The Buzz

What happened to the Orange County Register’s online discussion board about the Capo school district recall? The board occasionally is taken down when the Register receives complaints about posted comments, and that’s what happened a week ago. Personal attacks are commonplace, but seriously libelous comments (a basis for lawsuits against the Register) are a different matter. Last week, the Register shut down the site for the seventh time since its 2005 inception, ending access to comments previously posted. The board is back up again in its eighth “edition,” and it can be found at http://talk.ocregister.com/showthread.php?t=36469&page=1&pp=15

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What were the libelous comments that caused the Register to end Thread No. 7? One of the board’s devotees offered an opinion: “Both sides (those supporting the recall and those defending the Fleming-era trustees) were firing shots. What I saw on the board shortly before it went down was the mention of names – a certain high-profile old-guard supporter allegedly having an affair with a certain highly compensated administrator who retired abruptly.”

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A headline in the June 21 Register asks, “What are those towers on Crown Valley Parkway?” A Register reader contacted the paper and wanted to know the purpose of the pillars along Crown Valley down to the Kaleidoscope. According to the article, a city employee said the city “is trying to create an entryway or a gateway into the Crown Valley business district.” Is this not another example of city employees creating make-work projects for themselves because they have no real jobs? As part of the “project,” some of the pillars will have changeable artwork. The changeable artwork should provide job security to those with nothing to do – finding artwork and changing it.

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A Casta del Sol resident who signed a petition against rezoning of the Casta golf course asked why she needs to sign the Right To Vote Initiative. The petition circulated by the Casta HOA asks the council to preserve the golf course. The voter initiative places rezoning issues on the ballot. Instead of allowing the council to have the final authority to rezone a parcel, the initiative will give Mission Viejo’s 61,347 registered voters final authority. If council members could be trusted to represent residents, an informal petition might sway them. As an example of why the initiative is needed, in 2005-2006, residents gathered more than 3,000 signatures in opposition to rezoning Steadfast’s property at Los Alisos and Jeronimo. The council voted 5-0 in favor of rezoning despite overwhelming public opposition.

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Tuesday, June 24, is the big day in Capo USD. A victory party for volunteers is being planned by parents who have been central figures in the recall effort. Unless the outcome of the special election surprises everyone, Trustees Marlene Draper and Sheila Benecke will likely be recalled. Parents who have attended recent school board meetings have said Draper and Benecke seem to have accepted that their reign is ending.

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Some residents have asked why Mission Viejo doesn’t already have a Right To Vote Initiative to address land-use changes. The initiative has been three years in the making, and the process has been a deliberate one. Development of an initiative involves research and legal review, which are time-consuming and expensive. All of the blog staff members applaud Dale Tyler for starting and overseeing the process. The initiative is still in an early stage, with signature-gathering as the next step. Anyone interested in circulating or signing the petition should respond to this blog by filling in their information here .