Supervisor Hansberger asks Postmus to rescind county counsel appointment
A press release from Hansberger’s office:
Supervisor Dennis Hansberger today sent an internal memo to Board Chairman Bill Postmus expressing his objection to Postmus’ appointment of private attorney Dennis Wagner to the Interim County Counsel position in light of former top attorney Ron Reitz’ abrupt departure last week.
Hansberger’s concerns outlined in the memo include his concern for the integrity of sensitive “in-house” legal information now being subject to an attorney whose clients’ interests clearly may be in conflict with those of the county. Further, Hansberger claims that Mr. Wagner has a financial interest in the affairs of clients who now, or in the past have had financial contracts with the county.
“Mr. Wagner and his firm have a clear conflict of interest in county matters, as they represent clients who have financial dealings with the county,” said Hansberger. “Subsequently, at least one of his clients’ contractual relationships is under scrutiny in an investigation by the FBI, if not state and county agencies, as well.”
Hansberger cites the example that Wagner and his law partner, Tristan Pelayes represent members of the California Charter Academy.
In the memo, Hansberger requested that Postmus rescind the appointment he made without the benefit of discussion with the entire board, and indicated that he saw no reason that the county’s existing team of counsel should not be tasked with handling county legal matters until a replacement can be agreed upon by the board.
“We have appropriate leadership and structure within our County Counsel’s office to handle all legal affairs in this county,” continued Hansberger. “I see no existing emergency that would warrant such a hasty appointment.”
This story has more implications for Hesperia readers than is immediately obvious (yes, even with the CCA thing). Consider this a taste of things to come for readers, and a notation for me so that I’ll remember to keep my eye on this particular ball.
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I hope the FBI takes all these a-holes down and then I hope they shine their light of truth on the Victor Valley. Watch these rats scurry away. Thanks for the info!!
P.S. Great article on CCA. You guys were the first to print the link to the actual audit. Anyone who reads it will realize that Mayor Honeycutt is as clear cut guilty as the The Juice! The only thing I can complain about(as an avid reader and fan of the Star) is that you did not mention that Honeycutt had the entire debt of his company, Maniaque, paid off with taxpayer money. What’s funny too is that he tries to justify this all by saying his company was private. So it’s OK if you set up a “private” company to supply your Charter Academy. You flow most of the CCA “public” money to the private company. Once you’ve done that, then you can do anything you want with that public money. It’s called money laundering dickhead!
Comment by Henry Hesperia — May 5, 2006 @ 22:17