The Buzz

City officials reassessed the three-year-long widening of Crown Valley Parkway and decided they miscalculated its March completion. Keep in mind it’s a widening project – they didn’t start from scratch. The end of May is the latest prediction. The new date is 10 months later than Councilman Frank Ury’s campaign claim that the road was already finished in August 2008.

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City administrators and the council majority have targeted the retail center at La Paz and Marguerite for so-called urban renewal with 350 apartments constructed on top of stores. Can anyone imagine how long it would take if the city meddled in private enterprise at La Paz and Marguerite? No one living in Mission Viejo today would be living anywhere by the time it’s finished.

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If anyone wants to use the El Toro Road retail project as a model for renewal, keep in mind that the longest phase involved a few merchants hanging on in the old buildings until their leases expired. Because the buildings were slated for demolition, owners didn’t bother with maintenance and upkeep. The area declined, dovetailing nicely with gang activity developing along Rockfield in Lake Forest and spilling into Mission Viejo along Los Alisos.

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The trial of ex-Supt. James Fleming scheduled for Feb. 10 was postponed for the fourth time. Fleming’s attorney claimed he needs more time to review documents. The newest batch, 6,000 pages, was turned over by the prosecutor in October, and 15,000 pages have been subpoenaed from the district. The trial was originally scheduled for Oct. 29, 2007, and the new date is April 7. OC Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals was quoted in the OC Register, “The people think this case is older than dirt, but I’m going to give you one last shot to get ready.”

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Concurrently, two groups of parents and other CUSD constituents have filed lawsuits against the district and/or the Orange County Registrar of Voters over “enemies lists.” According to court records, the cases are moving forward with hearings this month.

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Residents who attended the city’s ad hoc committee meeting to review the check register on Feb. 13 were shocked at what they saw. They weren’t surprised at the amount of money wasted or the city’s shell games, which are business as usual. The shock was 13 high-level employees attending the meeting arranged by Councilman Frank Ury. Would anyone like to calculate the cost of having 13 top managers sitting in a meeting for an hour? Oh, that would be the same hourly cost of having them engaged in decorating a Rose Parade float as “volunteers.”

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Casta del Sol’s Republican Club celebrated its annual champagne brunch on Feb. 15 with the guest appearance of former KFI radio talk show host and documentary film producer John Ziegler. The sold-out event marked the group’s annual Lincoln Day celebration, which was held in the HOA’s Vista Room.

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Garden Grove recently opened a dog park for a cost of $85,000. Compare this with the non-progress of Mission Viejo’s proposed dog park, which has been discussed for more than 10 years. For the cost of city staff members’ time and “research,” Mission Viejo taxpayers could have had five dog parks. City staffers don’t want residents to have a dog park, and they particularly don’t want a dog park in the most obvious place, next to the animal shelter. Their alleged reason for opposing the animal shelter location is that “dogs barking in the park will disturb dogs in the shelter.” Staffers had no problem, however, with barking dogs disturbing homeowners when the potential sites were two neighborhood parks. The city staffers say the cost of a dog park in Mission Viejo would be $1 million.