The Meltdown - Part 1 (In His Own Words)

A few days ago we began a heated discussion about the best way to use taxpayer money, centered on the recent dramatic increases in the Police budget, amounting to nearly $900,000 in the Police contract alone. In the course of the debate, Councilman Robinson chimed in with personal attacks against me, including the accusation that I was lying (See Robinson’s First Comment) below. He was chided for his poor behavior by readers of The Patch and challenged to respond with specifics – what was I lying about and what evidence did he have to confirm that I was lying? He did not respond. Instead he continued his personal attacks (See Robinson’s Second Comment below), and then, when pressed again to “man up”, he refused again (See Robinson’s Third Comment), citing the potential to violate the Brown Act as the reason he would not respond on The Patch. He promised to respond on his Facebook page, and a few days later he did respond.

Much of the discussion can be lost in the 100+ comments that took place, and many of us are not “friends” of Councilman Robinson, so we don’t get to see his response. Hence, I will reprint Councilman’s initial comments below, and follow that tomorrow with his Facebook response. With those documents in front of us, I will respond to Councilman Robinson’s Facebook comments.

Because Councilman Robinson’s public meltdown on The Patch deserves some attention, next week I will start an entire series devoted to Councilman Robinson and his past behavior.

Click Here for the original article

Note – I have put in bold some of Councilman Robinson’s choice phrases and accusations.

ROBINSON’S FIRST COMMENT

I will be posting my own articles as soon as the Patch published what I have written...assuming this is press and that freedom is not being stifled?

Lies, lies, and more lies by Jim. I don’t know want to waste any staff time or money on an ad hoc committee that anyone with half a brain knows will produce nothing. I told Jim that if he wanted to gather information, no one is stopping him and one other council member from doing that today. I’m just not going to support using staff time and resources to do it until he can show me he’s not a complete moron. If he can gather REAL information that shows costs savings, of course I will look at it. Until then, all he has produced so far is lies. The $247 per Lake Forest resident spending number that Adam Nick brought up last Tuesday were actually numbers Jim has used for a while and it was and is plain to see that number is a complete and utter fabrication. Why is he lying? What is he trying to accomplish? Does this have some relation to a run in Jim had years ago with Lake Forest Police Services in one of his earlier failed campaigns? People should wonder because he and Adam sure are vengeance seekers.

And for the record, I have never received a contribution from a law enforcement union, agency, a consultant of theirs, or any group peripherally involved law enforcement. No independent expenditures, PAC money, soft money, hard money, etc. was ever spent in support of my campaign. The lies coming from my opponents and their surrogates are unbelievable and I won’t stand for it any longer. I’ve ignored this imbecile for too long and I won’t any longer

ROBINSON’S SECOND COMMENT

Now the site isn’t even letting me comment under my name so I am posting as a guest. Mike, you are correct. Name calling is disrespectful to my colleagues...regardless of what they say about me. I do my best to honor the golden rule but I get exasperated at times. I’m human, I have family that come across this...that’s not an excuse...I just think some people lose sight of that sometimes. This past week has been one of the most frustrating for me. I can’t believe my colleagues have played politics with the contract itself. Debating an ad hoc committee, sure lets debate. I firmly believe one is not necessary but lets debate the facts. Holding the police contract hostage though so one can get there way...that infuriates me. Unfounded accusations and innuendoes hurt. I’m doing this because I want to serve my community. I have no interest in higher office and anything that could possibly benefit me personally...that’s not why I do this. I’ve got thick skin but even still, I can only take so much. Not being able to respond because the blog won’t let me post an article...that causes me to boil over even more. I have very rarely looked at this site in the past. I thought this might be something akin to press...but it’s not. I doubt my article would have ever been posted. I let it sit in the holding pattern for 2 days. I sent a couple of emails to Ms. Austin, texted the phone number she has in her profile, and called that number quite a few times but it always went straight to voice mail. As of this morning, I deleted the article and will find a new outlet for my frustration. If anyone wants to talk to me, my cell number is on my business card and those are available at City Hall or ask me for one if you don’t already have one. Regarding this issue, the numbers being portrayed as facts are inaccurate. Before we go about trying to solve a problem, we need to make sure we know what that problem is. What is the per capita spending rate on police services? It’s not that hard to compute. What percentage of the budget does the police contract take? What percentage of the budget does total police services take? What should those percentages be based on the level of service the community expects and how much should that cost? What do we pay compared to our neighboring cities per capita and as a percentage. This is all simple math but the numbers have been miscalculated and spewed so many times, people are taking these inaccurate numbers as fact. Sorry for digressing from your initial post. Name calling is not respectful and I will do my best to refrain from doing so in the future. I hope you will accept my sincere apology.

ROBINSON’S THIRD COMMENT

Mike, I am traveling today and tomorrow so I did not see all this until tonight. Being that I believe one or more of the pseudonyms to belong to One or more of my colleagues, it is best I don’t have policy discussions on this thread and probably not on this site so as to avoid a serial meeting which would be unlawful. I have never used a pseudonym for this reason but I don’t think less of people who do because some of the great philosophical debates of this country were generated that way (Federalist papers being on the most notable ones). With that said, I will respond either this weekend or early next week on my Council Facebook page (not my personal one). I will share the facts that I have. I have apologized for the hyperbole...can’t do more than that. People will believe me or they won’t. Not much I can do about that. We will have a full public debate when this issue is agendized at our July 21 meeting so this issue will see plenty of light of day. With that said, since the Patch posting system won’t let me post, I’ll just post on my Facebook page. I won’t be checking the Patch any longer but you may view my Facebook page or come to the July 21 meeting if you want to hear the facts I am using to form my opinion.

Note - Tomorrow I will publish his Facebook comment, and following that I will respond to his comment.

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 3 pm to 5 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a mini town meeting every month. The next meeting will be on August 15 at 2 pm at the El Toro Public Library.

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