inland das won't let 'non-violent' prisoners out easilyyear over year, los angeles...
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12/19/2016 Print Article: Inland DAs won't let 'non-violent' prisoners out easily
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Inland DAs won't let 'non-violent' prisoners out easilyBy BRIAN ROKOS2016-12-16 16:48:14
The Riverside and San Bernardino county district attorney’s offices saythey plan to fight the parole of some prisoners whose crimes areconsidered non-violent by the state Penal Code but are judged to beviolent by the DAs themselves.
The 23 crimes California classifies as violent don’t include offenses suchas raping an unconscious person, human trafficking involving sex actswith minors, taking a hostage and domestic violence involving trauma.
Under Prop. 57, approved by voters in November, prisoners convicted ofnon-violent felonies are eligible for parole after completing the prison term
for their primary offense, but before they serve any additional time connected to other crimes or enhancements,such as using a gun or committing a crime to benefit a gang. A parole board would have to approve theirrelease.
“This adds a whole new layer,” San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos said.
RELATED: Prop. 57: Rewarding good prison behavior or increasing public danger?
Ramos said he already struggles to find enough deputy DAs to attend parole hearings for convicts sentenced tolife in prison with the possibility of parole, so he doesn’t know if his office will be able to raise its objections inperson at the prison hearings.
“We’re overwhelmed,” he said.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has not yet said whether DA representatives willbe able to attend the hearings, nor has it said when the parole hearings will begin.
“Obviously we would like to have input, especially on behalf of victims,” said Riverside County Senior DeputyDistrict Attorney Ivy Fitzpatrick. Instead, emails or letters might be sent, she said.
Advocates of Prop. 57 say the measure, which allows prisoners to shave time off their sentences if theyparticipate in life-skills programs while behind bars, will leave them better-equipped to succeed in society.
Ramos vowed to continue to charge defendants with enhancements, even if under the new law some prisonersmay not have to do time for them. The additional penalties can add a year to a felony conviction if the defendantserved time in prison for a prior felony, three years for narcotics offenses for each previous narcotics convictionsand 10, 20, or 25-to-life for using a firearm during a violent felony.
Filing the enhancements, Ramos said, will not be “a wasted exercise.”
“I think that is what the people intended, to hold these people responsible, especially gang members that areusing weapons,” Ramos said. “Whoever (at the parole board) makes the decision to release them, I want theworld to know that the district attorney filed the case appropriately under the Penal Code and the wish of thepeople of California to hold these people responsible for this serious conduct.”
12/19/2016 Print Article: Inland DAs won't let 'non-violent' prisoners out easily
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John Hall, a spokesman for Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin, said it was too soon to say whetherHestrin would continue to file enhancements.
“We’re not going to speculate what we may or may not due on particular cases,” Hall said.
Contact the writer: [email protected] or 951-368-9569
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12/19/2016 Wilson Creek Flood Control bridge ribbon cutting - News Mirror: Local News
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Wilson Creek Flood Control bridge ribbon cuttingPosted: Saturday, December 17, 2016 5:00 pm
The city of Yucaipa celebrated another success on Monday,Dec. 12, as it held a ribbon cutting for the Wilson CreekFlood Control Projects on 10th Street and YucaipaBoulevard.
Together with the county of San Bernardino, the city invitedthe public and other dignitaries to celebrate the long awaitedribbon cutting of the channel improvements, the low watercrossing replacement project at Avenue D and another on13th Street.
“This is a momentous occasion,” said YucaipaCouncilwoman Denise Hoyt. “We welcome each of you to the Wilson Creek Bridge project, another highquality public works project.”
She said the flood control project removed 276 properties from the flood zone in Dunlap area. She thankedcity partners and all those involved with making the project a reality.
San Bernardino County Supervisor James Ramos said, “This will greatly benefit the community and theresidents for years to come.”
Ramos said it was an excellent collaboration of city, county, federal agencies and of course property owners.
City Manager Ray Casey thanked city staff and Flood Control. “Things are happening in our community.”
He said the city is invested in Dunlap with its $34 million revitalization project that includes street andchannel improvements and a neighborhood park.
The Wilson Creek project was funded through drainage facility funds.
The event ended with a ribbon cutting provided by the Yucaipa Valley Chamber of Commerce.
Wilson Creek Flood Controlbridge ribbon cutting
It’s all smiles at the ribbon cutting with citystaff and local and regional dignitaries.
12/19/2016 San Bernardino County eyes funds to maintain core property exposure | News | IPE RE
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San Bernardino County eyes funds to maintain coreproperty exposure19 December 2016 By Jon Peterson
San Bernardino County Employees’ Retirement Association is expected to direct $140m (€134m) of newcapital to real estate next year.
The pension fund’s real estate pacing plan for 2017, which will be voted on at a board meeting on 5January 2017, could see $80m allocated to core investments.
San Bernardino County, which is being advised by consultants NEPC, is seeking to ensure at least 50% ofits real estate portfolio is made up of core investments and so is likely to look at multiple funds.
Chief investment officer Donald Pierce said: “I would be very surprised if we don’t place capital into morethan one core commingled fund.”
The pension fund has been selling down a separate account managed by American Realty Advisors, theproceeds of which could go to new core fund investments.
It is expecting to receive approximately $75m in distributions when one of the three remaining assets inthe $193m portfolio is sold in 2017.
“When you only have three assets in a separate account, it makes a lot more sense from a diversificationstandpoint to invest capital into a core commingled fund,” said Pierce.
The pacing plan means $60m could be invested in non-core real estate in 2017, either through funds orco-investments.
As part of the plan, NEPC has recommended making $25m commitments to Partners Group, ApolloGlobal Management and Invesco Real Estate, including co-investments alongside the Invesco Asia CoreFund.
12/19/2016 California has weak jobs report in November, but the Inland Empire does well
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Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (http://www.dailybulletin.com)
California has weak jobs repor t in November, but the Inland Empire does well
By Kevin Smith, San Gabriel Valley Tribune
Friday, December 16, 2016
California employers added 13,600 jobs in November, marking theweakest showing since March.
That was fewer than half of the 34,400 jobs that were added theprevious month but it was still enough to nudge the state’sunemployment rate down to 5.3 percent compared with 5.5 percentthe previous month and 5.9 percent a year earlier, the stateEmployment Development Department reported Friday.
The last time the state saw a 5.3 percent unemployment rate was in thesummer of 2007.
When viewed through a longer lens, California’s employment gains are significant.
The state’s year-over-year increase of 377,200 jobs — added at a rate of 2.3 percent — easily outpaced the restof the nation. Florida ranked second with 263,900 jobs added over the past 12 months and Texas came in thirdwith 210,800 new jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.
“We pretty much stayed on trend here in Southern California,” said Robert Kleinhenz, executive director ofresearch at Beacon Economics and at the UC Riverside School of Business Administration’s Center forEconomic Forecasting and Development. “A couple of industries saw job losses but all of the major industrieshave seen job gains. The big question is what 2017 will look like.”
Kleinhenz said the coming year will likely see moderate growth.
“The pace of job growth this year has been slower than last year and I think we’ll see that pattern continue in2017 as labor markets tighten,” he said.
On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, Los Angeles County and the Inland Empire both added more jobs than thestate as a whole. That occurs when California’s net job gain (which also figures in total job losses) falls belowthe net employment gain of an individual county or region.
However, those numbers fall dramatically when seasonally adjusted to account for holiday hiring and other non-permanent positions. But they still show growth.
EDD figures show L.A. County added 22,200 jobs in November, far fewer than the 38,900 that were added theprevious month. The county’s unemployment rate held steady at 5.1 percent. That was down a full percentagepoint from the year-ago rate of 6.1 percent.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the county added 2,400 jobs in November, according to figures supplied byBeacon Economics.
12/19/2016 California has weak jobs report in November, but the Inland Empire does well
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Healthy gains were seen in such industries as government, leisure and hospitality, and wholesale trade, but thecounty’s construction sector posted a loss of 1,600 jobs.
Some Southland construction firms are holding their own, however.
Foothill Bath, a Rancho Cucamonga business that specializes in kitchen and bathroom remodeling, is keepingbusy these days.
“We generally slow down in the winter months but it’s been pretty steady,” said Monique Widney, thecompany’s office manager. “People have family coming over for the holidays and they want to get theirbathrooms redone before they get here.”
Widney expects business to ramp up next year.
“I already have jobs lined up for 2017,” she said.
Year over year, Los Angeles County boosted its payrolls with 65,600 new jobs added at a rate of 1.5 percent.That fell below October’s annual employment gain of 71,200 jobs.
The Inland Empire added 22,400 jobs in November, according to the EDD’s non-seasonally adjusted figures.That was up from the 13,600 jobs added the previous month. The IE posted a yearly gain of 34,100 jobs.
November’s seasonally adjusted figures show the Inland Empire added 9,900 jobs in November.
Increases were seen in trade, transportation and utilities, leisure and hospitality, and government, among others.
“Many of the job gains are coming from growth in industries that serve local residents and businesses, but theregion’s drivers, such as logistics and manufacturing, have also added jobs throughout much of the year,”Kleinhenz said.
URL: http://www.dailybulletin .com/business/20161216/california-has-weak-jobs-report-in-november-but-the-inland-empire-does-well
© 2016 Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (http://www.dailybulletin.com)
12/19/2016 San Bernardino County's unemployment rate goes down in November - Fontana Herald News: Business
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San Bernardino County's unemployment rate goesdown in NovemberPosted: Sunday, December 18, 2016 2:19 pm
San Bernardino County's unemployment rate plunged from5.8 percent in October to 5.3 percent in November, accordingto data released on Dec. 16 by the California EmploymentDevelopment Department (EDD).
The county's jobless rate, which had been one of the highestin the nation during the financial crisis six years ago, hasbeen steadily declining in recent years and is now the sameas California's rate overall. It is the lowest rate since 2007.
The state added 13,600 non-farm payroll jobs in Novemberand saw its unemployment rate drop from 5.5 percent inOctober to 5.3 percent, the EDD said.
With November’s job gains, California has gained a total of2,417,100 jobs since the economic expansion began inFebruary of 2010.
The U.S. unemployment rate decreased 0.3 percentage pointsin November to 4.6 percent, with employers nationwideadding 178,000 non-farm payroll jobs.
San Bernardino County
The unemployment rate went down to 5.3percent in San Bernardino County inNovember.
12/19/2016 This is how officials say you should respond to panhandlers in the Inland Empire
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San Bernardino County Sun (http://www.sbsun.com)
This is how officials say you should respond to panhandlers in the Inland Empire
By John M. Blodgett, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Sunday, December 18, 2016
For many people, the year-end holidays are a time for shopping and atime for giving — activities where panhandlers may try to takeadvantage of an opportunity to ask for money.
“Panhandlers generally congregate where people are, at busy retailareas as well as freeway on-ramps and off-ramps,” Carl Baker,Redlands police spokesman, wrote in a statement. Like many cities,panhandling is a year-round issue in Redlands, he explained. Bakerdoesn’t have data showing that panhandling increases during theholidays.
With specific exceptions, panhandling is a constitutionally protectedright — think free speech — that police must uphold, Baker pointed out. However, he wrote, “police mayenforce against aggressive panhandling or panhandling in specified prohibited locations.”
For example, in Redlands, panhandling is prohibited around ATMs, ATM facilities and financial institutions,such as banks, credit unions, savings and loans or check-cashing facilities; around anyone entering or exiting amotor vehicle; and in parking lots during nighttime hours from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., according to Baker.
While not familiar with other jurisdictions, Baker said the panhandling codes aren’t unique to Redlands.
“We based our code on what is allowed by the courts,” he said.
Aggressive panhandling includes:
• Intentionally blocking or interfering with the safe or free passage of a pedestrian or vehicle.
• Persisting in closely following or approaching a person after the person has already indicated he or shedoes not want to be solicited.
• Using profane, offensive or abusive language likely to provoke a reaction.
“If you are confronted by an aggressive panhandler, do whatever you need to do to keep yourself safe,” Bakerwrote. “Walk away and go to a nearby business or other public place. If you feel threatened, call (911) for help.”
For people who don’t feel threatened but want to report an ongoing panhandling issue, call the policedepartment’s local business line.
Christy McKinzie, founder of Ladies of the IE for Strong Communities and an advocate for Upland-areahomeless, encourages people to report panhandlers to her group and others like it so they can help.
McKinzie carries “emergency bags” containing jackets, blankets hygiene kits and more in the trunk of her car tohand out to those in need, as well as lists of shelters, food banks and similar homeless-focused resources. She
12/19/2016 This is how officials say you should respond to panhandlers in the Inland Empire
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rarely hands out money, she said.
In her experience, most people who aggressively panhandle have mental health or substance abuse issues andaren’t necessarily homeless.
Members of the San Bernardino County sheriff’s Homeless Outreach and Proactive Enforcement (HOPE)program recently went out to various locations where panhandling has been an issue, spoke to panhandlers aboutthe laws and offered them help to get off the streets.
Many, however, don’t live on the streets.
“Nationally, 60 percent of panhandlers aren’t homeless,” Deputy Mike Jones said. “Last week, among thecontacts (we made), it was closer to 75 percent locally. A lot of them are (panhandling) to support theiraddictions.”
That’s why authorities encourage people not to give to panhandlers but to give to charities, Jones said, pointingout that San Bernardino, Rialto, Barstow and other cities in addition to Redlands are involved in “PositiveChange, Not Spare Change.”
Authorities discourage people from giving money or something else of value to panhandlers, according to Baker.
Elsewhere in the Inland Empire, other organizations serving the homeless include Ladies of the IE for StrongCommunities (www.ladiesoftheie.org, 909-232-2813) and Team Heart Ministries(www.facebook.com/TeamHeartEhlove8Upland, 909-244-2803) in Upland, Team SOUL(www.facebook.com/groups/ieteamsoul) in San Bernardino, and Ontario Access Center (mercyhouse.net, 909-391-2630) in Ontario.
URL: http://www.sbsun.com/social-affairs/20161218/this-is-how-officials-say-you-should-respond-to-panhandlers-in-the-inland-empire
© 2016 San Bernardino County Sun (http://www.sbsun.com)
12/19/2016 Music now featured at Ontario airport (for those with really good hearing)
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Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (http://www.dailybulletin.com)
Music now featured at Ontar io airpor t (for those with really good hear ing)
By Penny Arévalo, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Friday, December 16, 2016
ONTARIO >> Did you notice? Holiday music (and any music, forthat matter) is back in the terminals at Ontario International Airport.
• Video: Music plays at ONT (we think)
Squint your ears. If you still can’t hear it, we wouldn’t blame you. Asthe above video demonstrates, it sounds more like a low hum or aGregorian chant than holiday music. If you can hear it. And weamplified the sound for the video!
According to Dan Adamus, chief marketing officer at ONT, the airport’s previous owners, Los Angeles WorldAirports, turned off the music some time ago. Having just acquired the airport, the local Ontario InternationalAirport Authority made connecting the sound system to the public address system a priority.
The music was turned on Monday after some new equipment arrived, Adamus said. The new technology iseasily customizable for the occasion. For example, it can be programmed to play music by artists performing atupcoming concerts, just to get everyone pumped.
The holiday music is instrumental only, as to appear “non-threatening and non-offensive,” he added.
Maria Tesoro, a spokeswoman for LAWA, didn’t know the day the music died, or why.
Adamus said the changes — besides the music, the airport is planning valet parking, “selfie stations” and bettersignage and has started selling food in the baggage claim area — are all about improving the ONT experience.
“We’re looking at things we can do to make it nice and friendly, a place that people will want to spend time,”Adamus said.
Staff writer David Allen contributed to this report.
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URL: http://www.dailybulletin .com/business/20161216/music-now-featured-at-ontario-airport-for-those-with-really-good-hearing
© 2016 Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (http://www.dailybulletin.com)
12/19/2016 Cadiz decision from BLM protects public interest: Guest commentary
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San Bernardino County Sun (http://www.sbsun.com)
Cadiz decision from BLM protects public interest: Guest commentary
By Dennis Schramm
Friday, December 16, 2016
Americans depend on our government to work for the public interestand to be fair by ensuring that everyone plays by the same rules. So itcomes as a surprise that Cadiz Inc., a developer of a significant water-mining project in the middle of California’s Mojave Desert, has beenpressuring government agencies and elected officials to avoidfollowing the exact same federal environmental review process withwhich all other developers on federal land are expected to comply.What makes this all the more alarming is the potential for the Cadizwater project to gravely harm the water resources of our nationalparks and other protected federal lands.
Santa Monica-based Cadiz Inc. wants to exploit a loophole in federal law to skirt the standard federalenvironmental review by rebranding their aggressive water-mining and pipeline project as a railroad project. Infact, they’ve contrived all sorts of uses for the water they intend to pump that relate to the railroad — water forwashing dirty freight train cars, fire hydrants along tracks, a tourist steam engine — but the Bureau of LandManagement (BLM) has correctly recognized this as an attempt to obfuscate the fact that a 7-foot-diameter, 43-mile water conveyance pipeline is not integral to the construction or operation of a railroad.
BLM’s position should not be changed. In response, Cadiz Inc. has lobbied Congress to change the law just sothe company can reap a $1 billion to $2 billion profit by pumping more than a million acre-feet of groundwaterfrom a fragile desert aquifer and threatening two of the California desert’s most prized recreational, economicand biological assets: the Mojave National Preserve and the newly created Mojave Trails National Monument.
The preserve and the Mojave Trails National Monument are some of our wildest lands, providing refuge andenjoyment for throngs of Southern California residents, and are also a leading source of tourism revenue forlocal communities. While Cadiz claims its aggressive pumping won’t harm water resources, independenthydrologists and the National Park Service remain concerned it could harm groundwater and springs onprotected federal lands.
In fact, the Cadiz property is located inside the boundary of the newly created Mojave Trails NationalMonument, whose Presidential Proclamation highlights the protection of water resources — underscoring theneed for a federal review and more scrutiny on the project’s flawed science.
Under existing regulations, all developers who propose projects on federal public lands are required to have theirprojects undergo a federal environmental review, ensuring that the public can participate in decision-making andso the potential impacts of project are studied and revealed. This process allows Americans — from Washington,D.C., to California and from Montana to Texas — to hold their government accountable.
Why is Cadiz so intent on not playing by the same rules as every other developer? The answer is that when thefirst Cadiz project was proposed in the early 2000s, a federal review revealed it could have significantenvironmental impacts, including the depletion of the aquifer from which it planned to pump groundwater. Thisled to the unraveling of that initial project. Cadiz rightly fears that a federal review will shed light on the faulty
12/19/2016 Cadiz decision from BLM protects public interest: Guest commentary
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scientific assumptions it has made about the recharge of the aquifer it seeks to pump — recharge figures that theNational Park Service has identified as being 3 to 16 times too high.
Agencies and members of Congress shouldn’t buy into Cadiz Inc.’s sleight of hand and should stand behind theBLM decision that a water project does not fundamentally further the operation of a railroad. The BLM’sdecision is commendable because it shows that the agency is committed to ensuring developers follow basicenvironmental rules that were designed to protect the public interest, our democratic processes and the land andwater resources owned by all Americans. The BLM has shown that the government won’t be bullied bypowerful corporations and that corporations are not above the letter of the law.
Dennis Schramm is a desert ecologist who was superintendent of Mojave National Preserve from 2006-2010. Heserved as lead in development of the preserve’s general management plan from 1995-2002.
URL: http://www.sbsun.com/opinion/20161216/cadiz-decision-from-blm-protects-public-interest-guest-commentary
© 2016 San Bernardino County Sun (http://www.sbsun.com)
12/19/2016 Battle over closed road tears neighborhood apart
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SaturdayPosted Dec 17, 2016 at 3:13 PMUpdated Dec 17, 2016 at 3:13 PM
By Matthew Cabe Staff Writer
Follow
WRIGHTWOOD - The broken sunglasses balanced on Vincent Tibbetts' nosehid a cut from a recent punch to the face.
"Nothing is being done by the police," Tibbetts said Thursday, removing thesunglasses. "Just like this. Nothing done. Here I sit with this cut ... and what arethey doing? Nothing."
The culprit, he claims, is Lance Krig, who was directing the drop of two K-railsonto his brother's property as angry neighbors paced nearby.
Thursday's move was the latest in a months-long dispute that started after theKrigs blocked off access to an undedicated dirt road running through vacant landMark Krig purchased earlier this year.
Residents say Mountain Spring Road, which provides access to Highway 2 lessthan a mile from Highway 138, was open for 50 years without issue underprevious ownership.
But the Krigs erected a fence around the property and dug up the road, resultingin shouting matches, trespassing, physical altercations, vandalism, numerousrestraining orders and threats of violence.
Battle over closed road tears neighborhood apart
12/19/2016 Battle over closed road tears neighborhood apart
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Both sides maintain that local law enforcement refuses to intervene in theincreasingly violent battle - although several arrests have been made - whichcame to a head Tuesday when a group that included minors, according toresidents, trespassed onto the property and were subsequently pepper-sprayedby Lance Krig.
Neighbors say San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department deputies tell them toeither move or "just enjoy Christmas" when they complain about Lance Krig'sactions.
"There's something going on we don't know about," said Dave Carter, whooperates the nearby Bud Pharm Ministries - a cannabis-product provider. "It'scaused so much animosity and discontent and hate in our neighborhood."
Sheriff's officials could not be reached for comment Friday.
Many residents in the area rent from Libby Needham, whose grandson sold thethe property to Mark Krig. Needham told the Daily Press the sale was made tostop "countless" early-morning phone calls from Lance Krig, who demandedweed abatement on the property.
Needham compared the dispute to the infamous Hatfield and McCoy feud of the1800s, adding that the area surrounding Mountain Spring Road is now like "awar zone."
"I don't believe in any of this violent stuff, but that's what happened," Needhamsaid, "and I'm telling (residents) to not do anything because I'm trying to get thisfixed and it's hurting the cause."
Beyond the violence, Needham's concern is for the safety of residents who nowaccess their homes via Rancho Road and a narrow pathway that leads back to theportion of Mountain Spring Road beyond Mark Krig's property line.
"There's senior citizens living up here," Needham said. "There's a 90-year-oldlady and people with horses. They went from a 30-foot road to a 12-foot path.We can't get ambulances up there, propane, anything."
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The Bluecut Fire broke out not long after the Krigs blocked the road on July 23.Needham said firefighters struggled to enter the neighborhood and residentscouldn't get to their homes to evacuate animals.
In a letter to the Mountaineer Progress newspaper, which is situated next to theproperty in question and is also owned by the Krigs, longtime resident KathyBiller-Maguire addressed the closure.
She described the pathway - dubbed Ridgeview Road - as "only an easement"with "very tight turns" that is "nearly impossible to traverse in winter."
The decision to close Mountain Spring Road, however, involves liability, LanceKrig told the Daily Press.
"Liability and a man feels he can do what he wants with his property," he added.
The Krigs said they researched and spoke with San Bernardino County officialswho informed the brothers that even if they granted an easement they'd still beresponsible for anything that occurred on the property.
So they closed the road, and Lance Krig said they've been in a "battle for our lifeever since."
When asked about the pepper-spray incident on Thursday, Lance Krig declinedto comment outside of saying, "A number of people were arrested. I wasn't oneof them."
But hours after Krig spoke with the Daily Press, deputies from the PhelanSubstation did arrest him and he was booked for child endangerment, illegal useof teargas and conspiracy to commit a crime, jail records show.
Deputies also arrested Carter, who was booked on charges of disobeying a courtorder and criminal threats with the intent to terrorize.
On Friday, Mark Krig described his brother's arrest as "unbelievable."
"The charges against my brother are assault against a minor," he said. "If you'reon your own property and are attacked, do you call for a timeout to ask if they'rea minor? They attacked us in a Charles Manson manner … Those kids have noskin in the game."
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He came to his brother's defense yet again when Tibbetts - the resident with thebroken sunglasses - was brought up, saying Tibbetts was punched because hewas swinging a hammer at Lance Krig.
"Those people up there have a dedicated road access, but they feel I should grantthem an easier access to the highway," Mark Krig said. "And I tend to disagreewith them a little bit."
Part of that disagreement, according to Biller-Maguire, is that the original deedto the property - from 1956 - contains verbiage that reserves a right of waythrough the property for "public use purposes."
She said the road closure is, therefore, illegal.
Before his arrest, Lance Krig did say he would honor "a proper judgement from acourt," but Needham said the residents need $15,000 - money they don't have -for a civil suit.
As such, Needham is attempting to broker a deal with the family for aneasement. On Friday she offered Mark Krig $10,000 for an easement.
"I'm not inclined at this time to accept that," he said. "I've spent $5,000 in just thelast week for heavy equipment coming in there to dig up the road ... and dropthe K-rails. I've spent a wad of money to protect my property, which of course isone of my constitutional rights.
"It's not pretty. I wouldn't mind settling with Libby, but I don't know what wecould do. I'd like to see it stop. Enough is enough."
Matthew Cabe can be reached at or at 760-951-6254. Follow him on Twitter .
12/19/2016 How will California’s sanctuary cities react to Trump’s threatened immigration crackdown?
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Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (http://www.dailybulletin.com)
How will California’s sanctuary cities react to Trump’s threatened immigrationcrackdown?
By Grace Wyler, [email protected]
Saturday, December 17, 2016
During his campaign for the presidency, Donald Trump promised tocut federal assistance for state and local governments that do notcooperate with U.S. immigration enforcement, threatening funding forthings like police services and public housing.
Still, as the president-elect prepares to take office next month,Democratic officials in California hope to maintain their policies thatprotect an estimated 2.6 million people living in the state illegally.
Cities including sprawling Los Angeles and small-town Coachellahave adopted sanctuary status, a politically powerful, if mostly
symbolic, designation aimed at expressing solidarity with immigrant communities. Activists in at least threeother cities, Anaheim, Long Beach and Pomona, also are pushing for sanctuary status. And the city council inSanta Ana, one of Southern California’s biggest Latino communities, on Dec. 6 voted 5-0 to adopt a resolutiondeclaring the city a “sanctuary for all its residents, regardless of immigration status.”
But questions remain about what sanctuary cities really can do, what they won’t do — and what, if anything,Trump might do to stop them.
A SANCTUARY STATE
Sanctuary has no meaning, legally speaking, and definitions vary across communities.
Generally, though, the term refers to cities and counties that limit how much local law enforcement willcooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Nationwide, more than 300 counties and 39cities have adopted some version of sanctuary, according to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.
California is, by far, the leader in the movement. In fact, though it hasn’t formally declared itself as such, thestate is, in essence, a sanctuary. Under a 2014 law known as the TRUST Act, local jails in California are barredfrom detaining undocumented nonfelons simply because ICE agents are asking.
All 58 counties in California and most of the state’s police departments also decline to honor any ICE requests tohold immigrants beyond their jail sentences, reflecting a series of federal court rulings that found localjurisdictions liable if they hold people after their release dates.
California’s policies “make it harder for ICE to do its job,” said Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at theCenter for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based think tank that favors immigration restrictions.
That’s certainly been the case during the last two years of the Obama administration. Federal data obtained bythe Texas Tribune shows California declined so-called “detainer requests” from ICE at five times the rate of thenext least cooperative state, New York, during an 18-month period that started in early 2014.
12/19/2016 How will California’s sanctuary cities react to Trump’s threatened immigration crackdown?
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But if Trump is to follow through with his pledge to deport at least a few million people, that will have tochange, in California and elsewhere. There are only about 5,000 ICE agents nationally, and any nationaldeportation program will need the help — and man hours — from local police departments.
“What Trump wants to do is create a criminal justice pipeline into the federal immigration system,” said UCDavis Law School Dean Kevin Johnson, an expert in immigration law.
“It’s politically popular to do so, and it’s relatively easy to do so. That’s why the federal government is reallypushing hard to get as much cooperation as possible.”
In the wake of Trump’s election, many California politicians are pledging to uphold the state’s sanctuarypolicies, even in the face of federal threats. A showdown seems possible.
But that’s only part of the story.
SANCTUARY HAS LIMITS
Most communities, including some sanctuary cites like Los Angeles and Santa Ana, still cooperate with federalimmigration agencies, a fact that frustrates some immigration advocates.
“A statement of sanctuary is important in a lot of ways for communicating a general attitude, but the underlyingpolicies obviously still matter,” said Lena Graber, a San Francisco-based attorney for the Immigrant LegalResource Center.
“There are all kinds of formal and informal partnerships that ICE has with local governments to help identifyand pick people up,” she added.
“Just saying you’re a sanctuary doesn’t mean anything unless you actually go and undo those policies,” sheadded.
In San Bernardino County, for example, the sheriff’s department allows immigration agents to interviewdetainees at jail facilities.
In Riverside, where Police Chief Sergio Diaz has insisted his agency won’t be involved in any massdeportations, the sheriff’s department continues to notify ICE when inmates are scheduled to be released andworks with the federal agency on several joint enforcement operations.
In Orange County, ties between the sheriff’s department and ICE are extensive, a result of a partnership thatauthorizes county sheriff’s deputies to interview and process immigrant detainees for removal. This year,Orange County deputies also began serving warrants and detainer requests on behalf of ICE, according tosheriff’s spokesman Lt. Mark Stichter.
Three Orange County jails — Theo Lacey, James A. Musick, and Santa Ana City Jail — also provide detentionfacilities for ICE to house undocumented immigrants, although the Santa Ana City Council has voted to phaseout its contract.
In Los Angeles, one of the first U.S. cities to adopt a sanctuary policy, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Departmentgives ICE broad access to jails and databases, and allows immigration officials to interview all inmatessuspected of being in the country illegally. And three other cities in L.A. County — Pomona, Alhambra andGlendale — contract with ICE to keep immigrant detainees in their jails for limited periods.
Vaughan predicts that once the Trump administration takes control in Washington, California counties willexpand their ICE partnerships rather than risk the loss of federal funding. Though immigration experts said itwill be difficult for Trump to cut off all assistance to sanctuary cities, he might be able to block law enforcement
12/19/2016 How will California’s sanctuary cities react to Trump’s threatened immigration crackdown?
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grants from the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. Such cuts could costCalifornia $70.6 million, according to the National Immigrant Law Center.
“If sheriffs start losing money, I think you could start to see a pushback,” Vaughan said.
THE LOOK OF RESISTANCE
Immigration advocates want state and local governments to push hard against deportation efforts in the comingTrump presidency.
In Sacramento, Democratic lawmakers recently introduced a bill that would prohibit any law enforcementagency, including school police, from using its resources for immigration enforcement.
Leaders of the state’s two university systems also recently issued public declarations that they will not cooperatewith mass deportations.
And in places such as Los Angeles and Santa Ana, where local leaders have already promised to resist Trump,activists are calling on city officials to cut all ties with ICE.
URL: http://www.dailybulletin .com/government-and-politics/20161217/how-will-californias-sanctuary-cities-react-to-trumps-threatened-immigration-crackdown
© 2016 Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (http://www.dailybulletin.com)
12/19/2016 Print Article: Fear rises among people living in United States illegally following Trump's election
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Fear rises among people living in United States illegallyfollowing Trump's electionBy GRACE WYLER2016-12-18 00:17:48
In the weeks since Donald Trump’s presidential victory, Sandra Dimashas struggled with a heightened mix of anxiety and anger over how andwhen the president-elect will follow through on a central promise of hiscampaign: cracking down on illegal immigration.
“A lot of people are scared,” said the 42-year-old mother of three. Likemost immigrants living illegally in California, she has been in the UnitedStates for more than a decade. “I have kids. We live here,” she said, hervoice rising. “We’re not criminals.”
Deportation hadn’t been a major concern. But now Dimas is surroundedby fear. Some of her neighbors are talking about returning to Mexico, she
said. Others already have left. At the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center where she finds work, new fliersoutline steps immigrants can take to avoid deportation and offer tips on how to explain the postelection era toyoung children.
“The fear has always been there,” said Benjamin Wood, an organizer at the day labor center. “But now it feelsmore real.”
The anxiety is compounded by confusion over what policies Trump plans to pursue once he takes office. Anypolicy changes are likely to have an outsized impact in California, which is home to about a quarter of thenation’s estimated 11.4 million residents here illegally. About half of those immigrants live in Southern California,including 815,000 in Los Angeles County, 250,000 in Orange County, 124,000 in Riverside County and 118,000in San Bernardino County, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.
“We don’t know what to expect under a Trump presidency, so people are bracing for the worst,” said Shiu-MingCheer, a senior staff attorney at the National Immigration Law Center in Los Angeles. “Even people whohaven’t been targeted for immigration in the past are worried that now there might be a knock on the door.”
Immigration experts say cultivating uncertainty among those living here illegally may be one of Trump’s goals.
“The idea is that people get scared,” said Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at the Washington-basedCenter for Immigration Studies, which supports enforcing immigration law. “Right now, people have themessage that there are no consequences unless you are a serious felon.”
Increasing the fear of deportation among those here illegally is a strategy embraced by key Trump immigrationadvisers, including U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., his expected nominee for attorney general. If confirmed,Sessions will oversee the federal government’s interpretation of immigration laws.
DACA in danger
And the strategy extends to Trump’s promise to repeal President Barack Obama’s executive orders onimmigration, including the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which has granted deportation reliefto 728,000 immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children, about a third of whom live in California.
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Trump also is expected to remove Obama’s policy of “prosecutorial discretion,” which discourages thedeportation of certain groups of immigrants, particularly those who have lived in the country for several years orhave children who are U.S. citizens.
“I think it’s pretty clear he’s going to repeal all of the priorities that were implemented under Obama,” saidJennie Pasquarella, director of immigrants’ rights for the American Civil Liberties Union of California. “Thatimplies the Trump administration will impose a kind of dragnet policy where anyone they find, wherever theyfind them, is going to be put into deportation proceedings.”
Trump has sent inconsistent signals about how many immigrants his administration would target for deportation.During the campaign, he called for the removal of all immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. Since winning theelection, though, he seems to have softened that stance, telling “60 Minutes” that he would prioritize deportingcriminals.
“We will get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers. We have a lotof these people, probably 2 million. It could be even 3 million,” Trump said. “We are getting them out of thecountry or we are going to incarcerate. But we’re getting them out of the country. They’re here illegally.”
Who would fall in that category – and make up the kind of deportation numbers cited by Trump – isn’t clear.
The Department of Homeland Security has said there are 1.9 million “removable criminal aliens” living in theU.S. That figure includes immigrants who are in the country legally. A 2015 report from the Migration PolicyInstitute estimated that only about 820,000 of the criminal aliens in the DHS count are here illegally.
To get to Trump’s 3 million estimate, immigration experts said, his administration would have to widen its net toinclude migrants who have been charged but not yet convicted of crimes, as well as alleged gang members andpeople charged with lower-level misdemeanors. Trump also has said he will crack down on people chargedwith immigration violations, including illegal re-entry and overstaying visas.
“People could be deported because they are living here unlawfully, not because they are arrested,” saidStephen Legomsky, a former chief counsel for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and professor ofimmigration law at Washington University in St. Louis. “That, I think, is what’s creating such fear in thecommunity.”
Many deported under Obama
Trump’s strategy bears some similarities to the current administration’s policy of prioritizing deportations ofimmigrants convicted of crimes. Obama set deportation records during his first term, removing roughly 400,000people each year and 2.9 million people overall. That’s more than any other president, a distinction that hasdrawn the ire of immigration advocates and earned him the nickname “deporter in chief.”
Deportations have fallen off in Obama’s second term, thanks to DHS policies that have limited deportations tothose with serious criminal records. But immigration experts say it would be relatively easy for Trump’sadministration to ramp it back up to 400,000 annually and even exceed that number by reallocating federalresources toward immigration enforcement.
“He can do a lot without getting any more funding from Congress,” said Stephen Yale-Loehr, a professor ofimmigration law at Cornell Law School.
Depending on how fast and far-reaching his moves are, Trump could run into obstacles quickly, including limiteddetention space and a backlogged immigration court system. Nationally, the average deportation case takesnearly 20 months to process, according to a Syracuse University database. In the Los Angeles immigrationcourt, whose jurisdiction includes Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties, the wait is more than twoyears.
“They are going to have to plan for where they are going to detain people that they take into custody, and figureout whether they have the infrastructure in place to do significantly more deportations,” said John Torres, aformer senior official at the Department of Homeland Security who served as director of U.S. Immigrations andCustoms Enforcement in 2008 and 2009.
Torres noted that Trump could get around the backlog by using legal processes such as judicial orders andexpedited removals, which allow the government to deport aliens without having them go before an immigration
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judge. But civil liberties groups and immigrant advocates likely would challenge those tactics as a violation ofdue-process rights.
In the end, Torres added, Trump likely will need additional funding and manpower for any substantial increase inremovals.
Without the resources to actually deport millions of immigrants, the Trump administration may rely on smallpolicy changes that create ripples of uncertainty among immigrant communities.
“The idea is to make life as uncertain and fearful as possible that people decide to leave anyway,” said DavidBier, an immigration policy analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute. “They’re going to be chaotic policy changesintended to cause chaos and panic among immigrants.”
But there are signs the strategy won’t work, he added. “Immigrants will figure out ways to work around it.”
There was some evidence of that last week at the Pomona day labor center.
“I don’t have papers, but I’m not scared,” Rafael Pablo said as he waited to pick up a job. “If I get deported, I’llleave. But I’ll come back. This is the United States. This is the country I love.”
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12/19/2016 Fiscal First Aid: Four Questions To Pull You Out of Financial Distress | PublicCEO
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Fiscal First Aid: Four Questions ToPull You Out of Financial Distress
POSTED BY : GUEST COMMENTARY DECEMBER 15, 2016
By: Julia Erdkamp, MPA
It’s a list no municipality wants to be on. When Forbes released their list of the Top 5 Biggest Municipal
Bankruptcies in U.S. History, three California jurisdictions found themselves front and center. The list
left many to wonder: what’s so different about California? What’s the status of California cities and
counties today?
If the recent election is an indicator, the issue of financial health remains a critical focus for many
jurisdictions. A record number of local measures were introduced on the November 2016 ballot to
increase or impose new taxes.
The challenges facing California’s cities are somewhat unique compared to other states. With many
local governments facing mounting expenditures and soaring pension costs, the threat of a debt crisis
seems to loom over many city halls like a dark cloud. Even for jurisdictions at relatively peak financial
condition, “uncontrollable” costs, such as pensions, and high interest burdens must remain at the
forefront of their long-range planning. Why? Because what appears to be minor structural imbalances
in the current economic environment can quickly manifest into a financial crisis for a jurisdiction as the
market inevitably shifts.
On the other side of the coin are financial pressures of a more universal and manageable nature –
diminishing or lagging General Fund revenues. As the life’s blood for local government, these financial
streams are the most critical to keep flowing. They are also the most vulnerable with financial
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indicators showing: housing market performance leveling off, increased energy and commodity costs,
and lagging economic growth.
So, what are cities and counties to do as all roads lead to an economic turmoil? The Government
Finance Officers Association (GFOA) provides a comprehensive, “12-Stage Financial Recovery Process”
to help local governments recover from financial distress. Just as physical emergencies require
immediate measures to stabilize the situation, fiscal emergencies require prompt action to keep an
economic downturn from deteriorating further. The GFOA calls this “fiscal first aid,” and in that there
are five primary treatments to apply to revenues for ailing jurisdictions.
Are we collecting all that we are entitled to from our current revenue streams?
Before making any changes to current taxes or fees, a local agency should first consider audit to
determine whether or not they are properly collecting the taxes they are already entitled to. Audits are
the keystone to accurate, healthy financial performance. Many of the tax sources tied to local revenues
are based on the “honor system” of self-reporting to governing agencies (i.e. California Board of
Equalization, Franchise Tax Board). Underreported and misreported (to incorrect jurisdictions) tax
liabilities are extremely common; this is especially the case with sales taxes, franchise fees, utility user
taxes, and business license taxes. Having unbiased and independent reviews of these revenue streams
not only ensures equitable treatment for all tax payers, it is the most efficient way to raise revenues
without raising taxes.
How can we improve the procedures for billing and collection?
The benefit of audits is two-fold: they provide opportunities for immediate increases to revenue, and
can be utilized as a tool to identify procedural inefficiencies or poor controls. If collections procedures
are not consistent and fair, look for ways to standardize them. The GFOA suggests a number of ways
to do so including public-private partnerships that allow vendors to assist with billing and collection
efforts. This ranges widely from assisting with collection of delinquent taxes to complete turnkey
solutions for administration of a particular revenue source. In the same way, vendors can also be a
useful source when it comes to the automation of certain procedures online.
Are our current fees ensuring proper cost recovery for services?
Cost allocation studies are very common at the federal level. They are required to determine the
repayment requirements for various projects, and fees are updated annually based on use.. Local
government would also benefit from such rigor related to fees. Ideally, there should be clear
connections between program revenues and operating budgets. At the very least, fees should be
reviewed to ensure: (1) fees are fairly allocated to beneficiaries of the services (i.e. user fees), (2)
expenditures related to the service are appropriate, (3) they’re comparable to neighboring
jurisdictions.
Is there a clear correlation between the tax (or assessment) and the benefit to the community?
The most successful tax or assessment measures are those with a clear nexus, where the public can
see a direct connection between the tax being imposed and the benefit being realized. There is a
perception of greater transparency for “benefit taxes.” Business improvement districts are a great
example of this, where a jurisdiction may finance infrastructure improvements in a particular area
through additional property tax fees imposed on businesses in that area. More recent trends in
California have led way to soda and sugary beverage tax measures. The funds from these taxes are
often used to fund school nutrition and public health programs.
Note: There is a fifth Primary Treatment recommended by GFOA that relates to passing delinquent tax
liabilities on to a private investor. However, this technique does not apply since California does not
allow for the selling of tax lien certificates.
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RELATED POSTS
No matter where a jurisdiction finds itself on the fiscal health spectrum, being proactive in asking
these questions is vital to ensuring your city doesn’t find itself on any municipal bankruptcy lists. One
message made clear by GFOA’s process is that no jurisdiction has to manage these fiscal challenges
alone. Just as no one would expect an emergency room patient to operate on themselves, cities and
counties benefit from leveraging public-private partnerships to provide the best antidotes for their
fiscal health.
About the Author: Julia is a Client Service Manager for MuniServices where she is dedicated to helping
local government maximize revenue. Prior to joining MuniServices, Erdkamp worked for 14 years in
the public sector including her work for the City of Sacramento, U.S. Department of Interior, U.S.
Department of Homeland Security, and the County of Orange providing expertise in information
technology, turnaround management, and financial/budget management. Erdkamp attended the
University of Southern California (USC) for her undergraduate education and holds a Master of Public
Administration magna cum laude from the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. Julia is available via
email or cell to discuss strategies for protecting and maximizing municipal revenues,
julia.erdkamp@muniservices or (559)246-2901.
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Religion in the Public SectorWorkplace
POSTED BY : WESTERN CITY MAGAZINE DECEMBER 15, 2016
By David Urban.
Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism are typically cited as the major religions of the
world, though many other faiths have tens of millions or more adherents. The United States has no
official established religion and since its founding has guaranteed its citizens the right to free choice
and exercise of religion.
For state agencies and local governments, these principles are not just abstractions but issues that can
arise in daily work. Public employers often face situations in which the religious beliefs of their
employees become a major legal issue. The U.S. Constitution, the California Constitution, and state
and federal statutes all set boundaries that can guide public agencies in how to address these issues
but, unfortunately, the lines are often blurry. What constitutes a “religion” can be the subject of legal
debate. The scenarios can also involve firmly held, personal beliefs on matters ranging in significance
from the timing of daily religious practices to the very meaning of life. Accordingly, workplace conflicts
in this area can quickly escalate into matters of high emotional intensity that affect morale, harm
productivity and can easily develop into a grievance or lawsuit.
This article explains the primary legal doctrines related to religion in the public sector workplace and
addresses some common scenarios.
What are a public agency’s options if employees seek to proselytize in the public sector
workplace?
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What if an employee spends a substantial amount of time in the government workplace talking to co-
workers about religion? What if he or she uses the email system to invite co-workers to religious
events or to explain positions on matters of faith? These questions involve all of the sources of law
mentioned earlier. Specifically, the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prevents the government
from:
Creating an “establishment” of religion;
Prohibiting the “free exercise” of religion; and
Abridging freedom of speech (including certain speech in the government workplace).
The California Constitution contains similar provisions. Title VII, a federal civil rights statute, and
California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) prohibit employers, both public and private, from
discriminating against employees on the basis of religion and require reasonable accommodation of
employee religious practices.
The laws sometimes appear to conflict — public employers cannot use their resources to promote
religion (under the “establishment” clause) but cannot discriminate against employees on the basis of
religion (under Title VII and the FEHA) and are restricted in their ability to allow expression of some
viewpoints but not others (under constitutional free speech law), including views on matters of faith.
Given these potentially contradictory requirements, how does a public employer respond to
employees who wish to speak, email or otherwise communicate about religion in the workplace? One
approach many employers use is to establish a policy limiting employees’ use of work time and the
employer’s email system to work-related matters only (typically with an allowance for incidental
personal use and an exclusion for use mandated by labor relations laws). In accordance with this type
of rule, employees may freely express their views on their own time as long as they do not interfere
with the work of others. But if an employee spends too much time at work talking with co-workers
about non-work-related matters, including religion, this can be addressed as a violation of the policy.
This also applies to use of the employer’s email system. Lengthy emails on religious topics can be
found to violate the policy, not because of the viewpoint expressed, but because they are not work-
related.
What if employees seek to take time out for prayer meetings during the workday or on the
agency’s property?
This raises the same concerns as the previous scenario. The First Amendment and the California
Constitution limit a public agency’s ability to curb employee free speech and association. But again, the
use of government property to promote religion can infringe principles of separation of church and
state and violate the First Amendment’s establishment clause. A public employer making special
accommodations for and expending resources to support prayer meetings can be problematic,
because it could easily be viewed as the government promoting religion.
To navigate these challenges, many government employers adopt an approach similar to that
described in the previous section. They allow employees to use a break room or facility to talk about
basically any topic on their own time. Employees can then use the break room for prayer to the same
extent employees are allowed to use the room to talk about any other type of topic. For example, if
employees are allowed to use empty areas to congregate on their own time and plan social events,
employees should not be prohibited from using the area just because their speech happens to be
about religion.
This is the simple answer; many circumstances will present issues that are not easily resolved. If
organized religious activities by some employees tend to create a hostile environment for other
employees, this will raise concerns under state and federal laws prohibiting workplace harassment.
Also, as described in the next section, an employee may reasonably come forward and explain that his
or her religion requires prayers at particular times during the workday and request a particular type of
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accommodation. Federal and state statutes require reasonable accommodation of religious practices,
and the employer must evaluate the situation carefully to comply with those laws.
What if employees request workplace accommodations for religious dress or practices?
One of the most important and sometimes confusing obligations employers face is responding to
requests for workplace accommodations based on religion. Requests can include those related to
religious dress — for example, headscarves, turbans or burqas. Others can be more difficult. What if
an employee requests for religious reasons to carry a kirpan — a Sikh symbolic sword or knife that is
supposed to be worn at all times — in the workplace and even in areas where weapons are
prohibited? What if an agency employee asks to have religious icons or images in offices or cubicles
visible to the public whom the employee serves? Similar issues can arise related to Christmas or other
holiday decorations, Bible quotations or religious content as part of workplace communications,
refusals to take certain oaths or requests not to work on certain days of the week.
First, look to California law for answers. In general, it requires reasonable accommodation of
employees’ religious grooming and practices unless accommodation would impose an “undue
hardship.” This obligation includes the employer’s exploring “the possibilities of excusing the person
from those duties that conflict with his or her religious belief or observance or permitting those duties
to be performed at another time or by another person.” Under FEHA, undue hardship means “an
action requiring significant difficulty or expense,” when considered in light of factors such as the
“nature and cost of the accommodation needed,” financial resources of the facilities and of the
employer, the size of the business and the type of operations. The applicable federal
antidiscrimination law imposes its own accommodation requirement on employers, including public
employers, and is in many ways similar to California law, though its accommodation requirements are
considered not as extensive.
In practice, applying these standards often depends very much on individual facts and circumstances.
An employer should be proactive and diligent in considering accommodations and cautious in
asserting the defense of undue hardship. Undue hardship can often be shown where accommodation
of the employee’s religious practice would require significantly more than ordinary administrative
costs, impair workplace safety, cause co-workers to inordinately assume the burden of work or conflict
with a statute or regulation.
Conclusion
In terms of practicalities, legal issues related to religion in the workplace can have a strong emotional
dimension for the individuals concerned. Sensitivity and tolerance are extremely important in crafting
solutions to these issues. In addition, managers should consider at the outset that employees asking
for accommodation of religious beliefs or practices will likely understand what is at stake for managers
and their co-workers and will probably help managers arrive at a mutually agreeable resolution.
This column is provided as general information and not as legal advice. The law is constantly evolving,
and attorneys can and do disagree about what the law requires. Local agencies interested in
determining how the law applies in a particular situation should consult their local agency attorneys.
© 2016 League of California Cities . All rights reserved. Printed with permission from the December
2016 issue of Western City magazine, the monthly publication of the League of California Cities . For
related information, visit www.westerncity.com.
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San Bernardino County Sun (http://www.sbsun.com)
Bodycams’ best use requires good policy
By The Editorial Board, San Bernardino County Sun
Friday, December 16, 2016
The Riverside Police Department will soon be the latest in the region to use body cameras.
On Dec. 6, the City Council approved spending $143,227 to match a federal Department of Justice grant to helpthe department buy 200 cameras and related equipment. The department anticipates rolling out the devices,which have already been ordered, in early 2017.
The department will be joining police departments in Chino, Indio and Ontario, among others, that use them.
As reported from Rialto, and many jurisdictions nationally that have used body cameras, the potential benefits oftheir use are numerous. Their use can provide useful evidence and de-escalate encounters between lawenforcement and the public. Reductions in complaints about officers and officer use-of-force incidents havebeen reported.
The trend of the past couple of years toward greater use of these devices is certainly a welcomed one — it showswillingness by law enforcement to add a critical layer of transparency to their practices.
But it is important to keep in mind they aren’t a panacea.
There are still debates about how to optimize their use. The point of the cameras can be rendered moot withinadequate use or policies dictated by the interest of police unions or departments fearful of what the devicesmay reveal.
Body camera policies are often a mixed bag. For instance, in critical incidents like shootings or uses-of-force, itis important that officers give their statements before being allowed to view body camera footage, as the legalityof uses-of-force often hinge on the perception of the officer at the time.
Fortunately, RPD follows in the footsteps of the Riverside Sheriff’s Department, which requires officersinvolved in such incidents give a statement prior to being able to view footage.
Police chief Sergio Diaz told the Community Police Review Commission Wednesday this was the big stickingpoint with the police union, noting the policy was “more apt to win the public’s trust than the reverse.”
The draft San Bernardino police policy allows the opposite — compromising the integrity of investigations andthe whole point of body cameras, which is greater transparency.
We encourage departments to turn to resources like the policy scorecard issued by The Leadership Conferenceand Upturn, to help maximize the potential of body cameras for the benefit of the public.
URL: http://www.sbsun.com/opinion/20161216/bodycams-best-use-requires-good-policy
© 2016 San Bernardino County Sun (http://www.sbsun.com)
12/19/2016 Substance Abuse Treatment to Expand in Riverside County | PublicCEO
http://www.publicceo.com/2016/12/substance-abuse-treatment-to-expand-in-riverside-county/ 1/3
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Substance Abuse Treatment toExpand in Riverside County
POSTED BY : CA FWD DECEMBER 15, 2016
By Nadine Ono.
Riverside County took an important step toward helping its residents with substance and alcohol
abuse issues. This week, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a plan, commonly known as
the 1115 Waiver, to expand and improve treatment for low-income residents struggling with substance
use disorder.
“Drug and alcohol dependence is a major health issue that impacts whole families, but it is hard for
families to figure out how where to go to get care,” explained Rhyan Miller, program administrator for
the Riverside University Health System’s Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Program. “The
steps we are taking now will make it easier for people to get the help they need, when and where they
need it.”
The Board voted for the implementation of the California Department of Health Care Services plan
that allows RUHS Behavioral Health Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Program to utilize the
waiver.
The California Section 1115 Waivers allows states to use Medicaid Funds through the Affordable Care
Act for uses that have been not previously been allowed under federal laws. Counties must apply for
the waivers and demonstrate why the funds would go toward those programs. Riverside County was
the second county in the state to apply for and receive the waiver.
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Under the approved plan, Medi-Cal (California’s Medicaid program) patients will be covered for a much
greater range of drug and alcohol treatment options – from outpatient to residential treatment.
Counselors and clinicians will also have new tools to assess each patient’s particular condition and
background and be able to refer patients to the most appropriate treatment.
Additional services that will be available under the plan include new case managers who can help
people navigate the care system, new outpatient and short-term residential services, withdrawal
management, narcotic treatment program services (methadone), recovery services, physician
consultation, and additional medication assisted treatments. Services are available to both adults and
teenagers as well as more options to help patients who might otherwise face cultural or language
barriers to traditional health and behavioral health care services.
RUHS is partnering local community-based organizations such as the MFI Recovery Center to provide
the expanded services. The organization’s Executive Director Craig Lambdin explained one of the
changes will take place for clients: “One of the things we can do with it is provide medication-assisted
treatment to our clients throughout our whole system whether it’s residential, outpatient and
particularly in the after-care component.”
By implementing the new program, Riverside County is not only helping residents combat alcohol and
substance abuse issues, it is also keeping potential offenders from committing crimes. The Riverside
jail study conducted by CA Fwd’s J-SCI team showed that 30 percent of jail bed days in the study year
were the result of new crimes involving drug and narcotics.
Additionally the plan will also help Riverside County residents who are released from jail and in need
to substance and alcohol treatment programs. Lambdin said these programs are vital “because,
especially with opiates, the recidivism is so high. “So the importance of maintaining an ongoing contact
and being there when they need their medications–if they don’t get them, they’re going to turn to the
streets and that’s how they end up back in the jails.”
Added Miller, “The ultimate goal is to guide them into a life of recovery so they can reunite or build
families, so that they can have an impact back on the community for years to come, which would
include staying out of jail and not breaking the law.”
Riverside County will begin implementation in February 2017 and, as one of the first counties to move
forward, can serve as a model for the rest of the state.
Originally posted at CA Fwd.
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12/19/2016 Ghost Ship fire mystery: What did fire officials know and when did they know it? - LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ghost-ship-fire-20161217-story.html 1/4
O
Ghost Ship fire mystery: What did fire officialsknow and when did they know it?
By Alene Tchekmedyian , Richard Winton and Paige St. John
DECEMBER 17, 2016, 6:00 AM | REPORTING FROM OAKLAND
ne of the biggest mysteries to come out of the deadly Ghost Ship fire is why authorities didn’t do
more to address safety and health concerns about a warehouse that some former residents described
as a “death trap.”
Fire officials said they had no record of their inspectors or firefighters going inside the building in at least 12
years, and city building code inspectors had not for more than 30 years.
But there are growing indications that some fire officials knew of at least some of the Ghost Ship’s problems.
Walker Johnson, an Oakland artist, said he saw firefighters inside the Ghost Ship on Sept. 27, 2014, during a
concert.
The Oakland warehouse known as the Ghost Ship lies in ruins after a fire that killed 36 people. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
12/19/2016 Ghost Ship fire mystery: What did fire officials know and when did they know it? - LA Times
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Johnson said he didn’t know why they were there but that it should have been clear the warehouse, where 36
people would die in a fire two years later, had serious safety issues.
“They couldn’t miss the danger of it all,” he said.
Johnson said he saw firefighters on the first floor but could not tell whether they went to the second floor
during their visit.
The visit came as officials were hunting for an arsonist who had set several fires in the neighborhood, but it’s
unclear whether it was connected to the search.
A spokeswoman for the city of Oakland said officials are looking into Johnson’s claims but could not confirm
them at this time.
“We are still combing through records of service calls to the property from our various departments and will
release those records as soon as we’re able,” she said.
One Fire Department source said firefighters did visit the building in the last two years but could not say
whether any of the firefighters entered the structure. Station 13 sits about 500 feet from the Ghost Ship
warehouse. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Oakland officials are under growing scrutiny over why the warehouse was able to operate as an illegal housing
complex for artists without inspections or action from the city.
Last week, officials said building code enforcement inspectors had not been inside the warehouse in at least 30
years despite the fact that the property and the lot next door had been the focus of nearly two dozen building
code complaints or other city actions.
Oakland fire officials said Tuesday that they had no complaints in their records about the warehouse and that
fire officials had not been dispatched there in the last 12 years.
Fire Chief Teresa Deloach Reed said a review of city records showed that the Fire Department never had any
triggers to inspect the property because it did not receive any complaints, calls for service or permit
applications.
She said a warehouse is an empty structure that would not ordinarily be subject to a Fire Department
inspection. “There were no indications this was an active business,” she said.
But the city later acknowledged the owner of the warehouse had a business license for the location.
A spokeswoman for Oakland said owner Chor Ng obtained the license in 1995 to use the warehouse as rental
property. Ng, who owns other properties in Oakland's Chinatown district, was up to date on city tax payments,
said spokeswoman Karen Boyd.
12/19/2016 Ghost Ship fire mystery: What did fire officials know and when did they know it? - LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ghost-ship-fire-20161217-story.html 3/4
Ng owned the warehouse through a trust and managed it and other properties through her daughter, Eva Ng.
She has not returned calls and messages in recent weeks. Eva Ng told The Times the day after the Dec. 2 fire
that her mother had no idea the warehouse was being used for housing.
Boyd said a business license alone would not trigger a fire inspection. An inspection would occur if an owner
applied for an operating or occupancy permit, she said.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that there is some kind of disconnect between city officials and some residents
over the warehouse’s problems. Several former tenants as well as neighbors have said they complained to
various city agencies about filthy conditions as well as unsafe structural and electrical systems. It’s unclear why
these complaints did not prompt more aggressive action.
At the time of the fire, Oakland building officials had an open investigation of the warehouse. They said an
inspector attempted to examine the interior of the building but could not get in.
Typically, if inspectors couldn’t get inside, they’d come back later with a warrant to gain access, according to
Oakland Councilwoman Desley Brooks.
The Oakland Police Department had also entered the building, including one such visit documented in a 2015
police report.
Fire Lt. Dan Robertson, president of the union that represents Oakland firefighters, said he constantly trains
new recruits to keep an eye out for conditions that would make it tough to fight a fire, like clutter in the
doorway, heavy locks on gates and bars on windows.
“I’ve been doing this for 27 years, and any structural firefighter that works for a big city that’s worth their
paycheck profiles buildings all the time,” Robertson said. “We don’t necessarily need to step inside a building to
know it’s going to be difficult to fight a fire.”
On his way to fight the Ghost Ship fire, a fellow firefighter told Robertson he knew the place and that it was like
a maze, cluttered with obstacles. We’re going to have to get defensive early, he told Robertson.
Questions about the competence of Oakland’s building inspection agency arose five years ago. An Alameda
County Grand Jury in 2011 released a scathing report accusing the city’s building services division of
mismanagement and having haphazard policies about conducting building inspections.
The grand jury found the agency was riddled with “poor management, lack of leadership, and ambiguous
policies and procedures.” It added that the agency had inconsistent standards on code violations and that the
violation notices sent to property owners were late and hard to understand. In addition, inspectors treated
property owners in an “unprofessional, retaliatory and intimidating” manner, the grand jury report stated.
Federal investigators said Tuesday they were still working to determine the cause of the deadly fire.
12/19/2016 For Ghost Ship rescuers, a scene they can never forget - LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-ghost-ship-rescuers-20161216-story.html 1/4
T
For Ghost Ship rescuers, a scene they can neverforget
By Alene Tchekmedyian
DECEMBER 18, 2016, 5:00 AM | REPORTING FROM OAKLAND
he first body he saw, he recognized.
She looked like a mannequin under a pile of charred wreckage about a dozen feet high, among
pianos, drum kits and amplifiers coated with soot.
As Brian Centoni carefully peeled away layers of debris, his body drenched in sweat under heavy fire gear, he
realized he knew her face.
Hours earlier, the fire engineer had seen her photograph on the news. She reminded him of his wife. Same size,
same race. She was somebody’s daughter. She was among those unaccounted for after a fire broke out during a
concert at an Oakland warehouse known as the Ghost Ship.
Brian Centoni of the Alameda County Fire Department recounts the night of the Ghost Ship warehouse fire in Oakland.
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12/19/2016 For Ghost Ship rescuers, a scene they can never forget - LA Times
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She was the 31st victim authorities pulled from the rubble.
“This situation was just, like, ‘Wow,’ ” Centoni said later. “It just got real, real fast.”
For days after the Dec. 2 fire, dozens of searchers fulfilled their grim mission in near silence. Some constructed
wooden shoring to stabilize areas where the two-story building was collapsing, while others filled five-gallon
buckets with blackened lamps, pieces of pallet furniture and horned skull masks while searching for bodies. The
work was slow and somber, done mostly by hand, at times with shovels.
Centoni spent roughly three hours digging through the smoldering hulk of the massive Ghost Ship. These are
hours neither Centoni nor other firefighters will ever forget.
“You go in there, you put your head down and you work,” said Brian Ferreira, a fire captain with the Alameda
County Fire Department who spent several hours that Sunday sawing wood and hammering nails to build five
large shores that could each hold roughly 16,000 pounds of weight. “We’re doing it with the intent to bring
closure to those families, to bring them their loved ones.”
Sundays are typically quiet at Centoni’s Alameda County Fire Station No. 10, several miles from the East
Oakland warehouse in neighboring San Leandro.
Centoni, a 36-year-old guitarist in a band with other firefighters, thought he’d squeeze in time between calls to
catch the Oakland Raiders playing the Buffalo Bills on TV.
But about halfway into his 48-hour shift, Centoni’s crew got called to the warehouse fire.
A feeling of dread ran through him. He knew he’d be searching for the dead.
“I knew I was going to see young kids, artists and musicians — kind of like myself,” Centoni said.
But he thought of his father, a retired firefighter who responded to the World Trade Center with cadaver dogs
two weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and felt proud to have been chosen for such a daunting task.
After a briefing, Centoni’s crew, including Capt. Bryan Dillingham and firefighter Brendan Burke, hopped on
their rig and headed to Oakland Fire Station No. 13, where they swapped out their dress uniforms for their
protective turnout gear. Centoni fastened his helmet and pulled on his gloves before walking a few hundred feet
to the Ghost Ship, past people weeping and laying bouquets of flowers outside the building.
It felt eerie inside; smoke hung in the damp air. Reality struck when he glimpsed that first body. In that
moment, he had no idea what the rest of the day would hold — whether he’d find one more body, or 20.
Coroner’s officials came over to snap photographs, looking for tattoos or piercings that would help verify the
woman’s identity, before her body was carried to a more secure area.
12/19/2016 For Ghost Ship rescuers, a scene they can never forget - LA Times
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As he dug farther down in the pile, Centoni noticed two more bodies. A man and a woman had fallen together
from the second floor after flames climbed walls and caved in the roof. Authorities fished out their iPhones and
wallets, still mostly intact.
“They really had no chance,” Centoni said. “The fire just snuck up on them so fast.”
If only the fire broke out at a different hour, he thought, when the warehouse wasn’t filled with people.
“It just trips me out how everything lined up perfectly to have this tragedy happen,” Centoni said. “It was
basically a burial ground for these people.”
With his face coated with dirt and ash, Centoni took a break that Sunday afternoon to hydrate. He almost
couldn’t eat after what he’d seen, but he felt fatigued and hungry. He scarfed down tacos and water, washed
up and waited to see if he’d be sent back inside.
He wanted to go back in, he told his captain. He wanted to help.
Another round of digging followed, but he found no other bodies.
By that night, Centoni had returned to his regular fire station. He threw his dirty turnouts in the wash and,
after showering, changed into a spare set.
Another emergency call came in. Someone was having chest pains.
With his muscles sore and a trace of soot still on his face, Centoni jumped into Engine 10 with his crew and
rolled out.
“It was like nothing happened,” he said.
Emotion would seep through later, triggered by a news alert, a mindless cleaning task, a photograph.
“Firefighters are faced with horrific things on a daily basis: victims of fires and auto accidents and medical
emergencies,” said Alameda County Deputy Fire Chief Jim Call. “It can weigh heavy.”
Waking up at his regular fire station Monday morning, Centoni glanced at his cellphone while still in bed. An
alert had come in from KTVU: Three more bodies had been recovered from the Ghost Ship. The final death toll
would be 36.
Centoni’s shift was over at 8 a.m. At home, he hugged his 8-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter a little
tighter than usual. When he’d picked up his daughter from school, a teacher walking with a line of students
saw him, stopped and asked, “Were you on Engine 10 yesterday?”
He said yes, and she gave him a hug.
12/19/2016 For Ghost Ship rescuers, a scene they can never forget - LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-ghost-ship-rescuers-20161216-story.html 4/4
Centoni spent his day off cleaning out his music studio, thinking of the victims as he moved his own amplifiers
and cables, equipment that resembled the ruins he’d spent hours sifting through the day before.
Later, he recorded a song called “Eureka” for his reggae-rock band’s upcoming album. It was almost as if he
was recording the song for them, he said, those lost in the Ghost Ship.
“You see how creative these people were; everybody’s super talented — DJs, artists, beatboxers — all super
talented people that loved music,” Centoni said. “I almost could’ve saw myself in this place.”
alene [email protected]
Twitter : @AleneTchek
ALSO
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Ghost Ship fire mystery: What did fire officials know and when did they know it?
A fire station was just 500 feet from the Ghost Ship. But fire officials say they have no recordson warehouse
Copyright © 2016, Los Angeles Times
This article is related to: Fires
12/19/2016 Print Article: Judge: O.C. sheriff closer to contempt over documents issue
http://www.ocregister.com/common/printer/view.php?db=ocregister&id=738732 1/2
Judge: O.C. sheriff closer to contempt over documents issueBY KELLY PUENTE and TONY SAAVEDRA2016-12-16 20:38:32
A judge said Friday that he might find Orange County Sheriff SandraHutchens in contempt of court because of her department’s reaction to anorder to produce documents in the trial of admitted killer Scott Dekraai.
In a hearing held one day after the Justice Department launched aninvestigation into the Sheriff’s Department and the Orange County DistrictAttorney’s Office – following years of complaints that both agenciesroutinely cheat and break the law to gain convictions – Superior CourtJudge Thomas Goethals grew visibly frustrated by the pace of theSheriff’s Department’s response to a discovery order he made nearly fouryears ago.
Goethals said “200 weeks, or 1,400 days” after he ordered disclosure ofsheriff’s deputy documents, newly discovered notes and other materialcontinue to trickle in. Last week, his court was presented with anestimated 5,600 new pages, all of which the Sheriff’s Department wantsto be kept sealed from the public.
Goethals described the volume of data as a “document dump” and saidhe has been reading through the material himself. He ordered lawyers for
the sheriff and the county to read each page and make an argument why that page should be kept secret. Hegave them until Jan. 13 to respond.
Goethals noted that the latest batch of paperwork includes full-page redactions that haven’t been approved bythe court, and that many of the pages don’t appear to be privileged or protected.
“This is the type of discovery response that the court has come to expect from the sheriff,” Goethals said.
Hutchens, through a spokesman, declined to comment.
Dekraai is fighting a death sentence for killing eight people and wounding another at a Seal Beach hair salon in2011. He pleaded guilty two years ago, but the penalty phase of his trial has been marred by prosecutors anddeputies’ misuse of jailhouse informants and failure to turn over evidence to the defense.
Earlier this year, the Sheriff’s Department uncovered 1,157 pages of secret logs that were kept by deputies inthe day-to-day management of informants in the Orange County Jail, including at least one informant who wasused by prosecutors to get a jailhouse confession from Dekraai.
Some of those documents also indicated that deputies are maintaining new secret records, and Goethalsordered the Sheriff’s Department to produce those pages. The 5,600-page trove delivered last week doesn’tinclude that material, but it does include material that the Sheriff’s Department wants Goethals to keep underseal.
Goethals said Hutchens, as head of the department, is responsible for the missing documents and the volumeof the new material.
“The last thing any judge I know wants to conduct is a direct contempt of court hearing for any elected official,'”Goethals said. “But we are coming closer and closer to such a hearing.”
12/19/2016 Print Article: Judge: O.C. sheriff closer to contempt over documents issue
http://www.ocregister.com/common/printer/view.php?db=ocregister&id=738732 2/2
Deputy County Counsel Kevin Dunn, who represents the Sheriff’s Department in the case, said deputies areworking diligently to comply with all orders and “shine a light into every corner” of their operations.
Dunn noted that officials have run into some roadblocks in trying to retrieve evidence because some deputieshave invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Goethals sealed the documents, for now, and said he would later determine what to release to Dekraai’slawyer, Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders, as part of the discovery process.
Sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Mark Stichter said the department has been “100 percent committed to responding toany and all discovery requests and subpoenas.”
“It’s an exhaustive search with a lot of documents, and we’ve taken that very seriously,” he said.
Among the efforts, Stichter said, the department enlisted 19 sergeants to review a total of 581,342 files from allof the shared computer drives in the custody division.
Contact the writer: [email protected]
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12/19/2016 How massacre at Seal Beach hair salon led to an unprecedented jailhouse scandal - LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-jail-informant-explainer-20161215-story.html 1/4
I
Q&A How massacre at Seal Beach hair salon ledto an unprecedented jailhouse scandal
By Richard Winton , Christine Mai-Duc and Shelby Grad
DECEMBER 15, 2016, 12:45 PM
t started with a massacre at a hair salon near the Seal Beach Pier and morphed into one of the biggest
law enforcement scandals in Orange County history.
Here’s a breakdown of the jail informant scandal from the pages of The Times.
What is this scandal about?The use of informants was first exposed in the prosecution of Scott Dekraai, who killed eight people, including
his ex-wife, in the Seal Beach mass shooting.
On Oct. 12, 2011, Dekraai walked into the Salon Meritage and opened fire, killing his ex-wife, Michelle Fournier,
48, along with salon owner Randy Fannin, 62; Lucia Kondas, 65; Michele Fast, 47; Victoria Buzzo, 54; Laura
Elody, 46; Christy Wilson, 47; and David Caouette, 64, who was shot outside in his car.
Federal officials are investigating the Orange County district attorney’s office.
12/19/2016 How massacre at Seal Beach hair salon led to an unprecedented jailhouse scandal - LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-jail-informant-explainer-20161215-story.html 2/4
Dekraai pleaded guilty to eight counts of first-degree murder in 2014. His punishment remains unresolved; he
will receive either a death sentence or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Prosecutors presented evidence that Dekraai made incriminating statements to the informant. A judge later
disqualified the district attorney's office from the case, saying it failed to disclose evidence about the prolific
serial informant. Secret jailhouse computer logs revealed he had been part of a scheme run with jailers to place
informants near suspects.
Prosecutors and jailers said that in this case it was a coincidence, but Dekraai's attorney insisted it was part of
an operation to elicit incriminating remarks from defendants who were represented by lawyers — a violation of
their rights under federal law.
At least four serious criminal cases — including two murder cases — have already suffered serious setbacks
because of questions over informant involvement.
Asst. Public Defender Scott Sanders, Dekraai's attorney, said that during the last five years there were at least 41
cases in which informants were questionably used, and his office is looking further back.
What has been the fallout from the scandal?Both the district attorney’s office and Orange County Sheriff’s Department have come under scrutiny for the
way informants are used.
Earlier this year, a panel unveiled a highly critical report saying a "failure of leadership" at the Orange
County district attorney's office led to the scandal.
The findings, presented by legal experts on a special committee established by Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas,
described the office as functioning "as a ship without a rudder" and faulted some of its prosecutors for
adopting a "win-at-all-costs mentality."
The committee called on the office to improve oversight of cases and promote prosecutors who place justice
ahead of legal victories.
Hasn’t the use of jailhouse informants been a problem elsewhere?Yes. In Los Angeles County, a scandal more than two decades ago involving jailhouse informants pushed the
county to adopt tough policies restricting their use. Now, prosecutors must obtain permission from a committee
before using a jailhouse informant as a witness. Other counties have been reluctant to adopt similar policies,
experts say.
What’s the latest on the case?
12/19/2016 How massacre at Seal Beach hair salon led to an unprecedented jailhouse scandal - LA Times
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Several weeks ago, an appeals court panel affirmed Goethals’ decision to toss Orange County prosecutors off a
mass-shooting case for their failure to give the defense evidence related to jailhouse informants.
The California attorney general's office appealed Goethals' decision, placing the blame for the withheld
evidence on the Sheriff's Department.
But the three-judge panel for the 4th District Court of Appeal blasted that contention as "nonsense" and found
that Goethals acted within his authority.
The appeals court found there was "overwhelming evidence" to support Goethals' conclusion that two jailers —
Seth Tunstall and Ben Garcia — had lied or willfully withheld evidence in court about informant records.
How about the families of the victims of the Seal Beach massacre?At a news conference last weekend, family members of victims called on the California attorney general’s office
to accept the convicted killer’s guilty plea in exchange for a punishment of life in prison without the possibility
of parole, hoping to expedite a case that has languished for years.
“We are exhausted from this continuous pain, and this has got to be over with,” said Paul Wilson, whose wife,
Christy Wilson, was killed as she worked in the salon. “Life will never be the same for us, but we should have the
chance to move on and heal.”
Wilson sharply criticized Rackauckas for “recklessness” that he said has further delayed the process and
accused him of “revictimizing” the families.
After Hattie Stretz, the sole survivor of the shooting, read prepared remarks calling on the state attorney
general to accept the lesser punishment of life in prison, one of the victims’ daughters interjected from the row
of family members behind her.
“We’re not all united in that, still,” said Chelsea Huff, daughter of Dekraai’s slain ex-wife, Michelle Fournier.
Huff said several of her family members don’t agree with the idea of dropping the death penalty and that she
had not been made aware of the statement or the news conference until the Orange County district attorney’s
office called her about it.
“I want it to be over, but as a family we need to stick together,” said Butch Fournier, Michelle’s brother. “We still
believe in the death penalty. We don’t want him to have that last bit of control, that last bit of what he wants.”
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