I was on Hill MAC, for a number of years with meetings every month and the same thing happened every month. Board members would show up and we would be lucky to have one or two people from the public show.

Every month, the president would be the one to bring up a subject to talk about and that would be the meeting. I could count on one hand the meetings we had for things the Hill MAC was intended for. When we did, people would get upset because they thought we were there to be able to fix the problem.

Someone wrote that Jeff Stone stopped the meeting and that is incorrect. At the first or second meeting after I became president of Hill MAC, I said we should not have any more meetings unless it’s a meeting about a concern for the board to meet, and from that meeting on there was never another meeting.

Every year, I still get a form from the county to fill out saying I have no conflict of interest being on that board.

If that board was still going and they brought up the CSD [Community Service District] idea I would vote “No” within a second.

It was brought up in a past meeting and I did some investigation on that subject. That was around seven years ago. I found it to be a bad idea where other communities did and wished they never would have done it.

Last year at a LAFCO [Local Area Formation Commission, every California county has one] meeting, I sat next to someone who voted it in where he was on that board. I asked him many questions and over all it was a bad choice for them.

Everything was costing a ton of money and that money comes from taxes everyone has to pay. The other problem is it has to go to a two-thirds vote and I cannot believe Idyllwild could have a two-thirds vote on anything.

And to top it off, a five-member board; who would you want on that board?

I have been an advisory committee member for CSA 36 for many years. My personal opinion, now that the county has taken over recreation, three, maybe four, meetings a year are enough unless a special need comes up.

Otherwise it’s the same kind of meeting as occurred for Hill MAC.

Mike Freitas
Idyllwild