City Council Preview - Dec 5

Here are some of the items coming up this week -

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

In September we directed staff to negotiate an agreement with “National CORE” to develop affordable housing in the city, with a specific focus on veterans. Their objectives include finding a site and developing funding options (e.g., grants tax credits) in addition to the city’s own funds (almost $4 million). At Tuesday’s meeting we will discuss the proposed contract. I have been pushing for action in this area for a long time and I’m happy to see us moving along now.

SVUSD COMMITTEE

SVUSD is looking for Lake Forest representative from staff and council to sit on a new committee that will help determine how to fund facilities improvements.

GRANT CONSULTING

The City was looking for a company to write grants for the City and for the company’s compensation to come as a percent of the grant. In fact I made my living for a year doing just this, but apparently times have changed and the City couldn’t find anyone confident enough in their skills to work on a percent basis. Instead they want to be paid $100 per hour regardless of what they produce. The Council will have to decide if this is acceptable.

CONNECTING ALTON TO THE FREEWAY

For a long time people have proposed that Alton have a connection to the 5 freeway at the point where Alton meets Barranca. This might mean that some people who use Bake would now use Alton, lessening the traffic on Bake. The staff report gives us no idea of just how many people would use this option, but it does indicate that the costs would be in the “tens of millions of dollars”

SELECTION OF MAYOR

Up until 2016, everyone who had been elected to a seat on the council served a period as Mayor. The rotation wasn’t normal, and some people served many more times than others. When the council was controlled by Herzog-Dixon-Tettemer, they exchanged the Mayorship between themselves, allowing McCullough and Rudolph only 3 cumulative times as Mayor while the men shared more than a dozen. During the Voigts-Robinson-Hamilton reign, Councilman Nick was specifically denied the opportunity to be Mayor. It was the first time an elected official was not allowed to be Mayor.

Some cities have ordinances that define how the Mayorship is rotated, to avoid allowing political infighting to control how this works.

NEIGHBORHOOD PARK IMPROVEMENTS

During the early part of 2017 the city conducted neighborhood workshops for the modification of 10 city parks (Borrego Overlook Park; Cherry Park; Darrin Park; Montbury Park; Peachwood Park; Pebble Creek Park; Rancho Serrano Park; Regency Park; Sundowner Park; and Vintage Park). I attended all those workshops, arriving early and staying late to talk with the residents. Following these workshops, staff met and drew up recommendations for each of these parks. Staff then developed an RFP looking for a firm to complete the design phase, so that an RFP to build can be developed.

Bear in mind we spent a bundle of bucks for a firm to conduct the initial workshops and write a report, and now we’ll spend $500,000 for another firm to read that report and turn it into another report, and then we’ll have another firm actually make the modifications. This is why government is in such a mess.

If we approve staff's recommendation, the next step will be to hold design workshops beginning in January. After this, the proposal will go to the Parks and Recreation Commission and ultimately to the Council in April. By July the consultant and staff will have final plans.

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 Feb 17 at 2 pm at the Lake 1 Clubhouse.