• League of California Cities Convention 2019: Brief Recap

Before attending city meetings in 2013, I'd never heard of The League of California Cities, which was formed about 120 years ago.

From the LoCC website on its history:

A coincidence of events resulted in creation of the League of California municipalities in 1898. It began with a letter from young Ben Lamborn, city clerk of Alameda (population 17,000), to the more than 100 cities in the state. Mr. Lamborn had been instructed by his council to inquire about other cities' experiences with a new mechanical device (a road roller). Drafting his letter, he found that the road roller question took less than the top half of the paper. So, "to make it look better," he filled up the page with additional questions. Name of city? Population? When incorporated? Officials? Etc.

For the rest of the history, please use this link.

In short, it's a group of cities that have banded together in efforts to help preserve the "local control" desires of cities and towns against the one size fits all approach that all too often permeates Sacramento's governance. 

The current map of LoCC divisions.

Instead of giving you the textbook version (which would be lengthy and boring) let me just give you my understanding after 10 months on the job... which undoubtedly will be much different as the years go by and I continue to learn.

The League provides valuable training on a myriad of pertinent topics that have direct effect on how a city is run. 

Sure, it's easy to spout off about how this should be done, or that should be done, until you win the election and find out that if you even step on one of the lines (much less go outside of them) you will soon find out what a ton of (legal) bricks feels like as they crush you with ease.

Back in January I attended the New Council Members training, which was in Irvine. That came with a laundry list of don'ts... and barely a smattering of dos.

This is an easy question to answer. 

First, what kind of stupid question is this? If you have ever asked such a question in your day to day life, please don't seek any position in which people are supposed to put their trust in you... and that includes dog catcher. Second, well, there really is no second... other than you'll be looking at a ton of trouble if you think such things don't apply to you.

Ethics training, sexual harassment (avoidance) training are two things that must be taken and retaken at least every other year.

The arrow points to where I was during a new council member training course.

The various League divisions have bi-monthly meetings. 

The point of which is to update the members of legislation that is working its way through the capital, and to further strengthen relationships between local cities. I've attended all the meetings this year, which occur on Mondays... and often require a great deal of driving to be part of them.

Rearing and ready to go!

The long awaited "brief recap" of the recent convention
Wednesday morning offered many sessions starting with one for council members and mayors. This was followed by a Riverside Division lunch and information session. Then there was the opening General Session where members from all over the state spent two hours listening to various speakers. 

The last presentation of the day I attended was entitled: The Sixth Council Member, Social Media. 

This seemed like a reworking of the training I had back in January where it touted the value of social media, while also coming with plenty of examples of how public officials can land in hot water if they try to quash the rights of the public in such forums. I was hoping for fresh ideas on how to further use social media to engage the residents... perhaps next year. ☺

Thursday started early with the topic Re-imagining Modern Policing in California. From there we had a chance to traipse through an expo that had countless new ideas for cities to consider adopting (next year I'll take some photos to give you an idea of it).

The second day's General Session included a speech by LA's Mayor, Gil Garcetti. (Without getting political) I can say that he is a polished orator, and he did talk about homelessness in his city. In the end, I can tell you that I'm glad I'm 90 minutes away from his city, and that I like the approach that our police have been taking on the issue, far more than his.

The next topic to learn more about was called Achieving an Accurate Count in the 2020 Census. An accurate count is necessary, and as we get into 2020, this will become more of a topic on the local level.

A new subgroup for rural cities is being formed, and I attended the inaugural meeting. The idea is that larger cities are the ones that seem to get most of the oxygen in politics, and the hope is that if the rural cities come together, they (we) might have a chance to get more attention when we need it.

Since this was the first meeting, some cities attended that were small, but far from the intent of the group. Los Altos and Palo Alto were hoping it was based on population, and if you know anything about their demographics, they aren't hurting for representation in Sacramento. 

It was understood that there are three basic rural categories. One attendee summed it up as Large, Medium and Small. I was sitting with a council member from Lindsay (Population 13K, Median Household Income $30K and Median Home Value $133K) and they are the true definition of "rural", located in Tulare County. 

Many of the other cities represented in the room were similar to Wildomar... a little bit country, and the rest... well, let's put it this way... having a freeway down the middle sort of puts the kibosh on that bucolic feeling that Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about. We're only rural when compared to a metropolis like LA, SF, SD or even Long Beach.

Other than joining the email list, getting to see how many attended (the room was packed. I'd guess there were more than 100 represented) and being ready to respond to calls for action, there wasn't a lot more that happened in the short time span allotted. 

At this point in the day, there were meetings held by several special interest caucuses (African American, Asian Pacific, Latino, etc). I could have returned to the expo for more free pens and stress relief balls, or attend one. 

I opted for the latter and attended the LGBTQ Caucus meeting. Not a lot happened during it. After introductions, they chose the next year's secretary and VP. 

Last for the day was Preserving Community Identity. That's a tough one when your city doesn't have a long standing identity that the residents recognize, but I did learn a lot about Norco, as one of their council members spoke about how they preserved their community identity.

The conference ended Friday early afternoon and two of the bigger topics were gone over back to back: Hidden Cost of Tackling Homelessness and How Are You Managing Adult Use Cannabis? 

The comparative costs of homeless people on communities.

The current homeless crisis in the country, and especially in California, has taken decades to arrive at, and there is no easy fix on the horizon. 

I'm not going to give you my long winded reasoning on what I think have been the major contributing factors, but suffice to say, suggesting that we put the homeless in wood chippers and feed them to the coyotes isn't an option (an infamous suggestion by the self stylized President of Wildomar — if you aren't familiar, count yourself blessed).

One way or another, this will be costing the taxpayers money to handle, and hopefully solve at some point. In the meantime, based on the information, and then the questions from the other city council members, I can tell you that we in Southwest Riverside County are far better off than many other jurisdictions. I'm so glad that we brought in SWAG along with electing a new sheriff. 

Then there was cannabis... which most of you know, we're in the 4th quarter of coming up with an ordinance here. I wish that you could have heard some of the presentation. A key take away was moving away from calling it "the black market" to simply, the unregulated market. 

It was put forward that creating regulations for cannabis will NOT be inviting cannabis into the city... because it's already here. It's a matter of looking to regulate what has been present all along. That is something that needs to be considered, no matter how much you hate the hippie lettuce. 

The only thing left on the conference agenda was lunch (who actually eats arugula? I thought I liked everything, but that stuff is bitter as can be) and the closing ceremonies. The outgoing League president made way for the 2020 president, as a few more board members were chosen too.

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Last note, there were dozens of classes that overlapped. I'm guessing that they repeat now and then so that everyone will have a chance to attend most of them over time, or at least the ones that apply to their city. It was a very busy two and a half days... and that's not counting the driving. 

Some people can accumulate two feet worth of those badge add-ons. You can tell by my hair that I was ready to return to the friendly confines of Wildomar by midday Friday.

It was a great experience and I hope to be able to use the information to be a better representative for the people of Wildomar. 

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Someone who loves a neighbor allows him to be as he is, as he was, and as he will be.  
– Michel Quoist

Based on that, Wildomar Rap must love each of you as much as a favorite aunt.

This blog was produced for viewing on a desktop or a laptop. Though it's been optimized for smartphones, the formatting can look odd on a smartphone or if you get this delivered through email (such as missing video links). Link to proper format.

• League of California Cities Academy Winter 2019

Q: What does a new council member learn at a League of California Cities training academy?

A: Way more than a human can actually take in during a two and half day period, though we give it our best effort.

Taken during the mock city council meeting of Dysfunction Junction.
The arrow indicates where I was sitting. 

Right out of the gate was a 2 hour session on Sexual Harassment Prevention. This is a must have for all local agency officials, and must be completed every two years.

One of the many slides seen during the presentation.
Note to adult bullies: grow up and cut it out already.

Most of the things presented were common sense to me, but it was good to be reminded —in very clear terms— what constitutes harassment, and what can happen once that charge gets leveled. 

In all honesty, I don't get why any of the above would be part of the workplace.

After a fifteen minute break there was a two hour session that started with a 30 minute skit. The skit was of a city council meeting at a wonderful city named Dysfunction Junction.

There was the city clerk, city manager, city attorney, the city council (with such classic names as Da'Bully, Newbie, O'Pleeze, Knowitall, and Mayor My-Way) and then two active members of the public. 

It was as humorous as it was informative. Thankfully, from my experience in Wildomar, none of the exaggerated comportment of the characters resembled what goes on during a city council meeting here. 

To round out the first day, there were three more classes.
•  Effective Advocacy & Key City Issues
•  Your Legal Powers and Obligations
•  Part 1: Financial Responsibilities, City Revenues Workshop

The next day was filled with six more sessions.
•  Part 2: Financial Responsibilities, City Revenues Workshop
•  Policy Role in Land Use Planning
•  Your League and How To Use It
•  Inquiring Minds Want to Know (questions from newly elected officials to those that have been around awhile)
•  Relationship Between City Council and City Management
•  Communications and Civic Engagement 
This centered on social media, and how to avoid mistakes using it. Something very important for all electeds, but especially for me since I do engage in social media and [still] write a blog about local issues (more about that in a moment).

A good rule that I follow is the last one.

This was a 90 minute session that could easily have been 3 hours. Issues about blocking constituents, hypotheticals about "likes" and possible Brown Act violations, and dozens of more things for officials to keep in mind. 

Being a public official has long been likened to living in a fishbowl.

The laws are ever evolving when it comes to social media, so those that are willing to dance in the gray areas may be ok today, but that doesn't necessarily apply to what a jury might conclude tomorrow.

The final half day was a two hour, doors locked so you can't get in our out once it started, legally required training:
How to Build and Maintain the Public's Trust: Practical Ethics and the Law (AB 1234)

I'm clear for another 728 days.

Again, this was filled with valuable information that should be common sense to the average person, but also covered a lot of things most people wouldn't think about. 

There was a lot of emphasis on gifts to elected officials. The key takeaway was, DO NOT ACCEPT [most] gifts. Tickets to events have gotten a lot of officials into trouble over the years.

That means that if you go out to eat with the same group on a regular basis, you'd better be tracking the amounts if someone else is picking up the tab. It's just better to pay your own way for such things.

The second half of the ethics training dealt with the Brown Act, and what its purpose is. This part of the training, which was opened to all officials in this half of the state, was conducted by Wildomar city attorney Tom Jex and our assistant city attorney Erica Vega.

This is the best definition of the Brown Act I've ever heard.

The above description of the Brown Act is a great reminder that the government is owned by the people and should be controlled by the people. 

I liked what was termed as The Golden Rule: The public expects local officials to act ethically, whether or not doing so is required by law. 

This is more proof that if you want to serve the community, you'll being doing so from inside a fishbowl.

At the conclusion of the academy/training I was pretty pumped up (and not because there was a bottomless Starbucks urn at every session). 

I have a better idea of what the job of city council member is now. It's far more complicated and nuanced than what it looks like from the outside, even if you'd been blogging about it for five years before getting elected. 

From those classes (which were filled with hours of valuable knowledge) three basic ideas rose to the top for me.
1) City council is the "What" and city staff is the "How"
In short, that means we come up with the policies (the what) and then it's up to the city manager and staff to implement the policy (the how). There can be some gray area where the line is, but it's best to understand and respect the different roles we play.
2) Active communication builds trust 
This has always been the keystone to my desire to be on the city council. There may only be a relatively small percentage of the community that cares about what goes on at city hall, but we still need to provide the information as if every last man, woman and child is hanging on every word.
3) Newly elected officials need to understand that they are no longer activists
That doesn't mean we are to forget the issues that prompted us to run, but to understand that particular items/issues are just a fragment of the job that was won on election day. It's no longer about focusing on a narrow agenda, but seeing the bigger picture.

In this photo I'm holding up two certificates. The blue one shows that I attended the Sexual Harassment Prevention training, and the yellow indicates I attended the Ethics training.

I'm still navigating the waters of engaging in social media and writing a blog while being an elected official... I'm learning that there are a lot of chances to make mistakes and I really don't want to end up as a headline.

The goal is to keep the community informed, be a voice for those that have questions or concerns and to be easily accessible. 

For those that have known me, you've seen that I don't shy away from responding to questions or comments on the internet. 

Wildomar Rap's internet comment policy
I've never deleted or otherwise censored comments on this blog or on the facebook page for this blog (oh wait, I do remember one time that happened back in 2014). My policy has always been to let your words speak for themselves. If you want to be abusive to me, that's fine. 

However, if you're abusive to others on any page that I control (including my official page), and especially if there is implied violence, your comment will be censored.

Other than that, I live in a fishbowl now and have to expect that people will be angry with me from time to time (possibly all the time for some). I celebrate the first amendment, and welcome your comments, even the ones that are intended to tear me a new one.

At the same time, I'm not going to get into comment wars online. You're entitled to your opinion, and it's not my job to change your mind or argue with you. 

I'm always available to meet and discuss things in greater detail, either at one of the local coffee places, or city hall. In addition to this blog (which I'm not sure how it will look as the time goes on) I have a facebook page where I post information dealing with city issues. 

I invite you to "follow" or "like" the page. You don't have to be in my district. All the city council members represent the entire city.

Link to facebook page.

Addendum: My wife was asking me about the newsletter I said I was going to be publishing if elected. I don't want to ignore that, but details are still being gathered.

Use this link to sign up for the "newsletter".

Until the city chooses to put together a dedicated compendium of current things in Wildomar, as a single monthly newsletter, use the link above to sign up for the city's email information service. The same information will be delivered, just bit by bit instead of in a longer format edition.

Also, the city has activated its facebook page and that can serve as another source of information to the community. If you haven't signed up yet, click the link below to do so.

Use this link

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When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property.
– Thomas Jefferson

Though The Sage of Monticello didn't mention blogs, Wildomar Rap has always considered itself as public property... sort of.

This blog was produced for viewing on a desktop or a laptop. Though it's been optimized for smartphones, the formatting can look odd on a smartphone or if you get this delivered through email (such as missing video links). Link to proper format.