City Council - Regular Meeting

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Hi everybody, good afternoon. Welcome to the City of Riverside City Council meeting for, what's the date today? July 28th. And I am Mayor Patricia Lackdawson and I will call our meeting to order today. And we will start our meeting by first welcoming our new city attorney here, James. Thank you for being here today. James Johnson is joining us. And I want to also just thank Councilmember Cervantes and congratulate her for her mayor pro tem duties. So before we get started, I appreciate it. And I'm sorry I wasn't here to pass the baton. So thank you. Today we start our meeting with an invocation, and today it is my turn, so I would please ask you if you wish to bow your head. Father, we ask that you guide us today with integrity, wisdom, and grace as we deliberate on the people's business. We do not take lightly the opportunity and privilege to serve the public, so we ask for increased understanding and empathy as our leaders continue to assist our residents, businesses, and others in our city. Continue to bless our troops and those on the front lines of democracy. In your holy name we pray. Amen. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Also, just really quickly, two announcements. Council Member Hemingway is out of town on business with his job. He actually has business to do. And Council Member Condor is on the East Coast celebrating his mother's 96th birthday this week. So he is out for this week. We will start our meeting today with public comment.

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 star 9. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID for both languages can be found on the agenda.

All right, thank you. And this is general public comment for items on our closed session consent calendar and any matters within the jurisdiction of the city council. So first step, we have Ruben Greg Soto.

Good afternoon, Mayor and City Council. Okay, you know I've been kicked out of a lot of churches and stuff, and I fight for God's daughter, whether you believe in God or not. But here's something everybody needs to know about the Bible. It's John 10, 10. It's a well-known Bible verse where Jesus contracts to destruct good nature of the thief with abundant life he offers you. He can read different translations of the Bible gateway passage. The thief comes to only steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. Meaning and context, the thief refers to the false leaders and spiritual leaders or spiritual forces that harm and mislead people. The good shepherd Jesus identifies himself as the one who protects and guides his followers. Abundant life focuses on spiritual joy, purpose, and internal life rather than material wealth. So these all men got mad and kicked me out. The only pastor that did not kick me out was a lady at First Congressional Church. She is now gone. She moved to San Diego. But it just proves that the Bible is true. Genesis 6, 5, all men are continually wicked in their heart. They should have never attacked. We've been meaning me. So I'll come back and get you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr. Soto Errol Kosiewicz Yeah City Council I'd like to say something to you guys today it's kind of personal I really do think that We need to have martial law in the United States. Martial law needs to come in, take effect here in the city of Riverside, and start putting people in jail, committing fraud, you've committed treason, you have committed bribes, you've interfered with our city local elections, you have Disrespected the American flag. You have done everything in your power to stay in power. You've lied. You haven't given me the public records of what I'm asking for. I've asked for copies of your purchase orders, Patricia, for your consultants. i've asked for everything and you guys have redacted them or you say they're non-responsive records well you got to get paid somehow patricia so right now the city has not provided me the information that i'm asking for so you guys are in violation of california public records request act 100 And I really do think mr. Trump should Go to martial law and get you guys out of office Okay before we lose everything You guys own everything downtown between you and the county through nonprofits Through LLC's I have all the records from the county. I told the county the same thing today what I'm telling you and So it doesn't matter. I mean, we need martial law in here to save America. You guys have committed treason. money laundered and you've committed bribes to stay in power you have bought off people all the purchase cards you've given to people your city employees is a disgrace for the private sector american taxpayers we pay for everything you guys have done and then you disrespect them i'm calling for martial law for you guys Okay, this has to be done to save Americans from you criminals and you treasonous people. You are treasonous people, what you've done here. But you can look at me all you want. You guys are criminals, okay? Straight up criminals. And I said it, I said it the same thing I said to Medina today too, also already. He just sat there and looked at me with a dumb face. You all need to be in prison. That's all I want to say today. My time is up. I want public records from you, Patricia, what I'm asking for, okay? And I'm going to get them pretty soon. Don't refuse me, okay? I want to know purchase orders to your law firm. Okay, I've asked this many times now through the city. You have a good day.

Thank you, Mr. Hush. Last time I checked, no. Beverly Zerringer? Welcome, Ms. Zerringer. Thank you.

kind of nervous, but good afternoon, council members and mayor, long-time resident of Riverside, Ward 3. On July 16th, I attended a meeting at our parish church, Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine Catholic Church at 9th and Park, and met with STISI representatives who or opening a cannabis store in that area. They presented us with the marketing strategy and made assurances that their store, soon to open on University across from our church and kitty corner to a Baptist church, would not pose an undue threat to the community. Security guards, cameras, gated parking are part of their plan. Riverside PD would also have access 24 hours a day to their security cameras so they can monitor. None of the three STISI reps were familiar with the Eastside's troubled past, gangs, crime, prostitution, and drugs, and how far it's come. In fact, they had never been to Riverside. It was kind of shocking. The head of security grew up in Redlands, but he said he'd never visited our area. When I commented about the relocation of their store elsewhere in Ward 2, they had no comment. I sarcastically said, cheap rent, and they did not react. I acknowledge that this store opening will occur. The thing that bothers me are the restrictions. For cannabis stores, all retailers must be 1,000 feet away from schools, K through 12, public parks, and other cannabis businesses, and 600 feet from community or daycare centers. However, on July 14, city council voted 4 to 1 to adopt new regulations regarding smoke shops. New regulations are similar to those of cannabis stores 1,000 feet from sensitive receptors like schools, parks, daycares, and including churches. So smoke shops and churches, but yet cannabis and churches. Yet churches are not protected under the cannabis regulations. In closing, my mom had a saying that hope springs eternal. I'm hopeful that Stizzy will be relocated. And thank you for your time.

Thank you, Ms. Serringer. Tony Ibarra? Welcome, Mr. Barrett.

Thank you very much. I appreciate your time, and thank you for giving us this opportunity to speak. I am a longtime resident of Riverside, in fact, my entire life. I am an Eastside resident of Riverside. I, too, attended this meeting at Our Lady Guadalupe Church, which is my family's parish, Catholic Church. I've had all my sacraments there. That's not even the point here. The point is I know the neighborhood, been there my entire life, and I've seen it when it's been at its lowest point. and how the city, along with other government officials and citizens, have kind of cleaned up that university corridor. I hate for us to go in reverse. This Stizzy Cannabis Dispensary, I don't think they did their research. Again, I know the law. It's legal. I'm not questioning the law. They have every right to have there. They have all kinds of security. They explained that. But that's for their property. I'm more concerned with our community, our community who we live here 24-7. I've been here. I guess what was ironic to me is that when I grew up here in 1965, Lowell Elementary School was firebombed during the civil unrest, and yet it took 60 years for the city to bring back a school to a Latino black community. But within no time, lickety-split, once the regulations are made, we have a cannabis dispensary in our community in the east side. But yet it took 60 years plus to take care of our children in this community. I know all the regulations. I know the fact that their banking regulations are restrictive. There's going to be a lot of cash, but yet I understand that they've circumvented with pay-to-pay digital payments. I understand this. The irony to us or the insult to us is in the community, for the most part, unless I totally missed it, The sign goes up. Yet they say, we're still pending, pending approval permit. So I said, OK, there's still a chance. But why would you put your sign of business someplace if you're not approved yet? Stizzy's there. There was a nice mural for the community on the wall. They removed it because they said they didn't want children associated with this business. But right next door, attached to the building, is a candy store. So what are we going to do with a candy store right next to a dispensary? It seems like there's no vision. And unfortunately, I have a law enforcement background, and my investigation is to follow the money. Follow the money, and that'll give you answers. And there's a lot of answers there. The cannabis industry is lucrative. They have normalized cannabis in the United States. Stizzy is the largest cannabis distributor in the state with 58 stores. I'm not saying they don't have a right to be here, but why is it the east side that took us so long to take care of our children, clean up our parks, finally get an elementary school, but instantaneously we have a dispensary right there. And again, when you start saying 100 feet or limited feet for smoke shops, but you don't add this in there.

Thank you very much for your time.

We appreciate it. Thank you. Joyce Bergstrom?

I don't see well, that's why I have the glasses on. And that's the reason I'm here, is that you're changing the traffic, video traffic signals, I mean, audio traffic signals, which, It takes my independence away, because I can't understand them. I like the cuckoo and the tweeter, not the talking ones. I can't understand them. Other people who are blind also say this, too. So do we have to change? They change all three of them up where I live into talking ones. So I can't go out by myself, pretty much. And I don't like that. And let's see. Yeah, I guess. Can I ask questions? I don't know. Is there a reason for changing?

So what I can do, Ms. Burstrom, I see our public works director who's in charge of all those things. He's right behind you, and he is happy to talk with you, and I think you might get better information than asking us.

I was wondering if they researched it for the handicapped people. Anyway, I'll talk to him.

Yeah, thank you. I appreciate you bringing this to our attention.

I wasn't aware of it.

Thank you, Nathan Mustafa. I appreciate it. All right, I have Boyd Jensen. Welcome, Mr. Jensen.

Welcome. Wow, that's... You guys are very Christian to be welcoming us. I've never done this before. But I'm from one high school Mormon town in Utah. And we've lived in Riverside almost 50 years. And my law office is Riverside Historic Marker number 37. And our home is down with some orange trees on it. When I grew up, we had canisters. We didn't have garbage men. So we had to burn everything. And if we couldn't burn it, we had to take it someplace and drop it off. And when I was a teenager, late teenager, I was a garbage man. And I took stuff around for the county. It was a different kind of garbage than on the street. The reason I'm here is I just want to say thank you. I appreciate the garbage. Men, if there's women, I appreciate them all. And just last week, I was out by the mailbox, and my garbage can was about 10 yards down. And a truck came down, picked it up, dumped the garbage container in the truck. And then didn't drop it back down. He saw me standing there.

So he drove the truck 10 yards and dropped it down right in front of me.

You know, anyway, I'm just grateful. I want to say thank you. I appreciate everything that we have. And I've tried to talk to some people how to do this, but I've had, my law firm's name is down here on Angel Stadium. We've been season ticket holders since 1969. So I don't want to, I don't need anything from me. This is not about me. But I've got tickets here for four games. And it's free tickets, premium parking, Front row, third base, great seats. And I want to just give them to someone that you can please give it to the garbage men and say, thank you, that there are people in the community that appreciate what they do. And that's why I'm here.

Thank you. That is very, very, very kind of you. We appreciate that. Did the lawyer handle it? Yep.

He's too green to know what the hell he's doing anyway.

Thanks, Boyd. Thank you. All right, I have Jerry Stark next.

Can I use the overhead projector?

Welcome, Mr. Stark.

Good afternoon, Mayor, council members, and city staff. My name is Gary Stark, and I serve as the wing leader of the Inland Empire Wing of the Commandment of Air Force based at the Riverside Airport. I'm here to thank the city of Riverside and to share the success of our America's 250th birthday bash held at the airport on July 4th. This event started as an idea. Could we bring the community back to the airport in a meaningful, family-friendly way? Could we honor America's 250th birthday, celebrate aviation history, support families, and remind people with a special asset the airport is? The answer was yes. In just a few months, with volunteers, aircraft owners, car owners, vendors, performers, skydivers, partners, community support, we built an event that brought close to 4,000 people to the airport. We had more than 130 cars. in the car show, 16 airplanes on display, two live bands, food trucks, fenders, beer garden, face painting, flight simulators, photo booth, family activities for kids. We had historic aircraft rides, including in our T-6 Texan and our DC-3D Daedal. We had 12 skydivers. If you notice, we made this a family-friendly event. I gave everybody a copy of our kids' aviator passport. And if you look at your thing there, we had the family start off with, find your Warbird call sign. It made an event. We had eight items for the children to do. This brought kids involved. Every activity gave them something aviation-related to do during our event. The aircraft ramp was remarkable. We had three DC-3 aircraft on the ramp. We had a T-6 Texan. We had Stearmans, a T-28 Trojan, Cessna 195, L-4s, Bonanzas, T-34 Mentors, and helicopters. KTLA Channel 5 even came out and gave Riverside 20 minutes of LA airtime. You can't buy that type of advertising for the city of Riverside.

Most importantly, the community loved it.

Families stayed for hours. Kids experienced aviation up close. Veterans were honored. People walked away among aircraft, talked with pilots, saw living history, and left asking, when would our next event be? And I think that matters. Riverside has a proud aviation history. The Riverside Air Show was once a major community event. The city presented 26 events and we, running out of time here, that means the community has gone nearly a decade without the kind of large airport gathering that many residents still remember and miss. I'm not here tonight asking the city to recreate a full air show overnight, but I'm asking the city to support the idea of bringing back an airport open house-style event, something family-friendly and community-focused. What will be approved on July 4th is that Riverside residents will come to the airport, bring their families, and support local aviation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Stark. And I know you have a champion in your council member, Council Member Robillard, so he is very keen to promote the airport. We have a number of callers online for public comment. Let's take our first caller, please. Hello? Hi, go ahead.

Oh, okay. Hi, Patricia. This is Aurora Chavez. I have to be saying hi to Tony and Bev were classmates way back when. I wanted to talk about the Santa Ana Regional Storm Permit Project, which is a $2.32 billion project over 20 years, $497 per resident for 20 years. You know the 20 years has a bad signal for us. about what happened with the RTRP. With the RTRP, we lost our control. We lost participation. We lost information that we requested. We don't want to get into that again. And we also want to pay our fair share, but not pay for everybody else's. I think we better look at this more stringently before we OK that. Also, too, I'm still advocating for seniors. That's why I was concerned about the purchase cards because there's restricted money in those cards. I want to know if there's a procedure that they can maybe lower the amounts of these cards so that they can release some funds for whatever else the city might need. Also, too, we've been dropping calls when we call in to the city council meetings. I've talked to IT, but they were not going to do anything unless they're ordered to. So and also, too, I want to thank the trash guys, too. They've been wonderful. They've been bringing up my cans, which is especially I've been sick for a week and a half. So I'm so grateful for them for doing that for me. So and anything else? Well, up and coming. Thank you. Bye bye.

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

Good evening. Again, we're calling on the same topic. Once again, this council is asking taxpayers to approve a major charter officer decision through the consent calendar rather than allowing the public to the discussion this item deserves. Riverside already has an interim city manager. If that arrangement is no longer sufficient, explain why. Tell the public what has changed. Tell us why another retired interim is necessary and why this decision cannot be fully debated in open session. Unfortunately, this comes immediately after the council approved a new city attorney contract through a process viewed that lacked transparency and public engagement. and provided a salary and contract not protecting the city of Riverside. We're now watching another executive employment decision move forward with public scrutiny, and we know why. The council's recent record on hiring and management should encourage caution, not haste. The city has experienced extensive turnover, extensive employment issues, independent investigations, significant organizational instability. These experiences should lead to stronger oversight, not less. Taxpayers are funding compensation packages that far exceed the incomes of the residents paying the bills. With that comes a responsibility for transparency, accountability, and contracts that protect the public, not simply the executive being hired. Hiring a city manager in the interim is not a routine administrative matter. It should be treated as the consent... as a full public hearing, not a consent item, and have thorough deliberation. I'm asking the council to remove this from consent council, conduct a discussion, full public view, broadcast it, get the public there, don't hide, and don't relive the decisions you've made continuously managing charter officers. Thank you.

Thank you. I just want to point out, make sure for the record, folks know that that is not on the consent calendar. It is actually a discussion item, item number 38, which will be discussed and debated on in the public. So I just want to make sure folks know. All right. Let's have our next caller, please.

Hi. Good afternoon, council members. My name is . I wanted to bring to your attention and put it on record on how there are Christian nationalists that are causing harm in our community. I'm coming from an experience from Crossroads Christian Church where they sabotaged my business operations. And it was after Trump's presidency in 2024, the whole demeanor changed, and ultimately it led to them sabotaging my operations now. I'm reaching out to you because there has been another church that I was speaking with in your city, and I'm not here to ask for any assistance with any grievance with the church. But a little bit of background, they had made some outreach to us and ultimately I told them I was not going to pipeline any students to their church, which is something that they wanted. And that's not something that I was interested at all because I experienced something similar at Crossroads Christian Church. Back in 2012, the State of the City Address was held at Crossroads in conjunction with Corona Norco Unified School District where they sent five students of each high school, normally the top five students, to Crossroads, and I was one of those students. When I was there, I was essentially groomed. They had one of their staff members follow me and attempt to insert himself to my life. I was hosting team nightclubs at the time, and he wanted to be a photographer for that. I declined. I would later be taken advantage of through my business by Crossroads Christian Church, uh uh uh at age 24 when i had entered into an agreement with them uh for my uh sports organization um and uh six seven years later uh that uh uh there was racism in essence that would later i would experience with that being said when i spoke out against it um they would sabotage my operations and going back to the avenue i did not want to be another individual to do that By the way, it was Karen Spiegel and Eugene Montanet who were a part of that deal. So they're the ones that basically sold out the students of CNUSD to Crossroads Christian Church. I'm bringing this to your attention because that church, the Avenue, they made a threat in regards to me speaking out against them. And I wanna make sure that our community knows it's like, just because you're with the church does not mean that you get to threaten people. You cannot hide behind your faith. You cannot take advantage of local businesses. That is affinity fraud. And I wanna make it perfectly clear that that will not be tolerated. And I want to provide some information, some awareness to your council, U.S. council members as well, because this is a big issue with... Thank you.

All right. I think that was our last commenter. I don't see any more in chambers, and I don't believe we have any other callers, so we will close public comment. move on on our agenda we are now at item number two this is our mayor and councilmember communications and we will hear from our council members about conferences seminars and other regional meetings and I will start with word one councilmember Falcone

Thank you, Mayor. I loved what one of the public commenters shared. I learned a new phrase, a cuckoo and a tweeter. That was funny. Now I know a new public works technical term when referencing our cross signal. I thought that was fun. A few things to look ahead of things happening. Thursday evening, In partnership with our parks department and Latino Network and others, there'll be a discussion on a naming workshop for the future of what is currently the Cesar Chavez Community Center at Bobby Bonds Park over on the east side. So that's at 6 PM at the YOC, which is the Youth Opportunity Center at Bobby Bonds Park. And folks are welcome to come and give their input on the future related to the naming of that building, which is currently under renovation right now. The Historic Wood Streets Neighborhood Association meets on Saturday at 8.30 a.m. at Eden Lutheran Church. This group, we meet for a long time, so it goes from 8.30 until noon is our neighborhood meeting there. So come and stay for a while at Eden Lutheran Church Fellowship Hall. And then on the 6th of August is the Lincoln Park Neighborhood Group at 6 p.m. All are welcome. That's related to the east side. Thank you, Mayor.

thank you council member uh council member cervantes thank you mayor um yes first i also want to um recommend for folks to join us for the community that's going to be taking place this thursday and i did want to give a congratulations to embark they have opened up their storefront on university avenue and had their grand opening last week want to thank the chamber and all of the my office for being there to represent war ii for the ribbon cutting ceremony And I just want to take a moment. I know we had some members of our audience that did share about a meeting regarding STZI coming into a different part on University and the East Side. And just for full disclosure, Council Member Falconeira and I were invited. Because the permit hasn't been issued per council rules, we could not attend, nor could our staff. So we did just want to share that we both expressed to community groups, of course, we always do our best to attend those types of meetings. But until a permit is issued, we cannot engage with, essentially, the applicants. But just want to say we hear community concerns and whatnot that have been raised, and once they do have a permit issued, I think individuals will be reaching out to sit down with them and just to make sure that they understand, of course, what has been brought forward from some of our community and how we could work with them. And that's the thing even additionally to mention, we could not work with them on the locations because we cannot communicate with them. I think, you know, looking ahead in the future, there could be work to enhance our cannabis ordinance so that, you know, we could just figure out how to move forward. It has taken, since I've been here on council, five years. And since we've seen from approval and then prior to that, it was approved by voters still years prior, so... It has been over 10 years of a process until it's now come into full implementation and storefronts opening. But we do recognize that new doors open. People, you know, raise concerns. And so I do want to just thank residents, of course, for coming forward. And we hear you. We see you. We will continue to work with you, especially once we can communicate with those operators. Additionally, I did want to take a moment just to share due to high heat, the mobile library services that we have in the east side are going to be canceled for the following dates. It is July 28th, 29th and 30th, which would be at Boardwell Park in Bobby Bonds Park. We will continue to see indoor services. at the Jesus Duran Eastside Library location that's currently at the Lincoln Park Community Center. So if folks want to get access for cooling centers, access to Wi-Fi, and just other opportunities that our library provides, you can still go to Lincoln Park Community Center during the hours I listed online to be able to utilize those services. Also want to give a big shout out to my team, to Bill, and to Mel for their help with organizing backpack drives. We did have Lincoln Park Group who had a backpack drive, Saturday or two ago there was I think again due to heat we didn't see as much foot traffic as we usually do so there are still a number of backpacks available so if you do know if have any family or schools that are in need of backpacks for children please reach out to our office and we can easily make a referral over to the group to get them supplies that they need additionally we did donate backpacks and supplies to Riverside Peacekeeper ministries that will be having a backpack drive date to be announced soon And we also were able to provide backpacks and supplies to our local Riverside Migdor Watch Group that is helping families that have been impacted by ice that's reached out to us to seek support. So please, again, if you need any referrals, don't hesitate to reach out to us and we can connect you with those groups. But I want to thank my team for their help to organize those items and facilitate. And then just did want to take a moment to share. There was an incident this morning that my office was made aware of with two Latino men that were taken off of the 60 freeway right near the central exit. They were stopped by what we believe to be federal enforcement agents. They were masked. They did have ICE listed on their tactical gear, but they were taken and then their car was moved to an offsite location where then our local volunteers were able to get that car returned to family. We continue to work with my sister's office, Senator Cervantes, and also our state senator, Alex Padilla, to find ways to connect families, to get them resources and help. There is a GoFundMe for families that continue to be impacted here in our community. I will be providing donation links where we can, if folks want to help those in need and ways to be involved. But we continue to see, unfortunately, members of our community be targeted. And this does have a real effect on our people and community. So I just want to share my heart continues to go out to those that are impacted and We continue to do everything we can to provide as much aid and resource that we can. But please don't ever hesitate to reach out if you need direction, resources, services. That's what we're here for. That's all I have for today. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Council Member.

Council Member Rogelard.

Thank you, Mayor. Last week we held a community meeting at the Janet Goski Center. Thank you to Public Works and Code Enforcement teams for joining us and providing helpful updates to our senior community. On Friday, me and Public Works Director Nathan Mustafa and I attended the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board meeting. That was with Mrs. Chavez was referencing, um, they are voting on rules that can impact the city of Riverside as well as all the other cities in Orange County, Riverside County, and San Bernardino County. Um, as is, is being presented currently by the, the board, um, it could, uh, Directly impact the residents of Riverside and it would require what some estimates come to about 2.3 billion dollars in infrastructure upgrades that would have no guarantee in Meeting the standards that they are setting we were there speaking against the current regulations and the way they are put together we are asking for changes to those regulations so that we can feasibly and responsibly and financially meet the requirements that we have cleaner water in our community, but it's currently structured is not structured that way and so we continue to Advocate for a community and we actually had some great news that they have continued the discussion are seeking to work more with this 60 jurisdictions that were part of that discussion and August 21st in Loma Linda will be the next water quality controlled board meeting. So if you want to comment on that, uh, you can go to my social media as I posted about it. Um, but it is something that happens at a board that is appointed that almost no one knows about. And these are the kinds of things that affect us directly. And we won't see the impacts of it for years from now, but, um, Something to pay attention to. Also last night, we also joined Omeo at Harvest. They had a showcase of its brand-new, one-of-a-kind technology, which is platooning autonomous electric shuttles together. This is one of the companies that came to Riverside from New Zealand and chose to make their home here in North America in Riverside, duty manufacturing in Ward 3. I was joined by our mayor, as well as Councilmember Kuhn, Steve Hemingway, who's on the chair of the RTA board, and great, great technology, and seeing this first-of-its-kind technology being showcased in Riverside is great. Also this morning... I had the opportunity to join the Boys and Girls Club Summit this morning at the Grove Community Church. I know Council Member Mill will be jealous. Andre Reid was one of the guest speakers, a Hall of Fame football player. And it was great to see the good work they're doing in our region and that our region is one of the biggest boys and girls clubs in the country. And so it's great to see the great work they do. And I wanted to give a shout out to Gary Stark and the Command of Air Force. I want to invite Gary Stark to come up. He has a video on his iPad of that 250th celebration at the airport. And it just showcases all the efforts we're doing to bring the community into the airport and see that this airport is not just for people with airplanes. It is a community asset. And this little video will kind of showcase a little bit what they did there.

Morning light on Riverside, flags are rising in the blue. Engines wake the sleeping sky and the past comes rolling through. Children point and fathers smile, mothers wipe a tear away. Warbirds shine for one more mile on this Independence Day. For every hand that built them. For every crew that flew.

For every name remembered. America, we fly for you. America, we fly for you. Red and white and endless blue. 250 years of dreams of sacrifice and liberty.

America, we fly for you. T6 rolling back through time, telling stories one by one. Skydivers fall through the morning light. Old glory opens wide and true. For those who jumped on D-Day night, America remembers you.

For those who gave us freedom, for those who still stand tall.

Out of respect for people's time, we'll go ahead and end the video. Okay.

Thank you. Thank you. All right.

Thank you. That's all for me.

All right. And also I just want to say, um, council member Hernandez joined us last night at Omeo as well. So he was also there. Oh yes. Yeah. All right. Council member milk.

Thank you, Mayor. Appreciate it. Back on July 16th, and I can't believe it's been that long since we've been here, my team and I spent the entire day out with our public safety and engagement team. And for folks that don't know, those are the people that are on the front lines dealing with the encampments and other homeless-related issues in the city. We spent the entire day going out and engaging people. It wasn't just a photo op, as some people like to say. We actually spent the day out there engaging with the folks that are out on our streets. Very, very eye-opening day. We engaged probably close to 40, 50 people. And one person that we engaged with accepted help to go over to the sobering center. Another young lady accepted help, got halfway down Van Buren and jumped out of the car and took off running. The rest of the folks refused services. My point is, is that folks, our city team is out there every day, seven days a week, engaging with the community. The first thing we do is we offer assistance. We offer these folks the ability to get help. That day, we were batting close to zero. But they went out the next day and did the same thing. So I need folks to understand that our city team is out there every day working on this issue. Our PSET team, our Housing and Homeless Department is working very hard every day on this issue. Unfortunately, we can't force people to get the help that they desperately need. Sadly, one of the encampments that we came upon on Van Buren and the tracks behind the USA gas station, if you know the area, there was a large encampment and told them it was a pretty dangerous place to be. Yesterday morning I followed up, wanted to know what are we doing to clear the encampment. About 10 minutes later, I got a message on my phone that one of the people that was living in that encampment was killed by a train at that location. People are dying, and we need to do something about this. It's not simply about building housing to place them in. It's about helping them get help to get into housing. So I just want you to know the city of Riverside is out there every day doing that. Then last Friday, the 24th, I had the pleasure, Councilmember Hernandez and I joined our county supervisor, Jose Medina, touring the county facilities along County Farm Road. And if you're not familiar with that area, that's where we have the county brings the people for the sobering center. That's where people, they bring the 5150, which is the mental health holds. That's where a lot of the county facilities that all the cities in Riverside County utilize for these services. And a lot of the times, there's a significant impact on both Ward 5 and Ward 6. We went out, toured the facilities, got to go inside and meet with the staff and some of the people staying there. So, again, thank you to our partners at County Riverside for allowing Council Member Hernandez and I to join them. Also on the 19th we had a wonderful event, very hot event out at Vegas Park for the World Cup Final. A lot of folks from the community came out and thankfully we had some easy ups and some shade because it was a brutally hot day but fun time was had by all. Coming up tomorrow evening, the Riverside Children's Theater is going to be opening their new location right in Ward 5 on Adams Street. And I'll be there for the ribbon cutting for that. On Thursday, I'll be holding a town hall at the Borns Youth and Innovation Center starting at 6 p.m. And then this Saturday, we'll be at the Casablanca Home and Neighborly Services for a backpack tour. And lastly, Mayor, it's with a heavy heart that I'd like to announce one of our former commissioners, Jose Armas, longtime Arlington resident, passed away last night. Our prayers go out to his wife, Suzanne, and his children. Jose was, I first met Jose, he was my opponent for the Ward 5 seat at one time, and I never viewed Jose as my foe. I always, when you meet him, he was your friend from the moment you met him. And, you know, like I said, he served our city as a commissioner. He and his family hosted the National Night Out for years in Ward 5, and he actually got the helpful Honda guys to come out to Ward 5 and do all kinds of amazing things. And, you know, Jose was just a kind and decent man that put others first. And if I were to tell you what exemplifies what it is to be a Riversider, Jose Armas would be that person. So at the end of the meeting there, I would like to ask that we close in Jose's honor. Just a wonderful, wonderful man, wonderful family, and I'll miss him.

Thank you. He was a good friend. He was. Council Member Hernandez.

Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Sean, as well, for just mentioning the tour and the homeo presentation that we participate in. I'm excited about that, Mayor. Yeah, it's cool. So I want to start off by thanking Sandra from Riverside Parks and Recreation Community Services for inviting me to the Amateur Boxing Show on July 24th there at Bryant Park. It was an awesome show. It was great to see all the youth there participating, all the training they do there at the Arlanza Community Center. I want to thank Daisy Brown and Ray Aguirre for all the hard work that they do with the Arlanza Boxing Club. And we even had some winners there that night, Andrew Hernandez and Gabriel Martinez. So it was a great show. If you've never been, check out when they have the next one and go, please. On a sad note, I do want to send my condolences to the family of Peter Mollis, who was tragically taken from us yesterday morning near Kaiser. Peter was a dedicated hospital employee of Kaiser Permanente Riverside Medical Center. a beloved husband to his wife, Layla, and a man with a bright dream of starting a family. May Peter's memory live on, and may we all hold his family close in our thoughts during this unimaginable time. I also want to thank the Riverside Police Department for all their hard work in searching for the individual who took his life. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Hernandez. Just a few things from me. Yeah, Omeo was really cool, and it's exciting to see them be so successful and unveil that technology that nobody else has. They're the only ones in the world with this platooning technology. shuttles act like they're connected but they are not they are independent but they move in unison so and a very smooth ride I might add other things I just I do again want to thank Mayor Pro Tem Cervantes for leading last week's meetings I had a a long planned family vacation that was planned before those meetings were set. So thank you and congratulations on becoming Mayor Pro Tem. And thank you, Council Member Robillard, for your service as Mayor Pro Tem. I appreciate it. We're in good hands here. A few weeks ago, I was able to attend a conference in Lake Tahoe of the California Council for Environmental and Economic Balance. It's a group of industry leaders that get together that advocate for common sense environmental regulation. I love this group because they just sort of just corroborate my assertion that economic and environmental regulation are not mutually exclusive. You can have a healthy economy as well as a healthy environment. In fact, I would argue that the two things are complementary. So it was an amazing meeting and just learned a lot while I was there. Also had the privilege to speak at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator Conference where we discussed the road to LA-28 and lots of information there as well ahead of the Summer Olympics. And lastly, I'm not sure anybody saw, but there was a, this just came out in the chamber, but it was a couple weeks ago. The city of Riverside was one of six cities nationally recognized, U.S. cities highlighted for demonstrating the impact of independent and collaborative leadership. They called out the mayor's office specifically, but it can't be done without the collaboration of everybody here. And I think it speaks to the way that we work together here on the dais and the way we work with our community. The article specifically highlighted how Riversiders are able to come together across political lines and talk about ideas, not ideology. It was a proud moment to be mentioned among the other five cities of which I will not name, but Riverside, of course, is the best. But that was a national article, so very exciting. All right, let's see that was all for me, but I will make a few announcements regarding some committee meetings We have governmental processes coming up at 9 a.m. On Wednesday, August 5th Correct council member. Yes land use committee at 9 a.m. On Monday, August 10th at Sorry at 9 a.m. Yeah August 10th and the mayor's nominating and screening committee at 11 a.m. On Tuesday, August 11th All right, I am going to now move on to our agenda and ask our city manager, item number three, if he has any updates to share with us today.

Yes, Mayor, we have a quick immigration update from Ms. Ruby Castillo from our office.

All right, thank you. Hello, Ms. Castillo. Hello, Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council, Ruby Leanne Castillo, Principal Project Manager with the City Manager's Office. I'm here with my monthly update pursuant to resolution number 24310, which directs the city manager's office to update you regarding federal immigration and enforcement activities. So for both months, June and July, 311 did not receive any community reports and PD received one. So that concludes my update for today, and I'm here if you have any questions. All right, thank you.

Yes, sure. Councillor?

Thank you. Yes, I just want to flag, and I'll be reaching out to the City Manager's Office to see how we can connect on this piece. I do think we need to reassess how we are, what comes forward from this portion of the reports, because there have been... There's been a lot more activity, and I think how we're tracking, which I know originally was having to go through 3-in-1 or PD, I think we need to find other ways to receive information from some of our local trusted nonprofit groups and organizations that are on the ground so that we could get more accurate information on what's taking place across the state in our wards that we is documented and is verifiable so uh just to share my office will reach out to see how we can hopefully make sure the reports coming to council have a little more information than maybe what's coming in through some of our calls but thank you for the report and the updates you're welcome thank you council member thank you miss custio anything else uh city manager

All right, thank you, Mr. Rodriguez. All right, council, any declarations of conflicts of interest or ex parte communications that you need to report? I don't see anybody, so we will move on to our first public hearing of the afternoon, which is a item number... and this is to approve an historic designation at the Riverside County Office of Education. We will open public comment for 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 star 9. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID for both languages can be found on the agenda.

Thank you. And I was just about to call you forward, Mr. Watson. So very good to see you. We will now have a staff report from Scott Watson.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Honorable Mayor, City Council Members. Scott Watson, Historic Preservation Officer. The item before you today is a request to de-designate two parcels designated as structures of merit and modify the Prospect Place Historic District boundary. The parcels are located at 4478 and 4480 Orange Street, situated on the east side of Orange Street between 14th Street and Prospect Avenue in Ward 1. As a matter of background, the original structure at 4480 Orange Street was demolished in 1987. And then on October 15, 2025, the Cultural Heritage Board approved a certificate of appropriateness request to demolish the fire-damaged residence at 4472 Orange Street. in compliance with the conditions of approval for the certificate of appropriateness the riverside county office of education submitted a d designation and historic district boundary modification request in january of this year a demolition permit was issued on march 10th and the building was subsequently demolished As there are no longer original structures still extant on the two parcels, they will no longer meet the criteria for structure of merit. Therefore, the de-designation request will have no impact on historic resources. additionally the the subject properties will no longer provide historic context historic architecture historical association or historic value to the prospect place historic district as the parcels at 4472 and 4480 orange street no longer contribute to the historic district and are on the edge of the district the removal of the parcels from the district will not impact the integrity the revised district boundary is shown here With that, staff recommends City Council determine that the project is exempt from CEQA and approve Planning Case PC-2026-00128, thereby de-designating the two parcels and removing them from the Prospect Place Historic District. Also adopt the attached resolution, de-designating the parcels and removing them from the district. Approve the attached findings for zoning code map amendment and introduce and subsequently adopt the attached ordinance to rezone the two parcels, removing the cultural resources overlay zone. This concludes my presentation. If you have any questions, I'm available.

Thank you, Mr. Watson. I don't think we have any requests to speak in chambers. Let me see if we have any callers on this item. I don't think so. So we will close public comment on this item and we will move on to hear from our council. Council Member Falcone.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Scott. Move staff's recommendation.

All right. We have a motion and a second. No further discussion. Please vote.

Motion carries unanimous. All right. Thank you.

All right, Council, we are now at our consent calendar. So items number 6 through 23, I will ask our city manager if he has any items he wishes to pull. Pass, Mayor. All right. Ward 1?

Pass, Mayor.

Ward 2? Pull item number 9, Mayor, and the rest pass. All right. Ward 3? Pass. Ward 4? Sorry, Ward 5? Pass. Ward 6?

Pass.

Okay. And move to approve? Move to approve. Council Member Hernandez, would you like to move approval?

I move to approve the consent calendar.

Second.

Okay. So we have a motion and a second. Ward 6, Ward 5 to approve the balance of the consent calendar. I am absent. Item 9, please vote.

Motion carries unanimously.

All right, thank you.

Council Member Cervantes. Thank you, Mayor. Just wanted to pull item number nine as I was reviewing the attached language for the revised ordinance. I was seeing that the recommendations are looking for regarding the issuance of entertainment permit, how essentially the permit process approvals can go through. And it ends up allocating for our chief of police, who I think our chief is here, to essentially be the person to give, I guess, clearance or approval and review. And if there are any, let's say, concerns, they can assess work with the business and then from there see if they're comfortable with moving forward the recommendation my only question or i wanted to ask i didn't see it explicitly in the ordinance language but i understand we have let me pull up one of my other like pieces i was looking at ordinance i guess i wanted to make sure and i did reach out in advance to the chief uh i want to thank him and uh officer azuma for their help and clarification but if there were to be a business that let's say that if let's just say the chief were to make recognition of not issuing it um but if they wanted to appeal would they then be able to go through the ordinance 7708 process to appeal and i think that would then go to planning commission or if or would it be a dead end and they would not be given the permit overall so what does that look like okay before you answer that i need to open public comment yes item since it's been pulled can we open 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 star 9 you can also join via zoom the meeting id for both languages can be found on the agenda

right now we will ask our staff from planning to uh go ahead and give us a maybe perhaps answer counselor cervantes's questions thank you great and so would you like a presentation or just to answer the question i think for myself as i look through the attached presentation so i think it's just more clarity on if there was someone who desired to um let's say appeal and if not and i trust our current chief recommendations but in the future if we have different chief or Again, my thoughts are just also, you know, if there was, let's say, a business that we really did want to see in one of our wards, and we also, and they wanted to come and be able to appeal, what would that process look like? Because I didn't see a process beyond that, but in speaking with the Chief and Officer Zuma, it seemed that they understood that Ordinance 7708 was across the board, so for any type of issuance that essentially they could go through that process, I just wasn't sure if it was applicable to this municipal code.

Right, and so we do have Jacob with our city attorney's office here who could answer that, but there is an appeal process built into the entertainment permit. Okay. So I don't know if...

Yes, whoever is able to answer can help give us some clarification. That would be wonderful. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council Members. To answer your question directly, all police-issued permits have an appeal section that's in Chapter 117 of the Municipal Code, specifically 117-120, so it is available.

Okay, so would it follow the process, I guess, that's currently in place, similar to like our CUPs, where would it go to Planning Commission, or what body would it go to if there was an appeal?

No, these appeals for police-issued permits go to a hearing officer, not the Planning Commission or the City Council. If the appellant is ultimately unsatisfied with the hearing officer's determination, then they have other legal remedies available to them in Superior Court.

Okay. I think with that, knowing that, I don't know how my colleagues feel. I feel like I'd like to know if there could be a language shift where that versus it going to hearing officer, it could go to follow the other process like a CUP where it could be before the planning commission. Because then from planning commission, again, that could also go to potentially counsel, depending what happens there. I just, I look back to, you know, these are usually folks that we're having to kind of deal or work with directly as businesses and, you know, again, just we never know what the circumstance could be and I think I'd feel more comfortable if it were to be able to go to planning commission for an appeal hearing process and i didn't know if you know our chief or anyone else had other thoughts or comments on that process and i didn't see this one to any committee so i also don't know if it would be better for us to just send this economic development to another group for quick vetting on what that appeal process could look like but i think i'd feel more comfortable if that was the process which i thought i understood it was across the board so

Okay. Well, to address any of the police department's concerns, I would defer to Lieutenant Colpe or Chief Gonzalez, who is also in attendance.

Thank you so much. And thank you for the information.

Lawyers are good at passing that stuff off. Good afternoon, honorable mayor, council members. And I didn't know my lieutenant was here, but just to bring some back. I know we spoke earlier. We did send your office some information, reference 1.17. And from what I understand, it was throughout the different departments in the past. This is why it was amended in March of 2025, the ordinance, because there was different remedies for different departments. So they wanted to standardize and get it to one. And from what I understand, it is an administrative requirement. hearing officer that would hear this. I see what you're saying. This is beyond my purview as far as planning commission. I don't know what their purview is. I don't know if you have to actually have some type of permit before you go to the planning commission to appeal something, like possibly losing it. So if they're in process of possibly getting some type of entertainment permit, I don't know how that would look. But for us, we're OK with an appeals process, especially if it's standardized. It makes it nice. But I understand what you're saying. I just don't know what the next remedy would be or if that would even be a possibility to go to a full commission for an appeals process. And Chad, do you have any?

Nope. Okay. Well, I didn't know if my colleagues had any comments or questions.

Council Member Mill?

So then my question would be, when people appeal, then there's a fee associated. So are we building in a fee structure for an appeal? I mean, is that we're looking at doing something similar? Because if you appeal a planning commission decision, then you've got to pay a fee. Are we looking to build that into this ordinance as well?

I think that's something then if we wanted to see what that could look like, probably would be better if we sent it maybe to committee to kind of vet what that cost could look like. I mean, I look at it as at the end of the day, I think potentially business would probably be more, would prefer an option to see if they could have a case heard versus it going to maybe hear an officer and then it ending there. Because I mean, frankly, then I think them having to, the reality of having to file and go to court is a lot more challenging, especially for a business. And depending if it's a small business, So just trying to think of what could be a remedy in the event that someone wanted to seek an appeal and wanted to be able to Eventually hope to get before the Planning Commission or even the council because at this point it seems that there would be a dead end for them My only concern is it gets politicized and when you know, we turn it over to our police I have faith in and chief Gonzales doing the

doing the right thing in this case. And when it comes to bodies, sometimes it gets politicized. That's my only concern. But if you're looking at going that route, then we have to look at building a whole process. What would the fee structure look like? All of the same things. I mean, if you want to send it back to committee, I mean, I guess we could do that. I wouldn't, I mean, at least take a look and see what it looks like. But I really would, my bigger concern is that it starts politicizing a lot of these issues that are really law enforcement based. A lot of these decisions are, especially when it comes to entertainment purposes, permits and whatnot, it's based on, you know, issues surrounding you know, problems that our police department's dealing with. And when it gets sent to planning or to us, those things kind of get lost and they become politicized and other things come into play. But I'm more than happy to support sending it back to the committee, taking a look at what it looks like. But again, I mean, most cities I... familiar with, this is kind of the process that they follow, goes to the chief of police. I think we have the gold standard when it comes to our police chief. I feel comfortable in him making those decisions, but if you want to see it built out, I would support that.

I know, and I appreciate that. I think because we have the existing one that's in place, that it seems that we're regarding other permits like the CUPs. And my thought is mainly the entertainment component that I often see that being tied to potential revenue generator. So then thinking back to, again, all of our awards, we have different missions, you know, things that we want to do and again not discrediting i i do trust our chief too and i mentioned him in the call that i would trust his recommendation but just thinking that um there could be circumstances and so i i'll see that there's a couple other comments on the board and i'll share what kind of maybe thoughts we can go next Thank you, Councilmember. Councilmember Falcone?

Thank you, Mayor. I think this is actually great comments. This is bringing new thoughts to my mind, which I appreciate both Councilmember Cervantes and Councilmember Mill on this. I will say I think that this affects Ward 1 maybe more than any other ward because we have the most entertainment-type establishments in Ward 1. So all I just ask is that if this were to go to committee, I think a proper committee would be land use as opposed to economic development. And that's a committee that I sit on, so I would appreciate being part of that process. My general mantra though this thing is whatever is most standardized I struggle all the time with the hearing officer thing because I look at it as and I was thinking this before I heard councilor Mills comments if I look at it as we are the ones that are elected by the people and we should be making these determinations not some random hearing officer that's from God knows where but then when I was thinking about the political politicization Things is true as councilmember mill had mentioned so I can see both sides that I would just think that either would be hearing officer Or come straight to the City Council The Planning Commission I think has struggled with this in the past and I think that this is better just either be hearing officer Which would standardize things or or straight to City Council? I think police chief would be better than city manager in terms of that particular type of thing So but I think maybe land you say can be hashed out at landing So I just asked that if yes, I would just ask for it to be good that committee then All right.

Thank you councillor of Robillard

As the chair of economic development, I am okay with that.

So I think kind of what's the essence and what's the point of this change? And what I want to be careful of is it seems to be that the intent that this would be used and why you would appeal it is if you had an existing permit and for some reason it wants to be taken away for being – not operating well. And I think we need to have these tools available to us. And there's many instances, various other kinds of businesses that we have these tools where you're not operating properly, you're breaking the rules. And one of the enforcement tools that we have is to revoke your permits. And it needs to be a standardized process, not just for one type of business. It needs to be all businesses. And I think we need to be careful about carving out special things for special types of businesses because it makes our municipal code not coherent. I do – I agree with the current language because I share Council Member Mills' sentiment that it could be politicized because – And also, we need to be able to work quickly. If there is a serious enough issue with a business that is not operating correctly and the police department, the police chief, who I trust in his judgment that this is such a bad operator that we need to take action, then it gets drawn out over months and months and months and then there's a campaign and it becomes a public arena, such a kind of thing, versus we lost track of what the actual cause of the issue was. And so That's where my concern is, because once it comes to city council, you have public comment, you have all the other things that come along with it. And I know businesses that can just pack a room full of people, not from Riverside, but all love to go to this business to do the things they like to do. And then all of a sudden it's, you know, it's a political decision versus a decision whether or not this business is abiding by the policy. So those are my comments. If you want to go to land use, perfectly happy to let it go to land use. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Hernandez.

I appreciate all the comments from the council members up here on the dais and I think it's important that we do send this back to committee land use committee to kind of build out the appeals process and like the other council members mentioned is to standardize this process and just give businesses the ability to appeal and give them another process other than going to court. So I'm for it going back to committee as well.

Thank you. Councillor Svandoz, back to you. Thank you.

And I appreciate, I think that, I appreciate Councillor Berg and I want to say Falcone, I agree, let's do land use because I do think a majority of where this can have an impact is Ward 1 in the downtown. You know, we could, of course, have other impacts on other parts of the city, but I'll make a motion then that we send this back to Land Use Committee and we'll work to, just because I want to be mindful of timeline and so we'll work to see how we can get this on the agenda soon. I think Land Use Chair is over here. looking at him work with you to bring it back and have a discussion and then get this back to council but thank you all for the discussion all right and if i quick question is it is it too quick to get it on our august 10th meeting

We'll do our best. Okay.

I mean, we have a full agenda today, but I'd rather get things done when we have an opportunity.

Just so staff understands what the ask is, the ask is to look at Section 1.17, the appeal process.

Try to make a uniform to like any other appeal process. Like if someone, if planning denied somebody, what's the process?

So current, I guess in Title 19, we have a standard appeal process for those types of entitlements. And for this one living within Chapter 5, the appeal process for Chapter 5 refers to Title 1, which is the appeal process that's for any police issued permit. So is the ask then to look for some sort of appeal process that is particular to entertainment permits, or is it to look at the appeal process for all police matters as a whole?

I think just looking specifically at the entertainment one.

And also a fee structure as well, if you think there would be fees associated and what they would be.

There is, though, a concern then that if you're taking something in Title V, is that where it is right now, Laurel? Correct. You're taking something in Title V in an effort to standardize it with everything that's in Title XIX, but Title V directs you to Title I. And so now you're carving out something in Title V that aligns with Title XIX, but Title V directs you to Title I. I'm a governmental processes person. I was just telling James about this back here. Would it make sense to remove it from five and put it into 19, or that's going to make the world turn off its axis here?

Right. We want the entertainment permit to live in Title V. That is a more well-suited location for it. The appeal process for multiple chapters goes back to Title I. So I think the main question is, do we still want the appeal to go back to Title I, or do we have some sort of special appeal just for entertainment permits?

If you don't mind, since I'm not a member of this committee, I would suggest to the committee that I think you need to think of things holistically because you said right now it's about carving out. And so we need to look at this. I think going back a step, is this a police issued permit versus a different issue permit? think that's where it lies because if it's not police issued anymore then you have all these different other avenues of of appeal and everything else i think we want to keep list issued things police issued in the standard process and if you don't want that process then you have to change it from being police issued to a separate process for that permit and so my suggestion sorry all right before you take a vote though we do have a public comment so i need to take our comment before you vote can we have our caller please

Again, I do apologize. I am in between meetings, and so I don't have any prepared speech. I'm simply a concerned citizen. So now before I comment on this item, I want to give you some reference. So I sent you all emails. In regards to the threat that I received by the church, I take threats seriously.

I'm sorry, this is for item nine. This is for item nine. We are discussing the...

Simply just providing some reference material. That's all for item nine. And it pertains to this because we cannot allow churches to do bad things in the community and then hide behind religion. We cannot have our churches take advantage of community members and then hide behind religion. So going on to this item, government is very important in society because they serve everybody. And churches, they might work for that first year or two, but after that third year when there's grievances, there's no recourse, right? Like here right now, I'm in the city council having the chance to speak. I have the right for public records requests, and so... This is recourse that we have as residents in our country. And so that's why government is vital. I urge the city council to really take hold of your city. You are ultimately helping ensure that everybody gets represented from all faiths, all backgrounds, all races. And that is vital. So I just want to encourage you all to really take charge. And we need

Thank you. All right, Council. We are back to you. We're closed public comment.

I think it would be easier if I could, Chair, for the committee. If we could sidebar with staff and I could work with Council Member Falcone and then we'll run it by the Chair to make sure that the language we have to ask to come back makes sense.

And I give you a reprieve because I just found out that the agenda for the August 10th meeting publishes tomorrow. So unless you want to stay all night and work all, you know,

Well, we'll go ahead and we'll push Nathan behind you says yeah make them do that But no we will we can push it off to the September meeting so that I'll give you a whole month and just just to clarify So we don't have people online who's in their minds council member Cervantes can talk to staff Council response and I will not speak to staff nor will the chair because that would be a Brown Act violation so there's no Conspiring of one member of the committee will speak to staff and staff can bring forward some some items. I

and do we want to separate the appeal as a separate item meaning do you want to make an action on the request tonight and then separately just thinking that this might what we will want to fully research and understand what other jurisdictions do to come up with some sort of process so do you want us to come back with a separate item as a separate amendment

Why don't we vote on just moving this to committee now? And then we'll let one of the three of us hash out with you how to move forward.

Best. Thank you.

All right. So the motion was to send back to committee. Land use committee. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. We had a motion and a second. Please vote.

Motion carries unanimous.

All right. Thank you. We are now going to adjourn to closed session. And after closed session items, we will return. I will ask our city attorney, please.

Mayor, if I could just make a quick moment. I forgot to. I didn't realize I had to do a quick dive into one of the reports. But for our discussion later, I will have to recuse. And I think we'll have to continue it because it requires five votes. So I do apologize. It's going to be number 40 or 41. let me triple check so this is recusal yes it's refusal of 40 um due to uh as a reference of the east side library and having real property within um the feet of uh where i need to recuse so i apologize and it requires a five vote so i think we'll have to continue that item all right thank you okay um city attorney would you like to uh state what we will be discussing in closed session

Yes, Mayor. Give me one second here. All right. This is item 24. According to government code 54956.91, we'll be conferring with legal counsel concerning Stephen Christensen, City of Riverside.

You can just tell us that we're going to be considering items 24 through 37 if you'd like. All right.

In addition, we're going through 24 through 37. And we'll come back and report if there's any reportable action.

Thank you very much. Thanks.

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Just returned from closed session and I will ask our city attorney please to report out on our closed session decisions.

thank you mayor for item number 36 i just want to note that city the city council gave direction to city staff to post the recruitment for city manager and related to that i've been informed by our hr director that has been posted and is already live in terms of item 37 there was a vote by five to zero so it was unanimous to appoint tom hatch interim city manager pending execution of a contract

All right, thank you very much. So we will now move on on our agenda to item number 38 and we will open public comment for 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 star 9. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID for both languages can be found on the agenda.

All right, thank you. With that, I'd like to call on Councilmember Robillard, please, to give us a presentation on this item.

Thank you, Mayor. Before we take action, I would like to briefly explain the process that brought us to today's recommendation. Selecting a city manager, whether permanent or interim, is one of the most important responsibilities entrusted to a city council. It is a professional executive recruitment process that requires careful deliberation and a commitment to the interests of the organization and the community we serve. I would like to provide a brief background as to how we arrived at tonight's interim city manager action. Immediately following the departure of our former City Manager, Assistant City Manager Edward Henriquez stepped forward to ensure uninterrupted operations. Initially, he served in an acting capacity while the former City Manager remained employed. Once that was no longer legally possible, the Council formally appointed him as an interim City Manager to maintain continuity and stability while we evaluated our next steps. From the beginning, and consistent with industry best practice, the council's intention was to conduct a professional search for an experienced transitional executive. The role of a professional interim city manager is different from simply filling the position. An experienced interim brings an independent perspective that sees in city management experience and the ability to focus exclusively on the organizational stability while giving the council the necessary time to conduct a thoughtful, search for a permanent city manager. Mr. Hatch brings more than 36 years of local government experience, serving in leadership roles across Southern California, including as a city manager, assistant city manager, and as the County of Orange's chief human resources officer, where he oversaw a workforce of approximately 16,000 employees. What particularly distinguished Mr. Hatch was his extensive experience serving as an interim city manager. Most recently, he has successfully guided the cities of Orange, Santa Fe Springs, Santa Ana, and Placentia through executive leadership transitions. Those assignments require someone who can quickly understand an organization, establish trust with employees and elected officials, maintain momentum on key initiatives, and prepare their organization for its next permanent leader. Throughout his career, he has earned a reputation for strengthening organizations during periods of transition while maintaining operational excellence. That experience aligns directly with Riverside's needs today. Mr. Hatch understands that as an interim city manager's role is not to redefine the city's direction. The city council establishes policies and sets priorities. His responsibility is to implement that direction, provide organizational stability, and support our employees, and ensure Riverside is well positioned to attract an outstanding permanent city manager. The entire council wishes to recognize and thank Assistant City Manager Edward Enriquez for doing a terrific job with little notice of filling the city manager's seat while the council completed its diligence to find and appoint an experienced interim city manager. Tonight's action will also allow Mr. Enriquez to return to his full attention to his responsibilities as assistant city manager, chief financial officer, and city treasurer. To comply with the California law governing retired annuitant interim appointments, which is the case of Mr. Hatch, the city is open to recruitment for the permanent city manager position. In the coming months, the council will create opportunities for community input regarding the leadership profile and qualities that are most important for the city's next municipal leader. In summary, tonight's action and open session will enable the city to onboard an experienced interim city manager to guide the city through its important transition period. And also I'd like to read the oral summary of material terms to the contract. Tonight, the council is considering a final action on the employment agreement appointing retired CalPERS annuitant Thomas Hatch as the interim city's manager. Per government's code section 54953C3, I will summarize the material terms of the agreement. The contract is a one-year at-will appointment effective July 31st, 2026 and ending no later than July 31st, 2027 or earlier upon the Their interim city manager reports directly to the city council and performs all duties of the city manager under the city charter and municipal code. Either party may terminate the agreement at any time in the city by written notice and the retiree with 30 days notice. The agreement also includes standard clauses addressing confidentiality, conflict of interest obligations, indemnification under a government claims act, and return of city property. And with that, I am pleased to present the resolution appointing Thomas R. Hatch as interim city manager for the city of Riverside. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Robillard. Let me see if we have any public comment regarding this item. None in the chamber. We have a couple of callers online. Let's take our first caller, please.

Hello, Jason Hunter of Ward 1. There's lots of problems with this from a Brown Act perspective. I don't know if it's To the degree in which it's unlawful, it's certainly really poor policy, poor optics, not very transparent. In fact, it's not transparent at all. We're basically given who's going to be the city manager for potentially the next six months, and we're told who it is at the meeting where we expect to appoint him and then pass his contract. i i i don't know how that isn't a brown act violation um the government code says all contracts for employment with city managers should be ratified in open session i mean to my reckoning that's with an individual not with you know just an an open contract that you come in with a name afterwards that's kind of like it's almost the equivalent to me of saying that you're hiring a consultant for a million dollars in an agenda and you have no name on the contract and then you tell us you know at the meeting who's going to fill that contract um i it's just so weird and we've never done anything like that in the past i look back to the last two city interim city manager appointments which were Mr. McDougall's name so people could do a little homework on them ahead of time. Even back then on the second time around, I think we had the Sunshine Horses. I think we got 12 days or at least three, certainly at least three because of the Brown Act. Unless his name was retiree or whatever was on those resolutions or the final contract, I don't think you can pass those. They don't have specificity for which the public could vet this individual for at least a period of 72 hours. So I think this is very challengeable. Don't know whether I'll challenge it. Certainly, I'm probably one of the very few people, if not the only person in the city that would challenge it. But boy, this really makes me skeptical as to the process and the lawfulness of it. And I think it's just God awful, awful. And there's a trend of it now with certain members of this council in providing transparency in order to allow the public to be part of the process. And that's what we're supposed to be, whether folks like that or not. The public is supposed to be part of the process, part of the whole idea of self-governance. On a technical perspective, there are a couple other problems you have to be aware of. The contract says in the last paragraph that the mayor is to sign the contract, but the mayor pro tem is on the signature block of the contract. That's problematic. And also, I don't know why the document references July.

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

Again, we go through the clown show. Riverside deserves thoughtful leadership, open government, fiscal responsibility, accountability. The residents who fund this government, your employers, deserve to understand not only who is being hired, but why, at what cost, and what has changed since the council's last photo op, Sean, photo op. versus smoking backroom decisions. Six weeks ago, the public, the council publicly told Riverside it had full confidence in Edward and Lisa's ability to lead our city through the transition tonight before replacing that very leadership that you endorsed anonymously. Let me quote the material misrepresentation made by the council and mayor at a photo walk. The council is pleased to announce that Edward Enriquez will serve as acting city manager during this transition period. I know you guys are a little embarrassed about your last city manager. Edward is a respected and experienced public servant who knows our organization well. We have full confidence in his ability to drive leadership while the council conducts a search for a new city manager. Not a new interim manager, a new city manager. There is no problem with this council decision. bold-faced lying to the public. If there is legitimate operational reason, explain it. If circumstances have changed, tell us. If this appointment is truly in the best interest of Riverside, demonstrate it with facts, transparency, and sound fiscal... Stewardship. Good governance is not measured by how quickly contracts are approved. It is measured by the council's willingness to explain its decision, answer difficult questions, and finally earn the public trust. We have seen the value of this experience with a revolving door at City Hall. We have seen the results of the reviews by this council in contract extensions, new hires, new contracts, windfall pay. We can't afford this giving away of taxpayer money with zero accountability.

All right. That was our last public comment. We will close public comment and come back to council. Anybody have any comments?

I'll go ahead and make a motion that we adopt a resolution appointing Mr. Hatch as our interim city manager pursuant to government code 21221 subsection H in approving the employment agreement.

All right, we have a motion and a second. Ward 5, Ward 2, please vote.

Motion carries unanimous. All right, thank you.

Council Member Roelhart, did you want to kind of sum things up?

Yes. I'll look to go ahead and invite Mr. Hatch, if you'd like to make some brief comments, as he has now been appointed the new interim city manager.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council, members of staff, and members of the Riverside community. I'm so honored by your vote and trust that you put in me. It's a big decision. You could tell that by the callers that called into the meeting. You could see it in your faces as I've met each of you. It's a big decision. I'm going to work very hard to make you very proud of that vote and work very closely with you, and I'm excited about the opportunity. and because when i pull back um i've worked with a lot of different councils this is my 12th different agency public agency that i've worked with and many different elected officials probably over 100 different elected officials and i got to tell you i'm really proud and excited about working with you in terms of your approach and style i've worked with in some cities that had real council dynamics that were difficult very difficult every every decision every discussion was difficult with the city council You're respectful to each other. You're cordial to each other. You don't agree on everything, but you work through it because I think the focus that you all have is working together for the betterment of Riverside. Not all councils do that at times. And so I'm excited about that opportunity because I have other choices too. But you're a group that I want to spend some time to get to know and work hard for. And so I'm excited about that. There's three key things that I see coming into this organization that I need to focus on, and you've helped me understand those focuses because I've heard them from you, and these are some of your focuses. Number one, keep projects that you already have and priorities moving forward. You've already made many policy decisions on what Riverside needs. The staff's worked hard to bring those forward. My role is to work with staff, provide them support, and ensure that those continue to move forward sometimes in transition periods things could slow down but we don't want that to happen you made that clear to me and so that'll be one of the three priorities number two is to make good decisions and make good long-term decisions for the city of Riverside. So I make a lot of decisions that this position is required to do that. If you wanna keep moving forward, I'm very decisive person, but I'm decisive because I'm confident in the fact that I'm gonna assess the situations, assess the organization, learn from the organization, learn from staff, listen to the community, listen to you and make decisions that are in the best long-term interest of the city of Riverside. The third key priority is to assist in preparing the organization for a new permanent city manager. It's a very important step. The organization needs to be prepared for that. We need to do a variety of things to work with the council and the staff and the community to prepare for that. I'm not responsible for all of that. I'm one team member that's going to work on that, but that is a key thing that ensures that my work here helps the next person be as successful as possible. So those are the three things that I'll be focused on. There will be many other work and priorities along with those, but those are the three kind of keys. A little bit about me personally and my family. I've been married to Vanessa, Vanessa for almost 36 years now. We have two daughters and a son and have five grandkids that you've kind of saved me a little bit, spending a lot of time watching them. That is the hardest job. This is a much easier job than watching Three kids under four by myself for like six hours, so I could tell you. But I'm good at that as well, but others will have to step in to help. Also, my wife and I live in the city of Costa Besa. It'll be a little bit of a commute, but I have a brother that lives in town. He's a riversider through and through. He lives in Ward 2. he is a Riversider he's a nutty about this town he loves it he thinks he's really proud of it and I could feel it from all of you I could feel it from the community and you should be really proud of that the history that you have the the vibe that you've created it's a special place and I will work again hard to protect that and cherish that as I move forward Finally, it's important in this role to be connected to people, to meet people, to be available to people, to be accessible to people. I'll do that. I'll make an effort to reach out not only to staff but to other community leaders, organizations. and take the time and even our labor unions and other folks and community members to connect and listen to them. You always hear those comments. So I'm coming in new as a person with a lot of experience, but not a lot of experience with Riverside. And I'm humbly gonna learn a lot to ensure that I'm successful in that role. So if someone sees me out there, please feel free to approach me and say hello. I look forward to spending some time to getting to know each of you. Thank you all for your vote again, and thank you for letting me take a couple minutes to say hello. Have a good night.

Thank you, Mr. Hatch, and congratulations. Council Member Robillard, when does Mr. Hatch start?

He will start on July 31st, which is this Friday, and also the extent of the... Invitation to him to come to my community meetings. I'm sure our other colleagues will come to our, he'll attend the community meetings. And if those folks who'd like to meet him, it'd be a great place to meet him and ask questions and see if we did a good job.

All right, I appreciate it. Thank you. And I too want to thank Acting City Manager, Interim City Manager, Edward Enriquez, for doing a great job shepherding us through this time. When we did have our press conference, it was to allow people to see that we had a very competent person at the helm who could shepherd us through as we decided what to do in a very tumultuous period. And Edward, you have been a very steady hand. We have been very, very grateful for that. So thank you very much for your assistance in that. And appreciate Council's work on this. It's been a difficult transition. All right, we are now moving on our agenda to item 39. This is a pavement management program overview, and we will open public comment for item 39.

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 star 9. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID for both languages can be found on the agenda.

All right. With that, I want to invite Ed Lara, please, to come forward and give us a presentation.

Mr. Lara. Good evening, honorable mayor, members of city council. My name is Ed Lara and I'm with the city public works department and I'm pleased to give you guys an update on our payment management program and to provide our list of projects for fiscal year 26-27. For the purposes of this presentation today, I'll be referring to the payment management program as the PMP. So first, a little history on the program. In 2013, the city's PMP was operating on a budget of less than $10 million a year. A budget of this size obviously does not allow for an extensive list of locations to be paid annually. Therefore, the city secured a $38 million bond to complete a more robust payment program over a three-year period. and we completed maintenance on approximately 24 miles of arterials and collectors as well as 26 miles of local streets. This debt was refinanced in 2023 and is saving the city approximately $240,000 per year for an anticipated total savings of approximately $2.4 million when the loan sunsets in 2033. The city's PMP budget was significantly increased in 2017 with the passing of the Senate Bill 1 gas tax and the city's Measure Z sales tax initiatives. These two funding sources increased the PMP's budget to approximately $15 million, and our current budget sits approximately at $26 million. I don't believe the state SB1 program sunsets, but the city's Measure Z program will sunset in 2036. On September 20, 2022, City Council approved extending the payment moratorium from three to five years to better protect our newly paved streets. On December 12, 2023, City Council approved the completion of a pavement cut fee study. This study has been completed, but this effort is currently on hold as we feel it is not the right time to consider new fees. On November 13, 2025, Public Works provided a PMP update to the Budget Engagement Commission, also known as the BEC. The BEC recognizes street conditions as a major priority under the Measure Z initiative and is supportive of additional funding allocations for pavings. In 2017, Public Works assessed every street in the city, assigning each street a pavement condition index score, also known as a PCI, which is a score from 1 to 100, with 100 being the best. In 2021, City Council approved the reassessment of all city streets, utilizing a more systematic approach of completing partial network surveys over a five-year period. City Council will actually receive a report in a few weeks to award a new contract to reanalyze all city streets again to serve as a new baseline for our overall street network health. Public Works will also be utilizing a new pavement analysis software called Street Saver, which is more generally utilized by agencies in California. Now let's talk about network health. A roadway network health can be defined by three key metrics. The first metric being the overall network PCI. The second metric is the percentage of roads in excellent condition, which are roads with PCIs greater than 85. The last metric is the backlog, which are streets in poor and very poor condition, which equates to streets with PCIs with scores less than 40. To summarize our program results, since the initiation of our PMP in 2017, our network PCIs dropped from 61 to 58. It should be noted that the original report received in 2018 indicated our PCI score would drop to 57 by 2023 based on the projected funding levels at that time. So the drop in the network PCI aligns with the original report, but we have actually fared better due to increased budgets that we have received in the past few years, which has proven to be a positive to the program, but we still have quite a bit of work to do. Included in this slide is a summary of the analysis completed in recent years. The results show that a third of our roads are in excellent or very good condition, which is a testament to the effort the city has made to improve our streets. However, our backlog of poor and very poor condition streets is over 20%, which is well beyond the target level of 10% for a healthy program, which is a sign we still have a lot of work ahead of us. The backlog affects our overall network health, which was last recorded as a 58, which is below the city's preferred target of being in the mid-60s. Let's dive a little deeper into our budget history. In 2017, our PMP budget was $15 million. The May 2015 report recommended a five-year budget of $24 million, which was not achieved until fiscal year 22-23. Unfortunately, COVID hit in 2020 and impacted construction costs and our PMP immensely. In fiscal year 23-24, the city invested a one-time additional boost of $10 million from the general fund into the program. The current recommended PMP budget is now $41 million per year to maintain our current PCI, which has resulted in less roads being in excellent condition and more roads being in poor and very poor condition. The good news is Public Works has recovered from all these budget overshoes that we've experienced due to the inflation crisis that increased construction costs by at least 35%. This graph depicts a typical pavement degradation curve. What is important to recognize here is that when a road begins to deteriorate, it generally deteriorates quickly. So a key component to a healthy PMP is a good preservation program. Studies show that preserving streets that are in good condition can extend the life of a pavement significantly. This slide here indicates the list of treatments generally utilized by the Public Works Department and the associated cost per mile. Our improvements generally include preservation treatments like slurry and microsurfacing. It includes traditional resurfacing with grinding and overlaying. One thing we do want to do more of is full depth reclamation. That is the process of pulverizing the existing roadway, utilizing it as a base, and then applying a new section of asphalt on top of that. It is a very cost-effective way of providing a new roadway for the city. And we are desperately in need of new roadways in the city just based on the age of our city, the age of our roads, and the amount of traffic it receives. Here's a summary of our funding levels required to achieve specific target PCIs as indicated in our past P&P reports. The recommended annual budget in the 2018 report was $24 million to maintain our PCI of 61 at that time. Our current PCI is now 58. and we require an annual budget of $41 million to maintain that 58. We now need $53 million a year to improve our PCI back to closer to the original PCI, close to 60. As mentioned previously, we intend to award a new contract in upcoming weeks and will be utilizing new payment analysis software. We hope that the use of this new software and a new consultant might have some promising results, so we'll see where that goes. Okay, this is a slide on funding. Here's our list for current funding sources, which includes state Measure A sales taxes, two forms of state gas taxes, including traditional highway user tax account, and the SB1 gas tax passed in 2017. We also utilize federal CDBG funds. that are utilized for qualified low-income areas within the city. And, of course, we have our city measures e-sales tax revenues. We are currently estimating approximately $26 million for our P&P budget. However, we also want to point out that we will be allocating funds upwards of $5 million to do miscellaneous concrete repair throughout the city. We also allocate funds annually for traffic improvements, miscellaneous traffic improvements, either within our paving limits or at times they'll have their own standalone traffic improvement projects at the discretion of our traffic division. Now we'll get into our project selection. Every year, Public Works selects its projects utilizing a few key tools. Our first main tools are PMP data analysis reports. We also receive requests from residents through our 311 call center, and we also meet with each council member individually to discuss concerns they receive directly from their constituents. We try to incorporate requests from city residents and from business owners as much as we can as long as they align with the goals of our PMP. Our proposed list of maintenance projects utilizing the fiscal year 26-27 funds includes 5.1 million, excuse me, 5.1 miles of arterials, 2.1 miles of collectors, and 7.4 miles of local streets. And of course, preservation remains a key to a healthy program, so we'll be providing slurry seal application to 6.3 miles of local streets to extend the life of our recent investments. Public Works tries to incorporate innovative improvements as much as possible, including traffic safety components supported by our local roadway safety plan and complete streets ordinance. When roads are resurfaced, this is a great opportunity to revise the striving to provide safer passages for other modes of transportation with minimal increased cost to the project. With the fiscal year 26-27 funds, advanced traffic video detection systems will be installed at seven active transportation locations, utilizing technology to optimize safety operations. As indicated in the list of treatment options discussed previously, Public Works is incorporating a fairly new tool of utilizing asphalt grindings to existing dirt alleys. This is a green method to reduce dust, improve drainage, and lower material disposal costs. This treatment has been adopted by Caltrans and is utilized by them to protect their shoulders and roadway edges. Public Works is always looking for new funding opportunities and finding cost savings to support our PMP. A few ongoing efforts include the following. As mentioned, Public Works is assessing a payment cut fee for developers and utility companies that impact the integrity and longevity of our streets. And when they complete their work by cutting into our roadways, this could generate potentially up to $1 million of revenue to support the PMP. Riverside public utilities increased their contribution to the city's on-call contract from 1.5 million up to 4 million to assist with trench line repairs for their water line work. Full depth reclamation is for existing city streets and the application of millings and dirt alleys is a green method of utilizing existing materials for our roadways and reducing construction costs. General plan update includes recalculating the city's traffic index. This update will improve new pavement designs to accommodate the usage of our city streets more accurately. Although Public Works only funds its projects one year in advance, Public Works is now trying to notify the public of what streets The city will be targeting for the following year as well. This is new to our efforts. This is why we are including a list of project locations in your report for fiscal year 2027 and 2028. This preliminary list is subject to change as priorities could change over the next year. But this will help utility companies and developers plan ahead for areas that we are targeting to improve. In conclusion, Public Works has fully recovered from our recent inflation boom. The Budget Engagement Commission has recognized paving as a priority in the support of allocating more funds to our PMP. The proposed fiscal year 26-27 projects will complete approximately 20 miles of surface improvements. focusing half of that work on arterial and collector streets. Finally, Public Works considers our roadways as city assets, demonstrated by us extending the pavement moratorium to five years, considering a pavement cut fee, implementing a GIS project, paving project map for better coordination, and improving our trench repair standard. This here is our map, our paving map that is available to the public. Anyone watching here tonight can either scan this QR code or just go to www.riversideca.gov forward slash paving map. And upon completion of today's council meeting, we intend to update this map with the new list of streets that we're planning to complete with our fiscal year 26-27 funds. That being said, that concludes my presentation, and the action to recommendation is receive and file an overview of the Public Works Department's recommended fiscal year 26-27 paving projects.

All right, thank you, Mr. Avara. Let me see if we have any public comment on this item. No callers, we'll close public comment and come to council. I know Council Member Falcone has something to say.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Ed. This is, I know we're not really approving it, but normally this is like Super Bowl day for me. This is the best thing. But I feel very vindicated because today we had a group of students that were here in City Hall and they wrote down comments to us of what they would like the city, the city council to do, do more of, do better with. And one of them was fix the potholes in the roads in the city. It was a close tie with bring us more Cane's chicken finger establishment. So Sean thought I kind of stacked the deck there. My handwriting is even nicer than that handwriting. But nonetheless, we, of course, are even hearing it from the children of our community now. So I'm happy that their mind is in the right place. But really wanted to highlight that this report, this presentation is extremely helpful. I mean, there's a lot of, I think, common misconceptions or misunderstanding of how our program works. and this is really a great uh concise way now that we can even use for the community to see in addition to the paving map of course that's interactive but explaining the numbers the funding all these different levels that i think um while complex and maybe laborious to read through is valuable information so just appreciative of that and just grateful for all the work i think that's a great uh collaborative effort that happens between Council members, the community, public works team to come into agreement on what some of these recommended roads are. So just thankful for that whole process. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Ed.

All right. Thank you. I don't believe we need to take a vote, do we? No, it says receive and file. So, all right. Thank you, Ed. Appreciate you being here. Thank you very much. Thanks. All right. Council Member Cervantes, you wanted to make a comment regarding item 40?

yes thank you and i was able to receive clarification from staff that the line item i thought i had to recuse from is actually just um reference so i'm okay to proceed to move forward on item 40 to vote with you all perfect thank you thank you all right item number 40 is our third quarter financial update and we will open public comment for this item

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Thank you. I'd like to ask Peter Kakos to please give us a report.

uh good evening honorable mail mayor and council members my name is peter cacos i am the budget and revenue manager this presentation will cover the fiscal year 26 25 26 third quarter financial update and proposed adjustments Starting off at a high level before we dive into the details, overall the city continues to maintain a strong financial position with record level reserves. Even though we are in a strong position, there continue to be ongoing fiscal uncertainties that cloud the city's financial outlook. Most recently, there is uncertainty on potential impacts from geopolitical activity in the Middle East and evolving federal policies. There are also continued concerns that ongoing expenditures will continue to outpace ongoing revenue growth, which we are actively monitoring. Therefore, staff continue to recommend restraint on unallocated spending and will continue to monitor economic conditions and expenditure and revenue growth, providing additional updates in future reports. This slide provides an overview of our general fund and Measure Z reserve balances, which demonstrate that we are still in a strong fiscal position. We have approximately 76.4 million in policy reserves, which complies with the city's 20% reserve policy. In addition to the policy reserves, there are approximately 152.1 million in other reserves that are set aside for specific purposes, most of which to support ongoing pension obligations. This nets to a total of $228 million in various general fund reserves. In Measure Z, we estimate approximately $28.86 million in year-end fund balance, which includes the $5 million policy reserve. This balance, however, is anticipated to be drawn down over the next few years. This slide provides a high-level overview of general fund and Measure Z budget and recommended third quarter adjustments. For the general fund, recommended adjustments are to increase $701,000 in revenue and expenditures. This is related to an end-of-year true-up of the fire mutual aid program. When accounting for the proposed adjustments thus far, you will see in the last column that we would still end the fiscal year in a balanced budget. For Measure Z, we are not recommending any adjustments at this point. This slide shows the one proposed third quarter general fund revenue adjustment. In the other revenue category, the adjustment is solely related to the fire mutual aid revenue as I spoke about on the previous slide. As of the third quarter, actual revenues are 60.6% of budget, which is generally aligned with the trend from last year. Most of the general fund revenue comes in the latter half of the fiscal year. Actual expenditures as a percentage of budget are 71.4%, which are generally trending in line with the same period of the prior fiscal year. However, it's important to note that some expenditures cannot be directly compared quarter over quarter between fiscal years. After second quarter adjustments to overtime budgets, personnel expenditures are running in line with budgeted expectations and no major adjustments are recommended with this report. Moving on to Measure Z. The adopted fiscal year 25-26 budget for Measure Z totaled $107.3 million, which included a budgeted net drawdown of $23.2 million and projected ending balance of $12.7 million. As of the third quarter, Measure Z is projected to end the fiscal year with $23.8 million in fund balance, resulting from a net drawdown of $64.63 million, which includes encumbrances, carryovers from prior years, and supplemental appropriations approved through the third quarter. In terms of revenues, staff currently does not recommend a change in revenue projections for Measure Z in this quarterly report. While revenues are still softer as compared to previous years, revenues seem to be performing in line with our updated budget adjustments from our last quarterly report. In terms of expenditures, Measure Z funds include many projects and one-time expenditures, causing quarterly actuals to appear to be trending behind budget. However, similar to the general fund, spending is generally progressing as planned and within appropriation limits. Moving on to the electric fund. As of the end of the third quarter, electric revenues stand at 76.4% of budgeted projections and are generally expected to meet budgeted amounts with the exception of transmission revenues, which are projected to perform slightly below budget by 7.6%. Electric expenditures are at 69.1% of the total budget at the end of the third quarter. The electric fund had a vacancy rate of 13.5% at the end of the third quarter and personnel savings are anticipated from normal attrition due to retirements, resignations, as well as the timing of filling positions. Within the non-personnel budget, overall costs are in line with the adopted budgets. Moving on to the Water Fund. At the end of the third quarter, total revenues for the Water Fund are 98.1% of budgeted projections. Projected retail sales are now expected to be 0.9% higher than budgeted. There is a bump in the revenue category due to settlement proceeds that the Water Fund has received of approximately $21 million, thus showing the higher revenue actuals. If we strip that out, revenue projections are slightly ahead of budgeted expectations. Water fund expenditures stand at 63.8% of budget. Water fund has a 10.9% vacancy rate, and personnel savings are anticipated from normal attrition due to retirements, resignations, as well as the timing of filling positions. Non-personnel expenditures are trending lower than last year's level as a percentage of budget. The Refuse Fund. At the end of the third quarter, total revenue for the Refuse Fund are at 78.8% of budgeted projections and are generally in line with the percent of revenue received by the third quarter of the last fiscal year. Revenues are generally on track to meet expectations and align with our budgeted projections. Expenditures are 62.6% of total budget at third quarter end. The refuse fund has a 14.9% vacancy rate and personnel savings were partially offset by new vehicle expenditures from prior year carryovers that took place in the first half of the fiscal year. Moving on to the sewer fund, at the end of the third quarter, total revenues for the sewer fund are at 63.7%, which is 2.3% lower than revenues received as of the third quarter of last fiscal year. Third quarter analysis indicates that the sewer fund will underperform in revenue due to a continued decline in new sewer connection fee category, which is linked to reduced construction activity and lower than anticipated development within the city. Expenditures are at 70.1% of total budget at the end of the third quarter. During this period, the sewer fund had a vacancy rate of 11.6%. However, savings from vacancies are anticipated to be offset by increased overtime to meet operational needs. Lastly, the parking fund. Overall revenues for the parking fund are at 82.4% and are expected to meet projected revenue. Revenues are increasing due to the nightly flat rate and monthly parking rate increase, but are being offset by the decrease in volume. Revenues for street sweeping are expected to operate at a deficit of 18% when compared to the total budget. Expenditures are 57.7% of total budget by the end of the third quarter. During this period, the public parking fund had a vacancy rate of 8.7%. These shortages, coupled with extended hours of operation, have necessitated the need for overtime, but overall expenditures remain within budget. And finally, our recommendations is that city council receive and provide input on the fiscal year 25-26 third quarter financial update with at least five affirmative votes, authorize the chief financial officer to record in fiscal year 25-26 Supplemental appropriations, offsetting revenue increases and all accounting related entries in the Bridal Ridge CFD Special Deposits Fund, Library and Library Permanent Fund in the amount of $936,618. A supplemental appropriation and offsetting revenue increase in the General Fund Fire Mutual Aid in the amount of $701,234. Authorize an interfund transfer from general fund surplus reserves to the general liability trust fund in the amount of $9.56 million as part of the balancing measure with the adoption of the 26-28 budget. Authorize an interfund transfer in the amount of $1.4 million from the general fund to the general liability trust fund and offsetting budget reductions within the general fund. And then with at least five affirmative votes authorized the chief financial officer to record in fiscal year 26-27 supplemental appropriation in the general fund in the amount of $97,750, a supplemental appropriation in the airport fund in the amount of $12,685, and inter-departmental transfers in various funds and accounts in the amount of $624,686. And that concludes my presentation, and I am available for any questions.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Kakos. Let's see if we have any public comment on this item. Looks like we have no callers and nothing in chamber, so we'll close public comment. And council, any questions or comments for Mr. Kakos or motions?

I make a motion to approve staff recommendation.

We have a motion, word three, second, word one. Please vote.

Motion carries unanimously.

All right, thank you. Thank you very much. All right, we are now at item number 41. This is a item regarding the Community Facilities District 2021-3, which is Bridal Ridge, and we will open public comment for 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 star 9. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID for both languages can be found on the agenda.

right thank you well hello melina caronza will give us a staff report thank you mayor good evening mayor members of the city council my name is melina caronza i am your debt and treasury manager within the finance department today i'm requesting approval of the issuance of the community facilities district number 2021-3 bridal ridge special tax bond series 2026a This financing will reimburse the city and western municipal water district for eligible costs in accordance with the community facilities district financing plan approved by city council at the time of formation. The bonds will be repaid solely from special taxes levied within the community facilities district, which from this point forward I'll be referring to as CFD for short, and will not constitute an obligation of the city's general fund. So as a brief reminder, the City Council established Community Facilities District number 2021-3, Bridal Ridge in April of 2022. At that time, City Council authorized the formation of the CFD, the levy of special tax A to repay future bonds issued against the district, and the levy of special tax B for ongoing service costs within the district. The last thing that city council also authorized at this time was the authority to issue up to $7 million of bonded indebtedness to finance development within this district. The district consists of 103 single-family residential parcels across two different product lines, referred to as Bridal Ridge and Citrus at Bridal Ridge, with 48 homes being in the first reference and 55 in the latter. Although the reimbursement and acquisition agreement that was adopted at this City Council meeting allowed the special taxes to begin one fiscal year earlier, no building permits had been issued at this point in time by the required cutoff date. And as a result, special taxes first began being levied in fiscal year 2023-24. And those collections have accumulated and will now be used to help fund the required reserve accounts associated with this financing that I'm going to be discussing in a couple slides. And that will help provide additional security for the bonds. As anticipated, when the CFD was formed, the developer has now requested the issuance of the bonds as the project construction has reached the milestone build-out threshold that the city requires. Under the city's reimbursement, Oh, excuse me. Yeah. Under the city's reimbursement and acquisition agreement, the developer advances eligible costs associated with the development of the project. And once these costs have been incurred, the city may issue bonds to reimburse themselves. In this transition, the eligible costs are associated with a few different categories that I'll discuss on the next slide. So the financing that is being brought to you today is to issue up to $5 million in special tax bonds, which is below the previously approved threshold because there was not a need to issue up to the maximum. Based on current market conditions and pre-pricing bond structuring models, we estimate approximately 4.09 million of bonds will be sold with a final maturity of 30 years. Bond proceeds will reimburse for eligible costs, including previously paid local park, regional park, trail, and transportation impact fees, along with eligible Western Municipal Water District facility fees. The bonds are secured solely by the special taxes within the CFD. An independent appraisal was completed in May of 2026 to determine the taxable property with which the bonds will be issued against. And at the time of issue, the estimated market value for the district was $78.6 million, which provides strong relative value to the proposed bond size. Additionally, because special taxes have been collected for several years, like I mentioned in a prior slide, that will be placed into several reserve accounts to help reduce the overall credit risk associated with the financing. And state law, a California Senate Bill 450 requires that prior to issuing bonds, the city disclose good faith or financing cost estimates during a meeting. So those are highlighted here. Based on current market conditions, the estimated financing includes approximately 4.09 million in bond principal or par amount, approximately 4.2 million in bond proceeds, and an estimated true interest cost of 4.85%, with total financing costs approximately $297,000. And then over the life of the 30 years of repayment, we estimate the total borrowing to be approximately $8 million. Now, these figures are preliminary and subject to change based on market conditions, comparable issuances, and investor variables at the time the bonds are being priced, which will happen next week, barring City Council approval this evening. And before concluding, I'd like to reiterate that this financing has no direct fiscal impact on the city or its general fund. All debt service administrative expenses and issuance costs are paid exclusively from the special tax revenues collected within the CFD. Bonds are payable slowly from those revenues and are not backed by the city's general fund or taxing authority. And so my recommendations this evening for City Council are to adopt the resolution authorizing the issuance of the special tax bonds not to exceed $5 million, approve the financing team, authorize the city treasurer or a duly authorized designee to pay the costs of such firms in connection with the financing from bond proceeds. and authorize the city manager or chief financial officer to execute all the documents related to the issuance of the bonds, make any minor or non-substantive changes if required to complete the financing, and with at least five affirmative votes, authorize the CFO or designee to record all supplemental appropriations and accounting entries in connection with the financing. And that concludes my presentation. I'm available if you have any questions.

All right. Thank you, Ms. Carranza. Let me see if we have any callers. No callers and nobody in chambers. So we'll close public comment and come back to council. Any questions, comments, or motions from the council?

I make a motion to move forward with staff recommendation.

All right. We have a motion and a second. Ward 3, Ward 2, please vote. That's okay.

Motion carries unanimous.

Thank you. Thank you. Best of luck with the bond sales. Thank you. All right, that brings us to the conclusion of our meeting. I've already asked our city attorney to report out on our closed session discussions. Do you have anything else you'd like to add, Mr. Johnson?

Yes, mayor locked us and I just want to say it's a tremendous honor to work here at the City Riverside Very excited to be in one of California's greatest cities and looking forward to working with all of you for the success of this great town All right.

Thank you. Mr. Johnson. We're so happy to have you on board Item 43 council any items for future agendas? I

okay and councilmember mill i know you wanted to say a few words tonight so we could close in honor of jose armis thank you mayor and again i had spoken on this this earlier this afternoon but i'd like to request that we close tonight's meeting in honor of a long time arlington resident and just all-around great riversider jose armis who passed away last night many of us knew jose and if you knew jose he was your friend he served our committee a community as a as a commissioner but more importantly he he exemplified everything that was good about riverside he was a kind and decent man it's a loss for our community my prayers go out to his wife suzanne who is part of the trujillo family and very active in the Spanish Heritage Town Foundation. So Godspeed, Jose. Rest in peace, my friend.

Thank you, Councilmember. And with that, we are adjourned.