The big item for this week’s City Council meeting is the staff report on animal care alternatives. Before we get into that discussion, here are the other items –
OCTA REQUEST FOR TRAFFIC SYNCHRONIZATION
The City is seeking funds for traffic synchronization. It is a common theme and we’ve been doing this for years with little noticeable impact on the traffic congestion, partially because traffic signal synchronization is subject to the interference of pedestrians who want to cross the streets and cars entering major thoroughfares from side streets. The best traffic synchronization still won’t solve our congestion problems many of which are structural. Nonetheless, traffic signal synchronization won’t do any harm either, and it is helpful, though not the panacea it is made out to be.
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The City seeks “equipment upgrades and new/updated synchronization for the 20 traffic signals on the entire length of El Toro Road in Lake Forest from Bridger Road to Ridgeline Drive.” Total cost is estimated at $1,098,780. To get this money from the OCTA through Measure M the City intends to obtain $219,756 from AQMD.
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MEASURE M EXPENDITURES
The City is required to submit annual reports on spending under Measure M, a voter approved transportation program funded by half-cent sales taxes, good until 2041. In Fiscal Year 2014-15, the City expended approximately $1,787,925 of Measure M2 funds for street repaving and slurry seal projects on various streets throughout the community and $56,415 on the Senior Mobility Program.
STAFF SALARIES
The staff proposes an updated Classification Plan increasing the pay rate of three (3) steps in the Part-Time Salary Schedule in order to meet the California $10 minimum wage requirement effective January 1, 2016. The City currently employs seventy-eight (78) part-time employees. Of these, twenty-nine (29) employees in Community Services are currently paid under $10.00 per hour. As part of the Fiscal Year 15-16 Operating Budget, each part-time hour allocated to Community Services is budgeted at a rate of $11 per hour. As such, sufficient funds are available to accommodate the required increase.
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 Town Hall meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be on Dec 12 at 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.
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