TWENTYNINE PALMS — The City of Twentynine Palms on Thursday broke ground on the first phase of Project Phoenix, its redevelopment project for the city’s downtown district that has been delayed for nearly a decade,
Project Phoenix was nearly choked out of existence by the State of California’s move more thant eight years ago to close out local redevelopment agencies. Because of the city’s commitment to the concept of rejuvenating its civic core, the fact that the effort was under way before the State of California took its redevelopment agency-killing action and the city’s willingness to litigate in the face of the State’s far greater resources and application of its authority, the project survived.
Project Phoenix was conceived as an undertaking by the Twentynine Palms Redevelopment Agency aimed at constructing a community center, a 250-seat theater, classrooms, a civic plaza, a park, a paseo, residential units, a wastewater treatment plant, and improvements to the downtown fire station. The project was put in jeopardy in 2011, however, when the legislature passed AB X1 26 and AB X1 27, which shuttered more than 400 municipal and county redevelopment agencies up and down the state. The state sought to reroute redevelopment money to law enforcement and education efforts in that closure.
Twentynine Palms, however, intrepidly pushed ahead with the project, based upon Twentynine Palms City Attorney A. Patrick Muñoz’s assertion that the project had been initiated prior to AB XI 26 and AB XI 27 going into effect. According to Muñoz, the state law ending redevelopment function is trumped by federal securities regulations, meaning the money the Twentynine Palms
Redevelopment Agency bonded for in 2011 must be utilized only for the purpose that bondholders were told the money would be applied toward.
The city then used the locally composed bond oversight board that was formed as a consequence of the state legislation to recommit the bond money to the Phoenix project. Subsequently, however, the state Department of Finance used its authority to disallow the recommitment. In response, the city appealed and when that appeal was turned down, filed legal action in Sacramento Superior Court, the venue where the legislation required any litigation pertaining to cities’ use of redevelopment money had to be filed. The case was heard by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael P. Kenny.
Muñoz asserted in filings with the Sacramento Superior Court that the non-taxable bonds issued in 2011 created specific obligations between the city, as the issuer, and the bond purchasers, and as such are enforceable obligations and any use of the money for a purpose other than what the city had specified in marketing the bonds to the bond buyers would constitute fraud.
The California Department of Finance in December 2013 told Kenny that the Twentynine Palms Redevelopment Agency, like several others, “rushed to encumber future tax increment revenues” ahead of its legislated demise in December 2011. The department alleged that in March 2011, Twentynine Palms “conceived, authorized, issued and sold” $12 million in tax allocation bonds for the Project Phoenix downtown development and an affordable housing plan without contracts to build or a definite plan for spending the proceeds.”
Ultimately, however, Kenny ruled against the Department of Finance in April 2014 and granted the petition for a writ of mandate on behalf for the city of Twentynine Palms as successor agency, allowing the city to utilize the bond money for the fulfillment of Project Phoenix. In June 2014, the Department of Finance filed an appeal of Kenny’s ruling.
The Department of Finance suffered multiple setbacks with regard to several cities’ efforts to control the spending of redevelopment agency money appropriated in 2011. On May 14, 2015, the department sent a letter to several cities, Twentynine Palms among them, announcing it would no longer oppose those cities’ moves to preserve their last remaining redevelopment agency projects.
As it is now formulated, the downtown rejuvenation project will cost $21 million and will establish on the property at Twentynine Palms Highway and Yucca Avenue a “pocket Park,” from which a paseo, or walkway, will wend to what is to become the Twentynine Palms Community Center, a cultural center and the new Joshua Tree National Park Visitor Center. Other elements of the project include specific infrastructure and utility improvements.
The first phase of the undertaking will involved the construction of sewage lines, leading from downtown businesses to a package treatment plant, and the undergrounding of utility lines. In this way, the project will begin the process of bringing Twentynine Palms into the 21st Century. At present, Twentynine Palms and Yucca Valley are the only two of San Bernardino County’s municipalities which do not have sewers and wastewater treatment plants. Yucca Valley is now in the process of constructing the first phase of such a system. The sewage lines and the package treatment plant are Twentynine Palms first move toward creating such a facility.
By 2021, work on the project’s second phase, the construction of the community center, is to begin. By 2022, work should start on the national park visitor, to be followed by the initiation of the project stage relating to the cultural center.
At the groundbreaking, Mayor Joel Klink alluded to the state’s effort to strangle Project Phoenix in the crib before it could grow toward maturity.
“There were obstacles along the way,” he said, but remarked, “We did it, finally.”
Councilman Dan Mintz concurred, saying the project “was a long time coming, but it is finally getting started, and that’s what counts.”
Joshua Tree National Park Superintendent David Smith said the cultural center and visitors center will entail a venue that will allow for the display of artifacts, relating to the indigenous inhabitants of Twentynine Palms and Joshua Tree and the Morongo Valley who braved harsh elements for 10,000 years to survive. One of those collection of artifacts will be the Campbell Collection, a collection artifacts and audiovisual materials put together by the late Joseph Campbell relating to, among other things, comparative mythology, religious studies and Native American mythology.
Olivier Berruyer’s First Report On Burisma Investigation
https://ukrainegate.info/part-1-a-not-so-solid-prosecutor/
Olivier Berruyer’s Second Report On Burisma Investigation
https://ukrainegate.info/part-2-not-so-dormant-investigations/
Upland To Keep City Manager In Place
First Phase Of Project Phoenix Under Way
Auditing Insufficient County School Board Member Maintains
By Rita Loof
Prior to my election to the San Bernardino County Board of Education, I made a pledge to my constituents that I would advocate for greater transparency and accountability. I was attempting to do just that on Monday January 6, 2020 when the annual audit of the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools was presented to the board for review which, is required under the Education Code. I was dismayed and shocked to hear the Board President state that she was going to limit the amount of time that I would have to ask questions of the auditor to 15 minutes. The County Board does not have a policy to limit board member questions and in the many years I have been attending county board meetings, I have never seen such a practice. I managed to ask two questions of the auditor who, is supposed to be an independent auditor, who quickly told me that my questions related to documents Management had put together and that her firm only wrote two pages of the report.
At least one of my questions was answered, namely, the report does not encompass all of the functions of the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools. It only deals with the Internal Business Services Department. I was told that my questions should have been submitted to staff prior to the meeting but, we only get the report two business days ahead of the meeting so there is very little time to ask staff any questions. I took time out of my family to review the report over the weekend to be ready for the Monday meeting and do the best job I could for the people of San Bernardino County. I had pages with sticky notes on it and a list of questions which remain unanswered. As elected officials, aren’t we supposed to deliberate and discuss issues in public, not behind the scenes? I am starting to get the feeling that certain elements do not welcome questions and prefer to keep elected officials uninformed and as rubber stamps which I am unwilling to do.
I do not believe the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools Audit report was reviewed by the board as intended under the Education Code. I for one did not even get the opportunity to ask most of the questions I had. The Audit issue has been a longstanding one for the constituents I represent in the West End as for many years they have complained that the West End Special Education Local Plan Area (WESELPA) with a budget of over $200,000,000 (two hundred million) has never conducted any audits. In response to calls from community members for the agency to conduct an audit as mandated under a federal grant program (specifically required under the contract), the WESELPA chose to decline re-applying for the grant rather than performing the audit. It was a $2.1 Million grant which provided services to students with disabilities. For all the talk of how children with disabilities are such high cost, the WESELPA can afford to turn away $2.1 Million? And what kind of skeletons are in their closet that they would rather turn away a couple of millions than perform a legally required audit? It should be noted that the SBCSS is the employer of record of the WESELPA staff.
The bottom line is that an audit of over $458 Million of our county tax dollars was “reviewed” with little or no questions asked. I certainly did not get the opportunity to ask the many questions I had. These are the questions I planned to ask had I been given the opportunity:
–Page (x)—Expenses, “General Administration” has increased by $6.65 million, why?
–Page (xi)—Figure 7; 33% of funds listed as “Other Outgo”, what’s included in that category?
–Page 3—“Community Services” have increased by $4.5 Million, what do those consist of?
–Page 17—CAHELP, what does it do? Who are the members and how does it “provide for the administration of a special education service region” to implement mandated special education programs?
–Page 38– Which fund are legal services such as lawsuits against children with disabilities paid out of?
–Page 42—Why is there $21 Million listed as “tuition” given the fact that public schools do not charge tuition?
–Page 56—Workability I, $2.1 Million, is WESELPA included?
–Page 58—$66, 076,586 in federal awards, what is the breakdown by SELPA and how are the other SELPA funds audited?
–Page 58– $17,439,410 in Medical “Administrative” activities, how is the money being spent?
–Page 74—The auditor identified “Significant deficiency (ies)” for Internal Controls over financial reporting, please explain why?
I urge you as concerned citizens to demand accountability and transparency of your government. Let your representatives on the board know how you feel.
Matches For March 3 Primary Races Fully Fleshed Out
County Fire Chief Making Rounds
Southern Honeysuckle
Southern honeysuckle is a dicot angiosperm in the caprifoliaceae (honeysuckle) family that is endemic to California, where it is known from several areas in mountain and coastal habitat, particularly chaparral. It is a vining shrub, somewhat woody at the base, and generally climbs or reclines on what are mostly sturdier shrubs for support.
The caprifoliaceae is a rather small family of about 250 species restricted to northern temperate regions. Recent taxonomic changes prompted M. L.Charters, one of Southern California’s leading botanists, to characterize the caprifoiaceae as “one of the most confusing families I have encountered.”
Known commonly as the southern or chaparral honeysuckle, its scientific name is lonicera subspicata. A straggling evergreen shrub, its leaves are opposite, widely elliptic to round-ovate, entire-margined, subglabrous to whitish-pubescent beneath, to 1-1/4″ long, and sometimes revolute. The upper pairs of leaves are not fused around the stem as they are in lonicera interrupta. The flowers exist in small whorls, or clusters, along a spike that is often glandular-hairy and 3/4″ to 4-1/2″ long. The calyx tube is ovoid, very short, and minutely 5-cleft. The corolla is cream-colored to yellowish, two-lipped with the upper lip 4-lobed and the lower lip a single lobe, and often hairy. There are 5 stamens with the filaments pubescent at the base, and the style, stigma and stamens are strongly exserted. The fruit is a yellow or reddish berry about 5/16″ in diameter.
Members of the honeysuckle family characteristically have flowers with bilateral symmetry, tubular corollas with five lobes, five stamens and an inferior ovary that becomes a juicy berry. Leaves are opposite. The genus lonicera, which includes the ornamental honeysuckles, is the best-known genus in this family.
Southern honeysuckle is quite common on dry slopes below 5,000 feet in elevation on chaparral slopes and shaded woodlands, blooming from April to June. It is easily recognizable as a honeysuckle with leaves that are 3-4 times longer than wide. The lonicera subspicata var. subspicata. denudata’s leaves are less than or equal to twice as long as wide.
Lonicera subspicat reaches a length of anywhere from three feet to eight feet.
Among the butterflies, moths and other insects likely or confirmed to be hosted by the Southern Honeysuckle are the ashy pleromelloida moth, the pleromelloida cinerea; the owlet moth, behrensia conchiformis; the variable checkerspot butterfly, euphydryas chalcedona, the white-lined sphinx, hyles lineata, the genista caterpillar, uresiphita reversalis; the corn earworm moth, helicoverpa zea; the canary ypsolopha moth; ypsolopha canariella; the hitched arches moth, melanchra adjuncta; the fall webworm, hyphantria cunea; the geranium plume moth, amblyptilia pica; the orange tortrix moth, argyrotaenia franciscana; the omnivorous looper, sabulodes aegrotata; the black form concerta moth, pleromelloida conserta; the tetracis mosesiani; the ero radiosaria; the sympistis ragani; the pandemis leafroller moth, pandemis pyrusana; the western avocado leafroller moth, amorbia cuneana, the perittia passula moth; the euceratia securella moth; and the euceratia castella moth.
The caprifoliaceae is a rather small family of about 250 species restricted to northern temperate regions. Recent taxonomic changes prompted M. L.Charters, one of Southern California’s leading botanists, to characterize the caprifoiaceae as “one of the most confusing families I have encountered.”
Known commonly as the southern or chaparral honeysuckle, its scientific name is lonicera subspicata. A straggling evergreen shrub, its leaves are opposite, widely elliptic to round-ovate, entire-margined, subglabrous to whitish-pubescent beneath, to 1-1/4″ long, and sometimes revolute. The upper pairs of leaves are not fused around the stem as they are in lonicera interrupta. The flowers exist in small whorls, or clusters, along a spike that is often glandular-hairy and 3/4″ to 4-1/2″ long. The calyx tube is ovoid, very short, and minutely 5-cleft. The corolla is cream-colored to yellowish, two-lipped with the upper lip 4-lobed and the lower lip a single lobe, and often hairy. There are 5 stamens with the filaments pubescent at the base, and the style, stigma and stamens are strongly exserted. The fruit is a yellow or reddish berry about 5/16″ in diameter.
Members of the honeysuckle family characteristically have flowers with bilateral symmetry, tubular corollas with five lobes, five stamens and an inferior ovary that becomes a juicy berry. Leaves are opposite. The genus lonicera, which includes the ornamental honeysuckles, is the best-known genus in this family.
Southern honeysuckle is quite common on dry slopes below 5,000 feet in elevation on chaparral slopes and shaded woodlands, blooming from April to June. It is easily recognizable as a honeysuckle with leaves that are 3-4 times longer than wide. The lonicera subspicata var. subspicata. denudata’s leaves are less than or equal to twice as long as wide.
Lonicera subspicat reaches a length of anywhere from three feet to eight feet.
Among the butterflies, moths and other insects likely or confirmed to be hosted by the Southern Honeysuckle are the ashy pleromelloida moth, the pleromelloida cinerea; the owlet moth, behrensia conchiformis; the variable checkerspot butterfly, euphydryas chalcedona, the white-lined sphinx, hyles lineata, the genista caterpillar, uresiphita reversalis; the corn earworm moth, helicoverpa zea; the canary ypsolopha moth; ypsolopha canariella; the hitched arches moth, melanchra adjuncta; the fall webworm, hyphantria cunea; the geranium plume moth, amblyptilia pica; the orange tortrix moth, argyrotaenia franciscana; the omnivorous looper, sabulodes aegrotata; the black form concerta moth, pleromelloida conserta; the tetracis mosesiani; the ero radiosaria; the sympistis ragani; the pandemis leafroller moth, pandemis pyrusana; the western avocado leafroller moth, amorbia cuneana, the perittia passula moth; the euceratia securella moth; and the euceratia castella moth.
From https://calscape.org, www.calflora.net and https://thenaturecollective.org
Southern Honeysuckle
Southern honeysuckle is a dicot angiosperm in the Caprifoliaceae (Honeysuckle) family that is endemic to California, where it is known from several areas in mountain and coastal habitat, particularly chaparral. It is a vining shrub, somewhat woody at the base, and generally climbs or reclines on what are mostly sturdier shrubs for support.
The caprifoliaceae is a rather small family of about 250 species restricted to northern temperate regions. Recent taxonomic changes prompted M. L.Charters, one of Southern California’s leading botanists, to characterize the caprifoiaceae as “one of the most confusing families I have encountered.”
Known commonly as the southern or chaparral honeysuckle, its scientific name is lonicera subspicata. A straggling evergreen shrub, its leaves are opposite, widely elliptic to round-ovate, entire-margined, subglabrous to whitish-pubescent beneath, to 1-1/4″ long, and sometimes revolute. The upper pairs of leaves are not fused around the stem as they are in lonicera interrupta. The flowers exist in small whorls, or clusters, along a spike that is often glandular-hairy and 3/4″ to 4-1/2″ long. The calyx tube is ovoid, very short, and minutely 5-cleft. The corolla is cream-colored to yellowish, two-lipped with the upper lip 4-lobed and the lower lip a single lobe, and often hairy. There are 5 stamens with the filaments pubescent at the base, and the style, stigma and stamens are strongly exserted. The fruit is a yellow or reddish berry about 5/16″ in diameter.
Members of the honeysuckle family characteristically have flowers with bilateral symmetry, tubular corollas with five lobes, five stamens and an inferior ovary that becomes a juicy berry. Leaves are opposite. The genus Lonicera, which includes the ornamental honeysuckles, is the best-known genus in this family.
Southern honeysuckle is quite common on dry slopes below 5,000 feet in elevation on chaparral slopes and shaded woodlands, blooming from April to June. It is easily recognizable as a honeysuckle with leaves that are 3-4 times longer than wide. The lonicera subspicata var. subspicata. denudata’s leaves are less than or equal to twice as long as wide.
Lonicera subspicat reaches a length of anywhere from three feet to eight feet.
Among the butterflies, moths and other insects likely or confirmed to be hosted by the Southern Honeysuckle are the ashy pleromelloida moth, the pleromelloida cinerea; the owlet moth, behrensia conchiformis; the variable checkerspot butterfly, euphydryas chalcedona, the white-lined sphinx, hyles lineata, the genista caterpillar, uresiphita reversalis; the corn earworm moth, helicoverpa zea; the canary ypsolopha moth; ypsolopha canariella; the hitched arches moth, melanchra adjuncta; the fall webworm, hyphantria cunea; the geranium plume moth, amblyptilia pica; the orange tortrix moth, argyrotaenia franciscana; the omnivorous looper, sabulodes aegrotata; the black form concerta moth, pleromelloida conserta; the tetracis mosesiani; the ero radiosaria; the sympistis ragani; the pandemis leafroller moth, pandemis pyrusana; the western avocado leafroller moth, amorbia cuneana, the perittia passula moth; the euceratia securella moth; and the
and the euceratia castella moth.
The caprifoliaceae is a rather small family of about 250 species restricted to northern temperate regions. Recent taxonomic changes prompted M. L.Charters, one of Southern California’s leading botanists, to characterize the caprifoiaceae as “one of the most confusing families I have encountered.”
Known commonly as the southern or chaparral honeysuckle, its scientific name is lonicera subspicata. A straggling evergreen shrub, its leaves are opposite, widely elliptic to round-ovate, entire-margined, subglabrous to whitish-pubescent beneath, to 1-1/4″ long, and sometimes revolute. The upper pairs of leaves are not fused around the stem as they are in lonicera interrupta. The flowers exist in small whorls, or clusters, along a spike that is often glandular-hairy and 3/4″ to 4-1/2″ long. The calyx tube is ovoid, very short, and minutely 5-cleft. The corolla is cream-colored to yellowish, two-lipped with the upper lip 4-lobed and the lower lip a single lobe, and often hairy. There are 5 stamens with the filaments pubescent at the base, and the style, stigma and stamens are strongly exserted. The fruit is a yellow or reddish berry about 5/16″ in diameter.
Members of the honeysuckle family characteristically have flowers with bilateral symmetry, tubular corollas with five lobes, five stamens and an inferior ovary that becomes a juicy berry. Leaves are opposite. The genus Lonicera, which includes the ornamental honeysuckles, is the best-known genus in this family.
Southern honeysuckle is quite common on dry slopes below 5,000 feet in elevation on chaparral slopes and shaded woodlands, blooming from April to June. It is easily recognizable as a honeysuckle with leaves that are 3-4 times longer than wide. The lonicera subspicata var. subspicata. denudata’s leaves are less than or equal to twice as long as wide.
Lonicera subspicat reaches a length of anywhere from three feet to eight feet.
Among the butterflies, moths and other insects likely or confirmed to be hosted by the Southern Honeysuckle are the ashy pleromelloida moth, the pleromelloida cinerea; the owlet moth, behrensia conchiformis; the variable checkerspot butterfly, euphydryas chalcedona, the white-lined sphinx, hyles lineata, the genista caterpillar, uresiphita reversalis; the corn earworm moth, helicoverpa zea; the canary ypsolopha moth; ypsolopha canariella; the hitched arches moth, melanchra adjuncta; the fall webworm, hyphantria cunea; the geranium plume moth, amblyptilia pica; the orange tortrix moth, argyrotaenia franciscana; the omnivorous looper, sabulodes aegrotata; the black form concerta moth, pleromelloida conserta; the tetracis mosesiani; the ero radiosaria; the sympistis ragani; the pandemis leafroller moth, pandemis pyrusana; the western avocado leafroller moth, amorbia cuneana, the perittia passula moth; the euceratia securella moth; and the
and the euceratia castella moth.
From https://calscape.org, www.calflora.net and https://thenaturecollective.org