Gardner vs. Tettemer

Mark Tettemer is running against me for the City Council seat in District 4 (see map). Mark Tettemer was on the Council for 8 years (2004 to 2012). I have been on for 4 years. Let’s see who did more and see what shape the City was in.

PUBLIC SAFETY

When Mark Tettemer was on the Council, our crime rate was relatively high, averaging 15.1 Part 1 crimes per 1,000 people, and compared to other cities in South OC we were the worst. Tettemer went around telling people we had one of the lowest crime rates in the United States, when in fact we had one of the highest crime rates right here in Orange County.

Under my 4 years on the Council the crime rate has come down a lot, from 15.1 (when Tettemer was in office) to 10.48 Part 1 crimes per 1,000 people. That's a 31% decrease. The worst year under my leadership is still better than the best year under Mark Tettemer. And we did this while the current population was significantly higher, which is usually associated with more, not less crime.

Under Tettemer we had the highest crime rate among our neighboring cities. Now we have the fifth lowest crime rate compared to our peers.

FINANCES

Under Tettemer we had a respectable $56 million in the bank, but under me it’s grown to $143 million. While Tettemer voted for a bond issue, I paid off the bond and made us a completely debt free city – the only city in the U.S . with a population over 50,000 that is completely debt free.

What's the difference? I have been actively seeking to reduce expenses and to raise revenues. Tettemer sat back and let the City Manager define his job for him. Some of the astute financial decisions I helped make -

• doubling the interest income by changing our investment strategies, and earning an extra $500,000 for the City.
• re-focusing the general plan revision and saving us $500,000.
• selling excess unused land and gaining nearly $1,000,000.

CORRUPTION

The City’s long-standing Code of Ethics requires that City Council members…

• “2.3 Safeguard ability to make independent, objective, fair and impartial judgments by scrupulously avoiding financial and social relationships and transactions that may compromise, or give the appearance of compromising, objectivity, independence, and honesty.”
• 2.4 Carefully consider if exceeding or appearing to exceed authority of office for personal and / or financial gain. When in doubt, avoid actions that create, in the mind of a reasonable observer, the appearance of impropriety, ethical lapses, legal violations, or actions inconsistent with the Leadership Principles.

Tettemer took over $30,000 from special interests, including people he put on city Commissions, City contracts to companies that gave him money, and re-zoning for developers who gave him money. Here's a few examples of the money flows -

SHEA/BAKER RANCH DEVELOPERS

• $500, Larry Tucker, 11/3/2008
• $1,000, Baker Ranch Properties, 3/25/2008
• $500, Shea Property Management, 4/10/2008
• $1,000, Baker Ranch Properties, 11/2/2004

DEVELOPER/BUILDER PACS (POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEES)

• $500, NAIOP, 10/30/2008
• $500, CREPAC, 7/11/2008
• $500, CREPAC, 10/25/2004
• $750, NAIOP, 11/1/2004
• $500, SCAA, 10/28/2008

I take nothing from special interests. I won't even sit in a room with them to discuss their issues. I insist that anything they have to say to me be said in a public forum.

If you take money from people or companies and vote to give them what they are asking for, doesn't that at the very least, give the "appearance" of impropriety?

INVOLVEMENT

I spend more time at City Hall and at City events in a month than Mark Tettemer did in a year. I hold office hours weekly , town hall meetings quarterly , weekly videos, etc. Tettemer did none of these things.

Since he decided he wanted to be on the Council again, Tettemer started attending Council meetings. He sits in the back of the room and never says a word, even when important issues are being discussed. How is it that a man who wants to be on the Council has nothing to say?

In this same period of time, Tettemer has rarely been at a city event, attended a city workshop, or a city seminar. There have been nearly 100 in the past few months, and I've been at nearly all of them. I can only recall Tettemer being at 2.

LEADERSHIP

I create, organize, and initiate. Mark Tettemer took his lead from Peter Herzog and Richard Dixon but took no personal initiatives. Can you think of a single thing that Mark Tettemer did during his 8 years?

Your choice is clear - the future or the past. Do you want someone who takes money from special interests, is uninvolved in the City, and who doesn't have s single achievement to his credit?