City for Sale - Step Right Up. BLOG

In a shocking turn of events, Lake Forest is once again pummeled with scandal and the cast of characters is disturbingly similar. At the center is Councilman Scott Voigts, a man who has broken so many promises and told so many lies that’s it’s nearly impossible to keep up with him.

Recall that in 2012, Brookfield and Trumark Homes spent $45,000 to get their hand-picked candidates elected, and once they were elected, along with Voigts in the Mayor’s seat, the Council promptly reversed previous Council actions, disregarded staff reports and the will of the people and approved the Brookfield and Trumark re-zoning and building of 250 more homes in an area already over-saturated with homes. These new homes are among nearly 5,000 new homes being built in a tiny part of the City, and there are no new schools or classrooms for the estimated 7,000 new school children, much less a plan to handle the 42,000 new vehicles per day in additional traffic.

Returning to today, one of the architects of the 2012 plan to control the Council, Jim O’Malley, then representing Trumark Homes, left and took a position with Meritage Homes.

Meritage has been trying to build even more homes in the Northeast area of the City, this time at the intersection of Commercecentre and Alton. They recently appeared before the Council in closed session on Oct 21. The next day, an O’Malley backed PAC (Political Action Committee) funded a mailer promoting the candidacy of Scott Voigts and his two apostles, Dave Bass and Andrew Hamilton. Among other things, the mailer featured Voigts’ BFF Dwight Robinson, recommending his 3 partners. Recall that Robinson was the prime beneficiary of O’Malley’s largesse in 2012 and it was Robinson who paid him back by providing the winning vote that got O’Malley’s project approved.

Robinson, even more than Voigts, has pocketed more special interest money than anyone in the entire history of the City, and he’s only been in office for 2 years.

The bottom line is that once again special interests (aka Developers) are trying to change Lake Forest to suit their needs. They are trying to place on the Council people who they know will be loyal to them and vote them special exemptions. They want voices that will say “yes” and put aside the interests of the people of Lake Forest in favor of their campaign coffers.

If you are opposed to corruption, and opposed to outside interests controlling our City, vote against Voigts, Bass, and Hamilton. It’s as simple as that!

Tomorrow we’ll go in more depth into this issue. Meanwhile you can read more about it in The OC Register

About Jim Gardner

Dr. Jim Gardner is the editor of CITY WATCH on The Patch and a contributing editor to OC Politics and Voice of OC. He is running for City Council in Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook.