City Council at 90 Days - Part 1

The new City Council is entering its fourth month in power so it’s a good time to do an assessment of what they are doing and how well they are doing it. I’ll begin by looking at their ability to maintain existing programs, their follow through on projects carried over from last year, and their initiatives to date. I’ll then discuss how well they are functioning and the atmosphere being created.

MAINTAIN EXISTING PROGRAMS/PROJECTS

These projects were well underway at the end of the year and simply needed to be supervised so that they continued.

Keep Civic Center on Time/on Budget: This enormous project was on time and on budget. The latest information is that the opening was set back from Summer to Fall, but we are still on budget.

Get Mobile App to Work Effectively: In 2018 we introduced a new mobile app. To date there is no progress in expanding the items or in getting the app to work better. It is still a little bit buggy.

Contain Homeless Problem: We made a lot of progress in 2018 including developing a comprehensive plan, getting a committee up and running, and bringing in a social service agency. Since then there has been no progress, nor have the staff followed up to see what the impact of the social service agency has been. I did my own study (Click Here) and reported that the social service agency was more effective, provided more coverage, and cost considerably less than the Police program. This research suggests that we could save $100,000 a year by transitioning from the Police to the social agency model. But nothing has been done.

Get More Affordable Homes: In 2017 we engaged an agency to help us develop more affordable homes. They spent a year and came up with nothing. For some reason, their contract was extended. As of today there is still nothing constructive happening.

Address Parking and Traffic Problems: The Traffic and Parking Commission was created last year and they have been busy revising the permit parking process as well as recommendations for changes in permissive left turns.

General Plan: Progress continues with the General Plan and it is on schedule, although I’m not convinced that they will do the job that the City needs to be done given the changing macro economic environment we face.

GRADE = C.

The Council hasn’t done much and the staff are plodding along. Nothing terrible has happened and though there are some areas that are lacking (e.g., delay opening the City Hall, not following up with the social agency homeless), none of these deficiencies are remarkable.

FOLLOW-THROUGH

These projects were started under the previous Council. They need to be actively managed so that they came to fruition.

Get a Local Animal Shelter: No agreement from Irvine. Still waiting on MV. No progress.

Changeover from Using Police for Parking Enforcement to Using Civilian Enforcement (and save $250,000 a year): No progress

Establish Multi-City Street Sweeping Program (and save $50,000 a year or more): No progress. In fact, the Council recently voted to delay this project until 2020 at the earliest.

Establish Online Neighborhood Watch and Wider Surveillance Programs: No progress. Last year we were on the brink of establishing a rebate program for people who purchased Ring Doorbell video systems, and also promoting the “Online Neighborhood Watch” program. It was anticipated to be in place before the end of 2018 but didn't happen.

Solve the “stink” from Muirlands Water Recycling plant No progress. We met with IRWD who claimed that there was nothing they could do because the equipment and resources were outdated and they didn’t want to spend the money to upgrade the plant because they were not convinced that the location warranted a long term commitment. FWIW – Mayor Tettemer’s day job is to manage this plant, among his other duties.

Multi-City Police Costs savings: Two years ago we entered into an agreement to study 13 cities under OCSD and come up with ways for cities to save money without compromising quality. That study was completed late last year but the new Council has yet to act on it.

GRADE = D

Not a single project leftover from last year has come to fruition.

INITIATING NEW PROJECTS

This Council has been in power for three months and to date not a single new project has been initiated, nor has the idea of a new project been introduced. In a similar time period last year we introduced more than two dozen new initiatives, including –

• Allowing people to participate in council meetings online using FacebookLive - we were the first City in the US to do this.
• Placing real term limits on the November ballot (it won by 80%+)
• Creating a Traffic and Parking Commission (it started in August)
• Creating a weekly “Mayor’s Minute” to better inform people (we did 40 episodes and it continues to this date).
• Creating a Business Executive Roundtable where the city and business leaders can sit down together, exchange information, and plan for the future (it met 3 times last year).
• Creating an HOA Roundtable where the city and HOA leaders can sit down together, exchange information, and plan for the future (it met 3 times last year).
• Creating a “Pop-up City Hall” where staff and Council members are available at community events (we did 4 of these last year).
• We offered a new seminar on child exploitation and internet safety that was well attended.
• When addressing complex issues, we decided that City Council members will form ad hoc committees and report back, in writing, to the Council (We did this for (a) Relations with Saddleback Valley Unified School District, (b) Business Development, (c) Ethics, (d) Street sweeping, and (e) Homelessness.)
• To improve city council meetings we (a) created a slide show about the city and upcoming city events, to educated people while they wait for the council meetings to begin (b) creating a “greeter” for council meetings to welcome people and orient them to the meeting, and (c) created “take away” flyers at council meetings to keep people in touch with upcoming events.
• To improve the way Government worked and to increase accountability we (a) required the City Manager to report in writing on a quarterly basis an update on all major projects underway, (b) required City Council members and designees who are part of County and State-wide committees to report in writing on a quarterly basis, and (c) required the City Attorney to produce a weekly summary of all legal issues facing the City.

These are only a few of the initiatives we introduced during the first three months last year. Almost all of them were successful and continue to this day.

GRADE = F

The current Council has introduced no new programs or projects.

SUMMARY

The new City Council has been in power for 3 months. Today we looked at 3 areas: (1) maintaining existing programs, (2) follow through on emerging projects, and (3) initiating new projects. Here is the assessment –

• Maintaining existing programs. Grade = C. The Council hasn’t done much and the staff are plodding along but nothing terrible has happened.
• Following through on emerging projects. Grade = D. Not a single project leftover from last year has come to fruition. Many of these were aimed at saving the city hundreds of thousands of dollars as well as reducing crime.
• Initiating new projects. Grade = F. The current Council has introduced no new programs or projects.

Next time we’ll look at the way that the Council is functioning.

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