>> Good morning,
everyone. I would like
to call this meeting
to order and acknowledge the
High Desert and Joshua Tree
video conferencing sites,
and thank you all
for joining us.
Before we begin, if there are
any property owners wishing
to file written protests
on item number 102, please see
the special district staff
available in the rotunda
behind us out, out here.
Additionally, if anyone is here
regarding items number 3,
103, and 104, we also have
staff in the rotunda as well
to assist
with any questions that you
may have related
to delinquent water, sewer,
or solid waste charges. This
morning, our pledge and
invocation will be led
by the 5th District.
>> Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good morning, everybody. Have
the pleasure,
pleasure and honor
of introducing Bishop August
L. Smith Jr., and he's here
with his lovely wife and
daughter. Want to welcome you
to our chambers. Thank you
for being here. He's from the
True Light Community
Fellowship in San Bernardino,
is a very passionate spiritual
leader, pastor,
and community servant with
over a decade
of ministry experience. And I
personally have had the
opportunity to visit his,
his church many, many times.
He began pastoring in
Compton, California in 2013 and
now serves as a senior pastor
in a growing congregation
in the city of San
Bernardino. He was consecrated
as a bishop in 2020. He also
holds the honorary doctorate
degree in theology, from the
Next Dimension University.
In addition to ministry,
Bishop Smith is a licensed
vocational nurse, chaplain
for San Bernardino Police
Department, and vice president
and general board member
of the Neighborhood
Association of Council
for the city of San
Bernardino, which is a
volunteer group for
Neighborhood Watch. He resides
in San Bernardino
with his wife Lady Jessica
Smith. Welcome. And their
daughter Autumn Smith, who's
here. And he remains committed
to serving and uplifting his
community through faith,
leadership, and compassion.
Please lead us in prayer, Mr.
Smith.
>> Let us pray. Gracious
Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank
you for this day. We thank you
for waking us up this morning
in our right minds and starting
us on our way. Lord, we thank
you for each and every person
that's assembled here
for this meeting. Lord, it's
in the mighty name of Jesus
that we pray for the county
of San Bernardino and every
city within it. Lord, we ask
that you watch
over our elected officials.
Your word says that we should
pray for those in rule
over us. So we pray
for our supervisors. We pray
for the county members and
everybody that serves this
illustrious area. Lord, we ask
that in this meeting that you
would go forward,
that you would touch our minds,
touch our ears, touch our
hearts, and allow us to receive
what it is that you would have
to help us be
about a better county. It's
in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
And now the Pledge of
Allegiance. 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 very much,
Bishop. We will now move on
to our memorial adjournments.
Vice Chair?
>> Thank you, Madam Chair. I do
have one today. I'd like
to take the opportunity
to adjourn in memory of Miss
Judy Coombs of Rialto. She was
82 years of age,
and I had the personal honor
of knowing Miss Coombs. We
served together on the
Probation Youth
Accountability Board for 12
years in the city of Rialto.
She was just a wonderful woman.
They're having her services now
as we speak, so just want
to make sure we adjourn
in memory of Miss Judy
Coombs, 82, of Rialto. Thank
you, Madam Chair.
>> Thank you very much.
Supervisor Cook. Supervisor
Armendarez.
>> Yes, I have two. First, I
would like to, adjourn
in memory of a friend.
Sergeant Daniel Garcia's father
passed away. He's a Fontana he
was assigned to Fontana
Sheriff's Station. He was 97
years old. He was a veteran.
He served as a corporal
in the United States Army,
fought in the Korean War. He
was one of the 25th Infantry
Division, 4th Infantry
Regiment. He was survived
by his 2 sons, his daughter,
and his wife and 4
grandchildren. Our hearts go
out to the family. And the
other one is Al Castro-Leon,
originally from Redlands. He
passed away lived in Yucaipa
when he passed away. Al was 79
years old. This one was
important to me. And thank you,
Chair, for allowing me
to do this one because Al, was
one of the first people who
trained me. I got my skills as
a diesel mechanic
under his watch,
and he happens to be my
sister's father-in-law,
because who would have known,
30 years later that everything
would come fruition and his son
would marry my sister. So, he
was a great man. he was
employed by Dalton Trucking
for 37 years, Pepsi for 11
years. He was a vet from the
U.S. Navy. He's survived
by his son, his daughter,
his wife of 57 years, and his
3 grandchildren. So I just want
to say my heart goes out to
them and the family and that's
all.
>> Thank you. Supervisor
Hagman.
>> Thank you, Madam Chair. I
have 2 today as well. First is
for, like, to adjourn to
Charles Nichols. Charles
Nichols life was defined
by hard work, vision, devotion
to family,
and enduring passion
for aviation. He was born May
2nd, 1936, and passed
peacefully on May 4th, 2026.
He lived a full and meaningful
90 years, leaving behind a
legacy that will continue
for generations. Along
with his wife Judy, he co-owned
and operated Nichols Lumber
in Baldwin Park
for half a century. His work
ethic was shown,
but up every day,
worked hard and take pride
in what you built.
Beyond businesses, his greatest
passion was aviation. As the
founder of Yanks Air Museum
at Chino Airport, one of the
largest aircraft collections
in the world,
he devoted countless hours
to preserving the history
of aircraft
through collecting, restoring,
and sharing these incredible
machines
for future generations. He
began a museum collection in
1973 and spent 40 years
traveling the world in order
to find rare American airplanes
and parts. Because of his hard
work and dedication, the Aix
Museum is now home to over 200
aircraft, many which are
extreme extremely rare and the
only one remaining species of
their kind. he and his beloved
wife Judith Nichols built a
beautiful home and life
centered around the work, love,
and commitment. He was preceded
in death
by his wife and his son Brett
Nichols, survived
by his daughters Christine and
Valerie, 8 grandchildren, as
well as many beloved
great-grandchildren who would
carry on his memory forward.
And secondly, I'd like
to adjourn to Lieutenant Jim
Michael's memory. He was just
5 months in his retirement
after 28 years
of dedicated service to
Montclair Police Department
when he passed away in 1993.
Enlisted in the United States
Army where he served 3 years in
a light infantry air assault
unit assigned to the 25th
Infantry Division, out of
Hawaii. He deployed to Japan,
and Haiti as well. Lieutenant
Michael was honorably
discharged in 1996. He attended
the San Bernardino County
Sheriff's Academy in '97.
Lieutenant Jim Michael began
his career with the Montclair
Police Department in December
1997. Lieutenant Michael worked
in uniform patrol,
he was a field training
officer, DRE, a member of the
POP team and a narcotics
investigator. Lieutenant
Michael held 4-year assignments
as a detective where he worked
fraud, property crimes,
and crimes against person. On
August 13th, Lieutenant
Michael supported the sergeant,
survived supervised patrol,
major accident investigation
team,
and field training program.
November 2018, he was promoted
to lieutenant. As a field
service lieutenant, he managed
patrol operation dispatch
Mobile Field Force, the Field
Training Program, Specialized
Enforcement Team, the Major
Accident Investigation Team,
volunteers, the Explorer
Program, Recruitment, and
Community Relations. As
Supportive Services
Lieutenant, he served as the
department's POST coordinator
and managed the Detective
Bureau, Tech Services,
Evidence and Records Bureau.
And with that, I'd like to
adjourn memory both those
names, Madam Chair.
>> Thank you,
thank you very much. This
morning, I would like
to adjourn in memory of two
Big Bear residents who lost
their lives
in a tragic automobile accident
Kathy Greenwood was 85
at the time of her passing,
and Sandra Sense was 64. Both
women were incredibly involved
in their community and
volunteered for the local
Meals on Wheels program.
Kathy's daughter was also
in a vehicle with them
at the time
of the accident and currently
is in critical condition. I'd
like to ask everybody
to keep their families
in their prayers
at this difficult time. Thank
you. And this morning we have
one special presentation. If
everyone will join me
in the well, please. Could I
have Stephen Lee Castillo join
us up here, please?
>> Good morning and
congratulations. We would like
to present this certificate
of resolution in honor of
Stephen Lee Castillo, who is
retiring after 30 years
with the county. Stephen began
his career as a fiscal clerk
and has since advanced across
11 departments He is concluding
his career with County Fire,
where he serves as a finance
officer. Steven is a lifelong
resident of the county and has
committed numerous years
to youth sports with the
Grand Terrace Community
Soccer Club and the Grand
Terrace Little League. We thank
you for your dedication to the
county and happy retirement.
>> Thank you. I just would
like to say thank you. I
completely appreciate the
opportunity to have a career.
I now intend
to spend more time
with friends and family,
and thank you all.
>> Actually, Stephen's been a
very valued member
of our team and has done so
much for us to get us
on the right fiscal track. And
a little surprised I mean,
kind of hinted over it,
and I kept telling him 30 more
years, but he didn't want
to listen.
But it's a great day
for your family,
and we're really proud
of you, and thank you for
supporting us the way you have.
>> Congratulations.
>> Thank you again.
>> We will now move on
to our reports from our CEO
County Council. Laura.
>> Thank you, Madam Chair. I
have nothing to report.
>> Alright, due to the length
of our meeting today,
it will be exceptionally long.
We're going
to move our comments,
our board member comments,
and our CEO comments
to the very end
of today's agenda. And
with that, Danette, do we have
any changes or additions
to the agenda today? We do.
on item 99, recommendation 2A
has been revised to approve the
application and preliminary
environmental description form,
including the non-standard
indemnification provision
related to Local Agency
Formation Commission proposal
LAFCO 3279. Recommendation,
recommendation 2B has been
revised to delegate authority
to the fire chief, fire warden,
or the deputy chief to sign and
certify the application and
preliminary environmental
description form and any other
documents, which includes a
nonstandard provisions related
to Local Agency Formation
Commission proposal, LAFCO
3279, subject to review
by county council. And
recommendation 2C was revised
to direct the fire chief,
fire warden to transmit the
application and preliminary
environmental description form
and any documents
under recommendation to be
to the Secretary of the Board
of Directors within 30 days
of execution. Those are all the
changes that I have today.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank
you very much. if any board
member has any conflict
of interest to disclose,
now would be the time
to do so. All right, seeing
none, we'll move on
to our consent calendar,
which today consists
of items number 2 through 100.
Do we have any board members
wishing to pull an item
for discussion? All right,
we have 2 requests to speak
this morning. first up is
Garth Peasant, followed by
Carlo. Do we have Garth
in chambers? Oh, thank you.
Good morning, sir. Now we can.
>> Good morning. It's good
to be before the honorable
Board of Supervisors. Item
50, probation,
authorize the purchase
of prepaid negotiables for from
various transportation retail
and food vendors for use
by adult and juvenile offenders
to assist with basic
necessities and support
adherence to program plans
in an aggregate amount not
to exceed $280,000
for the period of July 1st,
2026 through June 30th, 2027.
Presenter Tracy Reese. I take
my hat off to you.
>> Thank you very much. Our
next request is from Carlo.
Good morning, sir.
>> Good morning. The ankle's
getting better,
some things you do,
serving your country,
and you're like, all right,
I got to fix this later.
But anyways, I want
to say thank you
to the board first and foremost
for allowing me
to speak and some
of the mothers and fathers
to speak as well in regards
to CFS. as we look
at these agenda items,
and especially with 29 and
20, 30, we just don't know. We
haven't had clear evidence that
these false allegations and
everything supporting the
system has stopped. We're
talking about $8 million today.
Last week we were here for
$147 million. And et cetera.
But as these Latinos and Black
families are going
through these services
for child abuse, mind you,
child abuse, right? Let's think
about that a little bit. What
are group homes? They're filled
with child abuse. The state,
the county has pulled these
kids out of their homes and you
can't provide proof that
they're based on false
allegations and they're sitting
in, wallowing in child abuse.
Victorville, foster homes,
torture, starvation,
child abuse. People
in suits who come
to your home, take your kids,
who falsify allegations
on paper, put them
in worse situations, but yet
in court,
you're abusing the families.
This is family abuse.
Emotional abuse, trauma,
cycles of this. And we are
targeting Latinos, Blacks, and
poor whites. Now I am starting
to see other races as Asians
and whatnot. But I always ask
these families when we are
looking at these cases,
because I want to give it a
Maria test, right? The white
Maria test. If you can grow up
your kids, spray them
in the face with oven cleaner
and attack them for the Bible
and not lose one day
of custody, That should be the
standard here in San
Bernardino because the Equal
Protection Clause says such.
You cannot treat one person,
her status, economic, standing,
and class
in the society and treat
Black, brown, and Latina women
different and then say, hey,
guess what, we have all these
kids that we need services
because they were abused.
Bam. What is really going
on here? It just smells to me
like a bunch of fraud.
Seriously, we've had history
and reports in other states of
social workers and county
council attorneys being
arrested and charged
for this. I'm telling you,
it's going on now. It is going
on now in San Bernardino, and
all
of us who are taxpayers pay
for this. We are paying
for this, and we'll pay
for this because God is
watching all of us. Silence is
complicity. Thank you,
and have a great morning.
>> Thank you very much. That is
last request to speak. Thank
you for the motion, Supervisor
Hagman, and the second, 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,
starting
with agenda item number 101,
which is a public hearing and
ordinance related to the
Option and Amendment of the
2025 edition of the
California Fire Code being
presented this morning by
Chief Muncy. I will open the
public hearing while he makes
his way down to join us. Good
morning, Chief.
>> Good morning. I'm going
to be sitting here, but our
Fire Marshal Monica Ronchetti
will do the presentation.
>> Good morning. Good morning.
These microphones right
in front of you are hard
to hear. If you can pull it
close to you,
that would be fantastic. Is
that better?
>> Much better. All right.
Good morning, Madam Chair,
Board of Supervisors. The San
Bernardino County Fire
Protection District ordinance
related
to the adoption and amendment
of the 2025 edition of the
California Fire Code. The
California Fire Code contains
regulations consistent
with practices for safeguarding
life and property
from hazards,
including the hazards
of fire and explosion and use
of hazardous materials. The
California Fire Code is updated
by the state every 3 years.
The last update was the 2025
edition of the California
Fire Code. Pursuant to
California Health and Safety
Code Section 13869 and
Government Code Section
50022, the San Bernardino
County Fire Protection
District may adopt
by reference the 2025 edition
of the California Fire Code and
amend as necessary based
on certain findings. The
proposed ordinance will repeal
Ordinance FPD 23-01 and adopt
the provisions of the 2025
edition of the California
Fire Code, along with certain
changes that are reasonably
necessary. Include existing
local amendments carried over
from the previous adoption and
amend the 2025 edition of the
California Fire Code and the
edition 2025 edition of the
California Wildland Urban
Interface Code as appropriate.
Some of the significant changes
deleted Section 3 through 26
and Section 28 through 34 of
the previous ordinance as they
have been included in Chapters
1, 3, 5, 50, 57, and 58.
Adopted Chapter 1 of
California Fire Code. Adopted
California Wildland Urban
Interface Code by reference.
Increased idle pallet storage
height to 20 feet in height
to match the California Fire
Code. Amended requirements for
mechanically operated security
gates to require exit loops be
installed at a fire access gate
and required an infrared
automatic gate system for all
new and existing electrically
operated gates. Adopted
Appendix P to provide codes
for temporary haunted houses,
ghost walks and similar
amusement uses,
increased penalties
for transportation and storage
of dangerous fireworks from
$1,250 to a maximum penalty
of $15,000. Any questions? We
have any questions?
>> Nope. No.
>> Very good. I will close the
public hearing. I do not
believe I have any requests
to speak
on this item. I have a motion
from Supervisor Hagman and a
second from Vice Chair Baca.
All those in favor?
>> Aye.
>> Any opposed? Any
abstentions?
>> With that, Item 101 passes
unanimously.
>> Thank you very much. Item
number 102 is a public hearing
on proposed adjustment to
property-related service
charges for Community Service
Area 70, Zone R-15, which is
in Landers, being presented
this morning by Noel Castillo.
Before I open the public
hearing, are there any property
owners or persons registered
to vote in the county service
area who wish
to file a written protest? If
so, they must be filed
with the clerk now. All right,
I will open the public hearing.
Good morning, Noel.
>> Good morning. Good morning,
Chair, board members. I'm here
to give a brief overview
of the proposed adjustments to
the property-related service
charge for CSA 70. Zone R-15.
Next slide. In 1984, property
owners requested the formation
of this road zone to support
maintenance and grading of, of,
for about 164 miles
of dirt roads in the Landers
area. The annual parcel charge
set at $20 has never been
adjusted since its adoption.
Next slide. A recent 2025
departmental review found that
this fixed fee no longer covers
the cost of main maintaining
the dirt roads. As a result,
routine grading has been
suspended due to lack
of adequate funding. The
proposed changes are solely to
support operations maintenance,
not capital projects. Next
slide.
To address this shortfall,
we propose to update the annual
per parcel charge from $20 to
$75. Included with this
adjustment is an annual
inflationary adjustment of up
to 3%. There is no allocation
for loans or capital
improvements. This is strictly
about sustaining day-to-day
maintenance activities. This
adjustment is designed to
restore sustainable maintenance
levels and ensure continued
service for the community. The
road district is within the
Landers area,
as you can see here. Next
slide. As required by
Proposition 218, process. If a
majority protest is received,
the adjustment cannot proceed
and the zone will be
dissolution, shifting road
maintenance responsibility
to the property owners. If the
majority protest is received,
the board may authorize a,
a if no majority protest is
received, the board may
authorize a mail ballot
election with the earliest
possible date being July 3rd,
2026. An independent provider
would conduct the election. A
majority yes vote from the
property owners would be
required
for the would be required
for the new rate
to take effect. We recognize
the road maintenance affects
daily access, safety,
and quality of life
for residents in this area.
Your participation today,
whether through questions,
comments, or formal protests,
is vital part
of this process. Next slide.
And this concludes my
presentation.
>> Thank you very much. We have
a number of public speakers.
We're going to start here in
San Bernardino, and then we're
going to go out to our Joshua
Tree conferencing site. First
up here is Ray Pessa, followed
by Mike Hawkins. Sir, the our
podiums
for public comment are up
in the okay, two. Good morning,
Ray. Our public commenters will
have 3 minutes. When it reaches
the 30-second warning, the
light will flash yellow and
then red at the end
of the time. Thank you very
much.
>> Okay, thank you for hearing
me. And my concerns
about the increase in, in cost
to the special districts
for road maintenance, pretty
made clear the last time we
were up here. And, so I just
thought I'd use my 3 minutes
to bring a little more
to your attention. The little
map that I handed
out is pretty old, kind of
like my memory,
but if you look at Section
13, that's the section that I
referred to when I talked
about the, letter from Tim
Millington to get the, tractor
to stop grading the two roads,
Wright Road and Touchstone,
because they were being
destroyed, cutting the,
the hard crust off the top.
And, he agreed as long as it
preferred or agreed
to continue paying the, the
$20, which was nothing, but
it's a little bit different
now. I mean,
I know this is not a lot
of money, but everybody
in that Section 13 that I have
circled there, signed it.
Well, I shouldn't say
everybody. They signed that
petition,
to make that happen. And, I
would propose
to special districts, that
Section 13 and the one
to the left To the left, 18,
which is
in a different township, 18 is
completely barren. There's
nothing on it. There's no taxes
to be received there. And 13,
as I said last time we were
here, hasn't received,
any road maintenance since,
2007, I think it was 7. And
the, the property owners
themselves maintain the roads
as agreed to with Tim
Millington. And on the left,
Section 14, is another section,
and there are property owners
out there, and it probably
wouldn't take much me for me
to petition them and to, agree
with, my idea. And what I
propose is to have special
district draw a line
across the bottom of those 3
sections, on which
on this map it says, Ritchie
Road, but it's not Ritchie
Road, it's Bodick, Bodick Road
and remove those 3 sections
from the special district,
Zone 70 R-15. so that would be,
that would be my challenge,
whether or not, the, increase
of, of funds for,
the road maintenance go
through is to get those 3
sections removed. None of them
are receiving road maintenance
at this time.
>> Thank you,
sir. the next request
to speak is Mike Hawkins, and
then we're going to go out to
Joshua Tree. And as Mike is
waking making his way to the
podium speakers will have
Jennifer Cusack out there,
followed by Christine Hudson.
Good morning.
>> Morning, board. I'm Mike
Hopkins. I live in Yucca
Valley, California, and I'm
against the proposed increase,
and I oppose putting it
on the ballot. 40 years ago,
myself and another property
owner in what became the
northernmost portion of Road
District 15 attended meetings
to consider its formation. I
conveyed them that we were not
interested
in anyone grading our roads,
the roads in our area, Section
13, as was mentioned by Ray,
Section 13, Township 3 North,
Range 5 East of San
Bernardino Meridian. We were
included nonetheless. Many
property owners in our area are
the same families who acquired
their places through the
Small Tract Act in the '50s.
It was they who built our
roads. It was we who have
maintained them better than 70
years, not the government,
not the taxpayer. They are not
county roads, they are ours.
19 years ago, we had
to petition the district
to stop work
in our area because
of problems it was causing.
Grading has scraped
off many tons of decomposed
granite that was laid down
in the '50s. To fortify a
quarter-mile stretch of
Wright Boulevard, leaving it so
sandy that property owners on
Robbenness and Ordway, Ordway
began allowing the handful
of neighbors
to the north access
through their properties. Berm
work on both McKiska and
Bodick, just west of Wright
Boulevard, changed drainage in
such a manner that it allowed
subsequent rain to flood 2
occupied residences on Wright
Road. When a resident
on the north side of
Touchstone decided
to put a fence
on his property line, never
mind that that's the middle
of the road,
the grader simply moved the
road over
beyond the right-of-way
provided
on the opposite property. The
district does not need our
roads. There is no access
through the district,
through our area,
to the district
through our area,
as it is open desert beyond.
And our area is accessible
without the district as well.
See the map. In 2007, special
districts agreed
to stop the maintenance
in our area but continued the
annual charge. Our outlying
area has subsidized the rest
of the district
without benefit to us for 19
years. That's okay. We, like,
I mean, we like to help with
all the roads that everyone
uses. Glad too that the
district stopped destroying
ours, but I'm against
quadrupling the cost nearly
quadrupling the cost
of a service we didn't want
in the first place,
haven't even had for 2 decades,
and still won't have no matter
what we are charged. Thank you.
>> Thank you very much. We'll
now go out to our Joshua Tree
teleconferencing site. We'll
have Jennifer Cusack followed
by Christine Hudson and then
Mike Lipsitz. Good morning,
Chair, members of the board.
Thank you for allowing remote
participation today. My name is
Jennifer Cusack. I'm the new
general manager at Bighorn
Desert View Water Agency in
Landers. Last week, our board
of directors adopted a
resolution in support of
County Service Area 70 Zone R15
for Landers. we strongly
support increasing the
assessment to maintain this
critical basic service. The
current assessment at only $20
per parcel that has not been
increased since 1984 is no
longer sufficient to keep pace
with the inflation or even
provide adequate emergency
repairs following rain events,
flooding, and erosion. County
staff have done a good job
with limited resources, but the
current funding structure is
simply no longer sustainable.
Maintaining dirt roads and
landers is important not only
for residents and emergency
access, but also for protecting
public infrastructure.
Flooding and erosion can expose
water lines and damage
infrastructure located
within the roads. Ongoing
grading and storm repair help
reduce those risks and maintain
safe and reliable access
throughout the community. The
proposed increase to 55 of $55
more per parcel annually with a
reasonable 3% inflationary
adjustment is necessary to
maintain this critical service
into the future. It is our
understanding that
without your support, this
service will no longer be
viable. And is currently
already paused. We recognize
the importance
of county road service funding,
and we support maintaining this
item and respectfully encourage
your support. Thank you
for your time. Thank you very
much. Next up, we have
Christine Hudson, followed by
Mike Lipsitz, and then Jose
Martinez. hello, I'm
Christine Hudson. I live on
Yucca Mesa in Landers, and I'm
for the increase in the road
maintenance. I've been
out here for over 15 years.
I've seen the my road, Yucca
Mesa, degrade due
to increased traffic,
and I just support raising the,
the fee because we do need our
roads maintained because
there's been some services that
won't come out
to my house because
of the road. So I'd like
to see it on the ballot, and I
want, to have the ability
to have my road maintained for
traffic and also this my car. I
mean, it's tearing my car up.
So, thank you.
>> Thank you very much. Mike
Lipsitz followed by Jose
Martinez and then Jane
Martinez.
>> Good morning. Thank you
for the opportunity to weigh
in on the issue
of road maintenance in
Landers. My name is Mike
Lipsitz. I'm president of the
Landers Homestead Valley
Community Association. And have
been a resident of Landers
since 2004. Take a drive
along any 2 miles
of the more than 150 miles of
Landers graded dirt roads.
You'll understand why there's
community support for the road
maintenance increase. Henry
Mack and his team at special
districts have put together a
solid proposal that is
reasonable in scope,
manageable as far as the cost
to property owners, and
sustainable given the annual
inflation-based increase. A
$75 annual er, a $75 annual
assessment is a fraction the
cost of replacement shocks or
struts, tires, and alignment.
Vehicle repair is an obvious
cost. Less obvious,
but just as certain,
are the costs associated
with depressed property values,
damages to utilities like phone
lines and water infrastructure,
and any of the other
consequences seen when roads
turn to gullies and
bone-jarring washboards. How
about the cost of a human life
should first responders arrive
too late to render aid because
bad roads require detours and
other delays?
For these reasons, the
Landers Homestead Valley
Association unanimously passed
a resolution in support of the
road maintenance increase,
as did Bighorn Desert View
Water Agency. The dire need
for road maintenance in
Landers is a given. What our
community is asking for today
is a little different. We're
asking for the same opportunity
that you've given Copper
Mountain Mesa, Flamingo
Heights, Yucca Mesa, Pioneer
Town, and Wonder Valley. What
we're asking
for is the freedom to vote on
this road maintenance proposal.
You're not deciding. If our
roads get fixed. You're
deciding whether or not
property owners in Landers get
to make that determination
for themselves. We hope you'll
make the right decision. And
very quickly, I'd like
to ask the clerk of the board
why many letters why the many
letters of support failed
to make it
into the background material
for the issue. That omission
was a disservice
to the board and the people
of Landers. Thank you. Good
morning.
>> Thank you. Jose Martinez
followed by Jane Martinez.
>> Good morning, Board of
Supervisors and Chairman
Rowe. My name is Jose R.
Martinez. I am a homeowner of
3 properties in the Yucca
Valley area, and I'm here
to advocate not just for
myself. I already have had the
privilege of voting
for my properties, voting yes
that we need the roads
approved. I'm also a member
on the board of directors
at the Bighorn Water
District, which indicated to
you that we need it as well. I
understand that there are some
folks opposed,
and I've been there since
1987, and I understand that
there's some folks opposed,
but the reality is that all
of us I'm not advocating
for myself because I'm able
to vote now. I'm advocating
for the whole community.
Landers has a right to vote.
Let us make our own
determination. Let us make our
own determination as
to what we need. That's what
we're asking for. I'm asking
for and advocating for my
friends and neighbors and
Landers to have the same
opportunity that I have in
Flamingo Heights, those that
are in the Mesa, those that are
in the Johnson Valley, all of
our communities that have right
to vote, that Landers have the
right to vote. And those that
are opposed, they can oppose
it, but those of us that are
for it, let us have that right
and let us decide
for ourselves your constituents
to decide
for ourselves what is right
for us, not anyone else. Let us
have that right. I'm asking you
to consider Landers and give
them the opportunity to vote
like I think that's the only
right thing, that all your
constituents have the same
rights that I've had. I wanna
thank you for your time, and I
hope that we have an approval.
>> Thank you, sir. Jane
Martinez is our last request
to speak.
>> Thank you for allowing me to
speak to you this morning.
Landers is an anchor community
in the Homestead Valley area.
The population is approximately
3,000. There is Landers
Elementary School, post office,
Moose Lodge, Homestead Valley
Association, including a thrift
store. Homestead Valley Park,
Goobler's Orchid Farm, the
Integratron, and a couple of,
event centers that are being
built, as well as 2 churches.
It is imperative that this
community have the opportunity
to vote on improving its roads
because it is needed
for its citizens
to travel safely. Thank you.
Thank you very much. That is
the last request to speak. Any
questions of the board?
>> Thank you. I realize I've
been around long enough
to see these. They were
established, what, 40 years ago
and never been updated,
adjusted, and just the cost
of inflation from 1984
to today is 220.4%. So even
at 75, it's less than what the
inflation rate's been
since established 40 years ago.
I'm just wondering, Noel, how
many, how many more are these
out there? Because I keep
thinking of we finally found
one that's no longer here.
Nope, I guess there's a bunch
more. And how can we get them?
Because if we're doing the
disservice, if we have an area
that's supposed to be
maintained and we're not doing
it because we're not raising
the, bringing the funds in,
we are doing the disservice
to those, people are paying
those property taxes. How do we
get this up to more
of a modern type
of thing and not have to wait
40 years
to do adjustments.
>> Thank you for the, the
question, board member. I have
to give kudos
to our staff on, on the
concerted effort that they've
been doing,
on this front. so we're about
halfway there. so our folks
have been meeting
with the communities. It takes
a lot
of community engagement and,
and meetings
to make sure that we're
out there first of all and
trust making sure that they
have our trust that we're doing
the right thing with the,
the monies that we're in,
stewards of, right, to make
sure that we are doing an
efficient job. So
through those meetings,
we make sure that we're,
level-setting with them. They
understand what,
services we're able
to provide. And, as you may
know, this,
special districts division
of the Public Works Department
was, taken over in 2020. So
we've been working towards this
ever since to get us
to a sustainable entire system.
So again, we're
about halfway there,
and then we'll continue
to have those community
meetings with each community,
make sure we have that
engagement, that we have that
buy-in as we continue
to move forward,
because it really is up
to them. And as you can tell
today, we put it up to
a vote through a ballot
to make sure that they want
to do this.
>> No, and I appreciate that
process,
appreciate your team's hard
work on this too. And, but, to
the public who just saw this
one item,
you're going up 400%. Well,
it's really been less than 3%
without adjustment
since the time, even
at 3% would be,
or just the cost
of inflation, be $81, not the
$75 that you're proposing today
with my rough calculations
here. But, it doesn't look good
to go from one thing
to the other. So yeah,
as much as you can working
with the CEO staff
to bring those other ones
through and get them, get them
on track, or,
the alternative is for us to
let those things go as some and
I, I do like the idea
for the residents
to have their say
in it and have the vote
on it, what they want to do
with their community. But
hopefully we give them a
service if we're gonna be
charging for it too. Thank you,
Madam Chair.
>> Thank you. Any other
comments? Supervisor Cook?
>> Yeah, Lander's
in the area that, talked I'm
in strong support of this.
It's an area that,
simply because it's,
in the middle of nowhere, the
desert, it has a tendency
to be forgotten. And,
unfortunately,
I've had occasion
out there because,
even back when I was in the
Marine Corps, where you'd have
somebody that after a, a CACS,
one of the exercises that they
would have out there, you would
be missing an individual.
And, I hate to tell you this,
but, very rarely found them.
And, it's kind
of scary when you think
about it. It's a huge area.
in the summer,
it's almost impossible to,
to be outside. And, there's a
lot of people that come in
from the big cities to go
out there. They don't even have
water. Going
out there. I mean,
how stupid can you be? And, and
the desert is very,
very unforgiving. It's very
beautiful,
it's majestic and everything
else, and sometimes the people
that live out there, because
they're just such a small
number, they, they don't have
the,
the power that other people in
other communities have because
of the small numbers. I, I,
I don't know. There's a lot
of history. I, I think it's an
area that has a tendency
for people in all areas
to forget about them. and the
worst situation is when you
have somebody left over from a
CACs or what have you that you
can't find them, and you walk
constantly, or you,
you're trying to find them,
hopefully alive. sometimes it
doesn't turn out like that
because we all know the desert
is very, very unforgiving. So
I'm very, very supportive of,
of, what we can do on that.
And correct,
an area is simply because
of the small number of people
there. I think they their,
their power to be represented
is often forgotten. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Luther.
>> Thank you, Madam Chair.
Just a comment I'd like
to make
about the rate increases
in general as it relates
to these special districts,
as well as the annual inflator,
as Supervisor Hagman was
mentioning,
that it while it's not popular
to increase rates,
equally not popular
to have an annual inflator,
what we found in reviewing
these is that those special
districts that were established
with an annual inflator built
into it have been able
to self-sustain. And the way
the law works and the legal
process, the administrative
process that goes into,
addressing rate increases
with these they're expensive,
and those,
those processes are paid for
from those districts. So the
funds that could be used for
road maintenance end up being
used
for the administrative process
to get rate increases. So in
Noel and my conversations,
we are strong advocates for
when we do bring these forward,
bringing them forward
with some sort
of annual increase
in that amount so that it paces
with inflation,
so that we're able
to keep talented, qualified
employees there serving and
working on those roads,
and any labor costs or
in materials costs,
equipment costs also pace
with that. So I just wanted
to share that. I know it's not,
not fun
to have rate increases. It's
not, it, it impacts people,
but that is not our goal. Our
goal is to keep them small,
modest, and, the districts
in good repair.
>> Thank you.
>> Thank you. I would like to
address the comment that we had
from Mr. Lipsitz about the
public comments that were
received. They were emailed
to the clerk of the board, a
specific board member comment
email address, and the
residents and landowners that
were in favor
of this sent them in,
by the close of business on
Thursday is what I was told.
But apparently, according
to the clerk,
that email address doesn't open
until Friday when the agenda is
published, and then the
comments are received
during the period of time
until we start the meeting, and
then they are distributed
electronically to the Board
of Supervisors. So when I
realized that that happened,
I asked for all of those
to be pulled out,
and then they were there were
17 of them. They were then
emailed
to the board electronically,
even though they may not have
made it into the background
for the record on this, but
that the supervisors did
receive them in support
of this. And maybe we can
discuss how we keep that email
open at all times
in the future. It was confusing
to me as well as the residents.
So, and with that, I'll
entertain a motion.
>> I'll move it.
>> Second
>> Thank you for the motion,
Supervisor Hagman, and second,
Vice Chair Baca. All those
in favor oh wait, I'm gonna
close the public hearing
before I call for the vote.
All those in favor?
>> Aye.
>> Any opposed? Any
abstentions?
>> With that, recommendations
1 and 2 passes unanimously.
>> Thank you very much. And
with that, we will move on
to let's see here. We have
to tabulate now. We did not
receive any,
so nothing has been received,
correct? So a majority we
didn't receive it today,
but there, there is not a
majority protest that exists.
So now we move on
to the board recommendations,
item 3 and 4, correct? Thank
you for the motion, Supervisor
Hagman, and the second, Vice
Chair Baca. All those in favor
of recommendations 3 and 4?
>> Aye.
>> Any opposed?
>> With that, recommendations
3 and 4 passes unanimously.
>> Thank you very much. Thank
you, Noel. Appreciate the
patience on this agenda item.
Item number 103 is a public
hearing regarding the placement
of delinquent water and sewer
charges
on the 2026-2027 tax roll
for collection,
also being presented by Noel.
As a reminder, there is staff
in the rotunda area available
to answer any questions that
you have
on this. as well as item number
104. So I will open the public
hearing and turn it over to
Noel.
>> Thank you once again,
Chair Rowe. Next slide.
Special Districts provides
water and sanitation services
for a total of 13 county
service areas, CSAs. There's
within that, there is 5
water-only, 6 sanitation-only,
and 2 water and sanitation
combo CSAs. Any water or
sanitation accounts 60 days
delinquent as of May 1st are
added to our county tax roll
for collection. Collection of
delinquent charges supports
fiscal solvency of the CSAs
by ensuring revenues for the
operation and infrastructure
maintenance
of each separate system. The
total number
of delinquent water accounts is
136 out of 8,387, which is an
average delinquency rate
of 2%. No change in percentage
from last year. The total
number of delinquent sanitation
accounts is 512 out of 9,011,
which is an average delinquency
rate of 6%, a decrease
from 8% last year. Next slide.
All CSA bills are mailed
on a bimonthly basis
for a total of 6 cycles
annually.
To mitigate delinquent fees,
special districts notified
customers
of delinquent accounts by
completing the following
actions before applying
delinquent charges to the
county tax roll: regular
bimonthly bill mailed,
30-day delinquent notice mailed
with past due messages and late
charges applied,
45-day final notice mailed,
and for water only,
60-day service disconnected. 7
days prior to the disconnect,
disconnection, customers
receive a courtesy phone call,
on a red door tag if unable
to reach customer by phone.
for sanitation only,
90-day intent
to lien notice mailed,
including payment plan option.
Special districts mailed a
hearing notice letter to,
letter prior to May 1st,
2026,
to notify property owners
with delinquent accounts
of hearing. In addition,
all attempts by customers
to contact special districts
by phone, email, or
in person regarding, regarding
the delinquent water and
sanitation charges are actively
offered a payment option plan.
Customers are also offered an
external, external resource
for financial assistance. If
the delinquent accounts amounts
owed are still outstanding on
August 3rd, special districts
will submit a final list
of accounts to the county
to collect funds
through the property tax roll.
Any delinquent fees resolved
by August 3rd will not be added
to the tax roll. Next slide.
Currently, there are a total
of 648 delinquent accounts
through early May of 2026,
with approximately $466,000
in unpaid fees. It is important
to mention, historically,
we have found 25% of delinquent
accounts are resolved before
the final list is submitted
to the tax collector's, in,
collector's office in August.
Special District's customer
service staff are
in the rotunda available
to answer any questions
to the public that they may
have. This concludes my
presentation.
>> Thank you very much. Do we
have any requests to speak
on this item at all? We do not.
>> Just a comment. No, you
brought it up
in your presentation, but not
on the paperwork that we
received. I'm a big trend
person. I'd love to see 5
years, just, are we going
trending one way or the other,
and is it mostly the sewer or
the water? Just some
historical,
having a certain number at a
year date doesn't help too
much. But if I know the trend's
going worse or it's getting
less, kind of give you a sense
of the microeconomies
throughout the county.
>> I agree. Yes, we'll
definitely do that, maybe
for the 5 years to see the,
the longer trend line.
>> Thank you. I'll move the
item.
>> I'm going to close the
public hearing. Thank you very
much for the motion,
Supervisor Hagman, and the
second, Vice Chair Baca. All
those in favor?
>> Aye.
>> Any opposed? Any
abstentions?
>> With that, Item 103 passes
unanimously.
>> Thank you very much. Item
number 104 is a public hearing
for the collection
of solid waste handling fees,
also presented by Noel, and I
will open the public hearing.
>> Thank you. Last item,
I promise. Good morning once
again. We'll go on
to slide number 2. Uniform
handling, or mandatory trash
collection, was established
by the county in 2004 for, er,
residential property owners
in Valley and most
of the mountain areas
to assist the county with,
meeting Assembly Bill 939 and
Senate Bill 1383. Assembly
Bill 939 mandates the county
to divert 50% of all waste
from landfills, and Senate
Bill 1383 mandates the county
to adopt enforceable mechanisms
to provide organic collection
service to all generators. In
2022, uniform hauling was
approved for all unincorporated
residential and commercial
properties. Unless granted a
low population waiver
from the state in order
to comply with Senate Bill
1383 regulations. Uniform
handling service is a
standardized way to provide
refuse collection service,
reduce illegal dumping,
and enhance recycling programs
to provide flexibility
to residents and businesses.
There are alternatives to
uniform handling service that
include the county's self-haul
exception program, where
residents and businesses can
haul their own waste in lieu
of paying
for mandatory service to the
franchise waste and haulers,
and the hauler-provided fee
waiver program,
where the residents in some
franchise areas that
infrequently use their
properties and have less than
6 kilowatts of daily average
power usage per month can opt
out of mandatory service and
receive bill credits
through the haulers. Next
slide. In areas subject
to uniform hauling services,
county code and the franchise
agreements prohibit that
franchise waste hauler from
discontinuing service because
of nonpayment
of service fees. Accounts that
are unpaid for 90 days or more
become delinquent,
and fees are considered a debt
to the county that are subject
to collection
through property tax as a lien.
To mitigate delinquent fees,
waste haulers notify customers,
customers
of their delinquent accounts
through monthly robocalls,
messages
on billing statements,
and direct notices. The county
generated a hearing notice
letter that was mailed out
by the waste haulers on May
5th, 2026
to notify property owners
with delinquent accounts
of the hearing and the option
to pay any delinquent fees by
July 27th
to avoid the fees going
to their property tax bill. If
the delinquent amounts owed are
still outstanding after July
27th, the waste haulers will
submit a final list
of accounts to the county
to collect funds
through the property tax roll,
and liens will be recorded
against the properties. Any
delinquent fees subject to the
lien process are not sorry,
any delinquent fees subject to
the lien process that are not
resolved by July 27th will not
be added to the tax roll. Next
slide. Currently, there is a
total of 9,015 delinquent
accounts through March 2026,
which is approximately $3.6
million in unpaid fees. This
equates to
about a 13% delinquency rate.
The percentage
of delinquent accounts dropped,
to 9% in 2025 but rose to 13%
in 2026. A shift influenced
expanded by mandatory service
areas as well as the annexation
of some additional parcels as
well as SB 1383 requirements
and earlier administration
deadlines that increased the
number of accounts appearing on
initial administrative
deadlines I'm sorry, the last
item that caused the increase
was administrative deadlines
that increased the number
of accounts appearing
on initial delinquency list.
So although more accounts were
flagged as delinquent
to these changes, historical
trends suggest that the same
number
of liens will be resolved prior
to the liens being recorded.
In the past, on average,
this equates
to approximately a third
of the number
of potential liens being,
initially reported Therefore,
the final number
of liens recorded in 2026 is
expected to resemble the 2025
levels. As of Friday, May 15th,
the total number
of liens had been reduced
by 30%, from 6,246, to 6,246
instead of the 9,015, and we
expect the number to continue
to decrease prior
to the liens being recorded.
Next slide. This concludes my
presentation.
>> Thank you very much. I do
not have any requests to speak
on this item. Any members of
the board have questions?
>> Just the same general
comment. I mean, that's a big
number, $3,600,000. I'm just
wondering what the trend lines
are for year over year
on that. Is this normal? This
is higher, that type
of thing. So thank you. I'll
move it.
>> I'm going to close the
public hearing. Thank you
for the motion, Supervisor
Hagman.
>> Second.
>> Thank you. All those
in favor?
>> Aye.
>> Any opposed? Any
abstentions?
>> With that, Item 104 passes
unanimously. Thank you very
much. Item number 105 is
requested by Ensign Mason to
retain independent legal
counsel, being presented by
Laura Feingold.
>> Thank you, Madam Chair and
members
of the board. as referenced
by the chair, this item is
to consider Ensign Mason, the
county's elected auditor,
controller, treasurer,
and tax Collector's request
made on May 12th that the
county retain independent
counsel
to represent his interests
in an ongoing investigation.
That investigation was
requested by the chair on
February 24th, 2026, to
evaluate two issues regarding
Mr. Mason. The first was to
consider whether the operation
of Mr. Mason's private
investment business and SIN
Financial Services creates an
actual or perceived conflict
of interest
with his elected position. The
second part of the
investigation concerns an
allegation of whether Mr.
Mason is able to fulfill his
county duties while also
managing his private business.
to complete this investigation,
my office hired two firms,
two independent firms, one a
law firm and one an accounting
firm. One portion of that
investigation has been
completed. The report is
submitted to my office. the
second portion has not been
completed and remains ongoing.
Mr. Mason is requesting
representation
for the remainder
of that investigation. The law
permits Mr. Mason to make that
request when he believes the
County Council has a conflict
of interest and that,
that prevents him
from that prevents my office
from providing legal services
to help him perform his job
duties. Because my office is
overseeing this investigation,
We do have a conflict
of interest. However, Mr.
Mason's request is specifically
for counsel
to represent his interest
in the investigation. He is not
requesting counsel
to assist him in carrying
out the official duties
of his office. The law does not
require the county to pay
for legal representation for
Mr. Mason personally because it
is not necessary
to the performance
of his duties. The question
before the board today is
whether the county would, like
to authorize payment
for independent counsel
to represent Mr. Mason
in connection with this
investigation as he has
requested. Do we know what
caused the delay
in the second investigation?
Mr. Mason made a request
to delay his interview
initially until
after the election,
but ultimately agreed
to be interviewed on May 11th.
That interview was completed it
resulted in the production of
documents that are being
evaluated before the final
report is prepared and sent
to our office. And do we know
if Mr. Mason has representation
now, any interaction with an
attorney? I am not aware, but
I've also not asked him.
>> Okay, I have one request
to speak on this,
and then we'll bring it back
to the board. Mr. Mason?
>> Good morning, board. The
item you have
before you is a, Government
Code 995 demand letter, which
creates a situation where
litigation is reasonably
anticipated whether you vote
yes or no,
and it should be addressed
in closed session. Discussion
of the legal merits and scope
of the investigation or the
county's potential exposure in
open session would prejudice
the county's legal position
in any such proceedings.
Closed session is appropriate
and recommended under
Government Code 54956.9. I have
asked for a copy
of the first investigation,
which has been completed, and
that, that request was denied
under attorney-client
privilege. If anything is
discussed here
about that investigation, it
becomes immediately disclosable
to me under, under Labor Code
1198.53. You will be waiving
client-attorney privilege
under, Evidence Code 912. if
you discuss anything other than
the attorney request, that you
would once again be violating
the Brown Act, which is also
known as Government Code
54950. The investigation itself
was a Brown Act violation. As
everybody
on the dais should know,
you are not permitted
to discuss nor take action
on any item that's not
on the agenda. You discussed
the item and took action
on an item and it was not
on the agenda. You have
violated the Brown Code. If you
discuss the investigation here
today, you will be doing so
again. all the other folks that
come up here, especially the
CPS people who are concerned
about CPS, every meeting beg
for your help, beg
for your involvement,
and you do nothing. You say
nothing because you can't,
because it's a Brown Act
violation.
But you decided whatever it was
for me to not do that. You won't
help children when people come
up here every single meeting and
ask, but you will attack me.
So I'm asking that you don't do
that again. They don't get as
much as a reassuring word,
but you, you will go out
of your way
to harm my reputation This is
the last meeting before
election. I don't I think
everybody who's listening
to this knows what's,
what's going on here,
why this investigation is
being, performed, and, and
probably, the motive
behind the words you're about
to say. So thank you.
>> That's the last request
to speak that I have. so,
Laura, can you clarify? The
motion today is
to authorize payment of his
attorney's fees that we're
unaware of, or to deny that.
Is that correct?
>> Correct.
>> So I need a board motion one
way or the other.
>> I'll make a motion that we
deny.
>> Do I have a second?
>> I'll second the motion
to deny.
>> All those in favor?
>> Aye.
>> Any opposed?
>> All right. And I have a
question for you. We have heard
Mr. Mason make a lot
of accusations directly
to the media, as well as
on social media,
that I do not believe at all
to have merit or truth
in them. Could you please bring
back an item for the board to
consider censure or removal?
>> Yes, thank you. With that,
we will move on
to our next agenda item,
number 106. It is the appeal
of the Planning Commission's
approval of the Maverick
convenience store and gas
station project. This item is
being continued to the June 9th
board meeting, but I would
like to open the public hearing
and have anybody here today
provide public comment that
came down for this. And I
believe we have 4 requests
to speak so far. So your
comments today will remain a
part of the official record,
and then we will continue this
to that future meeting on June
9th. Our first request
to speak is Debbie McCaffee,
followed by Anne Hale. And then
Barbara Fredette.
>> Hi, my name is Debbie
McAfee. I moved to Pinion
Hills 21 years ago from Los
Angeles. I moved here
specifically because I wanted
to live in a rural and natural
environment. I would have moved
to Hesperia or Victorville if I
had wanted more services. 21
years later, I still marvel
at the mountains
behind my home and the valley
to the north.
In the mornings,
I wander my yard listening
to the birds and looking for
wildflowers. I do not want a
Maverick truck stop a stone's
throw away from my home.
Since December, our team has
been talking with hundreds
of local residents,
and the majority
of folks are opposed
to having a Maverick truck stop
in our community. If this is
built,
it will become the anchor of
our town a large gas station
truck stop will turn this town
into a pass-through town
for travelers. In addition,
the proposed site is directly
across from several folks'
personal residences. The
proposed station will
negatively impact the quality
of those folks' lives
drastically and possibly the
value of their homes. This will
greatly interfere
with our local community going
to pick up their mail
at the post office. Our team
had a personal conversation
with the postmaster She told us
that no one in, the office of
the applicant had made any
contact with them talking
about the Mavericks'
requirement that the traffic
pattern going in and out
of the post office be changed.
And she specifically said
they're not willing
to do it because
of how the mail gets delivered
from their main station. Let's
see, Kevin Deitz at the last
meeting said he had talked
to them and they did not. We
request that the county provide
written proof that the U.S.
Postal Service was informed and
is agreeable to the changes as
per the statement that Kevin
Deitz made
at the last meeting.
In addition,
this will create more traffic
on Oasis Road in front of the
Pinion Hills Elementary School
with more big rigs going up and
down. It will create a danger
for the children entering and
exiting the school and will
interfere with multiple bus
stops. I am not here to hate
on Maverick. We all want
cheaper gas,
don't get me wrong. We are
saying the location of this is
completely wrong. I know the
county wants the sales tax
revenue. San Bernardino County
is the largest county in the
nation. I know that a better
location can this
for this can be found
in the county. As far as I'm
aware, also, the applicant does
not even own the property
in question. it is not recorded
in the applicant's name,
and the realtor whose sign is
on the property only tells us
the property is in escrow. If
the applicant were to find an
additional location that would
not impact the local residents
or the local post office
in another location in San
Bernardino County, It would be
a win-win for all of us.
>> Thank you. And Hale,
followed by Barbara Fredette
and then Jan Grogan.
>> Morning, my name is Anne
Hale. I've lived in Pinion
Hills for 36 years. I'm
in opposition to the Mavic
project. Traffic at the signal
on Highway 138 and Oasis Road
can back up for over a mile
during peak hours. Getting to
the post office will be very
difficult, if not dangerous.
Most residents in Pinion Hills
must pick up their mail on-site
since there are no, home
deliveries. the post office
also serves home-based
businesses, people wanting
to apply for passports,
purchase stamps, ship packages,
or buy money orders. Hmm,
approximately 1,880 patrons
pick up their mail regularly.
Truck and vehicle traffic
entering and exiting the
Maverick Fueling Center would
add an intense burden
to the narrow roads
by the post office. Truck and
vehicle paths crossing
at the intersection of
Buckthorn Road and Oasis Road
would be dangerous. Traffic
buildup on Highway 138
behind slow trucks leaving the
Maverick Station or slow or
stopped excuse me trucks
waiting to turn right on
Oasis Road to enter the station
would make it difficult
for patrons to easily access
the post office. The Maverick
project would be
across the street
from the post office. Trucks
entering and leaving the
fueling station onto Oasis
Road from Buckthorn Road would
be mixing with vehicles trying
to enter or leave the post
office parking lot. There are
no approved plans
for the county
to reconfigure the intersection
at Buckthorn at Buckthorn and
Oasis where traffic exits the
post office. No one has contact
contacted anyone
at the post office
from the postmistress on up
about the proposed Maverick
project. This is quite an
oversight considering that
at the last hearing, Kevin
Dice stated that he'd gotten
word from the post office that
they were amenable to
reconfiguring the entire
parking lot,
changing the traffic pattern.
Again, the post office knows
of no such discussion. The
project was approved by land
use staff even though these
statements and certain site
maps were not previously
approved. Thank you.
>> Thank you very much, Barbara
Furdette, followed by Jan
Grogan.
>> Good morning Supervisors.
Regarding item 106, my husband
and I own a home less than 1
mile from the approved Pinion
Hills construction site for a
Maverick truck stop. I'm here
today to ask you to reject this
construction project
specifically because the
station will service large
trucks. Given that over half
of the property area, 5
of the fueling stations, and 2
of the 3 entrances are
specifically designed
for large commercial trucks,
it is not unreasonable to
expect that large trucks will
comprise a large portion
of the station's customers.
The commercial property that
has been proposed
for the project is poorly
suited
for large truck access, and I
believe will be extremely
problematic and unsafe not only
for the Pinion Hills residents
but for also the truck drivers
and car drivers who will use
the station. Here are my
specific reasons. First
of all, the truck stop has no
direct access to Route 138 and
instead proposes indirect
access via Oasis Road and
Buckthorn Road. While Highway
138 meet state standards
for STAA truck travel.
Neither Oasis Road nor
Buckthorn Road meet these
standards. Commercial truck use
of these roads may even be
in violation of AB 98 and SB
415. These local rural roads
are not suited
for STAA truck travel. Simply
paving them between 138 and the
station entrance will not make
them suited or safe
for large truck travel. The
Maverick Corporation should
have sought a better suited
commercially zoned property.
one that has Caltrans-approved
access
to a designated truck route,
thus ensuring safe and legal
access to the station.
Secondly, in the Maverick
Project plan, Oasis Road serves
not only as an entrance
to the gas station
but also as an entrance
to the Pinion Hills Post
Office. Residents of Pinion
Hills have no mail delivery
to their homes. 1,880
households must retrieve their
daily mail deliveries
from post office boxes located
inside the post office. The
Maverick Company has proposed
the traffic will run smoothly
and safely on Oasis and
Buckthorn Roads because they
claim that Caltrans will post
signage, signal signage on
Oasis Road, and also that the
post office has agreed
to alter their traffic flow
through their parking lot and
alter their entrance and exit.
But does the Maverick proposal
include documented proof that
Caltrans or the Pinion Hills
Post Office to show that these
precautions will occur? If such
documents were not included
in the proposal, then why was
this project approved by the
Planning Commission? The
current plan presents a
dangerous traffic situation
on Oasis and, Road for Pinion
Hills residents and for
Maverick customers accessing
the gas station. Surely there
must be commercial ventures
that are better suited for this
commercial property. I urge the
San Bernardino County Board
of Supervisors
to overturn the Planning
Commission's decision This
poorly planned project should
never have been approved.
Thank you.
>> Thank you very much. Is that
the last request? One more? It
has disappeared for me. If you
can read the name oh, Jan
Grogan, there it is. Good
morning.
>> Good morning, and thank you
for listening to us. These
three ladies have just covered
everything. and I want
to say that, I have lived in
Pinion Hill since 2002, and it
is the most wonderful place
that I've ever lived. Our
neighbors are like family.
They're it's so different than
other places I've lived that
were also nice, but the people
did not have the ethics and the
responsibility disability these
people have. And one day I was
going down Goss Road to
Oasis, and that's
about a half a mile south or,
no, excuse me, north of,
Pinon Hills Elementary
School. And a large semi flew
past the stop sign I was at.
He had a long flatbed
behind him. And when he got
to the, school area, and where
it says the speed limit should
drop to 25. He did not slow
down. I was had turned left,
and I was behind him, and he
was completely past that school
before I even came to it. The
playground on that elementary
school is right next to Oasis
Road. There's a sidewalk that's
about 4 feet wide, and then the
fence that keeps the students
in there. In the afternoons,
the parents pick these students
up. Some
of the students cross Oasis
Road. They do have somebody
holding a stop sign, but when
you have that much traffic,
those students are put
at extreme danger. The thoughts
of losing what we have in that
rural community just devastates
me, and it does my neighbors
too,
and other people that live in
Phelan and even up to Hesperia
realize what we have
in our area. And why would a
truck stop be allowed
to devastate a community
like this? It's a rural
community. Why don't they put
that next to a freeway or in a
larger city where it would be
welcomed and,
people could use that. We don't
need that in our community
to destroy or kill or anything
like that. And will our
property taxes be raised to
accommodate the road changes
that'll have to be made
for these big trucks? And can
the people afford them? We have
wonderful young people
with children, the most
wonderful parents I've met
in my life. They're so
dedicated to their children.
Why should they give this up so
we can have a truck stop up
there that will devastate
that's time. Thank you very
much.
>> With that, I will entertain
a motion to continue this item
to June 9th.
>> Second.
>> Thank you, Supervisor
Hagman. And for the second,
Vice Chair Baca. All those
in favor?
>> Aye.
>> Any opposed? Any
abstentions?
>> With that, Item 106, open
hearing, has been continued
to June 9th, 2026. Thank you
very much. Item number 107 is a
presentation on the state of
healthcare and key impacts
facing hospitals,
being presented this morning
by Andrew Goldfrack. Good
morning.
>> Good morning, Chair Rowe,
members of the board. I'm
Andrew Gofrack, the Chief
Executive Officer for
Arrowhead Regional Medical
Center. Today I'm going
to provide a brief overview
on the state of healthcare and
understanding key impacts, and
the healthcare landscape that
we're facing related to HR 1.
This slide deck should only be,
about 10 minutes or so, and
then I'll entertain questions
as we going to, go
through this. The objective,
as I mentioned, is really
to provide you
with a clear understanding
of the healthcare landscape
within San Bernardino County
and the potential impacts that
we all face relating to HR 1.
the goal really is to look
at the current landscape,
provide a, an understanding
of our current landscape,
the financial overviews
of the healthcare systems, and
then the key headwinds and
challenges that we're,
we're facing. Across San
Bernardino County, there are
19 acute care hospitals, 15
of which are private, 1 owned
by the county, 2 district
hospitals, and 1 federal VA
facility. In addition,
we have a fair number
of specialty care hospitals,
children's hospitals,
post-acute facilities,
hospital-based ambulatory
clinics,
federally qualified healthcare
centers, private physician
practices, mobile clinics,
etc. These are the services
that really provide most
of the healthcare services
for the residents of San
Bernardino County. This is just
a quick snapshot of just the
different hospitals that we
have within the county, just
to kind of give a frame
of reference.
But what I really want
to illustrate is really
on the next slide, which is the
inpatient utilization
of services broken down by the
payer or how those services are
funded. Over 40%
of all inpatient care services
within San Bernardino County is
done and paid through,
Medi-Cal or Medi-Cal managed
programs. Of that,
the vast majority
of those are 83% of that is
from IEHP. Over 70% overall is
from a government payer,
which relates to both Medicare
and Medi-Cal services. And you
could see that the top 5
hospitals that present or that
receive patient care, from a
Medi-Cal standpoint is
Arrowhead Regional Medical
Center, Loma Linda, Community
Hospital San Bernardino, St.
Bernardine, and Providence
St. Mary's. while there's,
again, the 19 hospitals,
these are the top 5 that
receive Medi-Cal patients on
the inpatient setting or the
admitted patients. this is
different than the emergency
department services, which,
as you can see
on the next slide, similar
in terms of number
of hospitals, where the top 5
hospitals that receive
Medi-Cal
on the emergency department is
Arrowhead, St. Bernardine's
Community Hospital San
Bernardino, Providence St.
Mary's Medical Center, and
Kaiser Fontana. But what I
really want to illustrate on
this slide is the numbers that
are in front of you. The number
of population, or for every,
number population
within the county for every
emergency department bed, is
about 4,445. So
for every one er bed
in the county, that represents
4,445 residents. That ranks 20
in the, in the county rankings
across all 58 counties.
However, when you look
at the, counties
with populations of 2 million
or more, we're the 3rd highest
ranked, county in the state.
The higher the ranking
in this case is not good. It
is, it is bad. And then when
you look at the number of
emergency department visits per
bed, we actually rank number 1
in terms of large counties.
What this really tells us is
that we are very much currently
over underbedded and
overutilized
in our emergency departments.
This is gonna play heavily as
we talk through some
of the impacts that we're
facing over the next 10 years,
under HR1. In addition
to the, the hospitals
themselves, we have 44
federally qualified healthcare
centers and 12 community
healthcare centers. These are
prime predominantly primary
care, services that are located
throughout the county that help
serve the underserved
populations within San
Bernardino County.
In general, San Bernardino the
Inland Empire has the lowest
number
of primary care physicians per
100,000 patients in the nation
at 35, where the average is
between 60 to 80 primary care
physicians per 100,000
patients. so we are already
in a very stressed environment
before any of the impacts
of H1, which we're about
to talk about. Do you have a
question?
>> I just wonder how Adelanto
has 4 FQHCs.
>> I could I'll be able
to pull the, the data
for you.
>> The way the hospitals are,
are funded, there's really 4
breakdowns of,
of funding sources: Medicare,
Medi-Cal or Medicaid. I'm going
to use Medicaid and Medi-Cal
somewhat interchangeably,
because it Medicaid is the
federal name and the state
calls it Medi-Cal. Private
insurance and then other
revenue such as grants,
philanthropy,
and investments. As I mentioned
earlier, the vast majority of
patients that are seeking
services within San
Bernardino County fall
under that Medi-Cal, bucket,
which really looks at what
inpatient fee-for-
fee-for-service payments,
so per-day basis,
outpatient capitated rates, and
then other supplemental
programs that help offset the
cost
of healthcare delivery within,
the hospitals. When you look
at the different types
of payer mix
between public hospitals,
district hospitals, and
private, you could see publics,
have the vast majority of,
services under the Medi-Cal,
and then a much smaller ranking
on the Medicare and private
versus the others. However, it
is important
to note that as we talk
about the impacts coming up
here in a moment, all of the
uninsured populations
regardless are going
to continue
to increase substantially
over the next 10 years. and
that's gonna be play a major
into the overall distressed
hospital systems that we're,
we're gonna be talking about.
So the reason I share this
information is to really help
talk ab and set the stage is
to really help talk about the
impacts that we're facing.
U.S., House Resolution Number
1, or the One Big Beautiful
Bill, was put into law in June
of 2024, and passed
by the federal government,
commonly referred to as the
One Big Beautiful Bill, which
is by far the single biggest
federal funding shift
for healthcare delivery
in modern times. This
reconciliation bill will call
for a $1 trillion hit to
Medicaid and Medi-Cal services
over the next 10 years
across the nation. That is
substantial. So what that
really means is we're going
to see, kind of
at a brass tacks,
substantial loss in Medi-Cal
coverage as there are multiple
different initiatives
under HR 1 relating
to new work requirements, new
immigration-related eligibility
redetermination timelines, as
well as additional state-level
Medi-Cal policy changes, as
well as different federal
funding restrictions
across the Medi-Cal programs,
really shifting the programs
from the federal government
to the, the states,
to the local jurisdictions,
to the hospitals, and
to the practice. This is
on top of already very fragile
healthcare system where all of
our costs are not covered
already by our
by reimbursement rates. So if
you think about a house of
cards that we're already trying
to juggle today in terms
of how we finance hospitals,
we're essentially taking a
wrecking ball to that, those,
that house of cards with HR1,
which is going to result
in a significant increase
in uncompensated care,
significant increase
in the emergency departments,
which are already overstressed,
significant reduction
in programs, that hospitals
provide, insurance,
companies pay for, taxpayers,
are gonna be impacted as well
as privately insured services.
Essentially, when we look at
the different hospitals and
health systems, regardless
of whether you have Medi-Cal,
Medicaid, or private insurance,
if a hospital ends up reducing
services or closing those
services down as a result of
HR1 or other financial impacts,
it's gonna affect all patients.
Regardless
of who their payer is, because
those services will no longer
be necessary or needed. Great
example
of this is there was a hospital
in Riverside County that
recently closed
down its maternity services.
As a result, regardless
of the payer, anyone looking
to seek those services has
to go now go to Pomona Valley
or somewhere else. The timeline
for HR 1 is quite extensive
over the next several years.
this slide is actually intense
and intentionally complex and
busy because it really helps
illustrate the complexity of
just all the different phases
that HR1 has put into place.
However, the big key dates
to really pay attention
to is this upcoming October
where we start
to see the reduction
in the federal Medicare
assistance program or the
federal share, January 2027
where we start to see a lot
of the work requirements go
into place and we'll start
to see a significant decrease
in Medi-Cal enrollees. And then
in 2028, in January, we'll
start to see a lot of the
supplemental programs that
hospitals rely on decrease
at a 10% clip year over year
for the next 10 years. This is
going to drive down a lot of
the financial challenges that
we're going to be seeing
over the next several years.
Nationally, you can see the
breakdown here
on this slide that really talks
about just where the dollars
are coming from. That draws
down to that $1 trillion. A lot
of it is the cuts to the
Medicare, Medi-Cal eligibility
at around $550 $566 billion,
cuts to benefits, cuts to
general financing. we've seen
some reductions already
in the subsidies tied to the
Affordable Care Act, and we've
started to see reductions
in individuals being enrolled
in Medi-Cal as a result
of that. And that's what drives
up the $1 trillion The CBO is
projecting about 11.8 million
people are gonna be reduced er,
losing coverage as a result
directly of the, ah, of HR 1,
as well as an additional 5.1
million people will be losing
coverage as a result of some
of the changes in,
the ACA program. Bringing that
down to the state and to the,
the local levels, across
California we're gonna actually
see over the next 10 years
about a $120 billion impact.
Impact, as well as, locally
within the San Bernardino
County region, roughly
about a $6.4 billion impact
to how hospitals are, are able
to be financed. This is on top
of things that are already
happening, since we've designed
this presentation. recently we
saw
in the news that CMS has
decided to withhold $1.3
billion in the federal share
of the Medi-Cal program. so
we're gonna start to see some
additional impacts directly as
a result of that as well. From
a public hospital standpoint,
this, waterfall slide,
we call this the, the slide
of doom. Unfortunately, this is
for all the 17 public hospitals
and health systems
across the state of
California. We are looking
at anywhere from, in 2026, a
$1.7 billion hit all the way
down to about a $4 to $6
billion hit just in the public
hospital systems alone directly
as relates to HR1,
as well as some of the state,
changes we saw in the May
revise. the governor has called
for a change
in how we reimburse,
the hospitals for the what we
call the UIS population, or the
unsatisfactory immigration
status population,
and shifting them
from responsibilities of the
managed care plans directly to
what's called a
fee-for-service. That
in and itself is going
to have an $800 million impact
to the public hospitals.
Specifically across San
Bernardino itself, we're, ah,
anticipating about 300,000,
individuals that are at risk
of losing coverage. Roughly 20%
of, ah, I EHP's patient
population is gonna lose their
coverage over the next 3 years
as a result
of the workforce requirements,
the UIS populations,
and others. This is gonna
directly result in an increase
in the er becoming primary care
services and a significant
increase in the emergency
department utilization,
again emphasizing an overtaxing
of the emergency department,
which is already overtaxed as
it sits today. As a direct
result, we're gonna continue to
see increased financial
pressures on the different
county systems. We're gonna see
potential service lines closed
or reduced
across the different hospitals,
not only in this county but
across the region and
across the state and across the
nation. as well as a lot
of the federal restrictions,
on the provider taxes to
Medi-Cal, which will result
in additional, financial
reductions and financial
pressures to,
to the different hospitals.
The California Hospital
Association has put up these
numbers, which is in 2025
there's about 34 a little
over 3,300 layoffs
in hospitals, which is greater
than the last 5-year average
of 2,235 layoffs directly as a
result of hospitals being
getting prepared
for HR1 impacts. 2026,
across the nation, 46 sorry,
42 healthcare organizations
have already announced layoffs.
That is far on out to outpace
2025 by a long shot as we look
at what are the impacts
across the region and across
the nation are facing. these
are gonna, again, affect not
only the vulnerable populations
that Medi-Cal serves,
but really across the entire
region and all patient
populations regardless
of who their payer is. So kind
of in, in, in summary and some
key takeaways, HR 1 is gonna be
driving significant federal
funding restrictions and
reductions that will reshape
the healthcare delivery system
as we know it today. Today.
The county as it, as itself,
the county in itself, is
already disproportionately
impacted due
to the high volume of Medi-Cal
recipients. Already 40% of,
of all inpatient utilization is
Medi-Cal, so we're going
to see a significant increase
in the uninsured populations
here locally,
and the hospitals are going
to continue to grow,
and face significant financial,
instability that will contain
that will lead
to potential reductions of
services or even potential
hospital closures. as well as
the uninsured care is gonna
continue to utilize the er,
as primary care services,
which will, again, continue
to inundate the, the er.
Also, as we've talked about
in other presentations
in the past, the county systems
will likely have
to absorb a fair amount
of the cost due to this 17
Section 17,000 of the Health
and Safety Code. So,
from an action steps and,
and what we're working on,
we're continuing our
consolidated ongoing advocacy
efforts at the state and
at the federal levels. Each
different hospital and health
systems has their own
mitigation plans that they're
working through to try
to mitigate this to the extent
possible. as well as we're
partnering very closely
with the health plans,
probably predominantly IHP and
Molina, which are the two
Medi-Cal plans in San
Bernardino County, as well as
the Transitional Assistance
Department here, in the county
on Medi-Cal enrollment. this
was really just a again,
wanted to provide just an
overview. unfortunately it's
not a good overview,
but an overview of,
what we're facing
over the next 10 years
in hospital financing,
as a result of the federal and
state changes. And with that,
I'd like to open up
with any questions.
>> Thank you. I would like to
clarify that this is not meant
to be political at all,
just laying out of the facts.
And I,
I know that this has a tendency
to go political,
and we are charged with living
within our means
from whatever is handed to us
from any other outside source.
And so I appreciate you laying
out what the options will be
and the things that we will be
facing.
>> Absolutely. Yeah, this is
absolutely apolitical. This is
really just based
off the numbers, the,
the actuary reviews,
as well as the,
the language that's
within the laws written.
>> Very good.
>> Supervisor Hagman.
>> Thank you. And, thank you,
Andrew, for I appreciate the
ups and downs that you have to
do as a hospital administrator.
I've been here long enough
to know
before ACA what it was like,
and that was 10 years ago where
they put trillions of dollars
into the medical system,
and now they're taking some
of those resources back out
over the next 10 years. So
there was a plan before ACA.
There will be a plan
after ACA. There will be a plan
if it changes again
with the next administration.
And, I do hope that we still
consider, our biggest cost is
using that emergency room when,
when people don't necessarily
need those emergency services.
They can use regular doctors
and stuff. And I know we'll
continue
to coordinate as chair
of IHP right now
with my colleagues
on that board, the changing
landscape that comes out.
And, but I, I've seen it,
our budget before we had those
extra dollars. And, hopefully
we can adjust as the political
climate changes on the federal
side and where our
representatives feel
like their priorities are
to spend those dollars. Thank
you.
>> Thank you.
>> Yeah, thank you, Madam
Chair. I appreciate Andrew,
bringing up the potential
impacts of HR 1. And I know
that you and I have had
several, several conversations
in regards to the impact.
But, something sometimes
to keep in mind is part
of the reason why our,
our volume is so high is
because of the amount
of services. It's almost a
double-edged sword.
>> We offer a lot at
Arrowhead Regional Medical
Center.
>> One of the things is we're
one of two Level 1 trauma units
in the County of San
Bernardino, so that tends
to draw a high amount
of volume. The other thing is
the, the homeless population.
And a lot of times and Andrew
understands this that our
homeless population can stay
in a bed up to 90 days. So I
know one
of the things we're looking
at is looking
at alternatives. I think one
of the items we're looking
at later on today or in the
near future is
to find alternatives
to transition those individuals
out of our beds, which are
much, much needed. The other
thing that Arrowhead Regional
Medical Center does do is they
airlift 2 to 3 individuals
sometimes out of the area and
out of the county. And people
don't realize Arrowhead
Regional Medical Center, not
just serves the Valley,
but it serves a lot of the
High Desert. And one of the
challenges is that our
hospitals in the High Desert
tend to struggle or not have
the services that we offer
down here. So that has a huge
impact, as we look at access
to healthcare. But, I
appreciate what Andrew has done
to try to maintain it and,
and keep this and keep
in mind, this is one
of few hospitals in the entire
state that does not use any
general fund money. So they've
done a great job managing the
money, making sure that they
get reimbursements.
But as time goes on,
we know it's going
to become much,
much more challenging.
But just want to thank you
for that update. And I think
there's a lot of things that,
on the basis of time,
could not talk about. But, I
think those are key things
for individuals
to understand. Because
of the services we offer,
because we don't turn down
anyone and we take everybody,
that is a big cost
to our system. But thanks
for the report.
>> Yeah, I wanna echo some
of the comments of, of my,
counterparts here, but, I think
this is also an opportunity. I
try to always look at,
the glass half full, not half
empty, and,
maybe this is an opportunity
for us to reorganize, and,
and maybe we as San
Bernardino County can actually,
show what a well-run hospital
can do, when given the
opportunity. things
like looking at how we are
addressing our people who are
coming in, the emergency rooms,
are undocumented, are,
maybe we need to have,
small pop-ups where people are,
getting service not
in the emergency room or prior
to getting emergency room,
like some sort of urgent care
or mobile medicine. explored
at a higher level, or,
being proactive with,
especially those who don't
have, insurances. How do we
find ways to get them, if they,
if they choose
to be vaccinated, getting them
those, basic proactive care,
and really focusing on the
preventative versus having them
come in when it's too late. I
think that could be an
opportunity
for us and just really looking
at that. those are all my
comments.
>> All right, I think that is
it. Since this is a receive and
file, thank you very much. We
appreciate the update. And
with that, we will move on
to agenda item number 108.
Before we do start 108, I
wanted
to just make an announcement
for housekeeping. We will break
at noon and take a 15-minute
recess. and then we'll
reconvene at 12:15. So 108 is a
public hearing on Government
Code Section 3502.3, which is
AB 2561 regarding vacancies and
recruitment presentation being
presented this morning by Leo
Gonzalez. We'll open the public
hearing. Good morning, Leo.
>> Good morning, Chair Rowe,
and Members of the Board of
Supervisors, I'm Leo
Gonzalez, Human Resources
Director, and I'm here
to present to you on
California Assembly Bill 2561
and the status of the county's
vacancy recruitment and
retention process. California
Assembly Bill 2561 became
effective January 1st, 2025,
and mandates that the public
agencies annually assess and
report
on job vacancy agencies. This
information must be present
like, I mean, do this slide
here. this information must,
present vacancy and recruitment
data at a public hearing,
before finalizing the budget.
The purpose of the law is
to enhance transparency. The
county is excited
by the opportunity to present
to the public the ongoing
strategies to address
recruitment and retention.
Today's topics will include
county workforce,
hiring and recruitment
strategies, retention
strategies, recruitment
outcomes, public I'm sorry,
position vacancy summary,
and vacancies
by bargaining unit. So what's
the county's workforce and what
do they do? The county is proud
to showcase the people
behind the services. The
following graphic gives you a
snapshot
of our county workforce,
highlighting the number
of dedicated staff, available
opportunities, and a glance at
the different services that
help the community every day.
what services do we provide
by the county? The county
delivers a wide variety
of services
to support our community,
including public safety,
health and human services,
community services, road and
infrastructure, land use,
environment, along
with county operations. What is
the what is the county's hiring
and recruiting strategies? How
does the county find and hire
people? We spread the word
through social media,
community outreach and events,
building partnerships,
and using advertising tools.
We build career pathways,
programs such as SPARK, Youth
Employment Program, Career
Technical Education
Connectional Programs,
internships, apprenticeships,
and entry-level jobs that get
people started and grow their
careers with the county. We
make it easy to apply. The
online application is simple,
mobile-friendly,
and provides the ability
to apply for several jobs
at once. I'd like
to highlight a couple
of the many 2025 outcomes. We
attended 89 outreach events
across the county,
netting interactions with
over 7,000 attendees.
Retention strategies how does
the county keep good,
good employees? We make sure
jobs match work
by reviewing job descriptions.
We understand what's working
and what's not by monitoring
hiring and staffing trends. We
listen and respond
through labor negotiations. We
work to make pay,
pay competitive
within the market.
To highlight a couple
of the many 2025 outcomes, 485
classifications were modified
and 43 classifications received
equity adjustments.
Recruitment outcomes. Is the
county hiring the right people
and fast enough? Yes, we're
reaching more people. Our
increased outreach has boosted
awareness
of the county as a great place
to work. we're growing future
talent, we're hiring faster,
we keep jobs filled thanks to
strong recruitment and
retention efforts. Our vacancy
rates stay low. Award-winning
the county earned a prestigious
challenge award from
California State Association
of Counties, CSAC, for our
Rapid Hire program. Let me show
a couple of 2025 outcomes. We
recruited for 1,150 positions.
and during this process,
we were able to hire 2,668 new
hires and promoted over 2,800
employees within the county.
So let's get to the numbers.
at a high level, the county's
position vacancy summary
for all bargaining units
between April 13th, 2025 and
April 13th, 2026 was an
impressive 13.71%
in comparison
to last year's presentation
of 15.31%. This is a reduction
from last year about 1.6%. If
you look at, if you look
at the right side
of the slide, you will see a
high-level position vacancy
summary breakout by the
respective bargaining groups. I
will now navigate to the,
to each
of these bargaining groups to
better understand how we
arrived at the overall position
vacancy rate. First up is
Teamsters Local 1932. As of
April 13, 2026, the position
vacancy rate was 14.64% for
Teamsters. That number reduced
by 2%
from last year's 16.72% and
below the AB 2561 threshold
of 20% vacancy rate. This is
good work by departments across
the county and filling their
vacancies. Next up is
Sheriff's Employee Benefit
Association, SEBA. As of April
13th, 2026, SEBA's position
vacancy rate was about 9.14%.
While this number is
approximately 1.5% higher than
last year's,
this is attributed
to approximately 131 sheriff's
trainees currently in the
academy that will soon be added
to the workforce,
thus improving these numbers.
Bear
in mind that these numbers are
near impressive 11%
below AB 2561's threshold.
Great work by the Sheriff's
Department, the Fire
District, Probation
Department, District
Attorney's Office, and others
in filling their vacancies.
Next up, let's transition
to SEIU Local 721. As of April
13, 2026, the position vacancy
rate was 17.74
for this group. That number has
improved by 2%
from a year ago, below the AB
2561 threshold of 20%. Good
work by CFS, DBH,
and other departments
in working to fill their
hard-to-fill recruitment
efforts. This is followed by
California Nurses
Association, CNA. As of April
13, 2026, CNA's position
vacancy rate was 12.39%. While
this dropped to 0.75%, it is
notable that this bargaining
group is made up
of nurse classifications
across the county. This
position the, the position
vacancy rate is well
below the AB 2561 threshold of
by almost 8%. Great work
by ARMC, the Sheriff's
Department, Probation, DBH,
Public Health, and other
departments who fill these
positions. Let's talk about
Professional Firefighters
Local 935. As of April 13,
2026, the position vacancy rate
was 11.17 for this group. That
compared to last year's 16.50
is a reduction of over 5% and
below the AB 2561 threshold
of 20% vacancy rate. The fire
district has been impressive
on the recruitment efforts. So
next up is San Bernardino
County Probation Officers
Association, POA. As of April
13th, 2026, the POA's position
vacancy rate was 8.68%. This
dropped approximately 3.5% from
last year's 12.20%. this
position vacancy rate is well
below the AB 2561 threshold
by almost 11.5%. great work
by the probation department.
This is followed by San
Bernardino County Public
Attorneys Association
Attorneys Unit. As of April
13th, 2026, the position
vacancy rate was 10.80
for this group. That number was
has improved by 2.7%
from last year
from a year ago, excuse me,
and below the AB 2561 threshold
of 20% by over 9%. Good work
by the District Attorney, the
Public Defenders, and others
filling those positions. Up
next is International Union
of Operational Engineers Local
12, IUOE. As of April 13th,
2026, the IUOE's position
vacancy rate was 7.14. That
drop of approximately 11.25 is
striking. The position vacancy
rate is well below AB 2561
threshold by almost 13%. Great
work by the fire district.
Next up is the Association of
San Bernardino County Fire
Management. As of April 13th,
2026, the position vacancy rate
was 3.45% for this group. That
compared to last year's 13.79%
is a reduction of over 10% and
below the 2 below the AB 2561
threshold of 20% vacancy rate
by more than 16.5%. The fire
district has steadfast
recruitment efforts
to continue
to do these things. Okay, the
last bargaining group to share
with you today is the
International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers Local 47,
IBW. As of April 13, 2026, the
position vacancy rate was
21.43% for IBW. This year's
number is approximately 7%
higher than it was last year's
figure, at 14.29%. As I
mentioned previously
in the slides, AB 2561's
threshold 20% vacancy rate. So
we were slightly
over a threshold. So I'd like
to take a moment to talk about
the recruitment challenges and
opportunities for this group.
This is one
of the smaller bargaining
groups within the county that
provides specialized services
for public works special
districts. It's a dedicated
it's, it's a delicate balancing
act as a staffing size can
easily skew vacancy rates
for this group. You will see
illustrated on the graph the 3
classifications that triggered
the vacancy rate Those are
maintenance worker 1/training,
maintenance worker 2 and 3,
treatment plant operator 4. So
what's prompting the
recruitment retention
challenges? Limited qualified
candidate pools to this,
that require specialized
certificates, technical
experience,
and licensure requirements.
Remote service locations along
with travel requirements impact
the recruitment effort. Early
turnover as employees obtain
certificates and transfer
to local water districts.
However, the,
the special districts continues
to focus
on recruitment efforts along
with retention efforts to
ensure that we have a that we
can meet those workforce
challenges. Let me share with
you the recruitment outcomes.
What are we doing to improve
our candidate pool and our
ability
to hire quality candidates?
While you, while you see
illustrated that we received
applicants, for all 3
classifications, right, you
see, large number of candidates
that apply these positions,
the list dwindles down once we
actually start meeting the
qualifications that are needed
for these jobs. As such, the
team has implemented
recruitment strategies
to increase our candidate pool.
So I'll use maintenance worker
1 as an example. A rapid hire
event filled 4 other vacancies.
recruitment efforts generated
83 eligible candidates,
and we're moving much faster
to get candidates
through the pipeline by
ensuring that our certification
lists are being much quicker.
In this particular case, 7
business days. There are
currently 2 job offers for
maintenance worker training.
Once these positions are
filled,
the threshold we will go from
21.45 to 16.67. Again, 1
vacancy for this group,
could very easily put you
above the 20% threshold, based
on the number
of positions we actually have
within the group. Next up is
the maintenance worker 2,
continuous year-round
recruitments
to maintain candidate pool. So
we're ensuring that we're
continuously looking
at that list as opposed
to waiting for vacancies
to occur. The average
turnaround time to actually get
these lists prepared,
it takes us 3 business days.
Last one is the treatment plan
operator 4. This is now a
continuous year-round
recruitment
to maintain candidate pool in
the event that we have a
separation from this group.
And again, it's taking us
about 3 days to, to, 3 business
days to turn
around getting candidates to
the process. so what are we
doing from a compensation
workplace enhancements to
support recruitment and
retention? The board approved a
successor MOU for 2024
through 2027, a member
understanding providing
multiple-year compensation
stability that included
increased employer medical
premium contributions to reduce
employees' healthcare costs.
We've implemented 14% total
salary increases over the term
of this contract, including a
new top salary step increasing
maximum pay, by 2.5%. And, and
the board approved 10% salary
equity adjustments
for the maintenance worker 1
through 3 series, along
with the, Treatment Plant
Operator 1 through 4
classifications. These efforts
have strengthened the county's
ability
to recruit and retain employees
in historically hard-to-fill
positions. I'd like
to thank the board, our CEO
Luther, along with our
assistant executive officers
and department executives
for collaborating with Human
Resources and filling our
vacancies, along
with our chief financial
officer
for creating opportunities
for us to recruit and retain a
talented the workforce. Does
the board have any questions,
comments, or for me?
>> Thank you very much
for that presentation.
Supervisor Hagman.
>> It's not
like I broke a record today,
but again, I appreciate that
you put last year's
percentages,
but as this is a requirement
to do annual reporting now,
it'd be nice
to start just yeah,
just trend it in,
in so we can look
at overall trends
over the years. And just one
cheat sheet that shows year
to year for future.
But great reporting. Thank you.
>> Thank you, sir.
>> Do we have any represented
groups here today wishing
to speak, present?
>> Yes, John Richardson.
>> Good afternoon. Please feel
free to come on down here.
Yeah, I don't know,
it's your preference.
>> Good morning. I'm
in the unenviable position
of being between you guys and
lunch and the rest
of the folks here, so I
appreciate you indulging me.
for those
of you don't know me here, I
think I met most the board
members so far. My name is
John Richardson. I am a deputy
DA. I've been a 21-year county
employee and I'm the current
president of the San
Bernardino County Public
Attorneys Association. We
represent the deputy DAs,
deputy public defenders,
and the deputy child support
attorneys,
in this county. I would
actually like to thank the
board and the county staff for
this presentation because I
think it's very helpful. I
spent a number
of years working in HR, and I
think it's important the public
can kind of see some of the
strides and efforts the
county's making and that HR is
making to, to fill positions
and do this work. So I,
I do appreciate this. I'd also
like
to acknowledge and I don't, I
don't know if we have any reps
here but reps from the Public
Defender's Office, District
Attorney's Office, child
support, and HR,
for the work they've done in
filling not just our positions
but positions in the county,
countywide. I know it takes a
lot of work,
and it takes more than just
Leo here. Leo knows he has a
whole staff
behind him doing the work
to get that done, and we
appreciate that. one important
thing I think Leo talked
about it a little bit,
and I think Supervisor, Hagman
kind of touched
on is that these each
of those presentations kind
of demonstrate kind
of a snapshot in time. It
demonstrates a snapshot now.
It may not be reflective
of what it looked like a month
ago or what it's going to look
like in a month because people
could leave, right? May have
done a big recruitment a month
ago, but
at least as a result,
involves our membership. You
saw about a vacancy rate of
about 10% currently. That's
what that snapshot revealed.
and obviously, our members fill
this critical role
of ensuring that the, the
community is protected and that
people's constitutional rights
are protected as well. What the
snapshot does not reveal is the
ongoing struggles, though,
that the Public Defender's
Office, the DA's Office, and
Child Support have had
in filling some of those
positions. I'll tell you, the
county is facing serious
recruitment and retention
challenges. San Bernardino
County continues to struggle
to compete
with neighboring jurisdictions,
most importantly Riverside
County. District attorneys and
public defendants er, public
defenders are experiencing
significant turnover
among newer attorneys. One of
the things that wasn't
highlighted in this is that
amongst our newer attorneys,
we're seeing turnover
in the range of nearly 40%. So
what you see is folks come
in because we're able
to recruit and get them in,
but we're seeing them leave.
After just a couple years. And
one of the major reasons
they're doing that is they're
going to some of our
surrounding competitors.
they're leaving to go
to competitors like LA
County, Riverside County,
Orange County, as well as some
local municipalities like
Riverside, Burbank, Long
Beach, and Pasadena. What
Riverside what we're seeing
in Riverside is Riverside's now
providing significant increases
to their district attorneys and
public defenders, and by July
Riverside attorneys, we're,
being paid roughly $14,000 more
a year than San Bernardino
County attorneys. And that,
that's an area where our folks
are leaving to. They get some
good experience here,
and I'll tell you, many of
these what we're seeing these
other,
municipalities is that they
like to take laterals, right?
Because those are people who've
already demonstrated that they
can do the job, that they know
what they're doing. And what
we're seeing is other
municipalities poaching our
people. Now,
for the last several years,
San Bernardino County has been
a constant state
of recruitment.
For our attorneys. As recently
as just 4 years ago, the county
actually would just hold 2
recruitments year-round,
and it was timed around the
time the bar passage would come
out. Well, 2 recruitments
year-round,
they were successful
in filling vacancies, but
around 2023, the sister the
situation became a lot more
urgent. What we started to see
was that our internal
comparables began
to become misaligned with 50
years
of county tradition and also
with surrounding counties.
Turnover began
to increase and the number
of applicants began
to dwindle. Now, I'm thankful
that Human Resources have been
a partner in this,
and they were able
to assist with, what Leo
actually touched on,
what they did with the
treatment plant operators was
doing ongoing recruitment
year-round
to fill our positions. And so
they do it year-round rather
than just twice a year.
But even it being year-round,
our ongoing recruitment,
we continue to struggle
to fill those vacancies. Now,
I'm thankful
for the board that we have And
this board, I can tell you,
the Sheriff Dykes and
District Attorney Jason
Anderson have demonstrated
through collaborative efforts
time and again the safety of
our community is the highest
priority. And that's what this
is all about. If we cannot
adequately recruit and retain
frontline attorneys,
we will not be able to protect
the vulnerable members of our
community and ensure that our
community's rights are
defended. I look forward
to working with the board and
county staff, Leo staff to fix
these problems so that we can
realign our attorneys
internally and
in the job market. Restoring
parity is necessary
to maintain fairness,
preserve internal consistency,
and ensure San Bernardino
County remains competitive with
surrounding jurisdictions so
that we can recruit and retain
those attorneys who are going
to protect our community.
>> Thank you.
>> Thank you very much. We have
any questions from board,
board members? No, thank you
very much. This is a receive
and file, and I don't believe I
have anybody here, although I
do recall it was a public
hearing, so I should close the
public hearing. I'll do that.
All right,
thank you both.
>> Thank you all.
>> I didn't want
to make a scene
over here waving. I just,
I just wanted
to make a quick comment.
When, when I joined,
the county as the COO about 5
years ago,
our vacancy rates were close
to 20%, and even
since that time,
we've increased about 3,000
additional positions as a
county. And today, here we sit
with a vacancy rate 14.6%. I,
I want to give kudos
to staff, as well as
to our board for the work
of making investments
in our staff,
in the wages that we pay,
in the,
the work that staff has done
to really go out and recruit
and do the hard work
of finding, and our then the
work our departments are doing
of retaining those talented
people. It has been incredible
to see it, to watch it,
to be part of it. Yesterday, I
have the privilege of speaking
at every new employee
orientation, and I stood
in this room. There were 97
smiling faces who may or may
not have slept the night
before as they came in excited
to start a new career. And I
asked them, who here is this
your first government job? And
about 90%
of the room raised their hand.
It is fantastic to see
government service alive and
well and playing out every day
in this county. I, I just,
I just wanted
to make the comment. There are
so many people involved
in this process.
From our unions as well,
advocating
for their employees. It really
is a beautiful thing
to see all the way around. And
I think we do an exceptionally
good job here as a county
in prioritizing our people,
our staff,
and doing a fantastic job. So
kudos to the board for the
investments they've made.
Kudos to Leo and his team,
Mr. Richardson and his
counterparts and other it
really is we all,
sometimes we fight. That's
okay. That's what we should do.
because but we are aligned
in what we're trying
to accomplish,
which is taking care
of our people. And so I just
wanted
to make those comments.
Luther, if he wasn't fine,
he wouldn't be doing his job,
so he's doing good too.
But thank you very much
for letting me.
>> Thank you all very much. We
appreciate the presentation.
We are going to recess. We'll
be back here
at 12:20.
[RECESS]
>> Good afternoon and welcome
back. Steve Rogers, would you
like to speak first
since you're standing up there?
If you're ready, we're going
to move on
to our public comment
for items not on the agenda.
As a reminder,
our speakers will have 3
minutes and the light will
flash yellow as it gets
to the end and you have 30
seconds left. And good
afternoon, Steve, whenever
you're ready.
>> Madam Chair, Board of
Supervisors, Steve Rogers,
Redlands. I came today
to speak with the Board of
Supervisors
about my experience on,
here recently in trying
to deal with,
situation. I contacted the DA's
office, I contacted the fraud,
waste, and abuse hotline,
through, Henson Mason's office.
And basically, as I said when
I, I attended the last Board
of Supervisors meeting,
I'm appalled
by what the board is attempting
to do with Henson Mason. And I,
I received this mailer,
this hit piece that I consider
to be complete fake news. It
has all the Board of
Supervisors
on the bottom endorsing,
this. And I believe this is,
is on the verge
of it's election, election
rigging,
as is the entire situation
of the, this investigation
being brought up when it was
not an agendized item and the
board voted
on it and approved and,
and went forward with an
investigation that was not
on the agenda. That's a
violation of the Brown Act. So
this whole thing is,
is just a political shenanigan.
And, I, I've sent over a public
comment. I'm not sure if that's
what is being received
at this time, but,
I was gonna read the last,
paragraph where I'm requesting
that my,
my case that's being held up by
the district attorney's office
and involves, the board's
biggest campaign contributor
that, that case be moved to
Riverside County, because this
board and the DA both have a
considerable, conflict
of interest with the subject
matter involved here. This is a
developer that was the same
developers involved in the,
in the county,
in the county scandal,
involving the, Colonies
project. So, I mean,
I'm requesting that it be moved
to Riverside County, to the
Riverside County Sheriff and
DA.
>> That's time. Thank you very
much. Garth Pesant, if you're
ready, we'll have you up next,
followed by Carlo.
>> My name is Garth Benjamin,
I have the combination
to every prison break
in the state of California. It
is called ineffective
assistance of counsel. They
tried to keep me for life in 2
prisons and 3 state hospitals.
I'm out, and you can get
out too. Just listen to me.
To District Attorney Jason
Anderson, your department,
civil rights attorney Aaron
Zisser, Sheriff Deputy,
Deputy Investigator
Leatherman, and its internal
affairs officers, and San
Bernardino City Mayor Helen
Tran are alleged
to be involved in conspiracy
to cover tampering
with evidence and obstruction
of justice as a fiduciary
breach in an October 8th, 2020
officer-involved shooting body
camera rigging victimizing
Garth Pezzant Sr. I will get
justice. Google my success rate
and consult your demonic gods
that you may know who I am. We
the people, for the people,
by the people. We the people
did not create this earth we
live on, and it did not come
about by chance. The
legislature are new laws
created by mankind. It does not
belong to us
to survive independently from
God. That is why Armageddon
will come, not to destroy the
elements that sustain us,
Armageddon will destroy those
of us whom are wicked. Seek
Jehovah while you are still
alive. You are
before the highest court
in the universe
for committing one of the most
heinous crimes imaginable. All
the angels and all the peoples
are witnessing your case. No
defense attorney nor district
attorney are present. You are
about
to be convicted and sentenced.
Jehovah God says, son,
I forgive you. You are now
sentenced to life eternal,
unrestricted,
to turn this earth
into a paradise along with your
fellow humans forever.
>> Thank you, Carlo, followed
by Derek Rutherford.
>> Good afternoon, board. the
first point that I want
to make is it's, it's a heavy
topic and it's a heavy subject.
So a mom reached out
to me not too long ago on my
TikTok channel, SigIsLife, and
she mentioned and, spoke to me
about her 2-month-old baby
passing away in the system.
And now, she's afraid that CFS
is gonna try to take her other
children away this Friday. if
we can have a conversation here
about that issue here
after this, I'd appreciate it
so that way we can get some
eyes on,
on the actual details. And
again, I'm at this point where
I don't really trust CFS if
there were any false
allegations in part of this,
because I would say and you all
know my story already that if a
person can grope her children,
spray them in the face
with sulfuric acid,
and body slam them
for having a Bible gets 100%
custody, then we have
to also look at the 14th
Amendment across the board
for other, families. Second
point I want to make is there
was an immigrant family that I
met at the court. Now, this is
what I'm also doing for, to
help the board understand
what's going on,
is that the late filings. But
this immigrant family went
there,
didn't understand what they
were signing,
and the social worker told her,
if you don't sign this case
plan, it can go a lot worse
for you. And in that case plan
was the word adoption
at the end of it. Are we
coercing families to sign case
plans that they agree to
adoption? this is an immigrant
family from Mexico. not even 2
years in this country. And what
are we doing? Let's look
at the case again, right?
Let's look at it. Let's tease
out all the false allegations.
And then again, what these late
filings do what these late
filings do is not a I don't
know how,
how we can just stand and look
at each other in the face and
say this is okay, this practice
is okay. I remember talking
to Ms. Glasgow on the phone
when I was handed my late
filings after the hearing.
Okay, and then these people are
getting their paperwork and
they have no chance
to respond. Every time I go
there, it's almost everybody
it's the same thing,
it's the same thing. They sit
there with no paperwork and
then someone comes up with a
cart here's your paperwork
right before their hearing.
Thank you.
>> Thank you. Derek Rutherford
followed by Leticia Howard.
>> Good morning, Chair Rowe and
members
of the board. my name is
Derek Rutherford. I live at
14944 El Carrizo Road
in unincorporated County
Pocket in Victorville. I'm here
for, to request board action
on County Code Section
83.01.080. On April 29th,
2026, San Bernardino County
stated on Facebook that the
board and county public service
professionals work
to create an outstanding
quality of life for residents
and visitors. I am here because
that statement does not reflect
my family's lived experience.
For approximately 8 years,
repeated bass intrusion from
the same neighboring source has
continued inside of our home.
This is not ordinary noise.
Low-frequency bass can travel
through the walls and be felt
inside of our home. The current
55 decibel A standard does not
fully capture low-frequency
bass. Because A-weighted is
designed for ordinary speech
and traffic noise, the decibel
level A scale essentially turns
a blind eye to bass. It's
like trying
to record bass disturbances
with an iPhone, which,
also filters out low-frequency
bass. I'm asking the county
to add a C-weighting, decibel
C, or Hertz-based standard so
bass vibrations from large
stereos can be measured and
enforced. Health and Safety
Code 46000, California's
Noise Control Act, should be
used to support this request.
Excessive noise is a serious
public health threat and
mandates state and local
governments to protect citizens
welfare and peaceful living
conditions. If the county truly
wants
to create an outstanding
quality of life
for residents and visitors,
then the county should review
and update its noise ordinance
and consider adopting a
Roseville-style noise standard,
Chapter 9.24, as an example,
including enforceable
low-frequency bass or
vibration-based Measurements.
I'm asking the board
to direct staff
to review subsection
83.01.080, study standards
like Roseville City noise
standard, and bring back an
ordinance update that gives
residents a real remedy
for chronic base intrusion
in one's home. Court-specific
evidence needs to be objective
to obtain lasting solutions in
today's criminal justice
system. No family should be
controlled inside their home by
harassing neighbors based
intrusion allowed
by an ambiguous code. If county
code or statute is too vague,
it cannot be enforced by law,
leaving an actual quality of
life that is not outstanding.
Thank you for your time.
>> Thank you. Latisha Howard
followed by Victoria Perez.
>> I stand here today hoping
that someone with a heart will
listen and take action. When we
come to these meetings, we are
not here threatening anyone.
We are not aggressive. We are
asking for help for our
children and our families. Our
mothers are we are excuse me,
we are mothers, fathers,
grandparents and advocates
asking the board
to investigate San Bernardino
County Children and Family
Services. My concern today is,
why does Jeanne Glasgow feel
like she needs to be escorted
out by sheriffs when she
leaves? and there's no threat
against her. Are taxpayers
funding protection for
criminals while our children
are the ones who are
in danger? While she walks out
with security escorts,
children
in the county are being abused,
neglected, and trafficked
through a system that is
supposed to protect them, and
families cannot even get a
simple investigation open.
Parents are being ignored,
evidence is being ignored,
complaints are being ignored.
Jeanie is the one signing off
on these, on these actions. So
I ask again,
are our tax dollars being used
to protect the criminals
instead of the children? Today
I call on advocates,
civil rights leaders,
attorneys, media outlets,
churches,
and community organizations.
We need your help. Family,
families across this county are
saying the same thing over and
over again. Children are being
illegally removed and pushed
towards adoption
for financial incentives tied
to Title IV-E funding
under the Social Security Act.
Before anyone dismisses us as
emotional parents,
understand this: we have
documentation, we have
recordings, court records,
medical records, and other
evidence. I am personally
willing
to provide my entire file
to anyone who is willing to
help fight this battle and
expose what is happening
to families. We have
complained, we have filed
complaints, we have asked
for investigations,
and nobody seems to care
about nobody seems to care
because too many people are
benefiting financially off
of the backs of stolen children
and broken families.
At this point, will somebody
in at what point will somebody
in power decide to protect our
children rather than
to protect the system? And
in case you haven't noticed,
We're not going away. it's time
for it's time for us
to change the narrative. Stop
letting them control what is
being done with our money.
People, we need
to register and get registered
to vote and then vote. If
current if the current people
in power are not willing
to do their jobs,
replace them. If they are not
working for the people,
replace them. We have the
power, but until people
understand that the act that
action needs
to be taken place,
what is happening
to our families will continue
And it will get worse. Thank
>> Thank you. Victoria Perez
followed by Andrea Wade. Do we
have Victoria Perez? Andrea
Wade? And then next up is Corey,
followed by Mark Lee. All
right, Victoria Perez, going
once, going twice. Andrea
Wade, last call. We have Corey
followed by Mark Lee. Do we
have Corey in the house? Yes,
sir, either side.
>> Hi, I'm Corey Tarallo and I
manage a large business in
San Bernardino County. I've
been here a couple times before
and I am back because I read
that Ensign Mason said the
investigation
into his ethical conflict is
over and I wanted
to get an update. So thank you
for that. In the meantime, I
did my own research and I have
discovered some alarming
information In addition
to profiting from his role as
the auditor controller
treasurer tax collector while
simultaneously running an
investment company full-time,
he was up to even worse
unforgivable things at the
county. I have discovered that
Ensign Mason employed a child
sex predator
at his county office.
However, this is not even the
worst part. Unbelievably, he
kept them on payroll for over
4 months after he was arrested
at the Auditor Controller's
Office here in the county. 4
months. Worse still is that
this child sex predator lived
at Ensign Mason's house,
which was raided by the police
for child pornography. Why am
why am I paying taxes for
Ensign Mason to employ a child
sex predator who lives
with him? This doesn't make any
sense. He should never have
been hired at our expense after
he was arrested the first time
He should have been terminated
immediately. But to have him
arrested a second time at the
county office is unfathomable.
I hope you make your
investigation on Ensign Mason
public because we deserve
to know all that he has done to
endanger the taxpayer dollars
and mismanage this county. And
in my hand, if you would like
to see it, I have the
Superior Superior Court of
California, County of San
Bernardino search warrant that
was issued to his,
his residence. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Next up we have
Mark Lee, and then we're going
to go back to somebody else
that just popped in. Sir, go
right ahead.
>> Okay, I'm Mark Lee. I thank
you for, for a few minutes of
your time. I'm here again. I
thank you for your
investigation. I'm back here
again today. I read
in the newspaper that Mr.
Mason seems
to think that us citizens
of our county mean nothing,
that our discovery
of his conflict
of interest is some kind
of scheme. Double dipping is a
conflict of interest. It's not
a scheme. It's thank you again
for investigating. This is the
same man who scrubbed his
financial website the very same
night
after he was exposed here
in public comment.
In its clearest, clearest
terms,
he's using his public position
to enrich himself. This is the
fiscal watchdog of our county
orchestrating a cover-up. It's
pathetic. And I thought that
was enough to throw this crony
out of office until I heard
that his home was raided. Get
this child pornography. It's
public record. No wonder this
guy posted, in his own words,
that he has been silent
about corruption for almost 7
years. He's orchestrated One
of the biggest cover-ups
in this county's history. He
has betrayed the trust
of the public. He should resign
office immediately. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Melinda. Did we
have someone up there that was
trying to speak?
>> All right,
then our last request
to speak is Kresha, and I don't
know how to say Kresha's last
name. How do you pronounce your
last name?
>> Kell. Thank you. My name is
Cresha Kell. I'm the mother
of Adon Kell, a 2-year-old
child who's been
in foster care. I left my son
with his father, who reported
to authorities that he did not
know me or my son. I was
arrested for abandonment. The
DA never picked up charges.
Charges were never filed. It
was a tool that the social
worker and the officer used
to take custody of my child
without a search warrant and
without a petition
to the courts. This happens on
a regular basis. CFS will
create the emergency
circumstance and remove your
child. It has been 2 years. I
have completed all courses and
paid for additional courses
out of my own pocket. My visits
have been labeled detrimental,
not because my son is abused,
not because something bad
happened
to him or I said something
to him. But because a social
worker is mad because I called
her Quasimodo. Because somebody
said that my,
my son's having nightmares and
maybe, just maybe,
it might be because of mom.
But none of these tantrums or
bad behavior ever persist
during any of my visits. Every
single monitor has labeled
every one of my visits
acceptable and appropriate,
even the ones who go
on court and say, I feel
like this, I feel like this,
she makes me feel belittled,
so now I don't see my son.
When are we going to uphold law
and not people's opinion
about their feelings? Not
discernment. Discernment should
not enter our courtrooms. That
judge is there
to make a decision. I used
to be scared, scared to say
about what happened to me,
but now I'm going to yell it
from the mountaintops because
it doesn't matter. The
consequences does not outweigh
it outweighs the punishment.
Regardless of the fact that,
that man being
on open child support,
the county did no due diligence
to bring my son back to me.
Not one. We're here 2 years
later. My son went
to the hospital that day.
Nothing wrong with him. No
signs of neglect, no signs
of abuse. Where's the risk
in returning him to the place
where he has no signs
of risk or abuse? Instead, he's
in the system. He now has RSV,
He's anemic. He's not meeting
his development he's not
developing appropriately. He's
not meeting his milestones.
And yet he hasn't been able
to return home,
hasn't been able to see his 6
brothers and sisters who I
returned custody of,
who were removed because
of emotional damage over an
event they were never there
to see or hear about
until CFF brought it
to their attention. We called
Paul Cook several times.
Over and over and over. The
only one who's able to step in
and regulate what CFS is doing
in my district. Has he done it?
Nope. Open signs,
clear signs. I'm coming
for your job. This is a
petition to recall you, Paul
Cook. If you don't do something
different,
we will recall your ass. It
don't make sense that we got
to come up here 15, 5 families
at a time asking for help. You
do nothing. You play
on your phones. You send these
people up here
to do that.
>> That is the last request
to speak that I have. We will
now move on to our comments
from our CEO, Luther.
>> Thank you, Madam Chair. All
right, thank you, Madam Chair.
I appreciate that. I'd like
to recognize our Workforce
Development Department. I think
Brad's still here. He is.
they've been designated
by the State of California as a
high-performing workforce
board. This is a 3-year
designation. It's a prestigious
designation,
and it reflects the Workforce
Development Department's,
excellence and leadership
in workforce development
efforts across our region. So
congratulations to Brad, his
entire team, on that
outstanding achievement. I'd
like to also highlight some
recent work by our Economic
Development team. they hosted
the final stop of the Select
USA Spinoff Roadshow. This was
an event, it created some
meaningful connections between
international companies, local
businesses, healthcare leaders,
and regional partners. one
of the things we're focused on,
advancing entrepreneurship, and
this was specifically focused
on doing so. this is hoping
to bring investment,
new business development here
in the county. So I appreciate
those are departments you don't
often hear a lot about here.
workforce I had a chance
to go up and meet with the
Workforce Development Board,
participate in a,
an annual event they have.
There is a lot
of passion that comes out
of that group and a lot
of great work that comes
from our Workforce
Development Department, as well
as Economic Development. So
thank you to both of them. And
just, I wanted
to take the opportunity here,
we have a number of speakers
who have come and spoken
at public comment. Obviously
the board they,
they cannot respond
during public comment,
and so we do not respond.
But I just want them to know
that we hear them. I have a
team that sits here. I, I know
there aren't many left here
in the room, but for those
of you who are here,
my executive team comes
to each of these meetings and
participates. They hear we are
often talking about things.
They follow up on just about
everything that is discussed
here
on public comment. I just
wanted to make that clear to
everyone who is listening and
watching. That though we may
sit here, and hear them
out and the board is not able
to respond, we are absolutely
taking these things seriously
and appreciate all the comments
that are made. Thank you
for that.
>> Thank you. We're now going
to move on to our individual
board member comments. Vice
Chair Baca.
>> Thank you, Madam Chair, and
thank you, Luther,
for those comments. And I think
it's important to,
let the public know that we are
listening, we are engaged, and
we do have staff readily
available to answer any
questions that the public has.
So thank you for doing that.
Just want to highlight some,
events and great things that
are going on
in the county. one of the
things we had the opportunity
to attend is myself and the
chair in Bloomington. the new
animal shelter received a $2
million contribution from
Congressman Aguilar. I want
to thank the chair
for being there and, and really
the investment that we're
making in our,
our animal shelter with phase
1 and potentially a phase 2
coming on to begin to take
on some of our city partners.
So great progress. This will be
done next year and address many
of our needs that our animal
shelter in Deborah cannot no
longer meet, meet,
meet as the county continues
to grow. The other thing is
our, our office had our 5th
District Youth Advisory
Council Scholarship Awards
event, which is right here
in the building. we gave out,
23 scholarships at $1,500
apiece for many individuals
throughout the 5th District.
Wanna thank those students
for their civic engagement,
involvement, and wish them much
success as they graduate, in
the next coming month. also
last week attended the
Bloomington Senior Prom. Wanna
thank the, Family Service
Association
for providing the food and the
Bloomington Parks and Rec
District for putting
on the entertainment. it's
great to see our seniors
socialize and have a good time,
especially one
of our county facilities there
at Ayala Park. So hats off
to the, staff. also, we had
100 items that we approved
on the consent calendar,
but just keep in mind these are
things that are good
for the entire county and, and
throughout several districts.
But I want
to particularly highlight,
just a few. One
of them was item 31, which is a
$2.85 million investment
in the Days Inn, which will
provide 49 permanent supportive
housing beds here in the city
of San Bernardino. And it's not
a homeless shelter, it's
basically those that are either
disabled or maybe experienced
homeless, but to give them
permanent supportive housing so
they can have the help that
they need. And a lot of times
people get confused between, a
homeless shelter and permanent
supportive housing. the other
thing is item 46, operating
support reserve
for homeless youth program,
which is $623,000 to help youth
homeless and transition age
youth help, success
for housing, case management,
and Supportive Services. 51,
item 51, which will provide
probation officers through many
districts throughout the
county, but I want
to highlight the, Colton Joint
Unified, San Bernardino City
Unified, and, county schools
will be receiving probation
officers. item 55, continued
progress. This is for Pacific
Village Phase 3. We're working
on Phase 2. This will be the
next phase, which will receive
some BCHIP money. It's a great
program to continue continue
to address homelessness,
especially the substance use
disorder beds, which are just
so critically needed in our
county. the other thing is
wanna thank, the staff
for item 62, the childhood lead
poisoning prevention grant,
$3.1 million in state funding
to prevent, lead poisoning
for our children. items 71 and
95, it's a cooperative
agreement with the city of
Rialto to help with, areas
in the events
with public works,
filling potholes. It's a
$500,000 cost-sharing
agreement. It's a great,
investment. Item 73, which is
our Muscoy pedestrian
improvement project this is a
little over $3 million, which
will help pedestrian safety
in the community of Muscoy.
And the last one is item 88,
community cleanup employment
pathway grant. This is a grant
with Caltrans, a $575,000
investment, which will help,
litter and abate workforce
training, which is,
great investments. And the last
thing, just want
to thank our military
for their service as we enter
Memorial Day, next Monday.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
>> Supervisor Cook.
Supervisor Armendarez.
>> Yes, thank you. lots
of stuff to be said. I,
I wanted to make sure I,
said something about, Item 4
that we had where,
I'm very pleased
to see that we are moving in
the direction where we're going
to be able to take advantage
and see what the technologies
that are around, clean energy,
energy in particular, are
headed, and creation
of this ad hoc.
But I am just curious, and
hopefully, the, the board can
entertain a possible workshop
prior to that ad hoc
commencing. I believe it'd be
great for all of us to kind
of chime in up front
for a better understanding
of what the goals and
objectives of this ad hoc are
gonna look like. And
at least, some of us give some
partial direction
of the stuff we also wanna see.
So I'm hoping,
you'll consider doing some sort
of board workshop for that.
Also wanna highlight some
items. We're doing a lot
for the 2nd District. we, we
are, working with Upland
Chamber and, helping them with,
assisting of event cost. We're
working with the Fontana Days
Festival community project
for scholarships. We're doing,
we did $40,000 in Ranch
Cucamonga, to fund one year
of gold sponsorship for 2027
to assist with facility
improvements and the cost
for their Route 66 welcoming
center. $30,000, for, the new
San Bernardino County Fire
Foundation to help them get
them up and running. $15,000
for the community Little
League, for their equipment,
tools, and supplies for their
youth. and the one that I'm
most proud of is the $40K we
are investing back in our kids
through the SPARK program.
SPARK program is something that
those who know me know is very,
very, very near and dear
to my heart. And, we took,
and put our Second District
discretionary money, into play
on this because we believe we
want
to affect more kids and we want
to be able to help more kids
in the Second District. So So
we are gonna be working with,
the county as part
of that SPARK program
to bring some additional kids
into that, and we the second
district will be funding that.
also wanna commend,
since it's, after the fact,
our approval of, the $420,
grant award for Omnitrans
Measure I funds
to support our elderly. I feel
like that's very important.
I've been asking about this
through Omnitrans
for a minute, like,
how can we do more? More
to help our seniors
in our communities. And I think
this is just one step
in moving
in that positive direction
to continue to do that. And,
I'm gonna let it go at that
because there's no one else
here. Thank you, Madam Chair. I
just have a couple updates from
district. recently he was able
to support the Veterans Legal
Institute, which provides free
legal services to at-risk,
low-income veterans. And I know
that our Veterans Department
does an excellent job
with that as well,
so thank you for all their
work. I was also recently
honored to attend the Chino
Legends and Academy, the
competition at the Chino
Senior Center, which is you
have to be over 55, so I do
qualify
to go compete next year, so
we'll see. I also recently
attended the City of
Montclair's high school senior
birthdays, or senior birthday
celebration and Montclair's
High School to College
Graduates, which is a program
that gives students the
opportunity
to earn a 2-year scholarship
at Chaffey College. record
number, 175 students completed
the program this year,
which is fantastic. And lastly,
last week we also donated,
$125,000 to the Chino Valley
Fire District
for a special vehicle
to attack EV fires. And sure
enough, 2 hours later An EV
overturned on, on Grand Avenue
in Chino Hills and started a
fire out there. So they put it
to work that, that very day,
to help put out the, the EV
fire. tomorrow we'll be
speaking at Ontario Global
Business Connects Symposium
at the Ontario Airport. Also,
we have our annual open house
at our district office from 5
to 7. And lastly,
our next shredding event will
be June 6th in Chino.
For anybody who's interested,
please check to register.
Thanks.
>> Thank you, thank you. I
wanted
to highlight agenda item number
29
on our consent calendar today.
It was an MOU with Loma Linda
University Children's
Hospital Resiliency Institute
for Childhood Advocacy, also
known as RICA. RICA's clinic
services they serve all
children in the Inland Empire
with priority given to CFS and
court-dependent youth. They
provide holistic care to
children who have experienced
abuse and trauma while offering
ongoing treatment to from
professionals who are
experienced
in trauma-informed care,
and I'd like to thank the team
at the clinic for their work.
And lastly, the Highland
Library Farmers Market. The
county library is bringing a
new weekly farmers market to
Highland every Wednesday from
2 to 7 at the Highland Sam
Radicchio Library. The market
will feature local vendors
offering farm-fresh produce,
artisan goods,
and ready-to-eat food options.
So that's exciting for
Highland. That's it for me.
Our meeting stands adjourned.
Our next regularly scheduled
Board of Supervisors meeting
will be here June 9th at 10 AM
in this chamber. Thank you.