Dwight Robinson - Summing Up

As a result of Councilman Adam Nick’s Town Hall meeting last week we’ve been examining the record of Councilman Robinson. Nick raised several issues about Robinson, and I decided to check the facts. On Monday we looked at claims made by Councilman Nick about Robinson, and Tuesday and Wednesday we examined the veracity of those claims. On Thursday we looked at Robinson’s 2012 campaign promises to see which he kept. Today we’ll summarize.

NICK’S CLAIMS

All of Nick’s claims about Robinson appear to be true. Here’s what we found –

• · Robinson doesn’t own a Lake Forest business employing 100 people, as his ballot statement implied.
• · Robinson is not the head of Los Angeles Harbor Grain Terminal (LAHGT), as he often professes.
• · Robinson’s company LAHGT has been cited by law enforcement which seems very ironic for a politician who is always taking about law and order.
• · Robinson’s campaign committee takes thousands of dollars from special interests and companies doing business with the City.
• · The City was in a healthy financial position before Robinson joined the Council.

ROBINSON’S VOTING RECORD

All of Nicks claims about Robinson’s voting record appear to be true. Robinson…

• · Voted against a local no-kill animal shelter – April 19, 2016
• · Supported a 10 year contract with OC animal shelter – Dec 1, 2015
• · Voted against agendizing Saddleback Ranch Rd despite the obvious dangers it presented to people – Oct 6, 2015
• · Refused to set up a Traffic Commission – Dec 17, 2013
• · Refused to allow preferences for Lake Forest businesses bidding on City contracts - July 1, 2014
• · Refused to support using vacant City Hall space to support “Meals on Wheels” program for 100 needy seniors who live in Lake Forest – June 2, 2015
• · Refused to insist on competitive bidding on all non-utility City contracts – June 16, 2015
• · Refused to require Council members to disclose financial ties to anyone who comes before the City Council – May 6, 2014
• · Refused to forbid city contractors from giving money to Council members – Feb 3, 2015
• · Appointed friends and campaign contributors to City positions instead of looking for the best qualified people – Jan 5, 2016, Feb 3, 2015

ROBINSON’S CAMPAIGN PROMISES

I looked at Robinson’s 2012 campaign promises and compared that with his record (see copies above). He broke every one of his promises and sometimes did the opposite of what he promised to do. Here’s the list

· He promised to “…create a Traffic Commission” then voted against it (Dec 17, 2013).

· He promised to “…ease traffic congestion…” then voted to increase traffic congestion by approving zoning changes to allow nearly 600 more home units to be built, without a single new road or any changes to our roadway system. (May 17, 2016, Jan 5, 2016, May 19, 2015, Sept 3, 2013, Aug 20, 2013). Moreover he got more than $100,000 from developers to win his seat and stay in power.

· He promised to “…open more schools to lower class sizes” but not a single new school has been opened despite more than 2,000 new homes being built and 2000+ new homes being approved. In fact, one school has even closed.

· He promised to “…make Lake Forest friendlier to businesses, creating more jobs.” but in fact he’s voted against giving preferences to Lake Forest businesses and to eliminate hundreds of acres of commercial property, removing jobs from the City.

· He promised to “…reduce pension benefits for future city employees” but he’s done nothing to achieve this. In fact, he’s voted to give hundreds of thousands of dollars in raises and bonuses to City employees, thus increasing our pension liabilities.

· He promised to “…oppose wasteful city spending” but instead he refused to vote to ask City Department Heads to cut the fat from their budgets which could have saved the city $2,000,000 per year (May 12, 2015). He refused to re-bid a street sweeping contract that could have saved the City $250,000 per year (May 19, 2015). He voted to give OC Animal Control a 10 year contract without knowing how much they would charge and with no limits on what they could charge (Dec 1, 2015)

· He promised to “Work actively to prevent any Jail Expansion and stop the transfer of high risk violent offenders to our family-friendly community” but Robinson did nothing to stop jail expansion, and the jail is not only going to be expanded, but it will house medium security prisoners which is far worse than the minimum security prisoners it used to house.

Bear in mind that for the past 4 years Robinson has been part of the power on the Council so he would have been able to do whatever he wanted. Voigts and Hamilton are virtually Robinson’s puppets. They voted nearly 100% of the time to do whatever Robinson wanted. If Robinson had wanted a Traffic Commission, we would have had one. If he wanted to introduce a tiered system that reduced city employees’ pension benefits, we would have one. If he wanted to actively oppose Musick Jail expansion we would have joined the City of Irvine in their lawsuit against the County. Robinson has been in control yet not a single one of his promises came to fruition.

What does it tell you about a person’s character when they don’t follow through on any of their promises? Not only did he not follow through on any of his promises, sometimes he did the exact opposite.

SUMMARY

This week long series originally started out as a brief report about Councilman Adam Nick’s Town Hall meeting on Saturday, then somehow mushroomed into a week-long series about Councilman Robinson. It started because at the end of the Town Hall, one of the attendees asked me “Do you think all this is true, about Robinson?” I said “I think so” and the man shrugged, unhappy with my inability to say “Yes” or “No”. Hence this series. It seemed important to me regardless of which way it turned out. It turned out to support Councilman Nick's claims and to paint a terribly poor picture of Councilman Robinson. But regardless of that, it gives us the facts, and from these facts you can draw your own conclusions. BTW – if you worry that my conclusions are not correct, or slanted, there are dozens of links that will let you confirm these facts for yourself.

FWIW – I’m not finished with Councilman Robinson. This week long series only dealt with Councilman Nick’s claims about Robinson. There is so much more to write about you can look forward to a more complete picture in a few weeks.

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 is not up for re-election in 2016.

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 in November at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.