Major Brain Freeze Grand Opening

wpid-20150403_184552.jpg

Have you been to Major Brain Freeze in North Rialto? Well if you haven’t been there yet this Thursday will be the perfect time. The owners the “WABA KIDS” will be there all day with awesome giveaways, a ribbon cutting at noon and lots of fun and of course come try their frozen yogurt and expansive topping bar. Walking into their store is like entering a fun retro candy shop they have almost every candy topping imaginable.

69551_497908380233820_202763084_n

Rialto City Council Set To levy Water Restrictions, Appoint Commissioners & Pay Back PEG Funds

10407078_903920189660910_3463526448503114472_n

Link below is of water running down the street.

https://youtu.be/yiU12JBOie0

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.

http://www.rialtoca.gov/documents/downloads/Regular_Meeting_Agenda_–_5-12-15.pdf (page 437)

Tab #3

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.

http://www.rialtoca.gov/documents/downloads/Regular_Meeting_Agenda_–_5-12-15.pdf (page 479)

Tab #5

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.

http://www.rialtoca.gov/documents/downloads/Regular_Meeting_Agenda_–_5-12-15.pdf (page 707)

Tab #9

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.

Video

Mayor Robertson Double Speaks On Cuba Sister City Issue

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.

Video

Is The Drop In Jazz Fest A Rialto Sponsored Event?

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.

Jazz Fest 2

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?

Video

Rialto Community Coalition Works On Youth Conference With Congressman Aguilar

20150407_184138

On Tuesday the Rialto Community Coalition held their regular monthly meeting Tuesday April 7th. The Agenda originally had one item working on developing a Youth Leadership Conference, a last minute addition made the meeting run over. Congressman Aguilar who is home in the district came to sit in on the meeting and offer support where he could.

FB_IMG_14284576135184786

The meeting was well attended and their were people from all sections of the community in attendance. Joseph Williams from YAP (Youth Action Project) introduced Congressman Aguilar and offered a platform for Congressman Aguilar to address the group. Congressman Aguilar spoke about the work he was a part of when a elected member of Redlands City Government in regards to Redlands Social Host Ordnance and their Safe Places program where the city helped create safe opportunities for students. Congressman ended his time by offering support from his office where the Coalition needs it.

The meeting was very well attended and headway was accomplished in regards to the Youth Leadership Conference. What was accomplished was a location, date and there was some discussion on what types of workshops would be provided. This meeting was not only adults but youth had a key roll in developing this conference. There were youth from Carter High School’s BLSA Club, Middle School Students from the Rialto area, youth from Etiwanda High School & local Christian Youth Speaker Rizzy Rider.

Some of the desired outcomes that the coalition wanted to see come from this effort was to see students become Rock Stars in their groups when it comes to Drug & Alcohol use, to see teens succeed beyond their circumstances and continue to see a positive change in the illegal use of drugs and alcohol through education.

20150407_184126

Agencies and organizations in attendance were Lil Saints Productions, Carter High School, Congressman Aguilar’s office, All Nations Realty, Etiwanda High School, Rialto Democrat Club, Vibe Fitness, Rialto Police Volunteers, Rialto Neighborhood Watch Program, SOLA Communities, Transforming Lives Charter School, Market Solution Services & Inland Valley Drug Free Coalition.

Information that has already be agreed to is:

Youth Leadership Conference

At Bob Murphy School

May 2nd 2015

Want more information on the Coalition or the Youth Leadership Conference go to http://www.facebook.com/rialtocoalition

 

Image

Rialto City Council Addresses Cuba & A $500,000 Giveaway

council_council-copyFI

March 24th at 6pm Rialto City Council will address many issues on the nights agenda. The public will be given an opportunity to see five presentations, three more approvals for more training, discussion on Fireworks and a $500,000 giveaway. If you only attend a few Council Meetings this one will be one you don’t want to miss here is what we see are the highlights:

Presentations & Proclamations:

Out of the five items under this heading we see three that stand out.

  • Rialto resident Don Griggs as Assembly Member Brown’s 2015 Unsung Hero.
  • Cuba Sister City Presentation
  • Introduction of new Rialto Police Officers

There are a lot of questions over the Mayor and Councilmember Scott pushing Rialto into a position that should be left up to our Federal Government. Also it will be nice to meet the three new police officer that Rialto recently graduated from the academy.

Consent Calendar & Miscellaneous:

The Consent Calendar is the place where large amounts of money is spent, more and more people are being sent to travel all over the country on the cities dime and policy can be changes without a serious vote. Items to watch for include:

  • $23,213.95 for purchase of office furniture for Rialto Police Detectives.
  • Travel request for City Clerk Barbara McGee.
  • Travel request to Vegas for two planning commissioners.

The office furniture for the Rialto Police Detectives what is a problem is $67,935 is being spent from within the Miscellaneous portion of the agenda. Many times this portion is quickly approved with little oversight so unless someone catches an item that is not in line with the communities needs. The travel on the other hand is getting out of control once again. Two years ago a special audit was done to find that Rialto officials were abusing travel in regards to public funds. The two years following travel has been at a minimum and under control. Now that Ed Scott is back on council it seems every single agenda has travel requests inside. We can’t afford to fix our own water system without jacking up water rates or fix our roads but we can spend thousands to send elected officials all over the country.

Tab Items:

This is a longer meeting agenda with 12 tab items this meeting won’t be short by any means. This agenda includes a discussion of Fireworks Enforcement in the city of Rialto, a $500,00 one time giveaway, road contracts and a contract to develop an affordable housing project.

Fireworks in Rialto are out of control and for some reason the city claims to be doing more but the community never sees any results. Last year there was talk of more money and resources that were utilized to reduce illegal Firework use. Even though the police and fire departments held their heads high our community suffered. Veterans suffer from serious reactions to the popular 4th of July activity as seen here in this news story.

The addition of Safe And Sane fireworks was to replace the aerial Fireworks that can be so dangerous. So when people decide to stay home from the major aerial displays they should not have to be bombarded with fireworks falling on their heads and military grade explosives shaking their homes. Many of the people who complain year after year have the same people breaking the fireworks law each year yet police seem to not be able to get them in line. Last year the community was further insulted by the addition of a special hotline where senior citizens that could not hear you or understand you feilding calls. Police dispatch would transfer you or just hang up!!!!! The main reason they give for not being able to shut them down is we can’t prove that they have illegal fireworks because they put them away when we arrive. So how are they going to cite property owners for what they claim they can’t see?

  • One time $500,000 give back.

For those employees that gave and sacrificed during the tough years of Rialto recovering from the housing recession the city is going to show them that their efforts did not fall on blind eyes well almost all employees. FULL TIME employees that are not currently on probation will receive a one time bonus.

Rialto City currently has 134 part time employees & 268 full time employees that are eligible for this one time bonus of 1,838.62.  If employees have been with the city for less than 1 year as a full time employee ( which means you are on probation), they would not be eligible for the bonus.

This comes from six departments (excluding the City Administrator, City Attorney, City Treasurer and City Clerk.  They are Police, Fire, Development Services, Administrative and Community Services, Management Services & Public Works. City Council, City Treasurer, City Clerk, City Attorney, City Administrator and department heads will not be receiving  the bonus.

Why are the Part Time employees being overlooked? We reached out to Councilman Shawn O’connell and asked this very question. His response was that the original reason to give this to full time employees is they took pay cuts, paid more towards retirement & paid more for their benefits to help the city in a hard time. What people who have not worked in todays part time environment is we have part time staff doing the work of a full time staffer. When full time staff get squeezed full time staff dumps more work on an already underpaid, under compensated part time staff member. Also Rialto part time staff are at the lowest end of the pay scale. Rialto part time staff make minimum wage and climb up a small payscale ladder very, very slowly. Many of the people we depend on the most daily are part time staff from recreation, child services and senior center staff are part time but we count on them to provide us with top notch professional service.

  • Road Contracts

There are two different road contracts on the agenda tonight. What makes this stand out is Monday their was a information meeting for a road contract and it appears nobody was notified until after it was already started. Proving once again Rialto is behind in notifying the community.

  •  New affordable housing projects

TAB Seven is a request to give some select companies access and ability to build a new low income project in the city of Rialto. Watch tonight as certain people are connected to these companies that may not be illegal but they look really bad and raise some serious questions.

These are the items that stand out to us here at Rialto Now but this is in no way a complete list of the entire agenda. We encourage everyone to go to http://www.rialtoca.gov and look at the entire agenda for themselves.

Video

Fate of Rialto Police Dog Is Now Known

I have a relationship with Rialto Police and I just happen to know the officer and his dog pretty well. So when the SB Sun printing the story of the Police Dogs fate the comments on social media made me sick. My wish is that the SB Sun would do everyone a favor and stop using Social Media if they don’t plan to monitor the response their posts get.

According to the story in the SB Sun article written by Greg Cappis:

“Jango, a 6-year-old Belgian Malinois, will be returned to Adlerhorst International Inc. — a police dog training facility in Jurupa Valley — which will look after him for the rest of his life.

Adlerhorst officials signed a memo of understanding, agreeing to care for the dog, according to Rialto police Capt. Andrew Karol.

He said the department purchased Jango from Adlerhorst and wanted to make sure the dog would retire to a comforting and caring home.”

According to the same story Captain Andy Karol stated:

“Mastaler has not been punished and, per procedure, will undergo an administrative investigation, which has not been launched, according to Karol.

Jango’s retirement reduces Rialto’s K-9 force to three dogs.

No decision has been made yet as to whether he will be replaced.

“It’s not really creating a lag for our department but at some point we may determine that we may want to increase that back up to four,” Karol said.”

As you can see from the video above Officer Mastaler has excellent control of the dog as displayed at the Rialto Family Festival in 2014 (See video above).

 

Video

Rialto Community Forum Results and Break Down

Rialto Comm Forum

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:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RialtoEng

Now to the nights results:

RCF Results 1

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.

RCF Results 2

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.

RCF Results 3

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.

RCF Results 4

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.

RCF Results 6 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.

RCF Results 7

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.

RCF Results 8Yes 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.

RCF Results 9I 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.

RCF Results 10Wow 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.

RCF Results 11Once again Street Maintenance wins out but good luck getting this council to do good things that will improve our lives here in Rialto.

RCF Results 12

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.

RCF Results 13

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.

RCF Results 14

I would agree ask me about dispatch and thats a whole different story.

RCF Results 15

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.

RCF Results 16

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.

RCF Results 17

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?

RCF Results 18

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.

RCF Results 19

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.

RCF Results 20

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

Video

Major Brain Freeze Opens Up In Loma Linda

Major brain freeze FI

As we prepare for the opening of the Rialto Major Brain Freeze we wanted to let you know you can check them out before they land in Rialto in about two months according to the owners.

Major brain freeze is celebrating another store opening in Loma Linda on February 13th 10am to 10pm

Loma Linda Major Brain Freeze Yogurt, GRAND OPENING, tomorrow, Friday the 13th! Yaee! Ribbon Cutting at 10am and fun give always all day long till we close at 10pm. Come celebrate our beautiful new location. We cant thank you enough for all the love and support. On the corner of Mt View and Barton Road.

Rialto City Council Meeting Update

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:

20150127_200637As 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.

Can’t make the council meetings follow us on Twitter and get the high points of each meeting we cover.

http://www.twitter.com/rialtosnow or #rialtocitycouncil

10514522_10153052487439297_7384886112040178722_n

Previous Older Entries Next Newer Entries