City Council at 100 Days - Part 6

We spent 5 articles this week looking at the achievements of the new City Council during their first 100 days. We began by summarizing the first 100 days last year to give us a baseline against which to evaluate the new Council’s performance this year. Last year in the first 100 days we established more than three dozen new and effective ways to better communicate, to improve our quality of life, and to make government work better. Most of these innovations continue to this date.

Here in 2019 the new Council hasn’t initiated a single new project. Putting aside their inability to initiate any new projects, we looked at how far they’ve progressed on more than a dozen projects that were still in various stages of completion last year. The results were not impressive. On 17 projects, only 2 showed any progress at all. One of these (keeping the Civic Center on budget) wasn’t really “progress” but rather merely keeping the status quo. The other project (Ring rebate) was delivered late. On the remaining 15 projects there hasn’t been any progress. Many of these projects have financial consequences. (Click Here)

Today I want to focus on an intangible – the “atmosphere” being created. It’s relatively easy to look at progress on projects, but atmosphere is more difficult to define and there is little doubt different people will look at the same behaviors differently. The atmosphere being created during the first 100 days has been covered elsewhere (Click Here, Here, and Here) so I will summarize briefly.

• The first action of the new Council was to disobey the established policy for appointing a Mayor by overlooking Mayor Pro Tem Basile and appointing Mark Tettemer. This action was accompanied by vicious and false attacks on Basile’s character and performance.
• A physical assault against a female staff member by a Council member was reported but the Police determined that it was a “he said, she said” situation in which there were no witnesses, so the investigation was terminated.
• Investigations are underway concerning Council members taking bribes and laundering money.
• Dozens of residents come to the Council meeting requesting help, but the only person who responds to their needs is Councilwoman Leah Basile. The rest of the Council members say nothing.
• Councilwoman Moatazedi often attacks speakers and falsely accuses them of threatening her, committing perjury, being racists, etc. Sometimes she attacks people who are not even speaking. (Click Here) Neither the Mayor nor the City Attorney do anything to moderate her behavior.
• Councilwoman Moatazedi has been caught in several lies. It doesn't seem so bad since we got accustomed to Scott Voigts, but it still isn't right.
• Councilman Robinson missed 25% of the meetings during the first 4 months. Keep in mind that the person he campaigned against in 2016, Adam Nick, never missed a single meeting in 4 years.
• Mark Tettemer often starts meetings late, making people wait as long as 10 minutes until he’s ready to begin the meeting.
• Council members seem unprepared. They put off decisions (e.g., CCA, summer recreation, street sweeping) even while the information is right in front of them.

This is the most dysfunctional Council we’ve seen in years. They are getting very little done, not following their own rules, starting late, disrespecting residents and each other, and refusing to respond to residents who come to the Council for help.

Next time, final thoughts.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner was on the Lake Forest City Council from 2014 to 2018 and Mayor in 2018. Under his leadership the City became the first debt free city in the U.S. with a population over 25,000 people and the first city to live broadcast City Council meetings that allowed residents to participate online (Click Here). Dr. Gardner is one of the organizing members of Lake Forest Community Action Network. 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