Some politicians just don’t get it.

During the city council discussion on Oct. 17, I noted during the discussion of the “Public Outreach for Crown Valley Corridor” item that Mayor Trish Kelley gave a reason for awarding the contract: it wasn’t coming out of the city’s pocket, so why not spend the money?

This contact for $100,000 or more will be used by Roger Faubel, a political wheeler-dealer in Orange County, to tell us all about the construction on Crown Valley Pkwy. Yes, you read that correctly – he will send us nice notes to remind us that construction is going on, and we might be delayed in our travels. I don’t know about you, but I think it will be abundantly apparent to everyone that the road is clogged, and we need to find other routes to shopping, the freeway and home.

Comparisons were made with the El Toro Road construction in Lake Forest, but Crown Valley isn’t even similar to El Toro Road. In Lake Forest, a high number of businesses were only accessible from El Toro Road. This is not true on Crown Valley. Only a few businesses will see their access made a lot more difficult -- those on the north side of the road. I would expect that a single mailing, costing less than $3,000, and updates on the city website would be all that’s needed. If the city can’t manage the updates, the Mission Viejo Watchdog’s site will have detailed information on the construction as it progresses.

So, we have a contact for $100,000 -- which is not really needed -- being awarded, in part, because certain members of the council saw no problems in wasting other people’s money. Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised because at least a couple of the council members never shy away from spending other people’s money – YOURS!

Mayor Pro Tem Lance Maclean was quoted as having said, “We have a $32 million reserve. The Chicken Little cry ‘We don’t have the money’ is unfounded.” This illustrates a problem with those who don’t understand how savings work. Most of us have retirement accounts that are intended to provide money for later in life. While these are “reserves,” few people would pull the money out to buy a shiny new car. Financial planners tell us we should have savings to cover six months’ or more expenses, should something go wrong, such as illness. Cities have the same need for savings. If you look carefully at the reserves the city has, less than $10 million, it is less than 3 months’ expenditures for everyday items, not including capital projects. This $10 million is actually more like $7 million because almost every capital project the city undertakes costs us, the taxpayers, about double the original estimate. For example, the Sierra Rec Center was supposed to cost about $1 million but, in fact, cost nearly $2 million. Why? Because the city is spending someone else’s money: YOURS!

Dale Tyler