Pass the Kool-Aid

The OC Register announced new staff assignments last week. For more than a year, reporter Lindsey Baguio covered Mission Viejo for the Register and Saddleback Valley News. She has been reassigned to Laguna Niguel.

In April 2008, Baguio exposed the city staff’s wasteful spending on 500 custom-built easels. She followed the city’s 20th anniversary spend-a-thon, which ended with easels thrown in a heap on a hillside. A city contractor took up to 200 of the easels to a county dump while city employees claimed the trashed easels were being “stored for future use.” City administrator Keith Rattay lied to Baguio – she quoted him – about costs and volunteer participation, and activists combed city records to expose the true figures. For a brief time, residents saw the real city hall through SVN coverage.

Baguio at first reported both sides – activists’ statements alongside city hall’s spin. But before the dust settled on Easelgate, City Manager Dennis Wilberg invited Baguio to his office. Baguio’s investigative reporting ended, and SVN published almost no letters about city hall after July 2008. Requests for public records revealed an email trail in which Wilberg pressured Baguio for favorable reporting. Records show he directed her to solicit community comments from a list of people he identified as supportive of his staff and how city hall spent taxpayer funds.

As newspapers worldwide are diminishing, OCR is hanging on. When a group of city activists met with the OCR/SVN staff in late 2008, the meeting included three newspaper people – Baguio, her editor and her editor’s boss. Baguio and her editor seemed to be the whole SVN team, and her editor was putting together six other tab-size weekly papers for South County cities. While the three newspaper employees listened to the activists and said little, the rows of vacant cubicles in the newsroom conveyed the message.

City hall is a major client of SVN. Nowhere in Wilberg’s emails did he write any threat to Baguio or her editor about pulling city ads, but his words implied that SVN should do as he suggested. After July, articles with Baguio’s byline were increasingly fluff about city hall activities and little else. Despite the economic downturn, Mission Viejo news is happy news: new businesses, happy people at city events and good times at city hall.

Recently, Baguio surprised readers with one story about the city’s abandoned homes and another about a city commissioner’s home going to auction. Was it Baguio’s not-so-fond farewell to Wilberg? News of Baguio’s transfer broke days later.

According to an activist’s email to this blog, Baguio’s replacement, Niyaz Pirani, formerly worked as a photographer until he started writing stories about food. One of his first Mission Viejo articles appears in the June 12 edition of SVN, “Is new Sonic drive-in worth wait?” The article isn’t about business or people or a new restaurant revitalizing a retail center on Los Alisos. It’s about food.

Just in case anyone wonders how city hall feels about Pirani, here’s a copy of an email the city clerk wrote to fellow employees:

“Please note that effective this week, the OC Register has assigned a new reporter to Mission Viejo.  Niyaz Pirani can be reached at: npirani@ocregister.com (949) 698-2498

Niyaz said he is looking forward to meeting city staff and the Council Members and he has expressed an interest in working closely with the City to report and promote its events and activities.”

Recall Update

On June 13, embattled Councilman Lance MacLean again faced off with a volunteer who was gathering signatures to recall him. MacLean approached the petitioner in front of a drugstore. The petitioner later said he initially wasn’t sure it was MacLean, particularly when MacLean pretended to support the recall:

Volunteer: “Have you had a chance to sign the petition to recall Councilman MacLean?”
MacLean: “No. What’s he done?
Volunteer: “He doubled his council salary, and he wants lifetime healthcare benefits.”
MacLean: “He sounds like a real asshole. What else?”
Volunteer: “He favors housing on the golf course.”
MacLean: “Are you paid to get signatures?”
Volunteer: “No, I live near the Casta golf course, and I want it keep the golf course.”
MacLean: “Well, you wait right here while I go into the store.”

During the time MacLean was talking to the volunteer, residents who were walking by stood in back of MacLean and alerted the volunteer. They mouthed “That’s MacLean.” After MacLean went into the store, the volunteer began talking with others nearby, and they decided to move a safe distance from the storefront while MacLean was there.

Minutes later, MacLean came out with a store employee while others watched. Then, two men in dark suits stood and talked with MacLean as two police cars drove up. Those nearby concluded the police cars had nothing to do with the recall. However, for MacLean to go into the store and involve its employees in city politics has everything to do with MacLean. Six weeks ago, Councilwoman Trish Kelley did the same thing – using her clout as a council member to intimidate a store manager by directing him to tell the recall group to leave. The manager told her the store was neutral on politics.

MacLean and half a dozen people supporting him have had no effect on anyone who is circulating the recall petition. MacLean’s supporters, including former council member Sherri Butterfield, have thrown fits and complained to store managers. Activists who stay at the stores to observe the process say MacLean has the same five or six backers acting up and complaining.

The volunteer who encountered MacLean on June 13 said, “MacLean and his group seem obsessed that we’re all being paid. They can’t imagine that so many people are giving their time. MacLean’s supporters are the ones who are being paid, including Trish Kelley and the city manager, and MacLean wants the lifetime healthcare benefits he voted for.”

Recall workers are counting and verifying signatures, checking them against the Registrar of Voters’ CD. Workers will determine that at least 9,350 valid ones have been collected before ending the signature drive. Several of the recall volunteers also worked on the land-use initiative, and they say it’s essential to pre-validate before turning in signatures. The land-use initiative will appear on the June 2010 California Primary.

The signature drive will continue until volunteers make sure they have more than enough signatures to qualify MacLean’s recall for the ballot.

Homeless in Mission Viejo

Discussion of an emergency homeless shelter by the Planning Commission on June 8 served as a reminder of how the state government operates. The California State Legislature decreed in 2007 that cities must provide shelter for their homeless residents during emergencies. When the discussion arose earlier this year at a city meeting on housing, “emergency” was defined as a catastrophic situation, such as an earthquake or a wildfire.

What if some cities don’t have homeless people who stay within their city limits? Mission Viejo residents might want to know the locations of their city’s homeless. Has anyone seen a homeless person living in a park, open space or elsewhere in the city? A blog contributor sent a response:

 “I’ve seen two people passing through who seem to be homeless, but I’m unaware of any homeless person living here. The homeless people I know of (a man and a woman) have mental issues, and they’ve already rejected the idea of going to shelters. The woman told me about her distrust for government and the system. She’s living on the street because that’s where she wants to live.”

Other issues come to mind as Mission Viejo addresses building a homeless shelter.

1)If a homeless person’s locale becomes uninhabitable because of a wildfire, an earthquake or other disaster, would the shelter not be similarly affected by the disaster?

2)Given the city’s record of mismanaged projects and wastefulness, wouldn’t it be quicker and cheaper to check a homeless person into a luxury hotel instead of building, furnishing and staffing a homeless shelter?

The state’s shelter specifications include provisions of onsite management and details of onsite waiting and intake areas. An alert sales manager of a luxury hotel would be wise to send a proposal to all South County cities for emergency shelter for the homeless.

The Buzz

On June 9, OCSD Sheriff Sandra Hutchens pitched her department’s services to Mission Viejo during a special meeting at city hall. A curious part was the PR video presented to “a handful” of people who attended. If OCSD wanted to improve its image (at no cost at all), it should see how many consecutive days it could go without breaking news of an OCSD scandal, embarrassment, lawsuit or in-fighting.

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Mission Viejo’s cost to renew its OCSD contract for the coming fiscal year is more than $15 million. That’s nearly $42,000 a day in a city of mostly peace-loving and law-abiding citizens. City watchdogs and other interested residents have suggested the city should consider alternatives, including the formation of a multi-city police department. Irvine is frequently cited as a safe city with its own police department. As usual, the council majority of Lance MacLean, Frank Ury and Trish Kelley appear to have no interest in saving money or changing the status quo. Renewal of OCSD’s contract is up for a council vote during the June 15 meeting.

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The petition to recall Councilman Lance MacLean isn’t the only one being circulated. Several Capo district residents recently initiated an effort to change some aspects of the election of CUSD trustees. Currently, trustees each live in a specific section of the district, but they are elected at large. Some constituents say campaigning is too expensive when they have to cover all of the district’s seven cities (195 square miles). Three of the advocates for change are Erin Kutnick (who ran unsuccessfully in the 2008 CUSD election), Marilyn Amato and Kevin Kerwin. They can get the measure on the ballot by presenting 750 signatures of CUSD registered voters to the Orange County Dept. of Education for approval. If the committee rejects the petition, its proponents have the option of gathering 22,000 signatures of CUSD registered voters to qualify for the ballot.

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In response to the economic downturn, some public agencies are cutting back. The OC Board of Supervisors and their department heads took a 5 percent pay cut. The county’s Social Services Agency executives had already taken 8 percent to 10 percent pay cuts through furloughs, and some deferred their 2 percent salary increases. School boards are looking at deep cuts, layoffs and ending popular programs. Mission Viejo City Manager Dennis Wilberg has a different approach. He wants temporary employees to get a RAISE of up to 25 percent, going from a cap of $75/hour to $100/hour.

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In response to the pay increase, Mission Viejo watchdog Larry Gilbert posted an article on a county blog, http://orangejuiceblog.com/2009/06/oc-sups-cut-wages-5-while-mission-viejo-offering-a-max-25-wage-increase/#more-23303 City hall’s rationale for the increase: “Given inflation since 2002, it is anticipated that the current $75 hourly maximum may not be sufficient to attract individuals with the level of experience and knowledge that is needed.” Gilbert’s post reveals that the positions include “assistant planner, assistant city clerk, community services coordinator, animal services volunteer coordinator, accounting clerk A & B, H.R. analyst, library clerks A & B, library assistants A & B, etc.” By the way, didn’t city hall recently make a big production of its so-called hiring freeze?