If you haven’t been downtown lately you may not know that there are some changes going on in our towns center. One of those changes is a new event called Lunch Break. Destiny a local young adult wanted to do something for the art community that did force us to drive out of town and fight traffic.
Lunch Break was created as a way to bring together community in the Inland Empire through arts, music, and love. Too often we have to travel to Los Angeles in order to get away, decompress, and take a BREAK from the everyday routine necessary for keeping our community afloat!
Now we have the space in our own backyards!
Join the OPEN MIC portion with a live band to accompany you!
Leave inspired, refreshed, and connected.
EARLY BIRD $5 tickets (Garunteed admission)
DOOR $10 tickets (Available on a first come, first serve basis, based on capacity maximum)
One of the biggest issues when it come to increased taxes on fuel in California is the waste and miss management of those precious tax dollars. We knew that 40% of the current Gas, Registration and skyrocketing Diesel Fuel fees were not going to go to any type of road improvement but we thought the governor would start with some road projects right? Heck with a petition drive to repeal the tax well on its way to a 2019 ballot box near you that would have made sense right? Nope they seem Hell Bent on spending what money has already been collected on people who don’t even pay the tax!!!! Leading the leftist charge to force people who drive to pay for others transportation is the City of Rialto and Mayor Deborah Robertson.
The city that has made National News with a Failed Public/Private partnership with Veoilia, made National Headlines as Junior Councilman Trujillo tied to label the small city a sanctuary city and now as they approach bankruptcy over pension obligations and failed tax measures they are doubling down on bad ideas by spending $200k of SB1 funds on public trails rather than on crumbling roads in serious need of repair in a city that can’t afford to fix them.
Mayor Robertson seems to have her eyes elsewhere since she spends more time in San Diego, Sacramento and Washington D.C. than she does in the very city she ran for mayor in. As you can see in the story below Mayor Robertson seems to care little about the miles of damaged roads that run through her city. She also still ignores how her safe routes to school program is falling flat on its face. As she try’s to get kids to walk to school local schools she forgets that she is asking these families to walk past drug houses and areas full of gang members.
Mayor Robertson is currently on yet another full on battle against her local police officers which leaves her with few advocates within the department. Also Mayor Robertson has created massive divides among her office and the local school district administration. The cross walk she is pictured in (above) was a PR stunt and the cross walk was only fabricated to look that way for her photo ops. This once again proves she has no concern for the community only her future political advancement.
City of Rialto Using SB 1 Funds for its Active Transportation Plan
February 7, 2018
For many residents without cars in the City of Rialto, public transportation serves as the lifeline to employment and educational opportunities.
However, Rialto severely lacks the infrastructure that can help residents, particularly those who are low-income, get to the transit station and to jobs and school.
The city’s efforts to remedy its transportation infrastructure issues are now accelerating thanks to some much needed funding. The city just received $200,000 in SB1 funding to create an Active Transportation Plan, which comes directly on the heels of a grant to support Safe Routes to Schools.
Currently, there are only 1.5 miles of shared use paths, and just over 10 miles of bike paths. Most of the bike lanes are narrow and located on wide roadways with high speed limits. Because of this, many bicyclists choose to use sidewalks instead, upsetting many pedestrians.
Neighborhoods on the north side of town currently face the greatest challenges. This gap effectively prevents these residents from accessing Metrolink, which provides service to employment opportunities in other communities.
“Many individuals in Rialto face limited employment options based on the transportation choices available to them”, says Mayor Deborah Robertson. “Planning a holistic active transportation network will provide access to economic opportunities for residents without cars, and will increase public transit options by providing first-and last-mile connections on foot and by bicycle.”
Without clear solutions, the situation for residents will likely worsen. As Rialto continues to grow, most new housing is anticipated to occur in the northern neighborhoods. By creating an Active Transportation Plan, the city hopes to address deficiencies and identify additional bicycle and walking improvements in all areas of the city.
The city has experienced great success implementing its new Safe Routes to School Program. Along with efforts to host a walking school bus event at six schools, the city just recently enhanced the crosswalk in front of Myers Elementary to support a healthy and safe way for students to get to school.
A few weeks ago the City Council was tasked with a job. They were asked to look at Rialto’s financial future and take a series of actions to begin to lead us from the eventual cliff. What they did was very different.
The city of Rialto has had a Utility Tax since 2003 according to staff reports. Many cities have utility taxes but Rialto’s is unique since it contains a sunset. Every 5 years our Utility Tax comes to and end forcing the people to vote to reinstate the tax normally for another 5 years. As you will see from Interm City Manager Rob Steel’s presentation.
Rob Steel laid out a very comprehensive breakdown of the history and future of Rialto’s need for this tax. Next was the BAC (Budget Advisory Committee) with their recommendation to City Council. The BAC with much debate and study came to the conclusion that keeping things the way they are is the best bet for Rialto and is the least risky of the options. Rialto City Council barked that the BAC was not formed to mull over the UUT (Utility Users Tax) but to look for alternatives to new monies in Rialto. The problem is without the UUT there is no more of a Rialto. The UUT represents 18% percent of our general fund budget. Our general fund is already barley functioning and under $130 Million in unfunded burdens over the next 10 years and we can’t afford to loose 18% of our budget. Also City Council ASKED the BAC for their thoughts on the UUT and where things should go. Really City Council was simply looking for a rubber stamp to attack seniors and play Russian Roulette with Rialto’s Future.
After this the Mayors true plans and intentions were brought to light. She did all she could to poison the Budget Advisory Committee and bend them to her will. She found out that not everyone believed the same thing but that the recommendation was built off of a majority vote of the residents on the committee not any of the employees representing the various bargaining units. What Mayor Robertson is about to show you is she has little concern for Rialto’s ability to have sustainable growth in a safe city.
Given the chance these people would find any legal way to tip the scales in their favor to win an election for themselves but when it comes to obtaining a ballot measure that will pass and give Rialto the chance at a sustainable future they ignore every poll and conventional wisdom and make the most illiterate decision.
Now Ed Scott wants you to believe that the big bad unions are inside the Budget Advisory Committee meetings strong arming the residents on the Committee. Nothing could be farther from the truth the Union representatives have been helpful and respectful they are not even voting on the various recommendations the Committee is send out to Council (recommendations they choose to ignore). Ed Scott asks the residents to take the Committee by the horns well were doing just that but were taking City Council down to the Corruption starts with the failed leadership of the city. Does anyone believe the way you manage a horrible upcoming situation by spending your savings and saving less? Councilman Ed Scott does!
Ed Scott brings up the Monrovia Example, this has not been brought up but I asked Iterm City Administrator Robb Steel about it here is what he told us:
“Monrovia adopted a multi-prong strategy to pay down its unfunded liabilities for pensions. The key component of it was to issue pension obligation bonds for their unfunded liability ($111 million). I have attached the staff report that describes their program, which includes modest employee concessions and other revenue enhancements. I have also attached the rating agency report on the proposed bond issuance to provide a sense of Monrovia’s overall financial condition. The basic strategy with POB’s is to borrow funds at say 4% and invest with PERS (or a separately established trust) that earns say 7%. If the raised monies are used to pay down the unfunded liability with PERS (for example), the City’s annual payments to PERS will be re-amortized and reduced (similar to using one time money to pay down your mortgage, then refinancing the balance). The freed up cashflow can then be used to sustain services, or pay down the debt even faster. The potential savings are significant (on $100 million as example, a 3% spread represents $3 million per year in interest savings in year 1).
This can be a good strategy, but it is not without risks. The City establishes general fund secured debt that must be paid as a priority above all other expenditures, which limits financial flexibility and may force cuts in essential services during a financial disruption. The bond investors may condition the financing on compliance with certain financial standards (minimum reserves, balanced budgets, etc.) that may seem reasonable but which may limit choices. It can be a good move; it just warrants some discussion of the risks. Our neighbor to the east defaulted on its payments for POB’s and spiraled into bankruptcy largely to shed that obligation.
Jumping in to the hot topic of the day, in order to issue POB’s the City must demonstrate balanced general fund budgets and stable financial futures. The S & P Report attached describes Monrovia’s current financial posture as quite stable and strong, with but a few reservations. We would not receive a similar finding, in large part because our revenue stream is interruptible. It would be very difficult (I think impossible) to borrow monies at reasonable rates when 20% of your revenue stream may be cut off every 5 years. A permanent revenue stream (of some sort, does not necessarily have to be a utility tax) would be necessary to address this issue and allow the general fund to issue debt with a strong repayment forecast. Alternatively, the City would need to compress expenditures by 20% to balance its budget and that we know would require dramatic service reductions. At present, the City General Fund would not in my opinion receive an investment grade credit rating unless we collateralized the debt with something very secure (substantial cash reserve).”
Anyone interested in following in San Bernardino’s footsteps?
Joe Baca Jr. is not a risky guy when it comes to politics. He is a moderate like his father and isn’t known for taking on causes unless he knows for a fact he can shield himself from the consequences. For example when the city was in the process of selling of our water for 30 years he was the lone no vote. This did nothing for the people and Joe Baca Jr was well protected since he knew that the rest of the council was in lock step to sell away Rialto’s Water future. So in this matter why would he risk going after seniors and putting Rialto into a very tough spot financially? He doesn’t have to agree with his fellow council members on anything other than the fact that there is a need for a financial emergency. There seems to be more to this that what we see on the surface and there are a lot of behind the scenes conversations taking place to get everyone on the same page on such a horrible idea.
Not only is Rafael way out of his league here but he missed a golden opportunity to show he is the man of the Hispanic people. He has no idea what he is doing and his ignorance isn’t something that you can say comes from a good place because he is trying to make a difference. To add insult to injury he missed a golden opportunity to plea for better bilingual outreach. He left that up to Mayor Robertson and the Vice Chair of the BAC.
Councilman Carrizales is sitting in a seat where a man once sat who stood up for Rialto better than any other elected official and he had no use of his legs. Everyone is waiting for Councilman Carrizales to work to represent the people on the dias, nothing personal he is a great man and a devoted husband and father but Rialto needs leaders that lead in tough times like these not read off a pre-written script. When people act so far outside their character it leads one to believe what is really going on here.
Joe Baca Jr. went into what they can do in the future if the need for the Utility Tax ever changes but these are just words that will never happen to distract people from what is really going on.
Finally Dennis Barton reminds the Budget Advisory Committee that the council only cares about a recommendation that is unanimous meaning if certain members have different ideas of feeling those are to be shut up and closed down. Then the Mayor pitches a fit because she wants to make sure she is around to control this process and make sure her will is done. Also see Rafael Trujillo’s ignorance of how elections are run because he doesn’t even know that ballot information is in English and Spanish.
Is Mayor Robertson your Mayor the the warehouses Mayor?
On January 9th The Mayor and City Council missed the third opportunity to do their job and allow Rialto to have a shot at a better financial future. As you will see in the video below not only was the Mayor not here in Rialto doing her job, but Mayor Pro Tem Scott choose to lie about where the Mayor was.
We need people who are in local politics for the people and the community. So many are in it for lush perks, power and the ability to travel on the Taxpayers dime. There is no reason for the Mayor to be in Washington D.C. when there is work to be done here. Also if she had a conflict she could have scheduled a special meeting to go over the new draft documents and move this issue forward. Also why is Ed Scott lying for the Mayor???
IT’S TODAY IT’S TODAY!! Don’t forget to come out to Menchies in Rialto to support our Rialto High School Cheer 20% of your purchase will be donated to the team! Don’t forget to show them the flyer.
***Remember must show flyer (printed or on phone) in order for your purchase to count.***
Come on out to Menchies in Rialto this Friday from 2p.m.-11p.m. Then come join us on Monday at Pieology in Rialto for some pizza! A percentage of your purchases will go towards the Rialto High School cheer team. All support is greatly appreciated!
About a year ago we had the opportunity to sit down with the new leader of Rialto Unified School District and in our first interview Dr. Avila laid out a plan that sounded great. Well to see where this plan led us we decided to watch the plan move through the process and look for the results. Dr Avila took the initiative to make sure we had time to revisit the previous interview and go over where we were a year later.
As it looks things are progressing pretty well, there were a few bumps in the road but all in all I’m not sure another School District in the area can boast a leader with a clear vision that is producing results and allows to explore other avenues along the journey to the plans end. One of my favorite parts of the long range strategic plan is the fact that it allows for deviation from the plan to explore side avenues that might offer benefits.
Question 1. You eased yourself into the district slowly implementing your plan. How has that gone?
Question 2. Last interview you spoke about your Random Act of Kindness imitative how has that gone and what have you done in your 2nd year as Superintendent of RUSD?
Question 3. In our 1st interview you highlighted awards the schools were getting for excellence. What awards have schools or administrators obtained in the last year or so that we haven’t covered?
Question 4. Last interview you spoke about up coming literacy programs a lot has happened since our last interview in this area. How has the Literacy launch gone and what programs are we working with?
Question 5. Last time we spoke about streamlining STEAM programs k-12 how has that gone.
Question 6. How can we offer more classes that prepare kids for skilled labor jobs? Currently when staff retire from these classes the classes are lost. Is there a plan to address this?
Question 7. Last interview you spoke about your desire to have school principles reach out to the community to work on bringing in a more diverse learning environment into the schools. Have you seen movement in this area?
Question 8. The district not only went through its own strategic planning and each site had their own stab at creating plans how has that gone and what was learned from this process?
Question 9. We spoke about the issues with communication at RUSD. How has the communication issue progressed as you have come on board? What worked? What sounded good but didn’t produce the required results?
Question 10. Rialto has had a long history of issues within the Special Education Program. What are your plans to begin making strides in this program to a better place?
Question 11. Finally what are your wishes for the remainder of the current school year. Any milestones your looking forward to celebrating?
Last time there was supposed to be a Coffee with the Chief event it was canceled and notice was not widely put out as many complained that they drove all over looking for it. It was not odd to have the event canceled as Chief Deanda was entering retirement and an interm police chief was getting settled.
Yet will residents give Chief Kling a fair shake? Well he should be able to slip right into the role he created over 10 years ago. Yes Interm Police Chief is the former Chief of Police before Tony Fararr and was the architect of programs in Rialto like Coffee with the Chief, Community Policing and Area Command Meetings. Chief Kling was also the one to bring in collaboration with code enforcement and beefing up parking enforcement. New residents are in for a treat as Chief Kling always seemed to enjoy the interactions he had with the community at these meetings. Now the community gets to see if a decade away from sitting in the seat as chief has changed him any.
Come on out to this meeting this will be one you don’t want to miss.
Rialto is in a very critical point in our cities existence and many may be looking to the incoming development as a saving windfall. We are here to tell you that this isn’t the case Rialto is in a tough spot and its going to take everyone doing their jobs to get us through it.
The reason we say everyone doing their jobs is right now some staff and the community are the only ones stepping up to the plate and if the rest of the players don’t figure that out, own their bad and get on board with getting things back on track it is going to spell disaster.
Here are the players as we see it and what they need to do to get things moving the right way:
The Community – This group of people have been doing a lion share of the heavy lifting. Most people believe they have no recourse and they must accept bad leadership and money mismanagement. This is not the case even though we may be on a certain leaders team it never hurts to remind those leaders we support we can no longer give them blanket support for a laundry list of bad calls. You can see how the city council is fracturing as they all split off to their specific groups and ask for help with dealing with the others. When it comes to the Utility Users Tax the community can’t support TAX AND SPEND Liberals in such high majorities when voting and then look at a tax that actually provides us services we all say we want to keep as a bad thing.
The City Council – I have never been a fan of forming a consensus I believe it leads to to many back room deals and excludes the community at large as a few key power groups ideology reigns supreme. Yet on this issue I see it as juvenile to allow the whole city to suffer just to make a political point. I say this because the issue of declaring a financial emergency still hangs in the balance and is holding up Rialto’s ability to see where we are going over the next 10 years. City Council is playing political chicken with our future, information that has come from staff says that City Council is having an issue declaring a state of emergency because we still have a healthy surplus. A surplus that will only afford Rialto a 6 month time frame of stability if the worse was ever to happen. It seems like City Council wants us to be broke and defaulting on loans before we do anything to right our unstable future. I don’t know anyone that would look at their personal or business finances and see a real financial avalanche heading their way and not do anything within reason to stop what seems to be inevitable. One of City Councils epic failures was the 3% at 50 PERS offering. According to sources to help with employee retention Councilman Ed Scott brought this in. Now this program is no longer offered to new employees but employees already in this program have it no matter what.
The Mayor – Mayor Robertson has done a very good job of pushing the blame for failures onto other people or pretending that things are better than they really are. Mayor Robertson is the biggest holdout when it comes to declaring a state of financial emergency in this city and this isn’t the 1st time she has pulled this stunt. Four years ago she pulled the same stunt as she threw a tantrum and asked public safety to make massive concessions like no longer being able to cash out comp, sick, holiday or vacation time, $300 cut in uniform allowance and no raise. Now she is taking things a step further as now Mayor Robertson wants to once again ask Public Safety to forgo a raise, loose all special assignment pay and take everyone back one full step in pay. Remember this is the same Mayor that wanted to give herself a massive raise for a very part time job.
Staff – Staff plays a big role in what is going on here since they seem incapable of giving the Council, Mayor and Community a true and honest look at the consequences of staff recommended actions. Many times staff have fallen on the sword for the Mayor and City Council to shield them from the consequences of their actions. Yes staff works hard and puts in long hours but when they keep the truth from the community or shield the electeds from the consequences of their actions they sully all the hard work they have put in.
City Attorney – Some day we will have a city attorney that doesn’t rip us off (Jimmy Gutierrez) and we will have one that has the testicle fortitude to stand in the gap and advocate for the community rather than cover up for the Council and Mayor. In one case the city has spent $720,000 already in defending the city in a legal case that could have been fixed had someone stopped everyone’s egos. Also the City Attorney needs to remind the Mayor that giving away buildings to friends and political allies is a slippery slope to gifting of public funds. We are not saying this is the case but a property on Riverside Ave in Downtown seems to have changed ownership without any other public consideration and it has a lot of people scratching their heads.
Since 1996 California has been slowly pushing harmful drugs into local communities. Not even the extremely liberal Obama administration would do anything to legalize Marijuana Federally, all the liberals did was stop enforcing Federal Drug and Immigration Laws.
Another issue is Pot Heads desire to smoke Marijuana doesn’t just effect them. Even before the 1st of the year Marijuana users have openly smoled this harmful drug without any fear of punishment. Shopping centers and neighborhoods have stuck of Marijuana’s awful smell. Shopping on Christmas Eve at the Food 4 Less in Rialto on Foothill we witnessed a male smoking Marijuana and driving, when we called dispatch we were told its not a crime and were hung up on. A few days later we were near the Del Taco on South Riverside Ave and a mother with a small child exhalled her Marijuana smoke into our window. The question is where does Marijuana users rights begin and others end? Is their right to get high more important than others right to not be exposed to such a harmful substance?
“If anyone gets hit by an Camary L.P. 3BIM196 let me know we can sue Rialto Police since dispatch told me it’s not illegal to drive a car and smoke weed and hung up on me”
Rialto is not immune to the problems that come with Marijuana use in California. Here is a brief list of some of the things Marijuana Legalization has brought to Rialto and the surrounding communities:
Back in August 2015 at an Area Command Meeting for Area’s 1&2 in the city of Rialto Officer Nick Partcher part of Rialto Police SCAT team the team responsible for gang, alcohol & drug enforcement said that Marijuana use is now just as big a problem with local youth as Alcohol use. That year youth Marijuana use exceeded both Alcohol and Tobacco use combined. (Rialto Now)
Back in May 2011 a home selling Marijuana turned shootout left two people dead in Rialto. The incident unfolded on the 900 block of North Beechwood Avenue at about 8:45 p.m. Wednesday. (ABC7)
Downey Police Officer Shot Three Times During Undercover Operation in San Bernardino. (KTLA)
Only On 2: Investigation Reveals Medical Marijuana Is Getting Into School Kids’ Hands. (CBS2)
SAN BERNARDINO >> SWAT officers served a high risk search warrant Friday at a medical marijuana dispensary where they found cocaine and a gun, police said. (SB Sun)
A 23-year-old woman has been arrested in connection with a February robbery attemptand shootout that left a security guard dead at a marijuana dispensary on the boarder of Rialto & San Bernardino, authorities announced Monday. (KTLA)
The pedestrian killed after being hit by a pickup has been identified as a 90-year-old Moreno Valley resident, the Riverside County Sheriff/Coroner’s office reported Sunday, Dec. 31 whose driver may have been under the influence of drugs. (PE)
Fontana Mayor Celebrates Drug Filled Rave As Three People Die, (Rialto Now)
December 2015 Amazon temp agency could not fill all of the jobs they had do to people not being able to pass a simple drug test. Over 60 percent of those who failed did so because they could not put their bong away. Even being given multiple chances to return and try again they could not pass the test.
In a message from the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy to local prevention providers. This data and reports further confirm what prevention providers have been warning ever since the lie of Medical Marijuana began to take shape youth use is on the way up. One area where prevention providers have been looking to get to is kids in Elementary and they have been getting resistance due to the thought that these kids are to young to be involved in drug use. This study show a major increase in drug use among youth 12 and older meaning kids in 6th grade are being introduced to drugs.
Another thing that the data shows is a driving force behind an increase in youth use is the widespread use in adults. This matches what the Rialto Community Coalition found in February during their Strategic Planning Session was that one of the biggest reasons youth use drugs especially Marijuana is because of the lax attitude from adults. The investigative reports from David Goldstein on medical marijuana dispensary’s acting as a hub to get Marijuana to youth should be an eye opening period for parents. Now people can have plants on their property and can have an ounce on their person without getting into trouble.
One of the areas where prescription drug use has taken over our communities and youth is the raiding of Senior Citizens medicine cabinets. What scares regular non drug using people is the fact that seniors are re-living the 60’s and linning up to buy Pot. If they couldn’t be trusted to keep prescription drugs away from others what makes us think they will protect their Weed from young people? The Press Enterprise wrote a glowing article about people lining up to fry their brains and here is a list of the elderly:
Craig Reinarman, a 69-year-old.
Jeff Deakin, 66.
72-year-old Cathedral City resident who was among 13 people lined up at West Coast Cannabis Club in Riverside County before 6 a.m. The man, who declined to give his name, bought raw flower and five pre-rolls for $1 each in his first purchase at a marijuana store. He said he planned to smoke while watching bowl games during the day.
Oakland City Councilman Noel Gallo.
A 55-year-old Oakland man who would identify himself only as Big Jon, said he retired Dec. 31 and was finally free from the requirements of a commercial Class A driving license. “It’s been 32 years,” Big Jon said, adding that he’d been hearing about edibles and other products he’d like to try.
Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin.
Carol Wyatt of West Oakland and Carlos Hooks.
Rome VanBergen, 57.
Santa Ana Councilman Jose Solorio.
Toby and Shara Edwards came from Florida to get high. Residents of Pensacola, Florida – “2,000 miles and 40 years away from California,” Toby Edwards joked – they bought $85 worth of cannabis-infused candies, topical lotions and pre-rolled cigarettes. “It’s completely illegal (in Florida),” he said. “The penalties are so severe you can lose your job. They can seize your property. It just isn’t worth it. This is so different.”
Santa Cruz resident Tree Island, 69.
Miguel Vargas of San Jose.
Rigoberto Espinoza, 28.
State Sen. Nancy Skinner, who represents much of the East Bay, including Oakland and Berkeley, spent much of her morning between Berkeley Patients Group and Harborside in Oakland. “To me this is huge,” she said. “I want responsible use, but I also want use that is legal for everybody and equitable.” Recreational legalization, she hopes, will “finally put an end” to the criminalization of marijuana, which, she said, disproportionately affected black and brown Californians. Wow how are Liberals not the racist ones?
Another issue is the prevalence of youth using vaping products that people still try to push off as safe for youth use. As you see in the text below from the Press Enterprise article now our youth have a modern way to kill their brain cells.
By mid-morning, vapor pens and edible products were among the most popular items at the shop, with a number of Baby Boomers who smoked marijuana years ago interested in trying cannabis in new forms.
To add to an already troubling problem is the fear that Mayor Robertson is setting Rialto up to have Marijuana dumped on our poor city. As it sits now Marijuana shops are illegal in the city limits. Where we see trouble is the Mayors out right refusal to vote to put the Utility Tax on an April Ballot. Also the mayors appointee to the Budget Advisory Committee said at one meeting lets find the crappy part of Rialto and turn that into our Marijuana Zone!!!!
Only question is who gets to choose where the crappy part of town is?
The bottom line is that Rialto is in a serious mess. We have the following hurdles:
No Police Cheif
Officers leaving the city in massive numbers
only 4 officers on patrol at any given tim
No City Administrator
$160 Million in unfunded liabilities
Utility Tax Ending in June
Out of control leaders with only their own best interest in mind
The Question remains when will we say enough is enough!!!!!!
Let me first off say that if you are a customer of West Valley Water you have to be concerned with your water provider being able to provide you with clean drinking water. Why would I say this? The entire time Clifford Young has been a Director of West Valley Water he has used West Valley funds to investigate and sue people who refuse to fall in line with his rule. Here is a short and not complete list of people he has spent rate payers money eithier investigating or suing since 2014:
Butch Ariza – Former West Valley Water GM and Candidate for the board Clifford used rate payer money to investigate if Mr. Ariza was legally allowed to run for the elected seat. Normally this is left to the Registrar of Voters but since Mr. Young hated Mr. Ariza he took matters into his own hands.
Board Member Alan Dyer – Mr. Dyer is another person that refused to go along with Clifford Young and his antics so he too was investigated with rate payer money on the validity of his residence. Now you may say this was more appropriate but no. When local Rialto City Council member Deborah Robertson investigated the validity of her fellow Council member Ed Palmer’s residence she sued him personally no taxpayer money was used.
Redwing and Sherill – Since this company was not connected to Mr. Young and his closest campaign contributors money and time was wasted looking over a long series of paid and unpaid bills.
The entire 2017 Executive Board – Given no public explanation even though the board members have publicly asked for one Dr. Clifford Young,Sr. has refused to justify yet another misuse of public funds as he descends onto another personal witch hunt.
The main constant here is that all of these Investigations or Suits have amounted to NOTHING!!!! Dr. Clifford Young,Sr. has not produced one shred of public evidence that these actions were warranted and no actions have come from the misuse of public funds. Normally when money is spent from the public funds there is some report able action that comes along even if it is a net loss something is brought forward. Not in the world of Mr. Young he uses the public’s funds at his own desire with no public accountability.
Here are a few more times where Mr. Young has repeatably taken liberties with the public’s funds:
Sources report that Mr. Young has all of his fellow directors book hotel stay’s and conference registrations with his personal credit card so that he can stack up extra cash back bonus points. Then he and the other directors are reimbursed from the Water District leaving Mr. Young with a windfall of cash back points. You may say who cares they don’t go to that many things right? WRONG they pad their pockets by attending meaningless meetings and functions so that they can earn more money. They are paid a fixed amount per event they attend on behalf of the Water District no matter how long they stay. Instead of using a district credit card to pay for expenses, Young uses his personal credit card for such expenses so he could earn credit rewards and Marriott points. It led to former district CFO Suzanne Cook being fired after bringing the matter to Young’s attention. Cook sued the district in July, and the case is still pending, court records show. (Sun)
Clifford Young is now on his fourth General Manager and Third Legal Counsel Firm in the four years since he has been a Director with West Valley Water. Let me tell you these contracts are not cheap to begin with and the clauses for removing them before their contract is up isn’t cheap either.
Since Mr. Young has been on the board he has not only raised Directors ability to make more money but has further limited the communities ability to interact with the Water Board click here to read more.
Lawsuits Clifford Young and West Valley Water currently find themselves up against the future liability of workplace harassment lawsuits as spelled out by Hardy Brown Senior (click here)
Six figure no-bid contracts are awarded to friends of the board.
Young routinely forced staff to hire colleagues from his former job at CSUSB, including paying one a salary of $260,000 a year with no job description.
Young regularly expensed alcohol and charged it to the agency & regularly expensed meals for his wife and charged the agency against policy. (click here)
What we found alarming when we first began reporting on West Valley Water and the mess that resides in the Elected body was the strong desire to control the release of information about what is going on there. Board Director Greg Young once tried to have Joise Gonzales the local Board Supervisor to silence us (see here) add to that the constant threats by Clifford Young to Sue Us for slander (never happened) there is a strong move to silence the media going on here and now we see why.
For the longest time Clifford Young was able to keep under the radar of bigger media sources (even though we tried hard to nudge them into looking into West Valley’s actions). Well with the recent elections where Clifford Young was able to fully secure 4 out of 5 board seats on the West Valley Board and has his eye on getting Mr. Olinger out of the Board in the coming election to secure complete control he forgot that his friend and now board director Mike Taylor has already secured a steady stream of media attention with his actions in Baldwin Park. Mr Young also lost sight of Mr Taylors bad deeds seeping into Rialto:
When Baldwin Park rehired Michael Taylor as its police chief, the city included a provision in his contract that makes him exceedingly difficult to fire. Taylor can only be terminated from his $234,000-a-year job, according to the agreement, if he commits a felony. Baldwin Park leaders also prohibited themselves from giving Taylor annual performance evaluations. The agreement allows the council to place Taylor on administrative leave — but with pay. The contract term is only for one year. But if the council doesn’t renew it, Taylor gets a severance package worth three months’ salary.
Taylor was recently elected board member at West Valley Water District in Rialto, about 39 miles from Baldwin Park, soon after returning as police chief. One of Taylor’s first actions as a new director on Dec. 7 was to vote for a new attorney to serve the district: Robert Tafoya, the Baldwin Park city attorney who weeks earlier presented the chief’s employment contract to that city’s council for approval.
Taylor has taken money from a drug operation in Baldwin Park where he is the police chief to fund his campaign for West Valley Water Board. Taylor who received help from local republican and tea party groups on his campaign are the same groups who claim to be against drug legalization in California.
Taylor is also accused of moving money around as a way to cover the origins of said money. In another story by the legal lens businesses that are known for using campaign contributions as a way to secure favorable contrasts within the city of Baldwin Park are now spending money here in the West Valley Water Races.
A person of interest in the character assassination of Kareem Gongora when Kareem was running for special election for Fontana Unified School Board is the listed Treasurer for Mike Taylor. The same campaign that shifted money around and took drug money to win a campaign.
Board President Clifford Young has misappropriated public funds and routinely engages in unfair hiring practices, with no regard to staff concerns and district policies and procedures. (Sun)
Young, according to a memo, demanded the district hire people that he worked with at Cal State San Bernardino or had personal affiliations with. (Sun)
Young awarded no-bid contracts to friends, including political lobbyist William Lowery and public relations expert Patrick O’Reilly. Additionally, Young received more than $42,000 in reimbursement for travel, meals and incidentals and more than $43,000 in director fees. He does not provide line item receipts to “ensure that the district is not paying for prohibited expenses such as alcohol,” (Sun)
So Rialto you have one question to ask yourselves. Why do we keep accepting this type of behavior and failed leadership? Don’t the people of West Valley Water deserve better? Where is the DA’s of Riverside, San Bernardino and LA Counties at? Are they going to allow failed leadership to break the rules with ZERO accountability?
rialtonow 