City Council Review for Feb 21

Tuesday night the Council meeting went until almost midnight. Among the decisions –

• Gateway hotel - approved (unanimous) with expressed desire for city staff and center owner to work together to improve traffic and parking. (Note – LSA was one of the companies representing the center. According to FPPC Forms 460 on the city's website, LSA gave $250 to Voigts' campaign committee on 10/5/2015, $249 to Robinson's committee on 10/3/2015, and $250 to Hamilton's committee on 9/30/2015. According to my records, Voigts, Robinson and Hamilton have always voted "yes" on any issue from any company that gave money to their campaign committees. Voigts, Robinson and Hamilton claim that accepting money does not influence their votes).
• CR&R contract extension – (approved 4 to 1). Contract was extended for one-year based on CR&R achieving double the amount of recycling called for. Public comment indicates CR&R may not be performing as well as WM did. Residents encouraged to report problems to City using ALF system, as well as directly calling CR&R. City gets very few complaints about CR&R. (Note – According to FPPC Forms 460 on the city's website, CR&R gave $1000 to Voigts' campaign committee on 10/5/2015 and $999 on 10/18/2014, $1000 to Robinson's committee on 8/17/2012, and $1000 to Hamilton's committee on 1/31/2015. According to my records, Voigts, Robinson and Hamilton have always voted "yes" on any issue from any company that gave money to their campaign committees. Voigts, Robinson and Hamilton claim that accepting money does not influence their votes ).
• Community Services replacement (this person is in charge of OC animal services, and the position is open since Steve Franks resigned) – at my suggestion Council will send a letter to Board of Supervisors suggesting the types of qualifications we are looking for in the replacement person.
• City Manager’s Secret Meetings – at my prompting staff agreed to verbally ask for permission for citizens to attend these secret meetings.
• “Safe space” – at the suggestion of Councilman Robinson the City will explore creating a “safe space” outside City Hall where people can conduct business (e.g., buyers and sellers from Craig’s list).
• Council salaries – postponed until next meeting.
• Cox Communications – was there to talk about their services. I asked “What can you do for Lake Forest?” I will follow up with a meeting with Cox staff to talk about (a) getting group rates for services by going through HOAs, (b) televising special events, and (c) a 30 minute per week TV show about local events.
• Wireless cells in the city – We asked the City to tell us how much revenue we can earn by expanding the small cell network (which will improve reception). Staff will report back to us at budget time.

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 February 25 at the Lake 1 Clubhouse from 2 to 4 pm.