Why Recall MacLean?

Those who follow city politics should come up with “The Top 10 Reasons to Recall Lance MacLean.”

When MacLean first won a council seat in 2002, voters swept him into office in their rush to sweep out former Councilwomen Susan Withrow and Sherri Butterfield. Withrow and Butterfield were arrogant, and they loved spending Other People’s Money. After six years of MacLean, some people might prefer to have the old gals back.

Most readers don’t want a history lesson; they merely want to know what he’s done to warrant a recall. It’s hard to limit the list to 10. Here’s a blog contributor’s list, which grew to the top 14 reasons:

1. MacLean recently voted lifetime medical benefits for himself, with a minimum estimated value of $250,000. The vote took place immediately after the Nov. 4 election – what a coincidence.
2. MacLean voted to double his council stipend and gave himself an additional $825 a month in deferred compensation, plus an extra several hundred dollars a year in stipends for the Redevelopment Agency’s closed-session meetings. Between the council compensation and the lifetime medical, he has now voted for himself a fourth pay raise.
3. Measure K: MacLean voted to push forward the first-ever tax increase in Mission Viejo and wrote the ballot argument in favor of the tax increase. During the summer of 2004, MacLean and Trish Kelley talked during a televised council meeting about all of the ideas they had for tax increases. Measure K failed.
4. MacLean negotiated a generous severance package for former city manager Dan Joseph and then donated to Joseph’s city council campaign a few months later.
5. Hothead embarrassment: MacLean was arrested at UCI for assault and battery on a co-worker at a concert. When a fellow employee didn’t immediately unlock a restroom as MacLean asked, he picked the guy up by the neck and pinned him against a wall. It took four police officers to control MacLean.
6. Why was UCI so eager to get rid of MacLean? Was it because he had threatened the university with a lawsuit if he wasn’t promoted? That’s not a reason to recall him – just a sidebar. MacLean also told a fellow council member to “shut the hell up” during a closed-session meeting, and he heckles the city’s newest council member, Cathy Schlicht. His anger issues make him unfit to serve.
7. MacLean in his 2002 campaign said his job at UCI involved supervising student assistants, which he diverted to working on his campaign. On the city council, he routinely approves the city check register, no questions asked about Easelgate, Firegate and Dumpgate. He initiated the city’s Rose Parade float. He moved the float forward during an economic crisis. In October 2008, the city sold off two bonds to pay bills while the city staff’s yearlong 20th anniversary party continued.
8. What about meetings Lance attended for the toll roads – was he taking vacation time from UCI when attending daylong meetings five or more times per month? Speaking of the toll roads, those who attended the 241 hearings said MacLean won the liar’s contest, and he got the most boos from the audience. On Jan. 5, he eluded to a potential lawsuit the TCA might file, suing the taxpayers.
9. Whenever MacLean wishes to slam residents in his relentless push for more high-density housing in Mission Viejo, he has run to the L.A. Times. He’s been quoted in the Times saying Mission Viejo residents are elitists and racists.
10. MacLean went on record in his failure to support keeping O’Neill school open. He voted against signing a letter of support for the school and parents who were fighting to save O’Neill.
11. MacLean is truth-challenged. As an example, he said he was opposed to using the city’s redevelopment tax money for corporate subsidies (stated on a questionnaire for the Saddleback Republican Assembly when seeking SRA’s endorsement).
12. Opposing open government – Lance opposed recording the closed sessions and letting the public address items on the consent calendar.
13. MacLean claims he’s a fiscal conservative, but he consistently votes in favor of bureaucracy and bureaucrats – putting the City Clerk under the City Manager, opposing an audit of CUSD and promoting government welfare housing projects in a built-out city.
14. MacLean has fought against residents who opposed cell towers in parks and near homes. He’s fought to bring in more housing, more high-density projects, more traffic and more overcrowding.

MacLean is the third vote in the MacLean-Ury-Kelley majority. Recalling MacLean would not only take out an arrogant hothead, voters could change the majority to one that actually represents them.