The Recall in Lake Forest

There is a recall effort going on in Lake Forest. The goal is to remove three council members (Voigts, Robinson, Hamilton) as a result of the cumulative impact of corruption, cronyism, and collusion. The website for the recall effort is Citizens to End Corruption in Lake Forest and the Facebook page is A Better Council for Lake Forest. The recall leader, Leah Basile, recently wrote an article about the recall - Click Here to read that.

It was my intention to avoid any public comments on the recall. Hence you’ve seen almost no mention of it in all my reports since the recall was initiated, and when mentioned, it has only been parenthetical. I’ve never mentioned it will on the dais. When the recall was started I spoke with each of the people being recalled and said that I would avoid public comment and avoid taking a public position. I was doing that because our City Council has become a laughing stock in terms of the chaos, animosity, and internecine abuse, and I believed that my taking a public position would only worsen what was already a bad situation.

People who know me or people who’ve read my articles can probably offer a pretty good guess on my position, but I thought it proper to stay above the fray. So why I am writing this article?

In recent weeks, the lies and mis-information being spread by the people being recalled has reached such a crescendo that it demands a response from me. I am being accused by one or more of the people being recalled with (a) being behind the recall, (b) financially supporting the recall, (c) handing out recall information, (d) circulating petitions to get signatures, and (e) being kicked out of Bagels and Brew for trying to hand out recall literature. None of this is true. Here is what is true –

More than 6 months ago I was approached by a number of people who were upset about the actions of Voigts, Robinson, and Hamilton, variously referred to as “The Gang of 3” or “The 3 Stooges”. They were upset with the issues I’ve briefly alluded to above. I was asked to lead a recall effort, much in the same way I led (co-led is a better word) the effort to stop the Brookfield and Trumark development in the Auto Centre Drive – we gathered 4000 signatures in 45 days, but it wasn’t enough. I declined – not because I was unsympathetic with their concerns, but because I thought my participation as a Council member in a recall effort would interfere with our ability to work together for the betterment of the City. People argued with me that being Mayor didn’t stop Dwight Robinson from trying to get businesses to take down my banners in the 2014 election, or stop him from taking Liz Miller’s flyers from the windshields of cars and allegedly verbally abusing the grandmother and grand children who were passing them out. Nor did it stop him from endorsing Voigts and Hamilton in a $10,000 mailer sponsored by a developer with a B-side that was an attack piece against me. I answered that Dwight is responsible for his actions and I for mine, and what he might consider appropriate didn’t define my behaviors. For me, getting into the recall effort would make it more difficult for me to work constructively with the three, and hence I wanted to remain neutral, at least publically.

As far as I knew, that was the end of it. Without me in the key leadership role, no one else was willing to step up, and as far as I knew, the effort died. Months later I was surprised as anyone to see my colleagues served with a recall notice. No one had talked to me, sought my advice, or my financial support. Apparently the refusal of the three to allow discussion about the fiasco on Saddleback Ranch Rd. had been the cause of the renewed effort.

While it’s true that I know, and consider friends, many of the people involved in the recall effort, I am privileged to know and call many people in Lake Forest friends. Yet even so they managed to keep this effort from my awareness, until the night Leah Basile served the 3 guys.

Since that time I have talked to many of the Recall supporters, just as I talk to even more Lake Forest residents. Literally hundreds of Lake Forest residents ask me for advice or assistance, and I try to provide what I can. Members of the recall effort asked me for some of my past research on who took what money from whom, who broke promises, who lied, etc. All of this is publically available, and when asked I normally provided a link to the original articles.

On a few occasions, Recall supporters have appeared at public events, and apparently I committed a grave sin by talking to them. Bear in mind a few of these people worked very hard for me in my 2014 campaign, so not talking to them at a public event would be extremely ungracious. At one event, Dwight Robinson spent some time talking to them, but apparently no one is accusing him of helping the recall effort.

The fact that the people being recalled are spreading lies about me is ironic since one of the reasons to recall them is their poor conduct, including the never-ending stream of lies that flows from one of them in particular. The fact that I’ve tried to stay out of this, and am being pulled back into it (sounds like a scene from Godfather 3) by the actions of the same people who probably don’t want me to get involved, is even more ironic.

I originally wanted to stay out of it because I didn’t want my involvement in the recall to interfere with my ability to work with the “Gang”. At that time whenever there was a vote that wasn’t unanimous, the Gang was winning 100% of those votes. Since that time, they continue to win 100% of the contested votes. Prior to the recall I was on the winning side 28% of the time, and since the recall started it’s declined to 20%. So it looks like the ability of the Gang to absolutely control the vote has not diminished, but despite my attempt to remain neutral, at least on a public level, my success rate has dropped by 30%. FWIW, Nick has fared even worse. Prior to the recall, Nick was on the winning side 35% of the time, but since the recall started he dropped to 20%. Nick has declined 43% since the recall began.

I’m not saying that because the recall started the Gang are even more controlling than they were prior to the recall, but that is what the evidence shows. The facts may not have a real causal relationship underlying them, and it may be mere chance, but they are eye opening. They also show that my underlying assumption was not correct.

Just a word about the Gang’s accusations about Adam Nick. In their response to the recall statement, they unanimously deny any guilt and blame Adam Nick for a vendetta against them. Adam Nick certainly has shown that he doesn’t like them, and they, in even more vitriol have attacked him. But it is a gross dis-service to the people working for the recall to imply that they are stooges or underlings of Adam Nick. The people I know who are involved in this effort are all decent hard working people whose main concern is the wellbeing of the City. If they are involved in the recall it’s because they believe they are correct and the City will be better off without the Gang in control. I’m pretty sure the data they are using is correct, because I believe they are using a lot of the data I compiled myself.

I intend this to be my one and only discussion of the recall. I still believe I should remain above the fray, although I’m aware now that in fact my ability to succeed in getting agreement on issues I consider important has gone down a lot since the recall started. One could reason - “What do I have to lose?” but I still want to refrain from getting on the bandwagon.

Meanwhile I can’t but notice, with some amusement, that the behavior of the 3 guys being recalled has improved. They imperiously denied people’s request to put Saddleback Ranch Rd on the agenda and in less than a week after being served they did a complete turnaround. Then they showed up to two meetings held by staff and residents, something I commonly do but none of them has ever done - ever! All 3 of them found time to show up at the dog park opening, and all 3 of them were at the Chamber of Commerce mixer this week, something that is very rare for two of them, and relatively rare for the other. The 3 showed up again at the STARS award ceremony last night. These are guys who can’t even show up at Council and Committee meetings, and yet suddenly they are everywhere. Who knows what miracles will be wrought as we get further and further into the recall process. Maybe it will turn out that a recall can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. I hope so, but for now, that’s all I want to say.

FWIW - After having published this article, someone began pretending to be me using the name Jim Gardner in the comments section. Once again it gives you some idea of the character of these three individuals and/or their supporters. I don’t post in the comments section of the Patch (On advice of the City Attorney). I comment on my Facebook page as indicaed below.

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 Dec 12 at 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.

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