Ty to Joseph Morabito for going to the meeting and giving us this blog about the visit. I am reposting due to the fact that shortly after I posted this blog one of the regular bullies of the patch decided he needed to "bump" his link to another newsource. I am not sure what he is afraid of in this blog. For the blog with video please follow this link. http://wildomarrap.blogspot.com/2014/04/congressman-calvert-and-city-council.html
• Congressman Calvert and the City Council
Well, it was nothing of what I'd expected. I really was anticipating a full house and plenty of public comments. I got to the council chambers about 20 mins before start time to see a locked door and an empty hallway. I figured if there were people wanting to speak in front of our Planning Commission, which is a regular occurrence, there would be a throng of those wanting to get on the record in front of a congressman.
This is where you insert the game show buzzer sound >>>RRRR<<< because I was 180 degrees wrong on that one.
I was among a very few that weren't with the city or part of the congressman's entourage.
Before the meeting was called to order, congressman Ken Calvert came over to me and introduced himself. He's represented this general area for 21 years, so I asked if he knew my dad (a former business owner in Corona) and they had met before.
Several topics were brought up.
- Funding for Bundy Canyon (which led to a conversation about gas taxes)
- Help with getting funds restored that were taken away by the state
- Waterways and fairy shrimp
- Modifying and modernizing the Endangered Species Act "to reflect the reality of today's society."
- Some addresses in town that still have Lake Elsinore listed as their city
In the end, as pleasant as the 40 minutes were, I didn't see how anything was going to be noticeably different here any time soon. We all know that congress is broken, and even the most well intended ideas are usually going to go nowhere... or if they were to, it will be so many years into the future that I'd have forgotten they were ever on the table in the first place. Welcome to the snail pace of government. Oh, and most of the things we face are local or state level, and a Republican Congressman is going to have little sway over our governor... even if they've known each other for years.
Check out the brief video of comments that are out of context. Calvert jokingly talks about whether or not Gov. Jerry Brown listens when he (the congressman) speaks to him... I only included it because he mentions "the blog getting back to Jerry" which I found to be funny.
