Developer Cash Trumps Residents
Staff editorial

The proposed senior housing project next to Casta del Sol’s gated community hit a snag. While trying to curry favor with Casta del Sol residents, the developer, Sunrise Senior Living, instead stirred up controversy.

Sunrise attempted to lure the “55 and older” community with visions of living in a luxurious old-folks’ home surrounded by a city-maintained park. An example of negative reaction appeared in a Casta del Sol resident’s letter to the editor, published in the Oct. 12 Saddleback Valley News. The opening paragraph refers to the developer’s attempt to deceive the city and the public.

Blog staffers agree with the writer’s concerns, beginning with the loss of a golf course and an increase in security issues for four neighboring gated communities. The letter also refers to triggering more affordable housing requirements by adding to the city’s number of dwellings, and that’s true. Potential litigation and spending enormous amounts of tax dollars on park development are additional liabilities.

One paragraph of the letter, however, deserves a closer look: “This huge developer must think its deep pockets and deceptions can sell this deal. However, our City Council won’t fall for those deceptions.” One might agree council members won’t “fall for” deceptions, given their history of “falling in” with developers.

As an example, the current council – all five members – accepted campaign cash from Steadfast, voting 5-0 for the developer’s project, which is now at a standstill at Jeronimo and Los Alisos.

Can anyone remember the current council siding with residents after a developer, contractor or vendor paid cash to campaign treasuries? Cell towers are going up all over town, commercial properties have been flipped over to high-density residential zoning, and the council has already discussed saddling the retail center at La Paz and Marguerite with high-density welfare housing. The nature of the community is changing at the hands of irresponsible council members who appear not to have the slightest interest in what residents think. When a petition was signed by more than 3,000 people in 2005 asking the council not to approve Steadfast’s project, no one on the council even responded to the petition. The council proceeded to vote 5-0 in favor of the developer without comment whatsoever regarding residents’ objections.

Other obvious steamrolling of residents’ views include the electronic sign at Marguerite and La Paz, acceptance of UDR-Pacific’s high-density housing project on the former Kmart site, taking away residents’ rights to pull agenda items for discussion, approving a redevelopment deal – the list includes nearly every major issue undertaken by the current council.

Casta residents are now gathering signatures on petitions to oppose Sunrise’s proposed housing development to replace the golf course. Given the council’s disinterest in representing the residents, there is one sure way to stop the project: put a measure on the ballot whereby residents get to vote on zone changes. Will council members forego their lucrative source of campaign cash – from developers, contractors and others lining up at the trough – by allowing residents the right to vote?

Reader Responses

In response to an item in the Sept. 28 “Buzz” column about an HOA’s height restrictions for trees, Mitch Kronowit emailed:

“I hope someone tells that HOA with the 25-foot tree height rule that palm trees aren't actually trees but rather large flowering plants. I don't have a palm tree on my property, but my neighbor does, and I would hate to see the poor thing get topped if this 25-foot rule catches on.”

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Last week’s CUSD Update stated: CUSD administrator Eric Hall said it wasn’t an illegal use of Mello-Roos money [to spend it on the administration center instead of local schools], as it was spent within the Mello-Roos district where it originated. Hall also used the specious argument that the district built the administration center to save money on rent. Mathematically challenged administrators continue to promote the myth the district is saving money by spending $1.5 million on interest instead of paying $500,000 on leases.

A reader responded:

Maybe the spending of Mello-Roos funds on the district office was legal, but it is not what we, the taxpayers, expected when we purchased homes that had this tax. It is unethical that the leadership of CUSD spent millions of dollars intended to go toward schools to make sure administrators were comfortable while children and their teachers have been left to deal with learning in inadequate, rundown and unsafe buildings.

In addition, if I use the numbers the district provides (which I do not agree with, by the way):

$500,000 savings in lease payments
$37 million on the new district office
$17 million in interest on the Certificate of Participation
Total district office cost of $54,000,000

$54 million divided by $500,000 is 108 years to break even. That means every person alive on this planet will be dead by the time CUSD realizes a savings on their investment. Did anyone think about that?

In the grand jury testimony it is confirmed that CUSD did not do any type of financial analysis to determine if the new building would be cost-beneficial, but that is the CUSD way.

CUSD Update, Oct. 12

According to the Orange County District Attorney, the Capo school board repeatedly violated the Brown Act by illegally discussing a wide range of issues during closed-session meetings. The OC Register reported the news on Oct. 9, saying the illegal discussions could lead to a civil lawsuit. Following are links to relevant documents:

District Attorney’s letter:
http://www.cusdrecall.com/page68/pa...DA%20Letter.pdf

Investigation report:

http://www.cusdrecall.com/page68/pa...DA%20Report.pdf

The report found evidence of illegal discussions by examining a six-month period beginning in July 2005. Four of the trustees named in the findings are still on the board: Sheila Benecke, Marlene Draper, Mike Darnold and Duane Stiff. All four will be up for reelection in November 2008 if they decide to run again. Benecke and Draper are currently targeted in a recall effort.

The DA’s recent investigation revealed a pattern. Closed-session agendas listed “Evaluation of Superintendent,” but the discussions involved numerous key issues the trustees wished to keep from public view, including significant cost overruns of the administration building, which opened in 2006.

The DA indicated no criminal charges will be filed as a result of the investigation. However, the district will be required to confess to the alleged violations or face further legal action. To admit guilt, trustees would need to take a formal vote to accept the DA’s findings of Brown Act violations.

A CUSD resident said, “The old trustees have claimed for as long as possible that former Supt. Fleming or legal advisors led them astray. If you believe that, the district’s very high-priced attorneys didn’t have a clue about open-meeting laws. The old trustees were choosing, over and over again, to follow bad advice instead of using their own common sense.”

On the same day the OC Register published news of the DA’s report, the trustees called a special closed-session meeting for Sat., Oct. 13 – with the familiar agenda item, “Evaluation of the Superintendent.” The superintendent has been on the job for less than two months. Perhaps someone on the board had a sudden, urgent need to discuss Interim Supterintendent Woodrow Carter’s performance, but doesn’t this sound like the same pattern of behavior cited in the investigation?

The news of the meeting drew a response from a CUSD parent: “If this special meeting is truly an evaluation of Carter after he’s been on the job only a few weeks, he’s in serious trouble.”

If the real reason for calling the meeting is to discuss the DA’s report, why would the district not say so? It seems a little late to risk another violation of the Brown Act – a precise repetition of the DA’s findings – just to save face.

The Buzz column, October 12

How did the cost of a proposed Mission Viejo dog park grow to $1 million on property the city already owns? Apparently, dogs require nearly $300,000 for landscaping and $150,000 for park design. In a city that just spent half a million dollars for a toilet in a human being park, why stop now? A blog reader provided insight: “Perhaps the high cost is just to cover the signs that will need to be posted all over town to let everyone know that the wonderful, benevolent and generous city council is buying a dog park … . And of course, a bronze monument with busts of all the current council members at the site is an absolute necessity.”

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Another reader commented about term limits: “Term limits should be one term. With city council members being allowed to serve three terms, all they’re doing by the end of the first term is raising cash to run again. By that time, residents no longer support them, so big-money donors from out of town are the only ones funding re-election campaigns. If council members can’t accomplish the will of the people in one term, why should they be re-elected anyway?”

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The city council had a special meeting on Oct. 9 to grant a Conditional Use Permit to the new Target store at Jeronimo and Los Alisos for its Oct. 14 grand opening. Anyone trying to tune in to television coverage didn’t find the meeting because it wasn’t aired.

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Steadfast’s ongoing housing dilemma is causing residents to wonder what Target now thinks of Steadfast as a business partner. When Steadfast couldn’t get on a fast track with its affordable housing plans, it partnered with Target to push through a mixed-use combo of retail and high-density residential. Target purchased the entire parcel from Steadfast, while Steadfast continued to be hamstrung, first by a lawsuit over its affordable housing formula and then by a downturn in the housing market. While Target can afford to hold onto the remaining acreage for years while waiting for the housing market to turn around, why would it want a low-income housing project next door?

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Sunrise Senior Living mailed responses to some residents who returned the business reply card with negative feedback. The letters weren’t individualized, but Sunrise claimed some residents made positive comments, including those saying they wanted to live in the proposed senior housing project. Residents who attended Sunrise’s Oct. 2 open house said they heard no such comments from anyone at the event. To the contrary, responses ranged from negative to highly negative.

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Roger Faubel, deposed former city council member who owns a P.R. firm, is representing Sunrise and apparently trying to grease the wheels by donating to council members’ campaign funds. Faubel also serves on the Santa Margarita Water District as a board member. How is it that a pro-developer P.R. guy can’t seem to make the connection between endless housing projects and the “imminent” water shortage, threats of water rationing, need to raise rates and the necessity of building a reservoir?

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Senior humor, forwarded by Editor-in-Chief Carl Schulthess:
The only trouble with retirement – you never get a day off.

You know you're getting old when you throw a wild party and the neighbors don't even realize it.

Senior Campbell's Soup: alphabet soup with large letters.

The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly and lie about your age 

Experience is a wonderful thing, enabling you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.

One good thing about Alzheimer’s, you get to meet new people every day.

Another good thing about Alzheimer’s: you can hide your own Easter eggs.

Retirement: twice as much husband, half as much money.

Never do anything you wouldn't want to explain to the paramedics.

Old age comes at a very bad time.

The more you complain the longer God makes you live.

Sometimes I wake up grumpy, and some days I let him sleep.

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Good idea forwarded by a blog reader:

Put your car keys beside your bed at night. If you hear a noise outside your home or someone trying to get into your house, just press the panic button for your car. The alarm will be set off, and the horn will continue to sound until either you turn it off or the car battery dies. Next time you come home for the night and you start to put your keys away, think of this: it's a security alarm system that you probably already have, and it requires no installation. This tip came from a neighborhood watch coordinator.