Apartment Association Gets It Wrong

Apartment Association Gets It Wrong

As a resident of Mission Viejo for over 27 years, I find the Apartment Association of Orange County’s endorsement of Lance MacLean very disturbing and duplicitous at best. The organization’s letter to Mission Viejo Apartment Owners is filled with misinformation. 

The letter states MacLean has maintained a balanced budget sheet while not raising taxes. For the last two years, Mission Viejo has run deficits, and MacLean authored a proposal to raise the occupancy tax (Measure K) in Mission Viejo. Fortunately, this tax increase as proposed by MacLean was defeated overwhelmingly by the citizens of Mission Viejo.

MacLean is problematic at best. Let me help with some information about MacLean and his anger management issues. He has violated his responsibilities to voters, showing himself unfit to serve as a City Council member exhibiting:

  • VIOLENCE when he was arrested by Police for assault of a co-worker at his place of employment.
  • ANGER AND INCIVILITY when he ordered Mission Viejo councilwoman to “SHUT UP’ in closed session, and accosting council candidate Diane Greenwood after he removed her campaign sign.
  • SELF-DEALING when he voted to double his council salary. 
  • GREED AND CORRUPT PRIORITIES by giving himself LIFTIME HEALTH BENEFITS for a part-time job.
  • FINANCIAL MISMANAGEMENT when he voted for $11.8 Million in deficit spending last year (including a useless Rose Parade float.)
  • A TAX INCREASE when he authored and promoted Measure K, which was rejected by Mission Viejo voters.
  • FALSE PROMISES when he voted to increase housing density leading to more traffic congestion.

Let me share a letter from a prior candidate about Lance MacLean, written by Diane Greenwood and published by MissionViejoDispatch.com on Dec. 10, 2009:

As you may all recall, Lance MacLean put out 500 signs the weekend before the 2006 election that I was in. Those signs said “Reject Greenwood and Barker. They will raise your taxes and lower your property value.” It was an absurd claim, but he was running scared.

It was that same weekend that he verbally assaulted me on the corner of La Paz and Marguerite, a few inches from my face. He was angry that he might lose, and was willing to win at any cost. He did, by 94 votes, and now is running scared again and is now putting out signs making citizens fear that their taxes could rise and property values decline if they do not keep him in office.

If Lance MacLean has another angry outburst and attempts to strangle another person while presiding as mayor, that is when the city can be wiped out financially. It will affect every citizen in Mission Viejo. We cannot afford to keep Lance MacLean in office…he is a liability.

I doubt that the Mission Viejo Police Department will protect him again.  He now has a record and too many people have been on the other side of his anger.  I have heard from many such people since my episode with him, and believe that they are now ready to come forward. There is safety in numbers. UCI did the right thing and now it is time for the citizens of Mission Viejo to do the same.

I urge everyone to vote in favor of the recall and remove a man who is a liability to our city and all of its citizens. This is how you truly protect your taxes, property values and your family.

Diane Greenwood
Mission Viejo, California

If the Apartment Association would have vetted its endorsement instead of letting MacLean’s campaign consultant Scott Taylor direct its misguided effort, it would have found the following about Lance MacLean from the OC Weekly.

Lance MacLean Has Learned That Mission Viejo's Political Players Always Go for the Throat, By SPENCER KORNHABER. Published on March 04, 2009 at 12:24pm:

As he faces a possible recall election, city councilman and former Foothill/Eastern TCA chairman Lance MacLean has learned that Mission Viejo’s political players always . . .
Go for the Throat.

Out of all of Lance Robert MacLean’s many public-relations problems, the most important may be the widely held perception that the Mission Viejo city councilman, if provoked, will choke you. It’s a matter of public record. Right there in the UC Irvine Police Department crime report dated Oct. 26, 2007, is an account of what happened between MacLean and a co-worker: (To read the rest of the article about MacLean’s assault and battery on a co-worker, go to http://www.ocweekly.com/2009-03-05/news/lance-maclean-mission-viejo)

I would highly suggest the Apartment Association do its homework, know the community, and know the candidate before it endorses a person like Lance MacLean.

F.rancis K. (“Joe”) Holtzman
Mission Viejo