Owen gets a $500,000 windfall for early contract termination. Boy, we gotta believe that there would be a lot of people lining up to get fired if they were going to receive a half million dollar termination bonus…
This project is done, I wouldn’t re-up for any fees – just give me a heads up before you kill it. Maybe useful for other things.
Looks like there may be another scandal brewing, this time with the Airport and Texas Gizillionaire Ross Perot Jr. Read this, and more developing…
Yes, Bob. That would be the only way that actual clean up might occur, unless of course the lawyers that the City hired are assigned shovels, gloves and hazmat outfits.
This scandal saga continues…
On Thursday, City Administrator Henry Garcia declared a local emergency, as is his right under two sections of the Government Code, the California Emergency Services and the California Disaster Assistance acts. Scandalous!
Now Rialto is being compared with China! They send us lead contaminated toys and we send them bottled water from Rialto. Let’s see how they like a little extra perchlorate in their diet.
3:01 p.m.: State: Rialto perchlorate contamination not an emergency
“It looks like Rialto’s water contamination doesn’t qualify as a state of emergency. A chemical called perchlorate is contaminating the water, and the city thought about asking the governor to declare a state of emergency.
But the state doesn’t think the contamination problem meets the criteria for a state of emergency, said City Councilwoman Winnie Hanson. After all, the water is treated before being served to people, and it’s not harming anyone. The idea’s on hold, Hanson said.”
Sounds like the city needs to call a “political state of emergency” aka “recall” of its elected “leadership”.
On a related note, the Rialto lawyers and lobbyists full employment act aka the Rialto Utility Tax was renewed for five more years…the only one on the City Council who seems to have the right idea about reining in the bureaucrats over there is Councilman Joe Baca who called for the creation of a Citizens Oversight Commission.
Too bad Joe hadn’t been on the Council before the first $20 million was spent on the water scandal, some of the money might have actually made it into fixing the groundwater problems in the city. Oh well.
Rialto has spent $18M, mostly to lawyers or specific law firms. Talk about a scandal!
To paraphrase President Ronald Reagan, ‘where’s the clean-up?’ “The city’s battle against perchlorate has cost it more than $18 million in the past four years but only $3 million has been spent on cleanup. About $13.5 million, or 75 percent of the outlay, has been paid to or through lawyers, specifically five law firms that have represented the city since about 2003. The cost categories include investigations ($9.5 million), federal litigation ($2.1 million), pushing for state action ($1.9 million) public and governmental relations ($967,100) as well as administrative costs ($545,000).($545,000).Don’t believe us? Look at this article in the SB SUN
That’s what the Rialto City Council finds itself in as it tries to declare a State of Emergency, looking more like the Keystone Kops every day. Good thing there’s no threat to public health…oh, er, I guess there is. Never mind.
The more things stay the same, the more things stay the same – to paraphrase an old but wise saying.
Letters to the Editor: Sept. 20
Scott was consultant
This is not the first time Rialto City Councilman Ed Scott has had an embarrassing consulting contract. (”Purge of dirty money pledged,” Sept. 16) He had a six-figure consulting contract on the conversion of the old Rialto Kmart building to county use.
A partner in that project was Harry Mays (former San Bernardino County chief administrative officer). That’s the same Harry Mays who went to prison for paying off public officials. Same old Ed Scott.
DANIEL C. LOUGH, La Mesa
Now everyone can watch local scandals develop and reveal themselves in real time! Rialto City Council meetings are now available live in streaming video on the Rialto website. Archived meetings in streaming video are also available
http://rialto.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2
Click on this link above and watch the fun unfold for yourself…tune in during council meetings!
