Mission Viejo Buzz - 01/24/09

The Buzz

New information came out last week about Mission Viejo’s Rose Parade float that further demonstrates what’s wrong in city hall. Councilwoman Cathy Schlicht noticed in the city’s check register a payment of $5,842.20 for rental of two RVs from a Huntington Beach limo business. When she asked the city manager about it during a council meeting, he answered that the RVs were used as “staging areas” for the float. Mission Viejo’s 98,000 residents should respond in unison: WHAT??? It must have been quite a tailgate party to require the weeklong rental of two RVs. Check out Larry Gilbert’s post on OrangeJuiceblog.com, http://orangejuiceblog.com/2009/01/reviewing-the-city-of-mission-viejos-check-register . Brad Morton posted a similar article on MissionViejoDispatch.com, http://missionviejodispatch.com/2009/01/20/rose-float-7000-rv-rentals-questioned/#comments

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A blog reader forwarded information that city administrator Keith Rattay arranged an “elegant” dinner buffet for VIPs, city officials and their guests during the Rose Parade festivities in Pasadena. A similarly outrageous use of taxpayer funds took place when city hall first opened. The city staff arranged a VIP reception to mark the occasion. The building’s owners – Mission Viejo taxpayers – weren’t invited. Attendees were limited to VIPs from out of town, city officials and their guests. Residents at the next opportunity dumped two council queens from office – Susan Withrow and Sherri Butterfield – in 2002.

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Don’t forget to vote frequently in the OC Register’s latest online poll about Mission Viejo. In a Jan. 19 article, readers are asked: Should Mission Viejo City Council members get a pay increase? By Jan. 24, 21 percent said yes, and 79 percent said no, with 397 votes. Was Lance MacLean so busy he could vote only 100 times? The article followed the Jan. 19 council meeting in which Councilmember Cathy Schlicht attempted to rescind the council’s October decision to raise its monthly stipend from $500 to $1,000. Councilman John Paul Ledesma seconded her motion to rescind but then withdrew his second after discussion. Read the story and vote often at: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/city-council-schlicht-2285315-increase-raise?orderby=TimeStampAscending&oncommentsPage=1&showRecommended Only=0#slComments

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For anyone who missed the information on last week’s blog, here’s how to bypass OCR’s voting mechanism and vote numerous times. To use the manual process: 1) vote in the online poll; 2) go to your computer’s Control Panel; 3) select Internet Options; 4) under Browsing History, click Delete; this will open a smaller window; 5) click Delete Cookies; it will ask Are you sure? Click Yes; 6) return to vote screen; 7) Refresh the screen; 8) vote again. By using these steps, someone wishing to vote numerous times will always get a new screen with choices instead of just the totals.

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Activist’s reaction upon hearing about the city manager’s $5,800 tailgate party: “The float crew had to have a place to relax after all that hard work, waving until their deodorant streaked white down their clothes. For $362,000 and still rising, the city says it attempted to draw new businesses to Mission Viejo because we have a float instead of supporting the businesses that are already here. Even payment for the RVs went to a limo business in another city, and $300,000 went to a float builder in Pasadena. Some economic development plan, huh? Some guy in Michigan watching the parade was supposed to say, ‘Now that’s the place I want to relocate my business because they’ve got a float.’”

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Does everyone remember Glendale’s float in the Rose Parade? How many Mission Viejo residents have gone to Glendale after seeing their float on TV? Oh, wait. No one remembers seeing Glendale’s float.

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The city manager’s weekly newsletter was short on news this week, so he was crowing about sales at an auto dealership in Mission Viejo not being as low as in Tustin. Isn’t it great that somewhere else is worse off than Mission Viejo? Happy, happy, happy.

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The Jan. 24 OC Register reports that the Capo school district doesn’t plan any midyear layoffs in response to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s (R-Austria) proposed funding cutbacks. At the district’s budget meeting on Jan. 20, CUSD administrator Ron Lebs indicated this year will be bad and the following year will be much worse. If high-paid administrators are able to hold their ground long enough, will they be the only employees left?