City Council Preview for Feb 19

The next Council meeting is Tuesday. It starts at 6:30 and you can come or watch and participate live using Facebook (Click Here)

THE SCORECARD

Last month I gave a comparison of the current Council vs last year’s Council in terms of introducing positive and innovative changes to meet the challenges facing the City (Click Here). I reported that in the first two months the 2018 Council initiated nearly two dozen projects

“Most of these were in the area of improving the way government works (e.g., written reports on committee activity, invigorated strategic planning), better communication (e.g., FB-Live, HOA Council, Mayor's Minute), public safety (e.g., new seminar on child exploitation, updating active shooter protocols), and quality of life (e.g., search for a local animal shelter, advisory committees). Most of these initiatives turned out to be productive and successful.”

In the corresponding time, the 2019 Council didn’t initiate a single project.

Now, well into the third month, judging from the current agenda, the Council will remain in their “Do NOTHING” mode. There is not a single new project or initiative on the agenda. Everything being discussed dates back to projects initiated last year.

TONIGHT’S AGENDA

DRUG ADDICTION/RECOVERY (Item #10)

The Board of Supervisors finally got around to a Drug Addiction and Recovery Business Registration Ordinance and they asked the City to endorse it. For the past few years I fought for a similar ordinance so that we could regulate these types of businesses in the City. Right now the County identifies 8 such businesses in our City, but the truth is, no one really knows because the city has no business license process whatsoever. The City has a general idea of how many businesses there are from the tax rolls, but otherwise we are ignorant. The County does have a requirement, but enforcement is scant. According to the staff report – “Recent prosecutions led by the District Attorney's Sober Living Home Investigation and Prosecution Project have exposed significant abuses in the addiction treatment industry…” One of the problems is the habit of dumping clients, which is one of the causes of the rise in homelessness.

Having a registry is a good thing, but enforcement would be even better. During the last Council term we created an ordinance to limit these types of homes in residential areas and we created an enforcement process which was used successfully. Further work is needed to regulate these types of homes. People with disabilities and/or problems like drug addiction should not be discriminated against, but when they choose to live in our communities they must be good neighbors.

If you believe there is an illegal drug addiction residential business operating in your neighborhood, notify the City.

STREET SWEEPING (Item 9)

The City contracts with Athens Services for street sweeping services for residential, arterial, and City-owned park parking lots. The City Council approved the current three-year contract on May 19, 2015 for a not-to-exceed amount of $951,481 and includes two optional one-year extensions. The First Amendment, approved on April 17, 2018, extended the term to June 30, 2019, because the City was negotiating with Mission Viejo for a joint program and for possibly reducing the days from 52 per year (one per week) to 39 per week (once per week during the heavy part of the year, and then every other week during the light part). Savings could be in excess of $50,000 per year and perhaps as much as $100,000. More than half the cities in Orange County have service every other week (26 times a year).

Negotiations haven’t been the swiftest and right now the two cities plan to release an RFP so that the new service will begin July 1, 2020. Even for city governments, this seems remarkably slow, and the results of such tardiness in guarding the taxpayer money is spending more than we should.

Of course the fact that Athens is a campaign contributor to City Council members may be influencing the slowness of the city’s response.

WHAT THE HECK?

As already noted, this new Council hasn’t had a single new idea or project in the 3 months that they’ve been in power, which is dramatically different from last year’s Council who already put more than two dozen new and positive changes in place. But what is even more disturbing is that there are more than two dozen unresolved issues that have yet surfaced. Many of these were close to resolution last year, yet they remained unaddressed. Meanwhile, this week’s city council agenda is painfully short, suggesting that the “Do Nothing” attitude is in full gear.

There are serious consequences to a City when the Council does nothing (Click Here). Last week I detailed some examples and concluded -

"Having a Do Nothing Council, as we do now and as we had for many years, depresses our quality of life and disadvantages our City when compared to other cities. It negatively impacts our property values and makes us less attractive to potential buyers. In this day-and-age, a Do Nothing Council is a liability."

Next time I will go through all the unresolved issues facing the City.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner was on the Lake Forest City Council from 2014 to 2018 and Mayor in 2018. Under his leadership the City became the first debt free city in the U.S. with a population over 25,000 people and the first city to live broadcast City Council meetings that allowed residents to participate online (Click Here). Dr. Gardner is one of the organizing members of Lake Forest Community Action Network. 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