Dwight Robinson's Ballot Statement - True or False?

Yesterday we discussed Robinson’s past conduct in an introduction to the examination of whether or not he lied on his 2016 ballot statement.

Unfortunately we are at a time when no one takes exception to the fact that Politicians lie. It’s not shocking or even surprising. And on a City Council where we have Scott Voigts, a man who lies all the time, the occasional lie can be passed over.

Yet the City’s code of ethics makes it pretty clear that lying is unacceptable. Section 2.5 states –

“Deter rumors and misunderstandings by making factual information available, answering questions directly, telling the truth, and admitting a lack of knowledge if one exists.”

DIRECT LIES

Let’s see what Robinson said on his ballot statement –

“I’m a business owner here in town, and employ nearly 100 Southern Californians.”

• Robinson doesn’t own a Lake Forest business employing 100 people, as his ballot statement says. The Lake Forest business he “owns” employs 2 people!
• The business that “employs 100 people” is not in Lake Forest, it’s in Long Beach. It’s called Los Angeles Harbor Grain Terminal. Robinson doesn’t “own” this business. He isn’t even listed on their website. He married the boss’s daughter. His father-in-law is the "owner".

“I’ll partner with them [Supervisors Bartlett and Spitzer] to eliminate Mello-Roos in Foothill Ranch, just as we’ve done in Portola Hills.”

• No one eliminated Mello Roos in Portola Hills, and certainly not Robinson. The people in Portola Hills paid off their debt under Mello Roos and the residents no longer owe the County any money.

So it looks like Robinson has two bold faced lies.

INDIRECT LIES

In addition to these direct lies, Robinson inferred things that are not true in substance, even if technically they are true as a result of the way they are phrased. For example, in his discussion he says “During my current term…”

“…we opened the dog park…”

• The dog park was opened while Robinson was on the Council, but he did nothing to make it happen. In fact, when the developers wanted to eliminate the dog park all together, Robinson did nothing to stop them. Bear in mind Robinson received tens of thousands of dollars from developers.
• The sun also rose and shined while Robinson was on the Council, but he neglected to take credit for that.

“…we opened…the Sports Park…”

• Robinson had nothing to do with the Sports Park. All the funding and planning were done before Robinson got on the Council in 2012.

“Lake Forest became the first Orange County city to pay off our pension liabilities.”

• Yes it happened while Robinson (and I) were on the Council, but the funds to do this were produced years ago and the initiative came from Councilmen Nick and Hamilton, not Robinson.

SUMMARY

We began with a question – “Did Dwight Robinson lie on his ballot statement?" It certainly looks like he had some full blown lies as well as several mis-representations. Is this the kind of person who deserves your vote?

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 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.