It's not monster trucks; it's the battle of the parking meters!
"Chamber monkeys"
"Urban idots"
---names given to Colton Chamber of Commerce members by Colton City Manager Daryl Parrish and his assistant in emails. They apologized but the chamber is not pleased.
I wasn't an optimist when I've written here that the state deficit might be more than $14 billion. Well, the latest news is that it stands at $16 billion. We all stand corrected.
The Riverside Police Department has been audited and its results were presented at city council on Tuesday night, and the department did fairly well, coming some distance from the problems that it experienced after the dissolution of the stipulated judgment in 2006 which were stated in its first audit. There was a higher rate of nearly 20% of shifts where a sergeant was assigned as watch commanders which will have to be watched carefully to ensure that it doesn't increase. There were increases and improvements in the area of critical thinking by employees at the management level and other areas remained necessary to keep an eye on.
The audit was well attended by the department's command staff and elected officials. Not so well attended by officers outside of management and even more poorly attended by community members including community leaders. It wasn't well publicized that this audit and report were taking place at the city council meeting as the item was listed as item #9a which means it was a later addition. In the day after, people said they didn't know it had taken place.
Police Chief Russ Leach also provided an update on the strategic plan at the California Baptist University.
(excerpt, Press Enterprise)
We can always do a better job," Leach told the crowd of 75 at California Baptist University on Wednesday night.
He said crime reports were down, complaints were down and arrests were up in the city for 2007.
The chief told the residents, community leaders and police employees that it was time to "tune up" the plan that was approved in 2004 as a requirement to help the agency move out of a five-year period of state oversight, from 2001 to 2006.
The plan lays out broad goals for the department through 2009 including ensuring accountability, working with residents to reduce crime, and improving training.
The forum Wednesday was the first for several meetings he plans to have throughout the city for public contribution.
Various police leaders highlighted services, new equipment and programs. Residents asked questions about such programs as mental health training and red-light cameras.
It would have been nice to see elected representatives make appearances but all of them were no shows. Councilman Steve Adams' legislative aide, Frank Arreola did show up. Also missing were members of the city's commissions except for a representative from the Mayor's Commission on Aging and John Brandriff, who serves on the Community Police Review Commission.
There were many questions, mostly about the programs such as neighborhood watch, but some interesting questions did come up about the department's new mental health training and its impact on how the department's officers will interface with the mentally ill. Leach and Capt. Mike Blakely described the program but its ultimate impact will only be seen in the days, weeks and years ahead as with any program. Almost half of the officers in the patrol division have completed it and the entire department is expected to complete it by the end of this year. Employees in other city departments including code compliance are taking it as well.
Interestingly enough, several national experts in the field of mental health crisis intervention training contacted me in the past several weeks out of the blue. I had contacted them for more information about a year or so ago when the department was struggling a bit with defining its mission in this area in terms of exactly which way it wanted to go and I guess they were catching up. They asked for updates on what was going on and I wrote them back. They seemed very pleased with what's happened so far. However, it's not clear what direction the department plans to go with its mobile team. So far, it appears to resemble a co-partner model that is used in some cities and counties.
I spoke with one officer last night who had gone through the program himself and he said that it was important to keep pushing for it to continue. Hopefully, it's a program that will sell itself but it's like that with a lot of things in this city that actually make sense. They need to be pushed and pushed and then pushed some more.
One of the new female officers hired by the department is currently #1 in her academy class, according to the department's personnel division.
Should the city help the Community Police Review Commission?
This is the latest question at the Press Enterprise Web site. Results are here.
Is the city helping the CPRC? For that answer, you can read here.
MacKay vs Luke
Take that, Indio! That other Riverside County city might have an actual annual festival celebrating a fruit and a monster truck rally but Riverside has gone one better, a battle between two parking meters. It's like American Idol, without the talent competition.
And a new title can be proclaimed by the city government which will be "City of the Parking Meter" with the celebration of such dramas including the renowned play, Our Parking Meter , a narration about a multi-generational family's experiences with parking meters swept over a span of several generations. There can be an annual festival where a giant parking meter can be erected like a May pole and then people can dance around it with streamers.
And the best event yet, an annual festival titled the "Lighting of the Parking Meters" attended by a list of who's whos in this town complete with fireworks, kettlecorn popcorn and glow-in-the-dark sticks.
You and Columnist Dan Bernstein get to decide which meter prevails. We'll all get to pay for the end result of the latest poll to hit Riverside in an attempt to address the crisis involving SmartPark and what should replace this disaster of a system.
Bernstein takes a crack at it.
(excerpt)
Luke doesn't resemble the PAY HERE box, but it works like one, servicing multitudes of parking spaces. Motorists would have to realize they had entered a paid-parking zone, find and memorize their parking-place number and locate and pay Luke with a currency he wouldn't regurgitate.
A city survey accompanying these auditions offers a third choice: No downtown parking meters. I don't know if I'd go that far, especially if Luke or MacKay could eventually pay for a new parking structure.
I could, however, envision free fringe parking for people willing to stroll a few blocks into the heart of downtown. I could see small islands of free (two-hour, strictly enforced, very steep fines) parking around the library and other well-trafficked public buildings.
And if I had to choose a meter, I'd go with the uncomplicated MacKay -- and insist the city install convenient change machines to keep customers in quarters. I know Luke's got more pizzazz, but if it wouldn't accept the city's money, why would it take mine?
More information on the battle over the parking meters including locations and dates when to cast a vote. As far as publicity stunts go, this one's at least interesting, but will it settle the parking controversy? That chapter of this ongoing saga is yet to be written.
If you're concerned about the situation involving DHL and Polar Express flights, there's going to be a community meeting with DHL on Saturday, March 29, 2008, from 9 am to 12 noon at the Grove Community Church Worship Center, 19900 Grove Community Drive, Riverside, CA 92508.
DHL wants to add 747s flying for Polar Express at 3 a.m. adding to the lovely din of jet noise over a huge of chunk of Riverside real estate. Here's an opportunity for city residents including those living in the impacted areas to say something about it. It's a good bet there will be elected representatives at this meeting.
The Colton councilman convicted of the misappropriation of public funds has filed for bankruptcy.
More problems in Colton as the city manager and his assistant made unflattering comments about Chamber of Commerce members in some emails that were sent, according to the Press Enterprise.
(excerpt)
City Manager Daryl Parrish and Assistant City Manager Mark Nuaimi apologized at a Feb. 5 City Council meeting for disparaging remarks that included calling people "chamber monkeys" and "urban idiots."
Colton Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Eufemia Reyes said she has sought legal counsel.
"We are currently weighing legal options and have been advised not to discuss anything about the issue due to potential litigation," Reyes said.
The remarks surfaced through a public records request made by Gary Grossich, a member of the watchdog group Citizens for Colton First. The group is leading a recall effort against Mayor Kelly Chastain.
"I apologized for the comments in the e-mail," Parrish said. "It was unprofessional, and I'm sorry for the incident."
It will be interesting to see how this develops. As someone who had an email account taken out in my name which was similar to my own and then had a creepy and harassing email sent to me that traced back to the City of Riverside's ISP registered to a contact address for City Hall, I can understand how strange and unsettling to say the least such a thing can be.
Los Angeles Times columnist Dana Parsons writes about the saga involving former Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona here.
A female officer who is a lesbian will have her day in court after filing a law suit alleging that the Los Angeles Police Department officers harassed her because of her sexual orientation.
The U.S. Justice Department will investigate allegations that a woman was beaten by an officer in an interrogation room and then captured by videotape lying in a pool of blood on the floor. The incident is also being investigated by the involved law enforcement agency, which stated that what happened is she took a spill.
"Urban idots"
---names given to Colton Chamber of Commerce members by Colton City Manager Daryl Parrish and his assistant in emails. They apologized but the chamber is not pleased.
I wasn't an optimist when I've written here that the state deficit might be more than $14 billion. Well, the latest news is that it stands at $16 billion. We all stand corrected.
The Riverside Police Department has been audited and its results were presented at city council on Tuesday night, and the department did fairly well, coming some distance from the problems that it experienced after the dissolution of the stipulated judgment in 2006 which were stated in its first audit. There was a higher rate of nearly 20% of shifts where a sergeant was assigned as watch commanders which will have to be watched carefully to ensure that it doesn't increase. There were increases and improvements in the area of critical thinking by employees at the management level and other areas remained necessary to keep an eye on.
The audit was well attended by the department's command staff and elected officials. Not so well attended by officers outside of management and even more poorly attended by community members including community leaders. It wasn't well publicized that this audit and report were taking place at the city council meeting as the item was listed as item #9a which means it was a later addition. In the day after, people said they didn't know it had taken place.
Police Chief Russ Leach also provided an update on the strategic plan at the California Baptist University.
(excerpt, Press Enterprise)
We can always do a better job," Leach told the crowd of 75 at California Baptist University on Wednesday night.
He said crime reports were down, complaints were down and arrests were up in the city for 2007.
The chief told the residents, community leaders and police employees that it was time to "tune up" the plan that was approved in 2004 as a requirement to help the agency move out of a five-year period of state oversight, from 2001 to 2006.
The plan lays out broad goals for the department through 2009 including ensuring accountability, working with residents to reduce crime, and improving training.
The forum Wednesday was the first for several meetings he plans to have throughout the city for public contribution.
Various police leaders highlighted services, new equipment and programs. Residents asked questions about such programs as mental health training and red-light cameras.
It would have been nice to see elected representatives make appearances but all of them were no shows. Councilman Steve Adams' legislative aide, Frank Arreola did show up. Also missing were members of the city's commissions except for a representative from the Mayor's Commission on Aging and John Brandriff, who serves on the Community Police Review Commission.
There were many questions, mostly about the programs such as neighborhood watch, but some interesting questions did come up about the department's new mental health training and its impact on how the department's officers will interface with the mentally ill. Leach and Capt. Mike Blakely described the program but its ultimate impact will only be seen in the days, weeks and years ahead as with any program. Almost half of the officers in the patrol division have completed it and the entire department is expected to complete it by the end of this year. Employees in other city departments including code compliance are taking it as well.
Interestingly enough, several national experts in the field of mental health crisis intervention training contacted me in the past several weeks out of the blue. I had contacted them for more information about a year or so ago when the department was struggling a bit with defining its mission in this area in terms of exactly which way it wanted to go and I guess they were catching up. They asked for updates on what was going on and I wrote them back. They seemed very pleased with what's happened so far. However, it's not clear what direction the department plans to go with its mobile team. So far, it appears to resemble a co-partner model that is used in some cities and counties.
I spoke with one officer last night who had gone through the program himself and he said that it was important to keep pushing for it to continue. Hopefully, it's a program that will sell itself but it's like that with a lot of things in this city that actually make sense. They need to be pushed and pushed and then pushed some more.
One of the new female officers hired by the department is currently #1 in her academy class, according to the department's personnel division.
Should the city help the Community Police Review Commission?
This is the latest question at the Press Enterprise Web site. Results are here.
Is the city helping the CPRC? For that answer, you can read here.
MacKay vs Luke
Take that, Indio! That other Riverside County city might have an actual annual festival celebrating a fruit and a monster truck rally but Riverside has gone one better, a battle between two parking meters. It's like American Idol, without the talent competition.
And a new title can be proclaimed by the city government which will be "City of the Parking Meter" with the celebration of such dramas including the renowned play, Our Parking Meter , a narration about a multi-generational family's experiences with parking meters swept over a span of several generations. There can be an annual festival where a giant parking meter can be erected like a May pole and then people can dance around it with streamers.
And the best event yet, an annual festival titled the "Lighting of the Parking Meters" attended by a list of who's whos in this town complete with fireworks, kettlecorn popcorn and glow-in-the-dark sticks.
You and Columnist Dan Bernstein get to decide which meter prevails. We'll all get to pay for the end result of the latest poll to hit Riverside in an attempt to address the crisis involving SmartPark and what should replace this disaster of a system.
Bernstein takes a crack at it.
(excerpt)
Luke doesn't resemble the PAY HERE box, but it works like one, servicing multitudes of parking spaces. Motorists would have to realize they had entered a paid-parking zone, find and memorize their parking-place number and locate and pay Luke with a currency he wouldn't regurgitate.
A city survey accompanying these auditions offers a third choice: No downtown parking meters. I don't know if I'd go that far, especially if Luke or MacKay could eventually pay for a new parking structure.
I could, however, envision free fringe parking for people willing to stroll a few blocks into the heart of downtown. I could see small islands of free (two-hour, strictly enforced, very steep fines) parking around the library and other well-trafficked public buildings.
And if I had to choose a meter, I'd go with the uncomplicated MacKay -- and insist the city install convenient change machines to keep customers in quarters. I know Luke's got more pizzazz, but if it wouldn't accept the city's money, why would it take mine?
More information on the battle over the parking meters including locations and dates when to cast a vote. As far as publicity stunts go, this one's at least interesting, but will it settle the parking controversy? That chapter of this ongoing saga is yet to be written.
If you're concerned about the situation involving DHL and Polar Express flights, there's going to be a community meeting with DHL on Saturday, March 29, 2008, from 9 am to 12 noon at the Grove Community Church Worship Center, 19900 Grove Community Drive, Riverside, CA 92508.
DHL wants to add 747s flying for Polar Express at 3 a.m. adding to the lovely din of jet noise over a huge of chunk of Riverside real estate. Here's an opportunity for city residents including those living in the impacted areas to say something about it. It's a good bet there will be elected representatives at this meeting.
The Colton councilman convicted of the misappropriation of public funds has filed for bankruptcy.
More problems in Colton as the city manager and his assistant made unflattering comments about Chamber of Commerce members in some emails that were sent, according to the Press Enterprise.
(excerpt)
City Manager Daryl Parrish and Assistant City Manager Mark Nuaimi apologized at a Feb. 5 City Council meeting for disparaging remarks that included calling people "chamber monkeys" and "urban idiots."
Colton Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Eufemia Reyes said she has sought legal counsel.
"We are currently weighing legal options and have been advised not to discuss anything about the issue due to potential litigation," Reyes said.
The remarks surfaced through a public records request made by Gary Grossich, a member of the watchdog group Citizens for Colton First. The group is leading a recall effort against Mayor Kelly Chastain.
"I apologized for the comments in the e-mail," Parrish said. "It was unprofessional, and I'm sorry for the incident."
It will be interesting to see how this develops. As someone who had an email account taken out in my name which was similar to my own and then had a creepy and harassing email sent to me that traced back to the City of Riverside's ISP registered to a contact address for City Hall, I can understand how strange and unsettling to say the least such a thing can be.
Los Angeles Times columnist Dana Parsons writes about the saga involving former Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona here.
A female officer who is a lesbian will have her day in court after filing a law suit alleging that the Los Angeles Police Department officers harassed her because of her sexual orientation.
The U.S. Justice Department will investigate allegations that a woman was beaten by an officer in an interrogation room and then captured by videotape lying in a pool of blood on the floor. The incident is also being investigated by the involved law enforcement agency, which stated that what happened is she took a spill.
Labels: City Hall 101, corruption 101, public forums in all places, Video police review
posted by Five Before Midnight | 11:15 PM
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