City Council Preview - Sept 6

Here’s what’s coming up Tuesday night at the City Council meeting.

BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB PRESENTATION

I asked the Lake Forest Boys and Girls Club to talk to us about the possibility of their taking over some of our after school programs. This might be an avenue for the Boys and Girls Club to expand and to provide more and better services to our City. Right now they work out of the Laguna Beach facility, and it’s my hope that in the next few years we will have our own facility in town. I’m really looking forward to that.

PARADE COMMITTEE RECOGNITION (Item 3)

About 50 people spend hours and hours each year so that our 4th of July Parade is a thing of wonder. Tuesday night we celebrate their achievements.

(FWIW – I’m a long time member of the Parade Committee)

INVESTMENT POLICY (Item 11)

It’s the time to review the Investment Policy that Mayor Hamilton and I worked on last year when the City was earning about 25 cents for every $100 we had in the Bank. The policy is available for review by clicking here. I was hoping there would be some mention of how well we did this year now that we changed the policy, but I was unable to find anything. I know that government usually doesn’t like to measure the effectiveness of their policy decisions, but I asked anyway. In 2015 our average interest rate was 0.42 and in 2016 so far it is 0.76, so that's an improvement.

MORE BEER AND WINE SALES (Item 14)

99 Cents Only Stores is seeking to sell beer and wine in their Foothill Ranch branch. That area is over saturated with stores selling beer and wine, and has 7 existing locations for an area that the State considers adequately served by 2 such stores. Moreover, nearby tracts have 8 more stores selling beer and wine.

The project was approved by the Planning Commission and Councilman Nick and I asked for a review by the Council. My concern is the irrefutable evidence that as you increase the number of stores that sell alcohol, violent crimes and DUIs increase proportionately. So a decision to allow more sales of beer and wine cannot be taken lightly and I want to be sure that we proceed appropriately.

CIVIC/SENIOR CENTER MOVES FORWARD (Item 14)

The City will amend the General Plan to provide for the new Civic and Senior Centers. While we’re doing that, the Planning Commission threw in a few more properties for which the legal formalities need to be consummated.

CLOSED SESSION MINUTES (Item 15)

If you look at your agenda, you’ll see that City Council meetings often start at 5:30 under “Closed Session” and then the public joins us at 7 pm. These “closed sessions” are for such sensitive matters as lawsuits, personnel issues, and real property negotiations. Hot stuff. Imagine my surprise, then, when I learned that no one takes minutes of what is decided at these meetings. I was told, as I often am, that this is the way things have always been done, but it didn’t sit right with me. Imagine my further surprise when a decision I thought was made in Closed Session apparently was renegotiated and settled in a dramatically different manner, and no one bothered to get back to the Council for authorization. At least that’s what I thought. So I asked a fellow Councilman if that was his impression, and he agreed. The Brown Act prevents me from asking a third Council member, and hence this open discussion about whether or not we should keep minutes so that decisions cannot be altered and we’ll have minutes to back it up.

VILLAGE POND PARK (Item 16)

Thanks to Councilman Nick the Council will get a chance to discuss getting a second legal opinion about whether or not the City can begin construction on the Park. The City Attorney and the FPPC have said that I can’t discuss this issue because as a member of the Beach and Tennis Club, decisions about the construction of the Park could impact my finances, even if it is as small as one penny. Hence I can say no more.

The CDBG section of the agenda is so large I will cover it tomorrow.

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 in November at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.