The Buzz

On Jan. 8, Saddleback Valley USD trustees decided with a 3-2 vote that O’Neill Elementary School will remain open – at least for now. The trustees voted 5-0 to close La Tierra. Residents who rallied to keep O’Neill open discovered that Councilman Lance MacLean didn’t agree with them. When the city weighed in on the issue, MacLean voted against the resolution to keep O’Neill open.

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As a new concern for those who live near schools, will the council majority try to rezone former campuses for apartments? The Mission Viejo Right-To-Vote Initiative, when passed, will give voters the final say if a developer wants to rezone a parcel. With rezoning enthusiasts on the council (MUK – MacLean, Ury and Kelley), the initiative is crucially important to homeowners who want to prevent high-density projects from springing up in their neighborhoods.

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Attending the Jan. 8 SVUSD meeting were several city council members. MacLean didn’t speak, but perhaps he was present to watch out for the interests of his campaign financiers – housing developers. Speaking out on behalf of residents trying to save their school at the Jan. 8 meeting was Mission Viejo’s newest council member, Cathy Schlicht.

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Residents can still sign the Right-To-Vote Initiative, and signature-gatherers are working at storefronts for several more days. Some of the volunteers are now verifying signatures to make sure the initiative will qualify for the ballot. Anyone gathering signatures can call (949) 837-1997 to arrange to get their petitions in. For those who haven’t yet signed the petition, call (949) 837-1997 to connect with a signature gatherer.

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Initiative supporters want to thank everyone who signed the petition and worked to make the signature drive a success. They appreciate the tolerance of the community when working in public places and asking each person (again and again) to help by signing the petition.

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Those who watched the Jan. 5 council meeting may have been surprised to hear a speaker say the city should enter a float in the Rose Parade every year. Volunteers in the taxpayer-provided festivities may have found the “free” meals, “free” bus rides and “free” parties habit-forming. Despite any talk of private funding for the city staff’s bad ideas, the money – almost all of it on every project – is provided by taxpayers. Even such projects as Tierra Nativa (now called Artes de Vida) are largely funded by taxes, not based on “generous donations” of vendors as misrepresented by city officials.

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A city manager’s newsletter states that two city employees attended an art education conference in Burlingame. Is art education now a city function? In case anyone is under the impression that city officials have taste, drive down Crown Valley Parkway and experience the visual blight. The hospital was directed by the city to place metal debris on a corner (“sculpture”), and the city is spending a fortune building pillars. Walls the color of cow dung have been added to delight those stopped in traffic.

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The two employees attending the art education meeting were on the program, presenting “Building Creative Community.” Did their presentation include photos of hundreds of custom-made easels trashed on a hillside in April? According to city administrator Keith Rattay, “tens of thousands” of residents visited a display of photos that were allegedly taken by residents. Instead, nearly 100,000 residents completely ignored the pricey display of 500 photos mostly provided by city employees after the project bombed.

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City Mis-Manager Dennis Wilberg had to put Lower Curtis Park on ice for awhile, but he hasn’t abandoned his stealth capital improvement project, initiated in 2003. He had to stop after activists challenged his diverting more than $200,000 to a city contractor, Granich Construction, for unauthorized grading. Wilberg sheepishly admitted during a Planning Commission meeting that maybe he shouldn’t have done it, but he never regained the trust of community watchdogs. With examples of Easelgate, Firegate and Floatgate (all orchestrated by Keith Rattaygate), Wilberg demonstrates he can slip costly projects past the MUK council majority if he divides up payments to contractors over a period of months.

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For more than six months, homeowners who live near La Paz and Olympiad have been watching mounds of soil, broken concrete and other debris grow in Lower Curtis. Truck drivers have keys to open the gate if it’s locked to gain access to the dumpsite. Wilberg has brushed aside complaints by saying the trucks are coming from the Crown Valley widening project. For openers, Lower Curtis is a park, not a landfill, and no one should be dumping anything in a park. Community members have followed the trucks, recorded company names written on the vehicles and tracked some of the loads from various areas, including other cities.

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According to those gathering signatures on the initiative at storefronts, residents have only one question about the prospect of recalling Councilman Lance MacLean: where do they sign?