My prior post on Mission Viejo city council compensation addressed a potential increase of the compensation of Mission Viejo council members from $500 to upwards of $1,300 per month. Following is a transcript of the July 7th council meeting discussion of Agenda Item #35 which relates to this topic that you can view at your pleasure on the city’s streaming video.
After a presentation regarding increased monthy council compensation by city attorney Bill Curley, mayor Trish Kelley said “I would like to.. appoint an ad hoc to review… and I would like to ask council member MacLean ..to serve.. and council member Ledesma..would you like to serve on that? John Paul responds saying “Madam mayor..of all the issues that I could focus on, that’s not one that I have a great deal of passion for..so I would rather focus on economic development.” Mayor Kelley responded “I Don’t think it will be a long term committment but I will serve with councilman MacLean on that and we will have some meetings.. and take a look at the information out there..”
Council Member Reavis asked to be recognized and said ” Mayor. I want to make a comment. I’m not supporting this now or in the future..we’ve had many conversations here that we don’t do this for the money and a month and a half ago or so it was a brutal exercise in what’s going to happen with the retiree medical of which none of us will be participating in either.. so since we’ve decided that this is a part time job and is almost volunteer .. umm, I just want everyone to know since this will not be coming back for a while..that I will not be supporting it no matter what they come back with. Thank you.”
On hearing Gail, member MacLean than states “Based on that I prefer not to serve, thank you.”
At this point you hear Member Ury say he would do it. Mayor Kelley closes this item by stating that Council Member Ury and I will come back with the information.
And now for the bottom line.
What triggered this whole compensation exercise anyway? In my prior post I mentioned a June 30th internal document (from Director Irwin Bornstein) that I received stating that “The following information is in response to questions from several councilmembers.”
I say that because if you watch the video you might get the impression that this whole exercise was the brainstorm of the city management when in truth it was at the request of two councilmembers.
Which one’s you might ask?
We now can respond to that question. A June 30th email from Irwin Bornstein reads: “It was Lance and Trish who asked about this.”
So here we have Mayor Trish Kelley appointing Lance and herself to the ad-hoc sub committee to propose a wage increase. Talk about having a “conflict of interest.”
Once council member Gail Reavis expressed her position I have to commend Lance for removing himself from that ad hoc team.
Wow this could start a run for the money at all the cities of the county.
One should consider that Council Members Ury and MacLean lost their day jobs some time ago. Neither appears to be employed, and the amount stated above is substantial to them. MacLean, who assaulted a co-worker at UCI, said he would like to work in public relations, but his rage issue probably disqualifies him. Ury is evidently using his council position to try and sell wireless coverage to other cities and the county. He does have three “friends” among county supervisors who might help him put bread on the table. Kelley is a housewife who seems to believe that money extracted from taxpayers is “free money,” and she could now elbow her way to the front of the line and get hers.
I hope those who live in other cities can learn from the errors of Mission Viejo voters who are currently saddled with a council majority of unemployed and unemployable city DISservants. Thank you, Larry, for the revelations about who is in back of the increase.
Email response from central OC:
Those two are disgusting. Is this thing making it into the OC register? Which one of those two lost their jobs/income that they have to mooch off your city?
Cook.
And you are right. This opens Pandora’s Box.
However, in MV, some only care about ourselves.
The city attorney’s “spin” machine was astounding.
To give the impression that THIS council has been in office for the past 20 years without an increase was deplorable. We have Term Limits so that none can serve more than 12 years.
You know the wage scale when you run for office. Therefore, regardless of how many years the city has retained the same compensation it is a non issue for this gang of five, of which some are simply out of control.
Serving the public is a privilege – whether it be as an elected official, a blogger or a watchdog, a policeman or fireman, or working as a volunteer in a service organization.
Our Planning Commissioners donate their services to the city for a $50 stipend; other citizens serving on various commissions, committees and positions donate their time and talents for free.
Our citizen volunteers are an asset to our community; their only agenda is to give back, contribute, protect and improve our city. Their experience and insight are a great resource.
The city council receives a minimum of $500 per month – not bad for part-time work. Increasing their wages to $1300 simply because they can because they are elected officials is an insult to all of our volunteers in our city.
John Paul is not interested in discussing a pay raise; Gail strongly stated her opposition to a pay raise, and Lance supported Gail’s position. So why are Trish Kelley and Frank Ury pushing this? There did not appear to be any consensus on the dais.
Did Frank see this as another opportunity to use his office to enrich himself; or did he have a vision for a campaign walk-piece, detailing how he curtailed salary increases?
I am back from the grave to haunt those greedy politicians.
This is a “voluntary position” serving the community. Now two council members want to make it a part time job. What is next–full time salary at say $155,000.00 per year?
The real issue is value.
What value do the council members bring to the city.?? For a measure of value something has to be done or performed.
For four years council member Ury has brought ZERO value to the community. Check it out—his cell phone buddies have brought health issues and a despoiling of our parks. He has done nothing about the Edison rape of the community which was his main plank of his platform. Mr ury has provided some laughs though–his pomposity makes me chuckle–even from the grave.!!
Trish Kelley brings a smile and pin neat suites to the dais, but nothing else. Her attempt to get a gym on tax payer money for the Capo School District was a farce. The “Community of Character” is a joke–how about a sign warning parents using Flo Jo Park about EMF instead of her neatly printed hand outs on “the word of the month”. Mayor Kelley a sign advising of health issues related to EMF would show some “character” instead of a blind eye. Mayor Kelley’s last pick pocket act was OC Fire State 24 (Firegate) the re landscaping of Fire Station 24 on the cities ticket. Maybe that was done to gain fire union support for her choice to try and unseat council member Reavis in the next election.
Time to though all the rascals out and start all over. Where is Norm Murray when we/you need him.?? I guess he is sitting up here with me…I believe I saw him dancing last week.
Grover
I dont believe that any anount paid a board or commission of elected members should be large enough to that it is in itself an incentive to serve. My thoughts is that the amount is designed to prevent those public servants who are not salaried from having to expend money to attend their meetings. That is, the price of gas to get to home and back, and a meal if you’re unable to go home to eat because of the meeting, no more (sorry Frank).
In thinking about the SAUSD situation and its comparison to this I wonder do the MV Councilmembers recieve the full employee health benefit package for serving on the council and how much does that cost a year?
Larry,
Know anyone in Great Falls Montana? They have been viewing your MV council compensation thread for 20 hours.
Dude!
😉
Red Vixen.
In addition to posting my stories or opinions on this blog I send email copies all over the state.
Every member of the Juice team is sent a copy the minute they appear. Some of my emails even go across the country depending on the issue at hand.
we are not getting our dollars worth out of the council now. increasing their wages will only further diminish our returns.
there is more value coming from public comments than is from this council. but public participation is a threat to their personal agendas.
egos and self-enrichment schemes are destroying the california promise.
Anonymous.
In a prior post I was asked about city council auto use. Unless my source is incorrect, they are now receiving $0.505 per mile for city business travel. All of their travel relating to their committee asssignments, League of City meetings and state of the City events are paid for by the taxpayers.
A few years back I questioned an excessive expenditure for dining in Long Beach at a League of Cities meeting attended by our former city manager and that city council. They had selected the most expensive restaurant in Long Beach as evidenced by the tab. However, they could not provide any documentation indicating the purpose of that dinner meeting or a listing of the attendees. You could never get away with that in the private sector or an IRS audit.
Local “watchdogs” have a responsibility to keep their feet to the fire as it relates to the expenditure of taxpayer funds.
Email reply:
I was aware of the compensation issue, and have sent an email to Gail congratulating her on having the common sense and chutzpah to take the correct position on it!!