The Buzz

Mayor Dave Leckness’ recent publicity stunt was to ride a street sweeper with Sunset, the city’s street-sweeping contractor. Coverage of this breathtaking event was reported in the July 1 Saddleback Valley News. The article, which looked like the usual press release from City Hall, avoided the point. During the May 16 council meeting, Leckness attempted to short-circuit the competitive bidding process by making a motion to give Sunset a two-year extension on its contract. Bids had been submitted, causing legal and ethical questions, which everyone except Leckness seemed to grasp. For details, read http://missionviejodispatch.com/uncategorized/mayor-interfering-with-street-sweeping-bids/#comments

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The two competitive bidders – Sunset and Athens – pose a dilemma for Councilman Frank Ury. All three majority councilmembers – Leckness, Kelley and Ury – received $500 “campaign donations” from Sunset. Ury also received a donation from Athens, which was in the running for the city’s waste-hauling contract several months ago. Minority Councilmembers Cathy Schlicht and Rhonda Reardon took no donations from either company. With two checks in his campaign bank account, which way will Ury go? Athens gave him $1,500, so the odds are he’ll vote for Athens.

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Some elected officials will spit in the face of their constituents, drop-kick their friends, divorce their spouses and disown their children. But they won’t turn their backs on their financiers.

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UDR, Inc. will present its apartment proposal to the Planning and Transportation Commission on Mon., July 11. UDR’s condo project was approved by a former city council majority in 2005, but the developer let the permit expire after saying condos wouldn’t be profitable. Proposed now is an apartment project that UDR probably wanted in the first place. As it turns out, UDR’s corporate mission is to build apartments. Residents can easily find examples on the Internet that UDR, Inc. has a poor record managing its apartments.

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Motorists continue to comment about the rough surface of Olympiad Road between Jeronomo and Alicia. A blog reader emailed, “When driving on the resurfaced (actually, the re-re-resurfaced road), it is so rough and uneven, the vibration is terrible. The new re-re-resurfacing appears worn, only a few months after it was done.”

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Mission Viejo Tea Party Patriots invite everyone to stop at their tables on the way to the July 4th Street Faire. They’ll have petitions to sign, 5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Look for the Patriots’ signs on the west side of the gates, on Marguerite Parkway near the corners of Olympiad Road. They’ll also have voter registration forms and protest letters to sign.

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From Capt. Jim Kinney, USN (ret.): “Have you shopped for light bulbs recently? What a shock, the shelves at hardware stores are stocked with $50 light bulbs. Al Gore’s claims of pending global catastrophe remind us of the Y2K threat a decade ago, and you remember how devastating that was. But, even if Gore’s right, his solution is more painful than the consequences they are supposed to prevent. Fifty dollar light bulbs are just the beginning. Every industrial nation on the planet must agree to cut their standard of living in order to reduce greenhouse gasses and, while they are descending to a third-world standard of living, they must fund every dictator on the planet so they might have the resources to go green. And, get this…the UN will coordinate this massive redistribution of wealth. All this to cool the planet by 2 degrees in 50 years. Have a happy Independence Day.”