Final Thoughts on Recalling Hamilton - Part 3

I’ve been sucked back into discussions of the recall by claims that I’m dishonest and by flyers and articles by Hamilton which are, in fact, dishonest. Hamilton is being recalled and the election is in a few days.

In my last article (Click Here) I talked about Hamilton’s major achievements during his three years on Council and I pointed out that

• He claimed to have initiated the pension fund payout but in fact it was initiated long before he joined the Council by both Adam Nick and Dave Bass.
• He claimed to be working on “traffic flow” on Bake Pkwy when in fact it was Mayor Pro Tem Basile who is working on this issue right now, and “traffic flow” projects are always being worked on because Hamilton keeps approving more and more housing.
• His claim that he asked staff to link the city website to a State website is absolutely true, and if that’s one of his biggest achievements in three years on the Council, it speaks for itself.

Today I want to focus on Hamilton ‘s Patch article.

Hamilton recently produced 3 Patch articles. At least he’s using his own name now. The most recent article makes a number of claims. Let’s look at those.

CINDY HAMILTON’S ATTACK

Hamilton says that “I [referring to himself] have been shown videos where SHE [Referring to Cindy Hamilton] was attacked outside Stater Brothers.”

Nonsense.

Here is a link to the video. Click Here. It’s pretty clear who did the attacking. BTW – the woman who was attacked was a senior citizen.

TRADING VOTES FOR ENDORSEMENT

Hamilton was criticized for trading votes for endorsements from the Supervisors.

Hamilton says – “…I only received an endorsement from Supervisor Lisa Bartlett.... I don't trade votes for endorsements…”

If I understand what he’s saying here, he says he doesn’t trade votes with ALL the county supervisors, only with OC Supervisor Lisa Bartlett, who is the Supervisor for our district. He voted against breaking with the County and against studying the County’s Police contract, and she in turn endorsed him. So it looks like he does trade votes for endorsements.

ABSENT FROM CIVIC CENTER

Hamilton was criticized for not attending any of the planning workshops for the civic center and the senior center.

Hamilton says “I believe there have been 4 different civic center events which I have attended at least 3 of them (grand opening, recent tour with staff, first concrete poured for project).”

IOW – Hamilton showed up for the photo ops, but when the real work was being done (the actual planning workshops), he didn’t have time.

ATTENDING CITY EVENTS

Hamilton has been criticized, many times, for being absent from city events.

Hamilton says “I have attended over 30 events just in 2017”

What he doesn’t say is that there are more than 100 city events every year, so showing up to 30 of them is not very impressive. I report every month what events have been held and who showed up. Here’s some data –

• December - 11 events, Hamilton 2 (Gardner 10)
• November – 8 events, Hamilton 1 (Gardner 7)
• October – 17 events, Hamilton 3 (Gardner 16)
• September – 13 events, Hamilton 6 (Gardner 12)
• August – 13 events, Hamilton 1 (Gardner 13)

For the past 5 months the city had 62 events. Hamilton made it to 13 or 21%. In comparison I made it to 58 (94%). You might say that it’s not fair to compare me with Hamilton. OK. Suppose we compare him to Robinson, a man with two young children and who works in Long Beach, so we can expect it’s even harder for Robinson to make it to events. In the same five month period Robinson made it to 17 events or 27%.

The fact is that at 30 events a year, Hamilton attends fewer events than anyone else on the Council. But Hamilton does attend events sponsored by developers from whom he received nearly $100,000. In contrast, almost no one in Lake Forest contributes to Hamilton’s campaigns. So why bother to show up at our events?

AWOL

Hamilton claims “Of approximately 90 city council and closed session meetings (~ 30 each year), I have missed 3 - over 97% attendance record.” Does that sound impressive? Bear in mind that Adam Nick, Leah Basile, and I all have 100% attendance records. Considering all the council members, a 97% record is about as low as you can go.

DOG FRIENDLY?

Hamilton has a big picture of he and two other councilmen at the opening of Lake Forest’s first and only dog park. What’s curious about this picture is that Hamilton had nothing to do with this dog park opening, and in fact, he allowed the developer to drop it from their plans. Thanks to Mary Altoff and Bob Holtzclaw I learned of this in 2014, went to the city, and threatened to sue the developer and the city for reneging on their promise. Poof, we got the dog park.

It’s insulting to the people of Lake Forest for Hamilton to pretend he is animal friendly. He voted twice to stay with the Orange County animal shelter, and twice not to move ahead with a local no-kill animal shelter. But now that he is trying to save his job, he’d like you to think he is animal friendly.

BOTTOM LINE

Hamilton shows a pattern of dishonesty in his flyers and Patch articles.

• He claims he doesn’t trade votes for endorsements but if you read carefully, he actually admits it.
• He says he shows up to city events, but doesn’t tell you that it’s a mere 21% of the time, and he attends fewer events than anyone else on the Council, which he also doesn’t mention.
• He says he shows up to 97% of the council meetings but doesn’t tell you that this is the lowest percentage of any council member, nor that 3 of us (Basile, Nick, and I) have 100% records.
• With regard to the Civic and Senior Centers, he says he shows up for photo ops but doesn’t tell you that he fails to show up when the hard work and the planning is being done.
• He says Cindi Hamilton was attacked by a senior citizen, but anyone who views the videotape will see that the senior citizen was attacked without provocation.
• He says he is reducing traffic on Bake Parkway when in fact it is Mayor Pro Tem Leah Basile who is engaged in this issue.
• He says he was responsible for paying off the pension debt, when in fact this process was started long before he joined the Council and he was only one of five people who moved it to fruition.

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 twitter handle is @DrJimGardner. 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 Thursday Feb 15 at 7 pm at the Beach and Tennis Club on Ridge Rte.