• City Council Meeting November 2025

Kenny Mayes was honored by the city. 

(more at the bottom of the blog)

Lynne Mayes holds the proclamation that was presented by Mayor Ashlee DePhillippo, his son is holding flowers. Behind her is the old street sign with the Mayes family name on it.

TOP NEWS FROM THE MEETING

---

• Public Works Update
• Robert Flores goes from interim to permanent Community Development Director
• Graffiti Trailer
• Additional Part Time Code Enforcement Officer
• Fence Around Flood Control Basin (Bundy Canyon and Monte Vista)

Meeting Recap

There was a lot of good information in the Public Works update. 

• The Palomar Road widening is two months behind schedule. Look for it to be finished in February of 2026. Part of the delay is a gas line that needs to be moved on Gruwell. 

• Wildomar Trail/I-15 restriping is inching closer to the finish line. Working with Caltrans can be painstakingly slow.

So you know, the issue is that the road isn't currently wide enough to restripe the lanes with Caltrans's minimum requirements. It's about a foot short to accommodate restriping that would create an additional westbound lane from Margaret Lane to the freeway.

The city has submitted plans to Caltrans with widening in mind, but Caltrans keeps returning them with "comments" about the design (anything short of a yes is problematic in my book). 

There was no date given as to when Caltrans would approve the design. During the question period I asked, "We know Caltrans is going to dictate the tempo of this, but do our plans look like they're going to eventually pass muster with them?"

I understand why staff has to be guarded in their answers, but the answer I got didn't leave me feeling overly confident that this matter will be resolved anytime soon. Take a listen to the video and draw your own conclusions.

part of the presentation

• Bundy Canyon and Clinton Keith widening

For those who may not know, both of these projects have been in the works for years and years. 

We got past phase I of Bundy Canyon a couple of years ago, and after the kinks were ironed out (literally), it's a good improvement. Phase II will be from where construction left off to The Farm Road. 

Phase III (from The Farm Road to the city line with Menifee) is being planned, but I don't see it on the visible horizon yet. 

Neither project has been sent out to bid yet. Cutting to the chase, I'd be very surprised if there is any actual construction before we get to 2027. 

Video of Public Works Update

Robert Flores takes the job of Community Development Director. He oversees many areas, including the Planning Department and Code Enforcement. 

I've had the chance to work with him for many months now, already well-versed in Wildomar. Hopefully, he's not reading this (don't want his head to overinflate lol), but I've heard great things from many people outside of the city apparatus when it comes to working with him. 

Even as an interim, I saw him at city park events. Not something I remember too many times from others in the past.

New Graffiti Trailer 

I look forward to hearing reports as to how often this gets put into action.

Additional Part-Time Code Enforcement Officer

There was a bit of discussion about when to add this new position, but it got the green light to fill now. 

Part of the discussion was regarding the idea of having a workshop where we can dig deeper into what areas of code enforcement should be dealing with. 

Fence or not to Fence

Last year we voted 4-1 (Morabito, no) to spend many hundreds of thousands of dollars on a decorative fence around the new flood basin at Bundy Canyon and Monte Vista.

Thankfully, the next month we reversed that. 

It came back to the agenda because it needed to be finalized that we were not going to spend money on it. 

Here's a link to a blog dealing with it from July of 2024

https://wildomarrap.blogspot.com/2024/07/city-council-meeting-july-2024.html

 

Wildomar Rap opinion time

I'd like to add a write-up of Kenny Mayes here. 

I learned of his passing shortly after it happened. I reached out to his widow, Lynne, and offered her my condolences. 

I told her, "Though my initial instinct would be to write a tribute to Kenny in my blog, I have no interest in using his passing as a reason to get clicks, or, more importantly, cause any level of grief to you."

She was appreciative of my words. 

Now that this was part of a city council meeting, I'll add some reflections here. 

I first became acquainted with Kenny through his comments/writings at The Patch in mid-2013, and right from the start, we seemed to be on opposite sides of the argument... no matter what it was.

If you search his name and Wildomar Rap, there must be at least 50, if not 100, times his name comes back. 

We usually would go round and round, with him on one side and me on the other, but in reality, if you can picture a football field, he was on one forty yard line and I was on the other. 

Both really being in the center, just a bit to one side or the other, neither holding extreme views.

Here's a link to a blog where Kenny and I exchanged some views on the topic of local tax increases. If you click the link, go to the bottom where the comments are.


I can remember when I was running for city council in 2018 and the city still didn't livestream the meetings (I had taken it upon myself to videotape the meetings and then upload them to YouTube for the public).

Kenny told the council that he wouldn't do any more public comments until they started to livestream.

I remember writing in this blog that he had miscalculated, that he should have gone in the other direction... threaten to speak on each and every item, with borrowed time, until they agreed to livestream the meetings.

Sometime around July of that year I went up to him after a city council meeting and asked him to break his self imposed moratorium on not offering public comments. 

I drew this back in 2018. 

Fast forward to last year, and I remember getting a little choked up when seeing him at a park event, obviously in the middle of a battle that would eventually take his life. 

He was at the park anyway. I went up to him and chatted. It was a pleasant exchange, but within a month, he and I were back at it on social media, as if it was still 2015. lol

Kenny Mayes was a man well worth remembering. 

Video link to Mayor Ashlee DePhillippo's presentation to Kenny Mayse's family

The meeting was adjourned in memory of Kenny Mayes.


Programming note:
Next month's meeting (December 2025) will be a week early. The first Wednesday instead of the second Wednesday. 

• Wildomar Official Threatened

Reporting Supervisor: Lieutenant Jeff Reese

File # WI253130039

Details:

On Saturday, November 8, 2025, the Lake Elsinore Sheriff’s Station’s Special Enforcement Team (SET) received information regarding a city of Wildomar public official receiving threats of a criminal nature. The SET deputies immediately assumed the case, and during the investigation, the suspect Cody Salazar, a 38-year-old resident of Murrieta, was positively identified as the individual making the threats. 

On November 9, 2025, the SET deputies located and arrested Salazar without incident. Salazar was booked into the Cois Byrd Detention Center for making criminal threats to a public official.

This is an ongoing investigation, and no further details will be released. Anyone with additional information is encouraged to contact Deputy Noel at the Lake Elsinore Sheriff’s Station at (951) 245-3300.

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office takes a zero-tolerance approach to threats against public officials and any member of the public. These types of incidents will receive our full attention, and all investigative steps will be taken to identify and hold accountable individuals who think this type of behavior is acceptable.

As a reminder, "Community Policing" involves partnerships between law enforcement and community members. Business owners and residents are encouraged to report criminal activity directly to law enforcement by calling Sheriff's Dispatch at (951) 776-1099 or 911 in an emergency.

Wildomar Rap opinion time

Quick reminder: the people elected to Wildomar's city council are just regular people in the neighborhood. We're literally your nextdoor neighbor.

We've volunteered to represent the community. It's a privilege and an honor to serve, and it's not as if the residents have to be cheerleaders, you don't have to like us at all... but don't threaten our safety. 

I'd like to get deep into details, but this is an ongoing investigation, and therefore, I won't. 

I will say that this kind of uncalled for action is one of several reasons why many people choose to stay out of politics, even at the local level, including little ol' Wildomar.