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Incumbent holds comfortable lead in Riverside County supervisor race
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State senator heading for runoff in race for open county supervisor seat By City News Service
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tate Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, was preparing for a November runoff election Wednesday in his bid to fill an open Riverside County supervisorial seat. The District 1 supervisorial seat was up for grabs in Tuesday’s election due to the upcoming retirement of decade-long Supervisor Kevin Jeffries, who will officially depart politics in December. With votes still being counted from Tuesday’s primary election, Roth led the field of candidates, but was short of the 50% of the vote needed to win the seat outright. He is expected to square off in November with former Assemblyman Jose Medina, D-Riverside, who was in second place, although
longtime civic activist Debbie Walsh and Western Municipal Water District Board of Directors member Gracie Torres were close behind Medina in the race for second place. With nobody earning 50% of the vote, the top two vote-getters advance to a November runoff. Roth, who will term out of the state Senate this year, was an Air Force major general stationed in the area before entering politics. He spotlighted as accomplishments since 2012 securing funding for the UC Riverside School of Medicine and appropriations to increase the number of judicial officers in Riverside County. “I’m running for supervi-
Riverside mayor takes likely insurmountable lead in race for 2nd term By City News Service
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iverside Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson appeared securely bound for a second term Tuesday evening, holding a monumental lead against a local advertising agency proprietor seeking to unseat her. Dawson was pitted against Riverside resident Jessica Qattawi, and early returns showed the mayor garnering more than 80% of votes cast. The incumbent, who was first elected in 2020 following then-Mayor Rusty Bailey’s decision not to seek reelection, has touted her efforts to procure funding for homeless relief programs, law enforcement and neighborhood beautification as accomplishments over the last four years. The former Riverside Unified School District Board of Trustees member and environmental scientist has vowed to persist in her efforts to address the city’s ongoing challenges with the transient population if re-elected. “I will continue to partner with police, fire and community organizations to overcome these challenges,” Dawson said in campaign literature. “Together, we must continue moving Riverside forward with innovative solutions and responsible decision-making.” Despite regulatory measures to discourage homeless See Riverside mayor Page 28
visor who ultimately understands your needs and is qualified and ready to address them head-on,” Torres said. She said that among her priorities are job creation, updating and investing in infrastructure and working toward improvements to public safety and “economic relief.” District 1 encompasses most of the Riverside metropolitan area. The southern sphere through Mead and Perris valleys is where Walsh has been active in recent years, standing against the steady rise in mega warehouse construction, which Jeffries has also sought to limit. “Do you want a supervisor who is controlled by
developers?” Walsh said in campaign materials. “I will put a moratorium on warehouses ... to protect our roads, neighborhoods, communities and schools against air pollution, noise, traffic congestion and road destruction.” Walsh worked as a legislative assistant to Jeffries’ predecessor Bob Buster and since then has been active on issues related to urban expansion and environmental protection. She joined the noise abatement campaign to stop predawn heavy jet traffic out of March Air Reserve Base, where she also raised concerns about development on a site where “munitions bunkers with their pollution still exist.”
Supervisors cite concerns tied to audit of environmental sor to build more housing funding for the Cheech Marin that’s affordable for our Center for Chicano Art and a health agency families, focus on fighting bevy of restoration projects in State Sen. Richard Roth. | Photo courtesy of California Senate Democrats/YouTube
crime, fight gang violence and stop illegal drugs from overtaking our communities,” he said in campaign literature. He said he has a “plan to address homelessness by partnering with nonprofits (and) expanding mental health and substance abuse treatment services.” The senator has cast himself as a “moderate Democrat,” but on taxes he has been a largely partyline voter. Like Medina, who termed out of the Assembly in 2022, Roth has received failing grades from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers’ Association for supporting tax hikes on gasoline, higher state fees for mobile phone services and increased state charges for recycling spent car batteries, among other things. Medina, who was an educator prior to entering the Assembly in 2010, pointed to his record supporting greater appropriations for UCR, seed
Riverside as highlights of his political career. “I will deliver for Riverside County families by tackling our homelessness crisis by rapidly moving people off our streets and into housing,” he said in a campaign promotion. According to Medina, if elected, he intends to improve “public health and expand mental health and addiction services.” He also envisions working on a comprehensive strategy to increase “educational opportunities through enhanced coordination of our school districts, community colleges and UCR.” Torres described herself in campaign literature as a college-educated chemist and mother of three who “understands firsthand that families like mine” are under financial stress due to ever-escalating cost-of-living pressures and other challenges. “It is time to elect a super-
By City News Service
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nfavorable findings regarding the Riverside County Department of Environmental Health’s management of the county’s waste haulers prompted criticism Tuesday from several supervisors, who requested an accelerated audit to ensure changes are made. “It’s disappointing to see the problems they’re having with oversight,” Supervisor Karen Spiegel said during a hearing on Auditor-Controller Ben Benoit’s report on a review of practices and procedures in the Department of Environmental Health. The Office of the Auditor-Controller concluded an audit last fall that reviewed environmental health’s compliance with county policies between July 2021 and October 2023. Benoit’s staff “identified improvement opportunities for internal controls over contract management and monitoring” directly connected to the agency’s tracking of billing, revenue collection and related operations by the county’s four waste haulers. “Contract monitoring is a key process in ensuring compliance with a contract’s established terms and conditions,” according to the audit. “Reviews of waste hauler compliance reports are not documented. Environmental health does See Environmental health Page 27