Brad’s latest commentary, ‘Raid On Local Road Funds Marches On’, details how state legislators are being given misleading information to justify taking local governments’ road repair money. Read it here. (Copyright 2009 – Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt, 12127 Mall Blvd., Suite A, Victorville, CA 92392 – www.joinbrad.com) … IN THE NEWS … ‘Phelan fire station to be dedicated Tuesday’ … Remote Desert Fire Station A Step Closer to Reality.

There will be no Board of Supervisors meeting this week. Have a great Fourth of July!

(Webmaster’s Note: In a separate action, the Board of Supervisors approved Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt’s proposal to create a $5-million County budget reserve to fund remote fire stations in addition to the $300,000 he secured last year for design work for a station at Amboy.)

SAN BERNARDINO – The San Bernardino County Fire Department is applying for stimulus funds to pay for the construction of a fire station in Amboy that will reduce emergency response time on Interstate 40. … (Continued below)…

…From the Barstow Desert Dispatch, June 23, 2009 … ‘County fire department hopes to fund station with stimulus money’ … By David Heldreth, Staff Writer … (Continued below) …

…The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to authorize San Bernardino County Fire Chief Pat Dennen to apply for federal funds Tuesday.

The funds will pay for the construction of fire stations near Big Bear, 29 Palms and Amboy, a city about 85 miles east of Barstow off of Interstate 40. The proposed Amboy station would handle fires, car accidents and other emergency situations on the freeway.

There are no fire stations on Interstate 40 between Newberry Springs and Needles, according to Dennen. Dennen said the Newberry Springs Fire Department runs calls on Interstate 40 when they have resources available. The county fire stations in Harvard and Needles can take more than an hour to respond to service calls on Interstate 40 due to the distance the fire engines have to cover.

Dennen said the Amboy station and a planned station in Goffs, a community about 130 miles east of Barstow off of Interstate 40, would cut response time down.

“If a family is on (Interstate 40) in a minivan and it flips and they get trapped, it could take an hour for someone to get out there to help them,” Dennen said. “That makes it hard for me to sleep at night. I want to try and get a series of stations built similar to what exists on Interstate 15.”

Dennen is submitting an application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for $12.6 million to fund the construction of the three new fire stations. The Amboy station is estimated to cost $4.9 million. The funds will come from the 2009 American Recovery & Reinvestment Act Assistance to Firefighters Fire Station Construction Grant Program. The grant money will be awarded by September of 2010.

Dennen said he believes the department will likely get the grant money.

“The federal government is looking for projects that are shovel ready,” Dennen said. “A shovel ready project is something that can be completed in two to three years. They want something that can get people to work as soon as possible. The Angelus Oaks and Amboy stations are great examples of projects that are shovel ready.”

Dennen said Albert Okura, who owns Amboy, donated the land the station will be built on to the county fire department. The county fire department’s 2009-10 budget has money appropriated to pay for the design of the Amboy station. There are also funds set aside for the construction of the station in the 2010-11 budget. Dennen said the station will most likely employ a crew of three firefighters including a captain when it opened, but staffing would increase over time.

Andy Silva, a spokesman for the First District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt, said although the funding for the station is already in place, the grant money would allow the county to save money or use it to pay for other projects.

Proposed San Bernardino County Fire Department Amboy station by the numbers.

$4.9 million – cost to build station
13,700 – average number of people a day who drive I-40 near Amboy
60 – miles from Newberry Springs Fire Department to Amboy
84 – miles from San Bernardino County Fire Department’s Needles station to Amboy

Link to online article: http://www.desertdispatch.com/news/hopes-6350-bernardino-money.html

(Copyright 2009 – Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt, 12127 Mall Blvd., Suite A, Victorville, CA 92392 – www.joinbrad.com) … Happy Fathers Day! … IN THE NEWS (full URLs below) … ‘County OKs Forever Wild center’… ‘Obama pick for BLM director gets positive, negative reaction’ … ‘County Senior Meal Programs Receive Funding’ … ‘County fears raid by state’ … BOARD OF SUPERVISORS MEETING, Tuesday, 10 a.m., San Bernardino. AGENDA ITEMS OF INTEREST – Full agenda available at: http://www.sbcounty.gov/sbco/cob/: 2009-10 Final Budget Adoption; Medical Marijuana ID Card Ordinance; Urgency Ordinance Prohibiting Medical Marijuana Dispensaries; Extension of Supplemental Military Leave Benefits to 2010.

News Article URLs:
‘County OKs Forever Wild center’: http://joinbrad.com/blog/?p=731
‘Obama pick for BLM director gets positive, negative reaction’: http://joinbrad.com/blog/?p=722
‘County Senior Meal Programs Receive Funding’: http://joinbrad.com/blog/?p=734
‘County fears raid by state’: http://joinbrad.com/blog/?p=706

‘Planning Commission waives paving restriction for animal shelter’

PHELAN – Months after Ty Pennington and the rest of the Extreme Makeover Home Edition team piled back in their bus and left the High Desert, the finishing touches are being put in place on the animal shelter they renovated. The Phelan-based Forever Wild Exotic Animal Shelter has won a reprieve from the San Bernardino County Planning Commission. The commission overturned a previous ruling by county staff that would have required the nonprofit animal shelter to pay millions of dollars to pave a rugged dirt road before they could open a new visitors’ center built by the reality show’s volunteers back in February. … (Continued below)…

…From the Press-Dispatch, June 21, 2009… By Beau Yarbrough, Staff Writer… (Continued below)…

…“It just didn’t seem necessary,” Chemaine Almquist said Friday. The Almquist family has run the shelter for 12 years, offering a home to abandoned and abused exotic animals, including tigers, poisonous snakes and snapping turtles. “We all live on dirt roads out here. For us to shell out to pave a mile and a half of it didn’t seem fair.”

The county’s department of Land Use Services wanted Buttemere Road, one of two roads that leads to Forever Wild, paved from Phelan Road, a job conservatively estimated at $1 million.

“Once [contractors] found out that we had a dip along Buttemere, it went to $4 million or $5 million,” said Almquist.

“It’s not going to happen,” said Hesperia architect Tom Steeno, who drew the plans for the family’s renovated home, and who accompanied them to Thursday’s meeting to lend support and translate the ruling for them. “It’s about a million dollars a mile to pave that road. The county doesn’t have that money and neither does a private citizen.”

In the end, the commission voted 3-0 (two commissioners were absent) that the county should approve Forever Wild’s permit without the shelter needing to pave Buttemere Road.

“I did more work on this site than any site that I’ve done in the county. I went out to the site once, and then I went out there two times on my own to check traffic,” Planning Commissioner Russ Blewett said Friday. “The amount of traffic they generate is frankly infinitesimal.”

The planning commission must still approve a revised plan, which could be presented to the commission as early as July.

“People could start coming here in the next couple of weeks,” Almquist said. “Hopefully it won’t take that long.”

Beau Yarbrough can be reached at 956-7108 or at beau@hesperiastar.com.

Brad’s latest commentary, “Is Stimulus ‘Shovel-Ready’ After All?”, details how President Obama’s stimulus package falls short of his promises to build infrastructure by mostly propping up welfare instead. Read it here. (Copyright 2009 – Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt, 12127 Mall Blvd., Suite A, Victorville, CA 92392 – www.joinbrad.com) … IN THE NEWS … ‘Gang members, criminals feel the heat’ … Mitzelfelt’s Jail Immigration Screening Wins National Award’ … ‘Victorville Uturn program gets county funds’… LINKS TO ‘MITZELFELT MEMO’ NEWSLETTER ARTICLES:
Mitzelfelt Earns National Award for Immigration Screening Program
County Requests Federal Reimbursement for Jailing Illegal Aliens
Mitzelfelt Awards Youth Intervention Funds in Barstow and Victorville
Mitzelfelt Dedicates Veterans Memorial Park in Wrightwood
Supervisors Approve Support Services for Military and Families
Mitzelfelt Elected Vice President of SANBAG
County, Hesperia Sign Agreement to Build High Desert Government Center
Thirty Firefighters to be Added with Homeland Security Grant
County Seeks $3.75 Million in Stimulus Funds for Crime Programs
County Secures Funds for Lenwood Rail Crossing, Needles Highway and Lone Pine Canyon Road
Mitzelfelt Presents $25,000 Check to High Desert Red Cross for Disaster Preparedness
County Uses Funds to Create Summer Jobs and Reading Program for Youth
New Aviation Technology Class Available

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS MEETING, Tuesday, 10 a.m., San Bernardino. AGENDA ITEMS OF INTEREST (Full agenda available at: http://www.sbcounty.gov/sbco/cob/): 93. Open public hearing and take testimony on the County’s 2009-10 Proposed Budget. At the close of public hearing, continue the County’s 2009-10 Proposed Budget for approval and adoption as the 2009-10 Final Budget on Tuesday, June 23, 2009, including proposed appropriation, budgeted staffing, and authorization for adjustments for final fund balance listed in Attachment A; recommended changes in reserves for 2009-10 as listed in Attachment B; any changes the Board may direct from the listings of Additional General Fund Financing Requests for policy items, business process improvements and capital improvements projects in Attachments C-E, and recommended changes included in Attachment F.

Note: This article is also posted on the FlashReport.org website here. This latest as well as all of Brad’s previous FlashReport posts can be found here.

By Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt, San Bernardino County

There’s a massive government program that has been sold to the American people with the help of a whole lot of shoveling by the Obama Administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress.

I’m talking about the “stimulus” program, which was supposed to get “shovel-ready” projects built right away, giving an immediate shot in the arm to the economy.

It’s no wonder, of course, as many a president elected during (and therefore almost invariably because of) economic downturns has, during his first 100 days, spent immediate political capital on stimulus. Our current situation has been no exception as job losses and personal net worth are declining at a pace not seen since the late 1970s. The national economy continues to lose jobs at a breathtaking speed, with about 1.5 million jobs lost just in the time since President Obama entered office.

The President’s Keynesian proposal to jumpstart the economy is ambitious in one dimension – size. The $700-billion-plus “stimulus package”, called the American Investment and Recovery Act, was sold as a “shovel-ready” plan intended to employ many of those out of work in private-sector-contracted public works construction.

The problem is that way too little of the stimulus money has been designated for real stimulus – building expensive new infrastructure and triggering employment and spending from construction and related jobs and the sale of materials and services.

That’s what the people were promised, but it’s not what they’re getting.

Remember when Vice President Biden was asked how the stimulus plan was going to help someone’s small business, and his reply was, “We’re gonna build a bridge so that people can get to your small business,” or words to that effect? Well that wasn’t very close to the truth.

That’s because only about 15 percent of the $300 billion in stimulus money being sent to the states was actually designated for building infrastructure projects. Fifteen percent!

That comes out to about $45 billion divided among the 50 states. California gets about $1.5 billion for “shovel” projects. But since Sacramento has moved 2008-2009 public transportation money (about $1.5 billion) into the general fund, we will be using the federal money to backfill transportation money that was previously moved to the general fund in order to backfill shortfalls in social programs.

The Associated Press‘s Judy Lin recently identified this inconsistency between the rhetoric that sold the President’s stimulus package and the reality that much of the money is being used solely for the purpose of propping up underfunded government programs like unemployment insurance, food stamps and other social services.

At the federal level, stimulus money was infused across the board into myriad agencies and programs, propping up federal bureaucracy at the expense of what the people bought into, which was more highways and bridges.

In March, many folks in the Mojave Desert I represent were excited by the stimulus, since the Democrats announced their intention make “green” jobs the first priority in the “shovel-ready” category. Green jobs include solar and wind energy, for which San Bernardino County’s desert has more potential than any other part of the country. But now environmentalists (big believers in renewable energy and global warming) are moving to put a major kink into Gov. Schwarzenegger’s plan to expedite renewable energy projects in the desert through new wilderness designations and a proposed new “national monument”. As of this writing, not one solar or wind generation job seems likely to be expedited by the Recovery Act in our desert.

This isn’t to say that some benefit isn’t reaching our area. Thanks to quick and smart work by my colleagues and myself on the board of directors of SANBAG, San Bernardino County’s transportation commission, our $80 million in transportation stimulus was parlayed into $128 million after the state was convinced to allocate $48 million of its stimulus funds toward the second and third phases of the Interstate 215 widening project, which has been stalled due to a lack of state funds. This will put 6,000 people to work over the next couple of years.

And, despite the debatable Constitutional appropriateness of some of these programs, there are stimulus dollars that will fund summer jobs for youth, additional law enforcement and firefighters for temporary programs, a few million extra dollars in community development block grants, a new energy co-generation plant and other projects on our military bases and other dollars that will flow through existing channels into counties and cities as the deliverers of services from the federal and state governments.

But just imagine how much more than 15 percent of those stimulus dollars should have, if they had to go anywhere, gone into building permanent structures like an equivalent to the Hoover Dam or several smaller “dam”-type projects. When it comes down to a choice between one-time dollars spent on services versus one-time dollars spent on infrastructure, there’s no question that the latter is the better alternative. The American people know that, and they were misled to believe that’s what the stimulus program was all about.

When you’re looking at printing money to prevent an economic catastrophe, the risk of hyperinflation is balanced by the actual return on investment. Last week, the U.S. Treasury attempted to sell a 10-year bond to pay for the stimulus plan. They had to temporarily halt the sale because buyers drove the yields on those bonds up so far, so fast, that the fear of severe inflation is now pervasive in the bond markets. The 10-year bond yield is the benchmark used for home mortgage rates; both the yield and rates moved together at their fastest increase since 2003. This may not sound bad – 10-year bond yields at 4% or mortgage rates at 5%. But these rates were hit with just an $11-billion sale. Imagine what the rates will look like after $300 billion in bonds is sold. Mortgages have the potential to reach 15% (or higher), which would effectively kill any recovery in the housing market, which is a key foundation of any significant economic growth.

At this point, the Democrat majority party in power in Washington would be wise to appropriate a lot more of that stimulus money to employment opportunities rather than social services. Local communities, including those represented by SANBAG, have a variety of projects planned and “shovel ready”, like extra interchanges along Interstate 15, a Devore widening project at the I-15/I-215 interchange, and an extra freeway lane from Ontario to San Bernardino — all of which would help relieve heavy traffic congestion while putting thousands of people to work.

If we are going to see significant interest rate increases and/or inflation, we might as well have employed people who can better afford these drains on their dollars and whose employment is building permanent improvements to our infrastructure.

Deficit spending to fund infrastructure versus welfare is a lesser of two evils. But it’s a question that will be crucial toward how soon our economy recovers. Take a wild guess as to which choice the ruling Democrat party will probably take.

First summertime sweep kicks off with 11 arrests

Victorville kicked off the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department’s first Victor Valley summertime enforcement gang sweep Saturday with 11 arrests as of 7 p.m., officials said. “This is a spin-off of Desert Heat,” said Sgt. Bob Hughes with the Victorville station’s SMASH Gang Team. “When a deputy is on the way to a call, they don’t have time to stop and check out a gang member they see on the street. This way we are pooling our resources from across the desert to do just that.” San Bernardino County 1st District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt showed up to show his support and commended sheriff’s personnel for organizing the summer enforcement. … (continued below) …

… From the Victorville Daily Press, June 14, 2009 … by Beatriz E. Valenzuela, Staff Writer … (continued below) …

… Twenty-four sheriff’s officials served at least six search warrants and did checks of problem motels and crime-free housing. They also went on zero-tolerance proactive patrols on the streets of Victorville.

The captains of the various High Desert sheriff’s stations and deputy chiefs saw a need for this type of enforcement, especially during the summer months when there is an increase in calls for service, officials said.

Deputies from Adelanto, Apple Valley, Barstow, Hesperia, Victorville and the Victor Valley stations will be serving search warrants, performing parole checks and engaging in zero tolerance patrols throughout the summer.

The SMASH Gang Team concentrates its resources on identifying and targeting gang members. This has led to a reduction in gang crime in what were once gang-infested areas, officials said.

“We have made a big difference in the gang problem in (Old Town Victorville),” Hughes said, adding that the goal is to reduce gang crime throughout the High Desert.

Pooling resources from the other High Desert stations allows officials to use the existing budget without having to commit additional funds for the operations.

“Even though money is tight right now, we can still be flexible, creative and aggressive in fighting the war on crime,” Mitzelfelt said. “We have a terrific group of trained professionals, including deputies, investigators, probation officers, deputy district attorneys and others, who are committed to enforcing the law and making neighborhoods safe for the good people who live there. … This is a team effort and we have a really good team.”

According to officials, the mutual aid program may be extended to other high-call volume months of the year.

San Bernardino County will pay for $50,000 worth of field trips, mentoring, awards and prizes for a gang prevention program in Victorville. County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt presented a $50,000 check Thursday to Victorville leaders for the city’s Uturn program, which serves 16 families and aims to keep kids out of gangs. … (continued below)…

…From The Sun (San Bernardino, CA), June 11, 2009, by Jame Rufus Koren, Staff Writer … (continued below) …

… Thursday’s county contribution marks the first time the county has directly given funding to the two-year-old program.

The county previously provided two probation officers to Uturn, but the county’s cost was covered by a state grant.

The county money will be used to pay for field trips, awards, a mentoring program and incentives – items to reward Uturn participants for good behavior, city spokeswoman Yvonne Hester said.

Mitzelfelt said he supports Uturn because it “addresses the gang problem at its source.”

“Young people who are involved in healthy, enriching activities are far less likely to get involved in gangs and drugs,” he said.

Brad’s latest commentary, ‘Local Government is Not a Luxury’, argues against the state trying to balance its budget at local governments’ expense. Read it here. (Copyright 2009 – Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt, 12127 Mall Blvd., Suite A, Victorville, CA 92392 – www.joinbrad.com) … IN THE NEWS Mitzelfelt elected VP of transportation authority … Government center ok’d….BOARD OF SUPERVISORS MEETING, Tuesday, 10 a.m., San Bernardino. AGENDA ITEMS OF INTEREST (Full agenda available at: http://www.sbcounty.gov/sbco/cob/): 8. Resolution determining that the activation of latent water powers by the Yermo Community Services District does not require any transfer of property taxes to Yermo ref. Yermo CSD’s LAFCO request for activation of water powers. 13. Provide $123,942 of Highway Bridge Program funds for preliminary engineering and environmental clearance costs to replace County-owned Bridge 54C0107 on Yermo Road at Manix Wash in the Barstow area. 17. Approve specifications for the repair of concrete curb, gutter, spandrels, and cross gutters at various locations in the Spring Valley Lake area. Authorize the Director of Public Works to advertise for bids. 18. Specifications for asphalt concrete overlay on Visalia Avenue, from State Highway 247 to Sutter Street in Lucerne Valley. Authorize the Director of Public Works to advertise for bids. Revenue Contract with the California Department of Veterans Affairs in the amount of $45,000 to provide part-time Veterans Claim Representative services at the Veterans Home of California in Barstow from July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010. 58. Amendment #1 with the Safety Employees Benefit Association (SEBA) to delay the implementation of the previously negotiated salary increase for the Safety Unit.

Supervisor to prioritize Victor Valley projects

As the new vice president of the county’s transportation authority, 1st District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt said he will push to prioritize interchange and road projects that Victor Valley residents have been waiting on for years. “It’s absolutely critical that we keep our regional projects on track and get them built as soon as possible because the traffic in the High Desert has reached unacceptable levels,” Mitzelfelt said. (Continued below) …

… From the Daily Press, June 5, 2009 … By Natasha Lindstrom, Staff Writer … (continued below)…

… Mitzelfelt’s election this week to vice president of San Bernardino Associated Governments, the county’s transportation commission, also sets him on track for the presidential seat next year, giving him two years to rally for local projects aimed at relieving traffic congestion.

Among Mitzelfelt’s transit priorities:
• La Mesa and Nisqualli interchange in Victorville;
• Ranchero Road interchange in Hesperia;
• Yucca Loma Bridge in Apple Valley.

Those projects are expected to be under construction in the next few years.

“I’m a consensus builder, so I think that with being in the leadership of SANBAG, I can help ensure that the High Desert’s priorities are given proper weight,” Mitzelfelt said, “and that we’re treated fairly and equitably and that SANBAG will assist us in getting where we need to go.”

He also plans to advocate for the timely completion of the High Desert Corridor, or E-220, a 50-mile expressway that will join the Victor and Antelope valleys, with construction slated for 2013.

Mitzelfelt said his promotion to the leadership position could not come at a more opportune time, as billions of dollars will be available over the next two years through the federal stimulus, a federal transportation bill and the new implementation of the Measure I half-cent sales tax.

SANBAG oversees many of the major road, freeway and interchange projects in San Bernardino County. The 29-member Board of Directors is made up of all five county supervisors and elected representatives from each of the county’s 24 cities.

The agency’s budget next year is $387 million.

keep looking »

Recently Written

Headlines: September 5, 2010 Mitzelfelt MEMO: September 3, 2010 ‘Better Days Ahead’ ‘County may start Barstow-to-Victorville bus service’ Headlines: August 24, 2010 Victor Valley leaders support Prop. 23 Mother Road Needs Makeover ‘County prepares for move into Barstow Mall’ Relief on the way for Oak Hills High dust Headlines: August 2, 2010

Categories

Brad's Blog In The News This Week

Archives

September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007

Blogroll

Around The Capitol Fix Rss Feed - wordpress plugin that fix rss feed error “Error on line 2: The processing instruction target matching “[xX][mM][lL]” is not allowed.” while burn feed from feedburner.com Hugh Hewitt’s Blog Red County San Bernardino The FlashReport

Admin

Register Log in Wordpress XHTML

Search