New Year’s Day is quickly approaching. To watch the city of Mission Viejo Tournament of Roses parade float simply go to the city web cam on the following link. http://cityofmissionviejo.org/
One thing that Mission Viejo watchdogs can easily spot is the “spin machine” that our city uses. I would call our scrutiny Accuracy in Media but a Washington, DC firm already has that name.
Sadly we have local reporters who fail to conduct any basic research or some basic proofreading.
Case in point. Let’s begin with page 2 of today’s OC Register where the above the fold headline reads “Mission Viejo float blooms on webcam.” For those who have followed my series on the 2009 CA City entries I have always reported that Mission Viejo committed $300,000 for the basic design while the paper reports the cost at $30,000. I can forgive that minor error and move on to the next point where the article begins “A webcam lets you watch thousands of volunteers bring Mission Viejo’s first ever Rose Parade float to life.”
Gilbert note. As the Register story did not include any reporter name I was unable to contact the author.
UPDATE: See page 3 of the Dec 28th Register where it shows the correct $300,000 “floor” cost data. It also points out the Huntington Beach “float (which) costs $200,000 –(was paid for with ) money raised through private donors.” The third OC float in today’s story is the entry from Anaheim which I reported on back on Aug 29th. The budget for the Anaheim float, whose cost was omitted from the story, was half of ours at $150,000.
My angst. If the private sector wants to fund these city entries or if the city is a destination where they need to promote themselves then that presents a different set of circumstances which I have always acknowledged in my Series on 2009 Rose parade floats. the bedroom city of Mission Viejo is simply not a destination such as Anaheim, Long Beach or Huntington Beach. There is nothing magical about our 20th birthday to justify this waste of taxpayers funds when some of our residents have lost their jobs, some have told me that their 401K’s are now 201K’s. Others have their homes in foreclosure. It’s just an abuse of power that we will deal with in due time.
Folks. Back to the original post. There are hundreds of volunteers not thousands. In fact the following call for volunteers by the city refutes the number of people who can be involved without stepping on each others toes.
From the city web site it reads: “Volunteers are still sought to participate in the community project, which is meant to unify residents, homeowner associations, non-profit organizations, schools, sport groups, service clubs, faith organizations, businesses and others.
Building the float will require hundreds of Mission Viejo volunteers, thousands of donated man-hours and support from the entire community. Volunteer opportunities are available in two-hour shifts at the Norman P. Murray Community and Senior Center at 24932 Veterans Way during “Dry Flower Days” and for six-to seven-hour shifts during “Flowering Week” in Irwindale where the float is being constructed.”
Some Tournament of Roses Parade facts:
How long does the parade last? 2 1/2 hours from any given point.
What time does the parade start? 8:00 a.m.
Where does the parade start? Ellis Street & Orange Grove. It then continues North on Orange Grove then East on Colorado Blvd. to Sierra Madre Blvd., then north on Sierra Madre Blvd. to Paloma Street – a total of 5 1/2 miles.
Juice readers. And now for a few questions.
1. Will you travel to Pasadena to watch the Rose Parade in person?
2. Will you be watching any part of the parade on New Year’s Day at home?
3. Will you sit glued to your set to watch the entire 2 1/2 hour parade?
4. Will watching our “Making a Splash” entry entice you to shop in our built-out city?
5. Do you believe that Mission Viejo having a float is a good use of taxpayer money?
6. Do you know that we do not own the truck that carries the float and it will be stripped down within a week after the parade?
Therefore we cannot use this float for any other events during the year.
Your participation in this “unscientific” poll is truly welcome.
Wishing each of you a healthy and prosperous New Year
I was quite amazed to see yet another article in OCN today (and a picture in SVN yesterday) about the float. The spin has become ludicrous. Residents abhor the waste of money, and they find the entire project completely inappropriate. OCR and SVN alike have reprinted city hall’s misinformation while failing to report anything remotely resembling the truth.
How can residents change what’s happening in city hall? Get the recall going already.
Observer.
Be patient. Your Christmas wish will be reported shortly.
As to the spin cycle. Our city manager just responded by email with a claim that “thousands of people have volunteered to work on the float project.” He goes on to state that “over 7,000 volunteer hours have been put in to date.”
Folks. By my math if 900 volunteers worked one eight hour day that would total 7,200 hours.
Go to the web cam. Earlier today I was told by another Mission Viejo activist that they only saw two people on the job.
1:30 p.m. Update:
I just went to the webcam to see the work in process. Let’s assume that what we are seeing is the Mission Viejo float. By my estimate there may be two dozen people working. You simply cannot have thousands of people surrounding the float.
There may be other MV volunteers off camera but I will stick with my allegation of spin by our staff to the local media on this story.
One of the reasons why newspapers are losing readership rapidly:
They are just reprinting press releases. Why should I pay for press releases interspersed with ads?
Quite frankly, it would have been the duty of the OC Register and other newspapers to do the digging that you did, Larry.
I just want to make sure people understand that yes, there are indeed thousands of “man/people hours” that go into a float. We volunteered for a dry flower day and I can tell you there were easily 200-300 people at the senior center who did a tour hour shift doing nothing more than cutting the petals off straw flowers. I was hoping we would be applying dry flowers to the actual float, but there are HOURS of preparations that have to be done before anything can be applied to the float. All that work us volunteers did for 2 hours would roughly fill a pillow case. So on the conservative side, let’s say there were 200 people working 2 hours each that’s 400 hours right there. And those petals we cut up that merely filled a pillow case would be applied to the float in 5-10 minutes we were told. When you look at it that way, yes, these floats take more man/people hours than you can imagine. If you had seen a webcam shot of all of us cutting these tiny petals, you might think differently.
Jennifer.
Not to diminish your comment about the task of preparing flowers for the float. PS: My oldest son attended MVHS and was a volunteer on the MV Company float back in the 70’s. My point was that it was reported that “thousands of volunteers” are working on the Mission Viejo float. There is a big difference between man hours vs people. If 1,000 volunteers worked a total of 8 hours that alone would exceed the 7,000 hours to date as given to me by our city manager. I have made a Public Records request to see a list of the names and hours worked just to set the record straight.
My sense is that some volunteers have worked several shifts which is to be commended.
I do believe your number of 200-300 at the senior center. That is a much more realistic number than THOUSANDS. If I am wrong I will make a correction.
Larry – a typical decorating crew for a Tournament of Roses float consists of 40-50 people for a single shift. With two shifts per day, that means a maximum of 500 people during the five days of “decorating week”. Since many people will work more than one shift, the actual number of volunteers is considerably lower. While there were additional “dry days” in October and November, most people work the dry days to “earn” a spot on the crew during decorating week – when the real magic happens.
Thank you Jeff.
My issue relates to the exageration on the number of volunteers coming from our city leaders to offset some of the outrage we are hearing locally.
Isn’t it convenient that the webcam is not working so that you could see how few people are visibly working “on the float.” Our city clerk has just responded to my Public Records request and will provide the names of the “thousands of volunteers” who are working on the float. I can’t wait to see that list.
Also. Our entire city staff is off on vacation this week. I wonder how many of them were ASKED to volunteer their time. It would also be nice to find out how many of the volunteers are actually taxpayers from our city Vs Girl Scout, Boy Scout or Brownie troop members doing community service to get a badge.
Totally agree that City $$ should not be used on Rose Parade floats. Period. Public finances should be used to keep the city safe and clean. Not to send politicians on all-expense paid ego trips.
That said, its a lot of fun to volunteer for decorating floats and if you’ve got time on your hands since the money’s already spent you should go help out and make the most of it.