Latest news with #KernCountyBoardofSupervisors
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Sobering news for supervisors: Kern County could lose $529 million in federal funding
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Department heads and others delivered a sobering message to the Kern County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday: Federal assistance for a range of county programs could be going away, to the tune of more than half a billion dollars. The Kern County government has dealt with budget deficits many times before. For county supervisors, prioritizing shortfall spending is literally part of the job description. The solutions are limited – cut programs and services, freeze hiring, seek alternate funding sources. The crisis before the board now will require some of those same choices, but this time it's different. The task at hand is borderline apocalyptic – with federal support for a number of programs disappearing or in danger of disappearing in the wake of the Trump administration's cuts. The county receives $529 million annually from federal sources, either directly or through state allocations, for things like social services, workforce training, and child support services. Now that's in question. Also at risk is state funding for safety net programs like Medi-Cal, independent of what Washington does with Medicaid cuts. All of that will weigh heavily on residents of Kern County, where 19% of the population lives in poverty – a figure 1.5 times higher than the statewide average of 12.3 percent. East Bakersfield has a poverty rate of 44.8 percent, more than twice as high as the state of Mississippi. Diddy trial: Cassie expected to testify next week Of particular concern on the home front: a shortfall that will hit the Department of Public Health right in the gut. The department is already facing state-mandated cost of living increases for health care workers. Then, seven weeks ago, without warning, the federal Centers for Disease Control rescinded $10.5 million in funding for the county department, for this fiscal year and next. Public Health Director Brynn Carrigan laid out some of the painful details at Tuesday morning's Board of Supervisors meeting. She fears cuts to immunization programs, communicable disease remediation, mobile services, health education, lab equipment for testing and much more. 'We rescinded multiple job offers to prospective employees,' Carrigan said. 'We issued an immediate internal hiring freeze, an overtime freeze, as well as a spending and travel restriction within our department. However, given the compounding pressures of increased costs and shrinking resources, we are no longer able to sustain status quo operations in our existing workforce without additional support.' Lito Morillo of the Department of Human Services said Cal Works, Cal Fresh and Medi-Cal are facing a new reality. 'They're looking at reducing Medicaid by $880 billion,' he said. 'That's about a 12% reduction. I've said that there were about 400,000 people or so receiving Medi-Cal in Kern County. That would be about 50,000 people eventually losing out.' Michael Turnipseed of the Kern County Taxpayers Association said the federal government's withdrawal from the long-running practice of helping fund local services will require reorganization like nothing local governments have ever experienced. 'We've seen recessions, we've seen this, we've seen that,' he said, 'but I really think you're seeing fundamental change. The fork of the road is here.' How will these changes affect the lives of ordinary residents? The full details are yet to come, but rest assured – it will be significant. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The political fallout from former Supervisor Zack Scrivner's resignation, investigation into alleged abuse
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Zack Scrivner resigned on Aug. 2, 2024 – one week before the candidate filing period for the November election ended. Some of the potential replacements alleged Scrivner waited until the last minute so they would not have time to organize campaigns. 'It seems as if it wasn't an innocent withdrawal from his seat,' said former District 2 Supervisor candidate Kelly Carden. Candidates like Carden, said Zack Scrivner's political grip on the seat extended past his resignation. Fellow candidate Bernita Jenkins agreed: 'If you've been involved in politics at any time in Kern County, this is what we expected … So, was it intentional? Yes. Could it have been done differently? Yes.' 'You have to fight the hard fight': High-profile cases involving sexual abuse can be extremely difficult on victims With the resignation coming just before the deadline, candidates barely had a week to organize their campaigns and meet the filing requirements. Though a nonpartisan body, the Kern County Board of Supervisors is known to consist of four Republicans and a lone Democrat. Scrivner was not only part of the Kern Republican Central Committee — from which he also resigned — but also had all four supervisorial campaigns under Western Pacific Research, the town's top GOP consulting firm run by Cathy Abernathy. 'The timing of this is just typical political games the establishment Republican Party and the Abernathy group play,' said Kern County Democratic Party Chair Christian Romo, referencing the local inside baseball jargon some use to describe local GOP elected leaders and political insiders. 'The Republican party, when they put money like that into someone, you got to see what's going to happen to your investment,' said District 2 candidate Pete Graff. 'It's like watching the stock market. Is it going to go up or is it going to go down? And that stock went down.' GOP consultant Cathy Abernathy declined to comment. Did Zack Scrivner get special treatment during abuse investigation? Candidates said they rushed to get their candidacies certified, and they suspect that rush was the goal of the 'political game.' 'They thought people would back out,' Graff said, breaking down what he called the theories around town. Carden added, '[Political office] shouldn't be something that's held only for the elite and selected by the elite … That's going to be his legacy, that he's betrayed people of his district … How do we as a district recover from this and move forward?' In November, former Bakersfield City Councilmember Chris Parlier won the District 2 seat and is completing Scrivner's term which was to end in 2026. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- General
- Yahoo
2025 Point In Time Count volunteers survey homeless individuals around Kern County Wednesday
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Homelessness rose by 37% in 2024, to more than 2,600 homeless individuals in Kern County, according to Bakersfield-Kern Regional Homeless Collaborative. The Mission at Kern County serves as the headquarters for the 2025 Point In Time Count. Kern County Board of Supervisors votes to separate voter registrar duties of Auditor-Controller-Clerk's office 'We're mandated by Housing and Urban Development to do this every year, it's a snapshot really, we have four hours to do this survey,' Steve Peterson, Director of Programs at the Mission at Kern County. Volunteers have four hours to go around town and the county to find every homeless person they can and survey them. In an effort to get an accurate number on homelessness in the county. Or as close to an accurate number as possible. 'Every year we get better and better, so I want to say that our count comers fairly close, but I'm sure we're not going to get everybody,' Peterson said. Tracking homeless in the shelters is the easy part. The hard part is counting the ones outside. But they have a plan for that. Never miss a story: Make your homepage 'What we do is we create these teams, there's a four-person team that will go out there, and they'll have a map. And they stay within that area, so we're not just randomly going out there,' Peterson went on to explain. Even then, it's still not enough to track all of them, especially in those rural areas of the county. That's why they'll still have two extra days to track those rural areas and make sure they're counted too. All to make sure the count is as accurate as possible, so that funds to help the homeless get properly allocated. 'They go to supportive services that come along and help people get into housing, or once they get into housing help them stay in housing… our goal is to get them off the streets so they can be in a safe environment. Nobody should have to live out there on the streets,' Peterson said. Hear what one volunteer had to say about her experience volunteering for the annual Point In Time Count in the video player above. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Supervisors look at splitting Auditor-Controller-Clerk position from elections duties
In an effort to improve the county's elections processes, Kern County may create a new Registrar of Voters position separate from the Auditor-Controller-Clerk, which currently fulfills that role. The Kern County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to order staff to look into establishing the new role, which would require legislative action by the state in order to be approved. 'We're elated,' said Charles Shinn, an elections integrity advocate who, along with several other community members, has appeared before supervisors meetings for the last two years asking for changes to the Elections Division. In August, an ad hoc committee was formed with supervisors David Couch and Leticia Perez to draft recommendations based on the group's concerns. The suggestions were presented to the full board Tuesday. 'I think we have an excellent solution to what bogs down Kern County elections right now,' Shinn said of the move to create a separate registrar position. 'I think that's going to help (Kern County Auditor-Controller-Clerk Amy Espinoza), separating all the hats that she currently wears so that the auditor-controller is specifically tasked and only focused on running elections and maintaining the voter rolls in a (National Voter Registration Act) state of constant maintenance,' Shinn said. The committee's recommendations included three options for splitting up the responsibilities of the Auditor-Controller-Clerk, and supervisors ultimately chose to pursue the option that creates a separate Registrar of Voters — responsible for overseeing all elections in the county — to be appointed by the board. In a statement following the meeting, District 3 Supervisor Jeff Flores said the board had heard the voices of concerned voters. 'Our board is committed to ensuring that our local elections are not simply conducted in line with California state law but truly exceed the baseline requirements for transparency and accountability,' Flores said. But establishing a separate registrar position will require legislative action from the state. Chief Financial Officer Elsa Martinez told board members there are two avenues by which the county could receive legislative approval. Both would need to be done by Feb. 21, the last day bills can be submitted by lawmakers. One is by requesting the language be included in one of the Legislature's omnibus bills, but that would require the county to submit its request to the Senate Local Government Committee. The other avenue would be to have a lawmaker introduce the legislation and help guide it through the Legislature. Supervisors also directed staff to work with the board's newly established Legislative Program Committee to request other changes to voter law at both the state and federal levels. Changes to be requested from the state include changes in law to allow for citizenship verification; better signature collection; more timely removal of ineligible voters from voter rolls; and multiple sources for candidate residency verification. The committee will also request changes at the federal level for citizenship verification. During the meeting, Espinoza responded to many of the recommendations and questions posed by the committee and said steps would be taken to address concerns where applicable. There were some recommendations, such as the reconciliation of ballot counts at every collection point and allowing elections observers to ride along with ballot collectors, which supervisors did not pursue. Espinoza told supervisors she was 'Switzerland,' i.e. neutral, on the subject of splitting the registrar position, but said having additional staff on hand would be helpful. She stressed that managing elections is extremely complicated and there are state or federal regulations with which she didn't personally agree. 'My hope would be that having someone fully dedicated to assist some of the managers at a higher level and be fully dedicated, if that's what the board ends up ultimately doing, my hope would be that they would have a better outcome,' Espinoza said. Because the current position of Auditor-Controller-Clerk is elected, if the board were to establish registrar as a separate position, it would not take effect until the end of Espinoza's term in 2027.
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Plan to beautify and narrow H Street to 3 lanes moving closer to reality
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — A two-and-a half mile stretch of downtown Bakersfield might be getting a multi-million-dollar makeover. Take a good look at four-lane H Street because in a year and a half or so, if the Bakersfield City Council has its way, it could look quite different – quite different to the tune of perhaps $20 million. H Street, that vital section of downtown that fronts some of Bakersfield's most historic and architecturally significant landmarks, would be going from four lanes to two – one lane each direction with a center turn lane. From State Route 58 north to Golden State Avenue-Highway 204, the road would narrow to accommodate bike lanes and calm the flow of traffic. H Street would remain four lanes under the rail undercrossing but taper back to three further to the north and south. Kern County Board of Supervisors votes to separate voter registrar duties of Auditor-Controller-Clerk's office H Street would have three roundabouts at 2nd Street, 28th Street and a major one at 4th Street, plus decorative street lights, additional trees and hardscaping. Paul Archer of the Public Works Department says, historically, the city's aim has always been to get cars from point A to point B as quickly as possible. 'There's been an impact on bicyclists' and pedestrian safety because of that,' Archer said. 'So our efforts now are to address that type of concern while also allowing for vehicles to travel as smoothly and seamlessly along those corridors as possible.' Archer says the center turn lanes would have a greater positive impact than people give them credit for. Not everyone thinks the project is a good idea. One public works employee who asked that his name not be used, produced a document of dissent titled 'Ruining H Street'. And, more generally, these plans, called Road Diets, have spawned a national conversation about bike lanes and their effect on neighborhood gentrification. The project is still in the planning and funding stages. It could cost between $17 million and $20 million in local, state and federal money – but that too is uncertain, and the project hasn't yet gone out to bid. The city is still soliciting public input. If it stays on track, look for construction to start July 2025. We'd have those orange traffic cones for a year, then unveiling 18 months from now. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
