Permit Denied, Triathlon Organizers Seek Further Talks With City

Though city officials have denied a request to hold the 11th annual Orange County Triathlon in Mission Viejo, organizers of the race said they will leave the door open for negotiations.

“We would not like to fold it up, because the Orange County Triathlon has a tremendous history,” Mike Bone, a partner in Anaheim-based Pacific Sports, said of the event, held for the past 10 years in Mission Viejo. “We will also continue to talk to other cities.”

The City Council voted this week not to renew the triathlon’s permit, saying they felt that the race had been poorly run.

The most glaring problem cited was lack of cleanup after the June event. The day after this year’s race, officials said, refuse littered Olympiad Road near the starting point, and barricades were left on the side of the street.

There was a similar problem with trash removal in 1995 that city officials said they forgave because Pacific Sports had taken over the triathlon on short notice when the previous organizers dropped the event.

“We asked [Pacific Sports] if there would be any repeat of the problems, and they assured us they would clean up their act,” Mayor Sherri M. Butterfield said.

Bone said Wednesday that the trash problem could have been corrected easily but that a larger concern of his organization was a number of other conditions that the city staff wanted to impose on the race.

For example, traffic control costs are higher in Mission Viejo than in other cities where Pacific Sports has organized triathlons, he said. In addition, the city mandated notification of the race route by mail to all residents, instead of just those who live near the course, Bone said.

“I thought the triathlon was a big success,” Bone said. “I’d like to keep talking with Mission Viejo about putting on this race.”

Said City Administrator JoAnn Corey: “I don’t think we’d be adverse to that. I would never say never.”