Back in early June, iePolitics was tipped off that Dr. Dev Gnanadev, medical director for Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC), had real property in San Bernardino County and the beach area that he was not reporting on his FPPC Form 700. We were also advised that he employed his wife in his medical billing business and required some of the doctors that contract with ARMC to use his medical billing service. His wife’s income was also not reported on his FPPC Form 700.
We obtained copies of his last four 700s and determined there were discrepancies. We also had the Assessor’s Office check his name for real property and found several possible properties he did not claim in this county. Because the information he put on his Form 700 was done very sloppily, it was hard to tell exactly how much he under-reported but it was clear he had not reported everything he was required to report.
Dr. Gnanadev also did not report a $1.8 million beach home although there has been mixed information as to whether or not he had to report his out-of-county medical practices/property. And there was some information that we could not confirm that he had to report at a state-wide level because he was president of the California Medical Association, but that didn’t really make sense.
The bottom line is whether or not he had to report out-of-county assets or not, he did not properly report San Bernardino County assets. And that is a violation of the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) rules.
Dr. Gnanadev’s contract clearly stated he must file a Form 700. So, we made an FPPC complaint for the past four years. Imagine our surprise when the FPPC informed us that they would not investigate because they called the County of San Bernardino and was told Dr. Gnanadev had no reporting requirements despite the fact that reporting requirement was clearly listed in a board-approved contract.
Remember, first he is the medical director of ARMC. But more importantly, he is responsible for negotiating about $21 million in contracts, some of which he awards to himself. If ever anyone in this county should have to file a conflict of interest statement, it is Dr. Gnanadev.
I left several phone messages and emails for Roman Porter, Executive Director of the FPPC and he would not return my calls. The whole project got put on the back burner until today.
I am in a bit of a mood today and decided to follow up on the matter. First, I checked the Codified Ordinances of the County of San Bernardino to see if by any chance the Board of Supervisors had corrected them so that Dr. Gnanadev would no longer have an excuse for his lies.
Lo and behold, the Board of Supervisors acted on the matter back on July 27, 2o10. Dr. Gnanadev’s position is now listed as a mandated Conflict of Interest Statement filer. But there is always a “but.” It’s a big “but” in this instance.
You see, when it was determined to add Dr. Gnanadev’s position to the County, someone decided to protect him. Instead of designating him to be a Category 1 filer like all other department heads, some assistant department heads, and anyone in charge of negotiating contracts, they designated him to be a Category 2 filer.
What does this mean exactly? It means that Dr. Gnanadev does NOT have to disclose his real property. That means that he does not have to list the real property his medical practice is located on, his various homes, or get this—the land near ARMC he is said to be developing.
For the record and to be fair, we had a really hard time verifying the land near ARMC as it appears to be vacant. However, doctors at ARMC told us about it and his plans for developing it.
Would anyone care to guess who did the board item to update the County Code? You guessed it—none other than Ruth Stringer.
I checked with both the First District and the Third District and neither Supervisor Mitzelfelt or Supervisor Derry had been consulted on this matter. Both were in the dark.
This matter had to have three votes and that leaves Chairman Ovitt, who has been fighting reform every step of the way, and Supervisors Biane and Gonzales, who have gone out of the way to protect Dr. Gnanadev, partially because both receive substantial free medical treatment at ARMC.
So once again we have County Counsel Ruthie Stringer acting in a manner that embarrasses the Board of Supervisors to promote her own personal agenda. In this instance there are investigations going on at the state, federal and local levels into various malfeasance at ARMC. How does this obvious act to circumvent the system look to those conducting the investigation? It looks to us like Stringer is as incompetent and manipulative as we have said right along.
When are the BOS going to fire Stringer?
who cares?
dueprocess, comments like yours are always interesting, not because of what you said, but because of the fact it came from a county IP address. In most departments only high level employees have access to the blogs. Is that true at the County Superintendent of Schools office as well?
That’s all the SBCSS staff does Sharon is play on the computers all day…
ARMC = Arrowhead Ring of Medical Crime
Dr. Dev, the Devil and String(her)-up are a marriage made in HELL and that’s where they apparently want to take this county the way they are manipulating the workforce with their improper contracting practices and bloated bureaucracy, its like their are two people on the public dole for every one job. And the conflicts-of-interest with these folks, it baffles the mind. The Doctor administers his own contracts and owns the medical billing company (employing his wife), that most of the doctors use (or their contracts are terminated) all the while giving freebees for the VIP’s Josie and Paul Doe #5…what a racket, as in racketeering (cue to the FBI).
It wouldn’t be so scary if it was limited to preventative health care, with transparency on all levels with strong accountability for what is billed.
However, the sad truth is that my own mom stole my financial identity when she first got signed up with county services because she didn’t want to claim her own assets. That later caused me to have a IRS tax lien put against me, because she put her company in my financial name without my understanding. (Which eventually required my grandmother to pay off all the creditors when she went under to protect me from my own mother.) However, I never knew about the tax lien until they both had passed. The lien was over $5 grand, by the time my wages started to be garnished which was how I found out about it later on and fortunatly was able to get returned thanks to an great tax service. So, that and the fact that when my grandfather passed there was a fraudulent charge for a pacemaker, which my grandmother disputed only cause my Grandfather had been hospitalized for cancer NOT a heart condition even though insurance was fully willing to pay for the operation – just makes all of this even more disturbing to me.
It is scary to think someone has a blank check giving out medical welfare to anyone with no accountability running ARMC and I don’t even CARE who all else on staff is supposedly getting perks from this on a personal level.
Ps. My mother passed away almost a decade ago. The last day I spent with her, was in a doctors office where the doctor was TRYING to get my mother, a hypochondriac/prescription addict, to admit herself into a live in facility due to her abuse of medical services provided by taxpayers. As we drove home, the conversation was only about how much tax payers were spending to pay for her constant excessive trips to the emergency room. The very next day, my mother had passed away in her sleep. On her bed was a book written by Jonathan Kellerman, titled Dr. Death.
Obamacare reform is really confusing to me about what exactly all that means. However, preventative care based health focus, opening up more naturopathic and “alternative” options, FDA, AMA, ADA limits on lobbying (Monsanto) are important and as this story now perfectly illustrates: MORE FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY to taxpayers is critical to the immediate future of our Nation. imho
V: I’m so sorry about your Mom’s passing and all the stuff you had to endure.
As a child, I’d hear of famous people (from TV nightly news) who had died in their sleep. So, I became kind of phobic at the thought of dying in my sleep. Nowadays, I think dying in one’s sleep is not such a bad thing after all.
However, I’m truly dreading the eventual passing of my own mom who is up in years.
Beaufort, Thanks. However she had been ill for many years (prescription “designer” drug addict starting in the 70′s) In my opinion she manipulated the county system and was just a “cash cow” for the doctors that billed the system – all paid for by tax payers the last few decades of her life.
Dr. Death is fictional murder mystery of someone like Kervorkian, which explores the social ethics of assisted suicide from many angles. It was not unexpected. She had threatened me with it for years despite how the rest of my family feels about the issue. Regardless of whether or not it is legal, prescription addictions have significant consequences to everyone in a family. Bleeding heart liberals often think that I am rather callous, but in reality – nope. Just pure exhaustion from dealing with her chemically imbalanced mood swings, all my life.
Spend time with your mother, now. As difficult as it was, I will never regret the decisions I made to spend more time with my mother ~ when I still had a chance.