Hemet Guardian

I want to address something that everyone has been pretty quiet on, with the exception of those of us that pay close attention to the details and the minutia of the city.

There is plenty of blame to go around when it comes to bad decisions.   Regarding infrastructure. The City Manager has proposed that the city slurry seal the auto mall in favor of the badly in need streets of Hemet. Mind you, not all the streets are in terrible shape, but a whole lot of them are.

A lot of people griped about it stating the city should take care of the city proper, since it’s in lousy shape. No one is disputing the fact the streets are in terrible

shape. HOWEVER, bear in mind, the auto mall is the greatest contributor of tax revenue coming into the city AND, very important, that tax money STAYS IN THE CITY.

That money does NOT go outside the city of Hemet.

The City Manager is protecting a valuable source of income and in my humble opinion, he has it right.

I do not always agree with or like some of the decision I see the City Manager making, but this is definitely one of the right ones and a big one.. When he makes what I

think is a bad decision; I’ll be the first one to complain about it.

Let the City Manager KNOW when you agree or disagree.  You can do that by visiting the City of Hemet website and sending him an email.  He does read emails!

It’s that time of the year again, the fiscal year, that is, for the city of Hemet. Lots of meetings going on between various departments and council members. Oh, let’s not forget the public safety unions…. they are a big part of the process.

Let’s talk about Hemet Public Safety. I don’t know how many of you remember the attempt to pass Measure E? I was thrilled when it flopped. We all know how it feels to have a new tax shoved down our throats. Actually, it wasn’t a bad measure. All money collected would have been used exclusively for public safety; it would not have gone into the General Fund. For those of you not familiar with the General Fund, basically, anything coming in or going out goes through the General Fund. According to the website Accounting Tools, the general fund is the primary fund used by a government entity. This fund is used to record all resource inflows and outflows that are not associated with special-purpose funds. The activities being paid for through the general fund constitute the core administrative and operational tasks of the government entity. Since the bulk of all resources flow through the general fund, it is most critical to maintain control over the expenditures from it.

When Measure E failed, some folks decided to try a different tactic. Enter Measure U. Now THAT one passed and it has been a headache up from day one. Trying to get information on how the money was being spent turned out to be difficult and very time consuming.. Some of us would submit public information requests only to see them drag on and on and on. These requests are known by the acronym FOIA (Freedom of Information Act). The city is very slow to act on FOIA requests, particularly when they have something to hide. What this writer discovered over time, was massive amounts of money were going to overtime. Who was getting this overtime? The Fire captains. Lots and lots of overtime. What a lovely pot of money they’ll have when they retire. This is all at the expense of the public. We are talking an over budget amount of approximately $800,000. Yes siree. That is almost a million bucks of tax payer money.

Enter Measure H. The Fire Department was so terrified at the prospect of losing all this extra money when Measure U expired (also known as a sunset date), they decided to play it safe and suddenly, up pops Measure H. Oh, by the way, there is no sunset on Measure H. It does on into perpetuity, unless of course the citizenry decides they want to change that. It should be noted that all the surrounding municipalities have a public safety tax but it appears the money is used the way it was intended

There are about a half dozen people in Hemet that have worked tirelessly to expose the shenanigans, mostly perpetuated by the Hemet Fire Department union (David Prieto) and the relatively new fire chief (Eddie Sell). I have gotten hold of credit card statements to see where money is being spent by various directors, managers, city council members. This is merely the start of this investigation. The police union is part of this party too.  But is Fire that has been the most obvious of the perpetrators.  hey have successfully used FEAR tactics to get what they want.  If you attend city council meetings on a regular basis, you will note that Chief Sell comes with his hand out regularly. By the way, did you know that Chief Sell gave away one of the city’s fire trucks?  Out of the kindness of his heart, he gave a truck worth a couple of hundred thousand to the Hemet Unified School District for their new fire program (under the guidance of his brother (Greg Sell). That was a fire truck that could have been used in exchange for a TRADE for a newer one. He did that without the knowledge of city council (to the best of my understanding). I was present at the meeting where that was disclosed.  Bless his heart for giving away city property. This was discussed at the October 25, 2022 council meeting. These are my notes and here’s a link to the You Tube video. The black is the actual resolution, red are my notes during the meeting, green are additional notes and blue represents specific information regarding the actual “give away” I don’t know if city council was ever actually told that this give away was going to take place OR if Chief Sell was “winging “ it and just trying to push it through. I don’t want to be untruthful here, but the agenda, notes and minutes speak for themselves.

City Council Meeting 10/25/2022 – YouTube

15 A A Resolution of the City Council of the City of Hemet, California, Awarding the purchase of One (1) 2023 Diesel Ford F- 550, 4×4, Crew Cab XLT for use as Type 6 Medic Patrol to Boise Mobile Equipment, Authorizing the Finance Director to Record a Supplemental Appropriation in the Amount of $312,024.91, and Authorizing the City Manager to Execute All Documents Related to this Contract According to staff report, Hemet cannot fulfill an obligation to “trade” one of its current trucks for this new one. WHY NOT? If this truck REPLACES the current Medic Squad which operates off a Ford F250 pickup, with that of the new Medic Patrol Type VI, why can’t Hemet trade out what they have for the newer truck? (this comes out of Measure U $$) Is this the truck you (Eddie Sell) donated to Hemet High? YES, Krupa pulled this & asked Chief Pust about it. Kevin Kuhlman (staff of HFD) Battalion Chief. Mr. Krupa was thrilled with his response. Yahoo. PASSED 50 EDDIE SELL’S BROTHER HELPED TO DEVELOP THE PROGRAM AT HEMET HIGH. NOTHING WRONG WITH THE PROGRAM, IT’S JUST A REAL QUESTION OF HOW THE GIVE AWAY CAME ABOUT.

This is taken from the 10/25/2022 Council Minutes – the motion was carried 5/0 by the full council (Krupa, Brown, Meyer, Lilienthal, Males). They all voted this in, $312,024.91

There is a whole lot more to this story but as I am able to, I’ll post information. There are a handful of us that are all too familiar with the games, the literal stranglehold the unions have on our city. I’m not the only one. Some of the biggest proponents of Measure E have come full circle…..I believe, regretting the error of their ways.  I’m happy to report, from what I’ve been told, the City Manager is well aware of the catastrophe before him, this $800,000 sinkhole.  All city council members are well aware of it.  The proposed solution to closing down fire station five and relying on station one is NOT, repeat NOT a solution.  The solution is to get enough fire fighters on board so the overtime will be minimal.  As it is, the proposal is to integrate station one and five.  That won’t save a dime people.  Anyone that is assigned to station one, will be doing it after their regular hours and therefore, BINGO!, get paid overtime.  Are they kidding?  This is not a solution.  I have gotten that information from several sources, NOT the city council.  

Fast forward to 2023. Hemet has a new city manager, Mark Prestwich. Budget talks are in the works. I wonder how this will fare? There is a PUBLIC MEETING this week.. Check with the city on the date, time, location. Last time I looked, the link wasn’t working properly. The City Council needs to hear from YOU regarding the use (or misuse) of Measure U money. The City Manager needs to know that you are paying attention. He needs community support. My suggestion to anyone reading this is to quit complaining and get involved, PLEASE, before we lose this city.   If you are interested in the City Manager update, here is a link:

https://www.hemetca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/8815/March-2023-City-Manager-Updates?bidId=

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