• State of the City 2017

People began arriving a little after 5pm for the State of the City address. This was the third consecutive year that the event was held at the council chambers. This year the entrance area was all gussied up western style.

The front of the council chambers all decked out for the occasion.

The guests were fed by Da Big Show BBQ, and the Wildomar Rotary Club served beer and wine. I recommend the pulled pork sandwiches and the mac n cheese.

Around 6pm a reminder that the event was about to start came over the PA system and people went in and found their seats. 

Mayor Pro-Tem Ben Benoit greeted the crowd and introduced Joseph Franco who gave the opening prayer. 

Ben Benoit, all cowboyed up.

Boy Scout Troop 332 lead the group in the pledge of allegiance, followed by the National Anthem sung by Samantha Aguiar.

Samantha Aguiar sings as Troop 332 looks on.

After the local dignitaries were recognized, a cutesy video called A Day With The Mayor was played. 

It showed Mayor Tim Walker at city hall with his grandsons, then at the high school, DeJong's, Round Up loading bales of hay, Jolie Day Spa, rushing to get to the city hall on time with stops at Barons, Dunkin Donuts and Ace Hardware before finally arriving at city hall where one of the local Little League teams was there to great him before his grand entrance.

Mayor Walker enters wearing his signature smile.

Like most State of the City occasions, it was mostly a recap of things already known or heard in the past. The theme was, The Past Makes Our Future.

No breaking news... though it did sound like there might finally be some movement with the long promised Walmart next year, and not long after that the Wildomar MSJC campus. 

Walmart was referred to the elephant in the room since we're all wondering when the first shovel will hit the ground. Hopefully sooner than later.

Mayor Walker started off with the history of Wildomar, discussed the various commercial projects that are in the works, the various residential projects coming to town and finished up with "I love this valley, I love this town. Thank you for coming tonight."

A collage of the Mayor... it appears that he favors the left side of the room here. ☺

One of the videos featured the late great Stan Smith at his July birthday party at the VFW, and again in front of the camera speaking of his time in Wildomar. It was a touching moment when he came on the screen.

Stan being honored at his birthday party by his son Kevin as seen in the video.

I didn't shoot any video for this, it was already covered by more than one entity, but I will add a link to the live streaming done by Councilmember Bridgette Moore below. 

It's a Facebook video, so I'm not certain if it is or isn't visible to non Facebook users, or to people that have managed to get on her bad side... you have to be pretty diligent at being an ass to find her bad side... most of us didn't even know that such a thing existed.

One thing I took away from the Mayor's words dealt with the new city council districts.

"You can call any [of the five city council members], because we're [of] one mind. We're five people, and we love our districts, but we're about Wildomar, we're not about districts. [...] We're going to do it as a collective. We share. We do it all the fair way because Wildomar is one family. Not five different families all living in the same house."

Mayor Tim Walker, State of the City 2017

Though my guess is that if you're just an unremitting jackwagon (you know who you are) you're going to be told to hit up the council member from your own district if you go too far off the rails.

It was a great evening, and again no revelations in it. However, if one listened closely enough, it sounded like Councilmember Dustin Nigg will get the Mayor Pro-Tem job for 2018, which would line him up to be Mayor in 2019. 

Also, I was able to glean from the Mayor's words that he'll be running for his third term next year. I have to wonder if there will be any challengers in District 3 or not... time will tell.

Wildomar Rap Opinion Time

Great evening, great theme and decorations, great message and great delivery. It was both informative and entertaining. There were many laugh lines and I thoroughly enjoyed the Mayor's delivery of them.

My concern would be that, for people that don't know the Mayor, they might take some of his joking around seriously.Think about it, it's 2017 and Social Justice Warriors are always looking to be angry over some blown out of proportion issue or another.

I thought about culling out my favorite lines of the evening, but there were too many, and when in print could easily be misunderstood. 

Without quoting him verbatim, I did love his lines about BBQ and the Animal Shelter, and his thoughts on guns and self protection.

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Other than that, if I had a complaint it was that it ran too long and... and he didn't give even one update on the Dodger blowout over the Cubs. What up wit' dat?☺

At the outset Mayor Walker talked about how his last time at the State of the City mic had him speaking (often off topic) for 45 minutes and he'd left out many things. 

In hopes of avoiding a repeat, this time a script was prepared.

Alas, as the revered Scottish poet Robert Burns noted in his poem "To a Mouse".

If you prefer it in the original Scottish brogue.
The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, Gang aft agley.

He shattered his previous high water mark with an indomitable performance, where his speech eclipsed the one hour and fifteen minute mark. Oh, doctor! You can hang a star on that one!

Thing is, he was in his element, and was enjoying the moment. That and, if any successive Wildomar mayor wants to break his record, they'll really have to work at it. ☺

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The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.
– Helen Keller

Wildomar Rap would like to add that being up close and personal with someone that has a raging case of halitosis runs a close second.