SADDLEBACK RANCH ROAD AND THE START OF THE RECALL

The Circus Known as Lake Forest City Council
· Where can you go to see people on stage be petty and insulting to their audience?
· Where can you go to see inefficiency hard at work?
· Where can you witness colleagues call each other “moron” and “imbecile” while on official duty?
· Where can you experience a sheriff deputy (at the direction of a mayor) tell the audience that they will be thrown out if they laugh or applaud public speakers?
· Where can you observe voters falling victim to elected officials’ tongue lashing?

No, this is not the Jerry Springer show; this is not reality TV. This is a common occurrence at our own Lake Forest City Council Meetings. For those that have never attended a Council Meeting, it would shock you to see what actually occurs at these meetings.

How it All Began
I originally began attending Council Meetings because Saddleback Ranch Road in Portola Hills had been redesigned by the City in a manner that was UNSAFE for cyclists and pedestrians, as well as being DANGEROUS in a fire evacuation. Further, the new design was inconvenient for thousands of drives per day, and nearly impossible for RVs, fire trucks and large vehicles to navigate safely.

Many residents were expressing valid concerns, but it felt like no one was being heard. As President of Portola Hills II HOA, I felt it my responsibility to speak for my residents and tell the City Council to make needed changes. But 3 Council members wouldn’t listen. In fact, they refused to listen even when two other Council members tried to stop the construction and get the topic on the agenda. I had to issue recall notices for Scott Voigts, Andrew Hamilton and Dwight Robinson before our perilous street was even placed on the agenda.

In the course of attending month-after-month meetings, I began noticing how dysfunctional our City Council really is, primarily due to Scott Voigts, Dwight Robinson and Andrew Hamilton refusing to hear the needs of their residents. As I continued to attend, I began to meet many like-minded residents who were growing weary of the self-serving and ineffective Council majority. The fact that I had to attend so many meetings, gather my community together and present a petition with 1,000 signatures just to be heard is ridiculous and unacceptable. It sickens me to imagine that one of our schoolchildren or cyclists could have died on that road because of the poor design while the Council majority adamantly refused to hear Portola Hills residents.

We do have some bright spots in Adam Nick and Jim Gardner, who actually appear to care for the residents. As for Scott Voigts, Andrew Hamilton and Dwight Robinson, these three have successfully formed a voting block that a wrecking crew couldn’t break through. A cursory review of the Council’s voting pattern reveals that since the formation of “the Gang of 3” in December 2014, on all non-routine matters, these three have voted together to the detriment of the community. Their votes have proven to support real estate developers, construction companies, the OC Animal Care, etc. Further, I have witnessed with my own eyes the acrimony that Voigts, Hamilton and Robinson have for the other two Council members, and for the residents who attend Council meetings. Mr. Nick and Dr. Gardner come under great fire for standing up for the residents, and I am grateful. They were the only two who urged the “Gang of 3” to add SRR to the agenda, but even then, it took a recall by the residents to force their hand.

Where Do We Go From Here?
How we proceed with the future of our City is up to the residents. We have initiated a city-wide recall, but we have a lot of residents who have no idea how bad their lives are about to become with the influx of 20,000+ people in a very short time to occupy the 5,000+ homes that this majority and the previous Councils have approved. Please keep in mind that these new homes are all concentrated in a very small area throughout Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills.

Think about this for a minute: We currently have a population of 80,000 and adding all these new residents increases our city size by 25% practically overnight. Are there new or wider roads to accommodate the 80,000+ extra car trips a day? NO. Are there new schools being built? NO. Are we going to get an extra fire station, or more Police, or a bigger library, or any other changes to accommodate this massive increase? NO.

Why are we getting all these new people? Because “The Gang of 3” takes money from developers (over $100,000) and allows them to build as much as they want to build wherever they want to build it. They rezoned retail and commercial space and threw businesses out to build more homes so that developers could make more profits and continue to feed their campaign coffers.

The Next Steps Are Up To You
We need your help. We need volunteers who can help us spread the word and gather signatures for our petitions. We will have the petitions ready for dissemination by Christmas, and we have 120 days to collect 8,000 valid signatures. Once those signatures are verified, then Dwight Robinson, Scott Voigts, and Andrew Hamilton will effectively lose their seats on the Council. Thus begins the process of electing new residents to the Council.

If you would like to be a part of the positive revolution for Lake Forest, please:

Join us on Facebook at “A Better Council For Lake Forest”, or
Email me at Lakeforestrecall@hotmail.com and
Visit http://citizenstoendcorruptioninlakeforest.org/