Bankruptcy Judge Permits SB To Alter PD Contract

RIVERSIDE–(March 18) U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Jury, the federal judge hearing San Bernardino’s bankruptcy case who in September ruled the city could abrogate its contract with firefighters, this week extended that ruling to include the city’s police officers.
San Bernardino’s bankruptcy filing in 2012, following years of touch-and-go problems with its finances, set off a series of hard fought battles with its employee unions and the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS).
While stiffing a number of its creditors, vendors and service providers, San Bernardino is struggling to put its financial house in order and recover from years of deficit spending so it can exit bankruptcy and bring its future expenditures in alliance with its future revenues.
San Bernardino’s situation is exacerbated by provisions in its municipal charter that put in place a system which essentially guarantees the city’s safety employees – fireman and police officers – will be paid at a level equal to the average paid to safety employees in comparatively sized cities in California. City officials have claimed that this requirement had contributed to the erosion of the city’s finances and they asked Jury for permission to suspend the terms of the city’s contracts with the police and fire unions so the city can get back on its feet financially.
When the city ceased making scheduled payments to CalPERS, lawyers for that entity made arguments that CalPERS had a special status that moved it to the front of the line of the city’s creditors. The court did not confirm that assertion, and a compromise was reached between CalPERS and the city over the continuation of payments to CalPERS subsequent to the some $14 million in missed payments during 2012 and 2013. Union attorneys and representatives of the firefighters and police officers sought to impress upon Jury that the city’s safety officers had special status as well, per the city charter. But Jury has consistently ruled that the city should be granted wide leeway in dealing with the financial burdens it faces so it can exit bankruptcy as soon and as expeditiously as possible.
Jury has not dictated to the city what it should do, but merely ruled on what it can do, while encouraging it to devise a pendency plan that will allow it to return to some semblance of financial order. She said the city could, if it chose, insist upon both firefighters and police officers picking up a greater percentage of their respective pension costs than was the case previously. Jury’s ruling on March 17 provoked San Bernardino Police Officers Association attorney Ron Oliner to brand this type of sacrifice on the part of the police officers as “cost-sharing,” which he said was out of compliance with state law. He intimated an appeal on behalf of the union.
Though there is no assurance the city will actually utilize the freedom to the welsh on the police contract Jury has granted it, the city did last October impose a redrafted contract on the firefighters in accordance with Jury’s September ruling. The firefighters union is legally contesting that move.
City officials expressed frustration at the police union’s reluctance to get on board with the austerity plan the city has devised, which calls for sacrifices from all of the city’s employees. The city had sought to mediate a resolution to the dispute with the police union and last summer achieved what was referred to as a tentative agreement, but subsequent disagreements untracked that accommodation. In making its argument to Jury, the city told her that five of San Bernardino’s seven unions have accepted “modifications” to their contracts, including increasing employee contributions to their pension plans.
The city claims it is “burdened” by the contract it has with the police union and that continuing to pay the police officers in keeping with that contract will result in the city having “to run a deficit in its general fund.”
The city charter disallows the city reducing police or firefighter pay and a city-sponsored initiative to change that portion of the charter failed in November. Nevertheless, bankruptcy court is a federal institution and legal experts maintain federal law trumps state law.
The police union is contemplating testing whether that principle will hold true.

With SBPEA/Teamsters Merger Pending, County’s Professional Group Jumps To SEIU

(March 17) The more than 800 county employees defined as working within the professional unit have voted to decertify the San Bernardino Public Employees Association (SBPEA) as their labor representative in favor of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The California State Mediator’s Office, to which counting of the ballots had been entrusted, announced the results. In the final tally SEIU affiliation was favored by 441 of those who participated in the vote, while staying with SBPEA was supported by 137. Thirteen casted votes for no representation. More than 200 of those eligible to vote did not participate.
For three quarters of a century, the San Bernardino Public Employees Association had remained in a relatively secure position as the representative of the lion’s share of county workers, but beginning four years ago internal and external events and pressure have threatened to shatter the association.
But last year a contingent of SBPEA members dissatisfied with the association’s leadership urged their fellow union members to reject the contract San Bernardino County Chief Executive Officer Greg Devereaux was proposing, while seeking a special election to decertify the San Bernardino Public Employees Association as the county general line employees’ representative. They instead sought to install Service Employees International Union Local 721 as their bargaining unit. Their effort did not succeed at that time, and SBPEA’s leadership retaliated against the dissidents by expelling those members advocating the change and obtaining a restraining order against the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in June 2014, effectively ending SEIU’s ability to lobby SBPEA members.
On February 11, the SBPEA board informed the association’s membership an affiliation with the Teamsters was under consideration, asserting such an affiliation with the Teamsters would increase SBPEA’s leverage at the bargaining table. There is a contingent within the association adamantly opposed to affiliating with the Teamsters. Some dissatisfaction with the current SBPEA board exists and the move to associate with the Teamsters would virtually lock in the current set of union bosses, some members believe. But by affiliating with the Teamsters, some SBPEA loyalists believe, further erosion of their membership by SEIU can be prevented.

Administrative Law Judge Rebuffs Ontario In Effort To Halt Towers’ Erection

(March 17) Noting that Ontario officials had been aware of the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project and its local impacts since 2007 but waited nearly seven years to file a petition to have the project’s power lines buried, administrative law judge Jean Vieth denied the city of Ontario’s request that Southern California Edison’s erection of 197-foot high power towers at the extreme south end of the city be halted.
Essentially, Ontario is seeking to replicate the rather improbable success the city of Chino Hills had in persuading the California Public Utilities Commission to force Southern California Edison to underground the 500 kilovolt electrical lines that are part of its Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project traversing that city. Last fall, Ontario officials filed with the commission a petition and an amended petition to modify the massive utility corridor through the portion of the city annexed from the former Chino Agricultural Preserve, where the city intends to complete the so-called New Colony retail and residential subdivisions. The New Colony project will entail the addition of roughly 12,000 residents once it is completed.
The 173-mile Tehachapi line is intended to connect what is planned as the world’s largest windfarm, consisting of hundreds of electricity-producing windmills in Kern County, with the Los Angeles metropolitan basin.
The Public Utilities Commission in 2009 over the city of Chino Hills’ protest granted Southern California Edison clearance to erect high-tension power transmission towers through the 44.7-square mile city at the extreme southwest corner of San Bernardino County along a long-existing power corridor easement owned by the utility.
In 2011, after Southern California Edison (SCE) had already expended millions of dollars in erecting 18 of the 197-foot high transmission towers within the Chino Hills city limits, the California Public Utilities Commission issued an order to SCE to halt work on the project while the commission’s staff looked into the possibility of bringing the towers down and instead having Edison bury the transmission lines beneath the power corridor running through Chino Hills.
In July 2013, the California Public Utilities Commission voted 3-2 in favor of requiring Southern California Edison to underground high-voltage power lines for the 3.5 miles of the five miles they run through Chino Hills.
Well over a year after commissioners Michael Peevey, Mark Ferron and Catherine Sandoval effectively undid a four-year standing vote of the Public Utilities Commission that gave Edison go-ahead to string 500 kilovolt cables from the towers running through the heart of upscale Chino Hills, Ontario on October 31, 2014 filed a petition for modification of the Tehachapi line design in its jurisdiction with the public utility commission.
But in prelude to the California Public Utilities Commission initiating hearings as early as April 9 on Ontario’s request, Vieth, who routinely considers matters brought before the utilities commission prior to that panel making its decisions, on March 6 refused to accede to Ontario’s request that Southern California Edison be enjoined from proceeding with the project as previously approved.
Vieth dismissed outright Ontario’s contention that it had not been adequately informed of the towers’ potential impact on the city. Beginning in 2007 and running through 2013, Vieth said, the city of Ontario had communicated in writing with the California Public Utilities Commission five times, and never raised objections to the towers or requested that the line be undergrounded. Those letters were signed by individuals with both administrative and land use authority and responsibility, Vieth pointed out, in four of the cases the city manager and in the fifth case the city’s planning director.
Moreover, Ontario neglected entirely to indicate how many miles of the line it wanted to see vaulted below ground.
According to Joshua Nelson and John Brown of the law firm Best Best & Krieger, who represent the city of Ontario, “The actual impacts of the line are greater than anticipated [and] the impacts to the city of Ontario are the same or worse than those in Chino Hills,” such that “fundamental fairness and equal protection requires treating the city of Ontario and Chino Hills the same.”
Southern California Edison, through its attorneys, Beth Gaylor, Angela Whatley and Laura Zagar of the San Diego-based law firm of Perkin Coie, responded, saying Ontario’s delay in making its protest to the above-ground design of the utility corridor through its territory, seven years after Edison previewed the design and more than five years after the public utilities commission held hearings on the proposal, is requesting too much too late.
“In July 2009, the commission held ten days of evidentiary hearings with over 25 witnesses, which involved numerous parties, extensive witness testimony, hundreds of pages of briefing, and oral argument,” Gaylor, Whatley and Zagar wrote in their December 5, 2014 response. “Ontario did not participate in these proceedings. Ontario’s petition for modification is procedurally defective and attempts to relitigate issues already decided by the commission. There are no new facts or evidence warranting the extraordinary relief Ontario requests.”
Furthermore, according to Gaylor, Whatley and Zagar, the commission’s rule pertaining to protests of commission decisions and rehearings “requires a petitioner to file a petition for modification within one year of the effective date of the decision it seeks to modify. Ontario does not provide a compelling reason for its failure to participate in the commission’s initial review of the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project or the commission’s reevaluation of Chino Hill’s petition for undergrounding. A party that has not engaged in the proceedings should not be able to derail this crucial project at such a late stage in development.”
According to Nelson and Brown, however, “the city of Ontario’s delay was justified as the facts supporting its petition for modification were unknown. The actual effects of the line were not known until they [i.e., the towers] began to be constructed. Construction began within the city of Ontario after April this year [i.e., 2014]. Once these facts were known, the city promptly filed its undergrounding petition. Moreover, the city was not aware that similar communities would be treated differently until [the commission’s July 2013 decision] provided an undergrounding exemption for Chino Hills.” Nelson and Brown assert that “while the city of Ontario did not participate in [the 2009 decision to approve the Tehachapi line] as a formal party, it submitted numerous California Environmental Quality Act comment letters throughout the process. The adverse impacts of this line, which only became clear after its partial construction, occur within the city of Ontario. In addition, the city previously limited its participation in this proceeding for economic reasons.”
Nelson and Brown continued, “Chino Hills spent $1.8 million during the initial proceeding with another $2 million on the petition. While the city of Ontario appreciates that jurisdiction’s decision to participate fully in the proceeding and the result it obtained, $3.8 million is a significant sum of money that the city of Ontario simply could not spend at that time. However, now that the true impacts of the lines are apparent and an effort to ensure equal treatment for its residents, the city will spend the public resources necessary to achieve a similar result. Undergrounding [the transmission line] through Chino Hills without undergrounding portions through the city of Ontario is fundamentally unfair and raises concerns that similarly situated communities have been treated fundamentally differently by the commission. There is simply no reasonable rationale basis for requiring Southern California Edison’s ratepayers (i.e., the community at large) to share the cost of undergrounding through the city of Chino Hills while requiring the city of Ontario’s residents to solely bear the impacts of the aboveground portions of [the transition line].”
According to Nelson and Brown, the positive outcome Chino Hills obtained in its petition to the California Public Utilities Commission must be replicated in Ontario.
The towers are located south of Archibald Ranch and continue toward Chino Avenue, then head east before going into the Mira Loma Electrical Station. Archibald Ranch lies within an area east of Archibald Avenue and south of Riverside Drive. The power lines lie at the southernmost boundary of Archibald Ranch. There are 36 homes lying along the pathway of the power lines.
In her finding, Vieth asserted that a public utility commission order to underground the lines would significantly delay the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project, meaning the timetable for its completion would be set back by as much as five years. Vieth said redoing the already approved plans would entail tearing down, reconstructing or redesigning roughly ten miles of the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project line.

Cost On Devore RR Overpass Rises To $22.78M

(March 18) The cost of the Glen Helen Parkway Overpass project at the Union Pacific/Burlington Northern/Santa Fe Railroad lines near Devore has increased by $1,050,000. Simultaneously, the accounting on the contributions toward the project’s completion now reflects an increase of $3.05 million to $22,785,000.
The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors this week amended the original $19,735,000 undertaking to include the recent receipt of $2,320,000 in funding from Burlington Northern Santa Fe Union Pacific, an increase in the county’s contribution of $202,940 and an increased contribution of $527,060 in funding from the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority.
Simultaneously, the cost jumped, according to Gerry Newcombe, the county’s director of public works and transportation, because of additional railroad flagging services, estimated to be $391,000; additional right-of-way funding needed for ongoing eligible property acquisition expenses that occurred beyond the termination of the right-of-way funding agreement previously obtained for the project and other related costs, estimated to be $409,000; and the discovery during construction of an unknown underground storage structure that contained unknown hazardous material(s), estimated to be $250,000 for the initial response for remediation. Newcombe said the hazardous materials handling costs may yet increase. “Further investigation is underway to determine the full extent of soil contamination and appropriate remediation, and the costs for this continued work are still being determined,” he said.
The additional railroad funding contributions of $320,000 and project costs of $1,050,000 will result in an overall cost increase of $730,000, of which $202,940 is the county’s share and $527,060 is the transportation authority’s share.
All told, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe/ Union Pacific will put up $2,320,000 toward the completion of the project, the county will cover $5,689,270 of the cost and the transportation authority will cover $14.775,730 of the price tag.

Initiative Backers Sue Upland

(March 20) The sponsors of the initiative to allow three marijuana dispensaries to operate in Upland filed a lawsuit against the city on Thursday and followed that lawsuit up with a motion today, Friday March 20, in which they are seeking to have that initiative put on the ballot for a special election in June.
Those sponsors gathered the signatures of more than 15 percent of the city’s registered voters on the petitions that were certified by the county register of voters. But the city, following city attorney Richard Adams’ advice, seized on language in the initiative calling for levying a $75,000 fee on each dispensary operator, and said that the California Constitution requires that all new taxes be approved by voters at a general election. Calling the $75,000 fee a tax, the city council voted 3-2 to hold off on the initiative election until November 2016, the next general municipal election in Upland.
But Santa Monica-based attorney Roger Diamond, who represents the initiative proponents, said “The city misapplied Article 13c2 of the California Constitution, which applies only to initiatives self initiated by a government entity and not the initiative process endorsed by voters.”
Diamond filed a lawsuit in San Bernardino Superior Court, which has been routed to Department S-36 which he said calls for “the signers of the initiative to receive the full benefit of California law, which requires that the initiative be put on the ballot within 88 to 105 days of the certification of the signatures.”
The city did not have the legal option to postpone the election until next year, Diamond said, and he had followed the March 19 filing for a peremptory writ with a motion today calling upon the judge to order the city to conduct the election within the time specified by law.
Diamond said he had encountered some difficulty in that there are full calendars in each of the court divisions in San Bernardino, such that the matter has not been scheduled for an expeditious hearing yet. Ideally, Diamond said, the matter should be heard by April 21, so special election arrangements can be carried out by the registrar of voters in a timely manner. He said that despite the crowded court calendars, he believes the matter will be scheduled for a hearing in time, since by California law matters pertaining to election code issues are to be given scheduling preference.

County Changes Special District Formation Policy

(March 18) San Bernardino County has instituted a new policy with regard to the formation of special government services districts.
Based on a recommendation of the county’s chief executive officer, Greg Devereaux, and the county’s division of special districts, Jeff Rigney, the board of supervisors this week mandated that a financial analysis of the impact the creation of a new special district will have before such an entity is created.
According to Devereaux and Rigney’s report to the board, “Residents or other authorized individuals within the unincorporated area of San Bernardino County can form what is generically referred to as ‘special districts’ to provide new municipal type services or augment current services. These services include but are not limited to roads, parks, water, sewer, fire, streetlighting, refuse, etc.
The Board of Supervisors has the authority to approve the formation of the special district which once formed is financed through the levy of a fee, assessment or special tax on the properties benefiting from the new or enhanced service. Approval of the fee, assessment, or special tax is subject to approval by a vote of either registered voters or property owners within the proposed district.”
Devereaux and Rigney went on to note that “During a public hearing on September 23, 2014, the board of supervisors gave direction to staff to develop a policy that would ensure full consideration of the impact on property owners when forming special districts, as it is the property owners who are ultimately responsible for the payment of services. The recommended policy will achieve this outcome by providing that, prior to recommending the formation of a special district, an analysis and evaluation of all available formation and financing strategies be completed.”

26-Year LAPD Veteran To Serve As Upland PD Chief

(March 18) Los Angeles Police Department Captain Brian P. Johnson has been selected as Upland’s next police chief. He will begin on April 20, replacing interim police chief Ken Bonson, who has acted in that capacity since the December 30 retirement of former police chief Jeff Mendenhall.
Johnson was chosen after a recruitment effort overseen by city manager Rod Butler.
Johnson’s current assignment is overseeing LAPD’s Pacific Area and the 300 sworn and professional civilian personnel who work there.
Johnson, whose father was a Los Angles police officer, was born and raised in Los Angeles. He was hired by LAPD on March 27, 1989. As a police officer, he worked a variety of assignments and divisions, which included: Foothill, Central, Newton and Rampart.
His experience includes patrol, vice, specialized detectives, special problems unit and field training officer. In 1996, he was promoted to sergeant. His supervisory assignments included
Southeast Division, Southwest Division, the employee opportunity and development division and chief of staff to the police chief.
In 2000, he was promoted to lieutenant and assigned to the Southwest Area as a watch commander and administrative lieutenant. In 2001, he was assigned to the department’s internal affairs group where he covered both the South and Valley sections. He also worked as an adjutant for both the chief of operations and office of human resources. In addition, he worked as a training division officer. His last assignment prior to being promoted to captain was the bomb detection canine section of the emergency services division.
As a captain, he served for 13 months as the commanding officer in the Pacific Patrol Division from October 2011 to November 2012. He was then detailed to be the commanding officer in the South Traffic Division from November 2012 until September 2013. He then returned to the Pacific Area in September 2013 as the commanding officer.
Johnson received a Master’s Degree in behavioral science from California State University Dominguez Hills. He is a graduate of the Sherman Block Supervisory Leadership Institute, West Point Leadership Program and the FBI National Academy.
He was one of two finalists for the chief’s position, having outdistanced a captain employed by the San Bernardino Police Department. Bonson applied for the post but was eliminated in the first round.
Johnson is the first police chief hired from outside the department since Eugene Mueller was persuaded to leave the Pasadena Police Department to become Upland police chief in 1941.
He will begin with an annual salary of $160,474, which is substantially below the $223,000 Upland was paying Mendenhall. He will receive the same benefits as other executive level managers with the city, worth roughly $45,000 annually.

Forum… Or Against ‘em

By County Friedrich von Olsen
Just down the road in Pasadena, Caltech scientists have made what is potentially the breakthrough of the decade, or perhaps the century or even the millennium. They have created a sheet of graphene that measures one centimeter by one centimeter. What is so significant and important about a wafer thin piece of carbon that is less than .0656 square inches wide? It turns out that I did not need to go far to get an explanation of that, but merely mention the subject to the Sentinel’s publisher…
It turns out Mark Gutglueck has a passion for the subject of graphene and possible ways of manufacturing it. I will let him explain, first, what it is. “It is simple carbon,” Gutglueck said, “but different from almost every other form of carbon. Graphene is just one-atom thick. It occurs in nature, but only by chance and only in the most minute of quantities. It has extraordinary properties. Once formed it has unheard of resiliency. It is stronger than titanium. Compared to it steel would be like a fluffy down pillow. And it also is capable of conducting electricity exceedingly efficiently, far more efficiently and speedily than silicon, which the current generation of computers is based on. Computer chips or hard drives composed of graphene would have a storage capability hundreds of thousands of times greater than the computers in use today and would feature processing speeds magnitudes beyond our fastest processors. Not only that, graphene is light and compact. The miniaturization of computerized devises has already achieved impressive levels, in my mind. Graphene offers the possibility of miniaturization that is beyond comprehension.” Okay, so the stuff has possibilities…
I was a bit surprised to learn that the Sentinel publisher is a scientist. When I said as much, it provoked a hasty rebuke. “Look, I’m no scientist,” he said. “And I really don’t want to be put on the spot by some real scientist who will make me look like some kind of fool when he or she starts talking to me like I am one.” The best I could do was to get him to admit, “I have an understanding of scientific method. I have an interest in nanotechnology.” I picked up on the subject of graphene again. He said that up until the apparent breakthrough in Pasadena there has been all order of highly creative, sophisticated, disciplined and technologically advanced approaches to fabricating, or trying to fabricate, graphene. “A whole lot of clever and well thought-through methods have been tried,” Gutglueck said. “There are over 8,000 patents on ways to create it. The thing is, none of them really worked, or worked effectively in ways that could be consistently replicated. The most reliable way, up until now, of making it was pretty low tech and pretty chancy. What they would do is take a piece of tape, adhesive tape, and set it sticky side down in some carbon. Then they would lay the tape on a surface and press it down. When the tape was pulled up, it would leave a film of carbon on the surface. About one out of every 800 or 900 times that was done there would be patch of graphene left on the surface.” Pretty low tech…
That’s where Gutglueck’s interest in this came in. He was eager to try out a number of theories he had for a systematic and reliable method of manufacturing graphene. “My first approach was to do it electrostatically,” Gutglueck said. “The concept was to create an electric field that would envelope the carbon and to keep the field – a relatively low level field – flowing until the molecules distributed themselves evenly. The trick it seems to me is to ascertain what degree of voltage would work. It would have to be a very precise level, probably dependent upon the amount of carbon you are dealing with. I found out later that others were attempting something on the order of my idea. You can uniformly distribute carbon electrostatically, it turns out. But the problem, as I understand it, is that when you shut down the current, you get a ripple across the layer of carbon. I still think doing it electrostatically might work, but you would need to create a device to gradually, very gradually, excruciatingly gradually, lower the voltage down to zero.” So much for that approach…
Many of the other methods of creating graphene he contemplated were expensive and involved, requiring equipment that is hard to come by or is monopolized by others in the scientific community for experiments they are carrying out. A common approach requires heating the carbon to extremely high temperatures, in some cases approaching 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. “The application of heat and pressure is a standard approach when we are talking about building graphene,” Gutglueck said. “At the University of California at Riverside they have an oven with a chamber that can generate heat in excess of 1,600 degrees and in which you can increase the atmospheric pressure to a magnitude that will essentially flatten or compress commonplace items. I was interested in experimenting with those possibilities, utilizing different pressures and different levels of heat and different media as substrates. I was never able to do that because I don’t have a laboratory of my own and it is very difficult to get access to the equipment that does exist so you can carry out experimentation. There is a demand for the use of that equipment and a backlog of people, all of whom have legitimate experiments pending, who want to use the equipment.” He thus never personally utilized the heat and pressure approach…
He had a good dozen other ideas, some of which at least sound intriguing. “One approach I think might have viability,” he said, “is vibration. If we take a substrate and measure it precisely, we can calculate by weight how much carbon we would need to cover the substrate’s area to a depth of one atom of carbon.” What he means by a substrate is simply a flat plate. “What you would do is put that precise amount of carbon on the substrate and then enclose it with a border,” he went on. “By vibrating the substrate, my theory is you could get the carbon to distribute evenly over the surface. If you continued the vibration, and by vibration I mean a very minute but even oscillation, up and down, forward and backward, side to side, eventually you would get what I would label pre-graphene. You would then cease the vibration and allow the graphene to set. Assuming you didn’t tear any of the carbon away when you removed the border or separated the graphene from the substrate, I think you could create a sizeable sheet of graphene.” Another proposed method he came up with is a variation on the vibration approach delineated above, involving a substrate and a superstrate. A superstrate is a flat plate placed on top of the substrate. “If you measure out the precise amount of carbon you need on the substrate, you could then compress the carbon with the superstrate. You would slowly, very slowly, narrow the gap between the substrate and superstrate to the thickness of a single atom of carbon. If you did it right, at least according to my theory, you would then have graphene.” It’s anybody’s guess as to whether these methods would actually work…
I asked him what he knew or thought of the success achieved at Caltech. “What I know is the fellow who came up with this method of construction is named David Boyd, who somehow introduced methane into the derivative process. This new technique allows for the graphene to form at a relatively cool temperature, something around 850 degrees, which is considerably lower than what a lot of people were accustomed to thinking of as necessary before. I’m impressed. I’d like to talk to Mr. Boyd. I had considered the use of gasses in the process might be the key. I hadn’t considered methane specifically, but it occurred to me that if you experimented around with all kinds of gases, oxygen, fluorine, krypton, argon, nitrogen, the whole range of organic gases, and inorganic gases, helium, etcetera, you could potentially create a medium in which graphene would form, either spontaneously or with prompting. I had this intuitive feeling, which was not really based on anything empirical, that this could be done without having to use extreme temperatures. Something I heard is they now think constructing graphene at room temperature is likely. My sense of it all along was there is probably more than one technique that will work. When you look at all of the possibilities and consider that you have to catalogue through them by trial and error until you achieve success, it is pretty daunting. The perfect marriage of conditions and method is out there somewhere, but what is it? Where is it? I’m convinced that sometimes being unconventional or creative or lucky or inspired works better than endless repetitive experimentation. I also think that proves I’m not a scientist.” Who am I to contradict the boss?

Walter A. Shay, Multifaceted Lawman

By Mark Gutglueck
Walter A. Shay, Jr. was one of San Bernardino County’s most celebrated lawmen. Though he began his law enforcement career at the relatively advanced age of 33, he went on to wear or carry numerous badges, including deputy sheriff, city marshal, police chief, special agent for the Pacific Electric and Santa Fe Railroads, special district attorney’s investigator and San Bernardino County sheriff. After he donned a police uniform, he figuratively never took it off, becoming the first and only San Bernardino County sheriff to die in office.
He was the youngest son of Walter Alexander Shay, who was born in Nova Scotia in 1812 and Elizabeth Goshen, born in North Carolina in 1829. Walter Alexander Shay, Jr. was born in San Bernardino on June 29, 1866, when his father was 54. The older Shay was a robust farmer, operating a 190-acre farm located along Baseline Road in what is now East Highlands Ranch. Walter Junior had four siblings, John Joseph Shay (1854 – 1931), James Thomas Shay (1857 – 1932), William Henry Shay (1860 – 1942), and Mary Ann Shay Hutchings (1863 – 1950). His mother died in 1869.
As a young man, Water Shay, Jr. ran a freighting business catering to the desert communities. Subsequently, he took on the responsibility of assisting his father in farming the 190-acre spread.
In 1892 he married Virginia Matilda McCoy, known as Tillie. They initially lived at 495 N. “C” Street. They had four children: Weston Walter Shay (1894-1982); Emmet Livingston Shay (1898 to 1978), who was himself a lawman and sheriff of San Bernardino County; George W Shay (1903 – 1905) and Nell Shay Patton (1910 – 1997).
In 1898 Walter Shay, Jr. took a job as a sheriff’s deputy under Sheriff Charles Rouse. The following year, his father was killed in a horse riding mishap on December 2, 1899.
After four years as a sheriff’s deputy, he ran for San Bernardino city marshal and was elected. The position of San Bernardino marshal had been created in 1853 by Brigham Young when San Bernardino was yet a Mormon settlement. For the first fifteen years, the marshal’s post in San Bernardino had been an appointed one. In 1868 it was converted to an elected one. From 1853 until 1906 15 men served as the town marshal of San Bernardino: Bud Rollins, Stewart Wall, George Mattheson, Frank Kerfoot, Charles Landers, Mark Thomas, John C. Ralphs, L. Van Dorin, Joseph Bright, Hughes Thomas, David Wixom, William Reeves, John Henderson, Ben Souther, and Walter A. Shay.
In 1905 the city of San Bernardino instituted new rules of incorporation. A mayor and what was referred to as a “common council” was formed and members elected to office, including Hiram M. Barton, who was elected mayor. The new council was sworn in on May 8, 1905. Two years remained on Walter Shay’s term as marshal. The newly constituted city government structure no longer featured the position of marshal. One of the first orders of business for the new mayor and council was to appoint a new police force to take office at 12 noon on May 15, 1905. Mayor Barton read a proclamation naming the eight officers to the newly formed police department – John Bell Ketring, Robert O’Rourke, John A. Henderson, William H. Hurley, Edward Poppett, Benjamin Emerson, Richard Curtis, Robert Nish. Walter A. Shay Jr. was proclaimed the chief of police. He was thus the last marshal of San Bernardino and the city’s first police chief.
He remained as police chief for two years but left that office to take a position as a special agent for the Pacific Electric railway. Two years later, San Bernardino Mayor S.W. McNabb persuaded Shay to return to the position of San Bernardino police chief. Two years later, Shay resigned as police chief to go to work as a special agent for the Arizona and coast line division of the Santa Fe Railroad. He remained in this position for four years. At that point San Bernardino Mayor George H. Wixom, to whose daughter Violet Shay’s son Emmet would be married in 1920, convinced him to head the police department for a third time.
In 1916 Shay again departed as San Bernardino police chief to go to work for the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s office as a special investigator. He remained in this role for a year-and-a-half. In 1918 he ran, successfully for county sheriff, succeeding J.L. McMinn. He was reelected three times, in 1922, 1926, and 1930.
In 1921, he instituted the modernization of the department by introducing the use of police technology, in particular the identification bureau, the first specialized division organized within the sheriff’s department.
In 1922, he would be at the forefront of converting law enforcement agencies into paramilitary organizations. In 1921, his deputies had a particularly rough time in apprehending highwayman Juan Barron. In response, in early 1922, Shay requisitioned from the U.S. Army surplus grenades left over from World War I, which were provided to his deputies to assist them, according to the San Bernardino Sun “to dislodge highwaymen in dugouts.”
In 1924, he devoted considerable department resources in tracking down bootleggers. In one month alone, July of that year, 33 were arrested for trafficking in moonshine or other intoxicating beverages.
Prior to his 1926 reelection, the San Bernardino Sun credited him with solving all eleven murders that had occurred in the county over the previous several years.
As sheriff, Shay created a “dry squad,” which was assigned to ferret out illicit bootlegging operations and drinking establishments and shut them down. He appointed deputies J.A. Larson and later Ira B. Castor to head this team.
In the spring of 1931, while he was yet in office as sheriff, he began to experience discomfort in his abdomen. In June of 1931, he was diagnosed as having carcinoma of the stomach. On July 12, 1931, he had an operation performed by Dr. Emmett L. Tisinger at his office at 575 Fifth Street in San Bernardino. Tisinger’s tissue examination revealed that the lawman’s illness was terminal.
Shay asked to be returned to the Shay family residence at 495 Arrowhead Avenue in San Bernardino. For the next three weeks, with his mind alert and completely conscious, he spoke lucidly with those who had come to see him. On August 2, 1931, at the age of 65 years one month and three days, he was still communicating with family members who had gathered around him that afternoon. At 6 p.m., with the sun not yet set, he dozed and then passed into eternity.
In its August 4, 1931 edition, the San Bernardino Sun said of him, “This county has lost an able, a conscientious and an honest official and thousands of people have lost a real friend. To have served more than three terms as sheriff and before that three terms as chief of police is an accomplishment that only can come through earnest service to the public. Sheriff Shay gave that kind of service. He never faltered in his duty. He never gave up the hunt for a criminal. Walter Shay never lost touch with the masses of the people. That San Bernardino County is a better place in which to live because of Sheriff Shay, there are many to attest. There was no compromise with the enemy of society in Sheriff Shay’s makeup. He both commanded and demanded respect for the law.”

VVWRA Puts Valles On Administrative Leave Pending Investigation Outcome

VICTORVILLE —(March 19) The Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority earlier this month placed Angela Valles, the authority’s director of administration, on paid administrative leave, pending the conclusion of an investigation.
That investigation has grown out of action the authority’s board of directors took on February 27 to retain the San Bernardino-based law firm of Mundell, Odlum and Haws to investigate claims made by seven former Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority employees in writing and at a February 19 board meeting that Valles had engaged in a host of actions unbecoming to the authority and prejudicial to the departed employees.
Those employees – Katherine Beyers, James Bryant, Gina Cloutier, R.C. Elliot, Elaine Gutierrez, Natalie Mirmontes and Haik Seropian – charged Valles with a host of inappropriate acts. Some alleged that Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority General Manager Logan Olds and his second-in-command, director of operations Gilbert Perez knew of Valles’ comportment but had ignored it or even encouraged it.
The board, however, has left Olds and Perez in place.
The Sentinel has learned that Valles, the agency’s director of administration overseeing day-to-day finance operations and human resource functions, between July and December of 2014 filed complaints with several investigative bodies such as the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office, the Fair Political Practices Commission, the Attorney General through Congressman Paul Cook’s office, and the FBI, alleging a criminal conflict of interest involving San Bernardino County First District Supervisor Robert Lovingood based upon the entangling relationship between his company, Industrial Clerical Recruiters, Inc, (ICR) and the Victor Valley Water Reclamation Authority, which formerly utilized ICR to provide contract workers for authority projects. After the ICR contract with the authority was terminated, ICR filed a $3.6 million claim against the authority.
The Victor Valley Water Reclamation Authority is an agency of the state of California which provides wastewater treatment service along the Mojave River in the Victor Valley. It is a joint powers authority, which by its charter has as its board members one member from each of the Hesperia, Victorville and Apple Valley councils as well as the San Bernardino County First District Supervisor. Lovingood has substituted himself out of the Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority board post and has been replaced by Third District Supervisor James Ramos.
The Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority’s legal counsel, Piero Dallarda was unable to provide any definitive statement with regard to Valles’ leave.
It is unknown how widely or narrowly the Mundell, Odlum and Haws firm will focus its inquiry. It appears, based upon the firm’s insistence that Valles be absent from the authority’s premises while it is carrying out its inquiries, that it is taking seriously charges that Valles, who was prior to going to work for the Victor Valley Water Reclamation Authority the warden of the privately operated 550-bed, adult male, Victor Valley Medium Community Correctional Facility in Adelanto, was dictatorial in her interactions with authority employees, retaliated against others, conspired to have some laid off or fired and compromised some of their confidential personnel and medical information. While the information Valles forwarded to the several investigative agencies is available in a compendium since made available to the Sentinel and other entities, it is not clear whether Mundell, Odlum and Haws have been authorized to take up those issues.