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

Recall MacLean Now
Letter to the editor

Charlie Sheen was in the news last week, again demonstrating his potentially lethal paucity of anger management skills. Councilman Lance MacLean has a well-documented history of violence (choking a co-worker at UCI and picking him up by the neck).

Some people might argue that Charlie Sheen brings in a good bit of advertising revenue for CBS and just needs another time out. Our new mayor, Lance MacLean, wants to spend more of the taxpayers’ money every time he opens his mouth. 

Should we wait until MacLean reaches Sheen's level of aggression before we say, "Enough! Out you go!" to Lance MacLean? I am a 32-year resident of family-friendly Mission Viejo, and I say no. Recall Lance now before it's too late.
 

Lisa De Paul Snyder
Mission Viejo

Craig Alexander’s Voter Recommendations

On Jan. 2, a well-known advocate for better government released his recommendations for Mission Viejo’s Special Election. Craig Alexander is recommending that voters support the recall of Councilman Lance MacLean and vote for replacement candidate Dale Tyler. The election will be held Feb. 2.

Alexander wrote, “Mission Viejo residents will soon be receiving absentee ballots for the Recall Election regarding Mission Viejo City Councilman Lance MacLean. As I have some knowledge of this race, I am going to offer my opinion to you about whether to vote yes or no on the recall of Mr. MacLean and which person you should vote for to replace him.”

When MacLean first won a seat on the council in 2002, many residents supported his council candidacy on the basis of his campaign promises. Alexander states, “Unfortunately, Mr. MacLean (who I endorsed and gave money to) betrayed the campaign promises he made and has turned his back on those that supported him in that first election.”

Alexander also cites MacLean’s bestowing lifetime medical benefits on council members for three terms of part-time service. As another example of self-enrichment, MacLean voted to double his own council salary. As for personal character, MacLean was charged with assault and battery on a co-worker at UCI, and he lost his job. 

“Of the two people on the ballot to replace Mr. MacLean, I recommend you vote for Dale Tyler,” Alexander said. Alexander acknowledged Tyler’s support of family values and his longtime involvement for the betterment of city government.

Recall Update

Recall supporters rallied on the corners of La Paz and Marguerite from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sat., Jan. 2. They reported very positive response – waves, honks and cheers. A recall supporter holding a “Vote for Dale Tyler” sign estimated the response was at least 90 percent positive. There is general acknowledgement on both sides of the recall that Councilman Lance MacLean will be removed from office in the Feb. 2 Special Election.

By the end of the signature drive last August, recall proponents had spent five months talking with voters at storefronts and other venues. One of the signature-gatherers said, “We didn’t just ask voters to sign the petition. We told them why MacLean must be removed with a recall. A question we heard frequently is why we should remove him in a special election 10 months before his term is up. Considering the damage the council majority is doing at every meeting, it is critical to get MacLean out now. There are many reasons to remove him quickly, and one is to rescind the lifetime medical benefits. If MacLean could survive and serve one more term, he would qualify for the benefits, costing taxpayers $270,000 per council member. It is simply very difficult to defeat an incumbent in a general election because so many challengers split the vote.”

The council majority members (MacLean, Ury and Kelley – MUK) continue to spend money the city doesn’t have on frivolous projects. Residents are noticing potholes in streets, neglected slopes and other signs of neglect. If the city is truly swimming in cash as MacLean claims, why is the infrastructure being ignored?

A blog reader emailed a comment after receiving a mailer in support of MacLean last week, “We got a letter from the Apartment Association in favor of keeping MacLean on the council. I viewed it as a condemnation of him as a council member. It is clear he has made a backroom deal to bring more apartments into the city. Residents should ask where the apartments are going to be built. Will MacLean lead the way to build apartments on top of stores at La Paz and Marguerite? Or will neighbors of a closed school learn the district is selling the campus to a developer of high-density housing? I do not trust MacLean at all, and I don’t trust the current majority. In fact, I would list city hall as Mission Viejo’s No. 1 problem.”

The Buzz

What common trait do supporters of Councilman Lance MacLean have? They’re angry! Evidence of their wrath is all around town in the form of destroyed “Recall MacLean” signs. Not only have the signs been knocked down, the heavy cardboard is ripped to shreds. It takes a lot of rage to rip a sign apart, break the wooden reinforcement bars and then heave the remains as far as possible from where the sign was posted.

***

Among MacLean’s angry team members, no one is spewing more messages than deposed city councilwoman Sherri Butterfield, who was dumped by voters in November 2002. Residents who watched the council meeting following the lopsided election might remember that Butterfield and her council sidekick, Susan Withrow, wouldn’t leave the dais so that their replacements could be sworn into office. Butterfield and Withrow, who had been defeated by a wide margin, sat in the blue suede chairs for an hour, reminiscing about how great they were.

***

Why have Butterfield and Withrow chosen the recall election to stage their noisy return to city politics? Maybe it’s revenge for the deposed queens. When former council majority members Butterfield, Withrow and Bill Craycraft were found guilty of violating the Brown Act, city watchdog Dale Tyler was among the activists who filed the lawsuit against them. Tyler is now running as a replacement candidate in the recall election, and the old gals are suddenly lashing out after years of silence.

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December 25 is the celebration of Christmas Day, not a winter festival. Mission Viejo city hall went off its rocker about Christmas a long time ago. From the OC Register, Oct. 30, 2001: "A decades-old tradition of holiday decorations at a high-profile south-county intersection will be missing something this year: any reference to religion." Mission Viejo City Manager Dan Joseph (fired in 2003) was quoted to say: "We're getting out of the religion business." Who is “we”?

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On Dec. 10, Larry Gilbert was among those who attended former OC Register deputy editor and columnist Steven Greenhut’s book signing and CSPAN taping. In Greenhut’s book (“Plunder!”), he documents “how public employee unions are raiding treasuries, controlling our lives and bankrupting the nation.” Greenhut’s new post is that of director, Journalism Center, for the nonprofit Pacific Research Institute located in Sacramento. The CSPAN program aired on Sun., Jan. 3, at 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. PST.