Who’s Your Daddy?
Editorial staff

Who controls the Mission Viejo City Council? One would hope council members’ first obligation would be to their constituents. After all, council members get a whopping $6,000 a year for “public service.” Although council members are supposed to work for the residents, campaign finance reports help to explain why they don’t.

Financial reports for the 2006 city campaign have been filed with the city clerk, and the data can be viewed online at the city’s Web site. Not counting contributions or loans the candidates made to their own campaigns, one should look at the largest donors. Vast amounts of money going into the incumbents’ treasuries came from out of town. After incumbents shook down city vendors, their campaigns benefited from consultants, developers and others wanting a piece of city pie. The campaigns of three challengers – Diane Greenwood, Bill Barker and Justin McCusker – also took large sums from out-of-town donors, particularly those tied to a county lobbyist.

Incumbent Council Members Trish Kelley, John Paul Ledesma and Lance MacLean relied heavily on those doing business with the city to fund their reelection campaigns. Particularly disappointing to their constituents, all three took large donations from Steadfast, the developer of high-density housing at Los Alisos and Jeronimo. Despite pleas from residents, especially those living near the project, all five council members voted to rezone a portion of the parcel from commercial to high-density residential. All five council members either accepted money directly for their campaigns or their campaigns benefited from Steadfast’s contributions.

Frank Ury’s shrinking fan club should note the object of their affection accepted campaign donations in 2005 and 2006 from Steadfast, Saunders (owner of the adjacent property on Jeronimo), consultant Roger Faubel and the P.R. firm Waters & Faubel. While Ury’s fanatics hammer other council members for pay-to-play politics, the same scrutiny and criticism should apply to him.

Residents are still complaining about candidates who littered every street corner with campaign signs. Clearly, the No. 1 litterbug was Trish Kelley. This is reflected in her financial report showing she spent an incredible $5,328 on signs, with additional money for stakes and assembly. Most other candidates spent less than half that amount on signs, and Kelley’s paper-based signs were probably cheaper than the plastic-based ones used by most other candidates. If anyone wants to complain about the city’s expense of collecting and disposing of signs, comments should first be directed at Kelley. Despite seeing her signs on every corner, thoroughfare, slope, etc., campaign workers who retrieved confiscated signs at City Hall noted that Kelley’s signs were less likely to be taken by city employees or the special contractor hired to sweep the streets of all signs.

As another item among the financial data, challengers Greenwood, Barker and McCusker each reported receiving a service valued at $1,480 for a poll paid for by Frank Ury’s campaign treasury. Perhaps this is the poll that gave Bill Barker the confidence to brag, “After the election, I’m going to be one of the most powerful people in Mission Viejo.” He said he would also become the city’s next vice mayor. Another poll taken at about the same time by an incumbent’s consultant found Greenwood, Barker and McCusker losing, with Barker not even close and McCusker near the bottom.

Figures from Barker’s campaign report include a $10,000 donation from an out-of-town businessman and $6,741 from South County Leadership PAC. Greenwood’s campaign accepted donations from Steadfast, South County Leadership PAC and a pro-abortion group, National Women’s Political Caucus

Additional disclosures include a report submitted by former Councilman Bill Craycraft, showing a campaign debt of twenty-some thousand dollars. It does shed light on why he didn’t try to run again in 2004 or 2006.

Anyone who wants more information can access the campaign finance link on the city clerk’s page, http://cityofmissionviejo.org/depts/cclerk/index.html.