Currupt | rialtonow

Brown Act Violation Rumors Swirl Around Closed Session Information

19 Nov 2015 1 Comment

According to SB Sun Reporter Ryan Hagen the city council in a closed session decided to terminate City Manager Allen Parker’s employment with San Bernardino. According to Ryan Hagen’s story and comments to Rialto Now we see some major Brown Act Violations. First is the fact that the City Attorney never reported the closed session report and second that Ryan Hagen’s source decided to take Closed Session information out of the room and divulge it to the public.

As your used to reading here the Brown Act is used as more of a tool to keep information away from the public rather than make sure that public officials are playing by a set of rules that keeps them accountable before the people. Below you will see the various times local elected bodies have violated this act:

San Bernardino City Council Members divulging closed session information.
West Valley Water use of private counsel to investigate other members and report back to the entire board.
Rialto City Council members walking into June Hayes public comment trap.

The list can go on and on…….

The issue here is that San Bernardino City Council seems to think they are above the law. I don’t fault Ryan Hagen too much for allowing someone to go off the record but….. normally when I allow someone to go off the record I find another source that is willing to go on the record so I can show proof that I am not fabricating information. Leticia Garcia posted the following statement on the “I Love San Bernardino” Facebook page:

“As an FYI. It is a violation of the Brown Act to divulge closed session information. The Sun is irresponsible to condone and report the information without also reporting the offense to the DA Public Integrity Unit.

Why do the residents of this city allow their elected officials to be corrupt unchecked?

I want to know who divulged this? A person in the room is beholden to the Brown Act and as such, would only be an elected or the City Manager. This person should RESIGN from office or Administration immediately!

According to Mrs. Garcia “We should demand from Ryan Hagen that he divulge the name of his source!!!” We called Ryan Hagen and he was not prepared to divulge his source but did say that “he believed it was appropriate to report the communication because it was an informational item and not an item that had anything to do with litigation.”

“Allen Parker’s last day as city manager will be Dec. 31, after the City Council agreed Monday to modify his contract to include a year’s severance pay in exchange for his resignation, according to a source who was in the room for the closed-session vote. However, Monday’s vote was not to dismiss Parker. Instead, according to the source, the City Council agreed to give him a year’s salary — $221,976 — and benefits for himself and his wife.”

So what do you think? Should the press have to follow the same laws that elected officials are supposed to? When will the DA and his defunct Public Integrity Unit start requiring that local elected bodies start following the very set of rules that are there to level the playing field for the public?

http://www.sbsun.com/government-and-politics/20151118/source-san-bernardino-city-manager-allen-parker-to-leave-post-dec-31

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West Valley Water Board Directors Not Prepared At Regularly Scheduled Meeting

16 Nov 2015 2 Comments

On November 5th 2015 the West Valley Water Board held their regular meeting with their new 6pm. Even though the meeting time had changed the way the board acts towards vendors, staff, media and rate payers has not changed. Our staff was not in attendance mostly due to schedule conflicts and partly was we didn’t want to poke the tiger too much. The meeting from what we heard was well attended when compared to past meetings yet Vice President Young and Director Gonzales were upset to the point of bringing it up multiple times that we were not in attendance. The early part of the meeting things seemed a little tense.

Board Vice President Young, Gonzales & Trujillo were not prepared for this meeting. Time and time again they were asking to have business items tabled many into the last meeting of 2015 which was six weeks from the date of the last meeting of the 2015 year. At one point Board Director Linda Gonzales states that she works 8-5 and doesn’t have time to look over her board packet material?????? When did it become the rate payers responsibility to make sure you had enough time to do your job? Why did you run for a Civil Service position if your not prepared to put in the work? Director Gonzales didn’t have time to read her board packet but she had time to hobnob with various elected officials and complain about her dislike of the food they provided her.

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Second was they spend so much time fighting former General Managers and politicking from the dais that they are not paying bills in a timely fashion leaving space and bills unpaid which is beyond unfair. If you have a dispute over the costs have the client come to a meeting and ask your questions and them come to a majority consensus and pay what the vendor has coming to them. Vivian Moreno a Riverside Based activist asks the board why they act like the West Valley Water District doesn’t know what they are paying. Both President Gosney and General Manager spoke up after Mrs. Moreno asked them why they didn’t know what they were paying. President Gosney said that each bill came with a list of items for which the total bill represented.

The boards lack of direction and the constant fighting with vendors and ratepayers seems to be blowing up in their faces. It has already cost ratepayers a board director as President Gosney decided not to seek another term as a water board director. Vice President Young has asked that the 15 percent rate increases that are scheduled to be on the next two years be added to the last meeting of 2015.

Stay tuned for more on this as the saga seems far from over………………..

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West Valley Water Board Vice President Young Lashes Out At Board CFO

11 Nov 2015 1 Comment

On November 5th 2015 the West Valley Water Board held their regular meeting with their new six o’clock time. It became clear as the Board of Directors moved through the meeting that this was not going to be a nice evening. Apparently Vice President Young felt he was not getting the information that he requested in a timely fashion. According to his statements he has been denied the right to obtain needed information on a regular basis so he decided to have an emotional breakdown at a public meeting.

Vice President Clifford Young took the opportunity to rip into the West Valley Water Board CFO Rachelle Clayton in the meeting accusing her of withholding information and bringing her near tears. His rant spilled over onto other staff members as he asked for a performance review of General Manager Tom Crowley on the December 17th Closed session agenda. Vice President Young has caused many staff to play musical chairs with their work positions in an effort to remain off of Vice President Young’s radar those have said that are close to the West Valley Water District

Vice President Young is upset with people questioning his tactics and is taking it out on staff, rate payers and vendors for the District……

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Local Community Advocates Stop Water Meeting In It’s Tracks

14 Oct 2015 2 Comments

On Monday October 12th West Valley Water Board held a “SPECIAL” meeting to address issues that arose from the October 8th regular board meeting. We covered the “SPECIAL” meeting in a previous post to give the public a better idea of what was going to take place at noon on a Monday workday. At the meeting we saw a powder keg of emotions and Electioneering going on while the Water Board of Directors went into an early Closed Session meeting to come to an agreement to fire their current legal counsel from the firm Redwine and Sherrill and to proceed down a path of a dangerous General Public Agenda that from the talk in the crowd was ripe with violations of the Brown Act the very set of rules that dictates how elected boards are to be run and handle themselves. This meeting never made it past the first item on their public agenda.

Here are videos of people that choose to address the Water Board prior to their closed session:

The water Board legal counsel was not invited into the closed session we found out later it was because there had already been a decision to fire him and his firm possible Brown Act violation #1

The first general agenda item was listed as Appointment of Special Counsel. Many in the crowd had an issue with the vague nature of the item in question and once the public began speaking out it was more clear what this “SPECIAL COUNSEL” would be tasked to do. This special counsel was apparently going to be given marching orders to put a negative shade on two people currently running for the water board. Clifford Young the Vice President of the Board had a very angry look on his face and his comments and body language were very aggressive. I spoke on record about the costs of hiring an attorney just to sully the reputation weeks before an election of two people seeking seats on the board and asked how that was fair to the rate payers. I also spoke to Mr. Young and his aggressive posture and the message that was sending to the audience.

After I spoke Mr. Young got up and proved that he was out to cast negative shade over current Board Director Alan Dyer and Former West Valley Water District General Manager Butch Arizia who is running for one of the three seats open for this election. See the whole video below and watch it to the end where West Valley Water Board President Betty Gosney sets the record straight further showing the Vice Presidents true intentions.

Even though the attacks on Mr. Arizia were proven false still on social media the group out to take total control of the Water Board still post these types of statements:

Demwomen Sbc In December 2012 the West Valley Water District. Board members Betty Doshier Gosney
Earl Tilman,Jackie Cox,Alan Dyer, Don Olinger,
Approved a 75% increase on the water bills in our community
Bloomington, Rialto,north Fontana south Fontana. This was during a recession that hit the community, causing hard-working people that year 2012 to now, that are losing their homes and businesses going belly up!
This information is in the WVWD minutes December 2012.

You may call 909-875-1804 to get a copy of the minutes,pulled from the file these minutes dated December 20,2012 resolution 2012-23 article 21.

This meeting had about 20 local residents out asking a lot of good questions and the two words of the day were TRANSPARENCY & BROWN ACT VIOLATION. Mr. Young was affected by these mentions of the Brown Act and the potential violations that existed within the make up of the Special Meeting Agenda that he started to call out the people making the accusations and the people he was speaking too should know their Brown Act pretty well they all have had to abide by it pretty recently. These people were former Councilwoman Lynn Hirtz, Councilman Shawn O’Connell and Private Investigator Thompson all had words of caution for the board if they choose to proceed. Here is video of the rest of the board not falling in line with any more poor decisions and further Brown Act violations.

The list of potential Brown Act violations are listed here:

The meeting itself and the timing of the meeting.
The appearance of more than two Board Members meeting and deciding on the issue of firing the current legal counsel.
Putting out information at a board meeting that would harm or sully the reputation of a fellow board member or other person running for a board seat.
Calling for a vote on allowing the General Manager of the Water District to find alternate legal counsel for the Thursday regular meeting without it being on the agenda or calling the meeting a emergency meeting.
The attempt to hire a person that would only report to the board of directors.

If you look at the agenda for tomorrow little has changed except the Confidential Assistant that will report only to the Water Board has gone from a public item to a Closed Session Item.

The meeting is tomorrow at 3pm at 855 West Baseline Road it appears this one will be just as exciting as Monday.

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West Valley Water District Board Calls Special Meeting

12 Oct 2015 Leave a comment

by rialto-now in American Water, Burglury, Ca, City of Rialto, Colton, Currupt, Fontana, Inland Empire, Rialto, Small Business, Taxes, Veolia, Water

So in today’s era of the Great California Drought and the massive amount of influence that local water boards have on the use and cost of your families water more attention is being put on Elected Boards that have a direct influence on our most valuable utility water. Most water companies are overseen by a Utility Commission but the final body to approve changes lies with Elected Council members and Mayors. Well in Rialto there is a strange mixture of utilities when it comes to the delivery of water and sewer services. This isn’t a perfect boarder but basically if you live south of Baseline Ave your serviced by Rialto Water Services north of Baseline you are part of West Valley Water.

West Valley apparently had a very turbulent board meeting according to Board Member Linda Gonzalez on Board Vice President Clifford Young’s Facebook page:

Now Mrs. Gonzalez telling people to check the minutes was a weird statement due to the fact that the only minutes that had been published were up to 9-3-15. Never the less we hear that there is a special meeting that was called and here is the meat of the agenda:

BUSINESS MATTERS

Consideration of:

1. Appointment of Special Counsel.

2. Appointment of Confidential Assistant to Report Directly to the West Valley Water Districts Board of Directors.

3. Appointment of Treasurer for the West Valley Water District Board of Directors.

4. Begin Conducting an Independent Review of all West Valley Water Districts Contracts.

5. Independent Review of all Contracts during the Tenure of Prior West Valley Water Districts General Manager. Consideration of Possible Suspension of all District Contracts Independent of Contracts Directly Critical to the Delivery, Safety and Operation of Water Services to the District.

ADJOURN

Rumors are flying about the reason for the special counsel that the board is looking to hire as well as why does the WATER BOARD need a Confidential Assistant? Were also wondering why this board is now calling into question EVERY SINGLE contract that was signed during the tenure of Mr. Butch Ariza the former General Manager of the WVWD. A lot of this smells of political leveraging against Mr. Ariza due to the fact that he is running for a seat on the water board. It’s horrible because public safety doesn’t even seem to matter as they look to suspend “Suspension of all District Contracts Independent of Contracts Directly Critical to the Delivery, Safety and Operation of Water Services to the District” This is horrible and has us wondering what is the motive for such a bold move?

Our 2 cents is they know that they fly way under the public radar and they think you don’t care enough to get upset. Well it should be on your radar because these people are well compensated for their time sitting on this board. According to the link on the WVWD website that each board member can be compensated at least $13,000 each year and the General Manager can approve for them to go over that amount if need be. See the info below if you wish to attend tomorrows SPECIAL BOARD MEETING:

WEST VALLEY WATER DISTRICT

855 W. Base Line Road, Rialto, CA

SPECIAL BOARD MEETING

AGENDA

Monday, October 12, 2015- 12:00 p.m.

“In order to comply with legal requirements for posting of agendas, only those items iiled with the District Secretary’s office by noon, on Wednesday prior to the following Monday Special Board meeting, not requiring departmental investigation, will be considered by the Board of Directors.”

OPENING CEREMONIES

Pledge of Allegiance

Call to Order

Roll Call of Board Members

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION:

Any person wishing to speak to the Board of Directors on matters listed or not listed on the agenda, within its jurisdiction, is asked to complete a Speaker Card and submit it to the District Clerk. Each speaker is limited to three (3) minutes. Under the State of California Brown Act, the Board of Directors is prohibited from discussing or taking action on any item not listed on the posted agenda. Comments related to noticed Public Hearing(s) and Business Matters will be heard during the occurrence of the item.

Rialto Unified School District Hears Parents Concerns and Responds With Help

09 Oct 2015 1 Comment

Dollahan Elementary gets a RUSD Public safety Officer

Parents at the local school of Dollahan Elementary watched school drop off and pick up times become a major issue. The issues were wide spread out on the street Etiwanda Ave, in the City Park that is in front of the school (Flores Park) and inside the enclosed oddly shaped parking lot. We have covered numerous stories of issues that almost led to dire consequences and we fielded a lot of calls from the city, school district and police.

Well the school district has had the appropriate reaction to our pleading for more safety at this Elementary school. Monday September 28th Rialto Unified School District Public Safety Department has had a Public Safety Officer on site keeping things safer inside of the school parking lot. You may ask what has changed by adding a Public Safety Officer? Well here are the changes:

No longer do parents double and triple park bringing the traffic flow to a dead stop.
The angry pushy bus drivers no longer come into the parking lot blaring their horns.
Areas that are labeled for buses or Day Care Vans no longer have parents parking there.
Staff and District vehicles are no longer driving on the side walks while kids are preparing to leave for the day.
Parents and children are now safer inside the parking lot.

What hasn’t changed is the total disregard for parking rules in Flores Park and traffic on Etiwanda Ave where the issue of angry parents and fighting over traffic supremacy and the ZERO enforcement of traffic by the city or police. Parents still speed up and down local neighborhood streets, road rage controls Etiwanda Ave, the crossing guard is nearly taken out on a daily basis and the city should remove all of the red curb paint and handicap markings because nobody pays any attention to them and Rialto PD seems to have an issue enforcing the CVC code.

One of the latest issues that sits solely on the shoulders of the city is the sidewalks. When Marcus Fuller was the Public Works Director residents complained about the 1000’s of lifted sidewalks in the Flores Park Area. Mr. Fuller’s remedy was to grind some of those sidewalks and the others they used black asphalt to create ramps. So like everything else Mr. Fuller did in Rialto it was a halfway attempt to fix a problem and now things are worse than before. Here is why:

When the asphalt was laid down it was allowed to spill over and damage residents lawns and properties.
The asphalt didn’t fuse together correctly so it has began to fall apart and denigrate.
Since parents that don’t want to fight the traffic that the police can’t get under control they walk their kids and there has been a recent spike in people falling and injuring themselves.
With speeding up and down residential streets at an uncontrolled high, the neighborhood street that should be a safe place for kids to ride bikes and skateboards isn’t an option so the kids have been pushed onto sidewalks. The pitted and uneaven sidewalks have left local children with an increase in injuries.

Calls and conversations with the new Public Works Director Robert Eisenbeisz have left us with no solutions. The only thing Mr. Eisenbeisz has said is that “IF” measure “I” money comes in from SANBAG then we can look at Etiwanda Ave.

Normally this is where I would tell people to speak up and demand action but that doesn’t work anymore. If your not in the political favor of Mayor Robertson or the “Liberal Park Councilman” Joe Baca Jr. or the “Pay For Me To Travel One More Time Councilman” Ed Scott your not getting ANYTHING!!!! The city leadership doesn’t seem to care about the community, the brown act or just being transparent. The city and the many departments don’t do anything all they do is point the finger at someone else.

So what is ironic about this is the School District is the only party here that had an appropriate response to issues within their sphere of influence and a level of appreciation goes out to the Public Safety Department for their quick and timely response.

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Rialto Unified School District Employee Almost Hits Small Child

25 Sep 2015 Leave a comment

A common sight at Rialto Schools with cars using sidewalks as places to park.

Traffic concerns have always been an issue at Rialto Schools then traffic got worse when former Public Works Director for the City of Rialto Marcus Fuller began increasing speed limits on residential streets around Rialto schools. Couple that with the school district not taking an active role in keeping kids safe and pushing that responsibility to Rialto Police who are working to re-hire police officers after the housing market crash that destroyed budgets all over the state.

Recently at the September Coffee with the Chief we were blessed to hear that not only is crime lower than any other neighboring city in the IE but that Chief Farrar and his staff have a goal of beefing up the understaffed traffic unit. Most of the questions for the Police Chief were questions that the RUSD Public Safety Chief and New Superintendent should have been there to answer instead of hanging out with a special interest group. All the parents in attendance wanted to know what was going to be done about traffic at Rialto schools.

Chief Farrar said that his staff of Sworn Traffic Officers and Non Sworn Parking Enforcement staff would be looking at ways to begin enacting change while waiting for new officers for the traffic department.

In the video below the Rialto Unified School District Grounds Maintenance truck is pulling out just as the students are prepared to be let out for the school day and the truck nearly hits a young child in a stroller shaped like a big wheel. The parent that shot this video pulled out the phone after witnessing the near accident. At Dollahan Elementary alone in just this school year three times a vehicle pulling onto the sidewalk has almost hit a parent and or child.

Were not sure what is going on at RUSD but parents from all over the district are getting a little fed up with the traffic issues and the lack of response from the district.

A child care provider for local parents for Dollahan elementary to us that even though her how day care is just down the street from the school she is now driving her kids to school. She said “people don’t look they just speed through the crossing guard for the one crosswalk is almost hit daily”

What makes matters worse is that bus drivers that pick up at Dollahan honk and yell at parents to the point of almost starting fights. So parents that don’t want to chance having an out of control bus driver approach their vehicle parents have been using Flores Park as a drop off spot where there are no staff around. School Principal Mr. Husbands has been told multiple times about the issues at Dollahan and he says it comes down to a lack of staff.

We reached out to Maintenance and Operations and Mr. Montez said that the grounds truck in (video) question isn’t a school district vehicle. Mrs. Jafri said that she would look into it but said that there are always two sides to every story. We will keep you posted as we investigate this issue more.

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Rialto Unified School District Maintenance Department Breaks The Rules

24 Sep 2015 Leave a comment

Anyone that has ever volunteered or worked for a school will tell you that the rules for using chemicals on school grounds is very regulated. Plus when it comes to applying chemicals around children and or parents that’s a big no, no. So when a parent walked onto the Dollahan Elementary Campus Monday September 21st at 2pm and a maintenance employee sprayed chemicals from a back pack sprayer right in front of him right before dismissal from the school day there was an issue here that needed to be dealt with.

According to the RUSD website they only have the spray schedule for the 2014 school year nothing for this year. We went up to the front of the school and there was no notice for the spraying that the grounds crew was doing as well as nothing in the office.

In the video below you will see that the employee who is spraying chemical in the KINDERGARDEN play area is well protected wearing long sleeves, pants and gloves but where is the protection for all the kids and parents that are not protected.

State law requires that this type of spraying not be done when there is a chance that the wind can carry the product outside of the desired application area and effect other plants animals and people that are not protected. The worse part was when the Kindergarten volunteer was trying to keep kids out of the application areas. We did not want to include video of the children as to protect them.

Calls were put out to RUSD Maintenance and Operations Director Bill Ralph and nobody returned our calls. So when we received a second call about the same employee now spraying from a powered device during dismissal again on Thursday September 24th at 2pm. This was witnessed by parents and the Principal Mr. Husbands. Once again calls were put out to Director Bill Ralph and we were sent to Brian Montez the Grounds Supervisor. Mr. Montez denied that his staff was spraying and or even at Dollahan Elementry this week and said that the witnesses mistook RUSD employees for city employees. Mr. Montez said he could not comment on video proof that he had not seen yet (we sent him a copy). He also said that Roundup is safe and non toxic for people and children. As you can see in the picture below the tall grass that children are just about to walk through is very wet with active chemical.

This is the area just outside of classrooms at Dollahan Elementary

A statement in a Toxic Free Website claims that Mr. Montez is wrong and that roundup is not safe for any human especially children. Roundup may claim its safe but they have twice been sued for those claims:

“According to its label, the re-entry period before anyone can safely enter areas that have been sprayed with RoundUp is four hours. As with any pesticide application, the person doing the spraying should read the entire product label and follow all instructions. Wear appropriate protective clothing to avoid the spray contacting your skin. At a minimum, this means long pants and a long-sleeved shirt.

While the EPA does not allow manufacturers such as Monsanto to explicitly say that RoundUp is safe, it is certainly implied in their advertisements for the product. Recently I’ve seen a commercial for RoundUp showing a man dressed in shorts and short-sleeved shirt happily spraying and winning his battle against weeds. The New York State Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer, has twice sued Monsanto successfully over false advertising, such as images of young children with bare legs playing on newly treated lawns.

You definitely want to avoid contact with the spray, and not just because of what is listed as its active ingredient, glyphosate. RoundUp also contains something called a surfactant that helps the spray stick better to whatever it contacts, whether it is the leaf of a plant or your skin. Some tests have indicated that the surfactant included in RoundUp may pose more hazards than glyphosate.”

http://www.toxicfreenc.org/informed/roundup.html#.VgSD4MtViko

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Statewide Coalitions Call Foul On The Assembly & Senate Pushing In Last Minute Marijuana Legislation

11 Sep 2015 Leave a comment

by rialto-now in 100 Black Men, and the unincorporated communities of Bloomington and Muscoy, City of Rialto, Colton, Congressman Pete Aguilar, Crime, Currupt, Curt Hagman, Fontana, Grand Terrace, hardy brown II, Marijuana, Medical Marijuana, Nieghborhood Watch, Public Safety, Rialto, Rialto, San Bernardino, youth Tags: AB 266, SB 643

So while you were looking at Gas Taxes the Governor, Senate & Assembly were working a back door deal to push further Marijuana legalization in a last minute vote on the last day of the legislative session. this effort comes on the heels of the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy’s report showing a rise in Marijuana use in teens 12-25 years of age. National Data showed the following:

“Overall, the use of illicit drugs – including marijuana – among Americans aged 12 and older increased from 9.4 percent in 2013 to 10.2 percent in 2014. This was driven particularly by the increase in adult marijuana use.“

So why would the State Legislative Body push last minute regulations when this evidence shows that young people are suffering at the hands of lies from Big Marijuana and the Pro Drug Legalization Movement? The bills in question are SB 643 & AB 266 both had last minute deals struck to change the wording and regulations of both bills to better suit Big Marijuana yet as of 10am this morning the language has yet to be updated according to Scott Chipman the Southern California Chair of CALMca (Citizens Against Legalizing Marijuana).

David Phillips the Executive Director of Inland Valley Drug Free Coalition said that one of the bills sponsors Assemblyman Tom Lackey’s office said Friday that the text would be updated by noon Friday for public review. Mr. Phillips has heard about the changes and isn’t buying it. Mr. Phillips said “One of the biggest issues is the lack of criminal penalties if the new Law isn’t obeyed. Without criminal penalties this effort only further hurts today’s youth and our communities. Even doctors and pharmacy’s can face jail & or prison time for not following regular drug laws and policies what makes Big Marijuana any different.” Mr. Phillips is referring to the shops that are shutdown then reopened days later. Drug dealers don’t care about business licenses or monetary fines and or penalties the profit for selling Marijuana makes it worth it. You have seen it in the Southern California media LA, Costa Mesa, San Diego & San Bernardino are just a few of the cites that have been dealing with the revolving door of Marijuana Drug stores.

Now is the time to once again lean on our elected official’s to speak for children and communities rather than Big Marijuana & Drug Dealers. Call your elected official’s and tell them to vote no one bills SB 643 * AB 266

Assembly Member Tom Lackey 916-319-2036

Assembly Member Cheryl Brown 916-319-2047

Assembly Member Catharine Baker 916-319-2016

Assembly Member Autumn Burke 916-319-2062

Assembly Member Ian Calderon 916-319-2057

Assembly Member Chris Holden 916-319-2041

Assembly Member Eric Linder 916-319-2060

Assembly Member Jose Medina 916-319-2061

Assembly Member Jay Olbernote 916-319-2033

Assembly Member Marc Stienorth 916-319-2040

Find your Assembly Member here

DATE: September 11, 2015

Contact: Southern California, Scott Chipman 619 990 7480 scott@chipman.info

Northern California, Carla Lowe 916 708 4111 carladlowe@aol.com
After nearly 20 years, at the last minute of the last day of the legislative session, Californians will see the “deal” lawmakers have made regarding regulation of the multibillion dollar “medi pot” industry. The obvious reason this regulation is difficult is because THERE SHOULD NOT BE a “medical” marijuana industry.

In 1996 Prop 215 voters did not vote for a big marijuana industry. They didn’t vote for drug dealers operating behind glass doors in local business districts. They did not vote for hash oil labs or the hash oil laced candies, cookies and sodas that provide dangerously high levels of THC. They did not vote for drug culture advertising to youth and young adults.

The fact that California is now the largest supplier of marijuana to the rest of the country is tribute to a legislature that has been unwilling to address the reality that “medical marijuana” is a rues in support of just plain drug trafficking and dealing. With the “Emerald Triangle” providing 60% of all the marijuana in the country we now are the drug cartel for the US.

Through inaction and tacit and institutional approval, elected local, federal and state officials have created a huge illicit drug industry, drug addicted population, and drug harmed society. Now the answer to the public health and safety hemorrhage created by government is a government band aid?

What is needed would be to get back to what the voters approved in Prop 215 only. If a band aid is all that can be applied then a proper band aid would at least include:

Local control maintained – of course! This has already been upheld by the CA Supreme Court. It is not a real concession to allow local control to continue. It must be considered a given.
Raise age of use/purchase to 21! – The science would argue for 25 when the brain is fully developed! How can there be a big concern about under 21 tobacco smoking and not marijuana smoking? More kids and college students are smoking pot than cigarettes.
If this is “medicine” treat it like medicine – use the CURES system like every other pharmaceutical This would include limiting the THC level to the levels of FDA approved cannabis based drugs such as Dronabinol (marinol).
Limit the number of recommendations a doctor can make for marijuana and a proven connection between the ailment and the marijuana being recommended. Require a second opinion from a specialist in that medical area.
Eliminate advertizing especially to youth, including product placement in print and onscreen use in film and television. NO PORN STAR SPOKESPEOPLE PLEASE!
Eliminate packaging mimicking well known products like candies/cookies/sodas and other well known edible products.
Require full compliance with the Sherman Food and Cosmetic Act. All other industries must, so why not the pot industry?
Include tracking from seed to sale. Where is it coming from and where is it going? Every “patient” must be registered and have purchase records kept. That is a pharmaceutical industry standard.
Eliminate all private grows and sales. These are just drug dealers operating for a profit. Establish state run grows and distribution in each county. At least require full non-profit status. Anything less is drug dealing pure and simple.
Enforcement must be real and not left up to localities. The feds have said they won’t interfere in a state that has strong effective pot regulations. Well, if state regulations are not being followed the state should ask for federal enforcement help. This would be real enforcement with real consequences. The state ABC is an example of an agency with almost no enforcement (or investigations). We have no confidence that local enforcement will materialize.
Eliminate illicit deliveries that don’t come from a properly regulated (all of the above) establishment. Call for federal enforcement against unregulated delivery services.
Eliminate the sale of hash oil products – BHO explosions are epidemic now. Where does the BHO come from? Illegal labs of course. And nearly 50% of sales are high strength BHO infused products
Create a drugged driving test and track and publish the negative impacts such as child fatalities related to marijuana (Arizona does it) and fatality crashes where marijuana is involved, and arrest percentage numbers of those testing positive for marijuana. Don’t allow permits until these tests and tracking procedures are in place and functioning.
Establish an education system for parents, kids and teens on the science behind the harms of marijuana. (This could be dangerous as the PC anti drug war crowd would likely be assigned by Gavin Newsom to create and control the curriculum.)

Does this sound like a lot of regulation? Yes it is and yes it all should be done. There is nothing required above that is not already in place for other industries that have the potential to negatively impact public health and safety. If the goal is to protect health and safety there can be no half measures.

Some will say, “Finally, we got something!” But what we will likely have is another institutionalization of a drug dealing “big marijuana” industry. Some will say, “We have to do this to protect against the potential of legalization in 2016.” This band aid is a great argument for why, from now to November 8th, 2016, the voters of California should speak out in opposition and then vote against the further institutionalization and legalization of marijuana.

What happens when the “I Love San Bernardino” radio show leaves San Bernardino residents out of the conversation

31 Aug 2015 Leave a comment

So if your not aware you must not of been around the blog this week but there is a radio program on Sundays at 4pm called “I Love San Bernardino” on KCAA AM 1050. Well apparently if you call you will not get through if you live in San Bernardino. On the show on the August 23rd show Host Robert Porter had Congressional candidate for the 31st district Paul Chabot on as his guest. As someone who has worked with Paul & someone Robert Porter asked to come on the show this week I asked if I could Call in. As someone who works in drug prevention I knew Mr. Porter was going to ask Mr. Chabot at least one question in regards to Marijuana. Mr. Porter does this on his show by inviting in a person named Elmo Green Meds who has given himself the label of the “POT AMBASSADOR” for the city of San Bernardino. Well Mr. Porter told me Marijuana would not be one of the questions and that Mr. Chabot did not have time for any callers.

So I informed Mr. Chabot of what I thought was a lie and watched and waited………..

Low and behold Mr. Porter did ask a Marijuana question and he did usher Elmo Green Meds into the studio to talk Marijuana. When I saw this on the online stream I called in and got through. Now I was a little bit behind the conversation because the U Stream Feed was a few minutes behind the radio feed. I was able to call in and call Mr. Porter out for lying about content and the ability to take calls. What I found interesting was many people from the I Love San Bernardino Facebook Group wanted to call in and were not allowed through.

Now I don’t live in San Bernardino and the only reason were writing about this is:

Every time we write a story along these lines the readers flock to the site.
If San Bernardino doesn’t enforce their ordnance their drug problem will become ours.
Even though the people that tried to call in all dislike me I don’t think its right for me to get through but not them.

So as we say on issues like this To Be Continued………

Video by rialto-now