The James Gang Exposed

Last week we revealed that James Ross, James Huston, and James Phillips are not registered Lake Forest voters and are not even Lake Forest residents. So why are they spending so many hours writing in the Lake Forest Patch?

Lake Forest resident Martin Henderson challenged James Ross to a debate but Ross never answered and never showed up lending even more credence to the theory that the James Gang (James Ross, James Huston, and James Phillips etc. ) are aliases used by City Councilman Andrew Hamilton.

IS IT ANDREW HAMILTON?

Henderson’s hunch makes sense. The James Gang is too knowledgeable about City events, City regulations, and FPPC regulations to be “interested residents”. No “resident” is that interested, even Henderson. Even more relevant, they are too well informed about what happens in City Council meetings. No one except the principals could be that knowledgeable, or even that concerned.

Why does Hamilton stand out?

· James Ross-Huston-Phillips can actually write a coherent sentence. This skill rules out Scott Voigts as a suspect.

· James Ross-Huston-Phillips spends an inordinate amount of time writing and researching these issues. That eliminates Dwight Robinson, who is busy with his father-in-law’s business, with the Air Quality Board, and with Republican politics. Robinson doesn’t have the time, and quite frankly, I’ve seen no evidence he has the writing or research skills to do what the James Gang does. That leaves Hamilton. The writing and research are not exceptional, but they are above average and Hamilton is the only one that qualifies among the Gang of 3.

IS IT FEARFUL SUPPORTERS?

It’s possible (though most unlikely) that someone out there is so knowledgeable and has so much time that he or she is doing the work but afraid of using their own name. Possible, but who else would care so much, and why would they be afraid? The Gang of 3 rules the City and aren’t reluctant to use their influence to appoint their supporters to Commissions. In addition the Gang gives contracts to their friends and sends business their way. So it makes no sense that the James Gang posters are real people who are afraid to reveal their support of the Gang. After all, there are several people who posted in the past using their real names and supported the Gang of 3, and to my knowledge none of them saw any negative repercussions.

IF HAMILTON, WHY SO COWARDLY?

Is it possible that it’s Andrew Hamilton, and he’s too cowardly to write under his own name, so he uses pseudonyms to make his attacks and post his remarks? Let’s consider this possibility.

• · The writing style and content of the James Gang are nearly identical.
• · They show an attention to detail unlikely for anyone but Hamilton.
• · They are being done by someone with time on his hands.

Why would Hamilton be afraid of writing under his own name? Martin Henderson does it. I’ve done it over 2,000 times! People like Tom Cagley, Ken Wolff, Josh Vizcay, Cherie Anderson, et al use their own real names. Even Voigts’ neighbor Bill Bowman uses his own name. In 2014 Kim Werkmeister started out using an alias but later switched to her own name. So why would Hamilton be afraid to use his own name?

For one reason, much of what the James Gang writes is sheer nonsense. Even the author knows this. So no one in their right mind would want to have it known that they wrote such poor articles. But even more to the point, many of these articles have vicious personal attacks on people, and we all know that both Hamilton and Robinson have been caught sponsoring vicious personal attacks in the past, but doing it through anonymous posts, false Facebook pages, and independent expenditure committees.

For another reason, many of these posts happen during “working hours”. Hamilton has a job working for the Mesa Water District, and we can be sure the Mesa Water District would not be pleased to discover that Hamilton was writing these posts and sending these e-mails on their dime. So that’s another reason for Hamilton, if he is the one, to not use his own name.

BOTTOM LINE

We may never know who is behind the James Gang but we can be sure that they are cowards. By refusing to use their own names, they tell us that their words carry no weight. If James Ross told the truth, he wouldn’t be afraid to reveal his true name. I write about the Gang of 3’s lies, corruption, misleading statements, and unethical actions and I put my name down because what I write is true. Martin Henderson does the same thing. You may or may not agree with our conclusions about the facts, but the facts themselves are undisputable.

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 up for re-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.