iePolitics.com

Lauren McSherry, Staff Writer
Posted: 01/06/2009 04:58:58 PM PST

After months of attempting to evade public scrutiny, county Assessor Bill Postmus addressed the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday and admitted to allegations of substance abuse. He said he would not seek re-election.

The San Bernardino County supervisors had called upon Postmus numerous times to come before them and answer questions stemming from allegations of a methamphetamine addiction and using his elected office to conduct partisan politics.
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Here is the official press release announcing the election of Supervisor Gary Ovitt as chairman and Supervisor Josie Gonzales as vice chairman. I find it interesting that they included a rather unusual quote from Supervisor Paul Biane, outgoing chairman, but nothing from Supervisor Gonzales. Here it is: Chairman

Even Brad did the right thing today. Supervisors Gary Ovitt was elected as chairman of the BOS and Supervisor Josie Gonzales was elected as vice-chairman. Both were 5-0 votes. It almost makes me think there is hope for this county!

I’ve got to get off the computer but will write more about this subject tonight. Anyway, I’m glad to see several of our elected leaders chose to do the ethical thing today.

I keep hearing various rumors. I would say that Neil Derry’s post on this blog confirms the fact the Mitzelfelt was after the vice-chairmanship. Whether or not it was malicious or simply because at one time Josie didn’t want it, it does not matter. She wants it now and she deserves to have her turn as vice chairman.
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By Michael J. Sorba, Staff Writer
Posted: 12/25/2008 07:11:26 AM PST

For a moment, imagine how difficult it would be to browse the Internet without the help of a search engine such as Google.

Information that’s usually a mouse click away suddenly becomes difficult and cumbersome to obtain.
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I find it interesting that the deputy director doesn’t qualify to apply for the position he supervises. Oh, lest we forget . . . MLA . . . the biggest and brightest stars of San Bernardino County. Why bother going to college when in six short months you too can earn $100,000+ per year by attending a class once a month? All you silly, stupid college graduates who want to work your way up to the top. Forget it. Now you know where you went wrong.

Job Title: Employment Services Manager
Closing Date/Time: Mon. 12/29/08 5:00 PM Pacific Time
Salary: $24.57 - $31.38 hourly
$4,258.80 - $5,439.20 monthly
$51,105.60 - $65,270.40 annually
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I received this email a few minutes ago. I didn’t change a thing except to delete the sender’s name. I wanted it to be seen for a couple of reasons, but especially regarding the comment about Mark and Josie. Mark and Josie, do you NOT understand that Linda Haugen and Nancy Swanson are doing exactly what they did for Service First and that is intimidate employees? Do you believe that employees aren’t scared to death of having you visit because they know if they tell you the truth they will be subjected to harassment, intimidation, and likely terminated? If you were really interested in finding out what was going on, you would not have told Linda Haugen so that she could threaten employees before you got there.

WHERE DO I FIND IT ON THE BLOG?..ALL I SEE IS ABOUT THE SUICIDE AND.. OH MY GOD HOW SAD!!!…I HOPE THE FAMILY GOES AFTER THE MANAGER REALLY…I KNOW MANY WHO ARE STRESSED AND DEPRESSED OVER WHAT MANAGEMENT DOES TO THEM AND HOW UPPER MANAGEMENT SEEMS TO GET HEIR JOLLIES OUT OF IT ALL.. UFFER INCLUDED… WE’VE BEEN TOLD TO EXPECT SURPRISE DESK VISITS FROM JOSIE GONZALES AND MARK UFFER IN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS AND TO ACT ACCORDINGLY.. YEA LIKE RIGHT!!!!THE CASES ARE OVERWELMING THE TIME FRAMES ARE RIDICULOUS AND UPPER MANAGEMENT IS SORRIER THAN EVER…SHARON I JUST DO NOT KNOW THE END RESULT FOR ALL..IF YOU ARE AN EMPLOYEE IN MDLR POCKET OR NANCY’S AND LINDA H I GUESS YOU’LL BE OKAY I AM NOT AND WOULDN’T WANT TO BE,.. YOU BE CAREFUL LADY PLEASE…

The battle over the vice chairmanship is only the latest incident in what I consider to be unethical practices by the Boys of the Board. It goes back to something I’ve written about several times in relation to Paul Biane and that is a lack of respect for the position each of them was entrusted with by the citizens of San Bernardino County and a lack of respect for one another.
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I finally asked someone who would know and the vote will take place on January 6, 2009. One source tells me it’s a done deal that Mitzelfelt will kick Josie to the curb and get himself elected as vice chairman; another source tells me the fight is still going on with a third supervisor possibly taking the position.
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Hopefully, I will manage to cover all the new information I need to cover in this one post.

First, sprinklers. I was happy to see them being repaired on Tuesday. They were not on tonight. So maybe, just maybe, that problem has been resolved. I’ll know for sure tomorrow night.
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Jessica wrote an article about rebuilding the Republican Party. Things have been a bit funky over there for a while and the site no longer works like it used to. I put a comment on this article over there, but at least I cannot read comments on my Blackberry because of the new format. So I reprinted my comment below:

It is more than just getting back to principles; it’s finding local leaders with ethics, which I’m not sure is possible. How many of the current elected leaders are not accepting questionable campaign contributions, not using illegal drugs, not abusing alcohol, not cheating on their significant others, not lying to constituents and taxpayers, not cutting unethical backroom deals for their own benefit, and/or not using taxpayer money for their own interests? It’s hard to name more than a handful that are not participating in at least one of those activities, if you can name any. Even Neil Derry, who ran on a platform of ethics reform, has a huge lie on his county website if my sources are correct. This is no honor in this party.
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Or so it appears. I received yet another email last night from someone on the Fifth Floor advising that the deal is done. The boys are not going to allow Josie Gonzales to take her rightful place as vice chairman. Rather than following tradition and protocol, the position is expected to be given to Bill Postmus protege and newcomer Brad Mitzelfelt.

Many outsiders have noticed what those who have worked up there have known for a while and that is how women are treated. The Boys of the Board have reduced all women and most of the minorities up there to nothing but tokens if they have the audacity to oppose the unethical practices of the boys.

There have been lots of suggestions that a certain board member is a misogynist and this power grab by him lends credence to that claim by women that must work around him.

The Boys should be ashamed of themselves and the reputation they give to the Republican party by once again showing their elitist and exclusionary practices towards women and minorities. But power and control and the money that goes them are the controlling factors. To heck with ethics and propriety.

We’ve been talking about this on the blog since before the contract was settled. I received another phone call from someone tonight who is very involved with SBPEA claiming that Chicken Man is negotiating with the county for a four-day, eight-hour-a-day work week. In other words, we would all have our pay cut by 16 hours a pay period. For someone making $20 an hour, that would be a $320 cut per paycheck.
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Lauren McSherry and Andrew Edwards, Staff Writers
Posted: 12/01/2008 10:06:01 PM PST

Neil Derry was not often in the county’s political spotlight during his seven years on the San Bernardino City Council, but he stepped into a larger role by ousting longtime Supervisor Dennis Hansberger in the June 3 election.
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I will be the first to admit that I have been pretty upset with Josie and the way she hung me out to dry. But I do know from my conversations with her, she is someone with heart. In the current economic situation, homelessness is going to become worse, probably a lot worse, and many of our elected officials will do no more than try to sweep it under the rug.

By Joe Smilor on November 30, 2008 6:42 PM
Supervisor Josie Gonzales has challenged San Bernardino County cities to get involved in an effort to end homelessness.

Gonzales said it will require a team effort as there are more than 7,000 homeless people in the county.

The county’s Homeless Partnership was formed more than a year ago to look at the issue.
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Tomorrow’s the big day. Neil Derry will be sworn in. Gary Ovitt will become chairman. None of my best sources will tell me if Vice Chairman is going to Brad or Josie. We’ll see if the wealthy white boys win out or not.
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Things will be changing on Monday in San Bernardino County. Supervisor-elect Neil Derry will be sworn in as Third District Supervisor. Gary Ovitt will become Chairman of the Board of Supervisors. I’ve heard various rumors about who will be Vice Chairman and I don’t know what has been decided, although I’m sure by now the backroom deal has been made.
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By Lauren McSherry on November 28, 2008 4:10 PM

A delegation of officials from San Bernardino and the county have returned from a Mexico trade mission hopeful that the trip will result in much needed economic development.

“It went well,” said Mayor Pat Morris. “They were remarkably interested. It was a door opener. It was the first meet and greet with these folks.”
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The following comment was made over on Lauren’s Blog: deBeer said:

I have to agree. Not to be a Scrooge or anything, but taxpayer money supports the poor and homeless already through hundreds of different programs to the tune of billions of dollars in costs for the US taxpayer. No one should go hungry. But at the same time, this is not a legitimate use of their discretionary funds, if that is in fact what was used to pay for the turkeys. I have little doubt the recipients were made aware of who donated the turkeys in hopes of a vote at the next election. Considering the size of their campaign war chests, all five supervisors could have easily afforded to contribute to this effort without it costing the taxpayer a dime.

By Stacia Glenn on November 28, 2008 3:25 PM

From the county:

Thousands of deserving residents enjoyed a hot, holiday meal this Thanksgiving, due in part to the continued partnership between San Bernardino County Supervisors Paul Biane and Josie Gonzales.

This year the supervisors each allocated $4,000 used to purchase 700 turkeys.
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The first time I met with Mark Uffer we talked about county news coverage for just a moment. He complained that the only thing that gets press is the negative news. There are no two ways about it: scandal sells. And the county of San Bernardino has provided the press with a prolific amount of scandal consistently over a period of many years.

I’ll be the first to admit that we see very little in the media about all the good the county does. It’s usually complaints about what we don’t do, how much money we make, how big our retirements will be and how many holidays we have off. But then again we have county administrators that refer to us “turds” and worse, so I’m not sure how we can expect much respect from the public.
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Thursday, 13 November 2008
Starting November 22nd county residents will have a unique opportunity to see rare Egyptian artifacts, some dating as far back to 2900 B.C.

Supporting efforts to bring cultural and educational enrichment to San Bernardino County, 5th District Supervisor Josie Gonzales has allotted $5,000 to help bring “Excavating Egypt: Great Discoveries” from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, University College London to California State University San Bernardino’s Robert V. Fullerton Art Museum.
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