Dwight Robinson's Voting Record

We started off looking at Councilman Nick’s Town Hall meeting on Saturday, which led us to an examination of Nick’s claims about Dwight Robinson’s behavior and performance. Nick and Robinson have both been on the Council since 2012 and both are running for re-election. On Monday we looked at claims made by Councilman Nick about Robinson, and yesterday we examined the veracity of some of those claims. We continue today looking at Robinson’s voting record and tomorrow we’ll focus on Robinson’s 2012 promises and see whether or not he did what he promised.

When we look at voting records, bear in mind that 90% of the time the City Council votes unanimously on issues, because 90% of the items that come before the Council are routine. In the time since I’ve been on the Council there have only been about 50 votes that were not unanimous.

It’s also relevant to keep in mind that the “Gang of 3” (Robinson, Voigts, and Hamilton) control the majority of the Council and vote together almost all the time. Hence, anytime there is a split decision, the Gang of 3 prevails. Sometimes they win by a margin of 3:2 and sometimes 4:1. The 4:1 votes happen because Councilman Nick and I only vote together about 50% of the time.

Councilman Nick contrasted his votes with those of Robinson on 10 different issues, and these are the issues I researched to see whether or not Nick gave an accurate portrayal of the events.

ROBINSON’S VOTING RECORD

Robinson’s voting record can be checked by going to the minutes of City Council meetings. Below are the dates where Robinson did what Nick claims he did. Click Here to go to the individual Council meetings to check for yourself.

• · Voted against a local no-kill animal shelter – April 19, 2016
• · Supported a 10 year contract with OC animal shelter – Dec 1, 2015

For this vote, Robinson and his Gang decided to give the County an unspecified amount of money (at least $600,000) to build a new shelter, however, our City will have no equity even though we help finance the building. In addition, by their vote, Robinson and his Gang committed us to a 10 year contract at an unspecified amount, for an agency that has been reviled by the Grand Jury (and just about everyone else) for bad management, poor training, and a high kill rate. We are only 1 of 2 cities in South Orange County who use the OC animal shelter and as a City we should be ashamed.

We had the opportunity to create our own local animal shelter, at a far less cost to get started, far less cost to operate, and all the money would stay in the City. But Robinson and his Gang gave the contract to the County. In gratitude, the County Supervisors are endorsing Robinson’s re-election campaign.

• · Voted against agendizing Saddleback Ranch Rd despite the obvious dangers it presented to people – Oct 6, 2015

As a result of their wanton disregard for the safety of our residents, Leah Basile organized a recall effort and as soon as the Gang was served with the official notice, they reversed their decision and within a week Saddleback Ranch Rd. was re-designed. It took a recall to get them to do the right thing.

• · Refused to set up a Traffic Commission – Dec 17, 2013

Many cities have Traffic Commissions and in our City we have some of the worst traffic in South OC. But despite his promise to set up a Traffic Commission, Robinson voted against it.

• · Refused to allow preferences for Lake Forest businesses bidding on City contracts - July 1, 2014

Prior to Robinson joining the Council, our City spent about 5% of our annual $40,000,000 budget on businesses in the City. That’s a pitiful amount. We hire businesses and people from other cities even though the same job can be done by someone here. But since Robinson joined the Council that amount dropped to less than 2%. Robinson refuses to help our local businesses, even though many other cities do this.

• · 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

We have about 67 seniors who get their “Meals on Wheels” sent from other cities, and we have a few dozen needy seniors who don’t get meals because those cities don’t want to travel so far. There would have been no expense to the City to allow Meals on Wheels to operate from vacant City Hall space, but Robinson and his Gang said “no”. They said we could wait a few years until the senior center was built.

• · Refused to insist on competitive bidding on all non-utility City contracts – June 16, 2015

Councilman Nick and I asked the City to get competitive bids on the Police contract and on the animal services contract. Robinson and his Gang said “no”. Defending his vote on the Police contract, Robinson lied about the costs of the Irvine Police contract in an attempt to say that getting a bid from Irvine was futile since their expense was so high. How would it hurt to get a bid on the most expensive contract we have, and which is nearly 40% of our entire budget? Once again, the County Supervisors were p[lease with this vote and gave Robinson their endorsement. Meanwhile, the Police Union spent thousands of dollars helping Robinson survive the recall attempt. After all, you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours!

• · 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

Robinson and his Gang received more than $250,000 from special interests and from companies with City contracts. Councilman Nick and I fund our campaigns mostly from our own pockets. Thus, the Gang of 3 will do nothing to cut off the cash flow which keeps them in power. But to keep the cash flowing, they vote 100% of the time to give their benefactors anything they want – contracts, amendments to contracts, zoning changes, variances on city code requirements, etc. etc.

• · Appoints friends and campaign contributors to City positions instead of looking for the best qualified people – Jan 5, 2016, Feb 3, 2015

Last year Robinson and his Gang appointed Francisco Barajas to the Parks Commission even though there were 2 far more qualified individuals, but Barajas was a “friend” and worked on their campaign. In more than a year Barajas has never made a single motion, missed more meetings than every other Commissioner combined, and rarely attends City events. This year they appointed Scott Voigts to Vector Control even though there was a more qualified person, however, the representative gets $100 for each meeting he attends. Voigts’ typical behavior is to attend for roll call and then leave the meeting. The result is that we get no briefings about what’s happening because Voigts is not there, but he does cash the check. Keep in mind that there are serious Vector Control issues being discussed, including Ziks virus, aerial spraying, etc.

SUMMARY

Nick was correct in his description of Robinson’s voting record. Robinson’s record shows a lack of compassion, indifference to community needs and a commitment to allow special interests to finance and control Council actions.

BTW - This is not a complete picture of Robinson's voting record. That will come in a few weeks. For right now we just examined Robinson's voting record as described by Councilman Nick at Nick's T own Hall meeting.

Tomorrow we’ll look at Robinson’s 2012 promises and whether or not he kept his word.

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.