Democratic gubernatorial candidate and attorney general Jerry Brown evaporated from the air waves yesterday after Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley arrived on the scene to set the record straight regarding his office’s investigation into the City of Bell salary and pension scandal.

Brown has evaporated from the media circuit since Cooley gave interviews to newspaper and radio stations on Monday.

In an interview yesterday on the Tim Conway Jr. Show, aired on Los Angeles-based radio station KFI-AM 640, Cooley told Conway his office has already interviewed Bell officials back in March of this year. Cooley also said his office had primary jurisdiction on the criminal investigation and had not requested help from Brown’s office, but that both agencies were in communication.

Cooley said the Attorney General appeared to be pursuing a “civil” investigation path.

Over the past week, Brown, in an effort to counter opponent Meg Whitman’s media barrage, has been burning a public trail of “righteous indignation” over the Bell matter.

Amazing!

City managers will gather in Sacramento on Thursday to discuss damage control. Some say more residents are seeking salary information from city halls. The Legislature considers reforms as well.

By Sam Allen, Abby Sewell and Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times

July 29, 2010

The scandal over high salaries paid to Bell officials has city leaders throughout the state scrambling to limit the political damage.

City halls have seen an uptick in residents calling to find out what their local officials make ever since the story broke two weeks ago and prompted widespread public outrage.

On Thursday, city managers from across the state will gather in Sacramento to discuss damage control. Among the ideas on the table: launching an independent examination of city officials’ salaries and compiling a database of salaries for municipal executives.

The Legislature also is mulling several Bell-inspired proposals, including a requirement that cities make salaries easily accessible on websites. Another suggestion would cap pensions of highly paid city officials, an issue that arose after The Times reported that former Bell City Manager Robert Rizzo, who earned nearly $800,000 a year, would receive roughly $600,000 a year in pension benefits once he retired.

Many of the ideas are designed to put political distance between Bell and the rest of California’s 480 cities and towns. “It would be really unfortunate if anyone took the outrageous action of one city and generalized it to all cities,” said Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities, which is hosting the meeting.

The stories of soaring salaries come at a difficult time for cities, which are making cutbacks amid a recession that has made many taxpayers ever more interested in what services they get for their tax dollars.

In Sacramento, the Bell salary controversy threatens to undermine the arguments made by city managers against state budget proposals that would take money away from municipalities. For months, city officials have lobbied the Legislature, arguing that they are suffering financially because of the economic slump and cannot afford deeper cuts.

“However, the Times story suggests this duress may not apply to all our cities, or that some cities are not allowing their economic plight to curtail Fortune 500-level salaries for their senior executives,” State Senate President Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) wrote in a pointed letter to the League of Cities last week.

At a time of low public confidence in government, the Bell revelations pose another threat to the credibility of local officials.

“It just makes for a toxic environment,” said Max Neiman, senior resident scholar at the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley.

City clerks, human resource directors and finance officers said they have been processing an influx of public records requests for public officials’ salary figures since the revelations of the salary paid to Rizzo as well as Bell’s police chief, who made $457,000, and the assistant city manager, who made $376,000.

Officials have found themselves repeating the mantra, “We’re not Bell,” to concerned residents.

Figuring out exactly how much top city leaders make can be difficult, however. The base salary of city officials is usually the most easily accessible number, but it rarely captures the total compensation. City leaders also can be paid through car and phone allowances, housing agreements or deferred compensation plans. In some cases, city managers can receive a separate salary by holding a different position or serving on a board or commission.

Those extras can significantly boost total compensation, but they are difficult to sort out.

Take the case of Laguna Hills. Barbara Kogerman, who ran for City Council in the Orange County suburb, sought the assistance of three local graduate students to figure out how much City Manager Bruce Channing earned and how his pay compared to that of other Orange County city managers.

Collecting the information was difficult, in part because each city offered data in a unique format, the students said.

In the case of Laguna Hills, the students said Channing received a base salary of $233,430 but calculated his total earnings at $460,809 after including $227,379 in additional payments.

Channing strongly disputed the report, calling it “factually inaccurate and misleading” because it included what he said were reimbursements for phone bills, travel costs and other expenses.

“What it costs an organization to equip an individual to perform their duties is not the same as the salary that the individual is paid,” Channing said.

The Internal Revenue Service has rules designed to distinguish between legitimate reimbursements for business expenses and disguised forms of compensation, but applying those rules to individual cases can be tricky.

Channing, the vice president of the League of California Cities’ City Managers Department, plans to attend the meetings today in Sacramento and said action is needed in the wake of the Bell revelations.

Making total compensation figures easier to look up is one of several items on the agenda in Sacramento.

Assemblyman Hector De La Torre (D- South Gate) said legislation he is working on may go beyond requiring public disclosure to also restrict how compensation and pensions are provided.

To read entire story, click here.

Josh Dulaney, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/28/2010 05:30:35 PM PDT

RIALTO – Another woman has come forward in connection with an alleged sex scandal involving police officers and employees of the Spearmint Rhino strip club, authorities confirmed Wednesday.

“Last Friday, we had a woman file a complaint against one of the officers that we’ve identified in the investigation,” Police Chief Mark Kling said.

He would not comment on the nature of the complaint, citing the ongoing investigation.

Kling launched an internal investigation in May after Nancy Holtgreve, a server at Spearmint Rhino, told police that Officer James Dobbs had threatened her when she demanded child support for an infant son she said he fathered.

Holtgreve told investigators that she and Dobbs met for sex three times last year at the Rialto Police Benefit Association’s union hall.

Holtgreve claims that Dobbs was on duty on all three occasions.

She has retained a lawyer and declined further comment.

Dobbs has not returned phone calls seeking comment.

Kling, citing the ongoing investigation, would not confirm if the woman who came forward Friday is an employee of Spearmint Rhino.

To read entire story, click here.

10:00 PM PDT on Wednesday, July 28, 2010

The Press-Enterprise

Redlands Planning Commission Chairman Paul Foster has qualified to run for a City Council seat in the November election.

Foster submitted nomination papers with 30 signatures on Monday. Twenty were validated, enough to qualify for the ballot, City Clerk Sam Irwin said Wednesday.

Mayor Pat Gilbreath and Councilman Jon Harrison are up for election in November. Councilman Mick Gallagher’s term also is expiring, but he has said he won’t run again.

Gilbreath said when she was elected mayor that this would be her last term on the council, but she recently announced a change of heart.

10:00 PM PDT on Wednesday, July 28, 2010

By JAN SEARS
The Press-Enterprise

The Redlands City Council today will consider asking residents to approve a half-cent sales tax measure on the November ballot.

The council conducted a July 20 public hearing on the tax and agreed afterward, on a 4-1 vote, to put the measure on the ballot. The action requires a second vote, scheduled today because Mayor Pro Tem Jerry Bean will be unavailable for the next regular meeting Tuesday.

Putting the tax on the ballot requires approval by four of the five council members. Mick Gallagher said last week that he wouldn’t vote for it. Councilman Jon Harrison will be out of town but will attend by phone.

In introducing the issue last week, Councilman Pete Aguilar cited a city survey that showed 51 percent of those queried would support the tax measure.

“My position is the residents need to be part of this process,” Aguilar said. “Voters need to decide what type of city they want to live in and what type of services that city should provide.”

The city’s general fund budget includes some revenue from the sales tax, assuming that it will be approved. If the measure fails, the city’s deficit will rise to about $1.3 million from the current $877,000.

During the public hearing, several people criticized the city for spending too much on salaries, pensions and tuition reimbursements for employees. Former Mayor Bill Cunningham pointed out that the city’s budgets have grown larger every year and that about half of the city’s employees live out of town, presumably spending their pay elsewhere.

The tax was endorsed by the police and firefighters unions and the Redlands Chamber of Commerce.

Jeff Screnka, who offered the chamber’s endorsement, said the city must develop an economic model detailing how it will pay for its operations. “The city sales tax could never pass if residents are not convinced that it’s part of an overall, long-term plan that will provide for the fiscal stability of this city,” he said.

Patty Peoples, a city recreation commission member, said budget cuts and layoffs have “hurt the youth and the recreation department drastically. Down the road, that’s going to affect crime in this area.”

Gallagher, a Redlands jewelry store owner, said he doesn’t support the tax.

“I really feel I’m doing my job by not sending this to the voters,” he said. “You sent me here to do this.”

Mayor Pat Gilbreath said she doesn’t support the tax, either. She said it’s not right that downtown merchants should have to charge a higher price than businesses in nearby Citrus Plaza, outside the city limits.

“I’m not going to support the tax, but I support the voters making the decision,” she said.

Bean said that in his two years in office, progress has been made toward reining in city spending.

To read entire story, click here.

10:00 PM PDT on Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Cassie MacDuff

People are understandably upset at high salaries paid to city officials, while municipal workers are being laid off and the public is being told it will have to settle for reduced services.

But lucrative pay is only half the story. When you add in the benefits public officials receive, the taxpayers are getting hit for even more than many people realize.

Not to pick on Redlands, but it provided the most complete information of all the cities queried this week.

Police Chief Jim Bueermann will receive a salary of $224,486 this year, and the city will contribute $109,299 to his pension plan.

Add in his other benefits, and his employment will cost Redlands $369,273 — more than the city manager.

City Manager Enrique Martinez will collect $231,229 in salary, and the city will contribute $42,386 to his pension. Other benefits will bring the total to $327,352 this fiscal year.

Bueermann has worked for the city 32 years, Martinez less than four (hence the pension difference?).

Redlands is not alone in providing generous benefits.

Riverside City Manager Brad Hudson’s $294,525 annual salary is augmented by $123,390 in benefits. Assistant City Manager Tom DeSantis gets a $220,031 salary and $70,874 in benefits; Assistant City Manager Belinda Graham, $200,028 salary and $59,978 in benefits.

Police Chief Sergio Diaz’s $229,999 salary comes with $81,175 in benefits.

San Bernardino City Manager Charles McNeely makes $278,000 salary and $80,359 in benefits. The assistant city manager, $137,420 plus $47,835 in benefits, the police chief, $208,585 plus $63,062 in benefits.

Many cities’ officials, despite high salaries, get retirement pensions paid for entirely at public expense. They don’t contribute a penny. How many private-sector workers can say that?

Corona stopped fully subsidizing managers’ retirements on Jan. 1, 1999. Those hired since that date contribute 3 percent and the city contributes 5 percent of the 8 percent total.

Redlands pays the full 7 percent contribution to department heads’ pensions, 9 percent for the police chief’s.

Many public-sector workers also enjoy fully subsidized medical insurance. Most private-sector workers share the cost of premiums.

Redlands department heads also are eligible for lifetime medical coverage after 15 years’ service. Private-sector workers, jealous yet?

Public workers also enjoy generous holiday, vacation and sick leave. Top officials may get administrative leave, cars or car allowances and perks too many to list.

To read entire column, click here.

By DAVID OLSON and BEN GOAD
The Press-Enterprise

The sharply divergent reactions that Inland residents had to a federal judge’s ruling Wednesday blocking full enforcement of Arizona’s tough anti-illegal-immigration law mirrored the outrage and joy expressed nationwide.

Lake Elsinore Mayor Melissa Melendez blasted the decision. “If that’s what they’ve done, and they’ve usurped the authority of the state of Arizona, then I am completely ashamed and appalled at what they are doing,” Melendez said.

The Lake Elsinore, Hemet and Highland city councils approved resolutions supporting the law, and Menifee’s council criticized California cities that are boycotting Arizona.

Rep. Joe Baca, D-Rialto, hailed the ruling.

“This decision is an important victory over fear and hatred,” Baca said. “The truth of the matter is that Arizona SB 1070 would have only served to further divide the American people, and would not have brought us one step closer to fixing America’s broken immigration system.”

Reps. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, and Darrell Issa, R-Vista, each issued statements denouncing the decision.

Issa, whose district includes parts of southwest Riverside County, described it as “absurd.”

“The federal government has a right and a responsibility to enforce existing laws,” he said. “But when they fail to meet that responsibility, we should not stand in the way of the states that take action to respond to the very real threat of border violence, drug cartels and human smuggling.”

Menifee Mayor Wallace Edgerton said the judgment violated constitutional principles.

“Once again you have the court overruling the people, which was not intended by the founding fathers,” he said.

Hemet City Councilman Robert Youssef said Arizona should be able to take action against residents who are breaking the law. “We call them illegal immigrants for a reason,” he said.

But Hemet resident Alfredo Rodriguez, Jr., 33, said that if the law had gone into effect, it would have led to racial profiling against Latinos, no matter what their legal status.

“I think they’ll feel safer to go out on the streets, to go to work, to go shopping,” he said. “Otherwise they’ll feel like prisoners in their own home, afraid of being pulled over just because they look illegal, whatever that means.”

To read entire story, click here.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA – The former city manager of Bell, who stepped down last week after news reports unveiled his unusually high salary of more than $787,000, got his start in Rancho Cucamonga, where he rose through the ranks in eight years to become assistant city manager.

Robert Rizzo, 56, possibly the highest-paid city manager in the nation, was hired by Rancho Cucamonga as an administrative aide in 1980 and later became an administrative analyst and an assistant to the city manager before becoming an assistant city manager.

Rancho Cucamonga City Manager Jack Lam, who was not in his current post during Rizzo’s tenure with the city, said Rizzo was assistant city manager for about two years and earned a salary in the $56,000 to $69,000 range.

Lam called Rizzo and other Bell leaders’ actions “unconscionable.”

“These handful of folks are folks who are supposed to show ethical leadership,” Lam said. “This makes the whole system of government look bad.”

Residents of Bell, a small working-class city in Los Angeles County, were infuriated after learning Rizzo, council members and other city leaders were earning many times more than officials from much larger cities. With a contract that stipulated an automatic 12 percent increase, Rizzo was earning almost twice the salary of President Barack Obama.

Rizzo stepped down Friday, and residents are calling on four of the five members of the City Council to resign.

The state attorney general and controller, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office are all investigating Bell’s finances and practices.

Rizzo resigned from Rancho Cucamonga in 1988 and became Hesperia’s city manager.

To read entire story, click here.

Neil Nisperos, Staff Writer
Created: 07/28/2010 06:21:05 PM PDT

A number of area residents have signaled their intent to run for the region’s school boards as the filing period for the Nov. 2 election has just passed its mid-point.

More than 30 school board seats are being contested at the Inland Valley school districts of Central, Alta Loma, Chaffey Joint Union High School, Chino Valley, Cucamonga, Etiwanda, Fontana, Upland, Mount Baldy, Mountain View, Ontario-Montclair, and the San Bernardino County board of education.

A new contender for the county Board of Education is Ronald Coats, of San Bernardino, who is among eight county residents to take out filing documents.

Coats said he would work to provide financial literacy education for the county area students.

“The problem with most kids these days when they graduate from high school is they don’t have any exposure whatsoever to any financial literacy knowledge,” he said. “They don’t know how to balance a check book, interest rates, dividends and IRAs. In this day and age, that’s just a crime.”

Elsewhere, Silver Aguilar is making a third attempt at winning a Chino Valley Unified school board seat, after unsuccessful runs in 2006 and 2008.

Seats for current board members Sylvia Orozco and Charles Dickie are up for election on the November ballot. Aguilar joins Orozco, Brandon Blanchard and Irene Hernandez-Blair as interested contenders.

Among the issues at the district, Aguilar said he’s concerned about improving safety for district students after the arrests of two Chino Hills High School teachers in recent weeks on suspicion of sexual relationships with students.

“We have to get to the bottom of this,” Aguilar said. “I’m not sure what they’re doing at the district to take care of the kid’s safety. I think the safety of all the kids is at question here and I wish the district would do more to safeguard the children. There are background checks, but somehow these individuals have been getting through the cracks.”

Hernandez-Blair, a district parent, said she was concerned with the “unnecessary” litigation costs incurred by the school district in recent years, in addition to the school district being placed in program improvement status.

“At one time, this school district was as thriving quality school district, and under the current leadership, it has now fallen into program improvement,” she said. “Reduced funds cannot be used as an excuse to provide a less than quality education.”

Blanchard said he would bridge a gap of misunderstanding between district administrators, employee unions and the community regarding financial issues.

“When money is involved everybody thinks each side isn’t telling the truth and I talked to some and some people in the community and they think the teachers want too much, but I don’t believe they have all the facts.”

To read entire story, click here.

L.A. NOW
Southern California — this just in

July 28, 2010 | 5:31 pm

Three highly paid administrators in Bell will not be permitted to draw their state pensions until the attorney general determines whether the city broke the law in awarding the hefty paychecks, according to an official with the California Public Employees’ Retirement System.

“CalPERS is concerned about the situation, and our intention is to not [to] entertain applications for pensions from any of these people until the investigation is complete,” said Pat Macht, the agency’s external affairs director.

The Times reported reported earlier this month that Bell’s top officials received some of the highest municipal wages in the nation.

City Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo made $787,637 a year, almost twice the salary of President Obama; Police Chief Randy Adams made $457,000, 50% more than Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck; and Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia made $376,288, more than the top administrator for Los Angeles County.

To read entire story, click here.

By Jon Ortiz
jortiz@sacbee.com
Published: Thursday, Jul. 29, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 1A

Furloughs are back.

Less a month after ending unpaid days off for more than 200,000 state workers, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is bringing back a scaled-down version of the policy that will take effect on Sunday.

The governor made the decision this week after Controller John Chiang said that until lawmakers come up with a budget, he’ll start issuing IOUs in August or September to conserve funds as long as possible. The state’s cash could run out by October, the controller estimated.

“We have a fiscal crisis,” Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said Wednesday morning as he explained the new furlough order. “We’re doing what we have to do to conserve cash.”

Bruce Blanning, head of the 11,000-member Professional Engineers in California Government, said that the move is really designed to squeeze unions like his that haven’t cut concessionary contract deals with the administration.

“It’s more misguided pressure from the governor on those who won’t agree with his program,” Blanning said.

Like the furlough policy that ended June 30, the new plan laid out in Executive Order S-12-10 requires employees to take three unpaid days off per month. There’s no termination date: Furloughs will end when lawmakers pass a 2010-11 budget. That could be weeks or months after the Legislature reconvenes next week.

About 156,000 employees are covered by the new program, reducing the state’s monthly payroll costs by about $147.2 million per month, according to administration estimates. About $80 million of that is general-fund savings.

Roughly 73,000 employees are expressly excluded based on where they work or their unions’ labor contract status.

Furlough-exempt employees include those at the Board of Equalization, the Franchise Tax Board, the Employment Development Department, State Compensation Insurance Fund, the California Housing Finance Authority and the California Earthquake Authority.

As with his last furlough order, Schwarzenegger exempted employees with the California Highway Patrol and the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The executive order doesn’t explain the criteria for excluding those departments and agencies from furlough.

The order also excludes about 37,000 state workers in six unions, including those representing Highway Patrol officers and firefighters, that recently reached tentative labor agreements with the Schwarzenegger administration.

“We expect the Legislature to quickly ratify those contracts next week,” McLear said.

The deals contain some concessions, including monthly furlough days – as many as 12 this fiscal year – and higher out-of-pocket employee pension contributions, that Schwarzenegger has made a condition of any labor agreement.

As part of the agreements, the administration promised that the Legislature will enact measures that will protect those workers from additional furloughs, minimum wage or both.

“We keep our promises to the unions,” McLear said.

The 95,000-member SEIU Local 1000 and five other unions have been bargaining but haven’t yet reached terms with the governor.

Managers and supervisors make up the remainder of the work force. Unless they work in an exempt department, they are subject to the furlough order.

Wednesday’s order marks the third time that Schwarzenegger has unilaterally reduced state workers’ hours and pay. In December 2008, with the state mired in a severe fiscal crisis, he directed that state workers take off two unpaid days per month.

Several state employee unions sued to block the order, but a Sacramento court in January 2009 agreed with Schwarzenegger that the crisis was an emergency that allowed the governor to mandate furloughs to address it. Twice-monthly furlough days started the next month for most of California’s 235,000 or so state workers hired through the executive branch.

In June 2009, Schwarzenegger added a third furlough day each month for the 2009-10 fiscal year that started July 1, 2009, and ended June 30. The Legislature passed a budget that assumed the savings.

To read entire story, click here.

The ruling halts implementation of provisions that require police to determine the immigration status of people they stop and suspect of being in the U.S. illegally. An immediate appeal is expected.

By Nicholas Riccardi and Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times

July 28, 2010 | 5:50 p.m.

Reporting from Phoenix and Tucson —

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked most of a controversial Arizona immigration law just hours before it was to take effect, handing the Obama administration a win in the first stage of a legal battle expected to end up in the U.S. Supreme Court.

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton in Phoenix issued a temporary injunction against parts of the law that would require police to determine the status of people they lawfully stopped and suspected were in the country illegally.

Bolton also forbade Arizona from making it a state crime to not carry immigration documents, and struck down two other provisions as an unconstitutional attempt by Arizona to undermine the federal government’s efforts to enforce immigration policy.

In her 36-page decision, Bolton wrote that the provisions would have inevitably “swept up” legal immigrants and were “preempted” by the federal government’s immigration authority.

“The court by no means disregards Arizona’s interests in controlling illegal immigration and addressing the concurrent problems with crime,” she wrote. But, she added, “it is not in the public interest for Arizona to enforce preempted laws.”

Gov. Jan Brewer vowed a swift appeal to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. “We would have liked to have seen it all upheld, but a temporary injunction is not the end of it,” she said through a smile after an appearance in Tucson. “I look at this as a little bump in the road.”

Immigrant rights advocates, who had been gearing up for protests after the law takes effect at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, were ebullient.

“It’s a victory for the community,” said Lydia Guzman, president of Somos America, or We Are America. “It means justice will truly prevail.”

Bolton’s decision came as little surprise to many legal experts, who had predicted that the law, SB 1070, would be halted because it appeared to contradict U.S. Supreme Court precedent. Brewer signed the measure April 23, saying it is needed to protect Arizona from violence and lawlessness associated with illegal immigrants entering the country from Mexico.

Half of all people stopped for entering the country illegally are detained on Arizona’s southern border.

Civil rights groups and then the Obama administration sued, contending that the measure would lead to racial profiling and interfere with the federal government’s ability to regulate immigration. The law would allow Arizona, for example, to prosecute people the federal government might believe have a right to remain in the country, such as asylum seekers.

“While we understand the frustration of Arizonans with the broken immigration system, a patchwork of state and local policies would seriously disrupt federal immigration enforcement and would ultimately be counterproductive,” the Justice Department said in a statement. “States can and do play a role in cooperating with the federal government in its enforcement of the immigration laws, but they must do so within our constitutional framework.”

Many of the parts of the statute that Bolton, an appointee of President Clinton, allowed to go into effect are largely technical. She preserved a clause that forbids any local entity from creating a policy of less than full enforcement of federal immigration laws, as well as a provision that makes it a misdemeanor to block traffic to solicit work or hire a worker — an effort aimed at getting rid of day laborers.

But she found that the federal government was likely to prevail in trial in its arguments against the other provisions, making it likely that her temporary order will eventually become permanent, said Andy Hessick, a law professor at Arizona State University.

“It would be very surprising if the permanent injunction were to differ after trial,” he said.

The law’s author, state Sen. Russell Pearce, predicted in a television interview that the measure would be upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 vote — an allusion to the majority of justices who are Republicans. But Gabriel “Jack” Chin, a law professor at the University of Arizona, said the issue may not break down in a partisan manner in the judiciary.

“I think they’re going to hesitate to say the United States wants to let a person in because he might be able to give us information, but the state of Arizona can arrest him,” Chin said. “For those saying, ‘Wait till the conservative wing of the Supreme Court gets their hands on this,’ I’m not so sure.”

The Supreme Court already will consider another Arizona law this fall. That law dissolves any business that repeatedly and knowingly hires illegal immigrants. The court may signal its view of SB 1070 in that decision.

In Arizona, where the immigration debate has grown to a deafening roar, the discussion was less about legal details and more about how illegal immigration has changed the state.

Faye Yanez, 65, and her husband were leaving a Home Depot in Tucson on Wednesday morning when they heard of the decision. “We feel slighted,” said Yanez, a school teacher. “The state should have a right to take care of the state because the federal government isn’t doing anything.”

Susie Baker, 53, who remodels homes in Tucson, felt differently. “I am thrilled,” she said as she headed into the store. “I think Jan Brewer is out of her mind. She is bringing harm to Arizona.”

Baker said she often hires Latinos on home projects, and doesn’t ask them their immigration status.

“To me, it doesn’t matter,” she said. “They are willing to do the work.”

Politicians’ reactions also were divided largely on whether they supported the bill. It received votes from all Republicans in the state Legislature and no Democrats.

The state’s two Republican U.S. senators, John Kyl — who recommended Bolton for the federal bench — and John McCain said in a statement that they were disappointed by the ruling. “Instead of wasting tax payer resources filing a lawsuit against Arizona and complaining that the law would be burdensome, the Obama administration should have focused its efforts on working with Congress to provide the necessary resources to support the state in its efforts to act where the federal government has failed to take responsibility,” they said.

To read entire story, click here.

PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State

July 28, 2010 | 9:00 pm

With the campaigns in full swing over what are supposed to be lazy summer months, a new survey from the Public Policy Institute of California finds the races for governor and U.S. Senate are both up for grabs.

Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jerry Brown is leading his Republican opponent Meg Whitman, 37% to 34%. Meanwhile, Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer is ahead of Republican Carly Fiorina, 39% to 34%.

And although the candidates likely to say that jobs are priorities one, two and three for voters this year, it turns out that voters are paying attention to other issues too.

In both the governor’s race and the Senate race, 41% of voters said the candidate’s positions on the environment — including air pollution, global warming and energy policy — would be “very important” in determining their vote.

The poll also found nearly 60% of California residents now oppose more oil drilling off the state’s coast in the wake of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a survey released Wednesday. And despite a highly charged debate over whether the state’s climate change law, AB 32, will destroy or create jobs, support for the measure is holding steady from last year.

To read entire story, click here.

Posted By: Carla Marinucci | July 28 2010 at 02:18 PM

California Working Families for Jerry Brown, the independent expenditure group working to help the Democratic State Attorney General’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign, just got a powerhouse ally — the 325,000-member California Teachers Association.

CTA President David Sanchez, in announcing the move, called Brown “the education candidate for governor.”

“He gets that California’s future depends on a world-class, quality public school system,” Sanchez said in a statement today. “We believe Jerry Brown can lead this state of of this fiscal crisis, and bring collaboration back to Sacramento.”

The CTA, in making the move to join the California Working Families group, becomes part of a coalition aiming to boost Brown that involves labor, healthcare workers, construction workers, engineers, teachers, environmental and women’s groups, among others, says CWF spokesman Roger Salazar.

To read entire post, click here.

Yes, Attorney General Jerry Brown repeatedly claims he’s all over the City of Bell salary scandal.

Brown’s office has subpoenaed thousands of city records. He’s giving city officials twenty-four hours to turn them over.

Otherwise one can infer search warrants will be the order of the day.

But, maybe Brown should have checked with Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley before embarking on his politically charged grand standing.

Yesterday Cooley revealed his office has a wide ranging investigation into Bell to include election fraud in addition to the salary issue. An investigation that started last March.

Can you say oops?

Maybe Brown can check with Cooley for those records his office is seeking. Cooley might even avail himself to give Brown copies.

Adhering to sound investigative protocol, Cooley has kept his mouth shut on the activities of his department, which exercises primary jurisdiction over the matter.

The Meg Whitman campaign has been accusing Brown of using the Bell situation as a campaign stunt. Yesterday’s developments give credibility to Whitman’s claims.

I’m sure the Whitman campaign is just sitting back rolling on the floor over this episode. I envision they are actually holding their sides.

Cooley, who is the republican nominee to replace Brown and a true law enforcement prosecutor, hasn’t really spoken about his investigation into the fleecing of Bell taxpayers until yesterday.

After all it is an investigation where evidence destruction is a risk.

Yesterday Cooley appeared on The John and Ken Show aired on Los Angeles-based KFI AM-640 to discuss his ongoing and expanding investigation. Cooley appeared measured and confident in answering questions from talk show hosts John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou.

In an story published in the LA Times, Cooley described his investigation as “multifaceted, rapidly expanding and full-fledged.”

Sounds like a dig at Brown to me.

Like the rest of us, it sounds like Cooley couldn’t stand it any longer.

Brown must be making even him nauseated.

Steve Cooley

Investigators are looking into allegations of voter fraud and conflicts of interest, as well as the $100,000 salaries paid to four council members. The D.A. says several elections are targeted.

By Richard Winton, Jeff Gottlieb and Andrew Blankstein, Los Angeles Times

July 28, 2010

Los Angeles County prosecutors have launched a wide-ranging investigation into allegations of voter fraud and conflicts of interest involving municipal business in Bell, Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said Tuesday.

In an interview with The Times, Cooley described an investigation considerably larger in scope than previously acknowledged by prosecutors, saying that it was “multifaceted, rapidly expanding and full-fledged.” Investigators have been gathering evidence since March, he said.

Until now, prosecutors had said only that they were looking at the $100,000 annual salaries paid to four of the five Bell City Council members and were seeking to determine if the payments were larger than allowed under state law. The voting fraud claims and allegations of possible conflicts of interest in city business add significant new issues about how government operated in the small working-class city where top city officials were among the nation’s highest paid.

Cooley also said investigators were looking at whether council members had received pay for meetings they did not attend or meetings that lasted only a few minutes. Most of the pay that Bell council members received came not from their City Council salaries, but as stipends for serving on the boards of city panels, such as the Public Financing, Surplus Property, and Solid Waste and Recycling authorities. City records indicate that those boards performed little work and that their business was routinely conducted during council meetings. In some cases, the board meetings would last no more than a minute, according to the records.

Monday night, board members agreed to cut their pay from all sources by roughly 90%, to about $8,000 a year.

Cooley declined to provide details about either the conflict-of-interest allegations or the voting-fraud probe, other than to say that his investigators were reviewing several elections. Sources with knowledge of the investigation said that among the subjects that prosecutors are looking at is the use of absentee ballots during the March 2009 City Council election.

Six candidates ran in that contest in which incumbents Teresa Jacobo and Luis Artiga, both current council members, retained their seats, with 31% and 28% of the vote. The next largest vote-getter received 11%. About 40% of the city’s nearly 10,000 registered voters cast ballots, and city records show that 39% of the votes in the election were absentees.

Cooley, who is the Republican nominee for state attorney general, said prosecutors began their investigation in March after receiving a complaint about conflict of interest. The investigation is in its early stages.

In addition to the district attorney’s office, several other law enforcement agencies are examining various aspects of Bell’s affairs. Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, who is the Democratic nominee for governor, announced Monday that his office has subpoenaed hundreds of documents from Bell as it looks into the city’s high salaries.

Also Tuesday, state Controller John Chiang, a Democrat seeking reelection, announced at a news conference at Bell City Hall that his office would audit the city’s finances. He called the salaries and pensions for city officials “unjustifiable” and said his office will be “taking a hard look at the books.”

The Times reported earlier this month that City Manager Robert Rizzo was making $787,000 a year, Police Chief Randy Adams was making $457,000 and Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia was making $376,000, among the highest salaries in the country for their positions. The three have agreed to resign. They will be eligible for hefty pensions.

Allegations about problems in the 2009 election also have been examined by the FBI and California’s secretary of state office. An FBI source confirmed that the agency is familiar with the allegations. A spokeswoman for the secretary of state said complaints are confidential and that the office could not discuss them.

At least two individuals have alleged voting irregularities in Bell. In a June 17, 2009, letter to David Demerjian, head of the district attorney’s Public Integrity Division, then-Bell Councilman Victor Bello accused the city’s election commissioner of falsifying ballots.

And a former Bell police sergeant has alleged in a lawsuit that several Bell officers distributed absentee ballots in the 2009 election, told residents to vote for the two incumbents and retrieved ballots from some voters.

In his lawsuit, James Corcoran says he was forced out of his job after he reported the activity to state and federal authorities last year.

To read entire story, click here.

Former Grand Terrace City Councilman Jim Miller pleaded guilty this morning to a misdemeanor charge stemming from payments he voted to approve to his wife’s weekly newspaper.

Miller pleaded guilty to having a financial interest by a state or local official in a government contract. In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors dropped a felony conflict of interest charge, which could have included prison time.

San Bernardino Superior Court Judge Bryan Foster sentenced Miller to two years probation but agreed to reduce that to one year if Miller submits proof that he paid restitution to the city.

Miller also drew a $170 fine with penalties and fees increasing that to $305.

Outside the courtroom, defense attorney Jim Reiss said that Miller already has paid the $17,812.42 in restitution.

To read entire story, click here.

Gutierrez

Wendy Leung, Staff Writer
Created: 07/27/2010 03:49:10 PM PDT

RANCHO CUCAMONGA – Last Thursday, Councilman Rex Gutierrez mulled a mayoral run, pulling papers just before City Hall closed for a three-day weekend.

On Monday, he changed his mind.

“As fun as it would be, I don’t know if I want to do it knowing the odds are stacked against me,” Gutierrez said.

Viewed by many as the most colorful and polarizing personality on the City Council, Gutierrez will instead seek re-election to his seat.

The councilman said he doesn’t have the financial backing to seek the mayor’s seat and wants to focus his energy on other things.

“I have a new business to worry about and my family,” Gutierrez said, referring to his new publication, Vineyard Press. “And I have this legal
Gutierrez case. … There’s too many battles to fight.”

Gutierrez, 50, faces a retrial in a criminal case tied to his tenure at the San Bernardino County Assessor’s Office. A jury deadlocked on three felony counts in June. The councilman said his new trial should begin in September.

Councilman Dennis Michael and Bill Hanlon have pulled papers to run for Mayor Don Kurth’s seat.

Gutierrez said Michael, who has received key endorsements from the firefighters and sheriff’s unions, would make an “awesome mayor.”

“I don’t really have any negative things to say about Dennis Michael,” Gutierrez said.

Councilwoman Diane Williams, Kurth and Gutierrez are all up for re-election in November.

Gutierrez has been itching to run for higher office for some time. In 2009, his hopes of succeeding then-Assemblyman Bill Emmerson, R-Rancho Cucamonga, were dashed when allegations tied Gutierrez to the Assessor’s Office scandal.

Gutierrez said running for mayor would take more energy and money than trying to keep his seat. The cash-strapped councilman said he was forced to tap into his retirement savings this year to pay for his legal defense, which he said has totaled almost $100,000.

To read entire story, click here.

Josh Dulaney, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/27/2010 08:04:56 PM PDT

RIALTO – The sex scandal that has rocked the Police Department and attracted widespread attention has not shaken officials’ faith in rank-and-file officers or Chief Mark Kling, based on remarks they made at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.

“My confidence in Mark is high,” said City Administrator Henry Garcia. “This is a small step backward.”

Garcia, on the recommendation of a seven-member interview committee, brought Kling in four years ago to overhaul a department that was on the brink of extinction after years of scandal that included allegations of racism, favoritism and police brutality.

The police force now faces allegations from Nancy Holtgreve, who serves drinks at the Spearmint Rhino strip club on Riverside Avenue.

Holtgreve says she and officer James Dobbs had sex three times last year at the Rialto Police Benefit Association’s union hall.

She alleges that she was off work and Dobbs was still on duty when they engaged in sex there.

Holtgreve, who says she has an infant son with Dobbs, has said she brought the issue to the department in May when Dobbs became abusive over child support issues.

Dobbs did not want his relationship with Holtgreve to wreck a custody battle with his ex-wife, or a relationship with another employee in the department, Holtgreve has said.

Holtgreve has retained an attorney has declined further media interviews.

Dobbs has not returned phone calls seeking comment.

Kling launched an internal investigation that led to six officers potentially involved with women from the strip club.

Four of the officers have been placed on paid administrative leave. Kling won’t release the names of the officers on leave, citing the ongoing investigation.

To read entire story, click here.

Ed Roski

James Wagner, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/27/2010 07:58:39 PM PDT

Majestic Realty Co. CEO and chairman Ed Roski Jr. said he remains committed to returning professional football to the region and building a state-of-the-art NFL stadium near the junction of the 60 and 57 freeways.

“It will happen,” said Roski, making his first public comments since the emergence of a competing stadium plan in downtown Los Angeles.

Roski admitted the NFL’s labor stalemate has slowed progress on his proposed

$800 million, 75,000-seat stadium, which is approved for construction.

“Our expectation was to be further along than we are right now,” Roski, 71, said in a wide-ranging interview. “Unfortunately for us, the labor contract right after the Super Bowl became a focus for the NFL. So it definitely has slowed the process down.”

Some experts have said the delay in signing a new labor deal with the players’ union, which could last until next year, has opened the door for rival stadium plans to emerge.

Tim Leiweke and prominent sports agent Casey Wasserman announced in April they hoped to build a $1 billion NFL stadium in downtown L.A. behind Staples Center.

Leiweke is CEO and president of AEG, which operates Staples Center, home to the Lakers and Kings. Roski is a part-owner of both teams.

The move appears to have set up a battle between L.A. heavyweights – Leiweke, a well-regarded sports executive who is credited with helping rejuvenate downtown Los Angeles, and Roski, who has a terrific reputation and who is the chairman of the board of trustees at USC.

“We’re still good friends,” Roski said of Leiweke. “I try to separate (football) with the other things.”

Roski said there isn’t a rift between him and Leiweke, who has long been interested in building a stadium downtown.

“I have a good relationship with Tim,” Roski said. “And I want to keep it that way.”

Roski declined to talk specifically about the downtown stadium concept, of which few details have been released.

“We are just focusing on our deal,” he said. “We think we have the location that services all of Southern California.”

Roski’s stadium is proposed for 600 acres of barren hills in Industry at the 57-60 junction, within easy freeway access for residents of San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties.

Roski also added he believes Majestic Realty has the “right” design, way to handle traffic and amenities to accommodate an NFL stadium.

Having competition isn’t new to Roski, who grew his father’s company into a commercial real estate power. In 2003, when Roski was working to bring an NFL team to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, a similar venture in Carson was revealed.

“We had the same thing happen when we were doing it last time,” he said.

Roski’s team rushed last year to fight off two lawsuits against his stadium project, hoping to meet deadlines to try to land a team for the 2010 season. But he said that once the lawsuits brought by Walnut and a group of Walnut residents were cleared – thanks to a legislative fix that provided an exemption to the California Environmental Quality Act – they butted up against the NFL labor dispute.

If the project hadn’t been delayed a year by the lawsuits, Roski said, a team could have been playing in Southern California this year.

For the moment, he said there’s nothing anyone can do until the labor deal is cleared up.

“The timing is unfortunate for Southern California,” Roski said.

Although Roski said there is no timetable for the purchase of a team and construction of the stadium, he said the 2010 season, which begins in September, won’t see a team in Los Angeles.

“Our target is yesterday,” Roski said.

The billionaire said his group continues to talk with owners who might be willing to sell at least part of their team and move it to Los Angeles, but he declined to discuss specifics.

To read entire story, click here.

10:15 PM PDT on Tuesday, July 27, 2010

By DAYNA STRAEHLEY
The Press-Enterprise

The Inland area’s laid-off teachers are cutting their household budgets and learning to tell their children no.

They have turned off their air conditioners and no longer can buy the things they used to take for granted.

They are looking for jobs, even though Inland districts have cut hundreds of positions.

Public education in California has received $17 billion less in state funding than anticipated over the last two budget years. As a result, more than 20,000 teachers have received pink slips this year statewide, the California Department of Education said. Districts still are trying to figure out how many teachers they can bring back to work.

Janelle Kell, who was laid off a year ago as a counselor at Landmark Middle School in Moreno Valley, worries about the extension of her unemployment benefits and possibly having to take a job that pays less than unemployment.

Kell said she checks the EdJoin website, where California school districts post vacancies, every day, often every few hours, “but there are so few education jobs.” One district posted a job and got so many applicants that the position was up for less than a day rather than the usual week, she said.

She applied for a job in another district and was one of 300 applicants. All had the same credentials and master’s degrees.

“Fortunately, I have a husband who works,” she said.

Michael Kell is assistant pastor at Liberty Baptist Church, which has a staff of two and doesn’t offer health insurance. Government assistance has covered much of the cost of COBRA health coverage for the couple and their 3-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter.

“We have not gone without insurance,” Janelle Kell said. “It’s just not possible in our minds.”

After October, their premiums will go up about $1,000 a month, reaching about $1,500 once the government subsidy ends.

“Now we’re researching other options,” she said.

Her unemployment check is $1,900 a month, or a little less than $23,000 a year. The Moreno Valley Unified School District pays teachers with master’s degrees $49,396 to $89,480 annually, depending on experience and postgraduate credits, a salary schedule on the district’s website shows.

Kell said she has heard of former co-workers who have worked sporadically as substitute teachers for $100 a day. She said she hasn’t pursued part-time work because of the difficulties of keeping stable child care, for which she used to pay $1,000 a month.

Tenured substitute

“I’ve started the unemployment process,” said Raphaela Nelson, who used to coach other teachers on instructional techniques at Magnolia Elementary School in Riverside.

Nelson said she wishes she had a credential to teach high school math because the Riverside Unified School District needs math teachers. She’s looking at jobs in other fields, too.

If she doesn’t find a job before the end of summer, she will make herself available for substitute work.

District officials said most or all laid-off teachers will be able to work as substitutes for the same pay rate they earned before they were laid off, if they work at least 20 days out of 60.

Nelson can get insurance benefits as a substitute, but at a higher cost than when she was a full-time teacher, she said. On unemployment, health insurance will take most of her check.

Her self-employed husband runs a landscaping business.

“With people losing their jobs, he’s losing business, too. Once my paycheck is gone, we won’t be able to pay our mortgage,” Nelson said. “I don’t want to be on unemployment. That’s not who I am.”

She took her job in Riverside three years ago after having taught several years in San Bernardino, she said.

“It was always my dream to teach at the same school as my kids go to, and I got one year,” she said.

Her son is in sixth grade and her daughter will be in kindergarten, both at Magnolia.

Nelson said she thought about moving to a state that is hiring teachers, but she doesn’t want to uproot her family, which has roots in Riverside.

“I don’t want to take that bond away from them,” she said.

Trying to find another job has been stressful.

“I wish it was making me lose weight, but it’s not,” Nelson said. “It’s to the point where I cry for little reason. Who knew we’d save prisoners, banks and car dealers over teachers.”

Income cut in half

Kristy Orona Ramirez, who taught English and social studies at Wells Middle School in the Alvord Unified School District, said she is glad her youngest will start school in August at Victoria Elementary in Riverside and won’t need child care.

She plans to teach a class this fall at Whittier College that may pay less than unemployment.

Her layoff cut her family income in half. Her husband, Arturo Orona Ramirez, is a math teacher who kept his job at Wells, in west Riverside.

To read entire story, click here.

Josh Dulaney, Staff Writer
Created: 07/27/2010 09:25:46 PM PDT

FONTANA – The City Council will continue its version of “Musical Chairs” on Wednesday night.

Council members are set to discuss how to fill a spot on the dais left open when they tapped Frank Scialdone to become mayor earlier this month after former Mayor Mark Nuaimi took a job as city manager in Yucca Valley.

Fontana City Manager Ken Hunt said the council can appoint someone to the open spot or hold out until the Nov. 2 election.

If the council appoints someone, it could be done at the meeting, or else the council could call for applications and conduct interviews, Hunt said.

“My guess is they are probably going to leave it vacant until the election,” he said.

If the council appoints someone to the seat, it wouldn’t be the first time.

To read entire story, click here.

Michael J. Sorba, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/27/2010 07:35:08 PM PDT

COLTON – At least two City Council members say they’d like to see the city send out requests seeking the exact costs to outsource for police and fire services, following the results of recently completed audits of both departments.

They would also like the city to contact surrounding jurisdictions to examine the viability of forming a joint powers agreement for fire services.

The audits estimate the city could save between $2.3 million and $8.2 million if the council decided to contract for public safety services or form a joint agreement. The council members say they’d like concrete numbers for the cost to contract.

“I think at this point we tell the city manager to entertain the possibility of contracting by seeking requests and asking these other agencies to come to the city and give us presentations on their services,” Councilman David Toro said.

“We need to have complete and accurate information. The best way to get complete and accurate information is going out and requesting different proposals from the agencies to make sure it’s viable for the city.”

Councilman Richard DeLaRosa said the council needs to follow through with the audit’s findings.

“It’s important that we look at the other agencies to see if they can provide the same level of service for a lesser amount (of money),” DeLaRosa said.

Councilman Alex Perez doesn’t support the idea of contracting for public safety. He’s more concerned with cost-saving strategies the audits suggest as well as those he expects department chiefs to present.

“I don’t think I’m inclined to contract our services,” Perez said. “I’ve talked to a lot of people who do not want to lose the police and the fire. There’s other tangibles besides just money costs, that’s what I’ll be working toward.”

The audits also suggest a number of strategies to cut costs, streamline operations and improve the efficiency of each department.

To read entire story, click here.

HESPERIA • The Hesperia Unified School District and Hesperia Teachers Association have apparently resolved their differences and have reached a three-year agreement, officials said Tuesday.

The tentative agreement includes nine furlough days (an effective salary cut of almost 5 percent), 1 percent pay cut and 2 percent savings on other monetary benefits for teachers.

And, perhaps most importantly, there is language that tells teachers what will happen in the future, depending on what happens with the state’s financial picture.

“Should state finances get better, there’s restoration language,” and the salary cuts will be eliminated in steps. “Should they get worse, there’s protection language that means they’ll take more of a cut,” said Superintendent Mark McKinney.

The superintendent said he would be “more than happy” to offer a restoration guarantee to other employee groups, which signed cost-cutting agreements with the district earlier in the year.

“I would have loved to have settled this months and months ago,” said McKinney. “It’s not been easy, by any stretch. These are difficult, difficult times. Long after people forget what was done, they will remember how it was done.”

To read the full story, see Wednesday’s Daily Press. To subscribe to the Daily Press in print or online, call (760) 241-7755, 1-800-553-2006 or click here.

Beau Yarbrough can be reached at (760) 956-7108 or at beau@hesperiastar.com.

Groups try to raise turnout
James Rufus Koren, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/27/2010 10:21:04 PM PDT

SAN BERNARDINO – Call 13,000 people, and you’ll talk to about 3,900. Of those, about 2,300 will like what you have to say. And of those, about 1,380 will show up to vote in November.

That’s a math lesson in voter outreach taught to about a dozen local activists Monday and Tuesday through a program called Mobilize the Immigrant Vote. It’s a program activists hope will help San Bernardino’s Latino community flex its muscles at the ballot box in November.

“San Bernardino has an incredibly low (voter) turnout rate,” said Bobbi Jo Chavarria, a community organizer with the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, one of several groups that attended the outreach training event. “That’s not acceptable when so many issues
are being dealt with at the local level.”

Chavarria’s group and other organizations, including San Bernardino For Immigration Reform and the League of United Latin American Citizens, want to reach out to about 15,000 people in San Bernardino’s 1st, 2nd and 6th wards – the Westside, center and airport areas – leading up to November’s election.

The immediate goal is to get Latino voters mobilized to vote for Proposition 24, a ballot measure that would block a few specific tax breaks for corporations.

“That tax money is not being utilized for the betterment of California,” said Joe Olague, president of the Inland Empire chapter of LULAC. “I’m hoping people understand we must put that money into our own system.”

But the broader goal is to build a strategy to boost voter turnout, implement that strategy and see how well it works.

“We want to see if we can see a measurable difference in the areas we’re working in,” Chavarria said.

Local activists can then learn, adjust and make more long-term plans, she said.

“We want to demonstrate not only to the government structure that we have power, but also demonstrate to the people that they can make a difference,” she said.

This week’s training sessions, which were taught by staff from Mobilize the Immigrant Vote and the Minnesota-based group Wellstone Action, focused on voter outreach methods, including phone-banking, precinct-walking and mail advertising.

“We have to have a plan,” said Pakou Hang, a trainer from Wellstone Action. “If we say we want to turn out 2,000 people, we have to have a plan to get there.”

Part of that plan is knowing how many volunteers, hours and money it will take to call or visit 15,000 people and what kind of results can be expected from that effort.

Reaching out to about 13,000 mostly foreign-born and Latino voters in the city’s 1st, 2nd and 6th wards could, Wellstone Action statistics say, result in about 1,400 extra voters going to the polls.

To read entire story, click here.

10:49 PM PDT on Tuesday, July 27, 2010

By JACK KATZANEK
The Press-Enterprise

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was one of the biggest boosters Tuesday when officials triggered the demolition of the first building to make way for the proposed $3.7 billion March LifeCare campus.

The project could ultimately bring as many as 7,200 permanent jobs to the former March Air Force Base, at a health-care complex that will be anchored by a medical center, the project developer said. The ambitious plans call for a wide range of other medical buildings on the grounds of the former base, including facilities for senior citizens and retirees for ambulatory care patients.

Eventually the complex near Moreno Valley also could include a hotel and retail locations.

The first step is the removal of some 40 older buildings, a process that began with a ceremony presided over by Schwarzenegger near the intersection of Riverside Drive and Cactus Avenue. Two pieces of heavy equipment demolished the old Air Force child care center that most recently housed the Somerset Academy for special education students.

Transformation

The governor said the efforts could turn the former base property into what he called “The Mayo Clinic of the West.”

“We’re celebrating something no one has ever done in the world. We’re building the first health and wellness city,” said Schwarzenegger, who flew in to March Air Reserve Base.

Schwarzenegger was the first to sign a small portion of a stucco wall salvaged from the soon-to-be-demolished building that was used as a memento of the day’s events.

The governor lauded the efforts of the project developers and the March Joint Powers Authority, the agency charged with redeveloping former Air Force base property. He also brought his top economic development adviser, Joel Ayala, director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development. Schwarzenegger said the state is encouraging the March redevelopment by streamlining the lengthy permitting process.

‘We’re getting calls’

Ayala said the March project is attracting a lot of attention.

“We’re getting calls from other communities asking us about what we’re doing at March,” Ayala said. “They’re asking, ‘Can we emulate this?’ If this works, we have a model.”

St. Bernardine Medical Center, along with its parent company Catholic Healthcare West, and Riverside Medical Clinic are in discussions with March Healthcare Development, the developer of March LifeCare, to create a plan to provide and operate the hospital.

To read entire story, click here.

10:00 PM PDT on Tuesday, July 27, 2010

By JAN SEARS
The Press-Enterprise

Redlands could face a general fund shortfall of $23 million by 2014-15 if the economy doesn’t improve and no steps are taken to correct the city’s financial course.

The City Council heard the gloomy financial report last week, as City Manager Enrique Martinez urged them to adopt a multiyear approach to budgeting.

The budget projections presented by Finance Director Tina Kundig reflected only small increases in revenue along with increases in what the city will be required to pay for salaries, retirements and debt repayment.

“Hopefully, those assumptions that we have in there are not all going to come true,” Martinez said. “It’s not a scare tactic. It’s what you know and I know that may be impacting the city.”

Martinez said he wanted the council to direct staff to bring them a six-year budget plan, an assignment he said would require significant work that would roll out over several months.

The budget presentation addressed only the city’s general fund — its annual operating budget. It doesn’t include capital improvements such as street repairs, he said.

The general fund has significant structural problems that must be corrected, Martinez said. Even if the economy recovers, he urged the council not to consider hiring back the staff it laid off in June.

“We just let go some 40 some-odd people,” he said. “As worthy as they were … we can’t afford to bring them back. When the revenue goes up, we need to channel it into capital projects and building our reserves.”

The first report would be a detailed look at the city’s revenues, he said. Next would be expenditures and impacts on city services, he said. Then would come a report on the capital budget, which would focus only on streets.

“It would only be on street paving,” he said. “We don’t have the capital for anything else.”

The last report would be on building reserves.

Mayor Pro Tem Jerry Bean said he endorsed the concept but also wanted a plan for closing the $877,000 gap in the current budget.

That led to a somewhat testy exchange between Bean and Martinez.

To read entire story, click here.

By PE News
on July 27, 2010 9:44 AM

Riverside County supervisors this morning voted 4-0 to update the county’s vehicle policy.

The new rules require greater oversight — from detailed mileage reports to stricter controls on employees taking cars home at night.

The county is working to reduce the number of county-owned vehicles and has cut nearly 200 from its fleet of more than 4,000 in the last year.

Supervisor John Tavaglione was absent from today’s board meeting.

— Duane W. Gang
dgang@PE.com

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

Riverside County’s November ballot is getting crowded.

Supervisors on Tuesday voted to place two competing pension measures before voters Nov. 2, as well as a proposal to increase the amount of money the county’s regional transportation commission can borrow.

But they decided not to send voters a proposal that would have created a county charter and provided local control over filling Board of Supervisor vacancies.

“The November ballot is getting extremely long and confused,” Supervisor John Benoit said.

“One of those is really not critical, timelinewise,” he said, referring to the charter proposal.

Supervisors had sought voter approval for a charter to avoid the pitfalls they experienced last year in the wake of the August retirement of the late Supervisor Roy Wilson.

For two months last year, the county was without a fifth supervisor while waiting for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to name Wilson’s successor.

That meant the board had little leeway for dissent, absences and illnesses when supervisors were considering a host of financial matters that required a four-fifths vote. The governor eventually named Benoit to fill the vacancy.

Supervisor Bob Buster proposed the charter initiative. “This matter has lost a lot of the urgency it had,” Buster said.

The two pension measures deal with the power supervisors have in establishing retirement benefits for future employees.

The Riverside Sheriff’s Association gathered enough signatures, requiring the board to place a measure on the ballot.

If approved, it would prohibit the Riverside County Board of Supervisors from changing pension benefits without a vote of the electorate and would require the county to keep the current retirement formula for public-safety employees.

The proposal also would safeguard the benefits for family members of officers who die in the line of duty.

But supervisors said the measure would essentially lock in unsustainable pension benefits for future employees and take away their budgetary discretion.

The county has $6.12 billion in pension liabilities for current employees and retirees, of which about $800 million remains unfunded.

To counter the sheriff’s union’s proposal, supervisors placed a competing measure on the November ballot.

Their version would require a public vote only to increase pension benefits. It still would allow supervisors to decrease benefits for future employees.

The third measure before voters in November comes from the Riverside County Transportation Commission.

If approved, it would allow the commission to borrow up to $975 million and repay the bonds with revenue from the 2002 voter-approved Measure A sales tax.

To read entire story, click here.

08:33 PM PDT on Tuesday, July 27, 2010

By KIMBERLY PIERCEALL
The Press-Enterprise

Traffic at Ontario International Airport dropped by 5.2 percent in June compared to the same month in 2009 and a 37.4 percent decrease since June 2007.

A total of 408,800 passengers used the airport last month, according to statistics from Los Angeles World Airports, the agency that owns and operates Ontario airport and Los Angeles International Airport.

LAX has had 28.3 million travelers in the first six months of the year, a 4.9 percent increase compared to the same period a year prior. Last month, traffic increased 4 percent compared to the same month a year prior.

Since 2008, Ontario airport lost service from JetBlue, Aeromexico and startup airline ExpressJet as well as suffered cuts in capacity at remaining airlines including the airport’s largest, Southwest Airlines.

Upset with steep passenger declines at the airport, officials with the city of Ontario have recently begun lobbying Los Angeles City Council members and agency leaders to consider giving control of the airport back to the Inland city.

Airlines are continuing to exercise “extreme caution” when it comes to increasing the number of flights and seats at the airports they serve, said David A. Castelveter, spokesman for the industry’s trade group, the Air Transport Association.

To read entire story, click here.