(April 22) Larry Walker, the incumbent county treasurer and tax collector, who is also the county’s auditor and controller, said he believes the county’s voters should return him to office because of his demonstrated ability in leading those departments and his record of accomplishment.
Walker, who was on the board of supervisors representing the county’s Fourth District from 1986 until 1998, ran for the position of auditor-controller-recorder in 1998. He was reelected to those consolidated posts in 2002, 2006 and 2010, at which point the elected position of county treasurer/tax collector had been folded into the function of the auditor controller’s office.  The position of county recorder, which Walker had previously held, was moved over to the county assessor’s office.
“I am running again because we have a great staff, 300 employees who are doing a great job,” Walker said. “They are supported by a great senior staff and together we are continuing to improve and evolve the organization and improve customer service. We are developing systems of accountability and improving the electronic  systems so we can provide better service and reduce costs. I am excited about and enjoy the things we are doing to make that service available to the public and I am now asking the voters to keep me in that position.”
As to his overall priorities in the next four years, Walker said, “There are challenges to each specific part of the office, but we are building on success. The treasurer’s office has been doing an award winning comprehensive annual report, which actually was being produced before I was in office. We are now attempting to build on that success and turn out a 16-page popular summary of that report to make the county’s financial information more accessible to the average person.“
Walker continued, “We have eliminated a lot of inefficiencies and have replaced parts of the system that have lived past their usefulness. We are trying to provide more timely financial information to the board to allow it to make better decisions as well as to make the public more aware. In terms of past accomplishments, I initiated the idea when I ran in 1998 to have a fraud abuse hotline. I put that in place about a year-and-a-half after I took office, giving an opportunity for any employee or member of the public to express concerns about possible taxpayer abuse. I have worked to give proper accounting of all of the county’s financial issues, from the very simple to the very complex.  I believe I have had a positive impact on building up the county’s internal audit function and we are constantly looking at priority areas in terms of potential risk in an effort to keep us on the straight and narrow. We have built a process where on an annual basis, we measure risks by looking at the financing and investment activities of the county and judge the inherent risks. Some activities carry with them an inherently higher risk and we prioritize so that when we are going to audit we make sure we are looking at the inherently high risk activities as much or more than the low risk activities. We have a prioritization in our audit plan.”
Walker said, “The overall theme of what we do is service to the county’s constituents. That is something we have worked hard  to build into every aspect of what we do, to make sure the taxpayers get the information they need, that we have processes they can use which are accessible and that we have policies in place that give  the same answer to taxpayers asking the same questions. We are constantly looking at ways across the board to enhance services and save money.  We are committed to making information system improvements that allow us to achieve savings and increase customer service.”
Walker is being opposed in this year’s election by Ensen Mason, a certified public accountant and former member of the Victor Valley Union High School District Board of Trustees, who has since moved to Redlands.  Walker rejected the rallying cry of Mason supporters who advocate infusing the four consolidated county posts with new blood.
“Any argument between “new blood” and experience should question whether the experience is continuing to move in a positive direction of accomplishment and is the “new blood” capable of understanding what the issues are,” Walker said. “In the 16 years I have been here I have worked hard and on a continuous basis to find ways to improve the system. I did not just rely on how well the system was working and that everything was ok. I have worked 16 years to push the system that was largely based on paper filings to one that is 97 percent electronic payments. I moved the recorder’s office when I had it, from one that was an entirely paper system to one that is a majority electronic system.”
Of Mason, Walker said, “I don’t know much about him. He appears to have spent a few bucks on a billboard in the Victor Valley. He was apparently elected to the Victor Valley High School Board in November 2010 but did not serve an entire term on that board.”
Walker sought to deflect criticism about his willingness to take on the treasurer and tax collector duties while simultaneously serving as auditor and controller, which some have suggested are incompatible assignments that allow Walker, as auditor controller, to serve in the capacity of providing key oversight of his function as treasurer.
“That issue was taken on not only by our county counsel but county counsels throughout the state and the state legislature,” Walker said. “My opponent may bring this up as an issue, but the criticism is simply wrong. Our county was not the first to combine the treasurer with the auditor controller. It is clearly allowable. People may question these policies for individual counties, but it is no different than combining the coroner’s office with the sheriff’s department. It is done increasingly in situations where you have a similarity of duties and a need to save money. The county saved a million dollars on an annual basis as a result of the consolidation. If my opponent wants to run on an issue from 2010 in 2014, on an arrangement that was put to rest four years ago, he has the option of running that kind of campaign.”
Walker, who was raised in Chino and attended Chino High School, obtained his bachelor’s degree in social science from UC Irvine and his law degree from UCLA Law School. He was admitted to the bar in 1976 and practiced law for ten years in the areas of real estate, contract litigation, and family law. He was in the Naval Reserves, serving in the JAG Corps. He was on the city council from 1978 until 1980, and then was Chino Mayor from 1980 until 1986, when he was elected to the board of supervisors.  He is married with three children.

(April 22) Big Bear Mayor Jay Obernolte said his campaign for California Assembly in the 33rd District is a push toward righting the state’s overregulated business climate.
Obernolte said he was prompted to seek state office “mostly because of my kids. Twenty-five years ago I started a videogame development company in my dorm room. We developed games, creating them, designing them, doing the programming, art animation and sound. We made games that are compatible with consoles such as Nintendo, Plays Station, Wi and for hand held devices, such as iPhone.  My company, FarSight Studios, now has 25 full time employees up here in Big Bear. My children have aspirations of their own and they have confided in me that they one day want to start businesses of their own, and grow them as I did, so they can have jobs, and an income for their families. But I realized that with the toxic business environment we are in, even if they work as hard as I did in the last 25 years, they would not be able to succeed because of the business environment and the overregulation in the state of California. That is why I am running. We need more business experience in Sacramento. That is what convinced me to run.”
Of the major issues facing the 33rd District, Obernolte said, “Our primary problem is economic. We need more jobs and better paying jobs. We have way too many unemployed and underemployed. People are struggling.  We need to improve the business environment in California and in the 33rd District specifically, so more businesses come here and we create jobs. We need business here. We should be creating better paying jobs rather than driving them away, which is what we are doing now.“
Obernolte said he would be able to work on the problem  “through business experience. We need people in Sacramento who know what it is like to shepherd a business thorough upturns and downturns. We need them to understand how stifling the business climate is in California. We need legislators who know what it is like to be on your knees on Thursday night praying because you do not have enough money to cover payroll on Friday. We need lawmakers who understand that businesses face a lot of issues.”
There are other issues, Obernolte said, but he maintains that “If we solve the economic problems, a lot of the other difficulties will be eliminated.”
Turning to the challenges to the state beyond the limited confines of the 33rd District, Obernolte said the major focus, “on the state level, should be preserving Proposition 13. I am appalled there have been recent attempts to chip away at the taxpayer protection provisions of Proposition 13. I find particularly galling the way we are attempting to modify Proposition 13 to increase the tax on business property. We are sending a message to businesses that they are no longer welcome in California. What I would like us to do is stand firm and protect Proposition 13.”
Proposition 13 was an amendment of the Constitution of California passed by voters and enacted in  1978 that  decreased property taxes by assessing property values at their 1975 value and restricting annual increases of assessed value of real property to an inflation factor, not to exceed 2 percent per year.
With regard to other major state issues, Obernolte said, “We need a meaningful rainy day fund to protect the state against further economic downturns. I think the governor and legislature are being irresponsible with the current surplus. We cannot rely on deficit spending. We need to close the budget deficit and when the opportunity to do so presents itself we should  pay down the debt rather than spend it on programs.”
A Republican, Obernolte said he recognizes the disadvantage his party faces in the overwhelmingly Democratic state, but expressed a belief that a sober assessment of the means available to fiscal conservatives can be the basis for formulating an effective strategy for effectuating change.
“It is clear that no matter who is elected, no one will become master of the universe once they go to Sacramento,” Obernolte said. “I find it troubling that others in this race are making promises and commitments about what they will do that they will not be able to keep.  To succeed, it will take patience and perseverance, someone who over the years in office will gain the needed seniority and respect to deal with the problems facing the state. Solving the problems for the people in the 33rd District is going to require establishing relationships in Sacramento. It will entail more than just voting. It will require planning, patience, cultivating relationships and respect, perseverance, experience and execution. “
Obernolte said he believes he possesses the requisite traits to be the most effective representative of the constituents in the 33rd District.
“I have by far the most business experience,” he said. “I am in the best position to fight against the overregulation of business that is stifling the economy of our state. As a two term mayor of Big Bear, I have the legislative experience to go into an environment where I am a member of minority party and still get things done for my constituents.”
A graduate of Edison Computech High School in Fresno where he was valedictorian, Obernolte attended Cal Tech, obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in engineering and applied science. He then obtained his master’s degree in computer science from UCLA. He is married with two sons. Prior to  his elected service on the Big Bear City Council, he was a member of the board of the Big Bear City Airport District. He has been endorsed by the Republican Central Committee, the San Bernardino County Young Republicans and the National Tax Limitation Committee.

You can download the PDF version of the April 18 Sentinel by clicking on the portal below.

Sentinel 04-18-14

Four Upland residents with extensive financial management and business management experience have called upon the Upland City Council to move ahead with city employee pension reform and workforce reductions.
All four expressed the view that if the city does not make meaningful, substantial and immediate inroads on the amount of money it is shelling out to cover the cost of employing nonproductive personnel as well as the pensions of workers no longer employed by the city, it will in the next three to four years be forced to declare bankruptcy.
Bob Nelson, a certified public accountant and former chief financial officer for Star Medical who has taught cost and management accounting at Chaffey College, was chosen as a member of the city of Upland’s financial advisory task force last fall.  At that time he warned of the city’s growing unfunded pension liability and called for various steps to redress the situation, including imposing a hiring freeze on city staff, which he said would prevent the city from incurring any further future pensioners while efforts to rein in pension costs are ongoing. The full task force, however, rejected that suggestion.
This week, on April 14, Nelson came before the city council, using the four minutes allotted to anyone wishing to speak on items of civic import during the public comment portion of the meeting.
Nelson noted that the council was scheduled, later that evening, to approve a 19.2 percent sewer rate increase after setting in motion last month a 22 percent water rate increase. He noted that the city manager has signaled his intent to set aside a reserve fund equal to 28 percent of the city’s $39.6 million general fund.
While Nelson said the effort to set aside reserves was laudable, he expressed skepticism that the money to fill that reserve fund could be produced.
“Where is this cash cow coming from?” he asked. “We have this sewer rate increase, then water rate increases. Next, you will be considering a sales tax increase of one half of one percent. Where does it stop?”
Nelson warned that any new revenues the city takes in will be immediately eaten up by increased pension costs as more city employees retire.
“The city’s deficit is driven in large part by its pension obligation,” he told the Sentinel after the meeting. “The city needs to transition its pension system from one that provides defined benefits to one based on employee contributions. The present system is a house of cards that is going to collapse. The city is already dangerously close to a death spiral. If something is not done very rapidly, the only way out will be bankruptcy.”
At the April 14 meeting, Warren Bowers, who has lived in Upland for over 40 years and previously was the director of manufacturing engineering with an aerospace company and as such was responsible for transitioning the company’s projects from the engineering phase to the manufacturing phase and for and all of the company’s manufacturing start-up budgets, told the city council  he did not believe its management team had come to terms with the immensity of the financial tidal wave that is about to hit the city as a consequence  of mushrooming pension costs and that management does not have the will to stanch the future red ink by insisting that the generous pensions provided to city employees in the past be cut back or rescinded. “I know we have a financial crisis,” Bauer said. “I think we also have a management crisis. By management crisis, I mean we have a cultural problem in top management that runs the day-to-day operations of this city. I have a distinct impression they are not active, I should say proactive, in looking at all of the cost reduction options. I do not think they are motivated. Something has to be done about it. If that means you as a council must change top management, that is what you should do. We can’t have this same culture. We can’t have a rubber stamp. We can’t increase taxes. If you aren’t willing to make the hard calls, then let someone who is willing to do it take your seat.”
Bauer was followed by Larry Kinley, a 20-year Upland 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.
“The last CPA audit stated the city has suffered substantial recurring losses that raise substantial doubt about the city’s ability to continue as a going concern,” Kinley said. “Yet, when the CPA firm was here in person to review their report, no one person asked, ‘What is the cause of the recurring losses?’”
Kinley noted that when the CPA audit was passed along to the mayor and council by the city manager and the city’s administrative services director, the transmittal letter made no mention of the dire financial straits the city finds itself in. “The cover letter completely ignored the statement about the city’s ability to continue as a going concern,” Kinley said. “This is akin to presenting a financial statement to your bank listing your assets but failing to list the liabilities.  How in the world do you tolerate biased and slanted communications from your subordinates?”
Kinley requested that the council come face-to-face with its pension crisis publicly by including an agenda item for its April 28 meeting “so that the citizens can hear from the city council what its members perceive as the cause of the city’s problem and their ideas for a permanent correction.” Kinley said he wanted the council to “freely express their thoughts because this will help the citizens decide the competency level of those in office and who to vote for in the next election.”
Less than a week before Monday’s meeting, another city resident, Bill Cary, who is a processing account manager with Tetra Pak Incorporated, on April 9 sent a letter to the mayor and city council in which he expressed grave concern about city finances.
“As Upland continues to move ever so much closer to bankruptcy, it is not very evident to the citizens of Upland what you are doing to stem the tide. Someone came up with the less than brilliant idea to raise the city sales tax to cover the shortfall in revenue. This is not getting to the root of the problem and you are once again asking the citizens of Upland to pay for the mistakes that our managing city council, be it past or present, created on their own. We put our faith in you to manage and make the tough decisions. Now it’s time to do just that.  Before you can ask the citizens to bail you out, it would be best to ensure you have our house in order and can make the tough choices if necessary.  The list of total compensation from police, fire and city top staff amounts to over $18 million. Police and fire alone accounted for over $15 million of this total. In the private sector, if we run into difficult times, we have been asked to take a cut in pay and even though we didn’t like it, we knew it was the only way to preserve our jobs for the future.”
Cary continued, “If police, fire and city staff were to take a 10 percent cut in total compensation it would provide almost $2 million in savings. I know the police and fire unions will scream bloody murder and say they have already given too much. These groups need to understand that they are not helping to come to a solution because they are the problem. By running a search of salaries from other cities in California, as well as large cities throughout the country, it is evident that Upland pays a lot more than all cities listed.”
Cary said excessive pay to city employees in Upland was not limited to the police and fire departments.
“We have a deputy public works director, Acquanetta Warren, who makes $163,000 a year total compensation and she is the mayor of Fontana. Where is her allegiance directed to? Was there no one in the city of Upland who could handle the job? And why is her salary that high? For that matter, why does the public works director make $230,000 a year? It seems to me that we don’t have the money to fix or repair our streets and sidewalks.  We really don’t need either of these two individuals, at least not at these salaries. Almost $400,000 for two managers whose department doesn’t have any money to do anything is ludicrous.”
Cary concluded, “I work for a privately held company and my compensation is based on how well I do. I am paid on a commission basis and if we don’t sell we don’t get paid. If we continue to not sell we will be replaced.  When someone reduces your pay based on the company’s performance, you learn real quick how to make the tough decisions.”
In 2013-2014 the city’s pension costs stand at $6.2 million. The most reliable figures currently available show the city will incur an additional $1.5 million in pension costs next year, 2014-15, escalating to $7.7 million the annual amount city pays  into the public employees’ retirement system.

The city of Victorville is on the brink of adding golfing legend Billy Casper and his corporation to its long and impressive list of legal adversaries.
In 2010, the city entered into an agreement with Billy Casper Golf to operate the Green Tree Golf Course, a major amenity in Victorville with a storied history stretching back three-quarters of a century. On its links and in its clubhouse, politicians, businessman, developers and officials discussed and even closed deals relating to major developments in the Victor Valley.
Nearly four years after Billy Casper Golf took on responsibility for the landmark, however, city officials have not seen it restored to the status of past grandeur they had envisaged.
On March 17, city officials informed the corporation that the golf course has remained in operation within the strictures of the agreed-upon annual budget and that the course has not been maintained “in reasonably good condition.”
Thus, the city said, Billy Casper Golf is “in default.
Billy Casper Golf Senior Vice President Bill Rehanek contests the city’s claim, maintaining the golf course to be in  “far better condition today than it was at the inception of our contract in June 2010.”
Casper, now 82, attended  the University of Notre Dame on a golf scholarship and  had 51 PGA Tour wins in his career, the first of which came in 1956. He is ranked seventh among golfers all time in terms of tournament wins. He was a member of the United States team in the Ryder Cup eight times, and has scored the most points in the Ryder Cup by an American player. He is widely recognized as the best putter of his era. He won at least one PGA Tour event for 16 straight seasons, from 1956 to 1971 inclusive.
On the senior circuit, Casper earned nine Senior PGA Tour victories.
Billy Casper Golf is the second largest operator of golf courses in the United States, and currently manages more than 140 golf facilities.
The city is currently involved in more than two dozen lawsuits and legal actions, including one in which it is contesting civil charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission that it defrauded investors in its issuance of bonds for improvements at Southern California Logistics Airport.

(April 16)   The action of several employees at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga and Adelanto Detention Facility in the High Desert is the focus of an investigation by the FBI.
The detention center has been for two decades and is currently the largest jail in terms of inmate population maintained by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. The just completed Adelanto Detention Facility, wings of which were recently put into operation, will eventually house a comparable number of inmates as West Valley.
Based upon statements by the sheriff’s department and FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller, the FBI has interested itself in longstanding accusations of civil rights violations of prisoners at the center.
So far, the Sentinel has learned, the actions of 16 sheriff’s department employees or former employees are under scrutiny. Three have been terminated. One resigned under threat of termination.
The FBI initially undertook its investigation after receiving what was characterized as “highly credible” information that in March three deputies had participated in an incident in which inmates were handcuffed or shackled to a fence and then shocked with taser stun guns or otherwise physically assaulted.
At least one of those involved in the beating, the Sentinel is told, was a recent graduate of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Academy.
Three deputies working at the facility in the middle of their work shift two weeks ago were, in the words of one source, “walked off” the detention center grounds in handcuffs by federal agents and then subjected to an interrogation.
At least two of those deputies have recounted past incidents of treatment of inmates similar to the early March handcuffed stunnings that piqued the FBI’s interest, implicating several of their colleagues. In addition, accusations have surfaced that guards used a chemical mace on inmates in their cells at the Adelanto Detention Facility.
The sheriff’s department did not go beyond acknowledging that an investigation was under way with regard to a single incident in March of this year and that three deputies had been terminated. It made no mention of the fourth deputy who had resigned. While a spokesman for the sheriff’s department implied the department was itself conducting the investigation, Eimiller said the sheriff’s department was acting in the capacity of a cooperating agency.
There have been consistent recurrent reports relating to escalating violence, including inmate-on inmate, inmate-on-deputy and deputy abuse of prisoners at West Valley since late 2012. The sheriff’s office does not catalog a report on discipline or use of force against inmates but does collate statistics on inmate-on-inmate and inmate-on-deputy incidents. According to the department, in the 18 months after Assembly Bill 109 and Assembly Bill 117 went into effect in October 2011, assaults by inmates against inmates rose 50 percent and assaults by inmates on jail staff doubled. Assembly Bill 109 and Assembly Bill 117, which constitute the legislative basis for California’s so-called prison realignment, mandated the release of prisoners from the state’s 33 prisons so that by June 27, 2013 those facilities were at no more than 137.5 percent of their design capacity. The realignment was intended to bring the state into compliance with an order by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In reducing the state’s prison population, officials in many cases sent prisoners into county facilities. That has resulted, law enforcement officials say, in increasing the number of violent and hardened criminals into the local jail population.

(April 15)  Steeped as Michelle Ambrozic is professionally in the health care industry, it is not surprising that she considers  health care as a major issue facing both the 33rd Assembly District and the entire state of California in her campaign for the Assembly.
“I am a health insurance broker dealing with health care on a daily basis, so I am seeing a lot of people suffer from the consequences of Obamacare [i.e., the Federal Affordable Care Act],” Ambrozic said. “I want to tackle the issue of access to health care within the district. We have hospitals going bankrupt. Seven out of ten people are unable to pay for health care insurance or are now losing the health care insurance they had before Obamacare was put into place.”
Ambrozic continued, “Specifically I see two areas with regard to the health care issue, accessibility and cost. With regard to accessibility, for many people it is becoming very difficult to see a doctor or a specialist. You can have a several hour-long wait in line. That issue is directly related to the second issue. There is a reason doctors don’t come here and there is a reason doctor’s are leaving. The inability to see a doctor is the second part of that cycle.  Employers are laying people off and those people are losing their health insurance, for themselves and their families. There are not enough people with wealth or private health insurance, particularly in Southern California, where taxes and regulation are so high. Doctors do not want to set up businesses in California’s rural areas. Medicare and Medi-Cal do not offer enough in the way of payments to make up the difference.”
Ambrozic said she had a formula that would go a long way toward fixing the problem.
“I consider the 33rd District to be a rural area,” she said. “I believe what we need to do is create in California’s rural areas something similar to California’s enterprise zones, areas that will entice doctors to operate here. We need to alleviate the tax and regulatory burdens imposed on doctors and health care providers in the form of tax relief in every rural portion of the state,” she said. “One example is the exacting seismic construction regulations put in place on medical centers and doctor’s offices and hospitals. In rural areas this is a particularly heavy burden. One cannot afford such construction requirements with this economy and this has discouraged doctors from coming into those areas and hospitals from being constructed. I would propose a moratorium on this level of regulation to give hospitals the time and opportunity to operate in these areas. The other major problem involving an intolerable burden placed upon the medical community by government is that under our government-run medical programs doctors and hospitals have to wait up to 18 months to get reimbursed for the care and services they have delivered. This is on top of the regulatory burden and the cuts in rates insurance companies are paying for those services, the escalating rates doctors must pay for their liability insurance. Doctors are increasingly reluctant to accept new Medicare patients at the same time that thousands and thousands of low income Medicare patients are coming along. They are not willing to accept new Medicare and Medi-Cal patents because they are not being paid adequately. It is not financially feasible for them to accept these new patients. We need to get money to expand Medicare and Medi-Cal. We need to make sure our state medical reimbursement rates are what they should be. We need to set up a program so that if after graduating from medical school and being licensed, primary care physicians can commit to a rural area for up to six years and have their medical school debt forgiven. If they stay that long they will build a relationship with their patents. This will give them longevity. This is already being done in several other states. Some states implement this through state funding for education. We could do that in California. My preference would be that we have that money appropriated from the California Dream Act, which is utilizing taxpayer money to further the education of illegal aliens and people who are not citizens of our state. I would rather see that funding go toward the education of Californians and California doctors.  I think that money should be redirected to covering the medical school debt of doctors willing to operate in what are considered by those working in the medical profession to be the least desirable areas of our state.  The biggest issue with this district and the entire area of San Bernardino County is that we have one of highest primary care deficits in the nation. We need to invite doctors to come here and get established in the rural parts of this district. What I would propose legislatively is that the program apply to rural areas of the state. There are other rural areas of the state facing the same issue. Their representatives in Sacramento and on their respective county boards would be very supportive of a program such as this. With Medi-Cal cuts, doctors are no longer taking Medi-Cal patients. What happens when you can’t find a doctor? You go to the hospital emergency room. So now hospitals have severe overcrowding issues. I heard recently that one patent who had gone to St. Mary’s Hospital in Apple Valley for a legitimate emergency had a wait time of 20 hours. Hospitals like St. Mary’s are providing more treatment but most of those treated do not pay their bills. We have fewer and fewer doctors participating. We need a program to bring them here and keep them here. They can’t stay in business with California’s regulatory and tax structure. To keep them from leaving we need to relieve them of taxes. That doesn’t mean the state will lose something because that is already income we are not going to have. We need to relieve the overhead costs for them and give them the opportunity to stay in business.”
Abrozic said she believes she merits the votes of those living in the 33rd District. “Looking at my opponents, I would call myself the most conservative person in this race,” she said. “I have the most experience in helping people. I work with business owners every day and I see why it is so hard to keep their employees employed and provided with health insurance. In addition to my health insurance brokerage, I work with my husband in running a construction company. I know a lot of business owners are facing the same difficulties we are. That is what sets me aside from the other candidates. I know one of the others owns a construction company. Another has a video game business. I commend them for owning and running a business but I do not believe their experience gives them a higher level of experience to work legislatively. I help people every day who are in business and trying to function under this burden of taxation and overregulation. Since we are so outnumbered in Sacramento, even if I am not successful in getting the Democrats to latch onto what I am proposing legislatively, I can be effective at the level of the district office by assisting residents with resources to get information and get someone to help them with access to health care and other services. I believe I will be more resourceful than the other candidates. I am a conservative who believes in having women in government, lowering taxes and getting things started at the local lever rather than the federal or even state level. If the people of the district vote for me they will have someone who puts the needs of this district first. I will  help them have their voices heard. I will stand for them and fight for them in Sacramento.”
Born in Miami, Florida, Ambrozic has lived in California since she was a toddler. She graduated from Beverly Hills High School and graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in communications. She is married with three children.

(April 16)  Dr. Prem Reddy and the medical foundation he created and runs will put up $40 million to create a medical school in Colton.
Reddy, who is providing the lion’s share of the financial backing for the undertaking, is one of the four members of the just created board of the California University of Science and Medicine, to be known as CalMed. The other three board members are Dr. Dev GnanaDev, the chief of surgery and former medical director at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton;  Albert Karnig, former president of Cal State San Bernardino; and Dustin Corcoran, chief executive officer of the California Medical Association.
The board is hopeful that CalMed could achieve accreditation from the American Medical Association to enroll its first 50 students and begin classes as early as 2016. The institution would be affiliated with San Bernardino County’s public hospital, the Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton. The CalMed campus would be located less than a half mile from the county hospital.
Cal Med has opened a dialog with the successor agency to the city of Colton’s former redevelopment agency, which owns 21.5 acres at the corner of West Valley Boulevard and North Meridian Avenue. If the purchase can be arranged and the medical school established, medical students would be able to do many of their clinical rotations at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center.
“This is an exciting and much-needed opportunity for medical students in the Inland Empire and California,” GnanaDev said. “Because of many factors, including the extremely limited medical school spots in our state and severe shortage of doctors, we believe this project will have a significant positive impact on the economy, education and health for many decades.”

(April 17) TWENTYNINE PALMS—The Sacramento Superior Court has granted the city of Twentynine Palms a writ of mandate in its ongoing battle with the California Department of Finance in its effort to recover bond proceeds the state insisted the city must surrender to it as a consequence of the 2011 shuttering of the Twentynine Palms Redevelopment Agency.
Those bonds were issued in conjunction with the city’s effort to rejuvenate downtown Twentynine Palms as part of Project Phoenix, which was 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. The last of the bonds were issued three months before Assembly Bills X1 26 and X1 27 passed and went into effect.
Passed by the state legislature three years ago at the behest of Governor Jerry Brown, Assembly Bills XI 26 and XI 27 closed out all municipal and county redevelopment efforts statewide. A coalition of cities fought the law, but the state Supreme Court upheld the measure. While 317 of the state’s 482 incorporated cities went along with the new law without question and shut down their redevelopment agencies, 165 cities have resisted the state on the issue. That resistance ranged  from registering relatively mild protests to filing lawsuits against the state and its Department of Finance, which is the entity designated under the law to make a determination with regard to how the money that was in the possession of the former redevelopment agencies is to be disbursed.
Twentynine Palms, led by its city attorney A. Patrick Muñoz of the law firm Ruttan & Tucker, has been the most aggressive of San Bernardino County’s 24 cities in disputing the state’s action in confiscating redevelopment money and then redistributing it to other local taxing agencies or using it for education or public safety purposes.
At stake in the matter for Twentynine Palms, a city of 25,048 in San Bernardino County’s Mojave Desert outback, are two tax allocation bonds issued for a total of $8.5 million. Those bonds were intended to defray the cost of Project Phoenix.
Based on an analysis by Muñoz, the Twentynine Palms City Council publicly asserted that 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.
The city followed Muñoz’s recommendation to have the successor agency to the redevelopment 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 direct the discharging of remaining redevelopment money.  In  May 2012, Muñoz drafted a contract between the successor agency and the city by which the  successor agency turned over the bond spending authority to the city with a directive that it go toward Project Phoenix. On a 4-1 vote on May 22, 2012 the city council voted unanimously to transfer the seven-member oversight board’s duties and obligations to administer the bond proceeds to “the city in its capacity as a municipal corporation.”
To reinforce that action, on February 26, 2013, the city council authorized Muñoz to file litigation against the Department of Finance so the city could move forward with the expenditure of the bond proceeds. Muñoz did so in April 2013. The city in that litigation took the position that the bond documents are contracts that created specific obligations between the city, as the issuer, and the bond purchasers, and as such are enforceable obligations such that the state cannot interfere with them. Moreover, according to Muñoz, the city would be violating IRS and SEC regulations as well as putting the tax exempt status of the bonds in jeopardy if it does not spend the money for the purpose for which the bonds were issued.
AB X1 26 and AB X1 27 contained a provision requiring any municipalities that contested the law to do so in Sacramento Superior Court.  The California Department of Finance is being represented by the California Attorney General’s Office’s civil division in the case. On December 23, the California Attorney General’s Office laid out an answer to Twentynine Palms’ legal action preparatory to an upcoming January 24 hearing on the matter.
According to deputy attorney general Michael Witmer, $12 million of the tax allocation bonds issued by the city – offered to bondholders in March 2011 – while earmarked for Project Phoenix, contained no concomitant contracts to build anything or a defined plan of how the bond proceeds were to be expended.
Witmer maintains the assertion by Muñoz and a consultant working for the city in the capacity of community development director, Matt McCleary, that Project Phoenix disbursements could be placed on the phased out redevelopment agency’s recognized obligations payment schedules runs contrary to instructions from the California Department of Finance that the project was not to be listed on the payment schedule.
The writ and documents filed in conjunction with it contest that assertion.

(April 14)     San  Bernardino Community College Board Member Katy Henry said she is seeking election in the 40th Assembly District to spur economic growth in her district and throughout the state by facilitating “the sustainable growth of small businesses” and to improve the quality of childhood education and ensure high school graduates have access to affordable quality instruction at public universities and college.
“We have been able to do a lot of things at the community college level,” she said. “There is so much more that needs to take place with education. We also have needs with infrastructure and water availability throughout the state. There are a number of areas beyond the scope of the board for the community college where I can serve.”
Henry, a Democrat, decried the tenor of partisan politics.
“There is a need for a more balanced approach because there is too much divisiveness,” she said. “In our political and governmental discussions it is either one way or the other. There is not much of an in-between stage. If we continue with these rigid position we are not going anywhere. We are not moving forward. I believe in a more collaborative approach. I have taught in an on-line environment where personality is taken out of the equation. It is all about give and take and understanding and helping others. In that environment individuals look at things in a different perspective. We need that approach in the political arena. In the middle of a political debate, people are looking at things in a certain way and the others don’t understand why they see it that way.  We have to open each other’s minds. We have to broaden people’s horizons. Everything cannot be a flashpoint. Everything in our current political dialogue is about inciting people’s anger. We have to bring people to a different way of thinking. Our effort has to be about being collaborative and building coalitions.”
Henry continued, “I think one of the issues that faces us on a statewide level but also exists in the 40th is education.  Education flows into different things – economic growth, diversity of business, creating jobs. Our work is not just about creating jobs. We need a diversity of business. We have to create a diversity of work opportunities for individuals who are getting educated.  We do not now necessarily educate our students into programs that offer them assurance of employment. There are only a certain number of jobs out there and only a certain number of types of jobs. We have jobs that are technology related. We have jobs that are not particularly technology-dependent. We have jobs in the hospitality field. There is land here that is under-utilized. We could interest corporations and employers to locate here if we had the infrastructure in place to support their business operations. Infrastructure could create opportunities for our educated students. We can’t afford to educate students here and then have them go elsewhere to go to work.  They are taking on student debt and investing money in their future and for them to complete their educations and then not be able to get a job in their field here is a tremendous mismanagement of our assets and resources and priorities. There are currently only a limited number of local jobs in the fields that many of our students are training in. We need to expand that job market locally. There is an education gap in who can afford an education and unfortunately that spread exists along racial and ethnic lines.”
Henry said there are already programs and institutions in place that should be expanded or changed to meet the demands of the community.
“We have some really good programs in the inland empire, transitional programs between high school and community colleges and even universities,” she said. “Too many students in high school do not know what it takes to go to college. That gap is increasing. We have to improve those pathways. Economic growth is often about infrastructure: roads, public safety, sewer treatment systems. San Bernardino has an aging sewer system. If we impose taxes, we are imposing taxes upon the already taxed, but if that tax creates something that allows companies to set up here or flourish and make a profit off that, people will realize the benefits and accept the tax, even if they don’t see too much of a return on it right away. It just takes time.”
With regard to the statewide issue of water usage, she said, “We can’t pit farmers against the fishing industry. If too much water is taken from the delta, the water gets warm  and the water goes down and the smelt can’t live in that environment. There are no pat answers. That issue is  too complex for pat answers. We need to have good water management practices. We have to create a way in which to turn gray water into potable water.   The north and south don’t need to refight the Civil War in California. We need to figure out a new way of things between northern and southern California. We need serious conservation. Whole neighborhoods should convert to drought-resistant landscaping. When I was in Northern California, I went through water rationing in the 70s. Water rationing is what you do when you have gone beyond the possibility of conservation. It comes when you get into the shower when the water is still cold.”
Henry said she was not interested in criticizing the others in the race.
“I run my own campaign,” she said. “I do not know the platforms of other candidates.”
She called for an evaluation of the interests of the district, issue by issue, rather than by party affiliation.
“In my district, the voter identification and party affiliation ratio is 37 to 42 in favor of the Democrats. Only one side will win. Either 37 percent are not going to have a voice or 42 percent won’t have a voice. I think no matter who wins, we need to go out into the community to meet people and survey and take the pulse of the community, using field reps to see how people feel about what is going on up in Sacramento. We need to be collaborative across party lines.”
A native Northern Californian, Henry graduated from Santa Rosa High School and obtained her AA degree from the Travis Air Force Base campus of Southern Illinois University in workforce education and development. She has a master’s degree in organization development and PhD in human and organizational techniques from the Fielding Institute. She has been working as an on-line instructor since 2001 and owns a consultancy that specializes in corporation interventional strategy. She is unmarried.