The winter storms that battered the San Bernardino Mountains in February and March 2023 are shaping the March 5 primary election.
Three of the four candidates in the race for San Bernardino County Third District supervisor were at least partially motivated by the county’s widely criticized response to the winter storms. And they’re facing off with an incumbent who represented the mountain communities and was the target of much of their frustration at the time.
The sprawling Third District includes the cities of Barstow, Big Bear Lake, Highland, Grand Terrace, Loma Linda, Needles, Redlands, Twentynine Palms and Yucca Valley.
If none of the four candidates gets more than 50% of the vote in the March primary election, the top two vote-getters will face off in the Nov. 5 general election.
Robert Block
A resident of Crestline, Block was frustrated by how the county handled the blizzard that buried his community for more than a week.
“It’s not every politician has the opportunity to actually display leadership or to be a leader, you know, they’re never really presented with that opportunity,” he said. “And, you know, in this instance, there was that opportunity, and, you know, (Supervisor Dawn Rowe) didn’t meet the moment.”
But it’s not just the storm response that makes Block, who works in commercial real estate, want to be supervisor.
“Politicians are getting lazier,” he said. “I view local politics as a place that should be efficient.”
Block, who has family members in law enforcement, also wants the Board of Supervisors to do more to support public safety, including looking into license plate readers or purchasing drones for the department. (As of March 2023, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department reporting having five drones, about one-sixth of the number that the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department possessed.)
“You’re asked to do a job, but you’re not given the resources or anything to do it,” Block said.
He also has experience working with the logistics industry, a main economic driver in the Inland Empire. Although there’s been increasing pushback to new warehouse construction, Block says the industry is good for the region and expects to see more of it in the coming years.
“When you have the warehouses, you also have the support to go with it, right? So you have mechanics, you have forklift companies, you have commercial companies, you have temporary staffing agencies and things like that,” he said. The logistics industry is “not going to shrink, it’s only going to get bigger. And the question is, is, you know, who’s going to capitalize on it?”
That said, he’d like to see more restrictions on where future logistics centers could be built in the county.
“There should definitely be policies in place to prevent zoning a warehouse next to a residential area,” he said. “You shouldn’t have trucks that large driving down the street. One, because the damage it’s going to cause to the street and then to the cars, but also to pedestrians and stuff.”
In a Dec. 12 campaign filing, Block certified that his campaign committee would not receive campaign contributions.
For more information, visit BlockForSupervisor.com.
Chris Carrillo
Civil rights attorney Carrillo has previously worked as an aide to former Sen. Dianne Feinstein and deputy chief of staff for supervisor-turned-Assemblymember James Ramos. The Highland resident has served on the East Valley Water District board of directors since 2014.
“I think we’ve entered that type of place, again, where we’ve got a county board that’s prioritizing politics over people and special interests over constituent interests,” he said.
He specifically pointed to the board’s multi-year battle to fight voter-approved term and pay limits, first through the courts, and then by putting forward its own successful measure in the 2022 election that actually loosened restrictions on the board while being framed as doing the opposite.
In 2020, “half a million voters voted to limit the county board’s pay, their compensation, their term limits, and the county board elected to sue their own county clerk,” Carrillo said. “I could never sit here and look you in the eye and tell you and half a million other people that I’m going to sue to stop what an electoral result was.”
He also criticized the county’s response to the 2023 blizzard, its decision to promote a ballot measure that could — in theory — lead to the county seceding from California, former CEO Leonard Hernandez getting a raise after his resignation, and the county handing back $4.4 million in federal funds intended to help the region’s homeless population.
“They have a fiduciary duty to make sure that they are doing what they can to best use our taxpayer money,” Carrillo said. “I think we need leadership. And I think it’s time to turn the chapter.”
And he says he’s got the experience that makes him right for the job.
“I’ve worked for the federal government,” Carrillo said. “I’ve worked in this county seat for James Ramos, who’s endorsed me in this race. So I know exactly how to run at their district office, I’ve been a part of that team before. … And if you take a look at what we’ve done with East Valley Water District, you know, it is a world class organization.
“I’ve got relationships in the past almost two decades working and getting things done, delivering, getting real results done,” he said. “I’m confident that that track record is going to help our campaign.”
According to its Jan. 25 campaign filing, the Chris Carrillo for Supervisor 2024 committee reported having $43,565 on hand, after having received $16,011 since Jan. 1 and spending $6,762.
For more information, visit VoteChrisCarrillo.com.
Dawn Rowe
First appointed in December 2018 after Ramos was elected to the state Assembly, Rowe was reelected in 2020. The former mayor of Yucca Valley says her experience is her biggest asset.
“Not only do you represent, primarily, the unincorporated residents that have no other elected (officials), but you sit on the regional boards and commissions and have such an impact with federal and state money that’s channeled in for transportation, air quality and those things,” Rowe said. “So it’s learning the job of the supervisor and then learning the job of those boards you’re appointed to.
“It’s a significant learning curve. I feel like, in the last year and a half, I’ve hit my stride with an understanding of the budgets and understanding my role within the organizations. And one more term would allow me to maintain the stride and make that positive change without having that uphill, steep learning curve.”
And when Rowe says “one more term,” she means it, she said.
“I could go a term beyond this. I will not choose to do that,” Rowe said. “If I’m elected again, I’ll be 60 at the end of that term. I want to go do things. Traveling. I have hiking, I’ve got bucket-list things that require a body that’s not broken and older. So I would, I would like to have the opportunity to do that and enjoy that and hand this off to someone else.”
As the newly appointed chairperson of the Board of Supervisors and the representative of the mountain communities, added to her district through redistricting, Rowe was the target of anger and frustration for many when intense winter storms battered the mountains in early 2023.
“I had stepped into the role of chairman of the board in January, I had assumed the new district through redistricting in January,” she said. “And in February, we get a blizzard like we’ve never had.”
Rowe, like many county residents, was shocked at gaps in the county’s preparation.
“I’m thinking, we just had an earthquake in Trona. Clearly we have a department (handling) donations and volunteers. Oh, wait, we don’t,” she said. “My desk had a notepad that grew with everything that I thought was wrong in our response.”
Since the storms, Rowe said, the county has made major improvements in storm preparation, especially since Luther Snoke has been appointed county CEO. The county has hired a new head of Emergency Services and has purchased and deployed new snow-removal equipment in the mountains.
“We have the equipment. We have the personnel. We’ve outsourced with more contractors that can come in and help us,” Rowe said. “So I feel very confident going into this season that we are much better postured for a massive blizzard.”
Financially, Rowe’s campaign is supported by at least two different committees.
According to its Jan. 25 campaign filing, the Re-Elect Dawn Rowe for San Bernardino County Supervisor 2024 committee reported having $326,237 on hand, after having received $9,699 since Jan. 1 and spending $25,100 — more than twice the rest of her opponents’ expenditures combined.
In addition, there’s the Neighborhood Preservation Coalition Supporting Dawn Rowe For Supervisor 2024 committee. In its Jan. 25 filing, the committee reported having $102,445 on hand and raising $5,000 since Jan. 1. The committee’s lone donor so far in 2024 is former county CEO Greg Deveraux. In August 2023, the committee received a $49,000 donation from Sage 58 Lots LLC, a corporation affiliated with real estate developer James Previti.
For more information, visit RoweForSupervisor.com.
Graham Smith
Crestline resident Smith lives in the house his grandparents built 50 years ago.
“I’m not a career politician. This was never in my life,” Smith said. “The storm experience was my call to action, and kind of prompted us to think about this.”
The storm alone isn’t what animated Smith to run. Among other things, he’s frustrated by the amount of red tape that San Bernardino County businesses outside of incorporated cities and towns have to fight through.
“There’s a restaurant that’s been trying to open for years, just down the road from us — three years — all kinds of county red tape and jumping through hoops, they’re still not open,” he said. “And I’d love to say that is a that is (unique) story, but it’s not. It’s a very, very typical occurrence up here.”
But the blizzard — and mountain residents’ feelings of being ignored by local government, just when they needed it most — is what spurred him into action. Smith rallied community members on Instagram and actually conducted a live interview with Rowe during the blizzard.
“It took 200 residents, I want to say, you know, or thereabouts, coordinating on social media just to get the attention of the county. And I’m happy to say it worked,” he said. “We conversed pretty frequently during the storms. I led a big neighborhood call with a bunch of residents and a bunch of heads of the county departments.”
Smith spent 15 years in what he calls “big finance,” working in investment management for public pension funds, before switching to run small businesses. He says those skills are directly applicable to the county supervisor’s position.
“A big part of this job is financial,” Smith said. “The county’s budget is $10 billion, right? So you’ve got to be comfortable dealing with those sorts of numbers. You also have to be good at managing teams and managing people.”
If elected, Smith would be the first openly gay member of the Board of Supervisors.
“I think the only reason people should care about that is what that’s going to do in terms of influence as it relates to policy,” Smith said. “And for me, all that (influence) is making sure that we have a welcoming, open environment where everyone — everyone — feels welcome and accepted. No more, no less.”
According to its Jan. 25 campaign filing, the Graham Smith for Supervisor 2024 committee reported having $10,659 on hand, after having received $3,048 since Jan. 1 and spending $6,101.
For more information, visit SmithForSB.com.
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