Abuse Inspires Commendation

During the June 18 council meeting, a city worker not only received an award, he got a special commendation from Councilwomen Trish Kelley and Rhonda Reardon. Did he do something unusual? No, he dialed a remote switch to turn the lights back on during a Little League game after they shut off automatically at 9:30 p.m. If that sounds worthy of a special commendation during a council meeting, keep reading to learn about the theatrics that went into covering for Councilman Dave Leckness’ abusive email.

Following is a letter to the editor of this blog from Mission Viejo resident Lamar Kelsoe:

I believe it is the residents’ obligation to help in any way we can to make sure that those elected to run our city do so in a professional and cost-effective way. Because the three major ball park high-intensity lights are visible from my home, I noticed lights were on for many hours after the players had left. On many nights the lights were on all evening, sometimes till midnight, with no one there. I made contact with the person in charge of managing the parks and mostly all I got was excuses that the coaches were not turning the lights off as they were supposed to, but he would try to fix the problem. Over the next year or so I drove to the parks forty to fifty times and confirmed it was still happening about fifty percent of the time.

Because this is probably costing us TAXPAYERS hundreds of thousands of dollars over time, I emailed the council members to make them aware of the problem. It appears one council member, Dave Leckness, doesn’t want residents telling him how to do his job. Here is the quote, verbatim, from an email I received from Dave on City of Mission Viejo stationery and with City Seal. I guess it is Dave’s way of “BULLYING” me into keeping my mouth shut.

Hi Lamar

   Do you have any idea how ridiculous you come off? When you type in all caps and say stupid-ass things in your email it makes it hard to take your comments seriously. To ask for someone to be replaced because lights were on our fields and only a few people were there is nuts. You don’t have all the facts and your running-off your mouth.

-Dave

Kelsoe received the official response from Councilman Leckness on May 31, complete with the city seal. It wasn’t a prank – Leckness actually wrote the email and put the city seal on it.

Kelsoe prepared a draft of remarks he intended to make during the June 18 council meeting, revealing Leckness’ email. Kelsoe then emailed his draft copy to other Mission Viejo residents. One of the recipients is a Realtor who is a friend of Trish Kelley. In short order, the city staff was alerted a few days prior to the June 18 council meeting when Kelsoe intended to air the waste of lights being left on and Leckness’ response.

The “award presentation” was put on the June 18 council agenda, likely in anticipation of Kelsoe’s criticism. Trish Kelley revealed during her June 18 “commendation” that the lights are programmed to be switched on from a remote location by phone. Those who watched the concocted award on June 18 can figure out that the same switch can be used to turn the lights OFF when the fields aren’t in use. It wasn’t the job of the person who received the award, nor should higher-ups imply he is to blame. The series of emails following Kelsoe’s May 31 complaint showed that City Hall had no reliable system regarding the lights. After Kelsoe complained, a worker was told to monitor the lights.

Council meetings haven’t changed much since the antics of Susan Withrow and Sherri Butterfield offended enough voters to end their regime in 2002. For those with a high tolerance for a phony production, here’s a link to the June 18 video segment: http://missionviejo.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=4&clip_id=761 , jump to Presentation No. 3. Without knowledge of why the commendation is being given, it seems odd for councilwomen to go to such lengths over the lights being turned back on. With knowledge of the setup, the staged performance of this “fun award” is sickening.

Kelsoe attended the June 18 meeting, but he didn’t make public comments after the city staff set him up. He instead spoke during the July 2 meeting and read Leckness’ email into the public record.