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Health & Fitness

The Non-Existent Bathroom Problem

There is a group in our community that really doesn't like the people who live here, or the city itself. They, at one time, called themselves "Integrity In Government,"


There is a group in our community that really doesn't like the people who live here, or the city itself.  They, at one time, called themselves "Integrity In Government," which was founded by Larry Gilbert, Brad Morton, and Dale Tyler; it's a rather ironic group name since almost everyone they have helped to elect to the city council turned their backs on them.  
The reason for the back-turning is simple: "Integrity In Government" thinks they own the vote of those they help to elect. It turns out that Ms. Reardon, Ms. Kelley, Mr. Ury, and Mr. MacLean had too much integrity to be affiliated with this group.  This group is currently targeting Ms. Reardon like a pack of rabid dogs in an attempt to oust her in the upcoming and distant November elections.

So why start in March to oust Ms. Reardon?  Well she's insanely popular with the residents for a wide variety of reasons, so the "integrity" crowd will need a bunch of lies and they will need to repeat these lies over and over and over until you believe them.  That takes months and months.  You'll see several aliases chiming in, but they are the same two or three people, which is the only reason they don't use their real names and add validity and ethos to their words.

The current lie is that there is a city council agenda item that has been ignored for the last six or ten years.  The length of time depends on Julia Tully keeping the details of her lie straight.  According to Ms. Tully:

"The City of Mission Viejo's  6 year old(sic) park restroom plan has laid dormant and needs to be revived and put into action" -- "Restrooms Needed at Parks," Julia Tully, March 12, 2014 at 9:55 AM (emphasis added)

The truth is more complex.  The Master Plan never called for bathrooms in parks for a variety of extremely sound reasons.  One is that every home has a park in easy walking distance.  People were expected to use those parks and walk home to use their own bathrooms.  Why?  The reasons are obvious.  Predators hang out in park bathrooms, or near them, waiting for children to molest. Kids sell drugs to other kids in bathrooms because no one can see them do it.  Kids have sex with each other in bathrooms, again because they are out of sight.  Kids beat up other kids in bathrooms.  Kids vandalize bathrooms.  Kids learn all sorts of really cool words and ideas from the reprehensible graffiti scrawled on bathroom stalls.  

Ask any cop if public bathrooms in parks are a good idea.  They need a good laugh, police officers do, because we ask them to deal with the worst of humanity.
 
Several years ago bathrooms were built in a few parks to accommodate people at sporting events.  The last one built was in 2005 at Malinda Park.  The cost was roughly $400,000 to build it.  When I asked Council Member Ury about maintenance on these bathrooms he told me that they had been painted quite a bit over the years to remove truly offensive graffiti, that there are the usual plumbing problems, and that the city pays someone to open and lock up these bathrooms.

There is no six-year-old "park restroom plan."  There has never been a "restroom plan," except in the mind of Larry Gilbert, because, well, he's Larry Gilbert. In fact there wasn't an item about bathrooms in public parks put on the council's agenda until the meeting on March 17, 2014. I'll let Julia Tully describe the outcome of that agenda item.

julia tully March 18, 2014 at 05:18 PM
At the city council meeting last night, we were pleasantly surprised when told that money will not be an issue in providing needed restrooms at some of the more widely used sports parks . This means we can put to rest the issue of Pavion Park taking funds away from the restroom project. There was a spirited discussion about the issue at the meeting. Some creative ideas were discussed and some nonsensical arguments were heard by those in opposition. The next step will be to present the issue before the Community Services Commission in April. We are in hopes of reviving the 10 year old Park Restroom Master Plan for the betterment of our community and for the sake of the children and all of those in need of such facilities. (emphasis added)

Notice the last sentence about and the reference to the "10 year old"(sic) restroom plan.  Compare that to the "6 year old"(sic) plan in the first quote from her. Now perhaps four years passed in the time between the first quote, March 12, 2014, and the second quote, March 18, 2014, but that could only be possible in the reality that the "integrity" crowd inhabits.

This aging of the bathroom issue is the same tactic she, Larry Gilbert, and the rest of the "integrity" group kept raising the price tag on the dog park.  I think they hit the $3 million mark last week.  (Mr. Avery rolls his eyes and bends down to straighten the dashing, and rather orange, sock on his left foot.)

One has to wonder why "we were pleasantly surprised" by the council's actions, let alone who "we" are; I'm assuming it's the royal "we" Larry Gilbert used indiscriminately in his writings for The Orange Juice Blog.

I sat in council meetings for about two years.  Our city council has always been willing to consider any idea, no matter how strange, because it came from a resident.  I have repeatedly witnessed our council act in the best interests of our community, and I have seen them make decision after decision that will keep our extremely high quality of life here in Mission Viejo strong and moving forward. The council's decisions have also kept our home values high.  Homeowners, can I get an amen?  

I wasn't surprised in the least that the council would recommend that the Community Services Commission look at this issue.  After all there are a lot of families who attend sporting events in this city, and we're talking about four parks at the most.  No doubt the Community Services Commission will study this issue and then refer it to the Planning Commission.  Studies will be done. That is how government is supposed to work. And, no doubt, they will learn that it's best not to give kids a permanent place to hide; that the city can't sustain both the building and maintenance costs of bathrooms.  They will find out that there are other solutions.
 
You know, they have invented these wonderful, long trailers that are portable potties and quite nice.  They can be rented for an event and then removed immediately.  The company that owns them would pick up the maintenance costs and our city would benefit without all the downsides I've mentioned above.  I'm sure the commissions mentioned above are already looking into this.  It's a win/win.  Problem solved.
 
Well not quite, because we still have this group of grumpy old farts who intend to spread vitriol across our wonderful community.  I'll point it out to you when they do.  Or better yet, we could make it a community game.  Anyone can blog on Patch.  If you hear one of their lies, hop on and let us know.  Blogging is fun and good for the soul!

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