City Council Review

In case you missed the marathon sessions on Tuesday Feb 2, here is a summary.

From 5:15 pm to 6:30 pm the Council held a “workshop” that looked a lot like a regular session, except Council members were not seated at the dais. At 7 pm the regular session continued until about 9:30 when the Council re-convened the workshop and continued until 10:30 pm at which point everyone concluded that no more blood could be squeezed from the turnip.

WORKSHOP

As I understood it, the workshop was originally intended to help move things along in the City. As it ended up being sculpted, it addressed instead four policies that were discussed. Very little of this discussion will do anything to improve how things are getting done, but they probably won’t harm anything either.

Written communication – Council agreed that any Council member who wants to circulate information to the public should do so on their own dime, and not use City resources. Council also agreed that anytime that a Council member requests staff to research an issue, the results would be shared with all Council members.

Consensus – Council agreed that anytime an item received 3 votes, staff should follow through with a “full report”. When an item only received 2 votes, staff should return with a “limited report” which would allow more discussion, but possibly not decisive action.

Public Comment – Council agreed that the public, when listening to a speaker, should be allowed to clap to express their approval or concurrence, however, cat calls, boos, and hissing were not allowed so as to avoid intimidating our fellow citizens. This was done to protect the minority from the majority. I also mentioned that the habit of Mayor Hamilton and former Mayor Voigts cutting people off in mid- sentence was also intimidating and asked that people be allowed to finish their sentences. My request met with some resistance from Mayor Hamilton.

While several City Council members were busy quarreling with each other and making cross accusations, I pointed out that most of the problems in the public comment sessions were caused by the poor behavior exhibited by the Council members, and I encouraged my colleagues to act more professionally. Following my request, they continued to squabble.

Leadership Principles – Council decided that the principles themselves were OK, but what was lacking was any way to enforce them or require people to adhere to them. At this point we adjourned.

TAX EXEMPT BONDS

Council approved the developer in Portola Hills issuing tax exempt bonds to build 57 affordable units catering to people over 62 years of age. See my previous article for more on this topic. This is a really good outcome for the City. Too bad the previous 4 projects were allowed to go ahead without onsite affordable housing, as a result of 3:2 votes by Voigts, Hamilton, and Robinson.

PLANNING COMMISSION (AKA SCOTT VOIGTS FAN CLUB)

Once again, friends of Scott Voigts were appointed to a City Commission even though seemingly more qualified people had applied. City Commissions now involve an almost exclusive club of people who have given Voigts money, worked on his campaign, or are otherwise a friend of his. This seems to be a substantiation of the Recall supporters claim that Voigts and his colleagues (Hamilton and Robinson) practice cronyism. I believe the newly appointed Commissioner will do a good job, but he was not my first choice.

KINDNESS INITIATIVE

Thankfully this item was removed from the agenda. In a City where we have a Council who can hardly be described as “kind” the ludicrous idea of calling Lake Forest “The Kindness City” was put on hold.

ANIMAL CARE

The Council requested that the FOAB representative send minutes of this secretive but highly influential meeting to the City Manager and the Council, whenever their suggestions can possibly impact Lake Forest.

The Council reviewed my proposal to create an alternative to using the OC shelter, and asked staff to analyze my assumptions and calculations, and report back as soon as possible. The original request was to report back in two weeks, but the City Manager asked for more time.

BTW – I met with staff on Thursday and we had an excellent meeting and they are busy at work.

ZIKA VIRUS

Apparently Scott Voigts missed the last Vector Control meeting and had nothing to report. Thankfully, longtime resident Bob Holtzclaw was present and filled people in on the dangers of the Zika Virus. When the Council was deciding whether or not to appoint Voigts or Holtzclaw, I cautioned that Voigts’ tendency to miss meetings meant that the City would not be well-served by appointing him, and I voted for Holtzclaw. Looks like I was right. He missed his first meeting.

Kudos to Mayor Hamilton who is obviously trying to conduct meetings at a higher level than he or his predecessor (Scott Voigts) previously did. Unfortunately the workshop deteriorated into adolescent name calling and accusations, but the regular meeting was conducted reasonably well, all things considered.

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 mini town meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be on March 26 at 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.