By Mark Gutglueck
George Eugene Butler was a self-made tycoon who served for slightly more than six years as San Bernardino County supervisor in the First District. His fiefdom, as it were, was in the area around Needles, which in his day was one of the county’s primary cities, given its status as a railroad town as well as its location on California’s East Coast, better known as the west bank of the Colorado River.
George Butler was born on November 9, 1876 in Downey, the son of George Emery and Julia (Moores) Butler. George Butler the elder was a minister with a family of six children. As such, he was hard-pressed to keep his family in comfortable circumstances.
At the age of eleven, young George set out on his own, intent on leaving the deprivations in his father’s household behind him. With the pocket change he had, he purchased a train ticket, which took him as far as Needles.
Filled with hard-living miners and railroad men, Needles was a somewhat rougher place than Downey in those days. The youngster was undaunted by the denizens of his newly adopted home, where he was determined to stay. He quickly found employment as a stock boy and helper at the Monaghan and Murphy Mercantile Company. By dint of determination and perseverance, he educated himself. In a few years, he was promoted to bookkeeper with Monaghan and Murphy, a position he retained for the remainder of his stay with that company.
Around 1900, when he was 23 years old, George Butler established his own general store in Needles, the Needles Mercantile Company. This enterprise, like nearly all others he associated himself with during his lifetime, proved eminently successful. With the advance of his prosperity, he incorporated the Bank of Needles in 1907.  He was the president and manager of both establishments for many years.
He then interested himself in real estate endeavors, buying and selling a large number of properties around Needles, and branched out into acquiring mining property. He learned the language of the Mojave Indians, in so doing earning the trust of the indigenous population around Needles, which furthered the degree of success he enjoyed around Needles.
In 1904, he married Worth Hervey of Santa Ana.  His wife had been born in 1882 and was the daughter of William Blount and Joanna (Rhodes) Hervey of Santa Ana. George and Worth had three children: a son, Worth Hervey; and two daughters, Joanna Rhodes and Georgia Eugene.
In 1908 Butler served on the county grand jury.
On December 9, 1910, Judge James West resigned from the board of supervisors for health reasons.
George was immediately appointed to succeed West by lieutenant governor Warren Porter, who at that point was serving in the capacity of acting governor.  In 1912 he was elected to the board by the residents of the First District and he served on the board until January 8, 1917, when he was succeeded by Austin B. Mulvane of Amboy.  During his stint as supervisor, Butler travelled by train to San Bernardino to attend board meetings.
He and his wife purchased some property at Big Bear Lake in 1911, and with his family George Butler vacationed there during the summer.  While on the board of supervisors, he successfully advocated for a road to be built from the desert to Big Bear. This was named “Johnson Grade” in reference to a man who lived halfway up the mountain, but is now known as “Cushenberry Grade.”
Shortly after leaving the board of supervisors in 1917, Butler handed off management of the Bank of Needles to his brother, J. Henry Butler, who had served as bookkeeper and cashier. He then moved to Los Angeles. He remained on the bank’s board of directors, and, from 1920 to 1929, sold off many of his interests and investments in and around Needles. The Bank of Needles was sold to San Bernardino Valley Bank in 1924. It closed in 1931, a casualty of the Great Depression.
For family reasons, Butler had moved from Needles. But the departure from the place where he had spent the most rewarding years of his young life saddened him. In Los Angeles, he bought some apartments, and in 1938 he invested in property at Cardiff-by-the –Sea in San Diego County. During the next few years, he owned a hotel, shop and several small homes there. This was all sold during World War II, when travel restrictions made it difficult to properly oversee his holdings.
George Eugene Butler, then residing in Los Angeles, died on November 18, 1947 at the age of 71.

(October 1) Tom Piper said he is running for town council in Apple Valley “to make the town better.”
Piper said “The number one plank in my platform is I want us to create our own municipal water company. It can be done by setting aside ten percent of our $100 million municipal budget toward  creating a city controlled water division. We should pattern what I want to do with on the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. We should do it just the way William Mulholland did it back in 1905. He wrote the primer for the job.
“Secondly,” Piper continued, “We are losing between five and nine million dollars per year at the golf course. The situation is not getting better. We should sell the land and use it to buy water rights. We need to take care of more than just the golf course nuts. The golf course is green and they want the rest of us to grow rocks. It’s hard to grow rocks and when you do grow them they are still rocks. The town has raised taxes to cover the cost of the golf course. This is being done for the wealthiest people in Apple Valley. The town council is having the rest of us subsidize the richest among us. The council is not serving the people. It is serving the people who have them in their pocket.”
Piper went on to his third cause. “I want to put cameras on our sheriff’s officers,” he said. “I was talking with Captain [Lana] Tomlin about it and there are going to be some technical difficulties in getting it worked out, but this should be happening very soon. I think we should try to have a better relationship between the sheriff’s department and the community and that will contribute toward that.”
His fourth priority, Piper said, is to provide free internet service to everyone in Apple Valley. “I want to WiFi the entire town,” he said. “I’ve researched it. Its ballpark cost will be $1 million per year. The payback to the community is so great it is a must do. People would have no bill for their access. It would be completely free, like using the streets. The information highway should be considered a public utility.”
Piper, who ran for town council unsuccessfully in 2012, saw his campaign given a boost when city officials, in particular code enforcement director Jim Andersen and one of his crews, overstepped their authority and on September 22 took it upon themselves to remove a series of Piper’s campaign signs that he and his supporters had erected on the hilly landscape to the side of Highway 18 in its approach to the Mojave Narrows.
Piper had studied the town’s ordinance regulating political signage. He designed the signs to comply with the 18 square foot limitation contained in the ordinance. But rather than fitting the message “Tom Piper for Town Council” within the 18 square foot dimension, he allotted one sign for each letter in all of the words, with the exception of “for, which he fit on one sign. Owing to the heat on September 22, Piper and his band of electoral confederates knocked off after they had erected the first eleven of the signs, intending to return the following morning when it was cooler to finish the job.
Anderson, using his own authority and without checking first to see if the signs were, as posted, in fact a violation of the city’s code, had the signs dismantled.
Piper learned of the town’s action shortly thereafter. He called town manager Frank Robinson, who defended Andersen’s illegal action as legally justified and referred Piper to town attorney John Brown. Brown, after some initial hesitation, closely examined the town code and discovered that Piper’s signs were in fact in compliance Communication from Brown to Robinson followed and the signs were released from the town’s impound yard. They were re-erected.
The incident instantaneously elevated Piper among the candidates in the race, which include incumbents Scott Nassiff, Curt Emick and Barb Stanton, all of whom were viewed, by some in the community, as being ultimately responsible for Robinson’s and Andersen’s faux pas. There were disparate calls from throughout the community for Andersen’s firing and Robinson’s suspension.
Councilman Scott Nassiff said of the signs, “Personally, I thought he did something that was a little bit different, creative,” Nassiff said. “I thought it was great. It turned out they were not over the square foot limit.” Nassiff did not quite concede that code enforcement had done anything wrong in removing the signs. “I think they were looking at them holistically,” Nassiff said. “They looked at them all as one complete sign and not separate. In my opinion they didn’t violate any laws. They interpreted it as they normally would as overall square footage on a business sign, which is subject to our code. There is nothing about political signs being used that way, nothing that spells it out. In the interest of fairness we are letting them stay up. They were  back up in 24 hours.”
Emick said he was not in favor of disciplining Andersen or Robinson for their violation of Piper’s rights. He said code enforcement should be given a pass for its transgression because “the signs were so unusual. It was a misunderstanding. It’s not every day that a candidate puts a campaign sign up that is like the Hollywood sign in several pieces. It was very unusual.”
“They tore my signs down,” Piper told the Sentinel. “I called code enforcement and they said they were illegal because of their size.  I said they weren’t illegal and they just hung up on me. I called the town manager. They were basically being a bunch of tyrants. The signs weren’t illegal. They’re not supposed to tear anyone’s signs down. That was illegal. The next day after I confronted them and didn’t back down, the city attorney made them release them. They were caught breaking the law. They have to clean house in the code enforcement department and this is a good start. I might as well say it like it is. They are control freaks, doing the bidding of the ultra-rich. I just might pull off getting elected. There are a few other decent people running. If we can get in, we can change this town.”
Piper said his posting of the signs was not an act of defiance but an assertion of his rights. He dwelled on the fact that “I am a Libertarian. I am a member of the San Bernardino County Libertarian Party. I am a stickler for human rights, Constitutional Rights. I will make more noise about that stuff than any other elected officials I have seen. I am pro-marijuana. It should never have been illegal to begin with. I am an old hippy and I have been smoking it for 40 years. I haven’t seen a problem yet. The people of California voted for it to be legal 18 years ago and the state has now given us a way to have it legally. I have a prescription and I grow my own. A few years ago no one running for office would expound on this but the political atmosphere has changed. I am the furthest thing from a politician there is.”
Piper graduated from Edgewood High School in West Covina and attended Mt. San Antonio College in Pomona, where he got his degree in liberal arts. He served in the United States Air Force from 1966 to 1970. He is a structural composite engineer. He is on the faculty of the Art Center College of Design. He was a member of the Apple Valley Wind Turbine Working Committee. Married, he is separated with three stepchildren.

(September 29) Chad Mayes, the Republican candidate in the race for the  42nd District Assembly, gave a generic reason as to why he is running for office this time around.
“I’m running to represent and give the people of the 42nd Assembly District a voice in Sacramento.”
Mayes said the major issues facing the district are economic ones.
“Too many of our neighbors remain out of work or are struggling to make ends meet,” he said. “Simply, I believe we need to address the issue of job creation in our region.  Additionally, our schools need to produce graduates with the skills to compete in today’s economy. So, I’m clearly focused on education policy.”
As to the major issues facing the state of California, Mayes said “Frankly, there is not enough space to cover all of the issues that face our state.  Clearly our schools in both urban and rural areas are failing our students.  When you lose a major employer like Tesla to Nevada, it’s clear our regulatory and tax structures are driving jobs away.  We simply must solve our water crisis and compromise needs to be made by all sides.  And it’s too bad that we have to lock our doors at night to protect our families from the threat of violence.  The issues are too numerous but all of them are important.”
Of his district’s needs, Mayes said, “This district is geographically expansive and that probably poses the largest challenge to any legislator.”
To meet the varying challenges he must deal with as a legislator, Mayes said, “I’ve worked hard to build coalitions in each of the communities of the 42nd district that will ensure that I’m properly informed on the issues that are vital to our neighbors.”
Mayes cited his previous experience in elective office in explaining what he believed qualified him for a stint in the state legislature. “I was elected three times to the Yucca Valley Town Council and served two terms as mayor.  I worked alongside now Congressman Paul Cook when he represented many of these communities in the State Assembly and I currently serve as chief of staff to the chair of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors.  All combined, I have proven experience at the local, county, and state level.”
Mays said he is distinguished form his Democratic opponent Karalee  Hargrove by “my years of public service at the local, county, and state level, which has made me uniquely qualified to work with Republicans, Democrats and Independents to get things done. These are tough times and we need a strong and effective voice to fight for our region.  My extensive relationships with local leaders throughout every community in the 42nd district will make me effective from day one.  I’m willing to work across the aisle in a bipartisan manner to address the issues of job creation and retention and stronger schools that prepare our graduates to succeed in today’s competitive economy.”

By Diane Dragotto Williams
On September 15th, in a little village in Galena, Alaska, an unprincipled hunter took advantage of a female black bear foraging for food for her cubs, and shot and killed her for his trophy. He skinned her, carved her up, and took away her head, paws and other body parts for his use. This beautiful sow had spent months in hibernation, giving birth to three healthy cubs, raising them tenderly, protecting them from predators. And at the right time, she brought them out of their den, to teach them how to live in the wild. She had spent hours daily grooming, cleaning, feeding, nuzzling and comforting them from frightful noises, animals, weather, and attacks of any kind. That fateful day, she had left them in a tree to wait for her return, so she could renew the sustenance her body needed to nurse her cubs, and find a new source of food for them. She gave her life for her babies that day, keeping the location of the cubs away from the hunter. Despite the fact that the hunter took this bear illegally in an Alaskan Village where hunting is prohibited, he was able to do this ghastly deed, and get away with it, much to the horror of the natives and residents of Galena.
The hunter also forever altered the lives of the bear’s three offspring.  If it weren’t for the compassionate hearts of the village residents, these orphans would have died slowly of starvation, been eaten savagely by predators, or died a slow death of hypothermia in the approaching snow. Spotted clinging to that tree, the cubs cried out for their mother, and began to search for her in the forest. They found part of her hide and drug it to their only source of protection, that tree, where they kept close her remains as a point of comfort. Abandoned and alone, as they grew hungry, not understanding their plight, they literally reached out their arms to humans that found them. It broke the hearts of all those who happened upon them.
These lovers of nature contacted the Alaskan authorities to find out what could be done. Due to Alaska Fish and Game regulations, the cubs did not qualify for rehabilitation, and the only resort left to them was to find a permanent home in captivity. None could be found in Alaska, so Wildhaven Ranch was called, and we all began to invest our time to help find a home for these desperate cubs. Daily, many natives have protected the trio from danger, diligently seeking for a resolve to the murder of the cubs’ mother. Waiting permits, transportation, and hopefully, a new home in Colorado for the cubs, agonizing days of the unknown have faced these ursines, and the villagers who have respect for the lives of these bears. Finally, September 29, the three bears were flown out of Galena, thanks to the Alaska Humane Society and Fish and Game to a safe place while preparations are made for their new home for life.
What lesson can be learned from this singular, unknown act of selfishness that the hunter inflicted upon the mother bear, the villagers, and, ultimately, the three bear cubs? We live in a world where, daily, hideous acts are done in the name of private beliefs, personal agendas and philosophies.  If we can learn that integrity begins at treatment of the bottom of the life cycle, where we are charged to honor what we have been given, then perhaps there is hope. We must be challenged to be good stewards of life, so that evil unchallenged will not continue to persist, at least in those instances when good can overcome it.  Even seemingly, unimportant to some, the senseless killing of a mother sow in far away Alaska speaks to us in San Bernardino County.  May those little survivors, who, unfortunately must now live in captivity, tell their tale, and cause those who will listen to respect the precious gift of life.
Wildhaven Ranch is a wildlife sanctuary in Cedar Glen that gives programs to the public by appointments only.  Bears, Bobcat, Coyotes, Deer, Eagles, Falcon, Hawk, Owl and Raccoons are seen “up close and personal” in guided tours.  For reservations, call (909) 337-7389.

You can download a PDF of the September 26 Edition of the San Bernardino County Sentinel by clicking on the portal below.

Sentinel 09-26-14

(September 26)  As was anticipated, prosecutors and the defense in the Colonies Lawsuit Settlement Public Corruption Prosecution are appealing San Bernardino Superior Court Judge Michael A. Smith’s rulings this summer that variously dismissed some of the charges filed in the case and upheld others.
After defense attorneys earlier this year filed a series of five motions that together sought the dismissal of the entirety of the case against the four defendants, Smith during seven days of hearings in late July and early August made rulings that were favorable to both sides on various issues.
In the case, Rancho Cucamonga-based developer Jeff Burum, former Second District county supervisor Paul Biane, former assistant county assessor and one-time county sheriff’s deputy union president Jim Erwin, and Mark Kirk, former chief of staff for supervisor Gary Ovitt, are charged with having conspired in a bribery and extortion plot that effectuated a $102 million settlement for Burum’s company, Colonies Partners, LP, in November 2006. The payout of that money brought to an end a four-year duration lawsuit filed by the Colonies Partners over flood control issues at the Colonies at San Antonio residential and Colonies Crossroads commercial subdivisions in northeast Upland.
Prosecutors allege Burum, using Erwin as a consultant, threatened and coerced former supervisors Bill Postmus and Paul Biane to settle the lawsuit and bribed Kirk to influence Ovitt to support the settlement. After the $102 million changed hands, prosecutors maintain, Burum rewarded Postmus, Biane and Kirk with $100,000 donations to political action committees they controlled.
Postmus pleaded guilty to all 14 counts contained in an earlier indictment that was based on what was basically the same recitation of facts and alleged overt acts as contained in the indictment of Erwin, Burum, Kirk and Biane. After his guilty pleas were entered, Postmus served as a star witness before the grand jury that indicted the other four.
The case has been sharply contested since its inception. After the 29-count indictment was handed down on May 9, 2011, defense attorneys filed demurrers challenging the sufficiency of the case on a host of legal, factual and technical grounds. In August 2011, Judge Brian McCarville granted several of those demurrers, throwing out a number of the charges. The prosecution appealed McCarville’s ruling to the Fourth District Court of Appeal, a move which was matched by defense attorneys, who asserted that McCarville should have dispensed with even more of the charges than he actually did. The Fourth District Court upheld McCarville on all but one of his rulings favoring the defense and, in addition, threw out even more of the charges. Prosecutors then filed a last-minute appeal of the Fourth District Court’s ruling with the California Supreme Court.
After a year-long delay, the Supreme Court reinstated the charges and sent the matter back to the trial court. It was at that point that the several motions for dismissal were put before Smith.
At the heart of the case was a single conspiracy charge against each of the defendants, upon which the primary narrative of the case was hinged, including 43 overt acts. Defense attorneys, led by Burum’s primary counsel, former federal judge Stephen Larson, sought to derail the case by having the conspiracy element dismissed, based upon statute of limitations grounds. Larson in his court papers asserted that conspiracy charges are subject to a strict three-year statute of limitations rather than the four years alleged by the prosecution. Because the last overt act of the conspiracy, that is, the final delivery of the alleged bribe money in the form of the contributions to the political action committees, occurred in June 2007 and the indictment did not come until May 2011, Larson posited that the statute of limitations had been exceeded.
Prosecutors countered that because one of the acts alleged in the conspiracy involved government fraud, the statute for which is four years, the criminal case did not fall outside the statute of limitations. Smith sided with the defense on that question. Smith made another ruling favorable to the defense, dismissing twelve other charges in the case, likewise on statute of limitations grounds based on arguments that the victim, i.e., the county and its officials, knew of or had strong grounds to suspect as early as 2006 that the illegal activity described in the indictment had taken place, thus making the May 2011 indictment too late given the three-year statute of limitations. Smith did, however, give the prosecution the opportunity to amend the complaint to clarify that both law enforcement officers and county officials had no substantial indication that the alleged crimes had occurred until November 2008. Prosecutors in August availed themselves of that option by filing an amended indictment with that clarification, preserving those charges.
Smith then heard several of the other motions for dismissal, the grounds for which included lack of probable cause, jury misinstruction, prosecutorial misconduct in having raided the defense camp and seizing privileged materials crucial to the defense, along with prosecutorial and investigator misconduct in having made misrepresentations to obtain search warrants and hiding information about a witness from the grand jury. Smith denied those motions, allowing that portion of the case relating to  misappropriation of public funds – Penal Code Section 424 – to proceed,  as well as sustaining the charges of  tax and perjury against Erwin that were based upon his not having properly reported having received gifts from Burum. Smith did dismiss another set of perjury and tax fraud charges against Erwin, Biane and Kirk relating to the contributions to the political action committees they controlled, ruling such political donations cannot be considered income to the founders of the political action committees (PACS) or those in control of them. Smith  also dismissed conflict-of-interest charges against Burum and Erwin, reasoning that Burum was never a public official and Erwin was not a public official at the time of the alleged crimes.
In all, Smith left standing 18 of the original 29 charges in the indictment.  This created a delicate stand-off between the prosecution and defense.  Larson and the other defense attorneys – David Goldstein, representing Biane; Raj Maline, representing Erwin; and Paul Grech, representing Kirk – simultaneously succeeded and failed. They had achieved victory by getting the most serious charge – that pertaining to conspiracy – thrown out. But nearly two thirds of the case against their clients remained intact. At the other side of the table, Supervising Deputy California Attorney General Melissa Mandel and San Bernardino County deputy district attorneys Michael Abney, Lewis Cope and Reza Sadeghi were acutely aware that the dismissal of the conspiracy charge severely complicated their efforts, in that the dismissal erased a multitude of overt acts from the indictment upon which much of the case is based. The dismissal of the conspiracy charges and the narrative attached thereto rendered the job of convincing a jury of the guilt of the defendants on the remaining charges very difficult.
The question that ensued was whether the prosecution team would satisfy itself with proceeding with the eighteen charges Smith indicated had some order of merit or whether it should dig in even further and seek to revive the conspiracy count by means of an appeal. A consideration in this decision was that there simultaneously exists for the defense what in legal parlance is referred to as “writable” issues with regard to Smith’s sustaining of some of the other charges. By appealing Smith’s ruling on the big charge on which it had lost – the conspiracy charge – the prosecution would invite the defense to appeal Smith’s decision on the charges on which the prosecution had prevailed.
Recognizing the prosecution was leaning toward just such an appeal, Larson, working in conjunction with Dennis A. Fischer, who is considered one of the leading appeals attorneys in the state of California, began authoring a writ of prohibition and a writ of mandate on Burum’s behalf. On September 16 the writ of prohibition was filed with the Fourth Court of Appeal in Riverside.  On September 19, prosecutors filed notice of an appeal with regard to Smith’s July 23 ruling dismissing the conspiracy element of the case.  This week, Larson and Fischer were preparing to double down, putting the final touches on the writ of mandate.
The precise substance of the prosecution’s appeal has not been disclosed, as only the notice of the appeal has been filed. According to the court record,  it is Smith’s “7/23/2014 order sustaining defendant’s demurrers to Count 1 [i.e., the conspiracy charge] of the indictment without leave to amend and the 8/25/2014 order sustaining defendants demurrers to Count 1 of the first amended indictment without leave to amend” that is the subject of the appeal.
Because the defense had filed the writ of prohibition, the language in it is publicly available.
In the writ of prohibition, Larson and Fischer asserted “All criminal charges against Mr. Burum should have been dismissed for lack of probable cause. The trial court agreed with [the appellate court in one of its previous rulings] that the alleged bribery could not alone render the settlement ‘without authority of law.’”
In particular, according to Larson and Fischer, “The trial court should have dismissed misappropriation of public funds charges against Mr. Burum” because, they argued, the prosecution failed to properly lay the foundation for crimes of that nature, which are prohibited under section 424 of the penal code, and because such crimes must necessarily involve intent, an element of the crime the defense attorneys say was not present. “The trial court mistakenly held that the People’s admitted failure to instruct the grand jury on the intent element of Section 424 was harmless error,” Larson and Fischer maintain. “The factual record did not support a finding of probable cause as to the Section 424 charge.”
Furthermore, the writ resurrected the defense’s contention, which was rejected by Smith, that the prosecution failed to establish probable cause with regard to the charges that Burum facilitated Postmus, Biane and Kirk in the reception of bribes. In legal parlance, a so-called 995 motion is a request that the court dismiss criminal charges based upon the contention that there was insufficient probable cause to obtain an indictment.
“The trial court erred in denying Mr. Burum’s 995 motion to dismiss aiding and abetting bribery,” the writ of prohibition states. “The trial court erred in finding sufficient evidence to establish probable cause of Mr. Burum’s intent to aid and abet the receipt of a bribe.  The trial court erred in failing to dismiss all charges against  Mr. Burum based on the People’s failure to properly instruct [the grand jury] on the alleged tolling of the statute of limitations. This material instructional error should have resulted in dismissal of all counts against Mr. Burum.”
The writ of prohibition disputes the prosecution theory that Postmus and Biane, by voting to approve the settlement, were in effect diverting money from the settlement to themselves.
“In denying Petitioner Jeffrey Burum’s motion to dismiss the indictment pursuant to Penal Code section 995, the trial court disregarded California case law,” Larson and Fischer maintained. “The grand jury needed to find probable cause that the officeholders – supervisors William Postmus and Paul Biane in this case – not only knew they were receiving a bribe, but that they knew at the time of their votes that they  were allocating funds to themselves. Although the trial court correctly recognized this requisite knowledge element, it ultimately ignored the fact that the People did not instruct the grand jury on this legal requirement, did not argue this theory and did not submit any evidence supporting this factual proposition.
“If one thing is clear from the record,”  the writ of prohibition states, “it is that the People repeatedly failed to properly instruct the grand jury on crucial elements needed to make a factual probable cause finding. Any single one of the People’s incorrect instructions should have raised great doubts about the propriety of the grand jury’s findings, and those errors were only compounded by the lack of evidence to support the People’s case.”
Larson and Fischer  assert that “the trial court acknowledged the California Supreme Court’s ruling that the People had the express burden of presenting evidence that Mr. Burum engaged in ‘additional conduct’ independent of offering or giving a bribe – with the intent to aid and abet supervisors Postmus and Biane in receiving bribes. Again, however, the trial court ultimately disregarded the law of the case. It incorrectly held that the grand jury need not be instructed on this ‘additional conduct’ element, a conclusion that strips the Supreme Court’s ruling of any meaning at the grand jury stage.  It then ignored the People’s critical concession that they could not show that Mr. Burum acted with the intent for supervisors Postmus or Biane to receive bribes – a concession the People had no choice but to make given that all the evidence and all the argument before the grand jury was that Mr. Burum’s intent was to obtain the settlement agreement. Nevertheless, the trial court held there was sufficient evidence to support the conclusion that Mr. Burum could have held ‘dual’ intents to both give the alleged bribes to obtain the settlement and to have supervisors Postmus and Biane receive bribes. Although it is true that a person can theoretically act with dual intents (a point recognized by the Supreme Court), in this case the grand jury heard no evidence, nor even any argument, of any ‘dual’ intent. Absent this requisite probable cause, the bribery counts also must be set aside. The People’s multiple instructional errors, combined with the lack of admissible evidence supporting their theories of the case on these counts, caused Mr. Burum to be indicted on less than probable cause. Given the materiality of the People’ errors, the trial court should have granted Mr. Burum’s Section 995 motion. A writ of prohibition is warranted to reverse the trial court’s error and restrain trial on those charges.”
Larson and Fischer maintain that the indictment was based on the prosecution’s unsupported theory rather than the marshalling of fact. The lawyers said  the prosecution relied on “guesswork, speculation or conjecture” in instructing the grand jury that “that supervisors Postmus or Biane knew before the vote that they were appropriating the settlement funds to themselves. Supervisor Postumus testified that prior to his vote he had no knowledge of any specific thing he would receive.  In fact, he was emphatic that he did not find out he might receive a PAC contribution (or any payment of money) until several months after the settlement vote.  Nor did anyone else testify that supervisor Postmus or supervisor Biane knew that the supposed bribes would take the form of PAC contributions – or that they were even going to receive PAC contributions – until months after the settlement votes. Bare speculation does not satisfy the probable cause standard of Section 995.”
The most significant element of the writ for prohibition is buried deep within the document, contained in a passage by which  Larson and Fischer marshal what may prove out as the central piece of evidence supporting Burum’s innocence if the case actually goes to trial, consisting of a court finding that Colonies Partners LP was due the $102 million.
“There is another fact that reinforces the lack of probable cause here: The fact that the payment of $102 million was actually made pursuant to the inverse-condemnation judgment entered against the county on March 29, 2007, not pursuant  to the settlement vote of November 28, 2006,” Larson and Fischer state in the writ. “Specifically, Judge [Christopher] Warner ordered that the sum of $102 million be paid by the county to Colonies Partners LP as follows: (a) The sum of twenty-two million and 00/100ths dollars ($22,000,000.00), which sum was advanced by the [county] and paid to [Colonies] on November 29, 2006. (b) The sum of eighty million and 00/100ths dollars ($80,000,000.00) to be paid in full on or before May 29, 2007. Given this order, the board of supervisors had no choice but to appropriate the $102 million in order to satisfy the judgment against the county.”
Prior to the vote by the board of supervisors in November 2006 to confer the $102 settlement on the Colonies Partners, the civil case had gone to a bench trail, that is, one without a jury in which Warner was empowered by the mutual consent of the plaintiff and the defendant to decide both questions of fact and questions of law. Warner found in the Colonies Partner’s favor but had not, at the time of the settlement, ruled with regard to the amount of damages.
Thus, the prosecution’s contention that Burum had bribed Postmus, Biane and Kirk would be subject to contradiction were the criminal case to go before a jury, as it could be demonstrated that Burum and his company were already assured of a positive outcome on the civil suit against the county.
The defense’s writ of mandate was filed on September 25. By press time the Sentinel had not fully examined nor assimilated that document.
Phone calls to the prosecution team seeking comment on the writ for prohibition did not elicit any response.

(September 23)  After 19 years as Rancho Cucamonga fire chief, six years as a city councilman and nearly four years as mayor, Dennis Michael is appealing to the city’s voters to reinstall him as mayor for four more years.
He referenced a host of accomplishments during his tenure as mayor that he said recommend him for another term wielding the gavel of the third largest city in San Bernardino County.
“We‘ve done some pretty incredible things in terms of creating safer neighborhoods,” he said. “The number one priority under my leadership will be to continue the innovative crime fighting measures which have created one of the safest cities with a population of over 100,000 in the region. We have done video surveillance work to target specific areas. We purchased bloodhounds for use where we had break-ins. The bloodhounds helped us in apprehending those type of criminals.”
He then referenced strides the city has made in fire safety during his watch. “We opened up a new fire station on Hellman Avenue off of Hillside,” he said. “The primary objective of that facility was to reduce the fire hazard in our urban/wildland interface area. Combating wildfires has always been a strong public safety imperative in Rancho Cucamonga. A testament to my public safety commitment is that I have been given the endorsement of the firefighters and deputy sheriff’s deputies.”
Michael moved on. “We have implemented some very innovative pension control reforms,” he said. “Employees have started to pay a portion of their share of their own pension contributions and we will keep ratcheting up the amount of their contributions for the next three years. Each year they will pay a little more toward their retirement. Under my leadership Rancho Cucamonga has attained what very few other cities in the region have attained. We no longer have a long term unfunded pension liability. We are one of only a few cities that can boast that.”
He said that “Another aspect to being an elected official at the local level is to make sure we have financial sustainability. Rancho Cucamonga has been very stable. Even during the economic downturn, we have been able to build our reserves and reduce costs. For the last three years, we did not use reserves to balance any of our budgets. When the state eliminated redevelopment agencies so the state could take more revenue from local government, we reduced our work force. Back in 2008, as opposed to 2014, we had twenty percent more employees. We now have twenty percent fewer workers than we did six years ago. By using innovative technologies and computer-based programs we are getting greater efficiency. That 20 percent reduction equates to about 110 employees that are no longer working in the city. At the same time we have increased citizen access and made more convenient applications for city services through an on-line process.”
Michael said that “We have done an outstanding job, in my view, in bringing new business to Rancho Cucamonga in the last couple of years, like Evolution Fresh, the manufacturer of Starbucks’ juices; the Inland Empire Health Plan, which has brought its corporate and treatment offices into Rancho Cucamonga; and Falkentire, which located its corporate office in Rancho Cucamonga on Haven Avenue. A number of hotels have opened here in the last couple of years. These have been a godsend for us in the city. This has enhanced the quality of life because of the economic development this represents. We’ve done some pretty unique things, from my perspective, ones that are critically important to make sure we are bringing in employers who have high employee counts so opportunities for jobs in our city are there. We are seeking commerce and warehouses that have Rancho Cucamonga as their point of sale. We have strived for economic development. Our economic development strategy has been updated from what it was eleven years ago when we had a redevelopment agency. We are continually looking at strengthening that process.”
Michael continued in touting the city. “The city has done an incredible job in winning some regional as well as national recognition, such as that given to our library by the National Institute for Museums and Libraries,” he said. “Our Healthy Rancho Cucamonga Concept was given a gold medal by First Lady Michelle Obama for its efforts to reduce childhood obesity.  We were given the inaugural award from the Inland Economic Partnership for turning red tape into a red carpet because of the changes we made to our development review process. I am proud to be part of a city that sets goals and visions where employees can be comfortable taking risks and accomplishing positive change. As a city council we try to make sure that our aims and goals are laid out for staff and then we let them take care of business on a day-today basis.”
Michael pointed out that he has recently been elevated to two leadership roles within the extra-governmental panels on which he serves. He was elected president of SANBAG – San Bernardino Associated Governments – the joint powers authority to which the county and all 24 incorporated cities in San Bernardino County belong, which acts as the county’s transportation agency. He was also made the second vice president of the California League of Cities. “I take this additional responsibility very seriously,” Michael said. “Being on these boards makes me a more well informed official and allows me to stay close to things that may negatively or positively impact cities throughout the state. These are issues relating to the form of government that is closest to the people.”
The major issues now facing the city, Michael said, consist of continuing economic development and the outward appearance of the city.
“We need to make sure we continue to create the opportunities to attract good quality high end businesses that employ large numbers of workers,” he said. “We have to keep our eyes and ears open  for new businesses to come into Rancho Cucamonga. We need to really focus on our landscape maintenance assessment districts. I hope the public will understand the importance of keeping our landscaping at a higher level. It is important that we use the limited resources we have to provide for the best emergency operations possible and have everything our police, fire department and animal services need. We cannot take our eye off the ball with regard to fiscal  sustainability for our city. Just coming out of the recession, we received a higher credit rating than we had ever received in Rancho Cucamonga. I am personally proud of that. We are not raiding our reserves like other cities. We have a general fund that is protected and provides the services the public deserves. We  have a line item for adding $600,000 to our rainy day reserve fund. I am pretty happy about all of that. We continue to have top notch parks and libraries and amenities the public has come to appreciate.”
He is the son of the late Lloyd Michael, a citrus grower in Rancho Cucamonga who was also the general manager of the Cucamonga County Water District, and served on the boards of the Alta Loma Elementary School District, the Cucamonga County Water District and the San Antonio Hospital Foundation.
A life-long resident of Rancho Cucamonga, Dennis Michael attended Chaffey College. He began as a firefighter with the Foothill Fire District, the processor to the Rancho Cucamonga Fire Department, in 1976. He promoted through the ranks to engineer, captain, battalion chief, and division chief.  He was appointed Fire Chief in 1984, and he held that position for nineteen years until his retirement in December 2003. With his wife, he has two children and five grandchildren.

(September 26) At the behest of the Arrowhead Lake Association, the county board of supervisors this week took a first step toward altering  the county code to allow sail craft smaller than a dozen feet in length to navigate  Lake Arrowhead.
Section 52.0204 of the San Bernardino County Code prohibits the use of boats that are less than twelve feet in length on any county waterway except for the Colorado River, its tributaries and Lake Havasu.
At the suggestion of sheriff’s captain Shannon Dicus, the board of supervisors took a first vote to  amend Section 52.0203 to allow sailboats between seven and twelve feet in length on Lake Arrowhead. The board is now scheduled to give a  required “second reading” of the ordinance at its October 7 meeting. If approved then, it will go into effect 30 days later.
According to Dicus, “The Lake Arrowhead Yacht Club has utilized a twelve-foot sailboat on the lake for many years to train the next generation of sailing enthusiasts. A seven-foot boat, the Optimist, has emerged as the leading sailboat trainer for youth. The Optimist is a small single-handed sailing dinghy intended for use by children and is one of the most popular sailing dinghies in the world. Approval of this ordinance will allow this smaller class of sailboats to be used on Lake Arrowhead.”
Rights to the navigation of and access to Lake Arrowhead have been in dispute for some time.  The Arrowhead Lake Association, consisting of homeowners in the area, claims the shoreline around Lake Arrowhead is privately owned by the Arrowhead Lake Association and is exclusively reserved for the benefit of the residential property owners of Arrowhead Woods.
Public rights activists, however, maintain that the lake itself is owned by the state of California and the efforts to restrict public access to the lake are illegal.
The county of San Bernardino has, for the most part, sided with the affluent landowners living around the lake.

(September 22)  Richard Bunck said he is running for Apple Valley Town Council because there is too much self-dealing among its current members.
“Two of the guys on there right now are doing business with the city,” Bunck said. “Scott Nassiff owns Napa Auto Parts and he recuses himself when the city issues warrants but the others vote to give business to him. Larry Cusack owns Apple Valley Communications and warrants have been issued by the town to his company. The other members of the council are going along with this. Town politics has gotten corrupt. We need a mindset change. Every politician makes political promises. I will make a very specific political promise. I will not take money from the city. I am a contractor. I won’t bid on any jobs with the town. My brother who is also a contractor will not bid on any jobs with the town. I will have no self interest in what will come before the council. I can go onto the council knowing it won’t affect my life. I will have no vested interest in the votes I make.”
Dealing with the regional water shortage and reducing the pricing structure on water is a basic challenge Apple Valley needs to address, Bunck said.
“Water rates are a big issue in Apple Valley,” he said. “It has become a political football. People understand they are paying high water rates, so some city officials are talking about buying the water company. I don’t know if that is the best option. There is a history of cities taking over water companies and then the rates go up, not down. I think a better approach would be a consumer-owned utility company as opposed to the town owning it.”
Bunck was critical of the town’s rush to take money from the state and federal government in conjunction with accompanying mandates that he said are disadvantageous to the town and its residents.
“Town council members should be dedicated to stopping the quality of life from deteriorating in Apple Valley,” he said. “One problem goes back to the town getting money in block grants or carbon tax and other federal programs where we end up having to let a lot of low income housing into town or we have to build things that eventually turn into low income housing. The city has opted to take the money as opposed to saying no to the federal government. The federal government does not offer money without strings being attached. They are saying, ‘If you want this money, then you have to have these programs.’ If you are going to be on the town council, you have to look after the quality of life of the town first. It is an easy thing to take the money, but once you take the money, they inform you about the strings. Those strings take the quality of life down. This is an underground issue that people don’t talk about to the council, but they have told me about it. I say if there is a program that will give the town money but it is going to cause things to deteriorate and bring down the quality of life, increase crime and cause other problems, then the town should have the guts to say no. Everything is not based on money. Some things are more important than money. Some of our council is ready to sell out the town for money. They will trade the money for having more low income housing. That is wrong thinking, the wrong mindset.”
Bunck continued, “People always talk about generating tax revenue. I am all for funding the town, but the conversation should be about how do we get money into the city’s coffers without strangling the taxpayer. Out of every dollar a taxpayer makes, in the end he pays sixty cents of it in taxes. Either income tax or sales tax or gasoline tax or other taxes. And when the taxing ends, the fees start. You pay fees to the city. That is just another form of tax.. To me it is double taxation.”
The solutions to the challenges and issues facing the town, Bunck said, are elusive and will require patience and focus.
“It’s hard to turn the clock back on something already done,” he said. “Some things are very hard to change, but you can certainly not continue down that road. You can put the brakes on. With regard to the water issue, the city should facilitate what the best solution is. What I would do is expedite forming a citizen owned water agency or company. That is better than having the town own it. We can stop taking federal grant money if the strings are unacceptable. We can pass an ordinance that no one on the council can do business with the city and no one in their family or the companies they work with or own can do business with the city. This is going to require a mindset change. I realize if I get elected I might be a lone wolf on there, but if I get elected I want the town’s citizens to help me put pressure on the other council members to make those changes. I believe in heavy citizen involvement in government.”
Bunck said there is something akin to religious fervor in his candidacy.
“Christians and Catholics talk about having a calling,” he said. “I have a calling to be on the town council. I don’t relish being a big fish in a small pond. I want get on there so people will be allowed to come to the council and say what is on their minds. Right now you can’t address the town council and have them respond. You can address them, but it is a meaningless exercise. People are frustrated about it. The current council is doing things that are not popular among the electorate. A big fancy Town Hall building may look good but if you go down to the other end of town, what is it like there? People tell me they are paying $700 a month for water. That is obscene. I have been a businessman. I have dealt with numbers and budgets. From that viewpoint I can look at what the town is doing and see the problems. I have the background for that. What distinguishes me from the other members of the council is I have the courage to make decisions that are in the best interest of the town by not taking money. I will be one of the people opposed to the gravy train. Scott Nassif has been on the council for four terms. He is like the career politicians in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., getting things for himself. He has the inside track, flying around in planes and going to parties and he stays in office and people are frustrated and they have given up. I am not giving up. I say we get rid of the politicians who maybe when they started out had the right intentions but now they’ve been on the gravy train so long they are hurting the people who elected them.”
Bunck grew up in Downey and graduated from Pius X High School. He majored in economics at the University of California at Irvine. He is an electrical contractor in California and a general contractor in Nevada. Divorced, he has two grown children.

(September 23) A portion of land annexed by the city of Redlands inside what has become known as the “Donut Hole” has reverted to the county of San Bernardino. As a result, the county has revamped its tax sharing arrangement with the city of Redlands relating to the unincorporated pocket of county land surrounded by the city.
According to a report by county chief executive officer Greg Devereaux and his deputy, Katrina Turturro, which is dated September 23, “Tree Partners LLC, a developer,  submitted a reorganization proposal to the San Bernardino county Local Agency Formation Commission in 2013 which, as revised, will detach approximately 34.22 acres from the city of Redlands and return the acreage to the unincorporated area known as the Donut Hole. The developer plans to develop five parcels of  property in the Donut Hole area, consisting of two parcels currently in the city boundaries and three parcels in the county unincorporated area.”
The Donut Hole is surrounded on all sides by the city of Redlands.
According to the report, on September 10, 2013 the board of supervisors adopted a resolution that approved the property tax revenue amounts to be transferred as a result of the pending reorganization and approved two letters of intent, one which related to the apportionment of sales and use tax and the provision of certain municipal services to the reorganization area, and one letter which entered into an agreement with the city of Redlands for the apportionment of certain property tax revenues. The city of Redlands adopted a similar resolution which also approved both letters of intent.
In order for the Local Agency Formation Commission to issue the certificate of completion for the property involved, the county and the city must amend the sales and use tax agreement and approve an agreement for the apportionment of certain property tax revenues, pursuant to terms outlined in the letters of intent.
According to Devereaux and Turturro’s report, the amendment of the county’s contractual commitment to the city of Redlands “provides for apportionment of sales and use tax revenue to fund the provision of certain municipal services within the unincorporated area commonly known as the Donut Hole. This contract was approved on August 12, 2003 and established a sales and use tax sharing agreement between the county and the city allocating 90% of sales and use tax revenue to the city and 10% to the county. In return for the sales tax sharing agreement, the city committed to provide fire protection, law enforcement, retail water service, and wastewater collection and treatment services.”
Upon Devereaux and Turturro’s recommendation, the board of supervisors this week approved an amendment to the county/city contract to add the reorganization area to the boundaries of the Donut Hole, as defined in that agreement, thus ensuring adequate municipal services to the reorganization area.
“Approval of the property tax sharing agreement with the city will provide that the city will receive 35% of the county general fund share of property tax revenue generated by the developable  acres within the five parcels proposed to be developed by the developer,” the report states. “This 35% is proportional to the acreage of the two parcels currently in the city’s boundaries to all five parcels proposed for development. In return, the city will provide maintenance for the roads and streets immediately adjacent to the two parcels currently in the city’s boundaries. This agreement will terminate if all the parcels remain vacant five years after execution of the agreement.”
The arrangement was reviewed and signed off on by deputy county counsel Michelle Blakemore.