When Lance MacLean was recalled in February, his son quipped in the OCR, “See you in November.”  So it was not a surprise that MacLean picked up a council candidate’s packet Wednesday from the City Clerk.

MacLean (Navy Shirt) Golfing With City Trash Bidder's Team

   An employees’ union, the AOCDS, spent an unprecedented sum narrowly failing to save MacLean during the recall.  It loaded cable TV programming with slick commercials, and the union filled mailboxes with attacks on grassroot residents. 

   MacLean was cited by some voters for his arrogance, exemplified by a police report that said three officers had to pull MacLean off a fellow UCI employee, handcuff him, and wrestle him to the ground while he shouted expletives at police.  MacLean agreed with a judge to take anger management classes to avoid prosecution. 

Dave Leckness

   Following the recall, MacLean threatened to sue the OC Registrar of Voters and ridiculed his replacement, Dave Leckness, calling Leckness a “lesser evil” and telling the OC Weekly, ”[Leckness] thinks himself to be quite the jokester. He’s flippant, he’s comical. That’s going to wear real thin after a few meetings . ..”  It was serious betrayal by MacLean, considering Leckness partnered with Lance during the recall.

   MacLean also threatened the City, telling the OC Weekly he might have to sue Mission Viejo and the OC District Attorney:  “It looks like I may have to sue all three of em,” he told the Weekly.

   A resident’s letter to the Dispatch summarized other issues:

The issue of the recall is Councilman Lance MacLean – nothing else. I want to take a moment to respond to MacLean’s campaign rhetoric versus the facts on just a few of the relevant issues.

He told Councilwoman Gail Reavis to “Shut the Hell Up.” The truth is certainly more aggressive than Lance and his surrogates have stated in their PR release. Also, I am a good friend of Diane Greenwood. I arrived on the scene just a few minutes after MacLean verbally assaulted her with his nose in her face. The woman was traumatized; she is 5′ 4″ and 123 pounds, and Lance is over 6′ 4″ and 230-plus pounds. Those wanting more information can call Mission Viejo resident Bill Barker to confirm this, as he witnessed MacLean’s tirade and his nose-to-nose assault on Diane.

So why hasn’t Lance addressed the anger management issues he had at UCI? He plea bargained out of criminal charges and now claims it was no big deal. The details on his assault case were reported in an Irvine Police Report, the UCI official campus newspaper, and the OC Weekly. By the way, when the OC Register attempted to get facts on the case, Lance played games with the reporter, falsifying his age and his middle name. I know public institutions don’t take precipitous actions, so I wonder if there were other incidents that led up to UCI’s “urging” Lance’s “early retirement.”

More details: Something no one has addressed was Lance’s brutal browbeating of Dr. Frank Lieberman at a council meeting when Dr. Lieberman was discussing some potential changes in the Fun with Chalk event this year. Mind you, Lieberman has put this event on for years and donated the residual funds to various art projects and schools that promote art. Lance’s act on this occasion was a total embarrassment, and it is just another indication he has NOT solved his anger management problem.

In addition, on numerous occasions Lance has taken the special interest position that is opposed to the citizens in our community. On the Southern California Edison Viejo System Project, (look out your back window and thank Lance for all those lines) he continually tried to deter action by the city to get Edison to bury the lines. Lance has since ignored the fact that Edison’s EMF reading from the Viejo System Project lines far exceeds what they said it would be. This was validated by the Sage and Associates’ readings (commissioned by the City of Mission Viejo) but dismissed  by Lance. Mind you, MV children are now exposed to a Class B carcinogen, thanks to Lance’s game-playing. Details can be found in the Sage Report and the Bio-Initiative Report.

Another note that no one has addressed was that Lance was on the Transportation Corridor Agency (TCA) when all the consultants and bond pushers wanted to “refinance” the toll road. That would have cost millions if he had succeeded. Luckily, County Supervisor Bill Campbell stepped in and stopped that nonsense. Lance summarily dismissed and demeaned the environmentalists on the 241 extension. I attended the meeting at the Del Mar race track when the California Coastal Commission listened to the details. Lance was an outright embarrassment for our city. The California Coastal Commission must have thought so also, as they said a big NO to the TCA and Lance as the TCA representative.

Lance also failed to support his Deane neighborhood school when hearings were being held to see if it should be closed. Wouldn’t you think he would come to the meetings and express a concern for the neighborhood and potential property value impact?  Not Lance.

I was Chairman of the Friends of Mission Viejo that originally helped get Lance elected.  I had a number of conversations with him during that campaign. I spent time waving his campaign signs with him on the street corners. Typically, Lance told me one thing and then did exactly the opposite after he was elected. Lance started out by wanting to do good, but he very quickly only wanted to do good for himself. As an example, he took campaign money from Edison, walked away from his campaign platform, doubled his salary and gave himself lifetime health care benefits.    Joe Holtzman.

   A letter written by MacLean, released through Trish Kelley, was printed in the OC Register after the recall wherein he specifically wished “vindication” against recall organizers.  His best opportunity is a general election like this one where he doesn’t need a majority of the votes as required in the recall. 

   There are currently 11 potential council candidates this year for three seats, and Mission Viejo doesn’t hold run-off elections.  MacLean realizes he could be elected by a small minority.  In 2006 he was re-elected among 10 candidates by receiving only 11.5% of the votes.

{ 30 comments }