Does Council Support Dramatic Change?
Staff editorial

When was the last time a reform candidate in Mission Viejo kept his or her word?

All five current council members ran as fiscal conservatives opposing big government, and all five have poor records for doing what they said. Lance MacLean was the first to flip, flaunting his bureaucratic beliefs soon after his 2002 election. Trish Kelley was next: she hadn’t written her own 2002 platform and apparently didn’t believe a word of it. Gail Reavis took a little longer than the others to evolve from reformer to conformer. John Paul Ledesma has also adopted a go-along-to-get-along posture – performing admirably in his early tenure but lately siding with developers against his constituents.

Frank Ury, who joined the council in 2004, flipped the fastest. Within weeks of his election, he tried to give his homeowners association a $1-million park at taxpayer expense. His theme of “taking the city to a new level” turned out to be a new level of fleecing taxpayers and pushing special favors for his special friends in other cities. Most of his campaign promises were so vague, no one could pin him down. (Except for his promise to bury power lines – he now bluntly says, “No one is entitled to a view.”)

Ury in the 2006 city election tried to bring in a “team” created in his own likeness – abrasive candidates with bad ideas. Evidently, one of their plans was razing the Unisys facility to make way for wall-to-wall apartments, which brought big campaign donations from owner of the Unisys property to Ury’s candidates. Another Ury idea attributed to his “team” was a plan to put affordable apartments on top of stores at La Paz and Marguerite, creating a windfall for property owners and a nightmare for neighbors and schools.

Ury’s dream team evaporated after the election. Justin McCusker moved to Rancho Santa Margarita, and Bill Barker all but disappeared. Diane Greenwood dropped out of sight after professing during her campaign a latently discovered lifelong dedication to civic committees. Ury’s candidates are gone, but the nightmare is back. Ury didn’t need his shills on the dais after all. At least two current council members are willing accomplices in Ury’s quest to put apartments on top of stores at La Paz and Marguerite.

Anyone who doubts the council majority’s intent should check out the study recently produced for the city by the Urban Land Institute. All of Ury’s “nightmare team” plans for La Paz and Marguerite are outlined in the report. Despite voters rejecting Ury’s candidates – Greenwood, Barker and McCusker – the incumbents have taken up ideas of the losers.

A copy of the report can be found here, and Mission Viejo residents should review this nightmare while wide awake. A month ago, a city hall insider tipped off the blog with an email that began, “Mission Viejo is going to change dramatically.” Changes are detailed in the report. Page 14 outlines 350-450 residential units on top of stores at La Paz and Marguerite. Page 21 essentially condemns current tenants as “low-rent” (current tenants include Trader Joe's, Steinmart, Michaels and CVS) and criticizes property owners as “self-serving.” Perhaps council members – particularly Ury – would prefer low-rent apartment dwellers and self-serving developers to take over private property of current owners. Self-serving council members need developer campaign donations, which they certainly won't get from anyone in Mission Viejo.

Residents are already aware of increasing traffic problems, crime rates that are higher than city statistics indicate and a non-responsive police attitude. The affordable housing situation is a mess, due largely to previous irresponsible councils and the inept current one. Streets need resurfacing, partly because of a separate problem of cut-through traffic beating a path to the freeway. Residents are running to city meetings to oppose cell towers in parks as fast as the city’s consultant proposes them, much like playing a “whack-a-gopher” game. After demonstrating its incapability of managing public property, the council now meddles in private property rights.

The above problems erode quality of life. The sitting council – Frank Ury, Lance MacLean, Trish Kelley, John Paul Ledesma and Gail Reavis – have 18 more months to wreak havoc before voters have another chance to remove any of them.