Mission Viejo is still one of the country's safest cities, according to the Morgan Quitno Press, http://www.morganquitno.com/ as reported Nov. 21 in the Register. A Newport Beach policeman later commented, "It's due more to the nature of the residents than anything else. A police force may get a mention for keeping the peace, but the residents don't need much policing."

The Register story quoted Trish Kelley. Not unexpectedly, she gave a pitch to her City of Character program. If the character program weren't pumped up on city time with city employees paid to participate, would it last an-other week? Those who attended the city's recent "character committee" meetings said city staffers were the primary attendees. There's been little to no increase in interest in this city program from its inception. Pictures and words don't change behavior, particularly when those imparting the words are behaving badly.

If pictures of good behavior actually had an impact, why not plaster them on 7-Eleven stores to prevent holdups? Put posters of "integrity" and "respect" at the borders to prevent illegal immigration. The walls of jail cells should be covered
with "character" wallpaper. Why hasn't it happened? Don't ask Kelley - she'll immediately want the city to fund such programs or do a study.

But why are some residents so annoyed with Kelley if she's just a naive do-gooder?

As an example of Kelley's behavior off camera, she created a stir in the last city election when she intended to knock Gail Reavis off the council. Kelley last year tried to get volunteers to work at a Capo High event by handing out political flyers to promote those running against Reavis. It may have been that she lacked help when Kelley went herself and towed along "Mr. Character Counts," a promoter of the city's character program.

CapoUSD isn't keen on political activity on campus, particularly the distribution of campaign flyers. Ms. Kelley knows that. In her own campaign in 2002, she went with others to Newhart's back-to-school night to hand out her own flyers. School administrators quickly chased other campaigners off the campus. Kelley, however, stood on the sidewalk in front of the building, bragging about her relationship with CUSD, "The administrators know me and they won't ask me to leave." It was true. Newhart personnel told everyone but Kelley to get off school property.

On Sept. 30, 2004, when Ms. Kelley and Mr. Character Counts were at Capo High's back-to-school night passing out political flyers, another group showed up to distribute flyers. Kelley mistakenly thought they had come to help her, but they intended to promote Gail Reavis. According to the volunteers, Kelley went into the school building. Minutes later, school personnel came out on motorized carts and they had walkie-talkies. They told the other group to get off the property and threatened them with arrest. Because some in the other group were legitimately there for back-to-school night, the pursuit continued, and they were chased around the parking lot and inside the building.

Meanwhile, Kelley and Mr. Character remained on school property and continued distributing flyers for candidates running against Reavis. In the city's "character counts" program, WHAT ARE
THEY COUNTING?