City housing funds put on hold
RIALTO: A budget review found the money should have been awarded in a more competitive process.10:00 PM PST on Tuesday, December 19, 2006
San Bernardino County supervisors Tuesday delayed a vote on whether to divert nearly $1 million initially destined for a housing program in Rialto.
The item was one of nine postponed or removed from the Board of Supervisors' agenda Tuesday.
Among the items pushed back until at least January were: a $720,000 three-year extension for the county's Sacramento lobbying firm Platinum Advisors; a $45,000 deal to study remodeling at the assessor's office; and a public hearing on a proposed open-air sludge-treatment plant in rural Hinkley.
The housing money initially was slated to help provide health and social services in the Willow-Winchester area of Rialto through a program coordinated by the nonprofit Southern California Housing Development Corp.
The organization and the city are investing nearly $40 million to buy and rehabilitate 160 apartment units and to build a community center.
Supervisors inserted the $975,000 into the Economic Development Agency's budget earlier this year at the request of 1st District Supervisor Bill Postmus' office.
But Postmus' office also asked for an item on Tuesday's agenda to shift the money back to the county general fund, officials said.
Economic-development officials conducted a review and found that funding for it should have been awarded through a more competitive process, Brian McGowan, the Economic Development Agency's director, said last week.
Still, Southern California Housing officials were dismayed to learn the county was considering taking the funding away.
"We have already made a significant investment of time and money to get this community center and series of community programs off the ground," Rebecca Clark, the company's president, said in a statement. "Without the county's funding, the ability to sustain these programs in the future is in doubt."
The money would help fund after-school, job-training and crime-prevention programs, Clark said.
Southern California Housing was founded by Jeff Burum, who also serves as co-managing partner for developer Colonies Partners. The county on Nov. 28 agreed to pay Colonies $102 million to end a four-year legal battle over flood-control easements.
Supervisor Josie Gonzales, who represents Rialto, said her office did not request the funding or seek to have it diverted.
The overall Willow-Winchester project is a worthy effort that the county has supported with funding in the past, Gonzales said.
Her office did seek answers about the program, mainly because questions were bound to arise because of Burum and Colonies, Gonzales' chief of staff Bob Page said.
If Postmus' office wanted to direct funds to Gonzales' district, she was not going to stand in the way, Page said earlier.
"We know there is a need in that community for programming and services," Page said Tuesday.
Reach Duane W. Gang at 909-806-3062 or dgang@PE.com
BS Ranch Perspective:
I know that they did this very thing when it came to the apartments in the 200 Block of N. Glenwood, Teakwood, Beachwood, & Lorraine Place. The turn around was instant, but the project was not such a success that they are touting it to be. There are still some Gang Members that are Paroled in the apartment complex located on Glenwood, but the management of that area has been very cooperative with the Police Department and when the Gang member has been noticed hanging around with this own or just doing anything that is suspicious in any way, that Non-Profit Property Management will evict that person on a dime, then they will notify the parolee's Parole agent that they keep on file, and tell him that he had to be evicted because he was hanging around with his old friends, then he will be back in Prison wondering what happened, so in many ways that Non-Profit Management Group is very good, but there are faults, just like there are many faults in many of the things that are set up today. Other then the mild Faults, the Non-Profit Management is the best way to go, They are the fairest when it comes to the people that are renting from them, and they do not tolerate, anything that is out of the ordinary, for very long, they will evict your Ass right onto the street in a hurry.
Now, they are working to get funding that is due to them from the County that is paid to the County from the State of California, but the County is being stingy right now about the money that is typed set for them, they are going to take the San Bernardino County Supervisors to Court I hope and make them, bend over and grab their ankles, if you know what I mean!! The old Fashioned Way!! Yep, an old Fashion Court Room Spanking is what the Supervisors need in a time like this.
I am shocked and surprised that they are doing this, but I know what or why that they are doing it, and it has to do with Politics. They wanted to Be the Law Enforcement Entity for the City of Rialto! I am talking of Coarse the Contract with the Sheriff Department for Law Enforcement, which fell through last year, and they were angry that they didn't get their hands on the Over $3.4 Million Dollars from the City of Rialto to pay the Sheriff's Department for Law Enforcement in the City of Rialto!!
As we all know that the County is much more suited for Jail duty and the service of said jail, It is a shame that they are going to try to scare the City Council by with holding all his money for the clean up of the apartments that they Imminent Domain and were going to sell or Donate to the Low Income, Non-Profit Organization that specializes in the security and safety for a single mother and her children to live, with out the worries of Gangs and etc etc... The Rent is regulated since they are a Non-Profit Organization they operate on donations and State Funding not to mention the rent payment from each month to month tenant that lives safely within their Apartment Complexes.
I really hope that the County Supervisors can Get Their Panties un Bunched from their, Well You Know!, and allow the City to get back to work on the project at hand, the closure of a land mark that is the Airport that once was an Air Field From In-between the First World War, and the Second World War!!
BS Ranch
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