City Council - Regular Meeting

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Hi, I'm Chief Marine and you're watching Riverside TV.

We are going to go ahead and call the meeting to order at 9.01 a.m. And this is a special city council meeting scheduled for today, July 20th, 2020, or 21st, I apologize. We're going to open a public comment, but first want to mention to participate virtually, there are two options. You can call in via telephone. There are prompts to be accessed for your desired language. Press star 90 placed in the queue to speak. Individuals in the queue will be prompted to unmute by pressing star six to speak. Via Zoom, there is a link, and you can select the raise hand function to request to speak. An on-screen message will prompt you to unmute and speak, and public comment is limited to three minutes. I'm looking. I think we have one public comment card. I'm going to take a wild guess, Mr. Orokosiewicz. Yeah, you guys. It's not in my cards, not in my hand, but you guys are in the chamber. You guys are killing me. Thank you. Yes, thank you.

Yeah, I wanted to go back to this. This is what I wanted to talk about yesterday. Now back in November 5th, 2024. Now we got it up there now. It's perfect. We passed the city residents pass a measure L. November 5th, 2024. That's been two years ago. Shall the measure to amend the charter of the city of Riverside to include a new charter officer inspector general Appointed by the City Council. We don't need one appointed by the City Council. We need We need actually the Inspector General that actually is not appointed by you guys. Okay, we don't need that We have that for going on forever and ever, ever. We need some accountability to the theft of the money that you guys are stealing. So I'm going to read this a little bit farther. It says, "...and duties to investigate fraud, waste, and abuse and illegal acts within the city government." provide annual reports on findings and recommendations now my recommendation actually is for a private citizen to be on that committee in charge of that committee and that would be Jason hunter we do not need somebody hired from your guys's criminal background or your I don't know how to say this wrongly or meanly, but we don't need any of your friends or family members in charge of a committee to oversee your funds. This is what the problem is. We have to have somebody outside of your little family little get-together that buying off everybody and votes and purchase cards and Everything else guys now the city Residents, can you flip the second page? Thanks. Now this was I didn't get a chance to put this up yesterday now the city residents voted on this to 65 percent 65 percent so the citizens of Riverside want this to be done and it's been two years and you guys have Just dropped the ball on it not drop the ball on it We it's planned to do this to not have any oversight of all the billions of dollars you've stolen So what I have a problem with right now is the city has committed so much fraud It is just ecstatic and it is toxic, you guys. It is awful. I have stacks of records of nonprofits or private businesses, purchase orders. You wouldn't believe what I have. So I really think we got serious, serious problems. We need an auditor from outside of your family, friends, and whatever you want to call them. Paying off the nonprofits, paying off the private businesses has been a long problem that we've been allowed to have. And I really think we need some help, guys, outside the box. You have a blessed day, guys. And that's my three minutes. Thank you.

Thank you. And I believe we have two more callers online. Can we take the first caller? Caller, go ahead. You should be unmuted.

Good morning, Mayor Pro Tem. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you. Go ahead.

Thank you. Pete Benavidez here. And sorry, I wasn't able to call yesterday for day one of your interview process. We had visitors here at BSS that took my time. But The first thing I want to do is wish you all the best to what you're embarking on in these last couple of days. It's historic. Yes, the voters elected to assign you to appoint an IG, which you're doing. And since the passage, I've had a chance to speak to a lot of people. with all kinds of different opinions. Appointed versus elected versus we don't need such an individual. And I heard this as part of my involvement on the charter review, which to me, it was an honor to serve on your charter review committee. Learned quite a bit about our system. And to be involved directly in this historic change to our city's leadership has been a highlight of my volunteerism here in the city in which I love. And yes, the voters have spoken. And now here we are today. And as an employer here at Blindness Support, it's not easy, especially to create a new department You have to have it funded. You have to make sure it's structured. You've got to figure out where in the city will this person be housed. That's a lot of work. I'm sure you've done some of it. But whether you choose one this week or in weeks to come, I don't have a problem with the time you're taking to do this work. Because this is a chance to get it right. And we'll see what transpires in the years to come. And I guess your grade will be probably provided by the voters in future elections. So again, good luck, best wishes, and thank you for being and having the courage to be an elected official. I'm sure it is not easy. Enjoy.

Thank you. Next caller.

Good morning. This is Rich Gardner, Ward 4. Hopefully everyone's doing well today. And I just have a couple of random thoughts on what's going on with the Inspector General process. First of all, it seems like it's taken an extremely long time to get to this point. So maybe that's something that can be changed in the future. Anne, can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you. Go ahead.

OK. Anyway. I'm actually kind of a big fan of Keith Nelson. I read a lot of his posts and what he says. And I think even though this process of doing it on an urgent basis is acceptable, I don't think it's really acceptable. I mean, to not give proper notice and circumvent the Sunshine Act just is happening way too often. And I know we have a new city attorney in the House. We have a new sitting city manager and edward up there and obviously you know riverside has a lot of problems that need to be addressed and there's going to be some some budget issues coming up as we all know and i'm hoping we can get that straightened out and hopefully the inspector general can help with that i don't understand the cost of the office being so high 500 000 seems really like a lot of money for this position when It could probably be done a lot cheaper than that, but who am I to know? But anyway, I'm hoping that things can turn around for the city. We got kind of a new regime up there. I hope that we have more transparency. I think that transparency really hasn't been that good lately. And anyway, it's a great city to live in. I know we do have budget issues, and I know we've never fully addressed the pension shortfall in 2000. 19 was like almost 500 million. I know we issued bonds, but we kicked the can down the road, and hopefully we can fix the potholes before we have to pick up that can. So anyway, everyone have a blessed day, and that's it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Gardner. And just seeing if we have any more callers online. Nope. Okay, wonderful. So we're going to go ahead and close public comment, and council is going to go now into closed session, and we will come back to close out. Thank you.

vault and we have a fascinating collection let's get into this all right this particular collection is a collection from one of

hello thank you council has returned from closed session there is no reportable action for us to share today and our next regular council meeting is going to be scheduled for tuesday july 28th of this year thank you so much have a great day everyone