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Trump’s homeless czar coming to San Bernardino, Montclair – Daily Bulletin

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Trump’s homeless czar coming to San Bernardino, MontclairRobert Marbut Jr.'s rejection of the 'housing first' model is controversial

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By STEVE SCAUZILLO | [email protected] | San Gabriel Valley TribunePUBLISHED: January 18, 2020 at 8:00 am | UPDATED: January 18, 2020 at 8:00 am

In this Aug. 12, 2011 photo, Robert Marbut, of Texas, poses for a photo inside of the Pinellas Safe Harbor in Clearwater, Fla., a 500-bed shelter for homeless people. Marbut was recently named as executivedirector of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)

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President Donald Trump’s new homeless czar will speak in front of local police chiefs in San Bernardino as well as the Montclair City Council on Tuesday, Jan. 21,with the hopes of Inland Empire cities and counties securing federal funding for solutions to the growing homeless crisis.

Attending the 5 p.m. Montclair meeting will be San Bernardino County Fifth District Supervisor Josie Gonzales, confirmed Dan Flores, chief of staff. The policechiefs will attend a 2 p.m. meeting at the San Bernardino County sheriff’s headquarters, said Cindy Bachman, sheriff’s spokesman. Ontario police Chief DerekWilliams said he received an invitation and will attend.

RELATED: High rents in Riverside, San Bernardino counties contribute to ‘homelessness crisis’

About a month ago, Trump appointed Robert Marbut Jr. as executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, an agency that manages 19federal departments and agencies addressing homelessness. Marbut is from Texas but has local ties.

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He earned a bachelor’s degree from Claremont McKenna/Men’s College in economics and political science and a master’s in criminal justice from ClaremontGraduate University.

The city of Montclair invited Marbut. He is friends with the city’s chief code enforcement supervisor, Gabe Fondario, said Mayor John Dutrey. The mayor invitedlocal representatives to the meeting Tuesday evening and hopes the cities and the county can work with the federal government to acquire permanent funding tohelp find shelter and assistance for homeless residents.

“City governments are being blamed but we can’t solve this issue on a local level. We don’t have the resources,” Dutrey said in an interview on Friday, Jan. 17.

Marbut, 59, who is known for running the Haven for Hope of Bexar County Inc. in Texas, a homeless shelter with seven buildings on 37 acres, has reportedly toldcharities not to feed the homeless because it attracts more homeless people. According to news reports, he reportedly kept those not sober sleeping on thesidewalk outside the shelter.

His appointment has raised alarms from national homeless advocates who say his ideas were inhumane, emphasized aggressive law enforcement practices andrejected the state’s housing-first model in favor of moving street residents to warehouse-sized shelters before providing permanent housing.

Marbut got the job on Dec. 10, shortly after Trump fired Matthew Doherty, an Obama appointee, who had visited California and agreed with state leaders’ housing-first approach. Marbut’s visit comes after a series of bellicose tweets by the president, threatening to clamp down on what he called “Democratic cities of SanFrancisco and Los Angeles” being ruined by homeless individuals camping on public sidewalks and streets.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition criticized Trump’s choice, saying Marbut’s appointment moves away from the science-backed, housing-first model thathas helped cities such as Los Angeles and Salt Lake City slow the rate of homelessness. “Instead, he promotes an approach to homelessness that he calls

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‘Housing Fourth,’ which entails large-scale shelters with treatment facilities where people experiencing homelessness ‘earn’ the right to beds within the shelter,” theNLIHC wrote on its website.

“The appointment of Robert Marbut to lead the country’s only agency dedicated to ending homelessness is regrettable; any actions he might take to furthercriminalize or harm people experiencing homelessness would be reprehensible,” wrote NLIHC CEO Diane Yentel.

San Bernardino County said one approach alone does not end homelessness.

“Housing-first is not the right approach for all sectors of the homeless population, which is why the county and its partners use a variety of strategies to addresshomelessness,” said Aimara Freeman, spokesperson for the county’s Department of Behavioral Health.

About 550,000 people experienced homelessness on a single night in the country in January 2018, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developmentreported. In Los Angeles County, the 2019 point-in-time count put the number just short of 59,000. In San Bernardino County, 2,607 individuals were without apermanent home on Jan. 24, 2019, a 23% increase from January 2018. In Orange County, nearly 7,000 people were living in shelters or on the streets. RiversideCounty counted 2,811 homeless people at that time.

A White House report said 1-in-4 homeless people in the country live in California.

Marbut did not respond to questions sent via email. However, in a written statement shortly after his Senate confirmation, he called the homeless issue a nationwidecrisis that needs immediate attention from federal, state and local sources.

“We need to be honest with ourselves; much of what we have been doing is not working,” he wrote.

Going against the housing-first model in which people are brought into housing before other problems such as employment are solved could be a sticking point.“There may be the rub as the Trump Administration moves forward with its plan to use California’s homelessness woes as a justification for federal intervention,”Montclair City Manager Edward Starr wrote in a city report.

Councilman Bill Ruh doesn’t agree with abandoning what he says has proven to work. But he’s willing to listen to what Marbut has to say.

“I believe in the housing-first philosophy because it has been proven to work. If I’m on the street, you can give me all the counseling and drug treatment you want,but we all want a house first. We want to have a place to live,” he said during an interview Jan. 17.

Andy Bales, CEO of Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles’ skid row, said he was leery of Marbut’s record at first but feltmedia reports were exaggerated. He said building a permanent home first will take many years and leaves 44,000homeless people suffering on the streets. He said Marbut has worked with other cities, customizing each approach with amultitude of treatment and housing solutions.

“The way forward is not housing-first,” said Bales during an interview on Jan. 17. “In Los Angeles we are failingmiserably. Housing costs $600,000 a unit. By providing housing first we have left too many people on the street too long.”

Bales wants to see more shelters, more bridge housing and even supports tiny houses as a temporary solution.

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13-acre church project in Rimforest could move forward – 16 years after first pitched – San Bernardino Sun

https://www.sbsun.com/2020/01/20/13-acre-church-project-in-rimforest-could-move-forward-16-years-after-first-pitched/[1/21/2020 7:51:09 AM]

By SANDRA EMERSON | [email protected] |PUBLISHED: January 20, 2020 at 6:00 am | UPDATED: January 20, 2020 at 8:05 am

A Lake Arrowhead church’s plan to build a new campus in Rimforest is headed to a San BernardinoCounty panel — 16 years after it introduced the idea.

On Thursday, Jan. 23, the Planning Commission will consider giving Church of the Woods a permit tobuild a 13.6-acre religious facility that would include a youth center, gymatorium, recreational facilities,sports field and assembly building, on 27.12 acres of vacant land north of Highway 18.

The project has been criticized by environmental groups and residents concerned about its size andthe potential impacts to wildlife and traffic.

Pat Hopkins, the church’s project manager, said the plans are well done.

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13-acre church project in Rimforest could moveforward – 16 years after first pitched

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The project was first approved by the Planning Commission in 2004, but was delayed afterenvironmental groups appealed to the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors over the lack ofan environmental impact report, Hopkins said.

A proposed school and a second sports fieldwere eventually removed from the plan, Hopkinssaid.

“The project has changed quite a bit since theoriginal proposal,” Hopkins said. “The newchanges, we feel are positive, and the countyasked us to make some changes, which wedid.”


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The project would include:

The church has yet to decide what to do with its current building, which it owns, after the new complexopens, Hopkins said.

The new campus would be public as well, Hopkins said.

“The field would be open to the youth sports league up there,” he said. “We never have enough fieldsin the mountains.”

Residents can watch the meeting and speak during public

A 27,364-square-foot, two-story youth center/gymatoriumRecreational facilities and a sports fieldA 41,037-square-foot, two-story, assembly building with room for 600 peopleA 1,500-square-foot, two-story, maintenance/caretaker unitThe remaining 13.5 acres would be open space and include hiking trails and undisturbed forestedareas



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Planes will no longer fly over LakeArrowhead, starting in December

RELATED LINKScomment remotely at the Twin Peaks Government Center,after a request by Supervisor Janice Rutherford. Rutherfordrepresents the 2nd Supervisorial District, which includesLake Arrowhead and Rimforest.

“This project has been in the works for 17 years, and thereare a lot of residents on both sides that want to be heard,”Rutherford said in a Tuesday, Jan. 14, news release.

IF YOU GO

What: The San Bernardino County Planning Commissionwill consider Church of the Woods’ proposed complex inRimforest

When: 9 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 23

Where: County Government Center, 385 N. ArrowheadAve., in San Bernardino. A remote broadcast will be at theTwin Peaks Government Center, 26010 State Highway 189, Twin Peaks

Information: sbcounty.gov

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406,000-square-foot warehouse bound for 20 acres near San Bernardino airport – San Bernardino Sun

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406,000-square-foot warehouse bound for 20acres near San Bernardino airportNewport Beach-based Birtcher Development purchased the lot for $17.6million


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By BRIAN WHITEHEAD | [email protected] | San Bernardino SunPUBLISHED: January 20, 2020 at 5:38 pm | UPDATED: January 20, 2020 at 5:39 pm

A Newport Beach developer has acquired 20 acres of land near San Bernardino International Airportand plans to break ground on a 406,000-square-foot regional fulfillment and distribution center thisspring.

According to a news release Monday, Jan. 20, Birtcher Development purchased the lot from 6thStreet LLC for $17.6 million.

Construction is expected to conclude later this year.

“The demand for new, modern industrial space in the San Bernardino Airport submarket is incrediblyhigh,” Brooke Birtcher Gustafson, the company’s managing director, said in the release. Gustafsonadded that the project would arrive “during a time when the e-commerce boom is drivingunprecedented industrial demand.”

This 406,000-square-foot fulfillment and distribution center is bound for a 20-acre lot near San Bernardino International Airport. (Photocourtesy of Birtcher Development)

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FedEx Ground to launch work on Chinocenter

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Bound for an unimproved lot not far from single-family residences and apartment complexes, the high-cube industrial warehouse will have 65 docks and 167 designated trailer stalls.

A tenant has not been announced at this time.

At Sixth Street between Lankershim and Sterling avenues in the North Norton neighborhood, the 20-acre site is near the 10 and 215 freeways and the San Bernardino International Airport, which itself isexpecting the arrival of a $200 million air cargo logistics center.

The Eastgate Air Cargo Logistics Center was approved bythe FAA late last month.

Birtcher, a fifth-generation family industrial real estatecompany, has acquired, managed or developed more than65 million square feet across more than 260 projects

valued in excess of $7 billion, according to the release.

The Orange County developer has raised warehouses as large as 1.5 million square feet.


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1/21/2020 Developer plans houses for historic Redlands orange grove at Heeney estate – San Bernardino Sun

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Redlands’ residents Stuart and Martha Carlson stand in the backyard of Stuart andRedlands’ residents Stuart and Martha Carlson stand in the backyard of Stuart andFrancesca Sweet’s home that looks over a large orange grove Thursday, Jan. 16,Francesca Sweet’s home that looks over a large orange grove Thursday, Jan. 16,

Estate in Redlands. The home, built around 1891, will not be torn down according to aEstate in Redlands. The home, built around 1891, will not be torn down according to aletter the developer sent to neighbors. Neighbors are upset the grove will disappear.letter the developer sent to neighbors. Neighbors are upset the grove will disappear.(Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)(Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

LOCAL NEWSLOCAL NEWS

Developer plans houses forDeveloper plans houses forhistoric Redlands orange grovehistoric Redlands orange groveat Heeney estateat Heeney estateTwo houses, including one featured in the 1995Two houses, including one featured in the 1995Winona Ryder film "How to Make an AmericanWinona Ryder film "How to Make an AmericanQuilt," will likely be savedQuilt," will likely be saved




By By JENNIFER IYERJENNIFER IYER | | [email protected]@scng.com | Redlands Daily Facts | Redlands Daily FactsPUBLISHED: PUBLISHED: January 20, 2020 at 6:00 amJanuary 20, 2020 at 6:00 am | UPDATED: | UPDATED: January 20, 2020 at 10:44January 20, 2020 at 10:44amam

A white two-story home built around 1891 by Redlands pioneers will be spared,A white two-story home built around 1891 by Redlands pioneers will be spared,

but the 8.8 acres of orange groves that are part of the estate are set to becomebut the 8.8 acres of orange groves that are part of the estate are set to become

houses, a letter from the developer states.houses, a letter from the developer states.

The prairie-style The prairie-style Heeney houseHeeney house on West Palm Avenue was constructed by Thomas on West Palm Avenue was constructed by Thomas

England, who built England, who built Prospect ParkProspect Park a few blocks to the southeast. The house is a few blocks to the southeast. The house is

flanked by about 675 thick-trunked Washington navel orange trees whoseflanked by about 675 thick-trunked Washington navel orange trees whose

blossoms on warm spring days produce a “heavenly” scent, according to neighborblossoms on warm spring days produce a “heavenly” scent, according to neighbor

Martha Carlson.Martha Carlson.

In his backyard overlooking the grove Stuart Sweet, a former pilot, said there areIn his backyard overlooking the grove Stuart Sweet, a former pilot, said there are

only a few local landmarks that can be seen from the air, and that big squareonly a few local landmarks that can be seen from the air, and that big square

grove is one of them.grove is one of them.

“There aren’t a lot of other landmarks because it’s just one big suburb,” Sweet said.“There aren’t a lot of other landmarks because it’s just one big suburb,” Sweet said.

Around the first week of January, a representative of Around the first week of January, a representative of Diversified PacificDiversified Pacific

CommunitiesCommunities started knocking on doors handing out letters alerting nearby started knocking on doors handing out letters alerting nearby

residents to their plans.residents to their plans.

The developer purchased the property in June 2019, and is in a preliminaryThe developer purchased the property in June 2019, and is in a preliminary

planning stage to build homes on the site, according to the Tuesday, Jan. 7, letter.planning stage to build homes on the site, according to the Tuesday, Jan. 7, letter.

Peter Pitassi, a senior vice president with the company, said in an email it was notPeter Pitassi, a senior vice president with the company, said in an email it was not

company policy to release information until its applications are complete. Hecompany policy to release information until its applications are complete. He

could not say how many homes are planned in the grove, but they will be single-could not say how many homes are planned in the grove, but they will be single-

story.story.

The letter specifies that the large house on Palm Avenue and a smaller VictorianThe letter specifies that the large house on Palm Avenue and a smaller Victorian

on Alvarado Street will not be affected by the proposal.on Alvarado Street will not be affected by the proposal.

“Since one of our Partners is a long time resident of Redlands, we have always“Since one of our Partners is a long time resident of Redlands, we have always

importantly, to this neighborhood,” Pitassi wrote in the email.importantly, to this neighborhood,” Pitassi wrote in the email.recognized the significance of these structures and this site to the city, and more

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https://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/2016/07/02/diversified-pacific-to-add-200-homes-to-north-redlands-with-3-projects/



Failed efforts to save the propertyFailed efforts to save the property

Estate historyEstate history

The estate had been on the market since 2008, according to real estate websiteThe estate had been on the market since 2008, according to real estate website

Zillow, and during that time the Redlands Conservancy twice tried to buy it.Zillow, and during that time the Redlands Conservancy twice tried to buy it.

A A 2016 article by the conservancy2016 article by the conservancy about its endangered structures list, said “if the about its endangered structures list, said “if the

owners had their way, this amazing example of grove house and grove would beowners had their way, this amazing example of grove house and grove would be

kept as is.”kept as is.”

Executive Director Sherli Leonard said that, from what she understands, the groveExecutive Director Sherli Leonard said that, from what she understands, the grove

is one of two in the area that is still flood irrigated, instead of watered byis one of two in the area that is still flood irrigated, instead of watered by

sprinkler. The group envisioned the well-maintained property as a workingsprinkler. The group envisioned the well-maintained property as a working

museum.museum.

“We could have shown how the irrigation was done, we could have shown how“We could have shown how the irrigation was done, we could have shown how

that barn was used,” she said by phone. “That barn is absolutely magnificentthat barn was used,” she said by phone. “That barn is absolutely magnificent

example of a working barn where they stored hay, they stabled their workingexample of a working barn where they stored hay, they stabled their working

horses in there. It was a wonderful, wonderful opportunity.”horses in there. It was a wonderful, wonderful opportunity.”

The conservancy, in partnership with the nonprofit The Trust for Public Land,The conservancy, in partnership with the nonprofit The Trust for Public Land,

offered to find $3 million to buy the property, she said.offered to find $3 million to buy the property, she said.

But they couldn’t reach a deal on the price with the owners.But they couldn’t reach a deal on the price with the owners.

A decade after several price changes, re-listings and a pending sale, it sold forA decade after several price changes, re-listings and a pending sale, it sold for

$2.35 million to the developer, according to Zillow.$2.35 million to the developer, according to Zillow.

Originally Originally built in a Victorian stylebuilt in a Victorian style, but later renovated, the main house was used, but later renovated, the main house was used

by England’s son, J.W. England, while Thomas lived in the smaller house duringby England’s son, J.W. England, while Thomas lived in the smaller house during

the winter months.the winter months.

The smaller house was featured in the 1995 Winona Ryder film, “How to Make anThe smaller house was featured in the 1995 Winona Ryder film, “How to Make an

American Quilt.”American Quilt.”

The main house was one of the first in the new city to have electricity, historianThe main house was one of the first in the new city to have electricity, historian

Tom Atchley wrote in a Tom Atchley wrote in a 2014 Facts article2014 Facts article..

A real estate ad in the Nov. 15, 1919, edition of the Facts touted the amenities.A real estate ad in the Nov. 15, 1919, edition of the Facts touted the amenities.

At that point the property came with 10-acre grove, a team of 5-year-old blackAt that point the property came with 10-acre grove, a team of 5-year-old black

horses, implements, wagon and hay.horses, implements, wagon and hay.

In the Sweets’ backyard overlooking the grove, Carlson pointed to a small roofIn the Sweets’ backyard overlooking the grove, Carlson pointed to a small roof

with a weather vane sticking up out of the treetops.with a weather vane sticking up out of the treetops.

https://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/2016/03/08/redlands-conservancy-calls-attention-to-endangered-structures/





In the 1960s, she said, “my sister and brother after high school football gamesIn the 1960s, she said, “my sister and brother after high school football games

would get rides to the Heeney barn and have barn dances.”would get rides to the Heeney barn and have barn dances.”

If the grove disappears, the city will lose something invaluable, Sweet said.If the grove disappears, the city will lose something invaluable, Sweet said.

“It loses its history,” he said. “It loses something that you can’t ever replace and“It loses its history,” he said. “It loses something that you can’t ever replace and

that’s character.”that’s character.”

Redlands spokesman Carl Baker said an environmental analysis must be doneRedlands spokesman Carl Baker said an environmental analysis must be done

before the project goes before the Planning Commission. He estimated that wouldbefore the project goes before the Planning Commission. He estimated that would

happen in late spring at the earliest.happen in late spring at the earliest.

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Jennifer IyerJennifer IyerA lifelong Inland resident, Jennifer Iyer started working inA lifelong Inland resident, Jennifer Iyer started working injournalism at The Press-Enterprise in 2000. She has written (andjournalism at The Press-Enterprise in 2000. She has written (andshot photos for) stories on wild�owers, camping with a dog, andshot photos for) stories on wild�owers, camping with a dog, andmany community events, and as a videographer coveredmany community events, and as a videographer covered

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1/21/2020 Kaiser Permanente pledges $25 million to help solve homelessness | Business | fontanaheraldnews.com

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Kaiser Permanente pledges $25 million to help solvehomelessnessJan 18, 2020

Kaiser Permanente, which has a hospital in Fontana, announced it is pledging $25 million to help solve thehomelessness crisis in California.

Nonpro�t health care system Kaiser Permanente announced on Jan. 17 it will be a �rst private

sector contributor to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s newly announced fund to combat

homelessness in the state, committing $25 million to the e�ort.



This pledge supports e�orts statewide across Kaiser Permanente’s footprint and builds on the

$200 million in impact investments that Kaiser Permanente has announced in recent years in

support of community health mainly focusing on a�ordable housing. It also complements

ongoing sustainable rapid-housing programs and e�orts to strengthen systems that can end

chronic homelessness, Kaiser said in a news release.

Newsom announced the creation of the $750 million California Access to Housing and Services

Fund in a preview of his 2020-21 budget on Jan. 8, calling on corporate and philanthropic

organizations to contribute to the fund as well. The fund will focus on prevention and early

intervention by paying rent for individuals experiencing homelessness or on the verge of losing

housing; supporting local governments to develop additional low-income housing units; and

helping stabilize board-and-care facilities that house multiple people.

“Chronic homelessness has been shown to cut 27 years from the average life span and is

associated with communicable diseases such as hepatitis and typhus, increased

hospitalizations, and frequent readmissions,” said Kaiser Permanente Chairman and CEO Greg

Adams. “Safe and stable housing is key to a person’s physical, mental and social health, so we

applaud the governor’s plan to address homelessness. Our investment in the fund aligns with

Kaiser Permanente’s overall strategy to preserve a�ordable housing and prevent displacement

of existing residents, while addressing the root causes of homelessness in our communities.”

The California Access to Housing and Services Fund is the cornerstone of Newsom’s budget

proposal, which allocates more than $1 billion to address homelessness. Funds will be given

directly to local providers throughout California by the Department of Social Services, providing

�exibility to allocate resources to address communities’ varying needs.



“The homelessness crisis impacts every community in California and it’s on all of us to step up

and lean in to �nd solutions. Just nine days after challenging California’s philanthropic and

private sectors to partner with the state, Kaiser Permanente answered the call,” said Newsom.

“I thank Kaiser Permanente’s leadership for meeting this moment head on with $25 million and

joining with local and state e�orts to get Californians o� the street and into housing and health

services.”

A�ordable housing and homelessness are a signi�cant focus of Kaiser Permanente’s mission to

improve the health outcomes of the 68 million people who live in the communities the

organization serves, including Fontana.

Overall mortality rates among people experiencing chronic homelessness are 3 to 4 times that

of the general population. Homelessness increases the level and amount of care the health

system must provide, even as it limits how successful that care can be. Common conditions

such as diabetes, hypertension and asthma are nearly impossible to manage without housing.

“As a nonpro�t integrated health system, we have strived to create total health for our

members and our communities, and we know without a place to call home it is nearly

impossible to maintain health,” said Dr. Cynthia Telles, Community Health committee chair for

the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals Boards of Directors. “Kaiser Permanente has

moved beyond hospital walls to improve the lives of people in the communities we serve.”

Kaiser Permanente’s work to combat homelessness includes an initiative with Bay Area

Community Services to house 515 Oakland adults above the age of 50 and battling chronic

health conditions; and a partnership with Community Solutions to enact system change that

will end chronic homelessness in 24 communities that Kaiser Permanente serves.

Living wall garden bringing tranquility to historic downtown San Bernardino – San Bernardino Sun

https://www.sbsun.com/2020/01/19/living-wall-garden-bringing-tranquility-to-historic-downtown-san-bernardino/[1/21/2020 7:51:22 AM]

By BRIAN WHITEHEAD | [email protected] | San Bernardino SunPUBLISHED: January 19, 2020 at 12:44 pm | UPDATED: January 20, 2020 at 12:02 pm

LOCAL NEWS

Living wall garden bringing tranquility to historicdowntown San Bernardino'This green area will be somewhere people can go and breathe fresh air,'Viva La Boba owner David Friedman says




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A garden is being planted in San Bernardino, but not where you might expect.

Here, there is no lush green space, no playground nearby for children to burn off energy. The spotgets, at most, four hours of sunlight a day and can easily be missed by even the most observantpassersby.

And yet, San Bernardino-born-and-raised sisters Adrienne Thomas, Vanessa Dean and NedraMyricks could not have found a better place for their nonprofit’s latest community project.

Thanks to a grant from the Arbor Day Foundation in conjunction with BNSF, SistersWe and Viva LaBoba owners David Friedman and Tansu Philip are planting a living wall garden on the side of avacant brick building near the Breezeway in the heart of downtown San Bernardino.

M

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“Bringing San Bernardino back to life (with this project) is what I’m looking forward to, making it a littlemore people-friendly,” said Thomas, SistersWe president. “I’m really excited to see the wall coming inand things happening around San Bernardino. It’s been too long without anything to do or places togo.

“This wall will bring and attract people to San Bernardino.”

Pitched in 2018 as an environmental beautification project, “The Historic Downtown San BernardinoLiving Pocket Park Project” and a second SistersWe project in Muscoy received grant funding lastyear, in part, for their health and environmental benefits.

On Wednesday, Jan. 15, a handful of volunteers and about two dozen fifth-grade students fromnearby Jones Elementary School helped Thomas, Dean, Myricks and Friedman bolt vertical plantersto a 100-foot-long, 18-foot-tall brick wall near Fourth and E streets.


SKIP ADWanna be a movie star? Then visit a theme park

https://sisterswe.com/









San Bernardino leaders want to see how3 developers would overhaul CarouselMall

Art Walk brings ‘culture’ and ‘hope’ todowntown San Bernardino

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In the coming weeks, a hydroponics system will be woven through the felt planters and succulentsand other plants will take their place in the living wall garden, a stone’s throw from the Rosa ParksState Memorial Building.

And keeping with the art theme permeating the area, local artist Nathaniel Gelston plans to paint amural in the alleyway.

Friedman, who owns several buildings downtown, sees such investment in the once-bustlingentertainment corridor as the catalyst for the revitalization of San Bernardino.

“My generation, we want to live in an urban culture, one that’s more sustainable,” he said. “We want towalk, bike. You see the youth rallying around downtown, and with the preservation of historicalartifacts, historical buildings, comes a sense of art, and artists seem to want to congregate around thisarea.

“This green area,” Friedman added, “will be somewhere people can go and breathe fresh air.Somewhere they can take a break and go back to work or go back to their house. That’s important tohave in any urban environment.”

In addition to their work this week, Thomas, Dean andMyricks will add 15 more trees to green space at Californiaand Nolan streets in Muscoy at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Jan.22.

The trio’s “Muscoy Pocket Park Project” includes plans toadd 20 raised-bed family garden plots, a farmer’s market,movie nights and other family activities throughout the year.

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Weekend food festival in downtown SanBernardino the latest effort to revitalizeentertainment corridor

This small boba shop in San Bernardinohopes to aid a downtown renaissance

Can Downtown FIT Camp whipbeleaguered San Bernardino into shape?

Myricks, the oldest sister at age 71, joked Wednesday sheand her siblings are busier now, in retirement, than theyever were as professionals.

“These are things all of us need to really embrace,”Thomas said. “San Bernardino really needs something. Itneeds a spark of life, and with all the young people involvedin this, I’m really looking forward to the future.”

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1/21/2020 Retiring Quiel brothers reflect on sign business’ 60 years in San Bernardino – San Bernardino Sun

https://www.sbsun.com/2020/01/19/retiring-quiel-brothers-reflect-on-sign-business-60-years-in-san-bernardino/ 1/6

By By BRIAN WHITEHEADBRIAN WHITEHEAD | | [email protected]@scng.com | San Bernardino | San BernardinoSunSunPUBLISHED: PUBLISHED: January 19, 2020 at 8:00 amJanuary 19, 2020 at 8:00 am | UPDATED: | UPDATED: January 20, 2020 at 12:52 pmJanuary 20, 2020 at 12:52 pm


Retiring Quiel brothers reflect onRetiring Quiel brothers reflect onsign business’ 60 years in Sansign business’ 60 years in SanBernardinoBernardino






The Quiel brothers, from left, Jerry, 67, Gary, 62, and Larry, 71, at Quiel Signs in San Bernardino on MThe Quiel brothers, from left, Jerry, 67, Gary, 62, and Larry, 71, at Quiel Signs in San Bernardino on M13, 2020. The brothers been crafting signs for this region and beyond since 1961, but the three wa13, 2020. The brothers been crafting signs for this region and beyond since 1961, but the three wathe family-run business and retire. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNGthe family-run business and retire. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG

There’s a room on the second floor of Quiel Signs in San Bernardino whereThere’s a room on the second floor of Quiel Signs in San Bernardino where

brothers Larry, Jerry and Gary Quiel would take prospective clients for a look atbrothers Larry, Jerry and Gary Quiel would take prospective clients for a look at

their family business.their family business.

Through a window overlooking the service and installation yard, corporateThrough a window overlooking the service and installation yard, corporate

decision makers could see in real time how smoothly the intricate and ratherdecision makers could see in real time how smoothly the intricate and rather

complicated process of billboard and sign making went under the Quiels’ watch.complicated process of billboard and sign making went under the Quiels’ watch.

Below, designers worked collaboratively with metal professionals andBelow, designers worked collaboratively with metal professionals and

electricians, themselves working closely with the paint and assembly teams.electricians, themselves working closely with the paint and assembly teams.

“The reward for work well done is the opportunity to do more,” asserts a sign“The reward for work well done is the opportunity to do more,” asserts a sign

mounted above the main doorway.mounted above the main doorway.

Six decades after their late father opened Quiel Brothers Signs off Base Line StreetSix decades after their late father opened Quiel Brothers Signs off Base Line Street

in San Bernardino, sons Larry, Jerry and Gary will close the beloved familyin San Bernardino, sons Larry, Jerry and Gary will close the beloved family

business this year to retire.business this year to retire.

“At Christmas and all the holidays,” Jerry said, “it used to tick my mom off because“At Christmas and all the holidays,” Jerry said, “it used to tick my mom off because

we’d talk about work because it was so interesting. This is the most interestingwe’d talk about work because it was so interesting. This is the most interesting

business because you meet so many people throughout the years.business because you meet so many people throughout the years.

“We’ve met a lot of good people and we’ve built a lot of signs.”“We’ve met a lot of good people and we’ve built a lot of signs.”



The Quiel family’s San Bernardino roots run deep, and their fingerprints are allThe Quiel family’s San Bernardino roots run deep, and their fingerprints are all

over town.over town.

In the 1940s, patriarch Ray Quiel worked with the company that composed theIn the 1940s, patriarch Ray Quiel worked with the company that composed the

original McDonald’s signs on North E Street, Larry said. Black-and-white photosoriginal McDonald’s signs on North E Street, Larry said. Black-and-white photos

Ray took of the McDonald brothers in front of their nascent burger joint remainRay took of the McDonald brothers in front of their nascent burger joint remain

Quiel family heirlooms for which film studios ask the brothers permission to use.Quiel family heirlooms for which film studios ask the brothers permission to use.

Ray Quiel and his brother, Gordon, moved their sign business from Base Line,Ray Quiel and his brother, Gordon, moved their sign business from Base Line,

where it opened in 1961, to a lot on South I Street around 1965, enlisting a 16-year-where it opened in 1961, to a lot on South I Street around 1965, enlisting a 16-year-

old Larry to help dig the foundation for the sign-making mecca still standing aold Larry to help dig the foundation for the sign-making mecca still standing a

stone’s throw from the 215 Freeway.stone’s throw from the 215 Freeway.

Many a night, Gary recalled, his parents drove the family around a booming SanMany a night, Gary recalled, his parents drove the family around a booming San

Bernardino to show off their handiwork.Bernardino to show off their handiwork.

“That’s the most rewarding thing about this business,” Jerry said. “You can see“That’s the most rewarding thing about this business,” Jerry said. “You can see

your work and other people can see your work.”your work and other people can see your work.”

Growing up, the three brothers – all proud San Bernardino High graduates –Growing up, the three brothers – all proud San Bernardino High graduates –

worked every job there was at the shop before embarking on separate careers asworked every job there was at the shop before embarking on separate careers as

contractors. When Ray bought his brother out of the business in 1988, thecontractors. When Ray bought his brother out of the business in 1988, the

prodigal sons returned to see their renowned father into retirement.prodigal sons returned to see their renowned father into retirement.

In the decades since, the Quiel brothers – Larry, 71, Jerry, 68, and Gary, 62 – haveIn the decades since, the Quiel brothers – Larry, 71, Jerry, 68, and Gary, 62 – have

become San Bernardino historians of sort, their vast catalog of projects providingbecome San Bernardino historians of sort, their vast catalog of projects providing

them a rare knowledge of the area.them a rare knowledge of the area.

“Back in the ’70s, all the barricades said San Bernardino was ‘A City on the Move,’”“Back in the ’70s, all the barricades said San Bernardino was ‘A City on the Move,’”

Jerry recalled. “This city was Jerry recalled. “This city was movingmoving. It was fun to be here. There were so many. It was fun to be here. There were so many

things going on. I remember putting up signs for ‘All-America City,’ a big sign on Ethings going on. I remember putting up signs for ‘All-America City,’ a big sign on E

Street and one up here by Little Mountain (Drive).Street and one up here by Little Mountain (Drive).

“When you entered the city, a big sign said ‘All-America City.’”“When you entered the city, a big sign said ‘All-America City.’”

Name a major San Bernardino landmark and chances are the Quiel brothers had aName a major San Bernardino landmark and chances are the Quiel brothers had a

hand in elevating its profile.hand in elevating its profile.

At one time or another, the three say, signs for the Harris Building, the Fox, CrestAt one time or another, the three say, signs for the Harris Building, the Fox, Crest

and Ritz theaters, the Central City Mall, the Carousel Mall and the Blockbusterand Ritz theaters, the Central City Mall, the Carousel Mall and the Blockbuster

Pavilion San Bernardino (now known as Glen Helen Pavilion) were in theirPavilion San Bernardino (now known as Glen Helen Pavilion) were in their

father’s shop.father’s shop.

The brothers crafted San Manuel’s first bingo sign and placards up and down theThe brothers crafted San Manuel’s first bingo sign and placards up and down the

state for oil giants 76, Mobil, Shell and Chevron.state for oil giants 76, Mobil, Shell and Chevron.



“Every project was different,” said Jerry, who helped install a Budweiser billboard“Every project was different,” said Jerry, who helped install a Budweiser billboard

in Puerto Rico a while back.in Puerto Rico a while back.

“There were no two projects alike.”“There were no two projects alike.”

More recently, Quiel Signs has raised electronic message boards at no fewer thanMore recently, Quiel Signs has raised electronic message boards at no fewer than

60 schools in San Bernardino, not to mention hundreds of others in Northern and60 schools in San Bernardino, not to mention hundreds of others in Northern and

Southern California.Southern California.

“The one thing about this business is you learn something every day,” Jerry said.“The one thing about this business is you learn something every day,” Jerry said.

“There’s something new always coming up – new technology, new ways to do“There’s something new always coming up – new technology, new ways to do

things. It’s just unbelievable. When you think you know it all, you don’t.”things. It’s just unbelievable. When you think you know it all, you don’t.”

With new state and city regulations limiting much of what sign makers can doWith new state and city regulations limiting much of what sign makers can do

these days, Larry, Jerry and Gary found it an opportune time to enjoy the fruits ofthese days, Larry, Jerry and Gary found it an opportune time to enjoy the fruits of

their labor and retire.their labor and retire.

Having agreed long ago to let their children pursue careers outside sign-making,Having agreed long ago to let their children pursue careers outside sign-making,

the three entertained offers to buy the business, but said they could not find athe three entertained offers to buy the business, but said they could not find a

suitable taker.suitable taker.

So the Quiels sold the property last summer and have until May to close up shop.So the Quiels sold the property last summer and have until May to close up shop.

“It’s been a hell of a ride,” Jerry said.“It’s been a hell of a ride,” Jerry said.

While the brothers still have a few projects to complete on their way out, theirWhile the brothers still have a few projects to complete on their way out, their

operation isn’t what it was in its heyday, when the family employed about 45operation isn’t what it was in its heyday, when the family employed about 45

people and 400 projects marked a good year.people and 400 projects marked a good year.

Larry, a San Bernardino planning commissioner for the better part of twoLarry, a San Bernardino planning commissioner for the better part of two

decades, said recently he can tell the age of one of his billboards by the design ofdecades, said recently he can tell the age of one of his billboards by the design of

the Quiel Signs logo on its side.the Quiel Signs logo on its side.

“We’ll continue,” Gary said, “to see the fruits of our labor for quite a while.”“We’ll continue,” Gary said, “to see the fruits of our labor for quite a while.”

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1/21/2020 Plant disease that kills citrus trees is threatening the Fontana area, officials say | News | fontanaheraldnews.com

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Plant disease that kills citrus trees is threatening the Fontanaarea, o�cials sayJan 16, 2020

The Asian citrus psyllid can be seen feeding on these citrus tree leaves. This pest causes a diseasecalled Huanglongbing (HLB) which kills the trees.

A plant disease that kills citrus trees has been found in several areas of California and is

threatening the Fontana area, o�cials said.

The disease, called Huanglongbing (HLB) or citrus greening disease, isn’t harmful to humans,

but it is fatal for citrus trees and has no cure.



The disease is spread by a pest called the Asian citrus psyllid as it feeds on citrus tree leaves.

HLB has recently been found in two residential citrus trees in San Bernardino County, and

Fontana is located near the newly expanded HLB quarantine area.

An HLB quarantine area is established when HLB is detected to help prevent the spread of HLB

to una�ected areas. Because HLB has been con�rmed nearby, it is critical that residents do not

move citrus fruit and plant material into or outside of the area, as by doing this may put area

citrus trees at risk of HLB.

Until researchers �nd a solution, California homeowners who enjoy growing fresh citrus fruit in

their yards, and California farmers tending to $2.5 billion worth of citrus fruit trees, must work

together to protect their trees, o�cials said.

HLB had previously been con�rmed in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside counties and now in

San Bernardino County. The total number of HLB detections in California has risen to 1,754

trees.

The HLB quarantine area is a total of 1,224 square miles. This is a 38 percent increase from

2018 to 2019.

----- TIPS for caring for your citrus tree:

• Inspect your tree for the Asian citrus psyllid. The pest is most noticeable when new leaves are

growing on the tips of the branches.



• Adult Asian citrus psyllids are small, brown pests that feed on citrus leaves with their body at

a 45-degree angle.

• Young Asian citrus psyllids, called nymphs, produce a white, waxy substance to direct

honeydew away from their bodies.

• If you think you have found the Asian citrus psyllid, report your �ndings to the California

Department of Food and Agriculture at 800-491-1899.

• Don’t move citrus fruit or plant materials o� of your property, as this may help the Asian

citrus psyllid spread.

• Ask your local nursery about treatment options to help protect your trees from the Asian

citrus psyllid.

• Symptoms of HLB include blotchy and yellowing leaves, premature and excessive fruit drop,

lopsided fruit, and bitter, inedible fruit.

• Cooperate with agriculture o�cials who may ask to inspect or treat the citrus tree.

• When pruning citrus trees, be sure to dry out citrus clippings or double bag them before

removing the plant material from the property.

Visit californiacitrusthreat.org for more information on the Asian citrus psyllid and HLB.

http://californiacitrusthreat.org/

Can more rail cut Inland truck traffic? Riverside County thinks so – Press Enterprise

https://www.pe.com/...inks-so/?utm_medium=social&utm_content=tw-pressenterprise&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com[1/21/2020 8:14:29 AM]

LOCAL NEWS

Can more rail cut Inland truck traffic? RiversideCounty thinks so

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By JEFF HORSEMAN | [email protected] | The Press-EnterprisePUBLISHED: January 21, 2020 at 7:30 am | UPDATED: January 21, 2020 at 7:30 am

The key to easing Inland freeway gridlock could be a train ride away.

That’s the view of Riverside County supervisors as expressed in the county’s annual LegislativePlatform, a wish list outlining what county officials want from Sacramento and Washington, D.C. TheBoard of Supervisors approved the 2020 platform Tuesday, Jan. 14.

Included in the 75-page platform is a desire to remove regulatory barriers and restrict legal challengesto more regional rail infrastructure in California. The document also calls for more federal and stateincentives to encourage rail over trucks to move goods.

Big rigs wait near the intersection of Van Buren Boulevard and Etiwanda Avenue in Jurupa Valley in 2015. In their latest legislativewish list, Riverside County supervisors are seeking more money and incentives to develop rail infrastructure capable of transportingmore cargo from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in an effort to reduce truck traffic. (File photo by Kurt Miller, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

S

https://www.pe.com/author/jeff-horseman/


https://www.scribd.com/document/443636511/Riverside-County-2020-Legislative-Platform



The goal is to boost rail as the preferred mode of moving freight from the ports of Los Angeles andLong Beach to and through the Inland Empire, reducing truck traffic and improving the Inland area’snotoriously poor air quality. More rail “has the greatest potential to be effective” in cutting truck-relatedtraffic congestion, the document states.

With more warehouses popping up in vicinity of Moreno Valley and Perris, the pros and cons ofhauling freight by haul from the 215 Freeway corridor should be explored, Supervisor Kevin Jeffriessaid via email Monday, Jan. 20.

“We would need to look at the trade offs of less tractor trailer rigs on our congested freeways, but alsothe possibility of increased rail noise along certain residential areas,” said Jeffries, who last yearadvocated for a series of “Good Neighbor” planning guidelines to shield residential areas fromproblems associated with logistics development. A watered-down version passed the board in


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Long Beach joins environmental coalitionin opposition to BNSF’s railyard project

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November.

According to the platform, the LA and Long Beach ports handle as much as 40% of the nation’sinternational cargo, and the volume of cargo is projected to grow from 15.2 million Twenty-FootEquivalent or TEU containers in 2014 to 41.1 million TEUs in 2040. TEUs are used to measure acargo ship’s capacity.

“There is therefore an increasingly urgent need to improve the system of goods movement in theregion,” the platform states.

The document lamented the use of the regulatory process “as a weapon” to block rail infrastructureprojects like the Southern California International Gateway, a $500 million facility sought by BNSFRailways and approved by the city of Los Angeles to offload cargo from ships to freight trains.

The city of Long Beach, environmental groups, and air-quality regulators sued to block the gateway,citing the potential negative effects. An appellate court in 2018 upheld a lower court ruling that foundthe gateway’s environmental impact report lacking.

“The inability to build new infrastructure in California limits the ability to move cargo in anenvironmentally friendly and efficient way, drives up the cost of doing business, and ultimately hurtssupply chain competitiveness and the region as a whole,” the platform read.

A shorter-haul rail service, the platform read, would reduce truck congestion, reduce air pollution fromtruck exhaust and lead to jobs through the creation of new rail/transfer yards.

BNSF praised the platform’s stance on rail. “Everycontainer shipped by rail means one less long-haul truck onthe highway, easing congestion, reducing pollution andsaving energy,” company spokeswoman Lena Kent said in

https://www.dailybreeze.com/2015/03/03/long-beach-joins-environmental-coalition-in-opposition-to-bnsfs-railyard-project/



https://www.freightwaves.com/news/bnsf-losangeles-intermodal-gateway



These Riverside County freeways androads could benefit from an $8.8 billionsales tax

These 91 Freeway projects in Coronaarea will try to ease traffic jams

Riverside County warehouse rules tobuffer unincorporated-area homes won’tapply everywhere

Moreno Valley ignored environmental lawwhen it OK’d World Logistics Center,California Attorney General says

an emailed statement.

Using trains instead of trucks to move goods can be moreexpensive because, while trucks can go straight to awarehouse at no extra cost, cargo arriving via rail has to beput on a train, offloaded and driven to its final destination,said Richard Willson, a professor in Cal Poly Pomona’sDepartment of Urban and Regional Planning.

A system of “road pricing” in which trucks pay more to usefreeways might make rail more attractive for goodsmovement, Willson added.

“As congestion gets worse, the balance point betweentrucks and rail may change,” he said. “If it becomes moreexpensive to send goods to the Inland Empire by truck, the whole economic rationale for trains wouldimprove.”

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Jeff HorsemanJeff Horseman got into journalism because he liked to write and stunk at math. He grew up in Vermont and he honedhis interviewing skills as a supermarket cashier by asking Bernie Sanders “Paper or plastic?” After graduating fromSyracuse University in 1999, Jeff began his journalistic odyssey at The Watertown Daily Times in upstate New York,where he impressed then-U.S. Senate candidate Hillary Clinton so much she called him “John” at the end of aninterview. From there, he went to Annapolis, Maryland, where he covered city, county and state government at TheCapital newspaper before love and the quest for snowless winters took him in 2007 to Southern California, where hestarted out covering Temecula for The Press-Enterprise. Today, Jeff writes about Riverside County government andregional politics. Along the way, Jeff has covered wildfires, a tropical storm, 9/11 and the Dec. 2 terror attack in San

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1/21/2020 EVWD readies for Highland Hills | Business | highlandnews.net

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EVWD readies for Highland HillsHector Hernandez Jr.Jan 16, 2020

The new Highland Hills development in San Bernardino is north of Highland Avenue and east of Highway 330 and isadjacent to Highland homes.

On Wednesday, Jan. 8, the East Valley Water District (EVWD) Board of Directors approved the

goals and policies for and then authorized the creation of a community facilities district (CFD)

to help �nance water and sewer infrastructure for the Highland Hills development project in

San Bernardino. The board also approved the acceptance of the developer’s petition for

formation of the CFD.

https://www.highlandnews.net/users/profile/Hector



The Mello-Roos Community Facilities Act of 1982 authorizes public agencies, through the

creation of community facilities district, to levy special taxes and/or borrow money through the

issuing of bonds to �nance speci�ed facilities and services.

The Highland Hills project proposes to build a maximum of 695 residential units on

approximately 542 acres north of Highland Avenue east of City Creek Road, across from

American Legion Post 421.

As owner of the property and petitioner for the CFD, First American Title Insurance Co. will pay

a $75,000 deposit to EVWD for the costs associated with forming the CFD.

Prior to approving the CFD formation, the district was required to approve a statement of its

goals and policies for the CFD. A presentation of the CFD goals and policies outlined for the

board the policy’s criteria for establishing special taxes and appraisals as well as the

requirements for builders, developers, resale of homes or lots, and credit quality for CFD bond

issues. The policy also set formulas and maximums for the special taxes for the project

properties.

According to EVWD’s policy, the total tax burden will not exceed 2 percent of projected initial

sales price of developed parcel and the special tax shall not increase by more than 2 percent

annually on developed property.

While the Community Facilities Act requires a minimum value of lien of 3-to-1 ⎯ meaning that

the value of the property within the CFD must be three times the amount the bonds issued for

it ⎯ the EVWD’s policy requires a more conservative 4-to-1 debt ratio. To add additional security

to the bonds there will also be dedicated reserve bonds.

“I’m really happy to hear the guidelines as presented meet everything we need but also that

they were more conservative than the state minimums. That’s important for us to make sure

we’re well balanced and that we fall on the more conservative side,” said Director James

Morales Jr. “I like the idea that this helps us prepare for future demand.”



Hector Hernandez Jr.

EVWD Executive Director John Mura also pointed out that the district has worked to be the only

CFD associated with the Highland Hills project in order to avoid legal entanglements in the

future.

Mura also said the CFD was important to insuring the development is paying for itself and

existing ratepayers are not subsidizing the development.

“This is a way for the water district to actively implement the strategic plan that calls for us to

prepare for new development,” added Morales. “I think it is responsible.”

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1/21/2020 Inland Valley Development Agency talks CRIAs | Business | highlandnews.net

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Inland Valley Development Agency talks CRIAsJason MillerJan 16, 2020

A regional map that shows disadvantaged communities, as de�ned for Community Revitalization and InvestmentAuthorities, highlighted in red, including the city of Highland.

Map courtesy of IVDA

The Inland Valley Development Agency (IVDA) on Wednesday, Jan. 8, heard from Jim Simmon,

the IVDA’s �scal consultant, to give an overview and presentation on the potential bene�ts and

requirements of Community Revitalization and Investment Authorities (CRIAs)

https://www.highlandnews.net/users/profile/Jason%20Miller



The following describes the legislation: The community revitalization and investment

authorities was enacted into law in 2015 by Assembly Bill 2, which authorized the revitalization

of disadvantaged communities through planning and �nancing infrastructure improvements

and upgrades; economic development activities; and a�ordable housing via tax increment

�nancing.

A Community Revitalization and Investment Authority can be created in the following three

locations:

1. Areas where not less than 80 percent of the land contains any combination of census tracts

or census block groups meet both of these conditions: (i) an annual median household income

that is less than 80 percent of the statewide, citywide or countywide annual median income;

and (ii) three of four following conditions:

• An unemployment rate at least 3 percentage points higher than the statewide average annual

unemployment rate median, as de�ned by the labor market report published by the California

Employment Development Department in March of the year in which the community

revitalization plan is prepared. (In determining the unemployment rate within the community

revitalization and investment area, an authority may use unemployment data from the periodic

American Community Survey published by the U.S. Census Bureau.)

• Crime rates, as documented by records maintained by the law enforcement agency that has

jurisdiction in the proposed plan area for violent or property crime o�enses, at least 5 percent

higher than statewide average crime rate for violent or property crime o�enses, as de�ned by

the Criminal Justice Statistics Center within the Department of Justice, when data is available on

the Attorney General’s Internet website. (The crime rate shall be calculated by taking the local

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crime incidents for violent or property crimes, or any o�ense within those categories, for the

most recent calendar year for which the Department of Justice maintains data, divided by the

total population of the proposed plan area, multiplied by 100,000. If the local crime rate for the

proposed plan area exceeds the statewide average rate for either violent or property crime, or

any o�ense within these categories, by more than 5 percent, then this condition shall be met.)

• Deteriorated or inadequate infrastructure, and

• Deteriorated commercial or residential structures.

2. A former military base that is principally characterized by deteriorated or inadequate

infrastructure or structures

3. Census tracts or census block groups, as de�ned by the U.S. Census Bureau, within the area,

are situated within a disadvantaged community as identi�ed by the California Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA).].

Simmon provided a map to board members, which showed a regional map with disadvantaged

communities in red, which included the city of Highland.

Simmons did say however that schools could not participate in CRIA as a disadvantaged

community, as they already receive funding from the federal and state government.

One board member asked how the airport would qualify to be part of a CRIA, Burrows

responded that it would take a change to the “budget amendment language” in Sacramento for

the airport to qualify which Burrows says that they (the airport) are in discussions with the

state of California on how to do that.

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Jason Miller

Simmons says the following steps would take place if the state approved the change of the

budget language process for formation:

• Possible modi�cations for JPA’s

• Designate Revitalization Area: Negotiate/establish member contributions

• Create and adopt Revitalization Plan

• Adoption after three public hearings to: Receive comments on plan, receive comments and

modify or reject plan, hold a protest hearing and adoption of plan

County Supervisor and Co-chair Josie Gonzales then asked Burrows and Simmons if they could

do more research and follow up on some questions on CRIA and come back at a later date to

update the board.

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1/21/2020 Community leaders join Kaiser officials for 'beam signing' party - News - vvdailypress.com - Victorville, CA

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By Rene Ray De La Cruz Staff Writer Posted Jan 18, 2020 at 9:30 AM

HESPERIA — Snow-capped mountains and the construction of KaiserPermanente’s newest medical facility served as a backdrop for community leadersand health officials who gathered to write signatures on a steel beam that willsupport the building.

“Seeing this steel structure rising from the ground is a momentous milestone forKaiser and its members,” said Ahmad Mohammad, chief operating officer for theOntario Medical Center and the Hesperia Medical Office.

Mohammad said construction is on schedule, adding that the health networkexpects to open the Hesperia location in January 2021.

Friday’s “Beam Signing & BBQ” party included nearly 100 people who usedmarkers to sign the nearly 500-pound beam that will eventually support thethree-story Hesperia Medical Office Building located on Escondido Avenuebetween the Walmart Supercenter and Interstate 15.

Some of the signers of the 24-foot long beam included Hesperia Councilmembers Bill Holland and Brigit Bennington, doctors Mark Minsoo Bai and SukPark, Kaiser Project Manager Edmund Wolski and Kenneth Rivers, chiefoperating officer of the Fontana Medical Center.

Mohammad said the Hesperia project is part of Kaiser’s next generation ofmedical office buildings that will provide its members with expanded accesshealth services supported by the latest medical technology, includingtelemedicine capabilities.

Community leaders join Kaiser o�cials for

‘beam signing’ party


https://www.vvdailypress.com/



The new facility will include 30 provider offices; primary and specialty careservices; family and internal medicine; pediatrics; OBGYN; cardiology; andphysical therapy. It will also feature a pharmacy, laboratory, diagnostic imaging,nurse clinic, optometry and optical dispensing, and conference center.

Senior Project Manager David Livingston told the audience that rain, snow andwind have not hampered construction of the 54,000-square-foot building thatbroke ground in October.

“Today is a day of celebration. But we’re not celebrating the steel and concretethat goes into this facility,” Livingston said. “We’re celebrating what this projectmeans to our members and the entire community.”

Holland told the group the project is a “dream coming to fruition,” after the CityCouncil tried for nearly eight years to convince Kaiser officials to build inHesperia.

He said it was a “dark day” in 2012 when Kaiser officials didn’t commit.

“From that day to this, it’s like from the dark to the light. And now we have thisbeautiful building right here in Hesperia,” said Holland,

As construction workers used a large crane to lift beams into place, Mohammadshared a few facts about the steel in the Hesperia building:

Total number of pieces of steel erected: 567.

Total weight of steel beams: 300 tons.

Weight of heaviest piece of structural steel: 9,500 pounds or 4.75 tons.

Reinforcing steel: more than 2 tons.

Cast-in-place structural concrete: 2,050 cubic yards.

Quantity of dirt excavated from the site: 25,000 cubic yards.

Depth of excavation: 35 feet.



Structural Steel Contractor: ConXtech, Hayward.

Architect: Cannon Design, Irvine.

General Contractor: McCarthy Building Companies, Newport Beach.

The final steel beam will be raised into place within the next few weeks.

In the coming months, construction will include concrete pours on all floors, theexterior wall and roofing, as well as internal wall framing, said Greg Christian,senior vice president and area manager, Kaiser Foundation Hospitals/HealthPlan, San Bernardino County Area.

“Next will be the rough mechanical work, which includes electrical, plumbingand heating and air conditioning installations,” Christian said. “At the same time,work will continue on the roof, exterior and facade of the building.”

Doctor Timothy Jenkins, area medical director and chief of staff, said the “cuttingedge” technology at the facility will be an example of Kaiser advancing into thefuture of health care.

“We’re working to integrate technology and wellness programming to make ourpatients healthier and happier,” Jenkins said.

Mohammad, who just started his 22nd year with Kaiser, told the Daily Press hedidn’t want to sound like a commercial, but wanted to speak straight from theheart.

“I want to say that Kaiser is an organization that focuses on whole-patient care,not just health care,” Mohammed said. “We focus on the health and total well-being of all our members, human beings whose lives are important. That is whywe’re here.”

Current Kaiser facilities for its nearly 75,000 members in the High Desert areainclude the High Desert Medical Offices on Park Avenue in Victorville and theMental Health Medical Office on Main Street in Hesperia.



The Target store on Bear Valley Road in Apple Valley also includes a new KaiserPermanente-staffed clinic for members and store guests.

Reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at 760-951-6227,

[email protected], Instagram@renegadereporter, Twitter

@DP_ReneDeLaCruz.


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1/21/2020 Yucaipa deputy is introduced | Local News | newsmirror.net

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Yucaipa deputy is introducedMichelle LopezJan 16, 2020

Councilman Bobby Duncan, Councilman Dick Riddell, Mayor Pro Tem Denise Allen, Amanda Cline, Mayor David Avila,Police Chief James Williams and Councilman Greg Bogh.

Photo by Michelle Lopez

At the Jan. 13, Yucaipa City Council meeting, Captain James Williams of the Yucaipa Police

Department, introduced Deputy Amanda Cline to the city council members.

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1/21/2020 Yucaipa deputy is introduced | Local News | newsmirror.net

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Michelle LopezReporter

“Amanda started her career with the Sheri�’s Department in April of 2016,” said Williams.

“She was initially assigned to our West Valley Detention Center and worked patrol in Morongo

from October 2016 to August 2019. In August, she was transferred to Yucaipa as a Deputy

Sheri�, said Williams.

In her younger years, Cline was a child actress where she made an appearance in a couple of

movies, “Dodge Ball” and “Minority Report.” She is currently �nishing her bachelor of science

degree in criminal justice.

“She grew up in Highland. She is engaged to another one of our deputies and they live here in

town. She has two children, an 8-year-old and a 6-year-old with a third on the way. Her hobbies

include photography, ice skating, and spending time with her family. Eventually Amanda hopes

to promote to the rank of Detective and work in our homicide or crimes against children unit. I

am very happy to introduce to you Amanda Cline,” said Williams.

“I’m really excited to work for the city of Yucaipa and proud to live here and now work here.

Thank you for the opportunity,” said Cline.

Supporting documents are available for public view on the city of Yucaipa website at

yucaipa.org.

THE 2020 WRANGLER

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1/21/2020 Deputy and K9 prevent drugs from being brought into jail | News | fontanaheraldnews.com

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FEATURED

Deputy and K9 prevent drugs from being brought into jailJan 19, 2020

Deputy Pedersen and his K9 Smokey arrested a woman who was allegedly bringing drugs into a jail facility. (Contributed photo by San Bernardino Sheri�'s Department)

Earlier this month, the San Bernardino County Sheri�'s Department recruited the help of

narcotics detection K9 "Smokey" and his handler Deputy Pedersen to combat the smuggling of

narcotics into the department's Detention and Corrections Bureau facilities.

On Jan. 17, the addition of Smokey paid o� in the arrest of a 39-year-old San Bernardino

woman, the Sheri�'s Department said.

At about 3 p.m., Pedersen and Smokey were conducting proactive enforcement in the visitor

parking lot at Central Detention Center in San Bernardino when they contacted Christina

Aquino, who is currently on Post Release Community Supervision.

Learn today, lead tomorrow.Evening, Executive & Online MBA

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Aquino was allegedly found to be in possession of several grams of suspected

methamphetamine, and through further investigation, it was discovered Aquino was allegedly

smuggling narcotics into the detention facility during visits with inmates.

Over the duration of several visits, Aquino had allegedly picked the epoxy from the visiting

window seams, which allowed her to slide thin methamphetamine and marijuana bindles

through the window to inmates.

Aquino was booked into West Valley Detention Center for bringing narcotics into jail facility as

well as a probation violation. The investigation is ongoing in order to identify other subject(s)

involved in the smuggling of narcotics.

Smokey and Pedersen conduct interior and exterior proactive enforcement at Central

Detention Center, High Desert Detention Center in Adelanto, West Valley Detention Center in

Rancho Cucamonga and Glen Helen Rehabilitation Center in Devore.

1/21/2020 Crash victim mourned as hardworking mom and nursing student | News | hidesertstar.com

www.hidesertstar.com/news/article_e1fdb04e-396f-11ea-b18d-1f8bc2cda289.html 1/2

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TOP STORY

Crash victim mourned as hardworking mom and nursing studentJan 17, 2020

YUCCA VALLEY — A mother of two and nursing assistant died in a collision Wednesday night in

downtown Yucca Valley. Family and friends say Nicole Dobbins, 35, was a hard-working mom who

was loved by the residents at the Continuing Care Center, where she worked.

According to the Sheriff’s Department, Dobbins, was driving her Kawasaki motorcycle west on

Twentynine Palms Highway approaching Prescott Avenue around 11:16 p.m.

Rocio Diaz, 52, of Yucca Valley, was driving a moving truck east on the highway. He didn’t see

Dobbins and tried to turn left onto Prescott Avenue, directly into her path.

Dobbins tried to avoid the crash, but collided with the front of the moving truck.

She suffered major injuries and was taken to Hi-Desert Medical Center, where she was pronounced

dead.

“The driver of the moving truck remained at the scene and was cooperating with the investigation,”

Sgt. Dan Hanke said in a news release.

The Morongo Basin sheriff’s station Major Accident Investigation Team responded and conducted

the investigation. It does not appear alcohol or drugs were a factor.

Dobbins was a single mom to two children: Aislinn, who is in �rst grade, and Brody, who is in �fth.

Her friend Shannon Brunk said she was a certi�ed nursing assistant who worked at the Continuing

Care Center and was going to college to become a nurse.

“She was really working hard for her kids and a better life,” Brunk said Friday.

1/21/2020 Crash victim mourned as hardworking mom and nursing student | News | hidesertstar.com

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Dobbins had just �nished her prerequisites for her nursing course. “She’s been going to school to be

a nurse and it was her calling to take care of people,” Brunk said.

Karen Faulis, CEO of Hi-Desert Medical Center and the Continuing Care Center, said Dobbins would

be missed.

“Nicole was one of the best caregivers at our Continuing Care Center. She was loved by her peers

and residents for her compassionate care and team player attitude," Faulis said.

"Her positive energy and presence will be missed dearly.”

Rialto man dies days after he was found shot in San Bernardino – San Bernardino Sun

https://www.sbsun.com/2020/01/20/rialto-man-dies-days-after-he-was-found-shot-in-san-bernardino/[1/21/2020 7:50:40 AM]

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By ROBERT GUNDRAN | [email protected] |PUBLISHED: January 20, 2020 at 11:15 pm | UPDATED: January 20, 2020 at 11:17 pm

Police are investigating the death of a Rialto man who was found shot this month.

Authorities said Monday that officers with the San Bernardino Police Department responded to the1700 block of West Home Avenue in San Bernardino at around 2:25 p.m. on Jan. 11 and found a mandown in the street.

The man was transported to a local hospital, where he died of his injuries days later, police said. Thespecific date of his death was not immediately available.

He was identified as Cicero Frisco Mayfield, 55, of Rialto, according to police.

Cicero Frisco Mayfield, 55, of Rialto, was found shot in San Bernardino on January 11, 2020. He was transported to a local hospitaland died of his injury days later. (Photo courtesy of the San Bernardino Police Department)

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Man dead after weekend shooting in SanBernardino

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The motive for the shooting was under investigation. No other information was immediately released.

Anyone with information on the shooting can contact the San Bernardino Police Department at 909-384-5630 or 909-384-5631.


READ MOREWanna be a movie star? Then visit a theme park

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Man dead after weekend shooting in San Bernardino – San Bernardino Sun

https://www.sbsun.com/2020/01/20/man-dead-after-shooting-in-san-bernardino-2/[1/21/2020 7:50:18 AM]

Lemon G. Hamilton, 24, of San Bernardino, was shot and killed on Jan 19, 2020. (Photo courtesy of the San Bernardino Police


Man dead after weekend shooting in SanBernardino



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By ROBERT GUNDRAN | [email protected] |PUBLISHED: January 20, 2020 at 5:16 pm | UPDATED: January 20, 2020 at 6:50 pm

Police in San Bernardino are investigating a shooting that left a man dead on Sunday morning.

The shooting happened at around 6 a.m., according to the San Bernardino Police Department. Acaller told police that a man was down in the 2700 block of West Spruce Street.

Officers who arrived at the scene found a man down in the street. Officials said he was transported toa hospital, where he died of his injuries.

Police said a second man later arrived at the hospital, where he was treated and released with aminor wound. It wasn’t immediately apparent whether the two shootings were related.

Department)


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Rialto man dies days after he was foundshot in San Bernardino

Governor: 2 police officers die afterHawaii shooting

17 arrested in sweep targeting Riversidegang, including suspects in Septembershooting death

Man arrested in shooting in Moreno Valley

Police investigating shooting in Montclairapartment complex that left 1 dead

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The man who was shot and killed was identified as Lemon G. Hamilton, 24, of San Bernardino.

Police said the motive for the shooting was under investigation and no other information wasimmediately available.

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1/21/2020 More details emerge on I-15 crash that killed 2 people over the weekend - News - vvdailypress.com - Victorville, CA

https://www.vvdailypress.com/news/20200121/more-details-emerge-on-i-15-crash-that-killed-2-people-over-weekend 1/2

By Rene Ray De La Cruz Staff Writer Posted at 12:01 AM

BARSTOW — The California Highway Patrol released information Monday ona crash that occurred over the weekend on Interstate 15 and left two people deadand closed the freeway.

On Sunday, the San Bernardino County Fire Department tweeted about thecrash involving two tractor-trailers — one carrying hazardous materials — butdetails were scant until the CHP’s release.

At approximately 4:14 a.m. Sunday, a truck driver identified as John Doe No. 1was driving a tractor-trailer at an unknown speed southbound on I-15 and southof Hodge Road when, for unknown reasons, the vehicle moved to the right,crossed the shoulder and went into open desert, CHP’s Barstow Area officereported.

The driver then made an abrupt left turn in an attempt to re-enter thesouthbound lanes, which resulted in the tractor-trailer overturning onto its rightside. The truck partially blocked the No. 3 southbound lane as a result, the reportsaid.

After the crash, a passing motorist identified as John Doe No. 2, stopped his 2015Mazda 3 on the left shoulder of northbound I-15. He got out of the Mazda andran across the southbound lanes to help John Doe No. 1, the report said.

As John Doe No. 2 stood in the No. 3 lane, Michael Hensley, of Russellville,Tennessee, approached at 60 mph in the second tractor-trailer. For reasonsunknown, Hensley didn’t see the overturned truck and collided with it and JohnDoe No. 2, the report said.

More details emerge on I-15 crash that k illed 2

people over the weekend



1/21/2020 More details emerge on I-15 crash that killed 2 people over the weekend - News - vvdailypress.com - Victorville, CA

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The crash pushed both tractor-trailers off the freeway and into the open desert.John Doe No. 1′s vehicle then became fully engulfed in flames, which killed him.John Doe No. 2′s vehicle also became fully engulfed, resulting in the death ofJohn Doe No. 2, the CHP report said.

Both John Does were taken from the scene by the San Bernardino CountySheriff’s Department Coroner Division, the report said.

The CHP did not report Hensley’s condition. On Sunday, County Fire’s tweetsnoted that one person involved was taken to Loma Linda University MedicalCenter.

The incident closed the freeway for several hours for the investigation andremoval of the hazardous chemicals. The freeway was reopened sometime before8 a.m., the Daily Press reported.

It is unknown if alcohol and/or drugs were a contributing factor in this collision,which is still under investigation by the CHP. Anyone with additionalinformation is urged to contact the CHP Barstow Area Office at 760-255-5900.

Reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at 760-951-6227,

[email protected], Instagram@renegadereporter, Twitter

@DP_ReneDeLaCruz.


http://www.twitter.com/DP_ReneDeLaCruz

1/21/2020 Off-road crash kills two Apple Valley residents - News - vvdailypress.com - Victorville, CA

https://www.vvdailypress.com/news/20200120/off-road-crash-kills-two-apple-valley-residents 1/2

By Jose Quintero Staff Writer Posted Jan 20, 2020 at 10:51 AMUpdated Jan 20, 2020 at 11:00 AM

APPLE VALLEY — Two town residents were killed over the weekend in asingle-vehicle, off-road crash that ejected one passenger and trapped two others,authorities said.

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department Coroner’s Division officials saidTandy Patnode, 39, and Eric Aranda, 30, were both pronounced dead at thescene of the crash — near Central Road — on Saturday afternoon by medicalpersonnel.

Officials said Apple Valley Sheriff’s Station deputies responded to the scene justbefore 12:30 p.m. Two other occupants, ages 33 and 14, also suffered injuries.

The driver of the vehicle was transported to St. Joseph Health, St. Mary, and apassenger was airlifted to a local trauma center.

The station’s Major Accident Investigation Team worked the scene anddetermined that the 1986 Toyota 4Runner was traveling on a dirt trail, west ofCentral Road, and crossed over Zuni Road where it became airborne aftercolliding into the dirt shoulder.

According to the coroner’s report, the 4Runner’s occupants were off-roadenthusiasts. After striking the berm, the 4 Runner overturned and came to a restupside down.

The investigation into this crash is ongoing and deputies are asking anyadditional witnesses to call the Apple Valley station at 760-240-7400. Thosewishing to remain anonymous can call the WeTip hotline at 800-782-7436 orvisit www.WeTip.com.

O�-road crash k ills two Apple Valley residents


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Family of 3 rescued after falling through ice on Big Bear Lake – San Bernardino Sun

https://www.sbsun.com/2020/01/19/family-of-3-rescued-after-falling-through-ice-on-big-bear-lake/[1/21/2020 7:51:56 AM]

By JOSH CAIN | [email protected] | Los Angeles Daily NewsPUBLISHED: January 19, 2020 at 4:30 pm | UPDATED: January 20, 2020 at 7:24 am

A family of three was pulled from the freezing waters of Big Bear Lake on Saturday after they fellthrough the ice, despite nearby signs warning them to stay away, sheriff’s officials said.

The father, mother and daughter walked out on to a frozen-over portion of the lake at around 2:33p.m., according to a San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman as well as severalwitnesses to the incident.

As they moved further out, the ice cracked and all three fell into the water.

“Three people fell through the ice right down there,” said one woman on Instagram with the usernameBeachSnowChick. “(We) just happened to be driving by … we came and grabbed our tow strap.”


Family of 3 rescued after falling through ice onBig Bear Lake

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243 likesbeachsnowchick

Remember when I posted a few weeks back STAYOFF LAKE ICE! Well it happened today. A family ofthree fell through the ice and we assisted in therescue. We tried to throw out our tow strap but itwas too short and heavy. The Big Bear sheriffsresponded quickly and did an amazing job gettingthe family out. I decided to share this on my feed inhopes that this educates people to stay off thedamn ice! @telemundo52 #stayoffice#stayofflakeice #icewaterrescue #icerescue#bigbear #bigbearlake #socalmountains #sbnf#cbsla #ktla #abceyewitness #winterconditions#winterwarnings #besafeview all 64 comments

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The Instagram user filmed sheriff’s deputies near the water’s edge, apparently just after the rescue.The video showed emergency vehicles crowding a street with traffic backed up behind them.

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The woman in the video said she and her husband attempted to throw the tow strap out to the family,but it was too short.

Jodi Miller, the SBSD spokeswoman, said deputies arrived quickly and, after tossing a rope for thefamily to grab on to, got all of them out in about three minutes.

The family appeared to be OK — Miller said San Bernardino County firefighters were dispatched, butthe family refused medical treatment.

Dan Cupido, a reporter who published photos of the family prone on the ice being pulled to safety,said on Facebook there were signs near the water warning to stay off the ice.

Miller also confirmed there were numerous signs posted around the lake. She said the father wascited for failing to heed the warnings.

In a Facebook post, the Big Bear Fire Department said the incident was an example of the “dangers ofplaying on lake ice.”

“Did you know that if you fall into water that is 35 degrees Fahrenheit or colder, that your hands andfeet stop working in 2 minutes or less?” fire officials said. “If not rescued within 15 minutes,unconsciousness and/or death can occur. Please stay off the ice for yours and your (family’s) safety!”

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Riverside councilwoman tries to remove planning commissioner she defeated in election – Press Enterprise

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LOCAL NEWS

Riverside councilwoman tries to remove planningcommissioner she defeated in election


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By RYAN HAGEN | [email protected] | The Press-EnterprisePUBLISHED: January 20, 2020 at 5:32 pm | UPDATED: January 20, 2020 at 7:41 pm

Riverside Councilwoman Gaby Plascencia is trying to remove the planning commissioner for the wardshe represents — and who narrowly lost a bitterly fought election to her in November.

Sean Mill’s four-year term ends in March 2021, but Plascencia is asking the City Council to removehim Tuesday, Jan. 21.

After her recommendation, the City Council is set to vote Tuesday, waiving the sunshine ordinancethat usually requires items to be put on the agenda 12 days before a vote. Plascencia filed the requestFriday, Jan. 17.

Gaby Plascencia, right, beat Sean Mill, left, in the Nov. 5 election to represent Ward 5 on the Riverside City Council. Now Plascenciais seeking to have Mill removed from the Planning Commission. (Photos courtesy of Sean Mill and Gaby Plascencia)

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That was right after she called Mill to demand that he resign, according to Mill.

“She said, ‘You either resign or I’ll have you removed, because I’m sure you don’t want your nameand your family to be dragged through the media,” Mill said Monday, Jan. 20. “So I took that as athreat, and my first call was to the city attorney to report a violation of the city’s ethics code. That’scoercion of an elected official.”

Plascencia did not return repeated phone calls, emails or text messages Monday, Jan. 20.

City offices were closed Monday because of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.

Mill said Plascencia alleged on the phone call that he was unethical, but he said she refused to saywhat he had done. Mill said he works hard and ethically.


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Planning Commission Chairman Maartin Rossouw said he never saw any evidence of unethicalbehavior by Mill.

“The biggest issue is you cannot just randomly remove someone because you don’t like them,”Rossouw said. “It taints the process. The reason we have commissions and boards is so we can haveobjective decisions. Otherwise, why even have a Planning Commission?”

The Planning Commission advises the council on proposed zoning and land use, developmentapplications and related decisions.

The city charter requires the nine-member commission to include at least one member from each ofthe seven wards, who typically is recommended by the council member for that ward. Members serveat the pleasure of the mayor and City Council and can be removed with at least five votes, with themayor entitled to vote, according to the charter.

Like many cities, Riverside staggers the terms of council members and the commissioners theyappoint. That’s intended to make sure experienced people review important projects and decisionsaren’t overly influenced by politics, Rossouw said.

In his eight years on the commission, he said the only time he can remember a member beingremoved mid-term was when a member moved out of state.

Rossouw refused a demand by then-Councilman Steve Adams that he resign in 2018 after Rossouwrefused to vote for a ban on most marijuana uses in Riverside.

Then-Councilman Chris Mac Arthur appointed Mill to serve on the commission for a four-year termbeginning in 2017.

Mill and Plascencia waged a heated campaign for the seat

https://www.pe.com/2018/07/21/riverside-councilman-wants-committee-member-ousted-after-marijuana-vote/

https://www.pe.com/2019/10/28/riverside-city-council-ward-5-candidates-sean-mill-and-gaby-plascencia-spar-over-qualifications/



Gaby Plascencia leading Sean Mill asRiverside City Council election nightcounting ends

Riverside City Council Ward 5 candidatesSean Mill and Gaby Plascencia spar overqualifications

Riverside councilman wants committeemember ousted after marijuana vote

Why Riverside City Council’s diverse newmembers say election is ‘historic for all ofus’

RELATED LINKSthat Mac Arthur vacated, with Plascencia winning theNovember run-off by 222 votes, or about 5 percentagepoints.

She was sworn into office Dec. 3.

The written report given to the City Council does notindicate why Plascencia thinks Mill should be removed orwhy the sunshine ordinance should be waived.

Mill said she had a right not to reappoint him when he termends, but that firing someone mid-term when they haven’tviolated any rules would open the precedent of electedofficials filling the commission with only political supporters.

“Gaby is a petulant, immature person that is proving herselfunqualified to sit in the seat,” Mill said.

The vote is scheduled for 1 p.m. in the council chambers, 3900 Main St.

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Ryan HagenRyan Hagen covers the city of Riverside for the Southern California Newspaper Group. Since he begancovering Inland Empire governments in 2010, he's written about a city entering bankruptcy and exitingbankruptcy; politicians being elected, recalled and arrested; crime; a terrorist attack; fires; ICE; fights toend homelessness; fights over the location of speed bumps; and people's best and worst moments. His

greatest accomplishment is breaking a coffee addiction. His greatest regret is any moment without coffee.

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1/21/2020 Santa Rosa Band of Cahuilla Indians hopes hemp production will raise up to $3 million a year – Press Enterprise

https://www.pe.com/2020/01/20/santa-rosa-band-of-cahuilla-indians-hopes-hemp-production-will-raise-up-to-3-million-a-year/ 1/6

Steven Estrada, tribal vice chairman for the Santa Rosa Band of Cahuilla Indians,Steven Estrada, tribal vice chairman for the Santa Rosa Band of Cahuilla Indians,stands on a hill overlooking tribal land near Mountain Center on Friday, Jan. 17, 2020.stands on a hill overlooking tribal land near Mountain Center on Friday, Jan. 17, 2020.The tribe plans to have hemp cultivated on its land. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda,The tribe plans to have hemp cultivated on its land. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda,The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)


Santa Rosa Band of CahuillaSanta Rosa Band of CahuillaIndians hopes hemp productionIndians hopes hemp productionwill raise up to $3 million a yearwill raise up to $3 million a yearThe small tribe near Idyllwild, which has no casino,The small tribe near Idyllwild, which has no casino,will let growers to rent up to 30 acres of tribal landwill let growers to rent up to 30 acres of tribal landfor cultivationfor cultivation

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By By BEAU YARBROUGHBEAU YARBROUGH | | [email protected]@scng.com | The Press- | The Press-EnterpriseEnterprisePUBLISHED: PUBLISHED: January 20, 2020 at 7:30 amJanuary 20, 2020 at 7:30 am | UPDATED: | UPDATED: January 20, 2020 at 7:59 amJanuary 20, 2020 at 7:59 am

Industrial hemp, grown on a reservation near Idyllwild, may be coming to a storeIndustrial hemp, grown on a reservation near Idyllwild, may be coming to a store

near you.near you.

The The Santa Rosa Band of Cahuilla IndiansSanta Rosa Band of Cahuilla Indians has received the green light from the has received the green light from the

U.S. Department of Agriculture to begin growing hemp on its reservation.U.S. Department of Agriculture to begin growing hemp on its reservation.

The tribe is one of three in the nation to receive the approval, according to theThe tribe is one of three in the nation to receive the approval, according to the

tribe. The Santa Rosa band is a small tribe of about 139 members over the age oftribe. The Santa Rosa band is a small tribe of about 139 members over the age of

18, about 70 of whom live on their 11,021-acre reservation, according to the tribal18, about 70 of whom live on their 11,021-acre reservation, according to the tribal

website. The Santa Rosa are a non-gaming tribe without a casino.website. The Santa Rosa are a non-gaming tribe without a casino.

“The tribe was trying to venture into the cannabis arena a few years back,” tribal“The tribe was trying to venture into the cannabis arena a few years back,” tribal

Vice Chairman Steven Estrada said.Vice Chairman Steven Estrada said.

But the But the legal uncertainty around cannabis cultivationlegal uncertainty around cannabis cultivation kept them from diving in. kept them from diving in.

“We’re kind of waiting on a legislative fix to see where potential possibilities may“We’re kind of waiting on a legislative fix to see where potential possibilities may

be.”be.”

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In 2016, the tribe passed an ordinance allowing it to implement federal hempIn 2016, the tribe passed an ordinance allowing it to implement federal hemp

regulations. Hemp has less than 1% of the tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, presentregulations. Hemp has less than 1% of the tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, present

in cannabis. THC is the active ingredient in cannabis. Industrial hemp is used toin cannabis. THC is the active ingredient in cannabis. Industrial hemp is used to

create textiles, paper and other products.create textiles, paper and other products.

In the 2018 Congressional farm bill, Congress directed the USDA to set up aIn the 2018 Congressional farm bill, Congress directed the USDA to set up a

program for hemp production. The program for hemp production. The U.S. Domestic Hemp Production ProgramU.S. Domestic Hemp Production Program was was

unveiled in October 2019, and the tribe applied.unveiled in October 2019, and the tribe applied.BOOK NOW


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“The ultimate goal is increasing economic opportunities for the tribe,” Estrada“The ultimate goal is increasing economic opportunities for the tribe,” Estrada

said. “We’re a non-gaming tribe, so our funding sources are limited.”said. “We’re a non-gaming tribe, so our funding sources are limited.”

The tribe’s revenue primarily comes from land leases, The tribe’s revenue primarily comes from land leases, shared gaming revenueshared gaming revenue

under their 1999 gaming compactunder their 1999 gaming compact, and grant money., and grant money.

“These are all kind of limited with what we can do,” Estrada said. “So this is just“These are all kind of limited with what we can do,” Estrada said. “So this is just

another avenue to get us to self-sufficiency.”another avenue to get us to self-sufficiency.”

The tribe doesn’t plan to raise hemp itself. Instead, it intends to lease up to 30The tribe doesn’t plan to raise hemp itself. Instead, it intends to lease up to 30

acres of land to commercial hemp growers.acres of land to commercial hemp growers.

“We’ve had interest from outside parties as far back as a year and a half ago,”“We’ve had interest from outside parties as far back as a year and a half ago,”

Estrada said. “But nothing has been official yet.”Estrada said. “But nothing has been official yet.”

The tribe hopes to have hemp growing on the land by the end of the year or inThe tribe hopes to have hemp growing on the land by the end of the year or in

early 2021.early 2021.

“There’s a lot of vetting we have to do with these companies,” Tribal Administrator“There’s a lot of vetting we have to do with these companies,” Tribal Administrator

Vanessa Minott said.Vanessa Minott said.

The tribe is hoping to generate up to $3 million a year through the leases, far lessThe tribe is hoping to generate up to $3 million a year through the leases, far less

than it could make by allowing growers to raise cannabis, which is much morethan it could make by allowing growers to raise cannabis, which is much more

profitable per acre.profitable per acre.

“With hemp, as opposed to cannabis, land is a big issue,” Minott said.“With hemp, as opposed to cannabis, land is a big issue,” Minott said.

If and when it looks like the tribe could allow cannabis cultivation withoutIf and when it looks like the tribe could allow cannabis cultivation without

running into legal trouble with the federal government, it may transition over.running into legal trouble with the federal government, it may transition over.

“There’s a big misconception with the general public that, just because it’s“There’s a big misconception with the general public that, just because it’s

reservation land, that it’s lawless,” Estrada said, “but we do have our own laws andreservation land, that it’s lawless,” Estrada said, “but we do have our own laws and

regulations that are required.”regulations that are required.”

In the meantime, the tribe has high hopes for hemp.In the meantime, the tribe has high hopes for hemp.

“It’s definitely going to set a foundation for our tribe economically,” Minott said.“It’s definitely going to set a foundation for our tribe economically,” Minott said.

“There’s not a lot of job opportunities for our tribe members to go after internally,“There’s not a lot of job opportunities for our tribe members to go after internally,

so we’re looking forward to this as a way to become self sufficient.”so we’re looking forward to this as a way to become self sufficient.”


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1/21/2020 Orange County jail scandal investigation ends with no answers - Los Angeles Times

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-20/california-attorney-general-orange-county-jail-scandal-harris-becerra 1/13

CALIFORNIA

How a major investigation into Orange County jail informantsended with a whimper

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) oversaw the California attorney general’s o�ce investigation into the Orange County jailhouseinformant scandal. With the case closed without charges, parties involved in the probe are speaking out and raisingquestions about the thoroughness of the inquiry. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

By JAMES QUEALLY, MELANIE MASON

JAN. 20, 2020

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When former California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris in 2015 launched a criminal investigation into

corruption inside Orange County’s jails, local activists and attorneys hoped it would finally reveal

the breadth of a scandal that engulfed the Sheriff’s Department and district attorney’s office — and

may have affected countless court cases.

Four years later — after an investigation into the misuse of informants inside the county’s jails

came to an anticlimactic end in a Santa Ana courtroom with no explanation and no charges filed —

those same advocates were left asking a much simpler question: What happened?

For the record:

8:23 PM, Jan. 20, 2020 A previous version of this story misidentified an Orange County

sheriff’s deputy who resigned in March. The deputy is William Grover.

Though the scandal sparked a U.S. Department of Justice investigation and led to retrials for

dozens of defendants, including convicted murderers, the unexplained conclusion of the state

inquiry has stirred frustration that many key players will escape accountability.

Harris’ successor, Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra, has refused to discuss specifics about the inquiry or

explain how a perjury investigation came up empty even after a Superior Court judge ruled that

two deputies “intentionally lied or willfully withheld material evidence” about the misuse of

informants at a murder trial.

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But in the months since the inquiry’s end, law enforcement leaders in Orange County and attorneys

involved in cases tied to the scandal have agreed to speak out about the tactics used by state

investigators during the four-year review, raising serious questions about how thorough the

attorney general’s office was.

From 2015 to 2019, only four Sheriff’s Department employees were interviewed as part of the

investigation, according to Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes. The three deputies who were the

focus of both the attorney general’s investigation and the Sheriff’s Department’s internal inquiry

were not among those interviewed, Orange County Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders said.

For at least the first two years of the inquiry, witnesses were subpoenaed or compelled to testify,

according to an official with knowledge of the investigation who spoke on the condition of

anonymity in order to discuss the case candidly.

Even the length of the investigation has been called into question. Although the public was not

made aware of the investigation’s end until April 2019, Barnes said the Sheriff’s Department

stopped receiving requests for interviews or documents in early 2017. Sanders, who based his

comments on court documents detailing the investigation that he reviewed as part of a criminal

trial, said there are no records indicating that the investigation carried on past late 2016. Becerra

succeeded Harris in 2017.

“It’s been pretty hard to sit here watching them pretend like they had an ongoing investigation

when they were done in 2016,” Sanders said. “All of them knew. It’s not like Sen. Harris didn’t

know. It’s not like Becerra didn’t know they were perpetuating a scam. There was no reason not to

tell us the investigation was over, but they clearly did not want to deal with questions about why

they did and didn’t do certain things.”

Sanders — the public defender who first uncovered evidence of the Sheriff’s Department’s

problematic use of informants — has not disclosed this information previously. He declined to

allow a Times’ reporter to review the documents or provide copies.

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-orange-county-informant-scandal-answers-20190421-story.html



Sanders was given voluminous records related to the attorney general’s investigation as part of the

discovery he received during hearings in connection to murder charges against Scott Dekraai, the

gunman in the 2011 Seal Beach salon massacre. Dekraai’s case became central to the informant

scandal when it was revealed the Sheriff’s Department had housed a prolific snitch near him

hoping to elicit a confession.

The revelation was one of several that led to accusations that deputies housed a network of

informants next to inmates to question them about crimes for which they had already been

charged, a clear violation of their constitutional right to have an attorney present.

More than a dozen defendants received retrials after the scandal was exposed, including some

convicted of grisly murders such as the 1998 slaying of a woman who was eight months pregnant

when her body was dumped into the Long Beach harbor.

Dekraai was spared the death penalty. Orange County Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals

ruled that the defendant could never truly receive a fair trial, citing the Sheriff’s Department’s

repeated failure to turn over evidence about the scandal.

In 2017, Dekraai was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the deaths of

eight people at Salon Meritage. He had pleaded guilty to the crimes in 2014.

The district attorney’s office and Sheriff’s Department denied running an illegal informant

program, but a judge removed county prosecutors from the Dekraai case in 2015, handing its

prosecution to the attorney general.

The documents concerning the state investigation were filed under seal, but Sanders agreed to give

a general description of their contents in an interview with The Times because the review had

ended and Dekraai cannot appeal his case under the terms of his plea.

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-scott-dekraai-sentencing-20170922-story.html



Orange County Public Defender Scott Sanders, seen in 2014, said mass killer Scott Dekraai has been the victim of a“conspiracy of silence” among authorities. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Based on what he saw in the court documents, Sanders described the investigation as weak.

“It was just striking ... it was really, clearly, not a hard and penetrating investigation determined to

get to the truth about what happened. You couldn’t read this and say these folks were really trying

to get to the bottom of this. It was softballs and little follow-up,” he said. “You would have never

examined these materials and decided the A.G.’s office was trying to put any sheriff’s deputies in

harm’s way.”

Gerald Engler, the assistant attorney general in charge of criminal investigations, referred

questions to the California Department of Justice’s press office, which declined to comment for this

story. At news conferences last year, Becerra himself evaded questions about the way the case was

handled.

Harris, whose bumpy presidential campaign ended last month, declined an interview request from

The Times. In a statement, Harris’ press secretary Meaghan Lynch called the Sheriff’s

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-12-03/kamala-harris-drop-out





Department’s handing of informants “disturbing” and said Harris believed the investigation would

continue after she left office.

“While [Sen. Harris] shared others’ frustrations that a thorough investigation could not be

completed more quickly, the investigation was ongoing and still underway when she left the

Attorney General’s office and became senator,” the statement said.

Harris’ criminal justice record was a thorn in her presidential bid. While she touted her

prosecutorial past as an asset in challenging President Trump, critics said her close ties to law

enforcement put her out of step with a Democratic primary electorate seeking reform and police

accountability.

In fact, it has been the Trump administration’s Justice Department — which has otherwise come

under criticism for cutting back on federal reviews of law enforcement misconduct — that has

continued to investigate informant misuse in Orange County. Last year, Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer

told The Times that federal investigators had requested more than 100 case files and thousands of

pages of documents related to trials that are more than 2 decades old as it continues to review the

issue.

Sanders said he believed Harris’ habit of shying away from pursuing misconduct cases against law

enforcement played a role in what he saw as an inept investigation in Orange County.

“Three deputies committed blatant perjury in a death penalty case,” he said. “The Harris

administration had everything it needed to prosecute for perjury, except for the courage to stand

up to law enforcement.”

An official with knowledge of Harris’ thinking said the investigation was stalled by intensive

document review and the fact that “principal key witnesses” could not be interviewed, referring to

the three deputies who later became the focus of the Sheriff’s Department’s internal investigation.

Her office did not make an attempt to compel or subpoena witnesses to testify, said the official,

who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss the case candidly.

The official was not sure whether the deputies refused to be interviewed, and disputed

characterizations that the investigation was largely completed before Harris left office.



“When she left, no one was saying, ‘All right, the investigation’s done,’” the official said.

Barnes, who was an assistant sheriff at the time, said the attorney general’s office stopped

requesting interviews or documents in early 2017, shortly after Becerra took office.

“It got to the point where we were asking for updates, and there was no response,” he said. “It

didn’t seem like there was any work being done, but there was also no finality to it.”

Harris’ successor, Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra, has repeatedly refused to discuss the case. (Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)

Assistant Sheriff Bill Baker, who formerly served as a captain overseeing the county’s central jail

complex and took part in the search for the log of jailhouse informant movements years earlier,

confirmed that he was interviewed, but the Sheriff’s Department declined to identify any other

personnel who spoke with the attorney general’s office. The relatively small number of personnel

interviewed drew scrutiny from some law enforcement experts.

“You would think, given the allegations about how widespread this practice was in the jails, that

there would be more witnesses that you would want to call in that investigation,” said Richard



Drooyan, a former federal prosecutor who served as the court-appointed monitor over reforms in

L.A. County’s jails.

The state investigation, however, seemed focused on possible perjury charges against several

deputies who testified at Dekraai’s trial, according to the Harris official. In 2015, former Orange

County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas sent a letter to the attorney general’s office requesting criminal

investigations into Deputies Seth Tunstall and Ben Garcia, citing a judge’s conclusion that the two

men were probably not truthful when they delivered testimony during the murder trial.

But the Harris official said state investigators were severely hamstrung by the deputies’ refusal to

speak with them.

“In order to prove perjury, you needed to know or establish exactly what the sheriff’s deputies

knew when they testified, and that was one of the many reasons why it was important, or would

have been helpful, to actually interview them, which of course didn’t happen,” the official said.

Tunstall and a third deputy under investigation, William Grover, resigned in March, the Sheriff’s

Department said.

A second letter sent by Rackauckas in 2018, which was obtained by The Times through a public

records request, also suggests the state investigation had been closed earlier than previously

known.

He sent the letter to Barnes and then-Sheriff Sandra Hutchens to inform them he would not be

adding any deputies linked to the snitch scandal to the office’s so-called Brady list, referring to the

U.S. Supreme Court ruling requiring the disclosure of potentially exculpatory evidence to a

defendant, including names of law enforcement officers whose testimony might be deemed

unreliable.

In the letter, Rackauckas said that his decision was “unaffected by the Attorney General’s

investigation and decision not to pursue criminal actions” against any deputies. Rackauckas did

not respond to requests for comment.



Sanders believes the failed state investigation will serve as a missed opportunity to curb future

misconduct.

“When you do an investigation like this and it’s not done in good faith and it’s not responsibly

done, members of law enforcement just become more dangerous in terms of their willingness to

commit misconduct,” he said. “The last line of protection for the public was the attorney general’s

office.”

CALIFORNIA POLITICS

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James Queally

James Queally writes about crime and policing in Southern California for the Los Angeles Times.

Melanie Mason

Melanie Mason is a reporter covering the 2020 presidential campaign. She started with the Los

Angeles Times in Washington, D.C., in 2011, covering money and politics, and she also covered

state politics and government in Sacramento.

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1/21/2020 L.A. County homeless count: Here's what you need to know - Los Angeles Times

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-21/homeless-count-los-angeles-county-faq 1/7

CALIFORNIA

L.A. County is counting homeless people this week. Here’severything you need to know

Volunteers Arya Hadidi and his mother Nisrin Hadidi helped conduct a count of L.A. County’s homeless population inBrentwood in 2014. The annual, three-day process starts Tuesday. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

By BENJAMIN ORESKESSTAFF WRITER

JAN. 21, 20203 AM

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On Tuesday evening, Los Angeles County will begin its annual, three-day “point in time” count

of the homeless population.

Thousands of volunteers will fan out with clipboards across the city to get a snapshot of the

county’s sheltered and unsheltered homeless population — one of the largest in the country.

The results normally get released in May or June, and are used by government officials to

determine funding priorities for housing and services, and by the public to assess how much

progress has been made on stemming the tide of homelessness.

Here’s what you need to know.

How does the count work?

Estimating the county’s homeless population is no small feat. The count takes place over several

days.

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It starts Tuesday in the San Gabriel and San Fernando

valleys. On Wednesday, it picks up in West Los Angeles, Southeast Los Angeles and the South

Bay. And finally, on Thursday volunteers canvass the Antelope Valley, Metro Los Angeles and

South Los Angeles.

With the exception of the Antelope Valley, where volunteers go out early in the morning, the

count takes place late at night in the county’s roughly 2,160 census tracts. Last year, there were

nearly 8,000 RSVPs to volunteer, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

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alleys, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department helps out.

In all, the whole three-day exercise costs about $1.1 million, according to the homeless

authority, which oversees the count.

How do I volunteer?

You can still sign up here.

Why does the count matter?

The results aren’t just something for politicians to celebrate or worry about come election time.

Real dollars are tied to how many people volunteers find living on the street. The federal

government divvies up resources based on these numbers, giving the places with the most

homeless people the most resources.

What was the total last year?

The 2019 count found 58,936 homeless people living in Los Angeles County and 36,300 living in

the city of Los Angeles. Those were increases of 12% and 16%, respectively, over 2018. The 2018

count found that Los Angeles County had 52,765 homeless people, which was a slight dip from

the year before. In the city of Los Angeles, there were 31,285 homeless people that year.

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(Los Angeles Times)

How could they know the exact number of people there were exactly that many people?

Well they didn’t. This number is an estimate, and some critics ding the county’s number

crunchers for their implied precision. After volunteers go out, the records are sent to the Los

Angeles Homeless Services Authority, which uses them to create statistical estimates by

weighting the volunteers’ observations with results gleaned from their survey of homeless

people. Separately, workers survey thousands of homeless people to come up with estimates of

how many people live in each car, lean-to and tent.

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But using a different analysis of the survey, a local nonprofit estimated that 102,278 became

homeless at one time or another during 2017.

Why is the population going up?

It’s not easy to identify a single reason why the homeless population has climbed, but there are

some key factors. L.A.’s red-hot housing market has made it difficult for people already living on

the edge of poverty to continue to afford their rent. Many of them have been forced into the

streets.

Government officials also have struggled to keep up. The city and county have launched various

programs to add affordable housing units, temporary shelter beds and permanent supportive

housing. But construction has been slow and was often met with backlash from residents.

Which neighborhoods were hit the hardest?

Last year, the Westside experienced the largest increase at 19%, following a year in which its

numbers were down by even more. The San Gabriel Valley was close behind with a 17% increase,

marking the second consecutive year its homeless population had grown. South Los Angeles also

saw a jump of 15%.

Aren’t most homeless people from out of state?

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Well, no, actually. The homeless authority reports that the majority of the homeless people have

lived in Los Angeles County for 10 years or longer. About 75% of the homeless adults and

children in so-called adult families (in which there’s at least one adult older than 24) said they

had lived somewhere in Southern California before becoming homeless.

What’s changed in recent years?

Money is beginning to flow from the city and county into services programs and permanent

housing and shelter projects. Los Angeles spent $619 million 2018 on homelessness.

Mayor Eric Garcetti declared a shelter crisis in 2018 and created the “A Bridge Home” program

with the goal of placing at least one temporary shelter in each City Council district. So far, at

least nine shelters have opened with a combined 519 beds. In all, 30 shelters are in some stage of

development for a total of 2,300 new beds, including about 900 that the city plans to fund from

other sources.

However, many council members have been slow to follow through on their promise to build at

least 222 units of supportive housing in each district by July 1, 2020. While some have exceeded

the goal, others have not.

This month, the city opened its first homeless housing development, funded by Proposition

HHH, the $1.2-billion bond measure passed in 2016. About 20 more projects are under

construction. Work will begin on an additional 30 in 2020.

The state has also committed to spending millions of dollars to help cities and counties address

the crisis. In his most recent budget proposal, Gov. Gavin Newsom asked the Legislature for

more than $1.4 billion, with much of the money earmarked as subsidies for immediate housing

and community healthcare services.

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1/21/2020 Editorial: California presidential primary could be a disaster - Los Angeles Times

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-01-20/california-presidential-primary-voting-confusion-threatens-election?fbclid=IwAR3jZLNv8lPA2iL0QpR… 1/8

OPINION

Editorial: Is California’s presidential primary a disaster waiting tohappen?

Voting in Los Angeles ( Los Angeles Times)

By THE TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD

JAN. 20, 20203 AM

California lawmakers moved the state’s 2020 presidential primary up to March 3 to give voters in

the most populous state more influence over who will be running in the November general election.

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But millions of voters might be left out anyway unless they pay close attention to the rules for

crossover voting and take action soon.

Voting in California has changed a lot in the last decade. The state dumped traditional partisan

primaries in most races in favor of the “top two” system, devised a system to draw legislative and

congressional districts that is more insulated from politics, and made it far easier to register to

vote. And this year, the changes go nuclear in Los Angeles, Orange and a few other counties, which

will be shifting from in-person voting on Election Day to voting at centralized polling centers that

open weeks before ballots are counted. For the most part, the changes have been designed make it

easier for people to vote.

But what hasn’t changed much is how we run presidential primaries every four years. Unlike races

for state legislature and Congress, where any voter can automatically vote across party lines,

presidential primaries are open only to members of the political party in question, unless the party

decides differently. Some parties choose to let unaffiliated voters participate, but in that case those

voters have to ask for an additional ballot. It’s a clunky process compared to other state primaries,

and it seems as if many voters haven’t gotten the message amid the hubbub of an otherwise high-

interest election.

More than one quarter of California’s 20 million voters are registered with no party preference.

And those who vote by mail, which is the majority of them, will receive their ballots in about two

weeks with no presidential candidates on them. If they want to pick a presidential candidate for a

particular party they must either contact the county registrar and ask for the ballot for one of three

primaries open to unaffiliated voters (in Los Angeles county they can do that up until a week before

the election) — Democratic, Libertarian and American Independent parties — or reregister if they

want to vote for a candidate in a party whose primary is open only to members. Anyone who wants

to cast a vote for President Trump in the Republican primary must be a registered member of the

GOP to do so.

Los Angeles County has just under a million unaffiliated mail voters and has sent out postcards

twice informing them of the process. But only about 47,000 people have responded to ask for

crossover ballots so far, with just two weeks until the ballots are mailed. That trend is reflected

https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/political-parties/no-party-preference/



across the state; fewer than 10% of No Party Preference voters had responded to notifications

about requesting a ballot by earlier this month, when political data analyst Paul Mitchell checked

in with county registrars. Worse, some people have been spreading misinformation (argggh, Susan

Sarandon!) and conspiracy theories that are not at all helpful.

Registered voters with no party preference who cast ballots in person will not be affected by this;

they can request a ballot from among those primaries open to them when they show up at the polls,

which open Feb. 22 in Los Angeles County. Also, vote by mail unaffiliated voters in L.A. county can

choose to vote in person and get a new ballot with presidential candidates so long as they haven’t

returned their mail ballot first.

Our concern is that potentially millions of voters around the state will wake up on March 3 to

realize they are shut out of participating in this important decision. That’s why the process of

voting for president ought to be as much a part of the conversation as whom to vote for. Don’t just

ask your friends which candidate they are pulling for. Ask them if they know how they are going to

make that selection. Elections officials especially need to bump up their voter education game in

the next few weeks, if they haven’t done so already. And candidates who want to get votes from

unaffiliated voters ought to be broadcasting details about how to check registration status and what

to do to receive the correct ballot.

It’s reasonable to allow state parties to continue to set the rules when it comes presidential

primaries. That doesn’t mean, however, that California can’t figure out ways to make the rules

clearer and more easily understandable in the future. Colorado, which pioneered many of the

election changes that are coming this year to Los Angeles, has found a simple way around the

crossover voting problem. All nonpartisan voters in that state are automatically mailed ballots for

parties open to unaffiliated voters, with instructions to return only one.

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That may not be practical in California, which is so much larger, but it could be worth exploring

along with other ideas if we wake up on March 4 to find millions of voters who wanted to vote were

left out of the primary.

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OPINION

Letters to the Editor: Why exactly do we let Iowa caucus-goers vote first?Jan. 21, 2020

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1/21/2020 CA wildfire insurance crisis driven by global players | The Sacramento Bee

https://www.sacbee.com/news/business/article239259628.html 1/11

BUSINESS & REAL ESTATE

How global companies drive the home insurancecrisis in California wildfire zones

BY DALE KASLER

JANUARY 20, 2020 04:22 AM

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara holds a town hall meeting in Grass Valley, Aug. 22, 2019, todiscuss high rates of non-renewals and large rate increases to fire insurance in affected communities.BY JASON PIERCE

California enjoyed a comparatively mild wildfire season in 2019, but it wasn’t enough to save BobbiPimentel’s homeowners’ insurance policy.

Pimentel and her husband, who live in a rural area 30 miles east of Redding, got the dreaded noticein late November: Horace Mann Educators Corp., which has insured their property for 13 years,wouldn’t renew their policy. Pimentel, who’s still looking for new coverage, fears her premiumscould triple, costing her thousands of dollars.

“I just don’t understand how they can do that,” said Pimentel, 77. “They don’t mind taking ourmoney but they’re not covering anything.” A company spokeswoman wouldn’t discuss Pimentel’scase but said Horace Mann has paid out $157 million in California wildfire claims since 2017.

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The insurance crisis in California wildfire country is showing few signs of abating. Rural residentsare losing coverage, rates are shooting up and experts say the problem defies easy remedies.

California’s continuing woes can be traced in part to a collection of mostly foreign companies thathave become increasingly nervous about the widespread havoc caused by the state’s wildfires.

These companies sell reinsurance. That’s insurance purchased by other insurance companies thatare offloading some of the financial risks of a major catastrophe.

Reinsurance companies — unknown to most Californians, typically headquartered in such far-flung locales as Bermuda and Zurich — are a quiet but powerful force in the state’s insurancemarket. The availability of reinsurance enables better-known primary carriers such as Farmers andState Farm to keep writing coverage in wooded foothill communities where wildfire danger lurks.

Now the relationship between reinsurance and primary carriers is beginning to fray. The wildfiresof 2017 and 2018 caused $25 billion in damage. Billions in claims landed in the laps of reinsurancecompanies that had largely overlooked wildfires as major calamities.

Stunned by their losses, many reinsurance companies have begun scaling back their coverage inthe state and jacking up the rates they charge the primary carriers. Not subject to rate regulation bythe California Department of Insurance, some reinsurers are raising prices as much as 70 percent,according to a report last summer by market analyst S&P Global Ratings.

That, in turn, puts more pressure on the primary insurance companies. They have to get approvalfrom the Department of Insurance to increase premium rates on homeowners. But the departmentwon’t include the cost of reinsurance in the rate-making calculations.

Caught in that regulatory bind, primary carriers have little choice but to reduce the number ofpolicies they underwrite, said Rex Frazier of the Personal Insurance Federation of California.

“You have to (reduce) your risk profile to match your revenue,” said Frazier, whose associationlobbies for some of the major primary insurers.

Frazier said reinsurance companies used to gloss over wildfire dangers when selling coverage to hisfederation’s members. Now they’re scrutinizing wildfire risks like never before.

“It used to be, ‘Tell me about your Florida hurricane risk.’ Now it’s, ‘Please show me your modeledlosses for your California wildfire risk,’ ” Frazier said.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article232575652.html



Insurance companies have been dealing with plenty of high-cost disasters in the past few years.Large swaths of Australia are burning. Major worldwide catastrophes — from Hurricane Michael inFlorida to Typhoon Jebi in Japan to the Camp Fire in Paradise — caused an estimated $219 billionin damage in 2017 and 2018, according to Swiss Re Ltd., the world’s largest reinsurance provider. Itwas the costliest two-year run of disasters ever recorded, the company said.

Some disasters are so destructive, they force the government to take the place of private insurance.The federal government sells flood insurance. Floridians buy hurricane insurance from a not-for-profit established by their Legislature.

And more than 1 million Californians get earthquake insurance from the not-for-profit CaliforniaEarthquake Authority. It was created after the 1994 Northridge earthquake sparked a statewideinsurance crisis. California law required homeowners’ insurers to offer earthquake coverage.Rather than risk another Northridge — which caused $10 billion in covered losses — insurersstarted pulling back from coverage altogether.

Nobody’s yet suggested the creation of a similar authority for wildfires. But Californians in fire-prone areas are continuing to lose coverage — despite the absence of major disasters in 2019,hundreds of millions of dollars in new fire-safety expenditures by the Legislature and anemergency order from regulators halting policy cancellations in certain parts of the state for a year.

Reinsurance executives say California still hasn’t turned the corner on wildfire safety.

Mark Bove, a meteorologist and catastrophe solutions manager at Munich Re, a German companythat’s the world’s second-largest seller of reinsurance, said climate change, population growth infire-prone areas and other factors are continuing to drive up the risk of doing business inCalifornia.

“We are happy for the residents of California that 2019 was much milder,” Bove said. But “thewhole entire insurance and reinsurance industry still feel wildfire is a very significant, emergingrisk in California. One relatively quiet year ... does not change that fact.”

CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES NOW A MAJOR ‘PERIL’

Until recently, the reinsurance industry trained most of its brainpower — its computerized risk-analysis modeling — on what it considered “first-tier perils” such as earthquakes, tornadoes andhurricanes. Wildfires were considered a lesser danger. Then came the fires of 2017 and 2018, killingmore than 100 people, destroying much of Paradise — and forcing the industry to take a fresh lookat its models.

Perhaps most shocking was the Tubbs Fire in 2017, which swept through urban Santa Rosaneighborhoods that were thought to be at a safe remove from meaningful risk.

FIRE INSURANCE CLAIMS

Insurance companies paid nearly $25 billion in claims in 2017-18.

Wine country and Sacramento Valley claims from October 2017

Camp Fire from November 2018

Woolsey Fire from November 2018

Southern California fires from December 2017

Carr and Mendocino Complex fire from July 2018

Other fires in 2018

$10.0 b

$8.5 b

$3.3 b

$1.8 b

$970.0 m

$200.0 m

Chart: Michael Finch II • Source: California Department of Insurance • Get the data

https://www.swissre.com/dam/jcr:c37eb0e4-c0b9-4a9f-9954-3d0bb4339bfd/sigma2_2019_en.pdf

https://www.earthquakeauthority.com/About-CEA/CEA-History

https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/fires/article235819967.html

http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0400-news/0100-press-releases/2019/wildfirenonrenewalinfo.cfm

https://www.reinsurancene.ws/top-50-reinsurance-groups/

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data:application/octet-stream;charset=utf-8,Amount%2CX.1%0A10000000000%2C%3Cb%3EWine%20country%3C%2Fb%3E%20and%3Cb%3E%20Sacramento%20Valley%20%3C%2Fb%3Eclaims%20from%20%3Cb%3EOctober%202017%3C%2Fb%3E%0A1800000000%2C%3Cb%3ESouthern%20California%3C%2Fb%3E%20fires%20from%3Cb%3E%20December%202017%3C%2Fb%3E%0A970000000%2C%3Cb%3ECarr%3C%2Fb%3E%20and%20%3Cb%3EMendocino%20Complex%3C%2Fb%3E%20fire%20from%20%3Cb%3EJuly%202018%3C%2Fb%3E%0A8500000000%2C%3Cb%3ECamp%20Fire%3C%2Fb%3E%20from%20%3Cb%3ENovember%202018%3C%2Fb%3E%0A3300000000%2C%3Cb%3EWoolsey%20Fire%3C%2Fb%3E%20from%20%3Cb%3ENovember%202018%3C%2Fb%3E%0A200000000%2COther%20fires%20in%202018



“Those risk-selection tools that everyone was using were called into question,” said Doug May,president of Willis Re, a reinsurance broker and consultant based in New York. “They didn’t appearto be particularly effective, especially for wind-driven wildfire.”

Reinsurers are developing new forecasting tools, and are giving California wildfires the respectthey deserve.

“California wildfires have emerged as a first-tier US catastrophe peril,” Moody’s Investors Servicedeclared in a report last summer. Hiscox Re, a reinsurance company based in Bermuda andLondon, said in a white paper that the industry must recognize wildfire “as a serial offender.”

Zurich-based Swiss Re — the world’s largest reinsurer, with $36 billion in annual premiums — lost$775 million on California wildfires over the two years.

Everest Re, out of Bermuda, took a $450 billion beating on the Camp and Woolsey fires in 2018. AFrench reinsurance company called SCOR racked up more than $200 million in losses in 2017-18.

When 2019 came and went with just one major wildfire, the Kincade Fire in Sonoma County, muchof the reinsurance industry was not reassured.

In its annual summary of global insurance disasters, Munich Re said the 2019 result “does notchange the sharply rising long-term trend” toward major fires. Bove, the company meteorologist,said that while industry-wide losses came to just $1 billion last year, that still placed 2019 amongthe costliest years in California wildfire history.

Butte County search and rescue workers in Paradise four days after the Camp Fire. The Paradise Irrigation District, financially ruined by the fire, now must fix Magalia Dam.Hector Amezcua SACRAMENTO BEE FILE

https://www.hiscoxre.com/blog/reinsurance-market-feels-heat-wildfire

https://www.swissre.com/media/news-releases/2018/nr_20180223_fy.html



The end result is reinsurance is getting pricier and harder to find, which translates into lesscoverage available for California homeowners, said Mark Sektnan, vice president of the AmericanProperty Casualty Insurance Association.

“The reinsurers are saying they’re only going to take ‘X’ amount of risk,” said Sektnan, whorepresents primary insurers. “So you need to figure out which policies you’re not going to cover.”

CRISIS FOR RURAL HOMEOWNERS

Homeowners’ insurance is an $8 billion-a-year business in California. The vast majority ofCalifornians have little trouble getting affordable coverage. The average policy — about $1,000 ayear — is almost 20 percent below the national average, according to 2016 data from the InsuranceInformation Institute.

But in areas considered prone to wildfire, the situation has turned nightmarish. Starting with the2015 Butte Fire in Amador and Calaveras counties, and ending with the November 2018 Camp Firein Paradise, the insurance industry has lost roughly $25 billion to California’s wildfires. Theindustry’s response: Nearly 350,000 rural Californians lost their policies from 2015 to 2018,according to state data.

Tens of thousands of homeowners have had to resort to coverage from unregulated “surplus”carriers like Lloyd’s of London or the California FAIR Plan, the state’s “insurer of last resort.” TheFAIR Plan alone added 22,000 homeowners to its rolls during a 12-month span ending last August,according to a report to the Legislature.

The FAIR Plan is subject to rate regulation by the state. But it’s considered a less-than-idealalternative for homeowners. It offers bare-bones policies and doesn’t cover perils like theft, forcingcustomers to get “wrap-around” insurance to fill out their coverage.

Bottom line: Homeowners who used to pay about $2,000 a year for coverage can find themselvespaying $6,000 or more. While urban Californians who live outside of wildfire danger are immune,it’s become an all-consuming issue in wooded foothill regions and other fire-prone areas of thestate. In some places, the lack of affordable insurance is causing the real estate market to dry up.

“Mercury just notified me of cancellation after less than 3 months - has anyone received coveragein the 95959 zip code recently? Thank you so much for any info,” wrote Michelle Harding Bodley ina recent post on a Facebook page devoted to the insurance crisis in Nevada County. The page has1,000 followers.

So many homeowners have been forced onto the FAIR Plan lately, the insurer of last resort is nowworried about becoming overburdened. Last fall Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara orderedthe FAIR Plan to start offering full-fledged insurance coverage, in addition to its bare-bonespolicies.

The FAIR Plan — which was created by the state after insurers abandoned inner cities following the1960s riots — responded by taking Lara to court. The plan is funded by insurers and doesn’t receivetax subsidies.

The impact of Lara’s other big order remains unclear. In December the commissioner imposed aone-year moratorium prohibiting carriers from dropping homeowners living in and around themajor fires that occurred in 2019 — a move that protects about 1 million homeowners. Lara had theauthority to order the moratorium under SB 824, a bill he authored while in the Legislature in 2018.

The commissioner also asked insurers halt cancellations for a year in the rest of the state as well. Sofar no company has agreed to it, but “we continue to be in discussions” with insurers about Lara’srequest, said Department of Insurance spokesman Michael Soller.

Randy Fletcher, a Marysville insurance agent, said Lara’s efforts are falling short. Until the statedoes more to reduce underlying wildfire dangers, he said insurance carriers will remain reluctant tounderwrite coverage in wooded areas.

“They’re telling me, show me proof it’s safer and profitable to write in the forests,” said Fletcher, aYuba County supervisor whose district bore the brunt of the 2017 Cascade Fire. “The solution isn’t


https://ains.assembly.ca.gov/sites/ains.assembly.ca.gov/files/hearings/Hearing%20Materials_082119.pdf

https://www.facebook.com/groups/578812025949781/

https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article238366578.html

http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0250-insurers/0300-insurers/0200-bulletins/bulletin-notices-commiss-opinion/upload/MandatoryMoratoriumOnNonRenewalsAfterRecentWildfireActivity.pdf

http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB824




from the insurance commissioner putting a one-year band-aid (on the problem).”

Soller acknowledged the moratorium isn’t a remedy but is designed to give “breathing room forconsumers” while more long-lasting solutions are developed. Those include more intensifiedefforts by the state to reduce wildfire risks — and then finding ways to get insurers to makecoverage more available.

“We’re going to push for a stronger commitment from insurers to write policies in wildfirecommunities, to address this non-renewal issue,” Soller said.

In the meantime, insurance carriers insist California also needs to raise premium rates.

Frazier said the Department of Insurance has kept premiums artificially low over the years.Companies are loathed to seek rate increases of more than 6.9 percent because that’s the thresholdthat triggers hearings that could last a year or longer, he said. At the same time, he said thecompanies are prohibited in California from incorporating reinsurance costs into their rate-hikerequests.

“Companies can’t match the risk to price,” Frazier said. “Why are we acting surprised that there arenon-renewals in the high-risk areas?

“(Regulators) are trying to shield people from big price disruptions and that’s understandable,” headded. “But if they push too hard, the insurance system doesn’t have enough money to insureeverybody.”

Soller said the primary carriers have gotten plenty of rate relief — the department approved rateincreases totaling $388 million a year in 2018 alone. “It’s not accurate to say the department has put

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara speaks to an overflow crowd at a town hall meeting in Grass Valley, Thursday, August 22, 2019, to address the concerns oflocal residents after a rise in homeowners insurance premiums and non-renewal letters due to recent California wildfires. Jason Pierce [email protected]



a lid (on rate hikes),” he said.

Michael Wara, who runs the Stanford climate and energy program and has been advisinglawmakers on wildfire issues, said any substantive fix for the insurance market is going to needinsurance executives “at the table.” But he said questions about political donations from insurers toLara’s political campaigns “makes it harder” for the commissioner to hold those discussions.

Soller disputed that. “He’s going to continue to do the work of meeting with consumers, meetingwith the industry, really as the voice of California homeowners,” the department spokesman said.

COMMENTS

DALE KASLER 916-321-1066

Dale Kasler covers climate change, the environment, economics and the convoluted world of California water. Healso covers major enterprise stories for McClatchy’s Western newspapers. He joined The Bee in 1996 from the DesMoines Register and graduated from Northwestern University.

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