Republican and Democrat recommendations
Letter to the editor

Milt Jacobson’s letter in Saddleback Valley News last week should have been an eye-opener for voters regarding endorsements. As immediate past-president of the Saddleback Republican Assembly, I can confirm that Michael Ferrall, John Paul Ledesma and Jim Woodin received S.R.A.’s endorsement for Mission Viejo City Council. It is commendable that the South Orange County Democratic Club also recommended these three candidates.

Daily, I am receiving campaign mailers that are filled with inaccuracies. In one mailer, candidates Diane Greenwood, Bill Barker and Justin McCusker are running together and identify themselves as “real” Republicans. However, Diane Greenwood states on her website that she is backed by the National Political Women’s Caucus, a group that promotes publicly funded abortion and same-sex “marriage.” Bill Barker advocates a socialistic, city-subsidized transportation system for senior citizens as if the vast majority can’t drive themselves or use resident community transportation or the O.C.T.A. Justin McCusker, who calls himself a Republican, has decided to run with these liberal, tax-and-spend candidates. To my knowledge, no Republican group has endorsed this group of three people.

Campaign literature can make claims, true or false; it’s up to voters to sort things out. With all the lobbyist-funded hit pieces filling our mailboxes, I hope voters will realize in the midst of the confusion that candidates Ferrall, Ledesma, and Woodin are ethical men who have earned their endorsements. Official party endorsements like the Saddleback Republican Assembly’s and the Democratic Club’s are valuable when voters don’t have personal knowledge of those running for office.

As a 26-year resident of our city, I believe S.R.A.’s candidates will keep the Mission Viejo Master Plan and THE CALIFORNIA PROMISE!

Phil Steinhauer
Mission Viejo

Mission Viejo at the crossroads
Letter to the editor

Mission Viejo is at a turning point, slipping toward urbanism, overcrowding and increased traffic congestion. Neighborhoods along Los Alisos Blvd. and Crown Valley are overburdened with high-density housing, and many other neighborhoods are being targeted for high-density welfare housing projects.

We have graffiti and gang activity occurring near apartment projects. It’s not a matter of adding more policemen as things deteriorate. We have to stop changing the city’s Master Plan, which emphasized low-density housing – no more high-density development, including affordable welfare housing! Some council members and several candidates favor more high-density housing, including an apartment project at La Paz and Marguerite. These changes impact schools, put our citizens at risk and diminish our quality of life.

Beyond this most important issue facing the city, a critical aspect of this election is whether residents or lobbyists will be represented on the council. When council members’ first loyalty is to lobbyists or outside special interest groups, the city is in jeopardy. Out-of-towners don’t care about the consequences of overdevelopment or the costs of showing favoritism in awarding city contracts.

Because the council majority has demonstrated weakness, our city can’t hold its own in the region. As a result, we have cut-through traffic from the southeast turning our thoroughfares – Crown Valley, Oso and Alicia Parkway – into freeways. While Crown Valley is now being expanded, much more needs to be done. The council has failed in a timely way to address the basic problems facing the city (aging infrastructure, cost overruns on major projects, threats from the state about affordable welfare housing, impact of illegal immigration on many aspects of our lives, converting single-family homes into multi-family units, failure to manage on-going traffic congestion, etc.), and I see additional huge problems in the region that will have continued negative impacts on our residents. Growth in population and additional traffic are just two of the regional trends affecting our city. No one is conceiving of long-term city objectives, let alone achieving them.

We need a city council that will work effectively to preserve the character of Mission Viejo as originally planned and not turn it into another overpopulated urban city.

Michael R. Ferrall, Ph.D.
Candidate for City Council
Mission Viejo

Change the tone at city hall
Letter to the editor

I've been listening carefully to the candidates who are running for city council. Some are advocating change and others are advocating preservation of the Master Plan and the character of neighborhoods.

I believe what voters want is a change in the tone at city hall, but not a series of changes that would turn the city upside down. Before our residents cast their votes, they should consider whether some candidates wanting change are actually offering improvement.

Many people worked hard in the 2002 city election to bring about positive change, but our dreams of harmony haven't come true. In this election, I'm paying attention to the tone as well as the message of council candidates. One group of candidates is hammering others day after day – it’s a strong warning of how they would rule. Our council would benefit tremendously from responsible adult leadership rather than candidates who are constantly on the attack and calling it change.

Dee Strubb
Misson Viejo

Politics as usual
Staff editorial

As a surprise to would-be letter writers, Saddleback Valley News cut off political letters with the Oct. 27 issue. The paper allegedly has a policy of no political letters 30 days prior to the election, but someone has been asleep at the SVN wheel. On Oct. 31, everyone who had written a letter got an email from SVN announcing no more political letters would be published before the election.

Blog staffer Kathy Miramontes managed to get a letter into SVN last week. She wrote about the attacks coming primarily from Diane Greenwood’s campaign. Following publication of SVN on Oct. 27, Miramontes received an angry email from a Greenwood supporter. This hatchet-thrower forwarded an email attack against Miramontes written by “Herb Glotz.”

The Mission Viejo news blog has twice received crank emails in the past year, one from “A.J. Smith” and another from “Herb Glotz.” What do these two cranks have in common? Both are phony names, and both originated from a supporter of Diane Greenwood. Apparently, her supporter thinks he succeeded in covering his identity. The blog’s publisher tracked the emails to the originator, Joe Holtzman.

In Glotz’s (Holtzman’s) latest email tirade, he claims to be a resident of Casta del Sol and a member of the “lodge.” Holtzman doesn’t live in Casta, and he’s not a member of the Elks (if that’s what he means by “lodge”). “Glotz” (Holtzman) threatened Miramontes by emailing that she would be banned from entering the Casta gates. How “Glotz” (Holtzman) would prevent anyone from entering Casta del Sol wasn’t specified.

This is among many examples of Greenwood’s unethical team and her unethical war against other candidates. As other examples, Greenwood got caught in a lie to the firemen’s union, and a campaign worker of hers made false claims regarding campaign signs. Greenwood’s unethical campaign has had one problem after another, falsely claiming the city council met behind closed doors with Southern California Edison – it didn’t happen. Contrary to other Greenwood claims, the city has no jurisdiction over the power lines, and the city never subsidized Edison. Voters have had ample warning – if they’re paying attention.

Meanwhile, Holtzman -- using his own name -- entered the race as a write-in candidate for the Santa Margarita Water District board of directors. The race had three candidates on the ballot for two seats, and none of the candidates is a stellar choice. If voters would like to amuse themselves, perhaps they’d like to write in the name “Herb Glotz” and see who shows up to claim the booby prize.

The Buzz column, Nov. 1
 

At a temporary standstill is the high-density project the current council approved at Los Alisos and Jeronimo, next to Unisys. The highly unpopular housing component was halted with a lawsuit fairly soon after it was approved. The homebuilder, Fieldstone, has since bailed, leaving Steadfast in the dust – literally. The site has been graded, as the lawsuit didn’t affect plans for the Target store adjacent to the housing project. City hall insiders indicate the welfare housing project will soon be back on track after the election. Many issues are being kept quiet while three incumbents take credit for the sun rising in the east.

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A write-in candidate for water district board of directors has kicked off his exceedingly weird campaign. Alongside the yard signs of a candidate who is on the ballot, Roger Faubel, look for the write-in’s signs. Everywhere a Faubel sign pops up, an unreadable message is posted on a wooden stake, hovering over Faubel’s sign like a flag. The write-in candidate is also council candidate Diane Greenwood’s “sign man.” His inimitable style can be seen throughout Mission Viejo, where Greenwood signs are placed directly in front of every other candidate’s signs.

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If it weren’t for a lobbyist from Orange – John Lewis – trying to buy the Mission Viejo council election, the race might actually be a fair one. The lobbyist-funded candidates (Diane Greenwood, Bill Barker and Justin McCusker) are dependent upon a steady stream of nasty mailers arriving almost daily. One insider estimated that Lewis will spend at least $80,000 to get his trio elected. Beyond the lobbyist’s help, his candidates have almost no supporters. Lewis has evidently decided the only way his candidates can win is if he stuffs voters’ mailboxes with exceedingly negative pieces against other candidates. The mailers have been highly offensive – misrepresenting facts if not promoting outright lies.

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An odd pairing of two incumbents, John Paul Ledesma and Lance MacLean, responded in kind to the lobbyist’s false claim that Greenwood, Barker and McCusker are the “real” Republicans. Greenwood, who is a lifelong liberal Democrat, changed her voter registration less than a year ago when she decided to enter the race. The incumbents’ mailer also clarified that McCusker is “a low-level county bureaucrat.” McCusker has been inflating his r‚sum‚ for months, trying to give the impression he’s a big wheel. A county department head who heard McCusker introduce himself at a meeting said, “Who does he think he is?” McCusker has made the most of his former position as an administrative assistant (gofer) in the office of a state senator.

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Also getting trimmed down to size in the incumbents’ response is candidate Bill Barker, who claims to be a Republican, but his only endorsements are from far-left groups. Barker, who will say anything to get support, apparently made interesting remarks in his endorsement questionnaires to far-left organizations. The description said Barker “wants more bird sanctuaries.” Most of Barker’s remarks are for the birds.

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A resident with a Barker sign in his yard told a blog staffer that he didn’t know Barker; however, Barker promised to prevent parents from parking on his street while waiting to pick up their children from school. Don’t count on it – Barker’s financier from Orange doesn’t care who parks on the street.

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What’s in store for Mission Viejo after the city election? A city hall insider says the city is going to change dramatically if all three incumbents are reelected. Changes include high-density affordable housing targets becoming actual projects. Incumbent Trish Kelley speaks fearfully of “state mandates” regarding housing numbers. There are no mandates. After four years, Kelley can’t get it straight, and she’s ready to ruin additional neighborhoods – as long as they’re not hers. A former planning commissioner reported Kelley’s confidential statement to him, indicating she didn’t care where the projects went in, as long as they weren’t close to her house.

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The blog has been informally polling residents, mostly in front of stores. Among the incumbents, Lance MacLean is the weakest link. Numbers indicate a fairly tight race with most candidates clumped in the middle. On a particularly bright note, both Barker and McCusker polled in the bottom half of the slate, with Barker trailing McCusker. One of the survey questions included the Capistrano Unified School District contest. A surprisingly high number of voters who live in CUSD either didn’t know or didn’t remember the recall attempt in 2005. School board incumbents are hoping to get the amnesia vote.

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Contrary to statements made by some of the council candidates, The Buzz hasn’t endorsed anyone. The choices, however, are clear. Incumbents Lance MacLean and Trish Kelley have brought welfare housing to the city, attempted to raise taxes and voted for unbridled spending. Challengers Diane Greenwood, Bill Barker and Justin McCusker are the lobbyist’s candidates, and they’ve been bought and paid for by John Lewis of Orange. Neil Lonsinger and Brian Skalsky have a bazillion signs but they lack support. The ethical leaders who will represent the residents are Jim Woodin and Michael Ferrall. John Paul Ledesma deserves to be reelected as an ethical person who usually votes the right way.