Mayor's Conflict of Interest?

Long-time resident and community activist Andy O’Connor did some investigations and discovered that Lake Forest Mayor Scott Voigts is now employed by the City of Irvine as an Assistant to the Irvine Mayor. O’Connor revealed the employment contract at the Feb 7 Lake Forest City Council meeting (Click Here) much to the surprise and amazement of nearly everyone. It turns out that Voigts makes more money working for the City of Irvine than he does working for the City of Lake Forest. Although the positions are different, both jobs are W-2 positions and both are ad hoc, in the sense that neither one is tied down to specific office hours. For the City of Lake Forest, Voigts is a part-time salaried employee and makes slightly more than $8,000 per year. For the City of Irvine, Voigts is also part-time and earns $24 per hour which gives him the ability to make much more than he does working for Lake Forest.

As far as we know, Voigts hadn’t mentioned this to anyone nor had he sought the advice of the City’s attorney regarding any conflicts of interests or ethical violations. Upon learning this, the Council asked that the Lake Forest City Attorney produce an analysis of the situation, in an opinion letter, covering both legal and ethical issues and highlighting where conflicts of interest or breach of trust might arise.

The City of Lake Forest has a code of ethics that requires -

"Make governmental decisions and policies in the proper channels of the government structure, free of coercive or other improper influence."

Moreover the code requires -

"It is central to gaining and retaining the public's trust in the City's government that public servants seek to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. Fulfilling one's role as public servant sometimes means sacrificing rather than gaining opportunities. Individuals, especially community leaders, must commit themselves to thinking and acting ethically."

In other words, over and above and possible breaches of legal, ethical and trust issues, being an elected official in Lake Forest requires avoiding even the appearance of a breach.

One resident noted that Voigts claims to be a religious person, so she quoted from the Bible, Matthew 6 (24) which says that

“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.”

Voigts claimed that his one true love was the City of Lake Forest, which might appease some residents of Lake Forest, but hardly will bring joy to his other employers, the residents of Irvine. One resident likened the situation to an individual working as an offensive coach for the Patriots and as a defensive coach for the Falcons. Theoretically one individual could work for both, especially as a part time employee, but from a practical point of view, can one serve two masters when they have conflicting interests?

In California, many of us work two (or more) jobs. Given the costs of housing, fuel, and life in general, it’s hard to get by on a single income. My neighbor, for example, works as a driver for FedEx and also as a mechanic for a local business. A few years ago I worked as a Clinical Psychologist and also owned an Internet Marketing company. All of us can list these types of examples. The key question is whether or not the two companies you work for have conflicting interests. Let’s see. Are the cities of Irvine and Lake Forest two independent entities where there are no overlapping spheres of interest?

PORTOLA EXTENSION

The Portola Extension is the long planned for extension of Portola Parkway to connect with Irvine. Residents of Lake Forest want the Portola Parkway extension linking Foothill Ranch (FHR) with Irvine to be finished, providing a quick way for FHR and Portola Hills (PH) residents to get to the 5 Freeway (down Sand Canyon) without paying the high tolls on the 241.

The City of Irvine doesn’t want the Portola Extension. They believe that opening this parkway will attract Irvine residents to spend their money in the Town Center shopping plaza. They also worry that opening the extension will bring traffic into Irvine, as FHR and PH residents go to the 5 Freeway.

Scott Voigts campaigned on a promise to complete the Portola Pkwy. Will he be so anxious to lobby forcefully now that his boss in Irvine doesn’t want to see it opened?

OCFA

Irvine and Lake Forest belong to The Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA), but Irvine is very unhappy and has already made moves to leave OCFA and establish their own fire department (Click Here). If Irvine exits OCFA, most people believe OCFA will not be able to continue, since Irvine contributes far more money than it receives in services. This could leave Lake Forest with problems securing fire services since a City of 80,000 people would find it difficult to support a full blown fire department (Irvine at 250,000 people is able to support their own department). In any event, our costs would probably rise dramatically.

Will Scott Voigts put his heart and soul into stopping his “boss” from achieving one of his campaign promises?

MUSICK JAIL

The City of Irvine sued the County to try to stop Musick Jail from being expanded. The City of Lake Forest endorsed the project which is slowly proceeding. How will Scott Voigts reconcile these two diverse interests?

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Cities actively compete with each other to attract businesses. Western Digital was Lake Forest’s biggest employer, but Irvine convinced them to move there. Lake Forest recently established our own coup by convincing Cox to move from RSM to our city.

Not only is there fierce competition for existing businesses, but there is also competition for franchise businesses. Trader Joes doesn’t want to open a store in Lake Forest because they are already in Irvine and they fear a Lake Forest store would cannibalize their Irvine sales. Mother’s Market is in the same position. They’re flourishing in Irvine but don’t want to expand into Lake Forest.

How sincere can Voigts work for the City of Lake Forest and target businesses in Irvine and convince them to move to Lake Forest? How happy would his Irvine boss be if he got Trader Joes to move?

TRAFFIC

Lake Forest and Irvine share a long border and even a few streets. Wouldn’t it be nice if the City of Irvine used their powers of eminent domain to establish a link between Alton and the 5 Freeway? This would be a great benefit to the people who live in Baker Ranch and in FHR? But it wouldn’t be a benefit to the citizens of Irvine. How active would Scott Voigts be in advocating for this?

Irvine and Lake Forest belong to regional transportation agencies and various issues impact both cities. Some time ago we asked about using the extension of Ridge Route near the 5 Freeway to turn it into a park or a parking area. But the plans to extend Ridge Route over the 5 Freeway and connect to the Laguna Hills extension have to be agreed to by the City of Irvine. Will Irvine vote for it?

THE GREAT PARK

The Great Park, if it ever comes to fruition, promises to impact housing and traffic in Lake Forest. Depending on how it is ultimately configured, the Great Park could cause much more traffic to flow through Lake Forest as residents from RSM and Mission Viejo seek to go to the Park without using either the 5 Freeway or the 241. Making it easier for people to get to the Great Park is in the interests of Irvine, but not to Lake Forest residents if it means more traffic in Lake Forest.

Voigt's "boss", Irvine Mayor Don Wagner, promised his residents to aggressively move forward and begin scheduling events at their sports park (Click Here). Wagner told his people “This year, we will have soccer games on new fields and inside a new stadium, volleyball tournaments on new sand playing areas and 25 tennis courts. But that’s just the beginning.” How will that impact Lake Forest's sports park? Will we lose revenue because Irvine attracts events from Lake Forest? Will Scott Voigts help his "boss" in Irvine to achieve that promise?

Wagner also wants to create an ampitheatre for entertainment events. Will that compete with Lake Forest's proposed performing arts center?

SUMMARY

It’s as clear as it can be that there are many issues in which the interests of the cities of Lake Forest and Irvine are not consistent, and often clash. How can one person honestly represent the interests of both, especially when he is serving as Mayor in one city and Assistant to the Mayor in another? It might be possible to work as a Recreation Leader in Irvine and then serve as Mayor for Lake Forest, or to work in the Irvine Water District and still serve as Mayor of Lake Forest because the number of issues in which the two entities clash are small. But in the case of the two cities of Irvine and Lake Forest, the number of issues is large, and in many cases, may not even be known.

Next time we’ll look at Scott Voigts’ personal characteristics to see whether or not he has the personal qualities to navigate such perilous waters.

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 February 25 at the Lake 1 Clubhouse from 2 to 4 pm.