More than 30 years ago, Bob Cashman and his wife Diane purchased two acres in Wildomar and built their own home from design to completion. Although Wildomar has grown and evolved over the years, Cashman still hopes to see this type of independent pioneering opportunities for the city’s residents.
Wildomar City Council candidate Bob Cashman (Courtesy photo)
Cashman served the last four years on the Wildomar City Council and hopes to be re-elected in next month’s election.
“The long-term plan is to maintain a sense of the community of Wildomar as our population grows and changes,” he said. “I’d like a community center where the community can come together more as one … we just have to find the money for it.”
Funding has been an issue for the city of Wildomar.
Last year, a state budget change took millions from newly formed cities, including $1.8 million a year from Wildomar. The lost funding represents about one-fifth of the city’s operating budget.
“I’ll continue to work on getting the revenue due to us back again,” Cashman said. “Until then, we’re trying to maintain a reasonable amount of service in the face of declining revenues. To do this, we’ll continue using contract services … using people as needed. Ultimately, over time, things may be different.”
Cashman has five children and continues to live in the home he and his wife built. He is also author of the book, “Wildomar,” published by Arcadia Publishing in 2010.
The book includes more than 200 vintage photographs gathered by Cashman over several years and a written detailed history of the area.
As an aircraft engineer for an Irvine company, Cashman says he is able to apply his analytical approach to city council issues, usually voting on the side of local control and fiscal conservancy.
He feels this approach is why Wildomar has still been able to remain solvent, even through the declining economy and loss of state funds.
“I advocate a small city government that retains some rural character, such as a trails network and equestrian uses,” Cashman said. “I consistently vote to require quality development.”
As a member of the Wildomar Chamber of Commerce foundation board, Cashman has been an active in the chamber, including serving as its president three times.
He believes that responsible growth for the city will continue creating local jobs and local business development.
In the future, Cashman hopes to see parks and a community center become priority items for the city. Also, as a former Lake Elsinore School Board member, he hopes to see a college campus located in the city.
“Education is still a great interest to me and one of my tasks is to convince a college to move to Wildomar,” Cashman said. “I worked on that issue during my first term and saw some progress and will continue to work toward it in my second term.”
Leading up to the November elections, SWRNN.com will run a series of candidate profiles describing each potential contender for this year’s open city council seats. Stay tuned for continued Election 2012 coverage.
Jennifer Dean is a local writer and regular contributor to SWRNN.
Loading ...
I live in the old Sedco Hills area. The worst thing to happen to what was very pleasant area was to be annexed by the loser city of Wildomar. First off my property taxes were robbed by a special tax assessment which later was ruled to be illegal by the state of California. This $400 theft of my money by the spendthrift bandits that run Wildomar has hit me hard since I live only on Social Security. The state sent me a check for $200 and a letter stating the balance due me would have to come from the city of wildomar. When I applied for mt money from them I got the most worthless story from the city manager stating the city used the money to open aprox. 15 new parks and now was on the verge of Bankruptcy thus they now could not refund my hard earned retirement money. He pointed out I could use the new 15 parks to walk my dog in. Well if I can’t afford to feed the dog do to being ripped off by wildomars illegal assessment I surely don’t need some worthless park. After several attempts to get my refund of the over charge on my taxes is one lie after another as to when to expect my money. I sincerely hope the city goes bust and all the criminals that run it are legally delt with. And just for the record I have been informed that all those wonderful parks that I should allegedly walk my dog in are now all closed and over run with homeless people lingering in them. So either pay me back my money you illegally took from me or close the doors of the city of wildomar.