June 4 Council Meeting Summary
Editorial staff

During public comments at the June 4 council meeting, four people spoke in support of Senate Bill 840, calling for implementation of a statewide universal health insurance system. Two of the speakers gave their out-of-town addresses, and a third didn’t state an address. Council members did not respond to the opportunity to endorse the bill putting the state in charge of insurance.

The city staff reported its findings about a dog park, with two locations still in play. The “rear” of Alicia Park (Alicia Parkway / Via Linda) and the “rear” of the Norman P. Murray Community Center grounds are the proposed choices. The council on March 19 hired a consultant to estimate the cost of such a project. The construction estimate for the Alicia Park site is approximately $1 million, and the community center site is estimated at $883,000. Costs for design and administration would be an additional $150,000. To put these amounts into perspective, the cost of Laguna Niguel’s dog park (developed approximately seven years ago) was $150,000. The estimated cost of various dog park sites in Mission Viejo two years ago was $500,000. A dog-park proponent who did not attend the meeting remarked to the blog, “It’s clear the city staff doesn’t want a dog park, and they’ll raise the price to the point residents won’t accept it.” Additional information coming out during the council discussion indicated no effort has been made to get input from neighbors of the proposed sites.

Councilman John Paul Ledesma asked why Lower Curtis Park had been removed from consideration as a dog park site, and he mentioned a past proposal for temporary use, which included an access road for an RV park. Lower Curtis Park was a controversial subject in 2002 when the city was involved in grading the site. The unapproved $200,000 grading job was described by city activists as a stealth make-work project for a city contractor, Granich Construction. Wilberg offered to revisit proposed uses of the parcel, mentioning sports fields and an amphitheatre but not the obvious temporary use to which Ledesma referred.

Further discussion of a dog park will take place at the city’s next budget meeting.

The council listened to a staff report about the city’s senior transportation taxi-ride program. It could have been summarized in three words: it’s a flop. No numbers of participants were revealed. In order to make this pricey failure look viable, the city will now broaden the program’s access and availability. The council voted 5-0 to extend the service to 24 hours a day, lower the age requirement to 80, permit travel to medical facilities and authorize the city manager to approve future administrative costs to the program. As with Alaska’s proposed $200-million “bridge to nowhere,” Mission Viejo has a program of “empty taxicabs to nowhere.” Residents can thank Councilwoman Trish Kelley for the $100,000 program – the cornerstone of her 2006 council campaign. If the city can’t succeed in making the program more popular, it will at least succeed in making it more expensive.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:50 p.m. Following the next council meeting on Monday, June 18, the city will hold a budget workshop on Tuesday, June 19.