Council Preview for March 7 - Part 2

Yesterday we looked at 3 of the issues coming up tonight at the City Council. Today we look at 2 more -

COUNCIL COMPENSATION

Council compensation was on the last agenda (Click Here) but we were too tired to intelligently discuss the issue last time, so it appears again. This time we have a staff report that reveals the following –

• 1991 - $600 per month
• 2006 - $659 per month
• 2008 - $704 per month

In 2006 the Council adopted an ordinance (2006-20) that required that Council compensation be reviewed every two years, and that any increases “shall be based on the cumulative amount of the previous two years’ CPI…” Any increase is capped at no more than 5%.

Some people would say that given the performance of some Council members, $704 per month is far too much to pay, and I’m not going to argue that point.

CDBG GRANTS

The Federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program is administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. CDBG is a formula grant allocated to local governments for the purpose of developing viable urban communities by providing decent housing, a suitable living environment, and expanding economic opportunities, principally for persons of low and moderate income.

Staff estimates that we will have $400,000 to allocate, slightly more than in previous years, and with various other sources, more than $532,000 can be spent. Public outreach was conducted late last year.

Here are the proposed spending for public service grants -

• Camino Health Center (Lake Forest) - $13,500 for health services to 1,350 low income Lake Forest residents.
• South County Outreach (Irvine) - $9,500 for food pantry to assist 1,600 Lake Forest residents.
• Families Forward (Irvine) - $9,000 for transitional housing to support 18 Lake Forest residents and 35 Lake Forest residents in homeless prevention..
• SVUSD (Mission Viejo) - $7,750 for before and after school programs for 12 low income Lake Forest children through The Learning Connection.
• AgeWell Senior Services (Laguna Woods) - $7,250 for in home care and case management for 16 senior (over 62) Lake Forest residents.
• Vocational Visions - $5,000 for job training for 38 disabled Lake Forest residents.

The total is $60,000.

In addition, staff proposes spending $63,000 on program administration

• Administration – $57,000
• Fair housing - $6,000 for services to 75 households

In addition, staff proposes to spend

• ADA ramp improvement - $175,000 (15 ramps)
• Neighborhood Paint Pride Program - $30,000 (grants from $3,500 to $5,000 for low to moderate income families)
• Housing Rehabilitation Loan Program - $204,236 (maximum loans of $30,000 to single family homes and $15,000 to mobile homes).

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 in May.