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Not long after the City of Redlands issued a a temporary meter for installation and then they locked the water supply to the meter, so that Tom’s Burgers could continue construction and possibly open later this year, “Troy, the City’s construction supervisor, came and looked at my nice, neat box in the ground and approved it,” said Raul Madrid, who spoke with Troy. The temporary water meter was installed on the lateral, or pipe from the street, and the piping into the restaurant. “The City locked the temporary meter because they wanted a standpipe and a drawing of how the temporary service would look. I hadn’t provided the drawing; in building hundreds of homes in the Inland Empire, I’ve never had to submit a drawing for a temporary water connection, when the permanent meter will be in the box in the ground where the temporary meter previously was. The standpipe they want gets in the way of construction and can get damaged when the landscaping and paving are taking place.”

Perry Karpouzis, owner of the would-be restaurant on the Boulevard, began building the restaurant, sibling to Tom’s Burgers in Redlands, after obtaining his construction permit from the County in about 2009. During construction, he reported that the water meter, in place for decades for previous businesses and other buildings, was leaking. The City Water Department came and removed it, leaving the pipe from the street, and padlocking the on-off valve.

Redlands then imposed fees of $656,000 on Karpouzis, including a “traffic study” from and back to State Highway 38, also known as Mentone Boulevard, in order for him to obtain water service. On Karpouzis’ behalf, Madrid later got the city to come down to $55,000, as a fee to re-hook up the meter. He then showed the City that the pipe from the street was in place already, so that the $55,000 in fees should not apply. “Karpouzis had paid over $2500 to have the temporary meter hooked up,” Madrid advised.

Redlands has hooked up a new water meter on the property, through the efforts of Raul Madrid, who owns property, and has developed other property, in Mentone, “It’s a construction meter for now,” Madrid explained, “but it will be replaced with a regular meter when the building is finished and ready to use.” Madrid had spent the past two days completing the plumging to the building. He had shown City officials his photos of a stubbed-off “lateral” pipe from the street right up to the building’s main, as he had been telling Redlands for the past 2-3 years was present there . “The issue is re-hooking up the meter, as opposed to ‘new service’,” he continued.

In order for Perry Karpouzis, the owner/developer, to obtain water, Redlands was demanding “frontage fees” for both Mentone Boulevard and Turqouise and its 2009 estimate of fees was over $650,000,, some of it for a “traffic study” on Mentone Boulevard, State Highway 38. Madrid eventually got the City to come down to $64,000, then $55,000. However, Redlands had removed the previous, similar meter – present but unused for decades after the previous building was there – when Karpzouzis had told the City that the meter was leaking, while he was constructing the building. Now, with the proof of an existing “lateral” it is unclear how much Redlands will charge just to re-install a regular meter, as Karpouzis had requested.

Karpouzis had told locals that it might be next year before he opens the store; however, it now only lacks finishing the interior construction, hiring workers, etc., according to Madrid, who also encouraged Karpouzis to sign the “Pre-“Annexation “Agreement” in February; the “Agreement” was accepted by Redlands City Council in the past couple of weeks. “There is no provision in the law for ‘pre’ annexations,” COMET’s counsel objected. “That’s delineated in the Third Amended Complaint, filed on April 28, and we’re asking the Court to make that finding. Redlands’ and LAFCO’s attorneys have already stated their intention to challenge again the amended causes of action,” she added. MM

On February 26, the Honorable Donald Alvarez issued his ruling on Redlands’ and LAFCO’s demurrers (attempts to have COMET’s second amended Complaint thrown out). “The demurrers were identical,” COMET’s counsel stated, but his rulings were slightly different. ” Judge Alvarez’s “disposition,” or final summary as to the City held:

Sustain with leave to amend City’s demurer to the 1st (civil extortion) and 3rd (rescission/restitution) causes of action. “That means that we can add information to the Complaint in the form of a Third Amended Complaint,” said Joyce Rapp, COMET’s counsel for the lawsuit against Redlands. “These are some of the most important parts of the lawsuit,” she added.

Sustain without leave to amend City’s demurrer to the 4th (equitable estoppel), 6th (UC.L), 7th (injunctive relief), and 8th (reverse validation) causes of action. “We can’t amend these; they are thrown out,”she continued. “Some of these are duplicative of the ones he left in,” and were not as important as the ones he left in,” she added.

Overrule City’s demurrer to the 2nd (declaratory relief) and 5th (fraud) causes of action. “That means they stay in the lawsuit but don’t have to be rewritten, as the first and third causes of action do,” she added.

Grant City’s request for judicial notice in its entirety. That simply means that the judge looked at the documents the City filed.

Sustain City’s objection to COMET’s sur-reply. “That simply means that he wouldn’t consider the last document we filed. Judges usually do, and in this case Redlands added something after our opposition that we should have had an opportunity to refute, but didn’t,” Rapp continued.

Judge Alvarez’s decision was slightly different as to LAFCO:

Sustain with leave to amend LAFCO’s demurrer to the 1st (civil extortion) and 5th (fraud) causes of action.

Sustain without leave to amend LAFCO’s demurrer to the 3rd (rescission/restitution), 4th (equitable estoppel), 6th (UCL), 7th (injunctive relief) and 8th (reverse validation) causes of action.

Overrule LAFCO’s demurrer to the 2nd (declaratory relief) cause of action.

Sustain LAFCO’s objection to COMET’s sur-reply.

The only difference is that LAFCO does not need possibly to rescind annexation “agreements,” and restore the property Redlands took, Our next step is to rewrite the Second Amended Complaint and file it as the Third Amended Complaint, based on his findings in the decision, We’re still in the running!” she exclaimed.

COMET’s counsel received the ruling on March 11; it was sent out by the Court on March 8. “Ordinarily counsel has 30 days in which to prepare and file the next pleading,” she concluded.

This week’s Thursday/Friday rainstorm is expected to cause widespread flooding and mudslides, with evacuations possible in Mentone and adjacent areas which were involved in last summer’s wildfires, a Sheriff’s Department representative told the COMET/Chamber of Commerce members on the Tuesday night teleconference call. “Evacuations won’t be mandatory and residents can shelter in place,” she added.

Last week COMET’s counsel set up a GoFundMe page, called “SAVE MENTONE NOW!” and it seeks a modest $15,000 to retain or give a down payment for legal fees, in order to associate in bigger-name lawyers. “I’m an old lady, a solo practitioner, not well known in the courthouse, and up against a big name law firm. I don’t know how the Court will rule on Redlands’ and LAFCO’s demurrer,” [Ed.’s note: see previous article on the January 15 demurrer hearing] she said, “but I think a big name law firm might be more impressive and get us farther,” she told COMET/Chamber members attending Tuesday night’s teleconference.
COMET’s attorney for the lawsuit against Redlands is donating her professional time to research Redlands’ activities and prosecute the lawsuit and has donated most of her office supplies, all of her postage and gasoline to take documents to the courthouse in order to save COMET dipping into its meager funds. “If the court does not completely throw out COMET’s lawsuit, COMET will have to pay for publishing the Amended Summons in an adjudicated newspaper near Redlands, which will cost $200 for four weeks; that will have to come out of COMET’s funds,” she concluded. Fundraisers usually provide funds for COMET’s activities but they are currently on hold because of the pandemic.
Readers who can donate to the GoFundMe page in these difficult times encouraged, to do so. Additionally, everyone is invited to join the Chamber, at $25 per year, and COMET membership is included.

	C.O.M.E.T. (Community of Mentone Empowered Together") appeared  in Department S -23 of the San Bernardino on January 15, 2021 at the hearing on Demurrers filed by Defendants City of Redlands and San Bernardino Local Area Formation Commission (“LAFCO”). "The demurrers challenge the sufficiency of C.O.M.E.T.’s Second Amended Complaint in writing filed with the court.  In other words, they are trying to get the case thrown out of court,” stated C.O.M.E.T.’s counsel for the case. “LAFCO’s demurrer is identical to the City’s, and both defendants are represented by the same law firm: Best, Best & Krieger,” even though I believe they have very different positions and roles,” she continued. “I pointed out what I consider the wrongful enmeshment of the two agencies.”  
	“The demurrer document argues that C.O.M.E.T. fails to state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, on each of the eight causes of action,” C.O.M.E.T.’s counsel continued, “That means that not all of the ‘elements,’ or requirements, of each cause of action doesn’t have enough facts stated in them. However, I was careful to allege facts for each. The bottom line of what the Defendants have argued is that C.O.M.E.T. is ‘out of time’ because it didn’t sue within 60 days of each of the annexations. 
	“The judge’s several pages of notes that he referred to in the hearing indicated that he had read at least some of the documents but he asked counsel for each party to state the most important issues but not to re-argue the entire case. Redlands’ counsel stated that C.O.M.E.T. did not possess standing - "the 'right to sue'," she continued.  C.O.M.E.T.’s counsel countered with the fact that the annexation “agreement” is binding on all “successors in interest,” such as homeowners or business owners that purchase from the developers, who would be required to comply with the annexation "Agreements."  C.O.M.E.T., representing all residents and property owners, thus steps into the developers’ shoes, its counsel argued.  
	Redlands next argued that C.O.M.E.T. was “not injured” by the forced annexations into Redlands’ city limits. C.O.M.E.T.’s counsel countered that Mentone has lost a lot of territory so it has definitely been injured.  Redlands also argued that the “reverse validation” action was too late, going back to 1956. “This was Mentone territory going up Wabash, across the top of Mentone and way out Mill Creek; the newspaper at the time called it Redlands' ‘East Lugonia’ annexation,” says C.O.M.E.T.’s counsel. She countered that Mentonites would have to know of the annexations before challenging them.  Redlands also mentioned “excusable neglect” as a means of relief from the statute prohibiting C.O.M.E.T.’s  case but C.O.M.E.T. argued that it would not be locked into that one of four possible methods of relief from late claims, with “surprise” being more applicable. Redlands’ last argument was that C.O.M.E.T. had not complied with the claims process before filing suit. C.O.M.E.T. countered that it had complied with the claims process. 
	LAFCO was then invited to argue under the same terms: it argued that C.O.M.E.T. had not complied with the claims process; C.O.M.E.T. replied that it was not aware that LAFCO had a claims process. “This is the first time LAFCO has raised that question; it actually just adopted Redlands’ position and it’s likely LAFCOs counsel was confused,” said C.O.M.E.T.’s counsel. LAFCO also argued that it was not a party to the annexation “Agreements,” that the Reverse Validation cause of action was untimely and the “when and how” of the complained-of events were not given. C.O.M.E.T. countered that LAFCO approved the wrongful “Agreements,” that the “timeliness” was already explained and that the Second Amended Complaint, which the Demurrers challenge, contained the “why and how.”   
	The Honorable Donald Alvarez stated he would issue a written decision. “Judges do that in complicated cases such as ours and also when they don’t want counsel arguing against their decision when it is announced in the hearing,” C.O.M.E.T.’s counsel concluded. 
	Readers wishing to view the actual documents are invited to ask mentonematters@aol.com and the actual documents will be forwarded to them by e-mail. 
MM

Mentone Matters was requested by the De La Rosas to post these corrections (Ed. : readers will have to decipher the content for themselves and some of it is not familiar to MM, whose editor/publisher was present at the meeting, although the count sounds right):

“Corrections Please. Post
“There were 9 total present to vote with 5 current Officers present. Gabe did not vote so the vote was 8 people Final count 6 to 2
“Guieterrz said incoming if VICE President should be business owner and he will verify if editor calls him that he thought the Current Vice President should move to President. Which is why Gabe was voted in. Bylaws state voting is necessary to fill ANY vacancy . VP does not become President automatically
“There will not be a teleconference vote for VP Chair unless both Vice Pres-Chair or any other nominees for Vice Pres Chair agree to a VOICE vote rather than a private ballot vote. PER BYLAWS If anyone wants ballot that is on the board then ballot has to be choice” MM

Since David Wilder resigned as president of the Chamber of Commerce in December, eleven persons met at the Mill Creek Cattle Company in Mentone on Tuesday night, January 12, to elect the new Chamber president. Crafton Hills College Political Science professor Steve Hellerman and MACA vice-president J.P. Gutierrez had been nominated but both withdrew their names from consideration, leaving Chamber Vice President (and MACA President) Gabe De La Rosa as the only candidate. Gutierrez’s reason for not running for president was that he thought a business owner should be president. Hellerman, who was not president, did not state a reason for rejecting his nomination.

According to the Chamber’s bylaws De La Rosa moved into the position of de facto president until the Chamber’s regular election in October 2021, which the vote confirmed. There were six votes for De La Rosa and two votes for Joyce Rapp.

Some voters qusetioned why the vote was needed, if De La Rosa was already de facto President. Others stated a vote had to be taken.

Chamber members were given one week in which to nominate candidates for Chamber president before nominations closed and the vote meeting was held.

Jan Orbaker, a local rancher, offered to be vice president and was present at the meeting. One other such volunteer was not present. Orbaker, whose late husband was the MACA vice-president, will be voted on at the Chamber’s meeting by phone on the lat Tuesday of this month at 7 p.m.

Mentone Matters regretfully publishes the following:

“I am writing to notify you of my decision to resign as President of the Mentone Chamber of Commerce, and the Chairman of COMET.

“I am aware that the Board authorized the Film Festival without approval of the County Health Department.  I thought we had agreed in October, at our monthly meeting, that we would not support community meetings.  I was not informed until mid-December that the event took place.  I am also aware that you intend on holding in person meetings of both organizations.  I will not support that decision.  While a significant segment of Mentone believes that COVID-19 is not real, I have lost some good friends to this awful disease.  I also have over a dozen friends that have become ‘long-haulers’ after surviving the disease.

“I have also learned that Gabe [Ed.’s note: Gabe De La Rosa, Chamber Vice-president and COMET Vice-chairman] has been authorized to negotiate, and sign, contracts on behalf of the Chamber.  I have learned of this by accident.

“No matter what I attempt to send to the members it is rebranded under Gabe’s signature.  None of the materials sent to the Chamber members are sent to me.  I have been receiving information by forwarded emails.

“I have no desire to sit through a vote of ‘no confidence’.

“My resignation is effective 28 December 2020.  This allows adequate time for the Board to set up either their in person meeting, or another way of meeting.

“I wish you all good health.

David W. Wilder”

Wilder explained his concern in a separate e-mail to mentonematters@aol.com:
“My concern is that as the President of the Chamber I can be held legally responsible for all actions of the Chamber.  If I am not even informed of what is going on, I could lose everything that I have.  Ignoring the County, and State, stay at home orders is a serious issue.”

Wilder was nominated in 2018 by Pastor George Everett, who was President/Chairman for several years prior but decided to step down. Wilder was secretary of both organizations for 15 years prior to his election.

Wilder, who is legally blind, is also a member of the California Senior Legislature as a Senior Senator; was recently appointed by the Director of the California Department of Aging to serve on the State Aging and Disability Resource Connection Advisory Committee; serves on the Board of the Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program Board of Directors; is the elected Vice-Chair of the County Senior Affairs Commission and chairs the Access Committee; is President of the Senior and Disabled fund of San Bernardino County and the Vice President of Rolling Start Inc., the Independent Living Center for San Bernardino County. He travels to Sacramento each year to participate in Senior Legislature business.

Anyone is eligible and welcome to join the Chamber and COMET, which stands for “Community of Mentone Empowered Together,” even if they don’t own a business. Chamber dues are $25/year.

This came from Global Energy Services, Inc.:

“Southern California Gas Company’s (SoCalGas) CLEO program is tailored to customers to save energy and lower their electric, gas, and water bills.   The program is free to all customers of the Gas Company. Customers pay 3% of their utility bills every month as a Public Purpose Charge. This money funds the free program.   

The CLEO program offers parts and installation of Nest Smart Thermostats, Low Flow Showerheads, Faucet Aerators, and Tub Spout diverters. (A $500 value for free).  Customers must have a current SoCalGas bill in their name.  

Also, if your water heater is over ten years old, the CLEO program offers free installation on qualified water heaters. Customers need to purchase the qualifying Energy Star water heater.  Please call the CLEO Program at 1-888-898-6788 or email Joscelyn@gesusa.org to register for the free offer.  

Also, visit www.socalgas.com/save-money-and-energy for rebates and savings on residential Gas equipment.” MM