Recall Update

During the week before Christmas, is everyone enjoying the attacks launched by Councilman Lance MacLean against residents supporting the recall? Other communities have carolers on street corners while MacLean is decking Mission Viejo with his black and red anti-recall signs.

Last week, Councilwoman Trish Kelley circulated an email asking people to complain to the District Attorney that they had been lied to when they signed the recall petition. Kelley’s email implies nearly 14,000 residents are so gullible they’ll put their signature on almost anything.

This is Kelley’s second anti-recall blast. In July, she began pleading with those who had signed the petition to rescind their signatures. Of approximately 14,000 who signed it, 16 voters had their names removed. Several others tried to rescind their names, but they apparently hadn’t signed the petition and/or they weren’t registered to vote.

The signature drive ended in August, and many people may have forgotten the information that was presented by recall signature gatherers. Here it is again:

Why recall Councilman Lance MacLean?

• He voted to double his own council salary and receive lifetime health benefits after 3 terms of service.
• Anger issues – assault and battery on a co-worker and constant blowups and hostility on the council.
• He wants more housing (more overcrowding and more traffic) including housing on Casta del Sol Golf Course.
• Cell towers everywhere – in parks and next to homes.
• He opposes our Right-To-Vote Initiative for land use.
• The Crown Valley PORKway mess has gone on more than three years. Why put up with this?
• Wasteful spending: Easelgate, $400,000 for a float; $11.8 million in deficit spending last year.
• The community center expansion ran three times over budget – more than $15 million, and still going.
• Appearance of Brown Act violations. He called residents racists and elitists.
• Tried to increase taxes with Measure K.

When MacLean couldn’t stop the message last summer, he went from storefront to storefront, trying to stop the messengers who were gathering signatures. If voters didn’t already know MacLean’s history (many did, and they signed the petition immediately), they took home a lavender-colored flyer with the above information. They went online, read the police report about MacLean’s assault and battery and saw his voting record. The charges stated in the recall are undeniable.