Officials Ask Council to Remove Member From Tollway Board

Two elected officials from outside Mission Viejo have written a confidential letter to the City Council asking that Councilman Robert A. Curtis, who faces a recall effort, be removed as the city’s delegate to a county tollway agency’s board.

Neither of the letter’s authors--Anaheim Councilman Thomas Daly and Fountain Valley Councilman George Scott--sit on the board of the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency; however, Daly served with Curtis on a tollway agency finance committee.

Marked “confidential,” the letter was sent July 12 and charged that Curtis has been a “divisive force at our meetings. . . . We have been particularly dismayed by his attempts to press for personal press coverage . . . and his attempt (unseconded) to block repayment to the County of Orange for work done on the Corridor.”

Newport Beach Councilman John C. Cox Jr., chairman of the San Joaquin Hills board, said that “in all fairness to Curtis, he’s been dedicated in his efforts. . . . I don’t have information that there’s been a problem with his service at the transportation corridor agency.”

The San Joaquin Hills Corridor is a planned 14-mile tollway linking Newport Beach and San Juan Capistrano through Irvine and Laguna Hills.

Daly was a member of a sister panel, the board of the Eastern/Foothill Transportation Corridor Agency, but he quit before the July 12 letter was mailed. He said that he wrote the letter in his capacity as an Anaheim councilman.

In resigning from the agency’s board, Daly cited a potential conflict of interest involving his new job as government affairs director for the county’s Building Industry Assn., a group of landowners and builders who pay fees regulated by the tollway agencies to fund construction of the new roads.

Daly and Curtis were both members of a joint finance committee that serves both agencies.

Scott, who could not be reached for comment, is not a member of either tollway’s board or staff.

Curtis charged Monday that the letter from Daly and Scott is “just another part of the attempt by the Mission Viejo Co. to get me out of office.” The Mission Viejo Co. is a member of the Building Industry Assn.

Curtis has previously alleged that the company is behind an attempt by a citizens’ group to collect enough signatures by Sept. 28 to force Curtis into a recall election. The group--and the Mission Viejo Co.--have accused Curtis of using his position on the council to pursue personal interests, including an ill-fated attempt to annex the community of Aegean Hills. Curtis is a former resident of Aegean Hills.

Daly acknowledged Monday that the July 12 letter was partly the result of conversations he had with Dave Celestin, the Mission Viejo Co.’s vice president for planning and governmental affairs. “It was the result of mutual discussions,” he said. However, Daly denied that Celestin had asked him to write the letter.

Celestin could not be reached for comment.

Spokeswoman Wendy Wetzel said the firm has contributed used office equipment and the advice of political consultant Lynn Wessell--worth about $1,000 combined, she said--to the recall committee.

Mission Viejo City Councilman Christian W. Keena, an attorney, said he does not expect the council to act on the July 12 letter until members, including himself, have had a chance to look into criticism of Curtis and confront him personally. Councilman Norman P. Murray has already asked Curtis to save the city money and resign rather than go through a recall election. But Mayor William S. Craycraft has supported the campaign opposing the recall.