(September 8)  Doug Wilson who has been a figure of some note with regard to governance and public affairs in Grand Terrace for more than two decades, is vying for the city council in the upcoming November election.
This year, two positions on the council are up for election, the mayor’s position and the now vacant post formerly held by councilman Bernardo Sandoval. The race is wide open but only two candidates, Wilson, along with  Bill Hussey, tossed their hats into the ring.
Wilson, a self starter since before he graduated from high school, has made his way in the world in the years since in the construction industry. A licensed contractor, he also holds certificates in building inspection and plan examination and has so mastered his craft he is certificated to teach contracting, inspection and plan examination. He moved to Grand Terrace 34 years ago. Because of his recognized expertise in development issues, he was nominated to the Grand Terrace Planning Commission, a panel he served on for 21 years, 12 of those as chairman.
In 2006, when the city went to direct mayoral elections, Wilson was persuaded to run for mayor. He lost to longtime councilwoman Maryetta  Ferré in that contest. Four years later, he ran against Walt Stanckiewitz, again for mayor, narrowly losing that contest.
This year, he is running for city council.
Wilson is a fiscal and political conservative who has a track record of supporting limited government. He was a leader in the effort against city officials’ effort to have Grand Terrace’s voter pass Measure C in 2013. Measure C was a ballot measure that called for the imposition of a five percent utility users tax. Ultimately, Grand Terrace voters rejected Measure C by a significant margin, with 60 percent or, 1,141 voting against it and 760 supporting it.
One of the reasons he is running this year, Wilson said, “is I want to make sure the message we sent about Measure C is not missed. I am advertising myself as the budget watchdog. We opposed Measure C, which would have floated an open-ended tax that would have yielded $1.5 million to be used by the city any way it chose. I said it would be better if we restructured the city to get it down to where we first started. We need to provide a minimum level of services but there is no reason to have big waste in our city’s operations. I’m all for good government, but we can afford no more than that.”
Wilson continued, “Right now we have an interim city manager who is doing a very good job. He is just here temporarily and we need to determine who will fill that role in the future.”
The city needs to come to terms with the fact that it must function within very restricted financial parameters, prioritize what it intends to accomplish and abandon counterproductive activity.
With regard to this last point, he referenced the city’s sign ordinance. “In this atmosphere, I would like to know who decided it was a good idea to hassle 30 business owners along Barton Road and who decided that business people are culpable for advertising their businesses. I am not the only one who is wondering about this. The planning commission chairman has asked if it would not be a good idea to stay the fines we are imposing on business owners for this. One business has been hit with 17 different fines at $235 a pop. We can’t fine our way into a good economy. I am pro-business. Government has to fund itself properly.”
Wilson elaborated on his philosophy.
“The only way we are going to fix our financial problems is a business/public partnership,” Wilson said. “You can’t tax your way out of it but should be able to build out it. The city, through its former redevelopment agency, owns almost 90 acres in the southwest part of the city that is available for development. If we put boxes [i.e., large stores] on it, it will become a tax base. The sale of the property and its development will right off provide us with at least a 20 percent increase over what we are getting in property tax there. Once the stores are there they will start producing sales tax revenue for us.”
Wilson said the city can facilitate the development of that property, which lies near the 215 Freeway by expanding its existing Barton Road Specific Plan area. “I would like to expand the Barton Road Specific Plan area so it picks up other vacant lots. We have a new freeway ramp coming in that will knock out a few of our existing businesses because there is condemnation involved, so we are going to have to work with businesses. We have to understand the situation in terms of the coordination with  Caltrans and show those businesses we are not working against them and will cooperate with them in relation to access, signage and so on.”
Wilson said he believes city officials have to seriously consider the impacts and unintended consequences of well-intentioned improvement projects that the city, county or state is undertaking within Grand Terrace’s City Limits.
“We might be goofing some businesses up pretty bad, as with the Caltrans stuff or with the divider on Barton, which is going to kill commercial traffic coming from the other direction. I think we have to look ahead at those types of things,” he said.
Wilson said he believes he is the right person for the job of councilman. “In my role as a professional, I am pretty much a nuts and bolts guy with regard to construction and development,” he said. “I have worked on hundreds of projects. Right now I am working on a 1,000 acre parcel, so I have to know how this stuff works. No one is going to pull the wool over my eyes. The basic thing is to make sure the citizens of Grand Terrace have a good quality of life. That is the long run goal. Residents and businesses should not have the city climbing down their throats.”
As to his opponent in the race, Wilson said, “Bill Hussy is a good Christian individual. He has been great helping as far as baseball and youth activities. He is a good guy. He served in the Marines. I think it is real nice that he is willing to contribute and volunteer. It is just that I have a ton of experience in the areas where a councilman’s responsibility lies. I have worked development from both sides of the counter. I have completed projects. I have been a member of the planning commission who approved projects. I know how to read plans.”
Wilson went on, “I was the number one opponent to Measure C and I am still against new taxes. I don’t see anything that justifies any additional taxes in the city. They just didn’t explore their options. I went to the budget meetings and meetings of the budget advisory committee. The city needs to be stripped down to fighting weight. We have pension debt. If we contract out our services, the companies we hire as consultants will pay the pensions, not us.”
Wilson grew up in Ontario and attended Chaffey High School. He and his wife have one daughter and one granddaughter.

(September 7) Frank Gonzales, who has already served as an elected official in Colton for over a quarter of a century across two centuries, two millennia,  four decades and three generations, is seeking to return to the mayoralty of the 52,000 population city, capping his political career as the Hub City’s most influential politician.
Gonzales was first elected to the city council in 1972. He was reelected in 1976. In 1978, he successfully ran for mayor. That ushered in the Gonzales regime, as he bettered his perennial political rival Abe Beltran and headed what was then and for the next 16 years Colton’s dominant political machine. The mayor at that time served two-year terms and Gonzales was reelected in 1980, 1982, 1984 and 1986, at which point the mayor’s term was increased to four years. He was reelected in 1990.
In 1994, incessant school board candidate George Fulp ran for mayor. Fulp who had never been able to prevail in a school board race, faced long odds in the mayoral contest. Colton was one of the first cities in the state of California where the long dormant Hispanic political giant had awoken. As early as the 1940s, Colton had distinguished itself in this regard by having elected a Latino council member, which at that time was virtually unheard of. Over the years, Hispanics in Colton had flexed their political muscle yet more, as evinced by Gonzales’s firm grip on the city’s scepter.  Fulp, casting about for an effective strategy, knew that longtime Gonzales political rival Abe Beltran could be counted upon to again run for mayor. In a shrewd political move, Fulp purchased Colton resident Jesse Valdivia a pickup truck on the proviso that Valdivia, too, would run for mayor. In this way, with three Latinos in the race, Fulp was banking upon being able to fragment Colton’s Hispanic vote. Moreover, Fulp launched a full frontal attack on Gonzales, casting him as corrupt machine politician who had compromised the integrity of City Hall through the use of political patronage that involved providing jobs to his political cronies and over 30 members of Gonzales’s extended family. The strategy worked, and Fulp eked out a razor thin victory over Gonzales in the 1994 election.
Fulp, a bombastic and alcoholic demagogue, set about dismantling as many elements of the political institution at City Hall long dominated by  Gonzales as he could, making several inroads during the relatively short time he remained in office. Colton, which was the political legacy of would-be railroad baron David Colton, one of California’s more colorful characters from the middle-late-1800s, was among San Bernardino County’s most expansive municipal operations. It was a full service city, boasting its own police and fire departments, water division, sewer division cemetery district, electrical utility, and sanitation division. Fulp seized on the last of these, successfully dissolving the division by convincing a majority of the council to privatize trash and refuse hauling as well as recycling services. The contract went to Taormina Industries, a company that had proven to be a major Fulp political backer. Subsequently, an examination of that chapter of the city’s history was made by former Riverside County deputy prosecutor Mark MacDonald. McDonald concluded that the contract competition had been corruptly skewed in favor of Taormina, involving highly questionable actions including graft that involved Fulp and council members Don Sanders and Abe Beltran. In time, questions about the deal would lead to an investigation by the FBI and the district attorney’s office, the ultimate outcome of which led to Beltran’s and Sanders’ convictions on political corruption charges. Fulp avoided such a fate himself, falling victim to his own excesses before the authorities were able to bring him to account. Drunk with power and whisky, he made a practice of driving around town in his signature Cadillac under the influence, immune from action by the police department, which was unwilling to act against the city’s most powerful political figure. He often arrived at city council meeting inebriated, and his liquor-fueled tirades at his perceived political enemies during those  meetings soured the public on him, including many of his earlier supporters who had seen him as an effective means of breaking the Gonzales political machine. He was ignominiously recalled from office in 1996, two years after he was elected.
Despite Fulp’s dismal political end, the blow he had delivered to Gonzales in 1994 remained in effect for some time. Fulp’s replacement after his recall was Karl Gaytan, not Gonzales. After his defeat by Fulp in 1994, Gonzalez wondered in the political desert for 16 years.
In 2010, a resurgent Gonzales signed on to the political movement that was promoting David Zamora in his effort to unseat then-mayor Kelly Chastain. Zamora had been hired to serve as community development director in Colton while Gonzales was still mayor. Zamora had a rough go of it under Fulp, who had wanted to fire him. Zamora for the most part fared better after Fulp was gone, but by 2009, as the city was staggering financially as a result of the recession that began in 2007, the then-newly arrived city manager, Rod Foster, engaged in a series of bloodlettings at City Hall that cost Zamora, who by that point was able to rely upon a comfortable pension, his job. A coalition was cobbled together that included vestiges of the old Gonzales regime, and Chastain was swept from office and replaced by Zamora. Gonzales too was victorious in his District Two council race. Foster was able to survive the transition, convincing Zamora and the rest of the council that the massive number of layoffs and the demand for salary and benefit concessions from the surviving city employees were necessary given the fiscal reality the city faced. Less than a year after he came into office, Zamora suffered a heart attack and died. He was replaced by his wife, Sara. Sara Zamora is not seeking to remain in office after this year and Gonzales tossed his hat in the ring. He is opposed by former councilman Richard Delarosa.
This week, Gonzales told the Sentinel, “I simply am running because, as you know, two and a half years ago the city was almost $5 million in the hole. We laid off 100 maintenance workers. Our utility bills were sky high. The city was going under. All the businesses were leaving. After I left as mayor in 1994, Kmart left and Albertson’s shut down. The city was full of empty buildings. The city was unkempt. There was a lot of neglect. You could drive around the city and see what was going on. I don’t see any reason for that. If you run the city right, it is a multi-million dollar business. I ran a store for nine years. I am an experienced hand at running my own business and in running the city as mayor. I did it for sixteen years. I do not feel that the city has been run right. We have been paying a lot of money for consultants.”
While there remains a lack of clarity about what the city’s precise financial circumstance now is and vocal critics maintain the city’s general fund is currently running at a substantial deficit and is only being sustained by more than $4 million in borrowing from the city’s enterprise funds, Gonzales asserts that since coming to the council “I did make a difference and I did balance the budget. We had a $2 million reserve within a year after I was elected in 2010. We have built a new senior citizen complex. We are now ahead of our expenditures by $2.2 million. A lot has already been done, but you are not going to have everything happen overnight. That is why I want to be mayor.”
If elected, Gonzales indicated he is looking to even the score with history by reversing Fulp’s legacy of having privatized trash service. “We need to bring all of our services in-house again,” he stated. We should reestablish the city sanitation department. That way we can provide a better service to the taxpayers. Right now the trash is being picked up by an outside entity and you have no control. If you need trash picked up or the street cleaned you have to call out of town and hope the contractor will show up. If we own the trash utility, it will be accountable to us. If the council does not agree and does not want to bring it in-house, then I will push for us to go out to bid on the trash contract  The city gave the contract to Taormina 18 years ago and then Taormina became Republic and we still have the same company. We have to go out to bid, in my opinion, to see whether we can get a better deal. Like I said, I am pushing to bring it in-house, but if that fails then I will insist we go out to bid.”
Gonzales said he is obviously the superior choice in this year’s race for mayor.
“To put it simply, what is right is right and what is wrong is wrong,” he said. “I have the experience. More than anyone, I know how to put it together. I know budgets. All you have to do is be conservative with your budget and not overspend. The city is a nonprofit. All we have to do is make sure our budget is balanced and make sure our employees are made whole so we have a good, healthy working environment for people and a better quality of life. There is no reason, in my opinion, for us to be cutting back on services. We have a cash flow that is unbelievable. We have our own utilities, water, sewer electrical and we should own our trash service once more. There is no reason for us to lay people off as longs as the city is run properly. We can do that by treating the city like a giant household and run it the way you would run your own home, without squandering your resources.”
A Colton native, Gonzales graduated from Colton High School and attended San Bernardino Valley College. While working with Griffith Wheel Company he became a union steward and went on to become the president of AFL-CIO Local 5647, serving in that capacity for 22 years. He is married with four grown children.

(September 9) It is not surprising that ensuring the continued viability of the Twentynine Palms Fire Department is for Adam Lunn, one of six candidates for the Twentynine Palms City Council in the November election, the issue he sees as the most critical one facing the city.
Lunn was a member of the advisory committee formed by the Twentynine Palms Water District in April to assist it and its board of directors with mapping out a strategy for funding the fire department.
Since 1958, the fire department in Twentynine Palms has been overseen by the water district. The department has grown to include two fire stations and seven firefighters to cover the 59 square miles within the Twentynine Palms City Limits and the 29 square miles of unincorporated county area that also falls under the water district/fire department’s 88-square mile jurisdiction. The city does not contribute to, participate in or subsidize the fire department’s operational budget.
In 2012, water district voters rejected Measure H, a tax increase proposal, and the water district explored  surrendering authority over the fire department to the county fire department.
That same year, the San Bernardino County Local Agency Formation Commission  indicated the water district would need to find augmenting funding for the fire department or relinquish control of it.
The water district and the city of Twentynine Palms worked on a proposal to have the county’s fire division subsume the fire department but that goal was not achieved after county fire chief Mark Hartwig said that in working within the confines of the $1.244 million in available special tax funding for local fire service, he would need to close down one of the fire stations and reduce the department to no more than four firefighters.
So far the water district has maintained control of the fire department but as of July 1, 2013 the district closed out its Lear Avenue Fire Station.  The water district is now leasing the station to Copper Mountain College, which is using the facility to conduct fire science courses.
All of the fire department’s operations are now run out of the Adobe Road Fire Station, known as Station 421, and its paid personnel have been reduced to five. Response times to certain portions of the 88-square mile fire protection jurisdiction have increased.
The water district earlier this year made a commitment to keeping the fire department in place and under control, creating the Twentynine Palms Citizen Advisory Committee, of which Lunn was named chairman. The committee has recommended that the city of Twentynine Palms pitch in with regard to making sure the fire department is adequately funded. Incorporated in 1987, Twentynine Palms has yet to evolve into a full service municipality. It contracts with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department for law enforcement service and the water district exists as an independent agency that provides water and sewer service as well as fire protection for the city of 25,768 and its surrounding area.
Earlier this year, Twentynine Palms Fire Chief Jim Thompson and Twentynine Palms Water District General Manager Tamara Alaniz obtained an endorsement from Lunn and the committee he chaired to again seek voter approval of an increase to the parcel tax imposed on residents within the water district’s boundaries.
The current parcel tax is $80. Lunn and his cohorts have advised that the district ask their customers to approve a $20.40 per year increase to that assessment on developed property and a $10.20 increase on vacant parcels. The committee has further suggested that the measure authorize the increase for three years and give the district the ability to add a three percent annual inflation adjustment in the years beyond 2018.
Lunn has followed that recommendation up with his city council candidacy.
“Here in Twentynine Palms, we have an issue with fire department funding,” Lunn said. “Specifically, the goal of the advisory committee was to seek out more funding and ideas to assist in running the fire department, which in Twentynine Palms is part of the water district. What it comes down to is the water district has limited resources and we are looking for any avenue for funding, anything that would help to pay for fire department operations. This requires that the district work with the city. Either the city gets on board and helps with the issue of the fire department funding or the department has to fold in the next couple of years.”
The city’s involvement “does not necessarily require a takeover of the fire department but the city and water board working together to solve this issue,” Lunn said.
He is now looking to get on the city council, Lunn said, because as it is currently composed, the city council has not shown the same enthusiasm for preserving the fire department as exists at large among the city’s residents.
“They have had a few joint meetings with the water district board over the last couple of years, but the city has pretty much been against cooperating with the water district and working together on this problem,” Lunn said.  “The perception of the public is ‘We are a community and why don’t we solve this as a community.’” Lunn said that if the voters recognize what his position on this issue is, he is likely to be elected.
Beyond the fire department issue, Lunn said, he is animated about how Project Phoenix will ultimately play out.
In 2011, through its redevelopment agency, the city of Twentynine Palms gave final go-ahead to Project Phoenix, which is to include a community center, a 250-seat theater, classrooms, a civic plaza, a park, a paseo, residential units, a wastewater treatment plant, and improvements to the downtown fire station.
That action came just three months before the legislature passed AB X1 26 and AB X1 27, which shuttered more than 400 municipal and county redevelopment agencies up and down the state.
Despite warnings from the state that the city needed to dispense with its redevelopment efforts, the city nevertheless proceeded with the Project Phoenix initiative.
Twentynine Palms officials maintained that AB X1 26 and AB X1 27 are trumped by federal securities regulations, meaning the money the Twentynine Palms Redevelopment Agency bonded for in 2011 must be utilized only for the purpose that bondholders were told the money would be applied toward.
Twentynine Palms City Attorney A. Patrick Muñoz, of the law firm Rutan & Tucker, asserted in filings with the Sacramento Superior Court that the non-taxable bonds issued in 2011 created specific obligations between the city, as the issuer, and the bond purchasers, and as such are enforceable obligations. If the city allows the state to use the money for a purpose other than what the city had specified in marketing the bonds to the bond buyers that would constitute fraud, according to Munoz.
The city filed its paperwork in Sacramento Superior Court because AB X1 26 and AB X1 27 contained language requiring any legal challenges to the law take place there.
The city in 2012  followed Muñoz’s recommendation to have  the city’s successor agency lay claim to the redevelopment money and declare its intent to proceed with Project Phoenix.  AB X1 26 and AB X1 27 provided for the creation of locally based oversight boards to see to the discharging of remaining redevelopment money.
The state of California and its Department of Finance insisted that Project Phoenix could not proceed. The city of Twentynine Palms, however, persisted in its challenge with regard to the Phoenix funds.  The key issue in the case was the question of whether an agreement between the city and the successor agency known as the bond proceeds agreement is valid in light of the laws which dissolved redevelopment agencies. The California Department of Finance asserted the agreement was not valid and as a result the city could not spend the bond proceeds on Project Phoenix. The department further asserted that the city acted in bad faith and hence the bond proceeds agreement should be invalidated.
Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael P. Kenny disagreed, and instead held that the city acted appropriately, in good faith, and in compliance with the laws that existed at the time the bond proceeds agreement was adopted.
The state has appealed that ruling.
“Project Phoenix is also going to be a big issue in the election,” Lunn said. “The judge ruled that yes, the city does have the ability to spend the bond money, but the state has appealed the ruling, so it is not over yet. Right now we are in limbo. We can’t spend the money because we’d have to pay it back if we lose the appeal.
“As a candidate, I’m on the fence,” Lunn continued. “The project is a lot bigger than it needs to be, on the whole. I am all for building the infrastructure, and improving our ability to build because we have infrastructure in place. I approve of the necessities, but I am not in favor of the niceties [such as the theater].”
Lunn said his election to the city counsel would push the city toward a slightly different theory of governance.
“The safety of the community is the most important thing the city council needs to look after,” he said. “I would re-examine the budget. I have slightly different priorities. A dog park is not a necessity. We could better use that money for the fire department.”
Lunn said he is qualified to hold office.
“I’ve been teaching city government with the American Legion for years,” he said. “I’m probably the most learned candidate on the ballot regarding the fire issue.”
A graduate of Twentynine Palms High School, Lunn attended Copper Mountain College and American Public University.

(September 8) Lionel Dew said he is vying for the Victorville City Council “because we need someone who can govern from day one.”
Dew said he is that individual. Pointing to his varied experience, Dew said he stands head and shoulders over the competing candidates.
The others in the race don’t have the government experience that I do,” he said. “I worked in the Gray Davis Administration. I worked in the Schwarzeneggar Administration after that. I had 21 years experience in the U.S. Air Force, serving as an executive officer. I have a strong background in management. I have made decisions to hire directors and management staff at the state level. I am an experienced decision maker. I have government experience the others lack. I can govern from day one.“
115,903-popultion Victorville is faced with challenges, Dew said, not the least of which is the ongoing drought that the city must overcome if it is to continue as a viable municipal entity. “We need infrastructure. We need to enhance public safety. The airport itself is a billion dollar industry all by itself. I don’t think you want to those type of decisions in the hands s of someone who is not experienced. The city needs people who are experienced and are able to make business and executive decisions and be accountable. I have experience that exceeds that of all of the other candidates combined. I am the most capable and most qualified of anyone in the race.”
Victorville, Dew said, “has to be built smartly. We have small lots and larger lots. I think we have needs for all types of lots given the sorts of places industry is looking to build on. When we make a decision about a lot of any size that is to be built, we have to think about the infrastructure that will serve that property. Victorville has access to electricity. We have to make use of what we have in a smart way.”
Dew said he will be a leader who “will be proactive and sensitive. I have a tendency to weigh issues carefully. The citizens are deserving of not just anyone who wants to run for election. They deserve someone who has a clear record of public service who has actually governed. I have 21 years in the military and a strong background in management.
Born in Virginia, Dew attended Victor Valley College and Southern Illinois University, studying liberal arts and health care management.

The large white-lined sphinx (Hyles lineate), with its sleek wings and lines, can resemble a streamlined jet planes.
Larger than most moths, they are just a tad smaller than the smallest hummingbirds, and are therefore sometimes referred to as  hummingbird moth. They exhibit similar behavior and traits to hummingbirds and as such, provide an illustration of what is called convergent evolution. Although white-lined sphinx moths are  insects and the hummingbirds are birds, they are nearly indistinguishable in certain respects because they occupy the same ecological domain, specializing in obtaining nectar from trumpet- shaped flowers.
Since trumpet-shaped flowers such as are honeysuckle, lobelia and beebalm are generally fragile, the insect or animal feeding upon it can’t lodge on it, but needs to hover over  it and use its beak or proboscis to obtain the nectar. This led to the hummingbirds development of the unique ability among birds to hover for extended periods of time, as well as flying vertically or backwards. They lap up nectar by extending their tongues from their elongated beaks.
Hummingbird moths similarly fly up to the flower and hover in place while they insert their long proboscis into the flower.  They do not use tongues, however, instead sucking the nectar as if they were using a straw.
The flight patterns of the moths and hummingbirds are very similar to one another. They beat their wings extremely quickly. The moths have a wingspread of 2.2 to almost three inches.
The larva of a sphinx moth is yellow and black or sometimes lime green and black. Many have a subdorsal stripe. The head, prothoracic shield, and the anal plate are a uniform color – usually either  green or orange accompanied by small black dots. The horn varies from either yellow or orange and sometimes has a black tip. Larvae bury themselves in dirt to spin themselves into  cocoons, remaining in that state for two to three weeks before emerging as adults.
The larva of sphinx moths are recognized by the general public as tomato hornworms. The caterpillars of this species eat not only tomato plants, but willow weed (Epilobium), four o’clock, (Mirabilis jalapa), apple, (Malus), evening primrose (Oenothera), elm (Ulmus, grape (Vitis), purslane (Portulaca), and Fuchsia.
Like all moths, they tend to feed in the evening around dusk. Sphinx moths, do on occasion feed in the afternoon. Sphinx moths hunt out nectar by its smell rather than by the coloration of  the flowers offering that nectar.
Adult sphinx moths are key pollinators of California’s rare lemon lily (Lilium parryi).

You can download a PDF of the September 5 edition of the San Bernardino County by clicking on the portal below.

Sentinel 09-05-14

(September 4) The Upland City Council finance and Economic Development Committee this week rejected a gambit by current and past city employees to lock the city into a policy of “ensuring” that Upland municipal employees will be paid salaries and provided benefits that are equal to or greater than those of city employees elsewhere.
Language to that effect was placed into a proposed ordinance that was billed as Upland’s “Fiscal Responsibility Act.”
While the staff report to the finance committee that accompanied the proposed ordinance contained a goal statement for the ordinance/act that “The proposed action supports the city’s goal to provide fiscal stewardship for the city of Upland,” committee members Brendan Brandt and Glenn Bozar appeared skeptical of the suggestion that the ordinance, in total, represented a blueprint for responsible stewardship of the city’s money.
On that score Brandt and Bozar found dubious the statement contained in the staff report that “There is no fiscal impact with this item.”
While the city for the last two years has ostensibly functioned with a balanced budget, it is on a collision course with fiscal reality in coming years. Two major independent surveys  of the city’s financial condition, a 2012 auditor’s opinion from the certified public accounting firm Mayer Hoffman and
McCann and Standard and Poor’s determination as to the city’s credit rating, paint a bleak picture for the City of Gracious Living.  Mayer Hoffman and McCann said there are serious questions with regard to the city’s solvency to the point that in a short while “it will be unable to continue as a going concern.” According to Standard and Poor’s, the city, which has already been downgraded from an AA credit rating to an A+, is in danger of seeing its credit rating eroding even further. A municipality’s credit rating directly impacts the interest rate it must pay when borrowing money.
The city’s currently balanced $39 million budget required considerable funding gymnastics, in that it is borrowing heavily from rapidly evaporating reserves, while relying on income from two of the city’s enterprise funds which remain in the black, its water and sewer service funds.
Years of deferred maintenance are beginning to catch up with the city, pushing it to a point beyond which it will no longer be able to stave off those problems into the future, as potholes, streets and dilapidating equipment are being neglected, funding for promised post employment benefits is non-existent, and no programs are available for attracting businesses into the city or dealing with the city’s burgeoning homeless population.
Fully 73.6 percent of the city’s operational costs consist of paying for personnel, including meeting  current payroll, covering workers’ compensation and paying the pensions of retired employees. Projections are that those costs will increase, leaving less and less of the money in city coffers available for taking care of its physical needs, such as paving streets, maintaining trees, sidewalks and parks and the  upkeep of other city infrastructure.
Last October, the city formed a blue ribbon fiscal task force committee that met several times in November, December and January to formulate a strategy to close the city’s budget gap. The committee came up with a number of options intended to both reduce costs and enhance revenues, which were delivered to the city council earlier this year. Many of those are unpalatable, however, and they have not been implemented.
In one of his last acts while still employed by the city, recently departed city manager Stephen Dunn suggested that the city undertake to formulate a fiscal responsibility act aimed at dealing with the city’s fiscal challenges that puts in place a protocol for remaining viable as a going concern, allows it to maintain and improve its infrastructure, meet ongoing costs with revenues, refrain from onerous borrowing and maintain adequate reserves.
Subsequent to Dunn leaving, city clerk Stephanie Mendenhall, who holds the additional title of administrative services director, together with interim city manager Martin Lomeli and finance director Christa Buhagiar drafted a proposed fiscal responsibility act.
In addition to a number of stated findings the city council is intended to sign off on, language in the act states, “the city council finds there is a need to provide competitive compensation to its employees to ensure retention of qualified individuals.”
This commitment to enter into what is essentially a bidding war with other municipalities with regard to employee compensation clashed with the act’s underlying stated objective, which is to keep the city solvent. Moreover, the use of the term “qualified individuals” rankled some, in that many of the city’s currently well-paid staff, including department heads, are perceived as having contributed to or have participated in some or even much of the activity involving former Upland Mayor John Pomierski, who was indicted on bribery and political corruption charges and convicted, having now completed his sentence by serving in a federal detention facility. Many question the interpretation of “qualified individuals,” particularly when it is applied to those seen as having enable Pomierski in his depredations, and there is objection to the stated necessity of providing them with “competitive compensation.”
Mendenhall is presently one of the highest paid city clerks in the state of California. She receives a base salary and add-ons of $175,606, plus benefits of  $55,624 for a total annual compensation package  of $231,230. Buhagiar is likewise well-compensated, pulling a base salary and add-ons  of $129,039 plus benefits of $44,414 for a yearly total of $173,453.
In addition to the criticism of the proposed fiscal responsibility act on the grounds of its inclusion of the “competitive compensation” passage, it fell under further criticism for what it excluded.
Larry Kinley, an Upland who resident who worked for Bank of America for 42 years, the last 15 of which he was a manager in the problem loan administration dealing with borrowers with financial difficulties, belabored the fact that the city of Upland in its financial statements does not include the city’s unfunded pension liability.
When she was confronted at the September 2 Upland City Council Finance and Economic Development Committee Meeting with the observation that the unfunded pension liability was not included in the city’s financial statements and that the fiscal responsibility act did not impose such a requirement, Buhagiar rolled her eyes.  Her reaction prompted Brandt, who is considered to be far more accommodating of staff with regard to accounting on financial issues, to ask that any action with regard to the fiscal responsibility act be tabled, even before Bozar weighed in on the matter.
Brandt indicated he was not comfortable recommending that the council take up the proposal and vote to implement it as it is presently written prior to the arrival of just-hired city manager Rod Butler and with a city council election in November in which three of the council’s five positions are being contested.

(September 3) Wesley Bruhn, the former Colton police detective who acceded to the position of the Colton Police Officers Association president and as such once enjoyed power within Colton’s 67-member police department  rivaled and some said exceeded that of the police chief and the eleven other officers in the department who outranked him, is scheduled to go on trial next month.
Bruhn stands charged with having embezzled more than $165,000 from the union he once headed.
On November 9, 2012 the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office filed five counts of felony grand theft and one felony charge of forgery against Bruhn and obtained an arrest warrant against him from Judge William Jefferson Powell. Bruhn was not in custody at the time and was categorized as a fugitive. Five days later, Bruhn  surrendered to authorities at the San Bernardino County sheriff’s headquarters, and was promptly arrested. According to the district attorney’s office, Bruhn began appropriating for his own use union funds beginning in July 2008.
Bruhn was formerly the president of the Colton Police Officers Association. Subsequently, he served as that organization’s treasurer.
According to the district attorney’s office,  Bruhn, now 47, engaged in the thefts while he was serving first in the capacity of union president and later as treasurer. The thefts continued through July of 2012, prosecutors allege, when then Colton Police Officers Association President, Rich Randolph, was alerted to what were described as anomalies in the union’s accounts.
Randolph arranged for an independent audit of the union’s funds, which until that point were under Bruhn’s control.
That audit quickly determined there was money missing and Bruhn was suspended as treasurer. In August 2012, Bruhn was put on paid administrative leave by the police department after discrepancies in the union’s accounts were confirmed and the matter was turned over to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department for investigation.
Bruhn’s run as union leader featured dizzying highs in which he seemingly defied the political and professional chain of command and prevailed in showdowns with his superiors, as well as the low point that resulted in his removal as treasurer and his suspension from the department.
He battled with former councilman Richard De La Rosa, himself a corrections officer, over policy decisions made by the city council and what Bruhn complained was “micromanaging” of the police department by the city’s political leadership.
In September 2007, Bruhn filed a claim against the city and Councilman De La Rosa, alleging that De La Rosa maliciously made false and defamatory accusations against him. Bruhn maintained De La Rosa filed a “completely bogus” harassment complaint against Bruhn over his unwillingness to go along with De La Rosa’s dictates as a council member.
Earlier in 2007, as president of the Colton Police Officers Association, Bruhn led the charge against then-police chief Ken Rulon, accusing his boss of creating a hostile work environment, misusing his position to make personal discount purchases with department vendors, having instituted citation and arrest quotas that were charted on a bulletin board on the wall of the police department headquarters and engaging in intimidation of the men under his command as well as sexual harassment of female employees. Rulon  maintained that Bruhn had acted against him because he had been passed over for promotion to sergeant. Nevertheless, in the test of will and power between the two men, Bruhn prevailed, obtaining a no-confidence vote against Rulon by more than ninety percent of the Colton Police Officers Association’s 67 members and seeing Rulon ignominiously fired, and his badge and gun taken from him before he was unceremoniously escorted by armed officers from his office. After his firing, Rulon sued the city for wrongful termination but lost in that effort when it went to trial, in some measure because of the testimony Bruhn had provided. It was at that point that Bruhn’s power and influence in Colton had reached its apex. Two years later, Bruhn slipped from his pinnacle of power and he was relieved of his role as union treasurer and kicked out of the association altogether.
Judge Harold T. Wilson has ordered that the trial, with deputy district attorney Mike Grigoli prosecuting and Hal Charles Smith serving as defense attorney, commence on October 6.

(September 3)  The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office is examining whether Victor Valley College diverted bond money to cover college operations costs, which are outside the legally permissible uses to which the money could be put.
In 1997, Victor Valley College issued $53 million in certificates of participation, a type of sale and leaseback arrangement to finance capital improvements.
The certificates were purchased by investors, who see a return of a fixed percentage of the value of the securities over a 35 year period. The proceeds from the certificate sales were supposed to be used to defray the cost of building college facilities, such as lecture halls, classrooms, labs and administration/faculty quarters. The debt to the certificate holders is serviced by assessments on property located within the college district, collected as part of each homeowner’s or parcel owner’s property tax bill.
In 2008, $139 million in bonds were issued on behalf of the college district after voters approved Measure JJ as a funding mechanism for campus improvements and expansion.
About $53 million of the $139 million in bonds sold under Measure JJ were used in 2009 to pay off Certificates of Participation originally issued in 1997 for campus construction projects, according to college records. Those projects included the building of the VVC Student Activities Center and a remodel of the campus’ counseling and administration buildings.
A total of $3 million of the $53 million in certificate of participation money collected in 1997 was paid into the General Fund, according to the “Summary of Expenditures” posted at www.vvc.edu/measurejj.
Measure JJ undertaken pursuant to Proposition 39, was authorized strictly to pay for capital improvements.
In addition there were two previous issuances of certificates of participation, in 1994 in which at least $40 million went into an investment account, designated as the GIC.  Subsequently, auditors with the states Junior College Accrediting Commission traced $20 million transferred to the college’s general fund, where it was spent on payroll and operating expenses.  The remaining $20 million is now sitting in the investment account.
Two members of the  Citizens Bond Oversight Committee, Marshall Kagen and Larry Hoover, sensing the  college district had run afoul of the law, Proposition 39 and the terms of the bond sale, dug into the issue.
Kagan and Hoover, after achieving access to more  data, determined that about $20 million in bond funds had been diverted to payroll and operating expenses, and that another $20 million in an investment account was being drained each year to ongoing deficits.”
They contacted the committee chairman, Richard  Greenwood to put the matter on the committee agenda. Greenwood refused, and instead, at the next meeting, referred the matter to the district’s bond attorney, who advised that there was a 60 day statute of limitations on bond validation actions, and that therefore there was no reason to place Kagan and Hoover’s findings on the agenda.
When  Kagan retorted that they were not questioning the  validity of the bond issuance, but the spending of bond proceeds, two entirely different matters, Greenwood remained unmoved, and refused to place the item on the agenda. Greenwood cancelled the next meeting at which Kagan and Hoover planned to again raise the issue.
“The question here is timing,” Kagan told the Sentinel. “If at the moment, the $53 million, was used to payoff the 1997 certificate of participation debt, it was determined that it had not been incurred for capital projects, then the people involved, would be guilty of embezzlement of public funds, and since there is no statute of limitations for that crime, somebody goes after them. However, a better interpretation, might be that if  eventually the $53 million is spent on capital projects, then all is well. Thus the $20 million now in the investment account, should be transferred to the capital projects fund and used to build those classrooms, and other projects. The $20 million that was transferred to the general fund, and spent on payroll and operating expenses should be considered as an advance. And as an advance, it should be repaid to the investment account, and then to capital projects.”
All of this is playing against a backdrop that suggest the college has not always been mindful of legal financial protocol.
Five years ago, the state’s community college accrediting commission placed Victor Valley College on probation, with a possible loss of accreditation. While there were multiple issues in the state’s action or issues that  could be and were corrected with a modicum of effort, the major issue was the college’s deficits. The commission insisted the deficits be ended. The college wrestled with the financial issue and ultimately pushed last winter to pass a resolution pledging to reduce faculty salaries sufficiently, as Kagan had suggested, to balance the budget. The college notified the accrediting commission, which took the college off probation.
The borrowings from the capital improvement funds consisting of bond money were never returned, however, leading Kagan and Hoover to approach the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Public Integrity Unit. The duo filed an official complaint. After a cursory examination of the matter, the district attorney’s office informed Kagan it would not proceed with any action.
Kagan, resolute in his belief that something was amiss, contacted Brooke Self, a reporter with the Victorville Daily Press, cluing her in to much of the ground he and Hoover had covered. When Self contacted the district attorney’s office, the office abandoned its earlier position that the complaint had been shelved and stated that the complaint remained under review.
Kagan told the Sentinel that the diversion of the funds to unauthorized accounts is not a mere technical violation but one that has had a deleterious impact on the quality of education offered at the college.
Kagan, a retired accountant with a degree from Yale, enrolled his daughter at the college, driving her to her first assigned class. The class was being held in a dilapidated, modular classroom, designed for elementary school children, rented from the Hesperia School District.  Kagan, who is accustomed to better surroundings, was  shocked. He recalled, “On my property tax bill, there were taxes for a 2008 bond issue, that I, and all property owners paid, to provide funding for capital projects at the college. Why was there still a shortage of classrooms?”
His next shock came when his daughter tried to enroll in a class, and couldn’t. “Even the waiting lists were full!” Kagan intoned.  Talking to other parents, he found out that  this was a common situation, going back several years.
“As a result, students have to stretch their time in college for one or more years, to obtain credits needed for graduation, or drop out,” he said. School officials told him this was due to a lack of classroom space, and money.
Joe Brady, a Victor Valley College board member, told the Sentinel “While I appreciate anyone that believes there are  government misdoings coming forward to have the issue fully investigated, I believe that both Larry and Marshall, being new members to the bond oversight committee should have vetted this through the committee. The committee is composed of very well known and respected people and this lack of vetting can only hurt an institution no matter what the outcome. The committee has more than people.”
Brady said “I feel quite confident in the work that the prior  committees preformed after measure JJ was proposed.”
Whatever the district attorney’s office’s finding will entail, Kagan and Hoover’s scrutiny of the situation has already resulted in the state reinstating the colleges probation after the information they uncovered was sent to Sacramento.

(September 2) Nearing the end of her first term on the Grand Terrace City Council, Darcy McNaboe is now challenging incumbent mayor Walt Stanckiewicz in the upcoming November election.
McNaboe said she is running “because I want my mayor to represent the city as a good place to live and raise children regardless of the difficult time it is going though. I want  my mayor to represent all residents, even if there is disagreement on issues in the city. I want my mayor to listen to the perspectives of all residents, even if they do not agree with the perspective of the mayor.”
Grand Terrace is the smallest of San Bernardino County’s 24 cities geographically and the third smallest in terms of population. It has faced stiff financial challenges in recent years as city staff has been reduced to fewer than 30. There has been talk of the disincorporation of the city, which would entail it again falling under the jurisdiction of San Bernardino County or being annexed by Colton.
“Our biggest challenge,” McNaboe said, “is financial solvency going forward and our need for other sources of revenue than what we have right now. We have to grow our tax base. We have infrastructure issues. We need storm drains. We need road improvements.”
McNaboe elaborated. “What we need is a strong city manager who understands business attraction and has a strong economic development background and knows how to work with developers who will see our vacant parcel near the freeway as an opportunity to develop it as a whole rather than piecemeal. We need a developer who has that vision so that then we will have a center that attracts regional retailers and in turn visitors to the area as well as customers from our own city. We need to look at it in terms of planned development. This is a potentially nice area that is near the freeway. This would provide us not only retail tax but would increase our property tax revenue when that land is sold and there is development on it. That revenue will come directly to our city. The right development focus could make that happen, but that is a long term goal.”
McNaboe said the city needs to rekindle the flame in the combustion chamber  of its stalled economic engine, which she acknowledged is a daunting task. She said there was some hope in that “The city did issue bonds in 2011. There is now legislation on the governor’s desk that would allow us to use that bond money. If we are not able to do that, we will have to look at grants.gov for grants for infrastructure and the other improvements we need.”
McNaboe, who served on the Grand Terrace Planning Commission before she was elected to the council and was on the Riverside Downtown and Hunters Park Project Redevelopment Agency Committee before she moved to Grand Terrace, said “My experience on the redevelopment area committee and planning commission background give me an understanding of land use that is a basis for me to serve as mayor. I am in the position of investing in our community just like I am trying to have the city’s residents have trust in me. I am involved in the Grand Terrace Lions Club, the Grand Terrace Foundation and the Grand Terrace Women’s Club. On cleanup days I have worked with our soccer league. I believe our community is built on volunteerism, residents getting together and working together instead of being on separate islands. I know that the Lions club, the Women’s Club and the Foundation want to have a good relationship with the city. There is a trust between the organizations but right now there is a barrier between them and the city. I believe I can accomplish things because of my involvement in the community. I have made my home phone number available. I respond when people need my assistance. I return emails. I match people with the right city staff members to resolve their issues. I continue to watch what comes to the council for us to work on. I believe we have professional staff, but have things that come to us that need more consideration. I have a habit of pulling things off the consent calendar to ask more questions.”
McNaboe said, “What it comes down to is when an issue comes before the council, does the person elected to represent the taxpayers think of the taxpayers when they review the item or are they thinking like a staff member?  I want a city that serves the residents. I respect staff, but to me it is my job to serve as a representative of the people to make sure they get their value for their money, their tax money.”
McNaboe attended Chico Senior High School in Northern California obtained a marketing degree and later an MBA from Cal State San Bernardino. She currently owns a firm that does consulting for medium sized businesses in the area of growth, strategic planning, marketing, research and proposals.