The Buzz

From the Feb. 18 Capistrano Dispatch: “Repeating a mantra echoing through council chambers again and again in recent months, the [San Juan Capistrano] City Council on Tuesday cut the $1,463 budgeted for renting a horse-drawn wagon for the Swallows Day Parade. The council will appear in the parade -- on foot.”

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Reacting to the above news was Mission Viejo resident Allan Pilger, who commented on Brad Morton’s blog, http://missionviejodispatch.com/2009/02/21/letter-tale-of-two-cities-sjc-nixes-1500-float/#comments Pilger wrote, “The comparison is mind-numbing. The City of Mission Viejo spent more than $360,000 in taxpayer money for a float in the Rose Parade, in a year the city overall spent $11.8 million more than it received in revenue. The City of San Juan Capistrano, with a much smaller deficit, this week voted to save $1,500 by passing on a horse-drawn city float and other expenditures for that city’s own Swallows Day Parade on March 21.”

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Isn’t it ironic that two of Mission Viejo’s three unemployed council members, Trish Kelley and Lance MacLean, now head the city’s economic development effort? Kelley (a housewife) and MacLean (a former government bureaucrat) are teaming up with city bureaucrats to turn the wheels of commerce.

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From the Feb. 21 Capistrano Dispatch: Capistrano Unified trustees have added a closed session to their budget workshop on Wednesday and will consider whether to issue layoff notices to teachers that night. The district is required to notify teachers of layoffs by a mid-March deadline. Also on the closed agenda, again, is consideration of the potential dismissal of a public employee, and discussion of a possible interim superintendent. The district is not allowed to appoint an interim superintendent until first deciding what to do with Superintendent A. Woodrow Carter, who is on involuntary administrative leave.”

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A “consultant” from Orange, John Lewis, made a name for himself in the 1980s and 1990s as a conservative Republican Assemblyman and State Senator. He’s a lobbyist now, and things have changed. Steve Greenhut posted on the Orange Punch blog that Lewis is backing Democrat Tom Daly to replace outgoing County Supervisor Chris Norby. Art Pedrosa posted an article, http://orangejuiceblog.com/page/2/ asking why Matt Cunningham, editor of Red County doesn’t want to talk about it. Lewis is a financier of another politician-for-hire, Frank Ury.

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The truth sometimes comes out of left field. Follow the link, http://www.ocprogressive.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=11 to read about some of the TCA’s biggest expenses: “rooms full of expensive shoes and suits - bond consultants, lobbyists, public relations staff, marketing and advertising experts, financial advisers, consultants to estimate traffic and explain why revenue estimates fall short, lawyers, executives, managers, accountants and a board room full of local elected officials.”