City Council Preview - Jan 20

MINI TOWN HALL MEETING

Eight people showed up to our mini town hall meeting on Friday, and many of them had done their homework and were prepared to discuss the upcoming agenda for Tuesday night’s meeting of the City Council. After introductions we discussed the agenda items and then any other concerns which they had. Here’s a summary -

STREET SWEEPING (ITEM 7)

The City is considering the specifications for a bid for street sweeping services. The current contract runs out on June 30, 2015. We pay more than $250,000 a year. The new contract will be for 3 years plus two possible one year extensions.

The City now has 148 curb miles of arterial highways and 229 curb miles of residential streets. In addition the street sweeper is required to sweep the parking lots of 10 city-owned parks.

Here are the questions posed by the participants -

• Can we switch to every other week during the Summer and Spring and save money. Apparently other cities do this (e.g., Stockton, Palo Alto, Mission Viejo).
• Can we do a better job keeping cars off the streets during street sweeping?
• Why don’t we have more signage (not necessarily too many signs, but enough so that people know what day/time sweeping will take place)?
• Some cul du sac streets aren’t being swept at all.
• Accumulated debris can create a health hazard especially when rains come, by forming small dams where stagnant water gathers.
• Is there a conflict of interest with one of the potential vendors giving money to Council members? Should the Council member(s) be excluded from the vote since the City’s code of ethics appears to prohibit this behavior (See Sections 2.3 and 2.4)?

CALIFORNIA LEAGUE OF CITIES (Item 12)

The City of Lake Forest is a member of the California League of Cities, along with 473 other cities (98% of all cities in the State). We pay about $20,000 per year to belong. The League lobbies on behalf of cities, conducts training and holds conferences, and has special resources which City staff is able to use.

Here are the questions posed by the participants -

• How much will the contract increase when LF gets above 80,000 people as a result of the growth from new homes?
• Can’t we benefit from the League’s service even if we don’t pay the fee? (i.e., the League will continue doing what they’re doing even if we don’t pay them, so why should we pay?)
• Do we still need them since we have our own lobbying firm now?
• How much worth do we get from their programs compared to programs available elsewhere (e.g., ACC- OC)?

Tomorrow we’ll look at the Planning Commission appointments (Item 11).

Reminder – I have office hours every Tuesday from 2 pm to 5 pm. Come to the City Clerk’s office and check in.

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.