TMC: Thirty Miles of Corruption

THE FOLLOWING IS A COMMENT TMC RECEIVED BY VIEWER:

Concerned Resident Says:

Why may i ask is this website called 30 miles of corruption? 30 miles doesn’t mean anything in Riverside, the City is something like 86 square miles. Is it that the creator thinks by trying to sound like TMZ, they will be taken more seriously? Maybe they think if they sound something like TMZ there OPINION website will be viewed as fact by the Riverside residents.

Now, onto the site content. How can you honestly be taken seriously when all this info that you sit as fact comes from secret sources and hear say? You say how horrible Brad is, but this City hasn’t looked better. We have more libraries, parks, fire & police stations, better roads, less traffic. How can someone so horrible get all this one?

Also, this talk of Mr. Hudson being being given the choice to be fired or resign. The process to be hired in Sacramento would have been a lengthy one. Sac sups say the decision was made 2 weeks ago. This means Mr. Hudson would have had to apply and go through the interview process weeks or months ago. Seems like the best timing ever in order to have a higher up, more prestigious job waiting in the wings incase he were to be fired.

You also love to compare his $400+ Riverside pay with his $250+ Sac pay. Maybe you should tell the truth about his base salary in Riverside was something like $280, and only went up to the 400 number when you factor in other benefits like retirement and health. Im sure once those are factored in to his Sac rate, it will be right in line with his Riverside salary. Also, this man is focused, and out for a challenge. the $25K less a year is not much to part with when you are making over $200K already.

Response by TMC:

If we are spending more than we take in that’s called BANKRUPT!  Riverside has  an eerie similarity to Jefferson, Alabama. Yes,  Riverside is approx 86 sq miles, but the Redevelopment area in question is about 30 sq miles.   Yes,  TMZ  was the first thing that came in to my mind when deciding on a blog site name.  The blog site was designed because the Press Enterprise is in bed with the city.  They have benefited from the redevelopment program monies themselves.

The city fathers choose to make all the really important decisions in closed session.  Our only real access to information is other Citizens, employees, and doing our homework to uncover the misuse of public funds.  We will not print their names,  our sources may be in jeopardy of being fired or retaliated against.  “Secret sources and hear say”, not quite, if you notice in our articles there are numerous citations direct from news articles, government websites, city information and info received through the public information request act.

Regarding our contents, if you don’t like our style, you are not obligated to read it, that is your right. Brad, Brad, Brad…. He was the Boss…. the ultimate decision maker.   So let’s look at the facts.  July 1, 2012 the debt is due and we will not be able to pay it, and that is a fact.  He continues to brag about our balanced budget,  if this is the case why did we have to borrow 65 million from ourselves?  Especially if they claim we have so much money?  He allowed Tom DeSantis to misuse the police asset forfeiture fund and put the entire program at risk.  What was the real reason Tom DeSants  left?  Who is Brunie Mecardo?  Did she get a raise?

He used public utility, sewer, workman compensation, and electric funds to pay for redevelopment.  The citizens of Riverside are going to be hit hard in their utility bills. The seniors , disabled, and poor will not be able to afford it.  Now let’s look at wasteful spending.  The Main Street Mall Project  submitted approximately 3 million in change orders.   The Fox Theatre, had over 10 million in change orders.  Then there is the Cities Raincross Café runned by Marketbroiler,  REALLY!   This café runs at a deficit every year, and the deficity is what we pay to keep it operating.   Rumor has it that Marketbroiler, which is under the umbrella of Provider Food Services, Inc.,  will be putting a new restaurant down town and again we will build it for him.   The Star Track Exhibit.   I was told directly from Brad Hudson himself that an estimated 80,000 people would show up, this was not hear say.  The Exhibit wiped out the Museum fund to a tune of $389,000.00 now they  are going to ask the City council to pay Museum expenses, and that’s called a deficit.  But in all fairness, this is not only Hudson’s fault, but the City Council and the Mayor.  You see, the City Manager serves at the pleasure of the City Council and the Mayor.  But what happens when the City Manager is much more creative than they are?  Do we then have a disconnect as seen with the City of Bell in their City Manager Robert Rizzo?

Now let’s look at all the beautiful improvements he provided for us.  His crowning glory the Fox Theatre.  The last time I looked at last years budget,  it ran at a 2 million dollar deficit.  How long can we pay for  this?   Nederlander left why?  Brad Hudson built it and not enough people came?  My prediction is that the Fox will close down soon.  But the City continues to state that everything couldn’t be better.  I beginning to think its the Kool Aid.  The improvements, such as the Museums, libraries, parks, fire, police etc.  The museum and libraries will cost the city dearly.  The Fire stations now have to be leased back to the city to help pay for redevelopment.  How long will that take before they have to stop paying rent because their budgets are cut.   Lastly, my favorite,  the police asset forfeiture fund.  The only fund we do not have to pay back has been misused for the longest time.  Do I need to mention Connie Leach?

In regards our Article: Brad Hudson Given Ultimatum: Be Fired or Resign;  a reliable VIP source in city has told us Tuesday, that Brad Hudson did resign on his own accord.   As a result, we will be editing our story with our new findings.   Our sources say he still has 2 years remaining on his contract, and if they did fire him, they would have had to pay him his golden hand shake.   We were also told that he has not delivered his resignation letter to the City Council or Mayor.  The whole process has been verbal.  He never signs his name to anything, thats always been his style.  There is the possibility he could legally come back to Riverside postion.  Our sources do say they do not want him to come back.  I believe the quote was “Kiss him good bye and wish him well”.  Our new story will be titled: BRAD HUDSON……….BIGAMIST? While honeymooning in Sacramento he hasn’t quite finished the Divorce process with Riverside.  Is he playing the field?

When there is an opinion to be, we usually state it, otherwise, our viewers our beginning to understand our style of writing and we do it to provide better insight to the facts we  receive.  We do provide links to articles and budget numbers.  Regarding our sources, they are afraid of being fired or retaliated on.  Anyone that works or gets a hand out from the city has been afraid to speak publicly.  If they go to their bosses with the truth or concerns they will be put on review, or FIRED as we have seen with many employees.  The employee lawsuits are mounting !  How many can we afford.  How many really good employees have been fired because they chose to do the right thing, those darn WHISTLEBLOWERS!

Another example, is the annual budget on page 167 for the Fox Theatre performing arts operations for 2010-2011 for non-personal expenses is as follows:

In 2008/2009 the actual budgeted amount was $625,000.00

In 2009/2010 the budgeted amount was $2,293,011.00

In 2009/2010 the amended budgeted amount was $2, 293,011.00

Then in 2010/2011 the requested budgeted amount was $1, 724,511.00

The cost of operations has continued to be run at a deficit, this may directly be due to the public sector atitude of taxpayer money, it’s not ours.  The private sector would do a much better job.  The increase in the cost of operations could be due to the level of attendance, would be directly related to level of income revenues received, which has decreased, and the revenues may begin to decrease even more due to the leaving of Nederlander.

My personal prediction looking at all these facts is that the City of Riverside will have major financial problems starting in about 6 months. Many City employees will be laid off and Our Utility bills will double, or if not triple.  If you can show the facts differently, please do so.

JOIN THE KOOL-AID BRIGADE TO SAVE THE CITY OF RIVERSIDE.  SINCE HIS DISCRETIONARY FUND HAS BEEN UNDER SCRUTINY, OUT OF POCKET KOOL-AID EXPENSES ARE ROUGH!  HELP BRAD CONTINUE TO SERVE UP THE KOOL-AID UNTIL HE LEAVES AUGUST 14, 2011.  SHOW CITY COUNCIL & THE MAYOR WHAT YOU THINK!  SEND YOUR PACKETS OF KOOL-AID (ANY OR ALL FLAVORS) TO RIVERSIDE CITY HALL, 3900 MAIN STREET, RIVERSIDE, CA 92501  

SEND THEM TO YOUR SPECIFIC WARD COUNCILPERSONS BY NAME,  OR THE GRAND POOBA HIMSELF, THE MAYOR!  THE EXCEPTION IS COUNCILWOMAN NANCY HART, I’M TOLD SHE DOES NOT NEED IT…

First let’s start with the introduction of the Not Ready, City Official Players, City Manager Brad Hudson, Tom Boyd, Siobhan Foster, All City Council Members, Chief Financial Officer Paul Sundeen and City Attorney Greg Priamos, who are played by themselves.  We also have the Ready To Receive Contractor Players, Albert Webb & Associates and CDM, oh, not to forget the Incidental Law Firm Cihigoyenetche,Grossberg & Clouse played by themselves.  Now, the Whistleblowers are played by method actors Warren Huang, Craig Justice and Deputy Attorney Raychele Sterling. Well, now you’ve got a story.  Now tell me, who wouldn’t pay good money to see these theatrics play out at your local government owned Fox Theatre on a Saturday night, which by the way is currently presenting only the best in government entertainment.

The mystery begins with the alleged questioning of City Engineer Warren Huang by Riverside County DA’s office regarding a sewer design contract that apparently went to CDM: Camp Dresser & McKee.  This story all bubbled to the surface when Deputy City Attorney Raychele Sterling, who according to Greg Priamos Office, was placed on administrative leave, then they decided to fire her, for reasons still unknown.  Raychele received an email from employees  of the Public Works Department stating that they were directed by their superiors to assign projects to allegedly the Albert Webb firm, because Albert is a personal friend of Brad Hudson and wants him to receive as many projects as possible.  Raychele then sent an email to City Council Members in March 2011 alleging concerns to City Officials regarding these employees and the allegations of steered contracts to friends of the City Manager Brad Hudson. Also, emphasizing that the City Manager threatened to fire them if they complained or made as much as a diminutive inference to the process.   And of course, City officials have denied any wrongdoing and said an internal investigation found nothing improper.  So these employees are bad people? According to whom?  Is this why most fired city employees sue the city and settle? And the public never hears about it?  The cost becomes enormous, so enormous the  taxpaying community will never see the figures.

Being awarded a contract is all about who wins the bid by the scoring process.  The standard scoring process is based on past performances, averaging the numbers, getting a total, and voilà, you have a winning bid for a contractor.  But it always seems as when you don’t like the numbers you find the need to use the creative fuzzy math process.  Let’s see I got contractor “A”  but boss wants contractor “B”.   The accepted standard process gives me contractor “A”, but if I use the fuzzy math process, I get contractor “B”, boss is happy, I still have my job, which is important because I’m an at-will employee and life is good again.  Now that’s the situation, and of course you guessed it  the usual suspects always seem to keep bubbling up to the surface.

Albert A. Webb Associates President Matthew Webb said in April that the company has earned its jobs based on merit and that contracts with Riverside are only a small portion of the company’s  business. So the small portion of Albert Webbs business was as follows, but still trying to understand what part was small, wow, twelve payouts in a single day from the general fund?…and just received a $308,495.00 contract April 2011.  Albert Webb states he is also good friends with Brad Hudson, Council Members Chris Mac Arthur and William “Rusty” Bailey.  I’m sure it means nothing but I thought I just mentioned it.

Well Greg Priamos knows nothing and says nothing, Paul Sundeen says the allegations are baseless and that’s that.  Brad Hudson knows nothing and says nothing but hires the Law Firm of  Cihigoyenetche,Grossberg & Clouse around April 29, 2011 to investigate the allegations of favoritism on himself, and evidently they are still investigating them to this day.

Raychel Sterling wrote that according to the scoring sheets it showed CDM was not the highest ranked firm.   Now that Raychele was fired for bringing to light an injustice, does that make her a whistleblower?  This would enthrall the City again, into another brutal lawsuit.  City Council, do you know what is really going on in your back yard?  Greg, how much have you costed us, as taxpayers, in law suits so far?  Are you the next to go?  Well, we’ll just have to crunch the numbers on that one, I just know it has to be more than the cost of a junk bond.  Huang and Justice told Sterling that they were called into Public Works Director Siobhan Foster’s office, where “they were told that ‘she did not like the results of the scoring,’ and that the scoring needed to be ‘fixed’ so that CDM was selected” because Albert A. Webb Associates was to be a subcontractor on the job, according to the email.  Ahhh, now we are getting somewhere, so Siobhan Foster states to Huang and Justice that the numbers aren’t right and we need to go to the creative fuzzy math process.  Remember, the fuzzy math process is priceless and dependable, the numbers always come out the opposite of what you originally calculate. Remarkable!  What does Siobhan Foster have to say about this?  According to the Press Enterprise, Siobhan Foster did not return phone calls.  Hopefully, she is out filling pot holes, which I as a Riversidian have been complaining about.

UPCOMING STORY: ANONYMOUS SOURCES WITH DOCUMENTATION WELCOMED, KEEP CONNECTED WITH TMC…

There is gold in those streets I’m told, if you are a contractor that wins a city contract through the bid process in the City of Riverside, and the best part is you don’t have to be on top of the scoring due to the implementation of the Fuzzy Math Process. But according Tom Boyd, Deputy Public Works Director, paving a street twice has become a bit “fuzzy” as well.  Can anyone tell me where the accountability and responsibility lies?  I for one can say Tom Boyd definitely does not care about the expense to the taxpayer of a measly $17,000.00.  Please Tom, embrace and engage in the communication process, to do otherwise is costly to the community.  With your long work record with the city and your high level of experience, how does something as this really happen? There is nothing like a story which brews under the ground, and it begins in the sewers, then stinks to high heaven.  Tom Boyd states, “This appears to be an isolated mix-up, we haven’t changed anything. If it only happens once, there’s no sense in getting to exactly what happened.”  According to city sources it may occur quite often, Main Street Mall was another example.  But Tom, even if it only happens once, isn’t that one time to much? And an occurence to investigate?  I’ve known people in the Private Sector fired for lesser offenses than that.  I also understand the communication process should not be a problem; but Mr. Deputy Public Works Director, isn’t your  department right next to City Engineering?  Someone is breaching their fiduciary duty to the people once again.  A measly $17,000.00 may not be a lot for wonderfully vested paid position as Public Works Director, but during a time when many in the community are losing their homes, trying to pay their bills, and trying to pay for basic necessities such as placing food on the table, $17,000.00 is a lot of money.  That’s an insult to the taxpaying community.  Maybe Tom Boyd should give the $17,000.00 out of his own pocket, to replace what he should have caught.  The real question is two fold, are we just seeing imcompetance, or bid fixing by adjusting the scoring? That’s where the “fuzzy math comes in I’m told.  Could paving a street twice quite possibly be on purpose? The second time around it now cost the taxpayer $32,000.00 to do the street paving.  Tom Boyd says it’s the “high price of oil.”  I’ve had this conversation before, but it was about “high price of beef.”  Well in any case this what would be much more diabolical to assume, that is , to assume that there is something much diabolical occurring than meets the eye.  This would began to go into that territory of “favoritism” again, and just maybe, “money laundering”?  Comments Welcomed, and one final note, our streets are full of the proverbial “pot holes”, someone please introduce Siobhan Foster to one. 

A new site has shown its face come up regarding City Manager Brad Hudson.  He is known among the community and inner sanctum of City Hall as the powerhouse of the city. The mover and  shaker of the tethered pieces of Main Street development with no architectural significance.  We know that at TMC that we didn’t vote for him either.  In City of Riverside I understand he may be a little wet, but not all washed up yet.   The “I Didn’t Vote For Brad” site describes a question and answer manifesto regarding why I didn’t vote for brad, and allows you to copy a printable badge which can be printed to your heart’s desire and place anywhere Brad may take notice.  The site also  references articles regarding Brad in the Press Enterprise,  RiversideCopWatch.com Blog,  as well as our TMC site.  Regardless, if you are out there, contact TMC and tell us your thoughts of the site and its intention.  And one more thing, don’t let Chief Sergio Diaz get wind of the un-politically correct term “manifesto”, you may trigger an investigation.  You  may want to change that to platform, resolution, proclamation, declaration or my favorite, public notice.  Onward, to Emerald City!

UPDATE: 06/15/2011: BRAD HUDSON WASHED UP!

Sources are stating that Dom Betro, running for City Council, does not reside at his Riverside Ward 1 home, in order to be elgible as a candidate.  That would be a violation of the 1974 Political Reform Act.  Back in june 2007 Dom Betro was the part of a Grand Jury investigation of selling public land cheaply.  His term was inundated by merchants vs. parking meters, camera tickets, the issue of eminent domain and favoritism with developers, alleged FBI Investigation, alleged improprieties with a campaign manager, a question of his residence and even a documented altercation with protesters outside the Fox Theatre. Not to  mention the actions against Riversiders for Property Rights and Ken Stansbury, in which hundreds of  thousands of taxpayer dollars were spent to extinguish the right of the community to be heard against, what many in the community are stating “a rogue government”.   This was done of course, with the best of the best, Best, Best & Krieger Attorneys, but not in your interest, but theirs. Quite shameful of Betro.  The new mailer toward Mike Gardner by Betro  states don’t be fooled again, but if anybody experienced the wrath of Betro, don’t be fooled twice.