(November 7)  Across the county in this year’s municipal elections, incumbents, with only a handful of exceptions, fared well, garnering reelection. The most notable exceptions in this regard were in three of the county’s smaller cities – Needles, Adelanto and Grand Terrace.
In Needles, all three of the incumbent council members seeking reelection, Terry Campbell, Linda Kidd, and Shawn Gudmundson were defeated by challengers Louise Evans, Robert Richardson and former mayor and councilman Jeff Williams. Incumbent mayor Edward Paget was unopposed.
In financially beleaguered Adelanto, incumbent mayor Cari Thomas was displaced by Rich Kerr and incumbent councilmen Steve Baisden and Charles Valvo were ousted by Charley Glasper, a former councilman, and John Woodard.
In Grand Terrace, mayor Walt Stanckiewitz was defeated by councilwoman Darcy McNaboe.
In Rialto, one of the incumbents, Lynn Hirtz, was displaced by former councilman Ed Scott. The other incumbent running, Joe Baca, Jr., was victorious.
In Twentynine Palms, Jim Harris, one of two incumbents vying for reelection with three positions up for grabs, lost. He was replaced by former councilman John Cole.
In Yucaipa, one incumbent, Tom Masner was displaced by challenger David Avila. The other incumbent in the race, Greg Bogh, retained his council seat.
In all of the other county cities where elections were held, incumbents were reelected.
On election night, the Sentinel was able to witness a display of the jubilation some of those victorious incumbents felt when it spoke with both Ontario Mayor Paul Leon and Ontario Councilman Jim Bowman at Leon’s victory reception at the Ontario Airport Hotel and with Ontario Councilman Alan Wapner at his victory celebration at the Green Tree Hotel.
“I’m just thrilled,” said Bowman. “As a lifelong resident of Ontario, I am proud that the people of Ontario have elected me to continue to serve them. It took a lot of hard work by all of my supporters for this victory tonight and I look forward to working as a team with my colleagues to continue to build Ontario, and maintain it as the leading city in the Inland Empire.”
Leon told the Sentinel, “Tonight’s results are a testimony to how well we have worked together as a team in looking after the affairs of the city. The residents have so overwhelmingly supported each of us – Jim, Alan and myself – that what I’d like to say is it feels more like a coronation than a race. It is only a real race when your competition is within sight or close behind you. The people of Ontario have shown a lot of faith in electing me for the fourth time to lead them as their mayor. I won’t let them down.”
Wapner said, “Basically, this shows that the community respects what has been done in their name by the council over the last several years and that they have faith we will continue in the best direction for the city of Ontario. Now that the campaign is over, I am happy that we can get back to work to regain the airport and ensure that our government is focused on what it should be, which is allowing our economic engine to create jobs.”

From a considerable distance, the Northern Harrier is distinctive. It is the  slim, long-tailed hawk gliding low, seeking prey. It holds its wings in a V-shape and has a white patch at the base of its tail. Up close, its face is positively owlish, with prominent ears that assist it in detecting mice beneath vegetation.
Also known as “marsh hawks” or “hen harriers,” northern Harriers breed throughout the northern parts of the northern hemisphere in Canada and the northernmost USA, on moorland, bogs, prairies, farmland coastal prairies, marshes, grasslands, swamps and other assorted open areas. They sojourn south for the winter, bringing some of them to Southern California and San Bernardino County.
The northern harrier is 16 to 20 inches in length with a 38 to 48 inch wingspan. It resembles other harriers in having distinct male and female plumages. The tail is 7.6 to 10.2 inches and the tarsus is 2.8 to 3.5 inches. harriers are relatively long winged and long tailed, having the longest wing and tail relative to body size of any raptors in North America.
The promiscuous gray-and-white males will mate with several females, which are larger and brown. Juveniles are brown above and plain orange-brown below.
The sexes also differ in weight, with males weighing 10 to 14 oz, with an average of 12 oz, and females weighing 14 to 26 oz, with an average of 19 oz.
The female gives a whistled piih-eh when receiving food from the male, and her alarm call is chit-it-it-it-it-et-it. The male calls chek-chek-chek, with a more bouncing chuk-uk-uk-uk during his display flight.
These  raptors  build  nests of sticks lined inside with grass and leaves on the ground or on a mound of dirt or vegetation. Two to ten exceptionally whitish eggs are laid, which measure  approximately 1.9 in × 1.4 in. These are the only hawk-like bird known to practice polygyny – one male mates with several females. When incubating eggs, the female sits on the nest while the male hunts and brings food to her and the chicks. Up to five females have been known to mate with one male in a season. A male will maintain a territory averaging one square mile, though male territories have ranged from 0.66 to 57.92 square miles. The eggs are incubated mostly by the female for 31 to 32 days. The male will help feed chicks after they hatch, but doesn’t usually watch them for a greater period of time than around 5 minutes. The male usually passes off food to the female, which she then feeds to the young, although later the female will capture food and simply drop into the nest for her nestlings to eat. The chicks fledge at around 36 days old, though breeding maturity isn’t reached until 2 years in females and 3 years in males.
As noted, in hunting these harriers will hunt with their wings held in a shallow V in  low flight during which the bird closely hugs the contours of the land below. Northern harriers hunt primarily small mammals, as do most harriers. Preferred prey species can include voles, cotton rats and ground squirrels. Up to 95% of the diet is comprised by small mammals. However birds are hunted with some regularity as well, especially by males. Preferred avian prey include passerines of open country (i.e. sparrows, larks, pipits), small shorebirds and the young of waterfowl and galliforms. Supplementing the diet occasionally are amphibians (especially frogs), reptiles and insects (especially orthopterans). Larger prey, such as rabbits and adult ducks are taken sometimes and harriers have been known to subdue these by drowning them underwater. Harriers hunt by surprising prey while flying low to the ground in open areas, as they drift low over fields and moors. The harriers circle an area several times listening and looking for prey. Harriers use their superior hearing regularly to find prey, This harrier tends to be a very vocal bird while it glides over its hunting ground.
The longest lived known northern harrier is 16 years and 5 months.Adults rarely live more than eight years. Early mortality mainly results from predation. Predators of eggs and nestlings include raccoons, skunks, badgers, foxes, crows and ravens, dogs and owls. Fledgings are also predated regularly, especially by great horned owls. Both parents attack potential predators with alarm calls and striking with talons. Short-eared owls are natural enemies of this species that favor the same prey and habitat, as well as having a similarly broad distribution. Occasionally, both harriers and Short-eared Owls will harass each other until the victim drops its prey and it can be stolen, a practice known as kleptoparasitism. Most commonly, the harriers are the aggressors pirating prey from owls.

By clicking on the portal below, you can download a PDF of the October 31 edition of the San Bernardino County Sentinel.

Sentinel 11-07-14

By Mark Gutglueck
Stephanie Mendenhall, who made a mercurial rise to the top level of the city of Upland’s administration in large measure because of her association with now disgraced former Upland Mayor John Pomierski, has elected to retire at the end of July of next year.
Mendenhall announced her decision in a memo to city manager Rod Butler on October 27. By stepping down from her position near the pinnacle of municipal government in Upland, Mendenhall is seeking to orchestrate the terms of her exodus, even as events around her and at City Hall are on the verge of overtaking her.
In recent months there have been ever clearer signals that growing numbers of the city’s residents and decision makers are coming to the conclusion reached by a small but influential number of city residents at the time of and in the immediate aftermath following Pomierski’s indictment, which held that Mendenhall was inextricably bound up in at least some of the  former mayor’s actions, depredations and violations of the public trust.
At the September 8 council meeting, two members of the city council, Debbie Stone and Gino Filippi, sought to effectively terminate her from the city’s employ by eliminating the position she now holds as part of an amended city staff reorganization. That effort failed, for the time being, though there were indications the move would be resurrected in a different form in relatively short order.
Mendenhall’s rise through the ranks at Upland City Hall has been a remarkable one. She began with the city in the 1990s, having been brought in from a previous municipal assignment in Temple City to serve as city clerk. Previously the city clerk position had been an elected office but had been converted to a staff position, with its occupant serving at the pleasure of the city council. Mendenhall had been chosen to the post by the council then headed by mayor Bob Nolan. Her last name at that time was Rios. In her early years, she subsisted rather than thrived as a municipal functionary, laboring quietly and without fanfare, a custodian of the city’s records and the matron of its official processes, but with little authority beyond the relatively limited staff she immediately supervised. For some, her selection to the position was suspect in that she lacked the ability to type by touch, and instead used her two index fingers to hunt and peck on the keyboard. This lack of a basic secretarial skill in the individual entrusted with the city’s clerical functions raised a few eyebrows. Nevertheless, Rios garnered the favorable notice of some of the members of the city council, in particular then-councilwoman Sue Sundell, who on occasion spoke highly of the young employee, referring to her as “indispensible.”
Sundell would soon be eclipsed, however, in the 2000 election when instead of seeking reelection as a council member, she sought the mayoralty, running against her council colleague Tom Thomas and an upstart member of the city’s housing commission, John Pomierski. Pomierski, with the backing of much of the city’s business community, pulled off an upset of the two more established, experienced and credentialed candidates. Sundell, whose council term ended that year, had to leave the council. Thomas, who had been first elected in 1990, reelected in 1994 and again in 1998, remained on the council. Pomierski, then seeking to build a ruling coalition, welcomed Thomas into the fold rather than excluding him. Thomas became a part of Pomiersk’s “Team Upland,” through which Pomierski would dominate the city for ten years.
In establishing his regime, Pomierski sought to advance and promote existing or hire new staff members who would either do his bidding or tolerate his manipulation of city operations in keeping with his own interest and the advancement of his political machine.
One of those selected for advancement from within was Stephanie Rios, who, after she began dating Jeff Mendenhall, a fast-rising sergeant in the Upland Police Department in the early 2000s, married him.
One of those brought in from the outside was Pomierski’s handpicked choice as city manager, Robb Quincey.
By 2004, Pomierski had begun shaking down local business owners and operators and others with projects pending at City Hall and before the Upland City Council. Utilizing a business he owned, JP Construction, as well as the construction business owned by one of his associates, John Hennes, Pomierski worked with two others, Jason Crebs and Antony  Sanchez, the co-owners of Venture West Capital, in perpetrating extortion and pay-off schemes. Those shakedowns targeted applicants for business, operating or construction permits in Upland who would be approached and informed that by securing the consulting services of Hennes, Crebs or Sanchez, approval of those applications could be guaranteed. Hennes was Pomierski’s appointee to the Upland Housing Appeals Board.
Quincey, who had been city manager in Hesperia, was handpicked by Pomierski in March 2005 to succeed Upland’s previous city manager, Mike Milhiser, whom Pomierski together with his then-supporters on the council forced into resigning. Milhiser, an experienced city manager who had previously led the cities of Montclair and Ontario, had proven less than fully accommodating of Pomerski’s approach toward governance. Simultaneously, Pomierski pressured police chief Marty Thouvenell, who had similar reservations to Pomierski’s way of doing business, into retirement and arranged for a newly promoted captain on the force, Steve Adams, to take his place.
Quincey was hired on April 4, 2005 and given a five-year contract with an original annual salary of $195,000 and a guaranteed pay raise each January 1 equivalent to the highest percentage afforded any other city executive management employee. Additionally, Quincey was granted extraordinary autonomy and authority as city manager, including what was referred to as a super-bonus, that is, job security in the form of protection from termination on a simple majority 3-2 vote of the council. Rather, to fire Quincey, four votes were required of the council. He was also given the authority to hire and fire all of the city’s department heads upon his own authority without previous council authorization. This enabled Quincey to pressure city staff to conform policy and the approval process to Pomierski’s dictates.
Over the more than five-year span Quincey worked for Upland, he was provided, primarily at Pomierski’s behest, a series of salary and benefit enhancements such that by January 2011 he was receiving a base salary and add-ons of $368,529 with benefits of $92,096, for a total annual compensation of $460,625, making him among the highest paid city managers in the state.
Key to providing Quincey with those salary add-ons, which incentivized his cooperation in and the enabling of  Pomierski’s violations of the public trust, was the function of the city clerk’s office. Under Stephanie Mendenhall’s stewardship of the department, three of the eight salary and benefit enhancements made to Quincey’s contract were done without any vote by the city council. Instead, documents authorizing those raises were generated, Pomierski signed them and they were then processed through the city clerk’s office as if they had been properly ratified by the entire council even though no vote had been taken. The document would then be passed through to the payroll department.
For Stephanie Mendenhall’s acquiescence in this arrangement, Pomierski saw to it that she was richly rewarded. By 2010, she was one of the highest paid city clerks in the state of California, receiving a base salary and add-ons of $175,606, plus benefits of $55,624 for a total annual compensation package of $231,230.
In June 2010, Pomierski’s manipulation of the machinery of Upland government for his personal enrichment was severely compromised when more than a dozen FBI and IRS agents swarmed into Upland City Hall to serve search warrants, while teams of their colleagues made simultaneous raids on Pomierski’s home and business office, as well as the offices of Hennes, Krebs and Sanchez. The raid at City Hall also forced into the open  questionable activity involving Quincey. A six month lull ensued, but in December 2010 then-police chief Steve Adams went out on stress leave, at which point Mendenhall’s husband, Jeff, who had risen to the rank of captain, was promoted to serve as acting police chief. Simultaneously, Upland was rocked with a series of revelations about the depth of corruption at Upland City Hall. The following month, the council placed Robb Quincey on administrative leave.
On February 1, 2011,  Sanchez and Crebs were  charged by federal prosecutors with involvement in political corruption in Upland and days later entered sealed plea agreements. In the last week of February, Pomierski resigned as mayor and the next week, on March 3, Pomierski and Hennes were indicted on extortion and bribery charges in an alleged scheme to extort money and campaign contributions from two businesses seeking city permits and other government approvals.
Upland City Hall, which was already in disarray, was thrown into chaos. City officials  sought to avoid further negative publicity as the city council attempted to carry on, pinning its hopes on a series of reform initiatives by Stephen Dunn, the city’s finance director who had been elevated to acting city manager after Quincey had been put on administrative leave. In May, Quincey was fired. The following month, Dunn was made permanent city manager and in an energetic house cleaning, laid off or terminated 26 employees, including four department heads, among them the director of the city’s community development department who had responsibility for the city’s land use decisions and planning function that had been exploited by Pomierski in his shakedowns of project and permit applicants. It was widely anticipated at that time that Stephanie Mendenhall, given her closeness to Pomierski and involvement as city clerk in processing the personnel and promotional items put forth by Pomierski without full council authorization, would also be terminated. In an action which Dunn now acknowledges as “a mistake,” he decided to keep Mendenhall in her position as city clerk, he said “because I needed someone who knew how things were run. A significant number of our staff had been let go or had left.” Conscious that her exorbitant salary as city clerk would be a sore point, Dunn in electing to keep Mendenhall rearranged the line of command over her so she was now answerable to the city manager directly instead of to the city council and he added to her assignments responsibility for information technology, human resources and finance, while having her retain control of the city clerk’s office. Dunn was partially relying on the consideration that Mendenhall had in the recent past obtained a master’s degree in public administration and was partially relying on the consideration that Pomierski and the pernicious influence he represented was no longer present at City Hall.  The title of administrative services director was conferred upon her. She was given no salary increase beyond the $175,606 she was already making, along with $55,624 in benefits.
In September of that year, when police chief Steve Adams officially retired after having remained on stress leave for ten months, Jeff Mendenhall was chosen to serve as police chief. This made the Mendenhalls Upland’s premier power couple, as they monopolized two of the three most far-reaching positions in Upland municipal government. With Jeff Mendenhall’s base salary and add-ons of $229,724 and benefits totaling $76,898 for a total compensation package of $306,621 annually added to Stephanie’s total annual compensation package  of $231,230, Upland’s taxpayers were paying the couple more than half of a million dollars per year for their services.
That circumstance was fraught with difficulty. Many who were troubled by Stephanie Mendenhall’s advancement under Pomierski and the seeming rewards she reaped by her role in his domination of municipal procedures saw her continued placement near the pinnacle of city operations as a sign that full reform in the aftermath of the Pomierski scandal had yet to penetrate City Hall. Her husband’s functioning as the highest law enforcement officer in the city compounded the impression that the city and its officials were not serious about undoing the tarnish and discredit that Pomierski had shed upon the city. Some citizens and city employees grumbled about it, but no one was willing to speak openly about it, given the power the Mendenhall’s shared and the support for the arrangement by the city council.
The Pomierski connection aside, the placement of the married couple at the top of the pecking order in the City of Gracious Living resulted in a professional conflict that ate at morale in the city.
At the time Jeff Mendenhall was functioning as acting police and Stephanie Mendenhall was promoted  to the position of administrative services director overseeing human resources in which she functioned as the de facto head of the city’s personnel division, there was concern that this entailed potential legal peril for the city and its taxpayers. When Jeff Mendenhall was made actual police chief, those circumstances were exacerbated.   Essentially, filling the administrative services/finance/personnel director/city clerk post and the police chief position, which on occasion require some degree of articulation with one another and/or superintendence of or answerability to one another, with individuals who were married to one another raised the specter of favoritism or the possibility that standards that would otherwise be applied to conduct, actions and the review thereof might be compromised.
City officials, however, sought to downplay such concerns, indicating that arrangement would be permitted since such conflicts were merely theoretical or potential. They suggested that if such a conflict were to manifest, it would be addressed at that time and Dunn, as city manager, would intervene to alleviate the conflict.
The city had no nepotism policy in place. Previously, the city had faced similar, though not identical circumstances. In the 1980s, while Frank Carpenter was a member of the city council, his wife Dee had been city clerk. In the 1990s, while Gail Horton was a member of the city council, her husband, John Scanlon, was fire chief.
Resentment over this incestuous relationship in Upland simmered  below the surface for more than three years, and then  erupted into the open this summer, putting the Mendenhalls and the concentration of authority over internal municipal administrative processes in their hands in sharp relief, to the embarrassment of city officials  the potential legal detriment of the city and possible financial liability of the city’s taxpayers.
Because of the Upland Police Department’s use of the AR-15, a lightweight, intermediate cartridge magazine-fed, air cooled rifle, as back-up to its officers’ 9 millimeter or .45 handguns, the officers are required to maintain certification for the weapon, which the department has outfitted its patrol cars with.
Traditionally the department had paid for the periodic AR-15 use training the officers had to undergo, provided them with the means, i.e., the ammunition and shooting range availability, required to complete that training, paid its officers for the time they attended the range certification and the classes related to the AR-15 use, and reimbursed them for whatever mileage costs they accrued in driving to the range and the class.
This summer, police chief Mendenhall, in keeping with budgetary restraints imposed on his department, informed the officers under his command that they would need to complete their retraining and recertification with regard to the AR-15 entirely at their own expense and on their own time, and that the department would not cover the cost of their ammunition used in the training and certification, that they would not be reimbursed for their mileage in achieving recertification and that they would not be paid for the time they spent attending AR-15 classes and the certification testing.
When the officers learned that the sergeant conducting the training for the department was, per chief Mendenhall’s orders, being paid for conducting the classes and was being reimbursed for all his incidental expenses, several of the more vocal members of the department began to openly speak about favoritism in the department and what they insisted were violations of the employment contract the city has with its police officers through its union, the Upland Police Officers Association, as well as  California labor law.
Though the filing of a grievance was discussed, ultimately no such action was taken because the entity with whom such grievances are lodged would be Stephanie Mendenhall in her capacity as the head of human resources, i.e., personnel.
Dissatisfaction over the matter was so pointed that it ranged beyond the usually tightly-knit collection of officers and spilled over into the realm of public discussion in September.
On September 8 came the first indication that the city council was ready to act to end the Mendenhalls’ familial monopolization of authority in Upland. At that evening’s council meeting, the council was poised to consider the proposed reorganization of the city’s executive staff, which included the elimination of an executive assistant in the city manager’s office, filling the vacant position of accounting supervisor in the finance department and arranging it so that the finance manager reports directly to the city manager.
When that item came up for a vote, councilwoman Debbie Stone made a motion to amend the reorganization proposal such that the city would eliminate the position of administrative services director altogether. Saying he believed elimination of the administrative services position would, ironically, help to meet chief Mendenhall’s call for the hiring of more police officers, Councilman Gino Filippi seconded Stone’s motion and supported it with his vote. The motion died, however, when Mayor Ray Musser and councilmen Glenn Bozar and Brendan Brandt voted against it. They approved the reorganization proposal.
In the ensuing weeks, Stephanie Mendenhall’s grip on the position of administrative services director has grown ever more tenuous. Both Bozar and Musser, who were caught by surprise by Stone’s September 8 motion, have indicated they are not averse to further reorganization of the city’s top echelon, but were not prepared to rush into such a change as Stone had suggested on short notice. Both indicated they see potential conflicts in having the police chief and administrative services director positions filled by a husband -wife team. Moreover, Brendan Brandt, the last remaining member of Pomierski’s “Team Upland” ruling majority in the first decade of this century, is not seeking reelection this year and will leave the council in December. It was Brandt’s opposition to Stone’s expanded reorganization motion in September that appeared to dissuade Bozaer and Musser from supporting it.
On October 27, in a memo to Rod Butler, who has been functioning in the capacity of city manager for less than two months, Mendenhall said she would be retiring as of July 31, 2015.
Butler this week told the Sentinel, “She basically submitted her resignation in a memo to me earlier this week. It came as a little bit of a surprise to me. I am into week number six here.”  Butler’s hiring effective September 29 was finalized in August and all that month he had been familiarizing himself with the city in preparation for taking on the city management assignment. He said he was “not aware” of the depth of discontent with Stephanie Mendenhall’s function until “the events at the September 8 meeting. I was not on board yet. I heard reports about it.”
Butler said he was not certain whether Stone’s motion to eliminate Mendenhall’s position had motivated her to resign. “She did not mention that in her correspondence to me,” Butler said. “I suppose that’s a possibility. You would need to get comment from her on that.”
The Sentinel’s effort to reach Stephanie Mendenhall, by means of messages left at each of the phones at her three desks at City Hall as well her cell phone, were unsuccessful.
As to whether Mendenhall and her husband or the city in general had engaged in any improprieties by having them serve in their conflicting capacities, Butler said, “I think that would depend on what the city’s nepotism policy is. The city has no comprehensive nepotism policy. The only prohibition is against individuals who are spouses being in the same department. Her husband is police chief and she is the administrative services director, so it is not a direct violation of policy.”
Nevertheless, Butler said, “Always as a city manager, I try to be sensitive to situations where there may be an appearance of a problem in the organization, which is a longwinded way of saying I was sensitive to it, but because it is not a direct violation of stated policy it was not something I saw as an issue that needed to be acted upon. I can see why people see some sort of problem there.”
Butler said he understood the seriousness of the action relating to Pomierski’s usurping the authority of the city council by signing without a full council vote documents to up Quincey’s compensation and then having Stephanie Mendenhall process it in her capacity as city clerk
“I was aware through media coverage of the several increases made to Mr. Quincey’s contract and that several of those appeared to have been done without votes by the city council. I did not know Stephanie Mendenhall’s role in signing those documents as a witness or being involved in the creation of those documents. Now that I have come on board, I am certainly trying to create a situation where there are policies that deal with direct conflicts or violations of ethics laws, including the reforms that have come into place after the city of Bell scandals. Those salary increases that happened without council votes were a problem. That situation involved actions that are much more clearly a violation than they were before the city of Bell clean-up action. I am trying to be sensitive to ethics laws and to make sure our officials and staff are aware of those laws and regulations. We are doing things that prevent conflicts in those areas.”
Those he will hire to take over Mendenhall’s various roles when she leaves, Butler said, will be called upon to do a better job than she did under Pomierski and to be mindful of the legal and ethical rules city staff and elected officials must adhere to in order to maintain the trust of the city’s residents. “As we look to replace Stephanie next year, we are going to be looking for professionals in the city clerk’s role, management, administration and human resources who are familiar with those regulations and have worked in an environment where there has been an emphasis on ethics and helping officials follow the law regarding conflicts of interest, financial conflicts, that whole realm of law,” Butler said.

(October 31)  Action by the county board of supervisors earlier this month signaled that the terms of San Bernardino County Presiding Judge Marsha Slough’s court realignment will likely remain in place at least until 2019.
In May, over much protest by attorneys, local government officials and citizens, Slough’s realignment went into effect, transferring nearly all civil cases countywide to the new San Bernardino Justice Center located at 247 West Third Street in the county seat, which contains 35 courtrooms within its 11 floors. In addition, San Bernardino district criminal cases, formerly heard in the San Bernardino Central Courthouse built in 1927, are tried in the new San Bernardino Justice Center.
West Valley Superior Courthouse in Rancho Cucamonga, which previously was a venue for all order of cases including both civil and criminal cases originating on the west end of the county, is now devoted almost entirely to criminal cases, including those arising on the county’s west end and other felony and misdemeanor cases from the county’s central district which in the past had been  routed to the Fontana Courthouse. The Rancho Cucamonga courthouse also hosts hearings on both civil and domestic violence restraining order matters.  A small portion of the criminal cases once heard in Fontana are now being  adjudicated in San Bernardino.
The historic San Bernardino Courthouse remains as the forum for the family law cases from nearly all of the  county.
The Fontana Courthouse is now the stage for all small claims, landlord tenant disputes and traffic/non-traffic infractions from the San Bernardino, Fontana and Rancho Cucamonga districts. The lion’s share of criminal cases from Fontana have been transferred  to Rancho Cucamonga, with a lesser number of the Fontana criminal cases now heard in San Bernardino.
The Victorville Courthouse remains a venue for High Desert family law cases and criminal cases in the High Desert.
The Joshua Tree Courthouse remains functional, serving those in Joshua Tree, Morongo Valley, Twentynine Palms, Yucca Valley and the greater Morongo Basin.
The Barstow Courthouse remains open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, but only traffic cases are heard there.
In the years prior to the May 2014 realignment, courts in Redlands, Chino, Needles, Twin Peaks in the San Bernardino Mountains, and in Big Bear were shuttered.
Many questioned the wisdom of Slough’s transformation of the county court system and the centralization of civil courts in downtown San Bernardino.
Slough, however, said the changes were necessitated by the state’s reduction in funding for the court system.
Far flung San Bernardino County, which spans 20,105 square miles, is the largest county in the lower 48 states, with a land mass greater than the states of Delaware, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Connecticut combined. Slough’s change is imposing a tremendous logistical burden on many of the county’s citizens who need to access the courts. Driving distance from Needles to San Bernardino is 212 miles, with an average one-way traveling time of three hours and nine minutes.
Critics of Slough’s plan held out hope that once it was implemented and the problems with it manifested, the plan would be rescinded.  Despite the inconvenience and logistical difficulties the county’s residents and their attorneys have experienced the past five months, it does not appear Slough has reconsidered her decision.
At the October 21 board of supervisors meeting the board entered into a lease agreement with the  Judicial Council of California covering the period from November 1, 2014 to October 31, 2019 for 341 square feet of office space the Big Bear Lake Courthouse  at 477 Summit Boulevard in Big Bear Lake for use by the county assessor.
According to county real estate services director Terry Thompson, the square footage in question involves “a room on the second floor” consisting of 341 square
feet. The Superior Court of California no longer has a need for the room but still incurs its pro rata share of building expenses for the space. The joint occupancy agreement provides that one party may license to the other party any exclusive space. On October 14, 2011, the county executive officer approved a short term month-to-month license agreement, No. S11-002, with the Judicial Council of California. The original term of the license was from November 1, 2011 to October 31, 2014. The assessor requested the real estate services department negotiate a new five-year license agreement for the continued use of the office space. On August 22, 2014, the county administrative office approved capital improvement program request No. 15-186 submitted by the assessor to extend the term of the license.  The real estate services department has negotiated a new five-year license agreement from November 1, 2014 to October 31, 2019 under the same provisions as the current agreement.”
It thus appears that top county officials do not anticipate the Big Bear Courthouse being reopened for another five years. That commitment is not absolutely etched in concrete, however, since, according to Thompson, “Either party may terminate the license agreement with 30-days’ notice.”
Thompson said the county will pay the Judicial Council of California $23,568 annually to utilize the office space, or  $1.09 per square foot per month or $4,464 monthly, which he said is “low-range for comparable facilities in the Big Bear Lake area per supporting lease comparables on file.”

(October 30)  A number of San Bernardino County’s incumbent politicians have amassed absolutely stunning amounts of money in their  campaign war chests in the current election cycle, raising the specter of pay-to-play politics dominating much of the local governmental landscape.
In Ontario, the county’s fourth largest city, and in Fontana, the county’s second largest city according to the 2010 Census, current officeholders have been particularly well fortified with money, i.e., campaign cash, which former California Assembly Speaker Jess Unruh called “the mother’s milk of politics.”
According to California Form 460 filed at the City of Ontario’s City Clerk’s Office, Mayor Paul Leon has received $218,000 in political donations so far this year. Leon was given $10,000 by the Craig Meredith S.P. Trust of Newport Beach. He received $5,000 from PD Transport Inc. if Costa Mesa, $7,000 from the Lewis Investment Company of Upland, $2,500 from Majestic Realty,
$1,250 from Sam Longa of Seachrome Corporation and the Sares-Regis Group, $1,250 from Barbara Emmons Perrier of La Canada Flintridge, $1,500 from Peter Rooney of the Sares-Regis Group, $1,500 from Cleanstreet of Gardena, $2,500 from the San Bernardino Public Employees Association, $2,400 from Archibald’s Restaurants, $2,000 from Main Street Fibers $4,500 from J.O. Oltman II of Oltman’s Construction, $2,500 from West Valley MRF,
$2,000 from dentist Ronald Cunning, $10,000 from Reggie King, $2,500 from JC Horizon of Arcadia, $1,500 from Waste Management of Houston, Texas, $2,500 from John Hagestad of the Sares-Regis Group, $2,500 from Geoffrey Stack of the Sares-Regis Group, $1,500 from William J. Thormahlen of Sares-Regis Group, $2,500 from Beneficial AG Services of Ontario, and $2,500 from Parkcrest Construction of Ontario. Leon also  transferred $6,100 from his Paul Leon for Assembly 2013 account into his current campaign fund. He was also provided with a $5,000 loan from the Skropos For Ontario City Council campaign fund.  He had several dozen donors who provided $1.000.
Leon’s receipts were topped by councilman Alan Wapner’s. Wapner has been provided with $274,000 in 2014. Wapner received $5,000 from Carol Plowman, the senior vice president of Lee & Associates, $3,000 from Main Street Fibers of Ontario, $2,375 from Patton Sales Corporation of Ontario, $2,000 from Residuals Recovery Group of Anaheim, $7,500 from Richland Management of Irvine, $6,099 from Lee & Associates Real Estate Broker Michael Wolfe, $2,000 from Stratham Properties of Irvine, $2,000 from West Valley MRF, $4,000 from Waste Management of Houston, Texas, $2,500 from John Hagestad of Sares-Regis Group, $2,500 from Carl Noble, Inc. of Santa Ana,$5,000 from Cleanstreet of Gardena, $10,297 from Craig Meredith S. P. Trust, $2,500 from Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis Commercial Broker Darla Longo, $2,500 from Geoffrey Stack of the Sares-Regis Group, $4,000 from GH Dairy, $2,500 from Geoffrey Stack, $1,500 from Larry Lukanish of the Sares-Regis Group, $1,500 from William Thormahlen of the Sares-Regis Group, $2,000 from AG concepts of Anaheim, $5,000 from bmbay Partners of Ontario, $10,000 from Brookfield Land Services of Costa Mesa, $1,500 from Burrtec Waste Industries, $4,500 from John Gormly of Oltman’s Construction, $2,500 from John Hagestad of the Sares-Regis Group,$2,00 from Main Street Fibers, $13,500 from Storagecontainer.com of Ontario, $2,000 from Stratham Homes of Irvine, $2,000 from West Valley MRF of Fontana, $12,500 from Westates Holdings of Corona, $2,500 from NMC Grove Ontario LL   c of Woodland Hills, $5,000 from Bhatia J & J Inc of Ontario, $5,000 from Hagestad Enterprises of Irvine, $5,000 from the Ontario Police Association,
$2,500 from Pepe’s Towing, $6,000 from Caltrop of Rancho Cucamonga, $12,500 from SJC II 4th & Haven LLC of San Juan Capistrano, $5,000 from the Wiener Family Survivors’ Trust  and $7,500 from Richland Management.
Wapner received nonmonetary contributions in the amounts of  $2,878.07 from the Ontario Firefighters for Responsible Government and $5,000 from JM Realty Group of Ontario, $2,600 in from the Ontario Police Officers Association Political Action Committee, another $3,038 from the Ontario Firefighters for Responsible Government and $14,925 from Young Homes.
Councilmember Jim Bowman has been given $130,000 by his supporters to campaign with, including $1,500 from Wasste Management of Houston, Texas,  $1,500 from Peter Rooney of Irvine, $1,500 from William Thormahlen of Coto De Caz  $3,000 from Brookfield Land Services of   Cost Mesa, $2,000 from Niagara Bottling of  Onatrio, $2,000 from Lewis Pacific Partners of  Upland,  $2,000 from RCCD of Anaheim Hills, $5,000 from Craig Meredith S. P. Trust, $4,500 from Antonio Perez of the Seres-Regis Group, $1,250 from Sam Longa of the Seres-Regis Group
$1,250 from Barbara Emmons Perrier of La Canada Flintridge, $5,000 from the Ontario Police Officers Association, $2,500 from Reggie King, $2,000 from Christopher Leggio of Upland, $10,000 from the Firefighters For Responsible Government, $2,500 from Geoffrey and Nancy Stack of Irvine, and $5,000 from Richland Construction
$1,500 loan from Wapner  Wapner also received in kind contribution in the amounts of $2,876.06 and $3,038.44 from Firefighters For Responsible Government.
Bowman also made a total of 32,401 in loans to himself and claims he is entitled to accrued interest of $9,909.22 as of September 30.
In Fontana, the three incumbents in this year’s race have made a run for the money, too.
Mayor Acquanetta Warren has pulled down $173,622 in donations for her reelection bid this year. That includes $10,000 from Hae Park, the owner of the Bel Air Swap Meet, $50,000 from Reggie King, $10,000 from YKA Development Group President Yoon Kim, $2,500 from Lewis Investment Company of Upland, $5,000 from Frontier Finance Company of Rancho Cucamonga, $,3,000 from Burrtec Waste Systems, $5,000 from the San Bernardino Professional Firefighters Association, $1,5000 from F.F. Gomez, Inc. of Whittier, $10,000 from Richland Management of Irvine,  $10,000 from David Wiener, and $2,500 from Kirk Jensen of Upland.
Councilman Michael Tahan has received $213,865.45 into his campaign coffers. Reggie King, the owner of Young Homes, put up $26,562.09 of that sum. Hae Park provided $5,000. Tahan, the senior vice president of Hill International made loans of $156,886.56 to his campaign. He has paid back $30,000 of that, and forgiven $16,886.56, but remains $110,850 in arrears to himself. He has spent $156,886.56 on his campaign so far.
Councilman John Roberts has collected $90,768.06 for this year’s campaign. Roberts took $22,500 of that from a trust controlled by developer David Weiner. Reggie King provided him with another $10,000. The San Bernardino County Professional Firefighters Association gave him $7,500. Hae Park donated $5,000 to him.TAB Communications of Fair Oaks provided him with 2,188.20.

(October 29) Neil Derry’s attempt to stage a political comeback has garnered the most energetic opposition campaign in San Bernardino County during the current political season, one that indeed rivals the hardest political counterattacks in the history of local politics.
In recent years, only a handful of individual city/town council campaigns have involved expenditures of upwards of $50,000. In Redlands this year, where Derry is seeking to reestablish himself with voters after a mercurial decade with his hand on the helms of the county’s two largest governmental jurisdictions, he has garnered the enmity of two groups who have in the last several months put up and expended approaching $100,000 to keep Derry from assuming a position on the city council there.
A former Marine and a Republican, Derry landed a job as a field representative for Fred Aguiar. After Aguiar left the Statehouse, Derry found work in the public relations division of Southern California Edison. While there he ventured into politics on his own, successfully seeking election to the San Bernardino City Council in 2004.
In 2008, Derry ran successfully for county supervisor in the Third District, dislodging the incumbent, Dennis Hansberger, another Republican who had served as Third District Supervisor for 20 years over the previous 38 years. Hansberger was a firm fixture in the Redlands political establishment, which for nearly a century had dominated San Bernardino County politics. Though Derry resided on the eastern side of the city of San Bernardino and thus was geographically rooted in the Third District, much of his financial backing in the 2008 election was provided by the nouveau riche entrepreneurs on the western end of the county, development, commercial and professional interests in Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga and Upland. Derry’s victory against Hansberger, himself a Republican and the scion of wealthy developer Leroy Hansberger, represented a changing of the guard and what was for the time seen as the eclipse of Old Money and the Old Order.
For a time, at least, Derry progressed upward, forming what proved to be relatively short-lived ruling coalitions on the board of supervisors, first with then-Second District Supervisor Paul Biane and Fourth District Supervisor Gary Ovitt and later with then-First District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt, like Derry a former Marine. The major achievements during his first two and a half years as supervisor included the passage of a county sunshine ordinance and the ouster, in a 3-2 vote that included Derry’s and those of supervisors Ovitt and Mitzelfelt, of Mark Uffer as county administrative officer and his replacement by Greg Devereaux, upon whom was conferred the title of county chief executive officer.
In March 2011, however, former county First District Supervisor and county assessor Bill Postmus, who had pleaded to 14 felony charges relating to a political corruption scandal, told investigators with the district attorney’s office that in 2007, during the run-up to the 2008 election he used his political action committee, Inland Empire PAC, to launder a $5,000 campaign contribution to Derry from Highland developer Arnold Stubblefield. Stubblefield, Postmus said, had been reluctant to contribute directly to Derry in 2007 because at that point, Derry was not yet in office and was challenging the incumbent, Hansberger. Postmus combined the $5,000 he had received from Stubblefield with $5,000 of his own political funds to make a $10,000 contribution from his political action committee to Derry. Derry had reported the money as coming from the political action committee rather than Stubblefield.
District attorney Mike Ramos, who was a member in good standing of the same Redlands political machine in which Hansberger was involved, forwarded the information amassed by his investigators to the California Attorney General’s Office, which in April 2011 initially charged Derry with two felonies – filing a forged or false document and perjury – and with misdemeanor filing of a false campaign report. Four months later, Derry, through his attorney, Raj Maline, stuck a plea arrangement by which the felonies were dropped and he pleaded no contest to the campaign reporting violation.
That plea figured prominently in the campaign former San Manuel Tribal Council President James Ramos waged against Derry the following year. In November 2012, staggering under the onslaught of Ramos’s repetitive charges that Derry had engaged in political money laundering, Derry was voted off the board after having served a single term as supervisor.
Two years later, Derry, who had moved to Redlands in 2009, tossed his hat in the ring for a position on the Redlands, challenging  incumbents Paul Foster and Jon Harrison. The field is rounded out by Paul Barich, Jane Dreher and John Montgomery.  A seventh candidate, Tabetha Wittenmyer, dropped out of the race, but too late for her name to be taken off the ballot.
While Redlands City Council races in the past have occasionally been spirited ones, they have generally not involved huge monetary expenditures. Derry’s venture into the race, however, in the gentrified municipality that is host to one of the oldest and largest affluent neighborhoods in the county – Smiley Heights – where generations of the county’s movers and shakers had gravitated and where the vestiges of the Redlands Political Establishment remain, galvanized the opposition. In the last two-and-a-half months, the political machine that put Mike Ramos, a Republican, into office as district attorney in 2002 and saw him reelected again in 2006, 2010 and earlier this year, and which crossed party lines to elect James Ramos, a Democrat, as supervisor in 2012 has reinitiated operations, functioning in the guise of two independent expenditure committees, the California Homeowners PAC and  Redlands Residents Against Corruption, Opposing Neil Derry for City Council, 2014.
The California Homeowners PAC is based in Willows, California (i.e., Northern California). Redlands Residents Against Corruption, Opposing Neil Derry for City Council, 2014 is based in Redlands.
Reggie King, chairman and CEO of Young Homes in Rancho Cucamonga, contributed $20,000 to the California Homeowners Association PAC on September 24 and $20,000 to Redlands Residents Against Corruption, Opposing Neil Derry for City Council on September 26.
James Ramos gave $1,000 to the California Homeowners Association PAC. Vanessa Ramos, a member of the San Manuel Tribe gave $6,000 to the California Homeowners Association PAC. Theresa Ramos, a member of the San Manuel Tribe, gave $6,000 to the California Homeowners Association PAC. Desiree Ramos, a member of the San Manuel Tribe, gave $1,000 to the California Homeowners Association PAC. Alaina Mathews, a member of the San Manuel Tribe, gave $5,250 to the California Homeowners Association PAC. In addition, Josie Gonzales, who served on the board of supervisors with Derry and is now on the board with Ramos, donated $1,000 to the California Homeowners Association PAC. The California Homeowners Association PAC received $49,750 from Fieldstead & Co. in Irvine and $49,750 from The Tait Family Trust in Santa Ana. It provide $48,000 to Taxpayers For Ethical Government, an effort targeting Derry, on September 15. It also spent $10,704.50 on a direct mail campaign against Derry.
The group calling itself Redlands Residents Against Corruption, Opposing Neil Derry for City Council 2014, has amassed more than $40,000.
Derry this week told the Sentinel that his continuing political ambition and the suggestions of others “who requested that I consider running or asked me to run is what made me to decide to give it a shot. I have a background as an open government type of guy and I take the facts and try to make a decision without personal animus. I believe I can do the right things for Redlands. In the last few years the city has engaged in some controversial actions. They have used trash fees to pay for roads. They have considered tax measures for flood control. I don’t think any of that was appropriate. They have been able to operate outside of much media scrutiny or any scrutiny at all. I think we need to open the books on these decisions. I pushed through a sunshine ordinance at the county. A lot of people consider that to be important. People who live here and are doing business in the city want to know that business is not being done behind the scenes and behind closed doors. Decisions need to be made with public input.”
Derry said he was highly conscious of the campaign that was being run specifically against him.
“That kind of money being spent in a campaign, particularly against a single candidate, is unprecedented in Redlands,” Derry said. “Sixty to 65 percent of the money is coming from the San Manuel Tribe. Another major portion of the money is coming from a developer who was very close to Bill Postmus. You have members of the board of the Redlands Centennial Bank, who ran that institution into the ground and bankrupted a lot of people in this community, who are involved in funding the effort against me. There is a lot of vindictiveness involved. There is a lot of personal politics involved. You have a member of the board of supervisors,” Derry said, in reference to James Ramos, “who is taking a very active role in Redlands politics. I have tried to run a positive campaign. I have been talking about where the city needs to go. I’ve been knocking on doors, talking to people about what is important to them.  This campaign should be about the future of the city and what is best for its residents. Unfortunately, it has become about personalities.”
In addition to infusing the political action committees standing in opposition to Derry, James Ramos is among the most substantial donors to the campaign funds for Barich and the incumbents Foster and Harrison. The Harrison committee also received $1,000 from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, of which Ramos was formerly chairman. Not coincidentally, it seems, Harrison and Foster have proven to be the two candidates in the race most critical of Derry. Both have denied that the money provided to them by the tribe and James Ramos have had any impact on their political opposition to Derry.
For his part, Derry sought to avoid being pointedly critical of the others in the electoral field,
“I believe all of the candidates in the race are well intentioned,” he said. “I am not angling my campaign at any one of them. I think the voters’ analysis should go to an evaluation of experience and effectiveness. Mr. Foster and Mr Harrison are asking for four more years. I think some of the programs the current council has been involved with are a little misguided. I think the city is spinning its wheels with its sustainability ordinance. Mr. Montgomery is a businessman who has had to deal with the city’s regulation and code enforcement in his business venture. That makes him very aware of some of the issues that are hurting the city. Mr. Barich has built a successful business. Ms. Dreher has had experience in the public sector as a spokesperson with SANBAG, the county’s transportation agency. I believe that my experience in government, in the private sector and in public relations matches or exceeds that of all of my opponents  Any one of them brings to the table something. I have had experience in dealing with local issues. I am not challenging any one of them, but I would say, hey look at what I have accomplished at several levels. I think my knowing what to do and in many cases what not to do could be very valuable to the city of Redlands.”

(October 29)  Former congressman Joe Baca said he is running for mayor in Fontana ”to take the city to a higher level. I’ve served in Congress and in the California Assembly and State Senate. I want to use my expertise to make Fontana a better place. I have worked with three different presidents – Bill Clinton, George Bush and Barack Obama and two governors, Pete Wilson and Grey Davis. When people ask me why I want to serve at the city level, I tell them I have the ability to work on a bipartisan basis to see projects to completion after I served in getting the federal  funding in place to start them. I served my country in time of war when I was in the Army and then in the state legislature and in Washington, D.C. I am blessed to be able to run for mayor now.”
Baca said, “I think the major issue Fontana is its leaders just don’t have a vision for what the city should be. There hasn’t been a master plan for the past ten years. The city should have been preparing for where it is going. Major problems facing us here in Fontana are we are experiencing higher and higher water rates and traffic congestion. I believe with the population growth we have to have a vision. San Bernardino’s population is down to 203,023.  Fontana is up to 206,000. We are now the largest city in the county. We need a plan that is worthy of our status as the county’s major city. We have to deal with the growth. We need a plan to take Fontana to a higher level. We need a plan that is inclusive of the whole city and its diversity.”
Baca offered a glimpse into his vision for the city.
“We have to focus on what is important to each of the city’s different areas,” he said. “We need roads and infrastructure. I’d love to see a movie theater in the northern portion of Fontana. We also need another sports complex to allow basketball, volleyball and wrestling to take place indoors for our youth. Right now, to get that, you have to lease athletic facilities from the high school.  I would like to see us build a hotel in the northern section of the city.  In the Duncan area around Citrus we need a retail square. I would like to see an opera theater outdoors to attract people from the surrounding communities, Redlands, San Bernardino, Rancho Cucamonga, Upland and, of course, Fontana. I would like to see a California University in Fontana. In San Bernardino County we have community colleges and a Cal State University and private universities but we don’t have a UC system campus. I was instrumental in helping Merced when they got the University of California to come in there and I believe I could utilize my experience with the state legislature to get Fontana a University of California campus. We have access to the 15 Freeway, the 19 Freeway and the 210. I would love to see downtown Fontana become a cultural center for fashion and the arts. We need an amphitheater. With the right retails stores we can make it so we have something like Rodeo Drive and Palm Springs. We should bring the Kaiser Museum, which is currently located in Rancho Cucamonga, to our downtown area. I think we need a movie theater and retail stores in the south part of Fontana. We need recreation facilities for our youth. We have no urgent care facilities in Southridge. We have Kaiser Hospital but there is nothing on the other side of the freeway. I would like to see us reach out and put an annex of the boys and girls club on the south end of town. We have one in the north but nothing in the south. Boys and girls clubs are of assistance with after school programs and tutoring . I believe on the west side we should bring in a a national automobile training center associated with NASCAR for vocation training for mechanics. We could make it an attraction. We should attempt to bring professional soccer to Fontana.    We need to work with kindergarten through 12th grade education and a university to make sure our kids are prepared not only for the jobs of today but the jobs of tomorrow. We need a collaboration, a partnership with businesses. Teamwork will make the dream work.”
This year, five candidates are vying in the Fontana mayoral race – Baca, incumbent Acquanetta Warren, Luis Vaquera, Daniel Quiroga, and Jason O’Brien. For many political observers, the race is deemed to be one between Warren and Baca, the two who boast the greatest name recognition as well as the most experience in office.
Baca compared himself to Warren.
“The incumbent has no vision,” he said. “This city must deal with its growth.  It has grown, but that was because of the efforts of the two previous mayors, Mark Nuaimi and Dave Eshleman.  Fontana does not have a ten-year plan. It has not updated its general plan since she has been mayor.  There are a lot of positive things about Fontana, but she was not the one who instigated those. It was the mayors before her. She has been mayor for four years. We should have a new general plan or be well into the process. We have to look at growth and our population and see how we are going to meet our needs in the future.”

(October 29) Stephen Lyster Siringoringo, the 1999 Fontana High School graduate who seemingly made good by becoming an attorney specializing in modification services for clients facing foreclosures during the height of the home mortgage meltdown four years ago, has agreed to disbarment.
Losing his license to practice law will mollify some, though not all of the hundreds of former clients who claim Siringoringo took advantage of them, took their money, allowed their homes to be taken from them and then provided them with no accounting or records to assist them in the aftermath.
According to the State Bar, Siringoringo visited upon his clients significant harm by failing to provide promised services to them and aided in the unauthorized practice of law by other when he allowed non-attorney employees to meet with clients, set fees and perform legal services without supervision.
A stipulation filed October 15 in State Bar Court ratchets an earlier discipline to the state of disbarment for Siringoringo. Last December, the Bar found Siringoringo culpable of collecting advanced fees for loan modification work in 20 client matters and recommended an 18-month suspension. In partial mitigation Siringoringo has agreed to provide refunds ranging from $1,500 to $5,970 to 14 former clients named in the stipulation.
That relates to but a fraction of the harm Siringoringo is alleged to wreaked. The State Bar’s Office of Chief Trial Counsel indicated it has received 796 additional complaints regarding alleged misconduct by Siringoringo. Those clients may be eligible for reimbursement by the State Bar’s Client Security Fund after the disbarment is finalized by the California Supreme Court.
Under the terms of the stipulation, Siringoringo was not eligible to practice law as of Oct. 18.
Siringoringo and his firm took money up front from clients, maintaining action could not be taken if there were no funds to work with.  The firm typically asked for $3995.00 to initiate work and would bill clients $135.00 each month thereafter. When employees were pressed by clients about what action had been taken, they would be met with claims that the process required time to mature. Delays of eight, ten, 12, 14 and 16 months before informing clients that their loan modifications had been denied were common. Subsequently, clients were told that another method for obtaining a modification was in the works. Few, if any of the sought modifications were ever achieved.

By Mark Gutglueck
The rugged and remote San Bernardino Mountains and the highest peak among them were the setting for the death of Dean Paul Martin more than a quarter century ago.
Dean Paul Martin was the son of performer Dean Martin and his second wife, Jeanne Biegger, the fifth of Dean Martin’s seven children, and Jeanne’s eldest son. He attended the Urban Military Academy in Brentwood and at age 13 set off on a career path that emulated his father when he joined Desi Arnaz Jr. and Billy Hinsche in the pop group Dino, Desi, & Billy, which achieved a few minor hits in the U.S. between 1965 and 1968, landing in the Top 30 twice, including their biggest charter, “I’m a Fool.”
At the age of 16, he obtained his pilot’s license.
In his late teens, he began using his given name of Dean Paul instead of the nickname “Dino.” Something of a playboy and a member of the jet set, he flew Lear jets, drove fast cars, and competed as an amateur racer, and dated Candace Bergen and Tina Sinatra. He also was a serious tennis player, competing in a junior competition at Wimbledon, eventually going on the pro circuit and achieving ranking among the 400 best players in the world.
In 1971, he married actress Olivia Hussey, from whom he divorced in 1978. He was married to Olympic gold medalist Dorothy Hamill from 1982 to 1984.
After his years as a teen music idol came to a close, he became an actor. He starred with Ali McGraw in the 1979 movie, “Players,” in which he was cast as a professional tennis player and for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award as best new actor of the year. He subsequently starred in the TV series “Misfits of Science,” co-starring Courtney Cox, which aired during the 1985-1986 television season, and was working on a pilot for Fox Television, “A Single Man,” at the time of his death.
Co-existent with his life of privilege, Dean Paul Martin had a serious side, having attended UCLA as a premedical student and working to achieve his instrument rating as a pilot. He was among a coterie of Hollywood luminaries including John Travolta, Wallace Beery, Jimmy Stewart and Wayne Morris, who took flying very seriously.
Inspired by an air show he saw at the age of 26 in 1978, he resolved to be a military pilot but was initially rebuffed. Determined, he flew to Washington, D.C. and personally persuaded Major General John B. Conway, then the director of the Air National Guard, to permit him to enlist.
He attended officer candidate training in Knoxville, Tennessee starting in November 1980 and advanced to Phantom jets, capable of speeds reaching 1,200 miles per hour, which he flew out of March AFB. Martin exhibited patience in getting the status he sought. Because there was a surplus of qualified military fliers in the Guard, he was first relegated to “GIB” status, or guy in the back, tending to radio, ordinance and navigational assignments. He said that experience made him appreciative, after he became a full-fledged military pilot, of what his crew member was enduring.
He was an esteemed pilot and had achieved the rank of captain in the National Guard.
On March 21, 1987, he brought his son Alexander to March Air Force Base to allow him to witness the preparation for his take-off on what was to be a routine flying exercise. With his weapons officer, Ramon Ortiz, 39, aboard, Captain Martin, himself 35, went airborne in the company of two other Phantom craft.
On that last day of winter, the San Bernardino Mountains were covered in heavy snowpack and snow was falling at the windswept higher altitudes, clouding visibility. Shortly after the three planes took off, all three were ordered by air traffic controllers at Ontario International Airport to change course in order to avoid 11,800-foot San Gorgonio Mountain,  Southern California’s highest peak. Shortly thereafter, while instrumentation indicated his Phantom was at an altitude of around 11,300 feet, Martin’s plane dropped off the radar screens. It had apparently clipped Mt. San Gorgonio and then streaked into the side of a granite mountain about five-and-a-half miles to the south.
The plane was carrying a large amount of fuel and burned when it struck the ground in an area known as Wood Canyon.
About two feet of snow continued to fall over the next several days, as wind and other conditions hampered the search for the craft, which was spotted by a U.S. Air Force helicopter pilot four days later near the San Bernardino County/Riverside County boundary. The wreckage was reached by searchers on March 25. They found it in “large pieces and small pieces” at the 5,500 foot level. There was no indication that Martin or Ortiz had attempted to eject.
Martin and Ortiz died in a confrontation with Mt. San Gorgonio, where, a little more than ten years earlier, on January 7, 1977, a Lear jet taking Frank Sinatra’s 82-year-old mother, Natalie (Dolly) Sinatra, crashed in a blinding snowstorm at 10,000 feet, 200 feet below a ridge. She was traveling from her Palm Springs home to see her son perform in Las Vegas.
Dean Paul  Martin is buried in the Los Angeles National Cemetery, a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs cemetery in Los Angeles.