Ward 4 Candidates Clash Over Warehouses, Taxes and Public Safety at Gazette Forum

Three Ward 4 candidates clashed sharply Wednesday at the Raincross Gazette's candidate forum, trading challenges over warehouse development, a proposed sales tax increase and years of unfulfilled promises on public safety infrastructure.

Incumbent Chuck Conder, local business owner Jessica Qattawi and local business owner Richard Vandenberg are vying for the Ward 4 council seat.

Ward 4 covers neighborhoods including Alessandro Heights, Mission Grove, Orangecrest and the Greenbelt, which became a part of Ward 4 during redistricting in 2023 – meaning many residents in this area will be voting in a Ward 4 race for the first time this year.

The forum was moderated by former Press Enterprise columnist and longtime Riversider Dan Bernstein, who introduced discussion questions on both citywide and Ward 4-specific questions.

Ward 4-Specific Questions

Warehouses and the March Land

Last May, the March JPA voted 8–0 to reject a project on roughly 800 acres of former military land — including about 143 acres of warehouses — next to Mission Grove and Orangecrest, now under Riverside County's jurisdiction. Do you support warehouse development there, and what role should a Riverside councilmember play in the county's decision?

Conder: "...We had a [Fortune] 50 company come in here for high tech, and they killed it. How are we going to get that back? Now we have no say. It's in the hands of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors, five people. We don't have a say in Riverside anymore, and that's a sad thing. We have enough warehouses. We don't have as many open spaces of individuals over here right now, warehouses, you talk to VIA, there are people scrambling to try to find a large warehouse, because everything is moving internet sales. Every one of [you] probably got Amazon, eBay or something. Where's that come from? A warehouse."

Vandenberg: "Mr. Conder, weren't you one of the ones who voted for that budget? So you just stomped your foot and said they killed it."

Conder: "We voted on that project. We had the next project in line, and that was stopped."

Vandenberg: "I went to the meeting in March when they were there, talking about their good-paying jobs, and I went to all eight booths. Now, one of the people there was qualified to speak on the jobs. They couldn't tell me what the jobs were or what they paid. Not a word. I went through with an open mind. We have enough warehouses in the Mission Grove, [Orangecrest] area…the Council, about three months ago, took a vote. It was the warehouse zoning update. Okay, that's one thing they did good. They voted 4-3 to reduce the size of warehouses the closer we got to our house, schools and parks bigger offset more plants and trees to kind of hide them. That was a 4-3 vote. Mr. Conder, care to share how you voted on that one?"

Conder: "Go look at the warehouses that we are actually trying to build and put out there. Not the 100,000 square feet one you're trying to do. Nobody wants the small one. We're trying to sell the big ones."

Vandenberg: "If you are elected to City Council, you're elected to represent your constituents. Your constituents overwhelmingly do not want these big warehouses in the backyard. Even if you're the smartest guy in the room, you're not elected to be king."

Qattawi: "Yeah, so no warehouses in Ward four. That is definitely the sentiment from all the residents. I'm also door knocking, and I actually sent out a survey, and I wanted to give you my results. When it came to warehouses, I asked my constituents, did they want to continue expansion of that property right next to the Grove Church? And 17% said yes, 73% said no. 10% said unsure, and 5% said tell more. So we're going to say about 15% don't really know what's going on, so they don't want to make a decision. But 73% of the residents don't want warehouses.

And this is the responsibility of a city council person: to represent the residents. Residents first. And that's what we need to remembe…you guys are electing us to represent you, and what has been happening on that dias, they are [not] representing us. They lie to you and tell you everything that you want to hear. And then when they get up there, what do they do? They vote against everything they ever promised you. And I believe that should be illegal, and there should be some type of repercussions for doing that, especially when we have proof of it."

Road Conditions

Big rigs on Van Buren and Washington, potholes on Victoria, truck ordinances barely enforced — and Van Buren, one of Ward 4's busiest corridors, is the city-county line. What's the single most important thing you'd do on Ward 4's roads in your first six months?

Qattawi: "I don't even need to start in the next six months. I already started trying to do the work. I personally met with Senator Kelly to discuss some ideas and options for how we can start alleviating traffic in Ward four, it is getting really busy.

What has happened is that the city has poor planning skills. They have not planned for the growth of our city, and now we're dealing with lots of traffic. One of the things we discussed…is the 215 and the 60. We need to get involved with Caltrans, we need to speak with them as a city and taking care of our residents we need to make sure that we start reaching out to them, and for future planning we need to make sure that we are putting in the roads that we need to ensure that there is a good flow for our community."

Vandenberg: "We need to prioritize our road repairs. We have done a poor job investing in our roads. We don't invest in the maintenance, and then the repairs become much more expensive. That's one.

Number two, we need enforcement. Traffic enforcement up in the area. We're one of the safer areas in Riverside. Because of that, we don't have the same police force in our neighborhoods. The other big [thing] here…the safety issue is not necessarily break-ins. It's traffic. It's speeders. It's mostly walking inside of the road, and people are speeding fast, and that's an issue for me. It's traffic enforcement. We need to get them up there. We need to get them [to] knock these big rigs we're driving up and down roads. They're doing the most damage to the streets. Increasing the fines, I think it was done. If it hasn't been done … I'll make that an escalated fine… I think that's the easiest thing that actually would generate funding for our city."

Conder: "So we've been working hard to restrict truck traffic. You can't control trucks on the truck line…our area, we have put restrictions on…It's a very difficult thing. We haven't played anybody heard of the BIG project? Probably not. It's called the Barstow Intermodal Gateway, and what we're working on is getting the trucks off the road. All this stuff out of the ports are going to come by a train to Barstow. You see the massive train yard that's out there? That's where the stuff will come in. And from that point, you truck down that'll get a lot of stuff off of our streets. You're always going to have trucks…if you're doing business in the area…We continue to restrict them. We spend more money on road surfacing this year than they ever have. Same thing for next year. Our internal team, they're doing the potholes. Our external team with the pay-per-roads. It costs us a lot less to do slurry, we're doing the slurrying, but we're taking care of this city with the money we have. We can do more – Y'all want to be taxed more? I'll go to the boss and ask for higher taxes in the city if you want more. We're doing with what we've got, there's eight of us fighting for that pot of money."

Greenbelt and Prop R / Measure C

Proposition R and Measure C have protected the Greenbelt from development since 1979 and 1987. Are those protections strong enough as written — or do they need to be updated, and if so, in which direction?

Conder: "Many of you know I worked 10 years here, for MacArthur in the Greenbelt…the Green Belt is sacred to us…[the laws are] stern enough to protect us now. Now, is it too stern? Well, that depends on if you want to sell your land and build houses on it. I love the Greenbelt. If we want a Greenbelt here, we need to help protect it.

I have, for years, fought to try to find a way to have RPU have a lower rate for the Greenbelt Prop 218 is killing me on that. But if the citizens want an open area, like the citizens want fire protection, please prepare. You want the open area, we all have to pay for it because these people are struggling with water. That is the biggest thing…"

Vandenberg: "I don't know if [the laws] are strong enough. If they're not, they need to be. We need to protect the Greenbelt. We don't have Riverside without the Greenbelt. At one point in history, we were the richest city per capita because of our roads, our industry. We need to protect it. Make Victoria Avenue beautiful again, was the project on Victoria La Sierra…I would protect the Greenbelt at all costs."

Qattawi: "We would need to protect the Greenbelt. I was speaking with a lady earlier, she said that she's having to take all her navels out and replant them with avocados now, because of the Oriental fly and all this damage, and it's not possible anymore to have the navels. Riverside is known for oranges, right? So it's kind of sad to hear that but we definitely need to make sure that we take care of our farmers and our farms, and they're part of the workforce I'd definitely commit to doing whatever I can to help them."

Police Presence

92508 residents say police presence in Mission Grove and Orangecrest is basically nonexistent. A Ward 4 police substation has been on the table for years but never funded. Should that change — and where does the money come from?

Qattawi: "Public Safety should be our priority. When we live in a city, we want to make sure that we are safe. One of the survey questions that I did…I asked [residents] to tell me anything that you're concerned about in Riverside. And one of them said Daisy Street…one of our residents said that one out of every three homes on that street had been burglarized.

What are we doing as a city? We do need to make sure that we provide a substation in that area, and we need to make sure that, until then, that we have a police force constantly going through those areas to ensure that we're safe. Ward 4's known for having the higher end homes, right? So we definitely want to make sure that we protect our area."

Conder: "Your police chief, Larry Gonzalez, one of the finest men you'll ever want to meet, he lives in Ward four. He has been working to find ways to increase patrols, which we have. Y'all remember, the CHP station is down here…their commander came to me a couple years ago and said, You want us in Riverside, Riverside, I want you here. He said, We can't be here anymore. We are tapped out. We have no room. We've got to move. We can't afford to do it.

So I sat with him, and I sat with the police chief, who talked about doing something, and I designed a station to go along behind the grove on 13.9 acres. It would be a combination of Riverside police officers and the CHP. …We had a meeting here…Guess who killed the project. Sacramento…They're the ones that killed the project…Your police chief is looking for ways to put something up there, trying to decide how to do it, where to do it, his offices that had to go up there. They are the best. Your police chief knows what he's doing. He's going to get something up to the matter. Right now the downtown station is what's sucking up all the funds."

Vandenberg: "Chief Gonzalez is fantastic. I did meet with him about two months ago. We met for about an hour. We talked about police presence in Ward four. He said Ward four is not the biggest concern in the city. There are bigger concerns, and he didn't have the staff to cover the whole city. I understand now we're fully staffed. I would support a fire station, a police station in Ward four. I received a pamphlet in the mail today for Mr. Conder, and he's promising a police station in Ward four, knowing we're going through budget cuts, $18 million cut this year, I'd like to give you an opportunity to share where the funding is coming from."

Conder: "Funding comes from Measure Z. If you go, spend three minutes on the internet…it show you what measure Z funds are, and 70% of it in we've invested in police cars, police helicopters, aircraft, personnel, equipment. Larry Gonzalez is going to get something done, we need to find places to do it."

Measure Z

Measure Z was passed in 2016, scheduled to expire in 2036 but the measure that's on the ballot raises the sales tax from 1% to 1.25% indefinitely. In other words, no expiration. So are you for that?

Vandenberg: "I serve in the budget engagement commission. I'm the Vice Chair. I am not for the increase or the permanency of this thing.

Number one, we gotta show that we've used the money where I do so far, it's been in effect for 10 years. It was expected to generate $48 million and did $84 million last year. The increased draw on fire should have been offset by the increase in revenue generated from that. In the ballot statement, the original, it said we're going to fund, police, fire, homelessness services, youth, Senior Services, roads and infrastructure and other general services.

…[They] spend a majority … on fire and police, however, not a penny for seniors, not a penny for youth, 1% for homelessness. Let's go back and reprioritize money first before we tax. It's not a good time to be increasing taxes. People are struggling with rising costs from gas, utilities, everything else…it is not the time. It's time to dig in our pockets…it's time to make cuts in the city, to prioritize the money that we have, and make sure it is used as voters approved it almost 10 years ago.

As far as sunsetting, we got 10 years left. What's the rush to make this permanent? You make it permanent, we lose accountability. Right now, we gotta go back to taxpayers to say here's how we spent the money for the last 20 years. Did we do okay? Should we extend it?"

Qattawi: "I kind of mentioned this earlier. I personally met with Mike Furtell about Measure Z, and I was one of the individuals that signed the opposition statement to make sure that they edited what is going to be on the ballot when it goes out to all the residents, because it was not transparent where the money was going to go.

We want to make sure that …Measure Z was going to go towards fire and public safety, but this one is not. It's going to go to the general fund. And if you're okay with that, then vote yes, right? If you want to ensure that your money is going towards your safety, then vote no. And let's figure something else out. I did ask Mike to provide me with the money that was spent for last year, which Measure Z brought in..and he provided me a list of all the places that the money went, but he did not provide me with the exact amounts where how much was spent at each place. He said he's going to send it to me. I'm still waiting on that it's been a month."

Conder: "Well, the reason it is indefinite is because you can kill it next year. This one is for 20 years. If we put a 20 year date on it, we're stuck with it for 20 years. If the citizenry decides in 2031 to put it on the ballot, it can stop it. That's why. If you're voting on Measure Z in Ward four, you're going to get public safety, and that is a flat damn truth.

Right now, public safety is struggling in Ward four. Response times for fire exceed twice the average in Riverside because of the traffic…We need a fire station…I've worked with the city manager and we're going to deal with it as soon as we buy that land. We're going to put temporary housing up there for the firefighters of the trucks and we're going to get fire protected there..."

Vandenberg: "Do you support tax increases or not, yes or no?"

Conder: "Yes."

Vandenberg: "And that *pamphlet right there says he does not."

Conder: "For what I need to do for my city, you're damn right."

*A campaign mailer distributed by Conder's campaign pledged he would hold "City Hall accountable by opposing new taxes," a claim Vandenberg cited during the exchange.

Wildfire Prevention & Response

Much of Ward 4 now sits in high fire hazard zones — Hawarden Hills, the Alessandro arroyos, the Greenbelt — and the 2024 Hawarden fire raised serious questions about both response and prevention. Where does the city need to do better, and do you support stricter brush clearance enforcement on private property?

Qattawi: "I think some people might not be too ecstatic about this answer…the Hawarden fire, it took a lot longer for them to get to the fire because of the road being closed off. And I bring this up because if that bridge was finished, it could possibly eliminate traffic. It would make it a lot safer for the residents that live there.

What does the city need to do better? I personally also met with the fire chief, and we had a conversation. They had an outside company come in which they paid money for…and they said, okay, well, your city isn't fire safe, and we're one minute slower in response time than we're supposed to be. So they want to bring in two more fire stations, and I want to say 84 more firemen. It's very convenient that this comes up when they also want to position Measure Z and let us know that we need to vote for Measure Z to protect us.

But they also do have a program now called Firewise, and if you sign up for it, it will give you a chance to make sure that you are safe, but also possibly lower your insurance because I know a lot of people there in terms have gone up. So that's something to look into, but that is something that the city is doing and I'm grateful for that…we also have to talk about the positive things that are out there…"

Vandenberg: "What is the biggest cause of fires in Riverside? It's not fireworks. It's not homeless, which that's kind of what I thought it would be. It is power lines, transformers and utility lines. RTRP would have been a good place to start. Putting those underground would have been a great way to start, right?

That aside, I will fully support brush clearance. We need that dedicated funding source for the brush clearance…right now we deal with issues as a default. I took a walk just yesterday with a gentleman in the room, and he showed me some of the areas that are overlooked that are overgrown fire hazards. We need to have a more proactive approach to clearing our brush hazards, trimming our trees, and clearing the debris."

Conder: "Yeah, we need to get better at doing it. The challenges are with the houses that back up to an arroyo, part of which they can't get into because it's controlled by the Riverside Conservancy.

A former fire marshal…and I, we worked, we talked, we put together a plan with the city…we need to do a better job, because the winds blow. Houses are being built. Go up into the houses being built on the south side, they're like, 10 feet apart. One house catches fire. It's going to run down the road, so we've got to be very careful. We have to do the fire clearance. They're not telling you, it'll rip your birds of paradise from the front of your house with the things.

They're just telling you, just why keep the dead stuff away. Make sure you find your house fire safe. All that is good, but our houses are mostly stucco, the roofs are tiled, we just gotta do a better job of closing off some vents where some of the embers of the fires from Hawarden flew in and that was a tragedy, but could have been worse."

Qattawi: "But what can the city do? There's an organization called CCC, and Senator Kelly told me about this, they will come out for free and remove brush. So why are we not utilizing that service? And it's free to us."

Overlook Parkway

The Overlook Parkway extension — and the bridge over the Alessandro Arroyo it requires — has been proposed, stalled, and revived since at least the 1980s. Should it be built — yes or no, and why?

Qattawi: "I would say yes, I do believe we should build it. But of course, this would also take some consideration of figuring out a way to open up Madison, because we do want to look at what that will look like after we open it up, right?

So it will debase some of the traffic, but we also have to look at the next streets over, like Madison and Washington. I actually had a constituent email me a whole plan, and he worked on this about 10 years ago, and I would love to be able to present it to everybody and see if it makes sense. At the end of the day we just want to make sure that we can live in our city. Be happy. Get to work, get home to our children safely and do our thing because we got to do this every day over and over and over."

Vandenberg: "There's two parts to this, right? There's an extension, and then there's a bridge. I would support the extension. I don't know why we haven't done it. It wouldn't cost a lot of money. There's not a lot to it. It would alleviate traffic on Via Vista. … I'm for the extension. I don't know if we [should] put a bridge yet or not…I believe it was part of the master plan. There are no driveways that back into Overlook. I don't know enough, to be honest, about that. I would support the extension; the bridge would take more research, traffic studies, before I can support or not support it."

Conder: "The extension requires a bridge. It requires two bridges connected. It was taken out of the general plan by my predecessor. I had it put back and looked at and studied. He's incorrect. There are a couple of houses that open up on Overlook, but not many. The danger is it's going to be one way in, one way out, if a fire burns. It is part of the city's general traffic plan. It needs to be looked at. There are ways to slow down traffic on it. We can put in rotaries…we can do things in traffic without so it is back into the plan. It's going to get one get looked at…there are good ways to deal with traffic study, and I've got the traffic engineers to think outside the box that the best way to make this work and come back with a study and they're working on it someday, somewhere you will see a study for that."

Mission Grove Apartments

The council voted 6–1 to approve 347 apartments at the old Kmart site in Mission Grove, overriding an airport-safety density cap set for the area near March Air Reserve Base. Was that the right call?

Vandenberg: "Infill projects I support if we're going to build housing. That was an opportunity to do so, we were told by the councilman, there was nothing we could do about the four stories, about the multiple units, about the lack of three to four bedroom apartments for housing, it was for family housing, which didn't make sense with one or two bedroom apartments and the lack of parking. Folks…fought hard and got a deal struck with the developer that I think they were satisfied with. That's the way things work. When you come and you negotiate and you work with the people, you kind of get things done when the city works together. We were told there was nothing you could do on that project."

Conder: "There wasn't nothing you couldn't do. The corporation that bought the land from the Rubin family. They came with the first plan. 347. Came back, groups work, talked to Michelle who runs the company, and it's down to 188. We need housing, this is top line housing…this is a fantastic place. It's a place you can walk…You've got grocery stores, you've got the movie theaters, you've got the gym going in there...."

Qattawi: "I think it's a great place for a mixed use property, and like I was thinking about earlier, with the businesses and the homes above it, we just want to make sure that wherever we build, that we do have enough parking and that the streets can accommodate the traffic.

I think that what we're lacking in Ward four is like the Canyon Crest Town Center. And that's one of my visions for our area, is…seeing if we could create that within our ward. Who's ever been to Canyon Crest Town Center? It's beautiful, right? Don't you guys want to have one for us? So I think it would be great, we were able to create that within that…shopping, living and trails."

Looking Forward

You win this election. Four years from now you're running for re-election. Tell voters concretely what you'll have accomplished in your term.

Qattawi: "So first, I accomplished making sure that the warehouses were [not] built in my ward. I also brought in a fire station. I brought in a police station to make sure that we are safe. I was able to create a plan with Caltrans so they could work on the freeways the 215 and the 60, so that way we can alleviate the traffic going on through Van Buren and on Alessandro... I also helped bring a senior center, because Ward four doesn't have a senior center. I also brought a Farmers Market event, and started hosting a community event for our ward for the children."

Vandenberg: "We have fine tooth comb-picked our budget. We've eliminated wastewater use. We did not have to increase taxes to meet our safety needs in the city. We did not develop logistics warehouses, we brought new jobs to the city, we met our housing mandates for low and moderate income housing, we reduced homelessness in the city."

Conder: "Well, we have a balanced budget. We got a strong police force. We got a fire department, which is one of the best quality fire departments in America.

We're bringing in business. We are safe. Our streets are in bad shape, and they're getting better…We are on the right path. We have a council working together for the better of Riverside. We had some challenges a couple of years ago, now we're working together. We got a great staff. Let me tell you, we have professional people downstairs that love this city, and they are working. We work with them. We're getting things done. Now's [not] the time for opportunities to come in and change the things that we're doing. It's working. We got business coming here, let me tell you why they come here…because people want to live here. We are doing a good job, we have good schools, good fire, good police…and we have good parks."