LAFCO Comment Regarding Hidden Canyon Warehouse Annexation

I am Requesting that LAFCO Continue the Item as the City’s Financial Situation has only Gotten Worse Over the Last Year.

SUBJECT: LAFCO 2014—20-5 – REORGANIZATION TO INCLUDE ANNEXATION 07-ANX-01A TO THE CITY OF BEAUMONT (ASM BEAUMONT BUSINESS CENTER), CONCURRENT ANNEXATION TO THE BEAUMONT-CHERRY VALLEY WATER DISTRICT, AND CONCURRENT DETACHMENTS FROM COUNTY SERVICE AREA 152 AND THE RIVERSIDE COUNTY WASTE RESOURCES MANAGEMENT DISTRICT.

Please submit this Public Comment regarding the City of Beaumont Annexation. I am requesting that the Commission once again Continue the Item as the City’s situation has only gotten worse over the last year.

Approval of this Annexation has been withheld pending Beaumont’s ability to provide Financial Statements and ability to provide Services. Although the parcel itself is small, because of Beaumont’s financial instability it was wise that LAFCO did not add fuel to the fire.

CEQA EIRs:

LAFCO Staff Report states: “As a responsible agency under CEQA, the Commission is required to review the environmental documentation prepared by the lead agency and consider the information and environmental impacts identified.”

A 2.89 Million sq/ft industrial complex generating a 5,000 semi truck/day traffic will have no effect on the environment. Does that sound right to the LAFCO Commission?

The City has submitted forged CEQA EIRs for over 22 years. The City has built over 20,000 houses, shopping malls, and industrial industries and “Negative Declarations’ filed on every project.

The population of Beaumont has grown from 8,000 to 45,000 without building a Recycled Water Facility, a proper Sewer System, Fire Stations, or adequate Roadways. Willful circumvention of State and Federal Laws has deteriorated the Citizens’ quality of life and has jeopardized their health and safety.

The Sierra Club has filed a civil lawsuit against the City and I have filed criminal complaints with State and Federal Regulatory and Investigative Agencies. Contrary to popular belief in Riverside County, it is illegal to forge government documents.

California Public Resources Code requires that the cumulative effects of CEQA are analyzed.

$5 Million Transfer:

The City of Beaumont is attempting an illegal Transfer of $5 Million in order to lower the General Fund Deficit from $12.47 Million to $7.47 Million. This issue has already been reported to the Attorney General and SEC.

The City of Beaumont’s 2014/2015 Financial Statements were submitted to the Auditing Firm of Van Lant & Fankhanel in October, 2015. Audits take six weeks, but Beaumont’s Audit can not be completed because the City submitted the same forged financial statements.

The $5 Million was illegally transferred out of the Mello Roos CFD Bond Fund Accounts and must be returned to the Bond Fund Accounts. The SEC served Subpoenas on three (3) different Agencies; the City, the Authority, and the Community Facilities District (CFD). The City and Authority can not ‘approval’ stealing money from the CFD.

And to top it all off; the $5 Million the City is trying to transfer from the Sewer Fund to the General Fund are Restricted Funds that resulted in an additional Fee the City added in 2013 without Voter Approval in violation of Prop. 218.

Provision of Services:

Police Protection: The City of Beaumont lease all of their police vehicles from the County and have no police or vehicle Contingency Fund. There are four Lawsuits totaling over $50 Million in Claims as a result of the corruption within the Beaumont Police Department. Former Chief of Police Frank Coe has been indicted by the Riverside District Attorney, but other Beaumont Police Officers will be Indicted by the State and Feds.

Fire Protection: Federal Fire Safety Standards require the City of Beaumont to build three (3) more Fire Stations. CalFires has attempted to speak to the City regarding fire protection, but it falls on deaf ears. Beaumont’s fire protection has dwindled to the point that the City must lease all of their Fire Engines and Equipment from the County and has no budget to ever purchase their own equipment.

The Beaumont City Council tells their Constituents that of course they could ‘build’ a fire stations ‘if they wanted to’, but there’s no money to ‘staff’ a fire station and there will never be money in the budget to staff a fire station in the future, so there’s no reason to build the facility.

Roads: The City of Beaumont has until January, 2017 to come up with a repayment plan for the $42 Million TUMF stolen from the Western Riverside Council of Governments. With Interest the debt is over $65 Million.

The City has ‘zero’ money reserved to pay this debt.

Beaumont has also collected over $250 Million in local road mitigation fees that were all embezzled including $13 Million funneled to Urban Logic under the guise of ‘Potrero Interchange’. The City has no financial ability to build the interchange because they spend all of the Mitigation Fees on General Fund Operations.

Water: On October 10, 2016, the Beaumont-Cherry Valley Water District agreed that If Jeff Davis from the San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency can not secure additional water by January, 2017, the District will enact Water Shortage Emergency Conditions per Water Code Section 350. There is no water.

Wastewater Services: On August 25, 2016, the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board issued an Investigative Order against the City of Beaumont after a preliminary investigation revealed that the City had Forged Government Documents and does no have a Federal NPDES Permit for Commercial or Industrial Use: http://www.ci.beaumont.ca.us/D…

The Claim that the City will not meet 4.0 sewage capacity is false as it only accounts for houses and not for Commercial or Industrial dumping of sewage.

The City has acquired over $70 Million to build a Title 22 Compliant Recycled Water Facility. For years the City proclaimed that it had Title 22 Compliant Recycled Water. In the last few years the Beaumont Staff and Council have proclaimed Title 22 Compliant Recycled Water was only weeks and months away.

On August 2, 2016 the Beaumont City Council was presented with a Staff Report stating that Title 22 Compliant Recycled Water is millions of dollars away because the City never build the infrastructure to produce Title 22 Compliant Recycled Water: http://www.ci.beaumont.ca.us/DocumentCenter/View/27897

On November 7, 2016 the Beaumont City Council chose to ‘go it alone’ and build a $93 Million Facility instead of releasing the Sewer Plant to the Yucaipa Valley and Beaumont-Cherry Valley Water Districts. The City can not acquire financing as the Sewer Plant’s last Bond was Revoked after it was proven that all the money was stolen. All Taxes and Mitigation Fees collected are spent in the General Fund for daily operating expenses.

The Sewer Fund did contain $5 Million that could have been used to build the Recycled Water Facility, but Council transferred the money to the General Fund and patted themselves on the back for ‘lowering the deficit’.

Owners of the Property to be Annexed:

Although ASM Beaumont Investors applied for the Annexation, on September 6, 2016, the Beaumont City Council handed their Staff a blank check to purchase the property: http://www.ci.beaumont.ca.us/DocumentCenter/View/28258

The City of Beaumont can not produce Audited Financial Statements because the City has over $100 Million in Liabilities and the only Assets of significance are forged. City Hall is an old high school. The Police Department is an old elementary school with electrical problems, rotted sewer pipes, and walls so molded and decayed it needs to condemned.

The Property is valued at $1 Million by the Riverside County Tax Assessor’s Office. It’s a worthless piece of property, but if purchased it would be the most valuable Asset the City owns. The City of Beaumont can not claim their infrastructure construction on their Financial Statements because they have no records of the Construction in violation of State Laws.

The Current Mayor of Beaumont is Mike Lara, the Riverside County Building and Safety Director. Although one would like to think that Beaumont’s violation of State and Federal Laws are an isolated event, it is more and more apparent that the same illegal activities of forged CEQA EIRs, No-Bid Contracts, illegal Construction, phony Inspections, and Municipal Bond Fraud is rampant throughout Riverside County.

I am requesting the Commission Continue the Annexation in the hopes that Beaumont new City Manager that just started on October 31st can get an understanding of the City’s financial situation.