The words of the day are “inevitable”, “impersonation” and “devious”

June 14, 2025 7:45 a.m. PST (Originally published)

(June 16, 9:20 a.m. Update: this post has been edited and updated frequently since it was posted on the morning of June 14th, and it has much more substantive information that will be investigated and added here as needed.)

By Miguel T. Tonnis

Publisher’s Note: Apologies in advance, I didn’t mean for you to toss your cookies while reading this post.

While the allegations of Brown Act violations and a “Conspiracy to Commit Fraud” (and cover-ups) at the City of Ridgecrest are very serious matters, and the estimated cost of the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority’s AVEK pipeline has now grown to $394 MILLION dollars (See below in green: Op Ed from the Ridgecrest Area Association of Realtors, Ridgecrest Chamber of Commerce and the IWV Economic Development Corporation), you’ll have to forgive me for injecting tons of rank sarcasm and a few occasional cuss words into the conversation. I just can’t control myself and I want you to be entertained as well as informed.

And like a rash that just won’t go away, Eric Bruen – FORMER MAYOR – City of Ridgecrest has implicated himself as a co-conspirator and he’s exposed his Facebook page as a total and complete load of crap.

You just had to know this day was coming, it was inevitable. and the very fact that Eric Bruen – Former Mayor – City of Ridgecrest would step his foot and his big mouth in said load is the only evidence you need. I’m very, very sorry to inform you that he did, and in more ways than one. (Ten to be exact)

After only a few months of blissful silence, the former mayor, who loves Ridgecrest very, very much, has slithered out from under his Facebook page to deliver a pithy attack on the Daily Independent’s coverage of the alleged Brown Act violations allegedly committed by two members of the Ridgecrest City Council, Kyle Blades and Scott Hayman, as well as City Manager Ron Strand, City Clerk Ricca Charlon, and now, allegedly, City Attorney Keith Lemieux.

Lemieux is invoking attorney-client privilege on the entire council in order to silence them from making public statements advocating for or against AB 1413 and AB 1466 or to hold a public meeting to debate on the two bills. (a cover-up)

Let’s set the stage. On Wednesday, June 12th, 2025, the Ridgecrest City Council held a special meeting in closed session at 3:00 p.m. to discuss the adjudication lawsuit brought by Mojave Pistachios and the Indian Wells Valley Water District (et al). The meeting lasted for five hours, and at the beginning of the meeting, public comments were allowed. Isn’t that magnanimous of them?

Only 2 residents showed up to speak, and they were Scott O’Neil and Chris Ellis. Mr. O’Neil was a bit pissed off to put it mildly, and Mr. Ellis was uncharacteristically restrained and diplomatic. They then spent the next 4.5 hours repeatedly listening to a theatrical performance called “I Think We’re all Bozos on this Bus” by the Firesign Theatre (1971). If you’re the curious sort, skip everything below, grab a beer and listen to it. (The album is on Youtube and it’s furnished for your convenience down at the very bottom of this post).

If you’d like to listen to Mr. O’Neil’s comments at the beginning of the meeting, it will only take 5 minutes of your time, and I’ve timestamped the video so you won’t waste any of your valuable time.

I’m convinced we’re all fully committed to ignoring Eric Bruen – Former Mayor – City of Ridgecrest after four years of blah-blah-blah, but he couldn’t control himself and posted a statement on his “political organization’s” Facebook page. (he’s already running for mayor of Ridgecrest and immediately announced his #BBB = Bring Back Bruen – hashtag in January after his last council meeting as mayor).

Not wanting to give him any undue attention, I urged my many @friends not to say a damn thing about him, however this is impossible for me to do and I’m not taking my own advice.

Bruen is the guy who got his butt whipped by a no-name political science professor who recently moved to Ridgecrest from somewhere in flyover country and thought he’d try running for mayor while he settled into his new job at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake.

Mayor Travis Endicott is also a former naval intelligence officer, and instead of relying on Facebook to promote his candidacy, he knocked on over 2,000 doors to introduce himself to Ridgecrustaceans. Isn’t that cool?

We can tell you with absolute metaphysical certainty that Bruen is dumber than a sack of rocks though he does have an “AA” degree in management techniques. He made the mistake of talking while he was managing and face planting on his Facebook page. You might guess that I find him a self-serving and despicable politician, and like so many politicians these days, he rises to the tippy top categories of dispicableness, and because of this, I’m about to give you an executive summary on corruption writ large, very large.

In his Facebook post on May 29, 2025 at 1:02 p.m. Eric Bruen – Former Mayor – City of Ridgecrest, disclosed way too much information about the issue of the Brown Act violations and details of SB 1413 and SB 1466, including the details of a didn’t- happen dust-up in the office of Assemblyman Gregg Hart (Democrat-District 37 Santa Barbara) and Indian Wells Valley Water District board member Ron Kicinski.

Bruen has been accused of slandering Mr. Kicinski and spreading the rumor, now determined to be a falsehood (a lie), that Kicinski was kicked out of Hart’s office in Sacramento while lobbying against the two bills. Hart is a sponsor of AB 1466.

1. Bruen likely holds inside information on behind-the scenes activities of the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority.
2. Someone on the Groundwater Authority or the City of Ridgecrest apparently provided to him confidential, attorney-client privileged information regarding the adjudication lawsuit brought by the water district.
3. He also likely used that attorney-client privileged information to actively lobby for Assembly Bills 1413 and 1466 with the sponsor of AB 1466, Assemblyman Gregg Hart.
4. Bruen is likely impersonating or misrepresenting himself. He was likely previously known to legislators as Mayor Eric Bruen, City of Ridgecrest, they’ve likely never looked at his Facebook page, and they may not have known that he lost the election to Endicott, who has been quietly working on LAFCO and the Ridgecrest Regional Hospital issue.
5. Remember the letter prepared by City Clerk Ricca Charlon which was signed by Councilman Kyle Blades? The letterhead said Bruen was the mayor. Do legislators know Bruen lost? Doubtful. Apparently, Blades was either in denial or didn’t know that Bruen was the former mayor, and he signed the letter! Young Kyle shouldn’t feel so bad (he doesn’t saying “I feel pretty good” after blocking Skip Gorman and Mayor Endicott from bringing this matter up for a public meeting), while award-winning City Clerk Ricca Charlon claimed dumb-blonde incompetence and said she didn’t notice either, and she prepared the letter containing the gross misrepresentations! /sarcnotreally
6. Bruen is currently using his Facebook page as a “funnel” to send his @followers to his BruenforMayor.com fundraising page. (note to Lt. Perez)
7. Someone on the Indian Wells Groundwater Authority, perhaps Councilman Scott Hayman, who knows all about the inner-workings and hidden mechanisms of the GA (as he’s been the city’s representative on the “authority” for seven long years), likely provided Bruen with confidential, attorney-client privileged information.
8. This one is both obvious and devious: Bruen admitted that he was (and most likely still is) lobbying Congress to make a deal for land on Highway 395 to be annexed by the City of Ridgecrest. (he admits this, but doesn’t understand or care that he has no legal agency relationship, no formal council authorization and no formal public approval or debate to back him)
9. We hear rumors that he is also setting up the pins with LAFCO and Caltrans to build an overpass and a freeway from Highway 395 through the Radamacher hills to Cerro Coso Community College in order to grab some more sales tax revenue and tourist dollars and he wants to build more corporate hamburger fast food operations while growing his depositors and Ridgecrest’s population to 100,000 residents. Is your head spinning yet?
10. Do you want to know why nobody goes to city council meetings?

Some of the above is conjecture based on his Facebook post and his Facebook page, but much of it is straight from the horse’s ass’s mouth. It’s all very purposefully convoluted and at this point, everyone, including Lt. Perez, an investigator at the Kern County DA, should have many, many questions (see emphasis added in bold and italics and underlined above).

We won’t provide you with a link to his Bruen’s Facebook page (edit 6/16/25 I did), fearful that some of the dummies that he calls @followers will rush to his side and flood him with campaign cash and/or perhaps his @followers at the GA feeding trough will do so too. I’ll stop right here.

Somebody should make a copy of all his remarks and replies in that post and send it to the good folks at the Kern County DA’s office.

Mayor Travis Endicott’s Facebook page is here: MAYOR TRAVIS ENDICOTT’S FACEBOOK PAGE IS HERE EVERYBODY!!

The Kern County District Attorney should absolutely, positively look into all of this and ask Bruen some questions. If any of this is true, Bruen and Hayman are in a heap of trouble and it’s quite possibly a “Conspiracy to Commit Fraud” running right through the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority via Councilman Scott Hayman. The email address for Lt. Perez and the Kern County DA’s office is provided below for your convenience.

HEY PHILL AND KEITH, LISTEN UP!

This is all a problem for Phillip W. Hall, the Kern County attorney who’s indirectly silencing the Ridgecrest City Council by invoking “attorney-client privilege” as part of the Groundwater Authority’s “legal strategy”, and it’s a problem for Keith Lemieux, the attorney who represents both the City of Ridgecrest AND the Groundwater Authority. Lemieux is a “dual agent” and there’s an inherent conflict of interest when representing two parties who don’t necessarily have the same financial interests in a case or in matters between public agencies such as the City of Ridgecrest and the IWV Groundwater Authority.

For any legal beagles out there, this is called “dual agency”, and Mr. Lemieux has an inherent conflict of interest representing both parties, the City and the GA. In the case of Mojave Pistachios, LLC v Indian Wells Valley Water District, et al. Orange County Superior Court Case No. 30-2021-01187275-CU-OR-CJC, the agency relationship extends to the attorneys hired by the GA to represent them in the adjudication.

As usual, if I need to make any corrections or changes I will do so. Please send them to publisher@Roadrunner395.com. Send your tips to dperez@kernda.org.

As for AB 1413 and AB 1466, these two bills are entirely unrelated (not a part of the case) to the adjudication process and the Mojave Pistachios – IWV Water District case. The case will be impacted by the bills but deploying a “legal strategy” such as this doesn’t give the City Attorney the right to impose attorney-client privilege on the City Council, in effect silencing them.

This is an outrageous violation of the Council member’s right to speak up and to lobby for or against the legislation.

And Eric Bruen – Former Mayor – City of Ridgecrest, should have kept his Facebook-mouth shut.

Finally, here’s Phillip W. Hall, the attorney representing Kern County (and the GA, i.e. a dual agent), defending the behavior of City Attorney Keith Lemieux and his invocation of “Attorney-Client privilege” in order to silence the Ridgecrest City Council on AB 1413 and AB 1416, thereby prohibiting the City Council from even discussing the matter in an open, public meeting.

The following is a clip of a very lengthy email sent to me on 5/31/25 at 8:26 p.m. by Phillip W. Hall.

And finally, can you point to me the time and place at which the WD board members voted to oppose these bills in open session?  Why have you not addressed the WD’s closed sessions and opposition to these bills?  Seems pretty weak to complain about the GA doing something that the WD also did.  Or maybe your don’t know that the WD’s attorney and Ron K have been walking the halls in Sacramento and it seems that Ron wasn’t making friends during his walks so he was sent home because he was counterproductive.  Or can your provide me one case in which the court has found it improper to discuss legislation that directly impacts litigation in closed session?  Or one case in which coming out of closed session the agency must report on every action and legal filing it has authorized? – Phillip W. Hall

1. According to Sharon Girod, Ron Kicinski’s wife, Hall is perpetuating a rumor regarding IWV Board member Ron Kicinski’s behavior in Sacramento, who’s alleged by Bruen and then Hall to have been escorted out of Assemblyman Gregg’s office after a verbal altercation (see Bruen’s Facebook post).
2. David St. Amand, the president of the Board of Directors of the Indian Wells Valley Water District and now the replacement to Chuck Griffin who’s been sitting on the GA Board for over 3 years, but is not permitted to be in closed sessions, stated in the water district’s meeting on Monday June 9th, that Hall’s allegations and comments about Kicinski were slanderous. Mr. St. Amand is now walking into the GA wolf’s den after Chuck Griffin apologized for being ineffective and very frustrated.
3. Hall is asking a non-attorney (me, Miguel T. Tonnis) to cite case law that finds it improper to discuss legislation that directly impacts legislation in closed session. My answer to this is to ask him whether the Groundwater initiated the legislation and paid Capitol Core to write and introduce it in Sacramento.
4. The legislation not only impacts the case before the judge in the adjudication, in my view, it’s an attempt to obstruct justice by changing the due process of the adjudication, thereby removing the judge from considering the issue at hand, i.e. the science that determines the quantity of water in storage (the pie) as well as the overdraft from pumping and the recharge flowing into the Indian Wells Valley groundwater basin.

Phill says it’s weak for Mr. O’Neil and others to complain about a Brown Act violation. Is it weak for me to complain about a “Conspiracy to Commit Fraud” Phill? I don’t think so, but you be the judge.

Isn’t this all a conspiracy to commit fraud perpetrated by a Groundwater Agency, with the full cooperation of the City of Ridgecrest? Take that Phill and put it in your pipe and smoke it.

And since I brought up Keith Lemieux and “dual agency” here’s the post I wrote September of 2021 and it has the 5-year option contract (pdf) for the GA to buy the city’s treated wastewater for $375K. What a scam, and Lemieux was on both sides of the deal and wrote the contract! Bruen was the Mayor, and this is “dual agency” in action:

A few months ago, George Croll, the water district’s general manager, went to a Ridgecrest City Council meeting to propose negotiations for the wastewater and the construction of the wastewater treatment plant. Keith Lemieux rejected Croll’s offer to negotiate with the City, telling him “the good news” is that he can go to the Groundwater Authority to negotiate because they have the option to buy the wastewater!

See the post above, which includes the Option Contract “negotiated” by attorney Keith Lemieux and himself gifting 375K for a contract that would never be exercised knowing the plant wouldn’t be built anytime within the expiration of the Option.

And then take a look at the “Armageddon Averted Post” below, a rather prescient look into “the future”. Yes, it’s true dear readers, this was all inevitable and predictable.

Investigations (Bakersfield)

661-868-5851 Phone

Pichardoj@kernda.org (Jeanette at the front desk)

Lt. Perez – dperez@kernda.org

Re: Conspiracy to Commit Fraud in the City of Ridgecrest

This story is developing:

Eric and Phill, what do you say about this? (this goes to credibility for all you legal beagles)

“In fact, rumor has it that IWVWD Board Members were escorted out of Assemblyman Hart’s (Sponsor of AB 1466) office after a verbal altercation.” (My comment: “Oh? The rumor he’s spreading is a fact?”)

– Eric Bruen, May 29, 2025 at 1:02 p.m. on his Facebook page.

“Or maybe your don’t know that the WD’s attorney and Ron K have been walking the halls in Sacramento and it seems that Ron wasn’t making friends during his walks so he was sent home because he was counterproductive.” (My comment: “Really?, That’s news to me. Who did you hear that from? Were you there?”)

– Phill Hall, Kern County Attorney, email to Miguel T. Tonnis dated May 31, 2025 at 8:26 p.m.

“…and IWVGA is currently surrounded by attorneys. On all sides.” (My comment “Well, that much is true Eric – the IWVGA is surrounded by Phill and Keith.”

The answer to Eric Bruen – Former Mayor – City of Ridgecrest on the last two questions on

HIS FACEBOOK PAGE are, wait for it,

“YES” AND “YES”!!

And what’s love got to do with it anyway?