Ok first of all I am so glad that I can watch council meetings via the internet that already happened. I was told to watch last week’s council meeting by a few select individuals and I was like ok, whatever the agenda was light a couple issues I wish I could speak on but all in all light.

Then I watched the meeting and boy was I surprised! First of all finally council members are pulling that horrid Consent Calendar apart and showing it for what it is a place to dump crazy spending. I was told to watch for the re-emergence of money being spent on an outside company to bring back Measure “V” that was pulled by Council Member Joe Baca Jr. The item read as follows:

Request City Council to approve a Professional Services Agreement

with USI Consulting for development and implementation of an

alternative strategy to a ballot measure to increase fuel tax revenues

from petroleum storage facilities in the City of Rialto in an amount not to

exceed $47,500.

We will get back to this in a minute.

You see Councilman Shawn O’Connell pulled a warrant for City Clerk Barbara McGee to be paid for her trip to Washington D.C. She apparently went to the Convention of Mayors with Mayor Deborah Robertson a three day event and stayed for the Inauguration of President Obama.

First of all we just gave them another 5 years on the Utility Tax and they all pledged publicly and privately that they would do 2 things:

1. Be Financially responsible with the tax money we give them.

2. Work on a way to break away from the need for this money anymore without reducing the city services.

I think Councilman O’Connell has some good points. He should be able to ask the City Clerk what she did while on this trip and the City Clerk should answer him. What I have learned in life when people act evasive or give you the silent treatment there is an issue there. Apparently Barbara McGee still refuses to tell us the people what she did in Washington.

I will take Councilman O’Connell’s question a step further. What value did her trip have to the city of Rialto and the tax payers that pay those taxes? City Administrator Mike Story made 2 statements. One was that he approved the City Clerk to extend her stay in Washington D.C. beyond the time of the Mayors Conference. Two that he would do it again.

Its my opinion that the Mayors conference is merely a way for mayors to insert themselves into National Policy. Also why would the city pay our elected officials to attend the Inauguration of President Obama? What value did this trip bring for Rialto?

Furthermore any further travel that taxpayers are paying for I think it would be good to report back to us what value there was for the citizens. IE I went to the International Shopping Center Convention and these following businesses were interested in doing business with Rialto.

Now to D4 we are paying a company to use their contacts to get to talk to the operators of the Tank Farms is a waste of money. The city did such a good job with Measure “W” why not use that same hard work and spirit of community to work out something with these operators.

Finally I would call on Mayor Robertson and whoever else goes with her to the International Council of Shopping Centers Convention to report back to us what value the Convention was to the City.

http://rialto.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=331