• City Council Meeting November 2018

The November city council meeting opened with a presentation by Sue Reed of the Special Olympics of Southern California. (video link 2:45 mark)

Seven of the athletes posed with the council for a photo.

PUBLIC COMMENTS (video link 9:00 mark)
    • Monty Goddard talked about new taxes (Measure AA) and incorporation.
    • Ken Mays noted that live streaming of meetings still weren't in place, discussed fire codes, and information signs.

COUNCIL COMMUNICATIONS (video link 19:45 mark)
Council communications are where the council members recap their activity of the last month. I don't usually report on this part of the meeting, but Tim Walker used part of his time to shake hands with me (Joseph Morabito), wish me success and give me a gift of some chocolates; a classy move.

Tim Walker and Joseph Morabito shake hands.
Photo courtesy of Scott Rux.

Item 2.1 HUD Assessment Survey (video link 28:50 mark)
Back in September there was an online survey the city asked the residents to participate in (link to blog about it). The goal of the survey was to get public input on issues most concerning to the community. 

Highest needs per category.

There were many charts generated from this study found in the agenda packet (link to agenda packet) skip down to page 109 for this item and goes to page 165.

Wildomar Rap opinion time

Only 94 people participated, and if we parse that a bit further I'm guessing that the number of residents that are not dialed into city issues would drop below 50.

Voter apathy (or just apathy in general) is a real thing, the majority of people leave it to others to make the decisions. That's all well and good, and one vote/opinion may seem insignificant, but it's from the collective data that policy is made. If you don't participate, the data is incomplete, but the decisions still have to be made. 

2.3 Fire Prevention Fee Proposal (video link 37:00 mark)

I read this as a good thing for the people of Wildomar. If you have a project that needs input from the fire department, now you won't have to traverse up to Riverside (often multiple times) to get that box checked off your paperwork.

3.1 Wildomar Meadows GPIP (video link 46:00 mark)

This project is at the early stages. Various versions of it have been around for many years. In short, it's a large development (think Windsong Valley) that is going to be nestled between The Farm and the pending MSJC campus.

Map of Area, blue star is the project.

This has a long way to go. I'm curious about the ingress and egress (what will La Estrella to Salida Del Sol to Clinton Keith turn into?) and also if they're going have shopping amenities like a previous version talked about?

For more details, check out the video or the blog about the October planning commission meeting. (link to blog)

3.2 Holiday Light Contest (video link 1:01:00 mark)

There are two categories of the contest that you can enter into. The first is traditional, the second is Clark Griswold. In short, one is decoration with a basic approach and the other is with an over the top approach.

Here's a look at what the Clark Griswold competitors are trying to match.

Key dates: Entries will be accepted through Thursday December 6th, and the winners will be announced at the December 12th city council meeting.

City Manager Report (video link 1:02:30 mark)

    • Special Meeting on Monday, December 10th to swear in new councilmember Joseph Morabito, and say a thank you to outgoing councilmember Tim Walker for his years of service to the city.

    • Measure AA will go into effect around April (at the soonest) with the first revenues hitting the treasury in June of 2019.

    • Photo Contest for the 2019 calendar. You can submit up to two photos, and one can be chosen. For assistance or for more information, please contact Janet Morales at jmorales@cityofwildomar.org or 951-677-7751 x210.

Watch the entire 66 minute meeting below.

This will be the last of the Wildomar Rap blogs about city council meetings. There are just too many potential conflicts of interest to continue, plus it takes a long time... time that I'll be using to prepare for the meetings.

I was asked about video taping meetings, and I really hope that we can all work together so that there is no interruption in making the video(s) available. From what I was hearing, it sounded like video is slated for January (not sure what that entails). 

Outside the chamber I heard the Mayor suggest that this could be bumped up to December, I hope so. 

•                •                •

There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.
– Erroneously attributed to Charles Dickens

Most things are better than Wildomar Rap, even with chocolate.

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