POC - City Participation in Cox Cable Production of Poway Turns 15
8fJ8 CMCP.'I/
1.t360 M(I.,-I"1/- R.J
f)a,,-,. ell 93lJ6JJ
(619) 7118-3968
To: Mayor and members of the Council
From: Bob Emery ~
Re: City participation in Cox Cable production of .Poway Turns 15.
Date: 28 November 1995
The City Manager has provided us with the script for a cable TV production of
something called .Poway Turns 15. to be produced in conjunction with Poway
High School and Pomerado Publishing, After reading the outline, I have
serious concerns about the City putting its stamp of approval on such a venture
by providing support and participation,
From a City perspective, the celebration of our 15th anniversary should be a
positive and retrospective process, The tone of the Cox production is extremely
negative and in many cases quite derogatory towards the City of Poway and its'
many accomplishments.
I am not opposing the production of the piece, merely our
participation In It. Anybody can produce anything they want, it is a free
country.
However, some of the most glaring .misstatements. are as follows:
.The .City in the Country. is far different today that the vision that City
hood's suooorters had for her." On the contrary, poway is right on course with
the original poway Community Plan, the City's first general plan and the
existing plan, The population is just where it has been planned for the past 20
years or so,
..........15 years have transformed the city and orovided it with Dublic
facilities and imorovements bevond its residents wildest dream and sometimes.
unfortunately. the city's pocketbooks." Our budgets, so far, have always been
in the black,
"Team Poway" OriQinal Council" The term "Team Poway" wasn't coined
until 1986 and died an ignominious death immediately thereafter, There is also
no mention of Poway's first mayor and a major architect of incorporation, Clyde
Rexrode,
"The poway Road Specific Plan. a re-desiQn of the entire poway Road
business district is now in its final stages." It is unwise to speak of something
that has yet to come up for adoption as if it is a fait accompli! With the heavy
opposition to the plan by the business community, it is questionable of when,
and even if, this plan will ever be adopted, It doesn't send a very good
message to the business community to broadcast that it will be "implemented"
Especially since public hearings have not been held yeti
"In 1994. Poway took on SDG&E when the utilitv wanted to out throuoh a
maior natural oas oioeline and lost. SDG&E not onlv went throuoh with the
proiect but. as a result of Pow~'s contentiousness. withdrew thousands of
dollars of donations promised to local proiects." Not true. Through negotiations,
the City retained all of the local improvements promised by SDG&E including all
safety features they had asked for and natural gas service to Old Pomerado
Road and Creek Road, The City did not just "take on" SDG&E, it followed the
wishes of its citizens who were alarmed over the prospect of a 36" high
pressure gas line outside their front doors and schoolsl
"Perhaps one of the biooest ironies lies in the fact that the uoscale
neiQhborhoods in North Poway which have earned the city the privileQe of
beino the city with the highest per capita income in the county. were all
aooroved before the city incorcorated. Develooment. the verY thino the city
founders incorporated to prevent. has helped it become the jewel that it is.
attracting some of the areas top celebrities.......... First, those North Poway
developments that were adopted prior to incorporation, to a major degree met
the guidelines of the Poway Community Plan and had been worked out
between the developers and PPDP, Second, "all" North poway developments
were not approved prior to incorporation, including; most of Lomas Verdes
Estates, Old Winery Estates, Macmillan Homes, Bridelwood East, Highland
Ranch, Green Valley Estates, etc,
My point being, if poway Turns 15, is a news program, let the "news" be
accurate, or else the City should not legitimize the program through its
participation. If it is a program of editorial comment, then the City should not be
a party to it.