DENNIS'S LIFE HISTORY

  Temple City hired me for my first professional job in city management.  I was a staff administrator in the City Manager's office.  This job gave me the opportunity to see all aspects of a contract City operation.

  My main task as an administrator was to set up a local Los Angeles County Sheriff Volunteer Patrol Unit.  I was going to use my Criminal Justice degree to set up a law enforcement effort by the community.

  After months of research and hard work to make the process legal and operational, the City Manager told me he was wasting my time.  One of the City Council members was a lawyer determined to be able to carry a law enforcement badge legally.  Eight months of my life was wasted on a vanity project that was designed to fail.

  I began looking for a new job right away.  I  learned a valuable lesson in public administration.   Managers wasted your time since they were not paying for your time out of their personal funds.   

  A graduate student at California State University at Los Angeles was required to work as an intern to receive a Masters Degree.  After an exhaustive effort, I received an internship that was a paying position.  I took the bus one hour each way to my new job.

  The City of Walnut was just formed.  As a new City, we had four administrators and a maintenance crew to perform all the functions of a real City.  It was the perfect opportunity to learn all the various obligations every City must incorporate in their routine operations.  It was complex and eye opening to see the formation of a new contract City.

  The goal of the City was simple.  The select group of Council people wanted to take their taxes paid to Los Angeles County and redirect them to their small wealthy community.  The Council was concerned with their taxes being lowered and directed towards their self serving needs.

  My first job as an intern allowed my to understand the true nature of local government.  Wealthy residents 

 I was receiving federal Law Enforcement Assistance Administration Grants to finance my education after the first year of school at ST. Anselm's college.  I had the opportunity to erase this student debt by working in the law enforcement field.

  One of my instructors was the Superintendent at the NH State Industrial School.  I asked for his assistance in getting a job to pay off my loans. He helped my get this job.

  This institution was the only juvenile detention facility for the entire State of New Hampshire.  I was hired as the Transportation officer.

  I transported the inmates to their outside appointments.  I worked as a substitute guard in every building in the complex.  This job gave me a detailed look at working in a prison setting.  

  The experience was a valuable learning lesson.  Most of the students sentenced were there due to bad parenting.  Students came with few skills and left with virtually no education or work skills for their years in incarceration.  Very few students received visitors at all.  The students were destined to  fail.

  In most housing units the older students were relied on to keep the place running.  Sexual assault was routine and the staff did nothing to bring any predator to justice.  It was a place of organized child abuse.

  My cousin, the predator Priest, was  the Chaplain for years.  The Church paid numerous students for the abuse by this low life.

  The worst mistake of my life was not reporting his proclivity for sexually assaulting young boys.  I hope my Foundation has begun to compensate for this failure on my part.

  The Cities of Pomona, LaVerne, Claremont, San Dimas, and Walnut were asked to subsidize the local Humane Society Branch providing Animal Control services to their communities.  After receiving a request for money, the cities reached out to me to conduct a study to investigate the option of forming an animal control Special District.

  The final study ended up as a front page feature of the LA Times in the San Gabriel section.  The report concluded that the the Board of Directors had members with a conflict of interest.  The Director was converting funds to his home improvements. The animals were not being cared for properly.  Sick animals were held with healthy animals resulting in dire consequences for animals being placed in homes with other pets.

  The Cities involved took my recommendation and required a complete change of leadership.  The organization was allowed to continue to perform with new leadership.

  This consulting contract resulted in my being recruited to join the staff as a new  Department head at the City of LaVerne.

Private Consulting

  I was hired to look into a family business by one of my customers from my tailoring business.  I worked to understand the reason his loans to the business were not making a difference in their bottom line.  After eight weeks of investigation, he decided to stop funding this failure.

  The State of California offered virtually free tuition for both undergraduate and graduate school education in the 70's.  Once you had lived in California for one year with a valid drivers license, you were considered a resident and eligible for this educational opportunity..

  After receiving an associates degree from St. Anselm's College, I moved to California to go to a real College.  I worked menial jobs for a year while waiting for my residency in California.  This move was the best academic experience of my life.  I was being educated by high quality Professors while learning next to highly motivated students.

  I studied and completed for my undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice.

  I completed all the course work for two Masters degrees.  One Masters Program was in Criminal Justice while the Second Masters Program was in Public Administration.  I have been fortunate to use this education to prepare me for competing in the market place for the balance of my life.

  After high school, my parents offered to pay for my education at this college in my hometown of Manchester, NH.  This school required religious courses as a part of their studies.  It was a small time school with a repressive Catholic environment.  

  The school was the biggest waste of time in my life.  The classes were taught by marginally qualified instructors.  Most of the classes were larger than those at Cal State LA.  The social oversight was conducted with a religious fervor by sexually repressed closeted gay men.

  I was fortunate to seek other academic horizons from this awful place.