MIRA LOMA - Jurupa Community Services District board member R.M. "Cook" Barela is asking his colleagues to approve new procedures for selecting the water and sewer agency's printer.
Barela's request, which is set for discussion at Monday's meeting, follows his request last December that the Riverside County grand jury investigate the ties between Glen Avon-based Print Depot, which has done most of the Jurupa district's printing since 2001, and two district officials.
Terry Clark, co-owner of Print Depot, is the son-in-law of board President Paul Hamrick and is married to accounting manager Sharron Clark.
The special district provides water and sewer service to the unincorporated west Riverside County communities of Glen Avon, Pedley, Sunnyslope, Eastvale and parts of Mira Loma.
It is also developing a park system in Eastvale.
Since 2001, Print Depot has done about 90 percent of the district's printing -- everything from door hangers to holiday party invitations to billing statements -- and has been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for that work.
The printing contracts are under $25,000, the state threshold that requires competitive bidding.
General manager Carole McGreevy declined to comment this week.
But McGreevy and administration manager Cheryl Russell have said there is nothing unethical or improper going on because printing contracts are not presented to the board for approval and because Sharron Clark does not handle printing matters.
The use of Clark's company was cleared with the district's legal counsel, who found nothing wrong with it, McGreevy and Russell have both said.
But experts in government ethics -- including Will Randolph, executive director of the County Administrative Officers Association of California, and Steve Frates of the Rose Institute at Claremont McKenna College -- have said the relationship created the perception of a "sweetheart deal."
In his request to get the matter on the agenda, Barela suggests several possible scenarios for handling printing projects in the future: requiring bids for printing jobs of more than $1,000, the district doing its own printing, hiring a print broker or designating an employee to handle competitive pricing from local printers.