End Gifts to Supervisors, Report Urges

To help rebuild public trust in county government, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors should prohibit its officials from accepting gifts from anyone doing business with the county, the grand jury recommended in a report released Tuesday.

The idea was among 78 proposals by the 19-member grand jury that ended its one-year tenure Tuesday.

The report, released as a new panel was sworn in, also suggested that the county sell the money-losing Hyundai Pavilion amphitheater, improve the coroner’s crowded facilities and stop paying employee benefits to state-employed judges.

The county is still recovering from a series of corruption scandals that began in 1999 and resulted in bribery convictions for the county’s former tax collector, investment advisor and two of its former chief administrative officers.

County Supervisor Jerry Eaves still faces state charges that he accepted free vacations in Las Vegas in exchange for his support of a lucrative billboard project on county land.

Although Supervisor Dennis Hansberger said he had not read the grand jury report, he said the no-gift policy raises questions.

First, he said, state law already forbids elected officials from accepting bribes.

Also, the recommendation does not make clear what constitutes a gift, he said, and he wondered if such a ban would include birthday gifts from friends or loved ones who happen to do business with the county.

The report also noted that the county-owned Hyundai Pavilion (formerly the Blockbuster Pavilion) in Glen Helen Regional Park is losing about $500,000 a year.

Ticket sales for the 2001-02 season were almost half that of the year before, according to the report.

The county will pay off the bonds used to build the amphitheater at a cost of more than $40 million over the next 20 years but is expected to collect only $29 million in revenue, the report said.

The grand jury recommended selling the amphitheater or increasing advertising to improve turnout at events.

Hansberger agreed that the amphitheater is losing money but said the county has a lease with the operator that makes a sale difficult.

He added, “I don’t think that we should get out of the business of having a public amphitheater for public events.”

The grand jury report also criticized the condition of the main coroner facilities.

Grand jury members, it said, saw boxes containing cremated remains stacked three or four high on a desk.

They also reported seeing 68 bodies, stacked two or three to a table.

“The autopsy room is permeated with an offensive smell,” the report said.

“A mixture of odors of body fluids, tissues and other unknown sources are overwhelming.”

The grand jury recommended that the county consider finding a larger space and testing the air in some areas of the facility.

A spokesman for Coroner Brian McCormick said McCormick disagrees with the grand jury’s findings and plans to file a written response soon.

On another issue, the grand jury noted that the state consolidated all trial courts in 1997, making Municipal and Superior Court judges employees of the state.

But San Bernardino County, like several others, continues to pay more than $1.2 million annually in car allowances, membership dues, professional development costs, personal security costs and other expenses for those judges, according to the report.

The grand jury, noting that the county plans to lay off more than 200 employees, recommended reducing or ending such county benefits for judges.