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4/5/17 – On Monday, April 3, 2017, City workers could be observed cutting down freeway vegetation along the westbound lanes of Interstate 10, just West of Sunset. Apparently the brush clearing was done on behalf of a private business. According to Caltrans, the City did receive a permit for their activities.

With their brush clearing, however, the City crew did not appear to abate a public nuisance nor address a public safety issue. The sole purpose of their actions appeared to be to increase the freeway visibility of Diamond Hills Chevrolet, a private business operating in Banning.

The properties cleared did not belong to the City, nor were they adjacent to City property.

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The clearing of vegetation occurred adjacent to a property occupied by Diamond Hills Chevrolet, which currently has a billboard located on it.

Why is it that this business did not hire their own crew, but instead had the City to do it for them? Diamond Hills is a business that already receives large subsidies from the City of Banning in form of a substantially reduced sales tax. Why was this not enough?

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CITY HAS OPENED PANDORA’S BOX OF FAVORITISM –  HOW MANY LAWSUITS WILL FOLLOW ?

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Using City assets to support and enhance a private business is unprecedented even in Banning. Such activity raises questions of fairness, equality and neutrality on part of the City. Why does only one particular business receive this service from the City, while dozens of other business with freeway frontage do not?

These shortsighted and underhanded actions by the City may now have opened Pandora’s box : each and every business bordering on I-10 in Banning may claim they were disenfranchised by the City for not having access to those very services that Diamond Hills Chevrolet was able to enjoy. All of those businesses could reasonably claim they were discriminated against by the City of Banning.

In a worst case scenario, a flood of lawsuits or possibly even a class action suit could soon hit the City.

At a very minimum, the City’s underhanded favoritism makes City manager Michael Rock look like a pathetic loser, unqualified to lead this City.

 

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GOOD-OLE-BOY COUNCILMAN ART WELCH INVOLVED AGAIN ?

Whenever underhanded freebie deals go down in Banning, one needs to look no further than to notorious good-ole-boy, councilman Art Welch.

We all remember his intimate involvement in the Banning Chamber utility freebie scandal (story), or his relentless push to give away over $ 500,000 to the Banning Business Center (story), only to see it never get finished and today serve as Banning’s infamous homeless compound. Indeed, whenever underhanded deals go down in Banning, good-ole-boy Art Welch is never far away.

And it appears, this time it is no different. According to sources familiar with the issue, the orders to cut vegetation using City assets can once again be traced back to good-ole-boy councilmember Art Welch. One of Welch’s closest allies, James C. “Jim” Smith, works at Diamond Hills Chevrolet.

Welch is said to have coordinated the project with City manager Michael Rock, who is as shady as Welch – if not more.

In case you missed it, Rock’s integrity was recently called into question, when he was caught attempting to manipulate a City council election.

After this was discovered, instead of firing Rock, a corrupt council majority made up of Art Welch, George Moyer and Debbie Franklin, made sure Rock was allowed to remain on the job (see previous story and Press Enterprise coverage). Only councilmembers Daniela Andrade and Don Peterson demanded Rock be fired for his election shenanigans.

And as if this wasn’t enough, Welch, Moyer and Franklin are all on record receiving campaign contributions from the previous owners of Diamond Hills (see previous story here). Now the City of Banning bends over backwards for Diamond Hills Chevrolet – what a coincidence !

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CONCLUSION

Once again we have evidence suggesting that Banning is one dirty little town! When the City shows such clear favoritism towards a politically connected merchant, is it any wonder that legitimate businesses may think twice before they locate to Banning?

How can you compete with another business when it gets seemingly unlimited preferential treatment from the government, while you will never be able to?  The answer is, you can’t compete in such a rigged environment. The deck is stacked against you.. So you take your business elsewhere.

The fact of the matter is, corruption and backdoor dealings never lead to prosperity. And this is exactly why Banning’s sales tax revenue has declined for fiscal year 2015/16.

Great job, Banning Good-ole-boys ! What a way to “move Banning forward”!

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