Council meeting summary, May 15
Editorial staff

The May 15 council meeting was short. Most of those in the audience came for the entertainment feature or the presentations. For a change, the entertainment feature was the musical number, not the contention on the dais.

A public hearing to continue the moratorium on marijuana dispensaries in the city was opened and closed without any public or council member comment. It passed 5-0.

The only item of real interest on the agenda was the Renewed Measure M Transportation Investment Plan. The council has the authority to decide whether or not to approve placing the item on the November ballot, and voters would decide if the tax should be extended for 30 years. The current 20-year half-cent sales tax, which voters passed in 1990, expires in 2011. Eighteen of the 34 Orange County cities must approve the plan if it is to appear on the ballot. Eight cities have approved.

Two residents spoke against extending the sales tax. One said too much Measure M money has gone to mass transit instead of improving the infrastructure. She said, “We need more pavement, not more social engineering.” She also mentioned that Measure M tax dollars are being spent to sell the sales-tax extension to the voters.

A second resident reminded council members of their responsibility to represent the best interests of Mission Viejo residents and not the desires of the Orange County Transportation Authority. He questioned why 25 percent of expenditures in Orange County are going toward 2 1/2 percent of the population using mass transit.

No residents spoke in favor of the ballot measure, but two speakers promoted Measure M – a representative of the Orange Co. Business Council and Lake Forest Councilman Peter Herzog. Herzog is also a member of the League of California Cities Measure M Super Committee.

The council voted 4-1 (Councilman John Paul Ledesma dissenting) to approve the plan to put the extension on the November ballot. Ledesma acknowledged road improvements funded by Measure M, but he took issue with the mass-transit portion, and he added that the tax was supposed to be temporary.