Posts Tagged: bernardino

News

Firefighters to drones: Buzz off

A drone and its master. (Photo: Ahturner)

Efforts to contain a July 12 brush fire in San Bernardino County were delayed for eight crucial minutes after response crews spotted a hobbyist’s drone flying close to the fire area. The drone, which US Forest Service officials suspect may have been recording footage of the fire, eventually flew off, allowing grounded air crews to resume. For firefighters, those lost minutes can be devastating as they try to contain a wildfire.

News

Contracting out, bankrupt San Bernardino cuts pension costs

On the outskirts of San Bernardino. (Photo: Steve Heap)

A San Bernardino plan to exit bankruptcy follows the path of the Vallejo and Stockton exit plans, cutting bond debt and retiree health care but not pensions. Then it veers off in a new direction: contracting for fire, waste management and other services. The contract services are expected to reduce city pension costs. Other pension savings come from a sharp increase in employee payments toward pensions and from a payment of only 1 percent on a $50 million bond issued in 2005 to cover pensions costs.

News

San Bernardino voters reject effort to halt automatic pay hikes for police

Calpensions: (UPDATE: Measure Q was rejected by a final vote of 55 percent “no” and 45 percent “yes.”) The city charter has forced San Bernardino to give police two pay raises since declaring bankruptcy, one costing $1 million and the other $1.3 million. Voters were asked to change the charter and prevent a third automatic pay raise.

News

CalPERS, San Berdoo agree on pension-debt payoff

Bankrupt San Bernardino announced an agreement with CalPERS last week to pay off an unprecedented pension debt owed for skipping payments to the pension fund for a year — $13.5 million, plus several million more in penalties and interest. Details of the agreement reached in closed mediation were not released. But the city said in a court filing the CalPERS agreement “will help form the basis” for a debt-cutting plan needed to exit bankruptcy.

News

Bankrupt San Berdoo gives police $1 million raise — again

Following the city charter, a reluctant San Bernardino city council last week approved a police pay raise costing about $1 million, the second $1 million police salary increase since the city filed for bankruptcy last year. The four council members who voted for the 3 percent pay hike all criticized a city charter provision linking San Bernardino to the average police pay in 10 other cities, most much wealthier with higher per-capita income.

News

Casinos may stray from the reservation*

(Ed’s Note: The following article originally appeared in California City News, a content partner of Capitol Weekly.)

Another off-reservation tribal casino has been approved in California, and there’s more to come: Three others are contemplated across the state from northern California to nearly the Mexican border.

Weeks ago the Legislature approved the governor’s compact with

News

Ethnic groups expand beyond their historic bases

California is the most ethnically diverse place in the world.  From corner to corner, across its coastline, valleys, deserts and mountains there is just about every type of voter in the state.  From the strong Republican rural communities along the Nevada border to urban Democrats in Los Angeles and San Francisco the state typifies diversity.

News

Key figure in Stockton bankruptcy plans to retire

A key planner of the Stockton bankruptcy, City Manager Bob Deis, plans to retire on Nov. 1, shortly before what could be a crucial public vote on a sales tax increase that has split the city council.

 

Deis battled with a police union that bought a house next to his home and subpoenaed his

News

New law blocks supplemental public pensions

A little-known private firm that has sold customized supplemental pensions to dozens of California cities, including bankrupt Stockton and San Bernardino, is prohibited from selling more by a pension reform bill that took effect this year.

 

Public Agency Retirement Services or PARS, sounding close to the “PERS” in CalPERS, can continue to offer other

News

Remembering John Quimby

John P. Quimby, a craggy Capitol fixture for five decades as first a legislator and then a lobbyist for the Inland Empire, died December 23 of complications from pneumonia. He was 77.

 

A Democratic Assemblyman from 1962 to 1974, he subsequently lobbied for the counties he previously represented, San Bernardino and Riverside.

 

“Politics

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