Life Without the Gang of 3

Yesterday we reviewed the charges and counter-charges in the Recall campaign to remove the Gang of 3 – Voigts, Robinson, and Hamilton. Basically the recall supporters have a plethora of claims (i.e., corruption, collusion, cronyism, lack of compassion, conduct unbecoming, and phony conservatism) to which the Gang of 3 say - "Nick is Nuts" and "Gardner is a Kook".

With the deadline for submitting recall petitions looming, and with unofficial reports that the number of required signatures (7,882) will be achieved, it’s worthwhile to consider what life would be like if the “Gang of 3” were not on the Council. Let’s assume for a moment that the recall succeeds and the Gang of 3 is replaced by three people who are independent, honest, and concerned mainly with the welfare of the community and not their campaign kitty or their bosses inside the Republican Party and on the Board of Supervisors. What changes might we expect?

SAVING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS

The members of the Gang of 3 are quick to tell you that they’re “fiscal conservatives” but their voting record is quite different. They’ve voted to spend money on expensive Ipads for Council and Commission members, to use expensive software that made their lives better, to spend an extra $200,000 so that a company that gave them funds would get a contract, and to refuse to look at the City’s budget to cut the fat from an annual $40,000,000+ expense. On a personal basis, the Gang of 3 are the only people on the Council to dip into the City’s travel expenses, spending thousands of dollars and staying at $350 a night hotels.

A new Council would take a close look at the City’s budget and cut the fat that is obviously in there. A mere 5% cut in the fat would give us $2,000,000 a year in savings.

REDUCING CORRUPTION

The Gang of 3 has raised the art of corruption to a new height. In a mere 5 years they have taken more money from special interests than all previous Council members combined in the 20 years prior to the Gang entering local politics. That’s quite an achievement. Think about that for a second. Robinson has only been there for 3+ years and Hamilton for only 1+ year, but together with Voigts they’ve accumulated more special interest money than all previous Council members combined for every year in the City’s 20 year history combined.

Though it is not illegal, taking money from people and companies that come before the Council is an obvious conflict of interest, as specified in the City’s own Code of Ethics. According to the recall supporters, and well documented on their website, the Gang of 3 got $200,000 from the special interests and then voted for these interests 100% of the time, regardless of whether they wanted an ordinance, a variance, a zone change or whatever, and regardless of whether this went against the wishes of the residents and/or the staff.

With a new Council one of my first acts will be to prohibit companies doing business with the City from contributing to any campaign, directly or indirectly. It would also forbid these companies from contributing to any other organization that spends money trying to influence City elections, a common way used to launder funds.

Of course this won’t stop all the corruption, but it will make a dent. It won’t stop independent groups from trying to control City Council members, but by drying up their sources of funds, it will make it far more difficult.

I’ll also introduce a motion that Council members must disclose any contributions to their campaigns when an item is being discussed, and must recuse themselves from the vote on that item, or return the money to the person/company and then vote.

The Gang of 3 has already demonstrated by their votes that they would never approve these measures. Hopefully three new members would. Councilman Nick and I are already committed to this policy. All we need is one more vote to make it happen.

OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE

The Gang of 3 has shown a consistent inclination to avoid bringing new people into the decision-making process. Almost all of their appointments to Commissions and Groups have been to people who contributed to their campaigns, either financially or politically, and sometimes both.

The Gang of 3 has voted against a Community Foundation (to help coordinate efforts of local non-profits), a Dog Park Committee, a Traffic Commission, an Animal Welfare Commission, a Public Safety Committee, etc. They voted to put Scott Voigts on Vector Control even though there was a more qualified resident able and willing to serve.

A new Council hopefully would involve more people in our government. People are our biggest asset. Lake Forest has hundreds of capable and concerned people who would welcome the opportunity to participate in helping make the City a better place, and having a diversity of viewpoints would enrich the City.

Tomorrow we’ll continue the thought of life without the Gang of 3.

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 August 13 at 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.

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