Beyond Arrogance and Big Spending

Current council majority members (Lance MacLean, Frank Ury and Trish Kelley) each won by comfortable margins in their first council victories, but all three dropped in popularity the next time they ran. MacLean barely won his reelection bid in 2006, retaining his seat by less than 100 votes. When workers were gathering signatures last summer to put MacLean’s recall on the ballot, they often heard comments that other council members should be recalled as well.

Current council members aren’t the first in the city’s history to be at odds with residents. Prior to the city election of 2002, former council majority members Sherri Butterfield and Susan Withrow were similarly unpopular. Voters remember their wasteful spending as well as their arrogance. When the old majority put the names of sitting council members on public facilities, it may have been the last straw.

In an article on MissionViejoDispatch.com last week, Allan Pilger describes how both council majorities, in 2002 and 2009, turned against city watchdogs who exposed their bad decisions. Read Pilger’s article at http://missionviejodispatch.com/?p=13023

When council candidates are running for office, they often solicit city activists to campaign for them. After the election, activists are right to expect council members to remain consistent with their campaign platforms. Holding an elected official accountable isn’t mean-spirited or vindictive.

When Butterfield and Withrow were voted out of office in 2002, they never acknowledged that they were out of touch with residents. Instead, they said the activists had turned voters against them with relentless attacks. As an odd twist, Butterfield and Withrow are back in the picture, supporting MacLean as well as a candidate to replace him, Dave Leckness, as a weird Plan B. The rhetoric is the same as in 2002, with Butterfield and Withrow claiming the activists are nothing but troublemakers.

Who are the activists? Most of them work outside as well as inside the political arena. One of the distinctions of their community service is hard work without fanfare. For example, those organizing blood banks and food banks don’t often get their name in lights. The activists are typical of mainstream residents while council majority members, who should be typical of residents, are not.

MacLean’s voting record alone is in the face of residents, and his history of violence is a well-known liability. His acts have well surpassed the arrogance and big spending that voters reacted to when throwing Butterfield and Withrow out of office in 2002.