Reader response – Good Idea
Low-income housing

I have a proposal for the low-income housing the city supposedly needs. Every time a person opens a "board and care" facility, they should have to provide as many low-income units as they have beds in the "board and care" facility. This would solve one issue or the other very quickly. You'll either get six low-income units per new facility or no more "board and care" facilities in an already over-saturated city.

Elizabeth Yaeger

Just Desserts for a Council Member
Staff editorial

The Nov. 7 city council election results may have disappointed a majority of Mission Viejo residents, including most of those who voted. Seven council challengers and a wide range of residents are among the disappointed. No one, however, should feel more flattened than Councilman Frank Ury, who unsuccessfully tried to orchestrate dumping Council Members Trish Kelley, John Paul Ledesma and Lance MacLean.

Ever since his Nov. 2004 election, Ury has been on a slash-and-burn mission to jettison other council members, including Gail Reavis, who is not up for reelection until 2008. Ury’s status as the council pariah is, perhaps, the only point of agreement among the other four. Ury has publicly implied Councilwoman Trish Kelley is inept. He frequently insults Councilmen John Paul Ledesma and Lance MacLean. Ury appears to take sadistic pleasure in upsetting Councilwoman Gail Reavis. During the past year as he sat to MacLean’s left on the dais, he’d lean over, whisper something to MacLean, and they’d both break out laughing. It’s as if Ury had whispered, “Watch me set her off.” Immediately thereafter, Ury would insult Reavis, often bringing up her feud with former City Manager Dan Joseph or the legal claims that followed. If Ury “worked with” anyone on the council, it was to demean others – aligning with Kelley to malign Reavis or with Reavis to insult Kelley.

Ury’s reputation as a schoolyard bully isn’t limited to the council battlefield. Between council meetings, Ury has found time to display his ill will against others at Saddleback Republican Assembly and Orange County Central Committee meetings. At an SRA meeting last spring, FU asked to be on the program and spent an hour trashing his council peers, admitting that he couldn’t work with any of them.

The Republican Central Committee meetings are rarely attended by the common folk, and Republicans at large might mistakenly think the meetings are held to promote Republican ideals. Those who witnessed the Central Committee’s endorsing process in September had a rude awakening. The purpose of the meeting was allegedly to interview and find the best Republican representatives in elections throughout Orange County.

Somehow, the Republican Central Committee became highly confused and decided to meddle in nonpartisan races, including city council elections. Mission Viejo’s city election had 10 candidates – all Republicans after lifelong Democrat Diane Greenwood switched parties. The committee’s discussion of the Mission Viejo race started with Ury’s introduction of his so-called find, Justin McCusker.

Ury’s rambling presentation began, “County Chairman Scott Baugh asked me to find a credible Republican candidate for Mission Viejo City Council.” One should ask why Scott Baugh, a Huntington Beach resident, thinks he should interfere with a Mission Viejo city election. As another issue, nine other Republicans (including eight real ones) were already campaigning prior to McCusker’s entering the race. One should keep in mind the Republican Central Committee is controlled by three lobbyists who raise enormous amounts of cash to grease the wheels for their business contacts. It has nothing whatsoever to do with Republican ideals or what’s best for anyone else except the business of lobbying. Until this problem is addressed by county Republicans at large, the county organization is broken.

Despite the effort by the county party, several lobbyists, Ury’s dysfunctional fan club of four members and a whole lot of money raised by lobbyists for McCusker, “their” prot‚g‚ came in near the bottom. McCusker surpassed only Brian Skalsky (a 20-something newcomer) and Jim Woodin, an otherwise viable candidate who had to stop campaigning in July because of major health issues, including a broken back.

The county GOP election effort was an epic failure. As an example, the county turnout was approximately 50 percent – even below the state’s turnout. The county GOP’s so-called city chairman in Mission Viejo was Frank Ury. No one can cite any activity – phone banking, precinct work, etc. – generated by Ury. Even those connected with the Republican Party said he did nothing except to thwart the effort of others who usually help. Ultimately, Ury was out on the street corner the day prior to the election, campaigning with a lifelong Democrat (Diane Greenwood), who lost while running as a pseudo-Republican.

As further testimony to Ury’s lack of leadership, his council peers decided at the Dec. 4 meeting that Ury should be bypassed as Mission Viejo’s mayor for 2007, although it’s his turn in the rotation.

The sleeping circus at city hall awakened for a moment, brushed the debris aside and will now go back to sleep.

CUSD Update
Press Release – CUSD Recall.com

As part of the ongoing criminal investigation of the Capistrano Unified School District, Board President Marlene Draper just spent three days testifying before the Orange County Grand Jury. A criminal defense attorney charging $395/hour is representing Draper, and the taxpayers will be forced to pay the bill.

Draper appears to be the second elected trustee forced to testify. Trustee John Casabianca, who was voted out of office on Election Day, was forced to testify in October. Former Supt. Fleming and the other CUSD trustees have not yet been subpoenaed.

The CUSD Recall Committee calls upon Trustee Draper to resign from the board of trustees immediately. It will be virtually impossible for CUSD to attract high-caliber candidates to fill the open superintendent’s position unless she removes herself and the numerous controversies surrounding her from the school district.

Draper has been the CUSD board president for the past two years. Draper and the CUSD trustees have stirred numerous controversies:

Taxpayer-funded criminal defense attorneys. The trustees unanimously approved the engagement of a $400/hour criminal defense attorney to represent former Supt. James Fleming and a $395/hour criminal defense attorney to represent themselves in connection with the ongoing criminal investigation. These costs will come directly out of the district’s General Fund.

Nepotism with CUSD’s Environmental Consultant. As reported in the Los Angeles Times on Aug. 5, Draper’s daughter, Shawna Schaffner, works for CUSD’s primary environmental consulting firm, Culbertson, Adams & Associates. Schaffner was personally responsible for producing numerous environmental reports and documents that were submitted and approved by Draper and the rest of the board of trustees. Most recently, in December 2005, the board approved a new contract with the firm that will cost taxpayers an additional $172,000.

Massive Budget Deficit. CUSD has amassed an $18-million budget deficit.

Provided Massive Increases to Scandal-ridden Administrators. CUSD provided three enormous salary increases to two of CUSD’s most controversial deputy superintendents, Dan Crawford and David Doomey. Last week, the Orange County Register reported that Doomey (who is the person most responsible for creating the CUSD portable classroom crisis) admitted CUSD had provided “misinformation” to the public as to how CUSD would fund the new $52-million administration office. In Crawford’s case, his cumulative salary increase amounted to more than $25,000 during a nine-month period. During the recall, Crawford was roundly criticized for publishing a letter in the O.C. Register that grossly understated the total number of portable classrooms actually utilized by CUSD.

Failure to Budget Basic Teacher Increases. CUSD failed to budget anything for teacher salary increases, not even basic cost-of-living adjustments.

Effort to Suppress Important Information from the Public. The minutes from the illegal July 30, 2005, CUSD closed-session meeting, which were published in the O.C. Register, reveal that Draper attempted to conceal the terms of a multimillion-dollar settlement with the construction contractor for the infamous $52-million administration building. Despite the fact CUSD had a “guaranteed maximum price” contract with Valley Commercial Contractors to construct the building, CUSD agreed to pay an additional $3.8 million in settlement costs without any public explanation.

Harrassment of Recall Volunteers. Draper and her husband, Dennis Draper, were the center of police attention in the summer of 2005 when Sheriff’s deputies detained Mr. Draper for harassing recall signature gatherers as Mrs. Draper looked on from her parked car.

To learn more about these important issues, please visit our website at www.cusdrecall.com.

The Buzz column, Dec. 9

If observers blinked during the Dec. 4 council meeting, they could have missed the selection of a mayor and vice mayor for 2007. One person said, “It took about 45 seconds and looked like a setup.” Rather than having voters elect a mayor, the title rotates among council members. For 2007, Councilman Frank Ury was due for a turn, as he hasn’t yet had the title. However, it was up to four other council members to give him a turn, and he’s spent two years insulting each of them. Gail Reavis will be the mayor and John Paul Ledesma will be vice-mayor for 2007, and both decisions were unanimous.

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Ury might want to review the videotape from January 2005 when the council voted on planning commission appointments. When Ledesma nominated Bo Klein as his planning commission appointee, Kelley, MacLean and Ury in unison said no and refused to discuss the matter. When Reavis nominated Dorothy Wedel as her planning commission appointee, Kelley, MacLean and Ury in unison said no. What goes around comes around, and perhaps Ury would now like to discuss whether or not his votes of two years ago were prearranged. Some residents have long suspected three-way conversations or sequential meetings took place in 2005 among Kelley, MacLean and Ury in violation of the Brown Act.

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Rumors circulated during the past several months that Ury would bypassed for mayor. Friends of Trish Kelley seemed to be among the first to know he wouldn’t have three votes on the council. This is similar to “friends of Kelley” knowing two years ago that Bo Klein had three votes against him for planning commissioner. If Kelley hadn’t illegally talked two years ago with both Ury and MacLean, she might have made the remark, “I’m not going to nominate Bo as my commissioner.” The problem arose when Kelley said Klein would be removed, indicating she’d lined up two other votes. A city hall insider recently said, “Kelley is the most vindictive person on the council.” Considering Ury publicly opposed the reelection of Kelley, he had a snowball’s chance of getting her vote. Rumors correctly predicted three votes were in and Ury was out.

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The county Republican party might receive unfavorable publicity in the upcoming trial of George Jaramillo, who was once viewed as Sheriff Mike Carona’s heir apparent. A Dec. 9 OC Register article referred to the trial as promising “tales of political intrigue among the county’s most powerful GOP insiders.” Mission Viejo residents should watch for names of out-of-towners who have meddled in their city’s politics as well.

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The investigation of criminal wrongdoing continues regarding Capistrano Unified School District. A CUSD resident reports: “Former trustee John Casabianca and certain school district staff members already have been called to testify before the O.C. Grand Jury. Now, CUSD board president Marlene Draper has been called to testify before the O.C. Grand Jury as well. Apparently, the DA’s investigation of CUSD is still very much alive, and the Grand Jury is still working its way up the CUSD food chain.”