Recall Election a Testament to Lake Forest Residents

Residents of Lake Forest should take pride that they have initiated a recall election of Andrew Hamilton. They stood up to politicians who protect their own self interests. They indicated they want to take back control of their city, that they won't stand for a betrayal of public trust, that they don't sign off on councilmen who place the needs of developers and special interests ahead of those who voted them into office.

How often have residents thought to themselves that they didn't want to be governed by politicians more interested in getting an attaboy from a higher ranking politician, but instead by someone who believes your needs are as important as theirs. Voting “Yes” to recall Hamilton on Jan. 2, 2018, can do that.

Removing Hamilton from office is a clear indicator that residents won't tolerate a councilman voting in lockstep with others for two years without raising the suspicion of collusion.

Removing Hamilton from office is a clear indicator that residents won't tolerate premeditated acts of deception.

Removing Hamilton from office is a clear indicator that residents won't be taken for fools, that they have recourse to correct mistakes after being duped by election rhetoric.

Removing Hamilton from office is a clear indicator that lacking transparency, not being straight with the electorate, and voting with impunity, has consequences.

The removal of Hamilton from office frees residents from the vise-like grip of Hamilton, Dwight Robinson and Scott Voigts, whose privileged majority on city council has:

• Controlled the council and City commissions, and the issues they will even consider
• Allowed parking and traffic to grow unfettered
• Allowed developers to grow the housing market with disregard to its impact on schools and infrastructure – basically, the quality of life of existing residents
• Locked the city into a contract with county animal services and a high-kill animal shelter that will cost the city millions; every South County city but Lake Forest and San Juan Capistrano bolted from the contract like a dog kept in a cage

Removing Hamilton from office breaks the majority of city councilmen who conducted a yearlong smear campaign against former councilman Adam Nick, even though he had:

• Proposed a Traffic Commission four years ago to mitigate the traffic issues we see today
• Proposed paying off unfunded pension liability a year before the rest of the council decided it was a good idea
• Proposed years ago an audit of Orange County Sheriff's Department to ensure that escalating costs were justified – a topic that is only now being investigated by all cities serviced by OCSD
• Proposed the notion of creating a school district to prevent the overcrowding that currently exists

Who's In Bed with Each Other

The interests of residents was never the driving motive of Hamilton. He was part of an incestuous relationship between Robinson, Voigts, and the OC GOP to control government at a local level because it couldn't do so at the state level. That's why OC GOP chairman Fred Whitaker was in such ardent opposition to the recall of such unaccomplished councilmen who were OC GOP loyalists.

Robinson was Voigts' campaign manager in 2010. Hamilton, an unimpressive planning commissioneraccording to 20-year commissioner Tim Hughes, was Robinson's first choice to replace Peter Herzog after his resignation in 2013. When Robinson ran for reelection in 2016, he ran on a slate with Francisco Barajas, who had lived in Lake Forest fewer than three years, was an unimpressive Parks and Recreation commissioner (often absent, never made a single motion), was a protege of the well-documented liar Voigts, and believed like Robinson that an Arts Commission was more important than a Traffic Commission. Robinson, who didn't bring a single one of his six documented campaign promises before the Council after his election in 2012, defeated Nick by 99 votes in 2016.

Hamilton endorsed Robinson and Barajas.

After Hamilton was elected to City Council in November 2014, he voted with Robinson or Voigts all but once until the night he was served with a notice of recall in March 2017; he changed his voting pattern immediately, voting apart from Robinson and/or Voigts that night and five of the next six council meetings. Should we have been surprised by such political strategy? Probably not, because it's a political strategy. After choosing to ignore the pleas of residents worried about an imminent tragedy on Saddleback Ranch Road in 2016, Hamilton pivoted only after being served recall papers – as did Robinson and Voigts – yet professed there was no collusion among them. Again, political strategy.

The removal of Hamilton from office is a clear opportunity to correct a mistake three years ago by preventing the Lake Forest City Council to do another 11 months worth of damage at the hands of a do-nothing majority that doesn't want to lead and develop solutions, but only wants to remain in power.

Congratulations, Lake Forest: You have a chance to do what residents of other cities wish they could do. You have a chance to fix the problem.

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