Laguna Woods Village Ca

It's just past noon in Laguna Woods, and retired Navy pilot David Masters, 71, has just wrapped up 18 holes on the golf course. The scene beyond him is something out of a postcard: bright green grass framed by blue sky and snow-capped mountains. Just around the corner, a group of retirees pokes gentle fun at one another while they lawn bowl. And in a nearby clubhouse, another social club gathers to chat, share drinks and eat coffeecake.

Like many of his neighbors in the Orange County retirement village of Laguna Woods, Dave Blodgett, 87, might seem like a natural John McCain man. He fought on Navy PT boats in the Pacific during World War II and was moved by the Republican presidential candidate's story of survival in a Vietnamese prison camp. Yet while Orange County on Tuesday held true to its image as a reliably Republican county, with a majority voting for McCain, Blodgett and most other Laguna Woods voters bucked the trend.

Irate residents of a southern Orange County retirement community called on their association board Wednesday to set limits on what they contend has been lavish spending by their property management company. Residents of Laguna Woods Village, a retirement community of 18,000, said financial records show property management staffers spent thousands of dollars on expensive birthday and holiday lunches and presents over the last several years.

It began with several hundred southern Orange County seniors contending their property management company was spending too much money on carwashes, expensive lunches and gifts for its employees. Those residents of Laguna Woods Village, a retirement community of 18,000, formed the group Residents Voice. They went after a bigger audience last month when they bought a series of quarter-page newspaper advertisements to publicize their complaints.

Days after Leisure World residents voted overwhelmingly to change the name that their Laguna Woods retirement community had borne for 40 years, most seemed happy with the choice. But not necessarily for the reasons advertised. "It was my pick," Star Warford, 79, said of Laguna Woods Village, the new moniker approved by 42.5% of the more than 6,000 residents who cast their ballots Friday. "I think it would have been pretentious to call it 'Estates,' or 'Manor' or 'Resort.'