MacLean Initiates Lawsuit
Press Release from Brad Morton

Today (Aug. 28) an OC judge instructed the county registrar to accept an agreement between Neil Lonsinger and the City to amend his city council candidate’s statement.

Neil Lonsinger alleged in his statement that the City spent $23,000 on easels for an anniversary event and that City Hall lied by stating the job was done largely by volunteers. On August 22 the City of Mission Viejo filed a court petition stating those two sentences in Lonsinger’s statement were false or misleading and should be amended or deleted.

The action was discovered by Lonsinger to be a political undertaking precipitated and orchestrated by Councilman Lance MacLean. Although city code prohibits a single council member from directing the actions of city staff, MacLean enlisted city staff, taxpayer money and the City attorney to achieve his political goal of trying to smear Lonsinger, an open-government candidate he opposes.

MacLean used Keith Rattay, public works director, to convince the City Clerk that photo easels used at an anniversary event cost the city about $16,000 instead of Lonsinger’s number of $23,000. Lonsinger was not contacted by the City for supporting documentation before he was served with a court summons.

The cost has been explored by other residents who obtained city records under the Public Records Act. Those facts and analysis were published in detail by the editorial staff of the Mission Viejo Newsblog on August 32 and August 9.

Lonsinger’s attorney, Brad Morton, told the court, “Mr. Lonsinger adamantly believes his original candidate statement is true, but felt it was not prudent to use resources of the court, taxpayers and the candidate, since changing a few words could resolve the matter.”

Lonsinger resolved the matter with the City within a few hours after he was served the petition on Monday.

“Despite this childish action against me,” said Lonsinger, “I hope voters appreciate my mature approach to dealing with this matter. I believe this is the type of level-headed conduct we need to address the problems of the City. Residents need practical, experienced people on the council instead of raging, vengeful politicians who enjoy playing dirty tricks.”