Pine Mountain Club was the "oldest" community — the median age being 45 and 15 percent of the residents being older than 65.

Reported yearly incomes for each person in the labor force were $25,465 (in 1999 dollars) in Pine Mountain Club, $19,302 in Frazier Park, $17,983 in Lake of the Woods, and $14,895 in Lebec.

Pine Mountain Club also had the highest household and family incomes (at a median of $45,250 and $62,750, respectively), Frazier Park was next with $40,721 and $46,857, Lake of the Woods showed $42,742 and $43,468, and Lebec trailed with $39,063 and $40,972.

To measure the income of a household, the pre-tax money receipts of all residents over the age of 15 over a single year were combined.

The utilization by Mountain Community property owners of residences as second homes, vacation homes or seasonal rental properties can be shown by the fact that 62 percent of the 1,737 Pine Mountain Club houses (1,069) were vacant in March 2000 when the census was taken.

"[7] Rose said that Watson rejected a proposal to establish an elected municipal advisory council as allowed by state law.

[6] During the 2004-2009 period, the council held a number of forums, which attracted more than a thousand people considering subjects ranging from wildfire evacuations to land-development proposals.

[8][9] Rose thereupon sent a letter to Watson on behalf of a "Mountain Communities MAC/CSD Working Group" for establishment of an elected municipal advisory council, or MAC, with a budget of $10,000, along with a part-time clerk and space at the supervisor's office in Frazier Park.

Watson responded to a query from The Mountain Enterprise that I am opposed to any new layer of government that adds significant costs and bureaucracy.

"[6]On February 23, 2009, an open meeting of about 75 people was held in Frazier Park under the control of Supervisor Watson.

[10] On August 14, 2009, Watson announced he would recommend the formation of a Municipal Advisory Council to the Kern County Board of Supervisors, with the first members to be Stacy Havener of Pine Mountain, Linda MacKay of Lebec, Steve Newman of Cuddy Valley, Robert Peterson of Lebec, and Anne Weber of Frazier Park.

[11] In 2013 the organization, dubbed MCMAC, contained 4,370 registered voters among the area's 8,384 Kern County residents.

MacKay resigned from the body after five months, saying that it had been "hijacked" by Watson to be a rubber stamp and that she was appointed for "token diversity."

[citation needed] The El Tejon Unified School District serves the entire mountain community: Lockwood Valley is part of the district even though it is within Ventura County, and Gorman students are accepted into the high school by special permit.

El Tejon Middle School in Lebec takes district students from the fourth through the eighth grade.

The charter school was designed to "provide opportunities, support, and accountability for parents in their homeschooling endeavors.