City Council Review for March 1

Yesterday we looked at the theatrics surrounding Tuesday night’s Council meeting, and today we’ll look at what happened vis-à-vis the agenda.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING WORKSHOP

We had an informative affordable housing workshop and the Council asked the staff to move forward on some initiatives we might take to provide more affordable housing in the City. There was some interest in housing for homeless veterans.

CAMPAIGN SIGNS

The Council decided to accept the staff report, with a few changes –

· Size of signs increased from 2 square feet to 4 square feet

· Time before election increased from 45 to 60 days

· Time after election increased from 5 to 10 days

In addition, the Council agreed 4 to 1 (Hamilton dissenting) to keep campaign signs out of the public right-of-way.

While the meeting continued, staff revised the draft ordinance so that we could adopt it at the end of the meeting. Because the meeting was not allowed to conclude as expected, the ordinance could not be voted on.

4TH OF JULY PARADE

The Council agreed to ask participants to volunteer the use of their cars, instead of spending $5,000 of taxpayer money to rent cars. If the Committee can’t get enough volunteers, then they can rent the cars. If you have a convertible, think about driving it in the Parade and hosting one of our City Council members or distinguished guests. We need 10 cars. I’m donating my Camaro convertible, so that’s only 9 we need.

KINDNESS

There was much debate about the “kindness” initiative. Councilman Nick said it was a good idea, but not a good time, considering the behavior of some of the people on the Council. Several residents also commented on the behavior of Council members and the incongruence between passing a “kindness” ordinance while acting in an extremely unkindly manner. The recent “Community News” racist attack on Adam Nick was mentioned by several people.

Councilman Nick motioned to put off the resolution until enough time had gone by for the Council to exhibit some “kind” behavior, and I seconded it. Councilmen Voigts and Hamilton preferred going ahead now because they argued that we need to promote volunteerism in the City. I found their argument specious, since these same people voted against a Nonprofit Community Foundation, an Animal Welfare Commission, a Dog Park Committee, a Traffic Commission, etc. They also offered weak support and no follow-up to my request for the City website to have more links to the many volunteer organizations in the City, something the City staff has still not done. So the sudden concern with volunteerism did not appear sincere to me, at least based on past behavior.

In the middle of the discussion, Mayor Hamilton had a “hissy fit” and adjourned the meeting, over my objections.

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 on March 26 at 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.

#!%$dY