Election 2016. Basile vs. Barajas

We’ve been looking at the upcoming election, starting first with a comparison of the two incumbents – Adam Nick and Dwight Robinson (Click Here).

Today I’ll look at Leah Basile and Francisco Barajas, the two non-incumbents who have been involved in City activities. The other two guys have no history of doing anything in the City, but I will cover them next.

BARAJAS

Francisco Barajas got his appointment on the Parks & Recreation Commission not from any background, training, or experience in Parks and Recreation, even though several well qualified applications were turned down. Barajas’ main qualification was that he worked for Scott Voigts’ election. It was a political payoff, plain and simple.

Political payoffs are not inherently bad. If you have a well-qualified person who happened to work on your campaign, why would you turn them down? But appointing unqualified people to Commissions is harmful to good government. Voigts and Robinson have a history of removing qualified people and putting in political “hacks”. These people in turn have a record of high absences from meetings and poor decisions. The Planning Commission, for example, has had more decisions appealed and more decisions overturned since Voigts and Robinson took over than in the entire history of the City up until that time.

Putting aside the fact that Barajas was not qualified for his seat on the Parks Commission, let’s see what he’s done. (For a more detailed discussion of this topic, Click Here)

Missing from Commission meetings - Barajas missed 4 meetings in his brief tenure, which are more missed meetings than every other Commissioner combined. Let’s repeat that – Barajas has missed more meetings than the other 4 commissioners combined!

Barajas’ record for missing meetings is not merely the worst on the Parks Commission, it is the worst in the City, including the City Council and the Planning Commission.

Missing from City events - When I realized that Barajas missed so many Commission meetings I looked at his Facebook page to see how often he attends City events. Personally I attend almost all of them, and I don’t recall seeing Barajas at most of them, including some events you’d think he would be at because he is a Parks Commissioner. His Facebook page contained not a single Lake Forest event, so that tends to confirm my memory of his absence.

Uninvolved in Parks Issues- Looking at the Parks Commission official minutes from Oct 15, 2015 to July 21, 2016 they list 13 motions along with 11 seconds. All the Commissioners participated in this except Barajas. He did not make a single motion or a single second. In fact, if you read the minutes, he is rarely quoted as contributing anything despite the fact that the Parks Commission has some lively discussions about items such as Senior citizens, the Healthy Cities initiative, the Skate park, Whispering Hills, etc. etc.

This is not very impressive. In fact it’s downright disappointing. It leads me to believe that Barajas was never really interested in the Parks Commission or really anything to do with Parks. He was simply using this as a stepping stone to reach for higher office. So he took the place of several more qualified candidates and the City has been deprived of real representation for the past year and a half.

Ties to the Gang of 3 - Barajas’ candidate statement says that he is endorsed by Andy Hamilton (aka “Mayor M.I.A.”). His application to be on the Parks Commission revealed his work to support Scott Voigts, another member of the Gang of 3. So the election of Barajas could conceivably give us a Gang of 4.

Summary - Francisco Barajas is running for City Council. His record shows that he misses more official meetings than anyone in City government, that he hasn’t made a single motion or seconded a single motion in the past year, that he rarely attends City events, and that he has close ties to the Gang of 3. Elect Barajas and we’d have a Gang of 4. Could Lake Forest really survive?

LEAH BASILE

Leah Basile first came to my attention a little more than a year ago when she showed up at a City Council meeting drawing our attention to the bad plans for Saddleback Ranch Rd, a situation that almost guaranteed traffic congestion and injuries to pedestrians, bikers, and drivers. Because the Gang of 3 would not put the topic on the agenda, Leah rallied her troops in Portola and organized a “recall” of the 3 Council members. No sooner were they served with papers, the City Manager ordered an emergency meeting, the topic got put on the agenda, all the impossible obstacles (legal issues, contract problems) were resolved, and within 2 weeks a new set of plans were drawn up. Leah got the City moving faster and better than anyone can remember.

Leah was very impressive. She was smart, energetic, and had the leadership qualities to attract dozens of people to help.

Since that time, she has stayed involved in City issues. She attends Council meetings and often speaks. She’s fought for a no kill animal shelter and also to get the Gang of 3 to start work on Village Pond Park. She continues in her duties as President of her HOA, where she works hard to improve amenities and cut expenses.

SUMMARY

Leah Basile has been a contributing member of the community for 20+ years, and has the benefit of having lived in most parts of the City. She’s smart, independent, energetic and shows great leadership skills. Francisco Barajas is a political hack, sponsored by the Gang of 3, who has done nothing in the time he’s been in the City.

Leah Basile is the clear choice.

Tomorrow we’ll briefly discuss the other two guys.

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 running for 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.