City Manager Pressured Newspaper

Saddleback Valley News rarely publishes letters to the editor about city issues. SVN’s policy about letters – or at least its practice – changed in 2008 after Easelgate erupted. Public records requested by a citizen reveal how City Manager Dennis Wilberg has used a heavy hand to influence local news coverage.

Last June, Wilberg was displeased when SVN covered city hall’s wasteful spending on a 20th anniversary party. A photo of easels in a county dump made SVN’s front page, showing city hall's disregard for tax dollars. Wilberg emailed SVN reporter Lindsey Baguio a list of 30 people and directed her to interview them as “community members” instead of quoting his critics who'd found Baguio on their own. Wilberg also emailed Baguio’s editor to discourage negative coverage of city hall.

Copies of Wilberg’s emails and his “List of 30” recently surfaced and were forwarded to this blog.

Wilberg listed his 30 favorite trough-feeders – those showing up for taxpayer-funded “free” meals and/or cashing large city checks. But quite a few "community members" on Wilberg's list don’t live in Mission Viejo. Wilberg also doesn't live here, so it’s understandable he confuses taxpayers with tax-receivers. Matt Gunderson of Ladera Ranch was No. 11 on the list. Gunderson gained tax-receiver status in 2003 when he wanted $2.1 million in city redevelopment funds to add Audi to his auto sales business. After residents spoke out against corporate welfare, David Doomey of CUSD and PTA moms leaned on Councilwoman Trish Kelley to change her stance against redevelopment. Kelley brought the request back after twice voting against it, approving $600,000 for Gunderson to please the CUSD folks. An incentive of $600,000 in taxpayer money should guarantee a favorable viewpoint from the recipient. Wilberg’s list includes at least five other non-residents, one he described as a participant in “Fun With Chuck.” The other 29 are apparently participants in “Fun With Dennis.”

Another person on Wilberg’s list, Nancy Cho, is the Chamber of Commerce spokesperson. Cho squired Trish Kelley’s political puppet, Richard Atkinson, to a 2008 city committee meeting so he could pitch his council candidacy. Her action caused some committee members to complain that Cho had used the committee for political purposes. Atkinson went on to tell a county political group that he had the city staff’s endorsement when such endorsement would be illegal.

Wilberg’s email to Baguio includes the statement, “Clearly, contacting other individuals in Mission Viejo is of utmost importance to me in order to provide a fair and accurate representation of both sides of the issue.” All Mission Viejo residents have equal access to SVN, but that’s evidently not fair and accurate enough for Wilberg. He already controls city spin, city-generated press releases and taxpayer-funded publications, the Outlook Magazine and city blog. He has a full-time staff member who annually receives more than $100,000 for such bilge production, but Wilberg also wants control over SVN and the Register.

Letters to the SVN editor were the first to go. After SVN published an article about city blogs, Wilberg put the kibosh on that as well. He emailed, “Should the paper be publishing email addresses [he means Websites] of blogs that basically represent people’s personal opinions?” Wilberg first gives Baguio a list of personal opinions he wants in SVN, and then he questions promotion of blogs because they “represent people’s personal opinions.”

Wilberg avoids mentioning Lance MacLean when he writes to Baguio, “I have heard commissioners and volunteers in the community say they are frustrated with the blogs because what is printed could hurt them in their own professional lives because some companies Goggle [sic] perspective [sic] employees to see what is said about them and they were upset that the misinformation could prevent them from future job opportunities.” Please pass the rose-colored goggles to anyone who would risk hiring MacLean.

MacLean – a councilman, not a "commissioner" or "volunteer" – revealed in a Nov. 5 Register interview that he was the one being Googled. His assault and battery incident at UCI pops up immediately. How did MacLean’s anger issues become the blogs’ fault? He chose to attack a co-worker, and UCI concluded he was too big a risk to have on the payroll. Employers have a choice, especially with California unemployment rate exceeding 10 percent: angry bullies who try to choke their co-workers can’t get jobs.

Wilberg ends his memo to Baguio by telling her to interview “participants” in the easel art gallery. That’s laughable, as photos were largely taken either by city hall employees and/or non-residents. The display was so poorly received by the community that other participants were scarce. Perhaps Wilberg would like to augment his “list of 30” with the names of 153.2 city employees.

Letters to the editor are practically gone and, for awhile, SVN’s city news sounded more like press releases written by city hall’s $100,000-a-year spin writer. If Wilberg had his way, SVN and the Register would become private-sector mouthpieces of his propaganda machine.