With The District Issue Resolved….

NEXT UP……CHOOSING A NEW MAYOR

It’s amazing that Scott Farnam’s term as mayor of Wildomar is nearly over. And now comes a dicey problem.  Who will replace him? As a public service, and, as usual, at no charge to the public, Zak Turango will lay out the choices for your contemplation only, since only the five sitting council members get to vote for mayor.  We are all mere  non-voting observers.

First and most obvious, is Mayor Pro Tempore Bridgette Moore,  pronounced “pro tem,” a latin phrase meaning “for the time being.” She was the second highest vote-getter to Wildomar’s First Mayor Bob Cashman’s highest vote count. However, this time last year, Council member Marsha Swanson made a surprise motion, nominating Farnam for Mayor. A quick second and a 4-1 vote made Farnam the Mayor. (Cashman nominated and voted for himself, which was unsuccessful). 

Nevertheless, in a world where substantive qualifications may not matter,  Moore publically admitted that  land use issues were not her “forte” (French for “strong point”),  a world where her soulish connection to the single most powerful political entity in Wildomar, Cornerstone Community Church,  does not give  residents sufficient pause,  Mayor Pro Tempore Moore appears to be in line to be the next mayor.  Just because it ’s her turn.

Second, neither Cashman and Farnam, having already served, would dare be so boorish as to fantasize another term while others have yet to serve as mayor.

Third, Council member Marsha Swanson has yet to ascend to the center of the dais. Despite her real estate background and support for most developer issues brought before the council, such as a recent “aye” vote to move forward on reducing Developer Impact Fees (“DIF”) by half, if she so desires, it is likely that she would have a second and two votes (besides her own) to be the next mayor.

Fourth, Council member Sheryl Ade, although well qualified to lead, given her experience and knowledge of land use issues, and her lack of obligation to any influence group or private interest, will not be selected to be the Mayor. In fact, she was told that she has committed “political suicide” for trying to get the Cornerstone project before the entire council.  In contrast, go to Cornerstone’s website and download the 10-11-09 sermon by the Reverend  Ron Armstrong, where he applauds Farnam, Moore and Swanson for “knowing the facts” when they refused to further discuss the project, forcing an appeal by Menifee and local residents. It seems to Wildomar Magazine that missing out on the “praise” from Cornerstone’s leadership may be a good thing.

Selection will take place in December and I wanted to get WM readers prepared in thought for what is about to take place. If only for the amusement value in the process and outcome.

Comments will be permitted, below.

Those That Can, Do….

 

….THOSE THAT CAN’T, TEACH…. 

…AND THOSE THAT CAN’T TEACH..SELL REAL ESTATE.

Zak’s usually sharp brain has finally kicked back to the “on” mode, after being  overcome with annoyance with a Menifee City Councilman abusing his guest privileges at last Wednesday’s Wildomar City Council meeting.

But the same issue attends.  The vote was 3-2 to give developers a 50% reduction in Developer Impact Fees (“DIF”) to stimulate the local job market. What Zak missed is the blatant “aye” votes on the issue by two realtors, whose occupations rely on “inventory” of homes to be bought and sold.  Councilwoman Swanson specifically spoke to the issue that Wildomar currently has so little inventory that Realtor/former Planning Commissioner Casillas had to buy a home in Lake Elsinore.

Realtor/Mayor Scott Farnam and Realtor/Councilwoman Marsha Swanson should have recused themselves from the vote due to an explicit conflict of interest. Now Zak, and other Wildomar residents, will have to absorb the “developer’s impacts” ourselves. 

Wildomar cannot afford to waive developer fees, period.

Comments can be made to former Realtor, Zak at zakturango@excite.com or by making a comment within.

Menifee Mommas, Don’t Let Your Babies….

…GROW UP TO BE ASSES.

Menifee city councilman, Scott Mann, representing the Western Riverside  Council of Governments (“WRCOG”), spoke to the Wildomar Council last evening in an attempt to get support for reducing developer fees by 50% to “bring jobs” to the area. Despite the courageous opposition of Councilman Bob Cashman and Council woman Sheryl Ade,  Mayor Farnam, Mayor Pro Tem Moore and Council woman Marsha Swanson voted “aye,” thereby pushing the matter forward in the process.

Councilman Mann then retook the public dais and mocked Cashman and Ade by gloating that Menifee, who has dropped their fees, will be happy to take the tax increment from Wildomar, an embarrassing breach of civic politeness.

What an ass.

They are cute, however, when they’re little.

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

Oviedo Irreplacable….?

…WILDOMAR LUCKY TO HAVE FRANK AS CITY MANAGER?

According to the Elk Grove Citizen, dated September 2, 2009,”….cost will be offset by not rehiring a deputy city manager in the place of Frank Oviedo who left in August to be city manager of Wildomar in southern California.”

Wildomar Magazine hopes Frank is as good a manager for Wildomar as he apparently was in distant Elk Grove as a deputy manager. So much so that Elk Grove gave up looking for his replacement.

Back in the day when a smoker would approach Zak, seeking a light for an unfiltered Camel with an innocent question,” Got a match?” The instant answer was always, “Not since Superman died!”  That still cracks me up.

Ahhhh, gone are the days of such banal humor.  Now, one has to do this  stuff to be thought of as funny.

Got a match Elk Grove? Not since Frank left.

Anyway, have a powerful day, Frank.

Comments can be made to zakturango@excite.com.  Please leave the humor to we professionals.

Zak’s Weirdest……

…BRUSH WITH FAME

When the reports of scandal about evangelical leader and mega-church pastor, Ted Haggard, first made the news several years ago, the church world gasped at the offense and the anti-church crowd crowed with delight as this man had to resign in disgrace. 

Now, with new revelations (an ironic word for the bible student, no?) about his admitted exploitation of a sexually confused staff pastor, Haggard is now on a book promotion tour, including a recent appearance on the Larry King Show.  Haggard and his odd-thinking spouse, now want to “tell their story to everyone” as they deal with a “heterosexual with issues.”  (see Wikipedia for the quote).

Public disgrace of a religious leader is a sad day for any religious group, especially those groups that paint such a narrow path and forget what unmerited favor is all about.  Haggard’s flaws should not be touted in a book.  Haggard and his spouse should simply disappear from the public eye and deal with “their” issues in private.

Brush with fame, Zak?  Oh.  Permit me to get back on track. Back in the day, back to the time when Haggard was first exposed, his church in Colorado was taken over by an associate music pastor, the Reverend Ross Parsley, now in his mid-forties. 

When Ross was about four years old, he was the ring-bearer at my wedding.  I bought my first car, a 1954 Chevy, from his mother, Connie, for $100.

Comments can be made to Zak at zakturango@excite.com but only if Zak is “your”  weirdest brush with fame.

Lemme See Your Hands….

….IF YOU’RE STILL A VIRGIN

The victory by California Lutheran High School at the 4th Court of Appeals may be a hollow victory for the cause of Christianity and private Christian high schools everywhere.

Now that the sexual curiosity of two adolescent teenaged girls has been nailed to a cross, how will Wildomar’s most famous high school (this is national news already!) deal with adolescent sexual experimentation and curiosity if two heterosexual teens (must be a boy and a girl) are discovered to be exploring each other behind the football stadium stands?  Another expulsion, followed by litigation?

Can any adult respond with a straight face and tell Wildomar Magazine that their conduct as Christian adolescents was always consistent with their Christian moral teachings?  Can anyone convince Zak that the current student body attending California Lutheran High School has no other youth with unsure passions driven by their changing bodies and developing appetites?

Thus, the ongoing hypocrisy of a church culture attempting to legislate Christian morality continues to damage a small but important portion of another generation of youth.  There may be others in the high school, struggling with their sexual identity as many humans do, that will have to be much more careful of their personal conduct, lest they be caught for not being chaste.  

Zak does not disapprove of teenagers struggling with their moral values and standards.  It is better to have moral values and standards to struggle with, rather than unrestrained sensuality.  

But “adult” leaders would be much wiser and more Christ-like by being available to all of the teens in their schools and be ready to give answers to their personal questions, even if the answer is “I don’t know for sure but…..” At the very least, that would be more human and grace-filled.

However, enforcing moral standards through contentious litigation will not bring glory to the school or to Jesus.  Rather, the hypocritical posture “achieved” through this appellate decision is likely to be mocked by the very students attending classes now.  Is each of them a virgin?  If not, shouldn’t they be expelled for failing to live up to the school’s standards?

However, we cannot know the secrets of the students. (I’m sure that the students know “who” is into “what”). The school’s leadership must now be monitoring their student’s behaviors with great zeal, given this “win.”

Zak, of course, doesn’t want to know.  But Zak would want the students of California Lutheran High School to know that their moral “failings” are subject to God’s marvelous grace and His creatures are allowed to learn and grow from their personal “failings.”

Next week, Wildomar Magazine will be conducting a national survey of the male leadership of all evangelical churches, asking the following question:   ”Have you ever committed the Sin of Onan while leading your congregation?”  (Colorado pastors will be exempted for the time being).

Those who honestly answer “yes” will be forgiven for being human. 

Those who answer “no” are likely liars and hypocrites.

Lemme see your hands.

Comments may be made to Zak at zakturango@excite.com.    However, let he/she who is without sin save their comments for their hypocrisy support group “share time.”

Zak’s Early Brush With Fame….

….WAS THE FOUNDER OF TACO BELL, GLEN BELL.

Wildomar Magazine’s editor-in-chief Zak Turango’s life has been filled with odd “run-ins” with some famous people.  Sadly, none of the brushes have helped Zak in the least. 

For example, going through the U. S. Navy’s Survival School (“SERE”) in 1968, prepping for Vietnam duty at the same time as former presidential candidate and current Senator John Kerry helped “not a bit.” 

In fact, my political disapproval of then-Candidate Kerry is likely and greatly a result of Zak (pictured below, circa 1969) having almost nearly spent more time in a U. S. Navy hospital (Marble Mountain Navy Hospital, Danang) in Vietnam than U. S. Navy Swift Boat Captain Kerry spent in Vietnam.

Jeez but Zak digresses.  Get over it, Zak.

Back to the taco meister. Bell had built his first Taco Bell in Downey, followed  by several more in Long Beach.  See www.tacobell.com and click on “Our Company” and then “History” for the entire story.

Zak worked stealthily by cleaning up the fast food restaurant ( working “under the table,” due to being poor, under-aged and desperate for cash) and met Glen Bell when he came into the store on 10th and Alamitos in Long Beach early one morning. 

He eventually offered a permanent position at his headquarters to one of my older cousins, David, who turned him down, commenting later to Zak that he didn’t think “this guy would go far.” 

Sadly, David’s bad judgment took him to his next job packing valves in boxes of dusty, asbestos-laden filler material in a shipping department with another Long Beach company.  His death at 42 from mesothelioma (cancer from asbestos) put a sad exclamation point to his career choice.

Thus, in honor of Glen Bell, Taco Bell and cousin David, Zak is going to cook his own version of homemade tacos for this evening’s fare.  Zak’s recipe for tacos is classified but never doubt that corn tortillas, Stater Bros. hamburger (22% fat but Zak drains) and, ironically, Heinz Ketchup, also known as Norwegian Hot Sauce, will be involved.

The irony, for the uninformed, is that Senator John Kerry is married to the Heinz fortune.

Go figure.

Comments can be made to Zak at zakturango@excite.com.  Please, no recipes as my taco recipe is a family treasure and, therefore, afforded reverential status and no changes can be made.

Mufflers R Us is coming to Wildomar….

….THANKS TO THE COUNTY’S PLANNING COMMISSION

Don’t bother whining about the smell of welding fumes at the next city council meeting ’cause the Riverside County Planning Commission has already approved the plans for a muffler shop to be built and operated where a beautiful vegetable garden used to grow every year.

Sadly, even the Wildomar City Council cannot stop this project from going forward or directing it into a more appropriate “mechanic’s”  park.   However, they can “condition” the project to make certain that the proprietors maintain a semblance of propriety with their commercial impact and marketing ideas. 

Nearby homeowners and casual passerby should not be troubled by the noise of air hammers and the smell of acetylene gases wafting over the fences, into their homes and into their cars.

Please, dear council, ask the right questions about noise, hazardous materials and signage, adding the appropriate conditions to your ultimate approval, for Wildomar’s sake.

Is that the Mayor? I thought I recognized the tee shirt.

Comments can be made to Zak at zakturango@excite.com. Mayor sightings are always welcome.

Time For A Little Civic Polish….

…..ZAK MOTIONS IT

Wildomar Magazine was on hand for the “historic” or “historical,” one can never be certain which is correct, for the Mayor Scott Farnam’s first city council meeting.  The meeting moved smartly, for the most part, and we were completely done in an hour and ten minutes.

Zak did not have to grit his teeth during the Invocation as the courageous new mayor was a man of his word and there was no Invocation.  I silently breathed a prayer of thanks and, fortunately, no one noticed.

With the gavel deftly removed from former Mayor Bob Cashman’s hands and the publicly-pronounced absence of his former puppetmaster, the absence of any whining Band of Sisters, the meeting room had a softer, happier tenor to it’s atmosphere.  Not a peep about the cemetary district, WCC or the RDA PAC offering to build Wildomar a Community Center.

Now to the polish.  “I motion” is not a valid phrase to be used in a public meeting.  It’s amateurish. And it makes no sense. “Motion” is not a verb and cannot be used as one.  The correct phraseology is “I move”  or “I make a motion” to initiate a potential vote by the Council.

By far, however, the second best source of Zak’s internal giggle machine was the “Coolest Mayor in the Valley’s” calling a 5-0 vote as “five-zip.”  I don’t believe that phrase has ever been uttered in a public meeting before last evening. 

The best call by Farnam, a realtor by trade, was to call for a vote, stating that he had a “first and a second.”  Good mayor, Zak and his fellow citizens don’t care how the financing on your home was set up. 

Despite the hiccups, Farnam will get his cowboy boots under himself and the next year should have the professional appearance we all desire. 

In fact, I motion it.

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

Zak Has His Eye(s) On Wildomar…

 

“….INSATIABLE CURIOUSITY, GUIDED BY GOOD EYESIGHT AND A KEEN SENSE OF SMELL, LEADS THEM TO EXPLORE EVERY SPOT, STAIN, CRUMB…..” (source:  Forest Preserve District of Cook County, Illinois)

Wildomar Magazine has been accorded a fine compliment by the Californian’s longtime reporter, Aaron Claverie, referring to Zak’s alter ego Gil Rasmussen as a “City Hall observer, longtime local fly-in-the-ointment” in his piece filed on December 27, 2008. 

Mr. Claverie could have only heightened his compliment by identifying Wildomar Magazine by name in the article but then Zak’s daily readership might surpass that of, say, the City of Wildomar’s official website.  

Wildomar Magazine accepts the thoughtful accolade from a media “cousin” and promises to continue to “occupy” its place in the “ointment,” reserving the right, however, to choose the ointment and the orifice applied therein. 

“Nuff said about anonymous bloggers.

Comments can be made to Zak the Eye(s) at zakturango@excite.com.