Recall -> Rescind -> Resign

On Wednesday 8,100+ signatures were turned in to the City Clerk by Portola Hills resident Leah Basile and a group[ of her associates, asking that the Gang of 3 (Voigts, Robinson, Hamilton) be removed from office. This is the first recall in the history of Lake Forest. In recalls in California it is notoriously difficult to get enough signatures to qualify to put the recall on the ballot – more than 80% of the time petitioners failed. So getting 8,100+ signatures is a remarkable achievement, especially considering that it was done in a little over 3 months instead of the 4 months that the code allowed.

VERIFICATION

When signature gatherers are collecting signatures, there are no checks on the signers. People are asked whether or not they are a registered Lake Forest voter, but other than that, no one verifies that they are who they say they are and are actually registered. As a result, petitions often have a 15% to 20% fault rate. In this case, however, recall supporters say they engaged an independent company to verify that the people were indeed Lake Forest registered voters, and on that basis they submitted more than 8,100 (verified) signatures (i.e., the names and addresses are of registered Lake Forest voters). In fact they collected even more signatures, but any signature that didn’t match the criteria set by the Registrar of Voters was eliminated. Under these circumstances recall supporters are expecting very little (if any) slippage.

OPPOSITION

The anti-recall supporters of the Gang of 3 spent thousands of dollars to defeat the recall. Sponsored by special interest groups, they produced racist and slanderous “newsletters” and e-mails with outlandish claims made by un-named sources. The poor quality of their material and the hateful nature of their content worked against them, and caused many people to sign the petitions in protest.

INTIMIDATION

Anti-recall supporters routinely tried to intimidate petition gatherers, secretly videotaped them, spread rumors that they were sex offenders, and in one case, physically assaulted a senior citizen. To no avail.

RESCIND MOVEMENT

Sponsored by Mayor Hamilton, and paid for from his 2014 Committee (an act that may be illegal), the expensive campaign yielded slightly more than 200 requests to support the Gang of 3. The ROI on this campaign must be among the worst in the history of election campaigns. Consider that more than 9,000 signatures were collected in order for the recall supporters to submit 8,200 verified signatures, so getting 200 out of 9,000 is 2.2%.

The failure to get only 2% of the people to rescind after such a massive and expensive campaign shows that the 9,000 people who signed are firmly convinced of the righteousness of their decision.

WHAT NOW?

Two facts stand out –

1. The 8,100+ people asking for Voigts and Hamilton to be removed from office exceeds by a wide margin the number of votes that got them elected. Voigts received 6,706 votes and Hamilton even less - 6,068. Moreover they represent the views of the 8,100+ people who’ve had a chance to see how they actually perform, rather than the 6,000+ people who were duped by their false promises.

2. The Gang of 3 was adamant in saying that they wanted the City to be spared the costs of having a recall election. Though the City Clerk estimated the costs at $180,000 to $220,000, the Gang of 3 misrepresented this number and instead quoted $250,000 to $300,000 as the projected cost (just one more example of the lies attributed to the Gang).

One additional fact stands out. It is notoriously difficult to get enough signatures to get a special election on the books (about 17% succeed), but when this happens, the people being recalled are invariably defeated and replaced. Looking at all City Council recall elections in California since 2010, 82% of the City Council members either resigned or lost at the polls. Only 15% survived the recall election, and most of them did it by slim margins.

Of the 15% who survived, most of them were recalled due to financial issues (e.g., raising the water or sewer rates). No City Council member recalled for corruption (San Jacinto, Bell, Hercules,. Moreno Valley), abuse of power (Poway), violating public meeting laws (Hughson), or favoring special interests (Dunsmuir) survived a recall election. In Lake Forest we have three Councilmen being recalled for all these issues; an accumulation of charges unprecedented in recent California history.

DO THE RIGHT THING - RESIGN

With the near certainty of their ultimate demise, the right thing for Voigts and Hamilton to do is to resign. Faced with similar circumstances, 11% of the Council members in other cities chose this alternative (Pleasant Hill, Moreno Valley, West Covina) while 71% fought and lost. Hence 82% were ultimately removed.

The biggest advantage of resigning is that it can save our City the costs of the election, but an additional advantage is that it saves Voigts and Hamilton from the shame of being recalled and voted out of office. It’s not uncommon for recalled Council members to lose their election by more than 75% of the vote (Poway, Hughson, Livingston, Hercules, San Fernando), a fate even more ignominious than the recall itself.

If Voigts and Hamilton truly “love our city” as they continually tell us, they will do the right thing and resign. If this is the City of Kindness as Hamilton continued to insist, then let’s be kind to the people of the City and make this go away now that we know what the People truly want.

If the recall supporters agree, the City will be spared the costs of the special election and Robinson can meet his just fate in November when he faces these 8,200 + people who already signed a petition asking him to leave.

You can help. Sign the online petition just created that asks Voigts and Hamilton to resign. Click Here.

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 August 13 at 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.

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