Last night’s marathon meeting of the Morongo Valley Community Services District Board of Directors lasted four hours, reinforcing the district’s lengthy meeting trend. To allow more people the opportunity to attend the meetings, the board voted unanimously to change not only the start time for the district’s monthly meeting, but the meeting day as well. Beginning in March, the Morongo Valley CSD meetings will be held on the third Wednesday of each month beginning at 6 p.m. Reporter Andrew Dieleman has more from the meeting…
At last night’s meeting, the Morongo Valley CSD Board of Directors also reviewed an ad hoc committee report on generating additional income for the Morongo Valley fire department, including possibly pursuing a Morongo Valley Fire tax. The board agreed to begin gauging public support for a fire tax before taking any action to pursue it.
The board also provided an updated financial figure of more than $6,800 in attorney fees that have resulted from board-related problems since 2016. The board agreed to continue pursuing last month’s promise to minimize arguing in the future.
The board also discussed the grants that the district has applied for and those that the district plans to apply for in the near future. The board also reviewed a new, lengthy list of updates required to bring the Covington Park Community kitchen up to code. The board voted to research the cost of the needed improvements to see if completing the kitchen is financially possible for the district.
Additional ad hoc committee reports included providing rental discounts of CSD facilities to Morongo Valley residents, continuing with the recent changes to driving parameters for the Morongo Valley Fire Department designed to minimize wear and tear on fire vehicles and improve response times to areas of Morongo Valley with unkept unpaved roads, and rescheduling a previously postponed open public workshop on completing annual employee performance evaluations for March 9 at 6:30 p.m.
Lastly, the board adjourned to closed session to discuss pending litigation and to hold an evaluation of the district’s director of operations. Returning to open session, the board reported that the district will settle the pending litigation for $1,675.
In an unexpected event, just before the board returned from its closed session meeting, Board Vice President Kristina Brook announced she would be resigning from her position on the board due to accusations made against her by other board members during the closed session meeting.
