Mission Viejo Receives an "F" in Campaign Finance Transparency

Citizens Take Action, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization based in Long Beach, CA, prepared a comprehensive report card on the campaign finance laws and transparency of 34 Orange County cities in 2022.  Mission Viejo received an "F" grade for failing in all the categories reviewed by this organization, receiving only 4 points out of 100.   

The report evaluated the cities on a 100-point scale in categories around the strength of the cities’ laws against undue influence by large donors and special interests and the cities’ efforts to make critical financial information available to the public.  Click on OC Cities Report Card for the complete list of city grades.  Our read the full report by Citizens Take Action.

We also found it difficult to access the campaign finance information for the Mission Viejo Council members.  Based on a partial review of contributions received from 2016 to early 2022 by Wendy Bucknum, Brian Goodell and Ed Sachs, we noted that donations were made by several City vendors and franchisees to all three Council members.  During this period:

• West Coast Arborists, a City parks maintenance vendor, gave $4,000 to Bucknum and $2,000 to Sachs.  
• Waste Management, the City’s franchisee for trash removal, gave $2,000 to Bucknum ,$1,500 to Goodell, and $2,000 to Sachs.
• Townsend Public Affairs, a City vendor that provides lobbying services, contributed annual amounts ranging from $1,000 to $2,500 to each of the three Council members.
• The Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs gave $1,000 each to these three Council members; the Orange County Sheriff’s Department provides contract law enforcement services to Mission Viejo.

Bucknum, Goodell, and Sachs also received contributions from several developers and real estate companies in the range of $250-$2,000 each year.  Of particular concern was a combined $47,500 in donations to Brian Goodell from Donald Abbey of The Abbey Company, a property management company based in Garden Grove, CA. 

We agree with the conclusions of the Citizens Take Action report that the City should prohibit its franchisees and vendors from donating to Council campaigns and set dollar limits on all other contributions from individuals and organizations.  The City should also update its website so that campaign finance data is more easily accessible and transparent.  A good starting point would be to adopt the strong campaign finance rules and code of ethics that guide the City of Santa Ana, the only OC city that received an A grade in this report.