A day after seven former Beaumont officials were charged with misappropriating about $43 million in city money for their own gain, residents were quick to express their outrage.
At the city’s West Sixth Street entrance, a half-mile from City Hall, Cindy Hall stepped into Rapsteine’s Redbarn Antiques – a squat building decked out in white-washed wagon wheels and western-themed trinkets.
Country music drifted through aisles of wooden wind chimes, fishing gear, hunting knives and empty liquor bottles on Wednesday, May 18. Hall, 62, stood holding a box of kitchenware she intended to sell, describing her discontent after learning of the investigation involving former City Manager Alan Kapanicas, former Police Chief Ennis “Frank” Coe and others.
“It makes me feel even more like the government is just going to do whatever they want to do,” Hall said, adding that she felt ignored when she spoke at city council meetings years ago. “I think they should pay the consequences for what they’ve done.”
Up Sixth Street – a row of occupied and vacant auto body shops, thrift stores, pawn shops and liquor stores – dozens of people gathered for the Beaumont Outdoor Market and Swap Meet.
Chip Herbert, a 67-year-old Beaumont resident working the front gate, said he embedded himself in the community when built his home 13 years ago. Until last year, when the FBI seized records from City Hall, he’d never suspected any misuse of public dollars.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” Herbert said of the charges announced Tuesday. “They should impound their houses, cars, whatever they bought with the money they stole. We pay a lot of taxes here, and now, to find this out, it’s disheartening to a lot of people.”
Perched on a stool at the edge of a chain link fence, Herbert called his hometown a quiet, friendly place with “that old town feel.”
“It’s a place people want to raise their children,” he said. “Now, I don’t think people are going to want to bring their kids here.”
Jerry Martinez, 22, sifted through a stack of Xbox games on a folding wooden table, shaking his head as he listened to some of the charges filed against former city employees.
“It’s pretty ridiculous, it’s like ‘How much can they take from us?’” Martinez said. “I’m outraged. They fine me for speeding and my window tint, then they lose millions in city money?”
During Tuesday’s news conference, Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin described the investigation, including the city’s handling of the Transportation Uniform Mitigation Fee in 2003. Those funds were supposed to go to the Western Riverside Council of Governments, but prosecutors allege the money was spent on local projects, with contracts awarded to city officials’ companies.
Hestrin also described $114,000 in interest-free loans he alleged the city doled out from 2010 to 2013 to Coe and other Beaumont Police Department employees.
Justell Marcus, a 19-year-old Beaumont native and employee of Beach Tanning Salon, said police were some of the last people she’d expect to be involved in a corruption case.
“I guess you can’t really trust people in the government,” she said. “You can, but they’re going to do whatever they want anyway – especially with money.”
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