As we approach the next Upland City Council Meeting scheduled for Tuesday, May 28th, which starts at 7:00 PM at 406 N Euclid Ave in Downtown, Upland, there is so much you need to know. If you have any interest in keeping 5G cellphone antennas from being installed on every street light in your neighborhood and only 20 feet from your bedroom windows, please keep reading. In fact, reading may no longer be good enough because at this next Upland City Council Meeting on 5/28, if the residents of Upland don’t show up and demand that our Upland City Council Members protect us, then our unscrupulous city attorney is going to talk them into signing a new law that gives away every single bit of power they have and that we have, to protect ourselves and our private property rights. Also in this report, if you think millionaires should NOT be awarded free HUD Grant Money by the City of Upland,which is earmarked for slum elimination in Downtown Upland, which is used to renovate properties for FREE, then keep reading. As the NEW Upland City Council just agreed with you and did some truly amazing things about it. The fact is, 70% of all HUD Grant Money that Upland receives is earmarked to assist low income individuals, as well as, earmarked to create job opportunities, for low income individuals.
HEY ROBERT DALQUEST, WHERE’S THE MILL VALLEY 5G ORDINANCE?????”
Let’s call our new Upland Development Services Director Robert Dalquest at 909-931-4305 and ask him why he has NOT followed the city council’s directive from May 13th, which were firm instructions that were recorded in the meeting minutes below, to bring back a restrictive 5G Ordinance like the Mill Valley Ordnance that prohibits 5G cellphone antennas in all residential areas.
If you don’t want 5G cellphone antennas outside your bedroom windows, please attend the May 28th Upland City Council Meeting and sign up to speak by filling out a pink speaker card and handing it over to Upland City Clerk Keri Johnson, at the beginning of the meeting. If you can’t attend the meeting, you can live stream the meeting on Tuesday at 7 PM, HERE! Residents can get 2 speaker cards from Keri who is pictured below. Keri has blonde hair and sits at a desk facing the council dais towards the front of the room on the left hand side.
Fortunately, this makes Keri very easy to spot if you’ve never attended a council meeting before. On one speaker card, write Agenda Item 11B and your name. That will allow you to speak for 3 minutes at the beginning of the meeting about the horrible 5G deployment ordinance going for a VOTE on Tuesday night and its immediately implementation, if it passes. On the second speaker card write Agenda Item 12B and your name, which will allow to speak for 5 minutes during a Public Hearing about the fees Upland will charge if Agenda Item 11B passes, where 5G cellphone antennas will be installed citywide, on our existing city street lights and utility poles.
Tuesday’s City Council Meeting Will Be Held At 406 N Euclid Ave At Upland City Hall @ 7 PM!
I have called Robert Dalquest’s office 6 times on Thursday, May 23rd, after reading the City Council Meeting Agenda for Tuesday, May 28th. I left multiple messages with his assistant Jamie, trying to get Dalquest to return my phone calls before he left city hall for his 4 day weekend. You can also call Robert “Bob” Dalquest at 909-931-4305 and leave him a message asking, WHERE’S THE MILL VALLEY ORDINANCE? I can assure everyone reading this, that everyone who attended or who watched the Monday, May 13th, Upland City Council Meeting, fully expected to find the Mill Valley Ordinance in the agenda packet for their upcoming meeting, on Tuesday, May 28th! Let’s roll the tape to refresh our memories, shall we!
THE INSTRUCTIONS FROM CITY COUNCIL WERE,“BRING BACK A MILL VALLEY TYPE ORDINANCE!”
Let’s just briefly touch on the known negative health effects of non-thermal wireless radiation and the international avalanche of medical and scientific peer-reviewed studies, proving that non-thermal radiation is harmful to human beings. A small sampling of these studies include 3,600 recent medical & scientific studies which were delivered to the United Nations in 2015, by authors from ten countries, holding medical degrees (MDs), PhDs, as well as, MsC, MA or MPHs.
But to fast track our education, a great place to start is with the work of Dr. Martin Pall, Professor Emeritus at the School of Molecular Bio-Sciences at Washington State University and author of numerous scientific papers. Dr. Pall’s research regarding non-thermal radiation being the cause of autism, Alzheimer & sterility, where he fears reproduction could go to zero, is impeccable. Dr. Martin Pall is the preeminent genius of our time and is so highly revered and esteemed in academic circles worldwide.
Even Newsweek has reported on what they called the ENVIRONMENTAL CASTRATION CRISIS AFFECTING US MALE FERTILITY. They accurately reported, “Some scientists have theorized that electromagnetic fields from devices like cellphones could degrade semen quality, leading to weak and immobile sperm.” But not only have scientists theorized that, Molecular Bio-Scientist Dr. Martin Pall has conclusively proved this and worse, he proved it caused total sterility in mice in less than 5 months, at levels far below our current safety standards. In addition, Dr. Pall’s discovery of the exact catastrophic cellular process which is causing the biological harm and is triggered, within 5 seconds of our being exposed to non-thermal radiation, is sobering.
The documentary Generation Zapped, features the very important work of Dr. Martin Pall and explains what we are doing to a generation of our children, by allowing them to be exposed to non-thermal radiation around the clock. The trailer is below and the full documentary which was released early this year, can be viewed here. Having followed Dr. Pall’s work for more than two years and having devoted an entire page to his research on another site, I was most pleased to see him in this film. Plus, this interview with the film’s Silicon Valley Director, which also highlights Dr. Pall’s ground breaking research, is excellent.
The documentary also features Dr. Ernesto Burgio MD, PhD, Dr. Dominique Belpomme MD, Dr. David Carpenter MD, Dr. Victoria L. Dunckley MD, Dr. Lennart Hardell MD, PhD, Dr. Martha Herbert MD, PhD, Dr. Erica Mallery-Blythe MD, Dr. John West MD, Dr. Martin Blank PhD, Dr. Igor Belyaev PhD, Dr. George Carlo PhD, JD, Dr. Magda Havas PhD, Dr. Olle Johansson PhD, Dr. Joel Moskowitz PhD and Dr. Jonathan Samet MD, MS. There is such a preponderance of evidence of harm that 12 counties and counting, have all enacted very strict new national laws and standards to protect their children from non-thermal radiation exposure. They include France, Belgium, Spain, Israel, Australia, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, India, Finland and Cyprus.
Even the California Department of Health, ARTICLE LINKED HERE, Issues Warnings About Cellphones Citing Brain Tumors, Sterility, Insomnia, Headaches, Memory Loss, Etc. In addition, Here is a LINK to a US Naval Medical Research Institute Report from 1971, showing 127 negative health effects from non-thermal radiation exposure including death! The report cites 2,300 scientific studies that prove biological harm and for over 48 years, our Government has never told the public! Why Not is the question to be asking ourselves right now. The answer was found through the Freedom of Information Act, in a US Defense Intelligence Agency Document, which confirmed the findings of the Naval Medical Research institute’s Report above.
Despite those medical findings of fact, the US Defense Intelligence Agency Document went on to state: “If the more advanced nations of the west are strict in enforcement of stringent exposure standards, there could be unfavorable effects on industrial output and military functions.” Here is a link to the Legal Declaration of Dr. Barrie Trower – A Microwave Warfare Specialist during the Cold War, who explains this history in great detail. Should the health effects of non-thermal radiation exposure be of interest to you, the second half of this report and this report, have much more on the subject. Finally, this is an outstanding article which explains how 5G works and what 5G is. Now let’s move on so we can get to the meat and potatoes in this report.
Our Upland City Council Members could not have been more clear! All five of them voted on May 13th, to direct their staff to bring back a Mill Valley Type of Ordinance for the City of Upland, so that it can be adopted by the city council. In addition, over 300 Upland residents have signed a petition asking our city council to adopt the Mill Valley 5G Ordinance because it protects us, from having cellphone antennas installed on the light poles outside of our bedroom windows. Also on Monday, May 13th, dozens of Upland residents were emailing our Upland City Council Members, when they become aware that an inferior and frankly horrible ordinance in comparison to the Mill Valley Ordinance, which does absolutely nothing to protect anyone in Upland, was on their agenda for adoption on May, 13th.
WHO IN UPLAND, WANTS TO WAKE UP AND FIND THIS INSTALLED ON THE LIGHT OR UTILITY POLE OUTSIDE THEIR HOMES?
SEND UPLAND CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS AN EMAIL IN 10 SECONDS, HERE!
Yet, here we are go again walking into the very next Upland City Council Meeting on Tuesday, May 28th, with no Mill Valley Ordinance for our council to review / adopt and the only ordinance on the Agenda for Item 11B, is the most permissive 5G deployment ordinance imaginable! I am seriously to pissed off at the present moment to explain how the placement of this MAJOR NEW LAW in the Consent Calendar is so totally disingenuous, that it could even be deemed deceptive trade practices and even fraud, if legally challenged by anyone. I will circle back to explain the Consent Calendar further down, so please keep reading. Item 11B below, is the exact same lame duck, permissive ordinance from May 13th, which allows a literal 5G cellphone antenna installation FREE-FOR-ALL to occur, in all zoning districts including residential. That horrible ordinance is worlds apart from anything even remotely resembling the Mill Valley Ordinance. That inferior and totally defunct ordinance, is now set for immediate adoption on May 28th and will become effective immediately on May 28th, if it passes on Tuesday.
Since this is the harsh reality of the situation we are facing, we have started a second mass email campaign to our Upland City Council Members. If you already added your name and email address to the first letter from May 13th, thank you VERY MUCH! This 2nd letter was written on May 25th and is totally different from the 1st letter. If you sent the 1st letter, please also now send the 2nd letter too, linked HERE! The 2nd letter is based on the upcoming Tuesday, May 28th, Upland City Council Meeting Agenda. I implore everyone reading this to PLEASE SPEND ONLY 10 SECONDS to type your name and email address into this very detailed form letter linked, HERE. Once you click SUBMIT, the letter with your name and email address on it, will be emailed to your Upland City Council Members on your behalf. The letter asks our city council to NOT VOTE to approve their Consent Calendar with Item 11B, on it.
The letter asks our city council to ADOPT only the Mill Valley Ordinance because adopting anything less restrictive, creates legal standing, creates a legal precedent, creates a grandfathering exemption of all nonconforming 5G cellphone antennas which will be deployed citywide, where countless installations will be in direct conflict with the Mill Valley Ordinance if ever adopted. The letter informs our city council that the urgency ordinance they just adopted on May 13th, in their good faith effort to protect us from this exact unbridled 5G deployment, is in full effect for 45 days. In addition, our council can extend that urgency ordinance for another 10 months and 15 days, which gives them one full year from May 13th,to DEMAND that their city staff, bring them a Mill Valley Ordinance to adopt, which council already requested on May 13th!
The only way the May 13th urgency ordinance gets terminated, is if our city council votes to approve Item 11B on Tuesday, May 28th. If Item 11B passes, it replaces and nullifies the urgency ordinance effectively immediately. Our city council then loses their existing legal protection to fast track policy and prevent all nonconforming uses from being permitted, while they seek the eventually adoption of the Mill Valley Ordinance. The existing urgency ordinance in effect since May 13th, provides council with the only vehicle to prohibit any uses that would be in direct conflict with their contemplated proposed zoning ordinance, if down the road they adopt the Mill Valley Ordinance, which also prohibits those certain uses.
Should council pass Item 11B on Tuesday, May 28th, then 5G deployment commences in Upland with no required zoning setbacks to protect residential homes. Plus, the wireless carriers will have legal standing and will have a grandfathered exemption from having to comply with any replacement ordinances passed in the future, for all of their existing installations to date. It will be absolutely impossible to ever have any 5G cellphone antennas having previously been installed or permitting up until that point, removed, once deployed in our residential areas.
And our City Attorney James Markman knows this. Our Development Services Director Robert Dalquest, knows this. Having served on a County Planning Board and having authored multiple county ordinances in the past, I know this. Now I am going to publish this, to make sure our Upland City Council Members now know this too, before their next meeting on Tuesday, May 28th. I am absolutely astounded that our city staff is pushing our city council so hard, trying to get them to approve such an inferior ordinance again on May 28th. Especially since our city council has asked them for the Mill Valley Ordinance instead.
I am utterly appalled that our city staff has NOT followed our city council’s directive, which was to bring back a Mill Valley Type Ordinance. In my humble opinion, our city staff is directly misleading our Upland City Council Members and I for one, am absolutely sick to death of watching this happen, again and again! I am going to plant a seed here and state the obvious, it may be way past time to terminate our City Attorney James Markman, who I believe has never been working for our new Upland City Council, EVER!
There is no reason in the world, our Upland City Council Members can’t direct Dalquest and Markman on Tuesday night, to amend their existing urgency ordinance on the spot by adding the following language below. The below, is completely consistent with the Mill Valley Ordinance and corrects the glaring deficiencies in the city’s jack leg ordinance. If Markman will NOT agree to add the verbiage below to his existing document, then he should be fired on the spot on Tuesday, May 28th. Our city council can instruct him on Tuesday to pick up a pen and start writing these changes by hand, onto the face of his existing document.
First of all; THE MUNICIPAL CODE SECTION OF MARKMAN’S URGENCY ORDINANCE & SMALL CELL WIRELESS FACILITIES ORDINANCE NEEDS TO CHANGED! AS MARKMAN IS CHANGING THE WRONG SECTION OF THE UPLAND MUNICIPAL CODE!
Currently and since at least February of 2018, Upland has been issuing right-of-way and construction permits for 5G deployment through their Public Works Department only. That is exactly what we are trying to STOP as fully explained in this Upland Report from April 27, 2019. This practice requires no Upland Planning Commission vote, review, oversight, nor approvals. No public hearings, no due-process, no zoning set-backs, no zoning restrictions, no public notifications, no nothing.
The section of the Upland Municipal Code (5.36.190) that Markman is changing now in his ridiculous documents, allows all of the above to continue and become the existing law, so that nothing changes. Therefore SECTION 5.36.190 TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICE PROVIDED BY TELEPHONE CORPORATIONS needs to be stricken from all documents and changed to AMENDING SECTION 17.40.050 PERMITS REQUIRED FOR TELECOMMUNICATION FACILITIES!
Then the following additions below (which are identical to Mill Valley) need to added to amend Section 17.40.050 to now include the permitting, zoning requirements, classifications and restrictions for the new 5G small cell telecommunications facilities.
- Amend Upland Municipal Code Section 17.40.030 – Definitions to include Small Cell Telecommunications Wireless Facilities.
- Amend Upland Municipal Code Section 17.40.050 – Permitted Zones and Permits Required to include Small Cell Telecommunications Wireless Facilities.
- Small Cell Wireless Telecommunications Wireless Facilities are prohibited in all residential zones and shall be set back more than 1,500 feet away from the property line of an existing residential use or home.
- A Conditional Use Permit is required for all Small Cell Wireless Telecommunications Facilities located or modified within the City on any property, including the public right-of-way.
- Each pole mounted Small Cell Wireless Telecommunications Facility must be separated by at least 1,500 feet. (This refers to when small cell are permitted in mixed use, commercial, industrial and special purpose zones, as depicted in the table below.)
- No Small Cell Wireless Telecommunications Facility shall be installed or maintained pursuant to a blanket permit.
Add the table below to Section 17.40.050 – Permitted Zones and Permits Required For Small Cell Wireless Telecommunications Facilities.
That wasn’t so hard and should be a piece of cake for any city planner or city attorney working for our city council and NOT working against them. Please make no mistake, Markman knows all of the above and is still choosing NOT to amend the correct section of our municipal code. Markman’s ordinance is piece of toilet paper and needs to be trashed! This is why “staff” has stuck this item into the Council’s Consent Calendar, where no council members can talk about it, determine what is wrong with it and are being asked by staff to approve it together, with 4 totally unrelated items! This is a freaking sick joke and an insult to the intelligence of the general public and our council members. If I were on Upland City Council I would tell James Markman to excuse himself to flush that ordinance down the toilet and them put himself, on a closed session meeting agenda for an immediate performance elevation!
Since all of is going down on Tuesday and about to become immediately effective, let’s go one step further than just calling Upland Development Services Director Robert Dalquest. Let’s also start calling our City Attorney James Markman at 714-990-0901 to inquire about WHERE’S THE MILL VALLEY ORDINANCE?????? As Markman on May 13th, promised to bring back the Mill Valley Ordinance that our city council requested, immediately! He has no intention of ever changing Section 17.40.050 regarding the permits required for telecommunication facilities, which establish what zoning districts telecommunication facilities can be permitted in and what districts they CAN’T be permitted in. Section 17.40.050 also mandates what permits are required when an applicant is trying to construct cellphone antennas in the City of Upland. Markman is bamboozling our Upland City Council Members regarding this and he is now acting like a draft dodger, in my humble opinion!
JIM & STEVE, WHERE’S THE MILL VALLEY ORDINANCE???????
Our Upland City Council Members very wisely instructed their city staff to bring them back a 5G small cell telecommunication ordinance, like the City of Mill Valley, California, where no 5G cellphone antennas are allowed in any residential regions, PERIOD! I can not commend nor praise enough our new Upland City Council for making this firm directive to their city staff two weeks ago and I thank them very much for doing that! Adopting the Mill Valley Ordinance for City of Upland, would also cause the permitting process to revert back to the former authority of our Upland Planning Commission. Instead, the proposed ordinance being VOTED on for immediate adoption on Tuesday 5/28th, allows our Upland Public Works Department to issue right-of-way construction permits for 5G deployment, with no public hearings, no due process and no zoning restrictions.
Unfortunately, our city staff is NOT listening to them and it’s about to get much worse, so please buckle up. This second attempt to have our council adopt the totally wrong ordinance on May 28th AGAIN, is now hidden in the Council’s Consent Calendar, where there is no council discussion and where several unrelated routine items, are all voted on together in one lump sum. This causes everything on the entire Consent Calendar, to all pass together, in one single roll call vote! The only way to prevent this from happening on May 28th, is if one of our city council members, requests to REMOVE Item 11B from their Consent Calendar!
The deliberate placement of this MAJOR & HIGHLY CONTROVERSIAL BRAND NEW CITYWIDE LAW, being added the Council’s Consent Calendar, is very troubling. The Consent Calendar is ONLY for the most routine and mundane general housekeeping procedures, when our city council needs to approve a large lump of unrelated items together and fast. NO SEPARATE DISCUSSION BY THE COUNCIL OF ANY SINGLE ITEM IS PERMITTED! The Meeting Agenda for Tuesday, May 28th, describes the Consent Calendar as, “All matters on the Consent Calendar are considered routine and will be enacted by one roll call vote. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless members of the legislative body request items be removed from the Consent Calendar for separate action.”
Yet, someone at Upland City Hall decided to place our city’s new 5G small cell telecommunications ordinance, which is absolutely terrible and certainly NOT a “routine issue” and looped it together with several other unrelated basic housekeeping items, which requires no discussion AT ALL, by our Upland City Council Members. The Consent Calendar for Tuesday, May 28th, where our city council will be voting only one time, which approves all of the items listed below together, is simply insane. Three of the items are appropriate for the Consent Calendar and are very mundane and certainly warrant no council discussion. For someone at city hall to have included this new 5G telecommunications ordinance on this list, to me, would be grounds for termination. The person who thought it would be appropriate for our new Upland City Council Members to have to sit there and not discuss this MAJOR new ordinance and then, have to approve it along with 3 other items, is NOT working for our city council, they are working directly against them.
If the Consent Calendar is passed as written on Tuesday, May 28th, all of the below becomes effective immediately with one vote and no discussion. Try to wrap your head around how totally insane this is.
- #1. Approve the minutes from the May 13th Upland City Council Meeting, which is clearly a routine item.
- #2. Enter into a temporary employment contract with AccountTemps to provide temporary accounting services to the Finance Department to help with their staffing needs, which is clearly a routine business item.
- #3. Allow the acting city manager to dispose of a list of surplus computer equipment acquired by our technology division, that is either worm out, damaged or totally obsolete, which clearly a routine business item.
- #4. Approve a highly complex and highly controversial new citywide ordinance that will forever change the exiting Upland Municipal Code, which will immediately allow the deployment of 5G cellphone antenna installations, in all Upland zoning districts including residential. The new ordinance will allow our city’s existing street lights and utility poles to be used as cellphone antenna mounting towers, for a one time permitting fee of $100, per pole, without any Upland Planning Commission approvals and without any Public Hearings or due progress, ever. The new ordinance guarantees that anyone who submits an application to install 5G cellphone antennas on existing city street lights or utility poles, will have a permit to commence construction issued through the Public Works Department within just 60 days. The new ordinance abolishes our existing zoning ordinances which allowed no cellphone antennas in residential regions. The new ordinance abolishes our existing zoning set backs requiring any cellphone antennas installed in any non-residential zoning district, to be at least 200 feet away from any adjacent residential home. The new ordinance, has no zoning set backs at all. The new ordinance will allow cellphone antennas to be installed directly outside of bedroom windows, when the wireless industry deems that is necessary to provide 5G coverage.
Item #4 as described above, is much different than approving the minutes from the last Upland City Council Meeting or allowing the acting city manager, to dispose of a list of damaged computer equipment that has become totally obsolete. Don’t you think?
So what the hell is going on here????? Clearly, our city staff fully presumes that our city council will vote to pass the inferior 5G small cell telecommunications ordinance on Tuesday, May 28th in their Consent Calendar. That ordinance is nothing like the council’s mandate on May 13th, for our city staff to bring them back the Mill Valley Ordinance, immediately. If you haven’t already done so, please take a moment to add your name to the over 300 Upland residents, who have already expressed their grave concerned about this proposed ordinance and this highly important issue, by signing this online PETITION.
A copy of the petition and a complete list of the signers to date, was surrendered to our Upland City Council Members on Monday, May 13th. In addition, an updated list of signers since May 13th, will be delivered to our Upland City Council Members on Tuesday, May 28th. Plus, the detailed letter that residents are submitting to our city council, here, will also be printed and delivered on May 28th. That is in addition to having already been emailed to our Upland City Council Members, prior to that. Since the Tuesday (5/28) agenda fully assumes that our city council will approve this new citywide ordinance in their Consent Calendar which is Item 11B, the very next Agenda Item is 12B. Item 12B is a public hearing to immediately amend the fee structure that the City of Upland currently charges, when permitting cellphone antennas.
So while Item 12B is a public hearing, is it only a public hearing regarding the city changing their existing fee structure, to now include the collection of a $100 one time fee, for any existing light-pole they allow a 5G cellphone antenna to be installed on. The city also lists a $1,000 one time fee, for any new poles that will be erected to support more 5G cellphone antennas. Finally, there’s a $270 yearly access fee to allow the wireless carriers to use our city’s right-of-ways, street lights and utility poles, as 5G cellphone antennas. This is astounding, being that our city council told Markman to return with the Mill Valley Ordinance immediately, yet this is what the very next meeting agenda looks like. To me, this direct insubordination sounds more like the utterance a four letter word, by somebody who has absolutely no respect for you.
Think about this, Markman was directed by the Upland City Council Members on Monday, May 13th, to bring back a Mill Valley Type of Ordinance for adoption. The Mill Valley Ordinance prohibits 5G cellphone antennas from being deployed in any residential areas. It prohibits 5G cellphone antennas from being any closer than 1,500 feet away from any residential home. For some background history it is important to know, that James Markman pictured below, showed up to the last Upland City Council Meeting on Monday, May 13th, with another attorney named Steven Flower, also pictured below.
Both Markman and Flower are employed by the same Law Firm being Richards, Watson & Gershon. On May, 13th, Markmen proceeded to introduce Steven Flower as his Law Firm’s expert in Telecommunications Ordinances. Furthermore, Markman took credit for the creation of the Mill Valley Ordinance and he went so far as to publicly thank me, for having called the Mill Valley Ordinance a masterpiece, early in the evening during the public comment section. Markman proceeded to mumble and ramble on about about an unnamed “she” at their their law office, as being the very person who authored the Mill Valley Ordinance.
In making the videos for this Upland Report, I am now even confused than ever, regarding what Markman was taking credit for and who he was assigning credit to, for having authored the Mill Valley Ordinance for Mill Valley, from his law firm. Can anyone reading this, kindly tell me what they think Markman was trying to say on May 13th, when he muttered the below, “I think it was April, that uh, said the Mill Valley Ordinance was, I believe, uh, a masterpiece. I would like to thank her, cause our staff and city attorney there too, um, that drafted the ordinance and we’re well aware of what’s in there and Steven, has already talked to her, about that.”
WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN JAMES MARKMAN? WHO IS THE UNNAMED “SHE” AT YOUR LAW FIRM, THAT YOU CREDITED WITH AUTHORING THE MILL VALLEY ORDINANCE? CAN YOU BRING HER INSTEAD OF STEVEN FLOWER, TO THE MAY 28TH, UPLAND CITY COUNCIL MEETING?????
Markman publicly inferred two weeks ago on Monday, May 13th, that a legal associate of his who is also employed at his same law firm, was the author of the Mill Valley Ordinance. Markman used this tactic to assure the Upland City Council Members, that bringing them back the Mill Valley Ordinance that they requested on May 13th, would be done immediately. That was 2 weeks ago and everyone is still waiting! Tick tock, James Markman, tick, tock!
What Markman didn’t say publicly, was that all day on Monday, May 13th, Markman had been reading the writing on the wall. This is because Markman was being copied on a fury of emails being sent by Upland residents to their Upland City Council Members. Those emails asked our city council to adopt the Mill Valley Ordinance in lieu of the lame duck ordinance that on the agenda on May 13th. That is because the city’s ordinance is defunct, deficient, ridiculous and accomplishes absolutely nothing and offers zero protection to the residents of Upland. In the dozens of emails to our city council on May 13th, were the names of other lawyers and other law firms, would have been most happy to recreate and deliver the Mill Valley Ordinance to our Upland City Council, immediately. Markman, like most people doesn’t want to lose the goose laying all his golden eggs. Which for Markman, is the City of Upland.
Here we go again, rolling up to the very next Upland City Council Meeting on Tuesday, May 28th, with no Mill Valley Ordinance anywhere in the agenda packet. Yet, ironically, the very same deficient and highly defunct ordinance from May 13th, is back on the agenda scheduled for a final vote, which would make it effective immediately, if it passes.
HEY JAMES MARKMAN, WHERE THE HELL IS THE MILL VALLEY 5G ORDINANCE, YOU PROMISED TO DELIVER TO THE UPLAND CITY COUNCIL?
How long will it take your law firm to locate the Mill Valley Ordinance in your associate’s computer? How long will it take you to do a simple search for the words “Mill Valley” and replace all references to “Mill Valley” with the words, the City of Upland?????
What is highly concerning to many Upland residents in the know, is how costly our city’s attorney bills are, in addition to, the other attorneys working on various other issues for City of Upland. When looking at the numbers of the checks being cut, you can’t help but think it looks like a raid or a looting of our city’s coffers. When you look at the legal fee line items, for the years of failed and stalled Upland labor negotiations, where the attorneys Upland hired to keep our city employees from getting a cost of living increase for over 11 years, have pocketed a fortune. One such firm has been under contract with the City of Upland for employment and labor law services AKA labor negotiations, since 2017.
Their contract is for $50,000 per year and any amount in excess of $50,000 a year, requires the Upland City Manager’s approval up to an additional 10%. Anything over that amount, requires Upland City Council’s approval. There have been 2-amendments continuing their contract until mid year of 2019. Yet somehow, it surely appears that close to $500,000 in a 2 year period has been paid out by our city in legal fees. At this time, it is unclear if our former city council members authorized such massive and excessive expenditures.
In addition, it is a very well known fact that our current Upland City Attorney James Markman, has been directly involved with some legal boondoggles in the City of Upland. Many of which have recently imploded this year in court and landed all over our new city council to clean up. Our new city council had absolutely nothing to do with the events leading up to any of this insanity. Except for Upland Mayor Debbie Stone, who had absolutely everything in the world to do, with every bit of it.
As a Superior Court Judge has just determined that our city, when deciding to sell Memorial Park without a required VOTE by Upland residents, was a major NO NO! Because of that recent court ruling, what to do about the Memorial Park debacle is now back on the agenda for Tuesday, May 28th. The very same judge who ruled in that case, also ruled that the additional taxation forced of property owners in both Upland and San Antonio Heights, which occurred when our former city council gave away Upland’s 111 year old Upland Fire Department without a VOTE, was also illegal!
Because of the enormity of the legal liability, which now all fails on the City of Upland regarding these recent devastating court decisions, our city will likely have to pay Markman’s continued legal invoices to now appeal his two recent defeats. As his legal schemes just crashed and burnt everyone. I have to wonder how much money we’ve already paid Markman and his Law Firm, to execute the former city council’s defunct decisions of trying to sell Memorial Park without a required VOTE of Upland’s residents and giving away Upland’s Fire Department, which illegally taxed 19,000 property owners. But that’s not all I wonder about.
I also wonder how James Markman wasn’t able to convince Jeanette Vagnozzi, that when she was our Upland City Manager that she was an at-will employee, that could be fired by our city council without any cause ever being given. Markman nonetheless, gave Vagnozzi an insane contract which stated our new city council couldn’t fire Vagnozzi as their at-will city manager for 5 long months. Then, despite handing Vagnozzi that generous contract with a 5 month guarantee of not being able to be fired, where she was earning an annual salary package of $311,000, Markman also added the verbiage that if Vagnozzi was ever finally fired after five months, she would also get another 6 months of severance pay.
Vagnozzi just legally served our City Clerk Keri Johnson, with Vagnozzi’s notice of intent to sue the City of Upland. This is because she was finally fired after city council honored every condition in her ridiculous contract, which was drafted by James Markman. Now our new city council has to rely on James Markman to defend them against Jeanette Vagnozzi, should Jeanette make good on her threat and sue the city. Markman has always appeared to be Vagnozzi’s personal champion. Please tell me how the hell this is going to work out for the City of Upland? Here’s a great guess. There will be a big fat juicy settlement check for Vagnozzi and years of hefty legal bills paid by the City of Upland, for all of James Markman’s billable hours in the “defense” our of city, against someone that looks very much like his friend. In a casino, this would be called cheating and in Upland, it’s called an everyday occurrence.
Why has James Markman been completely unable to produce an ordinance “allegedly” already on file with his Law Office, in the past 2 weeks? How long are we going to give him to finally produce it and why are we passing something so completely inferior on Tuesday, May 28th? It is because he hasn’t billed enough hours yet, to surrender someone else’s work product to our city council? I know an Upland resident who has already turned the Mill Valley Ordinance into a modifiable word document and would be thrilled to change every instance of Mill Valley, to read, the City of Upland by Tuesday, May 28th. If Markman won’t deliver the Mill Valley Ordinance to our city council by next Tuesday, I know a resident that surely will FOR FREE! As this is just utterly ridiculous. Why is everything in Upland like a freaking rigged shell game, every-time, all the time?
Our new city council is making great strides to remove the remaining bad actors still on city payroll, who are chronically perpetrating this kind of active dysfunction on regular basis. The termination of City Manager Jeanette Vagnozzi was announced on May 13th, and is a huge leap in the right direction, thanks to four of our council members. As Councilwomen Janice Elliott, along with Councilmen Rudy Zuniga, Ricky Felix and Bill Velto, ALL deserve so much credit for finally removing the nearly 4 years of Jeanette Vagnozzi’s baggage, from Upland City Hall. They had no other choice but to finally terminate her, after 100% of Upland’s Sworn Police Officers, as well as, 92% of all of general city employees had voted no confidence in Vagnozzi’s leadership abilities and had complained for months about her, begging for our city council’s intervention to finally stop the sheer madness.
When our city council emerged from closed session on Monday, May 13th, Markman made a statement on the action our four council members had taken, which are as follows.
- #1. On June 13th, 2019 Jeanette Vagnozzi shall be removed as Upland City Manager and that decision was made by a 4 to 1 vote. (Only Mayor Debbie Stone voted to keep Vagnozzi on as Upland’s City Manager.)
- #2. Effective immediately, Jeanette Vagnozzi will be placed on administrative leave with pay on until June 13th, 2019.
- #3. Upland City Clerk is to provide Jeanette Vagnozzi with written notice of the effective date of her termination.
- #4. Upland City Council Members voted unanimously to appoint our Public Works Director Rosemary Hoerning, as their acting City Manager of the City of Upland, effective immediately.
I truly believe our new city council is fighting like hell to increase transparency and accountability and are hoping to hell, their remaining city hall support staff, will support them and stop any continuation of Vagnozzi’s highly evasive and often misleading practices. Case in point, at the last council meeting on May 13th, our city staff in charge of the HUD Free Money Grant Programs, did not get that transparency memo. Their performance was unbelievable. There is only one time, once every year, when their HUD Grant Programs come before the Upland City Council. Last year this issue was most bizarre and this year, it was flat out shocking because four of our council members, took the bull by the horns and wrestled it, down to the ground.
A handful of city employees are processing and awarding over $638,558 in HUD Community Development Black Grant Monies, this year alone for 2019-2020. Yet no one on city council, nor our new acting City Manager Rosemary Heorning, nor even our City Attorney James Markman, could get any straight answers out of any of them. I don’t know if this is a forced old bad habit of theirs, to be so evasive after having suffered under Jeanette Vagnozzi’s regime, or what. Regardless, Vagnozzi was terminated early that evening and is no longer dictating how anyone employed by the City of Upland, should behave. There were even times when Markman, seemed so mystified by their behavior, that you could almost see the wheels turning in his head. It was as if he wanted to say, if this were happening in a court of law, the judge would have you arrested for contempt.
The whole affair was truly mind-numbing and I felt so badly for our four Upland City Council Members, who must have wanted to slam their heads into their dais!
Our city staff’s behavior was so reminiscent of Vagnozzi’s style of saying absolutely nothing, while diverting council’s attention away from the problem areas and withholding key information, that the council would be actively requesting. This whole HUD Grant Issue, was exactly like watching the old Abbott & Castello bit below, being the famous “Who’s On First,” retinue.
Our four Upland City Council Members being Councilwomen Janice Elliott, Councilmen Rudy Zuniga, Bill Velto and Ricky Felix, were simply outstanding. They all made such great points about how millionaires shouldn’t be getting free HUD Slum Grants to maintain and renovate their downtown Upland investment properties. The last thing Upland needs to do, is encourage a slum lord situation in Downtown Upland. Yet our city staff tried to convince our city council that the HUD facade improvement slum grants in downtown Upland, have no low income requirements. But our four city council members made it very clear, that they felt the spirit and intent of the entire HUD Grant Program, was geared to help low income earners, as the more needy recipients.
In researching how millionaires can even get free HUD Slum Grants, I found a HUD Handbook for cities managing HUD monies which explains that all of the HUD Community Development Block Grant Programs, are earmarked where 70% of all expenditures, have to go to low income individuals. I firmly believe this includes the HUD Facade Slum Grants, which our city staff believes have no low income comportment, at all.
In the HUD Handbook starting on page 106 HERE, it addresses these facade slum grants which are used to eliminate slum and blight. In Chapter 3 it states, “Three objectives are identified as: benefiting low- and moderate-income persons; preventing or eliminating slums or blight; and meeting urgent needs. The statute also states that each grantee must ensure that at least 70% of its expenditures over a particular time period must be used for activities qualifying under the first of those national objectives (that of benefiting low- and moderate-income persons.)”
Based of everything I read which is a large portion of the HUD Compliance Handbook, it certainly appears the facade slum and blight grants are not exempt from having to benefit low income individuals, by requiring that 70% of all expenditures, are dedicated to activities that help low income people. The HUD Handbook clearly states, “An activity that fails to meet one or more of the applicable tests for meeting a national objective is in noncompliance with CDBG rules.“
As I understand what I read, 70% of facade slum grant expenditures must help low income people. So let’s pretend Upland gives 70% of their allocated facade slum grant money to low income people and only 30% in any given year, can go to high income people to eliminate their existing slum and blight conditions of their downtown Upland properties. What is HUD’s definition of slum and blight and who is running that math to determine Upland’s compliance mandated by HUD, that 70% of all HUD grant monies must go to low income people?
In 2017, $45,000 was awarded to a single property to renovate the facade through an Upland slum grant award. Let’s assume the applicant was not impoverished, nor would have qualified as low income by HUD’s standards. The way I understand the program after reading the HUD Handbook, Upland would have had to have $150,000 allocated in 2017, for the facade slum grant program. They would have had to given away $105,000 of that to low income earners, to be in compliance.
In 2019, the entire facade slum grant budget is only $100,000. So in theory, Upland could only allocate $30,000 of that $100,000, to a high income earner to eliminate their existing slum and blight condition of their property, through a free remodel curiosity of the taxpayers of America. I would like to know why Upland believes they are exempt from this 70% low income national guideline, regarding their facade slum grants. I would like to know why Upland believes, none of their slum facade grants that they issue, don’t have to go to low income individuals.
I would like know who has told our city staff, there is no low income requirement for any of these HUD facade slum grants. I would like anyone willing to read the HUD Handbook, to please show me where it says that these HUD facade slum grants don’t have have to go to any low income persons and that income, has no baring on these facade slum grants. Because for the life of me, I can’t find that or anything remotely like that, anywhere in the HUD Handbook Before May 13th, 2019, no one in Upland ever knew who was the recipients of these grants besides ONLY our City Manager, our Finance Director and our Development Services Director.
Those 3 people picked all of the winners and losers and that process, was anything but transparent. But our four Upland City Council Members knocked it out of the park, when they demanded final control over who is being awarded these free HUD grants. I am so damn happy our new city council took this on and settled the issue, by making every recipient’s name, a part of the public record. Our city council will have the final word in front of the watching general public, when choosing the very best applicants and most needy individuals, to dole out over $600,000 in free grant money to, every year! And that is a home run for everybody.
In closing, I beg anyone who is able to do so, to please attend the next city council meeting on Tuesday, May 28th. Please sign up, to speak up to your council members and ask them not to approve the horrible ordinance on Tuesday night. If you can’t attend but still wish to speak up and make your voice heard, please add you name and your email address to this detailed letter to your city council, HERE. Once you click submit on this letter, it will be emailed on your behalf to all five Upland City Council Members before their meeting next Tuesday. Also, please take a moment to add your name to this petition, if you haven’t already done so.
By doing so, it will allow me to update you through the petition website regarding any updates on this very important issue, along with 300+ Upland residents who have already signed it and are all trying to get the Mill Valley 5G Ordinance passed. As always, I sincerely thank each and every one of you, for spending any moments of your most precious time, reading these Upland Reports and for caring enough about the City of Upland, to do so. We are all in this together and together, we can change everything. I’ll let you in on a well known secret, all of us, have already changed everything, by being informed. So congratulations and pass it on.
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