Serving the community since 1970
Serving the community since 1970
Sorted by date Results 26 - 38 of 38
On Wednesday, Feb. 26, I joined work crews from the Bakersfield Homeless Center and Caltrans as we kicked off a program that was initiated in the District 4 office and will serve the entire county well, especially all the communities of the district. This program is the litter abatement program on state highways in the county, utilizing the homeless and homeless-vulnerable workers employed through the county’s contract we just signed this week with the Bakersfield Homeless C...
By now, I’m certain that all of us have been impacted by the COVID-19 virus, and I’m also certain that you are keeping informed so I will not use our weekly Couch’s Corner to provide you any “breaking news,” as it changes so fast. But I would like to keep you informed on what’s going on at the county, how to find out what services are still available, and how your District 4 office can help you with matters concerning the county. In compliance with the state emergency shelter-...
At the Board of Supervisors meeting on Jan. 14, I have to admit, I have never been more proud. The room was packed by concerned citizens from all walks sharing their concerns and points of view on oil production in Kern County, with key officials from Sacramento present. While the state has been talking about the “managed decline” of the oil industry, we here in Kern County have been concerned about those statements and their impact here. In my letter to the state dated Dec...
Much thanks to the Valley Ag Voice for their article “Local Leaders React to Passage of USMCA,” in their January issue. For those of you who may not know, USMCA is an updated NAFTA, and stands for United States Mexico Canada Trade Agreement. It was passed by the House of Representatives on Dec. 19 in a very bipartisan vote (385-41). Its impacts on the Central Valley -- and especially Kern County -- are profound, and it seemed appropriate to share parts of their story her...
Happy New Year! I hope you all had a great 2019 and am looking forward to 2020. It’s that time of year to look back at what we’ve accomplished, and look forward to things we can do to make things better in all of the communities of our district. Accordingly, here are our resolutions for 2020: One, I promise you will see me or my staff at as many events as possible. If you went anywhere last year, you probably saw us, trying to meet with constituents and understand your nee...
As I met with my staff to discuss this week’s Couch’s Corner, we found it hard to pick a subject to write about, not because so little had happened, but because so much was happening. So we decided to quickly touch on some of the things that happened this week. You may get dizzy because we’ve been to a lot of places. For instance, Friday night you may have seen me at the Delano Christmas Parade and Tree Lighting. Art Armendariz of my staff joined me for this Christmas celeb...
On Nov. 15, a group of us traveled to Fresno to testify at a hearing of the California Transportation Commission. I was in attendance with Councilmember Cathy Prout of Shafter and Councilmember Olivia Trujilo of Arvin. Also, in attendance was Ahron Hakami, who is the executive director of the Kern Council of Governments. We were there to testify about the importance of funding Highway 46 that Caltrans staff recommended be cancelled along with 2 other widening projects on Highw...
I recently learned of the Housing Authority of Kern’s concept of using farm labor camps they own in Shafter and Lamont to house about 50 homeless women from Kern County temporarily this winter. [Editor’s note: The county has since eliminated the Shafter camp from the plan for this year.] Having no more details than that, I let a member of the Shafter community know. Within days, our District 4 office phones were lighting up. Many people were upset and opposed to “the plan....
The Board of Supervisors adopted the fiscal year 2019-20 budget last week. In addition, we also adopted a resolution declaring the end of the County of Kern's fiscal emergency. By the end of this fiscal year – June 30, 2020 -- the county will have addressed the structural deficit in the General Fund that occurred with the large drop in the price of oil in 2016 which, in turn, resulted in a large decrease in the property tax from oil-producing properties. Progress has also b...
This week I would like to remind the community about different steps being taken to prepare for the 2019 wildfire season, especially power outages. Even though you may not be near a fire, the possibility exists that power could be shut off where you live due to the interconnectivity of the power grid. Being prepared for power outages is always your best defense. The California Public Utilities Commission ensures consumers have safe and reliable utility services at reasonable...
Couch's Corner has been my attempt to keep the community updated and to explain how County government works and how it affects you. It is my hope that through these articles and the various other forums for which we send the community info and updates, you will be more informed about the issues and decisions we make. This week, I wanted to introduce our new fire chief, David Witt, and explain how important it is for the Board of Supervisors to make good choices regarding your...
This past Monday night and Tuesday morning at the Board of Supervisors Chambers, the TRUTH Forum was long, and at times tense, but successful. We had great attendance, a lot of public input and solid interaction between the public, the supervisors and the Kern County Sheriff’s Office. Now, everyone measures success differently, and you can disagree with me on what constitutes success, but when the community turns out to speak in such large numbers about a subject that means s...
This week I wanted to discuss what seems to be the most controversial issue in our nation at this moment: immigration. It's important for all of us to understand the roles of all the different jurisdictions of government so that we can better know where one goes to get the results we want. As part of that, I have made it a goal of our office to better understand immigration law and policy and to understand where the county fits in this equation. As part of that education...
