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MONDAY, DECEMBER 18-DECEMBER 24, 2023
VISIT RIVERSIDEINDEPENDENT.COM
VOL. 9,
NO. 151
Longtime county employee appointed new registrar of voters
Greater Coachella Valley Student of the Month program honors high school seniors
By City News Service
By Staff
T
he man appointed interim chief of the Riverside County Registrar of Voters office is now in the position permanently, following a vote of confidence by the Board of Supervisors. Art Tinoco, 45, was unanimously selected in a formal vote by the board Tuesday, during its final meeting of 2023. His annual salary will be $192,600. “After conducting a recruitment, it became clear that we could rely on Art to continue leading the department into the future,” outgoing board Chair Kevin Jeffries said. “Art is a committed public servant who knows how to conduct complex elections, with up to dozens of contests and measures on a single ballot.” Tinoco was designated interim registrar while a recruitment campaign was conducted. Executive Office spokeswoman Brooke Federico told City News Service that the monthlong effort was handled by the Department of Human Resources, without the need for additional outlays. She said that four people interviewed for the position. Like his predecessor, Rebecca Spencer, under whom he worked directly for eight years as assistant registrar, Tinoco is a career county employee, starting out as a temporary worker in October 2001 but quickly being added to full-time staff at the registrar’s office five months later. The career path bears similarities to Spencer’s advancement on the county payroll. Over the last 20 years, the registrar’s office has had only one person at the helm who was not a longtime county employee — Kari Verjil, who had been registrar of voters for neighboring San Bernardino County. Verjil served nearly
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group of high school seniors in the Coachella Valley were the first to receive student of the month honors Tuesday in Indio, Riverside County education officials announced. Class of ‘24 seniors who attend desert-area high schools were and will be recognized at several Greater Coachella Valley Student of the Month events at the Fantasy Springs Special Events Center, 84-245 Indio Springs Parkway. Organized by the Riverside County Office of Education, the initial event honored seniors from 18 high schools in the county’s three desert-area school districts — the Coachella Valley Unified School District, Desert Sands USD and Palm Springs USD. “Every time I attend the Student of the Month events held in other parts of the county, they are inspirational reminders of the life-changing impact that education has on our students — many of whom have been part of our public schools since they were in Kindergarten and are now only months away from graduating and pursuing their post-secondary dreams,” Riverside County Superintendent of Schools Edwin Gomez said in a statement. “I’m excited at the opportunity to launch this excellence recognition program to celebrate students in all three desert districts who not only embody the future success of the Coachella Valley, but will represent our county, our state, and
Art Tinoco. | Photo courtesy of Riverside County
three years in Riverside County, retiring in winter 2014. The agency has been a recurring fixture of controversy, plagued by technical difficulties that have dragged out the processing of results immediately after an election, delayed distributions of vote-by-mail ballot materials and prompted questions about accurate counts. The latter subject has been raised by voter integrity activists at multiple board meetings, especially since the November 2020 general election. It was in response to criticism and his own concerns that prompted Jeffries to push for establishment of an independent Election Advisory Committee, which was set up last year. The committee, composed of representatives from different political parties and non-partisan groups, is tasked with periodically providing recommendations to the county on ways of making elections more efficient and transparent.
Jeffries expressed optimism that Tinoco would move “the (registrar’s office) toward more timely results, building enhanced community outreach and trust with the community.” “Voting is fundamental to our democracy, and I am honored to do this work on behalf of all of our residents,” Tinoco said. “I look forward to continuing the preparations for our 2024 presidential primary and general elections and ensuring all eligible citizens in Riverside County have access to register and cast their ballot.” Tinoco’s ex-boss, Spencer, resigned in the last week of September after county CEO Jeff Van Wagenen placed her on paid administrative leave in the wake of an unflattering audit of operations in the registrar’s office. Former Orange County Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley conducted the fourmonth probe, uncovering a range of deficiencies on Spencer’s watch, going back to mid-2014. Kelley wrote that the “entire process of ballot
material preparation, production and proofing ... should be modernized” because “Riverside County is consistently the last in the state among medium- and large-sized counties” to disseminate information ahead of statutory deadlines. The audit found communication breakdowns were a routine problem in the Office of the Registrar of Voters and that financial practices were not always sound. Kelley noted Spencer had been exceedingly involved in minute details connected to all operations, failing to delegate many tasks. “She started with the ROV as a temporary employee during high school and moved through multiple positions over the years,” he said. “This is both positive and negative, depending on the cycle of the operation.” Spencer received a “golden parachute”-type settlement agreement with the county, netting a $799,591 payout to avoid potential litigation related to her removal, even though she was an at-will agency head.
See High school seniors Page 23
Prosecutor: Man claiming insanity in killing pair at theater ‘not credible’ By Paul J. Young, City News Service
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23-year-old schizophrenic and chronic marijuana user who claimed insanity for fatally shooting a young man and woman as they watched a film at a Corona movie theater behaved in ways that proved he could differentiate between right and wrong, a prosecutor said Tuesday, while the defendant’s attorney said his client’s actions point to a “person who is literally insane.” “These were the acts of a young man who is mentally deranged,” defense attorney Charles Kenyon said in his closing argument in the sanity bench trial of Joseph Jimenez. “Joseph is a person with cognitive impairment. His ability to reason and process things has been compromised.” Jimenez fatally shot Anthony Barajas, 19, and Rylee Goodrich, 18, both of Corona, in 2021 at the Regal Edwards Theater. Jimenez admitted the killings, but according to the defense, he was insane at the time of the crime. The burden of proof in the two-week trial at the Riverside Hall of Justice, where only See Shooting Page 24