A resident has asked that the City Council censure Councilman Scott Voigts for a variety of reasons, most of them arising from an incident at the Council meeting of Feb 20, 2018. The incident itself can be viewed on the city’s website and occurs during the Public Comment portion of the meeting.
CONDUCT AT PUBLIC HEARING
In his complaint the resident alleges that during public comment time Councilman Voigts argued with him, interrupted him, and slandered him by calling him a “paid hack”.
According to the complaint, Voigts’ behavior runs counter to the city’s code of ethics that requires council members to “Treat everyone with respect by actively listening to other viewpoints, and not interrupting, ignoring or belittling the contributions of others (Section 1.3)”. (bold added)
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In addition, the code of conduct requires that council members “Refrain from abusive conduct, personal charges, or verbal attacks upon the character, motives, ethics, morals, or comments of other Members of the Council, commissions, committees, staff, or the public (Section 1.5).” (bold added)
DERELICTION OF DUTY
In addition to the complaint about Voigts’ actions (arguing, interrupting) and language (“paid hack”), the complaint also alleges that Councilman Voigts was “derelict in his duty” as a representative to the Vector Control Board by “failing to give reports…for at least the last six months.”
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DISHONEST
The complaint also alleges that Voigts was not being honest when he claimed “nothing happened” at the Vector Control meetings in his defense for why he (Voigts) did not make any reports. In refutation, the complaint contains several reports from the RSM representative who attended these same meetings with Councilman Voigts and who reported on several issues that impacted RSM and which, one might assume, equally impacted Lake Forest.
According to the resident, Voigts’ allegation that “nothing happened” violates the City’s code of ethics requiring Council members to “Act as public servants by being courteous, impartial, honest, open, and responsible to the City's residents (bold added).”
In addition, Section 1.4 says – “State views briefly and honestly during City Council, commission, and committee meetings (bold added).”
GOING FORWARD
The Council provided consensus to discuss the complaint and the broader issue of censure. If the Council decides that there is sufficient evidence to proceed, based on the complaint or any additional information, they will vote to formally agendize a censure motion. Censure is defined as the “formal resolution of a legislative, administrative or other body reprimanding a person, normally one of its own members, for specified conduct.” (Black’s Law Dictionary).
There is no specific statutory authorization under California law for censure. However, according to the City Attorney, case law decisions indicate that public entities have utilized censure as a method of addressing wrongdoing or abuse of authority by public officials.
In fact, on March 3, 2015, Councilman Voigts joined with Council members Robinson and Hamilton to censure Councilman Nick. The bases of that censure centered on an unsubstantiated allegation that Nick made a racial slur and Nick’s appearance as a “person of interest” in a case which was later thrown out.
After discussion, the Council may decide to dismiss the complaint, or move forward with a formal censure hearing which will happen at a future date. In the event that the Council eventually censures Councilman Voigts, he may not be denied any of his statutory or constitutional rights, however, other actions may be taken. It’s worth recalling that when Council members Voigts, Robinson, and Hamilton censured Councilman Nick, they also removed him from his seat on the California Joint Powers Insurance Authority.
Tomorrow we'll discuss the other items on the agenda.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest where he serves as Mayor. 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 Twitter handle is @DrJimGardner. 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 May 17 at 7 pm at the Lake 1 Clubhouse (Ridge Route).
