In Tustin, Mayor Nielsen Lies while complaining about Lies

You have to love the mudfest going on in Tustin where five Republicans are running for City Council but three of them are accusing two of them of being Liberals — with photos of prominent Democrats!

There is an opportunity for a council majority based on sanity if Tustin voters can send Mayor John Nielsen packing.  We’ve said before that Nielsen never talks when council member Jerry Amante is drinking water, and for all the hoopla we hear from this dias about public service and public policy, none of these clownshoes have offered to return their stipend and benefits to the taxpayers while encouraging voters to cut their pay.  And these chuckleheads won’t allow a vote on adding an ethics ordinance that might restrict lobbying efforts from termed out council members.

Tustin can take cues from Irvine to the East and Santa Ana to the West on new ethics policies but the Republican council majority of Nielsen, Amante and Al Murray are against ethics in local government (if they were for it, they’d vote yes, right?). One can only imagine what’s going to happen after Amante leaves office.  The best way to thwart Amante’s continued dominance of this city council is to elect Tracy Worley and David Waldram.

Now the Republicans in the majority claim to be fiscal conservatives, but really folks it’s only a claim. Can any of them prove they went to the city manager asking him to cut expenses, improve the purchasing process, or even audit the city’s books?  Nielsen should be held accountable by the voters for voting against an ethics ordiance.  One wonders if he’ll be getting a success fee from department officials who will be lobbying OC government entities where Irvine’s ordinance would prohibit this.

We had fun reading a Nielsen newsletter to residents where he talks about his fiscal abilities but neglects to say he approved budgets that didn’t balance on revenues and expenses alone. They only balanced by dipping into reserves (which included those iPad purchases).  Nielsen also complained about lies issued against him about his family, but he has himself to blame for not updating his own website and neglects to mention that nasty mailers going out that trash his opponents with..well, lies.  Nielsen says he’s run a completely positive campaign but anyone who’s received those nasty mailers knows that’s a lie.  Nielsen can’t really say he’s run a clean campaign unless his definition of clean means muddy hands.

OurTownTustin blogger Jeff Gallagher has several posts Tustin voters should read before going to the polls.