pa has settled upon Sean Moore as its next city manager.
He is to replace, perhaps as early as next week, Jennifer Crawford, who has filled the role of interim city manager since April, shortly after the departure of Chris Mann, who was city manager for slightly over two years.
Moore has been the last four years the city manager of the Los Angeles County city of Lawndale. While Lawndale, at 1.97 square miles, is less than one-fourteenth the size of Yucaipa geographically, it’s population density of 14,733 per acre makes it far more urbanized than Yucaipa, with its population density of 1,982 per square mile.
It is the collective hope of the Yucaipa City Council that bringing Moore in as the city’s top administrator, making him the fourth person to hold the post in less than three years, will bring the curtain down on the most chaotic and unstable period in the 36-year history of Yucaipa.
The question at this point is whether Moore’s relatively uneventful tenure in the previous governmental posts he has held has adequately prepared for the vicissitudes of conflicting interests in Yucaipa, where the majority of residents want to maintain a slower-paced lifestyle in a semi-rural community while deep-pocketed developers and landowners of large swaths of property are focused on the opportunity they see to transform the city from the home of 56,293 residents to a community more in keeping with the likes of Fontana and Corona with a mix of subdivisions with wall-to-wall houses, complimentary commercial strip malls and a mix of warehouses that will zoom the population to upward of 100,000.
For the first 34 years of its existence as a municipality, Yucaipa proved out to be one of the most stable of San Bernardino’s cities, with only occasional changeover on its city council, while it experienced a moderate degree of growth and population increase. Ray Casey, who had been hired as the city engineer in 2003, became the city manager in 2008. Neither aggressively in favor of nor opposed to development, Casey nevertheless insisted that if development were to occur, the cost of the infrastructure that would need to be built to accompany it be built at the expense of the landowners, builders, developers and financiers who were to profit as a consequence of the residential, commercial and industrial expansion rather than the city’s existing residents and taxpayers. In October 2022, the Yucaipa City Council, as it was then composed, voted unanimously to extend Casey’s employment contract as city manager to the end of June 2024, into what was to be its sixteenth year. The following month, two newcomers – Chris Venable and Matt Garner – were elected to the council, supplanting two of its longtime members – David Avila and Greg Bogh – who had opted against seeking reelection. Garner, who was professionally involved in the building industry, immediately upon coming into office joined forces with two of the incumbents on the council, Bobby Duncan and Justin Beaver, to depose Casey. Duncan, a real estate professional, and Beaver, much of whose political backing came from the development industry, were intent on seeing Casey removed as city manager. This was at least in part because Garner and Duncan considered it to be in their personal financial interest, and because Beaver felt it to be in his political backers’ financial interest, to transfer the cost of constructing the infrastructure that needed to be built to accommodate the construction of residential and commercial subdivisions to the city’s taxpayers as opposed to exclusively to the landowners of the property to be improved and the developers and financiers paying to undertake the development.
In January 2023, in an abrupt move that came only slightly more than two months after Venable and Garner were elected, only a month after they were sworn into office, the troika of Beaver, Duncan and Garner forced Casey to resign and replaced him with Chris Mann, who was both the then-city manager of Canyon Lake in Riverside County and the principal in Mann Communications, a company that represents developmental interests in California, Arizona and Nevada. It was believed that upon being installed as city manager, Mann would bring to a halt Casey’s development neutral philosophy and approach to municipal operations and institute a more accommodating attitude toward development at City Hall, including having the city share with developers or defray entirely the cost of building infrastructure – roads, sidewalks, curbs, gutters, storm drains, sewers, schools and the like – needed for that development.
The normally sedate citizenry of Yucaipa erupted in outrage, both at the sacking of Casey and the prospect of what Mann’s takeover of City Hall presaged, which large numbers of Yucaipa residents interpreted as round upon round of accelerated development in the city, which was to include the permissible density on land zoned for residential development being doubled, tripled and in some cases quadrupled. In a way that neither Beaver nor Duncan nor Garner nor Mann anticipated, substantial numbers of Yucaipa residents objected, first, in strong verbal terms and other forms of public expression over what had occurred and was in the further offing, and then by creating a civic interest group, Save Yucaipa, which initiated the process of recalling Beaver, Duncan and Garner from office.
As Save Yucaipa’s members were circulating recall petitions, Ana Sauseda, who had worked with Mann in Canyon Lake and was brought in to serve as city clerk in Yucaipa shortly after he became city manager there, at Mann’s direction hired the Los Angeles-based Sutton Law Firm to challenge language contained in the narrative circulated by the proponents with the recall petition. That ploy interrupted the recall petition circulation effort to prevent the proponents from succeeding in getting the requisite number of signatures within the 90-day deadline.
Thus, Beaver, Duncan and Garner were spared being subject to a recall, but the tactic used by Mann and Sauseda to protect their political masters embittered a substantial number of Yucaipa residents. Some of those initiated legal challenges/counterchallenges of their own to Sauseda’s legal action, asserting their constitutional rights to seek redress of their grievances through the electoral process had been abridged. A complaint was made to the San Bernardino County Civil Grand Jury with regard to the way the council had unanimously committed to extending Casey’s contract by 20 months in October 2022 only to reverse itself less than three months later by forcing his resignation.
One of those legal challenges succeeded. The Grand Jury made a finding that based on the way Casey had been forced out, Mann had been hired and the tactics used to keep the recall effort from playing out “the Yucaipa City Council has developed a reputation among many residents of ignoring the concerns of the public and of fostering an atmosphere of mistrust, disdain, anger, resentment, lack of transparency and appearances of conflicts of interest.”

As the calendar rolled over from 2023 to 2024, Beaver and Duncan, who supported Casey’s sacking, and Jon Thorp, who had voted in vain against accepting his resignation, were due to stand for reelection in November. The forces that had sought to recall Beaver, Duncan and Garner but had been thwarted by Sauseda’s maneuvering remained committed to getting rid of the trio. The renewed the recall effort against Garner, who was not due to stand for reelection until 2026 and began gearing up to campaign against Beaver and Duncan in the upcoming election. This time around, without Sauseda or the Sutton Law Firm’s interference, Save Yucaipa qualified as recall election against Garner. Duncan, surveying the number of his constituents that were prepared to vote against him, opted out of running for reelection.
In the November 2024 election, Garner was recalled. Judy Woolsley prevailed in a three-way race to replace Duncan. Beaver managed to fight off the substantial show of disfavor among his constituents, as 1,833 or 38.24 percent of the 4,793 voters in Yucaipa’s District 4 voted for his strongest opponent, Kristine Mohler, and another 503 of District 4’s voters cast their ballots in favor of Gordon Renshaw. Still, Beaver was able to poll 2,457 votes or 51.26 percent to remain in office.
Shortly after the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters confirmed the outcome of the November race, including that Garner had been removed from office, the city council voted to replace him with District 1 resident Bob Miller, who was a member of Yucaipa-Calimesa School Board and the former Colton police chief.
Earlier this year, Mann found himself in the uncomfortable position of occupying the administrative suite in a city where only one of the members of the city council had supported his controversial hiring some two years before. Throughout January and into February and then March, secretive backroom discussions were held about what terms he could be offered to simply go away. What was worked out was he was provided with a severance of $279,045 as part of a negotiated separation agreement between him and the city council. Shortly thereafter, Crawford, who started with the city as a management analyst in 1999, was promoted to director of general services/city clerk/mobile home rent administrator in 2004 and then was made deputy city manager/city clerk/mobile home rent administrator in 2015 prior to being designated as the assistant city manager in 2020, was chosen to fill the city manager gap until such time as a replacement for Mann could be found.
There was talk for a time about bringing Casey back as city manager and there was some consideration of simply moving Crawford into the top administrator’s post.
The city instead undertook a recruitment, ultimately settling upon Sean M. Moore, who has been since 2001, the city manager of Lawndale. Documentation shows that Moore began with the City of Lawndale in 2016 as its director of community development. He remained in the community development director post into and through 2017, 2018, 2019, 2010. At some point in 2021, while he was still serving in the capacity of community development director with Lawndale, he left that city to take on the community development director position with the City of Rialto. In February 2022, he was brought back to Lawndale, this time in the capacity of city manager.
Despite Moore’s status as a primary public figure, some degree of mystery attends him. He was the planning division manager with Imperial County in 2012. There is no record of his having been employed by a public agency in 2013. He was the director of planning with Tehama County in 2014 and 2015.
At present, he has just 20 years of service as a public agency employee. In addition, his work history includes a stint with the City of Indio.
Moore uses the title “Dr.,” but there is nothing in the public record that is readily available identifying where he received his PhD, in what discipline or from which institution of learning.
While in Lawndale, Moore has, at least ostensibly, conducted a public information campaign that places a premium on transparency. He regularly posts to YouTube, short videos under the title A Minute Moore with Lawndale City Manager Sean Moore. Examples of the topics covered in these briefings are fireworks and municipal regulations relating to them, development projects, planned or recent openings of commercial businesses, the city’s Youth Development Center, what is to be featured at the city’s Blues Festival, an amnesty program for unregistered and unpermitted structures, the need to obtain permits for improvement projects involving construction or additions to structures.
In May 2025, the City of Yucaipa undertook a survey of residents to ascertain what they want in a city manager. Thereafter, based in part on the input from the community in the form of 471 responses to the survey, the city undertook to recruit a successor to Mann and Casey. The city has made a fuller disclosure of the process of recruiting an executive headhunting firm to carry out the recruitment of the city manager than it has with regard to the actual recruitment of the city manager. According to the city, it solicited bids from 71 executive search firms on July 29 and received 11 responses by the August 18 deadline. City officials then interviewed representatives of three of those responding firms, and on August 25 selected HR Dynamics & Performance Management, Inc. to conduct a nationwide search for the city’s next top administrator. In consultation with city officials, HR Dynamics & Performance Management, Inc. on September 10 “opened a recruitment window,” which was shut on October 10. The city has not disclosed how many applicants responded to the invitation to compete for the Yucaipa city manager job.
On October 13, 2025, HR Dynamics & Performance Management, Inc. presented a summary of the candidates in a matrix format to the city council, “categorized by most highly qualified, qualified and not qualified.” Without disclosing whether the council restricted itself to those deemed most highly qualified, according to a staff report, “The council then identified the finalists to panel interviews and on October 30, 2025, the city council conducted closed session interviews with the finalists, with HR Dynamics facilitating the process.”
According to the staff report, which was authored by City Attorney Stephen Graham Pacifico, “As a result of this competitive, multi-month process, the city council identified Dr. Sean M. Moore as the top candidate and directed staff and the city attorney to negotiate a city manager employment agreement for council consideration in open session. HR Dynamics also performed reference checks and coordinated comprehensive background checks using a third-party firm (USA Fact), including verification of educational degrees, employment history, credit and criminal and civil case records nationwide.”
According to Graham Pacifico, “Dr. Moore is an experienced municipal executive with an extensive background in city management, public administration, budgeting, and organizational leadership. Over his career, he has served in key management roles in California local government agencies, including positions involving oversight of city operations, financial stewardship, and community-focused service delivery. His background reflects a strong commitment to ethics, transparency, and collaborative leadership, aligning with the community priorities identified through the city’s survey and council’s direction during the recruitment process.”
By relocating to Yucaipa, Moore will realize a handsome raise in pay. Whereas in Lawndale, he was provided with an annual salary of
$218,824.41 some $4,831 in perquisites and pay add-ons, and 77,824.20 for $297,129.61 in total annual compensation, in Yucaipa he will receive a base salary of $290,000 annually along with $20,565 in perquisites and pay add-ons, and $87,090.20 in benefits for a yearly total compensation package of $397,655.20

pa has settled upon Sean Moore as its next city manager.
He is to replace, perhaps as early as next week, Jennifer Crawford, who has filled the role of interim city manager since April, shortly after the departure of Chris Mann, who was city manager for slightly over two years.
Moore has been the last four years the city manager of the Los Angeles County city of Lawndale. While Lawndale, at 1.97 square miles, is less than one-fourteenth the size of Yucaipa geographically, it’s population density of 14,733 per acre makes it far more urbanized than Yucaipa, with its population density of 1,982 per square mile.
It is the collective hope of the Yucaipa City Council that bringing Moore in as the city’s top administrator, making him the fourth person to hold the post in less than three years, will bring the curtain down on the most chaotic and unstable period in the 36-year history of Yucaipa.
The question at this point is whether Moore’s relatively uneventful tenure in the previous governmental posts he has held has adequately prepared for the vicissitudes of conflicting interests in Yucaipa, where the majority of residents want to maintain a slower-paced lifestyle in a semi-rural community while deep-pocketed developers and landowners of large swaths of property are focused on the opportunity they see to transform the city from the home of 56,293 residents to a community more in keeping with the likes of Fontana and Corona with a mix of subdivisions with wall-to-wall houses, complimentary commercial strip malls and a mix of warehouses that will zoom the population to upward of 100,000.
For the first 34 years of its existence as a municipality, Yucaipa proved out to be one of the most stable of San Bernardino’s cities, with only occasional changeover on its city council, while it experienced a moderate degree of growth and population increase. Ray Casey, who had been hired as the city engineer in 2003, became the city manager in 2008. Neither aggressively in favor of nor opposed to development, Casey nevertheless insisted that if development were to occur, the cost of the infrastructure that would need to be built to accompany it be built at the expense of the landowners, builders, developers and financiers who were to profit as a consequence of the residential, commercial and industrial expansion rather than the city’s existing residents and taxpayers. In October 2022, the Yucaipa City Council, as it was then composed, voted unanimously to extend Casey’s employment contract as city manager to the end of June 2024, into what was to be its sixteenth year. The following month, two newcomers – Chris Venable and Matt Garner – were elected to the council, supplanting two of its longtime members – David Avila and Greg Bogh – who had opted against seeking reelection. Garner, who was professionally involved in the building industry, immediately upon coming into office joined forces with two of the incumbents on the council, Bobby Duncan and Justin Beaver, to depose Casey. Duncan, a real estate professional, and Beaver, much of whose political backing came from the development industry, were intent on seeing Casey removed as city manager. This was at least in part because Garner and Duncan considered it to be in their personal financial interest, and because Beaver felt it to be in his political backers’ financial interest, to transfer the cost of constructing the infrastructure that needed to be built to accommodate the construction of residential and commercial subdivisions to the city’s taxpayers as opposed to exclusively to the landowners of the property to be improved and the developers and financiers paying to undertake the development.
In January 2023, in an abrupt move that came only slightly more than two months after Venable and Garner were elected, only a month after they were sworn into office, the troika of Beaver, Duncan and Garner forced Casey to resign and replaced him with Chris Mann, who was both the then-city manager of Canyon Lake in Riverside County and the principal in Mann Communications, a company that represents developmental interests in California, Arizona and Nevada. It was believed that upon being installed as city manager, Mann would bring to a halt Casey’s development neutral philosophy and approach to municipal operations and institute a more accommodating attitude toward development at City Hall, including having the city share with developers or defray entirely the cost of building infrastructure – roads, sidewalks, curbs, gutters, storm drains, sewers, schools and the like – needed for that development.
The normally sedate citizenry of Yucaipa erupted in outrage, both at the sacking of Casey and the prospect of what Mann’s takeover of City Hall presaged, which large numbers of Yucaipa residents interpreted as round upon round of accelerated development in the city, which was to include the permissible density on land zoned for residential development being doubled, tripled and in some cases quadrupled. In a way that neither Beaver nor Duncan nor Garner nor Mann anticipated, substantial numbers of Yucaipa residents objected, first, in strong verbal terms and other forms of public expression over what had occurred and was in the further offing, and then by creating a civic interest group, Save Yucaipa, which initiated the process of recalling Beaver, Duncan and Garner from office.
As Save Yucaipa’s members were circulating recall petitions, Ana Sauseda, who had worked with Mann in Canyon Lake and was brought in to serve as city clerk in Yucaipa shortly after he became city manager there, at Mann’s direction hired the Los Angeles-based Sutton Law Firm to challenge language contained in the narrative circulated by the proponents with the recall petition. That ploy interrupted the recall petition circulation effort to prevent the proponents from succeeding in getting the requisite number of signatures within the 90-day deadline.
Thus, Beaver, Duncan and Garner were spared being subject to a recall, but the tactic used by Mann and Sauseda to protect their political masters embittered a substantial number of Yucaipa residents. Some of those initiated legal challenges/counterchallenges of their own to Sauseda’s legal action, asserting their constitutional rights to seek redress of their grievances through the electoral process had been abridged. A complaint was made to the San Bernardino County Civil Grand Jury with regard to the way the council had unanimously committed to extending Casey’s contract by 20 months in October 2022 only to reverse itself less than three months later by forcing his resignation.
One of those legal challenges succeeded. The Grand Jury made a finding that based on the way Casey had been forced out, Mann had been hired and the tactics used to keep the recall effort from playing out “the Yucaipa City Council has developed a reputation among many residents of ignoring the concerns of the public and of fostering an atmosphere of mistrust, disdain, anger, resentment, lack of transparency and appearances of conflicts of interest.”

As the calendar rolled over from 2023 to 2024, Beaver and Duncan, who supported Casey’s sacking, and Jon Thorp, who had voted in vain against accepting his resignation, were due to stand for reelection in November. The forces that had sought to recall Beaver, Duncan and Garner but had been thwarted by Sauseda’s maneuvering remained committed to getting rid of the trio. The renewed the recall effort against Garner, who was not due to stand for reelection until 2026 and began gearing up to campaign against Beaver and Duncan in the upcoming election. This time around, without Sauseda or the Sutton Law Firm’s interference, Save Yucaipa qualified as recall election against Garner. Duncan, surveying the number of his constituents that were prepared to vote against him, opted out of running for reelection.
In the November 2024 election, Garner was recalled. Judy Woolsley prevailed in a three-way race to replace Duncan. Beaver managed to fight off the substantial show of disfavor among his constituents, as 1,833 or 38.24 percent of the 4,793 voters in Yucaipa’s District 4 voted for his strongest opponent, Kristine Mohler, and another 503 of District 4’s voters cast their ballots in favor of Gordon Renshaw. Still, Beaver was able to poll 2,457 votes or 51.26 percent to remain in office.
Shortly after the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters confirmed the outcome of the November race, including that Garner had been removed from office, the city council voted to replace him with District 1 resident Bob Miller, who was a member of Yucaipa-Calimesa School Board and the former Colton police chief.
Earlier this year, Mann found himself in the uncomfortable position of occupying the administrative suite in a city where only one of the members of the city council had supported his controversial hiring some two years before. Throughout January and into February and then March, secretive backroom discussions were held about what terms he could be offered to simply go away. What was worked out was he was provided with a severance of $279,045 as part of a negotiated separation agreement between him and the city council. Shortly thereafter, Crawford, who started with the city as a management analyst in 1999, was promoted to director of general services/city clerk/mobile home rent administrator in 2004 and then was made deputy city manager/city clerk/mobile home rent administrator in 2015 prior to being designated as the assistant city manager in 2020, was chosen to fill the city manager gap until such time as a replacement for Mann could be found.
There was talk for a time about bringing Casey back as city manager and there was some consideration of simply moving Crawford into the top administrator’s post.
The city instead undertook a recruitment, ultimately settling upon Sean M. Moore, who has been since 2001, the city manager of Lawndale. Documentation shows that Moore began with the City of Lawndale in 2016 as its director of community development. He remained in the community development director post into and through 2017, 2018, 2019, 2010. At some point in 2021, while he was still serving in the capacity of community development director with Lawndale, he left that city to take on the community development director position with the City of Rialto. In February 2022, he was brought back to Lawndale, this time in the capacity of city manager.
Despite Moore’s status as a primary public figure, some degree of mystery attends him. He was the planning division manager with Imperial County in 2012. There is no record of his having been employed by a public agency in 2013. He was the director of planning with Tehama County in 2014 and 2015.
At present, he has just 20 years of service as a public agency employee. In addition, his work history includes a stint with the City of Indio.
Moore uses the title “Dr.,” but there is nothing in the public record that is readily available identifying where he received his PhD, in what discipline or from which institution of learning.
While in Lawndale, Moore has, at least ostensibly, conducted a public information campaign that places a premium on transparency. He regularly posts to YouTube, short videos under the title A Minute Moore with Lawndale City Manager Sean Moore. Examples of the topics covered in these briefings are fireworks and municipal regulations relating to them, development projects, planned or recent openings of commercial businesses, the city’s Youth Development Center, what is to be featured at the city’s Blues Festival, an amnesty program for unregistered and unpermitted structures, the need to obtain permits for improvement projects involving construction or additions to structures.
In May 2025, the City of Yucaipa undertook a survey of residents to ascertain what they want in a city manager. Thereafter, based in part on the input from the community in the form of 471 responses to the survey, the city undertook to recruit a successor to Mann and Casey. The city has made a fuller disclosure of the process of recruiting an executive headhunting firm to carry out the recruitment of the city manager than it has with regard to the actual recruitment of the city manager. According to the city, it solicited bids from 71 executive search firms on July 29 and received 11 responses by the August 18 deadline. City officials then interviewed representatives of three of those responding firms, and on August 25 selected HR Dynamics & Performance Management, Inc. to conduct a nationwide search for the city’s next top administrator. In consultation with city officials, HR Dynamics & Performance Management, Inc. on September 10 “opened a recruitment window,” which was shut on October 10. The city has not disclosed how many applicants responded to the invitation to compete for the Yucaipa city manager job.
On October 13, 2025, HR Dynamics & Performance Management, Inc. presented a summary of the candidates in a matrix format to the city council, “categorized by most highly qualified, qualified and not qualified.” Without disclosing whether the council restricted itself to those deemed most highly qualified, according to a staff report, “The council then identified the finalists to panel interviews and on October 30, 2025, the city council conducted closed session interviews with the finalists, with HR Dynamics facilitating the process.”
According to the staff report, which was authored by City Attorney Stephen Graham Pacifico, “As a result of this competitive, multi-month process, the city council identified Dr. Sean M. Moore as the top candidate and directed staff and the city attorney to negotiate a city manager employment agreement for council consideration in open session. HR Dynamics also performed reference checks and coordinated comprehensive background checks using a third-party firm (USA Fact), including verification of educational degrees, employment history, credit and criminal and civil case records nationwide.”
According to Graham Pacifico, “Dr. Moore is an experienced municipal executive with an extensive background in city management, public administration, budgeting, and organizational leadership. Over his career, he has served in key management roles in California local government agencies, including positions involving oversight of city operations, financial stewardship, and community-focused service delivery. His background reflects a strong commitment to ethics, transparency, and collaborative leadership, aligning with the community priorities identified through the city’s survey and council’s direction during the recruitment process.”
By relocating to Yucaipa, Moore will realize a handsome raise in pay. Whereas in Lawndale, he was provided with an annual salary of
$218,824.41 some $4,831 in perquisites and pay add-ons, and 77,824.20 for $297,129.61 in total annual compensation, in Yucaipa he will receive a base salary of $290,000 annually along with $20,565 in perquisites and pay add-ons, and $87,090.20 in benefits for a yearly total compensation package of $397,655.20

Making a commitment that locks San Bernardino County and its taxpayers into an essentially unbreakable arrangement for the next twentieth of a century and beyond the guaranteed tenures of any of its current members, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors earlier this month extended County Chief Executive Officer Luther Snoke’s employment contract by more than five years, until 2031.
Snoke, who moved up from the position of county chief operating officer in 2023 to become chief executive officer following the forced departure of Leonard Hernandez as the county top staff member, has cemented a positive relationship with his political masters on the board of supervisors in a little over two years.
Third District Supervisor Dawn Rowe has been chairwoman of the board of supervisors since January 2023. She had been from the outset of her time as board chairwoman highly dependent upon Hernandez for guidance with regard to not just the day-to-day operations of the county but policy initiatives and the hallmarks of governance during her chairmanship that were to hopefully be her legacy as a major county politician. The San Bernardino County Charter confers upon the board of supervisors chairperson substantial authority by which the chairperson and the top county staff member, formerly referred to by the title county administrator and now known as the chief executive officer, are almost but not quire coregents of the county, though the full extent of that power is infrequently used.
As it would turn out, fate would bind Rowe and Hernandez together in a way that could not have been predicted ahead of time.
Already dependent on Hernandez, a major test of Rowe’s mettle and performance as a governmental leader came about less than two months into her term as chairwoman, with the
2023 San Bernardino Mountains Snow Disaster. which lasted 16 days from February 22 of that year until March 10. The communities of Crestline, Blue Jay, Lake Arrowhead, Cedar Glen, Sugarloaf, Big Bear, Big Bear Lake were buried in snow and the roads leading into the mountains closed down. Some 20,000 people were snowed in, buildings collapsed, people were isolated, with individuals and families cut off from food, medicine and fuel. There were power outages and at least 13 people died. For more than a week, governmental agencies, including the county sheriff’s department and the county fire department and local public safety agencies were unable to reach those in need. Given Rowe’s and Hernandez’s respective roles in leading the county, the brunt of blame or criticism was vectored their way. Their prospect of emerging from beneath that contretemps was partially based on each having the back of the other. Continue reading →

The Justice Department on Thursday filed a legal action against Governor Gavin Newsom and Secretary of State Shirley Weber in an effort to intervene and prevent the State of California’s newly adopted redistricting plan enacted with the passage of Proposition 50.
If the legal action by the federal government succeeds, it would obviate the effort by the California Legislature and Governor Newsom to rearrange the boundaries of California’s 52 congressional districts in a way that was calculated to produce an outcome in the 2026 mid-presidential term election such that five of the 12 Republicans now representing California in Congress would be replaced by Democrats. The cost to California’s taxpayers to hold the special Proposition 50 election, which was hastily arranged to be held in what in California is an election off-year after the Democrat-dominated legislature in Sacramento resolved to respond in kind to a similar move in Texas aimed at favoring the GOP. The cost sustained by California taxpayers to hold the Proposition 50 election is estimated at roughly $282.6 million, which includes the state’s administrative costs to schedule and carry out the balloting, along with reimbursement to counties for polling services.
Democrats and anti-Donald Trump political forces aligned with them expended $121 million on top of that in promoting Proposition 50, motivated in large measure by the goal of preventing the Republicans from retaining their current thin 219 to 213 seat majority in the House of Representatives in the November 2026 election. That was countered by approximately $44.5 million in spending by Republicans and their allies in a campaign opposing Proposition 50. Continue reading →

China’s strategic business decision earlier this year to radically restrict the export of the rare earth element yttrium, making a substance necessary in the manufacture of a number of modern, high tech products hard to come by as global supplies of the scarce metal dwindle, is accelerating the comeback of the Mountain Pass Mine, located in the extreme northeast corner of San Bernardino County.
On April 4, 2025, China imposed export controls on scandium, yttrium, samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium and lutetium, causing significant disruption to global supply chains for industries reliant on those materials.
In the case of yttrium, it is an indispensable component in certain speciality alloys.
A specialty alloy is a metal mixture designed to have specific, enhanced properties, extending to superior strength, corrosion resistance, or heat tolerance generally unavailable in standard alloys. In the case of yttrium, the speciality alloys created from it have application in the aerospace industry, the production of renewable energy, in making semiconductors and in certain types of engines. Thin metal composed of yttrium alloys fashioned into turbine blades is able to function and maintain its integrity in high temperature environments. Yttrium is also a key component in coatings that shield against high temperatures.
Because of the Chinese export restrictions, a shortage in yttrium resulted in an escalation in its cost, whereupon the production of certain products have ground to or toward a halt.
On October 31, President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Busan, South Korea, at which time Trump, placed into a position of weakness by the situation, had to gingerly inquire about China’s readiness to end, or at least reduce, the restrictions, so to restore the flow of the rare earth metals to many segments of U.S. and international industry. Jinping’s responses, while cordial, were less than encouraging, and a resolution of the supply chain hold-up was not arrived at. Meanwhile, certain specialized U.S. industries are bracing for an extended shutdown until an alternative source of rare earths can be established. Continue reading →

Less than a month since Jashanpreet Singh plowed his Freightliner into the backs of multiple vehicles on the 10 Freeway west of the I-215 Interchange, killing three and injuring four others, California officials are preparing to revoke 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses the Golden State had granted immigrants and then previously extended in defiance of a federal mandate that the licenses be rescinded.
There has been rancorous partisan bickering between Republicans and the supporters of President Donald Trump, on one side, and Democrats and the supporters of California Governor Gavin Newsom, on the other, over the substantial surge of foreign-born truck drivers in the United States in the last quarter century. At present, roughly 18 percent – 639,000 – of the 3.55 million truck drivers in the United States migrated to the United States. That 639,000 figure is more than twice that of the roughly 310,000 truck drivers from outside the country who were employed as commercial transporters in 2000.
Figures are inexact, but anecdotal information and data extrapolated from incomplete statistics compiled by 21 of the 49 states in North America indicate no more than 22 percent of those drivers – 140,580 – have become naturalized citizens and that approaching 41 percent of those truck drivers – 261,990 – are in the country illegally or as undocumented aliens, as a mere 37 percent of the drivers, other than the ones who have naturalized, roughly 236,430, have visas allowing them to be in or remain in the country.
According to the federal government, three states in particular – California, Washington and New Mexico – have proven to be too lenient in granting foreigners commercial truck driving licenses.
Beginning in May, the Trump Administration’s Transportation Department, under the leadership of Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, took steps to enforce a requirement that truckers speak and read English proficiently. According to the Transportation Department, achieving minimal literacy on the part of truck drivers was a necessary element in a program to improve road safety following incidents in which drivers’ ability to read signs or speak English may have contributed to traffic deaths.
In August, three people were killed when the driver of a semi-truck, Harjinder Singh, attempted to perform an illegal U-turn on the Florida Turnpike in St. Lucie County. Harjinder Singh, who is not believed to be of blood relation to Jashanpreet Singh, like Jashanpreet Singh entered the U.S. illegally and obtained a commercial driver’s license from California, according to the U.S. Marshals office.
A nationwide commercial driver’s license audit by the federal government initiated the following week determined that licenses were issued improperly in California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas and Washington.
Subsequently, the State of Florida sued the states of California and Washington over their issuance of commercial drivers licenses to Harjinder Singh. Continue reading →

San Bernardino County this week found itself claiming another title of unwanted distinction, as a Texas-based personal injury law firm’s completion of statistics of traffic mishaps nationwide over the last three years found that the span of Interstate 15 within the county qualifies as the most dangerous stretch of highway in the United States.
Dallas-based Angel Reyes & Associates performed a comprehensive examination of the most recently available data compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to determine which highways in America have had the highest number of fatal crashes over a 36-month period. It has now released a list of the top 100 highways ranked in descending order based upon the number of deaths.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Fatality Analysis Reporting System, the 80 deaths on I-15 in San Bernardino County, a primarily desert route over which, on average, 207,811 Southern California residents travel to Las Vegas every week, with nearly two-thirds of those on Fridays and weekends, amidst constant freight hauling trucks and heavy passenger vehicle traffic on the weekends, makes it far and away the most dangerous highway in America.
I-15 stretches from San Diego at its southern end moves northward through San Diego and Riverside counties and then makes a 189-mile run through San Bernardino County to Nevada, cutting through a 29-mile tip of Arizona and then stretching northward through Utah, Idaho and Montana, terminating upon crossing into the Canadian province of Alberta. Continue reading →

San Bernardino County is bailing the Needles Unified School District out of a $2,025,764 financial crisis with what is anticipated to be two loans, provided in August and this month, in that amount.
Just as the 2025-2026 school year was to begin, on August 5, 2025, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors approved County Treasurer Ensen Mason making a $1,274,347 temporary transfer of funds to the Needles Unified School District, after certifying the district had a need for the monetary infusion as a result of a delay of property tax revenues, which apparently came about as a consequence of the inability of a substantial number of homeowners in the impoverished community being delinquent on paying their taxes.
The Needles Unified School District consists of five schools – Chemehuevi Valley Elementary School, Monument Peak School, Needles High School, Needles Middle School and Vista Colorado Elementary School. There are 918 students currently enrolled in schools in the district.
In the 2025, i.e., the 2024-25 school year, the most recent year for which financial figures are available, the district had a planned annual budget of $19,856,618 in revenues and $19,361,927 in expenditures.
In recent years, however, the district has had difficulty in meeting its financial goals.
The $19,856,618 it was scheduled to receive in the 2024-25 budget consisted of $14,399,934 in state-provided Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) money, $2,412,844 is other state funds, $911,600 in local funds, and $2,132,240 is federal funds. While the revenue was consistent with the budget, expenditures were not kept in line with what was allotted for most of the district’s educational and other program.
In 2023-24, for example, the district had budgeted $3,009,517 in expenditures for high needs students, while actual expenditures for high needs students turned out to be $3,139,198. Over the years, this deficit spending was defrayed by movement of money out of the district’s reserves.
It appears that as of 2025-26, the district’s reserves are depleted. Continue reading →

Tom Bunton has left as San Bernardino County Counsel after serving in the role of the county government’s top lawyer for less than four years.
Bunton, who was formerly assistant county counsel with the County of San Diego, assumed the county counsel post in San Bernardino County in January 2022.
The office of county counsel is the county’s stable of staff attorneys.
Those manning crucial posts within San Bernardino County government have been thrown into a tizzy over reports, none of which could be confirmed at press time, that County Counsel Tom Bunton is on his way out as the county’s top in-house lawyer.
Laura Feingold, who was elevated by Bunton to the position of chief assistant county counsel 20 months previously, last month assumed the position of consigliere to the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors last month.
On the agenda for a closed door executive session of the board of supervisors that took place prior to the public portion of the board’s June 18, 2025 meeting was an item worded thusly: Public Employee Appointment (Government Code section 54957) Title: County Counsel.
That seemed to imply that a change in who was to hold the position of county counsel was in the offing, but no official action was announced following that closed session. Officially, at least, Bunton remained as county counsel, though at times during the year, Feingold took his place during open board meetings.
Previously, at a meeting of the board on April 1, the supervisors, in a closed session engaged in evaluations of the job performance of both Bunton and County Chief Executive Officer Luther Snoke. When the board emerged from that closed session, there was no report of any action taken. If an elected body takes action during a closed session, under the Ralph M. Brown Act, California’s open public meeting law, a report of that action is supposed to be made. In most jurisdictions in California, as is the case in San Bernardino County, the primary counsel for the agency – in this case, Bunton – makes that announcement. Since Bunton and Snoke were the subject of the evaluations on April 1, they were most likely not present during the April 1 closed session as is normally the case, although that is not publicly known to absolutely be the case. As there was no report out from the meeting, it is unknown, precisely whether Bunton was given a positive evaluation in April. He remained as county counsel in the intervening time. Thereafter, the June 18 evaluation apparently took place, but the rules of confidentiality that attend such evaluations prevent any public disclosure of the evaluation’s upshot. Nevertheless, by late May, there were rumors extant within county governmental circles that Feingold’s stock was on the rise. Continue reading →