The Yucca Valley Town Council dealt with routine business during its regular meeting last night. Then, following the open session, the council went into closed session for a performance evaluation of Town Manager Curtis Yakimow. A report released after the meeting states that Yakimow received a positive performance evaluation for the past year, and the council “is extremely pleased with the manager’s efforts to date. Both the Town Council and employee agree that there will be no change in compensation at this time,” pending the completion of a compensation study in six months. Managing editor Tami Roleff says a highlight of the open session meeting was a public safety report by the captain at the Morongo Basin Sheriff’s station…
Sheriff’s Captain Jeff Joling had good news for the Yucca Valley Town Council during his presentation at last night’s meeting. While the number of calls for service over the past five years has increased by a couple hundred, the number of actual crimes is down. “Reported crimes, compared to five years ago, there’s 537 less crimes reported in the last year than there were five years ago.” But while the total number of crimes is down, the number of serious crimes like burglary, robbery, and other felonies, has increased slightly from five years ago—by 46, up to 659 (an increase of 7 percent from 2010-11). But Joling was not alarmed by the increase, adding that the town’s population has also grown. He reassured the council that while deputies have had contact with over 100 gang members in the past five years, Yucca Valley does not have a gang problem. “Yes, we have gang members, but they’re from outside the area.” Overall, Joling thought the crime statistics for Yucca Valley were good. “All in all, you have a very safe town to live in.” Congressman Paul Cook was also at the meeting, and he discussed what’s going on in Washington, D.C. We’ll have more on his talk tomorrow.
