STORIES FROM THE PAST
50 years ago
The Imperial County Board of Supervisors this morning ordered a two-pronged attack on the misuse of county cars.
Last week a reader of this newspaper complained to the Probe column that county employees were apparently using county cars to drive to and from work.
This morning the supervisors agreed that considerable laxity seems to have developed about the use of such vehicles.
Supervisor Tom Boley said that “If cars other than those specifically authorized by the board are taken home, then the employee is strictly out of line.”
Chairman Charles Kilgore said that as far as he was concerned the complaint to the paper was “dead right.”
Kilgore said that he also wanted to bring up the matter of speeding county cars. The other supervisors also indicated that they had personally spotted many cases of county cars being driven above the speed limit.
40 years ago
Imperial County has been slapped with an employment discrimination suit that seeks $745,000 in damages.
The class action suit that was filed by the California Rural Legal Assistance project Monday in federal district court in San Diego alleges the county discriminates in hiring and promotion practices against minorities and women.
The suit comes on the heels of a Federal Office of Revenue Sharing investigation into county employment practices that were also initiated by CRLA.
The Office of Revenue Sharing is expected to decide in about three months whether it will cut the county’s more than $2 million share of revenue sharing funds because of employment discrimination.
CRLA Attorney Adrian Andrade said today the class action suit was filed because “statistics indicate that minorities are underrepresented (in county employment) due to systematic exclusion.
30 years ago
A contingent of about 50 Salton Sea area residents, dismayed over both a proposal to put toxic waste incinerator in their area and what they believe is a lack of public notice about the project, is expected to protest at a public hearing at 7 p.m. today in the Board of Supervisors chambers.
Fred Brown, a Desert Shores resident, said, “We think it is dirty pool not to give good notice ... If we don’t express ourselves it is likely to be jammed down our throats.”
Although billed as a public hearing, county Planning Director Jurg Heuberger said the session is really an informational session required under the state’s new hazardous waste planning process. Details will be given about the state’s and county’s role in the permitting process facing a proposal by Cal Land Financial to site near Salton City a $100 million incineration project capable of treating 350,000 tons of toxics a year.
20 years ago
A Rancho Dominguez golf-club manufacturing company has agreed to pay fines totaling $375,000 after pleading guilty to one count of improperly transporting hazardous waste across the border at Calexico, the District Attorney’s office announced.
Coastcast Corp., which manufactures the heads for many brand name golf clubs, will pay fines, penalties and contributions in connection with a May 1993 incident in Calexico, Deputy District Attorney Gale Filter said Tuesday.
The company admitted to transporting stainless steel shavings without a manifest from its Mexicali maquiladora plant through Calexico for sale to a scrap metal dealer in the Los Angeles area, Filter said.
Filter said he hoped this conviction and the conviction of Cornell-Dubilier Electronics in December 1995 put on notice any maquiladora officials who consider illegally transporting waste across the border.