TMC: Thirty Miles of Corruption

FRIENDS, BUDDIES, COMPAÑEROS, COLLEAGUES?  HE EVEN WANTS TO LOOK LIKE HIM..

I have to ask the question, “Is the reason the City of Riverside will not hold former City Attorney Greg Priamos accountable for past discrepancies because he is buddies with current City Attorney Gary Geuss?”  Was Geuss just hired to continue to cover up the blatant abuse of power that has plagued the Riverside City Attorney’s Office under the direction of Greg Priamos for the last decade? Is this more of the same recycled trash that rotates across the State of California on behalf of The Greater Riverside Chamber of Commerce, AKA Cindy Roth, or should I say Mrs. Senator Richard Roth and The California League of Cities?  Interesting enough, Senator Richard Roth’s law firm received $358,961.00 in outside legal payment in the last five years according to last years Performance Audit, which falls in line with it’s risk in procuring outside legal.  One, perception of favoritism, and two, potential conflicts of interest.  The Roth’s have made there living on the backs of the taxpayer.

I would not even be surprised if Gregory Priamos hand picked Gary Geuss to take his spot.

Here is my Argument, and you can all  decide for yourself.  When Geuss came to town April 13, 2015; I’m sure he needed some time to investigate, but it took almost 5 months til October 20th, 2105 for the council to have a candid discussion about Priamos from the dais.   The topic of conversation began with Soubirous robustly addressing the issue of the abuses of outside legal.  He then yields the discussion to the new City Attorney, Gary Geuss,  and asks if he can give an overview of how we got here.  Mike was obviously not paying attention but Mr. Geuss NEVER answered his question.  What he did or didn’t say was interesting.  He starts out by saying “I hesitate to comment upon what happened here before me, this has not been part of my job in the last 6 months.”  He also states in his candid discussion that when the council was selecting a new Attorney getting to the bottom of this very issue was a top priority.  The council was looking for someone who was ready, willing and able to look at the procedures that the city employed.  Obviously Mr. Geuss couldn’t make this his top priority, whats important to the council and the public is not important to him.  He’s ready, willing and able to take on the DA’s office (that’s a whole other story).  Mr Geuss goes on to compare the city of Riverside to LA in a similar policy and procurement issue: Geuss referred to the outside legal problems as a “lack of vigilance, lack of accountability, and lack of transparency.”  He makes reference to the outside law firms as “profit driven machines” that are motivated to make as much money as possible.  There is a trend that when these firms work for the public they are not held accountable as they should be.  He goes on to say in the future there will be 4 sets of eyes viewing all bills for outside legal.  Maybe he should have said 4 sets of honest eyes.  The old bills that need to be audited were viewed by 3 sets of eyes.  Greg Priamos, Scott Catlett and Brent Mason.  The fact that Mr. Geuss didn’t want to answer council member Soubirous question was obvious that he was intentionally dodging the real answer.

So I’ll answer it.  We had/have a very weak council that were all afraid of Greg Priamos, Brad Hudson, and Scott barber.  They allowed the legal department and Management to  run the city into the ground at an unsustainable cost to the taxpayer.  They ran a intimidation-retaliation form of government and they were all allowed to RAPE the taxpayer.  They all know the truth and they will continue to try to suppress the dialog. The citizens of Riverside have had it and we will continue to ask the very important sensitive and uncomfortable questions.

This only gets better………..

Then Councilman Paul Davis ask the question that no one could answer or everyone on the dais was afraid of.  “How much of the $11 million dollars that Greg Priamos spent on outside legal council was approved by City Council?”

The City Auditor replied, “That is not clear, I did ask that question to Kristy Smith, Deputy Assistant City Attorney, and she was not able to tell me.  She didn’t know.” The fact that Kristi Smith is still lying to the public goes to show nothing has changed.  She Knows!

Well, I can tell everyone that Priamos never went to Council for any approval.  Priamos ran the City of Riverside’s City Attorney’s Office fraudulently and illegally, with the help and support of the finance department Scott Catlett, Assistant Finance Director, and Brent Mason, Finance Director.  They also paid Greg’s bills without following any policy.  What a disgrace, they all should have all  been fired.  The new City Attorney Gary Geuss refers to this as a “lack of vigilance.”  New City Manager John Russo says, “No one will be held accountable.”  No! Mr. Russo, you and Mr. Geuss will hold the Citizens of Riverside accountable because we end up paying for all the padded bills and very bad behavior.  So who cheated the Taxpayers of Riverside, Greg Priamos, all the “profit machine” law firms that may have padded their bills like : Liebert-Cassidy-Whitmore, Best Best & Krieger, Burke Williams and Sorenson, the expert attorneys that we cannot live without, the Council, Mayor William Rusty Bailey,  John Russo and Gary Geuss.  This is a clear example of the leadership of Riverside putting themselves first and making the Taxpayer pay for all their FRIENDS, GREG PRIAMOS INCLUDED.

At the Council meeting of October 20th , it was as if the Council and new City Attorney wanted this all to go away quickly and be done with. But Davis and Soubrious were not going to let it die.  Councilmen Soubirous and Davis could not get a second on their motions for an outside legal firm to investigate further the problem which plagued the City Attorney’s Office, via a forensic audit.  Then Davis scolded everyone on the dais, he called them all hypocrites and gave Soubirous the second he needed.  The final vote was 6-1, to go forward and investigate this malfeasance of taxpayer monies.  John Burnard voted “NO.”  TMC is being told that the residents of John’s Ward 7 are just getting used his voting habits, he simply just not understanding what he is voting on, or if he is, is completely against his campaign platform.  In any case, what happen next, was the look on City Attorney’s Gary Geuss’s face when the motion passed, then he looked over to Russo.  A picture speaks a thousand words.

HUMMMMMMM………..What was going on?  Then I found this……….Let me set this up.  California League of Cities 2012 legal conference: Moderator Greg Priamos, Speaker Gary Geuss, Neil Okazaki another corrupt City of Riverside attorney, Liebert-Cassidy-Whitmore, Best Best & Krieger, and Burke Williams and Sorenson. All Friends, Buddies, Frenemies?  Nothing has changed.

     

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After the 6-1 vote of the city council to move forward with the audit Councilmember Melendrez pressured Geuss to give them a time frame that his office would bring back names of possible auditors, Geuss said 30 days.  Thirty days has come and gone we are pushing 90 days. We have seen issues like this fester for months, even years. Our very weak council needs to step up and ask why it is taking so long to get back to the council and public? This is unacceptable. Mr Geuss need to be held accountable: Need I remind him of our new STRATEGIC PLAN 2.0, Accountability Policy: Government officials must always keep in mind they are working for the residence and businesses that pay the taxes that run this city. Every municipal employee should be expected to produce real value for the public and solve, rather than merely process the problems assigned to them. Employees who fail to add value, or worse, abuse the public’s trust, need to be retrained, or in extreme cases released from service (page 6).  Looks like Mr. Geuss needs a good talking to and possible retraining.

This is all about processing the problems instead of solving them.  This goes back to taking care of our friends and letting the illegal abuse that Greg Priamos and all the legal firms associated with him get away with possible theft of the taxpayer.   Is it possible that these California League of Cities, distinguished, trusted “profit machine law firms” (Geuss’s own words) padded their bills or screwed the taxpayer of Riverside?( that’s my use of words).  Maybe Mr. Geuss does not want to audit his friends?  Or Maybe everyone is afraid of the Distinguished, Trusted, Profit Machine law firms that may be exposed.  Only time will tell and the clock is ticking on your reputation!

Back in June 10, 2015 Press Enterprise article, Councilman Mike Soubirous stated, “If people did things that were illegal or they did things that were immoral or they did things that were outside policy, they need to be held accountable.”

UPDATE: 01.08.2016: PRESS ENTERPRISE: ALICIA ROBINSON: RIVERSIDE: PROSECUTION DISCUSSION DELAYED:  Well accordingly, Riverside officials have postponed a discussion of whether to ask voters to give the city attorney the power to prosecute misdemeanor crimes.  Well it goes to show you our story made a difference!  What we find later, is that the Council were the people who wished for prosecutorial powers to be given to the City Attorney, for misdemeanors usually prosecuted by the District Attorney’s office.

UPDATE: 01.10.2016: PRESS ENTERPRISE: CASSIE MacDUFF: A RIVERSIDE CITY PROSECUTOR?  In this new article by Cassie MacDuff, continuing saga and questioning as to why the Riverside City Council are pushing forward to create a new job description for our City Attorney Gary Geuss.  When the City Attorney’s Office is in shambles regarding questionable spending without contracts, what is the true reason for taking away a job that is part of the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office?  Are they attempting to fill in space in the new $40 million Wells Fargo Building just newly purchased by the taxpayer?

Geuss believes he can do it without breaking the bank. His office expects to save at least $1 million by slashing wasteful spending on outside counsel, according to the PE.  But folks, we just had $19.4 million utilized by the City Attorney’s Office without Council approval, we still at this time do not know the extent of the monetary damage on the taxpayer.  Even subtracting $1 million from $19.4 million, even from $50 million is a drop in the bucket and an insult to the taxpayer.  We would still have tremendous waste.

Another laughable Geuss fact, is what he has to say about how the DA handles plea deals.  The following is a Geuss example: In one such case handled by the DA’s office, a masseuse who had traded sex for money was allowed to plead guilty to disturbing the peace.  This is untrue, the City Attorneys office has been known to plea deal all the time as a common practice.  Good try Geuss.

VIVIAN MORENO: RIVERSIDE CITY COUNCIL: 01.05.2016: SPEAKS ON PROSECUTORIAL POWERS!  Taxpayer Advocate Vivian Moreno speaks on the issue of the Riverside City Attorney’s Office desire to take over the misdemeanor category from the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, Mike Hestrin duties. City of Riverside’s City Attorney Gary Geuss, with the direction of the City Council would like this implemented by a vote of the people. Presently the City Attorney’s Office is in shambles and in need of organization. It still has yet to account for $19.4 million or even more paid out with the authorization of the CFO Brent Mason.

JASON HUNTER: CITY OF RIVERSIDE: 01.05.2016: HUNTER SPEAKS ON PROSECUTORIAL POWERS AND RPU MONIES!

UPDATE: 01.15.2016: RECOMMENDING THE USE OF AN OUTSIDE AGENCY TO REVIEW LEGAL BILLS, CALLED “REVIEWBILLING.COM”  THIS AGENCY CAN REVIEW ALL LEGAL BILLINGS AND DETERMINE IF  THE LAW FIRM IS OVERCHARGING!

CLICK THIS LINK TO VIEW REVIEW BILLING WEB SITE.

TMC, RATED RIVERSIDE’S REGIONAL COUNTIES MOST, “NEGATIVE,” “RAUNCHY,” “LOW CLASS,” “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” “FIT TO BE VIEWED FROM THE REAR” 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!