Back to the Country Club
We promised you we'd follow up what we've dubbed "ClubGate" here at SBNOW, the widening circle of political officials who appear to have unlawfully accepted and used gifted "honorary" memberships to the Arrowhead Country Club.
The number of familiar names submitted in complaints to the FPPC now stands at 10, and the number of local offiicials admitting to accepting and using the free memberships is currently three.
City Attorney Jim Penman, former mayor Judith Valles and City Manager Fred Wilson all admit they accepted free memberships to the golf and country club beginning in the late 1990s. The law is that they can't accept gifts at a value of greater than $390, a number that was lower in the late 1990s. The membership costs appear to begin at more than $2,000 annually.
Click below for the full story:
Rules broken by memberships?
Robert Rogers, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 11/01/2007 09:41:50 PM PDT
A complaint charging nine area political and administrative leaders received free memberships to a local country club was faxed to the state's Fair Political Practices Commission, documents obtained by The Sun claim.
The complaint is dated Oct. 19, a day after it was learned that San Bernardino City Attorney James F. Penman was a recipient of a membership. When asked, Penman confirmed that he had been given a free membership to the Arrowhead Country Club.
Memberships to the club go for $2,000 to $4,000.
The complaint names former and present San Bernardino city officials, including former Mayor Judith Valles, former Police Chief Garrett Zimmon, former economic development director Gary Van Osdel, City Manager Fred Wilson, city schools Superintendent Arturo Delgado, former San Bernardino Convention and Visitors Bureau President Steve Henthorn and former city Water Department Director Bernard Kersey.
Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, and Rep. Joe Baca, D-Rialto, were also named. A spokesman for Lewis said a membership was offered, but was rejected by the congressman.
The issue raises ethical and legal concerns. California elected officials and some other government employees are prohibited from receiving gifts of greater value than $390.
The complaint listing the purported "honorary members" of the club was addressed to Alan Herndon, commission chief investigator. The complaint may have been delayed in reaching the commission because Herndon is no longer in office. He is retired, said Roman Porter, FPPC spokesman.
The names were forwarded after an anonymous tip to The Sun pointed to Penman's membership.
The complaint states that the list of local and federal figures, "...did not report their honorary country club membership or underreported the value of those memberships, some of which were `full-golfing' privilege honorary memberships."
In the complaint, the name of the person filing it is redacted. The person who filed the complaint claims to be a member of the country club.
Valles and Wilson have admitted accepting free memberships to the club, but both attempted to deflect concern.
While holding a free membership from the late 1990s until she left office in spring 2006, Valles said she infrequently attended the country club and "always as someone's guest."
Valles said she currently pays for her membership.
"They do that, extend the offer, as a gesture to elected officials," she said. "I never remember anyone ever suggesting to me that there was a problem with having the membership, and I never took anything for free (other than the membership)."
Last month, Wilson admitted to accepting a free membership for one year when he came into office in 1998.
Wilson last week revised his initial estimate, and said he contends that he had a free membership for two years.
Wilson and Valles, like Penman, were subject to the FPPC rules prohibiting gifts of more than $390, a number that was lower when they were actively accepting the membership.
Wilson said last month that he didn't think he did anything wrong.
"I didn't see it as a problem ... But I saw to it that I paid the club the value of the membership," he said.
The strategy that numerous past and current club members said it has used over the years has been to extend complimentary honorary memberships to top elected officials and bureaucrats as a way of burnishing the club's prestige.
Evidently, the strategy extended to federal officials.
The club had offered Lewis a free honorary membership that he declined, said Jim Specht, Lewis spokesman.
"The club did offer (Lewis) a membership and he formally declined it," Specht said.
Lewis has been to the club, but as the guest of other members, Specht said.
A call to Baca's Washington, D.C., office was not returned.
Baca has been known to frequent the club, but the nature of his membership is not known.
The FPPC does not regulate gifts to federal officials.
That duty falls to the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, an ethics watchdog agency. The group limits gifts to $50, but has some exceptions for gifts from family or friends.
Porter said the complaint against Penman has been received and filed.
By policy, the FPPC does not confirm or deny whether an investigation is taking place.
Club officials have refused to comment on the issue. Numerous calls have gone unreturned since word of Penman's membership surfaced last month.
robert.rogers@sbsun.com
So San Bernardino's erstwhile mayoress accepted a complimentary country club membership but "never took anything for free." That is the funniest piece of political disingenuity to come down the road since Bill Clinton "didn't inhale."
When will St. Judith the Pure be canonized, we wonder?
But to be slightly more serious:
Elections in San Bernardino are morbidly comic events.
The city is the very prototype of squalor, crime and failed governance, so the attention of the electorate is firmly focused on the REALLY BIG issues of the day: Why didn't the mayor disclose the fact that his daughter earned a pittance from a subcontract to teach kids gymnastics? Did the wicked city attorney really under-report the value of a complimentary country club membership?
With the citizens' unerring propensity to latch their attention upon such vital core issues of public policy, how could anything in their fair municipality possibly go wrong?
As a former member of the Arrowhead Country Club I know there are different categories of membership and they have different values.
A full golfing membership is very expensive.
A social membership can run from a zero cost to purchase during a promotion to, as you stated in your article, $2,000 - $4,000, or even more.
An honary membership has no cost.
It appears you are equating a "social" membership with an "honorary membership. There is a significant difference.
A social membership can be sold to another person for thousands of dollars,an honorary membership cannot be sold; a social membership,unlike an honorary one, has equity value; a social membership carries voting rights, an honorary membership does not; a social membership, unlike an honorary membership, can not be revoked by the club at will. The Club would have to make a decision whether or not to buy it back. An outright revocation would be subjected to the member having a right to be heard by the full board, and even then, the board might have to repay the social member for the cost of the membership, or for the equity the member has in that membership.
An honorary membership has no such value and no such rights.
Mr. Rogers, unkowningly, has been led down the garden path by political advocates of Penman's opponent during this election season. When they "anonymously" informed him of Penman's honorary membership they then told a lie by equating it to a social membership.
Still, if that is the best they can come up with to criticize Penman, he must be a straight arrow. I'm sure if there was anything else in his background we would have heard about it, and I don't mean the phony sexual harrasment charge, made one time. Penman was cleared twice by the California State Bar Association of that phony charge. The first time, disgraced gang of four Councilman Ralph Hernandez made the complaint. After the Bar cleared Penman, disgraced Mayor Judith Valles filed the same claim again, saying Penman had falsely claimed he was cleared. The result? The Bar cleared him again. The Sun newspaper printed the stories on the bar clearing Penman both times.
Why doesn't Mayor Morris just accept the fact that most San Bernardino voters want Penman as our City Attorney and we want Morris to work with him and vice versa?
The mayor is wasting a good deal of time, money, and effort on trying to get our watchdog out of city hall. Either he wants to do something he souldn't, and knows Penman would expose it, or is still bitter at Penman over the 2005 -2006 Mayor's race.
We need to move forward together. Come on Mayor, get with your public while we still support you. You are causing many of us who voted for you to have second thoughts by your recent behavior towards Penman and others who don't agree with every single thing you do.
71 Year SB Resident
It remains to be seen if the voters want Penman again and for things to go on ad infinitum into ruin because of his strangle hold on the City. It is not a matter of the Mayor trying to work with Penman, Penman will make it impossible for there to be a working relationship. His ego will not allow him to put aside the landslide loss in the Mayor's race and the fact that the Mayor is supporting his opponent in this race.
Perhaps the reason there isn't more misconduct known about Penman is because people are afraid of him and his vengence if they were to come forward. After all, he seems to be Teflon coated.
Also, I don't buy for an instant that just because a honorary membership cannot be sold doesn't mean it is without value. There is most certainly a value to something that others have to pay for, which is the use and privilege of attending the Country Club. Whether he gets to vote or not is irrelevant. Get real.
It will be a sad time for San Bernardino if things don't change next Tuesday, just my opinion.
The City of San Bernardino is CURRENTLY experiencing "sad times”.
According to the San Bernardino Police Department website – through the end of September 2007:
“Criminal Homicide” is up by 21.21% this – 33 this year, 40 this year SO FAR.
“Forcible Rape” is up 32.43% - 37 incidents last year, 49 SO FAR this year.
“Aggravated Assaults” are up 9.50% - 821 incidents last year, 899 this year SO FAR.
Mr. Penman can’t put aside the landside loss in the Mayor’s race? It seems neither can the citizens of San Bernardino because I have to wonder what these numbers would look like if Mr. Penman had won the Mayoral election.
The Morris supporters continue to sound like “Chicken Little”…..sad times are coming if Penman wins…….sad times are coming if Penman wins.
Maybe these prophetic sad times could be adverted if the Mayor and his staff spent more time working on issues within the City of San Bernardino, and less time campaigning for Ms. Milligan. (How is the plan to expand Operation Phoenix to the 5 new target areas – WAIT! They are too busy putting up Milligan signs!!!)
Maybe the Morris camp should be worrying about how many citizens in this city are being killed, raped, and assaulted instead of whispering their created gossip about the “misconduct” of Mr. Penman. Mr. Penman supposedly mistreats his employees however how many are still in his office after YEARS of service? They show up at debates because they are forced to? They write editorials and blog postings because he makes them? And none of them could find jobs elsewhere if conditions are so horrible……WOW!
(By the way, did anyone see ANY employees from Code Enforcement at the debates to support Ms. Milligan??? I sure didn’t!) (I did see a Code Enforcement employee at Big Lots today shopping during the middle of the work day……but that is another issue)
Does anyone think that the families of the 40 people killed this year in this city care what the value of an honorary membership at the County Club is worth?
If their family member was killed, raped, or assaulted by a parolee I bet they would be wondering why the “sweeps” haven’t been reinstated……wondering why the Mayor keeps fighting Mr. Penman on this issue……wondering when the Mayor was going to do something to stop the carnage on the streets of San Bernardino. IT IS THE MAYOR WHO IS IN CHARGE, not Jim Penman right??? The Morris camp keeps reminding us that he won the election.
One thing that “Hopeful for SB” is correct about – it is irrelevant whether Mr. Penman was able to vote at the Country Club.
What is relevant is who to vote for in this election………in my opinion it is Jim Penman, not the Mayor’s lackey – Marianne Milligan. Ms. Milligan did not perform in the City Attorney Office, is not performing in the Code Enforcement Office (look around our city if you doubt this), and has serious credibility issues (check out www.dailypilot.com and search for Marianne Reger) but I guess if she is elected as City Attorney we won’t have to worry about her suing us – like she considered doing to the City of Costa Mesa when she held up the settlement to payout $750,000 AND cost the city more $$$ when she wouldn't sign because she was considering her own lawsuit. See for yourself at: http://www.dailypilot.com/articles/2004/01/03/export16480.txt
It will be sad day in San Bernardino if we dont change the Mayor and his son, soon! The longer THEY are in office, the faster our crime furthers itself out of control. The law breakers have taken over. It is time for the National Guard. The Mayor told us there was a public safety emergency summer of 2006. Not only hasn't it changed, it has gotten worse, much worse. And thank God Valles retired.
An honorary membership to a country club has about as much value as an honorary doctorate from an University; they both have no value. The Mayor is trying to shift our attention to non issues. It isn't working Mayor.
The Mayor was soft on crime as a Judge and he is soft on crime as a Mayor. Our governments most fundemental job is the protection of our citizens. Mayor Morris has failed us and Milligan is a habitual failure.
I can't even imagine what our city would be like without Jim Penman to fight for us.