Questions have emerged about the methodology the City of Needles is using to eradicate the blight of the historic Overland Hotel.
Located in the heart of downtown Needles at 710 and 712 West Broadway, the Overland Hotel was established as a signature Best Western Hotel on Old Route 66 in 1962. It stood alongside a Sambo’s Restaurant and was a major landmark and element of Needles’ economy. It featured a substantial swimming pool and air conditioned and fashionable rooms, temporary lodging that put Needles’ best foot forward to the hundreds of thousands of travelers who sojourned annually along The Route 66 “Mother Road” that ran from Chicago to Los Angeles.
With the demise of Route 66 as a major transcontinental highway brought on by the construction of the I-40 and the bypassing of historic downtown Needles, the Overland and the restaurant lost patrons, fell into disuse and, in time, into disrepair. Nevertheless, both historic preservationists and those with entrepreneurial vision continued to entertain the notion of reviving the hotel to its former glory.
In recent years, the California Receivership Group, based in Los Angeles and led by attorney Mark Adams, had established the Overland Motel Restoration Project, aimed at rehabbing the hotel as part of an energetic Needles and Route 66 revival.
More recently, members of the community including the Democratic Club had floated the proposition of transforming it into a homeless veterans’ shelter and were in dialogue with the Veterans Administration toward that goal. Indeed, because many of the rooms in the hotel were still intact and the doors were unlocked and otherwise unsecured, a number of homeless veterans, referred to as “vagrants’ by city officials,  had begun squatting there.
The vagrancy issues frustrated city officials, as did the State of California’s move four years ago to disband all of the state’s redevelopment agencies, which crippled the city’s efforts to makeover the city’s deteriorating downtown. They were further discouraged by Adams failure to make progress on the restoration project. In August, they took the matter into their own hands. Based upon Needles City Manager Rick Daniels’ recommendation, the city council authorized proscribing the hotel property as a burn area and the historic structure was torched as part of a fire crew training exercise to take place in mid-October. .
This development outraged some members of the community, who yet hoped that the hotel would be resurrected as a going concern.
What followed has outraged a cross section of Needles residents.
The torching occurred over a period of time starting the second week of October. The office part of the hotel burned pretty readily and was consumed but the long two-story portion of the hotel resisted the flames. At one point, fire crews were observed standing on top of the building, cutting holes into the roof in an effort to encourage a conflagration. Stubbornly, major portions of the hotel refused to burn. Only then was it recognized that a major portion of the hotel’s structure and its insulation was composed of asbestos.
Under question is why city officials did not carry out an adequate survey of the building before condemning it to destruction by fire.
Objections to the city’s action on environmental grounds are being heard. In particular, there is concern that the city’s failure to undertake asbestos tests on the building prior to the fire signals that no examination of the building’s composition was made. This led, some Needles residents say, to a situation in which airborne smoke containing a host of noxious elements might have endangered public health. Furthermore, some residents find problematic the city’s intent to use bulldozers to scoop up the hotel rubble and debris, which they claim is laden with hazardous materials, into dump trucks and transport it to undisclosed desert drainages in or around Needles.
In a staff report to the city council dated November 10, city manager Rick Daniels indicated what Needles residents had already observed in witnessing the fire crew’s futile attempt to burn the building, namely, that the city had given up entirely on the concept of reclaiming the hotel. Daniels stated that the “city council approved allocating $85,000 from the surplus property fund money ($97,659 balance) for demolition and/or controlled burn of the Overland Motel.” Matter-of-factly, he reported, “The San Bernardino County Fire Department conducted the training exercise with nearby fire agencies and burned all of the building that could safely be done without jeopardizing nearby structures and electrical lines and transformers. The court appointed receiver solicited proposals and received two based upon two scenarios; remove the building structure and leave the asphalt and concrete as ground cover ($51,000}, and denude the site removing any and all structures including concrete and asphalt ($81,000). In order to stay within the council authorized appropriation, I authorized the receiver to accept the bids for the removal of the remaining portions of the buildings and leaving the concrete and asphalt.”
In the staff report, two other items were contained, which now have Needles residents up in arms.
Under the category of “Cost to date,” the report shows “Asbestos Survey (unanticipated) $1,800” and “Asbestos Removal (unanticipated) $ 27,000.”
This proves, some Needles residents say, that the city failed to undertake an adequate environmental review of the demolition project before authorizing it. Pointing out that more than 65 percent of Needles residents live below the poverty line, they say the city council has cavalierly engaged in violations of the California Environmental Quality Act and the Safety Code of the State of California because they believe the city’s residents are too unsophisticated and too economically disadvantaged to challenge City Hall.

TWENTYNINE PALMS—The City of Twentynine Palms this week initiated what is likely to be one of the last redevelopment projects in the State of California.
Project Phoenix was approved in 2011, at which time $12 million in bonds were sold to undertake the downtown rejuvenation plan, which called for constructing a community center, a 250-seat theater, classrooms, a civic plaza, a park, a walkway, residential units, a wastewater treatment plant, and improvements to the downtown fire station.
Shortly thereafter, however, the legislature passed AB X1 26 and AB X1 27, which shuttered all of the more than 400 municipal and county redevelopment agencies up and down the state, including the one chartered to Twentynine Palms. The state sought to reroute redevelopment money to law enforcement and education efforts in that closure.
Twentynine Palms, however, intrepidly pushed ahead with the project, based upon Twentynine Palms City Attorney A. Patrick Muñoz’s assertion that the project had been initiated prior to AB XI 26 and AB XI 27 going into effect. Muñoz propounded the theory that the state law ending redevelopment function is trumped by federal securities regulations, meaning the money the Twentynine Palms Redevelopment Agency bonded for in 2011 must be utilized only for the purpose that bondholders were told the money would be applied toward.
The state conversely asserted that since the project was not under way at the time the law was passed, it could not proceed.
The city used the locally composed bond oversight board that was formed as a consequence of the state legislation to recommit the bond money to the Phoenix project. Subsequently, however, the state Department of Finance used its authority to disallow the recommitment. In response, the city appealed and when that appeal was turned down, filed legal action in Sacramento Superior Court, the venue where the legislation required any litigation pertaining to cities’ use of redevelopment money had to be filed. The case was heard by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael P. Kenny.
Muñoz asserted in filings with the Sacramento Superior Court that the non-taxable bonds issued in 2011 created specific obligations between the city, as the issuer, and the bond purchasers, and as such are enforceable obligations and any use of the money for a purpose other than what the city had specified in marketing the bonds to the bond buyers would constitute fraud.
The California Department of Finance in December 2013 told Kenny that the Twentynine Palms Redevelopment Agency, like several others, “rushed to encumber future tax increment revenues” ahead of its legislated demise in December 2011. The department alleged that in March 2011, Twentynine Palms “conceived, authorized, issued and sold $12 million in tax allocation bonds for the Project Phoenix downtown development and an affordable housing plan without contracts to build or a definite plan for spending the proceeds.”
Ultimately, however, Kenny ruled against the California Department of Finance in April 2014 and granted the petition for a writ of mandate on behalf for the city of Twentynine Palms as successor agency, allowing the city to utilize the bond money for the fulfillment of Project Phoenix. In June 2014, the Department of Finance filed an appeal of Kenny’s ruling.
Since that time, the Department of Finance suffered multiple setbacks with regard to several cities’ efforts to control the spending of redevelopment agency money appropriated in 2011. On May 14, 2015, the department sent a letter to several cities, Twentynine Palms among them, announcing it would no longer oppose those cities’ moves to preserve their last remaining redevelopment agency projects.
The city council, which in June voted to authorize Twentynine Palms City Manager Frank Luckino to negotiate the purchase of property necessary to the project at 73551 Twentynine Palms Highway at an acquisition, escrow and inspection price of no more than $216,910.97, this week committed another $885,000 to be spent over the next 12 months in laying the groundwork for the project.
According to Luckino, the $885,000 will be used to acquire further land necessary for the project, undertake planning for the wastewater system and fund what he referred to as “community outreach.” In June, the city council also approved a $92,500 contract with Kosmont Companies, for assistance in facilitating Project Phoenix.
Kosmont specializes in providing cities with economic development, public finance and public/private real estate strategies/transaction assistance. Since 2011 Kosmont has focused on redevelopment successor agency services. It is working to build into the Project Phoenix program post-redevelopment economic incentives and financing mechanisms to assist the city in promoting public-private transactions and financing solutions with private sector constituents, as well as support the city in its efforts to make good on its bond obligations while the successor agency uses the bond money to complete the project. Kosmont is also serving as the city’s real property negotiator, assisting with public outreach, and overseeing a range of third party service providers such as appraisers and demolition, engineering and architectural contractors.
It is possible that the scope of Project Phoenix will increase from the limits of the $12 million effort envisaged in 2011, as Kosmont has been tasked to see whether the city can take advantage of enhanced infrastructure finance districts, entities created by the legislature as a gesture to replace traditional redevelopment agencies.

Second District San Bernardino County Supervisor Janice Rutherford has chosen Michelle Ambrozic, who unsuccessfully vied for election as 33rd District Assemblywoman last year, to replace David Caine on the Lake Arrowhead Municipal Advisory Council.
Like Rutherford, Ambrozic is a Republican. A health insurance broker, Ambrozic used her knowledge of the health industry to formulate part of her platform in the heavily Republican-leaning 33rd District, where Jay Obernolte ultimately emerged victorious to claim a seat in the lower legislative house in Sacramento in 2014. Her campaign included attacks on Democrats in the form of heavy criticism of President Barack Obama and the Federal Affordable Care Act, which she referred to as Obamacare.
Ambrozic was guided in her Assembly bid by Greg Imus, who acted as her campaign manager. Imus had successfully guided Tim Donnelly to victory in 2010, when he ran for the Assembly in the 33rd District. Imus then came very close to being elected to Congress in his own right, qualifying for the run-off election in the overwhelmingly Republican 8th Congressional District in 2012 against the eventual winner, Paul Cook, another Republican.
Imus’s influence on Ambrozic’s political strategy was in evidence last year. As the co-founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corporation of California, which advocates heavily in favor of Second Amendment rights, Imus put Ambrozic’s 2012 candidacy for Assembly into high gear by means of campaign signs which depicted a silhouette of the candidate firing a high powered automatic rifle.
Rutherford’s promotion of Ambrozic, a Lake Arrowhead resident, to the municipal advisory post signals the supervisor’s willingness to keep Ambrozic in the spotlight, providing her with name repetition and name recognition, perhaps advancing her political ambition.
Rutherford, a former Fontana councilwoman, was first elected Second District supervisor in 2010. She was reelected in 2014. Under the county’s term limits put in place as a consequence of Measure P passed by the voters in 2006, supervisors are limited to three four-year terms.
Though her post on the Lake Arrowhead Municipal Advisory Board will potentially strengthen Ambrozic politically, she is not likely to garner wide attention throughout the Second District, which counts as its major population centers the northern portion of Upland, all of Rancho Cucamonga and the west half of Fontana. Ambrozic, who enjoys some notoriety in the San Bernardino Mountains and the First District’s Victor Vally, would need greater name recognition in the western portion of the Second District to successfully challenge Rutherford. If Rutherford chooses to run again and is successful, she would not leave the board until 2022. Nevertheless, she might be grooming Ambrozic as her successor. Ambrozic, 33, is relatively young and would be 40 in 2022, three years younger than Rutherford was when she defeated incumbent Paul Biane five years ago.
By aligning herself with Ambrozic, Rutherford, 48, strengthens herself by creating even stronger connections with elements of the GOP identifying themselves as social, Constitutional and fiscal conservatives than she already enjoys.

Water, from both rainstorms and faulty pipes, in recent months and weeks has damaged county buildings. In their rush to repair that damage, county officials have convinced the board of supervisors to suspend their normal practice of carrying out a bidding competition for the repair work.
On October 20, 2015, the board of supervisors made a finding that there is substantial evidence that the water damage that occurred on September 15, 2015, caused by heavy rain at the County Government Center, located at 385 N. Arrowhead Avenue in San Bernardino and the main office of the District Attorney, which is located at 316 North Mountain View Avenue within the same complex of county offices that also contain the public defender’s headquarters and the historic San Bernardino Courthouse, constituted an emergency that required immediate action.
On September 15, 2015 San Bernardino experienced heavy rains and flooding. This resulted in the backup of the primary drain on the southeast area of the roof at the county government center, which led to ceiling leaks, causing substantial water damage to the walls and carpeting in the hallway of the board chambers, as well as the corridor areas of the first floor, the security room, the Joshua Room, and the Yucca Room.
At the district attorney’s headquarters, located less than a block-and-a-half away from the county government center, an existing storm drain catch basin, with primary and stand-by storm drain pumps, is utilized to pump storm water from the parking lot and the exterior of the building to a curb grate on Arrowhead Avenue. Both pumps in the storm drain catch
basin failed during the heavy rains and a storm drain inlet in an exterior stairwell on the northwest corner of the building experienced a water back-up and flooded the stairwell. A ground floor entry door is located next to the stairway and storm drain water entered through this hallway. Three hallways and four rooms experienced flooding on the ground floor, and two rooms and one hallway in the basement also flooded due to this water intrusion.
This “created an emergency pursuant to the Public Contract Code section 22050, requiring,” county risk management director Kenneth L. Hernandez said, “immediate action to prevent and mitigate the loss or impairment of health, property, and service to the public, and would not permit the delay resulting from a formal competitive solicitation of bids to contain and repair the damage.”
The cleanup process in the government center was delayed due to the discovery of mold in the affected areas. Mold abatement and removal of damaged materials have been completed in the Joshua Room, the Yucca Room and the security room.
In the district attorney’s office headquarters, temporary pumps were installed in the exterior storm drain catch basin to withdraw the water and alleviate the flooding.
The county’s facilities management division was notified on the same day
and its employees immediately contacted American Technologies, Inc., a private company, to begin redressing the damage at the government center; facilities management also contacted BELFOR Property Restoration , a disaster recovery and property restoration company, to begin the water extraction and remediation at the district attorney’s office building. According to Hernandez , the county earmarked some $275,000 for the repair work. He justified paying American Technologies and BELFOR that money, saying it was “consistent with the emergency findings” and that “Facilities management utilized the services of American Technologies Inc and BELFOR for emergency remediation services at the government center and district attorney’s office, based on previous experiences with both vendors, their immediate response, and excellent service.”
Earlier, on October 6, 2015 the board of supervisors made a finding the September flooding resulted in a failure of the main fire line serving the county government center and that the exigent circumstance obviated a formal competitive solicitation of bids to contain and repair the damage. In that case, according to Hernandez, the county appropriated $85,000 so the county’s architecture and engineering department could utilize the services of D. Burke Mechanical Corporation to perform the necessary repairs.
The board of supervisors also made a finding on October 6, 2015 that there is substantial evidence that the water leak from the main water supply line to the County Hall of Records building, located at 222 W. Hospitality Lane in San Bernardino, which was discovered on September 29, 2015, created an emergency pursuant to the Public Contract Code section 22050, requiring immediate action to prevent and mitigate the loss or impairment of health, property, and service to the public that did not permit the delay that would result from a formal competitive solicitation of bids to contain and repair the damage.
The risk management division contacted BELFOR Property Restoration, which confirmed the presence of mold and then used an infra-red moisture device and determined that the water leak had impacted the back walls and flooring of the last two stalls of the men’s and women’s restrooms on the second, third and fourth floors. BELFOR is being paid $25,000 to make the repairs at the 222 W. Hospitality Lane building.
Water damage is not the only type of exigency that will induce county officials to dispense with the competitive bid process intended to ensure that the county taxpayer funds are used judiciously.
On August 11, 2015, the board of supervisors made a finding that there was “substantial evidence” that the failure of the electronic door control system at the Morongo Basin Jail, located at 6527 White Feather Road in Joshua Tree, created an emergency pursuant to Public Contract Code Section 22050, requiring immediate action to prevent or mitigate the loss or impairment of health, property, and essential public services, which would not permit the delay resulting from a formal competitive solicitation of bids to replace the electronic door control system. In that case, the county chose Sierra Detention Systems, located in Brighton, Colorado, to install a complete system, inclusive of electrical wiring, paying Sierra’s cost of $156,959, which included materials for $97,177 and labor of $59,782. In addition, the county was required to pay a use tax, estimated at $8,017.10, bringing the total estimated project cost to $165,976.10.

Acting as the governing body for county’s various county service areas and their zones, the board of supervisors last week approved contracts totaling $4.8 million with eight companies to perform snow removal services on mountain roads within those service areas and zones and on adjacent county-maintained roads from November 3, 2015 to June 30, 2018.
Under that agreement, Lake Arrowhead Construction, Inc., doing business as Trinity Construction of Blue Jay, is to receive no more than $175,000 annually, for an aggregate amount of $525,000 over the term of the contract.
Bacon/Wagner Excavating, Inc. of Running Springs, will be paid no more than $100,000 annually, for an aggregate amount of $300,000 over the term of the contract.
William Kanayan Construction of Rim Forest is to receive no more than $175,000 annually, for an aggregate amount of $525,000 over the term of the contract.
Porter’s Firewood of Big Bear City, is to receive up to $500,000 each year, for an aggregate amount of $1,500,000 over the term of the contract.
Ken Willis Construction, Inc. of Big Bear City, is slated to do work in return for annual remuneration not to exceed $275,000, for an aggregate amount of $825,000 over the term of the contract.
Bear Valley Paving of Big Bear Lake, is to be paid no more than $100,000 on a yearly basis, for an aggregate amount of $300,000 over the term of the contract.
GM Excavating, Inc. of Running Springs, was qualified to do work capped at a yearly limit of $175,000, for an aggregate amount of $525,000 over the term of the contract.
Altmeyer Inc. of Cedar Glen, is to be paid no more than $100,000 annually, for an aggregate amount of $300,000 over the term of the contract.
Each of the contracts carries with it a two-year option to extend.

By Count Friedrich von Olsen
It seems like half the country has jumped on the bandwagon to discredit Ben Carson, most recently over his statement that he had been offered a scholarship to West Point. This is because he has some real rivals – Democrats who understand that he is perhaps the strongest Republican hope to defeat Hillary Clinton in the presidential race next year as well as some of his fellow Republicans likewise vying for the Republican nomination, who correctly surmise that he is a formidable opponent they must overcome if their ambition for the GOP nod is to be fulfilled…
Those attacking Ben’s claim have latched onto three elements of his story to make the case that he has prevaricated. These are: 1) That the Army or the Pentagon has no record of his being offered entrance to West Point; 2) That he never applied; 3) That the date of his encounter with then Army Chief of Staff William Westmoreland, who made the offer, does not square with the general’s known whereabouts on the day in question…
All of those factoids have substance. The thing is, they don’t prove the case against Mr. Carson…
The Pentagon has no record of Ben being offered the scholarship to West Point. Fair enough. Ben never applied to go to West Point and he received no formal nomination, either from then-President Richard Nixon or his Congressman. Again, that is true. But wait. Ben’s story is that he was in attendance at a Memorial Day Parade in Detroit in the Spring of 1969, when, as the second highest ranking member of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, he was invited to dinner with General Westmoreland, who was in Detroit to confer an award on a soldier from Detroit who was being recognized for his service during the Vietnam War. Ben Carson had risen to the rank of colonel in the JROTC, despite having joined the JROTC late. Once in, he had accelerated past all but one of the other students in Detroit – which is a pretty big place – to achieve colonel status. This impressed the general, who, according to Ben, offered him a full ride through West Point on the spot. According to Ben, he turned down the offer because he knew that upon graduating from West Point he would then have to serve a full four years in the Army and that at that point he was committed to becoming a doctor and wanted to initiate his medical school training immediately upon graduating four-year college…
The naysayers claim that General Westmoreland did not have the authority to make an appointment to West Point, and that such an appointment/nomination had to come from a Congressman or the President. And, Ben’s detractors maintain, the process of applying to West Point begins in a hopeful’s junior year of high school, not in his senior year. What is more, it turns out that General Westmoreland was not in Detroit on Memorial Day 1969 and records kept by the Pentagon as well as newspaper accounts, place him in the nation’s capitol on that day…
Thus, the elaborate and exacting refutation of Ben’s account appears to have some substance. But hold on, because there is a very plausible explanation of how it is that these building blocks of the refutation are right and Ben’s version of events is still true…
It turns out that General Westmoreland in fact was in Detroit in the early part of 1969 and that, just as Ben recalled, he was there to decorate a Vietnam War veteran from the Motor City and that afterword he did hold court with the luminaries of the local JROTC. That event occurred not in May 1969 but in February 1969. It appears that several decades on, as is often the case with human memory, Ben lost his precise temporal bearing, and misremembered the exact date. As old and forgetful as I am, I can forgive him for that and even if I didn’t or others don’t, calling someone a liar because twenty or thirty or forty years later that person is not quite straight on what the timeline was strikes me as a bigger lie…
Now let us turn to Ben’s claim that he was offered the scholarship to West Point by General Westmoreland, which is in dispute because Ben had never applied for admission there and, in any event, General Westmoreland could not officially extend him such a scholarship. To this first point, Ben never asserted that he applied to West Point. As a matter of fact, he has said that the only college he applied to was Yale, which incidentally, accepted him. Now, consider that. Ben applied nowhere other than Yale. That is a pretty lofty school. My sense of it is that it is one of the best colleges in America and one of the best colleges in the world. My research tells me that only two other colleges – Harvard and William and Mary – graduated more U.S. Presidents. I mean no insult to West Point, but it had one fewer of its graduates – two ( Dwight Eisenhower and Ulysses Grant) – accede to the presidency than did Yale’s three (William Howard Taft, George Bush and George W. Bush). The point here is that Ben was a very good student, one so good that he did not need to apply to anyplace other than Yale. If he had applied just about anywhere else, he would have been accepted. Given that, and given his accomplishments in Detroit’s JROTC, is it not apparent that when General Westmoreland encountered this 18-year-old he was impressed, indeed so impressed that he offered to get him into West Point? And yes, it is of course true that General Westmoreland, on his own, could not nominate anyone to become a plebe at West Point but, let us be realistic here. They had telephones in those days. If the Army Chief of Staff had merely picked up one of those communication devices and called – I don’t know – someone in the White House (maybe even the President himself) or any of the dozens or scores of Congressmen he knew and said, “Hey, there’s this kid from Detroit and from what I can tell he would make a great Army officer. I know it’s a little late in the process but do you think you could nominate him to the Academy?” doesn’t it stand to reason that someone – probably the first one the Army Chief of Staff called – would have said, “Yes”? The point here is Ben didn’t need to apply. His story is that the scholarship was offered to him spontaneously. I find that to be credible. In fact, I would be more inclined to call Ben a liar if his story was that General Westmoreland didn’t make the offer. And, of course, the Pentagon and the Army have no record of his applying or being accepted because he never applied…
My advice to those who are so set on keeping Ben out of the White House is this: Go waste your time finding something else because this West Point thing is a non-starter…

San Bernardino County and its highest elected and appointed officials this week turned the page on the county governmental structure’s most recent chapter in its book of scandal, agreeing to pay a total of $182,681.69 to its embattled director of personal to take an extended six-month leave and quietly end his employment status with the county thereafter.
An ironic element of the matter is that it was San Bernardino County Chief Executive Officer Greg Devereaux who was tasked by the board of supervisors last week to sever Andrew Lamberto from the county. Until very recently, Devereaux utilized Lamberto, whose title is director of human services, to carry out terminations and layoffs of county employees.
The fuse to Lamberto’s demise was lit last March when he was arrested in Orange County on a charge of soliciting a prostitute. He pleaded guilty in August to a misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to 10 days of community service and three years of unsupervised probation. Word of the matter reached San Bernardino County shortly thereafter, when the Orange County District Attorney’s Office posted documentation of the guilty plea three months ago. The information lay dormant, partly over a lack of clarity as to whether the Andrew Lamberto identified by Orange County authorities was one and the same with the San Bernardino County official of the identical name. Once that confirmation was made in mid-October, Devereaux was hit with a firestorm of criticism for having disciplined Lamberto without fanfare by docking him two-week’s pay and transforming him into an at-will employee without future civil service protection.
As members of the board of supervisors were subjected to obloquy over the matter, Devereaux publicly announced that he had elected in March, when he had first learned of Lamberto’s arrest, to not inform the board. Shortly after the matter garnered widespread public attention, Cal State University San Bernardino, which employed Lamberto as an adjunct professor in its school of public administration, readied itself to terminate him and he resigned his post there. Public criticism of the highest levels of county government intensified, and resulted in the board quietly directing Devereaux last to week to ease Lamberto out if it was at all possible, and if he did not cooperate in leaving, find some way of terminating him.
This presented a challenge to both Devereaux and the county, since Lamberto had technically already been disciplined by the county for the March incident. As an expert in employment issues, employment law and employee rights, Lamberto was sophisticated enough to understand that, despite the very obvious damage he had done to his reputation and that of the county as a consequence of his arrest and his guilty plea, the legal grounds for firing him outright were weak. Furthermore, the terms of his original employment contract shielded him, and he would be able to sue the county if he were to be unilaterally dismissed for an incident that took place while that contract was in effect.
One week after Devereaux took up the assignment, he worked out a settlement with Lamberto, the full terms of which have not been disclosed, but which calls for Lamberto ceasing actual work for the county as of his having been placed on administrative leave last week but remaining on the county payroll through May 27, 2016, during which time he will receive all of his current salary and benefits, based upon his total annual compensation of $337.258.51, which is composed of his yearly $191,073 salary and annual benefits of $146,185.51.
The full board approved the terms worked out between Devereaux and Lamberto during a closed session on November 12.
“It was not easy for the board to agree to these terms following this incident. However, given the great potential for litigation in employment matters, which would cost taxpayers unknown financial liabilities, this was clearly the best option,” Board of Supervisors Chairman James Ramos said.
The deal contained a mutual release of all future claims by either party, the county or Lamberto.
“It is time to move on and focus our energies on meeting the needs of our county community,” said Ramos.

By Mark Gutglueck
James Russell is a remarkable San Bernardino County historical figure on several accounts. Foremost, he is credited with being at the forefront, at the turn of the Nineteenth Century to the Twentieth Century, in the early application of emerging automotive technology to facilitate transportation in the far flung San Bernardino County jurisdiction, which covers more than 20,000 square miles. That accomplishment was carried out while he was a captain of private sector mercantilism. During his remarkably short, four month tenure as a public official, he fought indefatigably to remove the burden of maintaining the county’s mountain roads from the county’s taxpayers. Despite his status in the community and the level of respect accorded him, he was on occasion truculent, and acquired a reputation for being quarrelsome with regard to certain public issues. This is reflected in the consideration that despite having held elective office, he was never actually elected.
Born on February 5, 1873 in Adams County, Iowa, James Russell was the son of James S. and Rachel Binkley Russell. While he was yet an infant, his parents moved the family to Centralia, Washington, where his father taught school and farmed in that area until his death at age 99, the last Civil War veteran in the State of Washington.
James’ mother died while he was quite young and his farther remarried. At about the age of 14, James left home, partly because of incompatibility with his stepmother, and he came to San Bernardino. He worked for a time as a driver of lumber teams in the San Bernardino Mountains, a stint as a fireman for the Santa Fe Railroad and other colorful occupational ventures. Deciding to finish his schooling, he completed the required high school courses in two years.
Shortly thereafter, three of his brothers, William, Lowell and Marion, and his twin sister, Belle, came to Southern California. James and William entered into a partnership and opened a grocery and general merchandise store at 1023 West Third Street, near the Santa Fe Depot.
James Russell and Sarah R. Culberson, daughter of Stephen Robert and Mary Estelle (Downer) Culbertson, were married at her home on June 30, 1901. Sarah Culbertson Russell was born near Edgar, Nebraska, in 1882, and came to California with her parents in about 1891. James and Sarah had one son, George Vernon Russell, born July 4, 1905. He became a prominent architect in Los Angeles in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.
A pioneer automobile enthusiast, James Russell had initiated the use of motor vehicles for delivery service throughout the San Bernardino area in the very early 1900s. At one time he had a “stable” of twelve such vehicles plus several personal cars of various sorts.
The Russells maintained a home at 101 South Mount Vernon Avenue. They later moved to 799 E Street.
In about 1912, William T. Russell moved to Highland, leaving the store to James to manage exclusively. The name was changed from Russell Brothers to Russell’s Department Store, and later became just a fashionable men’s clothing store at 1073 West Third Street, almost next door to the original store. James Russell, active for years in the affairs of the First Congregational Church and his Masonic Lodge, was both well known and highly respected in San Bernardino.
Russell was an avid fisherman, and he was particularly fond of trout fishing. In time he became known as an expert in this regard. His fishing companions ranged from the pastor of his Congregational Church, the Reverend Henry Mowbray, to James. J. Jeffries, the world heavyweight champion. In those days, any Big Bear Lake Rainbow Trout under a pound and a half was returned to the water for maturity.
During World War I, being over the military age limit, Mr. Russell volunteered for overseas service with the YMCA and spent some time at Stanford in the YMCA training unit. The war came to a close before he was assigned to an overseas post.
In the August 1924 primary for supervisor, Russell challenged Albert G. Kendall, the highly popular incumbent Fifth District county supervisor who had held the position since December 1918. Russell was defeated, receiving 1,435 votes to Kendall’s 3,174.
On June 1, 1926, Kendall, who was the chairman of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, died suddenly. Several men were suggested to fill the void. Of those, James Russell was appointed on July 3, 1926 by Governor Friend W. Richardson to fill the remaining few months of the late Mr. Kendall’s term as Fifth District supervisor. Although Russell had frequently been active in the politics of San Bernardino, he had never before held a political office. In his statement regarding his appointment and plans to seek election in the forthcoming 1926 primary, Russell declared, “Whether I run or not, I am going to do all in my power to have all major roads leading to the mountains in this county taken over by the State Highway Commission Those roads are no longer a local concern and the people should be relieved of the burden of taxation caused by the expense and upkeep due to outside traffic.”
Largely because of disagreements with other board members on matters of policy, rather than compromise his beliefs and convictions, Russell did not run for reelection to fill the position to which he had been appointed and left his office of four months on November 22, 1926. He was succeeded as Fifth District Supervisor by John Anderson, Jr.
In 1927, Mr. and Mrs. Russell had an impressive new home constructed at Baseline and Sterling Avenue.
Mr. Russell’s business was severely affected by the October 1929 Stock Market Crash and subsequent national depression. On August 25, 1932, he sold the clothing store and the following day, sold his interests in the Royal Arms Apartments, the Roseland Apartments and the Vista Apartments, in which he had previously invested.
He and his wife sold their home in October 1932. He salvaged enough from those sales and the failure of the San Bernardino National Bank to buy a small resort business in Pine Valley, in San Diego County. This, along with his activities as the village postmaster and as a realtor, plus frequent trips to the modest family home in Encinitas, kept him busy for some years. After his retirement from Pine Valley at about age 77, he and Mrs. Russell moved to Encinitas, where Sarah Russell died in 1956, and where, on September 11, 1958, he was fatally injured in an automobile accident in San Diego County at the age of 85.

Achyronychia is a monotypic genus of flowering plant containing the single species Achyronychia cooperi, which is known by the common names onyxflower and frost-mat. This plant is native to the Sonoran Desert of northern Mexico,  the Mojave and and the U.S. states of California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. It is plentiful in Joshua Tree National Park.
Onyxflower is a diminutive plant which lies in a small mat flat on the ground. Its habitat is sand. It radiates several prostrate stems in all directions, each only a few centimeters long. The thick pale green leaves are paddle-shaped and under two centimeters long. In the leaf, axils grow dense bunches of tiny flowers. There are no petals, but each flower has five thin shiny white sepals that look like tiny fingernails. The the genus name Achyronychia is Greek for “chaff fingernail.”
An annual plant, it sports glabrous and/or hairy stems ranging from three to 17 millimeters. The onyxflower is taprooted. Its fleshy, ovate, scarious fringed white bladed leaves feature 0.1 to 0.2 millimeter stipules and a vein. Its inflorescence is axillary, with from twenty to sixty flowers, the pedicels of which range from 0.5–2.5 mm. The flowers are from 2.5 to 3 mm. The frost-mat’s hypanthia, that is, its floral cup, contains roughly ten ribs, with the fruit contained within it and the calyx abruptly expanded at the top.
It features five sepals. Sepals are the green portion of the plant that give protection to the flower in bud and then support the petals when in bloom. A typical plant possesses one to four fertile stamens and anywhere from 14 to 19 staminodes, which do not produce pollen. The staminodes are thread-like and positioned on the hypanthium rim. The minute fruit of the plant is utricle, dehiscent, and ovoid; with eight to ten teeth. The ovoid seeds are compressed, tan in color with a red dot near the narrow end and roughly one millimeter in diameter.
The plants are found on sandy slopes, flats and washes at elevations from 150 feet to 2,200 feet.

By Grace Bernal
So the new season is bringing a lot changes in the fashion world. We have seen gray and black flash before us, but the feel of the 70s is also with the season. It was a rather sophisticated era that brought together suits of all types, bell bottom pants, deep V-necks, and hooped jewelry. This was a feminine time and the fashion was dramatic in a cool way. I could think of a few stylish icons of the 70s from Bianca Jagger, Ziggy Stardust, Diana Ross, Farrah Fawcett, Debbie Harry, and Elton John. These people stood out because they dared to stand out. The list is endless and so is the era. But the style is all about the people and this era declared denim shirts and flared jeans the decade’s ideal casual wear ensemble. Some outfits were outrageous, with sequin hot pants and silver moon boots, or the kimono-like kaftans. All this combined firmly planted high street fashion and, with the beginning of mail ordering service, women around the country were able to experience fast fashion for the first time. David Bowie performed on stage in spray-on leotards and with that he changed fashion forever. It goes without saying that the wrap dress has been one of the most famous fashion inventions ever, thanks to designer Diane Von Furstenberg. Today, the 70s look has never looked better and the trend is nothing but fun. So get your suede and fringes and become inspired by some of the original icons of the 70s era. Until next week, enjoy this fashionable journey.

“Fashion is mysterious, as a rule. Why are blue jeans a classic? You just hit on something that happens to be timeless and right.”
-Diane von Furstenberg