Power Players Fight Other Battles
Staff editorial

To their credit, Mission Viejo residents are more concerned about soccer games and family gatherings than political warfare. While local residents keep a safe distance, some of the county’s biggest power players and money boys (and girls) are turning on each other.

Dana Point Mayor Diane Harkey is being recalled. Last November, she supported two of her friends for Dana Point City Council, who knocked out incumbents. As an aside, Jim Lacy, one of the deposed incumbents, was the prosecuting attorney when former council members Sherri Butterfield, Susan Withrow and Bill Craycraft were found guilty of Brown Act violations. Lacy is now involved in the effort to recall Harkey. Harkey’s backers include those associated with lobbyist John Lewis and his employees in the Orange County Republican hierarchy. Harkey is currently running for Mimi Walters’ state Assembly seat.

Assemblywoman Walters of Laguna Niguel is running against Anaheim Councilman Harry Sidhu for the 33rd State Senate District. Mission Viejo residents who have attended political fund-raisers hosted by Mimi say she has a really big house. She has a pile of money, and Sidhu has a pile of money. Some Mission Viejo residents received the first hit piece against Mimi in the mail last week.

Harald Martin was recently appointed as an Anaheim Union High School District trustee, and some political types are backing an effort to recall him. His detractors call him a racist, based on his statement that the cost of educating the children of illegal immigrants from Mexico should be billed to Mexico. He also said illegals should be deported. The contest would be of little interest outside Anaheim except for politicians taking sides.

SunCal vs. Disneyland: Mission Viejo residents have another reason to be thankful they don’t live in Anaheim. Lobbyist John Lewis works for developer SunCal, which is pushing for housing (including affordable housing) in an area zoned for resort use. Disney objects to housing and wants to preserve the resort zoning. As an interesting aside, Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle opposes the housing. This is the same person who acted as a consultant for UDR Pacific in Mission Viejo when it pushed for rezoning of the former Kmart property from commercial to high-density residential. Apparently, it’s OK to ruin someone else’s city with overcrowding, traffic congestion, preventing new business opportunity and curtailing job growth.

Nguyen vs. Nguyen: Janet Nguyen in 2006 won the tug-of-of war for the county’s First District supervisorial seat. She beat another candidate with the same last name, Trung Nguyen. Trung drew the support of Mike Schroeder (called OC GOP’s Darth Vader by Register columnist Martin Wisckol) and Janet has the support of Schroeder’s enemies. Janet and Trung are still slugging it out in court, and top players are still lined up behind them.

The new recall effort in Capistrano Unified School District barely gets noticed outside South County. One thing to watch is money coming from outside the district. One should also look at politicians putting their names on the new recall effort. They include Mission Viejo council members who had nothing to do with the first recall and little interest in CUSD’s problems. Last year, Councilmen Lance MacLean and Frank Ury disavowed meddling in school district business when parents asked for help.

Another aspect deserves mention. Councilwoman Trish Kelley was an ardent supporter of former superintendent James Fleming and former deputy superintendent Dave Doomey (DO-me). During the first recall, she was fawning over Trustee Marlene Draper, who attended a Mission Viejo council meeting. After Kelley’s display of support of Draper, Fleming and DO-me from the dais, she had the nerve to claim she was neutral in the recall. Prior to her 2002 election, Kelley as a PTA member and self-proclaimed school leader promoted Measure A and never caught on that CUSD was diverting Mission Viejo tax dollars (Mello-Roos, Measure A and redevelopment funds) to other cities. Kelley continued batting her eyes at Fleming and DO-me and shaking down Mission Viejo residents to donate cash for CUSD schools while tax dollars disappeared.

Ury was a whole other story. After CUSD parents in 2006 pleaded with the Mission Viejo council to launch an investigation to track where CUSD tax dollars went that were collected in Mission Viejo, Ury and MacLean argued against the request. MacLean said he visited Newhart Middle School and found it to be in satisfactory condition. The parents, evidently, are hallucinating. Both Ury and MacLean voted against the investigation, which passed 3-2. The resulting audit revealed Mission Viejo dollars went toward the $50-million administration center in San Juan Capistrano – a fact repeatedly denied by CUSD officials.

Only Councilman John Paul Ledesma challenged CUSD’s liar-in-chief James Fleming's false claims Measure A bond money couldn’t be used at Newhart school.

These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. As good news, the county’s power players are heavily involved in much larger storms elsewhere. Perhaps Mission Viejo won’t get their attention until the next city election.