(April 8)  In responses filed in San Bernardino Superior Court March 28 and unsealed on April 4, prosecutors reject the contention of indicted Rancho Cucamonga developer Jeff Burum’s attorney that alleged prosecutorial misconduct, the withholding of evidence, the misstatement of facts in the indictment and failure to obtain the indictment in a timely manner require that the criminal charges Burum faces must be dismissed.
In May 2011, Burum, one of the two managing directors of the Colonies Partners, was indicted along with former San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies’ union president Jim Erwin, former county supervisor Paul Biane and Mark Kirk, who was the chief of staff to count supervisor Gary Ovitt. According to that indictment, the four were involved in a conspiracy entailing the provision of bribes and an extortion scheme relating to the November 2006 settlement of a lawsuit brought against the county and its flood control division by the Colonies Partners over drainage issues at that company’s Colonies at San Antonio and Colonies Crossroads residential and commercial subdivisions in northeast Upland.
That indictment superseded a February 2010 indictment that had named Erwin and former supervisors Bill Postmus. Postmus in March 2011 pleaded guilty to the charges in the earlier indictment and then turned state’s evidence, serving as the star witness before the grand jury that indicted Burum, Erwin, and Kirk. Postmus had joined with Biane and Kirk’s boss, Fourth District County Supervisor Gary Ovitt, in approving the November 2006 $102 million settlement of the lawsuit brought by the Colonies.
According to prosecutors, Burum and Erwin, with the assistance of public relations consultant Patrick O’Reilly, had extorted Postmus and Biane by threatening to print and send out prepared mailers which exposed Postmus, who was then the chairman of the board of supervisors and the chairman of the San Bernardino County Republican Central Committee, as a drug addicted homosexual, and Biane, the vice chairman of the board of supervisors and the vice chair of the Republican Central Committee, as insolvent and on the brink of bankruptcy. Those mailers ultimately were never sent out to voters. Instead, after Postmus, Biane and Ovitt approved the settlement, Burum and his company made four $100,000 donations to political action committees controlled by Postmus, Biane, Kirk and Erwin. Kirk was paid, prosecutors allege, for convincing Ovitt to support the settlement.
The case at every turn has proven quite contentious, with several demurrers challenging the sufficiency of the charges filed with the trial court having been granted, those rulings appealed to the appellate court and upheld, and the appellate court’s decision appealed to the California Supreme Court, which reinstated the charges against the defendants.
In January, Burum’s attorney, former federal court judge Stephen Larson, filed a series of four dismissal motions in which he maintained the prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence from the grand jury, improperly formulated charges against Burum, and deliberately misled the grand jury, waited beyond the statute of limitations to lodge the charges against Burum and engaged in prosecutorial misconduct when investigators were dispatched to “raid the defense camp” by serving a search warrant in January 2013  at the private investigative firm Thomas Dale & Associates, which had been hired by Larson’s law firm to monitor Postmus to determine if he was still involved in the use of illicit drugs. Larson alleged that prosecutors and district attorney’s investigator Eric Bremner seized hundreds of pages of attorney-client privileged documents during their search of Thomas Dale & Associates, spuriously justifying the search by alleging that the private investigations firm had hired an Alabama woman to hack Bill Postmus’ cell phone.
With regard to Larson’s contention  that the statute of limitations had elapsed when charges were filed under the indictments, the prosecution maintains the charges against Burum and the others were filed within four years after the crimes alleged were either committed or discovered by law enforcement. Prosecutors further maintain that Larson’s contention that there were numerous indications in the form of court filings challenging the settlement, statements by officials and newspaper accounts giving notice of the crimes alleged does not establish that law enforcement agencies had been provided with legal notice that the crimes in question had occurred.
In general and specific, the newspaper accounts and statements by officials amounted to little more than rumors or unreliable reports, the prosecution said.
“As a matter of law, rumors, accusations and speculation are insufficient to give notice of a crime for the purposes of the statute of limitations. Burum failed to present even one item of evidence giving notice of the gist of this case: Burum bought three crooked votes with bribes,” the prosecution’s response states. Furthermore, according to prosecutors, “as a matter of law, there is no evidence whatsoever that the victim had knowledge of the charged crimes at a time outside the statute of limitations.”
In his motion for dismissal based on statute of limitations considerations, Larson suggested that county auditor controller Larry Walker in November 2006 had communications with law enforcement officials and others that constituted legal notice with regard to the alleged criminality involved in the case. The prosecutors acknowledge that, as stated in Larson’s motion, Walker was concerned that there was something inappropriate about the settlement and he asked county counsel about it before cutting a $22 million check to the Colonies Partners, which was the first installment on the $102 million settlement. He also placed a call to the California Attorney General’s Office. Eventually, Walker was advised by county counsel that the $22 million payment had to be made “even though there may be a concern that it could constitute a gift of public funds.”
Prosecutors produced communication from county counsel to Walker  at the time which stated “Neither this office nor any of the special outside counsels engaged to assist the board on the Colonies matter have ever opined that approval of the settlement by the board would be an unlawful or illegal action.”
Thus, prosecutors in their March 28 filing asserted “Burum not only failed to point out any evidence that Mr. Walker had notice of bribery (or any crime), but the evidence Burum cited – when put in context – proves the opposite. In short, with respect to all public officials, the evidence is clear: they suspected a bad deal under questionable circumstances. As a matter of law, that is insufficient to give constructive notice of the charged crimes.”
Prosecutors contested Larson’s assertions that exculpatory evidence had been withheld from the grand jurors.  Prosecutors said “the information contained in the grand jury report is of marginal relevance, and to the extent it is exculpatory, the evidence came in through other witnesses.”
With regard to Larson’s charge that the prosecution had engaged in prosecutorial misconduct, the prosecution counter-asserted, “This court should not countenance the exploitation of the motion process by using demonstrably false allegations of misconduct as a public relations tool to intimidate prosecutors, deceive the public and gain an unfair advantage as this case heads towards trial.”
In this frame of reference, prosecutors asserted that their reliance on Postmus, whose methamphetamine use was well known to them, did not constitute misconduct.
“Burum fails to provide any authority for his claim that the prosecution’s failure to drug  test Postmus amounted to outrageous government conduct justifying the drastic sanction of dismissal.”  Furthermore, according to the prosecutors, “the grand jury was fully aware of all facts pertaining to Postmus’ credibility, including his drug use.”
Characterizing the serving of search warrants at the offices of Thomas Dale & Associates as a raid on the defense camp and a violation of attorney client privilege was a “a desperate attempt to derail the prosecution by illegitimate means,” prosecutors asserted.
“The evidence will reveal that prosecutors took every precaution to protect against any possible infringement on Burum’s attorney-client privilege or work product, and their efforts succeeded in doing so,” prosecutors said.
Larson, through his sophistry and eloquent advocacy of his client and remonstrations concerning Burum’s constitutional rights, was perverting justice, the prosecutors suggested, although they were circumspect to avoid referring directly to Larson, attributing the legal defense he crafted to his client. “By trying to put prosecutors on the defensive with fabricated allegations of  ‘outrageous misconduct,’ Burum desperately attempts to deflect attention from his own criminal behavior,” prosecutors said in their motion.
A hearing on the motions was initially scheduled for May 5. Because of the voluminous nature of the prosecution response, that hearing will not commence until May 21.

(April 7) Odessia Lee said her candidacy for Congress in the 8th Congressional District is a campaign for social change and the rejection of the status quo.
“I feel there is a need for change,” she said. “We need a level playing field. We need improvement in education. Our schools are doing better, but things need to be done differently and we need an emphasis on different types of education. We need to have more vocational emphasis in our junior colleges. Everybody is not geared for attending a four-year college. Why not have an educational system where our high school graduates can go into trade schools or into community colleges for training where they can earn a living wage so they can take care of their families? We need to accept the fact that not everyone is made to go to college.”
Lee said the district, state and nation were now too heavily reliant upon service industry jobs and that past policies had resulted in better-paying manufacturing jobs being lost overseas.
“In our current economy we have a lot of people now working in retail and in restaurants and general commerce but our state and local officials are more interested in final sales for the sales taxes that generates instead of manufactured goods creation and job creation. We should commit to bringing back the manufacturing jobs we have lost. Those were decent-paying jobs. Here in the Victor Valley we had a glass factory and a paint factory. All of that is gone. We have the capability of becoming a viable, competitive community if we focus and put our minds to it.”
Lee said the national issue she is most animated about is “war. I really don’t think we need to go to go to war with everyone who ruffles our feathers. We have our boys and young women over there being shot and wounded and killed. I think a little more diplomacy is needed. Let’s talk. Let’s communicate. There is no need for us to take up everybody’s chores.”
Lee, a Democrat, is running against the incumbent, Congressman Paul Cook, a Republican. Two others, Paul Hannosh, a Republican who promotes himself as more conservative than Cook, and Bob Conaway, an attorney and liberal Democrat, are also running. She said she is distinguished from others in the race by being the 8th Congressional District’s true “grass roots” candidate. “I have identified the demographics of this district and I am the one candidate who best reflects the people who live here,” she said. “There has been change in the economy and change in the level of housing. People here are losing ground in this economy. I am seeing my own property losing value. My property value has dropped nearly to half of what it was and under what I paid for it. I am the definition of grass roots. I identify totally with what people in this district are going through and living with.  I have talked with people from one end of this community to the other. I understand. I have been poor. I have been middle class and I have been well off.  I can identify with people just by talking to them and listening. You try to express yourself to our leaders and explain what you want, and they are saying, ‘yeah, yeah,” but nobody is doing anything about it. Where do you go when you are not getting the help you deserve? No one is listening. I care. That is all people need to know.”
Born in Okehma, Oklahoma, Lee lived with her family in Arizona and California in her youth. She attended Jordan High School and later transferred to Compton Union High, from which she graduated. She obtained an A.A. degree from Southwest Junior College in sociology and studied childhood development at USC for two years. She worked as a victim’s advocate and family support officer with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. Divorced, she had two children, one of which survives. She has lived in Victorville for 15 years.

(April 2) NEEDLES—In an unmistakable signal of the further deterioration of the economy in San Bernardino County’s smallest city, Bashas’ Grocery Store will close on May 9.
The only supermarket in 4,700 population Needles, Bashas’ employs 43 full and part time workers.
For several years, the city had provided a subsidy to Bashas’ to keep it from leaving. That subsidy, which consisted of payments of $150,000 annually in both 2010-11 and 2011-12 and $200,000 in 2012-13 and 2013-14, was set to expire in June.
Another factor driving the closure was the expiration of the Bashas’ lease with Reliable Properties. There appears to be no immediate prospect that the property, located at 1010 East Broadway, will be occupied by another tenant.
City officials, including city manager Rick Daniels and the economic development consultant Daniels had prevailed upon the city council to hire last year, Michael Bracken, had been dialoguing with both Reliable Properties and Bashas’ owner, Eddie Basha III. Those talks did not bear fruit, however.
Needles, located in the far northeast end of San Bernardino County and just across the Colorado River from Arizona, for years has been at a disadvantage in terms of sales tax revenue based upon not only its limited population and the lack of surrounding population but higher California sales taxes and gasoline tax as compared to those levied in Arizona or the slightly more distant state of Nevada. Residents routinely cross the river to purchase gasoline in Arizona, at a cost savings of as much as thirty cents a gallon. The price disadvantage on other consumer goods in California, while less pronounced than on gasoline, nevertheless has translated into sluggish sales west of the Colorado River.
The closure of Bashas’ is seen as a particularly hard and bitter blow to Daniels, who was hired by the city council last year on the perceived strength of his ability to rejuvenate the local economy.
The closure of the grocery store just two months before the onset of the summer tourist season could further erode Needles’ overall economy as fishermen, boaters and other river enthusiasts are now likely to camp or stay on the Arizona shore, nearer to existing and surviving retail establishments there.

(April 9)  Fontana’s second and third police chiefs, Joseph Uhalley and Ben Abernathy, died five days apart, on March 23 and March 28.
A native of Akron, Ohio, Joe Uhalley was born in 1934, the son of Julia and Stephen Uhalley. The Uhalleys moved to Fontana in 1946. Joe Uhalley remained a resident of Fontana for 67 years. Uhalley was sworn in as an officer with Fontana PD in 1957. He was a 13-year veteran with the department when he was named police chief in 1970. He served in that capacity until 1981.
Frank Scialdone, who was later Fontana police chief as well as Fontana mayor, remembered Uhalley as unflappable and dedicated.
“I knew of Joe even before I was on the police force,” Scialdone said. “He was relatively young for a police chief. I followed his accomplishments  while I was in college and when I decided I wanted to move forward with a career in law enforcement, he hired me in 1973. He promoted me to detective and then later to sergeant. Joe was always looking forward. He wanted to upgrade the department from a technology standpoint and he went out and hustled grants from wherever he could. We did not have some of the most basic communications gear back in those days and he went out and got us that equipment. The department turned around during his tenure as chief.”
The morning of Uhalley’s funeral at St Joseph’s Catholic Church, his successor as chief, Ben Abernathy passed into eternity.
Abernathy, who was with the Fontana Police Department from 1961 until 1988, was born in Olathe, Colorado in 1931, to Clayton and Georgia Abernathy.  His family moved to Fontana in 1949. Ben Abernathy served in the United States Navy and attended college before joining the police department. He promoted to captain under Uhalley and succeeded him as police chief in 1981. During his tenure as chief the department was involved in a number of high profile cases, including Ricky Blue Sky’s murder of Nancy Charley.
Scialdone referred to Abernathy as “not only the heart and soul of our department, but the rock.” He said he was heavily influenced by Abernathy’s mentoring, saying Abernathy was “ahead of his time” with regard to policing technique.
“I will never forget my first meeting with Ben the week I was hired in 1973,” Scialdone said. “He called me into his office and discussed his expectations of me and his policing philosophy.  What he told me was profound and well ahead of its time in the policing world.  He told me that police officers are problem solvers and that was our primary job, to solve other people’s problems. Ben was talking about community policing long before the term became in vogue in the police world, long before the 1990s when there were classes throughout the country on the subject.”
Scialdone said Abernathy was   “low key and so even keeled. When times got tough, as we all know they do in our profession, he was the stabilizing factor, calm, thoughtful, analytical, and most important of all, supportive.  He was a leader who understood the importance of leadership and the importance of ‘serving, supporting and setting the example.’ By his high standards he served our community with honor and integrity.”
Scialdone said that “For those of us who knew Ben well, we knew how he really disliked attending council meetings while working at the PD.  He did not like politics.”
It came as a surprise to Scialdone therefore, when after Abernathy retired, he decided to run for city council. Scialdone intimated that Abernathy did so to protect the department from severe budget cuts during austere financial times facing the city.
“Ben cared deeply for our great department, not just when he was working but after he retired,” Scialdone said.  “The officers were ‘his boys.’  He was there to ‘protect his police department.’
Abernathy never relished the political limelight, Scialdone said.
“I will always remember Ben sitting behind the dais,  and as the meeting went on and on he would sit there with his head in his hand and you could see in his eyes him thinking ‘what am I doing here?’”

(April 6)  Danny Tillman said he believes he represents the most down-to-earth and qualified of the seven candidates vying for Congress in the 31st District.
Tillman, a Democrat, is joined by three other Democrats – Joe Baca, Eloise Reyes Gomez and Pete Aguilar – as well as three Republicans – Lesli Gooch, Paul Chabot and ryan Downing – in the race to succeed incumbent Gary Miller, who announced in February he will not seek reelection. The 31st District, which stretches from Rancho Cucamonga through a large portion of Fontana, Rialto, Colton, and San Bernardino to Redlands, has demographics that favor the Democratic Party.  Of its registered voters, 127,690 or 41 percent, are affiliated with the Democratic Party.  Registered Republicans in the district number 104,938, or 33.7 percent.
Tillman, a member of the San Bernardino City Unified School Distric Board of Trustees for 19 years and for 34 years an employee with San Bernardino County where he is currently the head of the Human Services Division, said he is a superior candidate for Congress because of his “perspective. I know the needs of this area.  I have two big things I will focus on in Washington, D.C. I will help lure businesses that will create jobs. And I am concerned about young people not being able to get employment. We have to invest in keeping our youth on top of the latest technology. We have to help them see how the things they involve themselves in and pick up naturally can be filled out with technical training that will make them employable. And we need to stop the things that keep them from being employable.”
The biggest challenge facing the district right now, Tillman said, is that “We don’t have people going to Washington, D.C. for us who have as their concern our problems. I am involved at the grass roots. I will talk to different companies who are limited in the way they perceive us. I will tell them and show them the story that never gets told. This is a place to locate your business if you need highly skilled workers. We do not need to build a more educated work force. That work force already exists here. Our workers are driving into Los Angeles every day. I want to convince those corporations who can that they should locate right here so people don’t have to spend five hours a day going to and coming back from Los Angeles.”
For nearly two decades, Tillman said, he has demonstrated, as a member of the school board, his value to the community and his ability as a leader.
“When I ran for the school board, I had no idea about how important the budget and finances were in terms of keeping the district’s educational mission going,” he said. “I had to learn that and I learned it quickly. We have kept a positive certification for 19 years and every year we see more students successfully complete their educations. I had not realized how big a part of that maintaining our budget is. But we have maintained it. The city [of San Bernardino, which filed for Chapter 9 protection in 2012] is bankrupt but the school district is the furthest thing from being bankrupt. None of the others in this race have the demonstrated track record that I have. I have what it takes for dealing with the real world problems facing this area. Once I get to Washington, D.C., based on my skill set, I can accomplish a lot more than those running against me. They have some backing and they have professional handlers and every buzz word in the book, but when it comes down to it, I have concern and experience that is proved. People are talking about my reputation. My reputation is for asking questions. People fear me because I always get to the crux of the motivation of why people do things.”
With regard to national issues he is passionate about, Tillman said he is against military action in all but the most dire of threatening circumstances against the American national interest.
“If we are going to have our troops put their lives on the line, we better be investing in that risk for the right reason,” he said. “I am not comfortable in having that decision fall to those folks I am running against. When you hear my competitors speak, it is obvious they are saying what they are told by their handlers. It won’t be different when they get to Congress. They will do just as they are told by the folks who have dined them and want them in that position only so they can control them. They have memorized what they are supposed to say. Look at their experience and their track record. The things they say do not go together with their experience. It is a scary scenario for me to contemplate any of them going to Congress. I am truly excited about what my campaign stands for. I invite those supporting my opponents now to examine my record and compare their candidate with scripted speeches to someone who has his own original ideas. I invite them to support a true grassroots effort and be on a winning team.”
Tillman dismissed suggestions that by being in the race he was helping to divide the Democratic vote and was tempting a repeat of the scenario in 2012 when Miller, a Republican, was able to gain election despite the registration advantage the Democrats enjoy in the district.
“That won’t happen,” he said about the possibility that two of the Republicans might end up outpolling the Democrats in the June primary.
Born and raised in San Bernardino, Tillman attended San Bernardino High School, San Bernardino Valley College and San Bernardino State, where he obtained his degree in business administration. He is married with four children.

(April 5)  Robert Larivee, one of nine candidates and eight Republicans vying for election in the 33rd Assembly District this year, said he believes it is his social and communicative skills and widely divergent background which qualify him to hold the office he seeks.
Incumbent 33rd District Assemblyman Tim Donnelly is not running for reelection to the Assembly, instead undertaking a long shot challenge of Jerry Brown in this year’s gubernatorial race. Donnelly’s departure resulted in a spate of Republicans – Larivee, Brett Savage, Rick Roelle, Jay Obernolte, Jerry Laws, Scott Markovich, Bob Buhrle, Michelle Ambrozic, and Art Bishop  – and one Democrat, John Coffey, vying for the post in California’s lower legislative chamber.
“I am running because I am a people person and I feel our government has separated itself from the people,” Larivee said. “It is time to rebuild our nation from the ground up. I can relate to people. I understand the issues. I feel I can represent the voters”
A major issue facing the 33rd District, Larivee said, is resolving the environmental challenges that come in the wake of economic growth.
“Geographically, this is a diverse district, with the mountains and the desert and their different climates and ecosystems.,” he said. “A major issue is sustainability. I believe we need to prepare the 33rd District for growth in the future and we need to make sure we have natural resources and transportation. Water is a huge consideration. There is one projection that we have a five to seven year supply of water in the aquifer. Another projection is we will be bone dry in three years. Our water supply need has to be addressed. In the High Desert we need adequate infrastructure and transportation to better position ourselves to grow and bring business into the area. We can grow but cannot grow like we did ten years ago. Those are the primary issues.”
Larivee said, “My solution for the sustainability of the water supply is to first deal with the drought and educate the public in more detail on how to conserve water. We have been depleting our aquifers since the 1960s. Conservation is one small quick fix. The second thing is to look at programs that will help businesses and homeowners install water saving  devices. The third thing is to work with the state water authority to figure out a comprehensive plan to deal with water issues across the state. We  basically need to open up the pump at the delta. I disagree with the decision made at the EPA level that problems with the delta smelt population necessitate holding back the water. There were things not addressed in the discussion. I disagree with the plan [Governor Jerry] Brown has to build a pipeline around the delta. I think there are less expensive options to get water to where we need  it. We could bring water from various places and release it into aqueducts. We should have pipelines not built by a single contractor but multiple contractors that would be competitively bid  all the way down from Canada or Alaska. If we can build an oil pipeline be can build one for water. If it is a pipeline there will be no evaporation since it is a closed system. We should start the pipeline in spots where there is a major surplus of water. We should reach outside the state to Oregon or Washington or wherever we have water north of us and can bring it down. It is less expensive to maintain a pipe system than an aqueduct.”
Larivee said “Safety and education  are the secondary county or local related issues. Those are things that are being dealt with by supervisors [Robert] Lovingood and [James] Ramos and the rest of the supervisors. I feel my position as an assemblyman would be to help county government and municipal government, and to implement at the state level policies to keep them doing what they need to do.”
Larivee demonstrated himself to be animated about the subject of education.
“California has the highest paid teachers of any state, yet our students are among the lowest academic performers in the nation,” he said. “What is the problem with California? We have multiple problems in administration. We simply have too many administrators. We could save money by reducing administrative costs. We need to make sure our teachers are prepared to teach kids.”
Larivee was not dismissive of his opponents.
“I am one of the people who has good ideas and intentions in this race,” he said. “That would apply to several of the other candidates. I would say I am probably the most well-rounded. If you are solely interested in public safety, vote for [sheriff’s lieutenant] Rick Roelle. If water rights are your thing, vote for Art Bishop, who has been a board member on the Mojave Water Agency.  If you are concerned about health issues, vote for Michelle Ambrozic.  I won’t go down the whole list, but there are some strong candidates with regard to several specific issues. But I think if you had a political scientist evaluate the field, the recommendation would be that you should vote for me.  They all have their various strengths. I know a little bit about all of the issues and a lot about some of them. I know where to find the answers. One of those places I would look for the answers is with the people of the 33rd District. People don’t get the credit they deserve for their wisdom about everything they are dealing with and having the right ideas. I think I am more on the level of the people than anyone else in this race. I am knowledgeable about the issues across the board. That is why I am the best man for the job. Everyone has good ideas. I believe in Republican values. I am not persuaded by the Democrats who are     paternalistic and want us to pay more taxes that  create programs for you but create programs which do not work.”
Born in Santa Monica, Larivee grew up in Alta Dena and attended John Bosco Technical Institute. He has a degree in architecture and attended Victor Valley College. He is now working toward a degree in business administration. He is married with seven children.

(April 7)  Former California State Senator Bob Dutton said he is running for county assessor “because I think I can do a good job for San Bernardino County. I looked at running four years ago but at that time [current assessor] Dennis [Draeger], who had been appointed by the board of supervisors, decided to serve another term and I decided to finish my last full term in the [state] senate. I have considered the availability and I am making good now on my deciding to run for assessor once I got out of the senate.”
Dutton said he is “uniquely qualified to serve as assessor.” He began working in the real estate industry in 1972 and in 1998 successfully ran for city council in Rancho Cucamonga. In 2002 he was elected to the state Assembly. Two years later he moved into the California Senate, serving the maximum two terms permitted under California’s term limitations applicable to him at that time. In his last two years in the state’s upper legislative house he was the Republican leader. It is his private and public sector experience, Dutton said, which distinguishes him from his opponent in the June election, assistant county assessor Dan Harp.
He said he had not undertaken his candidacy to oppose Harp and that he had “no opinion [about Harp] one way or the other. I only met him once and I’m not going to make snap judgments on people.”
It is not unthinkable that Harp would remain as assistant assessor following a Dutton victory.
“I don’t know,” Dutton said with regard to whether Harp would be chosen as his second-in-command if he is victorious. “I do plan to bring some new people in. There are already a lot of good people there. I will put people in positions I feel will be part of the solution and have a vision for the future. The county is suffering from a lack of economic development. We need growth. Those in the assessor’s office and county clerk’s office are a part of that. I want people in place who can make sure there is follow through. I believe in a high level of accountability. I have operated that way in the private sector. At one time I had over 100 employees and had $100 million worth of property under my supervision. I am service oriented. The way I have carried out my duties on the city council and in the assembly and state senate have been consistent in that way.”
As to the current function of the assessor’s office, Dutton said, “I am not criticizing anything in particular. Based upon my combination of  business experience  in the private sector and background in government, I want to keep the assessor’s office moving forward. My priorities are to have the office operate at a high level of integrity, with maximum openness and greater efficiency by streamlining the processes.”
How he would obtain greater efficiency, Dutton at this point said, “is hard to say. The election, one way or the other is going to be over by June. There are only two of us in this race. If I win, I will call for an immediate 120-day performance review prior to my taking office. That will give me an idea of what needs to be improved upon and I will have a plan of action in hand when I assume elected office. I will want elected officials, people from the private sector and people from the department itself involved in that review so that the assessor’s office employees will buy into it.”
Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Dutton  moved to California for basic training at the age of 19 in 1969.  After he left the military he attended Los Angeles Valley College in Van Nuys, where he obtained his Associate of Arts degree and joined with his father to found a real estate company the year after he graduated.  He is married with one grown child.

(April 8)  Retired San Bernardino County fire captain Bob Buhrle said he is running for assemblyman in the California 33rd Assembly District because “I believe I can use my more than 20 years’ experience in various elected positions to be of benefit in helping straighten up California.”
Buhrle said “We need solutions” and that part of the cure is “having small businesses create new jobs. This can be done if we work together at all levels of government in cooperation with the private sector, with corporations and citizens. We need more water for all of California. We are in a drought. We should make an effort to use desalinization plants. I have been to Saudi Arabia and have seen a desalination plant that produced two million gallons of water per day. If we are going to have more building in California, more growth in the desert and in the mountains, we are going to need more water. In the Crestline-Lake Arrowhead Water Agency we have to expand our pipelines. A case in point is a few years ago there was concern about water in Big Bear and the leadership said they had it wired. But the water in the local aquifer in Big Bear is owned by the Big Bear Mutual Water Company, which is based in Redlands. For the sake of California as a whole, for jobs to grow, for businesses to expand, we need more water. To stimulate the economy and the job market we need more water.  Governor[Jerry] Brown has this bullet train project to San Francisco. Instead of spending that money on a bullet train we should be using it for all of California by securing more water.”
Despite the recent rebounding of the stock market, which Buhrle intimated was good for Wall Street but not reaching far beyond that, further efforts to redress the financial malaise on the West Coast is needed, he said.
“We have to simulate the economy somehow,” he said. “It is going to take effort from everyone to get us out of the recession. The job market is still hurting. In talking to college students, for instance, I have heard it is difficult for college students to get loans and to transfer units from one college to the next. We need to make it easier for colleges to transfer units. This would be no easy project, but if I am elected I would get together with college students and others to see if we could get more funding for their college tuition, get classes on line for upper division units, and make classes compatible for use at various colleges.”
At various times over the last three decades he has been on the board of directors at the Big Bear Municipal Water District, a board member of the High Desert Medical Center,  a board member of the Lake Gregory/ Crest Forest County Water District, a member of the Arrowhead Lake Association Board of Directors, a board member of the Big Bear City Community Service District, which oversaw the budget and management of municipal sanitation, water, fire safety and  refuse disposal services, a member of the board of trustees for the Rim of the World Unified School District, and a member of the San Bernardino County Regional Parks Advisory Board.
“Because I have multifaceted experience with water districts, the school district, the community services district, the hospital district and the regional parks board, I do think that combination makes me a better choice than the other candidates who cannot claim that range of experience,” he said.
He said that in several of those capacities, he had been part of successful efforts to obtain grant funding.
“We obtained a grant for Big Bear Dam,” he said. “During my 17 years with the regional parks board we were getting grants for all the major parks in San Bernardino County. This gave me experience in how to apply for grants and the knowledge that they are available. Grants are getting a little tight nowadays, but they are still a possible form of funding if you know where to look and how to apply.”
Born in Los Angeles, Buhrle grew up in San Bernardino. He served with the Army in Vietnam, in an air crash rescue division. He attended the University of Redlands and obtained a degree in management. He began working for the U.S. Forest Service as a firefighter and later was hired by Cal Fire and the San Bernardino County Fire Department, where he achieved the rank of fire captain.
Single, he joined the Air Force Reserves, achieving the rank of master sergeant. He subsequently saw duty in Iraq and Bahrain and served as fire chief at Camp Falcon in Baghdad.

By clicking on the portal below you can access the April 4 Edition of the SBC Sentinel.

Sentinel 04-04-14

(April 2)  Members of the San Bernardino City Council have appointed and confirmed  nine members of the city’s newly-created charter reform committee.
All those appointed to the panel are men. They have been tasked with studying the city’s current charter and recommending possible changes to it so those proposed amendments can be placed before city residents for a citywide vote in November.
San Bernardino is a charter city as opposed to a general law city. Its charter and amendments thereto, per state law, are approved by the city’s voters. Provisions put into the charter by means of a citywide vote over a decade ago require that the city’s public safety employees – firefighters and police officers – be paid on a scale equal to the average pay of police officers and firefighters in ten similarly sized California cities.
San Bernardino has been beset with financial difficulties that culminated in the city’s filing for Chapter 9 bankruptcy in 2012. Former mayor Patrick Morris has maintained that a major factor in the city’s fiscal deterioration is excessive salaries and benefits provided to city employees and retirees. Carey Davis, an accountant by profession and a political ally to Morris, succeeded Morris last month after defeating Wendy McCammack, a former councilwoman who has long championed generous pay increases for municipal safety employees.
As one of his first acts in office, Davis called for the creation of a municipal commission to consider charter changes, suggesting that the requirement that police and fire officers be provided with raises based on salaries given to their counterparts in cities free of the financial challenges San Bernardino faces should be done away with. That move failed when it was pointed out that a municipal commission cannot be formed without prior voter approval. The proposal was adjusted to allow the creation of a citizens committee to review the city charter.
While the committee’s recommendations are by no means pre-ordained, it is anticipated that the members will at the very least consider the Morris/Davis suggestions with regard to undoing the mandate that the city’s safety employees remain well abreast of their municipal counterparts elsewhere with regard to compensation.
The resolution that called for the creation of the committee that was passed by the city council on March 17 delineated that each of the council’s seven members would choose one registered voter from their respective wards to serve on the committee and Davis would get two appointments to the panel, including one culled from the city’s business community.
This week it was revealed that Ward 1 Councilwoman Virginia Marquez had selected Casey Daily for the committee, Ward 2 Councilman Benito Barrios  chose Dennis Baxter, Ward 3 Councilman John Valdivia appointed Gary Walbourne,  Ward 4 Councilman Fred Shorett selected Hillel Cohn, Ward 5 Councilman Henry Nickel chose Michael Craft, Ward 6 Councilman Rikke Van Johnson brought in Hardy Brown and Ward 7 Councilman James Mulvill tapped Philip Savage.  Davis selected Thomas Pierce and Dan Carlone.
The next order of business is for the city to find and retain a consultant highly conversant with city charters who can advise the committee and the city council with regard to how the charter can be changed.
The committee must meet a May 19 deadline to deliver their recommendations so language in any proposed amendments can be delivered to the registrar of voters office in time to include the charter amendments on the November ballot.