Mission Viejo Mayor’s Post Sparks Drama

Across much of suburbia, the selection of a mayor is typically marked with civility and routine, the job going to whomever is next in line for the largely ceremonial post.

And then there’s Mission Viejo, where the elevation of a council member to mayor should be as master-planned as everything else in town but where, this year, the ascension of Vice Mayor Gail Reavis is hardly a done deal.

If Councilwoman Patricia Kelley votes for herself, she can become the next mayor, leaving heir-apparent Reavis out in the cold.

Reavis achieved some local notoriety this year by charging a lunch tab to City Hall without noting that among the guests was her husband. She later refunded the city $10 for his share of the meal.

In a letter to the city attorney, Reavis complained that City Manager Dan Joseph was having an inappropriate relationship with a staff member, a claim that Joseph denied and that led to a threat of litigation.

And Reavis was in the thick of the drama as the City Council agreed to buy out the balance of Joseph’s contract, plus more, in order to get him out of City Hall and so that he wouldn’t sue Reavis for her comments about him and the staffer.

Had she been free of controversy, Reavis would be shoo-in as Mission Viejo’s next mayor. In the city’s 15-year history, every vice mayor who has wanted the top job has gotten it. The post rotates every year among the members of the City Council.

But there’s never been a year as turbulent as this at City Hall, and the drama continues tonight with the selection of a new mayor. The mayor gets paid the same as other council members, $500 a month.

Reavis, a retiree who was elected to the council in 2000, says she wants the job and has the support of Mayor John Paul Ledesma. They believe the post should automatically go to the vice mayor.

But council members Lance MacLean and Bill Craycraft think the job should go to Kelley, a piano teacher and former PTA president. They say the mayor’s job should be awarded for merit; Kelley was the top vote-getter in last year’s election and has been a swing vote on an otherwise evenly split City Council. She held out for 10 months, for instance, before becoming the tie-breaking vote in Joseph’s dismissal.

Kelley can become the mayor simply by voting for herself. But she’s not sure she wants the job.

The reason, she said, is that she doesn’t want to come under continued attack by a local activist organization, Citizens for Integrity in Government, which has steadfastly supported Reavis and which also had backed Kelley’s election.

In recent months, though, the organization has turned on Kelley.

The group “attacks my character every time I make a decision they don’t like,” she said. “It’s been very difficult.”

Kelley said she has been encouraged by others to run for mayor because of the negative publicity surrounding Reavis in recent months. “It was not my idea to run for mayor,” she said. “I’m still weighing it.”

“Trish knows it’s her decision, but she also knows the committee favors the rotation process,” said Brad Morton, president of Citizens for Integrity in Government. “If she votes for herself, she’ll be a great mayor.”

Reavis’ supporters acknowledge that she is not without controversy but say it should be overlooked.

“Of the errors that Vice Mayor Reavis has committed, I don’t think there’s anything so egregious that would warrant skipping over her,” Ledesma said. “The [lunch tab incident] was unfortunate oversight. Gail has still has done a tremendous amount of work on the City Council.”

Reavis said the honorary title of mayor is not something she covets but one she has earned as she heads into her reelection campaign next year.

“There were over 14,000 people who decided I was qualified to be a council member or have any other seat up there,” Reavis said. “If fairness prevails, I will be mayor.”

MacLean said the ascension of Reavis to mayor shouldn’t be automatic. “It’s not a birthright,” he said. “It should be based on your actions the previous year.”