CLICK ON ABOVE IMAGES TO VIEW RUTAN & TUCKER LEGAL OPINION GIVEN TO RIVERSIDE MAYOR RUSTY BAILEY
The following has yet to be thoroughly studied by TMC, but we present it here for your viewing pleasure: the full legal opinion giving Mayor William Rusty Bailey the authority to veto an executive employment contract extension, such as the one passed by our City Council on Feb. 6, 2018, involving current City Manager John Russo. The opinion is from Rutan & Tucker, L.L.C., who incidentally is also retained as the City’s law firm in other matters. Exhibits to this legal opinion are as follows:
CLICK ABOVE DOCUMENT IMAGES TO VIEW EXHIBITS
As of today, TMC is the only media source offering this full opinion to the public: we’ll let you decide its merits.
Of course, TMC must remind our readers that the reeeeeeal issue here is that when hustling Brad Hudson was City Manager he gave then Mayor Loveridge everything he ever wanted, including full access to staff. Ditto ex-City Manager Scott Barber. John Russo came along and cut that access off from the Mayor’s office cold turkey.
And that is why Mayor’s Chief of Staff Cheryl-Marie Hansberger was at a recent Budget Engagement Commission Meeting a couple of weeks ago complaining about a lack of resources, and just-so-happened (wink) to also mention Russo’s contract extension and request more funding for the Mayor’s office. At which point Rusty’s former Riverside Unified School District buddy colleague and deputy Superintendent Mike Fine picked up the ball and ran with it, mentioning how he knew the Mayor would never cause dissention in the ranks – it just wasn’t his style. Team Russo, led by Assistant City Manager Natasha Fatale Marianna Marysheva, countered with, “I haven’t seen it!” referring to a divide between the Mayor’s office and the City Manager’s office. But the rift between Mayor Bailey and City Manager Russo is evident, and IS personal, and that is the real story despite all the public statements to the contrary.
But that is not the story for today. For we at TMC do not much care if Bailey rumbled, bumbled, or stumbled into the cockfight, as long as he’s on the right side. After the Mayor’s veto the power struggle for control of City Hall really began in earnest, with both sides firing off volleys in what will surely be a donnybrook with only one side standing at the end. City Attorney Gary Guess offers a summary of his legal opinion in the video above and now we give you the Mayor’s full legal opinion. Only one can be right. The Press Enterprise has had both legal opinions for weeks and as yet, has not published them…we at TMC can only imagine why!
So let’s talk about the City’s case for a second. In December, after Bailey checked with Geuss to “confirm” that he had the power to veto Russo’s contract, Geuss asked attorney Michael Colantuono of Colantuono, Highsmith & Whatley to weigh in with an “independent” opinion. Colantuono offered that the mayor does not have that power. “If the mayor could veto a contract for a charter officer, that officer would have an obvious incentive to take direction from the mayor and to seek his approval,” Colantuono wrote in a four-page analysis. “That incentive is in tension with, if not fully inconsistent with, the Charter’s statement that charter officers ‘serve at the pleasure of the City Council.’”
Michael Colantuono, Esq.
Riverside City Attorney Gary Geuss still has yet to release Attorney Michael Colantuono’s opinion publicly that the Mayor cannot veto a executive staff member contract. Geuss claims a conflict with Bailey’s use of the firm Rutan & Tucker on retainer with the City of Riverside, for using them for his legal opinion. But is there another, perhaps larger conflict? TMC has learned that back in 2006 Michael Colantuono contributed to John Russo’s State Assembly campaign in Northern California in an amount of $1,500? Reminds us of the old adage: what a twisted tale we weave, when at first we try to deceive. Yep, we may have trouble in River City!
Is it possible to be a hypocrite and still correct at the same time?
TMC, RATED RIVERSIDE’S REGIONAL COUNTIES MOST, “NEGATIVE,” “RAUNCHY,” “LOW CLASS,” “VISIONS OF GRANDEUR,” “FULL OF B.S.,” “REPREHENSIBLE,” “IGNORANT,” “MISGUIDED,” “BULLYISH,” “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 TWO 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
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TMC: Thirty Miles of Corruption 