• Congratulations To New City Councilmember Dustin Nigg

Local returns first:
Welcome to the City Council Dustin Nigg.

Dustin Nigg with his wife Desiree at his side. 

The early vote count had Nigg up about 65% to 35%. It makes me wonder who voted for a candidate (his opponent) that publicly withdrew from the contest a week after she entered it. 

Four of the Wildomar city council members at the watch party on election night.
From left to right Tim Walker, Dustin Nigg, Bridgette Moore and Ben Benoit.

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Thankfully there are more sane people than cranks & dullards in District 2. With 50% of the vote counted he had 622 votes. 

Update: Most recent total shows 1,299 votes to 718.

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As for the rest of the races, it was good to see that Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez was re elected. 

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I had a much longer blog in mind, but after writing it, I junked most of it. This has been an interminable election season and I'm guessing you already know who won the big contest. Hint, he has the fancy hairdo and a perma-tan.

Same goes for the statewide props. If you are concerned, you already know about them. If not, I'm still not going to bother with them here.
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Closing the book on Measure V

Congratulations to all the supporters for their victory. I was the odd man out on this issue, but all the Measure V supporters I came in contact with were as delightful as can be. We need more of that when there are political differences, not less. 

So allow me to give some final thoughts on Measure V.

Though I was assured that much (most) of the bonds were going to infrastructure (new classrooms) I'm still not sanguine about bonds paying for other things, even if it's not the lion's share of the bonds.

I was on a facebook thread the other day that was discussing Measure V... and I learned something. 

I only wish I'd talked to Lake Elsinore councilmember Steve Manos before writing my blog against Measure V (or my opinion to the Press Enterprise).

My problem all along has been that borrowing money with bonds is too expensive for things other than land and buildings. I said that I might be for Measure V if it new schools were part of it.

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Lo and behold, new schools are part of it. Just no where near Wildomar, based on Steve Manos' reply.

That means, with the passage of Measure V, Wildomar voters have, rather generously, chosen to help Lake Elsinore build some schools (I'm assuming that Wasson Creek is in the LE, because it sure ain't in the W)

I'm pretty sure that the schools in Wildomar weren't built with Lake Elsinore money.

To be fair, I did claim "dibs" on a recent park expansion paid for by LE, across the street from Wildomar, so it's only fair that we help them build a school or two... right?

Link to blog about park expansion

If this were a lopsided baseball trade, I'd compare it to the Mets letting Nolan Ryan go in exchange for Jim Fregosi... and the Met's thought they got over too. Comparing the Ryan Express to Gary Gentry? Get outta here!
*in the above comparison, Wildomar is the Mets.

Link to 1971 NY Times Story about it

I've found that discussing Measure V has been a no win proposition, because the people in favor of V, that I've conversed with, had no problem paying $50 a year (estimated average per homeowner) and only having $34 of that actually getting into the district's hands. 

(Do the math on borrowing $105M and paying back $170M.)

We all know how short the shelf life is for all things tech. How many of you are still using your first generation iPhone, iPod or iPad?

They also seemed unfazed that any high tech merchandise, that would be procured today, would be well out of date in under a decade... yet we'd still be paying for it well past 2040.

If Measure V had been passed twenty years ago, the most modern machines of the time would have been running Win95. 

If Measure V had passed in 1996, there would still be ten more years of paying for those 1996 state of the art "high tech" machines. 

That didn't seem to resonate with some, so I went with another analogy; a refi. 

If you refinance your home, and take out an extra $10K for a vacation, you'll be paying for that vacation for the life of the loan (typically 30 years). 

Someone responded, "But the memories of that vacation will last a lifetime!" (There were no smilies or emojis so I'm guessing that was supposed to be a serious response).

Those memories had better "last a lifetime" because if you do such a thing in 2016, you'll still be paying for that trip to Hawaii after your grand kids graduate high school. 

Let's hope now that the district has secured sh'loads of Wildomar largess, that they won't hesitate a moment longer on approving the signal in front of David A Brown middle school.

As an aside, I was trying to research how the [newer] schools in Wildomar were financed. Unless I'm mistaken, they were done by Mello Roos taxes/CFDs, but since I couldn't find the the data, I didn't add that to the meat of the blog. 

However, while searching around with those keywords I was led to a Patch article about Wildomar parks. It's dated June 28, 2012. It was discussing the yet to be named Measure Z, which restored the park funding.

Link to Patch story

Read the article, but more fun than that, skip down to the comments (for some reason they are in the wrong order. You need to start with the comment that is furthest down the page).

Though there were many timeless comments by Wildomar's queen of mean, and people trying to battle her, my favorite was by Kenny Mayes to a guy named Gil.

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"Fame," they say, "is what you do today". What you did yesterday is only good to wrap fish in.

— EG Marshall, 1914-1998

Wildomar Rap would like to see you try wrapping fish in it.

• City Council Election 2016 Update: Gonzales Out

Just got an election update from Wildomar city clerk Debbie Lee. 
(Note: you got the same email if you're signed up for them)

Before anyone had a chance to meet Linda Gonzales she has withdrawn from the race for the city council seat of District 2.

Wow, "health issues" — I sure hope she's ok. 

I'd imagine that they couldn't stem from pre-existing conditions, because if they had, she wouldn't have put her name into consideration in the first place... right?

I sure hope she has a speedy recovery.

In the meantime, congratulations to Dustin Nigg on his victory in November. It'll be interesting to see how many votes will come from a single district... and how many will go to each candidate.

It is too late to take her name off the ballot or withdraw her candidate statement.

In the last election that was held in a presidential year, Bridgette Moore pulled in 4,874 votes. I think that's the record for any one council member.

This includes votes from all five districts, and with each voter being able to vote for two candidates.

That record is safe as long as we have districts. 

Now the question is, what will the new record be? Dividing that by five, it seems as if getting 1000 votes will be a tall order to fill.

We should start an office pool.

I'm sure that Dustin Nigg will still want to do a "Better Know a Candidate" blog, and that should be out sometime in September.

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"The fellow who laughs last may laugh best, but he gets the reputation of being very slow-witted."
— Leo Rosten 1908-1997

Wildomar Rap never liked being asked, "orange you glad I didn't say banana?"

• Special City Council Meeting August 2016

This meeting didn't have a definitive start time. Usually, closed sessions (where the council meets with the city attorney to discuss issues not ready for public dissemination) are held before or after the set time. 

The agenda for this meeting read: CLOSED SESSION - 7:00 P.M. SPECIAL MEETING IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE CLOSED SESSION.

The reason that this meeting had to be scheduled in this uncustomary fashion was that they needed to guarantee a quorum would be in attendance to vote on item 2.2 General Municipal Election – District 4.

Without three members voting for it, there would have been an election in District 4 with only one candidate, Bridgette Moore, listed —which would have wasted precious taxpayer money. With only one candidate, why go through the dog and pony show of a meaningless vote?

Normally, it wouldn't be a problem getting the requisite number of votes, but Councilmember Marsha Swanson is away on a Summer vacation, and Mayor Moore can't vote on the item since she is the subject of it. 

Councilmember Bob Cashman couldn't promise to make it back from his day at work in time for a regular start time of 6:30pm, or even a postponed start time of 7:00pm.

The next best option was this format.

The first thing that came out of this meeting was from the closed session. 

SoCal Environmental Justice is suing the city and Strata Baxter (the Baxter Village project). The council voted unanimously to defend against it.

2.1 Roth Senate Bill 817
This is our annual attempt to regain our confiscated VLF funds. If the governor signs it, it would be an addition of about $1.9M to the annual city budget.

Click image to see details.

There was some discussion about if there was a quote in print, from Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, about why Governor Brown keeps vetoing this same bill year after year. Councilmember Cashman said he'd heard about it, but never saw it in writing.

I couldn't help myself, so when it was public comment time, I reminded the council that there is a direct quote from the Assemblywoman in some local blog discussing it.

Below is the excerpt from Wildomar Rap's blog of October 2015. 

Wildomar Rap:

Bringing it back to legislation, maybe you can talk about SB 25 which was going to help Wildomar. I don't know if it's even worth trying anymore with the current governor. 

Melissa Melendez:

SB25 was a bill where they took away the [portion of the] Vehicle Licensing Fees that went back to the cities. Wildomar was one city, and Menifee as well, where when they calculated their budget, they calculated that money in with the other money they were supposed to be getting.

Then the state, in 2011, took that money away, and so there went Wildomar's budget. There has been a bill three years in a row, my entire time in the legislature, they have done a bill to give that funding back, because it was promised to these cities.

The cities didn't do anything wrong, they played by the rules, but the state took it (VLF funds) away. Three years in a row I helped with this bill and three years in a row the governor has vetoed it.

Now I will tell you, and I don't mind saying this out in public, that I had a conversation with governor Brown a couple of months ago. We were at dinner, not just he and I it was a group of people((which led to some laughter among the attendees)). But it just so happened that he was sitting right across from me... I got the lucky seat.

So I said to him, "Governor Brown, we have this bill coming up which will really helps two cities in my district [by] giving back their vehicle licensing fees. They were pretty hard hit, what are your thoughts on that?"

And he paused for a minute, and he looked at me in his Jerry Brown way, and he said, "What was the percentage of votes I got in Riverside County?" 
((The assembled let out a protracted gasp at that))

He actually said that to me. 

I was stunned, I said, "uhhh... Well... you know, it was probably higher in some other areas of the state." 

And he replied, "I think it was about 22 maybe 23%, so I'm not really motivated."

So that bill is never going to pass (be signed into law), ever.

Link to Blog of October 2015

This item was just for the council to discuss it, no action was to be taken here. 

Still, when I saw this posted on councilmember Benoit's facebook page today, I couldn't resist throwing my two cents in there too.

2.2 General Municipal Election – District 4

City clerk Debbie Lee gave the brief presentation to the council, less Mayor Moore (who had stepped out of the room for this item), the key factor was the cost. An estimate of $5k to $7k was given to hold an election in District 4.

When the budget was being made, there were no districts and the estimate for an 'at large' election was $35,000.

There were a grand total of three people in the audience for this "historic" meeting; Mr and Mrs Wildomar Rap, and Wildomar's Chief of Police, Captain Leonard Hollingsworth. 

I was the lone public commenter. I told them that I'd run into a couple of councilmembers from neighboring cities, Greg August of Menifee and Maryann Edwards of Temecula. They were of the opinion that an election, even with only one name on the ballot, was their preference.

In fact, Greg August is also running unopposed this year and he was adamant about wanting to be on the ballot. He didn't want to be 'appointed'.

Councilmembers have a lot of responsibilities, but they don't have the same background as a city clerk —whose job it is to know the ins and outs of elections.

Debbie Lee made it clear that even write in candidates still have to qualify. They still have to pull papers and qualify, they just don't get their names on the ballot or their statements in the voter pamphlets.

She further wanted to speak to the related comments from Maryann Edwards and Greg August about it being better to be elected.

A nomination paper is an election. Those people that have signed that, have elected you to that office. It's not an appointment. I too was confused about that until, in my last city [that I worked for], it got clarified for me. The nomination papers aren't just names saying "yeah, go ahead" it's people electing that person. If you cancel the election and appoint Bridgette, what you're in essence doing is saying she has been elected, and she does serve as if elected; it's even in the election code that way. 

Wildomar City Clerk Debbie Lee

Below is a video link that has the lone public comment, the council comments, Debbie Lee's comments and the vote.

Now Bridgette Moore gets to hold the titles of Mayor and Councilmember Elect until her next term begins in December 2016, when she loses the "elect" part. Congrats!

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UPDATE

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Candidate Linda Gonzales withdrew from the election on August 31st, but too late to save the election costs.

Click for link to blog discussing it.

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Here's a bit of unfinished business from the meeting that revealed the continued lawsuit against Walmart.

I was thinking about the road improvements slated for Bundy Canyon near the freeway. 

The improvements are to be completed before Walmart is allowed to open. There is no incentive for them to begin the road improvements (which includes widening, traffic signals and improvements to area drainage) while they are still in litigation.

Walmart has made it clear that it takes just under one year from first shovel in, to doors opening. It's a fair assumption to conclude that the road improvements would be finishing up around the same time that Walmart is ready to open.

Basic math tells you that if they'd have already started the process, then the countdown to the Bundy improvements would be underway. With a completion date of sometime in 2017.

But no. 

Everything is on hold because a no name person in the community, that claims to be impacted by the project, has decided to hold things up. They know they can't win, but to some people, just the power of jerking with the masses is payoff enough for them.

So, when the Bundy Canyon improvements are delayed by a year or more, just remember that was a gift from the yet to be named litigant in the case.

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I'm throwing rocks tonight. Mark it, Dude.
— Donny, “The Big Lebowski” 1998 

Wildomar Rap has yet to lose a bet when Casa de Rap is wagered against boxes of day old donuts, and not even when the ante is upped by a flat, room-temp Coors Light.

• City Council Election 2016 Update 2

 UPDATE is at the bottom of the blog

Sadly, we won't be seeing signs like this one around town in 2016.

There were endless slogan possibilities for Mayor Moore,
but alas, we'll never know what they might have been.

Due to the shortsightedness of some cowardly people, that weren't willing to put their names to the accusation of racism against the people Wildomar, we now have safe seats here... better known as districts. 

Certainly so if you're a high quality public servant like Bridgette Moore.

She was the only one to file papers for District 4, so in reality, it's her job for as long as she wants to do it.

Here's a link to a January blog discussing the forced move to districts

But we may end up seeing signs like the examples below.

This is just a mockup as an example of what might be going up around town.
I have no idea what his actual signs might look like.

Dustin Nigg got his papers on day one of the period, and turned them in a couple of days later. He is running in District 2, which is where The Farm is, among other areas of Wildomar.

Here's a link to a video of Candidate Nigg as he introduced himself to the council at the last city council meeting.

A map of Wildomar's districts, with District 2 highlighted.

☺

At the 11th hour another candidate turned in their papers from district 2. So it's looking a lot like there will be a race for Bob Cashman's old seat afterall.

Though it'll take a day or two to have the signatures verified, there is oddly still an embargo on the person's identity. 

Until that time, we can only speculate as to who it is that is seeking to represent Wildomar from District 2. 

Anonymity is a peculiar strategy in politics.

Do we already know this person?

Is this candidate being backed by any particular groups? 

What prompted them to run in the first place? 

Why the secrecy?

Have they been active in the community before?

Stay tuned, we'll be finding out some time before the election.

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE 

Welcome aboard Linda Gonzales. Can't wait to find out who you are and what your plans for Wildomar could be. 

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Secrets and lies kill relationships. No matter how careful you are, you will get caught.

—Unknown Author

Wildomar Rap would like to spill the well guarded secret that this blog is written by one guy that gets paid jack diddly squat for the effort.

• City Council Meeting August 2016

The meeting started with an update from city attorney Thomas Jex regarding the Walmart case. Though the case had been thrown out of court, there was a 60 day period in which the plaintiff could appeal. On the final day of that, such an appeal was lodged. The city council voted unanimously to defend it.

There were a few presentations

Tina Roney (in red) was awarded a five year pin. Next to her is Mayor Bridgette Moore, Finance Director James Riley, and (pointing) is City Clerk Debbie Lee.

Pam Garlich, of Garlich Family Daycare, was recognized for an NAFCC award she received.
Click this link to read the blog covering it.

There was a school bond presentation by Dr. Doug Kimberly of LEUSD. He talked glowingly of a general obligation bond measure of $105,000,000 that will cost people $19 per $100,000 of assessed home value. With a claimed average of under $50 a year.

We're going to have to delve deeper into this one at a later date. I know that I'll be voting no on it.

Public Comments (non agenda items)
• Dustin Nigg, city council candidate (from district 2), introduced himself. 
(See video below)


• Miss Miller spoke about dirt sidewalks, lamented that we only have three months to know who is running for city council, banning plastic bags and prop 64 (recreational use of marijuana).
• Kenny Mayes spoke of his unfilled public records requests for Measure Z parcel tax annual revenue levy report. 
• Steven Goff (sp?) new resident (2014) mentioned wanting more police, speed limit signs in his neighborhood (Andalusia II), and the lack of street sweeping in Wildomar, where in his old city, La Quinta, "they do it weekly."

Council Communications
During this portion of the meeting, councilmember Bob Cashman discussed his future after his term on the council is over. See video for his full remarks.


2.1 Zoning Ordinance Amendment — Micro-Breweries
This was tabled, over the objections of Mayor Pro-Tem Tim Walker, due to a last minute document dump. This time an email was received after the meeting started at 6:41pm, from Martha Bridges, John Burkett, and Gerard Ste. Marie. The written letter is 5 pages with 399 pages of attachments.  

Ste. Marie spoke during public comments, summarizing what was in the letter. It was filled with the same poor reasoning that the trio has become infamous for. 

I've uploaded the video of his comments so you can get a load of what continually attempts to impede the progress of Wildomar. Judge for yourselves if this group is speaking for you or not.

link to blog where planning commission discussed micro-breweries

City Attorney, Thomas Jex 

We received this letter, you've received a copy of it, I haven't had a chance to fully read through all of the details of the letter. I would like a chance to do that and advise you on some of these issues, especially the CEQA issues. 

My recommendation would be to give my office a chance to review the letter, review the details, come back to you at the next meeting and provide some advice to you on the city's possible liability, possible exposure, before moving forward. 

Just understand this, the city attorney doesn't work pro bono for Wildomar. I don't know how or what they charge to read a five page letter, with 399 pages of attachments, but I'm guessing it's not going to be less than an hour's worth of time, and we all know that law firms charge out the wazoo for their time. 

So if you ever encounter one of these "activists" and they claim they cost the city nothing, you know that is a poorly disguised lie.

Councilmember Marsha Swanson

Won't [EVMWD] have to give a will serve letter to whoever wants to have a brewery, that there is enough water and enough sewer [capacity], isn't it going to be up to them? It doesn't mean everyone of these properties can be a micro-brewery. They're going to have to have sewer, and they're going to have to have water, and they're going to have to have a will serve letter.

Click link to read what an EVMWD Will Serve Letter is.

Mayor Pro-Tem Tim Walker

I'd like to know how many other cities have been going through this right now. How many other cities have been threatened with lawsuits, and all this kind of nonsense, [over] breweries. Because I see breweries going up all around us. I don't see any opposition to those. I haven't seen it anywhere.  

I understand —we get this thing (the letter), it's always at the last second. It's always this way, the same group. It doesn't change. Nothing's changed here. If you want to let Tom [Jex], and the firm, "look at it" (the letter), that's alright, we'll do that. I'm just letting you know, this will never end. It's just nonsense and it keeps going on forever... it's just frustrating... it's the same old battle. 

With council comments finished, they voted 5-0 to table the discussion to a date uncertain.

2.2 Zoning Ordinance Amendment — LED Signs
This was on the agenda of the July planning commission meeting. 

Click this link for July PC blog

At that meeting, the planning commission, then with only three members, voted 2-1 to NOT recommend the city council approve the amendment.

I'm not sure what they were thinking, but was glad to see the city council overrule them with a 5-0 vote. 

What it means is that the new Wildomar Square, which is set to open in the second quarter of 2017, will be able to have a portion of their freeway sign be an LED panel.

There are many restrictions that go along with it, and the developer, David Hornstein, seemed more than willing to accommodate the desires of the community, to keep it as a benefit to Wildomar in addition to the eventual tenants there.

☺

It was established that the LED panel would also include community messages. Be they notifications for park events like the city's birthday bash, or even things like the El Niño sandbag event.

Now if you look at that sample sign you'll notice several well known franchises on it. I asked Mr. Hornstein if those were done deals, if a Dunkin' Donuts was coming to Wildomar, and he wasn't ready to confirm any of the businesses at this time.

He likes to keep that info close to the vest and is hoping to make some announcements in the next 30 to 45 days. 

If I were a betting man, I'd be taking my nest egg down to Harrah's, considering it's not common practice to use specific franchises as examples when they aren't already inked, and letting it ride. We'll find out sometime in Fall.

Towards the end of the meeting, Mayor Bridgette Moore thanked Bob Cashman for his many years of service to the community. Check the short video to see how it went and the joke about Stewart Moore "still cursing Bob" for convincing Bridgette to run for council in the first place.

One of the last things mentioned in the meeting was an election update. In addition to the announcement that Bob Cashman isn't seeking a third term, no one has even made inquiries into challenging Bridgette Moore in district 4.

Hmmm... who'd a saw that one coming? ☺

In district 2, two more people pulled papers the morning of the council meeting, but they did not want their names released at that time.

Run that by me again. 

Two people, that think they want to represent the people of Wildomar, don't want to have their names publicized? 

Is this a joke? 

In my book, the fact that they've waited this long to pick up papers would make me look at them askance. 

I've only known of Dustin Nigg for the past six weeks or so, but he showed his eagerness by arranging to have the first available meeting to pick up his papers, and turned them in within a matter of days. Then at the next council meeting (this one) he formally introduced himself during the public comment part of the meeting.

Maybe it's nothing but I like seeing alacrity in a candidate, and I find it off putting when people are showing a perfunctory effort when the job they're applying for is one of a serious nature.

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I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

—Sir Isaac Newton, 1643-1727

Wildomar Rap generally throws smooth pebbles into the ocean, seeing how many times they'll skip across the surface.