Anita Edmondson sworn in to represent District 2 on Poway City Council

Poway City Council members welcomed Anita Edmondson as she was sworn into office as a new councilmember on July 7.

During the meeting the council also agreed to charge five properties in Poway a combined $22,520 for weed abatement services that will be collected on the county tax assessor’s roll.

Edmondson had won last month’s District 2 election against Vanessa Springett with 54.65% of the votes compared to Springett’s 45.35% of votes. Edmondson fills a vacancy left by former Councilmember Tony Blain, who resigned on Nov. 5, one day after residents voted to recall him. He has been accused of vote trading and threatening recalls against his colleagues and was censured twice by the council.

Speaker Yuri Bohlen congratulated Edmondson for replacing a council member who resigned amid recall efforts. He described both Edmondson and Springett as “two great candidates.”

“Poway’s long, local nightmare is over,” Bohlen told the council. “The Constitution works. The people rule.”

Edmonson thanked her family and friends and those who supported her campaign that pledged to “protect what makes Poway so special.”

“I’m honored to be back in the seat and to get down to business,” said Edmondson, who is returning to the council after previously filling a vacancy by appointment in 2023 left by Councilmember Barry Leonard.

A reception was held in the council chambers foyer before a new roll call was taken that included Edmondson and the four other council members.

Among others congratulating Edmondson was Springett, who said Edmondson is someone she has long admired and respected for her commitment to the community. Springett advocated for the council to revisit the Poway Road Specific Plan to create attractive and functional spaces along the Poway Road corridor and she asked the council to prioritize quality of life issues in Poway.

“I hope you value residents,” Springett said, adding that she appreciates the council members for being good stewards of the city. “Their participation can strengthen the decision-making process.”

In other items at the July 7 meeting, council members unanimously approved a resolution to collect 2025 weed and nuisance abatement charges on the County of San Diego Tax Assessor’s Roll for the 2026-27 fiscal year.

Weed abatement and vegetation management are effective fire prevention and mitigation methods to help protect properties, stated a staff report.

Each year, funds are allocated for weed and nuisance abatement services on city-owned parcels and privately-owned properties identified in the Weed Abatement Program. Private property owners in the program can choose to abate the properties themselves or ask the city to complete the abatement for a fee, the staff report stated. Fees incurred by the city are passed onto the property owner and are paid by invoice or levied against the property’s tax bill as a fixed charge assessment.

The Poway Municipal Code requires the City Council to approve the list of parcels to be assessed before they are included on the county Tax Assessor’s Roll.

During the 2025 program, Senior Management Analyst Darian Demerjian said the city completed abatement work on 20 city-owned properties and eight private properties. Of those private properties, five property owners chose to have the costs, plus a $175 administrative fee, assessed on their property tax bill for the 2026-27 fiscal year, Demerjian said.

Demerjian said the number of property owners that choose to pay by property tax is generally low and about eight properties were in that category last year.

The total amount being assessed for the 2025 weed and nuisance abatements for five properties is $22,520, which includes one property’s assessment of $12,620, according to a staff report.

Among announcements made at the meeting, Director of Public Works Eric Heidemann said the city’s Clearwell replacement project has reached a “critical milestone.”

Replacing the Clearwell, which stores treated water from the Lester J. Berglund Water Treatment Plant before distribution, was part of a Water Infrastructure Improvement Program.

The program included bypassing, then replacing Poway’s aging Clearwell. Built in 1964, the Clearwell reached its end of life and needed to be replaced.

The roughly $87 million project – which included a Clearwell bypass project, a Clearwell replacement project and a treated water facilities project – replaced the aging Clearwell with two 4 million-gallon circular concrete water tanks.

Heidemann said after completing water quality testing, both Clearwell tanks were recently placed into service.

“The tanks are working as they were designed,” Heidemann said.

Work has begun to disassemble the temporary water tanks, he said. The next step will be to complete renovations to the site at Lake Poway and then restore the ballfield that was used during construction.

“The temporary bypass system was very sophisticated and complicated,” Heidemann said. “Having it operate for several years without significant issues is a testament to the fine work of staff.”

Heidemann said the community deserves the “resiliency and redundancy” that this project supplies and he thanked current and prior city councilmembers and the city manager for their support in having an expensive project completed.