The following updates were provided by Riverside County District 1 Supervisor Kevin Jeffries.
No Money-Except
Some of you may have read my article (rant) some months ago about our effort to provide covered bus shelters for fellow residents who depend on riding the local transit buses for work, shopping, etc. Unfortunately, we hit a wall of financial “concerns” over the “affordability” of allowing bus riders to get out of the blistering heat or winter downpours and under a nearby covered bus shelter.
If the goal is really to convince people to use buses more often, logic dictates that comfort and convenience should be a top priority. Well, it would be if only the people-mover powers-to-be had the funds to buy and maintain a $15,000 covered bus stop. But they didn’t, so folks settle in and continue to enjoy the heat and rain until funding can be found.
But wait! Last month, a new proposal surfaced to potentially improve bus ridership by way of improving “accessibility” and “connectivity” and thereby “improve ridership” at one of the existing Transit Facilities located along Hwy 91. So you ask, if $15,000 covered bus shelters break the budget, what is the projected budget for the above Hwy 91 Transit Connector Project? No worries, the cost is only estimated at $178 million! Yes, that equates to 11,866 brand-new covered bus shelters!
Now, to be fair, I grossly oversimplified the complicated funding sources and the description of this transit construction project – but rest easy, as it is projected to serve two buses each day when completed! It’s for the people!—until it’s not. This Bus Boondoggle is currently in the “study phase.”
Mission Impossible?
Last month, I wrote about the March Air Reserve Base and its possible growing mission as the West Coast and the greater Pacific theater become more challenging with China’s military growth and increasing encroachment, and the military technology advances being made by North Korea. This is coupled with a somewhat controversial ongoing push by the March Joint Powers Authority (JPA) to bring more private sector businesses and commercial cargo flights to JPA properties and the base itself (including the use of the base’s runway).
With the above political backdrop, I was recently made aware of the State of California Office of Business and Economic Development (known as GoBiz) having reached out to Riverside County seeking a location for a new manufacturing facility known as the NALINV Technologies project.
NALINV requested to meet with the March Joint Powers Authority to discuss a site for their new USA facility. The County Economic staff then forwarded the inquiry to the March JPA executive staff, who took the lead in helping to secure a proposed location along I-215 and the March Air Reserve Base (FYI – March ARB has numerous National Security Agencies operating on the base).
It turns out NALINV is a China-based film manufacturer! So when the military brass was informed (by a local private citizen) of this proposal, some bells and whistles went off and military investigators were promptly dispatched to obtain details from JPA staff of a Chinese-owned firm’s request to operate next to a U.S. military base.
As a commissioner on the March JPA, I’ve had to learn much of this third-hand from outside sources. I’m told this particular “manufacturing” use is now being deemed “incompatible” for reasons unrelated to the ownership of the company, but being left in the dark by the JPA is not a successful way to communicate.
Vacant Public Safety Positions
I have been learning more as to how bad things are getting for many public safety agencies. The United States Forest Service, California Highway Patrol, and CAL FIRE are just a few having significant to severe challenges in hiring and retaining certain public safety employees. I recently stopped and spoke with a CHP officer during a fire road closure and he advised that when he finished working his shift, he will have put in nearly 20 hours straight, as they are so short-staffed and had no relief available for him.
Apparently, CHP state-wide is short well over 1000 officers. The U.S. Forest Service has been so shorthanded that they reportedly occasionally have fire engines with no one available to staff them. One recent wildland fire located within USFS boundaries just outside of Pine Cove/Idyllwild was reportedly extinguished by state and county fire engines with no USFS fire engines available. And CAL FIRE continues to struggle with its own recruiting and retaining firefighter paramedics to help staff fire engines here in Riverside County.
I will soon be obtaining briefings regarding the recruitment and retention of county sheriff deputies and probation officers. I suspect the news will also not be good. Where did everyone go?
As always, I welcome your feedback with ways to improve county government services, or just to vent about county services. I read nearly every email and personally respond to many. I plan to keep working right until my last day.
Editor’s note: Supervisor Jeffries can be reached at [email protected].
