Temecula City Council Hopefuls Debate

Temecula City Council candidates Paul Jacobs, Jamie White and Patrice Lynes debated at Richie’s Diner in Murrieta Wednesday night (October 10th) at an
event hosted by the Temecula Valley Kiwanis Club.  Club Program Director Dave Landry indicated he had invited all candidates including incumbent Mike Naggar who indicated he would not attend and (Mayor) Chuck Washington who did not respond and was a no-show.  Candidate Walter Wilson was also missing in action.  Over twenty individuals were in attendance at a lively and informative two-hour plus meeting.

Patrice Lynes, a retired nurse and a Temecula resident since 1989 said she is running because the City Council does not listen to “we the people”. 

                Agenda 21

Her number one issue is something called “Agenda 21”, which she described as an attempt by the U.N. to impose its will upon the citizens of the United States, including the City of Temecula through a concept called Sustainable Development.  She indicated it requires a local Sustainability Plan that she says Mayor Chuck Washington brought to the Council and received 5-0 vote of approval.  She
is opposed to Agenda 21 because she says it takes away local control and
attempts to eliminate suburbia in favor of constructing multi-story/multi -use
buildings where there would be apartments on the upper floors and retail
businesses and other services on the lower floors.  Ms. Lynes maintains this is similar to a campus environment where everything is within walking or biking distance and the need for cars would be significantly diminished.

                Pro-Business

Says she is pro-business and plans to engage the local businesses and would introduce a business tax-holiday at certain times of the year to encourage more businesses to locate in Temecula. 

                Redevelopment (RDA)

She also pointed out that there is a $517 million RDA debt issue.  Ms. Lynes said she was told in a meeting it was only $100 million but State Controller John Chaing confirmed it was over $500 million.

Paul Jacobs is a retired psychiatric social worker who moved to Temecula in 1995.  He worked for   33 years for the CA Dept. of Developmental Services providing direct care to developmentally challenged people.  He has served on and chaired the Traffic and Safety Commission and served on and was President of his Homeowner’s association.

                Opposition to Liberty Quarry - Welcome to “Mine Country”, no longer “Wine Country”

Mr. Jacobs indicated he is the most vocal opponent of Liberty Quarry and the only one to request a criminal investigation of the approval process.  He said the city gave up local control in July 2010 when the Council gave up their Sphere of Influence over the area where the quarry is planning to locate.  This
spring the County Supervisors (BOS) voted 3-2 against the quarry and then Chairman of the Board John Taviglione voted with 2 other supervisors to approve the much-maligned Environmental Impact Report (EIR), even though it was a key document in the denial of a permit.  Once the EIR was approved by the Board of Supervisors, Supervisor John Benoit from the desert introduced an ordinance to fast-track the surface mines.    

                Public Safety

Mr. Jacobs spent two-hours with the Chief of Police getting his perspective of the issues facing policing in Temecula.  Paul served on the Traffic and Safety Committee including chairing the committee.  Jacobs believes a Police Station is needed within the City of Temecula (currently located out in French Valley) that could be located in the former City Hall.   He has questioned the estimates of cost to convert the facility as being politically motivated.  His suggestion is for a police station in Temecula, NOT a jail.  The jail would remain in French Valley.

                Open Government - Transparency and citizen participation

Another important issue is open government – transparency.  Mr. Jacobs lobbied for the council to expand the time for public comments from 2 minutes to 3 minutes (a 50% increase in time for a citizen to make his/her point during public comments).  After much opposition by the council, he finally convinced them, based on all other cities/county allowing for three minutes.  Another example was at the County Board of Supervisors where they started charging for parking last
February.  Jacobs pushed for free parking for disabled, which was granted, then for anyone with business before the board which was ultimately allowed so long as the individual spoke before the board.

               Who asked him to run?

Mr. Jacobs has attended more City Council meetings than any candidate other than the incumbents.  He has successfully introduced actions to the City Council and the Board of Supervisors that were at first resisted, but then approved by each body once it was clear it had the support of the citizens.  He warned the Council about giving up their Sphere of Influence as it was the exact area where the quarry is planning to operate. Unfortunately the Council blew this off, and now has to spend 10s of thousands of taxpayer dollars to fight this in court.  Because of his visibility and vision, he was asked to run by individuals of various political persuasions – showing that he is not beholden to one political party or one philosophy.

Jamie White  is small business owner performing quality control training for HUD staff on their regulations.  Ms. White said when government entities are in trouble call her.  She indicated she has four reasons for running. 

                Agenda 21

Ms. White would advocate vigorously removing Agenda 21 from the City Planning
process.   She said it has been in force for more than 20 years.  In 1992, 120 countries signed on.  She stated that the UN wants America to get rid of the US constitution and adopt the UN constitution.  One of the methods of implementing Agenda 21 is the targeting local communities.  She said the Temecula City Council adopted a sustainability plan, a key component of Agenda 21. 

She wants to protect the citizens from harmful pathogens from Agenda 21.  For example, purple fire hydrants use reclaimed water – she says there is E Coli in it that can lead to serious intestinal problems.  The water contains parasites according to Ms. White’s statements. Reclaimed water is part of sustainability plan.  She said the government will regulate the water issues.  She says she is a
conservative but doesn’t believe in UN forcing billions of dollars to get their
agenda out.

Another aspect of Agenda 21 is Urbanization – dorm style living.  She and Patrice Lynes said in the visioning of Jefferson Corridor what is missing are vehicles – by 2050 they said there would be no more cars.  The plan forces the heavy use of bikes and walking.  The “sustainability plan” envisions building 4 and 5 story buildings with housing at the top and businesses and retail at the bottom two levels.  The concept is for citizens to live, work and play in the same area.  She stated that in a “Sustainable City” – suburbia and property rights will be gone.  If elected, Ms. White said there would be strict oversight for the people, by the people, through “me”.  She would put property rights first and refuse federal or state funds for sustainable development.  She would work to repeal any grants that infringe on individual property rights.

                Public Safety

Ms. White said she wants to ensure Public Safety.  She said there is no such thing as the 2nd safest city per her sources at the FBI.

                Transparency

She says citizens often beg City Council don’t do this or please do this and they don’t listen, they just vote 5-0 to do whatever they already had in mind.  Says documents related to city of Temecula meetings cannot be found on their web site which was disputed by another attendee.

Ms. White stated that she spearheaded the $517 million RDA debt issue by contacting the State Controller’s office.  State audits usually show numbers are even higher – the RDA debt numbers given to State by the City.  Ms. White stated that the state employee she spoke with indicated that maybe there was an illegal transfer of assets and expects the $517 million debt figure to increase. 

                Who asked her to run?

Jamie White said the people of Temecula asked her to run; that they need her vision.  She went on to say “God picked me – God chose me to run for the City of Temecula [city council].”

There you have it – two candidates who are very concerned about Agenda 21 (Lynes and White) and one (Jacobs) who indicated it is a “non-binding” agreement calling for conservation of resources.  Mr. Jacobs was the only speaker to tout his long-term opposition to the quarry as his #1 platform issue, citing how it will cause untold health problems, change the landscape forever and will turn this valley into “Mine Country, not Wine Country”.  On the issue of transparency in government, Mr. Jacobs is the only candidate who was able to demonstrate actual actions he took to open citizens’ access to local government.  Both Ms. Lynes and Ms. White mentioned their concerns with the RDA debt and questioned the numbers provided by the City of Temecula VS the State Controller’s office.  Mr. Jacobs has been a long-time opponent of the improper use of RDA funds and has spoken before the Council on this topic numerous times.