City Council Preview - April 17

Here are some of the topics being discussed at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting -

SANCTUARY CITIES (Item 20)

In 2017, Governor Brown signed into law Senate Bill 54 that generally prohibits California law enforcement agencies from using agency money, personnel, or resources to investigate, interrogate, detain, detect, or arrest persons for immigration enforcement purposes. A limited exception allows local law enforcement to provide information about an individual’s release date, or to transfer an individual to immigration authorities if the individual has been convicted of a serious or violent felony.

In March 2018, the Federal government sued the State. The lawsuit seeks a declaration that SB 54 conflicts with federal law, and seeks an injunction enjoining the State’s enforcement of the law. Since then the City of Los Alamitos enacted an ordinance taking a position against SB 54. Following that, the County of Orange and the Cities of Aliso Viejo, Yorba Linda, Huntington Beach, and Mission Viejo passed resolutions or took other action expressing their opposition to SB 54 and/or supporting the federal government’s lawsuit. Some cities (e.g., Santa Ana) expressed support for SB 54 and the State of California.

The Council will discuss the issue and may or may not take a position. Staff has prepared a resolution for consideration and it is posted on the city’s website. (Click Here)

STREET SWEEPING/PARKING (Item 23)

Parking remains a big problem in Lake Forest, as it does in many other OC cities. Despite a recent ordinance to improve parking conditions and remove oversized vehicles from city streets, there have only been minimal improvements. One of the side effects of our parking problems is that many of our streets do not get adequately cleaned because cars do not move on street sweeping days. Street sweeping reduces the likelihood of pollutants (e.g., petroleum products, trash, sediment, green waste) entering our storm water systems, and, of course, it helps keep our streets looking good.

The Council is exploring several changes to the street sweeping policies and to our parking enforcement, but right now the contract with Athens Street Sweeping is expiring in June. Staff is asking for a one-year extension, but the truth is there are many issues to address. These include

• Improved signage
• Better education to residents about street sweeping
• Partnering with neighboring cities for lower rates
• Reducing coverage from 52 to 39 or 24 weeks
• Providing enforcement for violations of restrictions

ON-CALL ENGINEERING (Item 19)

The city proposes to spend $250,000 each for three different firms to handle our street and traffic on-call engineering services. These three firms scored highest on the staff's evaluation, but only one of those firms is from Lake Forest. So why are we spending our money elsewhere when we have a Lake Forest company that can do the job?

TRAFFIC COLLISION REVIEW (Item 16)

It took me years to finally get a review of traffic collision data for the City. Now it's finally available. You can review by Clicking Here or you can read my review (Click Here).

Tomorrow we'll discuss the district selection

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 Twitter handle is @DrJimGardner. 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 May 17 at 7 pm at the Lake 1 Clubhouse (Ridge Route).