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Mission Viejo NewsBlog “Dedicated to Keeping the California Promise” Carl Schulthess, Editor in Chief FrontPage You have received this NewsBlog in an email from a friend in Mission Viejo who believes that you will appreciate being properly informed about the important issues and events occurring in our fair city of Mission Viejo. If your email program gives you a poor copy of our NewsBlog, please click here and load directly from our website. If you would like to read this NewsBlog issue on one page, click here. The goal of the “Mission Viejo NewsBlog” is to share with our neighbors, knowledge of issues and events that will affect our quality of life and our property values. We will keep an open mind and report only the important news in a fair, balanced and transparent manner. We will endeavor to do this weekly. Put another way, our goal is to protect the “California Promise” that we all bought into so many years ago. This third issue will again focus on the City Council. How did we arrive at this point? When egos collide. Staff Editorial
ATTEND the City Council Meeting at 6PM on October 17th to tell the Council what you think about this new expense item in our budget. Plan to speak directly to the Council The following opinion letters give you some useful backround. VOTE "NO" ON JOINT USE GYMNASIUM The Mission Viejo City Council added an item to our future Capitol Improvement Listing (CIP) at the request of Vice Mayor Lance MacLean. In my CIP archives, which are extensive, a joint use gymnasium was NEVER under consideration but that's old news today. For the rest of this letter, Click on; You will note that there is an Editorial Subject called “Electeds Point of View. This is an opportunity for elected officials to explain their motives for a vote on a topic discussed in a previous NewsBlog opinion. If they choose NOT to explain their vote, then it is a fair assumption that they are voting their “Campaign Contributions” Fiscal Obligations Fiscal responsibility is an obligation of all Mission Viejo Council Members and Mission Viejo citizens. With the State of California turning down the grant request for a city gym, I know there will be an organized lobbying effort by some folks to get the city of Mission Viejo to pony up approximately $2 million for a gym. Until just recently, this item was not even on the radar screen for city improvements.For the rest of this letter, Click on;
UDR/Pacific’s housing project on Los Alisos Blvd & 241. I supported the zone change because it was the right thing to do for several reasons. The major factors are: For the rest of this report, Click on; Strategy in dealing with State Mandated low-income housing The issues associated with zoning changes, low-income housing, the community development agency’s 20 percent set-aside for low-income housing and the Regional Needs Housing Assessment (RNHA) are all separate issues that often converge, as we have seen in the case at the old Kmart site. For the rest of this report, Click on;
Many of the following “Opinion Letters” were ignored by the Saddleback Valley News and have not been published. We promise to publish all pertinent opinions and not stifle any voices. As the Mission Viejo NewsBlog matures, we will add more editorial subjects as listed below. If you have thoughts as to important subjects, please let us know. We invite you to contribute to the Mission Viejo NewsBlog by either “Reporting” or Writing your “Opinion” about any subject related to Mission Viejo that is near and dear to your heart. (Note that ALL contributors to this NewsBlog WILL publish their email addresses with their contribution.) Please forward this NewsBlog via eMail to ALL your friends and neighbors in Mission Viejo but also print as many copies as you like, to share with your non-computer friends. This NewsBlog is operated entirely by volunteers and is distributed Weekly at no charge to ALL Mission Viejo citizens via email. At some time in the future, we will add sources of revenue (NO Special Interests) that will permit some of the staff to be paid for their services. If you do not want to receive this Citizen operated NewsBlog, please tell the person that sent you this email. Please consider it your civic duty to let your elected City Council members know how you feel about the decisions they are making on your behalf. It is not an accident that their names appear prominently in this NewsBlog. Their votes are key to Keeping the “California Promise”. Only YOU can influence their vote. Your Elected City Council Members Again, please let your elected Council Members know how you feel about their actions. Remember, they are accountable ONLY to YOU, a citizen of Mission Viejo. You elect them to office to represent YOU and YOU pay their salary. The Mission Viejo character word for the month of October is Respect. Insist on just that from your elected Representatives. Insist that they listen to YOU Table of Editorial Content
We invite YOU to participate in the creation of this “NewsBlog” as an editor for any of the above subjects. Founders' Quote The Federalist Patriot Many good men and women have died so this NewsBlog can be published and we can complain about our government without fear for our lives. Honor those sacrifices by getting involved in YOUR government. Carl Schulthess, Editor in Chief Opinion Letters Zone Change for High Density Housing Steadfast’s Draft EIR is no best seller Residents shouldn’t waste their money buying a copy of Steadfast’s Aliso Ridge Mixed-Use Development Draft Environmental Impact Report, released September 2005. Original text can be found in residents’ comments, which are recorded in detail. The report’s remaining content, however, gives the appearance of boilerplate text, which is largely non-responsive to residents’ specific concerns. For the rest of this letter, Click on; Financial Issues Budget; Live within our means After I looked over the proposed FY2005-2007 budget, I have come to the conclusion that what is good enough for the State of California is good enough for Mission Viejo. In November, the citizens of California will approve limiting spending by the state to increases in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) multiplied by the increase in population. Given that there will be no significant increases in population in Mission Viejo over the next two years, this would mean a maximum spending increase of 2.9 percent in 2005-2006 and 2.4 percent in 2006-2007 (based on the President’s Council of Economic Advisor's Projections). Instead, we are looking at a General Fund Operating Budget increase of 9 percent in 2005-2006 and 4 percent more (12.8 percent total) in 2006-2007. (See page XXV of the proposed budget for details). It is very important to understand that these inflated amounts become the baseline for future budget increases. For the rest of this letter, Click on; Mission Viejo Investment Strategy At both the Sept. 19 and Oct. 3 Mission Viejo council meetings, I presented public comments about the city’s general account. This account indicates that 56 percent to 57 percent of our assets are invested in government agency issues. The general account is required to be invested in such government issues as treasuries, government agencies, commercial paper, government money market funds, tax allocation notes and California agency funds with maturities of five years or less.For the rest of this letter, Click on; San Juan Capistrano School District A recorded phone message made by a high school principal opposing the recall of Capo school district trustees created quite a stir. Constituents are justified in asking about the ethical aspects of the call. For the rest of this letter, Click on; If you don’t like what we are doing in this NewsBlog, please tell me how to improve it. If you like the direction we are going, please forward this to as many friends in Mission Viejo as possible and sign up for a direct subscription by Clicking on; Carl Schulthess |
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