The Pied Piper of Mission Viejo
Staff editorial

In “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” a piper contracts with Hamelin to rid the city of rats for a fee of 50,000 florins. The piper completes the job and asks for payment, but the mayor tells him the rats are gone, and the job wasn’t worth more than 50 florins. As a consequence, the piper rids the city of its children.

In his Mar. 24 letter to the editor, Bo Klein refers to Councilman Frank Ury as Mission Viejo’s Pied Piper. The reference has an ironic twist.

Mission Viejo’s “plague” was Southern California’s Edison’s decision to add new lines on the city’s north side. A few residents sounded the alarm, rallied their neighbors, formed No Overhead Powerlines by Edison and invoked homeowner associations and the city council to fight the overhead lines.

Jumping in front of the crowd, Ury promised to “force Edison to bury its lines.” Even after SCE began installing poles for overhead lines, Ury mailed campaign flyers promising to get the lines buried. The war was over, but Ury’s battle cry went on, right up to Election Day. The day after the election, the noise stopped. Dismayed residents who likely had his campaign signs in their yards called Ury. One of them received a chilly response, “How did you get my cell phone number?”

Ury first started running for city council in 2001, long before anyone knew about new power lines. His battle cry back then was “I don’t like bullies” – Sherri Butterfield and Susan Withrow. Ury gave numerous “I don’t like bullies” speeches and abruptly moved to Northern California in 2002. He returned to Mission Viejo in 2003 and won a council seat in 2004. To residents attending council meetings since his election and asking for much of anything, Ury has said, “What we’ve heard up here [from the dais] is a bunch of people complaining.”

When residents – lots of them – asked the council to protect commercial zones, Ury sarcastically said from the dais on Sept. 19, 2005, “We should put a Xerox machine out front.” Residents were all asking for the same thing, and Ury was apparently annoyed. When residents asked for the right to vote on zone changes, Ury said, “You elected us to make decisions for you.” Again, he doesn’t agree he’s supposed to listen to and represent the residents.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin did his job, and the rats were gone forever. All those who paid the Mission Viejo piper should remember the legend as they drive under the power lines. The Pied Piper of Mission Viejo doesn’t care about your zone issues, your traffic problems, your infrastructure or how an apartment complex might affect your life. The piper lives in a gated community, and he cares about developers, his political consultant and campaign donors.

Tierra Nativa is about nature
Letter to the editor

Tierra Nativa is important to Mission Viejo because of the community involvement and youth groups that plant and develop our landscapes and beautify our city. This effort results in reduced city costs and saves thousands of hours of labor. Our children take pride in benefiting the city of Mission Viejo.

The city has constructed 10 pillars approximately seven feet high on the Oso Viejo Trail walk below the Norman Murray Center. These pillars are to become mosaic art pieces alongside the walkway. There is a disconnect between the purpose of the walk and its beautiful setting and the artwork. People take the walk to observe nature and not artwork. It is sad to see nature’s beauties obstructed in this manner. This does not even address the cost to ourtaxpayers, and private donors if applicable, for such extravagances.

Wouldn’t it be better to extend the trail, improve the plants and shrubberies and trees than to build monuments?

James Edward Woodin
Mission Viejo

CUSD leadership under investigation – follow-up report

 As reported in The Buzz on Mar. 18, the Orange County District Attorney is investigating allegations of illegal activities at the Capistrano Unified School District. Last summer, residents throughout south Orange County sought to recall the entire school board based on allegations of corruption and gross fiscal mismanagement. More than 177,000 recall petition signatures were delivered to the Orange County Registrar of Voters, but the recall effort fell short of requirements to get it on the ballot.

Thomas Russell, spokesperson for the CUSD Recall Committee that led the campaign, was gratified and hopeful, “We hope that commencement of the District Attorney’s investigation brings us one step closer to restoring honesty, integrity and accountability into our public school system.” 

Local elected officials had strong reactions to the D.A.’s investigation.

 Tony Beall, Rancho Santa Margarita Mayor Pro Tem, declared, “I believe a culture of corruption exists within the ranks of the CUSD leadership. I urge the District Attorney to aggressively investigate all evidence of illegal activities and to vigorously enforce all the laws that may have been violated.”

 Mission Viejo City Councilman John Paul Ledesma said, “I am very concerned about the CUSD trustees’ use of taxpayer dollars – from the 1999 bond measure to the $52-million administration building. If there is an investigation of other issues, I trust that the District Attorney’s office will do a thorough job.”

 James V. Lacy, Dana Point city councilman, stated, "This is really a sad day for education in south Orange County. The trustees are due a presumption of innocence, but if the District Attorney's corruption investigation reveals any avarice at all in their boardroom, big changes are going to be necessary to win back the confidence of parents, teachers and the kids." 

 Rancho Santa Margarita City Councilman Gary Thompson stated, “Based on my firsthand experience and dealings with this district since we became a city, I can’t say I am surprised. It is unfortunate that the people who have suffered the most from their mismanagement of public funds have been the children.”

CUSD serves Dana Point, San Clemente, Laguna Niguel, Rancho Santa Margarita, Mission Viejo, San Juan Capistrano, Aliso Viejo, Coto de Caza, Wagon Wheel, Las Flores and Ladera Ranch. Approximately 50,000 children are enrolled in CUSD public schools.

For additional information, visit www.cusdrecall.com.

Solutions take effort
Letter to the editor

The Mission Viejo NewsBlog is doing a great job of reporting news and keeping issues alive. Although the CUSD recall didn’t get on the ballot, the effort itself brought problems to the surface that wouldn’t otherwise have come out. We can’t expect things to change unless people are speaking up and demanding solutions.

Teri Morelli
CUSD parent

Declining school facilities affect all taxpayers
Letter to the editor

Does anyone think the decline of school facilities in Mission Viejo is acceptable? Mission Viejo is a cash cow for Capistrano Unified School District, but some of our schools are overcrowded and neglected.

Our city contributes to CUSD in the form of property tax, Mello-Roos, Measure A tax, and money from the city’s Redevelopment Agency. The portion Mission Viejo gets back from the district is neither fair nor adequate. With all the taxes, plus the Redevelopment money and funds parents raise, Mission Viejo schools should be the best in the district.

As an example of the problems, 1,800 students attend Newhart Middle School, with some bused in from San Juan Capistrano. Newhart has 19 permanent classrooms and 53 portable classrooms. Newhart received only $720.00 of the $65 million Measure A bond fund, which our residents pay into.

Mission Viejo is being bypassed again with more than $12 million of Measure A dollars going to one school in Rancho Santa Margarita. Their residents don’t pay into the tax fund. Newhart was bypassed on a technicality that was questionable at best.

Our city council will discuss an agenda item on April 3 to apply pressure on CUSD to spend more on Mission Viejo schools. Declining and overcrowded school facilities affect quality of life, real estate prices and traffic problems. Considering that the district continues to ignore the pleas of parents, the city should act on behalf of all Mission Viejo taxpayers.

Connie Lee
Mission Viejo

UCI shows courage over cartoons
Letter to the editor

Congratulations to UCI and the student groups (including the college Republicans) for conducting an open debate on the Muhammad cartoon  controversy ("Cartoons bring debate to UCI," Orange County Register, Local March 1). The Register, for all its claims of libertarian principle, couldn't find the courage to show how little is behind all the manufactured outrage. The cartoons, with the possible exception of the one showing a bomb in the turban, are innocuous.

Muslims are forbidden to depict anyone as an image, not just The Prophet. We, however, are not Muslims, and neither were the Danish cartoonists who now have a price on their heads. There is no justification for punishing, let alone killing, a non-Muslim who violates such a rule. The fact that militant Muslims are attempting to force non-Muslims to obey Islamic law by threats of force or murder makes it even more important to exercise our freedom of speech. The First Amendment is of no value if it only allows speech that is inoffensive to anyone. The Register's weak excuse that "printing them was not necessary to an understanding of the news story" is not only cowardly; it is false. Readers may assume that the cartoons were really offensive. The fact that the radical Danish imams felt it necessary to manufacture three additional really offensive cartoons to increase outrage illustrates how phony the claim is.

If the Register had any courage, it would show these inoffensive cartoons and show this whole controversy for what it is – an attempt to impose Islamic law on non-Muslims through force. I am really impressed with the courage shown by UCI.

MIchael Kennedy, M.D.
Mission Viejo

The Buzz Column, March 28

A new program covering the corruption in Capistrano Unified School District’s administration will air at 6 p.m., Wed., April 5, on public access television, Channel 31. Another topic will be aired at 6 p.m. the following Wed., April 12., with focus on the new high school being built next to a dump in San Juan Capistrano. The programs are produced by Full Disclosure Network.

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Riddle: When is the number seven unlucky? Answer: when you have seven Capo U.S.D. trustees endorsing your political campaign. Councilwoman Trish Kelley apparently gathered and then tossed the trustees’ endorsements for her reelection campaign. Perhaps Kelley decided she can’t afford to have the names of embattled trustees listed as her supporters.

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The race for city council has begun. With several candidates filing their Form 501 eight months in advance, will the race become a stampede? Jim Woodin was followed by Kelley two weeks ago, and Diane Greenwood has emerged from Frank Ury’s pod as a candidate. Observers see Greenwood as Ury’s prot‚g‚. If Ury is to pay back one of his campaign donors, Astrum – a utility company giving him big bucks – he’ll at least need a second on the council to bring another utility company into the city.

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What did Ury mean when he campaigned in 2004 to “bring the city to the next level”? The exchange of email gunfire continued a week after his appearance at the Mar. 16 Saddleback Republican Assembly meeting. His attack of council members and others who weren’t there caused quite a reaction. “The next level” apparently meant elevated hostility to the point this council can’t work together.

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Will affordable housing be an election issue this fall? Representatives of the California Department of Housing and Community Development recently visited City Hall. It’s quite interesting they met first with city staff members and second with council representatives. Who’s in charge of city decisions? With the current council majority, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the state has a foot in the door.

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Residents who are concerned about the condition of school facilities should plan to attend the April 3 council meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. at City Hall. An item is on the agenda to get Capo U.S.D. to spend more money on its schools in Mission Viejo. Mission Viejo has become a “donor” city, giving far more than it receives from the district.

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With approximately 200 days until the Nov. 7 election, the city’s character word program could end abruptly if Kelley isn’t reelected. A City Hall insider said, “That program sucks up an incredible amount of time. Employees are making posters and having meetings about words.” Meanwhile, unresolved city issues continue: declining infrastructure, traffic issues, unpaid retirement liabilities, lack of leadership over housing and the destruction of commercial zones in favor of backroom deals for developers.