Bill Postmus should resign
San Bernardino Sun Article Launched: 07/16/2008
It's time for county Assessor Bill Postmus to resign.
He and his office are returning San Bernardino County residents' thoughts to the bad ol' days of corruption, cronyism and scandal - days that many in county government have worked hard to put behind them.
Cronyism is Postmus' middle name. Not only does the assessor wantonly intermingle his office's time and duties with the Republican politics he has dominated in the county, but he has put his political aides and allies in well-paid county positions for which they have no discernible expertise.
County taxpayers, in other words, find themselves in the unfortunate position of rewarding Postmus' political workers financially for their loyalty to him. Postmus runs a patronage system at the Assessor's Office, rewarding his supporters with plum government jobs.
We've been saying this right along, and now the grand jury report issued a couple of weeks ago agrees. Among the report's findings:
While he was assessor-elect but still chairman of the Board of Supervisors, Postmus induced that body to approve a slew of new positions for the Assessor's Office (such as communications officer, intergovernmental relations officer and two special assistants) with an appropriations increase of $1.8 million.
After he became assessor, Postmus reorganized the office to form an "Executive Support Staff," headed by an assistant assessor who oversaw eight-plus employees. The assistant assessor was Adam Aleman, the 25-year-old former Postmus campaign worker who has been charged with six felonies related to altering and destroying evidence, including the hard drive of Postmus' laptop.
An Operations Staff carried out the functions of the Assessor's Office while members of the Executive Support Staff - consisting of "individuals with previous associations with the Assessor when he was on the Board of Supervisors and/or was Republican Central Committee Chairman" - spent their time on "public image" work and engaged in political activities during normal working hours. The two staffs had very little interaction.
Executive staff e-mails reviewed by the grand jury arranged political meetings, solicited campaign donations, instructed operatives to move monies from one campaign fund to another, solicited political proxies and discussed a Republican Party Web site called redcounty.com.
Postmus' office used a purchase order for consulting services - at just under the $50,000 level that would have required Board of Supervisors approval. The jury found "very little results from this contract that benefited the Assessor's function."
Postmus lavished undeserved college tuition benefits on his assistants in violation of county monetary limits.
The "separation agreement" that paid former Assistant Assessor Jim Erwin, another Postmus crony with whom he had a falling out, six months salary ($63,000) plus benefits after he left the office was unprecedented and unjustified.
(Postmus called the report "a clean bill of health" for his office. Apparently, his reading glasses are a bit rosier than ours.)
To sum up, then, Postmus got the Assessor's Office staff expanded so that he could put his political supporters, who knew nothing about assessing, into cushy, high-paid jobs where they could engage in political operations instead of actually working for taxpayers.
Aleman at least had the good grace to resign his position as an assistant assessor after he had been jailed and charged.
Postmus hasn't been charged with anything - so far - but the evidence is clear that he has been running the Assessor's Office to benefit his political cronies and himself, not the taxpayers who elected him to office.
The best thing he could do for his constituents is to resign, saving voters the trouble of recalling him and the Board of Supervisors the trouble of ousting him.
It's over, Bill.
Just for a change of pace, some observations and rumors. Most of the property that SunCal bought in Hesperia is returning to the original owners as SunCal hasn't made any payments to the sellers for months. So much for the Majestic Hills project. The Frontier Homes signs that used to be all up and down Main Street have disappeared. No signs of life over at the Frontier Homes building on Mariposa either? Whats up? Word is that a Hesperia city council member's house is being forclosed on. Check on the Assessors website for the notice of default filed back in May.
Like a number of other problems, the first step in solving them is admitting that the problem exists. Most people who spend time looking at the elections/voting process in San Bernardino county, see that there are problems. The next question is if you are going to do anything about it. This week should see more activity in the Assessor/County ethics scandals, so election integrity issues will be put on hold for a while.
So far, the County Supervisors are looking to cover their own instead of doing whats right.The best comment I've heard yet is,
Gwenn Perez, who ended her term as forewoman of the grand jury last week, said more is needed to curtail unethical behavior in the county than just the proposed amendment.
"It stops somewhat short," she told the supervisors while saying she applauded their efforts. "We need to develop a zero tolerance of unethical behavior by public officials."
After the board meeting, Perez said that if the county forms an ethics commission, the panel should be able to solely investigate political malfeasance and recoup taxpayer money that has been misused by politicians.
"We have to continue looking at this issue of ethics that is systemic," she said. "It can't be a Band-Aid approach."
From what I'm reading on the comments sections and blogs is that most of the Supervisors staff and staff in other County departments are engaged in political activity for the majority of their workdays. It seems to be the accepted and ignored violation of ethics and County rules. Most of the Supervisors staffers have "consulting" interests with politicians or developers in addition to their 6 figure County paycheck. From the Grand Jury report below are the central questions that should be asked of every County Supervisor and their staff.
During the investigation, the Grand Jury reviewed thousands of emails sent and received in the County email system by the Executive Support staff members. There is evidence from emails and testimony that the Executive Support Staff members have been engaged in political activities for various national, state, and local political candidates during normal working hours.
Numerous emails were political in content. Examples of such content were arranging of political meetings, solicitations for campaign contributions, instructions to move monies from one campaign fund to another, solicitation of political proxies, and activity on and discussions of a Republican Party website called redcounty.com. A sampling of email received by the Assistant Assessor for the Executive Support Staff over a two-week period in the year 2008, on the county email system, revealed 91 emails sent by campaign organizations for national political candidates. The use of the county email system to send or receive messages with political content violates County Policy #14-01 on email use by county employees.
There were comments made about Mitzelfelt staffers emailing the Registrar of Voters and giving them instructions during the June election. The Registrar of Voters and her obvious support for Mitzelfelt and the questionable vote count for Mitzelfelt. More complaints for the next Grand Jury.
In San Bernardino County government, a fine line divides aides' activities
Tuesday, July 8, 2008 By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise
Special Section: San Bernardino County Assessors Probe
PDF: Assistant Assessor Adam Aleman's resignation letter
At a time when the use of county resources for political work is in the spotlight, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors has at least 15 current staff members engaged in outside campaign work.
A review of public records shows staff routinely work for the re-election campaigns of supervisors, are paid political consultants to local candidates and are actively involved in the operations of the county Republican Party.
Campaign finance reports and statements of economic interest for the past two years show no evidence the staff members engaged in the political work while on county time.
Supervisors and their top aides say they are careful not to do so during business hours. Still, they say they walk a fine line and remind employees that campaigning must be done on personal time.
"We basically continually remind everyone when you are on county time, you are on county time," Supervisor Gary Ovitt said Tuesday. "Your political efforts have to be on your own time."
State law and county policy prohibit staff members from engaging in political activity while paid by taxpayers. The issue has come to the forefront after the release last week of a grand jury report and after news that Board of Supervisors Chairman Paul Biane had a complaint filed with prosecutors over possible political activity in the assessor's office.
The grand jury reviewed thousands of e-mails as part of its investigation and chastised the assessor's office for using county e-mail systems for political activity.
The content of the e-mails included "arranging political meetings, solicitations for campaign contributions, instructions to move campaign monies from one campaign fund to another, solicitation of political proxies" and political discussions on a Republican blog, the grand jury found.
Postmus, in a response to the grand jury, said any use of e-mail for political purposes was incidental. But he agreed that safeguards could be put in place to block the receipt of political e-mails.
Work Away From Work
A seat on the Board of Supervisors is a nonpartisan post but supervisors and many on the staff are involved in Republican politics. Four of the five supervisors are Republicans.
Ovitt serves as the party's chairman and employs the party's executive director on his county staff. Biane serves as the party's vice chairman.
Ovitt said he reminds staff during weekly meetings that political work can't take place during working hours.
The staff members engaged in outside political work range from field representatives to chiefs of staff, a powerful post in county government. Chiefs of staff earn more than $100,000 a year and are the top deputies to supervisors. They oversee the day-to-day operations of the office and manage a full-time staff.
All five chiefs of staff in the county have done some campaign work for supervisors, campaign finance records show.
Matt Brown, Biane's chief of staff, said Tuesday the majority of Biane's employees do not do political work. Brown said he is in charge of making sure staff members do not cross the line.
All the employees in the office, he said, use personal cell phones and go through ethics training. Most fill out statements of economic interest where they must disclose any pay from political campaigns, he said.
Brown, who works on Biane's campaign and is a member of the Republican Party central committee, said most of the partisan political work takes place on nights and weekends.
"I have way too much to do during the day," he said. "I don't have time to goof around with political work.
"It is pretty simple. The rules are straightforward," Brown said during an interview at the County Government Center in San Bernardino. "When you are in this building, you serve the public."
Campaign Efforts Common
It is common for staff members of elected officials to work on campaigns for their bosses or others. It's routine throughout the state Legislature. Supervisors in Riverside County also have staffers who are paid from their campaign accounts, records show.
San Bernardino County supervisor-elect Neil Derry served on the staff of former Assemblyman Fred Aguiar, also a former county supervisor. Derry said he always took a leave of absence to work on the campaign.
But Derry said there is a fine line. "Whenever you are talking about policy development, you are talking about politics," he said.
Bob Stern, president of the Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies, said there is no issue incidental to political work, such as receiving a political phone call. Problems arise when staff members are being paid by taxpayers but producing no work for the public, instead getting a salary to campaign.
Tim Hodson, director of the Center for California Studies at Cal State Sacramento, said the elected leaders must know the rules and not tolerate any political activity on the taxpayers' dime.
"The elected official and chief of staff have to set a clear tone and limits," Hodson said.
Elected officials commonly employ people who helped them during their campaigns. A look at the political activities of top aides to San Bernardino County's supervisors:
Supervisor Paul Biane's staff
Matt Brown, chief of staff: treasurer, county Republican Party; member, party central committee; president, Young Republicans PAC
Tim Johnson, district director: Romney campaign volunteer; Republican central committee; Biane's campaign manager for two years
Marshall Riley, field representative: president, San Bernardino County Lincoln Club
Supervisor Josie Gonzales' staff
Bob Page, chief of staff: paid by Gonzales campaign for political work
Daniel Flores, field representative, reimbursed for campaign work
Supervisor Dennis Hansberger's staff
Jim Rissmiller, chief of staff: reimbursed by campaign for work
Elaine Bailes, field representative: paid by campaign for work
Jessica Austin, intern: editor of GOP blog Red County San Bernardino; heads College Republicans at the University of Redlands
Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt's staff
Paula Nowicki, chief of staff: paid by Mitzelfelt campaign for political work
Michael Orme, deputy chief: county Republican central committee; president, High Desert Young Republicans; paid consultant to campaign; owns political consulting firm
Robert Eland, field representative: past political director, county Republican Party; consultant to Postmus and Mitzelfelt campaign
