The Gang That Couldn't Show Up

We’ve all heard about the “Gang that Couldn’t Shoot Straight” but Lake Forest has its own Gang and it’s the “Gang that Couldn’t Show Up”. The year is young yet Mayor Hamilton has missed half of the ribbon cutting ceremonies that are one of the Mayor’s primary functions. Adding the appearances of his chief replacement, The Mayor Pro Tem Scott Voigts, we still have about a third of the ribbon cutting ceremonies being missed. Don’t worry, I filled in when there was no one else, so the honor of the City was preserved. But why on Earth would you accept these responsible positions that represent the City and then do such a poor job showing up? I bemoaned the situation a few weeks ago when it first happened, and for a brief time, it improved. But now we are back to missing ceremonies.

Ribbon cuttings are really important to the people who are behind the businesses that we highlight with a ribbon cutting. It’s one thing to say that you support Lake Forest businesses, as both Voigts and Hamilton do on a daily basis, but it’s another thing to actually support them by showing up.

If it’s simply too difficult for the Mayor and the Mayor Pro Tem to show up and fulfill their duty, I suggest they step down. Councilman Nick has said he wants the position of Mayor, and since he had far more votes than anyone else on the Council, the fact that he has never been Mayor is questionable. It appears to be a personal vendetta against Nick by the “Gang of 3” and their failure to behave appropriately confirms this.

NO SHOW AT VECTOR CONTROL

Talking about not showing up, Scott Voigts just got appointed to Vector Control and he missed his first meeting and the first meeting was a really important one, talking about the Zika Virus. When Voigts first asked to be appointed to Vector Control (it pays $100 a meeting), I argued that his poor attendance at Council and TCA meetings worried me that he wouldn’t represent the City and we would miss important updates. Voigts proved my point at the very first opportunity.

BTW – I learned that instead of attending the Vector Control meeting that he fought so hard to be appointed to, and is now one of his mandated jobs for the City, Voigts instead took a trip to Sacramento for a few days at a cost of nearly $1,000 to the taxpayers to attend a meeting of a subcommittee of the California League of Cities, a purely voluntary obligation. While there, Voigts stayed in a suite that cost the City nearly $350 a night.

STARTING MEETINGS LATE

While we’re talking about some of the easiest things to do, like showing up, I received a number of complaints that almost every Council meeting starts late, some by as much as 10 and 15 minutes. In my mind, this is equally unacceptable.

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 on March 26 at 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library

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