• City Council Meeting July 2018

A very long meeting translates into a relatively short blog. 

There were only two key agenda items here, and only one of those came with any hint of controversy: the additional penny sales tax coming to the November ballot.

The meeting started with State Senator Richard Roth leading the packed house in the Pledge of Allegiance, and then went into a presentation where the city thank the Senator for his work in getting the long missing VLF funds restored to the city.

State Senator Richard Roth holds up the plaque honoring his efforts on behalf of the city. 

Three Eagle Scouts were recognized by the council, one project involved repainting the water tower at Marna O'Brien park. Please see the video for more details.

back row: Tim Walker, Bridgette Moore, Dustin Nigg, Marsha Swanson. Front Row: Brenda Denstadt of Congressman Calvert's office, Mayor Ben Benoit, Eagle Scouts Monty Donovan, Grant Manley, Noah Hendley.

The next presentation was a proclamation of Parks Make Life Better Month, and key city staff that make the parks hum took some time to pose for a picture.

Back Row: Tim Walker, Bridgette Moore, Dustin Nigg, Marsha Swanson.
Front Row: Janet Morales, Ben Benoit, Daniel Torres and Cameron Luna.

The Chief of Wildomar Police, Captain Dan Anne, along with city building inspector Martin Haeberle, gave a homeless update. 

In short, they were discussing the difficulties involved in tackling the issues involving homeless encampments and what the city is doing about it.

Wildomar Rap opinion time

It's real easy for those of us in the general community to get loud about the homeless encampments, and the degradation to the quality of life that comes along with them. I've been very vocal about it, and I've not met a single person that isn't upset about them.

The tricky thing is, what can actually be done in the State of California about it? Nearly nothing, considering the various laws and propositions that have been past since 2010.

So it's fine to be angry, and to remind the local officials about it as often as you'd like, but it's good to also remember that there is next to nothing that can CURE the problem. Bandaids, one after another, are about the only current remedy out there.

As it was pointed out by Captain Dan Anne, being homeless isn't a crime, and solicitation is a protected form of speech that can be controlled to a degree (where and when) but cannot have a blanket ban applied.

For the full (22 min) presentation, please watch the video below.

At this point, the city council meeting was put on pause while those in attendance were invited to get a slice of cake to celebrate the city's 10th birthday.

City Clerk Debbie Lee cuts the cake. You can also see some 10 year pins on the table too.

After the cake break, it was time for Public Comments on non agenda items. This was a long meeting, and it was determined that to save some time, all public comments were going to be reduced from 3 to 2 minutes (26 speaker slips had been turned in). That put a crimp in many people's well honed comments, but everyone rolled with it.

There were seven comments, though the seventh one came more than an hour later since the speaker slip got lost in the rest of the stack.
1. I missed the name of the first speaker; it sounded like Arleen Crossinelli, but the topic was homelessness in town and the negative effects on her business.
2. Eric Dye spoke about the impacts of homelessness on his business.
3. George Taylor thanked the council for the repairs on Bundy Canyon, and invited them to The Farm's 4th of July parade.
4. Miss Miller vowed to save the oak trees on Bundy Canyon, even if she had to tether herself to one of them.
5. Monty Goddard spoke about CSA 103 and the Cervera greenbelt and his dissatisfaction with how it was handled and the lack of communication from the city on it.
6. Ken Mayes mentioned several items including food truck ordinances, Malaga Park and the new multi-use trail on Grand asking about their maintenance. He asked about CSA 103, and when will it be determined that it will either be on the tax bill or not. PV Maintenance invoices for streets that don't exist and when will Coffee With a Cop return.
7. Joseph Morabito spoke about his candidacy for city council, and that he wants to see better communication from the city to the residents.

2.1 One Cent Sales Tax on the November Ballot
This item took up a lot of time between presentations, public comments, council discussion and the vote. 

I'll give the highlights, but all that you need to know is that if you're a registered voter in Wildomar, you'll be asked to decide if you're willing to pay an additional penny sales tax on goods purchased in town, or not, this November.

Public Comments
Of the seven that spoke, no one was cheering for a tax increase, but two were opposed, and the other five were good with putting the measure on the ballot. 
  •  Gina Castanon  
  •  Ken Mayes
  •  Monty Goddard
  •  Joseph Morabito
  •  Patrick Ellis
  •  Andy Morris
  •  Brad Nee
The police and fire departments each had a presentation illustrating the response times over the years, various resources and what it would take to provide better coverage.

It's stunning how much things cost in the world where public employee unions run the show.

I'll add the basic comments from each of the council members from their discussion time just before the vote to approve. Most were just about a minute long. Watch the video for the full discussion.

Of course no one likes taxes. [...] Andy Morris said it perfectly [as to] why we became a city, [it] was [for] local control. When we became a city, and point-blank [...] they said we could become a viable city, and no one knew that the next year we were going to go into a downturn (the Great Recession) that would totally affect us. no one knew that we'd have all those lawsuits, constantly. One lawsuit would be done on a Thursday and the next lawsuit comes in a Monday. Then no one knew the governor was going to steal $12M from us. So, in ten years we sure have overcome a lot of challenges. Like I said, "No one likes taxes" but this is something we need, and we need this going forward. We need this revenue, every year, going forward for the safety and the quality of life for all the residents.

— Bridgette Moore

To me it's kind of cut and dry. The people, the voters that live here will have the opportunity to decide if they want [the additional tax]. If they don't want it, cool, we'll figure it out another way. If it passes, I like the idea that it being a general tax [...] if the money's not spent correctly, then guess what, I won't get re-elected. That's the way it's supposed to work. 

If the citizens decide they don't want it, they don't want it. But I think it's prudent of us to spend the money [to put it on the ballot], have some kind of confidence that this will pass. 

— Dustin Nigg

I tend to agree with my other council members, nobody wants more tax, but it's going to be necessary for the voters to make that decision. 

— Marsha Swanson

Wildomar Rap opinion time

There are a couple of ways I can handle trying to transcribe the comments from Tim Walker below. The problem I run into is that he meandered on for almost five minutes, and seemed to be directing a portion of is comments at me.

Since I'm running for his seat on the council, it would be completely in bounds to highlight the things he said here, but at the same time, it could be seen as self serving and a cheapshot by some. So I'm going to refrain from exploiting them in this blog by NOT transcribing them. I'll just add a couple of his comments that pertain to the tax.

If you are interested in the rest of it, which if you're a voter in District 3 you should be, they begin at the 51:40 mark of the video and end at the 56:10 mark.

You watch it, and you decide if his comments speak to you or not.

I would never make a decision to put a tax on people —ever! So, my thinking is, that's why we put it on the ballot. 

I'm not for a tax, but I will put it on the ballot because if everybody wants it, then I'll be willing to pay the one cent, it doesn't bother me at all.  

— Tim Walker

Coming into this eight years ago, when I first got on this council, even then I knew we might have rocky roads ahead. When the state took the VLF out from underneath us, it put us on a really difficult path. We've just finally got that back, but we're $12.5M short, that we'll never get back any other way. 

I feel very strongly that this is a way for us to move that pendulum back the other way, and we've got to. 

— Ben Benoit

3.3 Ordinance regarding aggressive solicitation
This was the other key agenda item of the night. To get more details, please read the previous blog that previewed the agenda item. LINK

I don't know why I thought it would take more time than it did, it's not like it could be controversial on any level, but I thought bringing in a much needed ordinance that aims to address the homeless issues would take more time. 

Wildomar Rap opinion time

I want to thank the city for getting this step accomplished. Like it was mentioned above, we need to know that there is very little that can be done to actually solve the homeless situation in our area. Especially based on the rules of engagement put into motion by elected officials many levels higher than our local leaders.

I didn't render out a specific video for this item, it's in the "everything else" video at about the 1:04:00 mark.

•                •                •

Love is friendship set on fire.
– Jeremy Taylor

Wildomar Rap is confused as to why setting friendship on fire equates to love. I've seen such up close, and wouldn't concur.

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