City Council - Regular Meeting

0:21 – 0:39•MDMayor Lock Dawson

welcome to the city council meeting for uh august 11th 2026 i'm mayor patricia lack dawson and i will call our meeting to order and today i will ask council member falcone please to lead us in the invocation thank you mayor please join me in prayer

0:41 – 1:36•PFPhilip Falcone

Dear God, as we gather today, we pause to recognize a significant milestone in our community. It's the start of a new school year for many of Riverside's students, both in Alvert and Riverside Unified School Districts. We invoke a spirit of wisdom, patience, and dedication over our entire local educational system. May our educators and administrators be granted the energy and creativity needed to inspire the next generation of Riversiders. May our students encounter safe, welcoming environments that spark curiosity, promote lifelong learning, and build character. let us as this governing body

1:56 – 2:09•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right and we will start our meeting as we always do with public comment and this is to comment on closed sessions consent calendar and any matters within the jurisdiction of the City Council.

2:32 – 3:01•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right, thank you. We've got several requests to speak in chambers, so we'll start with those. Jessica Johnson. And folks, so you know, it's a three minutes time limit. So, Jessica, are you here? Okay, thank you. And after that, it's Rich Gardner and then Errol Kosiewicz. Welcome, Ms. Johnson. Thank you.

4:07•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you, Ms. Johnson. All right, I have Rich Gardner followed by Errol Kosiewicz. Welcome, Mr. Gardner.

7:11•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you, Mr. Gardner. All right. I've got Errol Kosiewicz followed by Denise Stadelbacher and then Joanne Janus.

10:32 – 10:46•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you, Mr. Kosiewicz. All right, I have Denise Stadebacher, followed by Joanne Genis, and then looks like Mr. Dawes, I think.

12:06•MDMayor Lock Dawson

I HAVE JOANNE JENIS AND FOLLOWED BY, IT LOOKS LIKE MR. DAWES, I CAN'T READ YOUR FIRST NAME, SORRY, AND THEN ASH DAVIS.

15:08 – 15:31•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Yeah, please give them over here, and we will all get a copy of it. And thank you. Thank you for listening. And I'm sorry that that happened. I'm very sorry. Mr. Dawes, followed by Ash Davis, and then Sue Roginski, it looks like.

16:48•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you, Mr. Dawes. All right. I have Ash Davis followed by Sue Roginski and then Eve Garrow or Garone.

18:43•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you, Mr. Davis. All right, I have Sue Roginski, followed by Eve, it looks like, Yaron, and then Jonathan Simper.

19:46•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you, Ms. Roginski. I have Eve, what looks like, Garon, Oregon, and Jonathan Simper, and then Dan Hawksworth.

22:18 – 22:31•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you, Ms. Garrow. All right, I have Jonathan Simper, followed by Dan Hawksworth, and then Tinker Friend. Did you say Jonathan Simper? Yes, I did.

24:16•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you, Mr. Semper. All right. I have Dan Hawksworth followed by Tinka Friend and then Alex Sandoval.

27:42 – 28:04•MDMayor Lock Dawson

thank you thank you mr hawksworth all right i have tinka friend followed by alex sandoval and then uh paul chavez welcome mr friend thank you welcome um welcome sorry good afternoon uh mayor and city council members and city staff

30:20•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right. I have Alex Sandoval followed by Paul Chavez and then Margie Tadd-Williams.

32:58 – 33:12•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you, Mr. Sandoval. All right. I have Paul Chavez, followed by Margie Tad Williams, and then Matthew Snyder. Welcome, Mr. Chavez.

38:44 – 39:13•SMSean Mill

they'll still we'll still have a planning commission meeting where you come out and discuss about the actual development and then they'll then it will eventually come to the city council so today this is just entering into a purchase agreement so that the developer can actually start doing anything on the lot just yeah so there'll be multiple community meetings before then and there will also be a planning commission meeting and a council meeting as well so then we would agree yes ma'am thank you so that's stay tuned thank you all right i have matthew snyder followed by annabelle looks like ne

41:51 – 42:03•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you, Mr. Snyder. All right. I have Annabel Navarez. Welcome, Ms. Navarez. ANNABEL NAVARREZ Hi.

49:36•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you, Ms. Chavez. Let's have our next caller, please.

51:39•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you. Let's have our next caller, please.

54:06•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you. Let's have our next caller, please.

55:44•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you. Let's have our next caller, please.

57:56•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you. Let's have our next caller, please.

1:01:08 – 1:01:20•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you. That was our last speaker, so we'll close public comment and move on on our agenda. And we are now at our Mayor and Councilmember communications. I'll start with Councilmember Falcone.

1:01:21 – 1:01:35•PFPhilip Falcone

Thank you, Mayor. Just one update because we're behind schedule here. Downtown Area Neighborhood Alliance meets Monday, August 17th at 7pm at the Isaac Walton building in Fairmont Park. Anyone who lives in Ward one or downtown specifically is welcome to join us. Thank you, Mayor.

1:01:35•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you. All right, Councilmember Robillard.

1:01:41 – 1:02:10•SRSteven Robillard

Thank you, Mayor. Just wanted to invite everyone to tomorrow night. We have a community conversations at the airport, August 12th from 530 to 7 p.m. Where residents will have an opportunity to meet our new interim city manager and hear from updates on public works, the Riverside Police Department, code enforcement and the airport. And while at the terminal, you can also view artwork currently on display for Ramona High School students. I hope to see you all there. I also want to give a quick shout out to Gunnar Roseloff and Nate Aguilar as their two students that are shadowing me for the day.

1:02:11•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right, thank you. Let's go back to Council Member Cervantes.

1:02:15 – 1:04:55•CCClarissa Cervantes

Thank you, Mayor. Is this working? Okay, there we go. Thank you. Just a few items. I was proud and happy to attend Equality California Heather Leadership Summit up in Sacramento last week and was glad to be invited and able to be there for a day to participate and meet with many other LGBTQ plus leaders across California and to share the great work we're doing here in Riverside. And just want to share that for this week, one of the items that we have coming up is going to be the dale roberts gymnasium topping ceremony uh topping out ceremony that'll be on thursday uh 8 30. oh okay well apparen

1:04:55 – 1:05:15•CCChuck Conder

Thanks, Mary, and following Councilman McFalcone on difference of time, I just want to thank my field director, Frank Areola, for doing a fabulous job of covering Ward 4 for the last two weeks while I was on the East Coast celebrating my mom's 96th birthday with her and then taking care of her for two weeks. It was a great honor to do that with her, and thanks, Frank, for everything you do. That's it, Mary.

1:05:17 – 1:08:19•SMSean Mill

Thank you. And in deference to you guys, I'm not going to take my time. So there was a lot of comments made about it's hot outside. Well, there are 18 cooling centers around the city of Riverside. I could name all 18, but in a matter of time, I won't name all 18. But just know that the folks that are out on the streets, when our outreach teams go and speak with them, they tell them, hey, we can take you to the cooling center. Everyone is offered that opportunity. I spent nine hours out with our PSET team. We offered everybody we came in contact with, it's hot today, you should go to the coolin

1:08:20•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you, Council Member Mill. Council Member Hernandez.

Thank you. On August 3rd, I attended my first Arlington Business Partnership meeting. Lieutenant Adam Lovesque attended as well, and we got to listen to and hear the concerns of local residents and businesses there in Ward 5 and 6. Shortly after the meeting, I attended the candlelight vigil for Peter Mullis, a hospital employee who was tragically taken from us on Monday, July 27th, close to the Kaiser Medical Center. I was moved by the compassion displayed by his fellow employees, friends and family. I'm once again thankful to the first responders, to the officers and paramedics who immediatel

1:11:13•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Hemingway?

1:11:16 – 1:11:56•SHSteve Hemenway

Thank you, Mayor. I'll be brief. I just want to wish all of the students returning to school, wish them well, a successful school year. And as Councilmember Hernandez said, we were able to attend the Alvord Child Nutrition Services Open House where we were able to sample some food i can say i know that all the food that is served tastes very good not not because i sampled all of it but impossibly and so take the opportunity now to just thank all the staff that serve those students the teachers and the staff that do remarkable work day in and day out in our school districts want to thank them a

1:11:56 – 1:14:51•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you, Council Member Hemingway. Just real quick, I want to correct the record for something. We had a caller who called in regarding an op-ed that I authored this last couple weeks ago, and while I don't appreciate having words put in my mouth, I question whether he read it, because I very much outline very extensively how we are addressing homelessness in the city and how we are taking action on every front, building more housing, expanding outreach, creating shelter opportunities, preventing homelessness before it happens, holding bad actors accountable, strengthening partnerships, figh

1:14:53 – 1:15:04•MDMayor Lock Dawson

It shifted. That's a housing and homeless committee? All right. August 31st at 3.30 p.m. All right. I'm going to ask our city manager now, item number three, if you have any updates you wish to share.

1:16:43•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you. Thank you. Welcome, Ms. Gillian.

1:21:52 – 1:23:03•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Any questions, comments for Ms. Gillian? Thank you, and I appreciate the update on Proposition 1. That is something that under my leadership this year with the big city mayors was our highest priority, was housing and homelessness, and happy to see this on the ballot that made it. I want to thank Jonathan Lopez and Michaela Cruz on my staff for helping to craft that language in a way that is, I think, helpful to us in our city, and I would ask my Colleagues support on that, but it is it is I think going to be very helpful in our efforts here, so thanks very much Okay council any Conflicts of i

1:33:30 – 1:33:45•MDMayor Lock Dawson

I'm sorry, Director. So we have ten minutes for the presentation. Council Member Falcone just reminded me, so I think we need to – we're four minutes past already. Okay. So we want to make sure you get to your – You got it. Apologies. Thank you.

1:35:39 – 1:35:56•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right. Thank you. And congratulations, James, and congratulations to everybody who received years in service and promotions. It's amazing. We all depend on your hard work, so we thank you all. Thank you very much. And I know Council Member Condor has something.

1:35:56•CCChuck Conder

Yeah, could you repeat all that, please? Wow, you guys really do a lot. You said 78 people per employee?

1:36:09•CCChuck Conder

Only problem since last year is, where's my T-shirt?

1:36:14 – 1:36:33•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right, thank you. All right, thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thanks for your patience and for all your great work. Appreciate it. Oh, council. All right. We are now at our consent calendar. So I will ask our city manager if he has anything he wishes to pull.

1:36:36•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right. Thank you. Ward 1? Pass. Ward 2? Pass. Ward 3? Pass. Ward 4? Pass. Ward 5? Pass. Ward 6?

1:36:50 – 1:37:12•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right, we have a motion and a second. Council, to approve the consent calendar, please vote. All right. Motion carries unanimous. And thank you for your support of Proposition 1. I appreciate that. All right, Council, we are now going to go into closed session. I'm going to call on our City Attorney, James Johnson, to please announce our closed session items.

1:38:31 – 1:39:54•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right. Thank you. And we will return as close to 3 p.m. as we can for our public hearings, but we are going to adjourn to closed session right now. Thank you. um city council's uh temporarily returned from closed session because we are a little late on our public hearing so we are just uh going to go back into closed session after our 3 p.m public hearings and so i will now call our public hearing to order for item number 40 i believe is that torn on is that correct and This is historic designation of a beautiful house and I am going to open public comment for item number 40.

1:40:16•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Okay, with that, I'd like to ask our Historic Preservation Officer, Scott Watson, to please give us a staff report on this item.

1:43:46•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right. Thank you, Mr. Watson. Let me see if we have any public comment on this item. We have no callers. We'll close public comment. Council.

1:43:58•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Okay. We have a motion and a second. Please vote.

1:44:12•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Great. Love that house. Lovely. It's beautiful. All right. We are going to move on to item number 41. This is another...

1:44:50•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right, thank you. And I guess you're not going to sit down. Pretty much not today. Mr. Watson, please give us a staff report.

1:47:42 – 1:47:59•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right, thank you, Mr. Watson. Let me see if we have any callers for item 41. All right, no callers, so we'll close public comment and come back to council. All right, motion and second, please vote.

1:48:09 – 1:48:21•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right, thank you. And our final public hearing today is another designation, so we will open public comment for this.

1:50:43•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you, Mr. Watson. We have a request to speak in chambers from, looks like Anna Geisert.

1:53:13 – 1:53:24•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you. That house is gorgeous, I have to say. We have another speaker. So let me, we have a caller. Let's take our first caller, please.

1:53:55•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you, Ms. Chavez. My understanding is that's the name of the house, which was given to the house when it was originally built in the 1920s. So it predates probably.

1:54:08 – 1:54:21•MDMayor Lock Dawson

It's just the name of the house. Okay, I just want to clear it up. Okay, thank you. All right, thank you. That was the last request to speak. We'll close public comment and come back to council. Council Member Condor?

1:54:21•CCChuck Conder

Yes, I want to thank Anna. She knows what she's talking about. She sits on our museum board and does great work there, so move to approve staff recommendation.

1:54:31•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right, we have a motion, word four, second, word three. Please vote. It does, it does.

1:54:48 – 1:56:40•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Watson, as well. And thank you for your interest in architecture and particularly those who love the mid-mo. I, too, live in a 1963 house. All right. Let's see. We're going to go back into closed session now. And we do not have an evening session today. So we will just return from closed session to adjourn the meeting. Thank you. everybody here all right and I need to call on city attorney so let me see all right everybody good evening City Council has returned from closed session and I will call on our city attorney please to report out on closed