Results tagged “neil derry” from Behind the Story

Concerns are brewing over the state's oversight of proposed projects and transmission lines in the High Desert.
The Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative, a state agency entrusted with assessing proposed renewable energy projects and determining if they will meet energy policy goals, will be gathering public feedback today at 10 a.m. in Palm Desert, and a number of San Bernardino County residents plan to attend to weigh in.
Several areas in the county have been identified by the agency as hotspots for renewable energy, including Victorville, Twentynine Palms and Lucerne Valley.
The agency is developing a master plan of renewable energy projects in California. Aside from dozens of solar and wind power projects proposed by renewable energy companies in the High Desert, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power also wants to build Green Path North, an electrical transmission line that could stretch from Desert Hot Springs to Hesperia.
Various proposed routes for the transmission line show it traversing such locations as Oak Glen, the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains and protected land near Yucca Valley.
Ruth Rieman, spokeswoman for the California Desert Coalition, said the group is concerned that the Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative has not considered a number of issues in developing a master plan:
-the local generation of electricity as opposed to transmitting energy long distances
-reducing energy consumption
-and improving energy efficiency
"We're going to be there," Rieman said. "I think the major point that we want to make is that we believe the process is flawed."
The California Desert Coalition has chartered a bus to bring residents from Yucca Valley and the surrounding area to the meeting.
Supervisor Neil Derry plans to attend to gather information.
"I'm not going to be talking at all," Derry said. "I'm going to be showing up, meeting people and listening. Needless to say, I share the concerns of my constituents."
The meeting will be held in Room 119, Parkview Professional Office Building, 73710 Fred Waring Drive, Palm Desert.

With the outlook of a bleak budget looming, Supervisor Neil Derry is calling for San Bernardino County to reconsider and possibly put a stop to the benefits it gives to Superior Court judges.

"This has been a concern, just nothing has been done about it," Derry said. "Now, we've got legal reasons for looking at it as well."

Former Supervisor Dennis Hansberger said Wednesday that he disposed of official records before his term expired Nov. 30.

He also said he could not speak to a county policy he approved as Board of Supervisors chairman in 2004 that provides for the retention of public documents when a supervisor leaves office.

"We cleaned out the documents appropriately," Hansberger said. "Every day people dispose of documents. I don't keep documents in my office which are departmental in nature, and 99 percent of what we do is departmental in nature."

Supervisor Neil Derry reported Tuesday that files containing such items as project reports and contracts were missing when he took office just more than a week ago. Derry replaced Dennis Hansberger, who represented the 3rd district for 20 years.

"It comes across as meanspirited in a way that you would hope that officials entrusted with the public trust would put aside petty personal feelings and make decisions for the public good," said Jessica Levinson, political reform director for the Center for Governmental Studies. "It smacks of personal vengence."

Hansberger said Derry could obtain the records by requesting them from county departments where copies have been filed. He said he was greeted with a similar situation when he returned to office in 1996 and that he thought Derry might find it helpful to start from scratch.

"Everything he needs is there in some fashion or form," Hansberger said. "We only got rid of those things that were very old, out-of-date files."

Peter Scheer, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, said it is problematic if documents were disposed of that can't be replaced.

"If they actually have been destroyed, that's very unfortunate because the records belong to the public," Scheer said. "We don't know what they were or may have contained, but they may have been an important source of information of all the actions taken by the board in the recent past."

A number of county and state provisions have been put in place to guard against the loss or destruction of public records

The county policy states: "Any County officer or employee having custody or control of any County records shall, at the expiration of their term of office, appointment, or employment, deliver custody and control of all records kept or received by them to their sucessors or supervisors."

Two state codes also address the destruction of public records. One law states states that documents must be retained for at least two years and cannot be disposed of or destroyed without county board approval.

Another states that any official who allows documents to be stolen, removed, destroyed, altered or falsified can be charged with a criminal offense, resulting in up to four years in jail.

Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt said he encountered a similar situation as chief of staff for Bill Postmus when in 2000, Postmus replaced outgoing Supervisor Kathy Davis.

Lewis Cope, the head of the district attorney's Public Integrity Unit, said no complaints concerning the disappearance of the 3rd district documents have been submitted to his office.

Typically, investigations are only initiated after the district attorney receives a formal complaint.

After a mere seven days in office, Neil Derry boldly beseeched his colleagues Tuesday morning to rescind millions of dollars in projects initiated during his predecessor's last days in office.

The problem? All the documents pertaining to those projects have gone missing.
"When I took office just over a week ago the files on the fifth floor were empty," Derry told the board.

To prove the point, Derry held up a binder that was supposed to contain plans for the Moonridge Zoo relocation project. It was empty.

Whether the files were destroyed by outgoing Supervisor Dennis Hansberger, who held the position for 20 years, remains unconfirmed. Calls to Hansberger's cell phone were not returned.

Destroying the public records stored on the fifth floor of the county government center, where the supervisors' offices are located, does not appear to have been illegal.

"We do not have any policy that addresses the retention or destruction of documents," said David Wert, county spokesman.

After the meeting, Derry said by telephone that he was not accusing anyone of a crime.

A transitional team had been formed to help smooth over the transfer of the 3rd district seat from Hansberger to Derry.

That team, which was hired to assist Derry at the end of the summer, was housed on the second floor of the government center, and staffers would have had no way of knowing what was occurring on the fifth floor regarding the documents, Derry said.

"We were being very careful not to intrude on Dennis Hansberger's territory," he said. "He was the supervisor and deserved the respect of that office."

Shortly before leaving office, Hansberger submitted a number of costly projects before the board for approval. Derry said the cost of the projects, which were all unanimously approved, constituted 80-90 percent of 3rd district money outside of his staff budget.

"There was a concerted effort to spend all 3rd district discretionary funds money as quickly as they could, so that it would not be there when I arrived in office," he said.

Derry said he was concerned about the funding sources of some of the programs which caused him to ask the board to rescind the funding. For example, the nearly $1 million committed to the Arrowhead Manor Water Company to repay a state loan should have come out of redevelopment agency money that had been set aside for Cedar Glen, Derry said.

In total, the money for seven projects was rescinded Tuesday. Among them was $500,000 for a traffic signal in Fawnskin for which no traffic study had been conducted. Another was $250,000 for landscape improvements at the Mentone Senior Center and Library. A $500,000 allocation for the Mountain Preservation Program in the San Bernardino Mountains was also repealed. Representatives from two local environmental groups that manage land in the mountains had said previously they were entirely unaware a program to merge sub-substandard lots had been in the works.

Derry expects that most of the projects will receive funding in the near future, but from different, more appropriate, sources.

Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt said during Tuesday's meeting that he encountered a similar situation when he ascended to his post.

"Starting from nothing when there are no files is no fun," Mitzelfelt said.

He suggested the board institute a policy to prevent the destruction of documents.

Incoming Supervisor Neil Derry has boosted his district's staffing, nearly tripling the number of field representatives assigned to work with communities in the San Bernardino valley, mountains and High Desert.

"The 3rd district has been underserved and under-represented," Derry said. "I plan on changing that."

Derry, who was elected in June and currently serves on the San Bernardino City Council, will take office Dec. 1, as will his staff.

He replaces longtime Supervisor Dennis Hansberger, who spent 20 years serving on the Board of Supervisors.

Derry will oversee the second largest district in San Bernardino County. The district stretches from Grand Terrace, north to Big Bear Lake and east to Yucca Valley.

Derry said spending nearly $1.6 million on a staff of 12 is warranted because the district contains the second largest unincorporated area in the county. He will have the third largest staff after Supervisors Brad Mitzelfelt and Gary Ovitt.

By contrast, Hansberger kept a sparse staff, with only a handful of field representatives.
Some have criticized Hansberger for not having a larger, more involved staff and for not doing a better job with outreach to the distant communities he served.

Derry's Chief of Staff, Jim Erwin, acknowledged that complaints about outreach had been voiced by residents, adding that the incoming supervisor is attempting to remedy the situation.

"I won the mountain communities in part because of that record," Derry said.

The salaries of the incoming staff appear sumptuous in a county report presented to the Board of Supervisors last week, but broken down by hourly wage and excluding benefits packages, the salaries are comparable with the salaries earned by other supervisors' staff members.

Derry has hired seven field representatives and has assigned each to a distinct geographic area, said Jim Erwin, chief of staff.

The Morongo Valley Basin, which has been the epicenter of controversy over a proposed transmission corridor called Green Path North, will have its own field representative, Derry said.

"There are a number of issues unfolding there," Derry said. "It needs the service."

Among the field reps Derry has hired is San Bernardino Councilman Chas Kelley. Derry said Kelley will bring experience with neighborhood associations, development issues and working with the public to his job with the county.

"If you look at the qualifications of the people I've brought on board," Derry said, "I think you'll see we have a top-tier staff."

As my co-worker Andrew Edwards is reporting on his SBNOW blog:

The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote Tuesday to approve incoming supervisor Neil Derry's hiring of current City Council colleague Chas Kelley.

Derry, who represents San Bernardino's 4th Ward (northeast neighborhoods) until December, is set to be sworn in as the county's 3rd District supervisor in December.

Kelley represents the city's 5th Ward (northwest neighborhoods). Derry and Kelley are both on the conservative-leaning side of the council.

Kelley's annual salary will be $125,135 - including benefits - if the board approves his hiring.