Riverside County Bids Fond Farewell To Retiring Supervisor Jeffries

LAKELAND VILLAGE, CA — The most senior member of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors will close out his political career Tuesday, attending his final meeting as a supervisor, with expectations for an informal farewell speech and plaudits from his colleagues and others who have worked with him.

Supervisor Kevin Jeffries, 64, of Lakeland Village will officially retire on Jan. 1. The last board meeting of 2024 is Tuesday.

Jeffries, a Republican, was first elected to the board in November 2012 and won each of his successive races, for a total of three four-year terms. Prior to his stint as a supervisor, he served three terms in the state Assembly.

When he was first seated on the board, he was its most junior member. He declined his first opportunity to serve as board chairman — a role that is rotated among the five supervisorial districts, with a new appointment every year. However, he ultimately served as chair twice — in 2019 and 2023.

Jeffries has been an unabashed fiscal hawk and critic of converting the Inland Empire into a giant warehousing district, often standing as the sole vote in opposition to mega projects, which he has complained are a growing blight and crowd out opportunities for other developments that wouldn't make the county unappealing.

He has consistently warned that county government's financial position is tenuous, at best, because of excessive pension costs and other hefty outlays for collective-bargaining units and payments to settle lawsuits.

He has challenged some of the sheriff's department's spending priorities and expressed concern about the continued disuse of two-thirds of the Benoit Detention Center in Indio. He has additionally advocated for dual use of sheriff's helicopters to help fight wildfires, though Sheriff Chad Bianco has balked at the proposition, saying it's untenable.

The deployment of law enforcement aircraft for firefighting is not uncommon, including in neighboring Arizona.

Throughout the COVID lockdowns, Jeffries joined then-Supervisor Jeff Hewitt in attempting to push back against some of the restrictions that he felt undermined residents' civil liberties and threatened the existence of small businesses.

Jeffries has also been at the center of efforts to ensure election integrity, backing the formation of committees to identify problems and come up with solutions.

The supervisor in 2022 took the lead in pressing county departments to pull back processing applications for cannabis storefront operations, noting how the board was regularly approving conditional use permits, but operators were often years delayed in actually opening marijuana sales outlets. Jeffries was also at the forefront of establishing criteria for the county's marijuana licensing framework, even though he was initially steadfastly opposed to cannabis sales in general after his First District became overwhelmed by illegal grows and sales sites.

Improving efficiencies and resources within the county fire department has been among his foremost concerns, due largely to his background.

Jeffries was a volunteer county fireman from 1977 to 2006, working as a full-time seasonal firefighter in 1981 and later becoming an emergency medical technician as part of his volunteer service. From 2001 to 2006, before entering politics, he was a grant writer for the county fire department.

In addition to the political scene, he has been a real estate investor for decades, running a business at the same time as serving in government. Periodically, he has had to recuse himself from votes to prevent conflicts.

He announced his decision to retire in October 2021, saying that although he had roots in Riverside County going back to 1971, "my children and grandchildren are part of the growing numbers of Californians who have moved out of state for affordable housing, lower crime rates and a better quality of life elsewhere," and he and his wife wanted to remain involved in their lives.

They will be relocating to a mountain community near Boise, Idaho.

In the November general election, former Assemblyman Jose Medina, D-Riverside, won the race for the First Supervisorial District seat. He will be sworn in before the end of the year.