Council Preview for May 19 - Part 2

Last time we looked at Graffiti, Parking Permits, and the City Website. Today our focus is on street sweeping.

STREET SWEEPING BIDS

Street sweeping costs the City nearly $1,000,000 for a 3 year contract, so it’s a pretty hefty fee. At one of my town hall meetings, residents suggested that we switch from sweeping every week to sweeping every other week (aka biweekly or alternate weekly) during the part of the year when there are fewer leaves on the ground (Spring and Summer). Many cities do this, and the savings are considerable. I spoke with IRWD executives to determine whether or not in cities where this is the practice, there were significant problems (e.g., excess debris in the drains and water system) and was told that there weren’t.

Staff went out and got two sets of bids. For weekly sweeping, the cheapest bid was $317,160/yr from the current street sweeper (Athens). For bi-monthly, the lowest bid was $169,246/yr from our current waste management company (CR&R). So that’s a difference of $147,914 per year or $443,742 over the 3 years of the contract.

(FWIW – Both Athens and CR&R have been generous contributors to the campaign committees of some City Council members. CR&R gave $1000 to Councilman Robinson on 8/17/12 and to Mayor Voigts they gave $999 on 10/18/14. Athens gave $250 to Robinson on 10/24/13 and another $250 on 2/10/12. They gave $1000 to Voigts on 7/16/14 and another $250 on 10/11/11.)

Unfortunately staff did not get the bid they were requested to get. The current bid they got is labeled “bi-monthly”. Bi-monthly (aka twice per month) means that there would be 24 sweepings per year instead of the current 52 sweepings. But the staff was tasked with bi-weekly for half the year, which translates into 26 (weekly) + 13 (bi-weekly) or 39 sweepings per year. Hence the numbers we have before us are not the correct numbers, although I suspect we could extrapolate and project that the lowest figure for bi-weekly (as requested) is about $250,000 which is a savings of $67,000 per year or $200,000 over the 3 years. That’s a nice hunk of change.

STREETS NOT SWEPT

Since we’re on the subject of street sweeping, we should talk about what I find to be one of the most common complaints of residents – the poor job the street sweeper does because people leave their cars on the street. While the City staff assures us that everyone knows that streets are swept on the day after the garbage is picked up, in my travels I’ve discovered that most people don’t know this, and neither did I until I asked. The reason people are unaware is that there are very few signs in the City- the staff report says only 128 signs in the entire City.

It’s clear that for street sweeping to improve, people need to know when the streets are being swept, and this can be done relatively easily by some aggressive public education campaigns and by placing more signs at strategic locations. For example, I live in an area with hundreds of homes, but only one way in/out. Not every street needs a sign, but a sign at the entrance or exit would suffice to educate hundreds of people.

There is another area where we can make improvements. It’s been brought to my attention that in some neighborhoods, on the day after garbage is picked up, people leave their trash containers on the street when they leave for work and don’t put them away until they get home at night. That means that when the street sweeper comes by, in addition to unmoved cars, there are trash containers occupying the street. I don’t know how wide spread this is, but it certainly merits some research to be sure that street sweeping the day after garbage is picked up is the right choice.

AFFORDABLE HOMES

At the last Council meeting, the 3 Council members who received nearly $100,000 from builders and developers voted to allow Baker Ranch to build 250 homes in the 30- acres plot opposite the Sports Park. That was expected. Money talks! But what wasn’t expected was their decision to allow the developer to pay “in lieu” fees instead of building the required affordable homes on site. As detailed extensively on these pages a few weeks ago (Click Here), this means that instead of 30 affordable homes being built, we will be able to build only 4. Such a decision is not defensible, and in fact, my 3 colleagues (Voigts, Robinson, and Hamilton) made no attempt to explain their vote on this particular issue.

It’s not too late. The second reading of the ordinance allowing Baker Ranch to proceed comes up on Tuesday night and my colleagues have a chance for second thoughts and partial redemption.

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 3 pm to 5 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a mini town meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be on August 15 at 2 pm at the El Toro Public Library.