"If you ever need anything, I’m right around the corner ..."
Laura Lacko's audacious, empathetic, inspired run for Mission Viejo City Council.
Laura Lacko is as politically slick as a pothole.
She says what’s on her mind. She tells you everything. There are no questions to dodge. No embarrassing moments to conceal. She’ll complain about the static on her shirt, yet refuse to dog her election opponent. Not because she’s being nice. “Just have no reason.”
A few weeks ago, Laura and I met for breakfast at Ted’s in Laguna Niguel, where we discussed her inspired run to join the Mission Viejo City Council—a MAGA-corroded entity that does its all to marginalize its single Democratic member and keep general business matters hush-hush.
I found Laura forthright, smart, engaging and sincere. You can visit her website here, and please tell your friends in Mission Viejo that her saga—and her intentions—are worthy of their support …
JEFF PEARLMAN: “So … Laura.”
LAURA LACKO: “So … Jeff?”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “You were a Republican in a past life?”
LAURA LACKO: “Ha. Ha. Yup.”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “Explain that one, Laura.”
LAURA LACKO: “Hmm. It’s easier to explain how I’m not. So my sister …”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “Your sister Jen? Who’s running for secretary of state in Kansas?”
LAURA LACKO: “Yes. So Jen and my older sister, who has since passed, for years tried to educate me and trying to talk to me about what voting Republican was all about and being a Republican. And years ago I was living in Los Angeles. I had moved up there with my youngest of two daughters. And I was the only white person on my street because I lived in an area called View Park, which is right off of Crenshaw in South LA. And you can’t help but look around and see how people are living.
“And from there we moved across the street to Baldwin Hills. My daughter and I. We bought this great one-level house. I had an aging dog. So we sold the other house, moved into that one, lived there for a couple years and then I was like, ‘I can’t handle LA anymore. And Moshe and I were up and down, in and out, whatever. So I was like, “I’m going back to Orange County.” LA and I didn’t 100 percent mix, but I learned so many lessons. My eyes were opened. I had been anti-abortion, and then I started realizing I wouldn’t want anyone telling me what do do with my body. And we had neighbors who were very patient with me. They invited us to their barbecues, they talked to us, they asked why I—a white woman—was living there. The whole experience opened my eyes. They needed to be opened. I didn’t even know the word gentrification. I had been so sheltered.
“So when I finally moved back here, to Orange County, I was changed. I’d be exposed to the real world." By the time Trump came along in 2015 … and maybe I’d have supported him in a past life. But this time I was a hard, ‘Hell no.’ I’ve always hated that guy.”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “Did your family like him?”
LAURA LACKO: “My dad was a Republican. But I forgive him.”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “So, Laura—why are you running?”
LAURA LACKO: “So why am I running? I’m running because I see how the city is run and I see the influences that are in it. And what bothers me the most, because I’m an open book— I hate people who hide things, and the city is so good at hiding things. They don’t want to tell people when they’re doing something. They just passed … the parking lot that they’re redoing over at Nadadores, they’re specifically referencing it as the Mission Viejo Recreation Center, but really it’s for the Nadadores. And that parking lot, they are allotting $6 million for that parking lot, which as [council member] Cynthia Vasquez told me … it’s kind of unhinged. That’s $40,000 per parking spot. Now, as someone who had worked in commercial development, I know you don’t need that. I’m like, ‘What kind of grading is going to be going into this?’ I can imagine it being a two or $3 million project, but $6 million seems excessive for the amount of spots.”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “Why do you think they’re doing that?”
LAURA LACKO: “It’s all conjecture, but it has to do with somebody who worked with the city before and now he works for the company that they’ve given the contract …”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “So looking at Mission Viejo from an outside perspective … it seems like you have one Democratic board member, Cynthia Vasquez, who’s basically marginalized by the rest of the board. They don’t take her seriously. Don’t really show her any respect. Bypass her for mayor They’re a bunch of MAGA weirdos who just want to ... take what’s happened on the national level and make it local and sorta act like you’re wrong, they’re right and that’s that. Am I right?”
LAURA LACKO: “Pretty much. Yeah. It’s tough. And it’s one of those things I’ve spoken to them and I’ve called them out on their racism and homophobia and I work with the Pride Committee.
“And the Canyon Democrats were looking for people to run, and one of the spots is District Four, because Trish Kelley can’t run again. And I just decided to go for it, and put my heart into it.”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “You’re running against Rhonda Reardon …”
LAURA LACKO: “Right. She was on the council way back in the 2010s. I’ve never met her, but everybody says she’s very nice. People say Trish is nice, too. I have no personal anger toward these people. It’s strictly about visions for the city.
My main thing is, because I have a development background and business background, and I studied my dad very hard, we need change in the city as far as housing goes, as well as bringing more attractive business to the city. So I want to focus on … like, it’s like down the list, but there’s the center across the street from the city hall that’s been there for a really long time and there’s a vacant Big Lots and then down to what used to be the Steinmart. And the city owns the Steinmart. A lot of spaces are empty in there, but I want to take that and talk to somebody about redevelopment.
“The problem is there are, I think, at least 13 or 14 different owners of that center, which is outrageous. So it’s crazy to me that that’s what is going on over there, but it’s all in big pieces. But if we can make it attractive to them, knock that down and put up some mixed use and have residential on the top and businesses on the bottom and just make it look better, make it look more attractive … we’d be onto something.”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “What are the residential issues of Mission Viejo?”
LAURA LACKO: “So in my district in particular, we have a large population of aging. I believe 23 percent of the registered voters in my district are 65 and older. And when I distributed literature just on the streets around me recently, I was looking at the ages of these people. I’m just like, these people in this house are 95, both of them are 90-something. I’m like, ‘holy cow.’ And I sort of put a note on the door like, ‘If you ever need anything, I’m right around the corner.’ I’m sure they’re being taken care of, but it’s just, we need to make sure that we have caregivers that are in the area that are able to afford to live in the area. So we really need to expand our affordable living. And I know we’ve got some things going in, so hopefully that’ll work, but they’re maxing it out at 15-percent affordable living.
JEFF PEARLMAN: “Do you think certain people, I won’t even say Republicans, recoil at the idea of quote unquote affordable living because they picture brown people coming into your neighborhood?”
LAURA LACKO: “I hear more people concerned that we’re going to be giving this housing out to homeless people. I worked with a lot of the houseless community in Los Angeles just on my own, and I would talk to them. I’d give them rides to the train. I’d give them rides to the motel they were staying at. That was the type of thing that I would do. And it was one of those things where I’m like, ‘What’s going on? Why are you here?’ And some of them you could tell, but a lot of them were just like, ‘COVID hit and this happened, or this happened with my family and I have no resources and nothing,’ and I would try to hook them up with ways that they could get help.
JEFF PEARLMAN: “A lot of people don’t realize what’s available to them …”
LAURA LACKO: “Very much very true. And I don’t understand why we don’t even try.”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “I love it. Orange County. But I do feel like, when you tell people about the quote unquote homeless problem, 70 percent are mad because when they buy their $7 Starbucks drink, they don’t want someone homeless outside asking for money. And that’s kind of gross. But I do feel like there’s this ... ‘It’s not how do we help them? It’s how do we not see them?’ It bothers me a lot of actually.
LAURA LACKO: “That’s a large part of it. And it’s one of those things when I was a teenager, I had an allowance and anybody who asked me for money, I’d give them money. And my dad was always like, ‘Stop it.’ I always thought if people are desperate enough to ask for money, I’m going to give them money.”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “I feel like your real-world experience led you to that behavior …”
LAURA LACKO: “When my girls were very young and I had to kick my husband out for an assortment of reasons, I was desperate. My dad was helping me. I had a roof over my head, but I was responsible for the food and for the utilities. I’m making seven, eight bucks an hour at this time. Working at Kohl’s …”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “What year was this?”
LAURA LACKO: “That was 2004, 2005. And that’s when I was working at Kohl’s. I was doing all kinds of things. I got a job at an escrow company and I was making like $1,500 bucks a month and I thought, ‘Wow, this is great.’ And I busted my ass, but I couldn’t afford to buy from food sometimes. So I used the free lunch program at school. They had their free lunchs. And then I would go to the food bank. I had to use a food bank. And the soccer fields always had an excess of water bottles and cans. I would go and pick those up and change them in and go get them a bag of chicken nuggets for the kids. And so when I see people talking negatively about people who are using SNAP, I’m like, ‘But we need it.’ Whether they are using it to an advantage or not, I said, ‘It helped me stay on my feet, helped me keep the utilities, keep the lights on for my kids so that we weren’t dealing with the things that we’re dealing with.’”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “How were you able to find your footing? What turned it around for you?
LAURA LACKO: “Well, my mom had died by that time, so 1998. And my dad gave us a certain amount of money. And so I opened a flower shop at that time, then held some other jobs. But after he passed away in 2009 is when I finally was able to live a comfortable life. So it really, really sucks because my mom was only 53 when she passed away. My dad, he was 64. He had pulmonary fibrosis. It was familial. So his mom died from it. His brother died from it. Their younger brother has it, but he’s doing okay. And my dad lived with it for about seven years before it slammed him and he had a lung transplant and he only lived another year after that. And so when he passed away, that’s when the money started getting distributed. I needed it.”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “You have a campaign team. Serious question. How much does it cost to run an effective campaign for city council?”
LAURA LACKO: “So I’ve already loaned myself $20,000. I’m sitting pretty comfortably on that. I had a big donation from my twin because I had given her money. She’s like tit for tat. And so that was nice. But I’ve literally received only one other donation from this very nice man, Walt Lawson, who’s part of Canyon Democrats. He and his wife are just super supportive.”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “But you’re not out there saying like, ‘Fund my campaign, fund my campaign …’”
LAURA LACKO: “It’s nice to have financial support. But it’s more about knowing that the people know who you are and want you to get there. And so that’s what it is for me. I can fully fund myself.”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “Money in politics is gross.”
LAURA LACKO: “It’s terrible. I’m lucky I can do this and not annoy everyone I know to death wit my hand out. But it’s not cheap.”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “So Rhonda Reardon—it sounds like you don’t really have anything awful to say about her.”
LAURA LACKO: “I’m not that kind of person. I do have information about her that I will not use. I refuse to use it.”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “Why?”
LAURA LACKO: “Because that’s not who I am. I want to win based on people knowing that I’m going to do for them what they need done. And it won’t be what Rhonda does. She’s been there before. This is me, showing people what I want to do.”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “You emphasize economics a lot. Which sometimes makes you sound a little … Republican.”
LAURA LACKO: “I had to watch my budget when my girls were young and I didn’t have any money. When I worked for that escrow company, I came in and the manager was named Connie, and I was her direct assistant, but I also did the banking for this office and it was one of the largest escrow offices in Southern California. For the first week or two, Connie would come and literally just stand and watch over my shoulder. And it was odd. And we would have people come in and start their job as an escrow assistant, and they’d leave for lunch and they wouldn’t come back.
“She was really hard. She reminded me of my mom, and she had been a former teacher, and she just really valued the job that she was doing, really valued the office, and she did a good job. So I was her assistant. I was also the second assistant to 34 other escrow officers. And then I also took care of, of course, the banking. I did lots of things in there. When I left that job a year and a half later, it was because they asked me to take on one more thing, answering phones at lunchtime. And I was like, ‘Okay, if you pay me 150 bucks more a month, cool, I’ll do it. They wouldn’t, so they had to bring three people in to take my job.
“I get things done.”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “Are you an underdog in this election, what with a fairly conservative city?”
LAURA LACKO: "That’s a tough one because from what I’ve heard, I’ve only given two speeches and Rhonda’s given, I don’t know how many, but she spoke at the Elks Lodge recently and it didn’t go well from what I heard. And so it’s one of those things where, see, most people would be like, ‘Oh, goodie. Hahaha.’ My heart breaks for her, because this person just should be hanging out and watching fucking cooking shows all day. Like, why are you doing this? I think she’s 77. She’s had a full life. She’s done a lot. Why run again?”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “Maybe she’s bored.”
LAURA LACKO: “Could be.”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “Do you feel like one of the things you’re running against, maybe even more than Rhonda Reardon, is just general indifference? ‘Yeah. City council, do you guys meet once a year? What is that?’”
LAURA LACKO: “It’s the hardest thing. And you’re in a city, like I said, where people drive through it and it looks great and their programs and everything look great and nobody’s looking at the budget. Nobody’s looking at seeing where things ... And of course, because of the way they run things in closed door sessions, I only know things because Cynthia tells me. And so the funding that they approved for the next step of this project was only like $230,000 of the $6 million. So she knows the total number, but that’s not out there. I’ve tried everywhere trying to find it. It’s really difficult. And they make it even difficult. Even when you search, ‘How do I run for Mission Viejo City Council …’ it doesn’t pull up a page. You can go to the site, but you have to be very specific in what you’re searching for.”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “You think they don’t want people running?”
LAURA LACKO: “Yeah. Oh, yeah. A lot of these people were sitting forever. They just want to stay and run the city, no questions asked. It’s frustrating.”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “Why is your sister running for secretary of state? In … Kansas?”
LAURA LACKO: “She loves it there. She initially went there to help our former brother-in-law. He was in IT. And so she worked for him. She couldn’t get a job here. She was in Hollywood. She had gone to Pepperdine. She just couldn’t find a solid job. She was doing temp work. He was like, ‘Come here, come here and be here.’ And so she went there and it’s been 35 years now. And so turns out a lot of our family from our dad’s mom’s side is from there. We have a very famous history there actually, not far from where she’s at in Overland Park. So she just feels a kinship there. And I always tell her, ‘I don’t want to come. I hate visiting Kansas.’ But she loves it.”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “She’s impressive.”
LAURA LACKO: “No, she’s amazing. Her license plate says PLZ V-O-T-E. She wants people to vote, whatever their party. And over the years, she’s taught me how to look at things more diplomatically and because of her work in the legislature and being able to talk to other people.”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “Have you guys talked a lot about running simultaneously?”
LAURA LACKO: “Our phone calls are mostly talking about our campaigns.”
JEFF PEARLMAN: “What’s the main emphasis?”
LAURA LACKO: “Winning, Jeff. Winning.”
