Yesterday’s City Council meeting was bittersweet as, after eight and a half years, it marked the last time City Manager Frank Luckino will sit before this council. Luckino’s final day on the job is tomorrow, before he leaves to become City Manager of Desert Hot Springs, and interim City Manager Larry Bowden takes over until a new manager is hired.
Mayor McArthur Wright commended him for his hard work, leadership and commitment, and several members of the public also chimed in.
“I want to thank you for being so inclusive of our special needs community. [Luckino] did that wonderful playground with the wheelchair ramp, which we don’t have anywhere else. You’ve just been an absolute blessing to the community, even when we didn’t agree.”
That was from Karalee Hargrove, who chairs the city’s wastewater treatment committee.
With Luckino on the way out, council members discussed the fate of the proposed wastewater treatment plant. State funding of $50 million was approved a few weeks ago, which was significantly less than the original amount promised.
They voted to use $1 million of remaining planning funds on a United States Geological Survey (USGS), which will clarify how soon Twentynine Palms will actually need a treatment plant, and another $1 million will be used to define operating costs.
In other business, several members of the council reported on attending the ribbon cutting at Wildcat stadium, and the new green lights. Councilmember Joel Klink said when he graduated in 1976 there had been talk of needing a new stadium. “It’s awesome,” he said. “I like the way the lights flicker.”
Council agreed that am equity and social justice element was exempt from California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) laws and voted to adopt it into the city’s general plan. The equity and social justice element – among other things- requires the city to address the needs of disadvantaged communities, including environmental justice, and was developed through a series of workshops and public meetings.
Council also adopted a wastewater services amendment after finding it also exempt from CEQA.
San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus video-conferenced in to share crime statistics – violent crime in Twentynine Palms for instance went up 12 percent between 2021 and 2022, but was up only 7 percent over the last five years. Murders dropped from one homicide in 2021 to zero in 2022. Reported rapes also went down, from 22 in 2021 to 9 in 2022, while aggravated assaults rose from 101 to 131. For property crimes, there were 68 incidents in 2021, which rose to 77 in 2022; larceny there were 103 in 2021, which went down to 88 in 2022; grand theft auto rates rose from 19 to 36 between 2021 and 2022. When counting all property crimes, there was a 6% increase from 2021 to 2022, and calculated over five years there was a decrease of 28%, Dicus said.
Twentynine Palms crime rates are lower overall compared to other cities of its size in the county, Dicus said, and reporting from those years was delayed due to a ransomware attack.
Dicus also discussed legislation introduced by Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton), which allows courts to intervene in cases of mental illness and substance abuse disorder, “sentencing those people to medical treatments and getting them off our streets and getting them the help they need,” Dicus said. Additionally, five deputies have been added to the county area.
Eli Marshall of Paws and Palms Shelter requested $500,000 to fund a study for a new larger and modernized animal shelter, that would have air conditioning (versus swamp coolers), grooming facilities and other amenities that would improve the animals’ health. Twentynine Palms has a high volume of animals and only a 40% adoption rate. Shelter Planners of America is the company recommended to develop the shelter’s design, and the proposed site is a three-acre lot at Adobe and Foothill.
And members of the Public Arts Advisory Committee reported on the success of a free dance workshop at Freedom Plaza and a mentorship program that’s teaching local artists how to bring more arts programming and funding to the city, especially to disadvantaged communities.
“The arts create a sense of self, and are the seed of empowerment,” said Kate Short.
