Workers return to site of San Bernardino shooting massacre

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (FOX 11 / AP) - In the offices of the Inland Regional Center, Christmas did not come.

Tinsel still festoons cubicles. A small tree with presents sits undisturbed. A sign-up sheet to bring in food remains empty of names.

The staff was still gearing up for the holidays on Dec. 2, the day 14 people were massacred on the center's gleaming campus.

Few of its 600 employees have gone to the office since, other than a brief visit to gather personal belongings a week after the terror attack.

On Monday, they return.

While many have continued to work, visiting the homes of autistic children and mentally disabled adults, they haven't been together in the place where everything froze once law enforcement officers whisked them away.

Amid the investigation and cleanup, the campus has been locked behind a chain link fence wrapped in green mesh. Within that perimeter, in one corner, is a second fence.

It seals the conference center that San Bernardino County's health department was renting for a holiday luncheon when the two attackers began their assault. A county restaurant inspector targeting his co-workers was joined by his wife in killing 14 and injuring dozens.

The conference building will not reopen Monday, and it's not clear when it might.

For now, the act of reuniting elsewhere on campus will be a huge step forward for Inland Regional Center staff. They miss the friendly faces, the hallway chit chat. They yearn to renew a sense of stability at an institution unmoored by violence.

"That's what I'm hearing from them: 'We want to be together again. We want to be back at work,'" said Lavinia Johnson, the center's executive director.

Sitting for an interview in a tidy courtyard shaded by two of the center's large, red stone buildings, Johnson and associate executive director Kevin Urtz reflected on the reopening. Johnson apologized for tree debris that has collected in the absence of caretakers. Several Japanese maples still clung to the last of their red leaves.

The plan for Monday morning is, after a welcome and some food in the lounges, to do what social workers and counselors do best - sit and talk.

"Just be together again," Johnson said, "share where they're at."

After that, it's back to work. Professional counselors will be available for employees who want them. In the afternoon, a memorial service for victims of the shooting will be open to county employees so they can mourn together.

"Our goal is to help people help themselves. And that's pretty much the same strategy that we want to take with our staff," Urtz said. "You know, help them through this."

Both have worked more than 25 years at the Inland Regional Center, which with nearly 31,000 disabled clients in the working-class sprawl east of Los Angeles is the largest of 21 in California. It is a vital community resource in a place where about one-third of households live below the poverty line.

Press Statement: Inland Regional Center Staff Returns to the San Bernardino Campus

Over 500 people move back to Buildings 1 and 2

Management was on hand to greet the 500+ employees, after they passed through the security fence and gates that now surround the Inland Regional Center San Bernardino campus, as they returned to work at Buildings 1 and 2 today. The San Bernardino campus was the scene of a terrorist attack that left 14 dead and 22 wounded on Dec. 2, 2015. The center, which serves over 30,000 developmentally disabled consumers throughout San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, moved its administrative operations off site and distributed more than 350 iPads to ensure that the staff - many of whom work in the field anyway - were able to continue providing the needed services throughout the area. Building 3, where the attack occurred, remains closed.

"We are learning to live with a new normal here as our staff moves forward with the healing process," said Lavinia Johnson, Executive Director, who stood outside the Courtyard between Buildings 1 and 2 to greet the employees. Today has been set up to ease everyone back into the site. We have counselors available; we'll be having team meetings with the various managers and we're providing food in the lounges. It's important that we provide a sense of welcome as well as comradery so we can start this year off as best as possible."

IRC originally moved into the San Bernardino campus, which was specifically designed for the agency, in September 2009. Buildings 1 and 2 are both three story structures designed to house the primary office space for IRC. Building 3 is a two story building that included a conference center, library, training rooms, offices and a coffee shop.

Now that Buildings 1 and 2 are open, plans for Building 3 are underway. Current considerations include renovating the main floor and other spaces in addition to installing a memorial for the victims, who were attending a holiday party that was being held by the San Bernardino County Environmental Health Services department. An opening date has not been determined.

Johnson and Urtz expect staff to be resilient, in the spirit of the #SBStrong phrase that has become a community rallying cry. They thanked law enforcement and expressed condolences for the families of the slain.

While people want to move ahead, Urtz doesn't expect ever to put that day behind fully.

"I don't think we're ever going to just, you know," he said, with his voice trailing off. "No, it's too big."

At the same time, with strengthened security, both said they are confident that the site is safe. After all, center employees or clients were not the focus of the attackers, whom the FBI says were motivated by radical Islamist beliefs.

Last week, Johnson was preparing for the reopening when she stopped by her office.

While there, she put away her Christmas decorations. And she thought how, this year, she didn't get to enjoy them.