Guest commentary.
Earth Day in Mission Viejo
For the past several years the City of Mission Viejo in conjunction with Earth Day and other city celebrations has “provided” free mulch for the resident’s gardens and or lawns. Typically the mulch is placed on the parking lot at the Animal Shelter (some know it as the dog pound). A set date, and time, is posted on the cities web site, and communicated to the local newspapers. The city encourages residents to only take a ”fair share”—(a thirty three gallon container) so that many can take advantage of the opportunity.
In the past I have had a need for mulch for my gardens, and sometime my lawn. This year however, since I have started composting yard clippings, leaves, and those refrigerator “science project” I was not in need of the mulch from the city.
However, I always found this “free mulch” experience to be entertaining. Watching those folks scooping up the mulch, filling containers, and then discovering it was far too heavy to load into their two seat sports car. This year was no disappointment !!
The start time for the free mulch giveaway was Saturday at 9:00AM—so I left home at 8:30AM to make sure I got there for the start of this entertaining event. I arrived about 8:37AM to find out that the mob had arrived early—indeed half the usual pile of mulch was gone already. Yes—indeed the “early bird had gotten the worms.”
However there were 12 souls there madly scooping mulch into their buckets, barrels, bags, and in two cases the back of their pickup trucks. No constrain on amounts were being shown by anyone at this point in time. In the case of the pickup trucks, they were full pick up beds on these trucks—(8’x4’) and both owners had pretty much filled up these trucks. Another vehicle—a SUV had six 33 gallon plastic containers loaded into it—with more cloth bags being filled by its owner and being stuffed between the 33 gallon containers.
When I asked one of the pickup truck owners if he thought he had enough he stated, “Maybe, why was I asking.” I said there was a limit of one 33 gallon container set by the city so others could also get some mulch. He sheepishly replied—“I know—but there ain’t no fertilizer cops here so I will just helped myself.” When I mentioned that the mulch might blow out on his open truck bed on the way home—he said, “No problem—I am only going to San Clemente.” And here I thought this was for the folks who lived in Mission Viejo–what a fool I am !!
AAAAHHHHH yes—another entertaining moment at the Mission Viejo free mulch frenzy.
Joe Holtzman
And do we know what his cost the city?
Costs???
This is Mission Viejo–who cares what it costs !!
Good point, but I looked into it, and it was “Donated” by the trash hauler. No harm no foul.
Big Mark.
I think Joe’s point is two fold. What he referred to is the lack of any planning by the city to monitor those who take the free mulch. Having a SCAT team volunteer on the scene would have prevented any vulture activity as reported by Joe.
you guys sure go out of your way to find something to complain about. One question was the guy with the pickup Dale Tyler? He who never registers his vehicles in CA?
Little Big Man,
The city can never win with some and they will criticize regardless of the city’s intentions or its programs. The free mulch program apparently doesn’t cost anything, and yet they still gripe.
Newbie.
I met with Vice Mayor Leckness this morning to discuss the Fun With Chalk event. In that brief exchange I did suggest having our SCAT team oversee the program to eliminate future abuse.
What Joe was pointing out was a failure to anticipate and cover any contingencies.
Newbie, and Little man…. What part of “No harm no Foul” is a Gripe, or complaining?
Larry,
What you were doing was trying to be constructive. What Joe was doing was taking yet another opportunity to take a pot shot at the sitting Council majority. There is nothing constructive in the story. In fact, he treats the whole thing as a joke (he admits he didn’t even need mulch this year but went merely for the entertainment value). If he truly has concerns for the program (which I doubt at this point), he can direct comments to the Council at a meeting, he can contact city staff, or he can relay those concerns to you to address with a councilmember at the appropriate time. He chose to write a hit piece instead. I am all for open discussion on here, agree or disagree, but this kind of pointless story is what frustrates real dialogue.
Newbie.
What you are not aware of is that Joe shared his experience with vice mayor Dave Leckness. And I heard that from Dave this morning, not from Joe. Dave, who was just elected, agreed with my comments.
The free mulch is donated by the city’s waste hauler, where it was giving back to the community some of our green waste collected and then composted through-out the year.
Joe’s article was a humorous commentary on the greedy individuals who were not only taking more than they should have, but who were also not even Mission Viejo residents.
So Newbie and LBM, take the plank out of your eyes and re-read the post. There is not any complaint about the lack of city oversight, but maybe a subliminal message about the lack of foresight.
I was a volunteer at the Fun with Chalk this weekend when Joe came over to my booth, and humorously described the scene at the animal shelter parking lot. There were not any expectations that I as a council member, should condemn city staff or the council majority for the “free mulch frenzy” that was occurring at the animal shelter.
However, I did ask if he noticed any landscape businesses loading up. I will leave it to you and your mental powers to guess what Joe’s response was.
Cathy,
Kudos for the Matthew reference. However, knowing Joe’s history with the council, you’ll forgive me if I’m not a little skeptical about his motives for penning the piece.
However, after consulting my mental powers, I am in agreement that if landscape businesses are indeed improperly utilizing free mulch for commercial purposes, monitoring is in order.
Maybe Newbi and Little Big Man can contrubute their time to the city.
As I recall Joe raised money for the “Olympic Start / Finish Lines”, supported, worked to save the city from the Edison rape of North Mission Viejo, and pushed for the Green Ordinance in the city, was among the first to put his money where his mouth was; by installing solar energy, worked to reduce water useage in MVEA by 39%, and has contributed over 5,000 hours to his HOA.
Sooooooooo LBM step up to the plate–little man.
Oh I do donate a lot of time to the city Sally Flowers. Since you don’t know who I am you’d be surprised at just how much I’ve donated over the years. And I know that Joe has quite the reputation around town, especially with the Deputies. And I’m curious if Cathy’s sending Joe a box of condoms and popcorn had anything to do with her coming to his rescue here. You are all very quick to attack you know. I made one observation and was attacked by several. Seem pretty touchy around here. Maybe that nut job Dan Avery has a point about you folks. Time will tell I guess.
LBM. Keep it up. We will miss you on the Juice.
Don’t engage in personal attacks, including Dan Avery whose name does not appear anywhere in this post.
Here’s the funny thing, every time I’ve commented on here I’ve been attacked personallly and usually it’s some immature comment about my screen name which attempts to call my manhood into question. Sally Flowers does it above and Hotzman has done it on other threads even once calling me Frank Ury’s butt buddy, but I have yet to hear you caution them about personal attacks. Is there a reason for that? Seems a tad off to me.
LBM.
I have cautioned all writers to refrain from personal attacks.
Do you have anything to add regarding my happy report for our vice mayor? This post has a single topic. Mulch.
If you follow our city you would recall Dave asking us to write something nice about the city at his swearing in ceremony.
So then this article by Holtzman profiling the nature of Human Greed was your version of writing something nice? I see….Well, then I stand corrected. I would have responded to your report on your meeting with Leckness, but you didn’t tell us anything other than you discussed the fun with chalk event and you talked “scat” with him. Not knowing how he responded gives me nothing to add does it?
LBM.
Look again. The post on Earth Day was NOT written by me.
The “happy post” from this keyboard covered the Fun with Chalk festival.
Dave’s request was to Mission Viejo ‘s three bloggers of which I am one. Joe H is not in that group.
Let me add. Can you please refrain from going off the track, or as we say off the thread.
If you want to find out about my visit to Dave why don’t you give him a call or simply stop to say hello.
Interesting to see the Little Big Man is sensitive about his manhood. Maybe there is an issue here ?? In addition I have never called LBM Ury’s Butt Buddy–maybe Butt Boy–but never Butt Buddy. Besides Frank Ury is looking for his sheepskin !!
So why doesn’t LBM come out from behind his shield of anonymity–notice I signed the story–how about stay on thread about what was observed during the mulch frenzy ??
Happy TRAILS LBM !!!
actually Dave told me all about your visit and his version is different than yours. odd that. And Holtzman I really don’t care what you call me. You’re hardly relevant to whatever happens in Mission Viejo. Seriously.
Well shoot, I need some mulch and had no idea there was any available to residents. Would have been nice to know….