Jana,

There may be bigger issues than Steve and he may not be “The issue” that you consider most concerning, but he (or his actions/lack of actions) is an issue that I believe needs to be dealt with.  Hopefully the club can handle more than one issue at a time.  As far as the other, “more troubling” issue that you hint at and say must be dealt with “ASAP”, it is difficult to do anything or support any actions that you propose if I or we don’t know anything about the issue.  Despite some disagreement over Steve,  I trust you have the best interests of the club in mind and hope you will inform the membership of your other concerns when you feel the time is right and I thank you for your previous and current work for the club.  Hope to see you all at the fly in/Pasta event

Alan

Jana,

I want to close the loop on this discussion so we can all move forward with the exact same set of facts regarding the notice sent to Steve. We all care about this park deeply and we need to be completely transparent about the timeline, the history, and the process the board followed.

The Long History of Warnings: Steve was absolutely not blindsided by the letter. I have personally had direct, ongoing conversations back and forth with Steve over the last 11 months, dating all the way back to July 13th of last year right after the developer served him with a notice to leave. I let him know kindly but clearly that the club could not support him in his fight against the developer, and that he was living on land that was not his and that he did not have permission to be on. Throughout all of our communication, he never changed his stance from “I’m not leaving.” I (and so many other members) consistently offered peer-to-peer support and tried to help him connect with the many community resources available, but he simply was not willing to explore the viable options for a transition off of properties where he lacked permission to be. Instead, his attitude toward the club and the board became hostile and resentful because we wouldn’t take his side against the landowners.
A Pattern of Conduct: From that point, it took the developer nearly a year in court to finally get Steve off their land. When he finally left the Encore property, he left behind a large amount of trash; he was given an extra 15 days to remove it, but he failed to do so and therefore effectively dumped it on our neighbor’s property. Following that, Steve tried to move and squat at another flight park (Soboba), but because he was trying to do the exact same thing there that he did at AJX—living on-site without authorization—they also had to ask him to leave. According to the staff at that flight park, Steve didn’t even vacate until four days after they explicitly asked him to go.
Recent Incidents at CSS: Following that eviction from the other flight park, Steve specifically sent me a message the morning of June 10th asking if he could move his RV to CSS or AJX property. I responded and told him that no single person has the authority to grant that kind of permission, and emphasized that it was especially important for the club to maintain a clean, professional stance because the mayor of San Bernardino was visiting our landing zone that very day. Yet, when I arrived at the field to meet the mayor, Steve and his RV were already there, parked in the Andy Jackson Airpark parking lot next to the containers—meaning he had only sent the inquiry after he had already moved onto the property. All the while, we were trying to hold a professional meeting with the mayor to advocate for special accommodations for our landing zone, yet his trailer remained parked there from June 10th to June 14th. We specifically asked him to move his RV to a location where he would not be breaking city ordinances. He did eventually move it out of our parking lot, but only after several days of continuous requests from the board—and even then, he just chose to move it onto other neighboring properties where he did not have permission to be, all while continuing to use the CSS landing zone facilities and amenities to support his squatting. The written letter simply formalized the verbal directives he has been given for nearly a year. We have given Steve so many chances to do the right thing—this written notice was our absolute last resort, and it genuinely isn’t something we wanted to have to do.
The Membership Process: Steve was not an active member of this club. The formal expulsion process in the bylaws exists to protect existing members from arbitrary removal; it does not apply to non-members. A third party attempting to pay dues online does not automatically create a binding contract. The board exercised its inherent duty to protect the club by declining to accept a new entry that was explicitly being used as a maneuver to circumvent local regulations and neighbor boundaries.
The Board Vote: This was a collective, unified board decision. The written notice was issued on behalf of the entire Board of Directors, fulfilling our responsibility to act as caretakers for the airpark. Our obligations to our flying community depend entirely on us doing the right thing by taking this decisive action.
The board’s position on this matter is final. If you or other members would like to assist Steve in personal ways—whether that means organizing a GoFundMe page like you’ve done for others in the past, or finding a member who is willing and legally able to welcome Steve and his RV onto their own private land—that would be a wonderful way to channel this energy. However, continuing to debate this operational boundary takes away valuable focus and resources from our pressing organizational priorities. While I always welcome healthy dialogue and constructive challenges on club matters, we have reached a point where we must align on this decision and move forward.

The loop is officially closed on this matter, and our single focus remains entirely on safeguarding the future of Andy Jackson Airpark so we can all keep flying here.

The more details I hear from Mimi (and others) the more I agree with Mimi.

The more details I hear from Jana……. The more I agree with….. Mimi.

Jana,  could you state …. What possible benefit it was for the club for you to attempt to buy Steve a membership in the club?  What possible benefit is it to the club to currently or in the future, have him as a member?  Your concerns with the “process” would be a non-issue if you did not try to make him a member.  As I learn more, I am even more convinced that it is in the best interests of the club to distance itself from Steve.  What is your main concern or goal….. to fix some debatable issues about “process” or is it to get Steve a membership in the club?  How do you think Encore or any other neighbors or governing agencies will feel about him being welcomed as a member of the CSS?  How many other homeless folks should we give membership to and for what reason?  I do not understand your endgame here.

Steve is not just a “homeless guy”. He is a multi generational pilot. His father flew hang gliders with Andy Jackson and Steve has flown and wants to continue to fly paragliders. He also flies remote control planes, and was right there with Corbin in sharing the love of the sling wings. He has just as much or more enthusiasm for aviation as anybody.  Steve was brought to Andy Jackson Airpark as a child and has more history here than most of us, all that to say, referring to him as homeless, while true, is very dismissive and largely besides the point going forward.

When you show up to fly and notice just how nice AJX is, it is due to our hard working volunteers. Whilst we have many pilots that frequent our site, we have fewer members of the club, and even fewer volunteers who are responsible for the current amazingness of AJX,  Steve is one of those very few. He is the only person I have seen to consistently remove the garbage everyone leaves behind. He consistently installs windsocks and streamers around the LZ for the benefit of all of us, he vacuums the carpets, and has participated in many a work party. He secures the tables and chairs from being blown away in the North winds, and pulls the windsocks down before they get blown away too. He turns the lights off that are often left on after everyone leaves, and locks up the hg storage containers that often get left wide open after everyone leaves. Our current president told me recently that he wouldn’t have been able to do some of the work he did last summer without Steve’s help. He has saved an uncountable amount of gear left behind by pilots.

Encore’s big claim against the CSS, was that we were “aiding and abetting” Steve to squat on their property by allowing him access to our water and electricity. He is no longer on their property. Their concerns have been recognized and solved. I don’t see how him being at the LZ during the day now, doing the work he does, is a current threat to the LZ or concern to Encore. They don’t care that he drinks our water or charge his phone, they just don’t want him on their property, and he isn’t.

Keeping him away now sounds like punishment that he didn’t leave sooner. If the concern is the threat to the park going forward, as is claimed, Steve is not a threat and nothing stated has shown that he is if he isn’t on their property any longer.

On that same note, our current president told me that Encore is not being so genuine in wanting to work with us anyway. They have stated that the homes planned to be nearest to our LZ our critical to their projects success and even questioned “Why would we appease them when they are breaking the law by landing within city limits?” So it sounds to me like we are willing to cannabalize our hard working volunteers to appease a corporation for no real return.

I admit to be speculating here but it appears to me that they just want to make money, and we are just a nuisance to their profits. They don’t give a gnats ass of interest in our continuing to fly, they would rather we didn’t. I agree that we don’t need to push them further into making our lives even harder, and cooperating as much as we can is probably good for us in the long run. I do, however, think it’s a fools errand to completely bend over, just to get stuck in the backside in the end anyway.

Our club is better off with more hardworking volunteers, not less. While everyone has their pros and cons, I consider Steve to be an asset and not a liability. We are better for having him around than we are to not have him around.

We are not vouching for more homeless people to come live at the LZ. We aren’t even vouching for him to live here, he is expected to leave every night like everyone else. By the way, we don’t even enforce that rule for anyone else as many people stay overnight. That is another selective enforcement issue.

We are vouching for our hard working members of our free flight community.
Kicking him out is wild to me. Hey thanks for all the hard work, don’t let the door hit you on the way out. I’m pretty sure Andy and Juanita would be less than pleased to see this denial of day use and trespass action taken against such a friend of free flight.

Have fun out there, I know I will.

Jana,

Thanks for alerting me that my name is not on the club roster, although when I checked to see if I am current, the renewal link shows I am.  I have been flying Crestline and Marshal off and on for over 30 years and before the current AJX LZ even existed, and I have supported the CSS in varying ways over that time.  I don’t understand what the frequency of my flying there has to do with this discussion.  I plan to continue to support the club even after my flying days are over.  You are also projecting quite a bit when I refer to Steve as homeless as if I consider calling someone homeless to be a pejorative or look down on their situation.  I don’t disparage folks for being homeless but I also don’t absolve them from being responsible and accountable for their actions or their effects on others.  Regarding Encore, I have no illusions that they will not act in their own best interests, possibly to our detriment but I believe that the chances of them wanting to take the clubs interests into consideration can be greatly diminished by granting club membership to someone that they have been in an adversarial relationship with.  It literally boggles my mind why you think having Steve become a club member would be a good thing for the club while use of our current and future landing approaches are, (pardon the pun) “up in the air”.  I appreciate that he has apparently done some good work for the club, but I could care less about that, if he is even a fraction of the reason why we may end up losing half of our landing approaches which would reduce the safety or flyability of our site.  Perhaps if, or once we are able to secure a long term agreement with encore, Steve’s presence at AJX may not be a concern, except that apparently he is continuing to break the law by illegally squatting on other neighbors properties and that will likely adversely affect the club as well, now and in the future.  Please tell me that you don’t think a members conduct outside of the confines of AJX should have no bearing on their membership.  You can disparage my humanity, but I make no apologies about being more concerned about the CSS/AJX then about Steve’s association with our club and site.  As for your emotional appeal as to what my friend Steve Corbin and what perhaps Andy and Anita would have thought, I believe they would also be more protective of the Club, but again I prefer to base most decisions on reasoning and not emotion.  If you want to sway my opinion you can drop the appeal on my heartstrings.  I believe Steve’s presence at AJX or membership in the CSS is currently a detriment to the club.  Any sorrow or empathy for his situation does not change that.  Hope to see you all at the fly-in.  Alan C