The City Council meeting this week looks to be pretty dull.
VOIGTS VOID
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In what promises to be a pretty quick meeting, with little discussion and no controversial items, it’s a wonder that none of the nearly dozen Voigts Void items will have a hearing –
The PCN process is in shambles. Over a year ago the Council promised to deal with it, yet nothing has happened. The recent Planning Commission meetings have been so pathetic they rate up there with a Monty Python skit. We are spending thousands of dollars on needless legal expenses as a result, plus making life difficult for our businesses, and making the Planning Commission look like a “House of Clowns”. When will they take this issue up?
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More than a year ago the Council approved a plan for the Village Pond Park, and we still have nothing. Even worse, the Council is unable to start the process with an ordinance against feeding the wildlife, largely due to Mrs. McCullough’s inability to understand the issue. When will they act?
More than a year ago the Council instructed the Parks and Recreation Commission (PRC) to find a location for a dog park. In a search that was so inept it must have been deliberate, the PRC reported they could find nothing and handed the problem back to the Council, who still have yet to deal with the issue.
I could go on for nearly a dozen more issues. On a dull and quiet night like this, why can’t the Council turn its attention to one of the major issues that sits unresolved?
SATISFACTION
The City Manager and the Council are going to ask for more satisfaction this week when they hire True North to tell them what a great job they do. It only costs $37,480 for True North to lavish praise on the City, and while that might seem a little steep to pay for someone to pat you on the back, it’s what the City’s been doing for nearly a decade. True North claims they are in the business of “professional survey consulting services”, but in fact their stock in trade is praise, and they find things to praise almost everywhere they go. Here’s a collection of findings from True North when talking about other communities –
- "we are in the top 10 percent of any of the cities in California that he has ever surveyed, and in some areas he has never seen numbers this high." DANA POINT
- "Aliso Viejo residents are among the most satisfied resident groups that True North has encountered…" ALISO VIEJO
- "These are amazing scores, some of the best I’ve ever seen…" LAGUNA NIGUEL
- "San Carlos is one of the Top Cities in the State when it comes to satisfaction with City Services and Programs." SAN CARLOS
In fact, when I looked at recent surveys by True North, this kind of hyperbole was all I found.
If the Council and the City Manager want a pat on the back, there are cheaper ways to do it than spending $37,480.
But the City Manager and the Council will tell you that they need this information in order to do better planning. Yet in dozens of meetings of the commissions and the council, I don’t recall a single example in which data available through this survey was actually used for decision making. For example,
Being the most highly regarded city service didn’t get Waste Management any consideration in the recent trash contract negotiations.
Getting high marks for the Newsletter didn’t help the PM group keep their contract with the City.
When the Planning Commission discussed parking problems, no one mentioned any of the data available in the survey.
IOW the City Manager and the Council don’t use the results of the survey to plan, but rather they use the inevitable praise they receive (and pay for) to pat each other on the back. For the City Manager it helps justify his exorbitant salary and bonuses, and for the City Council members it gives them a photo op they can use for getting votes.
PUTTING LAKE FOREST LAST AGAIN
Last month the City gave out nearly $1,000,000 in contracts and not a cent stayed here. Even worse, nearly $100,000 of that total used to go to a Lake Forest business, but now will go elsewhere. Let’s look at what we’re giving away this month –
$135,381 - Design services – Civil Works Engineers – COSTA MESA
$983,478 – Slurry Seal – Roy Allan - SANTA FE SPRINGS
$186,313 – Software - Tyler Technologies – ATLANTA, GEORGIA
$37,480 – Survey – True North – SAN DIEGO
Once again, $1,000,000+ is going out the door and not a cent will stay in Lake Forest.
BBK & OOPS
BB&K is the law firm that represents our City, and it’s also the law firm that advised the officials in the City of Bell, many of whom are now behind bars. BB&K was our law firm when we passed and then repealed the day laborer ordinance, when we passed and then repealed the sex offender ordinance, etc.
The City pays a “discounted public agency rate” for BB&K, but don’t let those terms fool you. Legal expenses in the City typically exceed $ 1,000,000 per year and when comparted to other cities, we pay a higher percent of our budget on legal expense than other cities do.
In the past, the City has allowed developers to take advantage of the BB&K rate, and the current amendment would not give developers and other “private parties” the benefits of the City’s discount.
Tomorrow we’ll summarize our findings from the “DinnerGate” expose.
