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Sentinel 11-21-14

(November 20)  ADELANTO — The Adelanto City Council gave approval to two separate prison building proposals in this cash-strapped city during a marathon meeting that began on November 19 and lasted until the wee hours of November 20.
The council chambers were packed to capacity as the city council, three of whose members were voted out of office on November 4 and were thus attending their last full council meeting in their elected capacity, considered a proposal by Geo Group Inc. to establish a privately-run prison to hold 1,050 inmates from the California Department of Corrections and a separate proposal by LCS Holdings, LLC to construct a 3,254-bed detention facility to hold overflow Los Angeles County jail inmates.
Adelanto is host to three existing detention facilities: The Adelanto Detention Facility, a 1,950 capacity prison owned and operated by Geo Group; the High Desert Detention Facility, a 2,098-bed facility operated by the San Bernardino County Sheriff, which was converted from a smaller private prison formerly run by the Moreland Family Trust and Maranatha Prison Systems; and the federal correctional complex located on the Adelanto-Victorville border.
The council twice voted, the first time by a 3-2 margin with Wright and councilman Steve Baisden in opposition and the second time by a 4-1 margin with councilman Jermaine Wright dissenting, to approve the development agreements to construct both the Geo Group  and the LCS Holdings projects.
The question now is whether those votes will hold up for a required second vote of the council, which is to come after the three new members of the council are sworn in.
On December 10, Mayor Cari Thomas is to be replaced by Rich Kerr and incumbent councilmen Baisden and Charles Valvo are to be displaced by Charley Glasper, a former councilman, and John Woodard.
During the election and immediately thereafter, Kerr gave indication he was opposed to the LCS Holdings proposal. He has since softened in that regard, indicating he will entertain arguments that the project would provide economic benefit to the community.
LCS’s proposal had been endorsed by the planning commission prior to the council vote this week. The planning commission, however, had rejected the Geo Group proposal.
Because the planning commission’s approval of the LCS project rendered it the one most likely to garner approval at the council level, over the last two weeks it had become the focus of a not insubstantial protest against the construction of more prison facilities in general and in Adelanto in particular. A group calling itself Defund Detention has been very active in the last fortnight, seeking to convince Adelanto city officials that  constructing more detention facilities in a city that already has three is not in the city’s long term interest, no matter what economic benefits might be derived from hosting such facilities. In addition to arguing that the proliferation of prisons in Adelanto is harming the city’s image, Defund Detention asserts that public sentiment and rehabilitative theory is moving away from incarceration as a cure for social ills. One of those involved in Defend Detention, Victoria Mena, maintains that California residents on general principle are opposed to the construction of more jails and are against the proliferation of privately-run detention facilities. Adelanto residents want no more jails, prisons or detention facilities built in their community, she insisted.  She asserts that California residents, in passing Proposition 47, which is aimed at reducing property and drug crimes from a felony to a misdemeanor status in order to reduce jail crowding, have initiated a trend against detention facility construction. Warehousing large numbers of criminals in the community will compromise public safety, Mena asserts.
Another anti-prison activist, Sarai Herrera, said that detention facilities are little more than “cages” for human beings and that the city has grown to be part of a “Prison Industrial Complex.”
The vote in favor of the Geo Group project, overriding the planning commission and staff recommendation against it, came after Geo CEO George Foley made his appeal to the council while a cadre of current Geo employees dressed in khaki prison guard uniforms and company executives were present to support him. “We are trying to bring economic benefits to this city,” Zoley said. “We bought your former empty facility for $28 million, and I think those proceeds have been used over the last several years to this community’s benefit.” Zoley called the proposal for a second facility to be owned and operated by his company “a continuation” of the previously established relationship between Geo and Adelanto.
Wright and Baisden sought to delay a vote on the proposal until next month, but the remainder of the council chose to vote on the project immediately.
The vote in favor of LCS Holdings’ proposal represented an important element needed to bring the Los Angeles County inmate overflow holding facility project to fruition.
In May, the two principals behind LCS, Newport Beach-based developer Buck Johns and Corrections Corporation of America Founder Doctor Crants of Nashville, Tennessee, presented the plan to alleviate crowding in Los Angeles County’s detention facilities to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Johns and Crants told the board the project would save Los Angeles County $674 million in capital costs and could be in place to receive inmates in two years. Johns and Crants are asking Los Angeles County for no capital contributions toward the project, but want a commitment from the county that it will house its overflow inmates there for 20 years at a cost of $88 per inmate per day, or roughly $104 million per year.
Los Angeles County, the largest county population-wise in California, has been hit particularly hard by the mandates in Assembly Bill 109, legislation aimed at closing California’s so-called “revolving door” of low-level inmates cycling in and out of state prisons. Assembly Bill 109 was drafted in an effort to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court order to reduce the number of inmates in the state’s 33 prisons to 137.5 percent of original design capacity. The law sent inmates deemed low risk – those who were convicted of non-violent offenses – back to the county where they were convicted for incarceration.
Adelanto, which is San Bernardino County’s sixth smallest city population-wise at 31,765 residents, is teetering on the precipice of bankruptcy, with little in the way of sales tax revenue-generating commercial development. Last year the city council declared the city was in a state of fiscal emergency, but its residents have refused to consent to impose on themselves a tax that city officials say is needed to stave off bankruptcy.
Johns and Crants are proposing that the $332 million cost of constructing the jail, which is to be located on 160 acres on Adelanto’s eastern boundary, be defrayed with bonds issued by a public finance authority or other agency. The city of Adelanto would own it. Once operating, Johns and Crants say, it would generate enough revenue to debt service the bonds and would provide the city with water and sewer connection fees of  $11,317,482, development impact fees of $3,713,750, public schools impact fees of $215,220, and engineering department fees of $91,046. In addition, Johns and Crants maintain the project would involve off-site infrastructure installation expenditures of $5,734,000 that would be of tremendous future benefit to the city and would create an estimated 3,769 construction jobs and an estimated 1.250 permanent jobs once the facility is in place.
But Johns and Crants had faced something of a Catch-22 that held up progress toward the closing of a deal to get the project under way during the summer. The city of Adelanto wanted Los Angeles County to make a two decade-long commitment to housing its inmates at the facility before proceeding. Los Angeles County wanted Adelanto to commit to building, owning and running the jail before it gave its commitment.
Johns and Crants made a major stride in their effort when the Adelanto Planning Commission on November 4 endorsed the project and gave its recommendation to the city council that it approve the development agreement.  The council furthered their progress toward the goal with its November 19 vote.
“We are very pleased with the vote and are looking forward to address the new council,” Johns told the Sentinel on November 20. “We are hopeful of doing spectacular things in the High Desert and especially in Adelanto. We are most appreciative of the efforts put in by city staff and the council members. We are delighted with the 4-1 vote so we can now move the project forward.”
Despite the council’s endorsement, Johns said the project is not a done deal yet. “We need a second vote with the new council,” Johns said. “We need to confirm last night’s vote because there is a zone change that is part of the project. Zone changes require two votes. We are scheduled to come back before the council on December 10. At that point, there will have been a change of three of the members of the council. We have high hopes the incoming council members will reflect the wishes of the current council and agree that our project represents a positive impact on the economic development and the creation of job opportunities in the city of Adelanto.”

(November 18) Mike Spence, who has served as Curt Hagman’s chief of staff during all six years he has served in the State Assembly, will serve as Hagman’s chief of staff in his new role as Fourth District San Bernardino County supervisor.
Spence, a councilman in West Covina who has a quarter of a century experience in various political roles in the state capital, including serving as the chief of staff for then-assemblyman Joel Anderson (R- El Cajon), will follow Hagman from Sacramento to San Bernardino.
Spence and Hagman share a hard-edged Republican streak, which was evident in the bare knuckled campaign waged against Gloria Negrete-McLeod for supervisor. McLeod, an incumbent Democratic congresswoman, was portrayed as soft on crime and an advocate of policies that are unfavorable to business interests in hit pieces originating with the Hagman campaign. Spence served as the chief strategist for Hagman in the campaign.
Spence is an anti-tax advocate who has long crusaded for paring back the bureaucracy of government and alleviating the financial burden on taxpayers.
In 1998, the city of West Covina unsuccessfully sued Spence over his opposition to a multi-million tax increase that would have imposed several hundred dollar-per year assessments on homeowners.  Spence prevailed in the lawsuit and the tax proposal failed.
Born and raised in West Covina, Spence was student body president at Edgewood High School  and he then attended and graduated from UCLA with a degree in political science. He was elected six times to the West Covina Unified School District Board of Education, was a founding board member of the California Virtual Academy-L.A. High School, and is a past-president of the East San Gabriel Valley Regional Occupational Program/Technical College where he served 18 years as a board member.
From 1996 to 2000, Spence served a full term on the Library of California Board. He received the Samuel Adams Leadership Award from the Washington, D.C.-based Local Government Council in 1997. Spence was for four years the taxpayer representative on the Mount San Antonio Community College Bond Oversight Committee. He is a board member of the local Meals on Wheels program.
While he will now be taking on a key San Bernardino County assignment, he remains a creature of Los Angeles County, and good naturedly jabs at San Bernardino County news reporters who confuse the smaller 7.041-square mile neighboring city of Covina, population 47,796, with 16.09 square mile, 106,098 population West Covina.
This week, the current board of supervisors, including Supervisor Gary Ovitt, whom Hagman will replace next month, approved an employment contract between the county and Spence to
provide support services to Hagman as the incoming Fourth District supervisor as a chief of staff, effective in the current pay period in which he will be paid at a rate reflecting an annual salary  of $98,094 and benefits of $85,726 for a full annual cost of $183,820.
County spokesman David Wert  told the Sentinel that “the county is providing Mr. Spence in his role as chief of the transition staff less than he will be paid as chief of staff.”
The salary range for a chief of staff for a member of the board of supervisors is $8,978.67 to $11,498.93 per month or $107,744.04 to $137,987.16 in annual salary plus roughly 90,000 to $95,000 in yearly benefits.
Given the close relationship between Spence and Hagman, it appears that Spence will be given the maximum salary permissible.
“What Mr. Spence is paid as chief of staff is something Mr. Hagman will take up once he becomes supervisor and he is briefed on how much money is available to him in his office budget.”
According to county chief executive officer Greg Devereaux, the contract with Spence “will allow the hiring of a chief of staff to support the incoming county supervisor for the Fourth District. Pursuant to Policy 02-03 an incoming county supervisor is allowed to select a chief of staff and executive secretary in order to transition into office and to facilitate district relevant documents and data gathering. This contract shall become effective in Pay Period No. 25-2014. Consistent with Policy 02-03, this contract approval has an effective date of no more than forty-five days prior to the newly elected supervisor officially taking office. Transitional staff hired under this policy automatically become regular staff when the newly
elected supervisor takes office unless the contracts are terminated by action of the incoming supervisor. All other terms of the transition employment contract will remain unchanged. During this transitional period, duties of transitional staff are limited to acquainting themselves with San
Bernardino County government and data gathering. Transitional staff may coordinate with the incumbent supervisor’s office to familiarize themselves with active projects as well as constituent concerns. Transitional staff shall not begin work on projects specifically related to the newly elected supervisor’s district or with San Bernardino County in general. Additionally, transitional staff may interview potential regular staff; however, further employment contracts may not be approved by the Board of Supervisors until the new supervisor assumes office.”
Hagman said,  “Mike Spence has an outstanding record in public policy, management and political activity. He’s been a chief of staff, an elected official, taxpayer advocate and governmental relations consultant.”

(November 18)  Acting as the governing body of the Housing Authority of the county of San Bernardino, the board of supervisors this week approved a preliminary memorandum of understanding with the city of San Bernardino, the San Bernardino City Unified School District, Loma Linda University, the Institute of Public Strategies and the National Community Renaissance of California to work toward preparing and submitting an application with the federal government for a significant portion of the city of San Bernardino to be designated as a so-called “Promise Zone,” making it eligible for subsidization funding for community improvement programs.
In 2013, the Promise Zone Initiative was introduced by the federal government to designate a number of high-poverty urban, rural and tribal communities as target areas where the federal government would partner and invest in communities to create jobs, leverage private investment, increase economic activity, expand educational opportunities, and reduce violent crime. In January 2014, the first five Promise Zones were selected by an interagency panel led by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In September 2014, the second round of the Promise Zone initiative was announced.
Urban, rural, and tribal communities were invited to put forward a plan to partner with local businesses and community leaders to make evidence-based investments that reward hard work and expand opportunity.
In exchange, those communities that receive the Promise Zone designation receive preferred access to certain competitive federal investments that further their strategic plans, get federal staff on the ground to help them implement their goals, and obtain access to federal staff to recruit and manage volunteers to strengthen the capacity of Promise Zone partners.
Promise Zones focus on assisting community cooperation with the federal government to meet development and economic rejuvenation goals.
The board of supervisors endorsed the effort, brought forward by county executive officer Greg Devereaux at the November 18 board meeting, to allow the county to engage with the other participants to meet a November 21 filing deadline.
“A Promise Zone designation presents an invaluable and crucial opportunity to transform an area of extreme need in the city of San Bernardino into a healthy, sustainable, equitable and thriving place to work, live and play,” Devereaux wrote in a report/recommendation to the board of supervisors dated November 18. “The positive transformation of this community and its residents is dependent upon physical transformation of the area, linked to comprehensive and coordinated public-private Promise Zone strategies to access and create jobs, increase economic activity and security, improve educational opportunities, improve health and wellness, and reduce violent crime. The housing authority, the county of San Bernardino, the city of San Bernardino, the National Community Renaissance of California, San Bernardino City Unified School District, Loma Linda University, and the Institute of Public Strategies desire to form a collaborative through this memorandum of understanding and will submit the required Second Round Promise Zone Urban Application and if the area is designated as a Promise Zone, complete the work necessary to implement the Promise Zone Plan.”
When pressed by Supervisor Josie Gonzales to explain why the county was participating in the program, Devereaux said, “Promise Zone is a program that was initiated by the federal government i n 2013. The premise behind the program is that a number of high poverty areas throughout the United States would be designated as Promise Zones. Those Promise Zones don’t in and of themselves  bring any funding with them.  They do bring consultation and advice and counsel from members of  the United States  Government across a wide array of departments. If you receive a promise zone designation, you get priority for certain funding opportunities for certain areas such as education, wellness and job training. The city of San Bernardino applied in the initial round. They were not selected. There were only five jurisdictions across the country that were selected. As they prepared for round two, one of the  areas where the application was short was capacity. Given the issues that are occurring in San Bernardino right now, especially the financial issues, I think the federal government was concerned that they had sufficient capacity to really bring together a lot of stakeholders in the community, because this  whole approach of Promise Zone is bringing together a number of community partners that are vested and invested in that community that are supposed to work together, almost  in a collective impact environment, pooling resources, working across silos for the betterment of that community. So the city and mayor approached the county and asked whether the county would join in the effort as we had last time but this time, because of the federal government’s concerns about their capacity, would the county act as the lead agency. When we looked at it, we did not think it would take a lot of extra work because a lot of the approach for this Promise Zone application is concentrating the efforts of programs that are already in existence and already taking place and making sure that they are better coordinated and getting higher levels of participation. We already have a transitional assistance department center in the very focus area they are talking about, which is the area primarily around Waterman Gardens but also includes major portions of the city, so this application is based on an inner zone and an outer zone.  It’s not about instituting a new program, but trying to make sure we get more of the residents participating in that program and better coordinated with other programs  There are a lot of community partners coming to the table. What it does is it makes every one of them more eligible or given a higher priority for funding across a wide array of departments within the U.S. Government. Indeed to date, that has been the case. Every Choice Neighborhood grant that has been issued in the United States in this past year were with a group that had a Promise Zone. Choice Neighborhood grants can run from $30 to $50 million. Though the guidelines don’t say you have to be in a Promise Zone, it is telling that the only jurisdictions that got them were in Promise Zones. It just gives you a leg up.”
Supervisor Gonzales called the joint effort “a great new beginning for a multitude of positive reasons.” She reminded those present that “This county is the largest tenant in the city of San Bernardino. We have a real estate portfolio intrinsically tied to the city of San Bernardino. We have a whole hell of a lot of money invested in this city.” Gonzales said the county should strive to be “a good partner wherever it is possible. This goes a long way toward partnering with the city of San Bernardino.”
At the same time, she sounded a note of caution, saying, “Everything cannot fall on the county. Each city is responsible and held responsible unto itself. The city of San Bernardino has to step up and meet their obligation and help us to help them. If that does not happen then all of the best efforts will fail.”
Gonzales, asked what liability the county would have if the project fell apart and, in such a circumstance, if it would jeopardize “our high status with HUD at the federal level.”
Deveraux said, ”The county is held in good stead by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. I do think that if we were fortunate enough to be awarded a Promise Zone designation and failed to come together as a community and work in a way that led to improvement, we would fall somewhat in the eyes of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Having said that, I can tell you that given the nature of the leadership at the table, I think there is a very high likelihood of success. With the level of commitment they have demonstrated and the initiative they have put forth, those problems are going to take place and, I think, will be able to succeed. If the funding that will be available if the Promise Zone comes through, it would only help all of them be able to succeed at a higher level.”
In a separate action pertaining to a cooperative endeavor involving the county’s housing authority and one of the entities involved in the Promise Zone application, National Community Renaissance, also known as National CORE, the board of supervisors approved a consent to joint representation and waiver of potential conflict of interest arising out of the representation of the county of San Bernardino by Goldfarb & Lipman LLP.
That item pertained to the approval of the Val 9 Apartments affordable
housing project in San Bernardino. The county’s Department of Community Development and Housing is partnering with Housing Partners I, Incorporated and National Community Renaissance on the project. Both of those entities are existing clients of the Goldfarb and Lipman firm as is the county’s housing authority.  The county intends to use Goldfarb & Lipman’s ’s services to negotiate and prepare documents relating to its participation, through the HOME Investment Partnership program, in the financing of the Val 9 Apartments affordable housing development. Accordingly, the board of supervisors consented to a waiver as to the potential conflict growing out of this triple representation.
Such a potential conflict, and a need for a waiver, will ensue if the Promise Zone status is granted to San Bernardino, and the county partners with National CORE in an endeavor growing out of that program.

(November 18)  The county this week facilitated the return of a child to his mother in Mexico.
On March 25, 2013, for the child’s safety, the San Bernardino County Department of Children and Family Services removed the child, then 11-years-old, from the father’s care. At that time, the child’s mother was residing in Mexico and unable to care for the child. With the assistance of the Mexican Consulate, the mother was located in Acapulco and engaged in family reunification services in order to be reunited with the child.
On March 14, 2014, the court gave CFS permission to reunite the child and mother in Acapulco, Mexico once the mother’s current residence was assessed and received approval.
The Department of Children and Family Services received the Desarrollo Integral de la Familiae llit (Mexican Social Services report) approving the mother’s residence and the report was submitted to the court. Since then, the Department of Children and Family Services has been working to acquire the appropriate documentation and travel arrangements for the child’s final placement into the mother’s home in Mexico.
A Mexican Consulate representative will accompany the child on the flight to Acapulco, Mexico in the interest of the child’s welfare. The travel costs for the Mexican Consulate representative will be covered by the Mexican Consulate. The board of supervisors this week approved the appropriation of $400 to cover the cost of the child’s airfare. It is anticipated that the travel for this reunification will be completed before the end of November 2014.

 By Mark Gutglueck
(November 19)  A 37-year-old Fontana resident employed as a guard in an armored car partook in an inside job to heist over one million in cash, according to federal authorities.
While the two employees of the cash handling service company involved in the heist succeeded in dropping the money off and having it recovered by a third party and then secreting away some 90 percent of the ill-gained proceeds, ultimately they were caught.
Cesar Yanez, 37, of Fontana, and Aldo Esquivel Vega, 28, of Pomona, both of whom were employed as armored truck drivers for Loomis, were arrested on November 13 without incident by special agents with the FBI and officers with the Los Angeles Police Department. In relation to search warrants executed the same day, agents found approximately $85,000 in cash at Yanez’s Fontana residence.
A third person involved in the scheme, Jovita Medina Guzman, 39, of San Bernardino, was also arrested on November 13. She is charged with helping her co-defendants hide and disperse the stolen funds and for being an accessory after the fact.
All three defendants were arraigned on a four-count indictment November 13 in United States District Court.
The indictment, which was returned by a federal grand jury on November 7 and unsealed on November 13, alleges that Yanez and Vega, while employed by Loomis on June 27 were transporting a multimillion dollar shipment of cash for Bank of America when they stopped in a parking lot on West Adams Boulevard in Los Angeles. Vega electronically opened the rear doors of the armored car, which allowed Yanez to access the cash storage area of the vehicle.  Yanez removed $1,086,000 in cash from the armored car and placed it into a trash can that had been left in the parking lot by an as-yet-unidentified person, who later picked up the trash can and recovered the stolen money. Later, Guzman allegedly delivered some of the stolen money to Vega.
Yanez and Vega are each charged with conspiracy to commit bank larceny and bank larceny. Additionally, Yanez and Guzman are charged with possession of bank larceny proceeds, and Guzman is charged as an accessory after the fact to hinder and prevent her co-defendants’ apprehension, trial, and punishment.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Rhoades, who is prosecuting Yanez, Vega and Guzman, only $116,000 of the loot from the caper has been recovered so far. Some $25,000 of that money was retrieved by an informant working with the FBI on the case, Rhodes said. Roughly $91,000 was discovered to be in the possession of Yanez, Rhodes said.
“More than $900,000 is still missing,” Rhoades told the Sentinel.
Loomis discovered the money was missing shortly after the theft occurred, Rhoades said, but both Yanez and Vega remained at liberty for the more than four months following the disappearance of the money until their arrests.
If they are convicted of the offenses alleged in the indictment, Yanez would face a statutory maximum sentence of 25 years in federal prison; Vega would face up to 15 years; and Guzman could be sentenced to as much as 15 years in custody. Additionally, each of the defendants could be ordered to pay fines of as much as two times the loss suffered by Bank of America.
Rhoades told the Sentinel that Yanez faces a stiffer sentence because he is charged with having taken possession of the money and distributing it after the theft.
The investigation into the theft of bank funds was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Los Angeles Police Department.
Rhoades said an investigation into the whereabouts of the yet unrecovered money is ongoing.

(November 18)  Eleven months after county assessor Dennis Draeger recommended that the board of supervisors approved a $5 million, three-year contract with a Sun Valley-based company to micrograph, index and redact documents filed with the assessor/recorder/county clerk’s office, the board this week entered into an alternative contract, this one for $600,000 with a Florida-based company, for redaction services.
On Tuesday, the board okayed the payment of $600,000 to Computing System Innovations of Apopka, Florida to provide daily and historic redaction services for the assessor-recorder-county clerk, for a contract term beginning December 1, 2014 and running through November 30, 2017, with two one-year options to extend the term of the contract.
The board did so upon the recommendation of  Draeger, the county assessor-recorder/county clerk. In making his recommendation this time around, Draeger suggested that Computing System Innovations was better qualified than all of its competitors to carry out the redaction work.
Curiously, however, last year, at its final meeting in 2013, Draeger suggested something different when he recommended that the board of supervisors approve a $5,000,000 contract with PFA, Inc. of Sun Valley to provide micrographics, film conversion, indexing, and redaction services for the assessor-recorder-county clerk-recorder’s division from January 1, 2014 through December 31, 2016, with two one-year options to extend the term of the contract.
At that time,  Draeger said he intended the assessor-recorder-county clerk’s office to “utilize the services of PFA, Inc. to provide micrographics, film conversion, indexing, and redaction work for a three-year term, with two one-year options to extend the term of the contract. This contract includes four distinct types of work, all of which are vital to the daily operation of the recorder division. The first type of work, micrographics, involves converting scanned images to microfilm and vice versa. More than 550,000 documents were recorded by assessor-recorder-county clerk in calendar year 2012, and all of those documents were received in image form or were scanned in-house. Those documents are then converted to microfilm to preserve permanent county records as mandated by state law. The second type of work, film conversion, places digital, microfiche and film images of documents on silver or Diazo film for more durable preservation. The third type of work consists of indexing fields on recorded documents that can then be used to retrieve the document images within the recorder’s system. The fourth type of work, redaction, involves creating a public record version of each official record by redacting the first five digits of each social security number found in an official record, as mandated by Government Code Section 27301. All four types of work will involve current documents; in addition, documents dating back to January 1, 1980, will be redacted as mandated by Government Code Section 27301.”
Draeger recommended that PFA, which had the county contract for all of the microfilming,  conversion, indexing and redaction services since 2006, be given the three-year, $5 million contract after the county sought bids on the service in April 2013, obtaining bids from seven interested vendors, including HOV Services of  Carson; Extract Systems of Madison, Wisconsin; American Cadastre LLC of Herndon, Virginia; Xerox ACS Enterprise Solutions of San Ramon; PFA; and Midwest Micro Imaging of Golden Valley, Minnesota; as well as Computing System Innovations of Apopka, Florida.
Last December, Draeger told the board that “Staff from the  assessor-recorder-county clerk’s office and the purchasing department reviewed all of the proposals and independently evaluated each proposal’s merit based on technical ability, cost and references” and “the evaluators took care to note minimum vendor and proposal requirements and rated the vendors on understanding of the assessor-recorder-county clerk’s needs, accurate and complete description of technical processes, ability to handle sensitive data, ability to meet timelines, and experience. The vendors were asked to provide costs per unit of service instead of estimating an overall contract amount.  “The evaluation committee recommended PFA for a contract to provide micrographics, film conversion, indexing, and redaction services to the assessor-recorder-county clerk’s office based on the cumulative decision that their technical ability exceeded the ability of the other vendors and their references were superior. PFA was not consistently the lowest or highest bidder when comparing vendors’ costs. However, due to the technical nature of the work involved, accuracy was felt to be more critical than cost. PFA provides an accuracy rate of 99.95% with quality assurance controls at no additional charge. Due to a previous protest regarding redaction services, great effort was taken to assure uniformity and fairness during the evaluation process. Despite staff’s effort, an appeal to the decision to award the contract to PFA was received by the purchasing department. The purchasing agent communicated with the vendor and addressed the questions put forth in the protest.”
The board, however, in December 2013 held off on approving the $5 million contract as recommended by Draeger, instead extending the contract with the company for another two months.
In February of this year, after originally scheduling a consideration of the extending the contract with PFA for five years for February 11 but continuing it until February 25, the board approved a reduced contract with PFA to provide micrographics, film conversion, and indexing services for the assessor-recorder-county clerk, in an amount not to exceed $1,600,000, beginning March 2, 2014 through February 28, 2017, with two one-year options to extend the term of the contract. It rejected all proposals for redaction services and terminated the scope of work for redaction services under the request for proposal and approved an amendment to the agreement with PFA to have it continue with current redaction services from March 2, 2014 through November 30, 2014,  increasing the not-to-exceed amount of its original 2006 contract with PFI by $35,000, from $7,207,517 to $7,242,517.
In a report/recommendation to the board of supervisors this week, Draeger wrote, “Redaction services are necessary for the recorder division to meet government mandates and to support the information management plans in the assessor-recorder-county clerk’s office. The recommended contract with Computing System Innovations (CSI) is for redaction services, which is vital to daily operations. Redaction creates a public version of each official record by redacting the first five digits of any Social Security number as required by law. On January 31,2006,  the board approved Agreement No. 06-124 with PFA, Inc. to provide micrographics, film conversion, and indexing services. This contract has been amended six times to include redaction services, increase project cost, and extend the term, most recently on February 25, 2014 to extend the term for redaction services to November 30, 2014.
The chief executive officer approved the release of a request for proposal for micrographics, film conversion, indexing, and redaction services on April 18, 2013. The board approved Agreement No. 14-62 with PFA on February 25, 2014 to award the contract for three of the four services. The board determined that further clarification of the technical requirements was needed for daily and historic redaction services, and therefore a new request for proposal was released on May 14, 2014. The assessor-recorder-county clerk’s office  received proposals for redaction services from four interested vendors as follows: Computing System Innovations Apopka, FL $600,000; Extract Systems, LLC Madison, WI $495,750; Mentis Technology Solutions, LLC Centennial, CO $881,100; and Ricoh USA, Inc Malvern, PA $853,500.
An evaluation team consisting of staff from the assessor-recorder-county clerk’s office, finance and administration, purchasing, and the county of Riverside evaluated the proposals based on mandatory submittal requirements and minimum qualifications, technical review, cost, references, financial stability, and oral presentations from the top three vendors. CSI was the highest ranked proposer and the evaluation committee recommends that that contract be awarded to CSI. The fee charged by CSI to redact historic documents is higher than that proposed by one other vendor, Extract Systems, LLC. CSI, however, scored very well during the oral presentation by providing clear and distinct answers regarding critical technical aspects of this service such as document security measures, handling documents with challenges such as handwritten numbers and reversed polarity, and quality control. CSI provides four confidence levels in quality control and manually checks all redacted documents. They provided a well thought out plan for emergencies, and demonstrated the company’s customer service philosophy as their highest priority. As a result, CSI received the top overall score. In addition, CSI had the strongest financial stability of all proposers, and provided references demonstrating its project experience with other agencies having similar volume and time constraints for historic redaction (back files) as the county’s project.
Under the recommended contract, CSI will not charge the county for redaction of current filings of  up to 2.5 million pages per year for the initial term of the contract, which is anticipated to be sufficient to address the volume of recorded documents containing social security numbers, which is currently estimated at 2.0 million pages per year. In the event the daily redaction volume  exceeds 2.5 million pages per year, or if the one-year options are exercised at the end of the contract’s initial three year term, the cost per page will be $0.012. This rate was the lowest among all the proposers.”
Unexplained in Draeger’s report/recommendation was why his December 2013 glowing recommendation of PFA, including its ability to provide redaction services, was no longer operative. When pointed questions relating to that change were raised by the public at this week’s board meeting, Draeger did not provide a substantive response.
“We put our request for proposals for vendor response,” Draeger said. “We had a competitive process. The Florida company was the low bidder and best performer,” he said.

By Count Friedrich von Olsen
As I gaze down from my chalet here in San Bernardino County, one of the last bastions of Republicanism in this once great state that is now the most liberal in the land, dominated by Democrats who are little more than socialists in disguise, I count my blessings that I, a Tory, a Bonapartist, a practitioner of realpolitik,  now an American and a proud member of the GOP, am still at liberty to speak my mind.  Read on as I give pen to some of my observations on the recent political scene…
One-time Apple Valley Mayor Rick Roelle and outgoing Victorville Councilwoman  Angela Valles sojourned to the Sandwich Islands last week to tie the knot after living in sin these past many years. It seems Angela was outfitted with a lap band and has lost a good deal of poundage, and indeed she looked quite fetching and svelte, at least in the photos of the wedding I have seen. It is no wonder Mr. Roelle has finally decided to make an honest woman of her, which is quite fitting now that she is to be out of politics altogether…
At this week’s board of supervisors’ meeting, a veritable who’s who of political figures in the Fourth Supervisorial District paid homage to Gary Ovitt, who will be leaving the board next month. Among those offering worshipful attestations of his value to the community were representatives of the offices of Congresswoman Gloria Negrete-McLeod and representatives of Assemblyman Curt Hagman.  Methinks their praise of Supervisor Ovitt was somewhat disingenuous, given that it was the determination of both Negrete-McLeod and Hagman to vie for the Fourth District Supervisors’ post that persuaded Supervisor Ovitt not to seek reelection. I am an adherent to the Eleventh Commandment, which forbids one Republican from speaking ill of another Republican. Thus, I will merely say that I was disappointed, to put it mildly, that Curt, the chairman of the San Bernardino County Republican Party, would move to challenge Gary, a tried and true Republican of longstanding. There is solace, however, in the consideration that Mr. Hagman proved victorious over Mrs. Negrete-McLeod, a Democrat…
Richard Lewis, the scion of Ralph and Goldie Lewis and one of the keepers of the flame of the Lewis Developmental Dynasty, will travel this week to Dubai. No doubt he will be in counsel with many high powered financiers who will hopefully enable his corporation to continue  and enlarge upon its excellent work at gracing the Inland Empire with its quality residential and commercial projects…
The Adelanto City Council this week granted go-ahead to the construction of a 3,264-bed detention facility in its jurisdiction. I am heartily in favor of the project, objecting only to the consideration that its beds will be reserved for miscreants from Los Angeles County and not for the surfeit of indigenous misdoers in San Bernardino County…

The Count’s views do not necessarily reflect those of the Sentinel, its ownership, its publisher or editors.

By Mark Gutglueck
Relatively little of David Colton’s 47-year-long life was  spent in San Bernardino County.  Nevertheless, he left an indelible impression here, as he was responsible for bringing the railroad through the area and it was essentially his decision to lay the original regional rail line at the south end of the city of San Bernardino rather than into its downtown. That decision gave rise to the city that bears his name.
David Douty Colton was born July 17, 1831 in Monson, Maine to Isaac Watts Colton and Abigail (Douty) Colton. He had no brothers, but did have two sisters,  Angela and Martha. His father was a farmer in north central Maine. In 1836 his family moved to Illinois, settling in Galesburg in Knox County.
He attended Knox Manual Labor College, now known as Knox College. During his freshman year, Colton proposed marriage to Ellen Mason White, the daughter of Dr. Chauncey and Maria S. (Brownson) White and a student in the women’s seminary on the campus of Knox.  Ellen White turned down David’s proposal because, as he later said, her father considered him to be a young man without prospects.
Talked into it by a classmate, Hiram G. Ferris, David dropped out of college and left Galesburg in the Spring of 1850 and headed for the gold fields of California in a light wagon with three horses that Colton had purchased with a loan of a few hundred dollars from his father. The pair traveled to Council Bluffs, Iowa, then a Mormon settlement known as Kanesville, near the Missouri River. Kanesville was a popular outfitting point for those traveling westward by wagon train. Wanting to get to the gold fields as quickly as possible, and wanting to avoid the risk of cholera, a common and fatal disease among wagon trains, they decided to take their chances and crossed the remaining 1,500 miles on their own to California.
Leaving Kanesville on April 25, 1850, Colton and Ferris arrived at Placerville, nicknamed Hangtown, in El Dorado County, California on July 9. The following day they sold two of the horses for $190 and used the money to outfit themselves with mining gear. They did not immediately fare well. Eventually, however, their claim produced enough gold for Colton to repay the loan his father had made to him. Shortly thereafter, Colton contracted  typhoid fever, which lasted six weeks and left him too fatigued to mine. He went to San Francisco and from there took passage to Portland in the Oregon Territory. There Colton joined a group of miners in an expedition into northern California that arrived at Yreka Flats in present day Siskiyou County, California.
Yreka Flats had its county seat in Shasta City. There was an absence of formal law enforcement, and miners gravitated toward their own method of summary justice that involved whippings and lynchings. The miners of the area initiated a county incorporation effort in the spring of 1851. That movement ultimately led to the election of David Colton as Siskiyou County sheriff.
An incident that led to his eventual selection as sheriff involved a group of Klamath Indians, who under the leadership of Chief Chinook, killed two miners. Colton later related to a newspaper reporter that he and a companion, not yet knowing of the murders, entered Klamath village and noticed Chief Chinook was wearing clothing and carrying firearms belonging to the miners. Colton and his companion surmised the miners must have been killed by the Indians, but they kept their silence and returned to camp. They informed the rest of the camp and a group of miners, including Colton, went in search of Chief Chinook and his band of Indians. They were found and a gun battle ensued. Several Indians were killed, but Chief Chinook escaped. Colton led two volunteers in pursuit and after a lengthy search, the chief was captured. While returning the chief to the miners’ Camp they came across a group of squawmen – white men cohabitating with Indian women. One of the men was a dangerous character by the name of Vail, who would later serve a term in prison. The squawmen threatened to free Chief Chinook, but under the cover of darkness later that night, Colton and his companions were able to skulk away with their captive. When they finally reached their camp, Chief Chinook was tried by a miners’ court for the murders, found guilty and sentenced to be hanged.
The hanging of Chief Chinook was riddled with miscues. A butcher’s gallows was used for the hanging. When none of the miners was willing to place the noose around the chief’s neck, another Indian was chosen to do so. Because he was somewhat shorter than the chief, to place the noose properly he had to climb on the chief’s back. The chief resisted by taking hold of the noose with his teeth. To assist, one of the miners braced his knee against the chief’s chest, and pulled the noose from his teeth, breaking some of the chief’s teeth. Upon the removal of the plank upon which the chief was standing, his foot caught on a rope supporting the plank. After much difficulty, the rope was cut and the execution was completed.
Siskiyou County was incorporated in 1852, at which time  Ferris had joined his friend Colton at Yreka Flats. Together, Colton and Ferris would play important roles in the new government. The first county elections were held in May 1852. Ferris was elected county clerk and Colton, who had distinguished himself in the capture of Chief Chinook, was the choice for sheriff. At the age of twenty, however, he was too young to hold office. Charles McDermott was elected sheriff and Colton was made undersheriff. McDermott had little interest in being sheriff and David Colton performed most of the duties. At the next general election, Sept. 7, 1853, Colton, now old enough, was elected sheriff over two other candidates, receiving 827 out of 1,457 votes cast.
In December 1853 David Colton returned to Galesburg in Illinois at taxpayers’ expense, ostensibly to apprehend a fugitive and return him to California. Having established himself as a leading citizen of Siskiyou County, he again proposed to Ellen White and she consented. Their wedding was performed by the Reverend George Washington Gale at the local church, March 1, 1854. They returned to California by way of Panama in April 1854, but without the fugitive Colton was supposed to be pursuing. The fugitive had been in Sacramento all the time, it turned out. Nevertheless, Colton billed the state for $1,723 for expenses that were paid by an act of the state legislature.
David and Ellen Colton had two daughters, Helen, born in 1854, and Carrie, born eighteen months later in 1856. Helen would marry Crittenden Thornton, an attorney, who later became a justice on the state Supreme Court. Carrie married Daniel Cook, a prosperous mining engineer but died childless a few years after the marriage.
In 1855, Colton and Ferris, in partnership with three other men, purchased the first newspaper in Yreka, renaming it the Yreka Union. Initially it was agreed the paper would be politically independent but Colton and Ferris, being ardent Democrats, deviated from their stated ideal and the paper took on a decidedly pro-Democrat slant.
David Colton at that point acquired the rank of brigadier general in the Siskiyou Co. branch of the California State Militia. That brigade was organized in 1855, being composed of 75 men and staff officers. The most significant duty as a brigade occurred during the Modoc War of 1856 when several more miners were killed by Indians. The militia was activated and initiated a campaign of pacification. The total force amounted to about 200 men and included Colton’s 2nd Brigade. The war, consisting of a series of skirmishes in which the men provided their own horses, food and weapons, resulted in the death of three militiamen, the death of a Modoc woman during the destruction of a Modoc village and the wounding of several Modoc men. Peace was secured after Chief Schonchin agreed to restrain his people.
Toward the end of his term as sheriff in 1857, Colton ran for state Senate as the Democratic candidate, losing when his questionable journey to Illinois to get married at taxpayer expense became a campaign issue.
Colton was involved as a principal in three duels or near duels. The first arose from rivalry between local Democrats and Whigs. Colton and a southern Whig almost shot it out when Colton accepted the offer to duel. Hiram Ferris intervened, and the duel was called off. The second near duel had Colton as the challenger with his opponent for the state Senate in 1857. Whether the duel was ever fought or not is not known. The last duel occurred in early 1858 between the local coroner and Colton over an article that appeared in Colton’s Yreka Union. Because dueling was illegal in California, arrangements were made for the two men to face off in Oregon, just north of the California border, at forty paces with Mississippi Yager rifles. On the afternoon of February 9, 1858 their seconds and a host of spectators gathered but before shots were fired, friends of the combatants urged a reconciliation. His opponent withdrew and there is yet a dispute over who made the first peace offer.
In November, 1856, Hiram Ferris returned to Illinois. Having lost his bid for state Senate, Colton in 1858 departed to Albany, New York, where he studied law, reading the state’s civil and penal codes in the office of an already practicing attorney, a common form of legal education at the time. He struck up a partnership with another law student, Ralph C. Harrison, who had served in the Connecticut Legislature.  After the completion of his legal studies, Colton, his family and Harrison moved to San Francisco. Colton brought a law library he had purchased in Albany and was authorized to practice law in California by the state Supreme Court on October 3, 1859. Shortly thereafter, he and Harrison entered into a joint law practice in San Francisco. Harrison handled most of the legal work while Colton devoted his energies to politics and business dealings. “Why sit around waiting for a $50 fee when a smart trader can go out and make $500 in half the time?” Colton said.
Through many transactions, David Colton ultimately became a wealthy man. At the same time, the Democratic Party in California, of which he was a part, lost much of its power and backing as a result of the Civil War. In the gubernatorial campaign of 1863, the party split into two wings, the Colton Party, so called because of a movement to endorse David Colton for governor or as a US Senator, and the Buchanan/Breckenridge faction. Slavery was a big issue dividing the party. When Colton called for a state convention, only a dozen supporters showed up. Three hundred had been expected. Recognizing that the Democratic Party had dwindled away to next to nothing in the political atmosphere of slavery and the Civil War, David Colton withdrew from active involvement in state politics, but remained a Democrat until he died.
In 1865, at the end of the Civil War, the Colton family left San Francisco for a two year vacation, traveling through England, Europe, Turkey, Egypt and the Holy Land. While Colton had experienced political disappointment during the Civil War years, his mining and real estate investments proved to be highly profitable. He was president and major owner of the Amador gold mine, which yielded a half-million dollars annually and his San Francisco properties brought in rents totaling $3,000 monthly.
In 1872 Colton built a stately mansion on San Francisco’s Nob Hill. Located on the northwest corner of California and Taylor Streets, it was built on a half city block at a cost of $75,000, it was constructed of wood and painted white, patterned after a white marble palace in Italy. The interior was decorated with works of art and antique furniture acquired during his two year travels and contained a large library stocked with works of English literature. The house became something of a showplace and several architects and artists considered it to be one of the most artistic dwellings in San Francisco. It was recognized as “the second grandest” dwelling in San Francisco, the nicest being that of his neighbor, Charles Crocker, the banker who had been one of the Big Four – himself, Mark Hopkins, Leland Stanford and Collis Huntington. The Big Four had built the Central Pacific Railroad, which when it jointed the Union Pacific in Promontory, Utah in 1869 formed the nation’s first transcontinental railroad. They became fabulously wealthy in the process.  Colton and Crocker became acquainted and, in time, friends and business associates.
In 1870, Colton accompanied Crocker to the Rocky Mountain Coal & Iron Co. in Colorado. Crocker’s intent was to get Colton to invest in the yet undeveloped company. Colton recognized the potential, with trains needing coal for fuel, and he told Crocker he would invest in its development. Crocker offered him the presidency and general managership if he bought 1,000 shares of stock. Colton accepted and became president and general manager in January, 1871. Over the next few years Colton developed the company into an efficient and profitable source of coal for the railroads.
In 1874 Colton joined a group of Nob Hill residents securing a franchise from the city to construct and operate a cable car up California St. to the top of Nob Hill.. The project was completed in April, 1878 and the cable car proved to be one of the most successful ventures in the city.
Based upon his dialogues with Crocker and his success with the San Francisco cable car line and the coal mining venture, Colton thought he could himself become a railroad magnate and that the Big Four would become the Big Five, with him as the fifth member.
In 1874, after the panic of 1873, Colton became associated with the directors and principal stockholders of the Central Pacific R.R. He signed a promissory note for $1,000,000 payable in gold coin, and in exchange was made a co-director of the most powerful corporation in the American West and gained the opportunity to share in the financial profits. On August 30, 1875, he was elected a director of Central Pacific R.R. and the following day he was appointed the company’s financial director. Eventually he was detailed to work on projects related to the  Southern Pacific Railroad, which had been purchased by the Big Four in 1868 and merged with the Central Pacific in 1870. Colton worked tirelessly in his capacity with the newly-formed company, overseeing the effort to build a second transcontinental railroad, one that converted the track from the railroad once controlled by the Confederacy and which would represent a southern route into the lower part of California with a dual terminus in Los Angeles and San Diego. Meanwhile, the Big Four reaped the rewards of his efforts without engaging in anywhere near the level of effort he was making.
As vice president of the Southern Pacific R.R., in October 1874 Colton attended a meeting in San Bernardino, with Crocker. Residents there wanted the railroad to pass through the city but a line through the county seat would have been off the most direct route and prohibitively expensive to maintain. A stretch of land southwest of San Bernardino was the most likely site for the location of a Southern Pacific train station and so it was the town of Colton came to be. The townsite is said to have been named Colton by officials of the railroad in honor of David Douty Colton.
On August 1, 1875, a Southern Pacific train, the first to enter the San Bernardino basin, arrived at the new station house at the foot of present day 9th Street in the city of Colton, and as a town, the place was in business.
In August 1878, David Colton, then in residence at his Mount Diablo Ranch, sustained an injury while riding a young, unruly horse, which rolled over on him.  At first, the injury was thought to be minor and his wife and daughter Carrie left for a planned trip to New York. The injury, however, involved ruptured blood vessels which eventually produced abscesses. Doctors opened three of the abscesses hoping they would heal, but the operation resulted in blood poisoning. During the next few hours his condition deteriorated. Mrs. Colton and Carrie were advised by telegram to return to San Francisco as quickly as possible. Ralph Harrison, Colton’s former law partner, was summoned to draft a will. Colton hung on for several weeks, and at one point seemed to rally, but he took a turn for the worse and it became apparent to his doctors that recovery was hopeless. Several of his closest friends kept vigil around his deathbed in the second floor bedroom of the Colton Mansion in San Francisco.
He lapsed into unconsciousness. In October his vital signs were so weak the doctors had difficulty determining if he still lived. On Wednesday, October 9, 1878 he was pronounced dead.
In death, Colton would have almost as much of an impact on California history as he did in life.  The Big Four had outmaneuvered him, holding out the promise of riches and a place at the table for him as a full partner, but ultimately withholding that prize. The Big Four never became the Big Five. Instead, his legacy was that Colton, one of Southern California’s railroad towns, would be named after him. To this day, Colton remains a railroad town, with numerous railroad overpasses that would require a billion dollars or more in today’s dollars to replicate. After his death, his wife, attempting to extract from the Southern Pacific Railroad that portion of her husband’s holding she felt were due her, ended up in a protracted legal battle against the Big Four and their heirs. Ultimately, she failed in her effort to obtain one fifth of the company and its profits. In the course of the litigation, she had entered into evidence letters sent to her husband from Collis Huntington. Many of those letters revealed the degree to which Crocker, Hopkins, Huntington and Stanford routinely used bribery as a tool, particularly with regard to the California and Arizona Territorial legislatures to achieve their ends. An enterprising newspaper publisher – William Randolph Hearst – gave the letters prominent play in the San Francisco Examiner and the New York Journal. The result was that the Big Four’s reputations – particularly those of Stanford and Huntington – were trashed. In response, Stanford and his wife founded Stanford University, ostensibly named after their deceased son, as a ploy to rehabilitate the Stanford name. And Henry Huntington, Collis Huntington’s nephew and heir, established the Huntington Library, likewise to resurrect positive associations, rather than negative ones, with the Huntington name.

(November 19) TWENTYNINE PALMS — Veteran city manager Andrew Takata has replaced Chad Mayes as chief of staff for Second District San Bernardino County Supervisor Janice Rutherford.
Mayes departed as Rutherford’s senior staff member as a result of his victory November 4 in the 42 Assembly District race. Mayes will depart for Sacramento next month. Rutherford, who is the chairwoman of the board of supervisors, could not afford to have her office without executive direction, and Takata began with her office November 19.
What is the county’s and the Second District’s gain is however the city of Twentynine Palms’ loss. For the second time in five months, Takata left a municipality he headed  in the lurch. Since June, Takata had served as the city of Twentynine Palms’ city manager. After Mayes’ victory, a representative from Rutherford’s office approached Takata and he accepted the job offer and the quick start up date. In this way his departure from Twentynine Palms was unexpected and abrupt.
This spring, Takata was working as the interim city manager in Calexico. On June 4, the Calexico City Council voted to extend Takata’s contract as interim city manager, staking him to a six month contract running until November 30.  On May 13, the Twentynine Palms City Council terminated Joe Guzzetta as city manager and began to cast about in an effort to land a replacement. On June 10, Twentynine Palms offered Takata the city manager’s position there and he accepted, giving Calexico seven day’s notice the following day. On June 16, when he was contacted by the Sentinel, Takata said he was leaving Calexico as of June 19 and that he was free to do so because “I never signed the contract.”
In Twentynine Palms, as late as November 7 Takata was earnestly at work on that city’s behalf, working on recruiting a lobbyist to represent the city in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.; collaborating with the Twentynine Palms Water District, which oversees the Twentynine Palms Fire Department, on a future joint city/district management/operating model for the fire department; and drawing up plans for new traffic signals on Twentynine Palms Highway at Encelia Avenue and Lear Avenue.
Before the weekend was out, however, members of the Twentynine Palms City Council had been informed that Takata’s last day with the city would be November 18.
The council adjourned into closed session on November 12 to discuss finding his replacement.
It is noteworthy that with Mayes and now with Takata, Rutherford has tapped chiefs of staff who are political/governmental creatures of the Morongo Basin, which lies more than 60 miles from the heart of the Second District. Mayes lives in and was a former mayor/city councilman in Yucca Valley. Takata was city manager in Yucca Valley from 2004 to 2010 and owns a second home there. He was city manager in Banning in Riverside County as well, from 2010 until February of this year. The Second District encompasses Upland north of Foothill Boulevard, San Antonio Heights, Rancho Cucamonga, the west half of Fontana, Devore, Lytle Creek, and the entire Rim of the World mountain communities in the San Bernardino Mountains from Cedarpines Park to Green Valley Lake.