July 2008 Archives

Some of you might have been surprised to read in today's paper that there is actually a state law that incriminates public officials who are intoxicated while holding office. If you'd like to examine the code for yourselves, here it is:

3001.  Any State, county, or city officer who is intoxicated while
in discharge of the duties of his office, or by reason of
intoxication is disqualified for the discharge of, or neglects his
duties, is guilty of a misdemeanor.  On conviction of such
misdemeanor he forfeits his office, and the vacancy occasioned
thereby shall be filled in the same manner as if the officer had
filed his resignation in the proper office.

You can do your own citizen journalism using this handy Web site.

Members of the Board of Supervisors say they are addressing government accountability and transparency. On Tuesday the board voted to put a charter amendment before voters that will require ethics training and give the board more say over who supervisors can hire and fire.

But questions remain as to whether those changes will address the problems highlighted in the recent grand jury report. Many top officials don't have to log their work hours or even submit resumes to get hired. Some have received thousands of dollars to go to college.

What do you think will make county government more transparent and accountable?

Is the board doing enough?

Are things fine the way they are?

Over the weekend, we posted a podcast of our taped interview with Assessor Bill Postmus. When we met with Postmus we asked many of the questions that the public has been raising. Many of those questions were either been called in to us, e-mailed or posted in the comments section of the Sun's Web site.

In case you didn't have a chance to listen to the half-hour interview, here is a condensed version:

The Sun: Given Chairman Paul Biane's comments, do you feel Adam Aleman is a stain on the county?

Postmus: I don't believe adam is a stain at all on San Bernardino County. He was an excellent employee. I still say that today. The stuff when it comes to the grand jury - or should I say the issues that he's been accused of - those are issues that definitely need to go before a trial or however that particular process works.

The Sun: How did you meet Adam?

Postmus: That's a good question. I'm going to answer that. I met Adam a long long time ago.  I think I probably met him before he was 18. He was a volunteer at the Republican Central Committee.

The Sun: Have you helped him at all with bail or a lawwyer?

Postmus: No. I have no doubt, knowing Adam, knowing his family, I have no doubt he will have excellent representation. I definitely know that.

The Sun: Have you ever in your life had a time as difficult as what's going on now?

Postmus: No. Absolutely not. It's been a real trying time for myself personally. And, you know, it's just been a tough time. Plus, people you care about are going through a difficult time. It's just been very very trying.

The Sun: How do you separate your government work from politics?

Postmus: Here's the best way to say it. This is how everybody else operates in this county system, in this political system. You don't run your campaign or anyone else's campaign out of your government office, but there are politcal stuff that happen as part of your office. ... Now is it appropriate to send a political email from a government email address? Well, the answer is no, of course. I agree with the grand jury sayign it's inappropriate for anyone to run a campaign out of their office. I totally agree with that 100 percent. That's never happened in any one of my offices.

The Sun: What were your thoughts on the grand jury report?

Postmus: They were very thorough. They spent a lot of time. I actually have to give them a lot of credit for that. I believe the thorough job that they did, my office got a clean bill of health because if you knew how much work they went through to find a few emails - it really made me feel good about the operations out of my office.

The Sun: You feel like they gave you a clean bill of health?

Postmus: Yes.

The Sun: Can we talk about the laptop?

Postmus: I don't want to talk about the investigation. I have thoroughly cooperated with the investigation.

The Sun: Trouble seems to follow you, at least in recent years.

Postmus: Trouble doesn't follow me at all. The Sun has tried to exaggerate problems. You know that.

The Sun: Well, if you go back to the Colonies...

Postmus: Why was the Colonies a controversial thing? We did the right thing. ... Did we tell the attorneys to leave the room? Absolutely we told the attorneys to leave the room. The attorneys we had on our side, I believe, were not the best attorneys possible. I believe that's the case, and because of that it cost the county taxpayers a lot of additional money.

The Sun: How can taxpayers have faith in this office right now when either Adam is extremely sneaky, you are are very aloof or you were complicit in what was going on?

Postmus: I think all three of those are b.s. At this point our office has done exactly what it should do, exactly what we are mandated by the state Consitution to do, and not only have we done that, we have cut taxes between $70 and $80 million this year, which is something our office has never done before. I'm not going to get into the specifics iteself or Adam's situation.

The Sun: Questions have been brought up about how much you work physically in the office.

Postmus: I don't think anybody has ever criticized my work ethic. I work a lot of hours. In fact, I'm always working.