City Council 3-2 Split on City Manager’s Annual Pay

Big Bear, Ca, July 28, 2011, 3:00pm - The Big Bear Lake City Council and the Improvement Agency met yesterday in a special meeting to discuss and approve changes made to the City Managers contract.  Council voted to remove City Manager Jeff Mathieu’s housing allowance from the contract, and to remove payment that came from the Improvement Agency.  In a three to two vote, Council also voted to increase the City Manager’s base pay from $185,000 a year to $221,000 a year.  Mayor Pro Tem Rick Herrick and Councilman David Carretto voted against the pay increase.  Councilman Carretto stated that he had done some research on other City Manager’s pay levels within San Bernardino County and that the average was $218,000.  Mayor Pro Tem Herrick and Councilman Carretto both thought that for the size of our city, the City Manager’s annual salary should be lower than $200,000.  Both praised Mathieu on his work done, and stated that their reason was not based on performance but on the size and financial scope of the city.    The meeting was adjourned, and no members of the public attended.

City Council To Decide Fate of Improvement Agency

Big Bear, Ca, July 11, 2011, 12:00pm - The Big Bear Lake City Council will hold its regularly scheduled meeting tonight, July 11th, in Hofert Hall.  Council will go into closed session at 5:00pm and will conduct an employee performance evaluation for the City Manager.  Open Session will begin at 6:30pm, and items on the agenda include: the award of a construction contract for the Knickerbocker sidewalk installation and street improvements, the approval of awarding a contract for the design of Big Bear Boulevard overhead monument signs, and affirming the re-appointment of Steven Foulkes, William Giamarino, and Robert Tarras to four year terms on the Department of Water and Power board of commissioners. Council will also be deciding the fate of the Improvement Agency.  To improve state budget problems in exchange the Big Bear Improvement Agency will be allowed to continue, however the Improvement Agency as Big Bear has known it will be changing. The public is encouraged to attend the meeting, and may speak during public comment time.

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City To Reevaluate Big Bear Lake & Moonridge Plans

Big Bear, Ca, June 27, 2011, 12:00pm -  The Big Bear Lake City Council will meet tonight for their regularly scheduled meeting.  Council will discuss and consider amending the five-year implementation plan for the Big Bear Lake and Moonridge Improvement areas.  The resolution that was approved at the last meeting, needs to be amended due to Governor Jerry’s Brown’s rejection of the state budget, caused a proposed city bond for capital improvements to fail.  Council will also discuss and consider approving a professional services agreement with RRM Design Group for an amount not to exceed $895,576 for the design, engineering and construction documents for seven identified Village capital improvement projects. The public is encouraged to attend the meeting which will take place in Hofert Hall, at 6:30pm.

DWP Board Members Stay The Same

Big Bear, Ca, June 17, 2011, 12:00pm - The City of Big Bear Lake City Council met on June 16^th in a special meeting to discuss, and appoint board members to the Department of Water and Power Board of Directors.   Council members decided to keep current sitting board members in their place to keep continuity on the board while the DWP and the Municipal Water District go through the motions of becoming one organization.  Bob Tarras, Steve Foulkes and Bill Giamarino will keep their current seats, they will continue serving with Don Smith and Fred Miller. Mayor Bill Jahn had the following to say about the appointments: “It is great to have consistency when you consider what is going on with the possible merger, its not time to really change horses, and I was happy to see the 3 incumbents re apply.”  The MWD is currently looking into taking on the responsibilities of the DWP in an effort to combine resources, and save taxpayers money.  The DWP board members, and City Council are in favor of combining of resources and responsibilities.

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Special Meeting For School Board Meeting Focuses On Personnel Issues

Big Bear, Ca, June 14, 2011, 12:00pm - The Bear Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees will hold a special meeting on Thursday, June 16th at 6:30pm. Board members will discuss removing the adopted budget cut of the High School Activities Director, as it would greatly impact the ASB program at Big Bear High School.  According to the board agenda notes, by reinstating this position in next year’s budget, the board still is above their board-established target of cutting $425,000.  The board will also discuss the elimination of one position, and the possible creation of two more, including the creation of an advisor to the board, which according to the agenda notes, would be a position created to provide advisement to the board in administrative matters as directed by the board.  The meeting will take place at the District Office located off Moonridge road.  The public is encouraged to attend and speak during public comment time.

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City Council To Discuss Pine Knot Sidewalk Project & Old Miners

Big Bear, Ca, June 13, 2011, 10:00am - The Big Bear Lake City Council will meet tonight for their regularly scheduled meeting in Hofert Hall at 6:30pm.  On tonight’s agenda, council will consider approving an amended agreement between the Big Bear Area Wastewater Agency, the City of Big Bear Lake, Big Bear City Community Services District and the County of San Bernardino about possibly changing the BBARWA billing method.  Council will also consider awarding a contract to Tryco Engineering in the amount of $87,000 for the Pine Knot Passageway Sidewalk Project, and will also consider approving a request from the Old Miners Association to close city streets and use Bartlett Road Parking lot for Old Miners Days, which is scheduled for July 22nd through the 24th.  The public is encouraged to attend and may speak during public comment time.

City of Big Bear Lake Funds Local Events

Big Bear, Ca, June 7, 2011, 9:00am - On June 6^th the Big Bear Lake City Council had a special meeting to approve $40,000 in community events sponsorships.  $16,000 of the City sponsor money was through in kind donations.  The following events received sponsor money from the City:  The Old Miners Day Parade received $10,000, and $5,200 in in-kind services from the City, $1,400 went to the Music in the Mountains series, $2,000 went to Snowshoe the Bear, $3,200 was given to the Big Bear Cycling Association, $2,500 to the Arts Council for Art on the Lake, $3,500 to the Big Bear Lake International Film Festival, and $350 to the Xeriscape Tour.  The funding for the events came from the general funds for the City.

City Streets To Recieve Facelift

Big Bear, Ca, May 10, 2011, 12:00pm - At last night’s meeting of the Big Bear Lake City Council, board members voted to approve Improvement Agency funds for roads within the city limits.  Thirty streets within the city will receive improvements, ranging from receiving a 2 inch overlay on the road to some streets being pulverized and repaved.  Gutters will be added to streets that experience more water flow than others.  Some of the streets include Knickerbocker, the Village Drive, Pine Knot, Moonridge, Cienega, Wren, Bonanza, and Sandalwood.  The cost for these street improvements will be around the $3,600,000 mark.

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Social Host Ordinance Sent Back For Rewrite

Big Bear, Ca, April 27, 2011, 8:00am - At the Big Bear Lake City Council meeting on Monday April 25, the social host ordinance was discussed. The social host ordinance, which would put penalties in place for adults who provide alcohol and a gathering place to minors, was rejected in its present form. City Council requested the city attorney come up with an ordinance with clear definitions, and clear intent of the law.  Council expressed that the current version of the ordinance was poorly written, and that it didn’t clearly reach the objective of preventing adults from providing alcohol to minors. Several people expressed their concern regarding this new law, that would penalize second homeowners who had no knowledge of what might be taking place in the homes they rent.  Council members asked as part of the rewrite, to direct the penalties against the actual person controlling the property at the time of the possible violation.  All members of City Council, expressed their support of the law, and are looking forward to a clearly defined ordinance.

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Low to Moderate Income “New Construction” Big Bear Lake Housing Projects Placed on Hold

Big Bear Lake, CA, March 30, 2011, 2:30pm – During Mondays combined City of Big Bear Lake City Council and Planning Commission meeting, the subject of affordable housing was again discussed with three important policy decisions concluded. The meeting, which lasted nearly 5 hours, filled Hofert Hall to capacity with local citizens who, for the most part, oppose state mandated housing needs assessments and specifically the low-to-moderate income project proposed on Sandalwood in Big Bear Lake.  The opposition, calling themselves the Sandalwood Group, proposed 8 bullet points that they wanted to see in the Big Bear Lake affordable housing plan.  Among the requests were for smaller complexes and mixed-use housing and commercial projects.  At the heart of the debate was the Regional Housing Needs Assessment, or RHNA, numbers in which Sacramento mandates to local governments that they build or make room for low and moderate income housing within their borders.  After a great deal of debate, Big Bear Lake City Council voted that a legal battle over the existing RHNA numbers was not prudent and, thus, affirming that the city would comply.  But how the city would comply sparked further and, at times, heated debate.   The second policy decision which passed on a 3 to 2 vote enabled the city to drop or delay the use of new construction to fulfill the state RHNA numbers and use instead, an existing structure rehabilitation policy combined with an up-zoning policy applied to existing R3, Multi-Family properties in Big Bear Lake.  This action, in and of itself, has put all proposed “new construction” of low to moderate housing on indefinite hold.  Thus this decision has stopped any more progression of the EAH housing development at the Sandalwood site but does not halt finishing the housing project underway at the Knickerbocker site.  The final policy decision made by the City Council was to delay any new low-income housing project for a minimum of 16 months or longer in order to complete the construction of the housing project on Knickerbocker.  This would give everyone time to access future housing needs impacted by this project. It was also pointed out that the current 2010 census and the previous 2000 census reflected a decrease in Big Bear Lake’s population, which should trigger a declining need for housing according to the Southern California Association of Governments. Most city council members agree that the state’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment is out of step with the actual housing needs of a resort town such as Big Bear and have given direction that the next phase of state RHNA discussions will need better input from cities and local regions.

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