The Buzz column, March 14

Earlier this week, a pricey electronic sign appeared on Crown Valley Parkway to flash announcements of delays because of road improvements. Is this part of the $100,000 contract for public education? The sign blocks a lane of traffic and distracts motorists as they speed at a reckless 15 MPH if traffic isn’t completely gridlocked. Thanks to the sign, everyone stopped in traffic is now aware a delay is in progress.

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Some European cars don’t have cup holders because the engineers in Europe design for 120-plus MPH. They don’t believe it’s safe to drink coffee and drive. But that’s not the case in Mission Viejo. Residents here need a special category of cars built just for Mission Viejo. Thanks to the mismanagement of city traffic issues, the residents can drink and drive safely, and they need cup holders, cell phones, laptops, and DVDs playing on the windshields.

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A resident is informally polling 100-200 people a week about city politics. He says Mission Viejo residents don’t like the city council. This informal poll isn’t funded by the city (e.g., Roger Faubel’s $100,000 contract for “education” regarding street-widening), nor is it based on phone interviews (the $20,200 contract given to True North Research to poll 400 residents on city issues). Other findings of the informal poll: new recreation facilities (basketball gym, sports center) have a low priority, and fixing infrastructure (repairing slopes, maintaining streets) has a high priority. The results shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone except council members.

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Councilman Frank Ury, who may have been a conservative Republican a long time ago, is now defending his far-left liberal Planning Commissioner, Chandra Krout, a Democrat. Krout changed her party affiliation immediately prior to the appointment, likely upon Ury’s urging. She first switched to American Independent, a far-right group. She next changed to “decline to state.” Ury explained, “Chandra isn’t a Democrat, she’s a decline to state.” When does the “decline to state” party hold its national convention?

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Ury’s ranting appeared in a county blog last week. Here’s a sample: “When people try to take, by legal force, money from the taxpayers of Mission Viejo, I get ticked.” He apparently prefers bilking taxpayers the old-fashioned way. One of Ury’s first acts as a councilman was to try to slip a taxpayer-funded park onto his homeowner association’s property, and that’s illegal. Ury accepted thousands of “campaign dollars” from developers who asked for the zone changes he recently approved on east Los Alisos and Steadfast’s parcel next to Unisys. Mission Viejo taxpayers are the ones who should be ticked.

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A taxpayer-funded brochure is being distributed by Capo USD, “Just the Facts … Excellence in Education.” Excellence evidently doesn’t include spelling. The mission statement talks about “memebers,” and another line says “because os lost teaching days.” This thinly disguised campaign piece for the trustees puts their names first. The Orange Co. Register recently quoted a CUSD spokesman who said the recall effort was promoted by NIMBYs. Either he doesn’t know what a NIMBY is, or it’s one helluva big back yard.

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In a TV interview last week on KOCE, CUSD Trustee Marlene Draper claimed the district is “saving” $500,000 in rent by building an administration center that will likely cost more than $50 million. In the mathematically challenged Flemingdom, spending a couple million a year on interest will evidently be offset by “saving” the half million they’re currently paying for rent. Draper said the “saved money” will be spent in the classrooms. This should help explain why children are attending class in portables and teachers are buying supplies.