Redistricting is the process of drawing new electoral district boundaries in order to equalize district populations, and that’s that. It’s not about business preferences or to insure a candidates political election. The overall purpose of redistricting is to review districts and where necessary redraw districts in order to address any changes in population concentration. Anything other than this would be considered gerrymandering. Gerrymandering, of course, would the act of that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan or incumbent-protected districts. Gerrymandering may also be used to hinder a particular demographic, such as a political, racial, linguistic, religious, or class group. A considerable amount to consider.Unfortunately, the grey lines of redistricting interpretation has escalated into a cornucopia of questionable delineations when it comes to the final district maps. Some of the Principle Rules of Redistricting are as follows:
One such incident of questionable activity came up when legislative aide to Ward 5 Councilman Chris Mac Arthur, Chuck Conder questioned the possible move of his residence from Ward 4, represented by Councilman Paul Davis.
Has Mr. Conder been on a mission canvassing neighborhoods, allegedly in what some are saying ‘gerrymandering mode’ in hopes to swing a district to their benefit in the next council election? But Mr. Conder was the same person who allegedly was involved in an altercation at city hall, to take it a step further, has blatantly called City Council Public Speakers ‘idiots’, ‘ bitches’ and even taken photographs for record purposes. I suppose for Councilman Chris Mac Arthur’s reference file. One would think that this would be enough for firing. Nope, this is Riverside, we are old school, and some political families are deep rooted in more ways than one, a way that some say is responsible for how the City is currently runned.
But nothing surprises me these day when you view Moreno Valley School Board Member Mike Rios, (incidently who would want this person around or representing your children? But evidently they keep voting for him!). This is one man who has been charged with attempted murder, pandering, rape and pimping of underage girls, a wife who has been deported for illegally being in the country and drug transporting.…a great resume and now running for City Council of Moreno Valley, which I just believe did not make the application deadline. Should we call it sociopathic behavior?
What constitutes a resume for a position as City Council these day’s? Would it be the same that constitutes a resume for City Council in the City of Riverside? Could we say it would be much more than a ‘housekeeping’ background? I would imagine one should at least be able to read the city’s financial books as a start. But changing the page, how about those who have taken the oath of office to complete the office that they campaigned for, then inadvertently decide to change course to pursue another political office? Councilman Andy Melendrez, William “Rusty” Bailey and Mike Gardner, decided to run for Mayor without completing their obligatory oath to represent the constituents that they asked to elect them. Councilman Mike Gardner on record states at a City Council debate at Cal Baptist University in 2011, that he has “no intention to run for Mayor”. Soon as he wins the election for Ward 1 City Council, he decides to run. The same with William “ Rusty” Bailey, who on the eve of his reelection wining decides he may also just run for mayor. Is there something in Riverside water, besides hexavalent chromium that is causing these indecisive brain damaging responses from local leadership?
As you can see, Chuck Conder’s residence is in Ward 4, which is actually in the pink in color (according to the map) because it reflects Councilman’s Paul Davis’s area, and is currently in the Canyon Crest neighborhood of which is in question. The recommendation is that residential portion be shifted to Ward 2. Conder said Thursday that he and a neighbor circulated a petition, which he created after hearing Ward 2 Councilman Andy Melendrez’s impassioned plea not to split the Eastside. “When Andy talked about (how) contiguous neighborhoods should be respected and you ought to keep neighborhoods together and not split them, that’s what was going to happen to us,” neigborhood Conder said. Well it wasn’t really going to happen that way. First, if you look at where Chuck resides, we just called it Chuckie Land for the point of argument.
Keep in mind Chuckie’s neighborhood lines (the broad red lines) are made up of Ward 4, Ward 3 and Ward 2 residences. Even if one wanted to change Chuck’s residence to Ward 3, it would still remain within the boundaries of the neighborhood lines (large red lines), therefore not breaching the contiguous argument he attempted to make. The ward boundary line is indicated by the dark blue line on the map. Therefore the question of why the petition, as many are asking? Not to make this more confusing, Chuck Conder currently resides in Councilman Paul Davis’s Ward 4. The rumour is he wants to stay in Ward 4 so he can run against current Councilman Paul Davis in the 2013 election. Chuckie currently stated on record he has no plans to run against current Councilman Paul Davis in the next election. So why the effort? Can we assume that their is some underlying agenda? We’ve heard in the past the those in politics may somtimes portray a position of having no underlying meaning, but why do it? Is their a concealed agenda for Adkison’s , Bailey’s , Melendrez and Gardner’s efforts to pursue the Mayor’s seat? All have been Councilman, and all want to be Mayor…and the later three have discount their obligation to the constituents to fulfill their electoral term.
But is it also possible for those in City Council to negotiate amongst themselves pieces of their district within closed doors to insure their reelection? Is it also possible for someone to canvass district neighborhoods for signatures in order to play musical chairs with district neighborhoods in order to allegedly benefit themselves and possibly a political agenda in the next council election? Or a letter from the Greater Riverside Chamber President, Cindy Roth, to recommend the move of one area of Ward 2 to Ward 1?
I don’t know what really happened to decency in government, or if it ever existed, but what about our fourth branch of government? I always thought the responsible party would be our local paper, the Press Enterprise, so why does this publication feel the need to confine opinion in the way that it does? Opionion good or bad molds peoples opinions. People should not have to be protected by opionion, people can certainly be the judge of that. Relevant stories regarding the City don’t always seem to make to print. Is it because, maybe they are so tied with the city that a true investigative story of relevance may never come to fruition. Is it possible such non print occurrences may be due to accepting special electrical rates with the City?
CLICK THIS LINK TO VIEW PRESS ENTERPRISE CONTRACT WITH THE CITY.
Would this then obligate the PE to turn some stories down? But in the politically correct world we live in, it must seemingly be acceptable. There was a time when part of our checks and balances in government was the press. The presss was considered the fourth part of government, notwithstanding the judicial, executive and legislative, something went a rye when one piece failed to step up to the plate of protecting the taxpaying people.
Let’s also remember the City of Riverside owns it’s Public Utilities, and electricity can be purchased from next to nothing, allowing the City to make astronomical profits.
-THE BAILEY LAPTOP CAPER-
As Joe Friday would say “Only the facts”. The facts are, quite confusing… We have a teenager with an attitude, no back up (not muscle, but computer lingo for data protection), a dog that is a barker not a biter (I’m a lover not a fighter scenario) but still allowed the intruder to breach the premises, home was not ransacked, there was the feeling of being violated (which I can understand), no crystal or china was taken (did anyone care about this when they were a teenager?), emotionally disturbing face book postings (I assume nothing was password protected). A confrontation with the hacker online, and in this virtual world a chase ensued, eventually pressing him to leave this synthetic social playground.
JUST THE FACTS!
Neighbors saw the teen casing homes but did nothing, except for one individual who confronted him, and his response was, “I’m now going to lunch”. But according to the PE, Chief Diaz is on it, couldn’t comment on it due the ongoing investigation.
I’M ON IT..
Months back, Diaz was praised on his work on the apprehension of the fifty cent bandit, as we have posted on TMC. A perplexing set of circumstances, eventually leading to questions such as why did this individual actually spent the time to go on to his facebook site to post embarrising comments which were by all standards “juvenile”, (which I would and could not expect anything less from a teen). Did this teen know Councilman Bailey? Could he have been a former or current student of his??
No password, that was easy…Facebook, who is this guy? Let’s have some fun..
Many questions abound in this perplexing enigma, but thank god for the chief to hopefully bust this caper wide open. And it appears they did. Again the story reported by the PE still appears missing pieces of puzzle to make this story whole. The Press Enterprise states police was investigating an unrelated burgalary, when they happened to visit this teen’s home and spoke to the guardian. Shortly after, the guardian and teen met with detectives and surrendered the property. Now it appears to me that quite possible Bailey knew the teen, and/or the teen knew Bailey. In the real world this doesn’t happen. I’ve had property stolen as well as other residents in our neighborhood, and RPD response to the property stolen, is that it may never be retrieved or found. Needless to say, the laptop and all the other stolen items were found, good for Bailey. Other suggestions from emails to help Bailey, were using and online back up system such as Carbonite, to protect against stolen or lost lap top computers Lo Jack for Lap tops is recommended. Once a computer is turned by a robbery suspect, the laptop can be located within hours. Then simply a home alarm system.
This goes to reason, as police are not always at our disposal, as one wood street retired police officer had stated, RPD is not always responsive. This was one resident who walks his dog, and was accosted by three individuals on Ramona. Which he was able to hold back with the use of pepper spray. Now he walks his dog armed. He was asked, If residents should learn how to use arms for protection, his answer was yes. As trying times continue people will become more desperate, and individuals will need to be able to protect their properties and most importantly their families. Local gun classes and pepper spray classes can be found by calling any gun store. Until then, we can only wait to hear a response from the Chief himself on this laptop caper, which it appears their was a break in the story. A great surprise for residents who never receive this quick of a response from RPD. Regardless, as many residents agree, quite a bit of hoop la of stories for a lap top by PE, where other stories of importance are only mired into the depths and darkness below the camouflage of political quicksand.
Well, the culprit was arrested in this lap top caper. Officer Manning said police were investigating an unrelated burglary when they visited the teenager’s home (I would imagine inadvertainly) and spoke with his guardian. Shortly after that, the guardian and the juvenile, who is 17, “met with detectives and surrendered property taken in the burglary at Councilman Bailey’s house. The juvenile admitted participation in the burglary,” Officer Manning said. Police believe the teenager is involved with at least half a dozen other burglaries. Manning said they assume others are involved because of the types of items that were taken. Manning said the teen has no prior criminal record, but he declined to release any identifying details because of the suspect’s age. Bailey could not immediately be reached for comment (Well alrighty now). A neighbor told Bailey he had seen a male teenager peering into homes, apparently casing them, but it’s not yet known whether that was the same person police arrested. Whatever the vague cirmcumstances, we are glad Bailey has retrieved his famed lap top. We only hope that he would now fight so that this type of efficient police work can be attained by all citizens. In the East Side, currently RPD is still seeking clues to the June 30th murder of Ashanti Hassan and the January 26th murder of Gregory Ball.
-UNION MAYHEM IN SAN BERNARDINO: NOW THE MAYOR’S FAULT?-
It appears the Mayor is already being shaked down in a intimidation tactic to vote a certain way. This would not happen if people In the communities would educate themselves in city politics and attend city council meetings and voice their opinion, otherwise what you get is out side organizations which may not have the community’s best interest at heart, because what is at stake is their interest which may be union emphasized. Government should be representative of the people, not those who’s interest lies within a particular group or organization of a few. This in essence can only breach the health and safety of the community as a whole. As a whole the community must pay for it in higher taxes. And that is would substantiate a breach of public trust by those who took an oath to protect and represent their constituents, rather than their obligations to their contributors. Well, this will continue to become and ongoing conundrum brought to the forefront of many municipalities. More cities in the next few years will file for bankruptcy, Compton, CA may be next..with many more to follow. Salaries and pensions that go beyond what is found by the standard of the private sector, cannot be legitimately justified. In the private sector salaries are based on the value or service produced, in public service, nothing is produced. Salaries are simply justified based on taxpayer monies available in some sort of revenue stream that ends up becoming some sort of illusion of value. Unsustainable pensions: many feel these union pension contracts were negotiated not in the best interest of the taxpayer. Therefore a breach of trust and consequently should legally be deemed null and void.
-HEXAVALENT CHROMIUM IN RIVERSIDE, ARE WE THIRD UP ON THE LIST?-
This site was added to the EPA’s National Priorities List (NPL), commonly called the Superfund Site here in Riverside. Even though there are many hot spots of contamination in and around Riverside, the EPA has set their sights on this one and continue to monitor levels of Chromium-6 also known as Hexavalent Chromium, a known carcinogen when found in drinking water. Hexavalent Chromium was made famous in the Erin Brockovich movie of ground water contamination in Hinkely, CA. All of the City of Riverside’s water come from ground water wells. The Environmental Protection Agency will continue to monitor the Alark site, ground zero for the known dumping of this contaminate. The EPA will continue to follow it’s path, or technically it’s plume, to known drinking wells. The City of Riverside has said that our water is safe.
Our understanding of regulatory guidelines is that neither the State of Federal Government limit Hexavalent Chromium in water, but both regulate total chromium instead. The Federal Government has a cap of 100 ug/L (100 parts per billion) for total chromium and the State of California limits total chromium in drinking water to 50 ug/L (50 part per billion). In 2001, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) conducted ground water samplings. In one well (MW-7), the ground water sample contained 17,300 ug/L (17,300 parts per billion) hexavalent chromium exceeding the States maximum acceptable level of 50 ug/L (50 parts per billion). As we understand, there are new methods to detect specifically the carcinogenic Chromium-6 (Hexavalent Chromium) in ground water.
The question which has not been quite answered, is has the plume hit the drinking water aquafiers to the extent of concerned levels? According to Riverside Public Utilites water quality report of 2011, hexavalent chromium ranged from 1.9 parts per billion to 2.7 parts per billion, all in acceptable levels for drinking water. So how much Hexavalent Chromium is necessary for someone to come down with cancer? At this time the answer is unknown. The EWG (Environmental Working Group), initiated by Erin Brockovich, is now pushing to reduce California’s hexavalent chromium limit down to 0.06 parts per billion. In this scenario, making a case of levels of hexavalent chromium contaminant in water in relation to cases of related cancer, won’t be necessary. Therefore, if she is successful, Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento and Riverside would be targets of her litigation team. If the State levels of hexavalent chromium were to drop to 0.06 part per billion, the City of Riverside would be third on the list on the top five chromium contaminated cities.
THE ALARK SITE (FIRST TWO PICS), AND ANOTHER AREA OF CONCERN, THE NEW FAIRLY NEW DEVELOPMENT CLOSE TO ALARK ON TWOGOOD LANE (THIRD PIC).
-COUNCIL INTERFERENCE ON THE PROMOTION PROCESS? 35-0..SGT. VALMONT GRAHAM CALLS FOUL!
On one hand, Riverside Chief of Police Sergio Diaz states that his promotion decisions are not guided by racial bias, and he wants to dispel the image that the city “is a soft touch” for disgruntled employees by litigating their suits. Even though the Chief refrained directly about this case, he certainly appears to infer that those bringing up these issues of discrimination are disgruntled employees. Sgt. Valmont Graham has served the citizens of the City of Riverside for an outstanding 25 years. Allegedly, Sgt. Valmont Graham has been passed over 35 times during his employment with the City. It would personally be an insult to refer an officer of the law, of this caliber,(of course I’m not talking about the illegal gun sale to the former City Manager Brad Hudson by the President of the RPD Union), as a ‘disgruntled employee’. So why the pattern of retaliation? Now keep in mind that the Chief was hired by former City Manager Brad Hudson, who left town in whisk to take a lower paying job for the County of Sacramento when his discretionary spending came into question. But it’s no secret, retaliation has costed the taxpayer a mint in legal fees, and further the settlement via a court judgement. Sgt. Valmont Graham’s original complaint is as follows:
TMC wrote a story, City of Riverside See’s Skin Color as Problematic? The Press Enterprise story that Sgt. Valmont Graham was passed over for promotion because he was “black”. A highly respected black judge, Jaqueline Jackson was assigned to hear this case, but was then asked by Richard D. Roth, contract attorney for the City of Riverside, to be removed. As an attorney, how effective will he be in defense of the City, when more than likely he will settle this case out of court. Roth is also running for California State Senate and is endorse by those in the City such as Mayor Ron Loveridge. By the way Mr. Roth’s wife, Cindy Roth, is President of the Greater Riverside Chamber of Commerce, also supported and financed to promote certain City events such as the “Festival of Lights”.
The question that seems to be returning to the forefront is, “are Council interfereing with the Police promotion process?” Back in May 2011, Councilman Steve Adams, also a former police officer, was brought to the forefront with allegations that he interefered with the promotion process of police officers, specifically Lts. Darryl Hurt and Tim Bacon. Even then, Adams emphatically denied any interference, though the taxpayer shelled out $550,000 to settle the case out of court. Well, all I could say, if we shelled out that amount of green backs, the two officers must have had a good case. It certainly appears to be a repeating pattern of this allegation of intereference with Adams, comes complete with a corresponding pattern of denial as well. Was it a corruptible surprise that a ‘special panel’ found no ethics violations by Adams? Even Retired Deputy Chief Pete Esquievel came to the rescue of Adams by telling the panel that he made it clear to the two officers that it was not a condition of the officers promotion. But approximately a year before, Esquievel came forward with a complaint against the police department in other matters as you will find in this tort claim. This tort claim also followed Police Officer Neely Nakamura’s complaints against the Riverside Police Department in her tort claim. The distrubing claim by Nakamura against the Riverside Police Department was that she was illegall held, seized and searched, kidnapped and held without reason, do in part to her alleged sexual relationship with Deputy Chief Pete Esquievel.
CLICK LINK TO VIEW ESQUIEVEL DOCUMENT CLICK LINK TO VIEW NAKMURA DOCUMENT
In the case of Lt. Meredyth Meredith, the then Chief Russell Leach said he was preparing to promote her to captain. Then Assistant City Manager Tom DeSantis called Leach to put a stop to this. Leach found out later that Adams marched into a meeting with then City Manager Hudsion and DeSantis, and emphatically told them she should not be promoted. Of course, you guessed it, that was denied by Adams again. By the terms of the City Charter, members of the City Council are not supposed to be involved in the promotional process. Therefore, a violation of the City Charter would tell us that this would be job for the District Attorney. Well, we all know that will never be investigated, and if it is the complaint would be unfounded.
According to a deposition release by City Attorney Gregory Priamos of former Chief of Police Russell Leach, he states that complaints made by current Councilman and Mayoral Candidate William “Rusty” Bailey may have hindered Valmont Graham from being promoted. In addition, we find it interesting that a deposition of an ongoing case is released by our City Attorney. Was there some in fighting between Priamos and Bailey? According to then Assistant Manager Tom DeSantis, Bailey was embarassed or sleighted by what Graham had said, and was furious to the point of expressing his anger to city management. Did Bailey’s act hinder the well deserved promotion of this black officer? Others mentioned that at the meeting Graham talked about police issues and answered questions from the audience. One question was not a police related, but Graham felt it was more in line of a Council question. He then handed the mike over to Bailey to answer. Was Bailey taken off guard because of the question, maybe he could not answer? In any case it appears he was embarrassed, then furious, not sure in what order. Then the focus was on Sgt. Valmont Graham. Was this simply a misunderstanding? A misunderstanding which has cost a vast amount of taxpayer monies and resources?
If there was some words of advice, what would Sergeant Joe Friday say to Councilman Steve Adam’s?
CLICK THIS LINK TO VIEW CLIP
JUST FOR LAUGHS….
RIVERSIDE FORGOTTEN
RIVERSIDE PLAZA 1960’s, RIVERSIDE, CA
THE ALFRED M. LEWIS GROCERY STORE, RIVERSIDE, CA, SEPTEMBER 18, 1940, ON 10TH AND MAIN. (COURTESY OF THE UC RIVERSIDE, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND ARCHIVES).
CITY ATTORNEY’S OFFICE, THE PRIAMOS TAPE, COMING SOON..
UPDATE: 0818/2012: CITY ATTORNEY GREGORY PRIMOS BARS MISSION AMBULANCE LAWYER FROM LOBBYING CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS TO CHANGE THE CITY OF RIVERSIDE’S AMBULANCE POLICY. THIS IS ONE CITY OFFICE THAT NEVER CEASES TO AMAZE ME.. WHAT? DON’T TELL ME…AMR’S PETER HUBBARD AND GREGORY PRIMOS ARE ALLEGEDLY GOOD FRIENDS? I WOULD NEVE HAVE SEEN THAT COMING..
TMC, RATED RIVERSIDE’S MOST “SLANDEROUS” AND MEZZSPELLED, “MISSPELLED” AND “OPINIONATED” BLOG SITE! TEMPORARILY BLOCKED BY THE CITY OF RIVERSIDE AT PUBLIC ACCESS SITES WITHIN THE CITY, THEN UNBLOCKED. I GUESS YOU CANNOT DO THAT ACCORDING TO ACLU. PROUDLY RATED ONE STAR (POSSIBLY DOWN TO ZERO FROM OUR LAST ACCOUNTS) OUT OF FIVE IN TERMS OF COMMUNITY APPROVAL RATINGS.. TMC IS NOW EXCLUSIVELY ON FILE WITH THE COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE’S DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE FOR GOOD REASON, AND PROSSIBLY POSSIBLY ON FILE WITH THE CITY OF RIVERSIDE’S POTENTIAL SLAPP SUIT LIST, FOR GOOD REASON… WE WILL HAVE TO ASK GREGORY ABOUT THAT ONE ( OUR PEOPLE WILL HAVE TO CONTACT HIS PEOPLE)… AGAIN, THANK-YOU COMMUNITY OF RIVERSIDE AND THE CITY OF RIVERSIDE EMPLOYEE’S FOR YOUR SUPPORT! COMMENTS ALWAYS WELCOMED, ESPECIALLY SPHALL SPELL CHECKERS! EMAIL ANONYMOUSLY WITH YOUR DIRT OR CONTACT US BY THE FOLLOWING EMAIL ADDRESS! CONTRIBUTORS WILL ALWAYS BE PROTECTED… YES, WE EXPECT THE JAIL TIME FOR THAT ONE… THIRTYMILESCORRUPTION@HOTMAIL.COM
IG
Javier Moreno
TMC: Thirty Miles of Corruption 
Congratulations to all at
“30 Miles…”! Your outstanding
investigative work and reporting
enables more of us to be truly
informed.
Thank You,
Steve
[…] CITY OF RIVERSIDE: REDISTRICTING: DIVYING UP THE PROFITS OF PROSPECTS… […]
[…] HOW BAD IS CITY OF RIVERSIDE WATER? According to Daily Finance, no so good, rating number two on a scale of one to ten. City of Riverside Public Utilities which serves a population greater than 300,000 people, as many of you know already, we get all or most of our water from ground water sources within the San Bernardino basin. Regulators found 15 chemicals that exceeded health guidelines and 1 that exceeded legal standards. The article contends that since 2004, the water has almost consistently contained traces of bromoform (a form of trihalomethane), alpha particle activity and uranium, causing an unusually unhealthy water supply. The article determination of unhealthy water were based on three criteria: 1. The percentages of chemicals found, 2. Total number of contaminants found, and 3. The most dangerous average level of a single pollutant. We did a story on Riverside Water regarding contaminants such as hexavalent chromium contamination b… […]