"Cool Hand Luke" in Lake Forest

In the classic film “Cool Hand Luke” the warden of the penitentiary (played by Strother Martin) explains the misbehavior of Luke (played by Paul Newman) by stating – “What we have here is a failure to communicate”. Those words keep echoing in my mind as we get ready to talk about the problems that surround Saddleback Ranch Rd (SRR). But SRR is only one example from a year filled with Cool Hand Luke moments…...

STREET SWEEPING

I wanted to explore ways to save money, and one of the people who attended my Town Hall meetings early in 2015 suggested that we adopt the procedure used by half the cities in Orange County – namely, reduce our street sweeping from weekly to every other week. I offered a less drastic alternative – once per week for half the year when the debris is heaviest, and every other week during the lightest part of the year. We could save as much as $200,000 doing it this way, and we’d still be doing it more often than half the cities in the County.

On January 6 the Council concurred and we asked the City staff to send out the RFP to reflect this alternative. But they sent out the wrong RFP! Instead of half the year weekly, and half the year every other week, they sent it out for weekly or every other week for the entire year. It’s not an easy mistake to make, but they made it, and when the bids came back we saw their error. I asked to re-bid the process, but my colleagues didn’t want to, and so the contract went to Athens Services who have been a generous contributor to Council members Voigts, Robinson, and Hamilton. But the point here is not the influence of special interest money (though it’s hard to avoid the mention), but rather the failure to communicate.

VILLAGE POND PARK

I’ve talked about this before, several times. (Click Here). On March 3, the Council specifically asked the staff to do a “quantitative study” of the impact of the ordinance to forbid feeding the wildlife, and to bring the study back before we reviewed the plans for the Park. My rationale was to save a lot of money (perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars) by avoiding structural changes to the Park designed to reduce the impact of the wildlife (primarily the Canada Geese), if we had already solved the problem using the ordinance. I spoke with the City Manager at length about ways to perform such a study.

We got back no quantitative study at all and barely any data whatsoever on what happened. During Council comments I got into a debate with the City Manager who said that the report was due after the park was remodeled. I disagreed and when I reviewed the tape of the Council meeting, I discovered that I was right and the City Manager was incorrect. I let him know and hoped to see the report. It’s now late in November and the construction on the re-modeled park was supposed to have already started, but we still have seen no report, much less plans.

WEBSITE FOR THE CITY

Beginning in December 2014 and then again in March 2015 we discussed the fact that the City’s website was “staff centric” rather than “resident centric” and two ways in which the staff was asked to improve the website included opening up the Calendar section to more community-wide events and listing more volunteer opportunities in the non-profit sector for organizations in the City. None of these things have been done.

Even more specifically, the staff were asked to change the name of the “Fallen Officers” page to “Fallen Heroes” so that we could incorporate the Firemen who lost their lives in the service of the City. This too has not been done.

ANIMAL CONTROL

On July 21 the Council asked the staff to explore alternatives to using the Orange County shelter, a shelter known for high killing rates, terrible care, and bad service. (Click Here). Months went by and as far as anyone knew the staff did barely anything, and when a report finally appeared on November 3, it had virtually nothing inside the report about alternatives to the animal shelter. Instead it focused on the existing shelter and basically promoted the idea of staying with the County. In fact, the staff concluded that time was running out if we were to do anything effective.

Given the time crunch, I offered a proposal from the premier company in the shelter planning industry, a proposal I received while I was doing my homework in this area. This proposal to do a needs assessment and provide preliminary construction and operating expenses would cost the City less than $10,000 which meant that it could be approved by the City Manager without Council consent, although I sought Council consent. But in my debate with the staff, there was a clear message sent that the proposal would require three competitive bids. I insisted this wasn’t the case, but the staff said it was. The Director of Finance and the Deputy City Manager, who were in attendance and who should have known I was right, remained silent. When I reviewed the tape the next day and insisted that the City Attorney provide the legal basis for their stand that the proposal needed three bids, lo and behold I was right. Three bids were not required. Council consent was not required. The City Manager had the authority to approve the proposal with competitive bids or Council consent. Go back and review the tape yourself if you think I’m exaggerating.

As a result of the mis-information or the failure to communicate, precious time has been lost. Our ability to explore alternatives to the County shelter suffered a severe setback and weeks have been lost while we are under a time crunch.

SUMMARY

These are but a few examples of Cool Hand Luke moments from the past year, all of them leading up to the SRR fiasco.

I’m not seeking to blame any one person or any group of people. I am simply stating some facts and impressions about the way things are being done, and not being done. I may have a naïve approach to the political process, but my impression is that the people elect the Council and the Council sets policy and direction. The staff are there to be sure we operate within the law and the constraints of sound business practice. If we ask for an RFP to be issued in a certain manner, it should be issued in that manner. If we want a quantitative analysis we should get a quantitative analysis, and if we want it before we get plans to re-model a park, that’s when it should appear. If we ask staff to give us a report on alternatives to using the County for animal control, we shouldn’t have to wait months and then not get the report we asked for. When staff give us advice during a meeting, the advice should be accurate, especially when it applies to procedures that are black and white. If staff tell us a construction project can’t be stopped until it’s completed, and then turn around and stop the project before it’s completed, you have to wonder.

Is this “As Good as it Gets”? Are we simply captives in Platos’ cave, chained to the walls of the bureaucracy, trying to give meaning to the shadows that pass before us? Is there not some better way to communicate?

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 Dec 12 at 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.

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