Chairmanship: Accomplishments and Lessons Learned

This month marked the end of my tenure as the Chairman for the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors. It was an honor to serve in this role for the past two years. We have accomplished many goals.

Together, we have:

• Focused our attention on housing homeless veterans

• Launched the development of a Countywide Plan to guide land use and service decisions • Revitalized our County Museum and broke ground on the new site of the Big Bear Alpine Zoo

• Prioritized literacy with the Vision2Read campaign and recently, began our Vision2BActive campaign

• Raised over $270,000 for local nonprofits through the Give BIG San Bernardino County campaign

• Secured $10.3 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to end homelessness and $5 million from the U.S. Department of Education to increase services to our preschoolers

• Increased transparency and accountability by conducting periodic reviews of our Chief Executive Officer

Amid these great accomplishments, our County has suffered significant loss. On December 2, 2015, our county was changed permanently. I will never forget those we lost and those who continue to suffer as they try to move past that horrific day. We continue to work towards recovering. One of the last acts as Chairman was to work with the CEO to establish a Worker’s Compensation Taskforce comprised of representatives of our largest employee unions and relevant county departments to work internally to examine the system and identify areas that could be improved.

It has been a busy two years. Much has been accomplished but there is still work to do. During my second term as Supervisor, I look forward to working on issues that affect homelessness, economic development, strategic community planning, employee relations, and district projects. As a lifelong resident of this county whose ancestors were the first people to call San Bernardino County “home”, serving as Board Chairman has been a great source of pride for my family and for me. I am looking forward to the next four years. Together, I know we can continue to achieve great things.

By Supervisor James C. Ramos Third District, San Bernardino County