Council Reaches New Lows
Staff editorial

A Mission Viejo resident emailed the blog: “I watched part of the Aug. 20 council meeting. The topic was traffic around Newhart Middle School, and this council is worthless. The traffic has been studied to death for years, and nothing has been done. People who live near Newhart are demanding that the council put a stop to all the student drop-offs in adjacent neighborhoods. The council comes up with lame excuses or more studies. They won’t pay attention to residents who have solutions, but they pay thousands to traffic consultants. Nothing changes.”

This council’s greatest advantage is that almost no one is attending or watching the meetings to observe their incompetence. Even the watchdogs (the real ones, not the gadflies) walked away in disgust. As good news for residents, voter awareness had already reached the level required to dump incumbents in November 2006. Challengers amassed more votes than incumbents in the last election, but Kelley, Ledesma and MacLean survived because seven challengers split the vote.

Perhaps the 2008 city election will align better with the revolution of 2002. Two incumbents back then – former councilwomen Sherri Butterfield and Susan Withrow – were inept and unpopular. They were well supplied with vendor cash, endorsements and name recognition, but they lost by a wide margin because voters were fed up with them.

Those who defeated Butterfield and Withrow in 2002 – Trish Kelley and Lance MacLean – weren’t widely known or well-funded, but they didn’t come across as nasty or deranged. The incumbents were obnoxious, and the winning challengers worked hard and kept their deficiencies and oddball leanings under wraps.

The reader’s comment above is correct. This council is likely the worst in the city’s history, and it can’t solve the simplest problem. With regard to traffic issues near schools, the city owns the streets and controls where people drive and park. The city can either curtail or prevent cars from cutting through, parking, waiting for or dropping off kids in a neighborhood adjacent to a school, particularly after receiving demands from homeowners. This city is bending over backwards for school districts, and it pays for school expenses that are well outside municipal responsibility. Meanwhile, residents put up with ridiculous traffic problems.

How did the confusion develop about who controls traffic near schools? In the Capo district, the area surrounding Newhart became one of the worst problems when the school grew to 1,800 students. A former neighborhood school, it now takes in students who live too far away to walk, including some who live in San Juan Capistrano. Instead of drawing a line in the sand, Kelley as a councilwoman couldn’t say no to anything CUSD did. Newhart declined to the level of a trailer park surrounded by snarled traffic while Kelley played up to former administrators James Fleming and David Doomey (DO-me). They took her – and the city of Mission Viejo – to the cleaners.

At the Aug. 20 city meeting, the council also said no to those who live near Capo Valley High School. Neighbors asked for relief from problems similar to the area near Newhart, and the council denied establishing a “no stopping and no parking” permit program.

Awhile back, Mission Viejo High School finally got a degree of relief with restricted parking in some neighborhoods after years of complaints. Residents should be astounded with the inconsistent handling of similar problems within the same city.

Challengers are already lining up to run for council seats, giving the impression they sense vulnerability in incumbents. In 2008, Council Members Frank Ury and Gail Reavis are up for reelection. They’ll have plenty of vendor cash and little grassroots support, just like Butterfield and Withrow in the 2002 election. If challengers work hard (like the winners did in 2002), and they don’t come across as nasty and deranged (like some of the losers in 2006), the incumbents are quite beatable.