Good morning, everybody. Welcome. Thank you for joining us all today. This is San
Bernardino County Board, correction SBCTA, a board meeting for March 4th, 2026. It is
now 10 a.m. I'm calling the order of the Board of Directors meeting for March 4th,
2026 for the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority and the San
Bernardino Council of Governments. Today, the board meeting is acting in the
capacity of both entities. Therefore, each board member will be entitled to a
$100 stipend for doing business as the authority,
and $100 stipend for doing business as the cog.
Today in closed session, we have conferences
with legal counsel regarding existing
and anticipated litigation.
I'd like to open it up.
Are there any members of the public
that would have any comments or questions on the litigation?
Seeing none, thank you.
So at this time, we're gonna go ahead
and adjourn to closed session.
We'll return soon, thank you.
Well, good morning, everyone.
Thank you for joining us and sticking with us here
as we get started on our meeting portion.
We do have, we're out of closed session at this time.
I'm gonna turn it over to council to report.
Thank you.
On agenda item number two,
the board unanimously approved initiation of litigation.
All right, thank you for that.
So we'll go ahead and convene our meeting now at this time.
And I would like to ask a member, Dennis Michaels,
to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance as we start off.
The United States of America and to the republic
for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.
Thank you.
All right, could the clerk please take attendance?
When I call your jurisdiction, please state your name.
Adelanto?
Ramos, present.
Apple Valley?
Bishop, present.
Barstow?
Silva, present.
Big Bear Lake.
Putz, present.
Chino.
Present.
Can you state your name for the record?
For the first word, Mike.
Thank you so much.
Chino Hills.
Present, three more pairs.
Colton.
Frank Nemaro.
Fontana.
Alexander Warren.
Grant Harris.
Phil Hussey.
Hesperia.
Highland.
Murray McCallum.
LaMelinda.
Ron Daly.
Montclair.
John Trae.
Needles.
Jan Cernigan.
Ontario.
Daisy Macias.
Rancho Cucamonga.
Beto Sligo.
Redlands.
Mario Saucedo.
Rialto.
Joe Baca, present.
San Bernardino.
Not present.
29 Palms.
Mintz, present.
Upland.
Zuniga, present.
Victorville.
Bob German.
Yucaipa.
Judy Wolsey.
Yucca Valley, Rick Denison, County Board of Supervisors
first district, not present.
Second district, Armandares present.
Third district, Rao present.
Fourth district, not present.
Fifth district, Junior present.
And our Caltrans ex officio representative.
Catalina Penning.
Thank you, we have a quorum.
Thank you very much for that.
Do we have any announcements at this time?
Oh, I'm sorry, any agenda modifications or changes?
you have announcements on your, there were two items I found on my agenda.
Oh.
Okay, I got ahead of it, right. Okay, all right, sorry about that.
So yeah, today we have some announcements and these are employee
recognitions. We have quite a few things going on. So first one we're going to
start off with this morning is to please welcome Tanya Ellis.
Tanya is the new office assistant and is the first smile you see when entering
the upstairs office so please say hi to her when you come on and welcome Tanya.
So next will be to please join me in recognizing Jennifer Bianchi for five years of service
with the agency.
Jennifer is an accountant in the finance department.
Thank you for your service Jennifer, are you here?
Oh, there you are.
So we also want to recognize Josh Lee for his recent promotion to director of planning
and regional programs.
Congratulations, Josh.
And this one's been on my mind for quite a while.
So finally, unfortunately this month,
we are going to have to say goodbye to a team member.
One of the longest serving members of SBCTA family,
our current director of planning and regional programs,
Steve Smith is retiring.
Steve Smith has been served as a pivotal catalyst
to our funding initiatives,
effectively stirring our strategic direction
in response to evolving trends in transportation,
mobility and sustainability.
His keen awareness of the state's transition
towards sustainable transportation solutions
has been instrumental in our approach.
He identified the increasing significance
of active transportation and energy infrastructure
in the overall transportation landscape,
ensuring the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority
remains at the forefront of these critical developments.
Though his strategic, through his strategic foresight,
he has positioned SBCTA not only to compete
for a diverse range of funding opportunities,
but also to secure essential resources
that facilitated the successful implementation
of various projects.
Needless to say, he will surely be missed.
Steve, your 23 years of service has been extraordinary,
and you've been an invaluable part of this organization.
We thank you for your service.
So today, we are going to present you with a few items.
So Steve, come on up, please.
Welcome, Steve.
He was hiding in the back row.
All right, Steve.
So, this is one of the things that I think is still very thoughtful and, yeah, come on up here.
When I started on SBCTA, I didn't know what this meant, but when I started SBCTA, it was called sandbag.
And so, I still think of this as one of the treasures of getting recognition.
It's not your typical plaque. It's not something that's just stamped out.
This is really something that means a lot.
spent your career here, 23 years, making this happen,
many of these projects.
So I think what we're going to do
is we're going to present this plaque here.
Says to Stephen Smith, a true, dedicated sandbagger.
We just brought that up.
August 2002 to March 2026, thank you
for over 23 years of exceptional service.
Thank you so much.
Okay.
Any other words to say, Sam?
My goodness.
I've been privileged to work for, yeah, thank you for the mic.
Yeah.
Okay.
No, I've been privileged to work with just some high quality staff over all these years.
And in fact, I think I'm gonna pull a Archbishop here and have my staff, whoever's worked
with me over the years just stand and say thank you, thank you, thank you, because
you've made me look better than I deserve, so thank you guys. If you could
just stand real quick. And board members have been awesome. Of course, I hope we've
lived up to your expectations and we look forward to...we've got five grandkids, my
My wife has been extraordinarily patient over all these years and so I'm going to spend
some time together.
Glory to God.
Thank you very much.
Well, while we don't, many of us don't want to see Steve go but I'm so proud of him and
what he's done for us and it's good to be with your family and your five grandkids and
I'll take you up on your offer.
You said I'm coming down the hill, I remember that.
Any board members want to make a comment to Steve at this time before he takes off out
the dork. We're going to miss you Steve. Steve you have been amazing not only for
this board and when we have our meetings but just in the region from city's
perspectives of providing great support and we just love and adore you thank you
so much. Steve thank you for your mentoring when I first came to Sandbank
And throughout the years, you've been dedicated to the initiatives of this
agency. You've shown your passion for it and your dedication to your task at hand.
Thank you very much, and God bless you on your future trips.
All right, sir. Thank you.
Sure makes a lot of memories come back on projects that we've done in this area
and all the help he's done. So a couple other recognitions. So lastly,
congratulations are deserved to two agencies were honored by the American
Council of engineering companies at their annual awards event last month AC
EC awarded their 2026 engineering excellence award to the Mount Vernon
Avenue Viaduct and those of you that attended that that event when we opened
the Viaduct and those of you that have used it since then you understand how
important that project is. Also we serve received a certificate of accommodation
award for the I-10 eastbound truck climbing lane another project that has
made a big difference in the city of Yucaipa that project so congratulations
to staff and their projects I want to show a couple things here we've got
there was a plaque here and this is the one that was for the engineering
excellence that I spoke of first it was received this agency this team and the
board and then also the other one the HDR which was the truck climbing lane
from them but they recognized the hard work that art just like Steve and our
entire team and the board does to bring these projects forward so thank you very
much I'd like to give an applause to our entire staff here. Those two projects
were basically instrumental in our community to continue the service
delivery of transportation that's safe and accessible to everybody around here
and I think both of them and there's plenty more they're coming to you but
these were these were monumental for our area so now I can get to agenda
notifications and modifications revise support material for agenda item 22 and
support material for agenda item 32 have been posted and distributed that
concludes my notices all right thank you for that so I'm gonna open it up for
public comment at this time or any members that would like to oh oh I see
two cards thank you but I will mention if you haven't submitted a card and you
do want to do public comments we can you can enter a speaking card or just
notify us. So first off is Yvette Maxis she's here, oh with skag yes a public
comment for a skag update I'm sorry. Good morning board members Yvette
Macias Skag government affairs officer I'd also like to extend my congratulations
to Steve on your retirement.
Thank you so much.
It was the first space I met when I started in this role.
And I can't imagine an SPCDA without you.
Thank you for everything you've done
and for your partnership with SCAG.
Very brief agency updates.
Foremost, I'd like to invite everyone in this room
to our SCAG 61st Annual General Assembly,
taking place May 7th and 8th at the JW Marriott in Palm Desert.
So if you haven't registered, please do so.
It's just on our SCAG website.
But if you need any help, I'm happy to extend my assistance.
The SCAG scholarship program in partnership
with the California Transportation Foundation
will award nine, 4,000 scholarships to high school
or community college students from the SCAG region.
Students in any field of study are invited to apply
with preference for applications,
demonstrating the commitment to community planning,
regional planning, urban planning, civil engineering,
political science, public administration,
sustainable development, or any related field.
Students applying must be resident within the SCAG region,
must be graduating high school senior
or currently enrolled in a two-year community college
in the SCAG region,
and with the 3.0 grade point average or higher.
Applications are due March 20th.
If anyone is interested in sharing information
with their cities or school districts,
please let me know.
And that concludes my report, thank you.
Thank you very much for the notice.
Next up on our speaker card is Steve Rogers.
Welcome, Steve.
Can you please turn on your mic so we can hear you?
Steve there you go push. They told there you got screen. Now Sandberg is SPCTA board Steve Rogers Redlands I
Was at the Redland City Council meeting last night, and there was a resolution
regarding the continuation of a measure I and I just
I was surprised to
to
hear that this was
Something that's being discussed and anyway. They I just want to read part of the resolution here
Whereas the voters of San Bernardino County passed measure I in avember 8 1989 and renewed it in
2004 authorizing San Bernardino associated governments acting and as the San Bernardino County
transportation authority to impose
one half of a one percent
transaction on
transactions and sale use tax for
transportation improvements
applicable in the unincorporated and
Incorporated territory of the County of San Bernardino
through April 1
2040 that's currently the drop-dead date or the
sunset of the
of this Measure I.
Now, what is really confusing, I think, to everyone
and I'm, is that nowhere in this does it explain
that Measure I is about, is the gas tax, you know?
And I know this is, it appears to be intentional
that this is being done because the gas tax
is really going to be a big issue here in the election.
And I know some of the candidates
are talking about actually doing away with the gas tax.
And so as I've spoken before about this,
I'm concerned about a couple of the projects.
And I'll talk more later, but it's the I-10 toll lanes,
express lanes and the rail, the Redlands Rail or Arrow,
that both of these projects were not done properly
and they both were done with federal funds.
And so, anyway, when we approved Measure I in 89,
the voters didn't count on the creation of another agency,
SPCTA, where Caltrans could have continued
distribute the local to the locals instead of politicizing transportation
funding in San Bernardino County. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Do we
have any other public speakers? I just want to clarify that Measure I is a
half cent sales and use tax. It's not the gas tax. I just want to make sure we all
understand that here. Thank you. Thank you for that, Gary. All right, seeing none we're
to go ahead and move on to our informational items. Items number two through nine informational
items do not require a vote. These are receive and file items routine and noncontroversial.
We'll go ahead and open up the consent calendar. Consent calendar is items 10 through 29. I'd
like to start off by offering. Second. Before I move on to a vote of the board on that,
I just want to once again notify anyone if you have a conflict of interest on any agenda
the item today, please notify the clerk of those conflicts.
Thank you, moving on with that,
we have the item moved by Baca, second by Navarro,
is that correct?
All in favor for the consent calendar approval.
Opposed?
Abstentions?
All right, thank you.
I think it's said, sorry,
the consent calendar passes unanimously.
Moving on to our first discussion item,
Executive Director Employment Contract.
So I'll be speaking on this, just an update on that.
The board met in closed session on February 4th
evaluate the performance of our executive director and discuss labor
negotiations out of those negotiations and recognition of the directors
performance the board approved a five percent merit increase and that will
bring the executive directors so us total salary to three hundred fifty
seven thousand dollars so at this time do we have any public comment on this
item Mr. President I'd like to move the item I see no public comment I have it
moved by Ramos and second by McCollum any other comments all in favor
Opposed? Abstentions? That passes unanimously. Thank you. We'll move on to
item number 31 and this is a resolution update fee schedule for the use of
electric vehicle charging stations. So this time I'm going to go ahead and open
the public hearing and Ryan Ashenbrenner will be speaking on this item. We have a
motion. Second. We have a second. We have a motion by Detroit, a second by Navarro.
any other comments from members seeing none I'm going to close the public
hearing oh I got public comment on them on the public okay do we have any
public comments on this item none okay we'll go back to board again we have the
motion by moved by the tray second by McCollum was that correct move by Navarro
Oh, I'm sorry, and it was second by,
second by Navarro, sorry for the confusion.
Any other, any members have comments?
No, okay, all in favor?
All right.
Opposed?
Abstentions, thank you.
The item passes unanimously.
So agenda item number 32, this is amendment two,
the disposition and development agreement
with Desert X Express Enterprises, LLC,
and Brian Aschenbrenner is back up to the podium.
Good morning, Board President and Directors.
Disposition and Development Agreement Amendment Number Six
is being brought back to the Board
after a prior delegation of authority in July 2nd
to introduce a new water and sewer easement
for the benefit of the Brightline property
in that transaction,
as well as to address utility relocations on the site
new crossings. After that is just recognizing and conforming the
disposition development agreement to reflect that the board has de-programmed
the Tunnel to Ontario project. With that I'd be happy to answer any questions
regarding the amendment. Thank You Ryan so any public comment on the item?
Seeing none bring it back to board. Oh and I'd also like to recognize that a
Supervisor Hagman has joined the meeting. Thank you sir. Back to board again any
comments? Look for someone to move the item. Moved by Navarro, second by Marquez.
All in favor? Thank you. Opposed? Abstentions? The item passes unanimously.
Moving on to item number 33 SBCTA and WR COG emergency evacuation network
Resilience Study. This is a final report by Suzanne Peterson. Good morning. Many of
you may remember the Emergency Evacuation Network Resilience Study and
just a quick refresher if this sounds new to you. We applied for funding from
Caltrans Sustainable Transportation Planning Grant a few years ago and over
the past couple years we've been working to on this study and there's really two
components to it. There is a local piece and a regional piece and for the local
piece we did local compliance assessments for each of your
jurisdictions. We worked with your staff and it was really focused on compliance
assessments for SB 99 and AB 747. One is basically requiring that you identify
residential areas that do not have at least two evacuation routes and then the
other one is requiring that you look at evacuation routes capacity and level of
vulnerability. We provided these network assessments and worked with all of the
agencies and data packages were provided
to each of your jurisdictions.
The other component of this project was a regional framework
where we looked at projects that we can do,
a network assessment on a regional scale.
And the reason I wanted to bring this item to you today
especially is because Steve was a really big part of that
in supporting this project and this regional piece
on page 439 of the staff report,
you can see what essentially all of that work
resulted in, again, for the regional component.
And so the map that you see here on the screen,
these are priority projects for the purposes of resilience
when we did this analysis.
This is not a list of priority projects for the agency.
I just wanna make that clear.
Again, this is a study, there's no action needed.
There's just a lot of analysis that went into
what you're seeing in the agenda packet and here on the map.
And when we're looking at what we can do
in terms of regional resilience,
we're looking at improved evacuation capacity,
reduced vulnerability, and there's a lot of different
factors that went into it.
and I just wanted to highlight that here for you today.
We're at the tail end of the project,
wrapping up here in April.
The analysis that was completed is actually feeding
into another study we're doing,
the Emergency Resilience Design Center Study,
and that's another project that was, again,
we're able to do because of Caltrans grant funding,
And so, if you hear more about that project,
know that a lot of the analysis that was done in this
is helping support this other study that we're working on.
So that is all I have for this project,
and I'm happy to answer any questions.
Suzanne, thank you very much for that.
I'm very excited about this project.
It's very important for our county
that we have identified routes, you know,
for in times of need for emergencies.
So we'll open it up, any public comment on this item?
Seeing none, we'll move back to board members.
Any comments for Suzanne on the speaker?
So receiving file items.
So thank you very much for the presentation and update.
Before we end up closing out the meeting,
I wanna make one announcement.
We have a city-counting elections.
So those of you board members that are responsible
for that role of voting on the city-county committee.
John, did you wanna speak on that?
Yeah, we'll start at, we're gonna start at 11.20.
We'll allow county staff to come in here
and we'll go from there.
And if you have a letter,
please give that to county staff,
but again, we'll start 11.20 and go through all that.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for that.
Any other board members have any comments?
I always see our Bishop, please.
Just real quick, I had the pleasure to speak
on a local high desert radio show, AM 960.
So community talk show, I did talk about Measure I,
It was actually a bright line update but I talked about Measure I being a strong component
of our new bridge in Apple Valley going over the Mojave River.
I also talked about Highway 395 and the construction that will be going on there.
And for Otis, who I know is in the room somewhere, they have agreed to, as we get closer to the
election and as staff once a day would like to do a series of radio spots on
regarding the measure I update that's all thank you thank you for that update
art yes Ray Marcus thank you sir appreciate that first of all Steve
Smith again thank you so much for all your hard work over the years truly
appreciate it and then also good luck with your grandkids what a great
grandfather you are and have fun with kids Carrie this past year you've been
the director and you've done just a tremendous job. I want to thank you and
compliment you for reaching out to all the board of directors this past year
and keep up the good work. And then Ashley, a good friend of mine, it's your first
meeting as clerk I believe. I'm just filling in for Marlena Kishisic. Thank
you. Any other comments? So for me I just want to thank the board also for all the
support that you've given our team here. The staff is I think very efficient in
what we do, we achieve projects as you've seen today.
Steve has been instrumental in many of those.
You even heard him during the presentations today,
his name used.
So Steve, thank you very much
for all the work you've done for us.
And I know you're gonna have a great time.
And sounds like with five grandkids,
you're gonna be even busier now that you're there.
I had an opportunity to go to Sacramento last week.
We went up Monday and we were advocating for our county
and for our surrounding areas in regards to transportation
and many other items that are of interest to this Board.
And I'll say it was a wonderful eye-opening experience
and we did so much in one day of advocating.
I was exhausted for the next couple of days.
So it was great.
Carrie led the cadre that went,
but we had everyone there
and everyone was received very well.
They took great interest in the projects that we have done
and the great interest in the projects
that we are proposing to continue with.
So it was just something that I really enjoyed doing
and I think all of you made the storyline that we did
very easy because it's easy to talk about something
when you've done so many great things
like we talked about today,
some of the recognition we received,
the new projects that we're starting,
the 395 kickoff that was just mentioned by Art.
He has easy items to talk about on the radio.
So thanks for that and sharing that.
Just wanted to let you know I had a good time.
I'll turn it over to Carrie,
our Executive Director for Comments.
So just a few quick things.
one is President Dennison did a great job in Sacramento educating our
representatives and their staff on the roles we the role we have in the region
both on the transportation side and the Council of Government side so it was a
great trip and thank you you were a huge part of that. For Steve Smith it's really
hard for me to say goodbye to him I have been on the other side of tape the
table from Steve when I was at the county many years ago and what he has
contributed to this region from a transportation perspective cannot be
overstated. Some of the the foundational things policies he brought forward to
the board have really set us on a course for success and it was done so many
years ago and we are still building on that so he is going to be sorely missed.
And last thank you for the continued vote of confidence it is an honor to
serve this board and work with all of you doing great things in the region so
thank you. All right well thank you everyone for joining us for today's
meeting. This meeting is adjourned. Remember don't go away if you're involved in the City
County.