City Council Preview - March 3

Here is a brief summary of items coming up on March 3.

COUNTYWIDE COMMNICATIONS (Item 4)

The City is being asked to spend $600,000+ in the next 5 years to keep the County’s inter-agency radio communications public safety system intact.

ADA RAMPS (Item 5)

The City will spend $181,787 to bring 36 ramps into compliance with ADA. To date 404 of the City’s 800 ramps have been updated.

ALCOHOL IN LAKE FOREST (Items 6, 7, and 8)

The resolution from the Mobile gas station is ready for review, and the 99 Cents Stores hearing has been postponed until March 17.

FEEDING WILDLIFE (Item 9)

The long awaited wildlife feeding prohibition ordinance has finally surfaced. The ordinance allows

• · The Parks and Recreation Commission to designate a park as “overcrowded” by wildlife and therefore subject to the ordinance
• · OCSD and Code enforcement to issue warnings or citations ($100, $250, and $500) as appropriate
• · When the problem subsides, the Commission can lift the regulations.

Along with the ordinance, public education and outreach would be employed.

The Council is being asked whether or not we want enforcement to be “concentrated”, and there are cost implications that go along with this. The staff is not recommending the use of STARS which I believe is a mistake, since STARS have done valuable work at minimal costs to the City. In fact I am such a supporter of the STARS program I wish we were more active in recruiting members for this very valuable service.

WEBSITE REDESIGN (Item 10)

The City’s website can best be described as having been “staff centric” but after several discussions with the City Manager, I think we are going to see a website that is more community centric. The staff report lists several new additions to the website that are being considered, including

• · Alert Center - news to the community about street closures, flood warnings, or Amber Alerts.
• · Calendar – that is more inclusive of citywide events rather than only city sponsored events.
• · FAQs for each Department.
• · Opinion Poll – so we can get your opinions about matters that come before the Council.

We are also working on a mobile ap and in the final stages of design. This is very exciting for our businesses.

Please read the staff report and give us your feedback on those features you are most interested in.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAKE FOREST (Item 11)

Lake Forest will turn 25 on December 20, 2016. Councilman Hamilton will head up a 25th Anniversary Celebration committee.

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 2 pm to 5 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a mini town meeting every moth. The next meeting will be March 14 from 2 to 4 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.