NOTICE OF SALE OF VESSEL
Notice is hereby given the undersigned will sell the following vessel and trailer at lien sale at said address below on: 06/03/2022 9:00 am
VESSEL
U615557, 76 APOLLO ABMP0051M75K, CA
DATE OF SALE- 06/03/2022
TIME OF SALE-09:00 AM
LOCATION OF SALE-14038 SEA SHELL ST FONTANA CA 92335
To be sold by PATRIC HENDY 14038 SEA SHELL ST FONTANA CA 92335
Said sale is for the purpose of satisfying lien for together with costs of advertising and expenses of sale.
Published in the San Bernardino Sentinel on 05/20/2022

By clicking on the blue portal below, you can download a genuine electronic replica of the May 13 edition of the San Bernardino County Sentinel.

Two decades ago, Jeff Burum and his business associate Dan Richards boldly asserted themselves and the entity they headed as the most prolific political donors in San Bernardino County.
The way in which those political donations were applied, however, as well as the action some of those politicians took after receiving that money raised questions, followed by suspicions. Thereafter, criminal charges resulted that required the better part of a decade to fully play out, ultimately sending the politician who had been the largest recipient of Burum’s and Richards’ largesse to prison.

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The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, through the beginning of this week, has confiscated what it calculates is more than $665 million worth of marijuana and both cannabis-derived and marijuana-related products throughout San Bernardino County since August 2021.
Sheriff Shannon Dicus, who was appointed to succeed former Sheriff John McMahon, dubbed that effort Operation Hammer Strike. That marijuana eradication effort was a continuation of a similar stepped-up campaign targeting illicit marijuana cultivation enterprises that McMahon began in January 2021. The board of supervisors as a last-minute augmentation to the county’s 2021-22 budget appropriated in June 2021 an added $4 million for code enforcement throughout the county, the lion’s share of which has been used to cover the cost of Operation Hammer Strike.

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In a turn of historic significance not just to Redlands or San Bernardino County but the whole of California, the Redlands City Council and Planning Commission voted Tuesday night to approve a project without a significant number of its features having been delineated or specified.
In approving Village Partners proposed 700-housing unit, four-story mixed commercial-residential-office development on the grounds of the shuttered Redlands Mall, the city council and planning commission elected to abide by the provisions of a 2019 state law that are now being challenged by other municipalities. One of the provisions of that law precludes a local governmental entity from holding more than five public meetings pertaining to a development proposal for a residential project before making a determination as to whether the project proponent can proceed with the undertaking.

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The Twentynine Palms City Council this week set an 8.525 percent cap on how many of the city’s housing units can be utilized as vacation rentals.
In Twentynine Palms, as in a handful of other communities throughout San Bernardino County such as Lake Arrowhead, Big Bear Lake, Needles and Yucca Valley – out-of-the way and what some might call exotic spots that can serve as a quick getaway for that portion of the Southern California populace seeking a respite from urban existence – large numbers of vacationers or those intent on a relaxing weekend have demonstrated themselves as willing to pay top dollar to lease a house, apartment, condominium, cabin or even a trailer for a month or two or a week or just two or three days.
On occasion, especially when alcohol or recreational drugs are involved, the civility of some vacationers leaves something to be desired, which can be onerous to their temporary neighbors. In some cases, quarters that are intended for a few people or a family or two is called upon to accommodate several dozen. That brings with it issues such as noise, overburdened parking space and compliance with rudimentary laws. On rare occasions, with no warning a rave-like event manifests in a place ill-suited for it, and things can quickly rage out of hand.
Accordingly, over the last several years, the county has moved to put regulations into place regarding short term rentals in its unincorporated areas, ones that involved evolving and steepening fines imposed on the owners of those rental properties that now range from penalties of $1,000 for the first offense, $2,000 for the second offense and $5,000 for the third offense falling within a 12-month period.
In Big Bear, where many landowners make good money off the tourist trade, tension has developed between some of the residents who permanently live in the city and city officials, who sought to stay on the good side of the city’s wealthier property owners by approving an ordinance that imposes modest fines but little more on those responsible for nuisances on short-term rental properties. Owners of resorts and hotels as well as homes rented out year-round to visitors do not want any municipal ordinances that will discourage outsiders from coming to Big Bear Lake to ski or water ski or fish or hike or boat on the lake. In reaction, a sizable contingent of Big Bear Lake residents embarked on an effort to bypass the city council and ultimately gathered a sufficient number of signatures on a petition to place on the October 2022 ballot an initiative calling for a limit on the number of vacation rentals in the city.
In Yucca Valley, the town put into place an ordinance requiring the owners of short-term rental units to purchase a $270 permit every two years and pay the same taxes imposed on hotels. Permit fees are used to fund the cost of the town hiring a private company to monitor the properties, enforce codes and deal with complaints relating to the properties emanating from neighbors.
In Twentynine Palms, officials over the last several months took up the issue of updating the municipal code relating to vacation home rentals.
The 28,065-population city lies adjacent to a Marine Corps Base. Some of its housing stock is used by the families of Marines stationed at the base. At the same time, tourists interested in Joshua Tree National Monument find Twentynine Palms a good place to stay, such that they can leave their rented temporary residence in the morning, explore the desert wonderland during the day, and return to comfort by nightfall.
Many homes, which were previously rented to those who resided in the city, are now monopolized by temporary renters, who are willing to pay higher rents on the short term than the permanent residents can afford.
The city council three months ago called upon the planning commission to look into the issue and make a recommendation.
Commissioners Leslie Paahana, Jason Dickson and Max Walker were all in favor of capping the number of vacation rentals the city will allow and seemed intent on limiting that number to somewhere near one-tenth of the 5,797 houses in the city. Commissioner Jim Krushat entertained the concept of limiting the rentals, but expressed a preference for a limitation closer to 20 percent. Commissioner Greg Mendoza has said he does not think it is the city’s place to engage in such regulation and that the free market should determine who will rent short-term or long-term. Meanwhile, large numbers of residents have lobbied for a 5 percent cap.
Chairwoman Paahana at a March 1 meeting pushed for a cap of 10 percent, which would have levied a restriction of 578 vacation units. Krushat countered with a 19 percent proposal, or 1,101. At that point, the council majority indicated it would likely recommend a compromise of 12 percent, or 696. They postponed, however, making a final recommendation.
They were scheduled to meet again on April 6. The meeting was held, but Pahaana and Dickson were absent. At one point during the discussion, concern was expressed that limiting vacation rentals would result in an escalation of rental rates, which might redound to the detriment of long-term renters in the city. As Walker was the only advocate of the 12 percent compromise present, translating into roughly 695 units, the trio of Walker, Krushat and Mendoza were unable to come to a consensus.
An ad hoc committee, including members of the council, planning commission and public, had recommended several changes to the ordinance governing short-term rentals. The committee recommended a doubling of fines for disturbance and safety violations at rentals to $500 for the first violation, $1,000 for the second and $2,000 for the third within a 12-month period.
A city staff report pegged the number of active permitted vacation home rental units in the city at 264 and the number of inactive permitted vacation home rental units at 61. In addition there are 122 pending applications for vacation home rental permits. Thus, it would appear that the city officially has 447 short term rental units in place at present. Anecdotally, however, reports are that some homes are being rented or leased out on an abbreviated basis without being registered with the city.
Astrid Johnson, the president of the Morongo Basin ARCH Coalition to Align Resources and Challenge Homelessness, said the massive transition of permanent rental units in Twentynine Palms to temporary ones was having the effect of throwing families out onto the streets.
“There are not enough houses available for people who are becoming homeless,” she said.
Wayne Hamilton, who is employed with the Morongo Unified School District, said that families with school age children are losing their abodes to temporary visitors to the city.
There were some individuals who have invested money in purchasing real estate in Twentynine Palms with the expectation of being able to rent the properties out on a short-term basis. Most of those were reluctant to speak out, but privately said they hoped the city would adopt a cap that would allow them to continue to function.
Krushat, who enunciated the belief that ideally caps should not be used and that the free market should predominate, nevertheless said he would accept a cap of 19 percent or 20 percent. When the sentiment of the city council appeared to be drifting toward imposing a cap, Krushat said he thought the city should limit property owners to two or three licenses each.
Ultimately, in response to Councilman Joel Klink’s motion, the council unanimously set a 500-unit cap on the number of homes that can serve as short term rentals and a five-unit-per-entity limit to, Klink said, keep corporate interests out of the local rental market.
The limits are to remain in place until after the 2030 census is conducted.
-Mark Gutglueck

A former San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy was able to sustain a high-living existence that involved gambling away more than $2 million at the San Manuel Casino in Highland, spending $500,000 in private jet trips as he trotted around the globe, attiring himself in finely-tailored suits, purchasing more than $70,000 worth of Louis Vuitton merchandise, driving luxury cars and leasing a string of apartments for his then-girlfriends using the proceeds from what was by all reports a pretty poorly disguised Ponzi scheme.
Christopher Lloyd Burnell, 51, who lived at 29550 Santa Ana Canyon Road in Highland, was able to sustain a plush existence paid for with $5.6 million in proceeds netted by his deceiving victims into believing he was a wealthy businessman and inducing them to invest in nonexistent ventures. Burnell was able to cozen his victims to entrust to him, in some cases as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time, which he said was being ventured toward exclusive investment opportunities that would provide investors a doubling of their money in as little time as two to four few weeks, according to a federal prosecution team’s trial memorandum.
Burnell pleaded guilty on Monday, May 9 to 11 counts of wire fraud and two counts of filing a false tax return.
Assistant United States Attorney Jerry C. Yang, chief of the Riverside branch office, and Assistant United States Attorney Robert S. Trisotto, also of the Riverside office, prosecuted the case after an IRS criminal investigation unit and the United States Secret Service concluded their investigation into Burnell’s activities.

Despite a fair chance that the California Department of Fish and Wildlife will not list Joshua trees as an endangered species and impose a series of measures to protect them from extinction later this year, there was a mad rush at Yucca Valley Town Hall in recent weeks to obtain permits that would allow local property owners to move or uproot the plants.
There has been considerable palaver and action with regard to Joshua trees in the desert regions of California.
Next month, the California Fish and Game Commission is to hold a hearing at which it is to consider the petition the Center for Biological Diversity made in October 2019 to have the western Joshua tree, which is known scientifically as Yucca brevifolia Engelm, listed as a threatened species.
There has developed among conservationists concern that the tree, which once was ubiquitous in the desert, is seeing its numbers erode at an alarming rate because of climate change, development and other human activities, and wildfire. In many San Bernardino County desert communities for generations, the trees have been eradicated as construction proceeded. Many landowners indiscriminately removed the trees with no sensitivity toward the advancing fragility of the species, and many people still consider state and other governmental regulations that prevent their removal without a permit to be an infringement on their property rights.
To disentangle the red tape involved in the process of obtaining a Joshua tree removal permit, and because sojourning to its offices represented for many people an inconvenience, the California Fish and Game Commission empowered some local jurisdictions with the authority to issue permits for both the removal of the trees as well as their transplanting. Among those governmental entities given the permit-issuing authority was the Town of Yucca Valley.
A hefty fee is required to obtain a permit, and the granting of a permit is by no means guaranteed.
Based on fees determined and set by the state, a permit to relocate a Joshua tree 13.123 feet tall or smaller on developed property costs $175. To remove the same size tree from developed land will cost $525. To relocate a Joshua tree taller than 13.123 feet from developed property costs $700. A Joshua tree that is less than 13.123 feet high growing on undeveloped land can be relocated for $625 and removed for $1,050. Those are permit costs. In addition, the cost of actually relocating a Joshua tree in such a way that it will survive can be quite expensive, as much or more than $1,200 for mature trees. Younger and smaller trees are less expensive to transplant.
Under the arrangement with the Fish and Game Commission, the Town of Yucca Valley’s authority to issue Joshua Tree removal or transplant permits elapsed as of May 10, 2022.
Previously, the town had seen a number of permit applications. Those permits are processed by the town’s planning division, which upon inspection makes a recommendation to the planning commission. The planning commission uses its voting authority to issue the permits.
As the expiration of the town’s permitting authority approached, landowners considering improvements to their property that might impact trees located there began making applications for permits.
Prior to this week, the Yucca Valley Planning Commission had considered and granted 103 permits. At the planning commission meeting on Monday, a whopping 107 permit applications came before commissioners, some of them filed that day.
Reportedly, all 107 permits were granted before the planning commission adjourned Monday evening.