• City Council Meeting August 2024

The meeting started with the recognition of several people who helped put out a fire between the freeway and the shopping center with Pappa G's and The Corporate Room. 

Back row is Mayor Pro-Tem Ashlee DePhillippo, Councilmen Dustin Nigg, Joseph Morabito, and Carlos Marquez. Front row is Mayor Bridgette Moore, Dan Gonse, Richard Pearce, Rachel, and Marie.

Next was the quarterly police report. Here's a sample slide from the 10-slide presentation. 

(use this link to access all 10 slides)

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Since it was a light agenda I asked to pull three items from the consent calendar. 

For those who aren't familiar with a "consent calendar" here is our disclaimer seen on each agenda.

CONSENT CALENDAR All matters listed under the Consent Calendar are considered routine and will be enacted by one roll call vote. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless members of the Council, the Public, or Staff request to have specific items removed from the Consent Calendar for separate discussion and/or action.

1.10 Purchase and Sale Agreement for Remainder Parcels on Palomar St.

This has been in the works for quite a while. This will allow the widening of Palomar from Wildomar Trail to a little beyond Gruwell,  and the total purchase price for both parcels is $129,000.

There is no current long-term use envisioned for these properties, but I've heard a few interesting ideas. If you want to hear the whispers, let's go have coffee.

I asked for this to be pulled because I wanted another chance to get the information out to the public about it. 

The widening should be in the wrap-up stages 12 months from now, with it beginning in the first quarter of 2025.

1.12 2024 Holiday Home Decoration Contests 

I asked to hear about this because, much to many people's chagrin, we're just a couple of short weeks away from PSL (Pumpkin Spice Latte) season and the traditional Holiday season too. 

😀🎅😀

Let's see if we can get maximum participation from the community as they decorate their homes for Halloween and Christmas. 

The Community Services Department will be conducting the Spooktacular and Holiday Home Decoration Contest for the 2024 calendar year. The contests are open to all Wildomar Residents. Residents are able to sign up on the City of Wildomar website starting Monday, September 2, 2024. Both home decorating contests will have different decorating categories that residents can choose from to compete for recognition. Staff will create the criteria to judge these entries. 

1.13 National Clean Up Day Event MOU with Wildomar Community & Parks Foundation

I asked for this to be discussed for two reasons. 

First, it's a great community event and the more that the word can get out about it the better. 

The second reason is that some in the community have suggested items are "hidden" in the consent calendar and since Wildomar Community & Parks Foundation is headed by Mayor Bridgette Moore. 

Mayor Pro-Tem Ashlee DePhillippo took the reins during item 1.13 as Mayor Moore excused herself since her nonprofit (Wildomar Community & Parks Foundation) was the subject matter.

BACKGROUND: The City has coordinated with non-profit organizations, community groups, and local agencies to provide events and activities within the city. These partnerships are handled on a case by case basis. The Wildomar Community and Parks Foundation has successfully conducted similar events within the past year. 

DISCUSSION: The Foundation has submitted a Temporary Event Permit Application stating that the event will focus on providing landscape maintenance to right of way along several arterial roads within the City limits. The foundation has requested for the City's partnership on this event. The Wildomar Community and Parks Foundation is subject to fulfilling all Temporary Event Permit requirements, indemnifying the City, and providing the required insurance coverage. 

The extent of the potential City partnership would provide the foundation with CMS boards along sections where clean-up activities are taking place, provide a location for the temporary storage of a 40-yard dumpster for debris accumulated from the event, assist with marketing the event, and the waiving of the Temporary Event Permit Application Fee. 

FISCAL IMPACT: Fiscal impact related to this event partnership would be the cost of $800.00 for additional CMS boards to assist in notifying ongoing traffic of the event. The waiver of the $150.00 Temporary Event Permit Application fee would not be collected. 

This is a great asset for the community as many volunteers converge to help clean up various areas of the city. Last year there were more than 100 volunteers. Please consider making room on your schedule to help, even if in just a minor way on September 21, 2024.

3.1 Purchase of City Vehicles 

There are many things the city has been doing that I've been happy to be a part of. First, would be the purchase of City Hall, but not too far behind it is purchasing our city vehicles instead of leasing them.

Back when it was decided to lease the vehicles in 2001 it was in the middle of Covid and you may remember how difficult it was to purchase new vehicles. By entering a lease agreement it allowed the city to get the vehicles it needed. 

Part of the reason for bailing out on the leasing option is that the minimum number of vehicles went from seven to fifteen. If that was the straw that broke the camel's back, I'm good with it. 

Councilman Marquez had some good comments which included noting "Not only is there a need for these vehicles because of the increase in staff [...] and these additional vehicles are not only going to increase staff productivity, but they're going to increase services."

(Link to slides from the agenda)

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Use this link to access the agenda and the video. If you haven't tried the new format yet you'll really be happy with how easy it is to navigate the video as it matches up with the agenda.