Press Enterprise Covers Scandal...

Where there is no Victim the DA doesn't press charges...

HELLO.... Tax Payers are Victims...and the Judicial System is a Victim...

Who released a report is not important. It is a PUBLIC DOCUMENT or should be especially if it is in the Dead Case Files.

Payments made to the News Paper Owned by the Council Member Miller's wife should have not been made by the Professional City Management Staff. It is due to their incompetence at running a clean administration that this possible conflict of interest charge is even possible to rise. It does not make Berry or Schwab look good that they allowed the first ad to be placed and for the practice to continue if there was a potential for a problem. They are allegedly the City Management Professionals, not the City Council Members who are elected citizens.

In addition the news paper is not owned by Jim Miller it is owned by Margie Miller.

If this is a conflict of interest, there should be no more city business done with Terra Loma because a council person is associated with that business.

In addition the water should be turned off at City Hall because the Mayors husband is a board member of the water company and there may be a conflict of interest there.

Now Read It For Your Self... Berry and Schwab are not helping their case. They did wrong. Covered it up, and now are keeping their fingers crossed that the Grand Jury or DA or the AG don't get wind of their actions and file charges on the case file.

The difference between Stupid and a Being Charged is... well think of it this way.
Stupid is running through a stop sign and not getting in an accident or getting caught. You tell yourself to be more careful in the future.
Criminal is running through a stop sign getting others involved in running stop signs, and then telling the police man not to write you a ticket.
Is there no victim unless there is a car crash or is running a stop sign a crime wreck or no?

Grand Terrace rocked by window-tinting scandal

10:00 PM PDT on Friday, July 10, 2009

By DARRELL R. SANTSCHI
The Press-Enterprise

Acting Grand Terrace City Manager Steve Berry pointed to his tinted office windows this week, recalling how seven years ago, while assistant city manager, he found a good way, he thought, to save the city money by having a county jail inmate assigned to the city do the work.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department did not think it was such a good idea, suggesting in a report at the time that embezzlement and fraud may have been involved and questioning whether the inmate or his employee tinted Berry's car windows at city expense.

The report has been mailed anonymously to reporters and Berry's former boss, retired city manager Tom Schwab, says he quashed the investigation to save the city embarrassment.

But the newly surfaced scandal, along with a separate investigation of payments by the city to a newspaper run by a councilman's wife, have ripped an emotional hole in the fabric of the sleepy town of 12,500 people on the southern edge of San Bernardino County.

"There is no question that this is something we are not used to," said JoAnn Johnson, 78, who has lived in Grand Terrace 52 years. "I just have such a sad feeling about the whole event."

City Councilman Walt Stanckiewitz said his e-mail inbox, which sat dormant until reports of the scandal broke, now is bristling with demands for action.

"I think the city is embarrassed," Mayor Maryetta Ferre said. "This has become a distraction not only for the people involved, but for the council and the staff of the city, so we are going to address the distraction."

The City Council will take up the matter during a closed-session review of Berry's performance on Tuesday night, she said.

The sheriff investigated allegations that Berry opened an account with an Anaheim window tinting supplier and that the inmate on work release, John David Carranza, charged more supplies to a purchase order authorized by Berry than he needed to tint the windows at City Hall, a child care center and a senior center.

There also was an allegation that Carranza tinted the windows of Berry's car at city expense. Berry and Carranza have denied that Carranza did so, saying that the work was done by a man who worked for Carranza.

Berry said he paid the man out of his own pocket.

Berry pointed to receipts showing that once he learned of the over-charges, he obtained more than $700 in refunds. He is not certain whether that covered all of the city's losses.

The sheriff's report also alleges that Berry falsified time cards, indicating the inmate was working at times when others said he was not.

Berry said this week that the inmate was working not just on weekdays but in the evening and on weekends. He said he signed off on the time reports because the work was getting done.

Sheriff's Sgt. Dave Phelps said by phone this week that the report, completed in January 2003, never was submitted to the District Attorney for criminal prosecution.

"When there is no victim, the DA is usually not going to prosecute anyway," Phelps said.

Instead, the report was given to the city, he said.

"The city of Grand Terrace chose to handle that administratively instead of criminally," Phelps said. "Based on the city's recommendation, we closed the case ... without submitting it to the DA."

Berry said this week that he never was disciplined.

"There were no charges filed. "Nothing went into my personnel file," he said.

Berry said the city manager told him "This is why you don't deal with criminals." Berry said he took the matter as a "lesson learned and we went forward."

Schwab acknowledged that he quashed the investigation.

"I decided not to pursue it because, in our history, we've been a city of 30 years and we've never even had a hint of any kind of scandal or anybody involved in taking money," he said by phone this week. "So, at the time, I thought it would be better not to embarrass the city. It was also an election year, so I just told the sheriff's department not to pursue it."

He said the report indicates two crimes were committed "One was embezzlement and the other was falsification of public documents," he said.

Schwab said he didn't believe at the time that Berry had done "anything hugely criminal. I just think he did something stupid."

He said he didn't want the incident to end Berry's career.

"In retrospect, I should have fired him immediately and just dealt with whatever the issues ended up being," Schwab said.

Schwab had hired Berry as his assistant in 2001 and, as Berry describes it, had served as his mentor. They had an understanding, the men agree, that when Schwab was to retire about two years from now, they would lobby for Berry to become his successor.

The two since had a falling out.

When Schwab was hospitalized in June 2008 with a ruptured blood vessel in his head, Berry took over as acting city manager. Schwab returned in January for a six-month stint to help prepare a city budget. Then Schwab asked the City Council to give him his job back.

The council decided to take applications from all comers.

It was about that time that copies of the sheriff's report on the window tinting incident began surfacing.

As the city was completing its budget preparation, Berry persuaded the council to save money by abolishing his old job. Then Schwab retired, saying he shouldn't have to apply for a position he considered his.

"I was going to retire in two years anyway," Schwab said. "Steve knew I was going to retire. He would have been (Schwab's replacement), but he wouldn't wait. I got sick and he used that to his advantage. I kind of feel that he betrayed me."

Schwab insists that he did not leak the sheriff's report.

Berry said he has received anonymous phone calls suggesting the report was leaked by City Councilman Jim Miller, whose wife, Margie, publishes the Grand Terrace City News, a weekly newspaper with offices next to City Hall.

The newspaper was being paid by the city to publish legal advertisements when she bought it in 2006, Margie Miller said by phone Friday. That practice continued until Berry sent the Millers a letter in September 2008 telling them it was improper for the city to do business with the newspaper while Miller was a councilman.

Miller said she immediately stopped accepting ads from the city.

Susan Mickey, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney, confirmed Friday that the office's Public Integrity Unit is investigating a complaint it received about the Miller matter.

Berry said he has turned over documents to the DA's office. He said the city spent more than $20,000 on advertising in the newspaper over 2½ years.

Margie Miller said she will speak with investigators when she returns from vacation. She said her husband, also on vacation, was not available for comment.

She said that neither she nor her husband had leaked the sheriff's report.

Phelps, of the sheriff's department, said Carranza never was charged with a crime or disciplined "because the inmate is directed by a city employee. How do you punish him for doing what he has been told to do?"

In the work release program, the courts allow some prisoners to serve their time working for local governments, Phelps said. Most do menial tasks, he said.

Schwab and Berry said that Berry had never dealt with a work release inmate before. Berry said a bullet had broken a window at the city's senior center and he hired a crew to fix it.

Carranza, who was mowing a lawn at the time, noticed the work and told the city maintenance crew leader that he had a tinting business and could do the work. The crew leader took Carranza to Berry, who said he saw the opportunity to buy the material and let Carranza tint the windows.

Berry said he was not concerned that the inmate was not showing up at scheduled times because he might have been working on another building.

"All I saw was that the windows were getting done," Berry said. "I was looking at it like he's doing community service putting in window tinting. That's what I saw."

Councilman Stanckiewitz said the scandal is "shaking up the status quo," in town.

"It's awakening people to the fact that Grand Terrace isn't the perfect little community that we've all been accustomed to thinking it is," he said.

He said the city attorney told him the statute of limitations may have expired on any crimes that may have been committed. However, Mickey said there is no statute of limitations on embezzlement of public funds.

Reach Darrell R. Santschi at 951-368-9484 or dsantschi@PE.com

CHRONOLOGY

Assistant City Manager Steve Berry, whose job performance will be discussed at a Grand Terrace City Council meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, has had a long career with the city.

SEPTEMBER 2001: Hired by then-City Manager Tom Schwab as assistant city manager.

SUMMER 2002: Berry agrees to have a work-release inmate tint windows of several city buildings.

JANUARY 2003: Sheriff's department completes investigation that suggests criminal conduct in the handling of the window tinting.

JANUARY 2003: Schwab decides not to take action on the sheriff's report and keeps it quiet.

JUNE 2008: Schwab is hospitalized, goes on medical leave. Berry named acting city manager.

DECEMBER 2008: Council agrees to contract with Schwab to work on city budget for six months.

JANUARY: Schwab tells council he wants his city manager job back.

MAY: Copies of the sheriff's report begin appearing in reporters' mail.

MAY: Berry proposes eliminating his former job. Schwab announces his retirement in June.