Overview: San Bernardino City Councilmember Dr. Treasure Ortiz’s $2 million claim against the city was denied after she accused the city and police department of using tactics to “attack” her run for the 7th Ward City Council election. The city found her claim to be “frivolous, filed in bad faith, dishonest and an attempt to swindle the City of San Bernardino out of $2 million.” The city has since implemented more safeguards to verify who is being run through CLETS.
Alyssah Hall
San Bernardino City Councilmember Dr. Treasure Ortiz’s $2 million claim against the city was denied earlier this month.
Dr. Ortiz filed the claim on March 28, 2025, accusing the city of running her name through their system and other tactics to “attack” her run for the 7th Ward City Council election. She claimed the purported attack negatively affected her “professionally, personally and privately.”
According to the claim, Ortiz was told that the San Bernardino Police Officers Association (SBPOA) was planning on “attacking” her during the upcoming 7th Ward City Council election by telling voters that she had been arrested for domestic violence. Dr. Ortiz denied these claims. She also claimed that she was “run” through their system, and created a file on her. She was told that for an officer to run a candidate in their system for political purposes is a violation of policy and the law .
In a statement released by Dr. Ortiz, she alleged that a text message had been sent to 7th Ward residents asking if they would vote for her if they knew she had been arrested for domestic violence and that the SBPOA hand selected and endorsed James Penman for City Council in the 7th Ward against Dr. Ortiz.
“This was done for the intended purpose of one day using it to harm my reputation or to try to silence me from speaking out on issues concerning the City of San Bernardino. The fact that this file existed and then was brought forward 3 years later when I became a real contender for city council only confirms this belief,” said Dr. Ortiz via her statement.
Ortiz said in her statement that she was illegally run in the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS ) by a former San Bernardino Police Department Detective.
“[Steve Desrochers] used his position in the department to run me and who knows how many others who have challenged corruption in the city,” Dr. Ortiz continued via her statement.
Dr. Ortiz believes these acts to be illegal and in violation of her civil rights under the Constitution of the United States, Constitution of the State of California and the California Department of Justice CLETS policies, practices, procedures and statutes.
The City Council discussed the claim in a closed session before denying the claim in a 6-0 vote. According to the city, it’s a crime to make a knowingly false claim against an officer under penalty of perjury. The possible criminal conduct associated with the claim is being inspected by the city. The filing of a $2 million claim by a sitting councilmember is uncommon, so the city plans to release in depth information related to the investigation that was conducted.
The City advised its investigation found Dr. Ortiz’s claim to be “frivolous, filed in bad faith, dishonest and an attempt to swindle the City of San Bernardino out of $2 million.” Dr. Ortiz will have six months to file a lawsuit if she decides to pursue the matter of her claim being denied. If she continues to pursue the matter, the city will put her and her attorney on notice that it will seek to regain all attorney’s fees and costs in accordance with the California Code of Civil Procedure.
In Dr. Ortiz’s original report of the issue to Chief Darren Goodman and in multiple social media posts and videos, she stated that she was never arrested. However, after a thorough review of facts surrounding the initial report to Goodman and the claim Ortiz filed, the city found the information in the claim to be dishonest. The City’s evaluation of this subject determined that the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS) was legally accessed by authorized law enforcement personnel in March of 2020, according to a statement released by the city.
“Mayor Pro Tem, councilmembers, and I all hope that this transparency will bring to light the serious misrepresentations made by Ms. Ortiz. Her conduct as a councilmember must be above reproach and her reckless allegations must be stopped before they result in real liability to the City,” said the City in a statement.
Dr. Ortiz shared the actions taken against her have not only hurt her professionally, personally and privately, she alleged they also affected her credibility as she was portrayed as a criminal, and shed had to resubmit fingerprints to verify public records.
While the investigation was in process, Dr. Ortiz kept her head down so it could be properly carried out during the election. She wants San Bernardino residents to know that there will be accountability for the illegal action taken by any member of the SBPD and more safeguards are being put in place in the police department to verify who is being run through CLETS.
This is not the first time the City of San Bernardino has found themselves in controversy as they have a history of political disruption, including the abrupt resignation of Acting City Manager Rochelle Clayton and the censure of Councilmember Kimberly Calvin in 2024.
“The City of San Bernardino has a history of illegally giving away public funds to people who are not entitled to them, as it was done in Steve Carrigan’s case when the city gave away $800,000 to Steve Carrigan,” Calvin said during a March 19, 2025 city council meeting.
The City of San Bernardino has also faced claims by others such as Black Voice News publisher emeritus Hardy Brown Sr., who alleges their councilmember selection process is “taxation without representation” and that it is a was of “maligning and disenfranchising the Black citizens specifically and all citizens in the 6th Ward Westside community collectively.”