Counterpoint: A Response to Don Stoll's 'Abuse of Recall,' Part 1

I have great respect for Don Stoll. You don't cover sports in Orange County for 24 years and not notice what he did at El Toro High. Clearly, the former water polo coach is a local legend. You'd be nuts to dispute it. But Stoll's support of "Lake Forest Civility - No Hamilton Recall" shows that he's wandered too far from the pool deck. It's a shame, because he's a respected resident and educator who has become another strand in a web of deceit in local politics. He's wrong, and someone has to call him out on it. That, or he's a pawn.

Let me say this up front: Everything I write is, to my knowledge, accurate.

First, a little background. There is a recall effort of Lake Forest City Councilman Andrew Hamilton. In 2016, there was an effort to recall Hamilton, Scott Voigts and Dwight Robinson. Although there were enough signatures collected for the recall, there were not enough verified signatures. However, there were more verified signatures to recall Hamilton than there were votes to put him in office in 2014, and Voigts survived the same indignity by a mere 73 votes. The recall effort failed to meet the required threshold, and it cost the City less than $84,000 (about a dollar per resident). However, Lake Forest Civility -- and Stoll, a math teacher -- is claiming the recall cost the City $187,000. That's a $103,000 lie.

By the same token, Lake Forest Civility has claimed the recall will cost the City $250,000, which has been described by the city clerk as "the far end of being cautious with an 'estimate.'" Even if that were true, and it won't be, that's $35,000 less than the cost of a Double-Double from In-N-Out for every resident of the city. What price do you put on good government? Lake Forest is not getting good government, it is being run by a boys' club that is indifferent to the residents who elected them. If they weren't indifferent, it would not have taken a recall effort in 2016 to spark the so-called "Gang of 3" to fix Saddleback Ranch Road, and they did very little to advance the fixing of Village Pond Park, which became a health hazard. Public safety is Job 1, yet Hamilton, Voigts and Robinson turned their back on it.

CORE BELIEFS ABANDONED

In his very first sentence, Stoll says he "worked to teach my students and athletes about civility and fair play." That's important, because his support of Lake Forest Civility is tantamount to jumping on a bandwagon that has been neither civil nor played fair.

Hamilton financially supported ($1000) and provided content for a smear campaign designed to deflect attention from his own record while performing a character assassination of Councilmen Adam Nick, Jim Gardner, and residents who supported the 2016 recall effort. With a life philosophy dedicated to teaching young people "civility and fair play," where do lies and half-truths fit in, or calling residents thugs and pedophiles if they supported the recall? Where does Stoll stand on supporting a racist campaign publication, because the fake newspaper/marketing tool, "Lake Forest News," was just that: racist and xenophobic. I would hope that the legendary coach would not be racist and xenophobic, but that's the team he's standing with in this fight for a City government that isn't ruled by lap dogs for the County supervisors. Based on the Lake Forest News, over and over and over, referring to Adam Nick by (what they believed to be the correct spelling of) his birth name, "Afshin Nickamanish," Stoll and the other faces of Lake Forest Civility must wholly support the disrespectful conduct of referring to Muhammad Ali as Cassius Clay and Bob Dylan as Robert Zimmerman. And if those faces of Lake Forest Civility don't support that, why are they standing together arm and arm in the name of "civility"? That's not civil behavior.

Lake Forest Civility recently posted a photo of Voigts, Hamilton and others working together at the same table during a Lake Forest Civility meeting. Voigts is mayor for the third time in five years. For five of the last six meetings, or thereabouts, Voigts has refused to respond to my questions of why he openly lied from the City Council dais. When newly elected Councilwoman Leah Basile asked Voigts for a response, he said simply, "Thank you for your question," and then moved on to the agenda's next item. So how does the legendary coach explain to students, players, and their parents, that he's on the same side as an elected official who openly lies to the residents of the City, that they are openly working together, that he's the point man? Here's an important civics lesson for students and others: A lie told at a City Council meeting is told to each of the 84,000 residents of the city, not just the few dozen who are in attendance, because the Council is performing the City's business. The obvious question: Would Stoll tolerate such actions from one of the students and athletes he's teaching civility and fair play to? Would any employer tolerate such actions of an employee, especially when the employee -- in this case an elected official -- refuses to respond? What's Coach Stoll's answer to that?

FACES OF CIVILITY?

Stoll writes that Lake Forest Civility is "a group of local citizens, business owners and community leaders, who want to set an example of civility." I'm a firm believer that civil discourse is great and should be encouraged. Except that's not what is taking place from those working on the Lake Forest Civility campaign.

Stoll is not alone. The steering committee of Lake Forest Civility is a collection of residents who, to their credit, have at least owned their opinion. This is unlike Hamilton, who has hidden behind the pen name "James Ross" -- taking advantage of internet anonymity -- to take potshots in blogs aimed at Nick, Basile, Gardner and others. This is the guy they're trying to save.

So when former council members Kathryn McCullough and David Bass speak on behalf of Lake Forest Civility to oppose the recall, know the ideals of hate that they're embracing.

When planning commissioner Jolene Fuentes and parks commissioner Jeff Werkmeister and traffic advisory group member Derek Wieske speak out against the "small group of adults who apparently missed .... the life skills to succeed in their lives beyond high school," know that they stand with those who made light of an attack outside Stater Bros., blamed the wrong side for the attack, and not once called for both sides to peacefully coexist while respecting their right to disagree, which would have been a perfect actionable opportunity to express civility (a sentiment that Nick actually expressed at the time).

When Peppino's president Joseph Moscatiello and AYSO area director Doug Cirbo stand by Hamilton's side in this battle for civility, know that they support a city councilman who thought it was OK for children to continue to be put in danger on the Saddleback Ranch Road sidewalk until a Notice To Recall made it an important enough issue to act upon, or that he posted a photo identifying the schools attended by Robinson's kids while maintain the other side was "targeting children"; in truth, a recall supporter posted the information and it was removed in fairly short order, but Hamilton's anti-recall team has perpetuated this so-called threat for 16 months -- the image was still there as of 11:31 p.m., on Sunday night, June 4 (see image at top of story for proof).

On their own, are these people well-intentioned and likable? Maybe. But there are a lot of good and likable people who support the recall. Are the 6690 who signed last year's petition to recall Hamilton simply invisible and undeserving of having their voice heard? Advocates for the recall have focused on the truth because they don't have to make up things; it's the anti-recall team that resorted to scare tactics, dirty play, cheating and incivility.

• Lake Forest Civility is claiming the recall will "squander $250,000 of your tax dollars based on totally false claims." By the City Clerk's own admission, that total could be reached only in an absolute worst-case scenario, which would include verifying 14,705 signatures when only 8,834 are necessary. The recall is likely to cost tens of thousands less than that.
• Lake Forest Civility exaggerated the cost of the 2016 recall by $103,000; it actually cost a $83,000 and change.
• The millions in savings that Lake Forest Civility is claiming from Hamilton's vote in favor of the Orange County Animal Care shelter will actually be a deficit, not a savings. If the animal shelter was such a good deal for Lake Forest, why have all our neighboring cities bailed on OCAC, and why didn't Robinson claim it as an accomplishment in his November election campaign materials?
• The cost of a potential recall, even using Lake Forest Civility's bloated exaggeration, pales to what the City could save if Hamilton were replaced by someone who didn't vote in lockstep with Voigts and Robinson and would insist on competitive bidding for City contracts, cutting fat from City departments, or negotiating a better deal with OCSD.

The current Council majority, including Hamilton, have habitually engaged in deception and uncivil behavior over the past 18 months, and they're willing to continue that deception to prevent the recall of Andrew Hamilton through Lake Forest Civility - No Hamilton Recall.

Upcoming, I'll show why the recall isn't a financial risk, and the flaw in the Orange County Register editorial that opposes the recall.

About the author: Martin Henderson won several Los Angeles and Orange County press club awards while an editor at Patch in 2012-13.