Local officials Held In Account:

Former Murrieta Mayor Indicted

Jack van Haaster allegedly acted on a conflict of interest and provided false information, further stoking the town's political intrigues.By Maeve Reston and Susannah Rosenblatt, Times Staff WriterAugust 17, 2006 The former mayor of Murrieta was indicted Tuesday for allegedly pressuring city officials to issue permits to his daughter's day care center while he was in office and hiding his financial interest in the facility.Jack van Haaster, 49, also faces felony charges of perjury and filing false documents for failing to report that he had received close to a half-million dollars in loans from city residents and business owners, according to the Riverside County district attorney's office.

Van Haaster's arrest adds to the political turmoil in the southwestern Riverside County town of 78,000.In January, Councilman Warnie Enochs was charged with extortion, forgery and subornation of perjury for, among other allegations, threatening to break a tile contractor's leg if he didn't help him cheat his wife in a divorce settlement. Enochs remains on the council and is scheduled to go on trial in the fall.In May 2005, Van Haaster was booted from office in a recall campaign that targeted him, current Mayor Kelly Seyarto and Councilman Doug McAllister.

Recall supporters complained of the council haphazardly supporting new development in town and not responding adequately to residents' concerns. On Wednesday, Murrieta officials expressed surprise at the charges leveled against Van Haaster."I've never seen anything remotely suggesting that, you know, there's some sinister things going on," said Seyarto, who narrowly clung to his seat in the May 2005 recall. Van Haaster could not be reached for comment Wednesday.Van Haaster received but never reported $196,000 in loans from his employee Mildred Fletcher, $254,000 from city resident Gerald Pollack and $40,000 from two Murrieta businessmen, according to court documents that prosecutors filed his week.

Van Haaster also allegedly did not report the money he lent and then was repaid by Murrieta businessman Jim Rosa, whom he hired to do electrical work.Under state law, elected officials are required to report their financial interests in an annual disclosure statement they must sign under penalty of perjury. The charges against Van Haaster stem from "disclosures and omissions" on his financial statements that he filed from 2002 to 2005, according to prosecutors."There's nothing illegal about getting the loans," said Richard West, supervising deputy district attorney in Riverside County. "The problem was it's something that the public had a right to know about. The information was required to be reported and he didn't."Van Haaster also faces five misdemeanor conflict-of-interest charges related to his actions affecting the proposed expansion of California Oaks Childcare, the day care center owned by his daughter.

While Van Haaster was a councilman, his daughter, Rachael van Haaster, was buying 3 acres to expand her day care operation into a new 394-student center with a swim academy, West said.While serving as a city councilman in spring 2004, Jack van Haaster met privately with four city planning commissioners — appointed by the council — and pressured them to approve permits allowing his daughter to build the new center, prosecutors alleged.A month later, he voted on a road improvement package that included paving a road next to the 3-acre parcel his daughter was buying, West alleged.Court documents allege that Van Haaster did not reveal his financial interest in the company. From 2001 to 2005, he put nearly $165,000 from his bank accounts into the day care center's bank account and received about $100,000 from the center's account in his personal accounts.

Van Haaster's involvement with the day care center was a central issue in the recall campaign that removed him from office.Edward Faunce, spokesman for the group that led the recall effort, Rescue Murrieta, said members were "not the least bit surprised" by the charges against Van Haaster. Recall proponents were "absolutely, totally vindicated," he said.Van Haaster faces up to eight years in prison if convicted. He was arrested Tuesday evening and booked at the Southwest Detention Center in Murrieta and was released after posting $25,000 bail. He will appear in court Sept. 12.

Van Haaster's arrest came the same day the City Council voted 3 to 1 to formally admonish Enochs for voting on a shopping center development that employed his son as a subcontractor and that Enochs himself worked on."We couldn't look the other way," McAllister said of Enochs' ethics violation.Enochs faces 14 criminal charges for allegedly making threats in an attempt to cheat his wife in a divorce settlement and filing a false lien against his house to reduce the settlement.McAllister acknowledged that the criminal cases were a distraction from city business. "Given what we have going right now with our council and with Jack, it would be foolish to try to pretend that this doesn't bring questions to people's minds," McAllister said.

Gramps Points Out: The charges and the actions above are not exactly the same as what is happening in Grand Terrace. It would be nice if it were that clear a connection to the actor, benefactor, and action in Grand Terrace.

We do know there are deals the stink... and the smell is wafting out of the City Manager's Office and The City Council is the "Management Oversight" of the City Manager..