Scott Voigts - The Early Signs

Yesterday I began a series about Scott Voigts, former Mayor and now Mayor Pro Tem of Lake Forest. My focus was on his most recent lies, at the Dec 15, 2015 meeting of the City Council, when he denied the existence of a Form 496 from a PAC Restore California (funded by Meritage Homes) listing a $10,000 expense on his behalf to get him elected in 2014. He denied knowing anything about it, even though he was quoted in the OC Register saying he “appreciated the mailers sent by Restore California”. Today I want to start at the beginning and then move forward. Because of the large number of incidents, this will be a multi-part series.

THE FIRST LIE

The first time I met Scott Voigts we were both campaigning in 2010. He claimed he sympathized with me since we were both running against incumbents with much bigger war chests, or so I thought. He said that (with me) he had less than $5,000 he could spend, and wanted to know how I was going to use my limited funds. It turns out, when I looked at the final Form 460s for the 2010 campaign, Voigts spent $37,763.40 which was the most money anyone had ever spent on a Lake Forest election. Looking at his earlier Form 460, while he was telling me he had less than $5,000 to spend he had already accumulated $15,514.99 in his campaign kitty. This was my first hint that when Scott Voigts’ lips were moving, I might not be hearing the truth.

FYI – Form 460 is a state mandated form known as “Consolidated Campaign Disclosure Form” and “is filed by recipient committees to report expenditures and contributions.”

Interestingly enough, Voigts worried how with this little money we could reach 50,000 people. I told him there were nearly 80,000 people in Lake Forest, and he got a confused look on his face. “No way” he said. “Way” I said. “There are about 50,000 in the old part of town, and another 25,000 people in Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills”. “You mean Foothill Ranch is a part of Lake Forest” he exclaimed, and then scribbled a note on a napkin.

THE MUSICK JAIL LIE

His mistaken claim to me about how much he had to spend might be considered clever maneuvering, and not really an outright lie. After all, we were both seeking a seat on the Council and were competitors. But to the public, he and I shared a resolve to oppose increasing the size of Musick Jail which borders Lake Forest along Bake Pkwy. Yet no sooner did he get on the Council he voted to approve an agreement with the OC Sheriff to increase the size of Musick to 3,000+ prisoners and to allow maximum security cells that could house maximum security prisoners.

Now you could say that his campaign promise wasn’t a lie, because once he got in office he received some information that changed his mind. You could say that, and if this were the end to the tale, you could be right.

THE TERM LIMITS LIE

One of the items that Voigts stressed in his 2010 campaign, apart from Musick Jail, was term limits. He felt that the incumbents had been there too long and term limits would let some new blood onto the Council. But term limits didn’t sound so good once Voigts was on the Council, so on May 21 2013, when the topic came up (courtesy of Councilman Nick), Voigts argued for term limits that in reality were unlimited. (Click Here) He supported and pushed through an ordinance that says that over 26 years a Council member must take a break for 2 years. IOW – Voigts’ idea of terms limits is virtually unlimited. And he did that despite the alternative and far more reasonable motion made by Councilman Herzog and seconded by Nick, to restrict the limits to 8 years. If we’re keeping track, this might be classified as a broken campaign promise rather than an outright lie.

THE “SAFEST CITY” LIE

Once in office, Voigts has been caught straying from the truth several times. For example, as Mayor, he claimed many times that “Lake Forest is the 8th safest city in the U.S.” As readers of this column know, that statement is patently false. The fact that others at the City Hall (e.g., City Manager Dunek) also say the same thing doesn’t make it any more truthful.

The truth is, according to one study that limits itself to the 400 largest cities in the U.S. that have populations of 75,000 or more, Lake Forest does do pretty well in having a lower crime rate than most of these other much larger cities. But when all 20,000+ cities in the U.S. are examined, Lake Forest no longer looks so good. In fact, when compared to our neighbors, we have a much higher crime rate than almost any City down here in South Orange County. (Click Here) Voigts (and everyone else at City Hall) knows this, but it doesn’t make for a good sound bite to tell the truth, so he sticks to the false statement which he’s repeated often.

THE CAMPAIGN FINANCE LIE

On May 21, 2013 when the Council was discussing campaign finance, Voigts claimed that he spent “no more than Peter Herzog” in the campaign of 2010. The truth is that in 2010 Scott Voigts spent $37,763 to get elected to City Council and Peter Herzog spent $27,145.83. That’s 40% more! Voigts was lying again, this time from the dais.

You could say, of course, that Voigts was not lying and that he simply forgot how much he spent, just as he forgot about the $10,000 Meritage spent on his 2014 election.

THE “SAVE LAKE FOREST” LIE ABOUT LYING

During the 2013 “Save Lake Forest” campaign, then Mayor Voigts on several occasions claimed that the people circulating the petition to invalidate his vote were lying. The truth was that Voigts was upset because the “Save Lake Forest” people made revelations that showed that Voigts and Robinson had accepted money and then voted against the wishes of the staff, the Planning Commission, and the majority of Lake Forest citizens who had appeared at Council and Commission meetings, to give special exemptions to the developers who bankrolled their campaigns. Voigts was invited to begin legal proceedings if there was any slander in any of the work done by the “Save Lake Forest” campaign, but nothing happened because they were not lying. Yet Voigts continued to claim that the “Save Lake Forest” people were lying.

THE SPECIAL DEAL LIE

On a related issue, in the Development Agreement between Brookfield Homes (one of the developers who helped finance Voigts’ campaign) and the City, a special exemption was given to the children of the future inhabitants of the Brookfield project, which gave them first choice to get into local schools. Voigts repeatedly denied that exemption existed. Here it is “word for word” -

“District [SVUSD] shall use reasonable efforts that all K-12 Project Students [kids who live in the homes built by Brookfield] have the option to attend the applicable school closest to their neighborhood that is not overburdened.”

If you want to see for yourself, it is Item #7 in the Developer Agreement signed Aug 20, 2013.

So Voigts’ claim that this paragraph didn’t exist was wrong. Was he lying or did he simply forget? Again?

THE OC ALERT LIE

At his last meeting as Mayor in December 2013, Voigts continued to spread false information. I suppose there is some symmetry there, or perhaps it’s merely habit. The false claim came up in a discussion of Musick Jail. Voigts claimed that “OC Alert” would notify residents when Musick prisoners escape. That wasn’t true then and isn’t now. While it’s possible that OC Alert could be modified to do this, OC Alert is limited to “emergency events” (e.g., wildfires, earthquakes). Councilman Robinson informed me that the County wanted to charge an additional $80,000 to allow the City to alert locals when a prisoner escaped, and the City didn’t want to spend the money.

THE MAXIMUM SECURITY LIE

At the same meeting in December 2013, Voigts claimed that the $100,000,000 addition to Musick Jail was not designed for maximum security cells. Again, this was not true. There were 32 maximum security cells to be built in the new jail addition and these were intended to house maximum security prisoners (why else would you go to the expense of building maximum security cells?). How many maximum security prisoners will be housed there, for how long, etc. was up to the sole discretion of the Sheriff. For more information, click here.

FWIW - In the spring of 2015 the Sheriff announced that she was removing the maximum security cells from the new jail. That was great news for Lake Forest, but at the time Voigts said there were no maximum security cells being built, it wasn’t true.

SUMMARY

Having covered Voigt’s lies and false claims through 2013, tomorrow we’ll turn to his acts of omission.

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 Jan 30 at 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library. Please note that Office Hours will be cancelled during the holiday period and will resume in January.