The Buzz column, Jan. 30

Since The Buzz began publishing excerpts from City Manager Dennis Wilberg’s weekly reports, “The Week That Was,” his messages have been getting shorter. Last week, he wrote a paragraph about staff members who attended a seminar on green buildings and a paragraph about upgrading the city’s Website. That’s it – 40 hours of work, five workdays and 152.3 employees – two paragraphs. He should call his report “The Week That Wasn’t.”

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A Mission Viejo watchdog doubts the city staff’s claim that “thousands” of Mission Viejo residents volunteered to work on the Rose Parade float. Observers who stopped by during the work sessions said the numbers were greatly inflated. Counting cars in the parking lot also pointed to low turnout unless volunteers were carpooling 20 to a car. The watchdog requested public records, asking the names and addresses of the “thousands,” and what did he get? Examples are Mary, Suzie, Sally, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, etc. The list gives no last names or addresses. Perhaps it includes the same crew that constructed all those easels last spring: Happy, Grumpy, Dopey, Doc, Sneezy, Sleepy and Bashful, all with the same address, Fantasyland.

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Six months ago when another activist asked for public records to get names of “hundreds of volunteers” who constructed easels, city administrator Keith Rattay responded that the list of names had been discarded. If there had actually been any volunteers building easels, the city would have rounded them up for a dog-and-phony awards presentation at a council meeting. Since a city contractor, Jamey Clark, built all the easels, no public ceremony occurred. Clark received his “award” in the form of checks spread over many months, and it would take a forensic audit to discover the amount of his award.

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Ex-council member Joe Soto of San Juan Capistrano will have to answer for raising his prices. After Soto’s landscaping business performed work for the county, someone noticed that his fixed-amount fees were subject to change. For example, nearly all bills for one county park had been altered. SJC voters wisely removed Soto from office last November. However, he received the OC Republican Central Committee’s endorsement despite letters to Chairman Scott Baugh telling the county power club to stay out of city politics. According to Jan. 28 news reports, the Or. Co. D.A., backed up by Sheriff’s Dept. deputies, served search warrants on Soto’s home and office. Soto described the investigation as “an audit.”

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The city staff admits the Rose Parade float cost Mission Viejo taxpayers at least $362,000, and the number is still rising. How will staffers distribute additional costs across various departments to keep them from public view? Will “park maintenance” expenses rise dramatically for the next several months as they did following the city staff’s 20th anniversary bash last spring?