James Gardner

Incumbent curse in Lake Forest?

Once upon a time, being an incumbent in Lake Forest was a life-time appointment. Incumbents were rarely defeated, and only when they stepped down voluntarily was new blood added, and even then it came from the same pool. Recently, however, incumbents have been an endangered species. In 2010 long time member Richard Dixon was defeated and in 2012 Marcia Rudolph followed.

When I first became interested in local politics, the Council consisted of those two plus Kathryn McCullough, Mark Tettemer and Peter Herzog. Now all will be gone in a matter of 6 years.

The latest victims are Kathryn McCullough, a 20+ year veteran and Dave Bass, a man appointed in 2013 to fill the unexpired term of Peter Herzog. They came in 5^th and 7^th in an 8 person race. Before we identify an “incumbent curse”, first term Council member Scott Voigts managed to get re-elected. In fact he came in first with heavy backing from the Republican Party and from Developers. Continue reading→

Sign Wars Heats Up in Lake Forest

Posted on October 19, 2014 by James Gardner Posted in 2014 Elections, James Gardner, Lake Forest, Scott Voigts Leave a comment

Campaign signs have a long tradition in American politics, and some pundits estimate that each sign is worth nearly a dozen votes. For the past decade in Lake Forest the person with the most signs won the election, but that statistic may not be wholly reliable since the person with the most signs has also been the person with the largest overall budget.

Signs are expensive. They cost from $5 to $8 apiece, and an average campaign uses hundreds of signs. Not only do they have a cost to purchase, they take a considerable amount of time to deploy, and unless you have volunteers, putting out the signs is also a cost.

Thus, when campaign signs go missing, it can be a big blow to a campaign. Recently there have been several articles about signs being stolen, and this week the case of the missing signs took a new turn. Continue reading→

Is Lake Forest Councilwoman McCullough Mis-Using Public Funds?

Posted on October 8, 2014 by James Gardner Posted in 2014 Elections, James Gardner, Kathryn McCullough, Lake Forest 4 Comments

Kathy McCullough 2014

This is the fourth in a multi-part series about irregularities in the use of public money by Lake Forest Councilwoman Kathy McCullough, when she goes traveling to conferences on “city business”. Bear in mind that attendance at these conferences is not mandatory but rather something Mrs. McCullough volunteers to do and many Council members do not attend.

Part 1 discussed the discrepancies between what Mrs. McCullough did and what she said she did.
Part 2 detailed the refusal by the City Manager, City Attorney, and City Chief of Police to do anything about the complaint that Mrs. McCullough’s behavior appeared to breach the law.
Part 3 offered an illustration of the “irregularities” in Mrs. McCullough’s spending, showing that she violates the City policy and uses limousines and taxis when much less expensive transportation is available.

Today we’ll explore another example of Mrs. McCullough’s apparent penchant to violate City policy. All together I found more than 60 instances, falling into half a dozen different categories, and spread over 18 different days. Because City officials refuse to explore the issues, you will have to judge for yourself Continue reading→

Lake Forest Councilwoman McCullough rides limousines at city’s expense

Posted on October 7, 2014 by James Gardner Posted in 2014 Elections, James Gardner, Kathryn McCullough, Lake Forest 1 Comment

Yesterday I reported the apparent cover-up by Lake Forest officials of suspected illegal activities by Councilwoman Kathy McCullough. A few months ago we reported that Mrs. McCullough’s lied to the Council chambers about her behavior while attending conferences at the City’s expense. Click here to review that article.

But lying is not illegal, and if it were, there would be no politicians.

In the course of investigating McCullough’s lies, I came upon what appeared to be illegal activities, and it was these activities which formed the basis of the 40+ page report I tried to get Lake Forest City officials to examine in order to confirm whether or not they were illegal. Here is an example of what appeared to be a violation of the City code, as well as violations of State law. Continue reading→

Is Lake Forest Trying to Cover-Up for Councilwoman McCullough?

Posted on October 6, 2014 by James Gardner Posted in 2014 Elections, James Gardner, Kathryn McCullough, Lake Forest Leave a comment

Earlier this year I looked at the use of travel expense funds by City Council members in Lake Forest and found what I believed to be “irregularities” in Councilwoman McCullough’s reports. It looked to me like, among other things, Mrs. McCullough was spending City money on her husband’s personal expenses when she traveled to conferences. It also looked like her penchant to ride in limousines and taxis violated the City’s requirement to “ use the most economical mode and class of transportation…” Continue reading→

Lake Forest Councilman Scott Voigts violates campaign law

Posted on September 17, 2014 by James Gardner Posted in 2014 Elections, James Gardner, Lake Forest, Scott Voigts Leave a comment

Voigts sign

Only a few weeks ago City Council member Scott Voigts was falsely claiming he was the “Mayor of Lake Forest” while trying to solicit contributions to his campaign fund. When that information was published several people stepped forward to say that, in addition to using the title in his e-mail, Voigts was going around introducing himself as the Mayor.

While it’s true that Voigts was the Mayor in 2013, he is no longer the Mayor, and while he is entitled to call himself the “former Mayor”, the implication that he is still Mayor is clearly false. Using a false title to solicit money may even be a crime. It certainly is another example of how loose Voigts’ moral principles are. Click here for previous information about Voigts’ behavior. Continue reading→