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?

City Hall insiders anticipate the city will be sued by the Public Law Center, with papers served this month, as a challenge to the low-income element of UDR/Pacific's housing project on the former Kmart site. This comes as no surprise, as Eileen McCarthy during the Sept. 19 council meeting informed the city of the law center's dissatisfaction with UDR/Pacific's treatment of affordable housing.

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Did the city really spend $900 on balloons for the Sierra Rec Center opening last month? If so, does someone in City
Hall have a relative who owns a balloon store? The opening, which was not widely publicized, was on Sat., Oct. 15.
http://cityofmissionvieio.org/depts/rcs/sierrareopens.html

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After subtracting all the city dollars that are encumbered, appropriated, earmarked, obligated, owed or already spent, would there be enough money left to build anyone's pet project? Between comments from council members, city staff and residents, everyone seems to have a different view of the city's wealth. The city's funds have become so convoluted because of a lack of proper planning by the council that city staffers cannot give simple answers to what should be simple questions.

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Is anyone trying to hide how much money the city has in unencumbered reserves that haven't been appropriated?

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Councilman  Lance  MacLean  may  have learned his council protocol from former Coun-cilwomen Butterfield and Withrow. During the Nov. 21 council meeting, he attempted to prevent Joe Holtzman from taking a turn at the public microphone by saying Holtzman had been late submitting a request to speak. Holtzman protested from the audience, claiming that MacLean was sitting on his request slip. Holtzman prevailed and managed to get in a few remarks about Mission Viejo High School's championship football team. Mission Viejo residents can more easily find a story in USA Today (Oct. 10) than local papers about the Diablos' phenomenal winning streak. For information on this  truly  remarkable  team,  check  out
http://missionfootball.com

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At the Nov. 21 council meeting, MacLean also tangled with community activist Larry Gilbert when Gilbert spoke from the public microphone about the joint use of Saddleback Valley USD facilities with the city. MacLean upbraided Gilbert, saying, "I cannot believe the unmitigated audacity that you have to come up here and start negotiating with the Saddleback school district. You have no authority on behalf of this city to go out and negotiate." The meetings have become almost as interesting as the good ol' days of Sherri and Susan.

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Also attending the Nov. 21 meeting to mix it up with Gilbert was PTA member Barbara Casserly, who attempted to defend an email to get support for a gymnasium at Newhart. The email (published in the blog Nov. 12) had previously been criticized for offering children free pizza and soft drinks if they attended the Nov. 7 council meeting. A Newhart teacher also apparently made an offer, "extra credit" for students who attended. Why is anyone bribing students to attend council meetings?

While former council majorities had their shortcomings, they appeared to know the difference between school facilities and city facilities. City facilities were the ones they tried to put their names on.

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It's official. City Manager Dennis Wilberg announced at the Nov. 21 council meeting that Roger Faubel will take the $100,000 contract after all for public outreach regarding the Crown Valley Parkway widening project. Councilwoman Gail Reavis asked interim City Attorney Bill Curley about the legal procedure for a contractor to refuse and then rescind his refusal. An interpreter should have been called in to translate. Audience members groaned audibly when hearing the remarks by Curley, who might have been better off saying, "Urn, I don't know." Curley responded to a later question about how much he's paid: $160 / hour.

The city continues to respond to the Ferrocarril slope failure, with the council ratifying (5-0) an emergency purchase order for steel beams for construction of a soldier beam wall in the amount of $298,309.38. The city anticipates a delivery date of Dec. 7, putting the project ahead of the initial schedule, although the city hasn't yet settled on a contractor to do the work. http://cityofmissionvieio.org/ccouncil/summarv.pdf

The council directed staff (5-0) to move ahead with an agreement with ATS Communications to prepare a Cellular Telecommunications Master Plan in an amount not to exceed $200,000. Councilwoman Gail Reavis questioned the amount, which was estimated on July 5 to run between $49,000 and $86,000. With up-front revenue absent and $200,000 not being a budgeted amount, Reavis said she preferred to have the cost contained to the earlier range. Following a discussion of the intent to bring in revenue with the master plan, the council voted 5-0 to proceed with ATS Communications as the contractor, http://www.atscomm.com

The emotional issue of renaming Camino Largo Park (currently 6 acres of undeveloped land located at 26210 Camino Largo) came from the wish by some to rename it Sergeant Matt Davis Park. Davis, a former Sheriff's Dept. employee, died in a traffic accident while on duty in the city. A 3-2 vote renamed it in honor of Davis (Reavis, Ledesma and Kelly for; Ury and MacLean against).
http://talk.ocregister.com/archive/index.php/t-5880.html

One positive outcome of the meeting was the consensus of city staff and council members not to pursue bringing Las Flores or Ladera Ranch into Mission Viejo's sphere of influence. Both unincorporated communities are "economically undesirable." The city has no other communities within its sphere of influence.

City Manager Dennis Wilberg put the topic of parking restrictions for street sweeping of residential areas on the agenda. Insightful comments came from a member of the audience who questioned various suggestions from city staff members about how to get people to move their cars to accommodate street sweeping. Staff suggestions included putting citations on parked cars and giving high-density neighborhoods an exemption from parking restrictions regarding the street sweeping. Council consensus was to give the item to the Planning Commission for consideration, with emphasis on education and public outreach. Councilwoman Reavis commented that she wanted to make certain the council wasn't opening the door to another $100,000 public outreach contract, as occurred with the Crown Valley Parkway widening project.

I see that the Saddleback Valley News has chosen to provide Barbara Casserly a forum (Guest View, Nov. 18) to provide misinformation to the community. It is very simple - the city did not get the state grant for a joint-use gymnasium at Newhart. The city has many longer-term priorities for its limited budget funds - such as expansion of the Norman P. Murray Community and Senior Center.

It is a Capistrano Unified School District issue to build facilities on a CUSD campus, not an issue for the city of Mission Viejo. CUSD has chosen to spend more than $4 million on artificial football fields before considering classrooms or even a gym. That is one of the reasons the CUSD Board of Trustees may be recalled in the near future.

I personally know that a considerable number of editorials and information have been provided to the SVN that the newspaper has chosen to ignore, and it now provides Ms. Casserly with a forum to promote misinformation. Do any readers ever recall - as Ms. Casserly claimed in her column in SVN - Frank Ury stating he wants to "punish CUSD" for various reasons? I have never heard those words from Frank Ury. Sorry, Ms. Casserly, but you are wrong - again!

Joe Holtzman
Mission Viejo

When I looked at the Mission Viejo City Council agenda and read the Consent Calendar for Oct. 17, I saw that the contract for the Crown Valley Parkway widening project going to Roger Faubel was the most egregious. I sent an alarm to the Honorable Mayor and City Council. When voting on the contract, four members fell for the folly and voted $100,000 to a campaign contributor using the reference of a Lake Forest Project as an excuse.

FAUBEL CATCHES THE BIG ONE and it's not a Fish Story -it's plain fishy!

What were they thinking, four of our council members? My confidence is lost on this one!

The El Toro widening project in Lake Forest involved total destruction of long-term businesses, major off-road demolition, removal of blocks of existing establishments, use of eminent domain -with many major disruptions, serious displacements, some total loss of businesses, as well as the widening of El Toro Road, which is a huge redevelopment project. Mission Viejo is only widening a parkway.

Winning the types of contests (League of California Cities Helen Putnum Award) is really very dependent on how the proposal is written up (another excuse for Roger's riches). IT'S PLAIN FISHY!

Faubel was credited for saving you and me from the El Toro Airport. What a laugh! Faubel's mailings were grotesque during the airport fight. I remember noticing how classy Irvine's mailings were and how much more professional and so much more convincing. Faubel's mailers were an embarrassment. I doubt his junk mail helped at all. The grass-roots effort and such officials as Supervisors Todd Spitzer, Tom Wilson and, finally, Chris Norby did it with all of our hard work and support.

Watch for the next report of campaign contributions. By the way, what are the city staff, council, commissions, Chamber of Commerce, etc., here for if not to provide the public outreach Faubel is charging $100,000 to provide?

City Manager Dennis Wilberg confirmed at the Nov. 21 council meeting that Faubel had at first declined the contract and then accepted it.

Dorothy Wedel

So far, some council members want to have their cake and eat it, too. They seem to want a house-of-mirrors concept to fund a proposed gymnasium. Some council members have said that we can raise money from "here" or "there." The city currently cannot afford a gym simply because there are no monies to pay for it.

By using "collected funds" and practicing the principle of patience, the city can pay for a gym in advance and move forward in a responsible and disciplined manner. Following are steps that would enable a city gym to become a reality.

1. The council would by resolution allow an earmarked account to be set up on the city books for the collection of funds for a gym. Collected funds only could be used as defined subsequently.
2. The gym would be funded with collected funds only. Collected funds are defined as contributions of actual General Fund dollars that are paid to the city from taxes or other income sources and are on hand at the time of the contribution. Collected funds are also contributed monies from fundraisers by the basketball leagues and others who want a gym. This would allow our citizens to realize that not all facilities are free and that there is a fundraising component. Collected funds can also come from foundation money given to the gymnasium or from other sources, such as individuals.
3. The council would also by resolution state that no construction contracts or architectural and design work or any preliminary bids can be received by city personnel until the earmarked account is funded in its entirety to an amount set up by the council representing the full construction cost of the gym.
4. Priorities would be established all the way to the end. On each contribution by the city of collected money to the gym account, the council would be faced with such issues as the potholes on city streets, payments to the pension fund, etc. This is the democratic way and will result in hard choices, all of which are for the benefit of the citizens of Mission Viejo.
5. Once collected funds have reached the construction amount designated by the council, work on architectural and construction bids could begin and must be authorized by the council before any city employees would get involved in the gymnasium project.
6. The collected funds concept would encourage managing the project on budget. If construction goes over budget, the project is stopped. Collected funds must be used, and the project at that point is unfunded. The whole process goes on again to raise collected funds.

James Edward Woodin
Mission Viejo

Where's the Sierra Recreation Center located? It's hard for new users to find it without visible signage. The center was approved by the Planning Commission with a visible monument sign on Marguerite Parkway. Where's the sign?

A prior City Council majority purposely allowed the center to deteriorate while diverting money into new pet projects. I worked with Trish Kelley and others to prevent the demise of the center and to rebuild and open it to the public. Ms. Kelley dropped out of the citizens group so she could run for council. I became the "Save Our Sierra" chairman and Dale Tyler became the treasurer by popular vote. The center was built by the efforts of many courageous citizens like Max MacDougall, who deserves a Citizen of the Year award in my opinion. We're still waiting Sierra to become the open center Trish Kelley based her campaign promises on, and we're still waiting for the sign. I supported Kelley's run for council but would not do so again.

Neither Lance MacLean nor Trish Kelley kept their campaign promises. Both MacLean and Kelley did a lot of head-nodding during their campaigns, which supporters mistakenly interpreted as agreement. Sierra is a now a fee-based operation instead of a center for low-income and very low-income residents. Kelley fought against user fees in her campaign.

Kelly and MacLean recently voted for subsidized affordable housing in north Mission Viejo. They first removed Planning Commissioners who stood in their way, opening the door for developers. Do Kelley and MacLean need campaign contributions? That's a question for the future, but my question today is, where do our low-income residents go for recreation? Certainly not the Sierra Rec Center or a fee-based gymnasium that MacLean and Kelley proposed. Are fees designed to make facilities exclusive?

MacLean said residents who oppose affordable housing are elitists. Kelley asked me as a Planning Commissioner not to consider low-income housing near her Sierra neighborhood. I did not consider her request. The Sierra center's fee structure imposed by Kelley and MacLean effectively blocks low-income users who reside around Kelley's own home. These two partners - MacLean and Kelley - now want a fee-based gymnasium. If city government provides no services without user fees, then our tax money goes only toward erecting buildings, exactly like the developers do. Public facilities like Sierra and the lost Marguerite Aquatics Center or a proposed gym are doomed as "open facilities" under such fee structures and shouldn't be considered public facilities. If the citizens want a "pay to play" facility, let private enterprise build it - they are the professionals at it, not the amateurs currently in power. Ideas that appeal to me are to trim fat, promote economic development for long-term public funding and deliver the promises of public services as they are intended - free. With MacLean and Kelley, what other public services will taxpayers have to pay to use after paying to build the facilities?

Bo Klein
Mission Viejo

According to information provided by Capistrano Unified School District and published in the OC Register on Sun., Nov. 13, cost of the district's new administration building could reach $52 million. With the building still in progress, construction cost has reached $34.4 million. A graphic in the Register shows the district took out a $24-million loan with projected interest of $17 million. The district recently added $11 million from its on-hand facilities funds, putting the estimated total at $52 million.

A rumor circulated about the district's alleged plan to lease out a substantial portion of the new building's space. The story may have been spawned by the district's putting a credit union banner on the building. Critics of the CUSD trustees said the banner was intended to confuse the public about the fact the district is building the entire project and taxpayers are paying for it (an article appeared in last week's blog). The credit union has signed a letter of intent to lease space, estimated at 3,000 sq. ft. of the 126,000-sq.-ft. building.

Those who attended the CUSD board meeting on Mon., Nov. 15, watched a lengthy series of awards and presentations praising board members and district administrators for completion of various projects throughout the district. From the amount and nature of the praise, one might think the trustees were defending themselves in a recall.