There once was a time where the public had honest leadership that wanted them to be a part of the process of a prospering Rialto. Apparently those days are far behind the residents of Rialto.
Rialto moved their council meeting to YouTube to give the people a better opportunity to engage with council meetings. People could watch meetings live and make comments or watch the meetings on replay after the meeting was over. As we were cruising YouTube for some information on a new story we were surprised to find that City Council Meetings are no longer broadcast to YouTube and the old council meetings have been removed.
With a laundry list of people looking to replace your city council and mayor the question is will Rialto stand for once again being left in the dark?
In what is going to be the last meeting for the Rialto City Council until after the November 3rd Election the public comment section was rocked with comments from a Rialto resident seeking help and answers.
Mr. Simmons shows up to address the political members of our community after being ignored by the mayor and even blocked from joining her virtual townhall. This coupled with many other developments over the last 3 years are a direct result of why the mayor has 2 people challenging her for her job as mayor.
One of the most troubling things that residents heard in this communication from Mr. Simmons is that we are still using money as a way to deter people from seeking public records. In this digital day and age one would think that the need to charge people hundreds of dollars for public records would be a thing of the past. Earlier this summer the mayor had BLM ask for her resignation and people that support her say she stands for her community. So now we have to ask, who is her community? BLM wanted her to resign so they are not showing much faith in her. Mr. Simmons is being ignored and locked out of her virtual townhall so he must not be a part of her community. Add to that her complete distain for anyone who even questions her motives, her habitual lies and playing favorites with tax dollars WHO IS IN HER COMMUNITY?
The fact of the matter is that Mr. Simmons who we have reached out to but not spoken to yet is simply asking for questions and is seeking to create some sort of civilian oversight. The fact that the mayor who does not know how to spin another angry minority group in her favor is why Mr. Simmons is being ignored and left out in the cold.
Thursday September 9th 2019 a group of parents rights advocates the Alliance to Protect Children planned to remove their children from school today to protest the Latest Sexual Education Bill AB 329. The group Informed Parents of California take issue with the rights of parents being removed from this decision on what and how to teach their kids about sex, sexual orientation and how to deal with unplanned pregnancies. Sit outs are planned all over the state to send a clear message that parents are mad and not going away!
In the video below you will see what has been uncovered in the Riverside County Education System. This information was dug up by Don Dix and Tim Thompson. What they found was a disturbing sex ed curriculum that taught kids about anal sex, fisting, dental dams and homosexual role playing.
In today’s age of internet sexual perversion it seems odd that California Democrats would double down on such a divisive curriculum that taught some of the most outrageous forms of sexual perversion that some people in the video above had to look up some of the things that they were being taught in school. Rialto’s own Assembly Woman Eloise Reyes Gomez and Assembly Man James Ramos both voted for this bill and condone what is in it by virtue of their vote. We reached out for comment but their staff simply sent us to voicemail.
Probably the most disturbing part of the video above is the under cover video of Moreno Valley School District officials teaming up with the ACLU and Planned Parenthood to coach staff on how to remove more parental rights by hiding the fact that a student left school to have an abortion. During the Q&A portion of this meeting many staff seem to have questions about how the school will hide the fact that in this digital world the parents and see their child’s attendance. The ACLU staff go as far as to create a legal lie involving school administrative staff on how to “legally” keep parents in the dark about what is going on with their child.
So it looks like parents have to think before they vote for leaders in the state assembly, senate and governor, do you think:
It is the schools job to teach kindergarten school kids about sexual identity?
How far should the schools be allowed to go in teaching sexual education?
Do you think it is right for the schools to remove you as a parent from any choices concerning your kids?
Another concerning factor here is that lack of opposition to this bill and the standards set to be implemented in our local schools. In the video above you will see that Moreno Valley pretended to have no plan yet their consultants were hitting the ground running showing they had received support from the schools and were already holding implementation workshops. Not one single School Board member from any local school has gone on record against this bill or any plans to implement these into the education system. Some parents are saying that their silence means they are complicit and need to be removed.
On May 28th we learned something about our least favorite fee in the city that should have your blood boiling. For the last 4 to 5 year you have been paying and ever increasing tax on your monthly trash bill. This TAX was added to deal with Rialto’s streets that are deteriorating much faster than Rialto officials can keep up at least that is what we were told.
On May 28th we found out that streets that are in poor repair will not be fixed with the Trash Fund money, only newer streets will get any work done from the Trash Tax. There is a promise that they will seek out a way to do something for those residents but they say that as we head for Bankruptcy!
Activists told the city council and the residents that the city would find ways of putting this money back into their own pockets and moving street maintenance money around to other pet projects. The last honest Councilman caught his colleagues playing games with this money shortly after it was approved.
Councilman O’Connell was interviewed by Sun reporter Leslie Parrilla and said:
“We gave the impression that we were going to use that money to help improve the roads,” O’Connell said.
The increased rates for the city’s solid waste collection, recycling and disposal service rates were passed to help maintain Rialto’s deteriorating roads. But after the fees started being collected, the roughly $1.2 million normally budgeted annually for road improvements dropped to $600,000 this year, instead of increasing with money from the new fee.
“It seemed to me the citizens got it right when they said, ‘be careful, they’re going to take advantage of it,’ ” by moving money around, O’Connell said.
The plan was to decrease the Trash Tax and fix the roads with Measure U. Well a year later Councilman O’Connell passed away unexpectedly and since then here are all the things Measure U is targeted to cover:
Millions in behind street maintenance.
Reduce the now PERMANENT Utility Users Tax by 25%.
Cover our $150 Million Dollars of Unfunded Liabilities.
Provide for more cops.
Provide more money for Recreation Programs.
The only problem with these promises is that even with best case scenario is that the tax would bring in $15 Million a year. As of today there is less than $10 Million in an escrow account while the tank farms sue us. It looks so grim that the Mayor and Ed Scott are publicly talking about settling for way less than expected just to get something.
While that goes on Burrtec spends thousands of dollars on campaigns for elected officials that act as rubber stamps for their programs and agendas. While Burrtec is holding a fundraising party for the Mayor they got:
Rialto residents to pay for the damage thier trucks do to the road.
A 10 year contract that never expires because it renews for another 10 years each year and we have to give them 10 years notice if we want out of the contract.
They got $1.3 Million back in their pockets that was supposed to go to create a community garden for the North End of the city.
We now are forced to pay burrtec through our property tax bills so we can’t see the many times they raise our rates.
So the only question is, are you mad yet? Don’t forget gas goes up 5.6 cents a gallon on Monday July 1st for more on that story click here!
Around 1:15 pm on Saturday June 22nd in the area of Driftwood and Rosewood in the city of Rialto a fire erupted from the garage at a single family residence. According to officials on scene a fire started in the garage and the smell of smoke alerted the family that were in the backyard at the time.
People living East of the fire were alerted to the smell of smoke and said that there was an electrical smell to the smoke from the fire. Rialto fire had six units respond to the fire along with two Rialto Police units. Rialto Fire worked quick to contain the the fire mostly to the garage from appearances.
This fire is a reminder as to why our garages contain fire doors, sheet rock and other materials that are rated to hold up a little longer to give people a chance of escape. Our garages are full of combustible materials including our cars in most cases.
The garage was a total loss and the roof had collapsed on two cars inside. Even though this is a horrible event the upside is that there no injuries or loss of life in this fire.
The Rialto City Council prepares to pay off more election day favors tonight as the Fire Union receives a $2.5 Million Dollar increase the city can’t afford. I respect our public safety officials but running for political office in this city and taking the Rialto Fire Union meeting was a big mistake. I learned that the only way a person gets the nod or financial support of any union in this city is by vowing blind devotion to whatever that union wants no matter if we can afford it or not.
These are costs we can’t afford, Rialto is the only public agency that has failed to address the $150 Million Dollars in unfunded liability the city of Rialto faces. They report the number being only $126 Million but that is because the other $24 Million is unfunded liabilities to the cities Retiree Medical Benefit Fund. You may be asking yourself how did they address the $24 Million in unfunded liabilities to the cities Retiree Medical Benefit Fund? They are simply ignoring it!!!
Yes this is how your elected officials deal with major problems they just ignore it and go on spending taxpayer money like nothing is going on!
To those of you that think I am wrong to say our elected officials are bought and paid by the unions, all you have to do is look at the juvenile way Councilman Ed Scott dealt with being given a professional opinion. Ed Scott voted against emergency repairs to the waste water treatment plant, voted against much needed infrastructure repairs but voted yes on the tab item presented by the Rialto Fire Union!
In the agenda for tonight’s meeting staff says that the $2.5 Million cost for this public union pay off is factored into the budget. So why would I say that this is a misleading statement? Well what the staff report fails to mention is that the way we afford this union pay off is by illegally dipping into the cities reserve fund.
“The City Council adopted the FY18-19 Budget with anticipated adjustments. Hence, the proposed compensation increases for FY 18-19 have been absorbed in the current Fiscal Year Budget. Future enhancements will need to be incorporated into future fiscal year budgets.”
The future enhancements referenced in the staff report are:
A change from the cities own ordnance that dictates that the city hold 50% of operation costs in a reserve account.
Additional taxes on homeowners for a fire district tax.
Additional taxes on Hotels.
Additional Sales & Gas Tax.
Another strange thing is that the cities Fire Chief was moved into the place of Iterm City Administrator before this contract was put in place is now the one responsible for signing off on its validity.
For City Council Meeting [March 26, 2019]
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council
APPROVAL: Sean Grayson, Interim City Administrator
FROM: Lucy M. Garcia, Director of Human Resources & Risk Management
Another glaring point in this agreement is the additional money that the city is dumping into the fire station and union staff. Right now the city offsets the costs of the cities fitness center and pool by paying for each and every employee to have access to the cities gym and workout facilities. Now the city is spending $79,000 this year alone on what the city already provides?
Medical Assessments and Fitness Equipment: To address safety, the parties agree to new annual health assessments and fitness equipment at the fire stations. Costs: $79,000 initially (including $54,000 in medical assessment costs and $25,000 in fitness equipment costs). Equipment maintenance costs and other annual testing will ensue thereafter.
What is worse is there is zero accountability that the Fire Staff will actually use said equipment and there are heavy maintenance and replacement costs that this contract fails to address and ignores.
To add insult to injury the Rialto City Council hidden in the Consent Calendar is an increase in the rate of pay for all Commissioners in the city of Rialto….. No Wait that is a pay increase for the only commission that is paid the planning commission! Once again people who said they would volunteer their time are being paid and now they are receiving a raise we can’t afford. Still to this day there is no plan for how to deal with the $150 Million Dollar Unfunded Liabilities.
On March 12th 2019 the Rialto City Council held yet another episode of As Rialto Turns. Apparently Iterm City Manager Shaun Grayson and City Attorney Fred Galante gave Councilman Ed Scott a recommendation that he abstain from TAB 1 on the city council agenda because the tab item touched on his area of residence.
This enraged Councilman Ed Scott as he is not accustomed to being told what to do. What is funny is this was only a recommendation it was not an order, but Ed Scott took it as he was being forced to abstain. Mr Scott brought up the reason as to why he would not be involved in this tab item but wouldn’t go into detail about why he believed this was taking place short of claiming it was political and was clear in the staff report.
What was even more surprising was how quickly Ed Scott shut down City Attorney Fred Galante’s attempt to explain his recommendation and adding “I don’t care to hear your reason” as the city attorney tried to explain his actions. What is funny when Councilman Ed Scott is being sued our money and attorneys are fine to give him legal advise as long as he agrees with it.
To add insult to injury Ed Scott voted NO on every other single tab item outside on the tab item presented by Rialto Fire (the union that paid to get him re elected). We are not sure why Ed Scott decided to try and derail over 6 million in much needed infrastructure projects even a $49,000 item for Emergency Slope Repairs at the Rialto Waste Water Treatment Plant. So Ed Scott was mad at the City Attorney and Interm City Administrator but shouldn’t he be able to grow up and at least vote for emergency repairs to our Waste Water Treatment Plant!!!
Look to our next story as we outline how staff are fleeing Rialto City Hall in droves and what this says about Rialto’s future!
On Wednesday February 27th Rialto Middle School held their annual career day where fifty three different presenters came out to expose the students to a wide variety of potential careers. Many were your traditional careers like law enforcement, teaching and the medical field. Yet there were many presenters that were from career fields we may not think of when we are preparing kids for their future!
One presenter was John Merchant a local voice actor, professional beat boxer and a radio DJ personality. John Merchant showed off his latest project he worked on was the Missy Elliot Project where musician Christina Hall pays homage to one of the most influential female rappers of the 20th century. John also spoke to the kids about how to be successful in life with something you are passionate about. John Merchant didn’t talk at the students he spoke with them.
We came to this interview unprepared because we thought that Kenny Landreaux just worked for the Dodgers organization in the front office. We were not aware that he played professional baseball. Kenny came to speak to the filed of being a professional athlete and working in other facets in the professional sports arena. It was pretty cool to see that Rialto Middle School had him out to speak to the kids.
We wanted to see Mike Kindrich’s presentation just because of our knowledge of what his employer Mercy Air does. Mercy Air operates private air ambulance service helping get critically injured people to a care facility as quickly and safely as possible. When we found out Mike was a helicopter mechanic that was even better. Mike spoke to his body of work and the many different opportunities that existed in the field he worked in. Mike is a A&P Mechanic this A&P license has given Mike the ability to work as a civilian for the army, a ride mechanic for Disneyland and now a Mechanic for Mercy Air.
One thing that was clear at this career day was that the staff were invested in seeing the students succeed now in school and in the future. This career day event was inventive, exciting and totally an out of the norm type of event for a public school. This event was something you normally see in a private school not a public school setting. I was honored to be able to get a chance to attend and cover this event.
Big thank you has to go out to Mr Rod Campbell who invited us to this event, the principal who was so welcoming, school counselors for going the extra mile and the school security staff that always had a smile each time we saw them on campus!
After a November 15th NEIGHBORHOOD & HOUSING PRESERVATION & BEAUTIFICATION COMMISSION meeting the City Council is set to:
Request City Council to Review and Provide Direction regarding the Site Selection Process for a proposed transitional housing project with the Time for Change Foundation in accordance with the Predevelopment Services Agreement.
The first time this project was brought before the public by councilman Rafael Trujillo the founder of Time for Change Foundation Kim Carter not only ripped into our council for asking questions about the project but lifted off into a name calling rant, but not before placing children right up front as props to witness everything.
The next time this project would come before the public was at the November 15th NEIGHBORHOOD & HOUSING PRESERVATION & BEAUTIFICATION COMMISSION meeting. As this meeting was advertised there were two sites mentioned the original site on palm and an additional site on Linden Ave just north of Foothill. Once the meeting began over 14 sites were introduced leading many to believe that the city did not honestly advertise this meeting and the proposed sites. This meeting Founder Kim Carter did not attend and there were many details of the project that were left without answers. Time for Change Executive Director Vannessa Perez did her best to answer as many questions as possible.
In this meeting there was an important issue that was brought to light about this project and it’s size. Development Services staff member Gina Gibson stated that this project would require a lot size of at least 1 acre. This was important because the highly contested open lot being considered was under the 1 acre size virtually taking it out of play. The lot on Palm Ave is desirable to both Kim Cater and her friend Mayor Deborah Robertson is because the cities housing authority owns this land. The goal of both Mrs Carter and Mayor Deborah Robertson is to gift more than $1 Million in land over to a Non Profit organization that openly admitted to engaging in seating and unseating elected officials. The city only owns 2 land parcels and the other one is right across the street from city hall.
The big issues people had and still have with this is the placement of a homeless womans shelter in already established neighborhoods coupled with the city gifting an additional million dollars plus to a political friend. Mrs Carter has operated one shelter in San Bernardino for a few years and has shown success, but there are some stark differences between projects:
The San Bernardino Shelter is a fraction of the size of the one that is being proposed in Rialto.
San Bernardino and Rialto are very, very different cities with very different struggles and people in the community don’t want to become San Bernardino.
The long proposed favored site is zoned for cottage commercial.
No community input has been allowed to see if this is what Rialto wants.
The Palm Ave site is zoned cottage commercial this area was meant to house people who run a business and live at the same site. This is not only a historic portion of the city but as traditional jobs become more scarce and people go into working for themselves this area could serve as a shot in the arm to the Rialto business community. If you look at the homeless debate in the Orange County Area cities have opposed placing homeless centers in their city, shouldn’t Rialto residents have the same voice and option? Also can the founder of Time for Change come to the community and answer questions without name calling, threats and anger?
This Tuesday February 26th at 6 pm this item will be on the city council agenda and if residents don’t come out and speak up they may find themselves with yet another problem created by gifting of taxpayer funds to pay off political debts.
With homeless population increasing every single day and the core of the city falling into disrepair many of the regular unconnected people in Rialto are asking if our leaders still have what it takes to lead all of Rialto. There is development happening in the North and South ends of the city but as you move closer to the city center the decay becomes quite evident. This question isn’t just something whispered about in quite circles but people are asking it out loud in public forums and there really isn’t any answer to the questions.
At the Rialto Unified School Safety Seminar the question was asked multiple times about what the city and schools are doing to deal with homelessness and the crime and consequences that come with them. Rialto Police Lt. Cameron Nelson said that the police departments hands are tied by new public camping laws (nobody ever references a specific law). The problem has become so bad that parks and schools are now dealing with homeless living in the or near them. One are that was brought up at the school safety seminar was the walking trail behind Rialto Middle School and Warner Elementary School. Both of these schools have access gates that open up into this trail. This BLOGGER brought up many concerns with this trail and having access gates to the schools. The powers that be said I was crazy and just trying to get in the way of progress. Now we have unstable people living where kids walk to school and have access to the schools. Does a child have to be hurt or go missing before anyone listens?
When it comes to what our leaders it seems that most of them are ok with Rialto becoming an homeless magnet. Mayor Deborah Robertson seems on a fast track to begin opening housing shelters in Rialto. When new laws are thrown in the public’s faces as the reason that more isn’t being done to fix the problem I wonder what benefit we get from the HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of $$$$$ we spend on lobbyists and having our elected officials travel with our tax dollars to Washington and Sacramento.
Some if the worst areas of our city are the main corridors that people travel every single day! Areas like Route 66 that are full of shuttered businesses, graffiti and homeless are far from the beacons of progress and prosperity that our leaders preach about.
rialtonow 