Is the City of Riverside going broke and related concerns?

A lively discussion apparently took place at the Group meeting this morning at the Coffee Depot in Riverside that people won't stop talking about. Two commissioners representing the Community Police Review Commission, with the chair, Brian Pearcy apparently nixing the new PowerPoint presentation on the ins and outs of the CPRC and doing almost all the talking, leaving Outreach Chair Chani Beeman out in the cold. That bothered individuals who attended but it brings up the issue of who is exactly supposed to present, the chair of the subcommittee which is centered on outreach or the chair of the commission who is by procedure, a ex officio member of that committee? And shouldn't there instead be a joint effort by both commissioners to present to a group on outreach if both are in attendance?

Some of the pique raised from different people is that Pearcy spent most of his time telling an apparently packed room what the CPRC could not do rather than what it could do. Was this because there were people from the Riverside Police Officers' Association who also are members of the Group? Or did direction to cut the new PowerPoint presentation on the CPRC come from the seventh floor, the same one that's been pulling the strings of the CPRC for several years now? It's no secret that the commission's being watered down to the point of being what's amounting to a public relations tool to serve as a buffer between the communities and the police department. Including the communities who have become estranged from the increasingly politicized panel to the point where they don't engage in it at all.

At any rate, pandering to your audience is a bit condescending to both to the community that the CPRC takes for granted and to the critics that it worries about pleasing.

There were also apparently issues raised about cuts in the police department's budget which along with that of the fire department makes up over half of the city's general fund. Still, with neighborhood academies, citizen academies and anything that seems to have anything to do with community policing being cut (including the consolidation of the Office of Community Programs into being even further under the umbrella of the Special Operations Division) as part of the annual budget process, there does seem to be a vacuum developing in one area of the department which is truly unfortunate.

What has been people's reaction to the temporary elimination of the citizen academy? My God, I had no idea the city was so broke! I had no idea the city had no money or was in such financial trouble! And my personal favorite, is asking if the city is removing trees not to relocate them but to sell them for some extra cash?

It has sparked some questioning of exactly what the city's financial picture is even as city officials boast in public about how much better Riverside is in terms of its reserve finances when compared to surrounding cities. But if everyone's facing bad news, it doesn't mean as much if what you're facing is slightly less dire than what's around you. We're doing great, look at us when we tell you that. Just don't look at what our hands are doing because they're snipping this and that program out of the annual budget.

How on earth can the city move forward with these Riverside Renaissance projects when it's obviously got no money, pretty much like the emperor in a popular fairytale had no clothes. And in that case, it took a child to point that out. But if it's true that the origins of the budget funding of one of its capital projects like the Lincoln Field Operations Station may not exactly have come completely where the public was told it was coming from , don't worry about it because there's this surplus in a sea of deficit from one end of the state to the other because of what's being cut up in Sacramento.

So what about the police department? Is it true that its budget can be higher yet it's still making cuts? Yes, that can be true and that's not based on "new math". If it freezes hiring, cuts over-time that's used to overcome any resultant staffing shortages, for example.

With positions frozen (except for apparently a very much rumored "emergency" hiring in the police department which hopefully is just an urban legend given the city's somewhat deplorable history with such "emergency" hirings) and overtime expenses being slashed (hence the cancellation of the citizen academy until further notice), personnel expenses are being impacted as well, but you know what, one of our very own city council members assured us in brochures and campaign statements that nothing like this would happen on his watch. That the city's vital services as they were called would be unimpacted.

Councilman Frank Schiavone stated in a campaign brochure, the one where he's seen in a photograph with Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, that as a "member" of the Finance Committee along with his business experience, he created a record $16 million surplus in two years with no cuts to vital city services (italics, his). So if that's true, why is the city currently taking the equivalent of a chain saw to its annual budget? And what exactly is the police department's budget in terms of the itemization of both its budget and its proposed expenditures?

Is it experiencing the surplus or the deficit?

Now, it's not to say that Schiavone as a member of both the Finance Committee and the city council didn't play a sizable role in this remarkable surplus, but in any other year, elected officials stress how it's teamwork that brings about what needs to be done and needs to be spent, whereas during election years, these same accomplishments or tasks carried out are always portrayed as the actions of a single individual and that's usually the one who's running for office. Unfortunately, the campaign brochure by Schiavone doesn't illuminate the importance of how a group functions rather than an individual member as well as it could or should have. Doing so would have been a selling point for an election, as well. But it's very rare when people running for office and trying to sell themselves actually see it that way.

Because if it's true and there's the equivalent of a chain saw being taken to the department's personnel costs, then who's responsible and doesn't that which is responsible include those currently in charge of the city's annual financial budget? And what might that be? The elected city government, that's what!

But guess what? Schiavone is being endorsed and financed during his bid for county supervisor by police and fire fighters' unions including those which represent Riverside's own employees. In fact, as he states, he's the only candidate who's being endorsed by these associations because as he states, of his proven commitment to providing resource to help protect you. So if that's the case then, the police and fire departments should be just fine because if they weren't, Schiavone would be on the case and it's not like he would need other city council members to be on it as well because as he stated on his latest campaign brochure, apparently he was the one who brought on the surplus because of the "business experience" he brought as a member of the Finance Committee, which was incidentally chaired by former councilman, Art Gage. If he weren't "on the case" then those endorsing him would be on his case.

So what's the worries? If Schiavone is bringing about such a huge surplus and saying at meetings that Riverside is in much better shape than other cities in the Inland Empire, yet police and fire department budgets are being slashed as is alleged, what is wrong with this picture? And why on earth if you believe your budget is being cut to ribbons and services might be impacted by this city, is so much money and time being spent backing a candidate who's part of that power structure? Who apparently doesn't need support or even assistance or elbow grease from others on the dais to bring about a surplus or funding to public safety. After all, if he can bring about a surplus through his work on one of the city's committee without apparently any assistance, then why can't he fix the budget problems allegedly impacting the city's public safety departments by himself?

Because is there a huge surplus or is the city in the red, and considering that the citizen academy has been benched, which one would you think is closer to the truth? Is the city solvent, a shining example of fiscal responsibility in a world of budget cuts, hiring freezes and sliced and diced programs? Is it simply another example of a city faced with those same issues but just marketing them as a time of plenty during a time of famine?

If people are throwing money at candidates during elections who have said that they pretty much single-handedly saved the budget in committee, created a sizable surplus out of a deficit and did so without negatively impacting city services which presumably according to Schiavone, is public safety, then we'd still have a citizen academy in operation, don't you think? Which of course isn't the case.


Somebody did apparently address the issue of the CPRC having its own independent counsel, a discussion which usually gives current City Attorney Gregory Priamos such hives that on one occasion, he nixed this issue as an agenda item for discussion at a CPRC meeting last summer, claiming it wasn't "germane". City Manager Brad Hudson's response to this issue is either one of the following.


1) Yes, I support the CPRC having its own attorney (as reported by community leaders who attended a meeting with him in January 2007)

2) No, the CPRC doesn't need its own attorney because the Planning Commission doesn't have one (in response to my inquiry on this issue at a Public Safety Committee meeting in April 2007).


So which is it?


Someone reported that one council member in attendance did not know that one of the CPRC commissioners, Linda Soubirous, was endorsing Schiavone for the supervisor election. When she was appointed, only Gage apparently knew that in the past, she had accepted endorsements and contributions from law enforcement labor unions including the RPOA when she herself ran for supervisor against incumbent Bob Buster four years ago.




A man injured in an officer-involved shooting last year in Riverside was convicted of brandishing a pellet gun in a threatening manner. Dominique Dewann Thompson was shot at the University Village by Officer Paul Stucker who fired at him after seeing him brandish the gun, according to the police department. Bullets also hit a bystander and a passing vehicle by the Denny's restaurant.



The city council's resuming its meetings next week and included on the consent calendar for the Redevelopment Agency's meeting is the displacement and relocation of Eastside families who will be impacted by a street widening project on Fourteenth Street.




If you've been paying attention with what's been going on at the Canyon Crest Town Center, you will notice that even as it's undergone renovation, businesses are being forced out by the economy, increased technology used by young people and higher rents.

The latest casualty and one of the saddest surely is the sale of Imagine That!, a book store for kids and teens that has been a fixture in the mall for 30 years. It's expected to be gone by this summer and there's no way that anyone should consider this "progress" in our city. Not too long ago, the store which had occupied two units in the mall for years was reduced down to one. By the end of the summer, it's expected to be down to zero.



You know that cement plant that's been spewing out toxic chemicals in the air? Not surprisingly, it will probably be the focus of a class-action lawsuit. The litigation began on Wednesday with the filing of a lawsuit alleging that the plant made people in the surrounding area sick.



May Day in L.A. one year later.



The city that is looking more and more as if it's going broke will still be conducting a massive cleanup of graffiti this year.





Students from UCR congregated at Burger King on May Day in support of a national boycott against that restaurant for not increasing the pay per pound of tomatoes picked by only one penny. About 40 people rallied at the restaurant located on University Avenue and urged that customers boycott it, adding that similar boycotts of McDonalds and Taco Bell had been successful at raising the prices paid to those who pick the tomatoes used by those companies.

Stopping by to check it out, was Sgt. Ron Whitt from the police department's Metro Team. Although out of business cards, he provided his contact information to activists and said that there would be no police involvement as long as there were no laws broken.

The marchers went to the Robert Presley Detention Center downtown where they held a candle light vigil to protest the raids by ICE and local law enforcement agencies. Speaking was Gilberto Esquival who's serving on the city's Human Relations Commission and his wife.

Strolling by the vigil, was Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco. No one really noticed.



Which horse here is the Kentucky Derby winner?

Study these and draw your own conclusions. If you don't know how to read the charts, just scroll down to "Big Brown" who's the current Kentucky Derby favorite. This is the information listed for him:

Big Brown

1)name
2) color, in his case bay or dark brown which is a brown horse with a black mane
3) age (which is 3 years old as of Jan. 1 the official birth date of all race horses)
4)birth month
5) Price purchased at yearling sale and in case, he's a bargain.
6)Sire, grand-sire and sire's stud fee
7)Dam, broodmare sire
8) Owner and trainer (along with the trainer's current statistics)
9) Career stats overall and money earned, stats for different surfaces including dirt, turf, mud and the current synthetic surfaces as well as distance racing (over one mile) and record at Churchill Downs if there is one.
10) Jockey (and jockey's current stats), Owner and color of silks worn by jockey


Performance stats (which is the information on the longer lines)

1) Date of race
2) Track
3) Track condition (fast, good, muddy, sloppy, firm, soft, yielding or heavy) A "t" with a circle means a turf race and a circle with an "x" in the middle means a turf race switched to the main dirt or synthetic track due to rain.
4) distance ran
5) race splits from start to various calls to final time and horses position plus number of body lengths behind the split leader
6)Name of race if it's a stake race or type of race (i.e. allowance or claiming)
7) Beyer speed rating, the higher the value the faster the horse in those conditions
8)Jockey
9) equipment and drugs taken(i.e. "b"= blinkers, "f" =front wraps "B" =Bute (a painkiller) or "L"= Lasix (a diuretic used for bleeding)
10) Betting value per dollar bet and if there's an "*", it means this horse was the betting favorite.
11) place at different calls and lengths behind leader if not in first place.
12)three leaders and lengths ahead with the one in bold font being the betting choice
13) number of horses in race and commentary on horse's performance
14)workouts with bulleted ones meaning the fastest of that day at that distance.



Together, it means that Big Brown is a bay colt purchased at a relatively low yearling sale price at Keenland's annual sale most likely because his sire's not proven particularly at classic distances. His sire and dam both retired early due to injuries. As shown by his Beyer figures, Big Brown is a fast horse as to achieve 100+ speed ratings so early in his running career suggests a lot of talent. His sire's sire, the late Danzig was a speedy if fragile horse who's one of the foundation sires of the latter 20th century.

His running style reflects his inexperience though he's undefeated (although untested) and his three victories have been at a combined margin of over 25 lengths.

He's got a lot going for him but several question marks as well. In all his races, he's been on the lead or close off it and considering that he's been assigned the most outside post position coming out of the chute, he'll have to show some versatility.