• City Council Meeting November 2022

A lot of interesting information from the November 2022 city council meeting.

TOP NEWS FROM THE MEETING

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• Sedco Septic to Sewer At No Cost to Residents
• City Hall Closed From Christmas to New Year's
• Staff Instructed to Purchase 20 Acre Ann Sullivan Property for a Passive Park
• Future City Hall Discussion

Meeting Recap

28:50 in the video below

Septic to Sewer, if you watch the part of the meeting where this is discussed, you'll see that the entire Sedco area, which was said to include 750 homes, is included in this grant. The grant will pay 100% of the costs to convert to sewer.

It was stated that the dollar amount is about $125,000 per conversion. That includes EVMWD's costs to run the lines to the homes, and then the hookups from the homes to the lines.

An amazing offer to be sure, one that hasn't ever been offered before and one that will most likely not come around in our lifetimes again: if you miss it, you miss it forever.

Link to EVMWD septic to sewer webpage

Word of caution to those that get their info from social media

Please don't listen to any self-appointed watchdogs that always get things wrong. This isn't some covert plan to gentrify Sedco. The whacky things that willfully-ignorant people spread on social media are as bizarre as they are disheartening. But some people simply thrive on creating needless facebook drama. Caveat emptor and c'est la vie at the same time.

If you live in this area please reach out to EVMWD. Even if you choose not to get thousands of dollars worth of paid-for upgrades, makes sense to know what the offer is before rejecting it out of hand.

Item 3.1 Compensation & Classification Study - Position Descriptions Acceptance, Position Classification Placements, and Employee Benefit Revisions

53:30 in the video below

There hasn't been such a study in Wildomar until now. The point of such a study is to see where we are in relation to other nearby cities to learn if we are in step or out of step with compensation packages in the region.

Though we are a small-budget city, we can't expect quality employees to work for outdated wages and benefits. If we offer a substandard compensation package, we'll end up with substandard work.

With that said, my concern was where we went from 12 holidays to 15 per year. The increase in the raw numbers was to make closing city hall during the holidays possible. There is no actual increase in days off and it's cost neutral. 

"It's cost neutral, it doesn't cost us anything, it actually saves us money by removing the banked holidays and the floating holiday." 

—Robert Howell, Administrative Services Director

Originally I read it to be in conjunction with opening city hall back up to the public on Fridays, even if for only half a day... but that got nixed before the meeting started. 

The discussion of opening city hall on Fridays has been going on for many years. One of the points was that the city is getting all of its work done in the current four-day format.

Ok, cool, in that case, let's see if we can get all the work done in three 12-hour days? (Just being devil's advocate here) 

Some businesses, such as a city, in my opinion, need to be open every day of the work week. If there is a large enough staff to accommodate a 4/10 schedule, super! If not, then it doesn't seem reasonable to me.

This will be revisited at the end of the fiscal year. 

To get the full information please watch this portion of the meeting.

Future City Hall Discussion

1:12:00 in the video below

Brief background. Wildomar does NOT own the building that city hall is located in. The current costs are very high per year and the lease is up in just over two years. 

It's been the goal to stop being renters for a long time, but we are a small-budget city and money has been an object every step of the way.

This is where the city council directed staff to enter into negotiations with Anne Sullivan Preschool to purchase twenty acres and convert them to a passive park.

Red is the land in question, and green is where Anne Sullivan Preschool is.

The Anne Sullivan site quickly became untenable once the full costs were projected; my brain melted after hearing a number that rhymed with $40M.

The next option was a 10-acre property that is just south of the oak grove that is behind The Habit at Wildomar Square.

If you want the details, check out the video. For me, the margins were razor-thin and the timelines didn't seem doable either for what works best for us. 

I appreciate the efforts of developer David Horenstein, but I wasn't comfortable with that option... especially after City Manager Dan York revealed that he'd spoken with the owner of the current building we're in and it looks as if a purchase is now a possibility. 

After hearing that I made it clear that there should be no further discussion until that was fully fleshed out. Though there was more discussion, that was basically what staff was instructed to do.

I don't know the current asking price, but it would be far better than any of the other options, for a myriad of reasons.

A short list of why the current building is better than the other options includes:

• We're already up and running which means no costs in moving or refurnishing a new building. We have done several remodels over the past seven years, and what a waste since we couldn't take it with us (and wouldn't want to even if we could).
• We would still need to rent this building for many years and the costs would be going straight into the toilet, errr... I mean into the landlord's bank account and not building equity for the taxpayers.
• Once the current city hall is purchased, it could be used for other city needs in the future if a new city hall is considered necessary at that time.
• Renting the current building will cost $488K per year in 23-24; $580K after 2024 and is estimated to cost $660K in 25-26.
• The lion's share of the money for this, and the park, will come from ARPA funds, and not the general fund. 

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“You can tell a bully from a leader by how they treat people who disagree with them.”

- Miles K. Davis, President of Linfield College

Wildomar Rap has been inured to blowhards disagreeing with emotion-driven rants, rather than reason and/or logic, for more years than the Beatles were making sweet music back in the day. 

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.

• Miss Ellie Is Turning 100

Miss Ellie has been a fixture at the Wildomar Library for nearly twenty years. As she tells it, she was going by the library and stopped in.  

After getting done speaking with Jennie Jackson, the librarian at the time, Miss Ellie was hired and has been a mainstay there ever since.

Former librarian Jennie Jackson, Bridgette Moore, and Miss Ellie Clark in 2010.

She was born in New Jersey and in 1940 she graduated high school there too. She married a man from Massachusetts who served in WWII, and they moved to California not long after the war.

Her first stop in California was in Orange County. She came to Wildomar when her daughter moved here. Her grandson is a graduate of Elsinore High School.    

Fun fact: Miss Ellie still drives and works a couple of hours per day at the library. 

The library is hosting a 100th birthday party for her, and that's slated for November 19th, from 11am to 1pm.

Come join us as we celebrate Ellie’s Centennial! Ellie has been a large part of not only our library, but the community, and we’d love those to be a part of yet another one of her milestones.

Happy Birthday, Miss Ellie! Thank you on behalf of all those that you've touched with your smile and friendship over the years. 

Below is an eight-minute video where Bridgette Moore chats with Miss Ellie or click this link if you can't see it below. 

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"Getting old is like climbing a mountain; you get a little out of breath, but the view is much better!"

– Ingrid Bergman

Wildomar Rap had enjoyed the view long before the gray hairs took over.

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.

• City Council Meeting Special Meeting October 2022

There were three items on the agenda and though there were no department reports, presentations, or recognitions the meeting still lasted longer than two hours. 

It was an all-meat-and-potatoes type of meeting starting with the key item right out of the gate: Entering into a new agreement with CR&R to serve the entire city of Wildomar instead of just the west side of the freeway.

Part of the presentation.

You may be asking, "Why do this?" Or, if you're an east sider, you might be thinking something along the lines of, "But I love Waste Management and I don't want to switch!"

This began outside of the city's reach. It was two private companies making a deal between themselves that would end up with one waste hauler in Wildomar instead of two.

From there, with the original terms of the contract(s) changed, there was the opening to redo the contract(s) and bring them up to city standards, eliminating another vestige from Wildomar's unincorporated county days.

The 115-page contract was negotiated by William Schoen of R3 Consulting Group and Eric Vail who is a member of the law firm that represents Wildomar. 

Much of what's included in the contract deals with compliance with many different state laws that have made trash collection much more expensive for everyone, starting with the individual ratepayers. 

The options were either to approve the contract that had been negotiated, or not approve it which would have meant keeping the existing situation (two separate, and unequal, contracts). The agreement between the two waste haulers was contingent upon the approval of the item. 

The first factor mentioned by Eric Vail was stability

"These are big, complex agreements; they go on for a long time. They go on for a long time to achieve stability. Not only in rates, but in service and in the term. There is a lot of infrastructure that needs to be provided over the term to provide quality waste management services. It's a longer term than the agreement is currently, at least it looks like that. It's not really, because you have an evergreen term right now which lasts forever."

  —Eric Vail

For me, and most people that I spoke with, the twenty-year contract was the big sticking point. So I did a lot of research into this, capped off by speaking with Assemblyman Kelly Seyarto about his knowledge of the subject. 

He has been in Sacramento for a couple of sessions now, seeing one bill after another that adds more and more unfunded mandates to the populace as Sacramento continues to tilt towards the windmills of the impossible: a pristine world.

He was also part of Murrieta's city council that came to a twenty-two-year agreement with their waste haulers a few years back. 

I encourage you to listen to the first part of the video below if you'd like the details as they were shared with the council. Jumping to the end of the argument of a twenty-year contract, they are part of our brave new world in California and we are by no means trailblazers for others.

To put a twenty-year contract into perspective, the previous ten-year evergreen contract had no end to it. 

The city is now fourteen years old, to get out of the contract and put the services out to bid would have taken ten more years... meaning that the ten-year contract would have minimally been a twenty-four-year contract had we opted to pull that trigger and look for a new service provider. 

Baseball analogy time 

A contract between a city and a waste hauler isn't like a contract between the California Angels of Anaheim signing an over-the-hill star (Albert Pujols) to ten-year contract.

Quality was the guiding light for the negotiators

Mr. Vail added, "How do we insure quality in your solid waste handling services?" 

Here are some checks and balances that were not part of the previous agreement.

No immediate rate increase (those occur in July, and that will not change).

Rate stabilization

Previously, the waste haulers would get a yearly CPI (Consumer Price Index) increase in July. There was no cap. In the new agreement, there is a range between 2% and 8%... that's even if the inflation rate was 15%-25%. To add to that protection of wild spikes, it takes three-year averages of the CPI so that there aren't wild swings.

My estimation is that it'll basically be the same rate one way or the other after a given ten-year period, just without a roller coaster effect if the economy gets moody.

These are all terrific things that our negotiating team got included in the contract. Skip to the 15-minute mark of the video to hear about these provisions and how valuable they are to us. 

I'm not going to go over each and every point, the video can speak for itself, and much better than I'd be able to recap. I can say that those five items in the graphic above are immeasurable improvements from what we had. 

From 2 to 3 bulky item pick-ups a year

Each scheduled pick-up can have up to four items, that's a total of twelve bulky items per year. The big bonus here is that if you choose, you can have all twelve bulky items picked up on one scheduled visit. I hope we don't keep seeing old furniture on the sidewalks.

This has been on the sidewalk near my house since before the rains a couple of weeks ago. Hey homeowner, your generous offer of a free chair hasn't captured anyone's fancy... time to call it in, please.

If you live in Wildomar, you are a customer of CR&R, so just be a good neighbor and schedule a pick-up. 

These are big plusses.

That was the end of Eric Vail's presentation. It was followed up by CR&R's Alex Braicovich. He fielded questions, including many that I'd gotten from residents.

Most of the new customers will remain with the same day of service they've always had. There are about 1500 customers that were formerly with Waste Management that will be transitioned to a new day... Thursday is what was mentioned during the meeting.

Please take a look at the video to see how the meeting went, then go to Facebook and post comments if you still feel the urge.

The second major item on the agenda was street sweeping 

In short, those that are already getting street sweeping will continue to do so. The council instructed staff to research the cost to have street sweeping throughout the city.

Street sweeping goes a long way to keeping us in compliance with various clean runoff water requirements and helps keep the storm drains clean too.

Though I want street sweeping, and have heard many complaints since my neighborhood doesn't have street sweeping, I know that nice things cost money, and I'm curious as to the cost. 

I'm hoping that it won't be unaffordable for the residents, making it DOA in my view... I anticipate that staff will come back with that answer sometime next year and then the council will vote on it.

Imagine the Herculean task that a self-stylized elected employee would be up against trying to personally reach out to all the 2000 homes, which includes about 4500 voters, to ask them how to vote on it. An elected official would have to have the powers of Santa Claus to be able to pull off such a feat. 

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Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?

– Abe Lincoln

Wildomar Rap reminds you that cropping your enemies out of other people's photos is also a good solution and you can then skip the pretense of being friends. 

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.

• Wildomar Conversations: KC Lund Blades

We strive to bring new and interesting stories to you. A couple of months back I was at an event in Temecula where various local chefs were competing against each other. 

While there I was chatting with the various vendors and met KC and Carla Lund of KC Lund Blades.

What a fascinating conversation I'd found myself part of, and learning that they were from The W (Wildomar for the uninitiated 😅) I knew that bringing the story of a local bladesmith to the community would be a great idea. (Maybe I should have gone with the bad pun and said a "sharp idea"? 🤔... yeah, NO!😁)

Anyhoo... KC, currently working as a Deputy of Riverside County Sheriff's Department, first got interested in bladesmithing when he was basically still a kid, it started with the idea of making swords. His inspiration was from scenes he'd seen in "b-movies".

Carla Lund looks on as KC explains molten salts to Bridgette Moore.

From there he went to a custom knife show and met a knife maker named Jim Hrisoulas, author of a book called The Complete Bladesmith.

There were no "master bladesmith" classes, so he's basically self-taught. Being that this was in the pre-internet days, that consisted of countless trips to libraries, joining knife clubs, and picking the brains of those that had decades under their belts.

In the video, KC speaks of different styles of blades and the basics of how he makes them. There are a couple of action shots where you'll see him take the bar of steel from the forge to the hammer, and then begin working on it.

An impressive thing to watch as the hammer meets the heated bar of steel.

Right as Covid was hitting the nation he was finishing up a 500 knife run that he called a backup. A blade that's intended to hide behind a trauma plate on a tactical vest. 

He also makes swords, bare blades, blades fitted out with hilts, and culinary knives. 

He made 800 knives for his friend Adam Perry Lang's restaurant in Hollywood. Wiki gives a quick description: Adam Perry Lang is a classically French-trained chef turned bona fide BBQ expert.

Carla does the marketing, sales, shipping, and all the behind-the-scenes things to complement KC's bladesmithing.

KCLundBlades.Com

More than twenty years ago KC and Carla chose Wildomar as their home specifically so they could build their bladesmithing shop, which is a sight to see for anyone that appreciates a well-put-together workshop. 

A look into the furnace.

Please watch the 10 minute video below to hear all the details and get a peek at KC in action. 

Side note... for those of you that make video. Yes, my color correction skills are woefully underdeveloped. 😅 😁

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"Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or by the handle."

– James Russell Lowell

Wildomar Rap suggests the best way to avoid mishaps with your knife is to leave it in the kitchen drawer when shopping at Stater Brothers. 

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.

• Assemblyman Kelly Seyarto's List of 2022 New Laws

A good source of information regarding pending legislation and/or new state laws is Assemblyman Kelly Seyarto... who will be on your ballot for State Senate this year. 

He sends out periodic email blasts with bills to keep an eye on or bills that have been signed into law. This edition deals with new laws that will be affecting all of us soon. 

Assemblyman Seyarto's list is worth looking at in its entirety, but I'm just concentrating on some of what he shared. Most of the new laws that I've listed are things that are going to make your life more difficult.

Below is copy and paste from the email, except the green boxes with my opinions.

District Map   |    Biography    |    Contact Me

The 2022 Legislative Session has officially concluded, and the Governor has taken final action on all bills sent to his desk.

As your Representative, I want to be sure to keep you updated on some of the new laws that will be taking effect soon, especially since they may directly impact you and our communities.  

General Overview:

Total Bills Introduced in 2022 = 2055

• Assembly - 1383
• Senate – 672

 
Total Number of Bills Sent to Governor in 2022 = 1,166

• Governor signed 997 new laws (85.5% of them) and vetoed 169
   
• Assembly:
  • 80% signed authored by Democrats
  • 11% signed authored by Republicans
  • 9% signed were Committee bills
     
• Senate:
  • 82% signed authored by Democrats
  • 7% signed authored by Republicans
  • 11% signed were Committee bills

New Laws Of Interest:

Reminder: This is my pared-down list from Assemblyman Seyarto's original email. There is a link at the bottom that you can use to view the full contents of the email.

All laws take effect on January 1st, 2023, unless indicated in the language of the bill.
 

 Education:

• SB 955: Requires a school to excuse the absence of a student engaging in a civic or political event. Allows middle and high school students to request to be excused from school to attend various civic or political events, which can include strikes and political rallies, without any guarantee the parents of that student are aware of the student's absence. 
  
  Wildomar Rap opinion time

  
  
  

  I'm not a fan of Sacramento's constant overreach, especially when it comes to our children. We're all different, with different priorities. When it came to my three kids and their education, the only thing I wanted the schools to do was to teach the basic courses. Know your place!

Housing:

• AB 512: Allows the transfer of state highways to cities and counties for conversion into affordable housing, green space, transit-oriented development, and bicycle, pedestrian, and transit infrastructure.  
   
• SB 6: Establishes housing as an allowable use on any parcel zoned for office, retail, or parking.
    
• Wildomar Rap opinion time

  
  
  

  When you hear about some future crazy development in town, remember, Sacramento has been taking away local control bit by bit for decades... hitting high gear in recent years with no sign of a let up. 
  
  If we keep voting the same people in, we're only going to feel Sacramento's choking embrace around our necks all the more keenly. 

Labor and Small Business/Business: 

• AB 257: Unionizes California’s fast-food workers. Establishes a Fast Food Sector Council vested with broad authority to set labor and employment laws for the fast food industry, including franchises.
• Wildomar Rap opinion time

  
  
  

  I eat very little fast food, but I know that it is very popular. These types of laws will only make your driv-thru food more expensive... which, is already too expensive for me.


• SB 972: Lessens the equipment requirements, fees and design standards for street vendors. It also removes criminal penalties for health code violations, replacing them with fines.
  
  
• Wildomar Rap opinion time

  
  
  

  There was a reason why such penalties were created in the past. Do we want our brick-and-mortar places to survive or not?  At the same time, they have incredibly strict codes for vendors at park events. We're talking about HEALTH CODES. Ridiculous! 
• SB 1046: Prohibits a store from providing a "pre-checkout bag" to consumers as of January 1, 2025, if it is neither compostable nor a recyclable paper bag.  

  

  If you aren't familiar with the term "pre-checkout plastic bag" here's what they are.

  
  
• Wildomar Rap opinion time

  
  
  

  If they can be made compostable, then let's do it. I guess that it's good that I've gotten (somewhat) into the habit of not using them as much as I did in the past. Plus, these days, they seem to already have put fruit and veggies into their own bags. Eventually we're going to have to decide if five seconds of convenience is worth creating all this extra plastic garbage that didn't even exist half a generation ago, or not. 

  

  
  

Local Government:

• AB 2097: Precludes local government from imposing or enforcing a minimum automobile parking requirement on residential, commercial, or other development parcel if the parcel is located within one-half mile walking distance of a major transit stop. 
• Wildomar Rap opinion time

  
  
  

  Remember SB35 and how it paved the way for Tres Lagos? Maybe the state is changing and I can't see it, but in the world I see, people need personal transportation to live in this part of the country. If you've ever tried public transportation, as noble a cause as it is, you know that it simply doesn't cut it in the modern world that SoCal has become.


• SB 1100: Allows a presiding member of the legislative body to remove an individual for disrupting a public meeting. 
• Wildomar Rap opinion time

  
  
  

  This may be necessary for some jurisdictions, but I can say that in all the city or county meetings I've been to I've NEVER seen a single instance where such a thing would have been remotely necessary. Speaking of a situation where the Mayor or Planning Commission chair would have needed to have a member of the public removed.

Public Safety:

• AB 1228:  Limits the ability to hold a person on probation in jail pending adjudication of a probation violation. Requires a "catch and release" policy for criminals on probation in nearly all circumstances. 

• AB 2167:  Provides that "It is the intent of the Legislature that the disposition of any criminal case use the least restrictive means available” and requires the court presiding over a criminal matter to "consider alternatives to incarceration, including, without limitation, collaborative justice court programs, diversion, restorative justice, and probation."  Declares incarceration should be used only when necessary to prevent physical injury to others or in the interest of justice.
    
• SB 1223: Expands the eligibility criteria for criminal offenders to be granted mental health diversion (and thus, by definition, avoid a criminal conviction for their offense, including felony offenses).

• Wildomar Rap opinion time

  
  
  

  None of these types state laws over the past decade plus, that have dumbed down penalties for crime, have improved anyone's lives. Yet, here we are, with more and more of the same approach that has made California a lot less desirable than it was not all that long ago. 
  
  When is this pendulum going to start swinging back toward the middle?

 
Transportation: 

• AB 1909: Requires drivers to move over into an available adjacent lane before passing or overtaking a bicycle, and makes several other changes related to bicycles and electric bicycles. Requires motorists to yield an entire lane of vehicle travel to bicycles.
  

• Wildomar Rap opinion time

  
  
  

  I've ridden a lot of miles on bicycles in my lifetime. I'm all for maximum safety when cars and bikes use the same roadways. But whenever I've been on a bicycle I've understood that a car will flatten me if I tangle with it. If you're the type that insists on cars treating your bicycle as an equal, just understand that is a dangerous form of Russian roulette (maybe it should be called Schwinn Roulette). A game I'm never going to enter into. One where Mulligans aren't included and the consequences are devastating.

• SB 339: Creates a road usage charge pilot program to test the collection of a tax on each mile driven.
  
  

• Wildomar Rap opinion time

  
  
  

  We knew this was coming. I'm less worried about the EV drivers paying for using the roads as the rest of us do with every gallon of gas we purchase, but how will this kind of thing get twisted into some horrible club that Sacramento then uses as a cudgel against drivers in the future? 

Water:

• SB 1157: Mandates further water conservation requirements that water agencies must achieve for the indoor water use of California residents. Reduces the residential indoor water use standards from 52.5 gallons per person/day (gpcd) to 47gpcd for years between 2025-2030, and from 50gpcd to 42gpcd in 2030. This would likely be accomplished through increased water rates. 

• Wildomar Rap opinion time

  
  
  

  We live in a state that is basically a desert, and that goes for the entire region that is known as the Southwest. When the population was half the size as it is today, there was plenty of water, but with every additional person using water in California, it keeps deplenishing what we can use as families or individuals. I don't know what the ultimate answer will be, but it's safe to say that it's going to come with a big price tag.

If you would like to check on the status of any other legislation, please click HERE. 

I hope you found this informative and helpful. As always, it is my privilege to be your Representative in the California State Assembly.

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To see Assemblyman Seyarto's full list of new 2022 laws, be sure to use the link below. In the link, you can sign up so that you can stay up to date with all of his email blasts. 

Link

I'm happy to share Assemblyman Seyarto's endorsement.