e e k l y W EL CHICANo Vol 57, NO. 13
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.com
Mar. 21, 201 9
SB Chamber installs new officers By Ricardo Tomboc
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THIS WEEK Gloria’s Cor ner Pg. 3
SB City hosts 4th Annual Ar ts Fest Pg. 7
he San Bernardino Area Chamber of Commerce (SBACC) held its annual Installation of Officers on Thursday, Feb. 28 at the San Bernardino Arrowhead Country Club. The event sold out with an estimated 200 guests in attendance. Jim Wheeler, Chairperson for the SBACC and General Manager of Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers restaurant in San Bernardino was the Master of Ceremonies. San Bernardino Mayor John Valdivia was the keynote speaker for the event. The invocation was delivered by Father Andrew Lesko, and the flag salute led by Jack Avakian. Other elected officials in attendance included San Bernardino Fourth Ward Councilperson Fred Shorett; Josh Monzon, representative for Senator Mike Morrell; Michael Townsend, Representative for Senator Connie Leyva; Darrell Frye, Representative for Assemblymember Eloise Reyes; and Dion Taylor, Representative for Assemblymember James Ramos.
IECN PHOTO
RICARDO TOMBOC
San Bernardino City Mayor John Valdivia swore in new chamber officers and board members at the Arrowhead Country Club on Feb. 28. President and CEO of the SBACC Judi Penman addressed the room with the iconic “It’s a great day in San Bernardino” slogan, while Douglas Kleam, President of the St. Bernardine Medical Center, provided updates on the medical advancements, achievements, and historical importance of St. Bernardine Medical Center to the San Bernardino community.
During the keynote speech, Valdivia discussed improvements that have been or will be implemented in the City of San Bernardino. Topics he touched upon included customer service, Team San Bernardino, how Rialto gets a Cracker Barrel and not San Bernardino, the downtown corridor, open door policy, and community input.
New officers and board Members were sworn in by Valdivia. Officers are Jim Wheeler - Chairperson, Debbie Swalla - Financial Chair, Maryann Quiggle - Ambassador, Larry Quiel - Business Support, and Jack Avakian - Community Affairs. New board Members are Ali Cayir, Alan Conrad, Frank Coser, Julio Diaz, Jack Katzman, Chamber, cont. on next pg.
San Ber nardino City Council accepts and files mid-year financial review
County Behavioral H e a lt h r e c e ive s $17M for homeless o u t r e ac h p r og r a m
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INSIDE Gloria’s Corner
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Words To Think About 5 Opinion
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Legal Notices
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H OW TO R E AC H US
Inland Empir e Co mmunity Newspaper s Of fice: (909) 381- 9898 Fax: (909) 384-0406 Editorial: ie cn1@ mac .com Adve r tising: sales@ iec n.c om
By Manny B. Sandoval
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n a 5-1 vote, San Bernardino City Council received and filed the mid-year financial review – fiscal year 2018/19 report and authorized the director of finance to amend the FY 2018/19 budget as outlined in the mid-year financial review – fiscal year 2018/19 report. At the council meeting held on March 6th, Interim Finance Director Rita Conrad presented the council and city staff with a mid-year financial review. “In light of the economic environment, the FY 2018/19 Budget was built to maintain existing levels of service, fund mandated obligations, and allocate available ongoing funding on a onetime basis to maintain flexibility to face uncertain fiscal impacts,” said Conrad. “While we were able to close the projected deficit in the current year, the financial model anticipated a gap of nearly $4.3 million in FY 2019/20 which grew to over $9 million over the
next ten years,” continued Conrad. According to the city council agenda, the emergent gap in necessary resources to address the backlog of deferred maintenance throughout the community is conservatively estimated at $182.2 million. “To simply preserve the current condition of the city’s infrastructure and not fall further behind, the city needs to invest $9.7 million (conservative estimate) each year. These figures do not include the capital replacement costs or repair and upgrade costs related to City-owned buildings and
facilities which are conservatively estimated at $144.2 million,” Conrad said. The city’s general fund was also discussed in correlation with the bankruptcy budget. “Bankruptcy costs are covered by the general fund. We’ve been out of bankruptcy for long enough that we need to start planning for those costs,” said Conrad. “Bankruptcy costs will now be part of the general fund budget. General fund and the general fund reserve are the same dollars. In the past, the city didn’t budget for bankruptcy, which left them
pulling money from the reserve. They will budget for it as part of the general fund from here on out, rather than not having enough and having to make a transfer at the end of the year,” said City Manager Andrea Miller. Councilman Henry Nickel supported the general fund budgeting plan. He stated that the city will be running deficits in the upcoming years and this time gives the city a chance to get a sense of how to best prepare for a rainy day. “That reserve is something that is there and it’s available for us, but we, through discipline, do not use it, because we are saving it for an emergency. I fear that sometimes people may think… well you got that $30 million why don’t you fill the potholes, trim the trees or hire more police officers? I want people to know that a reserve is not a savings account, it’s for emergencies,” said Councilman Fred Shorett. For more information, visit https://www.ci.sanbernardino.ca.us/.