City Council - Voigts Style

Last night Lake Forest City Council members gave another disappointing performance in what is an increasingly long list of disturbing performances.

Recall that at the last meeting, Mayor Pro Tem Hamilton, sitting in for the vacationing Mayor Voigts, ordered people in the audience not to laugh and not to applaud, and even bemoaned the fact that they were speaking. He cut off speakers in mid- sentence, harassed one speaker, violated the Brown Act and even after being reprimanded by the City Attorney, continued to violate the act. He topped it off by complaining that he had been “bullied” by the audience. Click Here for the full details.

Last night Mayor Voigts was back in the driver’s seat, and from start to finish his behavior was questionable. He began by arbitrarily moving the “Council Comment” section from the end of the meeting to the beginning of the meeting. This left all of us on the dais surprised and with very little to say, as Council Comments is the time when most of us review the night’s activities. But Voigts apparently came prepared. He launched into a vicious attack on Councilman Adam Nick, calling on him to resign. Nick reminded Voigts that his case had recently been dismissed by the DA, but Voigts was unmoved. In his defense, Nick accused Voigts of wearing a wire for the DA, an accusation Voigts denied. Voigts then complained about the signs that he and Hamilton lost during the campaign, neglecting to mention the signs that had been stolen from other candidates. (FWIW – later during public comments, one local activist suggested that the reason Voigts lost so many signs was that Voigts had flagrantly violated the City code by posting signs ahead of schedule, posting them in illegal locations, and posting them on private property.)

The opening salvo was only the beginning. Council members exchanged barbs and accusations throughout the long evening. I tried to intervene on several occasions, achieving a temporary truce, but the bickering soon resurfaced.

At one point, Mayor Voigts was yelling at the audience for an extended period. Then, unexpectedly, he left the dais, late in the evening, with no explanation and with no indication that he was not returning.

There were several breaks during the evening in which I apologized profusely to the dozens of people in attendance, many of whom were from other cities there to talk about the Police contract and the Animal Care contract.

As the meeting progressed, and people became more upset that the City’s business was obviously being placed on the side rails, the audience became audibly agitated. Councilman Robinson angrily threatened to keep them until 5 am unless they quieted down.

Recall that Councilman Robinson in public recently referred to another Council member as an “imbecile”, a “moron”, a “vengeance seeker” and accused him of lying. When challenged to provide evidence that the member lied, Robinson declined and instead continued his accusations. Click Here for the full details.

Note to Councilman Robinson – when City leaders model poor behavior, you should expect that the people sitting in the audience will act out. If you want your residents to behave properly, you need to lead with proper behavior.

Lest you think that my impressions are not giving you an accurate recount of the meeting, you can view the tape at the City’s website. Tomorrow I will publish e-mails I received from participants in the meeting, and you can compare their observations to mine.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook and you can share your thoughts about the City at Lake Forest Town Square on Facebook. His comments are not meant to reflect official City Policy.

Dr. Gardner has office hours every Tuesday from 3 pm to 5 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a mini town meeting every month. The next meeting will be on August 15 at 2 pm at the El Toro Public Library.