May 5, 2015
Edition #13
Greetings to all Ward 3 residents
and Riversiders!
There is much going on at City Hall
and in Riverside. New businesses are
desiring to locate in our City. Some are new restaurants, some are commercial
businesses serving the general retail market or those that serve other
businesses.
City Council in December drafted a
Strategic Plan to bring focus to Council’s vision for Riverside and direction
for staff on how they approach their work. Staff recently completed and produced
“Riverside 2.0” which was their strategy on how to implement Council’s vision
and goals for Riverside. I am very proud
of Council’s vision and desire to better Riverside through this plan and of
staff’s recommendations on how to implement that vision.
The Council’s overarching goal for
staff to attain was customer service - both internally and externally. Customer service or customer care is Council’s
number one priority. Council wants to
change the “culture” of City Hall to a customer oriented, one stop shop, that
treats its customers fairly, efficiently, courteously, and provides our
customers with the best possible service. The Council’s second goal was economic
development. Our City needs to recruit
the best businesses, the best stores, restaurants, and retail it can. Once here, we need to help them grow and
prosper. We need to continue to cut the
red tape and once and for all - roll out that red carpet!
On Monday, May 4, 2015, our new City
Manager, Mr. John Russo, assumed his new role and began what Council
believes will be a great working relationship. Mr. Russo was recently the City Manager of
Alameda, California. Mr. Russo has a
strong financial background, has served as an elected council member, elected
City Attorney (Oakland, CA) and knows what it takes to successfully manage,
lead and serve. Welcome Mr. Russo!
Two weeks ago, the City of Riverside
welcomed our new City Attorney, Mr. Gary Geuss (Gice). Mr. Geuss formerly served as a managing
Assistant City Attorney in Los Angeles. Mr.
Geuss has jumped right in and has found his stride.
I am happy to report that our City
is finally getting roads repaved, looking to increasing tree trimming cycles
and is making progress toward other quality of life issues that cause
Riversiders to express concern. If you
see panhandling or homeless camping out on properties, please call 3-1-1. One call does it all! Same goes for run-away shopping carts,
potholes or other City services. The
City’s 3-1-1 operators will take your call and assign your concern to the
appropriate agency or department. Don’t
forget there is a free Mobile 311 app you can download to your smartphone. This app makes it easy to report.
I look forward to serving you -
please don’t hesitate to call me with your concerns or even a question. I am a phone call or an email away.
Sincerely,
Mike Soubirous
Councilmember - Ward 3
(951) 515-1663
msoubirous@riversideca.gov
In case you have noticed some of our City’s median and parkway turf turning brown, please know the City didn’t forget to water them. The water has been turned off on all of these turf areas due to the drought and current water use restrictions. As soon as they are completely “dead,” City crews and landscape contractors will be removing the turf portions and will be replacing them with drought tolerant shrubs. The City is doing its part to meet water reduction goals and to help off-set how much water residents will be able to use. Please drive carefully when you see crews out along these areas installing the new water saving plants.
Currently there is a scam against
business owners who are being contacted by attorneys attempting to sue the
business for not being ADA compliant under the new guidelines. These are bogus
attempts to steal your hard-earned money. Please report these attorneys to the
California State Bar.
Although businesses are not
“grandfathered” in under the new compliant laws and need to become compliant,
there is a new Senate Bill that addresses this problem:
Accessibility Reform: California SB
1186 limits frivolous litigation regarding technical violations concerning
disability access by reducing statutory damages, putting into place new
provisions to prevent "stacking" of multiple claims to increase
statutory damages and banning letters making demands for money before
litigation.
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 New online resource allows public to ask direct questions of Finance Department and get answers.
Answers to questions submitted at the website -- http://riversideca.gov/finance/ask-finance/ -- will be posted by the Finance Department staff as soon as they can be researched and addressed. Visitors to the site also will be able to submit documents along with their questions. Finance staff will be able to provide supporting information when answering questions.
The City Council’s Finance Committee will review all questions and answers quarterly at their regular meeting. Citizens can attend those meetings to ask follow-up questions as well.
All of these user-friendly tools are available at http://riversideca.gov/finance/.
Residents can pull public records on any topic at www.EngageRiverside.com, the citywide transparency portal unveiled early this month. They also can gather information by reading the City budget and/or financial statements and through Public Records Act requests.
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