City Council - Regular Meeting

Good morning. I'd like to thank you all for joining us. As I call this meeting to order, our Pledge of Allegiance and Invocation are going to be led by the Second District this morning.

Thank you, Chair. Today, we have Reverend Debery Jonas. He's a pastor from St. George Church in Fontana and is the Catholic priest of Society of the Divine Word. Born in India, he brings a rich international and pastoral perspective to his ministry.

Ordained in priesthood eighteen years ago, he has devoted his pastoral life to faithful service to the church. He currently leads and supports the parish community through spiritual guidance, dedicated service, compassionate pastoral care, in close collaboration with the faithful parishioners at St. George Church. Welcome, Reverend. Come up.

Thank you, board, for giving me this privilege and opportunity to lead this prayer before this meeting. Loving God, we come before you today asking for a guidance and support as we begin this meeting of board of supervisors for the county of San Bernardino. We would like to pray for peace in different parts of the world, especially during this time of war, for the protection of innocent civil ins, for people in the armed forces, and this time for the people who really suffered by the recent time spring fire of Paris and Moreno Valley. And today, we want to especially want to thank God for the members of this board today for this meeting. We thank you for the privilege that you had given them of serving this diverse and vast county of San Bernardino.

We ask for wisdom and discernment for our supervisors, our chairman Don Rowe, our Joe Barker junior vice, and the supervisors, you know, Paul Cook, Jesse Hernandez, Kurt Eggman, and all who will be participating in this meeting, especially as they face the unique challenges and make decisions that impact the lives of all residents. Grant them the insight to see the true needs of our communities from our high desert to our valleys and the courage to do what is best for the welfare and safety of the people. Help them to communicate with grace, listen with understanding, and lead with a spirit of service. May the work accomplished here today bring peace and prosperity to our land and reflect the integrity of the offices held. In your name, we pray.

Amen. Assault together with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge this to the to the states of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, mister.

We will now move on to our memorial adjournments. Vice chair Baca, supervisor Cook, supervisor Armanderes, supervisor Hagman. So this morning, I would like to adjourn in memory of Thomas Bees, a resident of Colton who passed away at the age of 77. He was the father of Tracy Homan, a previous third district team member and still a current county employee. My heart goes out to Tracy and her entire family during this difficult time.

And with that, we do not have any special presentations this morning, so we will move on to our reports from County Council. Laura.

Thank you, madam chair. I have one item to report on. The board voted five zero in the matter of Marlon Johnson versus County of San Bernardino to seek appellate review of a class action matter. Thank you very much.

Reports from CEO Luther.

And thank you, madam chair. Something I wanna give some recognition to our county team, specifically our county communications team. They were recently recognized by the American Advertising Federation Inland Empire branch. They earned three gold and silver and nine silver ADDIE awards. So, pretty amazing, actually. It's very competitive. This isn't just public sector. This is private sector, public sector, everyone competing aggressively for these awards. The gold awards were for the So Much To Love campaign and two gold awards for the flood preparedness campaign. Silver recognition for works including the new county flag design, state of the county, event and branding, and several other reports.

So just very cool. I know the team was very excited about that. It's a huge recognition, and it really reflects our commitment to delivering clear, impactful, and cost effective communications and really positions the county as a strong creative leader in our region. So kudos to the team for those, awards. That concludes my report.

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

Yeah. Thank you, Madam Chair. Last week, I had the opportunity to attend, along with my colleague, Supervisor Hagman, the E Street Veterans Apartment groundbreaking, which is investment by the County San Bernardino of $5,000,000. It's a 20 plus million dollar project, which will address homelessness for our veterans that have served our country. It's a great event. It's expected to be finished next year. So 30 units in Downtown San Bernardino. We're so excited about that and continuing to move the needle on homelessness. So I just want to thank our staff and team for really making sure that that project was able to be successful. Also, had our fifth annual fishing day with a supervisor at Glen Helen Regional Park.

I want to thank Beata Davis with Regional Parks and all our county partners with CFS, probation, and county libraries for being there. And we had over a 170 participants in the event. It was just a great event, and it really helped these kids create memories. And you got to talk to some of the families and just hear some of the stories or some of them had never been fishing before. But one, it had a great day for the families, but also exposed our families to our regional parks.

So hats off to our team. And then just as with my commissioner hat with OmniTrans, you know, myself along with my colleagues, we celebrated the fifty year anniversary of OmniTrans to continue to provide public transit in the East And West Valley. Just a lot of success and hats off to Erin Rogers for the great work she's doing at OmniTrans. And then last night, just with my IVDA hat, we approved a project, many that may drive on 3rd Street between Sturtevant and Victoria, which borders the 3rd And 5th District, a road project which is gonna improve the roads on 3rd Street, which the community is just so excited about. And the last thing I want to do is just highlight some board items which are of significance.

Item 13 is the improvement of our county being part of the SBCTA SB COG will give the opportunity provide more regional housing for the county. We're now going to be active players along with many of our partner cities. Item 16 is an MOU which will be between our homeless outreach team and Caltrans, which will now give our homeless outreach team access to many of these freeways and Caltrans properties. It's just a great partnership and a great MOU and looking forward to that. Item 20, continued progress on Pacific Village campus development.

This is phase two that's continuing to be under construction, which will have 32 substance use disorder beds, 32 recuperative care beds, and it's just exciting news and could be exciting for the county. Also, item 29, Measure I Expenditure Plan, which will continue to bring infrastructure and road projects to our county. This is our plan that we submitted to SBCTA. Item 30, which is the Glen Helen Parkway Bridge, which is a $52,000,000 project, which is under construction, should be finished this time next year in the summer, which will open up roadways for the Rosina Ranch, the Glen Helen community, the North Vermont and North San Bernardino. That's a great project.

And the last thing, just MOU agreement working with the city of Rialto along the Cactus Trail, along the flood channel. We're gonna be providing funding for them, $859,000 for solar lighting, which will help for those that wanna walk and then have an enhanced walking path there in the flood channel. So that concludes my comments, Madam Chair.

Thank you very much. Supervisor Cook? Supervisor Armanderes?

Thank you. I want to start by just thanking everyone in the county who had something to do with the West End Navigation Center. It was a rigorous negotiation, but I feel like we we got there. I wanna thank my, my colleagues, supervisor Baca and Hagman, for seeing the vision that we had proposed up front and looking at how the West End is gonna be changed and the way we look at homelessness in general and how we can, curve it, in our communities is, something I'm looking forward to as we move forward in this new MOU with all the Western cities in, the county. Hopefully, the state looks at what we're doing and says, this is how we need to be doing it across the state, and the feds look at it and say, this is how we should be doing it nationally.

Because I do believe the model that we're creating here is gonna be a sustainable model that will bring everyone together but also give the resources to those who need it and who want it. Other things I've done is we worked with our code enforcement, and I wanna thank them for coming out and working with us to do the community cleanup in San Antonio Heights. I was able to talk to the supervisor there during the time and just you know, what people don't realize with our community cleanups is it's not just about throwing away trash. You know, we're we're stopping illegal dumping. We're taking and helping people who can't afford to get stuff out of their yards, and just all in all, it's beneficial to our county, and it's way more cost effective than it would be for us to send people out to do that cleanup after the fact.

We also attended the College and Career Day in Redwood Elementary. I was able to speak to young people about what I do and education. I was a judge at an art contest at the Goldie S. Lewis Community Center for Polaris Youth Art and Education Institute. We did a video for some, which are really cool, using positive reinforcement for libraries, vending machines where kids who have and practice good behavior get these little tokens, they put them in the machine, and they get a free book.

It was pretty exciting to see that in Fontana. We also spoke at the reverse vendor show, which, I wanna thank our purchasing department for hosting that in the city of Rancho Cucamonga. I think it's a great opportunity for our local businesses to come and and just be partners with us as we, move forward with the county. Also attended the first ad hoc for the CFS, for CFS with supervisor Vaca. Looking forward to more, conversations with that, and understanding what CFS deals with entirely and getting a better understanding how we could, you know, help in those those situations.

We did create some conversations in the city of Rancho Cucamonga. We went to the state of the city, along with my colleague here, supervisor Hagman, for the city of Upland. We also were able to present a check for the police canine program in the city of Fontana. And then tonight, I will be honored with the medal, receiving the medal of honor from the County Of San Bernardino superintendent of schools. So that's pretty exciting for

me. Congratulations.

Yes. And that concludes my comments.

Thank you very much. Supervisor Hegman.

Thank you, Madam Chair. A lot's been said, a lot of good things going on in the county, so congratulations to the whole county team on this. I can repeat some of the items that's already brought up, but item three b, who's our new department of behavioral health commissioner, Ashley Saldana. Thank you for everyone who applied. We had a lot of applications for that, but we're appointing her today.

Item number 25 is the MOU between the Inland Empire Health Plan and the Department of Public Health to continue providing health and wellness programs. And then item number 56 will be a presentation of the county's energy goals. I'm excited to hear what we've been working on for that. And item number 57, another big one is in our districts, sale county owned land, acquired 200 or more acres and set aside about two ninety four acres for agriculture preservation within the Chino Agricultural Preserve. So exciting things are coming through.

Thank you for all that participated and made that happen. Districts around district, a lot of the events, we were co joined by a lot of my colleagues, but also on March 26 I provided an update at San Bernardino Airport Commission meeting for the future of Chino Airport. We recently held our second spray and neuter vaccine event at Chino. We had approximately 50 animals that were spayed and neutered and 34 that were that got vaccinated and thirty four that was spayed and neutered. And I wanna thank the Paw Mission for their continued partnership with that.

And we'll be holding another event later on this month, and follow my office on social media or contact us for additional information on that. And Monday, we celebrated groundbreaking for the Western Regional Center. Like we said, this that's a huge accomplish accomplishment for the entire San Bernardino team. It's really gonna make a difference. And then on April 18, from nine to twelve, my office will be holding the next shredding event in the city of Ontario.

And, again, finding out. And lastly, I wanna thank, both Luther and Chad for coming out to the Ontario buzzards to go take a tour of that facility. It was a, great opening week for them. It's a great facility, and I'm looking forward when the whole complex is done for all of San Bernardino County to go use to be the largest athletic field complex West Of The Rockies. So congratulations to City of Ontario and for our residents in the area. Thank you.

Thank you very much. And vice chair and supervisor Hagman, thank you very much for all your work on the ad hoc committee for bringing the the navigation center and supervisor Amanderes. Thank you for leading that with the cities that are in that. So, it's it's an exciting time for the county. I would like to thank Thomas Sone and the Public Defender team for always supporting our residents, especially our rural residents.

The Public Defender will be returning to Lucerne Valley to provide free legal assistance and vital resources directly to our rural residents. The mobile defense event will take place tomorrow, April 8 at the River's Edge Ranch from 12:30 in the afternoon until 4PM. The event will provide record expungement and mobile court services and many other county departments will also be in attendance to provide resources to our residents. So, special thank you. And our residents in Needles will now have a convenient access to health care services through the On the Go Health Mobile Medical Clinic.

The Mobile Medical Clinic is stationed at the Transitional Assistance Department parking lot in Needles every Thursday from 8AM to 4PM, and the clinic offers a broad range of primary care and urgent care services. So that's neat for the residents of Needles. And with that, Linda, we'll move on to the agenda. Any revisions or changes?

Good morning, Madam Chair. We have no changes Thank you.

Thank you very much. If we have any board members wishing to disclose a conflict of interest, now would be the time to do so. All right. Seeing none, we will move on to our consent calendar, which today consists of items two through 55. I do have two requests to speak. Our first request is Cheryl Anaya, followed by David Williamson. And we have podiums on either side in the back, and you have three minutes to speak. When you get to the thirty seconds left, the light will turn orange, and then it will turn red at the end of the three minutes.

Thank you, supervisors. Good morning and madam chair. I'm speaking on behalf of raising Lytle Creek sewer fees. Lytle Creekers cannot afford it, especially these times, as you all know, so we'd like you to not do this. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Good morning.

Hey. Good morning. Yeah. I agree wholeheartedly with what Cheryl said. And, yes, we we can afford any rate increases. So thank you.

Thank you very much. And just point a of clarification, Luther, can you speak briefly to the process on this? It is to allow the residents to vote, not vote?

Yeah, I'd I'd look to counsel to help back me up on this one here because it is very specific as far as how the prop two eighteen process works. So Laura, are you good jumping in?

Chair, you are correct. This item is to bring the the matter back for a public hearing, where protests will be considered. At the public hearing, the board will decide whether to put the issue to the public for a vote.

Okay. So hopefully that makes sense a little bit. And we can visit with you afterwards a little bit more on that. Thank you very much. All right. Do I have a motion and a second or any Nope. Members wishing to pull an Motion and a second. Motion by Vice Chair Bacca, second by Supervisor Hagman. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions?

You, Madam Chair. With that,

the consent calendar passes unanimously. Thank you very much. With that, we will move on to our discussion item beginning with number 56. This is a county energy goal workshop being presented this morning by Luther Snoke, although I'm feeling that that's getting transitioned over here.

I'm going have some help.

Good morning, Miguel and Derek.

All right. Good morning. Good morning, Chair. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the Board. Yeah, I have, Miguel Figueroa and Derek Armstrong both here with me today. This is really a discussion. We'll go through about an 18 slide presentation here. Derek's going to take the first part, and then Miguel will jump in and take the second part. And then we'll wrap up really looking at three different elements throughout this conversation: our renewable energy conservation element, or the REIS some near term, energy policy considerations. We'll talk about challenges.

We'll talk about some of the just the the energy landscape as it sits in the county today. Over the last, you know, twenty years, it's changed, and especially over the last five quite dramatically. So Derek's gonna jump into that, and and really, talk us through that, and then he'll turn it over back to me. We'll we'll jump into the conversation about the REECE and then open it up for board comment. So, Derek, if you'd like to take it away.

Thank you, Luther. Good morning. Derek Armstrong, acting deputy executive officer, and I'd like to give a brief overview of what I'll be covering, Walk through the county's current energy landscape and our major constraints. We'll look at how rising demand is reshaping what our infrastructure must support. I'll then highlight affordability challenges, long delivery timelines, and the risks these pose.

Finally, I'll touch on state renewable requirements and what aligning those standards means for the county. What we're seeing across the county is a population and industrial growth creating concentrated corridors of energy demand, requiring complex planning and the need to come up with new solutions. A useful way to think about the challenge is through the lens of capacity versus generation. Capacity is our ability to deliver power at any given moment or like a car's speedometer. It's our max speed.

Generation is a total amount produced over time, or like a car's odometer is the total amount produced over time or showing like miles traveled. If capacity doesn't keep up with demand, we will see increasing delays in interconnection, which directly affects our ability to attract and retain employers. Energy planning can no longer be taken for granted and is an essential part of economic development planning. San Bernardino County is a major energy consumer. We rank sixth in energy and consumption across the state, and demand is continuing to rise.

This increased load requires reliable, modernized infrastructure. From the economic development perspective, businesses with environmental, social, governance, or ESG, goals are actively seeking locations that can support these efforts, which may affect our job growth pipeline and makes it important that we plan for growth to meet this demand. Electricity prices continue to rise, affecting us all. While this presentation is focused on energy, it's important to note that people that call Southern California home are paying $1 to $2 more than The U. Average for gasoline and are paying a rate of 153% of the national average for electricity.

Prioritizing affordable access to power is essential not only for economic competitiveness but also our quality of life. There's more on availability of power in the next slide, but a board member previously commented about visiting manufacturer looking to expand in Rancho Cucamonga that was quoted a five year timeline for power delivery. So this highlights that this issue isn't in a rural area or a developing area. It's across the county. Extreme weather and aging infrastructure are straying our grid.

Most of the power or most of our power grid wasn't built to support the extreme weather, high winds, or wildfires that we're seeing as a result or sorry, as a result, we're seeing power shutoffs that are occurring that are affecting both our residents and our businesses. Additionally, public utilities in Southern California and elsewhere are struggling to meet growing demand due to increased regulation and lead times for equipment, causing delays for major projects and slowing job growth. Without addressing these bottlenecks, we face reduced reliability and constraints directly limiting our economic opportunities. The renewable the California Renewable Portfolio Standard or RPS requires 60% renewable electricity by 2030 and a 100% by 2045. It's going to be a massive challenge to get to meet these goals, but aligning with these targets is a competitive advantage for the county.

We know companies are increasingly seeking clean, reliable power. Expanding renewable sources like solar and exploring the adoption of next generation energy like hydrogen and small modular nuclear will help set the county apart and make us an attractive place for businesses and reduce energy costs for our residents. That was a quick introduction to some of the energy landscape and concludes my comments, and I'll turn it back over to Luther.

Yeah. Thank you very much, Derek. Yeah. So that that's very high level, but really painting the picture that as we sit today, we see expensive electricity for our residents, we see long lead times, We see challenges with the grid and aging infrastructure, and we're not we're not picking on anyone. These this is just the the state of affairs.

So we know, like, Southern California Edison is is as frustrated as we are with some of those challenges, and and they've been a great partner with us. The question really is, like, what can we do different, and how can we help support our residents going forward? With that, we want to shift over into a discussion with that Miguel will jump in on, specifically looking at things from the standpoint of land use policy, and even more specifically, the renewable energy conservation element, or our REES. So Miguel, if you want to jump in and take that away.

Absolutely. Good morning, board members. Miguel Figueroa here, land use services director. In 2017, San Bernardino County adopted the REES to guide how we approach energy development. It was designed to clarify our shared community, environmental, and economic values around renewable energy.

The sets clear goals that the county aims to achieve and just as importantly show what we want to avoid. At its core, the RISE prioritizes responsible community focused energy, supporting local needs, minimizing impacts, promoting efficiency and on-site generation, and ensuring strong public engagement. Ultimately, it's about advancing long term sustainability for our communities. So what's changed, and why does it matter for San Bernardino's County's competitiveness? The RISE established six foundational goals to guide renewable energy, conservation, and environmental stewardship across the county.

At its core, the policy direction remains strong, prioritizing community compatibility, environmental protection, and long term sustainability. However, since its adoption, the landscape has changed significantly. State laws and mandates have evolved, and energy demand has accelerated driven by electric vehicles, AI, data centers, and broader electrification. At this time, technology has expanded beyond traditional utility scale solar. Here's how progress looks across the six goals.

We evaluated six county renewable energy goals across progress and policy relevance. Overall, half of the goals show strong progress, particularly in energy efficiency, sustainability practices, citing standards, and regulatory alignment. However, key gaps remain in innovation and community focused renewable development, where progress is currently rated inadequate. Bottom line, the county has a solid foundation but must prioritize updating policies and accelerating progress in innovation and community centered renewable energy to meet its long term goals. Public input has consistently guided where we need to improve.

During the restrafting process, public feedback consistently emphasized three priorities, transparency, neighborhood compatibility, and a preference for smaller scale renewable projects. Since then, the county has made progress on transparency and environmental review through secret processes and the creation of a dedicated renewable energy website. In response to ongoing public input, the county adopted renewable energy policy four ten in 2019, which restricts utility scale projects in rural living areas and community plan boundaries. Overall, while some progress has been made, gaps remain between community expectation and current implementation. Let's map comments to actions addressed versus actions still needed.

Community feedback shows strong satisfaction with communities' commitment to environmental protection through thorough impact reviews as well as clear communication and transparency throughout project development. There is also lack of support that must be identified for current approaches to community oriented renewable energy facilities paired with energy efficiency improvements, indicating a gap between planning and community expectations. Overall, the environmental review and communication are strengths. Project scale location and community integration remain critical issues to resolve. On utility scale solar, best practices point to pragmatic upgrades we can certainly adopt and consider.

Large scale solar best practices guide how projects are planned, designed, and built to balance clean energy with community and environmental protection. They prioritize early community engagement, tangible local benefits, and conservation of natural resources for long term stewardship. While most of these practices are included in the county's adopted REES, key caps remain. These include agrivoltaics, earlier committee input before project design is finalized, and wildlife friendly fencing. Here are specific practices we can fold into the REES.

We can strengthen the REES by encouraging dual use solar, colocating projects with ingracing or agriculture to maximize land productivity, Incorporating vegetated buffers along streams and wetlands helps protect sensitive ecosystems and improve project sustainability. We also must consider promoting wildlife permeable fencing. We can support habitat connectivity while still meeting project security needs. Overall, this is an update on where we were in 2017 when the Rees got adopted and almost ten years later, where we stand on project and work that has been made. With that said, I wanna turn it back to Luther, if that is okay.

Thank you, Miguel. That is definitely okay. I appreciate that. So, board, really, what we're here today is to to share kind of where we're planning to go and have a dialogue with you about, you know, any feedback or adjustments you'd like. So as Miguel just outlined, we'd like to update the REIS.

There's some 2,030 mandates that are in place. Though it's 2026, we think this is probably about a year to a year and a half process to do it right, to engage the public, to go through it in an appropriate and responsible way that would allow us to modify, say, by 2028, maybe even 2029, modify the REIS, update some of the targets and the goals within it so that we continue to move towards where we need to be. This is something that land use believes they have the capacity to take on, though, of course, they'll need some support. And so we'll look at how we would make sure we could fund them and make sure that that would happen appropriately. One of the other keys and this is a new area here.

This is evaluating our role not just from the policy standpoint over land use, but actually from the standpoint of land management and ownership even. So what we are doing and we are actively doing this actually now is we are looking at the pros and cons of pursuing federal land acquisition to support renewable development. So this would include identifying areas that might be appropriate to actually, potentially either acquire or partner with either the federal government or private landowners to look at gaining control over property where we could focus development in certain areas that make sense, that would align with county land use, you know, zoning and things like that, and align with board desire to see us actually take more of an active role beyond just the the basic government land use zoning elements of this, but taking it a step further. To be quite candid, we're not sure if that's a good idea or not, but we're looking at it. We'll look at the pros and cons and look and see if this makes sense, and if so, how would we do that responsibly.

So that's something we're looking at. And then thirdly and lastly here, really reevaluate the county's energy policy position. And what that means, there is a lot of new technology. As we've seen solar technology advance years over years, we see solar panels become more and more efficient. We've seen microgrids become more widely used.

There's also community choice aggregation. That's been some or CCAs, you'll often hear them referred to, which is we have one of them that exists in our county in Apple Valley. But we're looking at and we've been assessing those. Is that a model that we should look at to give more local control to our county board here as far as how we would engage the acquisition of electricity and distributing that electricity through the grid? And then something I'm personally interested in is small modular nuclear reactors.

It's something that is an emerging technology. Currently, there's a moratorium on nuclear power, new nuclear power, in the state of California, but we are seeing movement at the federal level to explore this more and at the state level. There's some active legislation out there in a number of ways, even bipartisan legislation that is looking at exploring more options from a nuclear standpoint. So should that become safe? Should that become and be able to demonstrate that?

Should that be able to be cost effective? Are those things that we as a county would want to explore potentially, you know, digging into? So if the path becomes open to that, do we want to be ready to capitalize on those opportunities to potentially deliver lower cost, high reliability power to our residents? And then really look at how we can engage in general with the various partners and stakeholders out there, whether that's the development community, whether that is policy and our legislators. What can we be doing more of as a county?

We have historically been more of a reactive, supportive entity where we allow, this development in the energy world to happen, and we we try to do things to support it. What we're considering is should we be more involved in it and actually be looking for ways as a county to leverage our ability, our clout, and our resources to find ways to deliver clean, inexpensive, and reliable power to our residents. That is environmentally sensitive in that regard. So this is our presentation. I really turn to you, Madam Chair, and to the Board to ask questions and give us whatever feedback you like. I know a lot of you have a lot of thoughts on this.

I know Supervisor Hagman is enthusiastically waiting to visit on this, So let's start with Kurt.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you. I have been looking into this for the last for a while with the staff, and I want to thank the staff. And let me just kind of paint the picture a little bit better. The five High city High Desert cities use about a gigabyte of power a year. One AI center uses the same amount per year. And the current needs just for the High Desert is one or two gigawatts without anything new. If you want to continue to grow it economically up there, you need more power. Everything's right there. As a representative of AQMD, as we push more and more regulations to become green, even everything in the valley, you cannot we have over 4,000 warehouses right now in the South Coast area community getting fined every month from not becoming green.

They can't go green because there's not enough power. Power is the lifeline of our economy going forward. And, unfortunately, with the current circumstances, with the fires, the lawsuits, the CPUC regulating our partners Edison and others, they're not allowed to do the investment that they need to upgrade a 60 to 80 year old infrastructure to bring us power, much less have the power supplies to do anything. They're they're being told to keep the rates where they are because they're already extremely high, but, therefore, they can't build new infrastructure. And that's why we see our failures when the winds come and they turn off, you know, the outage all the time.

So it's become a a problem that was never intended for a county because we're prohibit to become a a utility to really kinda go. What my suggestion is that at least we partake and be at the table and see what we could do proactively versus just waiting things to happen so we can protect our residents, protect our economic growth in the county to try to come up with some solutions. The new technologies out there are very exciting where you don't need, you know, to produce one gigawatt of power, you need 2,500 acres right now. There's not 2,500 acres, one piece of land in the High Desert owned by private entities right now. It's our federal partners that own all the land.

There's little spots. I the largest one I found was 500 acres. And, generally, they're the places where we don't want to see solar, which is near our residents. And so for us to take a proactive role, the work of our federal agencies, our partners, see if we could acquire land, it'd be one thing. Two, this is a new field that our county team has never been with.

Would suggest that we, maybe get an expert in this that we bring on as a resource guru to bring on you know, as a consultant to work with us and maybe a little task force to see what steps should we take. But I think it's time for us to take a proactive role and work with our cities there. We're also looking to set our SB COG to see what we could do. But what what can we be a partner? It's not to replace what we have.

It's to come alongside with Edison and and see what the whole gamut of options we have that we can help both in the valley, in the High Desert, and throughout the county for that reliable, cheaper power going forward. And it's going to require us planning with them, if not just policy, but also maybe in resources to make things happen and put us on the thing first. But that's all I have for you.

I'd just like to add. I think you, supervisor, you did a great job of encapsulating the issues here. When we're thinking about economic development, are we going to support one data center or a million homes of growth? Because it's about the same energy to support those. But like you mentioned, we're not alone in this, and and the the the two departments that that are here are working with SCE as a as a collaborator because we're we realize that this is a this is a bigger issue than ourselves.

And through the CEO's office, we are looking to bring on an energy consultant to to help us guide us through through that path. So a lot of those things are happening. But some of the creative ways that that that we've heard from some of the residents when we're talking about some of the large solar projects is we know that we need to be encouraging the the warehouses to put rooftop solar on on on on the rooftops to help prevent and create some additional energy that way. We are seeing some new energy technologies, and and we know that hydrogen is mostly being used for for fleets right now. It's it's it's most most active for that.

But based off of the amount of space that you need for hydrogen, it might be available for on-site generation for warehouses as well. So just looking at ways that we could support on-site versus off-site and looking at the different populations that use energy differently, whether it's the fleet used for transportation or for homes and home development and supporting that effort, or for large industrial users, just being able to become creative and proactive and bringing in partners internationally that help us say that. Part of this presentation and some of the stuff that we've talked about with Luther is making sure that the county is open for business and coming up with creative ways to create the energy as a basket to help support our additional growth moving forward.

And one last thing with the hydrogen. I really appreciate the hydrogen technology. There's a lot of potential good things in that. The problem is we also need the state to lobby our rules and laws. California allows green hydrogen, means you have to create with green energy, which creates far too expensive, six times what the market rate is on hydrogen in other states.

So it's about educating our our government affairs, working with our state partners to change some of the rules. I, you know, recently found out with all the South Coast AQMT is probably the strictest rules in the country when it comes to clean vehicles and and technologies, yet we're falling behind most other states when it comes to cleaning out, the vehicles and because we go for zero emissions only where the other states are going for near zero emissions. So as Texas changes out 20 trucks, we change out one truck. And so some of this has to do on the government affairs side of reeducating our state legislators to put those rules around us that we cannot advance with these newer technologies because they're cost prohibited. Hydrogen works great.

If you're paying $36 a liter versus $6 a liter, it doesn't go very far. No one wants to adopt that technology.

Vice chair?

Yeah. Thank you, madam chair. You know, I wanna thank, supervisor Hagman for his leadership on this issue. Know he's been talking about it for quite some time. I really wanna thank Luther and staff for bringing the item of Reese before us because I think it's just so critical.

I think this is a great opportunity for the county as we look at advancing technology when it comes to electricity and power. Just on the economic development side, I think it's just critical moving forward. Just to give you an example, some of the concerns I've heard from the development community up in the High Desert was just access to electricity. They don't have access to electricity. And just even in the 5th District, I know that recent conversations Luther, we have some land there at Warm Creek between Colton and San Bernardino, which cannot be developed because it doesn't have the infrastructure for the utilities.

So this is an opportunity for us to make some investments that could potentially help the county and allow for growth, but also smart growth, which is just so critical. You know, the other thing that just, you know, we have to make sure we do, and I know that we talked about land, and I know these things have to be fully bedded out because, you know, the biggest challenge is, you know, where do you build these things? Where do you put these things? And really educating the community, getting to understand what the intent is and that it's safe. I think it's a great opportunity to to educate us and the entire county.

So I'm looking forward to it. And even with our legislators, one of things that we have to understand is that San Bernardino County is a little different than other regions than LA, so we may even have to craft something that really tailor something to our district and our county. That's just so critical. But I'm looking forward to the opportunity. One of the big concerns for me with with was the public safety power shutoffs was a big concern and how we could potentially look at avoiding those in the future.

I know in some of our unincorporated areas, you know, they got shut down, and part of it is because of the environmental challenges. We know how expensive it is to underground, but do we look at other alternative ways other than underground? I mean, are conversations that I think we need to have, but I think it's a great discussion and, you know, just want to reiterate and thank Supervisor Hagman for his leadership on this issue. Thank you, madam.

Thank you. Supervisor Cook?

Yes. Know, somebody that lives in the desert, trained in the desert in the Marine Corps, you have an appreciation for the desert. You either love it or you hate it. And the first thing that you learn as a commander is the desert is very unforgiving in terms of if somebody's lost, if you're caught out there because it's so blasted hot and the elements are against you until you you recognize that. But you have so many areas there.

You know, is somebody who's not been out there. Dawn, you represent that area. I got the the other end, Fort Irwin. Federal government controls, I don't know how much area out there. And to have that in our backyard as a source and something that I I think congress would support us on on on this the environment.

And you're not just talking about solar energy. You're also talking about wind energy. But this is an area where you it's not in LA and somebody's backyard is not gonna have a foot of sand after one storm, but it's it's never I don't know. It probably has been all the years that I was out there. And you either love it or hate it.

If you hate it, you move as quickly as possible from 29 Palms and other areas, and you find some pool in middle of Florida or something like that. The desert is beautiful. It's it's got but it is it's almost so big and so large. And you find that out, god forbid, when you have a troop that's missing out there and you're trying to find them. And suddenly, you will yeah.

Everybody lives up there knows Albania's, but then when you have a a disaster like that and I hate to say it, but every, I don't know, x amount of years, Somebody will miss a roll call, their visiting unit, and, we go to general quarters trying to find that individual. And, unfortunately, a lot of times, we don't find them, and they're probably still out there. I I am a big supporter of it. The the desert is, very unique. It's I think it's been on source of energy.

And, of course, at one time, dawn represents where I used to live, but I I got the other end at Fort Irwin and and what have you. And so for one, I one person, I am tremendously supportive of this. And I would hope that while we have this composition of this board that, in my opinion, is, hey. Let's do something with this tremendous asset, this resource, and take advantage of it. And I think we can get certain things, and I'm saying certain things in congress.

And I'm not afraid to go back and talk to congressmen and congresswoman. Now they're not as sweet as I was back there when I was out there, but I'm not afraid to jump up on somebody's desk and say, we need your help and money now. And, you know, we calmed down and they listened. And I think the time is just right. And so I'm gonna anything I can do to support this vast, vast area that I think from a lot of different angles is has not really been utilized simply because it's so challenging to get there in the elements.

You know? If you've been out there in a 117 degrees in the shade, you you might say, boy, I could use a beer right now, but or other things. So I I'm I'm delighted that this is an area. It's not gonna be easy, and it's the most challenging environment, I think, in The United States, perhaps the world. And but to address that simply because it is so challenging, a lot of people haven't approached it.

But I am deeply, highly supportive of your efforts, madam chairman, and these people and the manager to go after this, I think, untapped resource, at least to the extent that it could be. It's gonna be expensive, but the rewards, I think, could be tremendous.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Supervisor Herman Darius.

Thanks, chair.

I think I want to for me, you know, I loved everything that Supervisor Hagman said. He's really in-depth in conversation. I'd love to have some future dialogue with you to get a better understanding, but I'm going to try to keep my comments to that 20,000 foot level where I believe I belong. I think this is a great endeavor. I think it's something we should be looking at.

I think it's a great opportunity for the county. My only ask is that we fully vet this. And when I say fully vet it, we need to look at all ways that we can actually benefit our county. And what I mean by that is whether we are looking at the CCAs, whether we're looking at changing policy on land, whether we're trying to look at different technologies, we have to understand the impact of what that does for San Bernardino County. And what I mean by that is we can change land use, but who does that benefit?

You know, if we're changing land use and a developer is going to come in and utilize that, that doesn't change the cost of our electricity. If we're going to look at endeavors and bring technology here, that's great. But how do we benefit from it? So how are we really going to benefit, not just to throw spaghetti on the wall and see what sticks? Like, really, we bet what is the consequence of of that action and how best we can benefit from it, whether we we be the person who owns it, which I kinda like that idea.

Not sure if that is a benefit for us or not, but I kind of lean towards that direction. But really creating those partnerships, if we are going to be doing any type of rezoning or promotion of clean energy or any energy for that matter. But also, like, the micrograding, all that, how do we become better partners where we can get that benefit, like, you know, where we have something in policies that allow us to get the best rate moving forward or even bringing in some of our own infrastructure. I mean, I know currently, in Rancho Cucamonga, I have a company that has a thousand jobs ready to go to expand, pharmaceutical company. They're being told six years before they get the power.

I'm trying to figure out how in the heck can I get them the power now, you know, because that's a thousand new jobs? But also, if we're gonna look at, are we gonna be a data center driven county? Are we gonna embrace technology to that, avenue? Are we going to create more housing? Like, really, what does that look like for us? And what do we want to see? I would love to see us create more jobs. I would love to see us create a diversity of jobs. I know we are we are known for logistics, and we're known for medical and government jobs. That's pretty much the makeup of San Bernardino County's workforce.

How do we create different jobs? How do we create something other than government, other than logistics, other than medical field? Are we going to be that county of the future? Are we bringing fiber in? What does that look like? I want to really look at this holistically. And if we're going to talk about energy, not just talk about energy, but if we're going build data centers, we need the fiber. Who are we talking to right now about fiber? How are we going get that connectivity if we have the power? So just looking at all aspects, I look forward to this endeavor. I think it's a great opportunity for San Bernardino County. I support you guys 110%, But I just want us to be mindful when we're looking at all these things, not to be afraid to just take the whole thing and own it.

Yeah, I appreciate that perspective. When Supervisor Cook was speaking, having been born in the desert, I think the correction is you love and you hate the desert. At the same time, you love it for its beauty and remoteness and the night skies, but you do hate it in the summertime when it's one 117 plus. But, yeah, I think making sure that we're doing things that benefit the residents, whether it's reliability and affordability at the same time, making sure we're respecting the environment and the conservation that we've heard from numerous communities around, making sure that we're we're also providing power for the the jobs of the future. Because logistics isn't quite as power intensive manufacturing, but we know if we wanna diversify our economy and get higher paying jobs, like that manufacturer you talked about in Rancho Cucamonga, we have to have more power.

Every time we're talking to a company right now, power is the big elephant in the room. So it's not just being proactive, it's getting us to a point now to where we're taking an above the line approach and considering all options and figuring out what's best for the county moving forward. So I really appreciate your comments.

So I was the swing vote back in early twenty nineteen on the Renewable Energy Conservation Element four ten. And the REES had been brought forward prior to my time on the board. And it was a hotly contested issue because a lot of the development that was occurring was happening in our community areas, and the large scale renewables were not welcomed by our Desert residents. And I know that Supervisor Cook and I often hear from our residents that it might look like open space ripe for development, but it's a lot of people's backyards. And that is a viewpoint that we hear when we have development projects move forward, whether they're warehouses or solar or any type of energy, that we do have the residents come out.

And it's not just Lucerne Valley or just the areas that Paul has. It's really all of them. And it is hard maybe for my peers up here that don't represent the desert areas to have an understanding of what that's like. But that is a crucial element that I want to keep in mind, that our residents that are out there, they live out there for a reason. They enjoy the night skies, the desert. They tolerate the dust blowing. They don't want more from projects that are brought in. They don't want the transmission lines in their viewshed. So all those are considerations as we open this up and look at them. I know that you touched lightly on community outreach.

Luther, you mentioned that it's going to be a vital component. Daggett, Yermo, Newberry Springs, Lucerne Valley, Landers, the entire Morongo Basin will all have thoughtful input that they will want to provide you, and we need to make sure that we're seeking that from our residents. I know that there is a lot of enthusiasm on this board about this topic. I know that the areas ripe for development are the first and the third district. So Paul and I have quite a bit to say about those things.

And then the folks that just have energy as an interest are also involved. So I'm not sure the appropriateness of discussing the potential of an ad hoc today, Laura, how I would go about that. I think that there might be multiple interests from those of us sitting on the board to be on an ad hoc. How would you recommend that we move forward with that?

If you'd like to direct staff to agendize that item for a future meeting and make a proposal of members for the ad hoc committee, that could be considered at that meeting.

And then if board members have interest in serving on that, they can express it at that time? Yes. Okay. I'm in favor of doing that. Do I have head nods that would support that?

We will come back in the future and do that.

Very good. Thank you very much,

I know,

if I may. Luther, I just have a remark that I want to share with the board. Number one, I just want to add on to the message DEO Armstrong shared, and that is that if there is a take that I want the board to know from the exercise that we've been doing for several weeks now is that the economic development department and land use services have solidified the partnership of future development coming to our county. And I think that is pivotal along the lines of what I heard today from this board and your commentary. Number two, we've aligned with CAO in terms of the vision this board has shared and how the intricates of the work Derek and I do can fulfill and complement what's expected.

Behind us, we have the economic development and land use services staff that helped us compile the strategy that we shared with you today. With that in mind, I believe now on our end, we can look at other elements within our independent operations that will strengthen the overall job that you're sharing here with us that we must accomplish. So with that, I think we're on to something, and it's a great thing, that will proactively shape the future of renewable energy.

Luther? And, aligned with that, I agree completely. I I see it. We've had quite a few conversations about this, as you could imagine, internally. We are ready to go. Our teams are ready. I'm impressed by their capability. We'll bring in experts. We are certainly not experts ourselves in some of the things that we're talking about, but we can bring in experts. We can partner with SCE.

We can partner with the development community at large and certainly look to the public to get their input on this as well, so that we're not doing anything that is going to be, you know, completely, you know, fought and and forced upon anyone, but yet we'll do this thoughtfully, responsibly, and, we'll come back in the future with an ad hoc committee recommendation, and we can, ensure we work in tandem with the board as we do that.

Thank you. Supervisor Armandaris, so is the last thought?

Yes. Just hearing everyone speak and just thinking about this, this isn't eccentric to San Bernardino County. Have we considered maybe partnering with Riverside County? And when we talk about the Inland Empire in general, we are a force to be reckoned with with over 5,000,000 in population when we take combine ourselves. If we could have some dialogue with them, too, if this is something they're interested in, we could really road map the Inland Empire to be something that is bigger than anything we've seen. So just some thoughts on that.

I'd be happy to take that to the CEO of Riverside County, and have that conversation. CEO Van Wagenen and I get together frequently and talk. I'd even suggest, you know, conversations to continue further with other counties. I've had some preliminary conversation regarding other types of of energy, such as nuclear power, with other counties throughout the state who are interested in potentially exploring that and working together with the state to try to look at how we would do that responsibly, and if the state was to allow it. So I think there are lots of partnerships that could be had to do this, because this is this you're right.

This is not just a San Bernardino County problem. This is a broad issue that we're facing throughout the state and the nation for that matter in many many areas.

I do not have any request to speak on this item, and it is a receiving file. So if we have no further comments, we will move on to agenda item number 57. Thank you, gentlemen. San Bernardino County 2026 amended and restated land plan being presented this morning by Terry Chad Nottingham. I will open the public hearing.

Good morning, chair Rao.

Good morning.

Board. Chad Nottingham, assistant executive officer. Today, I'm very pleased to be presenting to you all the county's 2026 amended and restated land plan. With that, I'm gonna run through a quick presentation for you, and I'll be happy to answer any questions you have at the end. So next slide, please.

A bit of background. California voters approved Prop 70 in 1988. And as a result, the county received, $20,000,000 in prop 70 funding, which we used to purchase, nine dairy properties within the Chino Agricultural Preserve. In 2010, senate bill eleven twenty four was passed, which essentially allowed us through a land plan to sell or exchange that land as long as we maintain the minimum numbers of acreage and habitat value of the originally purchased dairy properties. Next slide, please.

So as a result of SB eleven twenty four, we submitted a land plan to state parks, which outlined a number of projects and transactions. That plan was never fully implemented due to a number of challenges, a major one being there was a conflict, through, the US Army Corps of Engineers and state parks, regulations. State parks did conditionally approve our land plan as well as this board, subsequently. So, though we weren't able to fully implement it, we were able to transact on about a 165 acres of of land in exchange for 271 acres of land adjacent to Prado Regional Park, which we currently hold. Next slide, please.

Bringing us to our 2026 plan. This plan really it proposes a creative partnership between the city of Ontario and the county. We would essentially, as proposed, sell our remaining prop 70 dairy land to Ontario, and in turn, we would take the revenue gained from those sales and purchase about 200 acres of what the city has master planned as their grand park. This really maximizes the habitat value and conservation of the land we hold far more so than the existing dairies that we have today. After years of discussions, multiple meetings with the state, hours upon hours of staff time, we submitted our 2026 plan to the state.

And on March 3, we received our approval. So it was a big deal for us. Next slide. So for reference, here you see a vicinity map of Ontario's Grand Park. Highlighted in green is the 200 acres that we would be looking to purchase. As you can see, it extends between Euclid And Archibald Avenue within the city limits. Next slide. So next steps. So approval of the item today really allows us to begin the implementation phase of the plan itself. We begin transacting on the land, selling to Ontario, purchasing the Grand Park properties.

Any transaction we move forward with would would be brought before this board for a consideration. And there are a few administrative requirements of SB eleven twenty four. The appraisals for those transactions have to be submitted to the state for their review and approval. Any land that we buy has to have a conservation easement recorded on the property. And then lastly, a final report has to be submitted to them for record once everything is fully implemented. Next slide. That concludes the presentation. I'd be remiss if I didn't recognize the hard work of the part of staff from CAO, parks, real estate, county council. This really was a team effort and a monumental lift for this team. So it's greatly appreciated, and a big thank you to all of them.

And now I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you very much. Kurt, supervisor Agman.

Thank you, madam chair. And, I just wanna echo that. Thank you, Chad. So this is something's going on before I got on the board twelve years ago with my predecessor where we had, basically old dairies that we lease out for dairy or for other use right now or vacant that were basically providing no really public use whatsoever. So we tried over the last decade several different things to convince the state to let us sell this property and do something good for the public with this.

The original idea was to bring those rise revenues in Prado Park, and to really beat that park. The state of California would not. And as Chad said, the Army Corps would not let us put the permanent Prop 70 Eastman over the park land since we don't own the land and Army Corps does. The Army Corps doesn't allow for leases to go in perpetuity on that. So it became an issue.

We ran I brought up two, different bills at the legislature to try to get that changed. No no votes, but never got signed into law. And I was starting to lose hope on this whole idea because it's just such a win win for everybody to make this happen. And then, Chad, hats off to you and the whole team for stick sticking with it and very much pleased to get the results we did in March. It's gonna be transformational for the West End and Chino Valley in Ontario to have, 380 acre park that's gonna be open to all the rest residents in the West End.

And it's something that once we help transfer the land, we don't have obligation to maintain, which is nice. The city of Ontario takes it over and keeps it going. But it just it finally, I guess, perseverance paid off. And thank you for all your hard work, Luther, Chad, the whole team, real estate, legal, and now the new chapter begins on this, and it's gonna be very public benefit for everyone. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other board member comments? Do we have any requests to speak on this? Alright. I I have heard this going on for a long time. I didn't think it was possible. Congratulations to you and the team for the creativity, the perseverance, and great job. Luther?

I just have to echo it. It's been said, but I lived through it with the team. This was not simple, and there's a reason why it took fourteen years from the last land plan. We set a strategy, we got direction, we executed on it, and we're here today celebrating that and seeing now it move into action. Great work by the team.

I'm going to close the public hearing before I forget.

I'll move it.

Thank you for the motion. Supervisor Hagman, the second, Vice Chair Baka. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions?

Thank you, Madam Chair. That, item 57 passes unanimously.

Very good. Thank you very much, Chad. We will now move on to public comment for items not on our agenda today. Our first request to speak is Kente Isaiah followed by Taisha Moody.

They may be out in the rotunda.

I'm gonna call the names again Kente Isaiah, followed by Taisha Moody. And then after that, we're going to have Robert Rabone. Well, I see Jane Hunt here. Jane Hunt, would you like to jump up and speak? Good morning, Jane.

Take your time.

The advantage of being older now. Anyway, good morning. This is going to be a short meeting. I ate a big breakfast this morning, too, because I was assuming it'd be a longer meeting. But anyway, I'd like to thank Baca. I just heard from your assistant there that they're finally going to have a meeting this Thursday night concerning the Muskoye truck routes. And I was really happy about that. So I'm going to tell all my neighbors about it, too. Because I'm already part of it. So I was really pleased to hear that because I've been asking you for a long time.

Anyway, good things come, I guess, if you wait a long, long time. But anyway, yeah, I was listening to this concern. I love your speech, Cook, about the desert. I mean, I've always loved the desert area. Thank God, this federal government owns most of it.

But my problem being is the valley area that's I was hoping that we'd get that environment element group going again because time's kicking away and Lytle Cahone Wash, I want to make that a showcase, you know, have it's a wildlife corridor and I've been pushing it for years, probably about thirty years. And I'm hoping it doesn't take as long as you guys working on the, you know, what you were working about for Ontario because I'll probably be dead by then. I hope not though. But anyway, I just really would appreciate the county starting to really listen, having the state influencing our, I know I brought this up before, but I'm tired of the state and the politicians in Sacramento. It seems like they're taking over our land use in the cities and the counties and it's really affecting me out in my community with the ADUs and everything.

We've just got more population, more problems. And I'm trying to find a way, I wish we could address them without getting, you know, when are they going to stop? The city of Huntington Beach tried to sue them over that, the land use issues. And they lost, of course. But I was really hoping that someday the county will fight against this because we're losing our community in Muskoye.

It's just getting so crowded out and they all have to park out in the streets because of the ADUs. And I'm just really upset about it. I'm a fighter though and I'll keep on pushing to protect, you know, what's left of the valley area, especially the Lidal Cahone Canyon area. So, thank you very much.

Bye. Thank you very much. We're going go back and last call for Kente Isaiah followed by Taisha Moody. Alright. We're gonna move on to Robert Rabone, followed by Anna.

Do we have Victoria or Jennifer here? Delina? Steven Rogers, are you in attendance? There you are. Let's go with Steven. Excuse me. I'm sorry. We called you, and you didn't come, so I'm gonna have Steven Rogers come in and then I can if you let me know who you are, I can bring you back up. Good morning, mister Rogers. Good morning.

San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, Steve Rogers, Redlands. First, I'd like to thank I'd like to relay a big thank you from Redlands resident, Amanda Fry, to third district supervisor, Dawn Rao for help with the Arrow Metrolink train schedule issues that she was having and want to let the entire board of supervisors know that this help has changes have resulted in, miss Fry feeling confident in allowing her daughter to start utilizing the arrow of Metrolink in order to get to her new job in LA County. And that's gonna make things a lot easier because that kind of drive is is really a nightmare. So I just wanted to to throw that out there. Secondly, I'd like to

I I

one of the main reasons that I came to the meeting today is that I just wanted to express my concern and and, really, disappointment with the investigation that was has been started or maybe has been concluded, I don't know, into the to the the assessor, but the treasurer auditor controller treasurer position, Ensign Mason. I've met with Ensign Mason a number of times, and and to me, he's the most respected county official that there is. And so for the board to request an investigation into to Mason, it's really disappointing to me. And and also, I understand that there's a political, you know, rationale for doing this. I know mister Mason has has had the best results imaginable as far as our, investments and and our rating.

So I would encourage the board to drop this investigation and and allow allow things to go forward. I I I think that maybe his opponent has been judged to be that he he doesn't have the qualifications to run. I don't know. But I I think that this whole thing should be dropped and and maybe, an apology, given to to mister Mason because to me, this is outlandish. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Anna followed by Victoria.

Hello. My name is Anna Pineda, and I am here today as a mother fighting to stay connected to her children. My children were taken from me based on false allegations, misrepresentations, and clear contradictions throughout my case file. From the beginning, I have provided evidence that challenges those claims, yet those inaccuracies to continue yet those inaccuracies continue to be used against me. But what I need you to truly understand today is the damage being done through missed visitation.

My visits with my children have not been consistently honored. They are canceled, cut short, or not rescheduled, and I am still owed significant time with them. This is not just an inconvenience. This is time with white children that I cannot get back. Every missed visit weakens our bond.

Every cancellation creates confusion, anxiety, and emotional pain for my children. They do not understand why they cannot see their mother. They only feel the loss. At the same time, these missed visits are being used to create a false picture of distance between me and my children, a distance that is not my choice but the result of decisions being made within the system. When you combine that with the with the false allegations and contradictions already present in my case, it creates a deeply unfair situation, one where I am being judged not on truth but on a version of events that does not reflect reality.

I am doing everything that has been asked of me. I am showing up. I am complying. I am fighting for my children every single day. What I am asking from you is simple but critical, accountability.

I am asking that my visitation be honored fully and consistently. I am asking that the contradictions in my case be reviewed seriously, and I am asking that decisions about my children be based on facts, not errors, not omissions, and not missed opportunities to maintain our bond. Because right now, my children are suffering, and the longer this continues, the greater that that harm becomes. My children deserve stability, they deserve truth, and they deserve a real, uninterrupted relationship with their mother. Please do not let more time be taken from us. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Victoria followed by Jennifer.

Hi. I'm Victoria Perez. I'm the mother of a CPS case in San Bernardino County. I'm here to raise concerns about children and family services misrepresenting a police report in my case record and failing to correct that information. After the errors were identified, instead of correcting the record, additional allegations were added and relied on to support the removal of my children.

Accurate records are critical in dependency cases because they directly affect placement, decisions, and family separation. When incorrect information remains in the file and continues to influence decisions, it raises serious concerns about oversight and accountability. As a result of these actions, my children experience placement instability, emotional distress, and long term disruptions to their relationship with their parent. My question is, why are inaccurate law enforcement reports allowed to remain in dependency records after concerns have been raised? What accountability exists when children and family services does not correct errors?

And what oversight protects families when decisions are made based on incorrect information? I'm requesting referral of this matter for independent review and direction on how to submit supporting documentation to county oversight or risk management. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Jennifer followed by Delina.

Good morning. My name is Jennifer. Thank you for taking the time to listen to us. I'm also here today because the Department of Children's Services is continuing a cycle of sin systemic failure, and the county's own civil ground jury jury has warned you about. In 2022, the ground jury conclude concluded that this department is too broken to fix.

They found a system that was secretive, insufficient, and failing to protect our children. Yet here we are again despite those warnings, the department is still removing children based on unverified false allegations and misrepresentations. In our case, a child with special needs who required specialized care and absolute stability was uprooted because the department chose a one-sided single source allegation without performing a neutral investigation with all parties involved. They ignored physical evidence and medical documentation. The approved allegations had no merit.

They didn't just make a mistake. They engaged in material misrepresentation to the court. The social worker filtered evidence and omitted facts to fit a predetermined narrative that they're just failing a family. They're violating constitutional due process. They're creating the very trauma they are legally mandated to prevent.

The grand jury recommended dismantling the system for a reason. Until that happens, we need immediate aggressive oversight. I'm I formally requesting that the board take the following actions, immediate accountability, commission an independent audit to see how many removals in the last year were based on uncollaborated single source allegations, Transparency in reporting mandate that all investigation interviews be recorded so that social services can no longer misrepresent parents' statements and court records. And special needs protections establish a dedicated oversight board for cases involving children with disabilities who are all at risk when the system fails. The grand jury told you that the system was broken.

Our family's living proof that it hasn't been fixed. This case has been pushed out to note since November and is still being delayed. It is time for the board to step in and provide supervision that the Department of Children's Services clearly cannot provide for itself. Thank you for your time today.

Thank you very much. Delina, followed by Kente, Isaiah, and then Taisha Moody.

Good morning. Let me start with a question. How many of you here are parents or grandparents? Now imagine this. Imagine your children being separated and then being told they are not even allowed to see each other, not because of safety, not because of harm, but because the system is allowing it. My name is Delina Marillo. I stand before you as a mother and a certified human rights civil rights consultant. And he I am here to ask, why is CFS doing this? What do they intend to do? Because right now, CFS is blocking my son from visiting his sisters.

He has not seen them since July 2025. A brother kept from his sisters, and this is not accidental accidental. This is intentional. The longer children are kept apart, the weaker their bond becomes, and that is exactly what is happening. Why is CFS allowing this to continue? What do they intend the outcome to be? I have custody of my youngest child. I am trusted to raise him, but I am told he cannot even be present to see his own sisters. So how is that protecting children? How is that in their best interest?

Because it looks like something else. It looks like their bond is being broken over time. You have siblings who known each other, who love each other, who have already formed a connection, and instead of preserving that bond, it is being disrupted, ignored, and being denied. Why is CFS doing this? Where is the urgency to maintain sibling relationships? Because every day they are kept apart, that bond is being damaged. And once that time is lost, you cannot give it back. So I ask you, what exactly is the goal here? Because from where I stand, it does not look like family preservation. It looks like family separation over time.

And what I want to end this with is a question to supervisor Roe. Are you a mother? Would you what would you think if CFS was purposely breaking your children's bond with each other? Thank you.

Thank you very much. Kente, Isaiah, followed by Taisha Moody.

Good morning, y'all. Thank you for your time, first and foremost. And, me and Monty, we we've been here before, and now we're we're back here again because, again, we're not getting any type of answers in regards to my cousin Jaquay. He was murdered out in Riverside in the assailants. We we have reason to believe it was San Bernardino sheriffs, and we're not getting no type of transparency. And what I what I really wanna, like, put, like, this time being heard, because I've been dating a lot of different talks and everything, I wanna just put light on you you all's law. You know, you have a senate bill, s b fourteen twenty one. It's called the Rights to Know Act, and it's just for this case. And it's not something I'm not asking for something like, oh, do something magical. No.

Just follow your own law. Transparency. It's for the public. It was signed off a senate bill, went through congress, signed off by the president, put into law for a reason. And here's a here's a dig deep thing too that I learned in this study, is that if you all don't uphold the law, that's a federal crime within itself. That's wrong. And I'm not out here to try to say, oh, you guys are criminals. No. I'm just asking for transparency. It's it's very simple. Right to no act. Just let's honor it. I'm not asking nobody to go outside their way and do anything else. We just want to know exactly what happened, how it happened, and who was involved. Not getting this this go here, go there.

The public relation officer, we didn't flooded her. Gin gin miss Jenny Smith, we didn't flooded her her phone line. She's not returning any calls. And that's for San Bernardino. Riverside clearly let us know. We have no parts in none of this. They don't even open up for a discussion. And that's wrong when you slow down. You think about senate bill fourteen twenty one that that that went from fourteen twenty one to senate bill 16. That's the Rights to Know Act as as law enforcement, as as as as politicians, congressmen, women, just let's follow the law.

Riverside itself, how do you how dare you tell us we have nothing to do with a murder that took place right here in your jurisdiction? But yet when you go back to the senate bill fourteen twenty one, it clearly states that you're supposed to have transparency with the public. Then we get to San Bernardino, we're getting the same runaround. We're not getting no answers. And, can we just follow you you all's law? That's all I really wanted to just put light on because nothing's gonna bring my cousin back, and we we fully understand that. But can we just follow y'all law, please, congressmen and congresswomen, city of San Bernardino, human beings, United States citizens? Because at the end of it, he was a son. He was a brother. He was a loved one.

And he was shot 11 times in his back by a officer. Not one, but multiple officers. And and here it is. You have law, and you guys don't even wanna uphold that. Thank you for your time. And I hope I hope here somebody heard that.

Tysha Moody.

Good morning. As my nephew stated, today's been seventy six days. Seventy six days that my son was taken away from me. Seventy six days of pain that does not go away. Seventy six days of silence from the people who took his life. Seventy six days of being forced to live a nightmare that we can't wake up from. Seventy six days of, I don't know. I have no answers for you. I can't tell you anything. My son was unarmed.

He was shot 11 times in his back. There's multiple videos circulating. I wasn't even I didn't even have the d they didn't even have the DC enough to come and tell me my son was murdered. I had to find out through social media that my son's been murdered. I had to see videos on social media of my son dead on the ground.

No aid. Nothing rendered for him. We asked, like like, some kinda some kinda answers, like San Bernardino sheriff's Riverside Corners. I had to pay a lot of money right now to get my own independent autopsy because this county is not helping. They did not help with my son's they're not releasing autopsy.

They're not releasing anything. I had to come out of my own pockets and pay $10,000 for my son to get a private autopsy just so I can see. Have some answers for myself, how many times my son was shot. You know? Eight shots in his back and two of them close range for someone that didn't have a weapon. My son had a bag on, and he put it behind his back so the officers can see. I'm running, but the bag is behind my back, and I have nothing else but some tight pants on and no shirt. No way that he could no way, no weapon could even be concealed anywhere. We want the public. We want the government.

We want the mayor, anyone to help us get answers. Help these office help the people that's in charge of this case give us answers. Give us answers. Let us know what happened. Why? The officer's name. I wanna file a civil complaint against these officers. I don't feel this officer should be allowed to go up to have a promotion. I don't feel he should be allowed to still be in the street. I think he should be on desk duty, not even really desk duty. He should be at home suffering like we are suffering. But, no, instead, we're getting no answers. So I just ask if we could please get some answers and some help.

Thank you very much. That is the last request to speak that I have. Our meeting is adjourned. Our next regularly scheduled board of supervisors meeting will be here in Chambers, April 21 at 10AM. Thank you.