At our Feb 2nd city council meeting Mission Viejo councilman Lance MacLean was served with RECALL petition papers by a local citizen. I am told that earlier today he handed a copy of his response to Mission Viejo councilman John Paul Ledesma at our State of the City Prayer Breakfast and that another copy, or the original response, was delivered to our City Clerk.
I have just received a copy of the Official Recall Petition Answer from the City Clerk’s office with a date stamp of Feb 11, 2009 at 2:29 p.m.
In reading his response Councilman MacLean took the 5th Amendment. He refused to respond to ANY of the allegations spelled out in the RECALL proponent’s document.
At this point he becomes a gambler. He devotes the entire 200 permitted words for refuting the charges in the document and elects to focus on taking credit for operations instead of answering the allegations.
Note: Following is the entire listing of grounds for the recall. This list surely could have been longer. You can also find it on my Feb 2nd Orange Juice post.
Let’s see where he took the 5th.
“You violated your responsibilities to voters, showing yourself unfit to serve as a city Council Member by exhibiting:
*Violence when you were arrested by Police for assault and battery of a co-worker
*Anger and incivility when you ordered a Mission Viejo councilwoman to “SHUT UP” in closed session
*Hatred and disrespect when you called residents racists and elitists in a LA Times interview
*Self dealing when you voted to double your council salary during our current economic crisis
*Greed and corrupt priorities when you voted to give your self lifetime medical benefits at taxpayer expense after only 12 years of part-time service
*Financial mismanagement when you voted for budget items leading to $11.8 million in deficit spending
*A tax increase when you authored and promoted Measure K, which was rejected by Mission Viejo voters
*False promises when you voted to increase housing density leading to more traffic
Stay tuned. This story is just beginning.
I’d heard that MacLean hired a PR guy to write his so-called rebuttal. Sounds as if he would have done better getting his mom to write an excuse for him.
Hey—was that picture taken in Lance’s jail cell??
Larry, I was right about Frank! Shoulda listened to your next door neighbor
Folks. Some background is useful in relation to the above post. Eugene, who at one time was my next door neighbor, served on our Community Services Commission with Frank Ury before moving to Texas. I ignored his advice five years ago while supporting Ury for our city council.