Rafael Trujillo | rialtonow

Changes coming to Rialto Police Department Leadership

28 Sep 2017 1 Comment

Information sent to us today indicates that changes to the top leadership rolls will be coming to Rialto Police Department.

As of October 1st former Police Chief Mark Kling will come on as a “Consultant” to help transition current Police Chief Deanda into “Retirement”. Police Chief Deanda should be well versed in the retirement process as he regularly tells the story of how he was needed so much in the city of Rialto that he was asked to return to work three times after filing for retirement.

In the communication from City Administrator Mike Story he laid out the struggles a quick departure like this will bring “As the city administrator, I must ensure there is a smooth transition of leadership and place leading up to and after chief Deanda retirement. Ideally, organisations have about 1 year to plan the transition of executive leadership. Chief Deanda will be retiring from public service and three short months on December 28th 2017 there for once Chief Deanda submitted and I accepted his notice of retirement, plans for executive leadership transitioning were set into motion. As an organization, filling the position of a retiring police chief is Paramount to community safety, department operations, and intergovernmental Affairs across departments so there are minimal service interruptions”.

Earlier today the Chief was witnessed briefing his command staff on the coming changes in his Department. Those pictured with the Chief at Mimi’s in North Fontana were Captain Andy Karol, Lt Robert Smith, Lt Dean Hardin and Paul Stella. Staff could overheard the chief talking about the memo from Mike Story and the impending changes.

Nobody will ever know the true story on why we have such a quick departure since past leadership has made sure a replacement was already on the ground before major changes took place. For example:

When Chief Kling left he had vetted and prepared Captain Tony Farrar for the promotion.
Fire Chief Matt Fratus knew he was not going to work forever so he hired Sean Grayson our current Fire Chief to eventually replace him.
When Police Chief Tony Farrar was on his way out he secured the promotion and placement of Chief Deanda.
Even City Administrator Mike Story announced months ago of his coming retirement at the end of this year.

So when something is outside the ordinary you have to ask yourself what is the real story? What we do know is that the city has found itself under more legal action brought by staff that claim they were fired, discriminated or retaliated against without merit and some of those cases have began to settle out of court. The latest claim was made know yesterday September 26th 2017 when a $125,000 claim was filed claiming misconduct by a former employee of MHM & Associates.

Answers that will need to be answered are:

How much is the city going to pay 2 police chief’s?
Will Deanda’s removal begin to bring the lawsuits to a close?
How do you attract a quality Police Chief in a Financially Strapped city like Rialto?

There are more questions than answers.

Today we got some of the answers from City Administrator Mike Story who said that Mark Kling will be working on a $15,000 dollar contract for three months to help during this transition. Mark Kling is one of the brighter spots in Rialto Police Department history as he led the Police Department out of the scandals of the past and the poor public trust of the police department. City Administrator Mike Story said that this money came out of the city administration budget already earmarked for consulting.

We will update as more information comes in.

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Councilman Rafael Trujillo looks to get North End residents excited about a new discount market.

04 Aug 2017 3 Comments

On August 3rd Councilman Rafael Trujillo posted a post about checking out one of the newest stores to be brought to Rialto’s last chance to finally bring something that residents want.

“My wife, Mirella, and I were checking out the market set to open as part of the Renaissance Marketplace in 2018. Any feedback?”

I’m not sure he was really prepared for the feedback he got. Residents in Rialto are TIRED of all of the discount markets being dumped in our area. We asked on our page if Rialto needed another discount market let alone one in the North End Development.

Julie said “No, have enough of those …. Drive down Baseline between Sycamore and Willow and there are a couple of hole in the wall dollar type shops, a Dollar Tree, a 99 cent store, Big Lots, Walmart (grocery), Stater Bros (grocery), Superior (grocery), Family Dollar, Walgreens, CVS, DD;s Discounts, Fallas, and Save and Tell…. if we want discount stores we can go there, can we maybe get a Hobby/craft store? How about an Ulta or Sephora? How about a Bath and Body works? See’s candies? Some kind of Family type entertainment? Hot Topic, Forever 21 ?? we really do not need another outlet type store, grocery or otherwise”.

You can’t help but agree with Julie or the throngs of other people chiming in on the Councilman’s post. Jason said this about the Councilman’s post “It makes me sad to see that you as a councilman believe this to be a good option for Rialto. We need to make our city better and stop bringing in trash stores. Looking at the images you showed how is anyone supposed to be excited for a store that sells discounted garbage items that are of poor quality?” Families are spending real money that isn’t being captured here because our city seems to think were nothing more than a bunch of poor people looking to search through cheap 2nd class items. Families have commented that they spend $160 to $200 a month on stores that offer better quality and fresher options. That is $2400 of tax money going out the window with each families year fresh food bills.

Now you may say hey your being to hard on Grocery Outlet, I’m sure they offer great products…. right? Actually to offer such cheap prices and not take coupons they are selling some interesting stuff:

Grocery Outlet doesn’t accept manufacturer coupons, because their prices are already low. When a grocery producer has excess inventory or the packaging—not the actual product—is damaged, discount grocers like Grocery Outlet buy these products for pennies on the dollar.
Unlike traditional grocery stores that stock the same items weekly, discount stores stock items depending on what they get in (mostly overstock from other stores). So when you see something you like, stock up and stock up fast, because it might not be there tomorrow.
Often, when bigger stores pass overstocked products to grocery outlets, items are close to the expiration date. Knowing what “Sell By,” “Best if Used By,” and “Use By” dates mean will help you determine whether you can use a product before the quality starts to deteriorate.
Frozen foods are great deals at discount grocery stores, because they can live past their purchase dates as long as they’ve been kept frozen. YUCK
According to the USDA, cans with small dents are safe to eat. So if you see cans with small dents and banged-up boxes, it doesn’t mean the food is bad; it just means traditional stores can’t sell them.

Specialize in cut-rate food and household goods not “good enough” for your average supermarket.

To make matters worse is the following tid bits the City Planners are hoping you don’t notice:

In the next year at least 3 more discount stores will pop up around Rialto. These stores include Aldi, Five Below and now Grocery Outlet.
Still to this day the old Fresh & Easy building and the old ralphs in the North End of the city sit empty.
Plans are to bring ANOTHER fitness center to the old Ralphs building.

Were not sure about you but sooner or later Rialto residents need to hold their city planners feet to the fire and stop the flood of discount stores.

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Rialto Mayor and Council Pay Off More Political Favors With Tax Dollars

25 Jul 2017 1 Comment

by rialto-now in #CA31st, 100 Black Men, Ana Gonzales, and the unincorporated communities of Bloomington and Muscoy, Andy Carrizales, Budget, Burglury, Ca, City of Rialto, Colton, Crime, Currupt, Deborah Robertson, Ed Scott, Fontana, Grand Terrace, hardy brown II, Inland Empire, Joe Baca Jr, joseph williams, Rafael Trujillo, Rialto, San Bernardino, yap, youth

Rialto Mayor is looking to give $100,000 contract to her friend Luvina Beckley who is the CEO of MHM & Associates to run and facilitate the State’s Prop 47 Grant. Besides being highly inappropriate given the relationship they share. It’s also odd that the Mayor is giving Luvina Beckley access to run a state grant because Luvina Beckley has been disbarred from having anything to do with Federal Grants for three years. In a letter from the National Corporation for Community Service spells out why Luvina Beckley is being disbarred.

“Accordingly based upon the reason set out in the August 19th 2016 notice of proposed debarment which is hereby Incorporated by reference and further discussed above I hereby confirm my earlier decision to debar you for a period of three years this department is based on the determination that you.

Violated the terms of a public agreement or transaction so serious as to affect the Integrity of a corporation program.

Engaged in inappropriate activity that was so serious and compelling a nature that it affects your present responsibility to engage in transactions with the federal government.

This department is effective for the following cover transactions as specified in 2 CFR part 180.

Procurement contacts that are subject to Federal acquisition regulations 48 CFR chapter 1 and non procurement transactions including but not limited to Grants Cooperative agreements scholarships fellowships contracts of assistance loans loan guarantees subsidies insurances payments for specify uses and donation agreements.”

The tab item reads as you can see below:

TAB 4 17-669 Request City Council to Adopt Resolution No. 7172 Accepting the Board of State and Community Corrections, California Proposition 47
Program Grant Award in the amount of $996,975 and Authorize a 3 year Contract with M.H.M. and Associates in the amount $99,000 for
program monitoring, report writing, compliance, project data collection and program recommendations.

Luvina Beckley who has been not only a close person friend of Mayor Robertson but also a political ally of the Mayor and Council members had been working on Federal Grants over the past 3 years. Before his passing Councilman Shawn O’Connell grew uneasy of the way MHM & Associates were handling grants on the cities behalf but lacked any support from his fellow council members to bring things under control. Now we are allowing a person to handle a State Grant when they have been barred from handling Federal Grants.

As this grant was being written various local organizations were asked if they would be able to offer supports to provide services to the grant program. Some that offered letters of support or programs to make the grant possible are becoming concerned as they learn about the grant manager and the problems that have existed with the Federal Grant Disbarment.

The people making this decision tonight are:

Deborah Robertson Mayor – drobertson@rialtoca.gov

Ed Scott Mayor Pro Tem – edscott@rialtoca.gov

Joe Baca Jr Councilman – jbaca@rialtoca.gov

Rafael Trujillo Councilman – rtrujillo@rialtoca.gov

Andy Carrizales Councilman – acarrizales@rialtoca.gov

City Administrator Mike Story Final Parting Words

14 Jun 2017 1 Comment

Dear Mayor Robertson and City Council,

It has been my privilege to serve the City of Rialto for the past 32 years. Since 1985
when I started working for Rialto as a Planner, then as a Director, in that time I believe
we have accomplished some extraordinary things together. I can say without
hesitation that serving as your City Administrator has been the highlight of my
professional life. Thank you Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and City Council Members for the
honor and privilege you have given me to serve our community.
Rialto, too, has meant so much to me and my family. Janet and I moved here in 1981,
and we could not have found a better community in which to raise our children and
grandchildren. Rialto has been and will forever be our home.
So, after a 41 year career of working in city government for the cities of San Dimas,
Duarte, Fontana and Rialto, the time has come to move on to the next stage of our
family’s lives, and therefore this is my formal notice to the Rialto City Council that I
intend to retire from active service on December 23, 2017.

I wanted you to know well in advance in order to ensure a smooth transition. I am also
happy to offer any help in recruiting and/or working with the next City Administrator –
again to ensure as smooth a transition as possible.
Again, I would like to thank you, the Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Council Members,
Department Heads, City employees and the community for all of your support all these
years, and I look forward to accomplishing more over these next six months. We’ve
got an amazing staff at City Hall, and I am confident that greater things are yet to
come, and greater things are still to be done in Rialto.

Sincerely,

Mike Story
City Administrator
City of Rialto

Story by David Phillips

Mike Story was one of the more honorable men to hold the position of City Administrator. Unlike many of his colleagues in other cities he worked hard to make local government work for the taxpayers. Mike is a man of strong character and a man of God. He has been a role model and second father to many youth growing up in Rialto. I was one of those youth and I can tell you that Mike has been someone I look up to. One of legacy setting items Mike Story will leave the city of Rialto with is his dedication to education of the Public Administration process. Mike created and ran the Institute of Progress which gave people a first hand look at the who, what where and why of the operations of local government.

Mike is also one of the few public employees in the nation that worked tirelessly to lead with his actions and not just words. When the city was in serious trouble in regards to the budget he was the 1st person to take massive pay and benefit cuts to show that he was not going to ask anyone to do something he wouldn’t 1st do. His integrity shows out in the words of former Police Chief Tony Farrar.

We also can’t forget the man who wore integrity like a God given tattoo Former Councilman Shawn O’Connell. I can remember many conversations with Councilman O’Connell where had it not been for an ethical leader like Mike Story Councilman O’Connell would not have had the impact he had for the city of Rialto.

History will remember those who stood in the gap for strangers with no care for the personal cost. History will remember you Mr. Story have a great retirement.

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Communities Concerns Lead to Attempted Kidnap of a Girl at Flores Park

17 May 2017 2 Comments

Photo credit SB Sun
George Molina-flores, 26, of Rialto, was arrested for suspicion of attempted kidnapping at Flores Park Tuesday.

Residents of Flores Park and Parents of Dollahan Elementry have been concerned with the illegal and questionable activities taking place outside the school and park that are only seperated by a single 5 foot chain link fence.

Parents of Dollahan Elementary spoke at recent school meetings with Rialto Unified School District Security officers and School Safety Chief Leary (meetings Rialto Police were absent) about creepy guys harassing moms walking in the park, homeless people sleeping and drinking in the park as well as people being witnessed preforming sexual acts in the park in broad daylight.

Residents say that more drugs and sex go on in the park restrooms than anything else. At a recent Safe Routes to School meeting at Dollahan (meetings Rialto Police were absent) parents marked multiple problem houses on maps where drugs are sold, kids are used as drug mules, gang related and former felons sit in open garages and drink all day and a group home full of mentally disturbed right across the street of a park and elementry school are located all around the school. One attempt to create walking groups to school failed because of a concern that pedophiles were targeting the walking group.

Local resident Marie said “that she has lived in the community for over 10 years and there was a time that we felt like Rialto PD cared about our safety. Now they have removed any officers that wanted to help us keep this neighborhood clean what is worse is a council member and officers still have family living here and we get no help”. Marie is right there were dark times where Lt’s like Burkholder, Crispin and Karol all worked very hard to make sure that good people were taken care of and evil did not prevail. These leaders with a community mindset brought in aggressive officers and staff that made things much safer in the Flores Park Community. Then people like former Captain Joe Cirilo that was witnessed multiple times yell at and threatening residents that were looking for help for their community.

Flores Park Neighborhood Watch now has a new Area Commander who acts a lot like former Area Commander Joe Cirilo. Rialto Police Lt. Paul Stella is the current Area Commander and the leadership among the Neighborhood Watch group have expressed a lack of confidence in his ability to lead the Northern portion of Rialto. Neighborhood Watch leadership asked Lt Stella last summer at a promotion ceremony for officers if they could sit down with him and he barked “why would I meet with you?” When they said we would like to give you a insider look into our community and the ongoing issues. Lt Stella said “I know all about your community and your group I don’t need your help.”

The recent Kidnap attempt at Flores Park after school dismissed yesterday it leaves one to ask does he really know what is going on in the community if these concerns preceded the incident the other day? School Safety officers walk the park when they are on campus and identify people not in the park for valid reasons and multiple people have been removed from the park but not by Rialto Police but by School Safety officers according to sources. Now that this incident has happened Rialto Police will have additional patrols after school and cameras have been looked at and any that are not working have been marked to be fixed according to Sgt Nelson form Rialto PD.

Sgt Nelson said that its sad that sometimes it takes incidents like these to move police into action even though it is the desire and goal to place resources to keep them from ever happening. Sgt Nelson also said that now its vital to remain vigilant in alerting the police to any suspicious persons.

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Public Safety takes a Break from Regular Duties to Attend Mayors Jazz Festival

24 Apr 2017 Leave a comment

So it appears that police from three different cities will be hanging around Jerry Eves Park in North Rialto. Mayor Robertson has brought back her failure of a Jazz Fest event once again to the city of Rialto. This time instead of just wasting our resources three cities are wasting valuable public safety resources on yet another failed event.

Whoever the Mayor has running her ticket sales they should have learned from the last failed event that dropping ticket prices at the last minute tells people WE CAN’T SELL THESE TICKETS. Normally you give early birds a great price then the general admission price kicks in, but Mayor Robertson not having a business bone in her body just can’t seem to learn how to course correct for the life of her. As you can see the price never went back up it stayed at the $45 price event at the day of the event.

Like it or not our Mayor has once again took it upon herself to spend YOUR tax dollars on a PRIVATE event without any outside oversight, here is a list of what DA Ramos and his staff are refusing to look into:

City Commissioners say that Pam Kennedy the Main office Manager was passing out a stack of what looked to be at least 200 tickets out to city staff and commissioners. Who paid for these tickets?
Police from Rialto, Fontana and San Bernardino are being used to “Police” the event. Watching Mayor Aquenetta Warrens FB live videos the police are partying right along side the event guests.
Nobody else has ever been allowed to completely shut down a public park EVER!!!! Let alone break park rules allowing Alcohol, Tobacco and Marijuana to be consumed in public park property.
Leveraging against local vendors forcing them to purchase large ticket purchases to keep getting lucrative contracts with the City of Rialto. Burrtec, Rialto Water Services LLC, Rialto’s Grant Writers and many more are constantly used to try and make these events successful.
Giving preferential treatment to one ride sharing company over others. Mayor Robertson not only excluded Uber drivers from working the event, some drivers have been told to remove their Uber sicker if they drive for both Uber and Lyft. Lyft is the only company allowed to work the event.

There is nothing wrong with helping a non profit.

There is nothing wrong with helping kids.

There is A LOT wrong with making special rules for yourself, allowing people to speed and drive drunk. There is also something wrong with not following the rules laid out for our PUBLIC parks. Some of the most restrictive rules the mayor supported herself. There are people every weekend using our parks and they get into trouble if they drive cars onto the grass, bring alcohol into the park, smoke tobacco or marijuana in our parks or restrict others from using a PUBLIC PARK.

If people that were previously cited for breaking these rules were smart they would get their citations reversed off of the cities double standard when it comes to enforcing their own municipal code.

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Mayors Jazz Fest Returns After Costing Taxpayers $40,000 in 2015

11 Apr 2017 Leave a comment

Rialto Mayor Deborah Robertson seems to really enjoy two things Jazz and Using Public Money. As spelled out in yesterdays article former councilman Shawn O’Connell laid out in a letter the series of issues that followed. Let us be clear were not against live music or raising money for non profits that do good work. What does drive us crazy is when an elected official uses their power to get privileges that would never be afforded to any other group or citizen. We have laid out what about this event is driving us insane:

Using city offices and time to sell tickets for a private event.
Using massive amounts of public safety resources, promising to pay for the services used and never fulfilling that promise.
Shutting down a Park where youth sports happen knowing full well that sports field space is seriously limited.
Using elected power to hang banners off of Outfield netting for free freeway ad access.
Bringing massive amounts of alcohol into a park in a community full of kids knowing that people will be driving through those neighborhoods under the influence.

I have a lot of experience running events in this city. When the Rialto Community Coalition wanted to hold a Sober Skater event at a local park they were forced to change venues. They were also told that they could not block access to the community at large while running their event. The event was free and for a great cause to give kids something to do while on spring break that channeled their energy into something positive. Even though the event was free and open to everyone the cities special events committee stuck their noses into the event and almost shut it down.

Now Mayor Robertson has joined forces with Fontana Mayor Aquenetta Warren the Mayor currently fighting a recall attempt over her actions in bullying the community. These two are lumping in Mayors from Colton and San Bernardino into this event. To top it all off even though the three other cities have established concert venues that could accommodate the Jazz Fest these mayors are shutting down the largest park in Rialto that is 90 percent Soccer use exclusive.

The fact that yet another group of sports players will be kicked off of their fields (on a Sunday) when they are the busiest proves a lack of concern and care for Rialto Youth sports. Also this park is the same park that held this years 4th of July Festival and the parking lot was so inadequate that people were parking on dirt fields all over the place making traffic a NIGHTMARE. This year will be extra horrible as Ayala Drive is under a major construction and widening project and with normal daily traffic is a struggle. Add to the already difficult nature of this area’s traffic the burden of a concert and you must wonder why?

Many are now trying to get around Deborah Robertson’s lack of ability to tell the difference between a city event and a private event. The mayor is sending people to our blog posts to post about how awesome the event was and how they thought it was a city event. See the comments back and forth between our Facebook page and Andrea Brayboy she is working hard to try and convince us that its ok to shut kids out of a baseball park, waste $40,000 and lie to the people.

Andrea D Brayboy We live down the street from Frisbee Park and ended up with a Cabana. Despite the horrible weather, it was a beautiful event. E everyone had a wonderful time despite the rain. There was a diverse group enjoying the vendors and music. The Eisenhower HS jazz band and Choir did an excellent job performing with David Benoit. My father in law drove in from LA and had a blast. My husband and I have been waiting for this event to return because it was GREAT for our city.

Rialto Now Its great that you had a good time and Jazz music is great. Do you think it is ok to sell tickets from city offices on city time? Do you think its OK to use public resources and never fully pay them back like you agreed to? Things can be a great idea but when our leaders choose to not follow through on promises and outright lie to the community.

Andrea D Brayboy Again, I had a wonderful time. I am not and was not privy to the ins and outs of the funding sources. However, i was under the impression that it was a City event and purchased my tix at the municipal office. And now 2 years later I still feel that it was an EXCELLENT event that would make its city proud. Our children shined along with our police and small business owners. I hope they continue to host events such as that.

The Rialto Record had to print a correction to a story they wrote on the Jazz Fest because they called it a city event in the article and it clearly wasn’t:

An article published in the April 16 edition of The Rialto Record incorrectly said the upcoming Rialto Drop In Jazz Festival is presented by Rialto Mayor Deborah Robertson and the City Council. The information about the April 25 event was obtained from the event website, www.rialtojazzfest.com. The information was published in error and should state the jazz festival is not affiliated with the City of Rialto and is a private event presented by Deborah Robertson, who happens to be the city mayor, in partnership with the Rialto Youth Collaborative.

Add to all of this the non profit that Mayor Robertson has pegged to be the victim of this years Jazz Fest is Athletes for Life run by Greg Bell. Now wait where have we seen that name before? That’s right in the letter from former Councilman Shawn O’Connell:

“It was later learned that Mayor Robertson diverted at least $10,000 from the Jazz Festival to another foundation she is on with Greg Bell. Mike Story got involved and had the money returned.”

Just to prove that Greg Bell is tied to the Athletes for Life foundation we went to their website and found our proof:

“Athletes for Life™ has been providing guidance and leadership programs to youth since 1989. AFL was founded by former NFL running back, Greg Bell, who spent his childhood rising above the negative peer pressures of his neighborhood. He became a world-class athlete at the University of Notre Dame and went on to enjoy a productive eight-year career in the NFL.”

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-2017-mayors-freeway-jazz-festival-tickets-33030506133

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Internal Affairs Investigation Ruins K9 Partner “Jordy’s” Career

25 Mar 2017 7 Comments

Initial reports are that the city has paid over $6000 in boarding fees for former officer Glen Andersons partner Jordy. He was kept at Adlerhorst in Jurupa for ten months at $25.00 per day. This poor hardworking police dog is one of the greatest victims of whatever the Police Chief had an issue with former officer Glen Anderson.

The department purchased a new dog costing around $11,000 from Adlerhorst using money from the police department that could have been spent elsewhere if the Police Chief had not cut ties with the Friends of Rialto Police K9 program. Reports are that K9 Jordy was given back to Adlerhorst for another dog the a new K9 officer choose. Rialto Police added two officers since officer Glen Anderson was fired. These officers will be going through the basic class which cost is approximately $5,000 each costs that the Friends would have normally paid. Due to the length of time Jordy sat at the kennels he was no longer desirable for purchase by any other police agency and was sold to a private party.

This awesome police dog and a former Military Veteran (K9 Military Dog) was locked up, had to spend his birthday in a cage all because of an issue our Police Chief had with one of his officers. Whether officer Anderson was fired for a good reason or for a power struggle the Dog paid the ultimate price for something that was out of his control. The blame falls to Chief Deanda since his actions against former officer Anderson led to Jordy’s lockup.

It’s not just Rialto Now that is worried about Jordy one of our biggest critics since we began writing about the issues at the PD commented this on one of our last articles:

“The only person i feel sorry for is the dog Jordy. woof woof. Free Jordy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Mark Peterson

The people of Rialto have the added burden of costs that are not needed because of the chief’s actions against the Friends of Rialto Police K9’s.

We have received some heat for these stories. These stories are not meant to be done put of spite but to inform the people of Rialto about what is going on in your city. Lets look back at some of the things we have highlighted that if we didn’t write about our failed leaders would have been able to hide their failures and get away with the consequences we the people have to pay:

Selling off Rialto’s water – We were key in trying to shut this action down working to highlight that the cities scare tactics were nothing more than just that scare tactics. We also pointed out that NONE of the improvements would ever be made. Five years later we keep electing the same people and all that has been done is our rates are skyrocketing and some of the water meters have been replaced. Almost every single improvement is YEARS behind schedule and our leaders could care less.
Money moved around to pay for pet projects – We have been harping on the money movement game for years. It wasn’t until former councilman Shawn O’Connell saw it for himself did it come to a stop temporarily. Were now doing it again and allowing our leaders to get away with it.
Councilman Trujillo & Sanctuary Cities – Had it not been for this blog newly elected Councilman Trujillo would have held his sanctuary city meeting and Fontana Herald reporter would have reported it in a much different light. If not for this blog we would be in jeopardy of loosing MILLIONS in federal dollars.

So when we write about these actions it is up to you to dig into them for yourself and look at each situation with clarity and not allow personal relationships to cloud your judgement.

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Rialto identified as one of the most difficult cities in SB County to obtain public records.

19 Mar 2017 4 Comments

by rialto-now in #CA31st, and the unincorporated communities of Bloomington and Muscoy, Budget, Ca, City of Rialto, Colton, Fontana, Grand Terrace, Inland Empire, Rafael Trujillo, Rialto, San Bernardino, Shawn O'Connell

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY BEAU YARBROUGH — SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA NEWS GROUP

In an article penned by Beau Yarbrough we see that Rialto is one of four cities in San Bernardino County to not respond or fufill California Public Records Act requests from San Bernardino Sun reporter. Out of 24 cities that were requested Adelanto, Fontana, Grand Terrace & Rialto never filled the request or even responded.

This should not come as a surprise to anyone that has ever requested documents from our city or its many departments. Rialto is one of the most secretive cities in the county, even our blog has been a sore spot for the city leadership as items that used to be kept quite now float to the surface on the pages of our blog. Councilman will demonize us and city leaders may curse us under their breath but the simple fact is that Rialto residents have very little idea what goes on at city hall.

To be completley honest we have never filed one of the California Public Records Act requests because we have known for a long time what Beau Yarbrough has found out they are Dead on Arrival. Here at Rialto Now we rely on honest people giving us information or using on the spot video to prove what has been said in secret. The best example of this would be newly elected Councilman Rafeal Trujillo and his secret Rialto Sanctuary City Meeting. Had we not had video proof of what was going on few would have believed what we were telling them.

Former Councilman Shawn O’Connell used to say that before he was on the council the city would ignore his advocacy groups Freedom of Information Act requests until they began to serve them in open public council meetings and still had to pressure staff to get the information requested. This election the issue of a lack of information that is readily available to city residents is severely lacking. We also found out in this election that the person who is responsible for this information seems to have little time to process requests.

It will be interesting to see how the city responds to the SB Sun article.

Rialto Police Department Names Erica Duque Officer of the Year

14 Mar 2017 Leave a comment

Courtesy Photo/rialto police From left: Cpt. William Wilson, Chief Randy De Anda, Volunteer of the Year Richard Montano, Ofc.of the Year Erica Duque and Councilman Rafael Trujillo. Third annual Rialto Police Awards.

Officer Erica Duque was named the officer of the year at this years awards ceremony for the Rialto Police Department. Officer Duque is a Rialto Native growing up here and going to school here. Officer Duque comes from a long line of Law Enforcement professionals and is a dedicated public servant. Officer Duque still has family that lives here in Rialto and that has kept here up to date on what is going on here in our city both on and off work. Officer Duque has worked with the Community Policing and Reentry Support Program in her most recent assignment. Officer Duque is putting her unique knowledge of Rialto and her care and compassion for everyone to work to help her colleagues solve more problems and obtain results that can make Rialto residents proud.

Photo Courtesy Cpl Gregory Marquez. From left to right Probation Officer Vicky Whitworth, Officer Dwuan Rice, Officer Erica Duque and Cpl Gregory Marquez

Not only did Rialto Recognize Officer Duque for her outstanding work but her whole team was awarded for the work they have done together. Below is what Cpl Gregory Marquez said about his staff:

I chose Officer Dwuan Rice and Officer Erica Duque. I also was allowed by the Probation Department @sbcprobation In the selection of a probation officer who would be assigned to my team. Since my old partner Probation Officer Bradley left there wasn’t a doubt in my mind Probation Officer Vicky Whitworth could easily slide right into his spot. In the last year they have worked non-stop from the time they come into work until the time they leave and even get random texts and phone calls from me asking them to complete a task 😄. Last Friday our team received a Unit Citation which is a great honor recognizing our hard work! I also wanted to add that we could have not completed our tasks without the love and support from our Explorers and Volunteers as well as Code Enforcememt Officer Dave Hernandez and his team!