• City Council Meeting May 2017

If it weren't for the presentations and public comments, the meeting would have lasted about ten minutes. Still, having it wrap up a little past 8:00pm is great thing. 

Presentations included meeting our new CSO (Community Service Officer) Roxanne Jouglard . She's been working in the community since October of 2016. She's a non sworn staff member of the department that helps with reports, citations, transporting non violent arrestees to the jail and other things that don't require a deputy.


Two teachers from Wildomar Elementary were honored. Both have logged 31 years at the school.

Top row: Bridgette Moore, Tim Walker, Ben Benoit, Dustin Nigg, and Marsha Swanson.
Bottom row: Debbie Roader (sp?), Principal Michael Hoffmann, and Sue Carlson.

William Collier Elementary gave a presentation that ran into some technical difficulties during a video that the 5th graders made, but by the by they made it to the end. In the video below, I caught a glimpse of their video. 

Addisun Rice was recognized for becoming an eagle scout.

Link to previous blog covering his project

Mayor Tim Walker, Eagle Scout Addisun Rice, and Councilmember Bridgette Moore.

After that WRCOG congratulated the city for saving energy, May was proclaimed to be mental health month and the fire department gave an update without any stats.

Public Comments (on non agenda items)
Complete video below
• Planning commissioner Veronica Langworthy came as a private citizen, and used her three minutes to rail against marijuana. She asked that the council intact a permanent ban on all aspects of the drug. Citing many dubious studies and reports, all the while failing to grasp that it is already legal here... it just can't be sold, regulated or taxed here.
• Kenny Mayes spoke on various and sundry things. From a community garden that was said to have cost $75K, the freedom swing, and the Camelia townhouse project.
• Joseph Morabito invited the council to the next T-NOW meeting (a subgroup of RTA) which will be at city council chambers on May 24th starting at noon, and to like the facebook page: LINK TO PAGE He then touched on the Camelia project.
• George Taylor spoke about an event that happened at The Farm.
• Trudy Curry spoke out against the Camelia project.
• Pete Kee spoke against the Cameila project and asked that the developers please add a drawing to their presentations that show a mock up from the perspective that the homeowners would have from their backyards.

The Camelia Townhouse Project will be coming back to the planning commission on June 21st. Let's see if those that oppose it actually show up. There were some in attendance, but with all the big talk at nextdoor.com, I was expecting a packed house. Not just a baker's dozen.

• Miss Miller came up with a new word "reinfrastructuring" then noticing she had a minute left on the clock, went into song: ♪♫ If we could love as much as angels...♫♪ 

If you want to jump right to her singing, use this shortcut 17:40.
There were public comments on a couple of consent calendar items, but nothing that the average resident would be able to make heads or tails out of... and I'm talking about myself here first and foremost.

The actual meat of the meeting went by in the flash of a spark. 

Item 2.1 was just rubber stamping what the planning commission dealt with last month: Item 2.2 Zoning Ordinance Amendment CEQA Exemption

LINK TO BLOG COVERING IT

Item 3.1 was just a bit of budget talk, a third quarter update. Something that could just as easily be put into the consent calendar in my opinion.

Bing, bang, boom... that was it.

There was a reminder that this Saturday, at Marna O'Brien Park, there will be a community event. Watch the video that the kids from Wildomar Elementary's THINK Together made for the details. 

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When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap.

– Cynthia Heimel 

Wildomar Rap supposes that Miss Miller consults the wit and wisdom of Miss Heimel before ever city meeting she attends.

• Chords and Vines: Guest Ben Benoit

Today saw another adventure of local radio coming to Wildomar, when host Kat Ellis brought her Chords and Vines show to Los Reyes Mexican restaurant. 

She had local songstress Grace Richardson as her musical guest, and Mayor Pro-Tem Ben Benoit as her Special Guest.  

I've been to several of Kat's broadcasts in the past. One at D'Canters, a couple at The Corporate Room, one in old town Temecula at a cheese shop and now, May 7th's, at Los Reyes.

A photo I happened to take about three weeks prior, when it was NOT raining.

Each experience has been as different as the venues that they've been in. Who knows, maybe they can swing a combo radio show/fundraiser at the VFW sometime in the future?

Originally it was slated for the patio area, but the rains brought the production inside. Normal restaurant ambiance was in full swing. Meaning, at times, it was too noisy to hear the live show.

Left to right: George Hager, Grace Richardson, Ben Benoit, Tom Plant and Kat Ellis.

That's ok, because lunch was great and and so was the margarita I had. Which reminds me, usually the premise of Chords and Vines is to pair wines with various foods. They swapped out the wines for some tequilas on today's edition of the show.

From left to right, Ben Benoit, Tom Plant, Kat Ellis and barkeep JJ.

Erin Hartley, of the ALS ONE 5K that is coming up, was also in the house. She was surprised to find out that she'd be a guest on the show, but she used the opportunity to talk about her upcoming event. 

With spot guest Erin Hartley (far left). Discussing the upcoming ALS ONE 5K.

The 5K is part of the Wildomar Trifecta of Awesomeness that will be held on Saturday morning, May 13th, 2017. Also part of the festivities will include a health and safety fair, the annual Rotary Club bicycle safety event, and three showings of the BMX Pros stunt show. 

Be sure to check out the promotional video done by Wildomar Elementary's THINK Together after school program. Then mark your calendars and come on down to Marna O'Brien park and catch one of the BMX Pros exhibitions.

Don't miss the BMX Pros stunt show

The musical guest, Grace Richardson, performed one song, and though the area she had to work in was confining, that didn't interfere with her hitting every note. Same went for guitarist George Hager —not missing a chord... even after sampling the tequilas. 

To get more information on the Chords and Vines radio program, now a part of the Temecula Entertainment Network, check out their website at this link:LINK

The weekly show is heard from 2pm to 3pm, on Sundays. 
Kat, who has grandchildren at both Wildomar Elementary and Ronald Reagan Elementary, was telling me that they will be starting production on the Chords and Vines TV show on cable TV soon.

Link to replay of the show 

Kat Ellis photobombs her own photo when she spotted me taking a few pics.

On the way into Los Reyes I happened upon the coolest license plate I've seen in quite awhile.

Gotta love that throwback black and yellow plate. If you're under 50, you probably don't remember when those were standard issue. 

If you guessed that this was on Bridgette Moore's car, that would have been understandable, but wrong. It's on Ben and Jaimie Benoit's car. 

Here's a link to the blog covering the 2016 Chords and Vines program when Bridgette Moore was the special guest.

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"I don't want any yes-men around me. I want everybody to tell me the truth even if it costs them their job." 

– Samuel Goldwyn, 1879-1974

Wildomar Rap would like to remind Mr. Goldwyn that it's easy to talk big when you don't personally have anything on the line.

• Mayor's Prayer Breakfast 2017

Thursday May 4th, 2017, was the second annual Wildomar Mayor's Prayer Breakfast. This is part of the National Day of Prayer that was taking place all over the country. 

This year's event was held at the city council chambers, but before some of you get your panties in a bunch, it was a privately funded event. Key sponsor was CR&R. 

Link to blog covering last year's event

Other than a change in venue, the first one was at the VFW, you could pretty much read last year's blog and get a fair idea of how I'd describe it. Though a few of the participants were different this year. 

The weather was perfect as the doors were opened at 6:30am. The attendees mingled while enjoying some coffee, juice, bagels, muffins and some fresh fruit.

A look at some of the things that came in the starter kit for the event.

At 7:00am Councilmember Bridgette Moore invited the group to find their seats and Mayor Tim Walker welcomed everyone. The National Anthem was then sung by 12 year old Samantha Aguiar, a student at David A. Brown Middle School. 

Samantha Aguiar singing the National Anthem at the 2017 Wildomar Mayor's Prayer Breakfast.

This was followed by short sermons from several local pastors

•  Dan Inglese: Cornerstone Church
•  Wink Davis: Gracepoint Church
•  Francis A. Grant: St. Frances of Rome
•  Tim Ferguson: LDS
•  Scott Burris: VFW Chaplain 

Part way through the program, Sandy Thomas, who attends The Sanctuary in Perris, sang a song called "We Fall" and was joined by fellow guitarist Robert Garza. They also closed out the event with a song.

Even for a guy that is fairly skeptical when it comes to religion, I'm not so jaded that I can't enjoy the morning with those that are guided by faith. 

The divide in our country was mentioned more than once, and though my ideas of how to correct that may differ, I think that most would agree that the first step would be to meet up and rub elbows with people that have differing views.

From left to right: Dan Inglese, Tim Ferguson, Robert Garza, Tim Walker, Wink Davis,
Francis A. Grant, Sandy Thomas, Bridgette Moore, and Scott Burris.

If I were going to offer some advice to the organizers —actually to the participants, next year invite at least 3 people from your church to attend this with you. 

The room was only about half full, and there is space for more chairs (or standing) in the back, even if you all chose to bring 10 additional people with you. This is your event, so it's up to you to make it happen.

2016 Mayor Bridgette Moore and 2017 Mayor Tim Walker enjoy a few light moments as the event came to a close.

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Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.

– Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811-1896

Wildomar Rap would like to echo the words above... never give up, but would like to remind you that there is an app for knowing when the tides will turn.

• Field Trip to the Court of Appeals

What says fun more than an early morning trip to downtown Riverside, to go hear an appeals case involving the city of Wildomar? Other than a sharp stick in the eye that is? 

Way Too Many Words Alert. 

If you hate a lot of words, then just ignore this blog and just look at the pictures instead. After a quick test I found that there are about 1550 words (321 difficult words), in 110 sentences, with estimated reading time of 8 minutes. My apologies in advance.

A very stately looking building nestled in the shadow of the 91 freeway.

This courthouse was like no other that I've been in. No hustle and bustle in the hallways, no sleazy ambulance chasers looking for new customers, no baby mommas hoping their baby daddies were going to be let off with a warning this time while dragging three preschoolers around.

Nothing that you'd usually see in a courthouse.

There were [surprisingly] courteous officers there to send you through the metal detector, and have you empty your pockets, part of the safety checks we've all become inured to.

The unexpected twist was that I had to surrender my phone before entering. That blew my thoughts of live streaming the proceedings on FaceBook. 

Actually, I did want to use the recording app as a note taker, but it wasn't in the cards today. Too bad too, there were some really insane thoughts coming from the plaintiff's counsel, and now I'll be reduced to paraphrasing at best (I'm just not a natural stenographer). 

Once inside I took a seat in the back row and took it all in. At the far end of the room was the bench that stood about five feet high, with three chairs behind it, along with the nation's and the state's flags. 

The seats were like the pews in a church, made of mahogany with red velvety cushions, and plush green carpeting. 

A few minutes before it started, the bailiff gave a brief primer on how to act in the courtroom. It was mostly for those that would be arguing in front of the judges, but also for the rest of us that were just observing.

A lot of you can't do this, and you can't do that... topped off with no sleeping either. Not long into the first case did I understand why he admonished us about not sleeping. 

The particulars of that case were boring and, without reading materials (another no-no... no reading of non court related materials) or other distractions, the temptation to nod off a bit would really become powerful if you were going to be there for very long.

The lead judge of the three, Manuel Ramirez, looked to be in his late 60s. The one on his right was about the same age, and slouched in his chair. The one on his left didn't even look to be forty yet. 
(Would it be sexist and racist to point out that judge number three was an attractive black woman? If so, strike that last comment from the record).

Sat through a child support appeal, and a case where a guy was fighting with his auto insurance company before I heard them call for the one involving Wildomar.

I had made the trip to see how the appeal of Case number E063986 Martha Bridges et al. v City of Wildomar was to go down.

The gist of the case is as absurd as can be imagined. Even after a twelver of Natty Light you'd be hard pressed to come up with such unworthy balderdash with your drunk buddies, much less in court for the upteenth time. 

The estimate is that Wildomar has sent attorneys to represent them no less than ten times on this case alone. 

The antagonist keeps losing on this, but that doesn't mean you can keep an obstinate person down. 

Remember the classic scene from Coolhand Luke where George Kennedy's character, Dragline, told him to just stay down... but he kept getting back up, though he had absolutely nothing?

Stay down, you're beat!

The thing that you might not have considered while watching that clip, is that it takes energy and time away from what Dragline should be attending to. Swatting flies takes energy too.

Back to the case

The crux of the argument, so the complaint sounded, is that the general plan of Riverside County can't be applied to the city of Wildomar.

Ready for some brain melting that can only come from the double talk of a lawyer?

It was argued that the city does not have a general plan because the general plan that was adopted back in 2008 (written in 2002) can only apply to the unincorporated areas of the county.

Let's check the math. 

On June 30th, 2008, the general plan that the county of Riverside laid out for the community of Wildomar was fine while the town was unincorporated. However, on July 1st, 2008, it was no longer applicable because the city was no longer in the unincorporated parts of the county after becoming a city. (I think I'm going to need a Tylenol)

That's some grade A convoluted logic right there. Now let's see if we can untangle that clump of sticky mental spaghetti.

What was good for the town of Wildomar while an unincorporated part of the county, was no longer appropriate for Wildomar after becoming a city, even though the first city council voted to adopt the general plan on day one... did I get that right? 

That's not even taking into account such factors as the economy of the world falling apart the same week as incorporation, and that projected city revenues fell well short of their original projections as a direct result. Not making excuses, just setting the record straight. 

Hell, I was against cityhood when it was happening because I knew we didn't have enough of a tax base to make a proper go of it. 

Thing is, just because my point of view didn't prevail, didn't mean I'd continually seek to make my fellow Wildmartinis live's less safe by plaguing our young city with garbage that would cost untold thousands of dollars as it was dealt with it.

Couple that with how hard SoCal was hit, with the housing market crashing down, and a less embittered member of the community might have understood that the massive costs of creating a general plan from scratch, which would have run about $2,000,000, was something that was going to have to wait for another day. 

But, no. 

Where 90 days are normally given for such challenges, this charge came FIVE YEARS after the fact... want to hear their hinky reasoning on why the delay was something to be allowed?

What I heard is that since the county's general plan says it's for unincorporated areas of the county, and Wildomar is no longer unincorporated, by definition it cannot be applied to the city of Wildomar.

If your brain hasn't melted yet, congratulations... I'm barely hanging on by a thread myself. 

Let's round this out with what I can make from my notes and then call it a day.

I heard, "I don't believe there is a time limit" when asked about the five year delay.

One of the judges asked, "So they didn't adopt the county's plan?"
"They think they did," was the reply.

Remember, this was a real life appellate court, not SNL, and still the counsel for the plaintiff delivered those lines in a deadpan manner. 

Wildomar was represented by Amy Hoyt. She was asked, "Is there a general plan?"

She responded with cool assuredness as she responded, "Of course there is a general plan."

Anyone can view the general plan. She then made a comparison to the Declaration of Independence and that the city's general plan shouldn't have to be displayed behind glass.

When it was time for the plaintiff's last appearance at the lectern, I made two more notes. 

The first was in reference to the general plan being displayed behind glass, and it sure sounded like he said that should be the case. Perhaps that was sarcasm or hyperbole that got past me, but I can't see how that was suppose to bolster his street cred.

The other was basically just a reiteration of their only point, "We believe they don't have a general plan."

Once outside I met up with Wildomar attorney Amy Hoyt and asked her how she thought it went, "I think it went well, we have a tentative [judgement] in our favor. Fingers crossed, I think we should win."

I asked when to expect an answer from the court and was told, "Hopefully soon. If they adopt the tentative, it's already written."

Just like good ol' Cool Hand Luke wouldn't listen to Dragline, we is jus' too smart to think that old hound dog is ever gonna stop barking up the wrong tree, and actually stay down. Even-money has her filing more papers, on god knows what, before Labor Day.

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Grammar is the logic of speech, even as logic is the grammar of reason.

– Richard Chenevix Trench 1807-1886

Wildomar Rap is the ingredients of pizza, even as pizza is devoured by Wildomar Rap.

• Special Meeting Prop 64 2.0

I'll start off by saying that for all of those that left the meeting after the council voted 3-2 in favor of adopting 2 year deferment, after you spent the better part of two hours there, you missed the real vote that happened about 10 minutes later.

Reminds me of the Dodger fans that left game 1 of the 1988 World Series before Kirk Gibson hit his famous home run off of The Eck.

It ain't over till it's over, and you really don't want to be that guy in the parking lot that missed the best parts. Which is what happened to all those that left early.

Now, it wasn't a complete reversal, but it did shave the arbitrary 2 years (May 2019) down to February 2018.

If it's not equivalent to a home run, it's certainly equivalent to seeing a game ending home run overturned with instant replay.

Here's how it went down

After much discussion, councilmember Marsha Swanson put forth a motion to "defer this indefinitely. Until we have the information to make the correct decision."  

(that's where the first video picks up below)

Mayor Tim Walker asked if there was a second, and at that point councilmember Bridgette Moore (the swing vote) said, "I would not [want] indefinitely, but [I'd support] two years."

At this Swanson jumped in with, "I'll amend it to two years."

After which Mayor Walker asked, "All in favor?"

The vote came back with Swanson, Walker and Moore voting aye, and Mayor Pro-Tem Ben Benoit and Councilmember Dustin Nigg voting to oppose.

It was at that point that the mass exodus occurred, though the discussion at the dais continued on between the council members and the city attorney Thomas Jex.

Since the council enacted a temporary urgency ordinance in their January meeting, to December 2017, they have the option to extend the TUO by one year — to December 2018... "but then that's it, no more extensions," as Jex put it.

Link to January 2017 blog covering it.

Come December of 2018, there would be no ordinances at all on the matter without making it permanent. The discussion continued and Swanson made it clear that her motion was for two years, extending to May of 2019. 

Thing is, in order for that to happen, a two year moratorium from today, would take a permanent ordinance. Something that would have to go through the planning commission first.

Then the brake light in the parking lot moment happened when Ben Benoit tossed this out there:

Is there no willingness of this body to look at this again, and potentially look at anything for the 2018 ballot? My thought was to bring something back before us for another decision, let's call it February of 2018 and from that point we can start down the path [to an ordinance] if that's where we want to go. It'll give us almost a year [and] we'll have a lot more answers than we have right now. 

With that foot in the door of the agenda item, something that had already been voted on, the discussion began anew. 

He added that they could put the tax on the ballot (something that can only happen when council seats are being decided too) and still opt to not do the ordinances. 

Then Dustin Nigg asked if they could introduce a counter motion to undo what they just voted on. Mayor Walker reminded him that it had already been voted on, but Nigg asked if there was a way and Benoit and Swanson answered simultaneously, "You could ask for a recount."

Walker made it clear that getting the measure on the 2018 ballot wasn't something he was in favor of, so Benoit looked past him (seeking that third vote) to Moore and asked, "Do you feel the same way, not even an option for you?"

In the video you see Benoit then look back over to Nigg, as if that last ditch effort had failed, but then he had to do a double take as Moore responded, "No, I'm ok with February 2018."

The ghost of Bill Buckner had to have been present.

From there the original motion was rescinded 3-2. At which time Benoit didn't waste any time putting his own motion forward saying, "I'd like to make a motion that we bring this item back before us, before December, whatever timeline we need to extend the current moratorium. Then we also bring this item back to us for a full discussion on whether or not to move forward in February [2018] with implementation or going to the ballot or whatever else we might want to do with Prop 64."

That was quickly seconded by councilmember Nigg, but councilmember Moore asked for further discussion. It seemed that Mayor Walker thought that the vote was completely reversed, but it wasn't. 

All that happened was instead of an arbitrary two year period being adopted, this will basically be tabled until February next year when a similar meeting will be held. Part of the reason for that is to allow the state government to finish hammering out their rules on the topic.

Also, even for those that want it legalized yesterday, we can't vote to tax it until November of 2018. This whole process is years in the making, even on the fast track.  Though I'm fine with well regulated pot shops coming into town, that's only if they're going to be taxed.

The final vote on the new motion went 4-1 with only Mayor Walker opposing. Take a look at the video. It's not too long, and it's really pretty interesting if you're concerned about such things.



I'll add the other videos below. The only gap in the videos is about 15 seconds where I had to swap batteries. Thankfully nothing of note was lost.

Other than that I can tell you that it started with city manager Gary Nordquist giving a presentation that discussed the anticipated costs for putting such a measure on the ballot (about $125,000 for the research, and $15,000 to put on the ballot.) Gotta love government, even to defer, that would cost the city $20K.

Looks difficult to read, but this slide gives the projected cost breakdowns.

If the ballot measure were to pass, it was said that it would cost an additional $100,000 to implement (mostly for legal services). and it would still take a year and a half after an election before it could be up and running.

The video of the presentation is just under half an hour.

After the presentation there were public comments. It was mostly split between being in favor of moving forward, and being against (which was disguised as wanting it deferred).

The order of the speakers went this way:
• Tammie Bucaro
• Ken Mayes
• Gina Castanon
• Josh Money 
• Greg Langworthy
• Veronica Langworthy
• Arnold mathias
• Cleo Duran
• Shelly Rumbaugh
• Tom Rumbaugh
• Joseph Morabito

There were also several emails, but still not more than a dozen by my count... which tells me this is a dead issue and only getting deader with each passing year.

The final video is of the council discussion, and votes (though I already shared the vote(s) portion above). 

There were many interesting points, all the council members weighed in. Councilmember Nigg has really been taking his job seriously and he took up about ten minutes with questions and observations alone. 

I found that the salient parts were already covered above, so I'm not going to add more of their quotes. But if you'd like to watch the entire segment it runs about fifty-five minutes.

Based on what I saw, I'm prognosticating that you should still expect this to wind up as a no vote... or should I say, a vote to defer?

There are two solid nays and two solid yeas, with everyone's favorite council member, The Mayor Forever (as Marsha Swanson playfully refers to her), Bridgette Moore, as a possible swing voter here.

Which could turn next year's city council elections into a pot or no pot plebiscite with Tim Walker and Marsha Swanson's seats coming before the voters. Ben Benoit's seat will be on the chopping block too, but if anything, I see his position on this issue as adding to his past vote totals.

•          •          •

It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!

– Duke Ellington, 1899-1974

Wildomar Rap thinks that Mr. Ellington is referring to a different kind of swing here.