A collection of one-time criminal defendants who have now seized the initiative and become civil plaintiffs against San Bernardino County and its district attorney’s office over having been put them through the ordeal of being prosecuted recently turned what might prove a crucial corner in making a demonstration that former District Attorney Mike Ramos and the prosecutors and investigators working for and in conjunction with him were not abiding by the Marquis of Queensbury rules while proceeding against them.
U.S. District Judge Jesus G. Bernal  reaffirmed an order by U.S. Magistrate Judge Shashi H. Kewalramani that the county and the district attorney’s office release documents relating to the failed effort to prosecute three former high ranking county officials and a prominent developer on a slew of public corruption charges.
Bernal’s order came last week, nearly two months after Kewalramani on May 1 entered a discovery order in the case calling for the release of hundreds of documents consisting of communication between personnel within the district attorney’s office as well as county prosecutors’ exchanges with state and federal law enforcement officials including the FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the California Attorney General’s Office and county officials. Those emails, text messages, letters and missives relate to the circumstances of the county’s dispute with the developers of the Colonies at San Antonio and the Colonies Crossroads residential and commercial subdivisions in Upland and the investigation into graft allegations relating to a $102 million settlement of a lawsuit brought by the Colonies Partners development consortium against the county relating to those projects.
In May 2011, former San Bernardino County Supervisor Paul Biane; Mark Kirk, who was the chief of staff to former supervisor Gary Ovitt; and Jim Erwin, the one-time president of the union representing the county’s sheriff’s deputies who also served a short stint as assistant county assessor, were indicted along with Jeff Burum, one of the managing principals in the Colonies Partners. Burum was charged with working in conjunction with Erwin to bribe Biane and Kirk in connection with achieving, in November 2006, the settlement of a lawsuit filed by the Colonies Partners against the county in 2002.
The charges were an outgrowth of the personal and political implosion of Bill Postmus, who a decade-and-a-half ago was the chairman of the board of supervisors and simultaneously serving as the chairman of the San Bernardino County Republican Central Committee. From those dual perches, Postmus, who had meteorically vaulted to the pinnacle of governmental power and influence in San Bernardino County in 2000 by representing himself as a rock-ribbed conservative Christian-and-family-values Republican, in 2006 successfully vied for county assessor, the primary taxing authority in the county. By 2009 he had crashed to earth in a cascade of scandals in which he was exposed as a drug-addicted homosexual who had installed more than a dozen of his boyfriends/“political associates” into high-paying nonproductive positions in the assessor’s office. As a consequence, Postmus was induced to resign, and he and some of his employees were charged with and prosecuted for misusing the assessor’s office for partisan political purposes. Ultimately, Postmus and his associates and boyfriends would be convicted or pleaded guilty to those charges.
In March 2011, Postmus entered into a plea arrangement in which he acknowledged guilt to one misdemeanor drug count and 14 felony charges relating to political corruption, including conspiracy, bribery, misappropriation of public funds, conflict of interest, fraud and perjury. He turned state’s evidence and the following month served as the star witness before the grand jury that in May 2011 returned the 29-count indictment of Burum, Biane, Kirk and Erwin.
In the indictment, prosecutors cataloged their allegations that prior to the November 2006 vote to approve the $102 million settlement, Erwin and Burum had bullied Postmus and Biane with threats to expose their personal vulnerabilities, including Postmus’s drug use and homosexuality and Biane’s financial difficulties. Prosecutors alleged that Burum and Erwin thus successfully blackmailed Postmus and Biane into supporting the settlement and then provided them both $100,000 each in kickbacks after the settlement was ratified, and that those bribes had been hidden, or laundered, in the form of political donations. Similarly, the indictment described $100,000 provided to Kirk’s political action committee as a kickback to reward him for helping convince his boss, Supervisor Gary Ovitt, to support the $102 million settlement. Erwin was also given $100,000 in the form of a donation to a political action committee he had set up, and prosecutors said that was a reward to him for having assisted the Colonies Partners and Burum in effectuating the settlement.
The eight month-duration criminal trial before two juries in 2017 included testimony by Postmus in May of that year. In his testimony under direct examination, Postmus replicated the key elements of the prosecution’s narrative, including recounting threats made by Erwin, working on behalf of Burum and the Colonies Partners, to expose elements of both his and Biane’s personal lives in an effort to persuade them to support the settlement, Burum’s promise to support him in either or both future political and business endeavors once the settlement was finalized, and that after the settlement was in place the Colonies Partners had come through with $100,000 for him in the form of two separate $50,000 donations to political action committees he had control over.
Thereafter, however, when the defense was given an opportunity to cross examine Postmus, under the withering questioning of one of Burum’s attorneys, Jennifer Keller, Postmus went sideways, and he testified that he had been intimidated by the district attorney’s office investigators to meet their expectations of what they needed to make the case against the others. Postmus acknowledged that he was in the throes of methamphetamine addiction at the time of the events in question, rendering his memory unreliable and leaving him vulnerable to manipulation by the prosecution.
The trial closed out without the defense calling any witnesses and without testimony from the accused, all of whom stood on their Fifth Amendment rights. The jury which heard the case against Burum, Biane and Kirk returned verdicts of not guilty against all three on all charges against them that had not been earlier dismissed after less than two full days of deliberation. The other jury deadlocked on all of the charges brought against Jim Erwin. Thereafter, on a motion by the prosecution, the charges against Erwin were dismissed.
On March 1, 2018 the Colonies Partners filed a civil rights lawsuit in Riverside Federal Court against San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos and former state attorneys general Jerry Brown and Kamala Harris, other members of the prosecution team and witnesses involved in the case. That suit, which seeks $80 million in damages, alleges both prosecutors and investigators in the criminal case disregarded or hid evidence vindicating the defendants and furthermore “fabricated evidence to prop up their case.”
On April 2, 2018 Burum followed up with a $50 million malicious prosecution lawsuit in federal court against San Bernardino County, now former District Attorney Mike Ramos and former state attorneys general Kamala Harris and Jerry Brown, prosecutors Lewis Cope and Melissa Mandel, former Assistant District Attorney Jim Hackleman, district attorney’s office investigators Robert Schreiber and Hollis Randles, and County Supervisor Josie Gonzales, asserting overzealousness and retaliatory motives on the part of prosecutors, who, he claimed, used fabricated evidence in accusing him of involvement in an extortion and bribery conspiracy relating to the $102 million settlement.
At issue in both the suits brought by the Colonies Partners and Burum is that in entering into the settlement agreement in late 2006 and the working out of those arrangements in the months thereafter, the county agreed to indemnify the Colonies Partners over any legal challenges relating to the settlement that might arise and that the county also carried out a validation proceeding through the courts in which the public at large was invited to challenge the settlement, after which, the Colonies Partners claim, the settlement was locked in and could not be overturned for any reason. Part of the damages the company and Burum are seeking, aside from the assertion that no criminal prosecution should have taken place at all, are based upon their claims that the county should have paid for Burum’s legal defense in keeping with the indemnification agreement.
Charles E. Slyngstad, the lead attorney representing the county, in court papers filed with the U.S. Federal Court in Riverside on March 26 and in subsequent statements, has said neither the Colonies Partners nor Burum have a basis for the legal action they have brought.
In June 2018 Erwin filed a $25 million federal lawsuit against prosecutors and the county, alleging an “illegal campaign of retaliation, intimidation, and harassment.”
In July 2018, Kirk, represented by Peter Scalisi, the defense attorney who represented Kirk during the criminal trial in which he was acquitted, filed a $40 million suit naming the County of San Bernardino, Ramos, Mandel, Cope, Randles, former District Attorney’s Office Investigator Robert Schreiber, prosecution witness Adam Aleman, Supervisor Josie Gonzales, then-Governor and former Attorney General Brown, and former Supervising Deputy California Attorney General Gary Schons as defendants.
Records show that in February 2018 Biane filed a malicious prosecution claim against the county and state, seeking more than $10 million in damages.
According to the county’s attorneys, the plaintiffs have no grounds for proceeding against the county, as they were arrested and charged in accordance with information available indicating that crimes had been committed and that those charged were responsible for those crimes, multiple judges found the search warrants and arrest warrants issued with regard to the case were supported by adequate probable cause and in extensive pretrial litigation judges Brian McCarville and Michael A. Smith upheld the validity of the charges as stated and allowed the matter to proceed to trial. All of the defendants and now plaintiffs were given their day in court, the county maintains.
Neither the Colonies Partners nor by extension Burum, Erwin, Biane and Kirk can “establish that [they have] been deprived of a constitutional or statutory right,” Charles E. Slyngstad of the law firm Burke, Williams & Sorensen, the lead attorney representing the county, stated in court papers filed with the U.S. Federal Court in Riverside.
Despite the exonerations, Slyngstad maintains the prosecution, composed of members of both the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office and the California Attorney General’s Office, was justified in pursuing a criminal case against Burum, Biane and Kirk.  “The fact that Mr. Burum and others were found not guilty is not a vindication of their conduct and does not make the county and the [county flood control] district responsible for the cost of a criminal defense or other costs allegedly paid for by Colonies Partners,” Slyngstad stated publicly. Slyngstad pointed out that Erwin was not acquitted.
According to the Colonies Partners’ lawsuit, the prosecutors and their investigators “refused to accept Mr. Postmus’s repeated denials of a corrupt quid pro quo agreement to exchange his vote for the 2007 campaign contributions. Mr. Postmus explicitly and repeatedly denied that he had ever accepted a bribe in exchange for his pro-settlement vote. Defendants refused to accept this truth because it did not further their retribution campaign against [the] Colonies [Partners]. So, over the course of several interviews, defendants Randles and Schreiber, supervised by defendants Ramos, Cope, Hackleman, Harris, Mandel, and/or Schons convinced Mr. Postmus that he had committed various felony offenses related to the settlement, and coerced him into pleading guilty and testifying to those supposed offenses before the indicting grand jury.”
In the county’s answer to the lawsuit brought by the Colonies Partners, Slyngstad wrote, “Defendants deny the allegations.” In fact, according to the county, Postmus acknowledged the quid pro quos and bribery when he entered guilty pleas to 14 felony political corruption counts in March 2011, several of which involved Burum, Biane, Erwin and Kirk.
Similarly, Slyngstad also dismissed the lawsuit’s allegation that district attorney’s office investigators Schreiber and Randles “planted smaller deceptions for the purpose of manipulating Mr. Postmus into telling larger lies. Mr. Postmus later recognized and admitted that his contradictory and nonsensical ‘memories’ of these events had been planted by an unscrupulous and coercive prosecution team.”
“Defendants deny the allegations,” Slyngstad wrote.
The county has dismissed the suggestion in the lawsuit that the county engaged in breach of contract by not funding Burum’s legal defense in the face of the criminal charges lodged against him.
According to the lawsuit, “in their zeal to exact this punishment, defendants county and [the county flood control] district ignored their contractual obligations under the settlement agreement, as fulfilling them would have undermined the multi-pronged strategy of retaliation. The county and district were undoubtedly thrilled that [the] Colonies [Partners] was being forced to spend millions of dollars defending itself from the bogus investigation and prosecution, which various county and district employees vigorously encouraged and assisted. Defendants county and district thus breached the settlement agreement and violated the covenant of good faith and fair dealing by failing to defend and indemnify [the] Colonies [Partners] in two subsequent legal actions, failing to defend the validity of the settlement agreement, and assisting the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office and California Attorney General’s Office in their efforts to invalidate the settlement agreement through the criminal prosecution of Mr. Burum.”
According to Slyngstad, however, any governmental contract tainted by a conflict of interest is rendered null and void and is not enforceable. California Government Code Section 1090 applies to conflicts of interest involving public officials. Thus, Postmus’ guilty plea to a violation of Government Code Section 1090 as pertained to his approval of the $102 million lawsuit settlement excused the county from having to abide by its indemnity guarantee, Slyngstand maintained.
“Plaintiff is not entitled to indemnity and/or defense for any matters that relate to plaintiff’s and/or its agents’, confederates’, or alleged indemnitees’ actions in violation of Government Code Section 1090 and other provisions of California law pertaining to conflicts of interest,” the answer reads. “Defendants allege that they have fully performed all terms, conditions and obligations that were theirs to perform under the agreement that is the subject of those claims. [W]ithout admitting that defendants engaged in any of the acts or conduct attributed to them in the complaint, any breach of the agreement sued upon was excused by plaintiff’s prior breach.”
Slyngstad publicly stated, “The county and the district deny they are liable to [the] Colonies [Partners] in any amount whatsoever.”
As the suits have been consolidated and are proceeded toward trial, the plaintiffs have pursued discovery, a process by which both sides, plaintiffs and defendants, are obliged to reveal to the opposing side information in their respective possession relevant to the matter being litigated and are subject to depositions, that is, questioning of plaintiffs, defendants and witnesses under oath. At some point in the discovery process, an attorney with the county who had access to a wide cross section of county material relating to ongoing litigation approached the attorneys for the plaintiffs and in a sub rosa arrangement provided what was described to the Sentinel as in excess of 300 separate documents. Burke, Williams & Sorensen had made several assertions during the discovery process which were credibly contradicted when county documents were marshaled that contained communications and information at a factual variance with positions the county had taken during ongoing litigation. Included in a batch of documents examined by Bernal, the Sentinel is informed,  were communications in which county officials openly discussed what appeared to be suborning perjury. In another, county officials make reference to withholding evidence from the defense in a criminal case. In one communication, a former high ranking county official discussed employing physical violence against a former federal judge.
The Sentinel is informed that the office of county counsel had the materials in question in a file, which had not been turned over to Burke, Williams & Sorensen. Lawyers with Burke, Williams & Sorensen during the course of litigation made repeated representations based on the incomplete information at their disposal, and were ultimately blindsided because County Counsel Michelle Blakemore had not passed the more complete record along to Burke, Williams & Sorensen because she had banked on the documentation never seeing the light of day.
Kewalramani, who was provided with information to indicate that even after the August 2017 acquittals of Burum, Biane and Kirk and the September 2017 hung jury in the case against Erwin, the district attorney’s office, at the direction of then-District Attorney Mike Ramos, was casting about for a way in which to perpetuate the criminal case against Burum. One element of such a case, which never came to fruition, had been to ascertain if Burum, who had suspended making any form of political contributions at the time of his 2011 indictment, could be criminally charged with resuming that political activity. It is of some note that Burum, the Colonies Partners and the other defendants in the failed criminal case emerged in 2018 as the major backers of Jason Anderson, who vied against Mike Ramos in the latter’s fourth re-elective effort following his 2002 election as district attorney. They supported Anderson both through direct donations to his campaign as well as by endowing an independent expenditure committee that was devoted in the main to removing Ramos from office and promoting Anderson.
The Anderson campaign spent $259,055.70.
Pierre Biane, Paul Biane’s father, donated $2,750 to Anderson’s electoral effort, and the entity known as Biane Family Properties chipped in another $250.
John Bunkers, one of the Colonies Partners, donated $4,400 to Anderson. Andrew Wright, another of the Colonies Partners, ponied up $5,500. The Andrew Wright Living Trust gave Anderson another $3,000 One of Burum’s many development entities provided $2,000.
Burum donated $4,400 to Anderson, and Burum’s wife, Kelly, donated another $4,400. Burum’s brother donated $1,000 to Anderson’s electioneering fund and Burum’s sister-in-law donated $500. Ray Crebs, one of the Colonies Partners, donated $100. Stephen Larson, Burum’s attorney, and Larson’s father provided Anderson with $8,800.  Mark McDonald, Paul Biane’s attorney, gave Anderson $1,000.  Rajan Maline, Erwin’s attorney, threw another $1,000 toward Anderson’s electoral effort.
Chris Leggio, one of Burum’s closest friends, and Leggio’s wife put up $7,700 toward getting Anderson into office.  James Sheridan, another close Burum associate, tossed in $500.
Jeff Burum provided $135,550 to an independent expenditure committee, Business Owners For Fair and Ethical Government, which was devoted in large measure to supporting Anderson and opposing Ramos. Burum’s wife, Kelly, handed another $135,550 over to Business Owners For Fair And Ethical Government. Chris Leggio and his wife provided the committee another $32,500. Andrew Wright endowed Business Owners For Fair And Ethical Government with $30,000.
Mark Kirk was a principal officer in Business Leaders For Fair And Ethical Government.  Jim Erwin was another of the committee’s officers.
Anderson was Ramos’ only challenger in 2018, and in the contest held on June 5, corresponding with the 2018 California Primary, Anderson outpolled Ramos 128,127 votes or 52.16 percent to 117,501 votes or 47.84 percent.
Based on the substance of the internal district attorney’s office communications,  Kewalramani took exception to the characterization of the political support vectored toward Anderson as criminal activity.
U.S. District Judge Jesus G. Bernal concurred in that conclusion. In a number of cases over the last several decades federal courts have held that monetary support provided to political candidates are tantamount to free speech. The county’s difficulties were compounded by misrepresentations made earlier in the process by its legal representatives, when County Counsel Michelle Blakemore, Slyngstad and other lawyers with Burke, Williams and Sorensen were unaware of the district attorney’s office’s internal communications having fallen into the hands of the plaintiff’s legal teams.
Slyngstad had asserted that Kewalramani’s had based his order “on clearly erroneous factual findings.” Bernal came to the diametrically opposite conclusion, and cited “credible allegations” and “evidence,” which he said supported the motion to compel the disgorging of the documents.
Bernal granted the Colonies Partners’ motion to recover the fees it expended in contesting the appeal of Kewalramani’s order, to be quantified by the Colonies Partners’ submission, by July 8, of a declaration or a showing of legal billings for the work.
“The former DA has long demonstrated a clear bias against Jeff Burum and the other plaintiffs in this lawsuit,” Burum’s attorney, Stephen Larson said. “I am confident that these documents will continue to demonstrate the pattern of deceit, fraud, and misconduct by county officials that has already been revealed, all of which will only further strengthen our case.”
-Mark Gutglueck

An off-trail area around Big Falls in the San Bernardino National Forest was closed to the public beginning July 4. Visitors are still able to hike the Big Falls Trail to a waterfall overlook, but areas beyond the railing will be closed by a forest order that is to remain in force through May 24, 2020.
“There have been too many search and rescues in this area in the past,” said Joe Rechsteiner, the district ranger for the Front Country Ranger District. “We want to make sure the public enjoys this beautiful spot while staying safe. Some of the rocks in Falls Creek are deceivingly slippery.”
Search and rescues by the San Bernardino County fire and sheriff’s departments are so frequent in this area that one rock in particular is known to locals as “Blood Rock.”

By Mark Gutglueck
The 2018-19 Grand Jury’s examination of the financial crisis besetting Upland makes no mention of the involvement of former Upland Mayor John Pomierski or that of his handpicked city manager, Robb Quincey, in creating the City of Gracious Living’s dire fiscal circumstance.
According to the grand jury report, which was released on June 28, “A complaint was received by the grand jury indicating that the financial status of the City of Upland was in poor condition. The main concerns were the financial health and practices of the city along with unfunded pension liabilities. In addition, the complaint alleged the city manifested a culture of poor management, hostile work environments, and nepotism as well as possible ‘Brown Act,’ violations. California Penal Code Section 925a provided the grand jury jurisdiction to inquire into these allegations. The grand jury subcommittee for the County of San Bernardino was formed to investigate the City of Upland complaint.”
The committee, the report states, obtained additional information and “evidence began to support various aspects of the original complaint, which also expanded to other functions and levels within the operation of the city that had been an issue for some time. The grand jury did not discover sufficient evidence of poor management, hostile work environments and nepotism to make findings and recommendations at this time. The committee found no evidence of “Brown Act” violations. The committee in its efforts to understand the city’s financial situation, contracted with a San Bernardino County-approved auditing firm to conduct an independent audit of the city’s financial health. Upon conclusion of said audit, the committee learned that the City of Upland, while not in great financial shape, was no different from other California cities of like size. The City of Upland did however, have future financial issues related to employee pension payments.”
According to the grand jury, “[T]he City of Upland’s revenue is relatively flat in nature and expenditures are rising at an exponentially higher rate. The City of Upland’s current overall financial status, although recently improved, still does not resolve future financial pension related issues associated with payments to other post-employment benefits and the California Public Employees Retirement System and the impact these payments have on the financial health to the City of Upland.”
The report presented figures to show that in Upland, over the last four years revenue has in general trended down while spending has trended up.
In fiscal year 2013-14, the report said city had revenue of $52,999,442 and expenditures of $46,156,242. In 2014-15, the city had revenue of $59,292,159 and expenditures of $50,605,012. In 2015-16, the city had revenue of $56,284,601 and expenditures of $53,658,982. In 2016-17, the city had revenue of $58,277,968 and expenditures of $54,532,470. In 2017-18, the city had revenue of $53,864,481 and expenditures of $54,646,392, according to the report.
The city had pension costs of 5,261,392 in 2013-14. Its pension costs will jump to a projected $15,661,000 in fiscal year 2027-28, the report stated.
According to the grand jury, “The City of Upland’s revenue grew at a flat rate of 1.5% from fiscal year 2013/14 through fiscal year 2017/18, which equates to an average annual growth rate of 0.3%. The City of Upland’s expenditures increased 18.2% from fiscal year 2013/14 through fiscal year 2017/18, which equates to an average annual growth rate of 3.64%. The City of Upland’s annual payments for retiree pension payments from fiscal year 2017/18 to fiscal year 2027/28 are projected to grow at an average annual mean rate of 7.47%, in plain terms from $8,963,000 in fiscal year 2017/18 to $15,661,000 in fiscal year 2027/28. Based upon the San Bernardino County contracted audit team and two grand jury interviews with the City of Upland’s management [it was] determined that the City of Upland does not have a formal plan in place to fund future payments to the employee pension plan.”
While the grand jury gave an overview of the City of Upland’s deteriorating financial circumstance, it did not offer any trenchant analysis of what put the city behind the eight ball monetarily beyond saying, “The vast majority of the growth in current and future expenditures are associated with the increase in employee pension costs.”
According to the report, the methodology for the investigation was limited to interviewing the complainant and receiving additional documentation and information, interviewing management personnel from the City of Upland as well as a union employee representative, researching numerous documents online and in various periodicals, as well as reviewing sister cities’ reports and financials, and contracting with an independent auditing firm to conduct what the grand jury report characterized as “an in-depth audit of the City of Upland’s fiscal situation.”
No review of historical factors relating to how Upland was maneuvered by its various employee unions into providing its employees with salaries and benefits, including pensions, the city could not afford was made.
In 2000, John Pomierski was elected mayor. He was reelected in 2004 and again in 2008. By late 2001 Pomierski had formed political alliances with his fellow council members Tom Thomas, Ken Willis and Michael Libutti. In May 2002, Libutti was appointed by then-Governor Gray Davis to a position on the Superior Court Bench to replace Judge Lou Glazier after his retirement. Libutti was thereafter replaced by Brendan Brandt on the city council. Pomierski thereupon formed a political alliance with Brandt.
Relatively early on in his tenure, Pomierski used the power of his position at City Hall to shake down individuals and companies with business pending before the city. In particular, Pomierski preyed upon applicants for project approval with the city’s planning division and community development department. Pomierski arranged for these kickbacks and bribes to be filtered to him in multiple ways. He owned a construction company, and those seeking approval of projects had the option of hiring his firm, JP Construction, as a subcontractor on those projects. To get money to Pomierski, project applicants could also provide work to a construction business owned by one of the mayor’s associates, John Hennes, who was also Pomierski’s designated appointee to the Upland Municipal Housing Authority. Another money conveyance and laundering mechanism Pomierski used was to have the project proponents hire him as a “consultant.” Additionally, Pomierski used the ruse of having those seeking the city’s approval of their projects use the consulting services of two of his “associates,” Jason Crebs and Anthony Orlando Sanchez, in perpetrating his extortion and pay-off schemes.
In time, a number of city employees became aware of Pomierski’s depredations. To buy their silence, Pomierski arranged for them to obtain raises. Yet raises being provided to a select group of city employees in itself raised suspicions, not to mention the hackles of city employees who did not receive increases in their pay and accompanying benefits. To smooth over ruffled feathers, Pomierski prompted his fellow councilmen to raise employee salaries across the board. Ingratiating himself even further with the city’s employees, he and the council consented to having City Hall transition to a four-day workweek. When a pattern of the city’s employees failing to show up for work at 7 am and remaining in place until 6 pm in keeping with their Monday through Thursday work schedule manifested shortly after that transition, Pomierski and his fellow council members chose to ignore those transgressions.
In 2005, Pomierski forced then-City Manager Michael Milhiser to leave, followed by then-Police Chief Martin Thouvenell, both of whom were nearing the outer margin of their tolerance for Pomierski’s antics. Pomeirski replaced Milhiser with Robb Quincey and promoted Steve Adams to police chief, considering the installation of both to be a hedge against any interference in his illicit maneuverings and exploitation of this mayoral authority.
After Quincey was in place, Pomierski persuaded his council colleagues to grant Quincey the perquisite of granting him the same level of pay and benefit increases to be provided to the city’s police officers. The Pomierski-led council then designated Quincey to carry out the city’s collective bargaining with the city’s police union, the Upland Police Officers Association. During the course of his slightly more than five-and-a-half years as city manager, Quincey was provided with eight salary enhancements, which zoomed his total annual compensation package from $269,000 per year to $429,000 annually.
The unions representing the city’s work force – the San Bernardino Public Employees Association, the Upland Police Officers Association and the Upland Professional Firefighters Association – uniformly endorsed Pomierski in his campaigns for reelection. Though the city was rife with reports of Pomierski being on the take, the police department under Adams undertook no investigation into the plethora of bribery schemes he was involved in.
In 2010, after years of inaction by the Upland Police Department, Pomierski was locked onto by the FBI, which in June of that year carried out raids at Upland City Hall, Pomierski’s home and office, as well as the offices and homes of Hennes, Crebs and Sanchez. In 2011, Pomierski, Hennes, Crebs and Sanchez were indicted and charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office with engaging in extortion and bribery. Pomierski pleaded guilty to bribery charges in 2012. Quincey followed Pomierski into infamy, being unceremoniously shown the door by the Upland City Council two months after Pomierski’s indictment. Quincey was subsequently criminally charged by the district attorney’s office with several felonies, including unlawful misappropriation of public money, gaining personal benefit from an official contract, and giving false testimony under oath. In September 2014 three of those charges against Quincey were dismissed and a felony conviction on a single count of conflict of interest by a public officer was entered against him.
After Pomierski’s fall, subsequent administrations shied away from asking the city’s employees or its unions to make any givebacks of what they had been provided as part of their corrupt bargain with the former mayor to let him continue with his exploitation of his political office, though in June 2011, Quincey’s successor as city manager, Stephen Dunn, did roll out a massive lay off/termination of 27 city workers, among whom were some but not all of those suspected of having, or known to have, assisted Pomierski and Quincey in their despoiling of the city.
By 2012, the degree to which the Pomierski-orchestrated giveaways to city employees had compromised the city’s financials was becoming apparent. The following year, an auditor’s opinion from the certified public accounting firm Mayer Hoffman and McCann that accompanied an audit of the city’s books through June 2012 stated that there were such serious questions with regard to the city’s solvency to the point that it was on a trajectory toward being “unable to continue as a going concern.”
Now, more than eight years after the end of the Pomierski era, city employees and their unions are lodging complaints about having gone seven years without raises, and they are pressuring the current council and its acting city manager, Rosemary Hoerning, to provide them with 10.5 percent raises.

The northern goshawk, known by its scientific name accipiter gentilis, is a medium-to-large raptor in the family accipitridae, which are raptors active in the daytime, such as eagles, buzzards and harriers.
Considered a “true hawk,” the northern goshawk has relatively short, broad wings and a long tail, common to raptors that require maneuverability within forest habitats. For an acipiter, it has a relatively sizable bill, relatively long wings, a relatively short tail, robust and fairly short legs and particularly thick toes. Those found in California are blue-grey above or brownish-grey with dark barring or streaking over a grey or white base color below. These birds usually become paler as they age, manifesting in mottling and a lightening of the back from a darker shade to a bluer pale color. In North America, juveniles have pale-yellow eyes, and adults develop dark red eyes usually after their second year, although nutrition and genetics may affect eye color as well.
Molting starts between late March and late May.
The male tends to molt later and faster than the female. Molting results in the female being especially likely to have a gap in its wing feathers while incubating, and this may cause some risk, especially if the male is lost, as it inhibits her hunting abilities and may hamper her defensive capabilities, putting both herself and the nestlings in potential danger of predation. The molt takes a total of four-to-six months, with tail feathers following the wings, then lastly the contour and body feathers, which may not be completely molted even as late as October.
The northern goshawk is on average the largest member of the genus accipiter. The northern goshawk, like all accipiters, exhibits sexual dimorphism, where females are significantly larger than males, with the dimorphism notably greater in most parts of Eurasia. Linearly, males average about 8 percent smaller in North America and 13 percent smaller than females in Eurasia, but in the latter landmass can range up to a very noticeable 28 percent difference in extreme cases. Male northern goshawks are 18 inches to 24 inches long and have a 35-inch to 41-inch wingspan. The female is much larger, 23 inches to 27 inches long, with a 43-inch to 50-inch wingspan. In a study of North American goshawks, males were found to average 22 inches in total length, against females which averaged 24 inches. Males from six subspecies average around 1.680 pounds in body mass, with a range from all races of 0.787 pounds to 2.646 pounds. The female can be up to more than twice as heavy, averaging from the same races 2.54 pounds with an overall range of 1.671 pounds to 4.850 pounds. Among standard measurements, the most oft-measured is wing chord which can range from 11.3 inches to 13.9 inches in males and from 12.8 inches to 15.4 inches in females.
Northern goshawks generally vocalize only during courtship or the nesting season. Adult goshawks may chatter a repeated note, varying in speed and volume based on the context. When calling from a perch, birds often turn their heads slowly from side to side, producing a ventriloquial effect. The male calls a fast, high-pitched kew-kew-kew when delivering food or else a very different croaking guck or chup. The males produce it by holding the beak wide open, thrusting the head up and forward, than bringing it down as the sound is emitted, repeated at intervals of five seconds. This call is uttered when the male encounters a female. Two calls from brooding females are known, a recognition scream of short, intense notes – whee-o or hee-ya – which ends in a harsh, falsetto tone; then a dismissal call given when the male lingers after delivering food, consisting of a choked, cut-off scream. Meanwhile, the adult female’s rapid strident kek-kek-kek expresses alarm or intent to mob towards threatening intruders. This is often done when mobbing a predator such as a great horned owl (bubo virginianus) and as it progresses the female’s voice may lower slightly in pitch and becomes harsh and rasping. As the intensity of her attacks increases, her kakking becomes more rapid and can attain a constant screaming quality. Females often withdraw into the treetops when fatigued, and their calls are then spaced at longer intervals. Males respond to interlopers or predators with a quieter, slower gek gek gek or ep ep ep. A call consisting of kek…kek.kekk kek kek-kek-kek is used mainly by females in advertisement and during pre-laying mutual calling. Both genders may also engage in kakking during copulation. Vocalizations mainly peak in late courtship/early nesting around late March to April, can begin up to 45 minutes before sunrise, and are more than twice as frequent in the first three hours of daylight as in the rest of the day. Occasionally hunting northern goshawks may make shrill screams when pursuing prey, especially if a lengthy chase is undertaken and the prey is already aware of its intended predator.
The northern goshawk is always found solitarily or in pairs. This species is highly territorial, as are most raptorial birds, maintaining regularly spaced home ranges that constitute their territory. Territories are maintained by adults via display flights. During nesting, the home ranges of goshawk pairs are from 1,500 to 9,900 acres and these vicinities tend to be vigorously defended both to maintain rights to their nests and mates as well as the ranges’ prey base. Each gender tends to defend the territory from others of their own gender.
Though somewhat sedentary for a northern raptor species, the northern goshawk is a partial migrant. Migratory movements generally occur between September and early December and February to April. Spring migration is less extensive, peaking in late March to early April.
Northern goshawks are opportunistic predators, targeting insects, fish, small to medium-sized mammals such as reptiles and amphibians, tree squirrels and ground squirrels, rabbits and hares among mammals and birds found in forests, edge and scrub habitats, extending to corvids, pigeons, doves, woodpeckers, ducks, grouse and cormorants.
Males construct most new nests but females may assist somewhat if reinforcing old nests. Trees used for nesting include spruce, fir, larch, pine and hemlock. Broadleaf trees used include ash, alder, aspen, beech, birch, elm, hickory, hornbeam, lime, maple, sycamore, oak, poplar, tamarack, wild cherry and willow. While the male is building, the female perches in the vicinity, occasionally screaming, sometimes flying to inspect the nest.
Eggs are laid at 2-to-3-day intervals on average between April and June, most usually May, taking up to 9 days for a clutch of 3–4 and 11 days for a clutch of 5. The eggs are rough, unmarked pale bluish or dirty white. During incubation, females tend to become quieter and more inconspicuous. The mother can develop a brooding patch of up to 5.9 inches by 2 inches on her underside. She may turn the eggs as frequently as every 30 to 60 minutes. Males may incubate as many as 1 to 3 hours, but usually less than an hour, early in incubation but rarely do so later on. During daylight, females can do as much as 96 percent of the observed incubation. The incubation stage lasts for any time between 28 and 37 days, though rarely up to 41 days in exceptionally big clutches. After hatching occurs, the male does not come directly to the nest but instead just delivers food, usually already plucked, beheaded or otherwise dismembered, to a branch near the nest which the female tears apart and shares between herself and the nestlings. Food deliveries by the male can be daily or as infrequent as every 3 to 5 days. In turn, the female must feed the young about twice a day in order for the chicks to avoid starvation. Caching of food has been recorded near the nest, but only before the young start feeding themselves
Accipiter in Latin means “hawk,” from accipere, “to grasp.” Gentilis is “noble” or “gentle.” In the Middle Ages only the nobility were permitted to fly goshawks for falconry.
This species was first described under its current scientific name by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae in 1758.
From Wikipedia, raptorpersecutionscotland.files.wordpress.com, audobon.org

There’s something Godly about July. Here, in the Northern Hemisphere, people’s expression of themselves in the way they dress comes closest to, and features more of, their true selves. It’s only going to be hotter in the days to come and patience will be tested in the heat. The style that is under way and in business all day is what I call easy everyday wear. I’m seeing gold, silver, and nude sandals every day, along with shimmery satin dresses. All looking perfect for a daily outing, whether to a party or to the office. The message is simple cool, with a hint of Goddess. It’s difficult to be formal in the heat, but if you’re going to do it, wear light colors like pink or green. It’s always nice to see the dressier version of summer trying to keep up with what is expected in the workplace and its neat to see people having fun dressing for the rising temperatures. It’s all about having fun in the sun. Enjoy dressing for it and stay cool.

“Fashion is instant language.” -Prada