Dwight "Off with Their Heads" Robinson Speaks -- BLOG

For his first year on the City Council Dwight Robinson rarely said a word. It became so noticeable that people, including myself, started calling him Silent Bob and I even did an article about it.

In late 2013 when he was elected Mayor he was forced to start speaking, or else there would be no meetings (which some people might applaud, but only in jest). Even in his role as Mayor, Robinson has been “low key” to be kind. He was hesitant, constantly asked for advice from the City officials who sit at his right, and the result was that meetings often went long into the night. Even worse, Robinson inherited his BFF Scott Voigt’s predilection to postpone items, so that the list of accomplishments from the Voigts-Robinson era are few and the list of items on hold are many.

Perhaps Robinson’s worse role as Mayor has been his inability to control the verbal fist-a-cuffs between Council members Nick and McCullough, and his inability to stop McCullough when she starts her long monologues that are likely to lead just about anywhere. One time she began by saying how quickly she was going to speak and spent 3 minutes doing that!

HIDDEN TRUTHS

Silent Bob had another side of him too. That’s the side that has been silent about many things which a naïve observer would think he would comment on. For example –

· When he was running for City Council, the business he controls was cited twice for trying to lie to the government. He paid a handsome fine as a result. But nary a word to the public.

· When he voted for one of his apostles to be elevated to a City Commission, he neglected to tell people that the person had actually been his employee.

· When he cast the deciding vote to approve the Brookfield Trumark projects, he never mentioned the fact that he took tens of thousands of dollars from them.

I could go on, but you get the point. Silent Bob was much too silent about issues where, as a public figure, he should have been more vocal.

Fast forward to the present.

Silent Bob found his voice.

THE MISSING SIGNS

A few weeks ago Mayor Pro Tem Adam Nick was found with campaign signs from Scott Voigts in his car at 2 am. Nick claimed he was moving them to a safer place because they were getting wet where they were placed. Police made a note, called him a “person of interest”, and didn’t follow-up with a search warrant.

Because this is American and people are innocent until proved guilty, we have to assume that the Police didn’t have sufficient evidence to arrest Nick, and therefore Nick has been convicted of no crime nor is he even charged with a crime. But this didn’t prevent Silent Bob from yelling, at the top of his lungs, “Off with his head”. Robinson called for Nick’s resignation in the same article that reported the incident.

Personally I don’t know what happened between the two men. They ran together in 2012 and I attacked both of them, along with Robinson’s BFF Scott Voigts, whom I characterized as the “Brookfield Boys”. Apparently the days of summer are gone.

I don’t know if Nick is guilty or not. If he’s arrested and convicted I will be the first person to call upon him to resign, but until he is at least arrested, it seems Un-American to jump to judgment.

While it’s OK for citizens to call for Nick’s resignation, an official of the City is acting inappropriately when, as a City official, he calls for the resignation of someone who has not even been charged with a crime, and who denies he committed the crime. Isn’t this America?

Yet Robinson shouts “Off with his head!” Don’t bother with an arrest! No need for a trial! Don’t wait for a conviction! “Off with his head” and be done with it.

Since this article is already getting a little long, tomorrow I will move on to Robinson’s latest “Off with their heads” remarks concerning City Council candidate Liz Miller.

About Jim Gardner

Dr. Jim Gardner is the editor of CITY WATCH on The Patch and a contributing editor to OC Politics and Voice of OC. He is running for City Council in Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook.

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