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Sentinel 12-04-15

The deadliest shooting rampage in San Bernardino County history took place on Wednesday, as a county worker and his wife dressed in dark clothing used semi-automatic assault weapons against a collection of the worker’s colleagues who were gathered for a seminar and early Christmas party.
Syed Rizwan Farook, an environmental health specialist with the San Bernardino County Health Department, had been in attendance at the holiday party at the Inland Regional Center, which provides services to individuals with developmental disabilities. The San Bernardino County Department of Public Health had rented space at the Regional Center to hold the holiday party. More than sixty people were in attendance at the event, most of them Public Health Department employees. At one point Farook left the gathering.
According to San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan, someone in attendance at the event, alarmed at Farook’s demeanor just prior to his leaving, phoned authorities out of concern, identifying Farook by name and describing the black sport utility vehicle (SUV) he was driving.
“We got a couple of tips and we were following up on a couple of different leads,” Burguan said. “We were called by a person who was in the building who knew him. They identified him by name [and] expressed a concern about his behavior prior to the event, in the way that he left.”
Farook, a 2009 graduate from California State University, San Bernardino who had worked with the health department for the last five years, returned to the Regional Center with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, about 20 minutes later, shortly after 11 a.m. Each was armed with a semi-automatic rifle as well as a pistol and both were clad in what was described as “dark, tactical” assault-style clothing. They came back into the conference room where the party was being held and opened fire, discharging, officials said, roughly 75 rounds.
Killed were Robert Adams, 40; Isaac Amanios, 60; Bennetta Bet-Badal, 46; Harry Bowman, 46; Sierra Clayborn, 27; Juan Espinoza, 50; Aurora Godoy, 26; Shannon Johnson, 45; Larry Kaufman, 42; Damian Meins, 58; Tin Nguyen, 31; Nicholas Thalasinos, 52; Michael Wetzel, 37; and Yvette Velasco, 27.
Twenty-one others were wounded.
Farook and Malik walked to a black SUV and slowly drove away from the parking lot as people ran frantically from the building.
After reports of the shooting were relayed to the San Bernardino Police Department, which had previously been alerted with regard to Farook’s conduct, suspected volatility and presence at the Regional Center, police obtained all immediately available personal data about him, including the address of his Redlands residence. A search warrant for the residence was obtained.
Meanwhile, Farook and Malik, a Pakistani national living in Saudi Arabia whom Farook had met online and married two years ago and with whom he had a six-month-old child, had returned to that residence, a townhome. A San Bernardino squad car with two officers had been dispatched to and arrived near the Redlands residence. At that location, Farook and Malik drove by the police car in the SUV, which was rented from a local agency and had Utah plates. Farook was at the wheel and after encountering the police car, sped away. The police car gave chase. A radio call for assistance went out.
Malik, using the rifle she was armed with, shot out the back window of the vehicle she and her husband were traveling in and then trained fire on the police car trailing the SUV. When they reached the 1800 block of East San Bernardino Avenue within the San Bernardino City Limits, Farook pulled over and joined his wife in firing upon the police car. Within minutes, a total of 21 officers were at the location. According to authorities, Farook and Malik fired 76 rounds at the officers, who in total returned fire with 380 rounds. The gear Farook and Malik were outfitted with did not include bulletproof vests and the couple was mortally wounded in the hail of gunfire that converged on them.
In the initial aftermath of the shooting, multiple agencies were present in San Bernardino to assist the San Bernardino Police Department in its handling and investigation of the matter. By day’s end, the FBI had taken lead status in that investigation, which was aimed at determining motive and the degree to which Farook and Malik had assistance from outside sources. As late as Thursday, the FBI resisted characterizing Wednesday’s mayhem as an act of terrorism perpetrated by Islamic extremists.
David Bowditch, an assistant director of the FBI in charge of the bureau’s Los Angeles office said on December 3, “It would be irresponsible of me and premature to call this terrorism,” though he did say “If you look at the amount of obvious preplanning that went into this, the amount of armaments that he had, the weapons and the ammunition, there was obviously a mission here.” At that point the possibility that the killings were somehow related to workplace discontent had not been entirely ruled out, Bowditch said.
But given the participation of Farook’s wife in the mayhem and the firepower involved, few had any lingering doubts as to the impetus behind the murders. On the murderous pair’s persons or in their vehicle, which had been rented from a local car agency just days before the attack, were 1,400 rounds of ammunition. At their Redlands condominium were 2,000 9 mm rounds and 2,200 long rifle rounds, 12 pipe bomb devices including at least one attached to a remote control car and material to make at least dozens more. It was also learned that the couple had attempted, ultimately unsuccessfully, to modify one of the rifles used in the shootings to fully automatic capacity.
Coworkers described Farook, who carried out health inspections of restaurants and hotels, as normally quiet and polite. Most who knew him more than casually recognized he was a devout Muslim. It was reported that in a typical work day, he would twice take the opportunity to depart from his workplace or daily rounds at restaurants and hotels to pray and then return to work.
As of Thursday, Bowditch said, “We flew in a team from Washington to do some reenactment, some reconstruction of the crime scene. We have collected evidence and are continuing to collect evidence at the multiple scenes. We are going to fly the evidence back to Washington, D.C. on a plane. That is because we want some expeditious analysis of that evidence as far as digital media. The digital media is important because we are trying to determine the motive.”
Within 24 hours, Bowditch acknowledged “We are now investigating these horrific acts as an act of terrorism.”
Either Farook or Malik had sought to destroy electronic devices in their possession but failed to prevent the FBI from recovering data on or transmitted through those devices. A forensic analysis showed that Malik had posted, under a name that was not her own, a pledge of allegiance to an Islamic State leader to a Facebook page. It was also discovered that Farook, using social media, had been in contact with known radicalized Islamic figures.
By early this morning, West Coast time, an attorney claiming he represented the deceased Farook and Malik and their families, David Chelsey, had turned up, asserting the statements claiming his clients were responsible for the 14 killings in the manner described by authorities “don’t add up.” Chelsey said it would have been impossible for the 90-pound Malik to have wielded the heavy ammunition, guns and tactical gear used in the murders.
Wednesday’s carnage ranks as the sixth deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history and the second deadliest in California behind that carried out by James Huberty in San Ysidro on July 18, 1984 when 21 were killed.
As far as the city of San Bernardino goes, Wednesday is by far the most horrific day in the history of a city that was already prone to gun violence. December 2, 2015 far outpaced the next most intensive murderous spree in the county seat, that between April 28 and May 7, 2012, a period of nine days when eight people were murdered in the city. Prior to Wednesday, San Bernardino was 28th on the list of cities in the United States for the number of homicides that occurred so far in 2015.

By Mark Gutglueck
Plagued by a budget deficit that is now well in excess of $2 million and continuing to grow, the City of Colton is preparing to declare a fiscal emergency that will allow it to hold a special municipal election as early as April, the Sentinel has learned.
An effort to prepare an item that would have been brought before the city council this week at its December 1 meeting was underway last month but was abandoned. It remains unclear as to whether the council will revisit the issue at its December 15 meeting, as a competing proposal that calls for the city leasing out its waste water treatment system to generate money is now under discussion. Nevertheless, there is still some degree of urgency pertaining to the declaration of a fiscal emergency, as doing so would clear the way for an election at which the city’s voters would be asked to approve a measure that would give the city the authorization to impose either an add-on sales tax or a utility tax or alternatively, the authority to transfer money out of the city electrical division’s reserve accounts for use in the city’s general fund.
Blue collar Colton, with its population of 54,000, ranks 15th population-wise among San Bernardino County’s 24 cities. But the city was the second of San Bernardino County’s communities to incorporate – having done so in 1887 – and it is one of the most mature of the county’s municipalities in terms of service provision, boasting its own police and fire departments, its own cemetery district, its own water division, its own sewer division and its own electrical utility division. Almost two decades ago, in 1997, Colton divested itself of its in-house sanitation division and contracted its municipal trash hauling service out to a private sector company. More recently it divested itself of its animal control division as well. That notwithstanding, Colton remains as one of the most comprehensive municipal entities in the region, and the City of Loma Linda, which abuts Colton to the southeast, contracts with it for the provision of fire protection service, and the City of Grand Terrace, which adjoins Colton directly to the south, contracts with Colton for waste water treatment and sewer service. The city’s electrical utility division owns power plants located both in California and in Arizona and it has an absolute monopoly on the provision of electricity to homes, industrial operations and retailers within its city limits.
Despite Colton’s vaunted status as a service provider, however, its municipal operations are among the most tenuous ones in the county financially, with the exceptions of the county seat to its east – San Bernardino, which filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection in 2012 and is only now emerging from that status – and the severely financially ravaged cities of Needles, Adelanto and Grand Terrace.
Colton is plagued by a “structural deficit,” such that the city for two years running has passed annual budgets that initiate on July 1 of each year and run through until June 30 of the next year in which the city brings in less in revenue than it expends, and sustains operations by digging into dwindling reserve accounts banked up in years past from budget surpluses. The city is on schedule to again tap into its reserves in upcoming 2016-17, beyond which point those reserves will be on the brink of being depleted. The prospect that lies beyond is a dire one for the city, consisting of substantial cutbacks in service levels accompanied by a further winnowing of city staff, including layoffs and furloughs.
In response, some city officials are contemplating asking city residents to approve a sales tax add-on of one-half or one cent on top of the state sales tax and the half cent sales tax imposed across the entirety of San Bernardino County to cover the cost of street and road improvements. Some other city officials want to instead institute a utility tax on the city’s residents and business owners. Under California law, such taxes must first be approved by those upon whom the tax is to be imposed. Thus, the city must put such a measure on the ballot. The next general municipal election in Colton will come in eleven months. City officials want to move faster than that, however, and have the citywide referendum on such taxing proposals held as early as April or have it otherwise coincide with the June primary election. In order to qualify for such early balloting the city must demonstrate an extraordinary need to the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters Office. Declaring a fiscal emergency exists in Colton would meet that criterion.
A third option for shoring the city up financially exists in the proposed ploy of using the special election to obtain voter approval for a so-called general fund transfer. Under that proposal, the city would seek permission from the city’s voters to take somewhere in the neighborhood of $12 million out of the electrical utility division’s reserves and place them into the city’s general fund, from which disbursements to cover the cost of the city’s day-to-day operations are made.
Councilman David Toro this week told the Sentinel, “It is true we are having difficulty with our finances. We are looking at some options, which we hope to put on the ballot.”
Toro opined that there should be “no utility tax. I would not support that.” He looked more favorably, he said, upon a “general fund transfer from the electrical utility.”
Toro said he believed voter approval for the transfer could be had “if we did it right,” which he said would require disabusing the city’s residents of some persistent misconceptions. One of those misperceptions is that the city’s electrical utility charges its customers – the city’s residents – higher rates than residents in the surrounding area pay for their electricity. While three years ago that was true, in an eighteen month period since then the city twice lowered its rates and a previous utility tax the city levied upon its residents and businesses lapsed so that now the city’s residents pay less per unit of electricity than do Inland Empire customers outside Colton, who purchase their energy from Southern California Edison. “People complain about our rates and say they are higher than Edison, when in fact they are lower,” Toro said. “We need to tell them, ‘We have just lowered your electrical utility rates. We have over the years generated some revenue to our electrical reserves. We have extra money in our utility reserve fund and can now transfer this money without affecting our electrical bills.’ We need to show them this is a good alternative to raising rates through taxes. We need to demonstrate to them that our rates are lower. They need to understand that we can provide with this transfer a level of service that would be greater without having to support a tax increase. This could be a seamless transition, if we can make our residents see the bigger picture.”
Toro said the city cannot just decree a special election.
“I think in order to get it on the next ballot we have to declare a fiscal emergency,” he said.
Councilman Luis Gonzalez told the Sentinel, “Our financial situation is not healthy at this moment” in explaining how the city has come to the crossroads of declaring a fiscal emergency.
In explicating the city’s dilemma, Gonzalez enunciated his belief the city could have averted its fiscal crisis by prudent action taken earlier. “In June we passed a budget which set a $2.5 million structural deficit,” he said. “I voted against it, but lost 6-1. My reasoning is we should have balanced the budget then and that if we didn’t do it then, it would only get worse.”
Gonzalez pointed out that he is a relative newcomer to the council, elected in 2014, and that the city’s downward spiral into its current fiscal abyss predated his ascendancy to the council. “Last year, when I was a civilian, if you will, the council passed a budget with a $1.8 million structural deficit,” Gonzalez said. “I mentioned to the council at that time I didn’t think this was the best decision. I don’t understand why you would want a structural deficit. It will just get worse. You have to make cuts or get around to making revenue. We are now looking at 2016-17 and without some kind of stop gap we are scheduled to have a $3.7 million structural deficit. Right now we are without anything to stop it. That is our financial situation. My feeling is it is already worse. In June I voted against the budget as it was proposed because I represent the residents and I said that we needed to work at that time to balance the budget permanently. We were able to make cuts, do a hiring freeze and recover fees for various services but those were just small items. There were not any big ticket items included that would make up for this kind of deficit. I’m a little bit on the sad side because we had several opportunities to correct this problem. One big contract dealt with this year was our trash contract. The revenues we could have made would run into the several millions of dollars and we could have done that by going out to bid with other trash companies. The cities of Chino Hills, San Bernardino and Loma Linda looked at their trash contracts and went out to bid. We were in a position to do the same. We could have made up several million dollars. We had this right at our fingertips. I wanted to go out and get those bids but I came up on the short end of a 5-2 vote. Instead the council voted to stay with the same trash firm we’ve had for more than 17 years, Republic Industries, who are very nice people, but I felt we should have gone out for a bid or negotiated and gotten the best deal for our residents and for the city. How do we know what kind of a deal we could have had without going out to bid?”
The city council missed another opportunity within the last two months to reduce its costs significantly, Gonzalez said.
“After the trash situation, we just signed a five year contract with our city attorney,” he said. “This is a multimillion dollar contract, as well. Although we legally went out to bid and received seven responses, we did not really analyze those bids and instead chose to focus on our current attorney company without the benefit of knowing what the other law firms were offering. We missed out on that. So, we had the opportunity to balance the budget in June, we could have gotten bids or negotiated a better trash contract and saved the city millions of dollars and we could have gotten a better deal with our attorney services. If we had done those three things, I believe we would be in a much better situation now moving forward.”
Those missed opportunities are regrettable, Gonzalez said, but the question now has become, he said, “How are we going to correct this? The only big ticket items available are to raise the sales tax, create a utility users tax or do what they call a general fund transfer. In order to get a sales tax increase we need a vote of the people. The bad part is the people may not go for that because they are already pinched. The one good thing about the sales tax option is we would be able to spread it out around the city and not impose it on just one group or on one district. We would spread it out among everyone in the city as well as everyone who chooses to come to Colton and shop. The other option, the utility tax, would also require a vote of the people. It would be a tax on all of the city’s utilities, water, waste water and electrical. This would certainly help financially, but once again, the residents are pinched and their rates would go up and the vote might not pass. The last big ticket item is the GTF, the general fund transfer, which would allow us to pull money out of our electric department’s reserves.”
Gonzalez said he did not have an exact figure, but said there was somewhere “between $40 million and $50 million” in the electrical utility’s reserve account.
Gonzalez said there are strong arguments both ways for and against tapping into the electrical utility’s reserves to redress the city’s general fund shortcoming.
“Generally speaking, I am not an expert, but money in our utility reserves created through utility operations, should go to improving the utilities, their infrastructure and facilities,” Gonzalez said. “It is not entirely the best practice to be taking money from the utility reserves to be using it in the general fund. But the advantage to this is if we go out to a vote, the general fund transfer option would have the best chance of passing. The people have the right to do that because the people of Colton own the electrical utility. The reserve funds are generated by the rates the residents and businesses in town pay. This is potentially a good thing. As I said, it is not entirely the best practice to go in and use our electrical division reserves for the general fund. I was not in favor of any of these three options because I would have rather have balanced the budget or gone out to bid on the trash and city attorney contracts. But, because we did not do those things, we are in a bad financial situation and we need to correct that. After all of the discussion with regard to raising the sales tax and creating the utility user tax, I just don’t think the voters will accept more taxes, so I have to accept the GFT – the general fund transfer – as our best bet because it will not affect the residents’ rates. At this point I think it is the best way to go. If I had to go before the public today and support one of the three options, it would be the GFT.”
The city will need to act quickly if that is the route it is going to take, Gonzalez said.
“In order to have a special vote in the March or April election, then we have to declare a fiscal emergency,” Gonzalez said. “It is my understanding to have a vote that is outside of our normal schedule of every other November, we have to declare a fiscal emergency. So we are going to have to make that declaration soon.”
This week, a fourth option to plug the budget gap emerged, with a proposal put forth by councilman Isaac Suchil to enter into an arrangement to farm out the city’s sewer/water treatment function to a private sector entity, a semi-franchise through which the private company would pay a franchise fee to the city to operate the sewer system. The company would then be free to raise sewer rates to recoup its expenses and justify the investment. The city would realize revenue from the franchise fee and reduce its expenditures in running the sewer division. The concept immediately generated controversy, as the city’s sewer division is currently operating in the black, representing a steady and reliable revenue stream for the city.
Prior to its incorporation in 1978, Grand Terrace contracted sewage service treatment from Colton, which maintained and operated the sewage treatment plants owned by Grand Terrace in addition to its own. That arrangement continued after Grand Terrace incorporated. While Grand Terrace owned one of its treatment facilities, it was managed and operated by City of Colton employees. By 2013, a dispute between the two cities had developed because the fees charged by Colton to Grand Terrace for sewage treatment had not been increased for more than a decade and Grand Terrace residents and businesses were being charged far less than Colton’s ratepayers. In March 2014, the Colton and Grand Terrace city councils approved a 50-year agreement by which Colton is to continue to provide contract sewage services to Grand Terrace. In July 2014, the City of Grand Terrace agreed to raise the rates its citizens and businesses pay for sewer service and signed a corresponding settlement agreement requiring Grand Terrace to pay Colton $1.2 million from Grand Terrace’s sewer reserve fund to cover the cost of back fees that had not been paid by Grand Terrace for providing previous sewage treatment services. That comprehensive deal contained a provision by which Colton paid Grand Terrace an initial one-time lease payment of $400,000 and agreed to subsequent annual lease payments of approximately $300,000 on Grand Terrace’s sewer treatment facilities. In exchange, Colton is guaranteed revenue from sewer treatment fees paid by Grand Terrace of roughly $1.4 million per year at the beginning of the fifty-year contract, with built-in increases to the sewer rates Grand Terrace residents and businesses are to pay annually.
In this way, the workability of Suchil’s proposal appears questionable. Nevertheless, the council this week called for placing an item on the December 15 council agenda for considering the sewer treatment outsourcing. Curiously, Suchil’s plan came less than a month following the abrupt departure of Colton Public Works Director Amer Jakher. No reason was given for Jakher’s sudden resignation and city officials are tight-lipped about why he left and what, exactly, precipitated his leaving, and whether it was truly voluntary on his part or whether he was in some fashion forced to quit. Jakher was territorial with regard to the public works division and its funding. Recent developments, including the proposals to outsource sewer treatment or tap into electrical division reserves are issues that may have triggered his exodus.
Gonzalez told the Sentinel he had no penetrating insight on why Jakher left.
“It happened in a flash,” Gonzalez said. “On a Tuesday he gave us notification he resigned and he was gone. That being said, I don’t believe there was a specific reason. I frankly don’t know what drove him to leave. All I know is there have been a lot of questions that have been floated around the council meetings and out on the streets, questions about the direction of public works. There has been a lot of talk about the use of funds, the management of people and funds. I don’t know what happened in the background.”
Frank Gonzales, who was a council member and mayor in Colton for more than twenty years in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s and then returned as a council member from 2010 until 2014, said the fiscal crisis and Jakher’s sudden jump betray a city with a leadership and directional crisis.
“The city, with its electrical and water and waste water departments is a non-profit entity,” Frank Gonzales said. “All of its residents and businesses are mandatory customers. And now they are telling us it can’t break even? Something is wrong if they can’t balance the books. They have multimillions coming in and now they are coming back to scare us with bankruptcy? After 2010 we overcame our structural deficit and cleared 1.3 million in debt. We were in the black three years ago. The cash flow doesn’t stop. We pushed to have Grand Terrace pay sewer charges, which we are getting direct from them now. That money is drawing interest. Where is that money going to?”
Gonzales said that Jakher’s departure is a signal something is amiss at Colton City Hall.
“Something had to have happened for him to leave all of a sudden,” Gonzales said. “He was protective of his department. I don’t think he would let them [the city council and city management] take money from his budget.”
Frank Gonzales reiterated the same concern Luis Gonzalez [no relation] expressed over the failure to seek a competitive bid on the trash contract.
“That borders on the criminal, in my opinion,” Gonzalez said. “I don’t understand why the DA’s office doesn’t come in here to see what is going on. They should be looking at this. The trash company, Republic Industries, really took advantage of the city. I don’t blame them. They got the best deal they could for themselves. But the council is supposed to be looking out for us. They didn’t. The DA, Mike Ramos, has roots in Colton. His father was born and raised in Colton. He grew up on K Street. I knew his father when I was a kid. Has Mike Ramos forgotten us and where he came from? The DA should be looking into this trash business.”

The San Bernardino City Council’s November 16 vote to proceed with the dissolution of the city’s sanitation division and approve a ten-year trash hauling franchise with Burrtec Waste Systems continues to resonate controversy, in this case extending all the way to Sacramento as well as within the State Republican Party.
After the City of San Bernardino filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection in 2012, city officials gave serious contemplation to closing out several of the county seat’s municipal divisions as part of an effort to right the city’s listing financial ship. Early talk of dissolving the sanitation department, thereby eliminating costs while simultaneously generating revenue by collecting franchise fees from whatever company the city would then choose to take on refuse handling in the city of 213,000, was never fulfilled as the city’s trashmen, concerned that they would lose their jobs, protested vociferously. But after lingering in bankruptcy for nearly three years, the city was put under the gun by the federal judge overseeing the city’s bankruptcy case, Meredith Jury, to fashion an exodus from its status. In seeking to meet Jury’s requirements, the city earlier this year resolved to close out its fire department and contract with the county to have its fire department provide fire protection service to the city. In doing so, the city fashioned an arrangement by which the entirety of the city will be transformed into a county fire district, under the aegis of which each parcel owner will be assessed $139 district fee, generating an additional $7.8 million of revenue per year that the county is passing back to the city as a pass-thru to the municipal general fund. Emboldened, top city officials resolved once more to undertake an effort to outsource the sanitation division. More than six months ago the city council authorized city staff to undertake that change, and city manager Allen Parker arranged for the city to seek bids, under what is termed a request for proposal process, to determine the interest of trash hauling companies to take on the city franchise. Four companies – Republic Industries, Waste Management, Inc., Athens Services and Burrtec – responded with proposals to the city’s request, which laid out a host of requirement, including franchise fees that would generate for the city at least $5 million in income that could be used to service the debt the city has to its creditors being held in abeyance through the Chapter 9 process, assisting the city toward an exit from bankruptcy. Parker hired the consulting firm Management Partners to assist in the evaluation of the bids. The proposals from Republic and Waste Management were rejected by Parker and Management Partners as not meeting the city’s needs as expressed in the request for proposals, setting up a final competition between Athens and Burrtec. Just four days prior to the November 16 council meeting, the council was given a recommendation drafted by Management Partners and endorsed by Parker which gave Burrtec the nod. But the documentation contained in that report was less than complete, and in some particulars omitted data that clearly favored Athens, while citing unguaranteed revenue to the city offered by Burrtec without considering unguaranteed revenue put forth by Athens A key document within Management Partners’ report which was ultimately relied upon by the council in making its decision totaled Burrtec’s guaranteed and non-guaranteed revenue and compared that to only the guaranteed revenue offered by Athens. Upon discerning this error in the comparative numbers, Athens representative sought to inform city officials. At the November 16 meeting, Parker and Andrew Belknap, a principal with Management Partners, rescinded their endorsement of Burrtec, calling for postponing the vote for a further evaluation of the competing proposals. But that night, scores of city trashmen, who had been heavily lobbied by Burrtec attended the meeting and paraded before the council to tell them that they were strongly in favor of Burrtec obtaining the contract because they had been assured by Burrtec representatives, including owner Cole Burr, that they would not lose their jobs , but be transitioned into being Burrtec employees as part of the franchise arrangement.
The testimonials by the city trash workers on behalf of Burrtec appeared to carry great weight with the council, which ignored the call by Parker and Belknap to hold off on the vote that evening and carry out further evaluations. The council instead went ahead with the vote and by a margin of 6-1, with councilman Fred Shorett dissenting, granted the franchise to Burrtec. Almost immediately, the council and the entirety of San Bernardino City government found itself immersed in controversy, as a thorough analysis of the actual numbers at stake in the franchise competition came under exhausting scrutiny, showing that Athens had offered $29,278,968 in revenue to be returned to the city over ten years, while Burrtec committed to paying the city $24,876,468 during the same decade.
Moreover, after the emotionally charged presentations of the city trash division employees were soberly considered in the light of day, it was pointed out that the request for proposal had expressly forbade any of the applicants from lobbying city employees during the proposal analysis period. It was manifestly clear that Burrtec had violated that element of the protocol, based simply on the statement of the city employees that had so swayed the council.
Then, on November 25, Athens weighed in with a protest in the form of a letter from its law firm, Varner Brandt, which in writing pointed out the violation of bid competition protocol Burrtec had engaged in and further referenced the $4.4 million revenue return differential in the Athens and Burrtec franchise proposals. In a less than subtle manner, the Varner Brandt letter threatened to inform the city’s creditors that the city failed to maximize the revenue return that could have been had from the franchise arrangement. Those creditors have standing in bankruptcy court to make an issue of the city’s failure in that regard with Judge Jury, who thereupon might be disinclined to believe the city’s representations to her that it is doing all it can to remedy its fiscal situation. In the letter, Varner Brandt requested that the city rescind the November 16 trash franchise vote and reconsider the matter in its entirety, using a more comprehensive comparison of what Burrtec offered versus what Athens offered.
With that as the background, the situation worsened and broadened, as reports began drifting in that two of city council members who had supported Burrtec with their votes, John Valdivia and Henry Nickel, had been lobbied to do so by Jim Brulte. Brulte is a former member of the California Assembly and California Senate, where he was the Republican leader in both houses. He is now a high powered lobbyist working out of Sacramento. In March 2013 Brulte was elected chairman of the California Republican Party amidst determination by members of the GOP to change its status as the minority party in the Golden State, where the state legislature is dominated by Democrats and the governor is a Democrat as well. Brulte made nominal progress in that regard and was elected State Republican Chairman once again earlier this year. Both Nickel and Valdivia are Republicans and both have aspirations for higher office. Nickel previously ran for the California Assembly, and has acknowledged that he would run for state office again and might vie for San Bernardino mayor in 2017 if the situation merits that. Valdivia, too, is interested in moving up to the state legislature. Like Nickel, he has not ruled out running for mayor in San Bernardino either. Both Nickel and Valdivia have cultivated reputations of being hard-edged evaluators of how the city’s money gets spent, based upon their sometimes exacting review of city council agenda items, including penetrating questioning of city staff. For many, their willingness to embrace Burrtec’s proposal in the face of Athens offer that would have provided the city with $4.4 million more in returned revenue was inexplicable. Word spread in the aftermath of the November 16 vote that Brulte, who is a paid lobbyist for Burrtec, had counseled both Nickel and Valdivia, telling them that Republican Party money would be vectored their way if they would support Burrtec over Athens in getting the city franchise. The report took on a special sting with particular regard to Valdivia, whose political strategist is Chris Jones. Jones is a close and longtime Brulte associate.
For many, including those in and out of the Republican Party, the report was troubling. Some saw in it an indication that Brulte had improperly blurred the distinction between his private business interests and those of the political party he heads in California. In particular, there was concern that the Democrats might seize on the matter to allege that their Republican rivals were politicizing what should have been a non-partisan evaluation process, not to mention the implication that a high level GOP official was promoting what is arguably a less lucrative franchise arrangement for the City of San Bernardino for personal profit.
When contacted by the Sentinel, Brulte dismissed the report as inaccurate. “I do know both of those councilmembers but I did not lobby anyone on behalf of Burrtec. Burrtec has its own representative in the local area by the name of Mike [Arrequin]. Sorry to end your story there.”
When he was contacted by the Sentinel, Valdivia immediately lawyered up. “You’ll have to call the city attorney’s office for information,” Valdvia said. “I am not willing to provide a quote.”
Nickel was much more forthcoming.
“Both sides, Burrtec and Athens, were very active in their lobbying, but I was never contacted by Mr. Brulte,” Nickel said.
He acknowledged that on paper in terms of money offered to the city Athens made a superior offer. But he said that was not the sole criterion in the decision. “We didn’t just look at dollars and cents evaluations of the franchise. We had to consider what was best for our city. Both offered what met our requirements, which was to satisfy the bankruptcy court with regard to our recovery. Both companies were very close. I am not going to disparage Athens. If you look at the proposals dollar for dollar, they may have had a better proposal but they lacked in other areas, such as getting the good will of our employees. That was something we had to consider. Our earlier effort to outsource ended in failure because we were unable to get the employees to go along. They are both quality companies. They both do a decent job. They both lobbied. We were pressured equally by both companies. Both have contributed money to my political campaign in the past. They both met the minimum requirements we were seeking for recovery. Yes, you can make the argument that going with Athens would have provided us with more money for the recovery. But there were other trade-offs in terms of capacity and providing levels of service. In certain respects, the Burrtec offer was superior. That gave them a certain advantage over Athens. It is a lot like comparing a Cadillac to a Volkswagen bus. They will both get you where you want to go. But one offers you things the other doesn’t and vice versa. It depends on what you want. There are other considerations beside money you have to factor into your consideration. You can get more money but less service. That is a trade-off. The question has to be, ‘What is in the best interest of our city.’ You have to look at all the different aspects of the proposals. I think it is a mistaken approach to just look at dollars. You also have to look at value.”
Nickel insisted, “My decision had nothing to do with running for higher office. I have not talked to Jim Brulte in six or seven months. I last talked to him in regard to other significant issues in the party relating to the leadership in the county central committee. This decision was not informed by Mr. Brulte or a desire for higher office.”
Nickel then took on the issue relating to the lobbying effort Burrtec engaged in with city employees.
“It should be up to the city manager and the city attorney to oversee the proposal process,” Nickel said. “It is not the responsibility of the city council to oversee the proposals. That is a management function and in my mind the responsibility of the city manager and the city attorney to look into any misfeasance that occurred. It is not the city council’s place to second guess and check the work of city employees who are well paid. Nor do I believe I or the council should second guess a legal opinion from the city attorney. If Burrtec violated the requirements of the process than it is incumbent upon the city manager and city attorney to look into that. If they make a determination that something inappropriate was done that is one thing. I have not heard anything substantial along those lines. There were rumors about improprieties by both sides. All kinds of crazy things were being said at the last hour Both sides had a lot riding on winning this contract. They were both very aggressive. I would be very wary of taking one side over the other in making accusations of improprieties.”
Nickel said he believed the city manager had given “both Athens and Burrtec discretion to engage with city employees.”
Nickel vectored at Parker blame for any impropriety or appearance of impropriety relating to the approval of Burrtec.
“Quite frankly, at the end there was a crisis of contrary information that surrounded this vote,” Nickel said. “Why did the city manager suddenly change his position at the eleventh hour? He had had six months to evaluate it. After that much time, the recommendation of someone at that level of responsibility should be rock solid. There should be no ambiguity in that.” Nickel noted that the vote on the trash franchise came the same night Parker was offered in closed session and took a one-year severance package to retire at the end of the year. “Was something being offered to him to get him to change his recommendation?” Nickel asked. “There was something going on at the last minute to change his mind. That is simply unacceptable for someone in a highly paid position, a professional, to suddenly step back from his own recommendation. Something does not smell right. He threw the council under the bus. This boils down to the city manager and city attorney not doing their jobs. We should not be left with the job of doing an evaluation they should have done on our behalf The lollygagging on the part of people in high paying positions we hired is the real scandal. We can’t go through this destructive process of second guessing and micromanaging. No reasonable city in this state would operate that way. People who say the council should be stepping up and doing the job of the professionals in there now is asking us to engage in competitive management. That is no way to run a city.”
Asked if he would support Athens’ call for the vote to be rescinded and the franchise award to be reconsidered, Nickel said he would not support it on his own or put forth such a motion for reconsideration without a staff recommendation to do so.
“If the city manager and the city attorney feel this needs to be revisited, I will listen to them and hear them out,” he said.

NEWBERRY SPRINGS—Governmental secrecy has made it difficult to discern whether accusations of misfeasance/malfeasance/embezzlement within the Newberry Springs Community Services District that surfaced this summer have substance. What is slightly clearer is that officials in the district, perhaps even those suggested to be involved in what is said to be the disappearance of the money that touched off the entire contretemps, are pressing the district attorney’s office to investigate and prosecute those who are apparently responsible for making the accusations with illegally disclosing confidential information relating to the district’s bank account, the very account from which money is said to have disappeared.
In late August, an unsigned letter was sent to the San Bernardino County Local Agency Formation Commission and the San Bernardino County Grand Jury and some media outlets alleging $57,000 in funds was missing from the Newberry Springs Community Service District’s account. Though the letter was unsigned, it was endorsed by “two (2) concerned directors.”
Within a fortnight, Newberry Springs Community Services District Treasurer Kerri Zurcher responded publicly with a letter stating that the accusation had no merit and that rather than $57,000 being misappropriated, there was actually a surplus of $56,562.97 in what Zurcher described as a “checking account as reserve funds. These funds are by no means missing I’m not finding any discrepancies as far as how the items listed at the bottom the [supplemental 2014-15 income/expenditure] report are accounted for, as all of those transactions were applied to the appropriate accounting categories.”
Zurcher indicated that the placement of the $56,562.97 in the checking account was a temporary arrangement that would last only “until such a time comes where I, as district treasurer, make a recommendation to the board of directors that we move those funds into a more permanent reserve account.”
Not directly stated in Zurcher’s letter though vaguely suggested was that the $56,562.97 in the reserve account explained the mistaken impression of those responsible for the letter to the Grand Jury and Local Agency formation commission that the money was missing or had been mishandled.
Zurcher and Newberry Springs Community Service District General Manager Le Hayes offered assurances that a district policy requiring each district check to be signed by two directors provided a double safeguard against money being misappropriated.
A month later, toward the end of September, district officials were still seeking to minimize the significance of and discredit the August letter, while questioning its provenance, suggesting it may not have originated with anyone on the board. Simultaneously, it was suggested that the actual author of the letter, who some officials endeavored to portray as a disgruntled troublemaker or troublemakers, were known, though he/she or they were not identified.
Less than two weeks later, district officials, who had confidently pronounced that the report of the missing $57,000 was an outright fabrication, were blindsided by another attack on the integrity of the district’s accounting and financial controls when copies of cashed Newberry Springs Community Service District checks, some of which bore only a single signature, surfaced. Some of those checks were mailed to Newberry Springs residents and media outlets. Accompanying the checks was a statement that faulty numbers had been placed into the “proposed 2015-2016 budget for the Newberry CSD. Based on warrant registers presented and doing simple calculations the numbers are not presented accurately. In the days and age of computers with checks and balances this shouldn’t ever happen. Basing tomorrow’s numbers on inaccurate numbers from the past does not a healthy budget make,” the accompanying statement read.
Some district board members expressed alarm at what they characterized as “unauthorized access” to the district’s banking account information and documents. At that point, the district attorney’s office was called upon to undertake an investigation of the matter.
Statements now emanating from the district – Hayes and Zurcher in particular – indicate that the district attorney’s investigators are hot on the trail of at least two individuals believed to have either defeated the on-line banking security protocol used by Desert Community Bank, to which the Newberry Springs Community Services District entrusts its funds, or one or two individuals who have misused the access they had to the account based upon their status with the district. Further access to the district account information by those individuals has been terminated, the Sentinel is informed. Revelation of who those individuals are is just weeks and possibly even days away, as the district attorney’s office ties up any remaining loose ends pertaining to the case and comes to a determination as to whether criminal charges are to be filed against the individuals in question, it has been suggested. According to cryptic statements by district officials, those responsible for the “unauthorized disclosures” now know that they have been identified.
Informed conjecture using the process of elimination would seem to indicate that the likely suspects for the leak of information are board directors Robert Vasseuer, Robert Royalty or Paula Deel or individuals close to or associated with them. Board president Robert Springer and director Robert Shaw demonstrated by their reactions to the leaks that they were genuinely perturbed by the compromising of district banking account information. Both were stridently dismissive of the suggestions contained in the August letter, as well. Vasseuer has publicly mentioned repeated complaints from district residents pertaining to the district’s failure to respond to public information requests. That issue was specifically raised in the August letter. Moreover, references made to the district budget in the letter and in communication from those leaking the checks are extrapolated from a preliminary budget document that was supplied to the board in July, which is seen as a further indication that those responsible for the letter are indeed members of the board or connected to them.
Nevertheless, the focus on the alleged wrongdoing of the individuals responsible for presenting to the public the district’s checking account information has diverted attention away from the gist of what the letter writers – whoever they are – were saying, which is that public money is being mishandled, perhaps, inadvertently, perhaps negligently, perhaps incompetently, perhaps criminally.
The letter states, “Our community has spent the last four plus years being lied to and the bottom line is this is the community’s money and we all deserve to have a right and say as to how the monies are spent, Invoices paid to our state auditor only reflect a portion of the amount actually paid. Misappropriation of funds is a serious matter. We the community are tired of being ignored and there should be zero tolerance for repeated errors.”

As a form of juvenile probation, youthful criminal offenders in San Bernardino County are being diverted into a job training program with the U.S. Forest Service under the aegis of the county probation department, the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
According to San Bernardino County’s chief probation officer, Michelle Scray Brown, “Since July 2001, the probation department and the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools have collaborated to provide job training and employment through a special arrangement with the Forest Service in what has been called a fire sciences academy. This academy provides training and education for eligible juveniles from probation department treatment programs during their commitment period. Participants are not involved with live fire activity but are educated in fire science, fire prevention, and other job training skills. Participants provide special projects, routine cleaning and maintenance.
The participants also help to reduce fire hazards by removing excess debris and vegetation in mountain recreational areas pursuant to an annual operating plan. This arrangement between the department, the San Bernardino county Superintendent of Schools and the Forest Service was formally established through an agreement approved by the board of supervisors on June 18, 2013 and subsequently amended on October 21, 2014.”
Scray Brown continued, “Amendment No. 2 allows for reimbursement to the department for providing work crews to assist the Forest Service with fire prevention work and related special projects from October 1, 2015 and September 30, 2016. This amendment is recommended because it affords the department
with the continued opportunity to provide cooperative workforce, job training, and development activities for participating juveniles.”
As part of the amendment, $15,000 is being made available from the Forest Service, which is a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to reimburse the probation department for providing work crews consisting of juveniles to assist with certain fire prevention work and related special projects from October 1, 2015 through September 30, 2016. The Forest Service will reimburse the department for work crew service in the amount of approximately $250 per day worked. Funds received by the probation department are transferred to a bank account that was established for the purpose of providing incentives for good participant behavior.

The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors this week accepted the recommendations of various departments and approved hotel/motel business licenses for Stephen Claro doing business as Crest Lodge in Crestline; Sila Ramachhita doing business as Lido Motel in Colton; Theresa Winters doing business as Oak Tree Inn in Yermo; Suresh Sarathy doing business as Arrowhead Mountain Inn in Lake Arrowhead; and Hiteshkumar Patel and Dharmi Patel doing business as Palm’s Motel in San Bernardino.

By clicking on the portal below, you can download a PDF of the December 4 edition of the SBC Sentinel.

Sentinel 12-04-15

By Mark Gutglueck
Bert Leslie Morgan was one of San Bernardino’s early industrialists.
Born in Wellington, Ohio on February 17, 1873, Bert Morgan was the son of a farmer. Rather than till the earth, however, on May 15, 1887, at the age of 14, he went to work of the Western Automatic Machine Screw Company in Elyria, Ohio, learning over the next 17 years and four days, all that was then known about manufacturing industrial fasteners.
On May 19, 1904 Western Automatic made him a foreman. For a little less than two years, he remained in that capacity but left Western Automatic on March 1, 1906.
Morgan lived by the maxim that if one is to achieve success, he should work at only that which pleases and interests him. Fascinated as he was with fabricating processes, he acquired a thorough knowledge of his life’s chosen work in every phase and he persisted to keep working hard and saving something from every pay check. In 1906 Bert L. Morgan associated himself with R. D. Perry and W. W. Fay, in the founding of the Perry-Fay Company, of which Mr. Morgan was made general superintendent. The business of this company increased very rapidly, additional capital was secured, and a new and larger plant was built. Morgan remained with the Perry-Fay Company until September 1, 1917.
In the meanwhile, cherishing a desire to have a business of his own, on May 5, 1919, he realized this ambition by opening a machine shop at 938 Third Street in San Bernardino, with two small automatic screw machines and some limited machine tool equipment. This was a small venture, but he knew his business, stuck to it, and laid his plans for the future. On January 12, 1920, he succeeded in having the B. L. Morgan Manufacturing Company Incorporated, with A. E. Ferris, president; W. M. Parker, vice president; J. F. Hosfield, secretary and treasurer; and himself as general manager. On February 26, 1920, the plant was moved to the northeast corner of Rialto and East streets, the premises having been purchased from the San Bernardino Brewing Company. At the annual meeting in January, 1921, the following officials were elected: A. E. Ferris, president; B. L. Morgan, vice president and general manager; and E. E. Katz, secretary and treasurer. Shortly thereafter, on account of ill health, Mr. Katz resigned and R. G. Dromberger was elected as secretary and treasurer of the company.
When the B. L. Morgan Manufacturing Company was incorporated, the monthly sales averaged just $1,000, but in two years the sales multiplied to average $8,000 monthly. At the time of incorporation, the working force was comprised of Mr. Morgan and one helper. By 1922, the company employed twenty-two, with the plant’s premises covering 2,100 square feet. At that point, the company boasted fourteen automatic screw machines, ranging in capacity from three-eighths to two and one-half inches. The company produced a variety of screw machine products, among which were hexagon, square, fillister and button head cap screws; square head and headless set screws; thumb screws; collar screws; hexagon nuts; stubs and pins; screws and turned metal parts for scientific instruments, clock, watch, optical, gun, electric, camera, typewriter, adding machine, automobile, aeroplane and tractor work; spark plug parts; hardened and ground work; all articles turned from silver, aluminum, bronze, brass or steel rods; also taps, dies and gauges. Morgan in 1922 promoted William A. Schiller to the position of general manager.
Morgan’s concern also manufactured high quality of tools.
Morgan was married first to Nellie M. Shute, who was born at Elyria, Ohio, and died May 5, 1912, leaving three children: Victor S., who was born April 25, 1894, and himself became a machinist and tool maker who was largely associated with his father in business. He married Marjory Vogler of Elyria, Ohio. They had two children, Rosemary and Robert. Ruth O., who was born May 5, 1800, became the wife of E. A. Ledyard, of San Bernardino. They had three children, Jean Ellen, Wayne and Philip. Edwin L., who was born October 8, 1899, enlisted in the headquarters company of the Fifth Marines on April 19, 1917, and sailed for France on August 5 of that year. He fought throughout the war with the famous Second Division. He went through all engagements and the only wound he received was a scratch on the leg.
He was awarded a medal for bravery in action, and was discharged in August, 1919, returning to New York just two years after he sailed. Upon returning home he engaged with the Standard Oil Company in San Bernardino.
In April, 1917, Bert Morgan married Miss Lura Potter, a native of Ashtabula. Ohio, and a daughter of Eugene M. Potter. They had four children: Louise Alice, Anna E., David E. and Bert, Junior. Bert, Junior went on to work as a tool and die Maker at Faultless Caster in Evansville, Indiana for 59 years until his retirement in 1998. He died on August 15, 2015.
Bert Morgan devoted himself so exclusively to business that he had but little time for outside matters, although he did take an interest in local affairs. Sound and dependable, he held a lifetime membership of Lodge No. 836, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of the Knights of the Maccabees, the Royal Arcanum, Huron Tribe, No. 200, Red Men, and of the Rotary Club. He was a member of the board of directors of the San Bernardino Chamber of Commerce, vice president of the Manufacturing and Wholesalers Association of San Bernardino, vice president and general manager of the Sta-tite Nut Company, and held an intereste in the M. & M. Manufacturing Company of Wilmington in Los Angeles County, a general machine and manufacturing institution, and was president of the Board of Health at Elyria, Ohio, during the epidemic of contagious diseases.
In the 1930s, Morgan, who had maintained a presence in Ohio a few months out of the year while living in California, relocated to Indiana, where he died in 1959.

SAN BERNARDINO-The bald eagle counts schedule for this winter are Saturday mornings: December 12, January 9, February 13, and March 12. No experience needed. Signing up ahead of time is not required – just show up at the designated time and location, dress warmly, bring binoculars and a watch.
Big Bear Lake area volunteers will meet at 8:00 a.m. at the Forest Service’s Big Bear Discovery Center on North Shore Drive for orientation. Contact Robin Eliason (reliason@fs.fed.us or 909-382-2832) for more information. Please call 909-382-2832 for cancellation due to winter weather conditions – an outgoing message will be left by 6:30 am on the morning of the count if it has to be cancelled. Contact the Discovery Center (909-382-2790) for information about Eagle Celebrations. There will also be a free slideshow about bald eagles at 11:00 after the counts.
Lake Arrowhead/Lake Gregory volunteers will meet at 8:00 a.m. at the Skyforest Ranger Station for orientation. Contact Robin Eliason (reliason@fs.fed.us or 909-382-2832) for more information. Please call 909-382-2832 for cancellation due to winter weather conditions – an outgoing message will be left by 6:30 am on the morning of the count if it has to be cancelled.
Silverwood Lake State Recreation Area volunteers should plan to meet at the Visitor Center at 8:00 a.m. for orientation. Contact Kathy Williams or Mark Wright for more information about volunteering or taking an eagle tour (760-389-2303 between 8:00 and 4:00; or email: khwilliams@parks.ca.gov).
Lake Hemet volunteers should plan on meeting at the Lake Hemet Grocery Store at 8:30 a.m. for orientation. Contact Ann Bowers (annbowers@fs.fed.us or 909-382-2935) for more information.
Lake Perris State Recreation Area volunteers should plan to meet at the Lake Perris Regional Indian Museum at 8:00 for orientation. Contact the office for more information at 951-940-5600.

About the U.S. Forest Service:

The mission of the US Forest Service is to sustain the health, diversity and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. The agency manages 193 million acres of public land, provides assistance to state and private landowners, and maintains the largest forestry research organization in the world. Public lands the US Forest Service manages contribute more than $13 billion to the economy each year through visitor spending alone. Those same lands provide 20 percent of the nation’s clean water supply, a value estimated at $7.2 billion per year. The agency has either a direct or indirect role in stewardship of about 80 percent of the 850 million forested acres within the United States, of which 100 million acres are urban forests where most Americans live. Learn more at http://www.fs.usda.gov/sbnf
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USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender.