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www.friendsofdeserthotsprings.com Mary Stephens and Hank Hohenstein Excuse Page New pictures of Mary Stephen's & Hank Hohenstein's past City Manager (Jerry Hansen's) department heads ongoing incompetence Last Updated: October 25, 2005 We ask the Important questions others are too afraid to ask! 10/24/05 The Good, Bad & Ugly Clint Eastwood movie clip below
Also the Good, Bad & Ugly Desert Hot Springs public works mess below THE GOOD!
After only 2 days after we posted the 12 year standing water (West Nile) mosquito breeding pond next to Julies Corsini Elementary School, the City finally drained the pond and scraped the original asphalt surface to accept a fresh top coat of Asphalt. Once finished, the new asphalt surface should positively drain any standing water into the new concrete gutter. No more misquotes and their health risk to our children! Kudos' goes to the City and Developer. See 10/03/05 post below.
THE GOOD!
After only a few days after we posted the big 3 month old trash pile in front of this house, most of trash was removed. Some of the trash was relocated to the lot next store as shown. After a follow up e-mail, that trash relocated on the neighboring side lot was also removed. Kudos' to the City for finally making the trades clean up their work after each stage of construction per our suggestion and valley wide standard. See 09/25/05 post below. THE GOOD!
Soon after we published the lack of proper hold downs and post sizes in homes under construiction being allowed by incompetent city department heads, they educated them selves and started to require 4x posts and proper anchor bolts and hold downs. This is good becouse it will help prevent homes from colapsing in a major earthquake. See 09/25/05 post below. THE BAD!
We requested that the city engineer re pour the newly installed (about 6 months old) faulty driveway approaches with approaches containing the proper (correct) slope up 6". This request went ignored by city officials. Therefore at the first small rain we had last week, our prediction became true and about 25% of the existing sidewalk was undermined by rough rain water improperly crossing the approaches and the damage to property landscaping continued. Because of the city's inaction, the tax payers will now, not only have to replace the faulty approaches but also replace about 25% of the sidewalks destroyed by this improper run off caused by these faulty approaches. Ignoring this problem has proven to be an extremely penny wise and pound foolish endeavor. If this condition is allowed to remain, after about 3 more rains, close to 100% of the new curb, sidewalk and gutter will have to be replaced.on West Drive. In that the city already spent a small fortune to replace this new sidewalks, curbs and approaches, this is most unfortunate. THE BAD!
The old asphalt curb was removed to widen the street and a new concrete curb was added on West Street. Unfortunately past city manager and acting engineer Jerry Hansen did not have the brains to make a temporary curb transition from the new curb to the old curb. Therefore the water runoff from the new curb shot directly into the area behind the old curb. This completely undermined not only the phone boxes but also flooded the intersection on West and Pierson with tons of sand and debris and undermines 5 feet of existing asphalt street. See picture directly below THE BAD (AGAIN)!
There is a 5 foot wide horizontal area under the existing asphalt street. Even when City crews backfill this area, the existing street will eventually (soon) collapse without its compacted base underneath (just like the sidewalks) and therefore have to be replaced with new rock base and asphalt at substantial cost. THE BAD (AGAIN)!
Same area looking at the devestation from Jerry Hansen's lack of proper oversight. These drainage problems where totally preventable! Not only that, we notified the city authorities but where ignored. Now the citizens will have to pick up the tab to fix this! THE GOOD!
THE UGLY!
10/03/05 Mary Stephens and the rest of our DHS City Council for about almost a dozen years, have allowed a perfect year round breeding pond for the West Nile virus to breed directly next door to where our children go to school. Said mosquitoes have been breeding for the past 12 years straight on the north side of Hacienda Blvd, just west of Julius Corsini elementary school!
Mary Stephens and the rest of DHS Council has allowed this swamp breeding grown to exist for mosquitoes to reproduce, bite and infect our children with deadly diseases for at least a dozen or more years now! At least a new concrete gutter has been poured at this area by LTV investments. (They are not to blame for this situation). You would think that someone at the city hall would have the sense or common moral decency to IMMEDIATLY spend a few bucks and temporarily add asphalt to the existing street surface so the water would drain directly into the new concrete drain gutter. We guess that the City would prefer to wait a few more months until LTV or others finally resurface the street to flush with the new concrete gutter. Heck, our children have been exposed to West Nile Virus for the past 12 years from this location, so what is a few more months or years of additional exposure worth verses a little expense in adding some asphalt now to finally eliminate this deadly pond? The answer is certainly not the value of our children's health.
09/25/05 More examples of public works disasters that occured under the watch of past Jerry Hanson's current unqualified department heads. Mary defends unqualified department heads.
This is a example of the total incompetence by DHS building department code inspectors under the supervision of a building official (hired by Jerry Hansen and friend of John Soulliere) who posses little knowledge and no required certifications to perform his job as head of our building department. The trash pile is from debre left over from when this lot was originally cleaned of plants and rocks just prior to the forms being set for the concrete footing and slab. The inspectors in any other city would have required this trash to be removed prior to the footing inspection. Here in DHS, where the inspectors don't know what they are doing, the debris is left to remain through the footing inspection, rough plumbing inspection, concrete pour and framing. Watch and the trash will probably remain until after the house is finaled for occupancy This is a total disgrace to the citizens of DHS who have to look at this trash for 4 unnecessary months. We can all personally thank Mary Stephens directly for this mess because she refuses to address the ongoing problem of employing unqualified department heads that her friend, past manager Jerry Hansen hired. This pile of trash has been near the City Hall for 2 months now. Mary has no shame!
More DHS city inspector incompetence. Notice the shear panels are 1) missing 4x posts required instead of the 2x studs shown, 2) anchor bolt spacing is too far apart, 3) hold down anchor bolts are completely missing, 5) hold down's are missing. Most city's require that the hold downs and hold down anchor bolts are to be installed in place prior to the concrete being poured. All the shear panel locations on this house are this way. This is not a single mistake but the norm in DHS. We do have earth quakes! And these building will come apart.
Same house, same thing but even worse. Notice the right anchor bolt not far enough into the slab/ footing. So instead of reinstalling it correctly, they just jerry rig it and throw 20 washers on top. Also no Hold Down Anchor Bolts, no hold downs, no plywood shear panel. And even when they eventually apply the plywood panel, it will not be wide enough. Current California Building Code (CBC) requires a 2 to 1 ratio or panels to not be any narrower than 1/2 their heights, or at least 4 feet wide on a 8 foot high wall.
This is a curb approach installed and inspected by DHS code inspectors just recently installed The concrete does NOT slope upward, so everytime it rains, the gutter water flowes out of the gutter, over and across the approach and then undermines the landscaping and sidewalk on the opposite side of the sidewalk. This is the licensed civil engineer and city manager, Jerry Hansen's, brand new screw up. This brand new screw up occurs on all approaches all the way down West Street between 8th street and city hall. Another disgrace you can thank Mary Stephen's for. This is a total embarrasement when the city cant even do a simple approach right.
same deal here too! We
removed Jerry Hansen. Don't you think it is time to remover Jerry
Hansen's legacy. His legacy is his incompetent department heads
that are still with us. Time to get rid of them too! Time to
clean house. That includes our very own incompetent apologist,
Council woman Mary Stephen's.
09/19/05 Citizen nails the problem on the head regarding DHS problems Gabriel, Unfortuately,
your photo presentation in your website is a genuine reflection
of bonafide problems in DHS. Aside from the construction debris
that is not picked-up on a daily basis that pulls down relatively
property values, the other problem is that so many of the city's
own development standards have been completely ignored particularly
regarding grading issues. We all know that DHS has many hillside
conditions, but so do other valley cities, so why is it that DHS
has been so incapable of monitoring the work done by so many out-of-town
renegade builders/developers that have absolutely no vested interest
in the city?
It
is extremely irritating that under Jerry Hanson, many of these
glaring grading-related problems were brought to his attention,
but in most cases he did absolutely NOTHING! Hanson oversaw the
hiring of some of the most grossly unqualified and neglectful
inspectors, with the sad consequences that the city will have
to live with for years to come.
I believe that a lot of problems started due to the illusion that
since Jerry Hanson is a registered civil engineer that when these types
of problems were brought to his attention, that he would be proactive
and resolve them. We gave him undue credit by assuming that once
some of the most gross examples of shoddy city inspection were
brought to his attention, that those unqualified city staff would
be logically fired and replaced with qualified personnel. But,
unfortunately, Jerry Hanson essentially ignored most of even the
most obvious problems with many false promises with many in our
community waiting around to see matters improve, and it just never
happened.
Given
these essential problems and considering the whole debacle with
his self-serving contract, it is truly amazing how any councilmember
or mayor could support him. We already know that Jerry Hanson
thought that the DHS were a bunch of fools, but guess what, our
own city council let DHS down, so circumstances pretty well speak
for themselves, again all of this is unfortunate. Just to think
that if even a penny was wasted on unqualified employees, be it
a building inspector or a city manager, that this truly disgusts
all honest and hardworking people of DHS.
Very
upset in DHS.
John
Bachelor
09/17/05
How often are our streets swept? Gabriel took this picture on his street. " It has been at least a few months now, actually enough time for grass and a small tree to germinate and start growing in the derbies. This is a brand new street. We can see how the City takes care of our new streets. I wonder if there is a tree growing on Mary and Hank's street?" Council members Mary and Hank, don't fix this ongoing problem, just provide another excuse for your friend, Jerry Hansen's current department head incompetence at next council meeting!
09/17/05
This is another example of Mary and hank's friend, past city manager, Jerry Hansen's unqualified department heads showing favoritism. Gabriel took this picture. Gabriel says "I worked construction off and on for decades. Every trade at every stage of construction was required to clean up their own mess. If we even left a scrap around in most other cities, the building inspector would simple not sign off and approve our portion of the work until the job site was clean." You can see in this above picture many construction stages of materials not picked up. This is a real eye sore and devalues the surrounding neighborhood homes including Gabriel's. This is a common occurrence on most streets in DHS. Council members Mary and Hank, don't fix this ongoing problem, just provide another excuse for your friend, past city manager Jerry Hansen's current department head incompetence at the next council meeting instead.
09/17/05
Another lovely picture/ Would Mary and Hank allow this next to their home?
09/17/05
Picture above is another fine example of Mary and Hank's friend, past city manager Jerry Hansen's unqualified department heads showing favoritism. Gabriel took this picture. Gabriel says; "This home was built across the street from us. The builder just dumped a big pile of roof tile (that matches the new roof exactly) buried drywall, plaster, lath, tape, plaster mud and other crap on vacant the lot next door. Interestingly, the house was finaled without requiring the contractor to pick up the mess. The neighbors and I watched the workers dump the trash. Soon I will be picking up the trash when it blows in my yard." Council members Mary and Hank, don't fix this ongoing problem, just provide another excuse for your friend, past city manager Jerry Hansen's current department head incompetence at the next council meeting.
09/17/05
This House is next to the house above with the same vacant lot separating them. Same deal, construction trash left over dumped on the same lot. Also after the existing palm trees from both new homes where trimmed, the landscaper just dumped that derbies on top of the construction trash dumped on that lot too! The house was finaled and the trash was left for everyone to look at (until it blows away into everyone else's yard.) All 09/17/05 pictures taken from only one block of one normal typical DHS street. These pictures represent the ongoing norm as long as we have complained (for many years now). Council members Mary and Hank ignore us for years and Mary gives usual excuses for her friend Jerry Hansen hiring incompetent department heads.
Mary Stephens, don't fix this ongoing problem, just provide another excuse for your friend, Jerry Hansen's current department head incompetence.
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Finally
after much convincing, we got the city workers to at least use
the sandbags to make the proper new to old curb transition. Even
so, 5 feet of the existing asphalt street will soon collapse within
because their is a cave underneath. See third picture above commentary.
During
these last rains, these Second Street DHS citizens where victimized
by improper code enforcement of their dwelling units. DHS code
enforcement allowed improper drainage and landscaping top be installed
causing these people to have their homes flooded out each time
it rains. Many times code enforcement ignored their requests for
compliance. These are real people victimized
by un necessary flooding. One mother's baby got sick from the
6" of standing water in the dwelling units. See
improperly added steps, and lack of required retaining wall. The
grade should have been made to drain BELOW the units or a proper
retaining wall should have been added. Why wont code enforcement
force the residential landlord owners into compliance with the
CBC grading laws? Answer, because maybe they do not have a qualified
code enforcement department head. The current Leadership including
Mary Stephens does not care about the little people. She
does not care if their baby's get sick as long as she can keep
her under qualified friends in power.
more
of the same nonsense!
Shear
wall transfer missing? Shear panels must go all the way up to
the truss top cord or be nailed to the truss bottom cord only
if said truss is engineered by a structural/engineer and truss
company to accept a predetermined drag load. Want to bet
this is not a drag truss? If it is a drag truss, where are
the A35's from the top plate to the truss bottom cord?.
Do you think the incompetent building department head hired by
Jerry Hansen under Mary Stephen's approval has even the slightest
clue as to what I am even talking about? If this is not
corrected, this house could easily come apart in a decent earthquake.
For
discussion sake, this is a correctly executed curb approach at
a driveway on Palm Drive. The concrete slopes from the gutter
up 6" to the top of sidewalk finish surface. They do
this so that the vehicle can drive over easily while preventing
water in the gutter from draining into the driveway or landscaping
area.
Copyright by Gabriel King and Friends of Desert Hot Springs