I am flawed in just about every way imaginable, but I live.  And like many, there are life experiences that I have had and am guaranteed to continue to have, that encourage me to embrace who I am. 

We just finished up a holiday event for our homeless community with The Salvation Army that they and Stacie did an incredible job orchestrating.  I was volunteering in the kitchen drying dishes and walked out where the event was happening to put the dishes away.  I saw a dad with his two young children.  It immediately took me back six and a half years when I was pregnant with my oldest child.  When the stock market tanked and financial stability no longer existed for a good portion of us, I was in a position where the idea of homelessness was very real.  I was barely able to provide for myself.  Seeing that family made me remember how everything felt.  Food was nowhere near abundant and being pregnant I felt ashamed of that.  The cold was different than any cold I had felt before.  When I was warm in the most basic conditions; I was safe.  I was pregnant and safe.  If the father of my children weren’t the man that he is, then I may have very well been homeless for an indefinite period of time.  There is a strength, resilience and relentlessness that you gain when you climb your way out that absolutely no one can touch.  I am so fortunate to have two resilient, relentless, vibrant daughters, who teach and guide me in love; every day. 

After those memories resurfaced and the event finished, I decided to write about not only my experience but educate you as well on some of the things tied to my experience that affect our lives here.  The city will not permit the Salvation Army to prepare food in the kitchen unless a service/meeting is held in conjunction.  The only time it is permitted without is on Thanksgiving and this is per the Salvation Army via phone.  There are certain individuals who want to shut down Valley Re-Start.  These are two organizations that I would have been immensely grateful for in the event I needed them.  These people who deter, prevent and want to rid the city of such services truly could have never been in a position such as mine or the peoples’ we served tonight.  Those certain individuals do not want the homeless here in our town…  Here is the reality check: They are here as am I.  

I have been a member of the LGBT community since I was 19 years old.  At that time, I was a freshman at Long Beach State and trying to figure out if I was a lesbian or bi-sexual.  I grew up in the arts world, so being gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender, or going drag was completely accepted and normal.  Side note and speaking from experience: There ain’t no party like a drag-queen party!  Just saying…

So when something like prop 8, legal definition change of marriage, came around and made it onto a ballot; I was shocked at how many people backed it.  It was American freedom that was threatened with such a proposition; not religion.  Speaking of religion, we live in a country that protects our freedom to be Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, Atheist, Jewish, Hindu, etc. I am a huge proponent of the separation of church and state.  When there is prayer in a civic forum, I am respectful and listen.  However, I do not pray.  When it is time to salute the flag of what I do feel is the greatest country because our flag stands for freedom; I mean every word I say.  (The one part that does throw me is the ‘under G –d’ but after much debate I consider it an all-inclusive).  So if religious freedom is a freedom that should be protected, and I believe that it should, then shouldn’t all of our freedoms be protected?  Please do not confuse this.  I do not think that people should be able to commit crimes against each other, so we do need logical laws in tact to keep some form of structure and peace. 

I bring this up because I am getting a sense of how many teens are struggling with the ability to live their lives fully.  Teens end up homeless, abused, tormented, or even worse, dead because of this.  They are experiencing this here in our town and valley and it hurts me to see it and hear about it.  They deserve a better, fuller life and we as a whole community deserve better.

By the way, I am bi-sexual.  I know; totally greedy, but sometimes you just can’t do anything about it.  

More Food for Thought...

Originally, my plan was to go back to school and get my PhD in English.  However, as life would have it, I continued to get drawn back into what was happening in our community.  I started my MPH concentrating in Mental Health (I am about a quarter of the way through the program).  Basically, I went back to school to help address and solve issues that are going on here.  I am also very much drawn to Global Health and how people as a whole throughout the world are treated.  As someone entering into the Public Health realm, I have to remove personal bias and deal with the reality of circumstances.  I am religiously Jewish but a mix of everything. I wrote a short paper for my Global Health course on the Israel/Palestine conflict and the humanitarian crisis it has created.  At the end of the day, if we are not here for each other; we have nothing.

The conflict in Israel/Palestine (or Israeli Occupied Territory: whichever way you see it) has been going on for centuries and escalated again at the end of World War II.  Many Jews were left without a home having survived the war and concentration camps and ended up on ships off the coast of Palestine.  Palestine was a British territory.  Through the roles of the United Nations and Britain, land from Palestine was designated to the Jews, escalating a centuries-old conflict.  Jews already lived in Palestine in the cities of Tel Aviv and Sefad, to name a couple.  Being Jewish (Reconstructionist; I am a mix) and having been to Israel, I wish I had been to the West Bank and Gaza to see first-hand what is happening.  There is a humanitarian crisis.  The amount of poverty in Gaza and the West Bank is astounding and Israel does not allow enough aid to reach the people of those territories.  When missiles are launched from Israel to Gaza, civilian casualties do occur.  Israel does have warning sirens, but in all honesty, where do the people of Gaza have to go?  It is a densely populated area that already lacks proper resources.  Just in Gaza, tens of thousands of people are homeless and almost half a million are without running water (Cocking, 2009).  Without running water, we run into public health issues of sanitation and infectious diseases. 

It is the job of those in public health to assess what risk factors can occur and see what can be done to minimize them.  This is a chronic humanitarian crisis that seems to have no end because negotiations run stale and cease-fires do not last long enough to get adequate supplies into Gaza and the West Bank.  The World Health Organization discusses some factors that play a role: poverty, little opportunities for employment, the unreliable water and energy resources, very restricted movement in and out of Gaza and limited access to healthcare (WHO: Occupied Palestinian Territory, 2015).  At times, Palestinians must go to hospitals in East Jerusalem due to “equipment exhaustion, limited technical capacity and the chronic shortages of medicines and medical disposables”.  They are only able to leave Gaza for treatment if it is approved by Israel and that is not always the case.  The health care infrastructure has been compromised in this conflict.  The unemployment rate is at 27% and the unemployment rate among the youth is at 60% (The World Bank: West Bank and Gaza, 2015).  The conflict during July and August of 2014 resulted in 2,251 Palestinian death and only 73 on the Israeli side.  The conflict resulted in about 6,000 air strikes on Gaza and the destruction of about 18,000 dwellings.  This situation is unique in that public health professionals are extremely limited in the access that is given due to the conflict.  The territory is isolated and controlled and it seems that people within Gaza and the West Bank would have to take the public health role on themselves. 

The World Bank gives the following statistics of Gaza and the West Bank.  The population of just under 4.3 million and as of 2011, 25.8% of that population lives in poverty (The World Bank: West Bank and Gaza, 2015).  The life expectancy at birth is 73, which to be honest is much higher than I had anticipated given not only the physical conditions that they must endure, but the mental health conditions that face the people of Gaza and the West Bank.   According to the Palestinian government, the suicide rate increased 68.4% in 2014 (Palestine News Network, 2015).  The population in Gaza is higher than the population of the West Bank, yet the West Bank sees a higher suicide rate than Gaza.  Prior to the conflict in the summer of 2014, the economic growth was at 6%, then slowed to 2% after the conflict (The World Bank: West Bank and Gaza, 2015).  This conflict also caused over $2 billion in damages and Israel has withheld clearance revenues that should have been distributed to Palestine since January of this year.  These revenues account for about 70% of Palestine’s annual revenue.

  

References

BBC. (2015, June 22). Retrieved from Gaza conflict 2014: 'War crimes by both sides' - UN: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-33223365

Cocking, J. (2009, January 29). Need Not Politics. Retrieved from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/jan/29/gaza-israel-conflict-oxfam

Palestine News Network. (2015, June 21). Retrieved from Rise of suicide rates: Gaza youngster strangles himself Saturday: http://english.pnn.ps/2015/06/21/rise-of-suicide-rates-25-year-old-from-gaza-strangles-himself/

The World Bank: West Bank and Gaza. (2015, September 16). Retrieved from The World Bank: http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/westbankandgaza/overview

WHO: Occupied Palestinian Territory. (2015, June). Retrieved from World Health Organization: http://www.emro.who.int/pse/palestine-news/who-hosts-donor-roundtable-to-discuss-health-barriers-in-gaza-june-2015.html

 

 

 

 

State of the City

This will no doubt be an interesting two hours (assuming they let me in), particularly if you attend city councils meetings and have spoken with various people about the true State of the City. 

Here are some items to ponder…

1.       This city belongs to everyone, not just a certain group of people.  Do you want to know why things are not changing?  The people in charge of this city refuse to take a diverse approach.  Direct and Simple.  When people know their voice does not matter, it takes moving mountains to convince them that if all of those voices who feel they do not matter pull together; their voice is louder and stronger.  At that point, they cannot be ignored.  I am fighting for this city from the ground up.  As far as I am concerned, there is no other way to do this.  You cannot cater to a select group of people and expect to grow your community or create any cohesion.  Take a minute, step back and figure out that even the current ‘new council majority’ approach is not working.  The effort needs to be made by our entire council to bring everyone in this community into the conversation; including the people they do not want here. If this effort is not made, then things will escalate beyond anyone’s control. 

2.       They discussed back in January having town-hall meetings.  I attend every single council meeting and we have yet to have a town-hall meeting.  There is no follow-through.  They need to start reaching out and getting people involved.  We are all a part of this and will sink or swim together. The council chamber is almost never near capacity and when it is, it is only for the first 15 -20 minutes, if we are lucky.  They will not follow through with any concerns anyone not in that demographic they cater to, unless they are forced.  They can use the word ‘transparency’ all they want.  Fact of the matter: they should have looked the word up before they started using it.  Just so you know; they have a very different perspective on town-hall meeting than a good number of people I have spoken with about it.  For example: they seem to think that going to a senior community and answering questions is a town-hall meeting.  I happen to strongly disagree.

3.       Economic Development:  There was a meeting August 26, correct?  I expected to hear some information regarding the status being that council decided to allocate up to $40,000 in tax payer funds.  I would also expect that the members of the committee and updates on status are easy to locate.  Guess what?  There was no update last night.

4.       Downtown Revitalization Committee:  This brings me back to my first point.  While listening to the consultants discuss the demographics, I was fascinated by their lack of knowledge when it comes to race and what races they were and were not willing to address.  One – the consultants think Hispanic is a race.  I can assure you that it is not. Two - when discussing the demographics they only addressed Caucasians and Hispanics.   What about people with backgrounds from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, along with Native Americans and Latinos? All categories of which I personally fall into, so ask me how thrilled I was when that conversation was taking place.

5.       I was truly disappointed in the flyer and information distributed regarding the State of the City. I had to call City Hall several times in-order to speak with someone so that I could post accurate information.  Why would you even attach the idea of a charge for the State of the City?  Thank fully, it is a free event unless you want the breakfast.  This should simply be the mayor addressing the people of this city.  Simple.  No corporate sponsors, breakfast, $10 charge and at a time when working people are able to attend in a venue that is able to hold as many people from the city who want to attend.  It is disappointing and gives the impression that they only want a select group of people in attendance.

Program Plan Meeting

Hey Everyone!!! We had our first meeting regarding our program plan.  Stacie and I thought we would share a few items with you from our recap.

 Stacie began by introducing everyone to Project Hope, their background with this community and the sentiment of our street residents. 


We went into the homelessness numbers released from the County of Riverside on April 8, 2015. According to the County-Wide Survey, homelessness has dropped 16% since 2013 and chronic homelessness has dropped 17%.  The "point in time" count is 2, 467 (2015) compared to 2,978 (2013).  This number seems surprisingly low. Our point: We are not certain as to whether or not the homelessness that is not visible was addressed.  If that is the case, then our true numbers are much higher and this is concerning. Also, this gives us no indication that the numbers in Hemet also decreased.  The data is for Riverside County, not Hemet.
 
Available resources: we are in the process of gathering that information and include the following.  The library is able to provide library cards for internet access, along with educational and resume resources. Project Hope partners up with groups to provide dental care and daily necessities to our street residents.  W e also discussed current resources for mental health treatment in Riverside County.

• We are looking into meeting with other groups that have been successful at eradicating homelessness (not just a temporary solution) and partnering up once we have established (per data and resources) which one would best address our needs. 

 

• Our goal is to provide a program equipped with all necessary resources to assist residents in their transition out of homelessness.  Resources include but are not limited to: addiction/mental health treatment, education, job skills, resume/interview training, job searching, permanent housing and to most importantly: be their cheerleaders.

• What we need most right now: volunteers and great ideas to go out and get the Street Resident Survey completed by as many people as possible. 
• If you want to get involved, please reach out to us on Facebook.

Follow-up to the article on Homelessness

A little while back I posted an article from the Washington Post about homelessness. As some of you are aware, homelessness does not exist solely and simply because people refuse to get a job. However, it appears there are people out there who believe that is the case.  Here's the reality.  A large percentage of homeless men are veterans. A large percentage of homeless are teens.  Another portion have a mental illness and are unable to get treatment.  This doesn't cover everything.  However, the three reasons I briefly discuss should give you an idea. I have posted a link at the end to the grants page from the Department of Health and Human Services.

Everyone should be very aware at this point that the unemployment rate among veterans is incredibly high.  They have served our country and are then unable to find employment. Without income, you are unable to provide for yourself. Companies not hiring veterans does not benefit our country in any way. PTSD, sexual assault, mental illness and substance abuse are additional reasons for homelessness among veterans. Our veterans have taken care of us. We are doing a lousy job in taking care of them.

The next group I I'm going to discuss: teens. (Side note: approx. 40 % of our homeless population are under the age of 18).  When I read this it shocked me at first, then I dug into why and then it wasn't so surprising.  Here are a some of the reasons: aging out of foster care, trying to avoid forced entry to a gang or prostitution, release from juvenile justice system with little education and support, sexual, emotional or physical abuse in the household, immigration, LGBT, teenage pregnancy, etc.  The reality is that when teens become homeless, there is not only a huge chance of them entering into prostitution but are extremely susceptible to human trafficking, a growing problem in the US. 

Anyone want to know what happens when mental illness goes untreated? When the mental health facilities closed at the end of the 1970s, there were no community programs established to fill the void and a vast number became homeless.  When that happened, people who were being treated were no longer being treated and their illness increased in severity. In that situation, what are the chances of finding employment or anyone hiring you? As we have found in the recent reports, public safety is not as educated as we would have hoped when coming in contact with mental illness.  More times than not, someone with a mental illness is arrested (recently we have seen worse) when they come in contact with public safety.  This is due to lack of education and inability to distinguish between someone with mental illness and someone who is in fact a criminal.  A number of times people with mental illness go to jail or prison and are not treated.  They get out and the cycle continues until someone realizes what is actually happening and a treatment program is established. As of now, prisons are the largest provider of mental health treatment in the United States.

Currently, there is an effort to revitalize our downtown.  There was a workshop on July 8th at the library.  Homelessness was mentioned as one of the major obstacles in this effort.  How about instead of treating it as an obstacle, we treat it as an effort and a mission?  A mission to do what we can as a community to get grants and develop a program to assist those who are homeless and not just revitalize the downtown, but revitalize our city as a whole.  It is a known fact that surrounding cities have shuffled the homeless off to our city.  Those cities could have stepped in and assisted.  I do not want our city to be the next city in line to do that.   

I am hoping that after reading just the tiny bit of information that I have provided that your reaction and thoughts about homelessness has shifted. I have provided some really great links below regarding what I just posted.
http://www.hhs.gov/homeless/grants/index.html
http://www.va.gov/homeless/
http://khon2.com/2015/07/06/veterans-affairs-secretary-in-hawaii-to-discuss-challenges-including-homelessness/
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/02/young-homelessand-invisible/385355/
https://stepuptogether.org/

June 23rd Council Meeting

So we almost had a special meeting regarding the budget because they couldn't agree on it and they kept arguing pointlessly. The time wasted during that meeting was Raver talking about the last council majority and how they didn't do anything.  News flash: neither have you  since December until the recently formed ad-hoc, which I have said my peace about and is now funded. Not a single person on that council can point a finger at another at this point.
The budget passed the second time around by trimming off $100,000.   Our projected reserve as of 6/30/2016 is $9,167,266 (22.33%).  Our revenue is $35,814,300 (was $35,914,300) and our expenses are $41,058,937.  We have to go into our reserve $5,244,637 (which gives us the $9,167,266).  Here is how the budget breaks down: 12% development; 6% recreation; 8% city administration and 74% public safety.  The first vote had 2 for (Krupa and Wright), 2 against (Youssef and Milne) and 1 abstention (Raver).  They had to trim $100,000 off of the money we are putting aside for the software update needed in a few years to get the budget passed.  It did pass 4-1 with Milne voting against it.  I know she wanted at least the assistant city manager position eliminated.  They kept arguing about the budget and how hard decisions are  not made and getting off topic when the reality is: they should have started looking at this and options in December; actually July 2014!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Honestly, and I said this a few months back, it should have started with a vision and plan 20 years ago. 
You cannot have a shifting dynamic, here I mean from retirement community to family community, and expect to stay status-quo.  This is a problem that needs more that one resolution.  We have to be smarter about how we go about things.  We finally, due to the state, are moving in the direction of being responsible about our landscaping and water use.  You know how much money we would have been saving if we had native desert plants all along? Not to mention being responsible to our natural resources.
You cannot run a city/government like a business.  It is well-known that government is to provide services; business is to provide profit.  Now, if you are smart; you can get the business side established and built to the point of being able to fund your government.  However, that takes being able to look down the road some years and see a bigger picture.  Your city councils have failed you on this and are currently failing you! Someone do something smart!  I don't just mean a tax (even though we need it to keep things afloat for the time being) because that keeps everything the way it is.  It just provides money to keep things funded at their current point. This is assuming we do not dip into another recession.  We need to move this city forward with a vision.  If we cannot get it together, then we will be filing for bankruptcy very shortly! We cannot take another $5,000,000 hit to our reserve.  That is the reality, so you need to start paying attention.

A Little Fact About the Blog

The writer who first pulled me into the world of literature was Edgar Allan Poe.  In 1844, he wrote a series of letters/commentaries about New York City titled the Doings of Gotham that were first published in the Columbia Spy.  Most people who know me, know that I am a huge fan of Batman.  It's that whole mortality and vengeance thing.  When I started to think about a name for the blog, I had originally wanted to call it the Doings of Hemet, but thought the reference a bit obscure.  Plus, I wasn't sure if I could get away with it.  The next and most logical option, Save Hemet.

Council Meeting June 9th

All of council was in attendance and everything on the agenda was passed.  There was more discussion about the budget, which was necessary due to its projected adoption next meeting.  Here's where it stands: we are going to have to go into our reserve. This is something we cannot sustain, year after year.  Something has to happen.  Enter agenda item 18.

Agenda item 18 was passed, which I have significant issues with and here's why.  I do not agree it is necessary to hire a political consulting firm (Lew Edwards, Oakland CA.  I will post a link to their site below.  Craig's article from the PE just posted 6/10 goes into some of the past relationship with Lew Edwards) to go out into the community and distribute information predetermined by a couple of council members. This is the same thing everyone got upset about when the last council majority tried to sell us CalFire.  Remember?  People - if it is wrong once, it is wrong twice. I do not care who the majority is.  I knew before Tuesday's meeting that there is a desire to see if a tax is something the people of Hemet would be willing to back.  I said at the council meeting, right now, sink or swim, I think it is our only option. Public safety needs a solid and continuous stream of funding.  Keep in mind that if it is through a tax, funding is subject to the health of the economy.  I do not agree that hiring a political consulting firm is the most economically savvy way to go about this given our fiscal status nor do I think it is the most honest.  As stated above, the selected information will be provided to the Lew Edwards Group.  They will in-turn solicit that information to the public and then gain public sentiment based on their interaction.  This dictates democracy in a way that I do not appreciate.  The scope of work was not provided in the agenda, nor was it provided to council on Tuesday night.  Yet, council voted on this with a 3-2 majority, with Krupa, Wright and Raver voting in favor. They are "using FY 14/15 professional services budget savings to fund the effort", which does not make it sound any smarter.  The amount is not to exceed $40,000.  I just sat through a budget meeting that addressed fairly unreliable sources of funding and $40,000 could help out.   I think this should have been done differently.  I think solving this very real problem needs to be multi-dimensional and Milne and I agree on this.  Every point she brought up; I was with her.  To the point someone asked if the building was going to fall down. I'm not joking.  Someone actually said that.   It makes me wonder where the people with the money were when everything started to go south. They sat on commissions, boards, councils and little to nothing was done by most to keep this city from the brink. Doesn't it make you wonder why?  The original intention of this particular ad-hoc committee was to get people from the community and gain their ideas for sources of revenue.  This idea was thrown out the window and the committee made up of Krupa and Raver opted for the political consulting firm.  Raver is trying to sell it as if this is our decision and we need to take this into our own hands.  Then why are you, as a council member, wanting to hire a political consulting group?  And why did you run for office if you weren't going to roll-up your sleeves and get into the muck of it?

http://www.pe.com/articles/city-769834-hemet-tax.html
http://www.lewedwardsgroup.com/

Article from Washington Post regarding homelessness. Please check it out.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2015/05/06/meet-the-outsider-who-accidentally-solved-chronic-homelessness/?tid=trending_strip_1

May 12th Council Meeting - Budget Talks Begin

Thornhill began the talks with stating that we weren't the only city with an upside down budget this year.  Thornhill blames ours mostly on retiree medical benefits and PERS that apparently no one really knew was coming!  For REAL??!!  So, no one keeps track of who is retiring, about to retire and does their diligence in calculating that out ahead of time?  The lawsuit with HFFA had to do with retiree medical benefits.  They knew it was coming.  When the city gets sued for something that is within its scope to evaluate, you can't get away with playing stupid.

Although, they did just decide to keep accurate accounting of our city books. They stated it was for TRANSPARENCY.  City/County Governments love using this word right now.  (Our State Senator uses this word constantly.  Except when you call his office and request information and they tell you someone will call you back later that day who has better knowledge and still has not called a week and a half later; transparency doesn't seem to be a true priority.)  No, its called they weren't keeping things properly accounted for and for who knows how long.  I think enough people just started asking enough questions.  So why are they deciding to do this now?  Accounting principals are not new.  The City of Hemet is not new.  What has been the problem?

There are 4 items that were covered in last night's discussion that factor into our 15/16 upside down budget.  Accounting Changes (aka: doing their job properly), General Fund (Expenditures and Reserve), Other Funds and Timing.  Here's what is projected to be up: Sales tax by 11.3%, Property tax by 4.1%, Development Fees by 3.7%.  This new fiscal year budget is upside down by $4,725,937.  If this number is not adjusted come time to adopt the budget, this leaves our reserve at 24.31%.  Our city policy is to maintain a 20% reserve.  There was an entire discussion regarding this at a council meeting about a year ago.  Keep in mind that this deficit is pre-CIP.  I will go into that later.  Some of the projects can receive some grant money to drive down the cost and prevent a further significant increase of the deficit.

The salaries and budgets are up $1.9 million this year.  Here are the major factors and the "Timing" part that is referred to above: Work Comp ($200,000), Retiree medical ($454,200) and PERS ($471,600).  The total cost for new positions in this budget is $765,000.  These positions include an Assistant City Manager (According to Thornhill, you can't get away with just a City Manager), 4 more Community Service Officers for PD (discussed in the Strategic Plan), Media and Intelligence Analyst for PD (this is also discussed in the Strategic Plan), part-time Library Assistant (which we badly need) and a Housing Specialist.  

Capital Improvements: The projected cost to the General Fund is $1,033,800.  Some of these improvements include Phase 2 of the Community Camera System (PD is already looking for funding to offset the cost), ADA Transition (priority), turf replacement, ERP (city's finance system) needs about $300,000/year set aside because it is expensive.  They decided it was a good idea to build a reserve now rather than presenting a large cost in a few years. I agree. 

Public Safety:  It is the most substantial portion of our city budget.  Both PD and Fire are working to staff their departments.  PD is 5 positions away from being fully staffed at what was authorized.  Overtime overall and specifically end-of-shift overtime should decrease significantly by adding the additional sworn and community service officers.  If the grant that fire just applied for is rewarded, our fire chief is looking to fill 7 vacancies (it was 9) and get some management positions.  Filling the vacancies will help drive down the cost of  OT.  The mutual aid and strike team OT was not tracked separately from discretionary OT until now.  Cal OES reimburses the city for that OT 100%.  However, it takes 3-4 months for the reimbursement to hit our books.  A little bit of a problem in keeping things clearly balanced and identifying the source when there is no distinction.  The paramedic program is now split so that we can see the cost of the program and the impact it has on the department and the general fund.  I guess they can get away with this one.  After all, the city did just decide to ALLOW the paramedics that we already had on staff to actually act as paramedics. 

Now to the city attorney, which now has it's own fund.  The city attorney fund is up $129,900.  They said that there was a reason for this increase but did not discuss it.  And truly, that was about it on that topic.    

Future dates for Budget Discussion:  There will be an updated proposed budget discussion on 6/9 and they are looking for the budget to be adopted on 6/23.  

Council Meeting April 28th- Documents and Auditing and Water....ohh my!!!

Hello Everyone!
Council authorized some document destruction. There's a spreadsheet of the items due to be destroyed in the full agenda (you can find it on the city website).  Who oversees that?  There's also a company that has been hired to audit. It is not clear as to what exactly they will be auditing. If you check out the amount other cities are paying for their auditing, you would be amazed. As an example, the City of Calabasas spends about $10k/year less than we will be spending. What exactly are we paying for? Are they doing more than the normal scope or are we paying them extra for something else?
The almost $250,000 being paid out to a city manager who was fired, and to be honest should not have been hired to begin with, had no real discussion. Milne was of course upset that he was fired the way he was but the fact that she is mad about tax payer dollars being wasted is ridiculous!
So here is their new strategy: they are going to push to contract out as much of the operations of the water department as possible, if not all of it. This will drive up water costs again.  Water rates had not increased in years and apparently it was time.  The rate increase was just voted on and passed.  We contract out any part of our department and the rates will increase as we all know. What do you think the chances are of a utility tax passing to fund our public safety after our water costs have gone up not just once, but twice?

Honestly, we need to conserve water. Here is what needs to happen: we need to go after grants that will change out our city landscape to drought tolerant/native landscaping. If we are going to have golf courses in the desert, then they should have been watered with recycled water from day one. San Diego is doing this. Anything else is irresponsible. This is not the first time we have had a drought. The fact that water conservation was not taken more seriously is now going to not only burden our water department but everyone's pocket books as well.
Speaking of this valley's water being held hostage...
If you wanted an update on the body contact bill (Diamond Valley Lake) Stone is sponsoring, please continue reading.  It is now a two year bill. He is working with MWD to revise it. He maintains that MWD promised economic development in the planning of the lake. MWD maintains the priority of that lake is to provide an emergency water supply to the state.  The economic development (aka body contact that was promised) was not completed due to lack of funding.  In the event it becomes a body contact lake, the filtration system needed to make that water usable as drinking water is very expensive; millions upon millions of dollars. Even then, the filtration system may not be deemed enough. If MWD did not have the money for economic development, where will MWD receive the funds for the proper filtration system? While this bill is re-worked, that has to be the priority and item 1 on the agenda.  Otherwise, we have an emergency water source that is of no use to us.  By the way, I called Stone's Murrieta office today inquiring the status of the bill.  All I got was that the people were promised economic development by MWD. I feel that the priority has to as an emergency source.  I was also told that someone from Stone's office would call me back today with more information. I didn't receive a call back.  So what exactly is the motivation? I may not be as concerned if my children were not being raised in this valley and I didn't have a background as a geologist.  However, both are true, so I have concerns.  I will have updates on this as I receive them.

Council Meeting April 14th- Yes... the Agenda continues

The Consent Calendar was approved with a vote of 5-0. With that came the following: Gary Thornhill as interim City Manager, Chief Brown as our new Fire Chief (no longer interim), and Tami Wilhelm was appointed to the Planning Commission. Last I knew, Tami Wilhelm lived in county.

For those of you who thought Jeff Stone didn't care about destroying our city any further after his recent election to State Senate, do yourselves and continue to pay attention. I wonder if you will still agree. For those of you knowledgeable in politics 101, well, you knew better.

Gary Thornhill, yes the same guy from before, is now our Interim City Manager; a step-up from his last job here in Hemet.  He lives in Temecula (Please read his contract. You may find parts interesting. It is in the full agenda.). As we all know, he was involved in the last contracting-out agenda. What I want to know is... why is he back? Supposedly, we have a new council majority. They got rid of Hill to bring in Thornhill for at least six months. Does that make any sense? I agree, that he is smarter than Hill. However, we know his intentions.  So council majority; you got some explaining to do unless you feel we are not privy to that information. A mutual feeling you would then share with the last council majority. I actually went a step further on this and asked people with a psych background why they might go in this direction. In all honesty, I was trying to genuinely understand where they might be coming from.  The response was... It's familiar, quick and didn't require a lot of work on their part. Make your own assessment.

The difference this time is that the council majority and Vail have an intense desire to contract out our water department. This idea started, that we know of, about a year ago. Council already voted to raise rates a couple meetings back. If we contract out, are those rates going to go up or down? :-) We all know they will go up. Here is how they plan on justifying the consultant- we need to conserve water and we are not sure if we are doing everything we can do to do that because we have nothing to compare it to, so let's see if we can look at other companies and compare.  Prepare yourselves for a vote to approve a consultant to come in and evaluate for the approximate price tag of $80,000.  If we are going to go off prior decisions, I guess I should say first consultant.

Raver suggested waiting for the new city manager to discuss this topic at a council meeting because he is quite knowledgeable in this department. I don't know if Raver is going to try to mentally spar with him but for this suggestion to come from someone who supposedly has no interest in contracting out because rates will increase- it was interesting.

Is anyone else tired of this yet?

Strategic Plan

The plan will cost roughly $444,000 to implement in its first year. The remaining cost per year will depend on the items outlined in years 2-5 that are deemed essential as a follow-up to year one's implementation. The strategy is aggressive with the largest percentage of the plan due to implement in year one.  Hiring more officers is a priority.  The council approved $30k several meetings ago for an aggressive campaign to attract and hire laterals.

There is funding for a crime suppression unit through a federal grant that needs to be implemented asap or the funds will be taken away.  The reason this unit has not been implemented is due to the shortage of officers. 

One of the main and most needed components is a drug unit, which is lacking from the ENTIRE valley. Drugs are our main problem! It is the main source of our crime and continuing to spread at a rapid pace. I have heard this not only from residents and officers during ride-alongs, but also our Police Chief.  We need more officers so that we can get this established.

Building a relationship between the department and its citizens is also a crucial step in this process. If we do not start building that up, then the issues will continue. One way PD is setting out to accomplish this is through community outreach including a "Speakers Bureau" to speak at community meetings and events, holding quarterly "Crime and Safety Update" meetings, contributing monthly articles in the Valley Chronicle and publish a Police Department Annual Report.  Of course, they will be amping up their presence on social media and utilizing sites such as nextdoor.com and crime reports.com.

Increasing patrol time by 40% per officer: They are going about this through technology and utilizing community service officers to respond to non-emergency calls. Another item is identifying the top 10 nuisance properties and getting ordinances established to reduce the number of repeat responses.  I saw this a few times on one ride-along alone.  It was ridiculous.  How many times do you have to visit a property before you have to start arresting people because their continued behavior is prohibiting you from doing your job? 

Whether you realize it or not, there is a customer service portion.  When you call for an officer to respond to a situation you have an expectation of their arrival time.  Response times are crucial to the caller and identifying realistic response times will give realistic expectations. 

The aggressive campaign to get laterals is essential if we want to decrease our crime at any significant rate. Lateral hires not only prevent rookie mishaps but they also save us money. Here's how- we hire a rookie cop and we invest in the training needed to make them desirable to another agency. We then lose that time and money invested. The city saves that time and money by going after lateral hires because chances are, as a lateral, they will stay for the remaining of their career and invest more in the community they serve.

If you have ever wondered why you drive by and see up to several patrol units stopped for something that might not seem necessary, it is because they stop by to make sure the officer responding does not need assistance. Coming from a family of law enforcement, I want our officers going home to their families every night. If you do not think that step is essential then ask yourself what an officer has done for you, a family member or neighbor that would have put you or them at a heightened risk. Yes, they sign up to do this and know the risks involved.  However, safety is essential and we are responsible to each other for that.

Here is where it all went wrong and why we need to invest in this plan. I had a feeling, and it has since been confirmed by multiple people, that the source of this problem stems back about 20 years. We have had city councils for the past 15-20 years that refused to move this town forward despite the obvious shift in demographic and in spite of advice from past city managers. We had more families move into the city, yet no plan was devised to grow this city and make it a definitive place to invest.  Gone were the days of a farming and retirement community. Now, from what I have gathered, during that time this city was relatively safe.  Meaning, it had a few issues but nothing extreme like we are facing today. The opportunity to invite investment was at its prime, yet nothing was done.  Unfortunately, we all now have witnessed what lack of planning and foresight can do to a city. We have now had city councils for the last 6 or so years feed off of that rather large screw up, which is exactly what it was. So I ask: Have we taken the initiative to comb the budget and go after grants that could reduce it?  We are spending large amounts of money on very unnecessary items that a simple one-time grant would diminish almost entirely. Have we committed to building the numbers of our police department so that the issues facing our city can be dissolved? Had the advice of city managers been taken and that investment happened, the economic downturn would have played out differently for our city. 

You want to make this city a place worth living, playing, working and raising families; our police chief should be the first source of trust and investment. Our police department is going to need to be funded and funded well.  We are going to need something solid and consistent. The ideas passed through council meetings simply will not cut it. San Jacinto is exactly what we need to avoid and given the decisions of the past; it is going to take some maneuvering to do so. We are in need of a tax that will give us what we need to get a handle on our biggest issue, crime, because it is haulting all of our growth. Not a tax to fund a dinosaur of an organization with an extremely large union holding a contract over our head, which by the way was the last council majorities wish.  We need a tax to increase service so that we can get the crime under control. We simply do not have the officers to currently do this. I have said this before, there will come a time when the threshold is exceeded and we will not have an out. Consider it done at that point and that time is rapidly approaching.

We need a plan. We need the entire council to get behind it and support it so that something can be done and we can all move forward.

Please read the Strategic Plan.  There is more involved than what I have covered. 

Council Meeting February 10, 2015

You know I pay attention to how many people attend the meetings. This week it was about forty. We are making progress, but you know I won't be happy til every seat is full. Then, I won't be happy til they have to move the meetings to a larger venue due to capacity issues. We could make PD and Fire work a little harder on council nights! ;-)
There was 'No Reportable Action' regarding the 'City Attorneys Closed Session Reports'.  By the way, there never is any reportable action. This agenda item is one of those pointless formalities because we never know anything.
There was a very touching dedication to Buddy Riley, the Emergency Operations Coordinator, who recently passed away. You can tell he was loved, valued and respected and will be truly missed.
Communications from the public was informative. I would like to see more people express their concerns.
This contract issue with RSG keeps coming up. I do not understand why. Let's clean our city up and focus on resources to do that, as opposed to paying some company from Orange County, that I found out we used about 15 years ago, to do something our city employees should already be able to do.
Raver had an issue with the $30k for PD for a campaign to recruit laterals that live nearby and are commuting a distance to work for another department. I'm not sure what everyone thought it would cost to have an aggressive hiring campaign for PD during the 1st year of the Strategic Plan, but if we have to go into reserve a little to fund PD, so be it. No one will come to this city and really invest until it gets its act together. By that, I mean it needs to be safe.  Fire can sustain on what it has for a little longer. PD cannot. If you have no idea what you are looking at and think San Jacinto is safer than Hemet, you need to get out on the street level and see what is really happening. I dare you. HPD has been able to keep the turf war in San Jacinto for the most part, in San Jacinto.  However, it is a matter of time before that threshold is met. The time is running out.  At that point ladies and gentlemen, it will be out of anyone's control.

Council Meeting January 27, 2015

It was the meeting where the Ad-hoc committee came out a winner! I think every segment of the city may now have a designated ad-hoc committee. I know it sounds like I'm teasing, but I'm actually a fan.  It encourages some form of discourse.
One of the best parts: Milne and Youssef think union negotiations should be public! Guess what? So do I. Of course, they are saying that now! Why didn't they push for this 2 years ago? 6 months ago?  I do think the public would have been outraged much sooner had the negotiations been made public.  As a side note: No offense San Jacinto, but you are exactly what Hemet should be trying to avoid. It is unfortunate because we share this valley and now half of it is a bit of a mess! I just heard that the utility tax may be presented to San Jacinto voters once more.
The debate over paying a real property advisory, marketing and sales services company $101,155.00 to assess how to sell some city property is underway. This is an up-front cost and if/when the property sells (7 in this case), some of the $101k will be put toward the commission. At the January 13th meeting, the amount was just under $145,000. By removing Gibbel Park, the fee reduced by that much?  Apparently, council was being asked to vote on this without being presented with or first reading an actual contract. And no, I'm not kidding.  I thought we all learned the last time around that we should dissect contracts before we vote on them.   Thankfully, a few members of council did their job.  The company is called RSG, Inc. and they are based out of Santa Ana.  The link is below. Hemet is already down on the list as a client.  Has the city used RSG for prior services? I am trying to figure out why there is such a push for this.
http://www.webrsg.com/clients/
One of the Ad-hoc committees created was in response to public safety belonging to the people. Mayor Krupa is asking that this committee be formed and have recommendations within the next six months.  Raver wanted it to be sooner.
Here is how I see it: If the people pay taxes on it and the entire scope of the service changes, then it should go to a vote. The concern that some of council is having is with the language of it. Some council and public safety are concerned that the language could limit or prohibit future contracting out of services in the form a cooperative agreement with another agency.  Public safety should be allowed to engage in cooperative agreements with other agencies that assist in filling a gap in service (example: CHP patrolling Florida Ave). If you are going to transition the management of the entity in its entirety to an external agency in the form of a contractual agreement, I believe that calls for a vote of the people. This is because public safety is a significant percentage of our budget.  It is wrong for tax payers to not have a say in how that plays out.  We do elect people to office and hope they do their job, but allowing five people to control a significant monetary shift in service and management truly concerns me. The language will have to be very clear.  How do we protect our public safety and tax dollars without tying the hands of our Police and Fire Chiefs? That is the multi-million dollar question!

Hemet Unified

I have battled with addressing the poor education in our city for a while.  I am a huge advocate of education and feel that it is imperative to a healthy community.  I have said before that public safety is arguably a good place to start when it comes to re-building a community, but the other main component is undoubtedly education.
I have known for a while that our teachers for Hemet Unified may go on strike. They say they want smaller classroom sizes and better pay. All I am going to say about this is that there is a budget. Smaller class sizes equals more teachers unless you are able to somehow shift students around in a logical fashion where more teachers are not required. More teachers equals more money. A raise also equals more money. Anyone care to tell us all what the budgeted amount is for salaries?
This opinion will not be popular particularly as it relates to our own Hemet Unified, but it is my honest opinion. I also feel that the future of our kids in this town is worth it.
The way we educate our children is disgraceful. First, the clear boundary between teacher and student; adult and child seems to have dissolved leaving classroom management near impossible. Adults must set boundaries for children in-order for children to safely and independently learn right from wrong; failure and success and learn to manage emotions. You cannot be friends and expect to effectively do your job.  Children have to learn independence in a structure.  They have to learn there are definitive consequences with follow-through.
I do not feel that the majority of the teachers, particularly in Hemet Unified, are doing their job even to the level of satisfactory. Scoring below average on Standardized Exams and an average high school GPA of a 2.7 with a current drop-out rate of 6% (if it continues at this rate then it will be somewhere between 10-15% by the end of the school year) is not something to applaud.  I am offended that anyone would state that we have good schools.  The only exception is the Science Academy.  I also do not feel that the schools are being managed well enough to get a handle on the big issues. I have had parents tell me how they want to pull their kids out of traditional school and place them in a home-school program. The school district of course fights this. Bodies in chairs equals money. I just wish the education of those children sitting in those chairs was a priority. Students tell me that they walk into a math class with the examples of new material written on the board.  They copy down the notes and grade each others homework with almost no teacher participation.  I have parents of autistic children telling me the fight they have to endure for their child to receive any education at all. The teachers have told these parents that your child doesn't behave well and its difficult to do their job.
The principals are not stepping in to manage escalated issues.  They are allowing them to escalate further.  How does this give our children a strong foundation to base their educational future?  How do they feel safe enough to be students?  What incentive do they have?
How is it that one of the most important jobs on the planet has no enforced evaluation structure?  How is it also difficult to be fired from this job if you are poorly evaluated or worse, have violated children?  People pay money to earn an education to be able to teach for a living.  I have always felt that you can't teach someone to teach. You are either a teacher or you are not. There is a large gap it seems between teachers who can do their job effectively and those who cannot.  I have attached a link to an LA times article just printed about how districts are failing to do their jobs in adequately evaluating our teachers. This is not only hurting our children, but our communities and our nation. Our children are lacking the fundamentals needed to make critical decisions and exercise practical judgement. Moreover, children are not learning the art of learning. I guarantee you the impacts of this will weigh.  If you are paying any attention, then you have already started to see it.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-teacher-eval-20150120-story.html

Council Meeting - January 13, 2015

This Council meeting started out with a packed audience and awards from the Christmas parade. Once all that excitement ended, so did the packed house. A girl can still dream!!!
Anyway, an hour conversation happened regarding the speed limit set at Seven Hills Drive. I would love to say this was an intelligent conversation but no one had accurate information. It was the most frustrating thing to sit and have to listen to inaccurate information for an HOUR!! First of all, it is a state thing; not a federal thing. Two- I believe an ordinance can be passed to do whatever is necessary. Third- Chief Brown was in the room along with several other of Hemet's finest.  Someone had accurate information.
The best part of the meeting related to having a quarterly town-hall, each having two council members present. If it is kept at two council members, then a real conversation between elected officials and constituents has potential.  Milne's comment regarding the whole idea: there is so much misinformation out there that a town-hall would be a great way to get the accurate information out. I just had to sit and listen to her give misinformation and have no idea what she was talking about for an hour.  The idea of having her voice at a town-hall just thrills me.  I hope our constituents are armed and ready with facts when she speaks.
Another great item on the agenda was the unveiling of HPD's Strategic Plan. I have read it and taken notes. I do have some questions.  When I get those answered, then I will comment.
Is there any way more people in our city can attend the regularly scheduled council meetings?  And is there any way our council members can be somewhat informed on issues related to the agenda prior to the meetings?  I believe most of them have iPads with them. I think it's called Google?  But please, feel free to double check.

A new council we have!!!

Ladies and gentlemen!  If you want entertainment in your politics, this council may be the place to find it! I do not doubt, as long as we citizens do our job, that this council will be far more productive than its preceding majority.  All seriousness aside, the dynamic of those five will no doubt entertain!
Milne was absent for the commencement and Youssef left about 45 minutes into the meeting on an emergency phone call. Just a question- at what point are council members removed due to very poor attendance?
The meeting started with telling Smith how great of a mayor he was and how great his service to this city has been. This presentation was done by none other than Youssef. People clapped! Really? It is in moments like these where the honesty needs to maintain. Let's break this down simply, shall we? One down and two to go!!
The main item on the agenda for the majority of people who attended, was the ability for the new council to overturn the September 9th decision to contract out to Calfire.  You already know what happened! Our council members who want a future decision to contract out, should it arise, to go to a vote of the people have not abandoned that stance.  I am sure this will come up and the vote will be in favor of going to the people.
Now, what this council needs to focus on is going after grants that will make the changes needed to cut unnecessary spending from our budget. This way we keep jobs and start to build back our public safety. We need to build this city to a community people want to invest in and families want to live.