BOS 3 Update: Were County Resources Being Used to Support Supe?
Posted by: SB Veritas | 03/30/2008 5:49 PM
The week before last was very interesting in the race for the Third Supervisorial District.
It seems that the County Registrar of Voters challenged San Bernardino City Councilman Neil Derry's ballot statement on the grounds that the first paragraph by "default" refers to Incumbent Supervisor Dennis Hansberger. So the Registrar, using the Office of the County Counsel filed an immediate ex-parte request for a temporary restraining order and request for declaratory relief in the San Bernardino County Superior Court.
The story becomes interesting at this point.
The case is assigned to a Judge in Needles. That's right Needles, as in Colorado River. It seems allegedly that the Needles Court has a lighter caseload and could easily handle the issue. So, Derry through the Sacramento based firm of Olson, Hagel, and Fishburne, opposed the action by teleconference on Wednesday, March 19th. The Court hears the case and rules in Derry's favor, striking only three words.
Interestingly, the Derry campaign brought to the attention of the Registrar's Office the fact that Hansberger is using the ballot designation "Businessman/County Supervisor" and according to Hansberger's FPPC Form 700 has no business-related interests, and lists his only income-generating activity as that of a San Bernardino County Supervisor.
A check of the Secretary of State's website shows the status of the Supervisors only known business entity, Hansberger and Associates as suspended, with a annotation "Resigned 07/30/98".
More Drama........
Derry himself apparently brought Elections Code section 13107 to the attention of a representative of the Registrar. It appears Elections Code section 13107, states that a candidate must use as their ballot designation, only their occupation/vocation from the calendar year prior. At this point, Derry was then told the matter was being referred to County Counsel for review.
The response Derry received afterwards was classic San Bernardino County-ese, commonly known as "Deafening Silence".
Everyone is still waiting for an answer to the big question. What business activity?
This is why many sports ban the use of performance enhancing drugs. Another form of doping is blood...
This is hilarious because Derry has the same title as "business man" on all of his campaign material yet my understanding is that just like Hansberger, Derry also is not a "business man" and never has been.