Country Transition Meeting - Details
I attended the county transition meeting this evening. Much of what was stated was stuff that I think many of us already know, that the coun...
http://www.menifee247.com/2008/07/country-transition-meeting-details.htm
I attended the county transition meeting this evening.
Much of what was stated was stuff that I think many of us already know, that the county will continue providing services to us up until October 1, when we incorporate officially.
From October 1 thereafter, the county will continue to provide services for free, but only up until June 30, 2009. After that point, any services the county provides will be billed to the city.
Beginning October 1, the city must adopt all existing county ordinances as its own. From there, it can modify those laws, eliminate them, or create new ones. Based on that, the city may wean itself away from county services and provide its own.
Jeff Stone Speaks
Supervisor spent some considerable time speaking, much of it was congratulating the new city council, and talking about how much of a good thing cityhood is. He also handed out certificates of appreciation to Menifee MAC members and Quail Valley MAC members. Menifee MAC officially dissolves today, while Quail Valley MAC will continue up until September 30.
Stone also mentioned that the county is right now filling positions for some 1,500 new Sheriff's deputies. The county is also building several new prisons. Being that inadequate police presence is one reason why we incorporated, it's nice to know the county is now beefing this up. It makes me wonder if contracting out its deputies is a big revenue source for the county.
He also said that they're building a new animal shelter facility in San Jacinto, costing $12 million, and should be open by the end of this year.
Lastly, he said that on October 1, just as Menifee incorporates, the county will be holding an "Autumn Festival", where clubs, groups, non-profits, businesses, and everyone is invited to celebrate. He invited the Menifee city council to establish a committee to decide how it plans to participate.
Public Comments
One person asked about will the new city pay for county services. Gary Thompson, who is acting as our city's financial advisor, and was the guy who performed the Menifee's fiscal analysis, talked in detail about where Menifee will gets its funds from. While he named several types of fees and taxes, he said some of those fees will come into the city's funds immediately as of October 1, but others will take several months to trickle in.
Another person asked about how the county and city will coordinate on what to do with Audie Murphy Ranch and the Newport Road realignment. Juan Perez, who represents the county transportation department, said it's a very difficult question to answer. But that he'll be speaking specifically about this topic at a city council meeting on July 23, which I presume is the next council meeting on Wednesday.
Someone asked how many people could possibly live in Menifee. Jeff Stone spoke up and said this city has a potential for 250,000 residents. However, that's only if the county were to continue building at its pace. He went on to explain that now that we've become a city, we can decide how many homes to build. Had we not incorporated, then that quarter-of-a-million people would likely happen.
George Wentz
Interim City Manager, George Wentz, spoke up a bit. He mostly said that he's hard at work putting the pieces together, and urged everyone to attend the city council meetings, where he gives a status report on what he's accomplished.
He went on to add that he's now working on getting a website created that will provide information for us all. He also said that each city council member will have e-mail addresses. All this info to come out later.
Scott Mann, who is acting as Menifee's city clerk, gave out his e-mail address (menifeecityclerk@mchsi.com) again, and mentioned that he has received a "plethora" of e-mail from folks wanting to volunteer, what they want done in the new city, and their comments.
Jeff Stone also spoke up and said that he'll create a special section on his website just for Menifee cityhood info.
Summary
While it was nice listening to Jeff Stone talk about some of things their working on doing, I found that much of this meeting was congratulatory in nature. I think much of what the county spoke about in terms of transitioning its services was stuff most of us knew.
I am, however, looking forward to hearing Juan Perez speak about the Newport Road realignment next week.
Much of what was stated was stuff that I think many of us already know, that the county will continue providing services to us up until October 1, when we incorporate officially.
From October 1 thereafter, the county will continue to provide services for free, but only up until June 30, 2009. After that point, any services the county provides will be billed to the city.
Beginning October 1, the city must adopt all existing county ordinances as its own. From there, it can modify those laws, eliminate them, or create new ones. Based on that, the city may wean itself away from county services and provide its own.
Jeff Stone Speaks
Supervisor spent some considerable time speaking, much of it was congratulating the new city council, and talking about how much of a good thing cityhood is. He also handed out certificates of appreciation to Menifee MAC members and Quail Valley MAC members. Menifee MAC officially dissolves today, while Quail Valley MAC will continue up until September 30.
Stone also mentioned that the county is right now filling positions for some 1,500 new Sheriff's deputies. The county is also building several new prisons. Being that inadequate police presence is one reason why we incorporated, it's nice to know the county is now beefing this up. It makes me wonder if contracting out its deputies is a big revenue source for the county.
He also said that they're building a new animal shelter facility in San Jacinto, costing $12 million, and should be open by the end of this year.
Lastly, he said that on October 1, just as Menifee incorporates, the county will be holding an "Autumn Festival", where clubs, groups, non-profits, businesses, and everyone is invited to celebrate. He invited the Menifee city council to establish a committee to decide how it plans to participate.
Public Comments
One person asked about will the new city pay for county services. Gary Thompson, who is acting as our city's financial advisor, and was the guy who performed the Menifee's fiscal analysis, talked in detail about where Menifee will gets its funds from. While he named several types of fees and taxes, he said some of those fees will come into the city's funds immediately as of October 1, but others will take several months to trickle in.
Another person asked about how the county and city will coordinate on what to do with Audie Murphy Ranch and the Newport Road realignment. Juan Perez, who represents the county transportation department, said it's a very difficult question to answer. But that he'll be speaking specifically about this topic at a city council meeting on July 23, which I presume is the next council meeting on Wednesday.
Someone asked how many people could possibly live in Menifee. Jeff Stone spoke up and said this city has a potential for 250,000 residents. However, that's only if the county were to continue building at its pace. He went on to explain that now that we've become a city, we can decide how many homes to build. Had we not incorporated, then that quarter-of-a-million people would likely happen.
George Wentz
Interim City Manager, George Wentz, spoke up a bit. He mostly said that he's hard at work putting the pieces together, and urged everyone to attend the city council meetings, where he gives a status report on what he's accomplished.
He went on to add that he's now working on getting a website created that will provide information for us all. He also said that each city council member will have e-mail addresses. All this info to come out later.
Scott Mann, who is acting as Menifee's city clerk, gave out his e-mail address (menifeecityclerk@mchsi.com) again, and mentioned that he has received a "plethora" of e-mail from folks wanting to volunteer, what they want done in the new city, and their comments.
Jeff Stone also spoke up and said that he'll create a special section on his website just for Menifee cityhood info.
Summary
While it was nice listening to Jeff Stone talk about some of things their working on doing, I found that much of this meeting was congratulatory in nature. I think much of what the county spoke about in terms of transitioning its services was stuff most of us knew.
I am, however, looking forward to hearing Juan Perez speak about the Newport Road realignment next week.
Thanks Steve! I couldn't go to the meeting. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteSteve,
ReplyDeleteI attended the meeting but didn’t get a copy of the handout (wasn’t aware there was one until it was mentioned during the presentation). Could you post a copy or link to it? I did get a copy of the agenda.
Thanks for your good work.
You do a great job of keeping us informed.
ReplyDeleteI do beleive that a contract with the county for Sheriffs is a big money maker for them.
Can't wait to hear a plan ot fix Newport's realignment mess. I hope it is a worthy plan.
Does anyone know if all of Murrieta Road is expanding to four lanes? I see the road construction in front of the housing developments but what about the rest of it?
ReplyDeleteJS, the handout you're referring to is something that Joe Daugherty was passing around, I'm not sure that it was created by the County. I don't know what it was, but it sounded like voter statistics.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know if anything will change as far as our taxes go? I live in Heritage Lake and wanted to find out if we will be affected at all?
ReplyDeleteSteve,
ReplyDeleteThe document I’m referring to is something Gary Christmas mentioned when he started the agenda item 5 - “General Discussion of Service Transition”. He was beginning to describe the process and said “… the handout has a lot of this information as well.”
A woman in the row in front of me had what I think he was talking about. It was not the voting chart that I saw with Daugherty.
Disregard my prior comment - the information was on the reverside side of the agenda.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Steve for keeping us all updated. I'd love to go to the meetings, but I currently can't because I attend college classes on Wednesday nights.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to know the status of the Scott Rd. Project. There are still several portions of the road that are down to dirt, including the intersection at Scott and Menifee, and no progress has been made in the last few weeks. It seems like a badly managed project and I'm very interested to know what's going on.
Thanks! I appreciate knowing what's going on when I can go to things.
ReplyDeleteI for one was very disappointed in the meeting they took an hour thanking people and then had little or no specific information. I wanted a powerpoint or a report of exactly what services they spend in our area and the exact cost of those services down to the penny. The meeting can be summed up with, "We are GOING to help the new city, Aren't we wonderful" with an undertone of "We have no intention of telling you anything useful at this time" The only data I got was that we have 2 officers on shift one and 3 on shift 2 and 3 on shift 3. No mention of how much they cost us or where in the city they serve. Every question about roads or other problems was answered with "We have plans to do something about that, can't say what they are, but we have plans"
ReplyDeleteAfter the meeting a bunch of developers came up to me and introduced themselves and handed me their card. I think that was the real reason for the meeting. I could have stayed home and waited for the real information at a later meeting.
It was nice to see the community people there. Don't let them fool you into to thinking that you have "participated" since you attended the meeting. I need you to help me keep the county and the city accountable to the taxpayers not the developers.
As you can see from this post I am a terrible politician. I hate posturing.
Oh, for the poster that said
"Does anyone know if all of Murrieta Road is expanding to four lanes? I see the road construction in front of the housing developments but what about the rest of it?"
Post prop. 13: road improvements get done as development happens. Or at least that's my understanding.
Can we try and at least use first names here I can't tell one Anonymous from another. You don't have to login just use the Name/URL button and type your name, you don't even have to use your real name.
Thanks, Fred, for "telling it like it is". It is interesting that you were bombarded with cards from developers at this meeting. What do they expect the new city and new city council to do?
ReplyDeleteKeep plugging and pushing the county to deliver, not just talk.
eibaird@aol.com
JS,
ReplyDeleteI think I know the document you're talking about. It's titled, "General Discussion Outline". It outlines the transition of services to the city. It doesn't give much detail. It pretty much says what I outlined in my article above. This was handed out at the door when I walked in.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteNo personal attacks and name calling folks! Be civil.
ReplyDeleteFred, I have to admit I wasn't a big supporter of you, but your recent comment tells me, that you might have the city's best interest. I am concerned about developers trying to fleece the flock, especially since the fox's maybe already in the coop. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteHonest Jon