Temecula city councilman calls for grand jury investigation

By PE News
July 14, 2010 10:00 AM 

Temecula City Councilman Ron Roberts on Tuesday night called for a grand jury investigation into the Riverside Local Agency Formation Commission, an independent body tasked with approving annexations in Riverside County.

Speaking during a council meeting, Roberts said he's seen enough questionable behavior from the commission to warrant a grand jury probe. Each California county has a grand jury to serve as a watchdog over local government operations.

Roberts' request followed a series of scathing rebukes by members of the public and council members of LAFCO, which last month approved the city's latest request to annex 4,500 acres of mostly undeveloped land to Temecula's southwest. 

The approval came with the condition that the city remove part of the proposed Liberty Quarry site from its sphere of influence. The sphere denotes areas of land outside a city that a city may one day annex.

Last summer, city officials tried to annex the quarry site, along with the other land. City Council members are among the quarry critics who fear the mining operation will lead to air pollution and environmental degradation.

The quarry's developer, Granite Construction, and quarry supporters say the project will have little impact on the environment while providing high-paying jobs and millions in tax revenue.

LAFCO last summer ruled the quarry's fate was best decided at the county level. The commission on technical grounds rejected an appeal by the city last year that would have let Temecula annex everything but the quarry site.

Parallels: 'Avatar' the film to Granite's quarry

By BARBARA WILDER -- Temecula | Posted: January 28, 2010 12:00 am |

 

As I sat watching James Cameron's film "Avatar," I was struck by its gripping story of a powerful, greedy and influential company that sought to plunder the sacred homeland of an indigenous people (the Na'vi) at any cost ---- simply to profit from the mining of a precious metal beneath their religious sites.
"Unbelievable!" I said out loud to my daughter. "This story is about Granite Construction and what they're trying to do to the Pechanga Tribe and to Temecula!"
In the film, this powerful company hires an army to force the native people of Pandora into giving up their sacred land for the "betterment of all." (In real life, Granite's army has very deep pockets that provide for a battalion of PR people, a phalanx of ads on how their quarry is more important than the needs of the community, a spurious draft environmental impact report full of half-truths and holes ignoring our native people and their religious beliefs, and unlimited funds to buy influence where necessary.)
The film's "mining company" does not care that the sacred land of the people who reside there will be destroyed as long as it can mine its product. Note the parallel to the Pechanga people and their sacred lands where their creation stories began, and how their sacred mountain will be destroyed and polluted by Granite in order to mine gravel, just like the lands of the Na'vi in this movie.
In the film, scientists and volunteers ask the "mining company" to let them bring a peaceful solution to this problem, and through a metamorphosis project, they create avatars (half Na'vi and half human). In this alien form, they become friendly with the people of Pandora and try to help them accept the company's plans. (In real life, Granite has joined the Temecula Valley Chamber of Commerce, donated money to local charities and infiltrated many top business and nonprofit organizations to try to accomplish the same thing.) In the movie, the duplicitous company attacks anyway and the avatars join the Na'vi battle.
The Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians, (akin to the Na'vi in the film) want only to preserve their religious sites. Joining them (our real-life avatars) are scientists from San Diego State University who want to protect their reserve lands and ecological field station; SOS-Hills and the residents of Temecula, Murrieta, Rainbow and Fallbrook, who want to prevent pollution and keep the hills open and environmentally safe for their children and families; the Sierra Club, which is dedicated to protecting the natural world; and the Endangered Habitats League, which protects wild animals and the vital last link in a wildlife corridor that Granite's quarry would sever.
There are some pretty amazing parallels in this film. They are close to what is actually happening in the Temecula Valley, our little "Pandora," as we are also under attack, I believe, from a ruthless mining company, Granite Construction.
In the film, the avatars and the Na'vi prevail! The Pechanga and our avatars can also prevail!

 

Despite probes, state OKs funding (complete article)
By Will Evans , California Watch
Sunday, January 10, 2010 at 4:01 a.m.

Excerpts regarding Granite Construction:

Corporations working in California have reaped tens of millions of dollars in federal stimulus funds, despite previous management issues and criminal probes, a California Watch investigation has found.

Watsonville-based Granite Construction received $6.4 million in stimulus contracts to work on airport runways in Salinas and Monterey and repair roads in San Bernardino , Riverside and Butte counties. Yet the company faces three federal probes, including a criminal investigation launched after The San Diego Union-Tribune exposed questionable billing of the city for wildfire cleanup.

"It is very upsetting that the government doesn't do more due diligence before it hands money out," said Laura N. Chick, California 's inspector general for stimulus funds. "We've gotten very used to handing out taxpayer dollars and not so good at overseeing to whom are we giving them and how they are being spent."

Three investigations

Granite Construction picked up several stimulus contracts distributed through Caltrans and other agencies despite being at the center of a fraud investigation in San Diego , where many residents feel the company took advantage of the city in a time of crisis.

"As a taxpayer, I would be more than a little frustrated with that, given the track record here in this city," said Jan Rasmussen, outreach coordinator for Rancho Bernardo United, a community group that helps victims of the 2007 wildfires.

In response to reports in the Union-Tribune, the city sued Granite and another company, A.J. Diani, in 2008, for allegedly overbilling for debris removal. The city claimed both companies billed with falsified records. The lawsuit is on hold pending a criminal probe by the Department of Homeland Security.

Granite also faces two Department of Justice investigations. One targets an Oregon construction project where storm runoff dumped dirt into creeks, possibly harming the fish population. The other focuses on allegations that a joint venture run by Granite in Minnesota failed to hire enough minority businesses as subcontractors and misrepresented those efforts.

Write a letter to CalTrans

Here is a sample:

  name

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Mr. Randell H. Iwasaki, Director
California Department of Transportation
Post Office Box 942873
Sacramento, California  94273-0001

RE:  Stimulus Contractors to Questionable Contractors

Dear Mr. Iwasaki,

In the Sunday, January 10, 2010 San Diego Union-Tribune on their front page, there was an article entitled: “Questionable firms getting stimulus cash”.  A similar article has appeared in other forms of media.  In the Union-Tribune, the first firm listed in the article was Granite Construction of Watsonville, California, which, according to the article, faces three federal probes, including a criminal investigation.  Further, the article states that Granite Construction picked up several stimulus contracts distributed through Caltrans. 

While Granite Construction has not yet been indicted or found guilty, I believe that no contracts involving taxpayer dollars should go to any company under federal or state investigation, until the probe has been completed and the company has been cleared of any wrongdoing.

Additionally, I do not understand why a state agency such as Caltrans has come out in writing in support for the Granite Construction proposed gravel quarry near Temecula, called Liberty Quarry.  However, there was no similar support by Caltrans in San Diego County for keeping the current zoning of “mining” instead of changing it to “residential” for the Merriam Mountains site, which is even closer to the designated market demand.

I am requesting that these stimulus contracts with Granite Construction be immediately cancelled.  Further, if these contracts are not cancelled, I am requesting a copy of Caltrans’ written policy for issuing contracts with contractors which are under federal or state investigation.

Regards,

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Granite Construction