It Should Have Been A 5-0 Vote….

…TO HANG JOHN LLOYD OUT TO DRY

Wildomar Magazine does not intend to gloat over the censure of EVMWD Director John Lloyd.  He is, after all, the area’s elected representative for water issues and he is still to be applauded for releasing the secretive reports that the Lake Elsinore Advanced Pump Station project (“LEAPS”) is unlikely to turn a near-term profit sufficient to offset the enormous cost to build the billion dollar boondoggle.

However, even John Lloyd should have voted to censure himself for his ”leadership” and involvement in the nefarious vote of  the RDA PAC to fund a mythical $600,000 project in Lakeland Village and then, suddenly, when exposed, to vote to rescind the funding by the same folks. 

Or, Lloyd should have voted to censure himself for his failure to cover his own political *ss within the EVMWD political scene before he opened himself up to someone’s political vengeance.  He may have been skillfully “hung out to dry.”

Whatever the actual reasons for the censure, be it a “failure to communicate” with the management and fellow directors about his contact with the RDA PAC, or his failure to anticipate “political payback” for releasing the LEAPS report, Lloyd was naive about playing in the  Large Sandbox with the Big Boys. 

Given the amount of money that is in play in water districts, political players in the water game are serious about their issues.  Lloyd should have known that taking on the LEAPS project requires serious political gamesmanship.

Instead of educating himself in the water game, though,  Lloyd has been busy trying to prop up the inept political career of former Mayor Bob Cashman.  Or promoting the Wildomar Community Council’s efforts to stay connected to Wildomar’s center of political power with a food drive and street fair.

When his attention should have been fully focused on his EVMWD Director position and his duty to represent his district, he was distracted by the Little Sandbox of Wildomar’s new political scene.

Therefore, in Zak’s opinion, Lloyd should have voted to censure himself for his open and obvious political naivete.  At least with a 5-0 vote, his constituents could hope that he’s accepting of his painful political lessons and has learned to play effectively with the Big Kids. 

Instead, he presented a meaningless apologetic in support of himself, to no effective result, followed by his sole vote of support for himself.  One is, after all, still the loneliest number.

Finally, before one shuts their mind on the still-hidden truths of the $600,000 RDA PAC vote, believing it to be mere politics and of little import, Wildomar Magazine has been told that there may be at least two employees of the EVMWD whose careers will being ended as a result of this financial fiasco.  That, my friends, is a significant outcome and bodes poorly for any hope for an easy landing for anyone connected to the incident.

The full story remains untold and Wildomar Magazine continues to believe that the tendrils of a rumor of funneling money to a developer’s project has some traction.

Time will likely tell the entire story.

Comments may be made to Zak at zakturango@excite.com.

Keep Your “Green Lien” Out of The Economy..

…AND SIMPLY PRODUCE ZAK’S WATER AND DISPOSE OF ZAK’S SEWAGE

And how about doing that without the “LEAPS Super Lien?” There’s a pile of something ”brown” that needs to be stopped from getting any more of Zak’s “green.”

When are the leaders of government and quasi-government bodies like Lake Elsinore’s Mayor “We’ll water the lawns from the back of my pick up truck” Hickman and the EVMWD going to realize that their lawn watering ideas only benefit those folks that are trying to keep their home values up so that they can sell their homes and get the hell out of Dodge? 

No wonder the two real estate agents,  EVMWD Directors  Williams and Guglielmana, recused themselves from the vote.  Reduced home values at sale means a reduced sales commission at close of escrow.  People like them go broke when you and I don’t move around a lot. Besides, if they voted to penalize their bank clients for brown lawns, they’d soon have brown lawns, too.

For the people who are not moving from the area, the current reduced value of their home does not affect them negatively so what benefit does EVMWD’s Green Lien idea provide? As a matter of fact, reduced housing prices have forced the County of Riverside to reduce their property taxes or at least stop the incremental  yearly tax increases due to the housing ”slump,” which actually benefits those who are not selling their homes.

In addition, if the empty foreclosed houses are not using any water, that delays the day  when EVMWD has to announce the next water rationing scheme, forcing us to reduce our water consumption but then comes the inevitable “reduced water consumption surcharge” they’ll have to impose to keep their cash flow coming their way to sustain the bloated reserves for the EVMWD.

Wildomar Magazine recommends that the EVMWD Directors, surely hardened political conservatives all, try to find their political compasses and recognize that this concern over brown lawns and house values are not a part of their scope of governance. 

You may contact Zak at zakturango@excite.com.  His is the fourth house from the corner with the brown lawn. Zak can’t afford to water his lawn due to his high water bills.

It Always Rolls Downhill….

               

…ALWAYS HAS, ALWAYS WILL!

LOWER-LEVEL STAFFERS AT EVMWD BLAMED FOR $600,000 GOOF

Despite everyone’s best efforts to put a happy face on a $600,000 “win-win” misunderstanding, the Lakeland Village/Wildomar Project Area Committee (“RDA PAC”) is going to re-vote to re-cant their recklessness with taxpayer’s money, hoping everyone will forgive and forget about their abject failure to conduct “due diligence” before making a decision.

However, as always, someone has to be blamed for the error.  In this case, it’s some faceless, clueless EVMWD employees that will have to take the hit for the real culprits.

According to today’s Californian article, Riverside County’s RDA PAC “babysitter,” Aurelio Aguirre said that the ”district’s general manager, Ron Young, didn’t know about the presentation or the funding discussion because the conversations about the project involved lower-level district staff members.

On Wednesday, the district’s spokesman, Greg Morrison, backed Aguirre’s account. “I think it’s as simple as lower-level staff members not communicating with management,” he said.”

Pause for a lucid minute with Wildomar Magazine.  “Lower -level” staffers at the EVMWD can induce an RDA committee run by citizen appointees to produce $600,000 on their own instigation?  Where are the controls at the EVMWD that even permit this to occur once?

How about Riverside County’s oversight? If Aguirre is in attendance to babysit the RDA PAC on behalf of the County, who is babysitting Aguirre, if this happens on his watch?  Was he not present at the meeting?  Shouldn’t he have questioned the presentation before the vote was taken?

Sorry but the old saw about sh*t rolling downhill won’t pass muster on this turd of a vote. Zak is pinching his nose over this explanation.  Something stills smells about the whole thing.

Zak predicts that the RDA PAC is going to approve the $600,000 again ’cause they aren’t any brighter than they were last week.

Zak will be sniffing for your comments to zakturango@excite.com.