City Council D4: Recall, Gardner, Showed Power Still with People

Opponents of Mayor Jim Gardner seem consumed that he had a role in the recall of Andrew Hamilton. Rather than knock Gardner for his fight on behalf of residents involving homeless issues, the rising costs of police services, or fixing the killing machine that is Orange County Animal Care (you don’t want your pet to go there), there is a preoccupation that his wanting to get rid of dead weight on the council was somehow derelict.

• Tettemer's Comments: What He's Not Telling You
• Developers Cherry-Picking Candidates in Lake Forest
• Tettemer Rhetoric Tries to Cover his Weaknesses
• Tettemer Says Residents Wasteful, Blames Gardner
• City Hall is No Place for Cowards

There were 9,155 registered voters in Lake Forest who were in favor of recalling Hamilton, and they had any number of reasons to do so -- and certainly had reason to do so for their collective worth.

• He was an automatic vote for anything proposed by Dwight Robinson or Scott Voigts.
• Not once in two years did he side with Adam Nick or Gardner.
• He turned his back on residents confronted with a serious public safety issue, Saddleback Ranch Road.
• He refused an audit of the contract of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, the city’s largest that was growing by about $1 million annually without any additional officers on the street.
• He was disrespectful to residents and the civic process while he was mayor, including abruptly ending a meeting with at least three agenda items still on the table because he couldn’t control an audience of six people.
• He caved in to everything ever asked for by a developer.
• He went against City staff recommendations to build homes within a few hundred yards of Musick Jail.
• He refused to join Gardner and Nick, who wanted City administrators to cut 5 percent of fat from their budgets at a savings of $2 million annually.
• He voted to lock the city into a 10-year contract with Orange County Animal Care with a $600,000 buy-in without getting any equity in the facility.
• He was going to provide a free pass to Toll Brothers to place 800 homes on the Nakase Brothers Nursery site despite overcrowded schools and growing traffic problems.

Prior to the recall effort, Hamilton voted with Dwight Robinson and Scott Voigts about 85 percent of the time on issues that weren’t unanimous. After Hamilton was replaced, retired Col. Tom voted with Robinson about 60 percent of the time and Gardner 50 percent of the time. The city got a far more independent council out of the deal, which is clearly what residents wanted.

If Gardner helped make that happen, then Gardner should be praised for getting things done. Recalls are difficult things, but Lake Forest was able to take back control of its city for 10 months. These have been the 10 most civil months of the past six years and Gardner has been the mayor.

The night Hamilton was removed from office and Cagley took his oath, Robinson conceded that there were previous votes he had regretted, an admission that basically validated the previous stance on issues held by Gardner and/or Nick.

A recall doesn’t happen with the support of two people. If Gardner validated signatures or provided clarity for those working the recall, what’s the problem. He helped give more than 20 percent of registered voters what they wanted.

His opponent, Mark Tettemer, is among those who think the $418,000 spent on the two recall attempts and special election was wasteful. Do you hear that, Lake Forest: Tettemer thinks you don’t know what you’re doing, but he’s only going to blame Gardner for it.

Is that the way Tettemer will lead if elected, sit on his hands and wait it out while things get progressively worse? Is he going to work to get things done immediately? Gardner was elected for a reason, to hold the other clowns accountable and get things done.

In exchange for that $418,000, Lake Forest residents were educated, became more engaged, and got $1 million savings when the council with Cagley voted to pay off the Alton Parkway bond. They also got some peace of mind that they would actually be listened to because they could trust three of the five council members didn't have hidden agendas: Cagley, Gardner and Basile.

How many residents in other cities would like to call out their elected officials as liars when they lie, or hold them to the fire when they break their promises to the people. Lake Forest actually did so, and Gardner leads the way every other Tuesday at City Hall.

If councilmen like Robinson and Voigts don’t like being called out, maybe they should stop doing things to be called out for.

Then again, maybe that’s why they want Tettemer on the council, because he will turn a blind eye to the lies and deception.

Gardner is a proven fighter for Lake Forest. He wasn’t elected in 2014 so that Robinson and Voigts could have it easy.