A few weeks ago I undertook an analysis of Mayor Dwight Robinson’s promises and the reality of what he delivered. It was pretty depressing. Not only did he try to do very few of the things he promised to do, he actually did the opposite of many of the things he promised to do. I confronted him here on the Patch, and went so far as to detail his promises and his behavior at a council meeting, but as yet Robinson hasn't responded.
Many people asked me why I singled out Robinson and why I hadn’t chosen to look at Voigts and McCullough, both of whom are up for re-election this year. I had recently covered both Voigts and McCullough in my series labeled “House of Lies”, but that series was based more on the veracity of what they were saying, and not matching promises with deeds. Broken promises are certainly a form of a lie, but not all lies relate to promises. Though the difference can be subtle, they are nonetheless two different investigations. The truth is that I simply stumbled into the "matching promises with deeds" topic with Robinson, because he did it so often and so egregiously it was just too obvious to ignore. Now that I've entered that territory, it makes sense to continue and cover Voigts and McCullough. I’ll start with Voigts.
As with the Robinson series, I’ll present a written promise from one of Voigts’ 2010 campaign literature pieces and summarize his actions with regard to that promise. Where possible I’ll try to put the dates when votes were made.
Find out what's happening in Lake Forestwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
His various campaign pieces can be viewed by clicking on the images accompanying this article.
Of course, as with Robinson, you need to realize that any one Council member is only one person, and one of 5 votes. But, Voigts has been there for nearly 4 years now, and in all that time he has been in the majority. By clever maneuvering he managed to form an alliance with (former Councilwoman) Rudolph and McCullough, and then he reigned supreme with the election of his BFF Robinson. So if anyone could put into motion his promises, it is Voigts.
Find out what's happening in Lake Forestwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
We’ll start today with Voigts’ promises about Public Works. Next we’ll move on to the Business Climate, then Good Government and then Crime. Feel free to use the comment section to add examples which support or contradict any of the conclusions being made.
PUBLIC WORKS
What He Promised
“Complete Alton Parkway and Portola”
What He Did
Plans to complete Alton Parkway were well established before Voigts joined the Council, and in fact Alton Pkwy was finished shortly after he took office. So while Alton Parkway was finished, it was hardly a result of his actions. On the other hand, the Portola Pkwy project remains stalled. Voigts promised to "take the lead" to get this done, and he hasn't.
What He Promised
“Synchronize traffic signals…”
What He Did
More than three years after Voigts joined the Council we still do not have synchronized traffic signals throughout the City, and Voigts voted on 02/18/2014 to extend the time for this project to be completed. It now looks like it will be at least three more years before the traffic lights in our City will be fully synchronized.
What He Promised
“…relieve rush hour commutes so we can spend more time with our families rather than in traffic.”
What He Did
As noted above, Voigts didn't fulfill his promise to synchronize the traffic lights and in fact voted to extend the time for the project to be completed. This will surely keep us in our cars and away from our families.
In addition, Voigts voted to allow nearly 5,000 new homes to be built in the City, which means nearly 40,000 new vehicle trips per day being added to the City. More than anything else this will surely increase traffic congestion in the City.
In case you've forgotten, for the last 250 homes approved, the City staff, the Planning Commission, and the people urged Voigts to vote against approving these additional homes, but Voigts had accepted money from the developers and their supporters, and voted to approve the project, giving these developers special exemptions not given to other developers.
Even worse, he showed how unconcerned he is with the traffic problem by voting on Dec 17, 2013 against setting up a Traffic Commission .
What He Promised
“Sports recreation athletic fields”
What He Did
The new Sports Field was set in motion nearly a decade ago, and each City Council since then has moved the project closer to fulfillment, which is scheduled for this year. Voigts has kept his promise by taking the lead in promoting this project.
In summary, Voigts' overall record of keeping his promises in the area of Public Works has not been very good, although in one of the four cases we looked at he did follow through on his promise.
Next time we’ll look at the Business Climate. We'll follow that with his promises about Good Government, and then close on his promises with respect to fighting Crime. Then we'll summarize
