The city council strikes back, part two

City Council is always a happening place most every Tuesday and it was no different yesterday with even more city residents being ejected by the city council from the afternoon session of the joint city council and redevelopment agency meeting.


City Council ejects more speakers


At the afternoon session, Councilman Frank Schiavone got sick and tired of listening to people complaining about the city council and told them so, then asked people to come up and provide examples of when the city had taken single family homes through eminent domain and to his chagrin, people began coming up to speak. You can't really blame people if they accept an invitation for them to speak or a dare, the kind that elementary school kids make on the playground.

Yolanda Garland, who had already survived having the city council interrupt her critique of the city's ethics complaint process the week before took the gauntlet challenge and started speaking at the podium. But soon Mayor Pro Tem Ed Adkison took out the city council's current favorite catch phrase and told Garland that she was out of order. What's interesting is apparently the city has gone out and bought Adkison a gavel and he's obviously seeking out opportunities to use it before he departs from the dais after the upcoming election. Maybe next, they'll buy the whole set of them powdered wigs though afterwards, at least one person thought rattles and pacifiers would be more appropriate.

I believe the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland told her charges, "off with their heads" when they displeased her. But our city council picks whatever slogan that will effectively shut down public discourse and uses that one over and over until they get tired. As former Mayor Terry Frizzel told the city council last night, not even the PALM quartet behaved in this fashion. Neither did the previous voting bloc, GASS, for that matter. But GASS is clearly on its way out, evidenced by the voting trends shown in yesterday's commission selection process.

Marjorie Van Poule, who is 90, was going to be ejected next. Two police officers went to her seat when the city council asked for her removal. When Van Poule told the police officers that they would have to carry her, a third officer was brought to her chair, but she left voluntarily. Community activist Mary Humboldt spoke later that night to the city council about what had happened that afternoon, comparing Van Poule to other women in history including Betsy Ross.

At least four individuals were either ordered to leave or were escorted out by the police who are welded at public speakers much more readily than the response the police officers had received from the city council when issues arose in their labor contract negotiation process last summer. Several police officers including Lt. Darryl Hurt learned what it was like to be in the shoes of these residents when they were cut off while speaking during public comment.

The speakers didn't have any complaints regarding the police who they said acted more civilly than the current city council has been but the actions of the city council deeply concerned them. They believed that the city council had taken advantage of the absence of Mayor Ron Loveridge to provoke an incident knowing full well that the code of conduct was on the agenda later that night. Several of them, most noticeably Councilman Dom Betro, came to the meeting in foul moods after the selection process involving the Community Police Review Commission which had immediately preceded the meeting.

Van Poule came back in the evening, not knowing that she had been banned. She was allowed to attend the meeting.

One city resident said after the meeting that two of the most vocal opponents of public speaking sitting at the dais had gone to the city attorney's office to ask it if they could eliminate public comment and were told they couldn't, according to state law.

So the code of conduct is going back to Governmental Affairs Committee for "evaluation" and all three of its members, Schiavone, Adkison and Betro have made it clear through their behavior that they will stifle public comment as long as it is critical of the city council's operations particularly involving the thorny issues of development, redevelopment and eminent domain. City Manager Brad Hudson told a city resident during the meeting that more restrictions are definitely coming.

Just perfect during an election year in that it adds to the drama of the process. A reality that is driving the actions of several people on that dais. Most of the contention by the city council is towards individuals who are speaking out against the development and redevelopment actions in this city. They are speaking out against the truncation of a 20-year development and growth plan into one that is only five years and involving the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars without factoring in any recessions, competition from other cities for the same funding and most importantly, the growth of the city's infrastructure which includes basic services like public works, public utilities police and fire. There wasn't much in the way of building roads and streets or widening many of them which is necessary to handle the increase in traffic this development project will cause if it leads to thousands of home owners(primarily from Orange County) into this city.

Missing from the Riverside Renaissance plan are the two dozen or so firefighters that are needed, along with fire stations that were promised after residents passed a measure to fund the new stations. Missing are two dozen or so police officers that would be needed to both keep up with the growth of the city through annexations and immigration and for the department to remain in compliance with the terms of its since-dissolved stipulated judgement with the State Attorney General's office. Missing are the facilities or upgrade of facilities which will be needed to improve the conditions of the city's ancient public utilities system, though higher rates have already been announced for both electricity and water, especially for those city residents who rely on Western Regional Water District to provide their water from the shrinking supply provided by the Santa Ana river.

But how can basic city services compare to buildings, buildings and more buildings? In the minds of the current city council, they can't. You can't ride a campaign into the mayor's office without a fancy development project, even if it's just an empty one because who will pay for your campaign if the development firms do not want to contribute?

These realities and others have been pointed out time and time again to a city council which doesn't want to hear them or look beyond its recent attack of "gold fever". So they began passing restrictions not long after Hudson was hired on public speaking, including a controversial agenda item on July 12, 2005 which barred community members from pulling items from the consent calendar. The motion to pass this measure was made by Betro and seconded by Councilman Steve Adams before passing 6-1 with Councilman Art Gage casting the sole dissenting vote.

Accompanying these restrictions have been comments made by city council members including lately how sick and tired they are of people coming to the meetings and complaining about them and the city. One of them, Betro, even used the cameras(right after accusing a community member of playing to them) to urge people to get out of their houses and come on down to city council to essentially put a stop to those who have been complaining. Few if any people took him up on his offer, as even the Chamber of Commerce in downtown Riverside apparently had other things to do those evenings.

It's been a contentious year at city council meetings for sure.

Dozens of residents complaining both about the public restriction issues and development issues, not to mention the bodies of three of the city's labor unions coming to city council en mass to speak on problems with their labor negotiation process. Crowds of people packing the chambers in response to circulating emails and fliers on everything from animal control issues to housing projects.

All this has put the elected leadership into a generally testy mood as they probably wish all these people would just stay home. That and the fact that every community member they have to listen to puts more time between some of them and social hour at a nearby bar or restaurant afterwards to unwind from another week of having to sit in the dais and vote for measures that have already been decided long before these meetings and having to sigh, roll their eyes and lean back in their chairs while being addressed by speakers.


More candidates have taken papers to run against incumbent Steve Adams in the seventh ward including Frizzel and Art Garcia. Adams position is particularly vulnerable in his bid for reelection because of his failed attempts to win an assembly seat up in Sacramento in the middle of his current term on the city council. His decision to try to jump ship may not have been viewed by the voters in his ward in a particularly good light. If this is so, then expect a difficult uphill battle for him.



At the Group meeting which will be held at 7 a.m. at the Coffee Depot on Mission Inn Avenue, prospective third ward candidate(and already endorsed by the mayor and four city council members) William "Rusty" Bailey, Jr. Part and parcel of the current election season.

The Community Police Review Commission will meet tonight at 5:30pm to receive its final briefing from its investigator, Butch Warnberg as well as discuss the recent actions which have affected it in the past two months. Recently, the meetings have attracted quite an unusual crowd of assorted individuals.