sentinel_04-09-10 - Estate of Denial

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The San Bernardino County
Sentinel
News of Note
from Around the
Largest County
in the Lower
48 States
Friday, April 9, 2010 A Fortunado Publication in conjunction with Countywide News Service 10808 Foothill Blvd. Suite 160-446 Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730
Uffer Paints Picture of Byzantine Intrigue At County
A $15 million claim
filed by former county
administrative
officer
Mark Uffer implicates
current and former county officials in several violations of the law, including graft, the acceptance
of bribes or otherwise illicit gratuities, extortion,
fraud and Brown Act
violations.
Uffer was ousted in
November on a 3-2 vote,
with supervisors Gary
Ovitt, Brad Mitzelfelt
and Neil Derry voting
to remove him. Supervisors Josie Gonzalez and
Paul Biane dissented in
that vote. Uffer was not
removed for cause, such
that he was provided
with a severance payout
equal to one year’s salary - more than $240,000.
Nevertheless, Uffer in
his claim, is accusing
the county of wrongful
termination,
defamation, fraud and retaliating against him for co-
Eric Stone said he is
challenging
incumbent
41st District Congressman
Jerry Lewis as a patriotic
rather than a political gesture.
“I feel an atrocity has
been perpetrated against
the American people
through the channels of
self serving special interests that dominate
Congress and what goes
into and what come out
of it. Politicians pass the
bill along to unsuspecting taxpayers. Enough is
enough,” Stone said.
Lewis, who is now one
of the senior members of
Congress, Stone said, like
many other Republican
office holders is masquerading as a responsible Republican while he and they
are utilizing the machinery of government to enrich themselves and their
cronies.
“I am a Republican. I
Mark Uffer
operating with ongoing
grand jury and district
attorney’s office investigations. For what was
perpetrated against him,
Uffer and his attorney,
Sanford Kassel, maintain that Uffer is owed
$15 million.
A claim serves as a
precursor to a lawsuit,
The county, as do most
governmental entities,
routinely rejects such
claims lodged against
it. Upon rejection, the
claimant can demonstrate that he or she has
exhausted all administrative remedies and is
then free to proceed with
a civil suit.
Significantly, in marshaling evidence to support his claim, Uffer
implicates himself in
having,
for
several
years while he was the
county’s top appointed
official, tolerated or in
some fashion covered
up those transgressions.
Indeed, Uffer offers multiple examples of acts of
commission or omission
on his part that See P 6
Jerry Lewis
stand for small government and fiscal responsi-
bility, our two key points.
Our existing Republican
leadership body for the
past 20 years has adhered
to neither of the above.
They are participating
in the perpetration of the
abandonment of the ideals
of why people are Republicans,” Stone said.
Lewis’ involvement in
a host of issues that either
skirted the border or outright violated the law illustrate this issue, Stone said.
Beginning in the mid2000s, the U.S. Attorney’s
offices in both San Diego
and Los Angeles took an
interest in Lewis because
of his association with two
controversial former members of Congress, Randy
“Duke” Cunningham and
Bill Lowery, as well as
votes and other actions he
engaged in as chairman
and later ranking member
of House Appropriations
and House De- See P 4
that she had made false
statements on her licensing application. Further
charges were added at a
later date, alleging she
continued to act as a conservator and fiduciary after the bureau denied her
license. A drunk driving
charge was also listed as
grounds for denial. Scott
appealed the decision and
contested hearings in Oakland Administrative Court
began in May of last year.
Black’s law dictionary
defines a conservator as a
“protector or guardian.” A
conservatorship is generally initiated through a court
proceeding, when there are
allegations that a person is
becoming forgetful or is
otherwise unable to handle
his or her affairs. A “conservatorship of person”
may be launched, by which
a conservator is appointed
to make personal decisions
for the allegedly incapacitated person. These decisions may include whether
or not the conservatee may
marry, where he may live
or whether family and
friends may visit the conservatee. Upon initiation
of a “conservatorship of
estate” all the assets are
immediately transferred to
the “care and protection”
of the professional conservator.
Allegations of conservator abuse, either financial or medical, have become so pervasive that a
number of national grassroots groups have formed
to address the issue of conservator misconduct.
Scott first caught the
public eye back in 2005,
when the Los Angeles
Times ran a series on conservatorships, See P 3
Stone Campaigning Against Special
Interests, Lobbyists And Lewis
Mason Seeking
Auditor-Controller/
Treasurer Post
Ensen Mason is seeking the office of auditorcontroller/treasurer-tax
collector in this year’s
election he said, “Because
I am frustrated with dishonesty and corruption
and deceit in our officials
and because I think with
my skills and background
I would be a very good fit
for this particular office.”
Mason said the current holder of the auditorcontroller’s position, Larry
Walker, was less involved
in the depredations that
have tarnished San Bernardino County than some
other county officials, but
that Walker had nonethe-
less outlasted his value to
the county and its taxpayers.
“I have minor problems with his handling
of the office, but nothing
worth complaining about,”
he said. “I obviously feel
I could do a better job or
I wouldn’t be running for
the position.”
This year’s race is historically unique in that it
comes in the midst of a
transition in the auditorcontroller and treasurertax collector positions.
Previously, both were
separate
independently
elected positions. Pursuant
to action by the See P 2
Scott Denied Licensing
By Janet C. Phelan
After several months
of hearings on the issue,
the California Department
of Consumer Affairs has
declined to issue Melodie Z. Scott a professional
fiduciary license. Scott
is President of C.A.R.E.,
Inc. in Redlands, which
handles conservatorships,
trusts and estate administrations.
The decision was made
by the department after a
series of hearings, which
spanned from May to October of last year. Scott’s
application for a license
had initially been rejected
by the newly created Professional Fiduciary Bureau
in August of 2008, when
that fledgling agency first
began reviewing requests
for licensure.
Scott’s license was initially withheld on grounds
Averbeck
Challenges
Sheriff
Deputy Mark Averbeck
is challenging his boss,
Sheriff Rod Hoops, in this
year’s election, he said, because he wants to ensure
officer safety, promote racial and ethnic diversity at
the highest levels of the department and put a higher
premium on education of
the department’s personnel.
Averbeck has been with
the department since 1985
and is currently assigned
to the department’s transportation division. He said
that despite fiscal cutbacks,
the department can be run
in such a way that its basic
elements are augmented
with simple and inexpensive adjuncts that will enhance efficiency and public safety.
“I am running because
I think I can do a better job
than the current interim
sheriff,” Averbeck said.
Hoops is not the elected
sheriff. He was appointed
to that post in the aftermath of former sheriff
Gary Penrod’s resignation
in January 2009.
The department needs
to be more progressive
in its promotional policy,
Averbeck said, particularly with regard to placing
minorities into managerial
positions.
“I believe the department seriously lacks diversity,” he said. “The department never had an African
American or a woman appointed to the executive
staff level of deputy chief
until after I mentioned it in
October.”
Averbeck made that
criticism of the department and its track record
last year during a forum
held by the sheriff’s deputy
union, the Safety See P 2
Friday, April 9, 2010
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San Bernardino County Sentinel
Mason
from front page
board of supervisors earlier this year, the treasurer
tax collector’s post was
eliminated and was folded
into the auditor-controller’s
office. Simultaneously, the
county recorder’s function, which had been part
of the auditor-controller’s
duties, was transferred to
the assessor’s office.
Walker currently serves
in the capacity of public
administrator. That office
will shift to the sheriffcoroner as part of the reorganization.
Mason said that “qualification-wise, Larry Walker doesn’t meet the legal
requirements to be treasurer. The legal requirement is that a treasurer be
a certified public accountant or have an accounting
degree. Larry Walker is an
attorney, which would be
fine if he were running for
DA or wanted the appointment as public defender.
It doesn’t seem appropriate to me that he does not
have the required training
to hold the office. What is
said is if he already holds
the position he doesn’t
have to meet the qualifications to be in that position.
But I believe you need an
accounting degree or background for the job since it
is such a heavy accounting
position.”
One criticism of his opponent Mason was willing
to engage in was a reference to a problem that has
beset the recorder’s office
during the last two years of
Walker’s watch, specifically what many employees
of that division consider to
be the too-heavy-handed
management tactics of
chief deputy recorder De
Ana Thompson. Thompson’s personality and
management style is at the
center of a deteriorating
circumstance which employees allege Walker has
been unable to resolve. Six
employees of the recorders division - Carol Atkins
and Conchita White Eagle,
deputy recorders Wendy
Frank Guzman
Attorney at Law
Former Prosecutor, Western State University of Law Graduate
Handling all manner of criminal defense from DUI to Capital Murder
Over 24 years in practice
Over 200 jury trials
3633 10th Street Riverside, CA 92501
(951) 274-9798 (P)
(951) 274-9036 (F)
Everett, John Pinckney
and Dennis Tormey and
staff analyst Sean Crees
- have either taken stress
leave or been transferred
out of the recorder’s office
in the last 17 months. All
maintain they have been
subjected to a hostile work
environment, which they
claim is a direct outgrowth
of Thompson’s personality
and management style.
Her arsenal of managerial tactics includes bullying, fear and intimidation,
employees of the division
say. Several of the recorder’s office employees were
so put off by this treatment
that they lodged with the
San Bernardino County
Public Employees Association, the county human resources division,
the county administrative
office and/or the board of
supervisors no fewer than
six complaints in writing
regarding Thompson. Human resources director
Andrew Lamberto undertook an investigation of
Thompson, determining
that Thompson was indeed
harsh, demanding and
brusque in her approach.
Nevertheless, Walker rallied to her defense, citing
her talent with regard to information processing technology as indispensable to
the office’s effort to digitize
the county’s documents so
they can be transmitted
electronically across the
internet as well as through
other electronic means to a
whole host of data bases.
Numerous employees of
the division say that Walker has been paralyzed with
respect to redressing the
situation because he has
been compromised by his
too close relationship with
Thompson.
“If people are mad or
stressed or fearful, that
makes for a poor working
environment and that will
show to the public,” said
Mason. “If a hostile environment exists for employees, the county residents
who must deal with those
employees for the provision of services will feel
the hostility.”
Mason noted that the
management of the recorder’s office will soon
pass from Walker’s hands
but his inability to maintain the span of control in
his office as it is currently
composed does not auger
well for how he will maintain control of an expanded
Page 2
role that includes taking on
the more arduous assignments or maintaining the
county’s treasury and its
tax collecting functions.
Mason said he had misgivings about the wisdom
of conjoining the auditorcontroller’s role with that
of the treasurer tax collector.
“This merger has me
puzzled,” he said. “I went
to the board of supervisors
and voiced my concern. I
think having the auditor
under the same roof as the
treasurer and tax collector is like having the fox
guarding the hen house.
The auditor is supposed to
serve as a check and balance over the treasurer.”
Mason said because he
is mindful of the conflict,
he represents a safer bet to
occupy the newly formed
office than Walker, who
while in authority went
along with such a questionable arrangement.
“Having said that this
could entail a potential
conflict, if I am tasked
with that I would do my
best, probably by having
different persons of authority working under me
to oversee those positions.
The person who I would
have acting as my deputy
treasurer would not have
influence over the auditor.
Any functional mingling
there would not be proper.
I would delegate by hiring
people and letting them run
it as autonomously as possible. By assigning different people to handle those
functions you can reinstall
some form of a check in a
way that I think would be
fair and objective so that
position can be run well
or reasonably well even
though I am not comfortable with one individual
having that oversight,” he
said.
Mason demonstrated
his propensity for serving as such a check on the
county’s
governmental
function by pointing out
that “This whole restructuring is technically illegal
because article 6 of the
county charter says that no
elected official can receive
a raise of more than 4 percent without approval of
the county’s voters. Larry
Walker is to get a 25 percent raise and [assessor]
Dennis Draeger is getting
a 20 percent raise.”
Beyond that, Mason
said his level of experience
recommends him to the
position.
“I have a ten year background as a computer programmer,” he said. “I have
been told the county spent
several million dollars to
upgrade the office’s computer system. What they
did went nowhere. The
people managing it and
making decisions do not
have a strong background
in this area. I can improve
the performance of the
office through the use of
computer technology.”
Mason said he will offer superior accessibility
to government than the incumbent.
“An elected official is a
liaison to the public, and I
would take that role seriously. I would allow myself
to be seen in the office.”
Mason, 41, was born
in Albuquerque, New
Mexico. He attended high
school in Piscataway, New
Jersey. He attended Western Governor’s University
in Salt Lake City, Utah,
earning a bachelor’s degree in accounting. He
has one son. He has lived
in San Bernardino County
off and on since 1986.
Sheriff
from front page
Employees Benefit Association, prior to that
group’s vote to make endorsements in this year’s
election. Ron Cochran, an
African American, was
elevated by Hoops to the
position of deputy chief in
January.
“Diversity brings true
representation to the organization and it makes it
so men and women know
they have an opportunity
to be promoted if they work
hard and have the credentials,” Averbeck said. “It
also gives confidence to
the people we serve.”
The Cochran appointment
notwithstanding.
Averbeck said, the administration of the department Hoops is running
remains a bastion of white
males, whom he repeatedly referred to as “good
ol’ boys.” He said, “At the
time I made my comment,
we had 21 captains, of
whom only one was African American, one was
Hispanic and two were
women. The rest were
Caucasian guys.”
Averbeck was measured in his criticism.
“They are not racist,” he
Continued on Page 3
San Bernardino County Sentinel
Friday, April 9, 2010
Sheriff
from page 2
said of Hoops and his inner
circle. “But they promote
friends and family. There
are a lot of quality people
who are overlooked. It is
not that those who get promoted lack qualifications
entirely. But some well
qualified people are never
considered. He [Hoops]
doesn’t run it like a public organization. He runs
it like a private organization.”
If he is elected, Averbeck said, “I will try to
work with human resources to make the promotional system fair and
objective, rather than subjective. As it stands now, if
the sheriff wants to make a
promotion to detective, he
asks human resources to
give him a list of ten candidates. If he doesn’t see
anyone he wants, he sends
it back and tells them to
send him another list. The
problem with this process
is it allows him to select
without any standard but
his own the potential candidate. He [the sheriff] can
just keep asking for a new
list until he sees the name
he wants. He can just wait
for the name he is looking
for. This is how the good
ol’ boy system comes into
play again. If it were more
standardized and objective, all that would come
over would be the results
of who had scored highest
on the test. The sole criterion would be how well
you scored on the objective
evaluation. The top score
would get the promotion,
unless of course, the assignment was unacceptable to the candidate, say,
he lived in San Bernardino
and didn’t want to be promoted to work out in Needles. But the sheriff would
not be able to promote just
his friends, or family or
political allies.”
Averbeck said that on
an official level, “The department says it believes
diversity is important but
they are not filling the top
spots with anything other
than Caucasian males. I
believe they may now be
changing but only because
I mentioned it and brought
it to the forefront.”
Averbeck was less critical of the department’s hiring policy than he was of
its promotional policy.
“They are hiring a lot
of Hispanics and African
Americans. The problem
in the main is with the
promotional policy, where
people get skipped over
at the captain, lieutenant
and deputy chief level,” he
said.
If he is elected sheriff,
Averbeck said, he will be
much more mindful of the
safety of deputies, particular those who work in the
county’s jails, than have
been the current and past
sheriffs.
“We need to look at the
jails and find out why the
deputies are being attacked
and devise solutions,” he
said.
“Deputies are attacked
too often,” he said. “I have
a strategic plan. I would
build guard towers in the
jails so deputies have cover while they are feeding
and working with inmates.
On August 30, 2008 three
deputies were attacked by
approximately 25 inmates
at the central detention
center. All three went to
the hospital. My brother
was one. He had a fractured eyes socket. The others had bruised ribs. The
thing that upset me was
no one from the executive staff went to check on
those deputies’ welfare at
the emergency room. The
sheriffs’s department always has an on call captain
and an on call deputy chief.
However, they failed to go
to the hospital to check on
their deputies.”
Averbeck continued,
“Building guard towers
inside the jails and the detention center in Glen Helen would give the deputies
a position of advantage in
case a riot does break out.
My strategic plan would
call for deputies having
less than lethal weapons
at their disposal, which
would include bean bag
shotguns, rubber bullets similar to what the department of corrections uses
- and chemical agents. The
inmates at Tehachapi State
Prison see the guards up
there and they are a lot less
likely to attack staff or each
other. Guard towers give
you a clear view of who
the assailants are. Guard
towers in my view are a
necessity, not a luxury. At
present we do not have the
financial resources to add
more staff to be proactive
rather than reactive. If we
had more deputies, we
could be doing searches
and follow up on investigative leads they develop.
We do not have that luxury
because of budget cuts.
Both the central detention
center and Glen Helen
have pre-sentenced populations. Some pre-sentence
inmates are facing possible sentences of 25 years
to life or longer depending
on their cases. They are
a much stronger potential
threat than inmates who
have been sentenced and
have just six more months
to serve.”
As for field operations,
a simple and relatively inexpensive measure could
be brought to bear to improve the department’s operation, Averbeck said.
“It is a shame we do not
have a canine program,” he
said. “We do have a couple
for narcotics but we do
not have canines to apprehend burglary suspects or
people who are hiding. A
human can walk right by a
suspect hiding in the bushes at night. I would think
that public safety and the
serious need to arrest people trying to elude arrest
dictates we get the canine
program back into action
as soon as possible.”
Averbeck said he puts
a much higher stock in the
value of education in a law
enforcement context than
does Hoops, who has said
that while education may
make an individual a better person, it does not necessarily make him or her a
better police officer.
“I think a college education is definitely a benefit,” Averbeck said. “The
more open minded an officer is, the more frames
of reference he will have
in dealing with a situation,
criminal investigations,
management decisions,
risk management, personnel issues. I think it will
make you a better report
writer,” he said. “It will
make you more resourceful in finding or following through on solutions.
You can use education
to find solutions that you
have never found before.
It gives you more confidence in your abilities. It
makes you a better public
speaker. It enables you to
do research and formulate
arguments and debate.
The more knowledge you
have the more competence
you have. It will definitely
benefit you in your career.
Most importantly, it sets
a good example for your
children. If they see that
Page 3
you have a college degree
and have success with that
degree it encourages your
children to go to college as
well.”
Averbeck has a bachelor of science degree in
vocational education and
training from the Southern University of Illinois.
He is now working on a
masters degree in public
administration from California State University San
Bernardino. He previously
attended law school at
California Southern Law
School.
An approach to the betterment of San Bernardino
County Averbeck is interested in pursuing relates
to reclaiming at risk preteens and teenagers.
“I do want to start an
athletic and educational
program to help underprivileged youth,” he said.
“I’ve talked with a friend,
Reverend Morehead, who
has a gymnasium over
at Norton Air Force. Our
goal would be to bring
children and young adults
together - thirty or forty
to start - and provide them
with help for their academic needs on weekends,
math, reading and science
classes. We could then get
involved in sports, volleyball, basketball, get them
involved, improve their
self esteem, let them see
the positive side of law
enforcement, make them
into better citizens when
they become adults. We
have a 25 percent dropout
rate in California. We, as
leaders, need to do something to change that. I conducted a survey at the jail
and interviewed 100 male
and 100 female inmates.
Seventy-five percent of the
men never completed their
high school education.
Eighty-one percent of the
woman never completed
a high school education.
So, looking at the high
school dropout rates, is it
more likely than not that a
person will end up in jail
if he or she doesn’t graduate from high school? The
answer is an unequivocal ‘yes.’ Our prisons and
jails are overcrowded. We
need to work with our children to become productive
citizens in the future when
they become adults.”
Averbeck said he felt no
personal enmity against
Hoops. In fact, he said the
opposite was the case.
“My father had a [fatal]
car accident,” Averbeck,
a devout Catholic, said.
“Rod Hoops responded to
the accident and he made
sure a priest got there to
give him his last rites. I
will always be grateful
for that. My candidacy
against him is not a personal thing between him
and me. I told Rod I would
have run against anyone
else. I think I can do a better job because I do not
have political indebtedness
where I owe favors to anybody. I think this good ol’
boy system has to be done
away with. The time has
come. We need a sheriff
knowledgeable about the
organization who cares
about the organization yet
is not part of the good ol’
boy system. The department doesn’t belong to the
leaders of the system. It
belongs to the citizens of
San Bernardino County.
Unfortunately, it is run like
a private organization and
that needs to change.”
Born in Cincinnati,
Averbeck, 48, moved to
San Bernardino in 1974
and attended San Gorgonio High School. Today he
lives in Redlands with his
wife and three sons.
Denied
from front page
entitled “Guardians for
Profit—When a Family
Matter Becomes a Business.” Melodie Scott was
featured in the kick-off article, which revealed questionable business practices
by a number of Southern
California conservators.
Spurred on by the public outcry generated by the
series, the California Legislature passed a bundle of
new laws designed to protect the elderly from un-
scrupulous conservators.
One of the provisions of
the Omnibus Conservatorship Act of 2006 mandated
the creation of an oversight
board. The Professional
Fiduciary Bureau was
formed and began reviewing applications for licensure in 2008.
The administrative law
judge appointed to hear
the Melodie Scott matter,
Melissa Crowell, issued a
decision that Scott should
be granted a probationary
license. Brian Stiger, the
executive director of the
Department of Consumer
Affairs, issued a nonadoption order and overrode Crowell’s decision.
C.A.R.E., Inc., however, is still open for business. Scott recently sold
her building at 25 E. State
Street in Redlands and
moved across the street
to offices under the Capri
Restaurant. While Scott is
unable now to work as a
licensed professional conservator, sources close to
her have indicated that she
is still operating through
a “front” person, Katie
Hernandez.
Hernandez
is a CPA who previously
worked for Scott.
The San Bernardino
Court lists Hernandez as
a trustee in four cases,
all launched since January of 2009. Three of
these were once Melodie
Scott’s cases. Prior to this
date, Hernandez had only
worked in the capacity of
conservator in a San Bernardino case one time, as
conservator for Barbara
Fuentes.
Most of Scott’s conservatorship cases were
transferred to Christina
Erickson-Taube, who formerly worked as a conservator for C.A.R.E., Inc.
According to Gary
Duke, an attorney with
the Department of Consumer Affairs, Melodie
Scott may appeal the decision.
Neither Melodie Scott
nor Katie Hernandez
could be reached for comment. A spokesperson
for Hartnell, Lister and
Moore, which is the law
firm representing Hernandez, said she did not
know how to reach Katie
Hernandez.
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San Bernardino County Sentinel
Friday, April 9, 2010
Stone vs. Lewis
from front page
fense Appropriations committees.
Cunningham,
who
had compiled a superb
record as the first Navy
ace in the Vietnam War
during which he recorded
five confirmed kills and
was awarded the Navy
Cross, two Silver stars and
a Purple Heart, parlayed
his military heroics into a
14-year career as a Congressman
representing
the 44th, 51st, and 50th
California Congressional
districts from 1991 until
he resigned in disgrace in
November 2005
Cunningham was felled
by federal investigators’
discovery of bribes provided to him by defense
contractor Brent Wilkes,
owner of ACCS Inc. Wilkes and other businessman with federal defense
projects paid Cunningham
more than $2.4 million in
bribes and provided him
with lavish gifts and prostitutes during getaways to
Hawaii and other exotic
locales. In return, Cunningham steered Pentagon
contracts worth hundreds
of millions of dollars to
Wilkes and the congressman’s other benefactors.
One of those connected
by investigators to Cunningham was Bill Lowery, a former Congressman from California’s 41st
Congressional
District
who dropped out of the
Republican primary and
elective politics in 1992
when reapportionment following the 1990 census redrew Lowery’s residence
in San Diego into the same
congressional district, California’s 51st, into which
Cunningham’s had been
redrawn. Lowery parlayed
his status as a former congressman to become one
of the more successful lobbyists on Capitol Hill as
a principal in the firm of
Copeland Lowery Jacquez
Denton & White.
Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton & White rep-
resented not only defense
contractors but other companies with federal contracts, and several governmental entities, agencies,
municipalities and institutions that had billions of
dollars riding on decisions
made by Congress. Lowery relied upon his friendship with both Cunningham and Lewis, as well as
other Republican lawmakers, in swaying legislation
and thereby proving his
worth to Copeland Lowery
Jacquez Denton & White’s
clients.
Lewis, who was initially elected to Congress in
1978, was elevated to the
chairmanship of the House
Defense Appropriations
subcommittee in 1999 and
then became chairman of
the House Appropriations
committee in 2005.
While Lewis was chairing both of those congressional institutions, Copeland Lowery Jacquez
Denton & White provided
Lewis and his Future Leaders political action committee with over $760,000.
Lowery alone provided
$480,000 to Lewis’ Future Leaders PAC.
In addition, Copeland
Lowery Jacquez Denton
& White’s clients donated
over $2 million to Lewis’
campaign fund and his
PAC.
In the same time frame,
the firm of Copeland, Lowery, Jacquez, Denton &
White earned millions of
dollars in fees from these
clients. Lewis, by virtue of
his control over the House
Defense Appropriations
Subcommittee and later
the House Appropriations
Committee, directed hundreds of millions of dollars to Copeland Lowery
Jacquez Denton & White’s
clients.
Lewis accomplished
this diversion of public
funds to his political donors and Copeland, Lowery, Jacquez, Denton &
White’s clients through the
practice of congressional
earmarking. An earmark
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creates a requirement that
a percentage of an appropriation be committed
toward a specific expenditure. Earmarking bypasses
traditionally established
budgetary procedures and
avoids competitive bidding
or awarding requirements.
Two of Lewis’ former
staff members, Letitia
White and Jeff Shockey,
went to work for Copeland,
Lowery Jacquez Denton
& White straightaway after leaving the direct employ of his congressional
office, and within a few
years were earning over $1
million per year. White’s
husband, Richard White,
who was already working
as a lobbyist, similarly saw
a marked increase in his
income when he switched
to representing defense
firms almost exclusively.
That newfound success
was brought on in large
part because of Richard
White’s entrée, through
his wife, to Lewis.
A survey of the public
record shows: California
State University San Bernardino received $62 million in earmarked federal
money through Lewis’ intercession after it retained
Copeland Lowery Jacquez
Denton & White; that the
city of Redlands received
$26 million in earmarked
federal funds of a total of
$36.7 million in total pork
after it hired Copeland
Lowery Jacquez Denton &
White; the town of Yucca
Valley retained Copeland
Lowery Jacquez Denton & White in January
2003 and since that time
received $4.4 million in
federal funding earmarked
or otherwise engineered
by Lewis; the city of San
Diego received $960,000
in federal money Lewis
had a hand in earmarking
after the city of San Diego
retained Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton &
White; the city of San Bernardino has received more
than $1.2 million in funds
Lewis earmarked after it
began paying Copeland
Lowery Jacquez Denton
& White to lobby on its be-
half; and San Diego State
University pulled in some
$6 million in federal funds
earmarked for studying
methods for converting
existing military technology to civilian use after it
began paying Copeland
Lowery Jacquez Denton
& White a yearly stipend.
The University of Redlands, which has named a
science wing after Lewis
and paid Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton &
White $680,000, received
$22.5 million in earmarked
funds from Lewis.
Isothermal
Systems
and Tessera Technologies
co-ventured on a defense
project in 2003 and 2004,
receiving a $4.5 federal contract earmarked
through Lewis’ efforts
Isolthermal was represented by Letitia White. Tessera’s lobbyist was Letitia
White’s husband, Richard,
who received $300,000
from Tessera between
2003 and 2005.
Cunningham was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s office in San Diego,
led by former U.S. Attorney Carol Lam. Ultimately, Cunningham resigned
from office in November
2005 and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as
part of a plea arrangement
that netted him an eightyear prison term. After the
focus of Lam and her minions alighted on Cunningham and widened to take in
Wilkes and a host of other
federal contractors who
had been Cunningham’s
benefactors, investigative
attention
consequently
settled on Lowery and his
lobbying firm.
That scrutiny quickly
prompted an admission in
June 2005 from the reporting officer for Copeland
Lowery Jacquez Denton &
White that between 1998
and 2005 the lobbying
firm had failed to disclose
at least $755,000 in income
from 17 nonprofit organizations and governmental agencies and entities
as well as $635,000 from
other clients. Later that
month, the firm of Cope-
Page 4
land Lowery Jacquez Denton & White dissolved.
San Bernardino County, which had been a primary recipient of pork
barrel funding engineered
by Lewis over the years,
was among Copeland
Lowery Jacquez Denton
& White’s clients. And
when that firm folded in
the glare of negative publicity relating to Lowery’s
close affiliation with Cunningham, San Bernardino
County did not miss a beat
and immediately retained
Innovative Federal Strategies, to which the lobbying
firm had changed its name
in 2006, following the departure of its Democrataffiliated members.
Lam’s investigation of
Copeland Lowery Jacquez
Denton & White soon
widened to include Lewis.
As the head of the federal
prosecution unit in California’s Southern District,
Lam at first coordinated
with and then handed off
that phase of the investigation pertaining to Lewis to
the U.S. Attorney’s Office
in Los Angeles, which was
headed by U.S. Attorney
Debra Yang. Yang’s bailiwick was California’s
Central District, which
includes Lewis’ 41st Congressional District.
In relatively short order
Yang and her staff in Los
Angeles had confirmed
Lewis had done yeoman’s
work in coordinating the
earmarking of bills to favor
Copeland Lowery Jacquez
Denton & White’s clients.
Moving beyond that, they
learned Lewis had not always laundered the hefty
political contributions he
had received from governmental contractors though
the Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton & White lobbing firm. Indeed, research
of the public record demonstrates Lewis had wielded his power to salt federal
legislation with funding
that enriched a multitude
of other individuals as
well as corporate and public entities who had come
through with large donations to Lewis’ election
campaign or political action committee.
Orincon, a defense contractor specializing in systems integration and information technology bought
out by Lockheed Martin
in 2003, increased its $10
million federal contract
in 1999 to a $52 million
contract in 2003, while
providing Lewis and his
campaign fund with a total of $102,000 from 1998
until it was purchased by
Lockheed Martin.
Over the objections
of generals and procurement staff at the Pentagon,
Lewis managed to provide The General Atomic
Corporation with at least
$455.9 million in funding
toward the production and
upgrades of the Predator
unmanned aerial vehicle
and its follow-on versions.
General Atomics, in addition to retaining Copeland
Lowery Jacquez Denton
& White, gave $15,000 to
Lewis and his Future Leaders PAC and provided over
$12,000 toward travel lodging and accommodation of
Lewis and his entourage.
The company fielded the
costs of and hosted a fundraiser for Lewis at which
the congressman hauled in
another $23,000.
Nicholas
Karangelen and his wife provided
Lewis with $72,000 in
political money between
2003 and 2006. Between
2002 and 2006, Lewis
ushered through Congress
$23.6 million in earmarks
for Trident, a company
in Virginia owned by
Karengelen that supplies
hardware and software systems for military and commercial use. Lewis was
introduced to Karengelen
by Letitia White. Trident
has paid Copeland Lowery
Jacquez Denton & White
$340,000.
Between 2001 and
2006, Lewis earmarked
more than $90 million in
funding that went to Environmental Systems Research Institute, owned
by Jack and Laura Dangermond of Redlands,
for work varying from
designing computer programs to fight fires in the
San Bernardino Mountains, to running logistical
mapping for the Iraq War,
to mapping the local flood
planes, and performing
computer-assisted mapping that assisted in the
New Orleans reconstruction. The Dangermonds
have contributed $32,900
to Lewis and his political
action committee since
2000 and Environmental
Systems Research Institute has paid the Copeland
Lowery Jacquez Denton &
White firm $320,000 since
Continued on Page 5
San Bernardino County Sentinel
Friday, April 9, 2010
Stone vs. Lewis
from page 4
1998.
In 2001, the Dangermonds donated to the city
of Redlands 41 acres of
property they owned that
was adjacent to Lewis’
home. Covenants made
pursuant to the donation
stipulated conditions that
would greatly enhance the
value of Lewis’ property.
Perhaps the most egregious abuse of Lewis’
power occurred in 2003.
Cerberus Capital Management, a hedge fund,
pumped $132,500 into his
congressional campaign
fund and his political action committee and Lewis,
then the chairman of the
House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee,
restored $160 million in
funding to a defense program in which Cerberus
was the sole financier.
Lewis restored that
funding after he and a
slew of other lawmakers had openly expressed
doubts over the wisdom of
allowing Cerberus-backed
WorldCom to participate
in an $8.8 billion secure
computer network and
communications program
for the Navy and Marines.
When Cerberus handed
over more than $100,000
in political cash, however,
Lewis made an abrupt
turnaround.
Cerberus, owned more
than $140 million in stock
and bonds of the bankrupt
telecommunications giant WorldCom and was
functioning under the
corporate aegis of MCI.
A court-ordered accounting of WorldCom’s books,
showed the evaporation of
more than $10 billion in
capital and assets in the late
1990s and early 2000s and
eventually netted a 25-year
prison term for WorldCom
CEO Bernie Ebbers.
With cost overruns
dogging WorldCom’s end
of the $8.8 million project,
Lewis and other members of Congress made
the first move in pulling
the plug on MCI. A vote
taken on May 16, 2003 by
the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee cut ten percent of the
Navy project’s $1.6 billion
budget for the 2003-2004
fiscal year. That vote was
aimed squarely at MCI’s
portion of the operation.
Meanwhile, Cerberus,
using the services of a hast-
ily formed lobbying team
which included Laurence
Harris; former Utah senator Jake Garn, retired Marine colonel John Garrett;
and former House Armed
Services Committee staff
member Marcus Dunn,
opened up a dialogue with
Lewis.
On June 16 2003, the
Defense Appropriations
Subcommittee,
with
Lewis in the lead, undid
the May 16 vote, passing
a resolution to maintain
the full funding for the
Navy-Marine Corps network. Ten days later the
full House Appropriations
Committee confirmed that
approval.
On July 7, 2003 Cerberus executives and their
spouses, their lawyers and
business partners, along
with Harris, Garn, Garrett
and Dunn feted Lewis with
a gala fund-raising dinner in Manhattan at which
they presented Lewis’ Future Leaders PAC with just
over $110,000. Over the
next two weeks Cerberus
executives and various of
their associates provided
Lewis’ PAC with another
$22,500.
On July 8, 2003, the full
House passed a defense
spending bill that left the
$160 million for a NavyMarine computer system
intact.
In the late spring of
2006, Tom Casey, the
former owner of Audre
Recognition Systems Inc,
which produces and markets automated document
conversion software, went
public with an account of
how, when he had been
seeking a federal contract
for his company, Lewis
instructed him to hire the
Copeland Lowery Jacquez
Denton firm to lobby on
his company’s behalf.
According to Casey,
Lewis also asked him to
arrange stock options for
Bill Lowery and to disguise them by issuing
them in Canada under a
false name.
For his cooperation
with Lewis, Casey said,
he was allowed by Letitia
White, who at that time
was working in Lewis’
office, to compose the language of an appropriation
earmark.
In June of 2006, Yang
and her team of prosecutors and FBI agents working out of Los Angeles
obtained search warrants
for the cities of Redlands,
Loma Linda, Yucca Valley, Highland, Twentynine
Palms. San Bernardino
and Riverside counties,
California State University at San Bernardino,
the University of Redlands
and Environmental Systems Research Institute to
obtain all documents in
those entities’ possession
relating to contracts with
Copeland Lowery Jacquez
Denton & White for lobbying services.
The issuance of those
subpoenas at once telegraphed the intention of
the U.S. Attorney’s office
toward Lewis. The congressman, using $200,000
from his political war chest,
retained the high powered
law firm of Gibson Dunn
& Crutcher, which boasts
offices in both Los Angeles and Washington D.C.,
as well as in New York,
London, Paris, Brussels,
Munich, San Francisco,
Dallas, Denver and Orange County. In the next
nine months, Lewis used
another $803,000 of his
campaign funds to keep
attorneys at work upon
his defense. Available federal disclosure forms show
Lewis has spent upwards
of $1.6 million laying the
groundwork for his defense, even before he has
been criminally charged, .
Among the formidable
ranks of Gibson Dunn &
Crutcher’s more than 800
lawyers are Ted Olson, the
former solicitor general,
assistant attorney general
and a heavy Republican
political donor in his own
right; Robert C. Bonner, a
former U.S. attorney, former Drug Enforcement
Agency
administrator
and former U.S. Customs
commissioner; and Eugene Scalia, the son of U.S.
Supreme Court Associate
Justice Antonin Scalia.
When Lewis retained
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher
in 2006, he was, by virtue of his chairmanship of
the House Appropriations
Committee, the fourth
most powerful member
of the House of Representatives and arguably
the law firm’s single most
important client. Members
of the firm were furiously
casting about for a way to
stymie the investigation
and eventual prosecution
Yang was relentlessly angling the wheels of justice
toward.
Beginning in the late
summer of 2006, headhunters employed by
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher
targeted Yang, a recentlydivorced mother of three,
with offers of a partnership in the firm and a sizeable signing bonus that
would dwarf her $148,500
yearly salary as U.S. Attorney. After much going
back and forth, that offer
was firmed up to status
as a full partner in the
firm, a $1.5 million signing fee and a guarantee of
$500,000 in yearly income
thereafter. Lewis has not
been charged with any
crime, although the Justice
Department maintains an
open file on the matter.
The way in which lobbyists have come to dominate the American political landscape is, Stone
said, “a corruption of our
government and the sacred
ideals of the Constitution.
Mr. Lewis’s corruption is
astounding but it is sadly
a tiny fraction that gets
swallowed up in comparison to the big picture. The
lobbying interests, the special interests have a reported budget of over $4 billion. You can look at it as
an average of $40,000 per
day per congressman for
every day they are in session to continue the results
the lobbyists get. We need
to fix the whole system. I
would prefer people would
focus on the bigger picture.
It is not just Jerry.”
Stone said, “These investigations dragging out
for years bring into question what is really going
on. With one of the federal
prosecutors who was going after him having been
dismissed and the other
one being hired away by
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Page 5
the law firm representing
him, even more questions
are raised as to his activity
in office. But with all of
these questions, it’s important for people not to get
cynical and lose sight of the
bigger picture. The issues
concerning Mr. Lewis are
much smaller than the bigger issues facing this nation. I am concerned about
the apparent illegalities he
engaged in and the corruption of his office. I was motivated to run for office out
of those concerns and the
whole culture that it grew
out of, which is the power
the special interests have
demonstrated to push their
agendas through regardless of who is in office.
The story of how the U.S.
Attorney was dismissed
by President [George]
Bush was interesting as
were the logistics of how
this investigation was shut
down but I don’t want my
focus to be on that. I want
my focus to be on moving
the country away from all
of that. When you focus
in on what sort of advantage Mr. Lewis has taken
of the people who voted
for him and all the details,
the story about what really
needs to be done seems to
get dropped.
“I want my campaign
to focus on the issues
that are important to this
district and who my constituents are going to be,”
Stone said. “Look at the
numbers we are facing.
They’re atrocious. Look at
the underfunded social security program, Medicare,
military pensions. With
the national debt, each
household owes $600,000.
Every household! Some
people are working. Others aren’t working. Others
are too old to work or too
young to work. There’s no
way we can pay for this
pending debt. The leaders
we have entrusted with our
government are leading us
into a catastrophe. If everyone looks at the situation they cannot help but
feel as strongly as I do and
I am the only Republican
alternative to Jerry Lewis.
I am a true Republican alternative who is dedicated
to limited government
and fiscal responsibility.
People that feel powerless
in the face of this can turn
to me and I promise I will
not sit still in the face of the
special interests and their
political machinery.”
Stone sought to reassure
those who might object to
his lack of experience in
the political arena.
“It is going to take
somebody with no past political career to be jeopardized to stand up for government that is responsible
to the people and against
the system of government
we have today serving the
interests of the few at the
expense of the many and
the unborn,” he said.
The expectation or hope
of the county’s voters that
Lewis will somehow rise
to the occasion and take
the bold action needed to
redress the situation is unrealistic, Stone said.
“You have to be delusional to expect from
him new tricks and new
approaches to longstanding problems that he is
responsible for having
created,” Stone said. “His
track record speaks for itself. In this county we are
facing not only the highest
unemployment rate in the
state but in the country.
The jobs lost to competitors overseas could have
been redirected into our
district. I can think of little
worse than an able bodied
man or woman needing
or wanting to provide for
their family and having
no legitimate opportu-
Continued on Page 8
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San Bernardino County Sentinel
Friday, April 9, 2010
Uffer
from front page
could severely complicate for him the prosecution of any lawsuit he will
file against the county, as
well as potentially leave
him exposed to criminal
prosecution himself for
having been involved in,
either passively or actively, the criminal actions he
describes and offers evidence of.
Despite Biane’s vote
opposing his termination,
Uffer does not spare Biane
in the portrait he paints
of a governmental entity
mired in corruption
In his claim, Uffer intimates that members of
the board of supervisors,
apparently including Biane, Ovitt and Mitzelfelt,
were extorted by Jim Erwin, the one-time president of SEBA, the union
for the county’s sheriff’s
deputies and later the assistant assessor under Bill
Postmus.
“In or about November
2007,” the claim states,
“Jim Erwin abruptly resigned as the assistant assessor for operations. Jim
Erwin was granted a sixmonth severance package
upon leaving the office.
At no time in the history
of the county had a nonadministrative employee
received a severance package of this nature. Mark
Uffer was made aware by
board members that this
was being done to keep
Jim Erwin in-line and out
of fear for what Jim Erwin
was capable of doing to
the board.”
The claim provides a
new perspective on the
deterioration of the once
close personal and political relationship between
Postmus and both Biane and former Hesperia
mayor and chief county
legislative officer/county
purchasing department
director/county
health
department director Jim
Lindley.
While Postmus was
serving as chairman of the
board of supervisors and
chairman of the county’s
Republican Central Committee he was in an ironclad alliance with Biane,
who was the vice chairman of both the board of
supervisors and the central
committee. Together, they
were dual kingmakers,
doling out party money
to Republican candidates
they favored and denying
funds to those who did not
go along with their programs. But backup material Uffer included with
his claim shows that by
2006, Postmus and Biane
were no longer getting
along, despite any appearance to the contrary.
On June 16, 2006, an
email from Uffer to Biane
states, “rumor has it Bill
wants an evaluation of me
on the closed session of
the 27th.”
Biane responded, “U
have my vote. A guy with
six months left is not going to f*** with my life or
yours and I have the votes
to back it up.”
On Saturday June
24, Uffer sent Biane an
email, asking “Anything
changed since we last
talked? Do I need to look
for employment?”
Biane
responded,
“Nothing has changed.
Bill will vent some frustrations. And that will
be the end of it. Sorry
for some of this monkey
business. But you have to
remember your [sic] paid
very well and there are
going to be some days that
this job just like any other
are [sic] going to suck. Six
more months and then 2
years of clear sailing. We
all will make [it] through
this storm.”
In July 2005, Postmus
was at the height of his
power while holding the
positions of chairman of
the county board of supervisors as well as chairman
of the county Republican
Central Committee. Using his clout, he directed
county staff, including
Uffer and Andrew Lamberto, the county’s director of human services,
to hire Lindley, who was
then a member of the ruling coalition on the Hesperia city council. That ruling coalition was aligned
with Postmus, whose First
District included the city
of Hesperia. The coalition strongly supported
approving the projects of
numerous developmental
interests doing work in
Hesperia. Those developers in turn made hefty
campaign donations to
Postmus and assisted in
the perpetuation of his
political machine which,
at that point, dominated
San Bernardino County
politics.
Postmus had sustained
some criticism for his
hiring of Lindley, whose
expertise with regard to
legislative affairs was
questionable. At the time,
however, given Postmus’
position of strength, that
flak had little effect on
him. Roughly two years
after Lindley’s hiring
by the county, however,
the relationship between
Postmus and Lindley had
taken a turn for the worse.
Ultimately, after Postmus
successfully ran for assessor in 2006 and then
moved to have his chief
of staff, Brad Mitzelfelt,
appointed as his replacement as supervisor, the relationship between Postmus and Lindley would
break into open hostility when Lindley applied
with several others to be
considered by the board of
supervisors as a candidate
to serve as the interim
First District supervisor.
“In or about Fall 2006,
shortly after the primary
June 2006 election and
prior to the general election in November 2006
for the county assessor’s
position, Bill Postmus became consumed and fixated on prevailing at the
general election by raising substantial funds and
controlling the election
process in San Bernardino County,” Uffer’s claim
states. “While Jim Lindley, among other candidates, was running for his
third four-year term on the
Hesperia city council, Bill
Postmus informed Jim
Lindley that he [Jim Lindley] could regain his {Bill
Postmus’] confidence if
he [Jim Lindley] became
a ‘team player’ during the
election and let him [Bill
Postmus] ‘run things.’
Desperate to win the general election, Bill Postmus
overtly co-opted political
donors, funneled money
into his own campaign,
and had Adam Aleman
and other staff working
Read all about the intrigue in San Bernardino
County’s political scene at inlandpolitics.com
on the worldwide web.
on political projects on
county time, and on county premises. While on the
Fifth Floor of the board of
supervisors offices, Bill
Postmus was conducting
illegal campaign activity.
Jim Lindley witnessed
laptops in Bill Postmus’
conference room offices
and campaign literature
spread about and overheard numerous cell
phone conversations regarding fund-raising and
campaign operations going on. As the general
election neared in November 2006, it became
common knowledge that
the board of supervisors
was undertaking the task
to appoint a candidate to
fill the First District supervisor’s seat rather than
to call a special election
or let the governor make
an appointment. Hence,
Bill Postmus began to
lobby the board of supervisors to appoint his chief
of staff, Brad Mitzelfelt to
fill his seat.”
Aleman is a longtime
Postmus associate who
worked for him as a field
representative when Postmus was supervisor and
who was then appointed
assistant assessor when
Postmus was elected assessor.
According to Uffer’s
claim, when “Jim Lindley
became a serious candidate for said position, Bill
Postmus made threats
against Jim Lindley’s
job. In fact, Jim Lindley
received over a dozen
telephone calls about Bill
Postmus targeting Jim
Lindley directly “
According to the claim,
“Jim Lindley immediately
contacted Mark Uffer
and made his concerns
known about the threats”
and “Mark Uffer reassured Jim Lindley that
he worked for him and
not the board and that the
board could not fire him.
As a consequence, it became known and evident
to the board and Bill Postmus that Mark Uffer was
Page 6
supporting and protecting
Jim Lindley. Accordingly,
Bill Postmus, aware of
this fact, targeted Mark
Uffer to eliminate him so
that he could reach Jim
Lindley. “
Subsequently, according to the claim, Lindley,
who had at that point been
reassigned to the position
of county purchasing officer, and Uffer worked
together to thwart or otherwise question or hold
up what the claim termed
“suspicious” requisition
orders coming from Postmus in his capacity as assessor. In addition to requisition requests for “fixed
assets, furniture, supplies
and irregular items” one
requisition order was
for the services of Mike
Richman, a political consultant involved with the
San Bernardino County
Republican Central committee and a Postmus
ally. Mitzelfelt, Postmus’s
successor and longtime
political associate, joined
in with Postmus in making inappropriate or illegal use of county funds,
according to the claim.
“Likewise, Brad Mitzelfelt was deeply involved
and promoted the [Republican] party’s agenda with
Mike Richman,” the claim
states. “Recent campaign
disclosures suggest that
Mike Richman was also
involved in the campaign
of Neil Derry for supervisor.” Pressure mounted
on Lindley, vectored from
Postmus, Aleman and
Mitzelfelt to hire Richman in such a manner that
the county’s competitive
bidding process for Richman’s services to the assessor’s office were not
brought to bear, according
to Uffer’s claim.
“Jim Lindley then contacted Mark Uffer again
and said, ‘I was fearful
that Brad would have me
fired over this.’ Bill Postmus and others perceived
Jim Lindley and Mark
Uffer as being disloyal.”
In his claim, Uffer
maintains that he was
called as a witness before
the 2007-08 grand jury
and that he “submitted
findings concerning the
pervasive corruption” besetting the county at that
time. The grand jury and
a special investigation carried out by attorney John
Hueston approved by the
board of supervisors later
established, according to
Uffer’s claim, “fraudulent
use of time cards” in the
assessor’s office, that “Bill
Postmus unlawfully provided contracts of employment to friends without
submitting the contracts
to the bidding process,
members of the Postmus’
executive team received
tuition reimbursement for
course work unrelated to
their jobs, that other board
members were involved
with and/or encouraged
Bill Postmus’ known unlawful political agenda
and efforts on county time
[and] that Bill Postmus’
staff assisted supervisor
Brad Mitzelfelt’s political
campaign as well as Neil
Derry’s campaign.”
Uffer’s claim does not
directly deal with why
it was not until he was
brought before the grand
jury that he tolerated the
numerous depredations
he has cataloged in his
claim. The claim does not
directly state, but hints
at the consideration that
at some point Uffer may
have become a willing
source in dealing with the
grand jury and the district
attorney’s office.
Nevertheless, the claim
has as attachments back
up material, including interoffice memos, emails
between various county
employees that include
Uffer and handwritten
notes by Uffer which
demonstrate that Uffer
had personal knowledge
of wrongdoing on the part
of county officials and
members of the board of
supervisors going back as
early as 2004, shortly after
Continued on Page 7
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San Bernardino County Sentinel
Friday, April 9, 2010
Uffer
from page 6
he was named county administrative officer, which
he kept under wraps for
years.
Three of these pertain to violations of the
Brown Act, California’s
open meeting law which
prohibits a majority of any
governmental body from
meeting and discussing
official policy or business
outside the confines of an
advertised and agendized
public meeting.
An email dealing with
negotiations relating to
the sheriff’s deputies’
union contract with the
county from then human
services director Elizabeth Sanchez to Uffer
dated December 17, 2004
and posted at 5:09 p.m.
contains in its body three
forwarded emails - one
that originated from Jim
Erwin, who was then
the representative of the
deputies’ union, and sent
to Sanchez at 11:29 a.m.,
Sanchez’s response to Erwin at 1:35 p.m. and Erwin’s response back to her
at 2:48 p.m. In Erwin’s
11:29 a.m. email to Sanchez, he wrote, “I spoke
with [deputy county counsel] Carol [Greene] about
the [sheriff’s deputy] unit
mod[ification] and agreed
that it should go away. I
had dinner with Bill, Paul
and Gary last night and
Bill is ok with it.”
Thus, Uffer had information shortly after he
was installed as county
administrative officer that
Postmus, Biane and Ovitt
were meeting outside the
auspices of a public hearing, a clear violation of the
Brown Act.
An email from Matt
Brown, Biane’s chief of
staff sent on August 30,
2006 to Uffer is included
in the attachments Uffer
provided with his claim.
That email contains a forwarded email from Erwin
to Brown in which Erwin
states “I just received
word that Mark Uffer has
informed the sheriff that
he [h]as a 3-2 vote in his
favor, with Ovitt and Postmus supporting SEBA.”
The subject being discussed in the email related to an existing memorandum of understanding
about Sheriff’s Department seniority staffing
that was being renegotiated by the county, the sheriff’s office and SEBA, the
sheriff’s deputies’ union.
The email strongly implies that Uffer and other
county officials were
aware that discussion involving a quorum of the
board of supervisors, a violation of the Brown Act,
had taken place.
Another Brown Act
violation allegedly occurred, involving Derry,
Biane and Mitzelfelt, at a
California State Association of Counties meeting
in San Diego on the night/
early morning of December 3 and 4, 2008.
Uffer’s claim, which is
buttressed by handwritten
notes he made that night
chronicling his conversations with Derry and
Brown, asserts that “on or
about December 3, 2008,
Neil Derry, Brad Mitzelf-
elt and Paul Biane met at
Donovan’s for a legislative
dinner. Thereafter, Neil
Derry, Brad Mitzelfelt
[and] Paul Biane met for
drinks at a Mexican Restaurant, La Puerta, near
[their] hotel in San Diego.
Thereafter, Neil Derry,
Brad Mitzelfelt and Paul
Biane went to Brad Mitzelfelt’s room and discussed county business
while intoxicated until
about 5:00 am.” The claim
notes that this constituted
a “Brown Act violation”
before continuing, “Neil
Derry, Brad Mitzelfelt
and Paul Biane discussed
what health plans (PPO
vs. HMO) the supervisors
would be able to have per
Neil Derry’s campaign
promise. Jim Erwin confirmed that the agreement was to eliminate
the board’s PPO insurance plan in exchange to
receive increased flexible
benefit dollars.”
Uffer’s notes covering the incident convey
that Biane’s chief of staff,
Matt Brown, apparently
without Biane’s knowledge, reported to Uffer
about the early morning
conversation, including
the incidental intelligence
that after the three supervisors returned to Mitzelfelt’s room, they drank all
of the alcoholic beverages
contained within the honor bar there.
Other insights provided by the back up material
affixed to the claim is that
Uffer at different times
over the last several years
shifted his alliances with
and against various of the
Page 7
county’s top players.
In September 2006,
for example, after his relationship with Postmus
had grown somewhat
testy, Uffer appears to
have patched things up,
at least temporarily, with
the then-chairman of the
board of supervisors. A
series of emails back and
forth between the two on
September 1 show the
rapprochement. At 1:31
p.m. on that date Postmus writes that he wants
to talk in person to Uffer.
“I’m very frusterated (sic)
with some things that are
and have been going on
and I want to discuss them
with you one on one!”
At 1:33 p.m., Uffer replies, “Not really much to
say at this point Bill. You
have simply said I am the
enemy and undermine the
board.”
At 1:38 Postmus posts
back a simple, “ok.” At
5:55 p.m. Uffer wrote to
Postmus, “Talked with
Adam and explained what
I believe Cassie did. I still
support you and what we
are doing. We should sit
down just you and I. I was
just hurt this morning that
you were mad.”
The reference to Cassie
is apparently to Riverside Press Enterprise reporter/columnist Cassie
MacDuff and a column
she had written that was
considered less than flattering to Postmus, and
which Postmus believed
was based upon off-the-re-
cord information provided
to MacDuff by Uffer.
At 7:24 p.m. Postmus
then sent an email to Uffer
which said, “I apologize
if I over reacted but the
whole article just set me
off...yes let’s get together
next week and talk. Be
healthy I think!”
Shortly
thereafter,
Uffer responded, “I apologize if anything I did upset you.”
From some of the supporting material provided, it is clear that at one
point Uffer and Erwin
had a back channel line of
communication in which
information that was
less than flattering and
even damaging regarding members of the board
of supervisors was being
exchanged. At another
point, after Erwin left the
assessor’s office, another
temporary alliance between Uffer and Postmus
took hold.
On March 5, 2008 at
1:39 p.m., in response to
an unspecified but apparently unflattering newspaper article that had just
been published, Uffer
wrote to Postmus, “Is Erwin quoted as the source?
I think he has been a very
destructive force in our
county.”
At 1:43 p.m. Postmus
responds, “Not in the story but the reporter just as
much admitted that it was
Erwin. Erwin also told
two people on Monday
that it was him.”
At 1:43, Uffer wrote
back, “What a solid guy.”
At 1:46, Postmus posted,
“More like an asshole!”
Instantaneously,
that
is, less than a minute later,
Uffer responded, “He sure
tried hard to get me fired.”
To this, Postmus wrote
back, “Yes he did! Now he
says he is gonna take me
down also!”
The back up material
Uffer provided also shows
that into the summer of
2009 he maintained another
back channel line of communication with Sharon
Gilbert, a former county
employee who had created
a website, i.e.politics.com,
which offered information
that was very critical of the
county and its top officials.
And another document,
a March 6, 2007 email
from Adam Aleman, who
was then a member of the
county Republican Central Committee and one of
Postmus’s closest political
associates, suggests that an
effort to offer Uffer the position of executive director
of the county Republican
Party had been afoot.
“On behalf of chairman Bill Postmus and the
San Bernardino County
Republican Party we are
pleased to announce that
we are accepting interested
candidates for the position
of executive director and
political director,” the email
reads. “Please reference the
attached announcement
for inquiries into the openings.”
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San Bernardino County Sentinel
Friday, April 9, 2010
Stone vs. Lewis
from page 5
nity available. We need to
eliminate barriers that are
creating time delays and
costing entrepreneurs and
pushing employers away.
We need rather to entice
them to do business in our
district.”
In this respect, Stone
said, “Public/private part-
nerships are one avenue.
The other is to incentivize job creation by offering small businesses
offers they would be foolish to ignore. If elected, I
would make job number
one bringing jobs home to
our district. Number two
would be to ultimately reduce federal spending and
at the same time redirect
more of our fair share of
federal spending to our
district. I want to serve in
Congress to be a catalyst to
demonstrate that responsible government can be of
Vote on
June 1, 2010 for
Bob Conaway
San Bernardino
County District
Attorney
Ramos is wasting our
tax dollars!
The DA’s office is
14% over budget.
Ramos has cost the
county $140,000
in investigation costs
so far related to
his personal
involvement with a
staffer.
He takes money
from deep-pocketed
special interests,
ignores revenue
recapture
opportunities
and does not
protect our civil
rights against abuse.
Have you had
enough of this?
Vote for
Bob Conaway
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benefit to the people.”
Stone said he would
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institutions and as an inde-
Page 8
pendent business person” to
the role of Congressman.
Stone, 48, was born
in Manhattan, New York
and attended high school
in East Bruswick, New
Jersey. He attended Mid-
dlesex County College
and Cal State Fullerton.
He served in the National
Guard. He is now self
employed with real estate
projects. He is divorced
with two daughters.
Southern California Style
Espadrilles for Spring and Summer
Due to the many shoe
designs and styles out
there, finding the right
shoe can be a challenge
at times. I’ve wondered
and asked myself if
there could possibly be
the one perfect shoe that
could be worn with everything. Though I’m
sure it’s quite possible, I
decided not to go there.
After all, shoes play
a key supporting role
when it comes to putting together an outfit.
I nominated the espadrille as a fun shoe to
carry out a role with just
about any spring outfit.
This
once-peasant
shoe has grown to be
very popular and is
now a staple with many
top designers. The espadrille is a great shoe
for spring and summer,
and it comes in a flat
and wedge shaped heel
which is made of a natural fiber or synthetic fiber rope. In Europe the
flat heel espadrille is
very popular amongst
men. Lately the jute
sole espadrille by Toms
seems to be the trend of
the moment. However
the wedge heel espadrille is very stylish and
can be found in an array
of colors and also differ-
By Grace Bernal
ent sized heels.
Try wearing the jute
sole espadrille by Toms
with a pair of jean shorts
or the boyfriend jeans
and a button up top with
short or no sleeves in solid or different patterned
top. Espadrille heels
look best in heights of
4 to 5 inches. There are,
however, 2” inch heels
out there (Dr Scholl’s
makes a very comfortable one) for those of
you who prefer comfort;
in the end it’s all about
preference. Espadrilles
look marvelous in wrap
dresses, flowy skirts, ca-
pri pants and cropped
jeans! Again if you
have the legs flaunt
them by wearing your
espadrilles with walking shorts or khakis
paired with a crisp,
white shirt. If you’re
daring enough, go boho-gypsy and wear a
long, tunic dress or top,
and a wide belt with
your espadrilles. The
price for a pair of Toms
jute sole espadrilles
starts at around $43,
available at Nordstrom.
The espadrille heel can
be found almost everywhere as follows: Payless for as low as 19.99,
Zappos.com offers an
array of espadrilles (2”
to 5” heels) starting at
44 up to $98; Target at
$24; Macy’s at $59 and
baby girl espadrilles by
RL at $30 and Nordstrom at $79 with baby
girl espadrille by RL at
$29.95 with free shipping. Have fun and feel
great this season wearing your espadrilles.
“A pair of shoes can
change your life. Just
ask Cinderella.”
-Anonymous
Copyright
Grace
Bernal
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