The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s public integrity unit is seeking documents and records from three High Desert governmental agencies going back three-and-a-half years.
The public integrity unit has requested or is going to request agendas and meeting minutes from the Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority, Victor Valley Economic Development Agency and the Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District, a reliable source has told the Sentinel.
The lawyer for the Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District confirmed that entity received a request for meeting agendas and minutes, and that the district had already complied with the request.
Officials with the Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority told the Sentinel that as of this morning, no request from the district attorney’s office had been received or processed.
No response to the Sentinel’s inquiry of the Victor Valley Economic Development Agency was forthcoming by press time.
Karen Novak, the counsel for the Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District told the Sentinel on June 2 that the district attorney’s office had asked for records and documents “which we treated as a public records request. They wanted the agendas and meeting minutes for the board going back to November 2012.”
Novak said the district attorney’s office’s inquiry arrived at the district on May 24 and “was in the form of a public records request. It was not a subpoena.” She said the district had already met the request.
This morning, Kristi Casteel, secretary to the board and general manager of the Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority, said she had not seen any such request. She referred the Sentinel to Robert Caromina, the authority’s director of administration. Caromina told the Sentinel, “I am not aware of any request for records or documents from the district attorney’s office. Kristi Casteel has not received one either and if there was that kind of request it would have come across at least one of our desks.” When asked, Caromina said it was possible the request had gone to the authority’s attorney. He said he would check. He called back less than an hour later and said that the authority’s counsel had not been contacted either. “So as of today, we have not received those requests,” Caromina said.
That the district attorney’s office’s inquiries had not yet progressed to the stage of issuing subpoenas is telling, indicating that at this stage of the investigation, probable cause to indicate a crime had definitely occurred has yet to surface.
One report was that the public integrity unit’s inquiries were outgrowths of complaints filed against First District San Bernardino County Supervisor Robert Lovingood, who is locked in a reelection campaign against four opponents – Bill Holland, Rick Roelle, Paul Russ, and Angela Valles. Well prior to the campaign, Valles, who was formerly employed as the director of administration with the Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority, had alleged Lovingood was involved in a series of conflicts of interest growing out of his ownership of ICR Staffing Services and his position on the board of supervisors. In particular, Valles claims that ICR’s contract with the Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority to supply temporary personnel has pushed Lovingood into the area of illegality. Since the Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority is a joint powers agency that includes the County of San Bernardino as one of its participants, Valles maintains the $560,000 in fees ICR has received from the Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority during his term on the board of supervisors is an instance of Lovingood profiteering by using his official position.
According to the Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority’s charter, one of its board members is the First District Supervisor. Valles has extrapolated upon what she perceives as the conflict-ridden circumstance involving Lovingood and the Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority and has drawn the inference that Lovingood serving as a board member on the Victor Valley Economic Development Authority, which has long overseen the conversion of the former George Air Force Base to civilian use, as well as with the Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District, entails a further conflict of interest.
The so-far unsubstantiated implication is that ICR also has contractual arrangements, either directly or indirectly with the air quality district and the economic development authority.
Lovingood and his supporters have refuted the insinuations with regard to the Victor Valley Economic Development Authority and the Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District outright, stating ICR has had no contractual relationship with either of those entities. Moreover, they have labeled Valles as being plain wrong when it comes to her accusations regarding the Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority. ICR’s contract with the Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority was in place prior to Lovingood being elected to the board of supervisors, they point out. And from the outset of his assuming office, Lovingood and his advisers were conscious of the potential conflict. Accordingly, Lovingood avoided being seated on the authority’s board, conscientiously and fastidiously remaining above such a conflict. Instead, Lovingood pointed out, his fellow board of supervisors colleague, James Ramos, has served in his stead on the Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority Board. For a legal conflict of interest such as Valles suggests to take place, he and his supporters assert, Lovingood would have to participate in a vote in which he awarded a contract to his company. No such vote has taken place, they contend.