Battle of the Flyers - Part 1

Like you I’ve been getting a plethora of flyers in my mailbox about the City Council election, and here’s what I noticed –

• The attacks on Adam Nick are all based on his behavior in 2014 or before
• The attacks on Dwight Robinson are mostly based on his current behavior

Let’s review –

CHARGES AGAINST NICK

Dwight Robinson has a flyer (“Haven’t we had enough?”) that attacks Nick for his 2014 “stealing incident” and for 2013 and 2014 comments about Councilwoman McCullough. Robinson's developer friends put out another flyer that covers much of the same ground (“He’s up to no good”), adding an attack on the fact that Nick changed his name to reflect his adopted country (He was born in Iran and named Afshin Nikamanesh but he changed it to Adam Nick).

All the criticism of Nick is for actions he took in 2014 or before. Apparently even the vicious “Nick is Nuts” cabal can find nothing in the past 2 years to complain about.

CHARGES AGAINST ROBINSON

Leah Basile has a flyer (“Can we Trust Dwight Robinson?”) that focuses on the lies and mis-statements made by Robinson in his 2016 ballot statement. She also covers some of his broken promises from 2012, but most of the criticism is from actions in the past few months.

Adam Nick has a flyer (“What is Dwight Robinson Hiding?”) that questions Robinson’s 2016 filing with the State, and another flyer (“Under Investigation”) that speaks to a 2016 investigation by the FPPC into Robinson’s failure to “disclose his financial interests…” (Click Here)

Citizens for Good Government has a flyer (“Trouble with the Truth”) that talks about Robinson’s mis-statements on his 2016 ballot statement, and actions by Robinson in 2015 and 2016. It also refers to some law breaking incidents by Robinson’s company from 2012. This committee has another flyer (“Dwight Robinson Put Business Interests Before the Health of our Children and Families”) criticizing Robinson’s record on the Southern California Air Quality Management District in 2015 and 2016.

SEE THE TREND?

Nick is being attacked for things he said or did 2 or more years ago. Robinson is being attacked for things he is doing right now.

WHAT’S THE TRUTH BEHIND CHARGES AGAINST NICK?

Robinson’s attacks make it look like Nick is a thief because Robinson hides the fact that the charges were dropped by an embarrassed DA who discovered that Nick had removed illegally placed signs, which isn’t a crime. In fact, at the same time that Nick was being cited, Robinson was removing even more signs than Nick did, was doing it in broad daylight, and was threatening the grandmother who was placing the signs. Nick got hassled and Robinson walked away free.

IS ROBINSON UN-AMERICAN?

I find it repugnant that Robinson would do such an un-American thing as to pretend that Nick actually was convicted of stealing signs. It tells us a lot about his character. In fact, when Nick was identified as a “person of interest” Robinson did the un-American thing of finding him guilty and called for his resignation. I found that a strange thing to do, especially when another Councilman was found guilty of a DUI in Lake Forest, and Robinson never asked for him to resign. What distorted sense of values must you have to ask a person suspected of a minor crime to resign and allow someone convicted on a major crime to go without comment?

Along these same lines, Robinson’s Long Beach trucking company has been cited several times for under-reporting the weight of their cargo, thus denying the taxpayers their due amount of fees which are used to repair the roads which heavy trucks damage through their constant use. He paid stiff fines. Robinson claims to be pro law enforcement, but the behavior of his company suggests otherwise.

Let’s continue tomorrow and look at the truth behind the charges against Robinson

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 4 pm to 6 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a Town Hall meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be in November at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.