Rusty Strait

All hell and then some broke out at the Hemet City Council meeting Tuesday Night. First, the preliminaries. The council met in a private session at 6:00 pm. Discussions regarding labor negotiations took place for the next hour and then the regular public meeting began at 7:00 pm. The house was full but quiet. Call to order, roll call, invocation, pledge of allegiance, city attorney’s comments regarding closed session. All calm on the western front and then the meeting was opened to public comments and boy, did they have public comments. One by one, they paraded before the camera. Some were angry, others pleading, but they all had one issue: Keep Joe Males on the counter. The Pro-Males speakers were all present; the Anti-Males argument were all by phone or streaming with one anti Males caller city threats against him if he appeared in person.

This past Saturday, Matt McPherson’s Downtown Hemet Farmer’s Market, hosted a car show in the back parking behind Team Quest Gym.

Late last week, the Hemet City Council held a session on the upper patio of the Hemet Public Library. What started out as a warm late afternoon ended up after dark like a night in Alaska. The wind gusts were harsh and bitter. One could applaud the brave souls that stayed until the end.

No one should ever accuse the San Jacinto City Council meetings as dull or slow. I covered one on the web Tuesday night and had barely signed in when the doings began.

It never ceases to amaze me how one story can lead to another. A few weeks ago, I wrote about a local coffee shop that changed its name to The Destination Smokehouse and Eatery, expecting that to be the whole story. But it wasn’t. A previous meeting in a barbershop with the owner led to a more widespread story.