VICTORVILLE—Victorville Superior Court Judge Steve Malone this week turned back California Attorney General Kamala Harris’s effort to prevent Dr. Prem Reddy and his for-profit corporation, Prime Healthcare Services, from moving into a position that will facilitate an eventual takeover of the non-profit and now bankrupt Victor Valley Community Hospital.

For reasons that have not been entirely publicly specified, Harris has taken a stand against Reddy in his effort to acquire Victor Valley Community. Reddy’s Prime Healtcare Services Corporation is the largest operator of for-profit hospitals in Southern California.

Victor Valley Community has been on the financial rocks for some time and last year, staggering under more than $20 million in debt, the institution filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In the same time frame, the 101-bed hospital was put on the auction block, attracting two bidders: KPC Global Care and Reddy’s Prime Healthcare, which runs 14 acute care hospitals in California. KPC Global outbid Prime Healthcare in November 2010 with a $37 million offer at an auction. KPC obtained the state attorney general’s approval for the takeover, but then failed to finalize the acquisition and that deal fell apart. Subsequently, a federal bankruptcy court judge approved an agreement allowing the non-profit arm of Reddy’s for-profit venture, known as Prime Healthcare Service Foundation, to purchase the hospital for $35 million.

On September 20, however, the state attorney general’s office intervened, blocking Reddy, who is the owner and chairman of the board of Prime Healthcare, from absorbing Victor Valley Community into his portfolio. A major consideration was that Victor Valley Community was founded and set up as a non-profit institution. The attorney general’s office had moved to ensure that the High Desert preserve at least one non-profit hospital in an area with a multiplicity of for-profit medical centers, including one already owned by Reddy, Desert Valley Hospital.

“We have concluded that this proposed sale is not in the public interest and will likely create a significant effect on the availability or accessibility of health care services to the affected community,” acting chief deputy attorney general Michael Troncoso said in September.

Victor Valley Community Hospital’s status as a non-profit had seemingly doomed it to insolvency. Its financial outlook was damaged by excessive amounts of uncompensated care to uninsured and low income patients in recent years. According to the hospital’s recently departed CEO, Catherine Pelley, 70 percent of the hospital’s patients are on Medi-Cal, Medicare or charity care.

With Victor Valley Community teetering on the brink of financial collapse, Reddy on October 14, 2011 proffered $6 million in the form of loans and a consulting arrangement to prevent the hospital from having to close its doors. That assistance was codified in the form of what was called a “post-petition revolving credit and security agreement between Victor Valley Community Hospital as borrower and Prime Healthcare Management, Inc. as lender.”

Hospital officials have said Prime Healthcare’s offer is the only way Victor Valley Community Hospital [VVCH] can continue to operate.

Under the terms of the deal, both Reddy and Prime Healthcare are to provide what was referred to as “temporary” financing to keep the hospital up and running. That plan was given backing by a few federal healthcare regulatory agencies. And On October 20, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Catherine Bauer tentatively signed off on the arrangement.

A day earlier, on October 19, a letter was sent by the state attorney general’s office to Victor Valley Community Hospital’s legal counsel stating that the credit, security and consulting agreement was subject to approval by the attorney general’s office under California Corporations Code Section 5194 et sequitur. On October 19, the hospital’s legal counsel responded that the attorney general’s approval is not required.

According to a complaint for injunctive relief filed by the attorney general on October 28, “The consulting agreement transfers control of a material amount of the operations of VVCH to Prime Healthcare management. The loan agreement conveys and transfers a material amount of VVCH’s assets to Prime, Inc. Accordingly, both agreements are subject to approval by the attorney general. Defendants violated the Corporations Code sections 5914 and 5915 by failing to submit written notice and failing to get written consent of the attorney general prior to entering into this agreement. By entering into this loan agreement without the attorney general’s consent, VVCH will incur additional administrative costs by $6 million, thereby increasing the amount of cash necessary for other potential buyers to purchase VVCH. By increasing VVCH’s debt, the parties will be manipulating the market value of the hospital. The loan agreement also subjects VVCH to default. The loan agreement provides that if VVCH subsequently defaults on the loan agreement, all of Prime Inc.’s loan must be paid in full, in cash immediately.”

The attorney general’s office petitioned the court for “temporary, preliminary and permanent injunctive relief enjoining VVCH, its board members, officers, employees, agents, servants, representatives, successors, and assigns, any and all persons acting in concert or participation with it, and all other persons, corporations, or other entities acting, under, by, through or on its behalf from executing or otherwise entering into the postpetition revolving credit and security agreement between VVCH as borrower and Prime Healthcare Management, Inc., as lender, dated as of October 14, 2011; performing any acts under the postpetition revolving credit and security agreement, including, but not limited to, incurring any debt under that agreement; [and] executing or otherwise entering into the consulting services agreement between VVCH and Prime Healthcare Management, as consultant.”

Harris maintained that in representing Prime Healthcare as a consultant, both entities – Prime Healthcare and Victor Valley Community – were engaging in a ruse to avoid the oversight of the state attorney general’s office in a ploy that would ultimately result in the transference of control and ownership of the hospital to Prime Healthcare.

On November 23, Malone dismissed the attorney general’s assertions, ruling that Victor Valley Community had the autonomy to enlist Prime Healthcare as an independent contractor and that Victor Valley Community is still governed by an independent board of directors, which will have decision-making power over the future of the hospital.

The attorney general’s office has been less than fully explicit in explaining the reasons for opposing Prime Healthcare’s takeover bid for Victor Valley Community, asserting only that Reddy’s ownership of the hospital is “not in the public interest.” Harris has suggested without directly stating that Reddy has a monopolistic motive in seeking to acquire Victor Valley Community since he already controls Desert Valley Hospital. In conferences with her office’s attorneys, Harris has stated that Reddy’s domination of a given region’s medical facilities could deprive the indigent of health care options. In a brief, the attorney general noted Prime Healthcare’s propensity for canceling HMO contracts.

There has been some suggestion that Harris’s opposition to Reddy’s takeover effort is tainted by political considerations. Reddy’s for-profit corporation has had a bruising set of battles with nurses and other health care professionals over wage and benefit concessions. Harris was endorsed by a labor union that represents nurses in her election last year.

Among the contingent of lawyers from the state attorney general’s office was a lawyer for the Services Employees International Union (SEIU), which has represented health care workers in labor disputes with Prime Healthcare and which opposes Reddy’s takeover of Victor Valley Community. When that lawyer sought to go on the record to endorse the attorney general’s call for an injunction against Reddy and Prime Healthcare, Malone denied the request, ruling that the union does not have standing.

While Malone allowed Prime Healthcare to remain involved in the current operation of Victor Valley Community as a consultant and lender, the long term ownership of the facility remains an unresolved issue. KPC Global has now tendered an offer to purchase the hospital, reduced from $37 million to $31.1 million. Victor Valley Community has lodged a suit, asking the court to reduce the attorney general’s barrier to Prime Healthcare’s purchase offer of $35 million.

Malone scheduled the hospital’s lawyers and the representatives from the attorney general’s office to return to his courtroom on December 15 for further briefing of both sides’ positions.

The California Public Utilities Commission on November 10 approved Abengoa Solar’s power purchase agreement with Pacific Gas and Electric for the electricity to be produced at Abengoa’s Mojave Solar Project near Hinkley.

The Mojave Solar Project is a 280 megawatt gross parabolic trough plant. Construction on the project has begun and the solar field, near Harper Dry Lake, will come online in 2014. Abengoa received a conditional $1.2 billion federal loan from the Department of Energy in June,

The project had obtained all of its required construction and operating permits previously and ratifying the power purchase agreement was the final milestone the company, which is based in Spain, needed to achieve full financing to complete the project. The 1,765 acre project will provide power sufficient for as many as 80,000 households once it is completed.

ONTARIO – Ontario has elevated assistant fire chief/city fire marshall Floyd E. Clark to fire chief.

Clark, 53, reached the department’s top spot after 25 years with the department. On November 15, the city council officially signed off on his replacing Dave Carrier as chief. Carrier, who has filled the department’s top slot since February 2010, is retiring on December 23.

Clark was selected for the position by city manager Chris Hughes, who was himself fire chief before he was promoted to city manager when Greg Devereaux was hired by the county as its chief executive officer 22 months ago.

Clark will be the city’s first African American fire chief.

He has been a career firefighter, having started in the profession when he was 20 years old. He has served in every position within the department during the quarter of a century he has worked in Ontario.

Councilman Jim Bowman, himself a former Ontario fire chief, hailed Clark’s selection as a wise one that “will do the city well.”

Bowman said Clark is “well respected, knowledgeable and someone who can get the job done.”

Governor Jerry Brown appointed San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael A. Ramos to the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, a fifteen member group of city, state, educational and law enforcement officials who oversee law enforcement training guidelines.

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The board of trustees for the San Bernardino City Unified School District this week postponed until December 6 determining what protocol will be used in the hiring of a new superintendent. Former superintendent Arturo Delgado abruptly departed from the district in June to take up the position of superintendent of schools for Los Angeles County. Since then, he has been replaced on an interim basis by associate superintendent Mel Albiso, followed by journeyman school administrator Richard Bray and, since October, Yolanda Ortega, SBUSD’s assistant superintendent of employee relations.

On November 8, the district picked up three new board members and the current board, which has already had an unsuccessful go-round in trying to select a new superintendent, deferred a decision on the means of selecting a top district administrator until the three new board members, Mike Gallo, Sharon Perong and Margaret Hill, are in place.

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The county of San Bernardino and its department of agriculture have entered into an agreement with the State of California, Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) to utilize pass-through federal funds to maintain two dog teams for pest infestation detection and prevention.

According to John G. Gardner, the county’s agricultural commissioner, the county will use $371,300 in federal money to be applied retroactively to July 1, 2011 for the continuation of services and funding first authorized in 2006, which, he said “consist of two dog teams to conduct surveillance inspections at parcel sectional centers to detect the presence of any unwanted pests found in unmarked parcels entering the State of California, a violation of law. Once a pest or plant is located within a package, the plants are inspected and if pests or disease symptoms are observed, the samples/specimens are submitted to the CDFA Plant Pest Diagnostic Laboratory for identification. So far, canines have been utilized with great success to detect plant materials from within unmarked agricultural parcels.”

For several years the Boy Scouts of America have teamed up with the San Bernardino Salvation Army Corps to help feed the hungry. On Saturday November 7, 124 Scouts and 63 scout leaders put in over 400 volunteer hours in front of nine Stater Bros. Markets; where they asked customers to help out with a list of food items. Those that could give were pleased to do so. Bob Garza from San Bernardino was one of those giving people. Bob said that “he was in a position to help out and that not everyone was.”

Major Steve Ball of the San Bernardino Salvation Army Corps said that “the timing of this food drive is perfect, supplying additional food for our holiday programs.” About 7000 pounds of food were collected. Enough to provide food boxes for 350 families. In these past few years, the “Scouting for Food” program had made a significant difference in the amount of food that was provided for those in need.

At the Stater Bros. Market on 40th St. in San Bernardino, Austin Fields of Troop 114 handed out a list showing desired nonperishable items. The items on the shopping list included: green beans, corn/vegetables, peaches, cranberries/fruit, beans and rice (1 lbs. bags), soups and stews, and pumpkin pie filling.

Scouting for Food kicks off the holiday season for the Salvation Army. Starting around Thanksgiving, the Salvation Bell Ringers will be out in front of many stores with the traditional Salvation Army kettles. Funds from these kettles go towards this year’s Christmas programs. The cooks at the Salvation Army Corps kitchens are starting preparation of the two major holiday meals served on Thanksgiving and Christmas days. A list of volunteers is being created to keep track of those who wish to volunteer this season. On a side note, it should be known that the San Bernardino Salvation Army Corps provides meals 360 days a year, not only to those in the shelter, but to anyone that shows up during dinner time.

There are several volunteer opportunities available including bell ringers, giving tree program, toy & food distribution, food preparation, and food service.

If you or your organization (i.e. church, school, social club, workplace, etc.) wish to donate goods, money, time, or if you are in need of assistance; contact the San Bernardino Salvation Army Corps located at 746 W. Fifth St., San Bernardino, CA or call 909-881-1336.

The county this week doubled from $1.5 million to $3 million its contract with Norco-based D. Burke Mechanical Corporation for the provision of mechanical contracting services at county facilities.

On March 1, 2011 the board of supervisors awarded three individual one year job order contracts for general construction services, paint and carpet services, and mechanical services.

Thirty-seven projects have been issued to contractors thus far under the 2011 job order contracts. Eighteen of the projects were issued to the mechanical contractor, D. Burke Mechanical Corporation, for a total value of approximately $1.3 million spent under that contract to date.

With the mechanical services contract nearing its available limit, several yet outstanding mechanical jobs could be delayed if an increase of the contract allowance for D. Burke is not made.

According to Carl R. Alban, the county’s director of architecture and engineering, much of that work involves improvements mandated on the county by the Air Quality Management District (AQMD).

“AQMD has mandated several boiler retro-fit projects which could be delayed, even though they are approved and funded either through the capital improvements project budget, incentive funds available from the AQMD, or the county’s Energy Efficiency Partnership Program,” Alban said. “The delay in completing these projects could result in the AQMD issuing noncompliance notices or fines to the county.”

Alban told the board before its November 15 vote that “Approval of this item will increase the not-to-exceed maximum mechanical job order contract amount to $3,000,000, enabling the current mechanical services contractor to complete several important projects mandated by Air Quality Management District Rule 1146. This rule requires the reduction of nitrogen dioxide emissions and applies to two boilers at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga and one boiler at the Government Center Central Plant in San Bernardino.”

Measure F, the parcel tax initiative sponsored by the county fire union that would have imposed a $100 per year parcel tax on property in Hesperia, was overwhelmingly defeated in the balloting on November 8.

Hesperia residents voted more than four-to-one against the measure, with 81 percent against it and 19 percent in favor. Because the money to be generated by the tax was to be restricted to specific uses, it required a two thirds majority to pass.

Proponents of Measure F said the money would be used to maintain service levels, particularly paramedic coverage, functioning from the city’s fire engines.

In the aftermath of the measure’s failure, Hesperia mayor Mike Leonard, a former firefighter with the city before the department was merged with the county and later a firefighter with the county before he retired, said firefighting and safety service in Hesperia would now suffer.

“We’re going to have a meeting with the chief and see what he suggests,” Leonard said of the city council. “We want to see what the fire department suggests that we can do. I don’t know if we will discuss it publicly or in closed session. It will probably come during our meeting next month. I want to wait to see what they might have to suggest, but one way or the other what it is going to come down to is eliminating nine positions. It could be one guy off each engine or shutting down a station and parking one fire engine. There could be other things they have in mind, but I don’t know what.

“Either way you go, there is a safety issue,” Leonard continued. “If we cut engines, there will be a longer response time to at least some parts of the city and if you reduce firefighters on the trucks, there will be an equal concern about firefighter safety.”

Leonard defended the effort to seek passage of a measure that was dedicated to providing funding for the fire department instead of seeking an extension of a recently discontinued half cent sales tax override, the money from which could have been distributed by the council as it saw fit. That measure could have been passed on a simple majority of fifty percent plus one vote.

“If we would have put the sales tax on the ballot and it passed, that money would have gone into the city’s general fund. This council would have used it for public safety, but two or four years from now the council could change and a new council could spend that revenue anyway they want to. I know that when we said the money would go for public safety we had to get two thirds. But if we did it differently, there is no guarantee in further years that the money would be used for public safety. If new members were voted onto the council and they wanted to use that money for roads, then it would be sent over for roads and we would be where we are now, having to lay off firefighters. There would have been no guarantee.”

Leonard said the public sentiment had changed to the point where citizens are not cooperating with city officials.

“I don’t know what the problem is,” Leonard said. “People don’t trust government anymore. I don’t know where we are going to go from here. There are for sure going to be cuts and it will be up to the county fire chief and his staff to make safety suggestions and the council will act on one of them. That’s life. It is what it is.”

Al Vogler, the husband of former mayor and councilwoman Rita Vogler, was a major advocate against the parcel tax.

He called the measure “deceptive,” saying that it was designed to increase the pay for firefighters rather than to enhance safety.

“Had the tax passed, it would have meant an approximate $100 per year new tax to all Hesperia property owners,” Vogler said. “When the tax was originally proposed by the Hesperia city council, taxpayers were led to believe that the measure would be for $5.5 million. Instead, when the measure was written, it morphed into a $13.6 million deception. Three members of the Hesperia city council voted to place the measure on the ballot at a cost of over $150,000. All three are firefighter union-backed politicians and two of them signed a “no new taxes” pledge in 2010. It didn’t take long for the pledge to be violated and voters quickly realized that it was the “no new taxes” council members who were pushing for passage of the measure.”

Vogler criticized the firefighters union president, Brett Henry, for statements in mailers to Hesperia residents to the effect that 1,500 Hesperians had recently been evacuated during a fire. “This event never happened but was rather a scare tactic by the union,” Vogler asserted.

Moreover, Vogler claimed, the failure of Measure F is a harbinger of political change.

“The Measure F campaign result sent a shock wave to the status quo arrangement between the fire union and the county board of supervisors,” Vogler said. “The union has for years financed political campaigns for candidates who, should they win the election, were then expected to vote favorably for items which benefitted the fire union and their employees. We believe that candidates for election in 2012 have already been selected by the union. However, when the union gives campaign funding to candidates who are already in disfavor with the voters, the backlash from the pro-Measure F campaign will result in an election loss for some of the candidates.”

In an apparent response to the grand jury’s characterization of San Bernardino County supervisors’ benefits as “overly generous,” supervisors this week took a step toward reducing by 20 percent the $121,000 a year in health, retirement and other benefits they receive in addition to their $151,971 salaries.

The cut was not actually made, but the board of supervisors directed staff to draft an ordinance to that effect which will come back for their consideration in January or February 2012.

The proposal to make the reduction was floated by supervisor Janice Rutherford, who said she wanted to end “all county pickups of supervisor retirement contributions, county retirement medical trust fund contributions, county salary savings plans matches and supplemental contributions, county paid life insurance and variable group universal life insurance, long term disability insurance, medical expense flexible spending account matches, and portable communication device allowances.”

Rutherford said “Eliminating these benefits would reduce the total annual compensation that is available to board members by almost 20 percent ($54,000), to approximately $219,000. Implementation of the proposed ordinance would place supervisors’ compensation at a level comparable with the total compensation for supervisors in Riverside, Orange, and San Diego counties.

Rutherford said the reductions would serve the purpose of having the supervisors “lead by example” as county executive officer Greg Devereaux pushes county employee unions to accept reductions in the benefit packages provided to their members.

A lawsuit against the county of San Bernardino, San Bernardino Superior Court and Superior Court executive officer Stephen Nash that claimed the county’s courthouses are inaccessible to the disabled has been settled with an agreement by the county and the court to pay $831,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees and undertake to make improvements to accommodate the handicapped.

Though San Bernardino County and the Superior Court officials “denied and continue to deny the allegations and claims in the actions,” they agreed to make changes that would enable those with physical disabilities to better utilize entrances, emergency exits, witness stands, jury boxes and other courthouse facilities.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Riverside in 2006 by lawyers for the Disability Rights Legal Center in Los Angeles, propounded that the courthouses’ inaccessibility to people with ambulatory problems which extended to the parking lots, walkways, hallways, stairways, elevators, courtrooms, restrooms and other areas was a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act

The problems were alleged to exist at the courthouses in Rancho Cucamonga, Victorville, Needles, Barstow, Big Bear, Fontana, Chino, Joshua Tree, the San Bernardino Criminal Court, its annex, and San Bernardino Civil Court, and in the Juvenile Delinquency and Juvenile Dependency courts.

The case was being heard by U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips in Riverside. An effort to mediate a settlement was undertaken, involving U.S. District Court Judge George H. King as a settlement officer. As part of the mediation, the county surveyed conditions at the 13 court sites and assessed the challenges those facilities presented to the handicapped. Short of going to trial, the county agreed to pay $80,000 in damages to the four surviving plaintiffs in the case – Ruthee Goldkorn, John Lonberg, Kimberly Wilder and Alfred Chichester – as well as to the estate of Michael Flippin, another plaintiff who died before the suit was settled. In addition the county and court agreed to pay another $690,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs and put up $61,000 to oversee the efforts to render the courthouses accessible.

The cost of the settlement will go well beyond the $831,000 settlement, as the county and courts have agreed to remediation plans for all 13 courthouses. According to the language of the settlement, “The individual remediation plans describe structural and programmatic steps that will be taken to ensure that the class is able to access the facilities and programs, services and activities in the subject courthouses. The terms of each remediation plan are site-specific and vary from courthouse to courthouse.”

Those improvements are to be completed within five years.

San Bernardino County this week renewed its contract with the controversial Sacramento-based lobbying firm Platinum Advisors, extending the arrangement for the firm to provide legislative advocacy for three years.

Platinum Advisors, which counts among its employees former state assemblyman Brett Granlund, will be paid $655,200 for its work for the county from January 1, 2012 through December 31, 2014. The contract carries with it two one-year options to extend the contract at an annual cost of $218,400.

San Bernardino County has contracted with Platinum Advisors, which was founded by and is still led by Darius Anderson, for legislative advocacy at the state level since 2003. It is Granlund’s association with the firm that has led to adverse publicity over the county’s ongoing relationship with the company.

In 2007, Los Angeles-based attorney Leonard Gumport at the county’s behest investigated the county’s acquisition of the Adelanto jail, making a finding that Granlund and Platinum Advisors, violated the terms of the county’s contract with Platinum by engaging in a conflict of interest and failing to give the county prior written notification of Platinum’s clients. One of those clients was Maranatha Corrections LLC, which is owned by Terry Moreland. Platinum, through Granlund, solicited the county to enter into a $43 million lease and option to purchase the Maranatha Prison in Adelanto, which was owned by Maranatha Corrections/Moreland.

According to Gumport, who had been hired to look into several instances of alleged corruption of county government, neither Platinum nor Granlund informed the county that they were representing the sellers, and the county entered into the purchase agreement without knowing about or being informed of a mold condition at the facility that resulted in additional costs of several million dollars to the county. That sale took place even though an “as is” appraisal reflecting the actual current value of the jail had not been completed, such that Platinum and Granlund had failed to protect the county’s interests.

In January 2005, when the board of supervisors voted to approve the lease and option to purchase the facility, the board had not been informed that Granlund and Platinum had advised and represented Maranatha in marketing the jail to county representatives, including then-county sheriff Gary Penrod, county real estate director David Slaughter and then county administrative officer Mark Uffer.

Granlund had previously involved himself in a questionable purchase of county property that allegedly benefited one of his close political associates, Jim Foster, who was at that time the chief of staff to then-supervisor Dennis Hansberger.

In 2001, after San Bernardino County barred its officials from directly purchasing county land or doing so through an intermediary, Foster did just that, using Granlund as his agent. Foster had become interested in a four-tenths of an acre residentially zoned parcel with mountain and valley views located adjacent to Wabash Avenue and Sunset Drive in Redlands, which the county had acquired in 1981. According to county records, Foster made an inquiry about a potential auction of the property in an e-mail exchange with a county property agent in 2001. After the property was put up for bid but not widely advertised, Foster used his authority as Hansberger’s chief of staff to instruct the property agent to again put it up for auction.

In 2001, at Foster’s direction, Granlund and his wife, Lonni, together with Louis and Amy Curti, purchased the property at that auction. In 2002, Foster and his wife, Linda, purchased the Granlunds’ portion of the property for $10,000. In 2004, the Fosters and Curtis sold the property to George Saunders and Donald R. Paulson for $100,000, netting Foster a profit of somewhere near $40,000.

In 2005, when the matter became public, Foster was suspended from his post as Hansberger’s chief of staff and later was forced to resign after acknowledging he had violated county policy. No charges were filed against Granlund, though Foster maintained that Granlund had knowingly cooperated with him in the scheme to obtain the property.

Current county chief executive officer Greg Devereaux and the county’s deputy legislative director Josh Candelaria did not dwell on the controversies that had beset Granlund and Platinum Advisors in the past in recommending to the board of supervisors this week that they extend the contract with the lobbying firm for another three years.

“The county of San Bernardino utilizes advocacy services at both the federal and state levels to advance the county’s legislative agenda,” Devereaux and Candelaria wrote in a report. “Approval of this item will approve a contract with Platinum Advisors for three years. County Policy 11-05 requires board of supervisors approval for services in excess of $100,000. On September 14, 2011, a request for proposals was released, advertised through the county’s purchasing website and circulated to numerous state advocacy and public affairs firms. The request for proposals process garnered responses from Platinum Advisors, Chabot Strategies, LLC, and Forte, LLP. An interagency evaluation committee, which included representatives from the county of San Bernardino, San Bernardino Association of Governments, and Riverside County, evaluated the responses and recommends this contract based on the expertise demonstrated by the incumbent in the proposal.”

Devereaux and Candelaria continued, “Founded in 1998, Platinum Advisors is a full service government affairs firm that has experience in lobbying the California Legislature and executive branch. Since 2003, the county has received policy and fiscal benefits from the legislative advocacy services provided by Platinum Advisors in Sacramento. More specifically, Platinum Advisors was instrumental in advocating for a county-sponsored bill that waived over a million dollars in fines and penalties imposed by the State Department of Water Resources. Additionally, Platinum was active in defeating a burdensome airport land use commission bill that would have eroded local authority and cost the county approximately $400,000. New and persisting issues before the State Legislature this year, including realignment, healthcare and pension reform, decreasing revenues, aging infrastructure and high unemployment remain high priority issues for the county of San Bernardino. Dedicated and effective representation with state administration, agencies, departments and associations is critical to ensure the county’s legislative agenda is advanced.”

Devereaux and Candelaria concluded, “In coordination with the county administrative office, Platinum Advisors will assist the county in developing and implementing an effective state advocacy strategy to increase funding opportunities and influence state law and policies as they relate to county priorities, programs and operations.”

The county of San Bernardino in 2010 ranked seventh among the 12 largest California counties in annual state lobbying expenditures. The $240,000 paid to Platinum Advisors was exceed by Los Angeles County, with $1,021,956 in legislative advocacy costs; Riverside County, with $384,011 in legislative lobbying costs; Orange County, with $321,143 in legislative advocacy costs; San Diego County, which pays $311,927 for lawmaker lobbying in Sacramento; Alameda County, which shells out $279,166 for legislative advocacy; and San Francisco County, which pays $270,000 for lobbying state legislators. Among the state’s larger counties that paid less than San Bernardino County for lobbying service in 2010 were Contra Costa County, which spent $220,000 for state lobbying efforts on its behalf, as did Ventura County, which paid $186,665 for the same service; Sacramento County, which paid $152,157; San Mateo County, which budgeted $147,500; and Santa Clara County, which pays its state lobbyist $127,336 per year.

County spokesperson David Wert told the Sentinel “You are free to characterize Platinum Advisors as controversial, but that is not the county’s opinion. Brett Granlund may be a controversial figure but that does not make Platinum Advisors a controversial firm.”

With regard to the county’s purchase of the Adelanto jail, Wert said, “If anything questionable occurred, it was that he [Granlund] should have told the county he was working for Maranatha in representing them on the sale. Any controversy about that died out five or six years ago.”

And there is a firewall between Granlund and the county at Platinum advisors, Wert suggested. “Brett Granlund is not one of the people at Platinum Advisors who represent the county,” he said.