"Nick is Nuts" Part 3 - Summing Up

This week we looked at the “Nick is Nuts” flyer. It’s clear that the people who support the Gang of 3 and are behind this flyer had no evidence to present to counter the arguments made by the recall advocates, that the Gang of 3 appear to be corrupt, engage in cronyism, appear to collude, look like phony conservatives, and engage in conduct unbecoming elected officials. The only response the Gang of 3 has is – “Nick is Nuts”. Let’s review the allegations because they are numerous and very serious -

· Corruption – The Gang benefitted from over $150,000 from special and vested interests and never failed to vote in favor of whatever the companies who gave them the money wanted, even when our own Planning Commission recommended against it, even when we had the chance to save $200,000, and even when the local residents were opposed.

· Collusion – The Gang almost always votes as a bloc and often uses this bloc to prevent important issues from even being discussed.

· Cronyism – The Gang appoints people to Commissions and Committees who are not qualified, except for their political and financial ties to the Gang, and fails to appoint far better qualified people to these same posts.

· Lack of Compassion – The Gang voted to stop staff from exploring alternatives to using the County’s high kill and highly disgraced service, even though we had more than four months left before we had to make this decision. They voted to deny vacant space at City Hall being used to help seniors in need of local “Meals on Wheels” services. Etc.

· Phony Conservatism – They claim to be fiscal conservatives while using taxpayer money for expensive iPads, expensive time-saving software that benefits only them, and discretionary travel expenses. Even worse, they refused to ask staff to cut the fat from the City budget which might have produced $2,000,000 in annual savings.

· Conduct Unbecoming – Residents have been verbally attacked (Voigts), interrupted (Voigts and Hamilton), ordered not so laugh or even speak (Hamilton). They have been threatened by “time-outs” (Voigts) and by being kept late at the meetings (Robinson)

The claim that “Nick is behind the recall” runs counter-intuitive to the evidence – the dozens of involved, independent local voices who combined to make this happen do not appear to be puppets of Councilman Nick. Indeed, among this group there are people who have been critical of Mr. Nick for some of his votes in the past.

The allegations that Nick threatened to kill a councilman and offered bribes are desperate attempts by people who have no evidence to support any of these claims. Nick has not been charged with any such crimes. He was cited for removing signs that had been illegally placed by Scott Voigts and others, but those charges were dropped because there is nothing illegal about removing signs that are already illegally placed. In fact, it is a common practice, though it is better left to the authorities.

Nick’s voting record shows that he supports fiscal conservatism, transparency, openness in government, and helping those less fortunate. This may qualify as “nuts” in some circles, but not for most of us.

Nick could be (and has been) criticized for some of his emotional language while at the dais. His offenses in this regard are certainly no greater than those of the people being recalled, but there is no question he could do a better job behaving himself when he is in an official capacity.

But Nick is not the issue. The supporters of the Gang of 3 would like this to be a referendum about Councilman Nick and not a referendum about their behavior. But to their dismay, there is no public swelling against Nick and there are not dozens of people willing to take to the streets to support a recall of Councilman Nick. The recall was first noticed in October 2015, and in all that time no one has come forward to support a “Recall Councilman Nick” movement.

In fact, dozens of people have been converted to the recall campaign because of the actions of the Gang of 3 in their “Nick is Nuts” campaign. This may be one of the best things to happen to Councilman Nick.

Do not let the “Nick is Nuts” argument distract you from the issues. Hundreds of Lake Forest residents have banded together and objected to the behavior of the Gang of 3. They object to what they perceive as corruption, cronyism, collusion, conduct unbecoming, and phony conservatism. The Gang of 3 have offered no evidence that these allegations and perceptions are incorrect, while the recall supporters have offered a myriad of examples to prove all these allegations. All the Gang of 3 can muster is – “Nick is Nuts”.

Each person must decide if these behaviors by the Gang of 3 warrant being recalled. Certainly elected officials in California have been successfully recalled for less. By signing the petition 8,000 Lake Forest residents will be able to cast these men out and replace them with three new people, chosen by the electorate at large.

Unfortunately the “dirty tricks” of the Gang of 3 do not end with the “Nick is Nuts” flyer and tomorrow I will reveal the latest from Scott Voigts and Andrew Hamilton in their desperate attempts to cling to power.

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 Jan 30 at 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library. That’s this week.

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