Countdown Begins

The October 5 council meeting is a bonanza for city employees and council majority members who excel at problem-causing. Residents from various parts of town will, once again, need to alert their neighborhoods to protect their homes, property values and peace of mind.

Agenda Item No. 16 is the certification of the petition to recall Councilman Lance MacLean. Despite efforts by City Manager Dennis Wilberg and Councilwoman Trish Kelley to thwart the recall, the council will now set the election date. If residents can remove MacLean from office and find a replacement to rescind lifetime medical benefits for council members who serve three terms, the net savings for removing MacLean in a special election could be huge.

MacLean could be recalled as early as Jan. 19, and council majority members (MacLean, Ury and Kelley – MUK) are running out of time. Residents should expect an array of wacky ideas that city staffers want to push through before losing “their guy.” As examples of MacLean’s usefulness to them, he pushed the Rose Parade float into reality, and he sat quietly as city employees turned Crown Valley Parkway into the laughingstock of south Orange County. Residents should also watch the MUKsters for attempts to pay off favors to special interest before the joyride ends.

The wacky idea of the month can be found in Item No. 8 on the council’s Oct. 5 agenda. This item will transfer ownership of Mallorca’s slope along Marguerite Parkway to the city. Mallorca is the gated development along the northwest edge of Lake Mission Viejo. Mallorca’s HOA board or its property manager allowed the slope to decline, with an estimated cost of $500,000 to fix it. Poorly maintained slopes are at risk with heavy rains, and one of these years, the prediction of another El Nino will be correct.

The city already owns more neglected slopes and other liabilities than anyone can count. Has the Mallorca transaction already been decided out of public view? We hope not. A genuine public discussion and deliberation on this matter should be more than a mere formality. With the transfer of Mallorca’s slope to the city’s list, Director of Public Services Keith Rattay will have a new area he can turn into a public display of over-planting, with the potential for pillars, obelisks and pyramids.

Agenda Item No. 9 will likely give a pass to a major nuisance in the Mission Ridge neighborhood – a homeowner who has been “remodeling” his house for eight years. His neighbors have been begging the city for help, which they’re not going to get from the current council majority. Instead of acting, the staff recommendation is to receive and file a report.

Agenda Item No. 15 is a request by the city staff to close the Mission Viejo library for future Readers’ Festivals. It seems they forgot to ask the council’s permission to close the library for the Sept. 12 Readers’ Festival. The vast majority of Mission Viejo residents did not attend or care about the festival, which took two years to plan. The project absorbed two full-time employees for two years as well as an enormous amount of time for many other city employees. The party lasted eight hours, and the benefit to the city was the receipt of several notes to the city manager expressing what a fun event it was.

Agenda Item No. 18 is a dog park, under the council comments of MacLean – what a coincidence on the evening the council will schedule an election to remove him. As the centerpiece of MacLean’s argument to stay in office, he says the city can’t afford a special election that could cost as much as $225,000. The design phase of the dog park will cost $258,000. The projected cost of building the dog park, including design, is $1 million. Average cost of dog parks in other Orange County cities is $100,000. As MacLean’s other argument against the recall, he says he’ll be up for reelection in November 2010, so why not keep him around for “just a few more months”? From January to November is not a few months, and residents cannot afford to keep him for even one more council meeting.

Kelley’s Email Blast Backfires

When proponents of the MacLean recall were winding down the signature drive, Councilwoman Trish Kelley tried to throw MacLean a lifeline. She sent an email blast on July 22, supporting MacLean and telling those on her distribution list to rescind their signatures from the recall petition.

By July 22, ample signatures had been gathered to qualify the recall for the ballot. However, bad timing wasn’t the worst of Trish Kelley’s problems.

Last week, the OC Registrar of Voters revealed that 16 voters rescinded their signatures from the recall petition. That’s right – out of nearly 14,000 people who signed the petition, Ms. Kelley succeeded in subtracting only 16 from the total.

Kelley’s email campaign reached an organization of moms with preschool children. Incredibly, Ms. Kelley was asking them to rally around a man who had anger issues, a violent temper and a record of assault and battery on a co-worker. One of his neighbors reported that MacLean got mad at her children and chased them with a shovel.

In Kelley’s July 22 email, she states that voters signing the petition may have received “false information” about MacLean. Those who gathered signatures either quoted directly from the recall petition or handed voters a summary of data from public records and MacLean’s council votes. The information was well-documented, and Ms. Kelley didn’t challenge any of the points in her email.
 

Ms. Kelley’s email stated that voters can rescind signatures with an email or fax. No, they can’t. Of the 16 rescissions, how many were correctly executed, and did the city clerk and the county Registrar of Voters follow the law? The city clerk reported 22 rescission requests were received, and two were from people who weren’t registered to vote. The city clerk stated that 16 of the remaining 20 signatures were found in the 12,871 that were checked and “the other four were in the uncounted signatures.” How did she reach that conclusion? Given that more than 1,000 signatures weren’t reviewed or verified by anyone (because the minimum number had already been reached to qualify the recall), then the other four could have come from people who hadn’t signed the petition in the first place.

Whether 16 or 20 people rescinded signatures isn’t the point. Ms. Kelley’s campaign was a dismal failure. Her effort to save MacLean demonstrated that voters did NOT feel they signed the petition on the basis of false information.

If voters proceed to remove MacLean in the recall election, Ms. Kelley will very likely lose the lifetime healthcare benefits that she, MacLean and Councilman Frank Ury bestowed on themselves for three terms of part-time service. A new majority could overturn the decision. Saving her own healthcare benefits (estimated at $225,000 per council member) was at least worth a shot to Ms. Kelley.

Casta Group Hosts Meeting
by Connie Lee

Event organizer Jan Anchell estimated between 200 and 250 community members attended Mission Viejo’s town hall meeting on Sept. 27. Congressman Gary Miller moderated the meeting and addressed a variety of topics, including nationalized healthcare. The Casta del Sol Republican Club hosted the event, which was opened by USMC Col. Joe Snyder (ret.), who is a former mayor of Dana Point. Orange County Republican Party Chairman Scott Baugh of Huntington Beach introduced Congressman Miller.

Prior to the introduction of speakers, attendees enjoyed music by “Diamond Tom” Speiss, who sang a medley of Neil Diamond hits and patriotic songs. The outdoor event took place in Casta del Sol’s recreation complex. Anchell said the turnout grew to “standing room only.” Guests filled rows of chairs and then spread out to benches alongside the swimming pool. Others brought lawn chairs, and some stood throughout the meeting.

The Casta del Sol Republican Club is one of the largest organizations in the Casta homeowners association, which is a gated community in Mission Viejo.

Capo District Update

If diverse opinion doesn’t seem to be a positive element on a school board, consider the former way of doing things under ex-supt. James Fleming, whose trial begins this month. His “Taj Mahal” administration center in San Juan Capistrano became a money pit while Mission Viejo classrooms deteriorated. When testifying before a grand jury, some of his trustees defended their decisions by claiming they didn’t know what they were doing or understand what they were voting on. Trustees back then usually voted 7-0 on every item.

The seven trustees who replaced the old regime all ran on a reform platform, but their votes frequently are split. On a recent issue, most of them supported preserving the current method of electing school board members at least until after trustee areas are redrawn. Each trustee represents a geographic area of the district, but all voters vote on all trustees (at-large method). An alternative would be to have voters elect only the trustee for their area.

One angle of this is historically consistent. Whoever is out of power (right now, the anti-reform group is out of power) wants to change elections to the latter method, claiming it is too expensive for a challenger to win in a district-wide election. A Capo mom who resides in San Juan Capistrano, Erin Kutnick, was a champion of the current (at-large) method when the Fleming regime trustees she backed were in office. She wrote a letter to the Capistrano Dispatch, which was published on March 25, 2004. Her letter follows:

“I was quite surprised recently to learn that the most contentious high school battle in San Juan Capistrano history was NOT Measure CC. The real battle over the high school was more than 40 years ago and centered around Capistrano Union High School. Of course, in that first battle, the entire city [of San Juan Capistrano] joined together in its valiant attempt to keep the school within the city. In the early 1960s, it was determined that Capistrano Union High School was in serious need of renovation. While San Juan had been the center of population of many years, more building was occurring to the south. As a result, San Clemente had a larger population than San Juan Capistrano.

“To make a long (and painful) story short, more school board members lived in San Clemente than San Juan and we were outvoted. While residents here were very disappointed, they took some solace in the fact that they were able to save part of the buildings from being torn down. It’s also believed the battle spurred the city to incorporate in 1961. Fast forward to our school board today. Capistrano Unified is a very large district and, like any public agency, it’s governed by a Board of Trustees. We as voters get to choose at the ballot box who represents the public school interests in our community. Our School Board is comprised of seven members: one to represent each of the seven areas. The board member must live in the area that they represent and they have to run to represent the area they live in. An individual cannot live in San Juan and decide that they would like to run to represent Area 7, which is Rancho Santa Margarita. We are not restricted to voting in just our area. Each registered voter living within the district gets to vote for all seven of the board members rather than just the one who lives within their area.

“This system is known as being “elected at large” and there is a very good reason for this. Often times in an elected body, some personalities are much stronger than others. What if hypothetically, one area had a very domineering board member representing them who was only interested in making decisions that were best for their area? If we could not vote that person in or out because they were in another area, there would be no accountability. Likewise, if we did not have a balance of board members located throughout the district, we could potentially have another battle like the one 40 years ago, where decisions were made based on one community’s desire rather than the needs of the district as a whole. Each board member must be accountable to all of the voters within the district. Public schools of course, have to remain focused on the big picture. Having all seven school board members accountable to the entire voting population keeps them focused on working together rather than trying to further a personal agenda. It also provides balance. Each trustee can provide valuable first hand information and knowledge because they know the schools in their area.

“All of this leads to the fact that the trustee areas are being realigned for the first time in over 10 years. Because trustees are elected at large, they are assigned to represent a certain number of voters and the areas need to be as balanced or even as possible. Due to extensive growth in certain areas within the district, the number of voters each trustee was representing was out of balance. Under the previous areas, area 1 was the lowest with about 18,000 voters and area 2 was the largest with over 36,000. Last November, the Board of Trustees voted to re-align the areas balancing them at around 25,000 voters each. This process will be completed prior to July 1, and the new areas will be in effect prior to the November election when four of the seven trustees will be up for re-election. As is with the City Council, the seats are up for re-election on alternating years so that you never end up with all new people at one time. You can view the maps and the exact
trustee areas for San Juan Capistrano at http://www.capousd.org Remember that as a taxpayer and a resident, you have a vested interest in the public schools and voting is an important voice. Join me next time for another school tour as we continue to look Beyond the Blackboard.”

Kutnick ran for a board seat in November 2008 against a reform candidate, and she lost. She’s now a leader for the opposite argument, electing representatives by area only, and she says the change should come as soon as possible.

On Sept. 30, the Orange County Committee on School District Organization decided that the Capo school district constituents should vote in June 2010 to determine which of the two methods should be used to elect trustees. Oddly enough, two deposed CUSD trustees from the Fleming regime (Sheila Benecke and Sheila Henness) are on the committee that made the decision. At least voters will be permitted to vote.

Does anyone wonder where these mysterious committees come from and how they are empowered? Benecke and Henness will also “help” CUSD draw new trustee areas instead of the district hiring a demographer.

City of Mission Viejo Dog Park
by Frank Fossati

In today's tight economy, with City revenues down, and with the State of California giving $5 million in paper IOUs to the City of Mission Viejo (MV) instead of CASH, this is not the time to be wasting approximately $1 million on a dog park. The current proposed action by Councilman Lance MacLean is to approve an initial design cost contract for approximately $300,000. Construction costs will follow, bringing this project's total to about $1 million. This proposed dog park capital outlay by Councilman MacLean is yet another example of why Mr. MacLean is up for a recall election by the registered voters who live in MV. (Don't forget to cast your recall vote in the MV Special Election to be scheduled for Jan 2010.)

Even if times were not this difficult, I do not think the dog park expenditure benefits a majority of MV residents. Only a small fraction of the MV dog owners (and possibly some dog owners from neighboring cities) will utilize this feature. This is almost as bad as the City Council voting to waste about $4 million for upgrade / expansion of a City Tennis Center that serves only about 400 members. The tennis center project is even more wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars and should be curtailed. The MV Council needs to focus on projects that serve the majority of its residents, and curtail the extravagant unneeded costly fluff, such as is on display (the artwork) in the pilasters in the area of the Crown Valley & Marguerite street widening project. (Yet another mismanaged project that went way over budget and has taken way too long to complete.)

Maybe it is time for not just Councilman Lance MacLean to go, but how about
replacing City Manager Dennis Wilberg and Director of Public Services Keith Rattay?  Maybe someday in the future MV can be returned to a responsibly run city government.  Let's hope, anyway.

The Buzz

Two community watchdogs toured Lower Curtis Park last week after hearing from a resident who lives near the sports fields off Olympiad. The resident had observed grading of the mountains of dirt dumped in the lower park. A year ago, City Manager Dennis Wilberg said trucks were unloading from the Crown Valley widening project, but very little was happening along Crown Valley. Wilberg said the dirt would later be used for other projects when needed, but the dirt has instead been spread out and pushed eastward. Note that Lower Curtis is a park, not a dump. For years, unidentified contractors have brought truckloads of dirt and debris to the area with the city’s quiet blessing. At one point, watchdogs discovered the project was a make-work activity for idle contractors, and one city contractor received $200,000 for rearranging the dirt.

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To view another example of what Wilberg says, check out Brad Morton’s blog, http://missionviejodispatch.com Wilberg attempts to distort facts when denying the blog’s revelations about city policy and temporary employees. The city manager apparently didn’t realize he was entering a No Spin Zone by posting on the blog.

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Residents who’d like to view Wilberg’s dirt-rearranging project in Lower Curtis should also walk by the storage bins located near the dumpsite. The bins formerly contained fossils, which were moved to Saddleback College. A landscape contractor has taken over the bins and created a fenced area for his equipment – an illegitimate use of park space. The bins have become the city’s newest “art gallery” with graffiti that rivals the Crown Valley pillar graphics in both artistic quality and tasteful subject matter.

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Constituents of the Capistrano school district can expect the tug-of-war to continue between the current board of trustees and a group of parents who supported the former board, which was largely hand-picked by then-Supt. James Fleming. The Oct. 4 OC Register carried a story about a potential change with voters electing a trustee for their area instead of voting on all seven trustees. A Mission Viejo resident commented about the old-regime supporters who are pushing for the change: “I see an increase in class size and the demise of Mission Viejo schools, and a pool and football stadium for SJHHS [in San Juan Capistrano] in our future. Until three years ago, MV did not have even one trustee from our city on the board. Our tax dollars will again be spent by those who do not have any interest in our children (this is how we got SJHHS, Arroyo Vista and the district office, all funded with MV tax dollars while our students ate lunch sitting on the locker-room and shower floor at Newhart, and Capo High ended up on the front page of an OC Register series). Talk about taxation without representation!”

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The city manager’s Oct. 2 insider report, “The Week That Was,” had only two topics. One was an announcement from Caltrans that a segment of the northbound onramp to the I-5 will be closed from Oct. 13 until Nov. 3. The second announcement was a state grant bestowing $15,000 to the city library and a three-day training session for two librarians. This blog is pleased to convey this summary of important activity directly from the city manager about the city’s 150-plus employees and their accomplishments for the week of Sept. 28 to Oct. 2.