RECAP: Yucca Valley Town Council, June 16, 2026
Council OKs BMX lease and a shelter partnership; residents turn out for a Grubstake rodeo revival and looser backyard-chicken rules; Edison outages draw fire
By The Yucca Valley Resident Review Committee
Note: Our report is based on the meeting zoom stream. Unfortunately the camera stayed on the Councilmembers for the entire meeting so we are missing photographs of staff and public speakers.
In a marked contrast to the June 2 marathon, Yucca Valley Town Council moved through the June 19 agenda briskly — all thirteen items dispatched in well under an hour. Council comments were another matter. What had felt like a meeting on track to finish in sixty minutes stretched on as Councilmembers worked through their enthusiasm for the BMX track, the rodeo, the Fourth of July, and backyard chickens.
The agenda included no public hearings, and the consent agenda passed without a single item pulled. The night’s real substance lived in two department-report items: a lease to reopen the town BMX track and a contract formalizing the animal shelter’s relationship with a no-kill partner.
Councilmember Rick Denison was excused; the other four, Mayor Merl Abel, Mayor Pro Tem Jim Schooler, and Councilmembers Jeff Drozd and Robert Lombardo, were present. The Council came out of a closed-session evaluation of Town Attorney Thomas Jex with no reportable action.
Related documents:
Meeting agenda
Our agenda preview
Video of the meeting
A benign invocation (almost)
As mentioned in our agenda preview, the invocation was delivered by Pastor Bill Wilcox of Hosanna Hope Church, a nondenominational evangelical congregation based in Yucca Valley. However, the Pastor’s words were difficult to discern, even in person, as he was not mic’d. Since the word “murderers” popped out, we used audio enhancement software to determine the context:
We thank you for the completion of another school year. We thank you for the challenges that were overcome, the learning that took place, and for the protection we provided for each of our campuses from the evil of the murderers who might have inflicted mass casualties. Please continue to protect the children and their activities this summer.
The conclusion was less dramatic:
I would pray for our nation that with all the talk of culture wars and threats to divide, that you would teach us once again to live by the golden rule that we would treat others the way we want them to treat us.
The consent agenda, in one motion
The Council disposed of items 3 through 10 in a single 4-0-1 (absence) vote with no items pulled and no public comment. That block included the approval of the June 2 minutes, ratification of the county fire code, the aquatics-center consultant funding increases, the May AB1234 travel report, the warrant registers, the fleet-vehicle purchase confirmation, the Fire Station 41 land donation, and the second reading of Ordinance 334, which was the final adoption of the Walmart fuel station specific-plan amendment. Each of these was covered in detail in our agenda preview. Notably, the Walmart ordinance, which drew three critical public comments at its June 2 introduction, passed its final reading without discussion.
A BMX track gets a second life
The first department report was Item 11, a lease agreement to reopen the town-owned BMX track, dormant since late 2023. Recreation Supervisor Jakub “Kuba” Kusmieruk presented the staff report, describing an arrangement under which Yucca Valley BMX, operating under the fiscal sponsorship of the Basin Wide Foundation, would take over day-to-day operations, maintenance, and programming for a $1-a-year lease running July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, with automatic annual renewals.
Heather Quintana, a Basin Wide Foundation board member and the chairperson of Yucca Valley BMX, spoke in support, asking the Council to approve the lease “so we can begin the work of restoring and reopening” the track. She described a new volunteer leadership team and pitched the track as a needed gathering place:
What makes BMX special is that it also brings families together. Parents volunteer, siblings ride together, neighbors become friends. The track becomes more than a recreational facility, it becomes a gathering place that strengthens community connections...We can't bring BMX back to Yucca Valley alone, but with your support, we can restore a community asset and give local youth and families a place to ride, grow, connect, and thrive.
The council discussion was uniformly enthusiastic and nostalgic, with members recalling the track’s heyday of regional and state championships that drew visitors to town. Schooler framed the Basin Wide partnership as a hedge against the boom-and-bust cycle that has repeatedly left the track without leadership once volunteer operators’ children age out.
Mayor Abel recused himself from the item, citing a business relationship conflict, with Mayor Pro Tem Schooler presiding. The lease passed 3-0-1-1, with Councilmember Denison absent and Abel recused.
That cycle raises a question the council didn’t take up: if the track has closed in the past due to the lack of volunteers, and the town still owns it and pays for its major upkeep, why isn’t it under the umbrella of Parks and Rec? Would’t a paid supervisor be a steadier bet than another $1-a-year volunteer deal?
The Yucca Valley Animal Shelter formalizes a partner
Item 12 drew the night’s most substantive discussion. Town Manager Curtis Yakimow presented a two-year professional services agreement with the Morongo Basin Humane Society (MBHS), the 501c3 nonprofit that runs the Joshua Tree No-kill Shelter, for animal transfer, rehabilitation, and rehoming services, running July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2028.
Yakimow said the town had already been transferring animals to the no-kill shelter on an informal, case-by-case basis; this agreement formalizes that relationship, sets a target of roughly 25 animals per fiscal year, adds a reporting function, and includes a one-time payment for work the shelter did in 2025 outside any formal agreement.
Yakimow tied the contract directly to the 2025 animal shelter operational review, which recommended the town seek operational partners, placing this item squarely in the shelter-recovery arc that has been in the news since the Doug Smith euthanasia controversy of 2025. We provided background to this story here.
The discussion turned on what the 25-animal figure means in practice. Drozd asked whether the town could exceed 25 “like we did before,” and Yakimow declined to commit to a hard cap, saying staff would “cross those bridges when we get there.” Lombardo walked through his own understanding for the record: the agreement lets the no-kill shelter take “the harder to adopt ones, ones that may need some kind of rehabilitation,” freeing kennel space for animals more easily adopted through the town’s own process. Yakimow confirmed the no-kill shelter targets animals needing “additional behavioral assessment or behavioral modification, and or medical care.”
Mayor Abel was careful to frame the arrangement as mutual rather than a dumping ground:
Obviously it’s not a place just to give them the undesirables, it’s one of trying to find them rehabilitation in homes, and we might not have that capacity, and they do… 25 is a start. We have a much bigger issue and problem than that, but it is a wonderful partnership.
He added that staff should “not abuse the privilege” by leaning on the transfer instead of advertising adoptable animals.
One resident, Cheryl Contopolus, spoke in support, praising the town for putting the relationship “in writing.” The agreement passed 4-0-1 (absence).
Road maintenance: $620,000 against a $1.7 million need
Item 13, the last action item, was a resolution approving the town’s SB 1 road-maintenance project list for fiscal year 2026-27. Public Works Director Alex Qishta presented the item, explaining that the state’s Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017 funnels fuel-tax and vehicle-fee revenue to cities for local road work, conditioned on submitting an annual project list to the California Transportation Commission. The town’s estimated allocation is $619,757.
Under questioning from Lombardo, Qishta offered a number not in the staff report’s headline: the full slurry-seal and cape-seal maintenance program is estimated at $1.7 million, meaning the SB 1 money covers roughly a third of the planned work, with town funds supplementing the rest. Asked whether the town can keep pace with maintenance on all its roads, Qishta said, “We’re trying to keep it that way.”
At Abel’s prompting, Qishta also explained the two treatments shown on the project map: slurry seal, a thinner film used on newer roads at about 69 cents a square foot, and cape seal, a heavier aggregate-and-seal treatment at roughly $1.30 a square foot, chosen road-by-road based on condition. The resolution passed 4-0-1.
Public comment: a rodeo revival and a fight over backyard chickens
With the action items dispatched, the public-comment period became the liveliest part of the night, dominated by two grassroots pushes.
The Grubstake Days rodeo
Four speakers asked the Council to help revive the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) rodeo as part of Grubstake Days. Gina Pasquini said she had been selected to lead a committee to bring the rodeo back to the Memorial Day weekend event at an approximate cost of $140,000, citing experience “running million dollar rodeos up north,” and asking the town to partner on fundraising. Abby Olea, 17, gave a short history of the event:
In 1951 the Yucca Valley Chamber of Commerce officially sponsored the very first Grubstake Days… Over the decades, the event grew to include a sanctioned PRCA rodeo. This rodeo became the Grubstake Days headline attraction, drawing thousands of spectators and professional cowboys from across the country.
Vivian Ripley, 15, framed the rodeo as honoring the town’s “strong western heritage” and a draw for visitors who “support local restaurants, stores, hotels, and businesses.” Lucy Olea, 12, spoke about riding horses with her family:
My name is Lucy, and I’m 12 years old. I love to ride horses… we always go to the rodeos every year with our family. It’s become a tradition.
The pitch landed with the dais. Drozd offered his own horse-riding history and said he hoped “we can get the rodeo going again.” Lombardo said he had been talking with a constituent, Missy Buchanan, about staying involved, and floated town financial support for the rodeo’s “initiation.” Schooler, noting the wave of community interest in both the rodeo and BMX, turned the recurring question back on the room:
“You kind of look around and say, who’s the they… the people of this community are the they that make it happen. So thank you all for stepping up.”
Backyard chickens
Asia, who said she was raised in Yucca Valley as one of nine children, asked the Council to revisit a 2014 ordinance change that tied chicken-keeping to larger lot sizes. She argued that chicken-keeping taught her family responsibility and self-sufficiency and offered therapeutic benefit, noting her father is a Marine veteran and citing the value of caring for animals for those managing PTSD and stress.
We weren’t running a farm. We had a small flock that taught us lessons that I still carry with me as an adult today. Every morning we fed chickens, checked their water, changed their living area, and collected eggs. Those daily chores taught us responsibility.
She asked the Council to update the ordinance so more families could keep a small number of hens. Lombardo, who recounted his own backyard chickens being “eaten by a bobcat,” said the issue “we can look at… in the future to see what could be done about changing the permitting.”
Under Yucca Valley’s current municipal code, fowl require a minimum lot size of 20,000 square feet — just under half an acre — in single-family residential zones. On a lot that size, residents may keep up to 10 hens; each additional 10,000 square feet adds five more, to a maximum of 25. Fowl are not permitted on multi-family lots at all. Animal-keeping rules are a live question next door, too. In November 2025, the Desert Trumpet covered a Twentynine Palms Planning Commission study session on animal regulations where the city’s minimum-acreage requirements were examined partly through the lens of food access. At that time the minimum acreage for keeping fowl was one acre, but Planning Commissioners in that City recommended a change to minimum quarter-acre parcels.
Southern California Edison outages
Cheryl Contopolus returned to the podium on behalf of family living within Edison’s Campanula circuit, describing repeated unplanned outages. She documented seven in a paper she gave Mayor Abel before the meeting, with an eighth since. She recalled a presentation given to the Council on January 20 by Edison representative Shane Massoud:
On January 20, at the town council meeting, Shane Massoud gave a presentation. In that presentation, he outlined some things that could be done that would resolve the issues — that was five months ago. Things have gotten worse since that meeting… We can't be appeased by a presentation if there is no follow through and no forward motion. Your constituents need you to help make this a high priority and hold them accountable.
Edison reliability is not a Yucca Valley problem alone. The Desert Trumpet reported in February 2025 on a wave of SCE outages in Twentynine Palms — a dozen scheduled shutoffs clustered in the business district over several weeks, one of which forced the cancellation of a February Planning Commission meeting. Like the Flock cameras and the meeting-cancellation patterns the Desert Trumpet has tracked, SCE reliability is shaping up as a basin-wide story playing out separately before two Councils.
Staff reports and Council comments: pickleball, summer aquatics, Joshua Trees and hairy legs
Public Works Director Alex Qishta gave project updates: the pickleball courts beside the Community Center are built and painted, with striping and fencing to follow and completion expected by the end of July; the SR-62 beautification project is at 60 percent design; and a restored town monument sign at Community Center and SR-62 is in the consultant-agreement stage.
Recreation Supervisor Kusmieruk reported the summer aquatics program launched June 1, with more than $30,000 in program registrations already, alongside a new “Turtle Travels” exhibit at the museum and a busy senior center.
Deputy Town Manager Shane Stueckle flagged the Western Joshua Tree Conservation Plan, which goes before the California Fish and Game Commission on August 12-13. The framing was notable: Stueckle described the Conservation Act as having created "burdens" for residents, characterizing state environmental law as an imposition, and said the town encourages residents to continue making public testimony and meeting with legislative representatives.
Per CDFW, comments on the Conservation Plan or new information on the western Joshua tree may be submitted at any time via email to WJT@wildlife.ca.gov or by mail to: Habitat Conservation Planning Branch, P.O. Box 944209, Sacramento, CA 94244-2090. Once the agenda is posted, residents may participate in the August 12-13 Fish and Game Commission meeting in person, by teleconference, or via the open comment period. The agenda will be posted at fgc.ca.gov/meetings/2026.
Regarding SCE, Yakimow added that town staff continues to work with legislative advocates on potential changes, and, responding to Contopolus’s comment, said staff would continue to press Southern California Edison on reliability, “whether it’s through our franchise agreement… or any other tools at our disposal.” He also praised the recently repaved Onaga Trail.
In council comments, Drozd, Lombardo, and Schooler all returned to their enthusiasm for the BMX track and the rodeo. Lombardo ran a little over three minutes, working through backyard chickens lost to a bobcat and a fondly remembered Grubstake Days hairy-legs contest. It’s a an example of a pattern Desert Trumpet has tracked more pointedly next door in Twentynine Palms, where a single council member’s comments have run as long as seven minutes.
Drozd noted the Campanula circuit had gone out “nine times” in the past month and a half, one more than was stated in public comment. Abel thanked the town’s senior staff and legal counsel for their responsiveness and wished the community a safe Fourth of July.
Town Council will be dark on Tuesday, July 7. The next scheduled Town Council meeting is Tuesday, July 21. A Successor Agency meeting followed the adjournment.
This report is produced with AI assistance. Please see our Yucca Valley Town Hall reporting policy and our AI policy.
Run for Town Council! Districts 1 (Schooler), 3 (Abel) and 5 (Denison) are up for election. The nomination period for candidates begins July 13, 2026 and ends on August 6, 2026. Contact Town Clerk Brooke Dudra for details and check out our article on How to Run for City and Town Council for general guidelines.
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