Well we see that nothing has changed under County Administrative Officer Greg Devereaux or his new Economic Development Agency chief.  We have written extensively over the years about the problems with lax accounting and falsified statistics with job developers and job placement specialists.

Not long ago the positions were all reclassified, with some employees being given large raises.  That has done little to promote productivity or integrity.  Very high-placed sources tell us that, if anything, things have gotten worse.

After the county attempted to force me to go to work in the Business Resource Center in Rancho Cucamonga at the first of the year, I wrote a column or two about a certain individual who had a propensity for goofing off, having sexual relations on the job, and other issues.  That, of course, was Gustavo Cisneros, the former Employment Services Manager at the Victorville Transitional Assistance Department (TAD).  Cisneros was demoted and transferred out of that office after it was discovered he was creating a hostile work environment for female and African American employees among other charges. Numerous victims came forward.

Cisneros was later demoted and transferred again for similar behavior.  Accusations included that he could never be found, which was an issue since he was a supervisor.  The second time he was demoted back to Employment Services Specialist and transferred to the Rancho Cucamonga TAD office.

Cisneros had been fast-tracked to his position as Employment Services Manager because he was a favorite of both Linda Haugan and Sandy Harmsen.  Haugan, as well as TAD Director Nancy Swanson, are known for their Cougar-like affinity for young, Hispanic males, and both have a propensity for promoting unqualified young men to keep by their side. Cisneros was one such example who backfired as he had issues keeping it zipped up with any female in the office that took his fancy.

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When Cisneros finally realized his career at TAD was finished, he called upon his former ally Sandy Harmsen to come to his rescue, and rescue him she did.  Despite his issues with female and African American employees and his piss-poor case management skills, as well his extracurricular activities on the job, Harmsen gave him a position as a Workforce Specialist at the Business Resource Center in Rancho Cucamonga.  As we reported back in January, it took no time whatsoever for Cisneros to resort to his philandering ways with female employees.

Now we learn that Cisneros is not the only employee who is not exactly performing up to speed under Harmsen’s tutelage.  It seems there is no oversight on contract or permanent employees.   Management does not verify any employee’s actual workday, or what they are actually doing during their workday.  There is an overall lack of accountability.  These days employees are moved from one office to another to cover up indiscretions or bad work performance,.

One such case involves a contract employee who has been been moved three times to offices in Chino Hills, Rancho Cucamonga and now Fontana.  What little secrets are in his person’s close that would warrant one’s supervisor to tke such a special interest?  Who does he know or what does he know that would allow one’s superiors to overlook multiple indiscretions?

Employees have left to go to the gym during the workday, have met up with co-workers and outside members of the public at motels for sexual encounters, and have frequented movie theatres for early matinees on county time.  Lengthy lunches and group outings where more than one employee is going out to the same employer under the guise of training just to hang out are common.   Employees coming in late and leaving early but collecting a full day’s pay is also acceptable.  Porn, YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook are routinely accessed using county computers during the work day.  Employees are misusing county cell phones for personal use.

We have reported extensively at iePolitics about the falsification of statistics  for the purpose of obtaining federal funding being not only condoned, but required, under Harmsen, Gene Eisenbiesz, Nick D (?) and others.  It was common for TAD Employment Services Specialists to contact job leads developed by WDD Job Developers only to find out the employer had never been contacted by the county and had no idea their information had been entered into the system.  Sometimes job leads were for jobs that had been filled months earlier or never existed to begin with.

One common scam was for the job developers to drive around the community and look for “help wanted” signs and then enter the information into the database without actually ever contacting the employer.  Yet, on their falsified stats they would indicate that they had actually made contact and developed the job.  Another scam was to go through the newspapers and enter jobs, again without ever contacting the employer and again falsifying their stats.  They would also falsify mileage reports to make a little extra money on the side.

One of my favorite examples of the above was Murphy’s Garage in Victorville.  Murphy’s was the old Sheriff’s tow yard and had the contract for years.  However, they fell on tough times.  The business was sold and the new owners were arrested in high profile fashion for selling drugs out of the establishment.  Six months after it had been closed down, with no new business started at the site, the job developers were still claiming they contacted the employer each and every month and listed new jobs for the site.  Of course, it was all falsified.  Everyone knew it but no one would do anything about it.

The money for the contract employees is from stimulus funds and the contracts have been extended until June 2011.  It might behoove the county to determine how many actual businesses have been assisted or helped by the creation of these positions but we know that will never happen.  As with TAD, our CAO and Board of Supervisors prefer to look the other way because it is free money.

Of greater concern, by allowing the padded job creation statistics, BOS members such as Mitzelfelt, Biane and Ovitt, can brag to their constituency about all they are doing for the local economy, knowing full well these new jobs are nothing but a scam.  That fits into the overall practice of using smoke and mirrors to cover up the real budget scenario, a scam practiced by former County Administrative Officer Mark Uffer and continued by Devereaux.

But then again, what’s a little fraud by county employees and elected officials?  After all this is San Bernardino County.