For City Council Meeting July 28, 2026
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council
APPROVAL: Eric Vail, City Attorney
FROM: Yazdan Emrani, P.E., Director of Public Works
Title
Request City Council to Approve Second Reading and Adopt Ordinance No. 1714 to Amend Multiple Sections of the Municipal Code to provide the Public Works Director with the same Authority as the City Engineer.
Body
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council adopt Ordinance, "AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF RIALTO AMENDING MISCELLANEOUS SECTIONS IN THE RIALTO MUNICIPAL CODE TO PROVIDE THE PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR WITH THE SAME AUTHORITY AS THE CITY ENGINEER"; and
BACKGROUND:
In order to facilitate conducting City business, providing the Public Works Director with the same authority as the City Engineer will increase the City's flexibility in completing City projects.
ANALYSIS/DISCUSSION:
On June 23, 2026, the City Council considered the attached proposed ordinance for first reading. The ordinance updated and added many sections of the code to allow for the public works director to have the same authority as the city engineer. The Council considered the ordinance and approved first reading, with the following language change: in all instances where the city engineer's authority is extended to the public works director where the director must be a civil engineer, the proposed language was updated from "provided they are a registered Professional Engineer in California," to "provided they are a California-licensed Professional Engineer (Civil)," to clarify the specific engineering license required.
A clean version of the proposed ordinance with the updated language is included as Attachment 1.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT:
The requested City Council action is not a "Project" as defined by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Pursuant to Section 15378(a), a "Project" means the whole of an action, which has a potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in...
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