Posts Tagged ‘Brad Hudson’

CITY OF RIVERSIDE: YOU PROVIDE THE FOOD AND THE COUCH, I’LL PROVIDE THE MILLIONS!

Posted: July 22, 2011 in Uncategorized
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The whole idea that you build me the restaurant, and I’ll tell you how at a cost, then I’ll provide the food and service, again at a cost. How did the city and taxpayer get into the restaurant business? Close friends and possibly a little favoritism?  Well let’s look at how this whole web of events play out. First, we start with Rodney Couch who is president of Preferred Hospitality Inc.   Now, under this umbrella falls The Market Broiler chain and Provider Foods Contract Servicing.  Under Provider Foods Contract Servicing,  falls City Hall’s Raincross Café , Stewart’s Boat House Lakeside Room Fairmont Park, Grier Pavillion City Hall, Orange Terrace Community Center Café , Orange Terrace Library Café, and other City Recreation venues.  The city has six contracts with Rodney, and the only one making money in the relationship between the City and Provider Foods/ Market Broiler is Rodney Couch!  If this isn’t favoritism, I don’t know what is!  The City of Riverside has spent BUCKETS of money on Provider at a total loss to the taxpayer.  Need a caterer, nope you can’t use them, you have to use Rodney.  They are, afterall the sole caterer to the City, or let me clarify in politically correct terms “preferred” caterer.  Provider is also involved with other projects such as The Atrium Café Riverside on Lemon St., The Atrium Café at Riverside County Administrative Center.  Conflict of Interest? Monopolization of the surrounding free market place and a breach of laissez-faire economics?  Not to mention, that the Raincross Cafe was built with taxpayer money. We also paid for the kitchen equipment, maintenance, utilities as electric and water, repairs etc. It’s a great deal.  No other vending machines are allowed in city hall except Rodney vending machines.  

Rodney is also paid for his services from the net sales of operations, so it doesn’t matter if they make a profit or not. Then you have those encentive bonuses, 20k for advertising etc., of which we have yet to see.  We know the city has control of the billboard off the freeway for advertising, but we are sure Provider would not have to pay for that advertising service as others would.  Did the Law Firm Cihigoyenetche, Grossberg & Clouse ask to see the receipts Provider/ Marketbroiler was suppose to utilize for advertisement and marketing services of City owned food service/ restaurant facilities?   Just like magic, as one of the partners Scott Grossberg performs on the side, they found no evidence that contracts were steered to friends of City Manager Brad Hudson.  That’s a shocker! You hire a law firm at taxpayer expense to represent you, and  voila, you get the answer you want!  That’s magic…  But it appears that magic has a price.  It appeared that the firm was very close to getting an answer on this favoritism debacle, when the City decided they needed to give the firm more money as to the tune of a measly $100,000.00, for a total payout of $150,000.00.   The firm’s final report, released this week, describes in detail several cases about which questions were raised, and of course the answers the City was looking for. 

But what continues to be agregious, I don’t know if people are seeing this, but you have a City Manager who thinks he can breach the lines of privacy and possibly violation of attorney client privilege information or even ECPA (the Electronic Communication Privacy Act) , and the law firm Brad hired is stating it is acceptable. Brad Hudson is not Assistant Deputy Attorney Raychele Sterlings superior.  City Attorney Greg Priamos is!  There is something wrong when the City Manager goes beyond his range of duty, and breaches an associates department.  The council or the mayor don’t appear to really understand this scenario. But I would expect more from Greg Priamos, a leader and superior of that department.  If this same scenario happened in the private sector, Brad Hudson would have been fired. City Hall has become a culture of enablers creating a dysfunctional introverted world. This scenario is wrong. But what we have is a culture of relationships, such as Greg Priamos and Brad Hudson seen on a Friday night, June 10, 2011, with two unidentified ladies at Duane’s Restaurant at the Mission Inn have dinner and conversing.  So do we have microcosm’s of undefined relationships breaching the laws the community has set forth?  Well, we must then ask ourselves, what would be Raychele Sterling’s modus operandi?  Sterling said city employees brought their concerns to her because they didn’t feel comfortable going to the Human Resources department, but she never stepped outside her role as a city attorney.  “There would be no reason for me to make this stuff up,” she said. “I got fired for doing the right thing — where’s my incentive?”  That’s exactly right, why would an Assistant Deputy Attorney make this up?

 The law firm’s investigator found that Hudson had a legitimate reason to look at Sterling’s emails “based upon concerns that he had received in February 2011 from a public works employee about (Sterling) improperly interfering in public works business affairs.” The report also says Hudson cited a 2009 complaint about Sterling’s conduct. Sterling said she has never been questioned about or given details of any such concerns. Again, a complaint against Sterling’s conduct would have properly been addressed in a one on one meeting with follow-up documentation of the event, usually signed by both parties. This would be impossible for Brad Hudson to know this or conduct a meeting at this level.  He is not the superior, Greg Priamos is.  City Councilman Mike Gardner said Thursday he doesn’t see that any rules were broken, and the report lays out reasonable explanations for how the contracts in question were handled.  Again there is so many holes in this investigation, and it is shameful that taxpayer money was waisted on this event, and especially shameful that Councilman Mike Gardner does not see the breach of duty by the City Manager, as well as the City Attorney, and goes as far to support the rejection of a statement by an Assistant Deputy Attorney implying wrongdoing. 

And where’s City Attorney Greg Priamos in all of this?  He still behind the closed secure doors of his office, possibly making a phone call or two for another expensive consult with Best, Best & Krieger, and that’s OK! it’s not his money… There’s alot here, and a good part was initiated with the leadership of the City Manager.  The law firm’s report also said  that Couch and Hudson are not personal friends, Hudson had nothing to do with  signing the contracts with Provider, and because of the profit-sharing  agreement, “a legitimate reason existed to issue a marketing contract to  increase profits.”   All original contracts with Provider were signed by Ex-Assistant City Manager Tom DeSantis as The City Manager, with what appears to be Brad Hudson’s initials next to his.  This is how the real City Manager Brad Hudson rolls.  Most other contracts are signed by any of the assistant manager or staff as “for Bradley Hudson, City Manager”.  He therefore can always deny signing, but he is  ultimately responsible as the person in charge of this office, and he knows what are in those contracts.  And of course, the City Council and the Mayor are ultimately responsible for all his actions.  TMC is investigating the total amounts of payouts Brad Hudson has allowed to go to Provider, then you the taxpayer, can make your own decision about favoritism, corruption or missuse of public funds.

Read the contracts between The City of Riverside and Provider Foods: Be patient, some of these take a little time loading: 

1. Raincross Cafe Contract 2006

2. Provider Food Services Purchase Orders

3. Advertising Services for Raincross Cafe, Grier Pavilion, Stewart’s Boathouse Fairmont Park, Orange Terrace Community Center Cafe.

4. Preferred Food Service Provider Agreement to Stewart’s Boathouse and Orange Terrace Community Center Cafe.

5. Design Consultant Services for Orange Terrace Library Cafe and Grier Pavilion

6. City Hall Grier Pavilion Reservation Guidelines

“People are looking for something that I don’t think exists,” Gardner said. “I think people are reading perfectly innocent things as something sinister.”   OK, I got it Mike, that’s must be like telling us your running for City Council, then running for Mayor…

UPDATE: 07/24/2011: In the midst of Assistant Deputy Attorney Raychele Sterling indicating retaliation by City Manager Brad Hudson.  Just this past week, Riverside Police Department Sgt. Val Graham sued the police department and City of Riverside alleging racial discrimination and retaliation including with its promotional process. Named in the lawsuit are City Manager Brad Hudson, Former Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis and Chief Sergio Diaz. Last year, three out of four similar lawsuits based on retaliation were settled out of court, which may have included the case of Deputy Chief Pete Esquivel and Officer Neely Nakamura.  If a “strategic plan” was in order, as promised by Chief Sergio Diaz, would this have made a difference? Again there continues to be a pattern of employee related lawsuits.  Is this a continuation of a lack of leadership skills or qualifications?  Why does the taxpayer continue to have to pay out enormous settlements to employee related firings. But this is nothing new, Sterling filed three complaints in February and April 2011 alleging retaliation by Hudson and City Attorney Greg Priamos.  There is a problem when the Council and the Mayor are unable to control the henhouse.  Community of Riverside demanded accountability after Ex-Chief Russ Leach’s DUI incident.  But a pattern of police behavior appears to continue, with no answer on this issue from Chief Sergio Diaz, except the response of irritation.  I believe these two powerful positions, Chief of Police and City Manager should be elected postions. We have a city in denial and a pattern of behavior with a track record that have yet to be addressed.

UPDATE: 12/05/2012: NO PROFITS EVER FROM RAINCROSS CAFE SINCE 2006 OPENING.  OPERATING COST HAVE COST THE TAXPAYER IN EXCESS OF $300,000.00  THE CITY OF RIVERSIDE MAY BE LOOKING FOR A NEW OPERATOR FOR ITS TAXPAYER OWNED RESTAURANT, BUT HOW SMOOTH OF AN OPERATOR WAS RODNEY COUCH?

MORENO VALLEY: EX ASSISTANT RIVERSIDE CITY MANAGER TOM DESANTIS HIRED BY MORENO VALLEY CITY MANAGER HENRY GARCIA!

Posted: June 28, 2011 in Uncategorized
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Press Enterprise reports DeSantis hired back to Moreno Valley by Moreno Valley City Manager Henry Garcia to review Public Works via a contractual agreement. The City Council did not have to approve the contract, because Garcia authorized the money from his (slush) discretionary fund.  Henry Garcia stated, “There is no relation between what occurred in Riverside and Tom DeSantis’ talents, he has a very distinguished reputation for analysis in Riverside.”  Garcia contracted DeSantis three months ago, paying him $100 an hour for 140 hours of work.  As an independent contractor, hopefully Garcia 1099 him, and this can be found through the public records act.  Is Garcia drinking the Kool Aid when hiring DeSantis or was this part of his orchestrated schpeel?  Moreno Valley just brought Tom DeSantis up a notch by calling him “distinguished”, but then you must consider the source.  This is a similar to the accounting of Sacramento County Chairwoman Roberta MacGlashan, where she said officials don’t believe Riverside’s City Manager Brad Hudson ordered Riverside city contracts steered to friends.  Well, OK, but you are still required as a steward of the people to investigate.  Brad Hudson worked for the County of  Riverside, and when he departed to the City of Riverside, he not only brought over Belinda Graham from San Bernardino County, but brought DeSantis, Tina English, Deanna Lorsen, and later, the new kid on the block Emilio Ramirez all from Riverside County.  But is history repeating itself? Or does Moreno Valley fit the profile of the track record of the imcomperable Mr. DeSantis?  Has he been tagged as unhireable?  City Manager Henry Garcia left the City of Rialto as City Administrator in February of 2011.  Incidently, Joe Baca Jr. is Councilman for the City of Rialto, the son of  Congressman Joe Baca, who represents the 42nd District, of which the City of Rialto is a part of.  Get the picture?  Just recently, Tom DeSantis had applied for the position of Town Manager in Gilbert, Arizona, but raised red flags when his past service came into question.   Sources have indicated that he originally left the County of Riverside due to allegations of sexual harassment.  There has been similar indications of these allegations with the City of Riverside.  Then there is the coups d’état, the allegation of brandishing the firearm, and there is more, the badges, the holsters, the illegal gun purchases, the concealed weapons permits, the post-it notes documentation of public vehicle use and the illegal cold plate vehicle use, and of course, there is much, much, more….  What is it about this culture of corruption, that appears to turn the other ear to the constituents welfare?  DeSantis, the fall guy for City Manager Brad Hudson…….will he be the fall guy for City Manager Henry Garcia?  Then there was the sorted tale of Ex Moreno Valley City Manager Robert Gutierrez, who resigned in 2009 while facing seven misdemeanor charges involving sexual harassment. No matter how agregious the crime, you still get an enormous payout by the taxpayer! The filo dough is just about to seperate and unfold on this one. 

UPDATE: 06/29/2011: How closely tied is the City of Riverside and Moreno Valley?  Closer than you think…  Barry Foster, Moreno Valley’s Economic Development Director is the husband of Siobhan Foster, the City of Riverside’s Public Works Director.  Now Riverside’s Ex Assistant City Manager Tom DeSantis has been hired by the City of Moreno Valley to review Public Works.  Will Tom DeSantis now maintain an inter-city collaboration with Siobhan Foster concerning issues of Public Works?  Is Tom DeSantis even qualified to review Public Works?  Garcia, formerly city manager of Rialto, said he has known DeSantis more than 20 years since both were administrators in San Bernardino County. Is this close culture of networking responsible for the problems California is experiencing?  Is this all in the family? or just part of the family business?

UPDATE: 06/30/2011: Undisclosed sources are allegedly stating that Riverside’s Human Resource Director Rhonda Strout is the girlfriend of Moreno Valley City Manager Henry Garcia.   The close tie would have enabled Garcia to receive a true account and background check of Riverside’s Ex Assistant City Manager Tom DeSantis.

MORE TO COME, ANONYMOUS SOURCES WELCOMED, DOCUMENTATION AND PHOTOS WELCOMED, KEEP CONNECTED WITH TMC, MAKING THEM HONEST, AND HELL, IT AIN’T EASY….

CITY OF RIVERSIDE: PUBLIC WORKS FOSTER’S & BOYD’S THE BID PROCESS!

Posted: June 25, 2011 in Uncategorized
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It never ends, Sewer Bid Contracts again in the News, is City Hall in turmoil once again at the wheel of damage control working feverishly to sort a believable story for the public?  Do we now hire our trump card Best, Best & Krieger for Public Relations, or are we just a bit beyond that?  With City Councilman Paul Davis up for Mayor Pro Temp coming this week and City Attorney Greg Priamos hiding behind the comforting doors of his office, is City Manager Brad Hudson conveniently leaving the scene of the crime just in time?  Is his remaining posse working hard to answer all the abounding questions that remain?  And are City Hall employees celebrating Brad Hudson leaving, as they did when Assistant City Manager Tom DeSantis left?

Well, the spotlight is now on Riverside Public Works, that would be Tom Boyd’s department.  Did his department preferentially award a contract to Camp, Dresser & McKee?  A contract according to the standard scoring process should have went to Hill, known as CH2M Hill,  of who scored higher.  Incidently, CH2M Hill for the third year has been rated Worlds Most Ethical Companies, I understand ethics just doesn’t sit well in Riverside.  Regardless, there are two employees at the forefront of the allegations, City Engineer Warren Huang and Sewer Treatment Plant Manager Craig Justice, who stated to Deputy City Attorney Raychele 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.  Was there creative math occurring in this bid process?   Now we have the subcontractor Albert A. Webb and Associates at the forefront of the questionable bid process.   Matthew A. Webb, president of Albert A. Webb Associates, has acknowledged a friendship with Hudson, but has said the firm gained work based on merit and that jobs for the city are only a small portion of its business, but twelve payouts on a single day?  There lies the questionable appearance of bid splitting, and no one at City Hall has been able to explain it.  The following is City Memorandum from last month by Webb requesting a change order for an additional appropiation of $308,495.00.  Now the question, what is the purpose of the scoring process when no one follows the rules?  Does it then become just a city formality?   TMC has asked for a an independent forensic audit, who will answer to a community finance commitee.  Or a request by the City Council for State Controller John Chiang, would also be in order.

What does Chief Financial Officer, Paul Sundeen say about this.   According to Mary Shelton, who writes the River City Cop Watch Blog, Sundeen believes an independent audit is too expensive and wouldn’t be necessary in his opinion. He claims no bid splitting has ever taken place ever but if it happens, he should be notified to investigate it.  We have this bit of info for Paul to investigate thirteen payments in one day. Bid splitting or coincidence? as coincidental as our emails being blocked Paul’s office.

Cihigoyenetche, Grossberg & Clouse, Rancho Cucamonga based law firm Hudson requested to investigate allegations of favoritism of himself to the tune of $100,000.00, presented their findings.  According to Cihigoyenetche’s report, the employees Sterling says told her of favoritism denied making those comments when questioned by an investigator and they did not find that Hudson’s friendships influenced who got  contracts or that Hudson pressured anyone to award contracts to someone specific.  Good work Cihigoyenetche, Grossberg & Clouse!  I’m sure there was also no conflict of interest between the firm and Hudson…..and by the way, did the taxpayer pay your bill alright?  Did anybody know that Scott Grossberg performed magic! …and wrote books such as  “The Vitruvian Square: A Handbook of  Divination Discoveries,” “The Masks of Tarot,” and “Bauta: Betraying  the Face of Illusion,” in addition to his  oracle/divination cards, “The Deck of Shadows.”     But in all fairness, in report notes of the hired law firm requested by the Press Enterprise via the public records request act,  Cihigoyenetche’s reports, “To the extent that any public works managers pressured staff to award the contract to the firm with (Hudson’s) alleged friend as a subcontractor, such pressure emanated from a pervasive desire within the city to award contracts to capable local business to stimulate the local economy,” rather than to reward Hudson’s friends.  Ahhh, thats it!…it was all about “stimulating the local economy”, that was worth a $100,000.00 of taxpayer money to find out, wouldn’t you say?  Or a bit of magic sleight of hand with taxpayer money, now you see it, now you don’t!  Further, Deputy City Attorney Raychele Sterling, who was fired last month in May, stated that the employees were badgered and berated with threats of losing their job.  In a March 23 email to the City Council, Sterling wrote that public works employees told her they were directed by their superiors to assign projects to a particular firm because its head “is a personal friend of the city manager, and the city manager wants him to receive as many projects as possible.” This at around the same time fired employee Sean Gill, Construction Contracts Administrator for the City, claimed that city officials gave millions in contracts without the contracts going out to bid. The lawsuit also alleges Gill was ordered by Deputy Public Works Director Tom Boyd to sign off on projects that didn’t meet handicap-accessible standards or city requirements, and that Boyd “even instructed Gill not to inspect the work.”  The suit claims city officials — with the knowledge of council members — awarded contracts “in an effort to increase their political allies” and ordered work without public bidding, which cost the city more money than necessary.  There you go Mr. Sundeen, sounds like something to investigate, also sounds as both Raychele and Sean fall into the whistleblower category.

Last year, June 2010 at City Council, that Dvonne Pitruzello, City Council Candidate Ward 1, requested to see documents in regards to City Manager Brad Hudson’s discretionary fund spending.  Since then, numerous questions of indiscretions came to the forefront at City Council Meetings, such as the Connie Leach Contracts and questions of favoritism in contracts awarded to Albert Webb and Assoiciates.  Will the City of Riverside experience another mass exodus due to the next erruption of the Toba Caldera?  Keep connected with TMC…

UPDATE: 06/29/2011: HUDSON’S RESPONSE TO FORMER DEPUTY CITY ATTORNEY RAYCHELE STERLING, “ABSOLUTELY SILLY.”   HE MAY BE SAYING THAT BECAUSE HE’S LEAVING, BUT RAYCHELE HAS ONE HELL OF A LAW SUIT AGAINST THE CITY (TAXPAYER) WHICH WILL DEVULGE A BOMBSHELL OF IMPROPRIETIES.

CITY OF RIVERSIDE: CITY MANAGER BRAD HUDSON RESIGNS! IN 2016, COUNCILMAN PAUL DAVIS STATES HE WAS ‘GET RID OF.’ TMC AGAIN HAD IT RIGHT, ‘HE WAS FIRED!’

Posted: June 14, 2011 in Uncategorized
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Anonymous sources say City Manager Brad Hudson was given an ultimatum: BE FIRED OR RESIGN?  NOT SO!   At Tuesday’s closed sessions at City Hall, Brad Hudson was scheduled for his Performance Evaluation to be reviewed by the Council and Mayor Pro Tem Chistopher Mac Arthur.  Neithertheless, the council and mayor pro tem ‘s scheduled evaluation was circumvented by Hudson revealing he would be resigning.  Though we are told the City knew he was looking for a new job for some time, in reality it wasn’t a real shock to them as they indicated to the public.  The Sacramento Bee stated that the interview process began in February 2011 for the Chief Executive Officer postion.  We still do not know if the City of Riverside did anything to retain him,  in lieu of two years remaining on his contract.  Currently, Hudson has yet to present his resignation letter.  Brad’s spending from his discretionary slush fund of $50,000 for each item with no limit on the quantity of times it can be paid out, has been under scrutiny of alleged misconduct and questionable accountability.   The resignation is at the surface, a subterfuge to hide much more than the council would like you to know.  Wrongdoing by the City Manager would ultimately and legally make the Council responsible.  Will the council have enough gumption to tell the community the truth?  According to the Sacramento Bee Brad Hudson will become Sacramento’s County Chief Executive Officer, his annual compensation in Riverside was $424,000.00 making him one of the highest paid city executives in California.   The question is, why would you leave his base salary of $295,000.00 to make $258,000.00 in Sacramento?  No one just chooses to make this move, especially to Sacramento.  This goes along with former Assistant City Manager Tom DeSantis, who applied for a job in Gilbert, Arizona for Town Manager, but raised red flags when his past service came into question.  Brad Hudson has been at the forefront of allegations of misconduct, nepotism and favoritism.   The allegation have increase two fold the last few months with most of them coming from fired employees, accusing the City Manager of preferential contract awarding.   This in lieu of the use of Police Cold Plate Vehicles, Request for Official Badges, Fraudulently Using the City Hall Address to Register a Firearm, Illegally Purchasing a Firearm and being in part responsible for the demolition of the Press Bindery.  This beginning with a criminal conviction for credit card forgery at age eighteen.  At the evening City Council session the the law firm Hudson hired, Cihigoyenetche,Grossberg & Clouse, is requesting an addtional amount of $50,000.00, not to exceed $100,000.00 for continued personnel investigations.  This was the firm that was to investigate the favoritism allegations of himself as well as the varacity of the chain of events.  The City Council and the Mayor have continued to deny these allegations, and have defended the City Manager.   This is also the person who knowingly supported the actions of Chief Russ Leach, who left in disgrace, and out of 91 applicants hired retired LAPD Deputy Chief now Chief Sergio Diaz, who has criticized Riversidian commenters in the Press Enterprise as Cheeto eaters in their underwear, in reference to the realities of police business.  The theatrics of City Council wishing Brad well stink to high heaven, probably from all the leaking sewers…

UPDATE: 06/14/2011: CITY COUNCIL BOMBSHELL: During Public Comment today, Citizen Auditor, as she would like to be known, Vivian Moreno asked all on the dais if City Manager Brad Hudson was having an affair with Assistant City Manager Belinda Graham?  If true, there is a obvious conflict of interest.  That questioned sure quieted the dais.  Before her, Ward 1 City Council Candidate Dvonne Pitruzello stated this was a City Manager that has raped our sewage funds, our water fund, our electric fund and our workmans compensation funds.  He has paid for properties with it and other projects with it.  The City calls them inter-fund loans, but she gave Chief Financial Officer Paul Sundeen a lesson in finance terminology, by stating these were inter-agency loans.  She also made known to Brad Hudson that you can run, but you cannot hide because criminal activity has no jurisdiction.   Made known that the City Council has a City Manager that they are responsible for, whether or not they were aware of what they were voting on, and not only have a fiduciary but ethical responsibility of that final vote.  Federal CDBG funds that were forged, with inference to Assistant City Manager Belinda Graham, and Dvonne even gave her phone number out, and stated she has the documentation to back it up.  Questioned Councilman Mike Gardner statement, “We had to pay for talent”, regarding Brad Hudson. “This is not talent, Mike”.   Criticized the council regarding terms use to describe Hudson’s positive moral compass as a leader. Questioned the Council about the expensive pavers on the Main Street Mall in which Brad Hudson personally sent a helicopter to Mexico to get, which she was told were special because they were waterproof, but when she looked into it they were just pavers (Anonymous sources state that they were not even water permeable, expensive, and paid for twice, and Mexican Made not American Made)..  Questioned the construction of a house built  with funds that was to be used on the construction of a police station.  She stated that restrictive Police Asset Forfeiture Funds were used to purchase cars for city council.  No reporting of the City Managers discretionary fund, and when she requested the documents, the spending was ridiculous because it was the councils responsibility to oversee these funds, and they allowed the city manager by doing this, to place our city in bankruptcy. And it will be in bankruptcy because all those loans will come do in 2012.  Questioned the money used to built the Raincross Promenade, that continues to remain empty.  The city use of sewer money, electric money and workmans comp money that was given to the developer to build those, and a portion of those were to go to  low income people. 

 Sources are also are stating that City Attorney Greg Priamos and City Manager Brad Hudson were seen last Friday night, 06/10/2011, with two unidentified ladies at Duane’s Restaurant at the Mission Inn. Hopefully this dinner was paid appropriately.  The question is , will Greg Priamos be next?

UPDATE:06/15/2011: 12:16pm: Anonymous Sources are stating that the City of Riverside is worse off than they thought, and the city can’t pay the bonds that are due in July 01, 2012.

UPDATE:06/15/2011: 02:52pm: The question arises, who will be the Interim City Manager.  Sources say it would be counterproductive to hire from Brad Hudson’s surrounding emloyees, such as Deanna Lorson, Paul Sundeen or Belinda Graham.  These people are partly to blame for the budget problems, and were the enablers behind Hudson spending wildly, they cannot be trusted to fix the broken monetary policies at City Hall.

UPDATE:06/15/2011:11:55pm: The house built with construction funds used for a police station.  Does it have a well known City Executive’s name on it?  In addition, most of the Council continue to drink the Kool-Aid and still don’t get it!  Sources say, this is exactly what Brad Hudson stated about the council, “They just don’t get it!”  This is the one time TMC is in agreement with Brad Hudson.  Ward 1 Councilman Mike Gardner, elected for a second term, does not get it. “There’s a reason that city managers typically don’t last longer than three to five years,” Gardner said. “Either you make your bosses mad and they replace you, or you make the citizenry mad to some extent and they complain about you.”  Mike, it’s time to put aside childish excuses and thinking and do the right thing you were elected to do.  Stop the charades, you’ll get more support if you do.  Toward Sacramento, how much Kool-Aid does Sacramento County Chairwoman Roberta MacGlashan drink, stated, “officials don’t believe Hudson ordered Riverside contracts steered to friends”.  Well even if she doesn’t drink the Kool-Aid, which is even worse, Brad Hudson found a workable nitch.  It appears to be a kind of Nancy Hart (City Council Representative for Riverside Ward 6), type of community in their thinking, possibly laughing out loud for no reason, perfect for the antics of Brad Hudson.

UPDATE: 06/16/2011: 12:15pm:  COMMENT FROM THE SACRAMENTO BEE: 

Supervisor chair, Roberta MacGlashen’s mismanagement is further revealed in this  terrible selection of Hudson whose apparently the only qualified applicant in  Calif at a 1/4 million dollars a year.  MacGlashen, is full of myths and  this one is a whopper; one  reason’s these salaries are so inflated is because we  are falsely informed that only a man of Hudson’s alleged skill level can do this  job. Hudson sounds like a first class pos.  MacGlashen, is also the one  that is concealing the county council’s, Robert Ryan’s, bogus false legal advice  to the Superior court’s  state statutory committee (JJDPC) to thwart a  valid felony complaint against the probation dept and chief Don L.  Meyer.  When MacGlashen’s total abuse of the office failed to obstruct  that issue she then called an internal 911 to the sheriff’s that are now  criminally investigating this citizen for threats & harassment of the board  of supervisor’s, county council, prob dept, JJDPC, Little Hoover Commission; and  who else Roberta, oh yah, the superior court?  It certainty appears that  board chair, Roberta MacGlashen, is an unethical supe and anyone she brings to  the table should be heavily scrutinized.

Mr Hudson, I look forward to  speaking with you soon since Steve Szalay swept it under the carpet.

Jake  Wallace, 209-470-5175    Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/06/16/3704495/riverside-city-manager-is-picked.html#ixzz1PT4Tgqhw

UPDATE: 06/16/2011: 03:30pm: Brad Hudson still has 2 years remaining on his contract with the City of Riverside, has not submitted a formal resigation letter and flew to Sacramento the next day after the Tuesday closed sessions city council meeting to solidify his position as Sacramento County Chief Executive Officer.  These chain of events do not reflect a prepared state of affairs.  The story with the Sacramento Bee describing Brad’s new position was published for release 11:30 pm Tuesday the 15, 2011.  Was it calculated, one week after elections?  In an interview Wednesday in Sacramento, Hudson said he leaves Riverside having  accomplished his goals.  Is he leaving or is he running?

UPDATE: 06/17/2011: 12:15pm:  SACRAMENTO BEE STATED THAT Chairwoman Roberta MacGlashan said the selection came about two weeks ago, after an extensive search for  leaders with experience in California counties. This would be a week prior to the elections.  Did the mayor and city council know this then, with two years remaining on Hudson’s contractual obligation with the City?  Why did Brad make this decision, was it with or without the City Council or the Mayors knowledge? Were things getting hotter on the City Hall seventh floor? Is there more comming down the pipeline? Did it have anything to do with the Connie Leach Grand Jury Investigation received by the city?

UPDATE: 06/17/2011: 04:00pm: According to the Sacramento Press, Brad Hudson was one of five candidate in consideration for the new chief county executive position.  Process for his consideration began in early February of 2011, and he will be offered a five year contract.  He will replace interim chief executive Steve Szalay.  Former state Sen. John J. Benoit (R-Riverside) worked with Hudson at the local level when Benoit was a member of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors and said that Hudson’s move will be “a great loss for Riverside, but a huge gain for Sacramento.”  The rumor around downtown riverside is that Brad Hudson was looking for another job for some time.  Did the City Council & Mayor know this information prior to Tuesday”s closed session meetings, as they indicate they were shocked to hear the news that he was resigning?  Or the acceptance of Hudson in Sacramento regardless of his background, reveals a much bigger picture.  A reflection of the status quo phoenomenom of which Hudson is part of, and the primary reason that California is economically suffering.

From the history that follows this guy, it is once again apparent that the Sac County Supervisors are not doing background checks, but rather relying on corrupt advisors.  –Commenter Sacrameto Press

MORE COMING DOWN THE PIPELINE, SOURCES SAYING RIVERSIDE WORST THEN BELL, IS THE COUNCIL AND MAYOR PREPARED?  ARE ORANGE JUMPSUITS IN THE WORKS?  DO WE ALSO NEED TO WARN SACRAMENTO?  OR IS SACRAMENTO PART OF THE SAME CULTURE OF BEHAVIOR?  SUMMER’S HERE, RIVERSIDE HEAT IS JUST STARTING TO SWELTER….

SHOW CITY COUNCIL & THE MAYOR WHAT YOU THINK! SEND YOUR PACKETS OF KOOL-AID TO CITY HALL, 3900 MAIN STREET, RIVERSIDE, CA  92501

KEEP CONNECTED WITH TMC, MAKING THEM HONEST, AND HELL, IT AIN’T EASY….

CITY OF RIVERSIDE: AT WILL VS. VESTED EMPLOYEES AND THE WHISTLEBLOWER LAW

Posted: June 3, 2011 in Uncategorized
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The question that many employees that work for the City of Riverside are having is why are their vested employees and at-will employees.  Ordinarily, the Private Sector in California is an at-will state, once you go to the Public Sector, it doesn’t apply.  The standard in the Public Sector is that executive positions are usually at-will, and the rest are vested positions.  But we are finding a mix of vested and at-will employees within middle and upper management positions, and of course there are the rank and file still continue to remain vested per union contract.  Vested positions cannot be changed to at-will positions by the City council or the City Manager, it must take a vote of the  people. The city could be enthralled into a serious class action lawsuit if this is true. The question is, were mid and upper management positions which were originally vested changed to at-will without a vote of the people?  This then becomes the legal question.

Sources are asking,for example, if the position was vested before the City Manager Brad Hudson came to the city, would be illegal of him to have changed the position to at-will without a vote of the people,  Therefore the at-will position advertised would be an illegal and fraudulent offer to that employee.  This would also violate Skelly Rights.  The purpose of the Skelly rule is to allow employees an opportunity to respond to the charges and to request a reduction or elimination of the discipline. It also allows for an opportunity to check out the evidence that management has against the employee.

Therefore, this offer would be contrary to public policy. Usually a city charter can override only if it states “at-will”, but it appears that the City of Riverside Charter does  not.  If the city manager came in and declared that vested positions are now at-will, this would be illegal.  Legally, a vested position will remain a vested position, even if an employee came in and was told at-will was the position. You may have agreed to it, which would be a fraudulent offer, and if you were terminated, the position would legally return back to vested.  Remember only “you” can waive your right of being vested if you wanted to change to “at-will.”  A city manager cannot state “vested” positions are now “at-will”, or even the city council cannot change this.  If this was what you were told, a Labor Relations Attorney would be in order to sue the city.  The city cannot vote out rights given by the voters. Rank and file employees, for example, are vested, and their mid management positions vested.

If your contract is terminated, when you are hired there is an implied contract, the contract states that you are at-will, one can still sue the city council civily, because they allowed the city manger to make this illegal decision. Remember, the City Council and the Mayor are ultimately responsible since the City Manager serves at their pleasure.  Look at the history of the city for laws regards at-will and vested.  January 2007 the city became a Charter City, and this change could by some become questionable. Since City Charter process could be abused, and be used more like a weapon than a tool.  Therefore, the at-will classification can give the city the license to steal and avoid transparency, if anything is said, an employee can be fired and a gag order placed.  That’s why the whistleblower act is important.  The first US law adopted specifically to protect whistleblowers was the 1863 United States called the False Claims Act (revised in 1986), which tried to combat fraud by suppliers of the United States government during the Civil War.  The act encourages whistleblowers by promising them a percentage of the money recovered or damages won by the government and protects them from wrongful dismissal.  A whistleblower is now defined as  a person who tells the public or someone in authority about alleged misconduct, dishonest or illegal activities occurring in a government department, a public or private organization, or a company. The alleged misconduct may be classified in many ways; for example, a violation of a law, rule, regulation and/or a directthreat to public interest, such as fraud  health/safety violations, and corruption.  Therefore, if you were fired based on the whistleblower law, you may have been unlawfully terminated and have grounds for a lawsuit.

FOR CITY OF RIVERSIDE EMPLOYEE’S, OPEN LINK IN CASE OF EMERGENCY: WHISTLEBLOWER’S DISCLOSURE GUIDE

RIVERSIDE: THE PRESS BINDERY: A BREACH OF TRUST

Posted: May 16, 2011 in Uncategorized
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Legally we can do whatever we want there,” Hudson said. “The city wasn’t required to preserve any of it.”

It’s a sad day when each day the integrity and history of our once beautiful and fare city falls .  The Ol Press Bindery was on life support until the death rattle was heard by the final falling of what was left of the frontal façade.  And down it went biting the dirt of progress by the iron fist of City Manager Brad Hudson, while the council below him were none the wiser.  Every time an element of historical significance is demolished, the city loses a little bit of who we are as a community.  People travel to cities because of their history, and it would be in the City of Riverside best interest to stop this practice, and in this situation a case of incompetance.   This ultimately is reflected in a lack of leadership and a breach of trust toward the community by sworn elected officials.  The Stalder Building may be next, with a stipulation that if the cost to repair escalates over 350K, it can be torn down.  What do you think will ultimately be the result?  Well its on paper folks!  True shenanigans going on? My opinion it just can’t be anything else, the good ol’ boys will be boys.  As Dave Leonard stated, Chief of the Old Riverside Foundation, “Knocking down a concrete building is not a mistake, this is a major problem for the city”.  And he fears it will get worse, “The Stalder Building is next”.   I guess, now we will rebuild the facade of the Press Bindery with plaster and fiberglass like some movie set prop, and onward, tear down the Stalder Building, will just rebuild the facade.  This will become our city, facades of what was and maybe just a little bit of Disneyland and Moreno Valley?

UPDATE: MAY 29, 2011: The Press Bindery was designed by Henry L.A. Jekel and constructed in 1925 in the Spanish Revival style.  Someone told me that it even housed the Press Enterprise at one point.  There is no doubt there was incompetancy all around, from City Hall to the construction company.  “Legally we can do whatever we want there,” Hudson said. “The city wasn’t required to preserve any of it.”  What should be bothersome and disturbing to Riversidian’s is the arrogance of that statement.  According to the Certificate of Appropriateness, page 3, the city was to preserve the “ENTIRE Spanish Revival portion of the Press Bindery”, not just the frontal wall facade.  It goes on to say on page 4, that “the Press Bindery consist of the original Spanish Revival front portion of the building AND the poured concrete rear work area of the building. This plan will preserve the highly stylized Spanish Revival front portion of the building.” This gives validity to the argument that instructions were not followed.  No mistake here!  It’s part of the cities agenda or Hudson’s agenda.  It’s obvious the City Manager is responsible.  The Mayor and the council members, who also play a part in state redevelopment decisions, are equally responsible as well.  Another play on the community with use of semantics?  These are people who do not care about our city.   We can place new policies in as Councilman Mike Gardner indicated, but what is worth when current policies are not followed or honored.  When someone turns their head for a second, we find ourselves asking, “What happened to this wall, and hey, and what happened to that wall, it was there yesterday”?  Mike, you cannot tell us, “The city made a very serious mistake by tearing down that building the way they did”.  The chain of events that led to the press bindery demolition should be investigated and responsible parties terminated, afterall, it appears employees at City Hall have been fired for lesser offenses.  You carry two positions of responsibility,  City Councilman and as as an agent of Redevelopment, you are the City.  The investigation should be initiated by Ward 1 Councilman, Mike Gardner, this was on his watch and it went right by him.  Or we can hire at outside law firm as Brad Hudson did to investigate the allegations of favoritism by himself.  We all know where that will lead.  The more that the community understands the truth through documentation, Brad Hudson’s arguments simply begins to become more disingenuous, revealing himself, as just a paper tiger.  If you Like Mike call him, and Especially if you Don’t Like Mike, ask him to investigate Brad Hudson’s actions and recommend he vote for his termination, let him know how you feel, 951-826-5991 (office) or 951-941-7084 (cell) or by e-mail at mgardner@riversideca.gov     Let the City Manager, Bradley Hudson know how you feel directly at 951-826-5771 (office) or by e-mail at bhudson@riversideca.gov    There is the story you read, then their is the real story you don’t read, but is yet to come.  Keep in tune, TMC investigates, check for updates. Please give your comments!

UPDATE: 03/12/2012: WHAT REMAINS OF THE PRESS BINDERY REMAINS IN LIMBO ACCORDING THE PRESS ENTERPRISE.

JURUPA AVENUE EXTENSION: CAN SEWER FUNDS LEGALLY FINANCE A NEW PROJECT?

Posted: May 14, 2011 in Uncategorized
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Second phase extension of the Jurupa Avenue extension was unanimously passed by City Council at Tuesday’s council meeting.   According to Riverside Municipal Code, the monies from those funds can be used solely for the maintenance, operation, construction and reconstruction of existing sewer lines, and cannot be used for the construction of new local street sewers.  Is this project actually legal?  Or a misuse of taxpayer funds and a violation of Riverside Municipal Code?  That is the question.

UPDATE:  It’s hard to grasp how someone can rationalize violating laws enacted to protect the sanctity of taxpayer monies and their potential abuse by elected and appointed officials sworn to protect the interest of the taxpayer.  It appears it all started in 2003, whereby developer Chuck Cox gave the city a parcel of land next to the golf course by Riverside Municipal Airport in exchange for a piece of land called simply the Old Agricultural Park.  The Old Agricultural Park had evidently been contaminated from and old city sewer plant on or adjacent to the parcel.  In the real world, it would have been up to Chuck Cox, the developer, to pursue an environmental study to test for soil contamination during the negotiations. Regardless, Cox then planned to build homes on the Agricultural site.  It was then that city officials decided to tell Chuck Cox the land had been contaminated by an old city sewer plant.  Why would the city knowingly not tell the developer this bit of info prior to the original parcel swap.  It seems to me this would be a violation of the law to sell a parcel of land with foresight of it being contaminated?  As City Manager Brad Hudson explained the deal, the city and Cox agreed to swap responsibilities — Cox would handle cleanup at the agricultural park if the city would build part of the Jurupa Avenue extension.  See, if you built your own house, connecting your house to new utilities such as water, sewage and electricity would be at cost to you.  Smell the sewage yet?  Well it gets better. Councilman Steve Adams who’s has an extensive background and knowledge of the city, based on his comprehensive level of experience in public service as a career politician and police officer, must know municipal code and law.  Adams said the sewer funds to be used for the road extension would otherwise have gone toward the site cleanup.  How can that be, the clean-up is not the cities problem anymore, it is the developer!  Further, sewer funds cannot be used for road extension construction or cleanup, but the developer may have a case for fraud against the city, since the city admitted having prior knowledge of land contamination.  The real issue is the location and existence of the old city sewer plant, what kind of contamination occurred and did it really happen at all.  Regardless, Councilman Steve Adams may need a refresher on municipal code for the city of riverside.  But again, no one can use Sewer Funds for new sewer construction. 

UPDATE: 06/07/2011: Sources state that due to the Jurupa Avenue Extension, the Sewer Fund has been depleted.  In an inter-agency transfer, monies from Public Utilities Fund will replenish monies lost in the Sewer Fund.  But at some point, your utility bill will increase to replenish the Public Utilities monies lost.  Comments Welcomed!  Give Us Your Insight.  TMC investigates, stay connected, watch for updates.

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