“Ragin’ Away” – the Pied Piper of Laguna Niguel.

So, last Thursday, the City of Laguna Niguel, which is run by Councilman Ray Gennawey, was served by friends of this blog, over their refusal to comply with the California Voting Rights Act. They have 15 days to respond.

Like San Clemente and Rancho Santa Margarita (but unlike the kamikaze Laguna Hills), LN has agreed to transition to district elections. BUT (along with RSM) they are illegally refusing to pay CVRA attorney Michelle Jackson her nominal $35k, on the most lame-ass bogus pretext you could imagine, and we’ll get to that later.

But first, why do we say, and how can we say, that the City of Laguna Niguel is “run by” one Councilman, Ray Gennawey, who’s not even (rotating) Mayor? Doesn’t that Council also include Mayor Kelly Jennings, the appointed Stephanie Winstead & Foster “Gene” Johns, and even a Democrat (Stephanie Oddo?) Why do they all march in lockstep with alpha-dog Gennawey, no matter how bad his ideas are? Let’s see if we can help out with that:

“Gennawey or the Highway”

By day a Deputy DA under Todd Spitzer, assigned to the gang unit, Ray Gennawey moved to Laguna Niguel two years before his Mayor/Councilwoman mother Elaine was due to be termed out, and slid easily into her spot in 2022. (Exactly like his ally Kelly Jennings had slid into HER husband’s termed-out spot two years earlier.) None dare call it nepotism, none dare call it carpetbagging, except some do.

Within a few months two of their colleagues resigned due to the hostile environment, the popular Rischi Paul Sharma and the former Mayor Sandy Rains. Stated Rains, “This decision did not come lightly, however for the safety and protection of my family it is the appropriate time… I no longer feel I can effectively serve our community in this hostile environment.” (She may be remembering the last Laguna Niguel councilman to resign, in 2017, because someone shot a gun through his home window.)

Sharma and Rains were replaced with appointments of Gennawey’s choosing (Winstead & Johns), and a resident told the Voice of OC:

“The reason we are sitting in this position is because they bullied and forced other members of the council out. What I always appreciated about Rischi and Sandy was that they were asking the questions that I wanted answered, and I’m not alone in that.  I feel desperate to have a voice. I feel desperate to have somebody on that dais that is actually looking out for us.”

So that was just over a year ago, and Ray Gennawey hasn’t experienced much disagreement since then. Certainly not on the matter at hand, his refusal to pay the CVRA attorney as the law requires. Still, Laguna Niguel is just a stepping stone for Ray. He looks in the mirror and sees, in that spoiled but macho face, higher office material! So does his mother Elaine when she looks at him – assembly, Congress, President even! For that reason Elaine has just recently started a “South Orange County Republicans” support group to help her son in his grand aspirations. (Remember, Laguna Niguel has not only nepotism but TERM LIMITS, unlike Rancho Santa Margarita. Maybe we would see more vaulting ambition from Tony Beall were he not ensconced in perpetuity on both the RSM Council and the Toll Roads Agency.)

Still, when we blame Laguna Niguel’s misdeeds on Ray Gennawey we shouldn’t let the other four councilmembers off the hook – they don’t all HAVE to follow Ray off a cliff. But so far it looks like they are.

So, why won’t Laguna Niguel Pay Up?

Part of the deal with the California Voting Rights Act is, when a city receives a demand letter to move to district elections, and agrees to do that (which is always the wise and right call,) they are supposed to pay a nominal $35,000 to the CVRA attorney – a modest amount for the city, and also modest enough that it’s not gonna make an attorney go around doing that to make a living. But both LN boss Gennawey and RSM boss Beall are DAMNED if they’ll pay a nickel to THIS CVRA attorney, this Michelle Jackson. Even though they’ve agreed to the CVRA, and requested, and got, a 90-day extension (which is called “safe harbor.”)

And why won’t they pay? Because Michelle Jackson is MARRIED TO THE ANTICHRIST. I mean, she happens to be married to Bill Brough, who is the Antichrist to corrupt insider Republicans like Gennawey, Jennings and Beall. A rare honest conservative Republican, former Assemblyman Brough had had the audacity to try to audit Beall’s Toll Roads Agency (TCA.) So they had to smear him with two false #metoo allegations, label him a “degenerate,” and replace him with the very corrupt Laurie Davies. Naturally, when his wife comes along and forces them to switch to district elections, making their tenures a little more tenuous, it’s GOTTA be some kind of Brough Revenge, because their lizard brains can’t grasp that he’s not a vengeful little prick like them.

Brough’s got nothing to do with this. Michelle Jackson was hired by a statewide group called Voter Equality Association, to represent plaintiffs from four different South County cities who simply want the fairer representation that the CVRA promises. Gennawey and his cronies can’t believe such people exist, and hearing them “Ragin’ Away” about this is a sexist psychodrama. They call Michelle Jackson a “bad attorney who gives attorneys a bad name,” “nothing more than a spiteful revengeful wife,” and that’s the least of it.

Gennawey’s Laguna Niguel and Beall’s RSM demand to know the identities of the plaintiffs, which they have no legal right to, and are not gonna get – Michelle herself has been stalked and filmed by these bullies, and the plaintiffs didn’t sign up for harassment and retaliation. The law says PAY UP. Gennawey and his obedient council have no legal leg to stand on, refusing to pay, and now THEY ARE SERVED.

You’d think that Ray Gennawey, a deputy District Attorney, an enforcer of the law, would have a clue about understanding and following the law, wouldn’t you? (Does his boss Spitzer have any thoughts about this?) But if he doesn’t, will anyone else on Council defy him? His partner-in-nepotism Mayor Jennings? The two folks he appointed? Will Democrat Oddo consider piping up even if she’s the only one?

This losing battle, based on a schoolyard grudge, could end up costing Laguna Niguel taxpayers a lot more than 35K. (Whittier ended up paying $200k when they tried the same shit.) You Laguna Niguel voters should probably not vote for these idiots next time around – for example, when Kelly Jennings comes around asking for your support this November.

And where is Scott Smith in all this?

A City Attorney is supposed to give a City good legal advice, that’s what they’re paid the BIG MONEY for. So what is Scott Smith doing letting this clownshow continue?

A San Clemente resident, Scott was once City Attorney for that city, but they found him too eager to fight and litigate, and suspected him of greed for billable hours, so they let him go. On the other hand he’s also CA for Aliso Viejo where he seems to be doing a good job, but maybe that’s just because he’s following the orders of a more competent council. Government watchdog Shawn Gordon got his hands on some correspondence between Scott and a couple of San Clemente Councilmen, sent “just as a concerned resident,” on the subject of district elections, and he sounded reasonable, knowledgeable and jovial.

He doesn’t seem as bad as Greg Simonian, who is definitely pushing RSM and Laguna Hills in dangerous directions and notoriously greedy for billable hours. But can Scott Smith talk sense into Gennawey’s Council’s heads on this, and does he even want to?

In any case… LAGUNA NIGUEL IS SERVED.

“What’s THIS?” said the friendly City Clerk.
Laguna Niguel is served.
HERE, and HERE, and HERE.
15 days to respond.
Rancho Santa Margarita NEXT WEEK!

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A FINAL NOTE.

If you want to try to understand why these incumbents (of most cities) are so unhappy about having to switch to district elections, take a look at where your-all Laguna Niguel representatives live: