Recalling Andrew Hamilton - 20 Reasons

We spent the last 2 weeks talking about reasons to recall Andrew Hamilton. Let’s see if we can group them in any meaningful manner.

CONDUCT UNBECOMING

• As Mayor, Hamilton threatened citizens with Police action because they were talking after Hamilton had ordered that people be silent. Imagine being ordered to be silent when you came to your City Hall to exercise your constitutional rights.
• 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.
• As Mayor, Hamilton threatened people with “time out” and actually put the residents and everyone else in time out on a number of occasions. This action cost the City thousands of dollars in wasted staff time as people had to sit there doing nothing until Hamilton was satisfied he had punished everyone sufficiently.
• Hamilton supported the hate-filled and racist “Nick is Nuts campaign. Now his supporters as asking everyone to encourage "civility" but where were they last year when these terrible smears were being spread.

LACK OF COMPASSION

• 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.
• 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.
• Hamilton voted against creating a nonprofit Community Foundation to help the needy in Lake Forest. (4/1/14) Our neighbors have had great success using such committees.

LACK OF CONCERN FOR THE CITY

• As Mayor, Hamilton had the worst record for attending city events. He earned the nickname "Mayor M.I.A." " (Click here).
• 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.
• 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.
• Hamilton refused to stop building Saddleback Ranch Road even when residents en masse pointed out how badly designed and dangerous the street was (10/6/15). He relented only after being served with a recall notice. (11/3/15). The delay cost the city more than $30,000.
• Hamilton voted against public safety committee to help reduce crime. (7/21/15) even though our City consistently has one of the highest crime rates among our neighbors. Is there anything more important a City can do than help reduce the crime rate?
• Hamilton voted against giving preference to Lake Forest businesses. (7/21/15). Many cities give preference to their own people and businesses because the money comes back to the City in sales tax and jobs. Hamilton gets very little campaign contributions from Lake Forest people and businesses, so his loyalty is not with our City.
• In 2017 Hamilton attended fewer events than anyone else on the Council. In fact, of nearly 70 events this year Hamilton attended a mere handful. Even Dwight Robinson who holds a full time job in Long Beach managed to make more events than Hamilton did.
• Hamilton voted against using a local animal hospital for our shelter, and instead contracted with the County. Those monies could have stayed in Lake Forest.

POOR FINANCIAL OVERSIGHT

• 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.
• Hamilton calls himself a “fiscal conservative” yet he voted to spend $250,000 more on street sweeping and the company that gave money to his campaign got the contract instead of the lower bidder (5/19/15). This is how special interests impact our pocketbook.
• Hamilton refused to stop building Saddleback Ranch Road even when residents en masse pointed out how badly designed and dangerous the street was (10/6/15). He relented only after being served with a recall notice. (11/3/15). The delay cost the city more than $30,000.
• Hamilton calls himself a “fiscal conservative” yet he voted a $25,000 bonus to the former City Manager (6/21/16) who already received more than $300,000 in compensation and who oversaw the Saddleback Ranch Road fiasco and the Tamarisk Park fiasco among other notable failures.
• Hamilton voted against giving preference to Lake Forest businesses. (7/21/15). Many cities give preference to their own people and businesses because the money comes back to the City in sales tax and jobs. Hamilton gets very little campaign contributions from Lake Forest people and businesses, so his loyalty is not with our City.
• Hamilton calls himself a “fiscal conservative” yet he voted against getting competitive bids for our major contracts, such as police (7/21/15) and animal control (12/1/15).
• Hamilton's vote against a local no-kill shelter cost the City an extra $600,000+ we had to pay to the county to build the new shelter. In addition, our ongoing fees have gone up more than 40%. Hamilton voted this way even though there was a local animal hospital that was willing to be used as the local shelter, and costs would have been significantly less and we would have had the benefits of local service and extra revenues for the City.

PERCEIVED CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

• Hamilton received campaign contributions from companies like CR&R and Marina Landscape, did not reveal this in the Council meetings, and voted for them, demonstrating, at the very least, the perception of compromised integrity. (4/19/16, 2/21/17). Council members should only have the interests of the people in mind when they award contracts.
• The developers and the building industry spent tens of thousands of dollars to put Hamilton in office and keep him there, and in return Hamilton voted 100% of the time for any proposal that added extra homes or bedrooms to the City, even when those proposals were opposed by staff and or the residents.

These are the themes that emerged in the first 20 reasons.

GOING FORWARD

Going forward I'm going to switch from daily to weekly reports. The first weekly report will appear on Sunday. Once we look at 20 more reasons, we'll pause and summarize again, and then continue.

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 27 at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.