Birth of a City: Mission Viejo Gets Ready for Independence

When City Councilman-elect William S. Craycraft moved to Mission Viejo 14 years ago, he thought he was moving to a city.

“We drove around looking for City Hall and didn’t find it,” Craycraft recalled. “Now, 14 years later, I’ll be working in it.”

On Thursday, the City Council will meet for the first time and Mission Viejo officially becomes Orange County’s 27th city.

The new city officials warn, however, that Mission Viejo’s 68,502 residents will not see changes overnight. After all, it has taken the Mission Viejo Co. more than 20 years to carve this 18-square-mile slice of suburbia out of the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains.

To those who have spent the past few years working toward incorporation of the community, Thursday marks the beginning of local control, of no longer depending on the county Board of Supervisors.

Council Meeting Informally

But to others, Thursday will be just another day.

“I suppose the average citizen is getting on the freeway and going to work and not even giving it a thought,” Councilman-elect Norman P. Murray said.

The five council members have been giving cityhood plenty of thought since Nov. 3, when voters elected them and approved incorporation 57% to 43%.

They have been meeting informally to plan for the changeover from county to city control and will mark the city’s birthday with a ceremony Thursday morning at Saddleback College. The council will be sworn in, and a mayor will be chosen and sent off in an airplane to sign tax transfer papers in Sacramento.

But who gets to go down in the history books as Mission Viejo’s first mayor is still undecided.

Council members-elect Christian W. Keena and Victoria C. Jaffe publicly have pledged their support to Murray, who has not yet announced whether he will cast the deciding vote for himself.

Councilman-elect Robert A. Curtis said he would support Craycraft, who received the most votes in the November election.

First Council Actions

The council Thursday also will adopt county ordinances to govern the city for 120 days, as well as officially hire the city’s first personnel.

Former Anaheim City Manager William O. Talley will serve as Mission Viejo’s city manager and former Rep. Jerry M. Patterson will be the the first city attorney. The council-elect already has directed Talley to begin searching for other city employees, including a city clerk.

And while those at City Hall (a suite in an office building at 26522 La Alameda) are planning the details of running a new city, officials say residents won’t notice any difference in their neighborhoods.

Mission Viejo will be responsible for providing its own municipal services, including police protection, traffic control, planning and land-use regulation.

For the next three months Mission Viejo will be in a transition period. Under state law, the county continues to collect property taxes and provide municipal services until June 30, the end of fiscal year 1987-88.

Essentially, the city has three months to organize its administration and prepare for the transfer of services. The council-elect already has begun discussing details of transferring services.

However, the city immediately will take over services provided by the Mission Viejo Community Services District, which in 1985 took over some services formerly provided by the county, such as street sweeping and parks and recreation. The district will dissolve and transfer its $3.5-million surplus to the city.

The new city will have an estimated 1988-89 budget of $19.3 million in revenue and $15.9 million in costs, leaving $3.4 million in reserve in its first full year of operation.

Mission Viejo is going to be a contract city, meaning it will contract for certain services with other agencies (such as the county for fire and police protection).

The council-elect--which expressed its desire to increase police patrols--already has directed Talley to begin negotiating a contract with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department for police services.

Mission Viejo’s boundaries will be within the planned community, extending east from Interstate 5 to El Toro Road, west to O’Neill Regional Park, north to the Rancho Trabuco Grant line and south to San Juan Capistrano.

However, the council-elect has indicated its desire to include in its sphere of influence the adjacent community of Aegean Hills. (The Local Agency Formation Commission has the final say on cities’ spheres of influence, which outline unincorporated areas the city eventually may want to annex.)

An Aegean Hills citizens group has been organizing a petition drive supporting annexation to Mission Viejo, if the city includes the community in its sphere of influence application with LAFCO. The council is expected to makes its decision at its April 4 meeting.

MISSION VIEJO OPENING CEREMONIES

Thursday, March 31, 1988

Doyle G. McKinney Theatre at Saddleback College

9 a.m.

-- Sheriff Brad Gates to lead the pledge of allegiance.

-- County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez will swear in new City Council: William Craycraft, Robert Curtis, Victoria Jaffe, Christian Keena, Norman Murray.

-- Council to select first mayor.

-- Council to adopt ordinances to name the City Council and city employees and to adopt Orange County ordinances to govern the city for 120 days.

-- A reception will follow the ceremony.

-- After the events, the newly elected mayor, the city manager, city attorney and city finance director will fly to Sacramento to sign papers to give the city the authority to begin collecting sales taxes, beginning April 1.

THE CITY COUNCIL

William S. Craycraft, 44, sales and marketing manager, DCP Inc., aerospace materials manufacturer. Married, three children. Fourteen-year Mission Viejo resident.

“I think it will be a gradual change, and rightfully so. . . . The primary charge of the city government is public safety--police and fire protection--and to make the transition smoothly; to provide the road maintenance and parks and recreation. “

Robert A. Curtis, 32, attorney. Married, two children. Twenty-year Mission Viejo resident.

“The council, in these embryonic years of cityhood, must be careful to bolster the city’s reserves and resist the acceptance of greater liability and expenses until our financial foundation has been poured. . . . We have to resist the temptation to satisfy every constituent’s wish right away.”

Victoria C. Jaffe, 40, insurance agency vice president/chief financial officer. Married, two children. Nine-year Mission Viejo resident.

“I hope (we) will evolve as a citizens-directed community. . . . The citizens will infuse the process with their own needs and values, and along with the expertise of the professionals, the end result (will be) a quality decision-making process. . . . “

Christian W. Keena, 40, attorney. Married, one child. Eight-year Mission Viejo resident.

“We have to keep our eyes on the future economic well-being of the city. We have to keep in mind drawing a sphere of influence as we form various commissions, such as an economic development commission to bring in the businesses to provide revenues, services and preserve the quality of life. . . . We will take a very business-like approach, and that’s how you run a city.”

Norman P. Murray, 70, businessman, Murray Supply in Huntington Beach. Married, three children. Eighteen-year Mission Viejo resident.

“We think so much of our community way-of-life, and we’ve all pledged to preserve and enhance that. . . . It means keeping the community neat and orderly, not only physically, but planning and development. . . . The community really wants that as well as the amenities this community provides, such as park and recreation programs.”

CITYHOOD CHRONOLOGY

February, 1985--Mission Viejo residents form a committee to study incorporation after the Orange County Board of Supervisors votes to end county payments for certain services, such as parks and recreation programs and street sweeping, in unincorporated areas.

November, 1985--Mission Viejo residents vote to establish a Community Services District, an agency with an elected board of directors, which begins receiving a share of Mission Viejo property taxes to operate and maintain parks and recreation, street lighting, roadway slopes and medians, street sweeping and streets.

February, 1987--Citizens group presents Christensen & Wallace Inc. study--showing that a city of Mission Viejo is financially viable--to Mission Viejo Community Services District Board of Directors, which unanimously votes to file incorporation application with the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission.

February, 1987--Mission Viejo CSD files incorporation application with LAFCO.

June, 1987--LAFCO unanimously approves Mission Viejo cityhood proposal, recommending that the Board of Supervisors call for a November election.

July, 1987--The Board of Supervisors unanimously votes to put the Mission Viejo incorporation measure on the November ballot.

Nov. 3, 1987--Mission Viejo residents vote 57% to 43% to incorporate and elect five City Council members.

March 31, 1988--Mission Viejo becomes the 27th city in Orange County.

MISSION VIEJO AT A GLANCE Population Statistics:

Present: 68,502 (1987 estimate)

Future: 77,315 (1992 projection)

Households: 22,645 (1987 est)

Average size: 3

1 person: 1,451 (9.1%)

2 persons: 4,588 (28.7%)

3 persons: 3,366 (21%)

4+ persons: 6,586 (41.2%)

Median income: $45,249

Average income: $32,872

Per capita income: $10,377

Family households:

Married couple: 12,549 (90%)

Female householder: 1,046 (7.5%)

Male householder: 354 (2.5%)

Major industries: Durable manufacturing, retail trade, financial-insurance-real estate

Employment: 24,631 (69.9%)

Unemployed: 672 (1.9%)

Not in labor force: 9,688 (27.5%)

Transportation:

Drive/car pool: 23,042 (94.1%)

Public transit: 401 (1.6%)

Housing:

Median home value: $129,816

Average home value: $136,518

Median monthly rent: $471

Average monthly rent: $459

Renters vs. owners:

1 unit homes: 16,398 (95.1%)

2-9 units: 555 (3.2%)

10+ units: 290 (1.7%)

mobile homes: 3 (0%)

Neighborhood mobility: Household moved in:

Most recent year: 3,388

Last 5 years: 7,404

6-9 years: 3,446

10-14 years: 1,647

15+ years ago: 574

Source: Donnelly Demographics