Who is overseeing
the overseers?
Ex-high school
athletic director,
dean of discipline
pleads guilty in
child porn case
Daily News Wire Services
04/25/2011
LOS ANGELES - A former Los
Angeles high school athletic
director and dean of discipline
pleaded guilty today to a felony
count of possession of child
pornography.
Los Angeles Superior Court
Judge David Horwitz ordered
Bradley Ratcliff, 53, to serve
three years on probation,
perform 30 days of Caltrans
service and register as a sex
offender, according to Jane
Robison of the District
Attorney's Office.
The judge suspended a
180-day jail term, which Ratcliff
will not have to serve if he
complies with the terms of his
probation.
Ratcliff worked at West Adams
Prepatory High School in the
Pico-Union area of Los
Angeles and was the head
varsity football coach for the
2008 and 2009 seasons.
He was arrested Feb. 2 at his
home, where a search of his
home computer turned up
numerous child pornography
images and videos containing
male victims, according to Los
Angeles police, who said they
did not have any information
that the images were of current
or former students.
the overseers?
Ex-high school
athletic director,
dean of discipline
pleads guilty in
child porn case
Daily News Wire Services
04/25/2011
LOS ANGELES - A former Los
Angeles high school athletic
director and dean of discipline
pleaded guilty today to a felony
count of possession of child
pornography.
Los Angeles Superior Court
Judge David Horwitz ordered
Bradley Ratcliff, 53, to serve
three years on probation,
perform 30 days of Caltrans
service and register as a sex
offender, according to Jane
Robison of the District
Attorney's Office.
The judge suspended a
180-day jail term, which Ratcliff
will not have to serve if he
complies with the terms of his
probation.
Ratcliff worked at West Adams
Prepatory High School in the
Pico-Union area of Los
Angeles and was the head
varsity football coach for the
2008 and 2009 seasons.
He was arrested Feb. 2 at his
home, where a search of his
home computer turned up
numerous child pornography
images and videos containing
male victims, according to Los
Angeles police, who said they
did not have any information
that the images were of current
or former students.
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& Holtz v. Maura
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& Holtz
Silence is Golden
Schools and Violence
Office Admin Hearings
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Stutz Artiano Shinoff
& Holtz v. Maura
Larkins defamation
SDCOE
CVESD
Castle Park
Elementary School
Law Enforcement
CTA
CVE
Stutz Artiano Shinoff
& Holtz
Silence is Golden
Schools and Violence
Office Admin Hearings
Larkins OAH Hearing
San Diego
Education Report
Education Report
City shorted on ambulance contract, whistle-blower says
Former head of San Diego operation says $12 million could be at stake
By Craig Gustafson
San Diego Union-Tribune SDUT
April 25, 2011
The revelations paint a damning portrait of San Diego Medical Services
Enterprise, a joint venture between the city and Rural/Metro that has been
lauded nationally and locally by fire officials
Timeline
1997: San Diego partners with Rural/Metro Corp. on a public-private
venture, San Diego Medical Services Enterprise, to provide better
ambulance service.
March 2007: Rural/Metro ends a practice of not recording some debt
collections in the partnership’s bank account after executive Robert
Heffner questions the practice. Going forward, it is a separate line
item of about $150,000 to $200,000 each month — revenue that is, by
contract, split between the city and the company.
March 2010: Heffner discovers that Rural/Metro never repaid debt
collection money owed to the city from 1997 and 2007. He is fired
days later.
August 2010: Heffner files a whistle-blower lawsuit asking for the
money — as much as $12 million — to be returned to the city. City
Auditor’s Office begins scheduled audit of San Diego Medical
Services.
September 2010: City Attorney’s Office is notified of Heffner’s lawsuit
and begins investigating.
April 2011: Deal is reached to dismiss the lawsuit after Rural/Metro
agrees to pay for forensic accounting of the past 13 years of the
partnership’s finances and puts up a $7.5 million surety bond to
secure any future city claim. City Auditor Eduardo Luna’s audit report
finds questionable fiscal oversight and several improper financial
transactions at San Diego Medical Services.
A whistle-blower says the city has been shortchanged by as much as $12
million under the public-private partnership it formed in 1997 to provide
ambulance service.
In addition, City Auditor Eduardo Luna released a 60-page audit Monday
that found a lack of city oversight of the partnership’s finances and a number
of improper or unreasonable charges by the city’s private partner,
Rural/Metro Corp.
The audit raises issues similar to those from the whistle-blower about money
that may be owed to the city. The amount at issue is substantial for a city
facing a $56.7 million shortfall in the $1.1 billion operating budget for the
coming year.
“There’s a lot of smoke out there,” City Attorney Jan Goldsmith, who has
been investigating the situation and negotiating with the company, told The
San Diego Union-Tribune on Monday. “There’s a lot of nooks and crannies
in this contract that need to be corrected. The idea is to look backward and
correct it there, but going forward see if you can get a better deal.”
The revelations paint a damning portrait of San Diego Medical Services
Enterprise, a joint venture between the city and Rural/Metro that has been
lauded nationally and locally by fire officials. Other cities typically do the
ambulance work themselves or outsource it to a private company, but San
Diego officials say the city is the only one to form a separate legal entity to
partner with a private firm to share costs and revenue.
San Diego Medical Services has 550 employees and more than 80
ambulances that respond to nearly 100,000 medical emergency calls in San
Diego as well as other cities such as Del Mar, Encinitas and Solana Beach,
according to its website.
Its daily operations are managed by Rural/Metro and the partnership is
governed by a five-member board that includes three representatives from
the city and two from Rural/Metro. Mayor Jerry Sanders appoints the board
chair and is responsible for city oversight of the contract.
Jay Goldstone, the city’s chief operating officer who works for Sanders, said
there is clearly a need for better oversight and the city would be seeking a
different relationship with Rural/Metro going forward.
“It is very troubling. We need to tighten things up,” Goldstone said. “It’s not a
reflection on the quality and level of service we’ve been receiving, but clearly
at a corporate level there was misbehaving.
Former head of San Diego operation says $12 million could be at stake
By Craig Gustafson
San Diego Union-Tribune SDUT
April 25, 2011
The revelations paint a damning portrait of San Diego Medical Services
Enterprise, a joint venture between the city and Rural/Metro that has been
lauded nationally and locally by fire officials
Timeline
1997: San Diego partners with Rural/Metro Corp. on a public-private
venture, San Diego Medical Services Enterprise, to provide better
ambulance service.
March 2007: Rural/Metro ends a practice of not recording some debt
collections in the partnership’s bank account after executive Robert
Heffner questions the practice. Going forward, it is a separate line
item of about $150,000 to $200,000 each month — revenue that is, by
contract, split between the city and the company.
March 2010: Heffner discovers that Rural/Metro never repaid debt
collection money owed to the city from 1997 and 2007. He is fired
days later.
August 2010: Heffner files a whistle-blower lawsuit asking for the
money — as much as $12 million — to be returned to the city. City
Auditor’s Office begins scheduled audit of San Diego Medical
Services.
September 2010: City Attorney’s Office is notified of Heffner’s lawsuit
and begins investigating.
April 2011: Deal is reached to dismiss the lawsuit after Rural/Metro
agrees to pay for forensic accounting of the past 13 years of the
partnership’s finances and puts up a $7.5 million surety bond to
secure any future city claim. City Auditor Eduardo Luna’s audit report
finds questionable fiscal oversight and several improper financial
transactions at San Diego Medical Services.
A whistle-blower says the city has been shortchanged by as much as $12
million under the public-private partnership it formed in 1997 to provide
ambulance service.
In addition, City Auditor Eduardo Luna released a 60-page audit Monday
that found a lack of city oversight of the partnership’s finances and a number
of improper or unreasonable charges by the city’s private partner,
Rural/Metro Corp.
The audit raises issues similar to those from the whistle-blower about money
that may be owed to the city. The amount at issue is substantial for a city
facing a $56.7 million shortfall in the $1.1 billion operating budget for the
coming year.
“There’s a lot of smoke out there,” City Attorney Jan Goldsmith, who has
been investigating the situation and negotiating with the company, told The
San Diego Union-Tribune on Monday. “There’s a lot of nooks and crannies
in this contract that need to be corrected. The idea is to look backward and
correct it there, but going forward see if you can get a better deal.”
The revelations paint a damning portrait of San Diego Medical Services
Enterprise, a joint venture between the city and Rural/Metro that has been
lauded nationally and locally by fire officials. Other cities typically do the
ambulance work themselves or outsource it to a private company, but San
Diego officials say the city is the only one to form a separate legal entity to
partner with a private firm to share costs and revenue.
San Diego Medical Services has 550 employees and more than 80
ambulances that respond to nearly 100,000 medical emergency calls in San
Diego as well as other cities such as Del Mar, Encinitas and Solana Beach,
according to its website.
Its daily operations are managed by Rural/Metro and the partnership is
governed by a five-member board that includes three representatives from
the city and two from Rural/Metro. Mayor Jerry Sanders appoints the board
chair and is responsible for city oversight of the contract.
Jay Goldstone, the city’s chief operating officer who works for Sanders, said
there is clearly a need for better oversight and the city would be seeking a
different relationship with Rural/Metro going forward.
“It is very troubling. We need to tighten things up,” Goldstone said. “It’s not a
reflection on the quality and level of service we’ve been receiving, but clearly
at a corporate level there was misbehaving.
Culture of complicity tied to stricken nuclear
plant
Some Japanese say safety problems, weak regulation may have played a
role in accident
By NORIMITSU ONISHI and KEN BELSON
The New York Times
2011-04-27
Given the fierce insularity of Japan’s nuclear industry, it was perhaps fitting
that an outsider exposed the most serious safety cover-up in the history of
Japanese nuclear power. It took place at Fukushima Daiichi, the plant that
Japan has been struggling to get under control since last month’s
earthquake and tsunami.
In 2000, Kei Sugaoka, a Japanese-American nuclear inspector who had
done work for General Electric at Daiichi, told Japan’s main nuclear
regulator about a cracked steam dryer that he believed was being
concealed. If exposed, the revelations could have forced the operator,
Tokyo Electric Power, to do what utilities least want to: undertake costly
repairs.
What happened next was an example, critics have since said, of the
collusive ties that bind the nation’s nuclear power companies, regulators
and politicians.
Despite a new law shielding whistle-blowers, the regulator, the Nuclear and
Industrial Safety Agency, divulged Mr. Sugaoka’s identity to Tokyo Electric,
effectively blackballing him from the industry. Instead of immediately
deploying its own investigators to Daiichi, the agency instructed the
company to inspect its own reactors. Regulators allowed the company to
keep operating its reactors for the next two years even though, an
investigation ultimately revealed, its executives had actually hidden other,
far more serious problems, including cracks in the shrouds that cover
reactor cores.
Investigators may take months or years to decide to what extent safety
problems or weak regulation contributed to the disaster at Daiichi, the worst
of its kind since Chernobyl. But as troubles at the plant and fears over
radiation continue to rattle the nation, the Japanese are increasingly raising
the possibility that a culture of complicity made the plant especially
vulnerable to the natural disaster that struck the country on March 11...
plant
Some Japanese say safety problems, weak regulation may have played a
role in accident
By NORIMITSU ONISHI and KEN BELSON
The New York Times
2011-04-27
Given the fierce insularity of Japan’s nuclear industry, it was perhaps fitting
that an outsider exposed the most serious safety cover-up in the history of
Japanese nuclear power. It took place at Fukushima Daiichi, the plant that
Japan has been struggling to get under control since last month’s
earthquake and tsunami.
In 2000, Kei Sugaoka, a Japanese-American nuclear inspector who had
done work for General Electric at Daiichi, told Japan’s main nuclear
regulator about a cracked steam dryer that he believed was being
concealed. If exposed, the revelations could have forced the operator,
Tokyo Electric Power, to do what utilities least want to: undertake costly
repairs.
What happened next was an example, critics have since said, of the
collusive ties that bind the nation’s nuclear power companies, regulators
and politicians.
Despite a new law shielding whistle-blowers, the regulator, the Nuclear and
Industrial Safety Agency, divulged Mr. Sugaoka’s identity to Tokyo Electric,
effectively blackballing him from the industry. Instead of immediately
deploying its own investigators to Daiichi, the agency instructed the
company to inspect its own reactors. Regulators allowed the company to
keep operating its reactors for the next two years even though, an
investigation ultimately revealed, its executives had actually hidden other,
far more serious problems, including cracks in the shrouds that cover
reactor cores.
Investigators may take months or years to decide to what extent safety
problems or weak regulation contributed to the disaster at Daiichi, the worst
of its kind since Chernobyl. But as troubles at the plant and fears over
radiation continue to rattle the nation, the Japanese are increasingly raising
the possibility that a culture of complicity made the plant especially
vulnerable to the natural disaster that struck the country on March 11...