Here’s what’s coming up Tuesday night.
PARADE COMMITTEE RECOGNITION
We had another great parade this year. Behind the scenes, dozens of people start work in February and it’s the fruits of their labor that produces the parade. This year we had an estimated 11,000 lining up to watch, and nearly 100 entries with over 2,000 participants. Some of the Committee members included –
- John and Rosalie Irish
- Rich and Patti Farina
- Noma and Ralph Bates
- Marty and Robbie Deutschman
- Lisa Tooley
- Larissa Fellick-Clark
- Bob Holtzclaw
- Loretta Herrin
- Elain Pong
- Jean Mastropietro
- Michael Varma
- Rich Stein
- Ray Silva
- Sheila Smith
- Tibby Montgomery
- Stan Yombo
- Rosa Patterson
- Doris Neel
Parade Sponsors were CR&R, Mercedes Benz of Foothill Ranch, Southside Towing, and Sweeper Guys. Laura Lisack did a great job as the staff person in charge.
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COMMUNITY CHOICE AGGREGATION
The City Council agendized a discussion item regarding Community Choice Aggregation or Aggregators (“CCAs”) which enables local jurisdictions to form a separate public agency that purchases energy directly from power suppliers rather than Investor-Owned Utilities (“IOU”) such as Southern California Edison (“SCE”).
CCAs have become more prevalent recently due to increased desire to meet renewable energy goals and/or support economic development. Most commonly in Northern California, the formation of a CCA is centered on policy decisions focused on ensuring that energy used by the community is purchased from renewable sources such as solar, wind, geothermal heat, and hydroelectricity. This is also a response to State-initiated climate change efforts to ensure that renewable portfolios comprise 33% of all electricity usage by 2020 and 50% by 2030.
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CCAs are also viewed as a means to reduce rates for residential and commercial consumers, thereby providing general economic benefits to the community. Under the CCA model, the agency purchases energy on behalf of the community and generates revenue through its rate structure – which is designated by the CCA Board. Revenue generated by the CCA funds administration, operational components, and other program activities. Because the CCA set rates, it can design the rate structure to provide a cost savings to consumers provided the energy is purchased at a lower cost.
UNFUNDED PENSION OBLIGATIONS
The most recent actuarial from the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (“CalPERS”) shows the City’s unfunded accrued liability is $2,177,848 and the funded ratio is 91.3 percent. On the positive side, CalPERS reported an 11.9 percent net return on investments for the 12-month period that ended June 30, 2017. This was not factored into the most recent actuarial (dated June 30, 2016). Staff recommends the City Council maintain the funds held in the pension irrevocable trust and bring back additional analysis next year when CalPERS factors in the 11.9 percent gain on investments into the June 30, 2017 actuarial.
Next time we’ll look at districting.
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 4 pm to 6 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a mini town meeting every month. The next meeting will be on Sept 9 at 2 pm at the El Toro Public Library.
