June
27, 2014
San
Bernardino Sun
By
Joe Nelson
The San
Bernardino County civil Grand Jury will release its annual report on Tuesday.
The report
will be released at noon, following a 10 a.m. ceremony in the Board of
Supervisors Chambers dismissing the 2013-2014 grand jury and appointing members
for the 2014-2015 panel, said Melonee Vartanian, assistant to the Grand Jury.
The Grand
Jury serves as the civilian watchdog over local government, investigating
complaints of alleged malfeasance, government waste and inefficiency. It
compiles its findings, along with recommendations, into a report that is
released on July 1 each year in both hard copy and online.
The
government agencies under grand jury scrutiny then prepare formal responses to
the findings, either agreeing with them and citing corrective plans of action
or disagreeing with the findings and citing justifications as to why.
Major news
stories have come from grand jury investigations, including an unprecedented
3-year probe into Victorville’s fiscal practices, which resulted in
investigations by the FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In April
2013, the SEC sued the city and its Southern California Logistics Airport, alleging
investors were defrauded as part of a $13.3 million bond sale that occurred in
2008, and that the defendants drastically inflated property values at several
hangars at the airport. The lawsuit is still pending.
Other major
stories to spring from the grand jury include a scandal at the county
Assessor’s Office in 2008 that led to a criminal investigation and charges and
a companion corruption scandal involving an allegedly tainted $102 million
legal settlement between the county and a Rancho Cucamonga developer in
November 2006, which prosecutors say is the biggest corruption scandal in
county history.
The grand
jury also investigated alleged mismanagement at San Bernardino International
Airport, which came amid an FBI investigation that resulted in the District
Attorney’s Office filing criminal fraud and conspiracy charges against the
airport’s former developer, Scot Spencer, and his business associate, Felice
Luciano.
The new report is to be made available online
mid-afternoon Tuesday at: cms.sbcounty.gov.
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