community common sense - november 2014

Editorial Opinion

Community Common Sense

Residents line up to protest the Spieker/Laguna Glen Development

November 2014 – VOL 4, 11

Community Common SenseYOUR COMMUNITY WATCHDOG

By Kim Lefmer

Kramer, Taylor and Allevato Approve Massive Development

Story continued on page 4...

Vote to Protect Your Neighborhood!

Story continued on page 6...

By Steve Magdziak

In this Issue...

Kramer, Taylor and Allevato Approve Massive Development

Constitutional Voter GuidePage 2

CCS Endorses Reeve, Patterson and Ferguson for City Council. Here’s Why...Page 3

Letters to the EditorPage 4

Special Favors QuestionedPage 5

Teacher’s Union Stalls Negotiations, Attempts to Buy Candidates in School Board Race Page 5

Union Contributions a Conflict?Page 6

San Juan Capistrano

Vote to Protect Your NeighborhoodPage 1

Constitutional Voter GuidePage 2

Letters to the EditorPage 7

Mission Viejo

Mission Viejo

San Juan Capistrano

Residents turned out for the council meeting in record numbers last week, to oppose the re-zone of the last parcel of agricultural land in town for high-density development.

Development supporters arrived at 2:30, 1 ½ hours before the scheduled meeting. The developer bought them all a box lunch and a light blue

“I love San Juan” t-shirt. According to one observer, they were then given “a motivational speech and talking points” by developer

Troy Bourne. The “blue shirts” took up the seating in the front of the room. After sitting through a lengthy power point presentation by Bourne, they were the first ones called to the podium to speak by Mayor Sam Allevato. Opponents on the other hand, were forced to wait four hours before being given an opportunity to speak.. Noting the unequal treatment afforded to the developer one opponent asked, “You gave the developer... hours and gave us residents three minutes

to speak; who are you representing?”

Wearing yellow “NO Re-zone/Save San Juan” t-shirts, opponents arrived just prior to the 4 pm meeting and were forced to stand in the back of the room. This prompted one long-time San Juan resident to remark to the council that the blue-shirted supporters he had spoken with did not live in San Juan, yet were taking seats from residents who will be impacted by the development.

Responsible leadership on the Mission Viejo City Council could resolve problems created by the incumbents seeking re-election: • Traffic congestion and parking issues the current council “cannot” fix.• The threat of more housing development – look at the mess on Oso!• Mission Viejo’s fall to #13 among California’s safest cities. We have solid evidence of the city council’s incompetence and their irresponsible votes – despite their campaign claims of preserving Mission Viejo’s

quality of life. Incumbents Rhonda Reardon and Dave Leckness are sending out slick mailers, paid for by a labor union using the name “Citizens to Protect Mission Viejo”. Why is a union backing self-proclaimed “conservatives” Reardon, Leckness and housing lobbyist Wendy Bucknum? Will you now take action by mailing in your absentee ballot or by going to your polling place on Election Day? Do not vote for Reardon and Leckness or Bucknum!

Pro-developer incumbent

Rhonda Reardon also wants to pass a city law to punish minor children for e-cig possession – a $1,000 fine and up to six months IN JAIL with a misdemeanor conviction on their record with the FBI. Passing such a law takes away parents’ rights and can harm your child’s life forever. Watch Dave Leckness boast about traffic on Oso Parkway and the “luxury apartments” in this video: (type into your

computer address bar: http://tinyurl.com/qefrg4k). I guess “luxury” means high-density

housing, traffic, overcrowded schools and subsidized housing (paid with your local taxes) for applicants who take all-expense paid vacations to Bali (see: http://tinyurl.com/q9sanec). Lobbyist Wendy Bucknum is bought and paid for by special interests as well

Concerns about Traffic, Water Dismissed

Community Common Sense PAGE 2

NEED NEW AD

Constitutional Voter Guide– Nov. 4 General Election Recommendations are in Bold. No Recommendation = N.R.

Public Office Recommendations Recommendation N.R. Secretary of State: Pete Peterson State Treasurer: Greg Conlon US Congress 45th District: Dem. Drew Leavens vs. Rep. Mimi Walters (broke anti-tax promise) NR OC Superior Court Judge, Office No. 14 – Kevin Haskins is the better choice. State Supt. of Public Instruction: Torlakson (union-backed) and Tuck (supports charter schools) Write in Lydia Gutierre* South Orange County Community College District Board Member, Trustee Area 4 Nancy Padberg OC Board of Supervisors, 5th District Robert Ming – excellent record. OC Assessor Claude Parrish US Congress 48th District: Dana Rohrbacher US Congress 49th District: Darrell Issa CUSD School Board Trustee: SJC/MV: Ellen Addonizio & Julie Collier(these SJC and MV candidates are opposed by the union)

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court – 13 offices (listed in ballot order), vote yes or no: YES NO

Goodwin Liu Kathryn Mickle Werdegar

Gilbert Nares James A. McIntyre

Kathleen E. O’Leary Richard M. Aronson

Richard D. Fybel Mariano-Florentino Cuellar

Terry B. O’Rourke Alex C. McDonald

Thomas E. Hollenhorst William F. Rylaarsdam

David A. Thompson Mission Viejo City Council – key race for three seats: YES NO Ed Sachs – Strong financial/business management background. Retired CEO at Pioneer Electronics.

Greg Raths – Retired Marine Corps Colonel, fiscal conservative.

Desi Kiss – Engineer and business owner; reliable fiscal conservative with backbone.

San Juan Capistrano City Council – key race for three seats: Kerry Ferguson – Successful business owner (retired), educator. Opposes over-development.

Derek Reeve – Only incumbent fiscal conservative, attorney. Opposes over-development.

Pam Patterson – constitutional attorney, opposes over-development.

Propositions: They’re not as good as they sound. Bonds increase debt. Most of these Props increase taxes. Prop 1- Water quality, supply and infrastructure; $7.12 billion bond, contains a lot of pork. Prop 2- Increases “rainy day” fund; decreases local school district control of reserves. Note: Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association recommends a “Yes” vote. Prop 45 – Requires Insurance Commissioner’s approval of health insurance rate changes. Prop 46 – Drug testing of doctors. Money grab by trial lawyers, likely increase in insurance rates. Prop 47 – Requires the release of convicted felons, reduces to misdemeanor nonviolent crimes such as Grand Theft, Check Forgery and Drug Possession (including heroin and cocaine). Prop 48 – Tribal state gaming compact, mainly would allow casinos outside reservation land. Orange County Measure E – Skirts real need for county ethics commission; allows Sacramento-based bureaucracy FPPC to enforce local campaign finance regulations. Note: Respected county watchdog Shirley Grindle recommends a “No” vote.

Orange County Measure G – Limits OC Supervisors' options in filling vacancies; gives political appointee unfair advantage to run as an incumbent should they run for elected office.


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Letters and Articles for consideration must meet submission guidelines, are subject to editorial adjustment and may be sent to:

§

Mission Viejo Contributing Editor:Steve Magdziak

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Email - [email protected]

Editor: Kim Lefner

30240 Rancho Viejo Rd., Suite A, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675

CCS Endorses Reeve, Patterson & Ferguson for City Council. Here’s Why...

San Juan Capistrano

Much is at stake for our community in this City Council election. In our opinion, our unique historic town is going in the wrong direction. We see it in traffic congestion throughout town, in unnecessarily high water bills and in an overall decrease in our quality of life. Incumbent candi-dates John Taylor and Larry Kramer have contributed to this over the past four years with their coun-cil votes.

Our town is now faced with two large develop-ment propos-als; “Spieker/Laguna Glen” which requires a re-zone from agricultural to high-density at the current Arm-strong Nursery’s growing grounds, and the “Urban Village” down-town development project be-hind the historic Egan House, next to Historic Town Center Park. Urban Village does not conform to the Historic Town Center Master Plan as it mixes residential units with the hotel. Both projects will add traffic to our roads and require water that is in short supply. Candidates Larry Kramer, John Taylor, Stephanie Frisch, Jan Siegel and Rob Williams support these developments in one form or another.

All five of these candidates also support continued operation of the failed Ground Water Recovery Plant. Their support is inexplicable when the water plant has never pro-duced what they claimed it would, is damaging our aquifer through over-pumping, and is far too expensive to

operate for a town our size. Candidates Derek Reeve, Pam Patterson and Kerry Ferguson are opposed to both developments. They are also opposed to continuing to pour more money into the failed water plant. They are in agreement that given the current mess our town is in, we cannot handle any more traffic, strain on our water resources,

or on our wallets. They sup-port either “mothballing”

or “regionalizing” the water plant to

spread the cost over more cities.

The candi-dates with the biggest war chests, Kramer and Taylor, have hired

experienced political consul-

tants who are known to attack, spin and say

anything to get their clients elected. Kramer and Taylor cannot run on their actual voting records, so we predict their political con-sultants will target their opposition with mailers and robo-calls defam-ing them. Don’t buy it. The political consultants get paid huge sums of money to persuade you to vote for their candidates. We believe that San Juan residents are smart enough to see through the lies, deception and half-truths.

For all of these reasons and more, we endorse Derek Reeve, Pam Patterson and Kerry Ferguson for San Juan City Council. We believe they will work to truly protect and preserve the unique historic town that we love, not just use it as a campaign slogan.

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RECOMMENDED READING ABOUT YOUR MAYOR!

from the Orange Juice blog...“Sam Allevato, a Pal of Dave Ellis and Diane Harkey, Has a

Problem” “Everyone expected the Great Park Audit to snare OC politicos.

No one expected San Juan Capistrano’s mayor to be one of them...”

To continue reading, type this into your computer address bar:http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2014/10/sam-allevato-dave-

ellis-and-dianne-harkey-pal-has-a-problem/

Editorial Opinion


San Juan CapistranoLetter to the Editor

Dirty PoliticsDirty politics in this town. All the political signs for Reeve are gone from Camino Capistrano north of the Mission. In their place are signs for Taylor, Frisch,

Kramer, Siegel and Williams. I am spreading the word to friends and neighbors not to vote for the above mentioned. Diane MorganSan Juan Capistrano

San Juan CapistranoLetter to the Editor

Setting the Record StraightI appreciate the opportunity to set the record straight, given one reporter’s mischaracterization of my legal background. The [OC Register] reporter’s review of my California Bar membership status states: “This member has no public record of discipline.” Per-haps she missed or intentionally ignored the fact that not only is my membership status “in good standing”, my recent admittance to the U.S. Supreme Court Bar requires certification by the Cali-fornia Supreme Court, and that I am an attorney in good standing. I believe this information is most relevant and should have been shared with voters considering who they should elect to their San Juan City Council November 4th.

The reporter sent the following email to me after business hours on Friday, October 3rd: “I notice that your license to practice law has been suspended three times, twice for failing to pay bar as-sociation fees. Were you actively practicing law when the suspen-sion occurred? Or were you on a break, which is why you hadn’t paid? Basically, I want to give you an opportunity to explain and provide any type of commentary you wish.”

The reporter apparently ignored the following response to her inquiry, which I sent to her early Monday, October 6th: “No, I was

not actively practicing; I was a single mother of five and certainly doing my best to make ends meet, which was not easy.” Unfortunate-ly, my response was not reflected in the article.

A review of the Bar website shows the years involved, 2005 to 2007, when not only was I a single mother of five young children, I had a very sick little girl in the hospital for most of that time and I was living at the hospital with her. Bar dues and keeping up with continuing education require-ments was the farthest thing from my mind, especially since I was not practicing. My sole focus was keeping my daughter alive.

Having your bar license suspended for failing to pay your dues on time is like getting your phone turned off because you missed a payment. To describe that as “legal difficulties”, as the reporter did in her article, is close to defamatory. Further, her misrepresentation that I have been suspended four times, when her review of the State Bar website reveals twice - and only for failure to pay dues, is a very large margin of error, even for a reporter.

Thanks for letting me set the record straight.

Pam Patterson, Esq.San Juan Capistrano

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SIZE: 750,000 square feet (approx.) total building square footage 1.4+ million square feet / 33 acres total project footprint400+ residential units and 100+ bed medical center One, two and three-story buildings

TRAFFIC: Additional 1,759 car trips per day (estimate only)

WATER USAGE: Unknown. City recently enacted Stage 2 water conservation measures which carry fines for residential ratepayers, reduced fines for contractors/developers, if using more than allotted amount of water.

APPROVAL: Planning Commission: NO City Council: Reeve, Byrnes - NO Kramer, Taylor, Allevato - YES

Spieker Development / “Laguna Glen” At a Glance

San Juan Capistrano

Story continued from page 1...

Opponents say the “Laguna Glen” project, proposed on the property next to the Sports Park where Armstrong Nursery has its growing grounds, will forever change San Juan. It’s too big they say. The total building square footage is approximately 750,000sf. In comparison, the Capistrano Unified School District headquarters along the I-5 freeway measures 126,000 square feet. The project footprint is more than 1.4 million square feet, on 33 acres. The buildings will be a mix of one, two and three-story buildings with 400+ residential units and a 100+ bed medical center.

It will also add 1,759 daily car/truck trips to San Juan streets. If they exceed the traffic estimates, they are not required to fix it; they need only pay a fee to the City.

One speaker pointed out the City’s recent enactment of “Stage 2” water conservation measures due to the drought. She wondered how the council could consider approval when the project will require so much water, both during construction and in the future.

In fact, the Planning Commission recommended a “no” vote for these and other reasons.

Resident Mike Johnson suggested that Councilman Larry Kramer recuse himself from voting due to a potential conflict of interest. Apparently, during a recent

campaign event, Kramer stated his intention to move to Laguna Glen, but said he wanted to hold off paying his $1000 deposit until after the election “to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.” Kramer denied it however, stating that he isn’t ready to move there – yet. This brought more jeers from a skeptical audience.

Several speakers were cheered for suggesting that, since so many oppose the development, it should be put to a vote of the people. But Councilmen Kramer, Taylor and Allevato rejected that idea. “It’s the best [project] we’re going to get,”

Kramer insisted. Despite pleas from residents imploring the council to protect San Juan from additional traffic, strain on scarce water resources and forever changing our small town character, the development was approved by Councilmen Larry Kramer, John Taylor and Sam Allevato, while Derek Reeve and Roy Byrnes voted against it. Taylor attempted to justify his vote, stating, “Every single issue [in the EIR] says ‘no impact’ and this is borne out by the data.”


San Juan Capistrano

At the October 21 council meeting, resident Clint Worthington ad-dressed the council about an agenda item which amends the lease of city-owned property to Ortega Eques-trian Center owner Kathy Holman. Holman who is reportedly a relative of retired Sheriff Brad Gates. Gates was famously referred to as “the 6th Councilman’ by a former council member, due to his influence on the council majority.

Worthington asked the council why Holman is being leased the city property for what amounts to about $246 per year. The lease agreement states that Holman will pay “25% of City sponsored programs” for use of the property. According to the staff report, since 2009 Holman has paid the city a total of $1,232. Worthington then produced an email exchange between Councilman Sam Allevato and Holman dated Novem-ber 7, 2011, in which Holman asks for a reduction in the high water bills at her equestrian center. The subject line of her email is: “Water bill is killing me”. Allevato respond-ed with an offer to help by suggest-ing ways to get a special agricultural (reduced) rate set for stables. He also assured her of votes from Larry Kramer and John Taylor if she could get other stable owners to also make the case for obtaining agricultural rates. Here’s the text of the email response from Sam Allevato:

“Kathy, The real issue is getting a special rate set for the stables. As you may remember, during the discussion on Agricultural rates, I asked the ques-tion lithe stables received a lower rate for their water like the farmers did and the answer was no and that this issue was going to be addressed next time we looked at water rates.

Perhaps we could look at this issue sooner than later if all the stables could get together and ask for a special rate based upon it fitting our community character, revenue to the City, similar to the Ag users reasons, etc. Working through the Chamber of Commerce and the new Equestrian Council, this would be a worthwhile endeavor to take on. You know you would have my support, and Larry’s, and John’s, and... Sam“

Holman was granted the agricultural rate, which appears to violate the city’s requirement that agricultural rates be billed only for agricultural purposes. It is unknown whether other stable owners also got the reduced rate. Worthington pointed out that billing equestrians at lower rates violates Proposition 218, which states that the city can only bill customers for what it actually costs to deliver the water. “The city cannot bill customers for something we do not derive direct benefit from. Subsidizing businesses by giving them a reduced rate amounts to charging residential customers more for service they are not receiving. That violates the law,” Worthington said. Besides, Worthington pointed out, an equestrian center is not “ag-ricultural use”.

“This is just more evidence of the favoritism displayed towards those the council majority likes, while sticking the rest of us residents with the tab,” Worthington said.

Special Favors QuestionedBy Kim Lefner

$???Teacher’s Union Stalls Negotiations, Attempts to

Buy Candidates in School Board RaceBy Ellen Addonizio and Jim Reardon

San Juan Capistrano

The Capistrano Unified School District (CUSD) started this school year without a teacher’s union contract, and no negotiations are underway. Meanwhile, the union has paid for the election campaigns of three candidates who, if elected, will secure a school board majority favorable to the union. We believe the refusal to negotiate and the election spending are connected. The school board opened negotiations with the union on March 12 of this year. The union formally responded on April 23. Since that time, there has been no negotiation and none is planned. The schools have been operating since July 1 without a contract with the teachers. Salaries and benefits are 90 percent of the cost to operate schools. Three unions and a management associa-tion represent CUSD employees. The teacher’s union is by far the largest group, comprised of 2,100 classroom teachers and others. With 63 campuses, CUSD is the largest employer in south Orange County. We believe the teacher’s union does not want a contract before the school board election on November 4, in order to advance a political agenda. Instead of negotiating as they com-

mitted to do in April, the union has stalled and amassed a political war chest of about $150,000 that is being spent to finance three school board candidates. The union, Capistrano Unified Education Association (CUEA), and its affiliated Political Action Committee, CUEA “HOPE”, are spending heavily to support the candidacy of Lynn Hatton in Mis-sion Viejo, along with newcomers

Gila Jones in San Juan Capistrano, and Martha Mc-Nicholas in Laguna Niguel. Presumably, all this political spending is intended to secure favorable terms at

the bargaining table. How else can you explain the silence from the union at a time when teachers are working with no contract?

Ellen Addonizio was first elected to serve on the CUSD Board of Trust-ees in 2006, was re-elected in 2010 and is running for re-election in 2014. She serves Area 6, which cov-ers portions of Mission Viejo, Lagu-na Niguel and San Juan Capistrano.

Jim Reardon was elected to the CUSD Board of Trustees in 2012, and serves Area 2 which covers portions of San Juan Capistrano, Mission Viejo, Ladera Ranch and Las Flores.



Mission Viejo

as a labor union – the worst of all eight council candidates. She’s a VP of a property management company, PCM. Their business has a monetary interest in adding more housing – and more traffic – to Mission Viejo. A council seat would be a conflict of interest for her. People might be acquainted with her, but they don’t know she’s a lobbyist: (see: http://tinyurl.com/l6stn2d). On Nov. 4, Reardon, Leckness and Bucknum should not get even one vote from neighborhoods that have already been changed forever with more high-density housing. On Election Day, I will vote for Ed Sachs, Desi Kiss and Greg Raths. They are not pro-developer or pro-special interest. Please know the candidates before you vote: (see: http://tinyurl.com/kdkd2vn). For additional voting information, go to: http://missionviejocommonsense.com and https://www.facebook.com/missionviejocommonsense

Contributing Editor Steve Magdziak is a small business owner and a resident of Mission Viejo.

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Should Council members who accept large campaign contribu-tions from the OC Sheriffs Union recuse themselves from voting to amend or approve the OC Sher-iffs Department contract with our City?

Resident Ian Smith suggested such at the Oct. 21 Council meet-ing, pointing out that the Council-men Allevato, Kramer and Taylor have all accepted large campaign contributions from the Sheriffs union (including $5,000 to op-pose the recall of Allevato). Smith suggested that while it may not be (technically) illegal for them to vote on the Sheriffs annual contract amounting to approxi-mately $8 million per year (about

Union Campaign Contributions a Conflict?37% of the City’s annual budget), accepting campaign contributions from them gives the appearance of conflict of interest. The Sheriffs contract comes up for renewal November 18.

A recent agenda item request-ing approval for additional en-forcement during the I-5/Ortega Interchange construction listed the salaries of Lt. John Meyer at $310,000 per year, and Sheriffs Sergeants at $275,000 per year. “No won-der we’re broke,” said Smith.


San Juan Capistrano

When the audience expressed their disbelief, he called them “rude”. He acknowledged the traffic issues, stating “Yes, we have traffic problems,” but then inexplicably stated, “I support the project; I think it will be great for our community.”

Stating that he served on the Traffic Commission, Kramer too acknowledged, “we have a lot of traffic problems in town,” but claimed that the traffic “won’t be significantly increased” by this development. His statement was met with laughter and jeers from the audience.

Councilman Reeve opposed the development, stating, “We’ve talked a lot about ‘public benefit’, but what about public cost? This places an extraordinary burden on our residents and places a strain on our infrastructure, water and traffic.”

Councilman Byrnes explained why this issue held special significance for him. “I spent two years of my young life in 1974 developing the General Plan. I insisted at the

San Juan Capistranotime that it include defining us as a small town, with open space and an emphasis on historical preservation,” said Byrnes. “We are now being asked to deviate [from the General Plan], to give up millions in community assets for what; a small amount of money?”

Following the vote to approve, resident Barbara Szemenyei said, “After clear reasons against [the development]; Allevato, Kramer, and Taylor completely ignored their duty to us, the people they were elected to protect, and gave Speiker a gift by voting “yes” for the project. The whole meeting was disgraceful and a slap in the face of the people that will be impacted.”

Before an ordinance can be enacted, a second reading must take place. This will likely occur at the next council meeting on November 4.

Upon final approval, opponents vow to put a referendum on the ballot, allowing residents to vote on the project.

Volunteers are needed to help with the referendum effort. Email: [email protected] for more info.


Mission ViejoLetter to the Editor

Big Money Enters Mission Viejo RaceA surge of union dollars is ben-efiting city council incumbents Rhonda Reardon and Dave Leck-ness and candidate Wendy Buck-num. From my perspective, to have labor unions pumping money into a council race defines the candidates.

The return address on the union’s mailer, “Citizens to Protect Mis-sion Viejo,” is very deceptive. Mission Viejo resident Greg Woodard calls out the “Citizens” behind the mailer for Reardon, Leckness and Bucknum (see: http://tinyurl.com/kcbqk5s).

“The mailer was large, in full color, and on good paper stock, so I wondered how Citizens was paying for this apparently city-

wide mailer. My search at the Secre-tary of State and County websites came up empty, but I hit pay dirt at the City of Mission Viejo’s web-site (some are questioning whether Citizens was required to file with the County given that they are support-ing a county-wide candidate). On September 30, 2014, Citizens re-ceived a $5,000 donation from the Orange County Employees Associa-tion, and on October 10, 2014, it received a $13,000 donation from the Orange County Professional Firefighters Association, both public employee unions.”

Community Common Sense has been exposing Bucknum’s special-interest campaign for several months. Bucknum, a lobbyist in the housing industry, is primarily

funded by the vendor network of her employer, Professional Com-munity Management. PCM’s former co-president Disbro also donated $1,000 to Bucknum’s campaign. If the name Disbro sounds familiar, read the Orange County Register’s report about PCM’s use of company funds for transvestite prostitutes (see: http://tinyurl.com/lnyu6w9). The salacious scandal was out of the place in such family-oriented com-munities as Mission Viejo where PCM is trying to do business.

City Hall has also entered the cam-paign battle, taking the side of Bucknum, Reardon and Leckness. As seen in candidate Greg Raths’ photos, a city contractor took down campaign signs for Raths and Kiss but didn’t touch the signs of incum-bent Dave Leckness. Go to OCPoli-tics.com to read the article: http://tinyurl.com/kyco4uv.

Some of the council challengers are spending less than $1,000 for their

entire campaign. To have City Hall selectively confiscate their signs is devastating to them. To have our tax dollars used to influ-ence the outcome of an election is blatant corruption.

In a council forum last week, Bucknum said she wanted to cre-ate more vendor contracts for City Hall. Before anyone gets excited about her concept of outsourc-ing, Community Common Sense has already exposed the vendors on her list, which are connected with her employer’s network. On Bucknum’s campaign finance report look at her employer’s favored contractors mixed in with the apartment builders (see: http://tinyurl.com/l6stn2d).

It’s not “outsourcing,” it’s pay-back to PCM and others who donated to Bucknum.

Donna SnowMission Viejo

Mission Viejo

Letter to the EditorWho Do You Trust?

An alert Mission Viejo resident sent a photo and an email, “Some-thing is up with Kaleidoscope’s west wall.” With residents’ strong reaction against Kaleidoscope’s proposal to have Jumbotron-style billboards two years ago, the city council’s public discussion of the subject stopped. However, residents are observing the ap-pearance of the wall, wondering if Kaleidoscope is optimistically preparing for billboards.

The decision on whether to allow billboards isn’t up to residents. All it takes is the approval of three council members. On the current council, only Council Members Rhonda Reardon and Frank Ury have indicated they approve of billboards. Council candidate Wendy Bucknum would be the third “Yes” vote, and the bill-

boards would go up.

Are Kaleidoscope’s owners so hope-ful of a third vote they can’t wait to start modifying their building?In the Nov. 4 city election, Mission Viejo voters have clear choices. On one side, Rhonda Reardon, Dave Leckness and Wendy Bucknum are running together on special interest and union money. Opposing them, Ed Sachs, Desi Kiss and Greg Raths have aligned to protect the residents, stop high-density housing and pre-vent such other negative changes as billboards.

In the campaign rhetoric, who should voters believe? Reardon and Leckness say Mission Viejo is the No. 1 safest city in California. FBI crime statistics indicate Mission Viejo has slipped to No. 13 (see: http://tinyurl.com/n924vj2).

Regarding the Fire Zone controver-sy, the city council majority of Rear-don, Leckness, Trish Kelley and Ury added 12,000 homes to the high-risk fire area. Reardon now states that homeowners don’t have to disclose they’re in the Fire Zone when they sell their home. Real estate agents know better. Also, insurance agents know it is difficult to get insurance coverage in fire areas. Homeowners who put their home on the market or try to change insurance carriers quickly discover the liabilities of be-ing in a fire area.

It is one thing for council members to be wrong, but it is quite another when they continue trying to fool the public even after the truth is obvious.

Another source of residents’ distrust is the council majority’s support for apartment-building. Council mem-bers could deny it, but they have ap-proved every project that has come before them. Sachs, Kiss and Raths

have indicated they don’t support more high-density housing.

Worse than being pro-developer and pro-special interest, Reardon, Leck-ness and Bucknum are anti-resi-dent. These three candidates have vastly different agendas than the voters who want representation on the council. Bucknum’s agenda is to get elected, and Reardon and Leckness want to be re-elected. If these three win, they will very predictably continue the trend of more apartments, more traffic and declining safety.

Some people might remember when cities in north Orange Coun-ty were desirable places to live, but they no longer are. Residents of those cities either didn’t care about their surroundings or they didn’t care enough to choose trust-worthy representatives to preserve what they had.

Kirk KelleyMission Viejo


Derek REEVE

*Paid Political Advertisement by Friends of Derek Reeve for City Council 2014. FPPC #1361315

www.Reeve4SJC.com

SAVE YOUR QUALITY OF LIFE VOTE IN A NEW MAJORITY

NOV 4TH*Paid Political Advertisement by Friends of Pam Patterson for City Council 2014. FPPC #1369921

Review Derek’s VOTING RECORD at:

Pam PATTERSON, Esq. Kerry FERGUSON

2014 CANDIDATES for San Juan Capistrano City Council

Do you want more of these negative impacts?

Candidates Taylor, Kramer, Frisch, Siegel and Williams support Re-zoning for MASSIVE Development & the FAILED WATER PLANT

You have a clear choice on Nov. 4th:Do you want the San Juan you moved here to enjoy?

Vote for Reeve, Patterson & Ferguson

WE’RE AT A CROSSROADS... WHAT KIND OF SAN JUAN DO YOU WANT?

WE DON’T!

More TRAFFIC? Higher WATER RATES? More TAXES & FEES?

community common sense - november 2014

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