Wrangling Over AVCA's $2-Million Fund Isn't Over

An Aliso Viejo City Council member responded to online criticism, and the city attorney rebutted allegations of public-meeting violations, in a Wednesday night installment of the continuing controversy over a $2-million AVCA fund.

City officials and the Aliso Viejo Community Association began sparring over the debated HOA’s Park Improvement fund at an Aug. 17 council meeting.

At that meeting, Councilmen Donald Garcia and Phillip Tsunoda said the HOA had left the city's recreation ad-hoc committee—the body that helped put in motion several park renovation projects—and local sports leagues unaware of the fund balance, about $2 million that council members said could have been used to support sports park renovations.

The city is currently working with AVCA and local sports groups to renovate city sports fields, specifically Woodfield, Foxborough and Aliso Viejo Community Park, and sports leagues plan to pitch in about 25 percent.

After the August meeting —a number of Patch readers commented. AVCA President Ross Chun said that the HOA hadn’t hidden anything, that the money was better kept in reserve, and that the city had not been open or transparent during the process.

comments, and Garcia asked members of the public to attend to the Sept. 7 meeting, where he would respond to their online comments.

Garcia Responds

At the end of Wednesday night's meeting, Garcia defended the actions of the city's ad-hoc committee as well his decision to question AVCA’s $2-million park improvement fund. 

“I’m not ashamed of what I said, and I’m not taking anything back,” he said.

He said that AVCA can do what it wants with its money but that he simply had questions about the fund.

“Here was the real question that no one seems to want to focus on: … What can this money be used for?” Garcia said. 

Mayor Carmen Cave said the debate between fellow council members and the AVCA is simply a miscommunication because of the different laws that the two groups have to follow.

“I think we're speaking different languages,” Cave said.

Brown Act Violations Denied

Also at the meeting, the city attorney denied allegations of Brown Act violations by the city’s recreation ad-hoc committee.

The Brown Act is a California law that guarantees the public's right to attend and participate in meetings of local legislative bodies.

In May, the city received a letter from Terry Francke, general counsel for Calaware, a nonprofit that supports open government. In the letter, Francke said the committee must comply with the Brown Act.

The letter says that committee is not “ad hoc” in that it has been meeting since April 2009.

Because the committee is not obeying Brown Act regulations, Francke said, the community has to rely on “on guesswork to divine the activities of a council-created mechanism for informing the city’s recreation programs and priorities.”

To read the full letter, click here.

In response, City Attorney Scott Smith told the council Wednesday night, “We think those allegations are completely unfounded and spurious.”

According to Smith, the committee does not have to comply with the Brown Act because the committee does not have a quorum of council members, as the act requires. 

He also said the city had recently changed its "best practices" to make sure the ad hoc activities are more adequately noticed.

Foxborough Park Vote Postponed

Earlier at the meeting, the council postponed a vote on installing lights and restrooms at Foxborough Park, pending further study, after nearby residents complained the project would bring more traffic, noise and homeless to the area.

The council also voted to direct the city finance directed to create a reserve fund of about $421,684 to pay for the replacement of those lights in the event that the project is approved.

Before the council OK’d the reserve fund, Tsunoda addressed the controversy over AVCA’s $2-million parks improvement fund, saying the members of the city’s ad-hoc recreation committee and the stakeholders, such as Aliso Viejo Little League and AYSO, had been working under the assumption that AVCA was in dire straights, that it was facing a $500,000 deficit because of unpaid homeowner dues.

However, Tsunoda said, people were surprised when at a recent meeting AVCA told the ad-hoc committee that the HOA had about $2 million in a fund for park improvements.

Tsunoda also responded to Chun’s criticism that the process was not open and public to AVCA, calling the process “extremely open.”

“The process that we have gone through was very, in my opinion, thorough,” Tsunoda said.

He then invited members of the AVCA board and members of the public to respond. 

Attending AVCA representatives declined Tsunoda’s request.

The lone member of the public who spoke on the item was Tony DeGruccio, an Aliso Viejo Little League board member. 

DeGruccio objected to AVCA president's comments that the HOA wasn’t really involved in the meetings and called the comments “false and wrong.” 

“This statement is a flat-out lie, and in my opinion, grandstanding,” DeGruccio said.  “It was a joint task force that just wanted to help our community grow.”

After public comments closed, Tsunoda said the city and AVCA would continue to work together and that he would support the creation of the reserve fund.

The reserve fund vote was part of an agenda item that also created a memorandum of understanding between AVCA and the city in which the city would replace the lights.

The next City Council meeting takes place at 7 p.m., Sept. 21 in the council chambers at City Hall, 12 Journey Way.