County Grand Jury reports on IFPD

For the third time in three years, a Riverside County Grand Jury has investigated and issued a report about the operations of the Idyllwild Fire Protection District (IFPD).

The Grand Jury addressed five separate issues. The general themes were how the board conducts its business and oversight of operations; although one specific recommendation concerned Commissioner Dr. Charles “Chip” Schelly’s dual relationship as commissioner and paid-call firefighter.

The preponderance of the report addressed the IFPD Commission’s responsibilities for financial oversight of the agency’s operation and its own responsibilities as a Brown Act body.

Recommendations No. 4 (Brown Act compliance) and No. 6 (a cost analysis of services) are essentially a reiteration of recommendations from 2008, which the Grand Jury felt had not been effectively handled.

The six areas, which the Grand Jury investigated and issued recommendations for are summarized below:

1.Inadequate Financial Bookkeeping System — implement a double-entry bookkeeping system for recording financial transactions and internal controls to maintain adequate records

2. and 3. Annual Audits and Lack of Compliance with Requirements of AR IFPD #107 — [commission] members attend mandatory annual training to review and discuss the requirements in AR IFPD #107

4.Violation of the Brown Act — comply with the provisions of the Brown Act at all times and receive annual training on the Brown Act to minimize any violations

5. Conflict of Interest by a Board Member — elected official on the IFPD Board must resolve the current conflict of interest

6. Use of Volunteers and/or Cal-Fire — hire a consulting firm to conduct a cost analysis for:

• IFPD and Cal-Fire

• Ambulance Service

• Career Firefighters and Volunteers

As of this posting, Friday afternoon, none of the commissioners were available to comment on the report.

Since 2005, Riverside Grand Juries have issued four reports about the county Sheriff’s Department and two reports each on the Moreno Valley School District and the Blythe Airport. These are the only other public agencies to have been investigated more than once during the past six years.

Click here to download the Grand Jury Report.

Gov vetos budget

Today, Gov. Edmund G. Brown, Jr. vetoed the state budget, which the state legislature adopted yesterday. The state Legislature complied with Proposition 25, approved in Nov. 2010, requiring that a fiscal year budget be adopted prior to June 15, otherwise legislators would not receive their salaries.

The Legislature adopted a budget that eliminated a $10 billion gap between revenues and expenses on a simple majority vote, without any Republican support.

Local Assemblyman Brian Nestande (R 64) supports the governor’s decision, “Obviously, the governor is dedicated to a no BS budget,” Nestande said today.

More than a billion dollars of taxes and fees were part of the package, including a new $150 fee on property owners with structures within a state responsibility area (SRA).

According to Riverside County Fire Chief John Hawkins, Idyllwild and Pine Cove are within a SRA. The legislation defines a structure as “building used or intended to be used for human habitation. ”A mobile home or manufactured home specifically qualify as structures. Any building that would require no fire protection would be exempt.

The fee’s future is in abeyance because of Brown’s veto. Nestande believes that this fee, which is new and not an extension of an existing tax, should be approved by two-thirds of the Legislature. If it were enacted, Nestande expects a legal challenge to its legality.

Governor’s Veto message:

“I am returning Senate Bill 69 and Assembly Bill 98 without my signature.

“In January, I presented a balanced budget solution with a mix of deep spending cuts and temporary tax extensions subject to voter approval. My plan would put these extended revenues in a lockbox, ensuring that they are only used to protect education and public safety. It would also address California’s long term fiscal crisis by substantially paying down the $35 billion wall of debt built up over the last decade.

“Yet Republicans in the Legislature blocked the right of the people to vote on this honest, balanced budget.

“Meanwhile, Democrats in the Legislature made valiant efforts to address California’s budget crisis by enacting $11 billion in painful cuts and other solutions. I commend them for their tremendous efforts to balance the budget in the absence of Republican cooperation.

“Unfortunately, the budget I have received is not a balanced solution. It continues big deficits for years to come and adds billions of dollars of new debt. It also contains legally questionable maneuvers, costly borrowing and unrealistic savings. Finally, it is not financeable and therefore will not allow us to meet our obligations as they occur.

“We can – and must – do better. A balanced budget is critical to our economic recovery. I am, once again, calling on Republicans to allow the people of California to vote on tax extensions for a balanced budget and significant reforms. They should also join Democrats in supporting job creation and ending tax breaks for out-of-state companies. If they continue to obstruct a vote, we will be forced to pursue deeper and more destructive cuts to schools and public safety– a tragedy for which Republicans will bear full responsibility.”

New state fire protection fees

Yesterday, the state legislature complied with the November proposition requiring that a fiscal year budget be adopted prior to June 15. The legislature adopted a budget that eliminated a $10 billion gap between revenues and expenses on a simple majority vote, without any Republican support.

More than a billion dollars of taxes and fees were part of the package, including a new $150 fee on property owners with structures within a state responsibility area (SRA).

According to Riverside County Fire Chief John Hawkins, Idyllwild and Pine Cove are within a SRA. The legislation defines a structure as “building used or intended to be used for human habitation.” a mobile home or manufactured home specifically qualify as structures. Any building that would require no fire protection would be exempt.

The fee will go into effect this fall if Gov. Jerry Brown signs the legislation. He has 12 days to make his decision.

Idyllwild 2011 special district elections

Special District elections.

Tricia Clark, local real estate agent will succeed Ron Korman on the Fern Valley Water District board of directors. During the extension period, she was the only resident to file papers for candidacy. The Board of Supervisors will appointed her and incumber Diana Johnson for term beginning December 2, 2011.

None of the three local water districts will need a vote to select the next group of directors since the number of candidates equals the number of seats up for election in each district.

As we reported Wednesday, the newly re-elected Directors for the Idyllwild Water District will be Jim Billman, W. Warren Monroe and Allan Morphett. For the Pine Cove Water District, Directors Mike Esnard and Tom McCullough are re-elected.

The Idyllwild Fire Protection District will have an election to fill two seats from six candidates — incumbents Pete Capparelli and Paul Riggi and challengers Jerry Buchanan, Larry Donahoo, Paul Miglin and Mark Spehar.

tape recording a meeting: Calif law

California Penal code section 630 to 638 addresses the topic 

of eavesdropping or illegally recording a conversation (or meeting). 

Below I have copied sections 632 (a) to (f).

Please not that 632 (a) is clear that consent is needed. But the issue 

really turns on whether the individuals had an expectation of a 

confidential communication (632 (c)).

Government Code section 54953.5 (of the Brown Act) specifically 

states that open and public meetings of a legislative body of a

local agency may be recorded (audio or video). The seniors’ meeting

 at Town Hall are not an extension of local public agency.

Since several now feel uncomfortable returning to Town Hall, 

one night infer that they were expecting their meeting to be 

confidential, i.e., limited to the participants. But I’m neither 

a lawyer or judge.

 632.  (a) Every person who, intentionally and without the 

consent of all parties to a confidential communication, by means of 

any electronic amplifying or recording device, eavesdrops upon 

or records the confidential communication, whether the communication

 is carried on among the parties in the presence of one another or 

by means of a telegraph, telephone, or other device, except a radio, 

shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand five hundred

 dollars ($2,500), or imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one 

year, or in the state prison, or by both that fine and imprisonment. If 

the person has previously been convicted of a violation of this section

 or Section 631, 632.5, 632.6, 632.7, or 636, the person shall be punished

 by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000), by 

imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one year, or in

 the state prison, or by both that fine and imprisonment.    

(b) The term "person" includes an individual, business association, 

partnership, corporation, limited liability company, or other l

egal entity, and an individual acting or purporting to act for 

or on behalf of any government or subdivision thereof, whether 

federal, state, or local, but excludes an individual known by all 

parties to a confidential communication to be overhearing or r

ecording the communication.    

(c) The term "confidential communication" includes 

any communication carried on in circumstances as 

may reasonably indicate that any party to the communication 

desires it to be confined to the parties thereto, but excludes a

 communication made in a public gathering or in any legislative, 

judicial, executive or administrative proceeding open to the 

public, or in any other circumstance in which the parties to the 

communication may reasonably expect that the communication 

may be overheard or recorded.   

(d) Except as proof in an action or prosecution for violation

 of this section, no evidence obtained as a result of 

eavesdropping upon or recording a confidential communication

 in violation of this section shall be admissible in any judicial, 

administrative, legislative, or other proceeding.    

(e) This section does not apply (1) to any public utility engaged

 in the business of providing communications services and 

facilities, or to the officers, employees or agents thereof, 

where the acts otherwise prohibited by this section are for the 

purpose of construction, maintenance, conduct or operation of the 

services and facilities of the public utility, or (2) to the use of any 

instrument, equipment, facility, or service furnished and used pursuant

 to the tariffs of a public utility, or (3) to any telephonic communication 

system used for communication exclusively within a state, county, 

city and county, or city correctional facility.    

(f) This section does not apply to the use of hearing aids and 

similar devices, by persons afflicted with impaired hearing, for 

the purpose of overcoming the impairment to permit the hearing 

of sounds ordinarily audible to the human ear.

Ramona Bowl concert — Riverside County Philharmonic

Third District Supervisor Jeff Stone is sponsoring a performance of the Riverside county Philharmonic Orchestra. The event is 8 p.m., Saturday, June 18 at the Ramona Bowl Amphitheatre in Hemet. Supervisor Stone has 100 free tickets for this performance and is offering them to the Idyllwild community.

If you are interested in attending this performance, please call Lori VanArsdale, Ramona Bowl director, at (951) 492-8344.

Santa Rosa Mtn fire

Veronica Alt shared the attached photo of a fire and smoke near Santa Rosa Mountain in Pinyon.


According to John Miller, deputy public affairs officer for the San Bernardino National Forest, said it is about a quarter of an acre. Although on Forest Service land, the Bureau of Land Management is responsible for managing this fires in this area, according to Dan Felix, San Jacinto Ranger District Fire Chief.

The Forest Service helicopter crew was the first on scene and reported the blaze.