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Sentinel 10-20-17

Twentynine Palms has been included in the rash of San Bernardino County’s cities being threatened with legal action if a demand that future city council elections be changed from at-large to district-based is not met. And it appears, at least tentatively, that city officials there will knuckle under to the pressure.
Already Chino Hills, Chino, Upland, Rancho Cucamonga, Fontana, Highland and Redlands have moved to change their election systems to create wards which can only be represented by those living within them and the constituents of which likewise live only within each particular confine.
Highland was the first San Bernardino County city served with a demand that it alter the way it elects its council members. The lawsuit was filed July 18, 2014 in San Bernardino Superior Court by a Lancaster-based lawyer, R. Rex Parris, in conjunction with the Malibu-based law firm Shenkman & Hughes and the Los Angeles-based Law Office of Milton C. Grimes on behalf of Lisa Garrett, a Latina resident of Highland. In response, the city put an initiative on the November 2014 ballot, Measure T, asking if the city’s residents were in favor of a ward system. Measure T went down to defeat, with 2,862 votes or 43.01 percent in favor and 3,793, or 56.99 percent opposed. The lawsuit proceeded and the city sought to assuage the demand by proposing to allow cumulative voting, in which each voter is given one vote for each contested position and is allowed to cast any or all of those votes for any one candidate, or spread the votes among the candidates. When the matter went to trial, despite making a finding that the socio-economic based rationale presented by the plaintiff’s attorneys to support the need for ward elections was irrelevant and that the plaintiff’s assertion that district voting was the only way to cure the alleged violation of the Voting Rights Act was false, San Bernardino Superior Court Judge David Cohn mandated that Highland adopt a ward system.
In December 2015 Kevin Shenkman, using the letterhead of his firm, Shenkman & Hughes, sent boilerplate letters to the cities of Chino, Upland and Rancho Cucamonga, among nearly a dozen others, noting the cities “relie[d] upon at-large election system[s] for electing candidates to [their] city council[s]” and charged that “voting within [those cities] is racially polarized, resulting in minority vote dilution, and therefore [those cities’] at large elections are violative of the California Voting Rights Act of 2001. It is our belief [those cities’] at-large system[s] dilute the ability of minority residents – particularly Latinos (a “protected class”) – to elect candidates of their choice or otherwise influence the outcome of [those cities’] council elections.” In those letters, Shenkman threatened to sue the cities “on behalf of residents” if those cities’ at-large council systems were not replaced by ones based on district representation.
To emphasize his point and raise the level of intimidation, Shenkman wrote, “As you may be aware, in 2012, we sued the City of Palmdale for violating the California Voting Rights Act. After an eight-day trial, we prevailed. After spending millions of dollars, a district-based remedy is ultimately being imposed upon the Palmdale city council (sic), with districts that combine all incumbents into one of four districts.”
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, known by its acronym MALDEF, also got in on the act, sending a letter to the Chino Hills City Council in August 2016 informing that body’s members that unspecified Hispanic residents of Chino Hills had complained of polarized voting in the community.
MALDEF attorney Matthew Barragen demanded that Chino Hills dispense with its at-large election system that had been in place since the city’s inception in 1991. Barragan maintained the at-large election system in Chino Hills interfered with Latino voters electing candidates that they favor. Barragan called upon the city council to adopt a resolution converting Chino Hills’ election process into one involving wards, threatening forthcoming legal action if the city council did not do just that.
The City of Chino Hills, which currently and formerly had Hispanics on its city council, responded by adopting an electoral map that meets the letter of the California Voting Rights Act but which created districts that actually make it less likely that a Latino or Latina will be elected to the city council. That is because Hispanics do not comprise anything approaching a plurality in Chino Hills. Moreover, the demographic distribution of the population in Chino Hills is such that constructing a Latino majority or plurality district would require an extraordinary feat of gerrymandering. While Hispanics in Chino Hills significantly outnumber the black population, 28.9 percent to 4.2 percent, Latinos are simultaneously outnumbered by both the white and Asian population in the city. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in Chino Hills in 2014, the most recent year for which data is available, the Asian descent population stands at 31.8 percent and the white population at 50.7 percent. The district map drawn up and ratified by the city council in June provides for five districts, in all of which there is either a white or Asian-extraction plurality.
While many city officials and residents in cities where racially polarized voting has been alleged have denied those charges and expressed umbrage at the suggestion that there is systemic or institutionalized racial bias built into their political establishments, in recent years most have not resisted being forced into adopting ward systems. That is because a handful of California cities that resisted challenges made to their election systems under the California Voting Rights Act were unsuccessful in their legal defenses and were forced by the courts to pay substantial amounts to cover those legal fees.
The California Voter Rights Act confers a significant advantage upon plaintiffs using it to allege what is termed racially-polarized voting, such that even if the challenge does not succeed a plaintiff is not required to pay the prevailing city’s legal fees. Conversely, a city which fails to vindicate itself in the face of such a challenge must pay the legal fees of the prevailing party.
Twentynine Palms was recently served with a letter saying it was in violation of the California Voters Rights Act. If the city does not comply with a notice of intent to form electoral districts within 90 days, according to the letter, legal action will ensue.
The city has hired a demographer to determine its racial/ethnic mix. Council members will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday, October 24 for their regularly scheduled meeting, at which they will consider action with regard to changing city council elections from at-large to district based.
The most recent demographic information on Twentynine Palms available to the Sentinel dates from 2012. It shows that 67.05 percent of the city’s population is white; the black or African-American population is 9.26 percent; the American Indian and Alaskan native population is 1.26 percent; the Asian population is 6.85 percent; and the Hispanic population is 21.83 percent.
Twentynine Palms is next scheduled to have a municipal election in November 2018, at which point the council posts now held by Dan Mintz, John Cole and McArthur Wright will be up for election.
–Mark Gutglueck

The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors this week elected to elevate a 23-year county employee who served much of that time in a management capacity to the position of county chief executive officer.
Gary McBride, the county’s chief financial officer whose function over the last four years has rendered him the most comprehensively knowledgeable individual with regard to the county’s budgetary situation, outdistanced more than 20 other candidates who were given at least a second look from among the several dozen individuals who applied for the job. Those applications came in after Greg Devereaux, the first chief executive officer in the county’s 164-year history who held the post since it was specially created for him in 2010, in January announced his intention to retire in April. Since April, Devereaux’s post has been filled on a temporary basis by Dena Smith, who over the previous eight years had made a mercurial rise from her position as clerk of the board of supervisors. Smith was appointed in September 2009 to the position of director of land use services, and then was advanced by Devereaux to become deputy administrative officer in July 2010. She was later made Devereaux’s second-in-command as assistant chief executive officer.
There were conflicting reports as to whether Smith had applied to succeed Devereaux on more than an interim basis. In some quarters, it was widely assumed that the recruitment drive to replace Devereaux and the subsequent interview process was largely for the sake of appearances, and that Smith was a shoo-in to obtain the top county staff assignment. In June, while the board was reviewing the county’s proposed 2017-18 budget prior to its passage, Smith was put on the spot with regard to a number of line items within the budget as board members sought from her an in-depth explanation of several specific proposed expenditures. In this regard, Smith compared unfavorably with Devereaux, who had always exhibited a command of the financial circumstances of the public entities he headed, including the county’s governmental structure as well as those in Ontario and Fontana, in which municipalities he had served as city manager prior to acceding to the county chief executive officer position. Shortly after this year’s budget hearing, it was made clear that Smith was not a candidate for the CEO position.
Beginning a decade ago, with the onset of the economic downturn that segued into a full blown recession that lasted for six years, the county was hit with financial challenges brought on by diminishing tax revenues into government coffers. Devereaux had proven himself more aggressive in addressing this challenge than had his predecessor, Mark Uffer, who had the title chief administrative officer. Though it made him unpopular with the various unions representing the county’s workforce, Devereaux had pressed county employees for concessions in ongoing contract negotiations and also asked for givebacks on contracts ratified prior to the full manifestation of the recession.
Given his comprehensive understanding of the county’s financial picture, Devereaux was able to keep the county functioning as a going concern with only minimal interruptions in essential services. This was in contrast to the near implosion the county experienced in the face of the economic downturn prior to Devereaux’s arrival in January 2010. For example, Smith had been moved into the lead position with the land use services division in September 2009 as the result of a drastic reduction in construction in the county which resulted in a corresponding diminution of fees being paid to the land use services division by project applicants. That, and accounting errors in the division, created a $6 million deficit in the land use services department. The accompanying controversy resulted in a decision by Uffer, Devereaux’s predecessor, to seek and obtain from Julie Rynerson Rock, the head of the department, and assistant county administrator Norm Kanold, who was responsible for monitoring and certifying the land use services department’s budgets, agreements to retire. In the same time frame, Uffer eliminated 61 jobs in the land use services division prior to Smith taking command of that branch of county government.
The board believes that McBride, like Devereaux, because of his understanding of the budgetary process and ongoing comprehension of the county’s financial numbers together with his firmness, will be able, in both good economic times and bad, to recognize any deterioration in the county’s fiscal position and take remedial action in time to prevent a crisis either generally or in any of the county’s divisions comparable to the magnitude of what occurred with the land use services department in 2009.
“Gary’s integrity, strong financial background and experience with the county made him the stand-out candidate for chief executive officer of San Bernardino County,” said board of supervisors chairman Robert A. Lovingood. “I have trusted his advice in the past and look forward to working with him as we pursue the opportunities ahead.”
“Gary McBride has provided outstanding leadership and skillful financial management for over four years as chief financial officer for the County of San Bernardino,” said board of supervisors vice chairman Curt Hagman. “I have benefited from his wise counsel, innovative management style and commitment to accept nothing but the best from himself and all those around him. Gary will make an outstanding CEO and I look forward to working with him and my board colleagues in making San Bernardino County the best run county government in America.”
“We went through an extensively thorough process of interviewing a number of uniquely qualified individuals,” said Fifth District Supervisor Josie Gonzales. “It was through each supervisor’s individual path of discovery that my colleagues and I came together to select the individual who would best help us realize our hopes and projects to better serve our residents. It is imperative that we, as a county family, view ourselves as visionaries and a flagship for implementing new ideas. Mr. McBride embodies the kind of talent that exists within our family.”
“Gary is incredibly smart and thoughtful, and he is eager to explore new ideas,” said Second District Supervisor Janice Rutherford. “He has a passion for this organization and a genuine, deep commitment to the county team that will serve him well in this new leadership role.”
“I am confident Mr. McBride, with his abundant wealth of institutional knowledge, will excel our county towards greater heights and into new horizons,” said Third District Supervisor James Ramos. “I proudly join the board of supervisors as we wish him great success and look forward to working with him to strengthen our county.”
In a general statement from the county, the board members praised McBride’s dedication to the county organization and the community, his commitment to innovation in the cause of public service, and his ability to grasp and translate into lay terms complex issues and provide sound, trustworthy advice.
The board was enthusiastic about McBride and came to the decision to hire him after conducting more than 34 interviews over the course of 12 meetings with candidates from within county government, other public agencies and the private sector. McBride is to assume the title of county chief executive officer, the same title Devereaux had, which is distinguished from that of county administrative officer, county spokesman David Wert told the Sentinel “because the position does more than merely administrate. It executes board policy. His duties and responsibilities will be the same as Greg’s [Devereaux’s] were.”
Nevertheless, McBride was not given the comprehensive set of keys to the San Bernardino County kingdom that had been vouchsafed to Devereaux. Devereaux had been provided with a so-called “superbonus,” an arrangement that guaranteed, if not absolute, then far more substantial job security than most government administrators/executives enjoy. Devereaux’s 2010 contract specified that he could not be terminated without the board citing the cause for which it was doing so and that his firing could not be effectuated on a vote of anything less than a 4 to 1 vote of the board. By contrast, Uffer had been handed his walking papers on a bare majority 3 to 2 vote, and the board gave absolutely no grounds for his termination. Uffer’s contract indicated that he served “at the pleasure of the board,” meaning he was an at-will employee with no union or civil service protection. The termination standard for McBride has been returned to that which was in effect for Uffer. That is, only three votes are needed to terminate him. While the board must declare a cause if it does fire him during the first fifteen months of his contract, beginning in March 2019 he is considered to be a completely at-will employee and can be let go for any reason, explained or unexplained.
Devereaux’s contract guaranteed him five years in the CEO spot to be followed by five further years as CEO conditional upon both sides being amenable to his continuation, with the proviso that he would at the five year point have the option of moving into a post designated as “special projects coordinator” at $90,000 per year. McBride’s contract runs for four years, three months and three days, until February 28, 2022. He is to be paid an annual salary of $301,121, just under $7,300 less than the $308,403.93 Devereaux was receiving. On top of that, it is anticipated McBride will be provided with another $24,800 in add-ons each year, along with benefits of $96,840 per year, giving him a total annual compensation of $422,761.
McBride, a lifetime resident of San Bernardino County, holds a bachelor’s degree in economics, graduating with departmental honors, and a master’s degree in public administration from Cal State San Bernardino. Last year he was named to the university’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Hall of Fame. McBride has also participated in the leadership decision making course offered through Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government Executive Education program.
McBride has guest lectured for Cal State San Bernardino, set up an economics scholarship fund for CSUSB students, serves on the CSUSB economics department’s scholarship committee, and serves on the advisory board of the CSUSB department of public administration.
McBride began his career with the county in 1994 as a fiscal clerk in human services. He was promoted to staff analyst in the public health department in 1996, administrative analyst in the county administrative office in 2000, public health division chief in 2002, deputy executive officer in the county administrative office in 2006, and county chief financial officer in 2013.
As chief financial officer, McBride is responsible for the development of budget recommendations, monitoring and forecasting the county’s $5.2 billion annual budget as well as its $1 billion in outstanding debt. In his capacity as chief financial officer, he also serves as chairman and board member of a number of oversight and advisory boards and corporations. Under his leadership, the county has received several distinguished budget presentation awards from the Government Finance Officers Association. Recently, as a result of his work as chairman of the committee set up to restructure the county’s retirement savings plan, the county received a national award for the comprehensive restructuring of its savings plan.
McBride will officially move into the post of chief executive officer effective November 25.
“You don’t get this far in your career without the support of a great family,” McBride, 46, told the board. “Thank you for the confidence. We have some great things headed our way, a lot of opportunities, and I am excited to share in the future with all five of you.”
Members of the board also saluted Smith for leading the organization during the past seven months since Devereaux’s retirement. Smith, who plans to retire, will stay on board for a time to assist in McBride’s transition.
According to Wert, the reports that Smith was in the running to assume the title of county executive officer and drop the interim status from her designation were inaccurate.
“Dena never applied for the position,” Wert said. “She had been planning to retire when Greg announced his retirement. She agreed to stay on as interim until a new CEO was appointed. She never ran into any ‘rough sledding’ over the budget. The board decided to invest in a couple of items that she did not include in the budget. She had not been asked to include them. The board made those decisions during the budget hearing. There was money available in reserves to fund those items. The rest of the budget was approved unanimously without any changes to Dena’s recommendations. All indications are that the board has been very satisfied with how Dena has performed as interim CEO.”
-Mark Gutglueck

By Mark Gutglueck
San Bernardino City Councilman Benito Barrios this week questioned why city manager Andrea Travis-Miller and the city’s lead economic development consultant, Steve Dukett, acquiesced in providing Keller Williams, a real estate brokerage company that is marketing what has been deemed surplus city real estate, with a ten percent commission. Barrios suggested that the ten percent commission was inflated from the six percent commission normally provided brokers on such transactions.
Travis-Miller had attempted to have the matter considered as part of the consent calendar at Wednesday night’s city council meeting. On the city council meeting agenda, the contract with Keller Williams was shown as a consent calendar item entitled “Listing Agreement with Keller Williams Realty for the Listing for Sale of Certain Real Property Assets.” The consent calendar is reserved for issues deemed non-controversial, and those items on it are approved together in one vote without any prior discussion. At the beginning of the meeting, Barrios requested that the item be removed from the consent calendar, meaning that the council would have the opportunity to discuss the issue and question staff about it rather than being put in the position of voting on it without the deliberative process occurring.
When the item was considered, Barrios said, “I have a lot of questions about this. Who is advising the city on the selection of who we are going to appoint?”
Travis-Miller sought to put the matter into context. She said the provision of the contract with Keller Williams “stems from our redevelopment activities and our role as the successor agency.”
Travis-Miller’s reference was to legislation passed in 2011 which closed out all of the redevelopment agencies throughout the state. Redevelopment agencies were adjuncts to municipal government which were intended to facilitate the elimination of blight within the confines of those cities. In this way, the redevelopment agencies sought to incentivize the development of deteriorating properties. This strategy sometimes consisted of purchasing or otherwise obtaining those properties and applying available revenue to improve infrastructure on or around them and refurbish the properties and sell them to end users. When the 2011 legislation ending redevelopment agencies passed and was eventually signed into law, cities such as San Bernardino were left with properties formerly owned by their redevelopment agencies. Through a protocol involving the California State Department of Finance, each city created a successor agency which would sell the land and distribute the proceeds to local agencies such as school and water districts, or absorb the property and put it to public use.
Travis-Miller continued, “When the state dissolved redevelopment we were required to walk through or provide an inventory of all the properties that we have available or properties that were purchased for economic development purposes or for housing purposes. So, the city went through that process per the state law. We identified some properties we still felt had some economic development value and we wanted to retain those for economic development purposes. One of those we talked about [was] the Carousel Mall. There are some others. We also recommend that we retain several housing properties because we think there’s an opportunity to change the complexion of the neighborhoods by investing in housing in those areas. There are properties, however, that we really don’t have the present ability to utilize, and the state requires that we put those on the open market and sell them. The council reviewed a property disposition plan several months ago and approved a plan wherein we would solicit brokers from within the community. We recognized that they needed to have a particular level of expertise in this. The reason is because our goal certainly was to dispose of them in a very proper manner. So we did that process. We had an internal group [evaluate] proposals. I wasn’t part of that group.”
Barrios inquired if those who eventually selected Keller Williams had experience in dealing with real estate issues.
“Certainly our economic development staff [did]. Steve does have a real estate background,” Travis-Miller responded. “So, yes, we did have people who have done both economic development work as well as housing work and had an understanding of the real estate process.”
The “Steve” Travis-Miller referred to is Steve Dukett, who is with Urban Futures, a consulting firm which was brought in by then-city manager Alan Parker in 2013 to serve as the city’s finance department following the vacuum created when former finance director Jason Simpson resigned in February 2013. Urban Futures, Inc. was also used by the city to provide bankruptcy-related services which were needed in the aftermath of the city’s 2012 Chapter 9 filing, including refinancing loans and bond financing and managing the disposition of various municipal assets. For that work, through June of this year Urban Futures was paid $2,327,665. Dukett and Urban Futures remain consultants to the city.
“Who were the five [real estate brokers] that submitted proposals?” Barrios asked.
“The five firms that submitted proposals that were reviewed were Keller Williams, the company we are recommending; AB Commercial; Sweet Dreams Real Estate; Daum Real Estate; and King Real Estate,” said Duckett. “It was reviewed by a committee of both staff and members of Urban Futures that have done this for other purposes in the past.”
Barrios, after indicating that Keller Williams is “big because they get a lot of work done” and stating that he had “no problem with their [Keller Williams’] credibility,” asked about the rate of the commission Keller Williams will receive.
“Why 10 percent?” he asked.
“There’s two reasons for that,” said Dukett. “Number one, as your city manager has mentioned, this particular process was authorized by your council as a function of approving the property disposition strategy. The original one was approved in March. We issued the RFP [request for proposals, i.e., a bid invitation] in effect to real estate brokers. It was open to anyone that would want to do this and we had roughly around 40 or so direct mails and it was put on the website as well. So, we tried to be as far reaching as possible, so there was a bidding process and as a part of that bidding process we asked each of the firms to commit to what their percentage of a fee would be. In this case, these properties are in fact vacant or they’re properties that will be vacant in terms of an ultimate buyer reusing them. So, that’s typically the starting point with respect to a fee. So, there’s a bidding process for the fee. Number two, hopefully you have had a chance to look at the agenda packet for this and notice what their contract looks like. The beginning part of the contract appears to be a standard real estate listing agreement. In fact, it’s based on that. However, there have been some amendments to it to meet our particular needs. In addition, there’s an exhibit to it with a couple pages of additional things that are required. These additional services were specified in the RFP. So, this is a little bit different than a standard listing agreement you might enter into if you were selling your home, for example. So, we require more services of them. In addition, one of the things we asked all the firms that submitted proposals to respond to is what their courtesy to brokers would be. And frankly, it wasn’t an even process. The reason why that was important to us is we anticipate not only the ones that submitted proposals bringing buyers but others that would bring buyers to the table for potentially acquiring some of these properties and what would be their incentive. The incentive to be involved is to have a piece of the commission. And with respect to Keller Williams, they were really straightforward plain vanilla, which is whatever the fee is, if the buyer is brought in by another brokerage house, they get half of that fee. So, there’s a double incentive. Now, we did notice with respect to the response we got from the companies that were interviewed – only three were interviewed, by the way – two responded to an RFP that we didn’t issue. I’m being very kind.”
Barrios asked for and was given a clarification as to whether that meant outside brokers would split the ten percent commission with Keller Williams if the outside brokers performed with regard to a sale.
“So, we asked if they weren’t selected, would they [those responding to the RFP] still be interested in bringing buyers,” Dukett said. “In one case, there was one of the three that said ‘We will definitely do it or try to do it,’ but we expect that to be a pretty broad level of interest, especially with the team we’re getting with Keller Williams. We’re getting four professionals led by Dennis Craig. He’s got a real strong team of individuals working with him that are basically, from our view, electric. They’re on fire. We hope to be able to complete the sale [of all city surplus properties] during this fiscal year, and they’re committed to do that, and I told them I wouldn’t hold them to this, but they certainly hope to be able to finish bringing them into us for approval, and by the way, every single transaction comes to you first. So nothing is done separate from the council authorizing it and you see the full background of the transaction proposed and they’re hopeful of doing that by the end of the first quarter of calendar 2018. We’d like to finish this up, at least through the contract phase, before the end of June 2018 because if there are any holdovers, those holdovers will have to go to the countywide oversight board.”
Dukett said it would be better to get the properties sold by next June because, “The county process is less conducive to special meetings.” Dukett said that if the transactions are handled involving the city as seller, Keller Williams as broker and the ultimate purchaser as the buyer, the sales “will average about 60 days.” He said involving the California “Department of Finance – another layer of process [will take] another 90 days. We’d like to get this out of the way completely. We are very excited about this opportunity. We have absolute confidence that this team they’re bringing forward can get this job done for you and get it done quickly.”
Barrios noted that there were eighteen properties the city is looking to sell, but that was reduced to 16. “There were 18 on the list,” he said. “Two were removed.” Dukett acknowledged that there had been 18 on the list but that two properties entailed special circumstances where there were several buyers already interested in the properties because of the land’s suitability for certain types of projects.
Barrios then angled with regard to how exacting the bidding process had been. He noted that Keller Williams was being given a 10 percent commission when “the standard rate is 6 percent. That’s standard. I can go find a broker to replace Keller Williams that has the same quality and they’ll do the same exact things. I’m not understanding why we’re doing that ten percent. We’re giving up four percent and we’re talking about selling off properties of that value maybe in the millions. Just multiply that: 4 percent.”
“There’s a simple answer,” Dukett responded. “You are right with respect to selling developed property. That’s typically the starting point. However, for vacant property, the starting point is ten percent. As I mentioned, this was a bidding process between entities, in light of the additional requirements we’re placing on them with respect to handling these matters. We feel that’s appropriate given the process, especially what we’re going to get from them.”
“So it’s going to be ten percent on all the properties, resident occupied or non-developed properties?” Barrios asked.
“Only for the ones that are listed,” Dukett said.
“So the sixteen properties are all undeveloped?” Barrios persisted.
“Well, no,” said Dukett. “There are two that are developed with structures that are decrepit. That’s why we believe they are tantamount to being vacant.”
“So they will pretty much be torn down?” asked Barrios.
“They look like tear-downs, yes,” said Dukett.
At that point, Travis-Miller leapt into the breach. “And I think the other thing we are sensitive to [is] if you sell something on the open market, you don’t have requirements with respect to the type of buyer that we’re looking for,” she said. “We certainly don’t want to put our property back on the market and have what has happened, it be held for nothing or worse. So we are looking for them [Keller Williams] to do a lot of work that is beyond what you would normally have someone do to make sure it’s the type of user or purchaser that we want to see in this community. We don’t want to get into a situation where it is sold and it’s developed into something that is then a future issue for us. It needs to be a quality end user.”
Barrios said, “So, ten percent is the standard for undeveloped and six percent is for developed property?”
Dukett said, “Granted, that is a starting point, but again there was a bidding process. And they submitted that price and the plain vanilla commission sharing program in light of the requirements we placed on them beyond the normal transaction a broker would do. We feel confident they will scramble and get this done. We are looking for people with the financial wherewithal to develop in the manner consistent with what your specific plans are and the general plan adopted by this council. We’re looking for people that have a history of making properties in compliance with city codes and investing in the communities they are in.”
Clearly, the sentiment of the council at that point was moving toward incentivizing Keller Williams to begin its efforts at marketing the property. Quibbling over a few percentage points on the commission was not a priority.
Councilman Fred Shorett, who once worked as a licensed real estate agent, said, “There’s people that would be interested in buying this and sort of sitting on it and waiting for the market to go up. That is not something we want at all. We want people that are ready to move and get this property developed. We’re not interested in selling vacant land for people to sit on and try to make a capital gain.”
The council approved the contract with Keller Williams unanimously, including the vote of councilman John Valdivia, who was not present but participated in the meeting telephonically.
One real estate professional with more than 30 years experience in the Central San Bernardino Valley told the Sentinel that Barrios was correct in attempting to push the council toward exploring if a commission with Keller Williams more favorable to the city was possible. “Undeveloped property sales is a specialty,” the real estate broker said. “I’m not sure how much experience Keller Williams or Dennis Craig have with undeveloped property. It is true that six percent is, or was, the standard commission on developed property. Ten percent was standard on undeveloped property. But that is a starting point and there is competition, so you have seen commissions dropping to 5 percent. If you are selective you can get 5 percent. The same principle applies in undeveloped property sales. You could easily see a discount to 9 percent. And if we are talking about a lot of properties from a particular seller, certainly you might see a discount to as low as 8.5 percent. You would still have costs such as having to buy signs and make contact with potential buyers, but you would also potentially be marketing to the same people, so there are savings along the way and economies of scale. So, if you were bidding for the work, that kind of discount in your offer would be in order.”

Former State Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, who reached for the brass ring and failed to grasp it when he gave up a safe State Assembly seat to make a quixotic run for governor in 2014, is looking to rekindle his political career.
Having painted himself into a corner by virtue of his brand of attention-grabbing right wing politics in a state now dominated by left-leaning Democrats, Donnelly is doubling down with his conservative rhetoric, announcing on Monday he will challenge 8th Congressional District incumbent Congressman Paul Cook next year. Cook, a Republican with fair to middling conservative credentials himself, holds office in the midst of one of the last bastions of Republicanism in the state. Donnelly’s war plan is to reprise his ultimately failed effort to unseat Cook in 2016, and this time make an even more intensified denouncement of Cook as too liberal for his constituents, while representing himself as a rock-ribbed and pistol-packing true believer who will fight the good fight and prevent the Republic from falling into the hands of the bleeding heart liberals who are dead set on destroying the country, something the weak-kneed Cook is incapable of pulling off.
Donnelly’s move and the tenor of his statements going into the campaign illustrate the contentiousness between Republicans in California and elsewhere, and the somewhat ill-defined nature of the liberal/conservative divide in the party, together with some of the factors that Democrats in the Golden State believe could trigger reversals in the GOP’s hold on several California Congressional seats that might result in the House of Representatives swinging back under Democratic control next year.
Donnelly has long celebrated himself as conservative Republican. While denouncing Democrats and liberals generally and calling for establishing Republican primacy at the state and national levels, Donnelly has on a number of occasions found himself at odds with the Republican establishment, even as he was pursuing several of his own party’s goals. He garnered a degree of notoriety with his participation in the founding of the Minuteman Party in California in 2005 and for a time, he appeared to have found a niche in the heavily-Republican leaning 59th Assembly District, to which he was elected in 2010 in the aftermath of Anthony Adams’ political implosion.
In March 2011, shortly after he became a member of the Assembly, Donnelly sought to intensify his “conservative” bona fides by appearing before the California State University Fresno Student Senate Committee, where he advocated the removal of Pedro Ramirez as elected student body president. Ramirez had been the driver in a single-vehicle accident in which he was injured when he hit a tree in January 2011. This led to the public revelation that Ramirez was not a citizen, that he had been brought to the United States by his illegal alien parents when he was three years old, that he was not registered as a resident and was therefore an illegal alien himself and that he had been driving without a license, since at that time illegal immigrants were not permitted to have a driver’s license. Noting that Ramirez had broken at least three laws and was under investigation by state and federal authorities, Donnelly asserted Ramirez should be removed as student body president. Donnelly’s presentation was met by ridicule from the students in attendance.
The following year, Donnelly’s contention that the privilege to hold elective office should be revoked upon the office holder’s involvement in a crime was tested when he himself was arrested on January 4, 2012 for attempting to board an airplane at Ontario International Airport with a loaded Colt handgun, after Transportation Safety Agency security screeners discovered the gun, which was not registered to Donnelly and for which he had no concealed weapons permit, in his carry-on luggage.
Donnelly insisted what had occurred was “a regrettable but innocent and honest mistake.” Two months later, in March 2012, he entered into a plea bargain, pleading no contest to carrying a loaded firearm without a concealed weapons permit and possessing a firearm in a “sterile area.” He was given no jail time other than the time he was in custody after his arrest and a sentence of three years’ probation, assessed a $2,215 fine, and hit with a prohibition from using, owning or possessing any firearm not registered to him.
That travail, however, had no appreciable impact on his electability, as with the redistricting that followed the 2010 Census, the portion of the 59th District in which he lived, Twin Peaks, was absorbed into the even more staunchly conservative 33rd Assembly District.
Though it was very likely that he would be able to be handily reelected in the 33rd Assembly District in 2014, Donnelly very early into his second term as assemblyman, in January 2013, announced he would run for governor the following year. Though for a time Donnelly appeared to be well on his way to carrying the Republican standard into the governor’s race against incumbent Democrat Jerry Brown, elements of the Republican Party establishment moved to support Neel Kashkari, the wealthy son of Indian parents, whose mother was a physician and whose father was an electrical engineer. Neel Kashkari was himself a mechanical engineer who subsequently returned to college, graduated from the Wharton School with an MBA and later became the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. He was subsequently appointed by President George Bush as the undersecretary of the U.S. Treasury. During the 2014 primary campaign, Donnelly’s campaign inadvisedly and inaccurately sought to suggest Kashkari, a Hindu of Indian lineage, had “supported the United States submitting to the Islamic, Shariah banking code” during his tenure in the Treasury Department. This brought solid rebukes Donnelly’s way from several stalwart Republicans, including Congressman Darrell Isa and California Republican Party Vice Chair Harmeet Dhillon. “This type of stupidity disqualifies Tim Donnelly from being fit to hold any office, anywhere,” Issa said.
In the June 2014 California open primary, Democratic incumbent Jerry Brown won with 2,354,769 votes or 54.3 percent and Republican Neel Kashkari came in second with an 839,767 votes or 19.4 percent of the vote, qualifying for the general election. Donnelly placed third, with 643,236 votes or 14.8 percent. There were 12 other candidates vying in the race. Donnelly refused to recommend that his supporters back Kashkari in the November election, alienating the Republican establishment further.
In 2016, Donnelly tried to bounce back, vying against Paul Cook, the incumbent in the 8th Congressional District in the June Primary. Donnelly managed to capture 24,886 votes or 20.7 percent, putting him in third place behind Democrat Rita Ramirez, who polled 26,325 votes or 21.9 percent to Cook’s 50,425 votes or 42 percent. There were two others in the primary race. In the November general election, Cook went on to trounce Ramirez 136,972 votes or 62.3 percent to 83,035, or 37.7 percent.
Donnelly is again intent on challenging Cook next year. Cook, a Marine Corps colonel who was stationed at the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base, went into local politics upon retirement, running for the Yucca Valley Town Council and then vying for and winning a seat in the California Assembly in the 65th District in 2006. For two years, from 2010 to 2012, Donnelly and Cook were Republican colleagues in the Assembly, and seemed to get along. In 2012, Cook moved up to run for Congress, which was made possible by longtime San Bernardino County Congressman Jerry Lewis’s retirement. Lewis held office in the 41st Congressional District, a portion of which was redistricted into the 8th Congressional District following the 2010 Census.
“It’s official. I’m running for Congress!” Donnelly said in a mass email on Monday. “It’s time to put America First, drain the swamp, and retire establishment members of this ‘do-nothing’ Congress. So, I’m running for Congress in California’s 8th District.”
In making his announcement, Donnelly sought to portray Cook as a quasi-liberal and appeal to the far right element of the Republican Party. He used similar language to that used by President Donald Trump in carving out a victory over Hillary Clinton last year. Donnelly said he was running “as a long-standing hardcore American Patriot, former Minuteman leader and California State Assemblyman—you can look up my record for all the details, but most people describe me as the ‘Trump before Trump’—just without the hair and the billions. You may not be in my district, but you know that I’ll be a leader in that one great cause that unites us all: liberty. And I’ll fight to restore government to its original purpose: Defending rather than infringing our God-given, natural rights. I’m running to give President Trump a strong ally in the House, a leader who will push to make America great again.”
Donnelly said he would work to assist President Trump in building a promised wall at the Mexican border, and “enforce our immigration laws, end sanctuary cities, repeal ObamaCare, not replace it, defend and protect the 2nd Amendment, oppose forced vaccination mandates, put our veterans first, enforce the travel ban, end the Obama refugee program and keep our communities safe from radical Islamic terrorism. I will uphold and defend the Constitution as written, period. I will always stand for our flag and the freedom it represents, and kneel to no one but God.”
Donnelly’s challenge of Cook comes as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has announced it will seek to reverse the Republican hold on the U.S. House of Representatives by targeting 61 Republican Congress members, including seven in California. At present there are 240 incumbent members of Congress who are Republicans, 194 who are Democrats and one vacancy.
The seven Republicans targeted by the Democrats in California are Jeff Denham from Turlock in the 10th Congressional District, David Valadao from Hanford in the 21st Congressional District; Steve Knight from Palmdale in the 25th Congressional District; Ed Royce from Fullerton in the 39th Congressional District; Mimi Walters from Irvine in the 45th Congressional District; Dana Rohrabacher from Costa Mesa in the 48th Congressional District and Darrell Issa from Vista in the 49th Congressional District.
The Democrats are not targeting Cook, given the strength of the Republicans in the 8th Congressional District. However, Donnelly’s challenge will likely result in Cook expending considerable campaign funds to stave off a Republican challenger, meaning he will not be free to provide money from his campaign war chest to assist other Republicans.
      -Mark Gutglueck

Fontana City Councilman Jesse Sandoval announced his candidacy for mayor on October 17, indicating he will challenge incumbent Acquanetta Warren.
A member of the council since 2012, Sandoval said it is the lack of transparency and communication with the city’s residents inherent in Warren’s stewardship of the city that drove him to seek the mayoralty.
“What I see is a lack of communication with the community and the public,” Sandoval told the Sentinel. “If people are not able to talk to their elected officials, if they come to meetings and can’t get the information they need, then our political leadership is failing. People are asking what are basically simple questions about how they can get their streets fixed, have repairs done to sidewalks, and they are always stonewalled. I am embarrassed when I hear other members of the council say to those people, ‘Don’t ask me; you need to talk to someone else in some department at City Hall.’ I want to open things up so people can communicate.”
The current political leadership is failing to capitalize on the spirit of civic pride and concern that is alive in Fontana, Sandoval said.
“We have people who are passionate about the city and making it better,” Sandoval said. “But we discourage them when we don’t listen and after so many times of talking into deaf ears, they just give up.”
Warren is well connected politically as an active member of the Republican Party. In recent months she was selected to participate as a member of the Governing Institute’s Women in Government Leadership Class of 2018 and has hobnobbed with President Donald Trump. Prior to that she was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 2012, a candidate for State Assembly in 2010 and an attendee at the California Republican Convention in 2006.
All that is great for Warren and aggrandizes her, Sandoval said, but is of little, no or even negative value to Fontana as she engages herself in and monopolizes her time on issues that have nothing to do with the city she lives in and the citizens she represents.
“We need leaders who will leave politics behind and serve our city first,” Sandoval said. “We have important issues here in Fontana that need to be resolved before we get into politics. If you don’t listen to your community, if you don’t work with them, you are not going to be effective. It is not about party politics. It’s about the community.”
Sandoval said, “We have to raise the bar in Fontana. I see us going backward. This has always been a blue collar town. When Kaiser Steel was here, we had good paying jobs with great benefits. Now we have low paying jobs with no benefits. We should be looking to fill this city with light industrial and technology-based jobs. That should be the next level. I don’t see that with the current person at the helm. If it is happening, I am in the dark and I’m a city councilman. That is not proper communication.”
Sandoval continued, “We should have a vision of where we want Fontana to be in ten years. We need to spell out that vision. If we want a sports arena, we should be working toward that. If we want a big mall, we work toward that. If we want to bring in a university, then we start toward that. If it is so big that we can’t get it done right away, then we start it and leave to the next person to come into office to finish it.”
Warren’s interaction with President Trump did not translate to any benefit for Fontana, Sandoval said. He said her ambition is counterproductive. “I think she is looking toward higher office and she’s leaving us down the river without a paddle,” Sandoval said. “She is leaving the city devastated. She has no roots here. All her family live outside of the city. She moved here from LA in the late 90s and bought a house and in the early 2000s was appointed to the council. She is getting money from developers who are not interested in the city other than making a profit here. The voters have a choice to make. Do they want to continue with the well-financed politician who is in charge now? They should look at where all of her money is coming from. It’s not coming from their neighbors or even local businesses. It’s coming from developers and other interests outside the city. And those people like her who are taking that money have to feed the piper. It is time for us little guys to stand up to the big guys.”
Sandoval was born in East Los Angeles in 1959 and moved with his family to Fontana in 1967. He graduated from Fontana High School in 1977, later taking courses at Chaffey College, Mount San Antonio College and San Bernardino Valley College, many of them relating to horticulture. He worked for both the Fontana School District and the City of San Bernardino for 37 years. He is married with three children. His wife, Mary, is the current president of the Fontana Unified School District Board of Education.        –Mark Gutglueck

By Phill Courtney
This story begins in the early part of 2012. It was my first day substitute teaching at Citrus Valley High School in Redlands. Even before first period had begun, I had to struggle past the bumper-to-bumper traffic in the final half-mile approach to the school.
A friend had warned me about what she’d called the school’s terrible traffic “nightmare,” but it wasn’t until I’d been through this dramatic demonstration of what she was talking about and had experienced first-hand the teeth-grinding gridlock myself, that I understood just how right she had been.
That morning I’d traveled north on Orange Street, turned west onto Pioneer Avenue, and then began crawling along in a long line of cars until I finally reached the school at the corner of Pioneer and Texas. A distance I estimated would take under unclogged conditions less than a minute to drive had taken me fourteen minutes instead. I’m sure of this because I’d heard my friend’s warning and decided to time it.
When I subbed at Citrus Valley again, I filled in for a teacher later in the day. The “rush hour” was over and again I timed it. I’d been right. The distance from Pioneer to Texas took me less than a minute. It was clear that the people who had planned Citrus Valley had failed to make sure that the school’s surrounding traffic infrastructure—such as double-lanes in all directions and signaled intersections—were all put in place first in order to handle the kind of traffic that a large high school there would bring.
In a letter I fired off to the Redlands Daily Facts published on March 8, 2012, I pointed out that the already horrific traffic problems at Citrus would only get far worse if the proposed placement of a Super Wal-Mart near the school went through, and I decried the lack of foresight.
It seems my letter touched a nerve with at least one reader. A woman contacted the editor of the Daily Facts and requested my contact information because she needed to talk to me as soon as possible. When I called her back she agreed to a visit and an interview as long as her name was not included. I agreed to her request.
The woman began by telling me how distraught she was about the way the school traffic along Pioneer had turned her life upside down. She lived in a gated, self-contained community at the corner of Pioneer and Orange and she told me that during the two daily rush hours the residents were basically trapped inside their homes.
Although there are other emergency gates at the complex, only one entrance and exit is kept open all the time and she wasn’t sure what would happen if an ambulance needed to get in. “There’s a lot of retired people here,” she said, with obvious distress in her voice, “and I’d hate to think what would happen if they needed to get someone to the hospital.”
As we wound down our talk, I promised her that I’d attempt to find out how this situation came about; who was responsible; and whether or not there might be some way to solve it.
And so began what became five long years of trying to do just that.
I talked to Carolyn Laymon, who’d been on the Redlands’ Planning Commission, and while she told me that the commission had questions and even “objected” to the placing of Citrus Valley High School, the decision had been out of the commissioners’ hands. She suggested that I talk to the school board.
A few days later, I caught councilmember Pat Galbreath during the social hour at her church. Although Pat had always been extremely pleasant and welcoming when I talked to her, she couldn’t answer my question about who’d been responsible for placing Citrus Valley except to say that the decision had not been the responsibility of the council, nor the city of Redlands. She recommended that I talk to Oscar Orsay, whom I failed to reach.
Three days later I contacted city councilman Jon Harrison, who basically echoed Galbreath’s take on the location of the school. Don Young, the engineering manager with the city, added the interesting information that one of the complicating factors concerning the widening of Pioneer were some historic trees along the side of the street, which, because they are protected by the city tree commission, could not be removed. I was also told by another city official that I should read the environmental impact report on the school, which ran to some 100 pages.
I then began a series of frustrating calls to the Redlands School District office, which often ended in leaving a message to one or more employees who did not get back to me. Finally I was able to land an appointment with Brad Mason, the district’s information officer, who ushered me into his office, sat down a bit stiffly and basically told me that he was unable to give me the names of any people who authorized the placing of Citrus Valley.
“There’s just too many people involved,” he finally said, “to give you any specific names.”
From his body language, I could tell he didn’t much appreciate the question.
I also had the same feeling when I was finally able to have a few moments with Lori Rhodes, the superintendent of Redlands schools. Those moments, though, came in June 2012, after several unsuccessful weeks of trying to set up an appointment with her through her secretary, who often seemed to be out, or said she’d have to get back to me. Finally, I went in one day in yet another attempt to make an appointment, and while there, Ms. Rhodes walked by. I did not have my tape recorder.
When I identified myself, she stiffened up and asked what she could do for me. She didn’t invite me back to her office, so we stood there next to the secretary’s desk as I again got a run-around on the placing of Citrus Valley. What I remember most about the conversation was an exchange we had about the lack of sidewalks leading to the school.
“You know,” I said, “students are walking in the street along Texas Avenue so they can stay out of the dirt.” This is particularly true on days when it rains and the dirt turns to mud.
“Well,” she said, assuming a concerned expression, “they shouldn’t be doing that.”
“Of course,” I said. “But the point is, they are, because no sidewalks were built.”
From there the conversation dwindled off into vague statements thanking me for coming in and sharing my concerns.
I had a similar experience with Bernie Cavanaugh, the principal of Citrus Valley. In May I’d tried emailing him with my questions, but there was no response. Finally I caught him in the parking lot one day while I was subbing, asked him about the traffic situation, and he casually dismissed me with the assurance that the faculty and students had learned to adjust.
In June 2012, I also talked to then-city councilman and now congressman Pete Aguilar about the location of Citrus Valley, and he told me that the state architects were ultimately responsible for where the school was located.
On June 25, I emailed the Redlands school board members with my questions, and when I did not get an answer, attended their July 2012 meeting. After the meeting broke up, I approached long-time board member, Ron McPeck. He was immediately uptight as we stood there while he told me that he knew who I was, and basically explained that they’d had no choice—the school had to be placed where it is. No other explanations were offered.
That summer I also spoke during a hearing held at Citrus Valley in which citizens could express their feelings about the proposed Super Walmart along San Bernardino Avenue near the school. I passionately expressed my concerns about the traffic near Citrus Valley, which would only be increased by the Super Walmart, which the city council would later approve in October of 2012. Apparently my comments that day had some effect, because Don Young called me on July 20, 2012 to explain the city’s position on Citrus Valley.
Young also suggested that I read the traffic section of the environmental impact report on the school, and then went on to reiterate that the historic trees prevented a widening of Pioneer, and that ultimately the city had no “oversight” on the traffic; funds were limited and it was a matter of priorities; and that finally the school district decided that the streets were “good enough.” The city couldn’t require them to do more, he said.
From there my progress on this story bogged down for a while. I continued to substitute at Citrus Valley, and during the 2012-13 academic year the school tried placing its on-campus security officers in the middle of the intersection at Pioneer and Texas in the mornings, like traffic cops. It did seem to help for a while, until that solution was dropped when several of them were grazed by cars.
When I approached a couple of the officers one day, they told me off-the-record that it was a job they all dreaded to do, and after the grazings, got together and told their superiors that they weren’t paid enough to do it. After that, the officers began gathering groups of students at the corners, and then escorting them across the intersection.
On March 1, 2013, Dani Regnier, a student at Citrus Valley, published an opinion piece in the school newspaper, and noted two other factors that had impacted the traffic there: the dropping of busing because of budget cuts, and the closure of Alabama Street for improvements.
Regnier made several sensible statements: “I think that when they made this school they should have thought about the traffic, and made more lanes or parking areas to drop off students. This school definitely was not built nor prepared to handle this kind of traffic.” I hope Regnier might consider running for the school board some day.
In mid-2013, it finally occurred to me that I might be able to get the straight story about the locating of Citrus Valley from former mayor and city councilman Bill Cunningham, whom I know and had talked to before. After emailing him with the story of my quest, Cunningham quickly wrote back.
He informed me that “the ultimate decider” on the placement of Citrus Valley was the state department of schoolhouse planning and the local board. “City zoning has no voice in the process,” he wrote. In many ways, he said, “Citrus Valley can be considered a mistake,” which has “created monstrous traffic problems….” He added that Redlands East Valley was also ill-conceived, with many students commuting from Highland over Greenspot and Garnet, “two woefully deficient streets that have seen accidents and deaths of students.”
Cunningham predicted that the coming Super Walmart would only add to Citrus Valley’s traffic woes, and concluded that he “and many others strongly opposed the placement of both schools, but had little say in the matter.”
In 2013, the concerns I’d expressed to Lori Rhodes about the lack of sidewalks on Texas and the dangers from students who walk in the street came close to manifesting for me in a way I dreaded on a morning in December while my wife was driving me to school and almost hit a boy walking on the street to avoid the muddy field. Luckily she was able to swerve around him in time.
Ironically, during that same month, there was a glimmer of hope. An article in the Daily Facts revealed that a grant would pay for the placing of a signal at Orange Street and Pioneer Avenue. “We promise to get it done by the end of the year, next year,” Fred Mousavipou, then director of the municipal utilities and engineering department was quoted as saying.
In the meantime, though, the residents along Pioneer had to deal every day with the problems brought on by decisions made by people who don’t have to live there themselves. It occurred to me that it might be insightful if I interviewed some of those residents. So, one day I took a walk along the street with my recorder in hand.
Ann Marie Delao has seen the changes. Now, 34, Delao has lived at 309 W. Pioneer for 30 years and used to play outside when there were orange groves across the street. But now, she says, “With the high school and the traffic coming through here, I don’t even let my kids out in the front yard. There’s too much traffic going too fast and not stopping.”
As for getting in and out of her driveway during the rush hours, Delao admits she’s not aggressive enough to deal with it so she leaves it up to her husband. “My husband has to take one of our kids to school in the mornings and he has to force his way out of the driveway.” A new stop sign was placed nearby a while ago, she says, “but they just blow right through it.”
Eric Romo’s family has lived at 115 W. Pioneer for over 20 years and he says he’s seen no improvement in the traffic conditions. He’s also noticed a marked deterioration in the street’s condition because of the constant use. “I don’t know if it’s because so many cars have been passing by, but when you get to the stop sign, from there’s it’s all bumpy.”
The young couple who’ve lived at 310 W. Pioneer since 2004 in one of few historic homes left on the far north side say they’re committed to keeping the house and its grounds as close as possible to its original conditions. Carolyn and Todd Lawrence have noticed, though, that one of those conditions is certainly not the traffic. Like Delao, they, too, have seen how the stop near their home is ignored and the drivers who blast through it.
In fact, Carolyn says, “They get angry at us when we stop. We’re holding them up because we stopped!” Then, when the backup is bumper to bumper, Carolyn finds it easier to get into her driveway than out. She thinks it’s because “they realize that no one can go behind me until someone let’s me through.”
The Lawrences have also noticed the lack of sidewalks along Pioneer and adjacent streets, and wonder how that lack could comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Carolyn urged me to take a photo of one area where the sidewalk simply ends at a rutted hole between the sidewalk and the street. Carolyn notes that there’s room for sidewalks, and says “I just can’t see why a city like Redlands couldn’t put in sidewalks to get kids to school.”
“I’ll run in the morning,” Todd explains, and if he wants to avoid the dirt, there are just a few inches of asphalt available to go along.
Finally, in October of 2015, after so many delays, ducks and outright duplicity from so many people who call themselves “public servants,” I got my hands on the proverbial “smoking gun” that explained why the traffic situation at Citrus Valley High School is what it is: the 2004 environmental impact report, forecasting the effects that placing the school where it is would have on the surrounding community.
I obtained this report by filing a California Public Records Act request with the district, which it was required by law to show me. That day I was ushered into a back room and told that I must read the report there, although I would be permitted to photocopy all or parts of it if I so desired.
Titled the “mitigated negative declaration”—an excellent example of indecipherable “officialese,” the report was prepared by The Planning Center and the pertinent part of the report I was looking for I found in the section on transportation.
Although the report found that the school would have a “less than significant impact” on traffic, that assertion was strangely contradicted by this concession: that the school would lead to an increase in traffic volumes. But it immediately countered that with a rosy prediction that the school would eventually lead to “an over-all reduction in traffic” as students commute to a school nearer to them. Not only that, it would improve traffic at other schools when students were assigned to Citrus Valley.
Beyond that, the box that questioned whether the school would cause “inadequate emergency access,” was checked “no impact,” an assertion that the woman in the gated community at Orange and Pioneer might take exception to.
Nevertheless, despite all the impacts that came with the building and opening of the school, effects that could have been predicted by almost any high school student who might lack a Ph.D. in urban planning but does possess just a little common sense and would have been able to tell anyone who asked that placing a huge high school in the middle of old orange grove roads would lead to problems, Teri Shira, the facility and community services coordinator for the Redlands School District gave the green light.
“I find,” she wrote “that although the proposed project could have a significant effect on the environment, there will not be a significant effect in this case because revisions in the project have been made by or agreed to by the project proponent.”
In other words: if we build it, the promises of mitigation will eventually come to pass. We now know that those promises were based on smoke and mirrors and promises that proved to be empty.
In the final analysis, what happened at Citrus Valley High School is just one example of a problem prevalent throughout Southern California, the nation and much of the world: that projects will be built based on promises that the problems they might cause will be solved sometime in the future. This is why we now find our freeways hopelessly clogged; our water supplies dwindling; and our nuclear plants brimming with poisonous waste with no place to put it, while our quality of life continues to steadily decline.
Not one of the promised infrastructure improvements around Citrus Valley High has been put into place. The traffic signals at Pioneer Avenue and Orange Street that were promised by the end of 2014 are not there; the rural, one-lane streets have neither been widened nor double-laned; the areas in need of sidewalks still have no sidewalks; and students are still walking in the streets.
Once again the supposed wisdom of planners, too often bought off by big-spending investors and the politicians they’ve purchased, have not met the needs of the people who actually have to live with the results of those plans—people like the woman who responded to my original letter in 2012; the residents on Pioneer; and the students of Citrus Valley High School who suffer each day from the effects of poor planning.
It seems that beyond all those lessons they will learn in their classrooms comes another about how the world actually works, or—in the case of their school—doesn’t. Perhaps it’s a lesson they’ll take with them as they head off into a future they’ll create. One can only hope that they’ll do a better job than the ones who built their school.

By Count Friedrich von Olsen

I suspect, but don’t actually know, that there is a term for this attitude I demonstrate on a consistent basis, one aspect of which is to move to a preset conclusion with regard to certain things, individuals or issues no matter what the particular circumstances, developments or events of the moment happen to be. If there is a term psychologists or psychiatrists use for this personality trait, I do not know what it is. An overarching question is this: Does this attitude reflect close-mindedness on my part or is this actually a tribute to my underlying sagacity that enables me remain in synchronization with a fundamental and immutable truth?
A very good illustration of what I am referring to here is my estimation of the governor of our Golden State, Jerry Brown. I don’t think it is fair to say I hate the fellow. It might not even be accurate to say I don’t like him. But it is more than fair to say that I distrust him. It is fairer still to say I distrust him immensely. I distrust him for all of the really shady things he has done and continues to do, which generally although not universally include action with which I have some level of philosophical or political difference. Nevertheless, as is probably inevitable, he actually does from time to time something or some things with which I am philosophically or politically in tune. The thing is, even when he does such things, I distrust him…
Case in point: The California Legislature recently passed Senate Bill 149, which would have required that any candidate for president on the ballot in California – and this would have applied at the primary election and general election level – publicly disclose his or her personal income tax returns. I think I understand the rationale for this effort toward transparency. One argument would be that it would reveal to some degree the range of a particular candidate’s financial interests, some of which might be in conflict with the interests of some voters. Another argument is it would show to some degree the candidate’s sophistication and intelligence in being able to chart his way through what is a pretty challenging tax code. Another argument is that it would expose those candidates who put on false airs and pretend they are wealthy – and therefore competent – when they really are neither. One argument against it is that tax returns are by law confidential and that requiring their public disclosure is a violation of that law and the candidate’s right to privacy…
Still, let us not kid ourselves: Everyone knows that this bill was actually written, sponsored and passed by Democrats and an overwhelmingly Democratic California Assembly and California Senate, the members of which are politically way out of step with our current president, Donald Trump. Donald Trump, who happens to be a Republican, has refused to disclose his tax returns in the face of call after call for him to do so. The legislature, with Senate Bill 149, was clearly taking a swipe at our president. After it was presented to Governor Brown, he on Sunday vetoed it…
In making that veto, he gave a reasonable, indeed quite articulate and might I even say sensible justification for it. “Today we require tax returns, but what would be next?” our governor asked. “Five years of health records? A certified birth certificate? High school report cards? And will these requirements vary depending on which political party is in power?” Moreover, he questioned whether the disclosure requirement would pass Constitutional muster…
As a dyed-in-the-wool Republican and Donald Trump supporter, I believe that this was merely an effort by California State Senators Mike McGuire and Scott Wiener, Democrats both and the coauthors of this legislation, to embarrass and maybe even exasperate our president. So, I am not displeased that Governor Brown vetoed Senate Bill 149…
At the same time, however, something tells me that this veto was applied in this case not because Governor Brown is a defender of the U.S. Constitution and the California Constitution, an advocate for fair play for Democrats and Republicans alike, and an exponent of privacy rights. Rather, I believe he vetoed Senate Bill 149 because he is looking ahead, toward his own run for president in 2020. He would rather not, I suspect, be forced into disclosing all the different places he has been making money, the wheeling and dealing he has been involved in, and just how being governor and having appointment power over who is to man several of California’s regulatory agencies, committees and commissions has redounded to his own personal benefit…

Townsend’s big-eared bats are a species of vespar bats, the largest and best-known family of bats, which belong to the suborder Microchiroptera or microbats. Known by the scientific name Corynorhinus townsendii, the Townsend’s big-eared bat is medium-sized as bats go, weighing from seven to 12 grams. One of their distinguishing traits are extremely long, flexible ears. They also have and small yet noticeable lumps on each side of the snout. They have a total length of roughly four inches, with a tail of two inches. Their widths are nearly three times their length, with a wingspan of about 11 inches.
Townsend’s big-eared bats proliferate in caves in the Mojave Desert and elsewhere in San Bernardino County. They are also found in other areas of the United States, Canada and Mexico.
This species is found in a variety of locations that range from coniferous forests and woodlands, deciduous riparian woodland, semi-desert and montane shrublands. During the winter months, they hibernate either individually or in groups composed of several hundred bats, and they hibernate in mines or caves. In the summer, these bats roost in a wide variety of locations, including limestone caves, lava tubes, and human-made structures. In the summer, the females form nesting roosts, where they raise their pups.
Males are solitary during the maternity periods. The maternity colonies consist of one or more small clusters, which rarely exceed 100 bats. Females are alert and active in the maternity roosts and prefer dark places for their roosts. These animals are sensitive to light and movement, so if they are disturbed during the day, they awake and their ears begin to move as they try to identify the intruder. If the disturbance occurs for more than a few seconds, the entire group takes flight.
These bats are insectivorous. They emerge late in the day to feed. This species is particularly fond of moths, and is considered a moth specialist, sometimes feeding almost exclusively on Lepidoptera. However, the Townsend’s bat’s diet may include small moths, flies, lacewings, dung beetles, sawflies, and other small insects. This species is a whisper bat, which means that it echolocates at much lower intensities than other bats and may be difficult to record using a bat detector. This may be in part because this species specializes on moths, and some moths have the ability to hear bats and may produce their own noises to ‘jam’ a bat’s echolocation in an effort to thwart predation.
The mating season for the Townsend’s big-eared bat takes place in late fall. As with many other bat species, the female stores sperm in her reproductive tract after mating, and fertilization occurs in the spring. Gestation lasts from 50 to 60 days. As with other bat species, pups are born without the ability to fly. Only one pup is birthed per female.
The average lifespan of a Townsend’s big-eared bat is believed to be 16 years. During the winter, these bats hibernate, often when temperatures are around 32 °F to 53 °F. Hibernation occurs in tightly packed clusters, which could possibly help stabilize body temperatures against the cold. Males often hibernate in warmer places than females and are more easily aroused and active in winter than females. The bats are often interrupted from their sleep because they tend to wake up frequently and move around in the cave or move from one cave entirely to another. Before hibernation, C. townsendii individuals increase their body mass to compensate for the food they do not eat during the winter.
From Wikipedia and the National Park Service’s Website.

This fall is already taking a twist and it’s all about the slouchy boots. The boot trend puts having fun front and center and there’s no reason to be shy if you’re going to slouch it. Even if you’re into the classic black-boot, the slouchy boot detail is going to make the traditional one feel outdated. You can go all out with the slouchy boot. They look great with dresses, skinny pants, and skirts. They come in different embellishments, and stand out in patent leather styles, too. And, this trend brings chunkier and shorter heel heights, with slanted and curvy details creating comfort and fun altogether. This is perfect if you spend long days walking around while at work or going out. Enjoy finding your perfect slouch in what is set to be one of the biggest trends that won’t make your toes hurt.

I love to design things that people can actually buy. I’m staggered by what a boot costs today. -Vera Wang