The Buzz Column, July 11

Mission Viejo council members will again discuss the revised city budget at a special meeting on July 31. Perhaps someone on the council besides Councilwoman Gail Reavis will actually read the material by then. Watching the July 3 meeting was like revisiting one’s high school days with students trying to discuss War and Peace without opening the book. Councilman Frank Ury said “nothing worries me” about the budget, which he apparently hadn’t read. Councilman Lance MacLean feigned shock that a member of the audience thought the budget revisions were ill-conceived. Councilwoman Trish Kelley wore her usual deer-in-the-headlights look while asking questions (What are you talking about?). Councilman John Paul Ledesma had the wisdom not to comment.

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Ledesma may have had other things on his mind. He and Sarah Hoogstad exchanged wedding vows on Sun., July 9. Friends asked the bride about plans for the honeymoon. The couple will spend the first several days “within driving distance” of Mission Viejo and then take off for a week in Hawaii.

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Several Mission Viejo residents attended the July 11 writ of mandate hearing regarding the Capistrano USD recall signatures. After the hearing, a proponent of the recall said Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley told her in January that only the 10 proponents of the recall could view the petitions after results were certified last December. Kelley’s “excuse” for illegally allowing CUSD administrators to see them was he didn’t know it was disallowed by law. Just like unringing the bell, Kelley un-knows he acted illegally, although he cited the law earlier.

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Is there a big “undo” button people can push after they screw up royally? The attorney for the Registrar of Voters responded to complaints by recall signature gatherers that RoV employees advised them it was OK to fill in addresses for those signing the petitions. According to declarations in the lawsuit, parents and others called and/or went in person to the RoV office – up to 25 times in total – getting the RoV’s consistent advice it was acceptable to fill in the information. The claim from the RoV’s attorney about all those conversations: it didn’t happen.

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“It didn’t happen” is the position of the CUSD school board regarding the administration’s involvement in creating an enemies list of parents. Two school board members were quoted in the Orange County Register saying they didn’t believe stories of Fleming’s involvement, earning them a blog headline of “Clueless in Capistrano.” School Board President Marlene Draper said at the CUSD meeting on July 11 that school administrators did not compile an enemies list against parents supporting the recall, and Fleming didn’t send anyone to the Registrar of Voters to view recall petitions.

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Piling on was Councilman Frank Ury, who sent a letter to be read at the July 11 CUSD board meeting, chastising the school board for its enemies list. No one involved in the recall can remember Ury even signing the recall petitions, much less doing anything helpful. What people do remember is Ury’s performance during the April 3 meeting when CUSD parents and other community members asked for an audit of Measure A, Redevelopment Agency and Mello-Roos monies collected by CUSD. Councilmen Frank Ury and Lance MacLean referred to the motions as political posturing, and Ury said the city shouldn’t involve itself in CUSD’s business. In addition to the irony of Ury now attempting to represent Mission Viejo residents in CUSD’s business, he apparently couldn’t get a Mission Viejo resident to represent him at the meeting. A San Juan Capistrano resident got the job.