Corruption and Your Pocketbook

“All contributions by corporations to any political committee or for any political purpose should be forbidden by law.” Theodore Roosevelt

I wrote a series about the corruption in our City government and how 3 of our council members (Hamilton, Voigts, and Robinson) take money from special interests and vote 100% of the time for those special interests (Click Here). What prompted the series was a recent vote by the Gang of 3 to oppose any kind of campaign finance reform (Click Here).

One of my readers suggested that I write about what the impact of special interest voting is on our city. After all, if they take special interest money and vote 100% of the time for the special interests, what’s the harm, assuming you don’t mind corruption or the perception of corruption.

So here are some concrete examples of how special interest voting directly impacts our collective pocketbooks.

“Unfortunately, money in politics is an insidious thing…” U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe

$250,000 WE COULD HAVE SAVED

The street sweeping company Athens services gives money to the Gang of 3. For example, they gave Scott Voigts’ campaign $250 on 10/11/2011 and again on 11/5/2015. They ponied up to Andy Hamilton with $1,000 big ones on 6/8/2015 and just in case he didn’t get the message, they put it another $1,250 on 9/30/15.

When we were discussing a new street sweeping contract, we wanted to consider the savings of street sweeping every other week for half the year. That would give us 39 weeks a year of sweeping. Half the cities in OC only do it 26 times a year. City staff messed up the bidding process, so we needed to go out for another bid. If we didn’t, Athens would get the contract. I argued that we should get the new bid which could save us $250,000. But the Gang of 3, anxious to keep their contributor happy, went ahead and awarded the contract to Athens.

We could have saved $250,000 on the street sweeping contract, but their desire to give the contract to the company that gave them money was paramount in their minds. That’s how special interest money directly impacts our collective pocketbooks.

“ 'Pay to play' reform was passed to limit the influence of big spending contractors over the public officials from whom they are trying to obtain work.” Governor Thomas Kean

KEEPING THE SUPERVISORS HAPPY

Or consider the case of the Orange County Supervisors and Sheriff. The Gang of 3 depends on the Supervisors and the Sheriff to endorse their campaigns. So they do everything in their power to keep the Supervisors and the Sheriff happy, even if it comes at the expense of the residents. That means giving the green light to the high-kill animal shelter (to keep the Supervisors happy) and not auditing the contract and services of the City’s biggest annual expenditure (to keep the Orange County Sheriff’s Department happy).

“Politics has become so expensive that it takes a lot of money even to be defeated.” Will Rogers

A NEW JAIL NEXT TO OUR HOMES

For example, Voigts campaigned against building a new medium security jail on the site of Musick (between Bake Pkwy and Alton Pkwy), but once he was elected, he gave the Sheriff what she wanted by voting to accept the new jail. (FWIW – the Irvine Council sued the Sheriff). Voigts even applauded the idea. We are going to get a medium security jail built closer to our homes than any other jail being built in any other city in the State.

You can’t put a price on what this will do to property values and to our quality of life. Imagine what happens when the visitors for hundreds of medium security prisoners come into our City? Imagine what happens when one or more of them escapes. (FWIW – Musick averages about 1 or 2 escapes per year right now.)

But the Supervisors and the Sheriff are happy, the endorsements will keep coming, and the Gang of 3 are delighted. Only the residents are on the losing end of this deal.

“We need real campaign finance reform to loosen the grip of special interests on politics.” U.S. SenatorTom Daschle

$600,000 FOR ANIMAL SHELTER

Last year we had the choice of developing our own no-kill animal shelter or continuing with the County, where we’ve had poor service, high kill, and bad quality of care. Our own shelter would not only have better care and service, it would be cheaper. But the Supervisors put pressure on the City to stay with the County. They needed our money to help build the new shelter.

We ended up paying over $600,000 for a new shelter we have no equity in. Even worse, we continue with an agency notorious for their bad care and service, with 5 recent Grand Jury investigations. But look at the bright side –

The Supervisors are happy and The Gang of 3 will continue to get their endorsements.

“The flood of money that gushes into politics today is a pollution of democracy.” Theodore White.

MORE MONEY, LESS SATISFACTION

When the waste management contract was being negotiated in 2013, we had low rates and a company (WM of OC) that had the highest satisfaction ratings of any of our services. But that company had stopped paying Voigts his tribute, so a new company (CR&R) got the contract, and no sooner did they get the contract than the money started to flow again. Voigts got $999 (10/18/14) and then $1,000 (10/5/15). Andy Hamilton got his tribute too - $1,000 (1/31/15) and then another $1,000 (9/30/15).

CR&R raised the rates for non-residential services by more than 25%. It was a huge cost increase for people who lived in apartments and for businesses. Not only did the residents end up paying hundreds of thousands of additional dollars, satisfaction (as measured by the City’s own survey every 2 years) went down.

The special interest company is happy, and Voigts and Hamilton are happy. But thousands of people are paying more, and the general opinion of people in the City is that we are getting less.

This is just another example of how special interest money hits us in our pocketbook.

“[Politics] is like a strip club. You’ve got people tossing dollars and people doing the dance.” Governor Mike Huckabee.

NOT ACADEMIC

The argument against special interest funding the campaigns of City Council members is not merely academic. It doesn’t rest solely on the moral imperative that public officials should scrupulously avoid even the appearance of impropriety. There are real dollar and cents consequences to the impact of special interests funding.

The Gang of 3 (Hamilton, Voigts, Robinson) depends on special interest funding to get elected. It represents almost all their funds. In turn, they provide the votes to keep the special interests happy. The results sometimes are not tangible but often they can be reduced to dollars and cents, as illustrated above.

“…we are well on our way to ensuring that a government of the moneyed, by the moneyed, and for the moneyed shall not perish from the earth.” Warren Buffett

NOT EVERYONE

Cynics will say “Everybody does it”. That’s not true. Mayor Pro Tem Leah Basile won a landslide victory in 2016 without any special interest money. I came in 2nd in 2014, against Voigts and Hamilton who collectively outspent me by 8 to 1. I took no special interest money. So it's possible to get elected without special interest money.

Leah Basile and I owe our allegiance to no one but the residents. We can make decisions with only your interests in mind. That doesn‘t mean we will agree on everything, but at least our votes are not tainted by special interest money.

“I will tell you that our system is broken. I give to many people…When I need something from them…I call, they are there for me.” Donald Trump

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 20 at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.