May 21 Council Meeting Summary
Editorial staff

If anyone looked for coverage of the May 21 council meeting in Saddleback Valley News this week, the lack of mention wasn’t an oversight. Only three council members attended – John Paul Ledesma, Lance MacLean and Frank Ury – and the meeting of less than an hour produced no noteworthy outcome.

Those who tried to watch TV coverage said the cable connection was lost and not restored. One viewer called the blog, saying, “Maybe I was the only person in town who tuned in. I called Cox when coverage ended abruptly, and the person who answered wasn’t aware of the problem.” Perhaps the meeting was so short it ended before coverage could be restored.

No council member pulled any agenda item for discussion, and as of an April 16 council majority vote, members of the public cannot pull items for discussion. The meeting consisted of public comments, unanimous passage of the consent calendar and reports from council members near the end of the meeting.

During public comments, one resident who lives on Coronel Drive reported he had spoken with Councilwoman Gail Reavis about her May 7 vote in favor of a home remodel on Calle Hogar, turning a single-family home into what appears to be an eldercare facility. The speaker said Reavis asked him to come to the May 21 meeting and request that the council bring back the item. Mayor Pro Tem Ledesma, who was presiding in Reavis’ absence, said Reavis could put the item on the agenda for reconsideration if she so desired.

Two public speakers mentioned the controversial issue of cell towers. Both speakers campaigned for Ury during his 2004 run for a council seat and now appear at odds with his decision to push a cell-tower master plan with a lucrative contract for the cell-tower consultant.

Despite Ury’s prior stance that council members may not respond to public comments, he responded with his standard answer to residents’ complaints: 1) baffle them with b.s., 2) mischaracterize remarks of the speakers and then claim they don’t know what they’re talking about, 3) label residents’ negative comments as hysteria, and 4) let everyone know he was elected to make decisions without interference from the little people. Ury additionally implied the Planning Commission exists to safeguard the community from any maladies mentioned in the complaints. For anyone who has observed a Planning Commission meeting during the past two years, the commission has become a rubber-stamp agency to approve city staff recommendations regardless of harm to the community or objections from residents.

For whatever reasons both Reavis and Kelley missed the meeting, their absence evidently didn’t give MacLean and Ury enough notice to use their two-to-one advantage over Ledesma. Residents should also feel a sense of relief knowing the meeting ended before MacLean and Ury could take turns nominating themselves for mayor.