Fiscal Responsibility
by Dale Tyler

When you ask people what they want from their government, the most common answer one gets is more or less “spending our tax money wisely”. Republicans mostly want the government to lower taxes and thus spend less.. Democrats want to raise taxes so that there can be more government programs. However, the vast majority of both groups want the government to make the most of the taxes they pay. Here in Mission Viejo, the city government takes the opposite position.

At several recent City Council meetings, the majority of the City Council, refused to rebid any contracts for services provided by private companies. That means, despite an increasingly competitive environment where businesses all over this city and country are finding ways to cut costs, the City of Mission Viejo is happily spending taxpayer money on services at the same rate as prior years. Now, I'm not suggesting that we try and cram lower prices down these business' throats. Instead, I believe that there is a way to take advantage of lower energy and labor costs that make up a big part of the bid price to lower the city;s costs. Remember, gasoline was 33% higher last summer. Also, perhaps we don't need the gold-plated services that Mission Viejo typically bids for. In any case, just requesting new bids would have made sure that we were getting the best price and most needed services from our contractors. Even better, it would have offered new opportunities to companies not currently doing business with Mission Viejo. The foundation of capitalism is competition, but that is not the way of Mission Viejo.

Of course, this lack of interest in lowering the costs of Mission Viejo city government is hardly surprising, given the attitude of most of our city staff. One does not go to work for the government to try and save taxpayers money. Since working for the government is mostly about job security, it is not surprising that there is very little incentive for government workers to be innovative about cutting costs, since that might mean that government would be smaller and need less staff. In private industry, innovation increases sales and profits, which lead to more jobs. Government employees are trained to find ways to look like they are doing more work by inventing make-work projects. On recent example of this is the failed Rose Bowl float, which the vast majority of citizens say they did not want.

The top levels in Mission Viejo government are responsible for most of the waste in the City. Dennis Wilburg, the City Manager, has been involved with the Rose Bowl for many years. So, when he saw an opportunity to influence the weak willed City Council, especially Kelley and MacLean, he went to work. Once Kelley and MacLean had been co-opted, it was easy for Dennis to claim that this was a City Council initiative. Another example of this is Keith Rattay,Director of Public Services. He spends taxpayer money on useless projects ranging from the easels used for the fake photo exhibit last year that were thrown on the trash heap the next day to the huge pillars of concrete block in the middle of Crown Valley Parkway covered with what appears to be pictures made under the influence of drugs. He spends money for plants to be used to “beautify” trails, then ends up throwing most of them away because of poor planting practices. None of these provide any utility to the taxpayers, but Keith, in an effort to expand his empire, keeps finding more projects like this.

As a further proof of how inefficient Mission Viejo government is, consider this. In 1990, the city had 72,820 residents. In 2000, there were 93,102 and today there are nearly 100,000. In other words, there was a 37% increase in the city's population from 1990 through today. Yet, the number of full time equivalent people employed by the city has grown from less than 60 to 150. This represents a 150% increase. While some of the increase is due to our having our own library staff as opposed to paying the county for library services, it is undeniable that the size of Mission Viejo government has at least doubled with only a 37% increase in population.

I think it is time for our city government to become more efficient. To that end, we need to remove all incentive for city employees to expand the size of government by going to a zero-based budget for the next 10 years. This would mean that no increases in spending would be allowed unless it could be shown that population increases directly caused a requirement to increase spending, which is unlikely, since the city is built out and population increased only 0.4% per year from 2000 to 2006. Also, increased spending would be permitted if these were changes in the actual costs of delivering existing services. There should be annual competitive bidding for all city services to ensure that we get the best price. No new services would be permitted unless balanced by the reduction of existing programs and inefficiencies like spending $7M on a luxury facility that only 0.2% of the people use would be eliminated.

Today, fiscal responsibility in Mission Viejo government is an oxymoron. The citizens of Mission Viejo need to stand up and replace the big spending City Council members who are most responsible for the mess we find ourselves in: MacLean, Kelley and Ury. Once these folks are gone, we can rebuild the city in to the small government model we were told we would get when the city was founded.

Recall Update

Proponents of the effort to recall Councilman Lance MacLean are working daily to ensure that the signature drive is a success. One of the volunteers said, “We expected that signatures would be harder to get at this late stage, but the opposite is true. People are so willing to sign that we want to continue working. We had tables at six storefronts over the weekend, and we’re finding almost no support for MacLean.”

Activity from MacLean’s few fans has been subdued for more than a week, and MacLean’s most recent appearance at a recall table was on July 29. Recall volunteers have reported seeing several cars repeatedly driving by the recall tables at storefronts, as if checking out who is working.

The only aggressive act from a MacLean supporter during the past week occurred in front of a drugstore. A man driving a black Lexus SUV had followed a petitioner as she left a grocery store. After she set up a table in front of the drugstore, the man got out of his vehicle and began questioning her. He videotaped her getting signatures, and those who were signing the petition noticed his strange behavior. When they asked the petitioner what the man was doing, she joked, “He’s making a documentary film.”

As a problem for the MacLean supporter, the petitioner was circulating a statewide petition having to do with electrical service providers. No one at that storefront was getting recall signatures.

A recall proponent commented about the signature drive, “We’ve had two political consultants observe our efforts at storefronts, and both said they were amazed that so many people are still signing. Based on the reaction of community members at the recall tables, both of the consultants also predicted that MacLean is going to be removed from office when residents get a chance to vote. MacLean has said from the beginning that he knows he’ll be recalled, and he’s right about that. My question is why he doesn’t resign instead of putting everyone through the drill.”

CUSD Update

The Capo USD board of trustees will meet on Mon., Aug. 10, 7:00 p.m. Board meetings are held at the administration center, 33122 Valle Road, San Juan Capistrano.

Jonathan Volzke of the Capistrano Dispatch summarized one of the items of interest from the agenda: “The board will consider contracting with a demographic consultant to look at enrollment trends and housing as well as trustee boundaries. This came up as parents asked trustees to endorse a plan to elect leaders by district rather than at large. Trustees, some of whom supported the idea while seeking election, said trustee boundaries should be considered before taking that step. There's no estimate of what the consultant contract will cost in the staff report. (Page 105 of the agenda).”

The board will also consider moving CUSD board meetings to Tuesdays. A member of the administrative staff is getting an advanced degree, and she has a class that meets on Mondays. Public reaction to the potential change is that one person’s conflict with personal schedules isn’t adequate reason to make the change.

The agenda also includes an item whereby the board could approve consultant contracts to allow the district to fill key administrative spots with consultants, at $500 to $650 per day, just to get schools open on time. (Page 325.)

Volzke’s complete post and reader comments can be found at http://capistranoinsider.typepad.com/beyond_the_blackboard/2009/08/agendas-out-for-mondays-meeting-election-issues/comments/page/2/#comments.

The Buzz

A blog reader reacted to last week’s speculation that Councilwoman Trish Kelley directed Commissioner Leslie Sykes to interfere with the recall at a storefront. The reader emailed: “I believe Kelley used Sykes for her political purposes. I’d like to know who wrote the speech that Sykes read at a recent council meeting. It was a scathing attack against Councilwoman Cathy Schlicht. It was clear to me that Sykes was reading what someone else had written, and it all fits together.”

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The signature drive to recall Councilman Lance MacLean has been an enlightening experience for those who are talking with thousands of residents. MacLean isn’t the only politician who is unpopular. When voters sign the recall petition, they frequently tell volunteers about other council members they’d like to remove. After MacLean, Frank Ury is the most unpopular. At the county level, Sheriff Sandra Hutchens gets the most negative comments. If volunteers had petitions to recall state and national officials, people would be standing in line to sign.

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Which OCSD Command Staff members will Hutchens dismiss as a cost-cutting measure? Some residents are concerned that she might dismiss Jack Anderson, a Mission Viejo resident who served as interim sheriff before the county supervisors awarded Hutchens the job. If Anderson didn’t work for Hutchens, he might run against her in 2010. Whether or not Anderson would enter the race, Hutchens would lose votes in Mission Viejo by dismissing him.

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A blog reader reported seeing graffiti on the killer pillars along Crown Valley Porkway last week, saying she noticed the addition of blue spray paint on the graphics as well. Crown Valley has long been the site of tagging and cross-tagging by rival gang members. They probably appreciate having a new “canvas” for their messages to each other. The reader said some of the graphics were removed after they were spray painted.

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Mission Viejo library patrons say they’re already noticing cutbacks. Some of them mention the council majority’s decision to spend $400,000 on a Rose Parade float, which was followed by cuts to library programs and materials. Residents are just beginning to see the impact of the council majority’s overspending as revenues diminish.