If the city of Mission Viejo has character, residents bring character to the city, not vice versa. To claim city government can or should promote character values has become laughable. Some council members – past and current – appear to be unqualified to preach about character.

Columnist Courtney Fox called attention to the city’s situation with a spoof in her Saddleback Valley News column a couple years ago: Mission Viejo is a community of characters. To that end, MissionViejoNewsBlog salutes its character of the week, Roger Faubel.

Faubel on Oct. 26 declined a city contract regarding public outreach for the Crown Valley Parkway widening project. In a letter of withdrawal to Trish Kelley (a copy appears in this week's blog), he claims it's the gadflies' fault. An excerpt from Faubel’s letter:

“Sadly, a small group of gadflies are engaged in ad hominem attacks which I will not dignify by way of a response.”

It would seem that Faubel does indeed dignify claims of the “gadflies” by withdrawing from the process and declining to accept the city’s $100,000 contract he received from the council. While Faubel didn’t withdraw from the process on Oct. 17 when several residents made public comments about his record, he declined the contract after one of the speakers also wrote to council members about ongoing issues, including accusations of Elections Code violations. Parents of CUSD children are among witnesses to the accusations, which surfaced in the recall of CUSD trustees.

Those who made public comments at the Oct. 17 council meeting reviewed Faubel's performance and public record, including the following remarks.

After Faubel’s appointment to the council by his buddies, Sherri Butterfield, Susan Withrow and Bill Craycraft, he failed to keep his seat in November 2000 after spending $80,000 on a campaign for a $500-a-month job. At the Oct. 17 meeting, a resident commented about Faubel’s qualifications to get the city’s message out regarding the Crown Valley Parkway project, saying, “He couldn’t get his own message out.”

In Faubel's failed council campaign in 2000, he allegedly placed his campaign signs at Orange County Fire Authority Station 31 on Olympiad, and then accused the firefighters of illegally putting campaign signs on OCFA property. As stated by a resident at the Oct. 17 meeting, Faubel later wrote a memo dated Nov. 16, 2000, admitting he placed his own campaign sign at Station 31 “to see if firefighters or anyone else would come along and steal the sign.”

For the 2002 Primary Election, Faubel received a no-bid contract for $51,000 from the city (Butterfield, Withrow and Craycraft voted for, Ledesma and Reavis against) to Get Out The Vote. The contract was in violation of City Code 0300-7, which requires competitive bids for any contract greater than $15,000. Faubel was supposed to cover the city with phone calls and multiple pieces of literature -- door-hangers and mailers. Many residents said at the time they never received any such literature or calls, and the payment to Faubel was subsequently reduced.

In October 2002, Faubel aided in the campaigns of Butterfield and Withrow, creating hit pieces against their challengers, but he claimed at the Oct. 17 meeting he hadn’t been involved in city politics “for the past five years.” When his misstatement was caught by Councilman John Paul Ledesma, Faubel acknowledged his error, saying, “Since 2002 I have not been politically active.”

However, the letter a resident sent to the council revealed that Faubel is the political consultant for Capistrano Unified School District trustees, who are currently fighting a recall. Additionally, Faubel serves on the Santa Margarita Water District Board of Directors, an elected office.

As reported in MissionViejoNewsBlog, Faubel was a subject in an August 22, 2005, letter from attorney Jim Lacy to CUSD Trustee Marlene Draper. Faubel was cited by Lacy for assisting in training sessions for trustees to fight and disrupt the recall effort led by CUSD parents. According to Lacy, the training sessions held on Aug. 1-2 provided strategy and techniques in violation of Elections Code Section 18630 to protect signature gathering. The Section is cross-referenced to Penal Code Section 240, defining such acts as criminal.

But it’s the gadflies’ fault, according to Faubel. He apparently thinks any reaction to his alleged criminal acts, false statements into the public record and failure to fulfill contractual obligations are ad hominem attacks.

Politically, Faubel continues to be a portent “money man” with connections to numerous corporations and agencies. With three council seats up for reelection in 2006, four of five council members gave Faubel a pass by awarding him a $100,000 contract. Ledesma was the dissenting vote. With greater amounts at stake in the CUSD recall and a campaign that will almost certainly pursue the allegations of criminal acts, Faubel threw back a small fish by declining the contract.

To learn more about Faubel’s wheeling and dealing in other cities, see R. Scott Moxley’s OC Weekly story, http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/05/51/web-moxley.php

For the complete Faubel letter to the city, click here