Twentynine Palms, Ca.- This is a story about the Morongo Basin Hi-Desert Medical Center’s lack of representation on the 29Palms Oversight Board for their tax increment.
Some brief background- The State of California has instructed over 400 Redevelopment Agencies, RDA, to dismantle, cease and dissolve. While many cities and towns are blaming the State for their financial woes by ending the RDA, the truth is, these funds have always belonged to the State of California. The funds were kept in a separate bank account and an annual report was sent in to the State accounting for these funds.
As the Department of Finance is sorting through all the “woes, blaming, pleading and bonding” of their funds to avoid return these tax increments (IE. Project Phoenix), there are some established rules to include “Conflict of Interest” and reporting procedures.
The 29Palms City Council RDA is now called the Successor Agency to the Dead RDA or something close to that. An Oversight Board was selected to “Over-See” the actions of the Successor Agency. Each Oversight Board Member is directed to represent the tax entity to insure the return of the funds to their college, school or in this case, The Hi-Desert Medical Center.
Actually, that is not the case for our District hospital. For some reason, Mrs. Korina Cole of 29 Palms, was appointed by Resolution to represent our hospital’s tax increment at the March 2012 HDMC Board meeting. (I have requested a copy of the report presented at this meeting from the City of Twentynine Palms regarding the selection of a hospital representative, see stamp page 5.)
Korina Cole’s father-in-law is the present Mayor of Twentynine Palms, husband Kevin Cole is a Staff member and past Mayor of Twentynine Palms. As Community Service Director for the city, Kevin is a staunch supporter for Project Phoenix and so is Twentynine Palms resident/wife/daughter-Korina Cole. She voted twice in support of Mayor John Cole as a member of the Oversight Board without recusing herself due to her conflict of interest through her relationships, fully abandoning her responsibilities to the hospital to represent their tax increment.
I emailed the following request to the HDMC hospital on May 27, 2012. Here is the content of the request.
The most salient part of the information provided by the HDMC is the unbelievable gravitas of Warne in meddling with the Hospital board’s legislative process.
“Korina Cole did not disclose her personal relationships with the Mayor of 29Palms nor that she is married to a 29Palms City Staff member. In my opinion, this is an Ethics violation for accepting this position and then concealing her relationships.
A member of the Oversight Board should have been selected to represent MY/OUR tax dollars that belong to My hospital. I do not feel Ms. Cole is an unbiased representative that will take a stand for MY/SB County rate payer’s hospital.
Please accept this correspondence for the following requests:
1. Replacement of the HDMC representative to the Oversight Board.
2. A copy of Korina Cole’s Form 700.”
I also included the link to the story: “Where is the Oversight?”
The initial response from the Hospital felt this was a matter for the City of 29Palms and HDMC Staff did not know about Cole’s family ties.
On June 13th, I had an opportunity to discuss this matter in more detail with HDMC CEO Chad Chadwick and he requested I “copy” him with my letters when I file with the Department of Finance/Public Integrity Unit.
Korina Cole’s Form 700 (Statement of Financial Interests) reported to the hospital is sloppy and incomplete, filing only the cover page. As an elected Board of Director for the hospital, she failed to report her income from wages, stocks, bonds or her husband’s income and their place of employment.
Gee folks, nothing personal here. There are rules and regulations that must be followed.
Excuse me, is it too late to withdraw my last vote for the HDMC Board of Directors?
Feb 28, 2012 Council Meeting Minutes
Update: Error Correction:
From: @hdmc.org>Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2012 17:16:07 -0700To: <MargoSturges>Subject: Error correction – sorry
Hi Margo, I need to point out an error in my cover letter. The last document was the agenda of the July 10th meeting, not the June 10th meeting as it said. Sorry for the error.
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Relative Insanity Indeed! 
No kidding…. Project Phoenix Funding is Taken By State, Its Over it is Dead
Hi Margo,
This is unbelievable! I will check with my Council sources to see if in fact Warne was speaking for them.
City archives show on February 14, 2012 Successor Agency resolution 12-01 was adopted by the Successor Agency that provided recommendations to the county from the city for appointment to the Oversight Board.
I can’t find a copy of SA Resolution 12-01 on the city archives. I will check with the archives of the Desert Trail to see if any information was published in the paper the following Thursday.
I can’t find SA 12-01 so until we do this matter of Warne influencing anyone is in doubt.
More research to be done.
Well here is the link to the Feb 28th Meeting and nothing is mentioned about it in either open or closed session.
But it is mentioned on the February 14th meeting. I would venture a guess that it will contain all seven names that are presently on the Oversight Board and that our Council voted 5 to 0 to approve.
If that is the case then the letter sent by Warne after the adoption of SA 12-01 is appropriate.
As to the appearances of this business of even allowing Korina Cole to be a part of the Oversight Board, that is another story.
Okay, let’s focus on Mayor John Cole. Does anyone not think he had a statutory obligation to disclose his conflict of interest, i.e., his daughter-in-law was included in the “recommendation” to appoint?
Hi Branson,
I am sure that city counsel advised Cole that there was no conflict of interest.
But the impression of all this now that this letter has come to light just seems to smack of cronyism and special interest agenda’s – it stinks!
As I have said before her vote to support Project Phoenix at the expense of the Hospital was expected and it is upsetting because she failed to do her sworn duty as did all the rest of them except for Cole and Warne.
Hi Steve,
I thank you for your efforts in following through on this scandalous affair.
I’m saying that Mayor Cole had an ‘ethical’ obligation to disclose that he was recommending his daughter-in-law and voted as such for Korina because he knew she was aboard his team and backed his play. Is there a legal violation? I do not know. But I do know he let the residents he represents down without the ‘ethical’ disclosure.
Yes there was a breach of personal ethics. I believe that is obvious.
A. Patrick Munoz’s legal advise in my opinion is self-serving and unreliable. He needs to get the boot.
I am saying Korina needs to step down because of her statutory failure to disclose required information on her Form 700, and for her glaring conflict of interest on the Oversight Board.
I’m
Okay more research has been done. SA 12-01 recommended that Klink and Mintz be considered by the county to represent the county in the 29 Palms Oversight Board.
That resolution was rejected by the county who eventually selected Gillick and Matos.
So…. It is now clear that Warne wrote a letter to Dr. Chadwick representing the will of the 29 Palms City Council as desiring Korina Cole to be appointed to the Oversight Board. Only problem is there is no public record to be found that the Council performed this action in a public meeting. That only leaves one possibility. Warne took information from a closed session on 14 or 18 February and turned into a public record that was never made public.
Furthermore, he then did try to influence the HDMC Board by presenting information in his letter that is not supported by any public business of the council.
Did the council hold a vote in closed session and then come into a public meeting and state as usual “There is nothing to report from the closed session”.
Do you think that voting in private to recommend the wife of a city employee and the daughter-in-law of a council member/mayor might be information that should be reported to the public especially since that appointment was to be to an Oversight Board who is supposed to help in the rapid dissolution of the former RDA?
More to come on this latest news as California Public Records Act requests are filed with HDMC, CMC, and other taxing entities to see how they selected their various representatives.
Korina Cole needs to submit her resignation from the Oversight Board ASAP.
The stench coming out of the City Manager office; the questionable on-goings of Mayor John Cole; the reek of the Oversight Board inability and unwillingness to do its job; and Korina Cole Form 700 — including her failure to disclose her conflict to the HDMC Board of directors, and her present conflicts — has become unbearable.
Here is why daugher-in-law of Mayor John Cole, wife of City Staff Kevin Cole has to go:
Officials holding positions are required to disclose “the broadest range of financial interests.” [H&S 34179(i)] The disclosure proviso most definitely applies to oversight boards, according to recent missives put out by the FPPC.
Moreover, oversight boards are required to adapt a Conflict of Interest code under the Act. [The Political Reform Act Section 87300].
Has the the 29 Oversight Board adapted their Conflict of Interest Code? If they do not have a Code, they are required to apply with the FPPC for an exemption pursuant to a today FPPC advisory opinion pursuant to Section 18751 of the Regulations of the Fair Political Practices Commission Title 2, Division 6, California Code of Regulations.
What is evident is that Korina Cole is out of compliance with hhe conflict of interest reporting requirements. That is factual as evidenced by her FPPC Form 7000. And she has a present conflict of interest siting on the board — factually evidenced by her family ties to the Mayor John Cole, and husband Kevin Cole (29 Palms City Staff), and Korina’s two votes on the Oversight Board.
Cronyism in 29 Palms has a long hairy tail.
And once again it is Cactus Thorns exposing the truth regarding City Manager Warne and Mayor Cole. The local paper didn’t cover the 190,037 owed to the county. The money wasn’t a mistake on the city’s part, but the handling sure seems to be.
How could the Desert Trail not have reported on this? It is not like we hide this information or make it up.
We do connect the dots however, probably to the chagrin of a few at the city, whose names you mention.
How do you ok a $190K check with the Council and the Oversight Board by phone?
Would that be a serial meeting? Where was the public notification? One more time….. WHY DIDN’T THE COUNCIL MEET TUESDAY??
Two huge screw ups and going behind the councils back exposed in two days…. looks like a few Resignations are in order….
How the hell can these guys look at a citizen in the face and say they are doing the peoples business in a ethical way?
Crooks!!!
Something is not right here that is for sure.
On one hand you have city hall reporting a series of telephone calls were made today to the council and the oversight board about the need to issue a $193,037.00 check by close of business today or face a $10,000.00 fine.
But then on the other hand you have council members saying they were not called.
Regardless of how it was done I would imagine that our council was forced into a bad situation by city manager Warne and John Cole when those two decided to cancel the council meeting yesterday and the Oversight Board meeting of today.
As I said before both Warne and Cole knew that the city would owe at least $173,000.00 and that permission to write that big of a check had to be granted by a majority of the sitting council.
Letters claiming the council selected Korina Cole written by Warne and there is no record of the council ever doing such a thing and now this – your right Dan two Whoppers with cheese it seems.
C’mon, the Desert Trail was busy with polls on “Do You Cry at Movies”. Reporting on $190,000 was swept under the rug.
Best to lock the doors than catch a crook, in this case lock the doors on city hall. It has been well established that the smaller the government entity the greater percentage of waste fraud and abuse, let alone nepotism cronyism.
Our problem is the voters more so than those elected, people are you wising up? You get the governance you vote for.
The great constitutional corrective in the hands of the people against usurpation of power, or corruption by their agents is the right of suffrage; and this when used with calmness and deliberation will prove strong enough.
Andrew Jackson
You know I think Andrew made a point nov is around the corner
Hi Margo,
I finally received various requested documents from the city of 29 Palms yesterday in regards to how this letter by Mr. Warne got drafted and sent in the name of the city council of 29 Palms.
Here is my response to the city council and Mr. Warne that I sent via email this morning.
“Hi Jim,(Jim Harris)
As you have requested I did get the papers that I had asked for from the city manager in regards to the letters he wrote to HDMC and other entities requesting that individuals be selected for the 29 Palms Oversight Board. I also received correspondence from HDMC.
Based upon the information provided by the city manager, he wrote the letter to HDMC as a result of actions that the council took in a closed session meeting of February 14, 2012. This matter was simply listed on the agenda as potential litigation one case. There is no way that the public would have known that the council acted in closed session and upon a majority of the council to direct Mr. Warne to speak on behalf of the council for the selection of Korina Cole to the Oversight Board.
Although I do not believe that Korina Cole was a wise selection that is not a matter of discussion I should have with the city. She was selected by the HDMC Board and if I have an issue with her appointment it is then a matter for me to discuss with that Board.
What I do have an issue with is how the matter was handled in closed session by the city of 29 Palms.
As a comparison, last night when the council left the closed session a report was made by Patrick Munoz. He reported that in closed session the council voted unanimously to select Cindy as the new city clerk. The council as a whole took an information matter that was presented to them in closed session and then “acted” upon that information item and “voted” for Cindy to be the new city clerk. Therefore, and rightfully so, a report was made to the public that the council performed an action in closed session. This then would have enabled any citizen to voice their opinions on that action in the subsequent comments portion of the agenda should they so have desired or at any later date because her selection by the vote of the council became part of the public record.
Now when it comes to the council closed session meeting of February 14, 2012 where the council again “acted” by voting in closed session to select Korina Cole as their desired choice for the Oversight Board no public report was made. Complete silence.
I am sure you can see the difference.
It makes one wonder why the actions of February 14, 2012 in regards to Korina Cole were left “hidden” from the public yet the actions in regards to Cindy were brought out into the public light? It does not take much imagination to speculate as to why Korina Cole’s selection was left in the dark and an explanation by the city as to why no public report was made of that February 14, 2012 closed session “vote” is notably lacking in the response I received yesterday.
In any event thank you for your interest and understanding of my original request.
Respectfully,
Steve Spear
CC: city council, city manager”