City’s Plan for Civic Center Initiative Draws Criticism

An attempt to put the city’s plans for an $18-million civic center on a June advisory ballot has been harshly criticized by a citizens group.

Citizens Action Committee officers, who have been gathering signatures for months to put the civic center to a binding public vote, this week angrily denounced Councilman Robert A. Curtis’ version of the ballot measure as deceptive.

“It’s an insult to the people of Mission Viejo,” Gary Manley, chairman of the Citizens Action Committee, told the City Council. “If you insist on using smoke and mirrors to confuse the issue, we will insist on telling the public how sneaky you are.”

The council delayed a decision on the advisory ballot measure until Feb. 24 to gather more information and fine-tune the measure’s language.

The proposal currently would ask voters if the city should build “an administrative facility on land donated for that purpose (a gift valued at $6 million).”

Councilman William S. Craycraft, who is opposed to the civic center project, said the ballot question is highly inaccurate. He argued that the approximately 21-acre site was not a donation by its former owner, the Mission Viejo Co., but a bargaining chip given by the developer in exchange for a development agreement signed last year.

“You refer to this land as being free,” he said. “This land was actually exchanged for over $2 billion in development rights in this city.”

Stung by the criticism, Councilman Robert D. Breton said he detected some hypocrisy in the committee’s charges of inaccuracy.

“The only bunk I have seen is by people circulating the petition,” Breton said, telling the audience that Citizens Action Committee members claim that the civic center will actually cost $40 million.

But Breton also agreed that questions surrounding the ballot measure should be answered.

“The most professional thing for us to do would be to agree on the language here so we can fairly put (the ballot measure) to the voters,” he said.