Here's a few screen shots of the Alliance For Ethical Government PAC from Cal-Access. Great name choice for the Colonies to buy politicians with. The first one shows that the Colonies donated $100,000.00 to the PAC. This is the PAC that Mark Kirk has recieved $20,000.00 from for "political consulting".

The next shot shows where $20,000.00 from the Colonies into the "Alliance for Ethical Government went.

Mark Kirk got $20,000 from a PAC funded by the Colonies in less than 6 months. Maybe it's some of that $102 million that Postmus gave them as part of the County settlement. Recycled taxpayer dollars.

Board of Supervisors reaches settlement in Colonies case
 

The Board of Supervisors, acting as the directors of the County Flood Control District, by a 3-2 vote today approved an offer, which was later signed and finalized, aimed at ending the district’s legal dispute with the Colonies Partners over an Upland flood control project.

The $102 million settlement, which was accepted and signed by the Colonies Partners, includes $22 million from the district’s reserve fund, and $80 million in bond proceeds. If a bond transaction cannot be accomplished within 180 days, the $80 million will be paid from district revenues over 10 years at an interest rate of 9 percent. The settlement also calls for the district to operate and maintain the flood control basin located at the 210 Freeway and Campus Avenue in the City of Upland.

The settlement does not affect the district’s legal effort to seek participation from the City of Upland, San Bernardino Associated Governments, and Caltrans.
Chairman Bill Postmus, Vice Chairman Paul Biane, and Supervisor Gary Ovitt voted in favor of the settlement offer. Supervisors Josie Gonzales and Dennis Hansberger voted against it.

District officials said the settlement will not impair the district’s ability to operate and maintain existing flood control facilities and react to emergencies throughout the county, nor will it significantly delay the completion of planned projects.
The Colonies had claimed the district’s liability could eventually exceed $300 million if the case ended up before a jury. Additionally, the district had already spent more than $7 million in legal fees on the case.

“This settlement is a win for County taxpayers,” Postmus said. “If we had not settled this, the district could have been responsible for triple the amount of this settlement, and that amount could have compromised the district’s ability to protect citizens from flooding.”

And a Riverside Press Enterprise OP-ED story from 2006

Unfair to Taxpayers
10:00 PM PDT on Saturday, August 5, 2006
CASSIE MACDUFF

I hope Supervisor Bill Postmus feels better after his temper tantrum last week over a judge's ruling that San Bernardino County had no claim to flood-control land on an Upland housing development.

The Board of Supervisors chairman lashed out at the county's lawyers, the news media and whoever leaked a legal memo revealing that Postmus and Supervisor Paul Biane had negotiated with the developers without lawyers to try to settle the flood-control suit.

His tirade was inappropriate -- and odd, when you consider he helped select the lawyers he now says were incompetent and exercised poor legal judgment.

Neither Postmus nor Biane yet grasps the impropriety of meeting privately with Colonies Partners, one of whose developers formerly worked with Biane, and which contributed thousands of dollars to Postmus' and Biane's campaigns.

Postmus used Judge Christopher J. Warner's decision to justify the meeting, saying the county should have settled the lawsuit then.

Contrary to his rant, nothing prevented county supervisors from settling with Colonies in 2005. They just needed to do it aboveboard and properly.

Warner's ruling brings the lawsuit full circle. Like Judge Peter Norell in 2003, Warner ruled that the county gave up its rights to a flood-control easement on Colonies' land.

But the state Court of Appeal overturned Norell's decision, saying the county would have had to take action to abandon the easement; therefore, it still exists -- just not as big as the county claimed.

The appeals court sent the lawsuit back to the local court to decide how many acres the easement encompasses.

Instead, Warner decided the county gave up the easement by failing to take ownership of the flood-control basin Colonies built to handle runoff from a storm drain installed in 2002 under the new 210 freeway.

If bad legal advice was given, it was before the lawsuit was filed: It was in 1999, when the flood district was led to believe it had all the easements it needed on Colonies land.

The person with the most clear-eyed assessment of Warner's ruling was Interim County Counsel Dennis Wagner.

He said Colonies purchased the land knowing full well the county had flood-control easements on it, and had agreed to let the storm drain be put in.

The judge, however, found that the county had bullied Colonies into allowing the storm drain, under threat of not being able to develop its land.

Wagner said requiring the county to buy new easements, as Warner's ruling would, is an unfair burden on county taxpayers (to the tune of more than $100 million, by the way).

Wagner accused Colonies of going after the public's deep pockets. Colonies chief Jeff Burum called that political spin.

He just wants a fair settlement, Burum said: The county must pay for the flood-control land, just as Caltrans and a school district have already paid for the sections of Colonies property they needed.

Supervisor Gary Ovitt, in a prepared statement, said he believes "integrity will prevail when all parties realize that the interests of the ... taxpayers ... must come first."

I hope he's right.

The developers already have recouped their $16 million investment in the 434 acres at taxpayer expense. Just how rich do they need to get?

Cassie MacDuff can be reached at 909-806-3068 or cmacduff@PE.com