The Buzz

A good-hearted Mission Viejo resident organizes an annual drive to collect warm clothing for needy people. Here’s her request:

Hello everyone.

It's that time of year when I start collecting coats, jackets and sweaters to take up to the Union Rescue Mission in LA. Any item you no longer want will be appreciated, as long as it is in fair condition. I don't have time to do repairs. The Mission accepts clothing for men, women and children. Give me a call and I'll be happy to stop by and pick up your items. I plan to go to the Mission the week before Thanksgiving. Thank you again for your continued generosity. – Cecelia, (949) 212-9315

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A Mission Viejo resident reported seeing city employees from Code Enforcement taking down garage sale signs on Saturday morning, Nov. 9. She said, “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Code Enforcement working on a weekend. To have them going after garage sales signs on a weekend is over the top. Neighbors should be allowed to put up signs whether they are having a garage sale or alerting people to look for a lost dog. If the city is taking down garage sale signs on a Saturday morning, the intent is to thwart the sale. No one should miss that point.”

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Two Mission Viejo council candidates who ran as a slate in 2012 are trolling for dollars again. Housing industry lobbyist Wendy Bucknum is still running for a council seat, and Frank Ury says he’s a candidate for the Orange County Board of Supervisors. Both ran on Other People’s Money last year, shaking down contractors and vendors. Bucknum and Ury recently visited a contractor who indicated their solicitation sounded more like a threat. Bucknum and Ury said they might send business his way in return for a donation and he could lose out if he didn’t support them. Bucknum and Ury visited him during business hours when they theoretically should have been at work.

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Bucknum’s job as a housing lobbyist includes attending political club meetings where she encounters her targets – elected officials. She tells the rank-and-file club members she works for “Laguna Woods.” She instead works for Professional Community Management, and her clients are politicians. Last year, she had a long list of such weasels who sell their votes. One of them recently complained that he wouldn’t endorse Bucknum again because she “didn’t do what she said.” He didn’t specify what she was supposed to do for him in 2012.

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The threat of toll lanes on the 405 freeway might do the trick of waking up the electorate. During the Nov. 4 city council meeting, Councilwoman Cathy Schlicht advised citizens to fight back by using a famous line from “Network” – “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.” Councilman Ury gave the opposite advice – don’t worry, be happy. He’s on the Orange County Transportation Authority, and he’s recommending that toll lanes should be added on the 405. He also says South County won’t be affected “because it already has toll roads.” It’s another whopper from Ury. Here’s the link demonstrating what will really happen in South County http://www.ocregister.com/articles/toll-534852-lanes-freeway.html

For the benefit of readers who might be blocked by the OC Register’s paywall, following is the essence of the article:

The Orange County Transportation Authority board is set to vote Friday [Nov. 8] on a plan that, if adopted, will misuse billions of our tax dollars that are currently designated for freeway congestion relief, to instead build toll lanes on the I-405 “freeway.”

But that's not all of the misappropriation that is planned.

The real plan, as outlined in the article and a map graphic in the July-August issue of Westways magazine, is to eventually have these toll lanes running throughout Southern California, on every Orange County “freeway.”

To accomplish this, billions of our Measure M tax dollars that have already been spent widening other county freeways and building connectors will also be sucked into this toll road scheme. It is unconscionable that this massive redirection of billions of our tax funds can occur without voter approval.

Interestingly, the language in both voter-approved Measures M and M2 includes no mention of the term “toll,” but the term “freeway” is used dozens of times. Clearly, voters voted for freeway improvements, not for toll roads.

OCTA tells us that their I-405 toll option “adds one general purpose and one express lane.” What they don't say is that the existing carpool lane also becomes an “express,” or toll lane. The net effect is that where we currently have five lanes available for free, we will still have only five free lanes after our billions are spent and gone.

The other dirty secret is that the proposed I-405 toll lanes will improve the drive times only for those who pay to use them. The rest of us will see little improvement in traffic congestion or travel time for our massive investment

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Mission Viejo residents who attended the Nov. 5 San Juan Capistrano council meeting said majority Council Members Sam Allevato, John Taylor and Larry Kramer are not satisfied, although they control every vote. The majority members demonstrated intolerance for dissent, even it if meant violating the Brown Act and trampling citizens’ freedom of speech and freedom of the press. An attendee reported, “It did not turn out well for the majority members. They appear to be in hot water, along with their city manager and city attorney. The city attorney’s first concern should be to protect the city, which he isn’t doing. At one point, he stopped the meeting to advise Roy Byrnes privately he should not give specifics of the closed-session meeting. But he didn’t advise the majority members of the liabilities the city would face as they groundlessly proceeded to accuse Reeve and Byrnes of wrongdoing. It’s going to backfire.”