City Circus Update

During the Nov. 21 council meeting, Councilwoman Rhonda Reardon’s agenda item of a written policy to rotate the mayor position failed 3-2. If she had instead asked for equal access to life support for all council members, it would have failed along the same lines, with Kelley, Leckness and Ury dissenting.

With the failure of equal turns for all, council majority members Kelley, Leckness and Ury can continue to deny minority members Reardon and Schlicht a turn at being mayor.

Taking turns is something promoted by parents and other adults, particularly when nothing of value is at stake. Among so-called privileges, the mayor occupies the center seat on the dais and moderates council meetings. The mayor isn’t the leader, and skills, intelligence or other attributes aren’t a factor in who gets the title.

Kelley, who can’t string two sentences together, has been the mayor twice. Leckness earned the handle of Mayor Hee-Haw by guffawing through meetings and acting like a loon.

If residents think the situation can’t get worse than having incompetents hog center stage running meetings, they could make one incompetent the elected mayor. Given the severe shortage of council candidates who can unseat incumbents, who would become mayor? Majority members who run on vendor cash and other payoffs in the form of “campaign contributions” are practically shoo-ins.

If the flap escalates over taking turns, perhaps one of the three juveniles who form the council majority will use the opportunity to install himself/herself as elected mayor. All it would take is a vote of the residents to change Mission Viejo to a Charter City with an elected mayor. Instead of being termed out after 12 years, Kelley might like to help herself to a few more.

With the current limited rotation, Kelley, Leckness and Ury can go on playing “keep-away” with the center seat. Voters have had the pleasure of removing sitting mayors from office (Withrow in 2002 and MacLean in 2010). Ury is up for reelection in 2012 when he’ll likely be the mayor. If residents want to put the fun back into city elections, they can again dump the mayor.