Kamala Harris is Not Leading in Crises Like I Thought She Would

When Kamala Harris came to San Bernardino during her campaign, I asked her how good were her budget hustling skills given the hiring freezes that had been in place since Gov Davis. I note with interest Kamala Harris complaining about the $71 million in cuts the Attorney General's office is facing [See article covering subject @ http://www.legalnewsline.com/news/233141-proposed-budget-cuts-anger-calif.-sc-ag]. $71 million can be cut into by working in more heat in the summer and cool in the winter, switching to LED lighting, not defending death penalty sentences; I think maybe conviction rates were better in the days when people had to open windows and turn the fans on. Maybe we need some televideo appearance legislation so agents and DAGs (Deputy Attorney Generals) can work from a more central and efficient location. Cut traveling to conferences. Buy the DVD's from the conferences and pass them around. If the conference is interactive, use teleconferencing--heck the regional water boards in the state do it (Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board)! I have often wondered, with CBA's (Collective Bargaining Agreements) in place that cause DDA's (Deputy District Attorneys) to show up and work their non-overtime hours, and those hours only, maybe its time to not penalize DDA's and investigators (comment directed to Human Resources Managers & union stewards) that might want to work off the clock because of professional pride/dedication. In the Sheriff's offices there are Reserve Deputies that not only donate their time, but often thousands of dollars to being able to assist law enforcement in their communities. The spirit of voluntarism was spoken of by Barack Obama as needing rebirth in this nation for us to fight through our current crises. Policy changes may be needed to not just keep an efficient department, but take it to the next level.

Brad Mitzelfelt @ the Helm -- Does Anyone Smell a Long Term & Coordinated Land Grab in the Making??

Some food for thought for our million dollar man, Brad Mitzelfelt:
1. Litigation between VVEDA [Victor Valley Economic Authority--a interim step to what was rumored to be Terry Caldwell's & Jim Cox's dream of creating a supercity for the High Desert, which absorbed Adelanto, Hesperia, Phelan & Apple Valley under Victorville's leadership's control] & Adelanto; the litigation between VVEDA & Adelanto ends after an election changes the council mix to a pro-Victorville cadre, the water consultant for the Adelanto side in the Adelanto v VVEDA lawsuit (the former 3rd in command in the US EPA) mysteriously dies in his home before the case was to come to trial and the new Adelanto City leadership appoint an attorney to replace the attorney battling for Adelanto; the newly elected Adelanto City team appears to cave on the VVEDA litigation over the base/water rights despite Air Force records showing the U.S. Government considered Adelanto to be the owner of the water rights under the former Air Force base footprint (and in fact paid them for the water used!); shortly thereafter, Hesperia & Apple Valley pull out of VVEDA; Victorville develops the base, gives access to water for the power plant, makes plans for a power plant, gives water rights to a bottling plant(& the beat goes on).
P.S.
(A) Brad Mitzelfelt mentioned in the most recent County Supervisorial District Redistricting Workshop on June 17, 2011, that the Victor Valley should stay together because of the serious dialogue "about becoming one city"--mmh...revival or a continued battle plan??
(B) I served on an George AFB closure committee in the early 1990s where there were reports of all sorts of dangerous chemicals in the water from engine degreasing, JP-4 fuel additives, etc. I was inexplicably dropped off the Committee when I raised concerns about whether the plume was being properly characterized, the extent of the plume, where it was leaking into, what type of contaminants were involved (benzenes) & about low level radioactive waste (from medical equipment) tossed into the rip rap below the golf course potentially presenting a threat to the Mojave River; bad news about the water is not what Victorville wanted to hear;
2. MWA (the Mojave Water Agency, with an elected board that is far too developer & realtor friendly in this blogger's opinion) snatches up the pumping rights in a lawsuit against everyone using more than 10 acre feet a year along the Mojave River, whether or not the farmers & ranchers on the river could afford $75,000 to $100,000 in legal costs defending their water rights against being taken by MWA restrictions being imposed (which most could not afford); MWA takes control of pumping rights, implements ramp down penalties to family owned ranches and farms that did not plant until market prices changed and by that effectively seized historically owned water rights without compensation;
3. Victorville attempts to annex land along the Mojave via LAFCO, which Mitzelfelt serves on;
4. Victorville & Mitzelfelt push for the land swap with CEMEX for barren land to the North of the river which will involve, in order for there to be development, water from the Mojave basin
5. Adelanto's Re-Zones barren desert within its zone (which does not have enough water to develop)
6. San Bernardino County Flood Control does not repair the damage caused by runaway waters in their channels in the Oro Grande area, but instead is looking at getting a FEMA grant to buy everyone out and move them; Brad is pushing for the FEMA grant?
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Common demon-inator. Brad Mitzelfelt (who sits on all the key boards, panels and commissions). What super Mensch(-es) does he serve? No one has ever done an in depth investigation into Brad Mitzelfelt's masters. Mitzelfelt is slick--in the middle of corruption & conflict of interest investigations, his wife gets reportedly a $80k/yr county job (she has now "quit"), he spent discretionary funds for political photo shoots for years (thankfully that just ended by a vote of the board), he muffles/chills potential critics (reporters) in the media by hiring them to serve on his field staff at salaries 2 to 3 times more than what they were getting paid working for their former employers, he was Postmus' chief of staff during all his tweeking & hospitalizations & aided in the cover-ups of the real Postmus. During the Colonies settlement process, who do you think ran the office and lobbied the other two members of the Board & their staff, yet Kirk gets prosecuted & Brad Mitzelfelt doesn't? Maybe its time for the mainstream media to ask the hard questions and quit lobbing soft pitches. Besides, what's with the bowl cut?

The (b)Rats Are Scurrying without a Clue?

In a local paper I read some amazing recaps of what was going on locally:
(1) Financially distressed Victorville is going to sue our Homeland Security Department over the government's ending of the EB-5 visa program Victorville was using to raise capital[putting aside the loss of American jobs and the misdirection of City resources to help foreign investors over Victorville residents] suing Homeland Security is stupid!--the city's lawyers must think they can do what "Alan Shore" of "Boston Legal" fame occasionally did for clients--sue the federal government for principle's sake--yeah right, like that is going to last past a early termination motion brought by the feds [don't these City Councilpeople read the statutes which set out the discretion & immunities Homeland Security has? Oh yeah I forgot, they did not read the Redflex Redlight camera contract either]--WHAT A MONEY WASTE!!
Victorville should be firing their lawyers, not giving them more work! Thank you Councilwoman Valles for voting against the stupid lawsuit!
(2) Financially distressed San Bernardino County is in a fight with SEBA (the union for the District Attorneys, their investigators, evidence handlers, etc) over a pay & benefit cut and now seems willing to take back to the membership a pay and benefit cut proposal [duh....the entire legal community is going through financial crises...our costs increase, many people can't afford to pay for legal services except at a fraction of what they did just a few years ago, the delays mount getting cases to trial--if a 7% cut is all that is in issue--take it, move on, save money to make up the difference]--No one is saying the hard-working SEBA people don't deserve it--God knows they do but SEIZE THE MOMENT SEBA MEMBERS -- once those jobs go, it will be a long time before they start coming back! I remember when Arnold S. took over after the recall campaign and the CTA (California Teachers' Association) went to him first, cut a deal minimizing their losses and left all the other unions hanging without contracts or facing a scap over what was left. Maybe a lesson to be learned/taken to heart!
(3) Financially distressed school districts in San Bernardino County are footing the bill on more needless litigation [the "Public Safety Academy" Charter is now in litigation over the firing of the founder's wife]--putting aside the conflict of interest question, this expense will take away from the money for student services--is anyone investigating if there is an abuse/misuse of public funds here??]
The Charter School movement has had its distractors, but THIS CLEARLY IS A MISPLACED USE OF SCHOOL RESOURCES!!
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This list is partial--there are the lawsuits involving Kenneth Beck against the Thouvenell campaign (?), the Rancho Cucamonga public employee pension plan restructuring talks, the San Bernardino City public employee pension plan restructurting talks breakdown-- a lot is in play.

On Redisrtricting in San Bernardino County....

(1) Redistricting at the County level has an interesting factor thrown into the mix--keeping the Districts as close to what they were is a factor that the county's consultants have been asked to consider. Really what it boils down to is keep the advantage intact for the incumbents. For example, in what was a slip at the meeting last friday, one of the consultants referred to the numbers of voters as a factor---WRONG......its the total number of citizens, not the voters. That reveals a bias to
maintaining numbers for electability purposes;
(2) I believe a Voting Rights Act violation is in the making for the first district;
Barstow and Hesperia, on two different maps are carved out of the 1st Disrtrict--Barstow on one and Hesperia on the other; both cities have significant Hispanic populations and are being shipped, if the maps are approved "down the hill" where their votes will be diluted.

MIKE RAMOS DOES NOT DISCUSS BUDGET SMART POLICY ALTERNATIVES--why's that??

The San Bernardino Sun's article:

"D.A.'s cases mount [by Mike Cruz, Staff Writer; Posted: 06/14/2011 08:09:19 PM PDT]
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Years of budget cuts in the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office have created a backlog of nearly 2,900 criminal cases.
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The cases are awaiting review before getting filed in court - a scenario that may be
exacerbated by calls from county administrators for another $2.1 million in cuts.
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Over the past three fiscal years, District Attorney Michael A. Ramos said Tuesday, that he has looked for ways to reduce spending, while absorbing the loss of 78 staff members. Of those staffers, 34 of them - or 17 percent - were frontline prosecutors.
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Fewer attorneys in the District Attorney's Office means there are fewer people to review cases that come in from law enforcement agencies, and fewer people to determine whether those cases should result in criminal charges.
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The backlog has grown to 2,894 cases, of which nearly 1,300 cases are for DUI offenses, Ramos said.
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"I live with the fear that an unprosecuted DUI suspect will commit another such act and take a life on the roadway before we are able to check their dangerous behavior with a prosecution," Ramos wrote in a guest editorial for The Sun.
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The District Attorney's Office set-up a triage system, whereby new cases are prioritized for review. Though the cases in the current backlog are "non-serious, non-violent" cases, they still represent suspected offenders who are not being held accountable, he explained.
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The backlogged cases represent offenses such as burglary, ID theft, auto theft, possession of firearms by convicted felons, stalking and more. They are both misdemeanors and felonies.
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The statute of limitations is six months for misdemeanors and it could run out before some cases get reviewed.
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Prosecutors could not say how long it will take to reduce the backlog, nor how long cases sit in the backlog. Each case is different, said Assistant District Attorney Dennis Christy.
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"We're doing our best to get to those cases, but it's a continuing struggle," Christy said.
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The backlog is being handled in two ways.
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First, supervisors will distribute cases to trial attorneys and have them review cases when they are out of court. But that takes time from those attorneys who should be preparing for trials, Christy said.
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The other strategy, is having law enforcement agencies file some cases directly with the courts.
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The District Attorney's Office filed nearly 67,000 cases from December 2009 to December 2010. To make matters worse, Ramos was told last week by the County Administrative Office that he must trim another $2.1 million from his budget, on top of the $3.8 million in cuts he already planned. That could mean the layoff of 12 more prosecutors, he said.
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"Any more cuts is going to be like an amputation for us, beyond cutting to the bone," Ramos said. "I would have a serious concern for the citizens of this county."
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News of so many DUI cases in the backlog was disheartening to Virginia Gautier, former executive director and now volunteer for the San Bernardino Chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
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Gautier said she knows Ramos' office is extremely busy.
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"He needs help," said Gautier. "And MADD would love it if the public would get in there and say we need more deputy DAs."
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Blogger Bob's suggestions on how to keep staff:
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1. Increase air cooling temps levels in offices in the summer; turn down the thermostats in winter
2. Change area lighting to LED's to reduce power usage;
3. Reduce staff driving from one courthouse to another and permanently assign cases to local staff to encourage and facilitate career development
4. Develop an intern program from local law schools to help relieve the burden on professional staff
5. Quit political prosecutions (the Halstead case--a week of trial time for a $2.00 alleged political sign theft)
6. Allow properly permitted and licensed medical marijuana facilities to operate;
7. On DUI cases, use ignition lock breathalyzer sentence condition to reduce the likelihood of repeat violation
8. Stop the DA & DDA's from traveling to Sacramento and places beyond for conferences that can be attended remotely in some instances and or CD/DVD's can be ordered (in lieu of attending the conferences);
9. Develop a plan on how to reduce backlog--obviously business as usual has not worked
10. Had anyone ever given a checklist to law enforcement on each criminal charge of of what minimally needs to be included in a package that comes from law enforcement?
11. Consider taking a minimal pay & benefit cut to keep the team in place--it will help morale and promote efficiency, which will in turn help reduce backlog.

Interesting feed on Postmus' plea being potentially challengable??? Hmmm

From a local blog [Inlandpolitics.com] I read the following:

"AGAIN we are hearing stories of how Bret Granlund, on behalf of District Attorney Mike Ramos, is illegally cajoling and providing legal advice WITHOUT A LICENSE.

This time to a defendant facing serious charges.

Ramos and Granlund conspired to prey on Postmus’s already debilitated mental state and drug-induced paranoia, and indirectly threatened him with years of State prison.

It’s an outrage that Ramos and Granlund suggested to this frightened man that should he seek his constitutional right to a fair trial, by a jury of his peers, he was doomed.

Ramos and Grunlund took advantage of Postmus’s serious mental disorder associated with his chronic drug abuse by discouraging him to proceed with his constitutional right to a jury trial.

His constitutional rights were violated.

They falsely, and illegally, led him to believe a jury would sentence him to years of State prison, as if it were fact. That was a lie.

Postmus had a constitutional right to be heard by a jury of his peers, have them hear all the evidence, how they obtained that evidence, who provided that so called evidence, or lack of evidence.

Ramos and Granlund INTERFERED with Postmus’s constitutional rights.

Ramos and Granlund IMPROPERLY induced Postmus to enter a plea.

Was Postmus EVEN represented by counsel when Granland relayed the DA’s message back and forth? Was he aware of the consequences? Was he clear headed or in a state of fear?"

Question? Any of it true?? The time limit on setting the plea aside is six (6) months me thinks.....Someone needs to have talked with a lawyer and needs to now if true....