• City Council Meeting August 2019

The meeting started with presentations. The first was by EVMWD and how they're going to jack up the rates by another 3.2%.

Red arrow is the previous bill, the green arrow is the new and improved, king size bill.

Reality is, it's all but a done deal. There is a provision (which is nothing more than Sacramento based false hope) known as Prop 218. The theory is, if 50% of the ratepayers protest, then the rate increase will be halted. 

Remember, 50% is referring to EVMWD ratepayers.

Pro Tip: There is only ONE ratepayer per household. 

That means if you're married, it's a waste of time to send in separate letters from both spouses. 

To me, Prop 218 is an exercise in futility. Please don't mishear me, I encourage you to participate in the process and send in your protest letter, but just keep in mind that there won't even be 1% that write in, much less 50%.

Police Quarterly Update (10:45 mark of video)
key takeaway is that with the new approach to trespassing and panhandling the arrests have gone up over the last couple of months.

An average of 45-50 calls for service per day.

Also, in July, the first month of our motorcycle officer, 270 citations were written out... were you one of them?

It was said that "a lot" of the citations were issued to non Wildomar residents.

There was also a Fire Department update and a Library Update (easy to find in the video below).

At the 18:10 mark of the video Councilmember Bridgette Moore asks about weed abatement in the city. There is no image, but the audio is worth listening to. 

We discussed that today, we had a meeting [with staff] and had a lot of good talking points. I think there is definitely some options through the State Fire Marshal office, Cal Fire, and State and Riverside County, and of course your code enforcement. I think next year we'll have a multi pronged/faceted attack on it. It's not horrible, but with the amount of rain we had [this past season] we had more than normal grass growth and weeds. Also community outreach, as far as letting the public know "Hey, it's time to cut your weeds." This year was just one of those years.  

  —Wildomar Battalion Chief John Crater

The fifth presentation was for the city's finance department. 

Mayor Marsha Swanson with Finance Director James Riley and Finance Manager Robert Howell.
Government Finance Officers Association Certificate of Achievement Award.

2.1 Store America GPA/Zone Change
(This item begins around the 40:30 mark of the video below)

This has been wending its way through planning and city council for awhile now. It's an item that is still active, so I'm only comfortable giving a very brief overview.

This is about an older storage place, formerly Wildomar Storage, on Mission Trail. The new owners desire to remodel the whole place. Problem is, it's in the wrong zone according to the general plan.

A look at the new and improved building design.

The applicant has been working with staff to alleviate the issue of "losing retail zoning" in the General Plan by working with the city to help replace the 3.5 acres in another part of the city.  

For a more complete understanding of this, please refer to the video.

Fun personal note: 

I'm still getting the hang of how an official meeting is run where "motions" and "seconds" are part of nearly every item. After throwing in my two cents, Councilmember Ben Benoit gave me one of those time to take off the training wheels looks, and encouraged me make the motion for Item 2.1.

In my haste I made a broad motion to approve 2.1... without taking into account that there were two different options to choose from. Our city attorney reminded me that there were two possibilities, but in the end I finally figured it out and made the proper motion. ☺

That bit of levity starts at the 46:10 mark of the video.

2.2 Waste Management Rate Increase

It's not my intention of giving this item short shrift, but there is somewhat of an anticlimactic feel to this since we just did the CR&R rate hike a couple of short months ago. The reason why this wasn't taken care of all at once is that the city has two different waste hauler contracts. 

The eastside of the freeway is serviced by WM, and the westside is taken care of by CR&R, and the contracts don't coincide on the same dates. 

The rates will be going up more (but not higher) than they did for the CR&R customers because it's not just a simple rate increase in many cases. Many areas that WM services don't currently have complete, three can per week, service that is common in the rest of the city.

In those cases, there will be the usual increase that is tied to the consumer price index, but then an additional increase, to cover the cost of parity, for others... especially those that live in the more established parts of The Farm.

Now both sides of the freeway will be getting the same service at the same rates

One public speaker spoke about the rates going from about $20 per month to roughly $28 per month. That is a big difference to absorb all at once. This was addressed by Councilmember Ben Benoit.

"This has come forward after a very long process, a bit of a difficult process, but in the last [...] couple of months, Waste Management has been working very well with us. There were lot's of different issues, probably one of the first franchise subcommittee meetings we had here we had people coming in with certain issues, especially with the green waste bins. 

I'm happy to see that we're finally fixing that issue. I know it's a burden but, Calrecycle would tell us, as a city, if we didn't have green waste bins across our city that they would start fining us up to $10K or $15K per day. [...] They overlooked it for a few years, and the last year or two we said, "We're working on it, so please don't fine us yet." 

If we were to deny this today, and not get those green waste bins out, we would be on the hook, from the state, and having to pay that. 

I know that this is not easy, and it's not something we want to ever do, to burden our residents, but the state requires this stuff. I guess my warning is, is this might not be the end of it unfortunately. 

I'm hearing that we might be seeing other rate increases because of that (recycling demands put on by the state), but for starters we've got to make sure that the city isn't going to start getting fined."

- Councilmember Ben Benoit

3.1 Mandatory Spay, Neuter and Microchipping 
(1:02:30 mark in the video)
This wasn't a controversial item. It was voted in 4-0 (Councilmember Dustin Nigg not in attendance). I've always had my pets altered, and for most family pets there is no useful purpose to keep intact animals. 

There are exemptions for hobby breeders, but for the vast majority of pet owners, it's time to take overpopulation of dogs and cats seriously.

Link to county page

The statistic of "less than 20% of pet owners license their animals" was suggested by public speaker, Kenny Mayes. 

Though I fully support altering pets, and cheerfully voted to have it be the rule in Wildomar, if an overwhelming percentage of people aren't bothered with licensing their pets, I see this to be a feel good measure only, as a similar percentage of scofflaws will undoubtedly be running afoul of this too.

I asked about enforcement and essentially there won't be any proactive enforcement. Think of it like the seatbelt law. Something that will be "enforced" when other issues come to light first. 

The fines for lack of compliance are $50, $150 and $250 for 1st offense, 2nd offense and 3rd offense... but they will work with people that are in the process of complying.

3.3 Palomar/Clinton Keith (1:26:45 mark in the video)
This item discussed additional sidewalks and bike lanes to complete some connectivity on Palomar and Clinton Keith.

This is in reference to grant money from RCTC (Riverside County Transportation Commission) that is specifically for these types of projects. 

The blue dotted line is the proposed sidewalks. The green dotted line is the proposed bike lanes.

Since I've seen comment after comment that suggests people don't understand the process (that you must spend the money according to the grant) I played Devil's Advocate when I asked our City Engineer, Dan York, the following:

Joseph: Can we spend the RCTC money on something else once they give it to us?

Dan: No, we cannot. These are very specific funds for very a specific use. We could have easily not applied for the it and another city would have won the [grant]. This is only specific for these types of things. This is part of the TDA Act, under Senate Bill 821, these are monies that come out every year, they're very specific to safe routes to school, for pedestrians, for bike paths, so that's really the only things this money could be used for.

Even with that clear as crystal I predict that when construction begins on these projects, Facebook will be flooded with, "But why are you building bike lanes and not fixing my street?"

3.5 Stormwater Drainage System Protection (1:33:00 mark in the video)
This should have been called, City of Wildomar protection from overreaching state agency. 

By the letter of the law you can't even wash your car on your impervious driveway. Actually, that has been verboten for many years now... but who knew? I didn't! 

Don't get the water police angry... you wouldn't like them when they're angry.

You certainly can't wash down your driveways (as if this is still the 1970s), but that also means you can't have your driveway pressure washed if there is going to be any runoff that hits the gutter. 

Those are called "illicit discharges"

Additionally, if you have a pool, you can't drain that without some serious hoop jumping. 

The way I see it, it's another seat belt law/mandatory spay and neuter law/no fireworks law... etc. See the pattern? The law is on the books, but there isn't enforcement. 

I hate those kinds of laws (didn't I already intimate that above?), but that's the kind of crackerjack work we get from unrealistic bureaucrats that are far removed from reality. 

At the same time, if you're producing so much runoff from washing your car, or over watering your lawn, that you can have clothespin regatta races in the gutter all the way down the street... you're doing something wrong. 

That said, the odds that you'll get rung up for washing your car in your driveway are about as remote as the water wasters having gotten a $500 fine during the drought we had. Caveat Emptor.

Could We Have Ignored This?

I asked City Engineer/Public Works Director/Assistant City Manager Dan York what would be the risk of not approving this item.

The answer came back that the city would be out of compliance and we'd be facing fines of $10K per day.

That part picks up at the 1:42:30 mark of the video.

The city will be working on educational material that will be added to the webpage regarding illicit discharges of water in the near future. 

The first three minutes of the video are dead air, please skip ahead.

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To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others.
― Albert Camus

Wildomar Rap asks, "What is this 'others' he's talking about?"

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• EVMWD Capacity Fee Increase

There was an interesting meeting at EVMWD this morning at 10:00am. I wasn't sure if I was going as blogger guy or as a candidate for city council. As it turns out, a bit of both since you're reading this now. 

I added the red numbers and underline.

Number 1 indicates the current cost per house to hook up a 3/4 inch water line and sewer line. Number 2 is the current proposed rate. A difference of $2590 per new home. Larger supply lines will cost more. One inch was said to cost between 1.5 and 1.7 times what's listed above.

The meeting was more of a workshop dealing with a proposed fee increase. The EVMWD board of directors were in the audience, and not in their normal seats at the dais. 

It also was apparent that much of this information had already been shared with the various agencies/cities involved. Though there were several questions at the end, it seemed more like a formality to me.

The proposed fee increase was NOT something that will be affecting ratepayers, just new construction.

Pro Tip: If you've got a project in the works, and you want to save a few grand per, I suggest getting to it before September 1st. That's when the new fees are set to take effect.

To ensure enough water for those that already live here, and to be able to supply the anticipated growth over the next 20 years, there are several projects that need to be built. One of the reasons why the proposed increase was reissued with a smaller increase is that two additional projects have been removed from the list above. Though they are quite likely to be added back to the list in the coming years.

Most of those that attended were either part of the cities that EVMWD services (Lake Elsinore was represented by Mayor Natasha Johnson and Councilmember Steve Manos; Wildomar was represented by Mayor Ben Benoit and Assistant City Manager Dan York; and a council member from Canyon Lake was there too), or had some other vested interest. 

A look at the cost of developing the new sources of water. It was stated that those costs are only for the actual water supply and that there are also other costs that go along with them. Things like pumping costs, storage costs, transmission costs that are part of the capacity fee, the above is just the water supply piece of it.

In addition to elected officials, there were representatives of the BIA (Not - Bureau of Indian Affairs, but Building Industry Association), and other developers. Groups that aren't too sanguine with proposed increases that will directly affect their industry. The BIA rep asked if this could be phased in over time, but that was basically rejected out of hand.

Many people would suggest that the above might suggest easing back on growth for the time being.

The bulk of the meeting was conducted by EVMWD's Government Relations Officer Greg Morrison. He went over issues dealing with the need to increase the fee. It was also stated that EVMWD wanted this fee increase process to be as transparent as possible. It was also noted that in the past such issues would have been addressed in closed meetings.

It was stated quite clearly that they are raising the capacity fees to prevent the surfacing of the "M" word: moratorium. If you've ever thought that we already have enough development in most of this valley, understand that the powers that be don't agree with you. 

This meeting was to let the cities and developers see why the increase in Capacity Fees is necessary. Two numbers were tossed out when it came to buildout. I heard both 40% and 30%. 

EVMWD can promise service, delivering water to the area, through 2040. Makes me wonder what happens in 2041? (other than the 100th anniversary of the US entering WWII that is)

By delaying the implementation of the fee hikes, it'll be costing the district the difference. 

Currently, according to the powerpoint slide, the district has had to supplement the costs by about $2.4M since 2017. If they delay the increase another 6 months, it'll be another $600K. 

They currently are making up the difference out of their share of the property taxes that we all pay. Money that is supposed to go to other needs.

A ray of sunshine to those of us that are already here.

Lake Elsinore city council member Steve Manos asked, "Have you looked at getting a piece of the water bond that voters approved recently, to help finance the infrastructure? Have you looked at local bonding to finance the infrastructure, defraying the costs over a period of time? We live in an area where the sewer rates are the highest in the region, the water rates are the highest in the region."

Greg Morrison thanked Mr. Manos for his question but basically said that bond measures don't usually go towards new growth/development type projects and that it wasn't an apples to apples comparison. 

He didn't address the issues of our area being charged the highest rates in the region. 

We all need somewhere to live, but I'm going to have a difficult time working up any tears for the developers that are going to see their costs increased in order to add the needed infrastructure the area will need if they build. 

A couple of other tidbits I gleaned from the 45 minute meeting...

The fee will be good for about three and a half to four years from what Greg Morrison said, then another increase will be considered. That doesn't include the yearly indexing that will happen as needed.

My favorite line started this way, "If this fee is adopted..."

Come on, we're all adults, let's don't play make believe here. Of course, it's going to be adopted. It'll happen this Thursday evening at the meeting of the EVMWD board of directors.

For more information about this, the topic has its own website: http://evmwdcapacityfees.com/

Wildomar Rap opinion time

We all hate fees, and the only thing we hate more than fees is higher fees.

At the same time, we don't like having our costs go up because of someone else's business needs (in this case: the developers), or newcomers entering the area.

These are basically developer impact fees, but these are the ones that the water department are charging, compared to the ones that the city charges.

If there were no new development, there wouldn't be the need for increased supply of water or sewer or increased Capacity Fees. If there is going to be continued development, the costs shouldn't be added to the balance of the community that doesn't need them. 

When our homes were built, the costs of infrastructure were added to the price of the homes at that time. If you want to avoid paying 2018 fees, buy an old house.

It's clear that the countless fees that are added to every new domicile in this state are part of the reason why housing costs are in the stratosphere in California (ie, the housing shortage), but it's something that emanates from Sacramento, and I don't see any way to avoid them. 

As for the buildout of the area, it's only going to get more and more difficult to live here as we get near the projected top end.

The freeway is already a mess most of the time, and when another 20,000 people are added to Wildomar (buildout is about 55,000), and another 150,000 people are added to Lake Elsinore, just imagine what that will look like when trying to drive somewhere, yikes!

Like I said at the top of the blog, I wasn't sure if I was going as a blogger or as a potential city council member. If elected, I would be attending many similar meetings like this every week. Meetings that don't always have a direct effect on the average resident in town.

It's just part of the territory, being up to speed with things going on in the region, and it's also the type of thing that would be included in an e-newsletter that I've mentioned in my campaign. If you like this level of involvement, consider voting for me if you're in district 3.

Use this link to visit my campaign website for more details.

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"The backbone of surprise is fusing speed with secrecy."
– Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz

The backbone of Wildomar Rap is fusing speed with accuracy, and a soupçon grating humor.

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.

• Buckle Up Now, Smells Like A Rate Increase Is On The Way

As the tryptophan ebbs from my body, on this glorious Black Friday,

I'm reading the latest from EVMWD. 

Click here to read EVMWD's latest flyer

I'll let you read it for yourself,

but my conclusion is that we are being softened up for another rate hike here.

 (what's new... right?)

______________________________________________________

We should all be concerned for our environment — Duh!

And we should all be eager to hand it over, to the future generations, in BETTER condition than we received it... 

 still, I smell a money grab disguised as a good deed about to be spun on us.

Cha-Ching!

I want to point your attention to two paragraphs in particular:

When prevention is not enough...

If the salinity problems become too much to manage through prevention, water districts may be forced to seek more direct and costly measures to remove salts. These could include:

• Development and construction of a desalination plant, which is an expensive alternative to prevention. Not only would the cost to install local facilities be a burden on customers, but the desalination process is expensive, requiring an extraordinary amount of energy to remove salts.
• Introduction of limitations/bans on salt-based water softeners. Self -regenerating water softeners that use salt or potassium pellets can release a pound of salt per day when it regenerates and “flushes” away the brine or “salty waste”. Water districts have begun to ask residents to remove their self -regenerating water softeners, but may have to implement more strict policies if salt levels continue to be high.

(emphasis is mine)

This is the first of a four part series by EVMWD. Can't wait to see what comes in the next bill.

Looks like they want to put a stake through the heart of The Culligan Man.

Personally I always hated the "soft water" at my grandma's house.

I could never wash the soap off my hands.