Found Deceased CA - John Wooner, 57, city manager, Bakersfield, 14 May 2019

doodles1211

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Bakersfield Police are asking for assistance locating a missing person identified as the City Manager for the City of McFarland, John Wooner.

Wooner was last seen on Tuesday at Hillcrest Cemetery in Bakersfield around 5:30 p.m.

Wooner, 57, is described as 6 feet tall and 300 pounds. He has black hair, brown eyes and was last seen wearing a white dress shirt and khaki pants.

He was last seen driving a McFarland city vehicle, a Silver Dodge Durango with CA #1390353.

He is considered to be missing under suspicious circumstances. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Keith Cason at (661) 326-3868 or BPD at (661) 327-7111.

BPD: McFarland City Manager, John Wooner missing
 
Msm by @MimosaMornings makes it sound like they think someone may have done something to him...

Although no evidence exists that suggests anything violent happened to Wooner, the Bakersfield Police Department has opened an investigation into his disappearance as it airs on the side of “over-investigating,” said BPD Public Information Officer Nathan McCauley.

Few answers in mysterious disappearance of McFarland city manager
 
I have a strange feeling that this is going to be linked in some way to ICE detention facilities and money. Skimming? Laundering? Trafficking? There's something stinky happening out that way.

"According to a report last month by the California state auditor, the city of McFarland transferred $50 million (between $16 and $17 million a year) in payments from ICE to GEO Group since the facility, a former jail, reopened in January 2015 as a detention center. In return, GEO Group paid the city a yearly fee of about $35,000.

Mesa Verde is 26 miles from McFarland. It’s not the only city to oversee detention facility operations from afar: Last year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general found that Eloy, Ariz., was paid $438,000 a year by the private prison company CoreCivic to manage the 2,400-bed South Texas Family Residential Center — which is 930 miles away in Dilley, Texas.

In 2016, ICE’s Office of Detention Oversight found Mesa Verde to be compliant with just four of 16 standards and found deficiencies in areas including sexual assault prevention, use of force, food service and medical care. McFarland’s city manager told the state auditor that he was unaware of that report. And when the California Department of Justice visited the facility last year, it appeared that the only programming available to detainees was an intermittent art therapy class offered by a volunteer organization.

The city did not respond to requests for comment. But the Bakersfield Californian reported in December that the McFarland City Council had voted in closed session to pull out of the contract, and that it would take 90 days for the withdrawal to go into effect. City leaders provided no reasoning behind the decision. Mayor Manuel Cantu Jr. told the paper that “GEO is a wonderful and amicable company that continues to operate in our city and is committed to supporting our community.”

The news website Capital & Main obtained public records showing that McFarland appeared unprepared for the scrutiny from the state attorney general and auditor. In a September 2018 closed-door City Council meeting, City Manager John Wooner said he had none of the records the state requested. Wooner then advised the council to “threaten GEO with termination of the ICE contract if it didn’t raise the city’s fee to a quarter of a million dollars,” the website reported. The council voted 3 to 2 to accept the plan, but a spokesman for GEO Group denied that the city asked for a higher fee."

much more at Immigrant detention center in Bakersfield, thought to be set to close, will stay open
 
This might turn out to be irrelevant in the end, but if anyone would like a quick and more readable summary of the issue, I also found this one while looking into Mr. Wooner.

"ICE has been struggling to keep its facilities open across California after lawmakers passed a pair of “sanctuary” laws in 2017 that prevent cities and counties from entering into new contracts or from expanding existing agreements with ICE. The laws also gave the California Attorney General’s office, now run by AG Xavier Becerra, increased oversight over the centers.

A report released just last week, the first under the Attorney General’s new mandate, found poor conditions, notably inadequate access to medical care and legal representation, including at Mesa Verde.

In part because of the new regulations, the city of McFarland, outside Bakersfield, ended its contract to operate Mesa Verde in December. The city had been receiving about $35,000 a year for operating as a go-between in ICE’s agreement with GEO Group.

McFarland was the third locality to pull out since the legislation took effect; Sacramento and Contra Costa counties ended their contracts to house detainees in the county jails last year. In those cases, the jails stopped detaining immigrants.

---

Officials have not commented publicly on the city’s decision to end the contract. But a letter from the city notifying the GEO Group of the contract’s termination suggests that it was not over moral concerns but rather because the state’s more aggressive stance against ICE made continuing to work with the agency less appealing.

“This has been a satisfactory arrangement for the City,” city manager John Wooner wrote, “until recent adoption by the State of California of legislation impacting facilities such as Mesa Verde.”

As more cities elect to close their immigration facilities, ICE’s tactic shows a new way for the agency to effectively nullify the decisions of local governments. Mesa Verde will stay open for another year, without ICE having to go through the standard time-consuming public bidding process normally required for government contracts.

How ICE outmaneuvered a town that tried to close a detention facility
 
.kget.com/news/local-news/bpd-mcfarland-city-manager-wooner-considered-missing-under-suspicious-circumstances
What are "suspicious circumstances"? He was last seen at 5:30 pm and reported missing a few hours later when he didn't return home. That is a short time frame for an adult. Why did it move to investigation so quickly?
Who reported seeing him at the cemetary?
 
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With the obscene amounts of money being transferred from ICE via these cities, anyone who has access to city $ could be in danger from someone who wanted that $...regardless of whether they were doing something nefarious or just doing their jobs.
 
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With the obscene amounts of money being transferred from ICE via these cities, anyone who has access to city $ could be in danger from someone who wanted that $...regardless of whether they were doing something nefarious or just doing their jobs.

exactly.
 

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