City Council - Regular Meeting

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Noon. Welcome to the city of Riverside City Council meeting for 05/05/2026. I'm mayor Patricia Lac Dawson, and I will call the meeting to order this afternoon. And just a couple of things, mayor Pro Tem Robillard is not here today. He is out of town on city business. He will be here, back next week. Also, member Cervantes is running a little bit late today, and she will be here, shortly. So just wanna let folks know. With that, I would like to ask Councilmember Falconewy to please lead us in an invocation.

Thank you, Mayor. For those wishing to do so, please join me in prayer. Lord God, we thank you for this day and this opportunity for us all to come together, to be one community, to look towards the future, knowing that in each of us there is great value in what we bring to the table and the service that we do for our community. We ask that you grant us discernment and wisdom as we go about making the decisions on behalf of the people for the betterment of the city of Riverside. We know that all that we do is in service not only to one another, but also in service for a greater good. We ask all this through your holy name. Amen.

Amen. Will you please lead us in the pledge? All right. We will begin our meeting now with public comment, and this is to comment on closed sessions, the consent calendar, and any matters within the jurisdiction of the City

The meeting ID for both languages Council. Can be found on the agenda.

Alright. Thank you. First up, I have Nathan Kemp. Welcome, Mr. Kim.

Good afternoon, mayor and council members. My name is Nathan Kemp. I'm the operations director of Starting Over Strong, my resident award, five. Starting with Strong is a five zero one c four built in collective power, policy advocacy, and the electoral accountability of those who public who hold public office. And we stand behind City Manager Mike Fertrell.

Good governance means centering the people most affected by policy decisions. Fertrell has done that consistently. He created Department of Housing and Human Services, the first unified structure in Riverside to treat home housing and homelessness as unfavorable. Under his leadership, nearly 1,700 unhoused residents were housed in a single fiscal year. He invested $2,800,000 total recovery dollars to the Riverside Nonprofit Resilience Fund, treating community based organizations as covering partners, not afterthoughts.

The Champion University Chair homes for the 219 residents on permanent supportive housing waiting list and fought for them even when this council voted it down. This record is exactly why Starting Over Strong pays attention to every ill cycle. Under Fortrell, organizations like Starting Over Strong and Starting Over Inc. Have had a genuine seat at the table for our expertise and our experience with lived experiences. A city that shows up for its most specifically to us in The United Residence is stronger for it, and that's why we support we stand behind Mike Frutrell. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Kemp. Next I have Art Alcaraz. Welcome, Mr. Alcaraz. Thank

you, Mayor, council members. I'd just like to make some comments regarding our city manager. You know, heard he was leaving. We hear he's staying, and personally, I'd like to see him stay. When city manager Mike Futrell was first hired, he came to Riverside Lithia Network meeting. This was during his first week on the job. He came on his own. Most of us in the room didn't know who this kind man was at all. He didn't ask for any time on the agenda. He just introduced himself as a new city manager and expressed that he was interested in learning about our community.

We were impressed by his openness and interest in getting to know us. In a Riverside Lithia Network meeting on April 15, a council member revealed breaking news that our city manager was leaving Riverside for an opportunity in Pasadena. He went on to add that this was a big loss for Riverside. A second council member at the same meeting also expressed disappointment in the departure and expressed gratitude for the leadership. Most persons in the room were stunned at this departure news and were hoping that this was just an April 15 fake news item.

Well, Mike Futrell has decided to stay in Riverside and many of the same people in that room on April 15 who heard of this pending departure are glad that he is staying on. While we don't know what the council will be discussing in closed session, let's hope it's job related, let's hope it's performance related, and let's hope that it's focused on a contract extension for a job well done. There are many things that need to continue under Mike's leadership. Riverside has continued to do well under his leadership from improved services to much stronger community engagement. Let's continue building on this momentum by keeping him in the role that he has served us in so effectively. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Alcaraz. I appreciate that. All right. Next I have Rich Gardner. And after that I have Ruben Gregg So to. Welcome, Mr. Gardner.

Honorable Mayor Locke Dawson. Good afternoon, Honorable Mayor Locke Dawson, city staff, city council members. As I look upon the dais, this is pretty much a lot of you people were elected recently and one of the first things, actually it was the first thing that came underneath your slate was the city manager getting an extension which was voted upon, just a little backstory everybody, voted upon in the early session of the council when the old council members were still here. So basically, that wasn't very cool because the new guys, being Sean, Philip, Steve, I think I got them all there, were coming on and being sworn in. And they didn't have a say in the early session, but they sure did after they were sworn in.

And they rescinded that contract extension for those that don't know. So you kinda wonder if you're gonna get voted for an extension, why wouldn't you just wait till the new council members are already up there? I mean, that would have been the proper thing to do and the respectful thing to do, but it was done in a reverse order. So, yes, you guys have it on the agenda that later on you're gonna review his performance. And I'll be honest with you, mister Frutel, I was surprised when I saw you took the job at Pasadena.

I was actually a little sad because I think you've done a good job. I don't like the contract negotiation from the beginning. I actually spoke in the early session because it was done like right at the end of your first year, think, and I thought it could have waited till the second year, which would have made more sense, but it's my understanding that he now has a two year extension taking him through 2018, which, you know, honestly, don't get it. He's accepted a job at the city of Pasadena and he announced that he accepted the job, and this is almost like the Seinfeld episode where Costanza quits and he shows up to work the next day like nothing happened. I mean, basically, I mean, I want what's best for our city.

I really do. And if the council members up there and talking later on decide that that's what best for their city, I'll respect that. And with that being said, I just wanna move quickly on to measure z. I respectfully ask the city to have any blue sign out there saying yes on z removed, because it says supported by small businesses. Now does every single small business approve a measure z? I highly doubt it. I think it's misleading. I think it's deceitful. And like I said, I'm just respectfully asking at least bare minimum, get the ones off the property they don't belong on. There's a Walgreens up at my house and sure enough, there's four signs up there on a lamppost.

It's private property, it's a public utility and they don't belong. So let's take care of the signs, guys. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Gardner. Please, Mr. Gardner, I want to ask you to make sure you talk to my office about some of the Alzheimer's stuff that's scheduled for the fall. I need it just reminded me to tell you that. Ruben Gregg So to.

Mayor, city council. Okay. I've been going through a divorce, and it's still going on. And it's costing me more and more money, and I had to hire a paralegal because I can't afford it or but I want you you to listen to this. California is a no fault divorce state, meaning marriages can be dissolved based on inconceivable differences without proving fault.

Key laws include six months residency requirement three months in accounting and mandatory six months waiting period before divorce is final. Community property laws mandate fifty fifty split assets and debts acquired by during the marriage. And what they're doing to me is they ain't doing that. They're picking and choosing what's community and what's debt. They're sticking me with everything like I said, I'm getting screwed by your city.

Okay. Now documents, falsifying documents which my ex wife did in the city of Riverside with false arrest with a courthouse is generally a felony California. Punishable up to three years in prison, to $10,000 fines. According to the penal code one one five p c, the crime is which covers offering for documents like court papers, deeds, IDs to a public office is considered serious white collar offense. Okay.

Now, I'm gonna read a letter real quick. I sent my daughter because I was paying this up. I'm retired. I'm sure narcotics for visitations, 130 a month for two hours on the weekend, which I can afford so my mommy had paid. So I wrote a letter and told my daughter I ain't paying no more. That's bullcrap. There's nothing wrong with me except I was on drugs and they kept me a drug addict. Even states it in the paper where I had mental health issues and Ruben cannot be around with his daughter on drugs or drinking. So why is everybody else on it? Why are they picking on me?

I'm a responsible father. Here it is. Sent one twenty five eighteen. Hi, my beautiful daughter. I want you to know I love you very much. You are always welcome to live with me. My door is always open for you are my heart. It's all my heart is always open also. I'll be waiting for you when you're ready. The reason why I'm not doing visitation just no more is I didn't want to see oh, I didn't it's not that I didn't wanna see or be with you.

God's word in the bible says you are a gift from god, which I adopted her. I didn't want, excuse me, children because I was abused at my at my my dad, and everybody tells me you abused your your kid. That wasn't the case. You were sent by heavenly father. I will not pay someone to watch me and and

Thank you, mister So to. Thank you. Anthony Benton. Welcome, Mr. Benton.

Hello, everybody. How's everybody doing? My name is Anthony Benton. I'm I'm founder of the Underdog Campaign. We're a 501C three tax exempt nonprofit. We really service the Riverside, Moreno Valley, and we kinda get down to the Arupa Valley area now. I've been registered with the state since 2024, April 17. I've been able to pass out and feed, administer 3,000 meals. We work with families in need. We reach out to Facebook. We bring clothes to them directly. Directly. February, we launched our community cuts truck, which we came out with you all April 22 at community engagement day. We were able to service 12 people. Basically, I highlight local barbers in the city in exchange for content.

I tell their story, and we come out. We find families that we reach out to on Facebook or during our homeless outreach to jump out boys where we bring hot meals, clothes to people. We now bring haircuts. I've worked with over 12 barbers, and in two months, I've been able to cut 52 hairs along with bringing about 300 meals. We do community events. Last December, we had a toy drive. 200 toys were given out plus clothes and food, and we have no funding. I've done all this out of my pocket. I work at Riverside. I work at a yard house in Riverside. I'm a server, and I feel like I've I've met you there too, brother. And this is just my passion. This is what I wanna do. This is what I feel is right. I'm not a Riverside or California native.

I moved here seven years ago on a one way flight and some guys I met on Craigslist. And I just took a chance, and I walked these streets. I've been all up and down these streets, and I've seen the highs and the lows, and I feel like being an underdog is basically just coming from under that, and then lifting the other ones up, and that's what I'm about. I've used this platform to highlight families in need, local artists, barbers, and I just wanna figure out how we can partner with you all officially. We have the Path of Light that emails us constantly. They want services from us. Renewing Hope has been reaching out to us recently. We just got done working with the probation office with you all at Magnolia, and we want to figure out how become official partners with you all. And that's what I'm here for. I appreciate you all. If I can give you all my information or anything, please let me know.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Benton.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you. Errol Koschowicz. Welcome, Mr. Kraschevitz.

Good afternoon, guys. I'd like to say a few things to you guys today. Philip's a Democrat. Clarissa's a Democrat. Chuck is a Republican. Steven is a Democrat. Sean is a Democrat. Jim Perry is a Democrat. Steve Hemingway is a Democrat. And Patricia Lock Dawson is a Communist.

Now we have a lot of problems guys here in the city of Riverside. I wanna go through a few purchase orders that I've been getting back randomly now and I've pretty much threatened Carmen lately and I shouldn't do this, but I want to put this one on especially. This is from AZ Bussells. Now AZ Bussells is where we buy a lot of buses from. I've been over there, I've never been on the lot.

The gentleman over there won't let me on the lot because I actually want to see physically see these buses. Now we've been providing millions of dollars for these buses and I I I want to do is see the buses. That's it. I'm asking the city council for me to see all these buses. I have stacks of purchase orders guys. Now for verification, I have the right with my own eyes to see these buses. Now if you go through these now, whoever wrote these purchase orders up needs to be fired. Okay? Can you change the page? Thank you very much.

Now this is another purchase order of buses from AZ Bussell. I mean we can go through them, purchasing department and the finance department of Riverside needs to be audited. And whoever in charge, I'll say, needs some real help figuring how to do a purchase order. Can you change the page? Thanks.

I just want to show I'm running out of time. Now this is a consultant that you guys hired, okay. Now we want to do a consultant on UCR campus for the physical impact of UCR campus. We're gonna pay somebody $204,000 to look at the campus. We got so many problems you guys, in our board, our city council.

I can be up here for months you guys, months with purchase orders now. It is insanity and you want to raise their taxes. I don't understand what the problem is here. I'm asking the residents here to actually vote these people out of office. That's all I can do is ask to look into their finances and see what's going on with the city of Riverside. You guys can prove me wrong anytime you want. That's all you can say. You can say, I don't know what I'm talking about. You can say whatever you want to say. After I leave, you won't say it to my face though.

You don't know what you're

talking about. There you go. I don't know what I'm talking about. I can read purchase orders. I can read purchase orders and that's the problem here. You have a blessed day you guys.

Thank you, Mr. Koschowicz. All right, I have Keith Alex, followed by Patrick Maloney, and then Mike Zidegan. Welcome, Mr. Alex.

Hey, good afternoon, folks. Gosh, I really don't like coming up here. Not that I have anything bad to say, I just don't like coming up and speaking in public. Let's start with, you know, over the last year, we as a country have screwed things up so bad that we have had to have the King of England come out to explain democracy to us. We've created a self inflicted worldwide hostage situation that we don't know how and if we're going to get out of here and it's the point where it's out of our control.

This is coming home to roost right here, right now in Riverside. Every project that's current, that's on the books, that's in the future pipeline is being retreated, reconsidered. Every bit of margin is being retreated not to the city's advantage. Yes. And it's this is where we're at today.

So folks that don't that haven't met me before five or six years ago, I'm not just an old hippie that likes to talk. I had a pretty good corporate executive career with the largest public homebuilder in The United States. And I've had some great mentors in my forty one year career and some member of some great teams. And there's one thing that's common in this thing in a good team that has the ability to pull together and pull forth a positive message that can be magnified by the power of yourselves all believing in what you're pushing forward, I don't I haven't seen any of that here. And if you don't believe it yourself, how are you going to convince somebody else?

You have that responsibility as a city, as an elected, to pull through and collaboratively bring together in a positive form what is best for the city of Riverside, not to different flags of your own fiefdom just to for whatever reason, to build your constituency in your neighborhood, your block or for whatever reason. Your alliance has to be for the long term and not look forward to the next business chamber conference or the next person you have to face up to because you made decision that was right for the city. And I just want to say that's disappointing because the city deserves so much more. A couple of you folks aren't going to be here. I've spent the last week going to the Rain Cross Converses, listening to what the folks to say and not say.

And this false religion and false patriotism, and I apologize, Chuck, but that flag is not doing any service to or that tie that's supposed to represent a flag is not doing any service. It's a disservice because I've heard you speak in person, sir.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Alex. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. I've got Patrick Maloney followed by Mike Zedigian. Welcome, Mr. Maloney.

Oh boy. Well, good afternoon, honorable mayor, city council and staff. I kept trying to think of something funny to say but all I keep thinking is about when I grew up, my grandma was like watching Days of Our Lives and Young and the Restless. I'm like, I got that now, but it's City Hall. It's kind of fun. Not in a bad way, it's in a good way because I love you all. On that note, I wanna say there's a lot of big news happening in Riverside. I'm surprised I didn't hear more about it, but the big one is Mission Inn just got supposedly. So good luck to the people running it. I know Phil's got a lot on his hands, and I can't wait to see what happens in the future.

And looking forward to seeing Mike here. It's good to see you, sir. Once again, I can't say anything about having a loved one say something online because my ex would say some stuff that would get me off of jobs and I would go and it bobbed me out because she's a devout Catholic and I'm not but I always gave her the right to say whatever she wanted to say. Boy, did that cost me jobs at cities, cost me jobs locally, it cost me I think even a job trying to get a job here running the box last year because it was a dream to run the box. Me and my partner tried to get it, did not happen and I do believe I was very qualified to run it.

We ran the Fox and the RMA, We can go and downsize to a box. But that's another story. My whole point is that's your decision and I respect it. And I respect this city and I respect what you do and I know it's tough getting, you know, basically shit on a lot online and in person and I just love that you all have stiff upper lifts and the fact that you push yourselves forward and that you try to make our city better. And it's tough because look, a lot of times I'm not on either side of you guys or gals.

I'm just trying to make sure in the middle because I'm a promoter. I wanna make sure our town is good, that we have a beautiful town to welcome ourselves to like sometimes I'm mad about Live Nation not keeping the Fox looking as great as it could be but I still love them. I still like the fact that they gave me a job back in the day. So I understand you don't always be rude, you find solutions to the problem. So off of that note, let's have some fun for this last minute. Cinco de Mayo tonight. Let's have a party tonight at Hideaway. We can all sing, we can pick some songs. Spanish or English, just help me speak spell the Spanish. My neighborhood would call me the but that was for a different reason and that was just because well, I had the best herb.

On that note, please come out to the NOW's meeting. This is a big one. This is about Measure Z. We're gonna have a meeting on Thursday, May 14 at Eden Lurton Church. It's about Measure Z and it's Q and A. We have both pros and cons. I'm so excited I had a bunch of sodas before getting here, so sorry about that. And plus, you guys make me wake up way too early. I work nights. But once again, that's gonna be Egan Lichten Church, Lieutenant Callipee Falcone is gonna be there and hopefully Mike will be there. Just make sure to show up. It's gonna be about Measure Z, very important thing here in town. And once again, please check out the hideaway tonight. Wednesday night, got back to the grind, been running that. That place has been running for thirty years.

I've been there for over ten. Friday is Urell Brewing Company and last but not least, Battle of Bands on May 16 at Packing House. I love my Battle of Bands because I get to showcase local bands. Good luck to everybody. See you next time.

Thank you, Mr. Maloney. All right. I have Mike Zidegan. Welcome.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Mayor and Honorable Council and our city manager and the staff. You know, I hardly ever come out and talk because I'm not a talker. I'm a developer out here in the city of Riverside. Want to first of all, I want to thank every one of you guys for serving our city. This is a very tough job that you guys are doing. I hear all these people always yelling and screaming. I want to see one of them come up there and take one of your seats and see how they would do. It's very difficult what you guys are doing. You guys got to make a decision on what you guys think that is the best for the city of Riverside.

Having said that, when I heard Mike was leaving, I was very devastated. I was it's been very hard time. I lived in the city of Riverside all my life, and I do a lot of development out here in the city of Riverside. And it's been very hard to get a group of people like yourselves with a city manager that can do stuff that can actually improve our city. In the past few years, we have been doing really good.

And with all these business meetings that we go to, I hear that we are the fastest growing city in the county and in the country pretty much. We are getting more businesses out here than anywhere else. We had the enjoyment of the mayor's speech of when she went up there on January and talked for us. And this is a city that we should be proud of. I mean I don't know what happened with Mike, but what I heard when he was leaving, I was devastated.

I hope that I know he's for reconsideration for to say. I hope you guys give him a chance to stay here and work with him. Having said that, I have a bigger issue, which is the homeless issue at Magnolia. We have had so much problems with that County Farm health facilities that we have out there. It's a nightmare. It's getting worse by the day. You guys really got to get into it. You guys got to come out there and see for yourselves what we have to go through. I myself have been hurt twice already. They broke my back once and they almost killed me the second time.

But there's no way not to approach them because they come out there and they fight with you. They're the crazy ones that we have out there. It's really, really bad. We really got to think about how we can get some solution of getting these people back to where they come from. Last night we were at a business meeting, Arlington Business Partnership, and one of the police officers out there suggested an idea which is very, very good.

I think you guys should consider it, which is giving these guys a voucher when they come back out from the facility and get them back to where they came from. We know where they came from. But these guys are bringing all these people out to our facilities here in the city of Riverside at the Arlington. I'm

sorry. Thank

you so much.

We do have that program actually, we already have it. Have that but they will Thank send them you. All right, I've got some comments online. Let's have our first caller.

Good evening, mayor and councilman. This is Keith Nelson. I'm speaking on behalf of the closed session evaluation of the city manager. I urge this council to stop treating this as a routine performance review. This is a leadership failure, a workplace failure, a public trust failure.

The council must relieve my fertile duty and access immediately move forward determination for cause. The fact that city employees, city staff have contacted me virtually, a virtual unknown in this city is deeply disturbing. The council cannot limit this review to only the recent Pasadena resignation reversal. This pattern dates back to the higher, the escalated through contract extension pressure in the chamber and drama and is now reflected in public records showing serious concerns about the work environment inside City Hall. City employees have the right to work in a civil, professional and safe environment.

Taxpayers pay for the city hall to function, not to be consumed by disruption, pressure, personal drama and internal instability. Every day this continues, taxpayers are paying for the consequences of a damaged workplace culture. The city's own records show this is not speculation. The city council sent a certified letter to Susie Freeman, the city manager's wife, warning her to stop harassing communications directed towards city employees. The letter stated her communications disrupted the workplace, caused significant distress to city staff, involved confidential personal and disciplinary issues and created pressure because of her relationship with the city manager.

This is not normal. This is not acceptable. And it's not separate from the city manager's performance. In fact, this makes us a clown show. The city manager is responsible for the administration of the city.

He's responsible for protecting employees, maintaining professional boundaries, preserving public trust, and ensuring that no person connected to him is allowed to create pressure, fear, confusion or influence inside communicating with city staff, sending training materials, seeking access and being treated internally as Mike's wife. The city manager cannot allow Freeman Companies emails and messages to speak nor Freeman Companies to speak on behalf of the city or the city manager itself. That alone is a breach of trust. And based on the evidence now public, I believe he has breached the duties and obligations of his contract. The consulate cannot hide behind contractual clauses where the contract has already been breached by the conduct and leadership failures at issue.

Then comes Pasadena. The public was told to accept another city manager. You, Mr. Nelson.

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

Good afternoon. This is Aurora Chavez. I'm sorry I couldn't be there today. I'm very congested this morning. I just wanted to speak up about what's going on here in Riverside, the city manager position and his wife and what we're now trying to accept here.

If the city decides to accept that whole scenario, for us to accept it, we're just going to have to tough it out and take it. And is that what you really want us to do? It is grin and bear it. And then the Measure Z, if they keep on taking money out of people's pocket, we can't go out and spend it at our businesses. So when businesses are already feeling the tightness of it, they're trying to manage their ability to function for the rest of the year, and some of them are going down, and you take more money out of our pockets, we won't be able to spend it out there, and there goes more businesses.

I'm for Riverside residents for the children to be able to learn. And if you take money out of their parents' pockets so they can't do any projects at school because they won't have the money to do that. I'm backing our families. I want our families to progress. And right now, I don't feel that they're progressing because they wouldn't have the funds to do it. That's why I fight so hard hard for them. So you guys do whatever you guys are going to do, we'll continue to fight. No matter how sick I get, I'll still fight. Thank you. Bye.

Thank you, Ms. Chavez. That was our last caller. We will close public comment and move on on our agenda. We are now at item number two. This is the brief reports on conferences, seminars and regional meetings by our council members and mayor. I will start with, as I always do, with Ward 1. Councilmember Falcone.

Thank you, Mayor. We had an eventful weekend in Ward 1. Why have one event when you can have seven in one day? That's exactly what happened on Saturday, but a couple of highlights we'd like to share just express gratitude to Riverside University Health System, Riverside Unified School District, the CHP Public Works for the Every Kid Deserves a Bike program at Longfellow Elementary, which is always fun. I think a few of our city team, they tried to get me to ride the bike on the track and I said no.

But Edward Enriquez did it in lieu of me, I think. So some great teams out there to get to see young people receiving a free bike to enjoy in the neighborhood. General plan meetings, show and go, a bunch of other events this weekend, all very successful. Looking ahead, we're welcoming this week about 500 or so historic preservation officers and historic preservation folks for the California Preservation Foundation conference in our downtown. They arrive this evening, and they'll be with us through the weekend.

So if you see anyone out there with some badges, welcome them to Riverside. We are in America's two hundred and fiftieth year, as I've shared before with the City Council. And this past week, we had an exhibit opening in partnership with the Mission Inn Museum that opened on Friday, and it's a free exhibit at the Mission Inn Museum at Main And 6th Street open seven days a week from ten to five. And of course, always odd neighborhood groups happening, Lincoln Park Neighborhood Group this Thursday at 6PM at the Lincoln Park Community Center in the Northside Improvement Association, Monday, 06:30, Reed Park. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you, council member. And as I mentioned, council member Cervantes had a family matter to attend to. She'll be here in a little bit. And council Member Robillard is out of the city on business this week. He's on city business, so he will return next week. And with that, I will skip now to Ward 4 with Council Member Condor.

Thanks, Mayor. Yeah, a couple of things. On the twenty fifth, I had opportunity, along with my field director Frank, to do the Great American Cleanup. And along with four young ladies and two of the mothers, we walked the entire length, both sides of Mission Grove, and picked up many bags of trash. I want to thank those young ladies and their moms for coming out for that. On the twenty seventh, I attended the RUSD Student Civic Showcase over at the Convention Center. Folks, that was really damn cool. These kids had some great projects, everything from clean water to how the brain works to bullying to trash. I mean, young men and women really did some fantastic work out there. Was just an awful lot of fun to be there.

On the twenty eighth, I represented the city over at Hyundai ROADM for the Sustainable Steps event with that company. It was a lot of fun. I spent a year in Korea. The Korean people are a lot of fun to be around. And if that dance I did is up on YouTube, I'm going to get a little bit embarrassed here. The twenty ninth, I attended the RPD Promotion and Awards Ceremony down at Harvest Church. I want to congratulate all the 10 new officers that were sworn in and the promotions of the others that were there. And finally, tomorrow night at Orange Terrace Community Center will be the ballot measure information meeting to come and learn to get the true information. And that will be from five to 07:30 p. M, Orange Terrace Community Center. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Mill, Ward 5.

Thank you, Mayor. A couple of past events. April 2223, I had the honor of representing the City of Riverside at the League of Cities event up in Sacramento, joining elected leaders from across California to discuss issues. I had the opportunity to meet with most of our inland delegation up in Sacramento, both senators and assembly members bringing issues from Riverside to them, talking to them about the issues that matter to us. One of the things I'm very proud of is that Chief Gonzalez was one of the panelists.

There was an immigration discussion. And it's just always wonderful to see Larry Gonzalez representing our city. He always is I mean, he's a star. He lights up the room and he really represents our city well. Very difficult discussion, but Larry always makes Riverside look good when he's up there and I was very proud to be sitting in the front row knowing that that was my chief when he was in that very difficult discussion.

April 25 had the Great American Cleanup. I had an amazing my office had an amazing group of folks that went out to Casablanca. We met at the library and we collected over 30 bags of trash right in that area. We had it was amazing. We had families that came together.

They had groups throughout the area. And it was just an amazing public support of our community. This is exactly what Riverside is all about, community members coming together. I made sure, went over, I talked to the families and it was moms, dads, you see their young children and they're teaching them about giving back to the community really makes you proud to live in such a city. Some events coming up this Saturday, the annual Cinco de Mayo Park.

It's an all day event. It'll be going till early evening, so hope everybody can come out and celebrate with the folks out there. May 23, we will have the Arlington Business Partnership Chili Cook Off and Car Show out at Van Buren And Magnolia, another annual event that you want to make sure to be at. And on the twenty eighth, I will be holding a town hall at Vegas Park in Casa Blanca. So that'll be at six p. M. On May 28. That's all I have, Mayor. Thank you.

Thank you, councilmember. Councilmember Perry?

No report this week.

Okay. Councilmember Hemenrich.

Thank you, Mayor. I'll work my way back. It's been a couple weeks since we met. So a couple of weekends ago, on the twenty fifth, saw Councilmember Mill at the Great American Cleanup Finale. The university got an award at the Dining Commons. It was pretty exceptional. Popped into the insect fair, but started the morning off at the Ward 7, the fourth annual community health and wellness fair. I just want to thank a few folks for all the work they did. A lot of folks turned out, and I want to just thank the students from all the different schools that delivered some amazing performances and added a ton of energy and excitement to the event. I want to thank our partners and the vendors.

I think there's over 30 or 40 vendors that turned up to offer resources and services. And then, of course, there were some generous donors who had the opportunity drawings to get folks to turn up. And then, of course, I want to thank Alvord Unified School District and Parks and Rec for helping put all this together at the La Sierra Park. We've done this for a few years, strong now against fourth annual, and it just keeps growing. Overall, a great, enjoyable and successful day for the community and the residents out on the West Side of town. I just want to thank all those that made it happen. So thank you.

That's all.

You have a good group out there, I will say. Thank you. Just a few things from my office. I want to thank Mayor Pro Tem Roblaard who's right now in Washington DC attending the SelectUSA Conference. That's the conference where international businesses come to learn more about the city of Riverside and choose our city to set up shop and bring businesses and jobs here.

So he will be back next An announcement about our next senior forum that we have. Our next senior forum will be Wednesday, May 13 at University Heights Middle School from six to 7PM. You can get information about this from our social media or just calling my office or emailing to mayorriversidica dot gov. And I am proud to be joined by Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes. And shortly thereafter, I will be doing our Ward 11 with Councilmember Falcone as well.

So looking forward to both of those. Also, last week, I attended at the sponsorship of Bloomberg CityLab. And we went over a whole bunch of stuff. Over 100 mayors were there globally from all over the world to come and share our issues and talk about how we can bring resources back to our city. And there was an announcement made at the conference that Riverside was selected as one of 300 cities globally to receive a youth climate action grant.

So that's a really nice big deal and helps our youth through our Office of Sustainability. So it was fun to be there for announcement. And then finally, one last thing I wanted to say because I see Art Alcaraz in the audience. And Art from Latino Network and I met in my office last week, week before. And we were chatting about the Cesar Chavez statue that's here on Main Street.

And we've been getting a lot of questions about this in my office. And I know some of our council members have been hearing too from the community about what is going to happen. So Art gave us some information that I just wanted folks to be aware of and I'm passing along. But there's been a lot of discussion. And rest assured that thoughtful dialogue has been taking place with that owns the statute, the Latino Network and the city.

And to that point, I do want to thank Art Alcaraz and the Latino Network for their plans to bring their ideas about the statute to the community. There will be community discussions as well as a survey. They've already surveyed a lot of people at different events like the tamale festival and other things. So I appreciate you actually engaging the community on what is the right thing to do here. So at some point, I think ART and Latino Network will bring those results of those surveys forward.

Currently, there's several ideas that we talked about. There's, you know, replace it with something that speaks to the significance of farm workers, alter the statue somehow with some combination of Chavez and farm workers, or remove the statue completely. We don't know what that's going to do. We're going to wait till the surveys come in and Art and the folks at Latino Network have a chance to consider this thoughtfully. Because ultimately the statue is and the status of it will be up to Latino Network.

So please know that the city stands by ready to assist. And we really, really appreciate your partnership with the city and your thoughtful approach to this very troubling and meaningful dialogue that I think we're having over the issue. So thank you, Art. I wanted to share that. All right. We are now at item number three. This is our city manager updates. And city manager, do you have any updates that you wish to share?

Yes, madam mayor. Ruby Castillo has an update for us all.

All right. Thank you. Welcome, miss Castillo.

Thank you, honorable mayor and members of the City Council. Ruby Leanne Castillo from the City Manager's Office. So I'm here to provide my monthly update regarding resolution number 24,310, which directed the City Manager's Office to provide ongoing reporting on federal immigration enforcement activities in the city. So from the last time I reported through 04/29/2026, three eleven did not receive any community reports, but RPD did receive one of ICE and Border Patrol activity in the city. Just to let you know, the city manager's office will continue to get updates from RPD and we will report it to this body as well as the HRC. So that concludes my update. If you have any questions, in here.

All right. Thank you, Ms. Castillo. I don't see any questions. Anything else, city manager? All right, thank you. All right, council declaration, conflicts of interest, ex parte communications, anybody? I see nobody raising their hands. So we will now move on on our agenda. We have several presentations today. I understand our Riverside Prosper's report has been rescheduled, is that correct, Council Member Connors?

Yes, was a medical issue going on.

Okay, so we will look forward to that when it comes back. So we're going to start with item number five and this is our Northwest Mosquito and Vector Control District 2025 End Update from Public Works. And Nikia Smith is on my agenda to give a report. But I don't think that's the case. So I wanted to hear from you today. Thank you.

No, I'd like to apologize. Nikia got sick. My name is Eric Blejos. I'm the Director of Administration for the district. Thank you, the local mayor, city council for having me out today. So Northwest Mosquito and Vector Control District is a local public health agency providing vector control services for the NW Portion of Riverside County. We currently serve a population of almost a million people and have a coverage area about three fifty sq miles. Today I'd like to go over some of our three main concerns that we have here in Riverside. The number one being mosquito control and mosquito surveillance. So some of the services that the district provides is residential and backyard inspections.

We can go, residents can give us a call, they're having a lot of mosquitoes within the area. We could have a licensed technician come out, do a thorough inspection around their property looking for anything that could breed mosquitoes. Many different kinds of mosquitoes within California breed in very different sources throughout the neighborhoods. So with our trained technicians, they could really go through their residents properties and find these hard to reach areas. Some of the sources, all it takes is a little bit of water for some of these mosquitoes.

So if water can stay within something for longer than three to four days, that's a potential mosquito breeding source. And it doesn't have to be on top of something that we could visually see. We're talking about catch strains, things like that all within the resident's property could be mosquito breeding sources. So we can send technicians out, they could identify these sources and in many cases eliminate them so we don't have to come back. In some cases we'll have to treat those sources so we provide environmentally safe pesticides that we are able to add to the water to prevent the mosquitoes from breeding.

We also do surveillance within the neighborhoods looking for any disease prevalence throughout the neighborhoods. We're actually able to bring those mosquitoes back to our lab and conduct RT PCR which identifies the West Nile virus as the most popular or most common vector borne disease within our area and we're able to have a rapid response order to reduce the chances of this. We also test dead birds for West Nile virus. So if anyone sees any crows or any other dead birds within their community, they can give us a call. We could send a technician out.

They could swab that and get testing and find out if it's been infected by West Nile virus. Another main focus in City Riverside is our rodent abatement program. This is a proactive program where we do very thorough inspections around the residents' houses and in certain instances we can do rodent bait. We look for the structural vulnerability. So anywhere where the rodents could get into the residence and cause damage is what we're really looking for in order to make sure where we live, lot of citrus trees, lot of fruit trees, lot of palm trees.

These are all areas that these rodents are going like to live in. We don't want to reduce that in our neighborhoods but we just want to make sure that doesn't cause any damage to the structure of the home. A lot of this is education on sanitation and exclusion and we like to provide rapid response when we're doing these service requests. Our second most common complaint though is our bee removal program and we do that with the utilities department. We get a lot of calls from them.

We get a lot of bees in water meter boxes. So water meter boxes, they're an ideal location for the bees to go in. They're secluded, often cooler, dark, a little bit of water for them to drink so they really like that and we wanna make sure that we're protecting our meter readers so great service. Unfortunately these are a major part of our life and are great to have but we do want to make sure that when there's a direct threat to public safety that we are able to provide agency does not provide emergency services however, so if there is an emergency bee situation, we do advise to call 911. Here's some of the highlights from thousand twenty five.

So we collected almost 20,000 adult mosquitoes in the city of Riverside. We sampled a 129 of those mosquito samples and tested them for West Nile virus. We conducted 24,251 mosquito inspections and we did 3,426 treatments throughout the area. You can see here most of our service requests are mosquitoes, bees coming in second, rodents in third and other vectors in there. We like to thank the city of Riverside for always including us in some of the outreach.

Our biggest event by far is the Riverside Insect Fair which happened a couple weeks ago. So if you see us out there, we have a big yellow hovercraft that gets lots of attention. We have lots of people coming out. Been very big supporters of this event for a long time. So come by, say hello. And that concludes my presentation for now. I'm happy to take any questions. Again, I'm Eric Valles, not Nikita Smith. She's our Director of Operations, but happy to take any questions at this time.

All right. Thank you. We do have a couple of questions. Sounds good. I know one from your board member, but first it's from Councillor Verconder.

Eric, thank you for the report. One thing I want to reiterate is you talked about water staying somewhere for three or four days it can start. And I have bothered Mr. Gil and Mr. Nathan so many times over the years with water that stands next to curbs because either subsides down or lifting up and that water from the sprinklers and stuff, it just stays there all the time and turns green. We just advise residents to call that in when that happens. Mr. Hernandez and Mr. Mostafa's teams get out there and take care of that real fast for us. But it's an important one because you see it, especially in summertime with the water in the grass. That stuff will just sit there for days and days and turn on the colors.

To reduce the mosquito populations, it really takes community effort and proactiveness from the communities. We're a pretty lean organization so we have only a couple of staff members out there so we really rely on the residents calling in and letting us know about these sources not only in the yards, in the backyard, so we could get there, we could assess it and take care of it hopefully.

I know our police department does a great job when they're up in the helicopters identifying green pools and they can relay to us and then to you. Thank you, Eric. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Falcone.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Eric. It's good to see you. I usually see Eric in Corona, so I'm happy to see Eric in Riverside. Yes, I serve on this board representing the city of Riverside.

I just want to share that it wasn't until I was on this board realized just how expansive the reach of Northwest is, not necessarily in terms of geographically, which is that true, but also just how much goes on. We have a great board of folks, majority elected officials from surrounding cities all within the district's area and a few other community appointees, but a very dedicated board that we meet regularly. It's, I think, surprised people how much goes into this particular district and the reach that there is. So just commending you for your work and have a whole newfound appreciation for all this. I would say that's, I call that the mosquito mobile that goes to the insect fairies here. Thank you, thank you, Eric. Thank you, Mary.

Can ask I you a question Eric? How many species of mosquito do we now have in Riverside?

Oh, in Riverside. I mean within California there's over 20 different species of mosquitoes and there's always reintroductions and new introductions. So I would say there's about five that we're mainly concerned about, Mainly two families, the aedes family of mosquitoes which are a lot of people like to call the ankle biter mosquitoes and then our more native Culex type of mosquitoes that they're the actual vectors of West Nile virus. Those are the two main families that we deal with, but there's sub groups within those families.

Besides mechanical and insecticide removal, is there any move to do bio controls or have we tried or is there? I don't know the research.

So we did last year was our first sterile insect technique, SIT is the popular name for it. We did do some releases last year in Lake Elsinore. We are looking and are evaluating on moving that program forward. So that's taking locally raised mosquitoes, the local strain of mosquitoes. We can radiate them in males only because males don't fight and then that reduces the population in the wild.

You're evaluating those data now or?

Yeah, we did it last year and we're trying to evaluate to see if we're able to expand upon that program.

Okay, well I hope so. That would be nice to have that. Better than insecticide.

Yeah, and we invite people to visit our website or give us a call for more information.

All right, thanks. And I see Chuck Condor

has Yes, a follow-up question again. Has it gotten worse or better? I mean we remember the days of methionate when the planes were flying over and doing that. Has it gotten better or worse over the years?

So we had a reintroduction of an Aedes aegypti mosquito, the ankle biter mosquito about twelve years ago and that mosquito is much more aggressive towards humans than mosquitoes we've natively had in the past. So I would say bite pressures increase because of the mosquito pressure. However, the mosquito population numbers I would feel are much more down than they were in past. So this mosquito though, it's really really hard to find. It lays its eggs in really hard cryptic breeding sources and it's just really hard. It's really pesticide usage isn't the best to control this mosquito so that's why education is so important to get people to go around their house, manage their water properly and dispose of any potential water holding container.

Thank you. Thanks. Doing God's work out there. Thank you. Thank you

very much.

Appreciate it. We're all fascinated with this topic, I think. Let's see, we are now on to item number seven and I'm going to, I think I'm going to call upon our city manager, Mike Futrell, because our Community and Economic Development Department Interim Director Miranda Evans is also in Washington DC with Councilmember Ovalard. But today we're going to be putting out a proclamation recognizing May as Economic Development Week. So I do have a proclamation and I can read a little bit of it.

Whereas the city of Riverside affirms that strategic economic development is foundational to building a resilient, inclusive and future ready community, whereas these achievements reflect Riverside's emergence as a destination for a global enterprise, we've catalyzed more than $142,000,000 in private investment, generated over 1,000 high quality jobs and six international companies over the past year. The city's economic development team has fostered key partnerships with companies such as Omeo, Voltu and Chevy, advancing Riverside's leadership in green tech, clean energy and sustainability. Riverside's progress is guided by Riverside realized an award winning economic development plan that aligns resources, partnerships and measurable outcomes to drive business growth. And whereas these collective efforts strengthen our local economy, support small businesses, expand our tax base and enhance city services, ensuring Riverside remains community where residents can live, work and thrive. So now therefore, I do hereby proclaim the week of May '8 as Economic Development Week in the city of Riverside, encourage all residents, businesses, and community partners to recognize, celebrate the vital role of economic development in our city.

City manager, Futrell.

Thank you, mayor. And I'm honored to accept this on behalf of the department. Miranda Evans, as you mentioned, called me this morning from Washington, D. C, where she and Councilman Robillard are out fishing for more companies to come to Riverside, and I'm sure they will bring home the bacon. So economic development is where we do turn vision into real results, and it's about the people.

It's creating opportunity, supporting small businesses, attracting investment and ensuring every resident has a pathway to a good job and a quality life. I think you all know, and I think many in the community have seen that over the last few years, this has been a top priority of this council, this mayor and city staff. And we have seen that in the partnerships that have developed with UCR, with La Sierra University, with CBU, with RCC, with the Chamber of Commerce, with our county, with our surrounding cities as we take a regional approach to bringing high quality jobs to this area and Rivertide in particular. And it is critically important as the economy of the world is changing, the economy of this country is changing rapidly, and we the city are rightfully focused on navigating that such that Riverside is a winner on the other side of whatever that economy looks like. So I think Miranda would like me to say that we're excited about Economic Development Week, but really every week is Economic Development Week in the city of Riverside as we continue to hustle every day to bring good jobs to the city and help our existing businesses grow.

So thank you, mayor. On behalf of the department, we're happy to accept this proclamation.

Thank you, city manager of Futrell. And I'm really happy to say that I just got accepted to do a panel. I pitched a panel to the US Conference of Mayors for their June leadership meeting, which is going to be in Long Beach this year. And the panel is all on economic competitiveness, particularly in energy and sustainability and how cities now can lead the way when nationally we may be faltering. Very excited about that.

And I will be on my path. All right, thank you very much. Well, don't think you should be going anywhere. No, I think because item number eight is the city manager's office department overview and employee recognition. And I will ask you to come back up and give us a staff report on this item. Thank you.

Thank you, mayor and council members. For the public, this is something that every department does during the year. We each get a shot at bragging a little bit about ourselves and introducing the team, highlighting some special team members, and it just so happens by that coincidence that today is the City Manager's Office turn for its annual review. Mayor, council members, members of the public, I feel it's incumbent though before I begin this presentation this evening, I do want to briefly address an issue that is understandably drawn attention. Questions have been raised about my application to the City of Pasadena and about a letter that was sent to my home and later entered into public discussion.

I want to say this clearly and respectfully, judgment should be reserved until the full factual record is available. Some of the allegations involve my wife, my family, they deserve the same basic fairness that anyone would expect, the opportunity for facts, context, and records to be fully reviewed before conclusions are drawn. I welcome accountability, I welcome transparency, but accountability must be grounded in facts, not assumptions, not rumors and not incomplete narratives. But I'm not here this afternoon to litigate that matter from the podium. I'm here as your city manager.

My responsibility is to this organization, to the employees who serve this city every day and to the residents of Riverside. And that is what this presentation is about. Tonight, this afternoon's overview reflects the work of an entire organization, the leadership, coordination and results delivered by your city manager, the city manager's office and our teams across the city. And here this afternoon, I remain focused on the work, the work this team has done and continues to do on behalf of the people Riverside. Here is a synopsis of what we do in the City Manager's Office.

At its core, the City Manager's Office exists to align the entire organization around council priorities and direction and community outcomes. We serve as the central coordinating body, ensuring departments are moving in the same direction. This includes policy implementation, operational coordination and performance management. We also focus on resource strategy, grants, partnerships, budget and fiscal discipline. And we set the tone for transparency, accountability and innovation, promoting a solution oriented can do organization and empowering city staff to say yes to opportunities and yes to partnering with residents and businesses for better outcome.

Let me show you what that leadership and coordination looks like in practice. This is the team throughout the year. We spend a great deal of time breaking down the silos between departments and leadership retreats and luncheons and our meetings. It is important that we work as a single team. It is destructive if one department or another is operating in silos, hiding information and acting territorial.

So we spend a lot of time developing our leadership and I do expect every department head to be a leader. The city manager's office is there to facilitate, to help, to handle difficult problems, but it's really the department heads who are the true leaders of their departments. This is the org chart, it's a bit of an eye chart right here, but as you can see, each department in the city has an executive sponsor to help them and they are broken down into three areas: quality of life, which is led by Chris Martinez sustainability, which is led by Gil Hernandez and creation of a high performance team, which is led by Edward Enriquez. And then three departments respond directly to me, Miranda Evans with Community and Economic Development, given the importance of economic development to the city and the police department because without public safety, there is no economic development. And there's Phil Pitchford, the public information officer as well.

This is us as a group. It is striking because three years ago this group was easily three times as large. I like having a smaller, more nimble team and we devote more resources into the departments that actually do the work. But this is where we are. A few more photos of the group, handsome as they may be.

Then look at the ones that respond to me specifically and you'll note in the bottom right that is the in person town hall meeting, something we started just a few years ago. We get 100 of city employees together in person to celebrate years of service, to talk about the vision and where we're going. Part of an ongoing campaign to make sure that every city staff member feels a part of the team, understands the vision and we're all moving in the same direction. That includes the recently started monthly virtual meetings, which typically have about 600 employees. There's one tomorrow morning where we again talk about where we going, where we've been, and we have live Q and A once a month with every employee where they can answer, ask anything they want.

We've also started a city employee newsletter again to put out the message so they feel part of the team. And these, I can take a little bit of credit for some of this, this is what that team has accomplished. This past year, we finally reached 100% staffing in the police department, a major milestone And between 2024 and 2025, we've had a 34% reduction in crime in Riverside. It is a remarkably safe city for a size a city this size. A lot of work in the city manager's office on economic development.

We currently have $4,800,000,000 of new projects in the pipeline and the large iconic difficult, I would say projects we're moving forward, the Riverside Sports Entertainment District, Pelosi Ranch, Adrenaline Sports Resort and Riverside Alive, which between the four of them is about $3,000,000,000 of investment in our city. And of course, Fleming's, where last year we met one on one with the CEO of Fleming's, working with the downtown partnership and others to convince them that Riverside is on the rise and worthy of an iconic restaurant like a Fleming's. You look, thank you to Jeff, we secured $1,200,000 in federal earmarks, but more impressively $40,000,000 in new grants were secured last year. We advanced legislative priorities and as I mentioned open mic with Mike, but a lot of work for this team. The quality of life team, housing and human services, museum, library, parks and rec, Marketing and Communications, and Public Works led by Chris Martinez.

And they too have had major accomplishments this past year, including the Eastside Library, moving forward with the long delayed renovation and expansion of the city museum, Boardwell Gym, Eastside Community Center, those are major projects that got the funding, made it happen and we're excited that the museum will reopen in the first quarter of next year. Expanded parks including nine pickleball courts for two years in a row, 50 miles of streets paved, the quiet zones, library access expanded and city outreach was greatly amplified through our marketing efforts. And this past year, we concluded negotiations with the Riverside Arts Council to in time transfer leadership over Festival of Lights to the Arts Council in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce and continued partnership now with the Mission Inn, which the new owners have already announced that they will continue the traditions of Festival of Lights and continue to partner with the city. The high performance team, which is audit, finance, fire, IT, HR and general services led by Edward Enriquez, strengthened financial oversight. The audit team has done a great job standing itself up in the last eighteen months, which did include this past year modernizing the whistleblower hotline, so that it is available and transparent and working.

Launching Rivi, refinancing sewer bonds, savings there, 21,000,000 in savings bonds and again invested in community infrastructure because although general services is building it, finance financing it and the departments in quality of life are enjoying it. I will mention here how pleased and some of you have heard this, pleased I am with the budget that will be presented to you shortly, which was really a team accomplishment by everyone. Delivering a balanced five year budget in difficult financial times took a long time, but it was a collaborative effort and I applaud them for that. And I hope the finance committee has already seen that. I hope everyone else is as impressed with the new budget as I.

And the sustainability team, Daniel Prather at the airport, who frankly, thank you Daniel, has grown into quite the leader over the last eighteen months under the stewardship, a lot of Councilmember Mayor Pro Tem Robillard, but the renewed attention on our airport is paying dividends and Daniel, thank you for your work. Fortino Morales, who I wish he was here, who has taken on that Office of Sustainability and done great things and David Garcia, our Public Utilities General Manager as well. Some of their highlights, sustainability, first extreme heat summit this past year, and we are headed for a major milestone. Let me catch up. The city of Riverside is on track to be the seventeenth city in the world to be a lead platinum sustainable city.

I expect that announcement by the end of the summer. Only one of 17 cities in the entire world and that is due to the work of the entire team, but led a lot by Fortino Morales. Full rebrand of the airport. We did finally get off of coal last year. Okay, it seems like that's a 1990s goal, but we are headed to carbon free on time and that was an achievement last year.

And we are working very hard on a very difficult issue, which is PFAS. You're all aware of that in our water system and we did secure $39,000,000 last year to start moving forward. And I know we are hard at work on a plan to get the rest of it done as well. And some milestones award, before we get there, I did neglect to pay attention to my notes on a major accomplishment in our economic development department and that we are headed to International Economic Development Council accreditation of our economic development department. There are only two other cities in California who hold this accreditation in less than 100 worldwide.

It is the gold standard of economic development and just shows how far that has come from three years ago in restructuring that department, bringing in new leadership, finding the right people and the right mission with that. So congratulations to that team. And speaking of team, Ruby, thank you very much for your ten years of service. And you do get an award for surviving ten years in the city of Riverside. And then our employee of the year, Fortino Morales.

Yes, we can clap for absent Fortino. Fortino is at a climate conference today and could not be with us. However, he has done amazing work standing up the department. When I first arrived, we did have an office of sustainability, it had no employees. He was the first employee hired and has built that into something which not just supports sustainability, but supports our economic development efforts and our strive to be the green tech capital of the world.

And he is at the center of that and well deserving of that. We do have others here. If you're with the city manager's office, would you mind just standing up? Thank you. As you've seen, this work is not about any one individual.

It's about a team. A team that is delivering real results across this city from public safety gains and economic development to quality of life improvements, infrastructure, financial stewardship and sustainability. And these outcomes don't happen by accident. They happen because of dedicated employees, aligned leadership and a shared commitment to serving this community. I am proud of this team.

I am grateful for the opportunity to work alongside them in Riverside, and what is exceedingly clear is this, this organization is strong, this team is performing, and our focus remains exactly where it should be, on leading this organization, supporting our employees, and delivering results for the residents of Riverside. On behalf of the city manager's team, thank you for your support.

Thank you, city manager of Futrell. Do we have any questions or comments for the city manager and the team? No? All right, just congratulations to everybody, all the good work you've done out there. Thank you, congrats to Ruby

for

ten years. And all the good work and certainly proud to be a Riverside, so thank you. All right, we are now at our consent calendar. So let me go through and ask folks if they have any items they wish to pull. City manager?

No items, Madam Mayor.

All

right, council member? Pass. Okay, Ward 4? Pass. Ward 5?

Register no vote on eleven.

Okay, Ward 6? Pass. Ward 7?

Pass, move to approve. Second.

All

right, motion and a second by council to approve the consent calendar registering a no vote item 11 Ward 5. Please vote. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Arceo. All right, so council we now are going to go into closed session for a bit until we have a public hearing at three p. M. So let's go ahead and adjourn to closed session. Thank you.

We will now adjourn to closed session to discuss items 30 through 34. All information required by the Brown Act is set forth on the agenda today. Thank you.

Yeah, we have a quorum. We'll go ahead and get started while we wait for the other council members to get here. So we are now at our public hearing set for 3PM. We're a little past our time, but that is just how it goes. So we are going to now move on to item number 35. We're going to introduce an ordinance amending chapter 16.68 the Municipal Code regarding TOMF, T U M F, or Transportation Uniform Mitigation Fee, and we will open public comment on this item.

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. And I have a presentation by Chris Scully. Mr. Scully.

It should be on if you just nope. It's not. They they gotta do it in the back.

Testing. There we go.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, honorable mayor and members of the council. My name is Chris Scully, I'm the interim deputy public works director and city engineer. This afternoon, I'm presenting a public hearing item to introduce and adopt an ordinance amending the city's transportation uniform mitigation fee program as well as a resolution updating the applicable fee schedule. The city of Riverside is a member jurisdiction of the Western Riverside Council of Governments, also known as WRCog. The TOUF program was originally established in 2002 to help fund regional transportation improvements, specifically major arterial roadways and highways that serve regional travel.

The city adopted the program in 2003, and since that time, the development projects have contributed fees to help fund these regional infrastructure improvements. The city's current TUMP ordinance is Chapter 16.68 of the Municipal Code. Since the original adoption, WRCog has periodically updated the program through nexus studies to reflect changes in the transportation network and increases in construction costs. The most recent nexus study, which was approved in 2024, recommended that all participating agencies update their local ordinances and fee schedules accordingly, which we did. In December, the WRCOG Executive Committee approved the implementation of an automatic annual adjustment to the Tump fees.

This adjustment is tied to construction cost indices, which are capped at 5%, and this helps ensure that fees keep pace with rising construction costs while avoiding large sudden increases in the future. The updated fee schedule would become effective July 1. Adoption of the ordinance and resolution is necessary for the city to remain compliant with the TUMPF program. If the city does not adopt these updates, it could result in the loss of TUMPF funding. These funds are currently used to support important regional projects, including the 3rd Street grade separation project.

Additionally, failure to participate could contribute to increased traffic congestion both within the city and throughout Western Riverside County. Here you can see the fee schedule, the current fee schedule, and also the proposed fees. The percent change is about 2.6% across the board for all the fees, which is a modest increase, and that kind of reflects the construction cost increases. Brings me to my last slide. Staff is recommending that the city council conduct a public hearing to introduce and adopt an ordinance amending and updating chapter 16.68 transportation uniform mitigation fee of the Riverside municipal code and adopt a resolution amending the applicable transportation uniform mitigation fees applicable to all development in the city of Riverside.

That does conclude my presentation. Both myself and we also have Cameron Brown from W. R. Cog, who manages the TUMPF program, is here to answer any questions that you might have.

Thank you, Mr. Scully. Let me see if we've received any requests to speak on this item. We have a caller. Let's have our caller, please.

Can we have our first caller please? Is the caller unmuted? All right, if you're on mute.

You weren't allowing me to unmute. I just got the prompt right now, so it's an issue on your end. I just wanted to get some clarification because when you first returned, you were muted. And so did you report on closed session because the public listening could not hear? So if you could please clarify what was spoken prior to you unmuting the return from closed session. Thank you.

There was no report out on closed session items when we returned. And that doesn't happen until the end of the meeting. Thank you. Next caller please. Is the caller unmuted?

If you're listening, please unmute if you've been prompted to unmute so we can hear you. If not, we're going to close public comment and move on. All right. We're going to close public comment. That was our last request to speak and for whatever reason having technical difficulties, apologies if that's on our end. And we'll come back to counsel. Council Member Reconder.

Thank you, Mayor. There was some good discussion on this at the WR Clog Executive Meeting. A lot of discussion and presentations on the costs of materials and jobs going up. Questions if the $2.6 which is really it's a very fair increase was enough to help with some of these projects. Overall, Executive Board in support of this, I believe, was unanimous. So I just move to approve Foxtap recommendations.

Second.

All right, we have a motion and a second to approve staff recommendations for item number 35. No further discussion, please vote. Motion carries unanimously. All right, thank you. Item 36 now, I call on our city attorney, please, to report out on closed session discussions.

No reportable action for items 29A through 34.

All right, thank you. I don't know, Mayor Pro Tem, you wanna say what there was no reportable action for item 34A as well?

Yes, thank you, Mayor Executive Mayor Pro Tem, there was no reportable action for 34A.

All right, thank you. All right, we're now at item 37. City Council, any requests for future agenda items? No, okay, great. Thank you so much. Next city council meeting scheduled Tuesday, May 12. We will see you all then. Thank you. We're adjourned.