Candidate Forum - Being "Dysfunctional" ?

The Candidate Forum took place Thursday night and about 100 people were in attendance. The format of the event didn’t allow much give-and-take among participants, but it did allow people to make statements that ultimately went fully unanswered in the time allowed.

I wanted to address some comments by my District 4 opponent Mark Tettemer. He claims that the City Council is “dysfunctional” and he claims he can fix it. Let’s see if he’s right and if he’s the person that could fix it if he was right.

The dictionary defines “dysfunctional” as “not operating normally or properly.” If we take the definition at face value, Tettemer is half-right. Under my leadership the City and the City Council are not “operating normally” but we are “operating properly”. Let me explain.

At the risk of being immodest, I firmly believe that in the past year this City Council and City staff has done more than any Council has ever done. Here’s a brief list of some of our recent achievements -

• Successfully kept a 400—bed homeless shelter from the outskirts of the City.
• Paid off all obligations (unfunded pension and bond) and made the City debt-free – the only debt free city in the U.S.
• Moved forward with the Civic Center project, keeping it on time and on budget, with an expected completion next Summer. (FWIW - "on time and on budget" is something you rarely hear)
• Entitled 3 new hotels in the City, bringing in an estimated $750,000 yearly
• Created a way for people to participate online in Council and all major meetings – the only city in the U.S. to be this far advanced
• Added classes in child safety
• Approved plans to upgrade 10 city parks - construction starting in early 2019
• Doubled our ribbon cuttings
• Produced a weekly video “Mayor’s Minute”
• Transitioned our community services sign-up to 100% online, resulting in 9% increase enrollments and cost savings for staff time.
• Established Mayor’s Councils for HOAs and Businesses, improving communication between important groups and the City.
• Increased our social media presence by 47%, exceeding all of our neighboring cities, and continuing to grow
• Completed 5 year Strategic Plan
• Started revision of General Plan – the first one in 25 years. Established a General Plan Advisory Committee.
• Created a Traffic and Parking Commission
• Created advisory committees on people with special needs and animal welfare.
• Created and implemented a short-term rental ordinance to protect neighborhoods. Already working well.
• Extended Shop and Dine week to month long
• Released Shop and Dine mobile app with thousands of users
• Creating (and soon to release) an “iCity” app that will improve communications between residents and the city.
• Created and launched the South OC Entrepreneur’s Academy
• Established an award for Volunteer Leadership
• Established an award for Excellence in Government
• Produced quarterly “State of the City” reports
• Mandated that City Manager and Council members who represent the City on various boards produce quarterly written reports.
• Revised the city's code of ethics
• Created “Pop Up City Hall” to bring the city to the community
• Re-dedicated Heroes Park to 4 fallen heroes who served the City.
• Rebuilt Village Pond Park and created a Veterans Memorial area
• We opened City Hall 5 days a week every week, instead of the previous practice of closing City Hall every other Friday.
• Helped bring two animal rescue group[s into the city (OC Pet Adoption Center and Reptile Rescue of OC)
• Transitioned the City to district elections, and avoided a major lawsuit that could have cost the City millions of dollars.
• Established a new code of ethics for Council members.
• Changed the way we appoint Commissioners in an attempt to decrease political decision-making.
• Prepared a detailed and comprehensive plan for dealing with the issue of homelessness, organized a multi-disciplinary committee, conducted a census, and hired a team to help with case management.
• Brought term limits to the ballot.

No Council has ever achieved this much, and we did all this in addition to the regular functions of the City. So it’s true we are not operating in the way past Councils acted, but would anyone say that these achievements are not what a City should be doing.

We were elected to get things done: those things that improve the quality of life. No Council has ever achieved so much and right now our quality of life has never been better.

• We are debt-free
• Our crime rate remains at an historic low level
• Many of our services and programs are nation leaders
• Sales tax is at an all-time high
• Unemployment is at an all-time low
• Vacancies are at an all-time low
• Ribbon cuttings are at an all-time high

There are some challenges ahead. The biggest challenges are

• Parking and traffic problems
• Securing a local animal shelter
• Reducing the ever increasing costs of Police services while maintaining the current high quality
• Dealing with the problem of homelessness

Is Mark Tettemer the person who can address these challenges?

Mark Tettemer approved the 4,000 new homes and placed them in the center of the City, creating the traffic problems we now have. Will he be able to solve them? With the money he got and is getting from developers, how will he vote?

Mark Tettemer praised the high-kill animal shelter that even the OC Grand Jury deplored. Is he the person to help us secure a better shelter?

Mark Tettemer voted for a maximum security prison to be built on the grounds of Musick Jail, adjacent to our City. Is he the right person to negotiate with the Sheriff?

Next time we’ll look at another one of Tettemer’s claims – that this Council is “not civil”.