• City Council Meeting September 2016

This meeting was frontloaded with several presentations. 

It started with the flag salute led by the Sea Scouts.

Video Link Below.

The first presentation was of David A Brown middle school choir singing. It was such a large group that they assembled in the parking lot. They sang three songs and I captured the first one, Put On A Happy Face, on video.

Video Link Below.

  They did an outstanding job and brought many smiles to audience member's faces.

It was tough getting a complete photo of the group.
Thankfully Photoshop can stitch two photos into one.

Girl Scout Troop 90 was recognized for their Silver Award work at Donald Graham Elementary.

Girl Scout Troop 90 along with Mayor Bridgette Moore.

Boy Scout Troop 2011 was recognized for their bravery in putting out a fire while on a campout. No, not a campfire, but something that took a bucket brigade to extinguish. 

The entire troop came in, which made picture taking a challenge that even Annie Leibovitz would have failed... All kidding aside, nice job fellas.

The next presentation was recognition of Matthew Wolfslau getting his Sea Scout Quartermaster Project (akin to an BSA Eagle Scout Project). 

Mayor Bridgette Moore, from Congressman Ken Calvert's office Brenda Dennstedt, Sea Scout Matthew Wolfslau.

The Sea Scouts (SSS Integrity) along with Wildomar City Council.

The 4-H Club spoke about their club and upcoming fairs where they will be taking their animals to show.

Left to Right: Cindy Stinson community leader, Wade Walker  member and treasurer, Bryanna Stinson member and vice president, Aspen Walker member, Liddy Walker community leader and Mayor Bridgette Moore.

☺

The members of Elsinore Valley 4H will be auctioning their projects  at the Southern California Fair on October 8 at 10 am and would greatly appreciate the support of their community not only for their club, but for other 4H and FFA clubs in Riverside County. If you have any questions please feel free to go to socalfair.com or call Cindy  Stinson at 714-624-4148.

Click this link for video of EV 4H at the meeting.

Still on the agenda at this point were the Library Update, a proclamation about Constitution Week, and National Stepfamily Day (September 16), but this was almost an hour in at this point and I couldn't see straight anymore. 

Never fear, there was an impromptu presentation where Wildomar Police Chief, Captain Leonard Hollingsworth, pointed out one of his deputies that had been honored by MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving).

Chief Hollingsworth pointing to a pin that this deputy received from MADD.

From here, the rest of the agenda started. 

Funny thing about that. There wasn't really anything on the agenda to speak of, and that's why the meeting was frontloaded with so many presentations.

Public Comments on non agenda items
• Kenny Mayes brought up municipal codes and Bingo, plus that many city events go under promoted.
• Miss Miller urged a vote for Linda Gonzales over "Mr. Riggs" (as she called Dustin Nigg) in the "5th district" (also wrong - it's district 2). Then she got on an anti-American rant and blasted US History, as if it was being done today. Had to love her blast against 12 term congressman Ken Calvert when she said he was "part of the Washington gangster machine." 
(I thought Hillary was head of that) ZING!

Item 2.1 was one of these things that I think is a waste of time, but has to be dealt with in an open meeting. It was about a small area of land being "annexed to community facilities district." 

There was no opposition from any of the concerned parties, but that didn't stop Miss Miller from using three minutes to discuss chemtrails and other such nonsense.

3.1 Tiny House Village Meeting
This was brought to the council so that they could approve a meeting that is to be held Thursday September 22 from 4:30-7:30pm in the council chambers.

Kenny Mayes spoke about how the meeting hadn't been well established, though it's been talked about since July. Also that the timing isn't good "even for retired people because that would interfere with chores and dinner".

(He has a point there, I wonder if it would be prudent to bring along a brown bag?)

He went on to conject about how the costs for the meeting were going to be paid. City Manager Gary Nordquist said the costs for the meeting would be $89 from the general fund.

At that point, Councilmember Ben Benoit pledged to pay the $89 out of his campaign funds, which put the issue to bed.

(There will be time for opinions about Tiny House Villages after the meeting is held.)

3.2 City Council Salary Ordinance
Wildomar city council members receive $300 a month. That's dictated by state law for General Law cities with populations under 35,000 (as opposed to Charter Cities). 

Earlier this year Wildomar hit 35,000 residents and that entitled the council members a hundred dollar a month increase.

I know that it's common to want to cut, cut, cut when it comes to government spending, but their current $300 monthly stipend doesn't come close to covering the out of pocket expenses our council members incur (at least most of them) while working for us.

They voted to amend the ordinance so that it doesn't take effect until the next fiscal year (July 1, 2017) instead of the first of the year.

Their next raise won't be until Wildomar hits a pop of 50,000. Our build out is somewhere around 55,000, and at current rates that would be between 15 and 20 years.

Below is the video of Item 3.2. In total, it's under five minutes long.

City Manager's Report 
We were reminded to join the letter writing campaign, urging Governor Brown to sign SB 817, that will return nearly two million dollars a year to Wildomar. 

Link to blog with sample letter and the address

City Attorney Report
We learned that a new law requires that anytime a head of department gets a raise, it can't just be mentioned in the agenda. It now also has to be mentioned verbally before a vote can be taken. 

Seems fair enough.

•          •          •

Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves.

— Brendan Behan , 1923-1964

Wildomar Rap has never been near a harem, much less worked in one.

• Letter Writing Campaign 2016

If you have city emails sent to you, you've already seen a request to join a letter writing campaign, and this blog is encouraging you join the effort.

We have a limited amount of time so we urge you to send this as soon as possible!

It's our yearly pilgrimage that consists of groveling to Governor Brown, in hopes that he'll finally take his boot off of our neck and return about 1.8 to 2.0 million dollars to our city that was taken away in 2011.

Below is the sample letter that came in the email.

Before I breakout my crayolas here, let's remember who it is we're dealing with. It's the same man that is desperately wooing two ridiculous causes at the same time.

On the one hand he's head over heels in love with what's known as The Browndoggle, aka The Train to Nowhere. 

On the other hand, he loves the idea of global warming so much that he's willing to lie about how dire things are going to be if we dare to "deny" his proclamations on the matter.

Anyone that wants to tell me that I'm a luddite —for not bothering with something I have no control over, I insist that your comment to me start with a take on Governor Brown's remark about 135 degrees "for months on end" and why he's out to lunch on it... or even better, why you agree with it.

Hey peeps, since when is skepticism akin to heresy? (Oh yeah, it's always been heresy to the faithful to not buy into their obsessions... like celestial microwaving, or whatever they've rebranded GW to these days).

With that established, I wrote a letter in 2014 and 2015, and like a great president once said, "Won't Get Fooled Again!"

Let's be honest here, I don't even think the governor's office opens the mail if the postmark is from south of Santa Barbara, but if you need to brush up on your long hand, this would be a good assignment for you. 

You could also threaten your kids with having to write to Governor Brown —in cursive no less— if they don't take the trash out or put the dishes away.

I know that Linus Van Pelt has spent the better part of 50 years believing this year is going to be different, that the Great Moonbeam is going to finally sign Wildomar's bill and all, but I don't have that kind of unquenchable steadfastness like he does.

I'm pretty sure that the Tooth Fairy is more real than a reasonable Jerry Brown.

Below is an excerpt from Wildomar Rap's blog of October 2015. It has a question to Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez and her answer regarding Wildomar's missing VLF funds.

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.

Despite my personal disbelief in the Governor coming to his senses here —and signing SB 817, allow me to be somewhat of a hypocrite and urge you to do something I'm not all that jazzed about.

Join the letter writing campaign. 

I hear you can even fax it or email it.

Here are links to past blogs urging past letter writing campaigns.

Link to 2015 Blog

Link to 2014 Blog

[This space reserved for 2017 Blog Link]

If you haven't had enough of my graphics, thought I'd throw in this one from last year.
The original caption was:
Every voice matters when a group is screaming at deaf people.

Please pardon the sarcastic tone of this blog. There are only so many times you can hear the same story and think the ending will be different this time. 

If all this VLF funds talk is new to you, just click VLF funds at the bottom of the blog where you see "Labels". That'll send you to many past blogs covering this topic.

•          •          •

What is the face of a coward? The back of his head as he runs from a battle.

— Francis Underwood 
(Kevin Spacey), House of Cards

Wildomar Rap reminds you that shouting at deaf people is about as useless as flipping off a blind person.

• Concert in the Park September 2016

Marna O'Brien park was the setting of a great show put on by the band named Arena. 

It was probably the largest crowd at an evening parks event I've seen so far, and the weather was optimal.

The evening started with introductions, the pledge of allegiance, and a moment of silence to honor those killed during September 11, 2001.☺

☺

It was like taking a time machine back to the late '70s early '80s and switching back and forth between KLOS and KMET.

They played songs from Boston, Journey, Van Halen, Def Leppard, Styx, Kansas and several other bands I can't remember the names of.

Link to Arena's website.

Panoramic shots don't really give a good representation of the crowd size.

This shot doesn't pick up the other half of the crowd that is outside the view of the camera.

Many thanks to the city, and Janet Morales, for making this happen and we hope to have many more such concerts in the future.

Janet Morales, in the light blue top on the left, got flowers for her birthday.
Happy Birthday Janet.

•          •          •

One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.
— Bob Marley, 1945-1981

Wildomar Rap didn't shoot the sheriff and didn't shoot the deputy either.

• Anti-Bullying Meeting

The Community Room at the VFW was the site for Wildomar's first Anti-Bullying meeting.


The meeting was broken into two parts. 

The first part was a powerpoint presentation lead by Deputy Mike Darling out of the Lake Elsinore division. Much of the information was common sense type of stuff, but good to hear again.

Deputy Mike Darling discussing bullying at schools. 

The second part was led by pastor Willie J. Oliver of Grace and Truth Worship Ministry. He worked from a handout that discussed six types of bullying.

• Physical
• Verbal/Mental
• Relational Aggression
• Cyberbullying
• Sexual/Gender Bullying
• Prejudicial

• Physical is the most obvious and occurs when people use actions (or threats of violence) to gain power and control. 

• Verbal is what you'd imagine, where name calling is used on a target. 

• Relational is more of an insidious type of bullying where the target is ostracized by use of rumor spreading in attempts to sabotage the target's social standing. 

• Cyberbullying, especially among school age kids, is used to harass and embarrass the target. 

• Sexual/Gender bullying is often marked by crude comments, vulgar gestures, uninvited touching, sexual propositioning and/or porongraphic materials. 

• Prejudicial is based on things like race, religion and gender identification. 

  

Pastor Willie J. Oliver discussing anti-bullying.

Part of the handout included many phrases that adults use when confronted with bullying by their kids.

• Some examples were:
• Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me.
• It's good for you. It toughens you up.
• Fight your own battles.
• You must be doing something to bring it on yourself.
• I was bullied and it never did me any harm.
• You've got to take care of yourself.
• Boys will be boys.
• Girls will be girls.

The crowd was small in size, but there was still good audience participation, which made for an engaging hour plus.

Nelson from The Simpsons, Matt Dillon from My Bodyguard,
Scott Farkus from A Christmas Story.

☺

I've never liked the idea of bullying, and thankfully I was never really a target for it, and neither were any of my children. 

Though, like most every other kid growing up, I did have to deal with it a couple of times in school. 

Junior high school is where I had a small taste of it. Three examples were in 8th grade.

• One had a guy tell me he was going to get me after school. I remember taking a different route home for about a week until it blew over.
• Another was at lunch where I got on the radar of a tough kid. He came up to me and thumped me on the chest and was menacing me. I've never had a problem with going to authority, and it just so happened that the Vice Principal (with a reputation for being very adept with a paddle) was about 20 feet away. I promptly went over to him, and was next in line to talk to him, when the aggressor did a 180 and apologized to me for the "misunderstanding".
• The last one was kind of funny. My family moved quite a bit when I was young, and I knew we were moving out of the area when someone basically challenged me to a fight. It was funny because he said, "Hey Morabito, are you Mill's brother? (My brother's friend Derek's last name) Let's fight." It being a Friday, as lunch was ending, I suggested that we fight the next Monday. He's probably still there waiting for me to show up.

As much as I loathe bullying, it's not realistic to call every unpleasant encounter "bullying". It's up to the parents to know their kids and if there is real bullying going on. 

When that is determined to be the case, it's up to the parents to step in and bring it to the authorities. In most cases that's the teacher or principal of the school.

Then there is the other side of the coin. 
The parents of the bully. 

If you are one of those, and you don't do your best to straighten your kid out, you are a POS. No offense or anything, but you probably already know it and don't care anyway. 
 

Officer Mike Darling, *Jeanna, Mayor Bridgette Moore, (I didn't get her name), *Jasmine and Pastor Willie J. Oliver.     * Part of "Royal Generation".

They are looking to have quarterly meetings on this topic and I'd like to see community support build for such forums in the future. 

•          •          •

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.
— Bishop Desmond Tutu

Wildomar Rap is more about live and let live than wanting your lunch money. 

• Wildomar Rotary 3rd Grade Literacy Program 2016

This is the 5th year that Wildomar's Rotary Club has distributed dictionaries to the 3rd graders of the city as part of its Literacy Program. 

Rotarian Stewart Moore hands dictionaries to the students as they enter the Multi Purpose Room at Donald Graham Elementary.

☺

In total, 70 dictionaries were given out to three classes of Donald Graham Elementary School third graders.

Rotarian Andy Morris speaks to about 60 DGE third graders.

The kids read the Rotary's 4 way test, which was affixed to the inside covers:

• Is it the TRUTH?
• Is it FAIR to all concerned?
• Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
• Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

Wildomar Rotarians Mayor Bridgette Moore, Stewart Moore and Andy Morris.

Andy Morris related a story about how he too got a dictionary from a Rotary Club back in the 1970s, and how he used it all the way through his days at Cal State Fullerton. He encouraged the kids to hold onto it and use it often.

Sycamore Academy already received their complimentary dictionaries, and next up is Ronald Reagan Elementary and William Collier Elementary. Wildomar Elementary is at TBA status.

The back wall in the DGE MPR.

An added bonus to the Donald Graham experience was that all three of the teachers had one of those Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon...errr, I mean six degrees of separation moments.

As it happened, two of the teachers went to the same grammar school as Andy Morris (about a year apart), and the other teacher, Mr. Wiggs, is an old family friend of ours... though I hadn't seen in about 4 years.

It was also fun to meet a fellow Joseph, one of the lucky recipients.

I had to borrow this selfie that Andy Morris took with all the kids.

•          •          •

"Your friend is the person who knows all about you, and still likes you."
— Elbert Hubbard, 1856-1915

Wildomar Rap doesn't hold a person's past against them, but still cautions friends about falling into the TMI swamp of no return.

• CERT: Drowning Awareness

CERT stands for Community Emergency Response Team.

Wildomar provides training a few times a year, at no cost to those taking the classes. They are about 20 hours long over the course of a weekend.

There are periodic refresher courses (for lack of a better term), and the most recent one was called Drowning Awareness. 

A lot of good info from 4 guest speakers

The first speaker, Irene Hjelmervik (Yell-Mer-Vick) was from Riverside University Health System. She went over a Water Safety quiz after we watched a video called Pool Safely.



Most of it was review, but some things were new on my radar. 

Top of the list: smartphones usage while watching kids around pools.

Our youngest is 23, and she was already 8 years old before I got my first cell phone, and that was before texting was a thing. 

I can see that if you're in charge of a child's safety, that you shouldn't even have your phone with you, much less in your hand. 

Considering that backyard drowning is 100% preventable, I'd think figuring it out would be pretty high on your list of things to accomplish.

Below is a short video that reminds you "sometimes there's no do over." 

☺

The second speaker, Lindsey Dolan, spoke on behalf of something called Infant Swimming Resource, aka ISR.

It's a type of swim class that teaches small children, as young as four months old, to flip onto their backs and float when in the water.

The lessons aren't traditional. They aren't just taught to splash around in the water, but how to get to their backs and float, even when fully clothed.

She related a story of how one child, about a year old, had an additional 12 pounds of clothes to deal with once they got soaked in the pool.

Lindsey had been an RN for 16 years before transitioning into being a ISR swim teacher, she's located in Murrieta.

The lessons are one on one, and come in a series (usually a week at a time, but often for two weeks). The lessons only last 10 minutes and each week is $100.

At first blush, $20 for ten minutes — times five, might seem pricey, but you have to ask yourself how valuable is your child's safety?

It reminds be of an old Bell Helmet slogan that went something like: If you have a ten dollar head, then buy a ten dollar helmet.

Live Like Jake is the name of a foundation (Bringing Awareness to Drowning Prevention) that awards "scholarships" to those that can't afford ISR lessons. There is a link at the bottom of this blog for those that want to learn more about it.

The last two guest speakers were Jodi Pesicka and Toni Bravo-Rousseau. Two mothers that had children drown and survive.

Heartbreaking stories about their daughters being there one moment, and finding them at the bottom of the pool the next.

Jodi's daughter Justine was estimated to be under water for five minutes. She suffered severe brain damage and was in the hospital for two months. The doctors didn't think expect her to live, but she did, and she lived for another 23 years.

She died in 2013, on Jodi's birthday, and is buried in Wildomar cemetery.
 

Link to an LA Times article about Justine, 12-15-1990 

Jodi Pesicka, Toni Bravo-Rousseau, Lindsey Dolan and Mayor Bridgette Moore.

Toni's daughter Summer drowned on Mother's Day 2011. Usually the pool was childproof, but the alarms were shut off that day. It was estimated that she was underwater for 10 minutes, and it took 36 minutes to get a pulse back. 

Two years ago, Summer had a 12 hour seizure and is now on a ventilator. 

I would love to push ISR for all families, because of the fact that the barriers were there [around my pool], everything was there, but if had my daughter in ISR I wouldn't be living this.

Toni Bravo-Rousseau

It goes without saying that one of the most important things you can do for your child is to get them watersafe. 

Also learned at tonight's meeting
Water Safety Awareness 5K is coming to Wildomar (Marna O'Brien Park) on April 15th 2017... more on this as it develops.

Links

Riverside County Water Safety

Lindsey Dolan ISR
Live Like Jake Foundation

Jodi Pesicka

Toni Bravo-Rousseau

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He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, While he who has one enemy shall meet him everywhere.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882

Wildomar Rap knows that mulligans only work on the golf course.