Former Council Candidate Winter to Run for Mayor

Neil Winter, who ran unsuccessfully for the District 3 Menifee City Council seat last fall, has pulled papers to file as a candidate for mayor of the city.

Winter, 62, is a retired businessman who has lived in Menifee for 11 years. He has spent the last several months working part-time for the Menifee Valley Chamber of Commerce, which he says has made him more familiar with the concerns of current and prospective business owners.

"When I first started working with the Chamber, it was because I wanted to stay connected to the community," Winter said. "During the campaign last year, I felt empathy for the citizens I talked to. This year, I also feel empathy for the businesses."

Winter's first attempt at politics was as a candidate to fill the remainder of the District 3 term of Wallace Edgerton, who died in May, 2015. Lesa Sobek won that seat in a field of four candidates and has pulled papers to run again for a full term in November.

Winter said last year's experience gave him a better understanding of local government and that "I decided if I was going to run again, I might as well go for mayor." He admits that his campaign will face a major challenge in going up against incumbent Scott Mann, who confirmed today he will pull papers for a re-election campaign when he returns from Massachusetts, where he is attending an executive seminar at Harvard University.

"I don't have the money he has, the name recognition or the experience," Winter said. "I know it will be a challenging campaign. But I've talked to a ton of people and I have a lot of support."

Winter said he couldn't be specific about the complaints of business executives but said the major complaint is "Menifee is one of the toughest cities to bring business to."

He said he wants to represent the people and find out why this might be the case, then see what he can do to help attract more businesses with a process that is more expedient and less expensive.

"The City follows the general plan pretty much lockstep," he said. "Some things are missing in the process. I think sometimes they think the right thing to do is issue a permit a certain way because that's what everybody else does.

"Businesses say it takes forever to get the permit and that the fees are too high. It seems the city is trying to recoup the millions of dollars lost previously, through these permits and fees," he said, referring to the $4.2 million in funding from vehicle license fees denied by the governor to recently incorporated cities.

"There's got to be a better way," he said.

Winter said he plans to have the required number of signatures to return his completed application next week. The only city council candidate to be declared qualified for the election so far is Greg August, who is running for a second term in District 1. Candidates must return completed paperwork by Aug. 12.