WHO LET THE DOG OUT – WOOF

Date:

Editorial

Ann Smith | Contributed

In the last several weeks, all manner of dirty laundry has been aired, from long time city council member Linda Krupa to accusations about Congressional District 25 candidate Brian Hawkins to the questionable actions on the part of several city council member in support of Measure H. There are signs all over Hemet from “Keep Hemet Safe”. What’s that all about? There are the new “hires” touted by Police Chief Pust with Measure U money, a total of 3 new police officer.

Senior writer Rusty Strait pretty well laid it out there in last week’s Chronicle, with his endorsement of District 5 city council candidate, John Petty; I second that Rusty, oh, but I’m in District 1, Karlee Meyers’ district! Ouch! We’ll fight that battle when the 2024 election comes along.

The City of Hemet responded to my Freedom of Information request (FOIA) asking for a breakdown of the eleven new hires by Hemet Police Department. These new hires were considered as Measure U hires.

Breakdown of what the Hemet Police Department hourly rates for 2022 provided by the City of Hemet website which has posted their job classifications, annual and/or hourly compensation. Courtesy of City of Hemet

The City of Hemet website has posted their job classifications, annual and/or hourly compensation. According to the above chart, if all employees work 40 hours per week, Hemet Police Department pays out approximately $629,000 annually. This does not include overtime or benefits.

Unless we can obtain the requested general ledger for Measure U, there is absolutely no way anyone can know for sure what share of the $65 million dollars I Measure U tax money public safety is actually getting. Once a month, at city council meetings, there is a “warrant register”, a report of all payments. Some of the checks are absolutely for public safety, but it’s impossible to figure them all out.

This argument bolsters our accusations that Measure U dollars are being used to help balance the city budget. As for the so called “audit” that was performed by the city, that was not a forensic audit by an outside company known and trusted for their national municipal audits, a firm with no ties to Hemet. We requested specific information from the city on the positions, pay scale, etc. but what they sent was a vague breakdown when in fact, there are multiple salary ranges dependent on various factors. Did we mention all “upper management” received raises? Did that come out of Measure U or the real General Fund? Will we ever truly know? We need a real audit! Mayor Malcolm Lilienthal assured me in a phone conversation that Hemet’s new interim Finance Director has been tasked with the job of explaining where Measure U money went. I made it clear to the mayor that what we really need is a copy of the General Ledger of Measure from its inception, not a summary of Measure U income and expenses (as was provided by the last Finance Director, Lorena Rocha). She actually had the temerity to state that it was not possible to provide the general ledger from the General Fund, even though she personally emailed me a summary of the General Fund revenue and expenses. Her explanation to me was “it’s not possible to extract the general fund income and expense from the General Fund” that’s utterly ludicrous; how was she able to provide a summary ?

Moving forward, let’s talk about San Jacinto resident and congressional candidate Pastor Brian Hawkins. Pastor Hawkins has engaged in some pretty nefarious behaviors. There had been some question about the non-profit status of his “Divine Appointment” church. The IRS automatically recognizes churches as 501 (c) (3) charitable organizations if they meet the IRS requirements. The state of California does have some requirements and he was turned down for a lack of requested information. We have not attempted to investigate that since he has done some other questionable thing, the biggest one being this; Hawkins operated a church, Divine Appointment, in the Miller-Jones mortuary building. He failed to pay rent for months. Miller-Jones took Hawkins to court and they won a judgement for about $30,000. Apparently, Miller Jones basically told him, “OK, we forgive the debt”. That is all well and good, however, the last time we looked, Hawkins failed to disclose that forgiven debit on his financial documents for the state elections commission (FPPC). That is definitely Fair Political Practices Commission violation and it was reported. According to the Internal Revenue Service, a forgiven debt is considered taxable and should be reported on form 1099-C. I had a telephone conversation with Mr. Hawkins and he stated that we did not have all the facts). In spite of his protestations, I have been advised by the Fair Practices Political Commission (FPPC) that his case is still open and pending. This is an allegation and if the writer is proven wrong, I will PROMPTLY apologize to hi him.

I provided the Pastor with my email address so he could forward what documentation he had. I stated I would do all I could to help him if he would forward me documentation.to help clear his name. Is this the person you want as your 25th congressional district representative? He has now stated publicly in a Facebook post that there is no need for him to prove anything and accused me of distorting his facts (all verbal and no substantiation) In spite of his protestations, I have been advised by the Fair Practices Political Commission (FPPC) that his case is still open and pending.

Lastly, we have the case of 2 city council members creating and posting to social media, their endorsement of Measure H. To his credit, one of the council members removed his post. Meyer did eventually pull the post. She had used a “likeness” of the city logo, that being legally questionable in itself. Meyers posted her endorsement of Measure H and according to city ordinances, that’s illegal. There is a flyer circulating around Hemet, campaigning for Measure H. Not so sure about how that is legal. Lots of animosity and finger pointing. Again, she did remove the post.

Lest I forget, District 1 council member Karlee Meyer has confused the heck out of everyone proclaiming her endorsement of Measure H. That is the opposite of what she has previously stated. She was elected based on all kinds of promises which she has reneged on. He comments, when approached on both social media and in private message to me were “you’re confused.” That is the same answer she gives to anyone questioning her about her reversal of the facts. Council member Meyer, the voters will remember that when the next election comes along. You, along with council member Krupa, will be remembered for the damage you have tone to Hemet, the failed promises to your constituents. You showed so such promise, you were such a great mayor and at the time, a council member for the people. What happened to change that?

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