By Mark Gutglueck
San Bernardino City Manager Charles Montoya jumped ahead of himself and just about everyone else when he mapped out and then undertook the preliminary steps toward implementing a strategy to salvage San Bernardino’s dormant City Hall, which has been empty since 2017 over concerns about its seismic stability.
The concept of retrofitting the building to make it once more safe for occupancy has remained alive since then-City Manager Mark Scott made the October 2017 decision to abandon the structure, but no substantive action in that regard has been taken by either of the three mayors nor the 11 members of the council have served since that time.
Montoya, without any publicly previewed or clear direction from the city council sent instructions to Public Works Director Lynn Merrill, the city’s finance department and William Lampi, one of the analysts working in the city manager’s office to look into the task of fully assessing the building’s engineering/structural shortcomings, determine whether they can be redressed and at what cost, make a determination of whether it is financially reasonable to undertake such a project rather than razing it and building a new structure from scratch and prepare the means for financing that undertaking. In doing so, he directed the finance department to work with the bond underwriting firm of Stifel, based primarily on his pas t dealings with the firm when he was city manager in Watsonville, as well as in Florence and Avondale, both in Arizona, and while he was the finance director and treasurer with the Town of Castle Rock and the chief financial officer for Centennial, both in Colorado.
San Bernardino’s misfortune with its City Hall might have been avoided but for what in retrospect know comes across as shortsighted and irresponsible action on the part of a past city council.
In 1971, the City of San Bernardino was moving toward building a new City Hall in Downtown San Bernardino, on property reclaimed from a longstanding historic section of the city, where nearly a score of buildings had been demolished to undertake an urban renewal effort that was to include government-sponsored capital improvements entailing a new civic center. To design City Hall, the city commissioned César Pelli, a highly accomplished Argentine American architect who emigrated to the United States in 1952, married Diana Balmori, a landscape and urban designer, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1964. Pelli established himself as one of the world’s leading architects, particular with regard to designing majestic buildings as well as some of the world’s tallest structures, including the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, which were for a time the world’s tallest buildings, as well as the World Financial Center complex in downtown Manhattan, Salesforce Tower in San Francisco, the Sao Paulo Corporate Towers, Xuzhou Central Plaza in Xuzhou, the Unicredit Building in Milan, and scores of others around the world.
In the early morning of February 9, 1971, the San Fernando earthquake also known as the Sylmar earthquake, occurred in the west foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. The unanticipated thrust earthquake had a moment magnitude of 6.5 to 6.7 on the Richter Scale. The quake did damage to the San Fernando Valley and other densely populated areas north of central Los Angeles, causing several buildings to collapse. This demonstrated the inadequacy of the building standards that had been put into place in California following the Long Beach Earthquake of 1933. California lawmakers acted quickly to develop legislation related to seismic safety, tightening construction standards. Already at that point, architects and engineers had introduced the concept of incorporating rollers into the foundation of high rise buildings, which would allow the foundation to roll or shift with a seismic disturbance. Two decades later, rollers would be replaced by massive vertical springs in the foundations of large buildings. But San Bernardino City Hall had neither of those features. What is more, it would utilize pilotis, i.e., pillars or columns composed primarily of concrete, to support the building, including a major portion of the upper stories on the building’s east side, an overhang which was architecturally striking. Because of this, the easternmost portion of the building – all five of the upper floors, are not supported by a ground floor. Seismic integrity calculations done three decades later would determine that under the stress of a major earthquake, those pilotis would be very likely to crumble.
City Hall that Pelli envisioned and which the city built is a six-story building, 115 feet tall and 217 feet long by 68 feet wide, in the modernist style, which includes a mezzanine and basement that do not count toward the six floors. It has curtain walls, and is clad in glass, which forms 90 percent of its exterior entailing 6,000 windows with slim aluminum mullions.
City leaders of two generations ago instead of delaying the project by another 12 to 24 months and working to incorporate California’s updated seismic standards into the design for the edifice, elected to rush the timetable on the completion of the $4,950,579 City Hall project using Pelli’s original design and its accompanying specifications. The result was that City Hall, which was supposed to have a life of as long as a century or a century-and-a-half, had come to represent a potential hazard to those who worked within it or citizens who came to it for municipal services or to pay municipal utility bills.
A structural engineer brought in by the city in 2008 to examine telltale signs of instability and aging that were manifesting in various spots around the 104,000 square foot building came to the conclusion that it would in no case be able to withstand a locally based temblor greater than 7 on the Richter scale and would likely collapse in the face of a 6.5 scale quake. The building’s hopes would be marginal if shaken by a 6.0 event, the engineer prognosticated. The city, which had been facing progressively harder financial challenges going back two decades until it sank into the economic abyss and filed for Chapter Nine bankruptcy protection in 2012, did not have the means to tackle the issue and so it went unaddressed.
The issue was forced to a crisis point in September 2017 when a succession of minor but recurring earthquakes, referred to as a swarm, were registered near the Salton Sea. Afterward, the California Office of Emergency Services put out a warning that the chances of a magnitude 7.0 or greater earthquake was slightly greater than normal. Upon doing his due diligence, Scott concluded that it would be best to move all of the city’s offices out of City Hall.
Thereafter, the lion’s share of the city’s departments took up residence in the Vanir Tower located next to City Hall, as well as in a number of smaller locations within the downtown area.
Montoya, after arriving in October, became aware of the constant drain on the city’s budget represented by paying for office space that otherwise would be available to the city at far less cost if it had its own quarters.
After hearing back from Merrill and Lampi, Montoya determined that the renovation of City Hall would run from somewhere between $75 million and $82 million. Without money in the city’s budget to pay for the makeover, he explored financing options, having already been half-convinced that issuing bonds to generate the proceeds for the project was the most likely way forward. After speaking with Sara Oberlies Brown, the managing director for Stifel in its San Francisco Office and Mark Reader, Stifel’s managing director in its Phoenix office, he sighed a letter of intent with Stifel to have it serve as the underwriter on the issuance of $82 million in bonds.
At the city strategy session on January 30, Montoya had Lampi and Merrill brief the council on the situation with regard to City Hall, while both Brown and Reader were on hand to educate the council on its bond financing options.
Brown explained that the city was challenged with regard to its financing options because for the city to enter into any type of indebtedness exceeding annual revenues including bonded indebtedness, the city would need to obtain two-thirds voter approval of a tax or assessment to service that debt. She said, however, that the city could bypass the requirement for a vote of the city’s residents by entering into “long term leases subject to annual appropriation by the city council as part of the budget process.” She assured the council, “That concept has been leveraged by cities and counties throughout the State of California on a regular basis to provide infrastructure that is considered to have general benefit to the community.
In the instant case, Brown said, this would call for the issuance of “lease-revenue bonds or certificates of participation, both having this common structure of lease-financing.” The strategy would entail, Brown said, “a lease-lease back structure,” one in which the city leases one of its assets to a financing authority – a parallel or ghost entity to city government which would have as its board of directors the city council – for an nominal amount, such as one dollar. The finance authority would then “rent” the asset back to the city, with the value amortized over a given period of time. The city’s lease payments transfer to the trustee, who uses the incoming money to pay down the debt, that is, make payments to the bondholders. This debt servicing would require “use and occupancy” of the leased asset.  “The trustee can re-enter and relet the asset if the issuer doesn’t make payments,” Brown said.
In practical terms, what the city would do is issue the bonds, take the proceeds from the sale of the bonds and use them to seismically retrofit City Hall, at which point the city could move all of its departments out of the Vanir Tower and other locations around downtown back into City Hall. The money that the city was otherwise paying to lease the office space to house its departments and employees would then be used to pay back the bondholders.
Brown said the city had set up financing authority’s previously, as was the case with the city housing authority and before the State of California in 2012 closed out all municipal and county redevelopment agencies statewide, its redevelopment agency. The city council in all such cases acts as the governing body or board of the financing authority.
The asset to be leased to the financing authority could be any of a number of city assets such as the existing City Hall, a park, the city’s corporate yard, or its police station. Such assets have served as the subject of the lease payments in other cities, Brown said. The bonds issued could be structured to refund the bondholders in as short of a span as 10 years or up to 30 years or more, she said, with the standard or typical time being 30 years.
Without being specific, Brown indicated the city could structure its lease payments on the asset to be entrusted to the finance authority to be roughly equivalent to what the city is paying to lease the existing substitute City Hall facilities in the Vanir Tower and elsewhere. facilities
Brown then somewhat aggressively laid out a schedule by which the city would “kick-off” the concept of doing the lease lease-back financing, draw up the legal documents relating to the bond issuances and educate all of the participants – i.e., the city council and city residents – about what is to occur in January and February of this year, draft credit and marketing materials in March and April and award a construction project contract to whatever company is to do the work on City Hall, present the city’s credit rating to a bond rating agency, post offering document and market the bonds in May and June. In July the city would then use the incoming proceeds from the bond sales to begin construction, that is, the retrofitting of City Hall.
Ultimately, Brown said, the city council would “act as the play caller,” while her suggestion was that it was understood a bond issuance was the city’s best option.
After listening to the presentation, Councilwoman Kimberly Calvin, without engaging in any direct direct criticism, probed how it was that the city was on a trajectory to make an $82 million expenditure toward retrofitting City Hall, committing the city and its residents to debt service of something approaching $180 million over the next three decades.
Calvin inquired about Stifel’s role as the city’s bond underwriter. When Montoya indicated that was the case, Calvin asked, “So, you’ve already hired them?”
“We already have a letter of intent with them and all the project personnel put on this will go ahead and be reimbursed through the bond proceeds,” Montoya responded. “So, we need to start moving ahead. And they’re one of the top companies in the United States.”
“If you don’t mind my asking, what was that cost?” Calvin inquired.
“We’re still working on that,” said Montoya. “It’s not a final cost yet. We will know as soon as we know what the bond issuance is and what the market rates are and those type of things. So, we don’t have a final cost yet but that will be rolled into the bond proceeds.”
“So, we just opened up a contract but we don’t have any idea of the number?” Calvin asked.
“When you do bond proceeds, this is how that process works, nationwide,” Montoya said.
“They’ve already been identified, though?” Calvin pressed.
Yes,” said Montoya.
“So, we didn’t need to go out for an RFP [request for proposals, i.e., seek bids] for that?” Calvin asked.
“No, we did not,” said Montoya.
“And why was that?” asked Calvin.
“We do not because they are one of the top people in the marketplace, one of the top ones in California,” said Montoya, meaning Stifel. “It is relationship-based, people that we trust, that we know, that we work with.”
“They have worked with us before?” Calvin asked.
“They have worked throughout California,” said Montoya. “They have worked with me in several different states, as well, and other individuals.”
Montoya at one point indicated his belief that the salvaging of City Hall was an important enough undertaking that the city should commit to it. He evinced the attitude that the council should not dwell unnecessarily on financing options after staff had already carried out such evaluations or involve itself in an inteminable debate over which bond underwriter to utilize.
“Why are we doing this?” Montoya asked, rhetorically. He said, “I think why are we doing this [is] over the number of years the council and the community have been given an empty bag of happiness to do this and it hasn’t been done yet. This building is iconic. It is not only iconic to this community but to the state and the United States. It still sits in historic books everywhere This building has not been upkept. It needs to be done. It needs to be retrofitted and brought up to today’s standards but it is still a beautiful building. In the meantime, the city has been paying lease rates in a building next door where we can be paying the bond rates to pay for that building and just get it done and get back in there, which is your building, the community’s building, for the city council and everything else. That’s why we’re doing this move forward. If we don’t do this now, sooner or later that building’s just going to become a gigantic doorstop.”
Calvin sought to pursue why the city has not sought from either or both the state and the federal government money or economic support in the form of grants or subsidies to preserve the building. Montoya said efforts had been made in that regard but that so far no progress in that regard had been made. Calvin pressed the city manager to have the city’s lobbyist angle toward freeing up any available funding that could come into play since City Hall has status as an historic building.
This week, the Sentinel spoke with Calvin, who said she found the manner in which Montoya was pushing ahead with preparations on a project that had not been fully deliberated upon by the mayor and council nor yet given approval by a council vote somewhat disconcerting.
“I think when Mr. Montoya referenced the letter of intent is when my ears perked up,” Calvin said. “He seemed to be saying he did not need advising on the bonds and that he would be utilizing the same bond broker or underwriter he has used in other other cities, that there was already a letter of intent, which had never been mentioned to the council before. He said there would be no RFP. This to be another example of sole sourcing on our city contracts. The city council is to have no say, apparently, on the commissions this bond broker is to receive. He seemed to be saying he did not need the council’s permission to proceed. In our city, the city manager has spending discretion on contracts up to $100,000, but this supersedes that. I thought I heard $80 million, which supersedes that $100,000 threshold on what he can spend without first getting council permission not by just a little but by a lot. I‘m not sure how a city manager who has only been here three or four months can start dictating to the council what we are going to do even before we vote on it. He has at least tentatively committed us with this letter of intent to issue $80 million in bonds. I don’t know how things were done in the cities where he was before, but that’s not how we handle things here. I am concerned about where that direction came from. I know it didn’t come from a council vote. At the very least there was confuison about this and I am a bit taken aback that none of my council colleagues had the same level of concern about the direction we are headed in without close monitoring by and the consent of the council in a formalized decision-making process and vote.”
Calvin said, “The idea just popped up during a strategy meeting like it was a done deal, without any previous discussion. I am not saying I am totally opposed to reclaiming City Hall or maybe using bond financing as a way of financing the City Hall project or other important public improvements, but that is something that is going to be labored over and closely considered and labored over by all my colleagues so we can work through what has to be done.”
Councilman Damon Alexander told the Sentinel that Montoya had moved a little too quickly with regard to the City Hall retrofit, and had not gotten the city council into the loop before taking important preparatory action.
“I don’t know how he could have moved ahead with the letter of intent without getting authorization from the mayor and council first,” Alexander said.
Alexander said he did not see Montoya’s premature action as anything that will endanger his status as city manager, but rather a jog in the highway as Montoya and the council learn where their respective lanes are. The councilman said it is well established that the council is the final authority on how the city’s money is going to be spent.
“When bonds were issued for the city’s housing authority, the council approved the arrangements at every step in the process,” he said. “Issuing bonds for any purpose should follow the same protocol. Simply for the sake of consistency, we need to be in on all decisions relating to bonds, including whether we are going to issue them and how they are going to be issued.”

Damon Alexander, who was first elected to the San Bernardino City Council in November 2020, is asking the residents of the 7th Ward to return him to office for four more years .
Competing against him in the March 5 race are former City Attorney Jim Penman and College Professor Dr. Treasure Ortiz. If one of the candidates does not poll a majority of the vote on that date, the two top vote-getters will compete in a run-off in November.
“I would like to continue collaborating with my colleagues to propel our city to new heights,” said Alexander. “I enjoy helping 7th Ward residents, residents of the city and community partners. I find value in San Bernardino when together we achieve our goals. I’ve successfully introduced and implemented impactful policy ideas which benefit our residents. I want to see to completion several projects which I started or assisted in starting, paving the way for new businesses, affordable housing developments, restricted truck routes, the California Theater remodel, the Roosevelt Bowl remodel and others. I want to continue to represent the city on regional boards to ensure that San Bernardino’s interests are effectively advocated for. To keep the progress and momentum going on economic growth, advocating for local vendor preference. Most importantly, I prioritize being in the community, ensuring the voices of the 7th Ward residents are not just heard but actively represented in the decisions I make.”
The 7th Ward is located in the north central center of the city. It straddles the 210 Freeway, with a northern border of 40th Street, a southern border of Highland Avenue and irregular borders on its west and east sides, such that Del Rosa Aveu is priarily the eastern border on its south side, with the exception of a neighborhood that is north of the 21 Freeway near Del Vallejo Park. To the north, the eastern border is Harrison Avenue. On the west side, the southernmost west border is Musciabe Drive, the west H Street and the west border near the top of the district is H Street just before the district border makes an eastwrd jog along 34th Street to E Street, which then forms the western border until it meets 37th before heading north along Palm to 40th Street.
During the three years and now nearly three months that he has been in office, Alexander said he has had a record of accomplishment.
“I’ve actively collaborated with colleagues to propel our city forward. Over the past three years, I’ve achieved significant milestones such as the long-awaited demolition of the mall, facilitating new business and housing developments. Representing San Bernardino on regional boards ensures our interests are effectively advocated for. I’ve organized economic and homeless summits, facilitated small business grant forums, and overcome bureaucratic hurdles to kickstart stalled projects. Additionally, I’ve fostered a working relationship with the school district to address city issues jointly. Promising to double code enforcement officers, we now have 20 officers and a manager, with additional parking enforcement officers added based on community needs. I initiated negotiations with the county, advocated for a new economic development department, and established the San Bernardino Regional Housing Trust for future housing affordability. Implementing a graffiti removal program and supporting Spanish translation at council meetings demonstrates our commitment to community needs. Collaborating with Caltrans on homeless outreach and enhancing our police department’s quality of life team reflects our dedication to addressing citywide concerns. These accomplishments were achieved through collective efforts of residents, community partners, and city staff.”
Alexander said he has further goals in mind if he is entrusted with the responsibility of remaining in office.
“Firstly, I aim to initiate an infrastructure street bond to kickstart a city-wide schedule of repaving the streets of San Bernardino, pending voter approval. Additionally, I intend to complete and staff the new economic development department and establish a one-stop shop for residents, streamlining processes for home improvements and large-scale projects. Addressing homelessness remains a priority, and I’m committed to leveraging innovative strategies to continue making progress in this area. Given the regional nature of homelessness, my involvement in the continuum of care for the county allows me to contribute effectively to this effort. Moreover, with the successful razing of the Carousel Mall, it’s time to usher in mixed-use development downtown, featuring restaurants, boutique shops, and residential housing. I envision San Bernardino becoming a what I call a smart solutions city, leveraging artificial intelligence and city-wide broadband to enhance infrastructure. Ensuring neighborhood safety is paramount, and I plan to achieve this through the strategic hiring of more police officers. While challenges persist, I am ready to tackle them head-on, confident that together, we can make a difference.”
To achieve results, Alexander said, a cooperative effort among the city’s elected leadership is key.
“Building strong relationships with council members is crucial for passing policy and achieving our goals,” he said. “I’m proud to have a good working relationship with my colleagues on the council, which enables us to effectively collaborate and drive initiatives forward. Additionally, active engagement with regional leaders and community partners ensures that San Bernardino is adequately represented and advocated for in securing resources vital for our city’s momentum. Serving as a board member of the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), I advocate for grant funding and policy initiatives that benefit not only our city but also the broader regional community. Through these efforts, we can continue to advance San Bernardino’s interests and foster positive growth and development.”
Alexander said he respected both Ortiz and Penman and indicated he had no criticisms of them, their approach to public issues or their candidacies.
In sizing up the major issues and challenges facing the city as a whole, Alexander said, “Indeed, homelessness, the availability of affordable housing, and the retention and attraction of the business community are pressing issues facing the 7th Ward and San Bernardino, akin to challenges encountered by many large cities in America. However, we are actively addressing and resolving these issues through collaborative efforts with our federal, county, and community partners. By working together, leveraging resources, and implementing innovative solutions, we can make meaningful progress in tackling these complex issues and improving the quality of life for all residents of San Bernardino.”
Alexander said, “Together, as a collective effort involving the mayor, council, city staff, community partners, and residents, we have achieved significant progress over the past three years. Our collaborative endeavors have resulted in a noticeable decrease in crime rates across all areas of the city. Moreover, we’ve cultivated an environment conducive to new business growth by establishing an entrepreneurial business center to support both new and existing ventures. Additionally, I am committed to continuing my advocacy for funding our award-winning parks and recreation department, ensuring that our residents have access to quality recreational facilities. As I seek my constituents’ support and vote on March 5, 2024, I am confident that with continued collaboration, there is no limit to what we can achieve together.” He called for “keeping the momentum going and striving for an even brighter future for San Bernardino.” He said he wanted to thank his constituents for their ongoing support of his efforts as their reprsentative.

Plans are advancing for importing water into the Indian Wells Valley. The Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority is considering three possible pipeline routes to import water from the State Water Project to the region at the northwesternmost extreme of San Bernardino County and adjoining sections of Kern and Inyo counties.
The groundwater authority is a joint powers entity that has Kern County, Inyo County, San Bernardino County, the Indian Wells Valley Water District and the City of Ridgecrest as its voting members and the United States Navy and the United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management as non-voting associate members of its governing board. Last year, the authority’s governing board consented to hiring Provost & Pritchard Consulting Group to carry out a study of the most efficient and economic way to convey imported water to the valley.
The Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Basin Authority is proposing a $200-million, 50-mile-long pipeline system that would traverse mountainous desert terrain to bring water from the California Aqueduct in California City to Ridgecrest in Kern County, where it would be held in a massive storage tank operated by the Indian Wells Valley Water District. The water would be used to recharge the groundwater basin beneath Indian Wells Valley, which stretches across approximately 600 square miles of Kern, northeast San Bernardino and southeast Inyo counties.
The groundwater authority was formed in 2015, in the aftermath of a four-year running drought and a determination by the California Department of Water Resources that the Indian Wells Valley is one of the 21 basins throughout the State of California in critical overdraft. Previously, in 2014, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, mandating water-saving measures throughout the state and requiring local agencies to draft plans to bring groundwater aquifers into balanced levels of pumping and recharge through the adoption of a groundwater sustainability plan. That balance is supposed to be achieved by 2040.
Based upon a survey of water usage patterns undertaken by an engineering consultant, Carlsbad-based Stetson Engineers, the authority and the Indian Wells Valley Water District sought to derive a strategy for both reducing water use in the valley and increasing groundwater recharge to reach a balance of both that will end the overdraft.
Any realistic assessment of the existing population, industrial, agricultural and commercial operations in the area and the decreases in the drafting of water from the regional aquifer that could be achieved through efficientization, conservation, increased recycling of water and perhaps the minimization of evaporation demonstrated that it would not be possible to achieve by the target year of 2040, as is mandated by the state, a balance of natural water recharge to the region from rainfall and the amount of water usage, such that the depletion of the aquifer will end. According to the surveys completed to provide the data needed to formulate the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Sustainability Plan, the average natural annual recharge in the basin is 7,650 acre-feet while the annual drafting of groundwater in the region by all entities is three to four times that amount.
Accordingly, staff and the board of the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority long ago concluded that the sought-after goal of bringing the region’s water table out of a state of overdraft can only be achieved by the importation of water from outside the valley and injecting it deep into the ground to avoid evaporation and replenish water lost from excessive production.
Three years ago, after the survey of water use by well owners both collectively and individually was made, the authority assigned water use allowances to the region’s well owners. Excess use fees, referred to as augmentation fees, were formulated for application to those well owners who pump above their allowances as well as on farmers who go beyond their respective share of the water supply set aside for agricultural usage. The authority intends to use money generated in this way to purchase imported water and pay for the infrastructure needed to bring in the imported water.
That water is to come from the State Water Project, imported to the southern part of the state by the California Aqueduct.
At present, however, there is no means of conveyance of water that would come out of the California Aqueduct to Indian Wells Valley, meaning a pipeline will need to be constructed.
Provost & Pritchard provides civil engineering, water resource management, environmental, structural engineering, hydrogeologic, GIS, surveying, caves and tunnels expertise, planning, and construction management consulting services. According to the company’s principal engineer, Jeff Davis, the authority has essentially three options with regard to the route the pipeline should take from California City to Ridgecrest, one of which he termed a west alignment, a second he called a central alignment, and a third he referred to as an east alignment.
Given geographical and topographical factors, the difficulty of the terrain to be encountered, along with the pre-existence of certain infrastructure and utilities in some areas and the lack of such necessities in other others along with complications or a lack thereof with regard to securing right-of-way along certain paths, Davis said there are relative advantages and disadvantages in multiple respects to each of the three paths the pipeline might take.
In each case, the pipeline will need to traverse the Rand and El Paso mountains. Of consideration is that the pipeline might end up disturbing critical habitat for certain species which dwell in the desert, Davis said, requiring care in how the pipeline is designed, placed and constructed.
The west alignment would run north from California city on land next to Neuralia Road and bend west through Jawbone Canyon and resume a northerly direction crossing U.S. Route 14 to Ridgecrest. An advantage to this course is that it would replicate in spans an existing pathway for a large Los Angeles Department of Water and Power water pipeline and not conflict with any critical habitat for the endangered desert tortoise. Nevertheless, the west alignment would require bringing in electricity or other utilities to areas where lifting stations are needed as well as traversing no fewer than four major roads or rail lines.
The center alignment similarly goes north on Neuralia Road but cuts east between the Rand and El Paso mountains, continuing until U.S. Route 395, at which point it makes a 90 degree turn north all the way to Ridgecrest.
This route does not entail having to deal with the Rand and El Paso mountains, a striking advantage. Moreover, it parallels existing roadways. The downside is that it interferes with the critical habitat of some species of animals that live in the desert and will require bringing in utilities to certain portions of the route.
The east alignment follows 20 Mule Team Parkway out of California City and towards U.S. Route 395. It then follows U.S. Route 395 north all the way to Ridgecrest.
This pathway is advantageous from the standpoint that it parallels existing infrastructure virtually the entire distance, such that the construction can be readily undertaken. It would, however, require two sets of lifting stations, one to boost the water up one steep incline over the Rand Mountains, at which point it would then follow a downgrade into a valley between the Rand and El Paso Mountains and then climb once more over the El Paso Mountains. Like the center alignment, it would entail some interference with critical habitat for certain desert species.
-Mark Gutglueck

Woman Kills Man Over Fender Bender 59-year-old Jonathan Mauk’s life was cut short on February 5 when 36-year-old used a gun she was carrying to shoot him after a minor collision in the parking lot of the San Bernardino Walmart.

Mel Hodell, the former publisher of the Montclair Tribune, the Upland News and the Cucamonga News, has died.
One of the last of the generation of community builders in San Bernardino County’s West End who were shaped by their participation in World War II, Hodell was 102 when succumbed from natural causes on January 31.
Hodell led a dynamic existence in more than one venue, those being a U.S. Army Air Corps pilot providing crucial logistics support for Chiang Kai-Shek in his resistance of the Japanese invasion of China, his time as a young journalist, his raising of a family, then, penultimately, as a newspaper publisher and, ultimately as a newspaper broker.
Melvin Ernest Hodell born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1921. He and his younger sister were raised by his single mother, both in Chicago and Detroit.
Hodell acknowledged having developed a poor attitude as a kid, living in a residence with his mother, grandmother and sister that was the anterior to a hair salon where his mother worked.
He eventually found purpose working as a teenaged copy boy and then copyeditor for the Detroit Times and Detroit News. In the role of a copy boy, he would pick up from this reporter or that a sheaf of carbon copies on butcher papers of his most recent tentatively typed story and run one of each to the copy editor’s desk, the sub editor’s room, the editor’s desk and to the editor, crying “copy” at each stop. Eventually, at the age of 17, he was promoted to the position of copy editor, leaving that post to become a student at Northwestern University.
At Northwestern he majored in liberal arts, with a minor in journalism. In June 1944, after graduating from Northwestern with a bachelor’s degree, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps as a second lieutenant. Following basic training and flight school, he was sent to the China Burma India Theater on December 9, 1944 as part of the Army Air Corps Air Transport Command’s India China Division, then commanded by General Earl Hoag, taking part in the effort to supply the Chinese forces under Chiang Kai-Shek as well as the United States Army Air Forces in China.
This required that the pilots take their planes, primarily DC-3s, C-39a, C-46s, C-47s and C-53s from their base in Assam, India over the “hump” that is, the Himalaya Mountains to Kunming, China.
The supply effort had undergone multiple permutations prior to Hodell’s arrival, having started out as an operation of the Assam–Burma–China Command in April 1942, when the Japanese blocked the Burma Road, followed by the mission carried out by the India-China Ferry Command of the Tenth Air Force, which initiated in July 1942, and was superseded by the Air Transport Command’s India-China Wing’s effort as of December 1942. When the Air Transport Command reorganized its China supply effort as a function of the India-China Division in July 1944, Hodell was assigned to its flight crews as a pilot.
The Himalaya range includes eight of the ten highest peaks in the world, including ones of 29,035 feet, 27,940 feet, 27,766 feet, 26,906 feet, 25,557 feet, 25,190 feet, 24,012 feet, 23,736 feet, 23,440 feet, 23,389 feet, 22,349 feet and about 16 others over 19,685. In making the flights, the pilots generally flew at about 18,500 feet through a “groove” between the surrounding peaks where the highest land was about 16,000 feet above sea level.
The C-47 “Goony Bird,” and C-46 “Dumbo” that Hodell flew were relatively reliable planes in the environment where they were developed – North America – but were put to the test flying at high altitudes over the Himalayas, particularly during winter months, when the plane’s engines and other systems would freeze. Carrying heavy payloads that had to get off the ground and then climb to considerable heights put strain on the engines, which accordingly were in need of constant maintenance.
On occasion, Japanese fighter pilots eluded the American fighters seeking to prevent them from molesting the transport planes, and a few American transport pilots were sent to an early grave as a result. Navigation was a particular problem. Given the terrain the planes were flying over and the sudden onset of the war, many of the charts used by pilots as drafted were unreliable. There were no radio navigation facilities to speak of and meteorological data in that day and age was nonexistent or of questionable validity. In certain frigid conditions, turbulence experienced while flying over the Himalayas resulted in wings falling off of the planes.
Planes and crews involved in the Assam–Burma–China Command, India-China Ferry Command, India-China Wing and India-China Division, all of which were cargo planes, suffered the highest rate of losses among any non-combatant air fleets of the war. In total, the effort resulted in 594 aircraft lost, missing, or written off, with 1,659 personnel killed or missing, such that one out of three pilots involved in the missions perished.
The planes delivered all order of equipment, armament, weapons, ammunition and bombs, as well as troops, beasts of burden and food. The most hazardous payloads – ones which were frequently carried – was aviation fuel, high octane kerosene intended to keep Claire Chennault’s “Flying Tigers,” and later the U.S. 14th Air Force fully engaged against the Japanese in China. The fuel was of such high-octane that it could ignite or explode very readily. On the 625-mile flights, the pilots and co-pilots had to withstand severe cold, indeed freezing temperatures for more than three hours of the flights as the use of the only available source of warmth, propane-fueled open flame heaters presented too great of a danger, given the cargo they were carrying.
Aluminum Dreams offers a description of one flight in which Hodell, co-piloting a cargo plane, was told by the pilot of the no longer climbing aircraft that he should ready himself to bail out before the plane flew into the side of an oncoming mountain. The plane, with its propellers and wings iced over, was certain to crash, as it could not power itself over the 16,000-foot altitude it needed to achieve. Yet jumping from the plane offered little more prospect of survival than staying in the plane, as Hodell would most certainly find himself in an unknown and uncharted spot in the snow-covered Himalayas upon parachuting to the ground. As it turned out, the door out of which they were to exit or jettison the cargo in a desperate ploy to lighten the craft was also sealed in ice, and would not open. As if by divine providence, the plane encountered a warm air updraft, lifting it to an altitude that allowed it to clear the pass through the mountains and which caused the ice to slide off the propellers.
The atmosphere in which the planes flew was in stark contrast to the oppressively sultry heat in Assam during the late spring and summer months.
Hodell flew 65 cargo delivery trips from Assam to Kunming, logging 553 air hours over the Hump. He remained in India well into 1946.
With the war over and his days as a Hump pilot having come to an end, Hodell was discharged, on in the parlance of the day, demobilized. He returned stateside, where he again matriculated at Northwestern, using the GI Bill to defray the cost of his education so that he did not need to work part-time and attend class part-time. He was enrolled in Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, from which he obtained his master’s degree. While at Medill, he began as a reporter and then became the night editor and ultimately the managing editor at the Daily Northwesterner, where Virginia Gum of Mississippi, another journalism student, was writing.
Hodell and Gum graduated from Northwestern in 1947 and married, embarking on professional journalistic careers together. They were stringers at first with the Chicago City News and then moved into writing positions with the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison. After a year there, they moved to Merced, California in 1949 and remained in the Golden State for nearly three years, during which time they started a family. In 1952, they moved to Naperville, Illinois, where Hodell bought that city’s newspaper, the Clarion.
After publishing the Clarion for six years, Hodell sold it and moved his family to California in 1958, to the Inland Empire and ultimately to Upland. The family would ultimately take up residence in a grand Spanish Colonial style home located at 1388 North Euclid Avenue.
Hodell bought the Upland News from Vernon Paine on October 1, 1958. On September 1, 1960, he acquired the Montclair Tribune. He founded the Cucamonga News on December 10, 1961. In 1967, he sold the three newspapers to the Bonita Publishing Company. In the latter years of Hodell’s ownership of the Upland News, he employed Jack Harper as the paper’s editor.
The Upland News ceased publication in 1974. The Montclair Tribune ceased publication in 1977. The Cucamonga News was subsumed by the Highlander, which discontinued publication in the 1990s.
Subsequent to his sale of the News, the Tribune and the News, Hodell became a newspaper broker, reprsenting both buyers and sellers of newspapers during the next 23 years, as the printed newspaper industry was contracting. He retired following the death of Virginia in 2001.
He maintained an active interest in journalism and was a Sentinel subscriber.
In 2009, the Department of Defense, some 64 years late, conferred upon him the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service during the war.
In 2010, the California Newspaper Publishers Association bestowed upon Hodell the Philip N. McCombs Achievement Award and named him as a member of its hall of fame.
–Mark Gutglueck

Authorities have successfully identified a sixth victim of the shootings that occurred when hostitilites broke out between two groups of drug traffickers during an exchange of marijuana turned violent that occurred in the desert area just east of Shadow Mountain on January 23.

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME CASE
NUMBER CIVSB2400577
TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner LIZETTE RAE NOLA-SMITH filed with this court for a decree changing names as follows:
LIZETTE RAE NOLA-SMITH to LIZETTE RAE SMITH
THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.
Notice of Hearing:
Date: 03/05/2024
Time: 08:30 AM
Department: S32
The address of the court is Superior Court of California, County of San Bernardino San Bernardino District-Civil Division 247 West Third Street, San Bernardino, CA 92415 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that a copy of this order be published in the San Bernardino County California, once a week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing of the petition.
Filed: 01/23/2024
Matthew Stutte, Deputy Clerk of the Court
Judge of the Superior Court: Gilbert G. Ochoa
Published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel on January 26 and February 2, 9 and 16, 2024.

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME CASE
NUMBER CIVSB2400568
TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner FRANCOIS MARTIN CAMPBELL filed with this court for a decree changing names as follows:
FRANCOIS MARTIN CAMPBELL to FRANCOIS MARTIN McGINNIS
THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.
Notice of Hearing:
Date: 03/05/2024
Time: 08:30 AM
Department: S30
The address of the court is Superior Court of California, County of San Bernardino San Bernardino District-Civil Division 247 West Third Street, San Bernardino, CA 92415 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that a copy of this order be published in the San Bernardino County California, once a week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing of the petition.
Filed: 01/23/2024
Sergio Villanueva, Deputy Clerk of the Court
Judge of the Superior Court: Gilbert G. Ochoa
Published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel on January 26 and February 2, 9 and 16, 2024.

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San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department investigators after two weeks have yet to identify one of the six shooting victims found in a remote desert area roughly three miles west of Shadow Mountain Ghost Town on January 23.
They are seeking the public’s assistance in determining who he is.
The man was in the company of five others near the dirt road intersections of Shadow Mountain Road and Lessing Avenue approximately three-and-a half miles west of Highway 395, 10 miles northeast of the center of El Mirage, 12 miles west of Helendale, 15 miles west of Silver Lakes when they were gunned down in the early evening hours of Tuesday January 23. The scene of the killings is some 18 miles north-northwest of Adelanto and 26 miles northwest of Victorville and 50 miles north of San Bernardino.
Five of those killed have been identified by the authorities and four of their names have been publicly disclosed. They are Baldemar Mondragon-Albarran, 34, of Adelanto; and two brothers, Franklin Noel Bonilla, 22, and Kevin Dariel Bonilla, 25, both of Hesperia; and Jose Ruelas-Calderon, 45, of El Mirage
The identity of a fifth has been ascertained, but his name is being withheld pending notification of his next of kin.
Detectives have not been able to determine the name or any other specific identifying data with regard to a sixth. He is described as a Hispanic male, 5 feet 5 inches tall, weighing 142 pounds with medium length, curly black hair, and brown eyes. The sheriff’s office provided a wide latitude in age spread for him, saying he was estimated to be between 30 and 60 years old.
There were some other physical characteristics that can be applied.
He has a large surgical scar on the anterior right forearm that extends to the upper arm, a surgical plate in the right forearm, a large linear scar on the posterior right elbow and forearm, an irregular shaped scar on the anterior left forearm/elbow area, and a linear scar on the right thigh. Additionally, He has a tattoo of the word “Gio” or “Gia” on the left side of the chest.
The department has provided a photo of the man and snapshots of his arm and chest in the hope that someone who knew him will come forward to make a definitive identification.
Those who might have any relevant information can be of help by contacting Detective Michelle Del Rio, Specialized Investigations Division at (909) 890-4904, or Deputy Coroner Carol Fostore at (909) 387-2978.
The five victims other than Franklin Bonilla were found near the Lessing Avenue and Shadow Mountain Road intersection, along with two vehicles, a blue Chevrolet Blazer SUV with Oregon plates and a silver Dodge Caravan van with a rear license plate numbered 9HUW954 bearing a blue 2024 expiration tag. One of those five bodies was found inside the Chevrolet Trailblazer. The other four were on the ground, one close to the Dodge Caravan. All four of those bodies had been burned to some degree, two more thoroughly than the others. An apparent attempt, one which was ultimately unsuccessful, had been made before the sheriff’s department arrived to set the Blazer afire. The body inside the Trailblazer had not been burned.
According to the sheriff’s department, at 8:16 p.m. Tuesday, January 23, the gravely wounded Franklin Bonilla managed to call 911 and, speaking in Spanish, told a sheriff’s dispatcher he had been shot. He was unable to provide his exact location beyond stating it was near Adelanto. Shortly thereafter, the call went dead. Using the geographic positioning data emanating from Bonilla’s phone, his position was determined to be roughly a quarter of mile from the Lessing Avenue and Shadow Mountain Road intersection.
A California Highway Patrol helicopter was immediately dispatched to the area and was instrumental in helping the first arriving deputy at 8:40 p.m. and then others who swiftly followed to locate the bodies of the victims. It was readily apparent that all of the victims had been shot. The Chevy Trailblazer was riddled with gunfire.
In short order detectives with the sheriff’s specialized investigations division, homicide detail, responded and assumed the investigation, one which began in earnest after sunrise on January 24. Through extensive investigation, investigators determined the victims had arranged to meet at the location for a marijuana transaction. Five subjects, identified as Toniel Baez-Duarte, Mateo Baez-Duarte, Jose Nicolas Hernandez Sarabia, Jose Gregorio Hernandez Sarabia, and Jose Manuel Burgos Parra, arrived at the location and for reasons still under investigation shot the six victims.
By Sunday, January 28, 2024, investigators had obtained multiple search warrants that were then serve in a coordinated and almost simultaneous fashion in the Town of Apple Valley, Adelanto and the Los Angeles County area of Pinon Hills, at which time Toniel Baez-Duarte, Mateo Baez-Duarte, Jose Nicolas Hernandez Sarabia, Jose Gregorio Hernandez Sarabia, and Parra were taken into custody.
In the course of serving the warrants and effectuating the arrests, deputies and detectives seized eight firearms along with additional evidence relevant to the case. The department’s scientific investigations division has already forensically processed much of the evidence, tying some of it into the murders.
The Baez-Duarte and Hernandez Sarabia brothers and Parra have been charged with six counts of Penal Code Section 187 murder and all five entered not guilty pleas at their arraignments on January 30 and February 1.
Both Sergeant Michael Warrick, who headed the specialized investigations division/homicide detail investigation into the killings and Sheriff Shannon Dicus have stated that those responsible for the murders are limited to the five suspects in custody.
“We are confident we have arrested all the suspects in this case,” Warrick said.
“I can guarantee you we got the five right people,” Dicus, who has made a thorough review of the investigative file on the matter, said.
-Mark Gutglueck