Election 2016. Nick vs. Robinson, Part 2

Yesterday we looked at the two incumbents along 5 dimensions I thought were important. They were

1. Keeping your promises
2. Avoiding corruption by not taking money from special interests
3. Being resident centered
4. Being a true “fiscal conservative”
5. Advocate for good government

On every one of these dimensions, Nick was the superior candidate.

Today I want to go beyond the dimensions and speak about broader issues.

VICIOUS ATTACKS

Ever since he was elected, Dwight Robinson has been the champion of negative attacks and insidious behavior. No one in the history of the City has spent so much money attacking other people.

· Robinson began in 2012 with vicious attacks against Marcia Rudolph and Terry Anderson. He even got the Republican Party to add their support to the developer financed flyers that attacked Rudolph and Anderson, both of whom were life-long Republicans. It was shameful for Robinson to get the Republican party to turn on their own.

· In 2014 he turned his attention to me, once more using developer money. Then, according to reports he didn’t deny, he threatened a grandmother and her grandchildren for passing out flyers, and a business owner for posting signs.

· In 2015, when I was on the Council, he referred to me as a “moron”, “imbecile”, “liar”, “vengeance seeker” and other equally unpleasant remarks. He fabricated an incident and claimed Adam Nick used a racist remark about Kathy McCullough, saying that Bob Holtzclaw and I were the recipients of the remark. Both of us (and Nick) denied it ever happened, but this didn’t stop Robinson from getting his “Gang of 3” to censure Nick.

· In 2016 he viciously attacked Adam Nick using false claims and racist comments (Click Here). He later said it was “over the top” but that didn’t stop him. When he wasn’t attacking Nick, he managed to attack a senior citizen who had been assaulted by one of Robinson’s supporters, and then attacked the man who came to her aide and prevented her from being injured more than she already was.

Adam Nick has a different strategy. His attacks are not as vicious, but he does make aggressive comments to his colleagues. The difference is that Nick does it face-to-face in a public forum where people have the opportunity to respond. Another difference is that Nick tends to get into arguments with other powerful people, while Robinson picks on grandmothers, grandchildren, senior citizens, etc.

LIES

Going beyond his vicious attacks, Robinson has a history of lying or, to be kinder, creating false impressions. In his ballot statement he lies about being a Lake Forest business owner who employs 100 people. (Click Here). He also lies about helping “eliminate” Mello Roos when no one except the people of Portola Hills paying off their debt are responsible for “dissolving” Mello Roos.

For years Robinson has painted himself as the owner of a large thriving business. He often spoke about it as if he started the business himself. This year we learned that he married the granddaughter of the company founder, and the business was more than 50 years old. There’s nothing wrong with marrying the boss’ daughter, but it hardly qualifies you to give management advice.

Throughout the 2015 debate on getting competitive bids for the Police contract, Robinson lied about the costs of Police Services, by exaggerating the costs for Irvine and by under-reporting the costs for Lake Forest. He was corrected several times, not only by me but also by the City Manager, but he persisted and as recently as two weeks ago stuck to his story.

Nick can be criticized for some of the things he says, but he has no history of lying. Of course when you have someone like Scott Voigts on your City Council, even Robinson’s lies seem minor.

GANG POLITICS

Robinson and his sycophants, Andy Hamilton and Scott Voigts, vote as a block. On virtually every issue they vote together, often with little or no debate, as the outcome has been decided long before they meet in public.

Contrast their behavior with the vote record of Councilman Nick and I. When there is a non-unanimous vote, we agree about half the time. Sometimes he agrees with the Gang and sometimes I agree with them. That also occurs about half the time.

Just look at the last Council meeting. There were non-unanimous votes on 4 issues. The Gang voted together 100% of the time. Nick and I voted together half the time, and on the other two issues, he sided with the Gang to spend $42,000 on an un-needed satisfaction study and I sided with the Gang about not having a need for an emergency preparedness commission.

When it comes to making decisions in City Hall we want 5 independent people thinking about an issue. We don’t want a single voting block because this limits the exchange of ideas.

RESPONDING TO PEOPLE

Robinson is often the subject of adverse comments from residents who are upset with his votes. They ask him questions and, until very recently, he never answers. Nick, on the other hand, not only answers the questions, but gives you far more information than you wanted.

SUMMARY

I prefer Nick over Robinson not only on the 5 dimensions discussed earlier, but also on the factors raised today.

• Nick is an independent thinker while Robinson is part of a “group think” – a voting block.
• Robinson picks on people who are unable to fight back. Nick can be equally argumentative, but his rancor is directed at powerful people and he does it face-to-face.
• Robinson is the King of vicious attacks, often using racist language and almost always using false facts. Nick can also be aggressive in his criticisms, but Nick almost always sticks to the facts and doesn’t lie about the data as Robinson does.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about the contenders.

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.