Meals, Money, And Making Sense Of Apple Valley

A single KFC receipt lit up Apple Valley—and it wasn’t just about chicken. We trace how a $1,600 line item became a symbol of bigger problems: clumsy invoicing, unclear policies on council meals, and a widening communication gap between residents and the people who represent them. Along the way, we break down what was rumor, what was real, and what needs to change to rebuild trust.

We also tackle the town’s budget narrative head-on. You’ll hear how Measure P revenue arrives in phases, why reserves appeared to be tapped, and what that means once the true-up hits. It’s a nuanced picture: timing mismatches can be legitimate, but only if leaders explain them plainly and document the plan to restore reserves. We lay out a simple checklist residents can use to assess fiscal health: recurring vs one-time costs, reserve thresholds, and public dashboards that track it all.

Transparency should not be the exception. We talk through the Brown Act—what it actually restricts, and where councils can still respond—and make the case for practical fixes that invite honest dialogue: publish council emails, host quarterly town halls, require monthly itemized invoices, and replace bulk catering with a capped, receipt-based approach or end it altogether. The goal is not outrage; it’s alignment. When people show up, ask precise questions, and get timely answers, civic trust grows—and so does the quality of our local decisions.

If you care about how Apple Valley spends, communicates, and plans for the future, this is your guide to cutting through noise and making your voice count. Listen, share with a neighbor, and tell us what policy fix you want prioritized next. Subscribe, leave a review, and join the conversation so we can keep shining light where it matters most.

Transcript

Mission And Local Focus

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey there Apple Valley, are you tired of feeling like decisions are being made for you instead of with you? Do you ever wonder what the town council is actually working on or why that new development is suddenly popping up next to your favorite spot? Well, welcome to the High Desert Insiders, the podcast dedicated to pulling back the curtain on our local government and the issues that truly matter right here in the High Desert. So today for the show, it's just gonna be me, but I did want to share uh some conversations that I've had with um council members and things that I've learned that uh I think we all can walk away with being more informed about it and um learn some some lessons about um local government, how to you know better ourselves and and do better next time, kind of a thing. You'll see what I'm talking about. And so this is where your voice gets heard, your questions get answered, and we all become a little bit more informed and engaged residents of Apple Valley and the High Desert. So whether you're passing by the iconic Apple Valley golf course or waiting for the light on Bear Valley Road, tune in. Let's get the real story, let's make a difference. The High Desert Insiders starts right now. Alrighty, so I I um I've been thinking about this a lot this week and how I was gonna approach this topic. Um I did not get a guest this week because it's not really a guest topic, you know. Um I so here's the deal, right? I over the last few few months I have gotten, you know, in involved in a lot of different things um on the town level, right? Um it started off with uh the gas station. This was long ago, the probably like a year ago now, right? Um the gas station at Walu and Central, uh, that got uh turned off, thankfully. And then um then I got involved with this Walu and Navajo truck and trailer facility. And so it's kind of got me re-involved in city government and town government issues and really want to make a difference and help you know share my um thoughts with the town council and with the town, right? Residents, and it's really opened up a whole new world of uh of the town, and I think a lot of more people are paying attention. I think this is an interesting time, at least for the Apple Valley town, because uh, like I said, people are suddenly paying more attention. And I think I say well, I'll tell you what I did think and what I think now. Um, I think I'm more informed and educated now, is I think at first um it really scared town council members. It really made them um kind of not, you know, unsure of how to handle it because people hadn't really paid attention a whole lot except for a few people, right? And I think now that it might still be the case where they're they they I don't think they're scared, but I think that they they need they're they're trying to figure out how to react because more people are actually paying attention and and talking about it, right? Um, I think in the past people just wouldn't show up to the council meetings other than the standard few people, and now we get a lot of people showing up. I mean, I think there's a good what 15 people there at last one, which is quite a bit, you know. Normally there's three or four. So I um I also think that there's a few topics out there that I think were misrepresented in social media, or at least it wasn't the full truth. But I think that the town council didn't do what they needed to do to uh to make it clear and to help themselves out. And so I'll talk about those issues today, and that's really what I wanted to focus on. And so I'll do the first one, um, and I'll I'll try to be unbiased here, right? And so I uh I'll be honest. So I did talk to Carrie Leon for almost an hour this last week, and she gave me a lot of time and was actually super helpful in explaining a lot of these issues, and I'll give her a lot of credit for that. That was actually really helpful, and I really appreciated that. Um, she did say you can reach out to her um anytime as a resident and ask her, and they talk to her. So I I won't give out her phone number here, but uh I'm sure you could find it if you needed to, and I'll leave that at that. But let's talk about KFC. I I'm not a huge KFC fan, I'm not a bone-in, like meat kind of guy, but I guess the town council is. And so um late uh last year, uh a bill came in for approximately sixteen hundred dollars in change for KFC, and it and it appeared a couple of things that they were going getting the KFC from Victorville, not Apple Valley, and that it was a sixteen hundred dollar bill for one meal, and so people were really up in arms, including me, you know, and um and so that you know I was upset, and so I talked to her about this and over the course of a few emails. Basically, the the long and short of it is is that was a a total bill from three years, come to find out. It was a according to uh Carrie, she said quote, I believe this was from 2023, 2024, and 2025, you know, and uh and she she basically went on to say that um you know she that basically the council stipend is modest, and this is what it came out of, is the$811 per month. And that uh she said, quote, uh what is it? Our meetings occur during normal dinner hours, and providing a meal is a practical way to acknowledge that we are spending personal time on public duties, and our town staff stay late on council meetings, as do others. All come to the meetings after work hours and providing meals is a common practice, end quote. And so that was her big thing, right? Is the um is that it's all after hours, and that's why they provide it. So um there's two things the cost and then actually providing the meals, right? So the cost is one thing, right? That uh at first sixteen hundred dollars, one meal. I mean, it was a ton of food. I can't remember, I don't have the exact receipt here. I'm sure you could find it on Facebook, but it was a ton of food. And so it was a little hard to believe that was for one meal for you know what, seven people, eight people up there, because they they pay, you know, give food to the uh sheriff's officers who were there, chef's deputy, sorry, and the town manager, the town attorney, even though the town manager makes over$400,000 a year, you know, whatever. Um, I'm sure he's a nice guy, and I don't know, he's new, so uh I hope the best for him. I'll uh I'll try and stay positive until he proves me otherwise. But um, what it ended up being is that it was from multiple years worth. Why it's in one bill, I I have no clue. I mean, she's mentioned before in Carrie had mentioned before in the actual council meetings on some of her comments that they they will sometimes like lump multiple bills together and charge that at one time. So why was why it was in one bill over the course of three years, that is something I think needs to be looked at because that is unsatisfactory. That is not okay, and that needs to be fixed. They need to get bills right away. And if we're getting bills from 2023 in 2025, like what is KFC doing and why are we still going to them? Not okay. So there's that. There's the other aspect that I had a huge discussion with her about, and that is why should we be paying for their food? I don't, that is what I don't get. I told her, I was like, look, I sometimes work long hours, sometimes I miss meals, sometimes I work through multiple meals. Do I get paid for by uh from my employer, you know, which is uh government adjacent um to because I'm working through meals? No, I don't. We're adults, we are ex, you know, we can feed ourselves with our you know, our salary and uh bring food or order food delivered, right? That that is that is easy, right? That is what we should be doing, and so basically all of their arguments come down to is quote, providing meals is a common practice, end quote. So they they all of it comes down to is that that it's part of the stipend, right? Which okay, fine, whatever we budget that out for them to do this. That's what's something we need to look at, though. But it's technically not uh bad right now, it's just it's in the budget, and so um eight, you know, eight hundred and eleven dollars a month, right? That's one council meeting uh for eight people. I mean, okay, I I can see that maybe with you know, drinks and all that stuff, whatever. But um, do we really need to be paying for their food? I I I doubt it. I do not think so. I think that is ridiculous that that we are paying for their food, right? They they yes, do they make a ton of money from the town, you know, council being on it? No, but we still shouldn't be paying for their food, they should bring their own meals. I understand her another one of her points was that people are, you know, some people aren't as um as blessed, right, to have as many resources as others, and so they want to make sure that everyone has equal opportunities while they're on the town council to be able to eat and uh do the same things, right? So she went on to talk about per diem and traveling as like that's something completely different, right? You have to do that, you have to do that, fine, whatever. I'm talking about like council meetings where you're at home. No, you should not get paid. Whatever. That's I've belabored that point enough. So we'll see what happens. I'm talking to her on the on the side about it, um, and then uh council meetings and public comments, and I and I hope it is something that can at least get improved, and hopefully we can talk through these issues and uh and figure something out, you know. So that's that's the big one. The other one is the budget, and that came out um because uh uh a gentleman uh I I really respect uh David Deniker was uh who was on the show uh a few weeks to a month ago back, um and uh he and Carrie Leon um had a conversation over Facebook, which is that's fun, anyways, because you know it can so easily be taken in the wrong context. So whatever. Um basically what she said, and and I think what got taken out of context and a lot of not necessarily misinformation, but not the full information, is that what what was said and what it appeared to be is that the town government was operating on a deficit, and then they were pulling from a reserve fund to balance that deficit. And they've been doing this for a number of years, and that reserve fund will be exhausted uh after this next year or the one after that soon, at least. So that was the gist of what came out on Facebook. Well, I um I asked her directly about that, and she actually had a mostly good you know uh explanation for that. Um one of it she didn't, and I forgot to ask, but we'll get there, is that basically is especially at least this year, and this is what we're talking about specifically this year, is because Measure P funds, if you remember, that's uh the extra taxes and stuff that we're getting from the county and sales tax and whatnot in all of that. But basically we get part of it in the beginning of the fiscal year, but they don't know exactly how much we should get until they balance all of their books, right? And and then at that point we get the rest of it. They call it like a true-up, kind of like with your Edison bill, right? And that happens in April, and so when they did the budget earlier this fiscal year, they had to pull funds from the reserve to balance it, knowing that the money coming from Measure P was going to cover that and more, and they were going to put it back into the reserve fund, and so it will actually grow from now on. Now, I didn't even think to ask about previous years, so that's something that I want to address. Um, but that'll be at a later time. And maybe we were in a deficit. I I don't know. We were specifically talking about this year, so it's not as bad as we thought it was. You know, we weren't necessarily like stealing from the reserve fund to not give it back someday. This is an actual like good reason to do it. Um, I I think what all of this stuff really boils down to, if you guys are listening here in this in the town of Apple Valley or even the council members, right? Is is we need to talk to each other. If you're listening and you're a council member, you need to at least give out your email address to people so people can understand. And that's as simple as telling the city or that, sorry, the town to put it on their website, because it's not. I just had to guess at most of them, and some of them might even have been wrong. But um, and the only way I got a hold of Carrie was because I I know her job here in the area, and because that her, you know, phone number is posted online in a lot of different places, and and that's really the only reason I got a hold of her. Otherwise, it would have been a complete, you know, luck, you know, complete gamble to get a hold of one of them. But she said that we she wants people to talk to her and and to explain a lot of these things. But moving forward, we need to have these town halls that uh that Mayor Nassif has been talking about and never done, right? That is a problem. If he says he's gonna do something and doesn't, and that's true, and that's a fact that happened last year. We need to talk about these things as a public, and and the council needs to explain these things to the public. And you know, the one of the problems, and it really showed itself it and it was in the last town council. Is we have this thing, if you're not familiar or haven't been listening, or you or you are, it's the Brown Act, right? Basically, it was designed for something completely separate, not what we're talking about right now, but it's been applied here, wrongly or rightly. It is the law, and so if you go and say something in public comments and it's not on the agenda at a council meeting, the council can't necessarily speak on that direct topic. They could talk like about general stuff, you know, like say they you kind of went in and talk about putting in a new road, and uh they're not talking about that, right? Well, they could talk about things like, well, we have all these plans for this different road. They can talk like general stuff, but not that specific topic, you know. So they you could say a lot of things during public comments and they can't comment back on it at all. And so um the problem is that we brought up a lot of these issues for the past couple of meetings, uh, maybe not KFC, but some of these budget issues and some of the other ones, and they say, sorry, Brown Act can't talk about it, you know. It's like okay, I I get it to a point, right? There's a reason for that, and you know, that makes sense that some of these things they can't talk about yet. But the issue became completely evident and completely clear this week. Because uh David Deniker brought in and was doing a great job at examining the budget and the um the money, the expenses coming out and going in this month for the town. Awesome job, takes a lot of time to do it, and he had specific questions for them about those. Now, the council, because it's on a budget item, it was 6.2, I believe, they they can talk about it because it's on the budget. Did they? No, they didn't, they didn't at all. I I kind of did a test question about animal, you know, issues because there was an animal um welfare thing on the uh on the on the agenda. So I I had a comment for that, just kind of see like would they comment? I don't know, see how this goes, right? And I believed in the the topic too. So I did. Did they talk about it publicly? No. Thankfully, Carrie did in the email later, but that that's this is what I'm talking about. If they can talk about it, they should. They can't just wait until next town council meetings to formulate a good topic, right? They need if they get addressed and they can legally answer, they need to answer. So that's that's part of the problem. And and that made itself completely evident and clear um in this last council town council meeting. So moving forward, I think the next one is uh January 27th. Um town council, let's see here. Um, that is there's so many Apple Valleys. There's one in Utah too. I knew the one in Minnesota. Uh let's see here. Okay, January 27th for a council regular meeting. What is that? There's one on January 21st. What in the world? Interesting. Sorry. I'm just saying this right now. So um I wanted to be planning commission. Oh, this is the planning commission, it looks like. Yeah, planning commission. Okay. So, never mind. It will be on the 27th. Apple Valley Planning Commission agenda. It just didn't say so immediately on the website. So, 27th. So everyone should be should be there if you can. Be prepared with something to say in public comments. We want them to hear, and they want to hear what we have to say. We need to be open to not just um the quick answer on Facebook or anything about like and just flashing back without understanding the issue. We need to be able to like fully vet the issue and know the background before we spread things that are just not the truth or not the full exact truth. So um that's that's basically the gist of what I have to say here. I've learned a lot, and I and I do have respect for our leadership here in the um in the high desert, right? As a whole. Um, do we have issues? Of course. And I think they would agree that we all have issues, right? We're not perfect, but I am thankful for where we are at here in the high desert in Apple Valley and the viewpoints that our leadership and our elected officials have because it's a lot better than other places. And I'm looking forward to the future of Apple Valley. But do we need to make changes? Yes, there are a lot of changes we need to make. And I I didn't even touch on like the Sing Center, right? That's uh that's a whole nother topic, and I think we could do some things different, maybe possibly. But uh, it's the whole budget thing, right? Where things come in and go out, and you don't necessarily can't necessarily match up the in and the outs exactly. So it might look like we're spending more on it than we actually are, is top uh that's kind of the gist of it in one sentence. So um we'll see, we'll see. Start of a new year, it's always lots of opportunities. Um, and so we will um we'll see where it goes. So thank you guys. So um I I would say that that wraps up another episode of the High Desert Insiders, and I want to thank myself for joining us today. But no, thank you guys for joining us. Um, and uh and I hope that that shed a little bit of light on some of the topics um that have been all over social media recently. Just remember that your involvement is what makes Apple Valley and the High Desert thrive. Don't let the conversation end here. So um there will be links to the town council agenda for Apple Valley, and um unfortunately there's no way to reach your local representatives, but uh, if we did, I'd put it down there. But we do love hearing what's on your mind, so please send us questions, ideas for future topics, or feedback. Uh, there's a link below in the description of this podcast. We might even feature your comment on the next show. So thank you for spending your time with us, staying informed, and being a high desert insider. Please join us next week when we tap tackle another topic that's important to us here in the high desert. So until then, be informed, be involved, and have a great week.