San Bernardino County Third District Supervisor Neil Derry has not appointed a replacement for his chief of staff, Jim Erwin, who was arrested by the county district attorney's office investigators on 10 felony counts March 19. Derry officially accepted Erwin's resignation March 23 after placing him on administrative leave.

In the interim, Steve Hauer, who serves as Derry's constituent services staff person, is assisting Derry with the chief of staff responsibilities.

Derry is making some changes though. Jamie Garland has been appointed as Derry's Big Bear field rep, replacing Jerry Lemke, who submitted his resignation March 23 saying he was overwhelmed with the job. Garland, a Big Bear Valley resident, is the wife of Big Bear Sheriff's Station Captain Greg Garland. The board of supervisors approved the contract for the appointment at its March 24 meeting.

Also approved was the appointment of Joseph Turner to replace Garland as Derry's special projects coordinator and communications representative. Turner was hired as a staff analyst for the county's Department of Public Health in January. He graduated with a finance degree from USC in 2000.

Turner is an anti-illegal immigration activist who is the executive director of the nonprofit organization Save Our State. He started the organization in 2003 naming it after Proposition 187, the defeated anti-illegal immigration legislation.


According to published reports, Turner made news in 2006 by proposing a ballot measure to ban city-funded day laborer centers, impound vehicles of homeowners who hire undocumented workers and penalize landlords who rent to illegal immigrants in the city of San Bernardino. The ballot also would have required all city business to be conducted in English. The ballot measure failed. Derry, then a San Bernardino City Councilman representing the fourth ward, supported it.

Turner also created controversy when he got into an altercation with a man outside the San Bernardino County Courthouse after a hearing challenging his ballot initiative. Turner reportedly told the man, “Do you know what? Your mother can go !@#$ herself!â€