Overview
The Riverside County Board of Supervisors Tuesday honored outgoing Supervisor Jeff Hewitt for his four years of service.
After four years serving Riverside County’s fifth district, Supervisor Jeff Hewitt Tuesday attended his final board of supervisors meeting.
“Over the last four years, I’ve had the honor to work with a lot of very, very capable, very, very special people,” he said. “Some of them are in this room today; a lot of them aren’t, too.”
In honor of his retirement, the board presented Hewitt with a large wooden gavel.
“Nancy Pelosi, eat your heart out,” Hewitt said with a laugh as he accepted the gift. “I think it’s even bigger than her gavel.”
Hewitt will also receive a plaque to commemorate his time on the board, though Supervisor Kevin Jeffries said they didn’t have quite enough time to get it finished before the meeting.
“I just wanted to thank Supervisor Hewitt for his service—coming from city council to the board of supervisors—his involvement in the ad hoc fire committee has been invaluable for all of us trying to navigate the changes that are occurring out there,” Jeffries said. “I think this fits real well with your personality and trying to get things done.”
And while the supervisors all alluded to disagreements over the years with Hewitt, they all thanked him for his service not only to his fifth district constituents, but also to the county at large in his role as board chair.
“You and I have disagreed on many things, and sometimes those disagreements spilled out into the public, and for that I’m not always happy about,” Supervisor Chuck Washington said. “And I’m sorry that some of those arguments spilled out into the public, it was not personal. It had a basis in some of our disagreements about how to do county business. But I respect the voters who put you in office, and I respect the job that you tried to do.”
Washington’s sentiments were shared by Supervisor Karen Spiegel and Supervisor V. Manuel Perez, who attended the meeting virtually.
“It’s been a little bit rocky here and there, but overall, I really do appreciate the work that you did and your friendship,” Perez said. “You will be missed, that’s for sure, though I do look forward to working with you moving on. So go get them cowboy. Do your best at what you do.”
Hewitt, in reflecting on his time, acknowledged that sometimes the board didn’t quite hit it out of the park, but celebrated his colleagues and constituents for their commitment to the county.
“Some things we did extremely well, and some things we didn’t get quite the first time but we usually pivoted it, and that’s human,” he said. “But every time I’ve come into this room, I’ve always felt that it was a great, great privilege to have the trust of the people of the county and especially the fifth district that put me in here, and I will never ever ever consider my constituents anything less than the best in the entire world, so thank you all for the last four years and I look forward to staying involved.”
Prior to his time on the board of supervisors, Hewitt served on the Calimesa City Planning Commission and later the Calimesa City Council.
“Politics is kind of like the mafia: there’s only two ways out,” he joked. “And now I have a Thor hammer, so thank you so much.”
Former Moreno Valley Mayor Yxstian Gutierrez will be sworn in as the new supervisor for the fifth district next month after receiving 54% of the vote this past November. Hewitt received 46% of the vote.
The board also recognized the retirement of Clerk of the Board Kecia Harper as well as five Riverside County Sheriff’s Department employees. You can watch a recording of the meeting here.
The next meeting of the Riverside County Board of Directors is scheduled for January 10, 2023.