Rancho Cucamonga. The 7083 Hollywood Blvd. location is the address for Legalzoom.com, which apparently handled Neoteric’s corporation filings. The 10407 Trademark address in Rancho Cucamonga is actually the corporate headquarters for Young Homes. Nevada Secretary of State business records shows that Neoteric Entertainment Inc filed for corporate status on November 28, 2007 in Las Vegas, with $100 claimed as the company’s total stock holdings. All corporate officers in Neoteric Entertainment are listed as Reggie King who is an executive vice president with Young Homes LLC.

In May 2008, Sharon Gilbert, whose blog, iepolitics.com, operates as a local political watchdog, filed a complaint with the California Fair Political Practices Commission in Sacramento, citing the contributions to Mitzelfelt from Neoteric Entertainment and Avenal Finance as having originated with Young Homes.

“It appears that Young Homes has set up phony corporations to make campaign contributions so that it does not appear that those contributions are coming from a developer,” Gilbert told the FPPC in her complaint.

In July 2008, the FPPC, which does have the authority to lodge criminal charges, sent Mitzelfelt an advisory letter, informing him that under the requirements of the Political Reform Act he needed to amend his campaign statements to show the actual source of the money represented as coming from Neoteric and Avenal.

David Zook, Mitzelfelt’s chief-of-staff, told the Sentinel “I do not handle political affairs for the supervisor, but as to the donations Brad received, I think Neil’s situation is different. I think the difference is that the practice is to report whichever name is on the check. The supervisor does not write the check. What is put on the reports is the information available. The supervisor just reports whoever it was that gave it to him. It sounds to me like a completely different situation from Mr. Derry’s.”

In 2010, Rutherford, who was then a member of the Fontana city council, was challenging incumbent Second District supervisor Paul Biane. In the course of her campaign, she approached Upland-based developer Raul Madrid, who had completed a handful of residential home projects in Fontana during her tenure there. Rutherford asked Madrid for a contribution to her campaign. Madrid, who had projects elsewhere in the county and the Second District, was reluctant to show up on Rutherford’s campaign finance forms, given that Biane was still in office and as such carried influence over projects in the county.

To avoid being publicly identified as supporting Rutherford, Madrid provided a $1,000 cashier’s check to Hank Beffre, a Rancho Cucamonga-based hair stylist, whose salon had both Madrid and Rutherford as clients. Madrid told Beffre to give the check to Rutherford so that it would officially come to her from the hair stylist, but to do so in such a way that Rutherford would know that the money originated with Madrid. In reporting the $1,000 donation, Rutherford indicated in her campaign finance disclosure filing, in documents known as California Form 460s signed under the penalty of perjury, that Beffre had provided her with $1,000 on July 29, 2010.

That contribution was illegal on two grounds. Such donation pass-throughs are considered campaign money laundering. And political donations over $100 cannot be done by cashier’s check.

Rutherford had not responded to a request for an interview by press time.

Supervising deputy attorney general James Dutton, who oversaw the prosecution of Derry, told the Sentinel this week that it did not appear that the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office had referred the Mitzelfelt or Rutherford matters to his office.

“I am not aware of either of those matters,” Dutton said. “That doesn’t mean our office has not been contacted or involved, but I have not heard about that.”

He added, “Generally speaking, we handle prosecutions where there is a conflict within the district attorney’s office.” Dutton was not specific as to what conflict had materialized in the Derry case and did not say how it would have been differentiated from possible prosecutions of Mitzelfelt or Rutherford. “In the vast majority of cases we handle, there is a conflict where the DA would have to hand it over. Unless there is a conflict identified, we are not going to see the case. I’m not aware if there is a conflict in those cases. Just because we prosecuted the Derry case, it doesn’t mean we would be the first in line to prosecute the other supervisors. You shouldn’t make the assumption that just because we prosecuted one case we would be first to prosecute a case of a similar nature.”

Dutton said there were similarities between Derry’s, Mitzelfelt’s and Rutherford’s actions, but that he did “not necessarily agree that there are political ramifications to our prosecution of Mr. Derry. In this case the person we prosecuted is a politician, but we look at each case, no matter who it is, to see if a crime happened and if it is a prosecutable case.”

Dutton did acknowledge that a different standard had perhaps been applied to Mitzelfelt and Rutherford than was applied to Derry in that the state attorney general’s office might have been more aggressive in pursuing campaign finance reporting violations and related misrepresentations by public officials than the district attorney’s office. He said his office is open to examining whether Mitzelfelt and Rutherford were able to fly under the legal radar by virtue of their having a more cordial relationship with district attorney Mike Ramos than Derry, who as supervisor had opposed providing Ramos with a paying post on the county ethics commission and refused to spare the prosecutor’s office from budget cuts being applied to all county departments in general.

“If there are people in the community who think there is inappropriate conduct in the DA’s office, they have the option of sending a letter to our office to look into it. They can write to the attorney general herself or to the San Diego office and include whatever documents they want us to look at.”

Attorney general Kamala Harris’ predecessor, current governor Jerry Brown, appeared with Ramos in San Bernardino in February 2010 to announce the filing of criminal charges pertaining to bribery, conspiracy and extortion against former supervisor/assessor Postmus and his one-time assistant assessor, Jim Erwin. Since Harris took office, the state attorney general’s office has obtained a superseding indictment in that case, in which another former supervisor, Paul Biane, was charged, as well as Mark Kirk, the former chief of staff to another supervisor, along with Rancho Cucamonga businessman Jeff Burum, who was charged with bribing his co-defendants. Brown characterized the case, which involved a $102 million payout to Burum’s company to settle a lawsuit it had brought against the county, as one of the most extensive corruptions of local government in California history. The state attorney general’s office’s reluctance to involve itself in prosecuting Mitzelfelt and Rutherford has provoked charges of bias vectored at both Harris and Ramos in political blogs. Ramos and Harris will not need to stand for reelection until 2014, but opponents have already publicly declared that the juggling of the cases to the detriment of Derry, who remains on the outs with Ramos, and the benefit of Mitzelfelt and Rutherford, who maintain a tenuous alliance with the district attorney, amounts to selective prosecution.

In a statement to the Sentinel, Derry maintained that he had neither violated the Political Reform Act nor falsified his campaign reports, insisting he had agreed to the plea “because it relieved the hardship on my family, especially my wife” and because “mounting a defense to the charges would have cost close to $100,000.” He said he had never been interviewed by Shannon Williams, the investigator with the state attorney general’s office who completed the affidavit upon which the original charges against him were based. That affidavit was “unfounded and untrue hearsay,” Derry asserted, and said that he had tape recorded his interview with Randles and that recording demonstrated, “I did not make the statements they said I made.” He had not spoken directly with Stubblefield, he said. “I actually spoke with his manager, Tom Parrish, and I told him the Inland Empire PAC might be supporting me. I did not arrange for Mr. Stubblefield, who I had not met, to make that contribution.” Stubblefield provided the money to the Inland Empire PAC without any coaching from him, Derry said. Furthermore, there was no meeting at Coco’s as described in Williams’ affidavit. “No such meeting ever took place,” he said. The prosecution’s reliance on Postmus, who has since pleaded guilty to 14 felonies, and Aleman, who has pleaded guilty to three felonies, to establish the meeting took place undercuts the prosecution, he said. “They [Postmus and Aleman] are admitted criminals and perjurers who are willing to testify to anything to get lighter sentences,” he said. Stubblefield’s $5,000 contribution was properly reported by the Inland Empire PAC, Derry said, “and Inland Empire’s payment to my campaign was reported.”

The case brought against him has set a standard that needs to be applied across the board, he said.

“The attorney general’s filing against me set a precedent,” he said. “If this was not politically motivated, if it was not some kind of selective prosecution, then they need to file charges against everyone like me who received a donation after money exchanged hands.”

The spokesman for the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office, Christopher Lee, declined comment on whether an investigation into Mitzelfelt or Rutherford was being undertaken or whether his office would contemplate filing charges against them. “We just don’t have any comment for you at this time,” Lee said.

BY IMRAN GHORI
STAFF WRITER
ighori@pe.com

Published: 21 October 2011 07:10 PM

Prosecutors are arguing that a San Bernardino County Superior Court judge erred in tossing out some corruption charges against developer Jeff Burum and three former county officials, stating that they should be allowed to prove the allegations at trial.

In a motion filed Thursday with the state Fourth District Court of Appeal, the district attorney and state attorney general offices sought to restore the charges that were dismissed in August against Burum, former Supervisor Paul Biane, former Assistant Assessor Jim Erwin and Mark Kirk, former chief of staff for Supervisor Gary Ovitt.

A grand jury returned a 29-count indictment against the four in May, accusing them of taking part in a scheme to net Burum’s company, Colonies Partners, a $102 million legal settlement.

Prosecutors contend the deal, approved by the Board of Supervisors in November 2006, was a result of extortion and $400,000 in bribes by Burum and intermediaries acting on his behalf. The settlement ended a lengthy legal battle over flood-control improvements on a Colonies’ development in Upland.

Burum, Biane, Erwin and Kirk have pleaded not guilty.

In August, Judge Brian McCarville dismissed five of the seven counts against Burum and one count each against Biane, Erwin and Kirk after the defendants filed a demurrer, accusing prosecutors of overreaching and charging them with counts that should not apply to them.

Among the charges dismissed against Burum were four counts of aiding and abetting bribery after his attorney Stephen Larson argued that state law does not allow for the alleged briber to also be charged with aiding and abetting bribery.

But Deputy Attorney General Melissa Mandel stated in the prosecution brief that the law doesn’t necessarily exempt an accused briber of also being charged with aiding and abetting that crime, which she argued is a separate crime. In Burum’s case, he is accused of doing more than just offering and giving bribes, Mandel said.

To read entire story, click here.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011 – 04:30 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 – 07:15 p.m.

The attorney representing Rickie Lee Fowler is bringing forward strong accusations these days.

Fowler faces capital charges from allegations that he is the perpetrator who set the 2003 Old Fire. The case against him was brought by the District Attorney through a grand jury indictment obtained at the end of the criminal statute of limitations period.

Now Don Jordan, an attorney on Fowler’s defense team, is turning up the heat on San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos, San Bernardino County Sheriff Rod Hoops, and former Deputy District Attorney now Superior Court Judge Victor Stull.

In an e-mail sent to InlandPolitics.com Jordan asserts Fowler is an innocent political pawn of the three men, who were all seeking election or reelection to their current offices.

The accusations really come as no surprise, especially when Ramos is involved.

Here’s what Jordan had to say in his October 17th e-mail that I followed-up by telephone.

I am one of the attorneys representing Rickie Lee Fowler (my name happened to come up on the capital case when the county needed an attorney on this capital case). Fowler is accused of starting the Old Fire in 2003. Now that I have finished going through the massive file, I have, to my great surprise, concluded that he actually had nothing to do with it. The difficult thing is that this very troubled individual asked for it at the time by making a series of absurd false confessions. He was already serving a lengthy prison sentence and, at the time, was unaware that being convicted of setting the fire could result in a death or life without possibility of parole sentence. He mistakenly thought that it would do no more than add a few years to his existing prison sentence.

I allege in the attached motion to dismiss that he was prosecuted even though the DA’s Office and the Sheriff’s Dept., and specifically Deputy DA Vic Stull (now a judge), knew or should have known that Fowler didn’t set the fire because the Sheriff and Mike Ramos needed a scapegoat for setting the fire. Ramos appointed Vic Stull, 27 years with the DA’s Office, about Dec. 2008 to “bring the case home.” Stull rammed it through the grand jury in Oct. 2009 to use in support of his then-pending campaign for judge. Stull presented none of the evidence showing that Fowler didn’t know anything about the fire (Fowler claimed it was started a mile from where it actually started and that it started four hours earlier). Stull also did not present any of the alibi evidence which would have shown that the three people Fowler falsely claimed he was with when one of them set the fire were in fact not there, and many other things (including talking the grand jury out of even hearing from one of those Fowler said was present).

I also attach a motion to recuse the entire DA’s Office because of my allegations that Ramos, the Sheriff, and Stull were willing to send an innocent man to death in order to further their political aims of garnering support for elective office.

The motions are set for hearing before Judge Rouse on Oct. 31, 2011 in dept. S12 (Judge Smith, who has been the judge assigned to the case, recused himself from these motions because he was on Vic Stull’s campaign committee when he was elected judge in June 2010). Jury trial is currently set for Jan. 9, 2012.

Click here to read the Fowler – Motion to Dismiss

Click here to read the Fowler – Motion to Recuse District Attorney

Jordan was admitted to the bar in August 1963 and earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder and attained his law degree at the University of California at Berkeley.

Expect more developments and accusations in this case.

Saturday, October 15, 2011 – 04:00 p.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, October 16, 2011 – 09:20 p.m.

San Bernardino County’s pension fund has killed no-bid contracts for two politically-connected consultants.

On October 6, the newly-revamped Board of Trustees for the San Bernardino County Employees Retirement Association (SBCERA) nixed contracts for Orange County-Based Delta Partners LLC and Sacramento-based lobbying firm Platinum Advisors.

Ellis

Delta Partners is owned and operated by political operative David Ellis. Ellis is currently a consultant and advisor to San Bernardino County Sheriff Rod Hoops and San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos.

Granlund

Former State Assemblyman Brett J. Granlund is the player behind the contract awarded to Platinum Advisors.

Granlund, a republican, formerly represented Eastern San Bernardino County’s 65th Assembly District and is a close friend to Ellis Ramos and Hoops.

Platinum is owned by influential democratic lobbyist and businessman Darius Anderson.

Anderson also owns Gold Bridge Capital.

The two consulting contracts centered around the creation of Pacific Public Partners (PPP).

PPP was created, through special legislation secured by Platinum, to manage money dedicated to fund other post employment retirement benefit obligations of other government agencies and jurisdictions.

Delta Partners was to handle the marketing aspect of the scheme.

No serious interest was ever shown in the half-baked conception. A fact contributing to the idea’s demise.

Sources say the concept of a county retirement association marketing it’s investment services to other jurisdictions, which are also members in the California Public Employees Retirement System (CALPERS), seemed rather odd to many.

At this point the only entities to reap any financial benefit from the whole idea is Delta and Platinum.

Both firms were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for their part of the failed venture.

Friday, October 7, 2011 – 09:45 a.m.

You’ve got to hand it to politicians with aspirations for higher office and a desire to deflect. The compare and contrast of the following two stories says it all.

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A team of officers from the San Bernardino Police Department and state Department of Justice raid the home of Vagos international president Pastor Palafox in Colton. Palafox was not there, but evidence was seized from the home. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times / October 6, 2011)

10 Vagos motorcycle gang members arrested in Southland raids
Multi-county crackdown nets members suspected of drug trafficking and violent activities but is eluded by the gang’s

By Phil Willon, Los Angeles Times
October 7, 2011

Authorities arrested 10 members of the Vagos motorcycle gang suspected of drug trafficking and a rash of violence during a series of raids early Thursday across Southern California, a crackdown that comes less than two weeks after a Vagos member allegedly killed a rival Hells Angels member at a Nevada casino.

The arrests were the result of an 18-month investigation led by state investigators into one of the most “violent criminal” motorcycle gangs in the nation, authorities said. Members of the gang, which started in the Inland Empire in the 1960s, face allegations of conspiracy to commit murder, rape, weapons violations, money laundering and drug violations.

“It’s a dangerous organization … that’s responsible for putting drugs into our communities and schools,” said Senior Special Agent in Charge David King of the state Department of Justice in Riverside. “These individuals are armed to protect their criminal enterprise, and they’ve shown how quickly they are willing to use their guns in public.”

Law enforcement authorities Thursday executed 52 search warrants in San Bernardino, Riverside, Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Imperial counties. Arrest warrants also were issued for 12 high-ranking Vagos members, 10 of whom were in custody by late morning. Two associates also were arrested.

A team of officers from the San Bernardino Police Department and state Department of Justice took a battering ram to the door of Pastor Palafox of Colton, the Vagos international president, bursting into the house with weapons drawn.

The Vagos leader was gone and remains at large, though officers carted off evidence from the house. The only outside indication of who lived there was the black Harley-Davidson emblem on the home’s curbside address.

Authorities also raided a Vagos clubhouse in the remote Riverside County town of Anza, as well as one in North Hollywood. More than 300 weapons were seized, including 100 from a home in Alhambra.

“This gang … has been terrorizing our community for years,” San Bernardino County Dist. Atty. Michael Ramos said at an afternoon news conference. “This is a major, major takedown.”

To read entire story, click here.

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San Bernardino District Attorney Michael Ramos speaks at a press conference with San Bernardino Police Chief Keith Kilmer (center) and David King of the Department of Justice. Authorities disclosed an 18-month-long investigation and the arrest of nine members of the Vagos Motorcycle Club. KURT MILLER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

SAN BERNARDINO: Police announce drug raid, arrests
BY DARRELL R. SANTSCHI
STAFF WRITER
dsantschi@pe.com

Published: 06 October 2011 02:18 PM

A small army of federal, state and local law enforcement agents fanned out across seven Southern California counties Thursday, arresting nine members and associates of a motorcycle club and seizing drugs and weapons.

The raids targeted the Vagos Motorcycle Club, an organization formed in San Bernardino in the 1960s that authorities say has about 500 members operating in the United States and four other countries as far away as New Zealand.

The raids were dubbed Operation Simple Green, an apparent reference to the Vagos’ club colors.

“This is a major takedown today,” San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos told reporters at a mid-afternoon news conference at the San Bernardino Police Department.

Laid out on tables flanking authorities were some of the 46 pounds of cocaine, eight pounds of methamphetamine and 300 weapons seized during the raids. The firearms included assault rifles and two shoulder-fired anti-tank rocket launchers.

Seventy state narcotics investigators, joined by local and federal authorities, served 52 search warrants in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, among others.

Officers arrested nine people on warrants for crimes including from rape and murder. Three others sought on arrest warrants were still at large.

David King, senior special agent in charge of the California Department of Justice Bureau of Narcotics’ Riverside office, said authorities believe 40 to 50 more people may be arrested before the 18-month-long drug investigation ends.

There had been 25 other arrests earlier in the investigation, Ramos said.

“This … ruthless criminal motorcycle gang has been terrorizing our community for years, if not decades,” the district attorney said. “In the last decade I can tell you we have prosecuted them for drug charges, weapons charges … kidnapping, witness intimidation, murder, rape. These are criminals.”

He made reference to sweeps dating at least five years in which members of the Vagos were arrested.

Two months ago, Riverside County settled a defamation lawsuit filed on behalf of the club after a series of attacks against Hemet police. There was no monetary compensation, but county officials released a public statement calling comments from then-Riverside County DA Rod Pacheco “offensive” and “unfortunate” when he insinuated that the Vagos may have been involved in the attacks.

Vagos attorney Joseph Yanny did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment on Thursday’s raids.

Details of the arrests, including the names and hometowns of those taken into custody, were not released.

To read entire story, click here.

Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 10/06/2011 07:11:55 PM PDT

Senior state Assistant Attorney General Gary Schons will retire at the end of the month and will begin a new job at the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, officials from both offices said.

San Bernardino County Assistant District Attorney Jim Hackleman also is retiring. His last day is Friday.

Schons and Hackleman oversaw the prosecution of Rancho Cucamonga developer Jeff Burum and three former county officials in a sweeping corruption scandal tied to a $102 million legal settlement between the county and Burum’s development consortium, Colonies Partners LP. In a joint prosecution, the District Attorney’s and state Attorney General’s offices allege the settlement was tainted by bribery and extortion.

Burum and the other three defendants – former county Supervisor Paul Biane, former assistant assessor Jim Erwin and Mark Kirk, former chief of staff for Supervisor Gary Ovitt, deny any wrongdoing.

On Nov. 18, Schons will begin his new job as Senior Advisor of Law and Policy in the appellate division of the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office.

“Gary will be an incredible asset to the office of the District Attorney and will greatly contribute to the outstanding statewide reputation of our Appellate Division,” San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said in an e-mail to her staff on Sept. 15.

Dumanis noted in her e-mail that Schons is one of the premiere experts in the area of appellate law, having headed the appeals, writs and trials section of the Attorney General’s criminal division in San Diego.

During his 35-year career at the Attorney General’s Office, Schons tried felony cases in the state and federal courts and argued cases in the state Supreme Court, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and in appellate courts throughout the state.

Schons’ replacement has yet to be announced.

At the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office, Supervising Deputy District Attorney Michael Fermin will replace Hackleman as Assistant District Attorney, but the supervisory function of the office’s Public Integrity Unit, which Hackleman oversaw, will be taken over by Assistant District Attorney Dennis Christy, said Chris Lee, office spokesman.

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Lewis

Monday, October 3, 2011 – 05:45 a.m.

Could U.S. Representative Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands) be pulling the plug.

It looks like this could be the case.

Rumors are starting to make the rounds that Lewis may announce his retirement after the first of the year to keep the field clear for San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos until the filing period opens.

Ramos has pretty much charged or eliminated most potential opponents in a republican primary.

On the other side of the coin.

Lewis has been bothered by the effect of the recent redistricting on his home district, which weakened republican registration, and his being passed over for chair of House Appropriations.

Secondly, the eruption of a federal investigation into activities at the San Bernardino International Airport can’t be making Lewis too happy.

Lewis was key in the obtaining of federal earmarks used in the redevelopment of the former Norton Air Force base.

Lastly, Lewis’ wife is said to pushing the congressman to retire.

Ultimately, it’s his choice.