About 70 motorcycle riders roared out of the parking lot of The Roadrunner Saturday at noon, their chrome exhuast pipes creating an artificial thunder.
They followed a slick winding road to Julian and back, braving the rain-drenched Backcountry roads on the first ever Queen of Hearts ride to benefit breast cancer research.
They were a tough, rough and ready crowd of bikers, members of groups with names like the Black Sheep and Wings of Eagles. They wore weathered leather jackets with mottos like “Live to Ride” and “No Whining” and carried wallets at the end of chains.
But they were on a tender-hearted mission, to raise money to bring closer the day when their wives, sweethearts, sisters and daughters will no longer live under the threat of breast cancer.
There were just about as many stout-hearted women riding in the group.
Estha Trouw, Channel 6 anchor, and Parks District Pres. Eric Jockinsen were co-MC’s at the festival later at Adams Park. Stan Miller, Channel 10 anchor, billed for months as the lead rider, cancelled on the threat of rain, according to organizers.
The ride and the silent auction at the festival that followed raised about $9,000 according to organizer Mary Burdick.
Music was provided by the Hot Pursuit Band, which was playing on the birthday of lead singer Delene St. Clair.
The money will be donated to Carol’s Crew, a five-woman team that will be walking in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk, Nov.9–11.
If you missed Saturday’s eventyou can still contribute by buying a T-shirt of the event.
Shirts cost $7 apiece or two for $10. Just come into The Roadrunner office or call Mary at 749-1112.
In the wake of Supervisor Bill Horn's $12,000 fine by the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission (see Roadrunner, Sept. 5) another allegation—conflict of interest in raising his Chief of Staff's salary— has been confirmed by the FPPC, but Horn will not be prosecuted for this violation.
On Sept. 12 “Friends of Bill Horn” (his campaign committee) was fined $9,000 for fiscal irregularities on his campaign finance reports for his reelection in 2002.
An additional fine of $3,000 was levied for not reporting income from his apartment building tenants in 2004 and 2005, and for the omission of the 2004 payment “over $100,000” by his Chief of Staff, Joan Wonsley, for an interest in a residence owned by Horn in Carlsbad.
While the details of the Horn/Wonsley real estate arrangement have been kept from the media, the FPPC confirmed that Wonsley’s September 2004 payment to Horn was $349,261.38.
She reported on her Statement of Economic Interest (Form 700) that she co-owns the property with Supervisor Horn and that it is her residence. Only Horn’s name is on the deed.
In an FPPC letter last week to Charlene Ayers of El Cajon, a frequent watchdog of County political activity, the Commission confirmed that her formal complaint filed in May, 2006 resulted in the investigation of Horn's real estate reporting irregularities and the resulting fines.
Sept. 12 the FPPC also wrote Horn a strongly-worded "warning letter advising him of the violation” of raising Wonsley’s salary on Feb. 18, 2005, within 12 months of receiving her $349,261.38.
The letter was sent to Horn c/o his attorney Kevin Heneghan of the Sutton law firm in San Francisco—the attorneys of record for Horn's campaign since early last year.
The formal complaint of conflict of interest between Horn/Wonsley was filed March 24, 2006 by Ian Trowbridge of San Diego, a retired Salk Institute scientist active in local political investigations.
A letter from the FPPC received Friday by Dr. Trowbridge confirmed the results of the commission's investigation of his complaint.
It included a copy of the letter to Horn which states, in part, “As you are aware, the primary purpose of the conflict of interest provisions of the (Political Reform) Act is to ensure that public officials, whether elected or appointed, perform their duties in an impartial manner, free from bias caused by their own financial interests … a public official may not make, participate in the making, or influence governmental decisions regarding a source of income within 12 months preceding the decision.
“Our investigation revealed that on Feb. 18, 2005, as a member of the County Board of Supervisors, you made a governmental decision to increase the salary of your Chief of Staff, Joan Wonsley, a disqualifying source of income of yours.”
“Disqualifying” in Commission parlance means that Horn was not permitted to raise his Chief's salary because his receipt of her funds “disqualified” him from being able to make that decision.
On April 28, 2006 Horn had filed a lengthy special disclosure regarding the raise he gave Wonsley, arguing “based on County ordinance provisions I am the only County official with the authority to make a determination on the salary of Joan Wonsley.” (Ironically, this was a point that Dr. Trowbridge had noted.)
County ordinances, however, cannot justify a violation of the Political Reform Act. The option open to Horn would be to delay granting Wonsley a raise until a full year had lapsed since her payment to Horn on the Carlsbad house.
Because Horn “ultimately” made the disclosures and “cooperated fully” in the investigation, the FPPC wrote Horn that “we have decided not to prosecute you for this violation.” Stating that “We consider conflict of interest violations of the Act to be very serious,” it continued with the warning, “please be advised that your failure to comply ... in future will result in an enforcement action being initiated against you. In addition, the circumstances of this case would be used as aggravating information in any future prosecution brought against you ... monetary penalties of up to $5,000 may be imposed for each violation of the Act.”
Tuesday morning, in Public Communications at the Board of Supervisors, Dr. Trowbridge entered the FPPC correspondence into the record, asking, “How did the County end up in this embarrassing position? The FPPC clearly recognized the conflict under the law. Mr. Horn cannot be making decisions on how much taxpayer money is paid to his Chief of Staff, when he is involved in a million dollar investment with her at the same time.”
The Valley Center Fire Protection District’s ISO rating will soon get a fresh once-over by the company that grades fire districts—a grade that insurance companies use to determine homeowners’ rates.
ISO (Insurance Services Office) has not taken a fresh look at Valley Center in about ten years, Fire Chief Kevin O’Leary told the fire board Thursday.
Valley Center has a rating of “6” for areas within five miles of a fire station and a “9” for the rest of the district. The lower the score the better the rates.
He noted that the district can affect its rating—for the better. “But what are you going to get depends on what you put into it,” he noted.
ISO ratings have a bigger impact on the cost of business insurance than on homeowners’ insurance, said the chief. Not all insurance companies use ISO’s ratings.
“When you get to a four that’s when you start seeing lower rates,” he said.
“There’s many different things they look at, such as training, and how many personnel you can get to a fire.
“The biggest thing to overcome to decrease our score is the average response time,” said O’Leary, who has given materials to ISO that he hopes will get them to do a new evaluation.
“Things are different now than they were ten years ago, including much mutual aid and the new reservation fire departments in the area,” he said.
The additional staffing for engines being paid for by the County, “will provide quite a few points,” he predicted.
“They will look at travel times [to an incident]. I would hope they would come in after the road construction.”
Light & Air Unit
At Thursday’s board meeting directors and audience members got to inspect the district’s new light and air engine.
They saw a demo of the extremely bright LED lights that will illuminate nighttime accidents and the pumps that enable crews to refill air tanks at the scene of a fire.
The engine, which was paid for by the County but will be staffed and equipped by the fire district and made available to surrounding fire districts, will be equipped with swift water, trench and confined space rescue equipment.
The special engine, which cost $400,000, can also deploy 400 ft of hydraulic line. This enables crews to go down an embankment to perform an extraction (extraction equipment such as the Jaws of Life are powered by hydraulics). It is expected to be in service by the beginning of next year.
Anyone who serves on it require special certification. Training will be provided by the County.
“But just because we have the engine doesn’t mean that we have the staffing,” observed fire board Pres. Mel Schuler.
Since the engine will be available to surrounding districts the hope is that those who benefit from it will help provide staffing.
Director Dan Thornton, the district’s financial director, said he was concerned because he has been told that when firefighters do trench and confined space rescues the district is opened to exposure from Worker’s Comp.
“What will our liability be?” he asked.
The chief corrected him: “Liability comes from trying to do something that you are untrained for and don’t have proper equipment to do. As the community grows you need to be able to react to these kinds of emergencies more and more.”
He noted that VC Municipal Water District workers who are laying water mains in tandem with the VC Road widening are at risk from such hazards.
“We are going to be responding to such calls in the future. We need to be able to find a way to do it,” said O’Leary.
Thornton said his concern is “Who will have the ultimate responsibility if someone is injured or killed?”
He worries that if the unit leaves the district, to, say, do a swift water rescue on the San Luis Rey River that VCFPD would be left without those staff members.
“I would hate to see our district, which I’m responsible for, short of personnel because they are out of the district,” he said.
The County is not offering much beyond the engine itself. Equipping and staffing it will be VCFPD’s responsibility.
“The board needs to be cautious that Valley Center doesn’t take a hit for the entire battalion and entire region,” said Schuler.
Cost of a station
Fire administrator John Byrne reported on how much a new fire station is likely to cost, shortly before the board adopted a tax rate of $416 per year with an annual inflation rate of 4% for the Mello Roos district that it aims to create for new developments.
Part of that tax will be used to pay for a new fire station.
The price tag for such a station is between $2.5-$4 million, or about $450/square foot.
Byrne noted that there are 1,194 new residences covering 9,400 acres in the County’s “pipeline” for approval. Once a Mello Roos is created, all of them would have to pay the new tax, in addition to existing benefit fees home owners already pay.
A Mello Roos will likely be formed first on the 356 units that are in the proposed Lilac Ranch development. But once that exists, it will be able to tax any new house that is built.
This tax only applies to new houses. Not to remodels, or granny flats.
Thornton asked why a fire station costs so much. “Why is a station that is for all practical purposes a huge garage, and not real fancy living quarters double that of the square footage for a mansion?”
Byrne replied that it was because of the specialized construction and equipment that is mandated to be built into new stations, like bay exhaust systems (to keep diesel fumes from accumulating in the building) and eye wash stations.
“There’s a long litany of things that are required,” said Byrne, noting that fire stations also have to earthquake proof.
Valley Center resident Angelo Damante was roasted and toasted Friday at an event honoring him. It was held at the car dealership he founded.
Damante was awarded the Distinguished Citizen Award for 2007 by the Boy Scouts of San Diego Imperial counties.
The event included a dinner and silent auction.
The evening featured examples of Boy Scouts in action, including a series of Pinewood Derby races. There was also a brief report on Scouting and its impact on the Escondido community.
Three people roasted Damante, Irv Erdos, comedian and columnist for the North County Times, attorney Rich Marino, and Bob Shuster.
There were also a few impromptu speeches from audience members.
Jeff Boswell of the Boy Scouts chaired the committee to organize the event.
Proceeds will benefit scouting in the troop’s Kit Carson District, extending from Escondido to San Marcos.
Past Distinguished Citizen awardees have included Congressman Darrell Issa, San Diego radio talk show host Roger Hedgecock, Ben Weseloh, and Alan Uke.
As the fifth anniversary of the grand opening of Harrah’s Rincon Casino & Resort was being celebrated, plans were also being laid for an extensive remodel of the original hotel, the Garden Tower.
Construction began Sept. 4 with an anticipated completion date of Dec. 15.
“We are pleased to announce that construction has begun on our Garden Tower remodeling project,” said Janet Beronio, senior vice president and general manager. “After five years, we felt it was time to enhance the rooms in our Garden Tower so that they are more in keeping with the touches and amenities in our Spa Tower. The idea is to take the best and make it even better for our guests.”
The plans for the Garden Tower remodel call for a complete refurbishment of the existing 200 rooms, including luxurious new furniture, carpeting, wall coverings, and plasma televisions in each room.
The project will also replace the current Garden Tower lobby and office area with additional rooms, bringing the Garden Tower’s room-count to 203 rooms.
The most extensive work will take place on the first floor as the 17 pool level rooms (three two-bay suites, two two-bay suites, and 13 standard king and queen rooms) are fitted out with new private patios, enclosed with planter walls and metal trellis systems.
In addition, each of the pool level suites will have new sunken private spas.
The Garden Tower will also introduce a new pool deck, which will include two new spas, four private cabanas, a new water feature, new fire pits with built-in seating benches and planters, and a lush landscaping scheme.
Work has already commenced on a new, state-of-the-art junior ballroom, which will be located on the second floor of the Spa Tower. This space will be able to accommodate a variety of events, including presentations, musical performances, banquets, meetings, and receptions.
“We are all very excited about this project,” stated Mike Stratton, vice president of marketing. “Our guests have been asking whether we had any plans to upgrade our Garden Tower after the Spa Tower opened. Naturally, we took their comments and wishes into consideration when we began planning for this remodeling project, just as we did when we planned the Spa Tower. We shared these with the Friedmutter Group and they did a great job of incorporating these comments into their designs.”
Friedmutter Group, based in Las Vegas, NV, is an award-winning design, architecture, and master planning firm specializing in large multi-use hospitality, casino, entertainment, retail, and high-rise condominium projects.
The VC Parks & Rec. District wants your input on what it should do to develop the 9.5 acres that it owns on the corner of Lilac & Valley Center Roads.
The district board will hold a public hearing on Sept. 27, 7 p.m. at VC Community Hall downstairs.
According to Gen. Mgr. Doug Johnsen, the district’s consultants, Masson & Assoc., will give a presentation and a map of the property.
Right now they are proposing a community and senior citizens center for the land. But the district is open to other suggestions.
There is also land set aside for a trail on the property, although there is no money at present set aside for developing it.
Board Pres. Eric Jockinsen will conduct the hearing.
Speakers will be limited to three minutes. Written comments can also be submitted at that time, or mailed or dropped off to the district.
The mailing address is:
Valley Center Parks & Rec.
P.O. 141
Valley Center CA 92082
Questions? Call the district office at 749-8852.
The Valley Roadrunner
P.O.B. 1529, Valley Center, CA 92082
Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688
Website: www.valleycenter.com
Email: editor@valleycenter.com
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