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.
Candidates for Rialto’s newly established Historical Preservation Commission are being sought by the city.
The five-member commission will make recommendations concerning the designation, preservation, protection, enhancement, and perpetuation of these historical, and cultural resources which contribute to the culture and aesthetic values of Rialto.
It is very important to preserve the deep history that is here in Rialto. This is most important as the Route 66 comission recently put out a survey asking people to rate the top historical spots on the Mother Road and the only Rialto type mention were the Tee Pees that were labled in San Bernardino.
Applicants should fill out the application on line at http://www.rialtoca.gov and submit it and a resume to City Clerk’s Office, 290 W. Rialto Ave., Rialto 92376. Information: 909-820-2519
Last Monday the Chamber of Commerce and the Woman’s Club held a candidate forum where candidates for City Council & School Board open seats. Something very intriguing came up during the Candidate Forum their thoughts on this year’s Measure “U”. The candidates were asked a very simple question “Do you support measure “U”? A simple yes or no answer was what the moderator asked for and he got it from all but one candidate. Each candidate gave a yes answer except for Ed Scott who gave a long drawn out response that was interrupted by the crowd asking for a yes or no. He finally said no. So why is Mr. Scott the only person running for city council that is against this Tax on the tank farms? What is different?
Difference #1 is that this time council and city officials have shown where the money will go and has made steps in the right direction to prove to residents that they will keep their promises.
Difference #2 Is that the city is working to make good on their promise to lighten up on the community in regards to taxing them to death. They have placed a ordnance that has already been approved by the council that if measure “U” passes the utility tax will be lowered by 25%.
Difference #3 is that Ed Scott supported Measure “V” 2 years ago but now he won’t support measure “U”? The difference from the two measures are simple no promise to the community that the money would be spent on worthwhile projects and there was no community confidence in the seated council to do the right thing.
Difference #4 this year Ed Scott has taken thousands of dollars for oil companies and gas station owners to oppose measure “U”. Ed Scott said he didn’t like the way this measure is drafted. What is funny is the only 2 things that have changed are the reduction of the Utility Tax and a solid commitment to the community that the money will be spent in the right places. So by Ed Scotts own admission he is against good things happening to the people of Rialto.
We are supporting Measure “U” and we recommend you do too. Before you buy the Kinder Morgan fear tactics look at where the money is expected to be used. The expectations is that it will help keep up on our streets, improve infrastructure, and help pay for costs of keep Joe Baca Jr. Rails to Trails program safe.
When your voting Vote Yes on Measure “U” and NO on Ed Scott
So on Monday June 16th the City Council held a workshop to get a report of the first year of the water services contract with Veolia Water Services acting as Rialto Water Services. From the sounds of it this was something that Veolia did not want to publicized because on almost every account they are behind on the infrastructure improvements six months to one and a half years. Ullico is in charge of tracking and auditing the progress Veolia has made in the first year of the 30 year contract.
Marcus Fuller the Department Head from Public Works and Ullico worked very hard to turn a bad report into a better one but the city council, Mayor & Mayor Pro Tem all saw through the smoke and mirrors. Below you will see some of the slides Ullico presented to city council last week:
Here you will see that Veolia is one year five months behind on roughly 2 million dollars worth of improvements, eight months behind schedule on 3.6 million dollars worth of improvements & five months behind on 876 thousand dollars worth of improvements. Now Ullico wants you to give Veolia a break as they want to drag their feet and “get comfortable” with the contract they took on after American Water was kicked out of the deal by Rialto Residents and the Union that represented the water employees.
One major issue with giving them months and months to go over this infrastructure agreement is the 41 million will soon begin to be eaten up when interest rates increase. This means their will be less money to complete the long list of projects Former Mayor Grace Vargas, Former Councilman Ed Scott, Current Mayor Deborah Robertson and Current Mayor Pro Tem Ed Palmer all said were so vital to Rialto moving forward as a progressive city. Council Members told us these upgrades would be vital to major projects like the proposed Super Walmart & the Target Shopping Center that no longer has a Target store (Target has backed out). So what happens if Super Walmart goes in and the sewer system isn’t able to handle the bump in use? There was talk of the sewers backing up and spilling out into the streets.
Councilman O’Connell asked the VP of Veolia if the interest rates caused the money to be used up prior to completion of the listed projects would Veolia see those projects to completion. The VP of Veolia said no.
So Veolia can drag their feet and tie up these projects in paperwork and read tape while the clock ticks and you continue to pay massive increases to your rates with NO CHANGE. Even their field techs, people that live and work in this city are blown away and say that Veolia is doing nothing!!!!
The end result was a motion to have Marcus Fuller, Public Works Director meet with Rialto Water Services and Veolia to get a expedited time frame of when we can see projects beginning the construction phase. Marcus Fuller will report the outcomes in 90 days from the meeting date.
We have reached out to Veolia VP Lanita McCauley Bates and Rialto Veolia Manager Michael Greene when they respond we will update with their comments.
So those of you using water services its time to listen up. It appears there is a “Public Hearing” scheduled for tomorrow in regards to the financial performance of Table Rock Capital & the performance of Veolia as our water & waste water provider. What you didn’t know? Well that’s because someone at city hall doesn’t want you there. The meeting was hidden in the city calendar with no title unless you click the highlighted date. Even then it only states that its a special council meeting. Then you must dig through the confusing agenda procedure to find the agenda (here is the link) https://rialto.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx
Oh and don’t worry everything is very confusing and hard to understand so here are the last minute bullet points we were able to pull out.
The spending is and was out of control, money is going into local consultants pockets to the tune of around 8 million dollars.
RUA reserves were depleted to the tune of 3.4 million dollars.
Your rates have gone up to cover infrastructure costs yet no improvement have been made and the ones that have been scheduled have been delayed again.
Veolia has spent your money moving into a new building and delayed doing their jobs.
Veolia claims your customer service problems are minor and not an issue.
The main reason for this agreement was to have the money to shut down the airport for a Target Shopping center is a thing of the past as Target has been out of the deal for years.
From all appearances we are stuck with this deal until 2042!!!!!!!!!!!
City Clerk Barbara McGee refused to honor the communities petition.
Table Rock Paid 1 million more than necessary to remove American Water from the agreement.
Does anyone have the presence of mind to call Table Rock Financial and Veolia on the carpet for what they have done and not done? Are you tired of paying more money for below par service and a company that has worst customer service than the Ca. DMV? Well tomorrow you have the right and ability to have your questions answered or air the horrible customer service that Veolia really provides the customers in Rialto.
Rialto Network staff are the Customer Service liaisons between the Citizen’s of Rialto and Time Warner Ch. 3 & AT&T Ch. 99 for Cable issues and can be reached at (909) 421-7235.
Tonight is a very involved council meeting. It is full of proclamations & presentations, city council resolutions and even a back door sales tax. Below you will see the listed items we would like to highlight and a little better explanation of the meaning behind the items presented.
Presentations & Proclamations:
Presentation-EPA Superfund Job Training Institute-Council Member O’Connell
Presentation-2014 CIAA Softball Rookie of the Year Award to Jocelyn Hernandez-Council Member Baca Jr.
Introduction of 1st Class of Institute of Progress-City Administrator Story
Presentation-Fill the Boot 2014-Firefighter Ploehn
Presentation-RUSD Summer Lunch Program-Cindi Stone
Miscellaneous Items:
D.3 below is the city establishing Semi Truck routes within the city. What we would like to know is what does the city plan to do with the dangerous way they drive in our city. From speeding, running red lights and unsafe turns putting other vehicles in danger the city need to establish a way to take control of truckers before something bad happens to a innocent community member. With the massive amount of commercial space Rialto is allowing if we don’t act not this could turn bad real quick.
D.3 Request City Council to Adopt Resolution No. 6542 Rescinding
Establishing Truck Routes, and Establishing Truck Routes in
Conformance with the 2010 General Plan.
D.13 seems like a public access to internet services in the public areas of the city, but all it’s just an exclusive power grab from Time Warner to offer WiFi to their customers alone. Yes only Time Warner customers will have access to this internet.
D.13 Request City Council to Approve a Partnership Agreement with Time
Warner Cable Company for the Public WiFi Project.
D15 Is the second reading of the ordinance requesting the City Clerk offer more detailed meeting minutes. Lets see if everyone stays in their seats and votes for or against this ordinance last meeting one councilmember left his seat until the vote was over then he just came back. Lets hope everyone goes on the record on how they feel about this effort to properly record our cities business.
D.15 14-327 Request City Council to Adopt on second reading Ordinance No. 1542
ORDINANCE NO. 1542
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF RIALTO,
CALIFORNIA, AMENDING SECTION 2.07.010 OF THE RIALTO MUNICIPAL
CODE REGARDING THE CITY CLERK’S DUTIES IN MAINTANING THE
MINUTES OF CITY COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS
Tab 2 is a adjustment to our waste collection fees. Not to long ago our city council made a massive mistake by giving waste management a 10 year contract where we have to give them notice 10 years in advance of canceling the contract. Now they want to charge you a tax opps I mean a fee to help replace the roads because trash trucks cause more damage to our roads than a car. So because you have to have trash services per a municipal code and now we are locked into a forever contract. Oh also your trash rates are going up too. Your only hope is that city council doesn’t approve the Rialto Road Tax
TAB2 14-203 Request City Council to Adopt Resolution No. 6546, Declaring its
Intention to Set a Public Hearing for July 8, 2014, to Consider Municipal
Solid Waste Collection, Recycling and Disposal Service Rates for Fiscal
Years 2014/2015 through 2018/2019, to Incorporate a New Incentivized
Commercial Recycling Program, and to Implement a Pavement
Maintenance Fee.
Below is a picture Councilman O’Connell tweeted out this week to get residents to the meeting. If you watch on TV email your council members if you attend live stand up and comment on what your city is doing on your behalf to you or for you.
April’s last council meeting looked uneventful from the outside, but after a closer look we were in for a bit of a ride. Here is a breakdown of what The SB Sun, Daily Bulletin and Press Enterprise seem to refuse to print.
City Council Proclamations:
Proclamation-Water Safety Month Mayor Robertson
Proclamation-Fair Housing Month Mayor Robertson
Proclamation-Earth Day 2014 Mayor Robertson
Proclamation-Mormon Helping Hands Day 2014 Mayor Robertson
Proclamation/Certificates of Appreciation-Rialto Amateur Radio Club Council Member Hirtz
Certificate of Recognition-Mallory Saldana Council Member Hirtz
Oral Communications:
Judy Roberts, David Phillips & Diane O’Leary from the Rialto Community Coalition spoke in regards to the assistance they received during their highly successful Don’t Go There Substance Abuse Prevention Event on April 4th. Coalition members were with Michael Townsend from Central Valley Prevention and thanked Eisenhower High School Principal Scott Sparks and his wonderful staffs for thier help with this event. In addition thanks went out to Rialto Police and Fire for their help with their perspective community outreach and participation in this event and help they give to the coalition. They recognized the two council members that attended the event Councilmember’s O’Connell & Baca. They also reminded people that the coalition is always looking to grow their coalition and invited the community at large to attend on the First Tuesday of each month from 6:30-7:30 pm at the fire station on North Riverside Ave. To see the video of their presentation and see the faces of the people that lead this coalition visit http://www.facebook.com/rialtocoalition
High Intrest Tab Items:
Tab 2
Request City Council to Conduct a Public Hearing to Consider and
Approve the City’s 2014-2015 Annual Action Plan and Substantially
Amend the City’s 2013-2014 Annual Action Plan.
This tab was a overall look at the cities expenditures for the CBDG (Community Development Block Grant) where the city funds various programs. Some are city sponsored others are run by local non profit organizations and groups looking to offer services to the community here in Rialto. These programs vary from Rialto Police Pride Platoon that has reduced crime among our youth by 45% to sports programs for young children from low income families.
One program had a last minute change to its funding the National Council of Negro Women Buthune Center wanted $30,000 to train youth to find seniors that qualify for the senior home rehab program. This Pilot program did not offer council adequate numbers and this funding was reduced and changed.
Tab 3
Request that City Council: (1) Introduce by first reading
Ordinance No.
1542
, entitled “AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY
OF RIALTO, CALIFORNIA, AMENDING SECTION 2.07.010 OF THE
RIALTO MUNICIPAL CODE REGARDING THE CITY CLERK’S DUTIES
IN MAINTAINING THE MINUTES OF CITY COUNCIL
PROCEEDINGS,” and (2) Request the City Clerk to revise the minutes
of proceedings of the City Council and its related agencies dating back
from June 25, 2013, to include the details required in the proposed
Ordinance.
(ACTION)
ORDINANCE NO. 1542
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF RIALTO,
CALIFORNIA, AMENDING SECTION 2.07.010 OF THE RIALTO MUNICIPAL
CODE REGARDING THE CITY CLERK’S DUTIES IN MAINTANING THE
MINUTES OF CITY COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS
This tab is a continuation of last meeting where Councilman O’Connell took issue with the way the Council Meeting minutes were being recorded. Apparently for the last 11 months the City Clerks office has been reporting the minutes in an Action form meaning the vote only is the only thing recorded (Action 4-1 or Action 3-2) the Clerk no longer took note of comments made at public hearings, statements made by elected officials prior to a vote or any possible dirty dealings that may have taken place there. Yes I said dirty dealings Councilman O’Connell eluded to missing statements to when apparent favoritism was given to one contractor over another or asking the city administrator to Poll the council on a whole on specific issue to see where they stand. If these things did happen they would mean that someone has some hard questions to answer.
One thing we found beyond interesting is Councilman Joe Baca Jr. seems to disappear once this tab item is brought forward. Why would he just leave? Was there a conflict of interest? Or was this a Councilman up for re-election that refuses to get involved in hot button issues? We are going to be reaching out to Councilman Baca on this issue and we will be reporting back to you when and if we get an answer.
This is not a complete list of everything that happened at the council meeting. For a complete list of events please visit http://www.rialtoca.gov
Welcome everyone to 2014 lets start it off with a massive council meeting! Tonight the city council will address among other things the cities first quarter budget, items with the closure of the Airport and weather to replace the City Attorney Jimmy Gutierrez or keep him. The city attorney issue was supposed to be dealt with in 2013 but with allegiances forming on one side or another and the tragic accident of Councilman Shawn O’Connell this issue was pushed into January.
Reading Councilman O’Connell’s twitter account it doesn’t appear that their will be an easy choice.
“Still recovering but will be attending tonight’s City Council meeting. Hopefully the city attorney position will be decided tonight.”
With so many important decisions being made today many local community groups and organizations are looking to drive home the importance of the community getting involved and learning more about what is going on in their city government.
If you can’t attend you can follow along with us as we tweet out the hot topics via twitter just follow www.tiatter.com/rialtosnow we tweet it under the hashtag #RialtoCityCouncil
Jimmy Gutierrez is our current city attorney in the city of Rialto. According to reports from City Hall he has operated over the last 5 years on a $600,000 a year for his base salary. What is worse is he nickel and dimes the city for every little thing he does raising the rate we pay him every year more and more.
This year with some fresh blood in the council many contracts have come under review and put back out to bid. The thought process according to Mike Story is to make sure we are getting the best bang for our buck. The city of Rialto has made changes to many contracts saving the city and the community thousands of dollars. From the contract security services, to street sweeping and technology services the fat is being cut and the city is looking to streamline services. City attorney Jimmy Gutierrez’s contract ended in June 2013. So what do we do?
Under the guise of cutting fat city council formed a committee to look at ways of reducing attorney costs for Rialto. What the Sub committee came up with was a temporary extension of City Attorney services with Jimmy Gutierrez. This was done so that the city could develop an RFP and bid out services for Attorney costs for the city. Another task was writing Jimmy Gutierrez’s extension while reducing costs. City staff reported as well as Councilwoman Lynn Hirtz over the phone that it was difficult to get Jimmy Gutierrez to make concessions on his pay to help the city further save money. It wasn’t until right before the July 23rd Council meeting that Jimmy Gutierrez reluctantly agreed to a compensation adjustment.
Joe Baca Jr. said at the July 23rd council meeting that the communities biggest issue was with the city attorney is the cost. Is that really the greatest concern of the community? I remember most recently that Jimmy Gutierrez along with City Clerk McGee gave city council direction to ignore the fact that the Rialto residents received enough signatures to remove the toxic water deal that is already hurting Rialto residents. Or how about the Super Wal-Mart that is set to increase crime and create more business blight that our city can’t or refuses to take action on. Councilman Baca seems to miss the fact that it appears our attorney has been doing his best to rip off the community under the guise of business as usual. Jimmy Gutierrez has also been arrested in suspicion of driving under the influence and was allowed to plead no contest and avoid any real consequences. Also lets not forget Jimmy Gutierrez is also the city attorney for 3 other cites.
We had the opportunity to speak with some of the players involved in this meeting:
I reached out to City Administrator Mike Story and asked who wrote this contract? It was developed by Councilman Joe Baca Jr. & Lynn Hirtz who are the subcommittee of the council looking at the contract along with Jimmy Gutierrez. So Jimmy Gutierrez and the subcommittee wrote it? Jimmy Gutierrez prepared the contract at the direction of the subcommittee. After several attempts by the subcommittee to get Jimmy Gutierrez to make their recommended changes including a reduction in fees, the subcommittee directed me (Mike Story) to make the changes they requested.
I reached out to Lynn Hirtz and she said that she only voted for the temporary contract with Jimmy Gutierrez because she felt obligated to. Councilwoman Hirtz stated over the phone that she felt obligated to vote with Councilman Joe Baca Jr. in reference to an amendment that was brought up by Councilman O’connell. Councilman O’connell brought up a very important “what if” Jimmy Gutierrez does go over the 160 hour limit each month. So mayor Deborah Robertson made a amendment that if Jimmy Gutierrez does go over the 160 limit anything over that would have to be approved by the council PRIOR to going over the limit. So due to the fact that the subcommittee that she was a part of brought this forward Lynn Hirtz & Joe Baca Jr moved and seconded the motion. She never thought of a situation where Jimmy Gutierrez would go over the 160 hours he was allotted by the temporary extension so she wasn’t sure why it was even an issue. Lynn Hirtz said she wasn’t a fan of the extension but went along with Joe Baca Jr. who was the biggest proponent of the city attorney extension. Lynn Hirtz also commented that Jimmy Gutierrez was upset that he would no longer be able to “ITEMIZE” for extra costs the gimmick he has exploited to bump up his compensation over the years.
Shawn O’Connell said July 23rd meeting I approved the contract the way it was written was never vetted by an attorney I instructed our city attorney to spend no more than 160 hours. This contract offers no way to control his ability to charge more and put the citizens at further liability which was what I was trying to convey on July 23rd. Mayor Robertson’s motion which I voted for instructed Jimmy Gutierrez to inform Mike Story before he went over the allotted 160 hours, My fear is this isn’t the way its going to work out.
The second issue is with the time line for releasing the RFP and beginning to look for other options for our city attorney. The proposed timeline for releasing the RFP begins releasing on October 1st. Mayor Pro-tem Ed Palmer asked why were we waiting until the bitter end to release the RFP. Mayor Pro-Tem said that if we run into issues like we did with security contract where there is a bump in the road. The issues was with the original RFP release schedule it would leave us without attorney services the first 14 days of January. Joe Baca Jr. refuses to look at the fact that Jimmy Gutierrez is out as our city attorney. Councilman O’Connell & Mayor Pro-Tem Palmer want to keep us from keeping someone on as our attorney that will act as a disgruntle employee.
What was most frustrating was that even though Lynn Hirtz saw an issue with the late releasing of the RFP she voted for it out of pressure to do so by Mayor Robertson & Councilman Baca Jr. because she was on the subcommittee. When I asked her over the phone about it she said she wanted to vote with Councilman O’Connell and Mayor Pro-Tem Palmer but she felt obligated to vote with her subcommittee co-member. I asked her if she thought Jimmy Gutierrez was going to mail it in these last months and try and collect as much money as possible. She said she never thought about that but since I brought it up she was so worried I was right and she may have made a poor decision.
I spoke to Councilman O’Connell prior to posting this story. Councilman O’Connell stated that the city attorney has yet to sign this contract offering the council and COMMUNITY the unique opportunity to revisit the contract and make the appropriate changes. The ACTIONABLE item is TAB 6 on the upcoming council meeting this Augsut 27th meeting at 6 pm.
So the question is do you agree with Councilman Joe Baca Jr. is the amount of the contract the ONLY issue you have with the city attorney contract? If it is do you believe that Jimmy Gutierrez waiting until the last moment to reluctantly agree to a reduction in fees then not sign the contract after a month does that sound like someone that is willing to work on price? Why does Councilman Joe Baca Jr. appear to run to Jimmy Gutierrez’s defense at every turn? What does that relationship pay the Baca family back? Where is the value for such a vigorous defense? Councilman O’Connell is right we have a unique opportunity here.
Watch the council meeting for yourself these tab items are at the end
rialtonow 