River City Hall: Just another day at the office
Kevin Rogan, fresh out of a long stint in the Pomona(CA) Police Department will be coming to Riverside, first to attend a reception at City Hall today and later, to work as the new executive manager for the City Police Review Commission.
Apparently while working as a captain in the police force, Rogan also worked part-time as a lawyer in a Claremont law firm. Articles about mediation and conflict resolution were included on the firm's Web site.
Still, no wonder what his background is, one major key point will be how long the cord that attached him to the city manager's office remains.
During the arduous hiring process, one candidate for the position called me to ask me questions about the CPRC and one question he asked was whether or not the executive manager would have his or her strings pulled by the city manager's office and if that had indeed happened to the last individual in that position. After all, the last executive director was banned from doing outreach into the communities of the city by the city manager's office lest he appear to be biased against the police department.
Perhaps his law enforcement background will shock and awe the city manager's office into allowing him to do his job.
Perhaps not.
Still, speculation has already began in terms of trying to determine who will be the puppet in this process and who will be pulling the strings. Of course, such guesswork is based on past history involving the relationship between the executive manager and his management executive. So far few community members are willing to put any backing to the idea that Rogan will have his hands any less tied to do the job than his predecessor, Pedro Payne.
Lots on the city council agenda as well as that for the Redevelopment Agency which is basically the same folks, only they get an additional stipend for attending these meetings. Inland Empire's Craigslist has good coverage of city council meeting agendas.
Meeting agendas are located online here. You can access agenda reports in laser fiche and through pdf files. You need a good version of Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the latter but if you want to print reports, it's the easier and faster version to do so.
Meetings are held twice monthly during the summer months so the agendas are usually packed, which means the meetings run fairly late in the evenings even past happy hour at most local watering holes and food providers. That might make some of the folks on the dais a bit cranky and restless after the first hour or so. Do not let this deter you from speaking on the items that interest you.
The University of California, Riverside gets over $2 million for the Culver Arts Center proposed for construction downtown. It's purportedly to be a fine arts school for the "community" but if past history with UCR and city funding allocation offers any lessons, it's that the more money this public university receives from the city, the more it restricts access to its campus by the "community". The athletic fields and running track which used to have hours when they were open for public use are one example of these restrictions.
Some say that UCR is already the campus most subsidized by city funding in the UC system. Others call it a different form of "welfare" provided by the city that's long been a source of controversy at least for those outside of both the inner circles of City Hall and UCR.
In fact, before current City Manager Brad Hudson came to City Hall an provided a conduit for other Riverside County employees to follow, UCR did also send quite a few of its own employees including one of its key development persons, Michael Beck to the city. Beck came into a specially created deputy city manager position from UCR and has been elevated in rank several times since then. Although some people say that because he's not a member of the Riverside County entourage, he's the odd man out in the city manager's office. He's fairly accessible at the meetings to ask questions and can be very helpful.
This arts center and school could serve as a valuable and valued resource for community members particularly the younger ones, but it remains to be seen if this is actually what will happen or whether it will mostly benefit students from outside of Riverside who attend UCR. After all, downtown has been an area where the limited opportunities for young people including children and teenagers to enjoy it have been sharply reduced with among other things, the relocation of the kids' museum to Hemet and the axing of the Downtown Wednesday Night and other events.
There are 44 items on the consent calendar. It will not be clear until the meeting how many items current councilman, Ed Adkison will have to disqualify himself and his company, Adkans Engineering from hearing due to conflict of interest.
On the discussion calendar, the crowing roosters will be hitching a ride on the choo choo trains on one of the three discussion items on the agenda.
The high rates of electricity seen on recent utility bills which was related to a multi-tiered increase approved by the city council last year will be addressed in another discussion item. Councilman Frank Schiavone is proposing that the increases are frozen and to send the troubling issue back to the Board of Public Utilities for further scrutiny.
If you have anything to say about it, here's the latest poll asking that question. It seems that the impact of rate increases shouldn't be all that surprising especially during the hot summer months but it will be very interesting to see how this episode plays out. With all the ongoing plotlines of this season of River City Watch, it's hard to keep track but Charter Communications provides the opportunity to catch up through reruns on Wednesdays at 4 pm and Saturdays at 9 am.
It's interesting going to different places like the grocery store, and city parks and see people who watch the city council meetings and thank those who go up to the dais and speak on the issues. A lot of people can't believe what they see on television in terms of the behavior on the dais and I think the recent elections reflect that mood.
But the utility situation promises to be an ongoing issue of consternation certainly outside the inner circles of City Hall.
Were July's bills "shocking", to use a bad pun, as was claimed in recent articles in the Press Enterprise? Yes, they were. Just pulling the bill out of the envelope caused many people some degree of shock and faintness that couldn't be solely blamed on the summer heat.
Press Enterprise Columnist Dan Bernstein in his latest column wrote that it didn't stop in Riverside. Banning has also been hit with high increases in its utility rates. In Banning's case, they were blamed on the new technology associated with meter reading but the reaction was just as shocking.
(excerpt)
It's a city-owned utility, just like Riverside's. It just raised residential rates by 15 percent (the first boost in 11 years). Instead of billing customers on the traditional 28-to-34-day cycle, Banning went Full Jack Benny: 39 days!
Customers like Sue Prosser kept using and using while the billing period went on and on until they were kicked into Tier 2, then up into the newly unveiled Tier 3 of the killer watt hour rate structure. The killer price: 32 cents per kilowatt-hour for use above 1,500 kilowatt-hours. (Riverside's top price: 24 cents above 1,200.)
If Oliver Stone lived in Banning Estates, he'd be grumbling, "Vast right-wing conspiracy." Wait. That was someone else.
But Bonnie Johnson, the finance chief, says nobody actually planned to stick it to an untold number of Banning's 10,000 residential customers.
The judges are here and they are already kicking the butts of both prosecutors and defense attorneys alike, according to the Press Enterprise.
The public defenders are used to getting their butts kicked by judges, most of whom are former prosecutors but the prosecutors appeared stunned at the news. Hopefully, their boss isn't sitting in his office preparing a list of documents to file papering the 12 judges on the strike team who look at them wrong.
(except)
During the course of the morning Wesley took prosecution and defense attorneys to task for lack of preparedness, or for tactics that he thought could delay cases.
Deputy Public Defender Addison Steele had to start a four-week family medical leave last week, Wesley was told Monday by Karen Hasler, a supervisor for the public defender's office.
Wesley said the public defender's office had not properly filed the motion to continue one of Steele's cases, in which defendant Robbie Catchings is charged in a 2002 murder.
"If you would be so kind as to inform your office that if a (continuance motion) is not filed within 48 hours, I will consider sanctions," Wesley said. "That goes for both sides."
Prosecutors on Monday sought to remove Steele from the Catchings case and others, citing in part Steele's involvement in at least five of the strike force cases.
Steele represented Catchings when a mistrial was declared in December of 2005 after jurors deadlocked, 10-2 for acquittal.
Wesley noted that some private defense attorneys are involved in eight or nine strike-force cases, but were not the subject of a prosecution removal motion.
"Can you explain why you have chosen to file against the public defender's office, and not the private lawyers, if you can?" Wesley asked Deputy District Attorney Amy Glaudini. She couldn't.
Motion denied. Oh, the shock waves which must have rung the courthouse like a bell. The next several months should be very interesting indeed. But until those parties involved in the criminal justice system stop squabbling and start working on the problems which beset it together, the strike force team of judges no matter how impressive will only prove to be a band aid.
But in front of the courthouse this morning, lots and lots of chairs and a sign welcoming the jurors awaited those who were expected to pack the jury holding facility and later the courtrooms for jury selection which will be conducted in numerous backlogged trials beginning today.
More big news in Boston, according to the Boston Herald, the scene of much recent intrigue.
(excerpt)
Over the past two weeks, Superintendent Dan Linskey, chief of patrol officers, has been checking on cops on private details to ensure that they are on post, well dressed and not idling in air-conditioned cars, smoking in the street or having prolonged cell phone calls.
“I don’t like them sitting in the cars. I don’t like when they are staring into a hole. I don’t like long cell phone conversations on the street. And appearance is very important to me,” Linskey said. Any cop found not doing the job properly is reprimanded and asked not to turn in the $37-an-hour detail card for payment, Linskey said.
The police union commented on the crackdown.
(excerpt)
BPD union officials welcomed the brass' current crackdown, but
noted that shift supervisors are paid to do the job of checking on
details cops and command staff members should be writing policy, not
checking for minor infractions.
"I'm certain that the bureau chief will find that 99.9 percent of
the officers are doing the job, serving the public and in total
compliance of rules and regulations, " said Boston Police Patrolmen's
Association President Tom Nee.
There's a bit of a discussion taking place at Craigslist of whether the ongoing deletion of posts there that contain links and/or information to this site should continue or not. Apparently, some of the individuals visiting that site are unhappy with this one and don't want individuals reading Craigslist to read it so the posts get deleted usually within several hours of being posted.
Some blame City Hall but it could be anyone in the internet or more than one individual. At any rate, it's an interesting discussion to follow and it's not like I haven't been harassed and threatened on this site simply for having it or perhaps for even existing at all, let alone living in Riverside. Even my poor mother has been insulted. Then again, I had a faux me sending me harassing emails last month, with one of them originating from an IP address registered by the city.
This is a strange city some days. Most days in fact.
One popular critic there who appears most upset when I write anything critical of issues pertaining to Ward One did post something that stated that he or she was upset about the removals from Craigslist because he or she believed the more information all around that people had access to, the better informed that person could be. I agree with this person's point, which is one reason I'm into posting links to other sites including news sources on my own site's entries.
Apparently while working as a captain in the police force, Rogan also worked part-time as a lawyer in a Claremont law firm. Articles about mediation and conflict resolution were included on the firm's Web site.
Still, no wonder what his background is, one major key point will be how long the cord that attached him to the city manager's office remains.
During the arduous hiring process, one candidate for the position called me to ask me questions about the CPRC and one question he asked was whether or not the executive manager would have his or her strings pulled by the city manager's office and if that had indeed happened to the last individual in that position. After all, the last executive director was banned from doing outreach into the communities of the city by the city manager's office lest he appear to be biased against the police department.
Perhaps his law enforcement background will shock and awe the city manager's office into allowing him to do his job.
Perhaps not.
Still, speculation has already began in terms of trying to determine who will be the puppet in this process and who will be pulling the strings. Of course, such guesswork is based on past history involving the relationship between the executive manager and his management executive. So far few community members are willing to put any backing to the idea that Rogan will have his hands any less tied to do the job than his predecessor, Pedro Payne.
Lots on the city council agenda as well as that for the Redevelopment Agency which is basically the same folks, only they get an additional stipend for attending these meetings. Inland Empire's Craigslist has good coverage of city council meeting agendas.
Meeting agendas are located online here. You can access agenda reports in laser fiche and through pdf files. You need a good version of Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the latter but if you want to print reports, it's the easier and faster version to do so.
Meetings are held twice monthly during the summer months so the agendas are usually packed, which means the meetings run fairly late in the evenings even past happy hour at most local watering holes and food providers. That might make some of the folks on the dais a bit cranky and restless after the first hour or so. Do not let this deter you from speaking on the items that interest you.
The University of California, Riverside gets over $2 million for the Culver Arts Center proposed for construction downtown. It's purportedly to be a fine arts school for the "community" but if past history with UCR and city funding allocation offers any lessons, it's that the more money this public university receives from the city, the more it restricts access to its campus by the "community". The athletic fields and running track which used to have hours when they were open for public use are one example of these restrictions.
Some say that UCR is already the campus most subsidized by city funding in the UC system. Others call it a different form of "welfare" provided by the city that's long been a source of controversy at least for those outside of both the inner circles of City Hall and UCR.
In fact, before current City Manager Brad Hudson came to City Hall an provided a conduit for other Riverside County employees to follow, UCR did also send quite a few of its own employees including one of its key development persons, Michael Beck to the city. Beck came into a specially created deputy city manager position from UCR and has been elevated in rank several times since then. Although some people say that because he's not a member of the Riverside County entourage, he's the odd man out in the city manager's office. He's fairly accessible at the meetings to ask questions and can be very helpful.
This arts center and school could serve as a valuable and valued resource for community members particularly the younger ones, but it remains to be seen if this is actually what will happen or whether it will mostly benefit students from outside of Riverside who attend UCR. After all, downtown has been an area where the limited opportunities for young people including children and teenagers to enjoy it have been sharply reduced with among other things, the relocation of the kids' museum to Hemet and the axing of the Downtown Wednesday Night and other events.
There are 44 items on the consent calendar. It will not be clear until the meeting how many items current councilman, Ed Adkison will have to disqualify himself and his company, Adkans Engineering from hearing due to conflict of interest.
On the discussion calendar, the crowing roosters will be hitching a ride on the choo choo trains on one of the three discussion items on the agenda.
The high rates of electricity seen on recent utility bills which was related to a multi-tiered increase approved by the city council last year will be addressed in another discussion item. Councilman Frank Schiavone is proposing that the increases are frozen and to send the troubling issue back to the Board of Public Utilities for further scrutiny.
If you have anything to say about it, here's the latest poll asking that question. It seems that the impact of rate increases shouldn't be all that surprising especially during the hot summer months but it will be very interesting to see how this episode plays out. With all the ongoing plotlines of this season of River City Watch, it's hard to keep track but Charter Communications provides the opportunity to catch up through reruns on Wednesdays at 4 pm and Saturdays at 9 am.
It's interesting going to different places like the grocery store, and city parks and see people who watch the city council meetings and thank those who go up to the dais and speak on the issues. A lot of people can't believe what they see on television in terms of the behavior on the dais and I think the recent elections reflect that mood.
But the utility situation promises to be an ongoing issue of consternation certainly outside the inner circles of City Hall.
Were July's bills "shocking", to use a bad pun, as was claimed in recent articles in the Press Enterprise? Yes, they were. Just pulling the bill out of the envelope caused many people some degree of shock and faintness that couldn't be solely blamed on the summer heat.
Press Enterprise Columnist Dan Bernstein in his latest column wrote that it didn't stop in Riverside. Banning has also been hit with high increases in its utility rates. In Banning's case, they were blamed on the new technology associated with meter reading but the reaction was just as shocking.
(excerpt)
It's a city-owned utility, just like Riverside's. It just raised residential rates by 15 percent (the first boost in 11 years). Instead of billing customers on the traditional 28-to-34-day cycle, Banning went Full Jack Benny: 39 days!
Customers like Sue Prosser kept using and using while the billing period went on and on until they were kicked into Tier 2, then up into the newly unveiled Tier 3 of the killer watt hour rate structure. The killer price: 32 cents per kilowatt-hour for use above 1,500 kilowatt-hours. (Riverside's top price: 24 cents above 1,200.)
If Oliver Stone lived in Banning Estates, he'd be grumbling, "Vast right-wing conspiracy." Wait. That was someone else.
But Bonnie Johnson, the finance chief, says nobody actually planned to stick it to an untold number of Banning's 10,000 residential customers.
The judges are here and they are already kicking the butts of both prosecutors and defense attorneys alike, according to the Press Enterprise.
The public defenders are used to getting their butts kicked by judges, most of whom are former prosecutors but the prosecutors appeared stunned at the news. Hopefully, their boss isn't sitting in his office preparing a list of documents to file papering the 12 judges on the strike team who look at them wrong.
(except)
During the course of the morning Wesley took prosecution and defense attorneys to task for lack of preparedness, or for tactics that he thought could delay cases.
Deputy Public Defender Addison Steele had to start a four-week family medical leave last week, Wesley was told Monday by Karen Hasler, a supervisor for the public defender's office.
Wesley said the public defender's office had not properly filed the motion to continue one of Steele's cases, in which defendant Robbie Catchings is charged in a 2002 murder.
"If you would be so kind as to inform your office that if a (continuance motion) is not filed within 48 hours, I will consider sanctions," Wesley said. "That goes for both sides."
Prosecutors on Monday sought to remove Steele from the Catchings case and others, citing in part Steele's involvement in at least five of the strike force cases.
Steele represented Catchings when a mistrial was declared in December of 2005 after jurors deadlocked, 10-2 for acquittal.
Wesley noted that some private defense attorneys are involved in eight or nine strike-force cases, but were not the subject of a prosecution removal motion.
"Can you explain why you have chosen to file against the public defender's office, and not the private lawyers, if you can?" Wesley asked Deputy District Attorney Amy Glaudini. She couldn't.
Motion denied. Oh, the shock waves which must have rung the courthouse like a bell. The next several months should be very interesting indeed. But until those parties involved in the criminal justice system stop squabbling and start working on the problems which beset it together, the strike force team of judges no matter how impressive will only prove to be a band aid.
But in front of the courthouse this morning, lots and lots of chairs and a sign welcoming the jurors awaited those who were expected to pack the jury holding facility and later the courtrooms for jury selection which will be conducted in numerous backlogged trials beginning today.
More big news in Boston, according to the Boston Herald, the scene of much recent intrigue.
(excerpt)
Over the past two weeks, Superintendent Dan Linskey, chief of patrol officers, has been checking on cops on private details to ensure that they are on post, well dressed and not idling in air-conditioned cars, smoking in the street or having prolonged cell phone calls.
“I don’t like them sitting in the cars. I don’t like when they are staring into a hole. I don’t like long cell phone conversations on the street. And appearance is very important to me,” Linskey said. Any cop found not doing the job properly is reprimanded and asked not to turn in the $37-an-hour detail card for payment, Linskey said.
The police union commented on the crackdown.
(excerpt)
BPD union officials welcomed the brass' current crackdown, but
noted that shift supervisors are paid to do the job of checking on
details cops and command staff members should be writing policy, not
checking for minor infractions.
"I'm certain that the bureau chief will find that 99.9 percent of
the officers are doing the job, serving the public and in total
compliance of rules and regulations, " said Boston Police Patrolmen's
Association President Tom Nee.
There's a bit of a discussion taking place at Craigslist of whether the ongoing deletion of posts there that contain links and/or information to this site should continue or not. Apparently, some of the individuals visiting that site are unhappy with this one and don't want individuals reading Craigslist to read it so the posts get deleted usually within several hours of being posted.
Some blame City Hall but it could be anyone in the internet or more than one individual. At any rate, it's an interesting discussion to follow and it's not like I haven't been harassed and threatened on this site simply for having it or perhaps for even existing at all, let alone living in Riverside. Even my poor mother has been insulted. Then again, I had a faux me sending me harassing emails last month, with one of them originating from an IP address registered by the city.
This is a strange city some days. Most days in fact.
One popular critic there who appears most upset when I write anything critical of issues pertaining to Ward One did post something that stated that he or she was upset about the removals from Craigslist because he or she believed the more information all around that people had access to, the better informed that person could be. I agree with this person's point, which is one reason I'm into posting links to other sites including news sources on my own site's entries.
Labels: CPRC, Global Warning Alert, Making the grade, public forums in all places
posted by Five Before Midnight | 12:02 PM
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