• Special City Council Meeting: August 2020

Very quick city council meeting, just over 10 minutes with one item on the agenda. Whether or not to have an election in District 2, which would only have one name on the ballot: Incumbent Dustin Nigg.

Come on, let's have a vote anyway... who cares if it costs $15,000 or not?😵

Since the item involved the Mayor, he recused himself and handed the reins of the meeting over to Mayor Pro-Tem Bridgette Moore.

There was one public comment, Kenny Mayes, who happens to be on the ballot in the District 4 contest. He mentioned it on Facebook earlier and I suggested he could bring it up as a public comment.

I'm not really sure of any controversies, but he sort of addressed it in his comment.

Programming note: his comment came before the staff report. Would he have changed his comment had it been delivered after instead of before? I doubt it, but we'll never know.

Below is a transcript of his comment.

"Okay, I think that Dustin should have to run for election because of all the controversy with the cannabis decision and then some of the decisions that he made during the covid situation with marchers downtown and 'wear a mask, don't wear a mask' and I think that he needs to run for that seat to show [...] how many citizens still support him and if he gets less than 50% then I think he should have to make a choice is to whether to stay or leave, but I think the citizens in that district should [...] be able to make that decision.”

—Kenny Mayes

The original estimate of how much the Registrar of Voters would charge Wildomar to conduct that election was between $8,000 and $10,000. That's what was in the agenda packet.

As it turns out, after more digging, the price tag to hold a worthless election was estimated to be $15,000.

After learning the cost of the election, Councilman Ben Benoit basically replied, "To not have the election will save us $15,000? Okay, that makes it an easy choice for me."

My comment was that maybe big cities can afford to spend $15,000 on a symbolic vote, but I don't see the point in wasting money in what's a foregone conclusion. 

I then said how I thought it was odd that in his public comment Kenny thought we should spend the money for it. At the same time he's made a public records request to find out the cost difference on trash bags with and without a city logo... because that's a "want" in his book. 

As seen on facebook.

Sorry Kenny, though I agree with you that sun shades at the park are more of a want than a need, $15,000 on a glorified straw poll that has no meaning is a bad option to make, and is a want.

In addition to the poll not having meaning, based on his comment it seems that he didn't understand how such a poll would work.

The only option was to have ONE name on the ballot, and that means if only five people out of 2000 vote, it's still considered 100% of the vote. There is no "none of the above" option on the ballot.

But, out of a sense of fairness, I've constructed a poll that pits incumbent Dustin Nigg against SMOD (Sweet Meteor of Death). 

Technically you should be in District 2 to participate, but I'm not requiring ID, so have at it even if you're in one of the other four districts. 

Choose wisely.

Yes, I know you already saw this graphic, but it's cool and I wanted it to show up as the graphic when the blog is shared... so here we are. 

Wildomar City Council Dist 2

Incumbent: Dustin Nigg

Challenger: Sweet Meteor of Death

Create a Poll with PollMaker

While we're at it, let's do a poll for District 4 too... 

What say you?

Wildomar City Council Dist 4

Incumbent: Bridgette Moore

Challenger: Kenneth Mayes

Created with PollMaker

...and out of fairness, I'll make an option with SMOD too.

The match of the century.

Wildomar City Council Dist. 4

Incumbent: Bridgette Moore

Challenger: Kenneth Mayes

Challenger: Sweet Meteor of Death

Created with PollMaker

Below is the short video of the short meeting.

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