Dark City - What is Happening to Lake Forest?

“Liberty’s light is fragile and the forces of evil, both within and without, are everywhere trying to extinguish it.”

At the last Council meeting, a woman testified during the public comment section that she felt threatened by one of the supporters of the Gang of 3. At my request the Police Chief was asked to take a report and to investigate. Charges of intimidation by the Gang of 3 and their supporters have been common in the past and according to recall supporters Police have been called and Police reports have been filed. Some of the alleged illegal and/or inappropriate actions being reported have been conducted by City staff and even by members of the City Council. For example -

• City staff was reported to have been acting on behalf of the Gang of 3 while on city time and actually inside the City Hall. The City Manager refuses to indicate who these people were or even to report what was done.
• A council member was reportedly found campaigning inside City Hall and at city events. The City Attorney refuses to do anything about this, claiming it doesn’t fall inside his scope of work.

While city management seems powerless to act against anything that supports the Gang of 3, they have been adamant in ordering recall supporters into the cold and rain, in harassing supporters with high police presence (at a major cost to taxpayers), in yelling at recall supporters and in trying to prevent them for operating at City events, rights protected by the First Amendment (more about this tomorrow). They have gone so far as to assign undercover police to watch recall supporters.

The latest report of a perceived threat is a serious escalation in their campaign of dirty tricks orchestrated by a man known as one of the sleaziest political operatives in Orange County (Click Here) and a woman already under investigation by the State’s FPPC (Click Here).

Rumors are circulating that the man threatening the woman in question is the son of the owner of a prominent local Restaurant owner. The son himself was particularly volatile in his comments about the recall, using his family’s restaurant Facebook page to promulgate his online tirades. As word spread about boycotting the restaurant, he stopped posting and suddenly these posts appeared under a new identity, and it is under this new identity that the threats were made. I asked the Police Chief for more information about this case, since it was raised at the Council, but to date there is no official response.

Many people believe that if the recall movement succeeds there will be changes in City Hall. The Gang of 3 has been big supporters of the City Manager, giving him a $10,000 bonus on top of his $ 300,000 compensation. Yet many citizens have been critical of the City Manager and they point to many problems they believe could have been handled better –

• · The Saddleback Ranch Rd fiasco in which the City built a dangerous road even after residents complained. The City Manager claimed nothing could be done to stop the construction, and then back-pedaled once the recall was initiated. This was not only stressful for residents, but the costs to the City will be high as a result of this needless error.
• · Tamarisk Park was built out of compliance with the ADA laws, and the results cost the City a bundle to fix after the fact.
• · Village Pond Park is still messy and long after construction was to start, nothing has happened. The promised aggressive ordinance enforcement yielded only 3 citations in 9 months. The promised report never occurred.

Recall supporters say that the cozy relationship between the Gang of 3 and the City Manager is one of the reasons why the City is allowing the supporters of the Gang of 3 to reign freely, while recall supporters are harassed by City workers. If City staff can rally for the Gang of 3, and the Gang itself is allowed to disobey the strict instructions of the City Attorney, and the Attorney himself refuses to act, and Police are intimidating recall supporters, and the Police are giving money to support the Gang of 3, what have we come to as a City?

“Liberty’s light is fragile and the forces of evil, both within and without, are everywhere trying to extinguish it.”

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 April 2 at 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.