(December 3) SAN BERNARDINO—For the second time since the city of San Bernardino declared bankruptcy in August 2012, the city council has given its police officers raises.
The pay increases, which are scheduled to go into effect next August, like last year will entail an additional million dollar drain on the city’s already decimated budget compared to the previous year.
The automatic raises are a consequence of a provision in the city’s charter known as Section 186, which requires that the salaries of police and firefighters in San Bernardino be based upon the  average remuneration of their public safety counterparts in ten selected California cities with populations comparable to San Bernardino.
The city council is constrained under the terms of the city charter to provide the raises. The San Bernardino Municipal Charter, which can be altered only through a vote of the city’s residents, dictates, under its Section 186, that police and fire department pay is to be determined by averaging the pay provided to similar positions in ten California cities with  populations between 100,000 and 250,000. Those ten cities are selected by a process in which all California cities in that population range are considered and the union eliminates from the list the lowest paying municipalities and a city management representative eliminates the highest paying cities until the ten from which the average is taken are determined.
The council voted to comply with the Charter Section 186, nearly eight months before the raises are to go into effect, in part to provide the city’s finance department adequate time to work the numbers into the upcoming 2014-2015 budget.
Accordingly, 163 police officers will see a 2.91 percent or $210.69 per month increase and will now be paid between $5,235.98 per month and $7,463.19 per month, depending on seniority. Forty-four detectives and corporals will receive a 3.41 percent or $279.20 per month increase and will now be paid between $6,411.02 per month and $8,477.40 per month, depending on seniority. The department’s 39 sergeants will receive a 2.79 percent or $261.61 per month increase and will now be paid between $7,618.33 per month and $9,634.21 per month.  The pay increases for police officers, detectives, corporals and sergeants will cost the city $56,830.06 per month.
In the case of the police officers, corporals, detectives and sergeants, the salaries were based upon the average paid to comparable positions in the police departments in the cities of Fairfield, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Irvine, Lancaster, Norwalk, Oceanside, Palmdale, Pomona,  and Santa Clarita.
The salary paid to law enforcement trainees will be upped to $4,188.78 per month ($24.17 per hour), which is 80 percent of the lowest grade of pay for a police officer.
Adding annual fringe benefits and other salary-driven costs which rise with salary increases such as the state public employee retirement system contributions, unemployment and Medicare, the total increased general fund cost for salaries and benefits for the police officers, corporals, detectives and sergeants for fiscal year 2012/13 is $823,357.89; overtime costs are estimated to be $216,269, for a projected fiscal year 2013/14 increase of $1,039,626.69.
In making adjustments to the salaries of the department’s management personnel, the department’s nine lieutenants, assistant chief and chief will all see cuts in pay,. Only the department’s three captains will see raises. The lieutenants will take a .40 percent cut in pay or lose $48.12 per month. The captains will get a 1.85 percent increase, amounting to $250.54 per month. The assistant chief will sustain a 1.75 percent pay cut and lose $273.94 per month and the chief of police will be downscaled 2.94 percent or $519.80 per month. The comparable pay survey for the management team was made from the cities of Costa Mesa, Fairfield, Fullerton, Hayward, Huntington Beach, Murrietta, Pomona, Roseville, Ventura  and Santa Rosa.
The overall Charter 186 financial impact for the police management group will result in a decrease of $7511.61 to the general fund.
Mayor Patrick Morris, a former Superior Court judge who in his role on the council does not have the power to vote except to break a tie or to form a quorum, is the city’s most outspoken opponent of Charter Section 186.  Calling salaries for the city’s safety employees “our most expensive single item,” Morris said it is contrary to common sense to be increasing the pay of already well remunerated municipal employees, “particularly in times of bankruptcy and insolvency.”
Some citizens opposed to Charter Section 186 have remarked  that the cities chosen for the salary survey are better fixed financially than San Bernardino. Defenders of the charter section maintain that San Bernardino’s elevated level of crime entitles police officers who work there substantial remuneration.

By Wendy Clements
SAN BERNARDINO–To help local businesses utilize enterprise zone tax credits before they expire at the end of the year, the San Bernardino Valley Enterprise Zone (SBVEZ) has organized one last complimentary workshop on Thursday, December 12. The event will be held from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. at the city of Colton Council Chambers, 650 North La Cadena Drive, Colton.
This workshop will provide local businesses vital information on how to use the enterprise zone tax credits to save money on their future state taxes, and details about key deadlines involving the ending of the program. With only a few weeks left to secure the credits, the SBVEZ is encouraging all San Bernardino and Colton businesses carrying out any hiring or capital investment activities to find out if they qualify before time runs out. Any qualified new hires or taxes paid on certain equipment purchases made between October 2006 and December 31, 2013 may be eligible for SBVEZ credits.
The workshop will also provide a brief overview of  Governor Jerry  Brown’s new Economic Development Initiative Program that will start on January 1, 2014 and offer tax credits to companies statewide.
To register for the workshop, contact zone manager Wendy Clements at 909.382.4538, or info@sbvez.com.
The San Bernardino Valley Enterprise Zone is one of 40 existing enterprise zones established by the California Department of Housing and Community Development to encourage investment, growth, development and job creation in economically distressed areas of the state. The enterprise zone program grants employers tax credits and incentives for pro-growth business investments that improve economic activity within designated zone areas.
The San Bernardino Valley Enterprise Zone is located in the central portion of  the Inland Empire and includes the city of Colton, the city of San Bernardino and unincorporated portions of San Bernardino County.  In addition to the tax incentive it offers, the San Bernardino Valley Enterprise Zone also features a highly developed network of road, rail and air transportation infrastructure, a skilled and educated workforce, affordable commercial and residential real estate, and many other pro-business programs that make the area a highly competitive location for business. Those wanting more information about the San Bernardino Valley Enterprise Zone or wishing to determine if their business is in the zone can visit www.SBVEZ.com.
Wendy Clements is the zone manager for SBVEZ.

(December 1) Water in the wettest city in San Bernardino County is about to become more expensive.
The Needles Public Utilities Agency, a subdivision of the city of Needles, has notified its customers of its intention to up water rates, giving its customers the opportunity to protest the increase.  If a majority of the city’s property owners/water rate payers protest the rate increase in writing, the board for the utilities agency, which consists of the city council, will lose its authority to impose the rate increase.
Oral comments and protests will be heard at the city council’s January 14 council meeting to be held at the council chambers at 1111 Bailey Avenue in Needles. Needles lies along San Bernardino’s County’s East Coast, on the western bank of the Colorado River.
Currently, the city/utilities agency levies a $34.84 basic service charge on customers with five-eighths inch and three-quarters inch meters, which entitles them to up to 1,000 cubic feet of water per month. The proposed rate increase will take that monthly charge to $37.84. Those with one inch and one-and-a-half inch meters now pay $37.09 for 1,000 cubic feet of water per month and will see an increase to $40.09.
Those with a two inch meter water meter are currently paying $41.73. There bills would increase to $44.73.  Those customers utilizing over 1,000 cubic feet of water per month will be charged $1.49 for each 100 cubic feet of water utilized beyond the basic 1,000 cubic feet.
According to the city/utilities agency the rate increase is necessitated by an increase in  infrastructure and maintenance costs. “The water utility of the Needles Public Utilities Authority established an asset replacement reserve fund in early 2012,” the customer notice states.”Unfortunately the rate of accumulation of funds ($3 per month per customer) has proven insufficient to absorb the cost of an infrastructure failure or the current requirement for rehabilitation of a major waterworks component (well, pump, water main, reservoir). At this time the financial wherewithal to bring those components back in service will have to come primarily from operational cash flows. It is imperative that the asset replacement reserve fund rate of accumulation be accelerated immediately to shore up the water utility’s vulnerability to extended downtime due to infrastructure failure.”
At the time it established the asset replacement reserve fund, the Needles Board of Public Utilities/city council intended to accrue a reserve fund of $350,000. Officials now are seeking to add the additional $3 per month per customer charge to produce a minimum reserve fund of $750,000 to fund the water department’s four-year plan to rehabilitate four water  storage tanks. There is a proviso that the fund shall continue to accumulate until such time as the Needles Board of Public Utilities/city council decides to suspend or reduce the accumulation of funds.

(December 5) Volunteers are needed to help count bald eagles for the 35th season in the annual winter bald eagle counts in and near the San Bernardino and San Jacinto Mountains on Saturday December 21st, January 11th, February 8th, and March 8th.
Concurrent Bald Eagle counts are held at Big Bear Lake, Lake Arrowhead, Lake Silverwood, Lake Perris, and Lake Hemet. Volunteers are stationed at vantage points around the lakes, where they watch for bald eagles during a 1-hour period on the count mornings. Volunteers record their observations on maps and data sheets.  This is a wonderful opportunity to catch a glimpse of our breath-taking national symbol.  Brief orientations are conducted prior to the count so volunteers know where to go and what to do.
“Through this method, the agencies and land managers have learned a lot about which areas are important to eagles and how the populations are doing.  But we can’t do it without a lot of volunteers – we need their eyes to help us look,” said Forest Service biologist Robin Eliason.
The bald eagle counts for this winter are scheduled for the Saturday mornings:  December 21st, January 11th, February 8th, and March 8th.  No experience is needed. Volunteers need not sign up ahead of time and can  just show up at the designated time and location, warmly dressed and with  binoculars and a watch.
· Big Bear Lake area volunteers will meet at 8:00 a.m. at the Forest Service’s Big Bear Discovery Center on North Shore Drive for orientation. Contact Drew Farr (dpfarr@fs.fed.us or 909-382-2816) for more information.  Call 909-382-2832 for cancellation due to winter weather conditions – an outgoing message will be left by 6:30 am on the morning of the count if it has to be cancelled.    There will be a free slideshow about bald eagles at 11:00.
·         Lake Arrowhead/Lake Gregory volunteers will meet at 8:00 a.m. at the Skyforest Ranger Station for orientation. Contact Drew Farr (dpfarr or 909-382-2816) for more information.  Call 909-382-2832 for cancellation due to winter weather conditions – an outgoing message will be left by 6:30 am on the morning of the count if it has to be cancelled.
·Silverwood Lake State Recreation Area volunteers will meet at the visitor center at 8:00 a.m. for orientation.  Contact Kathy Williams or Mark Wright for more information about volunteering or taking an eagle tour (760-389-2303 between 8:00 and 4:00; or email: khwilliams@parks.ca.gov).

(December 2) Ontario cops nabbed Santa Claus and nine of the most bold of over 100 protesters who came to the site of Ontario’s recently opened Walmart Superstore on Black Friday to register their discontent with the presence of the retail giant in Ontario and its corporate policies. Those policies include, detractors maintain, paying its workers low wages and providing them with inadequate benefits while offering a   merchandise line that originates largely with manufacturers in Communist China.
The Walmart Superstore built on the site of the long-gone White Front department store at 5th and Mountain Avenues in Ontario was previously the object of protracted legal wrangling that delayed its construction and opening by several years.
Attorney Cory Briggs, representing the Ontario Mountain Village Association, filed a lawsuit against the city of Ontario relating to its 2007 approval of the WalMart Superstore, citing seven violations of the California Environmental Quality Act. Judge Donald Alvarez upheld the Ontario Mountain Village Association on a single issue of those seven raised by Briggs, the safe circulation of delivery trucks coming into the shopping center. Early this year, after the expenditure of $1.5 million by WalMart and $673,000 by the city on legal fees in responding to the lawsuit, Briggs and the Ontario Mountain Village Association dropped their appeal of the dismissed six issues after the city made changes deemed sufficient to redress the truck circulation problem.
The four-and-a-half year legal battle over, work on the project proceeded and on October 30, the supercenter held its grand opening.
WalMart, which was founded by Sam Walton in 1962, grew to become a leading commercial retailer in the United States in the 1970s and early 1980s, in large measure by promoting itself as offering an exclusively American-made product line. In 1988, Wal-Mart was the most profitable retailer in the US and in October 1989 became the largest in terms of revenue. It abandoned the marketing strategy of offering an entirely domestic-made product line in 1992, however, and has since become the leading retailer of Chinese-made merchandise in the U.S., which has invited much bitter criticism and boycotts. Nevertheless, the company remains at the forefront of the retail industry. It has also invited the enmity of organized labor, which has targeted the company for its successful strategy in preventing its workers from unionizing, maintaining wage and benefit rates significantly below the industry standard and engaging in what union officials maintain are “predatory” efforts to drive its competitors employing unionized labor out of business.
The complex of discontent aimed at Walmart coalesced in Ontario on November 29, as a well-organized cadre of Walmart protestors descended on the new store on what has become a culturally iconic event, the massive turnout of customers at retail establishments on what is hailed as the biggest retail sales day of the year, the Friday following Thanksgiving.
Among the leaders of the band of protestors that had come to Ontario on this occasion was Santa Claus, who otherwise goes by his civilian name of Karl Hilgert. Determined to strike a blow against the heartless capitalistic ethos that had given rise to the superstore paying its staff barely more than a subsistence-level minimum wage, the crowd carried signs and placards, occasionally chanting slogans intended to persuade Black Friday shoppers to spend their money elsewhere. Hilgert, in his guise as Claus, the symbol of the commercialism of the just awakening Holiday Season, provided an air of ironic sophistication to the protest. When it became apparent that scores of protestors were lining the streets, police made their presence known.
In what was either a desperate effort to discourage shoppers or a planned ploy to add emphasis to the statement of protest, ten of the protestors, including Hilgert/Claus, ventured out into the middle of the Mountain Avenue Intersection and sat down as a form of human blockade. Shortly thereafter, the police marshaled their numbers and moved out into the intersection themselves, ordering Hilgert/Claus and his cohorts to disperse. When they did not, the officers read the dissidents their rights, handcuffed them and hauled them off.
Throughout it all, Hilgert/Claus remained entirely in character, offering his persecutors candy canes.

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Sentinel 11-29-13

(November 29)  The city of Upland’s bleak financial outlook has grown even worse after the state’s public employees’ retirement system informed city officials that the pension rate the city can anticipate paying in the upcoming fiscal year will rise by $1.5 million.
Last month, Upland City Manager Stephen Dunn said his city was on the verge of bankruptcy and after having engaged in a series of fiscal gymnastics to balance the current 2013-14 budget, the city will require at least $3.5 million in additional revenue annually to continue to provide city residents and businesses with the same level of service the city is currently providing.
As of last month, Dunn said, the city’s general fund is hard-stretched to cover Upland’s bare operating expenses. Funding for street repairs, equipment and vehicle maintenance,  post-employment benefits, equipment replacement, economic development and solutions to the city’s growing homeless problem has been entirely depleted. The general fund accounts for most of the city’s services. It funds 73 activities related to the basic function of municipal government.  Dunn said.
In October, Dunn said that the only alternative to drastic service cutbacks consisted of revenue enhancement, most specifically a tax that would need to be approved by a majority of the city’s voters. To emphasize his point and support his case, Dunn referenced a 2012 auditor’s opinion from the certified public accounting firm Mayer Hoffman and McCann and Standard and Poor’s intended downgrading of the city’s credit rating. 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.
To balance the city’s current $39 million budget, Dunn said Upland’s entire municipal operation 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.
This sobering assessment was made before the California Public Employees Retirement System, known by its acronym CalPERS, informed Upland that based on its payroll, the city will need to up its annual contributions to the retirement fund pool by a whopping $1.5 million.  Dunn this week told the Sentinel that Upland is currently paying $6.5 million to CalPERS annually, “based upon budeted payroll and the CalPERS rate. That reflects a 36 percent increase for our general employees and a 29 percent increase for our public safety employees. Earlier this year we were informed CalPERS was changing their actuarials and I ran some numbers. That showed we could expect a rate increase of at least $500,000 or as much as $2 million. It turns out it was closer to $2 million,” Dunn said.
Although other cities are being hit with pension rate increases as well, Upland finds itself behind this financial eight ball in no small measure because of the growth of its staff during the last decade as well as concessions made to the city’s employees’ bargaining units during the tenure of former mayor John Pomierski, who was heavily supported by all of the city’s employee unions. Under Pomierski and his hand-picked city manager, Robb Quincey, the city increased salary and benefit packages for employees markedly. Subsequently, Pomierski was indicted by a federal grand jury for his involvement in a political corruption scheme that involved his taking bribes in exchange for using his influence as an elected official to forge backroom deals and arrange favorable outcomes for individuals and businesses with projects or applications being processed at City Hall. Pomierski pleaded guilty and is now serving a sentence in a federal penitentiary. Quincey has been indicted and charged with three felony corruption charges, including unlawful misappropriation of public money, gaining personal benefit from an official contract, and giving false testimony under oath. He has pleaded not guilty and is maintaining his innocence.
This complex of circumstances has led to open expression by some Upland residents that the runaway labor and pension costs that are plaguing Upland are vestiges of the ethos of public trust violations that occurred under Pomierski and Quincey. The implication is that employee contract terms favorable to Upland’s city employees were given to bind those employees to the mayor as part of an understanding and arrangement which allowed Pomierski’s depredations to take place. One outgrowth of that perception is a reluctance on the part of at least some of Upland’s residents to impose on themselves any municipal tax that will be used to pay for the perpetuation of generous pensions for retired city employees.

(November 27)  NEEDLES — The Needles City Council on November 12 signed off on a proposal by its new city manager, Rick Daniels, to utilize a firm he vouched for, Development Management Group, Inc., to provide economic development consulting for the city. Meanwhile, the city in Riverside County from which Daniels recently departed, Desert Hot Springs, expedited a declaration of fiscal emergency as a last ditch effort to stave off bankruptcy. That declaration came November 19, one week after Daniels made his successful pitch to the Needles City Council  to hire Development Management Group.
This summer, the Needles City Council, which for years has struggled with a stagnating local economy, gambled on hiring Daniels, whose apparent success in allowing Desert Hot Springs to spring back from a previous bankruptcy filing in 2001 and undertake an impressive array of public works and infrastructure improvement projects impressed them.
Daniels, who had spent most of his career in the private sector, including a prolonged tenure as an executive with Waste Management, Inc., held only one public sector management post before he was hired as  Desert Hot Springs city manager. As an outgrowth of his involvement in the waste hauling industry, he founded a company in the late 1990s, Mine Reclamation Corporation, with which he proposed to operate a landfill within the abandoned Eagle Mountain Mine next to Joshua Tree National Park, into which he proposed depositing millions of tons of trash from Los Angeles County transported to the site by train. The venture was dropped when the Supreme Court ruled against the environmental certification for the plan. Along the way Daniels had assumed the position of president and CEO of the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership, a consortium of business owners, financiers and developers. From that position he obtained the post of top administrator with the Salton Sea Authority. It was his experience in this public sector position that he used to leverage obtaining the Desert Hot Springs city manager position.
While with Desert Hot Springs, one of the poorest cities in the state, Daniels pulled a seeming rabbit out of his hat, undertaking infrastructure improvements that previously seemed beyond the city’s means, including paving 34 miles of city streets. He then undertook to build a municipal Health and Wellness and Aquatic Center. The cost of that project ran to $20 million, however. Daniels’ spending spree has ultimately left Desert Hot Springs with an intractable debt in the form of more than $30 million in delinquent bonds  and an ongoing yearly operation cost at the health center of more than $1 million.
Nevertheless, it was Daniels’ can do attitude, unfettered by the restrictions that typically attend the attitudes of public sector managers that so attracted the Needles City Council.
Daniels benefited from the perception that he maintained connections within the business community and political figures in Southern California, contacts that Needles city officials hope can be utilized to spur investment and economic development in the Needles area.
This summer, a city manager search committee, consisting of council members Linda Kidd, Jim Lopez and Tom Darcy was formed, and it undertook to lure Daniels, one of the highest paid city managers in the state of California with a total annual compensation package in Desert Hot Springs that exceeded $300,000, to Needles. Despite the fact that Needles has a budgeted range for the city manager position of $129,000 to $132,000 per year and was actually paying its acting city manager, David Brownlee, an annual salary of $99,728.72, the search team offered, and Daniels eventually accepted, an initial salary of $197,000 per year with annual increases of $10,000 and a benefit package that provides $9,000 per year toward his retirement fund and $13,500 for his family’s medical, dental and vision coverage. The package granted him retirement eligibility at the age of 55 (a milestone he has already eclipsed), with a pension equal to 2 percent of his maximum salary times the number of years he has worked for the city.
Unbeknownst to the search committee, Daniels was actually desperately seeking to depart Desert Hot Springs, as two council members were gunning to fire him and were in search of a crucial third vote to ensure his exodus.
In April, Daniels sought to leave Desert Hot Springs, applying for the position of county administrator in Clackamas County in Oregon. He was selected as one of three finalists in the competition for that post and as the interview process advanced, Daniels maintained a cover story to the effect that he was merely vacationing in Oregon, where he was raised and attended college. At the final stages of the Clackamas County selection process at the end of June, it appeared that Daniels had the job and it then became known to the Desert Hot Springs City Council’s members that he was gearing up to leave Desert Hot Springs. Daniels’ move to Oregon fell through, however, when Donald Krupp, one of the other two finalists, was given the county administrator’s post in July.
Meanwhile, the risky economic policy Daniels had quarterbacked in Desert Hot Springs was beginning to catch up with the city.  In addition to the delinquencies in more than $30 million in bond payments, Desert Hot Springs was seeing losses in other failed ventures, such as the  $250,000 in taxpayer funds Daniels ventured in 2010 to lay the ground for and promote a music festival that never came off. Though he initially said the city would recover the money from the concert series’ promoter, the city never did so.
In June, city finance director Terrence Beaman resigned after a lengthy dispute with Daniels with regard to Daniels’ proposal to utilize $4 million in city reserves to cover a $4 million deficit. After the municipal and financial management consulting firm Urban Futures assessed Desert Hot Springs’ economic condition, it concluded the city was in a deteriorating financial state that would lead to insolvency within 12 to 24 months.
In looking past those blemishes on Daniels’ record, the Needles City Council committed to hiring Daniels on a three year contract commencing September 16.
Two months after he officially moved into the position, Daniels offered the Needles City Council a proposal that he said could turn the city around financially.
The first step, Daniels said, is the hiring of Development Management Group, Inc., for economic development consulting services at a cost of $7,000 per month to run through the end of the current fiscal year on June 30.
Development Management Group’s hiring will be coupled with ten further actions to augment the identification of businesses that would be amenable to locating in Needles and an active recruitment effort to bring those entities to town.
Daniels said his ten step plan for Needles’ economic rejuvenation consists of  creating a single coordinated business improvement strategy involving the Needles Downtown Business Alliance, Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Corporation; tending to the city’s cleanliness and appearance; intensify law enforcement efforts to drive down the crime rate; attracting tourists; encouraging a population increase through new residential growth; increasing local healthcare options and services; bringing in tax-producing business; making businesses aware of Needles’ extraordinarily low energy rates; reinforcing the quality of education in the local school district; and doing the same at  the Needles Center of Palo Verde Community College.
Development Management Group will devote much of its business recruitment effort to putting together information packets about the city and providing them to potentially interested businesses.
Daniels predicted Development Management Group’s efforts will bear fruit that will justify extending the arrangement into fiscal year 2014-15.
Needles councilman Jim Lopez told the Sentinel that neither he nor his council colleagues had dwelled on the circumstance in Desert Hot Springs. “I don’t know anything about that city,” Lopez said. “A lot of California’s cities are going through tough times right now. When the state of California pulled RDA [Redevelopment Agency] authoity it killed a lot of economic development.”
Lopez’s reference was to 2011 legislation that dissolved all municipal redevelopment agencies. “It killed California cities when the state yanked those RDAs and it put a lot of cities out there in major debt. I don’t know anything about what went on before in Desert Hot Springs. We wish Desert Hot Springs the best.”
Despite that, Lopez said he “absolutely” continues to have faith in Daniels. “The entire council does,” he said.  “Needles has a real strong council and we are behind our city manager 100 percent. We are going through union negotiations and he is working on economic development. The city council runs our city. The city manager brings ideas to us. He is moving us forward in a positive direction.”
Lopez dismissed any suggestion he and the other members of the city manager recruitment committee had been hoodwinked into hiring Daniels.  “We are happy to have him here,” Lopez said. “He is a perfect fit for us  We did our due dilligence. We have a seven person council, six council members and the mayor. We are all very strong and positive. There is no backbiting with decisions we have made.”

(November 26)  Eloise Gomez Reyes, a lawyer and longtime Democratic Party activist who is vying for Congress in the 31st Congressional District, has decried what she identified as unfair endorsement processes being used by local Democratic clubs to favor another Democrat in the race, Redlands Mayor Pete Aguilar.
Reyes, Aguilar and fellow Democrats Danny Tillman and Joe Baca are vying to unseat Republican incumbent Gary Miller in the 31st, which stretches from Rancho Cucamonga to Redlands.
Miller captured the Congressional Seat in the 31st in 2012 through a combination of factors that offset the Democratic Party’s 41 to 33.7 percent registration advantage in the district.
Gary Miller, who had represented the  42nd district in northeast Orange, southeast Los Angeles and southwest San Bernardino counties before the reapportionment that followed the 2010 Census, opted out of running against fellow Republican Ed Royce in the newly-draw 39th District and instead declared his intention of seeking the voters’ nod in the newly drawn 31st District.
In the 31st, four Democrats – Pete Aguilar, Justin Kim, Rita Ramirez-Dean, and Renea Wickman – sought election last year, as did Miller. In addition, another Republican, Bob Dutton, joined the fray in the 2012 primary. Despite the seven percent Democratic voter registration advantage in the 31st, simple mathematics hurt the Democrats as their vote was divided four ways, while the Republican vote was split two ways. Dutton and Miller proved to be the two top vote-getters and under California’s open primary arrangement wherein the two top vote-getters qualify for a run-off in the November general election regardless of party affiliation, the contest came down to a race between Republicans Miller and Dutton. Miller prevailed in that race.
Intent on preventing a repeat of that debacle, Democrats are seeking to discourage an internecine war within their ranks that depletes the party’s energy and unity. An early strategy among national party leaders has emerged in which they are seeking to have the party coalesce around Aguilar, who received the greatest number of votes among the Democratic candidates in the June 2012 primary. In this way, last May the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee selected Aguilar as one of five candidates nationwide to be included in its Jumpstart Program, which is intended to assist early-emerging Democrats seeking to unseat incumbent Republicans deemed to be vulnerable. Party leaders convinced California’s two senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, to endorse Aguilar. Party donors, inside and outside California, were encouraged to provide him with campaign cash. In September, in a rare if not unprecedented move, the Redlands Area Democratic Club endorsed Aguilar. Normally, party clubs hold off on making endorsements until after, in some cases  well after, the filing deadline for a particular office is closed, giving all potential candidates an opportunity to make the case for their candidacies. The Redlands Area Democratic Club’s action defied that tradition. In reaction to the Redlands club’s move, the state Democratic Party adopted new rules and bylaws that called for Democratic clubs holding off until after the final filing date for office to ensure that no candidates are left out of the endorsement evaluation process.
Yet so intense was the pressure to promote Aguilar, four more Democratic clubs – the West End Democratic Club, the East Valley Democratic Club, the Helen L. Doherty Democratic Club, and the Stonewall Democratic Club – on November 16  announced their support for Aguilar, in defiance of the new rule.
On November 19, Reyes wrote to the California Democratic Party and its chairman, John Burton, complaining that she had been excluded from the endorsement process and that the endorsement votes by those four clubs announced November 16 “appear to have been held without notice and with apparent disregard for the democratic process.  I was never contacted by any of the four endorsing clubs prior to their votes being held. I was neither informed of their upcoming votes, nor was I invited to address the members of their clubs alongside the other candidates in this race.”
Reyes said a “conflict of interest” had developed by which party higher-ups were using their influence to push Aguilar’s candidacy forward by foreclosing other candidates from making a case for themselves within their own party structure. She said this was strongest at the level of the county central committee.
“I have recently heard from the leadership of several area Democratic clubs that members of the San Bernardino County Democratic Central Committee have personally delivered the message to their membership that the local Democratic clubs should follow the lead of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee by issuing their endorsements for Pete Aguilar. This would be a clear violation of the California Democratic Party bylaws, which state that central committees should work “to protect the integrity of the endorsement power by precluding other entries from representing themselves as purveyors of a Democratic Party endorsement. This conflict of interest has clearly influenced the integrity of the Democratic Party endorsement process in our race. All of the candidates running for this seat have not been given a fair chance to earn the endorsements of the local Democratic clubs. The institutional bias and lack of transparency in the endorsement process have disempowered several of the Democrats running for this congressional seat and, most importantly, it has disenfranchised members of our local Democratic clubs as well as area voters.”
Ironically, the stampede to line up a bevy of early endorsements of Aguilar is aimed less at Reyes, who has been the most vocal in protesting it, than at Baca, a former Congressman in the heavily Democratic-leaning 42nd and 43rd Congressional districts, who was voted out of office last year in a race in which he faced another Democrat, Gloria Negrete-McLeod, in the newly-drawn 35th Congressional District. Baca lost that race after Negrete-McLeod’s campaign was infused with $3.8 million in donations from a political action committee controlled by Republican New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, which paid for a $2.3 million television advertising blitz during the last week of the campaign which included negative hit pieces that trashed Baca on his record as well as upbeat mailers that lionized Negrete-McLeod for her service in the California legislature.
Baca, who was in Congress for 13 years, is not without resources. In addition to bringing name recognition to the political table, he possesses, as a former member of Congress, indirect and residual political clout, together with an insider’s knowledge of issues and alliances, which he is working assiduously to bring to bear. An independent poll taken in September showed Baca ahead of the other Democratic candidates in the race, though all of the Democrats tallied behind Miller.
On September 25 and 26, Political USA conducted a survey of 2,559 votes in the 31st District, determining that Miller was the choice of 28 percent, Baca received the support of 20 percent, Aguilar was the choice of nine percent, Tillman had seven percent and Reyes was favored by six percent. Nearly 29 percent were undecided or showed no preference.
A poll carried out by Public Policy Polling at the behest of MoveOn.org, a Democrat-affiliated organization, shows that 48 percent of the district’s voters would vote in favor of any Democrat running against Miller and that 13 percent of the remaining voters are undecided, while Miller has firm support from 39 percent of the district’s voters.

(November 27) Burrtec Waste Industries’ hold on its position as San Bernardino County’s primary refuse hauler may have slipped yet further last week when the county board of supervisors acceded to the county’s solid waste management division’s request that it be given an extension on the time it has to notify the companies that hold trash hauling franchises in 20 service areas in unincorporated areas of the county that it will terminate those arrangments and put the contracts out to bid
At the dawn of 2013, Burrtec was the undisputed leader of trash handling companies in the county. It held a twelve-year running contract for managing the county’s  landfill system in addition to being the franchised trash hauler in 16 of the county’s 24 incorporated cities. In addition, it had the trash hauling franchises in 34 of the county’s unincorporated communities. It had solidified that hold over the years by virtue of being a leading donor to the political campaigns of county as well as municipal elected officials in the region.
In April, however, after a competitive bid process, the company lost its $17 million per year contract to run the county’s landfills, being eclipsed by Los Angeles County-based Athens Services.
It has since moved to consolidate its hold on its existing contracts, all of which are already protected by “evergreen” clauses, which extend those franchise contracts automatically for a given set of years. In most cases those contracts are locked in for at least five years and in some cases for as long as ten years per the evergreen arrangement.
In the case of the franchises for the unincorporated county areas, those contracts are locked in for eight years, meaning that upon notification of the county’s intent to put the franchise contract out to bid, Burrtec will keep the franchise for eight more years.
Earlier this year, county public works director Gerry Newombe became concerned about the terms of service  contained in the trash hauling franchise contracts in the county’s unincorporated communities, in particular with regard to income haulers are now able to derive from handling and selling recyclable materials and how that income could be translated into cost savings for the haulers’ customers.
The current “evergreen” clauses with the trash hauling franchise holders allow the county to give a notice of nonrenewal during a six month period every two years. As the June 30, 2013 deadline for 20 of those franchise agreements approached, however, Newcombe was looking to instill changes into the franchise terms that had not been effectuated.
“Staff determined that changes to the franchise agreements were necessary to better serve county residents and obtained board approval to extend the notice period to January 31, 2014, while those changes were discussed and negotiated with the haulers,” Newcombe wrote in a report to the board of supervisors for their November 19 meeting.
Of the 20 franchises in question, Burrtec holds 13 of them. Though Newcombe said “Staff expects to finalize negotiations,” and “County staff and the franchised waste haulers have been working diligently since July to prepare an amendment to address these various county concerns,” he indicated he had not reached agreement with the trash haulers. “While significant progress has been made, negotiations will not be finalized in time to properly notice and conduct the required public hearing before January 31, 2014.” He requested that the board “authorize an extension from January 31, 2014 to June 30, 2014 in which a notice of non-renewal can be issued by the county to the franchised solid waste haulers.”
The board granted Newcombe’s request.
Thus, Burrtec Waste Industries’ grip on County Franchise Area 2 involving the sphere of the cities of Montclair and Upland; on County Franchise Area 5 involving the sphere of the city of Fontana; on County Franchise Area 6 involving the community of Bloomington; on County Franchise Area 9 involving the El Rancho Verde community near Rialto; on County Franchise Area 10 involving Devore and the sphere of the city of San Bernardino; County Franchise Area 11 involving the sphere of the city of Loma Linda; County Franchise Area 12 involving Mentone, Oak Glen, the sphere of the City of Redlands, Mountain Home and Angeles Oaks; County Franchise Area 16 involving Crestline, Running Springs, Lake Arrowhead, Green Valley Lake, and Blue Jay; County Franchise Area 19 involving the spheres of the city of Victorville, town of Apple Valley and the city of Adelanto, Landers and Lucerne Valley; on County Franchise Area 22 involving the unincorporated area northwest of the City of Adelanto; County Franchise Area 23 involving the sphere of the city of Barstow and Lenwood-Hinkley; County Franchise Area 24 involving  Yermo, Daggett and Newberry Springs; and on  County Franchise Area 25 involving Joshua Tree, the sphere of the Town of Yucca Valley, and Morongo Valley is being tested as competitors will be able to enter competing proposals for servicing those areas. So too will USA Waste of California, which serves County Franchise Area 3 involving the sphere of the city of Chino; Cal Disposal Company, which provides service to County Franchise Area 8 involving  Muscoy, South Cajon Pass, and the sphere of the city of San Bernardino; CR&R Waste Services, which has contracts for County Franchise Area 15, involving the Wrightwood community and County Franchise Area 20, involving Phelan, Pinon Hills, and the sphere of the city of Adelanto; Big Bear Disposal, which serves County Franchise Area 17 involving Fawnskin, Baldwin Lake and Lake Williams; Advance Disposal Company, which serves County Franchise Area 18 involving Spring Valley Lake, the unincorporated areas of Hesperia and Apple Valley; and Benz Sanitation, which hauls trash in County Franchise Area 21 involving Trona, Windy Acres, Four Corners, and the Red Mountain all be subject to potential competition.