Riverside council hires Lori K.M. Cox as the city's first inspector general at $219,000 a year
The council voted unanimously Oct. 6 to approve Cox's three-year contract. The same meeting's consent calendar awarded $410,050 in 2026-27 arts grants that a councilmember later asked to reconsider.
The Riverside City Council voted unanimously on Oct. 6 to hire Lori K.M. Cox as inspector general, with a start date of Oct. 19.
Councilmember Steven Robillard, who prepared the item, made the motion, and Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes seconded it. Three people spoke before the vote, the minutes show.
Robillard's memo to the council says Cox will be the first person to hold the post. The agreement says the office was created by the City Charter's Article IV, Section 420.
Contract terms
The agreement pays Cox $219,000 a year. Her salary is then eligible for a 3% increase each year following a satisfactory performance evaluation.
The contract runs three years and can be extended if both sides agree.
Under the draft attached to the staff report, a council majority can end the contract without cause, while a firing for cause takes five votes. If the council ends it while Cox is able to do the job, she would receive a lump sum equal to six months of salary plus that year's 401(a) contribution.
The draft also bars the council from firing the inspector general in the 60 days after any change in council membership.
According to the memo, the council hired an executive search firm in March for a nationwide recruitment and settled on a candidate in September. The job was already funded in the fiscal 2026-27 budget, it says.
Draft minutes of the council's Oct. 20 meeting, which are awaiting council approval, show the city manager introduced Cox that day.
Arts grants
Eleven people used public comment to talk about the arts grant program, according to the minutes.
The council approved the program's awards on its consent calendar: $410,050 for 27 arts and cultural groups in fiscal 2026-27 and $414,150 in 2027-28. The largest first-year awards are $40,000 to the Civil Rights Institute of Inland Southern California, $38,000 to Riverside Arts Academy and $36,000 to the Mission Inn Foundation.
A Parks, Recreation and Community Services report says the grant budget was cut on June 23 by $100,000 for the first year and $105,000 for the second. A panel of arts professionals who work outside Riverside evaluated the applications, the report says.
The minutes do not list a tally for the consent calendar, which Councilmember Hemenway moved and Councilmember Mill seconded.
A staff report for the council's Nov. 17 meeting says Mill asked on Nov. 10 to reconsider the awards. That agenda pairs the reconsideration with a request to set aside the city's Sunshine Ordinance, which takes a two-thirds vote.
Other actions
Also on consent, the council adopted Resolution No. 24428 backing Proposition 1, the $11.25 billion veterans and affordable housing bond on the Nov. 3 state ballot. It approved buying a KME tiller truck for the Fire Department from Fire Apparatus Solutions of Rialto for $2,817,780.73.
The council told staff to start a three-year pilot that narrows Linden Street to two lanes, down from four, between Chicago and Iowa avenues, adding a center turn lane and buffered bike lanes.
Under requests for future items, Councilmember Falcone asked staff to study Waymo's operations in Riverside and report to the Transportation Board.
City Attorney James Johnson reported no actions from closed session. The council approved the Oct. 6 minutes on Oct. 20, according to the draft Oct. 20 minutes, which are awaiting council approval.
