Former Upland mayor works to rebuild his life after time in prison

New book. New consulting company. Forming a nonprofit. Working in construction industry.

John Pomierski is building a new life after prison.

He accepted a guilty plea for one count of bribery because of his actions while mayor of Upland, California. That’s the city immediately to the west of where I live.

He was sentenced to two years in federal prison. He was in custody from October 1, 2012 until April 28, 2014. I’ve written of his case extensively.

He is working to rebuild his life. Yesterday, he held a book signing for his new book describing his experiences in federal prison. It is a guide for people heading off to ‘federal camp.’

The local paper updates us on his status:

Book

The new book, titled “From Country Club to Federal Prison Camp, a former Mayor’s Guide to Survival based on his time spent in Federal Prison Camp”, is a survival guide to federal prison. He offers tips and ideas on what life will be like and how to get through the experience.

Consulting business

He has started a consulting business, Accurate Federal Camp Counseling, to provide coaching on serving time in federal prison.

Consultation offered by means of 1, 2, or 4 hour telephone interviews. For extra fees, the interview/coaching can be in person. Fee structure explained on the website is not quite clear but seems to be $499 for the four-hour phone consultation.

Nonprofit

He is in process of setting up an NPO, called The Ones Who are Left Behind, Inc.

According to the article, the charity will help those families experiencing hardship after a loved one has gone to prison. Charity has not received exempt status yet and does not have a visible presence on the web.

More on the book

The book is currently only available at the website of his consulting business, which links to a PayPal page under the name of his charity. Price is $29.95 plus $5.62 for tax, shipping, and handling.

He self-published the book, which is quite smart. Based on indirect comments in the articles above, I’m guessing he published through CreateSpace at Amazon. That means instead of having to find a publisher (which won’t happen ever again for an unpublished author) and making maybe (maybe!) $3 or $5 per copy, he will be able to clear perhaps $23 or $25 per copy.

He told the reporter that before the book signing he had sold 70 copies. He is working to get the book available from Amazon in hard copy. As of today, it is not visible at Amazon.

He told the reporter that proceeds from the book sales will go to the nonprofit he has formed.

Back to work in construction

He told the reporter that he has gone back to work in the construction industry. No more details in the articles.

That makes sense. He has lots of contacts and has lots of skill in construction. I doubt he will ever own a construction company again, since he won’t be able to get a license with the felony conviction. He could provide value to a company that would be willing to hire him to run projects.

Not a bad start

He started writing his book while in prison. He has used the last year to get the book into print and start the consulting company.

I think he is still under formal post-release supervision, which will run for a year after his release, which was in April ’14.

My guess is life will never be as good for him as before he intentionally broke the public trust. As a guess, retirement is not in his future – he will likely have to work until he is physically incapable of working. However, looks like he is off to a good start to build a self-sufficient life.

3 thoughts on “Former Upland mayor works to rebuild his life after time in prison”

  1. We all make mistakes. As for this Mayor, he made mistake and now is trying to live a normal life again. Only that the public trust he brokem is hard to get back. Anyway, nobody is perfect, we just have to move on and pray to God for Earth is not permanent as well.

    1. Hello:

      Yes, we all make mistakes. Hopefully they do not involve violating federal and state law along with major betrayal of public trust.

      The mayor is working to rebuild his life. He paid a horrible price for his actions. The list of consequences is long and painful. Having fully paid his debt to society and suffering extensive collateral consequences, I do wish him well as he works to rebuild his life.

      It may not be visible, but part of the reason I describe major fiascos is to call attention to the rest of us there are frightening collateral consequences to ‘mistakes.’ I hope raising such awareness will give extra courage to people faced with temptation to do wrong.

      Thanks for taking the time to comment and encourage us to have compassion for people trying to recover from their actions.

      Oh, and this earth is definitely, absolutely not permanent.

      Jim

      P.S. Thanks for your efforts to help families who have a loved one incarcerated. The spouses and children suffer in ways we rarely discuss.

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