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Friday, October 2, 2009
San Bernardino County Sentinel

Miller Pleads Not Guilty

Grand Terrace City Councilman Jim Miller pleaded not guilty to a felony conflict-of-interest charge at his arraignment on September 30.

The district attorney’s office arrested Miller on July 15 and charged him with felony conflict of interest, based upon Government Code Sec­tion 1090, which prohibits an elected official from participating in a vote in which he or she has a per­sonal financial interest. Between 2006 and 2008, Miller made several votes on the city of Grand Ter­race’s consent calendar which approved payments totaling about $18,000 to his wife Margaret’s news­paper, The Grand Terrace City News, for printing the city’s legal advertise­ments.

The consent calendar is a collection of routine items considered to be non-controversial which are bundled together and approved on a single yea or nay vote by the city council.

The prosecution, led by district attorney John Goritz, was not forth­coming with any further documentation relating to the case against Mill­er, who has been on the council since 2004. San Bernardino County Supe­rior Court Judge Douglas Elwell gave the prosecu­tion until November 3 to present that information, a date which corresponds to Miller’s next scheduled hearing.

On September 30, Miller’s attorney, Rick Ewaniszyk, said that the prosecution has not mar­shaled evidence to sub­stantiate the felony con­flict-of-interest charge.

“We entered a plea of not guilty to the com­plaint, which alleges he violated 1090 of the Cali­fornia Government Code by making a contract that he was financially interested in. However, the prosecution has pro­duced no such contract in discovery and as far as I know there was no such contract approved in his official capacity. It ap­pears as a matter of law the Grand Terrace City Council must publish notices of special meet­ings and ordinances in the newspaper of general circulation for the city of Grand Terrace and that paper would be the paper owned by his wife.”

Grand Terrace city at­torney John Harper said that Ewaniszyk is likely correct when he asserted there was not a contract between the city and Mrs. Miller’s newspaper and, as such, Jim Miller could not have approved its issuance. “I don’t know whether there is a contract or not, but if I was going to speculate I would say that I would be surprised if there is one, although I suppose it is theoretically possible.”

If there is a contract, Harper said, it would al­most assuredly have been entered into and signed by a city staff member in the city manager’s office or the city clerk’s office and would not have in­volved the city council.

The fact that the city was required to run the ads in the Grand Terrace City News is not the only leg of Miller’s defense, Ewaniszyk said.

“It is also true that Mr. and Mrs. Miller had a prenuptial agreement whereby they maintained their exclusive rights to their separate property and agreed they would keep separate the prop­erty each acquired dur­ing their marriage,” ac­cording to Ewaniszyk. “Therefore it does not appear he was financially interested in the contract and the rule of necessity would require legal no­tices to be published in the Grand Terrace City News.”

Miller’s votes to ap­prove the payments or legal advertising which ran from October 26, 2006 through August 12, 2008, after staff placed advertisements in Mrs. Miller’s newspaper did not constitute a violation of Government Code Section 1090, Ewaniszyk said.

Bernard Sandoval, a Grand Terrace resident who attended the hearing with roughly 40 others, most of whom appeared to be Miller’s supporters, said he believed Miller to be innocent of the charg­es, as well.

Sandoval noted that a major portion of the case assembled against Miller had been drawn from statements made by for­mer assistant city manag­er Steve Berry, who had been working at the city when the contract for le­gal ads had been extend­ed to the Grand Terrace City News. He pointed out that Miller had tak­en the lead in opposing Berry’s promotion to city manager, a circumstance which he said appeared to have created an illegiti­mate motive for the in­vestigation into Miller’s votes.

“I don’t believe the district attorney was made fully aware of the political backdrop to this whole thing,” Sandoval said. “There was a city official who was manipu­lating the rule of law to enrich himself and that official was not Jim Mill­er. Jim Miller was cruci­fied in the press. The real facts behind this case have not been discussed. There needs to be a clear investigation into the for­mer assistant city man­ager, Steve Berry, to un­derstand his role in this. It appears he was one of the ones who made the recommendation that the city advertise in Mrs. Miller’s newspaper. It was only when Jim Mill­er begin to openly op­pose and criticize Steve Berry’s promotion to city manager that Steve Berry took this to the DA’s pub­lic integrity unit. And the district attorney, who was under pressure to de­liver on public corruption types of cases, arrested him.”

Sandoval said, “It was common knowledge his wife owned the newspa­per. Everyone was aware when he voted on it. His vote wasn’t the deciding factor. There was no ill intention. I honestly be­lieve it was the responsi­bility of the city attorney to let him know there was a possible conflict of interest. To be suddenly accused of having bro­ken the law at the same time he is opposing the promotion of Steve Berry to city manager, people have to ask ‘What is go­ing on here?’”
And, Sandoval said, the others involved in the vote were equally knowl­edgeable about the cir­cumstance.

“You could as easily arrest the city attorney who did not inform him or anyone else about the potential conflict,” San­doval said. “You could arrest the entire city council, who knew his wife owned the newspa­per. Nothing was hidden.

“I think I have a pretty good read on the charac­ter of people,” Sandoval said. “The Millers are good, solid people. Lo­cal government is bro­ken. Individuals who have money or power or political connections can use the rule of law to get what they need to make more money or get or retain power. It is disap­pointing. My hope is the DA will be able to look at the whole picture and see what is really going on. If Jim Miller had been properly counseled he simply would not have voted. The whole truth needs to be communicat­ed to the public so it can make an informed opin­ion. All they are hear­ing now is that he voted and enriched himself by thousands of dollars. When he heard of how it could be a conflict, he stopped voting. Anyone who wants to give back to the community could find himself in this situ­ation.”


Sandoval was echoed by another member of the Grand Terrace communi­ty, Gene Carlstrom, who was also in attendance at Miller’s arraignment. Carlstrom was formerly a member of the Grand Terrace City Council. He said participating in gov­ernance in small towns like Grand Terrace, which has a population of slightly over 12,000, is fraught with potential conflicts.
“I have believed all along that Jim will be vin­dicated,” Carlstrom said. “The consent calendar is an ambiguous thing. When I was on the coun­cil, similar things came up. All the bills had to be paid. We never heard anything about votes be­ing a conflict, even when someone we knew or worked with got paid. It’s just something that occurs. Now they’ve sin­gled him out as one who was in violation. This is more than I can figure. It occurred many times in the past with others who were not aware of the im­plication of the 1090 law.”

Former city manager Tom Schwab like San­doval said he considered the prosecution of Jim Miller to be an outgrowth of Berry’s effort to move into the permanent city manager’s position.
“Steve or some agent of his turned Jim into the DA’s office to discredit or marginalize him because he was openly critical of Steve’s management of the city,” Schwab said. “This was essentially a political set-up. Steve is saying that the minute he got appointed acting city manager he quit adver­tising in the City News because he thought there was a potential conflict of interest. But if that is the case, why did he go along with it before? Why did he arrange to buy the ads from Marge when he was working under me? Why didn’t he let everyone know that there was a po­tential conflict of interest? That would have saved us all from this problem. He was using it as leverage. He was threatening Jim with the exposure of the 1090 violation, basically telling Jim he would turn them into the DA’s office if Jim didn’t support him in becoming city man­ager.”

Schwab said of Jim Miller he was confident “there was never any in­tent to do anything ille­gal.”
In reference to the contract between the city and the newspaper which Ewaniszyk had in­dicated would be crucial to establishing Miller’s guilt, Schwab said, “The district attorney’s office won’t be able to produce that because it doesn’t exist. They are implying Jim approved a contract but we never had a con­tract with the Grand Ter­race City News. Nor did we have a contract with the Sun or the Press En­terprise. We advertised with them, as well.”

Efforts to reach Berry for comment were unsuc­cessful.

Goritz, was not pres­ent in court, and could not be reached for com­ment on the case.


Some Added Notes:

Carlstrom has admitted to activity simular to the Miller situation. If Miller is found guilty then the past dealings of the Council may come under a microscope investigation.

Steve Berry said in the DA's Investigation Report that he informed Tom Schwab of the Conflict of Interest and Tom Schwab took no action other than to suggest to Steve to shut up that is how you get fired. Now Tom Schwab is saying that he was not so informed by Steve Berry, and Steve Berry's continued use of the Millers Paper for local advertizing for special events he had control over the advertizing expenditure indicates Tom's Threat either worked or Steve Berry never voiced or had a concern of a potential conflict until Jim Miller had the courage to verbalize public disatisfaction with Steve Berry's Job Performance and was against his promotion and retention.

In a Panic to Cover up the Embezellement Investigation involving Steve Berry. Steve Berry put into action a threat he could not hold the reigns on once the horse was out of the barn.