Nick is Anti-Establishment, Thus a Target of Council Rivals

Since voters rose up and began a recall petition against them, Mayor Andrew Hamilton, Mayor Pro Tem Scott Voigts and councilman Dwight Robinson and their pricey marketing team have had one thing on their minds—Adam Nick.

Rather than answer the allegations and charges against them and offer some level of accountability or explanation for their actions, Hamilton, Voigts and Robinson have embarked on a smear campaign through a political action committee called Nick is Nuts.

The three city leaders, who turned their backs on the pleas of Lake Forest residents begging for help on Saddleback Ranch Road and were then served recall notices—which finally lit a fire under the elected officials—have engaged in a marketing war. Actually, it’s been more like an assassination attempt. The three have attempted to take down Nick, the Iranian immigrant who landed in Lake Forest 35 years ago and has, in a losing effort, voted for more government transparency, stricter term limits and a more robust code of ethics among council and city staff.

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Although the Saddleback Ranch Road issue was the lightning rod, the recall leaders have pointed to several general areas Hamilton, Voigts and Robinson fall short. They claim the three have engaged in corruption, collusion, cronyism, being compassionless and not fiscally conservative, and engaging in conduct unbecoming of the position. Certainly, the latter applies when looking at the smear campaign they’ve initiated to deflect attention from themselves—especially against the councilman, Nick, who wanted a stronger code of ethics.

So why is Nick the target of the so-called Gang of 3’s wrath? It’s pretty obvious to the man in their crosshairs, a successful Lake Forest business owner who is clearly too rough around the edges to be considered a politician.

“Because I‘m anti-establishment, because I’m anti-cronyism, because I’ve never been a favorite of the other council members, I always lost 4-1 before, and now 3-2 that Dr. Gardner is on the council,” Nick said. “They don’t want me there because I expose them. I have no allegiance to them. My only allegiance is to the people of Lake Forest.

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“Look, I am a self-made man. I don’t need to be beholden to big money, the Orange County Board of Supervisors, real estate developers, etc. They’re demonizing me because of how unconditionally I have been on the side of the people.

“I’m the only councilman in the history of Lake Forest who does not collect a dime from the city, not even my salary. I repeatedly object to these guys spending tax dollars on personal stuff and stay at expensive hotels needlessly, all on the pretext of benefitting Lake Forest. Lake Forest is not going to be any better for Voigts going to Sacramento and shaking hands with Assemblyman Don Wagner while staying at $350 per night hotels. Hamilton makes about $200,000 a year but drives a few miles and puts in an expense report for mileage, burdening the city's accounting department to record a nominal expense, issue payment, etc. These guys nickel-and-dime the city. On the other hand, I don’t even collect what is mine. That’s one of the ways I give back to the community, the community that became my family when it took me in while I had no one else those many years ago when I arrived in America with physical and emotional wounds that had barely healed.”

But the Gang of 3 apparently are free and easy with their money in pursuit of taking down Nick. With the powerful Newport Coast political consultant David Ellis (he tried to get the El Toro International Airport approved) apparently masterminding their campaign, Hamilton, Voigts and Robinson have endorsed racism, as well as lying and unaccountability.

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They’ve sent glossy mailers to residents accusing Nick of stealing campaign signs (charges were dropped after the facts came out), and recently added a fake newspaper titled “Lake Forest News” in which seven of the eight articles try to indict Nick—all of which are no more than half-truths, outright lies or innuendoes. They accuse him of being behind the recall, which Portola Hills resident Leah Basile finds offensive.

That’s because she’s the one behind the recall and says the Gang of 3’s blaming of Nick dismisses “the anger the residents feel for being overlooked and stepped on, and our needs and concerns ignored, instead of asking the question ‘Why are people so angry,’” Basile said. “Instead, they are writing it off as if it’s about Adam Nick and they don’t want to take responsibility, that it couldn’t possibly be about them. Not only did they not care about us on Saddleback Ranch Road, they didn’t care about us enough to add schools, and they didn’t care enough about us by not taking us seriously about being angry.”

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Basile was one of those people who didn’t pay much attention to local city government until the problem appeared on her street—which, literally, was a street.

“The reason these three are being recalled is their voting record; if Adam Nick or Jim Gardner had the same voting record, absolutely they would have been recalled,” said Basile, who is an HOA president in Portola Hills. “These three have shown an acrimony for residents; they clearly don’t care. I can pick up the phone and call Adam and Jim and they listen and when I’m done, I feel I have been heard. They have been respectful, but these three, it’s almost like talking to a wall. You can’t convince them beyond the decision they’ve already made. There’s no willingness to negotiate. It took a recall for them to finally be willing to negotiate their position on Saddleback Ranch Road.

“That’s not how you legislate.”

Other Articles

• Read 'Em and Weep: Recall Signatures Trump 3 of a Kind
• Voigts Not Worthy of Your Vote for Central Committee
• 'Meet the Mayor' Event Gets Crashed by Protesters
• The Corrupting of Lake Forest
  

About the author: Martin Henderson won several Los Angeles and Orange County press club awards while an editor at Patch in 2012-13.

Photo: Councilman Adam Nick of Lake Forest has proposed more government transparency, a robust code of ethics, real term limits and corporate campaign contribution reform, but to no avail.