We had a busy agenda for Tuesday night. Here's what happened
CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM
Staff had $4 million in programs they wanted to add. Questions were posed about the Millbrook construction and spending $85,000 for fences in the Sports Park. Mayor Pro Tem Basile and Councilman Voigts will look at both areas and report back to the Council. Spending on Whispering Hills was approved, but staff were told to delay any work on this project until some of the existing projects (e.g., Veterans Park, the Civic Center) were resolved.
PERMIT PARKING
Permit parking was discussed for three neighborhoods
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- FARTHING
- BENNET RANCH
- SKY DRIVE/STELLA COURT
Farthing was approved unanimously. Bennett Ranch and Sky/Stella were approved pending an approval process in which all the owners are invited to vote "yes" or "no" to having permits on their streets. Any street that receives 67% agreement will move forward. Councilman Robinson voted against this and Councilman Voigts abstained.
BALLOT MEASURES
Council was asked to decide who should write the positive and negative commentary for the three ballot measures -
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- TERM LIMITS - Mayor Pro Tem Basile was asked to write the "in favor" argument.
- BINDING - Mayor Gardner was asked to write the "against" argument and Councilman Cagley was asked to write the "in favor" argument.
- NON-BINDING - Councilman Voigts was asked to write the "in favor" argument.
ANIMAL CARE SERVICES
Staff asked the Council to send a letter to move forward with negotiations to partner with Mission Viejo and Irvine, and to ask the County to establish an oversight committee. The motion passed with Councilman Voigts abstaining. You'll recall that Voigts voted in the past to spend $611,000 to stay with the County and to not partner with any other city and not establish our own local service
MISC
If you're keeping count, Councilman Voigts has now abstained more times than all other city council members combined. His 9 abstentions exceeds the total for all other members combined, which is only 1 each for Mayor Pro Tem Basile and Councilman Cagley.
Councilman Robinson apologized for misleading the Council and the residents at the last meeting when he claimed he was not the first person to appoint a Traffic/Parking Commissioner. At the time he made the claim, I corrected him, but he insisted he was right and I didn't belabor the point. At issue was a complaint from one of the applicants that by choosing right away and not listening to each applicant, Council members were showing bias and not giving applicants a fair chance. Personally I agreed and made my choice only after hearing every applicant. Because of the appearance of not being fair, the Council voted at the last meeting to revise the policy at a future meeting.
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 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 Oct 18 at 7 pm at the Lake 1 Clubhouse (Ridge Route).
