Mike Story | rialtonow

Council Meeting Recap for April 22nd

28 Apr 2014 Leave a comment

by rialto-now in Barbara A. McGee, Budget, Ca, Chief Mat Fratus, city attorney, City Clerk, City of Rialto, Community Coalition, Currupt, Deborah Robertson, Inland Empire, Joe Baca Jr, Mike Story, Public Safety, Rialto, Rialto Fire, wwwstoprialtowaterratehikes.com, youth Tags: City Council, council members, Rialto Community Coalition

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

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Proclamation-Fair Housing Month Mayor Robertson

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Proclamation-Earth Day 2014 Mayor Robertson

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Proclamation-Mormon Helping Hands Day 2014 Mayor Robertson

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Proclamation/Certificates of Appreciation-Rialto Amateur Radio Club Council Member Hirtz

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Certificate of Recognition-Mallory Saldana Council Member Hirtz

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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

Photo: TODAY @ American Legion Post 14
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Re Cap on City Council Meeting on 4-8-14

10 Apr 2014 2 Comments

by rialto-now in American Water, Andy Carrizales, Budget, Ca, city attorney, City Clerk, City of Rialto, Crime, davidsMarketing, Deborah Robertson, Ed palmer, Flores Park, Flores Park Neighborhood Watch, Inland Empire, Joe Baca Jr, Mike Story, Nieghborhood Watch, Public Safety, Rialto, Rialto, rialto unified school district, RUSD, youth

Photo: Visit www.rialtonow.com to get a break down of this map and so much more from Tuesday

Number 1 is the proposed location of the new stop light. Number 2 is where the city is looking to extend the existing road median. MC is where the 4th Mc Donald’s will be and the GAS is the proposed location of the Food 4 Less Gas Station

Hello Rialto residents if you didn’t follow us on twitter ( http://www.twitter.com/rialtosnow ) on Tuesday night you missed a couple interesting agenda and consent calendar items. Below we have them listed out for your reading enjoyment.

Consent Calendar D. 10

So normally consent calendar items are rarely ever discussed the consent calendar is meant to approve a block of items that have minimal importance, low dollar amount or lately a way to slide an item by the public without any response from your elected officials. The only way these items are discussed in the open is if they are pulled by one member for separate consideration or a separate vote meaning someone has a issue, question or problem with any particular item.

So on this occasion there were three items pulled for separate consideration. The first two were uneventful and took minimal time D. 10 was not so easy. Councilman O Connell was the one that placed this item on the agenda and Mayor Robertson pulled the item. So what was D. 10? D. 10 was a request that council direct the clerks office to provide detail minutes versus ACTION minutes. What’s the difference? The difference is action minutes merely report the overall final vote 3-1, 4-0 ect. Over the last 6 months the Clerk has given the city ACTION minutes only. So when the Mayor was accused of giving preferred treatment to one security contractor over another. their is no record, or the funny way the money from the sale of our water company for 30 million dollars has been allocated and many other examples.

Mayor Robertson issue was that the city council was directing one elected official to do something? She went on about different branches of government and not over stepping boundries. It sounds good right council cant direct the City Clerk to do something right? Well if our City Clerk was only a City Clerk it would be that way. Our City Clerk is also a Department Head she makes a nice yearly salary department heads report to the city council and mayor as well as the city administrator. Councilman O Connell came prepared for the item to be pulled because he came with a power point that really drove the point home about why he was concerned about the ACTION minutes. There was a lot of back and forth where even the City Clerk tried to blame her lack of reporting on the moving of her offices, lowered staff and being ill. The city attorney said that the way this issue was handled was if the city had a Municipal Code directing what type of minutes were to be generated which Rialto does not have, so they fall back to state law which states that ACTION minutes were the bare minimum. The outcome was the City Attorney would draft a Municipal Code that would direct the Clerk to produce more than ACTION minutes. So this one is TO BE CONTUNIED……

Visit our twitter account and get a picture of Barbara McGee’s body language during the Councilman’s power point.

Agenda Tab 4

Welcome to Rialto the Home of Liquor Stores, Indoor Swap Meets & Mc Donald’s fast food chains. On Tuesday the City Council made this more of a reality. Apparently on the corner of Cedar & Foothill where the Verizon Store is and the empty video rental building is will now house Rialto’s 4th Mc Donald’s chain. But wait there is more that very busy and dangerous shopping center is also getting a Food 4 Less Gas Station Yay?????? But wait there is more to make matters worse the city is extending a median on Cedar North of Foothill & putting another stop light between Linden and Cedar on Foothill???????

Neighborhood Watch Liaison for the Flores Park Neighborhood Watch addressed his concerns on Tuesday that the city was spending a total of $150,000 on a project that is only going to make traffic worse not better yet Flores Park Can’t get 1 single stop sign in front of their park to slow down traffic and help the RUSD traffic guard assist the children across this dangerous street. Council Members were un moved by the pleading from the community because the new gas station and Mc Donald’s brings in revenue. So I guess street safety is only important as long as the city can make money off it. The sad part is that this new Mc Donald’s is less than 50 feet from a Head Start Pre School that is already flanked by a wienerschnitzel so much for healthy Rialto. Anyone that uses this area already knows its a mess inside the shopping center traffic wise now that the city is going to force people to turn south onto Cedar which will be further backed up by an additional light on Foothill is a recipe for a disaster.

As to Flores Park and their desire for a stop sign on Etiwanda no one on the council seemed to care. Especially Public Works Director Marcus Fuller who increased the speed limit on Etiwanda by 15 MPH from 25 MPH to 40 MPH. When asked why he stated that 80 percent of the people were speeding on the street so they increased the speed to accommodate the speeding public. There seems to be no law preventing turning our local streets into legal drag strips. Both Cactus and Cedar that run parallel to Etiwanda have speed limits of 50 MPH just 15 MPH shy of a freeway. Flores Park said the will continue to push on the issue and look into legal avenues to force the city to offer protections for our neighborhoods and community streets.

http://kec.rialto.k12.ca.us/cms/page_view?d=x&piid=&vpid=1391775088119

Area Command Meeting for Area’s 1&2

30 Jan 2014 Leave a comment

by rialto-now in Andy Carrizales, Burglury, Ca, Chief Mat Fratus, city attorney, City of Rialto, Crime, davidsMarketing, Flores Park Neighborhood Watch, Inland Empire, Mike Story, paramedic ambulances, Public Safety, Rialto, Rialto, Rialto Fire, Rialto Parks, Rialto Police Department, rialto unified school district, RUSD, SCAT, Street Crime Attack Team, SWAT, Uncategorized, youth Tags: Andy Karol, Area Command, police department, Rialto Police

Well last Thursday the people of area’s 1&2 were treated to the first Area Command meeting of 2014. One thing that is clear that this is one of the regularly scheduled public venues that gets a little bit better each and every time. One component recently added to these meetings are the police department education meetings. The first one I remember is last year they had the staff from dispatch come out and educate the community on what dispatch does, why dispatch operates the way it does & how you can help the dispatcher answer your call as quickly as possible.

This year the special presentation is on our Investigative Unit how it operates, who makes up the staff, what their prospective duties are and some frequently asked questions that everyone found interesting and helpful. Even Area Command Leader Lt Karol gave everyone useful tips to help minimize your vulnerability to identity theft. We were presented with information from the following people:

Mike Story (City Administrator) – Went over the Mayors first public Q&A event with city dept heads, various activities that took place at the end of 2013. Mike Story also went over The Rialto Institute of Progress an 8-week program that will be held from March 6th to April 24th. Sessions will be held at the Rialto Civic Center in the Council Chambers from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. After completion, the community members will have an increased understanding of Rialto’s organizational structure, of the operations of our City Departments, and how they impact the quality of life in the City of Rialto.
Shawn O’Connell (Councilman) – Councilman O’Connell addressed his accident and thanked everyone for their support and prayers. Councilman also spoke about the new City Attorney and congratulated everyone in the city for their efforts to help make Rialto a better place to live.
Detective Stella & Detective Farmer (Rialto Police) – These two gentlemen gave us a look into the Investigations Unit and helped the people in attendance better understand how and why the Detectives do what they do. Lt. Andy Karol gave us a mini education on steps you can take to better protect yourself from identity theft.
Amy Crow (Waste Management) – Amy went over the senior & disabled person discount for trash services. She also highlighted the park cleanup schedule and other services the city offers like shred fest.
Linda (Cert) – Linda one of the training volunteers came up to introduce the CERT program. CERT stands for Community Emergency Response Training. The idea behind CERT and the importance of the program is in the event of a natural disaster EMS services will be primarily diverted to Schools & Hospitals leaving the communities on their own for up to 72 hours. CERT teaches you basic life saving skills and ways to gain shelter and safety as a Neighborhood unit.
Cpl. Cameron Nelson (Rialto Police) – Cpl. Nelson is the community liason officer for Rialto Police and came up to highlight some up coming programs. First was Golf With A Cop which gives kids ages 10-17 the opportunity to learn golf from a PGA player and other top notch golf instructors. An added benefit is if kids can hold a specific GPA they can play for free at Colton Golf Course all year long. Second was Fuel for Success a effort to get at risk kids to find the importance of staying in school and striving for excellence. The 2014 program will be held at Eisenhower High and will follow the look and feel of Rialto Police highly successful National Night Out program. The final presentation was on the Pride Platoon program that takes troubled, at risk or youth without direction and give them a program that is used to put them on the right track and give them needed tools for success in life. This program has been awarded multiple programs and cited as helping reduce our youth crime in the city of rialto.
Lt. Andy Karol (Rialto Police) – Lt Karol gave us a break down of some of the events that happened over 2013. He also showed us crime data that shows even though crime in California has increased crime in Rialto has decreased by 20%. He also introduced the Next Door Virtual Neighborhood Watch program. Next Door was created by venture capitalists to help communities connect in the biggest way we interact today via technology. Next Door is a FREE program and helps those communities where we don’t know our neighbors to connect. To sign up for Next door or learn more about it visit https://nextdoor.com/
Lt Kathy Thompson (Rialto Police) – Lt Thompson came up to introduce the public to the Police Community Program where residents are introduced to the inner workings of the police department and given a mini education into the job of a police department. As a former attendee of this and other similar classes with cities like Redlands, San Bernardino and the County of San Bernardino this program is top notch and gives you a awesome perspective on what our police do and how they do it.

The Area Command meetings are a vital tool in empowering the Rialto community to take a proactive role in helping make Rialto a great place to live, work & play. The information given at these meetings goes well beyond the presentations its extended to the wealth of information in the manner of the many flyers and printed materials available as well as the ability to talk 1-1 with people that help you with any given situation, problem or question.

If you missed this meeting your in luck there is another one coming up on Monday February 3rd at Calvary Chapel Rialto on the corner of Merrill and Cedar at 7pm. This meeting is geared towards the lower half of the city areas 3 & 4 (everything south of foothill) but anyone is welcome to come. Here are some flyers for your reference:

http://www.rialtopd.com

First Area Command Meetings of 2014

20 Jan 2014 Leave a comment

by rialto-now in Area Command, Ca, City of Rialto, Crime, Inland Empire, Mike Story, Nieghborhood Watch, Public Safety, Rialto, Rialto, Rialto Fire, Rialto Parks, Rialto Police Department, SCAT, Sunrise Church, SWAT, www.careervisionbyjamie.com, youth

The very successful Area Command meetings are back with a ever so slight tweak. Instead of having four meetings they have combined two areas and made two meetings. When Area Commanders were asked about this change it was done this way to kick off the program and brings the areas together as they introduce a new Virtual Neighborhood Watch Program and other items better given to large groups. This combining of groups should benefit the community because people benefit from hearing other community members concerns.

http://www.rialtopd.com

Some things to expect at the first meeting of 2014 are:

Introduction of the Next Door virtual neighborhood watch program.
Access to city department heads like City Administrator Mike Story.
Receive up-to-date crime stats for the area in question.
Network with other concerned residents and find solutions to ongoing and prior problems.
Browse through the large amount of flyers and resources available via our city, police & fire departments.

This is an ongoing successful program run by dedicated professionals that care about the city and want to see positive forward movement in the city of Rialto.

For more information please refer to the flyer and the prospective area commander or go to www.rialtopd.com

The first Council Meeting of 2014 will address big issues

14 Jan 2014 Leave a comment

by rialto-now in Andy Carrizales, Barbara A. McGee, Budget, Ca, Chief Mat Fratus, city attorney, City Clerk, City of Rialto, davidsMarketing, Deborah Robertson, Ed palmer, Inland Empire, Joe Baca Jr, Mike Story, Public Safety, Rialto, Rialto, Rialto Fire, Shawn O'Connell Tags: city attorney, City Attorney Jimmy Gutierrez, City Council, Shawn O'Connell

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.”

Follow Councilman O’Connell at https://twitter.com/Shawn4Rialto

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

Rialto Fire Vrs Police Broomball Results

04 Jan 2014 Leave a comment

by rialto-now in Chief Mat Fratus, City of Rialto, davidsMarketing, Deborah Robertson, Inland Empire, Mike Story, Public Safety, Rialto, Rialto, Rialto Fire, Rialto Police Department, SCAT, Street Crime Attack Team Tags: Battle of the Badges, city of rialto, Fire Department, friendly game, Rialto Fire Department, Rialto Police

Today the residents of the city of Rialto were treated to a friendly game of Broomball. It was a Battle of the Badges that will go down in history. Rialto Fire Department was keeping the police department at bay staying one point ahead with aggressive offensive play and good ice. After the second period was over the heat of the 80 degree day finally made the ice the great equalizer. Portions of the ice became super slick and both teams players found the ice difficult to maneuver on.

Rialto Police re-grouped and began using a new strategy of keeping a player back on defense to help stop any Fire Department fast breaks. In the end Rialto Police found the energy and stamina to over come the Fire Department by a score of 7-6. Both sides were equally represented in the stands with fans of both agencies showing up to route on their team. The stands filled up so much that additional bleachers needed to be brought in to offer everyone a seat.

Mike Story acted as master of ceremonies welcoming everyone and letting the crowd know that they could skate after the game for half price. Towards the end of the game Mayor Robertson showed up and was excited to see both public safety agencies giving our community such a great show. The residents were happy to see so many changes in the city and looked forward to more in 2014. One resident Debbie said she loved the addition of the ice rink and community events it helps bring positive people into the city and make it a good place to live.

The only casualty in this battle of the badges match were the brooms. Ton of brooms were broken damaged or even destroyed. Rialto Fire brought out a push broom but were warned by the referees that a push broom was not acceptable. Oh did we forget to highlight our refs for this game, none other than Fire Chief Fratus & Police Chief Farrar. I have to say both refs had fun and looked like they enjoyed laying down a little law on their employees within the game.

Don’t Miss the next Battle of the Badges in the annual Blood Drive, last year Rialto PD won.

Interviews for New City Attorney

04 Dec 2013 Leave a comment

by rialto-now in Ca, city attorney, City of Rialto, Crime, Deborah Robertson, Ed palmer, Inland Empire, Jimmy Gutierrez, Mike Story, Rialto, Rialto, Shawn O'Connell

Well it looks like the bids are in and we have 5 contenders for the City Attorney job here in Rialto. We have 4 new bidders and the existing Attorney Jimmy Gutierrez. You can watch the interviews unfold in person, on the internet or via the public broadcasting channel.

Holiday Parade & Vendor Fair

18 Nov 2013 1 Comment

by rialto-now in Ca, City of Rialto, davidsMarketing, Inland Empire, Mike Story, Rialto, Rialto, youth Tags: Rialto Fire Department, Rialto Holiday Parade, rialto police department, Vendor Fair

Get the holiday season off to a great start by attending the 2013 Rialto Holiday Parade and Vendor Fair! Bring the entire family to downtown Rialto on Saturday, December 14, 2013. The parade starts at 10:00 am, and includes marching bands, Rialto Fire Department, Rialto Police Department, cheer squads, community groups and, of course, Santa and Mrs. Clause too! Following the parade, everyone can enjoy the Vendor Fair and tree lighting ceremony at the City Hall campus. In addition, there will be an Ice Skate Rink which will run from December 13 through January 5, 2014. So come on out for a truly pleasurable holiday experience!

Community Forum

18 Nov 2013 Leave a comment

by rialto-now in Ca, Deborah Robertson, In & Out, Inland Empire, Mike Story, Rialto, Rialto Tags: City Department Heads, city of rialto, community, deborah robertson, Hall Council Chambers, Mayor Robertson

Mayor Deborah Robertson invites Rialto residents to attend the first community forum of 2014 on Thursday, January 16, 2014, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. The meeting will be held in the City Hall Council Chambers located at 150 South Palm Ave.

This is a opportunity to inform our city elected officials on what you see as important or a direction the city has been taking that you don’t agree with. This is your opportunity to plug in and become aware of the decisions being made on your behalf.

The Mayor and City Department Heads will be available to receive comments and answer questions from the residents. Mayor Robertson is looking forward to a candid dialog with community members to help understand and take into consideration perspectives from residents as the City Council plans for a second century of progress for Rialto. Mayor Robertson understands the success of the City of Rialto is directly related to meeting the needs of our community.

Come share your thoughts on issues that matter to you and our community. For additional information, contact Angela Perry or Pam Kennedy at (909) 820-2689; or visit their website at http://www.rialtoca.gov.

Review of Sunrise Church Fall Fest 2013

30 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

by rialto-now in Ca, City of Rialto, davidsMarketing, Mike Story, Public Safety, Rialto, Rialto, Rialto Police Department, SCAT, SWAT, youth Tags: Ayala Avenues, city of rialto, Rialto, Rialto Community Baptist Church, rialto police department, Sunrise Church

Sunrise Church has been a staple in Rialto for YEARS. Originally named Rialto Community Baptist Church now Sunrise Church has two locations in the city of Rialto. Fall Fest was held at their main church campus on the corner of Riverside and Ayala Avenues.

Fall Fest is the churches way of giving the community a safe alternative to Halloween and trick or treating. The event was very well attended and had a lot of great activities they even involved the Rialto Police department and 2 food trucks and Handels Ice Cream.

Below are some pictures we took of the event: