Update 2-5-10

FEBRUARY 5, 2010                                        

Community Rallies For Cityhood

On the heels of qualifying for Ballot, Eastvale Yes campaign

Announces broad based coalition for Cityhood

This afternoon, the Eastvale Yes committee announced the first cityhood rally in Eastvale.  The campaign, which is organized by a coalition of community members that gathered over 5,000 signatures and letters to qualify cityhood for the June ballot is starting their information campaign drive on February 25^th.

“This effort is broad based and will include every family, business, and resident who understands that cityhood will make us even stronger, even safer, and an even better community,” said local business owner Hari Dhiman.

The event will be held at Red Brick Pizza at 7056 Archibald Ave in Eastvale from 6:00 to 9:00 PM on Thursday, February 25, 2010.

Please join us on February 25 and come learn more how you can help.  We need a lot of volunteers to be successful!

For more information, watch for more news on our Facebook and Twitter sites below, watch your email, or email us back at yes@eastvaleYES.com!

Facebook.com/eastvaleYES                            Twitter.com/eastvaleYES

Update 1-22-10

We did it!!!

As previously reported, the LAFCO Board voted unanimously yesterday (6-0) to approve our application for Cityhood. The 3 year effort to get this approval was well worth it in the end.

The entire Eastvale Incorporation Committee would like to thank all the folks who came to the hearing and voiced their support. We would also like to thank all the people who helped work booths, signed petitions, signed letters of support, assisted financially and helped in the numerous tasks that got us to this point. Without your help, this LAFCO approval never would have happened.

The Board of Supervisors will call for an election at their next meeting on January 26, 2010. After that, the election will occur on June 8, 2010. There will be 3 issues on the ballot relating to Eastvale. They are yes or no on Cityhood, Should council members be voted by district or at-large and vote for 5 City Council members. Should the election be positive, the new City of Eastvale would be effective October 1, 2010.

Again, thank you to all who helped. We will be providing additional information in the coming weeks regarding how we move forward. We will need additional volunteers so please contact us at info@eastvaleinc.org if you can help.

Thank you Eastvale!

Update 1-15-10

As you might know, we came one step closer to cityhood this week when the Riverside County Board of Supervisors approved an amendment to our revenue neutrality agreement. This amendment enhances the general fund position of Eastvale and assists in providing mutual aid to Eastvale in the case of a natural disaster or other extreme emergencies.

The LAFCO hearing on our cityhood petition will be heard this coming Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 9:30 AM at the Supervisors chambers at 4080 Lemon St. in Riverside. The chambers are located on the first floor. This will most likely be the final meeting with LAFCO and this is when they will be rendering a decision on whether we can move forward with creating the City of Eastvale. If approved, the matter will go to a public vote in June.

We need as many people from Eastvale to attend as possible. A strong showing by residents will do a great deal to help our effort. We had approximately 40 people in attendance at the last hearing and we are hoping for 60 or more at this meeting. I can’t stress this enough, this is the most important meeting to date and our future may well rest with the outcome. If you can, please take time out of your day to attend. Bring family members and let your neighbors know as well. In order to get an approximate count, please e-mail jdegrandpre@eastvaleinc.org and let us know you’re coming.

Don’t forget, to show solidarity, please wear RED.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Update 1-12-10

I know it has been a long road with plenty of twists and turns, but after more negotiations with the county, some very important points have come to light, each having a great deal of benefit for the Cityhood proposal for Eastvale:

1.       The city will no longer be forced to pay for ongoing county expenses, like those that pay for District Attorney and other agencies, exclusively from general fund revenue thereby freeing millions of dollars in funds that were restricted for public safety use(specifically fire) to pay for the appropriate expenses.  As a result, the all important general fund reserve now stands at 42% and the city budget is in the black or break even in all ten years of the study.

2.       The city and county have agreed to fund the mutual aid regional system for the city starting day one of incorporation.  This wise partial use of restricted fire fund reserves will allow us to ensure that the same disaster and emergency protections we rely on as part of the unincorporated county system will remain the same and improve over time. 

In short, the City clearly has the funds to incorporate, even in these tough times, and by making the wise decision to use the taxes we pay to protect us against disasters we have insured that the City will have the resources to keep Eastvale families safe from  emergencies, protect our tax dollars, and continue to improve our roads.

This morning, the County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to approve the revised agreement with the Cityhood committee that will help make all of the above a reality.  We appreciate your support and look forward to seeing you at the next Cityhood hearing on Janaury 21 at the County Hall of Administration at 9:00 AM!  See you there and be sure to wear RED!!!

Update 12-31-09

The next LAFCO hearing to determine if we can move forward with Cityhood will be on January 21, 2010 at 9:30AM. The hearing will be held at the Supervisors' Chambers at 4080 Lemon St. in Riverside on the first floor. We are again asking that people wear red in support of our effort.

Many of you have helped by getting letters of support for cityhood. Due to your efforts, we received over 400 letters. In anticipation of the January 21st meeting, we would like to obtain an additional 400 letters. Please let us know at info@eastvaleinc.org if you can help with getting some letters signed. Each letter will be helpful so please help if you can.

We have had several meetings with various people to ensure the accuracy of the CFA and make any necessary adjustments. At this time, meetings are still underway and I will update everyone when I have more news and information.

Thanks to those who have helped in this process and we hope to see you on January 21st!

Update 11-23-09

The EIC and the County have been doing some background work on the revenue neutrality issues and staffing for the new city. We are hoping for a meeting with the County the week after Thanksgiving. As soon as that meeting occurs, we will notify everyone of the outcome.

Update 10-23-09

The Eastvale Incorporation Committee would like to thank all those people who took time out of their schedules to appear in support of Eastvale at the LAFCO hearing yesterday. It was a great turnout and the sea of red looked great.

Every person who spoke in favor of Eastvale cityhood did a fantastic job. There was plenty of raw and genuine passion with thoughtful comments.

Although disappointed that we have been delayed until January 21, 2010, we scored a very big victory. It was made extremely clear that the Jurupa cityhood effort will not be allowed to go to Hamner!!! This keeps the Eastvale Gateway in Eastvale where it belongs.

Supervisor Tavaglione said several times that the boundary will be the 15 freeway. It is unfortunate that we are unable to go to Wineville at this time but we strongly suggest that the residents of "Township" put together a petition stating that they DO NOT want to be a part of the Jurupa effort and forwarded to LAFCO. This should be done as soon as possible. If you need any help doing this, please contact the EIC for assistance.

The EIC will be having several meetings between now and January 21, 2010 with the County to ensure that both cities are viable. This could be done in a number of ways and the EIC will keep you informed as to any developments.

Again, thank you to all who attended, spoke or signed a letter of support for Eastvale. While we have been delayed a few months, we are confident that the end result will be positive.

Update Reminder 10-19-2009

Update 10-6-09

UPDATE 10-6-09

We now have the final CFA document along with the comments and questions that were submitted along with answers to those comments. This information should be uploaded to this site by the end of the day today.

UPDATE 10-1-09

We are now in the final process of finalizing the CFA and revenue neutrality. The last month has been very busy as we have been attempting to complete all the requirements.

We are anticipating that everything will be completed in a few days. All the final information will be posted here on the web site.

If all goes well, we should be able to make our LAFCO presentation on October 22, 2009. We would like as many people as possible to attend this meeting to support our effort for Cityhood.

Keep watching this site as we will be posting news as it happens.

UPDATE

As you are aware, the Public Review Draft CFA has been released and is located here on this web site.

There have been quite a few discussions on local internet boards regarding the process which is great. There are, however, some issues that need clarification so we will do that here.

·         The three major reasons in becoming a City are:

1.      Local control by local elected representatives

2.      Keep our tax money in Eastvale instead of being spent anywhere in Riverside County.

3.      Prevent another entity from encroaching into the Eastvale General Plan area.

·         Revenue neutrality discussions are expected to begin shortly. They will be completed in time for the staff report issued by LAFCO.

·         At this time, we cannot take over the parks from JCSD unless they ask us to. JCSD, as of now, has not approached us on this subject. It would appear that we will have to wait until after incorporation to address this issue.

Successful incorporations require that we cooperate with the county and its agencies, in addition to several state and other agencies.  Each of those agencies budgets since the start of the incorporation effort turned horribly negative as we all know, yet, we still needed to cooperate with each of those agencies and use their numbers even if they do not fit all of the positive growth that has come out of Eastvale in the past or that is obviously ahead of us.  The numbers reflect Riverside County and the state as a whole. Also, some of the challenges Eastvale will face in this economy are unique to Eastvale.

The analysis which was released is accurate in looking at the picture now, but it represents what Eastvale would look like with less than 10% of the future expected growth in residences, jobs, and shopping, while assuming we still have to build 100% of the infrastructure we would have had to build if every future neighborhood was finished and every store were opened.  After two years of work, the committee has figured out a way to get the Eastvale fiscal analysis closer to truly balancing than either the state budget or those of many local governments, including Los Angeles County – while using honest, conservative figures that Sacramento never seems to use. 

For the last five years, Eastvale has been the hottest growth area for Riverside County.  Today while cooled, the real estate market is moving again already.  We obviously are primed for incredible growth and the analysis and all of the reports we have worked so hard on to be accurate for the incorporation will hold no influence over the city once incorporated because we will control our own destiny at that point.

NEWS

At long last, the Public Review Draft of the Comprehensive Fiscal Analysis has now been released. This will be posted on our web site (Click here) as well as the LAFCO site at www.lafco.org.

The 30-day review period begins on July 10, 2009 and ends on August 10, 2009.­­­­­­­ You are welcome to add your comments regarding the report directly to LAFCO.

We are hoping to be placed on the September 24, 2009 LAFCO meeting in Riverside at 9:00AM. This would be the most important meeting so far. The LAFCO commission will decide then on whether we can move forward with Cityhood. We would like to fill the room with supporters. We are contemplating renting a bus or two to get everyone there that is interested in attending. Please let us know if you would be interested in attending and whether you would take advantage of the bus. You can send an e-mail to jdegrandpre@eastvaleinc.org with your thoughts. We would also be interested in sponsors for the bus trip.

This has been a long process but we are close to the end. This could not have been accomplished without the help of so many residents. There are too many of them to mention here but you know who you are. The community is grateful for your efforts!

The Board thanks you as well.