Rialto Hanging on to Results of Audit (SB Sun Feb. 25, 2008)

BS Ranch Perspective

 

It appears that Rialto has been looking for what Owen did with the money that he appropriated for the Perchlorate Case! The problem is that Owen asked the City Council to fight the Perchlorate without telling them how much it would cost for the battle against the Businesses that are reportedly to be to blame by Owens. Now come to find out it can only be found that the Businesses purchased the businesses that were found to be responsible without being the business that was the actual owner at the time that the Perchlorate was put on the ground!

 

I have to say this, that Owen, the then Rialto City Attorney, was trying to apply today's Hazardous Waist Laws to a Chemical Spill that very well didn't have any, ANY, Regulations against it at the time that they took the Perchlorate and just dumped it onto the ground, when they were done using it.

 

Owen was taking a Business that either was responsible or was the new owners of a business that dumped Perchlorate with Water onto the ground, Now for all I know that the way that Perchlorate was destroyed was that it was just dumped onto the ground, because Rialto is not the only city that has had Perchlorate Contamination to their Ground Water Supply this last few years. There was contamination in the ground water in the San Gabriel Valley, Rancho Cordova, near Sacramento, and Simi Valley. So, it was not just in the Inland Empire of Southern California

 

The Court Case that Owen was fighting his case on, was not in violation of any hazardous Materials Laws until July of 2006, so his law suit was more of a he said she said Law Suit, I guess your basic Civil Suit!!

 

The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency Should have been contacted Right away instead of Rushing to the Court Room! Then Owen would see that he wasn't so far ahead of himself and into such a loss of a case!! The Case that he was fighting at the Christmas Break was reported at $23 Million then, now they are just looking for a missing $20 Million!!

 

I certainty hope that there isn't $20 Million dollars that are filling Owen's briefcase and now that he is not working at Rialto he is having the last laugh with the missing money. I figure that the Money that is gone has ether been spent on the case and or lost or it is in the briefcase, but where ever it might be, It was all the money that was from the Utility Tax money that was Voted on and approved by the Citizens of the City of Rialto!! That Utility Tax is killing me on my Cellular Phones alone, now I don't know about you, but when your Electrical Bill is in the three figures and they are $300 to $900 a month it is a bit out of hand especially when a large portion of that is the Utility Tax, all because it is a Percentage of what they wanted.

 

I am sickened by the news that Owen took the City for a Ride like this Especially For Some $20 Million, when that money could have been used for the Police Department's Raises, or over all the 3% at 50 Retirement, this could be passed on to the Fire Department for their Retirement. However, now that the $20 Million was wasted on this case instead of cooling their Jets and looking to the Environmental Protection Agency rather then the Court Room. I know that a large portion of the Money was charged to the city as "Fee's" to pay for the Lawyer's court time and his time to research and be on the phone etc etc...

 

BS Ranch

 

 

5:06 p.m.: Rialto hanging on to results of audit

By Jason Pesick, Staff Writer

Article Launched: 02/25/2008 05:06:40 PM PST

RIALTO - The city has not yet released the results of an audit conducted last year to account for at least $20 million in perchlorate-related expenses. Though the city is not under any legal obligation to release the audit at this time, members of the council have been saying for said they intend to release the results.

The council members have not voted on a date to release the report and have explained the delay in releasing the results by saying the city has been busy.

"I'm in favor of releasing it the way it is," Councilman Ed Scott said, arguing that the audit should not be edited before it is released. Scott is a member of the council's perchlorate subcommittee.

In April, the City Council hired an auditor to examine the city's expenses related to the perchlorate contaminating the local water supply. The Reith Co., a Pasadena-based forensic accountant, conducted the audit last year. A forensic accountant's work can be used in court in fraud cases. Perchlorate is the primary contaminant flowing from industrial sites on the city's north end. The city has filed a federal lawsuit and has pursued regulatory action against dozens of parties it suspects are responsible for the contamination. The cost of that battle and the cost of treatment to date is likely at least $20 million, city officials say.

After The Sun filed a request for a copy of the audit under the California Public Records Act, City Attorney Bob Owen, who was later fired by the City Council, wrote

that the audit did not have to be released because it was still in draft form and because it was connected to the city's federal lawsuit. Its ties to the lawsuit mean it is exempt from disclosure. The council, he wrote, could decide to release it anyway.

It's true that the city doesn't have to release the audit until the litigation comes to an end, said Terry Francke, general counsel of the nonprofit open-government organization CalAware.

A court in Ventura County, though, has ruled in another case that the total amount spent and the general ways in which money related to lawsuits was used does have to be released, Francke said.

In October, Owen released a general breakdown of how $18 million had been spent over a four-year period. But the city has continued to spend more money since spring of 2007, when Owen's breakdown stops counting.

Firing Owen probably delayed the release of the audit, said Councilwoman Winnie Hanson, the other member of the perchlorate subcommittee.

The city is trying to figure out how to release the information without jeopardizing the lawsuit by revealing its legal strategy, she said.

Transitioning between city attorneys has distracted the city from the audit, Scott said. But he said he intends to refocus on the issue when he returns from a city trip to Washington, D.C. to meet with officials.

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