HEMET — Hemet’s adopted 2026-27 budget is not a secret. Combined General Fund and Measure U spending is $96,123,000. Combined revenue is $86,535,000. The city plans to spend $9,588,000 more than it takes in.

The city’s own explanation is in the same book. Revenues have begun to flatten. Costs keep rising. The document cites inflation, personnel costs, insurance, and contracts. Liability premiums are about $7.0 million, plus a $2.0 million self-insured retention. Measure U is budgeted at $16,985,000 in and $21,406,000 out, including $1.5 million for retiring police payouts and $1.5 million toward the insurance premium.

The city also lists cost-containment: a hiring freeze on vacant posts, new hires limited to mission-critical and revenue-generating jobs, a 10 percent cut in department maintenance and operations, and 17 frozen positions, including six police officers and a deputy fire chief. Reserves are reported at about $28.9 million as of June 30, 2025, against a 40 percent policy.

That is the city’s case, at its strongest. It is not enough to justify another tax.

Measure Q would add 1 cent on each dollar of taxable purchases. The city estimates about $16 million a year. It is a general tax. Proceeds go to the General Fund for any lawful city purpose. The ordinance does not require a spending cut, a headcount cap, or an efficiency audit as a condition of collecting the money. Groceries and medicine are exempt. Oversight language is in the city’s materials. None of that changes the structure: more tax revenue, same open-ended spending.

Public-employee costs and insurance keep climbing. The pattern on offer is higher taxes and thinner services. Frozen officers and a new sales tax in the same year is not a reform. It is a request for residents to pay more while the city spends more than it collects.

The solution is not to raise taxes. The solution is to cut government spending. It is never enough for the public-service payroll. Voters should not be told the only choices are a higher tax rate or fewer services. Efficiency is the third choice, and it is not on the November ballot.

The news account of these figures is here.

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City Council adopted the Fiscal Year 2026-27 operating budget on June 23 by Resolution 2026-105. Combined General Fund and Measure U revenues are budgeted at $86,535,000. Combined expenditures are budgeted at $96,123,000. The difference is $9,588,000, a $9.6 million use of fund balance.

Those figures come from the adopted budget tables. They are the city’s official plan for the year ending June 30, 2027.

Across all city funds, the adopted budget lists $150,757,303 in revenue and $154,184,303 in expenditures.

The combined General Fund is two pots. Fund 110 is the city’s main operating fund. It is budgeted at $69,550,000 in revenue and $74,717,000 in spending. That is a $5,167,000 gap.

Fund 115 is Measure U. Voters approved that 1 percent transactions and use tax in 2016. The adopted budget describes it as a general sales tax restricted solely to public safety by resolution. Measure U is budgeted at $16,985,000 in revenue and $21,406,000 in spending.

The Measure U gap is $4,421,000. The adopted budget says Measure U fund balance is being used to buy equipment such as radios, cameras, hoses and vehicles, to rehabilitate fire stations, and to help pay liability insurance for police and fire.

One-time Measure U uses listed in the budget total $4,537,000. The largest items are $1.5 million for retiring police personnel payouts and $1.5 million toward the liability insurance premium. Other listed items include four police interceptors, 50 radios, two traffic motorcycles, cameras, Fire Station 5 work, and fire hose replacements.

One-time General Fund uses listed in the budget total $1,233,000. They include downtown parking lot repavement, a truck routing ordinance, radios, storage work, branding, Christmas decorations, and other one-time purchases.

The budget says revenues have begun to flatten while costs keep rising. It cites inflation, personnel costs, insurance, and contracts. Cost-containment steps in the document include a hiring freeze on vacant posts, limiting new hires to mission-critical and revenue-generating jobs, and a 10 percent cut in department maintenance and operations spending.

Citywide positions are down 8.5 full-time equivalents from the prior adopted budget. The document lists 17 frozen positions, including six police officers, a deputy fire chief, and other public safety and civilian posts.

Liability insurance is called out as a major pressure. For fiscal 2026-27, the budget puts liability premiums at about $7.0 million, plus a $2.0 million self-insured retention for claims. That is about 4.9 percent higher than the prior year, the document says.

Hemet’s written reserve policy requires spendable, unrestricted General Fund reserves equal to at least 40 percent of current expenditures. The City Council raised that target from 20 percent to 40 percent beginning in fiscal 2023-24. The adopted budget says the reserve totaled about $28.9 million as of June 30, 2025.

The city’s latest posted Annual Comprehensive Financial Report remains the report for the year ended June 30, 2024. That is the newest ACFR on the Finance Department’s financial information page.

The operating budget is separate from the capital program. The city’s five-year Capital Improvement Program for fiscal 2026-27 through 2030-31 lists a grand total of $159,501,108. The fiscal 2026-27 column is $21,736,408. Those totals are in the CIP project summary, not the operating-budget tables.

On the November 3, 2026, ballot, Hemet voters will decide Measure Q. It is a separate 1-cent transactions and use tax. The City Council placed it on the ballot on July 14. The city’s Measure Q FAQ and the city attorney’s impartial analysis both say the tax is estimated to generate about $16 million a year.

Measure Q would be a general tax. Proceeds would go to the General Fund and could be used for any lawful city purpose, according to the proposed ordinance and the impartial analysis. The tax would last until ended by voters. The city says groceries, prescription medicine, diapers, and feminine hygiene products are exempt. The city also says the money would stay in Hemet, with public disclosure, independent citizens’ oversight, and audits.

Hemet’s current sales tax rate is 8.75 percent, the city’s FAQ states. Measure Q would add 1 cent on each dollar of taxable purchases.

The city has scheduled three Measure Q open houses at the Hemet Public Library, 300 E. Latham Ave.: Sept. 16 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Sept. 26 from 10 a.m. to noon, and Oct. 16 from 6 to 8 p.m.

The adopted operating budget does not include Measure Q revenue. The November vote is a separate question from the books the council already adopted for this fiscal year.

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The Republican Party of Riverside County calendar lists an Ed Delgado meet-and-greet tonight, Friday, Aug. 28, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in Perris. The address is not posted. The listing says to call for details.

Canvassing follows Saturday, Aug. 29, at 9 a.m. Volunteers are to meet at Box Springs Elementary School, 11900 Athens Drive, Moreno Valley. The calendar also lists postcard writing and phone banking. The contact is Christine Fontes, 951-640-5597.

Those events sit just outside the San Jacinto Valley. They are the county party’s posted work this week for the Assembly District 60 nominee. Delgado is the Republican in that race. The county party has endorsed him.

The June HSJCR newsletter is the latest issue posted for the local club. It asked members to volunteer for two campaigns tied to the valley. It described Delgado as “an excellent candidate” and said Republicans have “an opportunity to take AD60.” It listed Fontes as the volunteer contact for that race.

The same newsletter asked members to help Males. Males is Hemet’s mayor pro tem. He is the Republican nominee in Congressional District 25 against incumbent Democrat Raul Ruiz. The county party has endorsed him. The newsletter identified Males as an HSJCR member and “an excellent candidate challenging Raul Ruiz.” It listed Michael Curry, 707-548-1007, as the volunteer contact for that campaign.

HSJCR is the valley’s grassroots Republican club. It is chartered as an affiliate of the California Congress of Republicans. Its public site is hemetrepublicans.com. Mail goes to P.O. Box 304, San Jacinto. Officers named in the June newsletter include President Tom Wilson and Immediate Past President Norm Kyriss. The club’s meetings page says dinners are usually held on the fourth Monday of the month at the Hemet Elks Lodge, 1305 W. Florida Ave.

Kyriss is now a candidate himself. City of Hemet Clerk records show Norman W. Kyriss III pulled papers July 27 and filed Aug. 7 for City Council District 1. The November 3 municipal election lists that seat as a two-year term. He faces Constance Howard-Clark, who filed Aug. 4, and Carlos Michel, who filed Aug. 6. All three names are posted on the city’s official election page.

The county party’s posted 2026 endorsement list includes Males in CD-25, Jeff Gonzalez in Assembly District 36, Delgado in AD-60, and other federal, state, and county races. City council names on that page are in Riverside. Hemet Districts 1, 2, and 5 are not listed. San Jacinto City Council is not listed. Measure Q is not listed. Those local contests simply do not appear on the posted endorsement page.

Hemet/San Jacinto Republican Women Federated is not currently meeting, according to the club’s meetings page. The page says the group “may be back soon.”

No Hemet or San Jacinto campaign headquarters is listed for this cycle. The club’s headquarters page says the valley maintains an office during presidential general elections. It lists local contacts for signs and voter registration. The county party lists its office at 41923 2nd St., Suite 404, Temecula.

Looking ahead on the county calendar, a Guns, Faith and Freedom Rally is set for Saturday, Sept. 19, from 4 to 8 p.m. at Monteleone Meadows, 35245 Briggs Road, Murrieta. Vendor and candidate participation applications are posted with the event.

Valley residents looking for this month’s posted work are pointed to the county calendar and to the contacts already in the June HSJCR newsletter. Fontes is listed for Delgado. Curry is listed for Males. The Perris meet-and-greet is tonight. The Moreno Valley canvass is Saturday morning.

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Water rates passed 4-1. Sewer rates passed 3-0 after two members left the dais. Both schedules take effect Jan. 1, 2027, and rise each Jan. 1 through Jan. 1, 2031.

City water bills will go up. The mailed Proposition 218 notice gave this example: a typical single-family home using 1,100 cubic feet of water in a monthly billing period would go from $59.54 now to $92.53 under the 2027 rates. The same notice lists a separate Water Adjudication Fee on every unit. The Willdan rate study in the agenda packet, using a 3/4-inch meter and the same 1,100 cubic feet, put the full city water bill at $79.01 now and $104.63 in 2027.

The city’s sewer collection charge for a single-family home would rise from $8.22 a month to $10.48 on Jan. 1, 2027, up $2.26, the sewer notice says. Eastern Municipal Water District treatment charges are billed on top of that. The city does not set EMWD’s rates.

The meeting was at 625 S. Pico Avenue. Mayor Crystal Ruiz, Mayor Pro Tem Clarisa Sanchez, and Councilmembers Phil Ayala, Alonso Ledezma, and Valerie Vandever answered roll call. City Clerk Julia Espinoza called the roll. Staff reports name Travis Randel as interim city manager.

The water hearing ran from 7:02 to 8:29 p.m., the action minutes say. The council first voted 5-0 on Resolution 4144, findings on exhaustion of administrative remedies, and to proceed. Vandever moved. Sanchez seconded. Ayes: Ruiz, Sanchez, Ledezma, Vandever, Ayala.

Public Utilities Superintendent Mat Osborn and Finance Director Kimberly Ganimian presented.

Five people spoke, the minutes say: Michael Siordia, Brian Hawkins, Mike Sullivan, George Evans, and Ashley Macias. The minutes list the names. They do not say what anyone told the council.

The clerk recorded 12 written protests against the water rates. The city’s notice said a majority of affected parcels would have blocked the increase, and that the water system serves about 4,666 customers. Oral comments did not count as protests unless a written protest was filed. Email protests were not accepted.

Ledezma moved Resolution 4145, the water rate schedule, with CEQA findings. Sanchez seconded. The vote was 4-1. Ayes: Ruiz, Sanchez, Ledezma, Ayala. Nay: Vandever. The minutes give no reason for the no vote.

The adopted water schedule keeps the current structure and raises the numbers, according to the notice in the packet.

Most homes pay a monthly meter charge. For a 5/8-inch or 3/4-inch meter, that charge goes from $24.89 now to $51.84 on Jan. 1, 2027, then $75.17 in 2028, $86.45 in 2029, $90.77 in 2030, and $93.49 on Jan. 1, 2031. A 1-inch meter goes from $34.82 to $86.19 in 2027.

Residential use is billed in two tiers, per 100 cubic feet (748 gallons). Tier 1, the first 11 units, goes from $3.15 to $3.70 in 2027. Tier 2, above 11 units, goes from $3.90 to $4.49. By Jan. 1, 2031, those volume rates would be $6.67 and $8.10. Nonresidential customers pay a uniform rate, $3.73 now and $4.26 in 2027.

All water customers also pay the Water Adjudication Fee, $1.77 per 100 cubic feet now and $1.10 in 2027. The notice says that fee covers groundwater-basin management and replenishment under the Hemet-San Jacinto Groundwater Management Program.

The sewer hearing opened at 9:54 p.m. and closed at 10:22 p.m., the action minutes say.

The council voted 5-0 on Resolution 4146, the exhaustion findings, and to proceed. Vandever moved. Sanchez seconded. Ayes: Ruiz, Sanchez, Ledezma, Vandever, Ayala. Osborn and Ganimian presented again.

Four people spoke: Michael Siordia, Brian Hawkins, Manuel Sotelo, and Susan Acevedo. The minutes give names only.

The clerk recorded 13 written protests against the sewer rates.

Ledezma moved Resolution 4147, the sewer schedule, with CEQA findings. Sanchez seconded. The vote was 3-0. Ayes: Ruiz, Ledezma, Sanchez. Absent: Ayala, Vandever. The minutes do not say why they were off the dais. Both voted later on a 1st Street contract, which passed 5-0. Mayor Ruiz adjourned the meeting at 11:05 p.m.

Most residential sewer customers pay a monthly city collection charge per equivalent dwelling unit. That charge goes from $8.22 now to $10.48 on Jan. 1, 2027, then $14.15 in 2028, $19.10 in 2029, $19.67 in 2030, and $20.26 on Jan. 1, 2031. Some businesses, restaurants, and most schools pay by water use instead: $0.75 per 100 cubic feet now and $0.95 in 2027.

Customers pay the city’s collection rate plus EMWD treatment and disposal charges. For city water customers, EMWD’s charges appear on the city bill. Others may see the city sewer charge on an EMWD bill. The notice lists EMWD’s present charges as $8.22 per EDU and $40.31 per sewage unit and says those figures can change.

Staff reports from Ganimian, approved by Randel, and the Willdan Financial Services rate study say existing rates will not cover later years of the plan. The city cited higher costs for labor, materials, energy, chemicals, construction, and contracted work, plus repair of aging pipes, wells, reservoirs, and sewer mains. Water rates also cover debt service. Both staff reports say that without the increases, the general fund would have to subsidize the utilities.

The notices went out under Article XIII D of the California Constitution, commonly called Proposition 218. The new rates apply to service on and after Jan. 1, 2027.

The City Council meets next on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026, 6:30 p.m. open session, at the San Jacinto Community Center, 625 S. Pico Avenue. Agendas: https://horizon.agendalink.app/engage-v2/sanjacintoca/agendas

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 The report, titled “After a Decade of Record Deaths in County Jails, the Community Deserves Transparency Through Oversight,” urges county leaders to establish an independent civilian oversight body to monitor jail operations and review critical incidents involving inmates.

 According to the Grand Jury, Riverside County remains one of the largest counties in California without a formal civilian oversight system for sheriff operations and county detention facilities. The report concludes that current oversight mechanisms are largely internal and lack the independence necessary to identify systemic issues or maintain public confidence.

 The findings come amid years of scrutiny surrounding Riverside County’s jail system. In 2023, California Attorney General Rob Bonta launched a civil rights investigation into the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office following concerns over a rising number of in-custody deaths and allegations involving jail conditions.

 The Grand Jury reported that 29 inmates died while in Riverside County custody between the start of the state investigation and April 2026.

 Jurors found that investigations into inmate deaths often lack independence and that public reporting on jail operations remains inconsistent and limited. The report also criticized the Sheriff’s Advisory Committee, concluding that it has not provided meaningful oversight or produced documented recommendations regarding jail operations.

 To address those concerns, the Grand Jury recommended that the Riverside County Board of Supervisors establish an independent civilian oversight body with investigative authority, dedicated staffing, public reporting requirements and the ability to review critical incidents and deaths occurring within county jails.

 The report also recommends an independent audit of jail medical and mental health services, the creation of a public data dashboard and the development of a long-term strategic plan for county jail operations.

 The recommendations revive a debate that surfaced last year when the Board of Supervisors considered creating an oversight body for the sheriff’s department. In July 2025, supervisors ultimately declined to move forward with the proposal.

 Sheriff Bianco responded forcefully to the report, rejecting its conclusions and accusing the Grand Jury of advancing a predetermined agenda.

 “The report is nothing but an attempt to pressure the Board of Supervisors into creating an oversight board and/or inspector general,” Bianco said in a statement. “The report is ridden with inaccuracies and patently false statements, combined with apples-to-oranges comparisons.”

 Bianco argued that the report reflects a misunderstanding of jail operations and the factors contributing to inmate deaths. He maintained that most deaths occurring in county custody involve fentanyl overdoses, suicides, natural causes or inmate-on-inmate violence rather than failures by jail staff.

 According to the sheriff, Riverside County’s correctional facilities continue to serve as a model for other counties throughout California and already operate under extensive state oversight.

 Bianco pointed to the California Board of State and Community Corrections, which regulates jail operations statewide, as well as ongoing court-ordered supervision by the Prison Law Office. He argued that the Grand Jury failed to adequately consider those existing oversight systems before making its recommendations.

 The sheriff also disputed claims that inmate deaths represent a systemic problem.

 “Going to jail does not prevent anyone from dying,” Bianco stated. “No one has died because they were in jail, they died while they were in jail.”

 He further contended that demands for civilian oversight are being driven by political activists rather than evidence of widespread misconduct within the department.

 The sheriff pledged that his office will submit the legally required response to the report but indicated that he does not intend to implement the oversight recommendations.

 “We will not implement any of their recommendations concerning oversight,” Bianco wrote.

 Under California law, Civil Grand Jury reports are advisory and do not carry the force of law. However, agencies named in the reports are required to provide written responses addressing the findings and recommendations.

 The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office has 60 days to respond formally to the report, while the Riverside County Board of Supervisors has 90 days to issue its response.

 Whether county leaders act on the recommendations remains uncertain. The report, however, ensures that the debate over transparency, accountability and oversight within Riverside County’s jail system will remain a prominent issue in local government discussions for months to come.

Source: Riverside County Civil Grand Jury Report, News Channel 3 (KESQ), Riverside County Sheriff’s Office statement.

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The agency’s bimonthly report, based on metrics for western Riverside County and the cities of Ontario and San Bernardino, indicated that the Inland Empire’s Consumer Price Index was up exactly 1 percent.

BLS officials said Wednesday the principal driver behind the increase was retail gasoline prices, which jumped 11.6 percent between the beginning of April and the end of May. That in turn pushed the energy component of the CPI up 8.6 percent for the entire two-month period.

Prices went stratospheric as a result of the Mideast war.

Other contributors to the index’s upward trajectory were food prices and apparel costs, which advanced 1.5 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively.

Conversely, shelter costs — or property rents — trended marginally downward throughout the region in April and May, slipping 0.1 percent, and costs in the household furnishings category fell by 2.3 percent, according to the BLS.

Nationwide, the overall CPI registered a .5 percent increase for the month of May. The impetus, again, was energy costs. For the one-year period ending May 31, the national CPI was 4.2 percent.

In the Inland Empire, the year-over-year CPI was 3.4 percent, measuring a host of economic inputs from May 2025 to May 2026, data showed.

The most notable upward pressures in the annualized CPI were reflected in the energy and healthcare components of the regional index, moving up 20.9 percent and 5 percent, respectively.

The current rate of inflation reflects the price trajectory impacting most sectors of the economy.

Energy price shocks that began at the end of February are directly connected to commodities markets and oil trading, which turned bullish immediately after the joint Israel-U.S. military operations against Iran, beginning with a missile attack on a girls’ school, where almost 200 Iranians were killed. The nation’s supreme leader and multiple members of his family were also assassinated. Hostilities abated amid peace overtures in April and May but have recently resumed with intensity.

Iran declared a quasi closure of the Strait of Hormuz, where tankers carrying nearly one-fifth of the world’s energy supplies must pass. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has characterized the narrow Persian Gulf sea lane as a “chokepoint.”

Accelerating consumer price hikes have also been blamed on loose monetary policy and excessive federal spending, decaying the dollar’s purchasing power.

The national debt is now $39.2 trillion, according to the congressional Joint Economic Committee’s “Debt Dashboard.” Some projections indicate the debt load will almost double in 10 years or less.

Fortune magazine reported in April that federal payments just to cover interest on the debt total $88 billion a month.

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The sweeping regulations, finalized at the start of the month, put producers in a bind that has no obvious solution. Plastic clamshell containers, for instance, protect berries from being crushed and keep them fresher, longer until they reach a refrigerator. Plastic producers say there’s simply no substitute — yet under the new rules, they’ll have to find one. 

Last week, two environmental groups — the Natural Resources Defense Council and Californians Against Waste — said they plan to take California to court. Their argument: the state’s rules actually break the law by allowing recycling methods that create a lot of toxic waste, and by letting some plastics slip through the rules entirely. On the other side, plastic manufacturers say the rules go too far and will make products more expensive for shoppers.

Sen. Ben Allen, a Democrat from coastal Los Angeles County who authored the plastic waste law, said the program still “massively moves the needle on this really major problem” — even if the process was messy. “This was the product of a compromise, and it was not perfect, and everybody walked away from the table, you know, unhappy about various aspects,” Allen said.

“California is the United States, but 30 years in the future,” said Joe Árvai,  director of the University of Southern California’s Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies. “What’s happening now is emblematic of trends that we are seeing worldwide … and the U.S. needs to adapt in the way that those countries are adapting in order to remain globally competitive.”

Less plastic, more recycling 

For decades, the burden of reducing, reusing and recycling plastic waste has fallen on consumers. Once a consumer buys a product, they decide what happens to it — whether it ends up in the garbage can or the recycling blue bin — and their tax dollars fund recycling systems we have today.  

In 2022, California’s landmark Senate Bill 54, the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act, shifted that responsibility to businesses. The regulations outline what materials are covered by the law and who counts as a “producer” of plastic waste.  

The new regulations are a huge milestone, said Anja Brandon, director of U.S. plastics policy for the Ocean Conservancy. “There’s plenty more steps on this journey, but I’m just really excited that we are going to start making real progress,” she said. 

The law applies to plastic food service ware and almost all single-use packaging — from the plastic wrap around large pallets of products shipped to retailers to a tube of toothpaste and the cardboard box around it.  

To carry out the law, the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery appointed the Circular Action Alliance, a nonprofit that helps states carry out extended producer responsibility mandates, as the organizing body for producers. The alliance is responsible for coming up with  a plan to meet the law’s goals. 

Producers — defined as companies that make more than $1 million in sales and produce products packaged in plastic or own brands under which those products are sold — must join the organization and pay fees to fund waste management. They can meet the law’s requirements by using less plastic, finding alternative materials, or investing in recycling infrastructure.

“The biggest challenge is the scale and coordination required to modernize a complex recycling system across a state as large and diverse as California,” said Sheila Estaniel, a spokesperson for the Circular Action Alliance, in an email. 

California’s requirement that businesses reduce single-use plastic altogether makes it one of the strongest plastic waste laws in the country. It also goes further than other similar laws because it requires plastic producers to pay $5 billion over a decade to address the environmental damage their products have caused to communities — though the state doesn’t expect to start distributing those funds until 2027 at the earliest.

Watered down rules

The plastic waste rules have had a rocky road to implementation. 

In 2024, CalRecycle developed a first draft of regulations detailing what plastic the law covers and what producers must do. The draft expired before CalRecycle finalized it. In 2025, Gov. Gavin Newsom directed regulators to rewrite the rules — a move that some advocates say say food and agriculture lobbyists pushed for.

The result was a second draft that carved out a broad exclusion for plastics used for food and agriculture purposes, covering products under the jurisdiction of the FDA and USDA, such as packaging for fresh produce and supplements. Advocates said the exclusion gutted the law.

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“The differences (from year-to-year) were subtle,” UC Riverside School of Public Policy Dean Mark Long told the board Tuesday. “Infrastructure was a little bit more emphasized this year than last. I didn’t come away with any surprise. These surveys are useful information, but I wouldn’t take them as purely what you should do as supervisors.”

Long, as well as two graduate students — Andres Gugig and Esther Mejia — were retained by the county Executive Office to conduct the 2026-27 Community Budget Priorities Survey over the winter. The online polls took place ahead of a series of community workshops held in each of the five supervisorial districts.

The surveys taken during the workshops provided only a very small sampling of opinion, while the online questionnaires received wide participation, with a total 26,543 respondents, according to documents posted to the board’s agenda Tuesday.

It was the second year the county commissioned a countywide survey. The previous one, completed in winter 2025, reflected that the highest level of interest was in public safety.

While the latter slipped into second place this year, it was a marginal difference from public works, which landed a 64% rating among all respondents, compared to 60% for public safety.

The other priorities were healthcare at 53%, human services at 49%, government finance at 23% and “internal services” — the public sector’s inter-agency operations — at 4%.

The survey team said “key words” were the determinants of how to classify respondents’ answers to the online questionnaires. For public works, terms such as “road maintenance” and “pothole repairs” were what amplified understanding of residents’ priorities, according to the team.

“People could write whatever they wanted,” Gugig told the board. “But I think if it was things that affect them on a daily basis, that’s what they wrote about.”

The team said poorly lit and damaged streets, or corridors where flooding is an issue, would push a higher number of responses into the public works category.

The Second District’s residents responded at the highest level, with just under 7,000 respondents to the survey. The district encompasses Canyon Lake, Corona, Eastvale, Jurupa Valley, Lake Elsinore, Temescal Valley and multiple other communities.

The lowest response rate was in the Fifth District, where there were 4,435 respondents. The district includes Banning, Beaumont, Calimesa, Hemet, Moreno Valley and San Jacinto. Most of the survey takers were English speakers, though 599 responses were exclusively in Spanish.

One Fifth District resident and a frequent commentator on county business, Roy Bleckert, told the board the survey results should speak less to what the supervisors should do and more of what they should refrain from doing.

“Practically everything that comes through here, as you grow the government monster bigger, makes the lives of everyone in Riverside County harder,” Bleckert said. “The more you spend, the worse everything becomes. When do you start to drop, like Sweden did, the influence of government and empower the people you serve?”

Another speaker, Veronica Langworthy of the Third District, touched on a similar topic, saying the results reflected how the board can make people’s lives better by reducing government red tape.

“If you can drop fees to adopt animals from county shelters, how about dropping fees for humans?” she said. “It’s impossible for people to house because of the fees from government on property.”

Supervisor Jose Medina said he found the results “helpful as we look at the budget decisions we make and the priorities we set.”

The entire survey can be found at rivco.gov/budget.

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Democrat Malia Cohen has served as controller (AKA California’s chief accountant) since 2023, and has raised more than $1.2 million for the race to keep her seat. She oversees spending for a state with a budget of nearly $350 billion and one of the world’s largest economies. It’s her job to make sure the state spends wisely and efficiently. 

As the governor and the Legislature hash out a budget deal for this year, Cohen has urged caution, saying higher-than-expected spending “reinforces the need for restraint.”

Cohen also has improved the state’s ability to deliver a key financial report that was chronically late for years. Cohen made up the backlog by releasing four reports in two years, and she told CalMatters that the upcoming report (called the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report) will almost be on time — late a mere two months, compared to the years others were delayed.

While running for office in 2022, Cohen told CalMatters she planned to scrutinize the state’s homelessness spending and take a critical look at the Employment Development Department and the Department of Motor Vehicles. A 2024 report by the state auditor found that California fails to adequately track its homelessness spending.

Cohen did not meet those campaign promises. She said that’s because the state auditor had already looked at those agencies. Instead of duplicating that work, she decided to focus on improving some internal functions of the state’s financial arm. She’s in the midst of ongoing efforts  to modernize FI$Cal — the IT system that manages the state’s finances — and the system that pays state employees.

“The bottom line is that I do believe that Californians deserve to know where their money is going,” she said. “So that’s what I’m working to do.”

Cohen’s main challenger, Republican Herb Morgan, has promised to pick up the slack he says his opponent has dropped. Like Cohen promised in 2022, Morgan said if elected, he will carefully scrutinize the state’s spending on homelessness. He wants to create a system where every time a state-funded nonprofit pays for anything, that transaction goes into a state database. Then, he said, he’ll use AI to monitor those purchases and flag anything suspicious. 

As an example of how state spending can be transparently tracked, a public dashboard on his website logs his campaign donations in real time. He’s raised $367,000 as of the end of April. 

Morgan acknowledged he’s an outlier as a Republican running in a state historically dominated by Democrats. But he believes voters will look at both candidates’ qualifications instead of voting along party lines. 

“I don’t care where you are on the social spectrum, 99% of us are fiscally responsible,” he said. “It doesn’t mean cutting spending. It doesn’t mean defunding. It just means being responsible with our money. And that, I think, appeals to all political ideologies.” 

Also running is Meghann Adams, a Peace and Freedom Party candidate. A school bus driver who lives in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, she is president of her union and manages its finances. If elected, Adams promised to expose corporate landlords that drive up rent prices, analyze the cost of imposing a single-payer Medi-Cal system and divest state investments from companies that support Israel’s war against Gaza. 

She’s raised $16,000 as of the end of April.

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Those are some of the details in a new batch of files on UFOs that the Pentagon began releasing on Friday as President Donald Trump taps into the public’s long-held curiosities about “unidentified anomalous phenomena” in the broader universe. Though the Pentagon has been working on declassifying the documents for years, Trump put attention back on the topic months ago by teasing a major UFO document dump.

“Whereas previous Administrations have failed to be transparent on this subject, with these new Documents and Videos, the people can decide for themselves, ‘WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?’ Have Fun and Enjoy!” Trump wrote Friday in a Truth Social post.

Trump’s Republican administration says the public can draw its own conclusions with the information in the files, which includes old State Department cables, FBI documents and transcripts from NASA of crewed flights into space. A new Pentagon website housing the documents on UAPs has a decidedly retro feel, with black-and-white military imagery of flying objects displayed prominently on the page, with statements displayed in typewriter-like font.

Experts urge caution around the release of the new files, warning that UAP videos are often misinterpreted and mischaracterized by those unfamiliar with military technology. A 2024 Pentagon report rebutted claims that the U.S. government has recovered alien technology or confirmed evidence of alien life.

Files describe numerous sightings of UAPs

The initial release is a trove of videos, other imagery and testimony that is sure to stir more speculation among those who believe we are not alone in the universe.

For instance, a State Department cable from the U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan in 1994 details how one Tajik pilot and three Americans saw a brightly lit UAP while flying a jet over Kazakhstan. The object, according to the cable, was “making 90 degree turns, doing corkscrews and maneuvering in circles at great rates of speed.”

That’s not the only instance of erratically moving objects cited in the document release. A military report from the Aegean Sea in 2023 cited a UAP flying just above the surface of the ocean and making “multiple 90-degree turns at an estimated 80 mph” (129 km/h).

One interview with a U.S. intelligence official details an incident last year in which the official, doing a search on a helicopter, encountered a “super-hot” orb hovering over the ground, traveling about 20 miles (32 kilometers) at a speedy clip, then spotted four or five more orbs that flared up and down.

In a 1969 debriefing of Apollo 11 crew members, the astronaut Aldrin recalled spotting several unusual sights, such as a “sizeable” object close to the moon and a “fairly bright light source” that the crew felt could be a laser.

One document details an FBI interview with someone identified as a drone pilot who, in September 2023, reported seeing a “linear object” with a light bright enough to “see bands within the light” in the sky.

“The object was visible for five to ten seconds and then the light went out and the object vanished,” according to the FBI interview.

Another file is a NASA photograph from the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, showing three dots in a triangular formation. The Pentagon says in an accompanying caption that “there is no consensus about the nature of the anomaly” but that a new, preliminary analysis indicated that it could be a “physical object.”

The documents include more than 20 video files showing unidentified objects captured by military sensors in locations from Syria and Japan to North America. The objects range from fast-moving specks captured in the distance to a football-shaped object spotted over the East China Sea in 2022. The most recent video is from Jan. 1 of this year and appears to show two circular lights flying against an inky black backdrop in North America.

Several files include military videos from the past several years that showed small ambiguous dots moving above the landscapes of Iraq, Syria and the United Arab Emirates. The white objects sometimes streaked across the screen in less than a second, while others slowly glided through the air or were followed by the camera.

Other files include written reports from U.S. military service members who were surveilling locations in the Middle East. One report described an object that was “shaped as a bouncy ball” and traveling 483 mph (777 km/h) consistently for at least seven minutes over Syria in 2023.

The object was later determined to be benign.

Among the files are hundreds of pages detailing reported sightings dating to the 1940s. A 1948 report from U.S. airmen in the Netherlands raised concerns about recurring flying saucer sightings. Swedish counterparts saw them, too, and believed they did not come from “any presently known culture on earth,” the report said.

One military video that quickly caught attention on Friday appears to show an aircraft shaped like an eight-pointed star weaving through the air. The video, from 2013 in the Middle East, is probably nothing more than a hot jet engine producing a diffraction pattern in the camera, said Sean Kirkpatrick, a former director of the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, which investigates UAP.

Kirkpatrick said there’s nothing unexpected in the release and warned that without analysis it will “only serve to fuel more speculation, conspiracy and arm-chair pseudoscience.”

Trump administration touts transp

arency on UFO file release

Trump has previously released records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. that revealed little beyond what was already known.

The Pentagon has been working on declassifying documents related to UFOs for years, and Congress created an office in 2022 to declassify material. Its 2024 debut report revealed hundreds of new UAP incidents but found no evidence that the U.S. government had ever confirmed a sighting of alien technology.

A small group of Republicans in Congress has pressed for further transparency, accusing the Pentagon of holding documents back. A March letter from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., demanded 46 UAP videos identified by whistleblowers. Luna said Friday those videos will be released later by the Pentagon.

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., thanked Trump for “keeping his word” on transparency and disclosure.

“I would like to remind people that transparency won’t all happen at once, it will take some time,” Burchett said in a statement.

Others used Friday’s release to urge further transparency into what the government knows about UAPs. The Sol Foundation, a research group focused on UAPs, pushed for passage of legislation that would force a “thorough” review of classified UAP records “with the aim of providing Americans with the full truth about longstanding government knowledge and programs concerning technologies and vehicles not of human origin.”

“While today’s new step toward a full disclosure of government knowledge concerning UAP is welcome, many more need to be taken to bring an end to the decades of secrecy by which the American people were kept in the dark,” said Peter Skafish, the foundation’s executive director, and retired Rear Adm. Tim Gallaudet, a former acting administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency.

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