Where’s the Beef?
Staff editorial

Are Saddleback Valley News subscribers puzzled at the absence of letters to the editor, particularly with a city election at hand? Some letter writers are asking what happened to the letters they submitted. Instead of printing them, SVN rejected those that were critical of the city council or staff members.

Following SVN’s airing of Easelgate in May, City Manager Dennis Wilberg and staff member Keith Rattay had a talk with the SVN reporter. The “news” since then has largely consisted of bland feature stories, city-generated puff pieces and articles favoring the current regime of Lance MacLean, Frank Ury, Trish Kelley and top city administrators. If it weren’t for investigative reporting by city blogs, Mission Viejo coverage would come primarily from city hall’s fluff writers.

As an example of city hall’s influence, OCR published an article about Councilwoman Trish Kelley’s endorsement of council candidates Frank Ury and Richard Atkinson. A number of residents complained to OCR that the article wasn’t news but a campaign press release. The article wasn’t as much about her endorsement as it was a free ad for Kelley’s Oct. 16 campaign party for her candidates at the Elk’s lodge.

Why didn’t the reporter follow up by covering the so-called newsworthy event? This blog received detailed reports about the party. According to one observer, approximately 25 residents attended the widely publicized gathering. Others in attendance included political hack Paul Glaab, city vendors who had been shaken down by Kelley and two elected officials from other cities. Most of the residents attending were Kelley’s inner circle, and those meeting Atkinson for the first time have since said they won’t vote for him. That’s the news – Kelley is unable to garner support for her hand-picked candidate who relies on note cards she writes for him about the city.

On Nov. 4, residents will have an opportunity to dump Ury, reject Atkinson and beat back the old regime. By removing Ury from the council, the city will lose its primary proponent of high-density growth, overspending and the threat to carve up the Casta golf course. Two council challengers, Cathy Schlicht and Neil Lonsinger, have already said they’ll make a motion to rescind the raise the current majority gave itself last week if they’re elected. It would be a good start.