The official conclusion of this year’s election that resulted in the reelection of five countywide incumbents was not in compliance with the county’s charter, two lawsuits filed last week contend.

According to a lawsuit filed by Robert Conaway on his own behalf and another Conaway filed on behalf of Sheriff candidate Cliff Harris, San Bernardino County’s charter, as adjusted ten years ago in 2012, requires that the five countywide positions elected in the years corresponding with California’s gubernatorial elections – Sheriff, district attorney, Treasure/tax collector/auditor controller, assessor/county clerk and county superintendent of schools – are to be held in the November general election. According to Conaway’s and Harris’s suits, the county’s practice of declaring a candidate any of those five offices to be the winner if he or she collects a fifty percent of the vote plus at least one in the June primary election and then certifying that candidate’s election is inconsistent with the charter change that was made in 2012.

According to the language in the charter, “All county offices in this county, now or hereafter existing, other than the office of supervisor, that would under the general laws of the state be filled by election, if no county charter had been adopted, are hereby declared to be and are made county elective officers, and all such elective county officers shall be elected at the general election at which the governor is elected, and shall take office at twelve o’clock meridian on the first Monday after the first day of January next succeeding their election and shall hold office until their successors are elected or appointed and qualified, and all such elected county officers shall be nominated and elected in the manner provided by general laws for the nomination and election of such officers.”

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF: RICHARD JOHN SCHUERGER CASE NO. PROSB2200742
To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both of RICHARD JOHN SCHUERGER has been filed by JOHN H. TAYLOR III in the Superior Court of California, County of SAN BERNARDINO.
THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that JOHN H. TAYLOR III be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.
THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that the decedent’s wills and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The will and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court.
THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person Continue reading →

By Clicking on the blue portal below, you can download a PDF of the June 10 edition of the San Bernardino County Sentinel.

By Mark Gutglueck
As what is arguably the most dynamic independent public interest group in San Bernardino County, the Red Brennan Group this week scored what was by some counts its sixth major victory for the hearts and minds of the 2.2 million people that live in the county.
Nevertheless, and despite strides other entities involved in public policy advocacy can only marvel at, the coalition once again finds itself on the verge of being outmaneuvered by the political and legal establishment it is up against, such that all of the group’s efforts involving the expenditure of hundreds of thousands of dollars and the investment of thousands of man-hours and woman-hours toward achieving its goal of reform are likely to come to naught.
On Tuesday, the county’s voters by a comfortable margin gave approval to Measure Z, which called for the rescission of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors’ 2018 move to expand the applicability of Fire Protection District Service Zone Five. Continue reading →

A little more than a decade after the initiation of John Valdivia’s political hold on the City of San Bernardino, the city’s voters have brought the curtain down on the career of one of the most brazenly corrupt public officials in county history.
Despite an overwhelming financial advantage by which he had virtually twice as much money in his campaign war chest than all six of his opponents combined, Valdivia found himself far behind the front runner and outdistanced by the second-place finisher with whom he was once politically aligned, relegated to third place and out of the competition to remain as the kingfish of a dilapidated paradise whose citizens are no longer willing to tolerate his outsized ego and depredations.
Early handicapping of the race projected that he would capture approaching or more than 30 percent in the seven-candidate primary contest, leaving him in first place with less than half of the vote but qualifying him for a November run-off against the second-place finisher. But more than two years of unremittingly negative Continue reading →

The race to represent the Second Ward on the San Bernardino City Council over the next four years is a dead heat, one so close that there is a chance it will not be decided this summer but will require a run-off in November.
The issue of who will occupy the Second Ward position carries with it significance as to the makeup and complexion of government in the county seat going forward. It has further poignancy with regard to whether the city’s police department and its officers will remain as a potent, respected and feared political force in the city of 222,101.
A consequence of the race as it was carried out this year may be that whatever moral authority the police department once possessed has been squandered, a development which some of the department’s members have acknowledged and most others at this juncture do not want to address. Continue reading →

As was almost universally anticipated by San Bernardino County’s political prognosticators, Luis Cetina and Jesse Armendarez will compete in a run-off in the November general election to determine who will succeed Janice Rutherford as county supervisor in the 2nd District, based on the results of this week’s primary election voting.
Unexpected by most of those familiar with the five-person match-up was that Cetina outdistanced Armendarez for first place and that DeJonae Shaw, a neophyte political figure, did as well as she did.
Under the ground rules for San Bernardino County’s supervisorial district contests, a candidate who manages to capture at least one more vote than fifty percent in the race which corresponds with that year’s primary election can claim victory outright. If no single candidate eclipses fifty percent, then a run-off is held in conjunction with that year’s general election. Continue reading →

In a move the reasons for which are too opaque to assimilate, the Apple Valley Fire Protection District and Fire Chief Ken Harrison have parted ways, less than a year after he was installed in that position following an impressive firefighting career in Orange County.
It was previously thought that the 56-year-old Harrison would remain as the head of the Apple Valley Fire Department until he reached the age of 60. He was brought in last year to replace former Fire Chief Lorenzo Gigliotti. 
While lavishing recognition upon the professionalism and competence of the crews he oversaw, Harrison hinted at but was not explicit about shortcomings with the attitude and direction of the fire district’s Continue reading →

What slim prospect the Democrats had of breaking the Republican nut lock on San Bernardino County’s governmental structure was dashed on Tuesday with incumbent Fourth District Supervisor Curt Hagman’s drubbing of challenger Connie Leyva.
Hagman’s polling of 8,901 votes or 53.21 percent of the 16,727 votes counted and 86 of 218 precincts reporting as of midnight on the night of the election, four hours after the polls had closed, was taken as an indication that Hagman was going to take the race running away, with little chance of a run-off. By 4 p.m. today, Friday, June 10, with all 218 precincts accounted for and 19,299 mail-in ballots from District 4 voters counted, Hagman had widened his lead to 13,559 votes of the 24,346 cast so far, or 55.69 percent, to Leyva’s 9,009 votes or 37 percent. 
The third-place candidate in the race, Larry Wu, as of 4 p.m. today has received 1,778 votes or 7.3 percent.
In San Bernardino County, county supervisorial races can be decided in the primary elections if a candidate secures at least fifty percent plus one votes.
Hagman’s victory means that he will serve his third and final term on the board of supervisors after having first been elected to that post in the 2014 election. Since 2006, members of the board of supervisors have been subject to a three four-year term limit. Continue reading →