• City Council Meeting February 2019

Highlights from the February 13th city council meeting.

There were several presentations

One by Mr. Hoffman of Wildomar Elementary highlighting the current happenings at his school, and he gave mention to Mikayla L's Bronze Award project on his campus (link to blog about it).

David Pereyea, senior at Elsinore High School, was honored for completing his Eagle Scout project. It involved cleaning and organizing the hundreds of trophies that the EHS music department has earned over many years. 

Starting on the left is Glenn Miller of Senator Jeff Stone's office, then a representative of Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez's office, Brenda Dennstedt of Congressman Calvert's office, David Pereyea, Council Member Bridgette Moore and Mayor Marsha Swanson.

We also said goodbye to both our Fire Chief (Todd Phillips) and Police Chief (Dan Anne). The new top cop in Wildomar is Captain Michael Lujan, and the current title of Wildomar Fire Chief is unfilled.

Two good guys that will be missed. Good luck in your new digs, fellas.

There were several public comments on non agenda items, please take a look at the video at the bottom of the blog to see them as they were spoken, but I'm only going to highlight one of the comments here.

5th grader Indiana Purkiss, of Ronald Reagan Elementary, spoke to the council about her desire to clean up and reopen an abandoned park near her home. Her cheerful attitude was very endearing.

An aerial view of the spot she is referring to.

Her closing comments were:

"A lot of kids live here and we would love a place to run around and play. It would be really great if you would consider letting us build up this abandoned park into a useable space for us kids to play."           —Indiana Purkiss, February 13, 2019

Indiana "Indy" Purkiss addresses Wildomar City Council.

1.5 Vacancy on the Planning Commission
This meeting had the appointment of a new planning commissioner (Item 3.3, Eric Filar by Joseph Morabito) as it was announcing another opening. 

Last time (December) we had only three qualified candidates. There are many things to consider when applying for the position, and residency is a bare bones minimum of 12 full months (in common parlance, a year... sorry, but rounding up isn't allowed).

2.1 The Village at Monte Vista
This is a mixed use project that will come with 80 single family homes, 136,000sf commercial/business park and a 76,000sf - 4 story - 155 room hotel. 

This was approved 5-0. 

I had walked the site the day before. It's where the infamous "graffiti house" used to be. This area would never be confused for the Santa Rosa Plateau when discussing its environment.

I found this area to be anything but "natural".
This development will be a tremendous improvement and feather in the cap of Wildomar.

If you watch the video
you'll hear how bad my
voice was. 

My characterization of the area is that it looks like an abandoned motocross track, that was also used as an illegal dumping ground by scofflaws (I would have said all that if I didn't have laryngitis and sounded like Froggy from The Little Rascals).

This item didn't meet much resistance. 
Speaking for myself, I told the developer that I liked the project, but I had a problem with the traffic issues it would cause, especially at the Bundy Canyon/Monte Vista intersection. (Council Member Bridgette Moore also voiced concerns about traffic, but I'm not going to be covering meetings where I quote all the council members anymore. It's labor intensive, and I don't want to step on their toes by mistake).

Just to the north of the blue star is a new development of 70 homes, already under construction.

Through my nearly inaudible voice I said that I would prefer a signal at Monte Vista and Bundy Canyon to be a precondition for the entire project, being that there are already 70 homes going in directly to the north, but, that I'd be willing to compromise if the the traffic signal was a precondition for the opening of the hotel.

The developer thought about it for a moment, and then agreed. The language was read into the resolutions (or was it the ordinances?) and approved. 

That doesn't mean a traffic signal can't go in before the hotel (which is a long way off), but it will work as a fail safe in the event that one hasn't been installed by the time the hotel is ready for business (whew... that seemed confusing).

This item begins around the 57:00 mark of the video, with council discussion beginning at about 1:20:00 mark.

2.2 Zoning Ordinance Amendment
This was necessary because there was no previous provision for craft fairs/open air markets. The fun part about government is that if something isn't specifically permitted, it's not allowed until it is specified in writing.

The first thing you need to know is that the actual costs to the city to process the paperwork for a temporary event is between $661 and $725. 

There are several departments that must sign off on it before it's a go... seems like a lot of money (I almost fainted when I first read the raw figures), but that's the type of unanticipated collateral damage that comes from a litigious society.

Here are the fees as I remember them. The graphic used wasn't in the agenda packet.

The fees established were reasonable, and so were the number of times an event can happen within the year (6).

There was one sticking point when it came to this item, and it revolved around the discounts for the non profits. 

Resident Kenny Mayes suggested that if a non profit were going to get a discount, that they should also be in compliance with the State Attorney General, having all their paperwork up to date. 

I concurred and wanted that to be part of the ordinance amendment, Councilmember Dustin Nigg agreed too.

Item 2.2 was approved except for the part about non-profits, that part will come back to council later with more clarification.

You can bet I have a lot of opinions about this, but our friend "The Brown Act" is keeping me from sharing them here. ☺

Skip to the 1:29:00 mark of the video for this item.

3.1 Wildomar Little League Ball Field Modifications at Marna O'Brien
This was a tricky item for me. Like I tried to squeak out at the meeting, I'm a long time baseball and softball player, having played baseball well into my forties, and last played softball in 2010 (I was on the championship team that Winter). 

I played all levels of youth baseball, and managed or coached several Little League teams between the early '90s and the mid '00s. Plus, I know and like the leaders of Wildomar Little League.

That said, we only have one legitimate park in Wildomar, Marna O'Brien Park, and a 60/90 baseball field (one that adults can play on) simply is a mismatch for the spot suggested. 

I would love to have high end baseball fields —of all sizes— in Wildomar, but I'm not in favor of closing off portions of our only park to all others when a game or practice is going on... and that's what it would take to ensure other park goer's safety.

This was tabled, so I will reserve more opinions for the next time it comes back to council. 

To see the discussion, go to the 1:50:30 mark of the video.

3.2 Establishment of Measure AA Oversight Committee
Applications for this committee will start to be accepted in March (after the next city council meeting). If you're interested in being on this committee, then email the city clerk, Debbie Lee (dlee@cityofwildomar.org) at that time.

3.3 Panning Commissioner Appointment
This is where I nominated Eric Filar to serve on the commission. I tried to introduce him, but my raspy voice was hard to hear so I invited him to the podium to speak for himself. 

After a few questions from council, a couple about his relation to the President of Wildomar, he was unanimously approved. (If "the President of Wildomar" has to be explained, chat me up in person next time we meet) 

Item 3.3 picks up at the 2:13:30 mark of the video. 

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If you burn your neighbors house down, it doesn't make your house look any better.
– Lou Holtz

If you say patently false things about Wildomar Rap or its writer, it doesn't make your weak point any stronger.

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