Doing Life with the Gang

We’ve been talking about what life might be like when the Gang of 3 are evicted from the City Council. Now for a moment, let’s think about what life would be like if the recall fails. To do that, let’s consider their behavior. As noted in our previous article, the Gang were guilty of

Corruption – They received more than $200,000 from people and companies doing business with the City and 100% of the time they gave these people and businesses whatever they asked for, regardless of whether or not residents or staff were in favor. This means that decisions are not being made in the best interests of the City but in the interests of the people and businesses giving money to the Gang of 3.

Cronyism – They appointed their friends and campaign contributors to City positions with no regards to the qualifications of the people to serve, often refusing to appoint better qualified people. This means we do not operate as effectively as we should and it also limits the diversity of those people involved in government.

Collusion – They vote the same 80% to 90% of the time, while Councilman Nick and I vote together about 50% of the time. This means that instead of having 5 independent people looking at the issues, we have a block that votes together.

Conduct Unbecoming – They yell at residents, make fun of people when they speak at Council meetings, interrupt speakers, and order the audience to refrain from laughing and even speaking to each other. Mayor Hamilton routinely puts the entire room in “time out” wasting valuable time and costing the City thousands of dollars.

Lack of Compassion – They voted against helping seniors who are in need of Meals on Wheels services, and voted against looking for an alternative to using the disgraceful OC animal shelter. When warned that changes to Saddleback Ranch Rd were going to endanger people living in Portola Hills, they refused to do anything about it (until the recall was started).

Phony Conservatism – Though they claim to be “fiscal conservatives” they voted themselves expensive hardware and software, spend $350 a night of taxpayer money at expensive hotels, refused to cut the fat from the City’s $42,000,000 budget, gave a $10,000 bonus to the City Manager who gets $300,000 in compensation, etc. etc.

Failure to Hold staff accountable – We have so many fiascos and foul-ups, like Village Pond Park, Saddleback Ranch Rd, Tamarisk Park, etc. Plus the crime rate keeps rising and we have the highest crime rate of any of our neighbors and The Gang of 3 says everything is OK.

All these claims are extensively documented at the recall website, along with dates, names, amounts, votes, etc.

Could it be worse?

Of course.

Corruption - To date the corruption has been centered on developers and companies with large contracts with the City. In reality there is plenty more room for corruption to take place until every single aspect of City life is “pay to play”.

Cronyism – 80% of their appointments have gone to their friends and campaign contributors, and among these, in more than 50% of the cases there were more qualified people who didn’t get the appointment. So there is room for every single Commission and Committee member to be a friend and/or campaign contributor, regardless of their competence. When the Gang of 3 emasculated the Planning Commission we got more absences, more cancelled meetings, more reversed decisions, and more bad decisions than ever before. This could happen everywhere unless the Gang of 3 are stopped.

Collusion – The Gang of 3 vote as a block more than 80% of the time, and it’s only the occasional completely stupid idea from one of them which makes the others balk. I don’t think the stupid ideas will stop, so we’ve probably reached the limit of our exposure on collusion.

Conduct Unbecoming – After the recall was started there was a modest improvement in their conduct. They no longer scream at residents, but because they are incapable of controlled their based instincts, they still make fun of residents, lie, interrupt residents, and, of course, we are continually subjected to Hamilton’s “time outs”. Could it be worse? Yes. Would it? Yes.

Lack of Compassion – The lack of compassion is already so high it’s hard to picture it getting any worse. When you vote against needy seniors and vote in favor of killing puppies and kittens, is there anywhere lower you can go?

Phony Conservatism – Once again their standard is so low it’s probably impossible for them to get any worse.

Lack of Accountability – Can the crime rate get higher? Yes. It got higher in 2015 and now in 2016 it continues to get higher? Can we make more mistakes? Sure, and it could cost us even more. In my experience when people are not held accountable, things only get worse.

It seems pretty clear that if the Gang of 3 remain in power, and survive the recall effort, things will go from bad to worse. Their vile and shameful attacks on everyone, their corruption and cronyism will only grow. All decent residents should sign the recall petition and work to see these three are removed from public office. It’s not too late. You have until Sunday night to get your signed petitions to recall leader Leah Basile.

PS – Some people are wondering why in the last 10 days I have taken a stand on the recall while previously I was reporting more than editorializing. That’s because of the continued false attacks on me as being a leader of the recall, as well as unfounded personal attacks. Once it started, I have always been in favor of the recall and always considered these three people as unsuited for public office, but I tried my best to stay out of the “politics” in order to preserve our ability to work together on City issues. But the Gang of 3 have been relentless. Dis-content with merely attacking Councilman Nick, their vile attacks have spilled over to include me as well, and their behavior on the dais clearly demonstrates that they blame me for the recall. If I’m going to have to pay for their misguided and irrational behavior, there is no point in my continuing to try to play nice.

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 August 13 at 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library

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