New town of Wildomar deals with economics of incorporation

Last month, voters in Rossmoor looked at whether their tiny town should become Orange County's 35th city. They added up the tax cost, stared at the sinking economy, then voted down cityhood by a two-to-one margin. Back in February, voters in Wildomar in southern Riverside County faced a cityhood question of their own. They tallied up the taxes and the bad economy, too, but they took the plunge. Now the new city of Wildomar is ready to OK its first municipal budget and KPCC's Steven Cuevas says it's turned into a tight squeeze.

Steven Cuevas: Who needs a key to the city, if you've got a key to the bell tower?

Bob Cashman (unlocking bell): We're unlocking the chain which holds the bell from being rung.

Cuevas: Mayor Bob Cashman helped restore Wildomar's cast iron bell. It first tolled more than a hundred years ago. That's right. This new city is actually an old town.

Cashman: It was founded by three people. They attracted farmers from Minnesota, Iowa. They built a hotel just to help relocate people from the Midwest to Wildomar.

Cuevas: In recent times, a new wave of settlers has flooded the Temecula Valley. They come from other parts of Southern California. They're mostly white, mostly middle class, mostly in search of fresh air, rolling hills, and cheap houses – at least, as cheap as houses come in Southern California.

Guys like Mayor Bob Cashman. Interstate 15 made it easy for newcomers to drive to jobs in San Diego or, in Cashman's case, Orange County. Wildomar doubled in size in just 10 years. But there was a problem.

Cashman: Our voice was scarcely heard among the larger areas.

Cuevas: The 27,000 who now called Wildomar home had little say on what home would be like. Riverside County made the development decisions for unincorporated Wildomar – at least, it would until neighboring cities could get their hooks into Wildomar's miles of horse trails and housing tracts. Time to sound the alarm.

[Bell ringing]

Cheryl Ade: The surrounding cities would annex and they would go after the areas of the city that produced the greatest revenue.

Cuevas: Wildomar voters decided to go it alone. Cheryl Ade spurred the quest for cityhood.

Ade: If the county had continued doing our planning for us, I believe we would have lost the opportunity to incorporate, because some of the development was becoming pocketbook development; changing land use designations to fit the market rather than to fit the general plan. The county was not looking at us as a community because they didn't have to.

Cuevas: They do now. Ade – who now serves on the Wildomar City Council – says being a city means cutting the county purse strings, and paying for your own police and fire services.

Ade: Road maintenance, another large expenditure.

Cuevas: Paying for all that stuff won't be easy for Wildomar now. Foreclosures are up. Development is at a standstill. Wal-Mart put the brakes on a new project. Tax revenue is off by at least 10 percent. And a month before it signs off on its first municipal budget, the city could freeze hiring. It's an "I told you so" moment for cityhood opponents.

Joe McCabe: We're a small area and lots of people have grandiose ideas.

Cuevas: Retired aerospace engineer Joe McCabe moved here from Orange County. Not for a cheaper house, but to be closer to his grandkids. He's a practical guy.

McCabe: I opposed cityhood. I think economically it's not the time. We don't have enough tax base in the city. What I saw in economics, I saw things were going this way – not that way.

Cuevas: "This way," says McCabe, is down, into deficit. But Wildomar's cityhood cheerleaders say that doesn't have to happen – even with tax revenue lean. Wildomar's projected city budget is only $13 million.

City Hall is nothing more than rented office space behind the Ace Hardware store. And the City Council debates every dollar – like the 750 proposed to build a float for a local parade.

Woman 1: I would just ask for your consideration not to spend the $750. Waste of taxpayers' money.

Woman 2: If we're going to do a float, it has to look professional. I mean we can't be cheesy little Wildomar and that, coming through.

Cuevas: Mayor Bob Cashman says right now, counting pennies is how Wildomar aims to get through lean times.

Cashman: Starting off in a bad economy is not as good as starting off in a good economy. But it is OK because we're not vested in all the people needed to run the place, so we don't have to lay people off. We can just hire the amount needed for our city. 'Cause we're a startup city, so that's actually to our advantage.

Cuevas: A quick rebound in homebuilding – and home buying – would be to Wildomar's advantage, too. If and when that happens, the city won't have to worry about spending 750 bucks for a parade float. It could pay for the whole parade.