Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/9523
Friday, April 23, 2010 – Daily News – 7A CHP Continued from page 1A County for months and was regularly changing his location, Sheriff Clay Parker said. Portillo was contacted by law enforcement at least once before, at which time Portillo said he was guard- ing a house, Parker said. On Wednesday, deputies found an illegal billy club in Portillo’s car. Portillo then consented to a search of his motel room, where deputies found an illegal high- capacity magazine for a pistol Parker said. Deputies also found a dog in Portillo’s car. Bail was set at $20,000, and Portillo had made bail Wednesday, a jail representative said. His car was reclaimed Thursday afternoon from Gary’s Auto Body. Anyone approached by Portillo who mistook him for an officer is asked to call the sheriff’s department at 529-7900. —Geoff Johnson GERBER “I’m not a math whiz, Continued from page 1A communities. wrong fund. The district voted to use the department’s remain- ing budget to make up the difference and, despite an outpouring of community support for the fire depart- ment, closed it and had the county department take over. Tehama County Fire receives $5,000 a month for its services, a tempo- rary agreement and one Murphy said the district only agreed to because it needed immediate fire pro- tection. County Fire Chief Gary Durden denied knowledge of the differ- ence in fire fees between Gerber and neighboring and I wasn’t involved in coming up with the factor,” he said. Durden said the 17-cent figure was introduced as an extension of the temporary agreement. Because the department was already receiving $5,000 a month, he asked for a rate that would come close to that, but was not involved in the proposal. Altogether, Durden esti- mated the Gerber commu- nity puts in about 100 to 125 calls a year, while the rest of the county, com- bined, makes for about 8,500 calls. ——— Geoff Johnson can be reached at 527-2153, exten- sion 114 or gjohnson@red- bluffdailynews.com. GRAFFITI Continued from page 1A whether suspects were juvenile, male, female or Red Bluff students, but said the department would be pursuing felony charges if the evidence warranted it, as causing more than $400 in damage is considered a felony. Police were initially alerted to the damage Sunday morn- ing, when they found numerous graffiti swear words, Lt. Kyle Sanders said. By Thursday, school staff had removed most of the offending words, though “Go Cards,” written in red spray paint, was still visible on a scoreboard. Corning Union High School’s teams are the Cardinals, but Corning Superintendent Bruce Cole said he had no rea- son to believe the suspect was from Corning. “There have been pranks, on and off,” Cole said. “But in communicating with Red Bluff, I don’t know that either school has reason to believe it is one of our students.” Red Bluff Director of Maintenance Joe Kittle said the damage could cost as much as $50,000 to undo, depending on how much Astro Turf the school must replace. “Because it is on synthetic turf, it was a costly act,” Kit- tle said. “There’s no doubt about it. We’re really limited with what types of chemicals we can use on that type of thing.” Kittle and a five-man staff had already invested about 40 hours in the cleanup process, but some unintelligible graffi- ti, including what may be a “6,” remains on the field, he said. Vandalism occasionally occurs at the high school, though staff members are usually able to clean it up before school begins, Kittle said. “It’s never a welcome thing,” he said. “But unfortunate- ly, it kind of goes with the territory. It seems like some of these things are just happening more and more.” ——— Geoff Johnson can be reached at 527-2153, extension 114 or gjohnson@redbluffdailynews.com. High court denies quick ruling on state furloughs SACRAMENTO (AP) — The California Supreme Court on Thursday denied Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneg- ger’s request that it combine seven appeals court lawsuits to speed up a final decision on whether the state can legally furlough more than 200,000 state employees. The suits by public employee unions challenge Schwarzenegger’s furloughs of state employees for three days each month. He imposed them last year to help the state save money. The administration also had wanted the justices to delay all 25 pending legal challenges in appellate and trial courts while the high court considered the consoli- dated cases. Meanwhile, the furloughs continue. The justices did not give a reason for their decision. The one-sentence order said Justice Joyce Kennard dis- sented from the majority ruling. Schwarzenegger had asked the justices in March to combine the cases because they involve similar legal challenges to the governor’s authority to require employ- ees to take unpaid time off work. The seven cases include three in Alameda County, where a judge has ruled the governor cannot furlough employees who are paid through fees and federal funds rather than the state’s general fund. ‘‘We are disappointed that the court will not allow the state to save hundreds of thousands of dollars by consol- idating these lawsuits and expediting the appeals process to promptly resolve this important issue,’’ said Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Rachel Arrezola. She said the administration is confident the courts will ulti- mately uphold the governor’s furlough authority. She said the administration so far has spent more than $736,000 fighting the lawsuits. Professional Engineers in California Government is one of the unions suing Schwarzenegger, but it joined him in asking the high court to consider all the cases quickly. SUIT Continued from page 1A client privilege. Lerman declined com- ment following the meet- ing. An exact count of plain- tiffs-to-be was not avail- able Thursday morning, but hotel staff estimated about 150 people were in attendance. The suite was so crowded that an adjoin- ing room had to be opened up to accommodate visi- tors. Some of county’s most well-known medical mari- juana advocates were in attendance, including Tehama Herbal Collective owners Ken and Kathy Prather, Jason Browne, Donna Will and Mike Jenkins, the last of whom opened a collective next to the sheriff’s department before it was ordered shut by a court injunction. The policy advocates are fighting contains what could be a loophole for growers. As a complaint-driven ordinance, the policy is only supposed to be enforced when someone finds and complains about a garden. Even then, enforcement will be at the discretion of the sheriff’s department. Sheriff Clay Parker said Thursday he will personal- ly be responding to and VICTIMS Continued from page 1A said. Maggie Michael of Alternatives to Violence was surprised with an award in honor of her dedication and work advocating for victims’ rights and helping them through their circumstances. The event was a chance for the office and the community to offer respect for victims’ strength and courage. Several victims that have been helped by the office, commu- nity members and law enforce- ment personnel made for a good turnout. The office intends to hold Daily News photo by Geoff Johnson Attorney Edie Lerman, right, talks with potential plaintiffs Thursday at the Comfort Inn. Lerman is collecting signatures for a pending class action lawsuit targeting county medical marijuana policy. handling these complaints. “No one else in the county will be enforcing the ordinance,” Parker said. “It’s only me, and I want to make sure the ordi- nance is enforced fairly.” But the uncertainty of the loophole is still enough to push Dale Langstaff out of the county, an eight- year grower who said he needs at least six plants per family member for whom he grows. In those eight years, Langstaff has had no trou- ble with either law enforcement or his neigh- bors, he said. Without a guarantee he will be allowed to grow or keep his plants, Langstaff said he will likely move out of the area. Several accused county officials of conducting a larger campaign to subvert Prop. 215, claiming the county has a history of arresting and later acquit- ting patients, but destroy- similar events annually, Lucas said. “We want to acknowledge what victims go through, and we want to make sure that the public is aware of the struggle victims have gone through for years,” Lucas said. With the passage of Proposition 9, Marsy’s Law, in 2008, victims are now recognized in their struggle and victims have become participants rather than bystanders in the crimi- nal justice system, she said. The court system can be compli- cated, especially if someone is going through it for the first time, so victim and witness programs are there to assist, Lucas said. The local program helps victims deal with the ing their cannabis in the process. D.B. Cooper summed up the fears. “It’s just another back- room, back-handed attempt to circumvent the law,” he said. The suit is expected to be filed within 30 days. ——— Geoff Johnson can be reached at 527-2153, extension 114 or gjohnson@redbluffdailyn ews.com. criminal justice system, assist with funeral arrangements and find thera- py and medical and vocational reha- bilitation, among other services. State mandated victims programs in each county offer the same or simi- lar support for victims. “Victims now have certain rights to participate,” Lucas said. “We realize that they’ve had struggles and they have obstacles, but they have the rights now, and want to help them in overcoming the obsta- cles.” ——— Tang Lor can be reached at 527- 2153, Ext. 110 or by e-mail at tlor@redbluffdailynews.com. Net loss if Calif. buildings sold SACRAMENTO (AP) — State documents speci- fying the amount Califor- nia has left to pay on the construction bonds for its state office buildings and for ongoing maintenance provide the most detailed financial picture to date of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s propos- al to sell the properties. After 20 years, the deal would end up costing the state about $1.1 billion more than it would gain in the transaction, according to an analysis of the latest documents, which were obtained by The Associat- ed Press. The analysis of the pro- posal comes a day after Schwarzenegger promised he will not go through with the plan if it turns out to be a bad investment for the state. ‘‘I’m not crazy and do a fire sale,’’ he said in response to a reporter’s question. ‘‘Believe me, it won’t happen.’’ His statement followed an earlier AP analysis, based on marketing reports prepared for prospective buyers, that showed Cali- fornia would pay $5.2 bil- lion over the next two decades to rent the build- ings back from the new owners. Schwarzenegger had pushed the Legislature into agreeing to the sale last year as a way to raise immediate cash to deal with California’s perpetual budget deficits. The administration hopes to net $660 million from the sale. What had not been dis- closed publicly was the total amount California has left to pay on its construc- tion bonds and a projection of its operating and main- tenance costs in the years ahead, figures needed to arrive at a net cost or bene- fit to the state. The Department of General Services figures obtained by the AP show California will pay $1.7 billion to retire its debt for the 11 parcels that house 24 office buildings. The state already owns three properties outright, while all other bonds are sched- uled to be paid off in 10 years or less. If the state continues to own the buildings, the AP calculated that it will cost about $1.7 billion to oper- ate and maintain them for the next 20 years, based on current costs and a 3 per- cent annual inflation rate. Based on the $660 million the administration hopes to net from the sale, that leaves a long-term cost to the state of $1.1 billion. The numbers are not definitive because offers for the buildings could come in higher or lower than the administration anticipated, and monthly rents would still have to be negotiated if a sale goes through and might not meet the targets contained in the marketing reports. The reports reviewed earlier by the AP say the state would incur addition- al costs it currently does not have if the buildings are sold. Those include parking fees for 3,500 spaces totaling nearly $140 million over 20 years and possibly paying for the increases in annual proper- ty tax assessments. Administration officials say if the state sells its office buildings, it will no longer be on the hook for unexpected expenses, such as damage from natural disasters. ‘‘Until the bids are fully analyzed, we are not going to know the potential bot- tom line,’’ said Erin Shaw, a spokeswoman for the State and Consumer Ser- vices Agency, which over- sees the Department of General Services. ‘‘But I will say, this initiative is one way to ensure taxpay- ers are no longer on the hook for tens of millions of dollars for damage on self- insured buildings.’’ Among the buildings up for sale are the Ronald Reagan state building in Los Angeles, the San Fran- cisco Civic Center and Public Utilities Commis- sion building in San Fran- cisco, and the attorney general’s office and state Department of Education in Sacramento. Bids from prospective buyers were due last week and remain under seal. No fiscal review was conducted at the time law- makers authorized the sale last summer to determine whether California ulti- mately would make or lose money. All but three of the 120 state lawmakers voted for the proposal. To manage state build- ings, cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles established joint building authorities with the state to oversee construction and repayment of bonds. Those bodies must approve the sale. The administration this year quietly removed Red Bluff Simple Cremations & Burial Service Family owned to provide you the best service & pricing in the area. It’s what you can expect from family. 722 Oak Street, Red Bluff, CA 96080 (530) 527-1732 • FD Lic. 1931 gubernatorial appointees on two building authorities who had questioned Schwarzenegger’s propos- al, a move reported by the AP. They were replaced with his supporters. The replacement of board members and the AP analysis of the marketing reports prompted the Assembly Accountability and Administrative Review Committee to scheduled a hearing for next Wednesday. The com- mittee said it will scruti- nize the proposed sale and the appointees’ removal. Among those scheduled to testify include former Los Angeles State Build- ing Authority president Jerry Epstein and former San Francisco State Build- ing Authority member Don Casper. Epstein was removed after he asked the state for a cost-benefit analysis, while Casper was let go after he suggested it was financial folly for the state to sell the San Francisco Civic Center, which hous- es the California Supreme Court. Located in Chico, CA Combining Quality and Low Cost is what we do. 529-3655 www.affordablemortuary.net