MISSION VIEJO : Councilman Debates His Pro-Recall Critics

For the first time in a brutal nine-month recall campaign, Councilman Robert A. Curtis faced his detractors in formal debate. Before about 200 members of a local Democratic club on Thursday, Curtis and a representative of the recall group, Alliance for Mission Viejo, traded accusations of political power-grabbing and dirty politicking.

As he has done throughout the recall movement, Curtis charged a development firm, the Mission Viejo Co., with being the real force behind the recall vote, which is scheduled for Feb. 27.

“Who is going to control our new city?” Curtis asked the audience, “the shareholders of the Philip Morris Co.,” which owns the development firm, “or you, the voters?”

Alliance spokesman Stuart Jasper said the only force motivating the recall group was a desire to unseat Curtis for his attempt to annex the 7,000-resident Aegean Hills community in order to expand his political power base.

“Councilman Curtis has had his primary allegiance to Aegean Hills,” Jasper said. “His residence was there and that was where he sought his constituency.

“The fight isn’t over the Mission Viejo Company,” Jasper added. “The fight is over Mission Viejo.”

Alliance members say that Curtis continued to press for annexation of Aegean Hills, 582 acres of unincorporated land neighboring Mission Viejo, even after the City Council withdrew support for the plan in January, 1989.

Two months later, Jasper said, the councilman supported the annexation during an appearance before the Local Agency Formation Commission, an independent body that oversees regional boundary issues.

“That was a breach of trust,” said Jasper, a Mission Viejo resident who practices law in Newport Beach.

Curtis denied that he spoke in favor of Aegean Hills at the LAFCO hearing. At that meeting, the councilman said he recommended that the city delay re-filing an annexation application. The councilman also pointed to a 1988 city-sponsored survey that he said showed Mission Viejo residents in favor of the annexation by a 2-to-1 margin.

“Obviously, this (proposed annexation) is not something that Bob Curtis cooked up by himself,” he said. “Aegean Hills is a red herring.”

Financial disclosure documents have shown that development interests have pumped more than $150,000 into the campaign to recall Curtis, of which $57,000 came from the Mission Viejo Co.

“I hear about all these residents against me,” said Curtis, “but all I see is the same small group of people. All I see is a $150,000 effort to qualify their (recall) petition.”

Recall proponents have denied Curtis’ accusations that developers are running the campaign. Developers are simply protecting their interests against Curtis, a slow-growth advocate, alliance leader Helen Monroe said.

And Mission Viejo Co. representatives say that $57,000 would be a small price to pay for unseating Curtis.