Recalling Andrew Hamilton

Andy Hamilton has missed almost every City event in the past few weeks. I guess he’s been busy creating a website that asks people not the support the recall. That’s reminiscent of his efforts last year to get people to withdraw their signatures from the prior recall. That recall movement, under Leah Basile, generated almost 9,000 signatures and Hamilton and his Gang spent thousands of dollars to get people to recant – fewer than 50 did.

The people being recalled spent more money trying to get people to withdraw their signatures than the people advocating for the recall spent asking people to sign. By a factor of 250 to 1. That says something.

Why didn’t people withdraw their signatures? Because the reasons for the recall were valid –

• Corruption - taking special interest money and voting 100% of the time to give the special interests what they wanted. This has resulted in too much traffic and overcrowded schools as developers get everything they want and thousands of homes are added every year.
• Lack of compassion - voting against a local no-kill animal shelter, refusing to allow Meals on Wheels to operate in Lake Forest, etc.
• Cronyism – appointing their campaign contributors to City commissions while rejecting better qualified people. Many of these people who got appointed now ask you not to sign the recall petition.
• Lack of Civility – vile displays of inappropriate behavior, including threatening people with arrest, ordering them not to speak, cutting them off in mid-sentence, etc.
• Collusion – voting together as a block, more than 90% of the time, in a “group think” mentality controlled by outsiders.
• Lack of Conservative values – voting for bonuses for the City manager, refusing to cut the fat from the City’s $40,000,000 plus budget, making poor decisions that cost the City extra money, etc.

Nothing has changed. It’s all still true. That’s why thousands more people are signing the new recall petition. By July 4th they expect to have enough signatures to file early.

NEW SERIES

Tomorrow I’ll start a new series. It’s called “A Reason a Day to Recall Andrew Hamilton”.

It’s like those “New Word a Day” or “Recipe a Day” type calendars.

Each day until the recall is certified I’ll produce a different reason why Andrew Hamilton should be called. Short and sweet and all based on facts. Where possible I’ll give you a link so you can see for yourself.

Since the recall has already been underway for a few weeks, I’m going to double up on my “reason a day” for the first month.

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 May 20 at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.