City Council Preview - June 5

There are several items of interest at this week’s Council meeting. If you can't make it in person you can watch and participate live by using Facebook. Click Here for instructions. Remember, the meeting starts at 6:30.

POLICE CONTRACT (Item #15)

The City’s contract with the County for Police services (OCSD) comes up for our annual review. This year OCSD is asking for a 5.5% raise increasing our costs to $17,025,171 – the largest single cost for the City and 36% of our budget.

Some of the achievements of OCSD last year were –

• The Sheriff’s Team of Active Retired Seniors provided 7,954 hours of service, which is an increase of 3.5% when compared to 2016 (7,540 hours).
• The Homeless Liaison Officer, in partnership with other organizations, assisted in placing 27 homeless individuals into housing.
• The OCSD assisted the City with programs designed to prepare residents for emergencies and natural disasters and helped children and their parents understand the principles of self-defense, abduction awareness, sexual assault prevention, internet safety, and self-empowerment through the Child Safety Academy - GET SAFE program.
• OCSD partnered with the City’s Public Information Office to promote the “Don’t Make It Easy” program with the goal of reducing Part I Crimes associated with Larceny and Theft.
• The City’s Traffic Enforcement Index was 23.1%. This index is determined by dividing the number of hazardous violation by the number of fatal and injury collisions. The recommended California State Office of Traffic Safety (“OTS”) Traffic Enforcement Index is between 25%-35%.
• Calls for service increased once again, from 27,576 (2015) to 29,229 (2016) to 29,591 (2017).
• Average response times for Priority One calls remains below 5 minutes.
• The City’s per capita crime rate was fifth among the 13 OCSD contract cities for Part I Crimes in 2017. In 2016 we were third, so this is a minor setback, however, in previous years we were sixth or seventh, so overall it is an improvement. FWIW – the cities with the lowest crime rates were RSM, Laguna Woods, Aliso Viejo, and Laguna Niguel.
• Our per capita Part 1 crime rates over the past 5 years were 11.58 (2013), 9.86 (2014), 12.59 (2015), 10.14 (2016), and 10.48 (2017).

In an effort to improve services and cut costs, the City and a dozen other cities contracted with an independent agency to look at OCSD and provide recommendations. We expect the report to come before the Council in December.

DISTRICT ELECTIONS (Item #17)

The final ballot language for transitioning to district elections comes before the Council.

In response to a threat of litigation over the City’s process of electing Council Members at large, the City Council began the process to create districts on May 2, 2017. The City spent the next several months holding community workshops and public hearings. Several district maps were considered by the City Council, and on December 19, 2017, the City Council adopted an ordinance changing to by-district elections.

At the May 1, 2018 City Council meeting, the City Council took up the issue of by-district elections. After discussion, the City Council voted unanimously to proceed with the 2018 by-district elections, and place on the ballot a non-binding advisory measure asking for the public’s opinion on staying with the by-district method of elections, or returning to a City Council elected at large if the lawsuits situation changes.

Litigation and threats of litigation under the CVRA have resulted in numerous California cities changing from at-large to by-district council elections. One reason for the high number of changes is a provision in the CVRA that entitles a prevailing plaintiff to attorney’s fees and costs. This has led to a number of high dollar settlements with prevailing plaintiffs, including the following:

• Palmdale: $4,700,000
• Modesto: $3,000,000
• Highland: $1,300,000
• Anaheim: $1,100,000
• Whittier: $1,000,000
• Santa Barbara: $600,000

These figures do not include the sums paid to the cities’ own attorneys, which in some cases were also in the millions of dollars. No city has successfully defended a CVRA lawsuit to date. The risk of financial exposure to the City was a major factor in the City Council’s decision to change from at-large to by-district elections. By voluntarily changing to by-district elections via ordinance, the City’s exposure to attorney’s fees and costs was limited to $30,000, pursuant to a “safe harbor” provision in the CVRA. Having changed to by-district elections, the City is now protected from the financial exposure outlined above.

The language for the ballot being proposed is –

“Understanding that those cities that have fought California Voting Rights Act (CVRA) lawsuits demanding by-district elections have changed to by district elections and paid millions to settle litigation (e.g., Palmdale – $4,700,000; Anaheim – $1,100,000), if the CVRA is successfully challenged in court, permitting the City of Lake Forest to change back to at-large City Council elections without threat of CVRA litigation and financial exposure, should the City return to at-large elections?”

According to the Orange County Registrar of Voters, it will cost approximately $8,500 to place the advisory measure on the ballot.

SPORTS PARK MAINTENANCE

The costs of maintaining landscaping in our parks looks like it is going to go up about $300,000 per year to slightly over $1.1 million. Since the original contract was started in 2012, it’s not surprising that costs are up, given the increase in the minimum wage. In addition, the current contract is asking for far more quality and quantity – for example

• 1,500 cubic yards mulch vs. 1,000
• 300 trees trimmed vs. 100
• 2,450 sprinkler heads vs. 1,645
• 100,000 sf sod replacement vs. 50,000
• Daily cleaning/blowing vs. weekly

Going forward, the City’s revenue minus expense ratio is going to grow thinner, and our parks are going to increase in numbers (e.g., Portola Park is expected in 2019), so the 30% increase in costs going forward is going to be problematic. Hence, staff is asking whether or not the RFP should be re-issued without the dramatic increases in service. According to the staff report –

“…a review of Ask Lake Forest tickets over the past three years indicates the City receives approximately 5 complaints per year about sports fields ranging from reports of broken sprinkler heads to requests for pick-up of dog droppings. Further, the most recent Community Survey indicates 89.4% of residents are satisfied with the City’s efforts to maintain public landscapes and 90% are satisfied with the City’s efforts to maintain parks and picnic areas. Based on this, it appears the community is satisfied with the condition of its citywide sports parks under the current level of maintenance.”

A poll on Lake Forest Town Square asked residents if they were happy with the look of the landscape at parks or if they wanted to improve the look at the cost of raising fees or dropping some services. The results were 48 people chose to remain as is and 4 people chose to spend the extra money to upgrade the look.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest where he serves as Mayor. 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 Twitter handle is @DrJimGardner. 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 Aug 16 at 7 pm at the Lake 1 Clubhouse (Ridge Route).