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The Buzz Information on last week’s blog about a city employee got a rise out of readers. Public Services Director Keith Rattay seems to be at the center of every storm. With his background in landscape architecture, how did he instead of the city manager become the person in charge of everything? Rattay served as director of public services before he got his arms around nearly every city department and project. When costs go out of control and projects go off track (which is the norm), Rattay generally has a hand in it. If costs exceed the city manager’s approval limit, he divides them into payments, spreading the amount over a period of months. He bypasses council members, often keeping them in the dark on what they’re approving in the city’s check register. *** According to reader feedback, the project manager of the community center expansion that ran three times over budget happens to be a personal friend of Rattay. The city’s endless orders for banners and flags also enrich a friend of Rattay’s, who has an exclusive contract without the inconvenience of having to submit competitive bids. Rattay has authority over animal services, city facilities and infrastructure, emergency preparedness and “providing volunteer opportunities for community groups.” Regarding Rattay’s prowess at preparing for emergencies, a reader emailed: “Mission Viejo is about as well prepared for an earthquake as it is for the coming financial disaster. Why are they pretending the city is prepared for any kind of disaster?” *** After two community members learned that the city contracted with a design firm for signage along Oso Trail, they decided to see what was purchased. One of them emailed, “New signs are not up, but we’re curious to see if they’ll make reference to the city staff’s hallucination that Mission Viejo has a downtown. We checked out the community center, which was completely dead for the afternoon. Unless the city staff draws people in with free meals, the building is empty. No one was inside, and no one was outside. I’d like to know the daily cost of keeping that building fully staffed. We now pay for special security guards to make sure no one steals the outdoor furniture that isn’t used. What century is this? We could have paid for security cameras 10 times over.” *** Participate in an online poll, http://www.thecapistranodispatch.com/ about the firing of CUSD Supt. Woodrow Carter. Poll question: Do you agree with CUSD trustees' decision to fire Superintendent A. Woodrow Carter? Percentages as of Mar. 14: a) Yes, it’s about time – 57%; b) No! He was good for the district – 34%; c) It’s just going to lead to a lawsuit – 6%; d) It didn’t matter to me – 3%. *** The Capo Dispatch’s article about Carter’s March 2 speech makes reference to but does not specify the 60 complaints the trustees listed against him: http://thecapistranodispatch.com/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=904&cntnt01dateformat=%25B%20%25d%2C%20%25Y&cntnt01returnid=15 Carter indicated that officials found emails on his computer that led to some of the complaints. He said in his speech that it’s not against policy to use district computers for personal email. Now that Carter is hinting at a lawsuit, CUSD probably doesn’t mind at all if he wrote a few self-incriminating emails on a district-owned computer. *** Friends of the Foothills sent out a message on why the TCA should create real traffic solutions for Orange County instead of lamenting about its failed proposal to extend the toll road through a state park:
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