Yeah, we replaced the dead guy...but the replacement's a secret

Just last Tuesday, I wrote about Cory Briggs' latest organization, the Inland Oversight Committee, and the fact that the listed chairman of the committee, Ian Trowbridge, actually passed away several months ago.

Well, Briggs has returned to the news again. When I read the title of a recent Liset Marquez article in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Lawsuit threatens formation of Ontario-Rancho Cucamonga tourism marketing district, I wondered if Briggs had something to do with it.

Turns out I was right. (Off-topic, this makes me feel better, because I was sure that Dwight Howard wouldn't make his free agency decision until after July 10. Turns out I was wrong about that. I think.)

The Ontario-based Inland Oversight Committee, in its suit, is asking that the district's formation be taken to the voters.

Cory Briggs, the group's attorney, filed the lawsuit in West Valley Superior Court in Rancho Cucamonga on Monday....

So, considering that the Inland Oversight Committee web page currently lists three people in the organization - Briggs (no listed official role, but quoted in the press releases), Anthony Kim (legal adviser), and the aforementioned dead man (chairman), I wondered if Marquez was able to use her journalistic skills to figure out if anyone else was on the committee. But Marquez had no such luck:

Members of the group have asked to remain anonymous.

For a full account of the basis of Briggs' latest lawsuit, see the article.

Oh, and by the way, I found out more about Anthony Kim. According to LinkedIn, Kim is based in San Diego, and is an attorney with the Briggs Law Corporation. Presumably, as legal adviser to the Inland Oversight Committee, Kim is responsible for securing legal representation for the committee in its court cases. And so far, the lawyer that Kim has recommended is...Kim's own boss. And oddly enough, Kim does not appear on the list of attorneys for the Briggs Law Corporation, although his name does appear on this complaint, filed on behalf of the "Redlands Good Neighbor Coalition," and filed against Costco. No, I'm kidding, it's against Walmart.

So the Inland Oversight Committee site lists a dead man, and the Briggs Law Corporation website fails to list a current attorney - well, someone who was an attorney a few months ago. If you are a webmaster, please try to get a job with Briggs; he seems to be a little slow in updating his web sites.

P.S. The empo-jooryst series will resume on Monday.

A Cory Briggs interest group has a real person connected with it - well, sort of

Sorry to interrupt my coverage of my jury service three months ago, but I was checking my analytics and saw an uptick in people reading articles about Cory Briggs. Since the Ontario Walmart appears to be on schedule for a fall 2013 opening, I figured that perhaps Briggs was being active in some other city. I was correct; I found this article from early June:

CHINO -- A possible lawsuit has Mayor Dennis Yates concerned it will scare away potential developers from building in his city and the Inland Empire.

On Tuesday, the attorney for Inland Oversight Committee threatened to take the city to court if the council didn't reverse the Planning Commission's action approving a million-square-foot industrial development for Watson Land Co.

Attorney Cory Briggs filed an appeal with city alleging the project did not receive the proper environmental review and the city did not properly notify the public about the Planning Commission's approval a month and a half ago.

So this organization is called the "Inland Oversight Committee." We've been down this road before, with the Ontario Mountain Village Association, the Blythe Citizens for Smart Growth, the Menifee Citizens for Smart Growth, and the Murrietans for Smart Growth. So I suspected that the Inland Oversight Committee was just something that Briggs had completely dreamed up, and that the committee itself had one member, Briggs.

Well, in my typical Jim Bakker fashion, I was wrong. Not only does the Inland Oversight Committee have a website, it actually has real people associated with it. But first, let's see that the Inland Oversight Committee does that is different from the other organizations that I have named:

IOC's specific purpose is to educate members of the public about their rights to transparent, accountable, and responsible decision-making by the government, as well as their rights to the fair, equal, and lawful treatment by the government when they interact with government agencies and representatives. Pursuing this purpose, IOC's mission is (1) to identify, expose, and educate the public about non-compliance with local, state, and federal laws of every kind (including but not limited to taxpayer waste and circumvention of voter approval) by government bodies and by persons who conduct any form of business with those bodies; (2) to advocate for and pursue appropriate corrective measures for such non-compliance; and (3) to serve as a "watchdog" to ensure that unethical and illegal conduct by government bodies is exposed and appropriate remedies are pursued.

And if you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you can see the people named as part of this group, none of whom has the last name of Briggs (although he has represented the group in legal matters):

Chairman: Ian Trowbridge

Legal Advisor: Anthony Kim

Now I have not yet researched Anthony Kim - as you will see in a future post in my empo-jooryst series, it is difficult to research people who have very common names. But I figured that Ian Trowbridge would be a relatively easy name to find, so I began looking for an Ian Trowbridge in southern California - perhaps in the Inland Empire, or perhaps in the San Diego area.

Bingo. I found an article all about Trowbridge - about how he had been a "retired Salk Institute researcher who turned his attention to local politics and became a thorn in the side of many an elected official." The article included a quote from "East [San Diego] County activist Charlene Ayers, who worked with Trowbridge to hold government officials accountable to the people they serve." After he retired from the Salk Institute:

Trowbridge became a fixture at public meetings of the San Diego City Council, the county Board of Supervisors, the port commission and any other public agency that he thought might benefit from his civic interest. He advocated for clean-needle exchanges to fight the spread of AIDS. He sued to stop developments over environmental issues, or to avert generous severance packages for corrupt officials.

Oh, and there's one other thing about this article.

It's Trowbridge's obituary.

You see, Ian Trowbridge passed away in early February.

Yet his name is still on the Inland Oversight Committee website, where he is listed as Chairman.

Mayor Daley would have been proud.

False excitement about the Ontario Wal-Mart Supercenter

The press release title was certainly promising.

Ontario Wal-Mart Supercenter Celebrates Grand Opening

Store’s impact seen in 255 new jobs, benefits and $19,000 in charitable donations

And the first paragraph also included some promising words:

Creating 255 new jobs and focusing on charitable support and every day low prices, the ... Wal-Mart Supercenter in Ontario will celebrate its grand opening at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 20. Doors will open at 8 a.m.

But there are two problems.

First, this is a 2005 press release.

Second, this is not for Ontario, California. It's for Ontario, Ohio.

But there's encouraging words for those of us out here also. I had thought that the Wal-Mart was a done deal, but Liset Marquez set me straight with her March 5 Inland Valley Daily Bulletin article:

After years of litigation and more than $1 million spent in attorney fees, a dispute over an environmental report related to the building of a Wal-Mart Supercenter in this city has finally drawn to a close.
The seven-year battle ended when an attorney for Ontario Mountain Village Association - a group of residents who have opposed the building of the facility at the northwest corner of Mountain Avenue and Fifth Street - dropped the last appeal involving the case.

Attorney Cory Briggs said he decided against appealing an October court decision that only rewarded him $54,000 for court fees.

Read the rest here.

Do you want to know how long this story has gone on? When I initially started talking about my parody "Ontario Vineyard Village Association" several years ago, I joked that the OVVA was located in a high-rise building in Guasti.

Today, there actually ARE high-rise buildings in Guasti. OK, maybe none of them has a 25th floor - yet - but as long as the planes don't hit them, a 25-story Guasti building could be in our future.

Organizational chaos

I like organizations.

Throughout my life, I've been involved in a number of organizations.

There was the Fairlington Fun Group (FFG), who entertained other kids in the neighborhood.

There was the Independent Republic of New Concord, which was unsuccessful in its attempt to liberate Theodore Roosevelt Island from American rule.

There was the Campus Planning Commission (of Reed College), which was unsuccessful in building a subway system at the small college.

And there was the Ontario Vineyard Village Association (OVVA), which was unsuccessful at a lot of things.

As locals may realize, the latter non-existent entity was a parody of the Ontario Mountain Village Assocation (OMVA), which was extremely successful for years in preserving a dangerous eyesore near some residential areas. Oh, and it got fifty thousand bucks - not quite the $487,000 it wanted.

Of course, while the Ontario Mountain Village Association (which used to have a website - I quoted from it - but the website is long gone) was doing its thing, there were a number of other organizations that were fighting the good fight against evil non-union corporations.

There were the various "smart growth" associations in Blythe, Menifee, and Murrieta. After some delays, two members of Murrietans for Smart Growth were produced - the president of the organization, from San Diego, and one of the founders of the organization, from Murrieta - and the founder had never heard of the president.

What links the Ontario Mountain Village Association, the Blythe Citizens for Smart Growth, the Menifee Citizens for Smart Growth, and the Murrietans for Smart Growth - other than their concern with large non-union stores with no parallel concern of union stores?

All of them are associated with the same lawyer, Cory Briggs.

But Briggs is branching out. His new organization - whoops, I mean a new organization which he just happens to represent - is the Inland Oversight Committee. Liset Marquez of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin reports that the committee seeks an injunction to prohibit the city of Ontario from promoting Christianity via City Council meeting invocations.

And if you want the Inland Oversight Committee members identified to see if they're really the Murrietans for Smart Growth, don't hold your breath.

Members of the Inland Oversight Committee have asked to remain anonymous, Briggs said.

"They are very concerned about retaliation and incrimination because they are taking on institution of government," he said.

This differs from Patrick Greene, another past opponent of the establishment of Christianity in Ontario. When Greene takes action, his name is prominently displayed.

However, the Inland Oversight Committee is not only concerned with the First Amendment.

Earlier this month, with Briggs acting as its lawyer, IOC filed a lawsuit asking for a refund for taxpayers of the $102 million settlement made by the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors in 2006 with Rancho Cucamonga-based developers Colonies Partners LP.

The Daily Bulletin has posted the IOC's lawsuit against Ontario (see the link at the top of the article). The lawsuit seeks injunctions preventing the city from (in its words) violating the U.S. and California Constitutions. It also seeks attorneys' fees and "[c]osts as authorized by law."

Oddly enough - probably due to some legal tradition - the items sought by the plaintiffs are in a section of the document entitled "Prayer," which includes the words "Plaintiff respectfully prays for the following relief." I'm sure that the IOC meeting got really heated when Briggs explained to the IOC members that such language was necessary.

Incidentally, the prayer includes items A, B, C, E, and F. Don't know what happened to item D - I guess point D asked to remain anonymous.

Join the Wal-Mart conversation at Inland Utopia

For some unknown reason, a 2008 Matt Munson post about Wal-Mart has suddenly attracted a number of comments.

Naturally, I had to join in, and it was just then that I realized how long this whole Wal-Mart thing has dragged out.

Heck, I was writing about City Rentals' pollution record back in 2005. (And if you don't know what City Rentals has to do with Wal-Mart, perhaps this post from the same period may offer a clue.)

And perhaps it's appropriate to repeat part of what I wrote in 2010:

You see, Briggs hasn't only opposed the Walmart in Ontario. At around the same time that the Ontario Mountain Village Association started its battle, there was a battle that was being waged in another city....

On January 2, Cory Briggs of Upland registered an organization called the "Murrietans for Smart Growth." (He also registered an organization called "Blythe Citizens for Smart Growth" on the same day.) One day later, the Murrietans for Smart Growth filed a suit to block a SuperTarget in Murrieta.

Now the city of Murrieta hadn't run into a lot of Murrietans who were demanding smart growth, and people began to wonder if the only one demanding this was non-Murrietan Cory Briggs.

Read the rest here.

Since I wrote that post, the Target in Montclair has expanded to include a full grocery section. Yes, that's the Target in Montclair, California - the Target that used to be in Ontario, California way back before Mountain and 5th became the Cory Briggs Ghetto Vandalism Park. (Anthony Muñoz must be so proud.)

Why I disagreed with Jesse Stay, yet agreed with him (another "Walmart in Ontario" post)

Jesse Stay is a fairly well-known figure in the (admittedly small) tech/social media community. And he uses his last name as a branding tool - when he's not working, he takes "staycations" even if he leaves home. And his blog is called Stay N' Alive.

Recently he wrote the post Want to Give me a Christmas Present? Please Like This. It turns out that "this" is not a Facebook page (even though Stay co-wrote the book on Facebook), but another page:

If you give me anything this Christmas season, will you please just click like on this page, supporting Salt Lake City’s food bank? If we can get enough people to like it Salt Lake City’s food bank earns $1 million to distribute to the needy. This year is of particular need for the Utah Food bank. In a down economy, they are seeing increasing need for help, with a shortage in what they are able to provide. They claim this year to have a 30 percent increase in the number of families coming for food.

Well, Stay's post inspired me, but not exactly in the way he wanted. You see, I ended up finding another page - the page for Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, California, and liked that page. If you're an Inland Empire resident who is reading this post (this is, after all, the Empoprise-IE Inland Empire blog), I encourage you to like it also.

As you have figured out, this is a competition between various metropolitan areas to get funding from a donor.

The donor? Walmart. If you go to the parent page, http://fightinghunger.walmart.com/, you can find out what is going on:

Help fight hunger in your community

We're putting $1.5 million in your hands. You decide where it goes.

Select a community on the map. "Like" it to show your support. We'll donate $1 million to the community with the most support, and $100,000 each to the next five communities.

So now people in Salt Lake City, people in our area, and people in other areas throughout the country are working to get support before the contest ends up Friday, December 31.

Now I'm not blind as to WHY Walmart is doing this, or why Walmart has pledged $2 billion by 2015 to fighting hunger. Or why competitor Target has held similar contests to direct charitable giving.

Frankly, the big box companies want to obtain community support, and this is just a salvo in their battle against union supporters who want to keep big box stores out of every city (see my December 6 post).

Which is why my Facebook "like" of the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario page included the following message:

Sorry, Jesse Stay, but I needed to send a message to Cory Briggs.

Perhaps Briggs will ensure that Albertsons or the UFCW donates a few billion dollars of their own, and then we can call it even.

Ontario consumers continue to suffer in Cory Briggs' union war

Yes, the Ontario WalMart project is delayed yet again.

City officials may be forced to scrap their three-year-old approval of a Walmart Supercenter and review the project again.

If the tentative opinion by the state 4th District Court of Appeal in Riverside holds, city officials will have to set aside approval of the superstore and study the possibility of urban decay due to business competition.

Possibility of what?

"We won on key issues: urban decay and losing the grocery store. Both are big issues," said Cory Briggs, an attorney for the group of homeowners opposed to the project at Fifth Street and Mountain Avenue.

"This proves what we've said all along. Walmart doesn't create new jobs and does more to displace employers."

Here's what is alleged:

The analysis conducted by the city found that no significant urban decay would occur as a result of the project.

The city's report also found that if a grocery store were to shut down as a result of the Walmart project, other uses could fill the vacancy. An Albertsons market lies three blocks to the south.

But the court doesn't agree.

The report, the opinion states, "does not look at the actual demand for vacant food store space, and therefore did not adequately assess the likelihood of urban decay resulting from the project."

Urban decay, as the opinion described, can be attributed to increased competition and the economy. Both could lead businesses to close and, over time, the buildings to deteriorate.

The evaluation of that possibility, Briggs said, will paint a clearer picture of the project's economic impacts for the council and other city officials.

Any economists or politicians, Briggs said, will argue that small businesses are the backbone of the economy.

"Walmarts are small-business killers," he said.

Now bear in mind that the so-called "small business" that worries Briggs so much happens to be an Albertsons grocery store. Albertsons is part of SuperValu, Inc., traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the "SVU" ticker. As of Friday, SuperValu had a market capitalization of US$1.79 billion and revenue of US$38.62 billion.

And while Briggs speaks of urban blight, he completely ignores the urban blight that I have to face every day - namely, an abandoned grocery store AND and abandoned Target AND an abandoned Toys R Us. If you want to see urban blight, go to the corner of Mountain and 5th. Cory Briggs has preserved that urban blight for several years running.

Matt Munson still seems to think that this can be settled:

Here is my suggestion so we can get the project settled once and for all.

Listen to the residents, figure out what accommodations which could be made so we can get the project built. Having a pure super center like Chino is out of the question and having the project terminated is also out of consideration as well.

Um, Matt, it's not. Briggs and his friends would love to see the Walmart project completely terminated. Even if the store were only open five minutes a day and if you had to use mass transit to get there, Briggs and his friends still wouldn't want the Walmart in Ontario.

To realize why, you have to look at Cory Briggs' previous activity.

You see, Briggs hasn't only opposed the Walmart in Ontario. At around the same time that the Ontario Mountain Village Association started its battle, there was a battle that was being waged in another city. I've talked about this before (also here, but perhaps it's worthwhile to recap.

On January 2, Cory Briggs of Upland registered an organization called the "Murrietans for Smart Growth." (He also registered an organization called "Blythe Citizens for Smart Growth" on the same day.) One day later, the Murrietans for Smart Growth filed a suit to block a SuperTarget in Murrieta.

Now the city of Murrieta hadn't run into a lot of Murrietans who were demanding smart growth, and people began to wonder if the only one demanding this was non-Murrietan Cory Briggs. North County Times picked up the story:

Earlier this summer, after Regency's attorney suggested Briggs was the only member of the group, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Stephen Cunnison ordered Briggs to produce an actual member of the organization before allowing the lawsuit to proceed.

The first "Murrietan" to step forward was Richard Lawrence - who lives in San Diego and has no business affiliation to Murrieta, let alone Riverside County, according to court documents. In a deposition, Lawrence said he was the group's president.

Hubbard, however, continued to press Briggs to bring forward an actual Murrieta resident, according to court documents. And a few weeks later, on Sept. 4, Briggs produced a woman named Felicia Munoz-Graham, who lives on the city's west side and works at the Ralphs supermarket on Washington Avenue.

According to her deposition, Munoz-Graham was one of the founders of the group - but she said she had never heard of Lawrence.

The lack of familiarity between the two members further clouded the group's legitimacy in the eyes of Murrieta leaders.

So Matt Munson, I'm sorry, but you can't expect someone who will invent a group to reasonably negotiate - especially when you consider one other parallel between the Murrietans for Smart Growth and the Ontario Mountain Village Association.

Felicia Munoz-Graham works at a Ralphs in Murrieta.

Cory Briggs is, as previously noted, really really concerned about the Albertsons in northwest Ontario.

Why is Briggs worried about the Kroger unit (Ralphs) and the SuperValu unit (Albertsons), but not about WalMart or Target?

Well, I won't say the name of the organization that links the two grocery stores, but its initials are UFCW.

You probably already know how UFCW feels about WalMart. Here's how they feel about Target:

Of more than 1,400 Target stores employing more than 300,000 people nationwide, not one has a union. Employees at various stores say an anti-union message and video is part of the new-employee orientation. At stores in the Twin Cities, where Target is headquartered, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union Local 789 has been trying for several years to help Target employees organize, with little luck.

"People ask what the difference between Wal-Mart and Target is," said UFCW organizer Bernie Hesse. "Nothing, except that Wal-Mart is six times bigger."

So, in response to Matt Munson's question regarding "what accommodations...could be made" to get the WalMart in Ontario approved, it's really very simple - unionize the entire WalMart workforce, and Briggs will cease his opposition to the project.

Sounds reasonable, doesn't it?

Wal-Mart, Snobbery, and Food Choices?

I recently wrote about fast food in my business blog, and fast food plays a part in a theory about Wal-Mart.

But first, let's provide an update. And I'll try to keep calm.

The Ontario Mountain Village Association, as part of their repeated and continued attempts to preserve a graffiti-ridden empty lot in northwest Ontario - I guess they want to lower their property values by having decaying vacant space next to their homes - have filed an appeal of the City of Ontario's decision to finally allow the Wal-Mart to be constructed in northwest Ontario.

However, as I write this, the Ontario Mountain Village Association has apparently not discovered the blog post that covers their lawsuit, because of the four comments on the post, exactly zero of them support the OMVA's position. Matt has (so far) written the longest comment, and while he doesn't support the move to keep the Wal-Mart out of Ontario, he's hoping that Wal-Mart will do more than put a big box at Mountain & 5th.

Target sucks and is no better than Walmart. These stores should both stop wasting our open space on these one story box stores with oceans of parking. They should consider a two level approach with a parking structure, leaving room for a plaza, a parkway, and a restaurant.

This would make these shopping centers interesting for pedestrian shoppers instead of dangerous and uninviting. The big box approach to retail will fizzle out and die like a 1960's shopping mall, even in the burbs.

Build a Super Walmart but build it right. Come on Ontario, I know you can force them to design a more urban walmart plaza or court, a Super Walmart that would make the Chaffey brothers proud...LOL.

I've seen the more urban walmarts. They are much better than a crappy old one story Walmart. They don't waste land! (under-utilization).

But then Matt shared a theory which may be of interest.

The Rancho Cucamonga Walmart is no different from many walmarts I've seen except instead of having Mc Donalds fast food in the parking lot there is a Claim Jumper Restaurant. This is a better restaurant choice which draws larger more diverse crowds to the center while also attracting more affluent shoppers.

Rancho Walmart w/ Claim Jumper
More Affluent ($$ / $$$$$)

instead of

Upland Walmart w/ Mc Donalds
Less Affluent ($ / $$$$$).

Personally, I think that Matt is oversimplifying the causes - I think that the problems in the Upland Wal-Mart are due to bad management rather than food choices, and most people don't base their shopping destination choices on the available food. But it is an interesting idea, and if you believe Matt's model, then what will happen to the Ontario Wal-Mart when Cory Briggs' last appeal is denied and a non-union - oh, did I say "non-union"? I'm sure that doesn't enter into Briggs' plans - when Cory Briggs' last appeal is denied and a store replaces the three empty stores on the vacant lot?

On the one hand, you have a Carl's Jr next to the store site. Score one for Matt's Upland model.

On the other hand, you have a Starbucks, a My Delight Cupcakery, a wings place, a sushi grill, and some other non-fast food restaurants just down the street.

We'll follow this continuing saga.

My comment to Matt Munson's article on Wal-Mart and Ontario

Matt Munson's Inland Utopia blog has implemented captchas, which is a Norwegian word meaning "to capture all comments and send them into the void." This, or something else, rendered me unable to comment on this post. Excerpt:

Personally I am not against Wal-Mart doing business in our city, but it is the wrong part of Ontario for Wal-Mart to do business in....Imagine what Wal-Mart could of done if they built theirs next to the Sam’s Club in Ontario. The Super Center would be part of a commercial district where residents would not be offended that it would be there.

Here is what I wanted to say:

As a resident of northwest Ontario, I have to question a couple of implications in your post.

First, there's the idea that a Wal-Mart by Ontario Mills would give as much benefit to the city as a Wal-Mart in northwest Ontario. This, of course, assumes that the people in northwest Ontario would be happy driving several miles east - and frankly, if I have the choice between driving to a store in Ontario Mills or a store in Montclair (Costco), I'm going to drive to Montclair.

Second, there's the implication (via comparison with Las Vegas) that the Wal-Mart would invade a residential district. The residential district was invaded long ago. Even 20 years ago, the site was home to a grocery store (Giant, later Food 4 Less) AND a Target AND A Toys R Us. Those sites have been abandoned for several years because graffiti-ridden eyesores do so much good for the city. The area also hosts or has previously hosted a gas station, a video store, a locksmith, two fast food restaurants, and a convenience store.

If this is a residential neighborhood, then why didn't these same residents rise up in arms when the shopping center at 4th Street was expanded to include an Albertson's? If you check Cory Briggs' history, you'll soon figure out why he objects to some kinds of development and not others.

How long will Ontario tolerate a graffiti-ridden eyesore?

Matt Munson wrote about the continuing Wal Mart fight in Ontario on February 17, 2009.

Ironically, I wrote about the vacant, graffiti-ridden lot back in November 2005.

It is now February 2009, and the graffiti-ridden lot is still there, still vacant, still an eyesore.

And even today, stopwalmartontario.com continues to proclaim that "the city does not need the revenue." And they continue to hide who is behind the effort, as they did in 2007. Oh, and you may recall that another Cory Briggs group, "Murrietans for Smart Growth," was only able to produce a single Murrietan for Smart Growth - who coincidentally works at a Ralphs.

Briggs continues to be active against Wal Marts, and is now tying up the construction of a Wal Mart in Hesperia. Estimates are that the project is now delayed by two years. Based upon Briggs' ability to preserve a graffiti-ridden eyesore in Ontario, that estimate is probably light.

Meanwhile, in Ontario, a legal hearing on the matter has been delayed to April 10.

And people from Ontario continue to shop in Chino.