On August 21 the City of Mission Viejo filed a court petition alleging two sentences in Neil Lonsinger’s city council candidate statement were false or misleading, and should be amended or deleted. The Dispatch has learned the action was precipitated and orchestrated behind the scenes by Councilman Lance MacLean.
Lonsinger alleged in his original statement that the City spent $23,000 on easels for an anniversary event, and that City Hall lied by stating the job was done largely by volunteers. MacLean used public works director Keith Rattay to convince the City Clerk the easels cost the city about $16,500 instead of Lonsinger’s number of $23,000. Lonsinger was not contacted by the City for clarification or supporting documentation before he was served with a court summons.
Although City Code prohibits a council member from directing the actions of City staff, it appears MacLean enlisted staff members, taxpayer money, and the City Attorney in achieving his political goal of trying to smear Lonsinger.
The easel cost has been explored by other residents who obtained city records under the Public Records Act. Those facts and analysis were published in detail by the editorial staff of the Mission Viejo Newsblog on August 2 and August 9, substantiating Lonsinger’s statement.
At today’s court hearing Lonsinger’s attorney, Brad Morton, told the judge, “Mr. Lonsinger adamantly believes his original candidate statement is true, but felt it imprudent to further use resources of the court and city taxpayers, as well as the candidate himself, since changing a few words could resolve the matter.”
Lonsinger reached a resolution with the City within a few hours after he was served the petition on Monday, but the City had already placed an article on its website, released a newsletter, and given an unfavorable story to the OC Register.
Today (Thursday) an OC judge instructed the county registrar to honor the agreement between Neil and the City to amend his city council candidate’s statement.
Neil Lonsinger
“Despite this childish action against me,” said Lonsinger, “I hope voters appreciate my mature approach to dealing with this matter. I believe this is the type of level-headed judgment we need to address problems of the City. Residents want practical, experienced people on the council instead of raging, vengeful politicians who enjoy playing dirty tricks.”
Lonsinger anticipates more misleading attacks against him by a small, close-knit alliance of well-heeled special interests and political professionals associated with promoting the election of Frank Ury and Ury’s recruit, Richard Atkinson.
[Note: As already disclosed under About, Mr. Morton is the publisher of the MV Dispatch.]
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Since Ury’s ballot statement contained inappropriate and false information, why didn’t MacLean also drag him into court? Ury gave his occupation as mayor pro tem, which is not allowed as a ballot designation. He claims the Crown Valley widening project is finished, and that’s obviously incorrect. He states he’ll expand one street’s light synchronization citywide, which is not technically possible.
I spent two days at city hall verifying the info that was published on the blog about the easels. Why can’t the city can’t come up with an amount and stick to it? First, Rattay told SVN the easels cost a total of $15 each. Now, he says the amount is $16,500 ($33 per easel for labor alone), which doesn’t include the cost of materials. I also don’t agree with the amount $16,500 for labor, as it clearly is higher according to city records.
It is not up to Lance MacLean, Frank Ury and Trish Kelley to decide the outcome of this election by using our taxes to thwart challengers.
The latest action by MacLean and his associates just demonstrate the contempt they have for the citizens of Mission Viejo.
In the last election Lance MacLean was observed moving an opponents campaign sign. He was caught and the police were called. During the last couple of years MacLeans actions have revealed the rage within him. His latest actions just reinforce the fact that he has not learned from his mistaken past actions.
From Easelgate, Firegate, Dumpgate, Floatgate to Challengegate our city officials/politicians have NO problem wasting tax payer money on their own interests. The latest actions by MacLean and other politicos in the city of Mission Viejo underscores that the present city council needs to be replaced.
I ask–”What did this whole Challengate action cost the tax payers of Mission Viejo.???” Why couldn’t angry man MacLean, or the city clerk talk to Mr. Lonsinger about his campaign statement and as decent human beings work out the differences. Instead we were forced to pay our city attorney to go to the county court and take up county resources to resolve a problem even Junior High School kids could have worked out.
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Mr. Holtzman refers to problem’s resolution being worked out as Junior High School kids could have done it. I recall in Junior High School, problems were often resolved by a fistfight behind the gym. Based on Mr. MacLean’s recent demonstration of problem resolution at UCI by the use of violent force in slamming a person he perceived as causing a problem up against a wall and requiring police intervention, his old methods did smack of Junior High School antics.
But I think that Lance MacLean has made some real progress here by not slamming Mr. Lonsinger up agains the wall, but rather in a more civilized way by engaging the city attorney and the courts (all at taxpayers’ expense) to help Mr. Losinger rectify his his ‘serious’ transgression. We all know that Mr. MacLean, being the honest, caring, and well-meaning person that he truly is, could never be self-serving and means only well for Mr. Lonsinger and the welfare of his citizen constituents.