The Buzz

Post on April 5 from Mission Viejo watchdog Larry Gilbert: “Sad and shocking news today. Bill Craycraft, Mission Viejo's second mayor, passed away this week. We sat together just the past week at the memorial service for Fun With Chalk president Frank Lieberman. Bill was my political mentor over 20 years ago. We spent many hours at his home going over all the strategy and tactics used for being a candidate for political office. Bill was very active in the Rotary Club of Mission Viejo and was my sponsor in '93/'94. He also preceded me by a few years as president of the Saddleback Republican Assembly. At this time I do not have any details such as any plans for his service.”

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Events this week include a meeting of the Rush Limbaugh Club of Orange County on Sat., April 12. Breakfast starts at 7:30 a.m., and the program runs from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. The featured speaker will be Star Parker, founder and president of CURE, the Center for Urban Renewal and Education. The group meets on second Saturdays of the month. Cost is $15 for breakfast or $5.00 for the program only. The club pays for first-time attendees' breakfast or attendance fee. Location is the Casta del Sol Golf Clubhouse, 27601 Casta Del Sol Road, Mission Viejo, (714) 235-1430, http://rushlimbaughcluboc.com/

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Councilman Frank Ury is running for a seat on the OC Board of Supervisors in the June 3 Primary Election. His campaign website says he’ll have a precinct walk and barbecue on April 26. Is this not a rewind of a precinct walk he hosted in a prior campaign? In the 2006 election, he attempted to get volunteers to come to his house to pick up walking materials and then return for a barbecue. Despite a widely advertised come-on, only one person showed up. The volunteer reported that Ury was so angry about the lack of response that the promise of a barbecue was off. The volunteer didn’t even get a hot dog for offering to walk. Ury pretended to stage a precinct walk for the OC Republican Party when he became their phony city chair during his first council campaign. That was way back when a few volunteers were still associating with him. They said Ury announced a precinct walk to cover the city to Get Out The Vote in the General Election. They said NO ONE showed up and Ury threw all the GOP’s walk pieces into the trash.

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As other big talk from Ury, he’s claiming credit for the city’s triple-A rating, which he did not create, and claiming economic development success for a program that had no economic impact except to give away $400,000 of revenue from the city – the Improve, Don’t Move fiasco. He says: “Improve, Don’t Move: As Mayor I created a program to encourage homeowners to upgrade their homes by slashing permit fees. More than $400,000 was ultimately saved by taxpayers who created more than $28 million in economic development in the region…simply by being encouraged through permit fee reductions.” As demonstrated by numerous articles on this blog, Ury’s claims are false, e.g., http://www.missionviejoca.org/html/article1111.html

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Despite abandoning conservative principles and spitting in the face of the GOP, Ury is again asking for the OC GOP Central Committee’s endorsement. Astoundingly, a few of his acquaintances from the 1990s at the county level are still supporting him. Ury has no grassroots support, and his endorsements are mostly from other sellouts in office and trough-feeders who make a living as contractors and so-called political consultants. Ury runs on special-interest, out-of-town donations. In the most recent reporting period, he was clearly at the bottom in fundraising among the three candidates for the 5th District BOS seat. However, everyone should expect big bucks from such entities as unions and developers to flow into Political Action Committees for Ury.

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What’s going on with city hall’s other disaster, the International Tennis Federation’s wheelchair tennis tournaments hosted by Mission Viejo? Residents should be outraged that city administrators fleeced the taxpayers to throw a week-long party for professional athletes associated with a foreign, for-profit organization. Information continues to surface about the extent of corruption in city hall. This one is by no means going away.