Desert Dwellers Seek to Form a New County

Disgruntled desert dwellers, unhappy about the services provided by San Bernardino County, filed petitions containing more than 20,000 signatures Thursday, calling for creation of a new county in the vast reaches north and east of the City of San Bernardino.

When organizers of the “Mojave County” movement deposited the petitions at the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters office, it marked the beginning of a process that could lead to placing the new-county issue on the ballot in 1988.

90% of the Land

The new county, stretching from the Los Angeles County and Kern County lines on the west to the Colorado River on the east, would contain 90% of the land area, but only about 20% of the population, of what is now San Bernardino County.

Mike Rothschild, a Victorville High School math teacher who is president of the New County Steering Committee, told reporters that the desert region generates more tax and fee revenue than it receives in services from San Bernardino County.

In the 1984-85 fiscal year, the area to be included in the new county produced $190 million in revenue but received only $160 million in services, Rothschild contended.

“Revenues that are generated in this area are not being used in this area,” said Gerda Feldmann of Apple Valley, another of the organizers of the Mojave County movement.

As a result, she said, “We have a miserable environment . . . the roads are in poor repair, street lighting is inadequate, we have poor fire and police protection. It’s a mess.”

Rothschild said four of the five San Bernardino County supervisors represent “highly urbanized centers” in the San Bernardino Valley, with the result that “the desert is out-voted and short-changed.”

San Bernardino County, with 20,600 square miles, is the largest county in the United States outside Alaska.

Under the proposal, it would be reduced in size to slightly more than 2,000 square miles, with a population of about 850,000, while the new Mojave County would have more than 18,000 square miles and a population of 210,000.

Support for the new-county idea seems to be widespread in the Victor Valley, which would be its population center. During a recent three-day visit, a reporter found no one in Victorville, Hesperia, Apple Valley and the surrounding area who opposed the proposal.

“This is an idea whose time has come,” said Victorville City Manager Jim Cox. “We have 25% of the county population and 31% or 32% of county revenue comes from here, but we only get 18% or 19% of county spending. There needs to be equity but the county isn’t doing anything to bring about equity.”

But several San Bernardino County officials said the desert not only is not being shortchanged but might be getting more service than its population and tax base would dictate.

“The Board of Supervisors has gone out of its way to provide for that area,” said Supervisor Barbara Cram Riordan of Redlands. She noted that a county planning office has been established in Victorville and there are county courts in both Victorville and Barstow, among other services.

Reardon said she doubted that the proposed new county would have a sufficiently large tax base to provide the kind of services needed in the desert.

“Why, the number of homicides out there alone would be more than they could handle,” she said.

San Bernardino County Sheriff Floyd Tidwell has long complained that bodies of Los Angeles and Orange County murder victims are carted to the San Bernardino desert for disposal, unfairly increasing his county’s homicide statistics.

Fred Contoia, a county transportation department official, said a major part of the vehicle registration fees used for road maintenance come from the more heavily populated areas of San Bernardino County but more than half of that money is used to repair desert roads.

Capt. Michael O’Rourke of the Victorville Sheriff’s Station said he has 58 deputies to patrol 3,600 square miles, including 22 who provide police protection for the City of Victorville under contract.

“Certainly I’d like to have more,” O’Rourke said, “but I’m not aware generally that people are very unhappy with the level of service we provide.”

San Bernardino County Supervisor John Joiner, who represents the region that would split off, said he had no comment on the proposal.

But Supervisor Larry Walker of Chino said, “I’m convinced that what they’re looking for would be more appropriately found” by incorporating two or three new cities in the desert, rather than by forming a new county.

Rothschild and Feldmann said they handed in 20,366 signatures, well above the 14,979 required.

If the signatures prove to be valid, Gov. George Deukmejian will be asked to appoint a five-member commission to study the feasibility of the new county. Two members of this commission would come from San Bernardino County, two from the proposed Mojave County and one from a neutral area.

The commission would have 180 days to complete its study and could request up to an additional 180 days if the task is complex.

That could place the issue on the June or November, 1988, ballot.

No new county has been formed in California since Imperial County in 1907.