We previously mentioned how Dale Tyler was the first person in Mission Viejo to pull papers to potentially become a candidate to replace city councilman Lance MacLean in the event that voters recall MacLean from office in February. Now, it appears Tyler is the first person to make his candidacy official by returning those papers.
Tyler and friend/activist Connie Lee met up with me in city hall this this morning while waiting for Tyler's ballot statement to be approved by the city clerk. A software engineer, Tyler said he's not much of a political guy but pays close attention to city government. As one of the masterminds of the MacLean recall, he's been considering running to replace MacLean ever since the recall started to gain traction earlier this year.
His list of priorities for office sound a lot like the recall crowd's list of complaints about MacLean.
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If elected, Tyler wants to put three measures on the ballot for voter approval next
November. They seem directly drawn from the narrative of MacLean's own
fall from the good graces of the activists who elected him back in 2002. One of the
ballot measures would rein in council member salary raises; MacLean and other council
members voted to double their salary to adjust for inflation since the
city's incorporation. The two other measures would limit spending and
put all major capital improvements to a city-wide vote; in the eyes of
his detractors, MacLean has been profligate with city coffers.
How will Tyler's opponents hit back at him? Tyler says he thinks their attack line will be that he doesn't do much besides complain. His response: Yes, he is concerned about the way the city is run–and is happy to discuss the specifics with anyone who wants to.
Three other citizens have pulled papers to run in the Febuary recall/replacement election–Jeff Weekley, David Leckness and Kevin P. Dailey–but none have turned them back in yet. The deadline to do so is Thursday.
