community common sense - april 2014

Community Common Sense

APRIL 2014 – VOL 4, 4

Community Common SenseSan Juan Capistrano - Mission Viejo

YOUR COMMUNITY WATCHDOG

In this Issue...

More Water Rate Increases?

Comp Gone WildPage 4

What Your Neighbors Are Saying...Page 5

Water Rate Lawsuit UpdatePage 5

More Water Rate Increases?

Voting Records Speak Louder Than Words

Story continued on page 10...

Story continued on page 3 ...

By Larry Gilbert

By Kim LefnerSan Juan residents, hold onto your wallets. The City Council majority of Sam Allevato, Larry Kramer and John Taylor recently voted to proceed with the “Option 1 water rate study”. Considering that water rate “studies” typically result in rate increases (and in my opinion, are designed to justify rate increases), it’s safe to assume that the council majority is aiming to increase your water rates.

The current option increases the

About the Community Common SenseThe CCS is a non-partisan community watchdog publication, distributed monthly to 35,000 homes and businesses in our local communities.

We were established in 2009 by a group of residents who recognize that tax dollars are often spent in

for information and extensive research, we print factual information about fiscal and quality of life issues which enables residents to make educated decisions about local leadership. We do the homework – you decide!

ways that enrich a select few, while average residents are left with the resulting increases to cost of living, traffic and debt.

We believe knowledge is power, and are committed to reporting facts not offered in other publications. Aided by Public Records Act requests

basic “Tier 1” amount of water allowed by the City from its current 6ccf to 9 ccf (1 ccf is equal to 100 cubic feet of water or 748 gallons). Increasing the allocation sounds like a good thing, but this allocation is based on World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines*, a third-world standard for emergency indoor water use at 62 gallons per person per day. For a family of 4 this equals 7,440 gallons per month. In a modern country, 14,960 gallons per month for a family of 4 would be

considered barely adequate for indoor use, even with water-saving appliances and no outdoor irrigation.

When elec-tion time rolls around, who do you vote for, espe-cially when the June 2014 ballot has multiple candidates competing for the same seat?

One race that impacts all voters in south county is the replacement

of Pat Bates, who is termed out as Orange County (OC) Supervisor representing the 5th District.

As a volunteer campaign consultant in local elections, one of the key points I share with challengers is to review the voting record of incum-bents. Do they say one thing and vote another? Do they keep their promises and vote accordingly, even when they may not win over their peers on specific issues or do they simply “go along to get along”?

San Juan Capistrano

Voting Records Speak Louder Than wordsPage 1

Basics First PleasePage 7

Candidate Update - Mission ViejoPage 8

Who Do Your Candidates Really Represent?Page 9

Mission Viejo

San Juan Capistrano

Mission Viejo

MV resident Larry Gilbert

Our County is divided into 5 Dis-tricts with an average of 600,000 residents each. A few years ago a community leader created a website with a huge online database listing the key policy votes of every city council member in O.C. The votes were “graded” according to the im-pacts on personal freedoms, property rights and fiscal responsibility.The task was huge. The website, entitled the “Liberty First” blog, monitored the votes of at least 172 elected council members; a difficult

Community Common Sense PAGE 2


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Mission Viejo Contributing Editor:Steve Magdziak

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Editor: Kim Lefner

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

115% since 2004. But when all costs are factored in to Tier 1, the increase is actually 7.5% (see “Water Rate Increases” chart).In addition to increasing the cost of water, the City is also proposing to increase already steep water meter charges, depending on meter size (see “Water Meter Increases” chart below).

All San Juan Capistrano residents should be aware of what the City is actually doing, not what it wants the public to believe. Your water costs are increasing at least partially due to the bloated City employee salaries, medical benefits and pensions of those who run our Utilities Department (see SJC Utilities Dept. Employee and Executive Management Wage and Benefits charts on page 4). Read the article “Comp Gone Wild” on page 4 to see how our employee payroll compares with a neighboring city (hint: ours is far higher).

Unless we speak out, the City employees may soon be getting yet another raise, paid for by increases to your water rates.

Email your City council members c/o the City Clerk at: [email protected] or call: 493-1171 to let them know what you think about the rising water rates and employee compensation.

* See“WHO Guidelines” link on our website at: www.ccsense.com

The problem with setting the allocation at 9ccf is that it is so low that it will cause an average family to use more water than Tier 1 allows, which then forces them into Tier 2, which in turn increases the cost by 39%. This raises the question; is the allocation about conservation or is it about increasing revenue to the City?

The new rate schedule is an attempt to “fix” the problem the City has in complying with Proposition 218, which mandates that the City cannot charge more for water than what it actually costs to deliver it to the end user. The Capistrano Taxpayers Association (CTA) successfully argued in OC Superior Court that San Juan water customers were being illegally overcharged for water as the tiered rate structure was not cost-based. Rather, the CTA argued that the billing structure was designed to punish water users into conserving water, and generate revenue for the City. The City Council ignored repeated warnings that over-charging customers was a violation of Prop 218. The City continues to waste tax dollars to fight the court ruling in favor of the CTA and water customers.

The City is calculating its new tiered water rates by basing “Tier 1” on the cost of SJC Ground Water Recovery Plant (GWRP) water, and the other higher tiers on the cost of Metropolitan Water District water. The success of the rate scheme will depend on the GWRP producing over 4100 acre feet of water annually; something it has not been able to achieve. If it fails to produce the projected quantity of water in this drought year, the new rate system faces significant shortfalls in revenue. If history is any judge, this will necessitate additional rate hikes.

The City Council majority announced that it is only increasing revenue by 5%, a reasonable sounding amount - if you ignore the fact that it has increased water rates

Story continued from page 1...

WATER RATE INCREASES*

Current Tier I

$3.18/ccf

Proposed Increase Tier I

$3.41/ccf

Percentage Increase

7.2%

Current Tier 2

$4.24/ccf

Proposed Increase Tier 2

$4.75/ccf

Percentage Increase

12.0%

* Tiers 3 and 4 were reduced following the court ruling in favor of the CTA, which claimed that that the city was illegally billing for far more than what the service actually cost in Tiers 3 and 4.

WATER METER INCREASES

Current 5/8” Meter*

$ 19.66

* Typical residential water meter

Proposed 5/8” Meter

Increase

$22.05

Increase

12.2%

Current 1.0” Meter**

$29.50

** Typical commercial water meter

Proposed 1.0” Meter

Increase

$30.74

Increase

4.2%


Executive Compensation • ExecutivesCity Manager $220,012 $10,000 $24,748 $60,767 $315,527CFO/City Treasurer $162,426 $16,997 $18,869 $50,179 $248,470Development Services Director

$147,829 $6,463 $17,858 $48,658 $220,535

Utilities Director $133,679 $2,700 $23,126 $37,810 $197,315Public Works Director

$142,345 $833 $10,105 $40,942 $194,225

Human Resources Manager

$114,078 $6,342 $22,147 $34,291 $176,859

City Clerk $95,244 $7,987 $17,310 $28,303 $148,845Total $1,015,613 $51,321 $133,890 $300,951 $1,501,775

benefits which amount to 35% of their salaries. Don’t get me wrong, good employees deserve a good retirement but at this rate, SJC residents will be bankrupt. How much are you able to contribute to your retirement pension (assuming you even have one)? Most corporations have slashed their employees’ retirement contributions to 6%. Our city’s is 35%. This might explain why our town’s unfunded pension liability is reportedly in the tens of millions of dollars. As is the case with most financial reporting in our city, the exact figure of our unfunded pension liability is difficult to determine; I’ve heard amounts ranging from 25 to 48

million dollars. And that’s not all. Between overtime and undefined “other pay” in 2013, employees were paid an additional $403,393. I question why a management employee is in a position to earn “overtime” at all, considering that private sector management

employees are typically salaried and therefore not eligible for overtime pay.

Speaking of management employees, the inset chart for the 2012 compensation of our Executive Management in SJC also helps to explain why our town is so far in debt. The employees are now engaged in salary negotiations with the City. Although the negotiations are not open to the public, I’m guessing that they are asking for increases, not decreases, to their compensation and/or benefits.

So what is the solution to run-away wage and benefit costs?

One solution is to encourage a new City Council majority in November to hire consultants who are responsible for paying for their own benefits, instead of maintaining Regular Full Time Employees. The City of Rancho Santa Margarita for example, had 23 Regular Full Time Employees and 68 Contract (Full Time) Employees in 2012. Their annual payroll that year was 1.895 million dollars - nearly half a million dollars less than the payroll just for our Utilities Department alone. And theirs is a larger town with a population of approximately 48,000. Not surprisingly, their water rates are approximately 40% lower than ours.

Other cities have successfully gone the contracted employee route at a cost-savings to the taxpayers. There is no reason other than a lack of will by the City Council majority, for San Juan to do the same. Please think about that next time you pay your water bill.

Have questions or comments for your City Council members? Email them c/o the City Clerk at: [email protected].

No wonder SJC’s water costs are high. As the Utilities Department Employee Compensation chart below indicates, San Juan taxpayers last year paid Utilities Department employees more than 2.2 million dollars for wages and benefits.

The health insurance costs are nearly $300,000 per year for these 18 Utilities Department employees. That amounts to 23% of each

employee’s salary. SJC taxpayers pay 100% of the employee AND their families’ health/dental insurance benefits - for the highest, most lavish benefit plan. A City memo indicates that until recently, if an employee chose an HMO instead of a PPO, they could get the difference back in cash.

That cost doesn’t include the employee retirement pension

San Juan Capistrano

Comp Gone WildBy Kim Lefner


Story continued on page 6...

What Your Neighbors Are Saying...Water Rate Lawsuit Update

By John PerryWhen the City Coun-cil majority voted to increase water rates in Febru-ary 2010 by 40% in

the first year, with annual increases of 3% per year thereafter, they were warned that the new rate structure did not comply with Proposition 218, which holds that water rates must be based on the actual cost to deliver the water.

The new system prepared by water consultant Black and Veatch at the behest of the City used steeply tiered rates to force water conservation. The City tightened the water allocation which forced water users into three billing “tiers” at progressively higher rates designed

to punish water users. The City was also warned that charging residential customers for recycled water they were not receiving was a violation of Proposition 218.

In July 2012, the attorney for the newly formed Capistrano Taxpayers Association (CTA) wrote two letters to the City requesting that the City disclose the basis (justification) for its progressive water rate schedule or the CTA would file suit. The City ignored the requests so the suit was filed in August 2012. After a year of legal wrangling, the trial took place in August 2013 and an OC Superior Court judge ruled that the City had indeed adopted and charged illegal water rates. The judge issued an or-der directing the City to immediately stop billing the illegal water rates and to stop billing domestic water

• Thank you for fighting [the newspa-

per ban] hard. This is not the

America we should live in. - RS

• More communities need watch-dogs like the Community Common Sense to inform the local public of what their community leaders are doing for them and what they are doing with their tax dollars... Thank you!! - KH

• Love the watch dog feel of this [publication]... awareness of issues is not a priority with these council people who don’t update the public website regarding projects that tax-money goes for... they go to other cities for busi-ness... they appoint their friends to boards...they make things up and get. passive aggressive when you approach them...people speak at meetings and everything is either delayed or never followed up on. - MJ

• Thanks - keep up the good work. - DC

• Junk mail. - SK

• Thank you for your home delivery of the CCS newspaper. We appreciate your reporting and keeping us informed with EVERYTHING that is going on in [SJC and]...Freedom of the Press. I have lived here [for many years] and have never experi-enced what appears to be such a DECLINE in our city govern-ment. The disagreements between our city officials and the recent

“dirty politics” brochures/mail-ers are really bringing us down and making a joke of our historic city.... We appreciate all your ef-forts in providing us with all facts/details - whether people like it or not. Please keep your newspapers coming as we need to know the whole story and be provided with all the facts. - JN

• I hate getting these childish [San Juan Cares] Mailers. [They go] in Trash. Mad about the stu-pidity going on in this city. - DL

• Great job! Please keep up the good work and don’t forget - the Truth is always the Truth! - FP

• Please stop delivering your newspa-per to my home. - DM • Please add me to your list so I may be kept updated and support what you do.- MP

• Thanks for all the good info and for all your efforts on taxpay-ers behalf. - DS

• Regarding the Ground Water Recovery Plant; we paid for 10 Rolls Royces, 10 Ferraris, 10 Bentleys and received 1 Edsel. The whole plant is cr@p! - FS

Have a concern or opinion you would like to share with your community? Email us at: [email protected].

San Juan Capistrano

Reader emails are welcomed and encouraged! Listed below are ex-cerpts from just a few of the many emails we receive about a variety of topics. Due to space limitations, we regret that we are unable to print all of the emails, but we wanted to give you an idea of what your neighbors are saying.

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Story continued from page 5...users for recycled water that weren’t receiving. The City Council voted to appeal the judgment and to continue billing the illegal water rates during the appeal period.

In January 2014, the City filed its appeal with the 4th District Court of Appeal cit-ing reasons why they think the judge erred in his deter-mination that the water rates were illegal. The City now claims that tiers are really penalties, not fees, and as such are not subject to the re-quirements of Proposition 218. They further assert that the city was justi-fied in forcing domestic rate payers to subsidize recycled water users “because everyone benefits from the use of recycled water because it increases supply.” In their response

filed on April 1, 2014, CTA attorneys

rejected those arguments, pointing to a number of

misstatements and distortions in the

City’s appeal.

The case will be heard by the 4th District Appellate Court in the fall of 2014, with much riding on the out-come. The City Council majority’s decision to continue billing illegal rates during the appeal exposes the City to significant refunds of water overcharges if they lose the appeal. If the Appellate Court rules in favor of the CTA, the city must refund all

of the money illegally paid by water rate payers from August 2013 to the final date of the new legal water rate implementation in July 2014, or until the date of the appeal decision, whichever comes first.

The cost of the refund from the City could be millions of dollars.The lawsuit and legal expense could have been avoided if the City Council majority had just listened to its residents and changed the water rates to conform to Proposition 218 as they were urged to do repeatedly prior to the lawsuit being filed. The CTA will update CCS readers as information becomes available. For more information or to donate to

the CTA, visit the website at: www.capotax.org.

John Perry graduated from USC with a Masters Degree in Educa-tion with additional certification in School Business Management. He worked in Education for 25 years as an Assistant Superintendent of Business Services before retiring. John was appointed to the Special Water Management and Opera-tions Audit Committee in 2011 and is a founding Board member of the Capistrano Taxpayer’s Association. He is a 23-year resident of San Juan Capistrano.

San Juan Capistrano City Council Candidates

We are searching for San Juan residents

who are interested in stepping up to help

their community. Primary qualifications:

must be HONEST and willing to represent

the residents, and not just special

interests.

Interested parties please email the Capistrano Taxpayers Association at:

[email protected]


Ed Sachs

Basics First PleaseMission Viejo

City councils manage basic services. Basic services include public safety, transportation flow and maintenance, city appearance,

park maintenance, trash, restroom facilities and other related services.

When a new project or event comes before the council, the key ques-tions every council member need to ask is; how would my vote benefit the residents and do we have funds to pay for (the project)? Bringing restrooms to some of our parks is a “yes” to this question in my opinion.

For a number of years, the Mission Viejo council majority has approved “feel-good” projects and events, spending taxpayer money with little discernible benefit to city residents. A few examples are the over-built Marguerite Tennis Center, a Rose Parade float and more recently, sub-sidizing the for-profit International Tennis Federation Wheelchair Ten-nis Tournament.

Our city council majority made these items priorities over children urinating in park bushes or on them-selves. If we can walk and chew gum at the same time, we should also be able to consider installing re-strooms at the parks where we have so many sports activities.

A $5 million tennis center renova-tion is used only by a small per-centage of Mission Viejo residents. Recently, the tennis center was used for the aforementioned International Wheelchair Tennis Tournament. What a wonderful opportunity to show off our city and boost our local business economy, right?

By Ed SachsHowever, the city council majority and staff failed the city. They could have demonstrated our city’s support for this event by offering our tennis center at no charge, while leaving the tennis federation to sell tickets and secure sponsors which would have supported the costs of their tournament. But the city instead chose to use tax dollars to pick up the tab for many of the expenses re-lated to this event. At the very least they could have asked the interna-tional organizers to offer tennis clin-ics at no charge to city residents who may also be confined to wheelchairs. But they didn’t.

When the Toyota Grand Prix comes to Long Beach, the Indy Racing League does not ask Long Beach to pay for advertising, food and lodg-ing for the racecar drivers, teams, sponsors, guests and race officials. Having negotiated multi-million-dollar contracts sponsoring two race teams, I understand how these events are paid for. Apparently our city doesn’t. I am still waiting for someone to explain how a $300,000 Rose Parade Float benefits the city and its residents.

“Feel-good” projects should only be considered when the city has first taken care of its residents’ basic needs. Every week-end, thousands of children with their family mem-bers spend hours at our parks. There is a priority need for bathroom facilities at many of these parks.

Restrooms are not as sexy as Rose Parade floats, but if we can build a Dog Park for pets to defecate, surely we can prioritize making restrooms available at our human parks.

Ed Sachs and his family have lived in Mission Viejo since 1991. Ed spent 30 years in the consumer electronics industry where he was inducted in the Hall of Fame. He retired as President Emeritus at

Pioneer Electronics in 2009. Since retirement, Ed has opened his own leadership-consulting agency while becoming active in the commu-nity. In 2012, Ed ran for Mission Viejo City Council. Ed and his wife Leagh, an accomplished and award

The City of Mission Viejo spent $300,000 on this Rose Parade Float.

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winning photographer, have two sons, David and Daniel.

Questions? Comments? The CCS wants to hear from you! Contact Mission Viejo Contributing Editor Steve Magdziak at: (949) 441-0499.


By Dale Tyler

CUSD Trustee Anna Bryson, candidate for State Assembly, 73rd DistricSacramento County Superior Court Judge Shelleyanne Chang ruled recently that Anna Bryson, Capistrano Unified School District (“CUSD”) Trustee and current candidate for the California State Assembly 73rd District, made an illegal false and misleading statement in her official Candidate Statement. The judge ordered the Orange County Registrar of Voters to revise the false statement before it is printed and distributed to voters with their sample ballots.

Bryson made the following state-ment in her official Candidate Statement, “On the school board, I returned $59 million to taxpayers.” On March 17, 2014, Mission Viejo resident and business owner Dale Tyler filed a petition with the court seeking to have the false statement stricken or revised so that voters would not be misled. Tyler argued, and the Court agreed, this was an illegal statement in violation of Elections Code section 13313(b) (2) because it was false and/or mislead-ing. Tyler provided evidence to the Court that Bryson had never returned millions to taxpayers. Evidence included Declarations from CUSD Trustee Ellen Addonizio and Sharon Campbell, Mission Viejo resident and expert in school district finances.

Bryson argued her statement was in fact true – and in support of her assertion she offered Declarations from John Alpay, the current Presi-dent of CUSD Board of Trustees,

Editor’s Note: Listed below is an update on Anna Bryson, candidate for State Assembly 73rd District, whose voting record was published in the December 2013 issue of the CCS.

and CUSD Superintendent Joseph Farley.

It should be noted that in 2010, Or-ange County Superior Court Judge Kim Dunning ruled that Alpay had made false and misleading state-ments in his own Candidate State-ment. It should also be noted that it was highly unusual and of question-able legality for a public school dis-trict superintendent to utilize school district resources in support of a political candidate (Farley issued a letter in his official capacity and on official CUSD letterhead in support of Bryson).

Judge Chang dismissed the argu-ments put forth by Bryson, Alpay and Farley and ordered the false statement in Bryson’s Candidate Statement be revised prior to the printing of the statement in the sample ballot.

Tyler stated, “As a long-time com-munity watchdog and local business-

person, I felt it was my responsibility to set the record straight. Sadly, Ms. Bryson has repeatedly demonstrated she is willing to say and do virtually anything in order to get elected.”

Attorney Chad Morgan, who suc-cessful represented Tyler, was pleased with the outcome, stating, “This is an important victory for the residents of South Orange County – we needed to protect the credibility of the electoral process and ensure voters were not deceived.”

Dale Tyler has lived in Mission Viejo for 27 years, where he operates an embedded software engineering company. As an early member of the Committee for Integrity in Government, he has long worked to ensure accountability and transparency in local government.


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It’s a Grind Coffee Shop - 25522 Marguerite Parkway at Oso

Mission Viejo Auto Spa - 23156 Los Alisos Blvd - East of Jeronimo

Tony and Rami Liquor and Deli - 24011-A Marguerite Pkwy

Bagels & Brew - 23052 Alicia Pkwy at Olympiad

Surfin’ Donuts - Alicia & Trabuco

Sabatino’s - 23052 Alicia Pkwy at Olympiad

Looking for the Community Common Sense?

More locations coming soon!

Pick up a copy of the Community Common Sense in the following locations in Mission Viejo:

Candidate Update - Mission ViejoMission Viejo

Judge Rules State Assembly Candidate Anna Bryson’s Official Candidate Statement Illegal


Who Do Your Candidates Really Represent?

Wendy Bucknum, a professional lobbyist in the housing industry, has announced her candidacy for the Mission Viejo City Council in the November election. Bucknum’s fundraiser will not be held in Mission Viejo, but rather in San Juan Capistrano at the Marbella Country Club. The organization that connects Bucknum with her campaign financiers is the Virginia-based “Community Associations Institute”. Her fundraiser invitation lists four hosts and “Community Industry Association Friends.” One look at Bucknum’s donor list (see below) and the crony capitalism is clear; these outsiders want their lobbyist on Mission Viejo’s council.

To understand Bucknum’s job as a professional lobbyist in the housing industry, it’s important to understand who/what she lobbies for. She is em-ployed by “Professional Community Management” (PCM), a huge man-agement company that works with Home Owners Associations (HOAs). Their website describes their work with developers and builders; “We provide developers and builders [with] the peace of mind of having a single point of contact...”

Bucknum’s employer PCM is a force in the Community Asso-ciations Institute (CAI), which is defined as “an influential trade as-sociation and special interest group with about 60 chapters in the United States.” Research indicates that the CAI lobbies the legislatures of states that have large numbers of HOAs, to promote legislation beneficial to them and to oppose laws harmful to them.

An HOA is defined as “a corpora-tion formed by a real estate devel-oper for the purpose of marketing, managing, and selling of homes and lots in a residential subdivision. It grants the developer privileged vot-ing rights in governing the associa-tion, while allowing the developer to exit financial and legal responsibil-ity of the organization, typically by

transferring ownership of the asso-ciation to the homeowners after sell-ing off a predetermined number of lots. Membership in the homeowners association by a residential buyer is typically a condition of purchase; a buyer isn’t given an option to reject it.”

The CAI sells services to HOA lawyers and community managers affiliated with the fastest growing form of housing, “Common-interest developments” (CIDs). These are planned-unit developments with a combination of single-family homes, condominiums and cooperative apartments. In other words, higher density projects than traditional single-family home developments. CIDs provide a form of “self-gov-ernance” through HOAs. One of the biggest objections to high-density development in our city is the in-creased traffic it generates. Packing more people into less space also results in parking issues, impacts to views and in some cases, blight.

As the number of CIDs and HOAs grows, so too does the need for professional property managers who specialize in this field, including legislation governing housing and development. Enter Wendy Bucknum.

In fact, as noted in the following quote, “Since CAI was founded in 1973, the people that build and service CIDs have been a signifi-cant force in inter-est group politics in many states... they are dominated by lawyers and property manag-ers that have shaped legislative and judi-cial policy-making

to prevent meaningful regulation of CID activity, and keep the discourse on such matters largely private.”

The problem with Bucknum’s cam-paign is who is funding it. When she ran in 2012, she said she couldn’t afford to run on her own money. She is again running on other people’s money in 2014, and her donors don’t live in Mission Viejo. For her April 30 fundraiser, her party hosts and guests are her employer’s housing industry contacts. When Bucknum and incumbent Councilman Frank Ury ran for city council as a slate in 2012, they solicited donations as a tag team. From feedback gathered from area business owners, they targeted city contractors as well as association members in Bucknum’s lobbyist industry.

In addition to Bucknum running as a council candidate, Frank Ury is running for a seat on the OC Board of Supervisors. Ury’s voting record

was published in this newspaper, documenting his support for grow-ing government, increasing fees and voting to give himself lifetime medi-cal benefits for his part-time council service

Before you vote in November, ask yourself “Who do these candidates really represent?” A look at their donors and their voting record while serving in a public office will answer that question.

Joe Holtzman, an Industrial Engi-neering and Manufacturing/Distri-bution Executive with McDonnell Douglas and Ford Motor Company, is a 31-year resident of Mission Viejo.


Mission Viejo

By Joe Holtzman

Wendy BucknumWendy Bucknum

Wendy Bucknum Recent Council Campaign Financiers* CONTRIBUTOR NAME OF BUSINESS / DESCRIPTION

Building Industry Association of Orange County Developers Association Association of Builders & Contractors PAC of So Cal Developers Political Action Committee Building Industry Assoc. of So. Cal. Developers Association, Irvine OC Assoc. of Realtors PAC Real Estate Political Action Committee CJ Segerstrom & Sons Developer, Costa Mesa South Coast Apartment Assoc. PAC Real Estate Political Action Committee, Irvine

John Kurzet Professional Community Management - Property Management, Laguna Woods

VCS Environmental Environmental Consultant (Development)

San Juan Capistrano John Saunders Saunders Property Co. (owner of Unisys property) Roger Faubel Faubel Public Affairs (consultant / lobbyist) Mary Young Aliso Viejo resident Matt Gunderson Audi, Mission Viejo Steven Roseman Attorney, Roseman & Associates Ryan Farsal (no information available/out of state?) EMS Management LLC (no information available/out of state?)

* Source: Wendy Bucknum for City Council 2014, Form 460


task as every two years some elected officials are replaced due to term limits, personal choices or being defeated in their re-election bid.

Some of the issues monitored and graded by the “Liberty First Score-card” included; opposition to redis-tricting, spending freezes, conflict of interest, hiring of lobbyists, property change approval, cost cutting mea-sures, project bidding, slope zone or-dinance, posting of salaries, red light camera ban, no-bid contract approv-als, recall election, City Manager contract amendments, trash hauling bids and lifetime health benefits for part time council members.

The Scorecard graded the candidates for OC Supervisor based on three years of voting records (2009 - 2011) on impacts to personal freedoms,

property rights and fiscal responsi-bility. The lowest score was Dana Point Council member Lisa Bartlett at 66%, followed by Mission Viejo Council member Frank Ury at 69%. The highest score was Laguna Ni-guel Council member Robert Ming at 96%. No voting record exists for Deputy DA Joe Williams as he has never been elected to a position.

Past actions are an indicator of future actions or in this case, future voting.

A good example of this took place on the evening prior to the success-ful recall of former Mission Viejo (MV) Mayor Lance MacLean in 2010. The MV council majority led by Frank Ury, amended City Manager Dennis Wilberg’s contract termination severance provisions re-lated to “misconduct.” The contract

provisions were part of the previ-ous city manager’s contract, and stated that the city manager could be terminated should he engage in “dishonesty, fraud, self-dealing, and willful misconduct committed in the performance of Wilberg’s duties and responsibilities under this agree-ment.” Every one of those clauses was removed from the updated city manager contract. In my opinion, that anyone would object to these provisions speaks volumes about their character. As a result, Council member Ury received an “F” on the Liberty First Scorecard for his Feb. 1, 2010 vote eliminating these im-portant accountability provisions. As closely as I research candidates for my voter guides, it is virtually impossible to attend every city coun-cil meeting. I strongly urge voters to attend or watch online the vot-

ing in council meetings, along with the Open Session debate in order to “Trust, but verify” the actions of your elected representatives.

Larry Gilbert, a retired electronics industry executive, has lived in Mission Viejo since 1977. He is an elected board member of the California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights. Larry is also a former Board Member of South Coast Christian Assembly church and leader of their Senior Ministry.


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Lic. No. 44570224331 Muirlands Blvd., #4-432

Lake Forest, CA 92630

(949)768-5143(949)493-1565

Visit Us on the Web - www.richardsonplumbingoc.comEmail Us at - [email protected]

Celebrating 33 years in business on St. Patrick's Day this year!

“Kevin is a straightforward, no-nonsense get the job right kind of

guy. He is passionate and professional at the same time. "

- Jeff F.

"Kevin responded right away when I needed my cracked commode replaced. He was professional,

knowledgeable and the price was right - I highly recommend him”

- John L.

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-ALL STYLES / ALL BUDGETS CREATING SOULFUL LIVING SPACES by Sheer Magic

Revive & Refresh your Home AFFORDABLY …….USING your Current things or Buying New…. (You Choose ) I am ABLE to perform MAGIC…with your Special things!!! “TOTALLY TRANSFORMING OLD LIFELESS SPACES into Exciting FRESH ROOMS that breathe “ NEW LIFE” !! BLOCK YOUR TIME NOW 2hr design $ 150 Full Day Design$ 350 (value of $ 600)

Call me now and let the Fun Magic Begin!

Not valid with any other offer.New clients only. Expires 4/28/14

All three massages must be used within 60 days of

purchase date.

$10.00Come visit us

and get

off your pet’s first grooming!

Meet Mike!

Our Dog of theMonth!

Call Us to make an Appointment!

Bath & Tidy Package: A relaxing bubble bath with top of the line products, blow dry, thorough brush out, nail grinding, ear cleaning, triming of the paw pads, feet, sanitary area, in front of the eyes, treats, and lots of TLC!

Bath & Groom Package:Bath & Groom Package: All of the above plus a terrific haircut to the breed standards and/or owner specifications.

Additional/Independent Services:Additional/Independent Services: Tooth brushing, ear cleaning, anal gland expression, nail grinding, nail trimming, FURminator de-shed conditioner and extra undercoat brushing.

Wig-Wag Dog Grooming32432 Alipaz St. #ASan Juan Capistrano, California 92675

(949)291-8799Website: www.wigwagdoggrooming.com Email: [email protected]

Community Common Sense PAGE

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EDDM Retail

We are located at:

(Next to Tannins Restaurant)

27221 Ortega Hwy., San Juan Capistrano

Visit Us at:www.onyxremodeling.com

949.226.7090

“ONYX absolutely nailed it! I told them what I wanted, told them how much I had to spend and they came back with a stunning proposal. I won’t go anywhere else.

Sean P. - Homeowner in San Clemente, CA

“I was extremely pleased with the service, product, and price from Onyz. We love our wood floors and have already recommended Onyz to several of our friends." Renee Borsack, Homeowner in San Juan Capistrano, CA

community common sense - april 2014

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