TMC: Thirty Miles of Corruption

It has been brought to the attention of TMC that there is an ongoing feud between Mayor Rusty Bailey and City Manager John Russo.  We took some excerpts from the last Budget Engagement Commission Meeting on February 1, 2018, depicting Mayor’s Chief of Staff Cheryl Hansberger airing the City of Riverside’s dirty laundry.  We can’t make this up; this is too good.

War by Proxy – Hansberger vs. Marysheva, Round 1: a study in openly vs. passively aggressive combat

We’d feel compassion for the Mayor, except he watched as member after member of the general public came to the podium over the years, under previous administrations, and turned a deaf ear to their similar complaints on missing/inaccurate information and bias within staff reports.  Why?  Because he was getting what he wanted.  The Mayor’s situational ethics leave him without high ground to stand upon, and in that way he continues to fail us now, as his legitimate concerns are ignored, and the public screwed again.

RIVERSIDE COUNCIL CONCEPTUALLY PASSES A UTILITY RATE

On January 18th, your Council voted to raise your electric rates 2.5% per annum for 5 years and water rates 5.5% per annum for five years beginning July 1, 2018.  The vote on the rate increase was 5 to 2, as 4 Councilmembers (Gardner, Soubirous, MacArthur, Perry) flipped their votes from a mere 7 weeks previous with no real justification offered for their change in attitude despite the EXACT SAME proposal being brought back by Riverside Public Utilities staff.

We at TMC have been taught to follow the bouncing ball and have noticed that just a few weeks ago your Riverside City Council passed 6 percent raises for union members of the Riverside Police Department, while simultaneously hinting at 4 percent across-the-board budget tightening forthcoming in the 2017-18 budget.  Riverside’s unfunded pension obligation stands at $600 million…and counting, and 19% of proposed rate increase will be transferred to the general fund to help pay for the above-mentioned unfunded pension obligation and salaries.  All Council flippers besides Soubirous (who ran unopposed in his re-election) are heavily financially supported by Riverside public employee unions.  Putting two plus two plus two together, we summarize that five Council members were lobbied hard by City staff so they could  continue to ride the gravy train, this time paid for by RPU ratepayers.  (We concede that TMC was never great at math.)

Fresh off a 5-year, $1.5+ million deal for City Attorney Gary Geuss, who carries on the tradition of former City Attorney Greg Priamos of providing legal cover for the City to rape its utility ratepayers, it now appears that City Manager John Russo wants his reward for covering up the Council’s past mistakes using our wallets, with a new 7-year contract with bells and whistles never-seen-before.

TOMORROW FEBRUARY 6TH CITY MANAGER JOHN RUSSO’S NEW CONTRACT IS UP FOR REVIEW BY CITY COUNCIL AT 2:00 PM, RIVERSIDE CITY HALL.  BE THERE OR BE SQUARE.  GRAB YOUR POPCORN!

TMC, RATED RIVERSIDE’S REGIONAL COUNTIES MOST, “NEGATIVE,” “RAUNCHY,” “LOW CLASS,” “VISIONS OF GRANDEUR,” “FULL OF B.S.,” “REPREHENSIBLE,” “IGNORANT,” “MISGUIDED,” “BULLYISH,” “FILTHY,” “VILE,” “SICK,” “PERVERTED,” “DEFAMATORY,” “STUPID,” “PATHETIC,” “DESPICABLE,” “DISAPPOINTING,” “BELOW THE BELT,” “A NEW LOW,” “SHOCKING,” “OFFENSIVE,” “OBNOXIOUS,” “INAPPROPRIATE,” “HURTFUL,” “MEAN SPIRITED,” “DISTASTEFUL,” “EMBARRASSING,” HORIFFIC,” “SLANDEROUS” “FIT TO BE VIEWED FROM THE REAR” AND MEZZSPELLED, “MISSPELLED” AND “OPINIONATED” BLOG SITE! YES WE ADMIT WE OUR ALL OF THAT AND MORE, WHICH IN CURRENT TERMS IS KNOWN AS “UNPOLITICALLY CORRECT.” 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.. … AGAIN, THANK YOU COMMUNITY OF RIVERSIDE AND THE CITY OF RIVERSIDE EMPLOYEE’S FOR YOUR SUPPORT! CONTACT US: thirtymilescorruption@hotmail.com