City Council - Regular Meeting

Myself sometimes looking back as an athletic director on my coaching. Coaching at Ramona High School was an absolute blast. I enjoyed all the players, and a few are here tonight. Jeff Gorham, Yancey Dodson, Ricky Takano, and all the basketball boys and softball girls. I was blessed with some great kids. I truly missed those moments together. As an athletic director, a position I thought was just a lot of fun because my main challenge was to get quality people who were motivated for success and get out of the

Go ahead and get started. I am mayor pro tem Steven Robillard, and we'll go ahead and get this afternoon session started at 3PM. The city council conducts its meetings in accordance with resolution two four three one eight. If you'd like to learn more, the full resolution is available on the city's website. I'm gonna go ahead and start with the invocation for tonight.

If you'd like, you can bow your heads. Heavenly father, we thank you for the opportunity to gather this evening in service to our community. We recognize that the responsibility placed on those who serve in public office is is significant, and we ask for your wisdom as we undertake the work before us tonight. Grant the members of this council clarity of mind, humility and leadership, and the courage to make decisions that serve the long term good of our city and its residents. Help us to listen carefully, speak respectfully, and approach each issue with the spirit of cooperation and goodwill.

We also ask for your blessing on the people of our community, on our families, our first responders, our city employees, and the many residents who care deeply about the future of our city. May our deliberations tonight be guided by wisdom, fairness, a sincere desire to serve the public well. We are grateful for the freedoms we enjoy and for the chance to contribute to the well-being of this community we call home. In your name, we pray. Amen. Alright. If you'd like to stand for the pledge of allegiance. Ready? Begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Alright. Thank you. We'll go ahead and move on to public comment. If you can play the message, please.

Public comment is now open for this item. Available in both English and Spanish. Call (951) 826-8686 and follow the prompts to access the meeting in either language. To request to speak, press 9. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID for both languages can be found on the agenda.

Okay. We'll go ahead and start with the speaker cards in chambers, and, we first have miss Bell.

Good evening, city council members. My name is Aicheria Bell. I'm a Riverside resident, community organizer, and founder of Heirs of Influence, a youth leadership initiative that helps students understand civic systems and develop their voices as leaders. I'm here to share that on 03/19/2026, 05:30 to 07:30PM, we'll be hosting the State of the Black Student Union tall town hall at the Civil Rights Institute in The Empire in partnership with the Riverside African American Historical Society and several other community partners. This town hall will bring together middle school, high school, and college students from across the Inland Empire to share their experience experiences in school, discuss campus climate, and connect with community leaders leaders and institutions that support student leadership, civil liberties, and wellness.

Our goal is simple. Listen to the students and strengthen the systems that support them. We appreciate the city of Riverside and continued attention to youth leadership and civic engagement. Thank you.

Thank you, miss Bell. Next, we have Brian McGrath.

Yeah. I was just wondering. Like, what does it take to get the feds in here to to bring down corruption like Chad Bianco? I mean, if if I can't even get a police report and the murders, I have tips on murders and corruption in this city, and I can't even get a police report or investigation. I mean, talking to the chief, he seems like a cool guy, but I can't even get a meeting with him. From you go to the front desk to make an appointment with him, nothing happens. I went to report like murders and they said it goes to internal affairs. I came to the police commission saying they had some weird rule like the commission wanted to ask you questions and they can't. I don't understand why that is because you have nothing to review if there's no police report. So how do I go about having an investigation?

If I know, like, this corrupt DEA or your task force or all that stuff in here are corrupt in this area. So, you know, I don't understand how I go about getting an investigator. If that is the FBI office at 348 Vine Street, that's a joke. I don't know if that is, but it's a joke. It's worse than the Skid Row Police Department. Thank you.

Thank you, McGrath. Next we have Mr. Walls.

Good afternoon. My name is Phil Walls. I'm with the US Small Business Administration. We are here because a disaster was declared after the flooding that occurred in late December. And what that did was it opened up disaster funding in the form of low interest loans for homeowners, businesses, renters, and nonprofits who may have experienced damage.

So homeowners are able to apply for up to $500,000 to replace structures or property. Renters are allowed to apply for up to a $100,000 to replace property within the contents of the home to include automobiles that may have been damaged. Businesses can qualify for up to 2,000,000, and the same goes for nonprofits. Another benefit that is available to businesses is loans at a low interest below market interest rate to fund ongoing ongoing operations that they may have maybe experienced some trouble with due to a slowdown in business or a supplier not being able to supply, you know, materials or equipment. Anything that caused the business to slow down.

So, again, those loans are available for at rates as low as 2.8% in the case of homeowners, up to 4% for businesses. And people who are interested in disaster loan relief can find out more at sba.gov.disas/disaster. The reason I'm here today is I was hoping that you all, as a city, could help us get that message out to your constituents who may have been affected. I left some information up at the clerk's office today before I came in. I didn't know you were having a meeting today, but so it's just good fortune.

So I left some information, printouts with this information upstairs today, and I'll be sending out via email electronically if we could try to share that information as widely as possible. And that's all I have for you today. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Walls. I also believe a lot of our assistants are sitting in the back of the room if you like to talk them about that communication. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have Earl Koschowicz.

Morning guys. Can I use the overhead projector? Thanks guys. I wanted to mention a few things. I wanted to talk about CalPERS today and the union agreement and the contract between the city of Riverside and union reps or whoever they are, thugs. Can you flip the second page over? Thanks. Now go ahead and bring it down a little bit. Now this is three names that are on there that you guys all recognize. I just got this back today.

Now three names to oversee millions of taxpayer funds is disgusting. There is no American taxpayer to oversee the contracts. We pay your salary. We pay everything. And who signs for all this money is missus Patricia Locke Dawson. Now the accountability to millions upon millions of dollars is insanity. Why should three names be overseeing all this money? Go ahead and throw another page up. Now go ahead and turn it if you can, thank you very much. Now this is the payments of one page to CalPERS.

Now you can look at the dollar figure on it. Now why is there only three names that are signing all these funds, public funds to CalPERS? We need some oversight from you guys. We need some oversight to see our money. You guys just make up policies and laws by three names and all three are government employees. That's bullshit. Okay? That is crazy insanity. Go ahead and flip over to the next page. Thank you.

I only have a minute left but I wanted to say something. If you can turn it that way now. Now this is the Washington State, the fire department. Now we're sending money to their trust. Go ahead and flip over the next page. I wanna show it to you. I only have three minutes. Go ahead and turn it this way. There you go. Now this is actually we're making payments to Washington State firefighters. There you go. They're trust fund. I thought we had no money guys. Why are we paying Washington State's employees, firefighters, councils trust fund? I mean, I cannot wait until the district attorney comes in here.

District the DOJ, the federal DOJ, I I meant to say the Department of Justice. They need to come in here and audit everything. It is so much fraudulent payments here. It's disgusting. Why are we sending money to Washington State, guys? That's your records. That's your records. Thank you very much.

Thank you, mister Koshwitz. Next, we have mister

Thanks.

Bernard. Bernard? Kevin?

Good afternoon, council members. Hello. Good afternoon. So my name is Kevin and I'm from Ward 6. And that's council member Jim Perry's, his ward. So council member Perry, I applied to become a member of the council of the deaf or commission of the deaf. Now the meeting is tomorrow, and they're discussing my opportunity to take that vacancy that is currently on the commission. So I would really, like your endorsement either through letter or something just saying that you, endorse me for that because it's gonna be tomorrow night at 05:30. And you're welcome to come. You're welcome to come and join the meeting.

Get you know, we could love to have your support if you'd like to come. So or you could just write a letter and send it to the office. That way, they can document that on their agenda. I would really appreciate that so much. Now second, I wanted to talk about me continuing to ask the Riverside City to create an office for the deaf and disabled that are run by the deaf and disabled.

Same as the offices you already have here under government, but it'd be run by deaf and disabled people. We could include lawyers, other city members that all come together in all different residents, for this office. So I just wanted to continue asking you about that consideration, if that might be a possible opportunity for all of us, and to get your support on that. So, there's other cities that already have it. Washington DC has something similar.

So I know that's something that we could do. You know, we have thousands and thousands of deaf community members in this city. So I'm and I'm sure there's even more that have disabilities as well. So if there's just something that we set up in this city, like an office for them, that would be great. And I would really appreciate your support in both of those things. Thank you so much, and especially thank you, councilman, Perry. Thank you.

Alright. Thank you. We'll go ahead and move on to our callers, please.

Good afternoon, council, mayor and city staff. My name is Mark Elliott. Over the past several weeks, misinformation shaped the public reaction to the university quality and conversion. Inaccurate statements were repeated until they became a basis for anger and pressure. What concerned me most was not only the public response, but the internal reinforcement of those narratives.

Members of city leadership echoed claims they knew were incorrect, and pressure was applied inside the institution. One council member even stated publicly that they had contacted attorneys and encouraged them to threaten legal action against the city. That invitation brought outside legal pressure onto the very institution they were elected to protect. If you publicly invite harm onto the body you serve, you should be prepared to step aside, not because someone forces you out, but because you've broken the trust that makes the role possible. A city council seat isn't just a vote.

It is a duty of care, a duty of truth, and a duty to protect the city's interests. When someone uses their platform to apply infamous misinformation, escalate pressure, and encourage outside legal action against the city, they are not fulfilling their role they were elected to perform. The moment I realized how far this had drifted was last week when recruited college students unfamiliar with the project or the corridor were brought in to deliver angry targeted comments based on a narrative they did not understand. I've also heard public claims about developer contributions to council campaigns. RHDC was the developer on this project, nonprofit or not, they are still a developer.

I submitted a petition from Corridor residents and workers because their voices were missing. Their support came quickly and without pressure, simply because they were given the facts. Over the past week, I've received additional signatures, 23 as of yesterday. Many of those residents asked me if I spoke again to express appreciation for looking out for us, especially given we were not included in the planning stages of the project. So thank you to the four council members who supported the lived reality of the corridor.

This process has revealed that those who acted responsibly were punished, while those who misled the public faced no accountability. The cost of doing the right thing has become far too high. For that reason, this will be my final comment. I hope the city reflects on the importance of accuracy, integrity and internal responsibility in shaping public understanding. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Elliott. We'll go ahead and move on to item number two on our agenda, which is brief reports on conferences and seminars attended by the council. And we'll go to Ward 1, Philip Iconi.

Thank you, mayor pro tem. I don't have any germs or illness. I'm just out here with extra space between me and council member Condor. Just two things to share with you all and to the public particularly. This week we have our Neighbors of the Wood Streets meeting at 06:30 p. M. At Eden Lutheran Church on the twelfth. That's Thursday. And then we have our Downtown Area Neighborhood Alliance on the sixteenth, Monday, in the Isaac Walton Building at seven p. M. I know we'll have representation from different city departments at each of those. Unfortunately, I have a family commitment. Won't be at won't be at them, but we have ward one representation from my team as well as city management and leadership and otherwise. So everyone welcome to join and attend and share your thoughts. Thank you, mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, council member. We'll go ahead and move on to Ward 4. Chuck Conder, please.

Thank you, Pro Tem. Few things. Last Thursday oh, I'm sorry. Wednesday evening was the, what's called the Rain Cross Trophy dinner, And I was joined there by, city manager Mike Futrell and, Susan Freeman, his wife. Fourth Air Force Trophy dinner brings in the 19 units from around the nation and around the world to all come together for a conference with the two star that runs fourth Air Force here in March. And then there were awards given out, and I want to congratulate the nine eleven Airlift Wing out of Pittsburgh who won the fifth the fourth Air Force trophy. The second next one was Reading Across America. That was my week, and I went to Thomas Rivera Elementary School along with my field director Frank. We both read to the students. Frank read a book.

I read a book. And the students, boy, they had a lot of questions. I couldn't get one page in and a hand went up in the air. Was great. I love doing that. On Friday, the sixth was King High Remembers. If no one's familiar with that, this was started twenty six years ago by the history teacher John Corona, who has retired since, but he's still heavily involved. And it brings in veterans to talk to the students and tell their story. And then the students write a small history of what they learned. I wanna thank the four students I had, Olivia Manley, Shishong Kazuk, Patrick Moon, and Ian Do.

Patrick, by the way, is the president of Riverside Youth Council. Had a great day with them. There was, I think, a 128 veterans there and about 600 students. It was it took two rooms. It was it was absolutely fantastic. And thanks to John Corona and to I think it's miss Taylor has taken over for him and does that. Saturday, he opened the Arlington Little League at Arlington Heights Sports Park. Damn, I'm getting old because I miss being around those little kids. It was just fascinating to be around them. I love it.

The energy was great. I wanna thank the team down there. Their their president of Arlington Sports League is Jorge Areola and his wife, Cassandra, and the vice president is Juan Munoz and his hang on. His wife, Nicole. So great day down there. Thanks to them for all they do. Thanks to the parks department. Pamela Glare is sitting out there. The park was in great shape. It was a little bit of a windy day, but it was not snow or tornadoes that might pop up some place we'll hear about. Great day. Thank you very much, Mayor Pro Tem, and that will do it.

Thank you, Councilmember Conder. Next, have word five, Councilmember Ville.

Thank you, sir. This morning, and

it's

funny, ironic, you read Tomas Rivera Elementary School. Last week, I actually read the book Tomas and the Library Lady to the Young Boys and Girls at Casablanca, and that book is written about Tomas Rivera. So and today, thanks to our friends with, at Amazon who donated books to us, we were able to go to the first grade class that we read to at Casablanca Elementary, and we provided a copy of the book for for each of the kids to to to have for themselves. It's very cool. So but then you see it come full circle, then you're at a school named after the very same gentleman.

A couple upcoming events. This Saturday at, Villegas Park, the Villegas Park Advisory Committee will be holding its annual Easter egg hunt, beginning at 10AM. Next week, the nineteenth, we have our community connection along with our update fire update, and that'll be at 6PM at Hunt Park. On the twenty eighth of this month, the Casablanca Home of Neighborly Services will be holding their Easter market event. And then on the coming up on March 30, which is Cesar Chavez Day, Letoon Network will be holding the twenty seventh annual Cesar Chavez Memorial Breakfast.

And then invite everybody out on April 2 to join my team and and supervisor Jose Medina at the Salvador Lara Casablanca Library as we unveil our Chicano art and literature section, and that will be at 10AM on April 2. That's all I got, Mayor Tory.

Thank you, member. Council member Emil. Next, we have council member Perry.

Thank you. Well, last week, we closed out Read Across America at a couple of elementary schools out in the ward. Saturday, we had to cancel our tree planting event out at Bryant Park due to the high winds. And last week, were able to participate in the Blue Zones grand opening right here at City Hall and the bridge that goes on the 2nd Floor that connects City Hall to the parking structure. It's a great facility. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, Councilmember Perry, Councilmember Perry Hemingway.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Just one quick thing. Just want to thank all those that turned up last weekend to do some cleanup in Rutland Park. Thanks. Keep Riverside Clean and Beautiful to their team and also to the city staff that were there to make everything run smoothly. And most importantly, all the volunteers that could have been doing a lot of things but chose to turn up out in Ward 7 and make that space and that area beautiful. So I wanna thank everyone that participated there. That's all. Thank you.

Thank you, councilmember Hemingway. As for me, I had the pleasure also to attend the Rain Cross trophy dinner. And, me and my wife were attending, and it's a great experience to hear some of the, heroic efforts that, these men and women do for our armed forces, including saving people from shark attacks in the middle of Guam. It's pretty exciting stuff. Also, as I I get the pleasure of one of the mayors out of town, I can attend certain events for her.

We had the US Green Building Local Leadership Summit at the Boathouse at Fairmont Park. We had, civic leaders from across the region who, are interested in becoming a green builders green building certified city. It was a great, a great greatly attended and really kinda showed off the beauty of our city there in Fairmont Park. I also welcomed many business owners at the Google AI training workshop at the Citrus State Historic Park. We had, Google there on hand to, teach business owners how to use AI tools to, accelerate their businesses and advance some ideas they're working on.

And so it's a great event, good breakfast, and, again, another beautiful setting to invite business owners from across our region to see how beautiful our city is. Also, we had opening day at Little League. I was excited. I got to be the coach and throw out the first pitch and threw a strike, and the win was definitely a menace. Kids were losing their hats left and right, chasing them across the field, but we had a great time out there. We also had I just wanna remind people that Sweet Millis in Midtown at the Broadridge Arcade is on March 21. Come grab a picture with the Easter Bunny. It's a really, really good time. It's right next to Kramer's Coffee in that breezeway there. And, also, we did have our first meeting for the Lyft, which is the learning suite for flight technology.

We had all the institutions in house, and we had a great first meeting kicking things off. And these will be monthly meetings as we work towards launching Lyft and having that effort be fully flushed out here in the city of Riverside. And that does it for me, and we'll go ahead and announce some of the committee meetings coming up. We have finance committee at 3PM on Wednesday, March 11. We have the mobility infrastructure committee at 1PM on Thursday, March 12.

Economic development committee at 3PM on Thursday, March 19. Housing and homelessness committee at three p 03:30PM on Monday, March 23. And the mayor's nominated screening committee at 11AM on Tuesday, March 24. And with that, we'll go ahead and move on to item number three, communications. City manager, do you have any updates?

No updates today, mister Acting Mayor.

Alright. Thank you, city manager. Alright. Number four, a declaration of conflicts of interest. I will be recusing myself from item number five, as it is a public hearing. I own real property within 500 feet of the project. And I'll go ahead and move on to item number five, and I'll go to former mayor pro tem Chuck Condor to handle this item. Thank we're

excited for

item the the number five. And What I'm gonna do first is have them play the announcement for the public speaking, but we'll have the presentation first by Ben Morels, and we'll allow public to speak after. But I want them to be aware of this. So go ahead and please play that announcement.

Public comment is now open for this item, available in both English and Spanish. Call (951) 826-8686 and follow the prompts to access the meeting in either language. To request to speak, press 9. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID for both languages can be found on the agenda.

Alright. Thank you, mister Morales. The floor is yours.

Thank you. Good afternoon, council members, distinguished Council members. My name is Ben Morales, Real Property Services Manager. I'm here today to ask for your approval in the adoption of a resolution of necessity. This resolution is to find and determine the public interest, excuse me. This resolution is to find and determine the public interest and necessity for acquiring and authorizing the condemnation of real property interests for the Brockton Avenue to Palm Avenue Railroad Quiet Zone project.

All right.

If you recall, this project consists of two acquisitions to fully construct and build this project. The Plym Trust, which we adopted in January. And secondly, the Department of Motor Vehicles, which is the subject of our resolution today. In 04/10/2018 is when council first heard this project and recommended public works to proceed with the design and complete the project authorization. So, discussed, this particular resolution covers the DMV needs.

So, we need some real property interest from their offices. We've been working closely with the state of California Department of General Services. And those negotiations are going well, but took some time and a little bit longer than we thought, which brings us to the action that we're holding today.

All right.

So, to date, the above required real property interests have not been obtained, And the city was notified by the owner's representative of the Department of General Services that they have been addressing the required notification process required by the authority of California government code 14,664. So, to summarize, that means that we're working cooperatively together. So, I'm going to paraphrase that. And then, as of last week, I'm happy to report DGS was able to produce the necessary documents for signature. However, we are still in a thirty day holding period.

This puts us in a great place, so by the end of the month, or early April, we'll be able to begin construction, which is actually prior to the contract being ready to construct. So, we're in a great place. Just for everyone's awareness, we got this on the agenda several weeks ago, and this is a stop gap measure in the event that something occurs during escrow. While unlikely, we're gonna proceed with this resolution. This here on screen, as you can see, what we need, what the takes are, 156 square feet of a, it says here, a permanent easement, but the state of California prefers that we purchase that land in yellow.

So we're acquiring that property. And then the property that you see, the 150 square feet in red strip, rather than a temporary construction easement, the state prefers to give us a right of entry, which is suitable for our project needs. So we're happy to secure those interests, but like I said, we won't formally have them for about another thirty days.

Alright.

And these are the required findings in black on screen. So in blue is what I'll read, and this kind of addresses those four points that are the burden of of the city to prove before you take this formal action. So, the project will improve safety and the elimination of the routine sounding of train horns. The design of the project was selected based on significant input from staff at Federal Railroad Administration, California Public Utilities Commission, and the Union Pacific Railroad. The real property interests are necessary for the construction of the proposed project, as without them, the project cannot be constructed as proposed.

And lastly, confirmation and identity of the record owners affected by the proposed project were made by attaining litigation guarantees and obtaining the last equalized tax rolls. With that, we come to our recommendations. They are as follows. Conduct the notice of public hearing. Consider the adoption of one, the resolution of necessity.

And here, interested parties. Two, find and determine based on substantial evidence in this report and administrative record, the public interest and necessity require the project. The project is planned and located in the greatest public good least private injury. The described property interests are necessary for the project, and the statutory offer under government code has been made and refused. That's not entirely true that it was refused.

It just took us a while to get to finalize our negotiations. Concluding our recommendations, adopt by at least five votes. The resolution authorize city attorney to prepare, file, and prosecute the eminent domain complaint in Riverside Superior Court and seek prejudgment possession under CCP one two five five point four one zero. And lastly, authorize a city manager or designee to execute related documents except policy matters. That concludes my presentation.

Thank you, mister Morales. I have no speaker cards here in the chambers. We're checking for an online. We have no more comments online. I will then foreclose the public comment, return to the dais for council deliberation.

Move staff's recommendation.

I have a motion by council member Mill or council member Perry. Please vote.

Mr. Chair, we'd have to do a roll call vote. Ward 1?

Yes.

Ward 4?

Yes.

Ward 5? Yes. Ward 6?

Yes.

Ward 7?

Yes.

Motion carries unanimous.

Thank you. Thank you, Clerk, for the correction. All right. That concludes item number five. Invite our chair back here. Here he comes.

Thank you, council member Condor. We'll go ahead and move on to our presentation, which is item number six. I will be going ahead to present a proclamation to parks and recreation and community services deputy director, Marjorie Hoppt, recognizing March as the arts and culture month. I'll invite Marjorie Hoppt, deputy director, tell us a little bit about what we do in arts and culture here in the city of Riverside.

Okay. Then our honorable mayor pro tem and council members, I am here with Rachel from the Riverside Arts Council. And on behalf of the both of us and all of the artists and art organizations we represent, we thank you for this proclamation. About two years ago, a little over two years ago, the Riverside County came to us about an opportunity to join in with Riverside County to make March Arts and Culture Month for Riverside County. And we both happily jumped into it for our organizations, realizing the value of a shared message and engagement all across the county.

And so we're very happy that we can do that. And as arts and culture, we're dealing with everything from arts, entertainment, public art, city sponsorship, filming, you name it, anything related to cultural tourism, economic development around arts and culture from the CHEECH, from Festival of Lights to the Insect Fair. All of these are in partnerships. And we, between the two organizations, are touching every type of community, every type of demographic within the city, whether it be incarceration, whether it be youth, whether it be seniors, which now I'm getting very close to being, whether it be schoolchildren, high schoolers, youth groups, anything like that, we have the opportunity to work with them, support the arts organizations that work with them, and really provide opportunities. And as we know, arts for children make them better and make them more successful and give them opportunities they might not have.

And just some small parts of it from an economics perspective, the Fox Foundation does live tech workshops with particularly RUSD, other nonprofits, and AUSD, where they're bringing in high school students to come and learn about technical aspects of running a venue from the backstage, the lighting and the sound, and then create those opportunities. Have hired some students. Live Nation has hired some students to participate in that, and it's an area in regards to arts and culture where we're lacking. We're lacking lighting directors and lighting staff, and so really finding a niche. And between the two organizations, we're really supporting what we do and how we do it here in the city.

And between our organizations and the Riverside Downtown Partnership, we were awarded and applied for and received named one of the new 10 arts and cultural districts at the end of last calendar year. We had, I believe, over 73 different communities or cities or counties applied for it. It was whittled down to 50 that met the requirements, and then 19 had the actual interviews, on-site interviews, and we were one of the 10 that was named. So through all of the work our community has done in regards to arts and culture, thank you for that support, and we look forward to being one of the new 10 cities and getting active within that with the California Arts Council.

Alright. Thank you, Marjorie. And I'll go ahead and read a little bit of this proclamation. Whereas Riverside City and the County Of Riverside have emerged as leader in arts and culture, and whereas the encouragement of local artists and the steadfast support of the arts community are deemed essential for elevating the quality of life in Riverside and fostering economic stimulation through tourism, entertainment, arts, and innovation, health, and wellness. And whereas our vibrant arts and culture scene has been cultivated through extensive partnerships with artists, local nonprofits, private corporations, cities, and strategic allies collectively contributed to the Riverside's leadership in the arts.

And whereas a cultural landscape that bolsters the arts and culture community in Riverside is crucial, not only for promoting tourism throughout the city and county, but also for enriching the lives of our visitors and residents. And whereas the City Of Riverside values a dynamic atmosphere that fosters innovation, education, and outreach within the local art community, recognizing these as vital components for the success, health, and advancement of our county. And whereas in February 2025, the City Of Riverside was designated as one of the 10 communities recognized as a California arts and culture district, thereby concluding the year of arts and culture of the success and excitement for the future. Now, therefore, I, Michelle Lac Dawson, mayor of city the of Riverside, California, do hereby proclaim the month of March 2026 as arts and culture month. Thank you.

Alright. If you can go ahead and step into the well, we'll take a a picture real quick. Alright. We'll go ahead and move on to our consent calendar. And I'll ask the city manager, do we have anything items you wish to pull?

No items to pull.

Okay. Ward 1? Pass. Ward 4. Pass. Ward 5.

Pass.

Ward 6. Pass. Ward 7. Pass. Move to approve. Ward 3. Pass. Pass. Move to approve. Second. Alright. Go ahead and vote. No. It's just

Motion carries unanimous.

Yeah. We did the roll call because Chuck was in my seat. Public hearing. Alright. And with that, we'll go ahead and move on to our discussion calendar, item number 13, and I'll I'll hand it over to council member Condor.

Thank you, mayor pro tem. Growing up in a very small town in Massachusetts, really at the epicenter of the activities more than two hundred and fifty years ago that created our country, I grew up with a wonderful sense of history. It was everywhere around me. I used to say you couldn't go for a walk in the woods without kicking over a stone and seeing something on it. You know, somebody had passed through there on the way to the Bunker Hill battle or some of the battle had happened there, somebody died there or somebody slept there.

It was there's history everywhere, and I had a very deep love for it. Then I joined the military, and I began to study military history. And I realized as active duty members, our responsibility was not only to maintain and improve what we had, but to remember those millions of patriots that we stood on their shoulders that had built the things before us. And then I moved to Riverside and I began to learn Riverside's history. And there's so much history here.

And for the State of the City address, the mayor asked each of us to come up with this little video. One of the questions was, where is your favorite place in Riverside? Well, mine is right up there in the top of City Hall on the heliport. Because I can look walk around and look around and see so much of my city. I can look down.

I can see the historic courthouse where judge John Gabbard and judge Vic Masselli, you know, applied their expertise and and were such honorable judges and and did so much to getting that courthouse returned to its status. I can look at Mount Rubidoux. I can see the Peace Tower, and I can see the cross, and I learned the history of all the things that have happened up there from having really the first Easter sunrise services. And I can look down, and I can see the Mission Inn taking up more than a block of our amazing downtown. And I tried to think about what would Mission what would Riverside be without the Mission Inn down there?

Because when I arrived here almost forty years ago, it was closed. It was in horrible disrepair. It was fenced off and it was within hours of being razed with being bulldozed. And, you know, that is such a famous place and there were two visionaries that came along and they knew what the mission in was. They knew what it should be, what it could be, and what it would be with their help. Now the mission that I talked about it, Councilmember Mill and I were at a very large business conference, I think two years ago now. And we were standing outside waiting for our bus. And this guy in front of us looks at our our badges and goes, Riverside. That's the Mission Inn. This guy was from Florida.

In my time here, I have been to so many different events where eventually around the table, the Mission Inn comes up in topic. And people talk about their travels and people recognizing where they're from. So just a couple I remember in talking, Norway, Brazil, China, Japan, Germany, South Africa and there were others. And people would ask them when they were there, where are you from? They'd go, oh, United States, California. They'd go, oh, where California? Figuring probably they're to answer Los Angeles, Hollywood, San Francisco. And they would say Riverside. And people would go, oh, that's where the Mission Inn is. True stories.

People from those who have traveled those countries, it's world famous. And as I began to think about the history and what downtown is like now because of these two people that had the vision and had the resources and the time and the expertise and the love for Riverside to rebuild that. I started thinking about a lot of other historic people in this town that have done things. And we're losing that history that we're not celebrating and keeping those names alive. So I went to the mayor with an idea of producing another basically award for the city.

People in this town that have done extraordinary things that make Riverside what we all love and enjoy today. So as part of that, she was 100% for it and she said let's go do it. We have so many people, and I'm not going to tell you the list of people all right now, but some of them you can imagine, we're going to put Frank Miller on there who began the mission in. We're going to put John North on there who started our city. And there's many, many others that have given their resources and their time and really given so much of their lives to making Riverside what it is.

And I know Commander Valconi like me loves history. And this is this is going to keep those names alive. So what I'm asking the city council to do today is to approve the creation of the Duane and Kelly Roberts, City of Riverside Extraordinary Achievement Award in their name and to select Dwayne and Kelly Roberts, the visionaries who took that broken down, almost destroyed Mission Inn and brought it back to its world famous status and select them as the first selectees for the award, and that is my motion.

Thank Thank you, councilor Maconder. A motion by ward four, seconded by ward one. I will go ahead and play public comment, please.

Public comment is now open for this item. Available in both English and Spanish. Call (951) 826-8686 and follow the prompts to access the meeting in either language. To request to speak, press 9. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID for both languages can be found on the agenda.

Okay. We have no request to speak in chambers, and so we'll go ahead and move on to our dais, council member Falcone.

Thank you, mayor pro tem. Thank you, member member Condor for bringing this forward. I wanna share a little bit more about just briefly history of Mission Inn and my favorite line, one of my first jobs was working for the Mission and my favorite line that I saw in an advertisement or an ad someone took out in the newspaper probably I would imagine around the late 1980s when hotel was fenced off it said the greatest promise never kept that the Mission Inn will one day reopen. And I thought that was funny because many, I believe residents at the time facetiously felt that the Mission Inn would be fenced off ultimately to eventual demise. And if it wasn't for, of course, Duane and Kelly Roberts in December 1992 purchasing the hotel and then reopening it in May 1993, we would probably that would have been the greatest promise never kept.

And thinking of all the community that came together, the Friends of the Mission Inn, the Junior League, Sue Johnson, other people who came together who, in support of Duane and Kelly, to get this hotel reopened again as the pride and joy and the greatest jewel of our city. That's what they say. So great there. But yes, seven years of chain link fence closure. One great thing is that the missions and the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest termite tent.

There's some great pictures out there of a termite tent, all done in a time of restoration in preparation for that grand reopening in May '3 led by Mr. And Mrs. Roberts. So definitely, not only on behalf of Ward 1, which this is truly, not only the geographical center of Ward 1, the heartbeat of Ward 1, really for the city of Riverside, what a great gem this is and where we would be without, as council member Conner said, what would what would we have if it were not for that great investment? So, happy to second this and looking forward to this this honor, this commemoration. Thank you, mayor pro tem.

Thank you. Council member Fadconi. Council member Condor.

Yeah. Just back again. Philip mentioned the opening in May 1993. Sue Johnson is here. She was one of the people that helped, push to get the redone. I was there that evening. I don't know. I was a young captain. I don't know how I got invited that night, but I was in my mess dress, which is our military tuxedos. My late wife was in her gown. It was a fabulous night. There was a big ice sculpture of the elephant in the pool. Someday, can tell you what the elephant means and what it's all about. But it was a great night. And again, Duane and Kelly Roberts had given so much to this town. And to get that mission in reopened and the people that have stayed there continue to stay there. It's known around the world. So I appreciate council member Falcone's knowledge of that and his words and I look forward to making a vote on this.

Okay. Thank you councilor McConder. Alright. I will go ahead and vote please.

Motion carries unanimous.

Mayor Pro Tem, what I'd like to do is take the council down and unveil the plaque over on the wall. Okay. And have the picture taken. So please all join us down there. As we return back, do want to thank Aldrete Designs for doing the final work on it, making my drawing a lot better than it did on paper.

That is all laser cut steel and weighs about 85 pounds. So it's going to be there for a long time. We have a lot of great people in this town whose names will be up on there, and those people's names we'll talk about for the next couple of centuries, hopefully. Thank you.

Alright. Thank you, councilor McConder. Well a well deserved reward, and I know that there is a lot of names that'll be on that plaque here to come. I'm very, very excited about that. Alright. We'll go ahead and move on to item number 14, which is the city of Riverside's general plan update, annual progress reports, and we'll have our economic development department come up and give that presentation. And we'll play the public comment message first, please.

Public comment is now open for this item, available in both English and Spanish. Call (951) 826-8686 and follow the prompts to access the meeting in either language. To request to speak, press 9. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID for both languages can be found on the agenda.

Okay. We'll go ahead and have a presentation by Clarissa Mangs.

Right. Good afternoon, honorable mayor pro tem and members of the city council. Clarissa Mangus, assistant planner, here today to present key highlights of the 2025 general plan annual progress report. All cities and counties in California must adopt a general plan containing the objectives and policies guiding the city's long range development. These objectives and policies are implemented through a series of actions prescribed in the general plan's original implementation plan adopted in 2007 and, most recently, the action plan adopted in 2021.

At the end of each calendar year, state law requires that each jurisdiction prepare a report outlining implementation progress. This report must then be submitted by April 1 to both the Governor's Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation and the Department of Housing and Community Development. Additionally, this report must describe the city's progress towards meeting its housing targets, specifically the Regional Housing Needs Assessment Allocation, or RENA for short, for the eight year cycle spanning from 2021 to 2029. This report tracks the city's progress in meeting its RHNA obligation by status in the development pipeline and by affordability level. The images in this slide provide some examples of actions that implemented general plan policies in 2025.

One key action was continued work on the phase two general plan update. The project team held multiple community workshops engagement events that are informing new land use and circulation policies currently in development. As another example, the March 2025 groundbreaking of the Northside Agricultural Innovation Center, which will provide training in climate resilient agriculture, furthered general plan policies to increase educational opportunities in underserved areas. And as a third example, the attraction and welcoming of new companies to Riverside, such as Omeo and Chabee, implemented general plan policies encouraging economic development, especially in clean and green technology. Additional highlights and achievements for each department are included in the staff report.

I want to conclude this slide by thanking all the city departments and divisions for providing key insights into their activities and accomplishments over the past year. Moving on to housing. This slide demonstrates the city's progress in meeting its RENET allocation based on permits issued for new housing. In 2025, the City issued permits for five sixty four housing units, 22 of which were in the very low income category and five forty two of which were in the above moderate income category. From the start of the planning cycle in 2021 until the end of 2025, the city issued permits for a total of 3,613 units, meaning that there is a remaining obligation of 14,845 units until the end of the eight year cycle in 2029.

To note, however, when combined with units in the development pipeline at the time of housing element adoption and units that have been granted entitlement approval but not yet issued a permit, the remaining obligation is much lower. The slide shows a breakdown of the five sixty four units issued permits by housing type, demonstrating a more active accessory dwelling units versus single family units. This slide also demonstrates housing activity in 2025 across the entire development pipeline, with five forty three units proposed, two ninety entitled, five sixty four units issued permits, and five seventy five units completing construction. Notably, every stage saw affordable housing activity with 18 affordable units proposed, 73 affordable units entitled, 22 affordable units issued permits, and 32 affordable units completing construction. This slide highlights the efforts made in 2025 to facilitate and streamline the development of housing.

These programs range from those meant to streamline the permitting process, such as the Dwell Riverside pre approved ADU Plans program, to those that remove barriers to the development of hard to develop sites such as infill development standards, to those that provide incentives for certain types of housing, such as our updated density bonus ordinance. These programs also include improved tracking efforts to identify housing trends and plan the rezoning of sites for housing where needed. In closing, staff recommends that the City Council receive and file the 2025 annual progress report for the City of Riverside's general plan and direct staff to submit the annual progress report for the City Of Riverside's general plan to the Governor's Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation and the California Department of Housing and Community Development pursuant to California government code section 65,400 dot a dot two. That concludes my presentation, and I'm available for any questions.

Thank you. We'll go ahead and move on to public comments. We do have one speaker card in chambers. Becky Wattley.

Hi. I'm Becky Watley with Ward 1. That was a fascinating presentation, Councilman Conder. What a great idea to give that award to Duane and Kelly Roberts, especially Duane Roberts, the son of Riverside. One of the things that strikes me about how someone like mister Roberts can do what he did is the resources and the money and the success that he found in in life.

And part of that is that he grew up with a family that had a small business here in Riverside. I bring this up only to mention that the people who need our help are not the of the world. The people that need our help don't have that money, those resources. They don't come from that kind of background. Or maybe they do, and they've made some mistakes, poor choices, have problems, and they need help, affordable housing help.

I'm not quite sure why several council members have said that market rate housing is what gets you affordable housing because that doesn't seem to be the case with the way that this is presented. Is it possible in my time to have one of the slides, the units proposed back on there? I'm sorry. If you could do that, that would be great. It mentions that there were 18 affordable housing proposed.

So I'm wondering if the University Terrace Homes, also known as the Quality Inn conversion, did not count towards that number. Is it because it was proposed through the grant and not actually application because that actually had 20 affordable housing units, not including the 94 additional units that were definitely affordable housing even though that they had permanent supportive housing. This RENA obligation, the staff report mentions that it has significantly increased for affordable housing. We're not doing enough. And it begs the question, why would you turn down $20,100,000 from the state to create this kind of housing when we so clearly need it?

And not just the city. It's the people that are not going to be housed. And you don't have alternatives. Those four of you that voted no, you claimed that you were gonna come up with some, but what I heard was you were looking for the money for the mental health problem, possibly creating some facility where you shoved these people aside so they were no longer in the streets and in your view and in your constituents' view. I know what happens at your community meetings. I go. You get a few forty, fifty, if you're lucky, that attend, and most of them complain about something, anything from the number of car washes to the number of tents that they've driven by. You know what? Those are just squeaky wheels. And the people that are causing those problems, they are only half.

Our point in time count was 600 plus. But there are over 300 that are asking for our help, that are asking for affordable housing, which the state requires.

Thank you, Ms. Watley. We'll now go ahead and move on to the dais. Does anyone have any comments or anything like to make? Okay. We'll go ahead and any other motion?

Yes. Could I just ask one one quick question, Matthew or Marissa, sorry. In 2025, it shows 22. I'm guessing that's the sunrise at Boggart for the very low. Is that correct?

Yes, I believe that's correct.

I'm looking through where would Vista De La Sierra fall in the prior years? Did that get lumped into '22 or would it be in '23 when it opened or '24? Just wanna make sure we're not maybe missing some of the numbers.

Yeah. Thank you for the question. Most likely, it would have been captured it's gonna be captured in the year that the permit is issued, which I I would imagine for Vista last year was probably 2022, but we can verify. Perfect. Thank you. Thank

you. Okay.

Sorry about that delay. We do have one more public comment card. We just it came in before we closed public comment, but it didn't get to me yet. Claire Jefferson.

Good afternoon. My name is Claire Jefferson Gleipa. I know you guys have heard me speak before. I'm the proud executive director of Family Promise of Riverside. We exclusively serve unhoused children and their families.

And I know we're about to dive into a lot of data and a lot of challenge. And I know that our community has gone through a solid argument about housing. But I think I would be remiss in just sitting in the audience and observing, which I do often, without reminding you what's at stake. So here in the city of Riverside, we have two amazing school districts. Riverside Unified School District and Alvord Unified School District.

They are required by our national government to count the number of children who are housing in stable in our community. Last school year, they identified 5,000 students within the city that we all love who do not get to leave school and go home. They may be in shelters. They may be sleeping in their cars. They may be couch hopping from family members.

I'd like us to keep those precious residents of Riverside at the forefront of our mind as we discuss housing. I'm blessed to serve these families each and every day. It is a privilege and a pleasure to watch kiddos grow, to celebrate birthdays and honor rolls and making of teams. In fact, this last year, we got our first kiddo accepted into college, unfortunate while still in our shelter. The biggest challenge that I have each and every day and I have a really hard job is matching that family with housing that is within the affordability of those parents.

Parents. 95% of the parents that we accept are working individuals. Working in our restaurants and our grocery stores. Affordability is a challenge that affects us all and I need you to please remember who we're talking about when we're talking about housing. Thank you.

Okay, that will close public comments and I'll look to my colleagues for a motion. Okay. Motion by award six, seconded by award five. Go ahead and vote.

Motion approved unanimous.

We will now move on to our closed session and our city attorney will report out.

We will now adjourn to closed session to discuss items number 15 through 20 on the agenda. All the information required by the Brown Act is set forth on

the agenda today. Thank you.

And Mayor Pro Tem, if I may real quick. If I had to write notes to myself, I might not forget things. I just didn't want to say that unfortunately, Kelly Roberts could not be with us today. She had a personal thing she just could not change. We will get a private time with her. And also, as you all well know, mister Duane Roberts passed away on the 11/01/2025. So keep him in your mind too. But we'll get with miss Kelly after she just could not be here. And we we miss her and love her.

That concludes our closed session, and we will now call the city attorney to report out on any closed session items.

No reportable action.

Thank you. And does anyone have any items to consider the next Okay. Assuming we have nothing else to do, we'll go ahead and close this meeting.