Two Tales of a Dog Park

City Manager Dennis Wilberg’s insider newsletter (The Week That Was, dated Dec. 11) described a public workshop held on Dec. 9 to discuss dog park sites. According to Wilberg, more than 2,500 workshop flyers were mailed to residents in the areas of two potential sites. Twenty-three people attended. Lower Curtis Park on Olympiad and the area south of Gilleran Park on Felipe are the only sites being considered at this time.

Attempting to pander to dog park enthusiasts, Councilman Lance MacLean proposed a dog park in Oso Viejo Park after the city failed to inform the neighborhood. The project was approved on Oct. 5 by the council majority: MacLean, Frank Ury and Trish Kelley. Homeowners near the site quickly rallied against the decision, and the dog park was scuttled on Nov. 16 when Kelley reversed her vote. Those watching the process said it was a net loss for MacLean’s anti-recall campaign.

On Dec. 12, Brad Morton’s MissionViejoDispatch.com presents another view of the same workshop, including the following revelations. The Community Services Commission is responsible for making recommendations on such projects as a dog park, and the commission initially wasn’t invited to attend. The meeting was to be conducted by the city staff only, but the commission chair objected to being shut out. The workshop was then converted to a Community Services Commission meeting.

From the Dispatch: “This is the second time Staff has circumvented Commissions recently. A couple months ago it conducted a staff-only public hearing at the tennis center regarding a planned expansion of that facility. The situation is part of a pattern by the City Council over the past three years to largely ignore Commissions, placing decreasing value on investigation and opinion from these bodies of appointed citizens.”

A second dog park workshop is planned for Jan. 19.

ACT Members Meet This Week

Anyone in search of a dynamic group of patriots is invited to connect with the Mission Viejo Chapter of ACT for America. The group will meet Tues., Dec. 15, at the Norman P. Murray Center. Contact Linda for information, (949) 533-3277. ACT usually meets Mondays, but the venue was unavailable. Doors open at 6:45 p.m., and the meeting runs from 7:30 to 9:30.

The guest speaker will be Nonie Darwish, and both her books will be available for purchase and signing.

Nonie Darwish is an Egyptian-American civil-rights activist and author of Now They Call Me Infidel and Cruel and Usual Punishment. She is the founder of ArabsforIsrael.com and FormerMuslimsUnited.com. She holds a B.A. in Sociology/Anthropology from the American University in Cairo.

Darwish is a powerful and knowledgeable speaker. She will speak for about 45 minutes and take questions for 30 minutes. Bring your questions about Shar’ia, and don’t miss this important event.

Chapter leader Bruce Mayall invites everyone to bring a friend. Come early to network. A $5 donation will be appreciated to help cover venue rental costs.

Recall Update

Councilman Lance MacLean’s handful of supporters tried to divert focus from his recall last week. Lately, the effort to keep him in office has centered on anything but recall issues. MacLean cannot stand on his record, and he’s had great difficulty running away from it.

The list of players backing MacLean is chilling. Among those on his front lines are former councilwomen Sherri Butterfield and Susan Withrow. If voters really liked the way Butterfield and Withrow did things, the two wouldn’t have been trounced in 2002.

Butterfield and Withrow blamed the voter revolution of 2002 on “a small group” of residents, including city watchdogs. The two women continue to attack members of a former city activist club, Committee for Integrity in Government. Former CIG members regrouped last year, and they’re now getting the brunt of Butterfield and Withrow’s anti-recall wrath. How could the old gals forget that the vast majority of voters aligned with the watchdogs against them in 2002?

In addition to supporting MacLean’s campaign, Butterfield and Withrow have their own candidate, Dave Leckness, who is running to replace MacLean. While Leckness’ campaign seems based on how happy he is about everything, his association with Butterfield and Withrow should be enough to make voters run in the opposite direction.

Councilwoman Trish Kelley demonstrated her support for MacLean by nominating him for mayor during the Dec. 7 council meeting. Her motion carried with the usual majority votes of MacLean, Ury and Kelly (MUK). As one resident said, “Trish Kelley fell of a cliff when she did that.”

Another MacLean fan, former councilwoman Sharon Cody, has said from the public microphone that she helped Bob Curtis survive a recall when he was a city councilman in 1990. What she fails to grasp is that she’s switched sides. In 1990, the majority of voters supported Curtis when he was being crushed by big-money from a developer. In 2009, MacLean is the developers’ representative on the city council, and he’s made sport of crushing residents.

The amount of money spent on MacLean’s political survival will be stunning, and it’s pouring in from almost everywhere but Mission Viejo. When voters see the all the dots connected in the anti-recall effort, they’ll likely be shocked but not surprised.

Can We Ever Get Rid of Them?
Letter to the Editor

As a resident of Mission Viejo for more than 20 years, I would like to ask where the pictures in the Orange County Register and Saddleback Valley News come from. If the papers are going to do everything they can to add bias with pictures, they should publish them on the opinion page.

In real life, Councilman Lance MacLean almost always has a threatening and angry look on his face. It seems he presumes he has the right to look angry and threatening to the visitors at council meetings and to a fellow a council member. Even a member of a city commission has purposely avoided him at all costs.

Mr. MacLean now has madams Sherri Butterfield and Susan Withrow supporting his campaign to avoid being recalled. Weren’t we residents happy when we voted both women out of office by large margins? Madams Butterfield and Withrow spent our tax money on their own pet project just as Mr. MacLean is doing now. Can we ever get rid of these people?

I’m so thankful Dale Tyler is running to give us a fresh perspective and an honest viewpoint on topics that are presented to the city council of Mission Viejo.

Beverly Cruse
Mission Viejo

The Buzz

During the Dec. 7 council meeting, Richard Sandzimier spoke into the public microphone, claiming a faction of watchdogs is trying to take over city hall. Even if it were possible, would residents be alarmed if someone with genuine concerns about the city of Mission Viejo got on the council? Thus far, those who have “taken over” city hall cast their votes for special interest and out-of-towners. When it comes to lining up three votes, no one has done it better than the current council majority – Lance MacLean, Frank Ury and Trish Kelley (M-U-K). Contrary to Sandzimier’s claim, records show minority members John Paul Ledesma and Cathy Schlicht don’t often vote together. It is difficult to follow how a minority “takeover” would occur when Ledesma and Schlicht are frequently not on the same page.

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If voters need any help deciding how to vote in the Feb. 2 recall election, they should watch the video of the Dec. 7 council meeting. The attack Schlicht endured on agenda items was brutal. Even when she tried to appoint a representative to a commission, she was blocked by the MUKsters. For this reason, Schlicht currently has no representative on the Planning Commission. Although she has nominated several appointees, the MUKsters have rejected each one. Sometimes the MUKsters follow up with public commentary to humiliate the residents Schlicht is trying to appoint.

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According to the rhetoric coming from the campaign of Dave Leckness (probably written by Sherri Butterfield), the animal shelter could be shut down. Is it true animals will be let out into the street if a “radical group” of activists has its way? Wait, that’s exactly backwards. A Mission Viejo resident at a council meeting awhile back reported what he saw. He said an animal control truck was driving from one neighborhood to the next, and a city employee was letting cats out on the street. By the way, closing the animal shelter is not a topic of conversation among the city’s watchdogs, although one person asked if a privately owned animal shelter would be more financially feasible than a city-owned one. City staff members acknowledged that animal cruelty by a city employee – releasing cats into neighborhoods – was factual.

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What should residents expect if MacLean manages to survive the recall? Razing the shopping center at La Paz and Marguerite (CVS, SteinMart, Trader Joe’s, etc.) had the enthusiastic support of MacLean, Ury and Kelley when it was discussed in a presentation by Urban Land Institute at a council meeting. A year later, Kelley and MacLean falsely denied they supported razing the structures and then rebuilding the shopping center with apartments on top. Schools have closed in Mission Viejo. Residents should be aware that MacLean is the third vote if the current council majority pushes for more high-density housing if the school district decides to sell the parcels. The owner of Unisys already offered his property as a future site of high-density affordable housing.