News from Colton
OPINION/EDITORIAL
Colton, Ca.- In order to write the biography of Yucca Valley Town Manager, Mark Nuaimi, it is important to review his past work experience and business dealings with Colton and Fontana. Did the Yucca Valley Town Council perform their due diligence prior to hiring this employee? They did not even “Google” his name.
As stated in Mark Nuaimi’s Employment Agreement “Recitals” with Yucca Valley, he claims “practical experience by serving as Assistant City Manager for over three years with the City of Colton and served in an elected capacity as Mayor/Councilman for over thirteen years with the City of Fontana.”
I sent a couple of emails and made phone calls to Colton ”Town Officials” requesting an official summary of Nuaimi’s severance pay, among other items, to write my biography on Nuaimi.
I recently received this email regarding the Senior Housing in Colton during Nuaimi’s employment at that city:
Dear Ms. Sturges:
Here’s what happened in Colton. The word is Nuaimi told certain local developers that were interested in senior housing that he would never let them do a development in “his town” and chased them away in favor of “his” developers. Council members under his control trusted him and never were aware of this.
There are three different potential development projects that failed and he chased off potential developers in each case. He told them in essence to hit the road and he would never allow them to develop in Colton. Senior housing next to City Hall in Colton was torn down and Nuaimi wanted it built on a heavily traveled commercial piece of property that the city owned (sound familiar?).
There was a lawsuit regarding construction defects at the original Colton Palms senior housing and the city was awarded $5.75 million to rehab the building, instead of rehabbing it the City Council voted to tear it down. During Nuaimi’s tenure in Colton, the City spent nearly all the $5.75 million set aside in the senior housing judgment (much of it on other projects that had nothing to do with senior housing) and Colton was left with no senior housing and no money to build senior housing. Nuaimi was involved in all those decisions.
Of course, he’ll deny all and blame it on the Council even though he controlled them through his political relationship with Mayor Kelly Chastain. Since his departure and the subsequent removal of his protégé, Mayor Chastain, senior housing is moving forward at the prime location where it was built originally. The local developer that was told by Nuaimi to take a hike has entered the picture and it appears his company may very well end up building Colton’s senior housing after Nuaimi’s failure to get anything done in his time in Colton.
I will interview a member of the Colton Town Council to update their senior housing situation and will look for the lawsuit details to post in my next story.
Ex-Colton Mayor Kelly Chastain
Note: Colton Mayor Kelly Chastain was successfully recalled. The petition was filed February 4, 2008.
Contact this Blog: Newstip@CactusThorns.com
Nuaimi's Colton Senior Housing.....His Legacy,
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![[UNSET]](http://www.vote29.com/newmyblog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/UNSET-75x75.jpg "Local Smoke Shops Shut Down By Sheriff’s Department")
Margo,
Please educate us which “Town Official” sent you this email? Please do yourself and the readers of this blog a favor and do some homework.
The City of Colton had a senior housing project adjacent to City Hall that was full of defects. Prior to my employment in Colton, they demolished the old building, settled the defect litigation, relocated all the seniors in those original units, and adopted a housing replacement plan that would situate the senior housing on property at the corner of Mt. Vernon Avenue and Colton Avenue. A majority of that site was owned by the Colton RDA and they were in the process of consolidating that land when I became involved with the City.
The decision to construct senior housing at the corner of Mt. Vernon and Colton Ave was made before I was hired and the site adjacent to City Hall was being saved for an expanded City Hall campus — to include a new police department, library, etc.
If you have any questions concerning these facts, contact Councilman Vince Yzaguirre who is still on their city council and was part of the senior housin submittee. He can be reached through the Town website at http://www.ci.colton.ca.us
As to the developers who you claim were told they would never develop in Colton — please provide their names and your double fact checking that you claim to do… because you’ll find that is nothing but a lie and another attempt to smear my reputation. Have them provide the details of this allegation and ask them why they wouldn’t take this type of issue to the District Attorney’s Public Integrity Unit.
I can’t recall if the developer who was attempting to move forward with senior housing was selected through an RFQ process or through an unsolicited proposal. But the last firm the city was working with when I left the Town was the Related Companies — the same folks selected by the Town of Apple Valley and who have done several projects in Fontana. They are the same Related Companies that submitted their proposal in Yucca Valley, made the finals, and were ultimately not selected.
If you want to see examples of the types of projects that I have been involved in (as an elected official), visit Sierra Avenue adjacent to the Metrolink train station and Omnitrans transit center. You’ll find 4, 90-100 unit developments for seniors. Just down the street from the Phase 4 project, you’ll find the new 40,000 sq-ft senior community center. Just up the street, you’ll find the $60 million regional library — the largest in the county network.
All those projects were a product of the Fontana Redevelopment Agency and were planned, funded, and constructed over the past 14 years when I was an elected councilman and mayor. I’m sure Margo was going to report on that “legacy” in her continued character assassination.
Well back to my wife and kids as I’m still on vacation.
Mr. Nauimi, what are you doing on “vacation”? You just recently began working the Yucca Vally’s Town Manager.
Re: Fontana RDA-”All those projects were a product of the Fontana Redevelopment Agency and were planned, funded, and constructed over the past 14 years when I was an elected councilman and mayor.” -Mark Nuaimi.
Would you please be kind enough to write up all the details of your tremendous and massive RDA accomplishments for accuracy? This way you will not have to correct me if I make a mistake and there were sooooo many projects during your watch as Mayor!
Thanking you in advance for this future story of “Mark Nuaimi’s Fontana RDA Success Story, in his own words.”
A few photos jpg. would be great, nothing larger than 300×300 sent to DanO with your Word file.
Thanks Mark.
Margo … still waiting for you to respond to your prior statements in this “Opinion/Commentary”:
“Please educate us which “Town Official” sent you this email?”
“As to the developers who you claim were told they would never develop in Colton — please provide their names and your double fact checking that you claim to do… because you’ll find that is nothing but a lie and another attempt to smear my reputation. Have them provide the details of this allegation and ask them why they wouldn’t take this type of issue to the District Attorney’s Public Integrity Unit.”
You also indicate that you’ve sent requests for information on the severance package I received from Colton when I was layed off. So, did you discover that your claim that I received $175,000 in severance was nonsense?? I’m still waiting for that retraction. Did they confirm that I received 7.75 months of severance like I have commented time and time again??
As to your request that I submit a story on Fontana, if folks want information on Fontana they can visit that City’s website at http://www.fontana.org or contact that city’s mayor and city council. If they have questions, they can email directly at marknuaimi@aol.com.
Nuaimi-I do not give you permission to twist my words as you see fit. Also, it would be appreciated if you stop trying to rewrite history about the Colton Palms Senior Housing, if that is possible.
I will be posting a story with all the links to punch holes in your low class attacks against me instead of addressing the issues.
Get your calendar out and check your dates before you accuse me of not reporting the truth. Try to find your February 2006 calendar when you were hired by Colton as a start, then read my new story.
As for the Public Integrity Unit,good idea. I will pass that advice along.
“I will be found floating face down in the Santa Ana River before I give you any contract in my City!” Ring any bells? Ring-ring!
Stay on point. This story is about the Colton RDA Senior Housing, not Fontana RDA.
I have not heard back from my Colton public information request regarding the details of your severance package asking if there were any sick/vacation/pension dollar amounts along with the severage pay out. Seems they are really busy over there trying to clean up some “smears” and lot’s of red ink. Budget time, you know.
Believe it or not, dealing with you “Thorns” for almost a full year necessitates time away hitting a golf ball. Thanks for caring
How long is your vacation? People just love to know all about their leaders.
I know Cactus Thorns is not driving your golf balls. You’re an old pro getting your message out in the blogosphere
6.0 FRINGE BENEFITS AND OTHER COMPENSATION:
6.1 Annual Leave. (Last sentence of this paragraph) “Employee shall be credited upon the effective date of the Agreement with eighty (80) hours vacation time and eighty (80) hours sick leave.”
Town of Yucca Valley Employment Agreement entered into this 17th day of June, 2010, with Mark Nuaimi.(Posted on this website for our readers.)
On Cactus Thorns homepage go to “The Players” drop down menu to Yucca Valley, move mouse over to Mark Nuaimi drop down menu, 1.Bio 2.Colton Contract 3.Yucca Valley Contract
This is fine example of what happens when public servants are replaced by professional functionaries.
They are no longer responsible to the people. The enablers are elected leaders who are either lazy, incompetent, crass, out of touch, pandering to a certain status quo, or hopelessly hoodwinked by going along with a classification whereupon immediately upon executing an employment contract, a town grants a town manager 80-days of vacation AND eighty-days of sick leave.
Seems Town and City Managers are like a One-man Traveling Shows. They set their tents up in a town or city and pull out the the same old bags of tricks and the same old players for the next performance. Then they move on for the next show.
Their star act features debt bonds and tax bonds foisted upon the towns and cities. This means in the aftermath, a town or city will be pigged-backed with a 30 year bond debt. Whatever professional functionaries pull out of their funny-bag, is worthy of a pat on the back and thumbs-up by elected leaders.
After the show, the aftermath is the damage done to the free enterprise, competitive bidding, state regulations and state constitutions. Not to mention the havoc done the the environment and history of a town or city.
80 DAYS of VACATION and 80 DAYS of SICK?? That’s 80 HOURS … as in 2-weeks. With the recent changes to benefits, the accrual rate will also be 2 weeks vacation per year (as opposed to 3 weeks per year).
Mark, Proof Reading Error Acknowledged. You’ve got a nice gig going with 80 hours — vacation and sick leave — right out of the gate as the new guy in the office. If you hit a hole in one on your vacation, Dan will detail your vehicle.
PS: Don’t you just love those town and city council members.