By Mark Gutglueck
It appears that in relatively short order Colton Councilmen David Toro and John Echevarria along with Councilwoman Kelly Chastain are going to politically outmuscle Mayor Frank Navarro and Councilman Luis Gonzalez to allow CR&R to perpetuate the trash hauling franchise in the 16-square mile city of 54,911 population it and its corporate predecessors have had sewn up for thirty years ending in 2026. That extension will run the hold the succession of companies has had on the city another decade, until 2036.
Toro, Echevarria and Chastain have given indication they are purposed to roll the franchise contract over to CR&R once more despite widespread discontent with the level of service among the company’s residential and business customers in Colton, regardless of cost comparisons showing the company’s trash hauling industry competitors offer their customer’s lower across-the-board rates and contrary to the advice of Colton City Manager Bill Smith, who has recommended that the franchise contract be put out to bid.
Colton Mayor Frank Navarro and Councilman Luis Gonzalez are advocating that the city carry out a competitive bid process, which independent industry analysts have indicated would save Colton’s residents and businesses anywhere from $20 million to $25 million in 2023 dollars over the ten-year course of the 2026-to-2036 life of the upcoming franchise contract. That savings would be realized through either lower service rates to be charged by whichever of the competing trash haulers that manages to obtain the contract through the bidding process or by reductions in the service charges that CR&R would be obliged to make in order to maintain the franchise. Continue reading →

The Apple Valley Town Council has put off until November 14 a decision on whether it will accede to Mark Maida’s proposal to convert 120 acres of property currently zoned under the town’s residential agriculture designation by which the property cannot be subdivided into anything smaller than two-and-a-half acre lots to estate residential zoning to allow him to construct 99 homes on the property.
Because Councilman Curt Emick was not present at its Tuesday, October 24 meeting, his colleagues opted to wait until he can participate in the land use decision, which will require, if Maida’s proposal is to fly, the granting of not only a zone change but a general plan amendment and another amendment to the town’s development code.
Apple Valley is famously known for insisting on half-acre minimum lots for its single-family residences, a policy which has prevented it from being caught up in the development frenzy that has beset many other county cities in the 35 years since Apple Valley incorporated in 1988.
At present, Apple Valley stands at 73.5 square miles, making it San Bernardino County’s second largest municipality geographically, two-tenths of a square mile smaller than Victorville, at 73.7 square miles the county’s largest city, and three-tenths of a square mile larger than Hesperia, at 73.2 square miles the county’s third largest city. Population-wise, however, Victorville with its 138,399 residents and Hesperia with 102,531 living within its confines, are significantly more densely packed with people than Apple Valley, which has a head count of 76,817. Continue reading →

Mayor Acquanetta Warren and her colleagues on the the Fontana City Council on Tuesday, October 24 were met with a firestorm of protest over their consideration and eventual vote to confirm an ordinance initially approved at the October 10 city council meeting imposing regulations on street vendors. That demonstration of discontent and disdain spilled over from the council chamber and the grounds of the Fontana Civic Center to the street upon which Mayor Acquanetta Warren lives, resulting in the arrest of the protest’s organizer and his bodyguard by the Fontana Police.
On October 10, relying upon the sidewalk vending authority municipalities are granted under them by Senate Bill 946, including Government Code section 51038, the Fontana City Council gave first reading of an ordinance which augmented the city’s previously-adopted Fontana Municipal Code chapter 15, article XVII, entitled “Sidewalk Vending,” to regulate sidewalk vending within the city by adding sections 1-14, relating to obstruction enforcement consequences and 15-829, pertaining to impoundment. The new ordinance gave code compliance officers or inspectors, police officers, firefighters, fire prevention specialists or examiners authority to impound a sidewalk vendor’s vending cart, equipment, food and/or merchandise if a vendor selling food does not have or display a valid health permit or if a seller of merchandise does not possess a valid applicable sidewalk vending permit and a city business license. Food or merchandise can also, under the ordinance, be confiscated if the vendor, the vendor’s cart, goods or equipment obstruct private or public property, if the goods or merchandise are left unattended for more than 30 minutes, if the merchandise and cart prevent there from being a minimum of forty-eight inches of accessible path of travel on the sidewalk or if the items being sold create an imminent and substantial danger to the public. The ordinance confers upon the city “disposal authorization,” allowing officials to immediately dispose of impounded items that are perishable and/or cannot be safely stored. The ordinance authorizes the city to “dispose of any seized items held by the city for not less than 30 days from the date of impoundment.” Continue reading →

The sentencing of former Assistant Fontana Police Chief Alan Hostetter has been postponed, pending the outcome of the rescheduled trial of four of his co-defendants.
Following a bench trial by Federal Judge Royce Lamberth, Hostetter was convicted on July 13 of conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of, and aiding and abetting in the obstruction of, an official proceeding; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; and disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, all of which related to his actions during the January 6, 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol.
According to evidence presented by the U.S. Attorney’s Office at trial, in the weeks leading up to the January 6th Insurrection, Hostetter coordinated with Russell Taylor, Erik Scott Warner, Ronald Mele, Felipe Antonio Martinez and Derek Kinnison to arrange travel from California to Washington, D.C. and attend the Stop the Steal rally and protest as part of a conspiracy to prevent Congress’ certification of the Electoral College outcome in the 2022 presidential election.
Taylor pleaded guilty in April to a conspiracy charge and then testified as a government witness against Hostetter at his trial before Judge Lamberth. Continue reading →

The Needles City Council has elevated Patrick Martinez to the position of city manager, making him, at the age of 39, the youngest top municipal administrator in San Bernardino County currently.
Martinez was sworn in to replace his predecessor, Rick Daniels, earlier this month.
Martinez initially went to work with the City of Needles in 2017 as the director of development services. He advanced to the post of assistant city manager in 2021.
Martinez gravitated toward becoming a government employee at the age 25 in 2010, when he took a position as an intern analyst with the office of management consulting and training at the National Governors Association in Washington. D.C.
He attended Mt. San Antonio College and subsequently enrolled at the University of Southern California. Upon his graduation with a Bachelor of Science degree in public policy and real estate development in 2013, he found a paying position as an executive board member for the University of Southern California Trojan Real Estate Association, involving himself primarily in real estate development and urban planning. In 2014 he became a senior housing development consultant for the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, and held a similar post with the Perkins Design Corporation in 2015 to 2016. He was also the acquisitions manager for Mojoco Real Estate from August 2014 until June 2015. In 2016, he co-founded SP Global Realty. In 2017, just as he went to work in Needles, he was installed into an executive board position with the University of Southern California Alumni Real Estate Network and in 2019 accepted election to a one-year term as the chairman of that board. He remained on the board until he took on the assignment of assistant city manager in Needles.
Martinez has a California real estate broker license and boasts memberships with the Urban Land Institute, the California City Management Foundation and the California Association for Local Economic Development.
In addition to his public policy and real estate degrees, Martinez earned a master’s degree in urban planning from USC in 2015.
A registered Republican, Martinez is married.