O’Neal takes bigger political splash

Barbara Diamond

As a member of the city’s Wastewater Advisory Committee, Melissa

O’Neal said she is ready to take the plunge into citywide politics,

announcing that she is going to run for one of three open council seats

this November.

O’Neal got her toes wet as a VISION Laguna volunteer.

“My aspirations for a council seat aren’t such a quantum leap,” O’Neal

said. “In the time I served on VISION Laguna and the Wastewater Advisory

Committee, my commitment to our town has been strengthened.”

O’Neal and incumbent Councilwoman Toni Iseman are the only declared

candidates for the three council seats that will be up for election in

November.

The terms of councilmen Paul Freeman and Steven Dicterow also end in

December. Freeman will not run again and Dicterow has not declared his

intention either way.

“It is with a sincere passion of purpose that I seek to serve on our

City Council with the desire to motivate our community to reinvest in the

core mission of municipal government: preserving and protecting the

safety and health of our residents, businesses and natural environment,”

O’Neal said.

Her preliminary platform includes the restoration and proper

maintenance of the city’s infrastructure and facilities and ensuring that

the goals of the city are in line with the vision of the residents.

Her motto will be “VISION -- with a purpose.”

O’Neal was encouraged to run by folks that got to know her in the

visioning process, through her interest in water pollution or as a

neighbor.

“I was really influenced by former council members Kathleen Blackburn

and Wayne Peterson,” O’Neal said.

Peterson first encountered O’Neal at a VISION Laguna meeting one

Saturday morning at Laguna Beach High School.

“She impressed me,” Peterson said. “Melissa had made a presentation on

water problems and how to fund solutions. I asked her if she had read the

budget and she immediately said, ‘How do I get one?”’

After studying the budget, O’Neal visited Peterson, toting a budget

adorned with about 200 Post-it notes.

“She had done her homework,” Peterson said. “I am impressed with her

ability to understand what’s going on and how it fits in with other

issues.”

O’Neal has lived in Laguna Beach since 1989, first in South Laguna and

then in the Mystic Hills home she occupies with her husband, Mike, and a

rescued boxer named Raleigh.

She met her husband of 16 years as a schoolmate in Greeley, Colo.

where O’Neal was born. He is a sales consultant in the computer industry.

She owns a small general contracting firm, serving water and wastewater

infrastructure needs for rural communities and Native American tribes.

O’Neal was born in 1963. Her parents taught in the local school

district in Colorado. She met her future husband on the junior high

school stage.

O’Neal graduated from the University of Northern Colorado in 1985. She

has worked as a gerontologist, grant writer, facilitator and consultant

to municipalities and the private sector.

She served as president of the Santa Clara County Assn. of Geriatric

Social Workers from 1987-89, president of the California Park &

Recreation Society, Aging Section in 1994-95 and as District 10 director

in 1993-94.

“It’s no secret that our rich diversity is what makes our town a

unique and inspirational community,” O’Neal said.