In the wake of an internal report alleging that Riverside code enforcement officers mistreated street vendors and entered homes without warrants, advocates have questions:
What actions did city officials take upon receiving the report last year?
And what will the city do to make whole the alleged victims of the officers, who are accused of deploying aggressive tactics and improperly seizing property over a period of years?
“We need to figure out how we can provide a sense of justice to vendors in the immediacy,” said Eddie Torres, policy director at the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice. “And then we can focus on providing policy and other reforms down the line.”
City officials said they were working to launch an independent review of the Community and Economic Development Department, which includes the Code Enforcement Division, and to examine past fines and fees issued to vendors.
The report was created in August by an investigator hired by the city to probe a whistleblower’s complaint, which alleged that senior code officers Mark Ilagan and Mark Hernandez engaged in potentially unlawful behavior toward citizens, and that supervisors Chris Christopoulos and Jennifer Lilley failed to take action in response.
The whistleblower, a code enforcement officer, was escorted from City Hall the day after she filed the complaint. In the report, the investigator described her removal as “retaliatory” and alleged that Christopoulos and Lilley had created a hostile work environment.
The investigator also identified potential legal violations by Ilagan and Hernandez, including allegations of theft, robbery, kidnapping, unlawful entry, impersonating a peace officer and, in the case of Ilagan alone, battery.
Ilagan has denied the allegations, and Lilley has said the report contained inaccuracies. Neither Christopoulos nor Hernandez could be reached for comment. The four no longer work for the city of Riverside. The whistleblower resigned last year.
The report was uploaded to the city’s public-records portal late last month in response to a request from local resident Jason Hunter. At a recent City Council session, he said he’d like to know why it took seven months before some of those involved were no longer employed by the city, and whether the allegations were referred to authorities for potential criminal prosecution. “This has all the markings of a citywide cover-up,” he said.
The Riverside Police Department did not respond to a request for comment on whether it investigated either officer. A spokesperson for the Riverside County district attorney’s office said that prosecutors had not received a case involving Ilagan but was not sure about Hernandez.
The city has said that it took disciplinary action in response to the investigation but declined to provide details, citing confidentiality requirements involving personnel matters. Lilley has said she was terminated, and Ilagan said he resigned.
The fact that there’s no indication of a criminal investigation “suggests that Riverside is not properly holding its own staff to account when they find evidence of illegality,” said Benjamin Wood, legal director at the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice.
The network of immigrant rights groups is working to identify vendors who interacted with Ilagan and Hernandez and has called on the city to ensure they’re compensated for any losses.
California decriminalized street vending during President Trump’s first term over fears that vendors would face immigration consequences for trying to earn a living. The law leaves it up to cities to create policies for permitting and regulation. Although decriminalization has provided key protections for street vendors, some jurisdictions took it as a green light to put more restrictions on the practice, Wood said.
He pointed to the city of Fontana, which is facing a lawsuit on behalf of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice alleging the city adopted unlawfully restrictive ordinances and hired a third-party code enforcement contractor whose staff members have harassed vendors and improperly seized their property. “Each city is its own battle, which I don’t think was the intention of [the law],” Wood said.
Shannon Camacho, senior policy associate at Inclusive Action for the City, said that Riverside needs to commit to improving its sidewalk vending ordinance and code enforcement protocols.
Vendors across California live in fear of immigration enforcement, so it can be especially confusing and scary for them to encounter code enforcement officers wearing paramilitary-style uniforms and behaving aggressively, as the investigation alleges the Riverside officers did, she said.
Such conduct can cause vendors to lose trust in their local government and be afraid to do things like apply for permits and licenses, she said. “Even though this is a specific investigation in the city of Riverside, the consequences of this behavior by code enforcement reverberate throughout the state.”
Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson said the Community and Economic Development Department has been plagued by dysfunction for more than a decade and must be thoroughly reviewed by an outside management consultant. “I want to be clear that the city of Riverside doesn’t condone this behavior, but we are responsible for fixing the situation that led to it,” she said at the June 9 City Council meeting.
City management is working aggressively to act on the mayor’s request and “is moving forward with engaging outside experts to review the department, including its culture, operations, policies, and procedures, and develop recommendations,” city spokesperson Phil Pitchford wrote in an email.
Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes also requested that a council committee review past fines and fees issued to vendors, as well as the rules of engagement for code enforcement officers.
That meeting has tentatively been scheduled for Aug. 20, according to Community and Economic Development Director Miranda Evans, who was permanently appointed to the role last week after serving as interim director since February.
Evans wrote in an email that she received the investigative report last month and took action, conducting a review of the findings and identifying opportunities for improvement. Code enforcement staff are currently documenting all training activities and are focused on strengthening team culture and rebuilding public trust, she wrote.
Torres, of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, said he was disappointed that Riverside officials did not make the report public upon receiving it last summer. The city didn’t issue the final discipline in connection with the matter until April 7, so the investigation was open until that point, Pitchford said.
The coalition has called on the city to void code citations issued to vendors during the alleged misconduct and refund related fines and fees, and to either return improperly seized property or pay restitution.
Torres also believes the mayor should hold a roundtable discussion to hear directly from vendors about how they’ve been treated and create policy based on those experiences. In the meantime, he and others said, the city should place a moratorium on code enforcement actions against street vendors.
“We’re hoping we can start rebuilding that trust with the community,” he said, “and also work with the city to make sure this never happens again.”
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