Posts Tagged ‘councilman jeff giba’

Giba Claim filed 10/26/2018 Against the City of Moreno Valley – full version

There’s a saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same,” and we can think of no finer example this glorious October morn than the feud currently ongoing over at Moreno Valley between City Councilman and 2018 Mayorial candidate Jeff Giba and City Manager Tom DeSantis, along with his City Hall toadies and enablers including City Clerk Pat Jacquez-Nares, City Attorney Martin Koczanowicz, and of course Big Mama Baca and her boys.

Longtime TMC readers will undoubtedly remember the controversial former Riverside Assistant City Manager, either from his days impersonating a law enforcement officer – complete with cold-plated vehicles, handguns purchased from the Police Department, and intimidation of citizens – or the rumored limited edition bootleg DVD of his infamous backseat romp in a public parking garage with a subordinate in the pre- #metoo days.  The totality of his actions became such an embarrassment, a feat in and amongst itself for that time period in the ole’ River City, that he was shuttled out of town quickly and quietly in September of 2010 by City Manager Hustlin’ Brad Hudson, an original gangster in the Riverside Renaissance scheme of last decade that left citizens with $2 billion in debt with no way to pay for it without breaking the bank (i.e. the taxpayers).

Tommy D. would quickly re-establish himself within the municipal world in early 2011 as a contract employee at Moreno Valley, at the whim of City Manager Henry Garcia, who was at the time dating DeSantis’ former colleague at the City of Riverside, luxury girl Human Resources Director Rhonda Strout.  As far as we can tell, one of Strout’s primary responsibilities at Riverside was chasing whistleblowers out of town and running interference for senior management to behave like drunken sailors…a DeSantis specialty…primarily by conducting bogus investigations and converting classified positions to at-will so employees could be terrorized if they stood up to executive management abuse.

Tommy’s job at MoVal? Analyzing public works contracts (cue eerie music connoting foreshadowing) – specifically, Highland Fairview projects (Skechers and a health-care campus on 200 acres near the Riverside County Regional Medical Center) being proposed by now notorious developer/political gangster Iddo Benzeevi that were stuck in administrative muckety muck, aka non-compliance with what is commonly referred to as da’ rulz (at least the ones you and I have to play by).

By the Fall of 2011, Garcia had of course canned his Public Works Director, some might say because of DeSantis’ critical reports, and HR Director…and conveniently DeSantis was available to be named as the HR replacement … despite no previous experience in HR that we could find!  At the same time, the city’s land development division, then under public works, was shifted to economic development  under Director Barry Foster – lo’ and behold, the husband of another of Tom’s former Riverside colleagues, Public Works Director Shioban Foster.  Barry would be fired in 2013 along with Garcia as allegations of their involvement with Marcelo Co’s code problems and the rammed-through Benzeevi projects emerged via several successful employee lawsuits, with DeSantis (of course) playing a central role in the drama.

Tom DeSantis in a previous dramatical role

Current Actor’s Headshot

Shioban, who will eventually wind up in the Municipal Mob Hall of Fame some day for her imvolvement in contract steering allegations, embezzlement at Pasadena, etc., etc., is a well known commodity to TMC.  Here’s a look at longtime activist Vivian Moreno and Jason Hunter trying to warn Covina officials, to no avail, of her past.  Shioban Foster would last 3 years at Covina before moving onto Laguna Woods Village retirement community as Assistant CEO under…. wait for it…her former boss in Riverside… Brad Hudson.  And the game of recycled executive trash continues.

But back to our protagonist/anti-hero DeSantis: Tommy D. would benefit from the Garcia ouster by backfilling Michelle Dawson’s Assistant City Manager spot.  He would lay in the weeds until late 2017, when fresh off a new contract, Dawson would be jettisoned for no apparent reason and tremendous expense to the taxpayers of Moreno Valley.  Tommy-on-the-spot would be the primary beneficiary on that decision with a promotion to his dream job – banana republic dictator, City Manager – by Big Mama Baca and her boys, which leads us to the present.

Thirty Miles has seen this backstory smoldering for a while, so it came as no surprise to us this past Summer when we saw the following letter as part of an article in the Press Enterprise:

            

Letter Emailed to MoVal Staff by Councilman Giba

Councilman Giba sent this letter to all city staff, June 26th, with his concerns about the disparate treatment he was receiving at the hands of DeSantis and City Clerk Jacquez-Nares.  The letter was in response to purportedly-illegal restrictions on getting information about City affairs levied on Giba only (the supervisor) by the two executives (the supervised).  Given the circumstances one might posture that the inmates are indeed running the asylum in Moreno Valley, but we at TMC know who’s really in charge of the game (wink, wink, nudge, nudge), designed specifically to limit transparency and undermine an elected official with a minority viewpoint.

The Buck Stops Here! Let No Sunshine In Big Mama and her boys, “Ick”stian Guttierrez and Ulises Uselis Cabrera

Giba’s crime?  The old “hostile workplace environment” scam we’ve seen hatched before in Riverside by former DeSantis colleague and disgraced City Manager Scott Barber (with help at the time of believe-it-or-not, current MoVal Director of Parks and Community Services Patti Solano).  Yes, the same Solano knee-deep in bringing the residents of Moreno Valley the recent scandal-ridden skate park and amphitheater projects (Brown Act violations?  Misappropriations of Public Funds?) we will be discussing here at TMC soon enough.  You just can’t make this stuff up…and folks wonder why the I.E. has such a bad reputation.  Too much government inbreeding wethinks!

DeSantis/Jacquez-Nares Directives to Elected Official – Only in MoVal!

The current scheme of course could not be pulled off without justification offered from City Attorney Koczanowicz, in his chief role as giving out farcical legal opinions favoring whichever-way-the-political-wind-blows (as seems to be the primary qualification of a California City Attorney these days).  You gotta love an attorney who signs off on depriving their boss of their rights to due process and in-turn allows his co-workers to serve as judge, jury, and executioners towards their OWN COMPLAINTS!  Can you say Greg-Priamos-wannabe?

But it gets better: DeSantis instructed the email containing Giba’s letter be deleted from the inboxes of all employees with Koczanowicz’ concurrence.  Unrepentant and unafraid, Giba proceeded to try to send the very same letters via inter-office mail to all employees.  Once again, DeSantis intercepted them, this time with Koczanowicz, doing his best John Dean impersonation, accusing Giba of attempting to violate FPPC (Fair Political Practices Commission) rules on campaign-related mass mailings.

City Attorney Martin Koczanowicz incognito after his recent MoValleywood directorial debut

Undeterred, Giba would seek guidance from the FPPC itself.  The FPPC would of course agree with Giba – no violations of law were possible because the contents of his letter were non-campaign-related – proving City Attorney Koczanowicz to be either incompetent or corrupt.  Giba would attempt to distribute his letter to employees a 3rd time…and be intercepted again by DeSantis, this time with Koczanowicz determining his letter violated THE VERY SAME ORDINANCE GIBA WAS CITING AS PROOF HE COULD MAKE DIRECT INQUIRIES OF STAFF.   Someone needs to inform party-hardy-Marty that only legislators can legislate, and it’s not something that can be delegated; i.e. executives cannot implement their own self-serving policies out of thin air.

Letter from FPPC – “Perceived improprieties in City management function”

We would laugh more if the plot didn’t have a such a sad ending for the stakeholders in Moreno Valley.  The best we can hope for is enough residents are awake to usher in change on November 6th and clean house with staff.

Law & Order: MoVal Closed Session, pilot episode transcript of new dra-medy leaked to TMC!

ATTORNEY: Doctor Giba, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
GIBA: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
GIBA: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
GIBA: No..
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
GIBA: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
GIBA: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
GIBA: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.

Part II (coming soon): Mayor “Ick”stian Gutierrez’s direct role in silencing dissent, along with his 2 court jesters

Part III (coming soon): Skate park and amphitheater shenanigans

Part IV: Coming to a theater near you!?

TMC, RATED RIVERSIDE REGIONAL COUNTIES MOST, “SCANDALOUS,” “NEGATIVE,” “WARPED,” “RAUNCHY,” “LOW CLASS,” “VISIONS OF GRANDEUR,” “FULL OF B.S.,” “REPREHENSIBLE,” “IGNORANT,” “MISGUIDED,” “BULLYISH,” “INDECENT,” “REPUGNANT,””IMMORAL,” “FILTHY,” “VILE,” “SICK,” “PERVERTED,” “DEFAMATORY,” “STUPID,” “PATHETIC,” “DESPICABLE,” “DISAPPOINTING,” “BELOW THE BELT,” “A NEW LOW,” “SHOCKING,” “OFFENSIVE,” “OBNOXIOUS,” “INAPPROPRIATE,” “HURTFUL,” “MEAN SPIRITED,” “DISTASTEFUL,” “EMBARRASSING,” HORIFFIC,” “SLANDEROUS” “FIT TO BE VIEWED FROM THE REAR” AND MEZZSPELLED, “MISSPELLED” AND “OPINIONATED” BLOG SITE! YES WE ADMIT WE OUR ALL OF THAT AND MORE, WHICH IN CURRENT TERMS IS KNOWN AS “UNPOLITICALLY CORRECT.” TEMPORARILY BLOCKED BY THE CITY OF RIVERSIDE AT PUBLIC ACCESS SITES WITHIN THE CITY, THEN UNBLOCKED. I GUESS YOU CANNOT DO THAT ACCORDING TO THE ACLU. RATED ONE STAR OUT OF FIVE IN TERMS OF COMMUNITY APPROVAL RATINGS.. … AGAIN, THANK YOU COMMUNITY OF RIVERSIDE AND THE CITY OF RIVERSIDE EMPLOYEE’S FOR YOUR SUPPORT! CONTACT US: thirtymilescorruption@hotmail.com

Depositphotos_3792289_s copy2 copyFORMER RIVERSIDE MAYOR RON LOVERIDGE STILL PERFORMING.  DID MOVAL COUNCILMEMBERS GET THEIR POSITIONS BASED ON A LIE?  TMC SAYS ‘YES’ IN PART ONE OF THE STORY.

The Moreno Valley Recall Circus is coming back to town, this time featuring Council puppets George Price and LaDonna Jempson.  The with Master Puppeteer?  Former Riverside Mayor Ron Loveridge……………..WHAT!?

Recall Moreno Valley started up again in full swing a couple of weeks ago when Councilmember Jeff Giba was served with Intent to Recall documents.  These papers were proudly served to Mr. Giba by the Peeden twins.  TMC happened to be in that meeting when the hoopla commenced.  It was all great theater.

As our nine (we are steadily growing our membership) regular readers know, we at Thirty Miles love us some drama, so we raced right home and read the recall papers.  What great scandal had been uncovered for us to salivate over?  To our disappointment, the argument on the recall petition was weak.  It essentially said, “this isn’t anything about what Giba did, but what we don’t like about Iddo.”

It seems the petitioners can’t make up their mind about a solid message.  I have no doubt that these people will get really BIG MONEY behind this recall however … just like the really BIG MONEY they said Iddo legally put behind the candidates that he had every right to support.  The message of this recall should be: MY MONEY IS BIGGER THAN YOURS!  Seems a bit hypocritical to us here at TMC.

At the May 24th, Moreno Valley City Council meeting we asked the million dollar question that everyone was dying to know:  “Are Councilmembers George Price and Ladonna Jempson involved in the recall of Councilmember Jeff Giba?”  There is a perception within the public that they are.  And who else could possibly be involved?  Surprise, suprise…could it be former Riverside Mayor Ron Loveridge?  Is the master manipulator of Riverside County again pulling the strings and letting his students to do his dirty work, akin to a Political Science/Public Policy assignment in Recall 101?  Would Mayor Luv attempt to manipulate Moreno Valley politics for the benefit of Riverside?

Let’s take a look at George Price.  Price was the Parks Director at the city of Moreno Valley for a number of years.  We have observed that many of the public documents regarding George Price’s tenure with the City have been very difficult to obtain.  In our experience that the best indicator the City has reason to cover something up.  So what exactly is it?  Mr Price ran his campaign on the message, “I want to bring back respect to people on the Council and the residents who come up to speak,”  Our response is: show us all the documents so the R E S P E C T can start.

Mr. Price was actively involved in the Tom Owens recall, from which he won the seat.  “I got involved because I want to restore honesty, integrity and leadership to your council”, said George Price, adding that he’s the only candidate actively involved in the recall against Owings.  Is Mr. Price nothing more than a politician that will say and do anything to get elected, but then stab his fellow Councilmembers in the back at the first opportunity?  Mr. Price has stated publicly that he is not involved in the recall, but if you go to his Facebook page things certainly look a bit different.

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Ladonna Jempson was actively involved in the recall of Victoria Baca.  On her Facebook page she is against the World Logistic Center, but at the same time is supportive of the 1000 jobs at the MoVal Amazon facility – starting pay, $12 per hour.  Isn’t Amazon a warehouse too?  She also is closely connected to the Facebook pages that are in favor of the current recall of Mr Giba.

We don’t believe Mrs. Jempson is actively engaged in this process, but we don’t think she would mind if it were successful either.  Our advice to Mrs. Jempson: be careful of who you think your supporters are.  These people will turn on you in as heartbeat.  It happens to very good people/politicians at the time in this neck of the woods.

So what’s this recall really about?  On November 5, 2014, when Corey Jackson went to bed, he believed he had won the race for District 2 of Moreno Valley.  His dream was that Mr. Price would be the Mayor and he would serve as the Mayor Pro Tem.  The 3-2 voting block was established as Price, Jempson, and Jackson.  They would have voted against the WLC and all the western Riverside County leaders would’ve been so proud of them for doing what they think was right for the region, but not necessarily what is right for Moreno Valley.

Unknowingly, these three would have just been the puppets for former Mayor Ron Loveridge and his buddies, so the real leaders of the County could get plans underway for their own March Joint Powers Warehousing District.  The City would benefit from all the impact fees, new tax base, and would be heroes for bringing all the jobs back to the region.  We guess that wasn’t, “God’s Plan,” though, because Corey Jackson lost and the Iddo Benzeevi rhetoric began shortly thereafter.

Their recall message seems loud and clear: it’s nothing personal about Mr Giba .. it’s all about Mr. Benzeevi and his bucks, and how he chooses to spend them on the political process.  We don’t really see this as any different than the Sheriff’s Union getting behind their candidates for a pay raise for all their members (which by the way was bestowed upon them a couple of weeks ago).  Long ago we learned that around here there are two set of rules: one for the haves and one for the have-nots.  Out of this system has grown two kinds of politicians: those that support the people and others that supports the HAVES.

Corey Jackson for Moreno Valley District 2 City Council November 5, 2014 • WE WON! Before I go back to sleep after a long campaign night, I want to thank God for giving me this gift of service. Thank you too my campaign manager George Hammonds for putting up with me. Thank you to George Huerta, Edward Olmedo, Darrell Peeden, Daniel Peeden for their love and countless hours. And of course to the voters of the 2nd District for trusting this “little punk” to represent their voice and improve their quality of life. I want to congratulate my fellow candidates on good campaigns and respectfully ask them for their support and participation moving forward. Thank you and “Good Night”

Corey Jackson for Moreno Valley District 2 City Council November 21, 2014 • I am regretfully announcing that we did not win this election, we lost by 7 votes. We put everything we had into this campaign in order to move the City of Moreno Valley in the right direction.  We knew at the beginning that defeating Jeffery Giba and Iddo Benzeevi was going to be very difficult.  It’s no secret that Iddo Benzeevi ran Jeffery Giba’s campaign for City Council through two separate Independent Expenditure Committees, one of which specifically opposed my candidacy. These Independent Expenditure Committees injected over a quarter of a million dollars into Jeffery Giba’s campaign for City Council, resulting in Iddo successfully placing his candidate on City Council. However, this doesn’t have to be the final result. We still have 5 days to request a recount. We have another chance through a recount to turn the votes in our favor.  Can we count on you to help us raise the $6,000 needed for the cost of the recount?  I’m not able to finance this recount myself.  I’m humbly asking for your help, please help me raise the money for the recount.  If you will commit to helping please go to https://coreyjackson.nationbuilder.com/donate and make your donation to the recount.-Corey Jackson

You can see in Jackson’s Facebook posts that the money that Iddo donated to the candidates of his choice really only mattered when Jackson lost the Council race.  So I ask, are the recalls rational, or just sour grapes?

 

Was Mayor Luv calling the Council Members of Moreno Valley stupid?  Does he believe they are too stupid to make a decision as complex as WLC?  The following was a January 2015 KVCR podcast interview with former Mayor of Riverside, Ron Loveridge, in which he states that Moreno Valley leaders may be too immature to take charge and lead a city of 200,000.

Was Loveridge talking down to them, or was he jealous of MoVal’s potential in his own elitist way?  Regardless, he called Moreno Valley, “immature.”  We looked at Thesaurus.com to find synonyms for immature: babyish, unsophisticated, premature, ‘wet behind the ears’, underdeveloped, sophomoric (meaning, “wise fool”).  We don’t believe the proud citizens of Moreno Valley should take this sitting down – dems’ fighting words!  It appears to us that what Loveridge really wanted to say was that Moreno Valley leadership is just plain, “stupid,” to make proper leadership decisions, which will direct the City towards prosperity.loveridgewalking2

Mayor Luv loves his jargon.  He speaks extensively towards the topic of, “social collateral.” So what is this “Social Collateral”?  In his distorted mind, it’s groups like Cindy Roth and the Greater Riverside Chamber of Commerce, The Monday Morning Group, The Lincoln Club, The Raincross Group, and a host of others who would gladly reach into your pockets and take a fistful of dollars via City Hall backroom dealings.

It is these groups that suck the money out of the taxpayer so they can keep their candidates in office.  Its all about the favors, you’d be wise to not make any mistake about it. You see … Iddo’s money is dirty, while the money that Cities funnel to these chosen groups are clean. [insert Joe Isuzu pic here]  Once again: two sets of rules.

 

 

To be continued…  This article is part 1 of a 3-part series, which will tie together March Joint Powers, the County Board of Supervisors, the Peeden Twins, Riverside Mayor Rusty Bailey, former Moreno Valley Council Member Bill Batey, Moreno Valley Residents For Sustainable Development and many, many more….oh, what a twisted web we weave.

TMC, RATED RIVERSIDE’S MOST, “VISIONS OF GRANDEUR,” “FULL OF B.S.,” “IGNORANT,” “MISGUIDED,” “BULLYISH,” “FILTHY,” “SICK,” “PERVERTED,” “STUPID,” “PATHETIC,” “DESPICABLE,” “DISAPPOINTING,” “BELOW THE BELT,” “A NEW LOW,” “SHOCKING,” “OFFENSIVE,” “INAPPROPRIATE,” “HURTFUL,” “MEAN SPIRITED,” “DISTASTEFUL,” “EMBARRASSING,” HORIFFIC,” “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 THE ACLU.  RATED ONE TWO ONE STAR OUT OF FIVE IN TERMS OF COMMUNITY APPROVAL RATINGS..  TMC IS NOW EXCLUSIVLY EXCLUSIVELY ON FILE WITH THE COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE’S DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE (WE BELIEVE THIS WILL END SOON, SINCE THE FOCUS IS NOW ON THE IMPROPRIETIES OF MR. “Z”.  WE TRIED TO TELL YOU, BUT NOBODY LISTENED), AND DON’T FORGET WE ARE PROSSIBLY POSSIBLY ON FILE WITH THE CITY OF RIVERSIDE’S POTENTIAL SLAPP SUIT LIST… A STRATEGIC LEGAL MANEUVER THAT CAN BE DONE ONLY IN RIVERSIDE WITHOUT A CONTRACT… AGAIN, THANK YOU COMMUNITY OF RIVERSIDE AND THE CITY OF RIVERSIDE EMPLOYEE’S FOR YOUR SUPPORT!   COMMENTS ALWAYS WELCOMED, ESPECIALLY SPELL CHECKERS!  WE JUST CAN’T SPELL!  EMAIL ANONYMOUSLY WITH YOUR DIRT BY CONTACTING US AT:  THIRTYMILESCORRUPTION@HOTMAIL.COM