Beginning January 1 we will do a thorough analysis of 2013 in the City. Included in the year-end review will be awards for best and worst performance of the year. This article will give you the categories and some of the nominees. Feel free to comment and add your own nominees. Winners will be announced on January 1.
(Note, since publishing, several people e-mailed me their additions, which now appear below. Updated again 12/24 as more e-mails come in)
BEST COUNCIL MEMBER
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ADAM NICK – “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is King.” Despite some poor votes (Brookfield, Fuentes) Nick championed more good new initiatives (transparency, term limits, sunshine, dog park) than any other member.
PETER HERZOG – Not the Peter of Old, but the Peter who urged the people to “take back your city”
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WORST COUNCIL MEMBER
SCOTT VOIGTS – Bumbling his way through, Voigts gave us more postponements, more overtime meetings, and fewer accomplishments than ever before in the City’s history. Plus the controversy surrounding Voigts taking money from developers and voting to give them special exemptions.
KATHY MCCULLOUGH – Her long boring monologues, flights of fancy, trips down memory lane, and rude outbursts are not appropriate for any council meeting.
BEST COMMISSION/COMMITTEE
PARADE COMMITTEE – Did another wonderful job this year, and some people say, the “best” ever.
WORST COMMISSION/COMMITTEE
PLANNING – They had more appeals and overturned decisions in 2013 than in all 20 previous years combined.
PARKS AND RECREATION – They took 8 months to look for a location for a dog park and came up empty handed, then spent 5 months trying to come up with a plan for the Village Pond Park and came up empty again.
BEST COMMISSIONER
TIM HUGHES – After years of distinguished and valuable service, he stepped down and didn’t hesitate to make public the internal problems on the Commission.
JERRY VERPLANKE – The only remaining experienced member of the Planning Commission, time and time again he’s put the interests of the public above the interests of businesses.
WORST COMMISSIONER
JOLENE FUENTES - She missed two of her first three meetings, then recently announced that she would do no "planning" on the "Planning" Commission because she was told that as a Commissioner she could only do what the Council told her to do.
ANDREW HAMILTON - In his first appearance on the Planning Commission, sympathized with a developer and said he didn't wan the developer to have to do more work, for which he was admonished by Chairman Tim Hughes for not protecting the interests of the community.
BEST CITY EMPLOYEE
STEPHANIE SMITH (and her staff) – For her excellent work getting website transparency in shape and for dealing with all the extra meetings.
RON RIVERA (and his staff) – For his excellent work year after year on the Parade Committee.
WORST CITY EMPLOYEE ACTIONS
BOB DUNEK – This extremely highly paid City Manager routinely signs off on staff reports that have all the sophistication of freshman college reports.
GARY MAGILL – The man responsible for unsuccessfully heading up the search for a dog park, a plan for Village Pond Park, and vested with the responsibility for the Lake Forest Community Foundation which does nothing.
BEST CITY VOLUNTEER
MYRON DRINKWATER – “Drink” not only serves on the Parade Committee and the Senior Advisory Group, he helps organize the senior gatherings at the City Hall.
BEST CITIZEN ADVOCATE
BOB HOLTZCLAW – Bob attends almost every Council meeting and offers good sound advice (improve our street sweeping, get an electronic voting board so we can see who votes for who) as well as solid criticism when needed.
SAVE LAKE FOREST MOVEMENT - came out of nowhere and got signatures from more than 4,000 registered voters to reject the decision of "the Brookfield Boys".
DAVE HERZBERG - Fighting for the Portola Hills project and again against the Brookfield and Trumark projects.
BEST BUSINESS FRIENDLY ACTIONS
STEPHANIE SMITH (and her staff) - Setting up a Notary service in City Hall.
PLANNING COMMISSION - Easing some of the rules regulating the use of signs and banners.
ADAM NICK - Proactively reaching out to a Lake Forest business forced to relocate, and trying to get them to stay in the City.
WORST BUSINESS FRIENDLY ACTIONS
PLANNING COMMISSION/CITY COUNCIL - Voting to remove 800 acres of commercial space.
DWIGHT ROBINSON - Organizing a workshop to help businesses get more contracts with the City, then more than 80% of the businesses attending were not from Lake Forest.
CITY COUNCIL - Spending less than 2% of our $35,000,000 annual budget on people and businesses in Lake Forest - a new all-time low. Then refusing to set up a Committee to correct this problem.
BEST PERFORMANCE BY A PERSON NOT SELECTED
TOM CAGLEY – for appointment as a Planning Commissioner. Tom’s answers to the questions posed by the Council were extremely impressive.
DAVE CARTER - for appointment as a Planning Commissioner. Dave’s performance showed how incredible it was that he wasn’t selected.
TERRY ANDERSON - for appointment as a Planning Commissioner and as a City Councilman. It took a lot of courage for Terry to apply when he knew that Voigts and his gang would not select him because Voigts feared he would run against him in 2014. But Terry’s showed he was fully up to the task.
WORST PERFORMANCE BY A PERSON SELECTED
JOLENE FUENTES – However nice a person she may seem, Jolene showed that she had absolutely no credentials for being selected for a seat on the Planning Commission.
C.J. BROWER – Running for Planning Commission, and waiting for his turn to interview, Brower posted on Facebook that he counted three of the council members his friends “So why am I worried,” he posted. He received four votes.
BEST PERFORMANCE BY A CITIZEN
MERRY AXELROD – When speaking about the lack of child facilities and the dangers of children being run over, said to the Council - “Their blood will be on your heads”
BOB HOLTZCLAW – Calling for the resignation of Kathy McCullough as a result of her disgraceful performance at the Council meeting to fill the vacant seat.
KENTON BOETTCHER - The point man for the proposed city community garden came out of nowhere with a good idea, a decent plan, and a focused group of supporters. Almost overnight, it became a must-have in the minds of commission and council members.
FUNNIEST MOMENT OF THE YEAR
SCOTT VOIGTS - In the selection of Jolene Fuentes for Planning Commission, Voigts inexplicably changed his vote from the first round, for a very qualified Amanda Morrell, to Fuentes in the second. Confronted by a reporter afterward and asked why he had done so, Voigts tried to justify his way out of it until finally admitting, “I don’t know.”
SINGLE BEST MOMENT OF THE YEAR
We had so many good moments at City Hall, especially the recognition of the volunteers, the graduates of the leadership academy, the adoption of the Marine Battalion, etc. Do you have a favorite?
SINGLE WORST MOMENT OF THE YEAR
KATHY MCCULLOUGH – For her rantings that she doesn’t understand the voting process for filling the vacant Council seat, and for her comment that she selected someone she knew no one else would vote for.
KATHY MCCULLOUGH – For her abusive interaction with the Orange County DA when discussing the Council’s decision to remove the ordinance against sex offenders.
SCOTT VOIGTS – When confronted with the fact that he lied about his campaign spending in 2010, remarked “Boy. See how fast it goes.”
DWIGHT ROBINSON – For saying that he doesn’t care what people think of him, given that he is supposed to be representing the people.
That’s the categories and the list of nominees. Feel free to suggest other categories and other nominees. You can e-mail me directly but it's better if you post it on The Patch.
