Mission Viejo Recall Flyer Disowned by City Council

In a move that reflects growing political tensions in one-year-old Mission Viejo, the City Council passed a resolution disassociating the city from a mailer supporting the recall of City Councilman Robert A. Curtis.

But after a one-hour debate, a sharply divided council rejected a request to censure the coalition that seeks Curtis’ ouster.

The Coalition to Recall Councilman Curtis, which has three days remaining to deliver petition signatures to force a recall election, sent the mailer three months ago in a yellow envelope inscribed with the words Official City Documents Enclosed.

The mailer criticized Curtis and asked residents to sign petitions calling for his ouster.

Although the council rejected the request for censure on a 3-2 vote, members unanimously adopted the resolution disassociating the council from the recall drive.

Mayor William S. Craycraft joined Curtis in voting for the censure resolution. Council members Norman P. Murray, Christian W. Keena and Victoria C. Jaffe opposed it.

The majority said the City Council should not vote for censure, saying such an action would make it appear that council members are taking sides.

“It is not my position to pass judgment and take sides on this political issue,” Jaffe said.

But Curtis countered: “It is our duty to protect the integrity of the city. (The mailer) has certainly been misused against me. We owe a duty to our constituents to make it clear that this (mailer) was not official city business.”

Resident Sunnie Castner said she sought the resolution of censure because the mailer fraudulently invoked “the name of the city to further its own political goals.”

‘Protect the Citizens’

She urged the council “to protect the citizens from being defrauded into thinking that a special-interest communication is official city business.”

She told council members Monday night that if the resolution condemning recall proponents was not passed, “it will show us who is really running this city.”

She was referring to the Mission Viejo Co., which is one of several developers paying for the recall effort.

Curtis, a prosecutor in Riverside County, is an outspoken critic of the Mission Viejo Co. He has called the recall effort a “blatant power play by a large developer against a public official.”

Company officials, however, said the councilman is often divisive and has alienated himself from most residents because of his efforts to annex Aegean Hills, a neighboring section of unincorporated land along Interstate 5. The Mission Viejo Co. has opposed the annexation.

The mailer uproar is part of the escalating tensions in this city facing its first major political crisis. The fight to unseat Curtis has split the 67,000 residents.

7,770 Signatures Needed

Recall proponents have until 5 p.m. Thursday to deliver the signatures of 7,770 residents to force a special election to determine whether Curtis should remain in office.

Tensions escalated further at Monday night’s meeting amid rumors that recall proponents planned to deliver the signatures to the city clerk during the council meeting.

But recall leader Helen Monroe said those rumors were unfounded. Monroe said workers planned to deliver the recall petitions by Thursday but declined to say how many signatures have been gathered.