Posts Tagged ‘the budget engagement commission’

When looking at the City budget, one can see that the primary expense to the taxpayer is public worker salaries.  Again, considering you have public unions deeply involved with the campaign process while negotiation their member’s contracts, who actually comes out to bat for us, the taxpayer? We all need to ask the question: have cities now become government entities that benefit their workers’ quality of life as opposed to the quality of life of their employers (the taxpayers/constituents)?  Does government exist solely for the purpose of benefiting those directly and indirectly employed by it?

BUDGET 101 FOR THE CITY OF RIVERSIDE

Commentor Karen Renfro made the following opinionated insight based upon on her analytical perspective of the relationship between the City of Riverside government and public employees on the Nextdoor website.  Many in the community who are voiceless feel the same way, despite propaganda spewed by the City.

(click image to enlarge)

Back on February 22, 2018, the Budget Engagement Commission members were perplexed by the need for almost 50% of Measure-Z Sales Tax Money going to help a shortfall im pension obligations.

From Measure Z, $13 million was to be transferred to the General Fund: the Chief Financial Officer and City Manager are asking for $5 million of that $13 million to cover anticipated shortfalls due to unfunded unsustainable pension liabilities.

We also refer to an opinion piece in the Daily Bulletin by Sal Rodriquez.  The following are excerpts, you can read the whole article by hitting this hyperlink.  There is simply no question in my mind that local government has been hijacked and those responsible have created a financial abyss for the taxpayers.  It’s a scheme that benefits no one but themselves and with the illusion that it directly benefits their members and taxpayers.  Onward with Sal Rodriquez’s excerpts:

“Public employee unions exist to advocate for their members, often campaigning for policies at odds with the best interests of the general public. The so-called public safety unions are in a unique position.  Representing some of the most esteemed and highest paid of government employees, they have lots of money to dole out and are more than comfortable exaggerating threats to public safety if it helps their cause.”

“Cases in point: ballot initiatives in Hemet, Riverside and San Bernardino tainted by undue influence from public safety unions.”

“In Riverside, the city, which last year was boasting about a $1 million surplus and felt so good it decided to give police officers a $4 million raise the city hadn’t actually budgeted for, has put on the November ballot a one-percent sales tax. Expected to raise about $50 million a year, Measure Z is touted as necessary for the future of Riverside.”

“With a name like “City of Riverside Public Safety and Vital City Services Measure,” it certainly sounds important. Of course, if passed Measure Z revenues can be spent however the council likes and there are no guarantees about how the money will be spent, with one notable exception.  On Tuesday, the City Council approved a contract with the city’s police union which, among other things, will give police officers a bigger raise if voters approve a tax increase. It’s quite the incentive.”

“According to recent filings, the police union has already contributed $12,500 to the Measure Z campaign. Firefighters union president Tim Strack told The Press-Enterprise that he already had $100,000 in commitments for the campaign. Behind any talk of the need for more money for “public safety,” is really just a desire for bigger raises and budgets.”

Even, President Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) had something to say about the conflict of public worker unions and doing the work of the people in this in a letter:

“All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with Government employee organizations. The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives in Congress. Accordingly, administrative officials and employees alike are governed and guided, and in many instances restricted, by laws which establish policies, procedures, or rules in personnel matters.”

TMC, RATED RIVERSIDE REGIONAL COUNTIES MOST, “SCANDALOUS,” “NEGATIVE,” “WARPED,” “RAUNCHY,” “LOW CLASS,” “VISIONS OF GRANDEUR,” “FULL OF B.S.,” “REPREHENSIBLE,” “IGNORANT,” “MISGUIDED,” “BULLYISH,” “INDECENT,” “REPUGNANT,””IMMORAL,” “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 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

Vivian Moreno gives her take on this week’s issues: the interview of Planning Commissioner Sean Mill by the John and Ken show of KFI radio 640AM, racism, the Plascencia vs. Mill Feud and certain Budget Engagement Commission members (our girl Gaby again!) being called out on their pathetic attendance record by Councilman Chuck Condor and their ensuing response.

On Friday January 24, 2020, KFI AM640, the John and Ken Show interviews City of Riverside Planning Commissioner Sean Mills, regarding the attempted coerced removal by former campaign rival, Gabriela Plascencia, who is now on the Riverside City Council representing Ward 5.

TMC remembers that at the October 1, 2019, City Council Meeting, Councilman Chuck Condor called out four Commissioners of the Budget Engagement Commission for attendance problems.  Condor called it ‘pathetic.’  By not living up to their promise to attend these meetings, these individual were responsible for the City’s perilous financial issues not being addressed in a timely and efficient manner.  Subsequently on October 10, 2019, two of these volunteers (now duly-elected to City Council, Ronaldo Fierro and Gabriela Plascencia) responded to Conder, deriving his caustic remarks to be the outcome of purely petty politics.  Below, you will find the actual attendance document from January to August 2019, prepared by the City Clerk, that Conder was referencing.

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

We advise our viewing audience again that at the time of the below video in October of 2019, both Plascencia and Fierro were not yet on the City Council, but volunteers on the Budget Engagement Commission.  In an astonishing twist of fate/karma/foreshadowing/irony, toward the end of the video, Plascencia makes a haunting statement that may come to back to bite her:  , “I am committed when elected to never ‘shame’ our volunteers!”  Well, Plascencia has now been elected to City Council, and within six weeks she is shaming one of the City’s volunteers publicly!  That person, of course, is volunteer Planning Commissioner Sean Mill.  But it went further than ‘shaming;’ it went all the way to ‘slander’ and worse, ‘discrimination’.

She called him a ‘bully’ from the dais, then publicly made verifiably untrue statements regarding his place of residence while on the Planning Commission with the City of Santa Ana.  According to the Orange County Register, “Mr. Mill has confirmed to the city of Santa Ana that he has maintained his residency in Santa Ana while serving as a planning commissioner,” city spokeswoman Alma Flores said. “There is no action pending.”  The question now is, “Will Commissioner Mill initiate a defamation suit against Councilwoman Plascencia and the City for slander and discrimination similar to what happened after the Soubirous/Davis St. Valentine’s Day Blunder?”

Chuck also refers to a close friend that missed quite a few meetings, but didn’t mention him by name.  TMC reveals that person to be none other than Joe Tavaglione, current California Transportation Commissioner, uncle of former Riverside County Scalliwag Supervisor, John Tavaglione, and local big kahuna – Joe missed 83% of all meetings for that year!

Well it gets better: according to witnesses, another member of the Budget Engagement Commission, Rose Mayes, who missed ONLY 33% of the meetings, approached Councilman Condor after the Budget Engagement meeting with a word about the hat and robe he carries in trunk of his vehicle.  Maybe we can persuade Chuck to let us in on the specifics of what Rose accused him of? Thirty Miles heard of tidbits towards the general gist of the conversation, but it was too nasty for even us to print without first party acknowledgement!  Oh well…I guess we can it’s just another normal week in ole’ River City.

“There’s something distasteful about bitchy and vindictive, like Plascencia; There’s something fun about bitchy and funny, that’s me.”  – Vivian

TMC, RATED RIVERSIDE REGIONAL COUNTIES MOST, “SCANDALOUS,” “NEGATIVE,” “WARPED,” “RAUNCHY,” “LOW CLASS,” “VISIONS OF GRANDEUR,” “FULL OF B.S.,” “REPREHENSIBLE,” “IGNORANT,” “MISGUIDED,” “BULLYISH,” “INDECENT,” “REPUGNANT,””IMMORAL,” “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 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


The pension problem in the City of Riverside was brought to the attention of the City Council and the Executive Management as early as 2014 by the very active public and TMC.  We want to make this very clear to our readers: all the political rhetoric that is currently being spun is bullshit.  Assistant City Manager Marianna Marysheva tries to spin the fact that her brilliant team has just discovered our current dire pension problem.  No Marianna, we found it, years before your arrival on the scene from Oakland Maywood Lynwood Mammoth Lakes…wherever (damn girl, you’ve been around!).  If you are claiming you just found it, we are going to claim you are a waste of money.

Not only did we find and report the break down in this system, we were ignored.  Now, no one will be held accountable for their lack of professionalism and enormous cost to the taxpayer.  So what do these ever-increasing pensions costs mean to the public?  You will no longer get your trees trimmed, potholes filled, parks maintained.   So, what does this mean to City Hall?  You will have your $200,000 salary for the rest of your life!  Make no mistake about it, we are going to get nothing, and they – the public employees – are going take everything.  These brilliant professional minds at City Hall are going to ask for more money, and you the stupid taxpayer are going to continue to pay it.  At least that’s the plan…

The pension problem was created in the 1990’s by Governor Davis when he increased the formula for payouts for State employees based upon his thoughts that the tech bubble would never pop. Every municipal agency soon followed.  Because our government is stacked with pro-labor sycophant’s who apparently don’t care about the future nor understand math, instead of adjusting these formulas back downwards, it became clear post-housing bubble we couldn’t afford them.  Hence, CalPERS began forcing larger and larger contributions from both municipalities and employees, while not addressing some of the outrageous pension-spiking abuses in a timely fashion.  And while the issue is now finally getting the attention it deserved 10 years ago, we at TMC believe the problems are now so large they are virtually unsolvable absent drastic measures or miracles, as baby boomers are retiring in droves.

Riverside CFO Adam Raymond at the last Budget Engagement Commission meeting on Thursday February 22, 2018 stated that shortfalls in the General Fund are simply due to CalPER’s increases in contributions.  City records indicate that forecasted City revenues will be inadequate to cover these expenses for the next decade!   As operational costs increase in the next five years in fact City reserves will disintegrate, if of course, we don’t do anything.  And what does that mean?  Will they come back to the taxpayers again, and again for their shortfalls?  But this hasn’t been a secret: unsustainable pension costs have been a popular topic for several years now.  But you know what is a secret until now?  Riverside has no plan to deal with the impending crunch…unless you count sticking it to the constituents as a plan.

As a consequence to escalating pension obligations, our reserves will continue to decrease, and therefore Mr. Raymond suggests to the commission the possibility of investing with slightly higher risk as a possibility (of course with an unpredictable economy, this investment platform may not be the most desirable option).  Measure Z revenues will not be enough.  Mr. Raymond suggests more cuts, after the City had promised that the passing of Measure Z would take care of everything. Just like the water transfer tax, the hotel tax, etc., etc., before it…wash, rinse, repeat.

Later Assistant City Manager Marianna Marysheva attempts to mitigate the perplexing faces of the Commission about the use of Measure Z monies for pension obligations, by using her well-known by now, “Ice Queen Spin,” which includes a variation of monotone nothing-speak, impossible-to-understand powerpoint slides, along with empty promises.  She tried to show the commission that the shortfall was revealed only after review of the numbers by her crack team, and ‘we are on it’, and ‘that is why we do these five year plans’.  But perception is reality, and the Commission knows it and the Council knows it: the budget crunches will continue ad infinitum due to increasing unsustainable pension obligations.  And we for two wouldn’t be surprises if the City, with the financial help of the unions (our heroes, right?), rams through another tax measure.

Advice for Ms. Marysheva: stop the drama – we know it’s an act, and a bad one at that.  Your boss John Russo is the ‘ultimate drama queen,’ and don’t even try to take that away from him.  There is only one diva allowed at a time.

The Ice Queen brings up her meeting with a bond rating agency. So why is this important? On one hand she says in three years we are going to have challenging financial problems, while on the other hand she is setting us up for borrowing more money. You see folks its never enough. She also mentions that the bond rating agency is impressed with the TEAM…. So who’s the TEAM?  The Mayor, City Council, executive staff, and Budget Engagement Commission.  You mean batting leadoff and on deck are the two principal players in getting us in this fiscal hellhole?  We have to laugh that, little does the bond rating agency know, the MAYOR is no longer part of the TEAM!

Case in point, according to September 23, 2016 Press Enterprise editorial,  “Regrettably for taxpayers, city officials are often reluctant to show fiscal discipline or search for innovative ways to deliver services until they’ve already dug a deep financial hole. Asking for more money is much easier. It’s something taxpayers need to be mindful of …. ”  And hence, taxpayers will be hit with more and more creative ways that cities can tax us in order to continue the gravy train for our so-called heroes.

According to a September 2016 Opinion piece by Sal Rodriguez in the Orange County Register,

Public employee unions exist to advocate for their members, often campaigning for policies at odds with the best interests of the general public.

The so-called public safety unions are in a unique position. Representing some of the most esteemed and highest paid of government employees, they have lots of money to dole out and are more than comfortable exaggerating threats to public safety if it helps their cause.

Cases in point: ballot initiatives in Hemet, Riverside and San Bernardino tainted by undue influence from public safety unions.

Hemet has been plagued by polarizing debates over public safety and taxes for the past several years. In 2014, soon before the November elections, the City Council voted to contract for fire services, deeming it the best available option.

This prompted a flood of money from firefighters unions across Riverside County to help elect candidates favorable to the city’s firefighters union, which opposed contracting.

It worked, and the newly elected council quickly reversed the decision to contract, and has focused on tax hikes ever since.

In June, voters rejected the union-backed Measure E sales tax increase. Rather than reconsider the decision to capitulate to union demands, the council instead decided to put another tax on the November ballot.

In Riverside, the city, which last year was boasting about a $1 million surplus and felt so good it decided to give police officers a $4 million raise the city hadn’t actually budgeted for, has put on the November ballot a one-percent sales tax.

Expected to raise about $50 million a year, Measure Z is touted as necessary for the future of Riverside.

With a name like “City of Riverside Public Safety and Vital City Services Measure,” it certainly sounds important. Of course, if passed Measure Z revenues can be spent however the council likes and there are no guarantees about how the money will be spent, with one notable exception.

On Tuesday, the City Council approved a contract with the city’s police union which, among other things, will give police officers a bigger raise if voters approve a tax increase. It’s quite the incentive.

According to recent filings, the police union has already contributed $12,500 to the Measure Z campaign. Firefighters union president Tim Strack told The Press-Enterprise that he already had $100,000 in commitments for the campaign.

Behind any talk of the need for more money for “public safety,” is really just a desire for bigger raises and budgets.

Note the blatant conflict of interest by our public safety unions.  They give big money to support a sales tax like Measure Z and they give big money to the campaigns of the individual Council members.  These Council members, hence, are responsible for ratifying their contracts.  Shouldn’t this be considered criminal behavior?  They pay to play, and they see us as nothing but feeble-minded simpletons, who will vote based on ’emotion rather than logic.’  They will mobilize and encourage their union members to vote for an initiative because it is good for them financially, even if the action is unsustainable and destabilizing socially in the long term.  They will then cry foul when we as a City cannot deliver.

Make no bones about it, if the public doesn’t take the business of the people seriously, neither will those who represent you.  We think the City should be run as a efficiently as a business, while understanding it is not trying to maximize profits at our expense, and we public salaries should be tied to the outcome of organic tax revenues, not new revenue schemes.  And what will they do next?  Sell our Public Utilities?  But what do we know, as Councilman Soubirous says, we’re just a bunch of hillbillies.  Well that’s what he says people in Los Angeles think of us anyway.

Above you’ll find a list of City of Riverside accomplishments that was recently presented to the Budget Engagement Commission.  In the Finance section of the citywide highlights it states, “For the 14th straight year, the City’s annual budget received the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award from the Government Finance Officers’s Association.”  How inane, and insane, given how existing City management threw old city management under the bus just 2 years ago for cooking the books.  And it highlights how stupid all these trophies the City seems to lust for continually really are in reality.

TMC, RATED RIVERSIDE REGIONAL COUNTIES MOST, “SCANDALOUS,” “NEGATIVE,” “WARPED,” “RAUNCHY,” “LOW CLASS,” “VISIONS OF GRANDEUR,” “FULL OF B.S.,” “REPREHENSIBLE,” “IGNORANT,” “MISGUIDED,” “BULLYISH,” “INDECENT,” “REPUGNANT,””IMMORAL,” “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 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:

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