WILDOMAR: City Council procedural document adopted

Pamphlet outlines procedures for selecting officers

By AARON CLAVERIE - Staff Writer | Wednesday, June 25, 2008 10:56 PM PDT ∞

WILDOMAR ---- A 12-page document that details how Wildomar's City Council will elect a mayor and conduct its meetings was adopted Wednesday night during the council-elect's final pre-incorporation meeting.

Wildomar will become a city Tuesday during a special meeting that will see the five members of the council-elect sworn in as the inaugural City Council. A community celebration, capped off with fireworks, will follow the meeting at the Elsinore High School football field.

The document adopted Wednesday, "Council Norms and Accepted Procedural Practices," specifies how items will be added to meeting agendas, how the mayor will be selected, the duties of the mayor and the role of the planning commission, city manager and city attorney.

An item that mentioned adopting the California League of Cities code of ethics was stricken at the request of council-elect members during the meeting.

Following the meeting, the chairman of the council-elect, Bob Cashman, said the league's code is a document of more than 200 pages that contains more than 100 ethics statements. He said he would prefer a code that contains a "few really clear ethics statements" ---- "something that is more detailed and more general at the same time," he said.

Council-elect member Scott Farnam said the council-elect did not have time to fully review the league's code during a recent workshop that saw the group establish the outline of the procedural document. He said the issue will be addressed at a later date.

During the meeting, Wildomar's interim city attorney, Julie Hayward Biggs, said that not adopting a code doesn't mean the council will be operating without an ethical net.

"There are always the ethics of the state of California," she noted.

Some highlights from the document:

-- The office of Wildomar's mayor and mayor pro tempore will be held by the council members who received the highest and second highest votes in February's incorporation election. This means the city's first mayor will be Cashman, the highest votegetter, and the mayor pro tempore, the person who fills in for the mayor, will be Bridgette Moore, the second highest votegetter.

-- Future mayors and mayor pro tempores will be elected by a majority vote of the City Council.

-- A planning commission will be created as soon as possible and each council member will select a representative on the commission.

In some cities, the office of mayor is rotated among the council members, but there is no mention of a rotation in Wildomar's document.

Unlike a strong mayor city, the vote cast by Wildomar's mayor will not have any more weight than the votes cast by the other council members. But the mayor does have the responsibility of representing the city, signing official documents, running a meeting in a "business-like manner," setting an agenda and calling special meetings.

Earlier during the meeting, Wildomar's interim finance director, Steve Stark, told the council-elect that Wells Fargo bank has been selected to provide banking services for the city and the bank has agreed to float the city a $500,000 line of credit after incorporation.

That money will come in handy as Stark noted that the city, even though it hasn't been formed yet and taken in a dollar in revenue, already owes $280,000 to cover pre-incorporation costs.

Contact staff writer Aaron Claverie at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2624, or aclaverie@californian.com.

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