• City Council Meeting December 2017

The last regularly scheduled city council meeting of 2017 didn't have any surprises, but will be known for having beaten back Stonehenge of Wildomar... I'll highlight that where it came up in the meeting.

PRESENTATIONS 
1. Holiday Decorating Winners 

A montage of the three category winners.

1) Griswold Category: 25011 Cinnabar Court
2) Traditional Category: 35690 Woshka Lane
3) Judge's Recognition: 21504 Coral Rock Lane

Plug those addresses into your GPS and be sure to drive by and take a look. There are quite a few spectacular displays throughout Wildomar to be seen this year. Don't miss them. 2. Stan Smith Planning Commissioner Plaque 
It's hard to believe that it's already been four months since all around good guy Stan Smith passed away. The city presented his son, Kevin Smith, with a plaque for recognition of his contributions to the city of Wildomar. 
3. Five Year Employee Pin – Matt Bassi
Matt Bassi hits a milestone with Wildomar and is presented with a five year pin.

4. Miss City of Wildomar 
Jessie Taylor spoke to the crowd as Mayor Walker looked on. Her ultimate goal is to compete for Miss America.
PUBLIC COMMENTS (non agenda items)
• George Taylor spoke about the worsening conditions of Bundy Canyon. 
That is one horrible road.
• Glenn Copple thanked the council on behalf of the youth of Wildomar.
• Scott Scharpen (sp?) pastor at Rock Valley church and a ministry called gomobileforlife that offers free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds to women. 
• Ken Mayes spoke for 6 minutes (with donated time from Martha Bridges). He talked about the dismal condition of the city's current website. 

WR Notes:

The website issue has been ongoing for quite awhile.

There is a blog from March of 2016 that quotes Janet Morales as saying they hoped the new website would have been completed last December.

Link to Blog covering the topic

Just like the live streaming, the city website is something that should have been given more importance from the get go. 

I'm sure there are a ton of reasons why the city's website has been so poorly run over the years, but none that couldn't easily be refuted. Sorry city fellers, but them is the facts. 

Much of the second half of Ken's comments were directed at Wildomar Rap... but of course not by name.

Normally I'd just ignore this, but this is too fun to let go by the way side. 

He seemed to take umbrage with my assessment of Kathleen Hamblin's outrageous claims, at the most recent planning commission meeting, that the city was trying to somehow keep the populace in the dark about the inner workings of the city by not live streaming of meetings.

Seriously? Do you think that the city council is the yard duty, and that you quoting things to them is supposed to get me sent to time out or something?

His quotes and misquotes only proved the original point I made. They bent the truth (commonly known as lying) to make a point. They were called out on it, and then didn't like being exposed. Bummer man. 

Part of the accusation was that I'd never even spoken to Kathleen before. Probably not. However, when her new bestie is Martha "Park Slayer" Bridges (sitting side by side and chatting throughout the meeting) connecting the dots is child's play.

Who doesn't love to play dot-to-dot?

Kathleen, if you'd like to talk sometime, let's do it. I'll be at the Breakfast With Santa event this Saturday, and would enjoy saying hello to you. Heck, the city council and many of the staffers will be there too. 

More WR Notes:

My favorite part of his diatribe was when he said that Wildomar Rap used "Gestapo tactics".  

Let's do the math here. 

I go to city meetings and city events and I write about what I saw... from my perspective. (This has NEVER been a secret)

I have a facebook page that allows comments, and I answer nearly all of them. Same for this blog. I allow comments, and I respond to nearly every single one of them. 

"Gestapo tactics" is childish, and typical of what a worn out intellect comes up with when faced with a different point of view.

• Kathleen Hamblin talked about the need for live streaming of city meetings.
• Mason Ballard showed off his festive sports coat and talked about his wife Lisa being elevated to president of Wildomar Little League.
• Miss Miller sang for the council before getting into a diatribe against Christmas. I actually agree with many of her points about it. Her part starts at the 15 minute mark of the video.

3.1 Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez Update on State Issues
I've included the video of the good assemblywoman for those that would like to hear her assessment of things at the state level. 

There were about 2000 bills signed into law this year.

As a non partisan myself, that has plenty of reasons to strongly dislike BOTH parties (especially the further out on the fringes one travels) I was stunned once I heard about Bill AB 1448 (Elderly Parole Program). 

It will allow convicted felons, that are at least 60 years old and have served 25 years, to be up for early release, no matter what crime it was that they committed.

This is what happens when we have one party rule for decades... Hey Liberal, are you really that enamored with convicted felons that you want them running around the community instead of behind bars? Shameful!

3.4 Temporary Storage of Brown House Cornerstones at Marna O’Brien Park 
Here's the skinny on this. 

The Wildomar Historical Society wanted to store some old stones (purported to have been from a local quarry) at Marna O'Brien park. 

City Manager dubbed the collection of stones as "Stonehenge". The moniker was picked up by both Mayor Walker and Councilmember Nigg during the discussion.

The area selected is across from the wheelchair swing (also known as the Freedom Swing). 

It seemed like a slam dunk, until the council started discussing it. It also didn't help their cause (WHS- Wildomar Historical Society) to be a complete no show at the meeting.

This item, like many other agenda items dealing with the Brown House over the years, took FAR TOO LONG, but ended up getting voted down anyway. 

At first it appeared that it would get tabled until more information came in, but the Mayor made a good point when he said, "Let me ask you this, who want's it in the park?"

Marsha Swanson said, "I just think what we're seeing there is not pretty. If there's something they (WHS) really want there, they could show us how they could put it together there and what kind of plaque they're going to put up [...] or take them somewhere else."

Dustin Nigg made the motion to deny, but that led to more discussion. Which led back to the Mayor's first point about wanting it in the park or not.

It was a 5-0 vote to deny.

I don't understand why members of the Wildomar Historical Society don't just have them moved to one, or more, of their own rural properties. It made no sense to have a temporary pile of rocks at the park, even if the WHS was paying liability insurance on them.

As the discussion mentioned, "temporary" in connection to the Brown House can become a decade in a blink of an eye.
3.5 Mayor and Mayor Pro-Tem 2018
This was a quick item. 

Mayor Walker nominated Mayor Pro-Tem Ben Benoit for mayor and was voted in 5-0.

I was surprised when Dustin Nigg then nominated Marsha Swanson to be Mayor Pro-Tem... all along I anticipated that spot to be going to him. My guess is that it'll be his (if he wants it) this time next year.

2018 being an election year, makes me think that Marsha Swanson will be running again since she took the mantle of Pro-Tem here. Just a guess, but can see it coming to fruition.

•                •                •

Don't be so humble - you are not that great.
– Golda Meir

The conundrum continues since Wildomar Rap is neither humble nor great.