Dwight Robinson - "There you go again" again

Only last week I commented on Dwight Robinson's continuing use of exaggerations, misconstructions and deceptive claims (Click Here) and I used the iconic Reagan phrase "There you go again" to make my point. Robinson’s latest flyer continues this trend and stops short of claiming that he makes the sun rise, but some of his claims resemble that one. For example –

Robinson claims he “controlled spending” but in fact in the City’s history we have always had a balanced budget and our budget surplus before Robinson entered office was about $20,000,000. That’s about how much we have now.

Robinson claims his “leadership led to the opening of our beautiful new Sports Park and Dog Park.” Robinson had nothing to do with either one. The sports park was designed and paid for long before Robinson took office. When confronted with this fact, Robinson stated that his role was “not to mess it up.” Under Robinson the dog park would never have been built. He allowed his developer friends to eliminate it from their plans. Only after I threatened to sue the City and the developer did the dog park re-appear.

Robinson claims he “eliminated Lake Forest’s unfunded pension liability” but in fact it was the leadership of Councilman Adam Nick and Mayor Andrew Hamilton who pushed for this.

In each case, Robinson was there, sitting on the sidelines, when these things happened. He took no leadership role in any of this.

Robinson continues his lie about Mello Roos, although he has modified it somewhat. Previously he claimed he eliminated it and now he says “He joined with neighborhood groups in supporting the elimination of Mello Roos fees.” No one eliminated Mello Roos! It was a debt and the good people who live in Portola Hills paid it off. The OC Tax Collector herself came to the City Council and told us the debt was “discharged”, not “eliminated”.

The worst lies in Robinson’s latest flyer are his claims that he “bridged political differences” and “unified residents”. The City has never been more divided, and Robinson has been at the center of some of the worst divisiveness.

• He’s called fellow council members “moron”, “idiot”, “vengeance seeker”, etc.
• He called on one council member to resign with no evidence of wrong doing
• He falsely claimed one council member made a racial slur.
• He’s threatened a grandmother and a business owner.
• He called a man who rescued a senior citizen from assault a “thug”.

Of course when you share a dais with the likes of Scott Voigts and Andrew Hamilton, it’s hard to stand out as a trouble maker, but Robinson has succeeded, at least from the point of view of the dozens of people who show up at City Hall and the thousands who asked for his resignation.

Compare Robinson’s flyer with that of Councilman Nick. Nick asks people to look at the record of the two men, and provides 13 examples of votes where he and Robinson disagreed.

Robinson takes credit for things he didn’t do, or things that got done by others, while Nick emphasizes the differences between the two on their voting record.

Don’t be fooled by Robinson’s false claims. Look at the record. Robinson voted or spoke out against

• · Helping needy seniors through Meals on Wheels
• · Creating our own no kill animal shelter
• · Establishing a Traffic Commission
• · Banning Council members from taking money from City contractors
• · Competitive bidding on all City contracts (except utilities)
• · Real term limits
• · Sunshine ordinance
• · A new and more effective code of ethics for Council members
• · Cutting the fat from the City’s $42,000,000 budget

Those are the facts.

What is he in favor of?

• · He voted twice to give the City Manager generous bonuses, despite the City Manager’s overall compensation in excess of $300,000 a year.
• · He’s voted for every increase in new homes, even when residents, staff, and the Planning Commission recommended against it. Now our traffic is worse than ever and we have thousands of more homes approved to be built.
• · He voted to spend $1,500,000 on a new General Plan when 90% of the City is already fully built-out. We could have used that money better by focusing in on those specific areas that need help, rather than a city-wide analysis.
• · He voted to spend up to $1,000,000 to build a new County animal shelter that we will have NO equity in. No other County charges its cities to build a shelter.
• · He voted to approve a 10 year agreement to use the disgraced County animal service without knowing what the costs will be. We may end up spending twice as much with no options.

Why does Robinson agree to these things?

Self-interest.

• · His reward for letting developers do whatever they want is to get nearly $100,000 from developers and builders to put him in office and help him stay there.
• · His reward for staying with the County is to get the endorsement of the County Supervisors and to get the Sheriff’s Union to pony up thousands of dollars.

Will you vote for the man who looks after his own self-interest instead of yours, or the man who asks you to look at the record?

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 in November at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.