The room was full of people looking for information on a wide variety of offices
Have you heard of the FELLAS? I had not until just recently, but I knew a couple of the members that make up this group. Some of the most powerful African American Men here in the Inland Empire make up the core of this group one of which now lives in Rialto. Some of the core members are Terrance Stone of Young Visionaries, Joseph Williams of The Youth Action Project (Rialto Resident) and Hardy Brown II of The Black Voice News.
It was powerful to arrive early and see these men in action and see the passion for the community they have. My group Flores Park Neighborhood Group was asked to be a co-sponsor of the event and help with administrative functions of the event. This Forum was the best multi candidate event I think Rialto has ever had. The diverse array of canidates as well as the information that was given was priceless.
The slection of rotation was interesting and seemed to work out well. If anything was accomplished yesterday it was showing off who was ready to start on day one if they won the majority of votes in November.
The powerful stand out were the following and why:
Lynn Hirtz Rialto City Council – Lynn came prepared and blew away the audience with her list of council accomplishments and background working in Rialto and commitment to make sure we didn’t shut down the airport for nothing that we will have a beautiful development in the Renissance area of Rialto.
Paul Chabot speaks with community members. Here he is speaking with a Sara Garcia a Representitve with Assembly Woman Cheryl Browns office.
Paul Chabot Congress 31st District – Paul came out explained that their are big issues here in the Inland Empire and he is the true voice of the Inland Empire. As a Naval Officer, Reserve Deputy and a small business owner he had the knowledge and passion to best represent the 31st.
Dina Walker RUSD Board – Dina Walker came out prepared to let the parents know they would have a voice with passion, knowledge and experince in implementing created policy. She even went as far as to tell people she wasn’t and expert in everything with left many feeling like she was going to be a straight shooter something that has been missing for years in Rialto.
Christina Gangier Congress 35th District – This young firey passionate young business woman is ready to take Washington by the horns and advocate for the Inland Empire. Her big focus was job readiness of our youth and older unempolyed. She refereenced her work with preparing people to be able to use technology to obtain careers not just jobs. She unlike her opponetnt Norma Torres will not forget who she represents and promised not to have special interests tapping her on the shoulder while she is advocating for the IE.
The elected hopefuls that were in attendance:
Rialto City Council: Lynn Hirtz, Joseph Britt
Rialto Unified School Board: Lillie Houston, Russel Silva, Dina Walker
Congressional District 35: Christina Gagnier
Congressional District 31: Paul Chabot, Pete Aguilar
Valley College Board Trustee: Joseph Williams
San Bernardino County Schools Board: Hardy Brown II
Here are the results from our poll thank you everyone for voting
So it all began with a post on his facebook page then the mailer, Ed Scott appears to be ok with using his son’s death to win the city council election.
First off let me be the first to say it’s been nice not having the bully of Rialto on city council. Heck he hasn’t even inserted himself into the area of politics since his departure almost 2 years ago when the voters choose Deborah Robertson for mayor over Ed Scott. He did pop his head out looking to seek the appointed position that was given to Lynn Hirtz but since then the only thing to come from him is sports and work at his bar.
If you have not seen the facebook post we have it below:
Now let me reassure everyone that the School District, Rialto Police & Fire, City of Rialto & The Rialto Community Coalition have been working very hard to deal with this very issue. Now I’m not sure if this made a difference but once Ed Scott Was exited from local politics all of the walls began crashing down. The Rialto Community Coalition held its first public call to action event “Don’t Go There” at Eisenhower High School, City Council Members began to engage with our local prevention and advocacy programs, School District and Rialto City have found new innovative ways to begin working together. Heck even retail development came on like a flood starting with In & Out (pushed to completion by the community not city council). Now we have a Wing Stop, Jersey Mikes, Chipotle, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and Pieology coming to Rialto.
So were looking for your thoughts after everything that Ed Scott has put Rialto through are we really willing to give him a second chance to bully and take advantage of Rialto? I feel sorry for the Scott Family for their loss no parent should ever outlive their child but is that alone reason enough to give him elected power once again?
On our city council update we left you hanging because TAB 7 was pushed off until the next council meeting so that it could be addressed at the Water Workshop tonight. Veolia apparently took on a contract they can’t deliver.
TAB 7 from the last council meeting is Veolia was required to provide 4000 meters at a cost of $460,000 water meters, but because they failed to check the contract they only want to provide 1600 meters at a cost of $390.000 why can Veolia pick and choose what part of the contract they can follow? Do the residents have the option of when to pay their bills?
What is this contract and what is this workshop for tonight? Veolia agreed to take over water and waste water services for the next 30 years and were tasked with conducting a major infrastructure overhaul of the city’s water delivery system and waste water removal system. They have already and will continue to levy major rate increases on Rialto Water customers and they have paid $40 million dollars to the city of Rialto for this utility take over. What they did is take your money and make excuses for being behind by 1-2 years on many projects because they claim that American Water (the cities first choice for a water servicer) wrote a bad contract that can’t be delivered on the originally agreed terms.
Veolia isn’t new to Rialto they have been around working with our waste water services for years. So they can’t claim ignorance to how Rialto is structured or set up. There are two major issues with the delay one is Rialto Water Services customers are already one full year into a four year rate increase schedule. Two if this process is delayed too long the interest rates on the loan that was taken out to make the capital improvements will eat into the money needed to afford these projects. Back in June at the first workshop Veolia upper management was asked by Councilman O’Connell in the meeting if they would cover this gap if the situation arose and they said NO.
Back at the first Water Workshop in June the city council found out that Veolia has been hiding behind a lame excuse of we didn’t write this contract. The community’s response to that is you signed it before reading it? What Veolia saw was an opportunity to take the rate payers for a ride and leave us with no other recourse. This contract was written in a way that city hall has thrown its hands in the air saying were stuck!!!!!!!
Anyone watching the news and all the problems with Los Angeles’s DWP is having with blown water lines knows that’s not where we want to be. The problem is everyone is acting like they are powerless to make Veolia do their job. Ironically a week after the first water workshop in June the city experienced a sewer back up that spilled into the streets. What is more irritating is that the Capital Improvement Projects not being completed and the massive rate increases is not the end of the problems with Veolia. Here is a short list:
Water meters are not being read they are being estimated. This means you are not likely to see any change in your water bill even though you’re cutting back on water usage.
Horrible customer service. Veolia doesn’t seem to have a customer service supervisor Monday thru Friday because when they mess up your bill you have to wait weeks to receive a call back if you receive one at all.
Lagging on processing payments. Veolia is slow to check the collection bin at the city of Rialto Civic Center and processes payments very slowly; you will get a late fee.
Horrible water pressure. Since Veolia has taken over Rialto Water Services customers have noticed a major drop in water pressure.
Now is the time to get involved and engage. This is an election year and was in the thick of it. Now is the time to demand action and we have some resources for you.
You can Send us a Letter to the Editor to be published here to rialtonow@gmail.com
You can email Leslie Parrilla with the San Bernardino Sun at leslie.parrilla@langnews.com
Hello Rialto Now Readers hos is everyone on this fine September day? Who went to Rialto’s Family Festival? Well we did and it was quite an amazing time 2nd only to National Night Out. There was literally something for everyone. There were 2 stages, over 50 vendors, kids fun zone, carnival style food court and police K9 demonstrations.
Rialto Police K9 Cars
With the election so close this event was full of people looking for your vote in November. From Rialto Unified School Board, City Council, Community College Board and even congress the vote stumping was in full force. We were able to put together a nice collage for you of some of the VIP action at the event.
Included in this photo are David Phillips, Joseph Williams, Deborah Robertson, Lynn Hirtz & Cheryl Brown
This event was full of cool and interesting vendors and they were spread wide and far. This event took over the entire Civic Center.
From the top running right to left we have Market Solutions Services, Russell Silva for School Board, Kiwanas Finger Print Station, Joe Britt for City Council, Mad Jakes Kettle Corn, It Works & Shred Fest.
These were not all of the vendors but just a taste. It was an amazing afternoon of information, resources and fun! Our hats go off to the City Clerk’s Office for pulling this one off.
Mayor Robertsons Trees of the Rialto Civic Center Map
Mayor Robertson still had her massive mini tent with seating and tables but she added some healthy games and a map of the many different types of trees and their uses. It was interesting and we can only guess that this was an attempt to silence critics of her hospitality booth last year. Many questioned the need for it or why it wasn’t a joint effort with the entire council? I too wait for the day when we can pool resources and work together to make a great representation of our local government. Maybe next year, with that being said the mayor was very nice and hospitable.
On Tuesday there was a public hearing to allow residents to voice thier concerns over a series of rate increases on home owner trash rates. The first set of rates were ANTICIPATED rate increases at the San Bernardino County Landfills & a reduction of compenstation Burtecc the cities contracted refuse hauler recives from shipping our recycling materials to China. The second was a highly contriversal Road Repair Tax that would raise money to do over $53 million in backlogged street repairs that the City and Council have refused to address.
There were many people speaking out against the rate increases and the tax but it appears the city council didn’t care and came in with thier minds made up already. One resident pointed out that factoring everything together the rates were increasing 30% and that was highway robbery. June Hayes a Utilities Commisioner said she was tired of the city nickel and diming the resdents she was speaking manily to the Road Repair Tax as she has a long close relationship with the cities trash hauler and its manager Riachard Nino who was in attendance but did not speak on this issue.
The study that Public Works Director Marcus Fuller used to draft this tax was a study done by the City of Redlands. Marcus Fuller stated that the study was done to show the amount of damage trash trucks caused to city streets. Mr. Fuller didn’t come right out about who did the study it was long time city resident David Phillips that pointed out that Redlands did the study and looked at the damage and then decided NOT to leavy this tax on thier residents. Mr. Phillips attacked the Road Repair Tax and pointed out the diffrences between Rialto & Redlands. Mr. Phillips asked the City Council to send Mr. Fuller back to the drawing board and get his hands out of the residents pockets.
Council asked Mr. Fuller if Redlands implemented this Tax on thier residents and Mr. Fuller said “no Rialto would be the first in the state of California to approve such a tax”. This isnt the first time Rialto City Officals have used Redlands as a template for Rialto policies. Earlier in the year the Beautification Committee used redlands business beautifications and advertising codes to draft thier plan for Rialto. The two cities are beyond different and should not be used as a template for Rialto City policies especially when it comes to taxing the community at large.
Mr. Fuller was asked if this rate increase was at Burttec’s request and he said no that this was being brought by the city alone. So what does Mr. Fuller do right after the vote to approve his illegal tax on residents? He runs outside to have a secret pow wow with Richard Ninos from Burttec. Hmm so why was it so important to have that conversation? Redlands is smart they have people sitting in council that want to be re-elected and a mayor running for a second time for Congress. They decided to not levy this TAX on their residents because they know that such an action would do considerable damage to their future political aspirations.
Both Ed Palmer and Shawn O’Connell were in full support of taxing the residents because they saw no other way of dealing with the massive amount of ignored street repairs. Mayor Robertson made no noteable comments on this issue. Joe Baca Jr. wanted to wait until after his re-election to vote on this issue and since that was not favorable he voted no, Lynn Hirtz looked at it in a different way. She saw the Road Repair Tax was nessicary way to begin tackling the mountain to road repairs but want to see if it was acctually going to bring in the expected revenues or be a failed method of dealing with the problem at hand. So she made a motion that they move forward with the 5 years of rate increses and approve the Road Repair Tax for one year so they could look at how the program was working and if it was needed. This was the favorable choice and this motion passed 4-1.
Outside after the public hearing many residents stood baffled by the lack of understanding and willingness to listen to the community. Residents asked Mr. Fuller outside of the meeting how much of thier money would it take to subside his hunger for thier pennies and dimes. Mr. Phillips asked Mr. Fuller if he should just sign over his paycheck every month (refering to the Public Works Directors constant money grabs and failed ability to properly bid contracts and waste tax payer dollers). Many of the residents outside the meeting were newer residents and had many questions and blamed actions like this on the reason why mistrust for elected officals was at an all time high.
So Rialto puts $1.5 million each year into road maintenance and this new tax will put out $600,000 the first year and by 2018 it will bring in $4.9 Million a year. As of today we are $53 Million Dollars in the hole with unaddressed road repairs that just isn’t going to cut it. This is like having a glass of water and throwing it at a raging fire its just not going to cut it.
The funny part is the city leavys this tax on the public without a vote from residents but they will be asking us in November to allow them to leavy a heafty fee on the Tank Farms in the southern half of the city that will bring in a reported $5-$10 Million a year. So we ask you here this poll Question:
So a while back Rialto gave Burrtec a 10 year contract to help them secure low interest loans to increase and upgrade their fleet. We were promised no rate increases for two years. In return they would take over our street sweeping at no additional cost to the city, cleaning of the catch basins and of course pick up our trash.
Less than one year later we are looking at rate increases & a special fee placed by our city.
The use of special “fees” comes from the governments requirement to take new taxes to the public for a vote. So governments all over the state had a simple answer to this problem of stealing money from the tax payers, they decided to call their TAXES “fees”. Governments also have another tactic that normally works out well for them, it is to exempt the Seniors and low income from paying the tax or “fee”, putting the entire burden on the young and working class.
So what is this fee all about? Apparently public works and the city just recently figured out that trash trucks are heavy and do more damage than a regular car. So what is their solution?
Did you know that 3 trash trucks come down your street each week?
You see a trash truck is as heavy as 11,800 cars.
So your city staff (Marcus Fuller) recommends that YOU be taxed (Fee) as an increase to your trash rates to pay for street maintenance. It starts out low and then jumps in four years.
Now I have just a few questions for our city staff (Marcus Fuller):
Wasn’t there a way we used to pay for street repairs I think it was called our normal taxes? Did they go away without my knowledge?
Why is it the residents responsibility to pay for damage that Burrtec is causing?
Are the 18 wheelers that traverse all over the city being required to pay for the damage they cause?
Since the city has recently balanced the budget why are we once again looking into the residents pockets when Mr. Fuller has been successfully getting street repairs done for less than the projected cost?
What makes matters worse is Councilman Joe Baca Jr. was overheard after the council voted to set the public hearing back in May saying, “Should we be voting on a tax in a election year?”. Really? Is this fee or tax fair? Should we be doing our jobs in an election year? It is sad that there are still people working for us (Marcus Fuller) & people representing us (Councilman Baca) that clearly don’t seem to care about the bottom line of struggling families. Nobody except for the select few financially tied to the Water deal are making any more money. It is quite the opposite, families here in Rialto are making less and being asked to pay more.
How long will Rialto Residents put up with this type of governing? I am calling on all Rialto Residents to come to City Hall this Tuesday and let our council and city government know that if this is such a big concern, Burttec should be made to pay for THIER DAMAGE.
Below you will find the public notice and the table for the trash rate increases without the special fee. You have Burttec and the city reaching further and further into your pockets every year.
Public Hearing for New Refuse Collection Service Charges
The City Council has scheduled a Public Hearing for July 8, 2014, to consider changes to the City’s current rates for refuse collection service charges. These charges are established by the City and billed by its trash hauler (Burrtec) to cover costs for trash and green waste collection and disposal, and recycling services. more
A notice has been mailed to all residents and business owners regarding the proposed rates to accommodate increasing costs for service in excess of the Consumer Price Index, as well as the inclusion of two specific items: 1) an incentivized rate structure that includes commercial recycling services; and 2) a pavement maintenance fee (does not apply to senior or disabled accounts). For residential services, the proposed monthly rate increases estimated to occur over the next five years are identified in the following table:
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.
This week we learned of a new program that apparently came from one of Mayor Robertson’s trips to Washington DC. Mayor Robertson advocated for Rialto in an effort to bring a training institute run by the local EPA to train people to obtain jobs in the area of Perchlorate clean up. Recently the city finalized its lawsuits in the area of Perchlorate contamination and now will begin the long efforts of removing the harmful contaminate. So last Tuesday May 13th was our first glimpse of this new program presented by Councilman O’Connell. Councilman O’Connell said Tuesday that he brought this item up because of the high unemployment numbers in the local region and in Rialto being 17%. Councilman O’Connell said he wanted the rest of the City Council and the public to hear about this program even in its infant stage.
A few things surprised people watching in the audience. First was the constant references to the opportunity being open to Rialto residents only or having first stab at the training opportunity. Second was the way people would be selected to join this training opportunity. (Blank Person Name) said that they are looking for people that would not be seen at your local job fair, not a high school graduate and not outside Rialto. (Blank Person Name) also said that they were going to put potential applicants through a stress test or boot camp of sorts which would consist of three meetings.
The First meeting applicants will be asked to provide documentation but not all necessary documents (Blank Person Name) is going to purposely not ask for some documentation to force the applicants to attend a second meeting simply to turn in something that could have been turned in already. The third and final meeting will be a series of skills and critical thinking tests that will be evaluated by staff and ranked. People sitting in the Audience of the council meeting Tuesday appeared to have a uneasiness with the way the program selection process is being designed.
A representative with Inland Empire Job Seekers an organization that assist youth and young adults with finding and keeping a job said the way the program is laid out it seems to favor a certain section of a larger community and sends the wrong message to our unemployed. First why only seek out the people without an education or someone that wouldn’t attend a local job fair? Inland Empire Job Seekers makes it clear to all that they help anyone can give you a job it’s up to you if you’re going to make an effort to succeed and keep that job or you will find yourself right back where you started. Inland Empire Job Seekers were concerned with the talk of excluding the larger work force and only offering the training to young people effected by the contaminate. Its Inland Empire Job Seekers hope that all area residents will have a fair opportunity at this training. Inland Empire Job Seekers said that there are a lot of unemployed parents with families that would jump at this opportunity. Inland Empire Job Seekers said they hoped they would be able to lend a hand in making this program a success for the Inland Empire Region.
The reaction from those in the public was mixed. Stacey from Colton said that she thought everyone should have a fair shot at the opportunity to train for much needed jobs. George from Rialto who lives in the most Northern portion of Rialto said he would like for the program facilitators to train people that would want to go to a job fair he said “we need smart people removing the chemicals from the ground. Others like Frank a local Inland Empire Educator stated that any job training was better than nothing. Councilman O’Connell said he thought that the program was a great idea and was eager to see it kick off and start reducing the 17% unemployment rate here in Rialto.
One thing was constant nobody could understand why it was necessary to “wear people down” during the selection process as stated by Michael Ltyhcott a senior analyst with Skeo Solutions the firm responsible for the implementation of this program for the EPA.
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
rialtonow 