By Amanda Frye
(Thursday, May 16 5:27 PM)
On May 15, a Fresno County Superior Court judge denied the State of California’s request to have BlueTriton’s Arrowhead Water Cease and Desist Order appeal case heard in San Bernardino County. Following a multi-year investigation and lengthy administrative hearing, the State Water Resource Control Board issued a cease-and-desist order on September 19, 2023 to BlueTriton, the owner of the Arrowhead Spring Water bottling operation, to stop unauthorized water diversions from Strawberry Creek in the San Bernardino National Forest. The following month, BlueTriton filed an appeal in Fresno County citing an obscure law that allowed matters pertaining to the state government to be heard in any county where the California Attorney General has an office.
The California Attorney General’s Office, maintaining that the parties most interested in the outcome of the appeal live in San Bernardino County and that they were put at a disadvantage and inconvenience by the matter being adjudicated in a venue 270 miles away.
Deputy Attorney General Daniel Fuchs, who serves in the Natural Resources Law Section of the attorney general’s office, argued that the case must be moved under the Code of Civil Procedure, which he cited in his argument before Fresno County Superior Court Judge Robert Whalen, Jr.
“The superior court in the county where the real property that is the subject of the action, or some part thereof, is situated, is the proper court for the trial of . . . the recovery of real property, or of an estate or interest therein, or for the determination in any form, of that right or interest, and for injuries to real property,” according to Fuchs, who specifically referenced The Code of Civil Procedure  § 392, subd. (a)(1). “The ‘clear meaningm of this section is that the court with subject- matter jurisdiction in the ‘proper’ county is the only court with jurisdiction to try the action…Here, that county is San Bernardino.” Furthermore, Fuchs asserted BlueTriton’s court petition alleges a claim “in real property” because the “petition alleges that BlueTriton possesses a water right … associated with real property in San Bernardino County” and “alleges interference with a property right.” Fuchs states “There is no allegation of any property interest in Fresno County” in asserting that San Bernardino County Superior Court is the proper venue for the case. Continue reading →

By Mark Gutglueck
The poorly-hidden fracture on the city council that has for months accompanied a simmering dispute over the fate of San Bernardino’s seismically challenged City Hall loomed into stark relief Wednesday, revealing that the city’s finance director, who has been in place for more than three years, had been given her walking papers by the city manager, who has been in place less than a fourth of the time that she has.
Brought home in the contretemps is deep concern that some city officials have had that a dozen years after San Bernardino it was forced by dire fiscal circumstance into Chapter Nine Bankruptcy protection and less than seven years after having made a shaky exit from that status, City Manager Charles Montoya is locking the city into a financing arrangement with a bond company which will leave the city encumbered in debt for a half century to come.
Montoya’s sacking of Barbara Germaine Whitehorne, San Bernardino’s director of finance from February 2021 to July 2022 who has served in the dual capacities of director of finance and management services from July 2022 until this week, was made on the spur of the moment as she confronted him with regard to what she saw as his open-ended commitment to working with the bond underwriting firm of Stifel.
At this point, questions are emerging about Montoya’s past and ongoing relationship with the firm. While previously he had been able to maintain the confidence of a substantial majority of the city council, the precipitous move against Whitehorne has raised the potential of a more thorough examination of questions Montoya had previously dodged, creating a situation that extends to, perhaps, the presumption of his continuing tenure as city manager. Continue reading →

Two toddlers perished on May 7 after they were swept away by the swift moving water near the headwaters of the Santa Ana Rivers.
The normally placid and slow-moving stream had been widened and intensified by cascading the spring melting of snowpack in the San Bernardino Mountains.
According to a May 7 informational release from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, “On Tuesday, May 6, 2024, at approximately 1:45 P.M., a mother took her 4-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son to spend the afternoon at the Thermun Flats Picnic Area. The mother and her children were playing near the river with rapid water moving downstream. At approximately 3:01 P.M., the mother was attending to her son when her daughter was taken downstream. The mother searched for her but could not locate her. When she returned, her son was missing and assumed to be down river as well. After frantically searching, she hiked up to the picnic area and contacted another family to help search for the children.” Continue reading →

In what will be his seventh municipal management assignment, G. Michael Milhiser serve as Rialto’s interim city administrator following the abrupt departure of recently-hired David Carmany, it was announced on Tuesday, May 14.
Milhiser, the son of Ontario’s longtime city treasurer, followed his father’s advice to go into municipal management because, “there’s decent money to be made” in such work. As a young man in the 1970s, he acceded to his first city manager’s post, with the City of Montclair. Subsequently, he left for the more prestigious post of managing much larger neighboring Ontario. From there, he landed a post that city’s northern neighbor, Upland, where in 2005 he moved into an early retirement when he clashed with the City of Gracious Living’s then-mayor, John Pomierski.
Thereafter, beginning in 2007 when he was appointed to the board of the Monte Vista Water District, Milhiser contented himself with involvement in non-municipal government activity.
In 2017, he was induced to take on a temporary municipal management assignment after then-Adelanto Mayor Rich Kerr forced City Manager Gabriel Elliott to depart.
That interim stretch was followed by his signing on as the fill-in city manager after the 2019 departure of Ken Hunt as Fontana’s city manager. Then, in 2021, Milhiser was hired by the City of Grand Terrace on a temporary basis to replace G. Harold Duffey. Continue reading →

The City of Chino is going to move forward with the annexation of .22625 of a square mile at the periphery of its current city limits on its northwestern end. The total land area of the subject territory is 144.8 acres best described as lying east of Norton Avenue, north and south of Francis Avenue, north and south of Philadelphia Street, and east and west of Yorba Avenue.
The subject territory is a mix of residential properties, some residential properties with agricultural uses on them, one religious facility, that being the Chino-Baitul Hameed Mosque at 11941 Ramona Avenue and one small market. The current dwelling units within area are classified as single-family residential, multi-family duplexes, four-plexes or apartments of no more than ten units. Continue reading →

SUMMONS – (CITACION JUDICIAL)
CASE NUMBER (NUMERO DEL CASO) 23VECV04472
NOTICE TO NICOLE MARIE LANNI aka NICOLE RHOADES aka NICOLE PETERSON aka NICOLE SHEARIN aka NICOLE ONDRIEZEK; FEELING GROOVY AT EAGLE CREEK RANCH LLC, a California limited liability company; GROOVY MANAGEMENT, INC., A California corporation; and DOES 1 through 20, inclusive.
YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF:
(LO ESTA DEMANDANDO EL DEMANDANTE):
ROBERT ADLER, an individual
NOTICE! You have been sued. The court may decide against you without your being heard unless you respond within 30 days. Read the information below.
You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this summons is served on you to file a written response at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form if you want the court to hear your case. There may be a court form that you can use for your response. You can find these court forms and more information at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), your county law library, or the courthouse nearest you. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form. If you do not file your response on time, you may lose the case by default, and your wages, money, and property may be taken without further warning from the court.
There are other legal requirements. You may want to call an attorney right away. If you do not know an attorney, you may want to call an attorney referral service. If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be eligible for free legal services from a nonprofit legal services program. You can locate these nonprofit groups at the California Legal Services Web site (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), or by contacting your local court or county bar association. NOTE: The court has a statutory lien for waived fees and costs on any settlement or arbitration award of $10,000 or more in a civil case. The court’s lien must be paid before the court will dismiss the case.
¡AVISO! Lo han demandado. Si no responde dentro de 30 dias, la corte puede decidir en su contra sin escuchar su version. Lea la informacion a continuacion
Tiene 30 DIAS DE CALENDARIO después de que le entreguen esta citación y papeles legales para presentar una repuesta por escrito en esta corte y hacer que se entreque una copia al demandante. Una carta o una llamada telefonica no le protegen. Su respuesta por escrito tiene que estar on formato legal correcto si desea que procesen su caso en la corte. Es posible que haya un formulano que usted puede usar para su respuesta. Puede encontrar estos formularios de la corte y mas información en el Centro de Ayuda de las Cortes de California (www.sucorte.ca.gov), en la biblioteca de leyes de su condado o en la corte que le quede mas cerca. Si no puede pagar la cuota de presentación, pida si secretario de la corta que le de un formulario de exencion de pago de cuotas. Si no presenta su respuesta a tiempo, puede perder el caso por incumplimiento y la corta le podrá quitar su sueldo, dinero y bienes sin mas advertencia.
Hay otros requisitos legales. Es recomendable que llame a un abogado inmediatamente. Si no conace a un abogado, puede llamar a un servicio de referencia a abogados. Si no peude pagar a un a un abogado, es posible que cumpia con los requisitos para obtener servicios legales gratu de un programa de servicios legales sin fines de lucro. Puede encontrar estos grupos sin fines de lucro en el sitio web de California Legal Services, (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), en el Centro de Ayuda de las Cortes de California, (www.sucorte.ca.gov), o poniendoso en contacto con la corte o el colegio de abogados locales. AVISO: Por ley, la corte tiene derecho a reclamar las cuotas y los costos exentos gravamen sobre cualquier recuperación da $10,000 o mas de vaior recibida mediante un aceurdo o una concesión de arbitraje en un caso de derecho civil. Tiene que pagar el gravamen de la corta antes de que la corta pueda desechar el caso.
The name and address of the court is: (El nombre y la direccion de la corte es):
Los Angeles Superior Court, Van Nuys Courthouse East
6230 Sylmar Avenue
Van Nuys, CA 91401
The name, address and telephone number of plaintiff’s attorney, or plaintiff without an attorney, is: (El nombre, la direccion y el numero de telefono del abogado del demandante, o del demendante que no tiene abogado, es):
JAMES M. EISENMAN, ESQUIRE
15760 VENTURA BOULEVARD, SUITE 700
ENCINO, CA 91436-3016
(818) 905-0123
DATE (Fecha): 10/12/2023
Clerk (Secretario), byA. Salcedo, deputy/adjunto for David W. Slayton, Executive Officer/Clerk of the Court
Published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel on April 26 and May 3, 10 & 17, 2024.

NOTICE OF CONTINUED CASE MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE
CASE NUMBER (NUMERO DEL CASO) 23VECV04472
NOTICE TO NICOLE MARIE LANNI aka NICOLE RHOADES aka NICOLE PETERSON aka NICOLE SHEARIN aka NICOLE ONDRIEZEK; FEELING GROOVY AT EAGLE CREEK RANCH LLC, a California limited liability company; GROOVY MANAGEMENT, INC., A California corporation; and DOES 1 through 20, inclusive.
MAY 6, 2024
Time: 8:30 a.m.
Los Angeles Superior Court, Van Nuys Courthouse East
6230 Sylmar Avenue
Van Nuys, CA 91401
To all parties and their attorney of record: Please take notice that, by order of the court, the Case Management Conference set on February 6, 2024 at 8:30 a.m. in Department W of the Los Angeles Superiror Court, Van Nuys East Courthouse, 6320 Sylmar Avenue, Van Nuys, CA California 91401 was continued to May 6, 2024 at 8:30 a.m. in Department W of the Los Angeles Superiror Court, Van Nuys East Courthouse, 6320 Sylmar Avenue, Van Nuys, CA California 91401
Dated: February 14, 2024
Law Office of James M. Eisenman
James M. Eisenmann, Attorney for Plaintiff Robert Adler
Published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel on April 26 & May 3, 2024.

Continue reading →