Park and Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

We'd like to welcome you to the Friends, sorry, too many boards. Foundation, Friends, can't keep them straight. Welcome you to the Museum of Riverside Board Meeting. This meeting is called to order at 3.01 p.m. Would you please play the video for Statement of Inclusion and Decorum.

Pursuant to the City Council rules of procedure and order of business resolution, the members of all Boards and Commissions and the public are reminded that they must preserve order and decorum throughout the meeting. In that regard, members of the Boards and Commissions and the public are advised that any delay or disruption in the proceedings or a refusal to obey the orders of the Board or Commission or the Presiding Officer constitutes a violation of these rules. The City of Riverside is committed to fostering a workplace that provides dignity, respect, and civility to our employees, customers, and the public they serve.

Thank you. Next, I will recite the museum's land acknowledgment. The Museum of Riverside is grateful to stand on the traditional and ancestral lands of the Cahuilla, Gabrielino, Tongva, Luiseño, and Serrano people. The Cahuilla, Gabrielino, Tongva, Luiseño, and Serrano continue to live and thrive in Southern California. Thank you, Tony. Would you please take the floor?

Yes. Ana?

Yes, President.

Cynthia? Here. Julie? Here. Mary? Jennifer?

Here it is.

Paula? Here. Claudia? Here. I lose and share in our absence today, but we do have a quorum. Thank you.

We will now move to item number one, public comment.

public comment is now open for this item call 951-826-8688 and follow the prompts to access the meeting to request to speak press star 9 when called to speak press star 6 to 1 mute you can also join via zoom the meeting id can be found on the agenda

This is the portion of the meeting specifically set aside to invite your comments regarding any matter within the Museum of Riverside Board's jurisdiction. Individual audience participation is limited to three minutes. If you are in person, please complete and submit a speaker card to museum staff. To comment via telephone, call 1-951-826-8688. Press star 9 to be placed in the queue to speak. Individuals in the queue will be prompted to unmute by pressing star 6 when you are ready to speak. To comment via Zoom, use the following link, http://zoom.us/.j/.92696991265. Select the Raise Hand function to request to speak. An on-screen image will prompt you to unmute and speak. You can also comment using the e-comments feature at www.RiversideCA.gov slash meeting. Do we have any callers or public comments?

We do not have any e-comments received by the 1 o'clock deadline today. We do not have any in-person comment cards for chambers, and we do not have any callers online.

OK, thank you. So for the presentation, we have two presentations today. The first presentation will be given by the city clerk's office, and we would like to welcome Tula.

Thank you, Museum of Riverside Board. I'm ready for the presentation. Again, my name is Tola Perkins, and I'm from the Board of Ethics, and I will be presenting the Code of Ethics.

PowerPoint is loading. Thank you.

Again, thank you, Madam Chair, for the Riverside Municipal Code 2.78 Code of Ethics and conduct annual review. Museum of the Riverside Board. Next slide. The purpose of the Code of Ethics and Conduct pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.020 to achieve fair, ethical, and accountable local government for the City of Riverside. Public officials are expected to comply with the provisions of this Code of Ethics and Conduct and shall aspire to meet the standards in the conduct of their responsibility as a public official of the City of Riverside. Next slide. The scope, pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.030, public officials subject to the code, number one, mayor, number two, city council members, and three, all members of appointed boards, commissions, and committees appointed by city council and or mayor. Next slide. Implementation. Pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.040. A. Upon election, re-election, appointment, or reappointment, public officials shall be given copy and required to affirm receipt and understanding. B. Within 90 days of taking office, public officials shall receive training. C. City attorney or designee shall serve as a resource to assist public officials in understanding and abiding by the code. Next slide. Continuous of implementation. D, all bodies whose members are covered by this chapter. shall adopt rules of procedure, which include provisions of this code. E, chair of each body is responsible to provide appropriate guidance to its members, and if needed, communicate concerns to the Board of Ethics. F, only those who live, work, including vendors and contractors, or attend school in Riverside may bring a complaint unless alleged violation took place outside city limits and complaining party personally witnessed or observed the alleged violation. Please take note to the asterisk in blue. The city council adopted on January 27th, 2026. Next slide. Going into core values, pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.050. A, to strive to create a government that is trusted by everyone. B, to strive to make decisions that are unbiased, fair, and honest. C, to strive to ensure that everyone is treated with respect and in a just and fair manner. Next slide. Continuous core values. D, to strive to create a community that affirms the value of diversity. E, to strive to ensure that all public decisions are well informed, independent, and in the best interest of the city of Riverside. F, to strive to maintain a nonpartisan and civic-minded local government. Next slide. Continuous of core values. G, to strive to ensure that all public officials are adequately prepared for the duties of their office. H, to strive to ensure that appointed members of boards, commissions, and committees attend regularly scheduled meetings. Next slide. Please take note to this particular core value. Letter I was adopted by the city council on May 19th, 2026, which states, digital communications must reflect the city's commitment, the city's commitment to impartiality, fairness, and integrity. Online activity, messages, or actions should not create or appear to create bias, partisanship, or predisposition on city matters that fall within the subject matter jurisdiction of the public official and or quasi-judicial procedures. Next slide. going into prohibited conduct. Pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.060. A, use of official title or position for personal gain, prohibited. B, use of divulgence of confidential or privileged information, prohibited. C, use of city resources for non-city purposes, prohibited. D, advocacy of private interest of third parties in certain circumstances prohibited. E, endorsements for compensation prohibited. Next slide. Continuous or prohibited conduct. F, violation of government code sections 87100. Regulating financial interest and governmental decisions made by public officials prohibited. G, certain political activity prohibited. H, display of campaign materials in or on city vehicles prohibited. and I, knowingly assisting another public official in violating this code of ethics and conduct, also prohibited. Next slide. Continuous or prohibited conduct, J, negotiation for employment for any party having a matter pending, prohibited. K, ex parte contact in quasi-judicial matters, prohibited. L, attempts to coerce official duties, prohibited. M, violations of law, local law, prohibited. in convictions of federal or state law affecting their office prohibited. Please take note to letter O, which was adopted by the city council on May 19, 2026, which states digital misconduct is also prohibited. Next slide. going into written complaint procedures pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.070. A, only alleged violations of prohibited conduct shall be grounds for a complaint. Please take note that the blue asterisk that I'm about to proceed to read was adopted amendment on January 27th, 2026 by city council, which states, complainants are covered by whistleblower policies and the city will not retaliate nor tolerate retaliation against those who, in good faith, report suspected fraud, waste, or abuse, or participate in an investigation of a suspected violation. Next slide. Continuous of written complaint procedures pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.070. B, complaints are submitted on forms available from the city clerk. C, complaints and evidence are filed with the city clerk. D, complaints must be filled out completely in accordance with this chapter. Next slide. Continuous of written complaint procedures. Complaints must be filed no later than one year of alleged violation. F, city clerk reviews the completeness. G, any filed complaint not in compliance shall be administratively rejected by the city clerk with the approval of the chair of the board of ethics. Next slide. Going into pre-conference procedures, pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.075, A, complainants must submit one revised complaint only to add additional allegations within 30 days of the original filing. B, city clerk sets matter for a pre-conference for no later than 45 city business days. C, city clerk provides a copy of complaint to public official within 10 calendar days. Next slide. Continuous of pre-conference procedures. D, Board of Ethics, also known as BOE, conducts a pre-conference prior to a hearing date set by the city clerk. All parties are to attend the pre-conference. However, the absence of a party shall not be grounds for a continuance. The pre-conference shall be conducted as follows. One, BOE reviews complaint to determine if it complies with all of the following to establish jurisdiction of the BOE. A, complaint procedures have been followed. B, complaint is against a public official. C, complaint alleges a violation of prohibited conduct. And D, complaint does not restate violations of previous complaint. Next slide. continuous of her pre-conference procedures if majority of the b o e determines that the complaint does not comply with the provisions mentioned in prior slide the chair that states findings of the deficiency and calls for a vote of the b o e to dismiss the complaint without a hearing the statement of finance is adopted at the next meeting and it is the final decision of the b o e If a majority of the BOE determines that the complaint complies with all of the provisions mentioned in the prior slide, then the pre-conference proceeds. Three, the BOE shall facilitate settlement discussions between the parties by allowing the parties to confer privately to determine if a resolution can be reached. If so, then no hearing is necessary. If not, the pre-conference continues. Next slide. continuous of pre-conference procedures. Number four, the BOE reviews the submitted tangible evidence to determine if it is relevant to the issues raised in the complaint. If it is determined by majority of vote that such evidence is irrelevant, then such evidence will be deemed inadmissible at the hearing and shall be excluded. Five, the complainant may verbally present any and all evidence that will be presented at the hearing to prove allegations in the complaint. The public official has same opportunity. Six, the BOE shall determine by majority of vote whether the complainant has shown the evidence, that the evidence more than likely than not shows that there may be a potential violation of the prohibited conduct. Please note that the blue asterisk mark that I'm going to proceed to read was adopted on January 27, 2026, by the city council, which reads, all evidence shall be taken in its totality with equal weight given to both parties. Next slide. continuous of pre-conference procedures number seven if it is determined by the b o e that the evidence shows it is more likely than not that there may be a potential violation of the prohibited conduct has occurred then a hearing panel is selected by random draw of the b o e members to consist of five members and one alternate the city clerk sets a hearing date for no later than forty five city business days following the pre conference 8. If it is determined by the BOE that the complainant failed to show that it is more likely than not that there may be a potential violation of the prohibited conduct, the chair of the BOE instructs the city clerk to prepare a statement of findings for adoption at the next regular meeting of the BOE. The statement of findings is the final decision of the BOE. Next slide. Going into the hearing procedures. Pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.080. A, public officials shall file a written reply no later than 20 calendar days prior to the hearing date. B, city clerk shall provide copy of written reply to complainant no later than 10 city business after receipt. C, Board of Ethics shall have authority to adopt hearing procedures not in conflict with this chapter. D, pre-conferences and hearings on their merits are not formal judicial proceedings. Technical rules of evidence do not apply. Next slide. Continuous of hearing procedures E, chair of hearing panel presides over the hearing. F, no new witnesses nor evidence other than what was submitted may be introduced at the hearing unless hearing panel determines complainant discovered after the filing. G, prior to commencement of the hearing. Either party may ask for a continuance. H, only one continuance of the hearing shall be granted to each party. Next slide. Continuous of hearing procedures. I, complainant goes first and shall have burden of proof by preponderance of the evidence. J, public official proceeds second and may make an opening and closing statement. Examine witnesses, evidence, and introduce rebuttal evidence. K, neither party shall be allowed to examine the other party, however, may cross-examine. L, hearing panel may ask questions of the parties or witnesses. M, parties may present rebuttal evidence. Next slide. Continuous of hearing procedures. N, upon conclusion of evidence presented, the chair shall facilitate verbal deliberations by the hearing panel. O. All findings shall be approved by majority of vote and panel shall direct city clerk to prepare statement of findings or designate members to prepare statement of findings to include recommendation for sanctions. Panel must approve within 30 city business days. P, within five city business days of approval, city clerk notifies all parties in writing of the decision of the hearing panel and the appeal procedures. Next slide. continuous of hearing procedures no member of the board of ethics who is the complainant of subject of the complaint shall sit as a member of the hearing panel neither the complainant not the public official against whom the complaint is filed shall be represented at the hearing by an attorney Although an attorney may be present and consulted at the hearing, the attorney shall not address the hearing panel or participant in any aspect of the hearing. Next slide. Going into appeal procedures. Pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.090. A, a decision of the hearing panel may be appealed to the city council. Appeals of pre-conference decisions may only be appealed if the appeal is based upon a clear procedural error. Appeals are filed in writing with the city clerk within 10 city business days following the date of the decision. Appellant must specify the clear procedural error or abuse of discretion. The city clerk shall place the appeal on a city council agenda within 30 city business days. Next slide. Continuous of appeal procedures pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.090. B, if there is no appeal, the decision of the hearing panel becomes final and there shall be no further right to appeal. The city council would then determine if sanctions should be imposed, if applicable. C. The record on appeal shall consist of a transcript of the hearing, the complaint and tangible evidence and testimony considered at the hearing. No new evidence will be received or considered by the City Council at the hearing. on the appeal. Next slide. Continuous of appeal procedures. D, city council shall review record. If no finding of clear procedural error or abuse of discretion, the city council shall adopt findings of the hearing panel If there is a finding by the City Council of a clear procedural error or abuse of discretion by the hearing panel, that finding shall be clearly stated and the matter shall be referred back to the hearing panel for a rehearing to consider the matter in light of the findings of the City Council on appeal. E. If the City Council finds a violation was committed, the City Council may determine sanctions. F. City clerk notifies all parties and there is no further right to appeal. Next slide. Continuous to appeal procedures. F, city clerk shall notify all parties of the findings and determination of the city council on the appeal. The findings and determination are final and there is no further right to appeal. G, complaints, replies, supporting documentation, transcripts of hearing, notice of appeal and all decisions thereon shall be public record and retained by the city clerk for a period of two years. H, no public official who is a party to a complaint shall participate in the appeal of the decision of the hearing panel and must recuse from participation. Next slide. Going into enforcement and sanctions, pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.100, upon a finding by a majority of the city council that any public official violated any provision of the prohibited conduct or no appeal has been made to a board of ethics, finding such violation, the city council may impose any of the following sanctions. Next slide. Continuous of enforcement and sanctions pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.100. A, elected officials. One, public apology by official to complainant. Two, recommendation for training. Three, removal from regional committees. Four, removal from mayor pro tem rotation. five, public censure, or six, restrict from traveling to attend meetings, conferences outside city limits. Next slide. Continuous of enforcement and sanctions pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.100 B, appointed officials of boards, commissions, and committees. 1, public apology by the official to the complainant. 2, recommendation for training. 3, referral to the board, commission, or committee of which the appointed official is a member of the public censure. 4, public censure by the mayor itself. and city council, five, removal from chair, vice chair, or other leadership positions, or six, removal from offices as provided by the city charter. Next slide. Going into monitoring and oversight. Pursuant to Riverside Municipal Code 2.78.110, a prior to end of july each year the boards and commission shall agendize and discuss at a regular meeting the effectiveness of this code of ethics and conduct code and make recommendations to the board of ethics for consideration B. Prior to end of August, Board of Ethics shall discuss effectiveness of this code, consider Board Commission recommendations, and submit recommendations for amendments to governmental processes committees by BGPC for consideration. C, prior to end of September, the GPC shall discuss effectiveness of this code and instruct the city manager to present a report to the city council for its discussion and consideration. D, prior to the end of the year, The chair of the GPC shall present a report to the city council at a public hearing in the evening. The city council shall make an independent evaluation of the effectiveness of this code and consider those recommendations of the BOE, board's commissions, and GPC. The city council shall direct city attorney to make any changes to the code it deems appropriate. Next slide. At the end of this presentation, here is the recommendation from the Board of Ethics that the Museum of Riverside Board discuss and review the Code of Ethics and conduct for its effectiveness and forward any recommended revisions to the Board of Ethics for consideration. Madam Chair, once more, my name is Tola Perkins from the Board of Ethics presenting the annual Board of Ethics, a Code of Ethics for you today.

and your board members thank you thank you so do we have any recommendations for the board of ethics

Actually, I have a question, maybe more so than a recommendation. There are a couple prohibited activities that seem sort of vague to me. For instance, letter G, certain political activities. I don't know what those are. And O, digital misconduct prohibited. What kind of misconduct? What is the definition of misconduct? Those would be my two questions slash recommendations to clarify.

Yes, thank you, board member. What I would like to state is in the package that you received had the entire code of ethics before the presentation part, we placed that. So if you want me to go through that, I will pull out the actual package for you and go through, or would you like to review it?

That's okay. If it's available, then I'm satisfied.

Yes, it is available, and then also the Brown Act will be coming after this presentation as well from the city attorney's office. Okay, thank you so much. Thank you so very much for your question, board member. Any other questions, chair?

Anyone else? Nope, okay. Thank you, Tola, appreciate that. So next we have the city. Thank you so very much. You bet. We have the city attorney's office with a presentation on the Brown Act.

Good afternoon, members of the Museum of Riverside Board. My name is Ruth Ann Solera. I'm a senior deputy city attorney from the city attorney's office. I've been here a few times with you all. It's my pleasure to serve you guys mostly in the background, but I provide legal services to the museum, and that often involves advising this board when necessary. So this training today is something that my office has done for all of the boards and commissions, and we are largely gonna refresh the Brown Act, but then also go over some significant changes that have come up this year, which is why we've decided to pick this summer to redo all of this training. All right, so first is a reminder on the purpose of the Brown Act. This here is a statement from the Brown Act itself, but I like to summarize it very simply in that we here at the city and this board and all the boards, what we do on a day-to-day basis is we engage in the people's business. And the people's business per state law is required to be open and public. And the Brown Act is one way that we ensure that the people's business is conducted openly and publicly. And so first, the Brown Act mostly involves your meetings. So all meetings of a legislative body, which this board is a legislative body, shall be open to the public and all persons shall be permitted to attend any meeting of the legislative body of a local agency except as otherwise provided by the law. And a big update is that something Riverside has been doing for quite some time is now codified in the state law is that Riverside must now provide two-way telephonic or audiovisual public access beginning July 1. But we were ahead of the game because Riverside has been doing this since the pandemic, but it is now part of, it is a mandatory requirement now. So next, the Brown Act creates minimum procedural requirements for conducting a meeting. And one such rule is for this board to adopt rules for the conduct of its business, including the time and place for holding regular meetings. And you all do have standing rules that include that. And now a new update is that Riverside is required to have a written policy on how to handle disruptions, including for remote participations, for example, as to what happens when our internet goes down and we no longer provide that telephonic two-way participation. This was just updated by the city council at its June 23rd meeting, and the procedures were actually very simple. If the internet goes down and we lose our telephonic and two-way audiovisual process, we simply recess the open session and make good faith efforts to restore the internet. We must make those good faith efforts for at least an hour. And if we cannot make those efforts within the hour, then the board can reconvene and determine if the public interest in continuing the meeting without the internet access outweighs the need for internet access. So you could either continue if you make that finding or adjourn the meeting and continue it to another one. So next, a refresher on what a meeting is defined as. A meeting includes, well, first, before I get into the substance, I wanna sincerely apologize. There's a typo on a few of these slides. I've done this presentation at a lot of different boards, and there are references in here to CHB, which should be a reference to this museum board, and I apologize that that was left in here. But so getting into the substance, so a meeting is any congregation of a majority of the members of this board at the same time and place to hear, discuss, or deliberate an item that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board. And your subject matter jurisdiction is detailed in chapter 2.12 of the Riverside Municipal Code. And that is how you determine, those are the topics that constitute, like to discuss or deliberate upon. So if five of you were to get together and talk about lunch, talk about a project that is not ever able to come within your subject matter jurisdiction, that's not a meeting. It's just when you're talking about museum business. So except as part of an open and notice meeting, the Brown Act prohibits the use of any kind of communication or by personal intermediaries to develop a consensus on any of these items. And we'll get into more details on what it means to be an intermediary or develop a consensus. And then additionally, you have to be very careful with digital communications. A majority of the board cannot email each other or otherwise message each other, I think text messages, social media, to develop a collective occurrence. We call this usually a serial meeting. And this is why it's very important when sending emails to be very, very careful with reply all and with the contact. Because if you get an email that includes all of you on it, say like like an agenda comes out this is next here's this week's agenda and you're all copied on it if one of you replies all and says this is how I feel about item number two then you've potentially violated the Brown Act so be very very careful when responding to emails and with that reply all button it can it can be a trap for the unwary And some new updates for 2026 is SB 707, Clarified Rules for Permitted Informational Communications, which is a practice that we have used quite often, but now it is codified in the law. This is limited one-way distribution of factual information and certain social media activity. So you should continue to be very careful on social media, and we have more slides on that. But one way that we have... utilized to provide information to boards as an individual one-on-one briefings and those are permissible. So staff can meet with you one-on-one or even in a group meeting as long as it is less than a quorum and provide you with factual information about items coming before you. in those meetings what they can't do is transmit between board members thoughts and ideas about those items but those meetings can be very useful because they can provide some really detailed information they can answer your questions so that you're more prepared for the dais but they just can't help communicate amongst you how you might feel about an item that all those deliberations come here in the meeting So more on serial meetings. A serial meeting is a series of communications, each of which involves less than a quorum, but when taken as a whole, involves a majority. So think a group email chain that gets passed between several people, or a conversation between two people, and then the next conversation involves a third or a fourth. So it's kind of like a chain of communications. It doesn't require a collective concurrence to a court in order for this to be a violation. It's the potential deliberation going on and discussion of the item. So what we've already mentioned in the prior slide is that city staff can engage in an individual communication with you, but they just can't share any of the board member's thoughts and feelings on an item between you.

All of those deliberations and thoughts happen here.

And then an additional clarification, this is just a repeat slide, but the example down here on social media is that it specifically allows members to post factual information on social media or reply individually to someone else's. but you have to avoid the chain that eventually incorporates a quorum. So the prior social media rules were very strict. It prohibited engaging in other posts at all between board members. So there's a little more leeway here now, but I really caution you to be careful with social media because it's so quick and easy to hit share, like send it off to other board members and eventually reach a quorum that just... be extremely careful when engaging in museum board business while on social media and then next public engagement so the public has a right to address the board at any meeting on any subject within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board eligible legislative bodies must also allow for remote participation which was mentioned earlier but that includes public comment which the city has been doing for quite some time now So going further, talking on this, we can impose reasonable restrictions on public comment, which as long as they are not too broad and don't constitute a prior restraint. So these reasonable restrictions are usually referred to as like a time, place, and manner. Just think of our three minute rule. and things like that. We can ask a member of the public to refrain from speaking on a matter that's outside your subject matter jurisdiction or from addressing their comments to one matter or one member rather than the board as a whole. But largely it's usually, especially for meeting efficiency purposes, it's only three minutes. So sometimes it's easier to just let a person finish their thought and move on. So we can require the members, or the members of the public wishing to address to fill out a speaker card for purposes of organizing the meeting, but what we cannot do here is require them to provide their name and address or register as a condition of attendance. And this is equally applicable to in-person and remote attendees. So if a person doesn't want to put their name on a speaker card, then all we do is just need to hold a placeholder for that person. The speaker cards are convenient because they allow the city to be able to follow up with commenters, but if someone really doesn't want to do it, they can't be forced to. They can still give public comment without that. So while it's a common practice and it's useful, it's not mandatory. So we can also regulate the total amount of time on a particular issue. The time limit is usually three to five minutes. Our standard here at the city that almost all boards and commissions have is a three minute per person per item. And the chair is responsible for enforcing that time limit with the timer. And so additionally, we have some new accessibility enhancements that are really gonna help improve some accessibility to meetings for some of our members. So Riverside, first is a language requirement, must conduct outreach to assess language needs and provide agenda translations and interpretations for public comment for languages spoken by more than 20% of the residents who do not speak English well. and agendas must include remote access details in them. So Riverside already publishes our agendas in both English and Spanish, and then also every agenda has the link for remote access to meetings. And so next, the agenda must specify the time and location of the meeting and a brief general description of each item to be discussed. If a matter is not on the agenda, then it can't be discussed with very limited exceptions. So a few of these limited exceptions are that you may briefly respond to members of the legislative body and staff to statements made or posed by the public. And I usually encourage those responses to be as brief as possible, a couple sentences. so that you can engage that person and maybe get to the point where you can take the conversation offline so that you can continue that with them. Questions for clarification are permissible. References to staff or other resources for factual information. Request the staff to report back on an issue at a subsequent meeting. Request to agendize a matter of business for a future meeting. And then brief announcements by members of the body or staff on reports of their activities. With all of these, what I generally encourage is to try to keep it brief and avoid actual discussion on it. So discussion takes two people. I usually start getting nervous when more than one person is engaging on one of these topics together. So this comes up most commonly when you're requesting an item for a future agenda. So really all that needs to happen is to provide enough information to the city staff to be able to actually bring the report back with more details. And so it most of the time probably takes like two to three sentences at most, maybe a couple paragraphs worth of speech to be able to convey that information. And that's really all you need to do to ensure that you're within that Brown Act exception. So next, a little bit about the Sunshine Ordinance. You hear about it a bit, quite a bit, and you all have benefited from the revisions that the council made last year. So the museum board is an advisory body under the Sunshine Orders, which means that you have a much more nimble and shorter publication period than other bodies. You are at a three business day publication period now, where it used to be 12 days. So the City Council, the Planning Commission, the Community Police Review Commission, the Public Utilities Board, and a few others still do follow the 12-day publication, but many of our advisory bodies now are on three business days. And so an additional item here on supplemental materials for the agenda. Agendas can be supplemented as long as it is done no later than 72 hours before a regular meeting, which is a very tight deadline for you all since you meet on Wednesdays. And here agendas are published Friday. Yeah, so you basically have till Monday. But you can add an item due to an emergency, delete an item from the agenda, or post additional materials that weren't known prior to the time or correct an error or omission, or you can continue an item. So that's still available, it's just a little difficult when you don't have a whole lot of time to be able to make that happen now. and then some new rules on remote participation for board members. So the prior rules about remote participation for the public, and so now these rules are for you all if you need to participate remotely. We expanded the Just Cause remote attendance, and then now there is, remote attendance is part of a reasonable accommodation for persons with a disability. so for a reasonable accommodation a board member with a statutory disability which is i think the ada may participate remotely without having to go through the just cause procedures they must use two-way audio and video and disclose any adults over 18 present in the remote location and there is an exception for use of video if they're um if their disability prevents them from being able to use video they can be excused from that and participate via audio only some additional sunshine ordinance Updates, we went over these. I'll just go ahead and skip this slide. And then I wanted to touch on some updates, again, a little bit deeper into the social media code of ethics issue because digital misconduct and use of social media is a big deal right now. And like I said earlier, it can be a trap for the unwary. And so first off, digital misconduct is new to the ethics code and it was studied quite heavily before being added. But it's very specific as to what it applies to. So this is for online activity or messages. So this is more than just social media. This could be email, anything online that create or appear to create a bias, partisanship, or predisposition on city matters. So that's, so those are your like, appearances to think of, bias, partisanship, or predisposition. This is while acting in an official capacity. So think while if you are using an official city account, a city email address, or any kind of communication media that was given to you by the city. And the item falls within the subject matter jurisdiction of the public official. So it's things that would come before this board. and must be a quasi-judicial proceeding, which makes it very rare that it would come before this board because you don't handle quasi-judicial proceedings. Quasi-judicial proceedings are a particular type of public hearing where an applicant or some type of right is being determined that there is a mandatory duty of the board to be impartial and make decisions based on evidence presented. And it's just not within your subject matter that you all handle. But it is a requirement that in order to violate digital misconduct, it had to relate to a quasi-judicial proceeding. And then finally, the sanctions for this are limited to censure only. And that is specifically related to potential First Amendment issues. So that's why censure is the only possible sanction for this. And that is the conclusion of my presentation. If you have questions, I am available, but I really thank you for your time.

Thank you. We will receive and file this presentation. Does anyone have any comments on the presentation? Okay, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Okay, to our consent calendar. We have a motion to approve consent calendar item number four, special meeting minutes from July 9th.

So moved.

Second? I'll second. Thank you. Any discussion? Okay, that was pretty short and sweet.

We'll call, please, Tony. Can I just confirm who was the original motion? Cynthia. Oh, okay.

Thank you.

Mm-hmm. Anna yes Cynthia yes Julie yes Mary yes Jennifer yes Paula yes Claudia yes motion carries unanimously thank you moving on to the discussion portion of the agenda Tony do we have any callers for public comment

waiting on gtv but i do no colors on the line they say you can proceed thank you so item number five we must discuss the absence of paula horchuk from the july 9th 2026 special meeting of the museum of riverside board do we have a motion we don't that's that's

I have a discussion whether it's excused or unexcused. And then we can have the motion and second.

I don't think we got a second though, right? So we have a motion. We have a second? Second. Okay. So now any discussion?

What is the motion?

Yes, what is the motion, please, to that be restated?

Oh, to discuss the absence of Paula because we didn't get a response, I guess, from the special meeting? I guess it's to determine whether or not it's an excused absence, I assume, is where we're going with that?

Yes. I make a motion to excuse Paula Horchik from the special meeting.

Do we have a second for that?

I'll second.

Now we need to discuss that. So do we have details, information?

I think what we're getting at here is there was no 24-hour notice given by Paula prior to this meeting, and she was absent at that meeting. The board generally accepts these types of absences as unexcused.

In the light that it was a special meeting, I would not require that personally. A regular meeting, I would think that would be a requirement, but a special meeting at the last minute to resolve a situation, I think that we should just excuse her. People have lives.

Chair, just curious, normally when we allow Ms. Horchak to make a statement on why she was not available?

That's kind of where I was going. Do we have any information? I assume that can be part of the discussion? Yeah.

I'd be happy to explain myself. We had to go through the motion process first. I don't want to jump in if it's inappropriate. Basically, I was out of town because it was my husband's birthday. Didn't check my email in time to catch it. I found out afterwards, and I do apologize.

When did the, I can't remember the dates because they're all fuzzy, but how far in advance did the email go out?

We published the agenda on Monday, but technically we have 24 hours for a special meeting. So you published it? For the Thursday meeting.

The email was sent on Monday and the meeting was Thursday. Correct. Did we get a response Thursday? Was there any response provided or was there just no response?

Much later. I didn't see it in time to attend.

So when did you respond?

I think last week I saw it. My email is kind of a mess, which I'm working on correcting as well. But yeah, I didn't even know about it until after it had occurred.

May I ask what the repercussion of an unexcused absence is?

I mean nothing unless you have three consecutive, then the city clerk's office will ask to.

All right, thank you.

So when she's here today, so that's not going to be three consecutive unexcused absences.

I'll accept whatever you guys decide, and I do apologize.

so the la what was the last motion excused excused okay so we've had that discussion now do you want to take a vote on that motion now any other comments No other comments. I'll go ahead and take a vote. Anna? So yes would be make sure we understand. Okay.

So the motion would be to excuse Paula's absence. So yes is to excuse. So say yes if you want to excuse, no if you do not agree.

Okay. No. No?

Okay. Cynthia? No. Julie? No. Mary? Yes. Jennifer?

Yes.

Paula? Yes.

If I get to vote, yes.

Please excuse my absence. Claudia? No.

No.

We have a four no's and three yes's.

Okay, so the motion does not pass. Do we need another motion now or not?

I think it's recorded as unexcused. We should be fine. Okay, move on.

So it'll be recorded as unexcused.

Thank you.

OK so now we're going to move to item 6 do we have a recommendation of the city council for the session of these 5 lots into the permanent collection we have a motion.

Motion approval. Second.

Any discussion. Move on to the vote. Please Tony.

Anna yes Cynthia yes Julie yes Mary yes Jennifer yes Paula yes Claudia yes motion carries unanimously thank you

item number six the recommendation to the session into the permanent collection of the five lots of archival and historic items seven oh sorry item seven do we have a recommendation to the city council for the accession of these seven lots into the permanent collection do we have a motion so moved we have a second second any discussion Okay, Tony, you want to call the roll, please?

Anna? Yes. Cynthia? Yes. Julie? Yes. Mary? Yes. Jennifer? Yes. Paula? Yes. Claudia?

Yes.

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you. Item number eight. Do we have a recommendation to the City Council for the accession of these 28 avian steady skins and one mammalian skin into the permanent collection? Do we have a motion? I'll move. Thank you. Do we have a second? Second. Second. Thank you. Any discussion? All right. Thank you. Tony, can you call the roll, please?

Yes. Anna? Yes. Cynthia? Yes. Julie? Yes. Mary? Yes. Jennifer? Yes. Paula? Yes. Claudia? Yes. Motion carries unanimously.

Chair, may I ask a question real quick before we move on? Can the lot be done all in one motion with the remaining last three items?

I think at the beginning of the meeting, then we would have moved from discussion to consent. But for future meetings, we can definitely do that.

Thank you for the clarification.

Good idea. I know you like to save time.

OK item number 9 of your view to all 49 pages of the proposed policy changes in the agenda packet do we have a recommendation to City Council to approve revisions and updates to the Museum of Riverside's collections and exhibitions management policies do we have a motion. I move to prove second thank you any discussion.

Yes, as a member of this committee for the last several years, I would like to, if it's appropriate at this moment in time while we are on this subject, to applaud this committee headed by Jennifer Dickerson as the staff and her committee, Katie Grimm, Ian Wright, Steve Gamble, Teresa Woodard, and Kim Coble, who have worked diligently for the last several years categorizing and digitizing and housing this collection. And it's taken many, many hours. This document here also is an update which guides that committee. and I think it's been very well updated, and so I would add that to my recommendation to approve.

Thank you. We certainly appreciate your experience and background here for us. Any other discussion? All right. Roll call, please, Tony. Yes.

Anna?

Yes.

Cynthia? Yes. Julie? Yes. Mary? Yes. Jennifer? Yes. Paula? Yes. Claudia? Yes. Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you. Item number 10 is for deaccession. Do we have a recommendation to City Council to approve deaccession of two Brewer's Blackbirds, one Costas Hummingbird, and a collection of animal bones from the permanent collection? Do we have a motion?

So moved.

And a second? Second. Any discussion?

Thank you. Roll call, please, Tony. Yes. Anna?

Yes. Cynthia?

Yes. Julie? Yes. Mary? Yes. Jennifer? Yes. Paula? Yes. Claudia? Yes. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you.

Item number 11 is also for deaccession. Do we have a recommendation to City Council to approve deaccession of one washing machine, one clothes wringer, one washboard, one laundry boiler, one laundry agitator, 24 clothespins, and one pie safe from the permanent collection? Do we have a motion?

I'll move so.

And a second?

I'll second.

Thank you. Any discussion? Yes, I'll just mention that, again, sitting on that committee, these items have been in use at Heritage House, and this is an appropriate decision to be made because they are handled quite a bit, and they're used in docent historical... What? Yes, on the tours. Thank you, Anna. Thank you.

Anyone else? OK. Tony, we have the roll call, please.

Yes. Anna? Yes. Cynthia? Yes. Julie? Yes. Mary? Yes. Jennifer? Yes. Paula? Yes. Claudia? Yes. Motion carries unanimously.

okay next we were scheduled to have two presentations but i think we had two last minute cancellations of those presentations so we will move on to item number 14. and that would be board chair and vice chair updates i don't have any thing for me i don't think lou's shared anything with you did she share anything it didn't violate the brown act she sent you anything okay next we have museum director dr peterson for her monthly director report update for item 15.

So as it's been comparatively recent since our special meeting, I don't have a huge amount of update to provide other than the written report. But we did anticipate it in the schedule to receive our 100% construction drawings from the architects for Harada House Monday evening. We're pleased with those on early examination, doing our best to make sure that all the remaining steps of the process to get to construction occur as expeditiously as possible. Things are progressing as we hope they will on the main museum. Nothing earth shattering to report there. Lots of continuing planning for the reopening exhibitions and the reopening events. Things are starting to coalesce on the exhibitions as they need to because we have to put together a big package for some exhibition fabrication. As you all know, we close Heritage House during the summer. Programming diminishes a little bit, although not quite so much this year because we have some special programs related to the 250th anniversary of the country, one of them being this Friday a special Movies on the Lawn. Mr. Smith goes to Washington. And on tomorrow evening, we're very pleased, we're going to be hosting for the first time a panel of six individuals for nights with the museum who will be discussing regional black history.

Thank you, Dr. Peterson. Do we have any comments for item 15? I do. Thank you.

Yes. Thanks for that question. We should have a little more information for you on that pretty soon. But what it is basically is the last piece of steel that goes up on the new addition before they swing that into place. Have a little ceremony where people can sign their names on it, and up it goes. And it'll be a by invitation event that will include board members. Thank you. We expect that to occur at the end of August, and we'll confirm that soon.

Anyone else?

I did want to ask about the Harada House break-in. That was something I had learned about outside of this role, so I just wanted to see if that's been handled. It's under control. Okay. I was just wondering if that's something that has been shared with the board or not.

It's under control in the hands of the police right now.

Okay. Thank you.

I would like to just ask if I am pleased that we would be invited to the topping off. Thank you for bringing that up, Julie. I was wondering if that would include sort of a tour or if there would be another moment in time where we would be coming to have a tour any time soon.

This particular event will not involve a hard hat tour, but we can work to schedule a hard hat tour for you in two groups so we don't, again, violate the round act.

Thank you. I would appreciate that. I don't know how many others are interested in it, but I am. Thank you, Dr. Peterson. That was the second thing on my list.

So you guys are so good that you asked the questions that I had. Thank you. Anyone else? Great. Moving on to item number 16. Do we have any brief reports on conferences, seminars, and meetings attended by the Museum of Riverside board members? No one's out having any fun?

I will share. Excuse me. The Mission and Foundation got their exhibit up for America 250. It does end at the end of this month, so if you have not had a chance to see it, it is a free museum open to the public. So I would encourage you to see that. Paul Revere's Bell is on display at that exhibit, along with a flag that only has 46 stars. There's quite an exhibit there, so I'd encourage you all to check that out before it concludes.

Great. Thank you. Thank you. Jennifer, is that at the location of 6th Street and... Maine? No, it's not Maine.

Yes, it is.

It's on Maine. It is Maine. Yeah, at that location. 359 Maine Street. Okay, the new location. Exactly. Thank you.

And I did go to the butterfly exhibit and tour at the Heritage House, so thank you for that.

Say again, sorry.

I went to Heritage House to see the dammers. That's closed. I went. No, I was reporting. Okay, good. What did you think? I had done their jazz tour before, but yeah, it was great. And I had researched Amherst before, done the park and all that. We're a butterfly family, so we brought the family and everybody was excited. Thank you very much. Excellent. And I'll be there tomorrow night as well. Okay, great. Thank you. Absolutely. Anything else?

I did have a special thank you to our trivia night. I got to participate at that, and we do have new evidence to make sure that we update something about the courthouse. But we had an amazing time. It was so much fun. The museum hosted a trivia night at Back to the Grind. I encourage you all to attend whenever you do it again because it was a lot of fun.

We did have fun, and now we have a template for it, so we probably will do a rerun at some point.

Great.

Thank you.

And I guess I probably should have asked the city attorney about the liking of social media comments from board members.

Yeah, good question. We can ask that.

I'll be back to life here in a couple weeks, so I'll be more engaged. OK. Do we have any items to request for future Museum of Riverside board meetings? One question I had is, does the museum accept digital donations?

Yes, we do have a born digital collection and policies are coalescing about how we handle that. It's challenging because the technology isn't as permanent as we would like it to be. And we have negotiations with IT with regard to the permanence of some of our digital records. So, yes, we do. We have a small collection in that category. Much of it is related to the COVID history locally. So, for example, sorry, baseball is on my mind right now.

We have a large amount of digital data that people gave to us. Some of it won't be in the book.

Is it primary research or primary documents? Help me with definition of primary? original historic documents or are they copies of other things so no for instance a lot of people gave us pictures and then we scanned their pictures the primary document would be the original picture yep so secondary we would put those in a certain different category of collection from the primary but yes we could certainly look with some interest of what you have okay

We're going to give it to the library as well, but I thought it would be good for you guys to have at least copies of it. Certainly. At some point in time we'll put that on there. So we just put that on a flash drive? How does that work? Do you have a procedure that you can share or whatever you want me to do?

We can start with that.

Probably a couple months away, but I thought because you've talked before about this lack of information in the middle of the night.

There are definitely pockets of regional history that we don't have a lot of contact for.

Yeah, and this is 1940 to 70, something like that. And we have a lot. Yep. Sounds good. Okay, great. Thank you. Okay, this brings us to the end of our agenda today. Thank you all for attending. I'd like to adjourn the meeting at 4.08 p.m. Please be sure to validate your parking card in the back of the chamber if you have not already done so. We will see you at our next board meeting on August 26, 2026 at 3 p.m. Thank you.