MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2014 - SEPTEMBER 14, 2014
riversideindependent.com
VOLUME 1, NO. 19
Riverside Community Colleges could City’s new offer four-year degrees transparency by Vickie Vértiz portal If Senate Bill 850 becomes
state law, the Riverside Community College District could expand one of its two-year programs into a four-year pilot program, the Press Enterprise reported. District administrators can only choose one of the four career programs offered by the schools to expand into a bachelor degree program. The areas of study are: registered nursing at Riverside City College, the dental hygiene and physician assistant programs at Moreno Valley College, and the video gaming program at Norco College, according to Robin Steinback, the interim vice chancellor for educational services, workforce development and planning. The pilot program is being considered because the state legislature passed a bill authorizing up to 15 community college districts to award four-year degrees in limited circumstances and would be valid only for degrees that are not offered by the Cal State or University of California systems. “We definitely want to be considered as one of the 15 pilots,” Steinback told the Press Enterprise. Senate Bill 850 has still not
-Photo by Terry Miller
been signed by Governor Jerry Brown. There are currently 21 other states that permit community colleges to confer fouryear degrees, added the Press
Enterprise. Steinback added that each district could offer one fourPlease see page 4
1 in 10 California workers is an illegal immigrant, study suggests by Jennifer schlueter Last Wednesday, the Pew Research Center released a nationwide study on immigrants. A simultaneously published report by the University of Southern California (USC) on the same subject focused solely on California.
USC and the California Immigrant Policy Center joined forces and based their study on data from the census, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor. Their research explored “a variety of ways the estimated
2.6 million immigrants living in California without permission participate in state life,” according to the Los Angeles Times. Co-director of USC’s Center for the Study of ImmiPlease see page 2
The City of Riverside’s new transparency portal is an option for residents specifically interested in financial information. The City Council’s Finance Committee at a special meeting on July 29th reviewed and approved an online “Ask Finance” portal for citizens to have their questions about City finances answered directly by our Finance Department staff. Answers to questions submitted at the website -www.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 will also 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, beginning in September 2014. Citizens can attend those meetings to ask follow-up questions as well. The Finance Department already provides cutting-edge access to financial information, including monthly financial reports, investor relations information, and most recently, the City’s online checkbook and budget tool powered by OpenGov. All of these user-friendly tools are available at www.riversideca. gov/finance/. The “Ask Finance” website; however, enables interested citizens to submit detailed questions directly to the Finance Department. Residents can pull public records on any topic at www.EngageRiverside.com, the citywide transparency portal unveiled earlier this month. Information can also be gathered by reading the City budget and/or financial statements and through Public Records Act requests.