Inland Empire Progressive

Ranking Structure Reform is one of the most direct ways to cut cost in the defense department. The current ranking structure is too bureaucratic in both the enlisted and officer ranks. Getting rid of the rank of Private and 2nd Lieutenant will save several million dollars in personnel costs because they are duplicate ranks. I would try to reform the current ranks from the current 9 grades down to 6. I would also reform the General Ranks from the current 4 down to 2. I remember a little ditty that I was taught in the Marine Corps to remember the General Ranks: Be My Little General. Which is acronym for Brigadier General, Major General, Lieutenant General, and General.

Another Blog Post, another bash on Public Safety Unions. Why you may ask, do I hold such animosity toward these folks? Is it because I hate Unions. No, being a Progressive I believe in economic equality and Public Safety does hard work. However, public safety has been quite Conservative and even votes against their own economic interest which is odd to me. I hold such animosity for one reason: Political Power. Political Power It is no secret that the Public Safety Unions hold considerable sway over San Bernardino. We are a poor community with our median income at approximately $36K. Some of the members of the Public Safety Union make roughly 2-3 times that much, with the Union taking a bi-weekly or monthly cut of that. That is a considerable amount of cash at the end of the year. Combine that with the fact that they are the most organized force and we hold off year elections (non-gubernatorial or presidential), their power has just been multiplied exponentially. You can tell t...

My embrace of localism was a process that developed over time. When I first became engaged in political activity I didn't pay attention to what was happening locally. I was too focused on what was happening nationally. But as I became more active and participated in local activist activity, I heard a constant refrain about the city that I lived in. San Bernardino was ghetto, and it was violent, and it was impoverished, etc. Then I heard it again in Op-Eds and reporting in both of our local newspapers. It was a constant badgering of negativity and no one was stepping up to defend or protect San Bernardino. Most of its residents either didn't care, were oblivious, or were part of the defamation and degradation process. I said to myself enough is enough, someone has to defend San Bernardino's honor and that was my beginning of the embrace of localism. At first, I defended San Bernardino in the online arena trying to lance every negative boil that appeared. As I learned mor...

I lament the fact that the political leaders in this city of mine continue to disregard data that will help build this community into a 21st Century All American City. By now they should all know the statistical data necessary  to establish a foundation for the necessary economic growth, at least I hope so. Nonetheless, I want to make clear what I want to see going forward. These things I will push for politically (running for office or trying to recruit others to run) because that is the only forum where these folks seem to pay the most attention. I know some of the economic policies I pursue will be unpopular, but they are necessary to begin a discuss about where we as a community would like to see ourselves going. Local Control A new localism must be established in order to secure precious sales tax revenue in our city. I want to educate folks that a lot of our money should reside here, in San Bernardino. A 70/30 split is necessary in the formative years because as our sal...

Fontana has always been heavily Democratic as you can see by their Voter Registration. However, until relatively recently a good majority of local elected officials have been Republicans. I feel this will change as Fontana's Democratic political establishment matures.  There were relatively few re-registers in the 2010 Conservative wave, even though Republican registration peaked around November 2010. These were probably from new registrants. It must be that registration (especially the paid kind) can lead to false positives. Democrats have been known to re-register (or be re-registered) as Republicans in order to help someone make a dollar.  No Voter Preference continues to make a steady climb regardless of where the political wind shifts.  

With the Republican Party in shambles nationally and near irrelevance in California, they are seeking a new strategy to reach out to Latinos and Asians before these groups become like African Americans. African Americans turned from the party of Lincoln as the Republicans turned away from their Upper-Midwest and East Coast beginnings to a Strong Southern and Western strategy. However, even the West is leaving the Republican embrace of extremism. I can't say how long African Americans will continue to adhere to the Democratic Party in strong numbers, but after the election of the President Barack Obama you can say that it will be for some time to come. Republicans, sensing this, will absolutely attempt to foist a Hispanic in 2016 to try to appeal to this demographic. They do have a strong field of potential candidates going forward, with many possible choices. However,  while they will have a Latin face their policies on issues will still resemble the issues of their bas...

Bonds are a complicated feature of public finance, even after reading some books on finance and studying public budgets it can be hard to account for how much a bond release costs. But it would seem to me that if interest payments are equal to the principal then you walk away from the deal. These are not even standard bonds, these are Capital Appreciation Bonds; the same bonds that have been in the news and caused problems at Poway Unified School District where the school district owes $1 Billion Dollars on a $100 Million Dollar bond loan. From the Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports of 2011 : In October 2005, the City issued City of San Bernardino Taxable Pension Obligation Bonds, 2005 SeriesA, consisting of $36,050,000 principal amount of Taxable Pension Obligation Bonds, Series A-1 (standard bonds) and $14,351,583 principal amount of Taxable Pension Obligation Bonds, 2005 Series A-2 (capital appreciation bonds). The City issued the bonds in order to prepay its unfund...

I screen-shot this from the San Bernardino City Police Crime Mapper. I chose to do the homicide rate because it is more accurate than other forms of crime. As, you most homicides are clustered around Waterman Ave. and Baseline St. We have to develop a comprehensive plan that involves churches, non-profits, large/small businesses, and government. These resources should be leveraged to let those residents know that we have a presence in that part of the community. This will help reduce crime and increase trust between the residents and the San Bernardino Police Department by helping them develop resources.

Rep. Gary Miller's stance on Immigration is this: Deport them from home, kill them abroad. Why else would Mr. Miller maintain a silence on immigration and the 14th Amendment. His silence is a sign of disrespect for the Mexican immigrants who came here for a better life and helped build the Inland Empire. And this is just at home. His steadfast and unwavering support for the NRA and a bastardized interpretation of the 2nd Amendment allows gun manufacturers to supply Mexican Drug Cartels with no impunity. Killing approx. 60,000 Mexican citizens in violence.

A motivating speech, for a motivating time.

  The Rio Ranch Market on Highland and Sterling Ave is not renewing its lease on the property pod. They could not compete against the Walmart Neighborhood Market that opened across the street. Rio Rancho attempted to compete by establishing a Persian and Middle Eastern food section, but in the end it wasn't enough. In essence the planning commission replaced one empty building with another. I hope next time they take a look at the territory before they decide to put another grocer to fill that spot.  

Mac Taylor the influential legislative analyst has guarded optimism about Gov. Jerry Brown's budget. While biased toward the downside, California Democrats in the legislature would do well to heed his advice this time. He sees (and I concur) a lot of volatility due to outside forces (Washington DC and the fiscal cliff) and our tax code. If Dems want revenue, they should go bold on stabilizing our revenue base. I think that would be a smart move politically and might actually achieve some revenue enhancements with little political cost.

When I read the CalPERs response to Dan Borestein's column, I was outraged and disheartened. Pension spiking is one of the most egregious forms of greed imaginable. Executive and management pay has extra perks that come with the entrapments of being in those positions, and those extra perks can be used as extra compensation when those folks retire. However, rank and file employees receive little or no perks in there positions. In addition, cuts always start at the bottom when it comes to balancing a budget and the newest employee or the long time part-time employee is the first to go. Now CalPERs interpreted the new rules the state legislature has just passed on pensions to include carve outs for certain perks that are received by employees. Abuse is almost certain because the most shady of executives and managers will come up with ways to exploit those loopholes in the system. Changing the name of a job title or a perk is one of the ways this could happen. For exa...

After the '08 election, I began collecting voter registration data on individual cities. I wanted to do it by districts to make it easier, but because districts change and cities are more permanent I collected it by city. My earliest data-point starts in Aug '09 because all that earlier data got corrupted on my flash drive and I had no backup. (A lesson learned the hard way to always backup your important documents.) Some key points are below the graphs. Colton NVP Minimal decline of registration in conservative wave of '10 Resumes course early '11 and continues sloping climb Began 3300 Ended 4100 +800 gain '09 level DEM Nadir was around Aug '10 Slight gains in '11 Online Registration pushed levels above '09 Began 9900 Ended 10200 +300 gain above '09 level REP Sharp spike in '10 due to Conservative angst at President Obama Slight drop off after '10 election Online registration lifted R...

For Rep. Gary Miller's vote on the fiscal cliff deal, a muted but sincere applause is necessary. The Senate saved the day by cutting a deal with Obama (with Mr. Biden as lead negotiator). Approximately 80+ House Republicans joined the overwhelmingly majority of House Democrats in voting to avoid the fiscal cliff, and Rep. Gary Miller was among them so it is well deserved. However, Mr. Miller was not happy. He authorized a press release that stated the administration has failed to outline a spending reduction plan and the standard boiler plate of out of control government spending. What he failed to outline to the folks in the 31st Congressional District is that constitutionally, all spending bills must originate in the House of Representatives. It seems to Conservatives, only the 2nd Amendment is constitutionally sacrosanct. In addition, he failed to mention that the Conservative solutions to our so called "spending" problem are politically unpopular. Yet, Mr. M...

Source: Census Bureau We might be an old city, but we are a young in terms of population. Contrary to common belief, the majority of San Bernardino's population is younger than 34 years of age. Approx. 60% of residents to be exact. It is no wonder that our city is a rough one. We have an unemployment rate of 14.8% as of December 21st. With this many young people fighting for limited resources, it should be expected that some violence should occur. Policies need to be develop that are targeted to youth. Our current council still perpetrates the myth that we are an old folks city. Child care is needed for working families. Job training is needed to increase our skill set. Political leadership is necessary to outline a direction of they type of skill set is needed. The political leaders in San Bernardino need to recognize our diversity and set policy accordingly.

Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.   George Bernard Shaw   *Update: Original Video was removed, because original recorder violated third party copyright issues.   In the past, Mr. Penman was probably a good man. No, he was probably a great man. He was a fighter of corruption and a stalwart defender of San Bernardino. He stopped politicians from taking advantage of San Bernardino by taking on corruption head on. What happened to that man and when I do not know. For a younger generation of San Bernardino residents, all we see from Mr. Penman is unethical conduct and irresponsible behavior. It seems that he and his supporters have a disdain and contempt for San Bernardino that is unprecedented. Even though they are the ones in power, can influence policy, and are the so called political leadership in this city it seems it is in their self interest to perpetuate San Bernardino as a slum. Th...

I was ambivalent about this at first, but after looking at  this  website, I became convinced that we as residents, occupants, and citizens of San Bernardino need to do something to reform to alter this situation. When a Fire Chief makes almost as much as the President of the United States (salary $400,000) then something needs to be done to alter the way we do business in San Bernardino.  These unelected  folks make more than any elected official currently in office including the mayor and city attorney. These highly paid folks say they got our back, but I ask you this: Are you better off than you were a year ago? 3 years ago? 5 years ago? It seems that no matter how many highly paid public safety officials we have, we still have a bad reputation of high crime, poverty, and low educational mobility. Our elected officials seem to not give a damn about the concerns of the people of San Bernardino, public safety owns them, while our streets lie in ruins an...