Strange Encounters in the Recall
Letter to the Editor

Occasionally, signature-gatherers in the MacLean recall have an interesting experience, and it was my turn on Sat., April 25. As I was ready to depart from a storefront, I was making a phone call. A mom and her teenage son came to the table where people had been signing petitions. They waited for me to finish the call.

I turned to them and said, "Hi, how are you?"
The son said, "What's going on here?"
I said, "Have you not heard about the recall?"
The son said, "We just want to know what this is about.”

I handed them a business card and quarter-page flyer. I said: "A councilman was charged with assault and battery. He should have resigned but he didn't. He ran as a fiscal conservative but doubled his council salary and voted for lifetime healthcare benefits after three terms of part-time service. He wants more housing, and we fought him to prevent housing on the Casta golf course. We had to get signatures on the Right-To-Vote Initiative to stop all the overbuilding.”

Either the mom or the son then said, "We're his family, and these are all lies." If these two are defenders of truth, shouldn’t they have presented themselves truthfully instead of acting as if they were passersby who didn’t know about the recall?

Mrs. MacLean said Lance wasn’t charged with assault and battery, and he was “only holding the person against the wall.” Regarding the golf course, she said it's private property and the owner can do whatever he likes – it’s not up to the council. Mrs. MacLean said Councilman Ledesma will get lifetime healthcare benefits. I said he'll term out before he's old enough to qualify. She said he could run again for three consecutive terms [12 more years] when he's old enough to qualify.

Their comments were factually incorrect and made no sense. The thrust of their remarks wasn’t a defense of Lance except their belief the assault and battery never happened. They primarily made personal attacks against other council members and residents as well, and they named names.

If Lance wasn’t charged with assault and battery, one should ask why he hired an attorney, went to court and faced a Superior Court Judge who sentenced him to anger management counseling.

I took down the table while they continued their harangue against all the people they were mad at, and I wondered if they knew even one of them

In America’s safest city, why is so much hostility coming from one councilman and his supporters? Intimidation, harassment and badgering of signature gatherers will not stop the recall.

Connie Lee
Mission Viejo