GRAND JURY COMPLAINT AGAINST RPU (CLICK THIS LINK TO VIEW DOCUMENT)
Audited financial statements for fiscal year 2014 indicate Riverside Public Utility’s (RPU) water reserves balance at $86,181,000.00, far exceeding the maximum of 100% of annual operating revenues set forth in RPU’s June 26, 2001, Fiscal Policy. Statements for fiscal year 2014 also indicate an electric reserves balance of $210,929,000.00, again far exceeding the targeted reserve level set forth in the August 26, 2003, City Council Memorandum.
The issue of excess reserves has been raised by multiple members of the public at both Public Utility Board and City Council meetings during public comment since the Fall of 2014. Neither the Board of Public Utilities nor the City Council have taken action to comply with the City’s reserve policies. The existence of excess reserves indicate that the City, through its Public Utilities Department, has substantially overcharged its ratepayers for both water and electric services in violation of Propositions 218 and 26.
The Grand Jury is being asked to investigate alleged violations within the reserve policies and instruct the City of Riverside to issue refund checks to all rate payers, for excess utility reserves.
What residents must remember is that RPU, the Board of Public Utilities, and the City Council do not serve the bests interests of the ratepayers, but that of the City of Riverside. The inherent conflict in the current situation demands the creation of an Office of Ratepayer Advocacy. Further, RPU’s own reserve policy states these monies are to be used for contingencies, not planned infrastructure.
At the last Council meeting, the City attempted to utilize a slight of hand maneuver for over-collected reserves by stating that they will use reserves for $50 million in necessary infrastructure until a bond can be issue at a later date. The fine print is that they have the option never to issue that bond. We believe this was done to purposely decrease the amount of reserves, therefore leaving less monies available for reimbursements and lower rates.
05-19-2015 REIMBURSEMENT RESOLUTION (CLICK TO VIEW FULL DOCUMENT)
As a result of the information disseminated to residents on the reserves, the City’s spokesperson, Phil Pitchford, issued the following City press release in order to attempt to mitigate damage.
2015- CITY OF RIVERSIDE PROPAGANDA ON PUBLIC UTILITIES RESERVES (CLICK TO VIEW)
In an act of desperation, it appears that the City of Riverside was allowed to set up an account on a neighborhood website in order to disseminate their propaganda piece. Is Big Brother present? We had been led to believe the Nextdoor.com site was only for residents, not a marketing site. Is the City borrowing from the NSA (National Security Agency) and utilizing this neighborhood site as a monitoring vehicle to gather information on individuals?
CLICK TO ENLARGE
TMC, RATED RIVERSIDE’S MOST, “VISIONS OF GRANDEUR,” “FULL OF B.S.,” “IGNORANT,” “MISGUIDED,” “BULLYISH,” “FILTHY,” “SICK,” “PERVERTED,” “STUPID,” “PATHETIC,” “DESPICABLE,” “DISAPPOINTING,” “BELOW THE BELT,” “A NEW LOW,” “SHOCKING,” “OFFENSIVE,” “INAPPROPRIATE,” “HURTFUL,” “MEAN SPIRITED,” “DISTASTEFUL,” “EMBARRASSING,” HORIFFIC,” “SLANDEROUS” AND MEZZSPELLED, “MISSPELLED” AND “OPINIONATED” BLOG SITE! TEMPORARILY BLOCKED BY THE CITY OF RIVERSIDE AT PUBLIC ACCESS SITES WITHIN THE CITY, THEN UNBLOCKED. I GUESS YOU CANNOT DO THAT ACCORDING TO THE ACLU. RATED ONE TWO ONE STAR OUT OF FIVE IN TERMS OF COMMUNITY APPROVAL RATINGS.. TMC IS NOW EXCLUSIVLY EXCLUSIVELY ON FILE WITH THE COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE’S DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE (WE BELIEVE THIS WILL END SOON, SINCE THE FOCUS IS NOW ON THE IMPROPRIETIES OF MR. “Z”. WE TRIED TO TELL YOU, BUT NOBODY LISTENED), AND DON’T FORGET WE ARE PROSSIBLY POSSIBLY ON FILE WITH THE CITY OF RIVERSIDE’S POTENTIAL SLAPP SUIT LIST… A STRATEGIC LEGAL MANEUVER THAT CAN BE DONE ONLY IN RIVERSIDE WITHOUT A CONTRACT… AGAIN, THANK YOU COMMUNITY OF RIVERSIDE AND THE CITY OF RIVERSIDE EMPLOYEE’S FOR YOUR SUPPORT! COMMENTS ALWAYS WELCOMED, ESPECIALLY SPELL CHECKERS! WE JUST CAN’T SPELL! EMAIL ANONYMOUSLY WITH YOUR DIRT BY CONTACTING US AT: THIRTYMILESCORRUPTION@HOTMAIL.COM
jehunter51
TMC: Thirty Miles of Corruption 
[…] Source: CITY OF RIVERSIDE: GRAND JURY COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST RIVERSIDE PUBLIC UTILITIES. | TMC: Thirty Mile… […]
Go get ’em Vivian!
By the way, everyone please cast your vote in the City Council election. This is an important election.
Go Vivian!!!
thank you Vivian I was shocked how the rates increased even if you did not use that amount but it was said to be caused by the weather. Example if you left your home and did not use the utilities you still got the increase cost. Weird to see so many ads if to help cover the reported cost that was taken. Now it does make since why the city would need the money with so much free spending to legal firms, settling lawsuits and that 40% raise given employees. The over the top salaries make that of the Vice President of the United States. This spending and over the top salaries are looking just like Bell.
The only city in California on the top ten for corruption is LA if we try harder we can make riverside #1 come on folks take our city back Vivian and others cannot do it all
[…] CITY OF RIVERSIDE: GRAND JURY COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST RIVERSIDE PUBLIC UTILITIES. […]
I started working for this organization on a temporary assignment through Appleone on May 7, 2016. I had no idea that there has been a complaint filed against them through the grand jury. They put me in charge of reconciling their accounts receivable sub-ledgers (enQuesta system) against their general ledger (IFAS system). I noticed that their refund reconciliation report did not have beginning balances and wondered how they were able to clear their trial balance reports. They would do journal entries to zero out accounts and when you ask them for back ups of those journal, they would tell you that they do not exist. They opened up a sub ledger account in enQuesta called, “unidentified payments” to balanced against checks being issued in IFAS. They are also not reporting all the charges they are billing their customers. I noticed this when I was asked to compare revenues of prior year’s (because budgets are supposed to be based on prior year’s actuals) against current year’s revenues, and there was a huge difference. I had also applied for their Senior Accounting Technician before I even started the work with them. My assignment was abruptly ended July 25, 2016 because I have been noticing mistakes that I have brought up with my CPA supervisor, Brian S. I was also told that they went with another candidate for the Senior Accounting Technician. Tina L. of Appleone tells me that she received a feedback from this employer that I am not a strong enough of a candidate. Then why do City of Riverside Public Utilities hired a Senior Utilities Analyst that does not know how to analyze Financials faster through the use of a Pivot tables on Excel. Get rid of these incompetent and lazy employees, not me who is doing the real work for our citizens.
[…] To explain a bit about the RPU Reserves…back in 2015 RPY was the focus of a Grand Jury Complaint, for just that, the exce…. […]
[…] CITY OF RIVERSIDE: R… on CITY OF RIVERSIDE: GRAND JURY… […]