Public Comments Reveal Quirks

The Nov. 2 city council meeting took more strange turns than usual. Several citizens made public comments at the beginning of the meeting in defense of Councilman Lance MacLean, whose recall election is scheduled for Feb. 2.

David Allen began with the standard MacLean mantra: MacLean is innocent, and he isn’t the only one who did it.

Two others from MacLean’s team read from similarly formatted, word-processed papers, each with multiple pages and large type.

Former councilwoman Sharon Cody said the effort to recall Lance MacLean isn’t about Lance MacLean. She said it’s a plot by a “small group” of people who want to control the city. She didn’t explain how her theory relates to key reasons MacLean is being recalled: his uncontrolled anger, assault and battery, voting lifetime medical benefits for council members and doubling council members’ salaries, pushing for a $400,000 Rose Parade float, deficit spending, failure to manage projects, calling residents “racists” and so on.

The third speaker, Joyce Saltzgiver, gave a confused account of Sunrise Development’s attempt to build housing on the Casta del Sol Golf Course. She said, “Dale Tyler claims he saved the golf course.” To the contrary, Tyler has never made any such claim. Saltzgiver’s confusion seems to stem from information in Tyler’s flyer announcing his candidacy to replace MacLean in the recall election.

Tyler’s Mission Viejo Right-To-Vote Initiative would give voters (not three council members) the final say on major zone changes. The initiative will be on the June 2010 ballot. The Casta golf course has not been “saved” by anyone, and the property is still at risk of being developed. In 2008, Sunrise lined up three council votes (MacLean, Ury and Kelley) and staked the golf course for housing. After Sunrise abruptly withdrew its plan to purchase the golf course in August 2008, community watchdogs discovered that Sunrise was in such deep financial trouble it wouldn’t be buying or building anything. By November 2008, the company was facing bankruptcy.

Saltzgiver next said her “committee” saved the golf course. If Saltzgiver wants to take credit for preventing the sale of the golf course to a housing developer, then she should explain how her committee brought down the housing market and the global economy (or whatever caused Sunrise to tank). If voters approve Tyler’s initiative – which they will likely do – developers will no longer be able to get their property rezoned by buying three council votes.

Voters get it. Tyler’s Right-To-Vote qualified for the ballot with thousands of signatures to spare. MacLean’s recall also qualified with flying colors. The “small group” wanting to recall MacLean includes more than 50 proponents who initiated the process, more than 100 people who gathered signatures and approximately 14,000 Mission Viejo voters who signed the petition.