Do We Put Lake Forest First?

One of my major themes over the past years is how little the City spends on its own businesses and people. The first time I looked it was a mere 5% (out of $40 Million) and since that time it slipped to less than 2%. It’s a disgrace. The City hires businesses from other cities even when there is a business here that could do the job. We hire dozens of individuals to work as entertainers, teachers, instructors, and even employees and none of them live here. Almost all of the highly paid people in our local government do not live here.

It makes no sense.

If we spend an extra $ Million on our own people and businesses, that sales tax revenue would come back to our own City. Instead it goes to some other City.

Other cities have provisions that give priority to their local businesses, but we do not. Not only do we NOT have a preference, my colleagues have decided NOT to have a preference. So much for that slogan that they collectively chant when they tell you they are “business friendly”.

I have tried working with staff, but I must confess that I get nothing but resistance at all levels. Staff is set in their ways. They continually chant “stay the course”. That translates into – “Let’s do nothing new, even if it could be better!” Anytime you raise the possibility of doing something better, the first response you get is “We’ve never done that before”. If you get a second response, it is usually “I can see some problems….” With so many other issues getting my attention (e.g., the need to get alternatives to the Police contract so that we don’t spend all of our money on Police services, our need to expand the use of reclaimed water, the need to improve animal care, providing for a local “Meals on Wheels” program for needy seniors, the need for the City to reduce our water consumption, reducing the costs of government, etc.) I’ve been unable to give this issue the attention it deserves. After hitting the wall a few times, with staff that obviously are not concerned with this issue nor willing to do the extra work required to re-orient our service delivery system, it’s been on my back burner.

So I was delighted when I saw that the agenda for the last meeting (July 21) contained an item (# 8) that called for an amendment to the newsletter printing and mailing contract. Click Here. This is a $96,551 contract currently held by a company from Anaheim. The contract used to be held by a Lake Forest company (The PM Group) but it was given to the Anaheim-based company a year ago. From what I understand the current company is doing a satisfactory job, but so did the PM Group. The PM Group lost their contract on a competitive bid, so now was the chance to put the contract out to bid again, and see if they could get it back, and we could keep the dollars at home. Not only is the PM Group a local business, the owner lives in Lake Forest, so there is an even greater reason to award the contract to the PM Group, assuming they came in with the lowest bid.

(Note: I never received any campaign contributions from anyone in the PM Group, and as far as I know, never even socialized with anyone from there.)

Prior to the meeting I called the owner and asked him if he planned to bid on the contract if it was put out to bid. He said “Yes” and said that he would be at the meeting to ask that instead of automatically giving a one-year extension to the Anaheim company, the City put it out to bid so he could apply.

He did, I supported him, and my colleagues voted against me, 4 to 1, denying the bid process and spending another $96,551 in Anaheim instead of back home. So they voted against competitive bidding and they voted against spending our money at home. Did I miss something?

IMHO people who represent the City of Lake Forest should go out of their way to support businesses and people who live in the City. I don’t want to start an economic war with our neighboring cities, but many of them give preferences to their local businesses, so why don’t we do the same thing. Because we don’t, our businesses work at a distinct dis-advantage. In talking to the Council, Paul McKinney, owner of the PM Group, gave us several examples.

I keep saying “Put Lake Forest First” But my colleagues and the staff are clearly not on board.

This is not an isolated incident. Tomorrow I’ll continue with an entire multi-part series that talks about recent votes that seem paradoxical given the promises that come from my colleagues.

COMMENTS

It came to my attention that at times the COMMENTS section of the Patch doesn’t work. I have no control over this. I can neither enable or disabled the Comments section nor can I delete or edit other people’s work. If you encounter this problem, please notify the Patch. If you want to discuss the issues raised in these articles you’re welcome to join nearly 300 of us at Lake Forest Town Square, or you can e-mail me individually, come to my office hours, or attend my Town hall meetings.

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 month. The next meeting will be on August 15 at 2 pm at the El Toro Public Library.