The Hemet City Council last week voted unanimously to appoint Carole Kendrick to fill the District 1 seat following the death of Councilmember Karlee Meyer in April.
“I care about Hemet, I’ve been here since 1999,” Kendrick said during the June 13 interview process. “I raised my daughter here, I have roots here. This city is very important to me.”
According to her application, Kendrick previously worked for the city of Hemet in the planning department for more than a decade and served as the chairperson of the Infrastructure Commission.
“As chairperson of the Infrastructure Commission, I have been developing new relationships with staff and my fellow commissioners, in addition to participating in ad hoc committees that contained other commissioners, city council members, the interim city manager, and department heads and planning commissioners,” she said. “My approach [on city council] would be to continue building on these relationships that I have, and being a valuable contributing member to the city of Hemet.”
Kendrick is currently the planning manager/senior planner for the city of Beaumont where she manages and directs all planning department activities and services including working with local businesses to ensure compliance with all necessary regulations. She said the city of Hemet needs to focus on creating a “business friendly atmosphere.”
“I think that there’s an impression that it’s hard to develop in the city,” she said. “There’s lots of obstacles, it’s hard to have open communication, so I really think we just have to start by developing a process that says, ‘Yes, we want your business. We’re here to help.’”
As for one of the biggest projects currently on the council’s radar, the Riverside University Health System’s Wellness Village, Kendrick told the council she could not support it.
“Although I understand the need for these services, I don’t believe that the location supports the long-term needs for the citizens,” she said. “When they’re obtaining these services, when they complete their treatment, they’re going to be looking for transportation and they’re going to be looking for job centers, you know, and unfortunately, Hemet, we don’t have, you know, a lot of job opportunities.”
She said a better location for the facility would be a community where people who have completed their treatment have what they need to continue on with their recovery including transportation and jobs.
Other applicants for the position included Dick Clark IV, Norman Kyriss III, Terry Larned, Deni Antoinette Mazingo, Roger Meyer and George Schaefer.
The full meeting video can be found here on the city’s YouTube page.
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