SHARING MY FAVORITE CHRISTMAS CARD….

…EVER!!

One of the side benefits of having creative, talented children, is the often memorable media creations that continue to put a smile on my face.

Since my daughter-in-law, Stacie, just re-posted this on her Facebook page, I thought that you might enjoy her Christmas Card, circa 2005. For the record, no animals or small children were injured in creating this card. My grandson, now 11 years of age, already reflects the benefits of growing up in a creative family.

Please click on the following link, and enjoy:

Comments can be made to zakturango@excite.com.

When It Comes To Another Cities’ Lawsuit…..

….WILDOMAR CITY COUNCIL BECOMES IT’S OWN VICTIM

I recently read a recent Press Enterprise article announcing that the Wildomar City Council had decided to join with the County of Riverside in opposing the  lawsuit filed by the City of Eastvale, thereby becoming its own legal victim.

Until recently, Eastvale was the City of Wildomar’s fellow traveler in their seemingly endless pursuit of the Vehicle License Fees “taken” by the State of California.

Please click on the following link to confirm:

http://www.pe.com/articles/county-787408-wildomar-city.html

As you may know, Gov. Brown recently signed legislation which provided approximately $24 million to the County of Riverside with which to “forgive” debts which were incurred by four newest incorporated cities.

Apparently Eastvale was was able to avoid incurring financial indebtedness as a new city, as their commercial development wisely preceded their residential development. According to Eastvale, as a result of their financial acumen, the City of Eastvale gets zero dollars from the recent resolution.

Their lawsuit seeks their fair share of the $24 million, in cash,  as a matter of fairness.

However, their lawsuit, filed on November 18, 2015, only names   the County of Riverside  as a defendant, with the usual “DOES 1-25 (as in “John Doe”), as place holders, should they find  additional co-conspirators in the process.

None of those “DOES” happen to be The City of Wildomar,  whose only co-conspiracy was joining with three other  cities, including the City of Eastvale, in a repeatedly unsuccessful attempt to change the mind of Gov. Brown, assuming that he didn’t understand what the liberal governor “did” to the new cities in conservative Southwestern Riverside County.

This begs a number of questions, as follows:

1) Why would the City of Wildomar incur legal expense when they are not being sued?

2) Since they have spent/wasted  approximately $75,000  for a joint Sacramento lobbyist who apparently had little to do with the ultimate resolution,  how  much more of Wildomar’s limited  budget  will this  city council spend  chasing a financial ghost?

Given all the whining about the financial costs of  litigation by Wildomar City Council, it would seem that remaining on the sidelines  of this litigation, with no expense to the City of Wildomar, would be the more appropriate  legal tactic.

If Eastvale prevails in their litigation against the County of Riverside and it results in a  significant  financial setback  for Wildomar,  that might be the more appropriate time to unleash their legal beagle, City Attorney Tom Jex.

Perhaps the Wildomar City Council has a  deep-seated psychological need to be involved  in a legal fight, even if they have to pick the fight.

Comments can be made to zakturango@excite.com.

This may be your only Thanksgiving turkey from the City of Wildomar.

Have a happy Thanksgiving .

WILDOMAR LITIGATION….

…UPDATE:

As you might know, a recent ruling by the Riverside County Superior Court included an order by the Court which confirmed an important allegation by the Alliance for Intelligent Planning that the City of Wildomar was operating contrary to their own Housing Element.

As a result, the Court has ordered the City to hold additional Public Hearings and address the deficiencies. It appears that the City of Wildomar lacks legal authority to  arbitrarily convert valuable commercial property  (which the city needs to survive economically)  into  hyper- high-density apartment projects. In fact, it is reported that the City has been trying to force  developers to put more apartment units onto their projects  than even the developer’s desire, as this City is apparently driven by Mello Roos tax revenues . Fortunately, those developers refused to be bullied by the City of Wildomar.

In addition, because of the Court ruling in the favor of Alliance for Intelligent Planning, their legal counsel is entitled to recover the legal fees and costs incurred  in order to bring this to the Court’s attention. Rather than present his entire array of legal invoices,  legal counsel has agreed to settle for a lesser amount,  a total of $120,000, which amount  the City Council of Wildomar  has apparently agreed to pay.

For the record, despite the allegations by Wildomar Mayor Ben Benoit  and local blogger, Joseph Morabito, through the pages of his sycophantic  blog, the Wildomar Crap, that  Alliance for  Intelligent Planning signatory  and titular head, Sheryl Ade somehow receives a portion of  that $120,000. For the record, Sheryl Ade  did not receive any remuneration for her public service in bringing the successful litigation.

Small minds apparently cannot comprehend the concept of  public service  for the larger good.  In the case of the Alliance for Intelligent Planning,  Sheryl represents a number of Wildomar residents who support her and prefer anonymity  in order to avoid civic retaliation  from the city’s vindictive forefathers  and foremothers.

In the Oak Creek Canyon matter, despite  a settlement agreement that includes appropriate testing  for chemical contamination on the proposed  instruction site, the  developer’s legal team is  continuing to stall in their performance of appropriate testing previously agreed to.

As a result, the developer will soon find himself back in court  as the plaintiffs seek enforcement of the settlement agreement. Apparently, the developer does not want his Oak Creek Canyon project  to become known as Autumnwood II, when the presence of  chemical contamination from the Farm’s obsolete  urine and feces spray field  is likely to be  confirmed by testing.

On a more pleasant note, I can confirm that I have completed  the first draft of my  Vietnam memoir.  After another pass through the manuscript  to make corrections, I will submit it to the U.S. Navy Information Command  so that they can review it and provide guidance as to the presence of any  classified information, especially as it relates to survival school.

Once I have passed that procedure, I will upload it and  self-publish  it, likely through Amazon , making it available to whomever has an interest in it. The  previously unpublished content will explain why I am not a fan of abusive  senior noncommissioned officers , such as  the alcoholic Navy  Chief Petty Officers, that I had the personal displeasure of having to serve under.

In the meantime, until the public at large becomes curious about  the real reasons behind repetitive litigation that arises from  questionable  City-Council  approved  development, the  City of Wildomar will continue to be  turned into an apartment jungle, bearing no resemblance to the original Vision for the City of Wildomar.

Comments can be made to  zakturango@excite.com

EVMWD Is Just Doing What Unregulated, Rogue Monopolies…

…DO!!

Yesterday’s 5-0 vote for a 27% rate increase isn’t about “water” flow, it’s about “cash” flow so the staff can continue to finance their salaries and pension benefits and their lobbyist trips to Washington DC  and Sacramento.

After all of the scare tactics by the  unregulated, quasi-utility, the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District, to convince homeowners to stop watering their  beautiful and expensive landscaping (all one has to do is drive through Windsong Valley to see the pitiful, browning lawns), thereby reducing their water bills.

As a result, the effect of water conservation has apparently reduced the amount of cash flowing into the EVMWD coffers,  forcing the elected Directors of the EVMWD to protect their rogue utility by voting for the rate increase.   In case you didn’t notice, customers of the EVMWD have no one to  turn to for relief.

This is the time when all of the Chamberpot of Commerce/Rotary club-mixer chickens have come home to roost.

Instead of electing officials who are immune to the groupthink political influences of the aforementioned borderless  “shadow government”  (they’re all the same people, including members of  the local city councils),” the foolish voters have repeatedly elected officials whose resumes list the Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club prominently as one of their primary reasons  for you to give them your vote.

Until  the voters elect  a Board majority of thoughtful public servants (I would have been happier if the recently-elected  Director,  George Cambero would have voted against this  increase, if nothing more than to make a  symbolic vote to  demonstrate his independence) ,   this rogue monopoly  will continue to do whatever it wants to do to its customers.

For the record,  my monthly water bill (including sewer charges)  for a two bedroom, two bath  mobile home  costs  $13.20. However,  my water comes from the Eastern  Municipal Water District, not the EVMWD.

 Comments can be made to zakturango@excite.com.

230,000 Reasons to…

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Total
2008							273	610	617	491	602	860	3,453
2009	882	500	230	263	217	178	176	180	255	1,152	1,727	1,488	7,248
2010	2,520	1,785	1,942	2,028	2,386	2,996	2,579	1,906	3,037	3,490	3,739	3,868	32,276
2011	3,367	3,600	4,299	4,730	5,942	4,644	3,882	3,881	4,303	5,104	5,232	4,874	53,858
2012	5,253	5,266	6,154	6,003	5,318	4,174	4,253	4,088	4,888	5,211	5,279	4,475	60,362
2013	4,360	2,819	5,192	2,991	2,838	3,515	3,116	2,507	3,467	3,552	3,140	2,159	39,656
2014	2,682	2,071	1,990	1,950	2,523	1,986	2,485	2,150	2,245	3,132	2,584	1,880	27,678
2015	1,561	861	848	653	701	571	359						5,554

…CONTINUE WRITING

Despite my self-imposed writing hiatus explained in my last article, there continues to be a regular number of persons (230,020 to be exact, as of this morning) who continue to stop by Wildomar Magazine, looking for information and commentary, based on the above statistics cut and pasted from Wildomar Magazine’s Statistics page.

Safe to say, 230,000+ individual views over a total of 7 years will be difficult to duplicate.

As always, I am grateful to my readers for their interest.

Comments can be made to zakturango@excite.com.

Catchin’ Up With….

 

…ZAK

Time to do a little catchin’ up for my readers.

When Sheryl and I moved out of Wildomar in December 2013 , moving to nearby Hemet,  the move was a part of my economic strategy to seriously reduce my  monthly “nut, “which was based on owning a “stick built” home,  including a mortgage which  sadly limited the value of the net equity in the house.  Since my age and physical health was not going to permit me to   return to my  “pre-stroke,”  well-paid career as an insurance claims  investigator/adjuster, I needed to  re-evaluate my economic status  and base it on my current economic realities.

By cutting back on  my  monthly  disbursements and selling my house, it ultimately provided, after selling  expenses, some cash equity, I was able to payoff every one of my financial obligations  and purchase, for all cash,  a  lovely, modern  mobile home in one of the  more attractive senior (55+) gated retirement parks  in Hemet.  In this arrangement, my modest space rent includes  the price of trash service as well as our water and sewer service. ( I no longer have to grit my teeth writing a check to the C R &R and EVMWD monopolies for their overpriced  services!)

Last year, an opportunity to work from my home office on a full-time basis, arose from my industry connections to  a long-time friend  and colleague who  is a  claims  manager for a commercial liability insurance company, who wanted to tap into my experience in  Litigation Management in the Construction Defect  field. Apparently “millennials” are not entering the insurance claims field, making older guys like me desirable to hire on a short-term basis. A projected 90 day “gig”  lasted more than six months, which permitted me to purchase  a late model  Toyota Camry.

I enjoyed writing a personal check for the entire amount of the car before driving  it off the sales lot.

 On a couple of personal notes,  my 93-year-old mother recently passed away after a brief illness. Apparently, she was unable to to overcome her grief  over the passing of my older sister, who passed away in January  at at the age of 73, succumbing to a  long  illness.

I recently finished my personal memoir, which recounts  my experiences serving in Vietnam in 1968- 69. The motivation to write a memoir  came from a request by my 10-year-old grandson, who is fascinated by the fact that his grandfather  was “in the war.”  Once I have completed some necessary editing and polishing,  I intend to self-publish it on Amazon,   making  it available to others, who may be interested, as a part of the historic tapestry that any veteran  could and should  prepare for his family  and friends.   I would encourage  any veteran, of any age or era, to write his or her own personal memoir, thus contributing to that tapestry.

When it is published and available online, I will provide the details  on how to obtain a copy of it, if you so desire. I will probably include some portions of it in a future article  within the pages of Wildomar Magazine, as I’ve done in the past.

Since that writing task is now mostly complete,   I can return to  occasionally  offering my  insights and  thoughts on the happenings in Wildomar.  Prior to publishing Wildomar Magazine, I was an active participant  in the publishing of  Elsinore Magazine, even though I  did not live in Lake Elsinore, so that complaint will fall on my deaf ears.

Commentary/opinion knows no city limit.

Comments can be made to  zakturango@excite.com.

By the way,  Wildomar Magazine has been viewed more than 225,000 times since its inception.

Alliance For Intelligent Planning Prevails Over Wildomar City Hall in….

RIVERSIDE SUPERIOR COURT

On Friday, February 20, 2015, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Gloria Trask agreed with the Alliance for Intelligent Planning (a group of concerned citizens), that the recently-approved Housing Element portion of the City of Wildomar General Plan was improperly converting tax revenue-producing commercial property into high-density residential property in order to accommodate out-of-town developers in their quest for “cheap dirt.”

As a result of the ruling, numerous development projects will have to be re-evaluated by the City Staff, Planning Commission, and the Wildomar City Council to determine if the projects can go forward in the context of the Courts ruling.

At issue, as the current philosophy of the Wildomar City Council and their Planning Commissioners, to approve nearly any residential project that comes before the various aforementioned bodies, in order to generate one-time development fees and revenue for the City of Wildomar.

Unfortunately, said philosophy will ultimately reduce Wildomar to a  non-rural bedroom community of multi-family apartment projects, lacking sufficient tax revenues to provide the necessary and basic infrastructure, such as police and fire and road maintenance.

 While there are other and additional implications  to the Court’s ruling, suffice it to say that  your city’s forefathers and foremothers have been reckless  in moving forward with the Housing Element without adequately  considering well-informed opposition  that was certain to result in litigation.

 And, in this case, successful litigation.

 Now the City Staff, City Councilmembers  and their Planning Commissioners  will have to  actively address the legitimate concerns of the successful litigants. 

Comments can be made to zakturango@excite.com.

The Real Document….

…DUMPING IN WILDOMAR

Once again, elected and appointed officials on the City Council/Planning Commission (hereinafter the “Wildo-Morons”) resort to the overused phrase “document dump” to describe citizen input to ongoing Planning Commission and City Council activities within the legal proscribed time limits.

At last night’s City of Wildomar Planning Commission meeting, Commission Chair Veronica Langworthy apparently complained to Wildomar citizen, Gary Andre, after he presented settlement documents that were already in the possession of Wildomar city staff but were not included in the agenda packet for  review  by the Planning Commissioners.

The previously-approved Oak Creek Canyon project was brought back to the Planning Commission for approval of “minor changes,” and it was important that the conditions within the settlement agreement between the developer, the City of Wildomar and the plaintiff, Gary Andre, be incorporated into the conditions of the development.

After spending  the past week  trying to get the settlement conditions incorporated within the  Planning Commission agenda packet, André was left with no alternative but to  hand carry the documents to City Hall  and present them to the City Clerk  in order to be assured that the documents would be available to the Planning Commissioners. Whether or not the documents were appended to the agenda  was entirely within the control of city staff.

Nevertheless,  Planning Commission Chair Langworthy apparently resorted to the complaint of a last-minute “document dump,” thereby alluding to and associating herself with  Washington DC-style tactics, presumably  to inflate her own importance.

The primary issue is the hiding by city staff of the  “environmental disaster” that is unfolding due to the presence of a  raw sewage “spray field” that has been the unfortunate method of  processing  of raw sewage from The Farm  since 1974. As a result of that  ongoing spraying of urine,  it is likely that the presence of nitrates in Cottonwood Creek  and the underlying the water table will have to be addressed  sooner, rather than later.

As you may know when the EVMWD took over the  water service  for nearby residents,  they required immunity from any lawsuits arising from  the water contamination  before they would agree to providing water service for the residents.

 More on this matter  in the near future .

Comments can be made to zakturango@excite.com.

Perhaps The Planning Commissioners will now find their own voice and  actually “dump”  on the Planning Department for keeping them in the dark on such important matters

When Incompetence Becomes…..

….CRUELTY

Only in the dysfunctional City of Wildomar, would you find a highly-motivated young lady with the intention of helping special needs kids with her project, having to come to grips with the cruel and harsh reality that the “adults” at City Hall, professional and elected alike, were unable to provide the proper and appropriate guidelines before the installation of her “Freedom Swing.”

Unfortunately, on  October 19, 2014,  the Freedom Swing was inspected by  the Steven C. Wilmes,  Risk Management consultant for the city’s insurance  pool PARSSAC, which insures the City of Wildomar.

Please click on the following link to review the risk manager’s resume:

https://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu/10conf/WILMES-Steven.doc

In his report,  Wilmes  concluded the following:

“At this time, the wheelchair swing does NOT meet playground safety standards and will require some repairs, relocation and surfacing impact testing prior to being utilized.  As Mr. Jackson and I departed today, one of your staff members was on site to remove the structure. ”  

Instead of providing the aforementioned proper and appropriate guidelines, the  bungling  incompetents at City Hall simply jumped on the promotional bandwagon of the project  and began to promote  the fund-raising effort.

As a result,  one can only imagine the disappointment  and discouragement that the young lady feels about her worthy goal  and project.

Comments can be made to zakturango@excite.com.

Perhaps, someone at City Hall should have consulted with the risk manager before the project  was  installed. That would have been the adult and competent thing to do.

Special thanks to Kenny Mayes, a local civic activist, for keeping the City of Wildomar on it’s toes.

Wildomar’s “small”….UPDATE

…..mayor

Recently, on the day after the election, I casually opened up my Excite e-mail account and discovered an e-mail from Wildomar’s Mayor Marsha Swanson.

Perhaps, I thought for a brief moment, she wanted to take the opportunity, following her reelection to be gracious and thank me for my years of community service on the Board of Trustees of the Wildomar Cemetery Special District, or even my significant contribution to information dissemination on the pages of Wildomar Magazine.

However, I instead was exposed to the smallness of the “inner” psyche of the mayor, with the following e-mails, and my response:

From:  Marsha Swanson marshamswanson@gmail.com>

Date:11/05/2014 08:31 PM 

To: zakturango@excite.com

“Sorry, you had to stay up to monitor the votes, it was all over by 8:30.  The people of Wildomar spoke.   The only incumbent ever not re-elected is Sheryl, do you get it now?”

Marsha Swanson

951 313-7472

From: zakturango@excite.com

Date: 11/05/2014 08:19 PM

To: marshamswanson@gmail.com

 

Marsha;

 

I don’t get it. But your profound insecurity is sad, if not amazing. Were you running against Sheryl? Apparently so.

From:

Marsha Swanson  marshamswanson@gmail.com

Date:

11/05/2014 08:31 PM 

To:

zakturango@excite.com

 

“I beat Sheryl every time.  Don’t know what you are thinking?  Insecure is one thing I am not.”

Marsha Swanson

951 313-7472

Apparently,  the mini-mayor of Wildomar  has found meaning in her  re-election that relates to elections that occurred  four years ago. In the last election, former city Council member Sheryl Ade was tending to the cares and needs of her  elderly mother, who had fallen and broken her leg  just as the election cycle began in 2010.

There are some things in life that must take precedence over  obsessions with  elections and politics.

There are some “inner” wrinkles on the human psyche  that neither Botox or collagen injections will ever cover or erase.

Comments can be made to zakturango@excite.com.

(Editor’s Update: For the record, former Wildomar city councilman Scott Farnam did not get re-elected in 2010. I wonder if Farnam got a similar “I beat your *ss twice,” email from Swanson during her “I’m really, really insecure” victory lap?