City Council D4: City Hall is No Place for Cowards

A few months ago, a dozen mayors, the Orange County Board of Supervisors and a federal judge were all set to put a 400-bed homeless shelter on Trabuco Canyon Road, a scant few miles from Lake Forest. The loudest voice in that meeting belonged to Lake Forest Mayor Jim Gardner.

He stood up as the sole dissenting voice. Gardner somehow managed to win a victory, not only for the homeless, but the people of Lake Forest. Councilman Dwight Robinson was not there. Councilman Scott Voigts was not there.

Neither was Mark Tettemer, who’s trying to unseat Gardner on the City Council in District 4.

But Gardner’s value is immeasurable for one simple reason.

Now is no time for cowards at City Hall.

Robinson and Voigts found time to attend a 10 a.m. press conference in support of inexperienced three-year resident Neeki Moatazedi to help her get elected over 40-year resident Sonny Morperin District 2. But Robinson and Voigts couldn’t find the time to take a 10 a.m. showdown with the county supervisors, whose confirmation they so desperately seek. Neither could Tettemer, who’s campaign rally cry is that Gardner is divisive and the cause of a dysfunctional council because he is a proponent of transparency and accountability and supported the recall -- along with more than 8,000 residents whose opinion Tettemer dismisses without actually blaming them. Robinson endorses Tettemer.

Now is no time for cowards in City Hall.

Two years ago, Gardner took on the union representing the Orange County Sheriff’s Deputies, not because he was anti-OCSD, but because the union insisted on raises in the contract that was siphoning off taxpayer money so that 180 sergeants could retire at age 55 on pensions ranging from $250,000 to $389,000 per year. That doesn’t include retiring deputies, who receive 2.7 percent of their salary multiplied by their years of service; a deputy who retires maxed out at the Deputy 1 designation (instead of Deputy 2) with 20 years of experience would make $54,317 on his pension for the remainder of his life. Now, the union’s political action committee is spending tens of thousands of dollars to defeat Gardner and elect their chosen candidate (puppet?), Tettemer, who has never raised a hand against the police services contract that escalates by about $1 million annually.

Now is no time for cowards in City Hall.

In September, Gardner accepted a request from Lake Forest Beach and Tennis Club to debate Tettemer, who never responded to several requests for a one-on-one forum. Tettemer has never in the last six years spoken as a resident at a city council meeting to offer his opinion, his guidance, his input for important issues before the council. Instead, since it began to look in 2017 as if there might be a successful recall campaign, Tettemer has attended meetings, remained mum, maybe roamed around in the back of the room. Is it because Tettemer has nothing meaningful to add to the public discourse, or could he be afraid of speaking at a meeting in which Gardner holds the mayor’s gavel?

Now is no time for cowards in City Hall.

The campaign to elect Tettemer receives minimal funds from Tettemer; the bulk of the more than $70,000 campaign thus far to get him elected has been provided by the Republican Party (bankrolled by developers) and sheriff’s union, whose wallet is their primary motive; coincidentally, to my knowledge Tettemer has never publicly been critical of OCSD’s escalating costs. In his first go-round as a two-term councilman from 2005-2012, Tettemer benefited from tens of thousands from special interests and then voted in support of the preferences of those special interests.

Now is no time for cowards in City Hall.

A few years ago, even though Irvine fought against it, the Lake Forest council that included Tettemer approved of the construction of maximum security cells at the Musick Jail on the Lake Forest border – and denied their existence for years. Gardner opposed the construction and the maximum security cells, also for years – until the sheriff reduced it to medium security.

Now is no time for cowards in City Hall. It never was, and now it’s even more relevant that elected officials stand up to developers who will change the landscape in a billion dollar deal with the Nakase Brothers Nursery property, stand up to OCSD pension liability that looms as a huge threat to the budget reserves of the city, and stand up to supervisors and the OC GOP who envision Lake Forest as the home for South County’s homeless population.

Now is no time for cowards in City Hall. It already includes Robinson and Voigts, whose preferred candidates are Tettemer and Moatazedi.

Gardner and Morper are the only choices for residents looking for heroes to fight on their behalf. Gardner has done it in the past, even before he joined the council, and he deserves the opportunity to do it the next four years.

Because now is no time for cowards in City Hall.