Saturday July 11th at 10pm Coffee Nutzz on Foothill Blvd was full to the brim. Were they having an awesome sale? Releasing a new coffee flavor? No they were hosting Assembly Member Cheryl Brown’s Coffee with the Constituents. That’s awesome right? Well it was great for Andy the owner of Coffee Nutzz to open his business for this event what wasn’t so awesome were the shady ground rules Assembly Member Brown laid out for the community.
Here is the video of the shutting down of the media by a staff member:
On July 2nd Congresswoman Norma Torres held a event where people could get to speak with the congresswoman and speak to the congresswoman about issues important to them. We attended this event and it was odd everyone was pushed off into a large room and were taken into the Congresswoman one at a time. As I stood there in the room of people I knew and didn’t know I spoke to two of Cheryl Browns Representatives and asked them if the coffee event on July 11th will be this way and they said no. Well that turned out to not be true………. When I spoke to Congress Woman Torres I explained that I didn’t agree that one on one events like this were always the best course of action. Having an open discussion gives everyone and opportunity to hear and learn from each question and hear the given answer. She agreed that would be a good way to address people but she was holding this type of an event for people that wanted to speak to her about personal issues that were sensitive in nature. We both left the conversation happy and exchanged ideas and wisdom I left the experience with a new found respect for Congress Woman Torres.
So I arrived at Coffee Nutzz and saw a mixture of well known Rialto residents as well as a collection of people I have never met before. Cheryl Brown was working the room saying hello to people in attendance and it looked like the open forum that was promised. So as Cheryl Brown began to address the crowd I began recording the Assembly Members opening remarks to later post here and I got shut down by Daniel Garcia on of the Assembly Members legislative aides. According to this aide there was no recording allowed, so wait how were all the sleeping mothers and people who work nights and weekends supposed to be able to hear the words of the Assembly Member if nobody could make a recording of them? Then what happened next was an additional slap in the face she said she would be pulling people into special side meetings, wait what????????
When I spoke to Assembly Woman Brown I explained that I didn’t agree that one on one events like this were always the best course of action. Having an open discussion gives everyone and opportunity to hear and learn from each question and hear the given answer. Mrs. Brown was very rigged in her position and would not even entertain the option that an open forum would benefit anyone else. Of course it didn’t help that I had issues with Mrs. Browns Local Staff and their lack of ability to help bring resolution to a range of given situations. I decided well into the conversation that my time and Mrs. Brown’s time was being wasted so I posed for a photo that a staff member took and exited stage left.
After to talking to others about the event they too were wondering why it wasn’t a more open forum type of event.
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.
Tuesday June 9th at the regular city council meeting Robert Eizenbiez and his staff laid out a confusing and hard to understand plan on how to deal with water restrictions sent down by Governor Jerry Brown. Mr. Eizenbiez a new Public Works Director to Rialto is new to his job here but not new to public service working in the largest California city to file for bankruptcy San Bernardino as an engenier and as an interim Public Works Director. City Council moved the public works presentation up to the June 9th meeting as they were waiting for over a month to hear why they should approve harsh regulations on the community of Rialto when no presentation has ever been made? Councilman O’connell said at a past meeting that he would like to see a healthy education component before they started attacking the community. Councilman Palmer wanted to see language like no watering during high winds and no watering after measureable rain for 48 hours better outlined and Councilman Scott wanted to know why we had a green lawn ordnance if we are now telling people not to water their lawns?
Very few of these questions were answered but we did learn that the city will be asking you to do their job for them and turn in your neighbors via a mobile app that could be located online. Rialto Public Works Department is touting awesome numbers in getting the message out to Rialto water customers their first workshop in March 2015 had 45 people the workshop had 70 people. Ron a local business owner who watched the meeting online said “So a city of 200,000 people an increase of 25 people shows success?” The Rialto Public Works presentation did say that people are calling about rebate programs but are saying the the rebates are too low and don’t provide enough to accomplish the goals that were set. Local marketing professionals and Political Activists say that the rebates are just there to get you to purchase new items you can’t afford. Anthony from Rialto Watch Dogs says “take the Weather based irrigation timers they only give you a $100 rebate yet a inexpensive unit that isn’t reliable will cost you $200 and that’s not including the other materials or labor to install the unit.” Even the Public Works presentation stated that rialto water customers are saying that the $350 max rebate for turf removal doesn’t do much.
Rialto Public Works Department also stated that they will be TARGETING Schools and Local Businesses in an effort to force the 28% water reduction that the Governor laid out in his latest drought plan. The public works Department Presentation says it will begin with education but they can and will levy fines of $100 to $500 for each offense in addition to monetary fines Rialto Water can install water restrictive flow device or shut off the water.
The city of Riverside has sued a state agency over water restrictions intended to combat the drought, claiming the rules are unfair because the city has ample groundwater supplies. The Southern California city argues it has been unfairly ordered to cut water use by 24 percent even though it has groundwater supplies for four years and does not rely on any imported water, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in Fresno County Superior Court. Riverside, a city of 317,000 people, wants to be allowed to cut water consumption by 4 percent along with some jurisdictions in Northern California that rely on surface water supplies, the suit said. (http://abc7.com/news/riverside-sues-over-california-water-restrictions/776794/ )
Why does it appear that Riverside cares more about their residents than Rialto? Rialto’s City Attorney will attack a citizens right to FREE speech but not protect the communities right to not be unfairly attacked by over reaching legislation.
We made calls to Clarence Mansell the General Manager of Rialto Water Services & Robert Eizenbiez the Public Works Director for the City of Rialto. Calls to Rialto Water Services were not returned but Robert Eizenbiez did talk to us click here http://wp.me/p1Otmn-Da to see what he had to say.
Local people in the City of Rialto are kinda tired of rialto trying to build the plane while in mid flight. This means it seems like every project is thrown together and the community gets to suffer while they feel their way around ill conceived poorly planned ideas.
What are your thoughts on this ordinance? Comment below or email us at rialtonw@aol.com
At 4:39 pm on Sunday over 20 shots rang out in the Cedar Park Greens community in the Flores Park Area. Residents who were trying to report the shots fired incident were given a high call volume message and 911 calls would not connect.
The shooting was on the east side of the multi housing community. This is the same community where the two dodger fans who beat up Giants fan Brian Stow lived. Cedar Park Greens is the nasty community everyone just pretends doesn’t exist until something bad happens said Eric a local resident that walks Etiwanda daily.
“It was pretty scary happened right behind my house. We were outside enjoying this beautiful weather, I thought it was fireworks at first, until something whizzed by my friends head. Lord help us all” said Sandra.
Last reports were that there were no victims located as yet. Multiple shooters and at least three vehicles. Helicopter found couple possible shooters. Police found empty shell casings in the street. Police were checking all hospitals as parties involved left the scene.
Reports are at least three shooters according to witness statements.
So far we know that multiple “victims” were shot at and fled the scene. At least one party called police to identify that they fled the scene after being shot at and police were in route to interview them.
Three separate series of gun shots rang out through the community. With the large problem with illegal fireworks in Rialto some people were unsure at first about what they were hearing. As of 9pm no reports of injuries or arrests have been made.
Very few business owners open a new location quite like Peter & Linda at Major Brain Freeze. Major Brain Freeze owners make the whole day a party and an experience. They day started off with a ribbon cutting and there were representatives from the city, city council, assembly member Browns office, the chamber of commerce and police department.
Part of the grand opening is the ribbon cutting but the best part is getting to meet the people behind the Frozen Yogurt creation. Peter & Linda franchise owners of two Waba Grill restaurants decided to take on the world of Frozen Yogurt and have never looked back. Rialto is their 4th location and when we asked them if there were plans for a fifth they said were just enjoying the right now but you never know what the future holds.
Peter the husband of the dynamic duo that is taking the Inland Empire Frozen Yogurt world by storm has roots here in Rialto. He lived here as a child and went to school here. The husband and wife team have worked hard to strategically position their restaurants in vibrant areas with high traffic. In addition to high traffic they are the only dessert option in the centers where they are located making Major Brain Freeze the obvious choice for the sweet ending to your meal.
Major Brain Freeze is more than just a Frozen Yogurt shop its a visual masterpiece. It also reminds many of a retro candy shop with a wide variety of topping choices some customers can go a little overboard….. The owners are fine with that they say have a little fun. They also provide a good sized fresh topping bar as well as yogurt chips, shredded coconut and CANDY ANTS!!!!!!!!!!
We interviewed Andy Carrizales about this addition to the North Rialto Development pad. We asked Andy what he thought of Major Brain Freeze as a potential customer competitor. Andy said that his business Cones Creamery makes hand made Ice Cream and he thought it was good that Rialto residents have an option locally if they are looking for frozen yogurt.
We would like to welcome yet another great team of owners to the city of Rialto.
With so many options for your sweet treats it appears that Major Brain Freeze has taken one more city by storm……..
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.
Rialto, California Residents and stakeholders. Now is the time to engage and act. Hassan Ikhrata was at Fontana City Council Defending communist ideas like taxing you for miles driven in your car and stealing 2 lanes of the 10 freeway and turning them into toll lanes at the preliminary cost of $1,650,000,000!!!!! For those of you that have issues with place value that is One Billion Six Hundred Fifty Thousand Million DOLLARS!!!!!!!!! Mr.Hassan uses the 91 freeway as a close point of reference of toll lane success. Maybe Mr. Hassan is unaware but even with toll lanes the 91 freeway is still referred to as the Mark Of The Beast Freeway and The Freeway From Hell.
An LA area based blog posted a story where you can find out more about the person running SCAG Southern California Associated Governments the overreaching group that seeks to bring us from a capitalist democratic society into a communist socialist society. Below is the article and tid bits we found interesting:
A black box in your car? Some see a source of tax revenue – As America’s road planners struggle to find the cash to mend a crumbling highway system, many are beginning to see a solution in a little black box that fits neatly by the dashboard of your car.
“This really is a must for our nation. It is not a matter of something we might choose to do,” said Hasan Ikhrata, executive director of the Southern California Assn. of Governments, which is planning for the state to start tracking miles driven by every California motorist by 2025. “There is going to be a change in how we pay these taxes. The technology is there to do it.”
Below is a video of Mr. Hassan presenting at Fontana City Council on Tuesday April 14th 2015 notice the police in the background and the tension in the room.
Why is this important to Rialto? Well Mayor Deborah Robertson sits on SCAG & SANBAG and is in favor of these ideas and is speaking on behalf of all 100,000 people that live here in Rialto. We have not been able to get any other council member to go on record about these plans but we will keep trying.
If you have been paying attention then you know that Mayor Robertson & Councilman Ed Scott want Rialto to have a sister city. A presentation was done on March 24th to show the council what this Cuba event would look like.
During the presentation the travel agent giving the presentation never mentioned the forming of a sister city with any city in Cuba because of the existing US policies that prohibit such an action. What the travel agent did say is that the Rialto sponsored trip to cuba would be an educational trip to learn about the food, culture and geography of Cuba. I wish I could show you that footage but the city has since taken down the video from that meeting.
I stood before our mighty elected officials and told them to just say what they really want to do. I told them especially Mayor Robertson let your yes be yes and your no be no were not stupid we will remember you lied come election day. Did anyone heed my warning? No they all stuck to the story that the sister city concept was not something anyone was actively seeking. Then I went to google and typed in Rialto Cuba Sister City and guess what I found:
Throught this interview with http://www.scpr.org Mayor Robertson speaks about a Sister City with a Cuban City. She tries to create the illusion of a cuban culture here in Rialto when most people who grew up here or lived here have never met a Cuban person connected to Rialto.
Here Mayor Robertson claims that Globus is acting on the cities behalf using the people to people program to solicit a Sister City relationship within Cuba.
Its kind of hard to say were lying or fabricating the truth when we now have Mayor Robertsons intentions directly from her mouth.
The debate continues on whether the Drop In Jazz Fest is a city sponsored event or not. Mayor Robertson and Mr. George Harris say that it is not. The problem is if I told you I was not a clown yet wore clown makeup, juggled and had a red nose & big red feet would you believe me? Here is where the debate continues:
The Drop In Jazz Fest is being given airtime and production time on the Rialto Network. Something that is not available for non city events or facilities.
Most of the work to prepare for this event has come from city staff that were on city paid time. From public works leveling out a special parking lot, admin staff working on paperwork, special intervening on behalf of councilmembers Scott & Baca Jr, use of police and fire staffing, special reduction in public safety costs & ability to shut down a PUBLIC park to use it for a private use that is outside of its intended purpose.
All of the marketing has been RIALTO nothing else. Also they are supposed to repay all of the city employee time and resources would be repaid. well they have dropped the price of general admission twice now. They stared at $80 each and now they are $50 each this is more a sign of desperation most of the time a successful event will get more expensive as the event draws near not cheaper.
The newest show that this is not a private event and a de facto City Event is the massive banner that is now hung on the outfield netting advertising the “The 3rd Annual RIALTO Drop In Jazz Fest” it states that is is to benefit the Rialto Youth Collaborative but it is not being put on by the Rialto Youth Collaborative it is put on by RIALTO for their benefit.
Remember they say it’s not a Rialto event?
I am not against kids or performing arts as accused by some. As a representative for many local artists there is no bigger supporter of the arts but if the public needs to follow the rules so should the city leadership. Also shame on the East Rialto Kiwanis for presenting such a horrible example to our youth when it comes to abusing Alcohol. We need to show our kids that you can have a good time at a venue without getting drunk. Don’t forget these people will be piling into cars and driving through our city streets and the public freeways. Who will arrest all of these drunk drivers?
rialtonow 