Last week in the course of covering Councilman Adam Nick’s Town Hall meeting I did some research on Councilman Robinson’s 2012 promises and the extent to which he fulfilled his promises. Nick claimed in his meeting that Robinson had fulfilled none of his promises, so I did some checking.
After I published the article (Click Here) some people said I wasn’t being balanced and I should also do the same thing for Nick’s promises. So I did and this article is the result.
Bear in mind that Robinson has been the leader of the so-called Gang of 3 (Voigts-Robinson-Hamilton) who control Lake Forest politics and who vote together almost all the time. 100% of the time their decisions become law or policy. So when we examine Robinson’s promises, there can be little reason why he didn’t follow through, since he has had the votes to be able to do whatever he wanted. If he wanted a Traffic Commission, he and his Gang could have created one. If he wanted a local animal shelter, his crew would have made it happen.
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Nick, on the other hand, has more often than not been on the losing end of contentious votes, so his ability to actually achieve the things he promised is seriously impaired. In Nick’s case it’s important to see whether or not he tried to follow through, and if he did but he was defeated by the Gang of 3, I’ll consider that an example of Nick fulfilling his promise.
In both cases I’ve taken every promise I could find from the campaign literature of 2012. I know there were more promises made in other venues, but the written word provides a good source for comparison.
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Both Nick and Robinson are up for re-election, so it’s important to see whether or not they can be trusted.
NICK’S 2012 CAMPAIGN PROMISES
I located more than two dozen promises made by Adam Nick, either on his website or in his literature. Because I only had access to Robinson’s literature, I eliminated Nick’s website promises and only went with his literature. However, everything in his literature was present on the website.
PROMISE 1 – “Stop incumbent Councilmembers from billing Lake Forest taxpayers for personal expenses”
REALITY – Nick was on a crusade on this item and the result was a complete revision of the Council travel policy. Prior to this Council members were using taxpayer money to pay for personal expenses, and while Council members Voigts and Hamilton still spend thousands of taxpayer dollars on travel, they do not use it for “personal” expenses. (Nov 18, 2014)
PROMISE 2 – “Implement a city “Sunshine Law” to make government more transparent, eliminate backroom deals, and ensure that the public’s voice is heard.”
REALITY – Nick did introduce the ordinance, but it was shot down. (Mar 5, 2013)
PROMISE 3 “…toughening conflict of interest standards to ensure fair competitive bidding for city contracts.”
REALITY – Nick did try to introduce conflict of interest standards, but he was shot down by the Gang of 3. He did fight for competitive bidding on all non-utility contracts, but he was shot down (May 21, 2013; Aug 6, 2013; May 6, 2014; June 17, 2014; Dec 2, 2014).
PROMISE 4 “…city leaders must listen more to the concerns of our residents.”
REALITY – Nick held 3 Town Hall meetings, more than the Gang of 3 combined. In fact, more than any other Council member in the history of the City, with one exception. He’s also voted for new Committees, although in most cases the Gang of 3 voted against it. (Apr 1, 2014; Feb 17, 2015; Apr 7, 2015; June 16, 2015; July 21, 2015)
PROMISE 5 “Adopt Code of Ethics for Council Members.”
REALITY – Nick did propose adopting a code of ethics with teeth, but it was defeated by the Gang of 3.
PROMISE 6 – “Revamp City’s Website.”
Nick did vote with me to change the City’s website and make it more usable for residents. The Gang of 3 went along with this and we have a much better and more transparent website now. (Mar 5, 2013; Dec 16, 2014; Mar 3, 2015)
SUMMARY - NICK
I found that Nick made 6 promises in his literature. Two of them he fulfilled, and the other 4 he tried to fulfill, but the Gang of 3 out-voted him.
ROBINSON’S 2012 CAMPAIGN PROMISES
I located 7 promises made by Robinson. Here they are, along with the City Council votes that reflect upon his desire to fulfill these promises (This material was covered in greater length. Click Here).
PROMISE 1. - “…create a Traffic Commission”
REALITY – Robinson actually voted against a traffic commission (Dec 17, 2013)
PROMISE 2. – “…ease traffic congestion…”
REALITY – Robinson voted for not a single program to reduce traffic congestion, and specifically opposed extending Portola Parkway. Instead, he did the opposite, by voting for every single development project that crossed his path.
PROMISE 3. – “…open more schools to lower class sizes”
REALITY – Not a single new school has been opened despite more than 2,000 new homes being built and 2,400+ new homes being approved. In fact, one school has even closed.
PROMISE 4. – “…make Lake Forest friendlier to businesses, creating more jobs.”
REALITY – He’s voted against giving preferences to Lake Forest businesses. He’s voted to eliminate commercial properties, removing jobs from the City. Before Robinson took office the City spent 5% of its budget on our own people and businesses. Since Robinson it’s down to less than 2%.
PROMISE 5. – “…reduce pension benefits for future city employees.”
REALITY – He’s done nothing to achieve this. In fact, he’s voted to give hundreds of thousands of dollars in raises to City employees, thus increasing our pension liabilities.
PROMISE 6. – “…oppose wasteful city spending.”
REALITY – He refused to cut the fat from the City budgets which could have saved up to $2,000,000 per year (May 12, 2015). He refused to re-bid a street sweeping contract that could have saved $250,000 per year (May 19, 2015). He voted to give OC Animal Control a 10-year contract without knowing how much they would charge and with no limits on what they could charge (Dec 1, 2015).
PROMISE 7. – “Work actively to prevent any Jail Expansion and stop the transfer of high risk violent offenders to our family-friendly community.”
REALITY – Robinson did nothing to stop jail expansion, and the jail is not only going to be expanded, but it will house medium security prisoners which is far worse than the minimum security prisoners it used to house.
SUMMARY - ROBINSON
Robinson made 7 promises and fulfilled none of them. In most cases (e.g., Traffic Commission, easing traffic congestion, making City more business friendly, oppose wasteful spending, reduce pensions) he actually did the opposite of what he promised.
OVERALL PROMISE KEEPING
Adam Nick kept 100% of his 6 promises while Robinson fulfilled none of the 7 he made.
Not only did Robinson fulfill none of his promises, on almost every one of them, he did the opposite of what he promised (e.g., He promised a Traffic Commission and then voted against it). I couldn’t find a single instance in which Nick did the opposite of what he promised.
It seems pretty clear to me who can and who can’t be trusted. Both men made promises to get elected and then both of them had 4 years to fulfill or at least try to fulfill their promises. One did the opposite of what he promised and the other did what he promised.
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 is not up for re-election in 2016.
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 in November at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.
