• City Council Meeting February 2018

Between items 3.1 and 3.3 this meeting was full of detailed information. 

So much so that I'm just going to highlight the portions that caught my attention, but first let's start off with the recognition of two Eagle Scouts that came at the front of the meeting.

Noah Thompson's project dealt with the snack bar at Marna O'Brien park. He installed removable screens, that are now part of the health code, for the service windows. 

Back row: Tim Walker, Dustin Nigg and Marsha Swanson. Front Row: Bridgette Moore, Mayor Ben Benoit, Eagle Scout Noah Thompson, Katelyn Wilkinson a representative for Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez  and Glenn Miller a representative for State Senator Jeff Stone.

Nate Coddington's project was also at Marna O'Brien park. He replaced the wooden backstops on the baseball diamonds.

Back row: Tim Walker, Dustin Nigg and Marsha Swanson. Front Row: Bridgette Moore, Mayor Ben Benoit, Amber Diaz (Nate's mom), Eagle Scout Nate Coddington, Katelyn Wilkinson a representative for Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez  and Glenn Miller a representative for State Senator Jeff Stone.

PUBLIC COMMENTS (on non agenda items)
• Dave Crook (sp?) discussed speeding issues in the Lemon/Almond/Waite area.
• Brad Darymple brought up illegal dumping and off roading in the part of the city that borders Menifee.
• Ken Mayes (with donated time) had a slide show (literally) of things in town that he doesn't like. His list included home school inspections, fire hydrants, CSA 103 (an "assessment on 1084 homes located in the oldest part of Windsong Valley") which has "disappeared from the tax bill", the city fence code, the City Manager's pay, staff reports (in the online agenda packets) needing to include all the visual displays that will be at the meeting.

Wildomar Rap opinion time:

I'll have to try the slide show routine sometime too —looked fun. But in all seriousness, it was very effective to get the point across, about several issues, to all five city council members, and key staff members, at once.

Still, I have a sneaking suspicion that Kenny Mayes will be giving 6 minute slide shows at all the meetings from this point on. Might as well just cut out the middle man and make room for it on the agenda as a recurring item.

His final issue (about expanding the agenda packet to include all video display items) was brought up by Mayor Ben Benoit at the end of the meeting under "Future Agenda Items" where he asked staff to start including such items in the (digital) packets.

• Monty Goddard thanked city staff for the maintenance done at Windsong Park.

CONSENT CALENDAR
Before this part came up there was a change in the agenda and City Manager Gary Nordquist discussed the reason(s) why the new city website didn't launch before the end of January. 

"We encountered some delays," was the gist of the explanation. Mark your calendars for March 1st, which is the new target date for the switch over.

1.6
Monty Goddard spoke to this. This added a 12th holiday/floating vacation day, in perpetuity, to city employees (made possibly by the city getting the VLF funds returned from the governor). 

He noted that agenda item 3.3 also aims to reward city staff with a one time bonus of one vacation day for every year they "endured those dark fiscal days" (a quote from the agenda packet).

Wildomar Rap opinion time:

The Wildomar city staff has done a great job, especially considering those "dark fiscal days" and all, and a reward is in order now that there is the money to do so. 

However, let's keep in mind that public employees (whose salaries are public knowledge) aren't underpaid, even in our quaint little city. 

The fact that they didn't find themselves in the unemployment line, like many non public employees during those times, could have been considered a bonus in its own right.

I can see them getting either A or B, but both A and B?

I'm thinking that the extra holiday/floating vacation day was a pretty good attaboy on its own... but there I go again, always having had to earn money in the private sector, so I probably don't get it.

1.9
Ken Mayes attacked the credibility of ALS1 (who will be putting on the 3rd annual ALS1 5k on May 19th at Marna O'Brien Park — see flyer below). 

Hey Erin and Ken (the key local figures behind the 5K fundraiser), if there is paperwork that needs to be finalized, I suggest that you put that on your "do it yesterday" list. Otherwise, some wiseguy is going to look to shut down your event. 

I hear that there could be a beer garden there too... 
few things are as satisfying as a couple of frosty 
Saturday morning pops to get the weekend rolling along! ☺

As much as we hate it, red tape is there to protect the public from conmen looking to take advantage of the good nature of the public. That means everyone has to jump through the same legal hoops, even the good guys, to put on a fundraising event; especially one that is backed by the city.

Tangent Time

No doubt that is why the Original Christmas Tree Lane event (that was an annual event at the Lake Elsinore Outlet Center) is gone now. It was hosted by two local retirees that had no idea about the complex web of requirements the state has for such charitable endeavors. 

Blog about the demise of OCTL

Some "concerned citizen" suggested that the State AG look into the event... and that was the end of that, along with about $10K per year that got distributed to local youth orgs with the proceeds... but I digress.

3.1 Western Community Energy Community Choice Aggregation Program
This dealt with an energy scheme (in the British sense of the word) that would have the city join a JPA (Joint Powers Authority) to get their power from a newly formed CCA (Community Choice Aggregation), called Western Community Energy (WCE).

There was a slide show presentation that lasted about 10 minutes touting the benefits of joining WRCOG's brainchild.

A slide that tried to explain the CCA, and how the energy gets from them to you.

This only got more mind-boggling as the 25 minute presentation went on. Below is part of a slide that showed the proposed savings.

A lot of effort to save 2% to 4% if you ask me.

I won't sneeze at saving a couple of percentage points, but the large sums of savings (seen above) really won't be amounting to anything. 

My wife and I don't use a lot of power, but we'll still be celebrating our windfall of (up to) $40 a year in style.

Those numbers (~4% Savings in 10 years = $49+ million) come from adding up all the small savings of the rate payers, then acting as if there will be a large pool of money at the end of the rainbow.

Here are some of the takeaway facts.
•  Both cities and individual rate payers can opt in or out of the CCA at anytime. 
(I didn't hear anyone mention penalties for doing so, but makes me wonder if there are any. Usually if there are no penalties, that is specifically gone over).
•  The power would still be delivered to homes and businesses with the existing power grid, which is controlled by SCE in our area. 
•  The existing tiered rates would still be applied by Edison for delivering the energy, even though the rate payer would be buying from someone else. 
•  Start up costs range between $4M and $7M depending on number of cities joining, which will be covered by WRCOG.
•  If adopted, and things go as planned, they would start "serving load" by October of 2018.

Councilmember Nigg asked some basic questions to get the answers on the record. 
• Customers can opt out whenever they want, is that correct?
• Cost savings [mentioned in the presentation] are typical?
• The start up costs are covered by WRCOG?

To which "correct" was given as a response each time. The short exchange is in the 1:45 minute video below.

Wildomar Rap opinion time:

The "tiered rate" issue really got Councilmember Tim Walker exercised. His home is all electric and his bills are far higher than the average (from what I gathered). 

His point was, which seemed reasonable, is that if he uses more energy, he's already paying the additional costs for the additional supply, including the additional taxes that would come with it. 

He wasn't too happy about, what amounts to a penalty, in the tiered rate system. Especially if he were to be buying his energy from a different company, but still getting stung by SCE on the delivery side.

The video below is a snippet of Councilmember Walker asking about tiered rates, and then talking about wind cars and oil being a "renewable" energy source.

Let's create a scenario here.... Ah, how's this one:
You've been buying your chocolate milk from a venerable local dairy, but they charge you extra if you want more than 10 gallons delivered to you - tiered pricing. (Yes, it's preposterous, but stick with me...)

A different dairy approaches you (WRCOG or WEC - whichever it is) and tells you they'll sell you chocolate milk for about 2% to 4% less than the first dairy... but the first dairy (SCE) is still going to deliver it to you.

In the end, you're still using the tiered-price delivery services of the first dairy (SCE), and you're paying them like before too.

So, in conclusion, if you have high personal demands for chocolate milk (power) then it looks like you might want to buy your own chocolate cow (solar power at your home) and be done with either of the above options.

Another fun part of this agenda item was when Ken Mayes did his public comment routine and equated this JPA with the Animal Shelter "fiasco" of the past and made it clear that he wanted no part of the 2%-4% savings that would come from it, "I for one, will opt out, TONIGHT, from purchasing electricity from this JPA."

Good on ya Kenny, SCE will be glad to take your extra dollar a month.

This was just a "discuss and provide direction" item, and no action was taken, though it sounded as if SCE would be putting together a presentation of their own on the matter.

Since there seems to be savings to the rate payers, and an easy way to opt out if things change, I can't image the point of not exploring this further.

The thing I want to know is, if this is better than peaches and cream like it's described, then why aren't all the local cities beating a path to their door? Why the deliberation? Why does it sound like WRCOG would be sanguine if they could "amass five to six cities" when their organization has eighteen?

If you'd like to take a look at the 20+ slides, use this LINK and look for item 3.1 and click on it.

3.3 FY 2017-18 Mid-Year Budget Report
This item took an hour, in addition to updating where the budget stands, there was also lengthy discussion about what to do with the newly returned VLF funds (about $2.4 Million annually).

It was asked of the various departments for a wish list of sorts. The price tag came back at $6.9M worth of items.

Don't feel bad, this was difficult to read (due to small font size) at the meeting too.

All things on the list are either obviously worthy, or an argument can be made for them. It's just a matter of money.

Things ranging from additional police (a no brainer) to wobblers like a new kitchen for the fire house ($60,000), and head-scratchers like a $60,000 video package to be able to start live streaming the city meetings (all approved).

There was a lot of discussion, so I'm going to include the video of the entire item. It begins with City Manager Gary Nordquist discussing the various spending options proposed and other aspects of the item (about 28 minutes worth). 

From there went the public comments, council discussion, input from Fire Chief Todd Philips and Police Chief Daniel Anne, more discussion and then the vote.

At one point Councilmember Nigg balked at the idea of spending $60k on remodeling the firehouse kitchen.

"I just can't see the justification there. I've read through the staff report. I would [want to] line it out and apply it (the $60K) to [other things]. I just can't justify taking $60 grand for a kitchen when we have roads that don't work that well." 

Chief Todd Philips came to the podium to elaborate on the needs of Station 61. For those interested in more details there, check out the video and jump to the 33 minute mark where the councilmember starts the topic.

The list of recommendations was unanimously approved by the council. With the addition of $4000 per year for TIP (Trauma Intervention Program). The entire agenda item is covered in the video below.

My favorite quote came from Councilmember Marsha Swanson. It was in reference to the additional $2.4M to the budget:

I think that Gary [Nordquist] has lead us well.  He's kept us in line all this time, and just because we feel like we've got some money —that's just a feeling we have, we don't have any money. We're not even back to where we were, so I think we need to start off slow. We're going to look at this throughout the year. If there're some ways we can add some other things, I'm all for adding a motor officer... I just think we need to stay within his recommendations, that we need this reserve cushion. None of us knows what's going to happen tomorrow, or what we might need [...] and if we don't have reserves, and we aren't fiscally conservative we're not going to get anywhere. We've got time, let's just take baby steps to start with and go with the recommendations.  

I wanted to ask about the $60,000 for video stuff. 

I know this guy that does video, and thinks that number is about 10 to 20 times too high. 

I obviously went into the wrong business. I should have aimed to be a government contractor.

Thing is I didn't fill out a speaker card, and there wasn't a solicitation of the audience if anyone else would like to speak before that part of the meeting was closed, so I'll just opine here instead.

Wildomar Rap opinion time:

We've NEVER had live video of the meetings, and I don't get the point of going from Zero to Cadillac (maybe I should say 'Tesla' so the younger generation will get the reference) all at once. 

I've heard that it's got a lot of bells and whistles. That'll be good news to the 11 people that will be utilizing it on a regular basis.

At $18,000 a year to operate, it had better whistle!

Seriously, do the math ($18,000 ÷ 12 months is $1500 per month). 

After the overpriced equipment is purchased, the city is planning on paying $1500 a month to operate it (though the graphic above says $3,000 a month). 

Even if the city meetings take up 15 hours a month, which they probably only take up about 5 total, that is $100 an hour. 

Am I still in Wildomar? Are they trying to live stream city meetings or are they building a Hollywood set?

Without being too much of a joker, if you went down to Costco you could buy an eight camera HD security set up for under $400. 

Sure, it would cost money to have it installed and set up (apparently $20K is the going rate cities pay for such things), but with that kind of thing there's no reason why one of the city interns couldn't be taught how to turn it on, then switch from camera one (on the dais) to camera two (the podium) to camera three (the video display) and back. 

Such a set up might be underwhelming for bigger cities, but spending $60K for such a thing in Wildomar just reminds us, that no matter how noble the players, tax money is spent differently than how we spend our own money. Either that, or I'm just a cheap bastard that can get a lot of mileage out of lesser items.

•                •                •

It was learned that two signature events in town will not be happening this year. First, the Rotary BBQ failed to get enough backing to make a go of it. It was scheduled to be at Marna O'Brien park on April 21st. In it's place will be a Astronomy Night event.

The other annual event that won't happen this year is the Bicycle Safety Event. Each year the attendance has gotten smaller and smaller. It's a shame. Those that did attend, really enjoyed it.

•                •                •

"These days, government employees are better off in almost every area: pay, benefits, time off, and security, on top of working fewer hours. They can thrive even in a down economy."
– Mort Zuckerman 

Wildomar Rap wasn't shrewd enough to consider a gubment paycheck when younger, and now the gravy train is full up.

• What is TIP?

Are you familiar with TIP?

It stands for Trauma Intervention Program. 

The local chapter (Southwest Riverside County) has been around for 24 years. It stretches from the unincorporated areas just south of Corona down through Temecula, west to La Cresta and east to the unincorporated areas near Hemet and places like Aguanga and Anza.

I first heard of this organization back at Wildomar's Resource Summit from last Summer. 

Link to blog about it

I had them on my short list of blogabilities (gotta love that portmanteau I just came up with), but kept putting it off. 

At the December city council meeting Magda Stewart of TIP, at the microphone, was part of a presentation and the blog idea came back to the front of the line. Link to blog.

They're there to provide a caring presence and practical support.

Trauma Intervention Program Inc. (TIP), a national non-profit organization, was founded in 1985. 

TIP has 16 affiliates serving over 250 cities across the nation. Each affiliate, citizen volunteers respond to traumatic incidents at the request of Police, Fire and Hospital personnel to support those who are emotionally traumatized. 

I chatted with Magda Stewart, who runs this local chapter of the nonprofit organization, and asked her for an overview of TIP.

"We are a group of volunteers who respond at the request of first responders. We're called out by fire, police, emergency room nurses and doctors, highway patrol, [in extraordinary cases] we may be called in by schools. What we do is provide emotional and practical support to the survivors." 

They would like to eventually get a mental health professional on their roster to help from time to time.

TIP is a group of specially trained volunteers who provide emotional aid and practical support to victims of traumatic events and their families in the first few hours following a tragedy.

The scenes they go out on are traumatic, hence the T in their name; unexpected incidences.

It can include people dying at home, suicide, a traffic collision, infant death, overdose. There are times that they go out on calls that don't involve a death, but the majority of their calls do involve a death.

What TIP volunteers do:

• Provide emotional comfort and support
• Help arrange for shelter, clothing, food,and transportation
• Assist police officers with death notifications
• Serve as liaisons between the survivors and the emergency personnel
• Provide information and referrals to appropriate agencies for ongoing support
• Serve as temporary protectors for vulnerable survivors

They have a resource guide, a 35 page booklet, that they give to the people that they help. 

It includes such information as "how to tell children about a loved one's death." It also includes lists of support groups, such as grief counseling.

The organization is in its 32nd year and the local chapter is in its 24th. They currently have about 21 volunteers on the roster, but they'd love to increase that to between 40 and 50.

With more members they will be able to get involved in more programs. One is called NODA (No One Dies Alone). NODA volunteers go to be with a person that is near death that has no family. There are a lot of veterans that need this service. 

Each TIP volunteer is asked to sign up for three 12 hour shifts per month.

They've been averaging about 37 to 40 calls a month.

TIP Volunteers are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.  

They are called by police officers, firefighters, paramedics, and hospital personnel to assist family members and friends following a natural or unexpected death; victims of violent crime including rape, assault, robbery, or burglary; victims of fire; disoriented or lonely elderly persons; people involved in motor vehicle accidents; people who are distraught and seeking immediate support; and survivors of suicide.

There is a class starting on January 19th. 

It lasts 55 hours over several days. There is a $50 fee for the classes, which I think helps chase away people that aren't serious about it. 

On the bright side... the fifty dollar fee is tax deductible. The fees cover the class materials, which includes a large binder of material.

The classes are small, about 10-12 people, though they'd love to have 20 volunteers per class.

Magda related that, "It's a pretty intense training... but you don't need any prior training... just empathy."

She went on to say, "The first half of our training is a screening process. We train on emotional first aid, and while the training is happening, the trainers are screening the potential volunteers."

An image from the TIP brochure I was given.

.

When someone suffers a traumatic event, a lot of times when they're on scene and see the first responders are not paying attention to them —they're busy. If someone's had a heart attack, they're busy trying to tend to that person. 

If family members want information [first responders] are too busy at times to really deal with that at the moment. 

So what happens is, those family members or friends suffer what we call a secondary injury. Which is their perception of how the emergency system treated them. 

We are there to prevent that secondary injury. 

Magda Stewart, TIP SWRC

If the January class is too soon for you, but you'd still like to be part of TIP, they'll be having another class in June. They like to have two classes a year.

TIP SWRC is also looking for someone that might be looking for an internship, where they can help update their website. 

Link to the website

For more information you can call

(951) 698-2453

or email

MagdaofTIPSWRC@gmail.com

•          •          •

The problem is we try to ride two horses at the same time. One is the plodding steed of practicality, the other is the fiery stallion of our imagination. So we are constantly torn between reality and illusion.
– E.G. Marshall, 1914-1998

Wildomar Rap reminds you that a fiery stallion of imagination in the hand, is better than two nags of tedium in the bush.

• City Council Meeting December 2016

This is a long blog because it was a long meeting.

This meeting had an early packed house. The preponderance of the crowd were there to see presentations, but once they were concluded, the crowd thinned out considerably. 

PRESENTATIONS 
• Associate Cares/TIP. 
This is a great organization that assists people after a tragedy hits them. In this presentation TIP gave Wildomar resident, Deanna Ramirez, a check for $2000 to aid in her family's living expenses. You may remember that the home she was living in burned on Halloween. (Blog link here)

• 5 Year Employee Service Pin – Kirk Schrader and Daniel Torres. 
A great couple of guys. If you're ever at a park event you're sure to see Daniel somewhere about. I've known Kirk for at least 10 years. We used to play beer league baseball together, and he was a heckuva shortstop... especially with that ZZ Top beard he's always had. ☺

• Special Presentation to Police Chief Lennie Hollingsworth. 
Sadly, Captain Hollingsworth is leaving Wildomar. Actually, he's retiring and leaving the area altogether. Let's hope his successor has a similar demeanor and approachability.  

• David A. Brown Football & Volleyball Champions, part of the Think Together program. 

• Donald Graham Elementary sang a few Christmas songs as part of a larger "better know a school" presentation. 

PUBLIC COMMENTS
This was a long meeting, and there were several public comments from the usual suspects. Not one of them made any more sense than they ever do. Which included a rare Martha Bridges appearance (on item 3.2).

Why do people go up to the lectern without knowing the subjects they are speaking about?  

I get it, it's the most fun a geriatric person can have in front of a captive audience in good ol' Willy Mar, but can't you hold back some of your shtick for nights when the agenda is thinner?

I'd have loved to have gone up to the mic and uncorked a few one liners, maybe sing a song, but had better sense than that.

For fans of Miss Miller, she didn't sing, but did go into several diatribes. I'll make a compilation video and include it below. Gotta love a person that attacks Christmas... that's so last decade.

While editing, I chose to include all twelve plus minutes of her four soughs —in their entirety. First, I didn't want to bother with editing. Second, she has her fans. However, I front loaded the video with a compressed version; squeezing her twelve minutes into about 13 seconds. Sounds a bit like church mice that got into the coffee grounds from last week's ice cream social, but it made as much sense as the 12 minute version... so there you are.

3.1 Urgency Ordinance 

Temporary Restrictions and Regulations on Non-medical Marijuana Facilities and Private Marijuana Cultivation.

This item was moved ahead of item 2.1

Nutshell time

Recreational use of marijuana has now been approved by the voters of this state. Wildomar voted in favor of it with 53% of the vote (and that percentage will only continue to grow as the old guard dies off).

I've never used it, but can't imagine trying to tell adults how to live. Cannabis is not akin to cocaine, heroin, meth, crack, or a plethora of prescription drugs that will absolutely destroy your body in due course.

It being listed alongside other Schedule 1 drugs, is about as sensible as the listing of Pabst Blue Ribbon would be alongside White Lightning or Everclear.

•
We all know the story about how cannabis went from a crop that our founding fathers cultivated, to being put on the mega boogieman list in the 1930s, and the hysteria that came with it, like Reefer Madness. 
(if you don't... try googling it)

That said, with it being recently legalized in California, there must be ordinances to keep it under control, as there is for everything else in life.

Just like we wouldn't want an unregulated mom and pop brewery to start up near a neighborhood, none of us would want some rogue pothead to start cultivating hundreds of pot plants in town either.

There needs to be order in a society, and the council will be taking the better part of 2017 to come up with rules & regs for the cultivation and sale of the hippie lettuce. 

Mayor Pro-Tem Tim Walker made it clear that as long as it's against federal law, he'll be voting to keep it banned. 

Planning Commissioner Chair Veronica Langworthy spoke on this issue as a private citizen. She is in the camp that wants to keep marijuana in the black market. Of course she didn't actually say those words, but when you seek to ban something, that is going to be the end result.

Did have to love her imploring the council to say, "Yes to a moratorium, and no to Weed-a-mar."

The video below runs about 12 minutes and covers the entire item as viewed through my camera. (link)
If I were to try to guess how this issue will eventually end up in Wildomar, it would be tough; it's really a toss up. 

If forced to guess, I'd say marijuana will remain illegal to sell in this city for the foreseeable future, and all the revenue that comes with the tax on it, will be going elsewhere too. 

Understand this, not one fewer joint will be puffed on; not one fewer bowl will be smoked; and not one less bong hit will be had in Wildomar, only the revenues will be going to other locales.

2.1 Westpark Promenade
To get some of the details of the project, refer back to the blog covering the planning commission meeting in question with this LINK.

This passed 5-0, and if it doesn't get hit with a lawsuit first (which we all know it'll at least be threatened with one) grading on the site could begin in about 8 months.

The memorable part of this item was when councilmember Ben Benoit jokingly responded to the suggestion of grading beginning in 8 months with possible delays, "...and potential CEQA lawsuits."

Westpark Promenade pointman, Sam Alhadeff, got on his soapbox for a few moments,  "I am getting tired of people submitting objections to projects —this is a full EIR. It's not a mitigated negative declaration, or a negative declaration. It's a full EIR, and to have the temerity to file a letter on something like, energy, three hours before a hearing, just doesn't make sense. And I'm hopeful that when you consider the new year, if there's any rules that can be established, requiring timely submittal of objections for projects —you've got a great staff. They get these letters, they've got to respond, and it's very difficult with two hours to do something."

Though I appreciate his fire in the belly approach, all he's done is challenged the the sue happy misfits to do even more last minute document dumps... it's how they roll, and they think it's effective.

Below is a short video of the exchange. 
(link if you can't see the video here)

The group that is harassing the developers of various Wildomar projects most recently, is calling itself Golden State Environmental Justice Alliance, last time they were known as SoCal Environmental Justice Alliance (I'm guessing that next time they'll call themselves something nifty like Global Environmental Justice Alliance, to later be followed up with Universal Justice Alliance).

My chance on the soapbox

To quote one of my favorite people, Dr. Shirley Johnson, let's just call an ace an ace, this guy appeared to be suffering from several things that have obviously haunted him for many years. 

First, the guy is shorter than I am, and that rarely sits well. 

Second... how can I say this and maintain decorum? 

Fine, I'll use clinical terminology. It's obvious that he suffered from bad acne in the past, and that too, usually takes its toll on a young person. 

Throw in a pair of glasses, red hair, a few too many lbs and you have the perfect makings of an outcast.

When kids are bullied, some grow up looking for revenge. *

Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe he was a combo class president/homecoming king in his day, but I think that claim might be a stretch too far, and would be better filed under the "fake news" banner.

What's my point? 

Is it to further ridicule him? 

No. 

I'm simply trying to come up with a rational explanation why someone would make their life's pursuit hounding those that build society.

Whatever his group is able to squeeze from developers, EVERY penny is ultimately going to be paid by the new homeowners, or the people that frequent any new businesses in the commercial portions of the project, meaning all of us.
 

*If the above drawing hurted [sic] your feelings, please send your hate mail to:

Wildomar Rap@I Don't GAS.com

 Not to be outdone by some recent upstarts —that can't settle on what nifty (cough) name to call themselves, the old guard, headed Martha Bridges, also submitted a letter outlining concerns about the project... and to round out the trifecta of ridiculous, so did Miss Miller.

3.2 Consideration of a Billing and Performance Audit of Waste Management 
Trash collection has been an ongoing issue for the city since we have two different providers. The east side has Waste Management, the west side has CR&R.

The big difference has been that the two services haven't been the same, and neither have their fees. 

It's another legacy of being a new city. When under county control, no one cared if W'mar got short shrift on a number of issues, this being one of them.

The desire of the council is to have parity when it comes the trash collection, throughout the city, and councilmember Marsha Swanson has long been a fan of only having one provider; seems reasonable for a city our size.
3.3 Faith Bible Church GPIP 
Quick reminder, a GPIP is very preliminary. (General Plan Initiation Proceeding)
 

(Link to previous blog that covered Faith Bible Church)

I've compared a GPIP to asking someone if you may ask them out on a date. I'll roll out my 4 panel cartoon as I'm want to do at such times to illustrate it better. 

In this example Mario is the applicant and Peach is the city.

Tonight the city basically said, "Yes, you may ask us out on a date." 

When Faith Bible Church comes back and asks Wildomar for actual permission to change the general plan, who knows what the response will be.

Like Councilmember Dustin Nigg mentioned to the applicant, "[The neighboring residents] all bought those houses, under the assumption that this would be an X type of plan. Then we're going to potentially change this land use [to] something different [than what they bought into]?"

His points were well taken, and this was dealing with his district too (still getting used to that a bit). 

If you move next to a vacant field that is zoned for more houses, then you might be a bit peeved if they end up putting a large building that draws 1000 plus people to it on the weekends.

3.5 Re-Allocation of $10,360 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Funds for Fiscal Year 2017-2018 Program Year 
This was made necessary because, after further review, it was found that Cops for Kids (the previous recipients) did not meet the documentation requirements for CDBG funding.

It was a little bit of a wonky issue, but the grants have to be used in very narrow applications. There were a few different options to choose from, and in the end the Malaga Park Project was awarded the money. 

For those that aren't aware of what that is, it's not really a park in the traditional sense. No ball fields, play areas or even open spaces.

The idea is to make the area a bit nicer, perhaps with some signage welcoming people to Wildomar.

Let's hope that after Malaga Park is finished, our lovely neighbors to the north won't hang campaign signs there. ☺

3.6 Planning Commission Appointments 
Bridgette Moore reappointed John Lloyd, and Dustin Nigg appointed Michele Thomas. 

3.8 Appointment of Mayor and Mayor Pro-Tem for 2017
Next year's Mayor will be Tim Walker with Ben Benoit taking the role of Mayor Pro-Tem. Tim was the Mayor when Wildomar Rap first came online. It'll be interesting to view his entire tenure this time. 

He cares a lot about the city, and has a solid foundation from where his views stem. His style is anything but politically correct, which is refreshing since the PC world has all but suffocated those that get bogged down in its hooey.

•          •          •

"Such are the things that torture a person of honor. There is no escaping the palpable fact that people, without honor, lead easier lives than those that possess it. But if I can choose my friends, give me those whose sense of honor makes their lives difficult. I'd like to feel that I belong with them."

— EG Marshall, CBSRMT 1981 

Wildomar Rap reminds you that a person's name is their most valuable possession. When someone consistently acts disreputably, you know they've long ago flushed their name down the crapper!