Lt. David Herbert may be an old hand at running Sheriff’s substations, but he’ll be the first to admit that he has a lot to learn when it comes to running the Valley Center substation.
One thing’s for sure: He’s looking forward to the job. Valley Center has been on his wish list for years as the place he most wanted to be posted.
“There’s a learning curve about the community the people and what the hot button issues might be. I’m a person who believes that no matter how old you are there’s always something new to learn,” he told The Roadrunner this week.
Lt. Herbert has taken the substation commander’s post from Lt. Maury Freitas, who retired last week.
Herbert is not “totally unfamiliar” with the law enforcement issues facing the community since he is a resident of the VC area. But he still needs to educate himself about the “local issues,” he says.
Some issues are the same no matter what the community. “Priorities are what you would expect, the crime rate, public safety issues and quality of life issues,” he says.
He adds, “I don’t have a handle enough yet on what the specific crime rate issues are except that in general if it’s good I want to maintain it and even improve it if I can.”
Herbert likes the fact that VC is a small community where people communicate freely with each other, the sherrif’s department, other agencies. “That line of communication that has already been established is part of why people here have the quality of life that they do,” he says.
Like every other agency dependent upon state funds, the Sheriff’s Dept. is under budgetary pressures. That means redeployments to avoid layoffs.
Locally it means that the VC substation will be staffed by 16 deputies instead of the 18 that it would have at full strength.
Divide those 18 deputies over the work week and a day that has two 12 hours shifts and you don’t have a lot of room to wriggle.
At any given time there will be as many as four deputies or as few as two on duty.
That doesn’t count the contracted deputies paid for by the Pala and Rincon tribes.
Lt. Herbert is 52, married to Kathy and between them they have a 15 year old daughter. They have lived in the area for 14 years and Herbert says, “I’ve been a country boy all my life. I’m a third generation San Diegan, and a fourth generation Californian. My great-grandfather voted to make California a state.” He graduated from San Dieguito High School.
Herbert has been in law enforcement for 28 years, all of them in the San Diego County Sheriff’s Dept.
As a deputy he has worked patrol, carried out administrative duties, been a detective and worked at the county jail. Most of his time as a deputy and a sergeant was on the coast.
Herbert was the department’s reserve coordinator, in charge of all reserves and volunteers. He was the first community policing (COPPS) coordinator before taking over as substation commander in Fallbrook. There he was the Sheriff’s liaison with the San Diego County Farm Bureau.
“For several years Valley Center has been at the top of my list for places to be,” says Herbert.
“I very much enjoy the small town family atmosphere of the community where people can interact. People actually wave to you with all five fingers!” he quips. “I’ve always been very community oriented, not because that’s the latest craze but because that makes sense. That’s how you fix problems. It’s a community oriented community.”
For the last few days Herbert has been introducing himself to members of the community, to the farmers, heads of organizations, tribal leaders.
“I like to be able to put a face to a name. I look forward to earning the respect and the trust of not only the people of the community but the deputies at the station and to carry on the good reputation that they and Maury have established already.”
By JOE NAIMAN
The Board of Supervisors last week gave its support to the general direction of the County’s general plan update while directing county staff to return to the board with various issues involving General Plan 2020.
The 5-0 vote June 25 affirmed support for the direction of General Plan 2020 and accepted for continued refinement and progress the planning concepts, the draft regional goals and policies, the land use framework, the regional structure map, the regional land distribution map, and statements of legislative intent.
The supervisors also directed county staff:
• to review the list of referrals and have Department of Planning & Land Use staff return to the board in 90 days with a recommendation, to address the issue of “ground truthing” in each community.
• to develop community-based design standards.
• to return to the board with recommendations on resolving issues in communities subject to the Forest Conservation Initiative (Palomar Mountain is one such community).
• to investigate the feasibility of slope criteria for semi-rural designations.
• to provide a recommendation on projects currently in the pipeline which would be affected by density or zoning changes. to focus on broader infrastructure issues such as traffic, water, sewer, fire protection, emergency services, and police protection.
• to return to the board with a “complete package.”
The supervisors also voted to refer the development of purchase of development rights, transfer of development rights, and other equity mechanisms to the interest group.
The 90-day timeframe will actually be 91 days due to the Board of Supervisors meeting schedule. The recommendations on the referrals will return to the supervisors Sept. 24.
Also scheduled to be ready for the supervisors by that day are recommendations on the slope criteria issues and the Forest Conservation Initiative issues.
County staff will be able to return to the supervisors in 30 days (which will likely be 35 days since the supervisors do not meet the week of July 23) with a recommendation on projects in the pipeline.
The 30-day timeframe will also produce a recommendation on interest group participants which are supporting issues conflicting with the general plan, an issue created when one participant group, the Sierra Club endorsed a ballot initiative by Duncan McFetridge of Save Our Forests and Ranchlands (SOFAR) for a separate zoning process.
The issue of equity mechanisms will not be rushed, and no recommendation will be provided within 90 days.
“That's something that we’ll trail throughout the process,” said DPLU director Gary Pryor.
The maps and design standards will also extend beyond the 90 days.
“I believe firmly we need a complete package,” said Supervisor Dianne Jacob.
The June 25 vote was the third part of the hearing on the general plan update. A staff presentation was given May 21 and public comment began that day and continued June 11.
In an effort to avoid a conflict of interest, the areas including and immediately surrounding the properties of Jacob and Supervisor Bill Horn were separated from the rest of the discussion and plan designations for those areas were approved May 21.
A May 21 motion to conduct a comprehensive groundwater study for the Backcountry and a June 11 motion restoring Lakeside’s industrial areas to their current plan designations were also approved.
The groundwater study is also likely to take longer than 90 days.
“We'll be working on that as a part of the Environmental Impact Report,” said General Plan 2020 project manager Ivan Holler.
Holler anticipates that the environmental review would begin in late 2003 and conclude near the end of 2004. “The environmental review process will begin once we have a land use designation that's close enough for us to define and use as the basis,” he said, explaining that more direction on the map was needed before an environmental study could begin in earnest.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires evaluation of different alternatives, and the existing map will be one of the alternatives as will variations involving properties being reviewed.
“I think we have to remember why we started this process back in 1998,” said Jacob, reminding veterans and informing newcomers that the purpose of the update was to correct legal deficiencies in the existing general plan. “ think it is important that staff analyze the alternatives.”
Jacob also repeated her call that the plan originate at the community level. “This planning process should be from the bottom up and a community-based plan.”
Jacob added that in some cases minimum lot sizes will need to be identified in order to preserve community character. “Planning groups and staff and the property owners must work to achieve that very delicate balance.”
Jacob also noted that the population projection figures may fluctuate. “The population numbers are not in concrete,” she said.
Horn disagrees with any downzoning west of the San Diego County Water Authority boundary and called for changes to the map. “I can't say I'm
overwhelmed with the results,” he said. “Devaluation of the property is just wrong.”
Horn called for caution on the Environmental Impact Report until the map issues were settled. “I really don't want to see us go into an EIR situation until we know what we're requesting.”
DPLU staff has focused on residential densities, which do not necessarily reflect zoning or minimum lot sizes, in the initial portion of the plan.
“What we're giving direction to is for staff to begin work on some of the other issues,” Jacob said. “In some cases it may be simple to make some decisions; in other cases it may not.”
Jacob noted that county staff, community planning or sponsor groups, property owners, and the county's Planning Commission could provide up to four different recommendations on a parcel. “What we'll be doing is applying goals and policies,” Pryor said.
Board of Supervisors chairman Greg Cox feels that the county is on the way to a good and legally defensible plan. “This has obviously been a very long and arduous process,” he said. “I think all of us want some closure to this.”
By DAVID ROSS
The VC Municipal Water District board last week passed a $31,753,563 million operating budget, an increase of $6.3% from the year before.
The budget projects an increase in water sales of 8.9%, or 45,200 acre feet.
Water sales, by far the largest part of the budget, are projected to be $18,436,200.
The projected water sales (i.e. water the district is purchasing from the San Diego County Water Authority) are by no means the highest for the district. In 1989-90 VCMWD sold 48,537 AF. In 2001-2002 it sold over 47,000 AF. An acre foot is an acre of water one foot deep.
Sales for the past decade have ranged from 28,000 AF to 47,000. Because the largest part of the water is sold to agriculture, sales are affected by weather.
The district expects to add 399 new water meters, including 161 new fire meters, bringing the total meters up to around 8,500.
Energy costs are projected to be $4,258,000, or 0.2% higher than last year.
Personnel expenditures are budgeted at $5, 211,000 or 5.7% higher than last year. The budget includes a cost of living raise of 3%, however the district is still negotiating a new memorandum of understanding with the employees’ union, so this figure could change.
Two new positions are being added, including a Water Systems Technician III and an Engineering Technician III.
General Administration is budgeted for $859,634; Finance for $1,344,926; $934,824 for Engineering and $4,784,785 for Field Operations.
Capital projects are budgeted at $4,414,700. By far the largest capital expenditures will be in the engineering department, where $1 million will be spent $892,000 will be spent for pipeline replacements and $570,000 will be spent for valve and large meter upgrades.
Moosa Sewer: Rates will increase by $3 on July 1 and another $3 on Jan. 1 so that the total sewer rate will be $34 by next year.
Skyline Ranch Sewer: This utility continues to be self-supporting and will generate positive cash balances so that rates can be decreased slightly, from $33.55 to $33.04.
Agricultural savings: During the fiscal year 2002-2003, the Interim Agricultural Water Program (IAWP) saved Valley Center customers about $5 million on the purchase of 37,000 AF. The district expects that ag customers will save $4,141,800 this upcoming year.
By RIK ESPINOSA
PART I of II parts.
Pure greed lay behind the land grab that resulted in a 134-year struggle of a Southern California Indian tribe to keep its ancestral home in a remote corner of San Diego County.
An examination of court records, newspapers, historical accounts and diaries of the pioneers of the period – as well as Kupa histories – reveals a period of wanton disregard for the rights of the Kupa as people resulting in the only instance in United States history where two linguistically separate tribes of Indians were forced to assimilate on the same reservation, this happening at Pala, California in 1903.
The Kupa were forced to move into the territory of a Luiseño tribe – the Pala Indians—who were not asked for their permission to accommodate the newcomers and in times past, were enemies.
Ultimately, the Kupa Indians were denied the right to live on their familial homelands in the valley around Warner Springs—which lay at the terminus of a valley from the southeastern California desert, north of the Julian gold fields, south of Palomar Mountain and at the head of a large watershed heading towards the Pacific Ocean.
The broad valley, headwaters of the San Luis Rey River and situated at the 3,000 foot level in the foothills southeast of the Palomar Mountains with the westernmost part now filled by Lake Henshaw, was both an agricultural bonanza for the Anglo settlers and an ideal oasis for travelers crossing the desert.
At first the grazing land in the valley, then the thermally heated springs, the agua caliente, and finally the watershed of the hot springs valley were coveted by the Anglo settlers and would eventually lead to the removal of the Kupa at gunpoint.
The Indians who lived in the Warner Springs area, named the Agua Caliente (meaning hot water) Indians by the Spaniards called themselves the “People of Kupa” and say their name comes from the word Kuupangaxwichem, which means “people who slept here.” The Spanish named the Indians Cupeños, which means people of Cupa or Kupa. (The Spanish 'eño' suffix means a person who resides, or is from a place, in this instance Kupa. The letter “K” is rarely used in Spanish to begin a word -- the letter “C” is substituted.)
Anthropologists label the Kupa a separate tribal entity because the Cupeño language is distinct from the Luiseño-speaking Indians to the north and west, the Kumeyaay/Diegueño-speaking Indians to the south and the Cahuilla Indians to the east.
Warner, the Connecticut Yankee
Born Jonathan Trumbull Warner on Nov. 20, 1807, in Lyme, Connecticut, Warner first saw the land that would eventually bear his name in November 1831 when he completed a journey that began in St. Louis.
“He (Warner) first saw his future ranch then, as the first outpost of Californian fertility after the desert journey,” a historical marker at Warner Springs states.
In order to stay in Alta California, Warner renounced his U.S. citizenship and was naturalized a citizen of Mexico, taking the name of Juan José (John Joseph) Warner.
Warner’s 1836 marriage at Mission San Luis Rey to the daughter of an English sea captain, Anita Gale, instantly put him into the elite Californio inner circle.
Although he married a woman who was not descended from the Spaniards who colonized California, from the time she was a girl, while her father was at sea, Anita Gale was raised by Eustaquia Lopez de Pico with her family, including her sons Juan and Pio Pico.
On Nov. 28, 1844, Governor Manuel Micheltorena gave 44,322 acres of the Valle de San José to Juan José Warner.
Many documents of the day described lands as “unoccupied” even though there were Indians living on the land in several villages.
On August 1, 1846, ten years after Warner married his foster sister, now Governor Pio Pico gave Warner an additional 23,000 acres west of the Rancho San José del Valle.
Legal Prejudice
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1901 that the Kupa were considered “wards” of the U.S. government and not citizens of the U.S. or Mexico and thus they were not eligible to claim land ownership, court records revealed.
In a unanimous decision, the justices upheld a very close California Supreme Court ruling that a San Diego Superior Court judge correctly excluded testimony from Indians and Anglos that the Kupa had lived at the hot springs before 1815.
In decision after decision that would not hold up in any court today, the Kupa lost the case in Superior Court, the state Supreme court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Governor John G. Downey
In the now San Gabriel Valley in eastern Los Angeles County, a group of vigilantes known as the El Monte Rangers was formed in the 1850s and included local druggist John G. Downey.
Downey came to California from his native Ireland in the gold rush of 1849 but really made his fortune as a pharmacist in the Pueblo of Los Angeles.
Downey, elevated to the governor’s office after the five-day term of Milton Latham (who wanted California split in half with the southern part a slave state), served from 1860 to 1862 and, despite his pro-slavery views, is credited with keeping California in the Union during the Civil War.
About 1875 Downey began buying parcels in the hot springs area.
Downey sued Allejandro Barker, Baleriana Barker, Angela Barker and other Kupa living on “his” land on Aug. 11, 1892. The complaint – case R3.39, No. 6898, was filed in the court of San Diego County Superior Court Judge George Puterbaugh by a heavyweight and politically connected attorney.
Stephen Mallory White and his law partner Charles Monroe represented Downey and the Anglo titleholders. White was a former L.A. County district attorney and was the California Senate president pro tempore when the suit was filed. White went on to serve as the Lieutenant Governor of California and was a U.S. Senator from California by the time the suit progressed into the U.S. Supreme Court nine years later.
Puterbaugh traveled to the Kupa village in July 1893 and took depositions in the case but illness by Downey forced the judge to shelve the matter.
A wealthy San Francisco banker, J. Downey Harvey, was executor of the estate when Downy died March 1, 1894: Harvey continued appealing the suits until they won in the U.S. Supreme Court and pushed to evict the Kupa.
On April 21, the lawsuit against the Barkers was refiled and on August 3, this time naming Kupa chief Jesus Quevas (aka Jesus Cuevas) and every Kupa living on the land, demanding they leave.
Harvey’s Merchants' Exchange Bank of San Francisco held the mortgages on the hot springs valley and became party to the suit along with Harvey.
Judge W. L. Pierce took over the Kupa’s case Nov. 5, 1895 when Puterbaugh recused himself.
With the financial help of the Indian Rights Association, the Mohonk Committee on “Legal Defense of the Mission Indians” and the “Women's National Indian Association,” the Kupa hired Los Angeles attorney Shirley C. Ward to defend them.
It took more than a year from the refiling of the suits before depositions in the now combined cases were taken with by Judge Pierce.
The hopes of the Kupa were dashed when the judge ruled Dec. 29, 1896 that those in charge of Downey’s estate of could remove the Indians because testimony in the case introduced by the plaintiffs said that the Kupa had squatted in the hot springs valley after 1815, which was the time the hot springs valley came under the domain of the newly-completed San Luis Rey Mission.
The fact that the Kupa spoke a language significantly different from the Luiseños and the Kumeyaay/Diegueños and closer to the Indians of the Imperial Valley and Yuma area was held against their claim to the land they had called home for centuries.
Pierce upheld an objection to the introduction of oral testimony and depositions by the Kupa that they had always lived in the valley of the hot springs. Without that testimony, the judge ruled that the Kupa were actually Yuma Indians and were trespassers and they had no legal standing to claim the land under the legal right of continuous possession.
Within days, on Jan. 8, 1897, the Kupa appealed judge’s ruling based on Judge Pierce’s throwing out the depositions and testimony showing the Kupa had always lived near the hot springs.
When Judge Elisha Swift Torrance denied the new trial on May 1, the Kupa appealed to the state supreme court.
Arguments were heard in front of the California Supreme Court, en banc, on Oct. 4, 1899 with Shirley C. Ward and Frank D. Lewis arguing for the Kupa and White and Monroe representing the Anglos.
The Supreme Court was sharply divided with the justices splitting five to four in favor of denying a new trial.
Justice Walter Van Dyke wrote in the majority opinion.
The justices took note of correspondence possessed by Warner that showed he got title to “vacant” land in 1844.
The 1844 letter from Father Olivas was given great weight by Justice Walter Van Dyke and the other justices.
The Kupa’s argument that the Indians had rights under Mexican law “is entirely irrelevant in this case,” the decision said.
Justices Ralph Harrison, C.H. Garoutte and F. W. Henshaw agreed with Van Dyke; Chief Justice W. H. Beatty, T. B. McFarland and C. Jackson Temple dissented.
Justice McFarland, with Justice Temple concurring, said “I do not think that they (the Kupa) were required to present their claims to the land commission, or that they are even to be charged with knowing that there was such a commission, or with a knowledge of the law generally.”
On Oct. 26, 1889, the appeal of the state Supreme Court defeat to the U.S. Supreme Court was made by the U.S. Attorney General.
Ward and federal assistant U.S. Attorney Hoyt appeared for the Kupa at the oral arguments before the Supreme Court on March 20 and 21, 1901 and, joining White and Monroe, were San Diego law partners David L. Withington and Cassius Carter.
Withington was a state senator and Carter became district attorney of San Diego County from 1903 to 1906 but is best known because he was a Shakespearean scholar. The Cassius Carter Centre Stage Theater in at the Old Globe Theater in Balboa Park is named for Carter.
The argument in the U.S. Supreme Court centered on whether or not the Kupa had continuously occupied the valley of the hot springs but the unanimous decision (Justice Edward White was absent), written by Justice David J. Brewer, focused on the Kupa not submitting claims to the land to the California Land Commission.
“As between the United States and the Indians, their failure to present their claims to the land commission within the time named made the land, within the language of the statute, ‘part of the public domain of the United States.,’ ” Brewer wrote.
Brewer also said that the Kupa had no rights of easement onto the land or of occupancy of the land because, "A claim of a right to permanent occupancy of land is one of far reaching effect, and it could not well be said that lands which were burdened with a right of permanent occupancy were a part of the public domain and subject to the full disposal of the United States."
On May 13, 1901 the Kupa learned they had lost the valley of the hot springs when the Supreme Court decision favoring the “landowners” was announced.
The Trail of Tears
On the morning of May 12, 1903 – two years after the U.S. Supreme Court decision -- the Kupa Indians were forced by the U.S. Government to move from their 30 adobe homes at the hot springs and abandon their scared lands belonging to them from time immemorial.
Just 98 Kupa traveled on their “Trail of Wails.” Hundreds of others slipped into the woods, traveling to neighboring villages and other family.
Some rode in their own buggies, some on the wagons – many of the young men were on their horses driving some four-dozen ponies and cattle.
The caravan made scant progress the first day crossing the valley, traveling across an area now submerged under Lake Henshaw. The wagon train stopped for the night at Oak Grove where the present-day community of Lake Henshaw is located — still in sight of their homes at the other edge of the Valley of the Hot Springs.
“They drew the first rations ever issued to the Cupeños by the government — some at first refused to accept them, saying they were not objects of charity,” San Francisco Bulletin reporter Grant Wallace wrote.
Generally following the course of the San Luis Rey River and present-day Hwy 76, the Kupa traveled on Wednesday May 13 through the La Jolla Reservation, past the present junction of Hwy 76 and South Grade Road – leading to the top of Palomar Mountain – and into the Pauma Valley where they stopped at the Rancho Pauma, still a working ranch then, ten years after it had been acquired for the Pauma Reservation.
“At Pauba (Pauma) cattle ranch the next night, where was a vast herd of cattle, a large number of rough-riding cowboys conducting an old time ‘round-up,’ roped and shot a steer, and, with the assistance of the Indians, soon had it ready for broiling over the exiles’ campfires,” Wallace reported.
Thursday, May 14 found the Kupa traveling the last seven miles to their new home at Pala.
A condescending Wallace wrote, “The first disappointment on their arrival at Pala, due to the absence of any visible provision for their housing, soon gave way to a better feeling, with the erection of a tent village along the well-wooded banks of the San Luis Rey River.”
On Sunday, May 17 the Kupa – many of which were Catholic – refused to attend church at the Pala chapel.
“What kind of a God is this you ask us to worship, who deserts us when we need him most?,” said Wallace -- quoting what some Kupa said to the priest.
The Pala Indians
The main body of the Kupa and the Pala Luiseños have long merged into the Pala Band of Mission Indians. Other Kupa never followed their brethren to Pala and assimilated into other nearby tribes.
Indians with Kupa blood became members of the La Jolla, San Pasqual, Pauma and Yuima Los Coyotes, Capitan Grande, Santa Ysabel, Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, Morongo and other bands, tribes and nations in Southern California.
Climb the largest rock wall, dunk the Valley Roadrunner Editor and see the second largest fireworks display in North County presented by Michael Crews Development.
Festivities begin Friday, July 4, at 5 p.m. and go to 9:30 p.m. at Valley Center High School’s Jaguar Stadium.
“Valley Center will have the second largest fireworks display in North County,” said Sam Breggema of Pyro Spectaculars.
Fireworks will begin promptly at 9 p.m. as stadium lights dim and the live band plays, America the Beautiful.
It will be a fitting culmination of an evening of fun that will include live music, fun, games and food.
The featured band, Hot Pursuit, will energize the crowd with pop, rock, country and American tunes.
Children of all ages are invited to participate in gunnysack, egg toss, and three legged races beginning at 6:15 pm. Trophies and ribbons will be awarded.
Various local celebrity victims will be dunked at the dunking booth, which begins at 5 p.m.
Balloon animals will be available for children and adults. Music, games and balloons are complimentary from Michael Crews Development with the volunteer labor of Beth Todd who will provide the balloon artistry.
Other activities benefiting clubs and organizations in the community include rock wall climbing, face painting, glow necklaces, and food of all kinds.
Bring your tennis shoes to climb the largest rock wall in San Diego County or take some time to get your face painted by Bethany Harris. Miss Harris is a junior at VCHS trying to earn money to compete in the USA Wrestling Championships in Fargo, North Dakota.
Foods available to buy include: Smoothies, coffee drinks, cotton candy, corn on the cob, kettle corn, hamburgers, bratwurst and much more. Or bring your own food. Everyone is welcome to bring a picnic basket full of their own foods and drinks if they would like to spread out a dinner of their own. Remember that alcohol and tobacco are forbidden on the school campus.
Arrive early for suitable parking. Attendance is expected to reach 6,000 in the immediate area with more than 2,000 expected in surrounding neighborhoods.
For more information call Michael Crews Development at 760-749-1919.
The Valley Roadrunner
P.O.B. 1529, Valley Center, CA 92082
Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688
Website: www.valleycenter.com
Email: editor@valleycenter.com
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