Our photographer Ray Flores ended up spending 11 hours at Harrah’s Tuesday night and Wednesday (Jan. 9-10) morning as what turned out to be a hoax unfolded. This is his eyewitness report.
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It is 1:30 a.m. on a cold, dark Wednesday morning and as they are leaving through the main hotel lobby of the Harrah’s Rincon Casino the expression of the San Diego County SWAT Team members are a mixture of relief, frustration, fatigue, and satisfaction of having done their job professionally.
They have just completed their sweep of the 55 rooms of the hotels third-floor Garden Tower where for the past ten-and-a-half hours an alleged guest of the hotel had reportedly shot her husband over gambling losses at the casino and had been threatening to commit suicide.
It all started with a phone call Tuesday to the hotel switchboard operator sometime between 2:30–3 p.m. according to Sheryl Sebastian, the casino’s public relations manager.
Later at a briefing held by San Diego County Sheriff’s public information officer, Lt. Phil Brust, we learned that witnesses had step forward and reported to have heard some noises about the same time the phone call came in, adding credibility to the report.
Seconds after the phone call was received by the hotel switchboard, management and security, informed of the call, locked down the hotel and notified local law enforcement.
Moments later San Diego County Sheriff and California Highway Patrol units arrived and roads were blocked to the resort to prevent people from coming in. Patrons were allowed to leave the property. “We’re not letting anyone in just for their safety,” said Brust.
At about 6 p.m. traffic was allowed to flow both north and southbound on Valley Center Road, which had been closed for nearly three hours. By about 7:45, Sheriff’s officials allowed patrons to enter the casino while the hotel remained locked down.
Soon after Sebastian told reporters that the casino had remained open and there had been no evacuations from the casino itself. Patrons who were leaving the casino were completely unaware of anything that had been going on.
Later that Tuesday evening the ongoing search was confined to the third floor of the Garden Tower, where there are a total 55 rooms. Deputies phoned guest rooms and if anyone answered they were informed to go directly to the ground floor so that law enforcement could conduct their search.
The SWAT Team used a bomb-arson robot to check each of the rooms. Brust said the search finished sometime after midnight. No one, victim or perpetrator was found.
Brust stated that the information they had wasn’t credible. They did receive a phone call and Brust said that detectives would continue to investigate the call.
At 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning I was informed by Sheriff’s Lt. Sean Gerrity, and his deputies, that the situation was a hoax and they were finally calling it a day.
Seeing the Sheriff’s SWAT Team successfully conduct their operations and leave the casino and hotel after a long grueling day has to give me an appreciation of the job they and their fellow officers, as well as the California Highway Patrol, do to protect us.
There are a total of 653 rooms on 21 stories at this resort where the possibility exists, at any moment a split second could take away all of who they are, ever was and ever will be.
It is sad that someone among us would pull such a cruel hoax. I hope that whoever perpetrated this hoax realizes the lives put in danger every time an officer, fire fighter, or other emergency personnel is dispatched to our aid.
In these times of the possible threat of terrorism, natural and man made disasters, etc., I hope we have learned to value those individuals who unselfishly give of themselves and who have taken an oath of allegiance, “To Protect and Serve.”
Coincidently, a similar call was made to an operator at Ceasar’s Casino Atlantic City, New Jersey, by a woman who stated she had killed someone and was threatening suicide.
The Atlantic City PD was able to trace the call back to a pay phone and to a woman who supposedly is suffering from mental illness.
Atlantic City PD has since identified the woman and discovered that she may have made up to 15 call to various other Harrah’s properties throughout the country.
Currently, investigators from VC’s Sheriff’s substation in conjunction with Atlantic City PD and Harrah’s Security is pursuing any and all charges in regards to the Harrah’s episode.
Making unlawful phone calls permits the Sheriff’s Dept. to exercise a unique civil statute in which they can recoup the thousands of dollars expended for the deployment of its resources from the suspect. Keep in mind also that making illicit calls carry the additional penalties of fines and jail time.
Editor’s Note: the Government Code allows a judgment from the criminal court for up to $12,000 in government cost recovery when someone does something like this. According to Gerrity, “Based upon the resources we used, I think we'll easily reach this amount. This would be in addition to any fine or time in jail. This does not even take into consideration any losses Harrah's suffered.”
We will bring you more updates as they become available.
Oliver Smith, last year’s vice chairman, was elected to the top post of the VC Planning Group at Monday night’s meeting.
Susan Simpson was elected vice chairman and Dr. Deborah Hofler was elected secretary.
Vacancy
Members were told about the resignation recently of Lael Montgomery. The vacancy will be referred to the nomination subcommittee, chaired by Leon Schwartz. The public will be invited to submit applications for the vacancy. A replacement is voted on by the group, and the nomination is then submitted to Supervisor Bill Horn for final approval.
General Plan Update
Andy Washburn, chairman of the group’s general plan update subcommittee, reported on how that process is going.
He noted that what was once called “General Plan 2020,” and which began about ten years ago, has now been changed to “General Plan Update.”
“The County has put in new people to be in charge and brought in outside contractors in an attempt to complete it,” said Washburn. “It’s kind of up in the air right now.”
He predicted that the planning group members will have to fight again for what they fought for during those years.
“Hundreds of hours spent in how we wanted our community to stand for may all go away if we don’t fight for it,” said Washburn.
Outgoing Chairman Keith Simpson noted that the issue of a proposed development on Fruitvale Road between Twain Way and High Point Drive will come before the Planning Commission Feb. 8.
At issue is a zoning ordinance that would allow the development to be a higher density than what is currently designated for that area in the general plan update.
“This zoning ordinance is something the planning group rejected unanimously.”
The property is outside of “the Village” where high density is supposed to be confined, according to Simpson.
“The proponent never appeared here, never developed any ideas with us,” he said.
The planning group rejected the proposal several months ago. The current director of the Dept. of Planning & Land Use agreed with the planning group and denied the project.
However, the developer is appealing to the Planning Commission.
Simpson said he planned to appear and wants interested community members to join him.
The Planning Commission normally meets at the county offices on Ruffin Road. Meetings begin at 9 a.m.
“We are not anti-development and I hope that’s not how the community views us, but we should have no qualms about when something is not well thought out and doesn’t advance the plan, to oppose it. Hopefully our comments can be thoughtful and precise as to why we oppose it,” said Simpson.
Trails Presentation
The planning group accepted a report from the VC Trails Subcommittee.
The vote was to 1) accept the subcommittee’s report, 2) approve the modifications to the trails map and 3) approve the modifications to the existing trails map.
Note: We will have a more extensive article and a map about this vote in next week’s paper.
As the year begins, the Valley Center Planning Group has eight major projects in various stages of completion through the land use approval process.
We asked the group to give us an update on how many developments there are pending for Valley Center.
Oliver Smith, recently elected chairman of the group, provided us with the following:
TM5301/BC02-0216/STP02-074—Shopping Center NW corner of VC and Cole Grade Roads; 186,000 sq. ft. commercial, 63 condos on 73 acres; Site: Owner: VC Associates.
PAA 07-002 Valley Center Northern Village Town Center, 45 acres to commercial and village residential lots, owner Napoleon Zervas & Jerry Gaughan.
The County has asked these two projects to work together to develop the Northern Village area and cooperate on facilities like “package plant” sewage treatment. VCCPG is waiting for the presentation on their collaboration.
SPA04-04, Orchard Run, Lilac Rd At Betsworth Rd, 300 dwelling units on 118 acres owner: John Belanich, project is in late stage approval. The next anticipated action is pulling permits for grading, etc. The project is being challenged with questions on validity of previous approvals.
TM5385R2, Lilac Ranch, 31928 Lilac Road; 949 Acres-354 dwelling units; Owner: Wolfsheimer/Stutz; currently waiting for county to finish the EIR (Environmental Impact Report), anticipated in January.
PAA 07-001-2 Fruitvale Rd between Twain Way and High Point Drive, 38.9 acres into 96 lots, owner LRC Land Development, Project rejected by VCCPG and DPLU last year (density inconsistent with surrounding properties), scheduled for hearing before San Diego County Planning Commission on February 8, 2008.
TM5173 Segal Ranch (was Spanish Trails) southwest corner of Cool Valley Rd at Cole Grade Rd, 436 acres into 190 lots, owner: Romoff family, presentation of updated tentative map with revised to VCCPG planned for February, 2008.
GPA 06-011, Castle Creek Condos, Castle Creek and Circle R Rd; Senior living development, 3.9 acres into 63 condo units, replacement tentative map under review by VCCPG, anticipate presentation to full group in Feb–March timeframe.
This is a new project in early development, land in escrow to new owner (no formal filings with the county as of yet), southeast corner of VC Rd and Woods Valley Road, considering location for Rite Aid Drug Store.
Local agencies are facing the knife or even theft of their property tax funds from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new budget.
California schools are looking at a 10% cut. That could be heavy news indeed for the VC-Pauma Unified School District, which last year had revenues of about $39.9 million.
According to Supt. Lou Obermeyer, the 10% contemplated, “would be approximately four million dollars—that is devastating news—we are anxiously awaiting the true outcome of the budget negotiations that the legislators have 45 days to come up with a plan.”
The Valley Center Parks & Rec. district, which took heavy hits to its property tax revenue eight years ago when the state faced a similar budget crisis, is anticipating that it might be hit again, according to VCP&R Pres. Eric Jockinsen, although Prop. 1A, enacted since then, provides some protection to special districts.
Gary Arant, general manager of the VC Municipal Water District, which also lost property tax revenues in ‘97, told The Roadrunner this week: “So far, we have not heard any specific information about the General Property Tax shift for this year's budget, FY 2007-2008.
“I think the plan is to handle the current deficit with spending cuts. The language that he [Schwarzenegger] has used to date is not the language required by the section of the constitution protecting local government revenue which was put in place by Prop 1-A a few years ago,” said Arant.
In order to set aside the Prop 1-A protections, the Governor has to declare a “severe state fiscal crisis,” and at this point he has not used that specific language, but that could change.
Arant added, “However, if it comes, we think it will probably happen when they are trying to cobble together the 2008-2009 budget mess, which will impact us to the tune of $1.9 million in the year that it is borrowed.”
John Byrne, district administrator for the VC Fire Protection District, told The Roadrunner: “We are looking at it. It’s not clear how that is going to roll down and impact us. The one place it could affect us is the county enhancement fund.”
That is the money that the County has set aside to help pay for additional firefighters to man engines so that each engine company has at least four crew members.
The district did learn recently that this funding is being extended for another three years—but that was before the governor’s budget was announced.
Members of the upper elementary school TPC and School Site Council learned last week that the school may eventually be folded into the lower elementary school as the VC-Pauma School district continues to lose students for the sixth year in a row.
This, coupled with the fact that the district will almost certainly close Palomar Mountain School this year, means that the administration is contemplating shutting down two campuses eventually.
Partially accelerating this process locally are Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed cuts to the state budget.
Asked to comment on the rumors that the elementary school might close, Lou Obermeyer, superintendent of the district, told The Roadrunner: “We are not sure yet. The conversation was about the possibility of moving the fifth grade students (keeping fourth grade as fifth next year) to the Lower [elementary school] and moving the sixth (current fifth) to the middle school next year.
“We are going to analyze potential cost savings and discuss it at the Feb. 7th board meeting. Since we had the conversation at the meeting we wanted to be sure and let parents know about the conversation so [assistant superintendent] Ken [Clark] talked to the TPC and SSC on Thursday so they would hear the news from us and have a chance to ask questions.”
Dr. Obermeyer plans to meet with parents from parents from the upper and lower elementary schools and Lilac Elementary to share information and answer questions.
“No decisions have been made yet, but in light of the governor’s budget and the potential 10 percent budget cuts, that would be about $4 million for our district,” said Dr. Obermeyer.
The issue was brought up at Wednesday’s board meeting during discussions of the Master Facilities Plan.
The staff and board are going through the various issues of the plan. Staff members at various campuses will also be consulted and their input brought back to the board..
One part of the plan discussed was a proposal to replace grass with artificial turf at the high school stadium and track.
This, said Gary Pay, director of maintenance and operations, would save thousands of dollars annually in water and maintenance.
Usage would go up significantly because people won’t have to be kept off the fields, he said.
They are also discussing replacing an old house on the high school property with another artificial turf field.
Trustee Wendy Zeugschmidt asked if artificial turf would hold up if they had to park cars there, as they did during the wildfires.
Pay said that he believes so.
It was at this time that the board discussed the possibility of moving fifth grade from the upper school to the lower school because they would have unused classrooms there.
This would be followed by relocating independent study and special education to that campus, giving Oak Glen High School additional classroom space.
Trustee Doug Dechairo brought up the subject of possibly closing a campus, which has been mentioned in the Master Facilities Plan.
“I think we need to be very cautious about closing any campus,” he commented.
Dr. Dechairo said he would like to see some data into how making these moves will help the overall solvency of the district.
Board Pres. Lori Johnson added that the study should include whether there are hidden costs so that the new configuration won’t create additional costs.
Mountain School Hearing
Also at Wednesday’s board meeting trustees held a hearing to air concerns from mountain residents regarding the possible closure of the school.
Bruce Baker, a mountain resident who has been involved with the school for 20 years, noted that in the 90s there were between 15-20 students who actually generated income for the Pauma Valley Union School District, which operated the school then.
He said the school makes a small impact on the district’s budget, and that if it is closed “that won’t make much of an impact on the budget” since those students would still have to be bused from the mountain.
“If we look at the schools as a business unit, if other schools are losing money are they candidates for closing like us? Are other schools losing money?” said Baker.
He added that the daily 20-mile trip will be rough for children aged 5-7 years.
“I would hope some creative solution would come about so that we won’t have to close our school,” he said.
Other Palomar residents attended the meeting but did not speak.
Dr. Obermeyer read several letters and emails from persons concerned about the closure.
Scott Kardel, who works at Palomar Observatory as its public information officer, wrote in support of keeping the school open.
He noted that the observatory donated the land for the school to the district and that “having a school on the mountain has been a tremendous asset to the observatory over the decades.”
He added, “Everyone realizes that the population of the students is expected to be low for next year and that closing the school will likely save the district some money.
“As you and the School Board consider the issues I ask that you carefully weigh them and come down on the side of what will be best for the kids that will be most affected.”
There was also a letter from a former resident of the mountain, Campbell MacInnes, supporting the school.
“I am certain that families who would be forced to bus their young children 30-45 minutes away would ultimately move off of Palomar. However, it would be difficult to imagine Palomar without families with children between the ages of 5 and 14,” he wrote.
Another family, Bob & Linda Lewis, wrote: “There are many reasons to keep this school open. The first reasons that come to mind are safety and excellent education. Then we must remember that this school is the only one room school still in existence [in San Diego County]. Money is always the problem, but our children deserve the right to attend school near their home.”
Paige Hreha-Meyer, a teacher at the school district, asked the board to close the school and to serve the students with a “Co-op/Home School/Independent Study” fashion. “It is not logical to ‘sacrifice the concerns and many needs of the larger body of students who could be better served with the monies required to run the Palomar facility,” she wrote.
Donations
A donation from Pauma Valley Country Club of $5,000 to the high school and donations of $7,857 (for a shade structure) and $19,100 (for a putting green) from the Pauma Schools Foundation.
Super’s Contract
The contract for Dr. Lou Obermeyer was extended to 2011, three more years, by a unanimous vote of the board.
High School Musical opens this Friday at the Maxine Theater (for ticket information see The Briefs). Here some cast members pose at the anchor desk of NBC Channel 7/39 last week. See more photos on A9 and on our Web site: www.valleycenter.com/
The Valley Roadrunner
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