Tag Archives: Greg Devereaux

Examiner.com: Board of Supervisors declares war on police union; pays off with concessions

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Editor’s Note:  As always, we appreciate your clicks, comments, suggestions, etc.

(San Bernardino) – Last week the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to impose more than 14 percent in cuts on members of the Specialized Peace Officers Unit of the San Bernardino County Safety Employees Benefit Association (SEBA), the union representing sworn peace officers.  Supervisors Neil Derry and Brad Mitzelfelt voted against the measure.  Today, 73.5 percent of the unit’s membership voted to accept the arbitrator’s award they had previously rejected, thus avoiding the deep cuts.

“We’re proud of the Specialized Peace Officers for choosing the terms of their employment rather than settling for an imposed solution,” said Board of Supervisors Chair Josie Gonzales. “These public safety professionals have joined a growing number of county employee groups who have recognized the current economic realities and agreed to terms that will help avoid layoffs and allow the county to continue to provide an acceptable level of service.”  Supervisor Gonzales is one of the three county supervisors who voted in favor of imposing the cuts and who is under federal scrutiny in two FBI raids.

To read the rest of the story, click here.

iePolitics: Can someone confirm, deny or clarify?

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We are hearing that Sheriff Hoops has put all captains, even recently promoted captains, at top step to make up for 7 percent loss in retirement contributions.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe, if true, this can be done without approval of the director of Human Resources and/or County Executive Officer.

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iePolitics: Pandering Janice

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You know, I don’t think I have ever disliked a county supervisor as much as I dislike Janice Rutherford (yes, that includes Brad).  Her pious, self-righteous, condescending attitude towards everyone during board meeting is disgusting.  When is she going to be criminally charged just like Supervisor Derry?  We hear that she is quickly becoming part of the Lewis/Ramos/Hansberger crowd, which likely explains the lack of criminal charges against her.  And the Thug Squad wonders why I have zero respect for them.

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iePolitics: Trying to decipher the new 800 MHz proposal

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As we have mentioned here before, there seems to be a lot of dissention on the Fifth Floor, particularly between Supervisors Derry and Mitzelfelt versus the other three.  Part of that dissention seems to stem from the fact the CEO Greg Devereaux controls the votes of Supervisors Rutherford, Ovitt and Gonzales and attempts to push through whatever he can.  One such issue is the proposal to upgrade the county’s 800 MHz system.

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iePolitics: I never should have listened

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I decided to listen to the BOS session from this past Tuesday.  You know the one—the one where various members of the BOS try to pretend they are making real reform.  I wonder how many people see this for what it is.

I noted one interesting point.  Josh Candaleria gave the invocation.  Josh is a former employee of Gary Ovitt and now works for Greg Devereaux.  What was interesting is that Ovitt introduced him as someone who goes to his church.  Doesn’t that make Ovitt, Enriquez, Cadaleria, PonTell, and Devereaux, or so we have been told, all members of the same church.  Now my question is this:  Is this the same church Enriquez was pastoring and somehow related to the Ontario YMCA?  How much discretionary funding did the YMCA get from Ovitt?  Now maybe this is all inaccurate, but that is not what we hear.

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iePolitics: CAO and BOS declare war on cops

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For those who did not notice the county’s proposal for a new contract with SEBA, here are the county’s proposals:

This correspondence shall serve as the County’s written request to commence negotiations and the following shall constitute the County’s written proposals:

1. Benefit Plan: Eliminate Benefit Plan contributions and replace with Medical Premium Subsidy. Clarify/amend language to conform to County policy, practice, plan documents and/or applicable law and regulations as appropriate.

2. Other benefit provisions such as Dependant Care Assistance Plan, Flexible Spending Account, Life Insurance, Merit Advancements, Reemployment, Retirement Medical Trust, etc:  Clarify/amend language to conform to County policy, practice, plan documents and/or applicable law and regulations as appropriate.

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Examiner.com: County Executive Officer takes shots at BOS members; Supervisor Derry fires back

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Editor’s Note: As always Naomi and I appreciate the clicks, likes and comments on the Examiner.com site.

Supervisor Neil Derry

(SAN BERNARDINO) While delivering an address to the Fontana Rotary Club on Monday, county of San Bernardino County Executive Officer Greg Devereaux took shots at two of the five members of the county’s board of supervisors over the budget process. According to a report published today in the Press Enterprise, Devereaux praised Chairwoman Josie Gonzales and Supervisors Janice Rutherford and Gary Ovitt. He omitted Supervisors Neil Derry and Brad Mitzelfelt.

The budget was approved on a 3-1 vote. Supervisor Mitzelfelt voted against the budget in part because it made significant cuts to public safety. Supervisor Derry refrained from voting due to legal issues at the time.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

iePolitics: Time To Cut Out The Cancer At ARMC

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As a child growing up with a mother who prescribed to old-fashioned thoughts about medical care, I was always told never to allow doctors to operate on cancer because exposing cancer cells to air would cause them to grow exponentially.  Of course, today we know how to use surgery to cure an otherwise fatal tumor.

Several years ago all of Southern California watched the crisis at the Los Angeles County-run King-Drew Medical Center.  If history can predict the future, we have a similar, fatal cancer growing at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC) that needs to be excised fully and quickly.

The residents of San Bernardino County are being led to believe that the current investigations and accusations at San Bernardino County’s only county-run hospital are routine and relatively minor.  We keep hearing that they are part of the “learning process.”  ARMC has been in business for over 10 years and San Bernardino county has operated a hospital for decades before that.  If the county hasn’t learned how to run a hospital by now, I’m not sure it ever will. Continue reading →

iePolitics: Dysfunction on the Fifth Floor

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Linda Haugan

I shall not go into details of the circumstances but today I had a situation that needed Board of Supervisors’ intervention.  County Executive Officer Greg Devereaux was asked by a board office to look into the situation.

Now, I have heard a variety of things about employees who choose to cross Devereaux.  I have certainly been led to believe that lying to the man would not be a good idea.

And there was a time when an employee, any employee, but especially a director or an AAO, lied to a board member or to the CEO, it would result in an instant boot out the door.

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iePolitics: An interview with Mayor pro tem Russ Blewett

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Russ Blewett

I mentioned last week that I had a chance to have lunch with Hesperia Mayor pro tem Russ Blewett this past Friday.  I will be writing an Examiner article regarding the interview.  But there are those things, along with my personal impression, that really don’t belong in that article but are of interest to iePolitics readers.  So here is a mini-article.

Russ is extremely supportive of two people I don’t have much use for:  Greg Devereaux and Brad Mitzelfelt.  That, of course, made the conversation with Russ all the more interesting, and I really mean that.

Russ really defends many of Devereaux’s actions, to which I say, “I will believe it when I see it.”  But it was also clear that Russ will stand up to Devereaux in no uncertain terms unlike the five supervisors we have now that are afraid of him.

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iePolitics: Attn: SEBA and Devore Shelter rescuers

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I keep hearing about all the threats from County Administrative Officer Greg Devereaux to impose whatever he damn well pleases if everyone doesn’t go along with HIS game plan.   You need to remember that Devereaux does not have the final say.  It must be approved by the Board of Supervisors.

Remember the phrase “Count to three.”  That phrase becomes especially important next year because three supervisors are up for re-election.   This is not the time to piss off firefighters, cops, or animal rights groups, all three of which can have tremendous political clout if they so choose, as has been proven in the past.

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iePolitics: So what happens if Kirk cuts a deal?

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Think about it.  Kirk is not someone with a lot of backbone.  I know he is scared to death right now.  Of the Colonies Four, he is the most likely to cut a deal.  And that makes for interesting talk around the water cooler on the Fifth Floor.

Mark is good friends with both Jeff Burum and Greg Devereaux.  Jeff Burum and Greg Devereaux.  Greg Devereaux is very close with John Doe No. 2, the so-far unindicted co-conspirator and partner of Jeff Burum, Dan Richards.

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iePolitics: Mutual admiration society

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Jim actually sorta complimented me today and even referred to us as iepolitics.com instead of his usual nutblog.com.   What’s funny about that was I had already planned to write a story about his lack of political correctness in his story about our useless Board of Supervisors.  Here is the link.

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iePolitics: Kirk expects “to return to work in a couple of weeks”

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According to sources who attended the Friends of the Fair event, Mark Kirk, whose wife is on the fair board, was overheard saying that he expects to return to work in a couple of weeks.  That is in contrast to Adam Aleman, Jim Erwin, and Rex Guiterrez, who were terminated upon their arrests.  Like those three, Kirk is a contract, at-will employee with no civil service protection.

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iePolitics: Is the Bob Blough comment accurate?

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Some of you may not have noticed the comment on my most recent post regarding SBPEA.  Someone claimed that Bob Blough’s contract is tied to Greg Devereaux’s contract, meaning Bob earns whatever Greg earns.  I believe Devereaux’s total compensation must be around $400,000 a year for handling something like 19,000 employees and a $6 billion budget.  Blough has what, maybe 30 employees and a $$ million budget.  (Someone please get me more accurate figures.)  Could it be?

iePolitics: Layoff notices going out to county employees?

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Here is an email I received.  Can anyone provide additional information?

An ECD Specialist I was informed today she is being laid off.  Director, Kathy Thomas informed the employee that another employee with RDA (possibly with less seniority) would be assuming their job duties.  Also, an OA II was given walking papers for the same termination date.

RDA needs to be investigated immediately for unfair labor practices!  They just hired two new employees; also, two employees retired recently (Jan Dustin & Marielena Shorett) and are coming back on contract!  Can we say, ‘double-dipping?’  This is an outrage!

Devereaux is ‘empire building’ with all of his favorite cronies from the City of Ontario, such as Mary Jane Olhasso and Kathy Thomas, just to name a few.

Housing Development employees expect more lay offs to come.

iePolitics: Retirement subsidy

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Much of the media portrays government employees as being “greedy bastards” as John and Ken like to say.  It is not likely the public will have any sympathy for the San Bernardino County retirees that just had their retirement cut by up to $230 a month.

If you read about government pensions in the news, $230 a month seems like a very little sacrifice.  That would be true if you are a prison guard, a sheriff’s lieutenant, or a former county supervisor.  But here in San Bernardino County, for many average employees, the $230 cut will bring their monthly retirement check to under $1000 a month, hardly the gross amounts we hear about in the news.

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iePolitics: The Devereaux connection, Part 2

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I am going to make a prediction, and that is, minimally CAO Greg Devereaux will be led out of the County Government Center in handcuffs before this is all over.  No, I don’t expect it any time soon, so sorry if I got some of your hopes up.  I suspect it will not be by the District Attorney, but rather by the FBI.

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iePolitics: The Devereaux connection should not be forgotten

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Everyone is concerned about the five John Does, but one government employee has benefitted far more than any of the politicos and that is CAO Greg Devereaux.  He was the hand-picked choice for CAO by the West End boys including Supervisors Ovitt and Biane.  He is extremely close to Dan Richards and rumor has it brokered a lucrative deal or two for his Colonies friends.  We can only hope that the PIU is looking at the sweetheart deals he has helped get for his friends.

iePolitics: CAO headed for showdown with BOS and SEBA?

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We are hearing bits and pieces that San Bernardino County CAO Greg Devereaux isn’t going to play nice with the cops this next budget season.  Well that’s what we hear from one district; another district says it isn’t true.  We have also had a comment or two to that effect on the blog that haven’t received a bit of attention.

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iePolitics: Uffer/Stringer legacy continues, shows need for part-time BOS

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Once again the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors has shown its collective lack of backbone and governance as well as its willingness to shirk ethics.  Last week’s mid-week budget included hidden agendas for those seeking additional power in county government.

One such “hidden” item was the transfer of human resources and previously vehicle services functions from County Fire and Special Districts to the county.  This has been in the works for about 18 months and was first attempted as Mark Uffer and Ruth Stringer were attempting to give their partner in crime, Andrew Lamberto, an excuse for an Assistant Administrative Officer position.  Lamberto hid the original proposal in a closed session personnel board item totally unrelated to the move.

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iePolitics: Perhaps we were right but are now wrong

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Back when former County Administrative Officer Mark Uffer appointed Dena Smith as Planning Director, we were quite critical.  And we got slapped around quite a bit for taking a whack at one of the county’s sacred cows.

Yesterday we didn’t take a whack at the new planning director, only at the fact that she comes from Chino Hills, which suggests more Devereaux/Ovitt shenanighans.

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iePolitics: Devereaux/Ovitt do it again

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Wonder how much of a raise this one got.  But at least so far it seems with Devereaux he at least requires his department heads to have college degrees.  Even I have to admit that is an improvement over Uffer.

Chino Hills planning chief now heads County Land Use

Experienced planning and development manager Christine Kelly is the County of San Bernardino’s new Land Use Services Director.  Ms. Kelly most recently served as the Community Development Director for the City of Chino Hills and held similar positions in Pomona, Brea and Cypress during the past 18 years.

She also worked for a consulting firm that provides planning and economic development guidance and assistance to cities.  In Chino Hills, Ms. Kelly played a key role in the creation of the Shoppes Lifestyle Center, the Commons Power Center, the Heritage Professional Center, and the Golden Triangle office, hotel and retail development.

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iePolitics: One last question for Sally, Jeff and the Fifth Floor

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Why do you care?  Seriously.  Why do you care what I write on iePolitics?

First of all, I have been told that my blog is unprofessional and that you all prefer the consistency of  PC Blog.   That is the blog that is read by the “rich and powerful.”  It is read by the “important” people and the “people who count.”  Mine is read by low-level county employees and no one of importance.  I only get comments because of the low-level cops that read it.  Just ask its administrator.  That is what he told me.

I’ve been told that none of you really read iePolitics.  Devereaux denies reading it.  Dan Richards denies reading it.  Jeff Burum only notices if he gets something about himself in a Google Alert.  Mark Davidson gave up not long ago.  Mark Kirk gave up reading it over a year ago.  All the defense attorneys in the corruption cases deny reading it.  The entire Fifth Floor, with the exception of the Third District, denies reading it.  Sheriff Hoops tells me he doesn’t read it.  David Wert has told me he doesn’t care what it says.  Dean Arabatzis has told me he doesn’t read it.  I could go on and on.  NO ONE of importance reads iePolitics.

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iePolitics: San Bernardino County needs to be next

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It is time for San Bernardino County to do what is being done in Riverside County.  One difference is that we are a charter county, which means our measure would change the county charter and cannot be changed by the Board of Supervisors.  Here are a few of the possibilities.  Let me know which ones you like or provide some other ideas.

  1. Repeal Measure P so that BOS salaries return to approximately $100,000 a year.
  2. Reduce the BOS to part-time status and adjust their salaries accordingly, probably around $45,000 a year.  This could also be used to justify eliminating all BOS staff except a secretary to serve all five.
  3. Reduce BOS benefits to those of general employees.
  4. Eliminate BOS benefits.

Any other ideas?  The part-time suggestion seems to be the most justified since the BOS has given their authority to Devereaux and now only meets half time.  The salary and benefit savings alone is over $6 million a year.

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PE: SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY: Pension fund’s health raises concern

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10:00 PM PST on Thursday, February 3, 2011
By DAVID DANELSKI
The Press-Enterprise

A new report on the San Bernardino County employees’ retirement fund is prompting calls for pension reforms to avoid future cuts to county services.

The report from County Executive Officer Greg Devereaux’s office shows a growing hole — called an “unfunded liability” — of about $1.1 billion in the pension fund. The liability is the difference between the $7.4 billion the fund is obligated to pay employees and pensioners and the $6.3 billion it has in various investments.

Supervisor Gary Ovitt, appointed to the San Bernardino County Employees’ Retirement Association board of trustees in June, said other members painted a “rosy picture” of the fund. They focused on how well the pension fund weathered the financial crisis of 2008 but didn’t report the more recent imbalance.

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iePolitics: LaJolla Institute

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Traci and Patricia visited the address listed on the contracts approved in 2009 and again on August 24, 2010. Here are those contracts: 09-860[1] and here is the last tax return: 2009taxreturn.

The county did two no-bid contracts with this “non profit” totalling $240,000 in less than two years. The non-profit just happens to be run by campaign donors and a close personal friend of Gary Ovitt, Mark Kirk and Greg Devereaux.   But all of it is above board, right?

iePolitics: The LaJolla Institute, etc.

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This is the email I sent to all of the members of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors and Greg Devereaux on January 14, 2010. Needless to say, not one of them responded. I didn’t expect any of them to do so.

I have several questions regarding your unanimous approval of a non-competitive consulting contract with La Jolla Institute in the amount of $150,000 on September 15, 2009 and an additional $90,000 on August 24, 2010.

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iePolitics: The first-ever Countywide Vision meeting was a “success” – Revised

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Brad Mitzelfelt

Last night was the first in a series of meetings around the county where our illustrious leaders tried to relate with the unwashed masses.  Nothing like someone making $9 bucks an hour at a part-time job listening to someone making $300,000 a year drone on about how much they have done to improve our lives.

First up was Steve PonTell, a consultant who conducted most of the meeting.  We shall have to find out if this is one of those “no bid” contracts that Chairman Gary Ovitt has awarded to PonTell.  We’re told they are neighbors or go to the same church or something like that.  All I know for sure is that the Fourth District likes to give PonTell contracts without going through the RFP process.

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iePolitics: Who elected him?

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Greg Devereaux

As we talk with citizens around the county, it seems multiple supervisorial districts are using the excuse “we can’t interfere in county policies” so that they do not have to help constituents with issues with various county departments.  It has become “pass the buck” who doesn’t care if citizens get served or not.

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iePolitics: So why don’t we have a new District Attorney?

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Riverside County District Attorney Paul Zellerbach was sworn in today, replacing the only district attorney in the state of California who could rival San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos in terms of political persecutions.  As a matter of fact, former-Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco seemed to have totally lost it in the final days of his term.  His behavior could only be called bizarre.

We are not ready to say Ramos is equally bizarre.  But he is still a predator, a predator who could be retired as of today had promises been kept.

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iePolitics: How the Public Defender situation was allowed to happen

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I’m told that County Administrative Officer Greg Devereaux witnessed something this past week that caught even him off guard.  As we reported earlier, Public Defender employees were called into a 5 p.m. meeting on December 14 where Devereaux announced the termination of Public Defender Doreen Boxer and the demise of her lieutenants, Lauri Ferguson and Martin Dante.  He also announced the appointment of Phyllis Morris  as interim Public Defender.  Employees stood and jubilantly clapped and cheered at the news.

Obviously, Boxer, Ferguson and Dante, were despotic managers who ran amok.  To effect such emotion out of most of a department’s staff, however, takes more than bad managers.  In a system where there are checks and balances, four years of illegal personnel actions and a hostile work environment simply should have never happened.  But it did.

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iePolitics: Devereaux puts Kirk in charge of county redistricting

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Seems getting the CAO his job reaps many benefits.  One of them is being put in charge of county redistricting.  In other words, Mark Kirk was given the task of determining the new supervisorial districts.  Gee, we can only imagine how fair that will be.

Fortunately, Supervisor Neil Derry got wind of it.  We hear he took care of the issue.  We only hope so.  Time will tell.

iePolitics: While Gutierrez serves time in prison, Kirk enjoys the good life even after committing the same “crimes”

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Mark Kirk

We have learned recently of all of Mark Kirk’s riches.  Two Cadallacs, a plane, a large home, land, European vacations, cleaning lady, timeshare and a stay-at-home wife.  Certainly he lives the “good life” on a Chief of Staff salary. So how does he afford it?

Well for one, he does political consulting . . . political consulting on county time.  Emails have surfaced clearly showing that Kirk has run campaigns while he was supposed to be working for Chairman of the Board Gary Ovitt.

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iePolitics: Devereaux to BOS: A warning shot

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Yesterday’s sentencing of Rex Gutierrez to 32 months in prison was a warning shot.  Judge Rouse said it was a warning to public officials.  But really it was a warning to the Board of Supervisors and their staffs—not a warning from Rouse but rather a warning from their new power-hungry County Administrative Officer Greg Devereaux.

Devereaux has had the evidence for months that Human Resources Director Andrew Lamberto lied under oath in the three hearings involving Rex Gutierrez.  This is not only a crime, but a violation of county ethics.  But Lamberto is protected by Devereaux, and for good reason.

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iePolitics: “But we were working on it!”

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First District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt

Really?  It takes exactly ten minutes to place a phone call to Andrew Lamberto and tell him to have my benefits issued.  After all, he is the one who lied to Hartford Insurance and told them that the county offered me a job and I declined.  No such thing happened.

Last week, 81 days after Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt personally said he would look into my situation, I met with him face to face.  He actually had the nerve to ask me, “Why should I help you?”  Gee, maybe because I’m a constituent?  An employee?  Your department head lied under color of authority—something any other county employee would be fired for?  Because you made an oath to uphold the laws of the state of California which say that the county must provide disability insurance to its employees?

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iePolitics: “No one would believe Gary Ovitt is corrupt”

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Well, yes they would.  Just ask anyone about the deal cut whereby Board of Supervisors Chairman Gary Ovitt received $50,000 from the San Bernardino Public Employees Association, the union representing general employees, and in turn SBPEA Board of Director’s president, Scott Ryan, received a promotion.  Guess who was a part of that?  None other than County Administrative Officer Greg Devereaux.

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iePolitics: Substance abuse in the First District

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Megan Blaney Mitzelfelt

Every since the revelation that former First District Supervisor Bill Postmus has a drug addiction issue the question has been raised about how his chief of staff and now First District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt could not have known.  Of course, the answer is that he did know.  You can’t be around an addict that long and not know.  So why didn’t Mitzelfelt do something about it?

The answer to that is a two-parter.  First of all, he was scared.  As I have learned while dealing with him, Mitzelfelt has no backbone, partially because he has so many of his own skeletons, among them his own substance abuse issue and that of his wife’s, Megan.

Mitzelfelt is a very heavy drinker, so much so, that some of those very close to him are worried he cannot stop and could harm someone while drunk.  I can speak from personal experience with Brad that he is still in the denial stage and has no interest in help or in stopping.  Mitzelfelt is an introvert and alcohol gives him the ability to deal with his very public life.

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iePolitics: Done with the blackmail by Devereaux, Mitzelfelt, Derry, Kirk and others

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Greg Devereaux

This is one of those posts where I made myself wait 24 hours to write.  Just  received an email that Mitzelfelt is going to deal with my situation after the first of the year.  As of today it is 87 days since he first agreed to “help.”  I will let him decide if he wants to share my response with all of you.

The bottom line is I’m tired of being threatened and blackmailed with my job and my livelihood by Devereaux, Mitzelfelt, Derry, Kirk and others.  I sick of being told that they will withhold the money they owe me until I shut down the blog, resign, and/or only write positive articles about them.  I am also tired of being threatened over some other issues in my life.

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iePolitics: Need some help with new assignments

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Now that I have a bully pulpit that can potentially reach over 14,000,000  readers a month, I would like to take some of you up on your offers of help.  Writing for the Examiner is a great deal different than writing for the blog.  I will be involved with a lot more research and could some help from those of you with nothing better to do during the day.  Here are a few of the upcoming stories:

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iePolitics: While most suffer, Mark Kirk enjoys the good life

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Mark Kirk

So how does one afford a 2.5k square foot home, land in Arizona for a future home, a plane and hangar spot, two Cadillacs, cleaning lady, multiple overseas vacations, time share for multiple weeks per year, and his wife just quite work to raise their baby all on a $130,000 a year county salary?

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iePolitics: Almost as good as Uffer

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Public Defender employees were called into a 5 p.m. meeting at the County Government Center by County Administrative Officer Greg Devereaux.  Not since the Mark Uffer termination have we heard of a group of employees standing and cheering at the announcement of a county official’s termination.  It happened tonight.  We hear that employees were downright giddy.

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iePolitics: A Response

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This comment appeared on the blog today in response to the most recent post regarding San Bernardino County Public Defender Doreen Boxer:

In reading all of the different articles and comments, here some of you get it and some of you don’t. Being very close to all of the players nothing is cut and dry. Greg D. is not the finally say in anything. A few members on the 5th floor run the show, but there is a process.

That process is never on the time frame that Sharon, Jim, ACU, or the regulars write about here. You guys do a great job spelling out what should happen. Well, it’s already happening well before you even start writing about it. You do a great job getting everyone on the sidelines ready for the kick. However, many of these issues need a little more time before you start second guessing what is being done. None of you speed things up and often slow the process down. I do not fault any of you for this, it’s just the truth.

Sharon’s followers have stepped up and made the difference and we take nothing away from you on that. It sounds like I praise the most of you and then take it away. I am not. I am just sharing with you about the process and how long these things take. Many of you should be proud of the end results and of your actions. The love hate relationship that most of you have with the 5th floor “offices” is questionable.

You give accolades in one article and then beat up Neil, Brad, Greg D., otheres on the very next blog. It’s like my mother telling me she loves what I did with cleaning her garage, and then smacks me in the back of the head for putting her dust pan in the wrong place. Please everyone, lets all get our meds leveled out and stick with one side or the other. I have! Wish I could tell you more. But for now, try having a love feast with some of the ones you have mentioned here. You have mentioned three or four departures that you are very happy with.(you left a few out) Give Greg, Brad, Neil, Janice and others some time and you will see many more positive changes sooner than later. Oh and “God Bless”, trust in that.

I thought it deserved a response that is not hidden under the article.

First, let’s address the “love hate relationship” with the Fifth Floor.  I guess that can best be summed up as saying we are not politicians.  In other words, we have zero interest in being politically correct, in brown nosing, or in doing what we do to make friends.  If, for example, Supervisor Neil Derry does good, we are going to praise him.  If he does something less than ethical, we are going to criticize him.

Now, that’s not to say that we don’t let some slide a little more than others, because we are human and we do appreciate a job well done.  Neil is one of those, although at times I’m sure he doesn’t believe it.  Brad is another and I know he doesn’t believe it.  If  Brad only knew some of the articles I have not printed in order to keep some semblance of a working relationship with the First District since I live there.  But he does not believe that.

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iePolitics: Ten months of obstruction

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Today’s departure of San Bernardino County Public Defender Doreen Boxer ends ten months of obstruction and interference by County Administrative Officer Greg Devereaux.  Devereaux was made very aware of the issues with both County Counsel Ruth Stringer and Boxer just after he was hired.  Both individuals were at-will employees who could have easily been terminated for their malfeasance in office.  Both received Devereaux’s protection despite BOS disapproval.

The recent power grab by Devereaux is expected to make it even more difficult for the Board of Supervisors to eliminate department heads who violate county policy and/or state law, harm constituents, or underperform.  Supervisors will have to have a super majority in order to deal with such situations and that is not likely.

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iePolitics: Boxer finally exiting

Posted on by Administrator
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The rumors started last night and are rampant today.  It appears the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors has finally had their wishes carried out by County Administrative Officer Greg Devereaux.  Public Defender Doreen Boxer appears to be enjoying her last few days of employment with San Bernardino County.

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iePolitics: Resign or starve!

Posted on by Administrator
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A couple of stories appeared over at www.inlandpolitics.com regarding the county refusing to settle my worker’s compensation claim if I have the blog and/or refuse to resign.  Some new help has stepped forward, so I expect the taxpayers will be saddled with paying yet another contract with a law firm to fight what we will be doing.  I’m in it for the long haul, so whatever.

In the process I have had to dig out correspondence between me and a former attorney.  Until I read it, I forgot just how insistent the county was that I resign despite that I have never been disciplined in any way for work performance, only for having a blog that has been done on my own time and for union activity that took place mostly on my own time.  (I was a rep so I was allowed some county time to attend to union business.)

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iePolitics: CAO interfering in BOS politics

Posted on by Administrator
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It seems County Administrative Officer Greg Devereaux isn’t satisfied with all the new power he has been granted.  He continues to build on his power base as evidenced by his interference in selection of the Chairman to the Board of Supervisors.

Devereaux’s loyalty to Chairman Gary Ovitt stems from the years he served as city manager of Ontario when Ovitt was mayor.  It has been obvious from the beginning as Ovitt, and his then-chief of staff, Mark Kirk, orchestrated both former-County Administrative Officer Mark Uffer’s termination and Devereaux’s hiring.  The process took well over a year and the entire Fifth Floor knew that no one but Devereaux was being considered for the job.

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