For Whom the Bell Tolls
by Bo Klein

The city council race has begun. An abundance of candidates are charging ahead like Pamplona’s Running of the Bulls down Mission Viejo’s streets. Who will get trampled underhoof, and who will butt heads while bellowing campaign rhetoric? The untouchables are loose – don't dare get in the way of this herd. Count ‘em, ten in all! That’s a lot of mess to clean up later.

As the campaigns begin, discussion around town generally starts with what services a city should provide. The range of response includes "everything for everybody” or "nothing for all, all for me.” What a city should provide to justify its existence to its owners – the public – is a matter of balance. Enter the politicians who claim to know the proper balance of who gets what. Our city charter has elements of safety, transportation, fire, recreation, housing and other obligations that change with every new majority rule. The budget and staff will service those elements as directed by our elected officials. God forbid if politicians have their own agendas that throw out the balance of a city, and yet, it certainly happens.

It’s perfectly logical to assume any candidate has a personal agenda or goal to push forward if elected. What happens when candidates are elected and their obsessive personal agendas overcome logic and balance? Such an example is Councilwoman Trish Kelley.

The Saddleback Valley News reported Kelley’s Aug. 21 agenda item of having the city perform an inquiry into the now seriously gored and trampled Capistrano Unifed School District. The district had been sewn on like a Siamese twin to Kelley over the years, and her personal agenda of cooperating with them has thrown our city out of balance. She lately is attempting to shed the relationship as if she personally has been afflicted by their questionable actions. She casts her CUSD friends off to the buzzards to save her own hide (as in hide from inquiry herself, not hide of a bull). That's like one black buzzard calling another one black.

Blog staffers, in fact, support Kelley's request for a letter of reprimand and an investigation. The council should additionally ask for an investigation of Kelley. In CUSD, relatives of trustees receive excessive payment and special privilege, and loyal PTA-types have been rewarded with district jobs. As an aside, taxpayers crying “foul” over Supt. James Fleming’s son being hired by a CUSD plumbing contractor should take note Kelley’s son was given a job by the city’s ambulance contractor while her other son was hired by a competitor who also wanted the ambulance contract.

Has Kelley reaped any personal income from her association with Fleming and the trustees? While she was on the PTA, the district diverted our tax dollars to other cities while our schools deteriorated. Kelley responded by pressing parents to donate the difference and tax themselves again with Measure A. On the council, she has diverted city tax income to benefit a school district, espousing the “everything for everyone” view. Kelley effectively blocked the zoning of two massive land parcels slated for business development, which would have allowed private schools, thus preventing competition for her allies. When her allies leave office, will she still receive the same privileges of any piano instructor in town? Will her prior loyalty afford continual unlimited personal access and referrals to the CUSD student base without ever paying for advertising?

When an elected official or a candidate proposes ideas, voters need to consider balance before voting. It behooves us to vote wisely on Nov. 7. When a politician like Kelley wears a slogan like "Community of Character" and attempts to color herself and allies as unimpeachable, she should know the truth will come out. Reconciling the difference is called the balance of justice, and that’s no bull.