The Capistrano Insider

Trustee Maddox Weighs in on Soto

Capistrano Unified School District Trustee Ken Maddox has offered some thoughts on the county investigation into possible overbilling by former Capistrano Councilman Joe Soto's landscaping company.

Maddox, a former cop, says he endorsed Laura Freese during the last council race over Soto because, essentially, he recognized Soto as a "no goodnick."

Like a lot of Capistrano tales, this one has a lot of back story. Maddox actually did some paid political consultant for Freese during the campaign, and him being a Republican and all, and her famously not, that probably irked some of his party colleagues.

Soto, for his part, was one of those who publicly criticized Maddox and other trustees for putting Superintendent A. Woodrow Carter on paid leave. (Carter and Soto were fellow Rotarians).

It all makes for interesting reading on Trustee Maddox's blog. I suspect this won't be the last of the who-supported-who, who-didn't sort of exhanges we'll see as the Soto saga unravels.

Here's Trustee's Maddox's full post.

Authorities Investigating Soto

Investigators from the Orange County District Attorney's Office, backed up by Sheriff's Department deputies, served search warrants on the home and business of former Councilman Joe Soto this month.

According to the warrant, investigators are looking into whether Soto's landscaping company overbilled the county. Although Soto's contracts with various parks and other county entities are for fixed amount, Soto Co. workers could hand-write estimates for spot repairs on items such as sprinkler systems.

A county worker noticed, however, that the actual invoices sent after the work would be considerably higher. At Mile Square Park, for example, all of the daily invoices over the course of a month was altered, except for one. The DA investigator,

Soto told me Tuesday he and his employees haven't done anything wrong. The changes, he said, came after workers estimated what it would take to do a job, but discovered more was necessary as they got into the work.

He said the investigation was like "an audit," and he was confident it wouldn't amount to much.

The warrants were served early in the morning on January 15. The investigator said they didn't turn up anything and the computers and paperwork was returned.

Click here to see the search warrant.

McDonough Estate Donates to Mission School

This just in...

Mission San Juan Capistrano is pleased to announce that it is the recipient of a donation of $474,000 from the estate of Robert “Bob” McDonough, founder of the professional staffing company RemedyTemp. McDonough was a long-time Mission parishioner, former Mission Preservation Foundation Board Member and avid fan of the historic Mission, who died at age 85 in 2007.

The funds will be used in part to support and improve the school’s math and science programs, an important area of interest to McDonough, Mission Basilica Pastor Fr. Arthur Holquin reported. “Bob was successful in many areas of his life, and was always grateful for his Catholic education and upbringing,” remarked Fr. Holquin. “He also wanted our young people to develop strong math and science skills to enable them to be a success as they go on to high school.”

McDonough had previously made a major gift to the Mission school; the school building is named in his honor. McDonough’s son and daughter, Emmett McDonough of Santa Barbara and Susan McDonough Mikos of San Juan Capistrano, presented the donation to Fr. Holquin.

Layoffs Hit Home

Fluidmaster, which employees about 200 people at its Rancho Viejo Road headquarters and manufacturing plant, notified the city this month that it is laying off 67 people.

The plumbing-parts giant is shutting down its local manufacturing but the remainder of the operation will remain here.

Fluidmaster, started more than 50 years ago, moved to Capistrano in 1998.

More Time for Ortega Comments

This just in:

City officials received confirmation that Caltrans has extended the public review period of the draft environmental study on its Ortega-widening plan to Feb. 14.

Caltrans plans to widen a stretch of Ortega State Highway 74 from two to four lanes from Calle Entradero in San Juan Capistrano to the City/Orange County line. City officials in 2007 pushed for Caltrans to produce a full environmental impact report on the project - amidst City concerns and those of several residents worried about its impacts to the scenic highway.

According to Caltrans, the draft environmental impact report (EIR) is available for public review through Feb. 14 at http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist12/Lower74_DEIR.html. E-mail comments to lower74EIR_D12@dot.ca.gov or mail them to:

Smita Deshpande, Branch Chief
Environmental Planning Branch 'A'
Caltrans District 12
949-724-2245

For more information about the study, contact Scott Shelley at 949-724-2705 or the City's Public Works Director Nasser Abbaszadeh at 949-443-6398 or nabbaszadeh@sanjuancapistrano.org.