The San Bernardino City Council’s decision against imposing a stop work order on developer Scott Beard and his company, 27th Street TAD, LLC, is looming ever larger in sparring over the city’s approval of a 38,150-square-foot building for a welfare office near the confluence of the Second, Fifth and Sixth wards in northwest San Bernardino.
San Bernardino is already host to three transitional assistance department facilities operated by San Bernardino County’s human services division, one at 2050 N. Massachusetts Avenue, another at Fourth Street and Waterman Avenue, and a third at 1895 Del Rosa Avenue, built in 2016.
The transitional assistance department, which is sometimes referred to by its acronym TAD, provides a wide array of federal and state-mandated social services and income assistance programs to the residents of San Bernardino County, particularly those whose loss of jobs or income has put them at risk of becoming, or has rendered them, homeless. In common parlance, it is referred to as a division of the welfare system.
The site where Beard is now in the process of constructing the building, the northwest corner of 27th Street and Little Mountain Drive in San Bernardino, also described as Assessor Parcel No. (APN) 0148-021-66-0000, lies along the periphery of the Muscupiabe District, an historic neighborhood nestled between the triangular intersection of the 210 Freeway and 215 Freeway, contained within the city’s Second Ward and immediately adjacent to Ward Five, and a stone’s throw across the freeway divide to Ward Six. Wards Two, Five and Six, are represented by council members Sandra Ibarra, Henry Nickel and Bessine Richard, respectively.
The project was approved last year, after the November 2018 election was held, but before those elected in that contest were established into their positions as mayor or council members. Thus, the approval of the project came during the tenure of the city’s immediate former mayor, Carey Davis. Davis, who was in office for nearly five years, was defeated in November by John Valdivia, who had been a member of the city council in the Third Ward since 2012 following his election in 2011, at which time the city was holding its municipal elections in odd-numbered years. Throughout Davis’s time in office, Scott Beard had been one of his major political backers, providing Davis’s campaign fund with substantial amounts of money and other assistance in his electioneering efforts, including his reelection effort against Valdivia last year.
In this way, the timing of the approval was noteworthy, coming as it did in a rushed fashion just weeks before Davis left office. Moreover, there were a number of other anomalies in the consideration and approval of the project. Instead of the project being presented to the city’s planning commission for analysis, recommendation and approval before being signed off on by the city council, the city’s development and environmental review committee, consisting of various members of city staff, primarily department heads and those from the community and economic development department, vetted the project. This was done outside a public venue, with no opportunity for members of the public to scrutinize and analyze the project, its documents or particulars.
While at the county level and at the internal city level the project was clearly defined as what it was – a building to house an office of the transitional assistance department, a division of the county’s human services department, at one stage the city utilized an architect’s description line on a rendering for the building which substituted “resources” for “services” in the heading human services. This changed the implication to suggest that the building was intended to house the county’s human resources or personnel department. A second misnomer unrelated to the blurring of services/resources nuances occurred when in internal memos to the city council relating to the project and in the disclosure notifications to the residents living in proximity to the project, the building was referred to in planning profession jargon as “office professional,” which in common parlance was taken to mean the structure would be a professional office building, which rubric, technically, a transitional services office falls within. Ultimately, however, a significant segment of the populace, including many people living within the Muscupiabe District, were unaware of the actual intended occupant of the building.
That distinction was applicable in another crucial consideration, which related to the city’s development code and zoning regulations. The neighborhood office zoning that the property at Little Mountain Drive and 27th Street falls under is different from office commercial zoning. In essence, neighborhood office zoning allows for offices in which the businesses contained therein have employees who can carry out clerical or business functions individually or among themselves without interacting with customers, clientele or outside members of the public. Office commercial zoning allows both employees and customers to access the premises on a continuous, ongoing and daily basis, anticipating a high volume of vehicular and foot traffic. Because of the withholding of information that the tenant for the office building that Beard/27th Street TAD, LLC intended to construct was the transitional assistance department, which if provided would have signaled that there was to be a significant degree of vehicular and foot traffic onto and out of the site, neither members of the city council nor the public were adequately apprised of what the full impact of the project would be if it were approved. Given subsequent developments, including widespread discomfiture among residents in the Muscupiabe District over the placement of a welfare office in their neighborhood, there is suspicion that officials in the city’s community and economic development department, at the behest of Mayor Davis in the final throes of his primacy at City Hall, were militating to provide a favor to one of his political donors by deliberately processing the project application under a shroud of secrecy and misrepresentation to minimize opposition at a critical earlier point when the project’s approval could have possibly been prevented.
After Beard/27th Street TAD, LLC  began work at the project site by fencing the property off and initiating work preparatory to grading, some local residents inquired as to the nature of the project, learning definitively at that point the project was a transitional assistance facility – a welfare office. Word spread almost instantaneously throughout Muscupiabe, and wave upon wave of residents began registering protest with the city and with city officials.
Fifth Ward Councilman Henry Nickel and Second Ward Councilwoman Sandra Ibarra emerged as the members of the council most animated about the pending project, and at the August 7 city council meeting, they insisted that the burgeoning crisis come up for discussion. Former City Attorney James Penman advised the city that it “needs to preserve the status quo and freeze the situation. You protect the city from liability by issuing a stop work order. You also protect the developer, because he doesn’t continue to build and spend money.”
Penman said Beard would continue with the project based on the permits that were issued, whether they were lawfully issued or not. “You have to preserve the city’s position,” Penman told the council. “You have to stop and freeze everything in order that you can do a proper investigation to determine what happened. If you don’t issue the stop work order, the developer continues to build and acquires vested rights. Later [when] the residents get a writ of mandate and make him stop, he is going to sue the city for allowing him to continue to build and spend money. It’s a Catch-22 situation.”
Ibarra attempted to usher the council toward action before Beard proceeded with actual building activity beyond the grading he had done up to that point. Ibarra asserted that the nearby property owners “were misled by the notices they received in October. I think it is fair that we ask that property owner to apply for a conditional use permit and allow for a public hearing allowing the residents who are going to be greatly affected by what’s going to happen with that project being put up in their neighborhood. We were highly misled. I don’t know how it goes from a human services building to a human resources admin building. The traffic is going to change drastically in that neighborhood. There is a preschool across the street and maybe two or three blocks over is Davidson Elementary, so a traffic study is needed. If he can apply for a conditional use permit the right way as it should have been, I have no objection, but it has to be done the proper way.”
Nickel made a motion to “direct our city manager to issue immediately a stop work order on this project and take appropriate corrective action.” That motion was seconded by Ibarra, but before a vote was taken a discussion ensued in which City Attorney Sonia Carvalho cautioned the council against imposing a stop work order on Beard after the city had given him approval to proceed with the construction of the building. She advised the council that it could yet seek to require that his tenant – the county – obtain a conditional use permit to operate a social services office at that location. Putting Beard and his tenant on notice that the transitional services facility may not meet the city’s codes and standards could potentially give the city the leverage to head off the eventuality of the operation setting up at that location, she implied.
Sensing that there was not will on the council to move ahead with the stop work order, Nickel made a motion that the city council direct City Manager Teri Ledoux and city staff to proceed with the ongoing investigation and report its findings back to the city council on August 14.
Councilman Jim Mulvihill suggested that Beard be prevailed upon to voluntarily impose on himself a “good faith stop work order.”
Though Ledoux went through the motions of conducting an investigation into how the project had garnered approval, she did not, the Sentinel has learned, extend that inquiry to determining if there was any overt communication among city officials to prevent the matter from going before the planning commission or if there was any discussion among city officials about heading off the prospect of public opposition manifesting before Beard’s project was provided with approval. For reasons Ledoux has not made clear, when her report was delivered to the council on August 14, she had not reviewed emails from, to and between Davis, then-City Manager Andrea Travis-Miller, Community and Economic Development Director Michael Huntley, other key members of the Community and Economic Development Department, Beard or Beard’s representatives in the timeframe leading up to the approval of the project in November.
It does not appear any representative of the city followed up on Mulvihill’s suggestion and requested of Beard that he voluntarily suspend work at the project site. Beard said publicly on August 8 that no such request had been made of him. Whether, indeed, Beard was requested to discontinue work on the project or not, he seemingly has no intention of doing so. As of earlier this week, concrete was being poured at the site, and the building’s foundation was being laid.
This week, at its August 23 meeting, the city council adjourned into a closed session, at which point they were informed that Beard has threatened the city with legal action if it in any way obstructed the project, including, as Carvalho suggested, requiring the county to obtain a conditional use permit before it could operate the building as a transitional services facility.
Because of the potential for adverse legal action against the city, the city council essentially acceded to Ledoux’s decision to withhold the results of her investigation from the public.
At this point, the city’s failure to heed Penman’s recommendation that the city suspend work at the site to minimize Beard’s costs stands as a lost opportunity.
Whether, indeed, Beard is actually prepared to initiate a legal suit against the city or whether that threat is a bluff is unclear. Were a suit to be filed, elements within two existing resident interest groups, the Muscupiabe Neighborhood Association and the Blair Park Neighborhood Association, could file separate lawsuits or band together to file a single suit against Beard and 27th Street TAD, LLC, alleging they are interfering with the Muscupiabe district residents’ rights to equal protection under the law and to petition the government for the redress of grievances, and that they have been victimized in this regard by Beard and 27th Street TAD, LLC through the application of political grease that garnered Beard and his company an advantage over the city’s residents when it came to the determination of land use in the city. The primary evidence and exhibits to support such a suit would consist of the records of substantial political donations Beard made to city officials, most prominently Davis, over the years, and the suspension of the protocol normally used for the approval of development projects in the city when the planning commission was bypassed and the development and environmental review committee instead signed off on the project in a backroom at City Hall.
Moreover, such a lawsuit would very likely resurrect long dormant ghosts that Beard would much rather remain buried. In 1998, two of San Bernardino County’s top administrators, Harry Mays and James Hlawek, were indicted by a federal grand jury on bribery charges that related to their acceptance of cash in return for arranging lucrative county contracts for several entities. Ultimately, Hlawek began cooperating with the FBI, telling agents that Mays, who was in partnership with Beard and Lance Goodwin in a company known as SHL Associates Ltd., provided him with a briefcase stuffed with $60,000 in cash during a meeting he had with Mays, Eaves and Beard as a payoff for securing a $26 million 15-year county lease for a K-Mart building in Rialto owned by SHL. SHL stood for Scott, Harry and Lance, so named after the three principals in the company. That lease was approved in a controversial 3-2 vote on June 23, 1997, with then-supervisors Jerry Eaves, Jon Mikels and Kathy Davis prevailing. The building was converted for use by the county’s behavioral services department. The deal was promoted by Hlawek, who was then the county’s chief administrative officer. Hlawek was Harry Mays’ protégé and successor as the county’s senior staff member. Eaves, a former Rialto mayor, California assemblyman and thereafter a member of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, was the recipient of scores of thousands of dollars of political donations from Beard. Beard narrowly avoided being indicted by both county and federal prosecutors during the scandal. Eaves was less fortunate, and was charged or indicted on both state and federal counts, after which he was eventually, in 2003, removed from office.
In the years since, Beard has worked toward reestablishing his reputation and the good name of several business entities with which he is associated. Thus, his threatened lawsuit against the city is considered by some to be a paper tiger, as such a suit would very likely garner negative publicity that in the long run would cost him more in the loss of future contracts than he might hope to recover from the city.
“Even paper tigers can get expensive and can be very politically damaging,” Councilman Henry Nickel observed. “We as a city are not in a position to afford any more lawsuits. We have many lawsuits currently in many stages of litigation. It is unfortunate, but we are not in a position financially to defend every lawsuit that comes our way.”
Nevertheless, Nickel said, if Beard were to file a suit against the city for insisting on the county first obtaining a conditional use permit before initiating its transitional assistance operation at Little Mountain Drive and 27th Street “I think it would be frivolous. I don’t think he will prevail in the end on something like that. I have looked at the documents. His permit specifies something different than what he says he is entitled to. I don’t see anywhere in his application nor anywhere in the documents where it is reported to be a welfare office. It was an office use quote unquote. He applied for something that didn’t require additional security. Now he is saying if you try to stop me I will sue you. That is the purpose of the development code, and its enforcement is meant to ensure this type of behavior does not occur. The residents need to have their interests protected and the city needs to have its interests protected as zealously as the developer’s. My fear is that is not happening. My hope it the council will have the courage to stand up for our residents and protect their interests and make sure the law is upheld.”
Nickel continued, “If we don’t uphold the development code, this will embolden those who do not want to comply with it. Developers will thumb their noses at us by threatening lawsuits. This will create a death spiral for the city. If you can’t defend your city or your codes, of what use is the city?”
Nickel quibbled with those who advocated slapping Beard with a stop work order. He questioned whether that course of action would be efficacious.
“He is authorized to build an office building,” he said. “There is no contesting that. He is not authorized to use it as a welfare office. If we stop him from constructing the building we will be liable for damages. In terms of the construction of an office building, in my mind that needs to continue. He is allowed to build an office building. He is not allowed to accept tenants from the transitional services department or open it as a welfare facility.  There are more restrictions on an office building in a residential setting than there are on an office building in a commercial zone. In a residential office building you have employees sitting in cubicles and desks. That is different from having customers coming in at all hours of the day, driving in and dumping trash and causing issues in the surrounding neighborhood. At that point we have a different use. The minute Mr. Beard leases the build for use by the transitional assistance department he is in violation of the permit he was issued. We need to follow the law, respect the rules and go through the process so we can put some mitigation in place to limit the impacts.”
Nickel insisted, “The city never permitted a social services facility at that location. Under our code a social services building is different from an office building. Clearly, the application did not reflect the intent to use it it as a welfare office. The building was approved as an office building. As of today, they have a permit to operate it as a professional office building. A conditional use permit would provide for mitigating the impacts, building a wall around the site, coming up with a security plan and other items stipulated in our development code. We cannot overturn his permit to complete a building. We can require that the county get a conditional use permit if they seek to have occupants that are other than a professional office provided for in our approval. This will have a major impact on people in the surrounding area.  We have to mitigate those impacts.”
Of Beard, Nickle said, “Either he misinterpreted our code or he screwed up. And we screwed up. It was not proper to have the development and environmental review committee approve this project application.”
Nickel said he suspected but could not at this point prove there was some collusion between the Davis regime and Beard to sneak the project by everyone.
“In the investigation that we requested, the [current] city manager [Teri Ledoux] did not produce the emails from members of the development and design review committee, [former City Manager] Andrea Miller, Carey Davis and Scott Beard. I have requested that all of those be produced. I anticipate there may be something there. I haven’t seen anything up to this point. The city manager hasn’t provided emails or communications or phone records yet.”
Nickel said the project glided by without his scrutiny at the time. He said, “I casually heard about it about a year ago. I was told it was going to be a human resources building. All this time that is what the building was intended to be used for.”
He did not fully understand that the county was going to install the transitional services department there “until six weeks ago,” Nickel said. “That was not what it was represented to be originally. We were told it was a human resources building.”
-Mark Gutglueck

By Gail Fry and Mark Gutglueck
In a significant reversal, San Bernardino County homicide investigators arrested 27-year-old Alex Opmanis of Crestline on August 9 on suspicion of murder in the shooting death of 29-year-old Sammy Lee Davis, also of Crestline.
That shooting took place at approximately 9:17 p.m. on July 11 in the parking lot of Goodwin’s Market at 24089 Lake Gregory Drive in Crestline.
Deputies were dispatched to the scene after a 911 call reported that shots had been fired. Upon their arrival, the deputies found Sammy Davis on the ground suffering from a gunshot wound and an off-duty nurse administering medical aid. Davis was transported to St. Bernadines Hospital where he was pronounced deceased at 10:12 p.m.
Subsequently, homicide detectives responded to the Goodwin’s Market parking lot where they initiated their investigation and conducted preliminary interviews with witnesses and Opmanis. Opmanis told detectives that Davis and two other men had approached him.
In its initial statement on the case released shortly after the incident, the sheriff’s department referred to Davis as the “suspect.” In that  account of what had occurred, Opmanis was not identified by name but described as being 27 years old and a resident of Crestline, referring to him as the “victim.”
“The victim recognized one of the men as an associate of the suspect that assaulted him in January 2019, which resulted in hospitalization,” according to the sheriff’s department’s statement dated July 12. “He felt threatened as the three subjects approached, verbally taunting him, and retrieved his firearm from a compartment in his car. One of the subjects, Sammy Davis, grabbed the victim’s shirt and punched him multiple times. The victim fired his gun, striking Davis and stopping the assault.”
According to the July 12 statement by the sheriff’s department, the investigation was yet ongoing and was being conducted by Detective Eric Ogaz under the supervision of Sergeant Angelo Gibilterra.
There were varied reactions to the incident. On social media and in other forums, opinion against Davis and in favor of the shooter were running at a rate of roughly four-to-one, with some expressing the view that Davis got what was coming to him and others stating the shooting was a clear case of justifiable self-defense. Many of those commenting dwelt on what was perceived to have been the physical assault that precipitated the shooting. Still the same, there were expressions suggesting the shooting was an overreaction, and reservations were articulated about the necessity of the shooting as well as questions about or statements relating to the legality of the shooter’s possession of the firearm.
Davis had a criminal record. Superior Court files show that on April 18, 2012 he entered a plea of guilty on a charge of burglary filed against him on May 11, 2011. On April 11, 2011, he entered a plea of receiving stolen property that was filed against him on April 1, 2011. On February 15, 2012 misdemeanor charges of drunk in public and failure to appear filed against him on November 17, 2011 were dismissed. On February 29, 2008, Davis pleaded guilty to a felony burglary charge that had been filed against him on February 26, 2008.
Opmanis was convicted on May 26, 2017 of misdemeanor driving under the influence of alcohol on a case filed on March 21, 2017 relating to an incident on New Year’s Day 2017.
A report shortly after the time of the shooting, yet to be verified or in any way confirmed, was that Opmanis did not have a concealed weapon permit. The information supplied by the sheriff’s department in the July 12 statement implied, but does not explicitly state, that the gun retrieved by Opmanis from his car and used in the shooting was loaded.
Under California law, an individual without a concealed weapon permit can transport a firearm in a vehicle only if the firearm is unloaded and locked in the trunk or in a reasonably secure place in the front of the vehicle, with the ammunition for the gun in the opposite location, either the trunk or in the vehicle, which also must be locked.
While many of those who carry firearms in their vehicles consider having them unloaded to be impractical, carrying a loaded firearm in a car or truck can be charged as a misdemeanor if discovered by a law enforcement officer. A second such offense can be ratcheted up to a felony.
While the July 12 report seemed to indicate that the sheriff’s department took Opmanis at his word when he said he had a fear for his safety when he encountered Davis, a follow-up statement from the sheriff’s department released August 22, indicates investigators now have grounds to question Opmanis’s assertion.
“On Friday, August 9, 2019, Alex Opmanis met with homicide detectives to provide an additional statement,” according to the August 22 sheriff’s department release. “Following the interview, detectives determined Opmanis’ statements were inconsistent with the evidence gathered and placed him under arrest for the murder of Sammy Davis.”
According to the department, Homicide Sergeant Joseph Steers was detailed to the case.
Of note is that the August 22 sheriff’s department statement refers to Davis as the “victim,” while referring to Opmanis as the “suspect.”  Opmanis remains in custody at Central Detention Center with bail set at $1,000,000

This week, two of Jeremiah Brosowske’s Hesperia City Council colleagues, including one who was directly responsible for advancing his political career and supporting Brosowske’s past and current berth on the council, initiated what appears to be the most serious and concerted effort yet to check the political advance of the young political juggernaut.
At the age of 28, Brosowske appears to be an irresistible political force, whose advance in politics and into positions of governmental power is being guided by a hidden hand or set of hands. The avowed purpose of the mysterious but unmistakably powerful cabal behind him is to advance him toward assuming California’s governorship or a position in the U.S. Senate, from which he can launch a campaign for U.S. President, in what is hoped will be the most viable effort of a third party candidate in U.S. History, exceeding those of both Theodore Roosevelt and Ross Perot. In short, Brosowske embodies the ambition for reinventing the Libertarian Party as a political mainstay in the United States in the 21st Century.
To incubate his political career, Brosowske ran successfully for office as a representative of the associated student body at Victor Valley College, thereafter working assiduously on the candidacies of several Republican candidates. He was taken under the wing of Curt Hagman, a former Chino Hills mayor, California assemblyman and now the chairman of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors and Fourth District county supervisor, who in 2014 was the chairman of the San Bernardino County Republican Central Committee. Hagman arranged for Brosowske’s hiring as the executive director of the Republican Central Committee. In that capacity, Brosowske ingratiated himself with a multiplicity of Republican Party stalwarts in San Bernardino County, which is one of the last bastions of the GOP in increasingly Democratic Party-dominated California. Brosowske is a protégé of Bill Postmus, a former First District county supervisor, former chairman of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, former chairman of the San Bernardino County Republican Central Committee and former San Bernardino County assessor. As one of his last accomplishments before he was imprisoned on political corruption charges last year, Postmus guided the effort to establish Brosowske into elected office, doing so by an effective campaign to have Brosowske appointed to a vacant position on the Hesperia City Council after the death of then-Mayor Russ Blewett in May 2018. Postmus pulled that feat off by a series of secret arrangements which included putting the arm on three members of the Hesperia City Council as it was then composed – Bill Holland, Rebecca Swanson and Paul Russ, Republicans all – to rig Brosowske’s appointment. Participating in the arrangement was Bill Jensen, a former Hesperia mayor and city councilman who had been one of Postmus’s political associates.
Brosowske, along with Brigit Bennington, Victoria Dove, Russell Harris, Linda Holder, Robert Nelson, Anthony Rhoades, Veronica Rios and Chester Watts, applied for the council position. On July 11, 2018 the city council held a specially-scheduled meeting to interview the candidates and thereupon make an appointment. All of the candidates participated in that forum except Watts, who was infirm and could not attend. The appointment candidates were excluded from the meeting chambers so they would not have an opportunity to hear the questions in advance of their own interviews. Holland, as the mayor, arranged to have Brosowske interviewed second last. Jensen, after witnessing the interviews of the first four candidates, retreated to the foyer in City Hall, where Brosowske was waiting to be called in for his interview. He provided Brosowske with the questions being asked and an outline of the responses his rivals for the position were giving. With that advantage, Brosowske came in and knocked them dead with his answers. The council voted 3-to-1, with Paul Russ, Bill Holland and Rebekah Swanson prevailing and councilman Larry Bird dissenting, to appoint Brosowske. In November 2018, Hesperia held its first by-district election as opposed to at-large elections in its 30-year history as an incorporated city. On the strength of his incumbency, the advice and guidance Postmus provided him throughout that campaign prior to the former county supervisor having to report for incarceration in the state prison system on November 30, 2018 and a campaign war chest of a staggering proportion that was twenty times the size of anyone else in the municipal race, Brosowske outdistanced the other candidate vying in the city’s newly created Fourth District, Brigit Bennington.
Curiously, despite his having moved into office so that he can ticket punch his way toward 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Brosowske had encountered some rough sledding, alienating many of his allies, including virtually all of those who were instrumental in putting him into the elective office he now holds.
This spring, an effort to recall Holland from office was hatched. Reports poured in that Brosowske was behind that campaign. That, quite clearly, disenfranchised Brosowske from Holland and appears to have affronted Swanson. More recently, Russ, who was defeated in November and replaced on the council by Cameron Gregg, has voiced dismay at what he believes is Brosowske’s disruption of the Republican camaraderie on the council. And Jensen, who was a major factor in getting Brosowske appointed, has turned on him, as well. Jensen, who is active in the real estate industry, was reportedly involved in finding Brosowske digs in Hesperia to make him eligible for appointment to the council last summer as well as to run in the Fourth District last fall. Jensen is now claiming Brosowske never lived in Hesperia.
At Tuesday night’s council meeting, Brosowske seemed to have an inkling of what was coming his way. He attempted, somewhat awkwardly and ultimately ineffectively, to hold an olive branch out to his council colleagues.
“I think its time to move in a positive direction,” Brosowske said. “I get tired of public comment being constantly negative and negative and negative. I hope we can work together to find solutions. I don’t care if you don’t like me, you never voted for me, if you’re one of the biggest donors to my opponent, I want to work with you. I hope we can all come together in a positive light to make this city better instead of negative rhetoric time and time again with personal attacks. I think it’s time to move the city forward and try to give back to this community.  We might not all agree on everything, but I will say something nice about all of my colleagues. Ms Swanson loves animals and cares greatly about this community. Bill Holland has a record of service that’s pretty much unmatched. If I wanted to ask him what happened in 2010, he can tell you the fight with the truckers and you don’t want to go in that direction because you’re going to get lit up on it, and he’s usually right on it. I probably hate to admit that. Mr. Bird [i.e., Mayor Larry Bird] is a principal who cares deeply about Sultana [High School], as much as he does [about] being in the mayor’s seat. I know he loves being the mayor right now. He works hard at it. He goes to community events.  Cameron Gregg, I’ve seen you from the first time when you were a candidate when you looked nervous as hell til now. You come up here, you are confident, you dress well, you are very poised and you have a direction you want to take the city in. I think you grew up in the city and you want to move the city forward. Myself included, I want to bring relationships forward. I want to make the city better. We might not all be able to agree on things, but the commonalities is [sic] what we should find, whether we’re in the middle of chaos or not. We’re here to represent our residents, and personally, I’m not going to let the negativity bring me down or upset me and if people want to say negative things, I might get upset. I’ll probably walk away from the dais from now on because I don’t want to listen to that. If you want to come to me, come to me with what you think is a problem with me, I will sit down with you and buy you a coffee and totally try to find a solution with you.  This might be my last term on this council because I don’t like the negativity because I feel like there’s so many positive things to do for the city.”
Gregg said, “Corruption has to go. No political kickbacks. With that being said, I’d like to place on the next agenda an item for discussion, a request to appoint a special counsel for an investigation of potential felony voter fraud committed by Councilmember Jeremiah Brosowske, and that will settle that dispute there. Like you said,” Gregg said, turning to Brosowske, “I’m more than happy to move on, and this is the best way to do so, where the light is out there shining and we all have clear heads moving forward with facts versus comments and all that stuff, so I’d like to see that happen. Place that on the agenda, if you can,” Gregg instructed City Manager Nils Bentsen.
Gregg added, “Additionally, keeping with that same tradition there, I’d also like to place on a future agenda, whether the next coming up one or down the road, a ballot initiative aimed at campaign finance reform to where we can actually create some sort of standards where there is not all kinds of outside money being funneled into this city. I think that will cut down on a lot of the corruption.”
Holland said, “Along the lines of what Cameron brought up, I’d also like to agendize a future item, and that is to enter into a discussion and possible vote to vacate the seat held by Jeremiah Brosowske due to non-residency. There’s been a lot of chatter, talk folks presented indicating he didn’t live here during the appointing process, during the election process and to date. I’d like to see that come back at the next meeting.”
In addition to Brosowske’s apparent efforts to assist in the Holland recall, his move to disassociate himself from the Republican Party to move to a leadership role in the Libertarian Party may also have ruffled some feathers. Brosowske has embraced California’s move toward the legalization of marijuana, a position more in keeping with the Democratic Party than the Republican Party. The Party of Lincoln touts itself as pro-law enforcement and considers marijuana legalization to be a step toward chaos and widespread criminality. In a recent screed, Brosowske put out that marijuana use should be tolerated by society and that its legalization is in keeping with libertarian principles. He announced his readiness to work with applicants for cannabis-oriented businesses to assist them in obtaining government-issued permits and licenses to operate.
An indication of some hidden hand sponsoring Brosowske’s political aspirations was his having been hired as an assistant general manager with the West Valley Water District in Rialto. That position pays an annual salary of $189,592 augmented by $62,500 in benefits. Brosowske has virtually no experience or expertise in water operations. The position is widely considered to be a sinecure that was provided to Brosowske so he has personal financial stability and can fatten his résumé to pursue furthering his political career.
Word came today of another blow to Brosowske’s political aspirations with the death of billionaire David Koch, a dual Republican Party and Libertarian Party political activist, who has been attempting to guide the Republican Party toward Libertarian principles and is said to be one of the patrons bankrolling the campaign to promote Brosowske.
-Mark Gutglueck

Robert Lovingood, San Bernardino County’s First District supervisor, will not seek reelection in 2020.
Lovingood was first elected to the board, representing the lion’s share of San Bernardino County’s vast desert outback, in 2012. He succeeded Brad Mitzelfelt, who after a term-and-a-half, had essentially wore out his welcome in the First District. Lovingood had a loose affiliation with Mitzelfelt, though that association did not interfere with his election in 2012 and his reelection in 2016.
No First District supervisor has served more than two terms on the board since Arthur Doran. Doran was appointed by Governor C.C. Young on December 2, 1928 to succeed C.S. Crain as First District San Bernardino County supervisor after Crain’s death, was elected in a special election in 1930 and then reelected in 1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944 before leaving office in 1948. Lovingood appears unwilling to test fate by running for supervisor once more. It has been suggested that he may seek election in the 33rd Assembly District next year if Jay Obernolte, the incumbent, seeks election in the 8th Congressional District, if the incumbent there, Paul Cook, opts out of seeking election. Cook, Obernolte and Lovingood are all Republicans. Lovingood has sometimes been mentioned as a possible successor to Cook.
Lovingood made no mention of his future political intent in making his announcement.
“I have decided not to seek a third term as supervisor of the First District for San Bernardino County,” Lovingood announced today. “The decision has been a very difficult one, as I have truly enjoyed serving as First District Supervisor for the past seven years. Some of my proudest endeavors have
been launching our “Made in the High Desert” Manufacturing Summit and Veterans Resource Fair. Both of these annual events have allowed us to serve our local residents by connecting them to resources within the county.”
Lovingood said, “During my tenure as First District supervisor, the county has faced many challenges. Despite the difficulties, there are many accomplishments to be proud of. Some noteworthy achievements include:
* A Technical Training Center is in process of being established in the High Desert through the collaborative efforts of San Bernardino County Workforce Development Board, Victor Valley College, private employers and business partners.
* The Vision2Succeed Initiative launched in late 2018 through the collaborative efforts of Workforce Development and the county administrative office. This initiative is designed to strengthen the career skills of our local workforce and enhance their qualifications to support existing employers and attract new employers to our county.
* Road and Infrastructure improvements have been an important focus area with some great progress.
* Through advocacy work with the District Attorney office, attention has been given to address Welfare and Workers Compensation Fraud in San Bernardino County. The impact of this work has resulted in significant savings to both taxpayers and employers.
* GenerationGo! was established by the County through our Workforce Development Board. This program provides internship opportunities for high school seniors to be dual enrolled with a community college and gain on-the-job training experience with a local employer, allowing a student and employer to find a good career fit for long term success.
* Community Advocacy is a continual effort of staff to help connect our residents with resources within the County.”
Lovingood continued, “Although I will no longer be serving as a county supervisor after November 2020, I plan to stay actively involved as a business and community member. I am committed to ensure that our district receives the best education and economic opportunities possible and will continue to advocate for the growth of jobs in our region.”
-M.G.

By Gail Fry and Mark Gutglueck
In a significant reversal, San Bernardino County homicide investigators arrested 27-year-old Alex Opmanis of Crestline on August 9 on suspicion of murder in the shooting death of 29-year-old Sammy Lee Davis, 29, also of Crestline.
That shooting took place at approximately 9:17 a.m. on July 11 in the parking lot of Goodwin’s Market at 24089 Lake Gregory Drive in Crestline.
Deputies were dispatched to the scene after a 911 call reported that shots had been fired. Upon their arrival, the deputies found Sammy Davis on the ground suffering from a gunshot wound, and an off-duty nurse administering medical aid. Davis was transported to St. Bernadines Hospital where he was pronounced deceased at 10:12 p.m.
Subsequently, homicide detectives responded to the Goodwin’s Market parking lot where they initiated their investigation and conducted preliminary interviews with witnesses and Opmanis. Opmanis told detectives that Davis and two other men had approached him.
In its initial statement on the case released shortly after the incident, the sheriff’s department referred to Davis as the “suspect.” In that publicly released accounting of what had occurred, Opmanis was not identified by name but described as being 27 years old and a resident of Crestline. The department referred to him in that narrative as the “victim.”
“The victim recognized one of the men as an associate of the suspect that assaulted him in January 2019, which resulted in hospitalization,” according to the sheriff’s department’s statement dated July 12. “He felt threatened as the three subjects approached, verbally taunting him, and retrieved his firearm from a compartment in his car. One of the subjects, Sammy Davis, grabbed the victim’s shirt and punched him multiple times. The victim fired his gun, striking Davis and stopping the assault.”
According to the July 12 statement by the sheriff’s department, the investigation was yet ongoing and was being conducted by Detective Eric Ogaz under the supervision of Sergeant Angelo Gibilterra.
There were varied reactions to the incident. On social media and in other forums, opinion against Davis and in favor of the shooter were running at a rate of roughly four-to-one, with some expressing the view that Davis got what was coming to him and others stating the shooting was a clear case of justifiable self-defense. Many of those commenting dwelt on what was perceived to have been the physical assault that precipitated the shooting. Still the same, there were expressions suggesting the shooting was an overreaction, and reservations were articulated about the necessity of the shooting as well as questions about or statements relating to the legality of the shooter’s possession of the firearm.
Davis had a criminal record. Superior Court files show that on April 18, 2012 he entered a plea of guilty on a charge of burglary filed against him on May 11, 2011. On April 11, 2011, he entered a plea of receiving stolen property that was filed against him on April 1, 2011. On February 15, 2012 misdemeanor charges of drunk in public and failure to appear filed against him on November 17, 2011 were dismissed. On February 29, 2008, Davis pleaded guilty to a felony burglary charge that had been filed against him on February 26, 2008.
Opmanis was convicted on May 26, 2017 of misdemeanor driving under the influence of alcohol on a case filed on March 21, 2017 relating to an incident on New Year’s Day 2017.
A report at that time, yet to be verified or in any way confirmed, was that Opmanis did not have a concealed weapon permit. The information supplied by the sheriff’s department in the July 12 statement implied, but did not explicitly state, that the gun retrieved by Opmanis from his car and used in the shooting was loaded.
Under California law, an individual without a concealed weapon permit can transport a firearm in a vehicle only if the firearm is unloaded and locked in the trunk or in a reasonably secure place in the front of the vehicle, with the ammunition for the gun in the opposite location, either the trunk or in the vehicle, which also must be locked.
While many of those who carry firearms in their vehicles consider having them unloaded to be impractical, carrying a loaded firearm in a car or truck can be charged as a misdemeanor if discovered by a law enforcement officer. A second such offense can be ratcheted up to a felony.
While the July 12 report seemed to indicate that the sheriff’s department took Opmanis at his word when he said he had a fear for his safety when he encountered Davis, a follow-up statement from the sheriff’s department released August 22 indicates investigators now have grounds to question Opmanis’s assertion.
“On Friday, August 9, 2019, Alex Opmanis met with homicide detectives to provide an additional statement,” according to the August 22 sheriff’s department release. “Following the interview, detectives determined Opmanis’ statements were inconsistent with the evidence gathered and placed him under arrest for the murder of Sammy Davis.”
According to the department, Homicide Sergeant Joseph Steers was detailed to the case.
Of note is that the August 22 sheriff’s department statement refers to Davis as the “victim,” while referring to Opmanis as the “suspect.”

In California, the fall schedule has no timeline. Blame it on the overall great weather we have. With that said, it can get consuming as to what is going to be trending this fall. Dressing for this weather can be tricky because of the in-between season weather shifts. Some things I’ve picked up on are dresses over pants, which are perfect for a breezy day. Big wide pants with or without pleats look great with boots. Let’s not forget what’s really hitting the streets: The back to school look and the uniform. These embody the easy-pressed and proper look for education. There really is no schedule for fall, but don’t be confused. The pieces are out there and you can start grabbing your booties, sweaters, pants, and everything else in between. Make your wardrobe fun and workable and you’ll be pre falling before you know it.

 “Fashion is what you’re offered four times a year by designers. And style is what you choose.” – Lauren Hutton

By clicking on the blue portal below, you can down load a PDF of the August 16 edition of the San Bernardino County Sentinel.

Sentinel 08-16-19

San Bernardino County Fire officials have made a decision to permanently shutter the Wonder Valley Fire Station, foreclosing whatever faint glimmer of hope the residents of this remote area had that the facility would be reopened.
In September 2017 county fire department administrators moved precipitously to shift operations and personnel, which then included Battalion Chief Mike Snow, from Fire Station 45 on Amboy Road next to the community center in Wonder Valley to the Twentynine Palms station on Adobe Road south of Twentynine Palms Highway, which is approximately 11 miles away.
Officials said the move was prompted by the results of an analysis done earlier that month on water drawn from the well Fire Station 45 uses. Lab tests showed, the department said, that the water was contaminated with arsenic, hexavalent chromium and fluoride at levels approaching or exceeding 1,000 times the threshold deemed safe for human use and consumption. The department said it could not countenance subjecting its firefighting personnel to the health threat that contamination posed.
There were conflicting reports as to whether or not testing done on other wells in Wonder Valley showed contamination levels consistent with that in the well used by the fire station for its water supply. The closing of Fire Station 45 brought immediate protests from some Wonder Valley residents. The department, which examined options that included putting a water filtering system into place to determining if it would reduce the contaminant level sufficiently to render the water safe, offered a vague statement to the effect that if and when the water concern was mitigated, the county fire protection division would re-evaluate the use of Fire Station 45. For the last 23 months, the fire department has continued to service the Wonder Valley community from Twentynine Palms.
The recent announcement that the county fire department would not reopen Fire Station 45, after an extended interim wherein the eventual reopening was suggested as possible by several circumstances, was particularly disappointing to the Wonder Valley populace, which has historically been treated by the county like a sometimes-ignored and sometimes-abused stepchild.
Wonder Valley is an unincorporated community roughly 10 miles east of the City of Twentynine Palms and approximately 15 miles northeast of the east entrance to Joshua Tree National Park. The town lies south of the Sheep Hole Mountains and Bullion Mountains and north of the Pinto Mountains at an elevation range of 1,200 feet to 1,800 feet near the confluence of the higher-elevation Mojave Desert and the lower-elevation Colorado Desert. Both Amboy Road and State Route 62 run through Wonder Valley and exist as the community’s primary paved roads, with the vast majority of the community’s streets existing as dirt roads or ones that have been oiled and impacted. Highway 62 extends some 100 miles east, all the way to the Arizona border at Parker, Arizona. Traveling west on Highway 62 from Wonder Valley will take the traveler to Yucca Valley where it then bends south and extends to Palm Springs, some 75 miles distant. Traveling Amboy Road in an easterly direction from Wonder Valley leads toward Laughlin and Las Vegas in Nevada, roughly 125 miles and 150 miles distant, respectively. Following it in the other direction will take the traveler toward Death Valley.
The core of Wonder Valley, i.e., the town, boasts a population of some 650. The rest of Wonder Valley and its outlying environs is sparsely populated, boasting  an estimated population of 1,100 throughout its roughly 175-square mile expanse. Some 3,000 recreational cabins and more permanent living structures built by homesteaders between 1938 and the mid-1960s under the Small Tract Act, also known as the “Baby Homestead Act,” once dotted the landscape, though hundreds were demolished and removed as part of a clean-up effort over the last two decades. Most of these remaining structures, sometimes called “jackrabbit homesteads,” are vacant or abandoned. Wonder Valley lies within the county’s Third Supervisorial District, currently overseen by Supervisor Dawn Rowe.
Until 2005 the rural community managed on its own, with the augmentation funding due it from the state and county. For more than half of a century it fended for itself with regard to the provision of basic fire protection service, utilizing a paid call firefighting staff working out of its traditional Wonder Valley Fire Station.
For the better part of those fifty years, the volunteer fire department’s primary capital vehicle was its water tender, which holds thousands of gallons of water. The water tender had been custom built by the volunteer firefighters and other locals, a unique adaptation of an existing firetruck that had welded onto its body and frame water tanks capable of storing over 2,000 gallons of water.
After the community voted to become a special county fire district tax zone, the volunteer fire department was subsumed by the county fire department 13 years ago. The San Bernardino County Fire Department operated Fire Station 45, located at 80526 Amboy Road, manned with both on-call firefighters and volunteers along with two professional, full-time firefighters, serving under the command of a county fire division commander.
In 2016, a year before the county fire department’s abandonment of Fire Station 45, the county fire department removed the 2,000-gallon water tender from Wonder Valley. In its stead, the county substituted a modern brush patrol engine, which carries 250 gallons. County officials contend that the brush patrol engine provides adequate means for a first response and carries enough water to initiate a fight against a fire, while more water and fire suppression capability will be in transit from Twentynine Palms and the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center’s fire department. Firefighters from the Marine base, with their more extensive firefighting apparatus, can reach Wonder Valley within ten to fifteen minutes, county officials maintain. Mutual aid, meaning an agreement by which fire agencies have committed to assist one another, provides Wonder Valley with an assurance that the community will not be neglected or overlooked in a dire, or even less than dire, emergency, according to county officials.
The custom-built Wonder Valley tender was slower than the brush patrol vehicles, which in any event were in most cases on station in Wonder Valley previously and were generally the first vehicles to respond to fire calls.
Still the same, many Wonder Valley residents believe the county slighted them and engaged in a serious oversight by removing the tender, which provided a depth of immediate protection in the event of a conflagration. It has been pointed out that the 250 gallons of water in a brush patrol truck can be exhausted in less than three minutes and that knocking down a structure fire, such as one at a residence, will most certainly require more than 250 gallons of water.
Between 2006 and 2018, Wonder Valley property owners paid a fire service assessment of roughly $37 annually. In 2016, the San Bernardino County Fire Department proposed an increase of that assessment to $321 to supply the community with an additional two-man crew or $489 for a 3-man crew. Wonder Valley residents considered assessments of that magnitude pretty much out of their affordability range. The matter became moot with the 2017 closure of Fire Station 45.
Last October, the county put the entirety of unincorporated San Bernardino County in Fire Service Zone 5, imposing on all property owners whose land lies outside of 20 of the county’s 24 cities, as well as the property owners in Upland, San Bernardino, Twentynine Palms and Needles, an annual per parcel assessment of $157. In this way, the residents of Wonder Valley have seen the fire service assessment they agreed to pay to the county for fire protection in 2005 zoom from $37 per year to $157 annually, while the county has just permanently closed out the town’s fire station.
The best available data shows that since the closure of Fire Station 45, the average response time to a call for emergency service in Wonder Valley has increased by more than four minutes.
In the announcement that Fire Station 45 is to remain permanently closed as a county fire department facility, local residents detected evidence that the September 2017 report of the contamination in the well serving the fire station was a ruse to justify the closure. They noted that in the spring of 2017, the county gave indication, as part of its budget for 2017-18, that it was going to close out the Wonder Valley Fire Station. That was well ahead of the September 2017 “discovery” of the contamination at the fire station’s well, they noted. When the first version of the county budget was released in May 2017, it did not include funding for the Wonder Valley fire station. But in finalizing the budget, county supervisors elected to maintain budgeting for the station after it was demonstrated that the call volume there justified its continuing operation.
This week, the county fire department, in making the announcement of the fire station’s permanent closure, indicated that the station will in short order have another occupant, a non-profit service provider that was not further specified. That a county agency is making the structure available for use or habitation by another entity reveals that the claimed contamination issue there is either nonexistent or not as serious as was claimed, residents pointed out, since the county would bear liability if any harm were to come to those using the facility based upon the county having cleared it for use.
-Mark Gutglueck

By Mark Gutglueck
The City of San Bernardino has withheld payment of former City Manager Andrea Travis Miller’s severance payment for more than two months following her forced departure.
While members of the mayor’s political team are casting about for some basis upon which to forego making that payment, the terms of Travis-Miller’s contract stipulated that a departure disbursement equal to one year’s salary be conferred upon her in the case of early termination of her contract. If the theory under which the city is withholding the payment does not hold up, the city will very likely be forced to pay her not only the severance itself, but her legal costs, including the amounts billed by her attorney in her effort to be made whole.
After the city council, which at that time was down to six-sevenths strength, in a closed-session discussion on April 4 divided 3-to-3 in a vote to place Travis-Miller on leave, Mayor John Valdivia, whose authority does not include a vote on most matters but allows him to break a tie and veto both 4-to-3 and 3-to-2 votes, broke that deadlock, resulting in Travis-Miller’s paid suspension. Valdivia had been on the outs with Travis-Miller since the 2018 election season during which he had successfully vied against and unseated former Mayor Carey Davis. It is Valdivia’s belief that Travis-Miller militated against him behind the scenes during that race.
In May, a special election was held to fill the gap on the council that had been created when Valdivia was obliged in December to resign his position as Third Ward councilman to move into the mayor’s post. Handily elected was Juan Figueroa, who was backed by Valdivia’s political machine, which provided him with $60,000 in money that either originated with Valdivia’s campaign fund or came to him through donors who are also Valdivia’s political backers. On May 29, the day Figueroa was sworn into office, the council almost immediately adjourned into a closed session, one conducted outside the spection and earshot of the public.  At that point, Valdivia had undisputed control over the council, and the council voted 5-to-2, with council members Sandra Ibarra, Ted Sanchez, Henry Nickel, Bessine Richard and Figueroa prevailing, augmented by a similar vote by Mayor Valdivia exercising his authority to vote on issues relating to staff personnel, to fire Travis-Miller.
For nearly two months prior to that decisive 6-to-2 vote, there was reflection and expression of concern about jettisoning Travis-Miller and the expense this would entail, consisting primarily of paying her a severance that could better be used to pay the first year’s salary and benefits of her successor. Hence, there had been considerable speculation about the council citing cause in forcing Travis-Miller to depart, as this would absolve the city of the requirement to pay her the severance her contract specified, consisting of one-year’s salary and benefits. A laundry list of grounds for her firing made the rounds.
While the unofficial reason bruited about the community for public consumption intended as an ostensible explanation of the council’s action was that the budget Travis-Miller had recommended to the council before the onset of fiscal year 2018-19 and which was approved missed its revenue generation mark by $7 million, in entering the vote to terminate her the council elected not to cite cause and just bite the bullet and pay her the $262,542.50 severance.
It was anticipated that within a fortnight the city would cut Travis-Miller a check for the full amount or begin paying her in 26 bi-weekly pro-rated installments of $10,097.78 over a one year period. That did not occur. On July 16, Miller filed a claim against the city citing breach of contract and alleging she was being retaliated and discriminated against and had been harassed.
The filing of such a claim is considered the precursor of a lawsuit. In order to sue a public entity, a claim must be filed. The public entity has the option of seeking to satisfy the claimant for whatever loss or damage is specified or rejecting the claim. Upon the rejection of the claim, the claimant has one year to file suit in state court or two years to file suit in federal court.
At its July 17 council meeting the council had a closed door conference with its legal counsel relating to two cases of significant exposure to litigation. Because the discussion was not held publicly, it is not known whether Travis-Miller’s claim or its substance was considered. At its August 7 council meeting, the council had a closed door conference with its legal counsel relating to a case of significant exposure to litigation. Because the discussion was not held publicly, it is not known whether Travis-Miller’s claim or its substance was considered.
That the council failed to cite cause in terminating her on May 29 complicates things for the city in terms of Travis-Miller’s allegation of breach of contract. Citing such cause is a requisite of foregoing making the severance payment specified in her contract. The Sentinel has learned that the city is preparing to fend off Travis-Miller’s claim by a belated citation of cause, one which was under discussion during the April 4 to May 29 period in which Travis-Miller hung in the limbo of administrative leave prior to her firing.
Mayor John Valdivia, his advisors, his council allies and Assistant City Attorney Sonia Carvalho believe they can exploit the events that followed from the city council’s granting of her request, some two months after her August 2017 hiring as city manager, to hire Greg Devereaux as a management consultant at $10,000 per month through a $120,000 per-year three-year contract with his firm, Worthington Partners. Devereaux had been retained “for consulting services related to strategic planning and organizational development” and to engage in “mentoring employees and council members” by participating in “strategy development discussions… and developing operational goals and objectives and helping us to arrive at performance metrics for departments” during the city’s budget process.
Devereaux was simultaneously working as a consultant to a number of other public agencies, including the County of San Bernardino, the Ontario International Airport Authority and the East Valley Water District.
In April 2016, the City of San Bernardino, based upon direction provided to the city attorney the previous month, filed a lawsuit against the East Valley Water District and the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District. That suit was filed prior to Miller being hired as assistant city manager, a position she held when she was elevated to city manager in August 2017, or Devereaux taking on his consulting contract with San Bernardino.
The city’s lawsuit against the East Valley Water District related to East Valley’s Sterling Water Recycling Plant project to be built near Indian Springs High School, which the city claimed was beset with major questions and problems. That project was projected upon completion to discharge roughly 6 million gallons of treated wastewater into the local groundwater basin per day. The East Valley Water District was utilizing the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District, a regional water wholesaler, to act as the lead agency on the project and carry out the environmental certification for it by inspecting and ratifying the environmental documents for the undertaking that had to be filed in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act.
Historically, under a joint powers authority formed in 1958, untreated wastewater originating within the jurisdiction of the Highland-based East Valley Water District had been treated by the City of San Bernardino at the San Bernardino Municipal Water Department-run Margaret H. Chandler Water Reclamation Plant in San Bernardino and then the rapid infiltration and extraction tertiary treatment facility in Colton, which is jointly owned by Colton and San Bernardino, but operated by San Bernardino. The purified water was then discharged into the Santa Ana River.
In the suit, San Bernardino alleged there was no comprehensive cost analysis and that the total price tag for the Sterling project and the true cost, including the escalation of local water rates, had not been laid out. The suit further alleged that the environmental impact report was inadequate in its provision of “substantial evidence or analysis” assuring the project would not substantially degrade water quality in the Bunker Hill Basin and would not harm the Santa Ana River sucker fish. The public health and cost implications of the project were exacerbated, the city claimed, by the absence of a process for “de-salting” groundwater, that is, the removal of nitrates and other untoward contaminants from the water.  Moreover, the suit alleged, the project did not take into consideration that the City of San Bernardino, through its water department, had arranged to make water treatment services available to the district, was continuing to make water treatment services available, was about to embark on its own wastewater recycling plant project, the San Bernardino’s Clean Water Factory, to recharge groundwater, and that if East Valley departed from the longstanding arrangement and began treating its own wastewater, then San Bernardino’s water provider would stand to lose no less than $4.5 million annually for 20 years.
In response, both the Highland-based East Valley Water District and the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District asserted that the $128 million project, which was dubbed the Sterling Natural Resource Center, offered the best future arrangement for water treatment and local groundwater recharging as well as the best protection for ratepayers within the East Valley Water District, the cities of San Bernardino and Highland, and unincorporated San Bernardino County as well as the larger service area of the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District.
In June 2016, San Bernardino followed up with a second lawsuit in which the East Valley Water District was the sole named defendant, alleging the district had violated state law in circumventing the disclosure process in the pubic scoping arrangement for the proposed sewage plant. The city maintained the East Valley Water District was proceeding with the project despite not having licensing or authorization to provide wastewater treatment and disposal services, and that it had neglected to seek that authorization from the San Bernardino County Local Agency Formation Commission, which is charged with ascertaining jurisdictional boundaries relating to the provision of infrastructure and public services.
In January 2017, both the East Valley Water District and the San Bernardino Valley Muncipal Water District asked San Diego Superior Court Judge Joel R. Wohlfeil, who was hearing the case against them, to dismiss it. Wohlfeil at that time rejected the motions. But after further hearings and considerations, Wohfeil ruled “The CEQA [California Environmental Quality Act] process was adequately undertaken such that the lead agency and the public were reasonably able to analyze the costs and the benefits” of the Sterling Natural Resource Center.
The city’s lawsuit against the East Valley Water District relating to the violation of the process that included excluding the San Bernardino County Local Agency Formation Commission from looking into which entity would most logically be able to carry out the function of regional water purification and groundwater recharge proceeded.
In the fall of 2017, Travis-Miller took up the matter in earnest, looking to find a way to negotiate a settlement that would conceivably involve having the East Valley Water District abandon its plan to complete the Sterling Natural Resource Center and come to an accommodation by which San Bertnardino would continue to provide the regional water treatment service, facilitating the eventual construction of the city’s San Bernardino Clean Water Factory. In pursuit of this settlement, Travis Miller turned to Devereaux, who was also serving as a consultant to the East Valley Water District, to assist her in the negotiations. Devereaux’s input was deemed particularly valuable given that in his seven years as the chief executive officer of San Bernardino County, he had developed a thorough knowledge of the manner in, and the principles under, which the San Bernardino County Local Formation Commission operates.
Ultimately, a resolution of the litigation was crafted short of trial which entailed East Valley being able to walk away from the 1958 joint powers agreement and no longer be required to use San Bernadino’s water reclamation services once the Sterling facility was completed. San Bernardino was to be recompensed for the $4 million in revenue it previously realized in the contractual deal with East Valley through the San Bernardino Valley Water District, which is the water wholesaler for the cities and communities of San Bernardino, Colton, Loma Linda, Redlands, Rialto, Bloomington, Highland, East Highland, Mentone, Grand Terrace and Yucaipa, agreeing to deliver 3,000 acre-feet of state water project water annually to San Bernardino for a period of 10 years, which was estimated to save the city at least $450,00 and perhaps as much as $600,000 over the next decade. East Valley also agreed to convey to the City of San Bernardino ownership of 22 acres it owns at the intersection of Sterling and Third streets near San Bernardino International Airport which was previously purchased for but never used as a new district headquarters site, for the city to develop as it sees fit. San Bernardino was to pay East Valley $8 million that the city over the years had collected from East Valley’s customers, under the terms of the joint powers authority agreement, for the future expansion of a large sewer line, contingent upon development in East Valley’s jurisdiction.
The City of San Bernardino also agreed to divert 3 billion gallons of water annually, which is used for regional recharge of the Santa Ana River and which could be marketed for as much as $8 million, to the Bunker Hill basin.
The settlement was arrived at during the tenure of Mayor Carey Davis. Valdivia and his team have revisited the terms of the legal settlement with the East Valley Water District. They believe they can establish that the settlement was in no way a good deal for the City of San Bernardino. Valdivia and those in league with him on the council believe that Travis-Miller having allowed Devereaux, whose loyalty to San Bernardino was compromised, they say, by his contractual relationship with East Valley, to take part in the negotiations constituted action inimical to the city’s interest, which thereby forms the basis for now being able to assert that Travis-Miller was terminated with cause.
Whether Travis-Miller’s acquiescence in Devereaux’s involvement in the settlement negotiations constitutes legitimate grounds for having terminated her is open to debate.
If it is now Valdvia’s contention that the December 2017 settlement with East Valley was contrary to the city’s interest, that clashes with public statements he made at the time in which he asserted he was himself a key player in arriving at the agreement to end a lawsuit that was consuming city time and resources.
Further contradicting the assertion that the lawsuit settlement can serve as a legitimate basis for terminating Travis-Miller are statements from the region’s public officials, who characterized the settlement as one that was transparent and well thought out.
Among those who claim the lawsuit settlement prevented the squandering of further public resources is East Valley Water District General Manager and Chief Executive Officer John Mura.
According to Mura, the litigation the City of San Bernardino was pursuing against his agency was unlikely to have had a suitable outcome for any of the parties had it been continued to trial. Both Travis-Miller and Devereaux played what were essentially limited roles in an effort involving a multitude of officials with the water district and the city to disengage both parties from a counterproductive legal misadventure that had already squandered monetary resources and the time and energy of both entities and would have done further damage to the community, Mura said.
Stacey Aldstadt, who began as the general manager of the San Bernardino Water Department in 1996, was a prime mover in the city’s decision to file suit against East Valley over the Sterling project. Under Aldstadt’s guidance, the city had aggressively kept on with the second lawsuit relating to East Valley’s pursuit of the Sterling plant, even after the first suit was dismissed. Ultimately, Aldstadt was put on administrative leave by the City of San Bernardino in September 2017, pursuant to action taken by the San Bernardino Water Department Board of Directors. The move toward Aldstadt’s dismissal came one month prior to the City of San Bernardino retaining Devereaux as a consultant. Aldstadt was thereafter eased out the door by the board. It was in the aftermath of her departure that the city and the water district arrived at a settlement with regard to the at-that-time yet-pending litigation.
“Prior to any lawsuits being filed, several meetings were conducted to frame the issue of East Valley constructing a sewer treatment facility to treat the flows within our district boundaries,” according to Mura. “The meetings were attended by [San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District General Manager] Doug Headrick, Stacy Aldstadt and I. The original scope of the meetings focused on the amount of river diversions that would be acceptable given habitat issues and downstream delivery obligations, the future of the JPA [joint powers authority] between East Valley and the San Bernardino City Water Department, and operational impacts to the city should sewer flows be reduced or eliminated. It was decided that East Valley should conduct a feasibility study to determine what amount of sewer flows should be diverted to a new facility if one was to be constructed. Options that were studied included a facility that would treat future flows specifically for the Harmony Project, half the existing flows of 3 million gallons per day or the entire existing flows including future growth.”
The Harmony Project was a proposal by the Lewis Group of Companies that entailed 3,632 houses on 658 acres within a total 1,657-acre project area to include a neighborhood commercial center at the confluence of Mill Creek and the Santa Ana River, directly adjacent to the San Bernardino National Forest in the City of Highland and its sphere of influence.
Mura said, “The study also considered best use of the recycled water, should it be used for direct use by delivering it as irrigation supply or recharge into the groundwater basin. An RFP [solicitation for bids] was developed, and Stacey [Aldstadt] was invited and participated on the final interviews to approve the final scope of the study and the selection of the vendor.  During this time, it was obvious that this would be a very complex issue that would require a high degree of negotiation and collaboration. The general managers agreed that it would be beneficial if a professional conflict resolution facilitator be brought in to work with the group. In addition, each agency agreed that an ad hoc committee be formed made up of the chairperson and vice chairperson from each agency. The thought was that as the facilitator worked with the general managers we would meet with the ad hoc committee consisting of the two members from each of the three agencies regularly to report on our progress.”
According to Mura, “Unfortunately, this framework dissolved when Stacey unexpectedly without any notice filed lawsuits against both Valley [San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District] and East Valley as it related to what was now the Sterling Natural Resource Center. During the period that the legal action was taking place Valley and East Valley staff and board members continued to work collaboratively to move the project forward and resolve the legal issues. In addition, much effort was made to develop a settlement to avoid a long legal battle. Unfortunately, efforts to communicate with the city were prevented by Stacey.”
Mura said San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District Board Member Susan Longville suggested that Devereaux could act as an intermediary for all three entities – the East Valley Water District, the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District and the City of San Bernardino – to assist in reaching a resolution, “but Stacey killed that idea with her board.”
Mura said that despite the consideration that the San Bernardino Municipal Water Department is a division of the City of San Bernardino, the city’s water board and Aldstadt were impervious to the oversight of the city council and city management. At a given point, Mura said he sought to utilize Devereaux as an emissary to the city. “Previously we were unable to break through the wall that Stacey had established, given the water department was treated as a separate entity apart from the city,” Mura said.
San Bernardino city officials were first given a sobering realization of what the litigation was risking when the first of the city’s lawsuits was dismissed, Mura said.
“The first legal action against the project EIR [environmental impact report] was ruled on by the judge in favor of the Sterling project on all counts,” Mura said. “This left the second case as it related to LAFCO [the San Bernardino County Local Agency Formation Commission] remaining. At this time, because of the city’s defeat and the appointment of a new city manager [i.e., Travis-Miller], the mayor [Carey Davis] began to take more interest in the issue.”
Mura said that at that point Devereaux was “primarily providing us advice regarding how to work with LAFCO and their approval process. As a result of Greg Devereaux’s efforts, meetings with the three agencies led by the mayor and one member from each board were conducted. At the time Chris Carrillo from East Valley, Susan Longville from San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District and Judy Valles from the San Bernardino City Water Board made up the ad hoc committee. Once each agency had an opportunity to communicate their concerns, the executive staff from each agency began work on settlement options for the committee to consider. It’s important to remember that at this time Stacey had been relieved of her duties and Andrea was taking the lead on behalf of the city. Doug [Headrick], Andrea [Travis-Miller], [San Bernardino Municipal Water Department General Manager] Miguel [Guerrero] from the water department and myself held a couple meetings with the mayor to provide historical perspective and details regarding the issues. Following those meetings, Andrea, Doug, Miguel and myself began to draft elements of a draft settlement agreement for the ad hoc committee to consider. The bulk of the settlement discussions were developed during meetings attended by myself, Andrea, Robin [Ohama, the deputy general manager in the city’s water department] and Miguel. Greg Devereaux and other consultants were involved, helping with several technical issues that needed to be considered as part of any settlement discussions.”
According to Mura, “Once the draft agreement was constructed, Andrea and I presented it to the ad hoc committee and then to each elected body for consideration and approval.”
Mura said the facts of the matter did not support the conclusion that Travis-Miller was in any way remiss in working toward a settlement of the litigation between the East Valley Water District and the City of San Bernardino.
“The bottom line regarding this issue is that several people took part in an extremely transparent process to resolve a very complicated issue,” Mura said. “It took leadership, creativity and a lot of hard work to develop a settlement that will benefit the entire region for many years to come.”