City Council Review

Here’s what happened at the City Council meeting Tuesday night –

$10,000 BONUS FOR CITY MANAGER

My colleagues unanimously recommended giving the City Manager a $10,000 bonus. I voted against the bonus based on his compensation level and his performance..

SALE OF OFF-SITE ALCOHOL

It took the City two years to get around to revising the procedures for deciding how businesses should be reviewed for the purpose of allowing the sale of alcohol. Based on the work done and the review Tuesday night, we have an excellent structure to move forward with. The Council voted to rescind the decades’ old ordinance and enact a new and much improved ordinance, even while we recognized that some more changes might be in the future.

CROSSING GUARDS

I was concerned that the lucrative crossing guard contract to a Sante Fe Springs business was not providing jobs to Lake Forest residents, and it wasn’t clear from the staff report. City staff assured us that most if not all of the crossing guards being used were from our City. With those assurances I voted for the contract and it was approved unanimously

AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM

It wasn’t clear from the staff report exactly how much money the City received as a result of the fee program started in January 2015. Staff explained that we anticipated about $40,000 per year in revenue, to offset the nearly $500,000 the City spends. The Council approved the program, but asked that the current fee ($25 per semester or $50 per year) be reviewed at the 6-month budget meeting to determine whether adjustments should be made.

TRAFFIC ADVISORY GROUP

See my separate article. Click Here

NEXT MEETING

At the end of the meeting, 3 of my colleagues announced that they would be out of town for the next meeting, and thus the next meeting will be cancelled. This is very disappointing. There are many items sitting on the back burner that need to be addressed. We can’t afford to be eliminating any meetings.

I asked my colleagues to provide the City Clerk with their schedule for the rest of the year so that this doesn’t happen again. If we know well in advance that we are going to have to cancel a meeting, perhaps changes can be made by individuals so that we don’t have to cancel much needed Council time.

COUNCIL BEHAVIOR

After 3 consecutive meetings in which my colleagues argued with each other, and with residents, violated the Brown Act, violated Parliamentary procedure, disrespected visiting guests, told the audience not to laugh or applaud, and other actions that caused me (and others) much concern, everyone was on their best behavior Tuesday night. I’m very happy to report that we had a professional meeting and I sincerely hope that whatever caused the recent eruption in bad behavior will not surface again.

COMMENTS

It came to my attention that at times the COMMENTS section of the Patch doesn’t work. I have no control over this. I can neither enable nor disable the Comments section nor can I delete or edit other people’s work. If you encounter this problem, please notify the Patch. If you want to discuss the issues raised in these articles you’re welcome to join more than 300 of us at Lake Forest Town Square, or you can e-mail me individually, come to my office hours, or attend my Town hall meetings.

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 3 pm to 5 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a town hall meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be on August 15 at 2 pm at the El Toro Public Library.

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