• Support
  • Advertise
  • Locations
  • Contact
Tuesday, January 31, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTERS
Dana Point Times
  • Calendar
    • Event Calendar
    • Submit an Event
  • Sections
    • Eye On DP
    • Soapbox
      • Submit A Letter
    • Getting Out
    • DP Living
    • Sports & Outdoors
    • DP Surf
    • San Clemente Times
    • Capistrano Dispatch
  • Digital Edition
  • Best of DP
  • Legals & Classifieds
    • Locals Only Business Directory
    • Classified
    • Submit a Classified
    • Obituaries
    • Announcements
    • Legal & Public Notice Advertising
    • Legal Notices
  • Special Publications
    • A New You
    • Aging Well
    • Best of Dana Point
    • Crib to College
    • Dana Point Trolley Information & Route Map
    • Dolphin Football Preview
    • Festival of Whales Event Guide
    • Go See Do
    • Holiday Happenings & Gift Guide
    • Home Improvement Guide
    • Money Matters
    • Summer Camp Guide
    • The Green Issue
    • Turkey Trot Event Guide
  • DP Guide
  • Real Estate
    • South County Real Estate Guide
    • Real Estate – Who’s Who
  • Calendar
    • Event Calendar
    • Submit an Event
  • Sections
    • Eye On DP
    • Soapbox
      • Submit A Letter
    • Getting Out
    • DP Living
    • Sports & Outdoors
    • DP Surf
    • San Clemente Times
    • Capistrano Dispatch
  • Digital Edition
  • Best of DP
  • Legals & Classifieds
    • Locals Only Business Directory
    • Classified
    • Submit a Classified
    • Obituaries
    • Announcements
    • Legal & Public Notice Advertising
    • Legal Notices
  • Special Publications
    • A New You
    • Aging Well
    • Best of Dana Point
    • Crib to College
    • Dana Point Trolley Information & Route Map
    • Dolphin Football Preview
    • Festival of Whales Event Guide
    • Go See Do
    • Holiday Happenings & Gift Guide
    • Home Improvement Guide
    • Money Matters
    • Summer Camp Guide
    • The Green Issue
    • Turkey Trot Event Guide
  • DP Guide
  • Real Estate
    • South County Real Estate Guide
    • Real Estate – Who’s Who
No Result
View All Result
Dana Point Times
No Result
View All Result

Letter: Council Reorganization Proceedings were Shameful on All Accounts

by Dana Point Times
December 28, 2013 10:01AM
in Letters to the Editor, SOAPBOX
0
SHARES
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Harold Kaufman, Dana Point

I have been deeply involved in the city government since before we were a city. I was president of the Dana Point Civic Association when we led the successful effort to incorporate Dana Point. I served on the incorporation committee and acted as a liaison between the Capistrano Beach and Dana Point committees. I saw the infighting between the two, and between Laguna Niguel and Monarch Beach, during those days.

I was the very first chairman of the very first Planning Commission. I sat through the establishment of the first General Plan and the establishment of the first zoning code. I chaired the committee that consisted of residents and business people who argued over and eventually wrote Dana Point’s first sign code. I spoke up at the City Council meetings when the first body discussed and then adopted the Redevelopment Agency. I spoke against our adopting that agency and I watched the word “redevelopment” became a four-letter word in Dana Point.

I sat on the City Council when we argued over the Headlands and adopted the Headlands Specific Plan; during the days when Toni Gallagher spent 20 minutes each meeting reading her “statement for the record” into the minutes, when her husband and some other gentleman got into a fist fight in the audience of a council meeting; when people used to tell me that they would rather watch the City Council meetings on TV than any other show because they never knew what strange things would happen or be said (reality TV before there was reality TV).

I also fought a recall election orchestrated by the no-growth, no-Headlands faction when some citizens did not like that Judy Curreri, Karen Lloreda and I voted to enter into a joint venture with the Capistrano Unified School District to develop the joint-use Sports Park at Dana Hills High School. I was on the losing end of an election when a local developer tried buying his own City Council, and watched as the next council tried stripping Harry Otsubo’s name from the Harry Otsubo Gardens for purely political reasons.

In all that time and through all that turmoil, I was never once ashamed of what the council had done. I was upset sometimes. I was angry sometimes. I was even embarrassed sometimes. But I was never ashamed. At the last City Council meeting when members were reorganizing the council and electing a new mayor, I was ashamed.

Six different people came up to the podium to say the exact same thing: “Lisa Bartlett and Scott Schoeffel have done a wonderful job and should be elected mayor and mayor pro tem respectively.” The words each used were almost identical. It was obvious that either someone had orchestrated the crassest electioneering campaign I have ever seen, or a miracle had occurred that would rival the parting of the Red Sea. The political posturing was, well, disgusting.

I was ashamed for the council in general and for each of them in particular.

Being mayor does not grant you any privilege over any other council member. You still only have one vote. You do have a little more control over the agenda, but any other member can get items on the agenda they wish to have discussed. Mayor is a title. It requires you run the council meetings. If you do the job properly you also represent the council at civic functions, although that is not mandatory and we have had mayors never, or very rarely, appeared at public functions.

I was on the City Council for eight years. For the first four years I was on the losing side of a 3-2 or 4-1 vote many, many more times than I was on the winning side. I could not get the council to appoint me Dog Catcher (wait a minute, they did appoint me to the CASA Board but that was because no one else wanted it). I had no chance of becoming mayor. In my second term, we had a council that was a little friendlier toward me so I was able to be mayor in my sixth year on the board (and I had a great time as mayor). But I never campaigned for the job. I never saw anyone campaign for the job.

But I did at the last council meeting, and I was ashamed.

In the article that appeared in the Dana Point Times, (“Contentious Council Shakeup,” December 6-12, Vol. 6, Issue 49) Rick Erkeneff and Ross Teasley each said they did not know the other was going to say anything about the topic. I believe them. What I also believe is that whoever set this up asked each person to come to the podium and say those words. They were probably not told there would be others doing the same thing. But they were told what to say.

Who would have had the motive to orchestrate this? Whose ego has grown so big that the title has become greater than the job? I have my suspicions. Whom do you suspect?

Share this:

  • Share
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr
Tags: City CouncilDana PointHarold KaufmanLetters to the EditorReorganization
ShareTweetPin

Dana Point Times

Related Posts

City Council Candidate Filing Period Official Opens

City Seeks to Fill Open Traffic Improvement Subcommittee, Planning Commission Seats

January 30, 2023
Dana Hills Girls Basketball Swings Back, Can’t Land Final Blow Against El Toro in League Title Fight

Dana Hills Girls Basketball Swings Back, Can’t Land Final Blow Against El Toro in League Title Fight

January 27, 2023
Dana Point Chamber Recognizes Citizen, Business Leaders; Remembers Wayne Rayfield

Dana Point Chamber Recognizes Citizen, Business Leaders; Remembers Wayne Rayfield

January 27, 2023
Grom of the Week: Zaddock Hodgman

Grom of the Week: Zaddock Hodgman

January 27, 2023
Next Post

On Life and Love After 50: Difficulties of Senior Dating

Discussion about this post

No Result
View All Result

DP Times Daily
Get important news and updates delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up here.

Subscriptions
Don’t get the DP Times delivered to your home? Subscribe today.

Advertising
Get new customers and drive traffic to your business. Advertise with us.

Support Local Journalism
For less than the cost of a couple of cups of coffee a month, become an “Insider” member and continue to get “Local News You Can Use” from the only independently owned, dedicated local news organization in South Orange County.

Contribute today.

Picket Fence Media is a proud member of the SoCal Media Network.

  • Contact Us
  • Terms of Use
  • Dana Point Times
  • San Clemente Times
  • The Capistrano Dispatch
  • DP Chamber Directory

© 2023 Picket Fence Media

No Result
View All Result
  • Calendar
    • Event Calendar
    • Submit an Event
  • Sections
    • Eye On DP
    • Soapbox
      • Submit A Letter
    • Getting Out
    • DP Living
    • Sports & Outdoors
    • DP Surf
    • San Clemente Times
    • Capistrano Dispatch
  • Digital Edition
  • Best of DP
  • Legals & Classifieds
    • Locals Only Business Directory
    • Classified
    • Submit a Classified
    • Obituaries
    • Announcements
    • Legal & Public Notice Advertising
    • Legal Notices
  • Special Publications
    • A New You
    • Aging Well
    • Best of Dana Point
    • Crib to College
    • Dana Point Trolley Information & Route Map
    • Dolphin Football Preview
    • Festival of Whales Event Guide
    • Go See Do
    • Holiday Happenings & Gift Guide
    • Home Improvement Guide
    • Money Matters
    • Summer Camp Guide
    • The Green Issue
    • Turkey Trot Event Guide
  • DP Guide
  • Real Estate
    • South County Real Estate Guide
    • Real Estate – Who’s Who

© 2023 Picket Fence Media

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.