Reasons 11 and 12 to Recall Andrew Hamilton

This series presents a reason-a-day to recall Andrew Hamilton. Because the recall started a few weeks ago, we're doubling up for the first month, offering 2 reasons a day. Once we catch up, we'll go back to 1 reason per day until the recall is certified. People asked that the reasons be cumulative, rather than separately, so I'll continue offering 2 per day but I'll add the ones already identified.

NEW REASONS

#12. Hamilton calls himself a “fiscal conservative” yet he voted to spend $250,000 more on street sweeping and as a result the company that gave money to his campaign got the contract. (5/19/15)

#11. Hamilton voted against proceeding with Village Pond Park renovations. (9/6/16). Thanks only to Council members Basile and Nick did we finally manage to get the renovations started. People's property values suffered and children at a nearby school were unable to use their play areas (due to feces).

ALREADY LISTED

#10. Hamilton voted against moving to district elections (10/6/15) and now, because of his vote, the City is being threatened with a lawsuit and we will spend tens of thousands of dollars in legal expenses. We will probably spend much more money on legal fees for this mistake than we will spend verifying signatures for the recall.

#9. As Mayor, Hamilton threatened people with “time out” and actually put the residents and everyone else in time out on a number of occasions. The City wasted thousands of dollars as staff sat around doing nothing, waiting until Hamilton felt the residents had been punished sufficiently.

#8. Hamilton voted against creating a nonprofit Community Foundation to help the needy in Lake Forest. (4/1/14). Foundations have worked well in neighboring cities.

#7. In the last week alone Hamilton missed the Leadership Breakfast, the Senior Awards event, the Smart Business workshop, the ribbon cuttings for the Performers Academy and Pet Lingo. For comparison, Mayor Pro Tem Leah Basile and I attended more events in April alone than Hamilton attended all year long. Hamilton does, however, manage to make it to developer sponsored meetings.

#6. As Mayor, Hamilton had the worst record for attending city events. He earned the nickname "Mayor M.I.A."

#5. As Mayor, Hamilton cut people off in mid-sentence when they were saying something that didn’t please him, but let them continue when they said things you wanted to hear.

#4. Hamilton voted against allowing Meals on Wheels to operate from a rarely used room in City Hall. This means that dozens of needy seniors did not get their hot meals. (6/2/15). Hamilton thought it was OK for them to wait 3 years until the new Civic Center gets built. Is this what we expect from our representatives? It would have cost the city $0 to do this, but what a difference it would have made to a few dozen senior citizens.

#3. As Mayor, Hamilton cut people off in mid-sentence when they were talking to the Council. But when they were saying something Hamilton wanted to hear, he allowed them to extend. This isn't the way people expect to be treated when they take the time to speak with their representatives.

#2. Hamilton voted against the City creating our own local no-kill animal shelter. (4/19/16). Putting aside the humanitarian concerns, this vote cost the City $600,000+ in payments to the County for us to pay our share of the new shelter in which we have no equity.

#1. As Mayor, Hamilton threatened citizens with Police action because they were talking after he ordered that people be silent. Imagine being ordered to be silent when you came to your City Hall to exercise your constitutional rights.

Tomorrow we'll list 2 more new reasons.Meanwhile if you want more information about the recall go to the website or visit their Facebook page.