Trabuco Evacuees Show Spirit
by Kathy Miramontes

I was invited to visit a dear friend on Saturday evening; she said she would be in the Barbeques Galore / Target parking lot in Rancho Santa Margarita. Ginny Allen was one of the many homeowners evacuated from their homes on Tuesday due to the fires in Trabuco Canyon. When I got there, I saw a campground with motor homes, horse and utility trailers and tents lining the far side of the parking lot! Kids and dogs were all playing and getting along; adults were sitting around under canopies talking, drinking donated Starbucks beverages, sodas, water, you name it, it was there! Everyone seemed to be relaxed, albeit ready to go home. The word was that maybe they can go back on Monday; everyone was elated on having heard that news.  What a great group!  Everyone was working together and getting along. Merchants have been sending food, drink, movie tickets, toiletries, hair salon services, etc.  It is amazing!  Barbeques Galore donated BBQs, so the evacuees can cook meals for their group. On Saturday evening, they grilled lamb, chicken, ribs, salads, BBQ beans, (someone brought homemade chili), pies, cookies like you have never tasted, and to my understanding, it was all donated by local merchants! 

There were at least 40 adults and kids of all ages, even a female falconer with a beautiful Harris Hawk, a horse trailer with horses and cows parked in the lot!  A woman and her family arrived in a motor home, having been told to leave the Ralph's parking lot in Irvine, even AFTER informing officials they were evacuees from the Trabuco Canyon fires!  Upon arrival in RSM, they were immediately directed to an area of the parking lot to park and invited to dinner! 

A Trabuco Canyon homeowner and former inspector-detective for the city of Irvine, now Chief of Police for Tehachapi in Tuolumne County, Jeff Kermode arrived just prior to the order to evacuate and helped coordinate the relocation of the livestock. It was a planned exercise his group had hoped would never be executed. However, when the time came, this past week, it was carried off without a hitch! Almost all the livestock and trailers were out of the canyon and out of the way before the residents received the mandatory order to leave.

I heard that Friday night the Hickey Creek String Band played music at the "Refugee Camp" by BBQs galore.  Jody Reeder, one of the group, said she heard that a video of some of the music made the front page of OCRegister.com. I checked, and it did!

As we were departing on Saturday evening, a group of kids were leaving for the movies; adults were drinking coffee and discussing the possibility of going home soon. It was inspiring, with good company and delicious food – an evening I would not have missed!  Trabuco Canyon Church services will be held right there in the parking lot on Sunday morning.

I do not have everyone’s name to give proper credit, but everyone knows who he or she is, the family of Trabuco Canyon!

I thought my story was finished, but after receiving a call from Ginny on Sunday afternoon, I HAD to add the following. “You will not believe this!” she shouted into her cell phone. An unidentified person in a Rolls Royce drove into the parking lot just after noon (today) Sunday and handed Michelle Prieto $1,000 in cash!  He said he knew they had lots of food, but there would probably be other things they needed that were not covered. Then he drove away, leaving a stunned but even more thankful-for-human-kindness Michelle!   A woman living across the street from the shopping center came forward and offered her home for anyone in need of a hot shower.  Most of the people staying in the parking lot have a motor home and thanked her but declined. They have hot water, and the holding tanks in their mobile homes are being emptied as needed by the septic tank company as a courtesy.  They were paid a visit by OC Animal Control offering assistance with the animals if needed. Again, they declined the generous offer, but all livestock and pets had been moved to safety just prior to the notice to evacuate.  Another RSM resident arrived with 10 bags of paper goods – paper plates, napkins, cups, and plastic wear – saying she knew it would be needed!   With the temperature at 80 degrees and everyone living on the asphalt, someone brought them another canopy so they could get out of the sun. In addition, Target in RSM is giving the evacuees 20 percent off all purchases. The outpouring of community goodness just keeps on coming! 

Reader Response

Synchronize the traffic signals
How difficult can it be?

We were looking forward to the new Target on Jeronimo and Los Alisos because it's so close to our home. However, after just one visit, I wish it would go away. For one thing, the prices are higher than at other Target stores. But I could live with that, considering the convenience. What really torques me off is that the store has caused yet another stupid un-synchronized stoplight to Mission Viejo's already failing traffic scheme. The signal is less than 200 yards from the Madero intersection, and the two lights appear to run opposite each other. 

Would it be so stinking hard to synchronize the two lights so drivers wouldn't have to stop at both of them? Well, it must be, as evidenced by incompetent traffic management already prevalent in this once-fine city.

Mitch Kronowit

Reader connects the dots

Blog question: How is it that a pro-developer P.R. guy [Roger Faubel] 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?

OF COURSE, Faubel gets the connection, and he'll get the very lucrative contract to sell us all on how great it will be to have our "own" reservoir.

Blog question: If the real reason for calling the [CUSD board] 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.

SINCE they have been getting away with Brown Act violations for years, why stop now? The DA seems to be all bark and no bite.

Lisa De Paul- Snyder
Mission Viejo

All bark and no park

Two blog readers commented about the dog park, asking about the excessive projected cost of $1 million when the city already owns the property. The blog has previously published editorials, saying costs have been added and padded to evoke negative reaction from residents who otherwise wouldn’t object to a dog park.

CUSD – Plea for Help
Letter from a Capo parent

Dear concerned CUSD parent/taxpayer:

Your help is urgently needed to fight the latest mismanagement and inequity in CUSD. Here's why:

The "old-guard" majority on the Board of Trustees is set to approve up to $12-million dollars in funding to put in a pool and football stadium at the new San Juan Hills High School (SJHHS). This is on top of the estimated $142 million they have already spent on this school, which has an enrollment of only 640 students.

Meanwhile:

...students throughout the district sit in substandard, aging facilities with moldy portables, leaky roofs, old dirty carpeting, inadequate or nonexistent multipurpose rooms, rodent infestations, playgrounds/parking spaces that have been taken up by portables to ease overcrowding, etc., and

...the PTA is continually asked to fundraise to pay for what the district says it can't afford but should be funding -- basics like rug shampooers, photocopy machines, classroom supplies, librarians, library books and even school nurses.

CUSD is running a deficit of more than $18 million for 2007-2008, resulting in increased class sizes (some as high as 45) and cuts to basics like custodial staff and guidance counselors.

It would be great to have such amenities at SJHHS if the facilities and services throughout CUSD were not lacking basics that our kids are entitled to. But too many of our schools are poorly maintained, and they do lack the basics and/or have facilities that are inadequate and downright unacceptable in some cases (see pictures for examples). These schools have little or no money earmarked for basic modernization. If the facilities money is used for that purpose, money will have to be taken from other school facilities budgets to make up for the many millions spent on these pet projects. That means less money for your kids’ schools.

The district has yet to explain where the money for the pool and stadium is coming from. Even the district CFO couldn't explain the facilities funding when asked at the Finance Subcommittee meeting last Tuesday night. The sad truth is that certain district officials have been known to manipulate the numbers, and in the case of the funding of the administration building, they go so far as to lie to the public. For example, while taxpayers were told that the money for the administration building could only be used for that purpose, the truth is that every dollar spent on building and maintaining the district office is money that could and should have been used for schools.   

Please help put a stop to this irresponsible spending. Please send an email to our Board of Trustees, respectfully requesting that they put on hold the approval of funding for a pool and stadium at San Juan Hills High School until facilities in the district have been brought up to equitable standards and the district works it way out of its deficit. The Board members email addresses are as follows:

President Shelia Benecke - sbenecke@cox.net
Vice President Anna Bryson -  anna@annabryson.com
Trustee Marlene Draper - mmdraper@cox.net
Trustee Mike Darnold - bajamike1@cox.net
Trustee Duane Stiff - trapper2@cox.net
Trustee Ellen Addonizio - emaddoniziocpa@cox.net
Trustee Larry Christensen - ljchristensen@cox.net
Superintendent A. Woodrow Carter - superintendent@capousd.org

Second - and this is IMPORTANT: please attend the next Board meeting on Monday, November 5, at 7:00 p.m., and submit a blue "Request to Address the Board" card. Please tell your Trustees how you feel about their spending millions of dollars for unnecessary facilities when your school lacks the basics. Please tell them how you feel about the inequities in our district. Please feel free to let them know that it would be irresponsible of them to spend many millions more on one high school that has already taken up the lion's share of the facilities budget when other schools are overcrowded, aging and. in some cases, at almost third-world levels. 

I will send out the agenda item number one week prior to the meeting. Please add it to the card before handing it in at the meeting. I know it isn't easy to get up and speak, especially if you're not used to it, but you will see many other parents doing the same thing, which will hopefully offer you support and encouragement.

I can't emphasize enough that if you do not take action, the Board majority will vote to approve this funding. That would result in millions less for your children's schools. If you have students attending San Juan Hills High, please take a look at the pictures. Then, ask yourself why it's fair that other schools should do without or do with less so that a relatively small number of students can have a pool and stadium during this time of deficit and cuts to the classroom.

Thanks for your support.

CUSD Update, Oct. 28

During a special board meeting last week, Fleming-era trustees voted 4-0-3 to accept the D.A.’s findings of numerous Brown Act violations in 2005 and 2006. The three recently elected trustees abstained, saying they weren’t in office when the violations occurred. The special meeting was to be held in closed session, but the three new trustees pressured the others to hold it publicly. At least two of the Fleming-era trustees, Marlene Draper and Mike Arnold, stated they’ll stay in office despite demands for them to step down.

Beyond the benefits Draper will receive by remaining in office until November 2008 (her 20th year, when pension benefits kick in), another consideration is the financial ties between Draper’s husband, who owns a drywall business, and those who contract with the district for construction projects. The financial rewards appear to outweigh any peace Draper might gain by resigning.

In the state’s Fourth District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana on Oct. 22, attorney Mark Rosen represented a group of parents who gathered signatures to recall all seven Fleming-era CUSD trustees in 2005. The group claims Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley unfairly disqualified a high number of valid signatures to thwart the recall effort. Rosen argued that ROV employees went beyond standard procedures of matching a valid signature with the address by trying to determine if voters filled in their own addresses on petitions or if the petition circulators filled in the addresses. Having no standard for comparison and no statute by which to disqualify the signature on such a basis, ROV employees appeared to use subjective means for disqualifying valid signatures. Rosen argued the ROV prevented voters from participating by arbitrarily applying nonexistent standards. The three justices who heard the appeal will have 90 days to make a decision on whether or not the ROV unfairly disqualified signatures.

An activist who attended the court proceedings said, “One of the justices was asking good questions about why the Registrar disqualified so many signatures. An important matter – that signature-gatherers were repeatedly given incorrect information by the Registrar of Voters – isn’t being considered. During an earlier court case, we realized by talking among ourselves that at least 20 of the signature gatherers had called the Registrar of Voters to ask the same question. Each person was told there was nothing in the Election Code to address who must or who may fill in the address information.”

One of the parents added, “I never filled in an address unless the voter asked me to help. First of all, I called the Registrar of Voters and was told there was no law, statute or code that defines who can fill in the address. Beyond that, some people trying to fill in their own information were handicapped or elderly, and some of their writing was impossible to read. Of the 177,000 signatures collected, the Registrar threw out only 300 because the signature didn’t match. It was very clear people wanted to sign the petition, and the signatures were valid. The Registrar decided to throw out 60,000 of the 177,000 signatures for a variety of other reasons, and some of the reasons were blatantly transparent excuses for interfering with an election process.”

Another parent said, “Neal Kelley made it clear the recall effort would not prevail. He indicated it would have been thrown out for other reasons if he couldn’t stop it on the basis of disqualifying signatures. For example, he said the petitions weren’t available in other languages.” The political machinery was lined up against the recall even before the signature count began.

And how did the county board of supervisors react to the performance of “their” employee, Neal Kelley, after his bias, incompetence and/or buffoonery came to light? They decided the taxpayers should pay for a sham investigation of his office, which centered on asking him whether or not he was guilty of wrongdoing. He responded that any mistake was made because he was unfamiliar with election code and unaware of the law. Additionally, he said his employees never made comments about who could or couldn’t fill in addresses – as if they were never asked. The board of supervisors responded to the investigation by promoting Kelley from interim registrar to permanent registrar. At about the same time, Newport Beach residents gathering signatures for an initiative made similar complaints against the ROV, with an additional discovery that up to 10 percent of registered voters didn’t show up in their copies of the ROV database.

Some of the political deal-making and ties have been revealed, and more information is emerging. Additionally, former CUSD administrators James Fleming and Susan McGill are facing felony charges. They have the choice of telling what they know – real estate deals, financial payoffs and abuse of power – or they can remain quiet and ride their high horse into jail.

The Buzz column, Oct. 27

Readers continue to comment about the proposed dog park, with most saying the process has been compromised by bureaucracy. A dog-park enthusiast said, “The logical location is the lot adjacent to the animal shelter. That site would be the most economical, and part of what’s needed – fencing and a double-gate – is already there. The animal shelter has no nearby homes, and no nearby residents will be disturbed. Instead of putting the dog park in the obvious place, the focus has been diverted by those with political influence to build it where it doesn’t belong.”

***

When Councilwoman Trish Kelley was involved in the Capo PTA prior to running for office, she did whatever former Supt. James Fleming told her to do. She campaigned for Measure A, asking Mission Viejo residents to tax themselves. When CUSD spent only $800 of Measure A money on Newhart Middle School, why wasn’t she outraged? Deputy Supt. David DO-Me (Doomey) stood before the council in 2003 presenting lies regarding the Audi redevelopment deal, and Kelley was starry-eyed. During the first recall effort of CUSD trustees, Kelley continued supporting the Fleming regime when she should have been outraged that Mission Viejo schools were falling apart. She promoted Fleming-era trustees during city council meetings after they built a $52-million administration building instead of repairing Mission Viejo schools. Anyone who had a clue was outraged.

***

Information was announced at the Oct. 15 council meeting regarding the city’s audit of CUSD showed Mission Viejo Mello-Roos dollars were used in other cities. Kelley was quoted in the Oct. 23 OC Register, saying, “I am outraged.” Oh, really?

***

The city’s inability to manage the Crown Valley Parkway widening project is well-known among Mission Viejo residents. The traffic backup would be even worse if locals didn’t know how to cut through neighborhoods to avoid the clogged arterial. On the day San Diegans were streaming through this area to escape wildfires, OC Register columnist Frank Mickadeit was evidently stalled with the rest of them. In his Oct. 25 column, he said he spent 30 minutes driving one mile between the I-5 and Marguerite Parkway … “because apparently nobody thought that roadwork reducing three lanes to one might not be the smartest thing to do when people are semi-panicking to get home … .”

***

Mission Viejo residents who can stand to watch city council meetings might have caught a comment by Councilman Frank Ury during the cell tower discussion. He said ATS, which was awarded a $200,000 contract to develop a wireless master plan, also created a “free” study for citywide Wi-Fi. According to Ury’s comments, this “side benefit” that was neither requested nor funded by the city, came from out of the blue – a complete surprise! Does anyone believe a contractor provides a free service without any provocation or discussion whatsoever? Even the handful of activists who supported Ury’s campaign in 2004 now seem to realize the misrepresentation they empowered.

Mission Viejo Residents Can Help Animal Survivors
News brief

Many horses were turned loose while the fire was closing in on Modjeska Canyon. Some of the horses were part of the Modjeska Ranch Animal Rescue family, which includes approximately 50 dogs, 30 cats, birds, goats and other animals. All were evacuated, and most are currently in foster care or being boarded at animal hospitals. Llamas pictured in news stories last week will also be housed at the rescue as soon as it opens again. The llamas and their owners (who lived in the dome house across the road from the shelter) lost their home in the fire. The llamas will stay at the rescue while their owners rebuild.

Modjeska Ranch Rescue is a non-profit rescue organization based in Modjeska Canyon. It operates as an all-volunteer rescue dedicated to finding great homes for neglected and abandoned animals. The organization was founded by Russell and Teresa Taylor in 2001. The Taylors, in tandem with community support, have placed more than 3,000 animals into new homes. The Website address is http://www.modjeskaranchrescue.org.

The owners need help. The animals were homeless before they were rescued, and they’re practically homeless again. The shelter survived the fire, but everything is smoke-damaged and the fences were burned. Please send donations to Modjeska Ranch Rescue, c/o 26511 Via Gaviota, Mission Viejo, CA 92691. Any amount will be greatly appreciated.

Two Mission Viejo residents who are longtime volunteers for the shelter are organizing a garage sale fundraiser on Sat., Nov. 10, in Mission Viejo, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the animal rescue. Please help by donating excess belongings to the sale. Rope and halters are also needed to round up horses. Call the organizers at (949) 380-4153 to coordinate donations, including pickup of large items. The sale will be held at 26511 Via Gaviota on Nov. 10.

Please visit the Website for more information or call (949) 380-4153.