Were sure you have heard by now that the former county health inspector turned radical terrorist effected the fine city of Rialto and also left his mark on the community. By now you have also heard the scare tactics being spread throughout social media. These tactics are not linked to any fact and have opened the door to sick people using peoples fear to feed their sick minds. As we have stated many times in the last 6 years Rialto is in a unique position to feel safe and know that our public safety officials are more than equal to the task of keeping us safe.
What these terrorist attacks have also shown us is that terror does not play by our set rules of engagement. We also saw that seeing something that doesn’t look right and not reporting it because we didn’t want to sound racist can cost lives. The mantra of SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING is not just a catchy phrase it is a call to let the authorities know if something doesn’t look right. Neighbors and other people in Redlands saw activity that didn’t look right for MONTHS and said nothing. It is beyond comprehension to know we could have saved 14 lives and kept 21 people from being injured if someone had made a phone call.
We cannot change the past but it is beyond vital that we learn from it. Our all time favorite quote is “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” by George Santayana. If we cannot learn from our past we will keep making the same mistakes. St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church, Coffee Nutzz and Carter High School are just a few of the locations that the county health inspector turned radical terrorist had some type of ties. Probably the most chilling tie were the photos found in the terrorists possession of Carter High School. Luckily our public safety officials were equal to the task to see that our schools were safe.
So we need to show our public safety officials that we will not remain silent. We need to share information that they need to keep us safe. One great way yo do that is Area Command Meetings see the flyer below:
Dollahan Elementary gets a RUSD Public safety Officer
Parents at the local school of Dollahan Elementary watched school drop off and pick up times become a major issue. The issues were wide spread out on the street Etiwanda Ave, in the City Park that is in front of the school (Flores Park) and inside the enclosed oddly shaped parking lot. We have covered numerous stories of issues that almost led to dire consequences and we fielded a lot of calls from the city, school district and police.
Well the school district has had the appropriate reaction to our pleading for more safety at this Elementary school. Monday September 28th Rialto Unified School District Public Safety Department has had a Public Safety Officer on site keeping things safer inside of the school parking lot. You may ask what has changed by adding a Public Safety Officer? Well here are the changes:
No longer do parents double and triple park bringing the traffic flow to a dead stop.
The angry pushy bus drivers no longer come into the parking lot blaring their horns.
Areas that are labeled for buses or Day Care Vans no longer have parents parking there.
Staff and District vehicles are no longer driving on the side walks while kids are preparing to leave for the day.
Parents and children are now safer inside the parking lot.
What hasn’t changed is the total disregard for parking rules in Flores Park and traffic on Etiwanda Ave where the issue of angry parents and fighting over traffic supremacy and the ZERO enforcement of traffic by the city or police. Parents still speed up and down local neighborhood streets, road rage controls Etiwanda Ave, the crossing guard is nearly taken out on a daily basis and the city should remove all of the red curb paint and handicap markings because nobody pays any attention to them and Rialto PD seems to have an issue enforcing the CVC code.
One of the latest issues that sits solely on the shoulders of the city is the sidewalks. When Marcus Fuller was the Public Works Director residents complained about the 1000’s of lifted sidewalks in the Flores Park Area. Mr. Fuller’s remedy was to grind some of those sidewalks and the others they used black asphalt to create ramps. So like everything else Mr. Fuller did in Rialto it was a halfway attempt to fix a problem and now things are worse than before. Here is why:
When the asphalt was laid down it was allowed to spill over and damage residents lawns and properties.
The asphalt didn’t fuse together correctly so it has began to fall apart and denigrate.
Since parents that don’t want to fight the traffic that the police can’t get under control they walk their kids and there has been a recent spike in people falling and injuring themselves.
With speeding up and down residential streets at an uncontrolled high, the neighborhood street that should be a safe place for kids to ride bikes and skateboards isn’t an option so the kids have been pushed onto sidewalks. The pitted and uneaven sidewalks have left local children with an increase in injuries.
Calls and conversations with the new Public Works Director Robert Eisenbeisz have left us with no solutions. The only thing Mr. Eisenbeisz has said is that “IF” measure “I” money comes in from SANBAG then we can look at Etiwanda Ave.
Normally this is where I would tell people to speak up and demand action but that doesn’t work anymore. If your not in the political favor of Mayor Robertson or the “Liberal Park Councilman” Joe Baca Jr. or the “Pay For Me To Travel One More Time Councilman” Ed Scott your not getting ANYTHING!!!! The city leadership doesn’t seem to care about the community, the brown act or just being transparent. The city and the many departments don’t do anything all they do is point the finger at someone else.
So what is ironic about this is the School District is the only party here that had an appropriate response to issues within their sphere of influence and a level of appreciation goes out to the Public Safety Department for their quick and timely response.
So yesterday we issued a story on the fact that soon we would have five McDonalds in the City of Rialto. What we found out through comments on Facebook and conversations with city staff is that it looks like the planning department is allowing the franchise owner of the McDonalds on Foothill to vacate that space and build a new location on Cedar & Foothill.
Later in the meeting Ed Scott called out the community opposition to this development stating that the city can’t dictate or block businesses that are developed on private land he stated it would put the city in a tough spot, Joe Baca Jr. also echoed this statement. These two elected officials said that if McDonalds wants to build 10 of their fast food restaurants in rialto we can’t stop them. Well both these men have Facebook pages and I challenge them to engage with the large amounts of community members who disagree with this statement. People want better food choices and if they only can find those near the Super Walmart and the new retail pad at the old airport site we will continue to depress the other parts of Rialto.
We spoke to Rob Steel Development Services Director and he said that McDonalds Corporate was the one building the new location and that they were going to allow the franchise owner from the other foothill location to move into the new building. The problem we now have is there is a old empty building that will attract homeless, vandalism and further damage the appearance of Route 66. Rob Steel said that the old McDonalds is a desirable location for businesses like Tams, Albertos and Juan Pollo. With that being said that area is becoming oversaturated with those type of food options. One thing that Robb Steal said was that the city did have some say over weather that McDonalds would be constructed there. From what we can ascertain is that they choose not to. Rialto lost a Verizon Wireless location because of this and now traffic is a nightmare.
The other development issue on tap last night was the last available pad to be developed in the In & Out Burger Center. The final pad was originally slated to host a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf plus two other small retail businesses. That changed with space constraints to just a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and then Coffee Bean saw that the city had room on the price and began asking for a series of price reductions. This boils down to the “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie” syndrome. The developer saw blood in the water and was taking advantage of the situation. Well when In & Out asked to purchase the pad to create a exclusive In & Out parking area Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf just walked away. What was ironic is instead of making a sale and letting In & Out develop the parking pad it seems as though the city wants to spend the money to develop the parking pad. It looks like control is an issue here and were wondering who is going to win and at what cost to the community? It looks like we sell it to In & Out for their exclusive use or the city pays to pave it for everyone’s use.
But wait there is more…… It appears that Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf wants to steal the open pad just a stones throw away from previous site. Coucilman O’Connell said last night that the pad was prime location given its location (see image below) and that he had reservations giving Coffee Bean first stab at building on that site. Councilman O’Connell wants to make sure we get the best tenant for that location and for Rialto. From the vote he was not alone the vote was 3-2 with Councilman O’Connell & Palmer voting no to give an unfair first stab to the Coffee Bean developers.
The black box indicates the location of the new development site
Print this picture or show this photo on your phone when you pay for your food to be counted.
Well if you were unaware National Night Out the nationwide event to snuff out crime and to foster positive relationships between the community and Law Enforcement was on August 4th. Many cities locally took part in this years event but not as many as years past.
Rialto, Fontana, Grand Terrace, & San Bernardino all had National Night Out festival events this year. Cities like Riverside & Upland encouraged their communities to hold individual block parties and public safety personnel traveled from event to event.
On the large festival side Rialto came out as a top performer with the amount of items offered all in one area. Two of the biggest draws every year are the rides in police cars (no handcuffs required) and the Gourmet Food Trucks secured by Market Solution Services.
Probably the best music all night was the live music preformed by All Star National Anthem Performer Alexa Capelli who not only sang the National Anthem see it here but also preformed some awesome music for the crowd (see her performances on our Youtube Channel). Once she began to sing the crowd came up to the stage Leslie Parks of Rialto said “I have never heard such a powerful voice in my life” and little Stephanie Ramirez age 8 said “one day I want to be as pretty as her and sing just like her”.
Other awesome live performers brought by Lil Saint Productions were Elizabeth R Estrella and Christian Rapper Carl Fontaine. Rialto Police appear to spare no expense in putting this event together. We heard that the planning meeting was a all hands on deck type of feel.
Close on Rialto’s heels was the Lydo Apartments & ATAP After School Program that held the only large National Night Out program in San Bernardino August 4th. The San Bernardino program offered a lot of what Rialto offered and promised to step it up and put San Bernardino on the map.
Other large events were in Grand Terrace, Montclair and Fontana. Fontana held their event at Fontana Park in the area known as Summit. They had vendors, food and Mc Gruff the Crime Dog. Kids got to get there face painted and take pictures with police officer and many different vehicles. See a great photo from Edward Ornelas below.
Held on August 8th was the National Night Out event in Perris Ca. Perris Mayor Daryl Busch said residents will gain a new appreciation for law enforcement and public safety at National Night Out.
“It is a great, and I want to emphasize great, outreach effort on the part of our public safety folks to show all the varied aspects of their jobs,” Busch said. “Most people only see police on motorcycles or in patrol cars, but this event provide the chance to view the full spectrum of services they provide to our community.”
Perris officials we’re on hand to accept a plaque for their continuing support of law enforcement and public safety. The day’s activities included static displays, food and drink vendors, as well as games and jumpers for children. Taken from http://www.cityofperris.org/news/2015_stories/08-04-15_national-night-out.html
There were cities that went with the smaller block parties but Riverside had over 20 block parties going on all over the city. Upland also went the block party route and Councilwoman Carol Timm posted on Facebook pictures of her and public safety officials going from block party to block party.
Some remarked that it is vital that Upland gets in and around the community as the Pro Drug Lobby is currently working to attack the Ordnance that Upland has to ban Medical Marijuana shops in the city of Upland.
No matter what city your in one thing is true we need to stop fighting our Public Safety officers and we need to collaborate together to help make everyone’s life more enjoyable.
A large group of city officials, elected officials, community members and family gathered at the Johnson center meeting room to honor Mike Story city of Rialto City Administrator for his recognition of Mr. Story’s dedication to the community of Rialto.
Story after story was told about the Rialto Man of Distinction award recipient and they all spoke to a man of high moral character and a work ethic that never made Mr. Story feel like he was too good to help out his fellow city employee. Mayor Deborah Robertson spoke about Mr. Story and his dedication to making sure that Frisbee Park host site for the Rialto Jazz Fest be kept looking nice. Something very odd happened at this event that you would not normally see. Elected official after elected official gave Mr. Story the credit for bringing Rialto into a functional balanced budget something not all cities can say in todays climate.
As each speaker came to the podium a slide show played in the background showing Mr. Story in his various roles around Rialto. Many of the speakers spoke of Mr. Story wearing many different hats in his employment with Rialto and looking at the pictures he has worn a lot of aprons too!!!!
Mike story speaking to Greta Hodges long time Rialto resident and chair of the Friends of Rialto K9 Association.
Mike Story speaking with City Councilman Shawn O’Connell both men were smiling and having a good conversation. Councilman Shawn O’Connell spoke about Mr. Story’s character and dedication to being ethically balanced. Councilman Shawn O’Connell also spoke to Mr. Story being a person that works to make sure that city government is transparent and fair.
Mr. Story with Councilman Shawn O’Connell and Fire Chief Matt Fratus prior to the event beginning. Rialto Fire Chief Matt Fratus said he is newer to rialto but having worked in other cities under a lot of other city administrators that Mr. Story’s character makes working for the community a lot easier.
So next time your out and about say hello to Mr. Story and tell him how thankful you are that he is working so hard to make Rialto a better place to be.
Assemblymember Cheryl R. Brown (D-San Bernardino) has chosen six outstanding men to be recognized for their dedication to activism and community leadership.
The honorees have been selected based on their achievements and reputations as respected role models who contribute their time and energy to make a positive difference in the 47th Assembly District.
The 2015 Men of Distinction include: San Bernardino City Councilman Rikke Van Johnson, 6th Ward; Paul Rasso, Chair of the Colton Parks and Recreation Commission; Rialto City Administrator Michael Story; James McNaboe, a community volunteer and veterans advocate; Pastor Samuel J. Casey, New Life Christian Church; and Larry Burgos, a lifetime community advocate based in Bloomington.
Well its about time that Mr. Mike Story gets his due with this awesome recognition of being an outstanding leader in Mrs. Brown’s District. The other five men are lucky to be included in Mr. Story’s company. Why do we say this?
Mike Story has been a fixture here in rialto for over 30 years and has touched many lives.
Mike has raised two awesome children and is still married to his awesome happy wife known as the first lady of Rialto.
Mike has worked his way through the city and has made every opportunity to make Rialto a better place to live, work and play in the areas he had control.
Mike led by example when times got tough and slashed his salary and benefits as a way lead by example and show everyone that he will work with us through the hard times.
No person has ever had a more open door policy than Mike, helping residents with little and big issues even after hours.
Mike is a conduit of information and resources. Are you having a hard time navigating the city offices? Mike is like a super powered tour guide to give you the access you need to find a quick response.
Portions of this article were provided by Ashley from Assembly Browns office.
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.
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.
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.
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.
On January 29th the city held a community forum on a wide range of topics that matter to Rialto. The layout was different from other forums being people were given an opportunity to vote and speak on each topic. The evening wrapped up with Mayor Robertson asking if anyone from the crowd had any additional questions. The event was simple each person was given a clicker and was able to vote with multiple choice selections then make comments afterwards.
Looking back there were no questions on the failed water deal, on the distribution of Community Development Block Grants, on City Councils performance or on how the Measure “U” money will be spent. Why? Because the Mayor and her cohorts don’t want to hear what you feel on those issues. Well we want to know how you feel on one of those questions:
I was not able to attend due to my commitment to the Communities United Meeting that was the same night in Redlands but thanks to You Tube and Mr. Felton at Rialto Network we were able to see the results here:
Thanks to Mike Story you too can make your voice be heard in this online survey and answer the same questions that the people who attended to meeting did her:
Notice how none of the regular city people even gave them all excellant. Ask people this same question now that they see travel spending out of control, taxes being wasted and corruption poking its ugly head once again.
Here nobody gave the quality of life here in Rialto an excellent this is beyond sad because when I was a kid Rialto was a great place to be and live.
Yes shopping and eating are the greatest priorities to Quality of Life here in Rialto. So what does Rialto do they shove all the eateries into one small spot creating a traffic nightmare and further frustrate Rialto residents you see our City Council isn’t happy if you’re not upset.
This result worries me because with more warehouses comes more truck traffic and trucks don’t follow the rules of the road and they do major damage to our streets that will create another fee (TAX) and punish us because they refuse to allocate the proper funds to fix our roads.
You can’t read it but sit down restaurants once again led in the voting and I guess that is fine. You can only have so many restaurants before you need other business options to feed those businesses. I don’t know about you but I will shop at Target before I ever step foot in a Walmart or even a Super Walmart. With rude shaggy staff, dirty shelves and story after story of the crime a walmart brings due to their lazy policies on Loss Prevention. Oh and don’t forget even though San Bernardino leads the IE in deadly crime and gang activity they are getting a Golden Coral Restaurant later this year. Yes a restaurant that would do well in Rialto goes to San Bernardino.
Until the city figures out how to create a sales tax base for warehouses in Rialto I agree with None of The Above. The city wants to tax the residents to death because they see us as easy marks.
Rialto is easier to work with than most other cities and recent business owners to open up shop in Rialto attest to this fact. I’m sure after the recent elected officials settle in they will change that overnight.
Yes we think you should enforce property maintenance this is a silly questions. I love how someone doesn’t want to do their job they pass it off on the community to see if they need to enforce the rules or laws.
I would like to know what the city thinks Active Adult Community Housing is? Here is what google says it is:
Active adult communities are real estate developments that offer independent, relatively maintenance-free living to residents aged 55 and over. In “age restricted” active adult communities, 80% of homeowners must be 55 and over, while “age-targeted” communities simply market to the 55+ crowd. Many of the residents continue to work part or full time, which is why the term “active adult retirement communities” is less accurate. The residents are not opposed to children (or grandchildren!) either. Rather, the 55+ component simply assumes that people at the same stage of life probably share a few leisure-time interests and pursuits.
Not surprising that the largely elderly group voting would vote this way.
Wow you mean Rialto streets need to be worked on? Well of course they do but it seems like with the balance of power shifting to the side of corruption, money shifting and lavish traveling at the cities expense. Its so bad Councilman O’Connell had to eat his words when citizens told the council that the Trash Tax would not be an addition to current money spent on roads but a way to shift road money into pet projects to pay off favors to special interests.
Once again Street Maintenance wins out but good luck getting this council to do good things that will improve our lives here in Rialto.
If the 22 people want more free community events they need to bring their friends with with them our market nights had very low turnout numbers and our city refuses to work with anyone else to help make the Market Nights more appealing. Some of the community events are awesome and some are lame the lame ones tend to be the ones where outside help is not excepted at all.
Here is Joe Baca Jr. go to place he is Mr. Parks and he was MIA. The rails to trails is underway and costing the city hundreds of thousands of dollars more than originally planned.
I would agree ask me about dispatch and thats a whole different story.
NO I don’t feel safe in Rialto. We are holding onto a low crime rate by holding back a flood with a bed sheet. We need to bolster our staffing within the police department, get our bars under control and finally get serious about the issues of San Bernardino crime rolling into our city.
Yes our police department is in a much better place with Chief Tony Farrar at the helm. He is an approachable person, a good leader and a great cop. One of the things I like most about Chief Farrar is that he doesn’t seem like he is on a fast track to a cushy political career like others that have recently left Rialto Police Department he is busy making our police department the best it can be with the resources he is given. Even as a big PD Supporter there are times I don’t see eye to eye with the police but the command staff isn’t against sitting down and hashing it out and talking about issues. In the end sometimes we have to agree to disagree but the respect remains because they took the time to hear you out.
I would agree with the 22 people that voted on this question. My question is why do we compare ourselves to other cities when it comes to safety or a justification to raise illegal taxes on the people of Rialto? Yet when you ask them to do a simple thing like figure out how to create a sales tax base opportunity from the numerous warehouses that are being forced on the community they throw thier hands up and claim they are trying their best? Well I’m sorry your best isn’t good enough anymore. If San Bernardino can get their warehouses to pay a separate tax to the city why can’t Rialto?
I believe our fire services are great. We use our own ambulances in most cases, fire fighters are kind men and women and Chief Mat Fratus is constantly working to make Rialto Fire an innovative part of Rialto.
I do believe one thing we need is a FREE class that teaches Basic CPR & First Aide because many people have no idea what to do when a friend or family member falls ill or is the victim of an emergency.
The Fireworks Enforcement in Rialto is horrible. The people we have working the Fireworks hotline could not hear or understand the callers, hung up on the callers and did not give the community confidence that our concerns were getting through. Then you have Rialto PD Dispatchers that kept pushing you off onto the deaf fireworks hotline operators it was a major fail. We owe it to our community and veterans to work much harder to:
Eliminate the use of illegal fireworks in the city by hitting our gang areas early and then looking at places where over the years there has been a constant flow of calls for service on a house or specific street. My street is a WAR ZONE every year with illegal fires, illegal fireworks and excessive drinking and drug use. Needless to say its not a family environment on my street the first week in July.
Create a major community event like Redlands does where the entire day is dedicated to family and community with a parade and fun zone ending with a massive fireworks show. We have massive stadiums at our High Schools and we can put together a quality event that people want to attend.
The Mayor made a statement that she is fine with taking the input of 22 people most of them city employees over looking for ways to get more input from more people. I can tell you why the numbers were so low:
No sense of urgency among the elected officials to get their camps excited about spreading the word about this forum. When the council wants something from you like funds for their campaign or your vote you can’t get them out of your face.
The Mayor and her council members don’t want to hear what you have to say unless its agreeing with them. If you disagree with them in any fashion they bark at you, make fun of you or try and shut you up.
It sucks but if you want people to show up you need to entice them with food and have their children involved in the event. They could have the recreation staff have a series of group activities for kids so parents could go and if we have some of our awesome young leaders involved in the process we could begin to expose them to the process and hear what they think Rialto needs.
To end it all you have Mr. Scott slamming Fontana saying that “they (Fontana) doesn’t care” he says this at 2:02 towards the end of the meeting well maybe they are not working with us because of comments like that Mr. Scott.
We need to get involved and show the Council that Rialto cares because if we don’t we will be on the fast track to being just like San Bernardino.
Hello Rialto Now readers and fans. If you were watching from the audience or watching on TV it looks like every council meeting will go on and on no matter how short the agenda may appear. This meeting had six tab items in total and even had one pulled and at 9pm they only moved through half of the tab items.
Consent Calendar
Two items were pulled from the Consent Calendar for seperate approval or vote.
C.1 the regular city council meeting minutes from the meeting January 13th 2015 had a seperate vote and Councilman Ed Palmer voted no. We plan to reach out to Councilman Palmer this weekend and find out why he voted no on these minutes and we will update so stay tuned.
E.4 was pulled to explain that the City Treasurer wanted approval from the City Council to allow a few select investments go beyond the 5 year maturity limit to retain maximum benifit and a larger profit.
Tab Items & Public Hearings
Tab.1 was approving the ability to move forward with the Lytle Creek Development project. the developers need approval from the City to present the anexation application to the Local Agency Formation Commission for San Bernardino County this project in its entirety consitsts of 4 neighborhoods. Neighborhoods two and three will be anexed to the city of Rialto and Neighborhoods one and four will remain in the county of San Bernardino. Now let me first say I am not a fan of this project it has destoryed Rialto’s Country Club Area & Golf Course as well as extremely reduced property values in the Country Club Area. Nonetheless the developer has spent years and money going through stall tactics and lawsuits to finally get to this point. It appeared that even though there were questions about the real intentions of the project it was going to be approved to recive county approval, that is until Councilman Ed Scott spoke up. Councilman Ed Scott stated that since the developer had not come to him and meet with him privatly that he wanted to table this vote for two weeks. So this will be the second time just two months into a four year city council term that Councilman Ed Scott wants to delay things because he is unprepared. Also why should a developer be having special secret meetings with City Council Members? I know Councilman Ed Scott took alot of money from developers to get elected and that is one of the many reasons that I feel uncomfortable with Councilman Ed Scott acting as the Gate Keeper to Development here in Rialto. Councilman Shawn O’Connell had no problem voting to continue the item for two weeks but did say that when he has a question on an agenda item he calls city staff prior to the meeting and gets answers verses dropping them on staff in the meeting and creating delays. Councilman Ed Plamer said that this action has been delayed for far to long and voted no on continuing the issue for two more weeks.
Tab.2 was to approve one of the many warehouses that will be dropped in the city of Rialto. Niagra Bottling Company wants to bring a $200,000,000.00 bottling and packing warehouse to the Renaissance plan development operated by Niagra Bottling Company. Below is a image of the many diffrent companies they bottle and create water for:
As you see they bottle water for alot of different companies and they have a history of giving back. Thier were questions if they would add language holding the city of Rialto Harmless form any actions this project would ensue. I was unsure why they said that until I began reciving phone calls apperently WVWD and City of Colton are suing Niagara becuase they are taking too much water from the Basin appreently. That dosen’t bother me much they need to get the water from somewhere so I can buy it from Costco. Makes me wonder though how can Niagara turn nasty IE water into what I love to drink???? Oh this is the Tab item where Councilman Ed Scott tried to make it sound like he was the only one that executives from Niagara Bottling reached out to. It wasn’t until Councilman Shawn O’Connell said that the Niagara Reps reached out to all of the Council and Mayor.
Tab.3 was yet another warehouse in Rialto and though its going to bring jobs its also going to bring problems like increased truck traffic large buildings that normally have empty streets that attract street racing, drug use/sales and opportunities for other elicit behaviors. What is even worse is that this warehouse will be giving extra sales tax revenue to………. ONTARIO!!!!!! Yes our city has been working on this project for almost 10 years and have yet to figure out how to work a sales tax benifit for Rialto but man o man we sure know how to send that tax money elsewhere. Maybe we need San Bernardino to come in and show us how to secure a tax base from warehouses.
Take what you wish from this weeks Council Meeting but I think its time we show up more often and keep their eye on the ball.
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rialtonow 
