City Council Candidate Preview: Neeki Moatazedi

There are six candidates lined up to replace Andrew Hamilton on City Council should voters in Lake Forest choose to recall him on Jan. 2, 2018. The primary reasons for the recall of Hamilton are his commitment to development in Lake Forest, his commitment to the high-kill Orange County animal shelter that locked the City into a 10-year contract that will cost millions extra, his decision to ignore the dangers of Saddleback Ranch Road until he faced a recall, and several instances of unethical just plain rude behavior.

Candidates vying for the available council seat are Tom Cagley (click here), David Glick (click here), Neeki Moatazedi, Mark Tettemer, Frank Wagoner and Stan Yombo.

Third in the series: Neeki Moatazedi

Moatazedi is a relative unknown in Lake Forest. She is one of only three candidates (Cagley and Tettemer the other two) who provided a Candidate Statement, giving the impression she’s in this for more than just a lark -- at least at first glance. Those who have spoken to her weren't left with a real strong understanding of why she was running, only that she wanted to do good for the community.

She has not been a member of the Lake Forest Leadership Academy, unlike Yombo or former councilman Tettemer. Neither has she been a regular at City Council meetings, maybe once or twice in the last year. She did speak once, if memory serves me correctly, about a street parking issue.

To my knowledge, she doesn’t belong to any civic organizations or participate in any civic events.

Moatazedi is one of three candidates -- along with Tettemer and Wagoner -- who did not respond to a request by Gardner to make clear their stance on whether they would accept special interest money in an election or going forward; Cagley, Glick and Yombo said they would not, and Cagley and Yombo said they would support a City ordinance forbidding companies seeking City contracts from making campaign contributions. Glick said he would self-fund and market: “I will not accept any funds from an outside source.”

Moatazedi seems a bit all over the place. A Google search shows that she is or has been a realtor, an actress/producer, and a muscle contest participant with photos that are not suitable for all workplace cubicles. Her LinkedIn profile indicates her primary employment as a planner for Southern California Gas.

According to her candidate statement, Moatazedi’s priorities are:

• Ensure there are enough resources for seniors and those on fixed incomes
• Address traffic congestion
• Improve medians, and road lights
• Attract businesses that will provide high paying jobs, and create a solid tax base to provide the infrastructure that a community like Lake Forest deserves
• Open a new school for children in the community

Her vision illustrates her apparent lack of familiarity with Lake Forest, understandably so because she hasn’t been a resident for any significant period. A multi-million dollar senior center is part of the new Civic Center complex, so the resources she’s referring to are already in the pipeline but her concern for seniors is admirable. It’s unclear what her vision is for medians and road lights in the City; maybe it’s to install solar panels, or to put a raised median all the way down El Toro Road, but dark streets and new medians have not typically come before the Council from concerned residents. The road lights issue doesn’t seem to be on anyone’s radar but hers.

Overcrowding in schools is a very real issue, and Moatazedi isn’t the first Council aspirant to call for a new school, but that’s a campaign promise she can’t keep because the Saddleback Valley Unified School District doesn’t play by Lake Forest’s rules; it’s an entity that does what it wants, and even a 5-0 vote by the Council to “open a new school” would have zero impact or authority on SVUSD. That’s why former councilman Adam Nick wanted to pursue creating an elementary school district -- or at least pursue the solvency of such a proposal -- to protect the City’s youngest residents; his idea, though, was shot down by Council colleagues who had no plan for fixing the school overcrowding.

These examples illustrate that, although her heart might be in the right place, Moatazedi isn’t ready to take a seat at the dais. She declined to state her age (it was optional), but would appear to be the youngest member of the Council if elected; her apparent lack of real-world experience and knowledge about City government could be a hindrance.

Moatazedi’s primary selling point on her Candidate Statement is this: “I bring fresh ideas to the city with practical management experience. … It’s time we take on a fresh approach to addressing community needs with someone who is innovative, and can resolve issues, rather than create more of them.” Yet what she has provided thus far is pedestrian, at best; she has yet to disclose how she is thinking outside the box.

Given that she has more than eight years of experience in project management and process improvement with SoCal Gas, she may have something to offer the City in the future -- but first she needs to familiarize herself with the space by being more hands-on at a lower level. She should learn more about the City, about how government works, and about the City’s real needs and resources. You don’t learn that by starting on the Council.

Next: Mark Tettemer

Photo via LinkedIn

About the Author: Martin Henderson won several Los Angeles and Orange County press club awards while an editor at Patch in 2012-13