The Buzz column, April 18

Former Councilman Bill Craycraft continues surveying residents to see how many votes he would get if he were to run for city council this fall. Several readers have informed The Buzz of Craycraft’s apparent obsession with jumping back into the fray and/or dropping a large chunk of change. A successful council campaign costs $30,000 to $40,000 in Mission Viejo. The cost of an unsuccessful campaign topped out at $80,000 in 2000 when Roger Faubel lost to Gail Reavis. Several other residents appear to be posturing to run for council, but the cost has become unreasonable for a job paying $6,000 a year.

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What’s that crumpling sound? The tinfoil-hat contingent at council meetings has dwindled to three or four people, but they continue to show up. They’ve lately focused on one subject – dissing Southern California Edison. A vote of residents regarding burial of the power lines followed controversy in 2004 when Frank Ury emerged from the group as a council candidate. The city spent approximately $250,000 objecting to overhead lines, and residents near the lines had the opportunity to vote on whether or not to form a special assessment district to pay for burying the lines. The ballot issue failed, 84 percent opposed, 16 percent in favor.

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An alert reader informed The Buzz of an omission in the information about the insurance settlement following a fire at the Marguerite aquatics center. The city received a payment from the insurance company not long after the fire. Because the payment went directly into the city’s receivables, it was unaccounted for in the recap by The Buzz. The city’s net loss was approximately $500,000.

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According to information at the April 17 council meeting, Capistrano Unified School District isn’t asking for a joint-use agreement with the city for Cordova Park. CUSD previously talked about needing the park to comply with space requirements when Hankey Elementary School is converted to a K-8 facility. With the apparent plan to bring in portables, the campus would fall short of playground space. CUSD evidently offered no explanation regarding the change of mind. Parents should continue to be alert that CUSD could eventually make Hankey a middle school, which would align more closely with its original announcement of closing the elementary school.

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Trabuco Hills High School won’t get a parking structure in the near future. Saddleback Valley USD announced it can’t get everything it planned with a $180-million bond issue. Things changed when the cost of the parking structure, originally estimated at $4 million, jumped to $14 million. The district says it is “looking for other ways to increase parking space.” The “other ways” tend to conjure up visions for a cartoon, but the sad truth is that surrounding neighborhood streets will provide the overflow parking.

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Capistrano USD will hold its regularly scheduled board meeting on Mon., April 24, at the CUSD administration building, 32972 Calle Perfecto, San Juan Capistrano, beginning at 7 p.m. On the agenda is discussion of spending $12 million on schools in Mission Viejo: Capo Valley High School, Newhart Middle School and Hankey Elementary. The agenda item may have been triggered by the Mission Viejo City Council’s request for an audit of how much money the district has collected from Mission Viejo and where it’s been spent. The district’s meetings are amusing, particularly with over-the-top testimonials lauding the trustees for providing extraordinary service to mankind. How do they do it with a budget of only $500 million a year?

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While the city is adding animal shelter facilities costing $99,500, including a rabbit hut, Casta del Sol is still trying to shoot its rabbits. The HOA is involved in a lawsuit following a city council vote in 2005 to grant a variance and allow shooting. As it turns out, the state statute that prohibits shooting is unaffected by a city variance. A Casta del Sol resident told The Buzz, “After spending a lot of money on lawyers, the HOA will be back to square one.”