Mission Viejo Buzz - 05/10/14

The Buzz

The Mission Viejo Chapter of ACT! for America will meet on Mon., May 12. Doors open at 7:00 p.m., and the meeting starts promptly at 7:30 p.m. The group meets at the Norman P. Murray Community Center, 24932 Veterans Way, Sycamore B Room, Mission Viejo. Guest speaker Robert Spencer is a NY Times bestselling author and director of Jihad Watch. The program topic will be “The Truth About the War We Are in and the Dangers of Denying It – an Expert on Jihad and Islamic Terrorism Shares His Concerns.”

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Councilwoman Cathy Schlicht’s May 5 agenda item, a Resolution in Support of Prop 13, should have passed effortlessly, given that all five council members campaigned on conservative platforms. Only three of the five council members were present – Cathy Schlicht, Trish Kelley and Dave Leckness. Frank Ury was off campaigning for himself, and Rhonda Reardon was absent for medical reasons. Councilwoman Schlicht’s Resolution was fostered by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (author of Prop 13 to cap annual property tax increases at 2 percent). When Leckness admitted he hadn’t read it (one page), Councilwoman Schlicht read it aloud for his benefit. Kelley made strange excuses on why she wasn’t ready to vote on it. Leckness made such a fool of himself, the exchange was posted on Facebook: http://missionviejocommonsense.com/1/post/2014/05/proposition-13-and-council-member-dave-leckness.html

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Why would Kelley and Leckness not want to vote on the Resolution? Leckness doesn’t read the agenda material, and his incompetence doesn’t require explanation. Kelley asked Councilwoman Schlicht to table the Resolution for a later date. It made no sense except that Ury or Reardon weren’t there. Neither Ury nor Reardon will be able to say in their campaign literature that they defended Prop 13 with their vote for the Resolution. Council majority members (Ury, Kelley, Leckness and Reardon) covering for each other is practically a full-time job.

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The May edition of Community Common Sense was delivered to 20,000 Mission Viejo homes last week, and it is available on line, http://www.ccsense.com/. Along with voter recommendations ( http://www.ccsense.com/2014/05/constitutional-voter-guide-california.html#more ), read an article by Steve Magdziak on the benefits of policy changes including taxpayers getting their money back, a letter from Linda Shown about Frank Ury’s meltdown at a candidate forum, Ed Sach’s incisive look at a flawed city contract, an article by Larry Gilbert on restrooms for popular city parks and a wakeup call from Joe Holtzman to 15.000 homeowner who live in the city’s fire zones.

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Mimi Walters erred when she attacked Greg Raths, her opponent for the 45th Congressional District seat. Walters’ latest mailer attacked Raths for his service in the military when the Pentagon assigned him as assistant chief of staff in the White House during Clinton’s term. Walters sent her mailer to Republican voters, calling Raths a “Clinton Republican.”

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Here’s an example of how recipients of Walters’ hit piece are reacting. This post is from Larry Gilbert’s Facebook page: “Larry Gilbert Voter Guide change. Adding a YES for Greg Raths, Colonel USMC (RET), 45th Congressional District. Greg honorably served our country for 30 years. I spoke to Greg this morning at our La Paz and Marguerite rally supporting Robert Ming, Jesse Petrilla and Greg. We discussed the ‘hit piece’ from Mimi Walters attacking his military service while on assignment in the White House during the Clinton Administration. He remembered "Buzz" Patterson, who served with him in the White House at the same time. Ron Winship and I previously interviewed Buzz who carried the nuclear football for Clinton at the time of Greg's White House assignment. When the military gives you an assignment you do not protest and refuse because you may not support the Commander in Chief's party or positions. Yet we just received a ‘hit piece’ that attempts to smear Greg stating ‘Greg Raths proudly worked for Bill Clinton from 1996 to 1999.’ So did hundreds of thousands of our men and women in uniform, many of whose names are to be found in military cemeteries or VA hospital rooms.”

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Raths’ campaign sent an email message to his supporters, suggesting they let Walters know what they think of her mailer. His message included Walters’ campaign HQ phone number, (949) 235-2078.

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A negative mailer can backfire badly, which happened during the “Mission Viejo revolution” of 2002. Voters dumped councilwomen Sherri Butterfield and Susan Withrow for their virulent attacks against then-councilman John Paul Ledesma.

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SRA will meet on Thurs., May 15, 7:00 p.m., at the Norm Murray Community Center, 24932 Veterans Way, Mission Viejo. The program includes an analysis of propositions on the June 3 ballot, plus an update on the fire zones. Large portions of cities in Orange County were rezoned by their respective council majorities in 2012, placing homes in high-risk fire-hazard zones. The negative impact to homeowners includes higher insurance rates, a threat of losing coverage if a homeowner doesn’t stay current with insurance payments and lower property values when selling a home that’s in a fire zone. Call (949) 769-1412 for information about SRA.