Another heat wave coming

A battle is brewing over the fate of the Fox Plaza project in downtown Riverside. Both the Cultural Heritage Board and Planning Commission have been asked to hold off on any voting until there's an adequate time for public participation on the project. Wonder what City Hall especially those who reside on the seventh floor will have to say about this? I guess we'll find out soon enough as the next exciting chapter unfolds with yet another Riverside Renaissance project.

For the few of you, who can still be shocked by what's unfolding, be shocked. For everyone else? It's business as usual.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



Members of the Cultural Heritage Board on Wednesday and members of the Planning Commission on Thursday said it was premature for them to vote on the rest of the project.

The city is accepting public comments on the project's draft environmental impact report until May 2, and one of the matters each panel must decide is whether to recommend the City Council certify the final environmental impact report.

The report analyzes impacts -- including traffic, noise, air pollution and the demolition of historic resources -- that Fox Plaza would trigger and it discusses ways to lessen the impacts when possible.

Cultural Heritage Board member Ralph Megna said Wednesday that in his 30 years in the development field he had never heard of voting on an environmental impact report before the public review and comment period had ended.

"I think it's appalling that we're being asked to make a decision," he said. "What does this say to the public about how the city treats their views?"



It simply says that the city doesn't value the public's input. In the past two years, even earlier back in the day of the GASS quartet, the city's been much less interested in public input when addressing and deliberating on issues that impact the lives of the city's residents. It's not difficult to forget the public exists when you're more interested in development firms who donate money into a politician's campaign or when councilmen joke or lament about developers beating a path to their door while their "allies" or constituents stay away.

I also hope that Megna's not up for reappointment soon either, because if so, he might not be invited back and there might be more discussion at the Mayor's Nomination and Screening Committee about how these boards are "special" and need just the "right" commissioner to be on them much like the discussion that took place not long ago when this committee was grappling about making a Ward Four appointment on the Board of Library Trustees. It's not clear from the city's Web site here whether that post has been filled yet.

It would behoove elected officials including those speaking through politically placed phone recordings that most of us Riverside residents have been treated to the past several weeks courtesy of the election involving a Board of Supervisor seat, if they just addressed the perception that is strong among the public and back the decisions by both boards not to vote on the report until there's plenty of opportunity for public comment.

I've had some interesting conversations with people who watched the city council meeting this past week on television and have commented on the treatment that several of the city council members including Ward Seven Councilman Steve Adams' treatment of people who live in his ward who disagree with his actions. Not too many people were shocked to read that allegedly he treated an officer in the Riverside Police Department the same way according to a claim filed by two lieutenants in that department alleging that they experienced discrimination in the promotional process due to their political activism in relation to the Riverside Police Administrators' Association.


Speaking of which, what officer was allegedly told to distance himself from both Lt. Darryl Hurt and Lt. Tim Bacon if he wanted to be promoted? That's not been said in the news article. What was said is that the claim will be discussed by the city council's closed session this week. By the city council with two of its members the subject of allegations in the claim. If this claim becomes a lawsuit and makes it to a courtroom, it should be an interesting process.


Another closed session item addresses the city's property negotiations with the Press Enterprise.



The Riverside Unified School District's superintendent is retiring. That announcement was made at a recent meeting.




Speaking of that school district, the discussion about the closure of Grant Elementary School is still happening here. You know it's interesting how City Hall prides itself in planning for the future in terms of keeping its housing development projects including downtown moving forward even as the housing market has tanked. Its argument is that in a couple of years, housing prices will come out of the cellar and there will be a big demand for homes as more and more people move to Riverside. Yet there's no similar vision in play in terms of planning where the children who live in the families who will be moving in several years into the new housing downtown are going to be attending school because one of the elementary schools downtown is facing closure.



In the midst of a budget crisis, Redlands has given its city manager a $22,000 raise in salary. This comes in the wake of the Hemet city government paying a huge sum to an outgoing city manager, a departure shrouded in secrecy.

That decision is is being criticized by the Press Enterprise Editorial Board.



(excerpt)


Redlands approved its first balanced budget in six years in June, imposing a hiring freeze and cutting funding for police, fire protection and public works. And city officials even then predicted an additional $7.2 million in deficit spending over the next three years without more cuts or new revenue.

Just last month the council made an additional $622,000 in spending cuts because sales tax revenue was falling $2 million below previous city projections. The cuts would have been larger had voters not approved raising a city tax on warehouses in November.

Granted, an extra $22,000 will not bankrupt the city government, which has a general fund budget of about $58 million this year. But a 10.3 percent raise runs far beyond what most private-sector workers can expect anytime soon, if ever.

The raise invites a public perception of the council playing favorites during a fiscal crisis. The council can argue that impression is wrong, but why create it in the first place?




Meanwhile in Temecula, the mayor there is trying to promote a more positive spirit on the dais as that city prepares to address the budget crisis. With some of the bad press that Temecula's been getting lately, a bit more positive spirit might not be enough.






The man killed by Fresno Police Department officers was trying to commit suicide according to representatives from that law enforcement agency.


(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)


Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said investigators strongly believe Jesus "Jesse" Carrizales sought out the violent confrontation that led to his death Wednesday , and called the incident "a case of suicide by cop."

Dyer said there were no prior run-ins between the Roosevelt High School sophomore and Officer Junus Perry, who had been assigned to the school by the Police Department for the last three years.

But Dyer said officers had cited the teen three years ago for concealing a butcher knife in his backpack while he was in middle school. Investigators also suspect a 9-inch knife found outside the office building where Carrizales fell to the ground belonged to him.

"It is unfortunate that the officer was put in a position where he had to take a student's life," Dyer told reporters today. "Had he not defended himself, there could have been further tragedy."


Carrizales was shot after he allegedly struck an officer from behind with a baseball bat.






A sheriff in Oklahoma is using jail inmates as his personal sex slaves.


(excerpt, Associated Press)


Custer County Sheriff Mike Burgess resigned Wednesday just as state prosecutors filed 35 felony charges against him, including 14 counts of second-degree rape, seven counts of forcible oral sodomy and five counts of bribery by a public official.

Burgess, the top officer in the county of 26,000 since 1994, appeared in court Wednesday was released after posting $50,000 bail.

"We are stunned," Undersheriff Kenneth Tidwell said Thursday.






An New York City Police Department officer who was recently arrested for robbing several banks had help on the inside, according to the New York Daily News.



(excerpt)



Christina Dasrath told the disgraced transit cop about Sovereign Bank's "lax" security then feigned fear when Christian Torres twice held up the Avenue A branch where she was a teller, authorities said.

Torres, 21, allegedly gave Dasrath a cut of the more than $118,000 he stole during two robberies last year.

Dasrath, 20, of the Bronx, wept during an appearance at Manhattan Federal Court on Thursday where she was charged with conspiring to commit bank fraud, bank robbery and making false statements to FBI agents.



Meanwhile Torres' girlfriend is keeping quiet about plans to marry him. Her engagement ring was purchased with funds stolen during the bank robberies.