Assemblymember-Elect Cheryl Brown | rialtonow

Rialto City Council Set To levy Water Restrictions, Appoint Commissioners & Pay Back PEG Funds

12 May 2015 Leave a comment

Link below is of water running down the street.

As Bill Carroll on KFI AM 640 has been saying “when will the people of California stand up to the regulations that our government are creating” I quote Mr. Carroll because he speaks truth. California has been wasting money, water & time for years and now it’s OUR fault and we must suffer the consequences? I will agree it is our fault that we have allowed lazy people to govern us here in California. It seems like less and less people are voting here and even less people are plugged into the issues of their elected system.

Tab #2

We bring up water in this post because the City Council will be setting in place some heavy regulations and fines for people that cannot meet those regulations. What is worse is that the baseline to determine if you are a rule breaker is 2013. So if your new to Rialto are you exempt? Who will be policing and enforcing these new regulations? What about people that can’t afford to fix the problem what do they do? Attend or watch but make sure you make it clear to your elected officials where you stand on this issue.

http://www.rialtoca.gov/documents/downloads/Regular_Meeting_Agenda_–_5-12-15.pdf (page 437)

Tab #3

Here we are again at the disbursement of the Community Development Block Grant funds. Once again done behind a velvet curtain of secrecy with little transparency. This is a good Tab to watch because last year a organization was pulled from the funding block at the council meeting.

http://www.rialtoca.gov/documents/downloads/Regular_Meeting_Agenda_–_5-12-15.pdf (page 479)

Tab #5

Looks like we had a few commission seats open and its time to fill them. If you look on the city website you will see two seats open look on the agenda and their appears to also 10 seats open from Parks & Rec to the new Historical Commission. There was a push to allow the whole council and community take a look at the People looking for a seat on a commission and it appears in a rush to put out the info the city put out the full applications that the prospective commissioners filled out EVERYTHING. There was an attempt to black out the personal information but it wasn’t good enough I could still read the personal information for the applicants. I saw Drivers License Numbers, Expiration Dates, Personal Phone Number and even Emergency Contacts No Bueno!!!!!!!! I called City Manager Mike Story and reported what I saw and can report the applications have been removed. I called Mayor Robertson & Councilman O’Connell and neither of them were aware of this miss step. To make matters worse I was interested in a commission seat so I called the city clerks office yesterday to get more information and I was passed around for 10 mins until someone decided to TRY and answer my questions. When I asked the staff member if my application would be considered if submitted today she said she didn’t know. One of the reasons I have not applied for a seat was these seats seem to be given away as favors by elected officials now that looks more true than ever today.

http://www.rialtoca.gov/documents/downloads/Regular_Meeting_Agenda_–_5-12-15.pdf (page 707)

Tab #9

This is the multi housing tab and the issue here is why are we approving new construction plans when we are in such a major drought?

Tab #12

Apparently someone spent money they were not supposed to and got caught by the city treasurer according to City Manager Mike Story. We reached out to Mr. Story today reference this tab item and he said that PEG funds are “Are funds that the city receives for the capital operations of the Rialto Network. They come from a percentage the city receives from Time Warner & ATT U Verse”. When I asked why we were paying back over $110 Thousand he said “The City Treasuer observed through his review that some of the purchases might not of been authorized FCC PEG guidelines. City Attorney reviewed the items and determined that there might be some chasrges that could have been questioned over the past three years. So it is being recommended that we transfer the amount in the staff report from the general fund and back into the PEG account.” WOW so we can wait to see who approved these purchases and what will be done to punish them for such a gross miss step.

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Toll Lanes In The Inland Empire Have A Russia Rialto Connection

16 Apr 2015 2 Comments

Rialto, California Residents and stakeholders. Now is the time to engage and act. Hassan Ikhrata was at Fontana City Council Defending communist ideas like taxing you for miles driven in your car and stealing 2 lanes of the 10 freeway and turning them into toll lanes at the preliminary cost of $1,650,000,000!!!!! For those of you that have issues with place value that is One Billion Six Hundred Fifty Thousand Million DOLLARS!!!!!!!!! Mr.Hassan uses the 91 freeway as a close point of reference of toll lane success. Maybe Mr. Hassan is unaware but even with toll lanes the 91 freeway is still referred to as the Mark Of The Beast Freeway and The Freeway From Hell.

An LA area based blog posted a story where you can find out more about the person running SCAG Southern California Associated Governments the overreaching group that seeks to bring us from a capitalist democratic society into a communist socialist society. Below is the article and tid bits we found interesting:

http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-head-of-scag-hasan-ikhrata-wants-to.html

A black box in your car? Some see a source of tax revenue – As America’s road planners struggle to find the cash to mend a crumbling highway system, many are beginning to see a solution in a little black box that fits neatly by the dashboard of your car.

“This really is a must for our nation. It is not a matter of something we might choose to do,” said Hasan Ikhrata, executive director of the Southern California Assn. of Governments, which is planning for the state to start tracking miles driven by every California motorist by 2025. “There is going to be a change in how we pay these taxes. The technology is there to do it.”

Below is a video of Mr. Hassan presenting at Fontana City Council on Tuesday April 14th 2015 notice the police in the background and the tension in the room.

Why is this important to Rialto? Well Mayor Deborah Robertson sits on SCAG & SANBAG and is in favor of these ideas and is speaking on behalf of all 100,000 people that live here in Rialto. We have not been able to get any other council member to go on record about these plans but we will keep trying.

Video by rialto-now

Mayor Robertson Double Speaks On Cuba Sister City Issue

14 Apr 2015 2 Comments

If you have been paying attention then you know that Mayor Robertson & Councilman Ed Scott want Rialto to have a sister city. A presentation was done on March 24th to show the council what this Cuba event would look like.

During the presentation the travel agent giving the presentation never mentioned the forming of a sister city with any city in Cuba because of the existing US policies that prohibit such an action. What the travel agent did say is that the Rialto sponsored trip to cuba would be an educational trip to learn about the food, culture and geography of Cuba. I wish I could show you that footage but the city has since taken down the video from that meeting.

I stood before our mighty elected officials and told them to just say what they really want to do. I told them especially Mayor Robertson let your yes be yes and your no be no were not stupid we will remember you lied come election day. Did anyone heed my warning? No they all stuck to the story that the sister city concept was not something anyone was actively seeking. Then I went to google and typed in Rialto Cuba Sister City and guess what I found:

Throught this interview with http://www.scpr.org Mayor Robertson speaks about a Sister City with a Cuban City. She tries to create the illusion of a cuban culture here in Rialto when most people who grew up here or lived here have never met a Cuban person connected to Rialto.

Here Mayor Robertson claims that Globus is acting on the cities behalf using the people to people program to solicit a Sister City relationship within Cuba.

Its kind of hard to say were lying or fabricating the truth when we now have Mayor Robertsons intentions directly from her mouth.

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Is The Drop In Jazz Fest A Rialto Sponsored Event?

13 Apr 2015 Leave a comment

The debate continues on whether the Drop In Jazz Fest is a city sponsored event or not. Mayor Robertson and Mr. George Harris say that it is not. The problem is if I told you I was not a clown yet wore clown makeup, juggled and had a red nose & big red feet would you believe me? Here is where the debate continues:

The Drop In Jazz Fest is being given airtime and production time on the Rialto Network. Something that is not available for non city events or facilities.
Most of the work to prepare for this event has come from city staff that were on city paid time. From public works leveling out a special parking lot, admin staff working on paperwork, special intervening on behalf of councilmembers Scott & Baca Jr, use of police and fire staffing, special reduction in public safety costs & ability to shut down a PUBLIC park to use it for a private use that is outside of its intended purpose.
All of the marketing has been RIALTO nothing else. Also they are supposed to repay all of the city employee time and resources would be repaid. well they have dropped the price of general admission twice now. They stared at $80 each and now they are $50 each this is more a sign of desperation most of the time a successful event will get more expensive as the event draws near not cheaper.
The newest show that this is not a private event and a de facto City Event is the massive banner that is now hung on the outfield netting advertising the “The 3rd Annual RIALTO Drop In Jazz Fest” it states that is is to benefit the Rialto Youth Collaborative but it is not being put on by the Rialto Youth Collaborative it is put on by RIALTO for their benefit.

Remember they say it’s not a Rialto event?

I am not against kids or performing arts as accused by some. As a representative for many local artists there is no bigger supporter of the arts but if the public needs to follow the rules so should the city leadership. Also shame on the East Rialto Kiwanis for presenting such a horrible example to our youth when it comes to abusing Alcohol. We need to show our kids that you can have a good time at a venue without getting drunk. Don’t forget these people will be piling into cars and driving through our city streets and the public freeways. Who will arrest all of these drunk drivers?

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New Gas Station Opens Up In Rialto

12 Apr 2015 2 Comments

by rialto-now in Ca, Colton, Flores Park, Flores Park Neighborhood Watch, Fontana, Grand Terrace, Inland Empire, Rialto, San Bernardino

So you must be asking yourself why are we highlighting a new gas station opening? Well if it was any old gas station we wouldn’t be but this gas station has the lowest prices around even lower than COSTCO!!!!!!!

What’s even more outstanding is you can use many forms of payment without an additional charge or fee. Also if you have a Food 4 Less club card you have access to additional discounts.

If you fill up take a photo and use #rialtonowcovers

Rialto Community Coalition Works On Youth Conference With Congressman Aguilar

10 Apr 2015 Leave a comment

On Tuesday the Rialto Community Coalition held their regular monthly meeting Tuesday April 7th. The Agenda originally had one item working on developing a Youth Leadership Conference, a last minute addition made the meeting run over. Congressman Aguilar who is home in the district came to sit in on the meeting and offer support where he could.

The meeting was well attended and their were people from all sections of the community in attendance. Joseph Williams from YAP (Youth Action Project) introduced Congressman Aguilar and offered a platform for Congressman Aguilar to address the group. Congressman Aguilar spoke about the work he was a part of when a elected member of Redlands City Government in regards to Redlands Social Host Ordnance and their Safe Places program where the city helped create safe opportunities for students. Congressman ended his time by offering support from his office where the Coalition needs it.

The meeting was very well attended and headway was accomplished in regards to the Youth Leadership Conference. What was accomplished was a location, date and there was some discussion on what types of workshops would be provided. This meeting was not only adults but youth had a key roll in developing this conference. There were youth from Carter High School’s BLSA Club, Middle School Students from the Rialto area, youth from Etiwanda High School & local Christian Youth Speaker Rizzy Rider.

Some of the desired outcomes that the coalition wanted to see come from this effort was to see students become Rock Stars in their groups when it comes to Drug & Alcohol use, to see teens succeed beyond their circumstances and continue to see a positive change in the illegal use of drugs and alcohol through education.

Agencies and organizations in attendance were Lil Saints Productions, Carter High School, Congressman Aguilar’s office, All Nations Realty, Etiwanda High School, Rialto Democrat Club, Vibe Fitness, Rialto Police Volunteers, Rialto Neighborhood Watch Program, SOLA Communities, Transforming Lives Charter School, Market Solution Services & Inland Valley Drug Free Coalition.

Information that has already be agreed to is:

Youth Leadership Conference

At Bob Murphy School

May 2nd 2015

Want more information on the Coalition or the Youth Leadership Conference go to http://www.facebook.com/rialtocoalition

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Meeting Wednesday may be one step closer to toll lanes in the Inland Empire

01 Apr 2015 Leave a comment

One of the items before the board of San Bernardino Associated Governments (SANBAG) is a draft on how toll lanes would operate and how money would be collected and spent at the board’s regular meeting that starts at 10:30 a.m. on the second floor of 1170 West 3rd St. in San Bernardino.

The Board is currently looking at two plans to bring toll lanes to the 10 freeway from Pomona to Redlands and the 15 freeway from Riverside to Hesperia. The current Toll Lanes and Toll Roads in Southern California go mostly unused and empty leaving more freeway unused when traffic is already so bad. To make matters worse lets not forget the lower economic status of most Inland Empire residents so to levy a new FEE on residents seems heartless. Their is mixed reaction to the idea and it seems the crowd against Toll Lanes has the most community support but is getting snubbed by the County Board.

Bryon Thornberry said via Facebook “Toll=Tax, CA is already one of the most taxed states in the US.”

Tressy Capps one of the leaders looking to halt this idea in it’s tracks said this “I discovered the CAG meetings for the 1-10 corridor project (TOLL lanes) on the website and went to the meeting in Colton on Mar. 18, 2015 I was stunned at the lack of transparency and secretive nature of the meeting. I was told I could not videotape the meeting. They mentioned checking with their attorney, which felt like some sort of threat. I did not feel welcome at all and now doubt they have any real intention to disclose their TOLL lane plans in a meaningful way that the public can legitimately engage in. The feedback I have received when discussing the prospect of TOLL lanes with the public is overwhelmingly negative. One needs investigative skills to even begin to piece together all the pieces of this TOLL lane puzzle SANBAG has so cleverly concealed.” Here is video of Mrs. Capps being shut down https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bAfY5j5tcs

Councilman Shawn O’Connell City of Rialto – Said “I was not briefed of or made aware of Toll Lanes in the Inland Empire” & “I look forward to learning more about this issue”

The problem with these meetings is people with their own pocketbooks in mind are making decisions that affect the community at large and they don’t seem to care about the communities opinion or thoughts. A group has begun a page on facebook Called TOLL FREE IE ( https://www.facebook.com/tollfreeie?fref=ts )

Tim Watkins spokesman for SANBAG said in an interview with the PE

“Carpool lanes are being considered for I-10 because that freeway is more heavily used, said SANBAG spokesman Tim Watkins. Approving the toll policies will allow the project study process to move forward, he said.

Any new lanes are years away from being built, Watkins said, adding the final environmental document likely won’t be ready until at least 2017.” http://www.pe.com/articles/lanes-763532-toll-board.html

SANBAG is represented by a large group of local leaders. The city of Rialto is represented by Mayor Deborah Robertson a list of board members are listed below:

Member Jurisdictions and Board Members – 01/26/15

President L. Dennis Michael, City of Rancho Cucamonga

Vice President Ryan McEachron, City of Victorville

Rich Kerr City of Adelanto

Curt Emick Town of Apple Valley

Julie McIntyre City of Barstow

Bill Jahn City of Big Bear Lake

Dennis Yates City of Chino

Ed Graham City of Chino Hills

Frank Navarro City of Colton

Michael Tahan City of Fontana

Darcy McNaboe City of Grand Terrace

Mike Leonard City of Hesperia

Larry McCallon City of Highland

Rhodes “Dusty” Rigsby City of Loma Linda

Paul Eaton City of Montclair

Edward Paget City of Needles

Alan Wapner City of Ontario

Jon Harrison City of Redlands

Deborah Robertson City of Rialto

R. Carey Davis City of San Bernardino

Joel Klink City of Twentynine Palms

Ray Musser City of Upland

Dick Riddell City of Yucaipa

George Huntington Town of Yucca Valley

Robert Lovingood County of San Bernardino

Janice Rutherford County of San Bernardino

James Ramos County of San Bernardino

Curt Hagman County of San Bernardino

Josie Gonzales County of San Bernardino

Ray Wolfe Executive Director, SANBAG

Basem Muallem Caltrans District 8 Ex-Officio Member

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Rialto City Council Addresses Cuba & A $500,000 Giveaway

24 Mar 2015 Leave a comment

March 24th at 6pm Rialto City Council will address many issues on the nights agenda. The public will be given an opportunity to see five presentations, three more approvals for more training, discussion on Fireworks and a $500,000 giveaway. If you only attend a few Council Meetings this one will be one you don’t want to miss here is what we see are the highlights:

Presentations & Proclamations:

Out of the five items under this heading we see three that stand out.

Rialto resident Don Griggs as Assembly Member Brown’s 2015 Unsung Hero.
Cuba Sister City Presentation
Introduction of new Rialto Police Officers

There are a lot of questions over the Mayor and Councilmember Scott pushing Rialto into a position that should be left up to our Federal Government. Also it will be nice to meet the three new police officer that Rialto recently graduated from the academy.

Consent Calendar & Miscellaneous:

The Consent Calendar is the place where large amounts of money is spent, more and more people are being sent to travel all over the country on the cities dime and policy can be changes without a serious vote. Items to watch for include:

$23,213.95 for purchase of office furniture for Rialto Police Detectives.
Travel request for City Clerk Barbara McGee.
Travel request to Vegas for two planning commissioners.

The office furniture for the Rialto Police Detectives what is a problem is $67,935 is being spent from within the Miscellaneous portion of the agenda. Many times this portion is quickly approved with little oversight so unless someone catches an item that is not in line with the communities needs. The travel on the other hand is getting out of control once again. Two years ago a special audit was done to find that Rialto officials were abusing travel in regards to public funds. The two years following travel has been at a minimum and under control. Now that Ed Scott is back on council it seems every single agenda has travel requests inside. We can’t afford to fix our own water system without jacking up water rates or fix our roads but we can spend thousands to send elected officials all over the country.

Tab Items:

This is a longer meeting agenda with 12 tab items this meeting won’t be short by any means. This agenda includes a discussion of Fireworks Enforcement in the city of Rialto, a $500,00 one time giveaway, road contracts and a contract to develop an affordable housing project.

Amending the Fireworks Ordinance.

Fireworks in Rialto are out of control and for some reason the city claims to be doing more but the community never sees any results. Last year there was talk of more money and resources that were utilized to reduce illegal Firework use. Even though the police and fire departments held their heads high our community suffered. Veterans suffer from serious reactions to the popular 4th of July activity as seen here in this news story.

The addition of Safe And Sane fireworks was to replace the aerial Fireworks that can be so dangerous. So when people decide to stay home from the major aerial displays they should not have to be bombarded with fireworks falling on their heads and military grade explosives shaking their homes. Many of the people who complain year after year have the same people breaking the fireworks law each year yet police seem to not be able to get them in line. Last year the community was further insulted by the addition of a special hotline where senior citizens that could not hear you or understand you feilding calls. Police dispatch would transfer you or just hang up!!!!! The main reason they give for not being able to shut them down is we can’t prove that they have illegal fireworks because they put them away when we arrive. So how are they going to cite property owners for what they claim they can’t see?

One time $500,000 give back.

For those employees that gave and sacrificed during the tough years of Rialto recovering from the housing recession the city is going to show them that their efforts did not fall on blind eyes well almost all employees. FULL TIME employees that are not currently on probation will receive a one time bonus.

Rialto City currently has 134 part time employees & 268 full time employees that are eligible for this one time bonus of 1,838.62. If employees have been with the city for less than 1 year as a full time employee ( which means you are on probation), they would not be eligible for the bonus.

This comes from six departments (excluding the City Administrator, City Attorney, City Treasurer and City Clerk. They are Police, Fire, Development Services, Administrative and Community Services, Management Services & Public Works. City Council, City Treasurer, City Clerk, City Attorney, City Administrator and department heads will not be receiving the bonus.

Why are the Part Time employees being overlooked? We reached out to Councilman Shawn O’connell and asked this very question. His response was that the original reason to give this to full time employees is they took pay cuts, paid more towards retirement & paid more for their benefits to help the city in a hard time. What people who have not worked in todays part time environment is we have part time staff doing the work of a full time staffer. When full time staff get squeezed full time staff dumps more work on an already underpaid, under compensated part time staff member. Also Rialto part time staff are at the lowest end of the pay scale. Rialto part time staff make minimum wage and climb up a small payscale ladder very, very slowly. Many of the people we depend on the most daily are part time staff from recreation, child services and senior center staff are part time but we count on them to provide us with top notch professional service.

Road Contracts

There are two different road contracts on the agenda tonight. What makes this stand out is Monday their was a information meeting for a road contract and it appears nobody was notified until after it was already started. Proving once again Rialto is behind in notifying the community.

New affordable housing projects

TAB Seven is a request to give some select companies access and ability to build a new low income project in the city of Rialto. Watch tonight as certain people are connected to these companies that may not be illegal but they look really bad and raise some serious questions.

These are the items that stand out to us here at Rialto Now but this is in no way a complete list of the entire agenda. We encourage everyone to go to http://www.rialtoca.gov and look at the entire agenda for themselves.

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Dairy Queen In Rialto Gives Away Free Ice Cream #conewithme

16 Mar 2015 Leave a comment

by rialto-now in Rialto

Dairy Queen’s all over the country are giving you a FREE cone in hopes you would show some generosity and make a donation to the Children’s Miracle Network. Below is a little bit about the Children’s Miracle Network.

Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals is an international non-profit organization that raises funds for children’s hospitals, medical research and community awareness of children’s health issues.

Your support helps provide 32 million patient visits for 10 million kids every year.

One in 10 kids in North America is treated by Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals each year.

Every day, member hospitals treat 16,000 children in emergency rooms.

Every hour, member hospitals provide surgery for 97 children.

U.S. members hospitals provided $3.4 billion in charity care in 2012.

Below is where you can find this event in Rialto:

Rialto – 222 S Riverside Ave Rialto, CA (909) 875-0540

Tag us in your Free Ice Cream Selfies using #rialtonowcovers on your favorite social media platform.