(January 9)  TWENTYNINE PALMS — With the removal of the county’s moratorium on commercial solar projects in San Bernardino County, a Chinese company with its American headquarters in Silicon Valley has applied to construct a 1.5 megawatt solar plant just outside the Twentynine Palms city limits.
Clean Focus, based in Beijing and headed by chairman John Chang and president and CEO Stanley Chin, represents the investment firm GSR Ventures, a venture capital fund with substantial operations in China that invests primarily in early stage technology companies.
Clean Focus specializes in financing and leasing solar power installations in the commercial, government, and utility sectors, and works with system integrators to identify economically compelling solar projects and provide financing through power purchase agreements or long-term leases.
John Chang has experience with start-up and multinational companies, including a solar photovoltaic start-up and an energy-management services provider. He co-founded a casino slot-machine manufacturer in Shanghai and worked with Chin on the merger of his company, StarCite, with OnVantage to form what he said is the dominant player in cloud-based meeting-management technology.
Slightly less than a year ago, the city of Twentynine Palms prohibited commercial solar power plants within city limits. The project is to be located on unincorporated county land on a 12-acre portion of a 160-acre site on the southeast corner of Raymond Drive and Mesquite Springs Road, putting it under the jurisdiction of the county’s land use services division.
The land is zoned for rural living, which is deemed suitable for solar project development based on the county’s newly adopted commercial solar development guidelines. Twentynine Palms officials have said they will raise an objection to the project, which is to utilize photovoltaic cells to generate 1.5 megawatts of electricity.
County officials are accepting comments on the proposal until January 14.  No public hearing on the proposal has been set. Citizens can weigh in on the project by emailing them to christopher.conner@lus.sbcounty.gov, faxing them to (909) 387-3223 or mailing them to 385 North Arrowhead Avenue, First Floor, San Bernardino, Calif., 992415-0182.

(January 9)  Rep. Paul Cook (R-Apple Valley) will host a Twitter Town Hall on Wednesday, January 15 from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM PST.
Anyone wishing to follow Rep. Cook’s Town Hall can visit his Twitter page, @RepPaulCook , on Wednesday, January 15 between 12:00PM to 1:00PM PST. A Twitter account is not needed to view the Town Hall. Those wishing to ask questions, however, must have a Twitter account and can tweet questions to Rep. Cook using the hashtag #AskCook.
Cook said, “Engaging with constituents across the 8th District remains one of my top priorities. I’m excited to find new ways to connect with the people, families, and communities I’m proud to represent.”
Constituents are encouraged to participate by asking questions on Twitter throughout the course of the week.
A member of the House Armed Services and Veterans’ Affairs Committees, Cook served as an infantry officer and retired after 26 years as a Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps. During his time in combat, he was awarded the Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts.

By clicking on the following portal, you can download a copy of the January 3 Sentinel.

Sentinel 01-03-14

(Published January 3)  San Bernardino County’s contribution to its employee pension system, which has seen steady and significant increases over the last several years, will escalate to beyond the $200 million mark in 2014-15.
While previous increases in the county’s contribution reflected the growing number of surviving retirees, next year’s increases will include an escalation of the percentage rate now being employed in the contribution formula as a consequence of a new state mandate under the Public Employee Pension Reform Act. That law requires that a governmental entity’s pension contributions be consistent with actuarial projections.
Accordingly, the county board of supervisors authorized increasing, effective June 28, 2014, the county’s contribution rates for its two tiers of employees.
In response to concern that escalating pension costs would threaten the county’s solvency, retirement benefits were reduced for county employees who began participating in the San Bernardino County Employees Retirement System on or after January 1, 2013.
San Bernardino County’s scheduled contribution to the county employee retirement fund in the current fiscal year was $179,068,000. By taking advantage of a provision of state law contained in Government Code Section 31582, which allows the county to advance pay part or all of the county’s estimated annual retirement contribution within 30 days after the commencement of the county’s fiscal year, the county was provided with a discounted simple interest rate of 3.68 percent, translating into a savings of $6,589,943. Thus San Bernardino County actually paid $172,478,057 into the retirement fund for this year.
In the fiscal year commencing on July 1. 2014, the county is due to see its pension liability zoom up by $23.37 million to $202,438,000.
The county’s pension contribution costs have been escalating by an average of $20,107,480 per year over the last two years.
In 2011, the county made a $132,263,097 prepayment to the board of retirement to cover the cost of pensions for retired employees during the 2011-12 fiscal year, reflecting a prepayment discount of $5,299,603 from the $137,562,700 owed by the county as its annual contribution to the retirement fund that year. In 2012, the county made a $154,626,037 prepayment to the board of retirement to cover the cost of pensions for retired employees during the 2012-13 fiscal year, reflecting a prepayment discount of $5,907,863 from the $160,533,900 owed by the county as its annual contribution to the retirement fund through June 30, 2013.
Pursuant to the board of supervisors’ action on December 17, the retirement contribution rates for the county’s first tier (i.e., long term) general employees will increase from 18.96% to 20.24% of compensation earnable. The retirement contribution rate for second tier [i.e., hired since December 2012] general employees will escalate from 16.53% to 18.02% of pensionable compensation. The county’s contribution rate for first tier safety employees will increase from 39.99% to 43.15% of compensation earnable. The county contribution rate for second tier safety employees will go from 32.9% to 37.02% of pensionable compensation.  The Superior Court retirement contribution rate for first tier general members will jump from 19.87% to 21.75% of compensation earnable. The Superior Court retirement contribution rate for second tier general members will rise from 17.44% to 19.53% of pensionable compensation. The non-county/special districts retirement contribution rate for first tier general members will increase from 27.69% to 29.91% of compensation earnable. The increase in the retirement contribution rate for non-county/special districts general second tier members will entail a change from 23.83% to 25.44% of pensionable compensation. The non-county/special districts retirement contribution rate for first tier safety employees will shoot from 57.82% to 59.65% of compensation earnable. The non-county/special districts retirement contribution rate for second tier safety members will decrease from 50.87% to 50.73% of pensionable compensation.  The South Coast Air Quality Management District retirement contribution rate for first tier general members will rise from 25.22% to 27.76% of compensation earnable. The South Coast Air Quality Management District retirement contribution rate for second tier general employees will increase from 22.86% to 25.36% of pensionable compensation.
In addition the general member employee survivor benefit contribution rate for employer and employee will go from $1.34 to $1.85 per pay period.
Despite the overall escalation of the cost of pensioning its employees, the county is beginning to see a decrease in the rate of its escalating costs in that the contribution for second tier general members is a reduction of 4.22 percent the county would have paid under the previous rate and 6.13 percent for second tier safety employees compared to what is being paid to their first tier counterparts.

(December 30)  The county of San Bernardino will pay a Sun Valley-based company a cool $5 million to micrograph and index documents filed with the assessor/recorder/county clerk’s office over the next two years.
In 2010, San Bernardino County in a reorganization transferred the county recorder’s function to the county assessor’s office and the auditor-controller was  made the county treasurer-tax collector.
Since that time, the office of the assessor, recorder and county clerk have been held by a single individual overseeing those departments.
At its last meeting in 2013, the board of supervisors  approved a $5,000,000 contract with PFA, Inc. of Sun Valley to provide micrographics, film conversion, indexing, and redaction services for the assessor-recorder-county clerk- recorder’s division from January 1, 2014 through December 31, 2016, with two one-year options to extend the term of the contract.
According to San Bernardino County Assessor-Recorder-County  Clerk Dennis Draeger, “The assessor-recorder-county clerk [will] utilize the services of PFA, Inc. to provide micrographics, film conversion, indexing, and redaction work for a three-year term, with two one-year options to extend the term of the contract. This contract is necessary to support assessor-recorder-county clerk’s current and future information management plans and will allow assessor-recorder-county clerk to function in a fiscally-responsible and business-like manner.”
Draeger continued, “This contract includes four distinct types of work, all of which are vital to the daily operation of the recorder division. The first type of work, micrographics, involves converting scanned images to microfilm and vice versa. More than 550,000 documents were recorded by assessor-recorder-county clerk in calendar year 2012, and all of those documents were received in image form or were scanned in-house. Those documents are then converted to microfilm to preserve permanent county records as mandated by state law. The second type of work, film conversion, places digital, microfiche and film images of documents on silver or Diazo film for more durable preservation. The third type of work consists of indexing fields on recorded documents that can then be used to retrieve the document images within the recorder’s system. The fourth type of work, redaction, involves creating a public record version of each official record by redacting the first five digits of each social security number found in an official record, as mandated by Government Code Section 27301. All four types of work will involve current documents; in addition, documents dating back to January 1, 1980, will be redacted as mandated by Government Code Section 27301.”
According to Draeger, PFA has had the county contract for these services since 2006.  He said the county sought bids on the service in April, obtaining bids from seven interested vendors, HOV Services of  Carson; CSI Computing System Innovations of Apopka, Florida; Extract Systems of Madison, Wisconsin; American Cadastre LLC of Herndon, Virginia; Xerox ACS Enterprise Solutions of San Ramon; PFA; and Midwest Micro Imaging of Golden Valley, Minnesota.
“Staff from the  assessor-recorder-county clerk’s office and the purchasing department reviewed all of the proposals and independently evaluated each proposal’s merit based on technical ability, cost and references,” Draeger said. “To determine technical ability, the evaluators took care to note minimum vendor and proposal requirements and rated the vendors on understanding of the assessor-recorder-county clerk’s needs, accurate and complete description of technical processes, ability to handle sensitive data, ability to meet timelines, and experience. The vendors were asked to provide costs per unit of service instead of estimating an overall contract amount. Requesting costs per unit of service is more realistic than requesting an overall contract amount because the work is very technical and involves many components, the amount of work required will fluctuate with the activity of the real estate industry, and the vendor will be completing additional preservation projects of county records. Estimates of an overall contract amount could have resulted in a vendor significantly over- or under-bidding the contract.
Providing costs per unit of service also reduced the likelihood of unanticipated costs developing during the contract.”
According to Draeger, “The evaluation committee recommended PFA for a contract to provide micrographics, film conversion, indexing, and redaction services to the assessor-recorder-county clerk’s office based on the cumulative decision that their technical ability exceeded the ability of the other vendors and their references were superior. PFA was not consistently the lowest or highest bidder when comparing vendors’ costs. However, due to the technical nature of the work involved, accuracy was felt to be more critical than cost. PFA provides an accuracy rate of 99.95% with quality assurance controls at no additional charge. Due to a previous protest regarding redaction services, great effort was taken to assure uniformity and fairness during the evaluation process. Despite staff’s effort, an appeal to the decision to award the contract to PFA was received by the purchasing department. The purchasing agent  communicated with the vendor and addressed the questions put forth in the protest.”

(January 2)  Jon Mikels, one of the founders of the city of Rancho Cucamonga and a member of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors for four terms, died this week after an extended illness. He was 66.
In 1977 Mikels was working for the California Youth Authority when he successfully ran to become a member of the charter Rancho Cucamonga city council at the conclusion of an incorporation drive that melded the communities of Cucamonga, Alta Loma and Etiwanda into a municipality.
After he was on the city council, his political clout redounded to professional advantage when then-Second District County Supervisor Joe Kamansky successfully lobbied the presiding judge of the county to appoint Mikels, who possessed a degree in psychology from Cal State LA, a masters degree in behavioral science from Cal State Dominguez Hills and a masters degree in public administration from USC, court coordinator at the West Valley Courthouse, which was then located at Sixth Street and Mountain Avenue in Ontario. After several of his older council colleagues rotated into the position of Rancho Cucamonga mayor, Mikels was chosen for that honor in 1982. In 1986, he successfully vied against incumbent San Bernardino County Second District Supervisor Cal McElwain.
The then-38-year-old Mikels rapidly moved to become one of the dominant political figures in the region, ascending to chairmanship of the board of supervisors in 1990. While he was yet Rancho Cucamonga mayor, Mikels acceded to a regional political leadership role, that of chairman of Southern California Associated Governments. He was reappointed to the post of chairman after he became county supervisor.
. Mikels held the chairmanship of a second regional planning agency, the South Coast Regional Air Quality Management District Board.
Throughout his quarter of a century as an elected official, Mikels oversaw what was the most dynamic period of growth for both of the entities he headed. Rancho Cucamonga, which consisted of 30,000 residents upon incorporation, saw accelerated growth during Mikels’ tenure on the council, nearly tripling in population by the time he departed to become supervisor. That frenzied pace continued for the duration of the time Mikels represented the Second District – consisting of the western portion of Fontana, Wrightwood, Lytle Creek, the unincorporated frontier between Rancho Cucamonga and Fontana, all of Rancho Cucamonga and Upland, San Antonio Heights and Mt. Baldy. San Bernardino County, which had eclipsed the million population mark at about the same time Mikels became supervisor, maintained its explosive pattern of growth while he remained in power at the county seat. His district in the later portion of his tenure included Crestline and Lake Gregory and a portion of the San Bernardino Mountain Community extending nearly to Lake Arrowhead. Today, eleven years after Mikels left office, Rancho Cucamonga boasts nearly 170,000 residents as the third largest city in the county. San Bernardino County’s population today exceeds 2.1 million.
Even with the aggressive land use policies that occurred under his watch, Mikels nevertheless maintained a reputation as a moderate in terms of growth, whose accommodation of development extended only as far as the willingness of project proponents to participate in defraying a major portion of the cost of the infrastructure needed for that development.
Mikels’ educational background in psychology, behavioral science and public administration equipped him when he was a Rancho Cucamonga official with the tools to get along with others, and handle the onslaught of growth that was emanating further inland from Orange and Los Angeles counties, and the accompanying self interest and influence of developers. He sought to temper the growth and maximize concessions from project proponents with design and land use intensity standards that were more exacting than were then current in other communities. He also successfully pushed for historical preservation and tree-saving ordinances. This approach did not endear him to some elements of the building industry, who saw such measures as ones that interfered with their profit margins.
While he evaded scandal, Mikels was subject to controversy.
In 1986, as he was putting on an energetic campaign against McElwain for supervisor, he was deposed as mayor by his city council colleagues who sensed that his political ambition might leave him vulnerable to being influenced by campaign donors. As supervisor, Mikels became estranged with the political leadership in Rancho Cucamonga over development issues involving land in the city’s sphere of influence as well as the divided city council’s decision, in 1989, to fire city manager Lauren Wasserman, who had headed city staff throughout Mikels’ tenure there.
In particular, Mikels was embittered when a prominent developer, Joe DiIorio, who had relocated from Orange County to make heavy investments in and around the area that became Rancho Cucamonga, saw a large scale project by his development company, the Caryn Company, falter in the early 1990s because of difficulty he encountered in dealing with the city of Rancho Cucamonga. DiIorio had named his company after his daughter who was killed in a traffic accident and he had been one of the sponsors of the drive to incorporate Rancho Cucamonga. Early on, while Mikels was still serving as an elected official with the city, DiIorio experienced success with his development projects and was in seeming consonance with the higher design standards Rancho Cucamonga was insisting upon to distinguish itself from its surrounding cities.
A few years after Mikels left the city to become supervisor, however, DiIorio saw his financial empire collapse when he became embroiled in litigation with the city of Rancho Cucamonga over issues related to his entitlement to proceed with his project. This created a technical default in more than $20 million in outstanding loans secured by the property he was developing. One of the loan requirements was that there be no lawsuits encumbering the project. The loans defaulted when the suit was filed. The lawsuit held up the project. As the project stalled. DiIorio, who had been one of Mikels’ major political backers, took his own life.
In the late 1990s, Mikels was seen as a rising star in the Republican Party. But two of his family members – his wife, Marjorie Musser Mikels, and sister-in-law, Ruth Musser-Lopez, began to actively campaign against then-Republican Governor Pete Wilson’s effort to site a nuclear waste repository in Ward Valley at the northeastern end of the county. Though the county, including Jon Mikels, initially endorsed Wilson’s plan, a petition drive against the nuclear dump proceeded. Eventually, Mikels and his colleagues on the board endorsed opposition to the project, ultimately resulting in the project proposal being abandoned. The break with Wilson, then the most powerful Republican in California, curtailed Mikels’ political advancement.
As Second District Supervisor, Mikels opposed having the county’s flood control division undertake at taxpayer expense stormwater diversion infrastructure improvements at the Colonies at San Antonio and Colonies Crossroads projects, which were developed on what had formerly been regional flood control and water recharge property in northeast Upland. His colleagues on the board of supervisors deferred to Mikels’ judgment with regard to this issue within his district. This led to wrangling with the developers of the property, the Colonies Partners, who bankrolled in large measure the 2002 election effort by then-Rancho Cucamonga Councilman Paul Biane against Mikels. Biane ousted Mikels as supervisor, bringing the curtain down on Mikels’ political career. Simultaneously, the Colonies Partners sued the county over flood control issues at the Colonies developments. That lawsuit was settled in 2006 with a $102 million payout to the Colonies Partners by the county.
Dennis Stout, Rancho Cucamonga’s first directly elected mayor after the city went to direct mayoral elections in 1986 and later a two-term district attorney, was close to Mikels. In the maiden 1977 Rancho Cucamonga municipal election, Stout had been with Mikels one of the 36 candidates for the five-member city council. Stout ran thirteenth in the race, losing out to Mikels, who placed fifth; along with Jim Frost, the city’s first mayor; Phil Schlosser; Mike Palombo; and Charlie West.
“I first got to know Jon through my wife,” Stout said, “before the city incorporated. His wife and mine worked in the department of social services at that time as social workers. That is how I met him.
“I liked Jon,” Stout said. “He and I were friends. He was beneficial to the city. He was bright. You usually do not find people in local politics who are as educated as he was. He had a degree in public administration. During the infancy of Rancho Cucamonga he was innovative, and instigated some of the things that made the city unique. He was instrumental in attracting other people with good ideas. He wasn’t as threatened as some other elected officials by having people on the planning commission who might prove to be future candidates for city council.”
Among those were Stout, whom Mikels first appointed to the Rancho Cucamonga Municipal Advisory Committee and later to the planning commission. It was from the platform of being a planning commission member that Stout successfully ran for mayor in 1986.
It was a feather in Rancho Cucamonga’s hat to have one of its young lion’s accede to the board of supervisors, Stout said.
After Mikels moved on to the county, DiIorio became involved in a protracted dispute with the city over his large planned residential subdivision, which was to be built on land that lay both within the city limits as well as north of the city in the unincorporated county area. DiIorio, a graduate of Harvard Business School, sought to use his status as one of the city’s founders and his connection to Mikels to make headway in his negotiations with the city. When the city and DiIorio did not iron out their differences, Mikels sided with DiIorio.
“After Jon got on the board of supervisors the relationship between the county and the city became somewhat strained over what should be going on in the county area within the city’s sphere of influence,” Stout said. “The differences were over what the density should be there and we weren’t in agreement over some design specifications as well. The city wanted tile roofs and a few other things. There was some tough discussion while I was still mayor and as a city we took the position that we wanted our design and density criteria if that property was going to be brought into the city. We took the position that if they did not build to our design standards and density specifications, they could build but we would not annex the property. It would have to stay in the county. What occurred, in the end, was they built to our design standards but at greater density than we would have allowed. The property was eventually annexed. So there was a compromise.”
Stout said Mikels had strength of character. ‘”He was able to stand up to people who had money, big money” Stout said. “It takes courage for a politician to be able to do that.”
Moreover, Stout said, “There are others who have not given him the credit he was due. The consortium that came about so that the Etiwanda storm drain system near the I-15 Freeway could be built was almost entirely his doing. It involved the cities of Fontana, Rancho Cucamonga, and Ontario, along with the county and the federal government which consisted of the Army Corps of Engineers. It was very involved and required intense cooperation and coordination. It took someone with his skill and patience and vision, his political ability and negotiating capability to make that work.”
Stout said Mikels’ talent as a political leader was beneficial at a regional level.
“He also deserves credit for protecting the right-of-way for the 210 Freeway,” Stout said. “Other cities allowed development in the area where the freeway had been planned because they did not think, after years and decades of delay, that it would actually be built. It took foresight and courage to protect that right-of-way.  People do not realize how much more difficult it would have been to build the 210 Freeway if that corridor had not been protected.”
As a relatively young man in office in Rancho Cucamonga, Mikels was looking ahead toward long term goals that will be appreciated by future generations, Stout said. “He was part of the leadership in the city that set aside 100 acres obtained from Lewis Homes for Central Park,” Stout said. “At that time the city had no park land and the breakthrough the city achieved in having set aside 100 acres was a major accomplishment.”
Despite Mikels’ considerable accomplishments, Stout said, he probably did not reach his full potential when his political career was foreclosed in 2002. Mikels never ran for office again.
“My belief is he grew frustrated with politics at the county level,” Stout said. “At that point it had turned into a vicious bloodsport.”
A lifelong smoker, Mikels was felled by lung, prostate and bladder cancer. He is survived by his ex-wife, three daughters and seven grandchildren, his brother, sister and mother..

(December 17)  DELANTO—Adelanto Planning Commission Chairwoman Lori Yuan has been charged with felony vandalism stemming from a June 26 incident on the campus of Desert Trails Elementary School.
Allegedly, Yuan’s action and that of another parent of a child attending the school, Chrissy Guzman, was prompted by their dissent over the successful parent takeover of Desert Trails Elementary  by a group of parents and their out-of-community supporters using California’s controversial “Parent Trigger” Law.
The Parent Empowerment Act, authored by former state senator Gloria Romero and passed by the legislature in 2010, enables a majority of parents at a school at which students score as low-performers on state academic tests to force a district to implement significant reforms, ranging from replacing the principal and up to half the staff to reopening the school as a charter academy. That process is known by the colloquialism “parent trigger.”
At Desert Trails Elementary School, which falls within  the Adelanto Elementary School District, a significant number of the students there had parents whose first language is not English. For the seven years between 2004 and 2011, Desert Trails students had the lowest scores within the district on state standardized academic tests. The school’s students have also collectively scored in the bottom 10 percent of all California elementary schools. In the school’s 2011 graduating sixth grade class 72 percent of students were not proficient with the English language and 70 percent were not proficient in math. Since 2007 Desert Trails has been classified as a failing school.
Pursuant to the Parent Empowerment Act, a parent union was formed by parents at Desert Trails Elementary in 2011, in large measure at the instigation of the Los Angeles-based nonprofit Parent Revolution, which is devoted to challenging the traditional authority of school districts.
On January 12, 2012 the parent union submitted 466 signatures on petitions asking the district to undertake a set of what the parents union maintained would be reforms at the severely underperforming school.
Those petitions, which called upon the district to sack the school’s principal, David Mobley, and surrender to the school’s parents authority in hiring his successor, infuse in the new principal hiring authority for the school’s faculty, reduce class sizes and increase the number of school days and instructional hours, and include more science, history and art in the curriculum, were sufficient to meet the requirements of the Parent Empowerment Act, parent union members believed. The parent union subsequently modified that agenda to request that the school be converted to a charter academy, offering an intensified curriculum.
A group of parents opposed to the parent takeover of the school formed, including Yuan and Guzman, and went to work obtaining rescissions of many of the signatures on the petitions.
In February 2012, the school district, to whom the parent trigger petitions had been entrusted, announced that it had validated the signatures of only 317 of the 466 signatures on the petitions. The Desert Trails Parent Union, represented by a law firm on retainer with Parent Revolution, Los Angeles-based Kirkland & Ellis, demanded a recount and reconsideration of that invalidation of the petition effort. After the district conducted that recount, the board, on March 28, 2012, voted unanimously to give a final rejection to the reconsideration of the parent trigger petitions, finding they fell 20 signatures short of the 321 signatures needed.
In response, Mark Holscher, an attorney with Kirkland & Ellis, filed on behalf of five of the members of the parents union – Doreen Diaz, Kathy Duncan, Teresa Rogers, Olivia Zamarripa and Bartola Del Villar – a petition for a writ of mandate and a complaint in Victorville Superior Court seeking a court order that the district verify the signatures and allow the Parent Trigger process to advance, as well as asking for the  recognition of  the educational rights of students at Desert Trails.
Judge Steve Malone, to whom the case was assigned, restored 97 of the signatures tossed out by the district, ruling that the district did not have the authority or a basis in law to discount signatures that proponents gathered and the district had abused its discretion in doing so. By his ruling Malone raised the number of qualified signatures to well above 50 percent. He ordered the Adelanto Elementary School District to accept the petition as filed by the parent union within 30 days and seek proposals from charter school operators to take over Desert Trails.
The ruling made the Desert Trails Parent Union the first group to successfully enact California’s 2010 Parent Empowerment Act, although the district did not get the reorganization in place in time to charterize the school in the 2012-13 school year.
Subsequently, LaVerne Preparatory Academy was accepted as the operator of Desert Trails, and  beginning in September has been operating the school.
Less than three months prior to that, according to the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office, Yuan and Guzman caused in excess of $8,000 worth of damage to a classroom at the school by spraying ketchup and mustard on the carpet and walls of the room. Both Yuan and Guzman had served as parent volunteers at the school while it was still under the control of the Adelanto School District and as such, according to the district attorney’s office, had access to several of the school’s classrooms, including the one that had been vandalized.
Yuan and Guzman were not alone in opposing the parent trigger effort. Many parents of students at Desert Trails Elementary and within the Adelanto School District as well as observers outside the district considered the drama in the Adelanto School District to be an unseemly spectacle, with agitators in the parent trigger movement seeking to exploit large numbers of parents at Desert Trail Elementary School whose own educational shortcomings, including a lack of facility in the English language, contributed to the poor academic performance of their own children.
The district discovered the vandalism on June 26 and contacted the Adelanto Police Department, which is a subdivision of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. An investigation was conducted.
It has not yet been publicly disclosed how sheriff’s department investigators came to the conclusion that Yuan and Guzman were involved or what evidence exists to support that conclusion. It is unknown, as well, whether there were other suspects considered during that investigation.
On December 2, the district attorney’s office preferred electronically filed PC 594(B)(1) charges, felony vandalism entailing damages of more than $400, against both Yuan and Guzman. The complaint seeks restitution equal to the damage done. They are scheduled for arraignment on January 13 in Victorville Superior Court Department 9.
At press time, Yuan, who serves on the planning commission at the pleasure of the Adelanto City Council, had not been removed from her appointed position.

(January 1)  The county of San Bernardino has struck back at the state of California and its Department of Finance over a ruling the latter made which called for the distribution of the $9 million dollar remainder of a county loan to the county’s redevelopment agency to other governmental agencies in 2012.
That move came after the state shuttered redevelopment agencies throughout the state. The county had not gone along with the diversion of all of the county redevelopment agency’s money because $10 million had been loaned to the county redevelopment agency by the county to redress devastation in the Cedar Glen area of the San Bernardino Mountains in the wake of so called Old Fire in 2003, which destroyed 345 homes.
Following the fire and its devastation, the county created a disaster project area and a disaster recovery plan. The county then loaned the county redevelopment agency $10 million from the county’s general fund to pay for infrastructure improvements.
As the county and the redevelopment agency were working toward the implementation of the plan, the state dissolved  redevelopment agencies statewide and the California Department of Finance blocked the actual initiation of the disaster recovery plan.
In accordance with the 2010 legislation that closed down the state’s redevelopment agencies, the California Department of Finance had jurisdiction in determining how money that remained in the pre-existing redevelopment agency accounts was and is to be disbursed. The California Department of Finance made a determination that all the money in the county redevelopment agency’s accounts, including the $9 million remaining from the county loan, would be allocated to local taxing entities.
The terms of the legislation shutting the redevelopment agencies required that any legal challenge to the California Department of Finance’s determination had to be filed in Sacramento Superior Court.  The county indeed challenged the Department of Finance determination with regard to the Cedar Glen loan, filing suit on February 27, 2013. On May 24, 2013, the judge hearing the case, Sacramento County Superior Court Eugene L. Balonon, held a hearing on the matter. On July 24, Balonon entered a judgment upholding the California Department of Finance.
On December 2, 2013 the successor agency to the county redevelopment agency under protest remitted the unspent county loans.
On December 20, 2013, attorneys for San Bernardino County and the successor agency to the county redevelopment agency – County Counsel Jean-Rene Basle, assistant county counsel Michelle Blakemore, and attorneys Amy Hoyt, J. Leah Castella, Susan Bloch and Nicholas Muscolino with the Oakland office of the Burke, Williams and Sorensen law firm – filed an appeal of Balonon’s ruling with the Third District Court of Appeal. Michael Cohen, in his official capacity as director of the State of California Department of Finance, is named as the respondent.
According to the legal brief filed on December 20, “The Department of Finance’s determination that the $9 million county loan must be allocated to local taxing entities is unconstitutional. The Department of Finance’s determination violates Article XIII Section 25.5(a) of the California Constitution because it changes local agencies’ pro rata shares of property tax revenue. The Department of Finance’s determination violates Article XIII Section 24 because it reallocates the county’s general fund money to other local agencies.”
The brief further states, “This case involves the county’s efforts to construct infrastructure that would provide basic services – water, roadways, and fire protection – to the residents of Cedar Glen, a community devastated by a catastrophic wildfire in 2003. The Department of Finance has thwarted those efforts through an arbitrary and capricious determination that a $10 million loan that the county made in 2005 from its general fund to the county redevelopment agency to finance the infrastructure improvements and that remains largely unspent cannot be used for its intended purposes and instead must be distributed to local taxing entities. This determination delivers a one two punch to the county: the county urgently needs the funds to complete the improvements to protect the community from the next wildfire. It will only recover those funds, if at all, over a protracted period. Meanwhile, the Department of Finance has given a windfall to other local taxing entities that have no entitlement to money from the county’s general fund. The loans are enforceable obligations that must be spent in accordance with the loan agreement and repaid to the county. The reallocation is plainly inequitable because it gives the other taxing entities a windfall of county general funds to which they have no claim whatsoever. The loan is needed to undertake the improvements that are required before most property owners can rebuild the homes destroyed in the Old Fire since most roads are now unusable and without a dependable water system owners do not want to take a chance at building  without fire service protection.”
The brief maintains “It is unjust for the Department of Finance and taxing entities to receive the unspent $9 million from the county loan. The county accumulated the vast majority of the $10 million loan from its own property tax revenue and local sales and use taxes  In its zeal to implement the [redevelopment agency] dissolution law, the Department of Finance has gone too far. It has ordered the transfer of county general fund money that the county loaned to the county redevelopment agency years earlier to finance sorely needed fire, water and road improvements for an area devastated by wild fires.”
As of press time, Cohen had not been in his office for two consecutive days and was not available for comment.

(January 2) Rancho Cucamonga Councilman Marc Steinorth has declared himself a candidate in the anticipated contest to succeed Mike Morrell as assemblyman in the  40th District.
Morrell has not departed from the position he first captured in the lower chamber of the state legislature in 2010. The 40th Assembly District stretches in an arc from Rancho Cucamonga on its western end through unincorporated portions of San Bernardino County along the foothills to a portion of the city of San Bernardino, the city of Highland, and into Redlands and Loma Linda.
Morrell has declared his intention to vie to replace State Senator Bill Emmerson in a special election to be held later this year. Emmerson resigned from his post as state senator in the 23rd Senatorial District effective December 1.
Four others are competing with Morrell –  Yucaipa Valley Water District Board Member Lonni Granlund, a Republican; Calimesa Councilman Jeff Hewett, a Libertarian; San Jacinto City Councilwoman Crystal Ruiz, a Republican; and Ameenah Fuller, a Rancho Cucamonga Democrat who unsuccessfully sought election in the 25th State Senate District in 2012.
Given his incumbency in the Assembly and his superior fundraising capability, Morrell is considered the odds-on favorite to prevail in the race in the 23rd, in which 41 percent of the voters are registered as Republicans and 34 percent are affiliated with the Democratic Party.
Steinorth, who was elected to the Rancho Cucamonga City Council 2012, is an active Republican. In the 40th Assembly District, 38.3 percent of the voters are registered Democrats and 36.7 percent are registered with the GOP.
With the slight Democratic registration advantage and Morrell’s narrow 1,018 vote victory over Democrat Russ Warner in November 2012, the 40th  is considered one of the most targeted legislative districts in the state.
Steinorth believes he can energize the 40th District’s voters in the same way he did with voters in Rancho Cucamonga two years ago.
“I bring to the table 20 years of private sector business experience,” said Steinorth, who runs an advertising and marketing firm in Rancho Cucamonga, Atlas Buying Group. “In addition to understanding the daily challenge of running a small business, I also have public sector experience on the city council. I have seen the impact of the state government’s action on the business community. I am equally aware of what many in the private sector and in the general public do not realize, which is the degree to which local governments are challenged by having to deal with mandates by the state, every bit as much as small businesses must deal with mandates by the state. I am convinced that the state government does not have enough private sector business representation. It is easy to say you want to go to Sacramento and create jobs. That is the mantra we have heard for the last four or five years from our politicians. What is different about my candidacy is I have actual experience in helping to create and grow businesses.”
Steinorth said that to be effective as an advocate for the private sector within the context of serving in government, one has to be prepared to tirelessly promote the application of common sense to the regulatory function of government. . Steinorth addressed the impact of state mandates on local government.
“AB 109, the public safety realignment or prison realignment to reduce prison overcrowding was not intended to be a threat to my family’s safety but that is the end result,” Steinorth said. “The state has simply ignored the prison overcrowding problem for more than 20 years.  This most recent emergency is really nothing more than an example of poor planning by our legislative leaders.
“As the state funneled money toward other priorities, our local court system, has received $600 million less in funding,” he continued. “In dealing with that in the only way she can, our county’s presiding judge, Marsha Slough, is reducing services to the point where we no longer have the full service court system we enjoyed. The Rancho Cucamonga Courthouse is now going to be devoted entirely to criminal cases. The Fontana Courthouse will handle civil and traffic cases. Most of the civil cases and some of the criminal cases will be handled out of the San Bernardino Courthouse. This is a tremendous challenge beyond being an inconvenience to our population in this county. You have residents, especially ones in the far reaches of our county, out in the desert communities who will have to travel four hours one way to get to court. A Rancho Cucamonga resident who for one reason or another does not have access to a car and must use public transportation to get to court in San Bernardino will need to spend upwards of two hours travelling one way to court. That is the result of decisions made at the state level where the impact on us is tremendous.”
Steinorth did not shrink from expressing himself as a dyed-in-the-wool Republican.  He said the numbers are against his party statewide, but that the principles and values the GOP embraces are sorely needed in Sacramento. He said he believes many voters are beginning to see that the Democratic supermajority in the state capital is contrary to balanced governance.
“I see the pendulum starting to shift,” he said. “[State Republican Leader] Jim Brulte is leading us. The Republican Party has to pick up two seats to break the two-thirds majority Democratic control in Sacramento. Single party control has not proven to be a healthy process of governing. Divided government, with its checks and balances, was how the system was designed to function. As Republicans we need to hold onto the 40th. I think my candidacy can be the start of a dialogue about all this. We can start the change right here.”
He has a familiarity with the district that extends beyond Rancho Cucamonga, Steinorth said.
“The way the 40th is configured, it contains roughly  three-fourths of Rancho Cucamonga,” he said. “It stretches to cover San Bernardino and Highland Loma Linda and Redlands. When I was a kid, I lived in San Bernardino and went to elementary school there. I attended  St. Thomas Aguinas High School in San Bernardino my freshman year before my family moved to Ramstein AFB in Germany while my father was in the military. When I was attending college at U.C. Riverside, I bought my first house in Highland. One of the first businesses I started was in Highland.”
Steinorth now hopes to take his long developed roots in the community, experience in private business, and service on the city council to Sacramento to represent the people of the Inland Empire in the Assembly.

(January 2) 2013 closed out and 2014 embarked with a spate of murderous mayhem across San Bernardino County. From approximately mid-day on December 30 to just after 1 a.m. January 1, there were at least six homicides, one suicide and one attempted murder in the cities of San Bernardino, Highland, Chino and Fontana. Five of those involved murders by close family members.
At about 8:30 p.m. Monday December 30, Fontana police officers were summoned to a residence in the 7300 block of Palmetto Avenue, where they discovered the bodies of Ramon Miranda, 38, and Silvia Miranda, 34, and their son Ramon Jr., 12, and daughter Rayna, 10.
Investigators had been alerted to the situation by Silvia Miranda’s 16-year-old son, who did not live with his mother and stepfather and half-brother and half-sister. The 16-year-old had discovered the bodies after he came to the house that day after being unable to reach his mother by phone.
Investigators believe that all four died at the hand of Ramon Miranda. A handgun was found at the scene. Silvia Miranda and the two children sustained multiple gunshot wounds, and Ramon Miranda expired from a single gunshot wound to the head, according to Fontana Police.
No motive in the suicide murders has been established.
Around 9 p.m. on December 31, Robert Sanchez and another unidentified man were wounded in a hail of gunfire near the 2800 block of Benson Avenue in Chino, proximate to Chino High School. Officers responding to a call found Sanchez and the other man prone in an alley with multiple gunshot wounds. Both were transported to Chino Valley Medical Center, where Sanchez, 28, was pronounced dead.
The other man remains in critical condition at press time.
The Chino Police Department has released photos of what are described as three suspects. Those photos were taken from a security camera at a nearby business at a time just prior to the shootings. The three men in the photos are described by police as adult Hispanics who were said to have fled  on foot northbound on Benson Avenue.
Detectives  investigating the case appealed to  anyone with information regarding the shootings to  contact the Chino Police Department at 909-628-1234.
At about the same time that Sanchez was gun down, an as-yet unidentified 38-year old man in San Bernardino narrowly escaped with his life when he was confronted by 22-year-old Jose Lopez outside the Stater Bros. grocery store at 977 W. Kendall Ave in North San Bernardino.
According to police, Lopez was driving a red Chevrolet Suburban and fired upon the victim multiple times before driving off. Shortly thereafter, a Cal State San Bernardino police officer spotted the Suburban and pulled Lopez over. A weapon was found in the vehicle. Witnesses subsequently identified him as the shooter. He was arrested and charged with attempted murder and is being held at Central Detention Center in San Bernardino on $1 million bail.
Less than two hours after 2014 had commenced, a 26-year-old woman was found dead with upper body trauma in Highland after police were notified of a disturbance in the area. .
The sheriff’s department was called at 1:54 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 1, and told of an incident in the 7000 block of Elm Avenue. Upon arrival, deputies discovered 26-year-old Tysha Carrell dead from upper-body trauma.
The sheriff’s homicide division is investigating her death.
In San Bernardino, Jordan Sartorio phoned  police Wednesday morning to inform them he had cut his own wrist after killing his wife and daughter.
Sartorio, 42, had gotten into an argument with his ex-wife, Miraflor Sartorio, 51, and then used a knife to stab her multiple times. The commotion roused the one-time couple’s 6-year-old daughter, Jira. Jordan Sartorio then stabbed her to death before seeking to kill himself by slashing his own wrist.
Sartorio was alive when at 5:40 a.m. police arrived at the home located in the 300 block of West 29th Street, and he was transported to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center for medical treatment.