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Health & Fitness

"Silent Bob" Elected Mayor

Last night the new City Council elected Dwight Robinson as our new Mayor. In recent months, several self-professed wags about town have labeled Robinson “Silent Bob”, an allusion to the film character from the Kevin Smith films (“Clerks”, “Chasing Dogma”) who rarely speaks. This isn’t meant in a derogatory way. Given the rancor in the Herzog-Nick verbal fisticuffs and the long tiresome monologues by Kathy McCullough, interspersed with her flights of fancy and trips down memory lane, Robinson’s long silences have been a welcome relief. Indeed, under his BFF Scott Voigts’ leadership, our Council meetings have exceeded the normal time allotments on so many occasions, Robinson should be given an award for remaining silent most of the time. But silence is not necessarily golden.

A few months ago I asked Robinson to look into the claims from a woman who was being harassed by drug-using neighbors and receiving no help from the Police. To my knowledge, he did nothing, including not acknowledging my request. Shortly after that I sent him a photo of 4 policemen detaining a woman at a bus stop for more than half an hour, and I asked him to look into the details. Again, no response. Recently I asked him to help me with negotiations with the Foothill Ranch PetSmart in a joint venture that would give the City a dog park in an underused parking lot, and once more, Silent Bob was silent. These are merely a few examples of how silence may not be golden.

Apart from his apparent penchant to do very little, what Robinson has done has not inspired confidence. He claims to be “business friendly” and promote the interests of our citizens, but since he joined the Council spending by the City on people and businesses in the City has sunk to an historic low. Robinson helped sponsor a workshop to assist businesses get more business from the City, but more than 80% of the people invited came from businesses outside the city.

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Recently I asked him to meet with a Lake Forest based business that was being forced to re-locate. He couldn’t make the time, nor did he do any follow-up. To his credit, Councilman Nick showed up and has been working hard to keep this business in the City.

Along with his BFF Voigts, Robinson dismissed experienced and well-regarded Planning Commissioners and replaced them with relatively inexperienced associates who toe the Tea Party line. The emphasis on property rights above and beyond the quality of life for our citizens has resulted in more appeals and more overturning of Planning Commission decision in the past few months than in the prior 20 years combined. This not only reflects badly on the City, it’s part of the reason this Council has been so unproductive, because a great deal of their time has been taken up with appeals.

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Robinson teamed up with Voigts again on dismissing two experienced and well regarded Parks Commissioners, and the new Commission spent 8 months looking for a dog park and unable to come up with a single location, then spent another 5 months presiding over a plan to address the problems at Village Pond Park, and to date, there is no plan.

If Robinson’s tampering with the Commissions and those sad results are not reason enough for concern, charges of corruption against him and his BFF for their role in the scandalous Brookfield/Trumark debacle are noteworthy. Both Robinson and Voigts took thousands of dollars from developers and then voted to give these same developers special privileges not given to other developers, and this was done against the advice of their own staff and against the wishes of the people. Indeed, their actions prompted 5,000 people to sign a referendum calling for their tainted decision to be put on the ballot. This was the first time in the history of the City that voters were prompted to rebuke their elected officials with such a referendum, and it failed by a mere 1% to get on the ballot.

It’s certainly a good thing to have a new Mayor. Voigts’ time at the helm coincided with the worst year in our history, so any change is welcome. But if Silent Bob is finally going to speak, let’s hope it’s a new message he brings to the people of Lake Forest.

 

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