City Council Memorandum
TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL DATE: MARCH 10, 2026 FROM: CITY ATTORNEY’S OFFICE
CITY CLERK’S OFFICE WARDS: ALL
SUBJECT: ADOPT OMNIBUS ORDINANCE AMENDING VARIOUS CLARIFYING, CONFORMING, TECHNICAL AND OTHER AMENDMENTS TO THE RIVERSIDE MUNICIPAL CODE - ORDINANCE ISSUE:
Adoption of an ordinance amending various sections of Titles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 10 the Riverside Municipal Code to make various clarifying, conforming, technical, and other amendments in order to ensure that the Code remains current, relevant, and consistent with existing statutory and decisional law.
RECOMMENDATION:
That the City Council adopt an ordinance amending Riverside Municipal Code Titles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 10, respectively.
INTRODUCTION OF ORDINANCE:
On February 24, 2026, the City Council introduced the proposed ordinance to amend various sections of Titles 1, 2, 3, 4 5, and 10 of the Riverside Municipal Code to make various clarifying, conforming, technical, and other amendments for the Code to be current. The City Council approved the matter unanimously.
DISCUSSION:
CivicPlus, LLC (“CivicPlus”) currently provides service to the City for codification of newly adopted ordinances, maintenance, amendments, and publication of the City’s Charter and Municipal Code online. CivicPlus agreed to conduct an initial legal review of the Riverside Municipal Code (“RMC”).
The City Attorney’s Office reviewed the proposed revisions from CivicPlus and met with respective Department staff where necessary. Based on information provided by the Departments, the City Attorney’s Office has reviewed and determined that certain clarifications and elimination of outdated provisions of the code exist, including any provisions which have become obsolete, or otherwise unnecessarily duplicative of state law, or require restatement to ensure compliance with state law.
Here are some examples of the proposed revisions:
Duplicate Definitions: RMC Section 1.01.050, “Definitions and construction,” has definitions for such commonly used terms like “City”, “City Manager”, “Finance Director”; all such general definitions should be included in this section and not duplicated in other sections of the RMC.
Obsolete: Section 1.01.070, “Effect of Code on past actions and obligations,” of the Code addresses whether amendments to the Code will affect the prosecution for violations of the Code which were committed prior to August 9, 1968; this section is no longer needed.
Duplicative: multiple sections of the Code provide that if any section of the Code is found to be invalid, such invalidity will not affect other provisions of the Code. However, RMC Section 1.01.140, “Severability of parts of code,” applies to all sections of the RMC and therefore the other sections related to such severability are duplicative.
Restatement: Section 1.15.050, “Campaign contribution limits,” refers to an assembly bill which amended the Government Code; it is more appropriate to only refer to the section of the Government Code that authorizes the City to set campaign limits in its Code.
Reference to an obligation under State Law: RMC section 2.70.030, ‘Military Equipment Use Policy Requirement,” refers to a City obligation imposed by State law; such reference to the obligation imposed by State law is not required.
Chapter 5.60 of the RMC applies to remote caller bingo games, as regulated by state law; non-substantive changes are needed to confirm to changes in state law.
Similar revisions to RMC Titles 5 through 10, 11 through 15 and 16 through 20 will be similarly presented to the City Council for introduction and adoption. Because of the lengthy process to review and draft such revisions, staff has divided the revisions into these four separate groups, to be presented to City Council consideration in three-month intervals.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no fiscal impact associated with this report.
Prepared by: Susan Wilson, Assistant City Attorney
Approved as to form: Rebecca McKee-Reimbold, Interim City Attorney Attachment: Ordinance
RMC Update – Page 2