Councilman Hamilton - Still M.I.A.

Mayor Pro Tem Leah Basile came to the Veterans Park meeting with her two young sons a few weeks ago. I joked that they were “ex officio” since they often accompany her to events, and she joked back that they had attended more city events than Andrew Hamilton. But it was not a joke. Lake Forest City Councilman Andrew Hamilton continues to be absent from city events. As Mayor he earned the nickname “Mayor MIA”, but now that he left his job at Mesa Water District and started his own consulting business, Orange County Accounting Consulting, his absences are even more noticeable. In fact, he wasn’t even present at one of our recent Council meetings.

Here’s a list of events/activities on behalf of the City during the past few weeks. The list is notable by who attended.

• Aug 3 – SVUSD meeting (Gardner, Voigts)
• Aug 3 – Ribbon cutting – WalMart (Gardner, Robinson, Voigts)
• Aug 4 – Govt. Contracting Seminar (Gardner, Basile)
• Aug 6 – Military Baby Shower (Gardner)
• Aug 7 – Meeting with OC UnderSheriff Don Barnes (Gardner, Basile)
• Aug 10 – Meeting with Cox Communications (Gardner, Robinson)
• Aug 10 – Loan Depot Ribbon Cutting (Gardner, Basile, Robinson, Voigts)
• Aug 10 – District elections public meeting #1 (Gardner)
• Aug 16 – Chamber of Commerce Meeting (Gardner, Basile, Robinson, Voigts)
• Aug 16 – Veterans Park planning meeting (Gardner, Basile)
• Aug 23 – Seminar on Human Trafficking (Gardner)
• Aug 25 – Senior Luau (Hamilton)
• Aug 29 – Minuteman Press Ribbon Cutting (Gardner, Basile, Voigts)
• Sept 1 – WalMart Ribbon Cutting (Basile, Hamilton)
• Sept 6 – Veterans Park planning meeting (Gardner, Basile)
• Sept 13 – Crunch Fitness Ribbon Cutting (Gardner, Basile)
• Sept 16 - Gateway Ribbon Cutting (Gardner, Basile, Robinson, Voigts)

Hamilton was officially present at only 2 of these. Three of these activities were meetings (SVUSD, UnderSheriff, Cox) that only two of us could attend based on the Brown Act, but the other 14 activities were open meetings that all of us could attend. One might even say that a few of these events (the ribbon cuttings) were events that everyone should attend.

Let’s be reasonable. I’m retired so I can attend these events and activities and I don’t expect anyone else to be as active as I am. Councilman Robinson has young kids, works in Long Beach, so it’s understandable if he can’t make it to many events, yet he still managed to be at 5 of them. Mayor Voigts as Mayor has a larger mandate to be at the events, yet he works part-time for the City of Irvine (about 30 hours per week). He also made 6 of these events. Mayor Pro Tem Basile has two very young kids and home schools them, so it’s tough for her to be able to attend events and when she does she often brings the kids. Yet she made 9 of these meetings.

How is it that everyone else can make between 5 and 15 meetings/events on behalf of the City, but Andrew Hamilton can only make 2? Hamilton is being recalled, and one of the reasons he is being recalled is his relative lack of involvement in city activities. You would think he’d be on his best behavior, but instead he constantly demonstrates why people are asking for his recall.

In a not unrelated fashion, Lake Forest residents were conspicuously missing from the list of contributors to Hamilton's anti-recall campaign and equally missing from the list of places where money was spent. The anti-recall people spent nearly $100,000 to keep Hamilton from being recalled, and not a penny of it was spent in Lake Forest.

Who the heck is Andrew Hamilton? He almost never shows up to city meetings or events. He gets no support from the average citizens in Lake Forest and it’s only the special interests that feed his campaign coffers. His supporters spend no money in Lake Forest. He doesn’t seem to be able to attend a single Council meeting without smirking, refusing to answer questions put to him by residents, or making offensive comments, as he did recently when a woman complained that the aggressive actions of Hamilton’s paid supporters “gives me a chill…”, and Hamilton responded that the room temperature should be raised (See Videotape at 56 to 59 minutes).

There were ample reasons to recall Hamilton and everyday he continues to show us why he should be removed from office.

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 mini town meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be on Dec 2 at 2 pm at the El Toro Public Library.