(SAN BERNARDINO) - A firestorm of a magnitude not seen in recent years is gaining more momentum in the San Bernardino County mountain resorts just east of Los Angeles. But this firestorm does not require the aid of county fire or any other fire suppression agency.
Mountain residents are angry, really angry, over the insistence by one member of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, Janice Rutherford, that the mountain communities be split even greater due to her desire to redistrict the community of Lake Arrowhead into her district. And now efforts to recall the first-term supervisor appear to be underway.
Lake Arrowhead has one of the highest medium family incomes in the county. It’s a Republican-leaning community and a community that is politically active. But Lake Arrowhead residents are not alone in their concerns about having Rutherford as their supervisor or dividing the mountain.
A divided mountain gives residents little voice in county government, but as a whole they will represent about one-eighth of a district, meaning they have pull if the entire mountain from Cedar Pines Park to Big Bear Lake is placed in a single district. Rutherford prefers the conquer-and-divide approach.
Like the high desert, the mountains are looked at by valley supervisors as an area that takes too much time and taxpayer money away from pet projects in the west and east ends of San Bernardino County. Some of those same supervisors have been caught up the a variety county corruption scandals, including the Colonies $102 million dollar settlement that has now resulted in the indictments of three county officials, including Rutherford’s predecessor, and one of the county’s wealthiest developers.
Mountain and desert residents alike have complained for decades that they are the “step children” of San Bernardino County politicos. They have been deprived of both services and respect by those that represent them. Rutherford and her predecessor, Paul Biane, virtually ignore mountain constituents.
And until the election of Third District Supervisor Neil Derry, whose district currently includes Lake Arrowhead to Big Bear, residents of that section of the mountain were also ignored by their supervisor. The exception would be in 2004, after the Old Fire, when former Supervisor Dennis Hansberger initiated having a redevelopment area declared in the mountains where his father owned 15 parcels.
Corruption has run rampant in San Bernardino County for decades, thus earning its moniker of “California’s Most Corrupt County.” Rutherford ran on a platform of ethics reform but her constituents and those she is using her political sway to force to become her constituents say Rutherford’s brand of “ethics” is not what they voted for. Many feel betrayed by her actions since becoming a board member nine months ago.
Recalls are difficult and rarely successful. But in an eerily similar set of circumstances in the early 1980s, First District Supervisor Bob Older was recalled by an angry constituency because he refused to listen to their needs and wants. Mountain residents are hoping they can continue the momentum to attain the same results.
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