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HMG Exclusive-Dirty Water: Roybal, Apodaca and Vasquez Eliminate Central Basin Ethics Committee By Brian Hews and Randy Economy President James Roybal, along with Directors Bob Apodaca and Leticia Vasquez of Central Basin Municipal Water District voted to eliminate the embattled water agency’s Ethics Committee this past Monday. Roybal and Apodaca lead the charge to eliminate the longtime committee that has successfully investigated the two, referring complaints to enforcement agencies such as the District Attorney, the Fair Political Practices Committee (FPPC) and the Los Angeles County Civil Grand Jury. Decisions on prosecution are pending at this time. On September 25th, CBMWD General Manager Tony Perez forwarded the findings of the Ethics Committee showing that Roybal had been found guilty by the Los Angeles County District Attorney of violating the Brown Act by revealing
confidential information in an interview with the press. Perez’ letter was sent to the Civil Grand Jury seeking a possible indictment. On October 7th, again based on a review by the Ethics Committee, Perez forwarded findings to both the District Attorney and the FPPC seeking an investigation into alleged improper conduct by Apodaca involving his live-in girlfriend Caroline Medrano. The complaint alleged that Apodaca violated Government Code Section 1090 by approving payments exceeding $11,000 to Medrano for floral decorations. Other allegations in the complaint focused on the possibility that Apodaca committed insurance fraud by adding Medrano to his District paid health insurance benefits. Hews Media Group recently featured
See DIRTY WATER page 8
HMG-CN Endorsements: Voters Head to Polls Next Elect Cardenas, Guzman, Tuesday to Pick City, Chacon, and Montoya for School Leaders By Randy Economy the Montebello Unified Voters in several Southeast Los AnCounty cities will be heading to the School District Board of geles ballot box next Tuesday, November 5th to elect several new city council members, as well as a cadre of school board memEducation bers.
Hews Media Group-Community Newspaper strongly endorses Montebello Unified School Board Members Benjamin Cardenas, Gerri Guzman, Hector Chacon and Paul Montoya in next week’s election. The Montebello Unified School District is one of the premier public education systems in California and we can thank the leadership of Chacon, Guzman, Cardenas, and Montoya as well as past school board members for making it happen. This campaign has been aggressive, rough and tumble and sometimes downright in the mud. But, that’s okay in our
Known as the 2013 Consolidated Election, more than 1.7 million registered voters throughout the sprawling county will be deciding the fate of 519 candidates who are seeking 114 different elected offices. Locally, voters will be decided school board seats in the ABC Unified School District, Bellflower Unified School District, Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District, Downey Unified School District and in the Montebello Unified School District. Voters will also be electing city council members in Artesia, Hawaiian Gardens and Pico Rivera.
See ENDORSEMENTS page 9
See VOTING page 9
AFSCME SCHEMING TO LAND INTERIM COMMERCE PIO STINNETT FULL-TIME JOB ADAM ACOSTA, WHO SOURCES TELL HMG-CN IS A GOOD FRIEND OF STINNETT, IS LEADING THE CHARGE; CITY COUNCIL HAS INTERVENED AND SUSPENDED HIRING OF PIO. By Brian Hews and Randy Economy Hews Media Group-Community News has learned that AFSCME District Council 36, headquartered in Los Angeles, is placing pressure on the Commerce City Council to hire Jason Stinnett interim Public Information Officer Jason Stinnett and Secretary and Assistant Executive Director Adam Acosta is leading the charge to land the job for Stinnett. Sources tell HMG-CN that the City
of Commerce initiated a comprehensive hiring process, advertising for a PIO and interviewing candidates. The candidates were narrowed down to “Band 1” of which Stinnett was not included. Jorge Rifa the Commerce City Administrator was reportedly ready to make an offer to a candidate from Band 1 when Stinnett alleged tampering with the selection process. The Commerce City Council intervened and put the offer on hold. City Attorney Eddie Olivo subsequently placed the subject into a closed session item removing the process from public scrutiny. According to city policy, the city council cannot intervene in the hiring process of any represented employee, it is up to the city administrator to hire, but the pressure that Acosta and AFSCME are placing on the process has apparently stopped Rifa from moving forward. HMG-CN contacted Stinnett by phone in regards to the hiring of the PIO and whether AFSCME and Acosta, who re-
See STINNETT page 8
Bell Manager Willmore Disputes Vice Mayor Quintana ‘Secret Fund’ Allegations By Randy Economy (Bell) An ongoing “war of words” between Bell City Manager Doug Willmore and Vice Mayor Ana Marie Quintana escalated this past week with new charges and counter charges being hurled between the two city officials. At issue, according to Quintana is in her opinion is that Bell taxpayers are currently on the hook to pay more than $3 million in unpaid bills to an Orange County based municipal law firm that has represented the scandal plagued community for more than one year now. The Law Firm of Alshire and Wynder was hired by Bell city council members after the city made national and international headlines for being the focal point of one of the biggest political corruption cases in the history of the United States. A former city manager, assistant city manager and several past city council members as well as a former police chief were paying themselves elaborate salary and retirement packages that sent shock waves around the nation.
Since then, City Manage Willmore has been, in his words, has been “working around the clock, nonstop as a matter of fact to get Bell back on track.” Willmore appears to have been given high grades from a majority of current city council members for his performance, but has been lambasted by Quintana during the past several weeks. The war of words between Willmore and Quintana boiled over this past week with the two city officials exchanging written emails that directly challenge each other. Hews Media Group-Community Newspaper was sent copies of current and past emails by both Willmore and Quintana, and the documents show a great distain between the two Bell officials. “I will say that in my entire career I have never seen anything like this,” Willmore told HMG-CN in a written email last week. “To see an elected official (Quintana) make totally false allegation of this kind against people who work for her city, it’s just something I’ve never dealt with
See BELL page 8
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DIRTY WATER
Continued from page 1 numerous stories detailing the actions taken by Roybal, who tried repeatedly to illegally cancel committee meetings, going as far as to announce that the two Directors that he appointed in January had been stripped of their duties. “Roybal’s commitment to protecting his strongest Board ally Bob Apodaca has been unwavering throughout, he is simply intent on controlling future investigations at CBMWD,” stated Ethics Chair Phil Hawkins. “Roybal finally convened a Special Meeting of the Administrative Committee, which he and Apodaca oversee, just to place the item on the agenda for Board action. That tells you they don’t give a damn about appearances of impropriety,” added Hawkins. Official language for the item calls for a review and discussion of (the) temporary suspension of (the) Ethics Committee while policy is amended. However, Roybal was uncomfortable with the word “suspension” and joked during the meeting if they could “suspend the word suspend”? Roybal’s attempt to avoid the connotations of the word “suspend” led to his request for a thesaurus. Finally, a member of the District’s legal team said that they could term the suspension a “hiatus”. An individual from the public in attendance commented to HMG that, “Roybal’s avoidance of using the word suspend made him look ridiculous and extremely suspicious. The fact that CBMWD has to pay a lawyer to play word games to satisfy the whims of a crazy Board President is an embarrassment,” stated the audience member who wished to remain anonymous.
BELL
Continued from page 1 and never seen before,” Wilmore said. Wilmore was responding to a press statement issued by Quintana in early October under the headline “City of Bell Covering Up Secret Fund Used To Hide Exorbitant Legal Fees.” The press release was sent to media outlets around Southern California from Quintana’s official city email account. Quintana states in her opening salvo in her press release that “three years after the discovery that Robert Rizzo (former city manager) and his cronies had funneled an obscene amount of money into their pockets, questionable accounting practices are, once again, rearing the ugly heads.” Willmore jumped all over Quintana and her statements in both a phone interview and written statement to HMG-CN. “In short, the statement from Councilmember Quintana’s press release that states, ‘Vice-Mayor Ana Maria Quintana recently discovered the existence of a secret fund that was created by City Manager Doug Willmore and City Attorney David Aleshire that serves to hide exorbitant legal fees,’ is completely and totally false,” Wilmore said. “There is no secret fund or secret account of this kind. In fact, there is no fund or account of this kind, secret or otherwise. There is also no attempt whatsoever to hide any legal fees. I also consider the statement to be clearly defamatory,” Wilmore said about Quintana. “Her quote on the HMG website of having discovered a ‘secret fund that was created by the current City Manager and City Attorney that serves to hide the huge legal fees’ is completely and totally false. I feel that it is also clearly defamatory,”
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During discussion of the policy amendment, Director Leticia Vasquez, herself under investigation by the District Attorney for multiple counts of perjury and failure to report campaign contributions properly, recommended that Ethics authority be at the discretion of the General Manager. Vasquez, who was herself recalled when she served on the Lynwood City Council, had kept her distance from the troubling ethics violations by Roybal and Apodaca’s. However, Vasquez seemed to lead the discussion calling for the suspension along with Roybal. Director Art Chacon, who serves with Hawkins on the Ethics Committee, was absent for the open session part of the meeting but attended the closed session, expressed disappointment with his colleagues in an interview with HMG. Chacon called today’s actions “nothing but a cover-up and yet another example of how Roybal simply changes the rules to get what he wants.” Chacon noted that when Roybal and Vasquez were elected in January, their majority, which included Apodaca, promptly rewrote the Administrative Code changing the long established method of selecting the Board President in order to elect Roybal. “I would think the whole world would agree that by designating the General Manager to oversee potential ethics investigations, that all future investigations will now cease” commented Chacon. “Does anyone really think that the GM doesn’t realize that it only takes three votes to send him packing, I think the majority certainly sent a strong message to him today” added Chacon.
STINNETT
Continued from page 1
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portedly is very good friends with Stinnett, intervened, Stinnett declined to comment. Calls into Acosta went unreturned. In past months, a group of vocal Commerce activists criticized the city job application process claiming that Stinnett was offered the job as political payback. Stinnett was a political consultant to three current members of the city council. Stinnett has been a strong force in Commerce area politics for the past number of years and has worked in the past to get current city elected officials Lilia Leon, Tina Baca Del Rio, Ivan Alramirano, and Joe Aguilar into office. Stinnett in the past has also overseen a local political website www.savecommerce.org. The web site actively promoted the campaigns for Leon, Baca Del Rio, Alramirano and Aguilar, and others in the past, and criticized outside challengers who have sought public office in Commerce. “My concern is that this job is not open to anyone with better qualifications from outside of Commerce,” said Jamie Valencia a longtime community activist. “ We need someone who doesn’t have a bias view of the city.” In an interview with the Commerce Community News City Administartor Jorge Rifa said, “I will confirm that I will be responsible for deciding who lands the (PIO) job and that includes the final process.” Rifa went on to say, “all I can tell you is it is my intention to basically put a recruitment process as requested by the city council, and I have done that.”
Wilmore said. Wilmore lashed out at Quintana by also claiming that “her quote yesterday on the HMG website of having claimed to see ‘manipulation of the city’s books and hiding of fees’ is totally unsupported by anything I have seen or know about.” Wilmore also stated that a city audit report also backs up his claims that noting irregular or illegal took place between city officials in Bell regarding payments to Alshire and his law firm. “When asked at the most recent public Council meeting, our outside auditor, Jim Godsey of MGO stated that he had seen no evidence of any manipulation or attempt to hide anything by current staff,” Wilmore said. “I, the City Attorney, and Councilmember Quintana’s colleagues have worked diligently with her to try and help her understand how a proper city government works,” Wilmore said. “The majority rules. To be an effective Councilmember, you have to have a respect for the majority. Despite all of my effort to help her understand this, she doesn’t appear to get it,” he said. “She (Quintana) was on the losing end of a 4-1 vote on this issue (wanting the City Attorney’s contract to be changed) and seems to me to be practicing ‘hostage government,” Wilmore said. “I.E., give me what I want or I will trash the City, my Council colleagues, and the people working for it. To me, her (Qunitana) tactics appear to be similar to those who have shut down the federal government and are flirting with defaulting on the US’ bonds,” Wilmore said in his written statement. Wilmore said that outside auditor, Jim Godsey of MGO, reviewed the Alshire/ Wynder contract and “sees no problems or violations with it.” “This matter has had a full public airing and four Councilmembers once again
recently voted that they are fine with the current arrangement and didn’t want the matter brought back,” Wilmore said. Wilmore did admit that taxpayers in Bell did spend a total of $2.1 million in legal fees in for Fiscal Year 2012-13, but he staunchly defended the payments. Because of Aleshire’s law firm, Wilmore said that Bell taxpayers “also gained almost $7M in recoveries and successfully avoided more than $15M in contingent liabilities, such as paying Rizzo’s attorney’s fees, in the last year,” Wilmore said, “What a great return on investment!” Wilmore continued by telling HMGCN in an email that, “on one level, this issue that Councilmember Quintana has ‘invented’ is extremely sad for the City of Bell. We should be spending all of our time on progress and improvement, not spending time on defending ourselves against baseless and false accusations. We have enjoyed tremendous success in the past year.” Wilmore also touted that the City of Bell recently passed its first structurally balanced annual budget in more than 20 years. “The City was nearly bankrupt in 2010, with less than a 2% reserve. The City is projected to have a 14% reserve in fiscal 2014,” he stressed. “The City has successfully negotiated a short sale with Dexia Credit to relieve itself of $35M in debt and a possible $10M deficiency judgment liability. The sale is due to close in less than a month,” the city manager said. According to Wilmore, by Thanksgiving of this year, the City of Bell will have recovered “close to $7M in recoveries due to legal action.” “Robert Rizzo left the City with $100 million in debt and no revenue to pay down debt. After the closing of the Dexia short sale, the City will have cut its debt to
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Valencia was direct in his displeasure with Stinnett and the “back room deals that are being cut to take care of him.” Valencia said, “Jason has a bias view based upon the fact that he ran the campaigns for four current city council members including Mayor Joe Aguilar, Vice Mayor Lela Leon, Councilman Ivan Alramirano, and Councilwoman Tina Baca DeRio. The public has the right to know what’s going on inside city hall and we deserve a public information officer who doesn’t have a political agenda of his own,” Valencia said. Stinnett has indicated that he will be a candidate for the Central Basin Water District Board of Directors in 2014 and run against incumbent Art Chacon who is a longtime resident of Commerce. He has received $1,000 in donations from AFSCME. Valencia said that he is “deeply troubled” by Stinnett’s planned campaign. “It is obvious that Jason is using his position to leverage his own career in politics.” “I feel that employees are scared of Jason because the way he helps the city council and the city council protects him. Jason manipulates city workers,” Valencia said. Another longtime city employee who has worked for more than 20 years in Commerce, who did not want to be publicly identified for fear of retaliation said, “the city of Commerce doesn’t need a full time Public Information Officer at this time, especially someone with a track record like Stinnett. Jason is the most influential person in Commerce; he is more powerful than all five city council members combined. He is going to get this job based on his political power, not because he is the qualified,” the source said.
Continued on Next Page less than $50M and has a budgetary plan to pay down the remaining debt,” Gilmore said. The Bell city manager also told HMGCN that when the Rizzo scandal broke in 2010, the City had not conducted annual audits of its financial operations “for years.” But, Wilmore said “in only the past year, the City completed three past due financial audits by an outside independent accounting firm, thus bringing it current.” In one last parting shot against Quintana, Wilmore said, “Despite the false accusations by Councilmember Quintana, the City of Bell is making substantial progress, and the progress shows that even with one Councilmember making false accusations about her colleagues and City staff, that the City government works.” “For it’s easy to be successful when the days are sunny. However, it’s when days are cloudy that government is put to the test. I feel that Bell is passing that test, and our strong performance in the face of this latest challenge is testament to that,” Wilmore concluded.
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Stinnett is also listed a Vice President of the American Federation of State County Municipal Employees, District #36 for Local 773 Commerce Employees Association. A member of the union, who did not want to be named, said, “Jason plays both sides of the fence. Because of Jason, we got a lousy contract for the city workers.” “Jason is the Robert Rizzo of Commerce,” one other source said. “He isn’t likeable, he is politically savvy, but just watch your wallet.” An examination of Mr. Stinnett’s campaign donations (form 460) reveal that AFSCME has donated over thousand dollars to him creating an apparent conflict of interest between the union endorsing him for his candidacy and also endorsing for an employment job.
ENDORSEMENTS
Continued from page 1 opinion. We have concerns about challengers Lani Cupchoy and Edgar Cisneros. Both appear to be bright, intelligent individuals, but both bring too much political baggage to the table. We were the only print publication to document that Cupchoy has never voted in any election in the past. That is a blatant disregard for a US citizen’s civic duty. Perhaps Cupchoy needs to take a course in American Civics at Montebello High School to learn about the Democratic process, and how it works before actually running for elected office. We urge that voters reject Cupchoy next Tuesday. Cisneros has waged an impressive campaign against Appointed Incumbent Paul Montoya. He has banked on his ties to powerful Los Angeles County Supervi-
sor Gloria Molina, his boss, in this campaign to get him “street credibility” with the voters. What ever happened to people working in public service, for the public, instead of having to make it about themselves and their own political agenda? Paul Montoya is just a “regular guy” who is not a politician and could really care less about the public spotlight, and we like that aspect of his character. Montoya has proved to be a solid member of the Montebello Unified School Board and voters need to give him a huge thumbs up next Tuesday.
VOTING
Continued from page 1 Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. “As the largest and most diverse County electoral jurisdiction in the nation, staging an election across 4,000 square miles and in 12 different languages requires a high level of coordination. The staff of the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk is fully committed to providing voters with fair, accessible and transparent election services,” said County Registrar Recorder Dean Logan. Here is a look at the different elections in surrounding areas: Artesia City Council Voters will be electing three city council members. Seeking seats are incumbents Sally Zuniga Flowers, Victor Manalo and John Lyon as well as challengers Ali Taj, Melissa Ramosa, and Manu Patel. Hawaiian Gardens City Council Incumbent City Councilmembers Barry Bruce, Reynaldo “Rey” Rodriguez and Michi Oyama Canada are facing a stiff challenge from Mariana Rios, Phil An, Adrian Avelar, Valerie Mason and Pris-
cilla Kwan. Pico Rivera City Council Only three candidates are vying for two seats on the Pico Rivera City Council including incumbents David Armenta, Gustavo Camacho, and challenger Adrian Diaz. ABC Unified School Board Five names will be appearing on the ballot for three seats on the ABC Unified School District Board of Education. Incumbents Lynda Johnson and Olympia Chen will be facing challengers Ethan Robinson and Soo Yoo. Candidate Daniel Fierro will also be on the ballot, but drop his active campaign a few weeks ago. Montebello Unified School Board Voters in the Montebello, Commerce, Bell Gardens and East Los Angeles area will be electing four school board members in two different elections. Running for a full four year terms are incumbents Hector Chacon, Geri Guzman and Appointed Incumbent Benjamin Cardenas. The lone challenger is Lani Cupchoy. Also, voters will be asked to fill an unexpired two year term due to the resignation of past board member Ed Chau. Running is Appointed Incumbent Paul Montoya and challengers Edgar Cisneros, and CJ Salgado. Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School Board Seven candidates are running for four seats including incumbents Ed Hengler, Darryl Adams, Margarita Rios, and Ana Valencia, as well as three challengers in Sean Regan, Salvador Limon and Mark Owen White. Downey Unified School District Voters in Downey will be voting for three seats in district boundary elections. Running in Area 1 is incumbent Martha Sodetani and one lone challenger in Victor Manuel Malagon. In Area 5, Incumbent Nancy Swenson
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is squaring off against challenger John N. Anagnostou. In Area 7, Incumbent Barbara Rae Sampari is up against three challengers in Betty Luz Monroy, Leslie Jane Valencia and Bertha Rath Valenzuela.
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