The Buzz column, January 12

What's black with stripes and a $10-million price tag? It's the new 93-space parking lot at Aliso Niguel High School. The Buzz hopes CUSD residents are still watching to see how their tax dollars are going up in smoke.

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With the release of (retired) Judge Waldrip's report regarding wrongdoing at CUSD came a new list. Former Supt. James Fleming sent two of his administrative staff members to the Registrar of Voters' office in 2006 to get information about who gathered recall signatures. This is different from the "enemies list" revealed by the Orange County Register last summer. A Mission Viejo resident whose name appeared on the second list responded to The Buzz: "I'm happy to be on the list. I felt slighted when I didn't make the list of enemies." OC Register columnist Frank Mickadeit described the enemies list as a badge of honor.

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One of the underlying problems with CUSD's "investigation of wrongdoing" is that school district officials and their buddies were investigating themselves. It's no surprise that the self-evaluation found nothing wrong.

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Council members chose their city commission appointees at the Jan. 2 meeting. Despite new applicants with plenty of talent, some council members reappointed current commissioners, including passive ones who barely participate. Newly appointed Community Services Commissioner Brian Skalsky, an unsuccessful council candidate who came in last, may have been selected because he poses no serious threat to any council member's reelection bid in 2008.

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Who's in charge of Mission Viejo's economic development? Residents would likely give the obvious answer: no one. Receiving unanimous council support on Jan. 2, the city manager and a well-paid city secretary were reappointed to direct the city's economic development. Perhaps they can boast coursework in Bureaucracy 101, arranging people for group photographs and writing puff pieces as their qualifications. By contrast, Lake Forest has a real econiomic development director and a growing economic base.

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Here are examples of city staffers' concepts of business analysis. When two council members were promoting a city gym, the "needs analysis" provided by staff was a laundry list of gymnasium uses (e.g., space for Brownie Scouts to learn wigwam construction). As the "needs analysis" for the senior transportation program, a city staffer said they researched how many city residents are 85 years of age or older. What would happen to a business if it
relied on this type of analysis?

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Newly elected CUSD Trustee Ellen Addonizio (of Mission Viejo) has called for three proposals to be considered at the February board meeting: terminating the district's funding of defense attorneys for former district employees, adopting an anti-nepotism policy and creating an internal audit committee. All three ideas depart dramatically from practices of the old board.