Breaking the Promise
Staff editorial

Into its third year of polling residents, the city recently wrote True North Research a $22,725 check to pave the way for what city administrators want to do. With True North’s push polls, city officials are using “statistics” to prove residents really like being sold down the river. As one example of forcing administrators’ views on residents, they’re targeting the retail center at La Paz and Marguerite. City staffers apparently would like fancier surroundings when they walk across the street for lunch. Never mind that the thriving retail center is private property with numerous owners and nearly full occupancy – why shouldn’t city employees have their way and bulldoze the center? They spend 40 hours a week stuck in city hall, and some of the 152.3 employees are pretty bored coloring “character” posters.

Top city employees don’t live in Mission Viejo, and they don’t answer to voters. With council members deeply engrossed in trivia and catfights, who’s going to stop them?

True North Research is working in tandem with BrandStrata, the company hired by city hall to break The California Promise. The “Promise” slogan was developed by the Mission Viejo Company to attract residents to its family-oriented, safe neighborhoods in the nation’s premier Master-Planned community at its inception. When residents bought a Mission Viejo home, they invested in the promise and presumed things wouldn’t change. Thanks to city staffers and incompetent council members, the problems stemming from mismanagement – traffic jams, crime and overcrowding – are creeping into Mission Viejo. Residents’ next chance to weigh in is Nov. 4 in the city election, in which two council members are up for reelection.

In 2002, residents were so fed up with council members ignoring the wishes of voters, they revolted by throwing Sherri Butterfield and Susan Withrow out of office. The gals had a vision that Mission Viejo should change, and they began by making La Paz Road into a grand entrance to the “civic center.” The city, at its usual snail’s pace, proceeded to reconfigure the La Paz/Marguerite intersection. It looked like a war zone and took so long to complete that some small businesses failed because shoppers avoided the area. Voters said no to a new city hall, and they said no to breaking away from the county library system. Despite Butterfield being dumped in 2002, she said she prevailed because she got “her” library. The cavernous new city hall isn’t nearly as empty as it used to be because it’s filling up with employees.

During the recent polling assault on 400 people who apparently don’t have answering machines, True North Research “discovered” that 68 percent of those polled “have never heard of The California Promise.” Apparently, this “finding” is justification to destroy it.

And how does the city know that any finding of True North is valid? Because True North says so! Note that the verbiage says “68 percent of those polled.” This should not be misconstrued to mean 68 percent of Mission Viejo residents. The true finding of True North’s poll is that 100 percent of those polled either don’t have answering machines or they’re so lonely they would pick up the phone and talk with a pollster.

Here’s an idea for the next push poll. Many Mission Viejo residents don’t know the location of city hall, and many more have never been there. True North should ask: “Since most residents have never set foot in city hall, should the building: A) be razed to make room for a city park, B) be sold as commercial office space to raise money for capital improvement projects, or C) converted to an airport terminal?

Some folks might go for “A” if a P.R. consultant such as Roger Faubel tells them the park will include an 18-hole golf course. Some might choose “C” because it sounds like a progressive idea. But the most reasonable-sounding answer is “B.” With only three options, “those polled want to sell the building.”

In a slowing economy, the city will now dip into reserves to enable the council to fund all its pet projects, add more staff members and allow city administrators to continue creating make-work projects. If desired, True North could poll again, showing residents are so ecstatically happy with everything, the city election should be cancelled this year.