Berry's Plan Backfires.

Scandals shock Grand Terrace
Stephen Wall, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/18/2009 07:07:08 AM PDT

GRAND TERRACE - Just two years ago, the city was basking in the glow of being named one of the best places to live in America by Money Magazine.

It boasted good schools, safe streets, attractive neighborhoods and a median family income considerably higher than the county average.

City officials also liked to brag about being different from surrounding communities in another way: There hadn't been any political corruption in its first three decades of cityhood.
But recent events have tarnished the city's reputation as a modern-day Mayberry.

In the past month, the city has been rocked by twin scandals affecting three prominent public officials.

The tight-knit community of 12,500 residents also suffered its first homicide in nearly 20 years on Monday.

"It seems like we've gone 25 years with absolutely nothing, and all of a sudden we get hit hard all at once," Mayor Maryetta Ferre said.

The first blow came late last month when allegations surfaced that acting City Manager Steve

Berry embezzled city funds and filed false records in connection with a window-tinting scandal in 2002.

Berry, who was then assistant city manager, was suspected of having a county jail work-release inmate tint the windows of city buildings and Berry's personal vehicle for profit when he was supposed to be doing community service.

Berry said he was just trying to save the city money. He said the inmate, John Carranza, did not profit from his work for the city and did not tint the windows of his car.

Berry also was suspected of defrauding the county by relaxing Carranza's work schedule and falsely marking his attendance sheets to indicate he had shown up for work on days he hadn't.

Berry was never charged with a crime or punished.

Former City Manager Tom Schwab said he quashed a criminal investigation and did not discipline Berry to save the city embarrassment.

In retrospect, Schwab said, Berry should have been fired.

Besieged by angry phone calls and e-mails from constituents, the City Council held a closed-session meeting last week to evaluate Berry's job performance and consider potential discipline.

The council decided that Berry would keep his job on an interim basis until a permanent city manager is hired.

But they agreed to only consider outside applicants, eliminating Berry as a candidate for the position.

The next morning, investigators from the District Attorney's Office arrested Councilman Jim

Miller at his home on a felony conflict-of-interest charge. Miller is accused of repeatedly voting for city expenditures that benefited a weekly newspaper owned by his wife.

Hours earlier, Miller had seconded a motion that effectively took Berry out of the running for the permanent city manager job.

Councilman Walt Stanckiewitz called the timing of the events "very suspicious."

Stanckiewitz said the complaint to the district attorney about Jim Miller stemmed from a feud between Berry and Miller's wife, Margie.

Berry recently said that Margie Miller was upset with his decision to stop the city from running legal ads in her newspaper last year.

Berry said he received an anonymous letter last week accusing Margie Miller of leaking to the media the sheriff's reports of the window-tinting allegations.

Stanckiewitz said the anonymous complaint about Miller was an attempt to damage him before the council could take action against Berry. But the arrest came one day too late to help Berry's cause, he said.

Stanckiewitz said the decision to go after Miller may have backfired.
"It may galvanized more support for him than anyone anticipated," he said. "People know this is a witch hunt."


Longtime resident JoAnn Johnson, 78, called the recent turmoil "very, very sad."
"I am not blaming anybody right now," Johnson said. "I think a lot of perfectly good people have been caught up in some very unfortunate and innocent circumstances."

Jeff McConnell, a nine-year resident and community activist, said the city will bounce back.
"We're still an island surrounded by a sea of madness," said McConnell, 54. "We will get through this."