So Now We're a City

As you step out of your house today, maybe to go to work, or take the kids to school, does the community you live in feel any different now? Does Sun City still feel like Sun City?

The state of Menifee on this very day, is not much different than it was the day before. We still only have a skeleton crew of a city manager, city attorney, financial consultant, and "pseudo-city planner". And these are not even employees of the city, they're consultants. The city clerk is the only actual employee of the city.

There's still no word on hiring employees, which is something everyone asks about. Based on what I've seen at the city council meetings, it looks like these days, cities hire consulting firms to provide services. They don't hire a city manager, instead they contract with a city management consulting firm, that provides a city manager, along with other related personnel to get jobs done. The same goes with a city attorney, a city planner, human resources, law enforcement, animal control, and who knows what else. I don't know exactly what kinds of jobs would involve the hiring of an actual employee. From the sounds of it, cities aren't the big employers they used to be.

There are some big advantages to that. For one, it's tough to fire an employee, particularly in a day and age when civil service jobs are union jobs. But it's really easy to fire a consultant; you just buy out their contract, or let it expire. And you don't have to pay all the extra personnel costs, like benefits, state disability, and social security matching.

In terms of law enforcement, we've contracted with the Sheriff, I'm told that as of this day, we have more officers patrolling Menifee. At least we're supposed to. The most immediate benefits of cityhood is supposed to be exactly this. If anyone sees someone doing 65mph down Murrieta Rd, and not get pulled over, then post a comment here.

In terms of what phone number to call for police, I think they're still the same as the old numbers, which I published here. I'll have to check on that.

Otherwise, everything is still the same as it was, with the county providing most of our services. The difference is that the county will be billing us, instead of taking our taxes. I guess they're still taking our taxes, it just passes through an extra set of hands now. But that's just for the time being, or so I'm told.

Otherwise, the other benefits of cityhood are still going to take months to realize. If anything, it'll be in January, when supposedly our first sales taxes comes into the bank account. Maybe then we can start doing stuff.

In support of the new city, you can help out by spending your money here, instead of in Murrieta or Temecula.

But if there is anything different about the way Menifee looks as a self-sufficient administrative division, it's that there's a city hall now. It's actually open for business, at 29683 New Hub Drive, Suite C. The city also has a phone number: (951) 672-6777. I wonder if I can just send a text message?