Murrieta City Council Election

I’m sure you’ve seen the abundance of signs in town promoting Randon Lane for a seat on Murrieta’s city council. Many of them state something to the effect of Murrieta Police and Fire Department support Randon Lane 2008. His website states this as well. The problem is that the city or any city department is not allowed to endorse a candidate. The police and firefighter UNIONS do endorse Lane, which is permissible. Some feel that Lane is trying to deceive voters, but he states that this is not his campaign’s intent. He also said that he would correct the error immediately. Other candidates have become annoyed by the falsification and felt it was intentional. The Press Enterprise claims that Lane was previously entangled in a different blunder that related to the endorsements.


This information was released via the Press Enterprise on Thursday, October 23. I visited Lane’s website this morning and saw that he did not make an immediate change to the front page of his website. However, his list of the endorsements on the endorsement page states he is supported by the Murrieta Police Officers Association and the Murrieta Firefighters Association.


My view:


Well, I’m not so sure that I am offended by the misrepresentation on Lane’s signs, whether intentional or not. Prior to reading this article, I fully supported Lane and was sure to vote for him. I found it interesting, but I can perhaps overlook the issue. I guess you could say I'm a little on the fence here, but leaning more towards Randon Lane's side of the fence.


One of the big problems that I have with the City of Murrieta is the fact that nothing is ever done to beautify this city. The attempts I have seen are pretty sad. Think of the three I15 freeway offramps that lead into our city: Clinton Keith, California Oaks, and Murrieta Hot Springs. The offramps are dirty, filled with trash and have a lack of appealing landscape. Our city looks no different than your average truck stop while traveling across the country. Randon Lane is the only candidate that I have seen that has anything to say about this issue. This excerpt taken from his website gives his view of the look of our city:

“Over the years, the initial vision of a beautiful Murrieta has somehow been
lost. I intend to re-focus our energy on creating a community that our
residents are proud of, a community that uses sustainable landscaping practices
and plans for tree-lined and landscaped streets, parks and open spaces. We
can no longer accept the excuse that “this is the best we can do”. Rather,
we will work on new, creative solutions, and then implement those solutions, to
make our City the beautiful place it can be.”

Our other alternatives are Paul Clay, David Landriscina, Douglas McAllister, Emilia Rychener, and Warnie Enochs. Incumbents Doug McAllister and Warnie Enochs are both trying to hold on to their council seats. I am not so sure that they should keep their seats. My community tried to get the council to help us with an extreme traffic problem in our area. I don’t see that these two did anything for us. I don’t think that I will give either of these two one of my two votes. I’m still in the process of researching the other three, but I like Emilia Rychener’s take. I found this comment in the PE regarding her impression of the current council, “"They're not speaking for the people of Murrieta.” Isn’t that what this should be about? Speaking for the people…

References:
http://www.pe.com/localnews/murrieta/stories/PE_News_Local_S_sendorse24.4408fbc.html

http://www.lane2008.com/

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_smurelect14.45a3c83.html

Look for my blog in the next few days in regards to California’s Proposition 4.

Until Next Time…