19 Candidates Seeking Seat on First City Council
The list of individuals seeking a position on the first city council has been released and will be on the June 3 ballot (along with voting o...
http://www.menifee247.com/2008/03/19-candidates-seeking-seat-on-first.htm
The list of individuals seeking a position on the first city council has been released and will be on the June 3 ballot (along with voting on cityhood).
As excerpted from the Press-Enterprise story by Julissa McKinnon:
Here is a link to the full story.
As excerpted from the Press-Enterprise story by Julissa McKinnon:
Six of the 19 candidates are from Sun City. They are:
Darci Castillejos, 47, a restaurant owner; John Denver, 61, a businessman and mortgage broker; Louis Mazei, 62, a Riverside County planning technician; Chuck Reutter (he has not yet filed age and occupation information with the registrar of voters); Carol Sullivan, 64, a businesswoman; and Gerald Walker, 45, a county maintenance plumber.
The remaining 13 candidates are from Menifee. They are:
Tony Amatulli, 49, a businessman; Dina Biedermann (age and occupation information not yet filed); Dean Deines, 52, a public finance officer; Wallace Edgerton (age not provided), a Mt. San Jacinto Community College political science instructor; Tom Fuhrman, 63, a businessman and owner/operator of Wooden Nickel Ranch in Menifee; Ken Gaunt, 67, a retired businessman and former county commissioner in Nevada; Darcy Kuenzi, 45, a legislative assistant; Scott Mann (age not provided), a risk manager for the Menifee Union School District; Marc Miller, 50, a rancher and businessman; Jason Reeves, 32, a businessman and
Sunday school teacher; Jerry Stamper, a real estate broker; Fred Twyman, 43, a high school math teacher and Menifee Union School District trustee; and Dorothy Wolons, 43, a businesswoman and mother.
Here is a link to the full story.
It is nice to see Fred Twyman moving on to bigger and better things, running for Menifee Valley City Council, now that the school district is in such a wonderful place. With new schools being built and old ones being closed, along with unnecessary bonds being passed. I am sure Fred can count on the votes of all of those parents whose kids have been taken from their schools and others who have no busing now and all of those people who will end up paying higher taxes for Measure B even though we don’t need the schools. Congratulations.
ReplyDeleteI would like to see a younger group of people running for office.
ReplyDeleteWas it published some where to nominate people? This is the first I have heard of this.
With this group of people running, I don't think their focus will be on the youth of the community and the needs of the youth sports. I realize there is more to it than this but Menifee is lacking in this department.
I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who is suspicious of the 'select' few knowing it was time to put in on the board! As usual, they are lining up their 'ducks-in-a-row' to dictate to the rest of the community just who they want to use to get what they want. Agree, its time to start fresh with a new and younger board who has not paved their way with soft-soaping everyone for a vote. Twyman and Stamper have taken up enough space with NO intelligent voting for issues to benefit the families of the community. Because of the lack of publishing it so everyone knows what's going on; maybe we need to reopen the nominations and encourage some fresh-minded people to put in for it !
ReplyDeleteI don't think the state budget fiasco is Fred Twyman's fault. There was a more complete story on the candidates in Saturday's Californian. It gives an idea what the issues are for each candidate.
ReplyDeleteI agree that we cannot blame Fred Twyman for the condition that the State is in. He was only the head of the Governing Board for MUSD. He should only be held responsible for the unrest and uncertainty that is going on in the school district.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the state's budget crisis is not Fred Twyman's fault. But I also think it is unfair to hold him solely responsible for the "unrest and uncertainty that is going on in the school district". Oftentimes, the school district presents the school board with a limited set of options to choose from. While Mr. Twyman may be the current president of the school board, he is still only one person on a board of five. Also keep in mind, absent decisions they have very recently had to make, the current school board has done a good job for the most part.
ReplyDeleteWith that said and out of the way, hopefully I can shed some more light on a couple of questions that have already popped up in comments.
First, I thought it was kind of fishy that the nomination period did not seem to be public knowledge. As it turns out, it was. The Riverside County Registrar of Voters has the information posted on their website. I only found out about the nomination deadline, which was March 7th, through word of mouth on March 1st. Although the nomination deadline has passed, you can still file as a write in candidate.
I can only blame myself for not inquiring about candidacy for city council. Perhaps if I were involved with the Menifee Valley Incorporation Committee I would have learned of this information sooner. Had I been interested in running for city council at this point in my life, I probably would have made the effort to find out deadlines. It never occurred to me to research the information and make it available to others in case they were interested. But then again, if others were interested, they could have done the same thing I did, which was to start digging around.
For those interested, below are two links. The first is a link to the story printed in The Californian on March 8th. The second is a link to the Menifee Candidate Handbook that is available from the Registrar of Voters website.
Californian Story
Menifee Candidate Handbook
All I can say is this we need to be city soon. The amount of grafitti is really getting to me. It makes this town look very bad. We need more parks we need a police presence. And yes I agree we need younger people to represent our community. Why is always the same people?
ReplyDeleteI know that people were asking Bill Gould to run, but he was just elected to the Romoland District and said he didn't want to abandon his new seat. He is young, involved with youth and the business community, smart and a good leader - not a YES MAN like others are.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we get a write in campaign??
His website is VoteBillGould.com - email him and ask!!
YES on Menifee cityhood!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Maybe Tom Fuhrman's slogan should be..."Beer and Boobs for 2008."
ReplyDeleteIsn't he they guy who allows naked photo shoots, and alcohol sold on his property without the proper permits 'cause he "didn't know" he needed permits??? Do you want him running anything in Menifee besides his ranch???
Is it any wonder why he wants on this bandwagon??
If we recall Fred Twyman was opposed to the clossing of M.E.S. He uged the members to consider other options and look into cuts that can be reinstated when the money comes available.
ReplyDeleteJohn Denver
ReplyDeleteto the person about the graffiti..I've really had a good response from the graffiti hotline several times...you can report online and they come out quickly to paint over it.....in fact, once they came out in the same day...here is the link
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rcgraffitibusters.com
My Fellow Menifee Valley Residents;
ReplyDeleteMy name is Dina Biedermann, 34 years old, and I am a candidate for Menifee Valley city council. I am running for one simple reason: I believe in our community and the kind of leaders we need (at any level of government) should build on our community’s strengths, and not contribute to problems. “Leadership for a difference” is the message my campaign offers which means- I intend not just to lead, but to offer citizens a more representative form of government by listening and more importantly RESPONDING to the communities needs. Just raising an issue in the public forum gives people an opportunity to pass judgment, which usually forces the government to respond.
I will work hard to build an impressive legislative portfolio that will reflect the morals and values of the residents of Menifee Valley. From Public Safety to our cities different diverse areas, I will always advocate policies that are most beneficial for residents of Menifee Valley.
As a candidate, I enter into this journey to take on responsibilities not to be intimidated by accountability. As we move forward to tackle different challenges, I look forward to an exciting, thought provoking campaign. I would appreciate your support.
Watch out Menifee. Red Country is out to take control. Go to this link for more information.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.redcounty.com/riverside/2008/03/if-menifee-becomes-a-city-who/
This is directed at the last anonymous posting. If you had any backbone you would display your name, you must be another candidate in a crowded field. What you did is unfair, do you even know any of these people running? Why don't you give these people a chance to present their views and decide at that time if they have political party agendas rather than what is best for Menifee. Negative comments like this don't help the process. It looks like one of the candidates posted up above and sounds ok so far I know I will give them a chance before deciding who I will vote for. Next time post under your name and don't hide anonymous.
ReplyDeleteToshioo,
ReplyDeleteI read the Red Country magazine article - the author of that article DID look into the positions and political ideologies of the the Menifee council candidates, and, as a Republican, he felt the two candidates he mentioned in the article best represented what most Republicans believe. "What is best for Menifee" is approached based on political ideology, not a wait and see approach. In his article, the author also asked for input from the other candidates, since the registrar of voters has not listed these candidates' political party affiliations. This is information we, as Menifee voters, need to know.
I don't feel the poster of the Red Country magazine article link did anything wrong. Why does he or she need to divulge his name? What difference does that make? If you don't share the same political party affiliation with him/her, that is fine, however, no harm was done in anonymously providing the link to the article. I found it to be very informative and it has spurred my own desire to investigate these Menifee council candidates further. Freedom of information, baby, freedom of information. And the tone of nastiness is unnecessary in a forum such as this. Your comments will be considered more seriously by readers if you exude professionalism and intelligence rather than off the cuff emotionalism.
It is a shame that the same people running for office is the ones that have caused major headaches for this community. They are sitting on our school board and work for the school district. People such as Scott Mann and Fred Twyman cares lest about your children. They voted against transportation and Scott Mann as the School disrict Risk Manager who impleted the removal of transportation with our School Superintendent. Individuals such as these will run this City with no concern about our most precious commidity, "our children". I think each person running should be scruitinized by how their neighbors feel about them...If they are not accepted by their own neighbors then we should not accept them....Hey Press and Times why don't you send some feelers out in the candidates neighborhoods and get the real scoop on them. Now that would be worth reading and listening to at a forum.
ReplyDeleteWell it looks like one of the candidates is already in the pockets of the developers taking $2,500 from one of them. It didn’t take long for that. It was nice to see that the candidate said the developer would be required to put roads and parks in along with the thousands of homes. Because there are so many of those developments out there that don’t have any roads?
ReplyDeleteIt is standard that developers donate land for parks and schools when they wish to build a large amount of homes. So it was good the candidate clarified that she would make them.
Good luck Menifee.
Face it this is a Red Community, that is why nothing is done for the benefit of the whole community but the elite few. They are now trying to run our city council. They dominate school boards and development from here to Perris, Here are your examples Fred Twyman and his wife both on Menifee and Perris School boards respectively, John Denver and his wife, developer and former and current school board member. Do you see the patterns here folks. Keep going and you will see the group of people contolling all of these boards. Stop this madness and lets get fresh faces on our city council..as one comment made stop the hand shaking soap washing candidates. Move the old OUT and in with the new.
ReplyDeleteHey! Cityhood means economic infrastructure, granting monetary resources for things like public safety, libraries, etc. SOMEONE has to oversee the processes, legalities, accounting, etc, in tandem with the public they represent.
ReplyDeleteThe individuals running for office should be lauded, for they will NEVER be able to satisfy their constituents, as evidenced by some of the postings.
Politics is a tough gig. My hat's off to these pioneering individuals for becoming vocal and involved in their community, rather than just vocal.
Hi I'm John Denver,
ReplyDeleteYou wanna talk about City Hood? Come to my house this Sunday from 2pm-4pm for a meet and greet. Refreshments will be served. I will be more then happy to answer any questions that you may have. There will also be a couple of other canidates present as well.
John Denver
27230 El Pico Ln
Sun City Ca 92586
951-951-505-7198