EDITORIAL - When a man as powerful as Tim Jones has a 59th birthday party the Madera County Board of Supervisors drop everything to help him celebrate. This weekend at the Lodge at Riverstone on Avenue 12 and Highway 41 a celebration for the Fresno Attorney and real estate developer will take place and the Madera supervisors will pay homage to the man who was able to build where no man has been allowed to build before.
While the ink is barely dry on the settlement agreement with the American Civil Liberties Union that resulted from the Madera Supervisors violating the Ralph M Brown Open Meetings Act, a quorum of the board is expected to show up for this private party outside of the view of the public or media. You would have thought the board learned their lesson from the $35K payment they had to make following an illegal closed door meeting with the Madera County Department of Corrections and the District Attorney’s office regarding granting Federal ICE agents access to prisoners in the jail.
The Madera County Supervisors are probably Mr. Jones’ biggest cheerleaders and they have been well paid to sing the birthday boy’s praises. For the last few years when these elected officials from Madera County have needed money for their campaigns, Jones as well as Richard Spencer from Harris Construction and Robert McCaffrey from McCaffrey Homes and Tesoro Viejo have been there to write thousands of dollars of checks.
The three biggest benefactors of these developers generosity have been Tom Wheeler and David Rogers who have run unopposed during their last campaigns (but still got thousands) and Brett Frazier who won his first term four years ago thanks to developer money and who now lives in a brand new house in Riverstone.
Board members from Madera County have also been guests at private parties hosted by these developers including an elaborate Super Bowl Party also hosted at the Lodge at Riverstone. There have been gifts to the supervisors of free wine-of-the-month memberships from CRU, dinners at Ruth Chris Steakhouse and even private flights to Las Vegas. So why wouldn’t the board show up to another free party?
In the Spring of 2015 after the completion of the Madera County Sheriff’s Department’s new offices near the airport in Madera, Richard Spencer decided to open the bar at his CRU Winery in Madera to host a free party for all the department heads and elected officials from Madera County. The party was an attempted ‘thank you’ to the county for the $40,000 a month lease-back deal he got from the board after he remodeled an old warehouse into the new sheriff’s department.
That party, which utilized county staff hours for the planning, never happened. When BIG VALLEY NEWS started asking questions about the party, it was abruptly canceled. While none of the supervisors would discuss the party with us, a series of emails between Madera County CAO Eric Fleming and Richard Spencer showed the owner of Harris Construction was very reasonable about opening the party to the local media. However Fleming was clear this was a private event for the county elected and department heads only and he did not want the media in attendance.
So what is the big deal about a birthday party or a private party just for the elected officials?
Well, the California Open Meeting Law (Brown Act) says the county’s business is to be done in front of the public. Now of course there are certain issues that the board is allowed to discuss in closed session, but all of those actions must be reported in open session. The Brown Act does not prohibit the board from meeting for social gatherings as long as county business is not discussed, but how would the public ever know if it had. Considering the thousands of dollars in campaign contributions received and the way the county has bent over backwards to make sure this 25 year old project finally broke ground for Jones and McCaffrey (when other developers have failed) we have to wonder if the county may have given special consideration to these developers?
Twenty-five years ago the Castle & Cooke Development had plans to build on this exact same 2,100 acres that the Riverstone project now sits on, but the project was plagued with over 20 years of lawsuits.
In 2010 Jones bought what was known as the Gateway Village from Castle & Cook. As of now Riverstone is the largest approved subdivision in the Rio Mesa Area Plan and with Jones at the helm, most of the lawsuits have been settled, but some still exists.
Also in 2010 Madera County CAO Eric Fleming was hired by the county of Madera. Fleming is a former paint contractor for both McCaffrey Homes and Harris Construction. During the next eight years Fleming and the Madera County Planning Director Norman Allinder (who was hired in 2009) did everything in their power to push Riverstone and Tesoro Viejo projects through the offices of the Madera County Government Center.
While working on Riverstone and Tesoro Viejo, Allinder would often being heard saying the department would need to complete certain projects that “Uncle Bob wanted done.” Our source believes “Uncle Bob” was a reference to Robert McCaffrey. During his time as the planning director he would work closely with Jones and McCaffrey even presenting the McCaffreys with an award at a Fresno dinner from the American Planning Association for the Tesoro Viejo development.
In 2016 Allinder was promoted to the position of Chief of Madera County Development Services. However he didn’t stay in that position long as on October 21, 2016 Allinder’s world came crashing down on him when he was arrested for 23152(A) VC, driving under the influence of alcohol in his county issued vehicle. Within six months Norm was out at the county and is now self-employed as a freelance urban planner. Three guess as to whom some of his clients are?
A lawsuit was filed against the county of Madera by the city of Fresno over Rio Mesa seeking a tax-sharing agreement for the development. That lawsuit was countered by a Madera County lawsuit against the city of Fresno’s approval of the El Paseo Shopping Center on Herndon Avenue near Highway 99. Madera County settled the lawsuit on Rio Mesa by agreeing to pay the city of Fresno $1500 for each of the 30,000 houses built in the Rio Mesa area ($45 million). As for the shopping center on Herndon Avenue, it was allowed to continue and is pirating millions of retail dollars a year from nearby Madera County residents. Despite being asked by BVN several times, Eric Fleming has no comment.
The Rio Mesa Area Plan will result in more than 30,000 homes when built out over 30 years. These communities in the Rio Mesa area could incorporate to create an entirely new city in Madera County that could dwarf the city of Madera and have a population greater than Madera County’s current population of 150,000. Many believe these billion dollar projects are going to make it nearly impossible to build and sell homes in the city of Madera or attract retail to the county seat. It’s also been pointed out that there is already a limit on available water in this area. How are these 30,000 homes going to be supplied with water hook-ups?
There is a lot at stake and it appears our county government has been bought by Fresno developers and is no longer working for the best interests of Madera County as a whole. So who cares if our board of supervisors celebrates the birthday of a Fresno developer?
- Anyone who already owns property in the city of Madera should care.
- Anyone who wants to continue to use water in Madera County (without having to pay for the cost of digging new wells) should care.
- Anyone who believes in planning for the best interests of the existing city of Madera above developing monstrously large, new developments should care.
I just wish the California Attorney General would care…
By the way it’s a surprise birthday parties for Mr. Jones, so don’t share this editorial with him until Sunday morning. SHHHHHH! It’s a secret!
