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Two awards, an uneven split
Kern County’s October 27 agenda awards $14,250 to Friends of Jawbone and $69,750 to Stewards of the Sequoia for off-highway-vehicle recreation programs. Together they total $84,000.
Stewards of the Sequoia receives 83.04% of the total, while Friends of Jawbone receives 16.96%. The larger award is 4.89 times the smaller one.
| Recipient | Award | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Friends of Jawbone | $14,250 | 16.96% |
| Stewards of the Sequoia | $69,750 | 83.04% |
| Total | $84,000 | 100% |
The county pays at the beginning
The agreements provide for the grant to be paid at the beginning of the term rather than reimbursed one invoice at a time. Advance payment changes the control point: oversight must depend on records, deliverables and recovery terms after the money leaves the county.
The contracts require accurate cost and disbursement records, receipts, county access for audit and record retention for at least three years or through final audit. Those provisions are the public safeguards attached to the up-front payment.
The commission considered more than two applications
Kern’s Parks and Recreation Commission minutes say staff presented three applications—from the two funded nonprofits and the Kern County Sheriff’s Office—before recommending the two nonprofit awards. The motion carried with three affirmative votes; the minutes also list absences and a vacancy.
The posted materials do not provide a point score or rank for every applicant. They therefore support a finding about the final allocation, not a conclusion about why one proposal was not funded.
Method and limits
This newsroom reviewed both agreements and the commission record, summed the awards, calculated shares and identified the payment and audit clauses. The analysis does not treat a grant authorization as evidence of completed trail or recreation work.
The record does not publish later receipts, audit results or outcome measures. Those documents are necessary to test whether each recipient spent the award for the agreed purposes.
Sources and further reading
Kern Board afternoon agenda, items 31–32, October 27, 2026 ↗
Friends of Jawbone grant agreement ↗
Stewards of the Sequoia grant agreement ↗
Bureau of Land Management OHV photograph and public-domain record ↗