noguez articles-r

Kelley, Shryock Throw Curve Into Baseball Legends TournamentBy Randy Economy

Norwalk Vice Mayor Cherie Kelley and Councilman Leonard Shryock threw a major league curve ball to American baseball icon Cecil Fielder and several other Hall of Fame players in bringing a renowned youth baseball tournament to the cash strapped community of Norwalk with more than 110,000 residents.

Fielder and his group “The Baseball Legends” had formally petitioned the City of Norwalk City Council on Tuesday to request the waiving of nominal rental costs so the organization could bring a little league style tournament to several Norwalk ball diamonds scattered throughout the community.

Fielder, recognized as one of the all time great American baseball players, and the father of current major league superstar Prince Fielder, had been focusing his efforts in bringing the Norwalk community his Baseball Legends event that would

LCCN has been told that the investigation centers on the influence that Salari has been able to leverage on be-half of his private clientele with his longtime political ally Noguez.

Salari has helped finance campaigns for Noguez going back to his days as an elected member of the Huntington Park City Council. In 2003 Sal-ari donated more than $15,000

in printing to Noguez and two other allies during a HP City Council campaign, ac-cording to records obtained by LCCN.

LCCN has also been told that Salari has personally attended numerous meet-ings with at least three senior level mem-bers of Noguez inner circle to assert pres-sure on professional county appraisers to directly devalue assessed property rates on behalf Salari clients at Assessment Ap-peal’s Services, LLP.

Several sources inside the Assessor’s office tell LCCN that Noguez staff mem-bers Andrew Stevens, Assistant Asses-sor Eric Haagenson and Chief Appraiser to Major Real Properties Mark McNeil have been with Salari in heated meet-ings with lower level appraisers in order

By Jerry Bernstein

On Jan. 5 Governor Jerry Brown re-leased his budget proposal for the 2012-13 fiscal year. For the second year in a row the Los Angeles County Board of Educa-tion requested school districts to send two proposed budgets. Plan A, contingent on passage of the Governor’s tax initiative, which will be on the November ballot. Plan B would be implemented if voters turned down the governor’s tax initiative.

Deputy Superintendent Dr. Mary Sieu told the school board at its Feb. 7 meeting the budget submitted has a familiar theme. She said the unresolved state budget defi-cit that combined with the weak economy has created another District crisis budget for the year 2012-13. She said unlike re-cent previous years, the District is going to

have to live with uncertainty for a longer period of time.

“We’re going to have to work in the coming months with our labor groups, the community and our parents and work with-in our time line to process the budget. We have weathered this type of storm before and will have to follow our own guidance principals in making some key decisions and recommendations for the 2012-13 budget year,” she said.

ABC Chief Financial Officer Toan Nguyen said the state is facing an addition-al $9.2 billion budget deficit covering the next 17 months. “The Governor’s proposal includes $7 billion in revenues through his tax initiative that would increase the sales tax by one-half percent effective Jan.

By Randy Economy

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has opened up a formal in-quiry into the activities of Assessor John R. Noguez, Los Cerritos Community News has learned exclusively.

Noguez, who was elected in November of 2010 is the subject of a probe that was launched on November 18, 2011.

In an interview with David Demerjian, Senior District Attorney with the Office of Public Integrity on Monday, a complaint was filed late last year and that “an inquiry has been commenced.”

LCCN has also been told by four se-nior members who work at the highest levels for Noguez that that the focus of the probe revolves around the relationship between Noguez and Encino businessman Ramin Salari.

Salari is the owner of Assessment Ap-peals Services, LLP. According to their company website, Salari touts his com-pany’s ability to help “over 6,000 prop-erty tax reassessments with a high success rate.”

Noguez spokesman Louis Reyes said that “they have not received anything

whatsoever from the District Attorney’s Office.”

“You are asking us to comment on something we don’t have any knowledge about,” Reyes said. On Wednesday, Reyes called LCCN and said that Noguez had been told by Demerjian that “the Assessor was not the subject of the inquiry.”

On Thursday at 9 a.m. after the story broke on both the LCCN website and con-firmed in the Los Angeles Times by Pulit-zer Prize winning journalist Ruben Vives (City of Bell), Demerjian called LCCN Publisher Brian Hews and Reporter Ran-dy Economy and denied ever having a conversation with the Assessor about the probe. Further Demerjian said that he has only met Noguez on a couple of occasions at social events. “I have never spoken to the man,” Demerjian said.

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Serving Cerritos, Artesia, Hawaiian Gardens, Norwalk, Lakewood, Pico Rivera, La Mirada, and La Palma • 45,000 HOMES EVERY FRIDAY • FEBRUARY 10, 2012 • Volume 26, No. 6 • LosCerritosNews.net

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COMMUNITYNEWSCOMMUNITYNEWSCOMMUNITYCOMMUNITYNEWS

[See D.A. INQUIRY page 11]D.A. INQUIRY page 11]D.A. INQUIRY

[See ABC BUDGET CUTS page 10]

COFFEE WITH JERRY • OFF STREET CAFE • TUESDAY, FEB 28, 9 A.M. Details on 6

[See LEGENDS TOURNAMENT page 10]

Whitney Receives $125,000 Donation for Multi-Media Facility

ABC School District Looking at Additional Budget Cuts for 2012-13

COMMUNITYNEWS EXCLUSIVE

DISTRICT ATTORNEY OPENS OFFICIAL INQUIRY INTO ASSESSOR ACTIVITIES

that was launched on November 18,

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office

Los Cerritos Community News has learned exclusively.

Noguez, who was elected in November of 2010 is the subject of a probe

The Los Angeles County

Los Cerritos Community News has learned exclusively.

Noguez, who was elected in No-vember of 2010 is the subject of a probe

Whitney alumni Rajr Shah and members of the Shah family, presented a facsimile check of $125,000 donation for the Whitney High School Multi-Media Training Faciliity now under construction at the Feb. 7 ABC School Board meeting. Accepting the donation was School Board President Olym-pia Chen, Whitney Principal Dr. Rhonda Buss, and members of the Whitney faculty.

By Randy Economy

Norwalk Vice Mayor Cherie Kelley and Councilman Leonard Shryock threw a major league

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to have commercial properties devalued. The meetings took place in the Assessor’s North County Offices located in Encino and in West Los Angeles.

In one of those meetings, LCCN has been told that Stevens berated a lower lev-el appraiser in a heated confrontation and directed the staff member to do as he was told with Salari standing right next to him in the meeting.

One high ranking assessor who has worked for the county for more than three decades, who spoke on condition of ano-nymity, said that as many as 171 properties are involved in the probe, with more than one billion dollars in property devalua-tions involved. “This is Bell on steroids,”

the source told LCCN.“This is a classic case of interference

of government officials to reduce the valu-ation of someone’s property that has direct political ties to an elected assessor,” said one senior ranking county appraiser.

Noguez has been with the Asses-sor’s office for the past 25 years, and was elected to the top position in 2010. He is responsible for locating all taxable prop-erty in the sprawling county and to iden-tify who the true legal owners are of each property.

Salari is considered to be a key part of Noguez inner political circle dating back to his days when the first term Assessor served as an elected member of the Hun-tington Park City Council. (Copyright. Los Cerritos Community News. Hews Media Group. 2012)

$500,000. This is why we have furlough days,” he said.

Board Member Sofia Tse questioned the elimination of transportation. Nguyen stated in the current year the governor cut half the amount from the previous year. However there is a bill on his desk, SB81 that instead of transportation they would cut revenue limits. Tse also inquired about teachers who would possibly be let go. Nguyen said they would have to wait and see how many retire at the end of the school year. “If we have sufficient numbers then we would not need to lay off permanent teachers,” he said. On the question about employees paying more for their health in-surance, he said they are still studying that area and how it would work. That would have to be negotiated.

Dr. Sieu said the District is sharing the information with staff, teachers, parents etc. and they have already met with the PTSA.

Have a great story?Let us know about it!

Contact Randy at Randy at Randy562.407.3873

NEWS H UNDH UNDNEWS H UNDLOS CERRITOS COMMUNITY NEWS

CERRITOS COUNCIL APPROVES TRASH RATE INCREASEBy Jerry Bernstein

In Dec. 2007, the Cerritos City Coun-cil approved the current Cerritos solid waste management contract with CalMet Services. At its Feb. 7 meeting the coun-cil approved a solid waste increase of 2.2 percent for residential, a .2 percent for commercial business, and. a .2 percent decrease for roll-off.

Cerritos Environmental Service Man-ager Mike O’Grady told the Council the 2007 agreement set forth the maximum rates which CalMet can charge residen-tial and business customers in Cerritos. “It also included a provision for annual adjustments to account for the variable costs associated with solid waste collec-tion, processing and disposal.

O-Grady said during the past two months, staff has worked closely with CalMet in determining adjustment cal-culations that conform accurately to the

Hawaiian Gardens Council Votes in Favor of ABC District VotingBy Jerry Bernstein

In a unanimous vote the Hawaiian Gardens City Council voted in favor of changing the way the ABC School Board is elected from the existing at-large elections to elections by districts.

Former Hawaiian Gardens resident Olga Rios told the council the time had come for the city to have adequate representation on the school board by going from at-large elections to district election by area.

Mayor Mike Gomez said he had been approached by residents in the ABC School District asking that the election of school board members be held in districts and not at-large. Gomez said the population of the district is 30 percent Latino, pointing out that none of the Board members are Latino

Lack of procedures lead to unauthorized reductions of 179 properties valued at

over $1 BillionBy Randy Economy

LLos Angeles County Assessor John os Angeles County Assessor John R. Noguez has collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in cam-

paign donations during the

past two years. The money has come from hundreds of county employees who work directly for him and wealthy property owners, some of whom have received sub-stantial reductions in their property value assessments, a Los Cerritos Community News investigation has learned.

Noguez oversees the sprawl-Noguez oversees the sprawl-ing bureaucratic maze that controls ing bureaucratic maze that controls more than a $1 trillion dollars in more than a $1 trillion dollars in property value assessments. During property value assessments. During the past two years, records from the Los the past two years, records from the Los

Angeles County Registrar Recorders Angeles County Registrar Recorders Office show that Noguez has been Office show that Noguez has been on a campaign collection fund-on a campaign collection fund-raising spree that directly links raising spree that directly links

wealthy property owners to his top wealthy property owners to his top appraisers inside his inner circle.appraisers inside his inner circle.

Noguez and his office are now inNoguez and his office are now in-volved in an active probe by the Los An-volved in an active probe by the Los An-geles County District Attorney’s Office geles County District Attorney’s Office of Public Integrity. LCCN was the first of Public Integrity. LCCN was the first newspaper to break the details of the in-newspaper to break the details of the in-vestigation in its February 10th edition. vestigation in its February 10th edition.

Since then, the Los Angeles Times Since then, the Los Angeles Times and other well respected news outlets and other well respected news outlets have begun reporting on the case.have begun reporting on the case.

During the past four weeks, During the past four weeks, LCCN has interviewed more LCCN has interviewed more

than two dozen sources who than two dozen sources who work at the highest levels in-work at the highest levels in-

side the Assessor’s offices, as side the Assessor’s offices, as well as many political con-well as many political con-tributors to his campaigns, tributors to his campaigns, and many categorize the and many categorize the 46 year-old Noguez as 46 year-old Noguez as being a “classic pay to being a “classic pay to play politician” who play politician” who “will do anything to “will do anything to advance his future advance his future ambitions.” ambitions.”

A review of cam-A review of cam-paign contributions paign contributions from Los Angeles from Los Angeles County Registrar County Registrar Recorder records Recorder records to Noguez by to Noguez by the staff of Los the staff of Los Cerritos Com-Cerritos Com-munity News munity News confirms that confirms that several dozen several dozen

current employees current employees who work and serve as who work and serve as

commercial property appraisers, adjust-ers and other senior members in the As-sessor’s office have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to his campaign war chest since 2009.

Noguez was elected as the Assessor of Los Angeles County in November 2010. He spent more money on his cam-paign than any other Assessor candidate in the history of the office.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley and the Office of Public In-tegrity headed by Senior District Attor-ney Dave Demerjian launched a formal probe into the activities of the Asses-sor’s office on November 18, 2011 after receiving at least one formal complaint. The name of the person who filed the “inquiry” that has resulted in the opening of the probe has not been made public by members of the District Attorney’s office. LCCN has also spoken to three high-level sources inside the Assessor’s that have already been contacted by law enforcement officials.

LCCN first reported that the focus of the probe revolves around the political and professional relationship between Noguez and Encino businessman Ramin Salari as well as the activities of former appraiser Scott Schenter out of the West Los Angeles Office of the Assessor.

Salari’s company website, “Assess-ment Appeals Services, LLP” claims to represent more than “6,000 property tax reassessments with a high success rate.” LCCN has been told by several sources that Salari has been involved in hundreds of property reassessment hearings on be-half of his wealthy client base.

POLITICAL SHAKEDOWNCentury City attorney A. David

Yousseefyeh with ADF Law told LCCN


LCCN MEDIA GROUP


[See JOHN NOGUEZ page 12] [See TRASH RATE INCREASE page 10]

[See H.G. ABC VOTING page 10]


page 12] [See

‘PAY TO PLAY POLITICS’ RAMPANT AT L.A. COUNTY ASSESSOR OFFICE

him and wealthy property owners, some of whom have received sub-stantial reductions in their property value assessments, a Los Cerritos Community News investigation has

Noguez oversees the sprawl-ing bureaucratic maze that controls more than a $1 trillion dollars in

commercial property appraisers, adjust-




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on Tuesday that he was present at a po-litical fundraiser for Noguez in Beverly Hills just months after Noguez took of-fice as the elected Assessor. Yousseefyeh said, “I was blown out of his mind when Noguez showed up with five of his peo-ple from inside his office and in front of everybody, just lined them up one at a time and said hey, these are the guys from my office, and these are the ones who are responsible for overseeing the assessment of your property.”

LCCN has been told by another source that the swanky event cost attend-ees $1,000 per person and was held at the home of Michael Delijani, the owner of Delson Investments. Delijani owns one of the most historical buildings in down-town Los Angeles where the State The-ater is location at 703 South Broadway. Now known as the United Building, the 14-story ornate structure is now an office building and is considered to be the his-toric birthplace of Downtown Los Ange-les.

Records obtained by LCCN from the LA County Registrar Recorder confirms that Delijani and members of his family contributed over $20,000 in donations to Noguez since 2009.

“My mouth hit the ground,” Yous-seefyeh said about the political gathering at Delijani’s home. “I know a political shake down when I see one, and this was the worst I have ever seen.”

In the past Yousseefyeh has repre-sented several clients who were bilked out of more than $500 million from Los Angeles businessman and investor Ezri Namvar, 59 who was convicted on four counts of fraud in a downtown L.A. fed-eral court last year. Namvar had failed to return $23 million given for safekeeping to his company, Namco Financial Ex-change Corp. (NFE), and instead invest-ed the money in risky real estate deals. “I know political crooks when I see them,” said Yousseefyeh. “Noguez is one of the worst I have ever encountered in my ca-reer.”

Yousseefyeh has been involved in more than 15 lawsuits against Salari, and also brought legal action against Noguez in the past. This was prior to his rise from a Huntington Park city councilman from a mid range employee in the Asses-sor’s office to the nation’s most powerful property evaluator.

“Noguez thinks he is still the Mayor of Huntington Park, and that his word is final, and that whatever he wants to do is acceptable,” Yousseefyeh said.

“He places his political contributors at the front of the line,” one appraiser who works in the Assessor’s office said. “Noguez could care less about what’s le-gal, all he cares about is being consumed with power and control,” the source told LCCN.

LCCN attempted to contact Noguez for comment and did speak to Noguez’ press secretary Louis Reyes on his cell phone Wednesday afternoon to ask for comment on the latest revelations.

Reyes hung up in midsentence. © 2012 Los Cerritos Community News, Hews Media Group.

179 PROPERTIES VALUED AT OVER $1 BILLION CENTER OF FOCUSBy Randy Economy

LCCN has obtained a list from in-side the Los Angeles County Asses-sor’s Office that documents the un-authorized reduction in value of 179 properties.

The appraiser assigned to oversee the cases was relieved of his official duties and was forced to resign last year.

Sources inside the Assessor’s office told LCCN last week that the subject of the investigation would arrive at the Los Angeles County Hall of Adminis-tration at 6 a.m. each day and placed his required documents into a lower level data entry clerk’s “in box.”

The clerk would proceed to enter the data, and checks from the reduction in the property value would be issued.

“This started happening after Noguez took office,” one source inside the Assessor’s office told LCCN. “It shows the complete lack of policy and procedures, and checks and balances that exist inside the Assessor’s office,” the source said.

LCCN is in the process of investi-gating the 179 property owners listed in the document and whether there is any direct connection to Noguez cam-paign donors.

Assessor press spokesman Louis Reyes refused comment on behalf of Noguez, in fact, Reyes hung up the phone in mid-sentence during the call.© 2012 Los Cerritos Community News, Hews Media Group.

JOHN NOGUEZContinued from page 1

Thomson Reuters, the world’s lead-ing source of information, today rec-ognized Prime Healthcare Services as one of the 15 Top Health Systems in the nation based on quality of care, ef-ficiency and patient satisfaction. This is the second time in four years that Prime Healthcare has earned the na-tional distinction. Prime Healthcare was recognized as a Top 10 Health System in 2009 by Thomson Reuters in its first-ever landmark study of health systems based on quality and efficiency. Prime Healthcare is the only health system to receive this coveted recognition on the West Coast.

According to Thomson Reuters, compared to its peers, Prime Healthcare saved more lives, caused fewer patient complications, made fewer medical er-rors, followed recommended standards of care more closely, released patients half a day sooner on average and scored better on patient satisfaction surveys.

“This prestigious recognition speaks volumes of Prime Healthcare’s commit-ment to its core values of quality and cost-effectiveness of health care deliv-ery, bending the cost curve in these times of rapidly evolving healthcare reform across the nation,” said Prem Reddy, MD, FACC, FCCP, Founder and Chair-man of Prime Healthcare Services.

Among 321 health systems, 2,194 hospitals and over 8 million patient discharges included in the study, Prime Healthcare was among those that had a 24.4 percent lower mortality than was expected, 14.5 percent fewer medical complications, 31.7 percent fewer ad-verse patient safety incidents, the lowest readmission rates and higher percentage of patients who reported having a better overall hospital experience than compa-rable hospitals. Prime Healthcare ranked higher than the other 21 health systems in California and the more than 30 other health systems on the West Coast.

“Selection for the 15 Top Health Systems award is based solely on un-biased statistical results,” said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president of performance improvement at Thomson Reuters. “Because we rely on objective

measurement derived from public data and peer-reviewed methods, health sys-tems may not apply or pay for consider-ation in this study.”

Prime Healthcare’s hospitals were recognized numerous times in the past by various renowned national bench-marking organizations for their quality and efficiency of patient care. The inde-pendent Thomson Reuters 15 Top Health Systems recognition is the only study of its kind that aggregates individual hos-pital performance into system-level data across the nation.

“We congratulate the physicians, nurses and all the staff for putting Prime Healthcare on the top of the chart,” said Lex Reddy, President and Chief Execu-tive Officer, Prime Healthcare Services. “They have put the West Coast on the national map of quality patient care.”

The published study that is based on Medicare data of 2009, 2010 and 2011 takes into consideration 12 patient care metrics. Prime Healthcare was the larg-est system with thirteen hospitals com-pared to the peer group of two to five hospitals in the study, which underscores its system-wide implementation and ad-herence to the best-practice guidelines of quality patient care.

“Upon further analysis of the Thom-son Reuters research data, I am proud to note that Prime Healthcare excelled even this elite group in the key patient care measures of mortality, patient safe-ty, medical complications and CORE measures,” said Suzanne Richards, RN, Vice President of Clinical Operations, Prime Healthcare Services, who is also a statistician.

Prime Healthcare hospitals that were included in this study were Centinela Regional Medical Center, Chino Valley Medical Center, Desert Valley Hospital, Encino Hospital Medical Center, Gar-den Grove Medical Center, Huntington Beach Hospital, La Palma Intercom-munity Hospital, Montclair Hospital Medical Center, Paradise Valley Hos-pital, San Dimas Community Hospital, Shasta Regional Medical Center, Sher-man Oaks Hospital and West Anaheim Medical Center.

Prime Healthcare Recognized as Top 15 Health System in the Nation

Artesia City Council Urges ABC to Change Voting Status from At-Large to DistrictsBy Jerry Bernstein

The Artesia City Council approved a resolution urging the ABC Board of Edu-cation to convert to a by-district system in the election of school board members as opposed to the present at-large sys-tem.

In its resolution the council noted the District has a population of 108,768 that is diverse racially and economically and encompasses all or parts of Artesia, Cerritos, Hawaiian Gardens, Lakewood, Norwalk, a small part of Long Beach and an unincorporated area along the San Gabriel Riverbed. The resolution said conversion to a by-district may af-ford residents of Artesia in getting a local candidate elected to represent them and their needs and would best serve the in-

By Randy Economy

Los Angeles County Assessor John R. Noguez

turned the reigns of America’s largest county government property assessment agency to a former political operative of a San Gabriel Valley based trash recycling business, just months after his election in November on 2010.

In documents obtained by Los Cer-ritos Community News, Noguez radi-cally redrew the organizational chart of the Assessor’s office and gave political contributor Chris Carlos, EdD the top administrative position. Carlos is the for-mer head of Government Affairs at Ath-

ens Disposal Services and is now Chief of Staff to Noguez.

Further, LCCN has confirmed that Carlos has no professional experience in the field of tax management or as a pro-fessional appraiser prior to his hiring by Noguez.

“Carlos now wears the badge of Chief of Staff and is calling all the shots. He runs the joint, day in and day out,”

one employee with more than 33 years experience inside the Assessor’s office told LCCN.

On February 7th, Carlos fired off an email to every employee at the assessor’s office reminding them “wherein Asses-sor Noguez reminded all personnel to be diligent in valuing property at its fair market value, in accordance to the law, regardless of a property owner’s rela-tionship with the Assessor.”

Carlos goes on to state in the email that “in keeping with this directive, if any tax payer representative has com-municated expectations of special treat-ment related to any case with the Asses-sor’s office, please immediately forward to me the substance of that communica-tion, along with the name of the party and the case number involved, through

Defaulted Cerritos Towne Center Parcel on Auction BlockBy Randy Economy

One of the biggest pieces of prime property in Cerritos is going on the auc-tion block in March due to a recent de-fault, Los Cerritos Community News has learned.

The multi-million dollar piece of real estate is located on the northeast corner of Artesia Boulevard and Bloomfield Av-enue. The property is valued at an esti-mated value of $9 million. It will be up for auction on the steps of the Rio Hondo Superior Court House in El Monte on March 9.

The property is nestled next to the crowded 91 Freeway near the Bloom-field Avenue and Towne Center Drive off ramps. It is considered by real estate pro-fessionals as being one of the “most de-sired” parcels due to its location.

The previous owner, Hotels & Devel-

State Funding Could Force Closure of Schools in ABCSchool Board Questions Absence of Parent Input

By Jerry Bernstein

Facing additional budget cuts rang-ing from $8.5 million to $15.9 million for the fiscal year 2012-13, depending on anticipated budget cuts from Sacramen-to, members of the ABC school board, at its Feb. 21 meeting, reluctantly discussed the possibility of having to close two schools and curtailing extra curricular activities including athletics and band.

Deputy Superintendent Dr. Mary Sieu said in the last four years the District has lost $30 million in income from the state. If the statutory COLA is included the to-


LCCN MEDIA GROUP


[See ARTESIA CITY COUNCIL page 11] [See CERRITOS TOWNE CENTER page 12]

[See STATE FUNDING page 12]


Noguez Turned Assessor Office Over to Former Trash Hauler’s Political Operative




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based trash recycling business, just ens Disposal Services and is now Chief

os Angeles County

agency to a former political operative of a San Gabriel Valley based trash recycling business, just

os Angeles County

agency to a former political operative of a San Gabriel Valley based trash recycling business, just

The Cerritos Optimist Club held its annual Pancake Breakfast at Cerritos Park for the Opening Day Ceremonies of the Cerritos Girls Softball League. An estimated 2,500 pancakes and sausages were served to the families and friends of

the league. All precedes from the break-fast goes to the league.

The Optimists meet the first, second and fourth Thursday at 7 a.m. and on the third Thursday at 7 p. m. at the Off Street Café across from Gahr High School.

Cerritos Optimists Hold Annual Pancake Breakfast

Members of the Cerritos Optimist Club partaking in the annual Pancake Breakfast held at Cerritos Park for the Cerritos Girls Softball League included, Ebie Ghaneian. Owner of Café & Stuff in Downy, who donated the grill, Daniel Ray, Tho Ngo, Alan Barkharder, Cerritos Mayor Carol Chen, Denise Weuve, Martin Flax and Robert Green

[See ASSESSOR OFFICE SCANDAL page 10]


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“your chain of command.”“Our code of ethics re-

quires the maintenance of integrity and propriety in all departments’ matters and any behavior that may com-promise the ability of the de-partment to carry out its lawful function will be appropriately addressed,” the memo is signed by Carlos and ends with the note “thank you for your cooperation in this matter.”

Brian Hews, LCCN Publisher, said “it is the responsibility of a free and open news organization to have direct infor-mation regarding the internal activities of any government agency, especially one as complex and powerful as the Los Angeles County Assessor.”

LCCN was the first news organiza-tion to break the story that Noguez and his office is the subject of at least two criminal probes by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. Since then, several other news agencies includ-ing the Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, Eastern Group Publications and a growing assortment of radio talk shows and television news casts are beginning to cover the ever fluid developments.

Hews sent a direct request to the Los Angeles County Registrar Recorder re-questing several hundred pages of public documents, records, and internal memos under the “Freedom of Information Act” regarding the activities of Noguez.

In another memo obtained by LCCN, dated Tuesday, August 2, 2011, Noguez began informing his staff of several hun-

dred employees of “organizations chang-es” based upon his “vision for the As-sessor’s Office to provide fair appraisals

in the most efficient professional and courteous manner possible.”

Noguez, who is a former elect-ed city councilman from Hunting-ton Park, also states that he used

“preference sheets were reviewed and every effort was made to accom-modate these requests.”

“However, in some cases it was necessary to deviate from the prefer-

ence list to provide the best fit for each considered position,” Noguez wrote.

In another memo obtained by LCCN from June 16, 2011 under both the sig-nature of Noguez and Assistant Asses-sor George Rekei, announced that Mark McNeill would be promoted to the po-sition of Chief Appraiser of Major Real Properties and Andrew Stephens to the position of Chief Appraiser of Assess-ment Services.

On July 14 of 2011, Renkei and Noguez issued another internal email ob-tained exclusively by LCCN that “effec-tively August 1, 2011, Eric Haagenson with be promoted to Assistant Assessor over Valuations and will be responsible for both Major and District Appraisals.” The memo also states that Renkei will “be the Assistant Assessor over Admin-istration and will be responsible Roll Services and Information Technology.”

Several sources at the highest levels with Noguez said that employees have been contacted by members of the Dis-trict Attorney’s Office of Public Integ-rity and are focused on the relationship between Noguez, and Salari who is the owner of Assessment Appeals Services

ASSESSOR OFFICE SCANDALContinued from page 1


will be appropriately addressed,” the memo is signed by Carlos and ends with


ed city councilman from Hunting-ton Park, also states that he used


“However, in some cases it was necessary to deviate from the prefer-

any behavior that may com-promise the ability of the de-partment to carry out its lawful function will be appropriately addressed,” the

in the most efficient professional and

promise the ability of the de-partment to carry out its lawful function will be appropriately addressed,” the




LLP.LCCN reported that Haagenson, Ste-

phens, and McNeill have been in several “heated meetings” before the Property Appeals Assessment Board with Salari has been successful in having commer-cial properties “devalued” at the “direc-tion of Noguez.”

In one of those meetings, LCCN has been told that Stephens berated a lower level appraiser in a “heated confronta-tion” and directed the staff member to “do as he was told” with Salari’s “stand-ing right next to him in the meeting.”

LCCN reviewed political contribu-tion documents filed with the Los An-geles County Registrar of Voters Office in Norwalk that confirm that Stephens and members of his immediate family contributed $5,000 to Noguez during his run for Assessor in 2010 campaign in six different donations amounts. Mc-Neil also contributed two checks in the amount of $500 each to Noguez in both July and August of 2010. Haagenson gave Noguez a donation in the amount of $1,000 on August 6, 2010, records confirm, and Renkei donated $1,000 on July 20, 2010.

Several media calls into Noguez and Press Secretary Louis Reyes have not been returned to Los Cerritos Commu-nity News, and many calls to the Asses-sor’s office by LCCN staff have been disconnected in the middle of conversa-tions.

© Copyright. 2012. Los Cerritos Community News. Hews Media Group. All Rights Reserved.

tal is $57 million. She said, “Tonight we have the challenge of developing two contingency plans, required by the Los Angles County Board of Education. We have to develop a Plan “A “ based on pas-sage of the Governor’s tax initiative. and Plan” B” that is based on the premise the imitative is rejected by the voters.” She said the goal tonight is for board mem-bers to share their opinions openly. On Mar. 6, staff’s recommendation will be given to the board for approval.

Meeting in a near empty board room, the Board members expressed dismay that the room was practically empty and the community did not seem to realize what the continued budget cuts from Sac-ramento were doing to the schools. “We need parent involvement in our discus-sions. Where are they?” members of the board asked.

Speaking before the Board, AFT President Ray Gaer urged parents to be-come involved in their schools and to get involved in obtaining funds for their schools. “This is a crucial time,” he as-serted.

School teacher Kathy Eppick told the board that additional furlough days should be out of the question. She said in reality furlough days were salary cuts. “Teach-ers don’t get paid when on furlough,” she said. “The time has come to cut extracur-ricular activities. She said the board can’t continue to take from the teachers. “It’s time for someone else’s turn.”

BUDGET PROPOSALSBudget solutions reviewed included

eliminating the Elementary School band program (four teachers) $340,000; Close an elementary school, $500,000; Close a middle school, $800,000;Reduce and/or eliminate home-to-school transporta-tion, $800,000; Reduce administrators by six, $600,000; Reduce CSEA staff by six, $360,000; Reduce AFSCME staff by six, $360,000 for a total of $3,660,000. Com-bined with other possible cuts the amount saved would be over $19,000,000.

Other possible solutions discussed in-cluded increasing class size K-3 from 28 to 30 students, Increase class sizes in sec-ondary school by two, $1,080,000; Re-duce school sites budgets, Adult School and ROP budgets brought additional cat-egorical flexibility transfer, transfer from Adult Education Fund, strategic hiring, utilize the balance of the Education Jobs Act fund, and Utilize up to 50 percent of the District fund balance.

Broad President Olympia Chen said she wanted to be clear on the numbers. “If the governor’s tax initative passes we

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are dealing with a $8.5 million deficit If it does not we are dealing with a $15.9 mil-lion deficit. ABC Chief Finance Officer Toan Nguyan said that was correct.

Board member Celia Spitzer asked how many students were involved in the bus Transportation Program. Nguyan an-swered approximately 800, Spitzer also inquired about the two other proposed tax measures that may be on the ballot and what their impact would be if they received more votes than the governor’s initiative.

Nguyan said the second measure is called “Our Children Our Future” spon-sored by a civil rights attorney named Molly Monger. He said this has the po-tential to bring in $10 billion for pub-lic education for 10 years. The first few years the money would have to go to pay off the debt. After that the money would go strictly to education and could only be used for education. A third pro-posal, backed by California Federation of Teachers and is entitled “Restoring Cali-fornia.” would increase personal income taxes for anyone making more than $6 million. It would be split between public safety and education.

Board member Sophia Tse asked about school site budget. Nguyan said this is the money the District gives to the school to run the school.

Board member James Kang asked about school transportation. “What is the number related to the children?” Nguyan said the District has been receiving $1.2 million for both special education and regular education students. He said the governor has proposed to eliminate the funding. He said if the District charged for transportation it could generate ap-proximately $200,000.

Board Member Lynda Johnson said she has concerns about ending transporta-tion to Tracy High School. “I would hate to see transportation end to the school. Many students who have no way to get to the school except by school bus, it could effect their future

Board member Maynard Law inquired how much would the saving be if a ele-mentary school was closed. Nguyan said $500,000, and closing a middle school would save $800,000. Law asked what would happen to the teachers. Nguyan answered the teachers would be trans-ferred to other schools since the students would need them, the principal and his/her staff would be let go or put on leave.

The Board expressed distaste for bud-get cuts affecting extra curricular activi-ties, and bands as well as closing schools and other programs, but felts they had to do what was necessary no matter how distasteful.

opment LLC., recently defaulted on the project.

Interested buyers must bring a certified cashier's check with them to the auction.

The auction does not include the cur-rent Sam Ash Music Center, according to Cerritos City Manager Art Gallucci.

Gallucci told LCCN on Thursday that he hopes that Hotels & Development LLC can "come up with a solution" and financ-es in order for them to maintain the prime property. "If not, and if someone else buys the property, we will look forward to working with the new owners."

The property includes the former Bor-der's Book Store and Café, a mattress out-let, a telecommunications sales center, and a seasonal holiday sales center.

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Assessor’s office and gave Carlos the top administrative position.

Before joining Noguez, Carlos was the former head of Government Affairs at Ath-ens Disposal Services.

Further, LCCN was first to report that Carlos had no professional experience in the field of tax management or as a profes-sional appraiser prior to his hiring. Carlos was being paid a monthly salary and benefit package of more than $16,000 per month.

Noguez hired Carlos in June of 2011. LCCN has confirmed that Athens trash hauling executive earned $1,000 a month more than longtime Deputy Assessor Eric Haagenson who was hired back in 1972, and $4,000 more than Major Real Property Chief Appraiser Mark McNeil, who was hired in 1987. Haagenson, Carlos, McNeill and Renkei are all contributors to Noguez political campaign accounts.

Carlos immediately began changing the infrastructure of the Assessor’s office and according to several sources turned “the

By Jerry Bernstein

The Cerritos City Council, at its Feb. 27, meeting awarded a contract in the amount $499,935 to West Coast

Arborists to begin a citywide trimming and tree replacement project and authorized staff to solicit additional bids to complete the project.

Tod Kuh, Parks and Trees Superinten-

dent the project includes the trimming of ap-proximately 4,529 residential trees and the removal and replacement of 45 mature trees from various arterial center medians. Kuh said he and the City Arborist have based the reduction in scope on a careful prioritization of urgency as well as selecting species for removal from this project that City staff has the best ability to complete in-house.

Kuh said the entire project should be

completed within a four-month period.Councilmember Mark Pulido noted

many of the trees slated for removal were located in center street islands as opposed to those planted along the residential side-walks.

Kuh said priority was given to the center island trees due to the recent trend of trees falling on cars due to high winds and situ-

Resignation comes in wake of article in LCCN and a taped interview of Noguez by the Vanguardians

By Randy Economy

Embattled Los Angeles County As-sessor John R. Noguez

has accepted the resignation of his chief of staff Chris Carlos, EdD. Los Cerritos Community News (LCCN) has learned exclusively.

In a memo to his employees on Wednes-day morning at 8:46 a.m., Noguez said that he accepted the resignation of Carlos on Monday. Noguez has named another po-litical ally, Deputy Assessor George Ren-kei as his top administrator to replace the controversial Carlos.

Renkei is also a large contributor to

Noguez political campaigns according to filings with the Los Angeles County Reg-istrar of Voters office.

Renkei made a $1,000 contribution to Noguez’es assessor campaign on July 20, 2010 and has been a staunch public sup-porter of the Assessor.

Noguez turned the reigns of America’s largest county government property as-sessment agency to Carlos, a former politi-cal operative of a San Gabriel Valley based trash recycling business, just months after his election in November of 2010. In docu-ments obtained by LCCN, Noguez radi-cally redrew the organizational chart of the

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Noguez political campaigns according to filings with the Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters office.

Noguez’es assessor campaign on July 20,

-sessor John R. Noguez

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Members of the Cerritos-Artesia Soroptimist Club gather together prior to the Opening of this year’s Soroptimist 20th Annual Monte Carlo Night held Feb 25 at the Portuguese Hall in Artesia. Approximately 250 guests attended the fete, raising an estimated gross $43,000. All proceeds go to local charities, including Su Casa and Community Family Guidance Center in Cerritos. This year’s theme was entitled “The Magic of Giving.” Co-Chairs were Kathy Lovell and Ivana Royce. Turnip Rose catered the event.

NOGUEZ LAUNCHES INTERNAL CRACK DOWN ON MEDIA

Los Angeles County Assessor John R. Noguez whose office is now the cen-ter of at least two inquiries by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Of-Angeles County District Attorney’s Of-Angeles County District Attorney’s Office of Public Integrity issued an official inter-office memo that specifically tells his employees not to speak to members of the media just hours after Los Cerritos Community Newspaper broke the news of the inquiries.

On February 9th LCCN was the first newspaper and media source to con-firm the investigation. Since then, daily newspapers around California and other broadcast and radio talk shows have be-gun covering the matter.

“Within hours of our expose in LCCN, Noguez went on a direct cam-paign against our publication, later we were contacted by several of Noguez’ paid political consultants in an obvious attempt to intimidate us,” LCCN Pub-lisher Brian Hews said in a statement.

Since then, LCCN has received sev-eral internal memos written by Noguez that specifically tells his employees “not to speak to any type of media without authorization.”

In an interoffice memo dated Febru-ary 9, 2012 at 2:51 p.m. listed as “High Importance,” Noguez directs his entire staff that “All media inquiries related to the department are to be referred to Lou-is Reyes immediately and employees are not to speak to any type of press or me-dia without authorization.”

The internal memo also went on to state to “Please refer to his contact infor-mation: Louis Reyes, Communications Director, Executive Office, Los Angeles County Assessor John R. Noguez, 5000 West Temple Street, Room 320, Los An-geles, CA 90012.”

The memo also lists three different contact numbers for Reyes including his direct line, and cell phone and office fax number. LCCN removed the number in the online version of the memo.

“Thank you for your cooperation in this matter,” said Noguez. The memo was personally signed by Noguez him-self.

LCCN broke the story about the in-vestigation into Noguez by the LA Coun-ty District Attorney hours before on their website www.loscerritosnews.net and in their print edition one day later.

Soroptimists Raise $43,000 at Annual Monte Carlo Night

Cerritos Council Awards Tree Trimming Contract

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ated ground in other cities.The council also approved a request by

McKenna Volkswagen in the Auto Mall for an addition to the showroom as well as an interior and exterior remodel to the existing building.

Senior Planner Sandy Cisneros said the council originally approved the exist-ing dealership on Feb. 20, 1986. Previous property owners submitted two subsequent amendment requests; the first in 1989, which amended a reciprocal ingress/egress and parking requirement and the second in 1990, that addressed issues to the corner fountain on the property. McKenna Volkswagen has occupied the site since 2009.

The Senior Planner said the proposed improvements have been designed to ex-pand and modernize the showroom build-ing to include corporate branding design requirements for the interior and exterior of the McKenna Volkswagen dealership.

In other business the council also ap-proved a request by the Cerritos Baptist Church to remodel the exterior and interior of the existing fellowship hall/classroom building and to construct a first and second floor addition to accommodate an elevator and additional storage at 11947 Del Amo Blvd. Cisneros said the proposed project has been designed to provide for a more usable and accessible floor plan layout for the con-gregation’s use.

In her report to the city council, Cisneros said the main purpose o the proposed project is to move the classrooms and offices from the bottom floor to the top floor and the fel-lowship hall and kitchen from the top floor to the bottom floor.

The council approved a one-year con-tract extension with 33’s Café as the food and beverage concessionaire for Cerritos Iron-Wood Nine Golf Course. Recreation Services Superintendent Sherre Titus said 33’s Café owners have nearly seven years experience as the Cerritos Iron-Wood Nine Golf Course concessionaire and have re-ceived a consistent “A” rating from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

The council formalizing the Sister City relationship between the City of New Taipei, formerly Banciao, in Taiwan and Cerritos, adopted a Memorandum of Understanding.

Assistant City Manager Kathleen Jung Matsurmoto said Banciao has been absorbed (annexed) by the New Taipei City which has requested the sister city relationship be con-tinued.

TREE TRIMMING CONTRACTContinued from page 1


COMMUNITYNEWS

office into a political campaign operation for John’s future political ambitions.”

On February 7th, Carlos fired off an email to every employee to assessor of-email to every employee to assessor of-email to every employee to assessor office employees reminding them “wherein Assessor Noguez reminded all personnel to be diligent in valuing property at its fair

market value, in accordance to the law, re-gardless of a property owner’s relationship with the Assessor.”

Carlos goes on to state in the email that “in keeping with this directive, if any tax payer representative has communicated expectations of special treatment related to any case with the Assessor’s office, please immediately forward to me the substance of that communication, along with the name of the party and the case number involved, through “your chain of command.”

“Our code of ethics requires the main-tenance of integrity and propriety in all departments’ matters and any behavior that may compromise the ability of the depart-ment to carry out its lawful function will be appropriately addressed,” the memo is signed by Carlos and ends with the note “thank you for your cooperation in the matter.”

Noguez and his office are now in-volved in at least two active probes by law enforcement officials, including the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office of Public Integrity. Noguez has denied any “wrongdoing” in several press reports in-cluding one in the Los Angeles Times.

Assessor Press Secretary Louis Reyes has refused comment to LCCN about the ongoing developments inside the opera-tion of the Assessor, but lashed out on his personal blog about the critical coverage of this newspaper as being politically biased.

“The Los Angeles County Assessor’s office does not consider the Los Cerritos News a legitimate news source. We have spoke to both the editor and publisher of Los Cerritos News about our concerns of biased reporting and the printing of articles that are based on anonymous comments on confidential personnel matters; miscon-strued statements, and falsely led innuen-dos to the public. The Assessor’s office will no longer speak to the Los Cerritos News given all of our concerns, but wel-comes any other legitimate media outlets to speak on any matters of concern,” Reyes states on his blog. Reyes is also a politi-cal consultant and Regional Director of the California Democratic Party.

On Wednesday, Ramin Salari, the tax agent at the center of a district attorney's probe, fought back against allegations that he wields undue influence over Noguez.

At a tax appeal hearing at the county Hall of Administration regarding a proper-ty in Hermosa Beach, Salari appeared and took direct aim at his detractors and spe-cifically former appraiser David Zoraster. As reported by LCCN Zoraster quit the of-As reported by LCCN Zoraster quit the of-As reported by LCCN Zoraster quit the office in December in protest of Salari's al-leged influence over Noguez and over the appraisal process.

During the hearing on Wednesday, LA Weekly reported that Salari challenged Zoraster's appraisal methods, and “ap-peared to win over the two-member panel that sits in judgment of tax appeals.”

Mendoza Launches Bid for Water Board, Resigns as Latino Caucus LeaderBy Randy Economy

During a wild 48 hour period, California State Assemblyman Tony Mendoza resigned as chairman of the powerful Assembly La-tino Caucus, and then turned around and announced that he will be a candidate for a seat on the Central Basin Water Board.

Mendoza, who is beginning to wind down his final months as a member of the legislature due to term limits, resigned on Tuesday as the leader of the influential La-tino Caucus after a heated meeting in Sac-ramento.

On Tuesday Mendoza was replaced by Assemblyman Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gar-dens) to head the 23-member group of La-tino legislators.

Mendoza said in a statement that he is resigning because he has decided to run for a seat on the Central Basin Municipal Water District, which he accused of "exorbitant" spending.

"As time is short to campaign for this seat, for which the election was recently moved to June, I don't want to short change the Caucus, the constituents I currently serve or the constituents of the Water Dis-trict by spreading my time too thin,'' he said to explain his resignation.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that some legislators had voiced concern that Mendoza was not raising enough money for its political action committee and other causes, and that a dispute over a Southern California political race brought the matter to a head.

The Times also reported that Norwalk area State Senator Ron Calderon, the caucus' vice chair, protested Mendoza's handling of an endorsement vote regarding the sena-tor's brother, Tom Calderon, who is running for the 58th Assembly District seat against Downey Councilman Luis Marquez, Bell Gardens Councilman Daniel Crespo and community activist Cristina Garcia.

Sen. Calderon wrote that 16 caucus members submitted vote cards favoring an endorsement of Tom Calderon, which met the two-thirds vote threshold, but that Men-doza disallowed the endorsement after rul-ing they were not submitted in time and in the proper manner, the Times reported.

Mendoza's entry into the race against Cerritos resident Hawkins, a former state assemblyman back in the 1990's and cur-rent incumbent on the Central Basin Water Board even caught him off guard.

"I am more than a little surprised," Hawkins told Los Cerritos Community News on Wednesday afternoon about Men-doza's entry into the campaign against him.

Hawkins said that Mendoza is "just looking for a place to land" and questioned his "true intentions for running for a seat on the water board."

"Mendoza has already announced that he is running for a state senate seat in 2014," Hawkins said, "can't he make up his mind what he wants to do."

“At one point, Salari mocked Zoraster as ‘the appraisal God of the office,’ Zoraster is now working for his former employer CB Ellis. LCCN contacted his firm and was told that he would not “be available for media interviews.”

rity,” Meek states. “Our Board (CAPE) is very concerned about the growing percep-tion among our Appraiser members that several outside property tax agents have been given too much access and influence, and that some Assessor’s office executives are inappropriately intervening in the valu-ation process which jeopardizes the impar-tiality and integrity of the office.”

“We know that you (Noguez) will also share the pride our Appraiser members take in their work, therefore, we know you will understand our additional requests that your Executive Staff and Management avoid the temptation to mischaracterize this percep-tion. Its cause, or any underlying problems as stemming from poorly trained staff or lack of experience or Appraiser personnel,” states Meek. “The limited information we have confirmed underlying our Appraiser, its’ members perception does not support such a rationalization.”

The union attorney, Meek, goes to tell Noguez that he has thirty days to formally

By Randy Economy

[email protected]

In a stinging rebuke, members o f the California Associa-tion of Professional

Employees, AFL-CIO have told embattled Los Angeles County Asses-sor John R. Noguez that they have lost confidence in his ability to oversee the management and operations of the complex agency that is now the center of at least two inves-tigations by law enforcement agencies.

Los Cerritos Community News has ob-tained two formal letters from CAPE Board President Carlos Clayton, and CAPE At-torney Blaine J. Meek that blasts Noguez about his “improper intervention by Asses-sor’s officials in the appraisal process, and inappropriate access allowed to tax repre-sentatives.”

LCCN was the first news agency to re-port on the investigation of Noguez in ear-ly February. Since then several major daily newspapers, television news programs, and radio talk shows have picked up on the mounting legal problems facing Noguez.

On December 30, 2011 CAPE Attor-ney Meek sent a formal letter to Noguez to “convey the growing concerns of our Appraiser members regarding some recent perceived impropriates by your manage-ment.”

“We are sure you are aware that our Appraiser members care deeply about their work and reputation for fairness and integ-

INSIDE


HEWS MEDIA GROUP


UNION LEADERS BLAST NOGUEZ; CALL HIS ACTIONS ‘IMPROPER’




Monday - Friday






UNION LEADERS BLAST NOGUEZ; CALL HIS ACTIONS ‘IMPROPER’

and operations of the complex agency that is now the center of at least two inves-

port on the investigation of Noguez in ear-ly February. Since then several major daily newspapers, television news programs, and radio talk shows have picked up on the

n a stinging rebuke, members o f the California Associa-tion of Professional

sor John R. Noguez that they have lost confidence in his ability to oversee the management and operations of the complex agency

the California Associa-

they have lost confidence in his ability to oversee the management and operations of the complex agency

port on the investigation of Noguez in ear-

Huge Boulder Captivates Onlookers at it Passes Through CerritosCerritos shoppers and residents came to a standstill Mar. 6 when a 340 ton boulder traveling through the city came to a temporary rest on South Street near Palos Verde Avenue, completing its trip through the city while on its way to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Once there it will be turned into a new exhibit titled “Levitated Mass.” The boulder of Art. Once there it will be turned into a new exhibit titled “Levitated Mass.” The boulder measuring 21.5 feet in both height and width, required two trucks, one to pull it and other to push it, plus a series of 20 dollies with a total of 80 wheels to spread its weight, equivalent to four 747 super fortresses. The 200 foot-long carrier traveled at a speed not exceeding seven miles per hour. Once installed at the museum by artist Michael Heizer, the boulder will be placed on top of a 456-foot-long slot carved into the earth slot carved into the earth and will appear to float in mid-float in mid-air.

Two Preliminary ABC Budgets are Approved as Overflow Crowd ReactsBy Jerry Bernstein

[email protected]

With an overflowing audience of par-ents, students, seniors and teachers crowded into the ABC boardroom,

the ABC Board of Education approved two preliminary budgets for the new school year beginning July 1 at its Mar.6 meeting.

Superintendent Dr. Gary Smuts stated the budgets were “just that”… preliminary. He explained the Board wouldn’t adopt a final budget until after the Governor’s May reprise.

The Los Angeles County Office of Edu-cation had requested school districts prepare two budget scenarios for the 2012-13 fiscal year, Plan A and Plan B.

Plan A would be based on passage of one of three tax initiatives including the gover-nor’s tax proposal on the November ballot. This would leave ABC with a deficit of $8.4 million that would keep the District’s exist-ing programs mostly in place. Plan B would be based on the assumption the three tax proposals are defeated forcing the District to deal with a $15.8 million deficit.

Plan A calls for the transfer of Categori-cal Funds (restricted funds) in the amount of $440,000. This would include $320,000 from the Adult School and $120,000 from ROP. An additional $450,000 would be transferred from the Adult Education Fund Balance; Strategic Hiring, $300,000; Utiliz-ing the balance of the Education Jobs Act, $1,940,000; utilize the District Fund Bal-ance, $3,196,000; and implement four new furlough days at a saving of $2,160,000. To-tal saving would cover a $8,486,000 deficit.

Plan B would cover the $15,886,000 an-ticipated deficit. It calls for non-negotiable cuts totaling $200,000. Charge for Home-to-School transportation, $260,000; Increase K-3 class size from 28 to 30 students, $400,000; Adult School Fund Transfer, $1,740,000 and ROP, $740,000; reduce school site budget by 12%, $250,000; transfer from Adult Educa-tion Fund Balance, $900,000; Strategic Hir-ing, $300,000; utilize balance of the Educa-tion Jobs Act, $1,940,000; utilize the District Fund Balance (53 percent), $4,130,000; eliminate Elementary School Band program (1,200 students in program), $340,000.

Cuts that require negotiations with the unions include implementing four new fur-lough days, $2,160,000; add three additional furlough days, $1,620,000; cap District’s contribution to health benefits at $1 million, $200,000; reduce substitute costs at second-ary schools, $316,000; and reduce stipends and hourly pay, $500,000.


[See PRELIMINARY ABC BUDGETS page 9]

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STOPFORECLOSURE

The union attorney, Meek, goes to tell Noguez that he has thirty days to formally respond to his employees concerns.

Thirty days later, on January 30th, 2012, Noguez formally responded to Meeks let-ter.

“In response to your letter of 12-30-11, wherein you express concerns on behalf of the CAPE Board of Directors ‘perceived improprieties’ by my Management. Rest assured, I take such perceptions very seri-ously whether founded or not. Since our conversations regarding these concerns, in late December, the following actions have been taken to address these perceptions,” Noguez said.

“In order to establish a more efficient Executive Management structure, I have appointed my Chief Deputy Dr. Chris Car-

los to function as my Chief of Staff. This action took effect January 26, 2012. This structure will provide clearly defined roles within the department that will support staff at all levels and facilitate consistent adherence to the organizational chain of command.” Noguez states.

“It will also allow me to focus on broad departmental policies and issues while Dr. Carlos handles the day to day operations of the department. Dr. Carlos has an extensive back ground in organization leadership and is dedicated to enhancing operations and the overall professionalism of the depart-ment,” Noguez affirms.

“On January 16, 2012, I implemented an organizational realignment of Assessment Services, shifting it from Major Properties to Roll Services. This places the oversight of the Assessment Appeals Board (AAB’s) Section under the administration Division, providing some important ‘checks and bal-ances’ for the appeals process.”

“An open and honest evaluation of the process, including perceptions, relation-ships between department personnel and outside parties, logistics and other AAB’s issue is ongoing and further adjustments will be made as necessary.”

“On January 17th, 2012, I appointed Patrick Gibson to Special Assistant. Patrick will serve as the Executive Office Liaison to all employee groups within the depart-ment. His focus will be on developing and enhancing positive relationship between various personnel groups by facilitating ef-fective communications and understanding of the unique challenges of each position in the department,” Noguez said.

The Assessor goes on to declare that “I remain committed to my elected office and my mission to provide the best possible Assessment services to the people of Los Angeles County and a work environment for all department personnel that promotes

high employee morale. Accordingly I am continually considering strategic changes that will improve department operations and appreciate and value CAPE’s feedback during this ongoing process.”

CAPE President Carlos Clayton blasted Noguez in a letter dated February 22, 2012, Los Cerritos Community News has learned exclusively.

“We appreciate your timely response to our letter of December 30, 2011, regarding the concerns of our Members have about (newspaper) reports of improper interven-tion by the Assessor’s officials in the Ap-praisal process, and inappropriate access allowed to tax representatives.” Clayton continues, “Our Board has reviewed your letter, the materials distributed to all em-ployees, and we have monitored the re-sponse of our members.”

“With all due respect and understand-ing of your situation, we have concluded that the steps you have taken fall short of preventing the kind of inappropriate inter-ventions and inappropriate access that have been reported. Likewise, as evidenced in recent press coverage and your statement to the media on the issues we conclude that you response is insignificant to put an end to the perceptions of impropriates in the Assessor’s Office. “

“CAPE Members want nothing more than to restore the publics’ confidence in their hard work and dedication to accurate and timely appraisals. We will support any steps that effectively restore the public’s confidence in our (CAPE) members work,” the union leader exclaims. “We expect you to do whatever is necessary toward this end,” Clayton concludes.

LCCN was first to report that Noguez accepted the abrupt resignation of Dr. Car-los late last week on Wednesday, February 29th, just days after CAPE’s harsh letter and continuing coverage from LCCN and

other news sources. In that memo to his employees Noguez said that he accepted the resignation of Carlos on Monday, Feb-ruary 27th. Since then another political ally, Deputy Assessor George Renkei has been named as his new Chief of Staff.

Renkei made a $1,000 contribution to Noguez’es assessor campaign on July 20, 2010 and has been a staunch public support of the Assessor.

Noguez turned the reigns of America’s largest county government property as-sessment agency to Carlos, a former po-litical operative of a San Gabriel Valley based trash recycling business, just months after his election in November of 2010. In documents obtained by Los Cerritos Com-munity News, Noguez radically redrew the organizational chart of the Assessor’s of-fice and gave Carlos the top administrative position.

Before joining Noguez, Carlos was the former head of Government Affairs at Ath-ens Disposal Services.

Further, LCCN was first to report that Carlos had no professional experience in the field of tax management or as a pro-fessional appraiser prior to his hiring. Car-los was being paid a monthly salary and benefit package of more than $16,000 per month, $1,000 higher than employees who have been there since 1972.

Carlos immediately began changing the infrastructure of the Assessor’s office after his installation and according to sev-eral sources turned “the office into a po-litical campaign operation for John’s future political ambitions.” Noguez has refused countless interview requests by Los Cer-ritos Community News.

--Copyright. 2012. Permission to re-publish granted with proper attribution given to Los Cerritos Community News-paper, Randy Economy Reporter; www.loscerritosnews.net 562 407-3873.


By Randy Economy and Brian Hews

[email protected]

Los Angeles County Assessor John R. Noguez has been subpoenaed to appear in a Downtown Los Angeles

courtroom on April 16 regarding a case involving one of his biggest campaign contributors-Encino businessman Ramin Salari-Los Cerritos Community Newspa-

per has learned exclusively.Noguez was served with the subpoena

late Thursday at his office located inside the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration in Los Angeles at the behest of San Diego attorney Jason Saccuzzo of the law firm Vi-voli Saccuzzo, LLP.

The case revolves around Salari and his Nevada based company, Assessment Appeals, LLC., and a Los Angeles couple Robert and Hersel Neman who contracted

with his company in 2010 regarding the reassessment of properties located at the 800 block of Harvard Avenue, as well as the 3400 block of West Eighth Street, both in Los Angeles. Saccuzzo is representing the Nemans.

Salari is seeking damages for a “failure to make payment” on a commission for ob-taining an “alleged reduction” of property taxes as allowed under a voter passed imi-tative known as Proposition 8.

In a demurrer filed in Los Angeles Su-perior Court on October 18, Saccuzzo ar-gued that since Salari did not possess any kind of advanced degree, such as a CPA li-cense or a Doctorate of Jurisprudence, that he was not qualified to argue cases in front of the Assessor Appeals Board.

One day earlier, on October 17, 2011, Salari sent an email to Noguez alerting the

By Randy Economy

[email protected]

The second of six segments in the mas-sive reconstruction of the I-5 South Corridor Improvement Project kicked

off officially on Monday morning with a groundbreaking ceremony that was attended by scores of elected officials with shovels in hand.

Flocked by officials from the California Department of Transportation, the Los An-geles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Vil-laraigosa, Supervisor Don Knabe, and many others gathered to commence the beginning of a $110 million project that they claim will “significantly improve congestion and en-hance safety on a heavily traveled corridor.”

“Caltrans is making a solid investment in this region’s transportation system that will reduce traffic congestion on this corridor and provide jobs,” said Caltrans Acting Director Malcolm Dougherty.

The I-5 Widening/Alondra Boulevard Bridge Project, the second of six segments in construction as part of the I-5 South Corridor Improvement Projects, will add one carpool lane and one general purpose lane in each direction from North Fork Coyote Creek to Marquardt Avenue, a distance of nearly one mile. The project also includes reconstruct-ing two bridges at Alondra Boulevard and North Fork Coyote Creek to accommodate a wider freeway, redesigning ramp structures, and realigning Firestone Boulevard and Freeway Drive frontage roads.

Caltrans federal, regional and local trans-portation partners for the I-5 South Corri-dor Projects include Metro and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), with the support of the I-5 Consortium Cities Joint Powers Authority and the Gateway Cities Council of Governments.

The I-5 Alondra Boulevard Bridge seg-ment is funded by federal, state, and local

financing, including $72.2 million from Proposition 1B (Prop 1B) California’s 2006 transportation bond; $27.2 million from state transportation funds; $9.1 million from Metro’s Proposition C and Measure R; and $830,000 from the FHWA.

"California voters approved Prop 1B to reduce traffic congestion and improve mo-bility,” said Metro Board Chair Villaraigo-sa. “We fought to ensure that Los Angeles County received its fair share of funds based on population and traffic delays.”

At the event, Caltrans District 7 Direc-tor Mike Miles and Metrolink Board Chair Richard Katz announced collaboration be-tween the agencies to provide traffic impact mitigation during the estimated five-year construction period for I-5 South Corridor Improvement Projects.

“Our goal is to encourage and promote lasting commuter transportation mode

shifts,” said Miles.Last fall, Caltrans began the first of six

I-5 corridor improvement projects totaling $1.6 billion from the Los Angeles/Orange County line to the San Gabriel River Free-way (Interstate 605). On average, more than 220,000 vehicles travel this section of the I-5 South Corridor daily.

The $380 million Carmenita Road In-terchange Project includes widening for carpool and general purpose lanes within a one-mile segment from Alondra Boulevard to Shoemaker Avenue, a new 10-lane Car-menita Bridge concrete structure, plus ramp and frontage road improvements.

“Upon completion of all six segments, motorists will benefit with more freeway ca-pacity, decreased congestion and travel times and better access to regional and commuter transit lines and carpool lanes,” said Art Le-ahy, Metro Chief Executive Officer.

INSIDE

Los Cerritos Community News Investigation Results in Assessor Noguez Subpeona

Ground Broken on Next Phase of I-5 Freeway at Alondra Blvd. Bridge




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Rick Land, Acting Chief Deputy Director, Caltrans; Rick Backlund, Associate Division Administra-tor, Federal Highway Administration; Richard Katz, Board Chair, Southern California Regional Railroad Authority, Metrolink; Diane DuBois, 2nd VP, Board of Directors, Metro & Vice Mayor, City of Lakewood; Antonio Villaraigosa, Board Chair, Metro & Mayor, City of Los Angeles; Don Knabe, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, District 4; Michael Mendez, Chair, I-5 Consor-tium Cities Joint Powers Authority, & Mayor, City of Norwalk; Mike Miles, District 7 Director, Caltarns (LA and Ventura Counties); Steve De Ruse, Councilmember, City of La Mirada; Richard Moore, Mayor Pro Tem, City of Santa Fe Springs; Gene Daniels, 1st VP, Gateway Cities Council of Governments, & Vice Mayor, City of Paramount.


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[See NOGUEZ SUBPEONA page 12]

HAWAIIAN GARDENS UNION PRESIDENT ARRESTED ON MOLESTATION CHARGESBy Randy Economy

[email protected]

Fred Licon, the president of the Hawai-ian Garden Employees Union, AFSC-ME Local 3426, was arrested Tuesday

morning on child molestation charges, Los Cerritos Community Newspaper has learned.

Licon, 45, was arrested by the Major Crimes Unit at 8:00 a.m. on March 20 by members of the Los Angeles County Sher-iff’s Fugitive Unit and was taken into custo-dy. He was booked at 10:52 a.m. and released Wednesday after posting a $250,000 bond.

Licon is due in Bellflower Superior Court on April 20th for formal arraignment, accord-ing to arrest records from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Licon's Attorney Jeff Kent, said that the alleged victim is the daughter of his daugh-ter’s boyfriend and confirmed that she is four years of age.

“Mr. Licon is anxious to prove his inno-cence as to this allegation, and is horrified to even be suspected of such a hideous crime,” Kent told LCCN Thursday afternoon.

Licon is an Artesia High School graduate and works as a code enforcement officer.

Hawaiian Gardens spokesman Juan Garza from the consulting firm of Englander, Knabe and Allen said that “the City is aware that one of its employees has been arrested for alleged crimes which took place off-duty.”

“The City is assessing the situation and will take appropriate administrative action. However, the City is not at liberty to publicly discuss personnel matters or information re-lating to an active criminal investigation,” the statement said.

www.LosCerritosNews.net12 COMMUNITY NEWS GROUP • MARCH 23, 2012 TO ADVERTISE CALL 800-901-7211

of the issues raised by these properties; any reductions?” Salari responded “no.”

Saccuzzo said as soon as he learned about the email trail between Noguez and Salari involving the Neman (during an interview with Los Cerritos Community News), he immediately determined that Noguez needed to be subpoenaed about his knowledge of the case.

“Thank you for shedding light on Sal-ari’s relationship with Noguez. I wasn’t aware Salari had e-mailed Noguez regard-ing the licensing issues raised in my cli-ents’ lawsuits,” Saccuzzo told Los Cerritos Community Newspaper Publisher Brian Hews in an email.

In another revelation, Saccuzzo asked Salari about his involvement in raising po-litical contributions from his vast list of cli-ents to Noguez campaign war chest.

“Did you ever request the Neman’s to participate in any campaign fundraisers for Mr. Noguez,” Saccuzzo asked in the depo-sition.

“If they're on my client (list), they re-ceived a blanket mass letter -- mass mailing e-mails. So they would have been received mass mailer,” Salari responded.

“Do you keep an e-mail list of your cli-ents, and are there occasions where you'll send out a mass e-mail to clients regard-ing campaign fundraising events for Mr. Noguez,” asked Saccuzzo.

“At the time, yes,” Salari said. “You no longer do that?” Saccuzzo asked Salari. “No,” he responded. “Any reason for that,” Saccuzzo said. “He made the assessor,” Salari quipped.

Saccuzzo also asked Salari if he had ever promised Mr. Noguez any favors or rewards for helping you out on any par-ticular property? In a stunning response, according to the 185 page deposition, Sal-ari attorney Jon-Rene Glover immediately objected to the question over “lack of rel-

evancy.”Glover then goes on to say that “my cli-

ent's (Salari, is) going to invoke the Fifth Amendment, right to self-incrimination.”

“Are you going to follow that instruc-tion,” Saccuzzo asks Salari.

Glover jumps in and tells Salari “I'm going to instruct you not to respond.” Sac-cuzzo then asks in a clarification: “I've got to ask,” and Salari said he would fol-low ‘that instruction’ and evoke the Fifth Amendment.

“Would it be fair to say that any ques-tions pertaining to your client's relation-ship with Mr. Noguez would evince similar Fifth Amendment objections,” Saccuzzo asks, and Glover responds “yes.”

Salari is then asked if he has ever been indicted for any “crime or any charge re-lated to Mr. Noguez?”

Glover than tells Salari, “you can re-spond. Have you been indicted? Do you know what indicted means?” Salari an-swered “no.” Salari concluded the deposi-tion by stating that he has never been con-victed of any crime in the past.

Saccuzzo then tells the court reporter to “prepare the transcript” and to send it directly to Glover for Salari to sign under penalty of perjury.

Saccuzzo told Los Cerritos Community News that “with respect to the relevance of the Los Angeles County Assessor’s posi-tion on allowing non-attorneys/accountants to prosecute appeals, we’re asking the trial court to enjoin the practice.”

“We need to establish that it is in fact the practice of the Los Angeles County As-sessor to allow non-attorneys/accountants to prosecute tax appeals,” Saccuzzo said.

“Further, if Salari is violating any in-ternal policies and/or if Salari has ma-nipulated any such policies through his relationship with Noguez that would be highly relevant to my clients’ unfair busi-

ness practice claim,” Saccuzzo said.“I would further note that lawyers are

governed by strict rules of ethics, which prevent the type of insider dealing that has been alleged against Noguez and Salari in the newspapers,” he said.

“If a lawyer were to have engaged in the type of conduct Salari is alleged to have engaged in, that lawyer would likely face discipline from the California State Bar,” Saccuzzo said in an email to LCCN.

“Accordingly, I think the public should be very concerned about allowing unli-censed persons such as Salari prosecute tax appeals. Given the lack of restrains on unlicensed persons such as Salari, it cre-ates a situation that absolutely invites cor-ruption. This is one reason why one must obtain a license to practice law or public accountancy; to protect the public against such corrupt practices,” Saccuzzo said.

“Accordingly, my clients’ unfair busi-ness practice claim seeks to protect mem-bers of the public against such unlicensed activities. Indeed, I would be very inter-ested in finding out if Noguez knew Sal-ari was unlicensed, and whether that had anything to do with Noguez’s decision to accept campaign contributions from Salari. Certainly, no lawyer would (or ethically could) ever contribute to the campaign of a judge if the lawyer knew he or she would be before that judge,” he concluded.

© Copyright. 2012. Los Cerritos Community Newspaper Group. Hews Media Group. All Rights Reserved. Republishing granted with proper attribution.

embattled Assessor about the case under the subject line “AAS-Demurrer.” Three members of Noguez top inner circle were carbon copied in the email: former Asses-sor Chief of Staff Chris Carlos, and Ap-praiser Specialists Andrew Stephens and Eric Haagenson.

In the email, obtained exclusively by Los Cerritos Community News from the Assessor’s Office via a recent series of document requests under the “Freedom of Information Act,” Salari informs Noguez that “the defendants are arguing a licensed attorney or licensed public accountant are required to act as a ‘tax agent.’ “

Salari goes on to tell Noguez in the email that his “legal counsel is handling this matter; however, I am sending the at-tached per your request.”

“This could have serious implications to all taxpayers and tax agents throughout the state,” Salari tells Noguez.

In an interview with Los Angeles Times investigative reporters Ruben Vives and Jack Dolan on Tuesday, February 23, Noguez denied doing any “favors” for Sal-ari or his clients, but said “he can’t control what tax agents, like Salari, tell property owners when they are soliciting business.”

LCCN obtained the Mar. 6 deposition of Salari by Saccuzzo that took place in Irvine about the case involving the Ne-man’s and point blanked asked him under oath if he had ever “asked Mr. Noguez to address any of the issues raised by these properties” involving the Neman’s Salari answered “no.”

His response is a direct contradiction to the email he had previously sent Noguez and the revelation has brought new light onto the normally routine legal matter.

Saccuzzo also asks Salari under oath if he ever asked “Mr. Noguez to address any

NOGUEZ SUBPEONAContinued from page 1

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CHEVRON SQUARE DANCE CLUB(714) 742-3668EBELL CLUB(562) 777-9960FRIENDS OF LA MIRADA THEATRE(562) 944-2210FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY(562) 943-0277HALF CENTURY CLUB(562) 921-2922KIWANIS CLUB OF LA MIRADA(714) 523-5612KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS(562) 921-4051LA MIRADA ARTS COLONY(714) 941-4116LA MIRADA COMMUNITY SERVICES FOUNDATION(562) 943-7277LA MIRADA GADABOUTS(562) 947-0280LA MIRADA MONDAY BRIDGE CLUB(562) 943-6075LA MIRADA ROTARY CLUB(562) 690-4292LA MIRADA SYMPHONY(562) 941-5779M.O.M.S. CLUB OF LA MIRADA(714) 736-9761PHANTOM THEATRE PROJECTS(714) 690-2900ROBERT F. KENNEDY DEMOCRATIC CLUB(562) 943-8527SISTER CITY ASSOCIATION(562) 947-8027VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS (VFW)(562) 941-4097

CalendarMarch28 City Council &RedevelopmentAgencyMeeting 6:30 p.m.31 City Hall Closed

April7 Easter Egg Hunt 10 Study Session5 p.m. City Council& RedevelopmentAgencyMeeting 6:30 p.m.13 City Hall Closed 20, 21 4 La Mirada KidsCommunity Carnival22 Earth Day 4 La Mirada Kids

Community Carnival24 City Council & RedevelopmentAgencyMeeting 6:30 p.m.27 City Hall Closed

ARTESIA SENIOR CITIZENS CLUBWednesdays at 10 a.m. at the Albert O. Little Community Center, 18750 S. Clarkdale, Artesia. For information, contact Kathy Mc Donald, President, 562-430-7349

CerritosAAUW(American Assn. of University Women)Saurabh Deedwania (562) 404-4488Meets every 3rd Thursday, Skyline Room-Cerritos Library.CERRITOS SENIORGadabouts meet the second, third & fourth Mondays at the Cerritos Senior Center at Pat Nixon Park, 12340 South St. Judy Mendes, President 562-860-2151HUBERT HUMPHREY DEMOCRATIC CLUBCoCo’s 7pm. 3rd Monday.Gary Chomiak 562.405.5482CERRITOS REPUBLICAN CLUBCerritos Library 7p.m 2nd Tuesday. Allen Wood 865-7294.OPTIMIST CLUBOff Street Cafe 7a.m. 1st, 2nd, 4th Thursdays, 7 p.m. 3rd Thursday. ROTARY CLUBHometown Buffet noon Mondays VFW POST 1846Heritage Park, 2nd & 4th Tuesdays. 18600 Bloomfield Ave. Jeffrey Enomoto714-292-2985SOROPTIMIST INTERNATIONALCoco’s Restaurant 6p.m. 2nd Wed. & 12p.m. 4th Wed. WOMEN’S CLUBCPE 2nd Thursday.Gail Grossman at 562-926-8487LIONS CLUB11514 E. 178th Street, Artesia. 1st & 3rd Tuesday. Milton Hicks 926-3792.CONTACTSBusiness Networking GroupWednesdays, 7a.m. at Mimi’s Café, Cerritos Towne Center.Larry Massa 562-920-0554.CONNECTIONSBusiness Networking Group.Thursday, 7:30 a.m. at Coco’s Restaurant. Barbara 869-7618.CERRITOS LEADS CLUBTuesdays 7–8:30 a.m. Mimi’s, in the Towne Center. Call 1-800-767-7337.TOASTMASTERSThe Cerritos Cheerful Chatters Toastmasters Club meets at Noon every other Wednesday at the SELACO Workforce Investment Board: 10900 E. 183rd > Street, 3rd Floor. Have fun and work on your speaking skills. Visitors are welcome! Call Tammy:(800) 481 - 6555 ext. 1213.

ECLECTIC DIALECTIC TOASTMASTERSWednesdays, 7:30 p.m. at the Vintage at Cerritos, 11000 Falcon Way, Cerritos,. Ron Jung 924-1808. GOLDEN SANDS CHORUSAn award-winning Sweet Adeline Chorus. Women of all ages and experience levels welcome. Rehearsals Wednesdays 7 p.m., Lakewood Masonic Center, 5918 Parkcrest St., Long Beach. (562) 630-8445GOOD SAMCamp outings 2nd weekend each month. Howard Remsen 714-521-1076.JOURNEYSMondays, 12:30-1:30 p.m. Pathways office, 3300 South Street #206, Long BeachTuesdays, 7-8:30 p.m. Lakewood Regional Medical Center, 3700 South Street Classroom A, LakewoodCall Cindy Skovgard at 562-531-3031MOPS(Mothers of Preschoolers)A program for mothers with children under the age of five, meet 1st & 3rd Wednesdays 9 to 11:15 a.m. at New Life Community Church, 18800 Norwalk Blvd., Artesia. CERRITOS AGLOW LIGHTHOUSE,“A Network of Caring Christian Women” Hometown Buffet in “A Network of Caring Christian Women” Hometown Buffet in “A Network of Caring Christian Women”Cerritos 11471 E South St. Call Charyl, 562-865-5311.SELF HELP FOR THE HEARING IMPAIRED Long Beach/Lakewood Chapter, second Thursday of each month at the Weingart Senior Center, 5220 Oliva Avenue in Lakewood at 6:30 p.m. free. 429-7099CALIFORNIA RETIRED TEACHERS ASSN (CRTA)Meets at 12p.m. the third Friday of alternative months at the Ebell Club, Third and Cerritos, Long Beach. 925-1938.IRONWOOD WOMEN’S GOLF CLUB16449 Piuma Avenue • Cerritos, Ca 990703 • Jean Brunelli, President (562) 926-5017 • Tuesdays, 7:30 am(562) 926-5017 • Tuesdays, 7:30 am(562) 926-5017Cerritos-Artesia Distinguished Young Women Scholarship Program (formerly Junior Miss program) 5:00 PM Sunday, March 27th at CPE. For more information, contact Cindy Yen Chen by EM: [email protected].

Soroptimist International Of NorwalkP.O. Box 125, Norwalk, CA 90650 • (714) 412-0183Alondra Senior Citizens Club11929 Alondra BoulevardNorwalk, CA 90650(562) 865-7774Tere Kopriski, President2nd & 4th Wed 1:30 p.m.Social Services Center(562) 929-5844Golden TrowelNorwalk Masonic Lodge #27312345 E. Rosecrans AveNorwalk, CA 90650, 2nd Thursday 7:30 p.m. Norwalk Lions ClubP.O. Box 1712 Norwalk, CA 90650Anthony Garcia, President1st & 3rd Wednesdays4th Thursday Board Meetings7:00 p.m. Bruce's Restaurant12623 Imperial Hwy.American Legion Post #35911986 Front Street,

Norwalk, CA 90650562-864-90211st & 3rd Thursdays,8:00 p.m. Legion Hall

American Legion Post #359

11986 Front St.

Drawing, Cake Walk, and Karaoke

Every Saturday evening in Post Hole Club

Drawing is at 8:00 p.m.

RECURRING EVENTS:

STEAK LUNCH Every Wednesday 11:30am - 2:30pm

KARAOKE Every Saturday 7:30pm

POST MEETINGS 3rd Thursday of each month 7:30pm

AUXILIARY MEETINGS 2nd Wednesday of each month 7:30pm

Rotary Club of NorwalkP.O. Box 1243, Norwalk, CAMeets Mondays, NoonNorwalk Marriot Hotel

Knights of Columbus Council #3678Tom Sandoval, Grand Knight12138 Front Street(714) 952-4724 • Norwalk

Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #713812186 Front Street (mail)Norwalk, CA 90651(562) 864-9246

Elks Lodge-BPOE #214213418 Clarkdale Ave.Norwalk CA 90650 (562) 868-6603Jim Duckett, Exhaulted Ruler(562) 868-1924Thursdays 7:30 p.m. at Elks Lodge

Rotary Club of NorwalkP.O. Box 1243, Norwalk,Sara Karsgens, PresidentMondays, noon, Norwalk Marriott Hotel (562) 921-0033 for info.

Norwalk Woman's ClubPlace: Masonic Lodge12345 Rosecrans Ave.Time: Wednesday, 10:30 a.m.

Norwalk Community Coordinating CouncilWilliam Clark, President Helen Brown, Vice President Meets 4th Wed. during the school year.P.O. Box 521 Norwalk(562) 921-4218www.nccconline.us 1:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Changes every 2 years in May - June - August.

City Council Meeting1st and 3rd Tuesdays6:00 p.m.City Hall Council Chambers12700 Norwalk Blvd.

Community Calendar, Local Clubs and Organizations

Artesia

La Mirada

Norwalk

Mark Valle, 15, Identified as Norwalk Shooting VictimBy Randy [email protected]

Norwalk teenager Mark Anthony Valle, 15, has succumbed from gunshot wounds he suffered last Wednesday

in what law enforcement officials are classi-fying a “possible gang-related incident.”

He was shot multiple times while he was at a location near a popular hamburger stand at the 11900 block of Firestone Boulevard in Norwalk last Wednesday when he was ap-proached by two male suspects, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials.

Valle collapsed, and was transferred to a local hospital where he later died from his injuries.

Dr. Ruth Perez, Superintendent of Schools for the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District told Los Cerritos Community Newspaper (LCCN) that Valle was a past

Realtor Pulls Video Interview of Assessor Noguez Off InternetBy Randy [email protected]

Embattled Los Angeles County Asses-sor John R. Noguez appearance in a You Tube infomercial that promotes

a private Pasadena real estate company has been pulled off the internet after only two days.

Realtor Don Andrues, who touts him-self as "The Real Estate Agent with the Appraiser's Resume," and as "A Pasadena Real Estate Agency" with "the second largest real estate agency in the country," uploaded the clip on Sunday then pulled it Tuesday after Los Cerritos Community News published an internet story about the video on Monday

The video clip that is titled "Instant Home Tips-An Interview with LA Assessor John Noguez" ran for over four minutes.

Andrues called LCCN on Tuesday and

By Loren Kopff

If you build it, the championships will come. A dozen years after the Cerritos High softball team won a California In-

terscholastic Federation-Southern Section Division II title, the Lady Dons and head coach Bob Medina hope to get back to the promise land with a renovated field that has been in the makings for quite some time.

Cerritos christened its improved domi-

cile Mar. 13 with a 9-0 win over Paramount and last Friday, routed John Glenn 22-1 in its Suburban League home opener. For the first time ever, the Cerritos High soft-ball field has a permanent outfield fence, among other sparking features that makes it among the best facilities in the league.

“When I came here, I think we had the plan already,” Medina said. “I walked




Monday - Friday






HEWS MEDIA GROUP

COMMUNITYNEWSCOMMUNITYNEWSCOMMUNITYCOMMUNITYNEWS17 YEAR OLD SHOT, KILLED ON PAINTER AVENUE IN UNINCORPORATED WHITTIERBy Randy [email protected]

A17-year old male has been shot and killed in an unincorporated part of Whittier on Monday afternoon.

Members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Homicide Bureau detectives are investigating the circumstances around the shooting that took place Monday just af-ter noon time at the 9100 block of Painter Avenue.

Members of the Norwalk Sheriff’s De-partment responded to the incident. Deputy Lillian Peck told Los Cerritos Community News that the victim was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

His name has not been made public.Anyone with information about this

incident is encouraged to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's

Hawaiian Gardens City Council Eruption Forces Mayor to Adjourn MeetingBy Jerry [email protected]

Once again the animosity between Ha-waiian Gardens Councilmember’s Barry Bruce and Reynaldo Rodriguez

with Mayor Mike Gomez, Mayor Pro Tem Vic-tor Farfan and Michi Oyama-Canada roared to life at the meeting of the city council Mar. 27. The occasion arose at the end of the meeting and revolved around a resolution approved by the council in a 3-2 vote at its previous meet-ing on Mar. 13 when the council approved a resolution updating Consolidated Disposal’s income guidelines for its reduced trash rate collection program.

At that meeting Rodriguez moved the reso-lution be carried over to the Mar. 27 meeting in order for the council members to review it. He cited inconsistencies in the resolution and rate chart and said the staff report was misleading. Bruce agreed with him, but the council major-ity voted for approval.

Tuesday night Rodriguez brought the sub-

Aparna Hande was chosen due to her strong ties with the Indo-American community and her commitment

to the promotion of health and wellness through nursing. As a Registered Nurse, Hande came from an underserved com-munity to receive her Master’s Degree in

Health Care Administration and worked in nursing management. She was awarded the National Association of Indian Nurses of America’s Nurse Excellence of the Year Award in 2008, is the Co-Founder of the

Assemblymember Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia) celebrated the accomplishments of Aparna Hande, the 56th Assembly District Woman of the Year, in a ceremony held on the floor of the California State Assembly.

Assemblymember Tony Mendoza Honors Woman of the Year in State Capitol

Cerritos High School Finally has its Softball Field of Dreams

[See WHITTIER SHOOTING page 9][See WOMAN OF THE YEAR page 1][See REALTOR PULLS VIDEO page 9]

[See H.G. CITY COUNCIL page 11] [See MARK VALLE page 11][See CERRITOS SOFTBALL FIELD page 9]

www.LosCerritosNews.net COMMUNITY NEWS GROUP • MARCH 30, 2012 9TO ADVERTISE CALL 800-901-7211

Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500. If you prefer to provide information anony-mously, you may call "Crime Stoppers" by dialing (800) 222-TIPS (8477), or texting the letters TIPLA plus your tip to CRIMES (274637), or by using the websitehttp://lac-rimestoppers.org.

in and told the administration my main job here is to come in and build a pro-gram, build a new field and take a couple of shots at a CIF [championship]. That was my plan when we first came here. The field was in the plans four years ago. We’ve been fundraising for four years and you see the results.”

The target date for completion was set for the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year but it was finished just in time for the Paramount game, which was originally scheduled as a road game for the varsity team. The outfield fence, in-stalled by the ABC Unified School Dis-trict and fixed into a thin lining of con-crete, is 200 feet all the way around and four feet high. This means outfielders will no longer have to chase deep balls to the mini hill in left field or chase balls all the way to the concrete wall in right field. Permanent fencing of four feet high also extends from both dugouts to the outfield fence but from the end of the first base dugout, the fence is nine feet high for the first 90 feet before dropping to four feet high. This means any overthrown balls are kept in play, limiting the chances for runners to advance.

“We wanted to keep it more alive and [have] more exciting games,” Medina said. “Win or lose, you have the outfield fence four feet instead of six or eight feet. There are going to be a lot of home runs hit here, with us and against us. But keep-ing the ball in play on a wild throw for us or against us, the ball is going to stay in play with a nine foot fence.”

The backstop was moved back 12 feet and there is now concrete behind the backstop from dugout to dugout. Also, there is now netting instead of a fence behind home plate, which gives the field that college atmosphere. Medina said the netting is cheaper because in the past, softballs would be cut up in the fencing after each foul ball was hit back towards the fence and it was becoming expensive to replace the damaged softballs.

Medina said there are still plans for even more additions to the field. Future plans call for three feet high wraparound bleachers, two water fountains, electrici-ty behind home plate, a storage bin/snack bar with a roll-up door for the scorekeeper to look out towards the field on one side and a snack bar on the other side, four new gates and a sprinkler system. Me-dina hopes most or all of these amenities will be completed for next season.

Since Medina took over the program four years ago, over $25,000 has been fundraised for the renovated field. He said that he pushed the players and par-ents really hard to get this done.

wanted to "clarify" his relationship with Noguez.

Andrues called LCCN to say that he had "no personal or professional relation-ship" with Noguez.

Asked why he pulled the video by LCCN Andrues said, “I just do not want this thing to get blown out of proportion.” Asked if the Assessor’s office called him to pull the video Andrues would not com-ment.

On the You Tube video he is seen inter-viewing Noguez in front of the Assessors private desk that is located inside the Los Angeles County Hall of Administration. Noguez and Andrues are seen smiling, laughing and are standing in front of the official seal of the County of Los Angeles, "Office of the Assessor."

Noguez tells viewers that he oversees more than 2.6 million properties "and I probably have yours too." Andrues asks Noguez how a homeowner can get their property reassessed in the infomercial, and Noguez tells viewers to print out the Decline in Value Form from the county's website.

The assessor's website address also ap-pears on the screen of the video. Andrues also urges viewers to go to his web site www.Realtor-Don.com to get "additional information or the current assessed value of your house."

Andrues told Los Cerritos Community News on Monday that Noguez was very "kind" during their taping. "He is a real nice man," Andrues said. "I just called his (Noguez) office to see if I can get an inter-view, and his staff said yes, and all of the arrangements were made for me to come do the interview," Andrues said.

Andrues said that he was aware of the current issues facing Noguez, including at least two formal probes by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office of Pub-lic Integrity. "I know he has his problems, right now," Andrues said. "He appears to be a nice man," he said. Noguez Press Sec-retary Louis Reyes refused to commant again and has refused all interviews with Los Cerritos Community Newspaper dur-ing the past several weeks during their in-vestigation into the practices of the office.

COMMUNITYNEWSREALTOR PULLS VIDEO Continued from page 1

CERRITOS SOFTBALL FIELDContinued from page 1

WHITTIER SHOOTING Continued from page 1

“It’s so refreshing to have a dentist that engages and cares like he does. Dr. Urban and his staff go and cares like he does. Dr. Urban and his staff go out of their way to make me feel comfortable.

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Read more patient testimonials Read more patient testimonials on our web page at:on our web page at:

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Cerritos, CA 90703

562 924-1523

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person for a New Social Morning.Community Newspaper Group in person for a New Social Morning.Community Newspaper Group in

With over 57 years in the media business, Jerry invites you to join him for some fun casual discussion. With over 57 years in the media business, Jerry invites you to join him for some fun casual discussion. With over 57 years in the media business, Jerry invites you to join him

Stop by and chat about stories and ask questions about our newspaper in a relaxed atmosphere.Stop by and chat about stories and ask questions about our newspaper in a relaxed atmosphere.Stop by and chat about stories and ask questions about our

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April 22, 2012 Candlelight Aida.

$68.00 p/p Enjoy Elton John & Tim Rice in a Sunday grand classic tale of the timeless bond between a Nubian princess and an

Egyptian soldier. Price includes show, dinner, tax, gratuity and transportation. Leave 10am

and return approximately 4pm.Payment due by April 1, 2012.

May 7, 8, & 9

Wonder Valley Ranch & Casino $375.00 p/p double, Single add $75. The fun begins and never stops throughout

each day. Tuesday Side trips to locations in the area. Hayride and cowboy Wednesday

entertainment. Payment due by April 19th.

“Taking a school that never fund-raised to a school that fundraised to build something like this took a toll on every-body,” Medina said. “Look at the results. Now they’re happy and they see the re-sults. My biggest thing is four years with me, of those freshmen who came in and started playing in our program and the Cerritos way…they got to see what all of that was all about.”

Cerritos now joins Bellflower, May-fair and Norwalk as the only league schools that have a permanent outfield fence. Artesia and La Mirada have tem-porary fences and Glenn has no fence at all.

“My philosophy with an outfield fence is a lot of coaches teach to run through the breakaways,” Medina said. “When you run through it, your knee or foot or cleat gets caught up in it. I would rather have the fence and curb in play with no fence, so everybody is aware of it, or have somebody run through [a temporary fence] and not be aware of it. Administra-tion really, really took the lead on this.”

In addition, there are banners on the outfield fence from some of the people or businesses who have contributed to the upgraded field, such as Benchmark Homes, Juice It Up, Pioneer Medical, Tin Grin, VIP Batting and Grace Hu. Medina has also received tons of support from the Cerritos High administration, starting with Principal Janice Peterson.

“There are probably 25 to 30 people who I would have to remember right now to say thank you to,” Medina said. “But thank you to everyone out there. I’ve had a lot of companies step up and donate $100, $500, back and forth $25, $10. We have to thank the district for sure. [AB-CUSD supervisor of maintenance and fa-cilities] Robert Kay did a great job.”

The Medic Alert Foundation Extraor-dinary Meritorious Service Award honors first responders who have recognized the MedicAlert medical ID and contacted Med-ic Alert’s 24/7 Live Emergency Response Service Center to access vital medical and identification information to provide the best care and services for members of MedicAlert Foundation.

Detective Christiansen has described his actions after receiving a call about a man wandering the campus of Norwalk High School:

"School security advised me that the in-dividual was cooperative, however unable to speak. I initially tried to get him to write down his name or any information regard-ing who he was. He was unable to perform this task either," explains Detective Chris-tiansen.

"While attempting to communicate with the individual, I noticed his Medic Alert Bracelet. I called the number and provided the information to the operator. The operator provided me with an address for a nursing facility. The nursing staff stated he had never walked away from the

UNION DEMANDS CENSORSHIP OF H.G. COUNCILMAN BRUCEBy Jerry [email protected]

Hawaiian Gar-dens AFSC-ME Vice Pres-

ident Joseph Colombo accused Councilman Barry Bruce of violat-ing council standards covering councilmem-bers conduct of deco-rum and standards of procedure that were adopted by the council. He said the council should set an example for the community and follow its own rules. He accused Bruce of being out of control.

Councilman Reynaldo Rodriguez an-grily responded that if the majority was going to move ahead and censor Bruce it might as well censor him too. “We have a union member who controls the staff and government. They, the union, got you elected and walked the streets to get you

Artesia City Council Questions Orange LineBy Jerry [email protected]

The Artesia City Council, at its Apr. 9 meeting questioned the proosed Orange Line, a rapid transit system

that will connect Artesia and Cerritos with downtown Los Angeles.

The councilmember specifically want-ed to know if the line is constructed, will a station be built in Artesia?

Mayor Pro Tem Sally Flowers asked if there was any consideration where the line would start and end.

Michael Kodama with the Orange Line Development Authority answered the cur-rent analysis has it startng at downtown Los Angeles south to Santa Ana-Anaheim in Orange County. He added there was a

By Randy [email protected]

Heroes are alive and well at the Norwalk Sheriff’s Station, and on Tuesday leaders from the Medic

Alert Foundation recognized Detective Mark Christiansen for coming to the aid of a local Norwalk resident who recently found himself in a dire situation.

Flanked by Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, Norwalk Mayor Cherie Kelley, and several of his colleagues, Detective Christiansen was presented with a Extraor-dinary Meritorious Service Award from Tom Levin, a member of the Board of Di-rectors of MedicAlert.

Christiansen was all smiles standing on the steps of the Norwalk Sheriff’s Station Headquarters and was lauded for caring for an adult MedicAlert member with autism who had wandered away from his home, located not too far from where the ceremo-ny took place.

“Detective Christiansen's recognition and response to the member's MedicAlert ID enabled him to instantly access the member's medical history and to identify

the patient's needs. Medic Alert’s emer-gency response team worked with Detec-tive Christiansen to ensure that the member was safely returned home,” Sheriff Baca said during the presentation.




Monday - Friday





Serving Cerritos, Artesia, Hawaiian Gardens, Norwalk, Lakewood, Pico Rivera, La Mirada, and La Palma • 45,000 HOMES EVERY FRIDAY • APRIL 13, 2012 • Volume 26, No. 13 • LosCerritosNews.net

HEWS MEDIA GROUP



Los Angeles County Assessor John R. Noguez was taken to task on Tuesday over the way he has been handling his

office by angry members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

During a tense and vocal exchange with Noguez, Supervisor Zev Yaroslasky questioned him about recent fluctuations in property tax estimates and even questioned Noguez about how he conducts his “math.”

Noguez has estimated in December that the county’s property tax base would grow by $18.7 billion but last week changed the number to $5.1 billion. It could have result in $50 million less in revenue for the county in these dire economic times.

During his motion on Tuesday, Yaro-slavsky said “it is imperative that the Board of Supervisors, the governing bodies of other local public agencies, and the public have confidence in the Assessor to accurately, effi-ciently, and impartially administer the prop-erty assessment process. The public must be ensured that adequate controls are in place to safeguard the reliability and integrity of

the system.”“However, in recent days, questions have

arisen about this very process,” Supervisor Yaroslavsky quipped.

“Property tax is the largest source of lo-cal revenue for Los Angeles County and for most, if not all, other local jurisdictions (in-

cluding cities, schools and special districts). For this reason, trends in the growth of as-sessed valuation of properties in Los Ange-les County are followed closely by budget-writers at all agencies,” he stated.

In December of 2011, the Assessor is-

Assessor John Noguez appearance at the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Meeting this past week sparked outrage.

County Supervisors Demand Audit of Assessor Office

NORWALK DETECTIVE LAUDED FOR HELPING LOCAL RESIDENT WITH AUTISM

[See ARTESIA CITY COUNCIL page 10]

[See ASSESSOR AUDIT page 9]

[See H.G. COUNCILMAN BRUCE page 10]

[See MARK CHRISTIANSEN page 10]

Randy Economy PhotoNorwalk Sheriff's Detective George Christians-en is congratulated for his heroic efforts by Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca.

H.G. Councilman BARRY BRUCE

www.LosCerritosNews.net4 HEWS MEDIA GROUP • APRIL 13, 2012 TO ADVERTISE CALL 800-901-7211

OPINION

The opinions expressed by the writers do not necessarily represent the views of this newspaper.

Letters can be sent to: [email protected]. We reserve the right to edit for length and grammar.

Los Angeles County Assessor Noguez Must Resign

At this week’s LA County Board of Supervisor’s meeting, Assessor John Noguez told them that tax rev-

enue for the quarter would be “off by $50 million” and that “he did not see it com-ing”.

As you have read in this newspaper since February, the only one who could not see this coming was Nogeuz and the blind who defended him. There were plenty of warning signs that this deficit was coming, including articles citing the slide in the LA Times.

It all adds up; Noguez must resign.

First, he hired an ex trash hauler execu-tive, Dr. Chris Carlos with no experience in appraisals or property tax assessments, named him his chief of staff, and then paid him more than anyone else, over $16,000 per month. Carlo’s ex-company, Athens Disposal, was under indictment when he was hired. Carlos has since resigned due to the revelation of pay and inexperience in articles published by LCCN.

Second, the operations, policies and procedures inside the assessor’s office-and this is before the $50 million deficit was revealed-is in shambles, no doubt in large part due to Carlos. Assessor’s representa-tive Scott Schenter was able to secure large tax reductions for over 170 properties, 20% of those properties reduced by the “Shadow Assessor” Ramin Salari who banked 50% of each reduction. An assessor’s supervi-sor should have reviewed the properties in question, but mysteriously they were not.

Tolerance and Accommodation Can Prevent DisputesBy Jerry [email protected]

Iwas sitting at my desk taking a short break when my friend VAL LYNDER, DEFENDER OF ALL THAT IS TRUE,

walked into the office. Not one to beat around the bush, she said, “What in the world is going on in Hawaiian Gardens?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.“I mean the quarreling . between the

members of the city council. I watched the council meeting on my friends television set and couldn’t believe it.”

“Well, “ I said I believe one of the coun-cil members is still smarting over the fact that the the two candidates he backed for city council lost and Mayor Mike Gomez and Mayor Pro Tem Victor Farfan won.”

“There has o be more,” she said.“There’s a lot more to tell, but I don’t

think that’s why youre here,” I stated.VAL LYNDER gave me a long look Fi-

nally she said, “I do have a question and you’re right, it’s not abut Hawaiian Gar-dens,” she said.

I waited for her to continue..“A friend of mine who works in the city

of Norwalk and who follows what goes on there asked me the other day about a news-paper that claims to have a large circulation in the city yet no one has seen it and now there are rumors it will get the city legal announcements.”

“Well for one, “ I explained, “ It has to prove it has the general circulation it claims and it is adjudicated. that’s the law.”

Does it?”Nope. It doesn’t.”“There’s more than meets the eye here,”

she said.”“Yes there is,” I replied. “You might

want to check with your Norwalk friends in city hall about who is backing this so-

called newspaper>”VAL LYNDER gave me a second long

look. Breaking her silence, she said, “I will.”

She didn’t get up from her chair. I knew he had something else on her mind. I wait-ed.

Finally she said,”Tell me about this Orange Line I keep hearing about. “

“The Orange Line is a proposal for a rail line to connect Orange County via a rapid transit train with Los Angeles using the old Pacific Electric right-of-way. The original idea was there would be train stops in the various cities along the right-of-way.

“That makes sense,” she said. “W’ell, technology waits on no one,

and since the original line was proposed technology has moved forward.”

What doe that mean,” she asked.Two weeks ago a group of city officials

from several cities and the Orange Line Devwlopment Commission took a seven day trip to China and Japan to study their railroads. As you know, both countries have “bullet trains:” can travel at 200 to over 500 miles per hour. “

“That wouldn’t be practical on the Pa-cific Electric right-of way,” she said.

“That what members of the Artesia City Council said at their April 9 meeting. The Orange Line Transit System people are going to have to decide if they want a high speed MagLev carrier system or a low speed system. MegLev technology has moved forward where there is now a low speed system but faster than a light rail.

“That’s enough,” she interrupted me. “I’ve heard enough. You can explain it in more detail to me later.” With that she rose from her chair to leave,”

I sat there dumbfounded. This was the first time she had not lost her temper and slammed her purple white poker dotted umbrella on my desk in anger. “Didn’t you forget something,” I asked..”

“No,” she replied. “This isn’t the Ha-waiian Gardens City Council. “ With that she left, her umbrella at her side matching her high heeled poker dotted tennis shoes and outfit.

Third, LA County DA’s Public Integ-rity investigation of his office, two cases are ongoing right now.

Fourth, the pay-to-play politics-run by Carlos-that is rampant at every level, in-cluding inside the office. It was revealed that many large political donors to the Noguez campaign have received preferen-tial treatment by Noguez and his cronies. There were even donations from internal staff at the office to his campaign.

Fifth, the subpoena recently issued to Noguez by a San Diego attorney represent-ing a client suing Salari. Salari, under oath during a deposition, said he did not know Noguez. When asked repeatedly, Salari fi-nally took the fifth. After LCCN revealed that Salari knew Noguez, the San Diego attorney subpoenaed Noguez. Not sur-prisingly, the case was settled by Salari in about a week.

Sixth, Noguez allowing a private com-pany to come into his office and shoot a video that promoted a private company. LCCN revealed this gaff the next day and the private company immediately pulled the video, probably at the behest of the assessor’s office. The next day LCCN re-ceived a letter from Noguez attempting to explain the video.

Lastly, the current $50 million deficit, the damage that might be caused to cities, schools, public safety, etc in Los Angeles and the upcoming internal audit. None of the Supervisors, with a combined experi-ence of over 100 years, had ever seen any-thing like this deficit, or the arrogance dis-played by Noguez at the meeting.

It all adds up…unlike Noguez’ tax rev-enue projections…he must resign.

+1 (562) 407-3873 13047 E. Artesia Blvd., Ste. C-102 Cerritos, CA 90703

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EASTER THOUGHTSKindness, where art thou?By Rico Dizon

News programs on prime time tele-vision show and tell much about killings, abuses, rapes, robber-

ies, frauds, scams that are actually hap-pening around us day in and day out. Although there are “heroes” and kind hearted souls that pop out once in a while on the same screens, the do-gooders are easily outnumbered by the evil doers in the news. In most cases, the neighbors and residents in the communities where the crime took place were extremely shocked and alarmed when interviewed by reporters.

Kindness besides “honesty is such a lonely word” as the song goes. There are observations that kindness is even looked down as a sign of weakness by some young people. Some students are bullied by their arrogant and more aggressive schoolmates. It is bothersome enough that some young students believe being kind is not cool, for-getting that the heroes they idolized then like Superman, Captain America and Spi-derman to name a few have many things in common. They are all kind, brave, smart and cool rolled into one. Church and government leaders alike cannot be more emphatic in promoting the importance of good family values as the foundation of a good society. In my city of Lakewood,

posters that say “Times Change, Values Don’t” abound. The practice of kindness has always been encouraged for a better community…a better world.

Kindness is so explicitly desired in the solemn prayer written by an anony-mous author, “I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” Like-wise, the person whom you want to do kindness as in certain cases may pass this way no more as attested by my own personal experience.

Many years ago, I had been thinking of paying my long-time mentor, supervisor and friend a visit but somehow, I just de-ferred and neglected doing it. When I final-ly made it, his wife told me he passed away just a month ago. Woe to myself! The news ripped my heart apart and never in my life had I felt so guilty. My mixed emotions of guilt, sadness and regret just poured out in free-flowing tears with a silent moan.

Just recently, while attending a funeral mass for my late aunt, a Filipino priest spoke in a timely manner about the Fili-pino culture of timidity and reluctance in saying “I love you” to our families, rela-tives and friends. It is ingrained in our cul-ture the feeling of awkwardness when we want to say the four-lettered word to direct-ly express our feeling to another person, the priest noted. Ironically, he continued, when our loved ones die, then we boldly display our uncontrolled grief and emo-tions some even to the extent of clutching

[See EASTER THOUGHTS page 5]

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sued the first forecast of growth in the tax roll for fiscal year 2012-13. At that time, the Assessor projected a net increase of almost $18.7 billion, or 1.77%.

This week, the Assessor issued an up-dated forecast.

According to this latest estimate, the as-sessed valuation of property in Los Angeles County will increase next year by only $5.1 billion, or 0.49%. This is a reduction in prop-erty tax revenue growth by more than two-thirds since December 2011.

The dramatic swing in forecasting of property taxes is unprecedented in recent history, and will raise serious concerns in the 2012-13 budgeting processes currently underway for the County and other local governments. For the County General Fund alone, the forecasting change represents a potential reduction of $50 million in prop-erty tax receipts.

“To ensure the accurate and transparent preparation of the Los Angeles County prop-erty tax roll, the Board should order an in-dependent review of the Assessor's business processes, operations, and system of internal controls,” Yaroslavsky stated in his motion.

The Auditor-Controller will now conduct a comprehensive audit of the Assessor's op-erations, including but not limited to the De-partment's finances, business, administrative and procurement practices, and internal con-trols and information systems, to determine whether the Assessor's office is appropriately and efficiently administering the County's property assessment and appeals functions, and exercising appropriate management oversight of its operations and employees.

The Board also instructed the Auditor-Controller to retain outside consultants and other

“Subject matter experts” to independent-ly review and verify the Assessor's roll fore-casts for the upcoming fiscal year.

COMMUNITYNEWS

Furgeson Middle School’s athletic field and Cerritos County Park were turned into fields of fun and games as

Cerritos and Hawaiian Gardens held their annual Easter Egg Hunt for their young-sters.

Easter Egg hunts were broken up by age categories with those youngsters aged two-to-four years helped by the parents as they gathered the eggs scattered in a spe-cial arena.

Always a favorite at Furgeson are the pony rides followed by the bouncers and water slide.

Following the hunt for eggs in Cerritos they youngsters mobbed the game tents, with their parents standing nearby encour-aging them. All in all, a great time for par-ents and their children.

Easter Egg Hunt held in Cerritos and Hawaiian Gardens

Youngsters aged 2-4 years wait patiently with their parents in front of the Winnie the Phoo Bouncer, one of Cerritos –the more popular attractions for the very young.

Parents and their youngsters swarmed over Cerritos County Park for the city’s annual Easter Egg hunt followed by games

Hawaiian Garden youngsters, age four-to-six, race to garner the Easter Eggs spread out on the field at Furgeson Elementary School. Parents were only permitted to help the children aged two-three years old in their egg hunt.

NEW GAME PUTS CERRITOS COUNCIL IN A PICKLEBy Jerry [email protected]

The Cerritos City Council Chamber was packed with residents living ad-jacent to Westgate Park at the Apr. 23 Tjacent to Westgate Park at the Apr. 23 T

council meeting, who were split on where a fairly new sport “Pickleball” should be played. The residents were unanimously against converting the park’s existing ten-nis court into a Pickleball court, but were divided on the question of sharing the court with the newer sport. At its Feb 2 meeting the Parks and Recreation Commission in a 3-2 vote recommended the tennis court at Westgate Park be converted into four Pick-

Hawaiian Gardens Council Censures Barry BruceBy Jerry [email protected]

The Hawaiian Gardens City Council. in a 3-1 vote, censured Councilmem-ber Barry Bruce for violations of

council policy regarding the conduct and decorum for council meetings and council norms and procedures with Councilman Bruce abstaining.

The move to censure Bruce follow-ing complaints and grievances against the councilmember relating to conduct and statements he made towards the city clerk’s office during and following the Nov. 2011 city elections and at the council meeting of Dec. 13, 2011. Making the request for censure was AFSCE Vice President Joseph Colombo at the council’s Apr. 10 meeting.

In reviewing the minutes of the pervi-ous meeting, Councilman Bruce requested a correction be made regarding a statement by the Mayor requesting a

Resolution “censoring” Councilman

Publisher could have possibly perjured herself; Mayor

Kelley, Councilman Mendez, City Manager Mike Egan, and Chamber Executive Director Vivian Hansen’s involvement questioned

By Brian [email protected]

In an effort to secure the ability to pub-lish legal advertisements for the city of Norwalk, Downey Patriot Publisher

Jennifer DeKay-Givens has twisted facts and fabricated the actual publication’s date of establishment and printing of the her “new” newspaper The Norwalk Business Call.

LCCN has confirmed that DeKay-Giv-

ens could have exposed herself to possible perjury charges in the filing. LCCN has also confirmed that Mayor Cheri Kelley, Councilman Mike Mendez, Norwalk City Manager Mike Egan, Executive Director of the Norwalk Chamber of Commerce, Vivian Hansen, President of the Norwalk Chamber of Commerce Joe Derthick, Rob Cazares, Manager, Norwalk Outback Steakhouse, and Jesse Urquidi were in-volved in the process, although Urquidi bowed out later.

Using a law firm based out of Cama-rillo, Ms. Givens filed her notice to publish city legal advertising under Government Code Section 6000 which reads: A “news-paper of general circulation”… which has a bona fide subscription list of paying sub-scribers, and has been established, printed and published at regular intervals in…the city where publication… for at least one year. The notice is signed by Ms. Givens under penalty of perjury.

NOT PUBLISHED FOR ONE YEARComputer “screenshots” of websites

show the Patriot announcing the “new”

newspaper. It read, “Publishers of The Downey Patriot have launched a Downey Patriot have launched a Downey Patriot newweekly newspaper, the Norwalk Business Call, The Patriot reports”, thus implicitly violating the one-year publishing require-ment.

The announcement was placed on both the Downey Patriot website and the Cali-fornia Newspaper Publisher’s Association website, but have since been removed. LCCN time stamped all screenshots; they are included at the end of this article.

Further, emails and documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from the city of Norwalk show Ms. Givens initi-ating the “start” of the paper in May 2011 calling then Mayor Mike Mendez and ask-ing to meet to “expand” the Downey Pa-triot into Norwalk. She used the word new many times in her messages.

On June 29, Ms. Givens left another message with Vicki Dilley-council secre-tary- asking to schedule an appointment with Mendez regarding “starting a news-paper only for Norwalk”. The message was sent to Vickie Yoshikawa who then




Monday - Friday





Serving Cerritos, Artesia, Hawaiian Gardens, Norwalk, Lakewood, Pico Rivera, La Mirada, and La Palma • 45,000 HOMES EVERY FRIDAY • APRIL 27, 2012 • Volume 26, No. 15 • LosCerritosNews.net

HEWS MEDIA GROUP

COMMUNITYNEWSCOMMUNITYNEWSCOMMUNITYCOMMUNITYNEWSDOWNEY NEWSPAPER FILING QUESTIONABLE DOCUMENTS

TO OBTAIN LEGAL STATUS IN NORWALK

CBS NEWS BROADCASTS LIVE FROM LCCN OFFICE

[See PICKLEBALL page 10]

[See ADJUDICATION page 10]

[See BARRY BRUCE CENSURED page 9]

{l-r} Hews Media Group Publisher and President Brian Hews, KCBS Investigative Reporter Dave Bryan, and Hews Media Group reporter Randy Economy during Wednesday night's live news segment from the newsroom. Bryan reported on the corruption probe and raids against Los Angeles County Assessor John R. Noguez. Hews Media Group was the first newspaper/media outlet to break the Noguez story back in early February. See the Bryan video at loscerritosnews.net. Photo by Chris Svensk

Hawkins Calls Central Basin Campaign Attacks ‘Phony Political Advertising’LA Times City Editor blasts Hawkins in statement to LCCN

By Randy Economy and Jerry Bernstein

It is being called the ‘dirty water cam-paign.’

Central Basin Water District Board incumbent Phil Hawkins went on the attack Monday taking on his two rivals for recent statements made in Los Cerritos Community Newspaper.

Hawkins, a longtime Cerritos resident, and a former member of the California State Assembly, said that a series of print adver-tisements in Los Cerritos Community News-

socks, toiletries, books, snack foods, pow-dered drink mixes, and money for the Ma-rines.

The event will take place at 12880 Moore Street, Cerritos, 90703. A 1st CEB banner will be displayed near the front of

the building. Parking is available on both sides of the street. The correct five number address is visible just above and to the left of the front door of the buildings office's at the right front portion of the building. To

CENTRAL BASIN CANDIDATE FORUM MAY 24 AT OFF STREET CAFÉ

The Los Cerritos Community News is sponsoring a Candidate Forum for the Central Basin

Municipal Water District. The Forum will be held at the Off Street Café on Artesia Boulevard across from Gahr High School May. 24 between 1-3 p.m. in the restaurant’s patio.

Three candidates are seeking a seat on the Board of Directors. They are incumbent Phil Hawkins, Assem-blyman Tony Mendoza and Cerritos resident Jay Gray.

This is your opportunity to learn what the Central Basin Municipal Water District does and how your water bill is effected by the Board’s decisions.

LAWMAKER GATTO BLASTS NOGUEZ, SALARI RELATIONSHIPSeeks restrictions between ‘assessors and so-called tax agents’By Randy [email protected]

As a result of a massive criminal probe into suspected “pay to play” practices deep inside the Los Angeles County

Assessor’s Office, lawmakers in Sacramento have decided that “enough is enough.”

This week, Assemblyman Mike Gatto of Los Angeles introduced AB 404 that would require tax consultants such as Ramin Salari, one of the central players in a wide sweep-ing criminal probe of influence peddling with Assessor John Noguez, to be required to dis-close to the media and public the “exact na-ture” of their business dealings.

Gatto told Los Cerritos Community Newspaper in an interview from Sacramento

Serving Cerritos, Artesia, Hawaiian Gardens, Norwalk, Lakewood, Pico Rivera, La Mirada, and La Palma • 45,000 HOMES EVERY FRIDAY • MAY 11, 2012 • Volume 26, No. 17 • LosCerritosNews.net

HEWS MEDIA GROUP

COMMUNITYNEWSCOMMUNITYNEWSCOMMUNITYCOMMUNITYNEWSCerritos Optimists Host ABC Science/Olympic Winners

Volunteers Needed to Assemble Care Packages for 1st Combat Engineer Battalion Serving in Afghanistan

[See MILITARY CARE PACKAGES page 10]

[See LAWMAKER GATTO page 10] [See LA TIMES/HAWKINS page 10]

The Cerritos Optimist Club played host at its Apr. 26 dinner meeting to nine winner in the ABC’s annual Science/Olympic Program held this year at Carmenita Middle school. The students and their schools were Carmentia, Kathy West, Henry Villarreal and Derek Huang; Fedde Academy, John Laird, Valera Lopez, and Cynthia Calderos; Ross Middle School, Bill Mead, Maria Zawacki, Gabriel Rocha, Alyssa Armes, Nick Pantoja; Whitney High School, Raji Susaria and Moses Won; and Academic Services, Paul Killian. With them are Optimist President Wayne Switzer and ABC Program Specialist Paul Killian.

By Jerry [email protected]

Members of the Friends of Cerritos 1st Combat Engineer Battalion Adoption Committee is seeking

community volunteers to come to12880 Moore Street May 16 from from 6 to 10 p.m. to help assemble 600 care packages for members of the 1st Combat Engineers Battalion (1st CEB), United States Marine Corps, who are serving in Afghanistan.

The care packages will provide per-sonal care items and goodies, including 700 dozen freshly baked cookies donated by Polly’s Pies. The gift bags, sewn by lo-cal volunteers, will be filled and sent to the battalion members to show the communi-ty’s appreciation for their efforts.

Despite the challenging economic times, community

members; Friends of the Cerritos Li-brary; L.A. County Sheriff’s and

Fire Department personnel serving Cerritos; and City staff generously donated




Monday - Friday





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on Wednesday that the bill was a “simple premise, due to the situation in Los Angeles County.”

It would also, in many cases, prevent tax agents from making campaign contri-butions to Assessors, who then hear the tax agents' clients’ cases.

Salari has been tied to tens of thousands of dollars in political contributions to Noguez during the past decade that goes back to when Noguez was moonlighting as a city coun-cilmember in the City of Huntington Park and working during the daytime as a Property Appraiser Specialist in the assessor’s office.

Gatto told LCCN that the “relationship between Noguez and Salari and other tax agents is a recipe for disaster.”

“It is unwise policy to allow these so-called ‘tax-agents’ to lobby assessors in the backrooms of government with no disclo-sure," said Gatto.

"We should treat those who lobby Coun-ty Assessors the same as those who lobby County Supervisors, requiring a modicum of disclosure and setting certain ground rules on what is and is not acceptable conduct.”

Gatto also praised the efforts of Los Cer-ritos Community Newspaper for “bringing this issue to the forefront.”

“If it wasn’t for Los Cerritos Community Newspaper, the public and the rest of the me-dia would have had no idea about the current crisis inside the Los Angeles County Asses-sor’s Office,” Gatto said.

Gatto, a Democrat, said he has not had any contact with Noguez about the legisla-tion and he “doesn’t plan to.”

“I never supported or endorsed the guy (Noguez) in the first place.”

He also stressed that “AB 404 would not affect property owners who advocate on their own behalf, nor would it take away local con-trol for counties to amend the fine points of their lobbying ordinances.”

Gatto has been working with the Cali-fornia Association of Professional Employ-ees, which represents more than 3000 of Los Angeles County's professional employees, “including those who work hard to assess properties, only to see their work undone at times by the well-connected people like Sal-ari to provide increased transparency in the process.”

It would also, in many cases, prevent tax agents from making campaign contri-butions to Assessors, who then hear the tax agents' clients’ cases.

“It is unwise policy to allow these so-called ‘tax-agents’ to lobby assessors in the backrooms of government with no disclo-sure," said Gatto. "We should treat those who lobby County Assessors the same as those who lobby County Supervisors, requiring a modicum of disclosure and setting certain ground rules on what is and is not acceptable conduct.”

He also said that AB 404 would not affect

property owners who advocate on their own behalf, nor would it take away local control for counties to amend the fine points of their lobbying ordinances.

“This common-sense solution will al-low the public to know who is paying whom to lobby their elected Assessors. It makes sense that these individuals, who often obtain multi-million-dollar benefits for their clients, have to live by the same rules as other lobby-ists,” Gatto said.

paper have been a “phony political ad” at-tack.

In an interview with LCCN Editor Jerry Bernstein and Reporter Randy Economy on Monday afternoon, Hawkins went on the of-fense by singling out his two rivals, Assem-blyman Tony Mendoza and Cerritos com-munity leader Jay Gray for “conducting a dirty and deliberate campaign” against him by “twisting the facts” regarding several ar-ticles that recently appeared in both the Los Angeles Times and on local television news casts written by a writer who the Times now questions even exists.

“This campaign is going to be about scare tactics, and half truths, and in some cases just flat out lies,” Hawkins said.

But in an interview with Shelby Grad, City Editor of the Los Angeles Times, Hawk-ins needs to be held accountable for his past statements.

“We wanted to clarify several comments made in the story. Despite what Mr. Hawkins said, The Times has never retracted any of its articles about the Central Municipal Ba-sin Water District and we never told officials there that the article was “bogus.” The Times stands by our stories. Moreover, there has never been any confusion over the authors of those stories.”

In the advertisements published in Los Cerritos Community Newspaper during the past three weeks, Hawkins claims that his opponents have taken excerpts from that particular article and have “twisted the facts” for their own “political benefits.”

Hawkins said that Mendoza was “mis-stating the truth” about current residential water rates offered by Central Basin for his “own political gain.” He said it true the District raised the rates 40 percent but a breakdown of the increase reveals it cost the District $18 per acre foot, down from $25. “That’s enough water to provide a family of four with water for one year. Our bond rat-ing is Triple A, the highest you can have for bonds, and our District building is paid for,” Hawkins said.

Also he claims that when he was elected to the Board 12 years ago the District had a $1 million deficit. “Today we have a sur-plus,” he said and he didn’t think that dem-onstrated that the District was “corrupt.”

Hawkins also dismissed the claims that his association with Tom Calderon, who is

the head of a public advocacy consulting firm by Central Basin to conduct “outreach efforts” to local and state elected officials was not done as a political “favor.”

“His (Tom Calderon) experience as a former California state legislator, and as the head of the Calderon Group makes him ex-perienced in acting as a consultant for Cen-tral Basin since 2004 in dealing with the State on Water issues, especially on the need for water storage” and other issues such as water recycling and “fighting the Metropoli-tan Water District and Water Replenishment District’s rate increases to local cities.”

Hawkins also told LCCN that Calderon, who himself is currently running for a state assembly seat in the newly created 58th As-sembly District that stretches from Bell Gar-dens and Commerce southeast into Cerritos “contributed $300 to one of my past cam-paigns, and has not contributed to this cur-rent campaign.”

But according to campaign reports ob-tained by LCCN, Hawkins did receive thou-sands of dollars in contribution from “The Calderon Group” and other political action committees controlled by Tom Calderon.

During Hawkins 2008 reelection, Tom Calderon contributed $1500 to Hawkins, and in addition, the Political Action Committee called California Citizens for Good Govern-ment doled out $4,750 for that same 2008 campaign during October of that year, a month before his last campaign.

“In summary, Phil has lied about the con-tributions he has received from Tom Calde-ron and has used a deceptive PAC controlled by Tom Calderon to funnel an additional $4,750 to Phil’s last campaign,” Rob Kather-man, a Director of the Southern California Water Replenishment District told LCCN in an email on Wednesday.

The complete video interview with Hawkins and LCCN can be found at www.loscerritosnews.net.

MILITARY CARE PACKAGESContinued from page 1

help people recognize the correct building, the first CEB banner will be displayed near the front of the building.

If you are coming from anywhere in Cerritos that is South of 166th.

The easiest way to get to the building is proceed North on Shoemaker to the first street past 166th. That street is Moore. Turn left [West] on Moore and come down to the third building on the left hand side of the street.

The Friends of the 1st CEB is a non-profit, volunteer organization dedicated to supporting the 1st CEB. The City of Cer-ritos adopted the 1st CEB to encourage strong ties between the Marine unit and residents and the City.

For information about volunteering or donating to this event, call 1st CEB Adop-tion Committee President Dorothy Owen at (562) 926-1092.

attended a private meeting with President Barack Obama, former Cabinet Member Norman Y. Mineta and several members of Congress.

“I am humbled and honored to have received the APAICS Trailblazer Award. It was also a tremendous honor to meet Presi-

dent Obama. I was pleased to invite him to visit the City of Cerritos and experience our thriving multi-cultural community.”

Councilmember Pulido is an alumnus of the APAICS program and was selected to receive the first APAICS Trailblazer Award

Hawkins Lashes Out at False Accusations by OpponentsBy Jerry [email protected]

In an interview with LCCN, Central Basin Municipal Water District Board Member Phil Hawkins and candidate for re-elec-

tion denied the District was awash in corrup-tion and lashed out at his opponents seeking to unseat him. Citing accusations that he had doubled water rates in the past three years more than $8.7 million over Metropolitan Water District water rates as false. He also denied accusations about money being spent for alleged directors’ pay raises and waste-ful travel perks and asserted they were false. He said his opponents have attributed these lies to a story that appeared in the L.A. Times dated Mar. 4. Hawkins he said he and his staff have been unable to find any article printed in the Times about Central Basin dated Mar.

Cerritos Councilmember Mark E. Pulido Receives APAICS Trailblazer Award and meets with President Barack Obama

Cerritos Councilmember Mark E. Pu-lido was honored with the inaugural APAICS Trailblazer Award from

the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) on May 8. APAICS is a national non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting Asian Pacific American participation and representation at all levels of the political process, from community service to elect-ed office.

Congresswoman Linda Sánchez, a member of APAICS, presented the award to Councilmember Pulido at a special event held in Washington D.C. The event was held as part of the APAICS celebration of the 20th Anniversary of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Also as part of the celebration, Councilmember Pulido

Artesia Council Discusses School Crossing Guards Payment

By Rico Dizon

The Artesia City Council took up the issue of school crossing guards dur-ing their meeting on Tuesday night.

In a survey conducted on 18 neighbor-ing cities, which employ crossing guards, provided city council members a “basis of comparison” that has raised more ques-tions than concrete answers in the opinion of one city council member.

Of the 18 cities reviewed, five of the municipalities are fully funded by the school districts, five are partially funded and eight cities, including Artesia, pay fully for the crossing guard services. “This doesn’t seem right,” said Mayor Pro Tem Sally Flowers pondered. “Why are




Monday - Friday





By Jerry Bernstein

Acapacity crowd attended the city’s annual Community Prayer Break-fast held May 16 at the Cerritos

Sheraton Hotel. Keynote Speaker was

Judge John C. Lawson of the Los Ange-les Superior Court in Long Beach. Master of Ceremony was Supervisor Don Knabe who introduced the speaker. Introducing him was Chairperson Anna Titus.

DISTRICT ATTORNEY COOLEY CALLS FOR ASSESSOR NOGUEZ TO RESIGNCalls Probe the ‘Biggest’ of his CareerBy Randy [email protected]

Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley called for the resig-nation of embattled Assessor John

Noguez Wednesday afternoon. In an ex-clusive phone interview with Los Cerritos Community Newspaper Cooley said “it is appropriate for Noguez to resign.” “It is in the best interested of everyone for him (Noguez) to step down,” Cooley said.

“Over the past several months, it has

HEWS MEDIA GROUP

COMMUNITYNEWSCOMMUNITYNEWSCOMMUNITYCOMMUNITYNEWSJudge John C. Lawson Keynote Speaker at Community Breakfast

Cerritos Councilmember Receives APAICS Trailblazer Award

[See ARTESIA CITY COUNCIL page 9][See MARK PALIDO page 8]

[See L.A. DISTRICT ATTORNEY page 10]L.A. DISTRICT ATTORNEY page 10]L.A. DISTRICT ATTORNEY [See HAWKINS LASHES OUT page 10][See PRAYER BREAKFAST page 7]

Master of Ceremonies Supervisor Don Knabe, Keynote Speaker Judge John C. Lawson, and Breakfast Chairperson Anna Titus at annual Community Prayer Breakfast held May 16.

Congresswoman Linda Sánchez presented Cerritos City Councilmember Mark E. Pulido with the inaugural APAICS Trailblazer Award from the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) on May 8. Congresswoman Sánchez represents California’s 39th Congressional District which includes the City of Cerritos.

Serving Cerritos, Artesia, Hawaiian Gardens, Norwalk, Lakewood, Pico Rivera, La Mirada, and La Palma • 45,000 HOMES EVERY FRIDAY • MAY 18, 2012 • Volume 26, No. 18 • LosCerritosNews.net

LISTEN TO LCCN'S BRIAN HEWS & RANDY ECONOMY LIVE • The John & Ken Show • FRIDAY, MAY 18, 4 P.M.

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4, 2012.On the question of moving the Board elec-

tion to June 2012 from November because of the traditional primary lower voter turnout, he said the move saved the District $300,000 in election costs. “It is interesting,” he noted, “that one of his challengers, who is currently a seated Assemblyman took $80,000 from his 2014 Senate Election Campaign chest of $750,000 to run his campaign for Central Basin. Normally, candidates seeking election or re-election spend $20,000 at the most dur-ing this campaign. Now who is spending the big bucks,” he asked.

Asked abut an alleged donation of $3,000 to his re-election campaign by Tom Calderon who is a consultant to the District, Hawkins said he received $300 from him in his last campaign four years ago and no donation for this election. Hawkins also said in the ad paid for by the Coalition for Clean Afford-able Water it stated Hawkins wants to give the nearly $3 million in state and federal funds earmarked for a distribution and effi-ciency study to Tom Calderon. “That’s false, the contract is out to bid, the Board hasn’t even voted on it.”

He also noted that in April Central Ba-sin initiated a pledge to freeze water rates for Central Basin customers, for at least one year and called upon the Metropolitan Water District and the Water Replenishment Board







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District Attorney, Media focus of newest email issued on Thursday morning

For the second time in a three days, employees of the Los Angeles County Assessor’s Office have been

slapped with another a stern warning from union leaders relating to a massive criminal probe centered on political “pay to play” allegations, money laundering, bribery and influence peddling.

When hundreds of union members ar-rived to work on Thursday morning they found a new email from their union lead-ers from the California Association of Pro-fessional Employees, AFL-CIO under the heading “Secure Written Permission Be-fore Talking to Investigators.”

Los Cerritos Community Newspaper was faxed a hard copy of the two page memo that directly takes aim at members of the media and criminal investigators.

“As noted in prior communications, the media’s focus on the Assessor’s office will most likely continue. Consequently the protection of CAPE member’s careers and employee rights that directly takes aim at members of the media and criminal inves-tigators.

“CAPE representatives have advised members to seek permission before pro-viding information and documents to in-vestigators because the so-called whistle blowers statutes may not provide the prop-er protections for county employees under these circumstances. Furthermore, receiv-ing permission to disclose information and documents helps protect employees from retaliation after the investigation is over.”

The memo also states that “media atten-tion will continue” and continues to stress that employees contacted by investigators “should take the necessary and longstand-ing procedural to protect themselves and their careers, even if investigators indicate the employee is not a target of a criminal investigation.”

“The reported misdeeds of a few ex-ecutives reflect badly on the entire office.

CAPE represented employees did not cause those alleged violations, and should not be punished by investigators and the press for simply trying to do their jobs and protect their careers,” the memo states.

It also takes a new swipe at Noguez and his top brass. “The Assessor’s top staff stated that the Assessor and his executives are fully cooperating with investigators. If that is true, there should be no hesitation to provide written authorization for CAPE represented employees to disclose infor-mation and documents to investigators.

“Broad base allegations are to be ex-pected. The complicated issues right now in the Assessor’s Office have the potential to permanently damage working condi-tions and career advancement for every-one. CAPE representatives will continue to work on all aspects of every issue to en-sure the lively hoods of dedicated County professionals are not harmed,” the memo concludes.

District Attorney media representative Jane Robison told Los Cerritos Communi-ty Newspaper that they had “no comment” on the latest email.

NEW ROUND OF WARNINGS ISSUED TO ASSESSOR EMPLOYEES BY UNION LEADERS FOR SECOND STRAIGHT DAY

become clear that the situation inside the Assessor’s office has deteriorated.” Cooley said his office has made this case the “top priority for prosecution” and indicated that “countless individuals are being investigat-ed.” “This is by far the biggest case I have ever seen of this magnitude in my four terms as the District Attorney,” Cooley told Los Cerritos Community Newspaper.

Cooley would not say if or when arrest warrants would be issued other than say-ing “this is a very complex case and we are taking our time in reviewing each and ev-ery detail.”

Cooley also praised the coverage of Los Cerritos Community Newspaper dur-ing the past five months. “I have followed all of the coverage (from LCCN) and want to compliment you for doing a great job. Keep up the great reporting,” Cooley told Brian Hews, President and Publisher of Hews Media Group, “and you have done a great job in exposing the corruption in the Assessor’s office.” Cooley also said he “supports” having Los Cerritos Commu-nity Newspaper distribute hundreds inter-nal memos obtain between Noguez and tax agent Ramin Salari this coming Friday.

L.A. DISTRICT ATTORNEYContinued from page 1

HAWKINS LASHES OUTContinued from page 1

to do the same. Responding to accusation that the Dis-

trict’s Reclamation Plant is a boondoggle, he said the District is enacting an aggressive plan to increase recycled water sales to boost revenue in the next fiscal year. He also stated Central Basin plans to fully cooperate with Assemblyman Ricardo Lara’s request for an audit of all water agencies in Los Angeles County regarding the rising of water rates. This includes the Water Replenishment Dis-trict.

Hawkins also noted that in the KTLA coverage of the Los Angeles Times investi-gation of Central Basin by reporter Sam Ad-ams, the times reporter said “There was no evidence of any wrong doing.” At the close of the KTLA interview, Chris Wolfe ended the program by saying “And again, we need to emphasize there is no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing.”

Turning to an accusation Central Basin awarded a $970,040 contract to George Cole, a recently arrested former Bell Mayor he said in fact staff identified the Oldtimers Founda-tion and San Diego-based Eco Green Servic-es as front runners among four firms. Old-timers submitted the lowest bid of $837,000 compared Green’s bid of $916,000. He said George Cole was Executive Director at the time, adding the selection was done prior to Bell officials being charged in the misappro-priation of City Funds.

Hawkins concluded by saying when he was first elected to the Central Basin Board the District had a $1 million deficit. Today

our budget is balanced and our bonds have a triple a rating. And we have one million dol-lar surplus. That doesn’t sound like corrup-tion to me.”

Hawaiian Gardens Council approves $28.8 Million BudgetBy Jerry [email protected]

The Hawaiian Gardens City Council gave approval to a $28.8 million budget.

David Sung, Hawaiian Gardens Fi-nance Director/Treasurer, in a report to the council, said expenditures were estimated at $18.6 million, with capital projects at $743,000 for the new spending year.

He said the estimated balance at the end of the 2012-13 fiscal year would be $29.06 million “We have a balanced bud-get,” Sung proclaimed.

The Finance Director said Hawaiian Gardens investment and focus policy has called for setting aside $1 million a year to be placed in the general fund reserve. That reserve amount will be increased to $1,100 ,000 until the reserves reaches $15 million. He said this allows for uncertainties and establishes reserves adequate to provide

Artesia City Council Declares Financial EmergencyBy Jerry [email protected]

The Artesia City Council unanimously approved a resolution declaring the city is in a fiscal emergency at its June

11 meeting. City officials said historically the city has operated with fiscal prudence and caution without having to dip into the General Fund reserves. However the state takeaways in the last few years, including the state’s elimination of redevelopment agencies, has resulted in a significant de-cline in city revenues.

The resolution was approved in order to make the public aware of the fiscal emer-gency as the city continues budget discus-sions and deliberations.

Deputy City Manager and Finance Of-ficer Justine Menzal said in approving the resolution, the council noted the state has

Cerritos Council Reviews $83 Million Budget for 2012-13By Jerry [email protected]

The Cerritos City Council has re-viewed the city’s preliminary budget for 2012-13 and City Manager Art

Gallucci said the city anticipates overall revenue to be approximately $83 million, a decrease of approximately $2,.5 million or 2.96 per cent from the current fiscal year.

Gallucci said approximately $14 mil-lion of this amount provides income to the water, reclaimed water, sewer fund and electric utility functions. The council will give final approval to the budget at its June 21 meeting.

The largest revenue source for the City continues to be sales tax and interest in-come comprising approximately 40 per-cent of the city’s operating budget. The re-cession has impacted both these sources of revenue the past three years, he said, but an increase is forecast for sale tax revenue.


The Norwalk City Council has ap-proved a new fiscal budget that will be tight on spending for the next

twelve months.On Tuesday night, city leaders gathered

to hash out a spending plan that according to city manager Mike Egan is “a spending program that continues to maintain a high level for City services.”

In spite of months of rancor, and out-side political interference from California State lawmakers and the recent elimination of redevelopment agencies, Norwalk City Council members passed the $111 million package..

“The City Council has made every ef-fort to reduce costs without jeopardizing overall services and worked to ensure ad-equate reserves are maintained to weather the slow economic recovery and the con-tinued uncertain actions of the federal and state government,” said Egan.

Egan said that General Fund revenues

are projected to increase 1.5%, or $503,355 from the current fiscal year.

Norwalk officials are anticipating an estimated growth of 6% in sales taxes that will translate into $480,000 more in rev-enue.

Property taxes, including vehicle li-cense fees and other sources, are expected to “grow moderately” and increase only by 1%, or for $191,020 in revenue.

Revenue for new business licenses will reach an estimated $95,000 and look for $100,000 of additional revenue to be generated from additional service fee in-creases.

Captain Patrick Maxwell who over-sees the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in Norwalk said that he was “pleased” with the new spending package, and pointed out that the community can expect two new deputies to be hired in the next 12 months. “In spite of tight budget times, Norwalk will never compromise on the safety of our residents and people who visit here day in and day out,” Maxwell

[See FISCAL EMERGENCY page 10]FISCAL EMERGENCY page 10]FISCAL EMERGENCY [See NORWALK BUDGET page 10] [See KREIMANN page 10]

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RANDY ECONOMY PHOTONorwalk Sheriff's Captain Pat Maxwell, Norwalk Mayor Pro-Tem Luigi Vernola, and Los Angeles County Sheriff Commander Mike Rothans attended the successful P.R.I.D.E. BBQ at Norwalk City Hall on Tuesday. Hundreds of community members attended the annual event that raised money for the highly successful program that focuses on keeping young people on the right track. The event featured steaks, bbq beans, corn on the cob, rolls, potato salad and cupcakes for dessert.

More on page 14.

Serving Cerritos, Artesia, Hawaiian Gardens, Norwalk, Lakewood, Pico Rivera, La Mirada, and La Palma • 45,000 HOMES EVERY FRIDAY • JUNE 22, 2012 • Volume 26, No.23 • LosCerritosNews.net

Kreimann Approved Acting Assessor by Board of SupervisorsBy Randy [email protected]

Santos Kreimann is now the new Act-ing Chief Deputy for the embattled Los Angeles County Assessor’s Of-

fice thanks to a unanimous vote by the five members of the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday afternoon.

The vote to confirm of Kreimann took place after a closed-door Board of Supervi-sors hearing to evaluate department heads and discuss Kreimann's appointment as chief deputy assessor.

Kreimann was the Director of Beaches and Harbors for the County prior to his confirmation on Tuesday.

Los Cerritos Community Newspaper has learned that Kriemann has no profes-sional experience in the complex field of property assessments, and lacks even the

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Storm Drains Are For Rain!Not Automotive FluidsNot Pet WasteNot Yard WasteNot PaintNot Litter

The City of Cerritos encourages itsresidents to recycle their used motor oiland oil filters. It’s quick, it’s easy, and

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Anything that goes into a stormdrain in Cerritos has an impacton the health of Los AngelesCounty beaches and coastalwaters. So remember that…

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SM

support of ABC and its schools over the years. “Since I’m retiring in a few days, I wanted to come before you and thank you for your amazing support,” he said. “There is nobody around here who does what you do for our children,” he said.

“You have a motto, ’Our youth is our future.’ You put action behind your motto. You are unique among the cities ABCUSD serves in support of our children and what you do for our children.”

He said the relationship between ABC and the city hasn’t always been smooth but in the last few years we have become one team “Four years ago the district had to cut back on summer school throughout the dis-trict. Hawaiian Gardens stepped up and said it would pay for summer school in Hawai-

ian Gardens.” The popular Smuts said the only other

schools that have summer school programs are those which receive grant money or where parents pay for it. This year Fedde Middle School will have a summer school program because it has grant money and will run from July 23 to Aug. Smuts said his annual “Walk For Reading” has had the sup-port of the city. “Last year our youngsters in Hawaiian Gardens read one million hours outside of school. This year, in one year’s time, they read 1.2 million hours outside of school. That is remarkable,” he stated.

H.G. BUDGETContinued from page 8

FISCAL EMERGENCYContinued from page 1

NORWALK BUDGETContinued from page 1

KREIMANNContinued from page 1

taken more than $1.5 million from the city in order to reduce the state’s budget. This means approximately $1 million in annual future revenues the city has relied upon to fund various projects has been eliminated, putting into jeopardy projects that have been partially completed and which may require city funds to complete.

Menzal said the city’s general fund re-serves, which are intended to protect the city in the event of a catastrophe and to provide the city with needed funds to han-dle unanticipated calamities, has declined by over $1 million in the last few years to approximately $2.7 million. The council noted this was not sufficient to absorb the cost of services and projects that was pre-viously funded from other sources.

She said the city has already reduced the workforce by approximately 30 percent and reduced park and city facility hours to cut costs

The Council agreed the city will seek to maintain current levels of public safety and police services, including neighbor-hood patrols and crime and gang preven-tion programs. Other community services such as street maintenance may need to be

further reduced, causing city streets, roads, sidewalks and public

infrastructure to deteriorate further and fall into disrepair.

The significant cost saving measures the city has employed in recent years to ad-dress the ongoing budget crisis will not be sufficient to avoid further cuts and commu-nity disruptions, she said, which will have a negative impact upon public safety and the character of the community in Artesia.

told Los Cerritos Community Newspaper.Overall the Public Safety budget will

include a $571,513 increase from the 11-12 budget, and includes $43,500 for the city to match equally that will be applied to the cities participation in the Federal COPS Hiring Grant.

Jana Stuard, Director of Finance for Norwalk told Mayor Cherie Kelley that “we are presenting a balanced budget, but this is a Balancing Act on all sides.”

To illustrate the complexities of the budget situation, Stuard included a graphic visual slide in her presentation of a man walking on a tightrope over a vast canyon. Councilman Leonard Shryock quipped, “that image speaks volumes about our bud-get.”

Stuart also pointed out that three major projects would have to be by passed over the next 12 months including the installa-tion of a Geographic Information System and the replacement of aged city duplica-tion machines.

Also being pushed back are several street renovation programs, replacement of several different sewer systems,as well as an upgrade along historic Front Street.

most minimal of qualifications normally required for the position.

David Sommers, media spokesperson for Los Angeles County Chief Administra-tive. William Fujioka confirmed to LCCN in an email Tuesday morning that Kri-emann does not hold a Real Estate License or a certificate as a property appraiser or auditor and does not possess any advanced college degrees.

Sommers said that Kreimann will be given signing authority of assessment de-valuations only when he can be granted a “temporary appraisal certification.”

“I suspect he will soon have signing au-thority on all assessment devaluations and increases,” Sommers said.

LCCN was also told that Kriemann’s benefits package will not change but that specifics about his salary has not been re-leased, but Sommers said Santos receives as Director of Beaches and Harbors “is

within close proximity to the salary the As-sessor receives.”

Kriemann will be replaced at Beaches and Harbors by three individuals in the de-partment including Gary Jones, who will be handling real estate and concessions; John Kelly, who will take care of maintenance operations, capital projects and planning, and Kerry Silverstrom will be responsible for all the administration and community and marketing services items.

Sommers also pointed out that Beaches and Harbors Deputy Chief Executive Of-ficer Rita Robinson, who oversees commu-nity and municipal services countywide, will provide “more hands on oversight of the department and Santos will be avail-able and consulted on any major policy decisions.”

``I am eager to dedicate my full atten-tion to reviewing and improving policies and procedures necessary to restore the public's confidence in the Los Angeles County Assessor's Office,'' Kreimann said. ``My goal is to reestablish the department as the premier property assessment agency in the nation.''

County CEO William Fujioka, who recommended Kreimann for the job, reiter-ated his vote of confidence.

``Santos is a highly qualified county leader and is fully prepared to guide the as-sessor's staff in providing essential public services to county residents.''

LCCN can confirm that Kreimann asked members of Assessor John Noguez top staff last week that he has “four im-mediate goals for the office, including im-proving employee morale.”

LCCN has been told that Kreimann asked those who attended that he wanted to “boost employee morale and the image of the Assessor’s office; the increase effi-ciency inside the office; enhance the rela-tionship between members of the Board of Supervisors; and to educate rank and file employees about the current situation in-side the office.”

Kreimann also requested that each person who attended the meeting provide him with “a written description of their job responsibilities” so he can better acquaint himself with the complex and massive Assessor operation that employees nearly 2,000 people.

David Sommers, media spokesperson for County Chief Administrative Officer William Fujioka, confirmed to LCCN that the meeting did indeed take place and that “Mr. Fujioka is okay with this.”

LCCN has also learned that Kreimann has no formal certification to serve as a property appraiser, but Sommers said that Fujoika believes that Kreimman is the “right person at the right time to oversee the Assessor’s office, and more important-ly he has the support of John (Noguez).”

A review of his official bio shows that Kreimann has been with the county for twenty years and oversaw an annual oper-ating budget of $41 million with 256 em-ployees.

Kriemann also hold a Bachelor of Business Administration from Cal State University Los Angeles. He also lists expe-rience as an employee with the Treasurer and Tax Collectors Office, the Department of Health Services, the Chief Administra-tive Office, and his current slot with the beaches and harbors.

Noguez and several members of his in-ner circle are the focus of a massive crimi-nal probe by members of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. One arrest has already been made, and several more are anticipated during the next sev-eral weeks and months.

Several weeks ago, more than 300 law enforcement officers raided Noguez per-sonal office inside the Los Angeles County Hall of Administration, taking possession of several computers, cell phones, and box loads of potential evidence from several of those who participated in the meeting with Kriemann last Thursday.

Ground Broken for $65 Million Valley View Rail Grade ProjectBy Randy [email protected]

With trains lumbering in the background, officials from La Mirada and Santa Fe Springs of-

ficially broke ground on a new $65 Million street and rail improvement project that will forever eliminate traffic at the heavily travelled intersection of Valley View Av-enue and the BNSF main line track.

The area is directly on the border of both cities and on Tuesday [June 19], city council members, state transportation offi-cials and representatives from federal and state elected officials took ceremonial gold shovels and broke ground on the project that has been at least 10 years to develop.

“The grade separation project will fi-nally end traffic gridlock,” said Santa Fe Springs City Councilman Joseph Serrano.

The project was championed, coor-dinated and funded by both city govern-ments, the California Department of Trans-

Landscape AccessoriesOrdinance in Artesia AdoptedBy Rico Dizon

Aproposed Artesia ordinance seek-ing to regulate the installations of statues, sculptures, ornaments, and

other landscape accessories in the front and side yards of residences was adopted by the Artesia City Council during its reg-ular May 11 meeting.

During one of the public hearings, a City of Artesia resident Margaret Saito questioned why the City has to render judgment on the private lawns and yards of residences. People buy houses because they want independence and privacy in their properties, the lady resident said. On the air conditioning units as part of the proposed regulation, she said most home owners with air conditioning units on the front and side of the house have fixed in-comes and they cannot afford to have cen-tralized air conditioning in their homes

ABCUSD ADOPTS $160 MILLION BUDGETBy Jerry [email protected]

The ABC Board of Education ap-proved a $160.3 million budget for the fiscal year 2012-13 school year.

Chief Financial Officer Toan Nguyen said this is the fifth year the state is reducing educational funding. And until the econo-my recovers and the state balances its bud-get, education funding will not recover.

He said the budget incorporates $6,4 million in reductions that was approved by the Board at its June 6 meeting He said in this extremely challenging time, the bud-get is in full compliance with the State re-quirements, Los Angeles County Office of Education guidelines and the ABC Board of Education policy.

The District’s Reserve for Economic Uncertainties will be approximately $8.2 million above the required three percent level, with a total unrestricted reserve of about $13.7 million.

Nguyen said California is actually coming out of the recession slowly. The


Alarge cache of illegal fireworks was confiscated by the Norwalk Sheriff’s Department in what Captain Patrick

Maxwell called a “major threat to the com-munity.”

Los Cerritos Community Newspaper can confirm that Deputies at the Norwalk Sheriff’s Station conducted an investigation after getting a tip about “a large quantity of illegal fireworks” being stored in a public storage locker.

The incident took place at 11:30 on Tues-day morning.

Maxwell said Deputies contacted the site manager at the Extra Space Storage facility located at 10950 Firestone Boulevard and confirmed the storage unit in question was being rented by the individual being inves-tigated.

Deputy Corby Brown, a K-9 handler with the Transit Services Bureau’s bomb de-tection unit, responded to the location with an explosive detection K-9, a dog named

Wilson, and conducted a systematic search of the storage lockers.

During the search, K-9 Wilson alerted to the target locker and based on the informa-tion received during this investigation, cou-pled with the fact the explosive detection K-9 alerted to the storage locker in question,

Maxwell said “this storage locker con-tained explosives which presented an im-mediate threat to the community and caused exigent circumstances to enter the storage locker and render it safe.”


Dragon Race Festival Held by Cerri-tos Chinese American Seniors

The Cerritos Chinese-American Senior Citizens Association held its Dragon Boat Festival Luncheon and Art Exhibition June 23 at the Cerritos Senior Center honor-June 23 at the Cerritos Senior Center honor-June 23 at the Cerritos Senior Center honoring 12 special mothers and fathers ranging in age from 76 years old to 96 years. The

festival also featured demonstrations by art teachers and Cerritos Chinese school stu-dents.

The festival commemorates the death of poet Qu Yuan (c. 340–278 BCE) of the an-cient state of Chu during the Warring States Period of the Zhou Dynasty. A descendant of the Chu royal house, Qu served in high offices. However, when the king decided to ally with the increasingly powerful state of

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MORE THAN FOUR TONS OF ILLEGAL FIREWORKS SEIZED IN NORWALK PUBLIC STORAGE FACILITY

[See RAIL GRADE PROJECT page 8][See ABCUSD BUDGET page 8]

Dragon Race Festival Held by Cerritos Chinese American Seniors

Serving Cerritos, Artesia, Hawaiian Gardens, Norwalk, Lakewood, Pico Rivera, La Mirada, and La Palma • 45,000 HOMES EVERY FRIDAY • JUNE 22, 2012 • Volume 26, No.29 • LosCerritosNews.net

Noguez Employees Contributed Nearly $40K To 2010 Election EffortBy Randy [email protected]

Nearly 50 high ranking employees inside the Los Angeles County As-sessor’s Office have given a total

of nearly $40,000 in political contributions to the recently semi-departed Assessor John R. Noguez, Los Cerritos Community Newspaper is reporting on Wednesday.

Publisher Brian Hews said in a state-ment that it “is important to follow the political campaign cash” that has been poured into Noguez during the past de-cade as the nation’s largest elected prop-erty appraiser.”

“Our readers tell us that they want real transparency when it comes to political donations to our local elected officials,” Hews said in a statement. “The money be-ing passed around inside the Los Angeles

JERRY BERNSTEIN PHOTOJERRY BERNSTEIN PHOTO

Honorees were (seated) Jack Miao, 91; Peter Lu, 97; Lin Lin Lai, 96; Fan Chen-Kung, 85; Jin-Shan Shyrm 85; and Jy-Chyl Shyr, 77. In the back row are Cerritos Economic Development Commissioner Rosalinda Law; Sai Heng Cai, 81; Ming Lu Shu, 76; Yi-Lin Hsu, 77; Robert Chungpao Li, 72;Lillian Wang, 72; Former Mayor Laura Lee; CCASCA President Jim Chang; George Ray; Parks and Recreation Commissioner Cindy Yen Chen, and CCASCA Board member Katie Yen.

Ninety one boxes of commercial-grade fireworks, including bottle rockets, mortars and roman can-dles being hauled away by the LAFD.

[See DRAGON FESTIVAL page 10]

www.LosCerritosNews.net10 HEWS MEDIA GROUP • JUNE 29, 2012 TO ADVERTISE CALL 800-901-7211

Qin, Chu was banished for opposing the alli-ance; he was accused of treason. During his exile, Qu Yuan wrote a great deal of poetry, for which he is now remembered. Twenty-eight years later, Qin captured Yuan. In despair, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.

It is said the local people, who admired

him, dropped sticky rice triangles wrapped in bamboo leaves into the river to feed the fish. The rice was wrapped so that fish would not eat Qu Yuan's body and eat the rice instead. This is said to be the origin of Zongzi. The local people were also said to have paddled out on boats, either to scare the fish away or to retrieve his body. This is said to be the origin of dragon boat races,

Other stories about the origin of the Dragon Boat Races are also told, but this is one of the most popular about the origin of the races.


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562-926-9428


September 15-16, 2012September 15-16, 2012September 15-16, 2012







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ARTESIA ORDINANCEContinued from page 8

in Ennis clarified that the ordinance in discussion does not in any way intend to legislate landscape accessories in the front and side yards of residences but it simply is a matter of height regulation. He added the proposed ordinance has actually been a part of the municipal code but that it is just being put in another place. This ordinance by the Planning Commission has the same standard as the old code and it does not preclude the style and aesthetics in the in-stallation of statues and ornaments in the front and side yards but only seeks to regu-late the height of the ornament, explained the City Attorney.

Councilman Victor Manalo believed there really are no grave limitations on the ordinance. He stressed that air condi-tioning units not viewable from the street can stay as is and flag poles are not part of the regulation. Council member Miguel Canales pointed out safety as the primary reason behind the proposed ordinance. When ornament uses electricity then fire hazard becomes the concern of the City just as collisions may result on driveways obstructed by huge statues, he said.

The said ordinance in focus is more particularly known Ordinance No. 12-781(Code Amendment for Landscape Accessories). It establishes a definition for landscape accessories; regulates land-scape accessories in front and side yards of residential zoned properties in the agri-cultural single family (A-1), single family residential (R-1), medium density residen-tial (M-D-R), multiple family residential (M-R), and mixed commercial/single fam-ily residential (M-C-R) zones, and amends the Artesia Municipal Code.

The proposed ordinance or amend-ment in the City Code stemmed from re-

ports brought to the City Planning Staff’s attention that the proliferation of statues and ornamental sculptures are becoming a concern and potential nuisance to some residential neighborhoods in the City.

The Planning Staff undertook a survey of neighboring cities on landscape accesso-ries regulations that yielded only two cities (Cerritos and Long Beach) with landscape accessories regulations out of the five in-cluded in said survey. Notice of first pub-lic hearing was published in Los Cerritos Community News on January 13, 2012. Public hearings during Council meetings were subsequently held since then.

County Assessor’s office is emblematic of the pay-to-play practices that have become a daily ritual.”

“This just shows the inherent lack of policies and procedures and how every-thing is so interconnected, it reminds me of the Mordidas Bribary stories my mom (who was from Mexico) used to tell me,” said Hews.

Below is a list of the employees and the donation amount:

Peter G Andersen $500, Ronald A. Arison $1,000, Susan Bailey $200, Barry Bosscher $700, David S. Brehault $1,000, Janet Brehault $1,000, Steve Brown $100, Joseph Choi $100, Richard Castillo $600, Marcus De Laat $ 1,000, Meav Ear $500, Denny M. Estrada $1,100, Michael Flancer $ 1,000, Manuel Gallegos $800.

Also included is Milan M. Garcia $1,000; Kurt D. Gensicke $2,000; PN Gib-son $425; Eric Haagenson $1,000; Dale E Hammonds $200; Michael Hayes $1,400; Lito I Hugo $200; Paul Jones $1,100; Jon Kamayatsu $250; Jung Sung Kim $1,000; Teddy S. Kwong $1,000; Peter W. Lee $2,000; Robert L. Luther $200; Mark Mc-Neil $1,000; E. Kathleen Mc Watters $600; Perry Mittleman $600; Sharon Moeller $1,000; Essam W. Morcos $250; Veronica T. Moser $250; Rafael Naval $600; Luis Orendain Jr $1,000.

Donations were also made by Maria Parisi $500; Carol Wong Quan $ 200; Rob-ert Quan $1,000; George Renkei $1,000; Grace Roxas $600; Raymund Roxas $500; Scott Schenter $1,000; Jason Scholz $2,000; Christein M. Sciupac $1,000; Roger Wall; Lourdes Umali $500; Laura M. Winslow $250; Tammy Fun Yuen Yue $250 and David Zoraster $2,000.

Noguez is on a paid leave of absence and continues to collect his salary of near-ly $190,000 as law enforcement continues a massive criminal probe that focuses on “pay-to-play” allegations, fraud, embez-zlement, money laundering, and other pos-sible felonies.

Copyright 2012. Los Cerritos Community News. All Rights Reserved. 562 407-3873

NOGUEZ EMPLOYEESContinued from page 1

DRAGON FESTIVALContinued from page 1

With the closure of San Onofre Nu-clear Power Plant consumers can expect possible ‘rotating outages

this summer, stated Connie Turner, Southern California Public Affairs Regional Manager. Speaking before the Cerritos Optimist Club at its June 21 meeting, she said the power plant is slated to stay closed down at least un-til the end of the year. “It won’t reopen until Edison knows it is safe to operate.”

Responding to a question how the plants closure will effect the consumer this summer, she said, “We are losing 2,200 mega watts a day and a normal hot summer is predicted for this year.” She warned to expect possible energy blackouts or rotating outages.

Turner said “We are going to need to save energy. It just common sense.” She said this will include simple things like turn-ing off lights in empty rooms or if no one is watching television turn it off, and the use of energy efficient bulbs.

She said Southern California Edison has

many energy saving assistant programs. If a qualified customer, for example, has a work-qualified customer, for example, has a work-qualified customer, for example, has a working air conditioning unit he/she can receive a replacement, energy-efficient central or room air conditioner, or an energy-efficient evaporation cooler also called a “swamp cooler.” She said older refrigerators can be replaced through Edison’s Energy Saving Assistance Program with free Energy Star-models replacing the old refrigerator. In ad-dition Edison will remove the old refrigera-tor at no cost.

Other programs available include dis-count rate programs that are available to all households, the Energy Assistant Fund, which she explained helps qualified custom-ers in financial hardship with electric bills. Edison also has a Medical Baseline Allo-cation which allocates additional kilowatt hours at the lowest rates possible.

For more information about an energy savings assistance program, call 1-800 736-4777.

Guest speaker at the Cerritos Optimist meeting June 21 was Southern California Edison Public Affairs Regional Manager Connie Turner. Presenting her with an Optimist memento are Optimist Program Chairman for the Day Don Brown and Club President Wayne Switzer. The club meets at 7 a.m. on the first, second and fourth Thursday at the Off Street Café across from Gahr High School and on the third Thursday at 7 p.m.

Consumers Urged to Conserve Energy this Summer

The 17th running of the Wienerschnit-zel Wiener Nationals will be held at Los Alamitos Race Course on Satur-Los Alamitos Race Course on Satur-Los Alamitos Race Course on Satur

day, July 14, 2011, with proceeds to benefit the Seal Beach Animal Care Center. The Care Center is a non-profit group dedicated to finding home for stray animals in the Or-to finding home for stray animals in the Or-to finding home for stray animals in the Orange County area.

The Wienerschnitzel Wiener National festivities will get underway at approxi-mately 6 p.m. The fun will also include a live horse racing program featuring Los Alamitos’ top horses. The Wiener Nationals Championship race will be held at approxi-mately 9 p.m. With over 80 dachshunds strut-ting their stuff in front of a packed house at Los Alamitos, a total of 10 trial heats will be contested at 50 yards with the winning wie-ners advancing to the championship race.

The purpose of this fun event is to raise funds for the Seal Beach Animal Care Cen-ter, a non-profit group dedicated to find-ing homes for stray animals in the Orange County area. Last year's event raised $18,000

through ticket sales and t-shirt sales on the day of the event. For more information on the Care Center please call (562) 430-4993.

In addition, tickets can also be purchased on the day of the event at Los Alamitos Race Course on a first come first seat basis. Ad-mission at the track is $3 for adults; Chil-dren 17 and under are free. General parking is free. Los Alamitos Race Course is located at 4961 Katella Avenue in Los Alamitos. For more info call 714-820-2690.

17th Annual Wienerschnitzel Wiener Nationals Set For Saturday, July 14 At Los Alamitos


The Cerritos City Council approved a Planning Commission recom-mendation to remodel the existing

buildings of the Fountain Plaza Shopping Center and replace a two-story office/re-tail structure that was destroyed by fire

with a new two-story building. Cerritos Current Planning Manager Robert Lopez said the architects Perkowitz & Ruth also plan to refurbish and upgrade the existing fountain landscaping; make improvements to the vehicular and pedestrian circulation in the center.

Lopez said the property was first de-

[See FOUNTAIN PLAZA CENTER page 8]

[See PROPERTY TAX REDUCTION page 10]

HEWS MEDIA GROUP

COMMUNITYNEWSCOMMUNITYNEWSCOMMUNITYCOMMUNITYNEWSServing Cerritos, Artesia, Hawaiian Gardens, Norwalk, Lakewood, Pico Rivera, La Mirada, and La Palma • 45,000 HOMES EVERY FRIDAY • JULY 27, 2012 • Volume 27, No.31 • LosCerritosNews.net

Fill The Boot Campaign Raises Money for MDAOPINION

Shooting the MessengerBy Brian [email protected]

During the Cerritos City Council meeting June 28, the council de-bated the $119 million city budget.

Councilman Pulido led off, talked about tree cutting, and mentioned how he want-ed to restore funding to keep Sky Knight, which was cut out of the budget.

Sky Knight is the helicopter service that assists our Cerritos Sheriffs. Only Cerritos and Hawaiian Gardens use this service, Lakewood is deciding. No other cities in the area use this service; they use the free LA Sheriff’s helicopter service.

Fast forward to closing comments. Bar-rows led off (unusually out of turn) and re-viewed big picture expenses, those “they can address easily”: the Water subsidy ($1.5 million); Sheriff’s budget ($11.5 mil-lion); the Power-plant ($3 million expense). This can be seen on the Cerritos website under Council Meetings, June 28, time stamp 1:04:15.

It was then that Barrows initiated his

ABC Joins Collaborative Program with Tri City Medical Center to Fight ObesityBy Jerry [email protected]

Child Obesity is now considered a na-tionwide problem. Recognizing this the ABC School Board approved a

resolution at its July 17 meeting creating a collaborative program to address childhood obesity in Hawaiian Gardens. with Tri City Regional Medical Center and the City of Ha-waii Gardens

The program called “Activate Hawai-ian Gardens, “will engage local school-age children, parents, caregivers, teachers, phy-sicians and other community stakeholders in an obesity-reduction initiative.

Superintendent Dr. Mary Sieu said the goals of “Activate Hawaiian Gardens” in-clude a collaborative effort of school and

HAWAIIAN GARDENS ACCUSED OF VIOLATING BROWN ACTBy Jerry [email protected]

In what could be a prelude to next year’s council race to fill three seats that are up for re-election, Pete Schnaufer,

Business Agent for the employees’ union, AFSCME, accused the city council of vio-lating the Brown Act at the July 24 meet-ing.

He accused the council of authorizing City Manager Enesto Marquez to petition the State’s Public Employment Relation Board making the positions of Human Resource Manager and Assistant City Ad-ministrator non-union positions. “It was never on a council agenda, which is a vio-lation of the Brown Act.

In a brief interview with LCCN, Schnaufer said if the City Administrator made the request without approval of the

BP Global Received $1 Billion in Property Tax Reductions Under NoguezBy Randy Economy and Brian Hews

One of the world's largest oil pro-ducers, BP (formerly British Pe-troleum), received more than $1

billion worth of property tax reductions during the tenure of embattled Los An-geles County Assessor John R. Noguez, Los Cerritos Community Newspaper has learned.

British Petroleum, who owns and oversees a massive operation throughout Los Angeles County, had a major parcel slashed during a two year period between 2009 and 2011. BP Oil was represented by Attorney and Tax Agent Richard Ayoob.

Ayoob and his family have been major political contributors to Noguez political campaigns during his successful run for Los Angeles County Assessor in 2010.

The property listed is Parcel # 7315-

[See H.G. BROWN ACT page 8]

[See SHOOTING THE MESSENGER page 10]

[See ACTIVATE H.G. page 10]

Members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department here in Cerritos, Artesia and surrounding areas participated in the annual “Fill The Boot” program at local intersections to help raise funds and awareness for the Muscular Dys-

trophy Association. This is one of the most popular events in the community each and every year and several motorists chipped in to help the annual campaign.

Fountain Plaza Center to get Remake with Reconstruction of Destroyed Building

Rendering of proposed two-story retail/office building at 11440-22520 South Street in the Fountain Plaza Shopping Center, The new structure will replace a demolished fire-damaged two-story building.

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calculated and orchestrated (with the coun-cil) political payback scheme to intention-ally inflict financial damage on LCCN. The reason, Shoot the Messenger: LCCN writing about his battery charge (P.C. 242) against Jay Gray, a story Barrows called a complete lie but one we all now know is true. Following is a chronological order of the meeting with timestamps in parenthe-ses. You can view the meeting online at the city’s website and judge for yourself.

Barrows talked about $16 million in expenses (at 1:06:40) and suddenly began talking about the $250,000 city print ad-vertising budget (which is .0025% of the overall budget). He talked about “how it is duplicated, how there is no evidence of ben-efits to the city”. One high-ranking staffer at the meeting told LCCN, “that came out of left field we did not know where he (Bar-of left field we did not know where he (Bar-of left field we did not know where he (Barrows) was coming from.”

Barrows then pointed to Pulido and said “…Mark this is to address your Sky Knight issue…. I would like to have the council eliminate the city print advertising from the budget.” At (1:08:05) Barrows said if you (Council) do not vote to eliminate the city’s print advertising budget, I will not vote for Sky Knight, his direct quote, “ if we do that (cut advertising) I will vote to restore funding for Sky Night because that is where the money should come from.”

Next to speak was Councilwomen Chen (1:14:35). Chen spoke for eight min-utes about how Cerritos staff did a great job of streamlining the budget, and need-ing to find new revenue streams. At 1:22: 11, like Barrows and Pulido, she abruptly started talking about the .0025 % advertis-ing budget and how we should “cut print advertising and move to online sources.”

After Chen finished, Pulido talked about $2.5 million employees cost and (at 1:25:15) again abruptly asked about the print advertising budget and “thanked Cho and Barrows for bringing up the print ad-vertising cut to cover Sky Knight.”

Pulido asked (at 1:29:00) what the im-pact of the print advertising cut would be on the CCPA ticket sales.

CCPA Executive Director Dianne Cheney (at 1:32:42) said, “we used to get 60-70% of our ticket sales from the first two brochures, but that has changed sub-stantially. People are buying tickets closer to the event date. We also get advanced coverage in newspapers with previews and interviews, that helps too”. Pulido thanked Ms. Cheney (at 1:39:25) and inexplicably said, “….it sounds like the brochure is the main vehicle for ticket sales, all additional advertising is a bonus.” This is minutes af-advertising is a bonus.” This is minutes af-advertising is a bonus.” This is minutes after Ms. Cheney told Pulido that brochure sales have dropped “significantly”. Selec-tive hearing on Pulido’s part.

Pulido went on to say “I would rather support the pleasure of my colleagues and restore Sky Knight…like to make the mo-tion to reinstate the budget…if it comes specifically from print advertising I am fa-vorable to that”.

Barrows again chimed in and for the

second time (at 1:42:05) said, “ if we don’t do it (cut the print advertising budget) I won’t vote to reinstate Sky Knight. Pulido then (at 1:44:34) made a motion, “…to re-store $220,000 to fund Sky Knight with $220,000 coming out of city advertising funds inclusive of the CCPA”. Barrows is heard correcting Mark to “make sure it was from city advertising”. Pulido went on, “I am open to cut advertising dollars to re-store Sky Knight”.

Immediately after that Mayor Edwards (who never debated the topic but voted yes anyway) brought the motion to the floor. Barrows did not let Edwards get the word second out before he seconded it, and the council voted 5-0.

This is shameless political payback of the worst kind, trying to stamp out free-dom of the press. The $220,000 is .0025% of the budget; yet the entire council singled out that part of the budget, debated it for 20 minutes (out of 90 minutes), and voted to specifically cut city print advertising. Even if it hurt ticket sales of the CCPA. Barrows, the obvious ringleader, said three times that I will not pass the budget unless we cut the city print advertising budget, that is verbatim.

So loyal LCCN readers, here is a coun-cilperson who committed battery on a resi-dent, who called this paper a liar (when it was true), who then orchestrated a payback scheme to injure the paper financially, and proceeded to hold the budget hostage until the entire council voted to “cut print ad-vertising” (in his own words). Councilman Cho commented at the meeting “why are we talking about such small items when we have bigger things to talk about.” Wonder indeed.

community leaders to reverse the problem of obesity among Hawaiian Gardens' children.

Jay Geer, Tri City representative, told the Board that one-third of all U.S. adults and 17 percent of children are obese. In Hawaiian Gardens, he said the child obesity rate is 32.9 percent and climbing. “Obesity is now clas-sified as a public health medical emergency in every community in the country,” he stat-ed. “”The health effects of obesity can bring on premature death, diabetes, heart disease and overall health problems generation after generation.”

Geer noted the city has expanded exercise programs, improved on-site diet choices and encouraged more activity among children and youth. He also applauded ABC’s part-nership with many national and local pro-grams to address children obesity. However, he said no single effort works alone. Schools, home, community, childcare and health care delivery systems all need to integrate into a comprehensive continuum of care to achieve success. “Single solutions are ineffective.”

“There is a necessity to organize special educational programs for preschool and kin-dergarten kids. Special pilot programs with Aloha, Hawaiian, Melbourne, Furgeson and/or preschools, churches and afternoon pro-grams will be formulated with the goal of re-

versing the “staggering” problem of obesity among Hawaiian Gardens children.

Dr. Sieu said “Activate Hawaiian Gar-dens” would be launched during the 2012-13 school year.”

For more information on the program contact Alexander Khananashvil at 562-303-110 or [email protected].

In other business the school bard ap-proved an agreement with John Wesley County Hospital Institute, Inc. to submit a grant application to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the amount of $350,000. The district’s portion of the grant will be $250,000.

The grant, if approved, the District will use its share of the grant to renovate and expand the Fedde International Academy’s Community Resource Center, adding three examination rooms, a waiting room, nurses station, lab and two offices for mental health counselors. Upon completion JWCH will provide primary pediatric care to members of the community. The Grant is part of the Health/Behavioral Health Center funded by the Mental Health Services Act.

The Board also approved a request to submit an application for the U.S. Center for Disease Control’s and a Small Community Transformation Grant in the amount of $1.3 million. Purpose of the Grant is to prevent heart attack, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and other chronic diseases through a variety of community based policies, programs and interventions to promote healthier lifestyles. These include tobacco-free living, active liv-ing and healthy eating, quality clinical and preventative services, social and emotional wellness, and healthy and safe physical en-vironment.

for the construction portion of the project is $300,000. Funding for this portion of the project

has been earmarked from a reimburse-ment of maintenance and servicing the City

recently received as part of the Safe Neighborhood Parks Propositions of

1992 and 1996.In other business the council approved

a recommendation from Community and Safety Services discounting Green Fees for veterans on Veteran’s Day, Sept. 11, at Cerritos Iron-Wood Nine Golf Course. The issue was brought forth by a resident who became aware of a similar program offered at golf courses operated by the Los Angeles County

Recreation Services Superintendent Sherre Titus said the Parks and Recreation Commission voted unanimously voted for the discount. Currently the fee for resi-dents is $10.50, non-residents pay $12.50. The proposed Discount Rate for residents will be $5.25 and for non-residents $6.25.

The Council also concurred with the League of California Cities in support of SB 1987 prohibiting junk dealers and re-cyclers from possessing manhole covers, backflow devices and fire hydrants with-

FOUNTAIN PLAZA CENTERContinued from page 8

out written certification from the owner of the material. The bill would relieve junk dealers recyclers from the responsibility of determining whether or not any of the three items in question are stolen since the items would no longer be eligible for recy-cling without proper certification. Failure to comply with this provision is a criminal fine of up to $3,000.

Staff was instructed to write a letter in support of the bill to Assembly Appropria-tion Committee, Senator Emerson who in-troduced the bill, and our representatives in the Assembly and Senate.

006-003 which had a roll value of $1.230, 648,353. It was reduced to $775,565,000, a decline of 36%. The same property had a 2002 Roll Value of $1,219,140,634 and it was reduced down again to $994,168,046, a decline of 18%. It was slashed a third time in the summer of 2011 from $1,091,314,986 to $112,024,675 , an astounding decline of 89%.

“The Assessor’s Office and the Assess-ment Appeals Board heard the cases argued by Ayoob and had six months to appeal the ruling but decided not to,” one source told Los Cerritos Community Newspaper on the condition of anonymity.

Ayoob refused comment to LCCN on Wednesday. LCCN Publisher Brian Hews also contacted Ayoob via email to get his comments on the over $1 billon reduction in assessed value, but the request went un-answered.

LCCN can also confirm that two of Noguez top lieutenants Mark McNeil, ex-Chief of Major Appraisals and his supervi-sor Eric Haagenson directed the reduction under Noguez. Noguez is out on a paid leave of absence, and McNeil and Haagen-son have been suspended from their tax-payer paid jobs recently.

Ayoob, a native of Southern California, joined the firm of Ajalat, Polley, Ayoob & Matarese in 1981. He became a partner in the firm in 1985.

On his company website he touts that he “represents many of the world’s largest companies including Wal-Mart and Exxon Mobil.”

Ayoob also boasts that he “recently re-solved a property tax matter resulting in what we believe is the largest property tax refund in Los Angeles County history.”

Ayoob and his partners are located in Glendale and lists an influential list of cli-ents ranging from BP/AMOCO, EXXON Mobil, the Los Angeles Times, Occidental Petroleum Corporation, to the Walt Disney Company and Warner Brothers Studio.

PROPERTY TAX REDUCTIONContinued from page 1

noguez articles-r

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