(November 25)  Chino PD will become the second police department in the county to outfit its officers with body cameras, which will make video recordings of their interaction with the community during patrol and routine operations.
Rialto was the first city in San Bernardino County and among the first cities nationwide to arm the entirety of its street police force with the miniaturized devices. The cameras, worn on the uniforms, belts or eyeglasses of the officers are distinct from vehicle cameras, which have been in vogue with many police departments for a decade or more.
As of September 1, body cameras became standard issue equipment with all of Rialto’s police officers.
On November 19, the Chino City Council voted unanimously to authorize the expenditure of $295,825 to purchase 100 Taser Axon Flex on-officer video recorders and related equipment.
According to police chief Miles Pruitt, “The Chino Police Department currently equips its field personnel with digital audio recorders to record contacts with the public for use in court proceedings, report preparation and review, complaint investigations and internal reviews.   These recordings have proven extremely beneficial to field personnel, the police department and the community as a whole as they help increase the level of professionalism and transparency in regards to police interactions with the public.
“With the rapid evolution of portable video recorders, technology now allows for field personnel to capture video and audio of their field encounters.” Pruitt continued. “While technology has long existed which allows for the installation of video recorders in police vehicles. The benefits of such systems are limited due to the fact they only capture events which occur directly in front
of the vehicle, while ignoring the many encounters field personnel engage in and away from their vehicles. Over the past few years, the police department has monitored the evolution
of video camera technology. The department recognizes the critical importance on-officer video plays in modern law enforcement and its ability to help the department provide the increased levels of service anticipated from new development in the city of Chino.”
Pruitt elaborated, “In today’s world, the prevalence of surveillance cameras and cellular phone cameras often results in short video clips that fail to capture the full scope and nature of any given event. This often leads to incomplete video clips showing police personnel in an unfavorable light. On-officer video counters this problem by providing video recordings which tell the story from the officer’s perspective.”
According to Pruitt, the system the city is purchasing is a superior product to other body cameras.
“The Taser Axon Flex system has a 30-second pre-event buffer that captures video for the 30 seconds prior to the officer activating the recording function, effectively allowing for
officers to reach back in time and record critical events which happened before the officer could activate the system,” Pruitt said. “Over the last two years, the police department has been involved in the testing and evaluation of various on-officer video solutions. In an effort to identify the best solution for the department’s needs, each potential solution was evaluated using the following criteria: portability, video/audio quality, ease of use, mounting options, video management capability, pre-event recording capabilities, cost of purchase and maintenance, and vendor profiles and sustainability. Staff tested the three leading systems and concluded the Taser Axon Flex camera and the Evidence.com media storage solution were ideally suited to the needs of the department. The Axon Flex Camera provides multiple mounting options, records high quality video/audio, is small and lightweight, has pre-event recording (30 seconds), is reasonably priced, and is manufactured by a leading law enforcement technology manufacturer with a strong history of quality and success.”
Pruitt said the Axon Flex system goes hand-in-glove with the data storage system the city will purchase with it.
“The Evidence.com system provides a secure and seamless cloud-based storage solution requiring only internet access to upload the video/audio files to Taser’s secure, encrypted servers,” Pruitt said. “Furthermore, the Evidence.com system has been court tested and is currently in use by numerous police agencies,  including the Rialto Police Department.
Finally, the Evidence.com platform provides robust access control and accountability while having no physical on-site storage  requirements.”
Pruitt said that “As new residential, commercial and industrial development continues to come online in the city, the police department is anticipating a corresponding increase in calls for service.  Deployment of the proposed on-officer video system will help the department and its officers meet these increased service needs through higher productivity and enhanced customer  service.”
The projected cost to implement this project is $295,825. Taser International of Scottsdale, Arizona manufactures the product.
The city will pay $73,238 for 100 of the cameras, and $166,200 to Evidenc.com for data storage. One year of maintenance comes with the purchase of the cameras and the city will pay $33,728 for an additional two years of maintenance. Tax and shipping on the cameras will run to $22,659.

(November 25)  TWENTYNINE PALMS—The full U.S. Senate this week took up legislation that will advance the Navy’s request to expand the Marine Corps’ military training grounds into Johnson Valley and Wonder Valley.
The Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee last week approved the proposed Military Land Withdrawals Act,  and a Senate vote on it is anticipated soon.
The bill allows for military use of public lands in Johnson Valley and Wonder Valley, as well as land in Imperial and Riverside counties and Montana for military training exercises.
The bill sets aside 154,663 acres in San Bernardino County for training, extending to a  36,755-acre “shared-use” area in Johnson Valley, to be available both to the military and the public in Johnson Valley. Under the provisions of the bill, the Secretary of the Interior would be able to close public lands when deemed necessary for military or public safety or national security.
The Department of the Navy maintains the land heretofore unused by the military in the Mojave Desert is needed for training exercises that aren’t possible on the existing Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center grounds. The Marine Corps envisions training exercises that would involve a Marine Expeditionary Brigade-sized unit, comprised of about 15,000 Marines and a full complement of land and aviation equipment and vehicles. Those exercises require that elements of the force be well removed from other elements, including being beyond visual range. The exercises are likely to involve a coordinated attack or effort at vectoring disparate forces to a single location, involving precise location finding and timing.
The Navy had intended to use an even larger area in the Mojave, but reduced its request in compliance with public input and protests.
The expansion in the Military Land Withdrawals Act would prohibit public access to roughly half of the land now available for off-road use in Johnson Valley. The shared-use provision turns over to the military the area so designated for two months out of the year, during which time the Secretary of the Navy has exclusive management authority for the land so maneuvers can be held. The Secretary of the Interior would have authority over the property for the balance of time.
Congressman Paul Cook, who represents the area and was a Marine colonel, promoted an alternate version of the act that was apparently less acceptable to the Navy than the draft now before the Senate. His recommendations were not included in the Senate bill, which will upon passage become a part of the National Defense Authorization Act.
While Cook pursues rivaling legislation from his position in the House of Representatives, a circumstance could develop where conflicting language in the two bills could result in a bicameral conference committee being formed to hash out the differences.

(November 27)  Ted Alejandre, the assistant superintendent of business services within the office of the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools, has been elevated to the position of deputy superintendent, a newly-created post.
There was immediate speculation that Alejandre’s promotion was part of an effort to groom him to become the next San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools.
Last month, San Bernardino County Superintendent Gary Thomas announced he will not seek re-election next year after six years of overseeing programs for the county’s public schools. Thomas ran successfully for the position in 2010 after he was appointed to the post in August 2008 to finish the term of his predecessor, Herbert Fischer.
Alejandre, a graduate of Cal State San Bernardino, has worked in public education for more than 25 years, including having been assistant superintendent of business services for the Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District, which serves students in both San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
In the new position, Alejandre will continue to oversee business services and will stand in for Thomas on issues relating to the office’s authority over all public county schools and the more than 414,000 students who attend them.

(November27)  The Upland City Council in a 4-1 vote this week directed city manager Stephen Dunn to finalize through further consultation and negotiation with Montclair City Manager Edward Starr the merging of the two adjoining cities’ fire departments’ administrations. The action was taken in the anticipation that the departments’ managerial merger can take place early in 2014 and that the department’s common service boundaries can be eliminated by next July and that the departments can potentially be consolidated entirely at some point in the future.
The Montclair council has already indicated it is amenable to the administrative consolidation in principle. Upon the finalization of the current plan relating to administration, which both cities have already agreed will be undertaken as a two-year pilot program, its terms will be brought back to both city councils for a vote to approve the arrangement.
Upland and Montclair first broached the concept of merging their fire departments in 1993, Upland Fire Chief Rick Mayhew said.
In 2012, both Upland and Montclair were casting about for a way to reduce their respective fire protection costs. At that time the city of Upland contemplated outsourcing options for its fire department, including considering contracting with the city of Ontario, the California Division of Forestry or the county of San Bernardino for fire protection service. Upland also approached Los Angeles County to see if its fire department would provide it with a fire service proposal. Los Angeles County turned Upland down because the California Division of Forestry, also known as Cal Fire, and LA County Fire have an agreement that Cal Fire will not come into Los Angeles County to seek contracts and Los Angeles County has agreed not to go into San Bernardino County or Orange County for contract agencies.
In Montclair, officials previously gave serious consideration to the outsourcing of that 36,664-poulation municipality’s fire department, specifically the concept of dissolving the department in favor of contracting with the San Bernardino County Fire Department or the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
In April 2012, Dunn and Starr resurrected the long dormant discussion of a cooperative agreement between the cities they oversee with respect to fire protection.
The need for cost reductions in all phases of municipal operations in virtually every city in the state has grown over the last six years as a lingering economic downturn has reduced revenues available to cities. Upland and Montclair have been no exception to that trend, and Montclair has been particularly hard hit by the stagnating economy. As a result of the state of California’s shuttering of municipal redevelopment agencies throughout the state, toward the end of the 2010-11 fiscal year, Montclair laid off 10 employees as part of its effort to make up for its loss of redevelopment money. Throughout much of 2010-11, one of the Montclair Fire Department’s paramedic units was parked and the paramedics functioned from the department’s remaining engines, which stayed in service. Over the last year-and-a-half, what was a 27-firefighter department has lost three positions to attrition, and has not filled those vacancies, making up for the manpower shortage with overtime. In September 2012, Starr, in a cost-cutting move that saved the city nearly half a million dollars a year in wages and benefits, elevated police chief Keith Jones to the position of director of public safety and gave fire chief Troy Ament his two-week severance notice. In June of this year, police captain Michael deMoet was appointed to the position of director of public safety, following Jones’ retirement.  deMoet continues to function in the role of Montclair fire chief.
In April of this year, Dunn, Starr, Mayhew and Jones resolved to explore merging administrative staffs and dissolving the fire service boundaries between the two cities. That discussion continued when de Moet succeeded Jones. The agreement as formulated thus far has the support of both cities’ firefighters and their unions.
According to Starr, the Upland firefighters will remain Upland city employees and the Montclair firemen will remain as Montclair city employees. Upland, which boasts a population of 73,732, pays its firefighters higher wages and provides slightly better benefits than Montclair fireman receive. According to Starr, because Upland has twice as many fire stations as Montclair, roughly one-and-a-half times as many firemen, and operates a helicopter, Upland will pick up 64 percent of the command level and accompanying administrative costs under the arrangement, while Montclair’s share will be 36 percent.
At present the city of Upland employs 36 full time firefighters staged out of four fire stations. Montclair fields 24 firefighters and operates out of two fire stations. Upland currently has six full-time and one part-time administrators. Montclair has five full-time administrators. Effective upon the merger, both departments will have 10 full-time and one part-time administrators.
Mayhew will transition into being fire chief of both departments, and will be answerable to the city councils in both cities through each of the city managers. He will oversee the separate budgets for both departments. There is to be a 67 percent to 33 percent split in the cities’ defraying of his compensation, with Upland picking up the lion’s share of that responsibility. The departments will share three battalion chiefs as well as a fire marshal. Each city will retain a deputy fire chief who will not be part of the command sharing.
Starr said the two cities should achieve an initial $260,000 combined annual savings by merging the administrative functions. “My understanding is the savings for Upland are in the $160,000 to $180,000 range,” Starr said. “This could well impact on their overtime costs. In Montclair, we are projecting $120,000 savings in overtime costs. There may be savings we have not fully calculated.”
Starr said the gist of the savings will consist of the economy of scale realized with the elimination of costs netted with the consolidation of the battalion chief and fire marshal functions. Upland will see further savings in that Montclair will “pay a share of the Upland fire chief’s salary.” Moreover, he said, Montclair will “initially pay for two of the three battalion chiefs.”
Once the terms of the deal are formulated in writing, the Upland City Council could vote on ratifying them at its December 9 meeting and the Montclair City Council could vote on the matter at its December 16 meeting.
On November 25, Upland Councilman Glenn Bozar was the lone vote against giving direction to go forward with the merger negotiations with Montclair, stating he wanted to delay consideration of the move  to ensure that the consolidation of the administrative function of the departments would not interfere with cost reduction measures Upland may consider early in 2014, which could potentially involve fire department outsourcing.
The Upland City Council also approved canceling the fire department’s existing dispatch service arrangement with the city of Ontario to instead contract with the San Bernardino County communications center in Rialto, which was recently retrofitted with a state of the art dispatch system.

(November 28)  Scheduled action by the Yucaipa Valley Water District next week has resurrected questions about a potential conflict of interest involving at least one of the district’s board members.
The Sacramento-based lobbying firm Platinum Advisors currently holds a no-bid contract with the water district for the provision of representation in the state capitol.
On December 4, the Yucaipa Valley Water District’s board of directors is set to renew a five-year contract with Platinum Advisors at a cost of $60,000 annually. The total value of the contract renewal is $300,000, with the arrangement to last through 2018.
The board of directors did not consider any competing lobbyists.
The alleged conflict-of-interest consists of the familial relationships between two of the board members and one of the more prominent employees of Platinum Advisors.
The board members of the Yucaipa Valley Water District are Jay Bogh, Bruce Granlund, Lonni Granlund, David Leja, and Kenneth Munoz.
Bruce Granlund is the brother of Brett Granlund. He is also board president. Lonni Granlund is the ex-wife of Brett Granlund and the vice president of the board.
Brett Granlund, a former assemblyman, is an employee of Platinum Advisors. Platinum Advisors owner Darius Anderson has long touted Brett Granlund as a key member of his staff, valuable for his intimate knowledge of legislative processes and his familiarity with Southern California, in particular San Bernardino and Riverside counties, in which his district, when he was a member of the Assembly,  was located. Brett Granlund was given a prominent position on the profile portion of Platinum Advisors’ website, where the experience and talents of the firm’s various lobbyists were laid out.
Like many other local governmental agencies Platinum Advisors has contracts with, Yucca Valley Water District’s account is handled by Brett Granlund.
Curiously, as of November 20, Brett Granlund’s profile on the Platinum Advisors website was removed.
Anderson and Brett Granlund were unavailable to explain why Brett Granlund’s profile was taken down. His name yet appears on company stationary.
The water district was unapologetic about employing a company which employs a blood and marital relative to two of its directors.
“District staff believes it would be prudent to continue our investment in an annual contract with Platinum Advisors to protect the financial and political interests of our ratepayers.  The schedule of compensation for the contract is based on a contract that avoids an annual escalation of the retainer,” according to a district memorandum relating to the contract renewal signed by Anderson and Yucaipa Valley Water District General Manager Joe Zoba. According to that memorandum, Platinum Advisors will “work with the district to develop policy arguments and a rationale that can be presented to the Legislature and the Executive Branch to justify the position of the Yucaipa Valley Water District, [provide] direct lobbying [of] the Legislature on behalf of the Yucaipa Valley Water District on prevention of property tax shifts, track… legislation introduced or amended and inform… the Yucaipa Valley Water District staff of legislation that effects the interests of the Yucaipa Valley Water District [and] perform… other necessary and appropriate services which may include, but not be limited to, personal contact with key interest groups and political leaders, building coalitions of support groups, and attending appropriate issue meetings.”
Government Code Section 1090 prohibits elected government officials from having an interest in any contract in which they have a personal financial interest.

(November 27)  San Bernardino County’s unemployment rate declined to 9.4 percent in October, according to data released Friday by the California Employment Development Department (EDD).
That compares with an 8.7 percent unemployment rate for the entire state of California in September and October. The state rate declined from 8.9 percent in August.
San Bernardino County’s employment rate has lagged well behind the rest of the country for the last six years. In September, the U.S. unemployment was 7.2 percent. It increased to 7.3 percent in October.
San Bernardino County’s jobless rate had registered above 10 percent from 2009 until earlier this year.

The Redlands City Council last week committed $4 million in city money toward the rehabilitation of two of the more substandard of the city’s major intersections.
All told, $9.4 million, including the city’s share, $4.5 million from San Bernardino County’s Transportation agency known by its acronym SANBAG and a $1 million state grant will be used for long-deferred improvements to the intersections at Redlands Boulevard and Alabama Street as well as Redlands Boulevard and Colton Avenue.
The city council on November 19 awarded a contract for the project to All American Asphalt, though the city must yet purchase additional right-of-way for the project to move forward as planned. Initiation of the project is also dependent upon coordination with Southern California Edison.
The intersection improvement designs have been on the drawing board since 2003.
Traffic engineers are calling for the realignment of the Redlands and Alabama intersection to eliminate a 22-foot offset across the intersection and accommodate additional turn lanes.
The Redlands and Colton intersection will be transformed to a “T” intersection and Alabama will be expanded by three lanes. A traffic signal will be added, along with lighting, storm drains and an alteration of the railroad track and crossings to meet with future passenger rail service demands.
City engineers said the intersections were among the city’s most hazardous, particularly the one at Redlands Boulevard and Alabama Street.

By clicking on the following portal you can download a copy of this week’s Sentinel

Sentinel 11-22-13

(November 22)  The Forest Service has begun its winter prescribed burn program in the San Bernardino National Forest with the onset of predicted favorable weather conditions, officials said.
According to John Miller, an official spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service, “The San Bernardino National Forest has started this season’s prescribed burning program. Winter burning projects also will resume as part of a continuing effort to reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfire and improve forest health.   The prescribed fire program will continue through the winter months as weather and conditions permit.”
Prescribed fires and pile burning are intended to reduce the amount of vegetation, such as needles, small plants, brush, and small trees, which can carry fire from the forest floor into the treetops. Studies have shown that prescribed fires will stimulate the growth of grasses, forbs and shrubs that provide food for deer, mountain quail and other wildlife.
The ignition of all prescribed burns is dependent on the availability of personnel and equipment, appropriate conditions, and is done in coordination with the National Weather Service and South Coast Air Quality Management District, Miller said. The consultation with the weather service and air quality officials before and during prescribed burns is intended to help manage smoke production and minimize impacts as much as possible, Miller said.
Fire managers follow a burn plan that outlines the “prescription” or environmental conditions such as temperature, wind, fuel moisture, ventilation, and relative humidity that need to be present before the project begins. When the criteria are met, crews implement, monitor, and patrol each burn to ensure it meets the goals and objectives outlined by managers, according to the Fire Service.
At present, firefighters are conducting burnings of slash and debris piles adjacent to Forest Service Fire Stations.  Signs will be posted along the roadways to alert passersby to the burning activity.  The Forest Service will send out occasional reminders to the public, warning of  potential smoke in the air. In addition to the station pile burning, the public may also see smoke from pile burning activities in the following San Bernardino Mountain forest locations over the winter months:  a prescribed fire near State Highway 38 as part of the Angelus Oaks Community Defense Project; and slash and debris piles burning on Forest Road 1S07 Pisgah Peak Road, Oak Glen near Pisgah Peak; Yucaipa Ridge, north of Oak Glen; Forest Road 2N10, Southside of Big Bear Lake, west of Bear Mountain; Forest Road 2N93, south of Sugarloaf, west of Erwin Lake; Forest Road 2N19, south of Green Valley Lake; SR173 north of Grass Valley Rd in Lake Arrowhead; and SR18 near Heaps Peak Helibase and Arboretum.
“We appreciate the public’s tolerance of some smoke impacts in order to achieve the San Bernardino National Forest’s fire prevention and resource management goals, and the public can call our local offices to find out where we are burning,” Miller said.
The phone number for the Big Bear Ranger Station & Discovery Center is 909-382-2790. The phone number for the Lytle Creek Ranger Station is 909-382-2851.

(November 20)  In San Bernardino County, candidates for public office have spent an astounding amount of money to get elected.
In 2006, for example, then-First District Supervisor Bill Postmus spent $3.2 million in his successful effort to unseat the then-incumbent county assessor, Don Williamson. In the last decade, the cost of campaigning for office has escalated dramatically. In serious contests for county supervisor, even losers have spent as much as a quarter of a million dollars.
Indeed, holding public office in San Bernardino County, as elsewhere, has become highly prized. Candidates, to get elected to a single four-year term, will expend, through their electoral committees, on the order of ten times or more what they can realize in salary for even the highest-paying of the posts up for a vote. And as an examination of the electioneering materials put out by many of those candidates demonstrates, there is no depth an ambitious seeker of office will not go to in maligning his or her opponent, no questionable tactic he or she will not explore, no departure from decorum he or she will not exploit in the effort to convince his or her constituents he or she should be selected to lead the community.
Paradoxically, however, some elected positions do not attract enough contenders to make a race of it, and by merely filing for the post, an individual can fill it. In other cases, there is no interest in the position at all and no one was on the ballot when those posts came up for a vote.
Because an insufficient number of candidates competed for 19 positions up for election at various districts or governmental entities around the county, San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters Michael Scarpello this week induced the board of supervisors to simply appoint those candidates who ran unopposed. He also convinced the board to appoint 18 others to board positions on six bodies after no candidates sought election to those positions.
In the Baker Community Services District where there was an election for three open seats, only three candidates entered the race. In the Barstow Heights Community Services District, one individual sought election for three board positions. In the Crestline Village Water District four sought election to four open positions on the board. In the Daggett Community Services District three candidates vied for three positions. In the Juniper-Riviera County Water District, two board positions were up for election and that race attracted only two candidates. Three candidates ran for three positions on the Rim of the World Recreation and Park District. In the race for three board positions in the San Bernardino Valley Water Conservation, just three candidates sought election. In those cases, Scarpello called upon the board of supervisors to “appoint candidates, in lieu of election, to fill contest vacancies.” His request, he said applied to both the “August 27, 2013 Consolidated Mail Ballot Election and the November 5, 2013 Consolidated Election, whereby these contests are under the jurisdiction of the board of supervisors.”
Under the election code, Scarpello said, the board of supervisors has the authority and duty to “make appointments to contests under its jurisdiction where the number of persons filing a declaration of candidacy for various offices was either equal to or fewer than the number of positions to be filled for those respective offices (unopposed), and where no person filed a declaration of candidacy for office. California Elections Code §10515 provides that the registrar of voters shall request that the supervising authority (board of supervisors for these two elections) make these appointments, and do so at a meeting held prior to the Monday before the first Friday in December.”
Accordingly, Scarpello called upon the board to appoint Kenneth E. Hall, Jessie Jenkins and Rich Johnson to the Baker Community Services District for 4 year terms; Robert M. Stapp to the Barstow Heights Community Services District Board of Directors for a 4 year term; Alan E. Clanin, Darel Davis and Steven Farrell to 4-year terms on the Crestline Village Water District Board;  Bruce D. Risher to a 4-year term on the Crestline-Lake Arrowhead Water Agency Board of Directors; Joseph Morris Jr, and  Sally Vintus to 4-year terms and Mark Staggs to a 2-year term on the Daggett Community Services District Board; Eric L. Koester and Susan J. Mulvaney to 4-year terms on the Juniper-Riviera County Water District Board of Directors;
Richard Lavin, Dave Roughton and Carol Tesley to 4-year terms on the Rim of the World Recreation and Park
District Board; and Melody A. Henriques McDonald, John Longville and David E. Raley to 4-year terms on the San Bernardino Valley Water Conservation District Board of Directors.
Since Robert Stapp was the only candidate in the Barstow Heights Community Services District Board race and three positions were up for election, Daryl Schendel was appointed to a 4-year term on that body and a 2-year term was conferred upon Jeanette Hayhurst.
In five other board races, those for positions with the Apple Valley Foothill County Water District, the Apple Valley heights Water District, the Running Springs Water District, the Thunderbird County Water District and the Yucca Valley Airport District, no candidates showed an interest in running before the end of the filing period. As such Scarpello asked the board of supervisors to appoint volunteers to those board positions who were recruited by his office or staff members of the board of supervisors in whose districts those jurisdictions lie.
In this way, Karen Madison, Sam Kell, and James A. Thompson, Jr. were appointed to 4-year terms on the Apple Valley Foothill County Water District Board of Directors and Sharon Silva-Houts was appointed to a 2-year term on the Apple Valley Foothill County Water District Board; Larry Hunter, Jacob S. Johnson and Patricia Duwel were appointed to 4-year term on the Apple Valley Heights Water District Board of Directors; Kenneth Ayers, Henry M. Heredia and Pam Bennett were appointed to 4-year terms on the Running Springs Water District Board; Lynn A. Lindberg  and Betty L. Kreml were appointed to 4-year term on the Thunderbird County Water District Board and Victoria Stemen was given a 2-year berth on the Thunderbird County Water District Board; and Robert R. Dunn, Robert A Miehle and Michael C. Huhn were appointed to 4-year terms on the Yucca Valley Airport District Board of Directors.