Originally published as “RSM Facing Huge Financial Jeopardy Over District Elections“ on Medium.Com, 4-28-2024
April 2024 was a big event for the residents of Rancho Santa Margarita. They were able to show enough presence and will to force Mayor Carol Gamble and Councilman Tony Beall to retreat from their objective to shut down the Boys & Girls Club and replace it with a museum to themselves. Both these politicians have been found guilty of campaign finance violations, which you can read about here and here. In addition, Tony Beall has two recent IRS liens against his home for nearly $180,000 for unpaid taxes. That’s a lot of income not to pay taxes on. All of this sets the stage to understand who we are dealing with because, at the same time, the city is going through a lawsuit to switch to district voting.
It’s important to note that Tony Beall, through his strategic manipulation of district boundaries, has executed a form of gerrymandering that would impress a circus contortionist. This has created several problems. The first is a clear violation of the FAIR MAPS Act. The second is that the creation of an “at-large” mayor to allow Tony Beall to run this year doesn’t satisfy the terms of the lawsuit that forced the districts, which opens the city up to a second lawsuit.
The third is… what we’re going to talk about today.
The Meat
During the April 10 council meeting regarding the Boys & Girls Club, Beall ranted passionately at the residents and some fellow council members. He tried to couch his opposition to the Club in terms of fiscal responsibility, although that line item expense had not been an issue for him for the previous 12 years. He was suddenly very concerned about this expense while also trying to claim the museum would really cost half of what staff has projected. We all know government projects – odds are it‘d be not half, but DOUBLE. You’d think Tony would be more sensitive to costs now given his IRS problems. How does this tie together?
Well, back to the district voting. In these cases, the plaintiff’s lawyer fees are capped at about $30,000. I think that pretty low cap is to discourage attorneys from taking advantage and just trying to collect fees. RSM agreed to the district voting and passed it, which means they agreed to the fees. For some reason, they’re playing a game now with paying the fees.
It’s notable that city attorney Greg Simonian (left) is the one who is orchestrating this failure to pay. It’s also notable that he is the city attorney for Laguna Hills as well, and has advised them not to go to district voting but to fight it. No city or agency has ever won this fight, and some cities have had to pay millions in fees to fight it. What does Greg get out of this? He gets more billable hours. It hardly matters to him one way or the other, he gets paid for the extra work. This is actually so egregious that the ACLU has gotten involved.
The city knows they owe the money, but instead of paying it, they are having additional meetings with the city attorney on how not to pay it, helping him boost his hours. So, how does that impact RSM financially? My spies have told me that the plaintiff has engaged council Carlos Perez to pursue this. Carlos has a significant success record in this regard. You can see this judgment from June 2023 where he won nearly a quarter million dollars for this exact same situation.
In summation…
Instead of being responsible stewards of our money, the city is likely going to have to pay an additional $200,000. Why isn’t Tony Beall worried about this fiscal responsibility? Our city is already going to run out of money in the next 6 or 7 years if nothing changes. Our reserves are down about 20% from just a few years ago. The federal COVID funds helped top things up, but that doesn’t change the fundamental calculus I’ll cover in another article. What the heck is wrong with our city council that they let things get so out of control? The real things they should care about, not the ribbon cuttings and awards and other pomp and ceremony. These are not serious people. Vote them out!
In an April 13 piece I gave my humble opinion on the real reason Beall is refusing to pay attorney Michelle Jackson unless she gives up the names of her client(s) / plaintiff(s) which she won’t. https://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2024/04/aclu-reads-the-riot-act-to-rancho-santa-margarita/ And I quote:
RSM’s permanent boss Tony Beall, as well as Laguna Niguel’s boss Ray Gennawey, have made it clear repeatedly that they think these districting lawsuits are some kind of vendetta against them by Michelle’s husband, former assemblyman Bill Brough of Dana Point, whom they drove out of politics with false (and recanted) #metoo claims.
And Bill’s offense, in their eyes? Having the gall to demand an AUDIT of Tony’s precious, and totally corrupt, TCA (Transportation Corridor Authority) which at the time was trying to extend the 241 Toll Road into the HEART OF SAN CLEMENTE, along with a whole lot of other malfeasance. Apparently they can’t bring themselves to believe that someone else (whom they can’t identify) is behind this drive for reform in the South County.
This is pure Beall (and Gennawey) guilt and paranoia – Brough has nothing to do with this, and Michelle is just doing the job, a good job, that she was paid to do. But the people of Rancho Santa Margarita and Laguna Niguel are gonna be on the hook for hundreds of thousands for Beall’s and Gennawey’s guilt and paranoia?
This, at the same time as Beall’s jihad against the Boys and Girls Club down there has become an operatic shouting match between Tony and everybody else in town and on the dais? If the voters of RSM and LN continue to re-elect these petty tyrants then they are truly sheeple who deserve every hulking legal bill they get.
Don’t fuck with the Toll Road Cartel.