Horn speaks out on issues

Bill Horn is proud of the Valley Center Library — very proud. Several times during his State of North County Speech last Thursday he invited, urged and virtually commanded those 200 or so who turned out for his speech to be sure and check out the library. The Fifth District supervisor who makes Valley Center his home puckishly confided, “A supervisor isn’t supposed to interfere in construction projects — and I didn’t. I just told them where to put the fireplace and which way the big window should be faced…”

There was much more on the supervisor’s mind than just libraries, and it all came from his extemporaneous self, speaking without a handcrafted speech — from a handful of 3x5 cards that he flourished during the speech.

First, he told the audience his views on things that aren’t in his jurisdiction, such as control of the US Border and requiring that voters provide proper ID when they cast their ballots. Then, he got into things that supervisors are responsible for, such as Hwy 76, public safety and gangs.

Among the many Valley Center VIPs at Horn’s speech were Planning Group Chairman Andy Washburn, Design Review Chairman Lael Montgomery, Roadrunner Publisher Emeritus Van Quackenbush and his wife Marge, Cal & Marcia Townsend, newly minted Senior Deputy Volunteer Fred Best, Chamber President Tom Bumgardner, librarian Sandy Puccio, Fran DeWilde and Jim Chagala. Non-Valley Center notables included County Chief Administrative Officer Walter Eckard; Assessor Tax Collector Greg Smith; Ernie Cowan of the San Diego Assn. of Realtors; aides to various assemblymen and state senators; Wil Gower of Fallbrook; Bob Leonard of the Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce; Nancy Chadwick of Palomar Community College; Chuck Badger, Jr. of the San Diego County Farm Bureau board of directors; Juanita Hayes of the San Marcos Chamber of Commerce; Jerry Horton, president of the board of Interfaith Community Services; and Jim Chambers of the San Diego County Vintners Assn.

The speech was opened by the VC High School chorus, directed by Loralee Beck, who noted that two choral members were exchange students from Ukraine and Brazil.

Horn was surprised at the size of the crowd. “I was expecting fifty or sixty,” he said. The overflow crowd, Horn said, “shows that we need a performing arts center in Valley Center. That needs more money to make it happen,” and mentioned that he had given the high school theater $250,000 from his Community Projects fund.

Returning to his praise of the library, the supervisor recalled his youth, when, as a seventh-grader, he fell in love with libraries. “It was the public library that taught me to read,” he said. At that age he had not yet learned to read well. Because he memorized the correct answers to verbal quizzes, his teachers didn’t learn right away that he wasn’t a proficient reader. Horn has made up for lost time in the years since. “I try to read an hour a day,” he said.

Horn then took up the issue of public safety, bragging that the Board of Supervisors recently voted 4-1 to support completing the fence at the US/Mexican border, despite some environmental concerns. “We should have put it in four years ago. The Board of Supervisors did the right thing,” he said.

“This border must be controlled. I look at the costs and our emergency rooms. We’ve got to stop people from breaking into our country and getting benefits,” he said.

Regarding voter ID, he asserted, “If you can’t tell when the folks voting are legal or not, you have a problem.” He said that the county had a lot of issues with California’s Secretary of State in last year’s election.

This included first committing to using balloting computers and then switching back to punch card ballots. “They changed the rules almost up to the election,” he said. “It’s a problem when you can’t have a stable election.”

He added, “If you need a photo ID to rent a movie, why is there a problem of having a photo ID to register to vote and vote at the polls?”

He called the state assembly and governor’s relationship “the most dysfunctional government operation in my life. It’s like a World War I stalemate!”

He praised Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s attempt to reform state government.

“I do not like to govern by initiative, but if the government will not respond to reform, I support Governor Schwarzenegger in his reform initiatives. We need to break this deadlock,” Horn said. “I don’t always agree with Arnold, but I like this governor.” He added that the county, unlike other local governments, had its financial house in order and successfully sued the state over unfunded, mandated programs.

“We didn’t get the money back, but we kept them from taking more,” he said. “We are one of the few governments in this state — and even this country — that balances its budget.”

He contrasted this to the San Diego City government, saying, “It’s embarrassing to see anything run like that. Maybe they should all be thrown out.”

He added thanks to those who voted for Prop. A last year, an initiative that limits how much property tax the state can confiscate from counties without declaring an emergency.

Horn said he would continue to press for Hwy 76 to be widened. “I’m going to keep the pressure on SANDAG [San Diego Assn. of Governments],” he said. “It’s a deadly two-lane highway. Even on a Sunday it’s busy. It’s the only artery that Riverside has to get to Oceanside.”

That doesn’t mean the area’s natural beauty need be compromised, he said, speaking of progress to make a park of the riparian habitat along the San Luis Rey River.

He has worked on the San Luis Rey River Park project for eight years. It would create a seven-mile river park along the highway. “The San Luis Rey is an active river. It won’t stay on its banks. We want to build an active park where people can recreate. I don’t like parks that keep people out.”

He said he would eventually like to see the river park expanded to include Guajome in Oceanside.

He also praised the Rincon Band of Indians for a land swap to move the project closer to reality. They donated 84 additional acres as part of the park.

Horn also talked about the widening of Valley Center Road. “Some people get mad at me because I widen the roads. I call that ‘progress.’”

He gets hundreds of e-mails weekly from people begging him to put off

creating a traffic impact fee for commercial developers. Such a fee must be adopted by 2008 in order for the county to qualify for grants from SANDAG, he said.

“Projects are being held up because we don’t have such a fee,” said Horn. “Fifty projects in North County are being held up because there are no traffic fees.”

He added, “We need to fix the roads. It’s going to take a lot of money.” He repeated his complaint that the state has taken $18 million this year from the county in gasoline tax money. “This is the money that we pay at the pump. They didn’t borrow it. They took it.”

The county has taken a huge hit in road repair expenses because of

the El Niño rains.

“That’s why we need the traffic fees sooner rather than later, to qualify for SANDAG’s tax allocations,” he said. “That money has to come from somewhere, or else the county will look like the City of San Diego.”

Horn told the group about the first meeting of The North County Alliance to Stop Gang Violence, a recent gathering of top law enforcement leaders including Sheriff Bill Kolender and District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis.

Future events will include business and community leaders and the public. Horn praised Rev. Gerald Johnson, who is leading the TenPoint Coalition, an anti-gang pilot program in Oceanside that received $50,000 from Horn’s Community Projects fund. Of the gangs living in North County, Horn said, “I would prefer that they live in Los Angeles. I’m trying to help them to move.”

“We’re going to hound them into good behavior,” he said, noting that he has been sued several times over this issue by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Many gang members are from south of the border, he said. “Lots of these people shouldn’t be in this country. You send them across the border and they get into a taxi and come back,” said Horn.

Many contract killers, or “shooters,” are also from Mexico, he said. He wants to go to Washington DC to show Congress what the faith-based program is accomplishing here.

“This puts money where our mouths are,” said Horn, who explained that the program enlists ministers in fighting gangs. “Gang members won’t squeal on each other, but Grandma can tell the pastor at her church,” who can share that information with the authorities.

Mentioning the county’s fire-fighting helicopter, he said, “Many thought it was a pipe dream, but it’s now up and operational.” He noted that in the event of a fire similar to the 2003 wildfires: “We don’t have enough assets to stop anything like that. If it hadn’t been for a shift in the wind, that fire would have gone all the way to

the ocean.”

Horn, who sits on the North County Transit District Board, noted that ridership on buses is declining, especially on the coast, although it’s increasing in Escondido. “We are going to have to look at a new way of doing business in the inland communities,” he said.

Finally, he mentioned something of interest to Fallbrook residents: “The citrus plant in Fallbrook is finally getting something done about it. It has been an eyesore and a continuous problem, but we finally have an owner willing to do the cleanup.”