As you may all recall, Lance MacLean put out 500 signs the weekend before the 2006 election that I was in. Those signs said “Reject Greenwood and Barker. They will raise your taxes and lower your property value”. It was an absurd claim, but he was running scared.
It was that same weekend that he verbally assaulted me on the corner of La Paz and Marguerite, a few inches from my face. He was angry that he might lose, and was willing to win at any cost. He did, by 94 votes, and now is running scared again and is now putting out signs making citizens fear that their taxes could raise and property values decline if they do not keep him in office.
If Lance MacLean has another anger outburst and attempts to strangle another person while presiding as mayor, that is when the city can be wiped out financially. It will affect every citizen in Mission Viejo. We cannot afford to keep Lance MacLean in office…he is a liability.
I doubt that the Mission Viejo Police Department will protect him again. He now has a record and too many people have been on the other side of his anger. I have heard from many such people since my episode with him, and believe that they are now ready to come forward. There is safety in numbers.
UCI did the right thing and now it is time for the citizens of Mission Viejo to do the same.I urge everyone to vote in favor of the recall and remove a man who is a liability to our city and all of its citizens. This is how you truly protect your taxes, property values, and your family.
Diane Greenwood
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
And now, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls … we have heard the facts from the actual person involved so no one has to take any one else’s word for “what really happened.”
Ms. Greenwood is right in urging everyone to vote. If we don’t, then we get what we deserve and shame on us!
I commend the Dispatch for publishing this letter, espcially when Diane Greenwood has first hand knowledge to share with your readers. Let me add one closing comment.
While some have questioned the cost of the recall election, others have told me that should an individual get into a confrontation with a member of our city council we could face a multimillion dollar lawsuit, especially if it is someone who has already engaged in an altercation in which the city took no punitive action.
How exactly are Diane Greenwood’s “first hand knowledge” claims necessarily any more valid than MacLean’s, just because she wrote a letter and someone else endorsed… her letter? Whether he won by “only” 94 votes or not, he did win, and barring any evidence of vote-rigging, he was democratically elected.
Politicians, and I would assume Ms. Greenwood is one of them (as is MacLean) hurl exaggerations, absurd claims, make promises, employ scare tactics all the time.
I tend to go by the voting records as a better indicator. In most of the meetings I attended, other than Cathy Schicht, the council pretty votes the same way.
So what exactly in his voting record that sets him apart from the other three makes him unfit and the others fit to continue?
I am not quibbling about his UCI-style incidents, which stand on their own, and the recall effort will reflect that — oust him if enough people see that as relevant. I am more interested in someone pointing out his council votes that sets him apart from the other three Ury, Ledesma and Kelley.
Shripathi Kamath, finally a voice of reason! They can’t give you an answer of course. They want him out because he seems the weakest of the lot. Sort of like if I was on the council…they’d be screaming that I am a liberal and an anti-war activist from the 70’s, and the Gods know what else.
Don’t Shripathi and Dan see him as a liability to the city? If he has an angry encounter with a citizen and that citizen chooses to sue the city it could cost many more dollars than are in our current bank account! Also, don’t they see lifetime health benefits as a giant liability for the city?
It is fine to look at voting records but in this instance it is wise to look beyond!
[Editor's Note: It might be helpful to Ms. Blek and other readers if commenters disclosed what benefits they receive from Mr. MacLean's voting record, e.g. multi-million dollar tennis center expansion, etc.]
The only one to qualify for those benefits currently is Bill Craycraft. Lance would have to win in next November’s election. And we all know how unlikely that is.