Government entity's land deal with Rep. Calvert violated law
The Jurupa Community Services District, the entity that oversees many governmental services for the unincorporated sections of Riverside County, California, arranged a land deal with a partnership including Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA). Rep. Calvert was named by CREW as one of the 20 most corrupt members of Congress, in part, because he used his position to earmark funds to increase the value of his own property. In other words, the earmarks benefited Calvert's own land deals. One of those land deals we questioned was with the Jurupa Community Services District. CREW raised the concern that Calvert received "preferential treatment" in that $1.2 million deal. Now, a grand jury has determined that the deal with the District violated California law:
The Jurupa Community Services District violated state law when it sold 4 acres of public land to Rep. Ken Calvert and his investment partners without first offering it to other public agencies -- including the local park district that wanted it, the Riverside County grand jury concluded in a report released Tuesday.
The grand jury recommends that the water and sewer agency turn over the $1.2 million it pocketed from the sale, minus costs, to the Jurupa Area Recreation and Park District.
Hat tip Think Progress.
Who rigged crooked land deal?
Oh My God! Another REPUKE crook and liar?
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Riverside Grand Jury Results And Ken Calvert
The Riverside’s Grand Jury’s Jurupa Community Service District (JCSD) Investigation results are released. The Jury concludes, as many of us have concluded, the JCSD violated the law in its “secretive” park land sale to Congressman Ken Calvert and associates. It did not notify other public agencies even when requested, the sale was not open to public bidding, used only one appraiser who was from another county and conducted the sale away from public view.
However, February 12, 2007 the JCSD issued a statement refusing further discussion about the remedy to correct the parkland sale error. In that statement, Mc Laughlin proclaims the District the winner if the sale is challenged in court. Unfortunately, in light of the evidence, this conclusion is premature if not naïve, and reflects another possible error by the JCSD.
Noticeably absent from the Grand Jury’s remedy is the “founder of the feast,” Ken Calvert. As CREW notes Calvert appears to have benefited from preferential treatment for a (park) land deal and the JCSD benefited from water supply legislation sponsored by Calvert. This raises the question as to whether Calvert received a special land deal in exchange or in appreciation for his legislative duties.
I ask a similar question that Mr. Arnold Rowe asks in his Pres-Enterprise opinion, July 7, 2007, “Does it not seem fair…that a federal law maker should have a sense of what is right and wrong…to correct a wrong to which he himself was a direct party?” Mr. Rowe concludes, “It is high time for Calvert to…demonstrate ethical behavior and return this parcel of ill gotten land to the public trust from which it was…swiped.”
So far Rep. Calvert has passed the responsibility for the deal to his business partners and refuses comment. Isn’t this rather pathetic for someone that is supposed to represent the public’s interest, and a major owner and benefactor of the (park) property deal?
Yes, in the list of unfortunates, Rep Calvert is a responsible party who refuses to accept any responsibility for his “swipe”.
Stephen Anderson
Mira Loma, CA 91752-1620