Mayor Speaks at Casta del Sol
Editorial staff

When Mayor Lance MacLean attended the Republican Club’s Lincoln Day brunch at Casta del Sol in February, he apparently charmed the gals at his table. The club invited him back as the May 17 guest speaker.

MacLean gave a brief speech on May 17 and then took written questions from the audience. The audience’s quiet mood should not have been mistaken as support, as the questions contained only barbs. Worse for MacLean, he didn’t have the benefit of deflecting to the city attorney the questions he didn’t want to answer, which probably was all of them.

One of the questions dealt with worsening traffic (which MacLean had vowed to fix if elected in 2002). Apparently, a Casta resident noticed the gridlock on Crown Valley during rush hour – 6:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. MacLean said, “I’m diligently working on traffic.”

A few of MacLean’s statements require no comment, as they could have been jokes. When asked how much money he had accepted from Steadfast (the developer of high-density housing next to Unisys), MacLean responded, “I don’t remember.” MacLean in 2004 promoted Measure K, the hotel tax, and he recently advocated a 30-year extension of Measure M, the county’s half-cent sales tax. He again promoted Measure M at the May 17 meeting, adding, “As a conservative Republican, I don’t like taxes.”

To a question about the city’s reserves, MacLean said: “The city has $23.9 million in reserves.”

Sort of – but if the audience believed $23.9 million is available to spend on new projects, that’s incorrect. Nearly all of the $23.9 million is already appropriated or encumbered – committed for operations or other costs of running the city. The amount available for anything unbudgeted is less than $1 million, as revealed during the council’s mid-year budget discussion on May 1.

To a question on why the city doesn’t pay down its debt, MacLean said: “The city has enough money to pay off its bonded indebtedness immediately, but what’s the point?”

MacLean apparently ran out of fingers and toes doing the math. The city’s debt is more than $60 million, and cash available to pay it off is less than $1 million.

MacLean: “There’s a perception that those on the council don’t get along with each other.” Actually, the perception among residents is that council members hate each other.

MacLean: “The parcel next to Unisys was zoned for commercial use but never developed because of visibility.” No, the parcel remained undeveloped for many years because the owner showed no interest in developing it and wouldn’t put it on the market. With Target purchasing the parcel and planning a retail store, the argument about visibility evidently didn’t deter a major retailer. If the property had been allowed to develop along with the business park surrounding it, office workers would find their way to work, particularly after a few days’ practice.

MacLean also attempted to respond to a question about affordable housing, which made about as much sense as his comment regarding visibility of the Target property. With MacLean’s selective amnesia and his ability to spin gold into straw, residents are getting what developers paid for.