• City Council Meeting November 2022

A lot of interesting information from the November 2022 city council meeting.

TOP NEWS FROM THE MEETING

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• Sedco Septic to Sewer At No Cost to Residents
• City Hall Closed From Christmas to New Year's
• Staff Instructed to Purchase 20 Acre Ann Sullivan Property for a Passive Park
• Future City Hall Discussion

Meeting Recap

28:50 in the video below

Septic to Sewer, if you watch the part of the meeting where this is discussed, you'll see that the entire Sedco area, which was said to include 750 homes, is included in this grant. The grant will pay 100% of the costs to convert to sewer.

It was stated that the dollar amount is about $125,000 per conversion. That includes EVMWD's costs to run the lines to the homes, and then the hookups from the homes to the lines.

An amazing offer to be sure, one that hasn't ever been offered before and one that will most likely not come around in our lifetimes again: if you miss it, you miss it forever.

Link to EVMWD septic to sewer webpage

Word of caution to those that get their info from social media

Please don't listen to any self-appointed watchdogs that always get things wrong. This isn't some covert plan to gentrify Sedco. The whacky things that willfully-ignorant people spread on social media are as bizarre as they are disheartening. But some people simply thrive on creating needless facebook drama. Caveat emptor and c'est la vie at the same time.

If you live in this area please reach out to EVMWD. Even if you choose not to get thousands of dollars worth of paid-for upgrades, makes sense to know what the offer is before rejecting it out of hand.

Item 3.1 Compensation & Classification Study - Position Descriptions Acceptance, Position Classification Placements, and Employee Benefit Revisions

53:30 in the video below

There hasn't been such a study in Wildomar until now. The point of such a study is to see where we are in relation to other nearby cities to learn if we are in step or out of step with compensation packages in the region.

Though we are a small-budget city, we can't expect quality employees to work for outdated wages and benefits. If we offer a substandard compensation package, we'll end up with substandard work.

With that said, my concern was where we went from 12 holidays to 15 per year. The increase in the raw numbers was to make closing city hall during the holidays possible. There is no actual increase in days off and it's cost neutral. 

"It's cost neutral, it doesn't cost us anything, it actually saves us money by removing the banked holidays and the floating holiday." 

—Robert Howell, Administrative Services Director

Originally I read it to be in conjunction with opening city hall back up to the public on Fridays, even if for only half a day... but that got nixed before the meeting started. 

The discussion of opening city hall on Fridays has been going on for many years. One of the points was that the city is getting all of its work done in the current four-day format.

Ok, cool, in that case, let's see if we can get all the work done in three 12-hour days? (Just being devil's advocate here) 

Some businesses, such as a city, in my opinion, need to be open every day of the work week. If there is a large enough staff to accommodate a 4/10 schedule, super! If not, then it doesn't seem reasonable to me.

This will be revisited at the end of the fiscal year. 

To get the full information please watch this portion of the meeting.

Future City Hall Discussion

1:12:00 in the video below

Brief background. Wildomar does NOT own the building that city hall is located in. The current costs are very high per year and the lease is up in just over two years. 

It's been the goal to stop being renters for a long time, but we are a small-budget city and money has been an object every step of the way.

This is where the city council directed staff to enter into negotiations with Anne Sullivan Preschool to purchase twenty acres and convert them to a passive park.

Red is the land in question, and green is where Anne Sullivan Preschool is.

The Anne Sullivan site quickly became untenable once the full costs were projected; my brain melted after hearing a number that rhymed with $40M.

The next option was a 10-acre property that is just south of the oak grove that is behind The Habit at Wildomar Square.

If you want the details, check out the video. For me, the margins were razor-thin and the timelines didn't seem doable either for what works best for us. 

I appreciate the efforts of developer David Horenstein, but I wasn't comfortable with that option... especially after City Manager Dan York revealed that he'd spoken with the owner of the current building we're in and it looks as if a purchase is now a possibility. 

After hearing that I made it clear that there should be no further discussion until that was fully fleshed out. Though there was more discussion, that was basically what staff was instructed to do.

I don't know the current asking price, but it would be far better than any of the other options, for a myriad of reasons.

A short list of why the current building is better than the other options includes:

• We're already up and running which means no costs in moving or refurnishing a new building. We have done several remodels over the past seven years, and what a waste since we couldn't take it with us (and wouldn't want to even if we could).
• We would still need to rent this building for many years and the costs would be going straight into the toilet, errr... I mean into the landlord's bank account and not building equity for the taxpayers.
• Once the current city hall is purchased, it could be used for other city needs in the future if a new city hall is considered necessary at that time.
• Renting the current building will cost $488K per year in 23-24; $580K after 2024 and is estimated to cost $660K in 25-26.
• The lion's share of the money for this, and the park, will come from ARPA funds, and not the general fund. 

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“You can tell a bully from a leader by how they treat people who disagree with them.”

- Miles K. Davis, President of Linfield College

Wildomar Rap has been inured to blowhards disagreeing with emotion-driven rants, rather than reason and/or logic, for more years than the Beatles were making sweet music back in the day. 

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