Activist Group Starts Website

A group known for leading the opposition to a planned mosque in Temecula started a new group and website.

Temecula Limited Government went online to spread information about the organization’s efforts to put ordinances on the books that will cap City Council members’ terms, cap the city manager’s salary and cap compensation for the council members, the group announced Thursday.

To read about the proposed measures, .

“We are a group of Concerned Citizens that are fiscal conservatives for a limited government,” the website states. 

Though the group's name is different, the primary members were also active in groups that led the effort to stop a planned mosque from being built.

The new group's chair, Patrice Lynes, and the treasurer, George Rombach, were active in the Concerned Citizens group, which opposed the mosque for land-use reasons, Lynes said.

Diana Serafin, who is helping to craft the measures for Temecula Limited Government, was also an outspoken opponent of the mosque and is one of the organizers of a movement to ban red light cameras in Murrieta, she said.

The mosque plan was approved. To read more about it, .

The group plans to get signatures on a petition that will force the measures onto a ballot.

The citizens will then choose whether to approve the measures. If approved, they will limit council members’ terms to eight consecutive years, according to the site.

The measures will be modeled on ones causing controversy in Murrieta. Rick Reiss, one of the authors of the Murrieta measures, is a special advisor for Temecula Limited Government.

The voters approved similar measures, though the Murrieta City Council refused to put them into action as written.

The city argued the ordinances would violate numerous laws already in place, subjecting the city to lawsuits.

To see the group’s new website, click here.

CLARIFICATION: Though members of Temecula Limited Government were also members of anti-mosque groups, they consider Temecula Limited Government separate, said Suzanne St. John, who takes part in both.