City Council Update

Although it’s too late to withdraw from the Nov. 2 election, a council candidate announced last week that he won’t be campaigning for city council. The names of all 12 council candidates who completed the filing process will appear on the ballot.

On Sept. 8, Mark Dobrilovic sent a letter to his key supporters that began: “Due to personal, family and rapidly expanding business obligations, sadly I am forced to suspend my campaign for City Council.”

Dobrilovic’s friends include National Rifle Association members, Republican and other conservative groups and PTA members at his children’s elementary school. He emceed the April 15 TEA Parties in Mission Viejo in 2009 and 2010, and he ran for the GOP Central Committee in the June Primary election. Dobrilovic recently started a business as a financial advisor, and he and his wife have two sons.

The two council incumbents who are running for reelection, Trish Kelley and Dave Leckness, broke the campaign ice two weeks ago by distributing their flyers in the Sept. 1 Casta Courier. The two are benefiting from vendor donations, which began streaming into Leckness’ campaign treasury mere weeks after his election in the successful Feb. 2 recall of Lance MacLean.

Three candidates either made false claims in their ballot statement or have since been caught in lies. Leckness on his Website falsely claimed Councilman John Paul Ledesma endorsed him. Ledesma read about it on a blog and told Leckness to remove his name. Instead of removing Ledesma’s name, Leckness first indicated he didn’t know the difference between his nomination paper (which Ledesma says he signed as a courtesy) and an endorsement. Leckness changed his Website to state that Ledesma signed his nomination paper – perhaps thinking that others won’t know the difference between a nomination paper and an endorsement.

Trish Kelley got caught by the OC GOP Central Committee on Aug. 31 when she tried to cover her tracks after endorsing Leckness, a Democrat, in both the recall election of Feb. 2 and the upcoming election. The GOP endorsing committee reacted by unanimously rejecting her application. Kelley also got nailed on blogs for falsely claiming she “saved” the Casta golf course from housing development when the course is still for sale.

Brad Morton writes, “Kelley is said to falsely take credit where it isn’t due. Observers cite the Casta Golf Course, where she claims to have stopped a developer, but the Council’s temporary actions expired, leaving the Course now open to the same potential high-density housing threats posed in 2007.” Morton summarizes Kelley’s other fabrications in an article on the Mission Viejo Dispatch, http://missionviejodispatch.com/politics/republicans-turning-away-from-mayor-kelley

A third candidate entering the liar’s contest is Brian Skalsky, who also claims he “saved” the Casta golf course. When questioned on how he saved a golf course, his story includes attending meetings between the developer and representatives of homeowner associations that are contiguous to the golf course. His role evidently was to create a Website for one of the HOAs about the development. How this saved anything remains a mystery, particularly when the developer proceeded with alternative housing plans after residents circulated informal petitions to object to housing development.

In the category of political oddities, Skalsky, who has a longstanding association with ex-councilman Bill Craycraft, is courting Bill’s old rivals among conservatives. Skalsky began attending council meetings in 2003 with the supporters of Craycraft. On occasion, Skalsky sat next to Steve Guess, who criticized then-councilwoman Gail Reavis during her disputes with ex-city manager Dan Joseph and his secretary.

Guess and Skalsky often sat on the front row in the audience during council meetings, and Guess frequently made his attacks from the public microphone. Guess managed Skalsky’s unsuccessful council campaign in 2006, and Guess and Hamid Bahadori signed Skalsky’s nomination paper for his current council run.

The last person who tricked conservatives into carrying him around was ex-councilman Lance MacLean, who got Saddleback Republican Assembly’s endorsement in 2002. When in the company of Republican conservatives, MacLean touted his intent to do a “top-down audit” of city hall and sell the city manager’s $6,000 desk on eBay. Immediately after being seated on the council, MacLean announced that he would be using his “own ideas” on the council. His own ideas included embracing the bureaucracy he pretended to oppose and voting in lockstep with Craycraft.

Despite a change of personnel from the old guard of ex-council members Susan Withrow, Sherri Butterfield and Bill Craycraft in 2002, not much has changed in the way city government and council candidates operate.

Another Historical Perspective
Voters United, Guest Editorial

Below is an article that reviews how our great country came to be, how it has evolved, and how we can shift it back to the way the country was started.

You only have to read brief articles like this one, published this last July 2, to refresh your memory as to what is important. We're not selling anything but our future.

From the Orange County Register, the article is by Stan Cohen, “Politics places groups ahead of the individual.”

This country began as the fulfillment of an inspiring vision shared by our founders. It should be clear that their beliefs and the subsequent actions that implemented them to bring this nation to life were grounded in a matrix of common values.

First and foremost, they believed they were creating a nation of and for competent, energetic and motivated people who valued individual freedom and independence with the same intensity that they did.

Freedom and independence from whom? Clearly, from central government. That concern is manifest in the Bill of Rights, specifically protecting us from the incursions of government.

As they were designing the legal authority and apparatus of the federal government, they carefully circumscribed its powers. Their entire focus was on creating a nation where individuals were free to be all that they could be, to pursue their dreams for themselves and their families to the limits of their abilities; where every newborn was guaranteed equal opportunity protected by law; where property rights were sacrosanct; and where people were responsible and accountable for their own actions.

America's unique position in world history is based upon the twin pillars of personal freedom and the free enterprise system, as defined and supported by our Constitution.

To read the rest of the article, go to http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/government-256162-individual-political.html

Wave of Change Is Coming
by Craig Alexander

Each election year you hear from one source or another that this is the most important election year ever and you should be sure to vote, call your friends, give money to this candidate or that one and so on. After two years of record government-deficit spending (at the state and federal level), I believe there is a wave of change coming - the right kind of change where those who like big government and lots of government handouts will be turned out of office. More and more people are demanding accountability from their elected officials for their votes, and if those votes were for big government, those officials will likely find themselves adding "former" or "retired" to their government titles at the end of 2010.

However, there are some good people in local offices that deserve our support. One example is the Board of Trustees at the Capistrano Unified School District (CUSD). When we elected seven conservative trustees two years ago, the local teacher's union and their allies soon declared war on our Trustees. They have maligned them, tried to make them vote for things against their principals, yelled and screamed at one trustee's spouse when she was taking their children to school (and blocking her car so she could not get out of the parking lot), picketing a Trustee's home on a Saturday, etc., etc.   

There are five seats on the CUSD Board of Trustees up for election. Our five good conservative incumbents (Mike Winsten, Ellen Addonizio, Anna Bryson, Larry Christensen and Ken Lopez-Maddox) are being challenged by five teacher union-backed candidates. I suspect you will soon be receiving lots of mailers from the teacher’s union advertising for their chosen candidates and against our good incumbent trustees.

I would like to give you a couple sources of information you can go to in order to get the truth about the issues and candidates. One web site is www.cusdfacts.com . For those of you who like Facebook, I strongly recommend the Capo Kids First site, which is run by my friend Greg Powers. Right now on both sites is information about the legal victories won by the good guys in Court over ballot statements by the candidates on both sides plus Measure H which, if it passes, will negatively affect the way we elect Trustees to the CUSD Board of Trustees. I was the attorney of record on one of the cases. I am also a signing party for the Argument against Measure H, which you will see in your voter pamphlet from the Registrar of Voters.

The Capo Kids First site can be reached by signing into Facebook http://www.cusdrecall.com - its free!) then searching for "Capo Kids First." Another way is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Capo-Kids-First/112723732080474?ref=mf
I know – it’s a bit long but it’s worth going to.

No matter how you feel about the CUSD issues and election, I offer these two sites as places where you can get truthful information in the coming months.

CUSD Conservatives Prevail
by Tony Beall, Rancho Santa Margarita Councilman

“In Capistrano Unified's hotly contested school board race this November, the ferocious rhetoric between two dueling slates of candidates is likely to boil down to two basic talking points – one side accused of being right-wing and anti-public education, the other of being left-wing and pro-labor union.”

That’s how the OC Register described the intense court battles that played out in court two weeks ago.

In the end, five separate lawsuits were heard in OC Superior Court, on the merits, and the conservatives won decisive victories in all five. This is the story of the first two (which were brought by the conservatives against the union sympathizers).

Background

Dana Point resident Greg Powers, an outspoken opponent to the effort by the public employee unions to take control of the Capistrano Unified School District on Election day, filed two legal actions in OC Superior Court against Erin Kutnick, Marilyn Amato and other leaders of the so-called “Children First” organization (a front for the public employee unions) – and against their endorsed candidate John Alpay.

Both lawsuits asked the court to sanction Kutnick, Amato and Alpay for making false, misleading and illegal statements in the official candidate statements they filed with the OC Registrar.  Attorney Wayne Tate represented Powers in the suit against the leaders of “Children First,” and Attorney Craig Alexander represented Powers in the action against Alpay.

Court’s Ruling – CUSD Conservatives Vindicated

Orange County Superior Court Presiding Judge Kim Dunning heard these two hotly contested cases. Judge Dunning held a full hearing, on the merits, and found as a matter of law that:

Erin Kutnick, Marilyn Amato and other leaders of the so-called “Children First” organization had made illegal, false and misleading statements in their official ballot statements. The judge ordered the following illegal statements to be stricken:

“With the backing of interests hostile to public education, the current CUSD Trustees diverted more than $100,000 from classrooms to the legal fees to prevent this [Measure H] from getting to you."

John Alpay had made multiple illegal, false and misleading statements in the official ballot statements he submitted to the Orange County Registrar. The judge ordered the following illegal statements to be stricken:

“By law, school districts cannot raise or lower taxes, I cannot pretend to tell you otherwise." 

"I will immediately move to cut unnecessary expenditures by terminating the hundreds of attorneys on retainer by CUSD and change the manner in which legal settlements are approved."

In the end, the conservatives were successful in the two lawsuits they brought against the leaders of the union’s so-called “Children First” organization – and against their endorsed candidate John Alpay.

www.cusdrecall.com

The Buzz

Union-backed candidates running for the Capo school board held their “HUGE kickoff event” on Sept. 10. The rally began at 4 p.m. at the San Juan Capistrano Community Center. Of course, attendees included opposition members wanting to check out the competition. Including the vehicles of employees and others who were at the center for reasons unrelated to the rally, only 100 vehicles were in the parking lot. As another indication of how much genuine support the union has from the community, campaign materials were sold instead of distributed for free by the union-backed candidates. The big bucks contributions from state unions have apparently not yet arrived.

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The battle cry of the union is to “take CUSD back” by electing union sympathizers on Nov. 2. Voters should ask: take it back to what? The reform-minded trustees removed ex-superintendent James Fleming and his seven hand-picked school board members. The old regime had collected money from donor communities like Mission Viejo and then lied about the funding of Fleming’s masterpiece, the $50-million Taj Mahal administration center in San Juan Capistrano.

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On Sept. 7, the city council unanimously supported a resolution against Measure H, the proposed method to change the way in which CUSD trustees are elected. If approved by voters on Nov. 2, the Measure would allow constituents to select only the trustee in their geographic area. Preserving the status quo allows voters to select all seven trustees. For additional information, read Larry Gilbert’s Orange Juice Blog post at http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2010/09/mission-viejo-council-resolution-opposing-cusd-meas-h-passes-5-0 A reader responded to the council’s 5-0 decision, “It’s about time. This may well be the one and only sane decision this council has made. Sorry I missed seeing the historic moment.”

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ACT for America chapter leader Bruce Mayall sent a reminder about this month’s meeting. The organization will hold a general meeting on Mon., Sept. 13, in Mission Viejo. Mayall invites members to bring a friend. The group meets in the Norm Murray Community Center, Sycamore B Room, 24932 Veterans Way, in Mission Viejo. The meeting room opens at 7:00 p.m., and the meeting starts promptly at 7:30, ending at 9:30. Guest speaker will be Deborah Pauley. A $5 donation will be appreciated to cover costs.