Southern California Storm Helps in Battling Wildfires, Causes Flooding

7/20/2015 Southern California storm helps in battling wildfires, causes flooding Southern California storm helps in battling wildfires, causes flooding By Greg Cappis , Inland Valley Daily Bulletin sbsun.com

Redlands High School’s Dodge Stadium was partially underwater Sunday. Kristina Hernandez — Staff

Weekend downpours that may continue Monday helped stop the North and Pine fires from spreading but also flooded roads, caused mudslides and forced a number of events to be canceled, authorities said Sunday.

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for the San Bernardino area and a less severe flashflood watch for the San Gabriel Valley.

“Reports are starting to come in of some pretty significant flooding in the Inland Empire,” James Brotherton, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in San Diego, said about 3:30 p.m.

The worst flash floods were occurring in Perris and other parts of Riverside County, he said, but San Bernardino County was also experiencing substantial rainfall.

Water and mud flowed into several Moreno Valley homes.

San Timoteo Canyon Road was closed between Fern Avenue and Redlands Boulevard because of mudslides, according to the Redlands Fire Department. Firefighters rescued four people who were trapped in their cars. Another motorist was stranded in Reche Canyon when his car got stuck in mud.

Other destruction from the rain included rock slides on mountain roads, a downed tree in Redlands, flooded Victorville streets, delays on the San Bernardino Metrolink line and mud flowing onto the 15 Freeway near Highway 138 in the Cajon Pass, causing lanes to temporarily close.

• Photos: North fire burns homes, cars near Cajon Pass

Outdoor concerts in Sierra Madre and Glendora were canceled. Junior University canceled performances of “The Jungle Book” that were scheduled for Saturday and Sunday in San Bernardino’s Perris Hill Park.

A portion of Redlands High School’s Dodge Stadium found itself under water.

Coaches and school district staff were on site to assess the situation and said the Zanja http://www.sbsun.com/generalnews/20150719/southerncaliforniastormhelpsinbattlingwildfirescausesflooding 1/3 7/20/2015 Southern California storm helps in battling wildfires, causes flooding channel, which runs next to the stadium, could be to blame.

“When the Zanja overfills, it comes into the school,” explained Mario Camarena, a maintenance supervisor at Redlands High. “When it rains really hard, the level of the (Zanja) works to take it all in, but when it rains like it did, there’s no way to hold it all back.”

Los Angeles County beaches remained open, but lifeguards advised against swimming near river mouths and storm drains.

“Rain and thunderstorms will continue widespread this evening and then diminishing after midnight” in the San Bernardino Valley, Brotherton said. “For tomorrow morning, we still could have a few showers and thunderstorms before noon and then drying out tomorrow afternoon.”

The storms are expected to linger around the San Bernardino Mountains and San Gabriel Valley Monday night, according to the National Weather Service.

Weather officials advised residents to be wary of mountainsides that have recently burned and flashflood areas.

“Be very cautious around flooded roads,” Brotherton said. “It’s safer just to turn around because you don’t know how deep the water will be.”

The San Bernardino Fire Department notified firefighters to make sure they have swiftwater rescue gear on their trucks.

Water and mud rushed through the Pines fire incident command center near Wrightwood.

Rain totals were scattered throughout the region. Phelan received the most, just under 2 inches. Most of the San Bernardino and Inland valleys accumulated between 1/10 and a half inch, according to NWS accumulation figures.

• Photos: Firefighters battle Pines Fire near Wrightwood

The rain helped firefighters get the upper hand on the Pine fire, which ignited Friday night, caused hundreds to evacuate from campgrounds and burned about 200 acres.

The campgrounds and Highway 2 were reopened Sunday, according to U.S. Forest Service spokesman Andrew Mitchell.

He said active flames had mostly subsided and the fire was mostly smoldering.

“It’s mostly in mopup phase and finishing up,” he said. “The weather overnight had a good effect. Hopefully, we’ll have some more weather today that will help.”

Roughly 20 miles northeast, Baldy Mesa residents were allowed to return to their homes, but three fire roads remained closed after the North fire ripped through the community Friday, according to fire officials. Seven homes, 16 other structures and 44 vehicles were destroyed http://www.sbsun.com/generalnews/20150719/southerncaliforniastormhelpsinbattlingwildfirescausesflooding 2/3 7/20/2015 Southern California storm helps in battling wildfires, causes flooding by the blaze.

Shortly after the fire ignited, another 20 cars were destroyed and 10 more were damaged when flames ran across the 15 Freeway in the Cajon Pass, where traffic was backed up. No one has been seriously injured by the wildfire.

Fire officials said Sunday the blaze was 75 percent contained. The acreage increased from 3,500 to 4,250 acres because of better mapping. The fire hadn’t spread, the U.S. Forest Service said.

A bridge collapsed Sunday at the eastbound 10 Freeway and Eagle Mountain Road in Desert Center, trapping a truck beneath the debris, according to the Riverside County Fire Department.

The bridge reportedly collapsed into water that built up during the afternoon’s thunderstorms.

Caltrans officials said both sides of the freeway would be closed for an extended period.

http://www.sbsun.com/generalnews/20150719/southerncaliforniastormhelpsinbattlingwildfirescausesflooding 3/3 7/20/2015 Powerful storm to bring another day of rain to Southern California LA Times

L.A. Now California: This just in Powerful storm to bring another day of rain to Southern California

By JOSEPH SERNA, TONY BARBOZA AND LAUREN RAAB

JULY 20, 2015, 8:32 AM

n unseasonably powerful storm that closed Los Angeles County beaches because of lightning and washed out a vital bridge connecting shipping between California and A Arizona will bring more rain Monday to Southern California. “It still looks like there’s a chance of rain pretty much everywhere,” said Stuart Seto with the National Weather Service. “Yesterday was probably the worst.”

With forecasts indicating El Niño conditions in the Pacific Ocean gaining strength, Seto said the storms could be a preview of issues to come. El Niño is a weather phenomenon involving a warming of the Pacific Ocean at the equator, which causes changes in atmospheric conditions that, during the winter, can bring wet storms to soak California.

Particularly hardhit over the weekend were:

Desert Center, where a bridge washed out on Interstate 10, closing the freeway in both directions

Moreno Valley, where firefighters worked to keep mud out of half a dozen homes

Los Angeles County beaches, which were closed temporarily because of lightning strikes

July rain is so unusual in Southern California that the storm broke a number of records for the month. The 0.36 inch that fell in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday set a record for the most rainfall in July, surpassing the quarterinch that fell in July 1886, said National Weather Service meteorologist David Sweet.

“July is typically the driest month of the year,” weather service meteorologist Scott Sukup said

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/lamelnmorerainandthunderstormslosangeles20150719story.html#page=1 1/5 7/20/2015 Powerful storm to bring another day of rain to Southern California LA Times Sunday. “To have that much rain yesterday and another significant storm today is pretty unusual.... For July it's historical.”

It rained 2.31 inches in Lancaster and almost 4 inches in Warm Springs in Riverside County over the weekend, Seto said.

Four years of drought and the slow, heavy downpour mixed to complicate commutes across most of Southern California. Besides the washed out bridge near Arizona, Metrolink service in Riverside was closed.

How weird was the weather? The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim were rained out at home for the first time since 1995. The game has been rescheduled for Monday — assuming, of course, that it doesn't get rained out again. The San Diego Padres were also rained out.

Farther east, Interstate 10 — a key route for truckers and travelers — was shut down late Sunday afternoon after a bridge washed out in Desert Center.

The bridge is about halfway between Palm Springs and the Arizona border, near where California 177 meets the 10. It carries eastbound traffic about 15 feet above a normally dry wash. When the bridge broke apart, it ended up in the flood waters below, the California Highway Patrol said, blocking all traffic headed toward Arizona.

Thirty feet of the eastbound 10 Freeway “is washed away and the bridge is gone,” according to the CHP.

One driver had to be rescued from a pickup that crashed in the collapse and was hospitalized with moderate injuries, the Riverside County Fire Department said.

The westbound section of the freeway remained intact, but traffic was halted while the roadway was inspected for safety. A pair of small nearby highways that could have served as detours were also closed.

Drivers were being turned around at Chiriaco Summit on the eastbound side of the 10 and at Corn Springs on the westbound side. Traffic was reportedly backed up for miles, with no real place for motorists to go.

In Moreno Valley, Riverside County Fire Department spokeswoman Jennifer Fuhrman said water and mud were “coming down the mountain” in the 9900 block of Whitewater Road. Firefighters were “trying to keep it from getting in the houses,” Fuhrman said, but there was an “immediate threat of mud, and there was water inside” at least one of the homes.

In Orange County, a debris flow stranded several residents in Silverado Canyon on Sunday http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/lamelnmorerainandthunderstormslosangeles20150719story.html#page=1 2/5 7/20/2015 Powerful storm to bring another day of rain to Southern California LA Times evening.

“We had a pretty significant mud and debris flow that went into the creek and then across Silverado Canyon Road, making the road impassable,” said Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Steve Concialdi.

The debris flow, in the Smisek Ranch area, is “about 300 feet long, around 3 feet deep and 4 to 5 feet wide,” Concialdi said, and residents are unable to get out.

“We had a 1,000acre brush fire back in September, so we have a pretty large burn scar,” he said. “So when we do have significant rain, that mud and debris come downhill toward the road, toward homes.”

No homes, however, were at risk, Concialdi said.

Crews using heavy equipment were working to clear the roadway of mud, downed trees and other debris. “We're going to be here throughout the night,” Concialdi said, adding that he could not say whether the mess would be cleared by Monday morning.

In San Diego County, the hardest hit area was in rural Ramona east of Escondido, where streets flooded, several cars were halfsubmerged, and some homes were flooded. The National Weather Service issued a flashflood warning for Ramona.

Elsewhere in the county, pounding rain led to traffic snarls, sporadic power failures, flashflood warnings in outlying areas, a lengthy midgame delay of the PadresRockies game, and closure of an offramp of Interstate 805 in midSan Diego due to a downed power line, among other problems.

Numerous outdoor events were canceled, including the OvertheLine tournament on Fiesta Island on Mission Bay.

The PadresRockies game was halted because of rain in the fifth inning – with Rockies up 10 – and then after a 2 ½hour delay was called off and rescheduled for September.

The afternoon downpour occurred just as the annual threeday Stand Down for homeless veterans was ending. Some 975 veterans attended the event, where they could live in tents and receive food, counseling and other services from the Department of Veterans Affairs, Naval Medical Center San Diego and various nongovernmental agencies.

“Leaving Stand Down with a heavy heart,” tweeted Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins (DSan Diego). “It’s pouring rain and we need it but hundreds of Vets [are] back on streets.”

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/lamelnmorerainandthunderstormslosangeles20150719story.html#page=1 3/5 7/20/2015 Powerful storm to bring another day of rain to Southern California LA Times San Diego County health officials ordered closure of beaches near the U.S. border because of sewagecontaminated overflow from the Tijuana River.

A flashflood watch was in effect through Monday evening for Los Angeles County mountains, recent burn areas and the Antelope Valley.

The moisture has been a boon for firefighters battling the 3,500acre North fire that shut down Interstate 15 in the Cajon Pass on Friday, burning cars and stranding motorists. The rain helped push the fire's containment up to 75% by Sunday morning, with no growth in acreage.

The latest round of storm activity could be a mixed blessing as the fire continues to smolder, said U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Lyn Sieliet.

“If it brings wind and lightning, it could make things more difficult for us,” she said. “But if it brings light, steady rain, that's going to be the bestcase scenario.”

Los Angeles County lifeguards, who had closed more than 70 miles of crowded coastline and ocean piers Saturday because of thunderstorms, said they were in communication with the National Weather Service as they tracked the storm and would clear the beaches if they heard thunder or saw lightning.

A.J. Lester, ocean lifeguard specialist with the Los Angeles County Fire Department's Lifeguard Division, warned swimmers to stay away from storm drain outfalls for 72 hours after the rain to avoid polluted runoff that has been swept out to shore.

Forecasters expect drier weather by Tuesday.

Times staff writer Tony Perry contributed to this article.

For more breaking news, follow @JosephSerna, @tonybarboza and @raablauren.

UPDATES 8:31 a.m.: This article has been updated with flooding and other damage in San Diego County.

July 20, 7:56 a.m.: This article has been updated with the National Weather Service saying rain will continue Monday and that the recent storm was an El Ninorelated rain event.

9:37 p.m.: This article has been updated to add that the Angels' and Padres' home games http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/lamelnmorerainandthunderstormslosangeles20150719story.html#page=1 4/5 7/20/2015 Print Article: INLAND STORM: Flooding causes bridge collapse in desert; I10 closed indefinitely (UPDATE 7)

INLAND STORM: Flooding causes bridge collapse in desert; I10 closed indefinitely (UPDATE 7) BY JANET ZIMMERMAN 20150719 13:08:41

(Updated at 6:30 a.m. Monday, July 20)

Interstate 10 remained closed early Monday due to flooding that washed away a bridge between Coachella and the Arizona border. Southbound Highway 177 was reopened about 3:30 a.m.

The freeway was closed indefinitely Sunday, July 19, when rain washed out a large section of a bridge, the result of a wild storm that blew through Southern California and left devastation in its wake.

The storm system dropped as much as four inches of rain in spots, downed trees and power lines, and triggered mud flows and flash floods that trapped vehicles. Swiftwater rescues, traffic collisions and flooded homes taxed firefighters throughout Riverside and San Bernardino counties well into the evening.

In the I10 flooding in the desert, the Adair bridge over Tex Wash was swept away, Caltrans spokeswoman Terri Kasinga said. The occupants of a vehicle that apparently drove into the damaged section of freeway were stuck in their pickup truck for about four hours before they were rescued by firefighters, unharmed, she said.

“The 10 (freeway) is a dire situation,” Kasinga said.

Caltrans is diverting eastbound traffic onto Highway 86 in Coachella; that highway goes southeast of the Salton Sea to Interstate 8.

Drivers coming into California should take Arizona Route 95 north to Interstate 40. Otherwise they will hit a closure at Rice Road and be stuck, Kasinga said.

Highway 78, which intersects with the 86 in Brawley and leads back to I10, and Highway 177, which connects I10 to Highway 62 on the eastern edge of Joshua Tree National Park, were closed due to flooding Sunday and could not be used as detours.

Structural engineers will be sent to the scene of the collapse early Monday to assess the damage there and at other surrounding washes, according to a Caltrans news release. Once it's determined what repairs will be needed, the agency will release an estimate for when I10 can reopen.

The storm caused by the remnants of former Hurrican Dolores was expected to diminish by midnight. Monday will bring a chance of showers, with high humidity and temperatures in the upper 80s in the valleys, said James Brotherton, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego.

After Monday, the rest of the week is expected to be cloudy but dry, with slightly belowaverage temperatures.

“It’s pretty unusual to see this much rain in July,” Brotherton said.

The deluge broke two daily precipitation records: 0.88 inches at Riverside Municipal Airport smashed a 1946 http://www.pe.com/common/printer/view.php?db=pressenterprise&id=773793 1/2 7/20/2015 Print Article: INLAND STORM: Flooding causes bridge collapse in desert; I10 closed indefinitely (UPDATE 7) record of 0.05 inches, and the 0.53 inches that fell in Lake Elsinore broke a 1927 record of 0.06 inches, according to the weather service.

It also gave a muchneeded drink to Southern California’s droughtparched landscapes and helped dampen flames on the 4,250acre North Fire that started in the Cajon Pass and was 75 percent contained as of Sunday night.

ALSO READ: Corona firefighter recovering from severe burns

ROADS FLOODED

The California Highway Patrol received reports of flooding Sunday on sections of every Inland freeway. Among the worst spots were the 60 at Day Street in Moreno Valley, where a SigAlert was issued, and the eastbound 91 at Adams Street in Riverside, where flooding forced traffic into one lane.

Caltrans also dealt with rock slides on Highway 18 east of Big Bear Lake, Highway 330 west of Running Springs and Highway 38 at Valley of the Falls Drive near Forest Falls. The mountain highways remained open, said Kasinga of Caltrans.

From highways to city streets to rural roads, reports came in of flooding, mud, debris and downed power lines that trapped vehicles.

In Moreno Valley, a flash flood submerged streets, and the cars parked on them, in waistdeep water in the Sunnymead Ranch neighborhood.

Power went out at more than 5,400 homes in Nuevo, Perris, Yucaipa, Redlands and San Bernardino after lightning and downed power lines, according to Southern California Edison. Electricity should be restored by Monday afternoon, according to the utility’s website.

RESCUES

In Corona, 11 people were rescued from fastmoving water in a drainage channel.

Three people, believed to be transients, were first spotted clinging to a mattress in the storm drain near the 91 freeway and Magnolia Avenue, firefighter John DeYoe said. They were rescued by firefighters several miles away, at Auburndale and Rincon streets, he said.

The eight others, also believe to be transients, were pulled out by bystanders or got themselves out.

“It was moving fast but it wasn’t that deep,” DeYoe said.

Redlands firefighters rescued four people who were trapped in a car stuck in the mud on San Timoteo Canyon Road at West Fern Avenue, Battalion Chief Dave Graves said. No one was injured.

At least three other vehicles were mired in mud on San Timoteo Canyon Road, spotted in a flyover by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department helicopter, he said. The drivers were able to free themselves.

San Timoteo Canyon Road was closed in both directions between Fern Avenue and Alessandro Road, he said.

“There were basketballsized rocks and mud across the road,” he said. “We’ve had multiple reports of flooding by residents. We also had trees down and some power lines.”

http://www.pe.com/common/printer/view.php?db=pressenterprise&id=773793 2/2 7/20/2015 Homes damaged, evacuations ordered in Baldy Mesa due to North fire Homes damaged, evacuations ordered in Baldy Mesa due to North fire By Brian Day , San Gabriel Valley Tribune sbsun.com

CAJON PASS >> Officials ordered mandatory evacuations Friday afternoon as a rapidly growing brush fire ignited cars along the 15 Freeway north of the 138 Freeway and scorched nearby homes as it grew beyond 3,500 acre sin size.

U.S. Forest Service officials issued evacuation orders for the Baldy Mesa area, east of Sheep Creek Road, north of the 15 Freeway and south of Phelan Road.

Evacuees were directed to a Red Cross evacuation center at Serrano High School, 9292 Sheep Creek Road in Phelan, where some had started to arrive, Red Cross spokeswoman Meredith Miller said.

Large animals were being housed by the San Bernardino County Animal Control at the San Bernardino County Fairgrounds, 14800 7th Street in Victorville, Miller added.

Officials reported the fire, which ignited about 2:30 p.m., had jumped El Centro Road in the Baldy Mesa Area just after 4 p.m.

Five homes were damaged and 50 others were “immediately threatened” by the flames, San Bernardino fire officials said shortly after 5 p.m.

The fire has made its way to Sage Street where firefighters were working to save homes.

San Bernardino County firefighters initially labeled the fire a “mass casualty incident” as they responded to reports of injuries.

But officials had received word of no significant injuries, U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Robert Taylor said.

Stranded motorists were also advised to remain in their cars to avoid being injured by airborne water drops.

Passengers on Route 15 northbound and southbound 3 p.m. runs on Interstate 15 through Cajon Pass are safe and being transported via bus and supervisor vans to the Victorville Transit Hub at Lorene Drive and 7th Street. VVTA Route 20 is evacuating from Wrightwood to the Victor Valley Mall, where it will stand down along with Route 21, according to a Victor Valley Transit Authority news release.

VVTA fleet resources remain on standby for emergency service evacuations.

All the transit authority’s BV Link services are canceled, and VVTA fleet resources remain on standby for emergency service evacuations.

http://www.sbsun.com/generalnews/20150717/homesdamagedevacuationsorderedinbaldymesaduetonorthfire 1/1 7/20/2015 Drones continue to hurt Southern California firefighting efforts Drones continue to hurt Southern California firefighting efforts By Staff Report sbsun.com

When a drone grounded aircraft that were trying to fight the North fire on Friday afternoon, it was only the latest in a series of recent incidents where a drone interfered with local firefighters — and, officials said, risked lives.

San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors Chairman James Ramos on Friday said enough was enough, and that the board will be discussing at its next meeting on July 28 what it can do to crack down on drone operators endangering the safety of county citizens and public safety officials.

“When you’re inhibiting the response of the first responders, then you infringe on the safety of the residents of San Bernardino County,” Ramos said.

The board will discuss its options regarding the enforcement of existing laws on illegal drone use, as well as the possibility of offering a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of illegal drone operators who disrupt firefighters and police during emergencies.

Existing law includes a $1,000 fine for misdemeanor interference with firefighting efforts.

Other recent efforts to strengthen drone regulations include a federal bill by Paul Cook, R Apple Valley, and state legislation proposed by Assemblyman Mike Gatto (DGlendale) and Senator Ted Gaines (REl Dorado).

Efforts to fight recent wildfires have been repeatedly hampered by drones:

• Southern California’s first major wildfire of the season, the Lake fire in the San Bernardino Mountains, was interrupted on its first day by a drone.

It forced the air tanker pilots to jettison a total of about 2,000 gallons of retardant at a cost of roughly $15,000, U.S. Forest Service spokesman John Miller said. It also forced the grounding of three aircraft, including two air tankers preparing to drop retardant along the eastern flank of the fire.

“More importantly, it could’ve killed everybody in the air,” Miller said at a news conference the next day, which was held specifically to address the drone situation.

• Later the day of the news conference, a second drone interfered.

• Firefighters battling the Sterling fire in late June encountered two drones, one of which officials determined was flying legally. The other was over the fire, which is considered restricted airspace.

• During a 54acre fire in the Yucaipa Ridge area last weekend, aerial firefighting had to be halted when fire officials spotted a private drone flying near the scene, authorities said.

http://www.sbsun.com/generalnews/20150717/dronescontinuetohurtsoutherncaliforniafirefightingefforts 1/1 7/20/2015 Firefighters making progress Gate House

Print Page By Staff Reports

July 19. 2015 5:14PM

Firefighters making progress

CAJON PASS — A pair of wildfires that tore through the mountains and foothills west of Interstate 15 have calmed thanks to a rainy weekend and the ongoing efforts of firefighters.

Containment of the North Fire reached 60 percent as the smoldering blaze has now burned 4,250 acres, according to a Sunday update from the U.S. Forest Service.

All lanes of Interstate 15 are open, but motorists should still expect delays in the area due to the crossover lanes necessitated by the Cajon Pass Rehabilitation Project, which was expected to resume by Sunday evening.

Updating previous damage estimates, officials now say that seven homes and 16 outbuildings were burned in the Baldy The 910 Tanker, a converted DC10 Mesa/Phelan area. Another home and four more outbuildings were damaged, authorities said Sunday. Twenty vehicles passenger jet drops retardant over the were destroyed on the freeway and 10 more were damaged, while 44 vehicles were destroyed in Baldy Mesa and Phelan. North Fire in Oak Hills on Friday. The fire Two people suffered minor smoke inhalation Friday, and a firefighter suffered an undisclosed injury Saturday. began in the Cajon Pass between Interstate 15 lanes and as of Sunday Starting Saturday evening, evacuated residents with identification were allowed to return home through the controlled afternoon was 60 percent contained. intersection of Baldy Mesa and Phelan roads. James Quigg, Daily Press Several forest roads will remain closed due to the fire: Baldy Mesa OHV Staging Area, Baldy Mesa Road 3N21, Desert Front Road 3N24 and Forest Road 3N55.

The fire began at 2:33 p.m. Friday between the two sides of Interstate 15 and quickly moved northwest, forcing evacuations in the Baldy Mesa and Phelan areas. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

As the North Fire was still raging Friday night, the Pines Fire broke out near Wrightwood, forcing a closure of Highway 2 and evacuating nearby campgrounds. The highway has since reopened, and the Forest Service said "evacuations have been lifted for nearby organization camps and most campgrounds." Kare Camp, McClellean Flats and Table Mountain Campgrounds remain closed to visitors.

No injuries have been reported and no structures are currently threatened by the Pines Fire, the Forest Service said in a Sunday update. The 200acre fire is 40 percent contained. The cause is unknown, but officials do not believe it is related to the North Fire.

http://www.vvdailypress.com/article/20150719/NEWS/150719745 Print Page

http://www.vvdailypress.com/article/20150719/NEWS/150719745?template=printart 1/1 7/20/2015 Print Article: NORTH FIRE: Resident – and her animals – return home

NORTH FIRE: Resident – and her animals – return home BY SUZANNE HURT 20150719 20:13:52

A Phelan resident counted her blessings – and her animals – Sunday after twice narrowly escaping the destructive North fire south of Victorville.

Interstate 15 motorists stalled by construction traffic had to flee the fast moving fire on foot in the Cajon Pass, minutes after the flames that ignited the fire started out so small they could have been kicked out by someone driving by, Diane Demmitt of Phelan said Sunday.

She was one of the lucky ones who was able to drive out of the fire’s path. Demmitt is disabled and recently had a heart attack, which would have made it difficult, if not impossible, for her to run into the hills for safety as others did.

On Sunday, she and others were taking animals home after they’d been sheltered for nearly two days at San Bernardino County Fairgrounds in Victorville.

The fire – which sent motorists running for their lives as it engulfed trapped vehicles and later forced evacuation of an area where three homes, eight outbuildings and dozens of vehicles burned – started in small, dry brush next to the northbound fast lane, said Demmitt, who was driving directly across from the fire in southbound construction traffic on her way “down the hill” Friday afternoon when the flames broke out.

When she first saw it, it was only about 2 square feet and was very low to the ground.

“It was a little fire. You could have stomped it out,” she said, standing in a livestock shelter at the fairgrounds.

But within minutes, the fire hit bigger brush and spread quickly across a vegetationcovered natural area toward the southbound lanes, she said.

“It just exploded. It was a nightmare,” said Demmitt, who kept driving in traffic that had slowed to five to 10 miles an hour and saw a big fire and black smoke rolling into the sky behind her. “If I had been a few minutes behind, I would have been stuck in that fire.”

Demmitt frantically called 911 to report the fire, but wasn’t able to get through.

But the nightmare wasn’t over for Demmit or dozens of other Victor Valley residents. She detoured through Los Angeles, onto Highways 14 and 138 – only to learn from a neighbor who called her while she was heading home the fire had grown so large that homes, people, animals, outbuildings and vehicles in the Baldy Mesa and Phelan areas were being threatened.

The community, including ranchers and farmers helping their neighbors, and sheriff’s deputies rallied to rescue animals from homes that were being evacuated Friday afternoon and evening.

Since Friday, Christy Hamrick and other San Bernardino Animal Control staff were feeding, watering and keeping watch over 32 horses, 39 pigs, two cows, two goats, a sheep, 12 miniature horses, 13 chickens, four peacocks, a guinea hen, three pigeons and two minidonkeys, Stevie and Dale, which belonged to Demmitt. http://www.pe.com/common/printer/view.php?db=pressenterprise&id=773809 1/2 7/20/2015 Print Article: NORTH FIRE: Resident – and her animals – return home On Sunday, Demmitt and other area residents were at the fairgrounds to take livestock and other critters home. Some animals may stay until today or Tuesday.

Late Sunday morning, Baldy Mesaarea residents Alma Diaz, 33, and her daughter, Claudia Hidalgo, 14, caught their four peacocks and a guinea hen and put them in a cage for the ride home. Three favorite mini potbelly pigs were already in the back of Diaz’s SUV.

Their house was spared, but they spent the night with friends after 15 people with High Desert Ranchers and Farmers brought five big trailers Friday afternoon and evening and took the animals to the fairgrounds. The family is very grateful, Diaz said.

“I don’t have words,” she said.

Hamrick helped arrange transportation for most of their 30 pigs – which include 18 piglets and large hogs – as well as 11 chickens and three pigeons. The pigs and hogs slept or ate in small pens. A 2monthold black and white potbellied pig squealed for milk while standing on its mother’s back.

Kids from High Desert Magic 4H cleaned stalls and buckets or brought fresh hay to horses.

The fire was just one street away from Demmick’s house on Cedar Street in Phelan when she arrived home Friday by taking the back way in on dirt roads from Phelan Road.

Her husband had been blocked from returning. Demmitt panicked over how to get her dogs, three Shetland ponies, miniature horse, two minidonkeys and two large hogs out of the evacuation area. Some animals had trouble breathing because of smoke.

A neighbor brought a sheriff’s deputy and “a bunch of people” took her animals out in three trailers, she said, standing in a pen with two large hogs, Max and Candy, she bought six years ago as $500 “teacup” or pot bellied pigs.

She spent Friday night at a friend’s house. Demmitt and the animals escaped unharmed, and the house wasn’t touched by the fire.

“I don’t consider it luck. I consider it blessing,” she said. “God was riding on my shoulder, I tell ya.”

http://www.pe.com/common/printer/view.php?db=pressenterprise&id=773809 2/2 7/20/2015 Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District issues smoke advisory Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District issues smoke advisory By Michel Nolan , The Sun sbsun.com

Smoke from the North wildfire burning in the Cajon Pass is impacting the air quality of the area, which has resulted in a smoke advisory issued by the Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District in Victorville.

According to the advisory, the communities of Phelan, Oak Hills, Baldy Mesa, the Victor Valley and surrounding areas could be impacted by smoke in the air.

Changing weather and fire conditions will determine which areas of the High Desert are affected.

The wildfire is burning along the 15 Freeway north of State Highway 138.

Violette Roberts, district spokeswoman, said the main concern is the particulate matter that is the product of combustion.

“The particles are extremely high as you get closer to the fire,” she said.

“People out there in that dangerous situation should listen to what officials on scene tell them to do. If they are out of their vehicles, they should try to stay upwind. The wind is carrying the smoke north, toward the high desert.”

If it is safe, people should stay in their vehicles with the air conditioning on in recirculation mode, if available.

Everyone, especially people with heart or lung disease, older adults and children, is susceptible.

Once people are away from the fire area, and they experience symptoms such as coughing, shortness of breath, wheezing or difficulty breathing, they should see their health care provider, according to Roberts.

http://www.sbsun.com/generalnews/20150717/mojavedesertairqualitymanagementdistrictissuessmokeadvisory 1/1 7/20/2015 Our view: High Desert needs support Gate House

Print Page By Daily Press Editorial Board

July 18. 2015 12:01AM

Our view: High Desert needs support

Thirtyfive years ago, Friday's fire in the Cajon Pass might have been seen as little more than an inconvenience for the relatively few residents who lived in the region. According to the Census Bureau, less than 45,000 people resided in Adelanto, Apple Valley, Hesperia and Victorville combined.

At that time, Barstow was still the High Desert's big kid on the block, with more than 17,600 residents. Victorville, Hesperia and Apple Valley each had fewer than 15,000. Adelanto had less than 2,500.

In 1980, a fire like Friday's North Fire would have blocked tractortrailers headed to points north or even east, as well as weekend travelers going to Las Vegas or perhaps the Colorado River. But it would have hardly been the commuter nightmare that Friday's blaze became. Southbound Interstate 15 is at a standstill Now, of course, the High Desert is home to more than 400,000 people, thousands of whom rely on Interstate 15 to as the fire burns in the Cajon Pass on Friday. David Pardo, Daily Press commute to jobs in San Bernardino, Riverside, Los Angeles and Orange counties. The Cajon Pass is not only a vital commuter artery, but also the main artery for hundreds of thousands of travelers headed to Las Vegas and other points north or east. According to Caltrans, 140,000 to 160,000 passenger vehicles traverse I15 in the Cajon Pass each day. That's about 1 million per week. And that traffic is expected to rise to 379,000 vehicles per day by 2040.

Even more importantly, the Cajon Pass has become vital for truck traffic. A large percentage of the goods coming into the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach wind up on the more than 21,000 tractor trailers that use Interstate 15 in the Cajon Pass each day. Truck traffic also is expected to rise significantly over the next 25 years, which is why Caltrans is spending $324 million on the Devore Interchange Project and $120 million on the Cajon Pass Rehabilitation Project to replace pavement that will last another 50 to 60 years.

But as everyone who lives in the High Desert knows, there are few alternatives to Interstate 15 for drivers when the Cajon Pass becomes impassible because of fire, snow or traffic accidents. Old Route 66 (Cajon Boulevard) runs adjacent to I15 in the Cajon Pass, but is only one lane in each direction and ends to the north at Cleghorn Road.

The only other alternatives left to drivers stranded down the hill are to come across the desert from Palmdale to the west or Yucca Valley to the east, or go through the San Bernardino Mountains on highways 173 or 38. None of these alternatives are easy or quick.

For the past couple of years this newspaper has advocated for a better alternative to Interstate 15 for High Desert residents and travelers in general. We have advocated for the widening of Old Route 66 through the Cajon Pass and for it to be connected to Highway 138, as Wrightwood resident Tom Pinard has suggested. Even better would be to continue it on north into Oak Hills or Phelan, so it would be a true alternative to I15.

We also have advocated for the widening of Highway 138 east of I15 and of Summit Valley Road in Hesperia, as suggested by Apple Valley resident Thomas Whittington and which will be imperative if the massive Tapestry Project is approved in southern Hesperia.

So far, these calls have fallen on deaf ears. It is past time for Gov. Jerry Brown, Caltrans, San Bernardino Associated Governments and the City Councils of all our High Desert communities to come to the table and develop a plan to pay for these muchneeded alternatives and improvements. They may not be the perfect solutions to our freeway problems, but they definitely will help.

Many people likely dodged a bullet Friday. We easily could have watched people die in their burning cars on Interstate 15. Fix this mess before we see that happen next time.

http://www.vvdailypress.com/article/20150718/OPINION/150719783 Print Page

http://www.vvdailypress.com/article/20150718/OPINION/150719783/12966/OPINION?template=printart 1/1 7/20/2015 High towing fees irk those caught in 15 Freeway firestorm; one charged $2,600 High towing fees irk those caught in 15 Freeway firestorm; one charged $2,600 By Doug Saunders , The Sun sbsun.com

Crews prepare to haul away burned cars on the southbound 15 Freeway where the North fire burned through in the Cajon Pass on Friday. Jennifer Cappuccio Maher — Staff photographer

CAJON PASS >> Angry owners flooded social media with complaints over the weekend that they had been charged $1,000 or more in towing fees after being forced to abandon their cars caught Friday in the 15 Freeway firestorm.

“They are charging $220 an hour to all those people that abandoned their cars at ... Cajon Pass yesterday,” Michelle Sepulveda wrote on her Facebook page. “The family my brother saved yesterday is having to pay well over $2,600 to get her car out and every hour she waits, the more it goes up.”

• Photos: North fire burns homes, cars near Cajon Pass

California Highway Patrol officials quickly acted on the multiple complaints, opening an investigation into the allegations.

“We called in several tow companies we had on rotation,” Inland CHP spokesman Steve Carpia said. “When we learned of the complaints we began to investigate, eventually resolving this issue.”

Richard Monroy, the manager of Gonzales Tow, 11690 Barlett Ave., Victorville, released a statement Sunday saying, “Our company does not operate on people’s hopelessness, and any illegal activity or overcharging,” he said. “We understand the public’s concerns and decided we will not be a tow company who will profit from the obvious situation.”

Monroy said that the time involved clearing vehicles from the freeway will be donated to San Bernardino County.

• More Coverage: Cars, homes destroyed as 3,500acre North fire burns Cajon Pass, 15 Freeway

Gloria Chairez, who owns the AZX Auto Transport operation in Fontana, has a powerful message aimed at tow companies accused of gouging victims whose cars had to be towed.

http://www.sbsun.com/generalnews/20150719/hightowingfeesirkthosecaughtin15freewayfirestormonecharged2600 1/2 7/20/2015 High towing fees irk those caught in 15 Freeway firestorm; one charged $2,600 “They should be mad at the towing companies,” she said. “I own my own car carrier company. I went up to carry their cars down for free because it was the right thing to do.”

She said the CHP asked for volunteers to help clear the vehicles from the site to a dirt lot near the Highway 138 turnoff.

“The owners of the vehicles were told to leave their keys so their cars could be moved yet most didn’t,” she said. “I couldn’t believe the tow companies were literally clawing and fighting for those vehicles, adding up the dollars as each one they obtained.”

“They are a sorry part of my industry,” she added.

Twenty vehicles on the freeway were destroyed by flames when drivers couldn’t escape the fire, and 10 more were damaged, officials said.

http://www.sbsun.com/generalnews/20150719/hightowingfeesirkthosecaughtin15freewayfirestormonecharged2600 2/2 7/20/2015 North Fire: 15 Freeway reopened after Cajon Pass fire North Fire: 15 Freeway reopened after Cajon Pass fire By City News Service sbsun.com

The 15 Freeway from Cajon Pass to Las Vegas reopened after midnight today, when the hulks of burned cars and trucks were scraped away and Caltrans officials gave the allclear for the scorched concrete.

The freeway was the site of nearpanic and great fear Friday afternoon, as dozens of motorists ran for their lives from a sudden and fastmoving brushfire.

The blaze hit along the southbound 15 freeway south of the Cajon summit, at a location where the northbound lanes are separated by a quartermile median choked with bushes and shrubs that are tinder dry after years of drought.

The freeway was closed, sending what is usually four lanes of heavy traffic onto much smaller roads across the High Desert.

• Live Coverage: Watch here for live updates on the North fire

Gas lines were long and “people are looking for food and a place to sleep” at the isolated desert crossroads of Kramer Junction, 40 miles west of Barstow on state Route 58 and U.S. 395, said one driver, Jim Toten of Torrance.

Terri Kasinga, a spokeswoman for Caltrans District 8 in San Bernardino, said the concrete pavement that was scorched had just been laid several months ago, part of a massive Cajon Pass repaving project.

Kasinga said that the new cement paving was still curing, and thus more susceptible to fire damage.

The fire itself was north of where two crossover lanes were installed, and half of the northbound 15 freeway traffic shifted over to southbound lanes, as the repaving project moves south. That lane shift happened just hours before the fire broke out.

Traffic was largely back to normal this morning, with a crash blocking the northbound crossover lanes for more than an hour today.

One of the four southbound lanes over Cajon Pass, at the fire scene, was blocked for firefighters and repair crews today, Caltrans and CHP officials said.

http://www.sbsun.com/generalnews/20150718/northfire15freewayreopenedaftercajonpassfire 1/1 7/20/2015 Deputy, Victorville man injured in crash at San Bernardino intersection Deputy, Victorville man injured in crash at San Bernardino intersection By Doug Saunders , The Sun sbsun.com

A pair of San Bernardino County sheriff’s Major Accident Investigation Team members work the scene of an accident involving a sheriff’s deputy and another motorist at the corner of Highland and Del Rosa avenues shortly before 9 a.m. Sunday in San Bernardino. Will Lester — Staff Photographer

SAN BERNARDINO >> A sheriff’s deputy and a Victorville man were recovering Sunday after the patrol car was hit in the side while heading to aid another deputy involved in a foot chase, authorities said.

Shortly before 9 a.m. the deputy, whose name wasn’t released, was driving south on Del Rosa Avenue with his overhead lights and siren on when he slowed to cross Highland Avenue, sheriff’s Cpl. Mark Addy said.

• Photos: Sheriff’s deputy, Victorville man injured in crash

“As he came through the intersection with his lights and sirens still activated he was broadsided by the other vehicle,” Addy said. “Both vehicles came to rest on the southeast corner of the roadway.”

The deputy and the other driver, identified as Thomas Brannan, 51, were taken to hospitals with non lifethreatening injuries.

• Video: Sheriff’s Cpl. Mark Addy details crash

The intersection was closed for about four hours so members of the sheriff’s Major Accident Investigation Team could look into the crash.

Local News Video: Cpl. Mark Addy details crash

http://www.sbsun.com/generalnews/20150719/deputyvictorvillemaninjuredincrashatsanbernardinointersection 1/1 7/20/2015 Sheriff’s deputies shoot, kill Highland man in Needles Sheriff’s deputies shoot, kill Highland man in Needles By Greg Cappis , Inland Valley Daily Bulletin sbsun.com

NEEDLES >> Sheriff’s deputies killed a Highland man, who had indicated he wanted to hurt himself, after the 50yearold pointed a pistol at a deputy, the Sheriff’s Department said Saturday.

Jackie Brand was reported missing by his friends and family after he left work early Friday.

“Brand made statements to friends indicating he was intending to harm himself,” deputies in Grand Terrace learned when they took the missing person’s report, according to a Sheriff’s Department statement.

Deputies in Needles “were requested to contact Brand and check on his welfare” after he was located in the 4100 block of Needles Highway about 4:30 p.m. Friday.

Brand brandished a loaded 9millimeter handgun and refused deputies orders to drop it, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

“Brand pointed the handgun directly at a deputy, forcing the deputy to use lethal force against Brand,” the sheriff’s statement said.

Brand was pronounced dead at the scene.

Sheriff’s detectives are investigating the deputyinvolved shooting.

http://www.sbsun.com/generalnews/20150718/sheriffsdeputiesshootkillhighlandmaninneedles 1/1 7/20/2015 City to hire spokesperson Gate House

Print Page By Shea Johnson Staff Writer

July 20. 2015 12:01AM

City to hire spokesperson

VICTORVILLE — The city is advertising for a public information officer after three straight years of seeking to work the position into its spending plan.

According to the job posting on the city's website, the spokesperson will provide "staff support by communicating between municipal government and its public, and assist to ensure that public expectations are in harmony with services and programs provided by the city."

The spokesperson will also oversee external marketing and its associated agencies, the posting said.

The PIO position will pay between $8,359 and $10,161 per month, plus benefits. So the pay range is $100,308 to $121,932, plus benefits. The occupant of the role will report to City Manager Doug Robertson.

Robertson said in May that, in the prior two years, funding for the position in the city's budget had been removed lastminute after it tilted the spending plan toward not being balanced. For fiscal year 201516, the city is operating with a small surplus.

The position had been unfunded for about four years, leaving other officials to perform doubleduty.

"Because we have no public information officer, I've become public information officer," Robertson said, "and I find myself responding to any matter of things ... which is work, but that's not what you pay me to do."

The city's public information coordinator position was eliminated within the last year or two.

Mayor Pro Tem Jim Cox and Councilman Eric Negrete had cautioned the Council about not allowing the PIO position, which Cox acknowledged was a need, to occupy budget space over more critical roles or programs.

The deadline to apply online is July 27. Visit VictorvilleCA.Gov for more information.

Shea Johnson may be reached at 7609555368 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @DP_Shea.

http://www.vvdailypress.com/article/20150720/NEWS/150729998 Print Page

http://www.vvdailypress.com/article/20150720/NEWS/150729998?template=printart 1/1 7/20/2015 Hesperia councilman proposes singleserve alcoholic beverage ban LA Times Hesperia councilman proposes single-serve alcoholic beverage ban

By HAILEY BRANSONPOTTS

JULY 20, 2015, 4:00 AM

ometimes Hesperia City Councilman Russell Blewett parks his car outside liquor and grocery stores and sits there, watching for the drunks and panhandlers who make him S so mad. Blewett recently saw someone walk into a liquor store, "buy a can of booze, pop it and drive away," he said. He's seen people come out clutching a paper bag, thinking nobody knows what's inside. And he said he gets complaints from "little old ladies" saying they're harassed by inebriated men begging for beer money.

Blewett wants to make his San Bernardino County town safer, he said at a recent council meeting, "so that women can go to the grocery store and not be accosted by doggone bums."

To do that, he's proposed an ordinance that would ban singleserve alcoholic beverages — such as 40ounce bottles of malt liquor and single cans of beer — and declare them a public nuisance. The Hesperia City Council is expected to vote on the ordinance Tuesday.

Hesperia is one of a growing number of cities across the country talking about such bans as a way of reducing crime and public intoxication. Washington D.C. imposed a ban years ago, prompting protests from some grocery store owners who said it was unfair.

San Bernardino imposed a ban in 2010. Researchers at UC Riverside reviewed San Bernardino crime data and found areas with more liquor stores — including ones that devoted significant space to singlesale alcoholic beverages — had higher crime rate. They concluded banning single sales would reduce crime.

The Hesperia law would apply to establishments such as liquor or grocery stores selling alcohol for offsite consumption and would not apply to bars or restaurants where patrons buy beverages to drink on site. It would not apply to alcoholic drinks packaged together (such as sixpacks of beer), bottles or containers of wine of at least 750 milliliters, or of containers of distilled spirits of at least 375 milliliters.

The proposal has drawn sharp criticism from liquor store owners who say they are being made the scapegoat for a problem with homelessness. http://www.latimes.com/local/california/lamehesperiabeer20150720story.html 1/3 7/20/2015 Hesperia councilman proposes singleserve alcoholic beverage ban LA Times "The issue with homelessness and panhandling should not just be the responsibility of liquor store owners; it should be the responsibility of everybody," said Azhar Alberre, the owner of Porgie's Liquor on Main Street. "They say it's a well line, that if you dry it up they'll go somewhere else, but that's not the solution."

Alberre, who has owned Porgie's with her husband for three decades, said the singleserve beverages are a big part of many stores' sales and that the ordinance vilifies customers.

The proposal, she said, is an "eyeopener," and she understands why the city wants to do something about panhandling. Several liquor store owners have been meeting recently to discuss solutions and how they can do their part, such as refusing to sell to customers who are obviously intoxicated.

In an interview, Blewett did not hide his disdain for liquor stores, saying there were too many in Hesperia.

"What they do is they rip off poor people, truthfully," he said. "I'm not going to mince words. They basically take their products and double their price and sell them to people that aren't smart enough to get to a grocery store."

The councilman added that he "doesn't care if people drink as long as they do it responsibly" and that he does not personally drink.

Other cities in San Bernardino County that have restricted sales of singleserve beverages include Victorville, where council members last year upheld the law despite an appeal from a business owner. Victorville's law applied only to new businesses. The proposed Hesperia ordinance would include existing businesses.

At one recent Hesperia City Council meeting, San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department Capt. Nils Bentsen said the ban could help, saying that when alcohol is easily available, it perpetuates problems.

"The taxpayers of Hesperia spend a lot of money dealing with drunk, transient homeless people," he said. He said he's seen people drinking in liquor store parking lots. He mentioned one homeless man by name, saying he watched the man buy a drink from a liquor store then "get drunk and pass out in front of the senior center."

One resident said she worried that banning singleserve drinks would only force people to steal them or to buy larger packages of drinks, getting "even drunker than normal."

At the meeting, Christian Weathers, who works for a wine and spirit distributor, said he was

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/lamehesperiabeer20150720story.html 2/3 7/20/2015 Hesperia councilman proposes singleserve alcoholic beverage ban LA Times disturbed by a paper with "some racial undertones" that was attached to the council ordinance correlating singleserve alcohol sales with gang crimes.

The paper says singleserve cans and bottles of beer "are very popular with youth including minorities, to whom these products are specifically marketed," and that because they are priced low, they are more affordable "for young people who have less disposable income."

The paper has photos of an African American rapper in a malt liquor commercial and of beer for sale in a store with limes next to it, noting that "since Hispanic customers prefer lemon [sic] with some types of beer, one San Bernardino store offers fresh lemons [sic] so that the product can be consumed immediately after purchase."

Blewett said in an interview that the ordinance was not racially motivated.

"This was about homeless people," he said. "This is a matter of what's best for your community.... Those people in the liquor stores couldn't care less about the community."

[email protected]

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/lamehesperiabeer20150720story.html 3/3 7/20/2015 Rancho Cucamonga animal shelter to close Mondays but expand its hours Rancho Cucamonga animal shelter to close Mondays but expand its hours By Liset Marquez , Inland Valley Daily Bulletin sbsun.com

RANCHO CUCAMONGA >> The Animal Care and Adoption Center is expanding its hours, despite closing on Mondays to allow staff to conduct routine facility maintenance and provide individual care for the animals.

The shelter hours will increase, going from 42 hours a week to 48 hours a week, the first week of September, said Veronica Fincher, director of animal services.

The move was approved by the City Council 41 this past week and will not have a fiscal impact on the budget, she said.

Fincher said the extra two hours on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays will be especially crucial to get more visitors to the shelter as well as to improve customer service.

“It gives us a day to deep clean, organize and conduct routine maintenance,” Fincher said, “to be open more hours for the public, especially on the weekend hours.”

Councilman Bill Alexander opposed the move, saying it would create an inconvenience for families looking to adopt pets at the animal shelter.

“I’m not in favor of eliminating the seven days. Most successful shelters that we have seen are seven dayshelters, that’s just my opinion,” he said.

Alexander said he would prefer the shelter stayed open seven days a week and opened earlier in the day.

The shelter hours will be 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Field services officers will continue to work the same hours, taking in stray pets and helping with lost pets on Mondays.

“We have found in our service days we have been able to be very effective, even when we’re closed, helping the members of the public coming to reunite them with their lost pets,” Fincher said.

The shelter will be closed to the public but a skeleton crew in administration will work Mondays. Fincher said staff will also use that day to do some deep cleaning, and have the ability to hold spay and neuter services

It also, she said, “gives us time on the enrichment side to do animal behavior, work with them, and to get to know each animal a little bit more.”

Councilwoman Diane Williams said she was not opposed to the changes but asked that staff http://www.sbsun.com/socialaffairs/20150719/ranchocucamongaanimalsheltertoclosemondaysbutexpanditshours 1/2 7/20/2015 Rancho Cucamonga animal shelter to close Mondays but expand its hours provide a progress report, and what the impact of the changes are, in the next six months.

“To me, the most important thing is the Friday evening, Saturday and Sundays (hours) are vital. If you ever could expand anything it would be expanding the Saturday hours at all,” she said.

Mayor Dennis Michael said he had no problem closing on Mondays since it is the slowest day of the week.

“At the end of the day, you are going to end up enhancing not only the quality of the facility for the people coming in,” he said, “but the quality and the care of the animals that are there until they find their forever home.”

http://www.sbsun.com/socialaffairs/20150719/ranchocucamongaanimalsheltertoclosemondaysbutexpanditshours 2/2 7/20/2015 Print Article: CASSIE MACDUFF: Odd case of man accused of posing as firefighter

CASSIE MACDUFF: Odd case of man accused of posing as firefighter CASSIE MACDUFF 20150717 18:14:44

When David Anthony Battle was found driving a stolen car with a stolen handgun and a stolen Cal Fire radio inside it last month, the 44yearold San Bernardino man had prior criminal convictions in four Southern California counties.

Authorities say he was behind fire lines on June 27 during the Lake fire in the San Bernardino Mountains, posing as a firefighter.

Why would anyone do that? Thrillseeker? Firesetter? Who knows?

But Battle has an unusual criminal history. He’s been charged twice with impersonating a police officer and was sentenced to prison three times for that and other crimes.

Doesn’t California have a Three Strikes law? What was Battle doing out and about, free to commit crimes again?

Besides, impersonating an officer seems like a pretty serious crime, one that could endanger the public.

I asked Chief Deputy DA Simon Umscheid. He said none of the crimes Battle has been convicted of counts as a strike, which is defined as a “serious or violent felony.”

Impersonating a police officer is a misdemeanor.

Battle was convicted in 1998 of a felony: grand theft auto.

His 2003 conviction, in a case that originally alleged impersonating an officer, was pleabargained down to petty theft. He still got four years for it.

Ten years later, when Battle was arrested on suspicion of stealing an unmarked San Bernardino police car, he was sentenced to probation only, despite pleading guilty to grand theft auto.

Why didn’t he go to prison that time? Records that might explain weren’t accessible Friday afternoon.

Umscheid told me law enforcement officials agree impersonating a law officer is a serious crime. They don’t want impostors out there doing traffic stops, arresting people or worse, under false pretenses.

But the law is the law. Battle wasn’t a threestrikes candidate based on his three convictions, and even if he’s convicted in the current case, none of the counts would be a strike.

Now you know the frustrations prosecutors face, Umscheid told me.

Battle remains jailed in San Bernardino County without bail on three felony and two misdemeanor counts, including impersonating a fire officer and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

He faces a maximum of 7 to 9 years if convicted, Umscheid said. http://www.pe.com/common/printer/view.php?db=pressenterprise&id=773719 1/2 7/20/2015 Print Article: CASSIE MACDUFF: Odd case of man accused of posing as firefighter EXPANDING ACCESS

The transparency measures announced recently by Riverside Mayor Rusty Bailey and City Manager John Russo are significant steps forward for the city.

Riverside will begin publishing its council agenda 12 days before each meeting, rather than just the 72 hours required.

That’s great for the public. But it also helps council members who in many cities complain that they receive agendas late Thursday or Friday and must spend the weekends reading hundreds of pages to be ready for a Monday or Tuesday meeting.

The initiative will also end a questionable practice I’ve seen in a number of cities and counties in which staff brings action items at the last minute and tells elected officials they must vote right away or funding for whatever the item is will be lost.

It’s also praiseworthy that Russo is doing away with the practice of dumping council meeting videos after 90 days. Now, they’ll be preserved five years. The videos are a crucial public record; there was no legitimate excuse for destroying them so quickly.

Riverside will also join the 21st century by automating public records requests: People will be able to make requests online as well as check on the city’s progress in producing the records.

The city also will begin televising Planning Commission meetings, and utilities board and police commission meetings.

These steps are not insignificant. They’re not just window dressing. They’re a real breakthrough in making the public’s business more public in Riverside. Bravo.

Contact the writer: 9513689470 or [email protected]

http://www.pe.com/common/printer/view.php?db=pressenterprise&id=773719 2/2 7/20/2015 CSUSB’s Water Resources Institute opens the faucets on decades of data CSUSB’s Water Resources Institute opens the faucets on decades of data By Beau Yarbrough , The Sun sbsun.com

Boykin Witherspoon, director of the Water Resources Institute at Cal State San Bernardino, talks about the institute’s vast archive of resource materials Tuesday. Founded in 1999, Cal State San Bernardino’s Water Resources Institute brings together tens of thousands of documents from nine local water agencies, making more than a century of local water data available to the public. rick sforza — staff photographer

SAN BERNARDINO >> How deep would you have had to dig to reach water in your neighborhood in 1963? Where were the streams the city of San Bernardino paved over decades ago? What do we know about the local water quality when your parents were children?

The Water Resources Institute at Cal State San Bernardino knows the answer.

Hidden away on the fourth floor of the Pfau Library, the institute brings together tens of thousands of documents from nine local water agencies, making up to a century of local water data available to the public.

“It’s the largest collection on the Santa Ana Watershed,” said Suzie Earp, archives manager for the institute. It may even been the largest collection of data relating to water in Southern California.

The institute is working on digitizing all that data, but there are so many documents that employees and the up to 80 paid interns each year are still in the process of just cataloging much of it, 15 years after the institute first opened its doors. And recently, the Salton Sea Authority has made its records available to the institute’s satellite office at the CSUSB Palm Desert campus.

“When it’s part of the CSU library, it’s available in perpetuity,” said Boykin Witherspoon, the institute’s director. “It’s a lot of reports from agencies and also individual engineers.”

The center’s data has been used by academics, regulators and, of course, lawyers. In at least one case, according to Witherspoon, both sides of a water dispute pointed to the same page of the same document from the institute’s records as proof of their claim.

The institute itself is impartial, Witherspoon said, and serves to provide unbiased data and not advocacy. http://www.sbsun.com/generalnews/20150719/csusbswaterresourcesinstituteopensthefaucetsondecadesofdata 1/2 7/20/2015 CSUSB’s Water Resources Institute opens the faucets on decades of data

Witherspoon and Earp hope the data available at the institute will help those working to solve Southern California’s water woes learn from a past that, in many cases, they used to be unaware of.

“It’s history repeating itself,” Witherspoon said, referring to one proposed water project. “They (first) proposed that in 1942.”

The data also provides a bigger picture for agencies that sometimes don’t pay attention to much beyond their own political boundaries.

“Engineers, they can solve anything, but there’s often unintended consequences,” Witherspoon said.

The “lakes” in the San Bernardino Mountains, for instance, are all manmade and were created as reservoirs. It was only later that officials and businessmen realized their recreational possibilities, which now so much of the economy around Big Bear Lake depends upon, for instance.

“Now these documents are accessible,” Earp said. “Anyone from the public can come and look at them.”

Steve Mains, Riversidebased hydrologist, has used WRI data for years

“I’ve been out here in the water business for 40 years and agreements that were written over 100 years ago are still on the front page of the newspaper today,” he said.

Earp recently got him documents on old canals and easements from 1929.

“The project would have been a nogo without it.”

WRI documents help them identify mysterious structures found during construction processes.

“Going back to these primary sources is invaluable.”

For more information, visit wri.csusb.edu or call (909) 5377681.

http://www.sbsun.com/generalnews/20150719/csusbswaterresourcesinstituteopensthefaucetsondecadesofdata 2/2 7/20/2015 L.A. County considers new immigration program for jails in light of S.F. slaying LA Times L.A. County considers new immigration program for jails in light of S.F. slaying

By KATE LINTHICUM AND LEE ROMNEY

JULY 19, 2015, 3:45 PM

t a community meeting in Duarte hosted by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's A Department last week, one name surfaced often. "I'm here because of Kate Steinle's death and because I care about illegal aliens being cut loose and let out on the streets," Orange resident Mike McGetrick told a panel of sheriff's officials who are pondering a shift in policy at the county's jails. "When is the next American citizen going to be murdered?"

When a fivetime deportee with a history of drugrelated felonies was charged in the fatal shooting of 32yearold Kathryn Steinle on a San Francisco pier this month, a debate that had been simmering for years again roared into the national spotlight: Just how much should local law enforcement cooperate with federal immigration authorities?

Juan Francisco LopezSanchez, who has pleaded not guilty to murder, was released from a San Francisco County jail in April despite a request from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that he be detained so that agents from a nearby field office could pick him up.

Before Steinle's death, the debate over which inmates local jails should hand over for deportation was largely the realm of policy wonks and activists. But the killing has pushed the issue into the national spotlight — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has seized on it to call for stricter immigration enforcement — and has focused attention on a new ICE program that officials had been struggling to win support for.

In Los Angeles and across the country, local authorities are deciding to what degree they should participate in ICE's new Priority Enforcement Program. Under the program, ICE asks jails to notify federal agents when inmates flagged for potential deportation are being released, and in some cases asks jails to hold such inmates so federal agents can pick them up.

Top Homeland Security officials had for months been promoting the new program, which began July 2, but had gained little traction. Since Steinle's death, however, the new program has won unexpected support. http://www.latimes.com/local/california/lameimmigrationjails20150720story.html#page=1 1/4 7/20/2015 L.A. County considers new immigration program for jails in light of S.F. slaying LA Times U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (DCalif.), who as mayor of San Francisco in the 1980s supported city policies protecting immigrants who were in the country illegally from discrimination by the city, has called on San Francisco to cooperate with the ICE requests.

The new program replaces ICE's Secure Communities initiative, which was scrapped in November by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who said that program's "very name has become a symbol for general hostility toward the enforcement of our immigration laws."

Under Secure Communities, federal agents routinely requested that jails hold inmates beyond their release dates so ICE could pick them up. Immigrant advocates complained that the practice eroded community trust in police and said thousands of people with no or only minor criminal convictions were deported as a result.

Last year, after a federal court deemed such holds unconstitutional, hundreds of jurisdictions nationwide stopped complying with ICE requests, including most counties in California. Since the beginning of 2014, according to ICE, cities and counties nationwide ignored 17,000 requests that they detain inmates.

The new program does away with most requests that local jails hold people until federal agents can pick them up, opting more often for requests for notification, ICE officials say.

Last week Johnson told a congressional panel that nearly three dozen of the nation's largest counties "have indicated a willingness to participate one way or another" in the PEP program.

Five have said they won't cooperate, and 11 are still deciding, Johnson said.

In California, Los Angeles, Orange and Alameda counties are among those cooperating on some level with the new ICE program, county officials said. San Francisco has refused.

Alameda County Sheriff Gregory J. Ahern said he would comply with ICE's requests for notification but added that his department will "not hold anyone in our custody a minute past their release date or time" without a judicial warrant or order.

ICE officials say the legal system has no mechanism for issuing such orders in routine deportation cases.

At the hearing, Johnson faced heavy criticism from Republicans, who asked why ICE hasn't required local agencies to comply with all aspects of the new program.

"I do not believe that we should mandate the cooperation of state and local law enforcement officials," Johnson said. "I believe that the most effective way to work with jurisdictions, particularly the larger ones, is through a cooperative effort with a program that removes the legal http://www.latimes.com/local/california/lameimmigrationjails20150720story.html#page=1 2/4 7/20/2015 L.A. County considers new immigration program for jails in light of S.F. slaying LA Times and political controversy."

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (DSan Jose) welcomed Johnson's approach, which she called more "respectful to local communities" than previous ICE jails programs. While Secure Communities was at times presented as a mandatory program that local officials had to comply with, the new program acknowledges that local jurisdictions may craft their own policies about what types of criminal convictions would warrant notification, she said.

"Somebody sitting in Washington doesn't know the details of how to do policing in San Jose or San Francisco or Chicago," she said.

For some local officials, giving ICE agents so much as a heads up on release — even for those previously convicted of violent felonies and facing new charges of violence — is unacceptable without a warrant.

"The idea of notifying undermines the interest of limiting compliance with ICE," said San Francisco Supervisor John Avalos.

He is at odds with San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, who told the Board of Supervisors last week that he believes the city should notify federal agents of pending releases "for serious, violent or repeat felons, including those who have previously been deported on multiple occasions."

Many immigrant advocates oppose the new program, which they say continues to blur the line between local police work and federal immigration enforcement and sows mistrust among potential crime victims and witnesses.

Chris Newman, legal director of the Los Angelesbased National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said the "original sin" of both ICE programs "is they convert local criminal law enforcement agencies into civil immigration authorities at the point of arrest."

"Local police and sheriffs have to pick winners and losers in the application of unjust immigration law," Newman said.

In Los Angeles, county supervisors recently voted to instruct Sheriff Jim McDonnell to cooperate with the Priority Enforcement Program. But they also asked him to hold community meetings to map out exactly how to do so.

Sheriff's deputies almost outnumbered members of the public at the meeting in Duarte on Wednesday, where officials solicited public comment about what circumstances would call for the county to honor ICE requests for notifications. The deputies were there to keep the peace after a previous meeting devolved into a shouting match.

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/lameimmigrationjails20150720story.html#page=1 3/4 7/20/2015 L.A. County considers new immigration program for jails in light of S.F. slaying LA Times About halfway through this forum, proimmigrant protesters left to hold a demonstration outside, where they waved signs and chanted "no papers, no fear, immigrants are standing here." They then walked into a busy intersection nearby and refused to budge. Marcela Hernandez, 25, an immigrant brought to the country illegally as a child, said she believes the Sheriff's Department should have no contact at all with federal officials.

Her uncle, she said, was deported after being jailed on minor drug charges.

"He hasn't seen his U.S.citizen children for five years," Hernandez said. "We should help people rehabilitate instead of deporting them."

[email protected] Twitter: @katelinthicum

[email protected] Twitter: @leeromney

Linthicum reported from Los Angeles, Romney from San Francisco.

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/lameimmigrationjails20150720story.html#page=1 4/4 7/20/2015 L.A. County minimum wage hike poised to pass with Solis' support LA Times

L.A. Now California: This just in L.A. County minimum wage hike poised to pass with Solis' support

By ABBY SEWELL

JULY 19, 2015, 9:47 AM

Los Angeles County supervisor who stalled a vote on raising the county minimum wage last month in the face of pushback from small businesses now says she is A prepared to vote for a gradual increase to $15 an hour, giving the proposal the majority vote it needs to pass Tuesday.

Hilda Solis, historically a labor ally, surprised some observers when she appeared to balk at the proposed increase, which would extend the wage hike already approved by the city of Los Angeles to county unincorporated areas. But after commissioning a study of unincorporated area small businesses, Solis said that her concerns had been addressed. Supervisors Sheila Kuehl and Mark RidleyThomas had been prepared to vote for the boost last month.

“Yes, it’s going to happen,” Solis said. “I’ve been supportive since the beginning … but I wanted to make sure that county resources were focused in on how we move through the transition.”

Solis and Supervisor Don Knabe – a Republican who has expressed concerns about the increase – are proposing to create a group to help small businesses through the transition to the higher wage with measures that could include waiving permit fees, streamlining the licensing process and revising the bidding process for county contracts.

Along with the city’s pay increase, the vote to bump the minimum wage in county unincorporated areas will mean that half of the county workforce will be covered by the $15 hourly wage by 2021. The current statewide rate is $9 an hour.

Backers including Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti are hoping that the supervisors’ move will encourage many of the other 87 other cities throughout the county to follow suit, creating a higher regional wage.

The supervisors commissioned a study by the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. earlier http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/lamelncountysupervisorhildasolissaidshewillsupportminimumwageincrease20150719story.html 1/2 7/20/2015 L.A. County minimum wage hike poised to pass with Solis' support LA Times this year to consider potential effects of the wage hike to $15 by 2020 for businesses with more than 25 employees and a year later for smaller businesses. The study included a survey of 1,000 businesses around the county and found that none expected to move or close down as a result of the higher wage. Most said they would pass on the higher costs to customers in increased prices and some said they might cut jobs.

Solis and Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich – who opposes the minimum wage increase – criticized the report for not including specific information on the effect in unincorporated areas like East Los Angeles, a densely populated area in Solis’ district with a high concentration of Latinoowned “momandpop businesses.” Many of those business owners had complained vehemently about the proposed wage increase, saying it would not be possible to raise prices in the workingclass neighborhood enough to offset the higher costs.

County staff canvassed small businesses in unincorporated areas and undertook inperson surveys as part of a followup study requested by Solis and Knabe, while a separate countyfunded telephone survey was conducted by Employment Policies Institute, a conservative thinktank, at Antonovich’s behest.

Among the small businesses surveyed by county staff, about twothirds said they would not cut jobs or hours as a result of the wage increase, while the rest said they would or were undecided. Businesses in the wealthier districts on the Westside were more likely than those in the lower income areas to say that they would cut jobs. The survey also asked business owners what measures the county could take to offset the increased wage costs. The most popular option was cutting permit and license fees, which 69% of business owners said would help. The business owners also asked for relief on fee costs and for tax credits.

The Employment Policies Institute survey came up with starkly different results, finding that 63% of businesses said they were likely to cut hours and 54% likely to reduce staffing levels. Onethird said they might consider relocating to an area with a lower minimum wage.

The supervisors are set to vote on the minimum wage Tuesday, along with separate proposals that would increase base pay for county contractors and look at ways to enforce wage rules countywide.

[email protected]

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/lamelncountysupervisorhildasolissaidshewillsupportminimumwageincrease20150719story.html 2/2 7/20/2015 Sacramento miscalculated years of pension payments for some city retirees | The Sacramento Bee

THE PUBLIC EYE JULY 18, 2015 Sacramento miscalculated years of pension payments for some city retirees

HIGHLIGHTS Nearly a quarter of former city employees in old retirement system affected

Most were overpaid after age 62; some were underpaid

Pension system not seeking repayment from overpaid retirees who sign agreement

Retired city of Sacramento employees have been receiving incorrect pay - some getting too much, others too little - for several years, an audit shows. | Jose Luis Villegas - [email protected]

http://www.sacbee.com/news/investigations/thepubliceye/article27665161.html 1/8 7/20/2015 Sacramento miscalculated years of pension payments for some city retirees | The Sacramento Bee

BY MARISSA LANG [email protected]

The letters came without warning, notices from the city of Sacramento alerting retirees to an unsettling reality: For years, their pension checks had been wrong.

About 5 percent of the 1,141 retirees that remain in the old Sacramento City Employees Retirement System, or SCERS, learned they had been underpaid for as long as a decade.

Others, nearly 18 percent of SCERS recipients, had been overpaid. And, the notices said, the city had the right to demand that money back.

Some retirees told The Sacramento Bee they saw thousands of dollars in extra cash coming in year after year.

“What the city has done for that many years sets a precedent,” said former water and sewer employee Steven Brachais. “They’re calling it a miscalculation and a clerical error. Excuse me, but for what? Thirteen years? With retirees, every penny counts. They gave bonuses to some and left the rest of us out in the cold.”

Combined, the city overpaid by $2.8 million and underpaid by $247,000 over the last three years – the time frame examined by an outside audit. But the mistakes are believed to have occurred since at least 2005.

Officials said the city’s financial mismanagement of SCERS was first discovered in a routine audit of the city’s finances in July 2013. In a random sample of retiree benefits, 13 cases were examined. Of those, auditors at Bartel Associates Inc. reported, just two had no issues at all.

“The remaining 11 had issues serious enough that the retirement calculation was incorrect in some way,” the audit states. “This would appear to be a serious oversight in the benefit calculation process, and is likely resulting in benefits that are not being paid in accordance with the terms of the City Charter.”

Several issues contributed to the miscalculations, a subsequent audit found, including human error and city employees being unfamiliar with the SCERS system. The most egregious was that the city had not reduced pension payments at age 62 for early retirees, a change that is supposed to account for the start of Social Security income.

http://www.sacbee.com/news/investigations/thepubliceye/article27665161.html 2/8 7/20/2015 Sacramento miscalculated years of pension payments for some city retirees | The Sacramento Bee

In the time since, city officials said, changes have been made to the SCERS system to prevent future errors, pension plans have been adjusted, and hundreds of former Sacramento employees signed a settlement agreement that ensured they wouldn’t be forced to return the overpayments to the city if they gave up their right to sue.

“The city shall waive the overpayment of benefits to each claimant who signs a release and delivers it to the city” by June 30, the settlement said. “The city will pay each claimant a lump sum amount reflecting the underpayment of benefits over a three year period plus 6.5 percent interest upon receipt of a release.”

All SCERS recipients affected by the errors will see their retirement checks change starting Aug. 1.

About 10 percent of the people affected by the city’s mistakes refused to sign the agreement. Brachais was one. He said he felt cheated out of the accidental bonuses received by others.

But many of those who were overpaid lamented that they have to adjust their spending habits and lifestyle to accommodate a smaller paycheck they had not expected.

“This was a bona fide disaster for some people,” said former Director of Labor Relations Dee Contreras, a retiree who now sits on the board of the Sacramento Retired City Employees Association.

Contreras, who is a part of a different pension plan, negotiated with the city on behalf of SCERS recipients.

“People sat in front of me and cried and talked about how they weren’t going to be able to live,” she said. “One man said he was trying to tell (the city) that something was wrong for four years. And they said, ‘Don’t worry about it,’ so he finally bought a piece of property and moved into a house with that money. Now, he said, he’s not going to be able to pay his mortgage.”

Those who were being underpaid will have their pensions adjusted up; those who were overpaid will see theirs adjusted down.

“I’m going to be taking a $70 deduction,” said retired dispatcher Luellen Pettengell, the president of the Sacramento Retired City Employees Association. “Some people are going to be seeing hundreds of dollars come out of their checks each month. I’m one of the lucky

http://www.sacbee.com/news/investigations/thepubliceye/article27665161.html 3/8 7/20/2015 Sacramento miscalculated years of pension payments for some city retirees | The Sacramento Bee

ones. I can handle a $70 decline in a pension. There’s going to be some people who won’t have as easy of a time making ends meet.”

The most notable error was the failure to reduce paychecks at age 62. For more than 200 early retirees, that never happened.

Those who retired after age 62 automatically had their pensions reduced to account for Social Security. But those who retired before age 62 were supposed to have their benefits adjusted later.

Several retirees said they told the city about errors with their checks. Some, who had anticipated an offset when they turned 62, said they were afraid the city would ask for the money back.

Others had no idea anything was amiss. The first they heard of it was when the letters went out in May.

“It’s like a shotgun wedding with the pressure the city’s put on us,” said a 62-year-old retired utilities worker who declined to be named out of fear of retribution. “If I sign this thing, I’m giving them permission to cut my pension. If I don’t, they can do it anyway and then ask me to pay them money back after they screwed up.”

Human Resources Manager Ken Cosgrove said it’s “unclear” how long pension recipients had been over- and underpaid. City spokeswoman Linda Tucker said 202 retirees were overpaid a total of $100 or more, and 61 were underpaid $100 or more. The city wouldn’t specify exact amounts.

The money used in the overpayments came out of the SCERS retirement fund, which was grown from contributions of city workers and the city itself. About 20 current employees are still paying into SCERS. All other city employees are covered by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System.

Sacramento in 1977 began to move employees to CalPERS’ system, so SCERS only serves those hired by the city before then.

Besides the Social Security mistake, issues discovered in the audit included incorrect payments based on an outdated gender adjustment related to women’s longer life expectancy, human error while inserting data into spreadsheets, missing paperwork and inaccurate calculations.

http://www.sacbee.com/news/investigations/thepubliceye/article27665161.html 4/8 7/20/2015 Sacramento miscalculated years of pension payments for some city retirees | The Sacramento Bee

Cosgrove said the administration of SCERS has been shifted to the city’s finance department and that an employee would be designated to handle that system, specifically, in an attempt to mitigate future errors.

Overpaid retirees who refused to sign the settlement may be vulnerable should the city decide to collect misspent money, Contreras said. Underpaid retirees, like Brachais, who refused to sign the settlement reserved their right to sue the city for money lost in the mix- up.

“It’s a value judgment,” Contreras said. “If (the city) is willing to give you $3,000 now, and you think you’re entitled to $5,000 total, sure you can sue. But they’re not going to pay you that until litigation is over.”

But Brachais said it’s the principle that matters.

“Everything ought to be fair,” he said. “I put my time in, these people put their time in; we all deserve what we’re owed.”

City officials declined to discuss the terms or consequences of the settlement agreement, citing potential litigation.

Marissa Lang: (916) 321-1038; @Marissa_Jae

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