Additional Council Candidates Pull Papers

Twelve Mission Viejo residents have taken out nomination papers to begin the process of running for three open city council seats in the November election. The filing period began on July 12, and candidates have until Aug. 6 to file.

The list as of July 16 included Trish Kelley, Brian Skalsky, Dave Leckness, Neil Lonsinger, Steven D. Sperling, Sam Mamola, Mark Dobrilovic, Ken Golemo, Richard J. Sandzimier and Fred Carr.

By July 23, two more had jumped in: ex-councilman Lance MacLean, who was removed from office in the Feb. 2 recall election, and Daniel Avery, who surfaced in city politics as an advocate for MacLean.

Kelley and Leckness hold two of the seats that will be up for reelection on Nov. 2. Councilman John Paul Ledesma, who is completing his 12th year on the council, is termed out.

Of the challengers whose names are less familiar in city politics, Sperling and Mamola are attorneys, Golemo is a consumer marketing consultant, and Carr is a businessman. Avery is a Web designer. They listed their occupation as part of their candidate information when taking out nomination papers.

City watchdogs say they expect at least one more candidate to pull papers.

Another resident who has talked about running is Geoffrey Willis, a lawyer. In one of his blog posts last week, he scoffed at the notion he would run on a slate with Kelley and Leckness. In other blog posts, Avery distanced himself from MacLean, indicating his opposition to the recall election was not out of support for MacLean.

View candidate data at http://cityofmissionviejo.org/ViewDocument.aspx?id=11038

How Did MV’s Representative Vote?

Here’s a report forwarded to this blog on how Mission Viejo’s Congressional representative voted last week. He added, “How many people are following what’s going on in Congress? If voters knew some of these things, maybe they’d be more interested in voting in the November election. Only 35 percent of Mission Viejo voters took part in the June 8 primary, and we need to do better than that to turn things around.”

Last week in Congress:
Unemployment Insurance Extension: On July 22, the House passed H.R. 4213, the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act. The bill provides an extension of the emergency unemployment compensation program and 100 percent of the federal funding for the extended benefit program. The bill is unpaid for and will add $34 billion to the deficit. The voting record shows Congressman Gary Miller opposed it.

This week, Congress will either consider or vote on War Supplemental Appropriations, Military Construction/Veterans Affairs Appropriations, Transportation/Housing Appropriations, Oil Spill Legislation and the Small Business Jobs Bill.

Other summaries:
The 2001 and 2003 tax cuts are expiring, causing a $3.8 trillion tax increase that will affect every American.

The federal deficit in June surpassed the $1 trillion mark for the second straight year. The annual deficit is on pace to be only slightly lower than 2009’s $1.4 trillion record.

Conclusion:
Americans cannot continue supporting out-of-control government spending on any level.

A City’s Story Rings a Bell

Another California city briefly stole the limelight from Mission Viejo’s dysfunctional city hall. The city of Bell grabbed headlines last week when taxpayers became outraged over public officials’ excessive salaries.

On July 20, the LA Times reported that Bell’s city salaries are among the highest in the nation. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-20/california-official-s-800-000-salary-in-city-of-38-000-triggers-protests.html . Bell is a city of 38,000 residents, and the average income is approximately $30,000.

Four of the city’s five council members are paid nearly $100,000 annually. Bell’s city manager makes $787,637 a year, the chief of police is paid $457,000 and the assistant city manager is paid $376,288.

After Bell’s residents demanded resignations, the city staff engaged its spin machine. The mayor’s response to residents included a slam against the LA Times for creating a “contrived uproar.” He continued: “We are confident that your pride in our great City endures and that the City’s financial health and superior public services demonstrate that our priorities remain intact.”

How were Bell’s city officials able to pull off such public robbery? LA Times reporter Jeff Gottlieb says the city avoided state salary limits by changing Bell from a general law city to a charter city. The change occurred on a city ballot measure in which only 400 voters participated. City leaders had argued that the change was necessary to give the council more flexibility.

Mission Viejo watchdog Larry Gilbert picked up on the relevance of the trouble in Bell. He posted an article on July 21, pointing to Mission Viejo Councilman Frank Ury, who has touted the advantages of making Mission Viejo a charter city: http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2010/07/why-did-mv-councilman-ury-promote-changing-to-a-charter-city-government

Here’s Gilbert’s opening paragraph:

A few council meetings ago Mission Viejo councilman Frank Ury suggested changing from a General Law to a Charter form of city government. At the time he was expressing a desire to take diminish control of the state government as it related to raiding our redevelopment agency bank account. That issue could have opened Pandora’s Box if voters were convinced that this was his only agenda. Don’t be tricked as happened in the city of Bell.”

CUSD Update

The effort to recall two Capo school district trustees is on the November 2 ballot. Those leading the charge to recall Trustees Mike Winsten and Ken Lopez-Maddox are trying to explain why the trustees should be replaced.

Union members (teachers and other district employees) can’t publicly mention their support of the recall to protect their paychecks. There’s no cause to remove trustees who cut teachers’ salaries as a last resort in balancing the budget.

A settlement of lawsuits has become a diversionary battle cry in the current recall effort. This issue resulted when the old regime of ex-Supt. James Fleming created an “Enemies List” of CUSD constituents. The list included parents who organized the 2005 effort to recall all seven of Fleming’s hand-picked trustees. Also on the list were children of the recall supporters. No one should be surprised when parents take great offense over their children becoming targets of school administrators.

Public agencies often settle with litigants to avoid costly trials, particularly when a case has merit. Is anyone suggesting the district should have gone to trial with those on the Enemies List?

The settlement payout was $653,350. First, the district’s insurance company paid 100 percent of the settlement. The district had a $100,000 deductible, which the district paid directly to the law firms defending the cases after then-Supt. Carter sent the cases to the insurance company.

Somehow, the facts have become lost in the current recall effort. The old regime acted illegally and irresponsibly, spending tax dollars on politics and targeting children. The current board of trustees demonstrated no favoritism or special treatment toward those on the list in settling lawsuits brought about by multiple families.

The attorney for the district’s insurance company stated publicly that his firm had recommended the settlement after mediation with a retired Court of Appeal Justice selected by the insurance company. The reason was the evidence showed the conduct of the defendants (school administrators) was indefensible, entitling the plaintiffs to substantial damages for violations of their civil rights. If the trustees had not agreed to the settlement negotiated by the insurance company, that would have been a breach of the insurance policy contract, meaning CUSD would have lost its insurance coverage for any judgment. If that happened, the district would be on the hook for paying for its continued attorneys’ fees to defend the case and pay any resulting judgment from the district’s General Fund.  

Ex-Supt. Jim Fleming and former CUSD Trustees Marlene Draper, Shelia Benecke, Shelia Henness, Duane Stiff, John Casabianca, Crystal Kochendorfer and Mike Darnold were the people whose conduct created this liability. They were all defendants, and they all approved of the settlements and signed the settlement agreement. 

The reason this has become part of the recall argument is because the settling plaintiffs were almost entirely politically conservatives who worked hard ousting the old Board and Fleming and electing the new Board. The plaintiffs are those who refuse to accept the continued domination and plunder of CUSD’s finances by the public employee union leaders.

A CUSD constituent added, “The union leaders breached the public trust this past spring by calling a three-day strike for the reason of collecting recall signatures to try to take over the CUSD board with their own slate of union-approved trustee candidates.”

The lawsuits were publicly explained in open session by the insurance company (ASCIP) general counsel Robert Feldhake. He stated at the 3/29/2010 meeting in open session that he personally calculated the district’s exposure on this case to be in excess of $10 million.

The Buzz

A resident of Bell, California, was pictured in a CNN photo when hundreds of residents came out to protest overpaid city officials. He wore his message on a T-shirt: “My city is more corrupt than your city.”

***

Here’s a video a Mission Viejo resident put on YouTube about the poor condition of city streets. It’s an eye-opener about the deteriorating infrastructure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFox-rDNoJM

***

Ex-councilman Lance MacLean’s candidacy in the November election apparently didn’t change when he was recalled on February 2. He had already shaken down vendors and other outsiders to fund his reelection campaign. With more than $100,000 from the deputies union against the recall, he didn’t spend his own campaign cash in that election.

***

What’s the reaction to MacLean’s attempt to get back on the council? Some residents say he’s scary, and others talk about his addiction to power and payoffs. Either four or five potential candidates are running on the same “side” now: Trish Kelley, Dave Leckness, Rick Sandzimier, Lance MacLean and Dan Avery. If Geoffrey Willis enters the race, that would be another one who champion the status quo of city hall.

***

A letter in the July 25 OC Register reviewed the city’s affordable housing situation and other land-use issues. MV resident Bonnie Benton alerts readers to the misguided effort of public agencies and legislation to relocate commuting residents of San Bernardino and Riverside counties for the sake of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. When the state “forced” the MV city council to rezone commercial and open space to residential, it had another reason for doing so. Add to the information that two councilmen – Frank Ury and Lance MacLean – enabled this rezoning travesty with their deliberate and defiant action of throwing away the city’s affordable housing plan. The state doesn’t mandate cities to build affordable housing, but it does mandate that cities have a plan. Given that Ury and MacLean are advocates for more housing, their irresponsibility appeared to be a strategic move to have rezoning “forced” on Mission Viejo by the state.

***

For candidates running for school board, how important is it to have a background in education (teacher training)? Nearly every candidate has at least 12 years of “classroom experience.” Parents can get another 12 years of experience dealing with teachers, principals and programs. Districts have entire administrative departments that provide direction in how to teach and challenge students. School finance, real estate transactions and balancing the budget are areas where school board members need to excel.