Compared to other cities, our replacement reserves should be proportionately higher because we have so many more parks, ball fields and luxury facilities in proportion to population than almost all other cities. Otherwise our superior quality of life will decline in Mission Viejo.

Instead of building in moderation over the years, our leaders have chosen to build irresponsibly, so that now the continuing needs of our residents can’t be met. To accommodate this $4 million Tennis Center, hundreds of thousands of dollars must be cut from our regular services to the residents – including library materials and programs, and public services such as sports fields maintenance, playgrounds and landscaping maintenance, recreation and community services, technology replacements, no earthquake insurance for our facilities. And we are still $3 million short, and that may increase when the state comes after more money from our treasury.

And yet Dennis Wilberg – City Manager, Keith Rattay – Director of Public Services, Kelly Doyle – Director of Recreational Community Services, and our majority council Kelley, Ury and MacLean have the consciousness to move ahead anyway with the Tennis Center without amending it to a more modest plan. Their spending is a runaway train.

Our facilities are terribly costly to maintain and consequently “the rubber is now meeting the road.” Our revenues and reserves are declining. THERE IS NO MONEY FOR NEW CITY PROJECTS WITHOUT CANCELLING OR DEPLETING OUR CITY SERVICES AND INFRASTRUCTURE.

And our Council Member Schlicht gets shut down by the Mayor when she recommends further analysis and a more careful look at how we’re allocating what income and savings we have.

And as if the city planners have not memtioned that they have no idea what our state is going to do to our revenue, our city council is going to spend that money anyway. The reduction in revenue identified so far is only the tip of the revenue reduction iceberg. Since we do not know what that is, a responsible city council needs to stop funding that tennis project for at least a couple of years or even forever.

I had to laugh when Trish Kelley said it had been part of our budget. She failed to understand that the revenue side of that budget was being dramatically reduced due to the economic downturn we are experiencing. I guess Trish Kelley lives in a parallel universe wearing rose color glasses.

So infrastructure continues to be ignored while overcost projects continue to plague Mission Viejo. Thanks Kelley, Ury, MacLean and Ledesma – your fantastic!

Give me a break! Local government is staffed by the same shortsighted mentality that the state government is. And, the worst part is, somebody keeps reelecting these idiots!