Welcome to The Banning Informer ! This website is dedicated to take you behind the scenes of the political arena in the City of Banning, CA. Here you will find information that you won’t find anywhere else. Our investigative articles are carefully researched and are documented whenever possible. Your comments, editorial contributions and suggestions are always appreciated. You can contact the Banning Informer by clicking here. – THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTANTLY UPDATED AS NEW INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE - PLEASE CHECK BACK FREQUENTLY
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Grand Jury Video Flashback : Who is responsible for funding the Banning Cultural Alliance ?
3/9/10 – Let’s look back at who voted for funding the Banning Cultural Alliance with complete lack of oversight : on June 23, 2009, the Community Redevelopment Agency voted to fund the Alliance with an additional $ 131,500. This article contains telling video from this session – click here for full article
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Grand Jury finds abuses by Banning City Government on many levels
2/27/10 – The Riverside County Grand Jury has issued a report that confirms what the Banning Informer has been pointing out all along : The Community Redevelopment Agency ( City Council ) is not doing its job, has overpaid for properties without appraisal and should immediately “cease and desist” funding the Banning Cultural Alliance. Furthermore, the CRA should ask the Alliance to immediately return $ 162,000 plus interest for services they never performed.
>>>>> DOWNLOAD GRAND JURY REPORT HERE <<<<<
CLICK HERE to podcast the latest “Pass Politics” Radio show discussing the Grand Jury Report – with hosts Victor Dominguez and Pam Rein – aired on March 3, 2010 – KCAA 1050 AM
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Corruption : Banning School Board President Amy Herr influences votes for personal financial gain
2/26/10 - Conflict of Interest laws say you can’t serve two masters. But that is exactly what Banning School Board President Amy Herr did when she influenced not one, but two votes on the Banning School Board, both resulting in handsome payoffs for herself. Aside from being the President of the Banning School Board , Herr acts also as Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Club of the San Gorgonio Pass and made sure the Club received two big contracts. – click here for full article
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City Council allows Haven Coffee to operate without required permits
2/19/10 - Here is yet another example of Banning’s corruption and the “selective enforcement” that goes along with it : Haven Coffee , Banning’s government funded coffee house ( view previous article ) , apparently is above the law : it was allowed to open and continues to operate illegally without proper permits, without paying fees, without plans or City inspection, without Fire inspection, without safety inspection, and without displaying a valid business license - for 3 months now ! – click here for full article
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Banning’s biggest fraud : Council member Don Robinson
2/13/10 – Banning City Council member and confirmed tax dodger Don Robinson has made false claims – under oath – that he underwent training as a Navy S.E.A.L.. As we will show, Robinson’s Navy S.E.A.L. claims are taken straight from his sworn deposition and are a complete lie . – click here for full article
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City Council member John Machisic lies in financial declarations
2/8/10 - For years, Banning City Council member John Machisic has been filing false declarations under penalty of perjury, lying about the true nature of his economic interest. – click here for full article
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“High on the Hog” : Mayor Botts orders $ 65 Filet Mignon
2/1/10 - City employees are being laid off. Due to a severe budget crisis Banning City Hall remains closed on Fridays . But Mayor Bob Botts doesn’t seem to care : on an all-expense-paid trip to Washington D.C. in 2009 he ordered a Filet Mignon for $ 64.95 at the plush “Ruth Chris” Restaurant – and charged it to the Banning taxpayer. Way to go, Bob ! – click here for full article
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MORE INSANITY : City Council (CRA) gets ready to spend hundreds of thousands on Cultural Alliance Art Gallery
1/27/10 - Layoffs and cutbacks in essential City services now are a daily reality within the City of Banning, which is facing the greatest financial crisis in it’s history . But the City Council seems to ignore the crisis : they are getting ready to spend at least $ 250,000 – and maybe as much as half a million – on the most non-essential building the City owns : an Art Gallery operated by the Banning Cultural Alliance - click here for full article
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“Facade Grant” Monkey Business ?
1/16/10 - Allegations have surfaced that the Banning Redevelopment Agency ( City Council ) has been anything but responsible when it comes to distributing funds under the agency’s “Façade Grant “ program. - click here for full article
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Tax Delinquent Don Robinson unanimously re-confirmed as Chairman of CRA
1/2 /10 – In a move that can only be viewed as the ultimate insult to every Banning taxpayer , the City Council (CRA) on Dec. 8, 2009 unanimously reelected tax delinquent Don Robinson as chairman of the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) for yet another year. Several weeks before this vote was taken, the Banning Informer had exposed Don Robinson as not paying his fair share of taxes – click here for full article
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UPDATED : Barbara Hanna took money from Special Interest – MORE QUESTIONABLE DONATIONS DISCOVERED
- an investigative report by The Banning Informer – 10/19/09 – updated 12/15/09
12/15/09 - The Banning Informer has learned that City Council member Barbara Hanna has been receiving funding from special interest in at least three five different cases – click here for full article
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Did Council member Hanna’s husband, Ed Ball, perform consulting services for the owners of the Oddfellows building ?
12/10/09 - It is no secret that Banning City Council member Barbara Hanna owns a consulting firm named “Hanna & Associates” which generates declared annual revenues between $ 10,000 and $ 100,000 (view page 2). Hanna’s husband, Ed Ball , is a partner in her firm , however, Hanna keeps the identity of all of her clients a secret. - click here for full article
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Only in Banning : City Council gives Free Rent on City owned building AND relinquishes $ 192,000 in income belonging to the taxpayer
12/2/09 – In mid 2008 the Community Redevelopment Agency (City Council) bought a building on 130 N. San Gorgonio for $ 450,000 specifically for use by the Banning Cultural Alliance as their Art Gallery. The taxpayer was told that this was a good deal for the City because rental income from the building was going to offset the cost of funds used for the purchase. As it turns out, nothing could be further from the truth. – click here for full article
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Redevelopment Disasters courtesy of City Councilmembers Hanna and Machisic (and others)
11/24/09 - If the Banning Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) was a business enterprise, chances are it would have been bankrupt a long time ago. Many projects that were approved for funding by City Councilmembers Barbara Hanna and John Machisic have gone sour : due to foreclosure proceedings they have ended up as a total loss to the taxpayer . - click here for full article
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San Gorgonio Inn Redevelopment : Who takes the risk ?
11/20/09 – The US commercial real estate market is the worst it’s ever been and is on the verge of a total collapse. Commercial real estate financing is practically unavailable. Warnings of ghost malls, too much commercial real estate, rising vacancy rates are all over the place. So why on earth is the City of Banning thinking that we still need MORE retail and/or office space ? - click here for full article
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Is That The Coffee You Smell ? - by Lyndon Taylor
11/17/09 - Amazing things continue do happen in the operation of the City of Banning ! With Measure L settled and more taxpayer money flowing to the City, the Banning Community Redevelopment Agency has found a new way of spending tax dollars. Imagine someone comes to you requesting a $30,000 loan to start a coffee house in downtown Banning…. click here for full article __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Downtown Revitalization” efforts fail to attract any new businesses
11/12/09 – After receiving over $ 700,000.00 in Redevelopment Funds from the City of Banning , Cultural Alliance Executive Director Carol Newkirk is forced to admit that the Alliance’ activities have failed to attract even a single new business to Banning. – click here for full article
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The strangely identical voting records of Bob Botts (“Dr. Evil”) and Don Robinson (“Mini Me”)
11/5/09 – In this article we will examine the strangely identical voting records of Bob Botts and Don Robinson on the Banning City Council. In 2009, the Council voted a total of 89 times . Not a single time was Robinson’s vote different from that of Botts - click here for full article
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Councilman Don Robinson delinquent on over $ 20,000 in taxes
11/4/09 – He portrays himself as a responsible and honest businessman claiming to be qualified to sit on the City Council. As current Chairman of the Banning Redevelopment Agency Don Robinson decides how Millions of dollars in taxpayer funds are being spent. Yet a look at the tax roll reveals that he has not paid his own property taxes since 2005. - click here for full article
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The $ 110,000 Rip Off
10/28/09 – How the Banning Cultural Alliance ripped off the taxpayer for $ 110,000 – with the CRA (City Council) looking the other way click here for full article
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Expert warned against funding Banning Cultural Alliance
10/26/09 – In 2006, right before the City first contracted for “services” by the Banning Cultural Alliance, the acting Redevelopment Director Oscar Orci issued a memorandum in which he concluded that funding the Banning Cultural Alliance would be a bad idea. - click here for full article
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Grand Jury investigation focuses on City officials and Banning Cultural Alliance
10/23/09 : The Press Enterprise reports on a pending Riverside Grand Jury investigaton (click here). The focus appears to be on City funding of the Alliance. Since Botts, Hanna and Robinson unconditionally support the Alliance , they probably never imagined that the day would come when a demand for full accounting would be made. The Alliance says they are not concerned – but given what they have produced so far (view) maybe they should be .
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Banning Cultural Alliance : first audit raises more questions than it provides answers
10/19/09 – For several years – since 2006 – the Banning Cultural Alliance has received massive taxpayer funding from the City of Banning totaling roughly $ 750,000. However, how this money was used has always remained a mystery. Giving in to public pressure, the Banning Cultural Alliance has now released it’s first audit . – click here for full article
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Banning’s $110 Million Dollar Bond Debt – or how Hanna and Machisic mortgaged our future
10/19/09 – Most voters of Banning have little or no idea that in 2005 the City Council indebted Banning with over $ 110,000,000 for the next 30 years ! You may say this cannot be true. Why is it that we never got to vote on this ?
No, this is not a misprint. Over Onehundred Million Dollars were borrowed in 2005/06 via several bond issues. This was voted for by no other than Barbara Hanna and John Machisic, who apparently thought that they – not the voters of Banning – should make the decision to borrow this unprecedented sum of money. They felt that they knew best what’s good for us. - click here for full article
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Your tax dollars at work - by Chuck Katz
10/19/09 – Very recently we learned that the Banning Cultural Alliance presented us with a show entitled “Hang the Politicians”. The event featured the “art” work of Mayor Bob Botts, Council member Don Robinson and former Council member Jenkins . Unfortunately the local press failed to mention a very important detail about this event: The City of Banning , meaning you the taxpayer, was the official “sponsor” of the event . - click here for full article
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Video : Botts and Hanna interrupt speaker critical of City Council
10/19/09 – During the public session of October 13, 2009 Banning resident Chuck Katz, an activist who helped defeat the Liberty sludge plant, addressed the City Council. He was cut off by Bob Botts acting in concert with Barbara Hanna - click here for video
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