>> Good morning. Thank you all
for joining us. I would like
to call this meeting
to order this morning. Our
pledge and invocation will be
led by the 4th district
Supervisor Hagman.
>> Thank you, Madam Chair, and
good morning everyone. I'd
like to introduce Pastor
Robert Rocha. He's been the
lead pastor of Vaz Church in
Ontario for eight years. Vaz
Church is a non denominational
church. Pastor Rocha and his
wife Elizabeth and their family
and a team
of future members launched
Vaz Church, which officially
opened its doors on February
11, 2018 at the historic
Granada Theater in Ontario.
Under his leadership, Voss
Church has become a thriving,
multicultural, multi
generational church that is
active in the community.
Pastor Rocha has a passion for
developing next generation
leaders as disciples of Jesus
while also meeting the needs
of the community. He is devoted
husband to his wife Elizabeth
Torres, who is also a pastor.
They've been married for 19
years. They have three
children, Isabella, Eva and
Mateo. In his spare time,
Pastor Rocha enjoys spending
the time with his family,
watching sports events and
golfing. And my wife and I had
the opportunity to go visit him
yesterday and he's had a great
message and so much energy
at your church. Thank you.
What you do
for the community. Pastor
Rob.
>> Good morning. And I would
like to thank Supervisor Curt
Hagman and the county of San
Bernardino for the opportunity
and the privilege to lead this
invocation and the pledge once
again for today's Board of
Supervisor meeting. I am truly
honored to be here. The word
of God declares in Jeremiah
29:7, also seek the peace and
prosperity of the city
to which I have carried you.
Pray to the Lord for it,
because if it prospers,
you too will prosper. I'm going
to invite you
to please bow your heads. Let
us pray. Heavenly Father, we
thank you for the gift
of life and for the grace that
you that brought us together
safely on this day. As we enter
into this meeting,
we invite your presence
into this room. Prepare every
heart,
align every mind and let your
Holy Spirit guide us
into truth,
clarity and understanding.
Lord, we lift up every leader
in this place and we ask that
you would empower them
with wisdom
beyond their own discernment.
For every decision and
integrity and
in every action,
let justice be the standard.
Truth be their foundation and
service be their motive. Your
word calls us to seek the peace
and the prosperity
of our city. Today. We stand on
that promise and we declare
this over San Bernardino
County. We ask that you would
bring peace where there is
tension, unity where there is
division and vision,
where there is uncertainty.
Let this county flourish.
Economically, socially and
spiritually, so that every
family, every business and
every community may experience
a well being and opportunity.
May the decisions made here
today lead to solutions that
uplift the people,
strengthen our communities,
and reflect the greater good
of all. We ask that your
kingdom come,
your will be done in San
Bernardino county as it is
in heaven. In Jesus name we
pray. Amen. Now, if you would
please face the flag and place
your right hand over your heart
and let us pledge allegiance
together. Ready? Begin.
>> I pledge allegiance
to the flag of the United
States of America and to the
Republic for which it stands,
one nation, under God,
indivisible,
with liberty and justice
for all. Thank you.
>> Thank you very much.
>> Thank you, Pastor Rob.
>> We will now move on
to our memorial adjournments.
Vice Chair Baca.
>> Thank you, Madam Chair.
Today gives me great honor
to adjourn in memory of coach
Ray C. Aldama of Colton. He was
55 years of age,
a lifelong resident of
Colton, and he was a former
teammate of mine. We were
actually rivals
in high school. I was at
Eisenhower, he was at Colton,
and we ended up becoming
teammates at Valley College
in Cal State San Bernardino. I
know that many
of his friends, you know,
are taking this loss tough. He
was a well respected coach at
San Gorgonio High School and
teacher, physical education
teacher, great athlete,
a great human being, and, you
know, just a good person.
And, you know,
it's very personal
for me because, you know,
my father grew up
with his older brothers,
his older brothers, Bieber,
Sal Chito, longtime family
friends. So this is a hard one.
And I actually went
to high school with his niece
Angela. So, you know,
a heart goes out to the Aldama
family. Thank you, Madam
Chair.
>> Thank you very much,
Supervisor Cook, Supervisor
Armendarez, Supervisor
Hagman.
>> Yeah, thank you, Madam
Chair. I'd like
to also adjourn in memory of
Freddie Contreras. Freddie
Contreras was devoted husband,
loving father,
and proud grandfather Charis
family. Above all,
he enjoys spending time
with his wife and children,
especially treasured moment
of his grandson. He's a
dedicated, hardworking man.
Freddie served over 20 years
with the California Department
of Corrections and
Rehabilitation, beginning his
career at the California
Rehabilitation Center CRC in
2001. He was known
for being kind,
caring and deeply supportive.
Husband and father, Freddie
passed away suddenly on April
19. He survived
by his beloved wife, two
daughters, son and grandson.
Our thoughts and prayers
with the Contreras family
during this difficult time.
Thank you.
>> Thank you very much. I would
like to adjourn in memory of
Marjorie Smith, who passed away
on April 21. Marjorie was a
driving force behind the
Morongo Basin Volunteer
Organizations Active in
Disasters, also known as VOAD.
She was a dedicated volunteer
with the American Red Cross and
she helped organize disaster
preparedness expos in Yucca
Valley, encouraging residents
to stay alert and help each
other during a time
of crisis. I would also like
to adjourn in memory of
George Murillo, who was a
resident of Highland and he
passed away at the age of 94
on May 1st. George is the
father of Chairwoman Lynn
Valbuena and Secretary Audrey
Martinez, both of whom serve
on the Tribal Council at
Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel
Nation. Our hearts go out
to them both and their families
during this difficult time.
We. We have one special
presentation this morning,
so if my colleagues will join
me in the well, please. And I
would like to invite up the
Auditor, Controller, Tax
Collector and your entire team
for today.
Come on, everybody. We'll jump
in here this morning. It is our
honor
to present three financial
Reporting awards to the Office
of the Auditor, Controller,
Treasurer, Tax Collector
for fiscal year ending June
30, 2024. The first two awards
are from the Government
Finance Officers Association.
The Certificate of Achievement
for Excellence in Financial
Reporting is the premier
indicator of excellence
in governmental accounting
for the preparation of the
annual comprehensive financial
report. The award
for outstanding achievement
in popular Annual financial
Reporting recognizes the
department's ability to distill
complex financial information
from a highly technical annual
comprehensive financial and
produce a clear and concise
report for our constituents.
The third award, presented
on behalf of the California
State Controller, recognizes
the highest quality in
governmental accounting and
financial reporting in
California. These awards
reflect the professionalism and
the dedication of the ATC
Controller Division led by
Chief Deputy Mima Ugbo,
overseen by Assistant ATC
Vanessa Doyle. On behalf
of the board,
it is my pleasure
to present these
to your entire department.
Congratulations. We will now
move on to our reports
from our County Council. Laura
thank you, Madam Chair. I have
nothing to report. And reports
from our CEO Luther.
>> Thank you, Madam Chair. I
wanted to take a moment and
report that the county has
received the Government
Finance Officers Association
Distinguished Budget
Presentation Award. That is a
mouthful.
For fiscal year beginning July
1, 2025, this is the highest
form of recognition
in governmental budgeting.
It's not uncommon that our
finance office wins this award,
but what is unique this year
is, for the first time ever,
the county also received a
special recognition
for our budget, specifically
for strategic goals and
strategies. So pretty cool.
It's a meaningful
accomplishment, a reflection
of the strong partnership
across the organization. So
congrats to the board
for their support
in our budget. We'll be having
actually a discussion item
about that later today. And
Matthew, our CFO. Thank you
Matthew for his commitment
to excellence. Our whole CAO
finance team and frankly the
entire county, all
of our staff who work hard to
put together an exceptional
budget. This week is Public
Service Week. This is a
recognition that we received
here. It's a strong reminder
that all the work done behind
the scenes has a direct and
meaningful impact
on the public that we serve.
In just recognition to all our
hard working staff this week
especially, thank you
for all you do. Thank you for
the huge impact that you make
every day and
for pouring your heart and
souls into this work. So thank
you very much and
congratulations
to the team.
>> Thank you very much. All
right, that brings us to our
individual board member
comments, Vice Chair Baca.
>> Thank you Madam Chair. I
just want
to echo the CEO's sentiments
on public Service week. Want to
thank all our county employees
for the great work you do.
Just incredible for the amount
of individuals that you service
in your community. So hats off
to all our county employees.
All the departments also want
to announce that in Muscoy, as
a result of our $2.1 million
American Rescue Plan act,
they were able to complete a
83,500 square foot outdoor
learning center which includes
a sensory garden, outdoor
class, classrooms, basketball
court, foots all court. This
has been a great investment
for the Muscoy community which
is a clearly a highly
underserved community. So
congratulations to Muscoy
Elementary School. Had the
opportunity to attend
with my colleague Chair Rowe
and Supervisor Armendarez, the
serviceman. Recognition for all
the recognition many years, 25
plus years for all employees.
So congratulations to all those
employees that continue
to serve our county. I want to
congratulate our county staff
and all our departments
for doing a tremendous job
for your take your child
to work day. And I think it's
just a great experience
for all
of us board members and staff
to really expose their kids
to that, but really get
to bond and for the families
to get
to see what their parents do at
work and also even considering
coming back at some point
in time and working
for the county of San
Bernardino.
But I think it continues
to grow every year and
continues to be more and more
successful and fun for all the
employees. I attended the
Children's memorial flag
raising event
with my colleague Supervisor
Armendarez, just so they could
recognize those children that
have lost their lives due to
violence. I think it's an
important, critical time to
recognize and make sure we
continue to support Our
children throughout the
community also went to the
Arrowhead Grove Check awards
ceremony which was here in
San Bernardino on Baseline and
Waterman. We accepted a check
for $3 million from
Congressman Aguilar to invest
in 132 new affordable housing
projects in the city of San
Bernardino. Currently the
county has given 5 million
which will allow for 92
additional units which is
under construction now. But
this will also add a phase five
which is really great. I want
to thank public works and
county code
for the great work they did
during the Bloomington and
Muscoy Earth Day cleanup. It
was a great turnout. Want
to thank all the volunteers.
But one
of the great things is our
Sheriff's department arrested
individual and also they
removed an encampment which
just an eyesore
to the community. So hats off
to our county code enforcement
for removing that big
encampment. Thank you
for doing that. Also our office
had a. We hosted a Fentanyl
film contest screening contest
here in San Bernardino where
our students throughout our
local high schools submitted
videos and the winner was
recognized
with the scholarship. So we had
four scholarships that were
awarded for the amount
of fifteen hundred dollars
to those students in schools.
Just a great event to bring
Fentanyl awareness
to our community. Also we
attended the county Employee
Excellence recognition along
with my colleagues Supervisor
Chair and Supervisor Hagman
where 58 employees are
recognized
for the great work they
continue to do in our county.
Congratulations. Also
participated in the Donate
Live Month flag raising event
at ARMC. Want to thank Andrew
Goldfrack and the team for
putting that together as they
continue to get donors which is
very very critical. And then
this afternoon there is going
to be a check presentation
for $2 million as we look
at potentially investing
in phase three or phase two of
our local animal shelter. I
want to thank Congressman
Aguilar
for his continued investment
in our county. Continues
to deliver for our county. So
thank you Congressman Aguilar
and just want
to highlight a few board items.
Item 31, the HUD Action Plan
which will be $1.27 million
investment in the Colton
Hunting Corporate Area
for ADA ramps and sidewalks.
And also there's a plan
for affordable housing
for fifth and Meridian which
borders the city of San
Bernardino and Rialto which
will bring 106 affordable units
which is great. 22 for units
aging help foster youth. So
this is a great investment.
Also item 43 want to thank our
preschool services department
for making a $10 million
investment for upgrading all
our classrooms which will give
our kids in our preschools the
opportunity to compete
with other schools
in all kinds of Technological
investments. And the last thing
is, we continue to invest
in our animal care group,
item number 48, which is to
make sure that we have housing
and look
at a more regional approach
to our animal care. Thank you,
Madam Chair.
>> Thank you very much,
Supervisor Cook.
>> Yeah, I'm not sure that this
is the proper time
to say what I'm going to say,
but anything you want. I have a
knack for doing that. I think
the subject of drones,
it's one that very,
very interested in because I
represent an area that's, you
know, mostly all desert, a lot
of it,
particularly the high desert.
And I've lived here a long
while, both
in the military and as,
as a civilian. And we have a
history, quite frankly,
at least in my district, the
Mojave Desert, where somebody
gets lost, they're out there
hiking or what have you,
and we never find them. And you
say to yourself,
how can we do this? The
technology before we used
to have, you know, airplanes
and helicopters and everything
else. And it always used
to bother me when we. There was
somebody lost out there
in the Mojave Desert. It is
absolutely huge,
but it is very unforgiving. So
the subject of drones is going
to be something I'm going
to be a pass on, on how we can
use that technology. And
obviously it comes down
to money and everything
like that, but it also comes
down to perhaps saving one or I
don't know how many lives. So I
thought I'd mention that. I
don't know if that's. This is
the proper place for sure. But
I would hope that we do this so
that we don't have another
accident where somebody is
out there. They don't realize
how unforgiving the desert can
be even in cold weather because
it's so vast. But, you know,
I've kind of made a vow, not
on my watch again. So that's
the future that I'm going to
try and advocate so maybe we
can win a battle
over the desert. Thank you.
>> Thank you very much,
Supervisor Armendarez.
>> Yes, thank you, Chair. Lots
of exciting things happened
in the last couple weeks.
In second district,
we were able to tour a veterans
retreat center that's being
built currently in Mount
Baldy. Excited
to see what's going on
with that. Hoping
to build some sort
of collaboration with them so
we can help serve our vets a
little bit better. The second
district, we had our mobile pop
up hours where we had over 11
constituents come out and tell
us issues that they had. And
we're working on every one
of those issues to see how we
can help them and accommodate
them with their needs. We did a
check presentation
for the arts for Palmetto
Elementary School. We went to
Fontana Unified School
District, State
of the district.
>> I want to make sure thank
everybody
for the bring your child
to work day. It was a great
event. I had my kids here and
for them
to see all the interaction
with people it was great
for them to be here. So really
enjoyed that event. I also
attended the Empire Strikers
Partnership Appreciation Night
where they spoke about the
partnerships that we've had
through the years including
San Bernardino counties. We
spoke at the children's
memorial flag raising ceremony
with my colleague here, Mr.
Baca and we went to a Earth day
celebration luncheon
at the former CSI. We went to
Pinwell pledge campaign which
is making awareness
of child abuse. We were able
to speak at that event for
to a bunch of young kids
from the Exchange club or they
call it the Excel Club in
Summit High School. We went
to Fontana Unified School
District's award ceremony
for their students and staff.
It was called meeting over and
beyond the expectation. And
honestly the only reason I came
clear of it is my son actually
received an award there
for going over and
beyond and that's how I heard
about it. But it was exciting
to see all the teachers and
students that were acknowledged
for going over and
beyond what they are capable
of doing. We also attended the
Fontana Days parade. We had a
community cleanup event in
Fontana unincorporated area. I
also spoke at the Asian
Business Association's Inland
Empire Health and Wellness. We
talked about everything
from warehouses to housing. We
also were we supported the
Sheriff's Department seat heat
annual event and we also did a
check presentation to
Citadel. That concludes my
comments.
>> Thank you very much
Supervisor Hagman.
>> Thank you.
>> Just want to kind
of highlight item number 77
which includes a 12.7 million
investment for the Grow Basin
outlet storm drain in the city
of Ontario
to include flooding issues. It
was a busy month so I think
we're all pretty busy.
But some of the past events
recently we attended the ribbon
cutting for Prado Park's new
entry Monument Gatehouse. The
snack bar and boat dock really
shouts out to Beata and the
team that they've done the
great job. These are part of
the multimillion dollar
investment in to Prado
Regional Park. Thank you to
Upland Women's Club who
recently had me attend their
100th year anniversary. I also
recently spoke at the Upland
Foothill Quantum monthly
meeting. And thank you to our
service groups who do so much
for the community. The city
of Montclair also recently
celebrated its 70th year's
birthday or founding so
congratulations
to them. I was also honored
to recently attend the
Montclair's 38th annual
Volunteer Awards and thank you
all who serve our communities.
Also recently attended Fire
Ops one on one with the Chino
Valley Fire District.
Workforce Development recently
held a job fair,
an expungement event
with the 4th district. It was
at the Ontario Airport. They
served four, they saw 466 job
seekers and also 85 individuals
started their record cleaning
process. Family shelter also
received 50,000
from our office
to serve families in need.
Upcoming District events
includes the SKAG General
assembly starts tomorrow and
all local governments around
the region get together once a
year. Our next shredding event
is June 6th at the City of
Chino and May 20th is our
annual open house at the
Chino's office between 5 and 7
and I want to Also congrats
to the San Bernardino County
Library who recently honored us
the Best of the Best Library
in the region by Inland Empire
readers. And finally,
applications for the San
Bernardino County Civil Grand
Jury are currently being
accepted through July 31st and
visit our website
to learn more.
>> Thank you, thank you. As our
Vice Chair mentioned,
we had the opportunity
to recognize the Public
Service Recognition Week which
is the first week in May, and
San Bernardino county proudly
joins our federal,
state and local governments
in honoring the dedication
of public servants on
across the entire nation. But
this week really provides a
meaningful opportunity
to acknowledge the commitment,
the integrity and the
professionalism demonstrated
daily by those who have not
just taken jobs
but have taken an oath
to serve our communities. On
April 29, the county proudly
recognized this year's Public
Service Awards Recipients,
celebrating staff from
across all of our organizations
who have demonstrated
exceptional service
to our communities.
Congratulations to all
of the recipients and thank you
for your dedication to the
county and the departments that
you support. We have a free
chipping program coming up. As
wildfire season approaches,
residents of the third
District who have cleared
vegetation around their homes
can take advantage of free wood
chipping programs provided
by the local Fire Safe
Councils. They include Yucaipa
and Oak Glenn, the Rim
communities in the Big Bear
area. And you can register
at firesafenow.org and I would
like to mention as I wrap up my
comments that we have a number
of speakers signed up
on items not on today's agenda
for the Lone Pine Canyon
Quarry Project. That project is
still going
through the planning stages.
This board will not be hearing
that item anytime soon,
but it is in the planning
stages and public comment is
open to be received in the
Land Use Services Department.
And you are more than welcome
to stay and give your comments
here at the board. The
appropriate time and place
for it to be considered is
within the Land Use Planning
Department, and that department
is right across the lobby.
Miguel is here, our Director
of Land Use Services,
with his hand raised,
and he can direct anybody
over there
to provide public comment
to the planner of that project
so it can be received as part
of the CEQA documents and then
be a part
of the official record. And
again,
you're more than welcome
to do both.
But if you're here today
to provide comment as a part
of the official record,
it would need to be done
through the Land Use Services
Planning Department. And
with that, Danette, do we have
any additions or revisions
to today's agenda?
>> We have no changes
to the agenda. Thank you,
Madam Chair.
>> Do we have any board members
wishing
to disclose any conflicts
of interest on any items? All
right. Seeing none,
we will move on
to our consent calendar,
which today consists
of items number two through
81. And I have a number
of requests to speak
on consent. We will begin
with Maria Gamboa, followed
by Amethyst Yates. Yes.
Podiums on either side. You
have three minutes
for public comment. When you're
down to your last 30 seconds,
it will turn orange,
and then it will flash red
at the end of the three minutes
and begin whenever you're
ready.
>> Well, my name is Maria
Luisa Gamboa, and I was here
about. Well, I'm with Gamboa,
Counseling, private practice.
I'm a provider for CPS. Have
been for almost 20 years. And I
was here about a year ago,
not quite a year,
and you really helped me out.
My issue was I hadn't been paid
for about four months, and
after speaking here,
I got all my pay
within two weeks. So that was a
huge success. So I just want
to thank you for that. While I
was here, I got the impression
that you were very interested
in the functioning
of that program. It's the CAPS
program. And what happened
after that opened up the
conversation
about my participation,
my providing services
in that program. And they asked
me if I had any concerns. So I
said, well, okay,
they're willing to listen. So I
shared
with them. I think there was
about three concerns that I had
that I had been trying
to resolve for about those 20
years. Well, maybe 15 years,
and I had not been listened to.
After speaking here,
they were willing to listen.
That was maybe around June, and
we had some discussions. And
out of those discussions, they
presented what they were
willing to negotiate on. It was
really good. I was very
surprised. In September, out
of those three issues, they
immediately accepted the
amendment on one of them. This
was regarding insurance
coverages that we have
to maintain. They were
exorbitant for a person just
in private practice. So they
accepted the change. There's a
huge long story,
but I don't have time
for here. But the other two
that they said they would amend
never happened. And I would
make phone calls, I'd leave
messages. I'd constantly trying
to speak to someone,
what's the update
on this agreement? And I would
just get the run
around and run around. The
person that helped me the most
was Ms. Adams. Cheryl Adams.
So she was very helpful. So
anyway, what
to bring it closer
to now.
>> Thank you. Amethyst Yates,
followed by Andrea Myers.
Excuse me, ma'am,
if you'll wait just one second
before you walk out the door.
Victor, you may have to run.
Thank you. Amethyst Yates.
We'll move on to Andrea
Myers, followed by Carlo. Last
chance for amethyst yates.
Andrea myers. All right,
and then we'll move on to
Carlo. Good morning, sir.
>> Good morning, Board. Good
morning, everybody. It's a
pleasure
to see everyone here. So
on the item that I want
to speak
about is the programs run
by and contracts offered
by cfs. This is a substantial
amount of money,
okay? A substantial amount
of money that I cannot,
nor can the director of cfs,
when I spoke to her,
guarantee that these services
from removals were based
on false allegations. It's
pretty much a kidnapping
industrial complex. There's a
lot of money that the taxpayers
are paying
to support these programs,
businesses, and we cannot
guarantee that these kids were
not removed
from false allegations,
but were spending all this
money with no accountability.
Do you know the heartbreak
people feel these families feel
they see as professionals
in their suits, lawyers,
judges, and then they have
to go do these services. Once
they complete the services,
CFS still says, hey,
guess what? We're still going
to adopt your kids out.
Where's the accountability
for this? There is none. So if
you're not going to go ahead
and give the kids back after
providing all these services,
then why pay for them at all?
We have kids
in group homes getting beat up,
raped, tortured, starving.
Where's the accountability? I
asked the director herself.
When she was outside here,
and I spoke to her. She said
there's a difference when a
woman grow ups a child and when
a man does it. So if this is
the kind
of leadership we have,
then I suggest we start over.
As the grand jury stated,
we start over checking
out these contracts, checking
out all the hundreds
of millions
of dollars the county is paying
for these services, because we
cannot trust these people
to stand there in front
of court, to stand in front
of the parents and say, yes,
you will get your kids back
when you complete these
services. That the taxpayers
of San Bernardino, the
taxpayers of the state of
California, and the taxpayers
through Title 4E funding from
Social Security, that's I think
this year is about $50 billion
out of Social Security going
to these programs
across the country. It's
satanic, it's demonic, the
suffering these families go
through. And at the end
of it, false allegations.
Now, child abuse is real,
but if you can, as a director,
guarantee that removals,
adoptions, and every which way
in between is based
on false allegations,
then you need a new job.
>> Thank you. That is the last
request to speak that I have.
Do I have any board members
wishing to pull an item
for discussion?
>> Second
>> I have a motion by
Supervisor Hagman, a second
by Vice Chair Baca. All those
in favor?
>> Aye.
>> Any opposed? Any
abstentions?
>> With that, the consent
calendar passes unanimously.
>> Thank you very much. We will
now move on
to our discussion calendar.
And starting with item number
82 is a report regarding
implementation
of remote public participation
for Board of Supervisors
meeting and outreach plan being
presented this morning by
Stephanie Shea.
>> Stephanie Shea, Deputy
Executive Officer I'm here
today to present information
on Senate Bill 707 regarding
the implementation of remote
public participation and the
associated outreach plan. This
presentation is just
about five slides,
and there'll be an opportunity
for questions afterwards. So a
little bit history about
Senate Bill 707. It was adopted
in 2025. It applies
to counties with populations
of over 30,000, and it will
require counties like ours
to provide remote options
for public participation,
to engage those members of the
public who wouldn't
traditionally participate in
board meetings and offer them
the chance
to participate remotely. This
bill will be effective actually
July 1st of 2026. And we
prepared for this. The clerk
of the board has taken a lead
on this effort and has secured
a platform to provide remote
public participation via
telephone. The Clerk of the
board will also establish a
website to provide information
on this process to include how
to register, how to submit
for public comment. The website
will also include information
about board meeting calendar
dates and the agenda. And then
lastly,
we developed a targeted
outreach plan, again
with the goal to engage the
public who don't traditionally
participate
in public meetings or
in board meetings
to participate remotely. And
in doing so,
our outreach plan includes a
few Elements, we intend to
provide advertisements and
newspapers and provide county
updates in both English and
Spanish. Other elements
of this plan include sending
out newsletters, social media,
sending out emails,
and providing information
on county websites. Our county
is so large geographically that
our county departments do a
great job of providing events
and utilizing their mobile
units
to again provide services
to county residents
across the county. So what we
intend to do is we intend
to partner with our county
departments and share
information, outreach materials
that include QR codes and other
information about this process
in English and Spanish, hoping
to partner with the county
department so they can share
that information
at their events. And we also
intend to partner
with community groups, all
with a goal to reach those
in underserved areas. That
concludes my presentation and
I'd like to ask the board if
there are any questions.
Comment, please.
>> When you are working
with all the other departments,
could you work
with the board, Board of
Supervisors directly also,
because it's something we have
platforms we can get
information out on also.
>> Yes. Thank you. This feels
like a receive and file. This
is. There's also recommendation
on the board item
for the board to find. We've
made reasonable efforts
for this outreach plan
to engage those members of the
public who wouldn't
traditionally participate
in and to find
out the outreach plan
to approve it,
to find it reasonable. Thank
you.
>> I would welcome that motion
since I do not have any public
comment that I believe I know
of.
>> No. Thank you. Vice Chair
for the motion and Supervisor
Hagman for the second. All
those in favor?
>> Aye.
>> Any opposed? Any
abstentions:
>> With that, item 82 passes
unanimously.
>> Thank you, Stephanie. Item
number 83 is law enforcement
agency's annual military
equipment reports for the 2025
calendar year,
which is associated with
Assembly 481 being presented
by Deputy Chief Crosby. Good
morning. I will open the public
hearing. Morning, Sergeant.
>> Good morning, Madam Chair
and Board of Supervisors. My
presentation this morning is
related to California
Assembly Bill 481. And this
presentation is on behalf
of the Sheriff's Department,
the Probation Department and
the District Attorney's office.
With me, I have Sergeant Ian
Golditch from our
Professional Standards Unit.
On January 1, 2022, Assembly
Bill 481 became effective. And
it requires law enforcement
agencies and their local
governing bodies to follow
certain procedures followed
prior to the funding
acquisition and the use
of military equipment. AB 481
defines certain law enforcement
equipment as military
equipment. And here I'd like
to just clarify that
for purposes
of this presentation, military
equipment does not necessarily
mean equipment that is used
by the military,
but it is equipment that the
California Legislature defined
for law enforcement
to track as military equipment.
Example of what is defined as
military equipment
for our purposes is listed
in the PowerPoint. A highlight
of some
of those includes drones. It
includes armored personnel
carriers, command and control
vehicles, certain 50 caliber or
greater firearms or munitions,
certain specialized firearms
ammunition, any firearm or
firearm accessory that's
designed to launch explosive
projectiles any breaching
apparatus that is explosive
in nature flashbang grenades,
explosive breaching tools, tear
gas and projectile launch
platforms and munitions which
includes 40 millimeter
projectile launchers, beanbags,
rubber bullets and specialty
impact munition weapons. In
March of 2022, each San
Bernardino county law
enforcement agency created a
military equipment use Policy
and an annual military
equipment Report. These
documents were uploaded and are
publicly available on each
of our respective websites.
Each agency's military
equipment use policy and the
annual military equipment
Report describes the following
military equipment the
inventory,
the purposes and authorized
uses, the fiscal impact, the
legal and procedural rules
governing the authorized use,
the training that's required
prior to equipment use,
the procedures to ensure
military equipment use policy
compliance and public input
procedures to register any
concerns or questions and how
the law enforcement agency
shall respond to those on
April 26th of 2022, the law
enforcement agencies held a
community engagement meeting.
On that same date,
at a regular meeting, the
Board of Supervisors considered
an open session agenda item
regarding the law enforcement
agency's policies and reports
that provided
for public comment.
At this meeting, the Board
adopted three ordinances, one
for each the district attorney,
probation, and the Sheriff's
Department approving each
agency's policy and military
equipment funding,
acquisition and use. Those
ordinances are subject
to annual review.
In adopting the ordinances,
the Board found that the law
enforcement agencies had
complied
with government code section
7071 and that the military
equipment followed these
guidelines. Number one, it was
necessary because there was no
reasonable alternative that
could achieve the same
objective
of officer and civilian safety.
Used policies would safeguard
the public's welfare, safety,
civil rights,
and civil liberties. It was
reasonably cost effective
compared to available
alternates that could achieve
the same objective of officer
and civilian safety and the
Board also found that prior
equipment use had complied with
any military equipment use
policy that was in effect
at that time. Our law
enforcement agencies must
create and post our annual
military equipment reports
to our public websites. These
reports discuss our military
equipment use, the inventory,
and the fiscal impact
for the prior calendar year and
within 30 days of publicly
releasing the those reports,
the agencies will hold a
community engagement meeting
where the public may discuss
and ask questions about the
annual reports and our funding,
acquisition and use
of that equipment. This year.
Our agencies uploaded our
annual military equipment
reports on April 9 and April
10, and those reports were
for the 2025 calendar year.
And today we are holding a
public meeting
during the regular Board of
Supervisor meeting. Pursuant
to the government Code section,
the board shall annually at a
regular meeting and as an open
session agenda item that
provides for public comment,
evaluate and vote on whether it
should renew the previously
adopted military equipment use
ordinances and determine
whether each type
of military equipment
identified
in the annual reports complies
with the government code
section. At today's meeting,
you if the board finds that any
military equipment identified
in our reports does not comply
with the government Code
section, then the board shall
then determine whether it will
either disapprove renewal
of authorization
for that particular type of
military equipment or require
modifications to our use policy
that will resolve the lack
of compliance. That concludes
my presentation and I'll be
happy
to answer any questions.
>> Thank you very much. Any
questions? I don't believe I
have any requests to speak
from the public on this item.
I'll close the public hearing
and I have a motion from
Supervisor Hagman a second
from Vice Chair Baca. All those
in favor?
>> Aye.
>> Any opposed? Any
abstentions?
>> With that, item 83 passes
unanimously.
>> Thank you very much for the
presentation this morning.
Thank you. All right,
item number 84 is our 202627
budget financial update being
presented by Matthew Erickson.
Good morning, Matthew.
>> Good morning, Chair Rowe,
members of the board,
I believe Luther's going
to kick us off today.
>> I'll just say some brief
comments really quickly and
then let Matthew take it away
and get to the core
of the conversation.
But just as a brief overview
of what we're going
to be talking about today.
This is our 2026 budget,
our financial update. Our
budget update. Matthew will go
over our timeline as far as
what comes next, when the board
offices will each receive the
budget book and those things.
I'll just briefly touch on our
county's fiscal strategy, some
of the high level headwinds
that we're foreseeing. Matthew
then will jump
into the meat and potatoes,
the five year forecast, as well
as our funding priorities that
we're going to be recommending
to the board as part
of that next slide, please. So
this is just very,
very high level. But when
Matthew and I sit
down and we look
at how we approach budgeting
for this county, we start
from the standpoint of prudent
budgeting and that becomes our
foundation and we establish
that in this environment where
we sit today and I'll touch
on some of the headways,
headwinds in just a moment. We
are positioning for a slower
growth environment. You have
heard that from Matthew and I
now
for the past couple years.
That continues to play out. We
are seeing property tax slow,
we are seeing some of our,
our sales tax numbers fall
from where they had been
before.
But we are still growing. We
are not seeing a pullback. We
are not, there's no recession,
there's nothing like that.
But it is not growing at the
same pace that it had before.
And Matthew will touch
on that. When we have prudent
budgeting and when we're
positioning ourselves
appropriately
for the environment,
what we're able to do is
provide stable community
services. We stabilize our
operations, we kind
of cut the peaks and valleys
off and we ensure that we
operate within the range to
provide consistent and stable
services to our public. That is
Matthew and my goal. When we
sit and we approach the budget
and what we intend
to recommend to the board,
that's how we approach it.
Next slide please, please.
We've touched on these before
with the board. We just want
to hit them again.
Geopolitical risks, those are,
that's more situational
at the moment. We're looking
at what those impacts will be
to us if any long term assessed
value is really where we're
seeing some significant risk
and impact. Matthew again will
touch on that
in just a moment. Our HR1 or
the federal big Beautiful bill.
There are still impacts that
are significant that are
playing out for us and we're
monitoring those. There is some
mitigation
to that that we're going
to be recommending
in this year's budget. The
state budget is something we're
looking closely at. There's a
pretty big gap right now
in what the,
what did they call it? The LAO
is forecasting versus what the
Governor's office is
predicting. So we're trying
to look at what that means and
where the state budget actually
shakes out this month. We
should actually learn more so
that we hopefully will have
more clarity soon. And then
litigation. The state of
California is incredibly
litigious. Matthew is going to
work look specifically and
actually talk about the
decision that we're going
to ask the board
to make today versus waiting
for the future because
of impacts
to the county as well as some
of our number of our cities
in the county. So with that,
this is some of the challenges
that we're looking at. I'll
turn it over to Matthew and
he's going to dive deeper into
the actual five year forecast
numbers as well as some
of the priorities
in this budget. So, Matthew,
take it away.
>> Great. Thanks so much,
Luther. I did want to step back
really quick and just
highlight, you know,
our strategy. Luther talked a
little bit
about it and stated, you know,
that it's just a big high level
overview,
but it's really fundamental
to what we do
within this organization.
Although we are not immune
to headwinds
within the county, we, because
we have a situation where we
are always prudent, you know,
in good times,
the county tries to have a
prudent process whereby we
don't grow too much that allows
us, in times where there's
headwinds that are coming our
way, to really address those in
a little bit different way than
some other entities you might
see within the state of
California and even within the
nation as a whole are. So
with that, I did want to jump
into the five year forecast.
This is where we get
into a little bit more
of the nitty gritty
about what our forecast looks
like
for the upcoming five years.
We'll kind of dive in. And I
kind of first wanted to start
with a review of what we went
over last time. We, if you
recall, met at the end of
March and we went over just big
picture things that are going
on with our general fund. And
so I wanted to dive
into that first. So this is a
reminder slide we went
over this last time. Luther
mentioned how assessed
valuation growth is slower than
what it has been. And really
what that particularly means is
that you can see
in this slide that
over the last 10 years we've
had roughly 6.8% average
assessed valuation growth.
That's property tax growth that
we've seen within our county
every single year. Just
for reference,
every 1% property tax growth is
about $10 million of new
general fund dollars that are
coming in. So we've become not
reliant on,
because we don't become reliant
on, but we've seen roughly $68
million every year in today's
dollars that have been growing
over the last 10 years.
For a comparison,
what we're projecting going
into next year is about 2.23%
assessed valuation growth.
What that is,
is that is not known yet. We
find that out in June or July
time frame what that growth
will be. But that's tied to an
economist that we have that has
historically been pretty
accurate with regards
to next future years. And so
we're using that just
for some comparison. That is
the lowest AV growth we've seen
since about 2012. So it's quite
a bit lower. It is still
growth, as Luther mentioned.
And so we really feel
like we're going to be able
to mitigate these things,
but it is a really big issue.
In addition to that,
last time we talked a little
bit about HR1, how we are
seeing immediate impacts
in our five year forecast tied
to CalFresh administration
impacts. That's tied
to the shift
from the federal government to
the state and local share
increases on CalFresh funding.
On the administrative side,
we also talked
about how there's a lot
of uncertainties with regards
to HR1 specifically as it
relates to CalFresh going
into the future with regards
to error rates,
if you recall. And so although
we do not know the dollar
impact, what we want to do
in this forecast is set aside
$10 million ongoing just as a
sort of set aside just to face
that if it's comes our way.
In addition to that,
on the good side, the good news
is we are projecting in our
five year forecast retirement
savings. This is tied
to long term payment
of obligations tied to pension
funds that are falling off.
In other words, meaning pension
funds basically treat losses
in the market
like debt that you pay off
over a very long time. And so
what we've been doing is since
about 2008, the Great
Recession, we've been paying
off basically long term debt
into our pension system for a
very long time that we are
going to be seeing savings in
the next several years
associated with that. I do
like to highlight that there is
not complete certainty when it
comes to those savings because
it is tied to the stock market
effectively. Our pension system
invests our pension funds in a
way that helps ensure that we
have pensions into the future.
But it's required
to hit 7.25% every single year
in order
to be properly funded. And
years when it isn't, we have to
pay that back as the employer.
And so although I'm excited
about the 36.1 million
in savings, that is not
necessarily a guarantee
about what we will be seeing.
And then lastly we talked
about employee costs with
Teamsters negotiations coming
up. We have roughly, along
with our attorneys unit,
we have roughly 58%
of our workforce that's up
for negotiations
in the upcoming year. And
that's a very notable impact
that I'm going to go
into right now a little bit.
All right, so just to dive
in a little bit more
on the numbers,
a little bit more specific,
you know, employees are always
our priority when we look
at our forecast. And I'll go
over this in a second. What we
tend to do is try
to be very careful
on our revenue Projections,
but we also like
to be aggressive
on our cost projections,
meaning we like to plan for
every possible cost that we can
think of
within our five year forecast.
And so what we have is a pretty
big, you know, variability
with regards
to our employee costs going
into our five year forecast.
The way I've broken this
out is what has been approved
by the board so far. So, right.
We have negotiated MOUs right
now that are already gaveled.
The board has approved
in our five year forecast
that's about $56 million in
general fund dollars that have
been set aside just
for approved MOU use. But
in addition to that,
we have a lot
of unapproved MOUs
through our five year forecast.
What we historically do is just
we plan, or I say we plan.
What we put
in the forecast is tied to
historic MOUs that have been
given and we just project those
out. So it's, it's similar to
what we've historically given
is what we put
into our forecast. And if you
were to throw all of it
into our forecast, it would be
$228 million ongoing
through that, through the
2030, 31 timeframe.
In addition to that,
another really notable impact,
especially as it relates
to mandates. This does not
include impacts of HR1 that is
separate our human service
programs. So as you know,
we provide monthly payments
for foster youth,
for adoptions. Our in home
supportive services program
requires a lot of ongoing costs
that are basically mandated
for the county. And the way we
pay for those services is a
combination of federal,
state and local funding.
With local funding, the state
of California has set aside
what's called realignment funds
to help pay for those. Those
are sales tax derived. And when
we do not have enough
of those realignment funds
to pay for service growth,
cost growth in those areas,
then it is a general fund
impact to the county. And so
what you're seeing is up to
$52 million ongoing
through the forecast. This is
general fund dollars that we're
seeing as a potential need for
our human service programs. A
large reason for that.
Historically we've actually
talked
about caseload growing. We do
not necessarily see caseload
growing, but another aspect
of cost growth is inflation.
And so, you know, each year the
state increases the cost
for foster families,
for adoption families,
for IHSS at a certain rate. To
the extent that goes up and our
realignment funds don't
proportionately go up the same
rate, then it requires
additional general fund
dollars. And that's what we're
seeing. Luther talked a little
bit about sales tax. We've seen
more tepid growth
in sales tax. Well, that
directly impacts realignment.
And so when the realignment
funds don't come in,
it's a general fund impact.
And then lastly, public safety
has always been a priority
of this county and of the
Board of State Supervisors. We
have
for years had funding set aside
for different jail needs. We
currently in the forecast at
$8.7 million ongoing set aside
for potential detention needs
going into the future. If you
recall, in 2024, Prop 36 was
passed
by voters that did not overturn
Prop 47. If you recall, Prop
47 was in 2014. It kind
of reduced penalties on certain
crimes that then reduced our
jail population. Prop 36 didn't
overturn, but made certain
crimes more stringent
from a penalty perspective,
you know. And so what we're
doing is setting aside this
8.7 million in the event we see
different impacts to our jails
into the future. I will stop
because I'm going to get even
more detailed and ask any
questions
on this segment.
>> Perfect.
>> All right. So this is when I
get kind
of wonky and too nitty gritty.
So I like to explain this
spreadsheet because I know it's
just a lot of numbers
on there. So what you're
looking
at is our five year forecast.
Every dollar that you're
looking at is in millions. So
that's,
that's what that represents.
Every dollar that you're
looking at is ongoing
in nature. We're not talking
about one time money right
here. We're talking
about ongoing money. I like
to say that positive is good
for the forecast. It would
result
in surpluses and negative is
bad for at least the forecast
purposes as it contributes
to a deficit. So if you see a
positive, that means on the
revenue side that we are seeing
revenue growth. If you see a
positive on cost side,
that actually means cost
savings,
which you will not see
in that you will see on cost,
it will be negative. Right,
because costs generally are
negative. We don't have a lot
of ongoing cost savings besides
the retirement side.
In addition to that,
what you're looking
at is incremental. And so what
that means is each year
represents how much more money
we're getting
in those line items compared
to the prior year. So
for property tax,
for example, you'll see, you
know, in line three in 26,
27, $21 million. That means
we're seeing 21 million more
in property tax in 2627
compared to 2526. You could add
the same in 27, 28, $22.5
million. That's in addition
to the 21 million. So if you
look all the way to the right
through the total five year,
that's where you can see the
total growth in revenue,
the total costs
through the five years. And so
that's what we're looking at.
What I always like
to highlight,
which I always look
at whenever I'm looking
at this spreadsheet, is the
bottom right column and corner
that really represents what
we're facing from either a
surplus or a deficit. The
little brackets means we're
facing a deficit. And I kind
of want to walk you through,
you know, what we're looking
at and why we're looking
at that right now. So as you
know, as a county,
we are always very careful in
our budgeting and what you can
and you can see that
by the line one,
the ongoing carryover. What
that means is that we have
roughly $60 million
in ongoing money carried over
from the prior year that was
not spent. That was effectively
like an ongoing surplus that we
had set aside. That goes
into the first step
of the revenue that we bring
in to going into next year,
along
with our property taxes, Prop
172, which is a half cent sales
tax for our public safety
departments and then other
revenue. Other revenue this
year is quite a bit higher than
those out years. If you're
looking at it, we're looking
at $29 million that is mostly
tied to, you know,
interest earnings. We've talked
about this a little bit
in the past, but we are seeing
with historic highs in rates
on the Federal Reserve side of
things that our treasury pool,
our county treasury pool is
making roughly 4% right now
in yield or in interest
earnings every single year.
That compares to some
of the prior years back in
2122 where those,
those yields were
like 0.5% or even 1%. So
fortunately, we are seeing
interest earnings growth and
I'm building, we're building
in about 10 million more
ongoing
into the forecast just tied
to that. And in addition
to that,
we're seeing administrative
costs, people may say the term
cow cap, countywide cost
allocation plan. It's really
representative administrative
services that we provide
countywide to residents,
I mean to our departments,
those have grown. And that
means we're receiving revenue
associated with that.
On the cost side. I mentioned
before that we have planned MOU
increases. So you're seeing
quite a bit of in that 75
million. It's just simply tied
to projected MOU increases or
salary cost increases
for the county going
into next year. We're going
to go into more detailed
on line Item nine,
the ongoing request. That's
going to be a lot of our
funding plan that I'm going
to talk
to you guys a little bit
about and
in the next few slides. And
then what we also like
to do is that line item 10, our
future estimated costs. These
are costs that are not
like built in,
necessarily approved
by the board at this point.
But a lot of those costs
represent those MOU costs that
we're, we're placing in up
to that 200/million dollars.
So what I want
to highlight is that
in any given year, so
for fiscal year 2627, the
budget that we are entering
into, we are mandated
to have, you know,
to have a balanced budget.
That just simply means that our
revenues match our expenses
for the year. That's what we're
mandated
to do as an organization. What
we like to do is go a step
further and see how we're doing
on an operating side
of things, you know,
and when I say operating, make
sure our ongoing revenues match
our ongoing costs. So what you
can see is in 2627, if you look
at that line 13, we have a $32
million surplus going
into this year. That's great.
But what we also see is that we
have deficits that we're going
to be having to take care of
in future years. That really is
primarily as a result of the
property tax that is not
growing quite as fast as what
we have gotten used to
over the last several years,
along with some, you know,
our costs that are built
in as well. What I do want
to highlight is that, you know,
we definitely, although it's,
you know, you know,
it is a bit
of an issue that we want
to be focused on going
into the future. It is not
something we are overly alarmed
at. It is something that
Luther and I are paying
obviously close attention to. I
like to highlight that this is
a forecast. It is not
like I know
for certain what is going
to happen. Even beginning in
2728, you know,
we are paying a lot
of attention
to the property tax side
of things because that,
that will tell us a lot going
into July, what's going on. We
do like to be careful,
but obviously we try
to project out so that we are
not overestimating our
revenues. And that's certain.
Certainly my hope this year,
my hope would be that some
of those revenues would come
in better. In addition
to that, those future estimated
costs also are not approved
by the board at this point. So
what that means is we do have
over $180 million in costs that
are projected that are not
necessarily approved. Those are
certainly costs that we would
be looking at to help mitigate
any deficit if we had to going
into the future. So as
mentioned, we like to take a
measured approach so that we
don't overcorrect for anything
in any certain year. Any
questions on that? Because
that's the five year forecast
for you.
>> All right.
>> Each year we do talk
about new county priorities.
And so this is where we do.
Even though, you know, we're
facing some challenges going up
into the next several fiscal
years, fortunately, you know,
we as a county are always
prudent. You know, I mentioned
we had six. I'll go back real
quick. We have that $60 million
in ongoing carryover. What ends
up happening to our budget is
we have one time funds that are
then available
to then allocate for a lot
of one time purposes. And so I
want to jump in there we go
to the next slide. So despite,
you know, some challenges that
are headed our way, we really
have an extraordinary amount of
targeted investors investments,
excuse me, going on
into next fiscal year.
Of that 273.7 million, most
of that is one time. So we're
talking 258, almost 260 million
of one time costs that we're
wanting to build
in our investments for next
year that we're planning for,
along with roughly $15 million
in ongoing general fund
allocations. And I should step
back for a second. This is all
as it relates to general fund
that we're talking about going
into next year. So, you know,
pretty exciting. We've got
several different things that
we're looking
to do. I'm just going
to highlight a few of those.
So on the supporting vulnerable
populations, we've got $22.3
million to really support our
underserved individuals
within the county. One that I
wanted to highlight is we are
recommending to set aside $5
million to support our reentry
population. And so one of the
things that we're considering
and looking
at as a county is a New
Beginnings campus in the Glen
Helen jail area. And that's a
program that the sheriff is
working with Behavioral Health
and several other departments,
including Workforce
Development, to look
at many different potential
ways by which we can reduce
recidivism within the county,
but more importantly, trying
to reduce homelessness of our
jail population as they're
reentering, you know,
the population. In addition
to that, I wanted to highlight
development assistance. So, you
know, one of the things that we
did a few years ago the board
did was set aside funding
in A reserve to help
with permit backlog. So we are
looking at using some
of that reserve this year
to continue
to help land use services
with different permit backlog.
And I also wanted
to highlight that, you know,
a few weeks ago
during the board meeting,
we talked on fees, we talked
about how land use,
we didn't want
to increase fees too high
in relation to a lot of our
development and developer
community. And as a result
of that, we talked
about having needing to maybe
subsidize land use services a
little bit this year in order
to ensure that their budget is
balanced. We did that
in this as well. It was about
$0.4 million. Also exciting is
on the community service side,
we've got $2 million. We
mentioned it a little bit
earlier. I think it was
mentioned
about the animal shelter in
Bloomin. And so we're
recommending to set aside $2
million ongoing to support that
new animal shelter for the
operation side that will be set
aside in a reserve that we're
recommending as we continue
to work through and develop the
staffing plan. But we did want
to ask the board
to set that aside
on an ongoing basis.
On the capital needs side,
we are always doing a lot
within the county.
On the capital needs side,
we have 77.2 million
for a wide array of different
projects. A couple notable is
on the public safety side
specifically. That's where a
lot of the one time funding is
going towards. There is a need
in the high desert
for the district attorney
to have a new office. And so we
are using 11, 11.5 million of a
reserve that would be set aside
to begin starting that project.
And a little bit over $30
million is being recommended
to be allocated to the
Sheriff's department for a lot
of different capital projects.
Their Scientific
Investigations Division
building is in need of a new
building. I know their
specialized enforcement
division. They're looking at,
you know, a new building need.
In addition to that, Big Bear
has a patrol station that they
are looking to, I believe,
refurbish or improve. And so
there's a wide array
of capital projects. But a lot
of the focus is
on the public safety side.
In addition to that, I want
to talk a little bit about
innovation and technology. And
so yes, we have 57.5 million.
What I'm most excited about for
me because every time I can set
aside money in a reserve,
I'm excited is roughly $25
million we're recommending
to set aside in an enterprise
system replacement reserve you
may have on the board today
on consent,
we allocated the board
allocated $40 million
from a reserve for our new
human capital management
system. That's a huge
enterprise system that we are
going to be looking
to implement
over the next several years.
What we thought is it would be
great. We have a lot
of reserves set aside
for asset replacement. We have
reserves set aside
for building replacement. The
next step is enterprise
systems. We have a lot
of enterprise systems that cost
in the 10 to 20 to 30 million
dollar range every time we need
to replace these. And so
setting aside a reserve that's
designated just
for that will. Will really set
us up for the future. And we're
excited about that
on the financial security side.
And this is where I wanted
to talk a little bit more.
Every year we do set aside and
recommend to set aside money
that just meets our 20% general
purpose reserve that we have,
our 5% ongoing contingency
reserve that we have
for uncertainties. But this
year we have some issues with
law enforcement liability. I'm
going to stop right there on
the priorities because I was
going to jump right into law
enforcement liability because
it's a bit of an issue. Are
there any questions
on our priorities? All right.
Okay. So Luther alluded
to a little bit
within the state of California
as,
as we've talked a little bit
about, it is quite litigious.
What we find is that on
specifically law enforcement,
although it's a lot of areas
within government there with
the increasing litigiousness
of not just the state of
California, but what we see
in the nation,
we see claims getting higher,
we see judgments at time
getting higher and it's really
impacting our insurance. And
so, you know, we as a county
are basically partially
like a hybrid model of self
funded and we have excess
insurance. And so as part
of being self funded, we have a
policy that the board has
approved that we basically want
to maintain our balances
in any of our insurance funds
at what's called an 80%
confidence level. What that 80%
confidence level means is that
we roughly have 80% certainty
that we'll be able to pay
out claims in any given year.
So that we are roughly 80%
of the time we can pay
out our claims, which is tied
to our historical data
on what claims has been. And so
what this green bar is showing
you is our projections,
well first off our 25, 26
number. But then going
into that, our projections
into the future
of what we would need
from a balance perspective,
how many millions
of dollars that we would need
to have set aside to maintain
that 80% confidence level.
That's those green bars. What I
wanted to highlight is that the
blue bar, especially in 25, 26
and then going into 26, 27, was
what our current projection was
of the balances that we had
within that fund at this point
in time and how short it is.
So roughly what you're looking
at for 2526 is $40 million
of a balance. But we really, to
have that 80% confidence level
in accordance with policy,
we'd have to have over 80
million. So we are definitely
short,
which has gotten me concerned.
And that's one
of those areas where going into
the future even we were looking
at ongoing shortfalls. And
really our policy calls
for when we are short
in that that we are
to build up our reserves
over a five year period to hit
that 80% confidence level. So
what we're recommending today
for you and you know, going
into our premiums into next
year is a line that looks a
little bit more like this. And
the way
by which we are really looking
to Increase specifically the
26, 27 number is
through a contribution or
from one of our reserves, one
of our general fund reserves.
As you know,
we set aside a lot of reserves
for a lot of good reasons. And
so we have a liability Reserve
that's at $25 million right
now. We're effectively looking
to release that reserve. It's a
general fund reserve,
release it into this fund
to help us begin to move
towards that 80% confidence
level. But we're not just
recommending that. We have,
you know, that $25 million
liability reserve that we
release. We are seeing premium
growth within the county. And
what that means is we are
looking
to increase our premiums.
Currently in 25, 26, they're
at 45 million going
into next year. We are
recommending that our premiums
going into next year will be
$69 million total. And what
that means is our departments
that pay into that, they will
have a large increase going
into next year. In addition
to that, going into 20, 30,
31, it would be up to $80
million. It's quite a large
increase. Importantly, and I
have a note down
at the bottom,
our biggest payer of law
enforcement liability besides
the county is our contract
cities. The sheriff provides
law enforcement services to 14
different of our 14
of our cities right now. And so
any sort of cost we have
on that side, we do pass on
to our contract cities.
Historically, notably for 26,
27 of that $24 million increase
that I was talking about
in premiums, $10.1 million is
going to our contract cities.
And that's what I wanted
to talk a little bit about
with you guys today. One
of our recommendations is, you
know, of that $25 million of
the liability reserve that we'd
like to set aside, we would
like to support our contract
cities by. By basically cutting
that premium growth in half
for the next year. So rather
than $10.1 million increase, we
would recommend a pure subsidy
from the board of supervisors
of $5 million that would go
towards helping them pay. You
know, a lot
of our contract cities from a
budgetary perspective have
faced a lot of challenges, you
know, similar
to the counties,
but sometimes it's even worse.
And so we wanted to be in good
partners recommend that we
would roughly, you know,
on a one time basis,
cover their costs for one year
at half their premium increase.
And so that is a specific
recommendation that we have
for you today. So normally this
is just a receive,
but we did want
to give our contract cities,
who are, I'm guessing,
probably paying attention
to this meeting,
some knowledge going
into the future
of their budgets,
as they're planning their
budgets, whether or not they
can, you know,
potentially see that and rely
on that $5 million. So we are
today asking you that
to give us direction
to include that
into our budget going into
June. So that is a
recommendation in front
of you guys today, I assume.
We'll take that after we go
through questions. Any
questions
on that?
>> I'll tell you, our contract
cities appreciate the support.
I've been reached out to
by several of them and they
appreciate it.
>> Excellent. Very good. All
right. With that,
that is what we have for you.
Our next steps is that my
staff,
who I should have thanked right
off the start, as Luther
mentioned, they are working
really, really hard right now
to get a budget book that will
be delivered
to you and the public on May
19. That budget book will have.
This has been a general fund
focus in this meeting. The
budget book will have every
revenue source that we're
talking about. It will have
detailed pages by department
about what's going on
within each budget. And then
on June 9, which is three weeks
later, is when we would like
to bring to the board the
actual budget recommended
budget for adoption. So
with that, I will entertain any
questions.
>> I don't believe I have any
requests to speak. Is that
correct?
>> That's correct.
>> Okay, any questions? Come
on, you gotta congratulate.
Thank you so much. I know the
five year forecast freaks me
out always.
>> It is. But I also been here
long enough to know that you
guys do a wonderful job
of managing, you know,
preparing for the worst,
but hoping
for the best as we go forward.
Your team does a fantastic job
preparing. Love the fact that
we could take some long term
vision,
strategic investments not only
for our residents,
but our departments. That is
also part of everything we do
all the time. And that very
thoughtful approach that you
do. Even though we prepare
for that worst, we hope those
numbers change and that we have
good outcomes going forward.
But excellent work as always
and we'll keep pressing on.
I'll move it when you entertain
that Supervisor Cook.
>> Yeah. 100 years ago, used
to send people to Washington
D.C. to talk
to people that could help you
out with, you know,
you needed money for a specific
project or what have you and
usually you'd bump in,
you'd have to go through the,
the most difficult person
to deal with. And I'm trying
to remember her name, dawn
something or other that I don't
want to say. She always said
no,
but she was the gatekeeper. Do
you remember those days?
>> I do, yeah.
>> She never got a Christmas
card for 10 years or something.
But that's another story. And
I'm just wondering because
believe it or not, when you
went back there and you talked
to, particularly if you had a
large project or what have you,
you had something that you
could talk to your elected
representatives about, said,
you know, we're desperate in
San Bernardino county for this
for the following reasons and
unless they're stupid,
they're going to meet
with you and they're going
to talk to you. And this is
where they can always say no,
but at least you get your day
in court or day in Congress.
And I used to look forward
to that because, you know,
a lot of things were going
on and everything. You still do
that where you have an agenda.
It's almost like a game plan
on how you, you pick
out certain officeholders,
particularly the stupid ones
like Cook back there. You know,
you figure, well, he's dumb,
he's a dumb Marine. We can get
over on him and get another
$100 million. Now you never got
that much money. I don't care.
JC himself was back here.
But if, if the source
of the money is back there,
I'm obviously advocating
for a game plan on how you go
back there and you can be real
nice, smooth and everything
like that, but that's
oftentimes depending upon the
situation in Washington and
what have you. But I want some
of my colleagues there,
there now to go
through the pain of meeting
certain disgruntled people
from your,
your home communities. Because
it works.
>> Yeah, absolutely. I'm
fortunate to have work
for me, Leah Fletez, who is our
legislative affairs and
government relations sort
of deputy executive officer.
And they focus a lot with, you
know, the federal stakeholders,
state stakeholders and really
looking for the county
to ensure that we are
advocating for all
of our needs. But in addition
to that, we do have a process
by which we look
for federal earmarks, you know,
working with our,
our local delegation. And it's
something that they do a great
job of really pursuing
for the county.
>> Yes.
>> What was budget request.
>> Very, very dangerous. Where
I don't like it. People in
Washington don't like it and
it's used interchangeably.
But I (inaudible) her head
off as soon as they say that.
Thank you for keeping it
at a higher level. Don't get
down
to the level that these people
in Washington are at. You're
above them, you're no more.
And you're more passionate
because you're closer
to the people.
>> Thank you, sir.
>> Yeah, thank you, Madam
Chair. I want to thank Matt,
finance team,
department heads and Luther
for really doing a great job
with the budget. I know this is
just the first bite
at the apple. I know we're
going to come back
to formally adopt, but I think
it's impressive the fact that,
you know,
our county staff has been able
to make a lot of significant
one time investments
in the county to address a lot
of the needs that we have. And
you know, one
of the ones I just want
to highlight,
I know you mentioned it
earlier, was the $5 million
investment for the Glen Helen
Rehabilitation Center. One
of the things we found out
in the last point in time count
is that our numbers did
decrease in our county, but
overall the formerly
incarcerated numbers has
increased. That's up
to 28.6% now. So that's very,
very significant. I know that's
important for our sheriff
Shannon Dykus and Behavioral
Health to try to address and
transition folks as they,
they go
from being incarcerated out
to civilian life. And that is
just a big number
with our homeless population.
But I just think it's a great
job that you did
in forecasting and sharing
with the entire board. You know
what the outlook is.
But also one
of the things we have
to consider in mind. We've been
very blessed
with revenues being high
American Rescue Plan act money
that we're able to make
significant investments. We
received a lot of money from
the state a couple years ago.
>> You know, as we begin
to look forward, you know,
how can we leverage our dollars
with state and federal matching
dollars? It's something we have
to consider. But Great job,
Matt, with the budget and
appreciate the good work
to you and Luther.
>> Thank you, sir.
>> Any concerns
about the liability reserves
for law enforcement? No. All
right. Would you like
to make a motion?
>> So move.
>> Thank you. Thank you very
much for the motion. And
second, all those
in favor?
>> Aye.
>> Any opposed? Any
abstentions?
>> With that, item 84 passes
unanimously. Thank you very
much. Thank you, Matthew.
Thanks to your entire team.
Number 85 is the countywide
Unmanned Aerial Support
Workshop being presented this
morning by Luther Snoke.
>> I'll let Trevor take a seat,
but
in the opening comments made
by Supervisor Cook, he talked
about drones. And it's very
timely because that is the
conversation that Trevor, as
well as representatives
from fire and sheriff will,
will lead the discussion
over the next 15 to 20 minutes
or so to touch on. So I'll turn
it over to Trevor, but I think
he has a video that he's going
to start with. Yeah, that we.
We recorded this just
to be safe. I wanted to do this
as a live demonstration, but we
thought this was a little
smarter.
>> Go ahead, Trevor.
>> Thank you, Luther. And good
morning, chair members
of the board. I am Trevor
Lijia, assistant executive
officer with the county's
public safety and
communications portfolio. So,
yeah, let's watch that video.
[ VIDEO PLAYING ]
So that video we just watched,
it was. That was shot
with an unmanned aerial system,
AKA UAS, AKA drone. And I think
that's the type
of use that a lot of us think
about when we think about this
technology and the capabilities
of these things. We think
about, we go to a wedding,
they fly
over the wedding party,
everybody waves. Right.
But really with the technology
capability growth that we're
seeing,
there's so much more than that,
and that is why we are here
today. And so
at a high level, we're going
to keep this, as Luther
mentioned, to about 20 minutes.
We're going to focus
on four things. We're going
to provide a quick overview of
where we are today as a county
related to UAS. We're going
to hear
from the sheriff's department
in the fire district as they
walk through their programs,
since they're really leading
in this space. And then we're
going to close with a few
recommendations and open it up
for your questions and
feedback. So in 2023, the
county adopted its first formal
UAS policy framework,
and that was aligned
with FAA regulations, and that
gave us a solid foundation for
safe and compliant operations
today. And as the technology
evolves with, especially
with things like Beyond
Visual Line of Sight, which
we'll talk about more later,
this is an area that we do want
to keep current. We also
established a multi
departmental steering committee
and that committee serves as a
centralized forum
to support coordination
across departments, things
like reviewing purchases,
sharing information,
promoting consistency and
training,
safety and operations. And the
committee itself doesn't
approve departmental programs
or direct the operations and it
continues to operate based
on their specific needs
within the framework
of county policy and standards.
And so as these programs
continue to grow
in scale and complexity,
ensuring a strong county wide
alignment will become
increasingly important. So what
this slide shows is that UAS
use is expansive
across multiple departments.
As you can see,
the county as a whole flew
over 420flight hours last year.
So not including sheriff and
fire,
which I'll let them speak
to when they come up. But those
flights supported a range
of mission specific tasks.
Everything
from infrastructure inspections
after a flood, aerial mapping,
supporting fraud investigation,
assisting
with homeless encampments,
as well as video production.
And so with that quick overview
I will turn it over
to our subject matter experts
in our public safety partners
to share a bit about their
programs. I'll invite them
down now.
>> So as they're coming down,
both Sheriff Dikus and Chief
Muncie, they're really
at the forefront
of applying this technology in
ways that enhance first
responder safety and improve
situational awareness
in the field. So we have Lt.
Bashir and Battalion Chief
Chris Bowden here, but I'll let
them introduce themselves as
they get started.
>> Hi, I'm Lieutenant Jared
Beshear. I oversee our
Operational Technologies unit.
One of the items that we cover
is UAS within the county. Our
current UAS program consists of
our specialized enforcement
division or our SWAT team. We
have a limited deployment of
drone as first responder or DFR
in Victorville City and we have
certified part 107 pilots
running out of our real time
information center. As we
expand
into this area cautiously,
we have looked
at multiple options in order
to provide service
for the county, not only
at the city level, but also as
a county wide and other
departments within the
Sheriff's department. One of
these items is a mobile
response. So as spoken
about earlier,
search and rescue issues
in the county,
we have a vast county. We would
be able
to deploy UAS technology out to
these search areas or critical
incidents that are located
in these remote areas.
For that, along with also
having different options
available to us including
tethered and long endurance UAS
systems for extended search
operations or critical
incidents. In addition
to mobile response,
we're looking
at drone as a first responder.
Our partners up in
Victorville City have launched
their DFR program
with success early on
for finding missing persons,
identifying suspects
of crimes and officer safety
for our search and rescue
personnel. We want to be able
to leverage this technology
in order to make it safer
for them when they go out and
do their searches and more
efficient and more effective. A
lot of the times when we go
out and send our volunteers
from the sheriff's department
to do these rescues, they get
into terrain that's very
dangerous. And by being able
to deploy a DFR to a location
to confirm or deny the location
of anybody actually being
there, it increases their
safety and makes it less likely
that they'll be injured
out there. We are continuing
our specialized enforcement
program with SWAT and how we
handle critical incidents with
their UAS technology and also
looking to add to our
specialized investigations
division,
specifically our homicide team
for outdoor scenery
construction. It's much more
cost effective and efficient
to be able to build out and map
a crime scene versus the older
technologies.
To the left is just some of the
areas that we've been looking
at as a county to deploy drone
as first responder and just
seeing the legitimacy
of those areas based on calls
for service data and terrain.
This is a early
on map or an overview
of the county. It just includes
some
of the sites that we're looking
at as how we would implement
Dronis first respond responder.
This doesn't include any
of the city stations. There's
also outlying stations that we
have an idea for, including
Needles, Baker, Trona. Also the
mountain areas are on here.
You don't see them, but they
would require a little bit
different approach.
But we are looking
into the areas of Crestline,
Lake, Arrowhead, Big Bear,
Running Springs and Wrightwood
area. The other ones,
the far left is Mount Baldy.
We have a lot
of search missions that occur
out there and it would just
help in faster identification
or location of victims.
Everything will run
through our Real Time
Information center as a
centralized location.
But every piece of technology
that we're implementing
through our unit is to
decentralize the technology so
it is available to everybody,
including the officer
on the street. The goal
from the start was to make sure
that all this information was
available to everyone. We
believe by being able
to get this technology along
with our existing technology
out to the deputies, we'll have
better outcomes and more
situational awareness.
On this screen,
the middle screen for the
Real Time Information center,
you'll see a drone feed that
was coming in
during an incident. On the
right hand side you'll see
deputy locations along
with live stream from the
armored rescue vehicles. This
is just A very short clip
for a matter of brevity
for this situation. And these
are all the feeds that come
into our real time information
center that's currently
operating. So this would just
be an added technology
to give better information
to the deputies
in the field.
>> Good morning. My name is
Chris Bowden, a battalion chief
with the fire district assigned
out in the south desert. I'm
also our program administrator
for our robotics division. Our
robotics division covers ground
based, subterranean or indoor,
underwater,
and our UAS program. And with
our innovative forward thinking
courage
of our administration, we are
among the leaders
in the fire service
in this field right now. Some
of our core capabilities that
we lean on in our UAS program
include thermal imaging and
video imaging that we can take
of incidents. We're currently
able to get UAS
over incidents pretty rapidly
with one person in the field.
And I'll go over where we're
leaning towards developing
that, making it even better.
But those videos and the
thermal imaging provide real
time situational awareness that
has not been available
in the past
to the first responders on
scene and even still en route
where they have a view
of their incident from
above that gives them, you
know, a really good picture
of what it is they're dealing
with and allows them to
appropriately allocate their
resources to control the
situation and keep it
from expanding. We've been able
to provide a scene, scene
illumination, one incident
in particular out
in the south desert region up
in the rim rock area. We had a
hiker stuck
in some rocks that we had
to send rescuers in,
and this was at nighttime. We
were able to put the UAS up
above the incident with a
fairly bright floodlight that
allowed the first responders
to get in there and safely
extricate that victim
from the rocks and get him off
to get some help. We provide
advanced mapping with our
drones both pre incident and
post incident. We have a goal
of 100% mapping of all
of the fires that occur within
the fire district's area. And
so far we are able
to meet that. And we can
provide exact acreage and fire
perimeters of all the fires
that we have as we move
forward. All
of our drones are all weather.
They can last
in the higher winds. They can
work
in rain and low visibility. We
have waivers from the FAA
to carry more weight in on our
drones than is primarily
allowed by the faa. They've
provided us waivers
for heavy lifting,
which will allow us
to also progress
into water delivery to fires
from UAS so that we can get
water in some of those areas,
try and keep fires
at smaller footprints until we
can get ground resources
in there and harder
to reach areas. Our current
fleet consists of 13, I'm
sorry, 15 UAs. 13
of them are rotor,
wing or multi rotorcopters.
And then we have two vertical
takeoff and landing fixed wing
units that can last a longer
duration over an incident,
providing us
with a longer period
of situational awareness.
Within the fire district,
we have 12 current park 107
pilots that are operating our
drones. Those are pretty much
at this point on scene. That's
between our suppression and
fire marshal's office. We do
have waivers that also allow us
to fly what's called
beyond visual line of sight,
which allows our operators
to utilize the cameras on the
UAS as well as other
intelligence that we have
to see other aircraft
in the area, make sure we
deconflict and stay away from
manned aviation and that we
don't cause problems there.
But we are waivered by the FAA
to fly beyond visual line
of sight,
which really is a key
for us as we move into what our
program goals are and where
we're headed. We're
in the process of starting up
our early aerial situational
awareness program, or eisa,
very similar
to law enforcement's dfr, but
for us it truly does provide
situational awareness. Our
personnel,
this will be what people refer
to sometimes as drone
in the box. We'll have five
docks located
in two different cities
in the county. Initially we're
going to be placing two in
Hesperia and three down here
in San Bernardino City where
some of our higher fire call
volume is. Those aircraft will
launch on the report
of a fire. They'll be operated
from our central fusion center
which will be located
in the basement
of the fire headquarters
by remote operators. They'll be
able to get these UAs
over scene of an incident long
before fire apparatus and
personnel ever get there,
Providing them again that early
situational awareness so that
they can see what they're
coming into. We also will have
radar here
in the valley which allow us
to deconflict with. Because
this is a heavily manned
aviation area. So it allows us
to deconflict with the manned
aviation and make sure we're
staying way out of the way
of any manned aircraft. As we
continue to move forward,
we are working
on establishing another program
with pivotal which is a little
bit larger UAS that will be
deploying originally as
unmanned. What we're looking
at with that is heavier payload
delivery. And we're working
with the company
to also use that to be able
to deliver water to fires,
which again will allow us to
keep those fire footprints
smaller. In addition,
with our,
with our innovation, we have
two companies we're working
with directly. One is
developing a water dropping uas
that's Ponderosa AI. They'll
have hotspot detection
capabilities through infrared
sensing and it'll allow us
again to help keep these fires
mopped up and cleaned. Where
Seneca is a different program.
Seneca is an autonomous system
that we'll be monitoring and
we'll have control over.
But these will launch the
report of a fire in a
particular area and they have
the ability to deliver water
to that fire in what's
considered a swarmed
capability. So there's multiple
of these drones that will
respond and start
to put suppression efforts
on these fires again in hard
to reach areas until ground
personnel can get there and get
it under control and get it
taken care of. And again, all
of this is coordinated
with manned aerial resources
for deconfliction. As we
continue forward,
we're looking
to add more EISA docks
in the future years. We want to
get better coverage throughout
the county. Looking
into covering some
of the further out regions
in the north desert, the south
desert and even our mountains
area eventually with the
pivotal aircraft that has the
ability to be crewed
by a person. That will take a
fair amount of training and
policy that we'll need
to develop,
but that is one goal
to eventually get
to which would allow us
to get rapid EMS care in hard
to reach areas.
In particular,
what we're looking
at is whole blood delivery
for trauma victims, because
whole blood saves lives. And
with that we will be working
with the FAA and private
business partners in the
Unmanned Air Traffic
Management System or utmost.
As you know, Amazon's getting
ready
to start launching drones for
package delivery and there's a
number of other private
enterprises that are looking
at using drones or UASs
for their businesses. And so
in order to de conflict all of
these resources and not have
them running into each other
in the sky, the FAA is working
on UTM integrations so that
we're all staying away
from each other. And this is
just a quick overview
of what we're looking at
in the long distance. Some more
sustained longer term
situational awareness over the
county where we can have
something overhead, whether
it's a fixed wing type aircraft
at higher altitude or
at the rate some of the
technology is progressing.
This could even be low earth
orbit satellites that will
provide us with real time
information as far as going
what's going on
in the county. And that's all I
have to speak to.
>> Thank you both
for coming up
>> So what we just heard is
these programs, they're already
having a real impact and
especially
in the first responder safety.
But at the same time,
this technology
within the systems, it's,
it's evolving so quickly,
really just
in the last few years. I mean,
this picture
on the right here,
I took that back in 2016 over
10 years ago on the top of
San Timoteo landfill. And so
while these platforms, like
fixed wing quadcopters that we
hear about,
they look very similar today,
but the technology that's
available inside of them, it's,
it's growing so quickly when we
talk
about autonomous flight dfr,
beyond visual line of sight.
So we're also seeing emerging
use cases like evtol, that's
electric vertical takeoff and
land aircraft,
particularly as we look towards
2028, like the Olympics and the
future airspace demands in our
county and our particular
airports. So this evolution,
it's a strength. But that also
makes it more important that we
maintain a common operating
picture as these programs
continue to grow. And so the
question becomes,
how are we headed
in the right direction? And I'm
sure you've heard this corny
analogy, but like, it's
like a flight path, right? You
take off from Ontario to New
York, you're generally,
you're pointed
in the right direction,
but once you're airborne, you
can start making small
adjustments to make sure that
you land exactly where you want
to go. And I feel like that's
where we are here today. These
programs, they're taking off
across the county. And we have
an opportunity now
to make those adjustments,
whether it's around
coordination or infrastructure
or even policy,
so that when we look back
in five years,
we're where we wanted to be.
And so based
on what we're seeing, we've
identified a few initial areas
for consideration. And the
first three aren't necessarily
decisions today. These are
areas that we would value the
board's input and come back on
with more detailed
recommendations. And the first
is updating our policy
framework to keep pace with
evolving technology and
regulations,
and specifically that
beyond visual line of sight.
The second is strengthening
information sharing and
situational awareness
across departments. There are
programs out there like
DroneSense and Fusis, which are
software platforms that are
used to coordinate drones drone
operations in real time. And
then third is establishing a
working group to evaluate drone
detection and mitigation. And
so where we'd really value your
input today is on the broader
direction moving forward and
looking ahead. The key question
is how do we best support these
programs as they continue
to grow across the county. And
so one area
for discussion is what level of
countywide coordination or
support makes the most sense
moving forward. And that focus
isn't necessarily on
centralization versus
decentralization, but it's how
do we ensure a common operating
picture while continuing to
support these departments and
their individual missions. And
then the second area is around
real time information centers.
Specifically, how can we
enhance information sharing and
situational awareness across
the existing capabilities,
as you heard with Fire and
Sheriff and Office of
Emergency Services. And the
intent is not
to replace what exists today,
but to better connect those
systems where it adds value,
particularly as these programs
like early Aerial Situational
Awareness and DFR start
to come into play. And so
with that, I will turn it back
over to Luther for any
additional comments.
>> Thank you, Trevor. I gotta
make a comment
on the corny analogy. That's
one of my favorite analogies.
So good job on the little dig.
I guess the point here today is
we have, we have, as Trevor has
brought out, really started
to advance
in this space as a county. And
we are doing exceptional. As
you heard from Fire, we're
leading the way. I think that's
incredible.
But as was mentioned, even
like this, beyond visual line
of sight, it's a limiting
factor that we've placed
on ourselves currently under
our own policy that we don't
allow that. So there's some
modernization of our own
policies and practices
internally that need
to happen, as well as some
coming together and creating.
We have the UAS committee which
has been very effective. We
need to take that to the next
level and really put a group
together to look
at how do we do this in a
collaborative way where we can
either share resources or share
information or both and be able
to maximize our impact using
these tools. And then, you
know, the question here that
really I welcome the board's
input on is a discussion. Is
Trevor mentioned. This isn't
necessarily about
centralization versus
decentralization,
but there is a question
about do we want to look
at minimum some sort
of co location. We saw that
there are real time crime, real
time information centers that
both sheriff and fire have.
Does the board want us to bring
that group together and really
look closely
at potentially coming back
with a request
for an investigation to create
a single center that would
make, that would make sense for
all parties where we could have
those synergies, where we could
bring together investment and
put it in one place. And then
when we have events and
emergencies, we could
potentially have one co located
area. But at the same time,
during normal practice and
normal routine,
any security or privacy
Requirements that were required
by sheriff or fire could be
maintained or others. So that's
something that I think we
should look at and I'd look
to the board though to see if
that's something you would
support.
But then also going forward,
you know, based
on what you're seeing
out there, what you're
experiencing,
what you're seeing
with the cities,
what you're seeing in your own
research and things that you've
found,
are there things that you would
like us to be focused
on as we continue to engage
in this space?
>> Supervisor Hagman, thank
you.
>> Many knows this has been
some of my passion even back
since Paul and I were
in the assembly days. We
actually wrote the first
legislation on this in
California. Yeah, way back
when. It's a fantastic tool.
But if you look at how fast it
is moving right now, it makes
sense the way things are set
up. These are usually drones
used by first responders that
are brought to a scene,
launched, monitored close
by and stuff. But the future,
next three or four years,
just think we were 20 years
ago, we didn't have cell phones
and how far things are going.
And I have a passion
for the smart city,
smart county applications to
this going forward that there's
a lot to do and I did some just
looking. This started my
passion a long time ago
by visiting I think one
of our international partners
in South Korea where they had a
smart city and the technology
there even 12, 15 years ago was
amazing of how they're able
to work on this. Then recently
I visited one of my cities in
Ontario that has their real
time fusion center. They cut
out 40% of the calls just on
alarm calls because they were
able to set a drone
out there first to see that
there was not an incident going
on is a malfunction. So it's
also a resource saver when it
comes to these things.
But where do we go forward?
The tech
in five years are going
to be changing completely. If
anybody's watching
international news right now,
drones are everywhere and the
warfighter mission. But this is
something that could be a life
saving mission for us. And it's
not just the ones, it's going
to be the ones out of line
of sight. And they could be
multiple departments with
multiple different missions.
Land use can use it
for fire abatement surveys,
permit checks, public works
have their flood control to see
if our sensors coming in. And
how do we look, how do we plan
for 10 years from now versus
what was realistic? Today a lot
of these things exist all
over the world already.
They're traffic like
Synchronization, autonomous
vehicle watching, smart
utilities, just a number of
smart devices that we can bring
into a fusion session,
fusion center of some sort.
And just like with oes,
when you come together to
handle a crisis and the
military has their central
command,
I definitely enforce some kind
of center that we can
cohabitate together versus
building individual centers.
That doesn't mean the mission
changed for each one
of our departments,
but I think they try
to coordinate as much
of that information. And as we
advance and bring
on technologies going
into the future,
how we integrate that
seamlessly
into the software that we have
for monitor stuff is very
important. I also noticed that
with like the Ontario fusion
center, even the wealthiest
city,
we have had a difficult time
to staff it 247 because it is
costly for the staffing. The
one time money
to set up is one thing,
but the staff. So can we do
cross disciplines? Can we share
the costs in some of these
future drones that will stay up
there for 24 hours a day and
have wide verses? Can we share
that upon the departments with
their different mission sets? A
lot of questions going,
but I think it's definitely
time to address our policy and
where we're going
to start planting this stuff
in the future.
>> Thank you, Chair. I
appreciate Supervisor Hagman's
comments. You know,
I think we could look at a
centralized location and I
think the technology has come a
long ways and will continue
to change. You know,
I believe we have to defer
to our experts, you know,
our sheriff and fire
department,
and get input probably
from our cities too, and get
their thoughts if they would
like
to also supplement or be part
of this. I mean, the other
thing just I don't know because
I'm not in that world.
But you know, looking
at unmanned, you know,
for water,
for water droppings, I don't
know if those make sense
strategically to be in areas
that are hot spots. I can't
speak
to that. I'm not a fire expert,
but I know that that's a very,
very critical thing.
Especially when we look at,
you know, hard to reach places
where many engines can't get
to sometimes, you know, there's
narrow roads or other things.
So I don't know if these should
be placed strategically or we
should look at one center. But
I think it's something that we
should have that discussion and
allow our experts with the
sheriffs and fire department
to give recommendations
to this board. But I think
there's a good opportunity here
as we continue to look at, you
know,
upgrading our technology.
>> So good work, Supervisor
Cook.
>> Yeah, I Think this is
extremely important
for our area,
for we're spread all
over creation. You know,
I don't want to go on about how
large it is and everything
else, but I think we have an
opportunity to join forces,
if you will,
with the civilian side, if you
will, with the military side.
And because oftentimes, you
know, we used to work together
when somebody was missing
in the desert
for some reason, Lance
Corporal rather, which I think
we, I don't know,
he's still wandering
out there,
and I just fear the worst.
But we're certain individuals.
The point I'm saying is I think
both the county, the military
and everything else have
certain reform resources and
certain, let's just say,
opportunities
to influence people in
Washington. So that if we had
one unified plan that we came
together that would benefit
both the civilian side and the
military side, I'm sure we'd
get special attention in
Congress and the Senate.
Geography is, you know,
the people in the desert, you
love it. I've mentioned it
several times,
but it's very unforgiving. And
if bad things happen
in the desert, you have to
react quickly or the
consequences will come
into effect. So I think having
this dialogue
on how we could work together,
I'll be honest with you, I
don't think we work together
enough joining, joining forces
because, you know, let's face
it, I'm on a different side
of the fence now. But, you
know, the military is
over there. And I don't want
to say there's trust issues
on how we do things,
but if we have the same goal,
I think,
and I'm speaking primarily of
the desert regions and
everything else, that if we had
both the county and we do work
together, but I want to
maximize that because when
something happens, whether it's
training accident or you got
to get to a hospital down in
San Diego, time is very,
very important. You can't argue
about whose turf it is. You
have to have, I think, a
command post exercise where you
actually go through this drill
and you find out, okay,
who's going to be responsible
for this, this, this and this,
and you practice it. So God
forgive, forgive me, but, you
know, I've seen it happen. And
time is of the essence,
so that something bad happened,
you got to react quickly,
whether it's a hospital or what
have you. So just having this
discussion and how we can do
it, but it's human nature. We
as on this, but we kind
of operate on our own area and
everything else. But when
you're together and each
provides certain assets that
could expedite an emergency,
and I won't even describe what
kind could happen, that I think
we might end up doing something
which we all want to do,
and that is save a life or two
in an emergency situation. So I
want to continue this dialogue.
I'm glad that we're talking
about it and anything we can do
to have joint cooperation
on this and actually go
through it step by step. God
forbid we have a tragedy,
but it's something
out there is lurking,
it's going to happen. So that's
my two cents.
>> Supervisor Armendarez?
>> I think I want to start
with. I do not know the answers
to this. I think this is a
great opportunity for us to.
To find out those answers,
though. I think we should have
some sort
of group come together. Those
who are at the table should be
the ones who are educated
in this. Whether, you know,
with our police, our fire, our
cities, everyone who's
utilizing this technology. We
should probably get
in a room and figure
out how we can create some sort
of MOUs to work together. I
think working together
collaboratively is not just
good government, but it's also
creates an affordability factor
where we can accomplish more
with less. I think a command
center could be a great idea.
You know,
regional. I don't know if it's
under Office of Emergency
Services where we have people
there. I do understand the
sensitivity depending
on if you're working
with fire or you're working
with sheriff.
But I also know we also have,
you know, some of our SWAT
people who are cross trained
also who are medics and sworn.
You know, maybe we can figure
out how to get that done where
we have people who are cross
trained who can be there to be
those eyes. I also don't know
what the sensitivity
of the footage is. You know,
are they required
like our body cams
to be released, you know,
those type of things. I think
someone smarter than me has to
vet all those issues and know
what opportunities are there
and also what hurdles we're
going to deal with or what
liabilities we're going
to encumber by moving forward.
I do believe that we have
to fix the policy regarding
line of sight, but also think
there's a huge opportunity
for us to work with our cities
also if we can collaborate
internally. I think it opens
the floodgates for what we can
do as the whole county
with municipalities involved,
so that we can all work
together and utilize all our
resources
to be not just collaborative,
but very strategic
in how we plant the future of
what this technology looks
like. That's all my Comments?
>> This is not my area
of expertise. Same thing. I
would just say that the only
thing that I would want
to keep in mind is some
of the missions are different.
So when I saw probation up
there, I'm still curious, like,
what does probation do with the
drone? I don't know. I'm
excited to learn. I wondered
Health and Human Services. And
then it was mentioned.
Mentioned homelessness. So I
can see that. I think that
missions will vary depending
upon the department. So I think
it's. I like the idea of having
a central working group, but we
also have a special district
involved, and I think we need
to be careful
in how we approach it.
With a special district, I know
we have different fleet
services and things
like that. That's an area when
you talk about fire and fire as
a special district. Just
to keep that in mind,
I don't know the answer,
but I'm looking forward
to the dialogue.
>> If I would, I think,
appreciate all the feedback. I
think bringing a working group
together is important and
talking about these issues. If
we all bring our heads
together, bring experts
into the room and talk
about what we can do, how we do
it responsibly and how we do it
in a way that works
with everyone, but figure
out our way to do it, we can.
We can make that happen. So
Trevor and I will get together.
>> We'll take the lead. I'll
have Trevor be the lead for the
county administrative office
and start to work to outreach
to the various departments
around the county who are
already involved
in this or would like
to be involved in this. And
we'll start that dialogue
about this specifically. So
thank you all
for your feedback.
>> Very good. Thank you very
much, Trevor. This is a receive
and file. So with that,
we will move on
to our general public comments.
We have a lot
of speakers signed up
to speak today. We look forward
to hearing your comments. Due
to the volume of speakers,
we are going
to limit today's public comment
to two minutes per speaker.
And again, when you get to the
threshold where you have your
last 30 seconds left, it will
flash orange and then green or
I'm sorry, then red. Our first
request to speak is from
Russell Drew, followed by
Carol Pettigue. Good morning or
good afternoon. Feel free
to start anytime.
>> Okay. I want to thank you
for your discussion with Land
Use services this morning. And
we did have a meeting
with them. So a lot
of what we were going
to say we've kind of talked
about and we've kind
of made an action plan. So
thank you for that. So I won't
go into my long speech. You've
got the paper there in front
of you. I would like
to take this time though
to thank our Supervisor Paul
Cook and his office staff,
especially Christopher
Porter, for their great work
in getting Lone Pine Canyon,
which is the subject
of what we came originally for,
to get our road opened
after the flooding. It was a
mess and it's open again and we
really enjoyed that. So again,
thank you, Supervisor Cook,
for all your efforts
on our behalf have. And also
the veterans group said
to say hi and they want
to see you in town. And that's
all I'm going to say.
>> Thank you, Carol. Carol
Pettigue, followed by Linda
Drew. Ms. Pettigrew Standell.
>> I just think that the people
here need to know what
everybody that's not speaking
now because we spoke what we
were talking about
in that meeting. Basically I'm
here to voice concern
about the proposed quarry
in the Lone Pine Canyon area.
I'm concerned that the quality
of life in Phelan, Pinyon
Hills, Lytle Creek, Hesperia,
Devore and Wrightwood will be
greatly affected. The effect
on traffic, especially on the
15. The air, water and noise
pollution, the ecology of the
area and any other hazards it
will create will be
devastating. I believe the
decision by the planning
commission was possibly done.
I'm not going
to say illegally, but not
correctly. I know the decision
was made
against the recommendations
of their staff. The board needs
to be. This is you guys. You
need to be very concerned
about this project. It needs to
be considered very carefully
and your situations need
to be heard. Your constituents.
Sorry. Need
to be heard and served. Thank
you.
>> Thank you very much. Linda
Drew, followed by Melissa.
>> Good afternoon, board and
audience. I'm representing the
Lone Pine Canyon Protective
alliance whose purpose is
to stop development of the
quarry which will devastate our
communities. I'm a 45 year
resident of Wrightwood, a small
village high in the San
Gabriel Mountains. And not only
will this quarry project affect
Wrightwood, it will reflect all
the surrounding communities.
Though this project needs
to be stopped, reasons to stop
it are numerous. I will focus
on health issues today due
to a finding called Vested
Rights. Established
in the 1920s, the Quarry
Project would be allowed
to move forward. Forward
with no oversight,
no environmental impact study,
no conditional use,
no adherence
to modern day mining rules.
The mining company can do
whatever it wants
with no regard
to how illegal it would be
in today's world for the next
147 years. Product being mined
is calcium carbonate. The
National Institute of Health
notes that Blasting, drilling,
crushing, sifting creates
particles that can be blown
by the wind up to 60 miles
away. Further and greater winds
which we do have on the top of
our mountain that covers the
entire tri community where we
are. And down here, calcium
carbonate poses risks when
mining crushes the rocks
into dust,
which we then breathe.
Inhaling such dust can cause
respiratory, eye,
skin irritation. Continued
ingestion can lead to more
serious conditions such as
kidney,
gastro and metabolic issues.
At this point,
we also know that Lone Pine
Canyon contains a rock called
actinolite which when blasted,
drilled, crushed,
produces asbestos fibers.
These fibers are tiny enough
to remain suspended in the air
and are easily inhaled and they
cause all kinds
of disease. I see, I'm about
down there. All kinds
of things like methythelioma,
cancer,
asbestos and other cancers.
And it's cumulative and you
might not know for 10 to 40
years that you might have. And
it also is going to hurt the
animals because the particles
of the dust go
on the plants.
>> Melissa followed by Cheryl
Derrick.
>> Hi, my name is Melissa
Manning. I also have handouts
if somebody's able to pass
those out. I have copies,
eight copies for everyone. Do I
take them
down there when you're done?
You can hand them to the clerk
of the board over here,
please. All right, thank you.
Good morning again. My name is
Melissa Manning. I'm a resident
of Wrightwood and a member
of the Lone Pine Canyon
Protection Alliance. I want to
share that vested rights were
found,
but the county really needs
to evaluate the impacts. Fire
risk, evacuation safety,
groundwater, earthquake
activity, radon, asbestos, air
quality, even the PCT views
that the SB county posted
about on Facebook this last
week are all parts of this.
Lone Pine Canyon has a posted
5 ton weight limit and it
literally just reopened. Thank
you Paul Cook
for fast tracking that. It
reopened on April 16th. This
project requires 80,000 pound
Class 8 trucks opening or
operating at 8 times the legal
limit. It's not a minor
adjustment. Approving this
project without fully
redesigning and rebuilding that
road would result
in structural failure. We are
talking about
like pavement degradation,
sub base collapse. It happened
so easy. It was
like less than a foot of rain
made the entire road collapse.
Also there's what engineers
called alligator cracking that
we're concerned about and that
is basically the road breaking
apart under stress. It's also a
public safety issue. The Lone
Pine Canyon road is narrow,
it's an evacuation route with
limited shoulders and a single
stalled or slow truck can
create complete blockage which
we've seen
in the past when people
like even today leaving, I had
to go onto the other side
of the road in order
to pass a very slow truck. We
have a problem
in our community,
our whole county being one
of the top places.
>> Cheryl Derrick, followed
by Robert Kaggle.
>> Thank you
for having us. I'm a resident
of Wrightwood and I also feel
that this huge, huge endeavor
will have catastrophic effects
on our communities. We did have
a nice meeting before,
so I think we got some
of this stuff straightened out.
But I just wanted
to voice my opinion.
>> Thank you very much.
Robert Kegle, followed by
Andrew Firm.
>> My name is Robert Kegle.
Thank you
for having us here and
listening
to us. I'm a resident at
Indian Springs Ranch of Lone
Pine Canyon Road. My family and
I have been caretakers there
for 35 years. Indian Springs
Ranch is a Native American
ranch where we used
to host powwows and Native
American ceremonies. Besides
that, on the ranch, there's an
archaeological site dating back
to 1700s to 1800s. Now that I'm
informing you that there's an
archaeological site,
it will be against the law
for you guys
to approve any plans
to do any mining in the area
until federal agents are there
for federal review to determine
that no cause will be harm
to our site. So if you guys
violate section 106 of the
Historical Preservation act
by approving these plans, there
will be legal consequences.
Thank you.
>> Andrew Firm, followed by
Jamie Carper.
>> Give me a moment
to raise this. Thank you. Good
morning, supervisors,
or afternoon. On behalf
of the Lone Pine Canyon
Protection Alliance, I'm here
to address gross procedural
defects regarding the proposed
open pit quarry. Land use
services failed to provide the
community or immediate neighbor
to the site Indian Springs
Ranch with official notice
for MRP 2020 500002. No notice
was published via established
media and this is a gross
procedural defect
under CEQA section 15072. The
current mitigated negative
declaration also improperly
segments this project
by masking a 148 year mining
operation as a mere reclamation
plan. This is another direct
violation of ceqa.
Furthermore, we have uncovered
significant defects
with an associated pattern of
documented impropriety
surrounding the torture. 2019
vested rights determination.
The site sits on the San
Andreas Fault containing
federally protected species and
adjacent
to culturally significant
Native American sites. A
mitigated negative declaration
is legally indefensible here.
We've already established a
fair argument that significant
impacts exist regarding
groundwater in the Sheep
Creek Wash. Seismic
interference and federal
species. Under California law.
This fair argument mandates a
full environmental impact
report. We held an
informational town hall on
April 30th with over 170 in
attendance who signed our
physical petition and our
online petition has now secured
nearly 3,000 and growing
additional signatories.
Because
of these missteps and the delay
in fulfilling our Public
Records act requests, the
current timeline is
insufficient. We respectfully
request that the Board
intervene and direct Land Use
Services to extend the public
comment period
to no fewer than six 60 days
from when the county provides
results for our CPRA request.
This will allow us
to get the information needed
to present our case and ensure
it is
in the technical record. And
I'll finish
with saying thank you
for directing us to the Land
Use meeting and having them
have that initial conversation
with us. We appreciate it.
>> Jamie Carper followed by
Lindsay Falb.
>> Thank you and good afternoon
Supervisors. I want
to address a basic problem
with the County's reliance
on the vested rights finding
of 2019. Even if some of the
historical mining activity
occurred somewhere
on this property, that does not
create an undefined open ended
right for a much larger modern
mining operation. The first
issue is scope. A vested right,
if it exists at all, has
to be defined by what was
historically lawful, actually
conducted and continuously
maintained. It cannot be
treated as a blank check.
But here the county is relying
on a finding
of vested mining rights without
clearly defining the location
boundaries, intensity methods,
volume,
duration and operational limits
of such right.
Without those limits, a narrow
historic use is being turned
into a broad modern
entitlement. The second issue
is expansion. The project now
being advanced is far larger
than anything shown in the
site's historical mining
record. The current provisional
proposal involves resumed
surface mining
over a large area
with drilling, blasting,
crushing, screening, hauling,
stockpiling and processing
on an industrial scale. Even if
mining occurred historically,
that does not mean the county
can assume the right extends to
a much larger and more
intensive modern quarry.
Third, the parcel history
matters APN 0356241 02, which
is only about 12.8 acres,
is a historic location of the
historic old mine that was the
former El Cajon property where
limestone and dolomite mining
began in 1924 and where 125 ton
per day lime process processing
facility was built. The other
parcels have no history
of mining or mining rights.
Just being able to tuck them
in with this other parcel and
say they have grandfathered
vested rights is just unlawful.
So I'd like you
to consider that
in your decision
with this proposal. Thank you.
>> Lindsay Falb followed by
Debbie Lopez hi, my name is
Lindsay Falb and I'm a resident
of Wrightwood I've been there
for 32 years and my family has
lived there for over 50. I'm
asking the county
to require a full EIR, ensure
proper comprehensive and
environmental review and not
move forward
without a transparent without
full transparency and
accountability. The lack
of I want to focus on one
critical issue is the lack of
complete environmental
oversight
in the current CEQA review.
This project is 285 acres
of mining, decades
of operation, blasting, truck
traffic and permanent landscape
alteration. It's being
reviewed,
it's been being reviewed under
a mitigated necklace negative
declaration that does not align
with CEQA under CEQA's fair
argument standards. If there is
substantial evidence that a
project may have significant
environmental impact, a full
environmental impact report is
required that has not been met.
Biological Resources this
canyon supports wildlife
including federally protective
species such as golden eagles
as well as other sensitive
species
like the coastal horned lizard,
bighorn sheep and kangaroo
rats. Blasting habitat
destruction and long term
industrial activities pose
clear risk to these species.
The current review does not
demonstrate the adequate
protocol level multi seasonal
survey that should be
conducted. Not only that, but
this project will generate
significant dust and
particulate matter
from blasting, crushing and
constant track truck traffic.
That means long term exposure
to airborne pollutants
for residents, especially
children, families and
vulnerable populations. Fine
particulate matters is directly
linked to respiratory issues,
asthma and long term health
impacts
in a small mountain community
like ours in Wrightwood where
clean air is part
of our quality of life. This is
not a minor issue to us. It is
a significant and lasting
impact that has not been
>> Debbie Lopez followed by
Robin Crouch.
>> Hi, my name is Debbie
Lopez. I'm commenting on the
Lone Pine Quarry. Thank you
supervisors for listening today
and I appreciate all my
neighbors professional
comments. Mine are more
emotional and most important,
the utmost important is the
impact to the indigenous
archaeological sites as well as
these significant historical
sites. That's my number one
comment. Also I'm really
concerned
about the evacuation route. We
only have three different
routes we can use to evacuate
in Wrightwood and we are
evacuated quite a bit. When you
evacuate you're saying goodbye
to all your things in your home
and it's a very stressful
situation
in particular because of the
wildfire. I'm also worried
about the flash point of the
airborne particulates that the
mine could release
into the air. We are really
coordinated when we do have
to evacuate. But if there's one
disabled mining truck on the
road it would just spell
disaster for the whole trying
everybody trying to evacuate.
Basically it's just Once again
the indigenous sites is the
most Important and the
evacuation of Wrightwood is
critical.
>> Thank you. Robin Crouch,
followed by Daniel Crowley.
>> Hi, my name is Dan
Crowley. Thanks to everyone
in this room for listening and
for giving me a few minutes
to speak about a concern I
have. I'm a lifetime San
Bernardino county resident. I
love this county. I grew up
in Colton. I graduated from
Aquinas High School. I
currently live in Wrightwood
and I've lived in Wrightwood
for the last 33 years. I
recently retired from a 38 year
career with NASA. At the
Armstrong Flight Research
center on Edwards Air Force
Base. I was the facility
engineer. I supervised a team
of engineers and architects
managing facility operations
and managing design and
construction projects. I am
sensitive to and very much
appreciate the communication
challenges associated
with bringing change to the
community. U5 own the county
processes that deliver that
change in this county. My
concern. Seventeen days ago,
I was surprised. My neighbors
shared with me that a
significant change to our
community was announced. A
mining operation may begin soon
near our homes along the Lone
Pine Canyon Road. And that
operation would include
blasting throughout the day and
until 10pm so much
for your quiet retirement,
Dan. Again, I was surprised.
My request to the board is
to pause the approval process
until the communities of
Lytle Creek, West Cajon
Valley, Phelan, Pinyon Hills,
Oak Hills, Hesperia, Devore and
Wrightwood can review and
comment
on this mining project.
Again, please stop the project
so that we can all understand
the impact this mining
operation will have
on air quality, water quality,
the wildlife in the canyon,
our wildfire egress situation,
potential increased traffic
at the Highway 138 and
Interstate 15 intersection, and
particularly the associated
increased commute times
for commuters. Please know
those
of us who drive daily up the
Cajon Pass Freeway already
spend too much time
in traffic, adding hundreds
of hauling trucks
to the traffic jam.
>> Thank you very much. Chad
Keel. Chad Keel, followed by
Jill Carlton Payne.
>> Hello, my name is Chad
Keel. Like many
of my neighbors,
I'm deeply concerned
about the quarry being proposed
to start in Lone Pine Canyon.
However, I thought I really
shouldn't be worried because we
have a supervisor who takes
oaths very seriously.
Supervisor Cook, I liked your
individual board comment about
drones and the people being
lost. Because you made an oath
before everyone here. You said
no more missing people
in the desert. You said, not
on my watch. You took another
oath when you joined the
military and when you were
sworn in to serve the
constituents here today that
you would defend this country
Versus what? All threats,
foreign and domestic. Paul
Cook, you are a man
of integrity and honor. You
took these oaths. So as a
constituent and someone who
wants to hold you accountable
to those oaths, you know,
not just before me, but
before God, will you stand up
against foreign entities mining
and extracting our minerals,
ravaging our precious
wilderness and destroying our
Americana history? I would
like to take the remaining
of my time just to pray for
Paul Cook. I pray you stand up
for what is right and you
uphold your oath you made
before God and the American
people you serve
within your district
of the county of San
Bernardino. God give him the
strength and the courage to
uphold his oath and defend our
precious American soil
from foreign exploitation.
Okay, thank you, Paul Cook.
>> Jill Carlton Payne, followed
by Kathleen Mitchell.
>> Hi. Jill Carlton Payne,
President, Timberline Lions
Club. One of our eight pillars
for Timberline Lions Club and
the Lions Club International is
the environment. I'm here
to speak on that behalf. Thank
you very much, supervisors, for
allowing us the time today and
directing us over to Land Use
Services department. As you can
see, there's been many things
that haven't happened
correctly. The importance of
your intervention cannot be
understated. This project will
affect not only residents of
Wrightwood, Pinion Hills
feeling surrounding
communities. The water after
the drilling will be horrific.
We've already just had Lone
Pine Canyon redone just
with the flood that we had in
2025. Can you imagine these
trucks, what that'll cost the
county going up there? That
includes the State Road,
Highway 138 with the trucks
going there as well. The most
important thing though is the
vested rights was not done
correctly and that has been
proven. And documents will be
shared with the Land Use
Planning Commission and all
of that that needs
to be looked at because it'll
impact as far as earthquakes,
water quality, all
of the surrounding communities,
including Fontana, Devore, all
the way down to Los Angeles if
there's an earthquake
with that drilling that goes
on there. What's been done
with the Rosemary Mine
with the same applicant down
in Fallbrook is horrific. And
so we would ask that your board
step
in and do do the right thing.
Make those contacts with your
state representatives. We know
you have those partnerships.
Make those contacts
with the planning commission.
We know you have those
partnerships. We know that
people are coming up
for election. We may be 3,000
people, possibly five.
But we will be reaching out
to everyone from here to Los
Angeles. You can bet on it. So
we'd like to partnership
with you to help stop this
before it goes to litigation.
We want to Prove.
>> Thank you very much,
Kathleen Mitchell, followed
by Carlos.
>> Well, hi,
everybody. I gave you a packet
of stuff about earthquakes in
Wrightwood and the history
of them. But I wanted to let
you know I actually love the
San Andreas Fault. San
Gabriel's used to be down By
Mexico Just 5 million years
ago, and they've traveled up
to their position in
Wrightwood. In the meantime,
they've grown. They're one of
the fastest growing mountain
ranges in the world. The San
Gabriels are active and the
San Andreas Fault is the reason
because of that. So when I
heard that there was going to
be a mine that's actually
drilling into the San Andreas
Fault, releasing a lot
of weight from the San
Andreas Fault and shaking it,
I thought
of the grizzly bears that used
to live in Lone Pine Canyon
back in the day. And if you
came
across a grizzly bear sleeping
in Lone Pine Canyon, would you
poke it? Would you try
to wake it up? Maybe not the
best idea. We do expect an
earthquake, a big one,
and very likely originating
in Wrightwood because that's
the point of a huge amount
of fault stress. That
earthquake could start there
today, any day. I know San
Andreas runs right
by you here. So the San
Andreas is not just for
Wrightwood, it's for all of
Southern California. So if
there's a mining approved pit
mine approved for the Lone
Pine Canyon, have you notified
all the other counties
of your intention to mess
around with the San Andreas
fault? So I think that's only
fair that Los Angeles county
and all surrounding counties
should also know that you're
going to do a deep mine
along the San Andreas where
it's very, very likely
to be a point of epicenter.
Thank you.
>> Thank you very much.
Carlo, followed by Leticia.
>> Hello. And it's a little
difficult to walk
with one shoe and a sandal. So
it's kind of cool having
everybody stand up and speak
on factors in the community,
traffic, roads. But they get
to go home to their families.
They get
to go and see their kids. They
get to go home, put their kids
in bed
after having family dinner. No
one trying to catch up
to a parent meeting. Right. Or
class that CFS made them do.
They get to go home
to their grandkids without the
court or a social worker
telling them that they're a
detriment all of a sudden
to meeting with their
grandchildren that they've had,
had access with for the last
five years when the kids were
taken for a false positive
from Benadryl. Yeah, Benadryl
can create a false positive
test but I also have to talk
about the issue
with what does that look like
for the taxpayer when that's
proven in court? The CFS
disregarded that did not care
and continued
to remove this child, these
children, on that false test
for the last five years,
dragging this family. What kind
of business is this? This is
kidnapping by the state.
Kidnapping by people. Who are
these suits? We got
to stop it.
>> Letitia Howard, followed
by Jane Hunt Ruble.
>> I am here today as a parent
and as the founder of Safe
Haven Resource Foundation. I'm
speaking
about what's happening within
San Bernardino County Children
and Family Services and what is
happening to families
like mine. My children were
removed based
on a false allegation of a head
injury that never existed.
Medical records confirmed there
was no injury. Despite that,
my children remain in state
custody where they have
suffered many injuries. I
completed every service that
was required of me and still my
children have not been
returned. This Thursday there's
a hearing to terminate my
parental rights. That is not
about safety, that is not
about best interest
of the child. That is a system
refusing
to correct its wrongdoing. Two
weeks ago,
I provided this board
with a stack of evidence
documenting proving the
unlawful removal
of my children.
Since then I've heard nothing.
No response, no accountability,
no actions. That silence speaks
value. For a long time I
trusted the system. I believed
that if I did everything right,
my children would come home.
But what I learned is that
compliance does not guarantee
justice and silence only
protects the misconduct. So I
stopped being silent and I
created Safe Haven Resource
Foundation. Safe Haven exists
to make sure that no parent
goes through this alone. We
provide families
with tools they were not given,
how to document their cases,
how to build affidavits, how to
challenge false reports and how
to protect the parents rights.
We are also launching workshops
focused on real action,
helping parents prepare
for prepare and file lawsuits
against the county
for unlawful separation
of their families. Because
families should not have
to fight this hard
to be heard. We came
to this board, we asked
for oversight, we asked
for intervention and we. What
we received was inaction. So
since this board refuses
to provide an oversight system,
we are building our own. We are
creating a community based on
supports that actually serve
parents time.
>> Jane Hunt Ruble followed
by Certainly Rice.
>> Good afternoon. I'm here
to speak about. I wanted
to speak out about the item
84, but I got out there too
late because my speech today is
as usual, about community
safety and public safety. And
when I was listening to that,
I really thank the police, the
sheriff department and the
county Fire department because
over all these years they've
all worked together,
unlike some other counties.
And I remember when Josie was
in office, we had. Well, we
have a big problem
with fireworks still,
and it's getting worse. And
that was my. When Josie was
in office, it used
to be handled. The actual code
enforcement law
about fireworks, it used
to be handled. We had to phone
the county fire department
reported. But then I learned
they were not responsible. I
mean, you'd phone it in. But
of course, the people
out there now, they. The new
people that think it's okay
to set off bombs,
actually they've been going
out about it and there's no and
then it was handed over
to the sheriff department.
Took phone in
on if you hear or see
fireworks. But that's been. I
still do it even though I know
it doesn't work. So I got real
excited. I think it was last
year when I heard. I kept
on asking him, why can't. This
is totally futile. When I phone
in, by the time you get
out there, you don't see them
doing it and they clean up
afterwards too. So I'd like to
see the county fire and county
sheriff department coordinate
and actually use drones because
that's the only damn way we're
going to stop this. Because I'm
dreading this year because it
was really bad last year.
>> Rice, followed by Amethyst
Yates.
>> Hello. Thank you for having
me today. I did not grow my
children. I did not spray them
in the face with oven cleaner.
I did not beat them than
for having a Bible. My name is
Courtney. My children were
removed because
of someone else's violence,
not mine. There was a person
in their lives who hurt them,
who beat them,
who created the danger of them
that they were living in. I
stepped in. I tried
to protect my children
from the harm. I refused
to ignore it. I refused
to stay silent. I refused
to let them be hurt. And for
that protecting my own
children, they were taken
from me. Even your own findings
shown that there was no abuse
by me. You acknowledged that.
You said I should have full
custody. Yet instead
of correcting the situation,
my children were placed in a
system that has its own long
history of harm.
For seven years,
my sons have been
in a group home. My oldest son,
my child was beaten
by a staff member
in a small room,
a place that was supposed
to be safe, a place you trusted
more than his own parents. So I
asked you,
how can you say that my son is
in danger with me, but not in
danger while being physically
harmed
under your supervision? You
remove them
from a parent who was trying
to protect them and place them
into an environment where they
were hurt again and ignore the
history, the patterns,
the repeated failures
of these group homes. You
ignore the warning signs and my
sons pay the price. This is not
just about my family. This is
about civil rights. It's
about accountability. This is
about a system that's punishing
parents who trying to protect
their children while failing to
protect the children
themselves. My sons deserve
better.
>> Amethyst Yates followed by
Andrea.
>> Good afternoon,
chair members
of the board. I found something
out again about San Bernardino
county and DCFS and the fact
that they're not participating
in some of these attempts
to better the situation
for parents and for children.
One of those things I found out
was that they are not
participating in Disrupting
Disparities group that's going
clear across California. This
group comes together to try
to find solutions to the family
separation and it's compiled of
social workers and other
professionals. However, San
Bernardino is not a part
of that. Why is that? Can they
join in? Can they participate?
I also want
to share an opportunity with
any board member here or any
social worker or professional.
There's an event coming up on
June 5th and it's walking
in their shoes. It's
through one of our partners
at Starting Over Inc. And the
partner is Families Inspiring
Reentry and Reunification for
Everyone. My contact
information can be provided
after this. If not,
I put my email address
under the comment. So thank
you.
>> That's all I got.
>> Thank you very much,
Andrea. Followed by Delina
Murillo.
>> Good afternoon. You guys
talked
about the general fund today.
That's in going to be
in a deficit. And the general
fund is funded by property
taxes which you guys can't
really increase. You have an
uproar by the citizens. It's
funded by realignment funds
which include sales tax,
vehicle licensing fees,
can't make people buy new cars.
Also funded by Title 4e funds
which is for foster care,
maintenance payments, training
costs, basically all the costs
that it costs
to keep our children from us
through cps. That's what's
funding it. So would it be too
provocative to suggest that the
general fund deficit is going
to be funded off the backs
of our children being removed
from us. You're right. It's a
quick, easy way
to make money. These officers
and these CPS workers, social
workers,
are extremely aggressive. They
are falsifying documents. They
are running up
into people's homes,
taking their children
off nothing. They create a
problem, they create the trauma
and then they create the
program that treats the trauma
to justify their own existence.
And it keeps the program funded
and the county funded
for you guys to be able
to spend the money. She's not
lying. I'm embarrassed
to live here.
>> Delina Murillo, followed
by Johnny Murillo.
>> Good afternoon. My name is
Delina Murillo, a certified
human civil rights consultant
and a mother to Genevieve and
Jaylene. I am here today
because I have raised serious
concerns multiple times and no
one will give me answers. I
have contacted Jeannie
Glasgow, Mia Moore, Lisa
Smith, Kristin Hines, Kristin
Brown. Every time I am told,
we will look into it,
we will get back to you. And
then nothing. No follow up, no
accountability, no answers.
Instead I am told to go
through my attorney. But when
the system itself is failing,
redirecting a parent is not a
solution. It's avoidance. Here
are the issues that remain
unaddressed. Social worker
Samaria Roman has shown bias
and and lack of neutrality.
Reports contain omissions,
misrepresentations and hearsay.
Not clear and convincing
evidence. Social workers are
signing reports about
visitation they have never
personally observed Supervisor
signing reports appear to have
inactive or invalid license
based on public records. And
still these reports are being
used in court. There are
serious due process violations.
Evidence is being ignored.
Reports are being withheld
from the Grand Prix even
after they filed
for visitation. Grandparents
are placed
on supervised visits based
on a hearsay from guardians who
are the neutral but active
parties seeking adoption.
These grandparents were never
properly considered
for placement
from the beginning. And most
importantly, the guardians were
never properly licensed
during fostering,
guardianship or until February
25 of 26. Over multiple years
they have had my children been
not compliance
under the state. So who isn't
there? Who's verifying all
these compliances? Because
right now it appears not none
of one of you guys. No one in
position is how does a home
remain unlicensed for years?
Johnny Murillo followed by
Chena Hampton. Good afternoon
everyone. I did not grope my
child. I did not spray my child
in the face with oven cleaner.
I did not beat my child or the
Bible. My name is Shay. Yet
despite all
of you that you guys have heard
about me, I have been treated
as if I have been judged
already misrepresented and
pushed through the system that
I did not get the time to get
the truth out. A social worker
Foster 5 and Foster
by information allegations
about me for my son. My son was
taken out
of my custody and placed
with someone else due
to the fact my son was placed
in foster care.
But my son end up living out
of state with his girlfriend.
So as I found out that the
county is paying this foster
parent for my son a place
to stay, I also was paying her
too, out of my own pocket.
This foster parent was getting
$1275
from the state and was getting
$500 from. For me. Now when I
talk to different social
workers and everybody danced me
around, talk to this person,
call this person. Oh, we're
going to look into it.
Nothing's been done. So I'm
here today to speak. This is
more than just raising concerns
for my son. It's so many other
kids that are going
through this for people
to talk
about getting foster care money
through the system while
they're bragging about buying
$3,000 purses. I have a sworn
affidavit of my son coming
to get money for me cleaning
supplies and me still
furnishing paying where he was
not living at. And no social
worker, no one talked
to him. I don't understand,
like,
how did this even get by?
>> Good morning, Board of
Supervisors. I had a speech cut
out already, but I decided
to not bring it up. I decided
to just do it on the fly.
Paul. Ms. Rowe, Jesse, the one
that's running, which is a
joke, and I'm going
to be very frank. I'm upset
at the fact that I have reached
out multiple times as a
consultant,
as a project manager to try
to see how we can build a gap,
bridge the gap, you know,
and the gap
between the constituents of
San Bernardino that are very
upset. All these families that
have been affected so
drastically. And I keep coming
to you guys time after time.
Jesse, you're. I mean, I don't
even know why you're running.
I'm a little embarrassed
for your, the rest
of your team that's in front of
you. I've con. I've asked you,
what are you doing
to help CFS families? How are
you helping this issue? And you
haven't done anything. Why
haven't you reached out
to me, Jesse? I'm curious. You
hear multiple families coming
month after month
after month,
and not a single one
of you guys has done anything
to try to resolve this. You
guys created a consulting gig
for it,
and then you guys handed it
off
to somebody that was internal
within you guys. What's up
with that? Come on, Ms. Rowe.
I'm talking to you directly. Why
haven't you reached out? Why
haven't you done anything
on your end to try
to see how we can codify this,
how that we can come up
with a solution together. Or is
it that you just plainly and
blatantly do not give a flying
fuck? Because I think that's
what's happening here at this
point. I'm seeing that not a
single one
of you guys have taken the time
to address these families. You
guys have CFS representatives
come and talk with.
>> Roxanne Lewis followed by
Nicole Norris. Actually, you
cut my mic off. I was at
under two minutes. Roxanne
Lewis. Do we have Roxanne
Lewis in chambers? Going once.
Moving on to Nicole Norris.
And after Nicole Norris will be
Terry Lewis.
>> My name is Nicole Norris. I
grew up in the foster system. I
was taken from my grandmother
because my mother was abusing
me and my sisters and brothers.
And they gave me to my
grandmother where I was very
happy. Late at night they came
and they took us back from her
because they said she was too
old
to raise two little girls.
They put us
in another foster home with a
lady who was even older than my
grandmother,
who never showed me any love,
who never said, I love you,
never came to none of my
anything and never helped me
with anything. It was
like being on my own
without the physical abuse, but
mental abuse and now counseling
and riddling to make me just
sit there because they didn't
care. And I just don't feel
like it's fair that these
families are being. Some
of us were okay
with our other family members,
but we were still taken
from them and put into the
system that didn't treat us
well at all. I just think that
you guys have the power
to change all that. I mean,
you guys have that. You guys
are smart. You guys went
to school for this. And I know
you guys can make a change
for us. Just help us. Please
help the other children. Thank
you.
>> Thank you. Terry Lewis,
followed by Karen Reich. It
was.
>> My name is Terry Lewis. It
was almost two years ago when
my sister and I first started
coming here about my niece and
nephew being put into foster
care. I'm the one who was the
reporting party. And I called
not based on any allegations of
abuse or neglect or anything. I
was looking for help for my
niece because she has issues.
I'll just say that issues. I
called the sheriffs and talked
to them, asked
to get her evaluated. Nobody
can do anything. And she had
had a previous case
at the hospital with cps. A
social worker called CPS and
they. Anyway, she completed a
successful. Yeah, our whole
family Participated
in this case and we can. What
was it called? Successfully?
Yeah, it was closed
successfully. Anyhow, I had
called, they told me from
Fontana, if I called,
if I noticed any other
problems,
to please let them know. And
they seemed
to genuinely care. And I was
at my wits end. And so I did,
I called. But my mistake was I
didn't call Fontana, where the
people that they seemed
to care, they were happy we
successfully finished our case.
Anyhow, I called the 800 number
because I had lost the lady's
number. And they came out
like gangbusters, predators.
Anyway, this is unacceptable. I
don't know how you guys can sit
there and listen
to these people. I'm
in tears listening
to these people's stories. And
you guys sit there week after,
you don't even care. You
haven't done anything. You
provide funding
to defend this shit. You
instead
of reform it and reunify. What
happened to reunification? My
niece and nephew have been
in there almost two years
for no reason. Our family, why
aren't they following their own
wit codes? And we're supposed
to trust you people to be
in charge? Oh, they might get
adopted out.
On what allegations? And you're
supposed to go to family
members who want them. The
great grandmother wants them.
The grandmother wants them,
the aunt wants them.
>> Karen Reich, followed by
Steven Rogers.
>> Hi, my name is Karen
Reich. These were my two
grandkids, Jovi, Milo and
Chase. Well, three that were
removed almost two years ago
for no reason. They came
on the first day of the
investigation and they removed
them. This is unacceptable.
Two years for nothing. They
weren't abused,
they weren't neglected. They
were in my care. What have we
done so bad that we don't
deserve to raise our own
children? I want to know what
I've done so bad that I don't
deserve
to have my own grandchildren
in my career. I want
to adopt them. I want them
with me. But
for some reason this,
this guy ruled me out. Why?
Why? Why did was I ruled out?
Because CPS tricked us and got
the kids from us. Now they're
saying we failed
to protect them from them. We
failed to protect them
from them. CPS themselves,
have you ever heard
of such a thing? It's
unacceptable. Jeanne Glasgow,
Betty Thompson Larkin, Dana
Faulkner. They all need held
accountable. All this is
happening under Jeannie
Glasgow's watch. She needs
removed. That's all I have. I
want my grandchildren home now.
>> Steven Rogers, followed by
Dennis Delamar.
>> Honorable Chair Rowe.
Steve Rogers, Redlands. I was
here two meetings ago and
after the meeting. I tried
to make a request to meet
with the CEO
about what I was talking
about and actually put
in a request
with the information folks.
But I never received any other,
any other communication
from the county on my request
to set up a meeting. I mean,
in the old days I used
to be able to go up to the
fifth or sixth floor and,
and set up these kinds
of appointments. Now, I guess
for security purposes. All I'm
trying to say,
it's very difficult
to set something up. And this
is the reason I come
to the meeting today.
Basically. I just recently came
to understand that complaints
that I made to the fraud,
Waste and Abuse Unit have been
referred
to the district attorney.
>> But the district attorney
isn't doing anything. And this
is what I want to meet
with the CEO about is why there
are certain factions here that
apparently don't respond
to the citizens. And I'm very,
you know,
my problems are nothing
compared to these people that
bare coming up here. Every time
I come to the meeting I hear
this and I agree with them.
Something needs to be done.
And really, it's a shame. It is
really shameful
to be a resident
of this county. And our leaders
apparently don't care
about us and don't care
about our problems.
>> Dennis Delamater Delamar
followed by Krisha Seal
>> So Psalms 127:3 says,
Children are an inheritance
from Yahuwah. The fruit
of the womb is reward. So what
that means is that the Creator
gives us parents rights,
right? My children were taken
away
for four and two days based
off the allegations,
false allegations
of a social worker. This system
is reminiscent
of slavery. I'll tell you why.
Because there was a doctrine
that they used called parents
patriae, right? And that meant
that the county or the state
was the parent, right, that we
don't have rights. I saw them
lie and be able to like in
slavery days. I'm a descendant
of slave of a slave, right?
Slaves saw them just take it.
So I couldn't do nothing. I was
powerless. So the issue is also
In California there's 400,000
allegations a year. No
oversight,
there's no family review board.
Where's the family review board
to track the numbers, right?
It can't be about money.
Because the things say in
Malachi 4. 6 that the
Creator, he will turn the
hearts of the fathers
to thechildren and children
of the fathers. And if it don't
happen, guess what he say? He
said he will come and smite the
earth with a curse. So this is
what we're talking about.
We're talking about Malachi
4. 6, that y' all got
to figure it out. Because San
Bernardino going to be
in a world of trouble. Not
from us, but from Yahuwah.
Because y' all are separating
rights of parents. And you can
turn the blind eye,
but your life is at stake.
Your life is at stake. Your
eternal life. That's it.
>> My name is Krisha Kale. I've
been up here a few times and
I'm just gonna wing it this
time because it's not like we
expect a reaction because
that's what we've been getting.
Some of us been coming up here
for years and. And years
with no reaction,
not even blink of your eye.
Some of you guys sit up here,
can make choices,
but you stare
at your phone instead
of paying attention
to what's going on. How many
people got to come in here
before you say, it's not an
isolated incident no more? If
you talk
to anybody who's been up here,
90% of them is going
to tell you perjury, Perjury,
which is a crime,
played a role
in their kids not coming home.
Perjury that your department
probably teaches the social
workers how to do. It's a big
RICO act. All you guys are
working together,
whether you know it or not.
When you remove a domestic
violence person
from the home, you go back and
you make a report to cfs and
the CFS comes and take that
person's children because she
failed to protect herself
from an abuser and failed
to protect her kids. Do you
guys know that? Do you know
that you play a role
in these kids being removed
from homes? So that person
becomes a victim two times.
And let's talk about last
May, a year to the date. Six
kids found starving in a home
under CFS care in
Victorville, California, ages
5 to 16. Have you made any
changes to your organization
since that happened? No, you
haven't. Glasgow still
in charge. Miya Moore still
under her
in every department. Not one
person have you replaced since
those six kids were found
starving. How you starve a kid
starving in their home under
CFF care? CFS placed them
there. Could those kids have
one home? Could they have went
home? Did they have parents who
wanted them home. I'm sure they
did. You guys celebrate
adoption, but you don't mention
the crying parents. It's like,
wait a minute. I completed
every course, I went
to every class, but I don't
give my kid back because how
some social worker feels?
>> Thank you very much. That is
the last request
to speak that I have. Our
meeting stands adjourned. Our
next regularly scheduled board
of supervisors meeting will be
held here in chambers, May 19th