The Mission Grove Neighborhood Alliance (MGNA) hosted the second part of their City Council Candidate Forum series on Jan. 21 at the La Sierra Senior Center located in ward six. Candidates were asked to respond to constituent concerns surrounding the Riverside Transmission Reliability Project (RTRP) and six other topics to give constituents insight into their platform.
In attendance for the event were Ward 2 candidates Gracie Torres, Mike Vahl, Barry Daws and Dan Florez. Also present were Ward 4 candidates Chuck Condor, Jessica Qattawi and Rich Vandenberg and Ward 6 candidates Luis Hernandez, Oswaldo Puerta and William Smith.
The opening question, which was shared with candidates prior to the event, revolved around the RTRP, a 2006 plan funded by California Independent Systems Operator (Cal ISO) to build a second connection from the state’s main power grid to Riverside through collaboration with Riverside Public Utilities (RPU) and Southern California Edison.
RPU’s website asserts that a second connection is necessary to prevent the city from losing access to the state’s power grid, whereas proponents argue that its implementation of large overhead towers along the Santa Ana riverbed would be dangerous due to high winds and fire risk in the area. They have instead advocated for an undergrounding of the connection lines, which officials say would raise installation cost and that further delay of the project will increase cost to ratepayers.
Considering this, candidates were asked to propose an alternative and share its pros and cons. Nearly all candidates stated that they would not allow the transmission lines to be built aboveground as the risk was too high. Qattawi stated, “We don’t want to be the next Altadena. I am for responsible infrastructure and putting these lines above ground is irresponsible.”
Candidates instead proposed that they could look into having the wires undergrounded only in areas with severe fire risk and push for a supplemental environmental impact report to reconstruct the plan to current standards, rather than the now-outdated 2006 standards.
Puerta was the only candidate who stated he would not resist the aboveground lines, citing the financial risk that may occur if the project were pushed back further, sharing that he would be a “bad steward of [the people’s] taxpayer dollars” if he were to do so. He expressed, “If the money is not there, we need this to be the compromise we have to live with for now.”
The candidates were then asked to respond to six other questions pulled from the event’s attendees. These questions include candidates’ thoughts on campaign contribution caps, how they will prioritize constituent interest when they compete with their donors, their thoughts on the new appointed inspector general position and possible omission of the ethics committee, if they agree with the current conduction of city council meetings and their plan to clean up areas of the city which have high homeless population and drug use.
The next forum is set to take place on Feb. 11 at North High School, around two miles away from the University of Riverside, California campus. The forum will be open to the public.
