Taxpayer Alert
by Steve Magdziak, Mission Viejo Editor, Community Common Sense

How many of us wake up in the morning and think to ourselves, "gee I can't wait to go to work this morning and pay for a someone else’s mortgage while they go on an all-expenses paid vacation to Bali."

That’s basically what happened when Councilmembers Dave Leckness (up for re-election) and Frank Ury voted to grant a waiver to a “low-income” applicant for a taxpayer-subsidized unit.

The unit in question is part of a development subsidized by the taxpayers of Mission Viejo (“MV”), called “The Ridge.” This development is comprised of 144 units with 17 Very Low-Income and 5 Low-Income, costing MV taxpayers over $3.5 million dollars.

So how does a vacation to Bali figure into this? The applicant in question applied for a low-income unit within The Ridge. Lennar, the developer, told the applicant to pay off her car loan, which she did with "gift money" from her Dad. This pushed her over the Annual Gross Income limit and the applicant was declined. But three MV City Council members – Dave Leckness, Frank Ury and Rhonda Reardon – passed three actions to change the Mission Viejo Housing Authority (“MVHA”) policy which enabled the applicant to qualify (Cathy Schlicht voted no and Trish Kelly was absent).

(Read the rest of the story: http://www.ccsense.com/2013/10/mission-viejo_3707.html#more )