Editorial: No contract extension until problems are solved

By Doug Spoon, Editor

As the Menifee City Council prepares to approve a three-year contract extension for city manager Armando Villa, there are indications that many of the problems at City Hall reported by Menifee 24/7 in recent months still exist.

Last July, we reported that 38 employees – 16 percent of the City’s work force – had left City employment in the previous year, with some saying they were fired without cause or resigned under pressure. That included four department directors or managers – and the exits continue. Public information officer Dominique Samario left last August, and senior analyst Imelda Huerta resigned just last month.

In addition, Menifee 24/7 has learned that three members of the Public Works Department -- a department criticized by many in a July 18 news article -- have been on paid administrative leave for weeks or months. No reasons for the action have been given.

And while the City Council apparently has agreed to give Villa another three years through 2026 on his contract, which has a current base salary of $272,929 per year -- more than $380,000, including benefits -- contract negotiations with lower-level employees are still ongoing and accusations of a toxic dictatorial leadership continue.

“The mental things you go through make it impossible to work without emotional distress,” one former City employee told Menifee 24/7 this week. “And if you say something, you don’t have a job anymore.”

The two City staff positions over which the City Council has hiring and firing power are the city manager and city attorney. Both have survived questionable actions in recent years.

So who's chasing away all the employees and has others afraid to talk? The man who would be king?

“The city government is set up as a City Council-led city,” said one source familiar with the situation, “but Menifee is a city manager-led city.”

Accompanying the agenda item regarding Villa’s contract extension for Wednesday’s City Council meeting is a report from Villa on the City’s progress. The document, which can be viewed on the City website in the Feb. 16 agenda packet, includes an introduction stating that it is intended to “highlight some of the most relevant and important accomplishments during calendar year 2021. This inaugural report attempts to improve disclosure, reporting, and transparency efforts…”

It's interesting that Villa is only now providing such a public “annual report” on the City’s accomplishments in the fourth year of his tenure. It’s also interesting to note that just a few months ago Villa started holding monthly “Chats with the City Manager” with residents, shortly following a series of articles on Menifee 24/7 questioning transparency within the City.

And why are City Council members poised to give Villa a third amendment to his contract when there are almost two years remaining on his current contract? Maybe just because he asked them to? Why not make him clear up some of these other issues to earn a contract extension when it is due?

Issues go beyond the accomplishments listed in Villa’s report

Here’s some of what Villa's report to the City Council doesn’t tell you:

With public works employees remaining on administrative leave, that department continues at a snail’s pace regarding the much-needed Holland Road freeway overpass, with officials blaming Caltrans and regional funding sources for the delay.

First, Villa lied about how much regional funding money had been given to the City. Then, after Villa’s decision not to seek authority from the City Council to increase the purchase price of the final piece of right of way for more than a year, he took no responsibility -- even while saying the delay caused the City to “lose our place in the queue” with Caltrans. But an official with CalTrans told Menifee 24/7 that CalTrans was simply waiting on Menifee to submit its final plans, and that there is no queue to worry about losing one’s place in. Only later was the property finally acquired.

Then there is the nightmare known as the Krikorian theater project. One could perhaps excuse Villa from blame on the construction delay by saying the COVID-19 pandemic and a lingering lawsuit brought by contractors against Krikorian are out of Villa’s control. The fact remains, however, that little pressure has been put on Krikorian. Only five citations against the property have been levied by the Code Enforcement Department, even though most would agree it certainly qualifies as a public nuisance. And the construction agreement with the City did not include a surety bond to guarantee completion of work by a certain date.

On another note: Whether because of intimidation or not, the City Council seems reluctant to turn down any proposal by City staff. Council effectively killed a major commercial center planned for Newport Road and Bradley Road, agreeing with staff’s recommendation that a raised median would have to be built on Bradley Road (partially at the developer’s expense) before the commercial center could go in. The developer then withdrew the application.

A raised median was not in the original plans approved by the City but was added after the arrival of Nick Fidler as the new public works director. Could it be that Fidler was ordered by Villa to include the median in the plans despite its absence in original plans -- plans which included input by former public works director Jonathan Smith, who essentially was forced out?

City of Menifee vs. Valley-Wide: The one-sided battle continues

Then there’s the issue of the City’s six-year struggle to take control of parks and recreation east of the 215 Freeway away from Valley-Wide Recreation & Park District, which has controlled that area for decades.

After forming its own Community Services Department and taking over control of parks west of the freeway from Riverside County, the City in 2016 made a formal request to the Riverside Local Area Formation Commission (LAFCO), seeking detachment from Valley-Wide.

LAFCO ruled that the detachment could be made, but in part only if the City agrees to a public vote of the residents on whether the City could take over tax assessments from Valley-Wide. Arguing that such an election wasn’t necessary, the City in 2017 filed a lawsuit in opposition of LAFCO’s conditions of approval. Since then, the City has lost twice in court regarding the matter. For the time being, Valley-Wide continues to control parks on the east side of Menifee, additionally managing tax assessments in that area.

Then, in seeking to delay an update to Valley-Wide’s Master Plan, the City sent two letters to the County Board of Supervisors, claiming among other things that Menifee residents living in Valley-Wide districts were charged much higher taxes for parks maintenance than those living in areas under the City’s authority.

One wonders if City officials are so sure their tax assessments are much lower than Valley-Wide’s, why didn’t they agree to LAFCO’s original decision and allow the public vote to take place? Were they worried that the residents would vote against them? And why, after officials promised to appeal the decision, did city attorney Jeff Melching fail to file an appeal before the deadline for such action?

Meanwhile, the City continues to tout the number of parks it has opened or refurbished in the last couple years. In its latest attempt to look more attractive to residents than Valley-Wide, it has made plans to update its Parks Master Plan. That update will include once again hiring an outside firm to survey the public’s wants and needs regarding parks and recreation.

Considering the results of the 2016 public surveys for that Master Plan, it seems likely that a community swimming pool would be high on the list once again (it was No. 1 last time). So why, if the residents want an aquatics center so badly and the City wants to satisfy the residents, has there been no discussion of even considering such a facility?

The City of Menifee proudly held ribbon cuttings for Centennial Park in 2020 and for Talavera Park on Saturday – both located east of the 215 Freeway, which is within Valley-Wide’s district. It appears that since the City couldn’t beat Valley-Wide in court, it is convincing developers of new housing projects to let the City operate parks built in those developments rather than Valley-Wide, which of course makes the City look good.

Information Technology: Can you hear me now?

All of these things are frustrating to residents, but perhaps nothing could be more embarrassing than the IT Department’s problems with its audio and visual presentations at public meetings in the City Council Chambers. It has become sort of a bad joke around City Hall, and it’s only getting worse.

The Jan. 26 Planning Commission meeting was postponed because of “technical problems” with the City’s Zoom feed that still have not been fully explained. Then at last Wednesday’s Planning Commission meeting, the presentation about an agenda item was interrupted when the Zoom connection was lost. When the connection was re-established, the clerk ordered the presentation be made over again because only those in the chambers heard all of it.

This is on top of the constant complaints about low volume on the Zoom broadcasts, low volume on some of the microphones in the chambers, glitches in the electronic voting system, and mistakes made from the "black hole" of a control room in the back of Council chambers.

Ironically, Villa has scheduled a Feb. 24 “Chat with the City Manager” to give residents an update on Information Technology at City Hall. New equipment has already been installed, so there must be other problems. Maybe the public forum will include an announcement that someone responsible for this has been fired.

And there still is the matter of Villa’s policy not to let the media communicate directly with department heads. Emailed questions must be addressed to the public information officer, who responds with correspondence from the staff member. There is no opportunity for a phone interview with a real-time question and answer session.

Why? What is there to hide?

So there you have it – a look at some of the issues surrounding a city that bills itself as “New. Better. Best”. If this is what “Best” looks like, the City must be using a different scale than the rest of us.