It's About Time!! The Rialto City Council is finally starting to listen to something other then the Common Stretched lies, or the stretched Facts in the cases that he has worked for the City. Every time that he has given a slide show presentation at a Council Meeting he has spoken so flat and mundane that it was putting everybody to sleep in the Council Chambers!! This was of coarse the presentation on what he was going to do in the court Case that he had worked up to save the City and Get the Sheriff's Department under Contract for Law Enforcement. It was a good thing that I was in Chronic pain or I would have been asleep through the meeting and not have heard any of what he had said. The Lawyer that was hired by the Opposition, RPBA (Rialto Police Benefit Association) & the Citizens of Rialto, whom hired him to protect the City Police Department, happened to be at the meeting and also heard what Owen's was saying, because he interrupted the little lessen that Owen's was putting on by Defending his Law Firm Against what Owen's was saying about him, & his partner.
See, in this City Council Meeting, Owen's Portrayed these two lawyers as not knowing Civil Labor Law, at which time the RPBA Lawyer would speak up and say, "We have beat you the last four times that we have been in court, how do you answer to that?"
At that time the Mayor would bang that gavel and yell out order order I will not have these outbursts in the City Hall!! Please Contain yourself or I will have to ask you to leave!
Owens was in front of a Judge two or three more times after that, Each time Loosing to the Lawyers from Riverside that were not Lawyers with any City, they were just Lawyers and worked out of their office. There was one person that was considered to be part of the Cities Administration it was this guy, I believe that he was crooked, from the get go, Now I don't mean crooked as a criminal, but I mean crooked as in not doing his job unless it was a benefit to his pocket book. He was one of the highest paid if not the highest paid Attorneys representing a City, and that was probably because he represented the city for fifteen years. Each year gaining 2% or more when he was a younger Lawyer.
Owens should have been let go by the city when he blew the contract with the Sheriff Department. When he attempted to fight the RPBA and the Citizens of Rialto, and then he cheated by hiding the Signatures that were legally collected by the citizens of the State of California, all legally collected by a Contracted Signature Gathering Agent. The So called "Miss Understanding" of the law that was later blamed on the City Clerk, by them was wrong to do. Because Owen's Knew Being a Lawyer, "one That understood, Voter Registration and Voter Law's" as he professed in a City Council Meeting!!
Yet when it was time to look to making a law that would END The Conflict between the citizens of Rialto, The RPBA, and the Rialto City Council. It took Two months and Pleading from Citizens to take the Signatures to the Registrars of Voters for a second opinion about the Signatures, and see if they were gathered Legal like. Finally out of getting tired of hearing about it the Mayor said that they would take them to the Registrar of Voters to get a second Opinion. It all took less then an hour and the city council upon the first five minutes into the meeting had to Reverse their previous stance on the issue, and Vote to keep the Rialto Police Department AS IS! Also to Vote the Police Issue into LAW Instantaneous without taking it before the citizens on a Special Vote. There was just to many Signatures asking for the Law to just say that they would put a special election they voted it directly into law. Once the Signatures were lawful They had almost three times the amount of Signatures they needed for a special election. So it was all lost right when the signatures were deemed to be collected legal.
Owens tried to hide them in a Drawer & say that they were collected Illegally!! That is the crooked thing I am talking of. I don't know if it was him or somebody on the Council that tried to trash the signatures.
Down through the years there was many things that he did to assist the council on stuff that occurred all was above and beyond the call of duty it was this that made him dirty too, instead of steering the person away from him he would make it his business to assist them, but keep it secret, and hold that information on his lap. Crooked.
I am just happy that this time it was is poor workmanship that got him taken out, but he has charged the city in untold amount of bills for the amount of time that he has spent working on the Perchlorate contamination in the water. If the city owes $28 Million, then you have to know that there is a great deal of that $28 Million that goes into his pocket, but it is to the service to the community.
I am sad that the Rialto City Council took the time to listen to Owens when it came to the Perchlorate Contamination!! I believe that they should have went to the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA would have gone to the people that were responsible for the contamination and fined or discussed with them how much that they would pay. I am sure that a governmental Agency would get a better response from a business then a court room full of Lawyers, against a City with their Two Lawyers.
Then the Big Businesses all have to just stall stall stall, in court that is what they do. Stall stall stall. because they know that the Testing of water wells must go on all the time and that cost money, The closing of wells cost money. Each time that they go to court and hold their cases and then they get a method to prolong the case they get their stay, that costs money. I believe that Owens Knows this and wanted the more dosage of delays, because that meant more money in his pocket to run the case and well that is just the way that he wanted it. I can guess that his part of that last Quoted Amount that was passed in the papers as was spent by Rialto (The $28 Million) That Owen's Gets at least $5 Million of that for his home fix up's. I can say that he will not be hurting any time soon.
I am so happy that Rialto City Council made a good move and Gave Owen's his Walking Paper's!!
BS Ranch
City Administrator Henry Garcia announced the decision following a 3-2 vote by the council in closed session.
Mayor Grace Vargas and council members Joe Baca Jr. and Ed Scott voted to fire Owen. Council members Winnie Hanson and Deborah Robertson voted against.
Owen was not present during the open session of the Tuesday council meeting.
Following weeks of rumblings that Owen's job could be in jeopardy, a review of his performance appeared on the closed-session agenda for Tuesday's City Council meeting.
Vargas said Monday that the city was spending too much money on legal fees.
"And I think now is the time for the change," she said.
Owen has taken public stances on two significant issues facing the city in recent years - drinking-water contamination and the council's failed attempt to replace the Rialto Police Department with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.
At public meetings, Owen has vocally defended the strategy by the city to get perchlorate cleaned out of drinking water - even as the price tag for the city's efforts has approached $20 million.
In 2005, the City Council voted to eliminate the Police Department, but the officers union won a court battle.
The union claimed the city violated state law by not following procedures to eliminate the department. The court ruled on the
union's behalf. Owen was the city attorney at the time the council took up the matter. Owen and his San Bernardino-based firm have a contract with the city that expires in 2010. The contract requires the city to pay $500,000 to end it early. When it was signed, the contract called for Owen's firm to be paid $729,402 a year, in addition to 2 percent annual increases. (909) 386-3861
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