Forgotten Centers Survive

Those who drive along Los Alisos Blvd. might be oblivious to the season – there are no plastic Santas or lighted trees on corners. Street resurfacing, slope planting and other taxpayer-funded amenities – things city hall is actually responsible for – are lacking as well.

The last time city hall got involved on Los Alisos Blvd., it was to hold a business owner hostage. City staff members demanded that the Sonic Drive-in place a $10,000 rusty toy car near the corner. City hall said it would address the issue of day workers near Los Alisos and Jeronimo, but the day workers are still there.

Despite the lack of appropriate attention from the city, various retail centers are holding their own. At Los Alisos Blvd. and Trabuco, a dry cleaner and 7-Eleven are on the southwest corner, and the small center on the northeast corner is fully occupied. The center on the southeast corner is completely leased except for one space. It shows that, even in challenging times, good synergy in a center helps the merchants and provides neighbors with places to shop and work.

Mission Viejo’s Master Plan is based on decentralization. City hall – with its bureaucrats who have little interest in the local economy or the community – is backwards in its desire to create focus on a place known as the civic center. Aside from providing essential public services, nothing else is needed at the civic center. Errant staff members have gone off track, and an errant council majority has allowed them to ignore their obligations. How many city employees are coloring in “character” posters, planning the next party or duplicating a service that belongs to the private sector?

The more city hall attempts to centralize activity, the more it takes from the community of Mission Viejo – retail business, private sector services and propping all of it up with an excessive number of employees and taxpayer dollars.

The nation showed signs of waking up in the November election. The reaction stopped at the Rocky Mountains, but perhaps the next wave will reach the Left Coast.

MV Tea Partiers Will Participate

Mission Viejo residents who are Tea Party activists say they’ll assist the Support Federal Immigration Law Committee. The statewide effort is designed to help pass an initiative against illegal immigration.

OC Register reporter Cindy Carcamo’s article about the initiative appeared in the Register on Dec. 4. Carcamo summarized provisions of the proposed initiative:

1. People who are in the United States illegally would commit a crime if they seek work while concealing their legal status.
2. All employers in California would be required to use E-Verify (federal computer-based system that matches names with Social Security Numbers) as part of the hiring process.
3. Regardless of an employer’s neglect or intention, hiring illegal workers would become a criminal act.
4. Human traffickers smuggling more than 10 illegal aliens into the United States would face set fines and prison sentences.

Targets of the initiative are gang members and drug traffickers, as opposed to farm workers and laborers.

Councilman Ledesma Retires

The Dec. 6 meeting will end John Paul Ledesma’s service on the city council.

First elected in 1998, Ledesma has served three four-year terms – the limit for Mission Viejo council members. He was reelected in 2002 and 2006.

The Dec. 6 meeting will begin at 6:00 p.m. in the city council chambers. Ledesma will be honored for his service with a presentation. Those wanting to attend the meeting specifically for the presentation are invited to RSVP (by calling 949.616.2988) for reserve seating.

Rhonda Reardon will be seated as the new council member at the Dec. 6 meeting.

Grand Jury Seeks Applicants

The Orange County Superior Court is accepting applications for the 2011-2012 Grand Jury. Applicants must be at least 18 years of age, a U.S. citizen and an OC resident for at least one year. The deadline to apply is Jan. 14, 2011.

According to a Dec. 1 press release, the number of applicants received by the Court is significantly down from previous years. From the press release: “Serving on the Grand Jury gives you a unique opportunity to have a significant impact on the lives of Orange County residents. Grand Jurors review and evaluate county and city agencies, schools and special districts within Orange County.”

The application process includes an interview by a panel of Superior Court judges and a background check.

The application may be completed online, www.ocgrandjury.org . Applications are also available at the Jury Commissioner’s Office, Central Justice Center, 700 Civic Center Drive West in Santa Ana.

For additional information, visit the website or call the Grand Jury, (714) 834-6747.

The Buzz

A homeowner in north Mission Viejo emailed a warning to residents about break-ins, stating the importance of awareness in preventing home burglaries. Three suspicious people were observed casing a neighborhood prior to a daytime break-in on Dec. 2. They may have been observing residents’ schedules to determine times of day when no one was home. Burglars entered a house (off La Barca, east of Marguerite Parkway) by breaking a sliding glass door at the back of the house. Stolen items were apparently taken out the front door. Police investigators believe items were loaded into a vehicle that pulled into the driveway.

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The Nov. 2 Statement of Votes is official, so isn’t it about time to start the next campaign? Keith Carlson of Huntington Beach has formed an exploratory committee in anticipation he’ll run for a State Assembly seat in 2012 when Assemblyman Jim Silva terms out. Silva, who represents the 67th Assembly District, was first to endorse Carlson as a candidate. Carlson wrote about governing California in an email, “We’ve gone far enough down the road trying to legislate, regulate and tax our way to prosperity – it just doesn’t work. We need leaders in Sacramento who understand that if we are going to turn the Golden State around, we need to completely overhaul the way our state government works.” As an Assembly candidate, Carlson says he is no longer running for vice president of the California Republican Party.

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Save the date: The Mission Viejo Chapter of ACT for America will meet on Mon., Dec. 13, at the Community Center. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the meeting runs from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Orientation for first-time attendees begins at 7:10 p.m. The featured speaker will be Jim Horn, Retired Foreign Service Officer. His topic will be “Islam and Corruption in the American Government: Why Our Government is Failing to Protect Us from Infiltration and Terrorism.”

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Slopes are improving along Marguerite Parkway, north of La Paz. After being barren and neglected for many years, rows of plants have been added to the city-owned slopes. The effort greatly improves stability and appearance. Appreciation goes to community watchdogs, who pressed for improvements. Another segment where roadside foliage is improving is the east side of Marguerite Parkway between Trabuco and Alicia. City hall gave the impression that vendors had “donated” many of the plants and “volunteers” did the digging as part of Tierra Nativa and other exaggerations about community participation. Residents who watched the process said contractors lined up potted plants prior to alleged community effort, and it took contract workers a long time to finish the job.

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Capo school district ex-administrators James Fleming and Susan McGill are in the news again, trying to get charges against them dismissed after they formed an enemies list of parents and others who supported reform in 2005. Follow the court proceedings in the Dec. 3 OC Register article, http://www.ocregister.com/news/mcgill-278773-fleming-justices.html

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Blog reader comment inspires editorial cartoon: "I don't appreciate the city telling the residents to ‘be a green machine’ and use green grocery bags advertising the mark of the iron tree while they seek out every opportunity to waste taxpayer money on poorly attended events, plastic junk to adorn city hall and billions of lights. How is someone supposed to teach their children to have reverence for the birth of Christ, and to be a good steward of our God-given resources, when each year the city spends increasingly enormous amounts of money drastically overdoing ‘holiday’ displays?"

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Compiled by activist Bob Serrao: “Did You Know?” The Declaration of Independence was written primarily by Thomas Jefferson. The Declaration bears 56 signatures, and the Constitution has 40. Five signed both documents (Benjamin Franklin, George Clymer, George Read, James Wilson and Roger Sherman) involving 91 signers. The Declaration lists the colonists’ grievances at the overreaching power of England’s King George III and taxation without representation. The colonists understood that liberty was of equal value to life itself and that they knew their “lives, fortunes and sacred honor” were lost if this new Republic failed. Eleven years separate the Declaration and the Constitution. The Constitution was hand-written on four pages of parchment. The Bill of Rights contained the first 10 Amendments of the Constitution, added four years after its first penning. The Constitution was created September 17, 1787, and ratified nine months later. Both original Charter Documents are on display in the National Archives, Washington, D.C. Both documents are written in today’s English available at www.intodaysenglish.com $5 per copy.