Rally to Support Public Schools
Group Invites Community to Participate

A spokesperson for Parents Advocate League announced a school-support rally in Mission Viejo. Community members are invited to participate on Tuesday, April 8, beginning at 6 p.m. at Mission Viejo High School Stadium. Saddleback Valley USD is the focus of the April 8 rally. A former student is helping to organize the event.

The announcement states: “Join us to send a message to the governor and legislators – make education a priority. No budget cuts! The rally will include guest speakers, cheerleaders and mascots, the national-award-winning Mission Viejo High School Drumline, DJ/Music, balloon artists and food. Rally co-sponsors are Schools First/OC Teachers Federal Credit Union and the Saddleback Valley Educators Association.”

CUSD Update
Editorial staff

The District Attorney has indicated his office is following up regarding the alleged Brown Act violations at the March 24 Capo school board meeting. Three reform trustees on March 27 issued a statement that a closed-session discussion did not reflect the notice given to the public.

As reported in last week’s update on this blog, a closed-session item on the March 24 agenda was publicly noticed as anticipated litigation. To the contrary, the three reform trustees reported that it was about purchasing additional land from Concorde Development (Dennis Gage) for a football stadium at the $150-million high school, San Juan Hills High School (SJHHS), in San Juan Capistrano.

The superintendent refuted the reform trustees’ March 27 allegations of Brown Act violations. On March 29, the OC Register reported his response: “Superintendent A. Woodrow Carter denied that the district needed additional land for the project or that any laws had been broken during the discussions.”

Several days later, Carter changed his story, making statements to the Capistrano Dispatch and the Dana Point Times. He confirmed the district doesn’t own all the property where it intends to build a football stadium at SJHHS.

Activists have continued pressing for an investigation of CUSD that would include the real estate transaction whereby the district paid $52 million for land next to the dump to build SJHHS. The current old-guard majority is apparently feeling pressure to act before voters remove two old-guard trustees (Marlene Draper and Sheila Benecke) from office, which very likely will happen in the June 24 special recall election. The rush to approve the stadium at SJHHS during a financial crisis calls attention to the old-guard trustees’ desperation. With the D.A. watching, their risking another Brown Act violation should entitle them to a plea of insanity if they face criminal prosecution for deliberately breaking the law.

During the past week, more information about the fuel pipeline adjacent to SJHHS was revealed by a parent on an Internet discussion board. The parent stated a 16-inch-diameter Kinder-Morgan pipeline carries fuel at 1000 psi, possibly within 700 feet of the campus. A state statute requires 1,500 feet between the property and the pipeline. It is believed the pipeline runs through the property CUSD is trying to acquire to build the stadium.

Do the holdover trustees seem obsessed with further enriching Dennis Gage, the developer who sold CUSD the property for the new high school? As background, the district still owes Gage approximately $6 million as a result of a rather strange real estate deal, but CUSD is not currently obligated to pay because Gage hasn’t built any homes on the property near the school. Is Gage groundlessly trying to collect his $6 million before the old-guard majority loses control? If Gage is having the same cash-flow problems as other housing developers, he might want to collect from anyone who owes him a favor. Is it possible he has incriminating or embarrassing information about any of CUSD’s deal-makers? Several years ago, the old trustees approved paying more than $1 million per acre for property Gage purchased for approximately $20,000 per acre. Nothing CUSD officials have said about the price discrepancy makes sense.

Carter and the four holdover trustees have attempted to conceal the need for more land at SJHHS, first denying it altogether and then saying only a “small amount” is needed. At the going price of more than $1 million an acre, there are no small real estate deals at CUSD. After the news broke about the March 24 closed-session controversy, Trustee Mike Darnold, who serves as board president, explained the property acquisition as “normal tweaking that any school of this magnitude would be doing.”

It might be routine for the old-guard trustees, but reform-minded constituents conclude it’s far from normal to hide real estate negotiations in closed session and mischaracterize the process as “anticipated litigation.”

Carter previously stated that CUSD has already spent district funds for improvements (on the SJHHS stadium) on property it doesn’t own. But at the March 28 coffee chat in San Juan Capistrano, constituents heard Carter say that work won’t take place on property the district doesn’t own. As an additional problem for Carter, didn’t this work recently go out for bid with approvals yet to be voted on?

For years, those who observed the lies of former Supt. James Fleming said he had a remarkable memory for keeping his stories straight, particularly with remembering which lie he had told to which group.

The obvious question remains, why is Carter going along with the illegal acts of the holdover trustees? If the old-guard majority is trying to hide anything, they’re doing a poor job of it. They’ve managed to air their ineptitude in all the newspapers, and they have the full attention of the D.A.

The Buzz column, April 4

The OC Register printed a political zinger to the CUSD Recall Committee on Sun., April 6. An article pointed to a $17,000 donation in 2006 from Education Alliance through a PAC to three winning reform candidates backed by the Recall Committee. Education Alliance is controlled by Mark Bucher, a political operative who lives in Tustin. Note a reference in Bucher’s statement to the Register: “You’ve got incompetent trustees that are making decisions that are hurting the education of our children …” What exactly is his claim to children in CUSD? Bucher doesn’t live in CUSD, and if he doesn’t pay taxes in CUSD, its issues are none of his business.

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It does appear that CUSD constituents are capable of sorting out their own issues without the influence of Mark Bucher. The Dana Point Times poll on March 28 showed 91 percent of those responding want to remove CUSD Trustees Marlene Draper and Sheila Benecke in the June 24 special recall election. Other categories: 6 percent said keep them in office, and 3 percent said I’m not sure yet, I need to know more.

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The Buzz asked for feedback from residents who attended the weeklong celebration of the city’s 20th anniversary. As a big problem, no one could be found who attended any of the festivities during the week.

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In an informal survey, Buzz readers were asked why they didn’t participate in the city’s festivities. Here’s a sample response: “City hall employees are out of step with the community, and they don’t have any idea what appeals to those who live here. The city staff’s celebration last week was a horrendous waste of money. The rows of pictures were junky clutter on the street, and the pieces of lawn furniture sitting at Marguerite and La Paz looked like they fell off a truck headed for Tijuana.”

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The Mission Viejo Right-to-Vote Initiative is progressing, and signature-gathering should take place this spring. Several Mission Viejo residents have suggested it would be easy to get two signatures from voters while qualifying the initiative. Simultaneously recalling Councilman Lance McLean continues to get a mention, and another suggestion has been an initiative to reduce term limits for city council members. Some activists say one term is enough, given the embarrassing behavior of council members and the difficulty in removing incumbents from office. Other residents suggest two four-year terms should be the limit. Currently, Mission Viejo council members can serve three four-year terms before terming out.

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Councilman Lance McLean apparently has enough free time these days to update his bio on the city’s Website. He’s dropped any mention that he ever worked at the University of Irvine. Councilman Frank Ury’s profile still says he’s an employee of Intel. Has it been a year since he worked there? It’s difficult to gauge any conflict of interest a council member might have when he keeps his employment under wraps. Should residents conclude that both McLean and Ury are unemployed?