Scott Voigts in Perspective

When the Gang of 3 elected Scott Voigts as Mayor of Lake Forest last week, the reason they gave was that he showed up at events and promoted the City. What they neglected to say is that Voigts was being paid by Assemblyman Don Wagner to show up, and Voigts never failed to say that he was representing Wagner. In fact, Voigts refers to Wagner as his “boss” - a term that worries many Lake Forest citizens who think that the Mayor of Lake Forest should view the residents of Lake Forest as his “boss” rather than a man who lives in Irvine and who represents people outside our City.

During the meeting, newly elected Councilwoman Leah Basile asked Councilmen Hamilton and Robinson what positive characteristics they thought of that qualified Voigts as Mayor. They refused to answer. Voigts angrily called for the vote. He won 3 to 2. Leah Basile and I voted against his appointment. It was reminiscent of the 3 to 2 votes that Adam Nick and I used to get whenever we proposed to end corruption, put a stop to cronyism, or save money by using conservative principles instead of voting for special interests. From 2014 to 2016 Councilman Nick and I lost 40 votes in this manner.

Last week I chronicled the history of Scott Voigt’s broken promises, his acts of omission, and his many lies (Click Here). All told there were

• 3 acts of omission
• 11 broken promises
• 22 lies or false claims

Bear in mind these were conservative figures. For example, a given promise (e.g., “practice conservative fiscal management”) could be broken a dozen times (e.g., spending $350 per night on hotels, making the City buy him an expensive iPad, over-spending on street sweeping by $200,000 so that a special interest got the contract, etc.) but it was counted as only one broken promise. Similarly, any one lie (e.g., “we are one of the safest cities in the U.S.) may have been spoken dozens of times, but it was counted as only one lie, no matter how often repeated. Going into the details, Voigts in reality would have more than 200 broken promises, acts of omission, and lies/false claims in his brief tenure - an incredible record.

Putting this aside, I wanted to look at Voigts' character, apart from his history of dishonesty. But first, while doing research into Voigts' foibles, I came across the resignation statement from former Lake Forest Mayor Peter Herzog (Click Here). It was 2013 and Herzog was frustrated with the way in which he perceived the Council had changed since Voigts’ team took over. Despite contentious Councils in the past (e.g., Kathryn McCullough threatened to take out a restraining order on Peter Herzog), no one had ever been so troubled that he or she resigned. Herzog’s comments are in italics and my comments follow in regular type.

POLITICS

“Tragically, over the last 10 months, the City government has been turned upside down, and the people are secondary at best to the political interests…[they]… decided the new course of the City is to replace solid public policy based on facts, with politics...”

Sad to say, things are even worse than when Peter Herzog complained over 3 years ago. Influence peddling by political parties, unions, and special interest groups has never been higher in Lake Forest, and in the County we are the prime example. The Gang of 3 makes decisions to pander to the County Supervisors, the developers, and the powerful companies that do business with the City. These groups funnel money into the campaign committees of the Gang of 3, and in return, the Gang of 3 follows their commands. People like Dwight Robinson invent figures to defend their positions and others, like Voigts, try to stifle any discussion. Herzog was right, but he never imagined how far we would slip.

CORRUPTION

“The instances of this behavior are too numerous to set out here, so I will provide just a few examples. First, is the land rezoning fiasco in Foothill Ranch for two developers; Brookfield and Trumark. These two developers laundered $65,000 through two PACS so their names would not be on the flood of campaign fliers that came out. Plus, they donated an additional $13,550 directly to candidates for a total of $78,550, effectively buying the last election.”

“Spending far more than double what any candidate in Lake Forest had EVER spent, these two developers became the largest campaign spenders in the history of our City. The impact was immediate. Within 25 minutes of being sworn in Robinson got the projects put on the City Council agenda. Then, the two developers requested a study be cancelled that City staff indicated would have answered “a key question” about the proposals….. Then, without any outreach to you, the community, and despite the objections of numerous Lake Forest residents who publicly spoke in opposition to the projects, [they] voted to shove homes into the middle of an area surrounded by commercial developments. Over 4,000 voters have already indicated their objection to what was done. Money, PAC’s laundering money from outsiders, and politics have overruled the people.”

Sad to say, this problem has only increased since Peter Herzog warned about it more than 3 years ago. Even more homes have been built in this area and even more money has gone to the Gang of 3. Through their tens of thousands of dollars, developers now determine who is elected in Lake Forest, not the residents.

ANTI LOCAL BUSINESS CLIMATE

“The impact of money, PACS and politics also creates a concern for the business community. [The Gang of 3] claim to be “pro-business” and “business friendly”. Yet, by rezoning the property they voted to throw out four successful businesses because their building will have to be torn down for the Trumark project….. It is clear that “pro-business” now means “pro-donor” in the City of Lake Forest.”

This problem of pretending to be pro-business but in fact trying to destroy Lake Forest businesses remains the same. The Gang of 3 voted not to give priority to Lake Forest businesses and the percent of our City budget that goes to our own people and businesses actually shrunk to half of what it was when Herzog was on the Council. Even more land has been converted from business uses to residential uses, because developers can make more money from residential land. This is why sales tax growth in Lake Forest is only half of that of the County as a whole. What kind of people are they when the interests of the City come last?

CRONYISM

“They appoint their friends to the City Commissions over those duly qualified, and put their own self-interests above the will of the people...”

“Cronyism is now driving appointments made by the City Council, not the goal of choosing the best qualified people. The Planning Commission is the most glaring example. We had a very respected and highly functioning Planning Commission that was praised by both developers and the public. Quite an achievement. Yet, [they] proceeded to replace three Planning Commissioners with less qualified individuals who have connections to them. Newly appointed Commissioner Brower worked for Robinson’s Long Beach based company in 2012, was paid a small amount to help in Voigts’ election, and posted on Facebook during the Planning Commission interviews that “I count 3 of the 5 council members amongst my friends”.

This practice has continued unabated. Since these appointments mentioned by Herzog, the Gang of 3 has put nearly two dozen people onto Commissions or Advisory Groups, and almost all of them have been friends, workers, or campaign supporters of the Gang, even though far more qualified applicants were dismissed from consideration. The most glaring examples were the appointment of Voigts himself to Vector Control and the appointment of Francisco Barajas to the Parks Commission - Barajas missed more meetings of the Parks Commission than anyone in history, and more than anyone on any Commission or Council, but was a "friend" and even ran with Robinson in the 2016 election where he was soundly defeated by the people.

DISDAIN FOR THE PEOPLE

“Probably the most alarming change is we now have councilmembers who show open disdain for people who speak on agenda items or under Public Comments…. The public has been told that speaking to their City Council “is not productive”; that it is “wasting everybody’s time…. Councilmembers have openly questioned the honesty and character of members of the public. Furthermore, on two recent projects, residents views were treated as irrelevant because they did not live within a 1/4 mile of the project. As you can see, your views are no longer important…”

If Peter Herzog was worried in 2013, he never could have guessed how badly things would deteriorate under Mayor Voigts (2014-5) and then Mayor Hamilton (2015-6). Residents are routinely interrupted, cut off, scolded, threatened with arrest, and placed in time-out. We have become the laughing stock of the entire County, and the reason why at every City Council meeting for more than a year, half a dozen or more angry residents come to complaint about the Gang of 3.

SUMMARY

More than 3 years ago, when he resigned in disgust from the City Council, former Mayor Peter Herzog warned about the politicking, corruption, cronyism, anti local business climate, and the disdain for the people that was ushered in when Scott Voigts took power. Today things are even worse.

Next time we’ll take a closer look at Voigts’ character.

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 January at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.