7-4-23 Letter from Stacie Ritter to Clarissa Cervantes

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From: Stacie Ritter <ritterstacie@gmail.com> Sent: Tuesday, July 4, 2023 8:30 AM To: Conder, Chuck <CConder@riversideca.gov>; Perry, Jim <JPerry@riversideca.gov>; Plascencia, Gaby <GPlascencia@riversideca.gov>; 2Mayor <2MAYOR@riversideca.gov>; Fierro, Ronaldo <RFierro@riversideca.gov>; Hemenway, Steve <SHemenway@riversideca.gov>; Cervantes, Clarissa <CCervantes@riversideca.gov>; Edwards, Erin <EEdwards@riversideca.gov>; CityClerkMbx <City_Clerk@rive rsideca.gov> Subject: [EXTERNAL] Clarissa Cervantes 2nd DUI -Social Media You are all aware of Clarissa's arrest for DUI on 1 July 2023. You must be aware now of her DUI arrest on 28 September, 2014. Clarissa is very fortunate she did not kill anyone this time or during her 2014 DUI arrest. What this reveals is Clarissa has been doing this behavior for over 10 years and has not learned her lesson. She has only been CAUGHT twice. Surely she has driven numerous times to count while intoxicated. Here is a quote from her 2014 arrest: "I regrettably made the worst decision of my life when I was in my early 20's, which was to drive after drinking one evening. At the time, I was coming out of a domestic abusive relationship that had severely impacted my mental and physical health," Cervantes said in the petition. Now that she is in her 30's, I would love to see her reasoning for this arrest. The pattern of arrests clearly demonstrates a pattern of poor judgment. As a side note, her above statement, not a defense! Driving Under The Influence is a BIG DEAL, I am tired of some sweeping things under the rug. This is EGREGIOUS. Are you also aware that Clarissa has SHUT DOWN the comments on her social media Official Government FB page and IG page? Other members of our city have screenshots of posts on her FB Official page which have now been deleted. I also went to her FB page and you can only see 2 profile pictures of her. EVERYTHING else is scrubbed, which is ILLEGAL. --- Courts have ruled that deleting/restricting posts from an elected official's social media page is ILLEGAL and unethical. This is governmental speech protected by the 1st Amendment. So again, Clarissa demonstrates she makes very poor decisions. • FB(Clarissa Cervantes, City of Riverside, Ward 2) City of Riverside Councilmember representing Ward 2 • IG (Clarissacervantes_ward2) Ward 2 Councilmember Mayor Pro Tem Then there are other alleged issues that have allegedly occurred in the past with Clarissa as Andy Melendrez' field representative. I will be honest, I did not know about any of this at the time, but things come out when you are not conducting yourself above board. City Council members should be held at a higher standard and that is just not happening. Let's walk through this: • DUI in 2014 • DUI in 2023 • Illegally turning off posts and deleting comments on her FB Official government page I