UPDATED WITH PHOTOS, VIDEO: FBI, DA's Office Serve Warrants at Beaumont City Hall, Urban Logic

Investigators from the District Attorney’s Office and the FBI raided Beaumont City Hall and Urban Logic Consultants on April 22, 2015. Photos by Renee Schiavone.
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Officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Riverside County District Attorney’s office swarmed into the normally-quiet town of Beaumont Wednesday morning, as they served multiple search warrants apparently in relation to the workings at city hall.

More than a dozen federal agents helped to serve warrants at locations throughout town, including the Beaumont Civic Center, according to FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller. She said the agents started serving warrants at around 7 a.m., to assist the DA‘s office.

“I can confirm that warrants have been served as part of an ongoing investigation,” Riverside County District Attorney’s spokesman John Hall told Patch via email. “Search warrants have been served at both Beaumont City Hall and the Urban Logic office.“

Authorities remain tight-lipped as to the reason for the searches. However, Beaumont has long-been accused by community activists of illegally giving funds to the consulting group Urban Logic, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. The city has denied any wrongdoing in the past.

“The City is fully cooperating with the District Attorney’s investigation and will continue to update the public as information is made available by the DA’s Office,” city officials said in a statement issued Wednesday night.

By 1 p.m., a U-Haul truck full of boxes with paperwork and computers was loaded up and driven away by authorities from the Urban Logic office building located off Fourth Street and Minnesota. City Hall was closed to the public in the morning, but reopened by 2 p.m.

Elsewhere in the county, the FBI and DA’s office later took their search to Temecula and Palm Desert in connection to this case, according to Hall.

“Search warrants were also served at locations in Palm Desert and Temecula subsequent to this investigation,” Hall told Patch. “My understanding is that those locations were residences.”

According to the Desert Sun, the home in Palm Desert is that of Beaumont City Manager Alan Kapanicas.

No arrests have been made as of Wednesday afternoon, according to Hall.

“The investigation is being conducted by the Riverside County DA’s Office and the FBI,” Hall added. “Because this is an ongoing investigation, I will have no further comment at this time.”

Urban Logic has worked with the city of Beaumont for about 20 years as a consultant.

Their website describes them as offering “... a wide array of wastewater engineering and construction, infrastructure planning and financing, urban planning, civil engineering, and environmental management services to both public and private sector clients.

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