• Measure AA Promises, Were They Promises and Were They Broken?

We'll be filing this under: blogs that should never have be written.

Ok Morabito, so why are you spending precious time doing so? 

Let's just jump right into it. I posted a video of me removing a handmade sign that said "Fire Morabito".

Longsuffering Wildomar Resident Monty Goddard (his trademarked handle), used the opportunity to throw shade my way that I've lost his "previously vigorous support."

"Own this falsehood"?
"Honesty and accountability"?

From his comment at the June 2023 city council meeting.

In [July] 2018 on social media, two of the people that are on the council today [Joseph Morabito and Bridgette Moore] were very, very clear in response to one of the respected members of the community [Paula Willette] when they asked this concern on social media that "No this would not happen. It, would, not, happen!" [...] I ask you to step up and acknowledge this backfilling and admit that it's a conflict with the, not public comments, but very public comments (referring to the Facebook thread) that were made to the community. 

— Monty Goddard, Long Suffering Wildomar Resident

Why is he calling me a liar? 

Isn't that what "own this falsehood" means?

Because he continues to misread a comment from a July of 2018 Facebook post, refuses to see what I actually said, and in the same thread, Bridgette Moore also stated that she wouldn't vote to divert money from one budget to another.

Let's look at them again.

The promise to not "vote for that" was always upheld.

"Falsely promised"?
Check out the highlighted keywords, and ponder them.

Wildomar Rap opinion time

Words mean things. I clearly stated that I would make sure that no budget trickery be proposed or allowed. 

That means, IF proposed, they wouldn't be allowed (I'd vote against). Such a thing was never proposed nor voted on, and the graph below was the first time we learned of it. 

I apologize for the substandard graphic. It's a screenshot of the video and for some reason, it was transparent and still showed the live feed behind it. 

The blue bars are general funds and the red bars are from Measure AA. You will see that there was a dip between 2020 and 2021 in GF public safety and an increase in Measure AA funds. 

As we learned at the June 14th meeting (link to video below) what we all were concerned about appears to have happened during one budget cycle.

City Manager, Dan York gives a lengthy explanation for that (judge for yourselves if it passes muster or not), but I'm willing to throw out a bare-bones reason why this has become a topic in a blog.

Those years were controlled by another City Manager. 

I guarantee that even in the non-Covid years I was kept at an arm's length distance. That's one of the reasons why the entire Tres Lagos issue stayed buried until I blew the lid off of it in late 2019, I was kept out of it until Supervisor Jeffries told me more about it.

Back to this issue of whether I'm a liar or not, there was never a proposal at a city council meeting to move money from one budget to another. If there had been, it would have been caught by many including Monty, and as I've become famous for (or infamous for) I would have typed up a five-minute diatribe about why I wouldn't have supported such a thing. 

Though I endorsed the measure, I also labeled the official city mailer as "happy talk" and nowhere did I take any pledge that the council took. I'm very verbose, had that been my position, it would have been published at least a dozen times in 2018. 

You can decide if my uncharacteristically laconic statement under a Facebook post was a campaign promise or not, and if I abandoned it or not. 

Here is a link to my official position on the matter as it was happening. Not something lifted from Facebook then misread ad nauseum.

LINK TO WHAT MY POSITION ACTUALLY WAS

In the Facebook quote bandied about by Monty, I was clearly referring to things that I would have control over, namely my actions, which max out at votes and on-the-record opinions. 

I wasn't suggesting that I'd be the gatekeeper of things seen and unseen. I never said that I could control other people's actions, much less when they weren't right there to be easily seen and witnessed.

 

I'm sick of the Covid blanket excuse for things, but you'll see that the one hiccup in the graph above came when we were all staying home and the meetings were through Zoom, not in person. 

I'm not making any judgments on how things transpired, I don't have any information that wasn't already presented at the June 2023 meeting. 

For those that haven't jumped ship yet, you're all saying, "Joseph, who cares what Monty thinks, why are you wasting time writing a blog about this topic?"

It gets old being called a liar by my yearly supplier of oro blanco grapefruit, plus some ruby red too. Seriously, it gets old, longsuffering notwithstanding.

Another reason I've put in the time to explain this is that it's part of my mental makeup. It can be both a blessing and a curse. I often joke that I have a problem with the truth, I don't know when to stop telling it. 

I have nothing to lie about and nothing to hide. I tell you what I know of a situation, and often it's not what any of us want to hear.

Not sure how much value there is in such tests, but it had me at "you are very likely an Aspie." It's been many years now that they've removed that category from use, it's been replaced by the overly-broad autism spectrum these days. One of the ways that it presents itself in me is that I can get overly focused on items other people don't look twice at. Hence, my usually long-winded blogs. 

As for Monty's material concerns regarding first responders and the coverage we all wish we had, which will always be hamstrung by our budget restraints, I'm more pragmatic than he is and he's more dogmatic than I am. 

He and I use different metrics

Go back to my 2018 blogs when I was running for city council and I clearly make a big issue about code enforcement needing to be beefed up. I count our robust code enforcement team of today as part of how I judge the palpable improvement of public safety. He doesn't.

It didn't hurt to have a new Sheriff take office at the same time Measure AA went into effect. Sheriff Bianco's presence has made for better law enforcement before any other changes are factored in.

Monty's focus is on sworn law enforcement officers with the power to arrest and carry a firearm when it comes to measuring "improvements". I accept that there are different methods of keeping the peace that the RSO uses today, and am fine with it. 

Also, there has been a vast improvement when it comes to homeless issues, something I factor into the equation, which doesn't include additional sworn deputies.

That's as far as I'm going. The purpose of the blog wasn't to say everything is blissfully peaceful in The W, but that to call me a liar, over and over again, when it's clearly not the case it flat-out bullshit.

I do excellent work and am not looking to curry favor with anyone. I'm not interested in passing anyone's purity tests. 2026 is a very long way off. If that's the last year I serve the residents of Wildomar, it'll have been a great run. 

[Engage sarcasm brackets]

Bottom line, hopefully, the rest of you are not now on the FIRE MORABITO bandwagon, but who could blame you. No one wants an elected representative that actually puts this much effort into it, right? 

The voters don't want someone that will actually engage on the issues, they want someone that is slow to return emails or phone calls and Joseph Morabito is way too plugged in for his own good. 

Time to look for someone more laid back and aloof. That way, a statement from five years ago can't be intentionally misread over and over again, because they wouldn't have posted in the first place! Smart politicians know how to work the system, whereas rubes like Morabito never learn.

[disengage sarcasm brackets]

If you're so inclined I invite you to see the city manager's twenty-minute special presentation to an audience of one individual, and then Monty's follow-up comment from the June 2018 city council meeting, jump to the 55-minute mark in the video below.

Now, the case is closed. Just waiting for Wapner to issue his ruling... or should we go with a more modern reference like Judge Judy? 

  •                •                •

I don't expect to find inspiration. It just sort of comes. Sometimes you step on a bug and you get inspired.
— Iris Apfel

Wildomar Rap prefers to step on the accelerator of a bug whenever given the option.

This blog was produced for viewing on a desktop or a laptop. Though it's been optimized for smartphones, the formatting can look odd on a smartphone or if you get this delivered through email (such as missing video links). Link to proper format.

• Community Profile: Chateau Couveau

I always love being able to share a hidden treasure with the rest of Wildomar. If you use Palomar you may have seen this sign before. 

Very inviting sign as seen from Palomar.

Wondering what was beyond the sign I stopped and chatted with owner Cynthia Couveau. I asked her about the idea of having a field full of lavender.

"The idea is that it brings peace, it's beautiful, it smells wonderful, and you can do lots of things with it too; essential oils, hydrosols. You can pick it and use it in your homes for culinary, and baking goods, dry it, and use it in sachets, in baths, or in drawers. There are a lot of things."

A good price and a fun activity rolled into one.

The idea came during the Covid lockdowns. The first plantings were done about two years ago, at the end of Spring 2021. They're in the middle of their second bloom which is generally between June and July.

This sign is visible even when lavender picking season is over.

I was trying to guestimate the size of the field and if this had been The Price Is Right I would have lost by overbidding by quite a bit. I had guessed between two and three acres, and all that beauty is confined to a little over half an acre. 

This is a bee haven. The sound of buzzing is everywhere, but they are too busy to bother with you, at least they were too busy to bother with me and I got right up in their space trying to get a picture of them in action for this blog.

They have about 840 plants. They started with about 900 plants, but as Cynthia was pointing out, there's always a little bit of loss in planting. Everything is natural, they don't use pesticides or erbacides.

They hand hoed, hand mowed and hand-cut... except they do have some additional help, but you have to go to the bottom of the blog to see what it is. 😊

Below is a super-short video of a bee doing its pollinating dance among the stalks of lavender.

It's the perfect hobby compared to the rigors of a traditional business. She puts her sign out around her schedule. It can be from around 10am to 5pm, other times from 2pm to 5pm. On her Instagram page, she'll let people know what the hours are that day. 

A look at Cynthia's vendor cart. 

It's located on Palomar, on the dirt portion of Wesely. Pull to the side of Wesely and use the bell that's near their gate if you don't see her out and about. 

Less than 100 yards from the road is a delightful sight of row after row of lavender in bloom. This view is from the bottom of their slope looking towards the west.

Such a great view.

I asked about picking and she let me know that it's $12 to pick a bundle. That goes for either variety, but I don't know if you can mix the bundles as you're picking them. 

She also sells pre-picked dry bundles for $12. 

In the future, they're looking to propagate some of the lavender and offer plants for sale... but that's not this year.

From this angle too.

Cynthia and her husband Josh have been in the community for twenty-six years. 

It's always nice to meet fellow Wildomartinis, (Wildomartians or Wildotuckians works too). Friendly people, we'd all love to have as neighbors, that are the backbone of Wildomar.

The resident weed eaters, two Olde English Southdown Babydoll sheep. 

Be sure to look them up on Instagram. Use this link. 

•                •                •

The life of inner peace, being harmonious and without stress, is the easiest type of existence.

– Norman Vincent Peale

Wildomar Rap would add lavender and NOT reading comments on social media to the list if you're pursuing inner peace. 

This blog was produced for viewing on a desktop or a laptop. Though it's been optimized for smartphones, the formatting can look odd on a smartphone or if you get this delivered through email (such as missing video links). Link to proper format.