Page 3 - The Friday Flyer • April 1, 2016

APRIL 1, 2016
THE FRIDAY FLYER A-3
Pictured at Tuesday's special meeting with Congressman Ken Calvert, third from left, are Council members John Zaitz, Dawn Haggerty, Vicki War- ren, Jordan Ehrenkranz and Mayor Tim Brown.
Council welcomes Calvert, discusses future
BY SHARON RICE
EDITOR, THE FRIDAY FLYER
A dozen or so residents, along with a candidate running for County Supervi- sor and the Mayor of Calimesa, took ad- vantage of the opportunity to hear from U.S. Congressman Ken Calvert this past Tuesday afternoon, March 29, during a special meeting of the Canyon Lake City Council.
Attendees and Council members were able to question the congressman on a number of topics having to do with local, state and national politics. Sub- jects ranged from Canyon Lake getting its own zip code to America’s ability to defend itself from cyberterrorism; from funding to get Quail Valley’s septic tank issue resolved to finding ways to reduce the costs of higher education – and so much more.
In addition to welcoming Calvert to Canyon Lake, the City Council also reconfirmed a direction given to City Manager Aaron Palmer to notify the County of Riverside of the Council’s decision to request a one-year extension of the cooperative fire contract with the County of Riverside for fire and para- medic services; and for Palmer to return to the City Council with the proposed terms of an extension, if granted, with the expectation that the proposed terms should be similar to the current contract.
County Fire required that Canyon Lake declare its decision by March 30 about whether or not the City would pur- sue another contract with County Fire.
Palmer reported to the City Coun- cil that he had notified CalFire/Riv- erside County Fire of the decision to get an extension of services, and that he had requested a meeting to discuss the terms of the contract and cost shar- ing with Lake Elsinore and Menifee. The earliest date the meeting could be scheduled is May 12.
Last year, Lake Elsinore and Menifee agreed to a one-year contract to pro- vide fire services to Canyon Lake until September 2016. According to Council- woman Dawn Haggerty, when the con- tract was signed, those cities appeared to be satisfied with the amounts Canyon Lake had agreed to pay for emergency response to Canyon Lake from Stations 94 and 97 in Lake Elsinore and Station 5 in Menifee.
However, comments reported to have been made by Lake Elsinore May- or Brian Tisdale in a Press Enterprise article dated March 27, indicated Lake Elsinore is not happy about Canyon Lake’s plan to seek a one-year exten- sion. According to the article, some Lake Elsinore Council members con- tend their city is subsidizing Canyon Lake under the current contract.
City Manager Aaron Palmer reported to the City Council that he had notified CalFire/Riverside County Fire of the Council's decision to get an extension of services.
At this week’s meeting, Canyon Lake City Council members got into a discus- sion with each other about the future of fire services and the City’s longterm ability to fund them. Councilman John Zaitz reiterated his continuing concern that Canyon Lakers voted for the Utility User Tax (UUT) believing that it would keep Station 60 open. He indicated that, with the proposed extension, the station would be closed another year – and may never reopen without more taxes.
He referenced the ESCI fire consul- tant’s report on March 16 and the find- ing that, in the event the UUT sunsets in 2020 and no other recurring revenue source is found to replace it, none of the options (to provide fire services) are sus- tainable. The consultant recommended that, before the City chooses any op- tion, elected officials and staff need to establish strategies to address and secure long-term financial resources.
With that in mind, John made a for- mal request to have George Spiliotis
of LAFCO (Local Agency Formation Commission) attend an upcoming meet- ing to discuss the facts about disincorpo- ration and what that would look like for Canyon Lake.
Councilwoman Vicki Warren strongly opposed John’s request saying that now is not the time to talk about dissolution or disincorporation. Council members Haggerty and Ehrenkranz agreed with Warren, pointing out that disincorpora- tion is not the solution – that the Council needs to continue to fight for the City.
Mayor Tim Brown said, “I’m doubt- ful we can continue as a city, but I want to try.” He agreed with John that the Council needs to know what would hap- pen under disincorporation. Therefore, the final order of business was to ask that the request for LAFCO to attend an upcoming meeting be put on the agenda for the next City Council meeting on April 6.
The video of this meeting will be available at cityofcanyonlake.org.
THE FRIDAY FLYER
Volume 35 Number 13
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