• Better Know a Candidate Bridgette Moore

I've been doing "Better Know a Candidate" blogs since 2014 and this year there will be a total of three blogs for District 4.

If you're already familiar with my style, you know that I'm not here to "fact-check" the candidates. This is a conversation, and I let the candidates speak, including a few "fun" questions.

First up was challenger Karen Ellison, now time for the incumbent Bridgette Moore. The third blog will be opinions about the race as there will be no opinions in this blog.

There is a third candidate on the ballot, but she declined the chance to be in a blog. I'll touch on her candidacy in the opinion blog. 

With that out of the way, let's chat with Bridgette Moore.

Bridgette Moore

1) What made you choose Wildomar as your hometown?

Back in 1998 we were living in Orange County, we had a condo, we had a one-year-old boy and we wanted a house with a front yard and a backyard. We looked in Temecula, we looked in Murrieta, and the last house the realtor showed us was in Wildomar. 

 

She told us it was an unincorporated community, we did not know what that meant as we were coming from Huntington Beach, but we loved the house. We checked out the police and fire station and then put in an offer and we got it.

 

2) What got you interested in running for city council?

Back in 1998 our parks were open, which was one of the reasons we bought the house, along with the elementary school being nearby in the same tract. I took my son to the park for the first year that we lived here and then the parks closed. I started volunteering to bring the parks back to Wildomar and at that same time the question of incorporating Wildomar into a city was happening, and I started volunteering for the Wildomar Incorporation Now committee. 

 

When that got to the ballot, and after all the time and effort involved, I put my name in for city council. There were fourteen people running and I was the second top vote-getter. 

 

3) Tell me about your family.

I'm married to my husband, Stewart, and we will be married for thirty years come October. We have one son, Jake.

Bridgette and Stewart Moore.

 

4) It takes a certain desire to serve the community as an elected official, what is your past community involvement?

I was involved in our community even before cityhood. I volunteered to bring our parks back to Wildomar which successfully happened. I volunteered for the Lake Elsinore/Wildomar Elks Lodge. 

I, also, volunteer for the VFW, my grandfather served during WWII and earned a Purple Heart and bronze medal, so I'm a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars auxiliary. Our son was in Scouts and both my husband and I volunteered for Scouts.

Bridgette in the blue blouse with members of RSO and the VFW.

5) How long have you considered running for this seat?

Actually, it took me the first few months of this year, it took me a while to decide if I'd run for reelection. People were asking me and I would respond, "I don't know, I haven't decided".  I've been volunteering [for the community] for twenty-four years.  But then I knew I wasn't done and I want to run again.

 

6) You're at the dentist's office with ten minutes to kill, and your smartphone is NOT getting a signal (gasp!). Which magazine do you reach for: The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, Vanity Faire, People, Newsweek, Popular Mechanics, or Highlights?

I'd say, Vanity Faire

Bridgette at a reading event at Wildomar Elementary School.

7) What is your day job? 

The entire time I've been on city council I've worked full-time. The last twelve years I've been in the mortgage industry. With the interest rates being high right now, a lot of the mortgage industry has been laid off, and that includes me. I'd never been laid off in my life and worked forty years straight until April 5th, that was my last day of work at that company. 

I have recently started a position with Pacific Estate Planning. Right now with being Mayor, running my own nonprofit [Wildomar Community & Parks Foundation], and running for reelection, my days are pretty full. Then, we'll see where it goes from there. 

 

8) What's your understanding of the job of city council members and/or what your job would be after you're elected?

As council members we make policy decisions for the city, and we create the budget. We decide how the budget is going to be [and] then the city manager is tasked with [carrying out the policy]. 

 

For example, if 'we're going to hire two new code enforcement officers' and include those positions into the budget, then the city manager goes out and handles that task. 

 

We also represent the city at different meetings and different regional events.

With the 2023 award for Woman of the Year from Senator Kelly Seyarto. 

9) What’s a nice relaxing afternoon for your family?

Stewart and I like live entertainment. We go to concerts or to plays and then get dinner afterwards. 

 

10) Being on city council can be very time-consuming. When elected will your schedule allow for you to be "all in"?

Yes! Even when I was working full-time I still was "all in" in the job [of city council]. Whatever task I'm going to do I'm all in on it. Be it city council or whatever other job I'm doing.

Mayor Bridgette Moore emceeing the 2024 Memorial Day observance.

 

11) When you get a break in the action, how do you unwind/hobbies?

I like to garden. Pre-pandemic we didn't own a houseplant. We didn't have one plant that was alive, and during the pandemic, we changed our backyard to grow watermelons, strawberries, and tomatoes. 

I no longer have time for growing fruits but I do have many succulents, so many plants, hundreds of plants now. I love to go [into the backyard] and tend to the plants.

Bridgette and her longtime friend Janna Vicario donating time to decorate the Rotary Club's Rose Bowl Parade float.

12) What are your top three concerns for Wildomar?

Parks and Rec. We're on the cusp of providing more parks and recreation for our community. I want to be a part of that, it's my passion, and we're right there, right there to get that done. Bring more parks and recreation. We hear it all the time that we need a community center, we need opportunities for our families to get together and stay right here in Wildomar. 

 

Our unhoused is also a concern. Doesn't seem that there's an easy answer. I don't know the answer to solve it. Right now the partners that we (Wildomar) are working with seem to be doing a good job. 

 

Then of course we always need road maintenance. 

Bridgette at a park event. 

13) Currently each council member appoints a planning commissioner. What's your approach to future growth and how heavily would that factor in when choosing a commissioner?

When I've chosen planning commissioners before I meet with the [applicants] that have submitted, but I want them to have their own ideas. They're not going to be what I say, I want them to have ideas and I want them to be thorough in their research and how they vote. 

 

Growth is coming whether they're pro-growth or for non-growth, growth is coming, and it's just how we're going to manage that and what's the right fit for Wildomar. I'd really just want to hear their views and what they think is right for Wildomar.

 

14) How do you envision your community outreach if elected? 

I'm out in the community all the time. I regularly hear from people about the energy I have and I'm still committed to bringing that kind of energy. 

Even though I've had two surgeries this year and I'm still out there. I love being in the community and where [the people] are. If I'm at the gym people will ask me questions and though I may be out of breath I'm still answering questions. So wherever I'm at, the community knows I'm available.

With members of the Girl Scouts at city hall.

15) SoCal is close to many areas, would you say you're more of a beach, mountain, or desert person?

I grew up in Costa Mesa, so we were close to the beach. I'd say the beach.

 

16) Why are you the best candidate for the job?

I love serving our community and I feel I'm a good representative for the community. Giving back to the community, I'm involved in every facet of our community; from making high dollar decisions down to picking up litter. 

Bridgette Moore (with the broom) working a clean-up with the Wildomar Beautification Volunteers.

17) If you could speak directly to the Wildomar voters, and tell them why they should vote for you, what would you tell them?

Since I've been serving in our community for twenty-four years I love giving back to the community, love connecting, love those partnerships, and networking. When someone needs help, say from the VFW, then I know with one phone call I can get that help for them. I love bringing our community together. 

https://www.facebook.com/bridgette.moore.180/

https://www.facebook.com/MooreforWildomarCityCouncil

www.BridgetteMoore2024.com

From Bridgette's campaign website at the time of publishing.

Wildomar Rap notes

Both candidates were given a copy of the unpublished blog more than a week before publication so that we could smooth out any wording in the answers above, or transcription errors. 

Bridgette made a few edits to the original transcription that I'd made of the conversation.

Link to blog of challenger Karen Ellison

Link to blog of challenger Veronica Langworthy

Link to opinion blog on this race

• New Butterfly Garden Planted

A great story that's worth sharing with the community. It involves volunteers (both local and regional), community spirit, and butterflies!

I've been low on time recently, so I asked Bridgette Moore if she'd send over some photos and do a brief write-up so that the story can be shared with the community.  

The idea came from when you and I met with the Butterfly ladies last year. 

I kept that in the back of my mind. 

Fast forward, Sandra Tordoff (she used to work at Wildomar Chamber) invited me to a Lunch and Learn at Pacific Mobile Structures on 8/23/23. 

I spoke about the Wildomar Beautification Volunteers and the importance of volunteering and giving back.

 

Here's a look at the mid-point of the project.

On 9/28/23, Sandra contacted me and explained that Pacific Mobile Structures has a program where they pay their employees 8 hours a year to volunteer and their volunteer day was Tuesday, 11/7/23 and she asked if we had a project. 

I remember seeing a planter area in the Elks Lodge parking lot that only had weeds and WBV had cleaned it a few times already. 

So, I asked the Elks Lodge if we could we put a Monarch Butterfly Garden in that area and they agreed. We only have about 30 days to plan this project. 

I met Margaret Meyncke and Caren Hanson at the Elks Lodge and they got me in touch with Landscape Architect Laurie Levine. Laurie has previously done work with Wildomar. 

Laurie donated her time, designed a garden, and gave us a plant list. We contacted Curby’s Nursery and then Dan, Richard and I picked up the plants on 11/4/23. 

WBV had work days prior to the 11/7 planting to prep the area.

 

On 11/7, about 25 employees from Pacific Mobile Structures planted plants, laid irrigation lines, and placed mulch into the garden.

 

The garden will take till about summer to grow and then it will attract caterpillars. 

Laurie mentioned that the caterpillars will eat the leaves so don’t be alarmed if the plant looks dead.

It will survive the hot summer months.

The plants are small compared to the smiles of the volunteers, but before we know it, this area will be alive with plants and butterflies. 

Wildomar Rap opinion time

I look forward to seeing how this turns out. Which gets me to thinking... I have some yard areas that could use this type of attention. I don't need volunteers, but a plan to go get some local plants that can withstand our Summers even if I forget to water them for all of July. 

I found this link with ideas for our area.
https://www.finegardening.com/article/growing-a-butterfly-garden-in-southern-california

I can think of several other areas in town (small areas at both Marna O'Brien Park and Windsong Park) that these would make for a nice edition.

Sponsors:

Pacific Mobile Structures Riverside

Life Tree Service

Lake Elsinore/Wildomar Elks Lodge #2591

Wildomar Beautification Volunteers

Sandra Tordoff

Laurie Levine

• National Day of Cleanup 2023

On Saturday, September 16th, Wildomar saw 120 volunteers gather at the Elks Lodge to participate in this year's National Clean Up Day.

Some of the happy faces.

Then after some delicious Montague Brothers coffee, and Pam's Donuts, they went into the heart of City Council District 1, Represented by Carlos Marquez, and proceeded to pull out 110 bags of trash and debris, which filled up two donated roll-offs by CR&R, which weighed in at over 3.5 tons over about three hours time.

This group of eight volunteers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints really put in a lot of work, for many hours. 

Impressive before and after shots. This is the north side of Sedco Blvd.

Before and after of the median on Sedco Blvd.

I'd like to take a moment to give credit where credit is due. Wildomar's longest-standing champion, Bridgette Moore. The average resident doesn't know why our city has less trash in it, including graffiti and illegal signs, and though it's a team effort to be sure, without a bonafide leader none of this could be possible.

Bridgette Moore as she's addressing the volunteers. 

She has such amazing grit and determination about her, she is the very definition of what an old-school Wildomarian (Wildomartini in my dictionary) is all about. Only when she decides to hang up her spurs will some in the community recognize the unfillable shoes she leaves for a rookie to try and fill.

This was about two hours into the clean-up event. She wasn't at the Elks Lodge looking over paperwork, she was out working, and it's never easy work. Whether it be litter pick up, or tackling tumbleweeds.

Ok, enough gilding the lily, but seriously, Wildomar is such a different place than it would have been had she not seen a need and tackled it head-on more than twenty years ago. Thank you for all you've done, and all you continue to do!

Here are a few more photos to round out this blog.

Gotta love the new paint for this trailer.

This trailer can carry anything.

The volunteers pulled a lot of large items off the streets.

• Group Effort Puts a Dent In It

Thirty-eight volunteers getting psyched up to do ten years of yard work in two hours. 😁

Donuts (donated by the VFW) and a pep talk before beginning.

Not the best "before" picture as a lot of work had already been done... but still a long way from the final look.

It started when Code Enforcement was called out to check on a property that was in need of some TLC (to put it mildly).

There were volunteers of all ages. 

Code Enforcement approached us (Dan Gonse and Joseph Morabito) after a Coffee with the Mayor event wondering if the Wildomar Beautification Volunteers might be able to lend a hand in a distressed situation.

A bird's eye view from the top of the roll-off dumpster.

From there Councilwoman Bridgette Moore jumped in and got the groundwork laid that saw 30 volunteers meet bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 7:30am to tackle this daunting task.

It took a few moments to get into the groove, but soon enough the volunteers were working in unison like a determined colony of ants with the same objective: let's get this done before the Sun really heats up. 😁

Mayor Ben Benoit atop the dumpster. Not the easiest job to volunteer for, but there he is... while I'm on this side of the camera and keyboard. 😅

Among the thirty volunteers were four members of the Wildomar city council, and three members of Wildomar's Code Enforcement Team.

I asked Bridgette for a recap of the morning: "Today we have over 30 volunteers helping an elderly veteran in the city of Wildomar. We have our mayor, Ben Benoit here, mayor pro-tem Joseph Morabito and council members Ashlee DePhillippo and Bridgette Moore." 

Look at the difference on that fence line.

"We also have our code enforcement team here. We have Prestige Nutrition. We want to thank our sponsor CR&R for donating the bin. And also Agustin Montesinos for trimming the palm tree."

Imagine all the palm fronds that had to be cut off of that tree.

It was said to be an $1800 job that they donated.

Michelle, of *Prestige Nutrition, and her daughter Ava, along with the other members of her family, were out in force.

*Prestige Nutrition is a new business in town. It's near Go-Nutz Donuts and Altura Credit union. It's veteran owned and they're already looking to be active members of the Wildomar community. 

I'm guessing that people who regularly use that road will be doing double-takes for the next week or two as they pass by it. Out of privacy concerns for the resident, I'm not going to post the address here. 

A candid picture of Bridgette Moore in action. In addition to organizing this, she worked it too. If you look close enough, you'll see a special shoe on her left foot. She had hurt it just a little over a week ago, but didn't let that slow her down where it would have easily sidelined me. 

After tons of debris surrounding this piece of equipment had been removed, it was evident that it wasn't going anywhere. I made a note to myself after seeing this. Clean out the garage and side yard while it can be accommodated with regular trash cans.

In the end, there was still a lot more work to do, but talk about having one heckuva head start. 

Wildomar is taking a more serious approach to code enforcement these days and though you may have been neglecting things for years (or decades) that's not going to be a valid excuse if you get that knock on your door.

• Volunteer Group of the Year: Wildomar Beautification Volunteers

In the most recent issue of Supervisor Kevin Jeffries' newsletter he announced that Wildomar Beautification Volunteers were selected as this year's Volunteer Organization of the Year, and last of the original Wildomar city council members, Bridgette Moore, was selected as Volunteer of the Year.

The group will be honored at the April 26th Board of Supervisors Meeting.

Early on a Saturday morning, getting ready to beautify Wildomar.

Link to Supervisor Jeffries' Newsletter

If the font is too small to read on the image, here it is again. 😁

Supervisor Jeffries has selected the Wildomar Beautification Volunteers as the First District Volunteer Organization of the Year. 

In July 2020, Wildomar Councilwoman Bridgette Moore asked Mayor Pro Tem Joseph Morabito if he would accompany her on a litter pick up. They quickly saw that once a month would not make a dent so they planned for every week. Residents started joining in and a movement was started! The residents have created this wonderful group and have about 20 dedicated volunteers that are out in the community consistently. 

In 2022, they started picking up litter everyday. In addition, they have adopted 4 miles of the I15 freeway within the City. 

Their totals for 2021: Hours 1, 323 hours Bags 1,352

Bridgette spends countless hours out in the community cleaning and organizing daily events, supplies, and encouraging others to get involved in the community. 

Thank you Bridgette for all you do in the community. 

Bridgette and members of the Wildomar Beautification Volunteers will be honored at the April 26th Board Meeting during our Volunteers of the Year Presentation.

Link to September 2020 Blog About The Group

Bridgette has always been kind enough to include me (Joseph Morabito) as one of the founders of WBV. 

Yes I was there, much like the McDonald's brothers were there at the start of McDonald's, but it was Ray Kroc that made it a household name, and it's Bridgette Moore that breathed life into Wildomar Beautification Volunteers.

Ok, here's the reverse angle of the story... before Covid hit, there were a couple of residents that had been picking up litter on their own, most notably was Kathy Bundy and Jerry Orchard. I'm aware of a couple of others that regularly picked up litter, but they had been flying below my radar at that time.

In early 2020 a couple of friends and I went and picked up a couple of bags of trash at what used to be the Baxter/Central curve. I wrote a blog about it, but it didn't become a regular thing by any means. 

Then in the Summer of 2020, after a lot of chatter on Facebook about trash on our roadways, Bridgette asked if I'd join her in picking up litter in town, I said, "Sure." 

We thought that we'd pick up from McVicar to Grand and all the way to Clinton Keith. We were rookies then and had no idea how much time it actually took to pick up trash. We barely made it to Grand and back to the creek before we ran out of time.

We realized that once a month wasn't going to do anything, so we upped it to every other week, and then weekly. I remember the first time that other people joined in. I believe that it was Ann White and another person.

I was pretty regular with picking up trash on a weekly basis until the weather changed in December and it was barely light outside at our start time (great excuses, right? 😅). I went MIA until late January, and when I returned about eight weeks later, I saw how there were many new volunteers ready to make Wildomar beautiful. 

This is where things really changed. I was concerned that we couldn't keep up the pace of weekly, and was trying to lobby for twice a month or even monthly. I'm glad that Bridgette didn't listen to that and now the group has a couple of dozen regular members, all with great personalities and stories of their own, plus many others that come now and then. 

Not only is it a weekly thing now, there are some in the group that go out several times during the week, and the impact of all the volunteer hours really shows as Wildomar roadways continue to look better and better.

Thank you Bridgette Moore for having the tenacity and sticktoitiveness to take this from its humble beginnings to the point that you can take a week or two off and the group won't skip a beat. 

If you'd like to join the Wildomar Beautification Volunteers (even just one time), please reach out to either Bridgette or Joseph... but mostly Bridgette. ☺

Here's a link to the group's facebook page if you'd just like to take a look at what we do. 

 

• Wildomar Gets New Bus Shelter

The northern end of Wildomar, better known as Sedco, got a new bus shelter today at the corner of Elberta and Mission Trail.

Getting the shelter in place.

If you're thinking, "I can think of another 20 places in town that could use a shelter," let me give you the hitch involved first.

This whole operation took less than an hour. 

Thanks to the ADA laws, the shelters must have wheelchair access. You're probably thinking, "Sounds good to me, what's the problem?"

Once last look at the shelterless corner.

2020 RTA Chair Bridgette Moore gives the bus shelter a looking over before it's put into place.

RTA's Jim Kneepkins chats with Bridgette Moore.

Well, if you've seen other bus stops in Wildomar, you've noticed that many are just off the side of the road in the dirt. To install a modern bus shelter, there must be proper footings and wheelchair access.

This is one of dozens of examples of our rural bus stops.

That can change the cost but many dozens of thousands of dollars... which makes them cost prohibitive in much of Wildomar.

RTA Chair Bridgette Moore lends a hand to get the shelter installed... or it's a photo-op... you decide. 😁

Anywho, thanks to the tireless efforts of Bridgette Moore (who has been Wildomar's RTA representative for 10 years), 2020's RTA Chair, Wildomar has this new bus shelter.

Next on Bridgette's radar is getting that corner in better shape.