Entertainment Isn’t Free

Following are opening paragraphs from last week’s publication of events around Orange County:

“A blog reader commented on the shortage of Mission Viejo events on the non-government list, and the point is well taken. It is a challenge to find private sector events when a city’s government has usurped the role of entertainment provider.

City hall is fully engaged in offering “free” movies, “free” classes and “free” meals – at taxpayer expense, of course. Even when attendees pay to attend city events, the admission is often a token amount that doesn’t cover taxpayers’ cost.”

A writer on a county blog posted a critical response to the paragraphs above, concluding: “The Naysayers attack on everything causes any real message they have to be lost in the garbled clutter of their angry words.”

Returning to the message of last week’s post, the function of government is not to entertain. If a city government met its responsibilities and had money left over, it should lower taxes instead of continuing to take money to become the people’s entertainment center. When government usurps a private-sector role, private initiative will diminish or take its enterprise elsewhere.

For a second opinion, check another blog that covers Mission Viejo, http://missionviejo.patch.com/search/events . Nearly every event in the city is arranged by government and funded by taxpayers. It hasn’t always been this way, but Mission Viejo is built out, and many of the 150 city employees have run out of real work. They’re still on the job, but there’s no job.

Contrary to the county blogger, Mission Viejo’s watchdogs with a vested interest in protecting their community are not naysayers who attack everything. But why did the blogger attack the messenger and then offer no evidence the message was wrong? City hall’s defenders share a common approach, launching personal attacks against anyone who dares to speak up.

Government Has Lost Its Way
Letter to the editor

[Editor’s note: This letter was first published prior to the Nov. 2 election. Here it is again for anyone who missed it.]

At a time when most of us are very concerned about our economic situation, Mission Viejo city government parties on. We have a "Let them eat cake" city council. Here is how it is spending our tax money for the end of October alone. I think it represents what happens to our money throughout the year. 

Talk about flushing money down the toilet:

October 22 our city government is sponsoring (1) a Line Dance Party and (2) a Lecture on Renoir. October 23 it is having (1) a Drug Walk and Fair and (2) a Piano Concert. October 24 it is having (1) a Timeless Melodies Concert, (2) a Halloween Cupcake Decorating Event, and (3) United Nations Day. October 25 it is sponsoring Here Comes Halloween with a Special Magic Show. October 30 it has scheduled (1) Lord of the Strings and (2) a Hometown Halloween Party.

It's not as though we don't have movie theaters, college concerts, lectures and plays at Saddleback and at a host of other colleges and venues throughout Southern California.  It's not as though we don't celebrate Halloween at our malls, at our schools and businesses and in our neighborhoods. Since when is it government's job to entertain us with our money? And how many people actually participate in most of this government stuff anyway?

I'm glad we have elections now and again because this election year the Mission Viejo City Council decided that it had better repair some of our badly damaged streets. This has been long overdue. And this is a largely assumed responsibility of government. But those of us who are paying attention see this maneuver as part of the razzle-dazzle from the city council, and we aren't fooled or distracted. We see and remember all the wasteful spending as well.

I think it's time we considered replacing the incumbents running for Mission Viejo City Council as well as the candidate who is aligning himself with them.

Paula Steinhauer
30-year resident of Mission Viejo

News from Mission Viejo’s Congressman

Congressman Gary Miller released his Weekly Roundup on Jan. 21. Miller represents California’s 42nd Congressional District, which includes all of Mission Viejo.

From the newsletter, This Week in Congress:

On Tuesday [Jan. 18], the House approved legislation to end the mandatory printing of bills and resolutions and save Americans an estimated $35 million over ten years. Current law requires the Government Printing Office to print hard copies of all bills and resolutions introduced in Congress. Whenever a Member of Congress introduces a bill or resolution, the Government Printing Office prints 200 paper copies. In the 110th Congress, Members introduced 14,042 bills and resolutions. That amounts to 2.8 million paper copies, many of which are simply thrown away for a lack of use. By eliminating the mandatory printing of every introduced bill, and instead using technology to ensure that bills are available online for anyone to examine, we can achieve significant savings to taxpayers, while still ensuring accountable and open government.

ObamaCare Repeal. On Wednesday, the House voted to repeal the job-killing government takeover of healthcare. If not repealed, the government takeover of health care will result in $2.6 trillion in new spending and continue destroying jobs, increasing the cost of care and causing budget deficits and debt to explode. Despite busting America’s budget, the healthcare takeover does nothing to lower healthcare costs or grow the economy. The Democrats’ government takeover of healthcare contains job-destroying tax hikes, spending and employer mandates, making it harder for business to create jobs. Removing these barriers will provide private-sector employers with more certainty and help the nation’s economy get back to creating jobs.

ObamaCare Replace. On Thursday, the House approved H.Res. 9, which instructs the committees of jurisdiction to recommend legislation that expands access and improves affordability of healthcare and health insurance and reforms medical liability insurance.

Next Week:
Reducing Spending: Next week the House will consider legislation to reduce FY 2011 spending levels to FY 2008 levels or less for the remainder of the fiscal year. H.Res. 38 would require the House Budget Committee to submit budget allocation levels in the Congressional Record for the remainder of FY 2011 that are set at FY 2008 spending levels. Pursuant to the rules of the 112th Congress (H.Res.5), the Budget Committee is required to file budget allocations levels to subcommittees (known as section 302(a) allocations) for fiscal year 2011 in the Congressional Record. Under the House Rules, aggregates and allocations printed in the Congressional Record would serve as the budget for the remainder of FY 2011, until Congress adopts a new budget.

YouCut: Also next week, the House is expected to consider one YouCut item. YouCut was designed to defeat the permissive culture of runaway spending in Congress.

ACT for America Meets Feb. 7

The Mission Viejo Chapter of ACT for America will hold its general meeting on Mon., Feb. 7, at the community center. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the meeting starts promptly at 7:30. First-time attendees are invited to arrive by 7:10 for orientation. The general meeting ends at 9:30 p.m.

Featured speaker will be Orlean Koehle, who has served as the state president of Eagle Forum of California since 2002. Koehle is a former speech, drama and journalism teacher. Her most recent book, “By Stealth and Deception: USA Transformation and its Parallel to the European Union,” explores the decline of European civilization and how the process is being repeated in America. Her presentation will include her experience with corrupted textbooks.

Chapter leader Bruce Mayall adds, “Islamists are infiltrating America's institutions in their attempt to overthrow our Constitution and replace it with Sharia (Islamic law). One of their key strategies is taqiyya, the Islamic practice of concealing and lying about their true history, doctrines and intentions. Taqiyya has been effectively used in jihad, to confuse and divide enemies, for 1400 years. Because of their centuries of experience, Islamists are the world's most sophisticated deceivers and propagandists.

“A primary propaganda target is our students. Like all propagandists, they know that first impressions are lasting impressions. Over the past two decades, Islamist "consultants" have purged America's history textbooks of any information that would reveal the true nature and intentions of this violent, supremacist and totalitarian ideology. This whitewashed version of Islam is in every major textbook and is being taught to our impressionable youth, starting in 7th grade. In many schools, students learn the Five Pillars of Islam (minus the foundation, holy war), take on a Muslim name, wear Islamic clothing and ‘become a Muslim for a day.’”

The meeting location is the Norman P. Murray Community Center, 24932 Veterans Way (Sycamore B room), in Mission Viejo. A $5 donation will be appreciated to help cover costs of the meeting.

CUSD Update

Dr. Scott Wilbur resigned as principal of Carl Hankey K-8 School in Mission Viejo. The Jan. 18 OC Register reported Wilbur’s unexplained departure, http://www.ocregister.com/news/wilbur-284583-school-hankey.html#article-comments . The mid-year resignation caused parents and other community members to ask why he left.

Comments about Wilbur’s tenure at Hankey include his leadership in starting the school’s International Baccalaureate program. If Hankey receives IB certification, it would be Orange County’s first K-8 school with an IB program.

Some parents are praising Wilbur’s vision and saying he pressed for higher standards of achievement. News of Wilbur’s departure was also announced on the Capistrano Dispatch, http://capistranoinsider.typepad.com/beyond_the_blackboard/2011/01/wilbur-quits-at-hankey.html . Despite a few remarks about Wilbur pushing teachers too hard, most reviews have been positive.

CUSD officials say they aren’t permitted to talk about Wilbur because it’s a “personnel issue.” Parents who want an explanation offered speculation. Their guesses ranged from saying he had other job offers to innuendo he was pressured to leave.

Principals who take on education’s toughest customers – junior high kids – are not easily intimidated, and visionary leaders don’t put personal popularity at the top of their list. When a principal is frequently blamed for anything that goes wrong, in this case even Wilbur’s detractors say Hankey is a fine school.

The Buzz

Newly selected mayor Dave Leckness may have recently changed his voter registration from Democrat to Republican. It has happened before in Mission Viejo when an elected official or candidate switched parties for political advantage. Didn’t Susan Withrow switch to Republican when she was a councilwoman running for the Board of Supervisors? There’s no indication Leckness has such ambition, but a resident forwarded information about the switch, adding, “I can imagine how it went, Frank Ury officiating at the baptism and immersing Leckness in ankle-deep Oso Creek. Picture Ury saying he didn’t support a Democrat, he converted one to a Republican.” Another RINO joins the herd.

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Mission Viejo residents should take note of what happened on Jan. 17 during the OC GOP Central Committee meeting. The group voted on a replacement for Jack Anderson, who left a vacancy as a Committee member when he moved to Illinois. It was up to the remaining five members who reside in the 71st Assembly District to recommend someone for the entire Committee to approve. As reported in the Jan. 22 OC Register, Tustin resident Walter Myers wanted to be on the Committee. Myers served the OC GOP last year as vice chair of ethnic outreach, and he describes himself as a strong black conservative. In the Register article, the topic became race after an obviously qualified and well-known black volunteer was bypassed for a white man with no history of working for the Central Committee.

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Summary of the Central Committee vote: Mission Viejo resident Greg Woodard was approved. According to longtime Republican volunteers in Mission Viejo, Woodard has no history of working for the GOP in his neighborhood, city or the 71st Assembly District, which he was chosen to represent. He surfaced during the Measure D campaign as an opponent of allowing voters to decide on major land-use changes in Mission Viejo. The Saddleback Republican Assembly endorsed Measure D, and its members have good recollection of those in real estate development who opposed it. Woodard is an attorney whose employer’s clients include those in real estate. By the way, a fellow employee of Woodard was the writer of a hit piece on a county blog last week, maligning Mission Viejo residents who are concerned about tax dollars being diverted from essential public services to entertainment.

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It just gets weirder at city hall. A resident asked, “Can anyone verify this? I heard a very strange story about Dave Leckness, our laughable mayor, throwing partially frozen waffles at the crowd during an event at city hall.”

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Email from a Buzz reader, “When I was stopped in traffic on La Paz last week, the holdup was caused by city contractors who are STILL removing lights from all the trees. After weeks of lighted trees, we have had weeks of disconnected electrical strings hanging from the branches. I’d like the watchdogs to check the dump for thousands of lights, and I would not be surprised if the decorations were treated in the same way as the easels.”