City Council - Regular Meeting

Morning. Thank you all for joining us. I would like to call this meeting to order. This morning, our pledge and invocation will be led by the fourth district. Supervisor Heckman.

Thank you, madam chair, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to introduce pastor Robert Rocha. He's been the lead pastor of Vaas Church in Ontario for eight years. Vaz Church is a nondenominational church. Pastor Rocha and his wife, Elizabeth, and their family and a team of future members launched Vaz Church, which officially opened its doors on February 1138 at the historic Granada Theatre in Ontario.

Under his leadership, Vosch Church has become a thriving multicultural, multigenerational church that is active in the community. Pastor Rocha has a passion for developing next generation leaders as disciples of Jesus while also meeting the needs of the community. He is a devoted husband to his wife, Elizabeth Torres, who is also a pastor. They have been married for nineteen years and have three children, Isabella, Eva, and Mateo. In his spare time, Pastor Rocha enjoys spending the time with his family watching sports, events, and golfing. And my wife and I had the opportunity to go visit him yesterday. And he's had a great message and so much energy at your church. Thank you, what you do for the community. Pastor Rob.

Good morning. And I would like to thank Supervisor Kurt Heckman and the County Of San Bernardino for the opportunity and the privilege to lead this invocation and the pledge once again for today's board of supervisor meeting. I'm truly honored to be here. The word of God declares in Jeremiah twenty nine seven, also seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you. Pray to the Lord for it because if it prospers, you too will prosper.

Prosper. I'm I'm gonna gonna invite you to please bow your heads and let us pray. Heavenly father, we thank you for the gift of life and for the grace that you brought us together safely on this day. As we enter into this meeting, we invite your presence into this room. Prepare every heart, align every mind, and let your holy spirit guide us into truth, clarity, and understanding.

Lord, we lift up every leader in this place, and we ask that you would empower them with wisdom beyond their own, discernment for every decision, and integrity in every action. Let justice be the standard, truth be their foundation, and service be their motive. Your word calls us to seek the peace and the prosperity of our city. Today, we stand on that promise, and we declare this over San Bernardino County. We ask that you would bring peace where there is tension, unity where there is division, and vision where there is uncertainty.

Let this county flourish economically, socially, and spiritually so that every family, every business, and every community may experience a well-being and opportunity. May the decisions made here today lead to solutions that uplift the people, strengthen our communities, and reflect the greater good of all. We ask that your kingdom come, your will be done in San Bernardino County as it is in heaven. In Jesus' name, pray. Amen.

Now if you would please face the flag and place your right hand over your heart, and let us pledge allegiance together. Ready? Begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Pastor Rob. We will now move on to our Memorial adjournments. Vice Chair Baca.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Today gives me a great honor to adjourn in memory of Coach Racie Aldama of Colton. He was 55 years of age, a lifelong resident of Colton, and he was a former teammate of mine. We were actually rivals in high school. I was at Eisenhower.

He was at Colton, and we ended up becoming teammates at Valley College and Cal State San Bernardino. I know that many of his friends are taking this loss tough. He was a well respected coach at San Gorgonio High School and teacher, physical education teacher, a great athlete and a great human being and just a good person. And it's very personal for me because you know my father grew up with his older brothers. His older brothers Beaver, Sal, Chito, long time family friends. So this is a hard one and I actually went to high school with his niece Angela. So you know heart goes out to the Aldama family. Thank you, madam chair.

Thank you very much. Supervisor Cook? Supervisor Armandozz? Supervisor Hegman?

Yeah. Thank you, madam chair. I'd like to also adjourn in memory of Freddy Contreras. Freddie Contreras was a devoted husband, loving father, and proud grandfather who cherishes family above all. He enjoys spending time with his wife and children, especially a treasured moment of his grandson. He's a dedicated, hardworking man. Freddie served over twenty years with California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, beginning his career at the California Rehabilitation Center, CRC, in 2001. He was known for being kind, caring, and deeply supportive husband and father. Freddie passed away suddenly on April 19. He's survived by his beloved wife, two daughters, son, and grandson. Our thoughts and prayers with the Contreras family during this difficult time. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I would like to adjourn in memory of Marjorie Smith, who passed away on April 21. Marjorie was a driving force behind the Morongo Basin Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters, also known as VOAD. She was a dedicated volunteer with the American Red Cross, and she helped organize disaster preparedness expos in Yucca Valley, encouraging residents to stay alert and help each other during a time of crisis. I would also like to adjourn in memory of George Marillo, who was a resident of Highland, and he passed away at the age of 94 on May 1.

George is the father of Chairwoman Lynn Val Buena and Secretary Audrey Martinez, both of whom serve on the tribal council at Yohavia Tom of San Manuel Nation. Our hearts go out to them both and their families during this difficult time. We have one special presentation this morning, so if my colleagues will join me in the wall, please. And I would like to invite up the auditor controller tax collector and your entire team for today.

Thank you.

Come on everybody we'll jump in here. This morning it is our honor to present three financial reporting awards to the office of the auditor controller treasurer tax collector for fiscal year ending 06/30/2024. The first two awards are from the government finance officers association. The certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting is the premier indicator of excellence in governmental accounting for the preparation of the annual comprehensive financial report. The award for outstanding achievement in popular annual financial reporting recognizes the department's ability to distill complex financial information from a highly technical annual comprehensive financial report and produce a clear and concise report for our constituents.

The third award presented on behalf of the California state controller recognizes the highest quality in governmental accounting and financial reporting in California. These awards reflect the professionalism and the dedication of the ATC controller division led by chief deputy Mima Ubo overseen by assistant ATC Vanessa Doyle. On behalf of the board it is my pleasure present these to your entire department. Congratulations. We will now move on to our reports from our, county council.

Laura.

Thank you, madam chair. I have nothing to report.

And reports from our CEO Luther.

Thank you, madam chair. I wanted to take a moment and, report that the county has received the Government Finance Officers Association Distinguished Budget Presentation Award, that is a mouthful, for fiscal year beginning 07/01/2025. This is the highest form of recognition in governmental budgeting. It's not uncommon that our finance office wins this award. But what is unique this year is for the first time ever, the county also received a special recognition for our budget, specifically for strategic goals and strategies.

So pretty cool. It's a meaningful accomplishment, a reflection of the strong partnership across the organization. So congrats to the board for their support in our budget. We'll be having actually a discussion item about that later today. And, Matthew, our CFO, thank you, Matthew, for his commitment to excellence.

Our whole c a CAO finance team and, frankly, the entire county, all of our staff who work hard to put together an exceptional budget. This week is public service week. This is a recognition that we received here. It's a strong reminder that all the work done behind the scenes has a direct and meaningful impact on the public that we serve. And just recognition to all our hardworking staff this week especially, thank you for all you do. Thank you for the huge impact that you make every day and for pouring your heart and souls into this work. So thank you very much, and congratulations to the team.

Thank you very much. All right. That brings us to our individual board member comments. Vice Chair Baca?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to echo the CEO's sentiments on Public Service Week. Want to thank all our county employees for the great work you do. Just incredible for the amount of individuals that you service in your community. So hats off to all our county employees, all the departments.

Also want to announce that in Muskoye as a result of our 2,100,000 American Rescue Plan Act, They were able to complete a 83,500 square foot outdoor learning center, which includes a century garden, outdoor classrooms, basketball court, futsal court. This has been a great investment for the Muscoy community, which is a clearly a highly underserved community. So congratulations to Muscoy Elementary School. I had the opportunity to attend with my colleague, Chair Rao and Supervisor Armandarez, the service pin recognition for all the recognition many, many years, twenty five plus years for all employees. Congratulations to all those employees that continue to serve our county.

I want to congratulate our county staff and all our departments for doing a tremendous job for your Take Your Child to Work Day. Think it's just a great experience for all of us, board members and staff, to really expose their kids to that, but really get to bond it and for the families to get to see what their parents do at work. Also even considering coming back at some point in time and working for the County of San Bernardino, I think it continues to grow every year and continues to be more and more successful and fun for all the employees. I attended the Children's Memorial Flag Raising event with my colleagues, Supervisor Armen Darz, just so they could recognize those children that have lost their lives due to violence. I think it's an important critical time to recognize and make sure we continue to support our children throughout the community.

Also went to the Arrowhead Grove Check Award ceremony, which was here in San Bernardino on Baseline And Waterman. We accepted a check for $3,000,000 from Congressman Aguilar to invest in 132 new affordable housing projects in the city of San Bernardino. Currently the county has given $5,000,000 which will allow for 92 additional units which is under construction now but this will also add a phase five which is really great. I want to thank Public Works and County Code for the great work they did during the Bloomington and Muskoye Earth Day cleanup. It was a great turnout.

Want to thank all the volunteers. But one of the great things is our sheriff's department arrested individual, and also they removed an encampment, which is just an eyesore to the community. So hats off to our our county code enforcement for removing that that big encampment. Thank you for doing that. Also, office had a we hosted a fentanyl film contest, screening contest here in San Bernardino where our students throughout our local high schools submitted videos and the winner was recognized with a scholarship.

So we had four scholarships that were awarded for the amount of $1,500 to those students and schools. Just a great event to bring fentanyl awareness to our community. Also, we attended the county employee excellence recognition along with my colleagues, supervisor chair and supervisor Hagman, where 58 employees are recognized for the great work they continue to do in our county. Congratulations. Also participate in the donate the live month flag raising event at ARMC.

I want to thank Andrew Goldfrac and the team for putting that together as they continue to get donors, which is very, very critical. And then this afternoon, there's going to be check presentation for $2,000,000 as we look at potentially investing in Phase three or Phase two of our local animal shelter. I want to thank Congressman Aguilar for his continued investment in our county, continues to deliver for our county. So thank you Congressman Aguilar and just want to highlight few board items item 31 the HUD action plan which will be $1,270,000 investment in the Colton unincorporated area for ADA ramps and sidewalks. And also there's a plan for affordable housing for 5th And Meridian which borders the city of San Bernardino and Rialto which will bring 106 affordable units which is great.

22 for units aging out foster youth. So this is a great investment. Also item 43, I want to thank our preschool services department for making a $10,000,000 investment for upgrading all our classrooms, which will give our kids and our preschools the opportunity to compete with other schools and all kinds of technological investments. And the last thing is we continue to invest in our animal care group, item number 48, which is to make sure that we have housing and look at a more regional approach to our animal care. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you very much. Supervisor Cook?

Yeah. I'm not sure that this is the proper time to say what I'm going to say.

Anything you want.

I have a knack for doing that, I think. The subject of drones, it's one that I'm very, very interested in because I represent an area that's mostly all desert, a lot of it, particularly the High Desert. And I've lived here a long while, both in the military and as a civilian. And we have a history, quite frankly, at least in my district, the Mojave Desert, where somebody gets lost. They're out there hiking or what have you, and we never find them.

And you say to yourself, how can we do this? So the technology before we used to have, you know, airplanes and helicopters and everything else. And it always used to bother me when there was somebody lost out there in the Mojave Desert. It is absolutely huge. But it is very unforgiving.

So the subject of drones is going to be something I'm going to be a pest on, on how we can use that technology. And obviously, it comes down to money and everything like that. But it also comes down to perhaps saving one or I don't know how many lives. So I thought I'd mention that. I don't know if this is the proper place.

For sure.

But I would hope that we do this so that we don't have another accident where somebody is out there. They don't realize how unforgiving the desert can be, even in cold weather, because it's so vast. But, you know, I've kind of made a vow, not on my watch again. So that's the future that I'm going to try and advocate. So, maybe we can win a battle over the desert. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Supervisor Armanderes.

Yes, thank you, Chair. Lots of exciting things happened in the last couple of weeks. In 2nd District, we were able to tour a veterans retreat center that's being built currently in Mount Baldy. Excited to see what's going on with that. Hoping to, build some sort of collaboration with them so we can help serve our vets little bit better.

In the 2nd District, we had our mobile pop up hours where we had over 11 constituents come out and tell us issues that they had. And we're working on every one of those issues to see how we can help them and accommodate them with their needs. We did a check presentation for the arts for Palmetto Elementary School. We went to Fontana Unified School District, State of the District. I wanna wanna make sure to thank everybody for the Bring Your Child to Work Day. It was a great event. I had my kids here. And for them to see all of the interaction with people, was it was great for them to be here. So I really enjoyed that event. I also attended the Empire Strikers partnership appreciation night where they spoke about the partnerships that we've had through, through the years, including San Bernardino Counties.

We spoke at the, children's memorial, a flag raising ceremony with the my my colleague here, mister Baca. We went to a Earth Day celebration luncheon at, the former CSI. We went to a pinwheel pledge campaign, which is making awareness of child abuse. We were able to speak at that event for to a bunch of young kids from, the exchange club, or they call it the Excel club in, Summit High School. We went to Fontana Unified, school district's award ceremony for their students and staff.

It was called meeting over and beyond the expectation. And honestly, the only reason I came clear of it is my son actually received an award there for going over and beyond, and that's how I heard about it. But it was exciting to see all the teachers and students that were acknowledged for going over and beyond what they're capable of doing. We also attended the Fontana Days Parade. We had a community cleanup event in Fontana, an incorporated area. I also spoke at the Asian Business Association's Inland Empire Health and Wellness, where we talked about everything from warehouses to housing. We also were we supported the sheriff's department seat heat annual event, and we also did a check presentation to Senegal. That concludes my comments.

Thank you very much. Supervisor Hagman.

Thank you. Just want to highlight item number 77 which includes a 12,700,000 investment for the Grove Basin outlet storm drain in the city of Ontario to improve flooding issues. It was a busy month, and so I think we're all pretty busy. Some of the past events recently, we attended the ribbon cutting for Prado Park's new entry monument, gatehouse, the snack bar, boat dock. Really shouts out to Viad and the team that they've done a great job.

These are part of the multimillion dollar investment into Prado Regional Park. Thank you to Upland Women's Club, who recently had me attend their one hundredth year anniversary. I also recently spoke at the Upland Hill Kwanzaa's monthly meeting. And thank you to our service groups who do so much for the community. The city of Montclair also recently celebrated its seventieth year's birthday or founding, so congratulations to them.

I was also honored to recently attend the Montclair's thirty eighth Annual Volunteer Awards, and thank you all who serve our communities. We also recently attended Fire Ops one on one with the Chino Valley Fire District. Workforce Development recently held a job fair, an expungement event at the 4th District. It was at the Ontario Airport. They served four. They saw four sixty six job seekers. And also, 85 individuals started their record cleaning process. Family Shelter also received 50,000 from our office to serve families in need. Upcoming district events includes the SCAG General Assembly starts tomorrow, and all local governments around the region together once a year. Our next shredding event is June 6 at the city of Chino.

And May 20 is our annual open house at the Chino's office between five and seven. And I want to also, congrats to the San Bernardino County Library, who recently honored as the best of the best, library in the region by Inland Empire Readers. And finally, applications for the San Bernardino County civil grand jury are currently being accepted through July 31 and visit our website to learn more. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. As our vice chair mentioned, we had the opportunity to recognize the Public Service Recognition Week, which is the first week in May, and San Bernardino County proudly joins our federal, state, and local governments in honoring the dedication of public servants across the entire nation. This week really provides a meaningful opportunity to acknowledge the commitment, the integrity, and the professionalism demonstrated daily by those who have not just taken jobs but have taken an oath to serve our communities. On April 29, the county proudly recognized this year's Public Service Awards recipients, celebrating staff from across all all of our organizations who have demonstrated exceptional service to our communities.

Congratulations to all of the recipients, and thank you for your dedication to the county and the departments that you support. We have a free chipping program coming up. As wildfire season approaches, residents of the 3rd District who have cleared vegetation around their homes can take advantage of free wood chipping programs, provided by the local fire safe councils. They include Yucaipa and Oak Glen, the RIM communities in the Big Bear area. And you can register at firesafenow.org.

And I would like to mention, as I wrap up my comments, that we have a number of speakers signed up on items not on today's agenda for the Lone Pine Canyon quarry project. That project is still going through the planning stages. This board will not be hearing that item anytime soon, but it is in the planning stages. And public comment is open to be received in the Land Use Services Department. And you are more than welcome to stay and give your comments here at the board.

The appropriate time and place for it to be considered is within the Land Use planning department, and that department is right across the lobby. Miguel is here, our Director of Land Use Services, with his hand raised, and he can direct anybody over there to provide public comment to the planner of that project so it can be received as part of the CEQA documents and then be a part of the official record. And again, you're more than welcome to do both. But if you're here today to provide comment as a part of the official record, it would need to be done through the Land Use Services Planning Department. And with that, Dannette, do we have any additions or revisions to today's agenda?

We have no changes to the agenda. Thank you, Madam Do

we have any board members wishing to disclose any conflicts of interest on any items?

All

right. Seeing none, we will move on to our consent calendar, which today consists of items number two through 81. And I have a number of requests to speak on consent. We will begin with, Maria Gamboa, followed by Amethyst Yates. Yes, podiums on either side. You have three minutes for public comment. When you're down to your last thirty seconds, it will turn orange, and then it will flash red at the end of the three minutes. And begin whenever you're ready.

Okay. Well, name is Maria Luisa Gamboa. And I was here about well, I'm with Gamboa Counseling private practice. I'm a provider for CPS, have been for almost twenty years. And I was here about a year ago, not quite a year, and you really helped me out.

I my issue was I hadn't been paid for about four months, and after speaking here, I got all my pay within two weeks. So that was a huge success, I just want to thank you for that. While I was here, I got the impression that you were very interested in the functioning of that program. It's the CAPS program. And what happened after that opened up the conversation about my participation, my providing services in that program.

And they asked me if I had any concerns. So I said, well, Okay. They're willing to listen. So I shared with them I think there was about three concerns that I had that I had been trying to resolve for about those twenty years well, maybe fifteen years and I had not been listened to. And after speaking here, they were willing to listen.

And so that was maybe around June. And we had some discussions. And out of those discussions, they presented what they were willing to negotiate on and it was really good. I was very surprised and so in September, out of those three issues they immediately accepted the amendment on one of them. This was regarding insurance coverages that we have to maintain.

They were exorbitant for a person just in private practice. So they accepted the change. There's a huge long story, but I don't have time for it. But the other two that they said they would amend never happened. And I would make phone calls. I'd leave messages. I'd constantly try to speak to someone. What's the update on this agreement? And I would just get the run around and run around. The person that helped me the most was Ms.

Adams, Cheryl Adams. So she was very helpful. So anyway, to bring it closer to now,

they That's time.

You're out of time, ma'am. Thank you. Amethyst Yates followed by Andrea Myers. Excuse me, ma'am. If you'll wait just one second before you walk out the door. Victor, you may have to run. Thank you. Amethyst Yates? We'll move on to Andrea Myers, followed by Carlo. Last chance for Amethyst Yates.

Andrea Myers? All right. And then we'll move on to Carlo. Good morning, sir.

Good morning, board, and good morning, everybody. It's a pleasure to see everyone here. So on the item that I wanna speak about is the programs run by and contracts offered by CFS. This is a substantial amount of money. Okay?

A substantial amount of money that I cannot nor can a director of CFS, when I spoke to her, guarantee that these services from removals were based on false allegations. It's pretty much a kidnapping industrial complex. There's a lot of money that the taxpayers are paying to support these programs, businesses, And we cannot guarantee that these kids were not removed from false allegations, but we're spending all this money with no accountability. Do you know the heartbreak people feel, these families feel? They see these professionals in their suits, lawyers, judges, and then they have to go do these services.

Once they complete the services, CFS still says, hey, guess what? We're still gonna adopt your kids out. Where's the accountability for this? There is none. So if you're not gonna go ahead and give the kids back after providing all these services, then why pay for them at all?

We have kids in group homes getting beat up, raped, tortured, starving. Where's the accountability? I asked the director herself. When she was outside here and I spoke to her, she said, there's a difference when a woman grows a child than when a man does it. So if this is the kind of leadership we have, then I should suggest we start over.

As the grand jury stated, we start over checking out these contracts, checking out all the hundreds of millions of dollars the county is paying for these services because we cannot trust these people to stand there in front of court, to stand in front of the parents and say, yes. You will get your kids back when you complete these services that the taxpayers of San Bernardino, the taxpayers of the state of California, and the taxpayers through title four e funding from Social Security, that's I think this year is about $50,000,000,000 out of Social Security going to these programs across the country. It's satanic. It's demonic, the suffering that these families go through. And at the end of it, false allegations.

Now child abuse is real. But if you can't, as a director, guarantee that removals, adoptions, and every which way in between is based on false allegations, then you need a new job.

Thank you. That is the last request to speak that I have. Do I have any board members wishing to pull an item for discussion?

Second. I have

a motion by supervisor Hagman and a second by vice chair Abacca. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions?

With that, the consent calendar passes unanimously.

Thank you very much. We will now move on to our discussion calendar. And starting with item number 82 is a report regarding implementation of remote public participation for Board of Supervisors meeting and outreach plan being presented this morning by Stephanie Hsieh.

Stephanie Hsieh, deputy executive officer. I'm here today to present information on Senate Bill seven zero seven regarding the implementation of remote public participation and the associated outreach plan. This presentation is just about five slides, and there'll be an opportunity for questions afterwards. So a little bit history about Senate Bill seven zero seven. It was adopted in 2025.

It applies to counties with populations of over 30,000. And it will require counties like ours to provide remote options for public participation to engage those members of the public who wouldn't traditionally participate in board meetings and offer them the chance to participate remotely. This bill will be effective actually 07/01/2026, and we prepared for this. The clerk of the board has taken the lead on this effort and has secured a platform to provide remote public participation via telephone. The clerk of the board will also establish a website to provide information on this process to include how to register, how to submit for public comment.

The website will also include information about board meeting calendar dates and the agenda. And then lastly, we developed a targeted outreach plan, again with the goal to engage the public who don't traditionally participate in public meetings or in board meetings to participate remotely. And in doing so, our outreach plan includes a few elements. We intend to provide advertisements and newspapers and provide county updates in both English and Spanish. Other elements of this plan include sending out newsletters, social media, sending out emails, and providing information on county websites.

Our county is so large geographically that our county departments do a great job of providing events and utilizing their mobile units to, again, provide services to county residents across the county. So what we intend to do is we intend to partner with our county departments and share information, outreach materials that include QR codes and other information about this process in English and Spanish, hoping to partner with the county department so they can share that information at their events. And we also intend to partner with community groups, all with the goal to reach those in underserved areas. That concludes my presentation. And I'd like to ask the board if there are any questions.

Comment.

Please.

When you are working with all the other departments, could you work with the board of supervisors directly also? Because it's something we have platforms we can get information out on also.

Yes. Thank you.

This feels like a receive and file.

This is. There's also a recommendation on the board item for the board to find we've made reasonable efforts for this outreach plan to engage those members of the public who wouldn't traditionally participate and to find that the outreach plan to approve it reasonable.

Thank you. I would welcome that motion since I do not have any public comment that I believe I know of. No. Thank you, Vice Chair for the motion and Supervisor Hegmann for the second. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions?

With that, item 82 passes unanimously.

Thank you, Stephanie. Item number 83 is law enforcement agencies annual military equipment reports for the 2025 calendar year, which is associated with Assembly Bill four eighty one being presented by Deputy Chief Crosby. Good morning. I will open the public hearing. Morning, sergeant.

Good morning, madam chair and board of supervisors. My presentation this morning is related to California Assembly Bill, four eighty one, and this presentation is on behalf of the sheriff's department, the probation department, and the district attorney's office. With me, I have sergeant Ian Goldich from our professional standards unit. On 01/01/2022, assembly bill four eighty one became effective, and it requires law enforcement agencies and their local governing bodies to follow certain procedures prior to the funding, acquisition, and the use of military equipment. AB four eighty one defines certain law enforcement equipment as military equipment.

And here I'd like to just clarify that for purposes of this presentation, military equipment does not necessarily mean equipment that is used by the military, but it is equipment that the California legislature defined for law enforcement to track as military equipment. Example of what is defined as military equipment for our purposes is listed in the PowerPoint. A highlight of some of those includes drones. It includes armored personnel carriers, command and control vehicles, certain 50 caliber or greater firearms or munitions, certain specialized firearms ammunition, any firearm or firearm accessory that's designed to launch explosive projectiles, any breaching apparatus that is explosive in nature, flash bang grenades, explosive breaching tools, tear gas, and projectile launch platforms and munitions, which includes 40 millimeter projectile launchers, beanbags, rubber bullets, and specialty impact munition weapons. In March 2022, each San Bernardino County law enforcement agency created a military equipment use policy and an annual military equipment report.

These documents were uploaded and are publicly available on each of our respective websites. Each agency's military equipment use policy and the annual military equipment report describes the following military equipment matters the inventory, the purposes and authorized uses, the fiscal impact, the legal and procedural rules governing the authorized use, the training that's required prior to equipment use, the procedures to ensure military equipment use policy compliance, and public input procedures to register any concerns or questions and how the law enforcement agency shall respond to those. On 04/26/2022, the law enforcement agencies held a community engagement meeting. On that same date, at a regular meeting, the board of supervisors considered an open session agenda item regarding the law enforcement agencies policies and reports that provided for public comment. At this meeting, the board adopted three ordinances, one for each the district attorney, probation, and the sheriff's department, approving each agency's policy and military equipment funding, acquisition, and use.

Those ordinances are subject to annual review. In adopting the ordinances, the board found that the law enforcement agencies had complied with government code section seventy seventy one and that the military equipment followed these guidelines. Number one, it was necessary because there was no reasonable alternative that could achieve the same objective of officer and civilian safety. Use policies would safeguard the public's welfare, safety, civil rights, and civil liberties. It was reasonably cost effective compared to available alternates that could achieve the same object objective of officer and civilian safety.

And the board also found that prior prior equipment use had complied with any military equipment use policy that was in effect at that time. Our law enforcement agencies must create and post our annual military equipment reports to our public websites. These reports discuss our military equipment use, the inventory, and the fiscal impact for the prior calendar year. And within thirty days of publicly releasing those reports, the agencies will hold a community engagement meeting where the public may discuss and ask questions about the annual reports and our funding acquisition and use of that equipment. This year, our agencies uploaded our annual military equipment reports on April 9 and April 10, and those reports were for the 2025 calendar year.

And today, we are holding a public meeting during the regular Board of Supervisor meeting. Pursuant to the government code section, the board shall annually at a regular meeting and as an open session agenda item that provides for public comment evaluate and vote on whether it should renew the previously adopted military equipment use ordinances, and determine whether each type of military equipment identified in the annual reports complies with the government code section. At today's meeting, if the board finds that any military equipment identified in our reports does not comply with the government code section, then the board shall then determine whether it will either disapprove renewal of authorization for that particular type of military equipment or require modifications to our use policy that will resolve the lack of compliance. That concludes my presentation, and I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much. Any questions? I don't believe I have any requests to speak from the public on this item. I'll close the public hearing. And I have a motion from Supervisor Hagman, a second from Vice Chair Baca. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions?

With that, item 83 passes unanimously.

Thank you very much for the presentation this morning. Thank you. All right. Item number 84 is our twenty twenty six-twenty seven budget financial update being presented by Matthew Erickson. Good morning, Matthew.

Good morning, Chair Rao, members of the Board. I believe Luther is going to kick us off today.

Yeah. I'll just say some brief comments really quickly, and then let Matthew take it away and get to the core of the conversation. But just as a as a brief overview of what we're gonna be talking about today, this is our 2026 budget our financial update, our budget update. Matthew will go over our timeline as far as what comes next when the board offices will each receive the budget book and those things. I'll just briefly touch on our county's fiscal strategy, some of the high level headwinds that we're foreseeing.

Matthew then will jump into the meat and potatoes, the five year forecast, as well as our funding priorities that we're going to be recommending to the Board as part of that. Next slide, please. So this is just very, very high level. But when Matthew and I sit down and we look at how we approach budgeting for this county, we start from the standpoint of prudent budgeting, and that becomes our foundation. We establish that.

In this environment, where we sit today, and I'll touch on some of the headways headwinds in just a moment, we are positioning for a slower growth environment. You've heard that from Matthew and I now for the past couple of years. That continues to play out. We are seeing property tax slow. We are seeing some of our sales tax numbers fall from where they had been before. But we are still growing. We are not seeing a pullback. We are not there's no recession. There's nothing like that. But it is not growing at the same pace that it had before.

And Matthew will touch on that. When we have prudent budgeting and when we're positioning ourselves appropriately for the environment, what we're able to do is provide stable community services. We stabilize our operations. We we kind of cut the the peaks and valleys off, and we ensure that we operate within the range to provide consistent and stable services to our public. That is, Matthew, my goal. When we sit and we approach the budget and what we intend to recommend to the board, that's how we approach it. Next slide, please. We've touched on these before with the board. We just want to hint at them again. Geopolitical risks, those are that's more situational at the moment.

We're looking at what those impacts will be to us, if any long term. Assessed value is really where we're seeing some significant risk and impact. Matthew, again, will touch on that in just a moment. Our HR one or the federal big beautiful bill, there are still impacts that are significant that are playing out for us, and we're monitoring those. There's some mitigation to that that we're going to be recommending in this year's budget.

The state budget is something we're looking closely at. There's a pretty big gap right now in what the what do they call it? The LAO is forecasting versus what the governor's office is predicting. So we're trying to look at what that means and where the state budget actually shakes out. This month, we should actually learn more so that we hopefully will have more clarity soon.

And then litigation. The the state of California is incredibly litigious. Matthew is going to work look look specifically and actually talk about a decision, that we're gonna ask the board to make today versus waiting for the future because of impacts to, the county as well as some of our a number of our cities in the county. So with that, this is some of the the challenges that we're looking at. I'll turn it over to Matthew, and he's going to dive deeper into the actual five year forecast numbers as well as some of the priorities in this budget. So, Matthew, take it away.

Great. Thanks so much, Luther. I did want to step back really quick and just highlight our strategy. Luther talked a little bit about it and stated that it's just a big high level overview. But it's really fundamental to what we do within this organization.

Although we are not immune to headwinds within the county, we because we have a situation where we are always prudent. You know, in good times, the county tries to have a prudent process whereby we don't grow too much. That allows us in times where there's headwinds that are coming our way to really address those in a little bit different way than some other entities you might see California and even within the nation as a whole are. So with that, I did want to jump into the five year forecast. This is where we get into a little bit more of the nitty gritty about what our forecast looks like for the upcoming five years.

We'll kind of dive in. And I kind of first wanted to start with a review of what we went over last time. We, if you recall, met at the March, and we went over just big picture things that are going on with our general fund. And so I wanted to dive into that first. So this is a reminder slide. We went over this last time. Luther mentioned how assessed valuation growth is slower than what it has been. And really, what that particularly means is that you can see in this slide that over the last ten years, we've had roughly 6.8% average assessed valuation growth. That's property tax growth that we've seen within our county every single year. Just for reference, every 1% property tax growth is about $10,000,000 of new general fund dollars that are coming in.

So we've become not reliant on because we don't become reliant on, but we've seen roughly $68,000,000 every year in today's dollars that have been growing over the last ten years. For a comparison, what we're projecting going into next year is about 2.23% assessed valuation growth. What that is, is that is not known yet. We find that out in June or July timeframe what that growth will be, but that's tied to an economist that we have that has historically been pretty accurate with regards to next future years. And so we're using that just for some comparison.

That is the lowest AV growth we've seen since about 2012. So it's quite a bit lower. It is still growth, as Luther mentioned, and so we really feel like we're going to be able to mitigate these things, but it is a really big issue. In addition to that, last time we talked a little bit about H. R. One, how we are seeing immediate impacts in our five year forecast tied to CalFresh administration impacts. That's tied to the shift from the federal government to the state and local share increases on CalFresh funding on the administrative side. We also talked about how there's a lot of uncertainties with regards to H. R. I, specifically as it relates to CalFresh, going into the future with regards to error rates, if you recall.

And so although we do not know the dollar impact, what we want to do in this forecast is set aside $10,000,000 ongoing just as a sort of set aside just to face that if it comes our way. In addition to that, on the good side, the good news is we are projecting in our five year forecast retirement savings. This is tied to long term payment of obligations tied to pension funds that are falling off. In other words, meaning pension funds basically treat losses in the market like debt that you pay off over a very long time. And so what we've been doing is, since about 2008, the Great Recession, we've been paying off basically long term debt into our pension system for a very long time that we are going to be seeing savings in the next several years associated with that.

I do like to highlight that there is not complete certainty when it comes to those savings because it is tied to the stock market effectively. Our pension system invests our pension funds in a way that helps ensure that we have pensions into the future, but it's required to hit 7.25% every single year in order to be properly funded. And years when it isn't, we have to pay that back as the employer. And so although I'm excited about the $36,100,000 in savings, that is not necessarily a guarantee about what we will be seeing. And then lastly, we talked about employee costs.

With Teamsters negotiations coming up, we have roughly, along with our attorneys' unit, we have roughly 58% of our workforce that's up for negotiations in the upcoming year, and that's a very notable impact that I'm going to go into right now a little bit. All right, so just to dive in a little bit more on the numbers, a little bit more specific, you know, employees are always our priority. When we look at our forecast, and I'll go over this in a second, what we tend to do is try to be very careful on our revenue projections, but we also like to be aggressive on our cost projections, meaning we like to plan for every possible cost that we can think of within our five year forecast. And so what we have is a pretty big, you know, variability with regards to our employee cost going into our five year forecast. The way I've broken this out is what has been approved by the Board so far.

So right, we have negotiated MOUs right now that are already gaveled. The Board has approved. In our five year forecast, that's about $56,000,000 in general fund dollars that have been set aside just for approved MOUs. But in addition to that, we have a lot of unapproved MOUs through our five year forecast. What we historically do is just we plan or I say we plan, what we put in the forecast is tied to historic MOUs that have been given, and we just project those out.

So it's similar to what we've historically given is what we put into our forecast. And if you were to throw all of it into our forecast, it would be $228,000,000 ongoing through the 02/2001 time frame. In addition to that, another really notable impact, especially as it relates to mandates this does not include impacts of H. R. One.

That is separate are human service programs. So, as you know, we provide monthly payments for foster youth, for adoptions. Our in home supportive services program requires a lot of ongoing costs that are basically mandated for the county. And the way we pay for those services is a combination of federal, state, and local funding. With local funding, the State of California has set aside what's called realignment funds to help pay for those.

Those are sales tax derived, and when we do not have enough of those realignment funds to pay for service growth and cost growth in those areas, then it is a general fund impact to the county. And so what you're seeing is up to $52,000,000 ongoing through the forecast. This is general fund dollars that we're seeing as a potential need for our human service programs. A large reason for that historically, we've actually talked about caseload growing. We do not necessarily see caseload growing, but another aspect of cost growth is inflation.

And so, you know, each year, the state increases the cost for foster families, for adoption families, for IHSS at a certain rate, to the extent that goes up and our realignment funds don't proportionately go up at the same rate, then that requires additional general fund dollars. And that's what we're seeing. Luther talked a little bit about sales tax. We've seen more tepid growth in sales tax. Well, that directly impacts realignment.

And so when the realignment funds don't come in, it's a general fund impact. And then lastly, public safety has always been a priority of this county and of the Board of Supervisors. We have, for years, had funding set aside for different jail needs. We currently, in the forecast, had $8,700,000 ongoing set aside for potential detention needs going into the future. If you recall, in 2024, Prop. 36 was passed by voters. It did not overturn Prop. 47. If you recall, Prop. 47 was in 2014.

It kind of reduced penalties on certain crimes that then reduced our jail population. Prop. 36 didn't overturn, but it made certain crimes more stringent from a penalty perspective. You know? And so what we're doing is setting aside this $8,700,000 in the event we see different impacts to our jails and to the future. I will stop because I'm going to get even more detailed and ask any questions on this segment. Perfect. All right. So this is when I get kind of wonky and too nitty gritty. So I like to explain this spreadsheet because I know it's just a lot of numbers on there.

So what you're looking at is our five year forecast. Every dollar that you're looking at is in millions, so that's what that represents. Every dollar that you're looking at is ongoing in nature. We're not talking about one time money right here. We're talking about ongoing money. I like to say that positive is good for the forecast. It would result in surpluses, and negative is bad for at least the forecast purposes as it contributes to a deficit. So if you see a positive, that means on the revenue side that we are seeing revenue growth. If you see a positive on cost side, that actually means cost savings, which you will not see in that. You will see on cost it will be negative, right, because costs generally are negative.

We don't have a lot of ongoing cost savings besides the retirement side. In addition to that, what you're looking at is incremental. And so what that means is each year represents how much more money we're getting in those line items compared to the prior year. So for property tax, for example, you'll see, in Line three, in 'twenty six'twenty seven, dollars 21,000,000. That means we're seeing $21,000,000 more in property tax in 'twenty six'twenty seven compared to 'twenty five'twenty six.

You could add the same in 'twenty seven'twenty eight, dollars 22,500,000. That's in addition to the $21,000,000 So if you look all the way to the right through the total five year, that's where you can see the total growth in revenue, the total costs through the five years. And so that's what we're looking at. What I always like to highlight, which I always look at whenever I'm looking at this spreadsheet, is the bottom right column and corner. That really represents what we're facing from either a surplus or a deficit.

The little brackets means we're facing a deficit, and I kind of want to walk you through, you know, what we're looking at and why we're looking at that right now. So, as you know, as a county, we are always very careful in our budgeting, and you can see that by the line one, the ongoing carryover. What that means is that we have roughly $60,000,000 in ongoing money carried over from the prior year that was not spent. That was effectively like an ongoing surplus that we had set aside. That goes into the first step of the revenue that we bring in going into next year, along with our property taxes, Prop.

1.72, which is a $05 sales tax for our public safety departments, and then other revenue. Other revenue this year is quite a bit higher than those out years if you're looking at it. We're looking at $29,000,000 That is mostly tied to interest earnings. We've talked about this a little bit in the past, but we are seeing, with historic highs in rates on the Federal Reserve side of things, that our treasury pool, our county treasury pool, is making roughly 4% right now in yield or in interest earnings every single year. That compares to some of the prior years back in 'twenty one, 'twenty two, where those yields were like 0.5% or even 1%.

So fortunately, we are seeing interest earnings growth, and I'm building we're building in about $10,000,000 more ongoing into the forecast just tied to that. And in addition to that, we're seeing administrative costs. People may say the term COWCAP, Countywide Cost Allocation Plan. It's really representative of administrative services that we provide countywide to our departments. Those have grown, and that means we're receiving revenue associated with that.

On the cost side, I mentioned before that we have planned MOU increases. So you're seeing quite a bit in that $75,000,000 It's just simply tied to projected MOU increases or salary cost increases for the county going into next year. We're going to go into more detail on Line Item nine, the ongoing request. That's going to be a lot of our the funding plan that I'm going talk to you guys a little bit about in the next few slides. And then what we'd also like to do is that Line Item 10, our future estimated costs.

These are costs that are not like built in necessarily approved by the Board at this point, but a lot of those costs represent those MOU costs that we're placing in up to that $200 plus million. So what I want to highlight is that in any given year, so for fiscal year 'twenty six, 'twenty seven, the budget that we are entering into, we are mandated to have a balanced budget. That just simply means that our revenues match our expenses for the year. That's what we're mandated to do as an organization. What we like to do is go a step further and see how we're doing on an operating side of things.

And when I say operating, make sure our ongoing revenues match our ongoing costs. So what you can see is in twenty six-twenty seven, if you look at that Line 13, we have a $32,000,000 surplus going into this year. That's great. But what we also see is that we have deficits that we're going to be having to take care of in future years that really is primarily as a result of the property tax that is not growing quite as fast as what we have gotten used to over the last several years, along with some our costs that are built in as well. What I do want to highlight is that we definitely although it's it is a bit of an issue that we want to be focused on going into the future.

It is not something we are overly alarmed at. It is something that Luther and I are paying obviously close attention to. I like to highlight that this is a forecast. It is not like I know for certain what is going to happen. Even beginning in 'twenty seven, 'twenty eight, We are paying a lot of attention to the property tax side of things because that will tell us a lot going into July, what's going on.

We do like to be careful, but obviously, we try to project out so that we are not overestimating our revenues, and that's certainly my hope this year. My hope would be that some of those revenues would come in better. In addition to that, those future estimated costs also are not approved by the Board at this point. So what that means is we do have over $180,000,000 in costs that are projected that are not necessarily approved. Those are certainly costs that we would be looking at to help mitigate any deficit if we had to going into the future.

So as mentioned, we like to take a measured approach so that we don't overcorrect for anything in any certain year. Any questions on that? Because that's the five year forecast for you. All right. Each year, we do talk about new county priorities. And so this is where we do, even though, you know, we're facing some challenges going up into the next several fiscal years, fortunately, you know, we as a county are always prudent. You know, I mentioned we had six I'll go back real quick. We have that $60,000,000 in ongoing carryover. What ends up happening to our budget is we have one time funds that are then available to then allocate for a lot of one time purposes. And so I want to jump in.

There we go. To the next slide. So despite some challenges that are headed our way, we really have an extraordinary amount of targeted investments going on into next fiscal year. Of that $273,700,000 most of that is onetime. So we're talking $258,000,000 almost $260,000,000 of onetime costs that we're wanting to build in or investments for next year that we're planning for, along with roughly $15,000,000 in ongoing general fund allocations.

And I should step back for a second. This is all as it relates to general fund that we're talking about going into next year. So, you know, pretty exciting. We've got several different things that we're looking to do. I'm just going to highlight a few of those.

So on the supporting vulnerable populations, we've got $22,300,000 to really support our underserved individuals within the county. One that I wanted to highlight is we are recommending to set aside $5,000,000 to support our reentry population. And so one of the things that we're considering and looking at as a county is a new beginnings campus in the Glen Helen Jail area, and that's a program that the sheriff is working with behavioral health and several other departments, including workforce development, to look at many different potential ways by which we can reduce recidivism within the county, but more importantly, trying to reduce homelessness of our jail population as they're reentering, you know, the population. In addition to that, I wanted to highlight development assistance. So, you know, one of the things that we did a few years ago, the Board did, was set aside funding in a reserve to help with permit backlog.

So we are looking at using some of that reserve this year to continue to help land use services with different permit backlog. And I also wanted to highlight that, you know, a few weeks ago, during the Board meeting, we talked on fees. We talked about how land use, we didn't want to increase fees too high in relation to a lot of our developer and developer community. And as a result of that, we talked about having needing to maybe subsidize land use services a little bit this year in order to ensure that their budget is balanced. We did that in this as well.

Was about $400,000 Also exciting is on the community service side. We've got $2,000,000 We mentioned it a little bit earlier, I think it was mentioned, about the animal shelter in Bloomington. And so we're recommending to set aside $2,000,000 ongoing to support that new animal shelter for the operations side. That will be set aside in the reserve that we're recommending as we continue to work through and develop the staffing plan, but we did want to ask the Board to set that aside on an ongoing basis. On the capital needs side, we are always doing a lot within the county on the capital needs side.

We have $77,200,000 for a wide array of different projects. A couple notable is on the public safety side specifically. That's where a lot of the one time funding is going towards. There is a need in the High Desert for the district attorney to have a new office, and so we are using $11,500,000 of a reserve that would be set aside to begin starting that project. And a little bit over $30,000,000 is being recommended to be allocated to the Sheriff's Department for a lot of different capital Their Scientific Investigations Division building is in need of a new building.

I know their specialized enforcement division they're looking at, a new building need. In addition to that, Big Bear has a patrol station that they are looking to, I believe, refurbish or improve. And so there's a wide array of capital projects, but a lot of the focus is on the public safety side. In addition to that, I want to talk a little bit about innovation and technology. And so, yes, we have $57,500,000 What I'm most excited about for me, because every time I can set aside money in a reserve, I'm excited, is roughly $25,000,000 we're recommending to set aside in an enterprise system replacement reserve.

You may have on the Board today, on consent, allocated the Board allocated $40,000,000 from a reserve for our new human capital management system. That's a huge enterprise system that we are going to be looking to implement over the next several years. What we thought is it would be great. We have a lot of reserves set aside for asset replacement. We have a reserve set aside for building replacement.

The next step is enterprise systems. We have a lot of enterprise systems that cost in the 10,000,000 to 20,000,000 to $30,000,000 range every time we need to replace these. And so setting aside a reserve that's designated just for that will really set us up for the future, and we're excited about that. On the financial security side, and this is where I wanted to talk a little bit more, every year we do set aside and recommend to set aside money that just meets our 20% general purpose reserve that we have, our 5% ongoing contingency reserve that we have for uncertainties. But this year, we have some issues with law enforcement liability.

I'm going to stop right there on the priorities because I was going to jump right into law enforcement liability because it's bit of an issue. Are there any questions on our priorities? All right. Okay, so Luther alluded to a little bit, you know, within the state of California, as we've talked a little bit about, it is quite litigious. What we find is that on specifically law enforcement, although it's a lot of areas within government, there, with the increasing litigiousness of not just the state of California but what we see in the nation, we see claims getting higher, we see judgments at time getting higher, and it's really impacting our insurance.

And so, you know, we, as a county, are basically partially like a hybrid model of self funded, and we have excess insurance. And so, as part of being self funded, we have a policy that the Board has approved that we basically want to maintain our balances in any of our insurance funds at what's called an 80% confidence level. What that 80% confidence level means is that we roughly have 80% certainty that we'll be able to pay out claims in any given year, so that we are roughly 80% of the time, we can pay out our claims, which is tied to our historical data on what claims has been. And so what this green bar is showing you is our projections well, first off our twenty fivetwenty six number, but then going into that, our projections into the future of what we would need from a balance perspective, how many millions of dollars that we would need to have set aside to maintain that 80% confidence level. That's those green bars.

What I wanted to highlight is that the blue bar, especially in 'twenty five, 'twenty six and then going into 'twenty six, 'twenty seven, was what our current projection was of the balances that we had within that fund at this point in time and how short it is. So roughly what you're looking at for 'twenty five'twenty six is $40,000,000 of a balance, but we really to have that 80% confidence level in accordance with policy, we'd have to have over $80,000,000 So we are definitely short, which has gotten me concerned. And that's one of those areas where, going into the future even, we were looking at ongoing shortfalls. And really, policy calls for when we are short in that, that we are to build up our reserves over a five year period to hit that 80% confidence level. So what we're recommending today for you and going into our premiums into next year is a line that looks a little bit more like this.

And the way by which we are really looking to increase specifically the 26%, 27% number is through a contribution from one of our reserves, one of our general fund reserves. As you know, we set aside a lot of reserves for a lot of good reasons. And so we have a liability reserve that's at $25,000,000 right now. We're effectively looking to release that reserve. It's a general fund reserve.

Release it into this fund to help us begin to move towards that 80% confidence level. But we're not just recommending that we have that $25,000,000 liability reserve that we release. We are seeing premium growth within the county. And what that means is we are looking to increase our premiums. Currently, in 'twenty five, 'twenty six, they're at $45,000,000 Going into next year, we are recommending that our premiums going into next year will be $69,000,000 total.

And what that means is our departments that pay into that, they will have a large increase going into next year. In addition to that, going into 02/2001, it would be up to $80,000,000 It's quite a large increase. Importantly, and I have a note down at the bottom, our biggest payer of law enforcement liability besides the county is our contract cities. The sheriff provides law enforcement services to 14 different of our 14 of our cities right now. And so any sort of cost we have on that side, we do pass on to our contract cities historically.

Notably, dollars 426,270,000 of that $24,000,000 increase that I was talking about in premiums, dollars 10,100,000 is going to our contract cities. And that's what I wanted to talk a little bit about with you guys today. One of our recommendations is, of that $25,000,000 of the liability reserve that we'd like to set aside, we would like to support our contract cities by basically cutting that premium growth in half for the next year. So rather than $10,100,000 increase, we would recommend a pure subsidy from the Board of Supervisors of $5,000,000 that would go towards helping them pay. Know, a lot of our contract cities, from a budgetary perspective, have a lot of challenges, you know, similar to the counties, but sometimes it's even worse.

And so we wanted to be in good partners, recommend that we would roughly, you know, on a onetime basis cover their costs for one year at half their premium increase. And so that is a specific recommendation that we have for you today. So normally, this is just a receive. But we did want to give our contract cities, who probably paying attention to this meeting, some knowledge going into the future of their budgets as they're planning their budgets, whether or not they can potentially see that and rely on that $5,000,000 So we are today asking you that to give us direction to include that into our budget going into June. So that is a recommendation in front of you guys today. I assume we'll take that after we go through questions. Any questions on that?

I'll tell you, our contract cities appreciate the support. I've been reached out to by several of them, and they appreciate it.

Excellent. Very good. All right. With that, that is what we have for you. Our next steps is that my staff, who I should have thanked right off the start, as Luther mentioned, they are working really, really hard right now to get a budget book that will be delivered to you and the public on May 19. That budget book will have this has been a general fund focus in this meeting. The budget book will have every revenue source that we're talking about. It will have detailed pages by department about what's going on within each budget. And then on June 9, which is three weeks later, when we would like to bring to the Board the actual budget, recommended budget, for adoption. So with that, I will, entertain any questions.

I don't believe I have any requests to speak. Is that correct?

That's correct. Okay.

Any questions?

Come on, you've got to congratulate. Thank you so much.

I know.

But the five year forecast freaks me out always.

I'm sorry. It is, but I've also been here long enough to know that you guys do a wonderful job of managing you're preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best as we go forward. Your team does a fantastic job preparing. I love the fact that we could take some long term vision, strategic investments not only for our residents but our departments. That is also part of everything we do all the time and that very thoughtful approach that you do. Even though we prepare for that worse, we hope those numbers change and that we have good outcomes going forward. But excellent work as always and we'll keep pressing on. I'll move it when you entertain that.

Supervisor Cook.

Yeah. A hundred years ago, you used to send people to Washington DC to talk to people that could help you out with, you know, you you needed money for a specific project or or what have you. And, usually, you'd bump in you'd have to go through the most difficult person to deal with. And I I'm trying to remember her name. Dawn something or other that I don't wanna say she always said no, but she was the gatekeeper.

Do you remember those days?

I do.

Yeah. She never got a Christmas card for ten years or something, but that's another story. And I'm just wondering because, believe it or not, when you went back there and you talked to particularly if you had a a large project or what have you, you had something that you could talk to your elected representatives about and say, you know, we're we're desperate in San Bernardino County for this for the following reasons. And unless they're stupid, they're gonna meet with you, and they're gonna talk to you. And this is where they they can always say no, but at least you get get your day in court or day in congress.

And I used to look forward to that because, you know, a lot of things are going on in every end. You still do that where you have an agenda. It's almost like a game plan on on how you you pick out certain, office holders, particularly the stupid ones like Cook back there. You know, you figure, well, he's dumb. He's a dumb marine.

We can get over on him and get another $100,000,000. Now you never got that much money. I don't care. JC himself was back here. But if if the source of the money is back there, I'm I'm obviously advocating Yes.

For a game plan on how you go back there. And you can be real nice, smooth, and everything like that. But that's oftentimes depending upon the situation in Washington and what have you. But I want some of my colleagues there now to go through the pain of meeting certain disgruntled people from your home communities because it works.

Yeah, absolutely. I'm fortunate to have work for me, Lea Flates, who is our legislative affairs and government relations sort of deputy executive officer. And they focus a lot with the federal stakeholders, state stakeholders, and really looking for the county to ensure that we are advocating for all of our needs. But in addition to that, we do have a process by which we look for federal earmarks, working with our local delegation. And it's something that they do a great job of really pursuing for the county.

Trying not to use the word air mark.

Yes, what was that? Budget request.

And it's used interchangeably, but I I bite the head off as soon as they say that.

Thank you for that.

Keep it at a higher level. Don't get down to the the level that these people in Washington are at. You're above them. You're no more. And you're more passionate because you're closer to the people. Thank you, sir.

Yeah. Thank you, madam chair. I want to thank Matt, finance team, department heads and Luther for really doing a great job with the budget. I know this is just the first bite at the apple. I know we're going to come back to formally adopt, but I think it's impressive the fact that our county staff has been able to make a lot of significant one time investments in the county to address a lot of the needs that we have.

And one of the ones I just want to highlight, I know you mentioned it earlier was the $5,000,000 investment for the Glen Helen rehabilitation center. One of the things we found out in the last point in time count is that our numbers did decrease in our county, but overall the formerly incarcerated numbers has increased. That's up to 28.6% now. So that's very, very significant. I know that's important for our Sheriff Shannon Dykes, in behavioral health to try to address and transition folks as they go from being incarcerated out to civilian life.

And that is just a big number with our homeless population. But I just think it's a great job that you did in forecasting and sharing with the entire Board what the outlook is. But also one of the things we have to consider in mind, we've been very blessed with revenues being high, American Rescue Plan Act money that we're able to make significant investments. We received a lot of money from the state a couple of years As we begin to look forward, how can we leverage our dollars with state and federal matching dollars? It's something we have to consider. But great job, Matt, with the budget, and I appreciate the good work to you and Luther. Thank you, sir.

Any concerns about the liability reserves for enforcement?

No? All right.

Would you like to make a motion? So moved. Thank you. Thank you very much for the motion and second. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions?

With that, item 84 passes unanimously.

Thank you

very much. Thank you, Matthew. Thanks to your entire team. Number 85 is the countywide unmanned aerial support workshop being presented this morning by Luther Sloke.

I'll let Trevor take his seat. But in, the opening comments made by supervisor Cook, he talked about drones, and it's very timely because that is the conversation that that Trevor as well as representatives from fire and sheriff will will lead the discussion over the next fifteen to twenty minutes or so to touch on. So I'll turn it over to Trevor, but I think he has a video that he's gonna start with

Yeah.

That we we recorded this just to be safe. I wanted to do this as a live demonstration, but we thought this was a little smarter. So go ahead, Trevor.

Yeah. Thank thank you, Luther, and good morning, chair, members of the board. I am Trevor Legia, assistant executive officer with the county's public safety and communications portfolio. So, yeah, let's watch that video. So that video we just watched, that was shot with an unmanned aerial system, aka UAS, aka drone.

And I think that's the type of use that a lot of us think about when we think about this technology and the capabilities of these things. We think about it. We go to a wedding. They fly over the wedding party. Everybody waves. But really with the technology capability growth that we're seeing, they're so much more than that. And that is why we are here today. And so at a high level, we're going to keep this, as Luther mentioned, to about twenty minutes. We're going to focus on four things. We're going to provide a quick overview of where we are today as a county related to UAS.

We're going to hear from the sheriff's department and the fire district as they walk through their programs since they're really leading in this space. And then we're going to close with a few recommendations and open it up for your questions and feedback. So in 2023, the county adopted its first formal UAS policy framework and that was aligned with FAA regulations. And that gave us a solid foundation for safe operations today. And as the technology evolves, especially with things like beyond visual line of sight, which we'll talk about more later, this is an area that we do want to keep current.

We also established a multi departmental steering committee. And that committee serves as a centralized forum to support coordination across departments. Things like reviewing purchases, sharing information, promoting consistency in training, safety and operations. And the committee itself, it doesn't approve departmental programs or direct the operations. And it continues to operate based on their specific needs within the framework of county policy and standards.

And so as these programs continue to grow in scale and complexity, ensuring a strong countywide alignment will become increasingly important. And so what this slide shows is that UAS use is expansive across multiple departments. As you can see, the county as a whole flew over four 20 flight hours last year. So not including sheriff and fire, which I'll let them speak to when they come up, but those flights supported a range of mission specific tasks, everything from infrastructure inspections after a flood, aerial mapping, supporting fraud investigation, assisting with homeless encampments, as well as video production. And so with that quick overview, I will turn it over to our subject matter experts and our public safety partners to share a bit about their programs.

I'll invite them down now. So as they're coming down, both Sheriff Dicus and Chief Muncy, they're really at the forefront of applying this technology in ways that enhance first responder safety and improve situational awareness in the field. So we have Lieutenant Bashir and Battalion Chief Chris Boden here, but I'll let them introduce themselves as they get started.

Hi, I'm Lieutenant Jared Bashir. I oversee our Operational Technologies Unit. One of the items that we cover is UAS within the county. Our current UAS program consists of our specialized enforcement division or SWAT team. We have a limited deployment of Droneus First Responder or DFR in Victorville City and we have certified Part 107 pilots running out of our real time information center.

As we expand into this area cautiously we have looked at multiple options in order to provide service for the county not only at the city level but also as a county wide and other departments within the Sheriff's Department. One of these items is a mobile response. So as spoken about earlier search and rescue issues in the county we have a vast county. We would be able to deploy UAS technology out to these search areas or critical incidents that are located in these remote areas for that along with also having different options available to including tethered and long endurance UAS systems for extended search operations or critical incidents. In addition to mobile response, we're looking at drone as a first responder.

Our partners up in Victorville City have launched their DFR program with success early on for finding missing persons, identifying suspects of crimes and officer safety. For our search and rescue personnel, we want to be able to leverage this technology in order to make it safer for them when they go out and do their searches and more efficient and more effective. A lot of the times when we go out and send our volunteers from the Sheriff's Department to do these rescues they get into terrain that's very dangerous and by being able to deploy a DFR to a location to confirm or deny the location of anybody actually being there, it increases their safety and makes it less likely that they'll be injured out there. We are continuing our specialized enforcement program with SWAT and how we handle critical incidents with their UAS technology and also looking to add to our specialized investigations division, specifically our homicide team for outdoor scene reconstruction. It's much more cost effective and efficient to be able to build out and map a crime scene versus the older technologies.

To the left is just some of the areas that we've been looking at as a county to deploy Dronex first responder and just seeing the legitimacy of those areas based on calls for service data and terrain. This is an early on map or an overview of the county. It just includes some of the sites that we're looking at as how we would implement Drone as first responder. This doesn't include any of the city stations. There's also outline stations that we have an idea for including Needles, Baker, Trona.

Also the mountain areas are on here. You don't see them but they would require a little bit different approach. But we are looking into areas of Crestline Lake Arrowhead, Big Bear, Running Springs and Wrightwood area. The other one to the far left is Mount Baldy. We have a lot of search missions that occur out there and it would just help in faster identification or location victims.

Everything will run through our real time information center as a centralized location but every piece of technology that we're implementing through our unit is to decentralize the technology so it is available to everybody including the officer on the street. The goal from the start was to make sure that all this information was available to everyone. We believe by being able to get this technology along with our existing technology out to the deputies, we'll have better outcomes and more situational awareness. On this screen, the middle screen for the real time information center, you'll see a drone feed that was coming in during an incident. On the right hand side, you'll see deputy locations along with live stream from the armored rescue vehicles.

This is just a very short clip for a matter of brevity for this situation. And these are all the feeds that come into our real time information center that's currently operating. So this would just be an added technology to give better information to the deputies in the field.

Good morning. My name is Chris Bono, battalion chief with the fire district. Assigned out in the South Desert. I'm also our, program administrator for our robotics division. Our robotics division covers ground based, subterranean, or indoor, underwater, and our UAS program.

And with our innovative forward thinking courage of our administration, we are among the leaders in the fire service in this field right now. Some of our core capabilities that we lean on in our UAS program include thermal imaging and video imaging that we can take of incidents. We're currently able to get UAS over incidents pretty rapidly with one person in the field. And I'll go over where we're leaning towards developing that, making it even better. But those videos and the thermal imaging provide real time situational awareness that has not been available in the past to the first responders on scene and even still en route, where they have a a view of their incident, from above that gives them, you know, a really good picture of what it is they're dealing with and allows them to appropriately allocate their resources, to control the situation and keep it from expanding.

We've been able to provide a scene illumination. One incident in particular out in the South Desert region up in the Rimrock area, we had a hiker stuck in some rocks that we had to send rescuers in. And this was at nighttime. We were able to put the UAS up above the incident with a fairly blight bright floodlight that allowed the first responders to get in there and safely extricate that victim from the rocks and get him off to get some help. We provide advanced mapping with our drones both pre incident and post incident.

We have a goal of 100% mapping of all of the fires that occur within the fire district's area. And so far, we are able to meet that, and we can provide exact acreage and fire perimeters of all the fires that we have. As we move forward, all of our drones are all weather. They can last in the higher winds. They can work in rain and low visibility.

We have waivers from the FAA to carry more weight on our drones than is primarily allowed by the FAA. They've provided us waivers for heavy lifting, which will allow us to also progress into water delivery, to fires from UAS so that we can get water in some of those areas, try and keep fires at smaller footprints until we can get ground resources in there in harder to reach areas. Our current fleet consists of 15 UAS. 13 of them are rotor wing or multi rotor copters. And then we have two vertical takeoff and landing fixed wing units that can last duration over, an incident providing us with a longer period of situational awareness.

Within the fire district, we have 12 current, Park one hundred seven pilots that are operating our drones. Those are pretty much at this point on scene. That's between our suppression and fire marshal's office. We do have waivers that also allow us to fly what's called beyond visual line of sight, which allows our operators to utilize, the cameras on the UAS as well as other intelligence that we have to see other aircraft in the area and make sure we deconflict and stay away from manned aviation and that we don't cause problems there. But we are wavered by the FAA to fly beyond visual line of sight, which really is a key for us as we move into what our program goals are and where we're headed.

We're in the process of starting up our early aerial situational awareness program, or ESA, very similar to law enforcement's DFR. But for us, it it truly does provide situational awareness to our personnel. This will be, what people refer to sometimes as drone in the box. We'll have five docks located in, two different cities in the county initially. We're gonna be placing two in Hesperia and three down here in San Bernardino City where some of our higher fire call volume is.

Those aircraft will launch on the report of a fire. They'll be operated from our central fusion center, which will be located in the basement of the fire headquarters, by remote operators. They'll be able to get these UAS overseen of an incident long before, fire apparatus and personnel ever get there, providing them, again, that early situational awareness so that they can see what they're coming into. We also will have radar here in the valley, which will allow us to deconflict with because this is a heavily manned aviation area. So it allows us to deconflict with the manned aviation and make sure we're staying way out of the way of any, manned aircraft.

As we continue to move forward, we are working on establishing another program with Pivotal, which is a little bit larger UAS that we'll be deploying originally as unmanned. What we're looking at with that is heavier payload delivery, and we're working with the company to also use that to be able to deliver water to fires, which, again, will allow us to keep those fire footprints smaller. In addition, with our innovation, we have two companies we're working with directly. One is developing a water dropping UAS. That's Ponderosa AI.

It'll have hotspot detection capabilities through infrared sensing, and it'll allow us again to help keep these fires mopped up and cleaned. Where Seneca is a different program, Seneca is an autonomous system that we'll be monitoring and we'll have control over. But these will launch the report of a fire in a particular area, and they have the ability to deliver water to that fire in what's considered a swarm capability. So there's multiple of these drones that will respond and start to put suppression efforts on these fires again in hard to reach areas until ground personnel can get there and get it under control and get it taken care of. And, again, all of this is coordinated with, manned aerial resources for deconfliction.

As we continue forward, we're looking to add more ESA docs in the future years. We want to get better coverage throughout the county, looking into covering some of the further out regions in the North Desert, the South Desert, and even our mountains area. Eventually, with the pivotal aircraft, that has the ability to be crewed by a person. That will take a fair amount of training and policy that we'll need to develop. But that is one goal to eventually get to, which would allow us to get rapid EMS care in hard to reach areas.

In particular, what we're looking at is whole blood delivery for trauma victims because whole blood saves lives. And with that, we will be working with the FAA and private business partners in the unmanned air traffic management system, or UTM. As you know, Amazon's getting ready to start launching drones for package delivery, and there's a number of other private enterprises that are looking at using drones or UASs for their, businesses. And so in order to deconflict all of these resources and not have them running into each other in the sky, the FAA is working on, UTM integrations so that we're all staying away from each other. And this is just a quick overview of what we're looking at in the long distance, some more sustained longer term situational awareness over the county where we can have something overhead.

Whether it's a fixed wing type aircraft at higher altitude or at the rate some of the technology is progressing, this could even be low Earth orbit satellites that will provide us with real time, information as far as going what's going on in the county. And that's all I have to speak to.

Thank you, both.

So what we just heard is these programs, they're already having a real impact and especially in the first responder safety. But at the same time, this technology within the systems, it's evolving so quickly really just in the last few years. I mean, this picture on the right here, I took that back in 2016, over ten years ago on the top of San Mateo landfill. And so while these platforms like fixed wing, quadcopters that we hear about, they look very similar today, but the technology that's available inside of them, it's growing so quickly when we talk about autonomous flight, DFR, beyond visual line of sight. So we're also seeing emerging use cases like EVTOL, that's Electric Vertical Takeoff and Land aircraft, particularly as we look towards 2028 like the Olympics and the future airspace demands in our county and in our particular airports.

So this evolution, it's a strength. But that also makes it more important that we maintain a common operating picture as these programs continue to grow. And so the question becomes how are we headed in the right direction? And I'm sure you've heard this corny analogy, but it's like a flight path, right? You take off from Ontario to New York. Generally, you're pointed in the right direction. But once you're airborne, you can start making small adjustments to make sure that you land exactly where you want to go. And I feel like that's where we are here today. These programs, they're taking off across the county. And we have an opportunity now to make those adjustments, whether it's around coordination or infrastructure or even policy, so that when we look back in five years, we're where we wanted to be.

And so based on what we're seeing, we've identified a few initial areas for consideration. And the first three aren't necessarily decisions today. These are areas that we would value the Board's input and come back on with more detailed recommendations. And the first is updating our policy framework to keep pace with evolving technology and regulations and specifically that beyond visual line of sight. The second is strengthening information sharing and situational awareness across departments.

There are programs out there like DroneSense and FUSYS, which are software platforms that are used to coordinate drones, drone operations in real time. And then third is establishing a working group to evaluate drone detection and mitigation. And so where we'd really value your input today is on the broader direction moving forward. And looking ahead, the key question is how do we best support these programs as they continue to grow across the county? And so one area for discussion is what level of countywide coordination or support makes the most sense moving forward.

And that focus isn't necessarily on centralization versus decentralization, but it's how do we ensure a common operating picture while continuing to support these departments and their individual missions. And then the second area is around real time information centers, specifically how can we enhance information sharing and situational awareness across the existing capabilities, as you heard, fire and sheriff and Office of Emergency Services. And the intent is not to replace what exists today but to better connect those systems where it adds value, particularly as these programs like early aerial situational awareness and DFR start to come into play. And so with that, I will turn it back over to Luther for any additional comments.

Thank you, Trevor. I got to make a comment on the corny analogy. That's one of my favorite analogies, so good job on the little dig. The the I guess the point here today is we have we have, as Trevor has has brought out, really started to advance in this space as a county. And we are doing exceptional.

As you heard from Fire, we're leading the way. I think that's incredible. But as was mentioned, even like this beyond visual line of sight, it's a limiting factor that we've placed on ourselves currently under our own policy that we don't allow that. So there's some modernization of our own policies and practices internally that need to happen, as well as some coming together and creating we have the UAS committee, which has been very effective. We need to take that to the next level and really put a group together to look at how do we do this in a collaborative way where we can either share resources or share information or both and be able to maximize our impact using these tools?

And then, you know, the question here that really I'd welcome the Board's input on is the discussion is Trevor mentioned, this isn't necessarily about centralization versus decentralization. But there is a question about, do we want to look at, at minimum, some sort of colocation? We saw that there are real time crime real time information centers that both sheriff and fire have. Does the Board want us to bring that group together and really look closely at potentially coming back with a request for an investment to create a single center that would make sense for all parties where we could have those synergies, where we could bring together investment and put it in one place. And then when we have events and emergencies, we could potentially have one colocated area.

But at the same time, during normal practice and normal routine, any security or privacy requirements that were required by Sheriff or Fire could be maintained or others. So that's something that I I think we we should look at, and I'd look to the board, though, to see if that's something you would support. But then also going forward, you know, based on what you're seeing out there, what what you're experiencing, what you're seeing with the cities, what you're seeing in your own research and things that you've found. Are there things that you would like us to be focused on as we continue to engage in this space?

Supervisor Hagman.

Thank you. Many knows this has been some of my passion even back since Paul and I were in the assembly days. We actually wrote the first legislation on this in California. Yeah, way back when. It's a fantastic tool. But if you look at how fast it is moving, right now, it makes sense the way things are set up. Because these are usually drones used by first responders that are brought to a scene, launched, monitored close by and stuff. But the future, next three or four years, just think we were twenty years ago. We didn't have cell phones and how far things are going. And I have a passion for the smart city, smart county applications to this going forward, that there's a lot to do.

And I did some just looking. This started my passion a long time ago by visiting, I think, one of our international partners in South Korea where they had a smart city. And the technology there, even twelve, fifteen years ago, was amazing of how they were able to work on this. Then recently, I visited one of my cities in Ontario that has their real time fusion center. They cut out 40% of the calls. It's not alarm calls because they were able to get a drone out there first to see that there was not an incident going on. It's a malfunction. So it's also a resource saver when it comes to these things. But where do we go forward? The tech in five years is going to be changing completely.

If anybody's watching international news right now, drones are everywhere in the Warfinder mission. But this is something that could be a lifesaving mission for us. And it's not just the ones it's going be the ones out of line of sight. And they could be multiple departments of multiple different missions. Land use can use it for fire abatement surveys, permit checks.

Public works have their flood control to see if our sensor's coming in. And how do we plan for ten years from now versus what was realistic today? A lot of these things exist all over the world already. They're traffic like synchronization, autonomous vehicle watching, smart utilities, just a number of smart devices that we could bring into a fusion center of some sort. And just like with OES, when you come together to handle a crisis and the military has their central command, I definitely enforce some kind of center that we can cohabitate together versus building individual centers.

That doesn't mean the mission change for each one of our departments, but I think to try to coordinate as much of that information. And as we advance and bring on technologies going into the future, how we integrate that seamlessly into the software that we have for monitoring stuff is very important. I also noticed that with the Ontario Fusion Center, even the wealthiest city we have had a difficult time to staff it twenty four seven because it is costly for the staffing. The one time money to set up is one thing, but to staff it. So can we do cross disciplines?

Can we share the costs of some of these future drones that will stay up there for twenty four hours a day and have wide verses? Can we share that upon the departments with their different mission sets? A lot of questions going, but I think it's definitely time to address our policy and where we're gonna start planting this stuff in the future.

Yes. Thank you, Chuck. I appreciate Supervisor Hegmann's comments. I think we could look at a centralized location. And I think the technology has come a long ways and will continue to change. I believe we have to defer to our experts, our sheriff and fire department and get input probably from our cities too and get their thoughts if they would like to also supplement or be part of this. I mean the other thing just I don't know because I'm not in that world, but looking at unmanned for water droppings. I don't know if those make sense strategically to be in areas that are hotspots. I can't speak to that. I'm not a fire expert.

But I know that that's a very, very critical thing, especially when we look at hard to reach places where many engines can't get to. Sometimes there's narrow roads or other things. So I don't know if these should be placed strategically or we should look at one center, but I think it's something that we should have that discussion and allow our experts with the sheriffs and fire department to give recommendations to this board. But I think there's a good opportunity here as we continue to look at upgrade our technology. Good work.

Supervisor Cook?

Yeah, I think this is extremely important for our area. We're spread all over creation. I don't want to go on and on about how large it is and everything else. But I think we have an opportunity to join forces, if you will, with the civilian side, if you will, with the military side. And because oftentimes, you know, we we used to work together when somebody was missing in the desert.

For some reason, Lance Corporal rather, which I think we I don't know. He's still wandering out there. And I just fear the worst. But we're certain individuals. The point I'm saying is I think both the county, the military, and everything else have certain resources and certain, let's just say, opportunities to influence people in Washington so that if we had one unified plan that we came together that would benefit both the civilian side and the military side, I'm sure we'd get special attention in Congress and the Senate.

Geography is know, the people in the desert, you love it. I've mentioned it several times. But it's very unforgiving. And if bad things happen in the desert, you have to react quickly or the consequences will come into effect. So I think having this dialogue on how we could work together I'll be honest with you.

I don't think we work together enough joining forces. Because, you know, let's face it. I'm on a different side of the fence now, but, you you know, the military is over there. And I don't wanna say there's trust issues on how we do things. But if we have the same goal, I think, and I'm speaking primarily of the desert regions and everything else that if we had both the county And we do work together.

But I want to maximize that because when something happens, whether it's a training accident or you got to get to a hospital down in San Diego, time is very, very important. You can't argue about whose turf it is. You have to have, I think, a command post exercise where you actually go through this drill and you find out, okay, who's gonna be responsible for this, this, this, and this? And you practice it. So god forgive forgive me.

But, you you know, I've seen it happen. And time is of the essence so that something bad happened, you gotta react quickly, whether it's a hospital or or what have you. So just having this discussion and how we can do it, but it's it's human nature. We as on this but we kinda operate in our own area and everything else. But when you're together and each provide certain assets that could expedite an emergency, and I won't even describe what kind could happen, that I think we might end up doing something which we all want to do, and that is save a life or two in an emergency situation.

So I want to continue this dialogue. I'm glad that we're talking about it. And anything we can do to have joint cooperation on this and actually go through it step by step, god forbid we have a tragedy. But it's something out there is lurking and it's going to happen. So, that's my 2¢.

Supervisor Armanderes?

Yeah, I think I want to start with I do not know the answers to this. I think this is a great opportunity for us to find out those answers, though. Think we should have some sort of group come together. Those who are at the table should be the ones who are educated in this, whether with our police or fire, our cities. Everyone who's utilizing this technology, we should probably get in a room and figure out how we can create some sort of MOUs to work together.

I think working together collaboratively is not just good government, but it also creates an affordability factor where we can accomplish more with less. I think a command center could be a great idea. You know, a regional I don't know if it's under our Office of Emergency Services where we have people there. I do understand the sensitivity depending on if you're working with fire or you're working with sheriff. But I also know we also have some of our SWAT people who are cross trained also who are medics and sworn. Maybe we can figure out how to get that done where we have people who are cross trained who can be there to be those eyes. I also don't know

what the

sensitivity of the footage is. Are they required, like, our body cams to be released? Those type of things. I think someone smarter than me has to vet all those issues and know what opportunities are there and also what hurdles we're going to deal with or what liabilities we're going to encumber by moving forward. I do believe that we have to fix the policy regarding line of sight.

But I also think there's a huge opportunity for us to work with our cities also. If we can collaborate internally, I think it opens the floodgates for what we can do as the whole county with municipalities involved so that we can all work together and utilize all our resources to be not just collaborative but very strategic in how we plant the future of what this technology looks That's all my comments. This

is not my area of expertise. Same thing. I would just say that the only thing that I would want to keep in mind is some of the missions are different. So when I saw probation up there, I'm still curious, like, what does probation do with the drone? I don't know. I'm excited to learn. I wondered health and human services, and then it was mentioned homelessness. So I can see that. I think that missions will vary depending upon the department. So I think it's I like the idea of having a central working group, but we also have a special district involved.

And I think we need to be careful in how we approach it with a special district. I know we have different fleet services and things like that. That's an area when you talk about fire and fire as a special district, just to keep that in mind. I don't know the answer, but I'm looking forward to the dialogue.

Yeah, if I would, I think I appreciate all the feedback. I think bringing a working group together is important and talking about these issues. If we all bring our heads together, bring experts into the room and talk about what we can do, how we do it responsibly, and how we do it in a way that that works with everyone, but figure out our way to do it, we can we can make that happen. So Trevor and I will get together. We'll we'll take the lead. I'll I'll have Trevor be the lead for the county administrative office and start to work to outreach to the various departments around the county who are already involved in this or would like to be involved in this, and we'll start that dialogue about this specifically. So thank you all for your feedback.

Very good. Thank you very much, Trevor. This is a receive and file. So with that, we will move on to our general public comments. We have a lot of speakers signed up to speak today. We look forward to hearing your comments. Due to the volume of speakers, we are going to limit today's public comment to two minutes per speaker. And again, when you get to the threshold where you have your last thirty seconds left, it will flash orange and then green or I'm sorry, then red. Our first request to speak is from Russell Drew, followed by Carol Pettigue. Good morning or good afternoon. Feel free to start anytime.

Okay. I wanna thank you for, your discussion with land use services this morning, and, we did have a meeting with them. So a lot of what we were gonna say, we've kind of talked about, and we've kind of made an action plan. So thank you for that. So I won't go into my long speech. You've got the paper there in front of you. I would like to take this time though to thank our supervisor, Paul Cook, and his office staff, especially Christopher Porter, for their great work in getting Lone Pine Canyon, which is the subject of what we came originally for, to get our road opened after the flooding. It was a mess, and it's open again. And we really enjoyed that. So, again, thank you, supervisor Cook, for all your efforts on our behalf.

And also, veterans group said to say hi, and they wanna see you in town. And that's all I'm gonna say.

Thank you. Carol require this question. Carol Pettigrew, followed by Linda Drew.

Ms. Pettigrew, Standell, I just think that the people here need to know what everybody that's not speaking now because we spoke, what we were talking about in that, meeting. Basically, I'm here to voice concern about the proposed quarry in the Lone Pine Canyon area. I'm concerned that the quality of life in Phelan, Pinion Hills, Lytle Creek, Hesperia, D'Vore, and Wrightwood will be greatly affected. The effect on traffic, on the fifteenth, the air, water, and noise pollution, the ecology of the area and any other hazards it will create will be devastating.

I believe the decision by the planning commission was possibly done, I'm not going say illegally but not correctly. I know the decision was made against the recommendations of their staff. The board needs to be this is you guys. You need to be very concerned about this project. It needs to be considered very carefully, and your situations need to be heard. Your constituents need to be heard and served. Thank you. Thank you

very much. Linda Drew, followed by Melissa. Melissa, it says.

Good afternoon, board and audience. I'm representing the Lone Pine Canyon Protective Alliance, whose purpose is to stop development of the quarry, which will devastate our communities. I'm a forty five year resident of Wrightwood, a small village high in the San Gabriel Mountains. And not only will this quarry project affect Wrightwood, it will reflect all the surrounding communities. Though this project needs to be stopped reasons to stop it are numerous.

I will focus on health issues today. Due to a finding called vested rights established in the 1920s, the quarry project would be allowed to move forward with no oversight, no environmental impact study, no conditional use prevent, no adherence to modern day mining rules. The mining company can do whatever it wants with no regard to how illegal it would be in today's world for the next one hundred and forty seven years. Product being mined is calcium carbonate. The National Institute of Health notes that blasting, drilling, crushing, sifting creates particles that can be blown by the wind up to 60 miles away further in greater winds, which we do have on the top of our mountain.

That covers the entire Tri community where we are and down here. Calcium carbonate poses risks when mining crushes the rocks into dust, which we then breathe. Inhaling such dust can cause respiratory, eye, skin irritation. Continued ingestion can lead to more serious conditions, such as kidney, gastro, and metabolic issues. At this point, we also know that Lone Pine Canyon contains a rock called actinolite, which when blasted, drilled, crushed, produces asbestos fibers.

These fibers are tiny enough to remain suspended in the air and are easily inhaled, and they cause all kinds of disease see I'm about done there all kinds of things, like mesothelioma cancer, asbestos, and other cancers. And it's cumulative, and you might not know for ten to forty years that you might have it. And also, it's going to hurt the animals because the particles of the dust go on the plants That's time. And mess up the vegetation.

Melissa Melissa, followed by Cheryl Derrick.

Hi. My name is Melissa Manning. I also have handouts, if somebody's able to pass those out. I have copies eight copies for everyone. Do I take them down there?

When you're done, you can hand them to the clerk of the board over here, please.

Alright. Thank you. Good morning. Again, my name is Melissa Manning. I'm a resident of Wrightwood and a member of the Lone Pine Canyon Protection Alliance.

I wanted to share that, vested rights were found, but the county really needs to evaluate the impacts, fire risk, evacuation safety, groundwater, earthquake activity, radon, asbestos, air quality, even the PCT views that the SB County posted about on face this last week are all parts of this. Lone Pine Canyon has a posted five ton weight limit, and it literally just reopened. Thank you, Paul Cook. For fast tracking that, it reopened on April 16. This project requires 80,000 pound class eight trucks opening or operating at eight times the legal limit.

It's not a minor adjustment. Approving this project without fully redesigning and rebuilding that road would result in structural failure. We are talking about pavement degradation, sub base collapse. It happened so easy. It was like less than a foot of rain made the entire road collapse.

Also, there's what engineers called alligator cracking that we're concerned about, and that is basically the road breaking apart under stress. It's also a public safety issue. The Lone Pine Canyon Road is narrow. It's an evacuation route with limited shoulders, And a single stalled or slow truck can create complete blockage, which we've seen in the past when people like, even today, leaving, I had to go onto the other side of the road in order to pass a very slow truck. We have a problem in our community, our whole county being one of the top

places Perhaps time.

Cheryl Derrick followed by Robert Kigle.

Thank you for having us.

I'm a resident of Wrightwood. And I also feel that this huge, huge endeavor will have catastrophic effects on our communities. We did have a nice meeting before, so I think we got some of this stuff straightened out. But I just wanted to voice my opinion.

Thank you very much. Robert Kegel, followed by Andrew Firm.

My name is Robert Kegel. Thank you for having us here and listening to us. I'm a resident at Indian Springs Ranch off of Lone Pine Canyon Road. My family and I have been caretakers there for thirty five years. Indian Springs Ranch is a Native American ranch ranch where we used to host powwows and Native American ceremonies. Besides that, on the ranch, there's an archaeological site dating back to seventeen hundreds to eighteen hundreds. Now that I'm informing you that there's an archaeological site, it will be against the law for you guys to approve any plans to do any mining in the area until federal agents are there for federal review to determine that no cause will be harm to our site. So if you guys violate section one zero six of the Historical Preservation Act by approving these plans, there will be legal consequences. Thank you.

Andrew Firm followed by Jamie Carper.

Give me a moment to raise this. Thank you. Okay. Good morning, supervisors or afternoon. On behalf of the Lone Pine Canyon Protection Alliance, I'm here to address gross procedural defects regarding the proposed open pit quarry.

Land use services failed to provide the community or immediate neighbor to the site, Indian Springs Ranch, with official notice for MRP 202500002. No notice was published via established media, and this is a gross procedural defect under CEQA section one five zero seven two. The current mitigated negative declaration also improperly segments this project by masking a one hundred and forty eight year mining operation as a mere reclamation plan. This is another direct violation of CEQA. Furthermore, we have uncovered significant defects with an associated pattern of documented impropriety surrounding the 2019 vested rights determination.

The site sits on the San Andreas Fault containing federally protected species and adjacent to culturally significant Native American sites. A mitigated negative declaration is legally indefensible here. We've already established a fair argument that significant impacts exist regarding groundwater in the Sheep Creek Wash, seismic interference, and federal species. Under California law, this fair argument mandates a full environmental impact report. We held an informational town hall on April 30 with over 170 in attendance who signed our physical petition, and our online petition has now secured nearly 3,000 and growing additional signatories.

Because of these missteps and the delay in fulfilling our Public Records Act requests, the current timeline is insufficient. We respectfully request that the board intervene and direct land use services to extend the public comment period to no fewer than sixty days from when the county provides results for our CPRA request. This will allow us to get the information needed to present our case and ensure it is in the technical record. And I'll finish with saying thank you for directing us to the land use meeting and and having them have that, initial conversation with us. We appreciate it.

Jamie Carper followed by Lindsey Faube.

Thank you, and good afternoon, supervisors. I wanna address a basic problem with the county's reliance on the vested rights finding of 2019. Even if some of the historical mining activity occurred somewhere on this property, that does not create an undefined open ended right for a much larger modern mining operation. The first issue is scope. A vested right, if it exists at all, has to be defined by what was historically lawful, actually conducted, and continuously maintained.

It cannot be treated as a blank check. But here, the county is relying on a finding of vested mining rights without clearly defining the location boundaries, intensity, intensity, methods, volume, duration, and operational limits of such right. Without those limits, a narrow historic use is being turned into a broad modern entitlement. The second issue is expansion. The project now being advanced is far larger than anything shown in the site's historical mining record.

The current provisional proposal involves resumed surface mining over a large area with drilling, blasting, crushing, screening, hauling, stockpiling, and processing on an industrial scale. Even if mining occurred historically, that does not mean the county can assume the right extends to a much larger and more intensive modern quarry. Third, the parcel history matters. APN 0356 Dash 241 Dash 02, which is only about 12.8 acres, is a historic location of the historic old mine. That was the former El Cajon property where limestone and dolomite mining began in 1924 and where a 125 ton per day lime process processing facility was built.

The other parcels have no history of mining or mining rights. Just being able to tuck them in with this other parcel and say they have grandfather vested rights is, just unlawful. So I'd like you to consider that and your decision with this proposal. Thank you.

Lindsay Faube followed by Debbie Lopez.

Hi. My name is Lindsay Fallb, and I'm a resident of Wrightwood. I've been there for thirty two years, and my family has lived there for over fifty. I'm asking the county to require a full EIR, ensure proper comprehensive and environmental review, and not move forward without full transparency and accountability. I want to focus on one critical issue is the lack of complete environmental oversight in the current CEQA review.

This project is two eighty five acres of mining, decades of operation, blasting, truck traffic, and permanent landscape alteration. It's being reviewed under a mitigated negative declaration that does not align with CEQA. Under CEQA's fair argument standards, if there is substantial evidence that a project may have significant environmental impact, a four a full environmental impact report is required. That has not been met. Biological resources, this canyon supports wildlife, including federally protective species such as golden eagles as well as other other sensitive species like the coastal horned lizard, bighorn sheep, and kangaroo rats.

Blasting habitat destruction and long term industrial activities pose clear risk to these species. The current review does not demonstrate the adequate protocol level multiseasional survey that work should be conducted. Not only that, but this project will generate significant dust and particulate matter from blasting, crushing, and constant track truck traffic. That means long term exposure to airborne pollutants for residents, especially children, families, and vulnerable populations. Fine particulate matters is directly linked to respiratory issues, asthma, and long term health impacts.

In a small mountain community like ours in Wrightwood, where clean air is part of our our quality of life, this is not a minor issue to us. It is a significant and lasting impact that has not

been time.

Debbie Lopez followed by Robin Crouch.

Hi. My name is Debbie Lopez. I'm commenting on the Lone Pine Quarry. Thank you, supervisors, for listening today. And I appreciate all my neighbors' professional comments. Mine are more emotional. And most important the utmost important is the impact to the indigenous archaeological sites as well as these significant historical sites. That's my number one comment. Also, I'm really concerned about the evacuation route. We only have three different routes we can use to evacuate in Wrightwood, and we are evacuated quite a bit.

When you evacuate, you're saying goodbye to all your things in your home, and it's a very stressful situation. In particular, because of the wildfire, I'm also worried about the flash point of the airborne particulates that the mine could release into the air. We are really coordinated when we do have to evacuate. But if there's one disabled mining truck on the road, it would just spell disaster for the whole everybody trying to evacuate. Basically, it's just, once again, the indigenous sites is the most important, and the evacuation of Wrightwood is critical.

Thank you. You.

Robin Crouch followed by Daniel Crowley.

Hi. My name is Dan Crowley. Thanks to everyone in this room for listening and for giving me a few minutes to speak about a concern I have. I'm a lifetime San Bernardino County resident. I love this county. I grew up in Colton. I graduated from Aquinas High School. I currently live in Wrightwood, and I've lived in Wrightwood for the last thirty three years. I recently retired from a thirty eight year career with NASA at the Armstrong Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base. I was the facility engineer.

I supervised a team of engineers and architects managing facility operations and managing design and construction projects. I am sensitive to and very much appreciate the communication challenges associated with bringing change to the community. U five own the county processes that deliver that change in this county. My concern, seventeen days ago, I was surprised. My neighbors shared with me that a significant change to our community was announced.

A mining operation may begin soon near our homes along the Lone Pine Canyon Road. And that that operation would, include blasting throughout the day and until 10PM. So much for your quiet retirement, Dan. Again, I was surprised. My request to the board is to pause the approval process until the communities of Lytle Creek, West Cajon Valley, Phelan, Pinion Hills, Oak Hills, Hesperia, D'Vore, and Wrightwood can review and comment on this mining project.

Again, please stop the project so that we can all understand the impacts this mining operation will have on air quality, water quality, the wildlife in the canyon, our wildfire egress situation, potential increased traffic at the Highway 138 and Interstate 15 intersection, and particularly the associated increased commute times for commuters. Please know those of us who drive daily up the Cajon Pass Freeway already spend too much time in traffic, adding hundreds of hauling trucks to the traffic jam.

That's time.

Thank you very much. Chad Keel. Chad Keel followed by Jill Carlton Payne. Can

I have her time

Hello? My name is Chad Keel. Like many of my neighbors, I'm deeply concerned about the quarry being proposed to start in Lone Pine Canyon. However, I thought I really shouldn't be worried, because we have a supervisor who takes oaths very seriously. Supervisor Cook, I liked your individual board comment about drones and the people being lost, Because you made an oath before everyone here.

You said, no more missing people in the desert, you said, not on my watch. You took another oath when you joined the military and when you were sworn in to serve the constituents here today, that you would defend this country versus, what, all threats, foreign and domestic. Paul Cook, you are a man of integrity and honor. You took these oaths. So as a constituent and someone who wants to hold you accountable to those you know, not just before me, but before God, will you stand up against foreign entities mining and extracting our minerals, ravaging our precious wilderness, and destroying our Americana history?

I would like to take the remaining of my time just to pray for Paul Cook. I pray you stand up for what is right, and you uphold your oath you made before God and the American people you serve within your district of the county of San Bernardino. God, give him the strength and the courage to uphold his oath and defend our precious American soil from foreign exploit exploitation. K? Thank you, Paul Cook.

Jill Carlton Payne followed by Kathleen Mitchell.

Hi. Jill Carlton Payne, president of Timberline Lions Club. One of our eight pillars for Timberline Lions Club and the Lions Club International is the environment. I'm here to speak on that behalf. Thank you very much, supervisors, for allowing us the time today and directing us over to Land Use Services Department.

As you can see, there's been many things that haven't happened correctly. The importance of your intervention cannot be understated. This project will affect not only residents of Wrightwood, Pinion Hills, Feelin, surrounding communities. The water after the drilling will be horrific. We've already just had Lone Pine Canyon redone just with the flood that we had in 2025.

Can you imagine these trucks, what that'll cost the county going up there? That includes the State Road, Highway 138, with the trucks going there as well. The most important thing, though, is the vested rights was not done correctly, and that has been proven, and documents will be shared with the Land Use Planning Commission and all of that. That needs to be looked at because it'll impact as far as earthquakes, water quality, all of the surrounding communities including Fontana, D'Vore, all the way down to Los Angeles if there's an earthquake with that drilling that goes on there. What's been done with the Rosemary, mine with the same applicant down in Fallbrook is horrific and so we would ask that your board step in and do do the right thing.

Make those contacts with your state representatives. We know you have those partnerships. Make those contacts with the Planning Commission. We know you have those partnerships. We know that people are coming up for election. We may be 3,000 people, possibly five, but we will be reaching out to everyone from here to Los Angeles. You you can bet on it. So we'd like to partnership with you to help stop this before it goes to litigation. Want to prove Next time.

Thank you very much. Kathleen Mitchell followed by Carlo.

Well, hi, everybody. I gave you a packet of stuff about earthquakes in Wrightwood and the history of them. I wanted to let you know, I actually love the San Andreas Fault. San Gabriel's used to be down by Mexico just 5,000,000 ago, and they've traveled up to their position in Wrightwood. In the meantime, they've grown.

They're one of the fastest growing mountain ranges in the world. The San Gabriel's are active, and the San Andreas Fault is the reason because of that. So when I heard that there was gonna be a mine that's actually drilling into the San Andreas Fault, releasing a lot of weight from the San Andreas Fault, and shaking it, I thought of, the grizzly bears that used to live in Lone Pine Canyon back in the day. And if you came across a grizzly bear sleeping in Lone Pine Canyon, would you poke it? Would you try to wake it up?

Maybe not the best idea. We do expect an earthquake, a big one, and very likely originating in Wrightwood because that's the point of a huge amount of fault stress. That earthquake could start there today, any day. I know San Andreas runs right by you here. So the San Andreas is not just for Wrightwood.

It's for all of Southern California. So if there's a mining approved pit mine approved for the Lone Pine Canyon, have you notified all the other counties of your intention to mess around with the San Andreas Fault? So I think that's only fair that Los Angeles County and all surrounding counties should also know that you're gonna do a deep mine along the San Andreas where it's very, very likely to be a point of epicenter.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Carlo, followed by Latisha Howard.

Hello. Thank you. And it's a little difficult to walk with one shoe and a sandal. So it's kinda cool having everybody stand up and, speak on factors in the community, traffic, roads, but they get to go home to their families. They get to go and see their kids.

They get to go home, put their kids in bed after having family dinner. No one trying to catch up to a parent meeting, right, or class that CFS made them do. They get to go home to their grandkids without the court or a social worker telling them that they're a detriment all of a sudden to meeting with their grandchildren that they've had had access with for the last five years when the kids were taken for a false positive from Benadryl. Yeah. Benadryl can create a false positive test.

But I also have to talk about the issue with what does that look like for the taxpayer when that's proven in court? The CFS disregarded that, did not care, and continued to remove this child, these children, on that false test for the last five years dragging this family. What kind of business is this? This is kidnapping by the state, kidnapping by people who wear these suits. We gotta stop it.

That's time.

Leticia Howard followed by Jane Hunt Ruble.

I am here today as a parent and as the founder of Safe Haven Resource Foundation. I'm speaking about what's happening within San Bernardino County Children and Family Services and what is happening to families like mine. My children were removed based on a false allegation of a head injury that never existed. Medical records confirm there was no injury. Despite that, my children remain in state custody where they have suffered many injuries. I completed every service that was required of me, and still my children have not been returned. This Thursday, there's a hearing to terminate my parental rights. That is not about safety. That is not about best interest of the child. That is a system refusing to correct its wrongdoing.

Two weeks ago, I provided this board with a stack of evidence documenting, proving the unlawful removal of my children. Since then, I've heard nothing. No response, no accountability, no actions. That silence speaks value. For a long time, I trusted the system.

I believed that if I did everything right, my children would come home. But what I learned is that compliance does not guarantee justice, and silence only protects the misconduct. So I stopped being silent, and I created Safe Haven Resource Foundation. Safe Haven exists to make sure that no parent goes through this alone. We provide families with tools they were not given how to document their cases, how to build affidavits, how to challenge false reports, and how to protect the parents' rights.

We are also launching workshops focused on real action, helping parents prepare for foul prepare and foul lawsuits against the county for unlawful separation of their families because families should not have to fight this hard to be heard. We came to this board. We asked for oversight. We asked for intervention, and we what we received was inaction. So since this board refuses to provide an oversight system, we are building our own. We are creating a community based on supports that actually serve parents.

This time

Jane Hunt Ruble followed by Certainly Rice.

Good afternoon. Wanted to speak out about item 84 but I got out there too late because my speech today is as usual about community safety and public safety and when I was listening to that I really thank the police, the sheriff department the county fire department because over all these years they have all worked together unlike some other counties and I remember when Josie was in office we had, well we have a big problem with fireworks still and it is getting worse and that was my when Jody was in office. It used to be handled the actual code enforcement law about fireworks. It used to be handled. We had to phone the county fire department and report it but then I learned they were not responding.

I mean you would phone it in but of course the people out there now, new people that think it's okay to set off bombs actually, they've been going out about it and there's no lot. And then it was handed over to the sheriff department to phone in on if you hear or see fireworks. But that has been, I still do it even though I know it doesn't work. So I got real excited. I think it was last year when I heard, I kept on asking him, why can't this is totally futile when I phone in because by the time you get out there you don't see them doing it and they clean up afterwards too.

So I'd like to see the County Fire and County Sheriff Department coordinate and actually use drones because that's the only damn way we're going to stop this because I'm dreading this year because it was really bad last year.

Next time.

Rice followed by Amethyst Yates.

Hello. Thank you for having me today. I did not grope my children. I did not spray them in the face with an oven cleaner. I did not beat them for having a bible. My name is Courtney. My children were removed because of someone else's violence. Not mine. There was a person in their lives who hurt them, who beat them, who created the danger that they were living in. I stepped in. I tried to protect my children from the harm. I refused to ignore it. I refused to stay silent. I refused to let them be hurt. And for that, protecting my own children.

They were taken from me. Even your own findings shown that there was no abuse by me. You acknowledged that. You said I should have full custody. Yet instead of correcting the situation, my children were placed in a system that has its own long history of harm.

For seven years, my sons have been in a group home. My oldest son, my child, was beaten by a staff member in a small room, a place that was supposed to be safe, a place you trusted more than his own parents. So I asked you, how can you say that my son is in danger with me, but not in danger while being physically harmed under your supervision? You remove them from a parent who was trying to protect them and place them into an environment where they were hurt again, and ignore the history, the patterns, the repeated failures of these group homes. You ignore the warning signs, and my sons pay the price.

This is not just about my family. This is about civil rights. This is about accountability. This is about a system that's punishing parents who are trying to protect their children while failing to protect the children themselves. Sons deserve better.

Amethyst Yates, followed by Andrea.

Good afternoon, chair and members of the board. I found something out again about San Bernardino County and DCFS and the fact that they're not participating in some of these attempts to better the situation for parents and for children. And one of those things I found out was that they are not participating in disrupting disparities group and that's going clear across California. And this group comes together to try to find solutions to the family separation and it's compiled of social workers and other professionals. However, San Bernardino is not a part of that.

Why is that? Can they join in? Can they participate? I also want to share an opportunity with any board member here or any social worker or professional. There's an event coming up on June 5 and it's walking in their shoes. It's through one of our partners at Starting Over Inc. And the partner is Families Inspiring Reentry and Reunification for Everyone. My contact information can be provided after this. If not, I put my email address, under the comment. So thank you.

That's all I got.

Thank you very much. Andrea followed by Delina Marillo.

Good afternoon. You guys talked about the general fund today that's in going to be in a deficit. And the general fund is funded by property taxes, which you guys can't really increase. You have a uproar by the citizens. It's funded by realignment funds, which include sales tax, vehicle licensing fees, can't make people buy new cars.

It's also funded by Title IV E funds, which is for foster care maintenance payments, training costs, basically all the costs that it costs to keep our children from us through CPS. That's what's funding it. So would it be too provocative to suggest that the general fund deficit is going to be funded off the backs of our children being removed from us.

You're right.

It's a quick, easy way to make money. These officers and these CPS workers, social workers are extremely aggressive. They are falsifying documents. They are running up into people's homes and taking their children off nothing. They create a problem, they create the trauma, and then they create the program that treats the trauma to justify their own existence. And it keeps the program funded and the county funded for you guys to be able to spend the money.

She's not lying.

I'm embarrassed to live here.

Delina Marillo Marillo followed by Johnny Marillo.

Good afternoon. My name is Delina Barello, a certified human civil rights consultant and a mother to Genevieve and Jaylene. I am here today because I have raised serious concerns multiple times, and no one will give me answers. I have contacted Jeannie Glasgow, Mia Moore, Lisa Smith, Kristen Hines, Kristen Brown. Every time I am told, we will look into it. We will get back to you, and then nothing. No follow-up, no accountability, no answers. Instead, I am told to go through my attorney. But when the system itself is failing, redirecting a parent is not a solution. It's avoidance.

Here are the issues that remain unaddressed. Social worker Samaria Roman has shown bias and lack of a of neutrality. Reports contain omissions, misrepresentations, and hearsay, not clear and convincing evidence. Social workers are signing reports about visitation they have never personally observed. Supervisor signing reports appear to have inactive or invalid license based on public records, and still these reports are being used in court.

There are serious due process violations. Evidence is being ignored. Reports are being withheld from the grandparents even after they filed for visitation. Grandparents are placed on supervised visits based on a hearsay from guardians who are the neutral but active parties seeking adoption. These grandparents were never properly considered for placement from the beginning.

And most importantly, the guardians were never properly licensed during fostering, guardianship, or until February 25. Over multiple years, they have had my children when not compliance under the state. So who is in who's verifying all these compliances? Because right now, it appears not none of one of you guys, no one in position is. How does a home remain unlicensed for year?

Johnny Marillo followed by Shanay Hampton.

Good

afternoon, everyone. I did not grope my child. I did not spray my child in the face with oven cleaner. I did not beat my child for the bible. My name is Shay.

Yet despite all of you what you guys have heard about me, I have been treated as if I have been judged already, misrepresented, and pushed through the system that I did not get the time to get the truth out. A social worker falsified information allegations about me for my son. My son was taken out of my custody and placed with someone else due to the fact my son was placed in foster care, but my son end up living out of state with his girlfriend. So as I found out that the county is paying this foster parent for my son a place to stay. I also was paying her too out of my own pocket.

This foster parent was getting $1,275 from the state and was getting $500 from me. Now when I talked to different social workers and everybody danced me around, talk to this person, call this person, oh, we're gonna look into it, nothing's been done. So I'm here today to speak. This is more than just raising concerns for my son. It's so many other kids that are going through this.

For people to talk about getting foster care money through the system while they're bragging about buying $3,000 purses, I have a sworn affidavits of my son coming to get money for me cleaning supplies and me still furnishing, paying where he was not living at, and no social worker, no one talked to him, I I don't understand. Like, how did this even get by? But after all this time, here I'm the one.

That's time.

Aureli Cedillo followed by Roxanne Lewis.

Good

morning, Board of Supervisors. I had a speech cut out already, but I decided to not bring it up. I decided to just do it on the fly. Paul, miss Roe, Jesse, the one that's running, which is a joke. And I'm gonna be very frank.

I'm upset at the fact that I have reached out multiple times as a consultant, as a project manager to try to see how we can build a gap, bridge the gap, you know, and the gap between the constituents of San Bernardino that are very upset, all these families that have been affected so drastically. And I keep coming to you guys time after time. Jesse, you're I mean, I don't even know why you're running. It's I'm a little embarrassed for your the rest of your team that's in front of you. I've con I've asked you, what are you doing to help CFS families?

How are you helping this issue? And you haven't done anything. Why haven't you reached out to me, Jesse? I I'm curious. You hear multiple families coming month after month after month, and not a single one of you guys has done anything to try to resolve this. You guys created a consulting gig for it, and then you guys handed it off to somebody that was internal within you guys. What's up with that? Come on. Miss Roe, I'm talking to you directly. Why haven't you reached out?

Why haven't you done anything on your end to try to see how we can codify this? How that we can come up with a solution together? Or is it that you just plainly and blatantly do not give a flying fuck? Because I think that's what's happening here. At this point, I'm seeing that not a single one of you guys have taken the time to address these families. You guys have CFS representatives come and talk with That's time.

Roxanne Lewis followed by Nicole Norris.

Actually, you cut my mic off. I was at under two minutes.

John. Roxanne Lewis. Roxanne Lewis. Do we have Roxanne Lewis in chambers? Going once.

Moving on to Nicole Norris. And after Nicole Norris will be Terry Lewis.

My name is Nicole Norris. I grew up in the foster system. I was taken from my grandmother because my mother was abusing me and my sisters and brothers, and they gave me to my grandmother where I was very happy. At late at night, they came and they took us back from her because they said she was too old to raise two little girls. They put us in another foster home with a lady who was even older than my grandmother, who never showed me any love, who never said I love you, never came to none of my anything, and never helped me with anything.

It was like being on my own without the physical abuse, but mental abuse and now counseling and Ritalin to make me just sit there because they didn't care. And I just don't feel like it's fair that these families are being some of us were okay with our other family members, but we're still taken from them and put into the system that didn't treat us well at all. And I just think that, you guys have the power to change all that. I mean, you guys have that. You guys are smart. You guys went to school for this, and I know you guys can make a change for us. Just help us, please. Help the other children. Thank you.

Thank you. Terry Lewis followed by Karen Reich.

My name is Terri Lewis. It was almost two years ago when my sister and I first started coming here about my niece and nephew being put into foster care. I'm the one who was the reporting party, and I called not based on any allegations of abuse or neglect or anything. I was looking for help for my niece because she has issues. I'll just say that, issues.

I called the sheriffs and talked to them, asked to get her evaluated. Nobody can do anything. And she had had a previous case at the hospital with CPS, a social worker called CPS. And they anyway, she completed a successful yeah. Our whole family participated in this case, and we went with the Closed successfully? Yeah. It was closed successfully. Anyhow, I had called they told me from Fontana if I called if I noticed any other problems to please let them know, and they seemed to genuinely care. And I was at my wit's end, and so I did. I called but my mistake was I didn't call Fontana.

We're the people that they seem to care. They were happy we successfully finished our case. Anyhow, I called the 800 number because I had lost the lady's number, and they came out like gangbusters, predators. They anyway, this is unacceptable. I don't know how you guys can sit there and listen to these people. I'm in tears listening to these people's stories, and you guys sit there week after week. You don't even care, you haven't done anything. You provide funding to defend this shit. You instead reform it and reunify. What happened to reunification?

My niece and nephew have been in there almost two years for no reason. Our family, why aren't they following their own WIC codes, and we're supposed to trust you people to be in charge that, oh, they might get adopted out? On what allegation? And you're supposed to go to family members who want them. The great grandmother wants them. The grandmother wants them. Aunt wants them.

Thank you, ma'am. Karen Reich followed by Steven Rogers.

Hi. My name is Karen Reich. These were my two grandkids, Jovi, Milo, and Chase Hi. Well, three that were removed almost two years ago for no reason. They came on the first day of the investigation, and they they removed him. This is unacceptable. Two years for nothing. They weren't abused. They weren't neglected. They were in my care.

What have we done so bad that we don't deserve to raise our own children? I want to know what I've done so bad that I don't deserve to have my own grandchildren in my care. I want to adopt them. I want them with me, but for some reason, this this guy ruled me out. Why? Mates. Why? Why did it was I ruled out? Because CPS tricked us and got the kids from us. Now they're saying we failed to protect them from them.

We failed to protect them from them, CPS themself. Have you ever heard of such a thing? It's unacceptable. Jeanie Glasgow, Betty Thompson Larkin, Dana Faulkner, they all need held accountable. All this is happening under Jeanie Glasgow's watch. Yep. She needs removed.

Yes. Yes.

That's all I have. I want my grandchildren home now.

Steven Rogers followed by Dennis Delamar.

Honorable Chair Rao, Steve Rogers, Redlands. I was here two meetings ago. And after the meeting, I went I tried to make a request, to meet with the CEO about what I was talking about and actually put in a request with the information folks, but I never received any other other communication from the county on on my request to set up a meeting. I mean, I the old days, I used to be able to go up to, the fifth or the 6th Floor and and and set up these kinds of appointments. Now, I guess, for security purposes, all I'm trying to say is it's very difficult to set something up, and this is the reason I come to the meeting today, basically.

I I just recently came to understand that complaints that I made to the, fraud, waste, and abuse, unit have have been referred to the district attorney, but the district attorney isn't doing anything. And this is what I wanna meet with the CEO about, is why there are certain factions here that apparently don't respond to the citizens. And I'm very you know, my problems are nothing compared to these people that are coming up here. Every time I come to the meeting, I I hear this. And and I agree with them.

Something needs to be done. And and, really, it it's it's a shame. It is really shameful to be a resident of this county, and our leaders apparently don't care about us and don't care about our problems. So I I I would

That's I kind.

Dennis Delamater Delamarre followed by Kresha Seal.

Alright. So Psalms, one twenty seven three says, children are an inheritance from Yehua. The fruit of the womb is reward. So what that means is that the creator gives us parents' rights. Right? My children were taken away for four and two days based off the allegations false allegations of a social worker. This system is reminiscent of slavery. I'll tell you why. Because there was a doctrine that they used called parents patriae. Right? And that meant that the the the county or the state was the parent. Right? That we don't have rights. I saw them lie and be able to just just just just like in slavery days, I'm a descendant of slave of a slave. Right?

Slaves saw I'm just taking. So I couldn't do nothing. I was powerless. So the issue is also in in in California, there's 400,000 allegations a year. 89% of them are unsubstantiated. What are the numbers in San Bernardino? And these are the 11%. These are the other 11% that that that now are supposed to be substantiated when a social worker come in. There's no oversight, there's no family review board. Where's the family review board to to to track the numbers?

Right? It can't be about money because, hey, hey, the thing say in Malachi four six that the creator, he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and children of the fathers. And if it don't happen, guess what he say? He say he will come and smite the earth with a curse. So this is what we're talking about. We're talking about Malachi four six that y'all gotta figure it out because Sarah Bernardino gonna be in a world of trouble, not from us, but from Yahuwah because y'all are separating rights of of of of parents. And and and and you could turn the blind eye, but but your your life is at stake. Your life is at stake. Your eternal life. That's it.

Creashas Creashas Seal.

Okay. My name is Krishia Kale. I've been up here a few times, and I'm just gonna wing it this time because it's not like we expect a reaction because that's what we've been getting. Some of us been coming up here for years and years with no reaction, not even a blink of your eyes. Some of you guys sit up here and can make choices, but you stare at your phone instead of paying attention to what's going on.

How many people got to come in here before you say, it's not an isolated incident no more? If you talk to anybody who's been up here, 90% of them is going to tell you perjury, perjury, which is a crime, played a role in their kids not coming home, perjury that your department probably teaches the social workers how to do. It's a big RICO act. All you guys are working together whether you know it or not. When you remove a domestic violence person from the home, you go back and you make a report to CFS.

And the CFS comes and take that person's children because she failed to protect herself from an abuser and failed to protect her kids. Do you guys know that? Do you know that you play a role in these kids being removed from homes? So that person becomes a victim two times. And let's talk about last May, a year to the day. Six kids found starving in a home under CFS care in Victorville, California, ages five to 16. Have you made any changes to your organization since that happened? No. You haven't. Glasgow's still in charge.

Me and Moore's still under her. In every department, not one person have you replaced since those six kids were found starving. How do you starve a kid starving in their home under CFF f care? CFF placed them there. Could those kids have went home? Could they have went home? Did they have parents who wanted them home? I'm sure they did. You guys celebrate adoption, but you don't mention the crying parents. It's like, wait a minute. I completed every course. I went to every class, but I don't give my kid back because how some social worker feel.

Thank you very much. That is the last request to speak that I have. Our meeting stands adjourned. Our next regularly scheduled board of supervisors meeting will be held here in Chambers, May 19 at 10AM. Thank