O.C. city to lose Boys & Girls Club programs after a breakdown in negotiations
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Good morning. It’s Wednesday, March 19. I’m Carol Cormaci, bringing you this week’s TimesOC newsletter with a look at some of the latest local news and events.
More than 1,100 kids living in South Orange County have been the beneficiaries of the services offered by the nonprofit Boys & Girls Club of Capistrano Valley, and 59% of them are Latino, I first learned from a TimesOC news story by Gabriel San Román published in October. As its name suggests, the organization’s after-school and summer camp programs are in place at youth facilities located in three communities: San Juan Capistrano, Aliso Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita.
San Román’s story that ran last fall explained that our nation’s great political divide — specifically in this case over diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging policies — had put the Boys & Girls Club of Capistrano Valley into an uneasy situation. Some conservative civic leaders were not happy that DEI was one of the frameworks of the organization and compounding their worries was the fact a DEI-related reading list was posted on the nonprofit’s website.
The discord came to light after Mike Munzing, a member of the Aliso Viejo City Council who was then serving as mayor, attended the club’s annual Youth of the Year competition in Rancho Santa Margarita in January 2024 and became upset by the organization’s embrace of DEI. It bothered him enough that the next day, he reached out to Nicole Watson, then a staffer and now executive director of the organization, to register his concern.
“We do need to have a bit of a chat regarding this big DEIB stuff that y’all [were] pushing hard last night,” Munzing texted Watson, according to the article. “It is a deeply political issue and a new emphasis for the club, so I’d like to know who’s pushing it.”
The relationship between the mayor and the organization soured further when Munzing turned down an invitation to the club’s bocce ball championship at Doheny State Beach because of “your radical new DEI stance,” he told Watson. (As a point of clarification, the policy was not new to the organization; it had been adopted in October 2020.)
One night in May, Munzing traveled 11 miles to a meeting of the Rancho Santa Margarita City Council to urge it not to approve a one-year extension of the agreement it had with the club for services at the Bell Tower Regional Community Center, where it has operated since 2012. Munzing’s stance against DEI resonated with Tony Beall, one of Rancho Santa Margarita’s councilmen, but the vote was 3-1 to grant the extension until this summer, with Beall casting the only dissenting vote.
According to terms of the agreement approved that night, the city would pay the organization $120,000 to continue offering its services to local youth until July of this year, on the condition that it submit a six-month report addressing concerns over average daily attendance and cost comparisons with the organization’s facilities in San Juan Capistrano and Aliso Viejo.
That brings us to this month, when TimesOC reports the subject of extending the agreement between the Boys & Girls Club of Capistrano Valley and the city of Rancho Margarita came up again. It was discussed at last week’s meeting of the City Council, during which City Manager Jennifer Cervantez gave an update. She explained that negotiations had broken down between the city and the club because the six-month report required in the agreement didn’t include all the details that had been spelled out, “particularly the cost and service comparisons with its other locations.”
Beall, now mayor, told TimesOC that DEI had nothing to do with the collapse of the relationship, and that the city had been generous to the club throughout the talks but its offers were rejected. The Boys & Girls Club did ask for and was granted a one-month extension, to Aug. 13, in order to vacate the center.
So, the parents of children who currently participate in the club’s programming at the Bell Tower Community Center may have to look elsewhere for similar offerings. Some of those parents attended last week’s council meeting to voice their objections over the pending loss of the program. One mom told the panel she’s working three jobs and relies on the low-cost Boys & Girls Club to provide activities for her son.
“Now what am I going to do? I just don’t understand why we would be trying to get rid of such an awesome service that is so inexpensive for someone like me who’s a full-time mom and a full-time working person,” she said.
According to the story, the city’s community services department has been tasked with coming up with alternative programming at the Bell Tower, and include in their plans some youth activities.
MORE NEWS
• Cities up and down California’s coastline are vulnerable to tsunamis, this article published online Tuesday by the Los Angeles Times reminds residents. While rare, they can follow major earthquakes and cause significant flooding. Dave Snider, the tsunami warning coordinator at the National Tsunami Warning Center, was a source for the article and urges people to know if they are in a hazard zone. Here’s a link to the map where you can zoom in to identify which Orange County locations are at risk.
• The storm that swept through the region last Wednesday and Thursday left behind rocks, large sections of trees and several inches of mud on Trabuco Canyon Road, Orange County Public Works officials reported. According to City News Service, evacuation warnings were issued as the rain approached to residents of areas in Trabuco, Hot Springs, Bell, Long and Modjeska canyons. In related news, a man hanging onto a tree at a rain-swollen creek in San Juan Capistrano was successfully rescued Thursday.
• As Irvine Mayor Larry Agran was giving his state-of-the-city address last week that focused on his hope to make Irvine the greenest city in the country, climate activists disrupted him. They were there to object to the city’s intention to withdraw from Orange County Power Authority, known by its acronym OCPA, TimesOC reported. Irvine would not be the first to leave the energy provider, which uses 100% renewable sources that make it the green alternative to Southern California Edison, as the County of Orange and Huntington Beach have already done so. Although originally a supporter of OCPA, Agran and other civic leaders have reconsidered after multiple audits, including by the state, looked at allegations of mismanagement by its previous chief executive.
• With federal funding cuts looming, local governments, school districts, nonprofits, etc., are taking a hard look at their budgets. The Daily Pilot reported last week on a couple of those discussions at the municipal level. Structural deficits are projected in Huntington Beach starting in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, the city’s interim chief financial officer said at what became a contentious town hall. It was the second of two such meetings to which residents were invited to weigh in on budget priorities. In nearby Costa Mesa, officials are considering scaling back on previously planned public works projects and eliminating unfilled job vacancies to cover a $3.6-million revenue shortfall in this year’s budget.
• The U.S. Department of Education, under the direction of the Trump administration announced that Chapman University is one of 60 colleges across the nation under investigation for alleged antisemitism. In response, a coalition of 33 student groups held a noontime protest Monday at the school’s campus in Orange.
COURTS, PUBLIC SAFETY & CRIME
• Lisa and Wayne Wolff, a couple from Riverside, are suing the UC regents after Wayne Wolff’s knee surgery at UCI Medical Center in Orange resulted in amputation, The Times reported March 13. The suit alleges a surgeon cut an artery rather than a vein in Wayne’s leg while performing what was expected to be routine surgery and then covered up the mistake.
• TimesOC reported Tuesday that federal prosecutors want Harry Sidhu, the disgraced former mayor of Anaheim, to serve 8 months in prison. Sidhu earlier pleaded guilty to four felonies related to lying to FBI agents and destroying an email regarding the $320-million deal to sell Anaheim stadium. That agreement was later canceled by the Anaheim City Council.
• Orange County sheriff’s deputies were on the hunt Tuesday for a man suspected of stabbing a deputy who was on patrol in the area of Avenida Pico and Calle de Los Molinos in San Clemente at around 2:15 p.m., an OCSD spokesperson told City News Service. Students at San Clemente High and Las Palmas Elementary School sheltered in place during the hunt, which had not concluded by this newsletter’s deadline. The deputy was taken to a hospital, but her wounds were not considered life-threatening.
• A 78-year-old motorist was killed when his pickup truck, a Toyota Tundra, crashed into a tree shortly before 5 a.m. Thursday on Chapman Avenue in Garden Grove. Paramedics pronounced Orange resident James Eads dead at the scene, a police spokesman told City News Service.
• Police allege in court documents that Jerry Gilbert Gutierrez, an 18-year-old with “anger issues” gunned down a woman in her car because she had upset the younger members of the gang she was affiliated with. Gutierrez pleaded not guilty March 4 in the 2020 killing of 48-year-old Charlene Lynn Zuazo of Anaheim, City News Service reports. A pre-trial hearing was scheduled for today.
SPORTS
• Corona del Mar’s boys’ volleyball team prevailed over rival Newport Harbor last Wednesday, winning their Battle of the Bay meetup. Corona del Mar’s Ben Brown, a junior outside hitter who is a newcomer from the Chicago area, put in a star performance, the Daily Pilot reported, with 15 kills and 1½ blocks to lead the visiting Sea Kings to a 25-20, 25-15, 25-21 sweep of the Sailors in the Sunset League match.
• The Sage Hill girls basketball team came this close last Friday night to winning its second state championship in Sacramento. “But four free throws in the final minute quelled a late rally by Sage Hill, which fell to Concord Carondelet 51-48,” the Daily Pilot reported.
LIFE & LEISURE
• Side Street Cafe in Costa Mesa served up its final meals on Sunday. Owner Diane Beach, 72, said she was simply ready to move on after 32 years operating the popular diner, according to this feature story by my colleague Eric Licas. Beach will be relocating to Colorado to be near one of her four children, Licas reports.
• Laguna Beach held its annual Patriots Day Parade March 8, which was considered a success by all. Half the town participates in it while the other half watches from the sidelines, one of the organizers quipped. To read our coverage by Daily Pilot reporter Andrew Turner, complete with some great photos by photographer Don Leach, click here.
CALENDAR THIS
• In celebration of the annual return of swallows from Argentina to the San Juan Capistrano Mission around St. Joseph’s Day (which falls today), the 65th Annual Swallows Day Parade and Mercado Street Fair will be held Saturday in the city’s historic center, along El Camino Real. The day offers family fun with an Old West flair. The parade begins at 11 a.m.; visitors are encouraged to arrive early because nearby streets will be closed by 10 a.m.
Until next week,
Carol
KEEP IN TOUCH
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