Civic

Land use, public finance, housing, and the government decisions that move the regional economy.

Stories
Rialto adds $1 million in staff to a surplus budget as pension costs climb

Rialto adopted a $175.9 million General Fund budget for 2026-27 with a projected surplus, then spent roughly $1 million of it on new permanent positions — weighted toward development-review capacity and toward moving work off contractors and sworn officers. Behind the surplus sits an $18.3 million CalPERS pension bill that keeps rising faster than the rest of the city's costs.

Stories
Rialto adds $1 million in staff to a surplus budget as pension costs climb
Redlands sets management raises at 4% then 3% in new three-year contract
Rialto adopts a surplus budget as revenue climbs 6.5%
Riverside raises most user fees 5.7%, adds escalating late penalty on fire inspections
Riverside starts process to replace its 1991 downtown-station plan
Chino covers $1.6M budget shortfall with reserves
Wildomar funds $459K Old Town specific plan entirely from developer-agreement money
Wildomar to sell planning review to Canyon Lake at 50% cost recovery, capped near $75K
Redlands adopts first parks plan with $35M in needs and $8M to pay for them
Elsinore Valley weighs a 500-mile dam buy while carrying a $586M local capital load
Riverside approves $1.57 billion budget into a $34 million deficit, with no new tax to fill it
Riverside County hires a firm to find savings in its own electric bills
Riverside waives bidding to buy 45 EV chargers from a local manufacturer
Riverside funds appeal of ruling that its water-fund transfer is unconstitutional as a $46M refund looms
Redlands borrows up to $85M for police, fire, and library as sales-tax growth flattens
Edward Enriquez takes over as Riverside's acting city manager
Riverside extends pallet-yard freeze, moves to make pallet storage its own zoning category
Chino Hills weighs giving up California's lowest sales tax rate to close a $4.3M gap
California cleared driverless trucks. The Inland Empire is where the reckoning lands.
Redlands schools delay YMCA after-school vote, push first review to March
Caltrans says Carbon Canyon Road truck ban is temporary, tied to plan to widen switchbacks
Redlands adopts six-stage water shortage plan, can restrict ornamental fountains in a drought
San Bernardino County's gap between what people earn and what they need is the widest in Southern California
Redlands council votes 5–0 to draft a citywide ban on new warehouses
Riverside picks LA housing attorney James Johnson as city attorney at $372,624, waives 12-day notice rule to do it
Riverside Council to appoint James Johnson city attorney at $372,624, waiving public-review rule
Chino Hills sales tax measure would raise $11.5M a year against a $4.3M deficit
San Bernardino County Fire deploys robot dog for High Desert rescue operations
San Bernardino County puts $900,000 into Rancho Cucamonga's Family Resource Center
San Bernardino County faces a fair-housing test over the Bloomington warehouse it already lost once

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