Artless in Mission Viejo

Art is either going or gone as a school subject. With former art teachers looking for new careers, who will teach art?

In Mission Viejo, look no further than City Hall, which considers itself the purveyor of almost everything. That is, almost everything but the public services it is supposed to provide – managing traffic, maintaining infrastructure and responsibly using tax dollars collected for core city services.

Saddleback Valley News on July 22 published a puff-piece interview with the city’s new “librarian.” She appears very excited about rescuing the art programs of schools.

What?

Somehow, assisting library patrons in their search for information didn’t get a mention. Patrons looking for a specific book are unlikely to find it in the Mission Viejo library anyway, where the entire collection of books is minimal.

Instead of a library, the building on the southwest corner of La Paz and Marguerite has become a meeting place, a hangout for children awaiting pickup after school and a regional computer center for anyone with a city library card. Cardholders from outside the city outnumber Mission Viejo residents who are paying to maintain, equip and staff the library.

The new librarian’s title is director of library and cultural services. She mentions her degree in library and information science, but what background, training or experience qualifies her as a director of cultural services? The short answer appears to be none. So, a person without qualifications will focus on art education, saying, “I feel like the schools are really challenged by their budgets and their art programs.” Some of those former art teachers could be hired to run libraries since qualifications don’t matter.

For a moment, imagine if public schools did their job of teaching academics and the city did its job of providing city services. When top-paid city employees either don’t understand their jobs or aren’t qualified to do them, no one should be surprised with the outcome.

As other examples of the city’s confusion, a highly compensated director of traffic had a degree in sociology. She alternately insisted that the city’s traffic lights were coordinated and couldn’t be coordinated. The director of public services has a background in landscaping. Instead of street maintenance, residents get a million plants on medians. To the median weed patches, he’s added entire galleries along Crown Valley Parkway – ugly posters on structures that look like outhouses.

Residents’ reactions to the anti-art mess have been universally negative. The obvious problem is that Mission Viejo residents have an appreciation for art, which is not what they’re seeing. Even the city’s art festival puts art in the back seat. The annual event’s private-sector organizer pulled out in 2010, and the 2011 conglomeration lacked artistic merit.

The council majority long ago abandoned its role of overseeing the city staff. The city staff long ago abandoned its focus on city services. Accountability has been missing for so long that taxpayers no longer expect it.