Robinson's Credibility: Did Tettemer Pull a Fast One on Him?

Lake Forest City Councilman Dwight Robinson needed the slightest little bit of help to get former councilman Mark Tettemer on the Traffic Commission. Not surprisingly, Scott Voigts was happy to oblige. On matters that split the Council – the ones that aren’t unanimous – Voigts and Robinson vote in lockstep about 90 percent of the time; when they don’t, it’s usually because Voigts is too feeble a leader to make a decision and takes the easy out with an abstention. Certainly, in 2018, Voigts has more abstentions than the rest of the Council combined. Still, Voigts is planning to run for a third term in November, and supporting Robinson and Tettemer is a strategy to earn Voigts the endorsement of the Republican Party of Orange County – which relies heavily on developers for financial support; Voigts also earned the future financial backing of developers and developer-friendly Political Action Committees who see Voigts as a soft touch to their needs. In that way, Voigts has something deeply in common with Robinson and Tettemer.

• Dwight Robinson's Credibility an Issue with Tettemer Appointment

Robinson admitted in January he was playing politics when he conceded at a Council meeting that there were decisions he regretted. Essentially, he only opposed decisions supported by Jim Gardner or former councilman Adam Nick – who at least opposed some developer proposals (including those opposed by City staff) – it’s fair to say that Robinson wasn’t voting with residents in mind, but retribution, retaliation, or rage. Or maybe he was just voting the way the Republicans in Santa Ana wanted him to vote as a means of not rocking the developer vote.

To protect special interests who contributed to the Building Industry Association, which contributed to the election of Robinson, Voigts and Andrew Hamilton, none of them sided with residents when they complained en masse about the dangerous Saddleback Ranch Road. Had even one of them agreed with Nick and Gardner to place the item on the agenda – and that’s all residents were asking for – there never would have been a recall. But Robinson, Voigts and Hamilton let petty politics – or maybe it was partisan politics to protect the OC GOP’s POV – get in the way of protecting the public’s safety. Every resident from Ridgeline to Rockfield should be upset at them for that.

For what it’s worth, the woman who spearheaded a recall of Robinson, Voigts and Hamilton, beat Robinson by nearly 4,000 votes in the 2016 election. Leah Basile has said she wouldn’t take money from developers, and that had to resonate with at least some voters. Nick said the same thing and he lost by a scant 99 votes to Robinson. Tom Cagley said the same thing for the special election and got more than 50 percent of the vote.

Robinson, as smart as he is, must have figured out that he lost badly to Basile and narrowly to Nick – whose ideals were closely aligned – because people voted against Nick as a result of the half-truths and lies in the smear campaign which included calling recall supporters thugs and pedophiles.

If Robinson is interested in the will of the people, he could probably figure out that the constituents would like to get traffic and overcrowded classrooms figured out before adding more development.

There are still more than 1,500 homes approved by prior Councils – including those Tettemer was on – that have yet to be built. And there are another 800 homes that will come before the Council in 2019 when Toll Brothers aims to rezone the Nakase Brothers Nursery and replace vegetation with villas. Combined with those that are still to be built, that’s more than 2,300 homes that will be added to the grid. Remember that when you’re letting your lawn turn brown because you can’t water it, or when your neighborhood has a rolling blackout during a heat wave, or when you’re dodging traffic because there are so many cars on the road.

But that’s what Robinson and Voigts want for Lake Forest because that’s the way they have voted every single time a developer has come before them. But their connection at the hip shouldn't be a surprise.

Robinson was Voigts’ campaign manager in 2010, ran for office in 2012, promptly introduced Andrew Hamilton into the leadership process on the Planning Commission in advance of a run for Council in 2014, approved Francisco Barajas for Parks and Recreation and then proclaimed him his “running mate” in 2016. As modus operandi go, Robinson’s appointment of Tettemer fulfills the Robinson agenda, which is to: 1) Make campaign promises that are never brought before the Council, and 2) do whatever it takes to appease the Orange County Board of Supervisors, and 3) enable development to have its way in the community.

Judging by Tettemer’s history, his agenda is similar – take care of the developers. There was no guarantee Tettemer would run for City Council in 2018 when Robinson made him his appointee to the Traffic and Parking Commission on July 17. But since then, Tettemer has pulled the paperwork to initiate a run for City Council against Gardner in District 4. In other words, Tettemer didn’t prioritize his position on the Traffic Commission, something Robinson almost surely knew.

And if Robinson didn't know, then Tettemer pulled a fast one on everybody.

Next: Robinson's credibility issue, line by line.

Photo: Dwight Robinson by Martin Henderson