Council Dismisses Planning Experience In Favor of Fuentes

By Martin Henderson

The City Council of Lake Forest, again holding tight to the notion that its residents want change because three of them are newly elected, replaced a founding member of the Planning Commission on Tuesday with a woman who admitted she has never even attended a city planning meeting. 

Jolene Fuentes, arguably carrying one of the lighter resumes in the room, emerged as the choice of the city's three newest city councilmen. 

Fuentes was appointed by majority to replace Tim Hughes, who had been involved in city planning for two decades. She was appointed above two former planning commissioners, David Carter and Terry Anderson, a former Parks and Recreation Commissioner, Amanda Morrell, and eight other candidates—a few of whom had architecture, planning and development backgrounds.

"I'm pleased that three council members have supported me for this commission," Fuentes said after her appointment. "I'm excited to serve the citizens of Lake Forest."

Fuentes, a 24-year resident of Lake Forest, will be the second woman to sit on the planning commission, following in the footsteps of Susan Miller. She admitted during her five-question interview that she has never attended a Lake Forest Planning Commission meeting and at one point indicated she looked forward to becoming the first woman on the commission. 

Fuentes was the choice of Mayor Scott Voigts and councilmen Dwight Robinson and Adam Nick. She was the winner among a pool of three who advanced to the second round of voting by the five-person council. 

Carter, a 19-year veteran of the Planning Commission who was turned away in January in favor of two new commissioners, C.J. Brower and Andrew Hamilton, received the votes of Peter Herzog and Kathryn McCullough in the decisive round of voting. 

Fuentes, Carter and Morrell received votes in the first round of voting. Robinson and Nick voted for Fuentes, Herzog and McCullough for Carter, and Voigts for Morrell. 

It was the vote cast by Voigts in the second round that was decisive and most curious. 

Elected in 2010, Voigts voted for Morrell in the first round and, without any discussion among the council members on the dais, switched his vote in the second round to Fuentes, whose resume paints her primary experience as a board member of the 3,436 units of Lake Forest II  homeowners association since 2009, and as the owner/managing agent of Fuentes Properties in Newport Beach since 1983. She said during her interview she was previously employed by a large property management company in Mission Viejo.

Afterward, Voigts said he liked the idea of a woman on the commission, and that Fuentes' involvement with the El Toro High Athletics Booster Club was one of the decisive factors. 

However, he had difficulty justifying the switch from one woman who was worthy of his first ballot choice to another woman who is a relative newcomer by comparison. Morrell has an extensive background, including being a project planner on a new town of 100,000 outside Tokyo, Japan, and master planning and infrastructure planning support for agencies such as the Navy, Army Corps of Engineers and county of Orange. 

Finally, after being pressed why he chose Morrell as his No. 1 choice in the first round and then switched to Fuentes, Voigts gave up. 

"I don't know," he said softly.

Fuentes is the widow of Tom Fuentes, who was the chairman of the Orange County Republican Party from 1985 to 2004. Voigts is heavily involved in the county GOP. 

Herzog was frustrated that the majority of the planning commission had now shifted to commissioners with less than a year experience.

"Instead of choosing any of the numerous applicants that did have experience and background, we chose someone—and I indicated there were only three of those folks—with no experience," Herzog said. "This is truly a tragedy for the city of Lake Forest and I do hope the people rise up and take their city back in the near future."

Nick, who said "Anderson's qualifications may be second only to" Carter's, disagreed with Herzog's assessment. 

"This is not a tragedy," he said.  "This is democracy in action."

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story indicated McCullough voted for Morrell in the first round; she voted for Carter.