The Yucca Valley Town Council opened its meeting last night with a presentation honoring a woman who served on the first town council in 1991. Marge Crouter, 82, who died last month, also served as the Yucca Valley mayor in 1994. Council member Jim Schooler, who was a town staff member when Crouter was on the council, and Mayor Jeff Drozd, presented a town flag to Crouter’s husband, retired judge Richard Crouter, and her son, Ron Farmer, following the presentation at last night’s meeting. Managing editor Tami Roleff fills in the highlights from the rest of the meeting…
Mayor Jeff Drozd pulled an item from the consent agenda to discuss sending a letter to California Fish and Wildlife to express the council’s opposition to listing Joshua trees as threatened under the California Endangered Species Act. Council members agreed that Joshua trees are already protected under the town’s native plant ordinance and that listing them as threatened would add unnecessary red tape and expense for developers and homeowners. The council’s vote to send the letter was unanimous.
In other business, the council discussed how the town would balance its budget with decreased revenues due to COVID-19 and increased costs from the Sheriff’s Department. The council agreed to use Measure Y funds to cover part of the 6 percent increase in public safety costs and to dip into the town’s reserves for the rest.
Town Manager Curtis Yakimow recommended the council cut 10 percent, or about $500,000 from the Sheriff’s budget. However, Sheriff’s Captain Lucas Niles explained to the council that a $500,000 cut would most likely result in the town losing both of its Sheriff’s Safety Specialist positions, a deputy, and a clerical position. He also said that each deputy responds to about 2,010 calls per year; cutting the SSS positions would mean each deputy would then respond to about 2,400 calls per year, when the ideal is 1,800 calls per deputy. An increased workload would mean longer response times and that solvable crimes wouldn’t be worked. And he added that the crime rates for 2019 have been tabulated, and violent crime has increased 33 percent.
The council agreed that it would fully fund the Sheriff’s budget for 2020-21, but that it may have to cut 5 percent to 10 percent in the 2021-22 budget, as council members all agreed that using the reserves to backfill the budget wasn’t sustainable.
