(November 23)   Momentum is mounting behind a movement to discourage the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors from acceding to outgoing sheriff Rod Hoops’ selection of deputy chief John McMahon as his successor.
Hoops, who was himself appointed sheriff by the board of supervisors when former sheriff Gary Penrod resigned mid-term in 2009 and endorsed him for the job, has tendered his resignation, effective at the end of December. Running as the incumbent sheriff in 2010, Hoops defeated two challengers in that race, Paul Schrader and Mark Averbeck. There will be two years remaining on his term when Hoops leaves office and he wants McMahon to step into his post upon his departure. He has made such a recommendation to the board of supervisors.
But Schrader, who was the runner-up in the race two years ago, and former county marshal Keith Bushey have publicly stated that they believe the board should not conform with Hoops’ expressed preference, as the appointment of McMahon will endow him with the power of incumbency and give him a leg up on any and all opponents he may face in the 2014 election.
Bushey, whose marshal’s position was absorbed into the sheriff’s department when the board of supervisor’s merged the marshal’s office with the sheriff’s department in 1999, served as a deputy chief in the sheriff’s department for six years before retiring in 2005. In a letter to the board of supervisors earlier this month, Bushey announced his own candidacy for sheriff and said there was “universal perception” throughout the sheriff’s department “that sheriff Hoops has already brokered an agreement with the board to ensure the appointment of John McMahon as his replacement.”
Schrader said he intends himself to again run for sheriff in 2014 and he wanted the board of supervisors to carefully ponder the propriety of appointing a replacement from within the department. He said he hoped the county “will abandon sheriff Hoops’ request to appoint an incumbent to his office, which has been a very bad past practice.”
If the board does appoint McMahon, he will become the sixth consecutive holder of the top position in a political machine first established by Frank Bland that has extended back unbroken for 58 years. The Bland dynasty within the sheriff’s department is the second and longest lasting as well as most tenacious one in the county’s 161-year history.
The first political machine to dominate the sheriff’s department over the multiple terms of different sheriffs was that one which began under Walter Shay in 1918. Walter Shay began his law enforcement career in 1899 as a deputy sheriff under then-San Bernardino County Sheriff Charles Rouse. In 1903 he was elected San Bernardino marshall and in 1905 was appointed by San Bernardino Mayor Hiram Barton as the city of San Bernardino’s first chief of police. He twice vacated that post to serve as a railroad company investigator, which paid more money at that time, but was twice induced to come back as San Bernardino police chief. He was working as the chief special investigator for the district attorney’s office in 1918 when he was elected county sheriff, succeeding J.L. McMinn. He was re-elected thrice, in 1922, 1926 and 1930. In 1931 he succumbed to cancer. It was at this point that the Shay regime became a dynasty in the true sense of the word, when his brother, Ernest Shay, was chosen by the board of supervisors to complete his term. Ernest Shay did so, and in 1934 stepped aside so his nephew and Walter Shay’s son, Emmett Shay, could run in his stead. Emmett Shay was elected and he served three full terms in his own right. In 1946, Emmett Shay was defeated by Jim Stocker, bringing the Shay family’s hold on the sheriff’s office to a close.
Jim Stocker’s tenure as sheriff lasted but a single term, when he was defeated by Upland police chief Eugene Mueller. Mueller suffered a similar fate, losing to Frank Bland in the 1954 election after serving one term. Bland was the police chief of Needles and a one-time FBI agent, and he campaigned on an anti-corruption platform, calling for the closure of the houses of prostitution that proliferated in the county along with the pinball halls that he said were distracting teenagers from doing their homework. Upon election, Bland held true to his word and embarked on an effort to shutter the county’s various dens of iniquity, major and minor. Bland would be re-elected six times. In the course of his tenure as sheriff, Bland would establish a political machine that held a cinch lock  hold on the office of sheriff, consisting of scores of political donors who filled his campaign coffers and made running against him successfully a virtual impossibility. That political invulnerability drew to him even more support as time went on and nearly every mover and shaker in the county would pay homage to him, either in the form of political contributions or endorsements or both. Bland would return the favor, endorsing candidates of his liking and putting the arm on his donors to in turn support his political choices.
So powerful was Bland as a political, social and legal entity that he twice overcame political disasters that would have very likely felled any other candidate.
In 1966, information surfaced that Bland himself had pilfered thousands of dollars from a fund that had been set up to provide his deputies working the vice/narcotics detail with money for drug buys, place bets with bookies or make the monetary exchanges needed to arrests  pimps and prostitutes. Despite the revelation, Bland remained in office and was never molested by the district attorney as he was able to bury the negative publicity under an avalanche of positive sounding mailers and handbills and gain re-election.
In 1978, Bland again dodged a mortal bullet when a scandal enveloped his campaign that showed 24 years after his maiden campaign for sheriff based upon eradicating the county of the scourge of prostitution, Bland’s department had become mired in questionable ties with ladies of the evening. At a Bland campaign fundraiser in April of that year at Sweeten Hall in Rancho Cucamonga, donors and others in attendance with Bland were offered the services of prostitutes inside a trailer within the hall’s parking lot. A bust of the proceedings corralled a couple of the girls, a member of the sheriff’s department and one of Bland’s supporters. The ensuing case was prosecuted by deputy district Bill Parker, leading to revelations about the matter that came too late to prevent Bland from being elected to serve a seventh term.
In 1982, Bland, then 69, stepped down, intending to hand off the reins to his second-in-command, undersheriff Floyd Jones. But Jones had a heart condition and instead, the Bland Political Machine swung in behind Bland’s second choice, Floyd Tidwell, an inspector and assistant sheriff with the department. The development community had long before demonstrated itself as a powerful element in the sheriff’s electioneering team. In 1982, Garry Brown, the executive director of the Baldy View chapter of the Building Industry Association, served as Tidwell’s campaign manager. Tidwell handily defeated his opponent, sheriff’s candidate Chuck Callahan, who was considered a renegade with the department for defying Bland’s will.
Just prior to the 1986 election Garry Brown was caught on tape telling undercover operative David Kenneth Thomas that he and another key Bland political supporter, James Hunter Price, could arrange for Thomas and those Thomas was associated with to get licensing for and open massage parlors that would be fronts for brothels. The owners of those establishments could prevent arrests of their employees and evade prosecution of themselves and their businesses’ operators through the delivery of large-scale campaign contributions to the sheriff, Brown and Hunter told Thomas, who was wearing a hidden sound recording device. That money would provide the bordellos’ operators with advance warning of the time and place of vice operations, Brown and Hunter said.
Brown and Hunter, as well as Herschel Jennings, the operator of two such operations in Bloomington and Adelanto, were arrested and charged with activity relating to keeping a house of prostitution, along with several girls who worked in the massage parlors. That scandal did not prevent Tidwell from being elected in 1986, but revelations about the case, including Thomas’s alleged suicide during an armed standoff with 27 sheriff’s deputies in 1988 threatened Tidwell’s prospects for reelection in 1990. He stepped down and the political machine that Bland had created which was now at his disposal was made available to his hand-picked designee, Dick Williams.
Williams cruised to an overwhelming victory and served one term as sheriff. Williams then  handed the political machine over to Gary Penrod, at that time a deputy chief with the department. Penrod used more than $500,000 in campaign money provided to him by that machine to hold off challenges by six other candidates in the 1994 race. Penrod was reelected three times before he retired half way through his fourth term in 2009, endorsing Hoops as his successor. The board of supervisors complied with his wishes.
Next Tuesday, November 27, the board of supervisors is scheduled to discuss the process for choosing Hoops’ successor. A growing contingent of county residents opposed to the board’s ratification of his designee, including those advocating either Schrader or Bushey, are expected to be present during the board’s discussion.
One county resident, Fritz Koenig of Yucca Valley, noted that the board of supervisors’ chairwoman, Josie Gonzales, said she hoped the discussion at the November 27 meeting would serve to determine the process the board will use to designate Hoops’ replacement “so the position is filled before he leaves at the end of the year.”
Koenig told the Sentinel, “In my judgment, a fair and objective process to select the next Sheriff and all the top executives of any county will include a recruitment process drawing from across the nation. Such would take far longer than one month.”
Koenig added, “Here we have a county attempting to gain control of an international airport, which implies they have some competency with international business, but they continue to suggest that they need not look farther than their most immediate resources to fill this office. I will be at that board meeting, and I hope to address the board.”

(November 23)   Board members of the San Bernardino International Airport Authority have extended A.J. Wilson’s contract to oversee airport development operations at the now shuttered Norton Air Force Base for another year.
In continuing Wilson’s original contract, which was for $315,000 per year when he was hired in November 2011, the board on November 14 upped it to $351,000.
Wilson was brought in last year in the wake of the resignation of Don Rogers, who had served for eight years as the airport’s executive director. Roger’s departure was precipitated by an FBI raid of San Bernardino International Airport Authority (SBIAA) headquarters and offices and hangars at the airport itself in September 2011, along with a scathing grand jury report in July 2011. That report and the raid concerned themselves with the highly questionable activities of Scot Spencer, who had been hired during Rogers’ watch as the contract developer of the airport. Spencer, who had served a four-year federal prison sentence for bankruptcy fraud pertaining to his efforts in the early 1990s to revive Braniff Airways, was hired by the SBIAA board upon Rogers’ recommendation, largely because of the perception that he had extensive contacts throughout the airline industry.
Spencer’s management of what was supposed to be a $38 million renovation of the airport’s passenger terminal and a $7 million development of its concourse was dogged by cost overruns, boosting the combined cost of the passenger terminal and the concourse to $142 million. No commercial airlines have yet flown out of the airport, despite the completion of those improvements. Instead, Spencer exploited his position at the airport, showing favoritism toward companies he owned or controlled and set up at San Bernardino International Airport, including SBD Aircraft Services, Norton Aviation Maintenance Services, Unique Aviation, San Bernardino Airport Management, SBD Properties LLC, KCP Leasing and Services, SBAM Technics, and SBD Aircraft Services, to the detriment of other aviation-related companies located there. Spencer’s action resulted in decisions by Aeros Aeronautical Systems Corp. and BaySys West, both of which were making substantial lease payments for hangar space at the airport, to leave San Bernardino. Spencer also became a franchisee of the corporate jet-servicing company, Million Air, which was based at San Bernardino International Airport. Million Air terminated its relationship with Spencer earlier this year after the company claimed Spencer had failed to pay  hundreds of thousands of dollars he owed it.
Spencer also formed at least two business partnerships with T. Milford Harrison, who had formerly served as the executive director of the San Bernardino International Airport Authority and its sister agency, the Inland Valley Development Authority (IVDA), which is dedicated to the development of the property surrounding the airport.
By the summer of 2011, Spencer owed the county more than $604,000 in unpaid taxes on property and equipment at the airport since 2005 and was in arrears on interest and principal payments on $1.2 million in loans to him through the airport authority.
Rogers, a certified public accountant and the founder of one of the Inland Empire’s most prestigious accounting firms, found himself under fire for his tolerance of Spencer’s depredations. To replace Rogers, board members hired Wilson, who had previously served as the chief administrative officer of St. Louis, the city manager of Portland, Maine, Santa Ana, Pomona and Norco, as well as the executive director of the St. Louis County Municipal League, the Pomona Valley Educational Foundation, the Western Riverside Council of Governments, and the International Association of Arson Investigators.
Wilson was effective in prying the airport and its operations from Spencer’s grip. That accomplishment accounts, in part, for the board’s enthusiasm in extending his contract. Still the same, there are questions about the remaining portion of the basis for the board’s favorable disposition toward Wilson, which consists of the strategy he is advocating in attempting to preserve some $342 million in funding for future operation of the airport.
In 2011, Governor Jerry Brown induced the state legislature to pass ABXI 26, and its companion law, ABX1 27, that called for the elimination of redevelopment agencies and for money normally passed through to them by the state to be utilized for education and law enforcement funding. The San Bernardino International Airport Authority, a joint powers agency involving the county of San Bernardino and the cities of San Bernardino, Highland, Loma Linda and Colton, and the Inland Valley Development Authority, which includes the county and the cities of San Bernardino, Loma Linda and Colton, were in large measure dependent upon redevelopment funding. Wilson, together with attorneys for both agencies, maintains they should be exempt from  ABXI 26 and its companion law.
Wilson is guiding the SBIAA and IVDA in making a case with the state that since they are joint powers authorities dedicated to the reuse of what was formerly federal military property, SBIAA and IVDA are not municipal redevelopment agencies and, accordingly, not subject to ABX1 26 and ABX1 27.
SBIAA and IVDA maintain the property tax money from the area around the former air base should continue to be available to it and be used to defray the $949.5 million in debt and obligations those agencies have accumulated in the airport conversion effort so far. IVDA and SBIAA issued hundreds of millions of dollars in bonds to fund improvements and the bonds were sold to investors under the assumption that the infrastructure to be purchased with the bond proceeds would lead to the creation of an aerodrome with operational revenue, and together with property tax revenue increases enough money would be generated to make timely payments to the bondholders.
SBIAA and IVDA officials contend  that by being allowed to proceed with the airport’s development, they will ensure that those revenue streams remain intact and all obligations will be met.
The California Department of Finance, however, has rejected those assertions, holding that SBIAA and IVDA have no legitimate claim to the projected property tax revenue, known as tax increment.
Wilson is leading SBIAA and IVDA in an effort to appeal that ruling and exhaust any further administrative remedies to retain that future tax revenue, while preparing to sue the state if the money is not ultimately returned to the agencies.
In renewing and increasing his contract, the board is making a strong show of faith in Wilson’s leadership and judgment.  The $351,000 represents the full cost of keeping Wilson in place, since he receives no other financial benefits of any sort. The contract calls for Wilson to be paid $150 an hour to a maximum of 45 hours per week.

(November 23)   County officials have vacillated in recent weeks with regard to whether they will keep both of the Twentynine Palms area fire stations operating.
Under the gun to divest itself of the fire department, the Twentynine Palms Water Agency is in the process of handing both the financial responsibility for, and the operational authority over, its fire protection division to the San Bernardino County Fire Department.
For fifty-four years, the Twentynine Palms Water District has overseen the Twentynine Palms Fire Department. In 1958, when the California Department of Forestry ceased providing local fire service, the Twentynine Palms Water District extended its responsibilities to include fire protection.
Under the water district’s guidance, the fire department grew to boast two fire stations, Station 421 on Adobe Road, which provides first response to the 59-square mile incorporated portion of Twentynine Palms and some unincorporated pockets close to town, and Station 422 on Lear Avenue, which is the first logical responder to fire and medical emergencies in the 29-square mile unincorporated, outlying communities of Twentynine Palms, including the Desert Heights area. The fire department’s service area is thus not coterminous with the 29 Palms city limits. The city does not contribute to, participate in or subsidize the fire department’s operational budget. Under the arrangement that has been in place since 1958, fire department finances have been held independent of the water district, with water rates totally devoted to the provision of water to customers. Fire department operations are defrayed entirely by a special tax on properties throughout the service area of the district.
In 2007, the city and the district began earnest discussion of annexing the fire department to the city, and formed what was dubbed the Joint Agency Fire Department Committee to look into the matter. On June 9, 2009, then-city manager Michael Tree told the council that if the transfer were to be made it would be best to do it totally and in one fell swoop rather than in stages. But because of complications with regard to the authority for the special tax and the formula for the distribution of tax revenues, as well as the discrepancy between the city limits and the district’s service area, the city elected to forego the takeover.
The Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), which oversees jurisdictional issues throughout the county, in its five-year service review of Twentynine Palms delivered on May 7, 2012 stated that the demands of operating the fire district have for some time been outrunning the water district’s funding ability. The report, authored by LAFCO executive officer Kathleen Rollings-McDonald, assistant executive officer Samuel Martinez and project manager Michael Tuerpe, said LAFCO’s review of the water district’s financial books “identifies a significant deficiency in funding” such that “the water district’s fire operations are unsustainable as presently financed.”
Rollings-McDonald on May 24 told the water district’s board members that the district would have to overcome the financial challenges facing the fire department, or cede control of the department to another entity by July 1, 2013. She said the water district could either hand the downtown station over to the city of Twentynine Palms and the Lear Avenue station to the county fire division and thereby surrender the special tax to both of those entities or in the alternative invite the county fire division to expand its sphere of influence and annex the water district’s territory for the purpose of providing fire service, complete with an arrangement to have the county inherit the special tax.
On June 27, with director Nicholas “Bo” Bourikas not present but voting in absentia in writing, the water board moved to file an application with the San Bernardino County Local Agency Formation Commission to sever fire service from the district. On July 12, at a joint meeting of the Twentynine Palms Water District, including its legal counsel and staff, Twentynine Palms Fire Chief Jim Thompson, the Twentynine Palms City Council and its legal counsel, county fire chief Mark Hartwig and Rollings-McDonald, a decision was made to have the county’s fire department subsume the fire department.
Since that time, officials have gone back and forth over whether the operation of both existing fire stations will be maintained. There have been differing proposals to close out Fire Station 421 entirely and headquarter the entire department at Station 422; to scale back Station 421’s operations while relying on paid call firefighters; and to keep both stations up and running.
At present, the department consists of seven permanent/professional firefighting personnel: the fire chief, two fire captains, and four engineers. The department also employs an administrative assistant. The department boasts 30 volunteers, who work one shift per week.
As the fire department is currently being operated, the water district anticipates revenues throughout fiscal 2012-13 of $1,241,000 and expenditures running to $1,480,202. Without some further infusion of revenue into the fire service’s budget, with the continuation of current staffing and operational levels, by the end of the 2013-14 fiscal year all of the fire division’s funds, operational and reserve, will be exhausted.
At one point, Hartwig proposed having the newly-constituted Twentynine Palms Fire Department consist of one chief and one firefighter/paramedic at Station 421 in downtown Twentynine Palms and two firefighters/paramedics at Station 422 on Lear Avenue, with a total operating budget of  $1 million to $1.3 million annually.
Subsequently, after Hartwig spoke in depth with current fire chief Thompson and made a consideration of various staffing scenarios, it was determined that the most likely form the department would take would be three firefighters composing one engine company which would operate out of one station, most likely the one on Lear Avenue.
Crunching numbers and looking at fiscal realities, including the necessity of the department’s employees becoming members of the firefighters union representing San Bernardino County firefighters, who as such will be entitled under contract to hefty salaries and benefits, it appeared that four of the seven firefighters currently with the district would have to be laid off, given the $1.2 million in annual revenue into the district.
Immediately upon becoming a creature of county government, the department would have to begin paying into the state Public Employees Retirement System. With three employees, the department could sustain itself with $1.16 million per year. But upon hiring a fourth firefighter, the cost of running the department would jump to $1.3 million, and that assumes that the fourth firefighter would earn no overtime.
Under California Public Employees Retirement System rules and the county’s contract with the firefighters union, firefighters are eligible to retire at the age of 55 and then receive three percent of their highest annual earnings times the number of years they worked with the department. This would include all the years the firefighters were employed by the water district. The county has indicated it would not be willing to cover that portion of the contribution into the California Public Employees Retirement System pertaining to the previous years worked by the three or four firefighters to be hired by the county upon takeover of the district. That contribution or “liability” of the water district would be at least $700,000 for three firefighters and $940,000 for four firefighters.
In a posting to the on-line version of the Desert Trail, Twentynine Palms only newspaper, former Twentynine Palms fire chief Greg Moore was critical of the Local Agency Formation Commission’s action to force the water district to divest itself of the fire department and was likewise critical of the city for not leaping into the breach to assume responsibility for the department.
Moore said he “hated” to see the county fire department merger and decried the “loss of a fire station to support the California Public Employees Retirement System costs.” He said the change being foisted on the community by outside elements “degrades the safety of people. The loss of a station is not just about fire protection. Firefighters provide emergency medical assistance. Closing a station means a delay in providing critical care. I do not understand why the city would not bring the fire department on as a public service. I pitched this idea to the city council members when I was chief and most seemed in favor of it.”
Hartwig suggested a four firefighter force was desirable because the department could then function as a two-engine company, two-fire station department.
One proposal briefly looked at was laying off just three firefighters upon the county takeover, and running the department as a two-engine, two-station department for one year, and transitioning to a three-member, one-engine department as of July 1, 2014.
On November 13, Hartwig came to Twentynine Palms and told the city council and members of the public present that a two-station department could be provided for $1.2 million per year.
According to Hartwig, the Adobe Road facility, Station 421 could remain open, staffed by a single professional fire captain, a “limited term” firefighter/paramedic and one “limited term” firefighter. The Lear Avenue Station, No. 422, would remain open as well, but be manned by paid-call firefighters, he said. The department would continue to rely upon its corps of volunteers/paid call firefighters. Those volunteers are provided with training and equipment, including a pager that is used to summon them when an emergency so dictates. They are paid up to $10 an hour for their service but receive no benefits and no guaranteed minimum.
By utilizing volunteers/paid call personnel and the three professional firefighters, Hartwig said he could make do with $1.2 million per year and still “balance the books.”
The county is cutting the water district no slack, with the Local Agency Formation Commission charging $15,400 to process the fire department divestment application. That application is still pending, contingent upon a determination that the available special tax revenue will provide enough funding to cover the county fire department’s costs in assuming the responsibility of running the Twentynine Palms department.
Current fire chief Jim Thompson assailed Twentynine Palms municipal officials for their unwillingness to contribute financially toward the operation of the department. He charged the city council with being stingy with the its 26 percent general levy taxes and said it was shameful that Twentynine Palms is the only one of the county’s 24 incorporated cities to not be funding at least in part its fire department.
When the city of Twentynine Palms incorporated in 1987, the city did not create its own fire department and the water district’s fire department subdivision has continued to provide fire protection to all areas within Twentynine Palms’ city limits.
City council members in response implied that Thompson had erred repeatedly during his nine years as head of the department. They said he  purchased at a cost of $250,000 a ladder truck in 2011 that was not needed, given that all of the city’s high rise buildings are equipped with fire sprinklers.  They also charged Thompson with allowing salary costs in the district to get out of control.
Thompson retorted that the firefighters under his command are among the lowest paid and most overworked firefighters in the county, who put in 72-hour shifts, which are 16 hours beyond the industry standard.

(November 23)   BARSTOW—The city council and city manager Curt Mitchell have tapped lieutenant Albert Ramirez to succeed Dianne Burns as Barstow police chief.
Since late June, Ramirez has served in the capacity of acting police chief. He was elevated to that position upon Burn’s decision to retire, just three days before her five-year contract as chief was to expire and the city council was weighing whether to renew it.
The council in this instance chose to appoint a police chief from within the department rather than carrying out a recruitment drive and considering officers from outside departments, as had been the case with Burns’ hiring in 2007.
Burns, who had a law degree and had risen to the post of lieutenant with the Los Angeles Police Department where she headed a gang suppression unit, was the first woman to head a police department in San Bernardino County history. She drew praise from many quarters, the county grand jury among them, for her work in Barstow, which included establishing a shooting and tactical training school just outside of Hinkley and mandating that officers take target practice at least once every two months; her rewriting of the department’s policies and procedures manual, which had not been updated since 1983; and her authorship of an until-then non-existent internal affairs manual for the department.
Nevertheless, within the department, she was in some measure distrusted as an outsider. Her formalized, big city approach was deemed by some as inappropriate for a desert city with a population of less than 23,000.  Last February, the Barstow Police Officers Association, rep-resenting 30 officers, corporals and detectives, and the Barstow Police Management Association, representing six sergeants and lieutenants, provided a vote of “no confidence” in Burns’ ability to continue to lead the department, charging her with “poor performance [and] extreme favoritism,” as well as a “hostile work environment” along with “severe instability in her emotions while in an official capacity.”
Ramirez began his career in law enforcement with  Barstow’s police department on Jan. 7, 1991. He has served in nearly every capacity within the department, including detention, booking, patrol, evidence, and  investigations. On December 16, 2000, Ramirez was ambushed by John Salsbury while  responding to the scene of Salsbury’s murder of his neighbor,  Ronald Schraff.  Salsbury was convicted of murder and Ramirez was able to eventually return to the police force, despite having been shot in both legs.
Upon the retirement of former lieutenant Rudy Alcantara in July 2007, Ramirez was promoted from the rank of sergeant to lieutenant by Burns in one of her first major acts as police chief.
Mayor pro-tem Julie Hackbarth-McIntyre, who will become mayor next month, hailed Ramirez’s selection as the right one for the city, given how he has “led, served and protected our community for many years.”
Upon being sworn in as police chief on November 19, Ramirez told the city council, “My vision for the Barstow Police Department is to set a standard of excellence in public safety by coming together in a partnership with the citizens of Barstow to solve community issues.”

(November 23)  Chino Hills City Manager Mike Fleager was given an 18-month contract extension by the city council on November 13.
The action by the city council, taken on a 3-1 vote, extends Fleager’s contract, which was set to expire on May 31, 2018, to November 30, 2014.
Council members indicated they extended Fleager the added job security as a courtesy so he would not have to seek work elsewhere.
Mayor Art Bennett and councilmen Ed Graham and Peter Rogers approved the extension. Councilwoman Gwen Norton-Perry, who will leave office next month, opposed it. She said she thought it would be more appropriate it the full council that will be working with Fleager over the next two years made the determination.
The council is currently one member short, as a consequence of former councilman Bill Kruger’s resignation in September.
Norton-Perry will be replaced by Cynthia Moran, who was elected to the council on November 6. Kruger will not be replaced until a mail ballot is carried out in March.

(November 23)   By Gail Fry
Lake Arrowhead Community Services District, the agency that provides water and sewer services for the resort community of Lake Arrowhead, has been facing increasing scrutiny from the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board of late with regard to its sewage spills and failure to follow procedural requirements.
The majority of the sewage spills are the result of inflow and infiltration which occurs  when groundwater and/or storm water enter(s) the dedicated wastewater system to the point the system is overwhelmed. This results in sewage overflows, such that a portion of the effluent is not directed to a pumping station or treatment plant.
Mark Veysey is the interim general manager of the Lake Arrowhead Community Services District (LACSD). Veysey admitted the capacity of the district’s outfall line is 4-million gallons and in extreme rainstorms levels can rapidly reach 12-million gallons, resulting in excess sewage water spilling into an unnamed creek near its Grass Valley Wastewater Treatment Plant, then into Deep Creek, subsequently reaching the Mojave River. He said the problem has existed for about 30-years.
The Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board (Lahontan) attributed the high discharge to inflow/infiltration (I&I) while referring to past incidents where “significant discharges of raw and partially treated sewage from the collection and wastewater treatment systems to surface waters occurred and continue to occur.”
The problems with inflow and infiltration reached a critical point when during the winter of 2010/2011 approximately 9.5 million-gallons of partially treated wastewater was discharged into Grass Valley Creek, eventually dumping downstream into the Mojave River.
On December 7, 2011, Lahontan issued an investigative order demanding answers from LACSD. Lahontan’s investigative order required LACSD to submit two technical reports, one providing a detailed accounting of the district’s past inflow/infiltration reduction activities and an evaluation of their effectiveness and another providing the current status of implementing the inflow/infiltration elements of the district’s March 2008 wastewater facilities master plan and the current status of the district’s ability and mechanisms to fully finance the master plan’s inflow/infiltration abatement elements on schedule.
According to Lahontan, the substantial discharge was the result of I&I and “in spite of the district’s past efforts, significant discharges of raw and partially treated sewage from the collection system and wastewater treatment system to surface waters continue to occur.”
Lahontan credited the substantial I&I to “average annual rainfall of approximately 40 inches” with “a service area that ranges in elevation from 4,000 to 6,000 feet” above sea level coupled with “40 percent of the service area” on land that slopes greater than 30 percent. Lahontan also attributed the inflow and infiltration to “a limit of 4.0 million gallons per day of treated effluent that can be exported to the district’s Hesperia disposal area” and “a sewer collection system that can deliver up to 12 million gallons per day of untreated wastewater.”
In its investigative order Lahontan references several cease and desist orders it issued to Lake Arrowhead Community Services District related in part to “address excessive” inflow and infiltration conditions on May 12, 1983, September 8, 1983, January 12, 1984, July 13, 1984, May 13, 1993 and May 7, 1998.
Lahontan noted if the district implements the steps laid out in its 2008 master plan, the inflow and infiltration reduction activities “will reduce extreme wet weather flows from 12.0 million gallons per day (January 11, 2005 measurement) to 5.37 million gallons per day in 2030.”
Lahontan’s Cease and Desist Order No. 6-93-44 called for LACSD to submit progress reports summarizing accomplishments toward obtaining compliance with waste discharge requirements … until such time that compliance … is achieved.”
On February 21, 2012 LACSD experienced another sewage spill when 18,000-gallons of sewage entered Lake Arrowhead after a blockage of a sewage pipe resulted in backed-up  sewage overcoming a manhole, resulting in  the sewage entering Blue Jay Bay.
In responding to Lahontan on April 20, 2012, LACSD explained “under all but the most extreme wet weather conditions, the district’s collection system meets or exceeds USEPA and Regional Board standards” while admitting “under extreme wet weather conditions I&I in the district’s collection system does not always meet these standards.”
LACSD added “more specifically, emergency discharges from the district’s Grass Valley Wastewater Treatment Plant to Grass Valley Creek occurred during extreme wet weather conditions in 2010, 2008, 2005 and prior to that in 1998.”
LACSD explained, “Because these emergency discharges have only occurred during extreme and prolonged wet weather conditions, it is the district’s understanding that the potential adverse impacts to the environment are limited based on extensive monitoring, data collection and analysis of potential impacts to the environment that have been performed under the guidance and direction of regional board staff.”
A report on LACSD I&I activities from 2008 through 2011 provided to Lahontan showed LACSD has spent $9,131,000 on completing inflow and infiltration elements of its March 2008 wastewater facilities master plan.
LACSD spent the $9,131,000 on developing an Infosewer hydraulic model of the LACSD collection system, conducting a temporary monitoring of sewer flow, installing three rain gauges to measure rainfall, conducting 486,807 feet of closed circuit video inspection of its sewer, sealing and inspection of 5,575 manholes, repairing 217 manholes, smoke testing 48,420 feet of the collection system, completing 20 cured-in-place pipeline inner liner repairs, conducting 1,329 feet of pipe repairs, slip lining 30,840 linear feet of sewer pipe, rehabilitating 162 manholes and reinstalling 246 laterals.
Ongoing I&I activities shown in LACSD’s April 20, 2012 report to Lahontan indicate LACSD budgeted for and conducted sewer flow monitoring system-wide, analyzing flow data, identifying target sub-basins to focus future efforts to reduce I&I, and planning a system-wide hydraulic model calibration/cost effectiveness analysis, which is pending due to limitations and technology advancements.
With regard to LACSD’s response to Lahontan’s investigative order, Lahontan found the district’s response did not comply in that it did not provide a clear path toward fixing its inflow and infiltration issues in a timely manner or provide how the repairs would be paid for.
Veysey in his capacity as LACSD’s interim general manager conducted a series of meetings with Lahontan during August through September in order to assure Lahontan of its intent to address its ongoing inflow and infiltration problems and reach a consensus on what actions would be satisfactory to Lahontan.  He reported, “They were concerned that we were not complying with their rules and they were ready to go into enforcement on this district.”
Driving the point home to LACSD was Lahontan’s  imposition of an administrative civil liability in the amount of $700,000 on Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority in September 2012 for two unauthorized wastewater discharges from its wastewater treatment facility occurring on June 18, 2010 and August 22-28, 2010 as well as three additional unauthorized wastewater discharges from its sanitary sewer collection system on December 7, 2010, December 22, 2010 and December 27, 2010.
Lahontan provided LACSD with a deadline of October 1 in its August 21 letter to submit an addendum to its April 20, 2012 letter where it submitted its 2008 Wastewater Facilities Master Plan Status Report and Past Inflow/Infiltration Activities Report.
On July 18, Lahontan conducted an inspection of the Lake Arrowhead Community Services District’s sanitary sewer system.
On September 30, LACSD submitted its addendum to Lahontan acknowledging in extreme wet weather events they experience a significant rise in flows to its treatment plants caused by storm water entering its sewer system through cracks in pipes and damaged private lateral connections to the main line.
In its inflow remediation plan submitted to Lahontan with its September 30 letter, LACSD acknowledged there were only two solutions to remedy the problem of peak flows, which consisted of  “add[ing] a retention pond for peak storage or eliminat[ing] the sources of the inflow” while noting “new large sewage retention ponds are not an acceptable solution in the mountains.”
LACSD identified its Grass Valley Basin as the area where a majority of the inflow and infiltration was occurring and proposed deploying monitoring stations at key points in the 325,000 feet of sewer line and where approximately 2,200 sewer connections lead to its sewer collection system.
LACSD’s initial plan is to place twelve flow monitoring devices in locations at the downstream of individual collection basins. These will be in use for approximately six months, and as leaks are found they will be repaired.
On September 19, Lahontan issued a notice of violation to LACSD for not reporting its sanitary sewer overflows into private buildings, not conducting annual staff training on its overflow emergency response plan and eliminating its fats, oils and grease program.
According to documents, an overview of the areas evaluated during the inspection indicated LACSD’s sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) history, its SSO reporting and documentation, its overflow emergency response plan and its fats, oils and grease (FOG) program are all unsatisfactory.
With regard to LACSD’s SSO history, Lahontan provided that “on five occasions between July 18, 2011 through July 17, 2012, untreated wastewater was discharged from the collection system to waters of the United States.”
Additionally Lahontan found LACSD had not reported SSO’s that discharged to buildings/residences, failed to train its staff annually on the overflow emergency response plan and failed to implement its FOG control program calling for inspections of food serving establishments.

(November 23)   Joel Klink has displaced John Cole as the victorious incumbent in the Twentynine Palms city council race.
Initial polling results that came in election night showed newcomer Cora Heiser besting both Cole and Klink. As late as the following morning, Cole was still ahead of Klink. At that point Heiser had 1,579 votes, Cole had 1,563 and Klink trailed Cole by just two votes, with 1,561. But with the tallying of 628 more votes, that order changed. Cole received 291 more votes, Heiser 335 and Klink captured 316, boosting him to a 23 vote margin of victory over Cole.
The most recent available figures from the race show Heiser in the lead with 1,914 votes or 33.91 percent; Klink in second place with 1,877 votes or 33.25 percent and Cole with 1,854 votes or 32.84 percent.
The Sentinel, in its election week coverage, reported that Cole had hung onto his council position and Klink had lost his in the desert city of 25,048 residents.

(November 16)   San Bernardino County’s in-house lawyers are analyzing the legal issues pertaining to Third District supervisor-elect James Ramos’s pending assumption of office, including a host of conflict-of-interest issues that at least two credible legal authorities say could prevent him from serving in the capacity to which he was elected.
James Ramos made history last week, becoming the first Native American in San Bernardino County history to be elected county supervisor, defeating incumbent Third District Supervisor Neil Derry convincingly, 59 percent to 41 percent. But questions are emerging as to whether Ramos will even be sworn in to office, and if he is, how long he will be able to remain in that position.
The Sentinel has learned that the office of San Bernardino County Counsel, led by Jean-Rene Basle, is exploring the California Government Code, case law, a slew of state Attorney General’s opinions and previous quo warranto proceedings to determine if James’ Ramos’s personal holdings together with his interest in the holdings, contracts and actions of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians entail conflicts of interest that rise to a level that could not be cured by Ramos selectively abstaining from votes that would impact those holdings and interests. A quo warranto proceeding is one in which an individual’s legal right to hold an office or governmental privilege is challenged.
At issue is whether Ramos’s  duties as supervisor will come into conflict with his material financial interests in the San Manuel government and gaming operations.
Until earlier this year, Ramos was chairman of the tribal council for the 167-member San Manuel Band, which exists as an independent sovereign Indian nation and owns and operates the San Manuel Casino in Highland, generating an estimated $400 million in revenue per year. Ramos derives roughly $1.5 million in income from his share of the casino operation and has a further interest in investments the tribe has made within the county, particularly within the Third District, which he was elected to represent.
Under California law, an elected official can involve himself in the governmental decision making process if his interests to be impacted by those decisions are deemed remote. With regard to Ramos and the Third District, however, Ramos’s interests are not remote, but material as the law specifies. As such, any decision affecting the wealth of the tribe impacts Ramos’ interests.
San Manuel has millions of dollars in non-competitively bid contracts with the county for the sheriff to provide law enforcement patrols on the reservation and the district attorney for the review of criminal cases involving casino patrons and the tribe’s own Native American members.
For example, a contract executed August 10, 2010, and expiring on June 30, 2013, has the tribe paying $1,048,909 to the county for the services of the district attorney. Ramos, as then-tribal chairman, personally signed the agreement.
Also present within the Third District is the Inland Valley Development Agency (IVDA) and San Bernardino International Airport Authority (SBIAA). Both those entities are charged with utilizing isolated property tax for the civilian reuse and redevelopment of the former Norton Air Force Base, as well as the vast area surrounding the base, which is now being converted into San Bernardino International Airport through a joint powers arrangement involving the county of San Bernardino and the cities of San Bernardino, Highland, Colton and Loma Linda, under the auspices of IVDA and SBIAA.  Traditionally, the Third District supervisor, in whose district the airport is located, has served as chairman or co-chairman of both IVDA and SBIAA.
Intrinsic to the potential conflict  is the convergence of the San Manuel Tribe’s real estate holdings and the authority of IVDA and SBIAA.
As an example, the tribe now owns the areas of the one-time military installation that were used for on-base housing and the facility and property occupied by the U.S. Air Force Combat Camera Operation.
The tribe further is currently party to an agreement with Majestic Realty, a Ramos campaign supporter, to develop the former base housing property.
The Third District supervisor also is appointed to the Indian Gaming Local Benefit Committee, which was established for the purpose of doling out funds paid by local tribes in an effort to offset their gambling casinos’ impacts on the local community.
There are currently efforts under way to establish Indian gaming establishments in Barstow and Yucca Valley, both of which lie within the Third District. Ramos would potentially be impacted financially if these competing gaming interests found approval. His membership on the board of supervisors during the county’s processing of these casino proposals, even if he abstains from consideration of them, could form the basis of lawsuits contesting the denial of those applications if they are in fact denied.
Two law firms, Sacramento-based DLA Piper and Los Angeles-based  Prata & Daley, have composed briefs that assert Ramos’s duties in office will bring him head-on into a clash with the California Government Code, specifically Government Code sections 1090 and 1092.
According to DLA Piper and Prata & Daley, given the degree to which the prospects for the growth in the valuation or viability of the tribes assets and holdings are subject to the direct or indirect control of local, i.e., county, governmental regulatory oversight, most notably land use and permitting processes, Ramos has an unequivocal conflict given the degree to which his material financial interests can be impacted by his decisions in office. These conflicts are so substantial, according to Prata & Daley and DLA Piper, that they are incapable of being cured by either recusal or abstention. The only way the conflicts can be resolved is for Ramos to divest himself of his holdings and affiliation with the tribe altogether or resign from office, according to the two law firms. There is precedent for the resignation cure. A similar dilemma beset former San Bernardino City Councilman Jason Desjardins, who owned a tow company that was subject to city regulation and franchising. That conflict was so pervasive, lawyers concluded, that Desjardins would be afoul of the law even if he recused himself on votes relating to the city’s several tow franchises, including his own. Rather than sell his business, Desjardins chose to resign his council position.
The Sentinel has learned that the discussion of Ramos’s conflicted status has advanced to the point that county chief administrative officer Greg Devereaux has taken an active part in at least a portion of the discussions. Devereaux expressed particular interest in the impact Ramos’s seating on the board would have on the county’s various contracts with the San Manuel Tribe, contracts that provide more than $3 million in revenue to the county per year. At one point, Devereaux proffered the solution of terminating the county’s contracts with the tribe, only to be informed that this would create an equally thorny legal problem, that of the county making illegal gifts of public funds to the tribe.
Inquiries made at an official level by the Sentinel did not churn up much in the way of substantive information.
“I’m not aware of any potential conflict or an inquiry or opinion by county counsel,” county spokesman David Wert said.

(November 16)   Colton police detective Wesley Bruhn, the police union boss whose power in Colton’s 67-member police department once rivaled that of the police chief and the eleven other officers in the department who outranked him, has slipped from his pinnacle of power and now stands charged with having embezzled more than $165,000 from the union he once headed.
On November 9, the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office filed five counts of felony grand theft and one felony charge of forgery against Bruhn and obtained an arrest warrant against him from Judge William Jefferson Powell.
Bruhn was not in custody at the time and was categorized as a fugitive. On November 14, Bruhn  surrendered to authorities at the San Bernardino County sheriff’s headquarters, and was promply arrested. According to the district attorney’s office, Bruhn began appropriating for his own use union funds beginning in July 2008.
Bruhn was formerly the president of the Colton Police Officers Association. More recently, he was that organization’s treasurer.
According to information available to the Sentinel, Bruhn, 45, engaged in the thefts while he was serving first in the capacity of union president and later as treasurer. The thefts continued through July of this year when the current union president, Rich Randolph, was alerted to what were described as anomalies in the union’s accounts.
Randolph arranged for an independent audit of the union’s funds, which until that point were under Bruhn’s control.
That audit quickly determined there was money missing and Bruhn was suspended as treasurer. In August Bruhn was put on paid administrative leave by the police department after discrepancies in the union’s accounts were confirmed and the matter was turned over to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department for investigation.
Bruhn’s run as union leader was a controversial and rocky one.
He battled with former councilman Richard De La Rosa, himself a corrections officer, over policy decisions made by the city council and what Bruhn complained was “micromanaging” of the police department by the city’s political leadership.
In September 2007, Bruhn filed a claim against the city and Councilman De La Rosa, alleging that De La Rosa maliciously made false and defamatory accusations against him. Bruhn maintained De La Rosa filed a “completely bogus” harassment complaint against Bruhn over his unwillingness to go along with De La Rosa’s dictates as a council member.
Earlier in 2007, as president of the Colton Police Officers Association, Bruhn led the charge against then-police chief Ken Rulon, charging his boss with having  created a hostile work environment, misusing his position to make personal discount purchases with department vendors, having instituted citation and arrest quotas that were charted on a bulletin board on the wall of the police department headquarters and engaging in intimidation of the men under his command as well as sexual harassment of female employees. Rulon  maintained that Bruhn had acted against him because he had been passed over for promotion to sergeant. Nevertheless, in the test of will and power between the two men, Bruhn prevailed, obtaining a no-confidence vote against Rulon by more than ninety percent of the Colton Police Officers Association’s 67 members and seeing Rulon ignominiously fired, and his badge and gun taken from him before he was unceremoniously escorted by armed officers from his office.
Bruhn can no longer employ that position power as he has been relieved of his role as union treasurer and kicked out of the association altogether.

(November 16)   A series of a cost saving measures approved by the Upland City Council last week are merely short term fixes that will not redress the city’s looming financial crisis, which will require a far more radical austerity program to cure, city manager Stephen Dunn has told the Sentinel.
Because employee payroll and benefit costs represent the lion’s share of city expenses, Dunn said, he will be seeking concessions from employees in all of the city’s divisions and departments with regard to current and future contracts, including downward adjustments on salaries and benefits. He will also explore new forms of revenue, including citizen approval of a city-wide sales tax and increasing the cost of municipal services.
If sufficient cost savings cannot be obtained or adequate revenues brought in, Dunn said, he will be forced into contemplating ever more draconian options which will include dissolving the city’s police, fire, engineering and inspection departments and contracting for those services with outside agencies such as the county, the California Division of Forestry or the city of Ontario.
Informed that the city’s general fund reserves, which were earlier projected at $4.2 million, have dwindled to $932,000, the council readily bought into two short-term measures Dunn offered them during a special meeting called last week, including cutting $229,000 from various elements of general government operations, as well as within Dunn’s office and that of the city’s development services division.
The council also gave Dunn permission to transfer $250,000 from the city’s gas tax fund, normally utilized for street and road improvements and required by law to be deposited in a separate bank account, to the city’s general fund, if the general fund becomes depleted. The general fund is used to pay for the city’s day-to-day operations.
According to Dunn, the city is no longer adhering to its policy of salting away 10 percent of its revenues, and it is running a deficit in its animal services department. Slated expenditures for capital improvements are outrunning revenue available for public works undertakings, and the city, which does not purchase liability insurance but instead indemnifies itself with its own available funds, is one lawsuit loss away from being pushed into bankruptcy.
Dunn, who was the city’s finance director before he was elevated to the city manager post, said the city needs to get an infusion of roughly $8 million to put its financial house fully in order and return to normalcy. If the city can dogpaddle furiously enough to generate $2 million more per year in revenue or achieve that sum through a combination of revenue and savings, it can keep its head above water, he said.
“Basically, what we are doing is we adopted short term measures to shore up the general fund reserve,” Dunn said.  “The city council directed me to return on November 26 with a whole matrix of items I can recommend to achieve cost savings, improve services and avoid the degradation of public safety. We are going to have to make cuts in certain areas or enhance revenues, perhaps by increasing taxes. We are taking a look in all directions and all methods of delivering services, police fire, animal control, library, engineering, information technology, and inspections. If we cannot enhance our position on the revenue side, we have to do something on the expenditure side.  I will be recommending selling the fire department’s ladder truck and converting Fire Station #2 to a paramedic team by going from a three-man to a two-man crew. We are considering periodic shutdowns of one fire station to drive down overtime. And we will look into renegotiating the existing contract for the city’s air ambulance.”
Dunn continued, “We are evaluating existing fees and new fees to enhance revenue. I will ask the council to consider increasing the business license fees. Another option will be increasing taxes. We may ask the voters to approve some form of tax, a sales tax or a parcel tax for the library. I mentioned that. I am not recommending the tax. However, if the council is not willing to make the cuts, we have to raise revenues.”
Dunn said the city is also considering leasing communication towers to cellular phone companies and selling off certain assets for one-time revenue. “We are already evaluating what properties we have and what could be sold off to shore up our reserves,” he said. “We could rent cell towers.”
Dunn emphasized that at present “We are not looking at layoffs.” He said, though, that he will be seeking concessions from all seven of the city’s employee bargaining groups on their labor contracts.
At issue is the city’s assumption of many employees’ contributions toward their retirement funds. In years past, during brighter economic times, the city, while providing what was designated as its part of that contribution toward employees’ pensions, also agreed to pay that portion of the pension fund that was put up by the employees themselves. At present, the city is paying $1.6 million per year in covering what would otherwise be the employees’ burden. If the seven employee bargaining groups would make that concession alone, Dunn indicated he is reasonably sure that layoffs will be avoided for at least the next two years.
Without either concessions, other savings or new revenue, far less palatable measures will have to be taken, Dunn said.
“One of the things we are looking at is outsourcing,” Dunn said. In practical terms, that means disbanding the police department and contracting with either the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department or the Ontario Police Department for law enforcement service, likewise dissolving the fire department and contracting with the Ontario Fire Department, the San Bernardino County Fire Department or the California Division of Forestry for fire service. Dunn is also poised to consider contracting with Ontario for engineering and public works services as well as building and code compliance inspections.
One member of the city council, Gino Filippi, is adamantly opposed to outsourcing of police and fire services.
“I understand that if we cannot find $2 million annually, then we will be looking at outsourcing,” Filippi said. “I think to be responsible, we have to show that nothing is off the table and we have to look at all opportunities to balance the city’s budget. But until I receive additional information to contradict what I have been told, my position is that the most crucial and vital services to Upland are public safety, which are essential services to protect our city, the police, fire and paramedics and public works. I know for a fact that public works has experienced the brunt of the reduction in the last two years. In addition, our police force has been reduced 20  officers since 2005. We had 90 sworn officers then and now we are down to 70. I don’t think it responsible to allow reductions in our police service. Since then we have seen the addition of the 210 Freeway, the Colonies commercial center and the residential area. We have rising crime throughout our city. We have break-ins and burglaries in areas where that was uncommon before. We have pockets of homeless, including at Memorial Park. That is of great concern to me. I would be against looking to move our police service away from Upland. I know the firefighters union is providing alternatives that would be more in line with keeping our services and looking at having nearby cities that have deep resources assist us rather than outsourcing to the county or other agencies like the California Division of Forestry. I think we need to get a clearer picture before we try to solve our problems piecemeal or eliminate whole departments. If we unwind those [the police department and fire department] and then try to go back in and regroup, we are going to have a problem. We have to think this through clearly before we reach for the knife.”
Filippi said he hopes the city’s employee bargaining units can be convinced to simply give back the city’s pick-up of the employee contributions toward retirement funding.
“I understand that if they are willing to come back to the table and if all of the employee groups provide their own contributions, that gets us to $1.6 million in savings annually. I am hopeful. That is certainly a place to start. That was one of the area’s most important to me during my campaign for mayor, to take them back to the negotiating table. Some of the groups have already agreed to do that. I am not at liberty to say which ones. This is a positive step. We are moving in the right direction. We are moving toward a responsible budget.”
Another member of the council, Brendan Brandt, indicated that the dissolution of either or both the police and fire departments would likely prove irrevocable, given the cost that would be entailed in reinitiating them. Once the police and fire departments are shuttered, he said, “we will never bring them back. I just know that,” Brandt said.
For that reason, Brandt said, “I would not make those kind of decisions without having all the information possible.”
Among the economizing approaches open to Dunn and the council short of outsourcing is laying off up to a third of the police and fire department personnel and then reframing the next contract, in which officers and firefighters would be classified not as hourly personnel but rather as salaried employees, extending contracts only to those individuals willing to work to carry out their assignments, even in the event that it takes 50 hours per week to complete them.
Michael McGill, an attorney with the law firm of Lackie, Dammeier, McGill & Ethir, which represents the Upland Police Officers Association, told the Sentinel, “I don’t see the option of working 50 hours per week as being legally permissible.  Federal wage and hour laws would not allow an employer to work an employee at that level without paying them overtime.  This is the case whether you classify them as salaried or hourly, exempt or non exempt.  And whether the unions agreed to it or not, the union cannot legally waive the wage and hour rights of any member.  Thus, the union could agree to it but any member could legally challenge it and would surely prevail.”
McGill did however, indicate that concessions of some order on the part of the city’s employee bargaining units may be unavoidable.
“All employees should have an appreciation of and commitment to an employer’s solvency,” McGill said. “Without an employer, there is no employee.  If cuts are necessary to maintain solvency, the city has to prioritize those cuts, and then make them where appropriate.  My personal philosophy is that cutting public safety should be a last resort.  If taking measured and necessary cuts, at a time where they are without a doubt needed, works to save the entire department, I would personally be okay with them.”