Only months after he became San Bernardino County's top administrative officer in 1994, James Hlawek confided to his friend Harry Mays, the man he had just replaced, that he was going to retire with more than just a pension, according to court records.
He planned to get rich.
Over the next five years, Hlawek pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, mostly paid in fat bundles of cash by businessmen seeking his influence on county contracts and permits, court records show.
But he wasn't alone. Nearly a dozen San Bernardino County officials and leaders in area cities have been convicted over the past decade -- including Hlawek and Mays -- of accepting bribes in a series of corruption scandals that shocked Inland Empire residents and embarrassed local leaders.
To rebuild the public trust, San Bernardino County officials have adopted several reform measures, launched internal audits, installed a whistle-blowing hotline, hired an ethics officer and created a special public integrity unit for the district attorney's office.
But repairing the damage has proved daunting. While officials insist that San Bernardino County government is now free of graft and corruption, county employees, activists and others say serious reform measures with tough penalties must be adopted to send a signal that the old ways of doing business in the county are over.
"So much damage was done structurally to the organization that it will take some time to fix it," said Chris Prato, general manager of the San Bernardino Public Employees Assn.
Critics like Prato point out, for example, that the ethics officer hired last year has no authority to investigate allegations of wrongdoing or impose penalties on violators. Even the San Bernardino County Grand Jury, in its annual report released July 1, recommended that the county not allow public officials to accept gifts from anyone doing business with the county.
"I don't think they have gone far enough," said former Rialto City Councilman Ed Scott, who is vying for a seat on the Board of Supervisors next year.
The county's tarnished image persists, observers say, because the examples of corruption were so brazen and involved officials in the highest levels of local government.
