Challenges Ahead for Lake Forest - Part 4

We've been discussing the challenges that confront the next City Council. They are -

• Keeping our crime rate low while dealing with escalating costs.
• Staying financially sound while meeting rising expectations.
• Growing in a responsible manner that protects our quality of life.
• Meeting the growing expectations of our citizens
• Continuing progress on the newly opened projects
• Keeping businesses responsive to economic challenges
• Improving service delivery for people who own pets
• Protecting the City from special interests

Let's see which Candidate is up to the task of meeting these challenges -

PUBLIC SAFETY

Under Mark Tettemer the crime rate was 30% higher than it's been under my leadership, and when Tettemer was on the Council we had the highest crime rate among any OCSD city. During my tenure our relative performance has been among the best. Crime has never been as low actually and comparatively. Why would anyone risk bringing Tettemer back?

POLICE CONTRACT

Tettemer supported the rises in the Police contract and did nothing to try to reduce the costs. I have been very aggressive about trying to find ways to cut the costs while keeping the quality of service. The Police Union wants Tettemer to be elected because he will vote to give them everything they ask for, even at the expense of our other City services. That's why the Police Union is spending tens of thousands of dollars to put him in office.

FINANCIALLY SOUND

It was my idea to make the City debt free. To do that, we had to pay off the Alton Pkwy bond. Guess who voted for that bond in the first place? - Tettemer. Tettemer increased our debt and I eliminated it. Sounds like a simply choice.

Tettemer's debt to the Police Union means that he will vote for more and more spending for the Police contract, rather than reducing costs as I am doing by replacing routine parking patrols with non-sworn personnel and moving the homeless case management to an expanded, enhanced, and yet less expensive method.

RESPONSIBLE GROWTH

Most people are in favor of growth, but it's the type of growth that counts. Tettemer voted for a plan to put 4,000+ home in a tiny section of the City where all the cars go through the rest of the City to get to the 5 Freeway. It's the major reason our traffic problems have grown, and we still have over 1,000 homes being built. And how dumb do you have to be to approve 4,000 homes at one time, without staging the development to see what the impact is. Each project gets an analysis, but everyone knows that these analyses are faulty, to say the best, so the proper procedure would have been to grow slowly, not all at once. But Tettemer wasn't the decision maker. Along with Herzog and Dixon, these guys took so much money from developers they had to say "yes" to anything the developers wanted. And they did. Again and again.

Growth in Lake Forest has been decided by the developers, not the residents. That's the sad fact. And the reason is the money. That's an even sadder fact.

I am busy working with staff and our General Plan consultants trying to make decisions based on the data and the residents input. That's how you get responsible growth.

In District 2, Sonny Morper sits on the Traffic and Planning Commission. He's been involved in planning with his HOA for more than a decade. He's already reaching out to people to figure out what to do with the Nakase project. His opponent will simply say "yes" to anything the developers want, but Sonny is interested in what the people want.

MEETING EXPECTATIONS

How do we know what the people want and what they expect?

Mark Tettemer can't be seen anywhere, and on those rare occasions in which he's seen, he is silent. Tettemer shows up at Council meetings, sits in the back with his wife, and never says a word. We've had hundreds of city events since he decided to try to get back on the Council, and he's attended only a hand full. Why? Because Tettemer doesn't need to talk to the people. He only needs to get his orders from the developers, the Unions, and the Politicians.

In contrast, I am everywhere. I attend more events than the rest of the Council put together. I spend more time meeting residents than the rest of the Council combined. I'm the only one who has Town Hall meetings. All of this is to find out what's on people's minds.

In District 2 it's the same thing. Sonny Morper has decades of experience helping people, attending events, sitting on his HOA board, etc. He's proposing a District 2 Council and a FB page to improve communications. His opponent has done practically nothing in the 2 years she's been in the City, and she, like Tettemer, depends on special interests who will give her their marching orders.

Next time we'll talk about the Business environment and Special Interests, and then sum up.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest where he serves as Mayor. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook and you can share your thoughts about the City at Lake Forest Town Square on Facebook His comments are not meant to reflect official City Policy.

Dr. Gardner has office hours every Tuesday from 4 pm to 6 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a town hall meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be in January.