The San Bernardino County Sentinel

The San Bernardino County

Sentinel News of Note from Around the Largest County

in the Lower 48 States

Friday, April 26, 2013 A Fortunado Publication in conjunction with Countywide News Service 10808 Foothill Blvd. Suite 160-446 Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730 (909) 628-8436

See P 2

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Homeowner Questions

Upland’s Code Citation Motives

Three Purchase Orders At ARMC Total $64.4 Million

County Imposes Contract Concessions On Deputy Prosecutors & Public Defenders

After More Than A Decade, Burrtec Out As Operator Of County Landfills

Video Of Alleged Brutalizing Of Yucca Valley Motorcyclist Circulating See P 5 See P 3

See P 3See P 7

Victorville Taps Top Tier Criminal Defense Attorney To Deal With SEC

Gerry Newcombe

Andre de BortnowskyTerree Bowers

V ICTORV I LLE —The city of Victorville has retained the servic-es of the Arent Fox law firm to represent it with regard to further investi-gation and potential legal action by the Securities and Exchange Commis-sion.

The city, its city coun-cil, its former redevel-opment agency, its city attorney and some of its

employees, contractors and consultants have

been under the Securi-ties and Exchange Com-mission’s scrutiny for nearly three years.

At the basis of that investigation are ques-tions as to whether the city, its former redevel-opment agency, its air-port authority and its rail authority diverted bond money from the stated purposes for which those bonds were issued to

other programs, whether city attorney/redevelop-

ment agency attorney Andre de Bortnowsky purposefully misled in-vestors with regard to the actual and eventual use of the bond money, whether documentation created by the city im-plicates city officials in-dividually or collectively in fraud, and whether conflicts of interest ex-isted with re-

The county of San Bernardino this week moved to change the

operator of its landfills, breaking the relationship it has had with Burrtec Waste Industries over the past 12 years in favor of a ten-year arrange-ment with Arakelian Enterprises, Inc., which will do business in San Bernardino County as Athens Services.

While Burrtec and its owner, Cole Burr, had developed a strong bond with county politicians

over the years, becoming the fourth largest pro-vider of political dona-tions to elected officials throughout the county over the last decade, the cost differential on the combination of the bids and revenue the county will realize from tipping fees on refuse brought in from outside the county substantially favored Arakelian.

Gerry Newcome, the

county’s director of pub-lic works, recommended that the county switch to Arakelian. On April 23, the board of supervisors voted to enter into a con-tract with Arakelian run-ning from July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2023, at an initial base annual cost of $16,686,700 to be adjusted pursuant to the contract for additional services.

Three companies –

Arakelian, Burrtec and Waste Management, Inc. – made bids on the con-tract. At issue in those bids was more than the cost those companies would charge to operate, manage and maintain the county’s waste disposal system, consisting of five active landfills and nine transfer stations. Also considered under the county’s analysis was the amount

Even before the Up-land City Council gave final approval to its new administrative citation ordinance on April 22, one city resident was challenging City Hall on whether the escalation of the city’s enforcement efforts and the increase in its fining authority would be reasonably ap-plied.

The ordinance gives the city the ability to cite residents or business-es for code violations, subject them to a hear-ing process that utilizes city-paid and controlled hearing officers who are empowered to impose fines of up to $1,000 per day until the violation is redressed.

Robert Sparks, an Upland resident, said he was opposed to the city’s newly acquired authority and that the city has al-ready abused the power it formerly possessed. He said that the complaint-driven nature of the city code enforcement func-tion allowed city code enforcement officers to be used as a cat’s paw by vindictive neighbors against neighbors.

Sparks’ home in the 1400 block of Juanita Court stands out from others in his neighbor-hood.

“I take pride in the ownership of my house,” Sparks said. Indeed, over the years he has invested approaching $100,000 in improvements to the home. Nevertheless, de-spite and actually be-cause of his efforts at maintaining his prop-erty, the city’s code en-forcement division has made life miserable for him.

“I built a deck in my backyard fourteen years ago, primarily

Upon the recommen-dation of Patrick Petrie, the director of the county hospital, the board of su-pervisors this week au-thorized the expenditure of $64,409,217 to cover a portion of the upcoming continuing operations as well as the provision of supplies and services at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center.

The county will spend $60 million to pur-chase pharmaceuticals

over the next two years; $2,663,217 for the provi-sion of Nurse Registry Services for the next six months and $1,746,000 for non-emergency med-ical transportation ser-vices over the next three years.

The board approved a master blanket pur-chase order agreement with Cardinal Health for pharmaceuticals, in the amount of $30 million per year, from

A video that is pur-ported to show a Yucca Valley motorcyclist be-ing physically abused by Yucca Valley’s highest ranking law enforcement officer while the Yucca Valley town manager and assistant town man-ager look on is making the rounds in this desert municipality of 20,700 on Highway 62.

On the afternoon of March 13, sheriff’s cap-

tain Richard Boswell and sheriff’s lieutenant Brad Toms were accompany-ing Yucca Valley Town Manager Mark Nuaimi and assistant town man-ager Shane Stueckle as they were surveying road conditions on Linda Lee Drive.

At about 3:45 p.m., Jason Arrona, 37, was riding his dirt bike in the 5800 block of Linda Lee Drive when he had a

close encounter with the four. According to a sher-iff’s report of the inci-dent, one of the sheriff’s officers motioned for Ar-rona to stop but Arrona accelerated, coming so close to the officer that the motorcycle’s rear tire struck a book the officer was carrying.

Arrona, who later claimed he lost control of the motorcycle when he “hard braked,” went

down on the unpaved road, with the bike land-ing off to the side.

Both Boswell and Toms hastened to where the fallen motorcyclist lay sprawled on the road. Within a short period of time, a nearby resident, Robert Dean Nelson, ac-tivated a video camera and shot footage show-ing the officers as they sought to detain what appears to be an already

incapacitated Arrona. In the video’s open-

ing frame, Arrona is mo-tionless, face down on the unpaved ground with a dirt bike style motor-cycle lying roughly six feet beyond him. Cap-tain Boswell, perched over Arrona on the right side, has his left hand on Arrona's back, holding Arrona’s right arm at a right angle behind his back. Lieuten-

SAN BERNARDI-NO –Unable to wring from the San Bernardino County Public Attorneys Union voluntary con-tract concessions similar to those made by other county employee bar-gaining units, the county board of supervisors last week voted to unani-mously impose on depu-ty district attorneys and deputy public defenders arbitrator-endorsed sal-ary and benefit terms.

In response, the presi-dent of the attorneys’ labor association, John Thomas, told the board “a long road of lawsuits” challenging the unilat-erally-imposed working conditions is likely in the offing and that a strike that would bring crimi-nal justice processes in the county to a halt is also possible. “We’re willing to go down that road. This isn’t a threat,” Thomas told the board,

saying he recognized that a work stoppage by prosecutors and public defenders would com-promise public safety.

Thomas complained that San Bernardino County’s lawyers, who are being paid $11,693 per month or $140,316 per year, make $1,000 per month less than their counterparts in neigh-boring Riverside County.

The soonest Thomas can make good

Friday, April 26, 2013 San Bernardino County Sentinel

The San Bernardino County

SentinelPublished in San Bernardino County.

The Sentinel’s main office is located at 10788 Civic Center Drive in Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730

A Fortunado Publication in conjunction with Countywide News Service

Mark Gutglueck, PublisherCall (909) 628-8436

to learn of locations where the Sentinel is available or to provide news tips

Continued on Page 3

SEC Focusing On de Bortnowki from front page

10808 Foothill Blvd., Suite 160-446Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730

[email protected] 5796

gard to the various outside entities, i.e., con-tractors and consultants, whose actions and rep-resentations formed the basis for the expenditure of at least a portion of the bond money.

What was described in June of 2010 as a “non-public, fact-find-ing inquiry” relating to less than $40 million in bonds issued by the city mushroomed, in August 2010, into a full-blown investigation on how the city had spent some $480 million received from bond offerings. At that point in the investi-gation, the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) obtained subpoe-nas for over 77,000 pag-es of documentation on how the city marketed its bonds and then spent those bond proceeds. By February 2012, the scope of the investigation had extended to $700 million worth of bonds issued by the city and its redevel-opment agency, involv-

ing subpoenas for an-other 40,000 documents.

Federal investigators and an auditing firm hired by the city four years ago, Mayer Hoff-man McCann, have doc-umented that proceeds from bonds issued for redevelopment purposes as well as the civilian makeover of the former George Air Force Base into the Southern Cali-fornia Logistics Airport were diverted to other purposes.

An audit by Mayer Hoffman McCann begun in 2007 but not released until March of 2011 indi-cated “substantial doubt about the city’s ability to continue as a going concern.” Mayer Hoff-man McCann questioned whether Victorville can remain solvent, and un-covered tens of millions of dollars in internal loans that were never ap-proved, three funds that were $180 million in the hole and dwindling cash reserves. Mayer Hoff-man McCann said that as of March 2011 the city’s utility fund was $78 million upside down

and that cash in the wa-ter district had dropped from $15 million in 2009 to $8 million as of June 30, 2010, despite a $20 million loan made to the district from the South-ern California Logistics Airport Authority.

In 2004, the city ear-nestly set about to con-struct the 14-megawatt capacity Foxborough Power Station on east Nisquali Road, commit-ting to completing the project on a $22 million budget, consisting of money to be appropriat-ed out of the redevelop-ment agency’s operating fund. The intent was to generate electricity that would bypass the state power grid and be sold directly to businesses setting up shop in the Foxborough Industrial Park. The project failed to meet its April 2006 target opening date and in October 2006 the price tag for the project had escalated to over $54 million. Further con-struction delays ensued and with state mandated changes to the project that resulted in already

purchased gas-fired combustion turbines be-ing jettisoned for even more costly generators capable of running on biodiesel, its cost shot up further. In 2007, the city began borrowing from its general fund to shore up the project and then, as quietly as it could get away with, issued $90 million in bonds to cover the entire cost of Foxbor-ough.

In April 2008, after all of the bond money had been eaten up by the Foxborough power plant project and another $5 million beyond that was consumed, city officials declared their intention to connect the plant to the state power grid, in absolute contravention to the original concept for the plant, which was to bypass the grid and thereby avoid the sur-charge the state levies on electricity carried over its system so that low-cost energy could be sold to manufacturers to attract industry and jobs to the city’s indus-trial parks. Ultimately, the city failed to see that

project through to frui-tion and the city council abandoned it altogether after having sunk $126 million into it.

More than $80 mil-lion of the $300 million in outstanding bonds floated specifically for airport operations actu-ally funded city of Vic-torville operations or projects off Southern California Logistics Air-port property, including $1.8 million utilized to acquire land for a city li-brary. According to May-er Hoffman McCann, at least $21.8 million was

not spent in accordance with the bond covenants. Other airport money was used to further work on a 563-megawatt power plant the city was pursu-ing. The city also loaned $20 million in 2007 air-port bond proceeds to the water district to help build a wastewater treat-ment plant. Those expen-ditures were made with-out informing or getting the consent of the bonds’ insurer, Radian.

By 2011, the Southern California Logistics Air-port Authority (SCLAA) had accumulated debt of $102 million, twice the burden it had in 2009-10.

One issue repeatedly raised by Mayer Hoff-man McCann was that staff had not properly documented and sought city council approval for its numerous interfund loans. The city had near-ly $90 million in out-standing interfund loans as of June 2010. But only $30 million in loans had been formally approved by the council, accord-ing to the audit report.

Mayer Hoffman Mc-Cann reported staff did not properly document $20 million loaned be-tween the city’s develop-ment impact fee funds, representing the city’s road developer impact fee account as having more than $20 million cash when essentially all of that money was spent through the pub-lic buildings developer impact fee account to carry out construction at City Hall and the Green Tree Clubhouse. When SCLAA ended 2009-10 with an $11 million cash overdraft, Victorville brought the cash bal-


Continued on Page 8

FUSD Recall Referendum Vote On Garcia And Green Set For July 16

Victorville Retains Criminal Defense Attorney from page 2

Continued on Page 5(909) 202-4330 http://www.icrshop.com

ance to zero by borrow-ing money “for a term greater than one year” from its solid waste, rail authority and storm drain and street light-ing funds, according to Mayer Hoffman Mc-Cann. The city’s redevel-opment authority, which was decommissioned by state action in 2011, also loaned the airport more than $11 million to keep that enterprise going.

On December 1, 2011 a $10.6 million interest and principal payment on eight separate bond issuances made between

2005 and 2008 came due. The city defaulted on that payment.

On July 1, 2012, the San Bernardino County Grand Jury, after inves-tigating Victorville’s op-erations for three years running, delivered a re-port indicating Victor-ville violated state laws transferring redevelop-ment money and prop-erty taxes dedicated to its sanitation department to its general fund bud-get, while squandering at least $116 million on never-realized efforts to develop electrical gen-erating projects since 2005.

Initially, city attorney Andre de Bortnowsky, who characterized the

SEC investigation as “a fishing expedition,” as-sumed a primary role in dealing with the Securi-ties & Exchange Com-mission. Based upon the SEC’s examination of subpoenaed documents as well as interviews with city officials, de Bortnowsky has become a focus of the investiga-tion. At issue is action taken by the city upon his advice as city attorney as well as while acting in his capacity of coun-sel for the redevelop-ment agency and South-ern California Logistics Airport Authority. In-vestigators are examin-ing very closely several conflicts of interest that existed as a consequence of de Bornowsky acting in the dual and triple ca-pacities of city attorney, redevelopment attorney and bond counsel. Ac-cording to information provided to the Sentinel

by those with knowl-edge of the SEC inves-tigation, employees with Mayer Hoffman Mc-Cann as well as with Kinsell, Newcomb & De Dios, a Carlsbad, California–based firm which provided bond-issuing assistance and underwriting to Victor-ville related to several of its bond transactions throughout the 2000s, provided information to both the FBI and Se-curities & Exchange Commission which has made de Bortnowsky’s continued representation of Victorville before the SEC untenable.

Accordingly, the city has now retained Los Angeles-based Arent Fox to handle any fur-ther interchanges be-tween city officials and SEC investigators prior to the filing of any ac-tual enforcement action against Victorville or its

officials, including de Bortnowsky. Arent Fox has assigned one of its partners, Terree Bowers, to the Victorville matter. Bowers, the former U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, heads Arent Fox’s na-tional white collar crime unit.

Arent Fox has repre-sented a number of pub-lic officials or high pro-file personages in San Bernardino County who have had legal challenges in the form of being sub-ject to criminal or pro-cedural investigations or criminal charges filed against them. Arent Fox represented former Up-land police chief Steve Adams when he was on extended leave from his position and questions were swirling about him over his alleged hiding of a police report pertain-ing to alleged criminal action by then-Upland

city manager Robb Quincey. Adams retired, retaining his full pension and benefits. Arent Fox now represents Quincey, against whom the San Bernardino County Dis-trict Attorney’s Office has filed felony misap-propriation of public funds, gaining personal benefit from an official contract, and perjury charges. Arent Fox also represents Rancho Cu-camonga developer Jeff Burum, who is accused by the county district at-torney and state attorney general with conspiracy and abetting former San Bernardino County su-pervisors Bill Postmus and Paul Biane in the re-ceipt of bribes.

While with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Bow-ers created and led the Financial Institutions Fraud Task Force for the Los Angeles area.

as a playhouse for my kids,” Sparks said, not-ing he had obtained per-mits at that time for its construction. “Termites started to get into some of the structure, so I took off the detached bar where they [the termites] were primarily housed, and dissected the wood and found where they were and spot treated it. My next door neighbor, who never liked the deck and thought of it as an in-trusion into her privacy, called code enforcement. The city cited me with a stop work order and sent out Luis Texiera from building and safety. He was concerned primarily

with finding out whether I was doing new con-struction, which would have to be permitted, or repairing something pre-existing. I showed him what I was doing and his attitude was I was just doing normal mainte-nance on something that was already permitted and had been there for 14 years. He said he was not sure what the complaint was about, but said, ‘You still have to go down to City Hall and explain.’ So I took off work and went down to building and safety and explained that I was just doing spot maintenance and was not building anything new. Carlos at the front coun-ter said there was no is-sue with that and for me to go ahead. So, I was

releveling the surface and covering it with new fiberglass and putting in a sunscreen and two months later I get anoth-er stop work notice and was told to go to building and safety again, where I met with Mark Morton, the senior city building official. I explained to him what I was doing. He said that if it was ex-tensive repairs and I was upgrading the side rail, there was a new code es-tablished in 2008 that re-quired that it be 42 inch-es rather than 36 inches. That would require a new permit, a plot plan, and an engineer’s draw-ing, which would cost thousands of dollars. I said, ‘This is ridiculous. If I do maintenance, I’m out of compliance. If I let

it go, I’m in compliance.’ Mark said he would send Luis out there to look at it again and he left it up to him. I called Luis and never heard back from him. I went ahead and finished all of the main-tenance on the deck and got the sun screen up. Lo and behold, in April [2012] I get a notice from one of the code enforce-ment officers, Rachel Jarvis, that I didn’t fol-low through and replace the railing. And she says, ‘By the way, the columns in front of your house appear to be higher than three-and-a-half feet and I’m citing you for that.’ I responded back to her and to the city manager, Stephen Dunn, who I

Upland Code En-forcement from front page

on his litigative or strike

commitments will be on May 8, when the union’s board next meets.

David Wert, the coun-ty’s public information

officer, said the board had imposed “fair con-tract terms” and that the action was “saving tax-payers an estimated $3.6

million over the next 14 months and avoiding po-tential reductions in pub-lic service. The county negotiated in good faith

with the union for more than two years, even though most labor agree-ments are reached within six months. The process

included independent arbitration requested by the union, which con-

The special Fontana School Board recall ref-erendum against board members Leticia Gar-cia and Sophia Green is scheduled for July 16.

The Board of Educa-tion passed a resolution on April 3 calling for the election on the July date. The San Bernardino County Elections Office

will hold the election at an estimated cost of $102,000, based upon a resolution passed by the Board of Education on April 3.

Proponents of Gar-cia and Green’s removal qualified the matter for a vote by gathering the signatures of more than fifteen percent of the

registered voters living within the school dis-trict’s boundaries.

By reducing the num-ber of polling places where votes will be cast in the special election from the 30 normally used during regularly scheduled elections to 12, the estimated cost of the election has been re-

duced from a previously estimated $142,000 to $102,000.

Green protested the reduced number of poll-ing places, suggesting it may worsen her and Gar-cia’s prospects of surviv-ing the recall.

Those wishing to cast early votes in the elec-tion can begin doing so

as of June 17 at the Elec-tions Office, 777 E. Ri-alto Avenue in San Ber-nardino. Those living in the district who are not registered to vote now must register by July 1 to participate in the recall election. Voters wishing to obtain a mail ballot for this election must make that request by July 9

and those ballots must be received by the elec-tions office no later than 8 p.m. on Election Day in order to be accepted and counted. A ballot postmarked on Election Day, but not received in the elections office, will not be counted.

Pay Reductions Im-posed On Attorneys from front page


Continued on Page 7

Arakelian Dis-places Burrtec As County Landfills Opeator from front page of revenue each of those companies could gener-ate into the county in the form of tipping fees at the landfills. All three are trash haulers and, as such, have a need to dis-pose of the refuse they collect.

Burrtec is San Ber-nardino County’s largest trash hauler, serving 16 of the county’s 24 incor-porated cities – Adelanto, Apple Valley, Barstow, Fontana, Grand Ter-race, Highland, Mont-clair, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Rialto, San Bernardino, Twentynine Palms, Upland, Victor-ville, Yucca Valley and Yucaipa – as well as doz-ens of its unincorporated communities, including Amboy, Angeles Oaks, Baker, Barton Flats, Bloomington, Cima, Crestline, Daggett, Del Rosa, Devore, Dumont Dunes, East Highlands, El Rancho Verde, Forest Falls, Fort Irwin, Hallor-an, Helendale, Hinkley, Kelso, Lake Arrowhead, Landers, Lenwood, Lu-cerne Valley, Ludlow, Mentone, Mountain Pass, Mt. Baldy, New-berry Springs, Nipton, Oak Glen, Running Springs, San Antonio Heights, Silver Lakes and Yermo. For that rea-son, Burrtec appeared to be in a favorable po-sition in terms of being able to renew its contract with the county to run its landfills.

Arakelian, however, operating as Athens Services, hauls trash in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties, including the cities of Altadena, Azusa, Bell Gardens, Commerce, Covina, Glendora, Ir-windale, La Canada-Flintridge, Lake Forest, Los Angeles, Monrovia, Mission Viejo, Monte-bello, Monterey Park, Palos Verdes Estates, Pasadena, Placentia, Po-mona, Redondo Beach, Riverside, Rosemead, San Fernando, San Ga-briel, San Marino, San-ta Ana, Sierra Madre, South El Monte, South Pasadena, Temple City, Villa Park, West Covina,

and West Hollywood. According to New-

combe, by November Arakelian can make ar-rangements to deposit a significant portion of the trash it picks up in those three counties into San Bernardino County’s landfills, bringing with that trash tipping fees that will in large part off-set the cost it will charge for running the landfills and transfer stations.

“Athens is propos-ing to import 800,000 tons of solid waste per year during the term of the contract, which will bring gross revenue to the county in the amount of approximately $14.8 million for Fiscal Year 13/14 and approximately $22.3 million per year thereafter,” Newcombe told the board of super-visors.

Arakelian, Burrtec and Waste Management submitted by the Novem-ber 14, 2012 deadline set by the county their proposals to operate the county’s landfills. The county then formed an evaluation committee, consisting of representa-tives from the county’s solid waste management division, the county ad-ministrative office, the Riverside County Waste Management Depart-ment, and the city of Big Bear Lake to review and evaluate the proposals. Interviews with all three bidders were conducted on December 19, 2012. After those oral inter-views, the evaluation committee requested additional information from all three, including tonnage importation vol-ume commitments. “The evaluation committee completed their evalua-tion of the proposals, and ranked the three propos-als considering overall best value to the county based on the evaluation criteria set forth in the request for proposals,” according to Newcombe. “After thoroughly and fully considering all in-formation submitted by the proposers, the net annual cost to the coun-ty, including import ton-nage commitments [is] a net annual cost of $6 mil-lion for Athens the first year and $362,000 each year thereafter, a net an-

nual cost of $9.5 million for Burrtec and a net an-nual cost of $12.7 million for Waste Management. Athens is proposing to import 800,000 tons of municipal solid waste and processed green ma-terial per year during the 10-year term of the con-tract, which will bring gross revenue to the county in the amount of approximately $22 mil-lion per year, making the net annual cost of their contract approximately $362,370.”

Newcombe, alluding to the consideration that Burrtec is a proven en-tity in terms of operating the county’s landfills, expressed confidence that Arakelian/Athens will be able to handle the job once in place.

“Athens is a fourth generation family owned company that has been in business for more than fifty years provid-ing recycling and waste collection services,” Newcombe said. “Athens presently operates sev-eral transfer station and material recycling facili-ties. While Athens does not presently operate any landfills, its manage-ment team has extensive experience in managing, permitting and operat-ing landfills and transfer stations, possessing over 92 years of combined management experi-ence with a history of responsibility for nine landfills in Los Ange-les, Ventura, Riverside and Kings Counties as well as five large transfer stations in Los Angeles County. Athens has as-sembled a well-qualified team fully capable of meeting or exceeding the county’s standards. The solid waste manage-ment division assessed the effect on the county’s solid waste system of re-ceiving additional waste from an out-of-county source and determined it would be beneficial to the county’s solid waste system to receive such additional waste given the significant decline in tonnage and resulting de-crease in revenue experi-enced over the past sev-eral years. The division also reviewed the request in light of the county’s goal to carefully man-

age the waste stream and the acceptance of solid waste generated outside of the county in order to achieve optimum life of the disposal sites within the county’s solid waste disposal system. The di-vision has determined that allowing the ac-ceptance of solid waste imported by Athens will not adversely impact the solid waste manage-ment division’s ability to handle the county’s current and projected fu-ture solid waste stream. The Mid-Valley Landfill has a current excess ca-pacity of approximately 55,000,000 cubic yards of airspace beyond the permit closure date of 2033. After accepting the import from Athens during the contract term, there will still be enough capacity to January 2084. Additionally, the revenue from this waste will help offset current losses that follow the re-duction in tonnage being received at the county’s disposal sites.

The additional rev-enue will make the di-

vision’s enterprise fund solvent for the next 10 years, avoid closing des-ert landfills and transfer stations, avoid signifi-cant rate increases, make up for the loss of San Bernardino City waste, and allow funds to be set aside to address current-ly unfunded liabilities and corrective actions.”

Arakelian/Athens will charge $16,686,700 per year to operate the land-fills and transfer stations. Newcombe told the Sen-tinel this week, “Burrtec proposed charging something less than that, $15.8 million, and Waste Management slightly more, $17.2 million. But neither Waste Manage-ment nor Burtec could offer as much imported waste. Athens will bring in 800,000 tons per year beginning in No-vember. Burrtec would have brought in 380,000 tons. Waste Manage-ment estimated 200,000 tons. Athens will pay us $26.75 per ton to bury that waste at our land-fills When you consid-ered the revenue into

the county, the overall net total to have Athens manage our system is significantly lower than the other proposers.”

Burrtec’s contract with San Bernardino County for landfill man-agement was set to ex-pire on June 30, 2012 and was extended for one year to allow the just-concluded bidding pro-cess to proceed. Burrtec on July 1, 2001, was given an 11-year county contract to manage the county’s trash-disposal sites in the aftermath of a far-reaching scandal involving high ranking county officials and the prior landfill operator, Norcal.

Norcal was given an $18 million per year con-tract in 1989 to manage some of the county’s landfills upon the recom-mendation of then coun-ty administrative officer Harry Mays. In 1995, af-ter Mays had left the em-ploy of the county and was working as a consul-tant for Norcal, the coun-ty entered into a $40


Upland Code En-forcement from page 3

Continued on Page 6

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thought would be a voice of reason. What I got back was I was being threatened with pros-ecution for maintaining the home I have lived in for 26 years. My neigh-bor to the east, who has video cameras pointed at my property throughout her backyard, has resent-ed me having a deck in my own backyard for 14 years because she felt it was intruding on her pri-vacy. She complained as soon as I started mainte-nance work on my deck. She used code enforce-ment to make a personal attack on me. So the next thing is I have two code enforcement officers, a building inspector and two police cruisers show up at my house and they state that the columns on the front of my home appear to be higher than three-and-a-half feet. I measured the columns, which are light posts, myself. They were not higher than three-and-a-half feet. What I no-ticed was that the roots from the city-planted trees were causing dis-placement of the side-walk so it looked from a certain perspective that the posts were higher up than they were. So, Luis goes and measures the columns and he deter-mines they are less than three-and-a-half feet. At that point, they had been putting me through this for months. They were using the code en-forcement department to carry out a vendetta for someone else. Because a code enforcement offi-cer left her tape measure back at the office, I was declared guilty of a vio-lation and had to prove my innocence. They are

issuing citations that say it ‘appears’ a violation has taken place and then using their department to intimidate and harass citizens without just cause and threaten them with prosecution if they don’t come down to their office in 10 days. They are looking for anything to pick a fight over.”

Sparks wrote a letter to Dunn, decrying the city’s action. “I suggest you drop this personal vendetta you are pursu-ing and put our tax dol-lars to better use,” he

the columns for the lights set into them. They cited him for not having a per-mit for the electrical wir-ing. Sparks paid $250 for the permit, justifying the interminable code en-forcement effort that had been carried out against him.

“Is that what all of this is about – turning neigh-bors against neighbors?” Sparks asked. “Regard-ing the columns’ height, I make every effort to make my home not only look attractive, but also follow city codes regard-

around it. There are two columns placed on either side of the sidewalk lead-ing to the entry. The col-umn on the right is a per-fect 42” high, per code. The column on the left is level to the one on the right. The city trees at the curb have roots that have altered the height of the sidewalk such that it slopes downward from right to left. I doubt that the city would or should spend the time and mon-ey to make the sidewalk level. Regarding the deck railing issue, the mainte-

I simply put it back the way it was originally permitted, much as you would replace the tread on a step or repaint. The city has spent an inor-dinate amount of time trying to establish petty violations and this is es-pecially obvious when I observe more blatant violations around town that clearly have not been addressed. It is my hope that as the city receives ‘complaints’ regarding my efforts to improve my property, the city will finally view them as

taining that after Jarvis carried out research on his property going back 40 years, she could not find a permit for the cov-er over Spark’s patio.

At the April 22 coun-cil meeting just before the city council voted 3-2 to give final passage to the administrative ci-tation ordinance, Dunn said, “We’re not through with Mr. Sparks yet.”

Under the ordinance passed by the city coun-cil this week, which was opposed by Sparks and six others during the public hearing, the city now has the authority to fine him a maximum of $1,000 per day until he comes into compliance with their demand that he deconstruct and re-move his patio cover.

City manager Stephen Dunn told the Sentinel the city felt it had jus-tification in pursuing both code enforcement and building and safety inspections on Sparks’ property.

“He was able to give everyone his side of the story for four minutes at tonight’s council meet-ing,” Dunn said on April 22. “You haven’t heard our side yet.”

Asked by the Sentinel to present the city’s case against Sparks, Dunn responded, “I don’t think I’m in a position to do that. Building and safety determined he didn’t have a permit for the lighting posts. What does that tell you?”

wrote. “Don’t use me for your job justification.”

In response, the city went over Spark’s prop-erty with a fine-toothed comb once more, at which point city inspec-tors found that there were electrical lines in

ing height and place-ment. I would invite anyone to come onto my street and look at my house. It is an oasis in a neighborhood of medi-ocrity. What I have done is overbuilt my property in comparison to what is

nance I performed was on an existing permitted and engineered struc-ture. The structure over time needed some repair and I repaired those ar-eas that needed it. I did not enlarge it, restruc-ture it, or repurpose it,

simply neighbor retali-ation on unrelated mat-ters rather than affronts against city safety.”

That, however, does not appear to be the case. At present the city is pursuing another case against Sparks, main-

May 1, 2013 through April 30, 2015, for a to-tal amount of $60 mil-lion over two years. The outlay will come from state Medi-Cal, federal Medicare, and private insurances. According to Petre, the bulk purchase agreement with Cardi-nal Health will make the county eligible for a re-bate of $63,660 during 2013-14.

Since 2008, the coun-ty has participated in a group purchasing strat-egy with University

HealthSystem Consor-tium/Novation to place large volume purchases with various vendors. Under that arrange-ment, in August 2009 the board of supervisors approved the issuance of a purchase order with Cardinal Health to pro-vide the county hospital, also known as Arrow-head Regional Medical Center, with pharmaceu-ticals for the period of August 11, 2009 through April 30, 2013 with two one-year options to ex-tend. According to Petre, “The transition to Cardi-nal Health has resulted in estimated savings of

$200,000 per year.”In 2012, Arrowhead

Regional Medical Center established the Arrow-Care program to provide comprehensive medical services for low-income county citizens and le-gal permanent residents who are not eligible for Medi-Cal. The addition of ArrowCare patients and the increase in the uninsured has increased patient volume and need for pharmaceuticals.

The prior amend-ments extending the agreement with Cardi-nal Health referenced a “base agreement” which the county later deter-

mined it was not a party to. This base agreement is an agreement between Cardinal and University HealthCare System/No-vation, the group pur-chasing organization. This week, Arrowhead Regional Medical Center asked for and received permission to enter into a new agreement with Cardinal Health for two years instead of trigger-ing the extensions to al-low the county hospital to continue purchasing pharmaceuticals at a lower rate based on pa-tient volume, resulting in an overall cost savings. The competitive solici-

tation will be completed through Novation within the scope of the general purchase order.

At Petre’s request, the board authorized the county’s purchas-ing agent to issue mas-ter blanket purchase orders in the aggregate amount of $2,663,217 for the provision of Nurse Registry Services, for the period of January 1, 2013 through Septem-ber 30, 2013 from All-Star Staffing; Certified Nursing Registry, Inc.; Healthcare Pros, Inc.; HRN Services, Inc.;

County Hospital Expenditures from front page

Despite its splendor, Robert Sparks’ home has been the repeated target of city of Upland code en-forcement actions brought on by the persistent complaints of a single neighbor.


$64.4 Million In Hospital Expenses from page 5

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San Bernardino County Coroner Reports

The Coroner Reports are reproduced in their original format as authored by department personnel.

Juno Healthcare Reg-istry, Inc.; Med-Link Nursing Services, Inc.; MedStaff Healthcare Solutions; Medical Staff Network (MSN); Plati-num Healthcare Staff-ing; PRN Funding, LLC, doing business as Simply the Best Healthcare; Pro-cel Temporary Services; Pro-Tem Personnel; Readylink Healthcare; Star Nursing; and Tem-pus, LLC, doing busi-ness as Emerald Health Services.

The use of registry nurses at the county hos-

pital has long been prac-ticed.

On March 4, 2008, the board approved six-teen countywide agree-ments for temporary help services, some of which included nurses, for a total not-to-exceed amount of $9 million from March 1, 2008 through February 28, 2011. In January 2009, the board approved ten nurse registry contracts at a cost of $1,500,000 per year, from January 27, 2009 through June 30, 2012. In March 2009, the board approved eleven additional nurse registry contracts with a $1.5 million expenditure limit, through June 30,

2012. In June 2009, the board approved ten ad-ditional nurse registry contracts, again with a $1.5 million expenditure limit through June 30, 2012. In March 2012, the board approved amend-ments with 8 of the 31 contracts, increasing the not-to-exceed amount by $6,882,041, from $1,500,000 to $8,382,041 through June 30, 2012. In August 2012, the board approved amend-ments with 14 of the 31 contracts, increas-ing the not-to-exceed amount by $3,000,000, from $8,382,041 to $11,382,041, and extend-ing the termination date from June 30, 2012 to

December 31, 2012. In October 2012, a re-

quest for proposals for temporary help nurse registry services at Ar-rowhead Regional Medi-cal Center was issued, prompting fourteen pro-posals from interested vendors. The review process took longer than expected and the exist-ing contracts expired on December 31, 2012. On March 14, 2013, the evaluation committee recommended awards with nine vendors. Three appeals were received. In order to address ven-dor concerns and ensure the opportunity for all interested vendors to participate, the purchas-

ing department has rec-ommended a new solici-tation. In the meantime, the county has expended $259,079 on registry nurse services and will continue paying for these critical services until the new bid for medical tem-porary help including nurses, therapists and other medical techni-cians is completed.

Nurse registry ser-vices, in particular are vital to maintain nurse-to-patient ratios required by Assembly Bill 394. Ratios in acute care hos-pitals and psychiatric hospitals reflect the max-imum number of patients that may be assigned to a registered nurse during

one shift. The purchase order approved Tuesday will ensure nurses are on hand through September 30.

Petre also convinced the board of supervisors to approve agreements with Goodfaith Medical Transportation Com-pany, Inc., GW Trans-port, Inc., and Premier Medical Transportation, Inc. for non-emergency medical transporta-tion services in the an-nual aggregate amount of $582,000 for a total aggregate amount of $1,746,000 for the period of April 23, 2013 through April 22, 2016. This will be funded by state Medi-Cal, federal Medicare, and private insurances.

State and federal law mandates specialized healthcare facilities (e.g. skilled nursing care, in-patient rehabilitation therapy, radiation thera-py, etc.) accept a patient with higher or special-ized level of care needs upon the request of an admitting hospital that is unable to provide the necessary care. Arrow-head is financially re-sponsible for the patient until the patient has been received by the identi-fied facility. In order to facilitate the transfer of the patient, Arrowhead Regional Medical Center contracts with medical transportation compa-nies to ensure a smooth transition of the patient to the identified facility.

Coroner case #701303207 – at 12:32 pm on 04/23/13, the California Highway Patrol received a 911 call reference a traffic collision on Highway 138 and Little Hors-ethief Canyon Road in Hesperia. Officers found that two vehicles had collided head on. The driver of a 1991 Ford Explorer, Robert E. Miller, a 57 year old resident of Victorville, was pronounced dead on scene. The San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department MAIT Division is investigating the incident. (042313 CN 2344)

Coroner case # 701303155 – On 04/21/13, at 8:08 AM, 911 was called in reference to a fully engulfed house fire in the 82400 block of Wingate Avenue in Argus, CA. Upon arrival San Bernardino County Fire extinguished the fire and located the resident, 85 year-old Jane Vassar, in the house. Vassar was pronouced dead on-scene. San Bernardino County Sheriff Department is investigating the fire. [042113 1600 TC]

Coroner case # 701303118 – On 04/19/13 at 3:30 PM, Kristin Thrawl, age 26 and a resident of Yucca Valley was driving a 2010 Ford Focus westbound on Highway 62, 1 mile east of White Feather Rd in Joshua Tree. A military Humvee traveling eastbound drifted across the center divider into westbound lanes and struck the Focus. Thrawl was pronounced dead at the scene at 3:45 PM. The California Highway Patrol is investigating the collision. [04202013 1217 GB]

Coroner case # 701303102 – On 04/19/13 at 7:03 AM, Jason Garfinkel, age 40, a resident of Chino was driving a white 2001 Dodge southbound on Ramona Ave. in Montclair. For unknown reasons the vehicle drifted to the left and ran off the road into a flood control channel with the vehicle landing on its roof. Garfinkel was transported by ambulance to Montclair Hospital Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 8:07 AM. The Montclair Police Department is investigating the collision. [04202013 1217 GB]

Coroner case #701303084 – On Thursday, 4/18/13, at about 1:30 PM, a report was received of a shooting near the intersection of Barron and Hermosa Ave. in Yucca Valley. San Bernardino County Sheriff and Fire personnel arrived to find Martin Solomon Reyes, Sr., a 35 year old resident of Yucca Valley, with injuries. Reyes was transported by ambulance to the Hi-Desert Medical Center emergency room, where he was pronounced dead from his injuries at 2:21 PM. The incident is under investigation by the San Bernardino County Sheriff Department Homicide Detail. [04192013 0725 GB]


Landfill Contract from page 4

Wiley, The CoyoteCounty Wildlife CornerSubscribe to

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Send a check or money order for $30.00 pay-able to the Sentinel, to: 10808 Foothill Blvd., Suite 160-446, Rancho Cucamonga,CA 91730. Include your name, city of resi-dence, phone number and email address.

Videotape Of Sheriff Command-ers In Confronta-tion With Yucca Valley Motorcy-clist Circulating from front page ant Toms, positioned on Arrona’s left side, is us-ing his right hand to hold Arrona’s left forearm against the small of his back.

With his right hand, Boswell grasps Arrona's hair and yanks Arrona's head up, arching Arro-na's neck and head back-wards and then force-fully and rapidly pushes Arrona's head toward the ground. Arrona's left leg and foot spasmodi-cally jerk up into the air. Boswell then releases Arrona's hair and uses his right arm to pull Ar-rona’s right arm further up behind his back in a pain compliance hold.

Boswell can be heard telling the fallen motor-cyclist that he had as-saulted him. Arrona in-sistently responds that he did not.

Toms, with his right knee and right hand on Arrona's back, takes what appears to be a cell phone with his left hand from his shirt pocket and attempts but then appears to abort a cell phone call.

With the still prone Arrona’s arms pinned up at an extreme angle behind his back, Boswell stands up, entrusting Toms to keep Arrona in place and heads toward his vehicle parked more than 100 feet away. The camera pans after him, showing both Nuaimi and Stueckle within close proximity to where Arrona is lying on the ground. When the cam-era pans back to Ar-rona and Toms, it can be

seen that with just his right hand, Toms is able to keep Arrona’s arms sharply pinned against his back and he again utilizes his cell phone to place a call with his left hand. A minute and elev-en seconds after Boswell headed toward the sher-iff’s vehicle, he returns

with a set of handcuffs, which he then gives to Toms, who cuffs Arrona, who is yet lying face down in the dirt.

Subsequently, Bo-swell notices Nelson and begins questioning him about his videotaping of the incident, includ-ing trying to ascertain if the video had an audio component. Nelson, who is not seen on the video, can be heard responding to Boswell’s questions.

Arrona was taken to the Morongo Basin Jail and booked on three war-rants, including a no-bail warrant for possession of a controlled substance. He was charged by the district attorney with battery against a peace officer and arraigned on March 15. After serving 28 days in jail, he en-tered a guilty plea at his pretrial hearing on April

11 and was released with time served.

Yucca Valley resi-dents have been email-ing the video to other members of the commu-nity.

Nelson’s video has

been posted on youtube at the URLs http://www.yout ube.com /watch? v = r1 H W S d RQ m H E and http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=ux5Yw2N1p_8&NR=1.

million per year contract with Norcal to manage all of its landfills. Sub-sequently, Norcal Vice President Kenneth James Walsh, Mays and Mays’ successor as county administrative officer James Hlawek were in-dicted and convicted of engaging in a bribery

and kickback conspiracy in which Mays, who was paid more than $4 mil-lion for his services to Norcal, provided Hlawek cash and in-kind pay-ments between $4,500 and $5,400 on eight oc-casions and payments of $650 to $1,300 on at least 20 occasions. Hlawek, in turn, had steered the landfill management contract to Norcal.

In spring of 2008, a litter of coyote pups were found at the mouth of a den, without any mem-bers of the pack nearby. Nearly all were dead, with their eyes closed, the size of rats, holding on desperately to life.

In the wild, there is no history for wildlife found this way. One

ored underfur and long, black-tipped guard hairs that form a black dorsal stripe and a dark cross on the shoulder area. The black-tipped tail and caramel colored eyes are typical of every coyote.

Though coyotes have been observed to travel in large groups, they primarily hunt in pairs. Typical packs consist of six closely related adults, yearlings and young.

Coyotes are primarily nocturnal but can often be seen during daylight hours.

Coyotes have been known to live a maxi-mum of 10 years in the wild and 18 years in cap-tivity.

The calls a coyote makes are high-pitched howls, yips, yelps, and barks. These calls are most often heard at dusk or night, but may some-times be heard in the day, even in the middle of the day. When a coyote calls its pack together, it howls at one high note. When the pack is togeth-er, it howls higher and higher, and then it will yip and yelp and also do a yi-yi sound, very shrill, with the howl. Largely omnivores, coyotes are opportunistic, versatile feeders. They eat small mammals such as rab-

bits, ground squirrels, mice, birds, snakes, liz-ards, deer, livestock, as well as domestic cats and dogs. They will com-monly work in teams when hunting large prey, and take turns in baiting and pursuing the animal to exhaustion, or they may drive it towards a hidden member of the pack. Coyote attacks on humans are uncommon and rarely cause serious injuries, due to the rela-tively small size of the coyote.

Incredibly resilient animals, their impor-tance to the ecosystem

sions and communicate plans, coyotes are para-mount in the food chain.

Wiley came to Wild-haven Ranch within minutes of rescue, and was immediately put on a liquid diet by the bottle. Because he was so dependent on con-stant care and close han-dling of humans, this orphan became unusu-ally friendly, and did not care to be a part of his litter or later, the pack to be released. With a spirit that captivated the wildlife care providers of bouncing back de-spite challenges of star-vation, distemper, and later, parvo, this made

can only surmise that a predator took the life of the mother of the pack. In nature, it is the “sur-vival of the fittest.” This is the story of one brave pup, later named Wiley, who fought for life, and overcame the obstacles of a “dog eat dog” world.

Its scientific name, Canis latrans, means "barking dog" in Latin. The color of the coyote's pelt varies from grayish-brown to yellowish-gray on the upper parts, while throat and belly tend to have a buff or white color. The forelegs, sides of the head, muzzle and paws are reddish-brown. The back has tawny-col-

is significant. They are able to digest practically anything to stay alive. These canines rid the land of carrion and dis-eased animals, making them the best trash re-cyclers of all. Intelligent and able to make deci-

him a good candidate to be an Animal Ambassa-dor. Wiley can be seen at Wildhaven Ranch during their “Wings n’ Things” program by call-ing (909)337-7389. Visit their website at www.wildhavenranch.org.

Lieutenant Brad Toms (top) and Captain Richard Boswell perched over fallen motorcyclist Jason Arrona at a crucial point in the video captured by Robert Dean Nelson in Yucca Valley on March 13.


California Style

SpringingBy Grace Bernal

Terms Imposed On Public Attorneys from page 3

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cluded the county’s of-fer was the best option for both sides and for the taxpayers.”

Beginning in 2011, county chief executive officer Greg Devereaux began seeking across-the-board contract con-cessions from all of the county’s employee bar-gaining units to offset

skyrocketing govern-mental operating costs and end what he termed an “institutional struc-tural deficit” plaguing the county. Several of the county employee unions came to terms with De-vereaux, though not all were ready to accept the economies he proposed.

Devereaux achieved a major breakthrough when he convinced the county firefighters union to agree to pick up the 7

percent the county had been paying into the firefighters’ retirement accounts and decrease their annual promotional increases from 5 percent to 2.5 percent. But the firefighters' union had made those concessions conditional upon the other bargaining groups making concessions. Devereaux made some headway with all of the unions except the Public Attorneys Association,

which refused to volun-tarily accept the down-ward pay scale and ben-efit adjustments. Upon being what it considered pressured to do so, the association in July 2011 filed a complaint with the Public Employment Relations Board.

Thomas and the union board have sought to make an issue of what was characterized as generous pay and benefit packages for Devereaux, the third highest paid county administrator in the state, and the board of supervisors, the mem-bers of which receive sal-ary and benefits that are comparable to or exceed those of supervisors in most other counties.

At the same time, the public attorneys in San Bernardino County have salaries that are com-petitive with most other California counties and actually receive $1,400

per month more than deputy defenders and prosecutors in San Diego County.

Wert said the lawyers’ union and its members were simply unwilling to participate in absorbing the negative impact of financial challenges fac-ing the county that other county employees had,

and that led to the impo-sition of the terms.

“The union would not agree to bear the same sacrifices accepted by all other county employees during the current ne-gotiating cycle to help avoid layoffs and pre-serve public service dur-ing the economic down-turn,” Wert said.

Spring is a natural fashion extravaganza. Spring is here in San Bernardino County and everyone, it seems, looks astonishing.

Trees and flowers are bursting with color. Winter’s cold has given way to blustery spring and people are dress-

ing for the weather. The streets that were deso-late a few months ago are flooded with people coming out into the sun for a stroll, bike ride, or a meal. Nature is nearing its peak and people are trying to compete. Look at the garb on both men and women. People are putting things together. All nice and neat too, nothing fancy but fresh

and modern. There are a lot of nice collars be-ing worn with sneakers, biker jackets, and midi skirts. Let’s not forget the big news is all on men because they con-tinue to march into un-charted territory when it comes to fashion. It's crazy but awesome to see

men become more dar-ing everyday with fash-ion. So here we have the break from winter and people are reacting to

it in their own way and style of dress. They are adding color, flip flops, and fresh fabrics. Enjoy your little piece of sun-shine and happy spring everyone.

"Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months."

-Oscar Wilde

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