Kevin Dawson Exposes Riverside City Council Bias

Kevin Dawson exposed in the City of Riverside what is pervasive throughout our local governments; the Council Members' disregard of citizens that are fighting government corruption.

The Councils and Boards are comprised of people that for some reason have total disregard for the citizens and I don't understand that.

Accordingly, Kevin Dawson sent this letter out regarding City Council bias when it came to choosing applicants for local board positions:

I want to share a three minute public comments I gave at the City Council meeting last night, along with audio file and link to a YouTube video. The audio file is of the Mayor and City Council conversation right before I was lead into the 7th floor conference room at city hall, to be interviewed for the Charter Review Commission. The YouTube link is to a video of my speaking to the Council a couple of years ago, to which one of the Council is heard in the audio, mocking me.

I had made a records request to get an audio recording of that interview to review a statement made by councilman Adams, and found that the recording included the time before I was brought into the room. They probably thought it was like their closed session meetings and that their conversation would never become public. I’m sure they probably talk like this all the time when they are in closed session. This is the Mayor, and Councilmen Gardner, Melendrez, McArthur, Soubirous, Perry and Adams. Councilman Conder was not in attendance. There was also a deputy City Clerk in attendance, who was there to take minutes and monitor the recording. Voices that can be heard are Soubirous, Perry, and Melendrez. Note that no one, including the Mayor, who is the parliamentarian, cautioned or admonished the attendees to refrain from inappropriate conversation.

While this might seem trivial to some, they were sitting as a full council, in city council, acting in their official capacity. It was completely inappropriate and in violation of the City Code of Ethics. We need our elected officials to act professionally and ethically at all times. We need to know they are always doing the right thing, even when no one is looking. They are supposed to set the examples as to appropriate behavior to City Staff.

Please circulate. I would appreciate emails to the Council, asking for a public apology and a reaffirmation to follow the City Code of Ethics.