• City Council Meeting Topic: Cervera Greenbelt

Originally this was going to be in the blog covering the June 2018 City Council meeting, but I got too deep into this topic and thought it better in a separate blog.

This is going to be long winded, wonky and boring so feel free to skip this one if you'd rather read about ribbon cuttings and ice cream socials. ☺ 

2.2 Community Service Area
Item 2.2 dealt with the Cervera Greenbelt and though it really only directly affects a portion of the population in Wildomar, the city's approach to it is telling.

There were two public comments on this issue. One from Kenny Mayes, the other from Wildomar City Council candidate from the affected area, Joseph Morabito (gotta love that use of the third person).

Both wanted some answers.

Let me wrap this item up for you in a nutshell best I can.

Back in the late 1980's Windsong Valley was carved out of an alfalfa field, and the dream of building endless tracts of homes (with no amenities to support them) came to life. 

An old tract map of Windsong Valley before it was built.

The story is that there were plans on making the series of developments into one huge HOA, but the original four developers went BK and it never happened. 

Once the developers no longer needed a nice lush greenbelt leading into Windsong Valley to sucker price-weary Orange Countinians, or San Diegans to Wildomar, they abandoned it, and it became an even bigger eyesore than it is today. 

A 2015 look at the entrance to Windsong Valley from google maps.

The story continues that the homeowners approached the county and asked them to take over the maintenance (not sure what that looked like in practicality), and levy a tax to pay for it. (so far so good)

What the grass looks like today... and this is a portion of the greener part of it at the corners.

Things were on cruise control for years and then the magic combo of Wildomar becoming a city and the Great Recession joining the party, made other plans.

From the agenda packet. Notice the cost of the administration and the total take.

Toss in the drought and that's the perfect storm to watch a couple of easy to maintain strips of grass turn into the joke they are today... all the while, still having a fund of $22,000 being filled with taxpayer dollars year after year.

I'd almost forgotten what it used to look like.

Same basic area as of June 2018.

If the greenbelt had stayed green, no one would have ever questioned it, but to be given even one excuse why the condition of that greenbelt is acceptable —isn't acceptable.(and that's the takeaway a person gets when dealing with the city machine) 

How did all this come to a head?

It started back with that awesome snowstorm we had back at the end of 2014. 

Ah, the memories...

That brought down a heavy branch from one of the trees and it broke a rail in the southwest fence. A local resident put in a request for the city to fix it. After many back and forth emails with the city, it was forgotten by the resident for quite awhile (more than a year). 

This photo was taken March 21st, 2018, but now it's fixed; it only took 3 years. Imagine had the city just done this to start, rather than arguing with a taxpayer about it, none of this bullcrap would have taken up so much of the staff's time. 

The resident then revived the email thread and got more of the same run around that he'd gotten the year before about who's responsibility the fence was. 

I get it, we all get it, Wildomar is a new city, and there are a lot of deals that the city inherited from the county, some clearer deals than others. Tough titty, do the job you're paid to do. 

The backside of the Lutheran High School is seen beyond the trees.

The only thing green there today is an assortment of weeds.

At this point, the resident felt he had two options. Either let the matter go for another year, or ask Kenny Mayes what he thought of it.

If you've read my blog very long, you've seen me hammer Mr. Mayes time and again over some of his rants... and he's given it right back to me. A veritable Dodger/Giant style lovefest (or, for you east coast transplants, Yankee/Red Sox rivalry... of sorts). 

Blogger Slap Fight

Ken, sometimes Kenny (but never Kenneth to me) and I have gone around and around since I first met him in 2013. We can have good conversations one minute, then can't stand the sight of each other the next. He has thick skin and doesn't seem to take things personally. It sure would be great if that were the case for all players involved here. 

(To whom it may concern, yes, that was a shot over your bow)

That said, he does dedicate a lot of his time for the betterment of the community —in the way that he sees fit, though many others (including me most of the time) don't concur with his conclusions.

He's generally a stickler for rules, and if he comes across something that points to rules not being adhered to, no matter how picayune, he jumps into action. 

This is near where the sidewalk begins.
(Note) The trees on the right side of the image were removed a year or two ago.

In the last two to three weeks they started on some repairs to the rail fence.

He took the task of digging around in old county records, trying to find out who's responsibility CSA 103, particular to the Cervera greenbelt in Windsong Valley, and even more in particular the white rail fences... since at one point the city staffers were saying they belonged to the adjacent property owners (empty fields) and not the CSA.

Are you still with me? Hang on, we're nearly there...

With all his digging around, not being able to find any solid paperwork to support the $20 yearly levy, aka CSA 103, he started suggesting that the entire tax was illegal, and that he'd like to see all the back payments returned to those that paid it.

This is where Kenny and I part ways. He's willing to take an extraordinary leap here, and I'm not willing to even look in that direction. 

But guess who did react to such ballyhoo?
The city administors.

Someone, somewhere, somehow blinked at Kenny's bluff and they called the county and told them not to assess the residents of Windsong Valley the customary $20 they had been paying for at least 20 years. 

Let me get this straight, the residents of Windsong Valley have been paying this since its inception and because some fossilized paperwork couldn't be found the decision was made to forgo the assessment?

It's recycled water, and we're paying $500 a month for that? Insane!

Now, though the complete paperwork still hasn't been found yet, it's ok to put the assessment back on? 

I know this is small potatoes in the eyes of the city, but was this just an executive decision to give 1100 homeowners a $20 gift, or did the city council at least get a chance to weigh in on it first? If so, even with my brown-noser status with the council, no one made a peep about it around me... and I'm directly affected by it.

In my public comment I restated questions I had during May's city council meeting. 
   •  When it comes to CSA 103 and the Cervera Greenbelt, what is it that we are paying for?
   •  When was the last time this work was sent out to bid?
   •  Why are we paying that much? And please explain "administrator" and why that line is getting 25%.

Answer to question number two is: It's never been put up for bid.
Answer to number three was real fun to hear from the assistant city manager:  "20 to 25% is not too often (interrupted himself), in fact often times it's 30 to 35% for assessments for administration, that's what it is."
Watch the one minute video to hear it as the rest of us did, and how he referred to part of the assessment as "peanuts".

Fun Fact: after the meeting Ken Mayes wondered about York's casual declaration that "often time it's 30 to 35% for administration" and went digging around in county records. His find dates back to the same time frame as Windsong Valley being included in CSA 103.

If you want to peruse the info yourself, it's titled FORMATION, ALTERATION AND OPERATION OF COUNTY SERVICE AREAS, and here's the link. 

If you skip down to page 4, here is what it says on the subject: 

Administrative Fee and Services.

CSAs will be assessed annually for expenses incurred in administering the CSA, including the costs of any losses occurring within the CSA or establishment of a reserve for such losses. A basic charge for administration shall be charged to each CSA, depending on administrative complexity. The standard percentage rates to be applied against new revenue earned by the CSA are as follows:

        6.0% Street Lighting

         8.5% Street Sweeping or CSA 152 (NPDES)

       10.0%  Road/Fire or Combined Services (without employees)

        15.0% Combined Services (with employees) 

A screen grab from the county's website.

York then addressed the cost of giving the greenbelt some proper attention:

We've looked into what it would cost to remove all of that, replace it, it's about a $25,000 price tag. We have not jumped on that, nor have we brought it to you as a decision packet. Primarily because we're in a deficit [with CSA 103]. So we'll be asking the city to find another source to actually offset that.

—Assistant City Manager Dan York (9:20 mark in the video below)

Imagine if the city had just kept charging the same tax that they always had, there wouldn't be a deficit, and the money would be there to take care of the issue... anyone over at Suite 201 want a mulligan here?

Councilmember Marsha Swanson spoke on the issue. 

She talked about the history of Windsong, and that city staff has spent a lot of hours chasing down paperwork. She then suggested that Windsong Valley, nearly 30 years after the fact, could form an HOA.

"We know when and how it happened (CSA 103), and we have almost every document to show that it did happen, but that's why the confusion. There's no HOA, and it's not too late to form one. You guys could form one right now. You have your CC&Rs, you can elect officers for your HOA, you could decide what you wanted to charge to enforce those CC&Rs. [...] But this city has done it's best, and is still working on trying to get these documents from Riverside County."

All due respect to my friend Marsha Swanson, but it seems that you haven't been in this neighborhood lately. There are two types of people that live here. Those that care about the look of their homes, and those that don't

Those that don't are nearly half, if not even more than half, and they'd never volunteer to be part of a group that is going to charge them a monthly (or yearly) fee, so that they can then get cited for leaving their trash cans out a day too long, or failing to paint that badly weathered trim on their house, or having a front yard that even a dog won't pee on.

Also, no one outside of Ken Mayes, cares about the missing documents. The only thing we care about is how bad that greenbelt has become. 

I'm not impressed with the landscapers, nor am I impressed with the on record attitudes of most in the city about it. This is inexcusable. Notice bits of trash against the fence. They've been there since the dinosaurs used to roam the hills here. 

This isn't about the documents proving that CSA 103 is legit or not. 

It's about a very bad job done, while taking taxpayer money, and then charging 25% for administration, while dissing the very people that pay the tax and vote in Wildomar's District 3.

Councilmember Bridgette Moore addressed this item. She pointed out that the original CSA 103 was formed back in the 1970's and that Wildomar has been a city for only 10 years. 

Awesome, now tell me why the grass is dead, and the city is charging a 25% cover charge to do a severely substandard job? 
(Pro Tip: no one cares about the missing documents everyone is preoccupied with)

How many more years will this be allowed to look like this?

Then she continued down the path of excusing bad work by saying they actually spend more than they take in on it. She mentioned spending $93,000 on one item alone (presumably when they cleared away the clogged drains that lead to Windsong Park a couple of years ago). 

I don't have the stats at my fingertips, but that was because the maintenance that should be done yearly (or more frequently based on how they did such maintenance in San Clemente — keeping the storm drains clear) wasn't done for a very long time, creating a near emergency that cost $93,000 to clean up.

The one thing I didn't hear from the council about the Cervera greenbelt is how bad it looks, and that they will no longer be tolerating it.. Or that they will certainly be sending this out to bid, so that someone eager to do the work will start doing a good job with it. That is something that wasn't said or even hinted at. 

This is a clear example of why Windsong Valley needs to elect a council representative that lives in the neighborhood.

Those of us that live in tract housing comprise close to 80% of District 3. Watch the video, and ask yourself if Windsong Valley was being represented during that Agenda Item.

As a matter of record, our elected representative, Tim Walker, didn't even weigh in on the matter. Watch the video, it's almost stunning how disinterested he appears to be.

I've been warned that speaking in such stark tones won't win me any friends at city hall. Sorry, that's not something I'm interested in if it also means I have to accept shoddy work and put my seal of approval on it. 

I'm here to get a job done, and that job isn't currently getting done to my satisfaction. If that means people start turning the cold shoulder to me... I'm ready for it.

LINK TO CAMPAIGN WEBSITE

•                •                •

How stubbornly we cling to the past, to yesterday, to the known, the tried and the true. And then suddenly what we have treasured so highly appears to us as only an illusion, and the bubble bursts. And we've moved away from yesterday into today, where we are already preparing to resist tomorrow.
– EG Marshall

Wildomar Rap can be just as stubbornly-clingy as the next guy, but welcomes all those that can burst bubbles of illusion. Because the truth should always triumph over fantasy.

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