Grant Awarded To Discovery Center’s Nature Explore Classroom

Fawnskin, CA, March 26, 2012, noon - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced the USDA’s continuing commitment to get kids outdoors and connected to the natural world around them with $1 million in cost-share funding from the US Forest Service to enhance children’s programs in 18 states. Some of the Forest Service grant funding will be distributed to the agency’s More Kids in the Woods and Children’s Forests program which includes activities and programs designed to spark curiosity about nature and promote learning. One of the More Kids in the Woods grants is $25,000 awarded to the Big Bear Discovery Center’s Nature Explore Classroom. The project will engage underserved youth of non-traditional and diverse backgrounds. Workshops will be designed through a partnership with the San Bernardino National Forest Association. Once implemented, the classroom will provide formal environmental education programs for 2,000 students and reach up to 250,000 visitors annually.

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City of Big Bear Lake Has Mid-Year Budget Review by City Council

Big Bear Lake, CA, March 20, 2012, 4:00pm - The Big Bear Lake City Council conducted their mid-year budget review last week.  With the elimination of Improvement Agency funds budget adjustments were deemed necessary.  However, even with that loss, the City is reporting that they are still operating within their means and have kept a balanced budget even with the elimination of approximately $112,000 for the rest of this Fiscal Year 2011-2012 and a nearly $760,000 loss for Fiscal Year 2012-13.  In order to account for this, they have and will continue to downsize staff by 5.2 Full-Time Equivalent positions.  That personnel savings equates to $476,000 for the next fiscal year alone.  Most of these positions were vacated by retirements or resignations in which the positions were not refilled.  Reducing contractual services next year will also create additional budget savings.  Items such as  Environmental Impact Reports, routinely done by outside firms, will now be processed in-house by the Planning Staff.

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Parking Regulations Revamped To Help Small Business Community

San Bernardino, CA, March 19, 2012, 8:00am - The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors voted to approve changes to the one-size fits all parking regulations universally applied to businesses throughout the county. The effort to recognize the need for greater flexibility was initiated by Supervisor Neil Derry after a mountain community business owner faced closure due to his inability to acquire the full complement of parking spaces needed to meet county code, and other business owners expressed concerns. Criteria such as square footage, type of business and others are used to calculate the mandated number of parking stalls for businesses.  Previously, these businesses were required to have at least 10 parking spaces and now they can operate under a four parking space minimum. Supervisor Derry says the business community needs to know that their government is responsive and dedicated to being partners in their success, not contributors to their failure. The ordinance must pass a second reading at the next board meeting on March 27 before going into effect.

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Big Bear Airport Director Greene Censured by Board

Big Bear City, CA, March 15, 2012 6:00 pm - The Big Bear Airport District at their regularly scheduled meeting on March 14^th, 2012 exercised a rarely used provision of their Board Members Social Contract to admonish one of their fellow board members.  Director Gloria Green was accused of violating the decorum and social contract in addition violating the Brown Act specifically surrounding employee evaluations completed in committee session which were closed.

Airport President Gary Steube read from the proposed resolution: “Specifically, on February 2, 2012, she not only insisted that she should be able to attend the closed session, she refused to vacate the meeting room, announcing that she would not accept the advice from legal counsel and that she did not care if it was a violation of the Brown Act.

Director Gloria Greene went on to say: “ I’m sorry if you feel that I am the problem on this board but I’m here for the people and I’m going to be the problem” Later she went on to say: “Anybody wanting to see the Social Contract that I’ve got going with this group … I’ll show it to you” “ I have no patience with it and I didn’t come here to be their friend”.

In response to other board members comments she went on to say: “and I don’t care what goes on here I don’t care what they adopt, I’m here for the people until the people remove me … the people remove me … either by recall or just don’t vote for me in November.”

In response President Steube went on to reply: “This is not an attempt to remove Director Greene from office, we can not do that”  He later went on to say; “In my view this board has come a tremendous amount of distance in the last 6 years in terms of  the transparency in which it operates”

It was the opinion of Director Chuck Knight: “I believe that the people in general want us to follow these policies, support them and obeyed by them”

And with that the vote was taken with the results: “So resolution number 2012-01 the public censure of Board Member Greene passes, by a vote of 4 to one with Director Greene in opposition”. With that action taken Director Gloria Greene was removed from the Lease Committee and will need board approval to cover airport related conference travel.

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Veterans Sought For California Conservation Corps Forestry Crews

Sacramento, CA, March 13, 2012, 3:00pm - United States military veterans interested in forestry work can join new California Conservation Corps veterans crews based in Northern California. Members of the residential crews will live and work from centers in Auburn and South Lake Tahoe and get paid training from the U.S. Forest Service in wildland firefighting and chain saw use.  The crews will work on fuel reduction and other forestry-related projects. To qualify, veterans must be between the ages of 18 and 25, have an honorable discharge or general discharge under honorable conditions, and not be on probation or parole. Those interested in applying for the program need to contact the CCC by Monday, April 2. Applicants who complete the program may be eligible for the USFS Wildland Firefighter Apprenticeship Program that can ultimately lead to full-time positions with the Forest Service. Veterans selected for the crew will receive a living stipend, room and board and basic health insurance. Uniforms, safety gear and tools are provided.

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Coalition Submits Signatures for “Part-Time Pay for Part-Time Work” Initiative for San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors

San Bernardino, CA, March 13, 2012, 3:00pm – Last week, the Safety Employees Benefit Association of San Bernardino announced the submission of nearly 70,000 signatures collected by a diverse coalition of San Bernardino County unions, Tea Party Patriots, residents and business leaders to qualify the “Part-Time Pay for Part-Time Work” initiative also known as the San Bernardino County Elected Officials Pay Reduction Act.  43,500 signatures of San Bernardino County voters were required to qualify the measure for the November 2012 ballot.  The charter amendment initiative establishes a part-time board of supervisors reflecting the fact that they have met just half the time in the past two years, reduces their pay and perks accordingly from an average of $271,000 to $60,000 per year, and reduces their office budgets from $6 million to $1.5 million per year.  Supporters of this initiative believe that many of the historical functions of county government have been assumed by other entities, resulting in a diminished role for the board of supervisors as cities have incorporated and regional agencies have been created.  Additionally, supporters feel that our county supervisors have proven that they can do the job by meeting just half of the time as they’ve demonstrated these last two years. The Registrar of Voters has thirty working days to verify the signatures.  Upon verification the Board of Supervisors must set an election for November.

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Big Bear City CSD Special Board Meeting 2012-13 Budget & Planning Workshop

Big Bear City, CA, March 13, 2012, noon - A Special meeting of the Big Bear City Community Services District Board of Directors will take place at 4:00pm this afternoon (March 13, 2012). The meeting will be held at the district Office at 139 East Big Bear Boulevard in Big Bear City. On the Agenda during Open Session – discussion and possible action regarding Review of Fiscal Year 2012-13 Preliminary Budgets including Possible Rate Increase Amounts. The public is invited to attend the meeting, and may speak during public comment time.

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Censure of Airport Board Director Greene Proposed

Big Bear City, CA, March 13, 2012 10:00 am – The Big Bear Airport Board is considering the censure of one of the Directors, Gloria Greene, who was elected to the office in 2008.  The issues surrounding this censure are Brown Act violations, breach of decorum and breach of the Social Contract. This proposed action is slated for the March 14^th regular meeting of the Big Bear City Airport District, which convenes at 4pm in the pilot’s lounge at the airport.  According to the proposed resolution the board may take this action as it is provided in their rules of conduct which, in part, states that “Directors shall accord the utmost courtesy to each other” and also states that the “Social Contract”, “developed and signed by the Directors” subjects directors to censure for violations.  As part of the proposed resolution the Big Bear City Airport Board of Directors resolves that Director Gloria Greene, in part, disregards the Brown Act, disrupts the business of the Airport District and generally shows a preference for having it her way over working with the board members.  The bottom line of this resolution calls for removing Director Greene from the Lease Committee and only allowing her travel expenses to be covered with board approval.  Disruptions and personal attacks have been common practice at Airport Board meetings in the past but in an effort to stem that behavior recent trainings were held by the board regarding “Good Governance”.  According to this most recent Censure Resolution, Director Greene failed to attend.  Her reason for failing to attend was not disclosed in the documents.  The Big Bear City Airport Board meetings are open to the public.

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Big Bear Lake City Council

Big Bear Lake, CA, March 12, 2012 3:00 pm – The Big Bear Lake City Council will convene tonight for it’s regularly scheduled meeting.  After a 5:00 pm closed session meeting regarding issues of litigation the Open session will begin at 6:30 pm at the civic center.  Among the items to be discussed with possible approval is the adoption of the Countywide Vision Statement which among other goals seeks a vibrant economy that creates county wide prosperity.  The Council will receive a presentation from Bear Valley Electric regarding their application to the California Public Utilities Commission for their proposed rate increase.  In other business the council will decide how to distribute nearly $41,000.00 to local community based organizations as part of the Community Development Block Grant Program.  The Council is also considering changing the development code which will allow a storage yard, maintenance and office facility to build in a commercial 2 zone thus paving the way for Southwest Gas to proceed with their new facility on Sandalwood.  And finally in order for the Big Bear Lake Department of Water to proceed with a 5,000,000 low interest USDA bond issuance the council must take affirmative action approving the terms and conditions.  The public is welcomed to participate in person or watch the proceeding on Charter Channel 97 or through the live stream on the City of Big Bear Lake web site.

Sheriff Captain Nicassio retiring after 28 years of service

Big Bear Lake, CA March 12, 2012 8:00 am – Our local Sheriffs department will have a change of command at the end of March.  Captain Tony Nicassio is retiring after serving in the San Bernardino Sheriffs department for 28 years.  Captain Nicassio began serving nearly one year ago and at the time he explained that he was very close to retirement.  On Monday night at the City Council meeting Captain Tony Nicassio will be honored for the work in keeping Big Bear a safe community by working with his officers in reducing crime and saving the taxpayers money with cost sharing traffic enforcement efforts.  He was also a key member that helped provide a resource officer for the Bear Valley Unified School District.   Being promoted to Captain is now Lieutenant Tom Bradford. Tom is very familiar with the Big Bear Area having previously spent many years here raising his family in the valley.  Mayor Bill Jahn stated that he has enjoyed working with Captain Nicassio and welcomes Lieutenant Bradford as our new Captain and his depth of local knowledge.

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