City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to September 1st, 2026, City of Hesperia Council Meeting. We will open the meeting at 6.31. Do call the meeting to order, 6.31. If I may just have a moment of silence for Sam Thatt, who we just lost a couple weeks ago. Just give us 10, 15 seconds, please. Thank you. Thank you very much. Our invocation will be done by Pastor Stephen Feinstein from Sovereign Way Christian Church. And then Council Member Gregg, will you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance? Thank you. Thank you.

Let us go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, the one true God of the universe and King of Kings, Lord, the one from whom all legitimate governments derive their authority, we come before you this evening, Lord, and we pray that you would be with the city of Hesperia, that your blessings and favor would be upon it, Lord. We pray that you would bless the city council meeting. We pray that everything that needs to be accomplished tonight would be accomplished. We pray especially that you would grant wisdom to our city mayor, Bridget Bennington, along with our city council members, Chris Ochoa, Allison Lee, Cameron Gregg, and Josh Polin, and also our city attorney, Pam Lee, our city manager, Rachel Molina, and our city clerk, Jessica Geiber. Lord, we just pray these things. We thank you for hearing our prayers and we pray these things in the name of Jesus, the Messiah. Amen.

And join us in the pledge. Ready? Begin. I pledge allegiance

Do we have any corrections or revisions to the agenda?

No corrections this evening, Madam Mayor.

Thank you. Do we have any reports from closed session?

Thank you, Madam Mayor and members of the City Council. We did meet in closed session to discuss two matters of potential litigation, but neither matter has any reportable action.

Thank you. Moving on to general public comments, please.

Mayor Bennington, can we go ahead and do a roll call first?

No, didn't want to do roll call. Sorry about that.

Okay. Mayor Bennington? Here. Mayor Pilton-Pollin?

Here.

Council Member Gregg?

Here.

Council Member Lee?

Here.

Council Member Ochoa?

Here.

Thank you. Thank you. Now moving on to general public comments. Helen Wells, please.

Comment on the streets. I've been here 25 years, and I finally saw Street 7. It's great, fixed, but there's still a lot of streets that need to be fixed because I drive all the streets every single day for... personal matters and it's hard to find a street like seven that it's not good that I don't go through a pothole or Something, you know messed up in the street.

So that's my coming Thank you Kim Jones, please

Last Saturday, I went to get some water for my animals and it come out looking like a cross between lemon lime, Gatorade and iced tea mixed together. So I thought maybe there was a crack in my line. So I walked away from the water meter, you know, to my house. I see no liquid. And I let the hose run for a while and nothing happened. Then I did again Sunday and nothing happened, you know, lessened a little. So I thought I better call the city first Monday morning to make sure they hadn't done anything in the, you know, the water line or something before I call Plummer. And I wanted to thank the lady that answered the phone Monday morning around 8 o'clock. And I told the... what was going on contacted the public works and to come out two men i wanted to thank them too and they explained that because i don't use very much water it sits in the line and it kind of absorbs you know, the, from the pipes and stuff. And he told me to, they told me to run it for about 20 minutes and they'd credit me for like an acre foot of water. And I said, I don't want to waste the water. He says, no, it's going to be fine. So I'd let it run, like I said, and now it's running clear. And I just want to thank everybody. And also, uh, the last council meeting, I left for a few minutes and there was a reason why I wanted to publicly thank Gino, uh, Gina back there I lost a part of my bumper my truck which is odd and I went back searching at Long Beach couldn't find it well she come over and she took a picture of it of the bumper and everything put it on some Facebook thing and a man found it and called her up And he lives in Hesperia, but he works at one of the car dealerships in Victorville. So on his way home, he stopped over here at the City Hall and gave me back my bumper piece. So I was, like, very happy. That's why I left and not come back in. You have a truck that old, you know, things like that aren't easy to find. And his name was Kevin. I wanted to thank him, too. So thank you, everybody.

Thank you. Hesperia News and Politics, please.

Good evening everyone. Let me go ahead and get this unfolded real quick. Okay. Many of you know that I recently did an investigation into council member Chris Ochoa that led me to a concern that I must address. Some folks sent me some concerning messages. I wanted to keep the person reporting anonymous because one citizen is well known in the community and I figured they were just a concerned citizen. After looking into the evidence and more, I realized the only concern these concerned citizens had was to join in on the attack on Chris. One of them sits on the Hesperia City Council currently and his name is Cameron Gregg. I am providing screenshots to the city council that shows exactly what exactly Cameron Gregg sent me that he claims he couldn't verify despite his potential connections to law enforcement and his experience from years on the city council. Secondly, I am going to show screenshots of one of Cameron Gregg's friends sending me copies of a criminal record from before Chris Ochoa was granted executive clemency. During my investigation, I learned these records sent from Cameron's friend were possibly pulled from divorce slash family court records and were possibly obtained illegally. These proceedings often involve children and sensitive family matters, so they're typically protected by law. The individual who sent me these records is no doubt connected to Cameron Gregg because they follow each other on Instagram. This individual also follows his father, Kelly Gregg, and vice versa. And Cameron Gregg has been sitting on that council seat longer than Chris, and you're telling me that this accusation from 2021 just magically popped up and you couldn't verify or report it in some way, or better yet, ask Chris about this? Turns out, this person was struggling with mental health and attacked Chris's mother. Also, Cameron, you came up to me at National Night Out and you emphasized that you were separate from your dad who was facing the intimidation, retaliation, and knife-throwing lawsuits with Parks and Rec. Yet here you go, walking the line of playing the same games as your father, Kelly Gregg, does. Were you sitting on that evidence, waiting to send it when the moment was right? You conveniently sent this claim right after Basil's online controversy and right before Chris's Meet the Democrats event. And for the record, Basil also tried to possibly bribe me with publicity before we could even schedule an interview. The timing itself seems to add up. It's also no surprise you go after the only council member who spoke against data centers while you sat there making dirty looks. Another thing, at National Night Out, you asked me to consider a fishing trip with you at the aqueduct to teach me your secret to fishing it, because to be real, the aqueduct is pretty hard to fish. But that's officially a hell no from me, because you might just toss me in the damn thing or pull some silly shit. I will gladly consider fishing with our other council members here, including Chris. Not you. Just because you have occasionally done good for this community while on the council does not justify nor excuse these games you and your father continue to play. As a resident, I hope the city double checks and makes sure that you didn't use city resources in the process of slandering Chris. I would be even more disgusted to learn that our tax dollars are possibly being used for your shenanigans and possibly opening up the city to even more lawsuits as well. What can I say? Like father, like son. City clerk, ma'am, this is for you.

Ken Anderson, please.

On July 4th, we celebrated the 250th birthday of our nation. I'd like to continue to remind us of the many things that the 55 brave men who signed the Declaration of Independence, these founding fathers disagreed on many things, but on the connection between faith and liberty, they found common ground. They they drew from different traditions. They arrived at the same conclusion that a free people could not remain free without moral anchoring and religious convictions provides, in their words, Dr. Benjamin Rush. The only foundation for a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this, there could be no virtue. And without virtue, there can be no liberty. George Washington, of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable support. In vain would be the man who claims to tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness. Alexander Hamilton, remember civil and religious liberties always go together. If the foundation of one is sapped, the others will fall in course. John Witherspoon, he is the best friend to American liberty, who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion, and who sets himself with the greatest firmness to bear down against profanity and immorality of every kind. Samuel Adams, a general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of common enemies. He also said it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority who sets brush fires in people's minds. Benjamin Franklin said, I have lived a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see in this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men, and if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, it is probable that an empire cannot rise without his aid. Thomas Jefferson. Can the liberties of a nation be thought secured when they are removed from their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that the liberties are a gift of God? These thoughts were made by men who put everything on the line to build something that had never existed before. They kept asking what a free society required to survive, and they kept coming up with the same answer. John Adams said, our Constitution is made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the governance of any other. Thank you.

Thank you. Larry Nova, please.

Good evening, my name's Larry Nava, 20 plus year resident of Hesperia. I just gotta read off this legal notice. A citizen generally has no legal liability for defamation or slander if they can accurately read or confirm public criminal convictions of a city council member during a public comment period at an official city council meeting. Truth is an absolute defense. Truth is a complete defense of any defamation or slander claim. If the criminal convictions are accurate and part of public records, Mr Ochoa, as you stated. In many jurisdictions under California civil code, uh, SS four seven subtitle B written or oral statements during official government proceedings, including public comments at a city council meeting, enjoy an option, absolute and qualified privilege protecting the speaker for any civil lawsuits. I'm going to read from the daily, News, Mr. Ochoa. You're a convicted felon. According to your own admission, you served 10 years incarcerated. The incident happened where you actually attempted, or you did, to rob your own stepfather. Public records. And you put yourself out as this nice guy. I understand we all make mistakes. I've made mistakes. but not to that magnitude. None of these individuals up there have even done that. I don't even think they would contemplate trying to rob a family member. You bribed Tooley with $10,000 to go in there and rob your own blood? What if that gun had gone off accidentally? You wouldn't be here today. It's sad. You beat Rebecca because she did not campaign. You come from down the hill, you bring your socialist, democratic views up here. We don't need that up here. We're infected. It's a virus. It's a cancer. My family are Democrats. My own brother-in-law, George Gascon, is a DA. Most hated guy around. But you know what? He's family. So you're going to say, well, how about you, Larry? For that, I need you to submit your resignation. As far as the recall, I'm going to hold off on that. Hesperia has never had an individual elected like you with your criminal background. $10,000, you're going to rob your father, stepfather? What were you guys doing? Selling meth? It's a lot of money. I got it. Next report, I'll have it. Your time is up. Thank you.

Do we have any remote speakers? No remote speakers. Do we have any additional public comment cards? No comment cards. Thank you. Moving on to joint consent calendar, do I have a motion to move the consent calendar? I have a first by Councilmember Lee, second by Mayor Potem Polin. Can we have a vote, please? Oops. Wrong one. The item passes 5-0. Moving on to new business. Item number seven, designation of a voting delegate and alternate for the League of California Cities.

Yes, good evening, Mayor and City Council. The item before you is an annual item for the League of California Cities General Assembly. We're asking the council to designate a primary voter and up to two alternate voters for the General Assembly. That will be held September 23rd to September 25th in Anaheim. It's open for discussion.

Madam Mayor, I'd like to make a motion that we designate the primary voting as the primary person that goes to the League of California Cities and the alternate. I didn't have a preference for the third person for the alternate.

Normally, I don't even, if they have anything to even vote on, normally it's done ahead of time. Who did it last year? You did?

Larry did it when he was the mayor. I did it last year. Did you do it the year before Larry?

I've done it once, but I was a rookie to the council.

I nominate Bridget then.

I second that. Alternate will be Josh Poland.

I second that. I'll be the third. Third alternate.

Okay, a first by, well, we have Council Member Gregg, second by Council Member Choa. Can we have a vote, please? That was quick.

And just to clarify, primary would be Council Member Gregg and alternate Mayor Benito?

No, he just made the motion for Bridget to be the primary.

Okay, and alternate?

Josh, Mayor Pro Tem Poland. Thank you. Okay. Oh, we did need the third one. Oh, okay.

Designated survivor.

The motion passes 5-0. Thank you. Okay. Council Committee reports and comments. Can you start us off, please, Council Member Gregg?

I'd love to. Thank you very much. All right, first I'll address Nana because it's hard to call somebody Hesperia News Group if they don't do their full due diligence in this. So I just want to share with my colleagues and the public of what exactly I did say, just so that there's not anything that's misconstrued there, if I can find it here. Simply shared something that was sent to me, and this is what my comment was. This was sent to me from a concerned citizen. I've not had time to independently verify it. Did I post this out in public? No, I didn't. I sent it to what I thought would be a news organization that would be able to do their due diligence, but clearly that's not the case. So I'll share it on the social media, and then the public can make that sense. A half rate, if at best, news agency. wants to put that out there to the public. Kim, glad to hear that you got your bumper back. That's always good news. The streets, Miss Helen, thank you for coming out and seeing that. It's something that we see on a daily basis. Seventh looks great. Jacaranda looks good now too, but there's so many other streets that are in disarray. We're doing the best that we can with what we have. So it's unfortunate, but hopefully some of those other streets get the attention that we all know they deserve. I had a VVWA meeting. I think that was productive. We still continue to push forward with getting the JPA back in line. So that's exciting news. I'm hoping by the end of the year that everything's all squared away with that. Other than that, folks, slow down. Get to where you're going safely. I kind of want to Talk about Sam, he's been here my entire time up here, and he'll be a face that's truly missed. So my condolences to his family as well. Other than that, I have nothing else.

Thank you. Council Member Choa, please.

I actually don't have too much to report, but I seem to be the center of a lot of attention tonight. It's not necessarily the kind of attention I want, but not any of the kind of attention that I'm afraid to stand up to or address. I'll start with Mr. Novak, a member, my constituent, I believe. Are you still living in Honolulu? I don't know.

Okay.

Okay. So my criminal past involves my family. And because my family members live in this community and work in this community, I'm not going to give you the details of my case. uh whatever you can get online through public records requests from the state of california cdcr my state number is g958827 you can look that up you can also look up my executive clemency which it provides a summary of my of my case

Okay, you had your opportunity. It's Mr. Cho's time to speak. Thank you. No, he is not. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. And because of the sensitive nature of the true victim who lives and works in this community, I do not want to bring her any embarrassment publicly or into any attention. So if you have any respect for women and abuse victims, you and I can have a private conversation. I don't mind sharing my story, but if you can't do your own due diligence to get the entire story, then that's on you. As far as what, Nana brought to the attention. I've seen some concerning images. And I just don't understand what's going on. So I'm going to speak frankly and not as a council member. But this shit is weird. Weird. Who has this kind of time? Seriously. We've sat here as a community and seen a lot of weird things come off this dais. It's upsetting, not enough to get me out of character, but they do need to be addressed. Releasing information from, or however you got it, or whomever you got it from without doing your due diligence uh... can cost you your freedom and i know that i know what the consequences of my actions were over twenty years ago almost twenty years ago so when i see people breaking the law and releasing records uh... into the public That tells me that due diligence isn't being done. And that being the case, I've sat here and dealt with doxing of my mother in the last couple of weeks. My mom's a private citizen, I'm the public citizen. And that was by my colleague's father on social media. now this um i don't know i mean up until a few weeks ago cameron i you were giving me stuff for my kids so i i don't know it's just it's awkward uh one of the pictures i saw you're following one of my ex-girlfriends on social media allison you're on another screenshot following my the mother of my son on social media I don't know if you understand how social media works, but when you follow someone, your picture shows up. As people you may know, it shows up on people you might follow. That's strange behavior. It's doxing, it's stalking, it's cyber stalking, it's harassment. And whatever was handed over, I would like for there to be an investigation. Because I believe there are criminal issues, maybe not involving my colleagues. I pray to God not. But I want to understand why. And if we could bring that to a discussion, perhaps in closed session first, before we bring it to the public.

I would second Chris's to bring this as an investigation because all this information. was sent by concerned people that were involved in these cases.

Then let's do that.

So let's do that, Chris, and bring that out. How did my father dox your mother? By saying that she's your mother?

You need to get back to counsel. No, I do, because I will address this. I just, we need to, this isn't, it's not for settling political scores or anything. No, but I will. We are here to conduct city business.

No, but I'm going to defend an accusation. What was doxed, Chris?

Nothing on my mother's social media indicates that she's my mother.

You would have to know. Your own mother said that she was your mother.

You would have to know. So that's doxing now?

That's what we're going to do?

So you would have to know.

I'm going to do something.

You would have to know her first and middle name.

Do you think if we are going to put forward an investigation, I'll speak with the city manager and we'll go ahead and have a conversation and proceed accordingly? Please do.

I have lots of information as well.

And that's fine. I think right now it's appropriate to inform the public on council committee reports, ongoing discussions and issues related to what was just talked about should be left for later. So my recommendation is to.

So there was a request. It was seconded by council member Greg. And thank you. That's all I have to add.

Anything additional No, thank you councilmember Lee, please I Did not have any meetings in the last two weeks to report on I do want to let everybody know that September 7th is Labor Day It is a federal holiday City Hall will be closed if you do have business at the city Please do so before that day. So you can make sure you get things taken care of. It's hot out, folks. Don't leave kids or pets in your cars. Be aware if you're gonna take your dog out for a walk, if the air temperature is 87 degrees out, asphalt temperature is like 143 degrees. Your little doggie's paws will be burnt, so please be careful of that. I want to congratulate our city. 24 consecutive years, the city has earned the Government Finance Officers Association Excellence in Finance Reporting Award. for the June 30th, 2025 annual comprehensive financial report. I think our finance team is absolutely fabulous. I also, you know, from our city manager's office, government services, management services, public works, development services, you guys all do a great job. Thank you for everything that you guys do. We don't always, you know, We're not always everybody's favorite people, so I appreciate all the hard work you do. Law enforcement, you guys in the back, first responders, thank you so much for what you do as well, keeping us safe out there. I do want to have a little conversation with you, Chris, after the meeting, if we can. I just have a couple questions. But my quote for this time is, if you see someone, oh, also, I do want to say condolences to Sam's family. Tragic loss for our community. Back to my quote. If you see someone without a smile today, give them yours. That's from Dolly Parton. May she rest in peace. Thank you.

Mayor Pro Tem Poland, please.

Thank you, Mayor. I only had one SBCTA meeting this last week. Nothing to report out of there. I will echo what Allison said. Be safe this Labor Day weekend. Also remember next week's 9-11. Remember the innocent lives lost in 9-11. Take a moment to remember that. And with that, end of report.

Thank you. Hello, September. Goodbye, hot weather. I'm done with the heat. I don't like to be hot, so I'm hoping for some cooler weather. I didn't have any committees the past couple weeks as well. Friday, I'm doing the coffee update via Zoom. It is Labor Day weekend. Everybody be safe. Enjoy those barbecues and enjoy hopefully a cooler weekend. Is that too much to ask? My air conditioner is screaming to be turned off. So I'd like to thank Public Works, Animal Control, and Code Enforcement, Rachel, and all your staff. Thank you, Jessica, for putting up with me and all my questions. The police and fire, you guys are keeping busy. It's hard to do your job, and I would imagine it's even tougher. You've got your vests on and all your equipment, and I appreciate everything you do. Same with fire. It seems we have fires going all the time, so please stay safe out there. Oh, yeah, fireworks are still illegal for my neighbors. And then I would say a single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make trees. Amelia Earhart. And with that, I would like to close the meeting in memory of Sam Fatt. He was a great community member, a great friend, and with a heavy heart. I say goodbye to him, and I pray for his family. Do we have any city attorney or city manager comments? Then we'll adjourn the meeting at 7.04. Thank you very much.