Some acquaintances feel Rhonda Reardon may raise the standard for candidates if she files the election papers she obtained from the City Clerk Thursday.  Ms. Reardon has strong credentials in business, charity and community service. 

   She held several positions with Pacific Bell/AT&T, including Product Manager for Wireless Interconnection.  In addition, she was Project Manager for New Product Development, Performance Management, and Systems & Network Modernization . . . supervising projects costing as much as $100 million and impacting over 6,000 employees. 

   A PACBELL commendation was presented to her for outstanding success in negotiations. Rhonda holds a specialized MBA from Pepperdine in Technology Management and a BA in history.

  A resident for 30 years, Rhonda’s personal rewards have come from community service.  She currently serves as Chair of the Board for the Saddleback Valley YMCA.  She is a court-appointed special advocate for abused children, has tutored younger children, and mentored high school and college graduates.

   Ms. Reardon has been an advocate for transparent MV government as reflected by her comment in 2008:

I am most appalled at Ury’s effort to prevent the citizens of MV from speaking out on agenda items from the Council’s Consent Calendar. I stood on corners for him four years ago because I thought he actually believed that the citizens of MV have the right to open and transparent government. I was wrong to have believed him . . . very, very wrong.

Karen Bishop

   Founded in 1985 by Dr. Karen Bishop, Halstrom High School is marking 25 years in Mission Viejo.  Located in South Mission Viejo at 26440 La Alameda, Suite 150, Halstrom was originally known as Futures High School.

  The school provides an academic program that optimizes learning by focusing on individual skills, interests and rate of progress. Students and teachers work together to achieve personalized academic goals. All instuction is one-to-one, individualized to meet the specific needs of each student. Academic programs are offered to students in 7th-12th grades.

   Halstrom students have partnered with Mission Hospital’s Childrens’ Trauma Center annually to provide toys and books during the holiday season, collected food and supplies for the Second Harvest Food Bank, provided care packages for the homeless of Orange County and sponsored book drives for a kindergarten class at a near by elementary school. Halstrom High School is proud to be part of the great city of Mission Viejo.

   Halstrom has two other locations, in Vista and San Diego.  It also conducts an online high school program.  HHS is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, offers “a-g” UC certifed courses, and is NCAA approved. The private school is non-sectarian. Further information is available at the website or by calling (949) 348-0608.

   An Orange Juice article by Larry Gilbert is reporting a 13th potential candidate among those aspiring for three Mission Viejo city council seats in November.  Two of those seats are held by incumbents who have indicated they will seek re-election.

   According to the OJ, and confirmed to the Dispatch by City Clerk Karen Hamman, Donna Bourassa, Treasurer of the Mission Viejo Environmental Association, obtained candidate papers from the City Clerk Thursday morning.  Donna is a 35-year resident.

   In 2003 Bourassa approached the City Council about the need to find homes for pets being left behind by Camp Pendleton Marines being sent overseas. Referring to a newspaper report that San Diego animal facilities were reaching capacity, she submitted the following public comment:

With more than 20 empty kennels at the Mission Viejo Animal Care Center, wouldn’t it be a wonderful gesture on the part of this City to open it’s shelter doors and take in a few of these highly adoptable dogs and find them new homes? Aside from the great public relations such a gesture would create with our City is the goodwill and community spirit in helping animals in need. It’s devastating for many people to have to give up their pets, especially under these stressful circumstances, so if we can find new homes for some of these pets, we would be giving some peace of mind to our fellow Americans who are about to put their lives on the line for our country.

    Gilbert is withholding the name of a 14th possible candidate pending the pulling of papers by that individual later Thursday morning.

   The last time I checked, Mission Viejo’s city-wide pavement condition rating is 88 out of 100. That would make it one of the best in the county. Yet you people still complain that the work isn’t getting done fast enough. Well, that’s typical south orange county snobbery and elitism. What a bunch of cry babies you are. Your streets will be fixed in due time, so quit acting like the real housewives of OC and go find hobbies already.   -Paul DiPietro

[Editor's Note: In this instance, the Dispatch did not edit the somewhat amusing name-calling in Mr. DePietro's comment because it illustrates its classic non-constructive use to avoid issues, to wit:

Nichols Consulting Engineers has performed the most recent four MV pavement analyses. The last was in 2008. The firm notes the current problem in its 2010 proposal:

In the case of Mission Viejo, the gas tax has traditionally been used to fund the resurfacing program, but last year, this was transferred to other projects, resulting in only one resurfacing project instead of the usual 4 to 6.

In addition, Nichols points out the Asphalt Price Index increased by a factor of 5 during the last 10 years, while government revenues are recently in crisis. MV relies on funds from other agencies for street repair and allocates its own general fund revenues to other priorities, so local citizens are sounding the alarm and providing evidence of the problem.

Nichols summarizes the situation:

The combination of all these factors may have serious consequences for the City of Mission Viejo. Historically, the City has a seven-year cycle to maintain and rehabilitate the neighborhoods . . . However, given the factors mentioned above, it may not be possible to continue to maintain the seven-year cycle . ..

The Nichols report mentions the possibility of extending the cycle to 10 years or more unless budget changes or cost-saving technology is found.]

Saam's Student Council Ad

   Last year Saam Alikhani was running for student council president at Dana Hills High. He graduated last month and is now running against Anna Bryson for the Capistrano School Board. 

   More surprising is that Saam is the candidate selected by Children First in its union-backed attempt to wrest control from the current reform majority on the Board.

   Perhaps this is what CF meant when it promised a broad coalition among its candidates.  Alikhani does have experience as the student representative to the Board last year.

   Last month Children First appointed the 18-year-old to its advisory board to help devise strategy for the November 2 elections, citing his selection as Dolphin of the Year by his high school faculty and staff.  He plans to attend UCI this fall in a political science/pre-law program.

   Children First has announced four of its five candidates. Gary Pritchard (Aliso Viejo) and John Alpay (San Clemente) are its recall candidates against Mike Winsten and Ken Maddox.  Lynn Hatton will oppose Dave Christensen for the Mission Viejo/RSM District.  The next announcement will be an opponent for Trustee Addonizio in Area 6.  All trustees are elected at-large by all voters in the Capistrano District. [View Blackboard Report]

Bill Aitken

   Three moms completed an ambitious art project this week aimed at stimulating appreciation of art by the students at Del Lago Elementary School.  The finished ‘canvas’, the brick wall of a handball court, also beautifies the outdoor playground environment. 

   They recreated a work titled Local Surfers from the collection of surf artist Drew Brophy. The surfers are dolphins.

Drew Brophy

   Drew has been creating exciting surfboard designs and surf paintings for 20 years. His work is known internationally. Some is licensed to more than a score of companies to print on products, including t-shirts, greeting cards, art prints, stickers, beach towels, boogie boards, shoes, surfboards, fabrics, tattoos, cd covers, skimboards, and skateboards.

L-R: Wendy Northrup, Patty Roberts, Courtney Arlow

   The artistic mothers - Wendy Northrup, Patty Roberts, and Courtney Arlow – contributed the idea, time and talent, as well as equipment and supplies. Sherwin Williams and Wyland Foundation helped the effort by donating paint.

   The SVUSD Del Lago campus is at 27181 Entidad off Los Alisos in North Mission Viejo. 

Graded Field Foreshadows New Gym (right)

   Los Alisos Intermediate School is restoring its athletic and recreational field (satellite), including the football field and oval running track.  The old running track, which circled only the football field, will be enlarged to surround the entire parcel.

   Grading began on the area at the end of the school term, stripping away all of the old grass and track surface.  Since then contractors have been restoring and improving the irrigation system.  A new pump was installed to overcome a problem caused by falling water pressure at the site, which contributed to the loss of grass.

   Hydroseeding is scheduled to be done soon, and school officials expect the field and track to be available for use in October.

   The School, located at Los Alisos and Muirlands, is in the Saddleback Unified District.

   Thousands of current and former parishioners of St. Kilian’s Church in Mission Viejo, as well as members of the community at-large, gathered Sunday afternoon to celebrate the priesthood of Fr. Jim Dunning.  The party marked the retirement of the beloved pastor after 20 years of service at the parish and 47 years in the priesthood.

Fr. Jim Dunning

   After a barbecue luncheon provided by Outback Steakhouse, Fr. Jim’s admirers stood in long lines for a chance to say goodbye. Fr. Jim led the parish through the growth period of the final build-out of the City of Mission Viejo. Last year St. Kilian’s christened its new Parish Center, which all agreed Friday would not have happened without Fr. Jim’s leadership. Plans are in place to build a new sanctuary.

   “There is always more that one wants to complete before one departs,” said Fr. Dunning. “There are always more ideas, more projects, more outreach, but I am confident in all of you to carry on our good work and plans for the future. After praying about it, I realized it was time to step down and let someone with more energy carry out all of our ambitious plans, although it was very difficult for me to come to that conclusion and I did not do so without much prayful consideration.”

   The Faithful filled the new parish hall community room, for a gentle roast of Fr. Jim by parishioners, family and friends. Fr. Jim is known for a great sense of humor and the ability to serve out and accept ribbing graciously. Perhaps the highlight of the “roast” was his nephew and niece recalling that on his trips to visit the family in Nebraska, he would take them to the mall. It seemed whenever he engaged in a conversation with anyone, he would quickly point out that they were his niece and nephew. They presented him with a T-Shirt that proclaimed, “These are NOT my kids.”

   Fr. Dunning’s retirement is effective at the end of July. Fr. Bruce Patterson and Fr. Wayne Adajar will begin their new assignments as Pastor and Parochial Vicar, respectively.

St. Kilian's Gathering In Parish Hall

[Article by Allan Pilger]

    Mission Viejo resident Chuck Early is helping others by explaining how he and his wife were recently scammed out of $5,000 in a phone call.  It wasn’t the typical sales or giveaway fraud, which is why the Early’s and local law enforcement are providing the follow story: