The following story regarding the Feb 2nd recall election in Mission Viejo was just published by the OC Register.
The full story link follows below:
Deputies spend $105,000 in recall election
By NIYAZ PIRANI
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
“MISSION VIEJO The special election to recall Mayor Lance MacLean has drawn one of the largest independent expenditures in a Mission Viejo city election – more than $105,000 from the sheriff’s deputies union.
On the most recent campaign finance disclosure forms, which were filed in Mission Viejo last week, the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs Independent Expenditure Committee reported spending a combined $105,502 to oppose the recall effort.
Independent expenditures are different from campaign contributions. Independent expenditures fund communications such as mailings or advertisement, and there is no communication between the expenditure committee and a candidate. The sheriff’s deputies committee used the funds to create and air a television spot, print and send mailers, and for e-mail blasts. The spot ran on cable stations such as AMC, CNN, Discovery, MSNBC, Lifetime, TBS, TNT and USA.
Wayne Quint, president of the union, said the funds were not in support of MacLean, but in opposition to the recall.
“It’s not about Lance MacLean,” he said. “In any of our cable ads, our e-mail blasts, you will not see one mention of Lance MacLean in them. We are opposed to the recall. We see this as an abuse of the electoral system and that is why we’re opposed to this.”
“More importantly,” Quint added, “I think it’s a waste of $270,000 on a, quote, special election, when nine months from now it could be justified if MacLean stays or goes.”
“The recall process is enshrined in the California Constitution as the right of the people to remove officers that they deem unfit for any reason,” Tyler said in response to Quint and the deputy sheriffs union expenditures. “We feel we have valid reasons, and we put them in our ballot argument.”
MacLean said his last contact with Quint came at a fundraiser in October where he asked for a donation. There, Quint said he delivered a check from the Orange County Coalition of Police & Sheriffs in the amount of $1,500.
City Manager Dennis Wilberg said recall proponents have been vocal about the city forming its own police department, and that “what people are intimating is that the (deputy) sheriffs are into it because they’re going to get something out of it. No.”
Wilberg said the city expects to continue contracting with the Sheriff’s Department for police services regardless of who is on the council. He said the council is expected to vote this summer on the city’s $15 million contract with the Sheriff’s Department, but that the council votes only on whether or not to keep contracting with the department, not on the amount individual employees are paid.
MacLean’s largest contributions came from the Apartment aange County and two local waste haulers. Tyler’s campaign is largely self-funded, with a few donations made by recall proponents. Leckness, who raised the least, was boosted by a contribution from the firefighters union.
MacLean has come under fire from recall proponents for taking a $4,000 Apartment Association of Orange County contribution and $1,500 each from Waste Management and CR&R – two waste haulers that will bid on the city’s trash contracts in the coming months.
http://www.ocregister.com/news/-231665–.html
Gilbert comment. While one resident (who is not the candidate) may have expressed a desire to create our own police department , that person surely does not reflect the opinion of our 100,000 residents.
I have personally expressed my support of the OCSD and recognize that regardless of cost, when all support operations are taken into account we do get more “bang for the buck” than having our own police department. Large cities such as Anaheim and Santa Ana or Beach cities such as Laguna Beach and Newport Beach have different needs than our bedroom community.
Now you support the OCSD? Since when? You’ve done nothing but attack them. You seem stuck in a two week old news cycle here. The story has changed to Tyler is looking at some large fines for fraud.
So, WHY was this not in the Saddleback Valley News today? SVN is a pathetic piece of garbage that residents leave in their driveway. No wonder OCR is falling off the planet to have MISSED THIS NEWS FOR THE MAJORITY OF THIS ELECTION!! I am SICK of OCR. Thank you, Larry, for reporting on Mission Viejo.
Distance Expert.
Hello! Larry Gilbert has been an active supporter of the OCSD for several years.
In fact as a former Advisory Board Member on the Police Officer Firefighter Fellowship, POFF, a non-profit Ministry I have prayed for hundreds of our “rank and file” at annual prayer breakfasts where I can produce photos and programs of our events and my participation if need be. Don’t believe it? You might ask Pastor Chuck Smith of Costa Mesa Calvary Chapel for starters.
You are one of the clueless as to having knowledge of what I do in my spare time.
I do find it interesting that you chose this story over the other one about candidate Dale Tyler’s total lack of respect for laws. Of course that story does raise many more questions than it answers about Tyler. I bet if it had been about Leckness you would have written on it. Very Very telling how you pick and choose.
Distance Expert.
This is a much bigger story. We just heard the president addressing campaign financing in his State of the Union address. This falls in the same category on outside influence peddling.
I have not previously had an opinion about the OCSD, but the deputies union mailed me a picture of a toilet yesterday. I now favor FLUSHING OCSD and going with a city police department. To the deputies union, do not insult the residents you pretend to serve.
Free radical.
We received that toilet seat mailer yesterday. That explains the $7,500 Late Contribution that I discovered by calling the union PAC treasurer in SAC.
If I were a member of the OCSD union I would be questioning Wayne Quint regarding his recent Contract negotiations with the BOS while engaging in a fight that the union should never have taken on and spending our dues without justification.
Wayne keeps bringing up the question of the election cost. That is a sunk investment and regardless of the outcome that money is gone. We are fighting to save up to $800,000 by removing lifetime health care from a part time job for three current council members. He ignores that minor detail.
I pray that god has mercy on the souls of those terrorists who attack our freedom and those who put themselves in harms way to defend it. As a Christian that is what I was brought up to do.
Does that make me an “active supporter” of Al Qaeda or the Taliban, Larry?
MC.
Miguel.
What is your point?
Larry, I made my point.
Do I need to break out the Crayons and draw you a picture
MC.
?
MC ????
That makes about as much sense as your detailed comment
Larry,
Looks like your claims of Tyler’s license fiasco have tanked. Didn’t you lie when you said he had it all checked out and it was legitimate? Or did he lie to you? Now we read in the O.C. Register he hasn’t even had a California driver’s license for the last ten years. So which story he told is a lie? The one where he had it all checked out and was in the right or the one where he said if he had a house in each jurisdiction he could choose where he wanted to license his vehicles? This guy stinks to high heaven and as a Deputy in this county I don’t want your support if you’re going to back, sneaky, underhanded, unethical people for public office. I don’t care if MacLean got into a fight at work, people are human and that kind of thing should have been resolved between the individuals and the court system, not publicly debated by people like you who weren’t even there. And if he called Revis a B*tch, well the shoe fits, I’ve met her and she is exactly that. And before you throw it out there, I’m no MacLean supporter, I could care less. But don’t claim to be a supporter of law enforcement if you’re going to throw your hat into the ring with liars and cheats, that makes you just as bad as they are and we don’t want your support. Cathy Schlict is a wack job and everyone knows it. Ledesma has no backbone and everyone knows that to, he’ll shake hands with the majority every time and will never stick his neck out if it in the very least has a chance of backfiring on him. You need to re-think your loyalties Larry, your little so called “Watchdog” group is falling apart and the good people who want a nice community for everyone, not just the old folks like you are going to take over and well, you can just move if you don’t like it pal.
Free Radical,
Don’t bite the hand that feeds you either. It isn’t easy to make a city, “Safest” in the nation. It takes a lot of diligence and hard work. A lot of pro active police work and good investigations and that’s what you’re getting for your money. Why don’t you just come and out and say what you want, police you can boss around and push around instead of independent thinkers who are able to discern between drama queens like yourself and the truth tellers.
Some of these union lovers need to attend the Lance MacLean School of Anger Management.
Free radical.
While I may have issues with organized labor in some sectors, this post is not about the performance of the OCSD rank and file.
It’s about a union president who has been reckless in spending their dues on a cause that members were not even asked if their dues be spent in this race.
Perhaps OCSD union members needs a form of Paycheck Protection so that they can decide if and when their dues will be used for targeted political purposes rather than collective bargaining.
The issue is Lance MacLean a man who has a proven record of anger management issues. You can get side tracked on the duplicitous union, the other special interests, and all the other dribble. I say MacLean is not the type of person the city of Mission Viejo should have on its council. When MacLean threatens women, strangles a co-worker, and chases kids in his neighborhood hood with a shovel I believe the real issue is MacLean has lost all control.
Pres. Polk. As you have contributed comments before please stay on the thread.
While I have heard rumors of mayor MacLean’s older “anger management” problems I have refrained from providing those allegations in any of my posts.
This story is about the OCSD union expenditures in this recall election that will be double the combined expenditures of all the candidates and mayor MacLean.Wayne Quint has yet to provide a true explanation.
If Quint believes that $270,000 is a waste of taxpayer dollars, then what does he call the expenditure of $105,000 in union dues to oppose a Constitutional right?
@O brother where art thou?: The reason this story, and the story regarding Dale Tyler’s car registration/driver’s license issues, are not in the Saddleback Valley News is because both were written on Thursday/Friday, and the Saddleback Valley News deadlines on Wednesday night.
My goal was to have the stories in our community paper, as that would be the best service to my readership, but because of reporter rotation, I had to take a day off on Monday. On Tuesday, when I intended to start writing these stories in anticipation of the SVN deadline, the retirement/closed session deal regarding Orange Coast Community College District Chancellor Raghu Mathur broke, and the rest of my day was used to report and write that.
While both of these stories didn’t make the SVN, they will be, as of my understanding when I left on Friday, in the Sunday Register – a day of high-readership traditionally.
As the SVN represents directly my work, I apologize for not getting the stories in there, but these stories took time to report, and are all the better for not being rushed.
Niyaz.
Good morning Niyaz.
While I do not know who questioned the hard copy date, readers also need to recognize that every Register reporter has a boss who decides what is published and when we will see it.
Niyaz is truly enjoying his work covering this Mission Viejo recall. He is getting hammered by both camps which is a good thing. Hang in there. Election day is coming.
As of yesterday 9,310 voters have retunred their ballot sot the ROV.
My latest estimated turnout is between 11,000 and 12,000 which is terrible for an informed electorate.
That’s less than 20 percent.
Larry Gilbert. As you have contributed comments before please stay on the thread.
This thread is about the union partipating in the democratic process and putting out the facts about the waste of taxpayer money for a recall election only nine months before the sitting council member will face re-election before an informed electorate during the normal election cycle.
Vodka. I would stay off that firewater.
Election in nine months. Better than some who said the election was in five months.
I am told that the recall effort began over a year ago. You don’t control the clock with respect to the time required to process all of the campaign related paperwork nor do you control when the city clerk sets the election date.
Wayne Quint does not have any valid answers to why the union is spending around $100,000 in this election. With four voter polls being conducted, which typically cost between $10,000 to $15,000 each, we may never uncover the total spent to save Lance’s hide.
The cost of the recall is already a sunk investment regardless of the outcome.
And using children, stating that a new majority, whatever that really translates into, will impact daytime public school programs, is the worst hit piece I have ever seen. And I can speak from personal experience having been hit seven times by some real pro’s.
So I guess Larry Gilbert would prefer to just take away our rights to be involved in the political process. That’s the only thing I can gather from his postings. The bottom line is, we pay Wayne Quint to do what he believes is in the best interest of the community and the deputies as a whole. Larry, you don’t need to advise us, we know what our money is going to and quite honestly I am just fine with it. We don’t need paycheck protection, we’re well in tune with what our political monies are going to. Like I said before, don’t pretend to support us when you back unethical candidates, we don’t stand for that. If you’re going to align yourself with the likes of Brad Morton, FRancis Holtzman and Cathy Schlict then don’t bother running your mouth about how you support the police because they don’t and if you’re with them then you’re not with us.
Robert. Thanks for sharing your opinion. We will simply agree to disagree on the union involvement in the recall election.
I will forever be at a loss as to why the union would support with soooooo much money a man who has a history of anger mis management. Wayne say it was all about the recall, and only that. Balderdash….. There are much bigger issues and recalls including the 3rd time in 5 years that their school district is having another recall. No one ever talks about what that costs.
Most of us were disappointed in Tyler, and that no one vetted him. He was our only choice for candidate. That is about the same as the time we first ran Trish. Frank Ury had been the third candidate on the watchdogs slate of Ledesma, MacLean and Ury. Ury up and moved in the middle of the night, and we had no third. Since Sierra rec was a hot topic at the time, We asked most of the persons who were trying to save sierra. All of them said NO, that is until we got to Trish. Little miss shy said, OH geez, I don’t want to run, but I will do it only for four years. Now you need to pry her out. She has so become the establishment, she takes credit for everything, and appoints herself to every thing that pays. She doubled her stippend to $1,000.00 mo while rationalizing that there had not ever been a raise. But why should she get raises for years she was not on council???? hmmm
The word that we will explore in depth is BENEFITS. The insurance money she currently pockets, the extra money for every CDA meeting. The $2500 FSA money. The money for the OCFA and the committees she volunteers for, the free rec center dues. The mileage, the SCAG board she appointed herself to, and their subcommittees. The TCA committees she has appointed herself to and continues. She tried to appoint herself to Vector, until Ledesma said he wanted it. Anyway, it is clear that she cannot quit the floodlights and microphone, and certainly cannot made it without the money. Tell me, what did I miss trish?
I just read her campaign statement, and she takes credit for everthing that ever happened in the city including the crime rate which she inherited. However, she does not take credit for the $600,000 of taxpayer money she voted to give the car dealership, or the tarp money she recently blew. It is only too sad that there isn’t enough money to balance the **** that will be stuffed in our mail boxes, and the robo calls we all will get at home.
8 years is enough. Time to go encumbants.