However, instead of being terminated for creating a hostile work environment, the manager — identified by multiple sources as grounds department supervisor Martin Robles — was inexplicably promoted.

“There were numerous instances where inappropriate language and racial slurs were used which appears to be a common practice,” a Veterans Administration investigative board said in a heavily redacted 61-page report obtained by the Southern California News Group. “Inappropriate and discriminatory hiring practices were found, which have contributed to the lack of trust, poor morale, and fractured culture.”

The Administrative Investigation Board recommended Robles be removed from employment because of “overwhelming evidence to support that the supervisor was intimidating, exhibited bullying behavior, threatening behavior, and contributed to a hostile work environment,” said a source familiar with the probe.

The AIB investigation, which began on Dec. 9, 2020, and concluded the week of Jan. 11, 2021, included 57 hours of testimony from 36 witnesses and 4,000 pages of exhibits.

Robles also was the focus of two other VA Loma Linda investigations in 2020 and 2022, which substantiated allegations that he fostered a hostile work environment. Details of those two investigations were not immediately available.

Promotion instead of discipline

About a month after the 2021 probe wrapped up, Robles was given increased management responsibilities at VA Loma Linda. His salary in 2022 was $75,000.

“Please join me in congratulating Martin Robles as he has been selected as the new Grounds Team supervisor,” David J. Grzechowiak, maintenance and operations chief, said in a Feb. 11, 2021, email to Facility Management Services employees announcing the promotion. “He will need all of your support to be successful in his new role.”

The AIB determined Grzechowiak ignored evidence of Robles’ misconduct and failed to hold him accountable.

“The board found there has been a long-standing mismanagement and acceptance of behaviors which have continued to perpetuate over time and which have built a culture within that could be described as dysfunctional, toxic, and demoralizing,” the AIB report says.

Information was not available about whether Grzechowiak was disciplined. Neither he nor Robles responded to emails and phone calls seeking comment.

VA Loma Linda officials declined to comment specifically on the AIB investigation involving Robles or any discipline he might have received.

“We aim to ensure a safe, harassment-free environment in a culture where all employees, veterans, and guests are treated with dignity and respect,” Mikaela T. Cade, a spokesperson for VA Loma Linda, said in an email Tuesday, May 16. “It is also incumbent on us to ensure that we do not infringe on the rights of an individual regarding the release of information while providing a clear and transparent response to agency disciplinary processes.”

Past problems

The controversy surrounding Robles follows other troubling incidents involving VA Loma Linda employees.

The VA Loma Linda Healthcare System, which includes the Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Veterans Medical Center and several clinics, made headlines in 2019 when it was discovered that a manager had been convicted of murder.

Then, in 2021, a federal judge reprimanded VA Loma Linda’s top physician for failing to obtain treatment for his mentally ill son, allowing him to amass a small arsenal before torching a Texas synagogue.

Robles’ troubles also have caught the attention of lawmakers, who are demanding answers from the VA.

“Our veterans, the dedicated VA workforce, and taxpayers deserve to know why bad employees are still employed by VA and accountability is being swept under the rug,” said Rep. Mike Bost, R-Illinois, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, in an April statement.

Appropriate actions taken

Appropriate administrative actions have been taken as a result of the AIB investigation, VA Loma Linda’s associate director of resources, Maria T. Nguyen, said in a June 14, 2021, memo to Facilities Management Services employees.

Employee discipline can include verbal or written warnings, reprimands, suspensions or, in some instances, termination, according to the VA. Nguyen warned Facility Management Services employees in the email they could face discipline for publicly discussing the Robles investigation.

However, that admonition hasn’t silenced VA Loma Linda maintenance mechanic Martin Gonzalez, who is among more than a dozen whistleblowers to have repeatedly complained about Robles.

“As we can clearly see in the case of Martin Robles, he enjoyed a certain amount of protection when it came to the actions that he subjected his employees to,” said Gonzalez, a 40-year-old Corona resident. “Certain aspects of the senior executive leadership and human resources at VA Loma Linda failed to take proper action to correct the situation, which shows that there is a desperate need to overhaul both departments.”

Promotion ‘mind-boggling’

Joe Spielberger, policy counsel for the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit watchdog organization, described Robles’ continued employment and subsequent promotion at VA Loma Linda as “mind-boggling,” but not completely surprising.

“We have seen similar issues for years and years involving the VA failing to hold supervisors responsible and not protecting whistleblowers,” he said. “Misconduct by senior VA officials is pervasive and systemic.”

In 2014, POGO launched a secure website where VA workers can confidentially expose abuse and mismanagement at VA medical facilities. POGO received allegations from nearly 800 VA employees and veterans in 35 states who detailed complaints of patient neglect, medication errors and claims of whistleblower retaliation.

“A recurring and fundamental theme has become clear,” POGO said regarding the impact of the whistleblower website. “VA employees across the country fear they will face repercussions if they dare to raise a dissenting voice”.

In 2017, the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act was signed into law. The act increased the VA’s authority to fire employees at all levels, shortened the removal process, and ensured terminated workers are not kept on the agency’s payroll while appealing that decision

It also made it easier for the VA to remove poor-performing senior executives and replace them with qualified candidates. The law also established the VA’s Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection.

However, as of April 3, the VA has stopped using the Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, following an Office of Inspector General report that says the law has “floundered.”

“While Congress certainly should look to strengthen and clarify these statutory provisions, the VA historically has shown little interest in holding senior officials accountable for their misconduct and harm perpetrated against employees and veterans,” Spielberger said. “Unfortunately, this latest decision suggests this cycle of protecting corrupt officials will only continue.”

Whistleblower suicide

The Southern California News Group obtained more than a dozen emails and complaints filed with the VA over five years, all detailing Robles’ troubling interactions with employees.

Among the most prolific whistleblowers was Ryan Joseph Sperry, a former Marine and VA Loma Linda irrigation technician from Moreno Valley who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol dependency.

He was 43 when he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Aug. 9, 2022.

Sperry’s complaints were provided to the AIB

Sperry, in a five-page letter to the VA Loma Linda Human Resources Office written months before his death, detailed how working with Robles and the stress from an ensuing AIB investigation sent him into an emotional and physical tailspin.

“I have begun to drink more than normal, and have been hospitalized with gout, which was due to increased drinking, which I have never had before,” Sperry wrote. “I was hospitalized from chest pains … just starting at the beginning of the investigation.”

Retaliation, intimidation

Sperry complained that Robles has a reputation for taking advantage of new, probationary employees, frequently requiring them to buy him coffee and doughnuts and chauffeur him around for free.

“He basically tells them they need to do whatever he asks them to do, no matter how wrong it might be because he will get them fired or give them less hours if they don’t do so,” Sperry said. “He will intimidate, bully, threaten them.”

Sperry also said that over a two-month period, the grounds crew documented that Robles was tardy more than 15 times, sometimes arriving at work two hours late without putting in for leave.

“He works whenever he wants, starts whenever he wants, leaves whenever he wants, and uses flex time as the excuse,” Sperry wrote.

Another VA Loma Linda employee wrote in an Aug. 20, 2018, memo that he helped cover up Robles’ absences.

“He would call me and have me move his cart in front of the office to make it appear that he was there on time,” the worker said. “Next. he again, would call me to put his cart away to create the appearance that he ended his shift on time.”

On May 11, 2022, Sperry and three co-workers drafted a letter to Steven Simpson, acting assistant chief of Facility Management Services, pleading for a meeting to discuss Robles’ emboldened behavior.

“We can no longer stand for our rights being violated to the extent in which it is affecting our mental/physical health,” the letter says. “Many of us are no longer happy or even comfortable going in to work because of the hostile work environment that we experience regularly from our supervisor.”

In the weeks leading up to his suicide, Sperry was an emotional wreck and feared he was about to be unjustly fired by Robles due to an ongoing dispute over medical leave, said his partner, Juan Varela, 60, of Menefee.

“The bottom line is the VA didn’t do what they were supposed to do with Robles,” said Varela, who was on the phone with Sperry when he pulled the trigger on the handgun that sent a bullet into his skull. “If they had, Ryan would still be with me.”

Edgewater is a small city just west of Denver.

Other adult male initially left scene but called 911 to report his involvement and is currently being detained by @COEdgewaterPD.

— Jeffco Sheriff (@jeffcosheriffco) May 3, 2023

The shooting happened around 9:40 a.m. in one of the six or so Tesla charging stations in the parking lot of the Edgewater Public Market, in the 5500 block of West 20th Avenue in Edgewater, Jefferson County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Jenny Fulton said at the scene.

One man initially left the scene and then called 911 to report his involvement in the fight. Police arrested him later at his residence on Xavier Street in Denver.

The victim, who drove a Tesla, died at 10:20 a.m. after he was taken to a hospital, Fulton said. Both men had a vehicle in the parking lot, she said.

“Edgewater police don’t know yet what they were fighting over, just that it occurred in a Tesla charging station area. It was in that Tesla charging station,” she said.

“We are looking into why there was an altercation in the first place.”

We’re assisting @COEdgewaterPD with a shooting in the 5500 block of W 20th Ave. Initial info indicates 2 adult males were involved in an altercation that led to one being shot. The victim has since been pronounced deceased and the investigation is now a homicide. pic.twitter.com/jPH5JEQm8A

— Jeffco Sheriff (@jeffcosheriffco) May 3, 2023

Robinhood Markets Inc. will pay California and six other states as much as $10.2 million in penalties for operational and technical failures after an investigation by state securities regulators that was sparked by outages in 2020.

The settlement involves “deficiencies at Robinhood in its review and approval process for options and margin accounts, weaknesses in the firm’s monitoring and reporting tools, and insufficient customer service and escalation protocols,” the North American Securities Administrators Association said in a news release Thursday.

“Robinhood repeatedly failed to serve its clients, but this settlement makes clear that Robinhood must take its customer care obligations seriously and correct these deficiencies,” Andrew Hartnett, the association’s president, said in the release.

The settlement stems from an investigation by state securities regulators in Alabama, Colorado, California, Delaware, New Jersey, South Dakota and Texas.

“We are resolving this matter with the states and are pleased to put it behind us,” Lucas Moskowitz, Robinhood’s deputy general counsel and head of government affairs, said in a statement. “The settlement relates to past issues that Robinhood has since invested heavily in improving, including the launch of 24/7 chat and phone support, expanding our library of educational materials and strengthening the way we supervise our technology.”

California’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation said it found no evidence of willful or fraudulent conduct by Robinhood, and that the company cooperated with the investigation.

DFPI said the amount will be split evenly amongst the states. Separately, $12.6 million in restitution for consumers was covered in an order from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

The Southern California News Group contributed to this report.

Video game company Activision Blizzard agreed to a settlement with the Justice Department ensuring the company doesn’t suppress the wages of esports players even if it is acquired by Microsoft Corp.

The agreement, which the Justice Department filed in federal court in Washington Monday, comes after a long investigation into Activision’s efforts to limit compensation for players in professional esport leagues it owns and operates. The US is asking the court to approve the settlement, which would prevent the Santa Monica-based company from ever imposing a similar tax on its esports teams.

“Video games and esports are among the most popular and fastest growing forms of entertainment in the world today, and professional esports players  — like all workers — deserve the benefits of competition for their services,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division.

Activision Blizzard in a statement said it believes that the salary agreements, which it suspended under pressure from the Justice Department in 2021, were “lawful” and “did not have an adverse impact on player salaries.”

“We remain committed to a player ecosystem with fair pay and healthcare,” said Activision Blizzard spokesperson Joe Christinat.

The Justice Department is asking the court for a consent decree that ensures Activision Blizzard is not allowed to enforce a “competitive balance tax,” which penalized teams for paying esports players above a certain threshold set by the company. The department opened its probe into esports leagues last year.

In a claim for damages filed against the city on March 16, forensic specialist Geneva Holzer alleges that in December 2019, now retired Deputy Chief Mike Reiss, then a lieutenant, and Sgt. Kyle Alexander attempted to destroy physical evidence of sexual misconduct by Reiss.

Holzer found what she believed to be a semen stain on an office chair of a former employee who sued the city last August, alleging she was coerced into engaging in sexual acts with Reiss to advance at the department.

In her lawsuit, former property and evidence technician Julie Alvarado-Salcido alleged, among other things, that she was coerced into performing oral sex on Reiss in her office in August 2019.

Holzer was not aware of Salcido’s specific allegations at the time, but says in her claim that she nevertheless tested the stain. Tests returned positive for semen, but it was unclear whether Reiss was the source of it.

Holzer, who earlier this year was recognized as Employee of the Year for exemplary service to the department, reported her discovery of the semen-stained chair to Alexander. The following day, she alleges in her claim, he told her to dispose of the chair.

When Holzer hesitated, according to the claim, Alexander told her to cut the semen sample from the fabric, dispose of the chair, to “not be descriptive” in her report and to send the report and photos of the chair directly to him via email.

“He told me not to put anything in our evidence system photo wise and don’t put the report into our reporting system,” Holzer said in her claim. “What Sgt. Alexander told me to do was done this way so no one would know about it, and it would never be discovered by anyone else.”

In February, Holzer said in her claim, she became aware of an encounter colleague Ruth Samano had with Reiss and Alexander in the department’s forensic office in 2019. Samano told Holzer the two entered the office and started “looking around.”

Samano, according to the claim, asked Reiss and Alexander if they were looking for the chair. Reiss replied, “You know about the chair?” to which Samano replied, “Yes, and it’s not here.” Reiss and Alexander then abruptly left the office, according to the claim.

Discovery of the evidence, according to Holzer, was reported to Cmdr. Stephen Crane, but never made it further up the command chain to Deputy Chief Travis Martinez, whom Crane reported to.

Holzer alleges Crane also was complicit in the cover-up.

“Through the chain of command my discovery of evidence of sexual assault was covered up and ordered destroyed by Deputy Chief Reiss then carried out by Sgt. Alexander and Commander Crane,” Holzer alleges in her claim.

Department scuttlebutt

In January, Sgt. Patrick Leivas, acting on scuttlebutt swirling within the department, confronted Holzer about the evidence, which she disclosed to him, according to department sources and the claim.

“I believe Sgt. Leivas reported it to multiple law enforcement authorities and an investigation was started into what happened,” Holzer said in her claim.

Sources within the department, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Leivas presented the evidence to Martinez and Redlands City Councilmember Paul Barich. Martinez subsequently took the evidence to the FBI’s public corruption unit, which launched the federal probe.

Martinez declined to comment.

FBI spokesperson Laura Eimiller said she could neither confirm nor deny whether the agency was investigating the Redlands Police Department. But department sources and attorneys representing current and former employees confirmed as much, saying investigators already have interviewed several current and former employees, including Holzer and Salcido.

Barich declined to comment on the investigation or his role in it, other than to say, “All parties are presumed innocent until proven guilty, but it always has been a standard policy that the city of Redlands would not put up with any sexual harassment. So if allegations do come true, then we will take appropriate action.”

Barich said he has not been interviewed by FBI investigators, who sources said now have the forensic evidence from the chair.

Department retirements

Reiss, according to Holzer’s claim, was placed on administrative leave on Jan. 30, then subsequently retired. A spokesperson for the California Public Employees’ Retirement System said Reiss retired on March 4 and is receiving a gross monthly pension payment of $15,728.

Reiss could not be reached for comment.

Reiss’ retirement occurred about the same time as that of Police Chief Chris Catren, who unexpectedly announced on March 2 that he would step down due to a work-related back injury.

Catren was president of the California Police Chiefs Association when he retired, and his departure came at a time of major changes in the department, including moving forward on a new police headquarters at the former Kmart building at Redlands Boulevard and Alabama Street.

Reached by telephone Friday, Catren said his retirement was in no way connected to the sexual misconduct and evidence-tampering allegations. It was solely medical related and at the recommendation of his doctor, he said.

“The two have nothing to do with each other. Nobody asked me to leave,” Catren said. “The timing is an unfortunate coincidence, but they have nothing to do with each other.”

Administrative investigation

Around the time Reiss was placed on leave, the city commissioned Laguna Niguel-based JL Group to conduct a “limited scope legal services workplace investigation,” according to a Feb. 3 letter from JL Group attorney/principal Jeffrey Love to City Attorney Yvette Garcia, obtained via a Public Records Act request.

City spokesperson Carl Baker said in an email that JL Group is conducting a “full and comprehensive investigation into each of the allegations of misconduct raised recently to determine the facts in this matter.” He said the investigation is still in its preliminary stages and should take three to four months.

“The City of Redlands takes all allegations of misconduct very seriously. While the recent allegations are significant, the City is committed to a thorough process that will determine the facts and is fair to all parties involved,” Baker said, declining further comment.

History of sexual harassment

Holzer alleges that as a result of her allegations that the semen evidence was suppressed, she became a target of continued sexual harassment by Reiss for more than two years. Two lawsuits filed against the city in the past two years by current and former employees allege a similar pattern of sexual misconduct by Reiss.

In April 2021, former police Officer Laurel Falconieri and Leslie Martinez, a 23-year veteran of the department and crimes against children detective, sued the city alleging a hostile work environment for women in the department as a result of “pervasive sexual favoritism.”

Falconieri alleged Reiss often told her how good she looked, invited her out for drinks and to his condo in Carlsbad, and sent her a picture of himself shirtless, but she immediately deleted the picture and did not respond to him out of fear, according to the lawsuit.

Like Falconieri before her and Holzer after her, Salcido alleges in her suit that Reiss targeted her for sex after she was hired as a fingerprint technician in August 2015. But unlike Falconieri and Holzer, Salcido was compliant with Reiss’ alleged demands for sex, feeling scared and pressured because he was her immediate supervisor, her lawsuit alleges.

Salcido alleges Reiss followed a similar grooming pattern of predatory behavior, regularly inviting her out for drinks and to his condo in Carlsbad. He also requested she send him nude photos of herself.

The sexual misconduct was so prevalent, not only with Reiss but department-wide, that the alleged victims say it fostered its own lexicon of female subordinates having ranking superiors “in their pocket,” meaning they engaged in sexual activity with them in exchange for favorable working conditions and other perks.

In the interview with Catren, the former chief said the allegations advanced by Falconieri, Martinez and Salcido were all investigated and findings were made, but he could not disclose what those findings were.

The district investigated the matter after El Monte Union High School District Trustee Florencio Briones filed a formal complaint about it in March 2021. The text messages resurfaced earlier this month when Siegrist backed a recall effort against Briones alleging the El Monte Union High trustee had, among other allegations, falsely accused “residents of being homophobic.”

The Southern California News Group obtained a copy of a letter sent to Briones by the district summarizing the outcome of the investigation. The El Monte City School District independently verified the letter’s authenticity.

“The investigator concluded that Mr. Siegrist did in fact send you multiple emails and text messages and persisted in communicating with you after you requested that he stop,” wrote Lisette Mendez-Garcia, president of the El Monte City School District board, in the letter. “The investigator further concluded that one of the text messages Mr. Siegrist sent you regarding your ‘lifestyle’ could be construed as homophobic and fall in the category of hate speech.”

Siegrist has publicly denied making any homophobic remarks, including most recently at an El Monte City Council meeting where he called Briones a liar. In an interview, Siegrist acknowledged sending the text, but maintains he was expressing sincere concern for his political rival’s health.

“I know people who have died from that, that’s not homophobia,” Siegrist said. “I was concerned about his safety. If a person is gay these days, they need to be very careful.”

Siegrist, a Vietnam War veteran, said he served in the U.S. Navy when service members were not allowed to be openly gay, but that he personally does not care about anyone’s lifestyle “unless they put themselves in danger in some way.”

“If I tell someone, because of their lifestyle, to be careful, I genuinely care about that person,” Siegrist added. “As far as me being a homophobe, it’s a damn lie. that’s what I’ll tell you about that.”

What the messages said

Siegrist sent a barrage of text messages to Briones on March 14, 2021, taunting Briones for allegedly asking Siegrist if he’d had a stroke. The messages include accusations that Briones lied about attending Pepperdine University — where Siegrist and his wife, El Monte Union trustee Esthela Torres de Siegrist, went to school — and state that Briones demonstrated “ignorance” by complaining about a prior spat to El Monte City Schools’ superintendent.

“Concerning your feigned concern about my health … I neglected to express my concern about yours,” Siegrist wrote in the final text message two days later. “Due to your lifestyle, you are most certainly exposed to AIDS and HIV. Better be extra, extra careful.”

Briones denies making any comment about Siegrist having a stroke. Before the texts, Briones said he called Siegrist and asked if Siegrist was OK following a separate series of unprompted emails from Siegrist with tongue-in-cheek invitations to Pepperdine alumni events. Briones did not attend Pepperdine and says the website Ballotpedia erroneously listed the school as his alma mater.

“The notion that I would ever wish for anyone to have a stroke is absolutely false; it is not something I have ever said to David Siegrist,” Briones said. “I think he’s being very disingenuous in trying to cover up the fact that he made that comment to me out of a place of anger.”

Briones is now calling for Siegrist’s resignation.

“I understand that every individual in this country has the right to free speech. But when you’re an elected representative, such as Mr. Siegrist and myself, we should be held to a higher standard,” Briones said. “Considering this individual has continued to malign my name and has now lied to the community about this situation, I would ask for him to resign from his position. I don’t think he can continue to serve as a trustee and be trusted by the community.”

Latest fight sparked by recall bid

Briones and Siegrist’s longstanding feud reignited earlier this month when Briones accused Torres de Siegrist of having a conflict of interest due to her support for a proposal to rent property owned by El Monte Union to Pasadena City College, her employer. Briones, who was censured by his colleagues in February, assisted parents in starting the process of recalling Torres de Siegrist.

A resident then served Briones with similar recall paperwork at the next meeting. The number listed as the point of contact on the documents belongs to Siegrist, though he has said he was only serving as contact person because the true proponent has issues with her cellphone.

“I am one of the victims of that idiot who accused me of homophobia,” Siegrist said at the time.

What happened with probe

The El Monte City School District board did not take any formal action against Siegrist following the conclusion of the investigation, even though his comments appear to violate a board bylaw requiring members to treat “everyone with civility and respect.”

Mendez-Garcia’s letter indicates the investigation determined Siegrist’s comments were “personal in nature and were not related to his position as a board trustee.” Therefore, she said, they were protected by his First Amendment rights.

“The District does not condone personal attacks by or against its Board members, or rhetoric that distracts from the District’s educational mission,” Mendez-Garcia wrote. “To this end, the District has and will continue to encourage its trustees to focus their efforts on respectful and productive dialogue to advance the education of District students. The exchanges between you and Mr. Siegrist are not consistent with these values.”

The letter notes that while the district is not liable for Mr. Siegrist’s conduct in an individual capacity, they planned to address the matter with the board member privately.

“Specifically, the Board is addressing your concerns with Mr. Siegrist and is in communication with him regarding the need to maintain professional decorum in his communications with members of the public, the need to conduct himself in a respectful, courteous and a professional manner, and the expectation that he model good behavior for District students and the community.”

Siegrist, who said he recalled speaking to the district’s superintendent after Briones complained, did not believe his comments warranted an investigation.

“I still don’t know why the board was involved in the first place,” he said.

Pasadena City College has used the property owned by El Monte Union for its Rosemead satellite campus since 2013, but the high school district previously announced it would let that lease expire this summer so it could begin construction on a permanent space for its Adult Transition Program, which serves about 100 students with disabilities who have aged out of the high school’s special education program.

In 2021, after a year of internal discussions, El Monte Union’s Board of Trustees voted to relocate the students — ranging in age from 18 to 22 — from deteriorating trailers in a parking lot to the Rosemead Boulevard property used by PCC. The board, which at that time included four of the five members currently in office, extended PCC’s lease to July 2023 as a courtesy and warned the community college there would not be an extension.

Now, just four months before the start of construction, three board members — Ricardo Padilla, Esthela Torres de Siegrist and Qui Nguyen — have reversed course and instead directed the district’s administration to reintegrate the Adult Transition Program students back into their high schools. The three board members fired the architects working on Rosemead project and then, in closed session, directed staff to reopen negotiations with Pasadena City College.

Both decisions received a majority only because of Torres de Siegrist, who works as an adjunct professor at PCC.

The district spent $1.1 million from the $190 million Measure HS bond on the designs for the Rosemead property and has another $200,000 to $300,000 in outstanding bills, according to a presentation at the board’s Jan. 18 meeting. The district has faced criticism in the past for lax oversight of bond monies.

Meeting turns chaotic

Board meetings about the future of the Adult Transition Program have descended into shouting matches among trustees, with accusations of wrongdoing lobbed against both sides.

“You’re the pathetic liar,” Padilla said to Trustee Florencio Briones during one heated exchange. Briones accused Padilla of not living in the district he represents, while Padilla accused Briones of lying about his education. Both referred to the other as “George Santos,” the U.S. representative from New York accused of fabricating his qualifications.

Padilla and his allies later passed a motion to censure Briones. There was no internal investigation and the unsubstantiated findings, presented Wednesday, Feb. 8, were authored solely by Padilla.

Student Trustee Ruben Carrazco, a senior at South El Monte High, expressed his disappointment in the elected board members’ squabbling and urged them to consider the impacts on the district’s students.

“The people in this district have given me so much, but tonight, as I stand here, I am embarrassed,” he said at one meeting. “I am embarrassed for you guys and I am embarrassed to be a part of it.”

Parent protests

Parents have protested at the last three meetings, calling for equity for the adult special education students and condemning the school board for allegedly trading the well-being of their students for approximately $600,000 a year in rent from Pasadena City College.

In interviews, parents of the adult students and staff at the transition program described the board’s actions as frustrating and potentially dangerous. What was supposed to be a long-awaited win for the students is now a source of anxiety. There is currently no plan for how the district will logistically and legally accomplish the board’s sudden edict.

Previously, El Monte Union held community workshops and conducted a feasibility study before voting to relocate the adult students to Rosemead in 2021. None of that happened this time around.

“It’s disheartening, they got these committees together before and asked for input, and told us we’re going to get a new site, and six months before that happens, it’s like the carpet got ripped out from under us,” said Katherine Alamillo, a special education teacher who has worked in the program for 10 years.

Conflict of interest?

Trustee Torres de Siegrist’s employment at PCC has sparked allegations that she violated conflict-of-interest laws. Parents and Briones have called for her to recuse herself from discussions, but, so far, she has not.

“I feel that not only does she have a conflict of interest because it is her employer,” Briones said in an interview, “but she also has an ethical obligation to be impartial.”

Instead, Torres de Siegrist appears to be advocating for PCC’s students over those in her own district, Briones alleged.

During the board’s Jan. 18 meeting, Torres de Siegrist said she told her boss, PCC President Erika Endrijonas, that there was a “new board” in power and suggested requesting a renewal of the lease. A spokesperson for PCC confirmed the meeting and Endrijonas formally sent a letter to the board in December.

“I saw Dr. Endrijonas and I asked her, are you still interested?” Torres de Siegrist said at the meeting.

Torres de Siegrist suggested she supported renewing the lease with PCC over using the site for the adult transition program because it would benefit more students. PCC students had also directly asked her to intervene, she said.

In a phone call, Torres de Siegrist declined to speak about her vote, or the alleged conflict. She directed questions to Padilla and to her son and attorney, David Torres-Siegrist.

Padilla told a reporter to contact the superintendent and then hung up when asked to explain his decisions as an elected official.

Torres-Siegrist denied there was any conflict with his mother’s actions, noting the board has not yet voted on renewing the lease with Pasadena City College.

“My mom has not participated in anything that would implicate a conflict of interest,” he said.

Torres de Siegrist has asked the district’s counsel for a legal opinion and will follow that advice once the lease is before the board, her attorney said. Superintendent Edward Zuniga confirmed the board directed staff in closed session to renegotiate the lease. He declined to say if the district’s attorneys have made a determination regarding any potential conflict. Two of the five board members have publicly stated they do not support renewing the lease.

‘Serious ethical concerns’

Public officials should generally err on the side of caution if there is even the potential for a conflict, said Sean McMorris, the transparency, ethics and accountability program manager at California Common Cause, a nonpartisan organization advocating for good governance.

“I do believe that she should have recused herself from voting to end the contract if she had already had interactions with people regarding the matter and the impetus was to renew the lease to the community college,” McMorris said. “The lawyers will need to decide if what took place was illegal, but, at a minimum, it does not look good.”

The California Public Reform Act states public officials with a conflict “may not make, participate in making, or in any way use or attempt to use his or her official position to influence a governmental decision when he or she knows or has reason to know he or she has a disqualifying financial interest.” Disqualifying financial interests include any source of income exceeding $500 in the previous 12 months. Torres de Siegrist is paid between $10,000 and $100,000 as a professor, according to her financial disclosures.

The board member’s discussions with the PCC president could also be seen as an attempt to influence the decision, McMorris said.

“It raises serious ethical concerns,” he said.

Jay Wierenga, spokesperson for the Fair Political Practices Commission, declined to comment on the specific allegations, but said it is always “the responsibility of any public official to know the law, to take efforts to know the law, to anticipate and know their potential conflicts, to ask for advice from their local agency counsel or the FPPC ahead of time, before any discussions or votes take place, or at the first instant of a discussion happening where they become aware of and/or should see the red flags ahead.”

Torres de Siegrist has not asked the FPPC to weigh in yet, but may in the future, according to Torres-Siegrist.

Current site floods, leaks, lacks privacy

The transition program has operated out of “temporary” trailers in a parking lot on Granada Avenue in El Monte for more than a decade. Parents and staff have complained of deteriorating conditions and dwindling space as the school’s population has grown. The entire campus is paved and floods during the rainy season and scorches during the summer.

Students eat their lunches under an awning outdoors, regardless of weather, because there is no indoor cafeteria.

Classrooms leak, the sewage system backs up during flooding — creating unbearable odors near the eating area — and private spaces are not available for adult changing rooms or the nurse’s office, the stakeholders said. The administrative offices aren’t even wheelchair accessible, forcing staff, students and parents to meet outside in some instances.

The decision to send students back to the high schools came suddenly, with only three weeks from the first motion to the last. Parents were caught off guard, said Paul Arellano, whose 20-year-old son attends the program.

“They had been promising us all along: ‘This is only temporary, your students are going to be in a new site,’” Arellano said. “We were shell-shocked.

“How am I feeling? Frustrated and unfortunately powerless,” he said.

What happens next?

After firing the architects, the school board had initially agreed at its Feb. 1 meeting to conduct a feasibility study to identify potential alternative locations for the transition program. Torres de Siegrist highlighted closed schools in neighboring districts that could be an option, including within the El Monte City School District, where her husband is board member.

But then at an emergency meeting Feb. 8, Torres de Siegrist rescinded her vote on the study. Padilla, Nguyen and Torres de Siegrist then passed a motion to direct staff to “immediately” integrate the students back into the high schools.

In comments at the meeting, the three members said they are attempting to promptly address the concerns about the conditions at the Granada Avenue site. Integration provides more opportunities for students, Padilla said when he first presented the idea.

“Integration is my keyword, not segregation in a parking lot all by themselves, where they never get to see students without disabilities,” Padilla explained. Other local school districts operate similar programs out of their comprehensive high schools, though few are the size of El Monte Union’s program.

The motion has been criticized by the two dissenting board members, staff and parents because of the lack of consultation with staff.

“The way they’re going about this, so quickly, is very concerning,” said Alamillo, the special education teacher. “And not just for the transition center, but for the entire district, for all students.”

Many of the adult transition students have behavioral issues and would need constant chaperones at the high schools, costing them the independence offered at the current site, she said. An adult student could become aggressive, or choose to disrobe or perform sexual acts in front of high school students, she said.

Alamillo, who joined the district in 2013, compared the adult transition program to going to community college or university. These students’ peers are other adults, not high schoolers, she said. Under integration, a student with a disability might take special education classes at the high school until 18 and then, instead of moving to a new site, they’d end up at the same school for four more years, depriving them of that next step in life, she said.

“This is their rite of passage, this is their opportunity to explore what they like. Let’s teach them to cook, let’s teach them to take the bus,” she said. “The high school is not the proper environment for an adult transition program of our size.”

In an interview, Superintendent Zuniga said the district staff do not know which sites could work yet. It hasn’t been decided whether the district will split up the 100 students across the six high schools, or build new space for the entire group on a single campus.

“It is going to take some time to plan everything thoroughly over the next coming months,” Zuniga said. “It is more about going back to the drawing board and looking at how we can make this work in a timely manner.”

El Monte Union will ensure the students receive the same, if not better, services wherever they end up, Zuniga pledged. He noted integration would give them access to the high schools’ cafeterias, gymnasiums and outdoor areas — amenities they do not have now.

The idea of integration was previously looked explored by a consulting firm. In 2020, when El Monte Union was first considering the move to Rosemead, the DRL Group ranked the district’s high schools below other options because of concerns about access to public transportation, limited space and the proximity to community businesses where the adult students might shadow workers.

Zuniga said his staff is weighing those same factors again as it investigates the best option for the students.

PCC might not stay long

Despite all of the turmoil, there’s a chance Pasadena City College won’t be a tenant for long even if its lease is renewed by El Monte Union.

The city college, fresh off passing the $450 million Measure PCC bond in 2022, is in the market to buy its own property in the area, according to spokesperson Alex Boekelheide.

“With the passage of Measure PCC, the college can continue its search for suitable property, but buying land and building a new building — or renovating an existing one — can take 2-7 years,” Boekelheide said. “While this effort is being made, we need PCC Rosemead to serve our students.”

Centene Corp. has agreed to pay more than $215 million to California over allegations it overcharged the state for pharmacy services — the biggest payout to date by the nation’s largest Medicaid insurer over its drug pricing practices.

The agreement announced Wednesday makes California at least the 17th state to settle pharmacy billing claims totaling $939 million with the St. Louis-based insurance giant. Centene reported $144.5 billion in revenue in 2022, up 15% from the previous year.

Investigators with the state Department of Justice found that Centene’s subsidiaries reported inflated drug costs and fees in providing prescription drugs to patients in Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid insurance program for people with low incomes and disabilities, from January 2017 to December 2018.

“When companies overcharge the Medi-Cal system, it drains valuable resources from the people who rely on this care,” Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, said in a statement.

As it has in previous settlements, Centene denied wrongdoing. Within California, the insurer operates two subsidiaries: California Health & Wellness and Health Net, which together provide coverage to around 2 million Medi-Cal patients statewide.

“This no-fault agreement reflects the significance we place on addressing their concerns and our ongoing commitment to making the delivery of healthcare local, simple and transparent,” Centene said in a statement emailed to KHN.

Most states contract with private insurance companies such as Centene to cover people in their state Medicaid programs, which are jointly paid for by state and federal taxpayers. In many of those states, the insurance company also handles prescription medications through what is called a pharmacy benefit manager, or PBM, to get lower prices. Such benefit managers act as intermediaries between drugmakers and health insurers and also between health plans and pharmacies. Centene has provided both those services in multiple states.

In California, Bonta said, Centene’s companies leveraged its pharmacy management contracts to save its plans $2.70 per prescription drug claim over the two-year period. But Centene and its PBM failed to disclose or pass on these discounted fees to Medi-Cal.

The $215 million settlement amounts to twice the value of Centene’s inflated prices, according to Bonta.

More than 20 states are investigating or have investigated Centene’s Medicaid pharmacy billing. The company has agreed to pay settlements to at least 17 of those states: Arkansas, California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, and Washington, according to news releases and settlement documents from attorneys general in those states.

Centene provides benefits to 15.9 million Medicaid enrollees nationwide.

In California, Centene is a key political player and has spent at least $5 million on lobbying, political donations, and other contributions over the last five years, according to a KHN analysis of filings with the secretary of state and California Fair Political Practices Commission.

Last year, Centene protested the state’s Medi-Cal contract awards, which would have significantly cut its business in the nation’s most populous state. State health officials changed course after Centene and other insurers threatened lawsuits and partially restored some of its business.

A KHN investigation last year found that the company, its subsidiaries, its top executives, and their spouses contributed more than $26.9 million to state politicians in 33 states, to their political parties, and to nonprofit fundraising groups from Jan. 1, 2015, through Oct. 4, 2022. The company focused its giving on states where it has been wooing Medicaid contracts and settling accusations that it overbilled taxpayers.

California Healthline senior correspondent Bernard J. Wolfson contributed to this report.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

The Pill Club, an online women’s pharmacy, has reached an $18.3 million settlement with California authorities over claims it defrauded the state’s Medicaid program by prescribing birth control pills without adequate consultation and shipping tens of thousands of female condoms to customers who didn’t want them.

Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the agreement Tuesday, a day after a state court unsealed a whistleblower complaint against The Pill Club, which markets convenient reproductive health services to women nationwide. The whistleblowers’ complaint alleges the Silicon Valley company also bilked private health insurers in at least 38 states, including California.

The Pill Club agreed to pay $15 million to the state Department of Justice and $3.3 million to the Department of Insurance. California officials said they believe it’s the first such enforcement action against the company. The Pill Club formed in 2016 as an online-only pharmacy distributing birth control pills and other contraceptives. It serves more than 3 million customers nationwide, according to its website.

Liz Meyerdirk, The Pill Club’s CEO, said in a statement that she is “glad to have the opportunity to resolve these issues and to bring our full focus back to expanding access to contraceptive care for all who need it.” The company, which denied wrongdoing, noted that California is not requiring it to change its business practices. However, it said it has improved its billing and taken steps to make sure customers receive only products they request.

The whistleblower complaint was filed in 2019 by two of the company’s former nurse practitioners, Happy Baumann and Cindy Swintelski. They alleged that the company’s nurse practitioners prescribed birth control pills and related products without proper supervision by medical doctors, in violation of California law, as The Pill Club “increased its profits while putting women’s health in danger.”

Investigators also found the company sent customers “massive quantities” of the female condoms, sometimes an entire box containing 96 of the barriers, for which the company was reimbursed as much as $2,253.80 for a single delivery.

The whistleblowers and their attorneys will receive nearly $4.6 million from the two state settlements. Justice Department officials said the settlement will cover all the losses to Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program.

The whistleblower complaint alleges nurse practitioners “rubber-stamped” birth control prescriptions, spending from 15 seconds to a few minutes on each case.

The company billed taxpayers for multiple half-hour live or telehealth counseling sessions, but in truth, investigators and the whistleblowers said, the company’s nurse practitioners had no such interaction with customers. Instead, customers filled out a 23-question health history questionnaire, or “self-screening tool,” on its website. Nurse practitioners looked at the questionnaire, wrote a prescription, the products were sent to the customer, and Medi-Cal was billed.

But the company’s highest profits came from the female condoms, the Department of Justice said in sharing details from its three-year investigation exclusively with KHN. Not only do they bring a high reimbursement rate, but the company also billed Medi-Cal more than 250% of the retail price on average, investigators found.

The problem for The Pill Club was that few of its customers had any interest in female condoms.

A pre-checked box at the bottom of the company’s website sign-in page said customers would receive additional items — including the condoms — free if they were covered by their insurance, investigators said. The whistleblower complaint says the deliveries would come with “chocolate and sample gift items.”

Further, investigators said, the company would bundle the condoms with customers’ shipments of monthly hormonal birth control pills and any order for emergency contraception, often known as the “morning-after pill,” both of which carry low profit margins and reimbursement rates.

But the company sent them anyway, by the dozens, by making it difficult or impossible for customers to opt out, investigators with the state’s Division of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse discovered. In all, investigators found nearly 37,000 such condom claims filed for reimbursement through Medi-Cal.

“Lmao who does the pill club think I am? A nympho?” said one customer in a Twitter conversation discussing the bounty of unsolicited products.

“The pill club sent me female condoms… I opened one and bout died,” added another unsuspecting customer.

Even after customers told the company to stop, it kept sending the condoms — and billing Medi-Cal for them, investigators said. The settlement says the company also billed Medi-Cal for emergency contraceptives “in quantities in excess of medical necessity,” and for prescriptions sent to California customers by a Texas-based pharmacy that wasn’t licensed to provide them to California patients.

Bonta, the state attorney general, said the company “siphoned off Medi-Cal funding intended to help vulnerable communities access essential healthcare.”

This story was produced by KHN, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.

Kaiser Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

Millions of Americans have used GoodRx, a Santa Monica-based drug discount app, to search for lower prices on prescriptions like antidepressants, HIV medications and treatments for sexually transmitted diseases at their local drugstores.

But U.S. regulators say the app’s coupons and convenience came at a high cost for users: wrongful disclosure of their intimate health information.

On Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission accused the app’s developer, GoodRx Holdings, of sharing sensitive personal data about users’ prescription medications and illnesses with companies like Facebook and Google without authorization.

The company’s information-sharing practices, the agency said, violated a federal rule requiring health apps and fitness trackers that collect personal health details to notify consumers of data breaches.

While GoodRx agreed to settle the case, it said it disagreed with the agency’s allegations and admitted no wrongdoing.

The crackdown on GoodRx comes at a moment of heightened concern over the leaking of sensitive health information, particularly in states that have banned or severely limited abortions. And it underscores the FTC’s intensifying efforts to push digital health services to beef up their user privacy and security protections.

The FTC’s case against GoodRx could upend widespread user-profiling and ad-targeting practices in the multibillion-dollar digital health industry, and it puts companies on notice that regulators intend to curb the nearly unfettered trade in consumers’ health details.

Over the last two decades, startups and giant tech companies have introduced a range of fitness devices, smartwatches and fertility apps. But unlike a person’s blood test results and other patient information collected by doctors and hospitals — which is protected by a federal law, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA — there are few legal protections that specifically cover personal health details, like the names of drugs or diseases, that tens of millions of consumers enter into apps or search for online.

In 2019, GoodRx uploaded the contact information of users who had bought certain medications, like blood pressure pills, to Facebook so that the drug discount app could identify its users’ social media profiles, the FTC said in a legal complaint. GoodRx then employed the personal information to target users with ads for medications on Facebook and Instagram, the agency said.

Those data disclosures, the agency said, flouted public promises the company had made to “never provide advertisers any information that reveals a personal health condition.”

If a judge approves the proposed federal settlement order, GoodRx would be permanently barred from sharing users’ health information for advertising purposes. To settle the case, the company also agreed to pay a $1.5 million civil penalty for violating the health breach notification rule.

GoodRx said in a statement that user privacy was one of its most important priorities. The company added that the settlement with the agency focused on issues that GoodRx resolved three years ago, before the FTC inquiry began.