Civility in Lake Forest - The Lies.

Last time I wondered when I read the pleas for civility from the group that calls themselves "No Hamilton Recall" -

"where were Andrew Hamilton’s supporters when a senior citizen was being assaulted, when racist and sexists attacks were made on Councilman Nick and Leah Basile, when attacks were being made on my family, and when our residents were being threatened with Police action."

I guess they were on vacation. Apparently they’re back now. Most of them are campaign contributors to the Gang of 3 or were appointed by Hamilton to City Commissions/Groups. But regardless of who they are or how they are connected to Hamilton, let’s look at what they’re saying and what they’re not saying. We'll start with the lies.

LIES

I found it amusing to read their letter. They say -

“If you’d like more information about other actions we’re taking to encourage civility…please visit our website…”

Out of curiosity I visited their website and guess what?

They are doing NOTHING!

The letter from the "Civility" group came out weeks ago, so if they were sincere and really planned to do anything else, except try to keep Hamilton in power, it isn’t apparent from the website.

The one thing they did do, apart from asking you not to support the recall, was to ask for your money. But contrary to what they said, they are doing NOTHING to encourage civility.

MORE LIES

I also found it curious that they claim that –

“This group claims they want to recall Councilman Hamilton because he joined a near unanimous council decision to partner with the County…”

In fact the recall committee, of which I am not a member, wrote in their recall justification that Hamilton voted “…against having a no-kill animal shelter.”

The Civility group says it was a “near unanimous council decision”. Let’s see what the truth is.

Here is the exact quote from the City official minutes of 4/19/2016 when the vote was taken to go with the County or establish a no-kill animal shelter -

“SUBMOTION: It was moved by Council Member Robinson, second by Mayor Hamilton to 1. Authorize the Mayor to sign, and the City Clerk to attest, the Participation Agreement between the City of Lake Forest and Orange County Animal Care. 2. Authorize the Mayor to sign, and the City Clerk to attest, the Services Agreement between the City of Lake Forest and Orange County Animal Care. MOTION CARRIED with Council Members Gardner and Nick opposed.”

Look for yourself. The vote was 3 to 2. Is that “near unanimous”?? No. That’s not true either.

EVEN MORE LIES

The Civility folks also claim -

“…the County of Orange [will] provide a new state of the art animal shelter that will also save our city millions of dollars”

Another lie.

We already gave the County $600,000+ for them to build the new shelter (for which we have $0 equity). Estimates from the County are that the costs of operating the new shelter are likely to be 20% to 30% HIGHER than our current costs. That’s because right now we are getting terrible care and service. The County proposes to increase both the quality of care and service, but at a price.

Look at the recent budget figures from the City. They raised our costs 43% from $366,000 to $525,000.

We will not “save millions of dollars.” We will SPEND millions of dollars extra.

Let's look at that again. The Civility folks claim we "will save our city millions of dollars" when the truth is we will SPEND millions of dollars more. We've already spent over $600,000 and we budgeted over $150,000 more.

SUMMARY

Let's take a look at how honest the Civility folks have been -

• LIE # 1. They lied when the said they were going to do more about encouraging civility in the City. They did nothing more than ask you not to recall Hamilton and then ask you to help pay for the campaign. No other action exists in the weeks since they sent out their letter and posted their website.
• LIE #2. They lied when they said the recall group was upset that Hamilton voted to "partner with the County". According to the petition, the recall group was upset that Hamilton (a) voted against creating a no-kill shelter and (b) voted to spend $600,000 on the County shelter and receive no equity.
• LIE #3. They lied when they said the decision was "near unanimous". As reflected in the official City minutes, the decision was 3:2
• LIE #4. They lied when they said the new County shelter would "save our city millions of dollars". The truth is we will spend millions of dollars extra.

So a lot of what they are saying are downright lies. They ask for civility and give us lies. Lots of lies. Somehow that seems appropriate for a group that supports Hamilton.

Let’s see what they aren’t saying. That’s the topic for next time.

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 on May 27 at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.