City Extends Porkway Gallery Deadline

Has everyone seen the city staff’s drive-by gallery – pictures on 16 pricey pillars along Crown Valley Porkway? Self-styled gallery director Keith Rattay calls the pillars “frames,” bringing back memories of the 500 custom-built easels he ordered for the city’s 20th anniversary party. He also called the easels “frames.” The easels Rattay lined up around the community center in April 2008 didn’t attract much attention. However, they became newspaper headlines when a community watchdog discovered hundreds of them trashed on a hillside after the party ended.

Rattay’s grotesque picture gallery on Crown Valley has been the source of public outcry since it opened three months ago. Instead of declaring it an early Halloween exhibit, Rattay on Sept. 1 asked the public to submit photos to replace the ghoulish display. Giving residents a deadline of Oct. 1, he requested pictures that “capture the spirit of thankfulness and caring.”

Last week, an alert resident noticed that the deadline for submissions has been extended to October 15. Did Rattay’s invitation elicit no responses?

When residents didn’t respond to the city’s request for photos for the 20th anniversary easel gallery, city employees were pressed into service to take pictures around town. Their photos were impersonal – trees, rocks, leaves and sky – without connection to Mission Viejo because most city employees don’t live in Mission Viejo.

The resident who emailed the information about the extended deadline suggested the project could be “run through the schools” if Rattay became desperate for photos. After all, why not use children to prop up the city’s fiasco? City officials could then deflect remarks about the pillar mess by saying critics are mean-spirited toward children.

With 150-plus employees to take photos, Rattay might settle for a quick and easy way to fill the pillar “frames” He’s running out of options for claiming his thankfulness-and-caring exhibit on Crown Valley is engaging the community.

What Inspires Activism in Mission Viejo?

When U.S. News & World Report listed Mission Viejo in its “Top 10” communities for political activism, community activist Joe Holtzman offered insight on the reasons. While the magazine suggested income and education levels, amount of leisure time and diversity of opinion are contributing factors, Holtzman concluded Mission Viejo’s elected officials raise residents’ political involvement.

Holtzman distributed an email saying, “My guess is that having a very dysfunctional city council helps to stimulate community involvement. We have one councilman who consistently lies; one councilman with anger management problems; one phony goody two-shoes (trolling for contributions) councilwoman; one councilman who gets tangled in his comments; and one councilwoman who infuriates the city staff. Guess which is which – it’s not hard to figure out.”

Read about the magazine article and other comments on Brad Morton’s blog, http://missionviejodispatch.com/?p=11479#comments To read the magazine article, go to http://www.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/real-estate/articles/2009/09/17/10-cities-for-political-junkies.html

MacLean Recall Qualifies for Ballot
Press Release

Mission Viejo, CA, Sept. 26, 2009 – Mission Viejo Councilman Lance MacLean will face a recall election, which could be scheduled as early as Jan. 19, 2010. Mission Viejo City Clerk Karen Hamman emailed recall spokesman Dale Tyler at 4:36 p.m. on Fri., Sept. 25, with word the recall qualified for the ballot.

Tyler delivered nearly 14,000 signatures to the city clerk on Aug. 24. The Orange County Registrar of Voters had until Oct. 6 to verify that at least 9,393 registered Mission Viejo voters signed the petition. The total submitted according to the official count, 13,933 signatures, comprised 48 percent over the minimum as a margin of safety.

One of the recall proponents, Connie Lee, participated in the signature drive. She said, “After working in four signature drives in four years, I learned we couldn’t take a chance of coming up short. Not only did we go well over the minimum this time, we verified signatures before turning them in. We knew we had the number needed.”

The city chose to have the Registrar of Voters verify signatures until reaching the required minimum of 9,393 instead of verifying all signatures submitted. By Friday evening, the city staff’s blog had already begun its spin. It reported only the number of signatures verified, not the total submitted, falsely portraying a narrow margin of victory. In fact, the registrar counted only 12,871 of the 13,933 signatures.

Recall proponent Lisa De Paul-Snyder commented about the timing of the city’s email on Friday. She said, “As with city officials’ stonewalling when they don’t want to release public documents, the announcement came at the eleventh hour on Friday. I figured the recall was going to qualify, but how long did officials sit on news they didn’t like? I’m wondering how city hall’s masters of spin will present this defeat for the city manager and others who are trying so hard to keep MacLean in office.”

During the signature drive, City Manager Dennis Wilberg was videoed stalking and harassing volunteers who were gathering signatures in front of the city library. Volunteers also filed police reports after MacLean and his handful of supporters either harassed or made threats of violence against signature gatherers.

Tyler summarized the signature drive, “If this recall was a relatively tame one, it’s because MacLean has so few supporters. Let us hope the council majority members, MacLean, Frank Ury and Trish Kelley, don’t drag their feet and delay the process of scheduling the recall election. From my experience gathering signatures, I know voters are eager to remove MacLean from office.”

City’s Lawsuit Draws Comments

On Sept. 22, the OC Register published remarks by City Attorney Bill Curley, who tried to explain why he filed a lawsuit prior to getting the council’s approval. Curley filed suit against the Saddleback school district on Sept. 8 before the council voted on it. Contrary to his explanation, such unauthorized action was unwarranted because of the council’s ability to call a special meeting.

Curley said he bypassed the council’s approval because he was trying to beat a statute of limitations under the California Environmental Quality Act. At least he admitted his first mistake.

As background, the city council majority had failed to negotiate with SVUSD or persuade its trustees to keep O’Neill Elementary School open while the option was still viable. The process disintegrated into a lawsuit over the building’s reuse after the elementary school closed.

Residents responded that lawsuits are costly, and neither the school district nor the city will benefit. The council majority ignored early opportunities to save a neighborhood school or respond appropriately at any point in time. Even when parents of O’Neill students came to council meetings to ask for help, the council majority refused to act. Mayor Frank Ury told parents that teachers could donate a portion of their salary to keep O’Neill open.

Call it what it is: failed leadership.

The Sept. 22 Register article quoted Ury when he defended the city attorney’s taking action without council approval: "The city attorney has understood the position of this council," Mayor Frank Ury said, speaking to the filing. " … We put people in place that, in absence of direct instruction of this council, can still make decisions for the rest of us."

Ury made no points with OCR readers. Find the article and comments at http://www.ocregister.com/articles/city-curley-lawsuit-2576833-district-council

In an online discussion among residents, Frank Fossati cut to the chase. He wrote, “If City Attorney Curley was doing a good job for the city of Mission Viejo, he would have had the Statute of Limitations deadline on his call-up list well in advance, and had ample time to follow normal protocol to obtain Mission Viejo City Council approval prior to his filing. The plain and simple facts are that Mr. Curley is not doing a good job for Mission Viejo, and he should be replaced with a more competent person.”

The Buzz

In the lawsuit City Attorney Bill Curley filed without council approval on Sept. 8, he charged that Saddleback school district had engaged in “impermissible piecemealing” by closing O’Neill Elementary School and then reopening it as an adult education center. Isn’t impermissible piecemealing a common practice among Mission Viejo city staffers to avoid council votes and public disclosure? Among City Manager Dennis Wilberg’s many piecemealed projects, he’s directed a grading project in Lower Curtis Park for at least eight years. What account is being billed for all the grading at this point and who approved it?

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Reader feedback from Mission Viejo resident L.C.: “Those who are guessing the cost of the Crown Valley Parkway project have left out an important item. While all those palm trees cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase and plant, no one has talked about the maintenance contract that goes on forever. What is the cost for all that? When I drove down Crown Valley last week, I was surprised to see thousands of new plantings, and in a severe drought. Is anyone paying attention?”

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Former Capo school district administrators James Fleming and Susan McGill appeared in court on Sept. 25 for a pretrial hearing. Jury selection could begin on Oct. 13. The pair will answer allegations that they used public funds to interfere in the 2005 attempted recall of all seven CUSD trustees. McGill also faces felony charges that she lied to a grand jury about her participation.

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Those who have seen the official numbers from the Registrar of Voters’ recall tally are asking what happened to Councilwoman Trish Kelley’s campaign to get voters to rescind their signatures. Did she not get even one person to rescind? After trying to keep the information confidential, city employees may have slipped up and accidentally revealed that very few rescission requests were attempted. Part of the problem for Kelley was her erroneous instruction to her email distribution that signatures could be revoked by emailing the city clerk. That’s not right, and a councilwoman who has been in public office for more than six years should have a grip on procedures by now.

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On their blog, a group of lobbyists connected to the county’s good ol’ boys incorrectly predicted after recall signatures were submitted on Aug. 24 that the effort would fail for lack of signatures. Were they banking on their influence with Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley? Kelley is currently being sued for taking sides on behalf of Capo school trustees facing a recall attempt in 2005. If the lobbyists approached the registrar, perhaps he chose to avoid more heat after doing such a sloppy job of covering his tracks in 2005.

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Why is MacLean lately requesting info from city staff members about “sports facilities” in South County cities? Is he still pushing for “his” gymnasium after failing to get traction during all his time in office?