Challenges Ahead for Lake Forest - Part 5

We've been discussing the challenges that confront the next City Council and who will be best able to meet these challenges 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

Today I'll discuss

• Keeping the progress on our newly opened projects
• Keeping businesses responsive to economic challenges
• Protecting the City from special interests

Please note that no one else running for office is discussing the issues that face the City. Instead they are spending their time launching personal attacks or promoting themselves, but at the end of the day, we need people who understand what the issues are and who have the intelligence, courage, and energy to face them and prevail.

KEEPING UP THE PROGRESS

As a City we are doing more right now than the City has ever done before. We are

• Building our new Civic Center (I've helped keep this project on time and on budget)
• Remodeling 10 Neighborhood Parks (I attended every neighborhood meeting)
• Remodeling Veterans Park (It was my initiative to honor the Veterans)
• Building Portola Park (I got agreement for our second dog park)
• Launching a new mobile app (my initiative)
• Re-doing our permit parking process (my initiative)
• Getting the Traffic and Parking Commission to be effective (my initiative)
• Re-doing the General Plan (I am busy meeting with the consultants)
• Looking for a local animal shelter (my initiative)

and these are just a few of the major projects. No one else could possibly step in and fill the role I have been playing.

PROMOTING OUR BUSINESSES

In these days of dramatic changes to the ways that business is conducted, we need City staff and Council to be nimble so we can confront the challenges. Our biggest single source of revenue is sales tax, so our businesses are of vital importance to the health of the City.

No one has done more than me to assist businesses and to re-shape our Economic Development Department to face the challenges ahead. I have been ably assisted by our staff and the volunteers from the Chamber of Commerce. In just the past year we -

• created the Mayor’s Business Council to improve communications between the City and business owners
• expanded “shop and dine” week to a month long event while expanding the “shop and dine” mobile app.
• created the “Economic Development Committee” to refocus and better support existing businesses and attract new businesses
• created the multi-city Small Business Entrepreneur’s Academy to assist business owners.
• partnered with the Chamber of Commerce to promote businesses at local shopping centers and doubled our ribbon cuttings – this means more businesses and jobs in the City, and more sales tax to support City programs.
• created a City Council event to recognize and promote “Best of OC” winners among our local businesses
• advocated “Put Lake Forest First” for local businesses bidding on City contracts.

Mark Tettemer has held the same job at IRWD for the past 14 years. He works for a utility company as a middle manager. They have a monopoly so they don't have to face the kinds of situations that businesses must face. Is he the person to direct a $50,000,000 a year business with more than $500,000,000 assets?

But beyond managing, the true test will come by anticipating the changes in the business climate. I am already at work with our General Plan consultants helping shape the answers to the questions we are likely to face (Click Here). I helped bring furniture superstore atHome to Lake Forest, filling 80,000 square feet of vacant space in Towne Square Centre, and I'm at work now trying to re-shape the shopping centers around the 5 Freeway.

ANIMAL CARE

Mark Tettemer was happy with the County shelter and didn't want us to have a dog park. Tettemer is obviously not the person to have in office as we seek to improve animal care for people with pets in Lake Forest.

PROTECTING US FROM SPECIAL INTERESTS

The City can only prosper when the Council and the people are aligned. For decades the City was in the hands of the developers and special interests who poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the campaign coffers of the people who gave them whatever vote they needed. It didn't seem to matter that we had one of the poorest records in the County in terms of services

• No City Hall of our own, just a rented building that cost us millions of dollars in wasted rent every year.
• No Senior Center - just a room used a few hours a few days of each week, while every other city had a dedicated senior center and some cities had 2 and 3 centers.
• No local animal shelter - instead we used the high-kill notorious County shelter even though over a dozen cities left the county.
• No dog park - go to Irvine if you want a park!
• No Traffic Commission
• No non-profit community foundation

Why were we so poor? Because there was no money in it for the Council people. No one donated to their campaign to get any of these amenities, so a cash rich City like ours made our residents live as if we were among the poorest cities in the County.

In 2018, for the first time, the majority on the Council reported to the people, not the developers and the special interests. That's how we accomplished so much. If you elect Tettemere and Moatazedi we will fall back into the hands of the special interests. What will happen?

• More traffic
• Fewer amenities
• Higher fees
• A homeless shelter to make the Politicians happy

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.