Orange County Register

At 11:04 a.m. on June 3, the call reporting a “disturbance” crackled over the Sheriff’s Department radio system. “Board room residents are getting unruly at a board meeting.”

CAUSE FOR PANIC?

• Said unruly residents live at what was formerly called Leisure World in Laguna Woods.
• All exceeded 55 years in age, and were closer to the average age of 78.
• All were at a meeting of the Golden Rain Foundation, whose members are supposed to represent said unruly residents and watch out for their best interest.
• Said unruly residents shouted, spoke out of turn and refused to shut up - even after microphones were turned off in an attempt to silence them.
• The call for backup to the OC Sheriff’s Department was placed after one senior who wouldn’t stifle (after his microphone was cut off) walked “aggressively” toward board members assembled at the U-shaped dais; and after another advanced behind the board’s chairs to howl at the president.
• It was the third time over the past 18 months that deputies have been summoned to avert similar crises in the GRF meeting room in the Community Center on El Toro Road. (GRF is the nonprofit corporation that runs the pools, club houses and other common amenities at what is now called Laguna Woods Village).

“Calling the Sheriff to our board meetings is absolutely outrageous and should not be tolerated by our community!” long-standing rabble-rouser Mike Curtis wrote in an email to fellow Laguna Woods Village residents.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DAIS

The sheriff was summoned to the meeting because board members felt threatened.

“At the June 3 televised GRF Board meeting, a resident at the podium became unruly and would not allow the meeting to continue,” Professional Community Management spokeswoman Heather Rasmussen wrote to me in an email.”The Chairman of the Board made multiple attempts to bring the meeting to order and to regain control of the meeting, but the resident instead moved to the center of the room while shouting loudly.

“In addition, another resident went behind the board’s seats and proceeded to loudly admonish the GRF President. At this point, the sheriff was called in case the situation escalated any further.

“The Village’s Private Security Division is instructed to contact the sheriff if and when a hostile situation arises. The Village Security Staff do not carry weapons or handcuffs and are not authorized to make arrests.”

CALL THE COPS!

Laguna Woods, the city in which Laguna Woods Village resides, contracts with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department for police services.

The city will spend about $1 million this year - or some $2,740 each day - for that service. What does that money buy?

• One patrol car, on duty for two shifts each day.

That means that, for several hours every day, no deputy is on duty in Laguna Woods. If all hell were to break loose, deputies from surrounding cities would respond.

So, when that one deputy in that one patrol car races to the community center to reign in rowdy residents, it isn’t, you know, anywhere else.

Neither the city nor the Sheriff’s Department computes “cost per call.” But the Watchdog did some rough calculations, showing that each hour a deputy is on duty costs Laguna Woods some $171.

BY WAY OF BACKGROUND….

A feisty faction of seniors thinks that Professional Community Management, the private company GRF hires to manage Laguna Woods Village (at a cost of $654,121) is wasting their money. Why? Last year, PCM employees charged more than $116,000 on credit cards paid with the seniors’ money, and thousands on “Jingle Mingles and the like.

COOLER HEAD PREVAILS

When the sheriff’s deputy arrived at the community center, she did not go inside, city manager Leslie Keane and Sheriff’s Capt. Bill Griffin said.

Instead, she inquired further about the nature of the disturbance. When told that people were being loud, she said that people expressing their opinions in a democratic setting are allowed to be loud. Until things escalated and violence loomed, she would not enter the board room.

She never did. And Capt. Griffin is happy.

“We’re very, very sensitive to these issues,” said Griffin, who gets passionate emails from Laguna Woods’ residents on a regular basis. “We want to make sure that everybody has their opportunity to participate. I’m really proud of the deputy for doing that.”

Still, it still enrages some LWV residents that their property manager calls the cops on them. “We all feel like we’re in a damn jail,” Kay Margason said.

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