City Council Matters - The Police Debate (Part 2)

Yesterday we discussed the recent City Council meeting and some of the mis-information spread at the meeting.

IMO it’s OK to disagree about issues and democracy is made richer by differing opinions. But we should not differ about the facts, and we shouldn’t be creating fear where there is no need to create fear. Moreover we shouldn’t be making “absolute guarantees” and we shouldn’t assume that our understanding of the world is somehow a more real image than the perceptions of others.

NORTH VS. SOUTH

In the discussion at last week’s City Council meeting I argued that a South County Police Department (composed of 3 or 4 neighboring cities) might be operated less expensively because the current OCSD includes North Operations (3 cities) that have a much higher crime rate. Thus, the lower crime rate cities in the South are subsidizing the higher crime rate cities that work out of the North center. Councilman Robinson couldn’t imagine how the North OC cities managed by OCSD can have a higher crime rate than the South OC cities, but that is, in fact, the truth. The most recent data shows that the Part 1 (Violent) crime rate for the 3 North OC cities (Villa Park, Yorba Linda, and Stanton) is 1.37 per 1,000 residents, while the rate for 10 South County cities is 1.01. The Part 2 (Property) crime rate is 13.36 compared to 9.04.

So despite Councilman Robinson’s certain beliefs, the North County cities combined do have higher crime rates. This is relevant because Councilman Robinson dismisses the thought that a South County Police Department can be more economical because we don’t have to carry the overhead associated with the higher crime rates of the North Operations, and he doesn’t believe that they have less crime. Yet the facts indicate they do. The facts show that Stanton has more people than Councilman Robinson believes they have, and their very high crime rate is enough to skew the results for the entire North Operations. The facts are beyond Councilman Robinson’s beliefs, but they are true.

OTHER CITY COUNCILS

Councilman Robinson assures us that no one from the other City Councils will consider forming a multi-city South County Police Department, yet the facts indicate that I am currently meeting with some of these very people and discussing this very topic. Apparently City Council members in other cities that contract with OCSD are equally disturbed by the dramatic increase in prices and by the lack of a viable option. Councilman Robinson believes this can’t be true, yet it is.

COMPARATIVE PRICING

Councilman Robinson assures us that any bid from Irvine (one possible option) would be higher than Irvine charges its own citizens, yet we have no idea what the bid from Irvine would be, if they would bid at all. If we look at the arrangement Mission Viejo has with Laguna Niguel and Aliso Viejo for animal care services, we find that residents in Laguna Niguel and Aliso Viejo pay no more than the residents of Mission Viejo and less than they were paying when they contracted with the County. Does this necessarily translate into Police services with Irvine? No. But there is nothing to support Councilman Robinson’s “absolute guarantee” that the price will go up. And what harm would there be in asking?

Councilman Robinson narrowed his discussion to Irvine, but there are more than a dozen other Police Departments in Orange County, so Irvine is not the only option. Since we have no information on the costs per capita for all of those cities, it’s premature to make judgements.

THE PROBLEM WITH ALWAYS

Mayor Voigts feels safe and that is his basis for wanting to avoid getting bids from anyone else. OCSD has always patrolled our streets and in his mind they should always patrol our streets. There really isn’t much to say after you listen to the tape. Mayor Voigts beliefs speak for themselves – we always did it this way and we’re always going to do it this way is not a conservative point of view but a radical reactionary point of view and has no place in Government in my opinion. When he was campaigning, Mayor Voigts was quick to indicate that he was going to help make government more effective and efficient, but now that he’s in a position to do something, or at least try to do something, the urge to improve has left him.

The Police contract is our single most important contract and our most costly contract, consuming nearly 40% of our operating expenses and growing nearly every year. The quality of our service is adequate and we have a relatively low crime rate even though our City has a higher crime rate than most of our neighbors. That being said, there is room for improvement, as I have pointed out on numerous occasions.

CONTRACT CITY OR NOT?

Lake Forest prides itself as a contract city. In 2014-2015 more than 60% of our budget went to contract services, and hardly a meeting goes by when we are not discussing the merits of individual proposals. The Council set a standard that the City staff should bring us at least 3 bids on every contract under consideration. We did that to insure that we got the best services for the best price. Only by comparing different bidders can we assure ourselves that we are the best stewards of the public funds.

Every single person who sits on this City Council has agreed to that principle, and every single Council member portrays himself as a “fiscal conservative.” Why then should Police services be exempted from this process?

Councilman Robinson claims that he knows the answers to all the questions that can be asked, and Mayor Voigts claims that we should always continue to do what we did in the past. For them, the idea of looking for an equivalent or better service at a lower price is a fruitless pursuit. Councilman Nick and I are willing to spend our time looking at other possibilities. In the end, Robinson and Voigts may be right and Adam Nick and I may come back in six months empty handed. But why should we be prevented for doing this?

AD HOC COMMITTEE SUCCESS

Recently the Council approved an ad hoc committee including Mayor Pro Tem Andrew Hamilton and I, and our goal was to take a look at the investment policy and see if there weren’t some tweaks that could be made to improve our rate of return on the tens of millions of dollars we have in the bank. Right now we are earning a pathetic 0.3%, and recently we were even below this. The good news is that working with the staff, we’ve come up with a program that we expect will more than double our return without adding any significant risk.

Why shouldn’t we agree to take this same approach with Police services?

NEXT MEETING

At the next City Council meeting Mayor Voigts will not be in attendance, and Mayor Pro Tem Andrew Hamilton will be there. Hamilton has been a champion of conservative policies and a champion of getting competitive bids. I hope that with him at the helm we will agree to pursue the ad hoc committee and I hope that in 2016 we will have some viable alternatives to offer for insuring a high quality of Police services at a competitive price. The worst case scenario is that Councilman Nick and I will have spent our time in the service of our community, and better educated ourselves and the public about Police services. Isn’t that what Government was supposed to be about?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest. 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 3 pm to 5 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a mini town meeting every month. The next meeting will be on August 15 at 2 pm at the El Toro Public Library.

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