The last two and a half years in Landers has also been a learning experience as I have gotten to know the folk. These people believe they have long been ignored, neglected and abused by San Bernardino County government. You, the county, have said by your actions that the concerns of Landers are not be the concern of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors. This newbie is now another witness to the abuse and believes that you should be embarrassed and held accountable.
The abuse begins with the first request for county help in Landers, help that is supposed to be available. Yes, we do pay county property taxes in Landers. My own experience contacting county services is that their first priority of county employees is to be as unhelpful as possible, minimizing their response obligations. Some of us are just stubborn enough to demand that the county workers do their jobs no matter how overtaxed they may or may not be, no excuses. After repeated calls to code enforcement and animal control about a trashy property and loose dogs in the neighborhood, I finally made contact with the heads of each department and positive outcomes began to happen.
Most offensive to the folk are two current issues in which the Board of Supervisors has been complicit in dismissing the concerns of Landers. In June of 2013, the BOS approved a rate increase upon the customers of the county run W-1 Water District in Landers, effective in thirty days. An emergency scenario in W-1 was dishonestly dumped upon the Supervisors to justify the increase, this dishonesty resides in the lap of county run and funded Special Districts. While the BOS failed to do due diligence on the worthiness of this request for a rate increase, BOS should have known not to trust anything emanating from this rouge department, Special Districts. The approval for a rate increase was a slap in the face upon the good folk of Landers who knew that the increase and the threat of future increases were financially indefensible.
When Bighorn Desert View Water Agency stepped up to offer relief to W 1 customers by way of annexation, Special Districts management went into panic mode and were suddenly content with just one rate increase. The residents of Landers would like to know for whom else their rate increases were to fund? Is this how the political leaders of this county operate, taking from the relatively poor and giving to the down the hill rich? My requests for financial documentation from Special Districts were again dishonest, deflecting my request for information to the regular audit that was to be out in November. Here we are in January, has anyone seen their audit? Something very shaky is going on and the Board of Supervisors is ultimately responsible. How is it that Bighorn Desert View Water Agency can operate more efficiently, with 100% financial transparency, in the same community with the same resources as the county run W-1? The answer is that we the people have been asked to participate in the decision making at Bighorn.
The second issue is the counties expediting of solar projects in Landers. Please let me be crystal clear, these projects are not wanted in Landers and while we got a slow start, our community has come together and is up in arms against the tyranny of our county politicians, we have had enough! The Planning Commission, a board appointed by the BOS, approved the Bowman Solar Project with little community comment and no support. Our solar leaders in Landers have filed an appeal of the Planning Commission’s approval of the project. The Board of Supervisors will be airing the appeal at a January 6 meeting that should be well attended and of concern to all desert lovers.
We shall be saying, “Don’t trash my desert”!
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca.
