• City Council Meeting September 2018

The key news bits that came from tonight's meeting included: 

• The Bundy Canyon redesign is still at the 95% finished phase and now the hopeful start of construction is said to be Autumn of 2019.
• Food Trucks are a step closer to being legal in The W.
• Live Streaming of city meetings inch closer to becoming a reality.
• Wildomar is about to put a permanent ban into effect on all commercial uses for cannabis.

First let's start with the presentation honoring the US Constitution's 231st year since its drafting. 

Members of the Daughters of the Revolution were part of a brief presentation before the meeting fully got underway, then posed for a picture with the city council.

Honoring our US Constitution.

Public Comments on non agenda items
• Ken Mayes remarked about the lack of live streaming, something that was to begin with the September city council meeting, and that the city still doesn't have its own Facebook page. He also went over a list of local groups that are delinquent with their paperwork with the Registry of Charitable Trusts.

Wildomar Rap opinion time

He mentioned many local, venerable organizations. It seems that the paperwork is a chore to get through, but we have such safeguards in place because bad operators have taken advantage of good hearted people in the past, and to the point that we the people demanded the government step in. Come on local Non Profits, get that paperwork in, and that'll put a fork in it.

• Gail Taylor wanted to know how the repeal of the gas tax (Proposition 6) would affect the Bundy Canyon Road project.
• Patrick Ellis of the Murrieta/Wildomar Chamber of Commerce mentioned the scheduled Candidates Forum that will be Tuesday, October 9th, at 6pm in the Wildomar City Council Chambers.
• Ashley Casler
Spoke of her dissatisfaction with things in the city, "I bought my home recently, within the last year, I'm from the area locally, I've never lived in a city that looks like this. So my concerns are, I want to know where our tax dollars are going. I want to know who I need to talk to to cut up a tree by my house that I worry my child is going to get drug into by some transient and harmed on her way home from school. If somebody doesn't do it, I'm going to take my husband's chainsaw and do it myself. I want to know why the parks aren't cleaned up, why they're not maintained properly, and why nobody goes around picking up the trash, and this city looks like a dump." 

Wildomar Rap opinion time

Residents like Ashley should be applauded for their passion and concern. I agree with many of her sentiments and want our city to lead the way and show more pride in our town. 

When we allow trash to pile up, or weeds to get out of control (or graffiti to linger for months), what kind of top-down message does that send everyone else? 

From residents to visitors to passersby it tells people that we don't take ourselves seriously... or at least not seriously enough. 

Please watch Ashley's one minute public comment in the video below.

Mayor Benoit told her that he'd reach out to her directly.

• Rick Harris (10:10) was a late entry for public comments and his really was more suited for item 3.1 (Bundy Canyon Update). He spoke of the rude behavior of the group that is negotiating on behalf of the city when it comes to right of way issues. He said he will not talk to them anymore. 

Consent Calendar 
• Ken Mayes (11:31) asked to talk about items 1.6 and 1.7. 
1.6 was regarding the coming "Little Free Library" that will be installed by an Eagle Scout candidate in Marna O'Brien Park across from the Freedom Swing. He wanted to know who was going to be responsible for maintaining the LFL after it's part of the park.

Councilmember Bridgette Moore indicated that it was going to be maintained by the same family that is looking after the LFL in Windsong Park when asked by Mayor Ben Benoit.

Councilmember Dustin Nigg stated, "And I promise, if there are no books in there, I will buy books myself and will put them in there. It's being recorded, I'll buy them."

Gotta love Dustin Nigg's no nonsense approach!

3.1 Bundy Canyon Update 
Please watch the video starting at the (19:10 mark of the video) for the full presentation. What I got out of it is that the best case scenario start time has been moved from "Summer of 2019" to "Fall of 2019".

See this past blog where "Summer 2019" 
had been established as recently
 as a May 2018 community meeting.

Project cost estimate is $40M of which the city has secured $30M so far. Three options to close the shortfall were discussed. 

Option 1 is to stay the course, look for local sources of money, and basically rely on SB 1 funds.

Option 2 is to track other funds which could delay the project 24 months.

Option 3 is to federalize the project. That would also cause a delay and not necessarily fill the shortfall in funds. That process would cost about half a million dollars to set up. This seemed like the worst option of them all if I heard it correctly.

Link to video where the three options is discussed.

Here's how I interpret what's going to happen with Bundy Canyon and the proposed redesign. Especially considering the current $10M shortfall in the budget: 

If Proposition 6 is passed (which would overturn SB1's 12 cent a gallon tax hike of 2017) then the project would get mothballed.

The vote on Prop 6 will be your call. 

I'd be the first to agree that the way Sacramento has used the gas tax money in the past is reason enough to send them a strong message by repealing their thumb in the eye to the average commuter tax increase (which is a large portion of our region). 

Just remember, it's in the same category as "cutting off your nose to spite your face." Just understand the long term ramifications when you vote to repeal the tax.

Link to full Wiki article.

There was more to Item 3.1, and if you'd like to hear the details, please watch the video from one of the links provided.

3.2 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) (36:30 mark of the video)
Every year the city is awarded money to use in areas of need within the city. Part of the money is designated to go to Non Profit groups. Last year there was $20,677 that went to three local organizations. HOPE ($9000), Assistance League ($9000) and Rancho Domacitas ($2677).

Due to some quirk in the way things are done in the halls of government, all the allocated money that Wildomar is in line for had to go to a particular project (Sedco Hills Sidewalk Project); potentially leaving the Non Profits out of the mix this time round. 

The workaround is that this year, the usual money that will be going to the Non Profits ($17,500 this cycle) will be coming from the city's reserves. With the intention being to go back to the previous way of allocating the moneys once this year's project is done. 

Link to blog covering a recent request from the city asking you to participate in a survey that deals with the CDBG issue.

3.2 Food Truck Ordinance (55:50 mark in the video)
• Ken Mayes commented on this. He was glad to see this come about. He opined whether or not there was a way to allow the food trucks to operate in commercial districts until 2am. "Why does everything in this town have to close up at ten o'clock?" he asked.

Wildomar Rap opinion time

Come on Kenny, this is a true bedroom community if ever there was one, and I can't imagine anything good coming from food trucks operating until 2am as a regular thing. 

For special events? Perhaps, but I doubt any legit food truck vendor would even look to operate after 8pm (muchless past midnight) the other 360 days of the year.

The ordinance will allow "mobile food facilities" to operate on public and private property provided they have a city business licence and a city mobile vending permit. 

Mayor Benoit wanted to know if there was a way to make it one permit. There was a bit of jockeying over the language, but it seems reasonable that obtaining a mobile vending permit would automatically come with the business license too. If that type of permit needs to cost more, so be it, but don't make it a two step process.

City Manager's Report (1:01:35)
City Manager Gary Nordquist asked to begin the process of putting together a permanent ban on all commercial cannabis uses. 

If nothing is done by December 14th, then the lack of an ordinance would put the city behind the eight ball when it comes to shutting down illegal operations like the one recently closed in Sedco Hills.

Councilmember Nigg remarked that he'd like to have a discussion on the issue, but acknowledged that there wasn't sufficient time to properly hammer out any ordinances before the December deadline. 
"I want to have the discussion at some point. As long as we're on the same page as that (having this come back to the council) [then fine]."

Mayor Ben Benoit has been looking for the county to act on this issue first, then having the city take a look at their ordinances as a possible guide. It's just taken many months longer than he'd anticipated.

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The meeting was recorded on video, just not live streamed. The live stream is said to be about 45 seconds behind real time. Mr. Nordquist said he would share a link to the test video.

***update***

I heard from the Mayor that the video and audio didn't quite sync up and that a link should be ready to share with the community sometime next week. This is why the dry run was done before going live... working the kinks out first. ☺

*********

The company doing the video work (CBC Technical) is located in Wildomar.

A look at the snazzy new camera. I knew that pillar would come in handy one day.

Below is a video of the entire 66 minute meeting.

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"In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite."
– Paul Dirac

In blogging Wildomar Rap tries to share stories in such a way as to be understood by everyone, yet often it ends up coming across as inscrutable as most poetry.

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