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
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