Robinson - "not interested in the cost aspect"

I just received a copy of a public letter to the Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA) which is an office that Dwight Robinson recently took in his efforts to advance his political career. The author has asked to remain anonymous, but I know him personally and he has spoken several times at our City Council meetings. The letter, dated November 3, 2016, refers to Robinson’s recent remarks at a OCFA Board meeting. The topic was the payment of over $400,000 to a firefighter. Quoting Robinson from an Oct 27, 2016 meeting, the letter states –

“On a separate note, in the October 27, 2016 Board meeting, it was ironic and disappointing that Director Robinson responded to my efforts to help him, by stating he was not interested in the cost aspect of the worker making over $400,000. “

Not interested in the costs?

Hmmm.

Can this be Dwight Robinson, the self-professed “fiscal conservative”?

Of course it is, because Robinson is a liberal spender hiding under the cloak of a fiscal conservative. Let’s look at his record, and not what he says.

• 11/1/16 – Robinson objected to saving over $1,000,000 by eliminating an unnecessary second multi-purpose room from the Civic Center plans.
• 9/20/16 – He voted to spend $40,000 on a “satisfaction study” that does nothing but pat the City on the back, and is rarely used for anything else.
• 6/21/16 - He voted to give the City Manager generous bonuses on top of an already high salary
• 5/17/16 – He voted to spend $1.5 million on a new “General Plan” when 90% of the City is already fully built-out. We need to focus on high risk areas and not waste our time and money looking at the rest of the City where nothing can be done anyway. But this $1.5 million will go to companies that give Robinson and the Gang money for their campaigns, so in his mind, it’s a good investment.
• 4/19/16 – He voted to spend up to $1,000,000 to help the County build an animal shelter, but our City would have no equity in the investment. Even worse, we get no credits for the sale of the land that the old shelter is on, nor is that money used to pay down the expenses of the new shelter. OC is the only county to charge its cities to build a shelter.
• 4/19/16 – He voted to give OC a blank check to charge us whatever they choose to charge us for animal care services. This can easily grow to $1,000,000 a year. What sense does that make? It gets him the endorsement from the County Supervisor.
• 11/3/15 – He refused to stop the construction on Saddleback Ranch Road even though it was obvious that it was seriously flawed. The result was an extra $31,000 to correct the defects.
• 6/16/15 – He refused to allow competitive bidding on all City contracts, instead allowing the County a monopoly. Later the County Supervisors would say “Thank you” by endorsing him for election.
• 5/19/15 - He refused to save $250,000 on our street sweeping contract, giving it instead to a campaign contributor (Athens Services).
• 5/12/15 - He refused to cut the fat from the City’s $42,000,000 budget.
• 5/6/14 – He voted against campaign finance limits
• 3/4/14 – He voted to remove Waste Management as our trash hauler and gave it to his campaign contributor, CR&R. The result was a 25% increase in trash rates for many businesses and multi-family residents.
• 12/17/13 - He voted to give Council and Commission members expensive iPads
• 2/4/14 – He voted to eliminate “Investment Oversight Review” from the list of recurring agenda items.
• 1/7/14 – He voted to spend $10,000 so that it was easier for him and the Council to file their state mandated forms.

This is an incredible list of votes, all of which fly in the face of being a “fiscal conservative” and many of which show a pattern of spending taxpayer money to make his life easier or to reward people who contribute to his campaign or endorse his campaign.

It’s OK to be a liberal spender as long as you call yourself by what you are. By pretending to be a fiscal conservative and almost always voting to spend more than he should, Robinson once again shows that his words and his actions are very different.

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 in November at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.