Well, good morning everybody and thank you for joining us today
I'm gonna go ahead and call to order right now the board of directors meeting for December 3rd
2025 for the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority and the San Bernardino Council of governments today
The board will be acting in the capacity of both entities
Therefore each board member will be entitled to receive a hundred-dollar stipend
For doing business as the authority and hundred-dollar stipend for doing business as the cog this time
We're gonna go ahead and adjourn to closed session today in closed session
We have conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation. So I'd like to open it up. Is there anyone with any
Comments or questions on the closed session at this time?
Seeing none, so we'll go ahead and close for a closed session, and I'll be back shortly
Thank you
Well, good morning again. Thank you for sticking with us and joining us today
You can tell the place looks pretty festive. So we're going to get started here
All right, the board has is returning back from closed session and I'll turn it over to council for any report out
There was no reportable action taken
Alright, thank you very much for that
so
We're gonna go ahead and convene the meeting and once again. Thank you all for being here today
I know it's a busy time of year with the holidays and we hope all of you are blessed during this period
That we have some important items to discuss today. So we're all welcome here
First off, we're going to start off with the Pledge of Allegiance and I've never done this before
But I'm going to ask counsel if she would take the time to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance
Thank you very good clerk could you please call attendance?
When I call your jurisdiction, please state your name.
Adalanto.
Ramos, present.
Apple Valley.
Mark Bishop.
Barstow.
Tim Silva.
Big Bear Lake.
Rick Herrick.
Chino.
Chino Hills.
Colton.
Frank Navarro.
Fontana.
Not present.
Grand Terrace.
Bill Hasse.
Hisperia.
Highland.
Loma Linda.
Thank you.
Montclair.
John Trach.
Needles.
present please state your name for the record oh sorry Janet Jurnigan thank you Ontario
Rancho Cucamonga Redlands Redlands Mario Saucida Rialto
Joe Baca present San Bernardino Helen Tran 29 Palms Dan Mintzer Upland
Not present. Victor Bill. Bob Harriman. Eu Kippa. Judy Woolsey. Yooka Valley. Rick Dennison.
County Supervisors. First District. Not present. Second District. Not present. Third District.
Don Rao. Fourth District. Fifth District. Baca Jr. And our Caltrans Exhibition Representative.
Catalino Penning. Thank you. We have a quorum. Thank you. So today I'd like to start off with
with some employee recognitions that we have.
So I'd like you to go ahead and start off.
I help welcome Richard Berger.
Richard is the new planning manager
and for regional programs development.
So Richard, there he is, Richard.
Welcome aboard, Richard.
Well, that's a good recommendation from Arthur, thank you.
So we also have a team member in a new role
and many of you may know, but Joy Santiago
has been promoted to Records Management Specialist
in the Support Services Department.
Enjoy, back there.
As you go upstairs for any business,
that's one of the first happy faces that you see,
but she's still in the same area so you can still say hello.
So congratulations Joy and thank you.
Lastly, we want to recognize Christina Blackwood
for 10 years of service with the agency.
Christina is the accounting manager
in the finance department,
and thank you for your service, Christina.
It's always good to see people working with us
a team builds and it's a great team to work with I'm very thankful. So right now
do we have any first off any notices or agenda modifications? We have none.
Okay great and this is an opportunity are there any public members that would
like to speak on any subject within the board's jurisdiction at this time I have
three cards to speak oh I'm sorry just this one here okay so we have one
currently but if anyone else is interested please report your name with
the clerk. Looks like Andrea Rizzo would like to speak. Oh, Adrian, I apologize.
Please turn on your microphone. Hi everybody, my name is Adriana Rizzo. I'm
just speaking on behalf of SBCTA's public comment policy. SBCTA does not
offer any remote options for comment including phone, and they also do
not allow for public comment on many items that have been held in another
committee and recently they've changed you've changed the deadline to submit
written comments to 2 p.m. which is much earlier than other peer agencies.
Collectively all of this creates a strong barrier for public participation
for members of the public. San Bernardino County is the largest county in the
United States. People if somebody lives in needles or you know somewhere you
know up near the Nevada border like they're going to have to drive three
hours to get here and give comment and that's just really not feasible for a
lot of people so encourage the board to make allow making a phone comment
option available in the future thank you thank you for your comments one other we
have a speaker card here from Steven Rogers listed as a public comment also
did you want to speak for general comment to Steve okay thank you
SPCTA Board Steve Rogers Redlands. I came to speak tonight or today because I
was at last night's Redlands City Council meeting and as I've mentioned
before when I've come and spoken with the board there's a real concern that I
have and I believe that the public will have in the future and I'll just call it
transportation crisis and and the reason I say that is that last night there was
a project approved in the downtown area for 85 apartments and it was on the
consent calendar the approval of the the map for this project basically that was
not processed correctly through the city the city council and the problem here is
that when the train it's the reason we're having so much development in in
our community is is because of the train I think of a lot of it is which is a
good thing the problem is is that there was really a lack of planning done in
the city of Redlands to justify the train in the first place and that was
because they waited until after the train came to do their planning for the
transit villages. Anyway now it's open season for development and basically
this huge project is coming in and no transportation improvements are being
done to support it and I really am concerned that the city of Redlands
along as being condoned that that behavior of not doing the proper
planning for your transportation is is being condoned by this board and
supported by this board because basically originally this board was
supposed to be a transportation planning agency thank you thank you for your
comments I thought that was my Bell this time is there anyone else would like to
speak that is not submitted a card yet. All right thank you very much. So we'll
go ahead and move just a reminder for the board if anybody has a conflict of
interest during this meeting today please notify the clerk of that. So we're
gonna start off with informational items they don't require a vote these are
receiving file items and routine or non-controversial that'll be your agenda
items 2 through 6. So we'll move on to our consent calendar. Items this will be
item 7 through 18. Are there any discussion on the items with the board?
We have approval by Dutray, second by Navarro. We have no one on line. All in
favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstentions? Thank you. The consent calendar passes
unanimously. We're gonna move on to our first discussion item. This will be your
agenda item number 19, adopt resolution, approve bonding documents to issue the
2026 bonds and award single source agreements and Lisa Lazar, please. Thank
you. Good morning Mr. President and board members. This item is to request issuance
for up to 200 million in sales tax revenue bonds. These bonds are requested
to advance projects included in the 10-year delivery plan including but not
limited to the I-10 express lanes, the I-15 express lanes, I-10 cedar interchange,
and the I-10 Mount Vernon interchange. At the time that this item was prepared, we
were still waiting on some bids to come in for projects and we estimated a need
for up to 200 million including a cushion in case the bids came in high.
The estimates included on page 296 of your packet are based on proceeds
totaling 150 million. Now that the bids have been received we have updated the
bond model and anticipate issuing bonds to receive proceeds of around 150
million. Final pricing and sale will occur in January and after completion we
will report the results back to this board via email. Recommendation
A is to adopt the resolution authorizing the issuance of up to 200
million in sales tax revenue bonds as well as authorizing the execution and
delivery of the bond purchase agreement the preliminary official statement the
seventh supplemental in indenture continuing disclosure certificate and
all other actions necessary to close the transaction recommendation B is to
designate be of a securities as a senior manager and Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs
as co-managers to underwrite the transaction recommendation C is to
create the debt service fund and the task to facilitate repayment of the
bonds. Recommendation D is to approve the budget amendment in the current year to
record the issuance and use of proceeds including issuance costs in the capital
improvement funds. Recommendation E and F are to find it in the best interest of
SBCTA to enter single source agreements with Fitch rating and S&P global ratings
to rate the current transaction. SBCTA currently has two bond issues
outstanding and they're both rated AAA by both Fitch and S&P and we expect
similar results. This concludes my presentation and I'm happy to answer any
questions. Thank You Lisa. Appreciate the presentation. At this time any comments
from the public on this item.
Mr. President, I'd like to move the item.
Yes, okay, we have the item moved.
Stephen Rogers, please.
Step to the podium.
FCC TA Board, Steve Rogers Redlands.
Yes, this, when I was talking about a transportation crisis,
this, I believe, is a big part of it.
We're continuing to spend above our means,
and I mean, I guess that's been going
from the very beginning.
And I'm really concerned about this, especially
when it comes to this being funding the I-10 express lanes.
That project, in my opinion, is going
to bankrupt this county.
And the reason I say that is it's
going to turn to the I-10 into a parking lot between,
like it did already in Ontario and with the express lanes,
because it's the opposite of a good design.
And I'm a professional engineer.
And it's like putting a freeway inside a freeway.
And you maximize your conflicts that way.
That's why it's a parking lot there in Ontario.
And I'm really concerned about this,
and I'm gonna talk about it on a couple other items later on
that this transportation crisis
is gonna really become obvious here in the next few years.
People at Redlands Way don't even understand
that express lanes are coming out to Redlands.
So I would suggest that actually
that the Express Lane project be dropped,
you know, in the best interest of this county.
And we can't spend that money to turn that facility
into a parking lot, thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
We have been moved by Ramos.
Also any comments from board members?
Yes.
I know some comments were made by it.
We have sufficient funds to pay these bonds back.
I believe through sales tax we've done our projections,
future projections, or sufficient sales taxes,
all that good stuff.
Mike, right, Kerry?
Yes, and we go through a very diligent process
right at this time, and basically,
we are kicking off that effort with this approval today
to work with the advisors and determine the best way
to advance the projects.
Bonding does come at a cost,
but it allows us to get the projects done sooner,
We have time and time again seen an influx of state predominantly state
But some state and federal dollars that are discretionary that we're able to match with the projects to get them moving
And then of course the I-10 freeway real fast express lanes
Dancing is going well. We're getting the fees
Collecting it's all within projections
No bankruptcy is gonna take place am I correct? There's no indication of any bankruptcy impending bankruptcy Mary Tre
Thank you for your comments any other comments. We're looking for a second. Oh, yes second, but I've got a comment too
Oh, yes, oh Carrie as far as freeways in California. I know the state. I know we have somebody from Caltrans here
What's the potential of building new freeways in California? Is that something building of a new freeway would be?
insurmountable at this point
Given the current state policies and the air conformity requirements that we have
The board made a strategic decision with i-10 express lanes to go from two lanes in each direction to one lane in in each direction
That was our attempt to right-size the project to still meet the demand that we know that it's coming
While acknowledging the state policies related to vehicle miles traveled
So our widening roadway and highway riding projects are very challenged right now
We advocate heavily that we still highlight safety, which is why you know
We brought forward and the board approved prioritizing SR 18
395
the truck climbing lane and cajon pass where we see the majority of our safety concerns along with the highest volumes and
SR 62
247 so we have key highway projects in development in addition to our express lanes all of them are challenged with the
vehicle-mile travel policies that are in place now I would just add we can't forget our region in addition is
Another challenge is the goods movement through our region, so
We have to keep moving forward with projects that allows us to bring capacity forward
Which is what Express lanes does and address the key safety areas that we have in our population centers
So we're just trying to be proactive right based on within our county
Absolutely to do the best to do the best we absolutely can bring as much outside funding as we can and get these
Improvements out to the public as soon as we can. Thank you here
Thank you for the discussion. It's been moved by Ramos seconded by Marquez. Oh, yes, we have additional comment, please
You know on these express lanes, I know this is the bond and stuff but
One of my pet peeves
It's my comment is that we pay so much in gas taxes
Registration everything for vehicles and I used to commute back and forth as you express lane fees, especially the 91 you could pay
$25 one way
I don't know what the 10 is, but
Why can't we just make hov lanes because we pay so much in taxes. Why do we have to have express lanes?
So the gas tax has been deteriorating in recent years and it is something that's gonna have to be addressed at the state level
It's not a sustainable fund source at this point, but it is not enough to pay for
maintenance of the existing system and
expansion of the existing system and I understand the express lanes and paying the fees and the whole process
associated with that can be frustrating especially when you're you're first starting to figure out how it works and
But really express lanes are only way to ensure some capacity
can be relied upon and it also provides away by those that choose to pay the fee and get in the Express Lane are
Creating capacity in the general purpose lanes. It's not a perfect system
But it is the system that allows us to try to address the the growing demand that's there
Yeah, and I would just say one different if I may
This board debated Express lanes many years ago and one of the outcomes of that debate was our
toll, our toll fees are lower than our adjacent counties and that was very important to this
board along with the veterans program and getting transponders out at no cost to disadvantaged
folks. So not a horrific system it's the system we have to try to continue to add capacity and
allow people a choice. So someone may not choose to use the express lanes every day but maybe they
they have a doctor's appointment to get to or daycare or something and then they
choose this day that that is worth it to me and I can afford it and everyone that
moves from that general purpose lane into the express lane is creating
capacity and the general purpose. Yeah I understand it's just when you're
commuting back and forth and you're paying all these high prices on
everything for vehicle registration the gas tax and everything else it can be
you know that's the big question why they have express lane and I got to pay
for that now I know it's a choice and you know $25 that's a big choice to go
one way and then if you go both ways I mean you could come up with $50 a day
that's a lot companies are paying for it you know that's overhead on companies
but it's just it just seems like it's way too much you know we pay way too
much in the state for all these fees to have this to try to justify it when we
could have the extra lane for regular traffic so that's just my concern
and there's a lot of other concerns,
especially when I commuted from Grand Terrace
to Long Beach every day for nine years and then to LA.
So it can add up.
Now the three plus is great.
And it is benefits for veterans,
disabled veterans and stuff.
But it just seems like for the average person,
even me, I'm not paying $25 to go one way for 10 miles.
That $25 has got to take me all the way up to,
from one side of the state to the other state,
not 10 miles, that's crazy.
So that's just a concern that a lot of people ask about that.
And why are we voting for this?
To spend money to get this and the bonds and everything,
because I know it's an investment.
So that's just my comment on that.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
Just remember that another reason why this is happening,
because this state has a climate policy.
The state doesn't want us to increase capacities
on freeways anymore.
They want us to go to bikes and transit and other things.
So in order for them to do this, we have to find other sorts of funds in order to increase
capacity.
So that's part of it, the state policy.
All right.
Comments are done.
We have a move by Ramos again, seconded by Marquez.
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
One.
And abstentions.
Thank you.
The item passes with 24 in favor, one opposition, opposition being Bill Hussey.
Thank you.
Thank you for the discussion, we are going to move on to item 20, board member appointments
and opportunities to serve and Marlena Roman is going to be heading up this.
Good morning Mr. President, members of the board I'm right here.
Recommendation A is requesting approval for the appointment of Mayor Pro Tem Alan Wapner
to serve as the primary member on the SCRA board and Mayor John Dutray to serve as the
alternate member these appointments were recommended by the transit committee
and for terms expiring December 31st 2029. Recommendation B is to notice the
dissolution of both the COG ad hoc committee and the Housing Trust ad hoc
committee and lastly the remainder of the item is to apprise the board of
various opportunities to serve based on current appointments coming up for
expiration. If any board members are interested in appointment or being
reappointed please reach out to me by the end of next week and with that I'd be
happy to answer any questions. All right thank you very much for the
presentation. Are there any public comments on this item number 20? See none
back to board. Any conversation with your comments? Yes, Mr. McCall. Thank you Mr.
Chair. I know this GAG regional council representative SBCTA has been Alan
Wapner as he said he doesn't interest in the position anymore. I'm sorry I have not
received any interest from any board members as of yet. I just wonder if he
was asked. We stopped asking for reappointment just to put it out there
and post it so the opportunity is available. Okay thank you. All right thank
you for the comment. Any additional? Yes. Just a quick question. Last time Allen
was nominated and actually got the committee. Who was his alternate at that
time was it John or was it myself and the reason I'm asking is it for which
committee this would be for Alan Walker is the last time this came up who was the
alternate for SCRA and for Metrolinx yes it was John Dutray okay so they're both
being reappointed okay so let me make sure okay thank you for the
clarification we have the tray moved second by borrow oh I'm sorry art you
you have a comment? Okay so I had the move by Detroit second by Navarro all in
favor? Opposed? Abstentions? The item passes unanimously. Okay we're gonna have Marlena
back for item number 21 this is a SB 707 revision to policies and meeting
procedures. Okay so under SB 707 revisions have been made to the Brown Act
requiring us to revise our policies and meeting procedures back in June 2023
the SBCTA board approved revisions to policy providing that no public comment
would be allowed on any item previously considered at a policy committee meeting
effective January 1st the government code as a requirement resulting in
public comments being allowed for items on consent if the quorum of the
committee wasn't physically present therefore staff recommends we revise our
policies and meeting procedures to allow public comment on the consent calendar.
Additionally, language has been added to the meeting procedures to memorialize
the state law allowing a board or committee member to participate
remotely as a reasonable accommodation for disability. And lastly,
a copy of the updated Brown Act will be provided to all SBCTA legislative
bodies after January 1st so that we are in compliance with government code. With
With that, I'd be happy to answer any questions.
Thank you.
Are there any questions of the public on this item?
Seeing none, back to board members?
We have a move by Navarro.
We have a second by Marquez.
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Abstentions.
The item passes unanimously.
All right, thank you for that.
We're gonna move on to agenda item number 22.
And this is a construction contact award
for the I-215 landscape Bicounty segment five project.
One was already
Good morning. Everyone. Good morning board members
the interstate to 15 by County segment 5 project
Is the final project to complete landscape along the to 15 corridor between the Riverside County line on the south and state route to 10?
on the north
The project will provide efficient irrigation and drought tolerant planting combined with gravel wood mulch and
rock boulders
Funding consists of 24% Measure I funds,
70% state transportation program funds,
and 6% funding for projects of national
and regional significance.
In July of last year, 2024, the board authorized
the executive director to release an invitation for bids.
An invitation for bids was released
on September 3rd this year via PlanetBids
and downloaded by 40 firms.
On October 15th this year, SBCTA received two bids,
one from Marina Landscape
and the other from Biodor Construction Company.
The bids were reviewed and deemed responsive.
The low bid came in at 8.6 million,
21% below the engineers' estimate.
The engineers' estimate was 10.9 million.
Marina Landscape, Incorporated,
was determined to be the lowest responsive
and responsible bidder.
Therefore, staff recommend the board
award the construction contract to marina landscape
in an amount not to exceed 8,601,921 dollars and 10 cents.
Staff also recommend approval of an allowance
in an up to exceed amount of $1,356 in one cent.
for project contingency, agency furnished materials,
and supplemental work.
That concludes my presentation.
Mr. President, move approval.
Yes, we have it moved by Michael and second by Tran.
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Abstentions?
Thank you.
Oh, I'm sorry, I apologize.
Any public comment on the item that was presented?
All right, thank you.
Bring it back to board.
The item passes unanimously.
Okay we're gonna move on to our next item which is item number 23 on your
agenda. Juan is gonna stay up there and this one is for the I-10 contract one
landscape project construction contract. Yes so this I-10 contract one landscape
project is a follow-on project to the I-10 contract one Expresslands project.
The project will also provide drought tolerant planting combined with the wood
with gravel mulch and rock boulders.
This project is funded entirely with Measure I funds.
Due to issues with the Express Links contract
and in order to meet the scope of work
and environmental requirements,
SBCTA procured and the board approved
a separate landscape design contract back in June of 2023.
On December 4th, last year, 2024,
the board authorized the executive director
to also release an invitation for bids on this project.
On October 24th, the project received
Caltrans conditional design approval
with an engineer's estimate of 12.9 million.
Under that approval, SBCTA released an invitation
for bids on November 4th this year
with a bid due date of yesterday, December 2nd.
So, yesterday we did receive three bids.
Project delivery is currently conducting bid analysis
and reviewing criteria for responsiveness.
While the project is under review
for going through bid analysis,
staff would like to recommend or request
that the board authorize the executive director
to execute the landscape construction contract
to the lowest responsible bidder upon approval
as to form by general counsel.
That concludes my presentation.
If there's any questions.
Well, thank you for the presentation.
Do we have any public comment on this item?
This is item number 23.
Seeing none, we'll bring it back to the board for comments.
Yes, Member Michael.
I'll move.
Second.
Move.
And who do we have, Tran again?
Second, okay.
Moved by Michael, second by Tran.
All in favor?
Opposed? Abstentions? Thank you. The item passes unanimously. Alright we're gonna
move on now to item number 24. This is our Ontario Connector Project and
cancel procurement and close the project and Victor Lopez will be presenting.
Good morning board members. As mentioned this item is for the Ontario
International Airport Connector Project. So a little over a year ago this board
for shortlisting two design bill teams based on a request
for qualification process.
The two teams that were then issued a request
for proposals and we entered
into a pre-proposal works agreement
that ultimately required the teams
to submit a proposal towards the end of this year.
Similar to other design bill procurements,
the intent was to award a contract
to the best value proposer.
So based on this process,
the technical portion of the proposals were evaluated
and then the price proposals were released
to our teams to evaluate.
Both teams prepare very detailed technical proposals,
but the price proposals came in significantly higher
than estimated with the lowest price proposal coming in
at 1.28 billion dollars and the second at 2.46 billion dollars.
So as noted in prior updates,
closing the funding gap for this project
requires substantial state and federal grant funding.
However, based on the best received,
the funding gap would grow to over a billion dollars,
making the project less competitive
for state and federal funding,
for state and federal discretionary grant funding.
So based on the lack of a viable financial path forward,
they will close the funding gap.
Staff recommends canceling the procurement,
de-allocating the funds,
and previously allocated to the project,
and as noted under the recommendation.
We do recognize the importance of a time-focused,
direct transit connection
between the Cucamonga Station
and the Ontario International Airport,
and we will continue to look for solutions
as metering service increases
and as the Ontario International Airport
continues to grow and build out its facilities.
In the meantime, staff recommends continuing
the existing ONT Connect Shuttle service
to provide the important transit connection
between the Ontario International Airport
and the Cucamonga Station.
That concludes my presentation
and I'd be happy to answer any questions.
Thank you very much for the presentation on the item.
We're gonna go ahead and open it up
for public comment right now.
I have two speaker cards, and if you want to speak
after these speakers, please submit a card
of interest to speak.
Adrian Rizzo, please.
Hello everybody, my name's Adrian Rizzo.
I'm here representing California's Electric Rail
and Inland Urbanist Volunteer
Transit Adversity Organizations.
support the recommendation in item 24 that this project be closed out and the
funds redirected to other transit uses such as the West Valley Connector slash
Silver Line and the existing shuttle service transit advocates in the area
have been advocating against this project for years I'm glad to see that
that SBCDA has finally listened to our feedback.
$2 billion for an unproven technology
that moves fewer people than a bus would
is just not a responsible use of taxpayer funding.
And these cost increases were entirely expected.
We've been warning about this for years
and I encourage the board to prioritize taxpayers
and moved to close this project.
In the short term, as I mentioned,
there are existing or planned bus service in the area
that could use the extra funding.
In the long term, I encourage the SBCTA
to work with the Brightline West,
California High Speed Rail and Metrolink
to move forward on a heavy rail connector,
such as a Brightline West extension to the airport
that would be higher capacity,
rely on proven technology and is in compliance
with the state rail plan.
I also encourage the board to work
to increase service frequency
on the Metrolinx San Bernardino line
to every 15 minutes
by supporting various capacity projects
in order to improve connectivity
to both Bright Lane and for local residents.
Finally, the board should consider long-term planning
for electrification of the Metrolinx San Bernardino line
in order to increase compatibility
with Brightline West,
recent report by California's Galactic Rail,
which I included in a comment to the board,
has found that electrification and level boarding
on the San Bernardino line would take a trip from Rancho
to downtown LA under an hour,
which would make it very competitive for,
again, starving and also provide some of the congestion
relief that we need on the 10 that we're just talking about
with the I-10 express lanes.
So inclusion, please close out this project
and plan for higher capacity proven solutions
in the area, transit solutions.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comment.
Our next speaker will be Steven Rogers.
SPCTA board, Steve Rogers Redlands.
I completely agree with the previous speaker.
This project has been a joke from the very beginning.
And really, I guess it boils down to,
it was an excuse as to why we bailed out on the gold line.
And then that's something I'll talk about more
in the next, with the next item.
But I mean, sure, electrifying the,
And San Bernardino MetroLink might be a long term answer,
but I'll tell you right now.
We should have continued with the Gold Line
and instead of spending all that money
on the train between Redlands and San Bernardino
that nobody uses because it's antiquated technology,
even though talking about a program
that must have exploded in cost
because of having to go with these new hydrogen fuel cells
or whatever we're doing.
But I mean, all of this is a big waste of money,
in my opinion, and the gold mine,
which was planned originally to go all the way out
to Redlands, which is light rail, okay?
That's what we need.
And so we're, this is another reason why I believe
that we're in for a big awakening with regard to,
we're talking about bankruptcy before.
It's not so much bankruptcy because of the costs
which are extreme, but it's also bankruptcy
because access in general is going to be limited.
We're gonna have essentially a gridlock situation
on a lot of these things,
and it all needs to be integrated together,
and use technology instead of just spending your money
on antiquated things like the arrow.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
Then we'll move it back to the board
for any comments or questions.
Yes.
Mayor Martin.
I take offense when somebody says
a project that we've been working on for some time
has been a joke from the beginning,
so I wanna apologize, but that's not a joke.
It was just a couple months ago
that we sat in this room and struggled
with the cost of the A-line extension
from Claremont to Montclair.
The cost went increased significantly.
We have been planning on the Ontario Connector
for several years now.
It started off with the boring company,
and then we couldn't work with them.
But as a responsible member of this body,
and I think we're all here for the same reason,
that is to move projects forward
when they financially make sense.
And since this project morphed from $600, $700 million
to $1.2 billion in the lowest bid,
it's insane to even consider it going any further with this.
And I would fully agree, unfortunately,
as difficult as it is for me, being at the Hookamunga Station
and our council and our members of our community
and the whole region, I think it's time
that we look for other alternatives.
We already talked about increased frequency
on the MetroLink line to facilitate moving people
from Montclair on further into LA through Pomona Station.
And I think that we need to do the same thing.
we already have a Ontario shuttle connect,
I think there's time for us,
not only to look at increasing the frequency
of our Metrolink line,
but also the enhancement of the shuttle service
from the Metrolink station in Rancho Cucamonga station
to Ontario airport with other means of travel.
And I think we need to start exploring those things.
But I would make the motion as sad as it is
so go ahead and approve staff's recommendation.
Thank you, Mayor Michael, for your comments and your motion.
We have a second by Navarro.
We have a comment from Detroit.
Yeah, I'll just add to the motion that the vendors, I think we should have a discussion
at a future transit committee to discuss the shuttle service, work with Army Trans.
This is an important connection to the airport from Metrolinx, excuse me, from the ranch
come on the station with Brightline coming in with the Olympics coming in as well so
we need to have I think there's improvements to be done with that shuttle
system so I think that's a good conversation to have with the transit
committee. For future conversation yes. Understood we'll have staff take a look
at it and we come back to the transit. Not next week. Yes comment from Ray Marquez
please. Or was it? I'm sorry Archbishop please. Yes thank you. It's just a sad
day, most everybody in this room has been aware and been working on this
project in the discussion phase for a long time and I do know our staff has
put a tremendous amount of work going back to Dr. Wolf and the staff and what
that vision and that plan was. It had always been my hope as a as a commuter
from the high desert to be able to take a bright line from Apple Valley to
Rancho Cucamonga, the beautiful city of Rancho Cucamonga. That was for you, Dennis, for the
beautiful city of Rancho Cucamonga, and then be able to take, and Kurt Hagman took a group of us
to Las Vegas. This technology is currently in Las Vegas where the underground tunnel was,
and it was extremely interesting. So it's just sort of a sad day for me to have to go back and
tell the residents of the high desert who've been thinking for years, this is something in
in the future we'd be able to do and accomplish
now that it looks like at this time
it's going to be something we're just going to have to hold on.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
Yes, everyone, Chris.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Going back, first of all, Mr. Michaels,
thank you for those comments.
I really do appreciate that.
And I believe how you feel is how I feel.
But going back to the A-line, we weren't the lead agency
on that project, but we were willing to obligate ourselves
to about $90 million.
And the cost of the project, basically as today,
we really don't even know what the cost would have been.
I know they give us a range between 150 to $250 million.
And so our staff tried very hard,
our board tried very hard to put this project together.
And again, I know we're looking at different options today,
so hopefully we'll be able to come back to the board
with some updates.
But I just want to commend this board
for really trying to make that happen.
0.6 miles coming into San Bernardino County line.
Thank you, Mr. President.
thank you I'm just curious um what have we spent to date on this project
Victor what have we spent to date so since the initial project planning we spend about 26
million dollars so we that was from the early planning phases all the way to completing the
environmental process and support staff to get through the um design bill programming process
We do still have about 10 more million dollars
going to the design bill teams for their,
essentially time and effort they spent over the last year
working on this design process.
So I would just add is we did get a,
we environmentally cleared a project.
We have strong technical provisions
and I understand this may not be ultimately
where the board wants to go in the future.
And we have, I'd say 20% level design
that we own, that we have, that is now ours.
So it didn't deviate.
The cost is not out of what your expectation would
be for accomplishing those milestones
for a project of this size.
It's just.
Is any of that salvageable?
Are we going to be able to use any of that research
for anything else?
I think absolutely.
I don't have a recommendation on what direction
to go at this point.
and I think we need to take a hard look at it.
We do have an environmentally cleared project footprint,
and while it is a sad day,
it is a frustrating day, personally, for me as well.
I don't like to see this.
I've built a lot of great projects,
and it's very frustrating to be at this point.
We cannot ignore the value of the Metrolink-Samurindino line,
and especially that we have passenger as priority
freight which is a huge resource for for the this region the bright line
connection coming in which includes three round trips of commuter type
service to Rancho Cucamonga and that the airport has thrived under local control
I don't know if it's been ten years now but it's a huge economic driver for our
region so it is frustrating to be here but it doesn't mean we shouldn't be
looking at how to connect these important resources that's what I would
We all agree we need a connection. It's just I'm hoping the 26 million that there's something
Salvage and that we can apply to another alternative
That's a lot of money
Thank you for your comments and
I'll say oh, yes, Jeremiah. I'll just ask one more question regarding this what we've done so far
It doesn't mean I'm I
I believe we're going to see contract costs go up, up, and up all the way through the Olympics in
2028. But it doesn't mean, and Carrie, I just would like, it doesn't mean that this couldn't
possibly come back when costs of construction turn the other direction, and we have a potential of
looking at this again. We've already got the EIR clearance and different things along those lines,
correct? Yeah, we have both CEQA and Niposo State and Federal, which is important for a project of
this size. I don't know that I would say see project costs come down but I think
what you could see is the ridership on Metrolink grow with increased
frequency and the usage of Ontario International Airport continue to grow
at a study rate that puts us in a position where the ridership numbers are
more appropriate for seeking a grant of that size. For grant funding, thank you.
Appreciate it. Alright, thank you for the additional comments and I will just say
also I agree with many of the board members here that I love the future we
all dream of it and that's what we do here we build projects for that meet the
demands of the future and this was one of them that was would have really made
a difference but the costs have escalated so much that I can't really
move forward at this dollar amount for the county we have other projects that
need our attention so with that we had a move by Michael we had a second by
I navor all in favor.
I opposed.
Abstentions.
Thank you for the conversation and the vote.
The item passes unanimously.
Okay, next we're gonna move on to item number 25 update
on SCAG and STBG, or SKAG, I'm sorry, STBG,
and CMAQ call for projects.
Good morning, Mr. President and members of the board.
This item had previously been presented
to both the Metro Valley study session
as well as the mountain desert committees
during the month of November.
The information contained in the background
of this agenda item is largely, well is unchanged.
SCAG staff is moving forward with their recommendation
to the regional council tomorrow.
That recommendation currently still includes 18 projects
for full consideration plus one
for contingency consideration.
Those projects are included
as attachment one to the agenda item.
The reason for this item being brought
before the board this morning on discussion calendar
is that during the Metro Valley study session,
there was a motion made to add recommendation B,
which would create and establish an ad hoc committee
to guide the conversation on the 2.5% regional
set-aside portion of SCAGS, CMAC, and STBG apportionment,
and how SBCTA as a body can both advocate for its needs
as well as to work together to secure funds
from that portion of proposed funding.
So with that, I'm free to answer any questions.
That concludes my report.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Ryan, for the presentation.
We'll open it up to the public
for any comments on this item.
This will be item number 25.
Seeing none, we'll bring it back to the board
for any questions or comments.
Oh, excuse me.
I do have a speaker card from Steven.
First, I'd like to go ahead and also announce
Mayor Tran has had to leave the meeting.
And so Stephen, come on up.
The podium's yours.
SPCTA board, Steve Rogers Redlands.
I'll make this quick.
I noticed on there that the Ad Hoc Committee
is going to be looking at how, I guess,
to accommodate transportation for the LA,
Olympics and and this is I know in the past that was
That the hope was that the gold line would be brought all the way out to
Ontario and
I'm just really concerned that we're gonna leave
The LA Olympic folks sort of high and dry here and at the same time leave
the city of Ontario
and their airport in sort of a situation
that I don't see, to me it's sort of a crisis
that's been created by this board
and there's really not a fix for it
because the gold line has been scrapped.
There's no way to, through San Bernardino County
it's been scrapped, there's no way for us
to have any other kind of alternative
that would serve that purpose of bringing people
in for the Olympics to the airport in Ontario
and moving them into LA.
So to me, this is a really big reason
why I believe that this board has created its own problems
then I don't really see why this board even exists.
To me, it's a political body
that has taken the place of Caltrans
just because we voted to be a self-help county
and that we wanted to use gas tax money
to do more transportation improvements.
We didn't want to pay for an entire another agency
that, I mean, it's the biggest agency, I think,
in the county now, besides the county,
and certainly the most powerful board,
because all the money comes through here.
I don't, and all the federal funds, essentially.
So, again, I mention this quite a bit
when Dr. Wolf was the head,
and so, you know, Carrie's heard this before,
and you know, again, there's a lot of a reason
why things haven't gone right in Redlands
and it's because basically the oversight,
which used to be Caltrans, has been eliminated.
You know, they used to take away money
if you didn't do it right, thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
Any other public comments?
All right, bringing it back to the board for comments
or to move the item?
Moved by McCollum, second by Baca, Sr.
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Abstentions?
Thank you.
Let the record reflect that remark has stepped away
and the item passes unanimously.
All right, moving on to item number 26.
This will be a update on the Housing Trust JPA.
Yes, good morning.
Good morning, item 26 before you.
Is request for approval of a change
the original board approval from 2023 regarding the governance structure for the San Bernardino
Regional Housing Trust. So since that approval in 2023, SB 20 which was authored by Senator Rubio
was passed in the legislature and it provides requirements for how housing trusts ought to be
structured both for governance and for implementation of housing programs and it differs
from what we had originally approved. The contradiction between what the board approved
and the provisions outlined in SB 20 exist at a few levels and I'm going to get into them
but I want to be clear about why this is such a concern that warrants a change in the board's
approval which is what we're requesting today. Number one, competitiveness and eligibility for
state funds are of great concern if the trust does not comply with the provisions of SB 20,
and additionally, the Housing Trust's mission is to bring funding of various income levels from
extremely low to moderate income housing projects in the region, which would include
homeownership programs and projects as well as affordable housing projects. The
provisions of SB 20 seem to contradict the prioritization and program options
for homeownership opportunities which was identified as a clear priority of
this board through the strategic plan process that we went through in 2022 and
2023 and it was again reinforced by the ad hoc in October. So staff brought this
discussion to the ad hoc with the recommendation for this item on the
discussion and feedback that was received from that ad hoc the
recommendation is that the board approved proceeding with establishing the
Housing Trust Joint Powers Authority to address both the provisions of SB 20
and the provisions of the JPA Act as it was originally improved. There's going to
be some deviations and I'm gonna I'm gonna get into that but hopefully we can
move forward with that and move the JPAs among your your member agencies.
Really quickly to go over the the timeline again for the project we are in
in that third yellow box there.
We are really excited about getting the board formed.
Our goal is to have all interested agencies adopt the JPA
by mid-February so that we can have our first housing trust
board meeting as early as March.
So establishing a housing trust,
this is kind of a recap on how housing trusts are structured.
One is a local structure,
so a county or a city can establish their own.
example would be the San Diego Innovative Housing Trust. There are
regional housing trusts and they are allowed under the joint
exercise of Powers Act and they can have a nonprofit component and San Gabriel
Valley Regional Housing Trust is an example of that and then nonprofits can
also form their own trusts. The regional housing trust establishment options were
originally the JPA authority but with SB 20 we still have a choice right we can
either we can do either or or as we've come to realize we can actually combine
them but under the Joint Exercise of Powers Act two or more public agencies
can jointly exercise any powers that are common to them so essentially whatever
powers you reserve in your city or county bringing them together you can
exercise them together. Under SB 20 two or more public agencies can enter into a
JPA to create and operate a regional housing trust specifically to fund
housing for extremely low very low and low income families and those
experiencing homelessness and that's kind of where our rub lies. The JPA
structure, the JPA act is the structure under which the board originally
approved the establishment of governance for as one representative per
jurisdiction and to meet the requirements of SB 20 we can still have
one representative per jurisdiction but the board would also need to appoint at
least two unelected housing policy experts. So if all agencies that submitted
letter of interest were to join, it would be 19 jurisdictional representatives and
they would appoint two policy experts in addition to those elected officials. The
pros and cons of working through SB 20, if we are an early enactor of this
special legislation it might draw state attention and there's a potential for a
state budget earmark that might be greater. The cons it specifies the board
composition but we can work with it if if this board is in agreement with that
and it potentially precludes the trust from funding moderate income housing if
we if we go with SB 20 on its own. So initially staff had believed it had to
be one form or another but following the ad hoc discussion and working with legal
counsel we determined that a low risk solution would be to include the
provisions for both as reflected in the recommendation on item 26 and this is
exemplified in San Gabriel's Regional Housing Trust, JPA language as well. So
to provide a full picture of the implications of choosing one over the
other, this is the 2024 data from the California Department of Housing and
Community Development, better known as HCD, to choose SB 20 over the JPA Act
would not allow for the programming for moderate income families, and that's that
top level. Those, that moderate income level is right where your home ownership
programs would be targeted.
And then to provide more data,
as to the need for housing at multiple levels of income,
these are the costs that were taken from Zillow.
It's a snapshot from April 2025,
and it's really just the median home sale prices
in each of your eight jurisdictions.
These are earmarks that have been delegated
to housing trusts since 2021.
Two of these were moved by Senator Rubio,
who's also the author of SB 20.
And so we are very interested in requesting an earmark
as well.
So key considerations and feedback
that we received from the ad hoc,
we wanna set up the housing trust to be eligible
for as much funding as possible.
The housing trust needs to be able to work
on moderate income programs and projects,
which would include home ownership,
middle income housing and workforce housing.
And then understanding that SB 20 is authored
by Senator Rubio, several budget authorizations
have been authored by her as well.
And the use of the SB20 framework
may garner support from Senator Rubio
and potentially we would be successful
in receiving state funding
as there are no other housing trusts
that have been formed under SB20 yet.
And then again, non-elected appointees
and field experts criteria is identified
in the legislation and we would know,
we would need to know whether or not
the board would want to add additional criteria.
So moving forward, the Joint Powers Authority Agreement
will include language from both the JPA Act and SB-20
if the board approves that recommendation today,
and staff will work with city managers
to identify additional criteria options
if that's of interest to the board
for appointees for consideration.
So with that, I am happy to take any questions on this.
Very nice presentation, thank you, on the update.
We'll open it up for public comment at this time
on the item, item number 26.
Seeing none, move back to the board
for comments or discussion.
Oh, I see you over there, Rick.
Yes.
Thanks, Rick.
As far as the appointees are concerned,
who does the appointing and what's the criteria?
The board would appoint the unelected officials
and the criteria is very broad.
I don't have it off the top of my head.
It is in the legislation under SB 20
and I can get that to you.
So it'd be the control of the board, essentially?
Yes.
Thank you.
And just to provide some example, San Gabriel Housing Trust is formed in this
manner and typically their appointees are agency staff. Any other questions
from board members or anyone to move the item? Mayor Dutray moves, Rommel seconds.
All in favor? Opposed? Abstentions? Thank you. The item passes unanimously. I've been
looking forward to this one. This is our last item of the day, agenda item number
27 from the San Antonio County Fire Protection District and we have Chief
Dan Muncy here today to present. Oh I'm sorry first I got to tell the actual
Suzanne Pimpson. I'm sorry. I got so excited about having the fire department here. I'll give out of his way in just a
second. I just wanted to introduce Chief Muncy. We've been working with him and
his team on a variety of projects including a couple of our recently
funded projects through a Caltrans grant on climate adaptation and resilience
he and his team have really just provided a lot of valuable insight and
perspective to us and we wanted to allow an opportunity to or for him to share
some of that with you as well. Thank you Suzanne for getting us to this point.
This is great. Well let's see if we can get you the point of In-N-Out. Not me
In-N-Out but the hamburger. If you're a previous, I love doing straw
holes real quick so previous law enforcement raise your hand or law
enforcement active one guy all right didn't work out for everybody if you're
a firefighter or previous firefighter raise your hand yeah for Josh actually
I don't allow you to fight fire anymore but good to see you are so a couple of
concepts that I really believe in one is you are who your friends are my mom told
me that in high school I think she was seeing me hang out with people that
that probably shouldn't hang out with
and it literally caused me to drop out of high school.
Became a rock climber, moved to Joshua Tree,
friend fell, broke his back,
got my GED, went to EMT school,
became a firefighter and then a paramedic,
it worked out for me.
But what I realize now is that it's more critical than ever
that we hang out as a fire district
for the best people in management.
And this year we went to an innovation retreat
at Microsoft early in the year
and I told our executive team,
stop comparing us to Orange County Fire.
Look, Orange County's great,
but they're funded twice as much.
They have the same amount of incidents.
Very small county, we're the third rated disaster county.
Why are we hitting above our weight compared to Orange County?
It's because of partnerships, relationships,
and this culture of innovation.
We just simply do things different.
The second concept that I really believe in
is we're better together.
And while we're the County Fire District,
We are working very closely with law enforcement, with fire agencies, with the state, the federal
government, local ambulances, the San Bernardino Office of Emergency Services, Red Cross, on
and on and on.
We want to make sure that we are aligning ourselves so that we're moving towards a vision
that we collectively agree on.
If I have a vision that's out of alignment with, say, Rancho Cucamonga's fire district
which is a great fire district, Dennis.
It's, we're not gonna be better together,
that synergism's very important.
The third thing is what does good look like?
And this is a question I ask our executive team a lot.
Because if we don't know what good looks like,
how are we going to be able to achieve it?
And so now I wanna come back to Monique and her team
and I wanna express just deep gratitude
because they understand these concepts
and they've proactively reached out
to the fire district numerous times,
whether it's on evacuation routes,
or just thoughts on transportation, corridors,
and lately it's about wildland management.
I've had the opportunity to speak in front of Congress
a couple of times this year,
and I said some stuff that even surprised me.
But one of the things that I said
was that there's lies that we tell as truths.
These lies we say it so often that we believe they're true,
but they're not actually true.
And this is after an opening monologue
about how bad the Eaton and Palisades fire,
how bad of a wildfire these were.
And I pointed out the Eaton and Palisades
weren't really devastating wildfires.
This is urban conflagration.
This is house to house burning.
And we need to focus on the local aspect of that.
That is a local government decision
that is planning decisions
on how we prevent those fires from happening.
That could never happen here, never in San Bernardino,
except it has.
Several times, the Paradise, the Grand Prix,
It almost happened on the Line Fire.
We saw the Bridge Fire this year.
It's repeatable.
One of our famous individuals that we follow closely,
who is law enforcement, I'll give the credit here,
is a guy named Gordon Graham.
And Gordon Graham says, what's predictable is preventable.
The second lie that I think that we
tell that is true is that we need to look at
is that this nation, or California, if you want,
or San Bernardino has a wildfire crisis.
We don't have a wildfire crisis.
We have a land management crisis and when we aren't managing our wild land, whether
it's in a federal estate, incorporated, or unincorporated, we are going to have fires
that we can't control.
Most of my peers will get in front of you and say, I need more fire engines, I need
more firefighters, I need bulldozers, and I need aircraft.
That's how we're going to put the fires out.
I want to remind everybody here that my job, my primary purpose is to prevent the bad stuff
from happening only when we fail that we are going to be extraordinarily great
amazing together all the agencies are responding and we are so why do I keep
talking about planning San Bernardino County fire has been in the news often
if I think if you were to ask chat GBT who's the most forward innovative fire
district in America I pretty think don't know but I'm thinking San Bernardino
County is going to come up because that's what the industry believes they
look at what the men and women are doing here across the county because when we
adopt tech and innovation we're doing it together. But I don't think that's the
story. When you look at our organization the story is we plan we are great
planners and we think about probabilities we think about impacts we
think about how we're better together what partnerships relationships what
innovation do we need to achieve and focus on the outcomes of what we're
going to do. Too often we're focused on the outputs of what we want to do and
recently I called the state Cal Fire Chief up, Chief Tyler, Director Tyler and
I said hey I just saw the state of California through Cal Fire gave a
local community college six hundred thousand dollars to produce a document
for residents that are living in the wildland urban interface. Six hundred
thousand dollars for a document that tells you how to live in the wildland
in face by the way just let them know it's on our web page the Forest Service
webpage, Cal Fire's webpage, Apple Valley's web page, Rancho's, Chino's webpage. Why
are we doing 600,000 and they said well they meant the grant specifics. We have
to stop focusing on the outcomes back to Monique. One of the things I've been
talking to me SB Cog about is that we need to do regional planning and so I've
hired back Peter Briardy as a returning retiree. Peter, if you remember back 10
years ago, 20 years ago, we had the bark beetle infestation. The mountains look
brown. Peter worked with a gentleman named Glenn Barley who is our Cal Fire
Unit Chief and they removed 1.1 million dead trees. They achieved 200 million
dollars in grants and they were very unique in their approach. But they
removed those dead trees and they stopped that bark beetle infestation
because they were planning together. So I brought Peter back to work with the
jurisdictions, the federal, state, local jurisdictions to discuss what does good
look like in the county. And then how do we as agencies work together to drive
the funding to do that wildland management that's critical to prevent
wildfire. The last lie that we tell is truth and I'm going to shut up because
this is time for In-N-Out, Chief Denison.
The last lie that we tell is truth
is that California has a fire insurance crisis.
How many jurisdictions, please raise your hand,
I love these straw polls, how many jurisdictions
have your homeowners that are on the fair plan
or they're having trouble getting insurance?
Supervisor Rao pointed out that she was talking
to Commissioner Lara at one point,
the commissioner said that San Bernardino zip codes
are amongst the most canceled.
So when I say it's a lie
that we have a fire insurance crisis, what do I mean?
We don't have a fire insurance crisis,
we have a house that's keep burning down crisis.
And when we keep the houses from burning down,
then the fire insurance is going to regulate.
I just had to let Brightline go by.
Actually, when Brightline comes, it'll be a lot quicker.
We're gonna talk about that some more.
We can do this if we know what good looks like.
We're better together, and we are who our friends are.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Chief Muncy, good words.
And I do remember Peter Bryder also.
He gave me a comment that I've always stuck in my head
for my entire career and today.
So a very good person to have back on our team
in the county of San Bernardino.
Is there any public comment on our speaker today
about the subject that we spoke about?
Seeing none, back to the board members.
Yes.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Chief Muncy, thank you for the update.
Man, I wanted to get up and start clapping
and interrupt you halfway through that.
It's refreshing to hear your focus on prevention.
We were at a SCAG workshop earlier part of this year
and a statistic was shared with us
and some of the board members from SCAG might remember this,
that the state of California right now
is spending eight times more of the amount of money
on response and recovery than they are in prevention.
That is insane, right?
And maybe that number should be a little bit higher
than prevention, but eight times is crazy.
So thank you for pointing that out and really just focusing
on that.
Lastly, just wanted to give a shout out to the job.
And I know leadership starts at the top.
But Fire Chief Kelly, out in your favorite city of Adelanto,
at least that's what you've told me, privately.
She's doing an amazing job out there, man.
The leadership, the readiness, the community camaraderie
second to none and I just wanted to take a quick moment to thank you, thank her
and the entire team that's up there serving the city about Atlanta we
appreciate you. Thank you we're very proud of Kelly and the rest for assistant
chiefs they work tirelessly for our communities appreciate you. Thank you for
your comments and you have the comments from board members chief thank you very
much for joining us and updating us today appreciate it. Alright with that we
have that was our last item for the day. Yes we're gonna move on now to board member
would like to make a motion to
give our comments.
Yes.
Earlier we talked about
transportation and one of the
areas that I would like us to
possibly look at in terms of
the future is the expansion of
the metro link all the way from
San Bernardino to Victorville
and to Barstow as well as a
possibility because we look at
a lot of the traffic, it seems
We need to do some form of a feasibility study that we can look at and measure I in terms of expansion in that area.
And then last but not least, a comment in reference to the Olympics that's coming up.
Metrolink will be able to provide a lot of the transportation for individuals to go to the Olympics,
such as they did for the parade that they did when the Dodgers won the World Series. Amen.
So, I'll go first.
Thank you for your comments.
I see a lot of microphones on,
so I'm going to head over to
this corner here and I'll start
off.
We're sharing the mics, I'll go
first.
I want to see a lot of people
asking about the big beer in
the weather.
Unfortunately, Mother Nature has
not been participating, but it's
cold and beautiful up there.
But our lake is participating,
so snow is being made.
Board I have quite a few comments and a couple of shoutouts. I'm gonna start by
Asking the question that everybody was thinking about when the comment was made it was made earlier
But a supervisor Hagman sir
If you ever have a future field trip to Las Vegas
City of Atlanta would like to be there and I promise you what happens in Vegas will stay in Vegas, sir
Want to take a quick second to thank this board
specifically the Mountain Desert Division as well
for approving our Seneca Road Rehabilitation Project.
That road, to my knowledge, has never been cared for,
and that's the first connecting road to 395
when you come in north to the city of Adelanto.
It's used by almost 80% of our south side residents,
and it's also our road for our city Christmas parade.
So thank you, Board, for approving that project.
We appreciate that.
I'd like to take a minute to thank a special thank you
to board member Tran, board member Dutray,
board member Marquez for joining us last week.
Myself and board member Bishop,
along with the SCAG executive team on a tour
of our beautiful high desert.
We got a chance to visit, you know, Apple Valley,
Hisparia, Victorville, show them, you know,
the current projects that we have
and in the future home for amazing projects
like the Bright Line.
We were able to stop by Hesperia and see the Silverwood
housing project, which is beautiful.
If you guys have never been up there,
I recommend you get up there and check it out.
But thank you guys.
Thank you all for spending the time, the entire day,
with us up there and learning a little bit
about the high desert.
We appreciate that.
I'd like to take a quick moment as well
to acknowledge and congratulate my colleague
from our neighboring city, who as of yesterday,
I believe is officially now the new mayor pro tamb
for the city of Hesperia, Mr. Josh Pullen.
Congratulations, sir.
And lastly, as we wrap up a fun year here at SBCT,
I believe this is the last meeting of the year.
It's been an exciting year.
A lot of projects passed, a lot of projects completed.
Great discussions, great dialogue.
The torch was passed from a great team
to what I feel is going to be a greater team as well.
I'm grateful and thankful for the existence of this board
because I know the amount of work
that we all do collectively as a body
and individually in our own cities.
And if it was not for the existence of this board,
I know transportation in our county would be crap.
I know it would be in the city of Adelanto, right?
I can promise you that.
The leadership of our county
and the leadership of this board,
I would put up against any county across the country
every single day of the week and twice on Sundays,
because I know we love what we do.
So if you don't like our county,
and you can't see the improvement
that our county is making every single day,
there's a county just west of here that's called L.A. County,
and I'm sure they got homes for sale
over there or homes for rent.
With that being said, I wish everybody a very merry Christmas
and a healthy and safe new year,
and I look forward to seeing you all
in January or February, thank you.
Thank you very much.
Mayor Secido, while we're over in that area,
oh Catalina, I'll get to you very last,
everyone wanting to hear this,
I'm gonna go to Art Bishop now.
Thank you very much, just very quickly.
I wanna share that the town of Apple Valley
with the help is starting to move
We're going to fall off the screen
I think it was right the other way. But anyway, we'll be building a brand new bridge over our Bear Valley River
Our Mojave River at Bear Valley Road, and I've now spoken to
17 I
homeowner associations and
Civic groups and there's one message of one message only if it wasn't for the people of our community who paid through
their measure I that we wouldn't be able to do this so I encourage you all as
I've done before when a measure a project comes before your council that
has measure I funding please say something so that your community member
understands the importance of measure I and how it comes back to your community
and then on behalf of the town of Apple Valley we also want to thank the scag
representatives that made the trip up to Apple Valley we hope you enjoyed your
morning in Apple Valley on behalf of the town. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Thank You Art for your comments. Yes Mayor Duchre. I just want to say that how
many you knew West McDaniel? I don't think I'll bring that up or not. Were you? Yeah.
Okay now keep my mask on. Thank you for the remembrance already. Yes Mayor
Yola, is that for you? Just real quick Art I agree with you but take it one step
farther like we are in Chino and put a sign on your projects that that
Acknowledged measure I that really helps because people see it every day when they drive by
All right, and we have the last thing any other comments from board members. Oh, I'm sorry Catalina. Yes, we're back again
Thank you very much. Yeah, I just want to give a quick update on the emergency work on state Route 38 work is progressing
Well, we whether permitting we hope to start paving that section of the road that was washed out next week
So I just wanted to let everybody know
Thank you.
Excellent news for all of our communities.
Thank you for that, I appreciate it.
So we'll turn it over to our executive director.
Yeah, so, wanted to finish on a highlight
for the end of the year.
It's been a tough conversation today
about the ONT connector and a tough one
with Gold Line a few months ago,
but I wanna acknowledge Project Delivery
has advanced five major projects to the bid phase
in the last three months.
They did this all the while navigating
to substantial completion for I-10 contract one, which
you know has been a very, very difficult project
to manage and get to that point.
And major progress on I-15 express lanes,
that project is getting delivered like gangbusters.
Our team and the contractor are doing a fantastic job.
The bids received have been tight bids.
They have all come in well below,
predominantly well below the engineer's estimate.
We hit the market right for traditional design bid build.
The other projects that we've had to make,
that you've made tough decisions on
have been non-traditional design builds,
so just keep that in mind.
So we've seen a collective savings of $52 million
in those bids that have come in.
I'd like to acknowledge Kristie and her team,
as well as the consultants that support their effort
and the SBCTA staff behind the scenes
that we wouldn't be able to do this without.
So thank you for your support.
I really appreciate that we can bring
tough recommendations forward
and you let staff share what they need to share
and keep us going in a great direction.
So thank you, have a great holiday.
Well, thank you for that.
I do appreciate the entire team
for all the hard work they've been doing,
especially during a transition time
and we've been so successful
as Kerry had just pointed out.
know there's there's many leaders before us that have gotten us all here to this
point today and projects that have been driven very hard as we've heard some of
the discussions today and the tough conversations that we have to have. This
organization used to be called sandbag for some of you people that are very new
and not SPC, TA or San Marco County Transportation Authority a little more
organized but sandbag is still what many people call it. So before our time there
was a leader here I'd like to close the meeting in memory of today. So West
McDaniel, he served as the sandbag executive director and he did that role
from 1973 to 1996 for 23 years he committed to this county and made a
difference. Some of the projects you know are remarkable and everybody benefits
from them today. He passed away on November 9th of course surrounded by his
family. Wes was instrumental to bring Metrolink to San Bernardino and also the
extension of the 210 freeway to the east. So these are big big projects, major
projects, and so I'd like you to join with me today in memory of Wes as we in
recognition of his contribution for our region and take a moment of silence
prior to the agenda. Thank you for that blessings to you all over the holidays
We'll see you next year.
Meeting adjourned.