City Sues Two Council Challengers
Staff editorial

Why were two council candidates – Neil Lonsinger and Cathy Schlicht – challenged in court last week for the wording of their ballot statements? It should come as no surprise that Councilman Lance MacLean initiated the lawsuits against them.

Months ago when Councilwoman Gail Reavis was planning to run for reelection, three council members began working together to remove her from office. The three – Lance MacLean, Frank Ury and Trish Kelley – bragged to out-of-towners that Reavis would lose. First, they recruited Rich Atkinson to run against her. Then, they planned a smear campaign against her while hiding their names behind a Political Action Committee.

Ury’s buddy, political consultant Paul Glaab, requested public records from city hall about Reavis’ $10-million claim. Glaab barely got started on the negative campaign when Reavis announced she wouldn’t run.

The council trio was armed with stink bombs but had no target. Without Reavis to beat up, their focus switched to council candidates Neil Lonsinger and Cathy Schlicht, who were emerging as grassroots favorites. Activists learned that Schlict received notice on Aug. 23 that she was being sued by the city clerk for information in her ballot statement. Lonsinger was served the following day regarding his ballot statement.

In court, the lawsuits seemed trivial. Schlicht agreed to remove a reference to her membership in the Saddleback Republican Assembly. Lonsinger agreed to revise a statement about the amount the city wasted on easels in the 20th anniversary photo display. In summary, both candidates had to hire an attorney and spend time and money they could have used on their campaigns.

On another city blog, information came out that Ury’s ballot statement contained more questionable material than Schlicht and Lonsinger’s. Ury gave his occupation as mayor pro-tem, which is disallowed. Instead of MacLean initiating a lawsuit against him, the city clerk made the change without ado. Ury was unaffected – no attorney fees, no distraction from his campaign and no newspaper stories. Ury also says in his ballot statement that the Crown Valley Parkway project has been completed. Is he delusional?

As another false claim, Ury told the Saddleback Valley News that his occupation is “engineer.” He appears to be unemployed after being fired from his sales job at Intel in 2007. Perhaps his designation of engineer refers to the ethical train wreck in city hall.

What motivated MacLean, Ury and Kelley to work together for a change? MacLean still wants his basketball gymnasium, Ury wants to be mayor, and Kelley’s goal for years has been to dethrone her arch-enemy Gail Reavis. All it takes is three votes, and almost anything can happen in city hall.

Two council seats are open in the Nov. 4 city election. Voters can decide if they want to continue enabling the majority of Ury, Kelley and MacLean by reelecting Frank Ury and replacing Reavis with the trio’s anointed candidate, Rich Atkinson. The answer should be a resounding “NO.”

Easelgate Update
Editorial staff

City hall took three weeks to fulfill the most recent request for easel-related public records. One item of interest is the list of 150 volunteers who allegedly spent 800 hours assembling easels for the city’s 20th anniversary photo display. The request for records also asked for written communication. City hall completed compiling the records on Aug. 28, and activists will now begin examining the long-awaited data.

According to documents the city previously released in response to a public records request from community activist Lisa De Paul-Snyder, city contractor Jamey Clark was paid to build 100 percent of the easels. Why city administrator Keith Rattay is still insisting that volunteers made easels is a mystery. Considering that he’s been challenged nearly every week from the time he made the claim on June 18, shouldn’t he have been motivated to provide information in a timely manner?

The Easelgate battle escalated during the past week when Councilman Lance MacLean initiated lawsuits against two council candidates. Instead of a council majority approving such actions, MacLean involved Rattay to “prove” that a candidate’s comment about the cost of easels was false. Rattay has given numerous figures for the total cost of easels, and not one of them matches city records. He’s hardly in a position to challenge anyone else’s numbers when he can’t agree with his own.

As a new discovery, some city employees appear to be keeping a second set of files or participating in a shell game to hide expenses from public view and council scrutiny. This includes but is not limited to assigning costs to incorrect code numbers or incorrect department accounts. For example, some of the easel-related expenses were charged to maintenance accounts. How many employees are involved in cooking the books?

Any city employee who lies to the press, the residents or his supervisor should be fired. Rattay should have been fired several times over, and evidence of his lies continues to mount. Last week’s lawsuits take Easelgate to a whole new level.

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.”

Golf Course Is Still for Sale
Letter to the editor

No one should have a false sense of security that the Casta del Sol Golf Course has been saved just because Sunrise made a statement of disinterest. The golf course is still for sale, and Sunrise might be waiting to see what happens with the Right-To-Vote Initiative.

Isn’t it curious that Sunrise lost interest exactly two weeks after the Right-To-Vote petition was launched? Sunrise pursued the housing project for nearly a year, and its PR agent made campaign donations to four council members. Sunrise officials were still pushing their housing project prior to the announcement of the initiative in the newspaper, and they had staked the property where the buildings were planned.

We need to get the initiative on the ballot before Sunrise returns or another developer makes an offer that involves carving up the golf course. This isn’t the only parcel targeted for rezoning, and the city doesn’t need more housing or traffic.

Connie Lee
Mission Viejo

Parents Advocate League Update
by Julie Collier

Capo USD held a board meeting on Aug. 25. The evening kicked off with special recognition for law-enforcement personnel in the OC Sheriff Dept. Sheriff Sandra Hutchens was a special guest for the awards and took time to congratulate them for their hard work and dedication. She also explained that she met with Supt. Carter to review disaster plans and stated CUSD has solid plans.

Oral Communications began with a discussion of the mural at Marco Forester. CUSD parent Tanya McKean discussed her disappointment and anger at how CUSD was not providing for her child with special needs.

A parent from Truman Benedict and I spoke out against the district for not providing classrooms prior to the start of school for 4th and 5th graders. I hope more parents at the school can band together to try to get a faster timeline so their children can have classrooms, desks and textbooks before the February 2009 date set by the district.

A PALs member, Debbi, spoke about the fingerprinting issue for volunteers at CUSD. She explained that the system, while well intended, is flawed and is preventing parents from volunteering at the start of school. The district is forcing the office staff at each school to make badges and process the volunteers. Her school, out of the 100-plus volunteers, only has 12 volunteers in "pending status." She respectfully asked that Supt. Carter delay the fingerprinting check for just one trimester to ensure there will be enough volunteers for the start of school (especially in kindergarten). Supt. Carter (at the end of the board meeting) was clearly not willing to change his mind, and he explained that parents have had plenty of time to get this done. If you are concerned about your volunteer status, please contact your school site.

Item No. 7, Negative Declaration for School Busing Program was approved 6-0 (Dr. Stiff had to leave early).What does this mean? 1) CUSD will not increase busing, 2) More traffic, and 3) Cities will most likely file a lawsuit. (If you live in MV and will be negatively effected by the lack of busing, Mayor Trish Kelley has asked that MV residents who are willing to make a statement should contact her at City Hall 470-3000.. You can also contact Veronica Gunderson vgunderson@rwglaw.com . *Providing this information to PALs members does not mean I support or do not support a lawsuit.)

Teachers will enforce the district-wide "Ushering Program" of directing drop-off and pick-up traffic as well as opening/closing car doors to help speed up the process. Trustee Palazzo asked Suzette Lovely (CUSD administrator) and Vicki Soderburg (union president) if the teachers are aware of their new duty and if it has been negotiated. Lovely explained that it is currently under negotiation and teachers already have a morning duty anyway. Soderburg said nothing. (On a side note: I spoke with several teachers Tuesday. A few of them are the Union Reps for their schools. Not one of them has heard about the "Ushering Program" that is supposed to be under negotiation and implemented next week. Needless to say, they are not thrilled with this idea and worry about the potential for liability issues. They are hopeful the district will come up with a better plan that will ensure the safety of its students and teachers.)

Item No. 8, Pipeline Risk Analysis for SJHHS was approved 6-0.

Item No. 9, Special Education Alliance. This was a report to the board regarding the OC Special Education Joint Powers Agreement. This organization is made up of superintendents in OC to hire attorneys to fight students of special education that ask for  excessive services. Each school district that is a part of this organization pays into it. Supt. Carter said about $0.20 of the daily attendance money earned from each student in CUSD goes to this organization every school year. My husband did the math and that is about $1.8 million a year from CUSD.

Item No.10, Work Orders to destroy old portables were approved.

Item No.13, Star Testing report to the board. District administrators explained CUSD went up 10 points (that is actually very good and hard to go up that much). Trustee Bryson, who will be marrying the U.S. Undersecretary for the Dept. of Education this weekend, asked if the high scores might be because of the NCLB Act. The dist. official gave a big smile and explained that it was most likely due to the wonderful teachers at CUSD. That comment was met with well-deserved applause for our amazing, dedicated, and hard-working teachers. Thanks to all of you!

The following are articles for your reading pleasure:

Fewer buses won't 'significantly' impact traffic, pollution, Capistrano trustees say

Capo shifts crowding problem from one school to another

San Juan Hills safe from gas pipeline, trustees decide

Meet Capistrano Candidates

The next board meeting is Sept. 8 at 7 pm. Enjoy the last few days without homework!

The Buzz

Residents continue to voice their disapproval of the council majority’s decision to waste $300,000-plus on a Rose Parade float. City hall’s latest puff piece, the fall 2008 issue of Leisure Time, dedicates a full page to recruiting volunteers for the ill-conceived project. City staffers would like to keep up the fa‡ade of “engaging the community.” Na‹ve residents who want to stack poppy seeds for the float should expect to receive a free glass of Kool-Aid, along with their taxpayer-funded meals, bus rides and commemorative junk.

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Mission Viejo residents who live in the Capo school district get to experience two corrupt administrations. In CUSD, some parents have worked for years to uncover misappropriation of funds. Former Supt. James Fleming is facing felony charges, and some residents anticipate he will plea bargain to avoid a prison sentence. Among other issues, Fleming is charged with using taxpayer funds to interfere with an election. Is that not what Councilman Lance MacLean did by initiating a lawsuit against two council challengers last week? By furnishing false information to an Orange County judge regarding easel costs, perhaps MacLean and city administrator Keith Rattay can go down the drain together.

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What if city hall can come up with a list of volunteers – even a handful – to demonstrate Rattay didn’t entirely fabricate his claim 150 volunteers built easels? Would it lower the much-debated costs of easel building? No, it wouldn’t. Activists already know the total, and that number isn’t going to get lower, period. If volunteers participated, the costs would go up because volunteers can’t work independently. They need supervision, direction and general herding, which city employees or contractors have to provide. Additionally, city hall has a practice of serving meals and giving freebies to staffers and participants, which raises costs. One of the groups mentioned by some city staff members as “volunteers” could include children so young they need a babysitter. If staff members were pressed into so-called volunteer service, hourly employees get overtime – it’s the law.

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Absent from the fall 2008 Leisure Time puff piece is city hall’s slogan that’s been slightly adjusted by activists: Make Lying Your Mission. Blog reader comment: “I didn’t read every word, but I scanned the brochure and noticed that the city staff’s phrase “make living your mission” has disappeared. This is an about-face after the previous brochure had it on every page. I hope city employees are getting the picture that residents are rejecting the re-branding notions as unacceptable to those who live here.”

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As discussed in another article this week, Council Members Frank Ury, Lance MacLean and Trish Kelley are working together to keep Ury on the council and bring in their shill, Rich Atkinson. The council majority has earned the voters’ disrespect and, in some cases, wrath regarding rezoning, bringing in more housing and traffic, approving cell towers in neighborhoods and breaking campaign promises. It’s time for them to go – ALL of them. Blog staffers support ridding the council of Ury and rejecting Atkinson. Challengers Neil Lonsinger and Cathy Schlicht are the best choices for the city in the November election.