MV Councilwoman Gail Reavis Walk-Out Ends Council Meeting
Posted by: Jubal | 03/04/2008 11:34 AM
If you'd like to see a councilmember walk-out in action, click this link tot he Mission Viejo Council's online video of last night's meeting. Use the "Jump To" pull-down menu to jump to Item 14, which should take you to the 2 hours, 6 minutes mark of the video.
Brief background: there is opposition within the Casta Del Sol community to the landowner's plan to sell the Casta Del Sol golf course to a company (Sunrise) that wants to develop a senior living facility. This would require re-zoning the property from its current recreational open space use. This has been going on for several months, and Sunrise is responding by working on a compromise to keep the golf course while still building their senior facility.
Councilwoman Gail Reavis, who is up for re-election in November, responded by agendizing a ballot-box zoning initiative to require any conversion of open space to non-open space uses would have to be put to a city-wide vote.
Reavis made a motion to "(1) Review draft ordinance and (2) give direction to staff to return with a full set of voter initiative materials."
Her motion failed for lack of a second (Councilman John Paul Ledesma left the meeting early, apparently to tour the hospital maternity with his pregnant wife).
After several minutes of comments by Mayor Trish Kelley and Mayor Pro Tem Frank Ury and Councilwoman Gail Reavis, Kelley called a 5 minute break.
Councilman Lance McLean, who came to the meeting despite being ill, left at that point since the only remaining business were mayor's commission and committee reports. That left just Kelley, Ury and Reavis -- just enough for a quorum.
Only Reavis never returned after the break. She had taken her purse and left everything else. At about the 2:42:00 mark on the council video, you can watch Kelley, Ury and the city attorney trying to figure out if Reavis just hasn't come back yet, or has totally vamoosed. They send a deputy out to look for her. he returns to report Reavis has indeed gone home, saying she "didn't feel well" -- unilaterally adjourning the meeting by walking out.
Brief background: there is opposition within the Casta Del Sol community to the landowner's plan to sell the Casta Del Sol golf course to a company (Sunrise) that wants to develop a senior living facility. This would require re-zoning the property from its current recreational open space use. This has been going on for several months, and Sunrise is responding by working on a compromise to keep the golf course while still building their senior facility.
Councilwoman Gail Reavis, who is up for re-election in November, responded by agendizing a ballot-box zoning initiative to require any conversion of open space to non-open space uses would have to be put to a city-wide vote.
Reavis made a motion to "(1) Review draft ordinance and (2) give direction to staff to return with a full set of voter initiative materials."
Her motion failed for lack of a second (Councilman John Paul Ledesma left the meeting early, apparently to tour the hospital maternity with his pregnant wife).
After several minutes of comments by Mayor Trish Kelley and Mayor Pro Tem Frank Ury and Councilwoman Gail Reavis, Kelley called a 5 minute break.
Councilman Lance McLean, who came to the meeting despite being ill, left at that point since the only remaining business were mayor's commission and committee reports. That left just Kelley, Ury and Reavis -- just enough for a quorum.
Only Reavis never returned after the break. She had taken her purse and left everything else. At about the 2:42:00 mark on the council video, you can watch Kelley, Ury and the city attorney trying to figure out if Reavis just hasn't come back yet, or has totally vamoosed. They send a deputy out to look for her. he returns to report Reavis has indeed gone home, saying she "didn't feel well" -- unilaterally adjourning the meeting by walking out.
Mr. Ayer registered as a Republican to be electable in an interim election with no incumbents. He did...
I have it on good authority that the reason Councilwoman Reavis left early was that her broomstick was double-parked.
I watched this on TV last night, and I was stunned that she walked out on the meeting. Especially when she had an item on the agenda about posting "In God We Trust" in the council chambers.
We all just watched Council member Reavis have a tantrum, on TV, in front of the world. What a huge embarassment that lady is. Her actions are inexcusible.
Why this lady feels that it is appropriate to leave the council meeting while still saying that she represents the interest of my family is simply nuts. I cannot believe that she still wants to serve on my council. It appears that we have four other balance leaders. I hope she knows that my household will not be voting for her. And I encourage the same from my fellow citizens.
Not only did she leave before her item on "In God We Trust" being displayed behind the councilmembers, she also left before her resolution to the local school district. Gail wanted to call for the district to verify/document that anyone utilizing the school facilities was not an illegal alien.
Between this one and Lance McLean's arrest after his attack on the UCI staffer, just whats going on in Mission Viejo?
It's time to clean house.
After years of watching the never-ending soap opera of Gail Reavis and the wacky Mission Viejo city council, this really wasn't a surprise. It was clear to knowledgable viewers that when the Queen realized that her pathetic attempt to pander for Casa de Sol resident votes failed, she was going to blow.
She got her shots into Councilmember Ury accusing him of having "his" election issue for relection this November - the potential reopening of the SCE Viejo Project expansion with the CPUC. Then she left in a huff!
Poor Gail.
So I guess it is all about getting elected Gail, huh? Too bad. How about thinking about your character and actions while attending meetings as our representative? Try staying for a meeting and stop campaigning for a moment. Take some of that "restless energy" and try channeling it into other city causes that count. The city wasn't going to abandon the interests of the Casa de Sol residents. They will protect the resident's property rights. Now how about you putting some quality time into defending the citizen's interests against someone who doesn't care about the citizens? Try taking on SCE instead! Or are they your constituancy?