announcer: "Undercover Boss" is back.
- How are y'all doing?
- This is ten times harder than the boardroom.
- Ugh. - Oh, this is a disaster.
I would never have found out if I wasn't undercover.
announcer: The most devastating economic crisis
for a generation
has been tough on American business.
And even tougher on America's workforce.
- We all had to take a salary cut.
- My wife, and my kids, and I,
we're all homeless. - Wow.
announcer: So there's never been a more important time
to go undercover.
- Coming through.
announcer: This season...
- Wow! - Duh.
announcer: The toughest challenges...
- This has got to be the worst job
in the restaurant. - It is. Ugh!
announcer: The biggest shocks...
- I need to rethink everything that we're doing.
- You broke so many rules.
announcer: And the most dramatic
life-changing rewards...
- I mean, that's--that's the greatest thing
you could ever do for me, man.
announcer: In "Undercover Boss" history.
- I need to break cover right now, and shut this down.
announcer: Tonight...
- Just got a call, we got an emergency.
announcer: On "Undercover Boss"...
- Meet Lavoise Jones.
announcer: The three times elected mayor
of Fontana, California, is on a mission...
- I'm excited. - Let's go.
announcer: To turn her city around...
- Water.
announcer: And repair the damage inflicted...
- So how many firemen do you think you down?
- Probably down about 50.
announcer: By the global pandemic.
- It's frightening being a woman on the street.
- I can imagine.
announcer: To build bridges...
- Black communities call you a sell-out.
announcer: And find a way to get the city united,
to secure its future.
- Are those panties?
announcer: She'll be facing danger
and confronting challenging issues...
- What in the world?
announcer: Before transforming lives forever.
All this next on "Undercover Boss."
- Your light shined. You're amazing.
My name is Acquanetta Warren,
and I'm the mayor of Fontana, California.
I've been running Fontana for 11 years.
We have an annual budget of 284 million.
We're in charge of 1,300 employees,
and we have over 214,000 residents living here today.
I love this town.
announcer: Situated 65 miles east of Los Angeles,
Fontana was founded in 1913 in San Bernardino County
and was known for its farming and agricultural trade.
In the 1940s, the city experienced a boom
in steel production. Railroads and freeways
were built to export the goods manufactured.
But after World War II, the need for steel declined,
and the economy nosedived.
By the 1990s, Fontana City was nearly bankrupt.
- I grew up in South Los Angeles.
I know what happens when jobs go away.
And once that happens, nothing goes right for anyone.
I joined the Republican Party when I lived in Compton.
Being Black and Republican is a challenge.
First, people don't expect you to be Republican
because you're Black,
and Republicans don't expect you to be a Republican
because you're Black.
So I feel sometimes like a unicorn.
I don't fit anywhere.
I moved to Fontana in 1993.
We were so happy to be in this community,
but then unfortunately, my husband and I
got a divorce after 21 years of marriage.
Suddenly at the age of 45, I was a single mom,
responsible for three kids, and that was very hard.
You know, I didn't have a lot of money,
and I found myself working a bunch of jobs.
I know how it feels not to know
where your money's going to come from.
And that's why I know when people are hurting,
you have to help them.
So that's why I wanted to become mayor.
I was on city council, but once our mayor left,
he made it clear to me, "You're next."
I was elected in November, 2010. I won with 58%.
I had more votes than the combined group
that ran against me.
This is my third term,
and I'm going for my fourth term next year.
We do have a very diverse town,
but I am the first African-American
and the first female mayor of this great city.
Diversity is number one for me.
Fontana together moves Fontana forward.
When I took over as mayor, the city was suffering.
People were losing their homes.
People were going bankrupt.
It was a mess. My biggest goal was to say,
"Fontana is open for business."
And that meant bringing in jobs for everyone.
announcer: Mayor Warren
decided to focus on Fontana's greatest assets,
its infrastructure and well-connected location,
which offered potential as a major transport hub.
Over 18 million square feet of new warehouse space
was built, creating 66,000 new jobs.
Fontana flourished for several years
under Mayor Warren's leadership,
but in 2020, the COVID pandemic hit.
- What happened, we had to immediately
shut everything down.
That included our community services.
Our schools closed. Our city hall had to close.
It was devastating. Unemployment rolls to 17%.
Our hospitality, retail collapsed.
The pandemic made homelessness worse.
We are going to receive $52 million in relief funds
from the federal government.
And if those funds aren't allocated correctly,
we'll end up like some of the other communities
that are struggling.
And I don't want that for our city.
I don't want to be a community of no hope.
- So how do you feel about going undercover?
- Scared, but I'm excited
about what the outcome's going to bring.
- And nervous about being found out?
- Very nervous because you know, everybody knows me.
- Are you going to change up your voice?
- I certainly am, child!
- Oh, wow. Okay.
- Hi. I want to go undercover
because I feel personally responsible
for our great citizens.
I am the leader,
and I have to make sure that these issues get fixed.
I'm not going to turn down an opportunity to listen,
and this is my chance.
- Ooh! - Oh!
Meet Lavoise Jones.
- This is a lot.
- Undercover, I'm going to be Lavoise Jones,
a former health worker from LA that's starting over.
- Just do us a favor, don't ever wear
that outfit out in public.
- My employees will think they're on a new
documentary program where they work with Lavoise
and coach her through the city of Fontana's
most challenging jobs.
You think I can pull this off?
- Yes. - Go do your thing.
- Going undercover's going to give me a chance to hear
what's really going on around here.
Thanks. [overlapping farewells]
- And use those funds to get this great city back on track.
[mellow music]
Today I'm going undercover
in our sewage maintenance department.
Fontana is the fastest growing city in Southern California.
I worry that we don't have enough money in our budget
to maintain our sewer lines for the capacity we need.
When people flush that toilet,
they expect it to keep moving along.
Nobody ever thinks about what would happen if that stopped.
I get a chance to work with Chris,
and he's a pump maintenance assistant.
I really want to find out today if our sewer department
is well prepared for all those new citizens,
and we're taking care of the existing ones.
- Hello, there. - Hi, I'm Lavoise Jones.
- I'm Chris, pleasure to meet you.
Are you ready for a beautiful hot day in the sewer today?
- Ah, yes I am.
- Okay. Well, I'm going to give you something to wear.
- Okay. - This is a coverall.
It'll help you stay a little clean throughout the process.
- Okay. Can I use your back here?
- Yeah. - Thank you.
- And where are you from? - Los Angeles.
- And what were you doing before?
- I did healthcare. I'm getting a second chance.
I'm going around so I can see what works for me.
Here we go. - All right.
- Okay. So you take care of this place?
- Yes. All these residents right here,
the wastewater from them, or poopoo or rag--
- Did you say poopoo? - I did.
Yeah, I did. Anything like that,
they send down the sewer line, they come to this area.
- Really? - Yeah.
I'm gonna open this up and show you.
Hopefully the smell's not too bad today.
- Oh my God, I done smelled a lot of stuff...
But that's bad.
When Chris opened up that manhole,
I thought I was going to pass out.
I just couldn't take it. It was terrible. Terrible.
[phone rings] - Hi.
Pump's not good. Okay. So come on over.
Just got a call. We got an emergency.
- Okay.
- We got a pump down at one of our stations
we gotta go handle right now.
- All right, I'm ready. - Let's head out now.
- Chris tells me there's an emergency
we need to go to right away.
The whole team has been called out to help.
- All right. This is our emergency job.
Right now, one of our pumps is down.
- What'll happen if that pump don't gets fixed?
- It could actually overflow into the houses,
overflow into the streets-- not good.
- I'm the mayor of Fontana.
I'm looking for the best way
to invest the city's federal relief funds,
and I'm undercover with Chris
in the sewage maintenance department.
- If that pump don't get fixed,
it could actually overflow into the streets.
- Recently, the city sewage system
has been struggling to cope
with the rapid population growth
that's been happening here in Fontana.
- No playing around.
This is something we need to take care ASAP.
- If something goes bad, it's going to have
major consequences for the entire city.
- How did you know it was down? - We had an emergency call.
Hopefully, we'll have another system eventually,
that way we already know
what's going on before it even happens.
- So that'd be automated.
- All our neighboring cities have this emergency system,
and we don't.
Today, we had to bring all our guys.
And we need all of them? Maybe not.
- But if you had the new system?
- We'd know how many men to deploy,
definitely have saved the city a lot of money.
- Gotcha. It's very disappointing to find
that our current emergency system is outdated.
I think we can do better.
- One, two, three.
Okay. Now, get out of the way.
Watch out. That's called ragging up right there.
- Right. When the pump
is lifted out of the sewer, it was disgusting.
- Here's the tools of the trade--it's like pulling teeth.
Try not to open your mouth too much.
We don't want no splattering.
- It's definitely gross, but gotta be done.
- Exactly. You ready?
Okay, here we go. Look at that.
Catch of the day.
- Hearing Chris call it the catch of the day
has put me off from ordering fish
in a restaurant for a long, long time.
Here it goes.
- Pump's running, everything's good.
- So, Chris, how did I do today?
- Actually, Lavoise, I think you did pretty good.
- But when you work with somebody
as positive as you are... - Oh, thanks.
- It makes a difference. What do you do for fun?
- What's important to me is my family.
We like to take our trips. We go camping.
We'll take road trips.
- How often do you get a vacation?
- Maybe once a year if we're lucky.
My wife just got diagnosed with--it's called MGUS.
It's not a cancer, but it's precancer
for a type of bone cancer.
- Okay.
- So I tell her, I go, "We need to do everything we can now...
- Right.
- Before something happens to you,
or something happens to me.
We need to get out there, and see the world.
She took care of me a lot of years,
and now it's her time to rest.
- Oh, Chris, that's wonderful.
It just really touches my heart
when I hear stories like that.
Here he is working and being positive.
Chris, thanks so much for helping me today,
I learned a lot from you.
- Thank you for coming out and being a part of it.
- The biggest lesson I learned today is that staff
is the number one reason that we're successful.
Because of Chris and his great team,
tonight nobody's toilet is going to overflow.
He is truly the unsung hero.
♪ ♪
Today, I'm going undercover at the Fontana Police Department.
Fontana's a very diverse community
and I want to make sure
our police department reflects that diversity.
If we don't get diversity in our police department,
then we're going to continue to have the problems
like after the death of George Floyd,
Fontana was the first city to have a riot.
The police department was under attack
that they don't reflect the community.
Part of safety is harmony,
and diversity will create harmony.
Today. I'm working with Randy, one of our police officers.
I'm hoping that he can tell me how we can attract
more diversity to our police department.
Hi, there. I'm looking for Randy.
- How are you doing? I'm Randy.
- Randy, I'm Lavoise Jones.
- How are you doing, Lavoise? - I'm doing great. How are you?
- Good. You're gonna be riding with me today?
- Yes, I am. I'm excited. - Let's go.
- Randy, how long you been doing this?
- I've been doing this for a little bit over a year.
I was in the grocery business, and I decided that you know,
I wanted to make a change and do something else.
One of the reasons why I ended up becoming a police officer
is because the whole Black Lives Matter Movement,
and I really wanted to be able to help the community.
- How many African-American officers you have?
- Our department is 188 strong, and we have around
five or six African-American officers right now.
- Hearing Randy tell me there's only
5 African-American officers amongst 188 or more,
it's just not acceptable. It's very important
to diversify the police departments,
not only here, but all over the country.
Don't you think we should have more?
- Of course. I want to be one of the people
that help build those bridges and build those relationships
between the community and the police department.
- Right.
- It's harder than people think.
A lot of times in the Black communities they call you,
you know, sell out. - Right.
- When you're actually out there trying
to make a difference. It wears on you.
- When Randy started telling me about the challenges
of being a Black police officer, I could relate.
Especially during a period
when Black Lives Matters Movement started,
George Floyd's death,
how people want to defund the police.
And here's this young man, instead of running
out of the door, running in the door.
- My family is really good about supporting me,
my kids, my fiancée.
- Did I hear the word fiancée? - Yes.
- That's so nice.
- Well, I'm trying to save money for the wedding.
Because like when I left my old job,
I kind of took a pay cut, and I'm still trying to--
- Wait a minute, you took a pay cut to be a police officer?
- I did. - Randy made a choice,
and that choice was to do good and to do better.
- So what we're going to do, we're going to go and meet
with some of our less fortunate homeless citizens.
You know, make sure that they're doing okay.
How you doing? Your name, ma'am?
- Renee. - Renee. Nice to meet you.
So Renee, we're here, just, you know,
talking, following up, trying to find out
is there anything that we can help you out with more?
- It's really hard to get a shower here,
but I hear next week that I think it's called City Link
is having a bathroom built
where the homeless can take showers,
and they'll help you find housing
and supposedly job employment.
The city has a lot of resources
that I didn't know was available to us.
- Maybe that's something I can mention to my higher ups.
- That'd be wonderful, yeah.
- If there's something that I come across myself,
that I feel that it can be beneficial to you, for sure
I'll make sure that I can drive around and find you.
- If I don't get ahold of them, I'll find you.
I'm not bashful.
- I was surprised that Renee didn't know
about the various services.
I'm going to go back and look into that.
How did you become homeless?
- My mother died, and she left the house in a trust,
and my two brothers decided to sell the house.
- Okay.
- So I sold my car to get an RV.
- So do you live in RV now? - Yeah.
And I go place to place because you can't--
you're not supposed to just park alongside the street.
- And since you've been homeless, how's it?
How was it for you?
- Whew. Ha ha.
It takes its toll. It is scary. It's tough.
I've had a few bad incidents. Yeah.
It's frightening being a woman on the street, you know.
- Well, I can imagine.
- Sometimes you wanna hold a sign up and say,
"Hard times, please help." I thank all the people
that gave me money-- that's really helped.
- Thank you for sharing, your story with us.
We really appreciate you sitting down and--
- Thank you for listening.
- It was heartbreaking for me to hear, Renee.
This really helped me see how big the situation is
in Fontana,
and COVID has made things even worse.
So we have to consider
if this is where our federal relief funds
will be put to good use.
announcer: Coming up... - Oh my God. What is that?
announcer: The boss has to confront some scary truths
about her city.
- I've seen worse, though, than that.
- Oh my goodness.
- I'm the mayor of Fontana,
and I'm undercover with Police Officer Randy,
seeing just how hard it is
for those living on our city streets.
- Homelessness for me is like a personal thing.
You know, I try to help as many people as I can
because when I was younger, we lived on the street.
- You did? - We lived in cars.
We lived with different family members,
and we ended up living in
the state orphanage for a couple of years.
- Really? They took you guys off from your parents?
- Yes. So-- - Wow.
I was really holding back my tears
when Randy started talking about
the struggles that he had growing up.
No child should have to do that.
Tell me about your family.
- So I have three kids through a previous marriage,
three biologicals, and then my fiancée has three kids.
So all together... - You have nine?
- Nine. - Wow.
- Exactly. - And you making sure
you stick with all of them? - Exactly.
- That is wonderful. He's having his own struggles,
but he's willing to help others. That's amazing.
- Lavoise, I've enjoyed having you ride along with me.
- I sure enjoyed riding along with you.
Thank you for training me.
Today, I learned that we have a great officer
working for us that cares about the community.
And we have a great police department.
We gotta make sure that we support their efforts
and give them everything they need.
I'm gonna get going now. - All right.
- You take it easy. - I will.
[quiet music]
♪ ♪
- In Fontana, we have 48 parks, and looking after them
is really important to me.
There's somewhere safe for our children to play at.
It provides activities, and it's just a great place
for our community services to do programming.
Today I'm going undercover to work at the Mary Vagle Center
with Candace, a community service assistant.
This center is so important, because it allows children
to come and learn about wildlife
right there at the community park.
[light music]
♪ ♪
I'm looking for Candace. I'm Lavoise Jones.
- Hi, nice to meet you. I am Candace.
- Nice to meet you, Candace. I'm here for training.
- Okay. So good. You'll just follow me.
We got a lot to do today. - Okay.
- Okay, so I have a bucket here with a trash picker for you.
- I thought I was going to be getting close to nature,
not cleaning the park.
So how often do you have to clean the park?
- We clean it every day.
- Why come you have to do it every day?
- After dark, there are like
a lot of teenagers, or even adults too.
They'll come party, breaking rules,
leaving garbage everywhere.
- And drop some trash. - A lot of trash.
- What is that, cigarette stuff?
- You'd be surprised, there's a lot of stuff here.
- My goodness. - Yeah.
- We're here to educate children,
particularly on the environment,
and they have to clean up the park,
get all this stuff out of the way
so the children don't see it.
This is totally unacceptable.
Okay. I'll grab this right here.
- Yeah.
- So this is just from one night.
- Yep. It was pretty crazy.
- Are those panties? - It sure is.
- Lord, have mercy. Girl, are you kidding me?
You got to deal with that too? - Mm-hmm.
- Why are they leaving panties up here?
Don't tell me. Don't tell me.
I was shocked to find some of the things we found.
Oh, my God. What is that? Is that what I think that is?
- It sure is. - Panties and condoms.
- I've seen worse, though, than that.
- Worse? - Worse.
- Oh, my goodness.
Nobody's going to come to a park that is full of filth.
- There's not much we can do, unless we had a park ranger
who could be here to observe and watch during the nighttime.
We did used to have a park ranger,
but because of budget cuts, they had to let the person go.
- Candace made a great suggestion
that we need a park ranger for after hours.
So I'm going to go back and check into that.
So you come all up in here by yourself?
- Yes. - You don't be frightened?
- Maybe the snakes.
It is hot and rattlesnakes will appear sometimes.
- I am terrified of snakes.
- Okay. So this is our classroom.
- Wow. My plan with you is to have you
do an animal demonstration in front of the kids.
- Well, what kind of animals am I going to be interacting with?
- So, I'm thinking of a snake. - A snake?
- How do you feel about that?
- Ugh... - [laughs]
- Ugh!
- So this is King.
He is our California striped king snake.
They are constrictors.
- King can't get around your neck, can he?
- He could if he wanted to, but I try not to.
I don't want him to choke me.
Think you're ready to try handling King?
- I can try. When Candace told me
I needed to learn how to handle the snake,
I got really frightened. Yeah, King is moving a lot.
Oh, I didn't like that direction at all.
He seems to be getting pretty active with his tongue.
Oh!
- I'm undercover in Fontana with Candace
at the Nature Center... Ohh!
Where she's training me to teach kids
about local wildlife.
Holding that snake was terrifying for me.
I've never held a snake before, but Candace is a good teacher
and she showed me how to do it properly.
- Okay. So when you are going to be talking to the kids,
they're going to be asking a lot of questions.
He's 23. He's a non-venomous snake.
- All right. - He also can eat rattlesnakes.
Let's do this. - All right.
[overlapping chatter]
- Hi, guys.
So this is Ms. Lavoise. Everyone say hi.
all: Hi. - Hi, y'all doing?
all: Good. - Good!
- So I'm gonna hand, King over to Ms. Lavoise.
- Anybody got any questions about King?
- Can he grow any bigger?
- I'm not really sure.
- Does King have babies? - He ain't met nobody.
- So how many feet is he?
- You know what, what do you say, Ms. Candace?
Those kids ask a lot of questions.
- So in captivity they can mate,
but he hasn't mated here.
He is about 3 to 4 feet long.
- I was really impressed with Candace.
She worked with the kids so well.
She answered all their questions.
She was kind to them.
Okay. I'll see you all later. Okay?
all: Bye.
- So, I hope you had a great time today.
- Oh, I did. You sure helped me today,
'cause I was scared. I'll be honest.
So now where's your family from?
- We live in North Fontana.
- You went to school in Fontana too?
- Mm-hmm. I did.
- So you got any sisters and brothers?
- I have an older sister and then a younger sister.
- Okay. - I had a brother.
He passed away like last year to cancer.
- Really? I'm so sorry to hear that.
- Everyone loved him. Anytime we went out somewhere,
everywhere we went, somebody was always saying hi to him.
I'm sorry.
- That's okay, babe. That is okay.
That is okay. It's hard. It's really hard.
I'm sure you think about him a lot.
- Mm-hmm. Yeah. Every time I see like a butterfly,
I always think of him.
- I'm sure he's proud of you. - Yeah.
There's nothing like losing a family member.
I can't even imagine what she's been through.
So what are your ultimate dreams?
- I really want to do nursing.
- Really? - When my brother was sick,
I was helping my mom take care of him.
That gave me the opportunity to like,
know like this is what I want to do.
- Right.
- I've been trying to save for nursing school,
but it's a challenge. It's a lot.
- I think Candace is really special
because look what she's gone through.
She took care of her brother. I love that that inspired her
to help her realize her dream of being a nurse.
Candace, thanks so much for spending time with me today.
- You're welcome. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
- Look at the great people we have working for us.
We got to make sure, like they step up for us,
that we step up for them.
Today I'm going undercover in our fire department.
I'm really excited,
because they're so important to our community.
We have seven fire stations in Fontana,
and they answer over 21,000 calls a year.
But last year the pandemic put our firefighters
under immense pressure.
I want to see how that impacted our fire personnel.
So today I'm meeting Ben, a firefighter paramedic.
[light music]
Excuse me, I'm looking for Ben.
- I'm Ben. - Lavoise Jones.
- Lavoise Jones, pleasure to meet you.
Well, the first thing about being a firefighter
is to get you prepped out in all your gear.
- Oh, my goodness. - It's a little heavy.
- It is very heavy.
- We have your boots inside of the bunker pants.
- My first impression of Ben is that he is built, buffed.
Oh, my goodness. I'm just hoping I can keep up.
- You ready for the first job? - I'm ready for the first job.
- All right. Let's go do it. - All right.
I can't walk as fast, but I'm right behind you.
[Ben chuckles]
- So the first thing we're going to learn
is how to use the fire hose.
- All right. - Put your leg forward.
- Leg forward.
- Then slowly open it.
- Wow. It feels good.
- Feel that pressure there? - Yeah.
- There you go. - Whoa!
- Okay. Try to aim for those cones.
- Okay.
- So now I'm not gonna assist you at all. Okay?
- All right. Here I go.
- All the way open.
- Whoa!
When the water came through, I was like,
"Oh my goodness. I'm going to fall backwards."
- Okay. Let's hit the cone on the left. Hit that target.
- That was embarrassing going around in circles
and still not hitting the target.
- That way more. - Ben was patient.
He showed me how to move the hose
so that it goes right on the cone.
- There you go. You knocked over that cone.
Okay. Let's get the other one. - And blow it out
so I wouldn't burn down the building.
- There you go. You got it! And the fire's out.
- Fire's out. How did I do?
- If it was a real fire, we'd probably be
in a little bit of trouble.
- That was not easy.
- So we have our next little bit of training, okay?
- What in the world? - We have a car accident here.
We're going to need to remove the door.
That's how we're going to rescue him. That makes sense?
- I want to get the fella out of there.
- Let's do it. So over here,
we're going to take a look at our tools, the jaws of life.
I'm going to show you how to use it.
- All right. Got it.
Ben wants to show me how to take the door off the car
by using the jaws of the life. I'm excited!
[grunts]
There we go. Okay.
- All right. We're going to start at the B-post there
right in the middle of the door. Get that tip.
- All right.
- And then we'll try to open it a bit.
Okay, stop. Close it.
- It was pretty terrifying.
I'm working with equipment I've never worked with before.
Then all of a sudden the glass and the window broke,
and I'm just like, "Oh my goodness."
- All right. Broken glass. It's okay. Keep going.
- I could not get over the calmness that Ben showed.
Whoa.
When I'm trying to take the door off,
I suddenly dropped the tool.
- You okay? - I'm okay.
- Scare ya? - It scared me bad.
I can't imagine doing this job in a real life situation.
- There we go, door's off.
And now we have access to our patient.
- What it did was show me why we need to really respect
what Ben does, because that was hard.
Ben, how is it working here?
- Well, I love the fire department.
You know, this is something that I've always wanted to do.
- Yeah.
- But over the last year or so with COVID,
they didn't want to put people into the training academies
in order to get them ready to be firemen.
So we had no one ready to hire.
- But who doing that job? - We are. That's the problem.
- So how many firemen you think you down probably?
- Right now, we're probably down about 50,
just in the firefighter paramedic rink.
So instead of working 10 days...
- Right. - Like we signed up for,
now we're working 15, 20 days.
- But that doesn't tire you out?
- It does. A lot of the guys here
have been on for anywhere from five to eight days,
24 hour consecutive shifts.
- It's not acceptable that firefighters
have to work eight days in a row with hardly any sleep.
Something has to change.
- Last year during the pandemic, I was forced hired,
which means it's mandatory overtime shifts.
- So you know, you can't tell them no.
- I can't tell them no.
- So your family's at home, and no matter what,
you have to stay here till you have a relief.
- That's correct.
For example, I got forced hired on Thanksgiving.
I got force hired on Christmas. - Really?
- I got force hired on Christmas Eve.
- We're missing birthdays.
We're missing anniversaries. We're missing big moments.
- Our firefighters have felt the pain of the pandemic
more than anyone.
So I've got to consider that
when allocating the city's COVID relief funds.
So what's your situation now. Are you married?
- So I am married.
She's in school working to get her doctorate.
So you know, a little overtime here and there is great.
But for me, I'd rather be home with my family.
- I really hate when we have to take the firefighters
from their families like that.
So I'm hoping we can come up with a solution to stop that.
Quite a day.
- It was.
- This experience was a real eye opener for me
of what they went through last year
and, in fact, are going through now.
So I'm hoping that we can get those recruits
in here to help work
so they don't have forced overtime.
Being undercover was really incredible for me.
I've been touched by the stories of our employees.
I thought I knew my city very well,
but this has given me a whole different perspective
of what needs to happen,
and I'm looking forward to working on those issues.
[exciting music]
Today, all of the employees think they are coming to film
the final interviews for the fake documentary program.
- The only camera time we usually get is on the news.
- But actually, I'm going to reveal my true identity...
- Got me out of work today for a few hours.
- They have no idea is "Undercover Boss."
- Remember me?
- Well, you're the mayor. I know that.
- Hi boss.
- Oh, my goodness.
- Don't you remember? - Okay. No, you're not Lavoise.
- I'm not Lavoise.
I'm Acquanetta Warren, Mayor of Fontana,
and you're on "Undercover Boss."
- Oh my gosh.
- Oh man.
- I worked you too hard on that day.
- Yes, you did!
announcer: Coming up...
- That's the high honor. Thank you.
announcer: The mayor delivers life-changing news.
- I can't thank you enough. This is a huge--huge blessing.
- I got to tell you, Randy,
when I look at the great work you're doing
and how you connect with our citizens,
I'm amazed at your great talent.
- I appreciate it so much.
- When we went to talk to Renee,
she talked about not having enough information.
What if we work closely together to try develop
a gift card program for the homeless
where it's not just a gift card,
but it's information?
- That'd be great. I mean, that's a resource
that we can actually use a lot.
That's going to be awesome.
- Randy, we have a long way to go to get large diversity
in our police departments.
That's something we both want to see.
What if we could make you an ambassador, to go out
and talk to young people so that they understand
how important your role is in our community?
- That's the high honor.
I really appreciate being considered for it.
Thank you so much.
- We talked a little bit about
how you're thinking of getting married.
- We're saving up.
- I talked to some of my great supporters
and they are going to get $10,000
and give it to you and your fiancée for your honeymoon.
- Thank you, ma'am. Thank you.
- And there's just one more thing--I have children,
and I know it's not easy having kids.
They do cost quite a bit. And if you got nine...
so I'm going to set up a scholarship fund for your kids,
to guide your kids through education.
- [murmurs].
Thank you.
- Your light shines Randy. You're amazing.
- Thank you so much. - Let's--let's get that hug.
I'm a hugger. I can't help it.
- Thank you, ma'am. - Thank you so much
for everything you do for our community.
- So it turns out that my trainee
was actually the mayor. - Serious?
- She set up a scholarship fund for the kids.
- No way, things like this don't happen to like us.
I can't even like think about it.
- To be on the receiving end where somebody
recognizes me, it was awesome.
All right. - I love you.
- Love you. Bye.
- I got to tell you, Chris, you're amazing.
The challenges that you encountered showed me
just why I'm so proud
of our great staff and our wonderful city.
- Well, thank you. We do our best out there.
- What changes do you think
need to occur within your job right now?
- I talked to you about an emergency type of system,
to be able to respond quicker.
- Well, let me tell you, Chris, it was very clear
that we needed to do something.
And because of you... - Oh, wow.
- We're going to spend over $1/4 million.
We're going to get that system.
- Wow. That's amazing.
That just makes it that much easier.
It's gonna be awesome.
- Chris, the one thing that really touched my heart
was how you talked about your wife's health.
- She has a thing called MGUS.
It's not cancerous yet, but we don't want it to be.
And so we're going to battle it. I need her.
She can't, you know...
- Well, you know, Chris, I spoke to my friends
at DW Development, and they are going to provide
an all-expenses-paid trip worth $10,000.
- Oh, no way. Wow. That's amazing.
Wow. I don't even know how to say thank you.
- You don't have to say thank you.
You just keep doing the great job you're doing.
- Appreciate that. - Well, come on, give me a hug.
- Thank you so much.
I'm just like, "Wow."
Sometimes you don't even have words
to express those feelings.
It just like God blessed me today.
- You know, Ben, I'm so impressed
with your passion for your job. - Thank you.
- But you and your team members,
because of the lack of staff have had to,
in some cases, work eight days straight.
- Having that time away from your family
starts to really take a toll.
It brings down morale. That's one of the big things.
- Well, you know, I might be able to help with that.
I'm going to host a barbecue for your team at your station,
and we're going to all sit around and bond. How's that?
- Oh, I love that. That's a good idea.
- On top of that, I am going to work very hard
with your fire association
to recruit more people to be firefighters.
And we're going to spend $11 million
for the two fire stations and the new training facility.
- Awesome! Two new stations are going to be beautiful.
The guys are gonna want to work there.
And so it's huge for us,
- Ben, I know your wife is working on her doctor's degree.
And I know how that can impact a family.
- For the normal 9:00 to 5:00 job,
they get to come home every night, see their wife.
In this job, it's a little bit different.
- I want you to be happy.
So I spoke to my friends at DW Development,
and they've kindly agreed that they will make a grant to you
and your wife of $10,000.
- Oh my gosh.
I can't thank you enough. This is a huge--huge blessing.
- It's because of you and your dedication to this job.
- Thank you so much. - Thank you.
- I talked a lot about you being in school,
and they're going to give us a grant for $10,000.
- Are you kidding me? - No, I'm serious.
- I'm like shaking right now.
- Today, I'm going to the Fontana Nature Center
to meet with Candace.
She couldn't meet with me a few weeks ago,
so I decided I would surprise her.
Hello? Do you remember me?
- You look familiar. You do look familiar.
- If I told you I was afraid of snakes...
- No way.
- Yeah way. - Lavoise, right?
You look like so different.
- I'm not Lavoise. I'm Mayor Acquanetta Warren,
and you're on "Undercover Boss."
- Oh my gosh, really? - Yes. Really?
- I would've never guessed that.
Oh my gosh. That's crazy.
[laughter]
- Well, Candace, I want to thank you for showing me
that this is a hidden gem.
- Yes ,it is.
- But I was really shocked to find out how much work
you personally have to do
before you even really start the shift.
We had to pick up the trash,
and some of those things were very questionable.
So we're going to spend $50,000...
- Wow.
- To bring officers after hours in this park.
And we want park maintenance to go through here
before you show up and get everything ready.
- That would actually be amazing. Thank you so much.
- Candace, it really touched me and it really hurt my heart
when you told me about your brother, Ricky.
- It's something that day like seeing
all of the butterflies kind of just made me think about him.
- I talked to some of my good friends
at West Coast Arborists.
They trim all the trees here and take the wood
that's left over and create marvelous benches.
So they did donate a bench. I would like
to put a plaque there with your brother's name on it.
And I want to put the bench
where the butterflies hang out at.
- Well, thank you so much.
That's just mind blowing to me. I love the idea.
- Good. You talked about your plans for being a nurse.
- I've always kind of knew
that's what I've always wanted to do.
- I thought about that and I went and talked to
my good friends at DW Development.
And so I'm going to give you $10,000
to finish your educational goals towards your dream,
because I think you'll make a wonderful nurse.
- Thank God. Thank you so much. I would've never expected that.
You don't know how happy that makes me.
I have no words. Thank you so much.
[mellow music]
- This has been a real eye-opener.
I think what it taught me more than anything is
that I need to listen
to the people that are right there doing the work.
I want our members of our staff to feel embraced
and appreciated.
I've walked that walk. I've seen how it feels,
and I think we've come a long way as a community,
but we can't go too far if we don't acknowledge
the people that help us get there.
The people that I met on my journey
help me understand what our priorities need to be,
which will create a better Fontana
and a brighter future.