UnMasking the Mayor - Part 3

To date we’ve looked at 8 of the 10 written promises that Dwight Robinson made in 2012 when he campaigned for office - Musick Jail, Traffic, Schools, Pension Debt, Wasteful Spending, Costly Perks, Open Government, and The Public’s Voice. Today we’ll cover the two remaining areas.

Note: Quotes in normal text are from his campaign literature. Quotes in italics are from his ballot statement. You can view some of his campaign literature above.

GOVERNMENT AS A BUSINESS

What He Promised

“Support Competitive Bidding. Operate our Government like a business by toughening conflict of interest standards to ensure fair competitive bidding for city contracts.”

“…to make sure the City works like a business.”

What He Did

Robinson promised competitive bidding but has voted against competitive bidding since being elected. In the recent trash hauler bid, he voted on March 3, 2014 against trying to get more bidders (we only received 2 instead of 4 or 5, and as a result our business rates are going up 25%).

As far as “toughening conflict of interest standards” Robinson has refused to bring up this issue despite my repeated attempts to get it on the agenda. He gives no explanation, but his own conflicts of interest are an obvious reason.

With regard to running the City like a business, he doesn’t support using KPIs (key performance indicators) to evaluate City projects, and accepts, often without question, serious flaws in staff reports and then votes recommendations based on these flawed reports. He seems unable to run a meeting effectively. To say that he does a better job than his predecessor, Scott Voigts, is like saying that you’re healthier than a leper. Voigts did a terrible job, achieved almost nothing, and left more than a dozen important issues on the table when he left office. With more than a quarter of the year gone, Robinson has done such a poor job that despite going “overtime” in Council meetings, none of these “Voigts’ Void” items have surfaced.

The one good thing Robinson did in this area was to initiate a review of the recurring agenda items to see if eliminating some agenda items might speed up the Council meetings. On Feb 4, 2014, the Council voted to eliminate “investment oversight review” from the list of recurring items, a savings in time and expense which is negligible, and when you consider how much time and expense went into making this decision, was actually counter-productive. Nonetheless, give him credit for trying.

What He Could Have Done

He could insist that all government projects have KPIs. He could create an agenda that allows the Council to use any unanticipated spare time to continue the discussion of the “Voigts’ Void” items that remain unresolved. He could do a better job as Mayor and stop Council woman McCullough when she goes on a 10-minute rant about whatever topic comes to her mind. He could support Councilman Nick’s efforts to introduce strict conflict of interest rules and consequences.

BUSINESS FRIENDLY

What He Promised

“…he wants to make Lake Forest friendlier to businesses, creating more jobs.”

What He Did

This is the one area from the entire list in which Robinson made the most effort. For example, he did organize a half-day workshop to help local businesses contract with the City. Somehow, either because he was incompetent or the staff were incompetent or just because nobody bothered to do it right, the conference ended up catering to businesses from outside Lake Forest and only a small part of the conference was devoted to doing business with the City. A for effort, D for execution.

Robinson also helped loosen the business sign regulations on Jan 21, 2014, which will certainly be friendly to businesses that now have the ability to double or triple the number of signs they display. Will this harm the aesthetic of the City? Should a less aggressive loosening been initiated? Only time will tell, but at least here we have Robinson actually doing something he promised.

OTOH, and this is a BIG OTOH, Robinson has sat quietly while less than 2% of our $35,000,000 annual budget has been spent on our own people and businesses. Historically this is the lowest percentage in the 8 years that I’ve been tracking this figure. By my estimates, nearly $1,000,000 could be funneled back into the local economy if the City simply contracted with local people and businesses for the everyday activities of the City. This is probably why estimates of the growth in sales tax revenue for the next few years in Lake Forest are in the 2% range while the rest of Orange County is 4% to 5%.

What He Could Have Done

He could support a committee that would examine how the City spends its money and set up policies to select local businesses and people for all new projects. He could have voted to get more bidders on the trash hauling contract so that the waste fee for businesses wouldn’t go up on average 25%, something which is as business “unfriendly” as I can think of. He could insist that preferences be given to Lake Forest residents when filling City positions. He’s done none of these things!

ANALYSIS

Looking at all of Robinson’s promises, it’s clear that his record is very poor indeed. In some cases, he simply used a common politician’s ploy of attacking the straw man – claiming he’s in favor of God and Country and opposed to the Devil. We see this in his claim to be opposed to “the pension debt” and “wasteful government spending” and to be in favor of “more schools” and “reduced class size”. The first two issues are not problems in Lake Forest and he’s done nothing anyway. The last two are issues under the control of SVUSD, and he also did nothing about these. Yet these slogans look good on expensive campaign brochures paid for by vested interests.

Where the issue has some relevance to the City, Robinson has promised what he thought voters wanted to hear but then did nothing, even though it was within his ability to do something. He made no efforts to stop the Musick Jail expansion or to stop the transfer of violent high risk prisoners, did nothing to tighten conflict of interest standards, and hasn’t introduced any effective business management practices into City government.

Not only has Robinson promised things he had no control over (pension debt, class size), and not followed through where he could (effective management practices), he’s also acted in an opposite manner to do the very things he objected to. He himself has promoted wasteful government spending (expensive iPads, online filing of his FPPC forms), seemingly conducted backroom deals (Auto Centre homes, Fuentes appointment), accepted money from people and businesses with actions in front of the Council (Trumark, Brookfield, El Toro Mobile Estates, CR&R), and voted consistently against any actions that would increase the public’s voice in the government.

Next time we'll conclude and summarize