Is "Fiscal Conservatism" Dead in Lake Forest? - Part 4

Last week we looked at the voting patterns of my colleagues and examined the extent to which they represented the actions of “fiscal conservatives”. To date we pointed out the following –

Dec 17, 2013 – Approved spending $$$ on expensive iPads for Council and Planning Commission members.

Jan 7, 2014 – Approved spending $10,000 per year to make state mandated filing easier for Council members.

Feb 4, 2014 - Eliminated “Investment Oversight Review” from agenda.

June 3, 2014 – Refused to look at alternatives to OCSD contract despite lack of competitive bidding.

Nov 18, 2014 – Voted to spend $210,630 on design for Village Pond Park (and later $1,000,000 for construction) when the problem of duck/geese overpopulation could have been solved for less than $10,000.

May 5, 2015 – Exempted a developer from building affordable homes on site, reducing the number of affordable homes from 30 to 4 and placing the burden on the City to make up the difference.

May 12, 2015 – Refused to ask department heads to seek 5% cuts in the 2015-16 proposed budget, failing to try to save a potential $2,000,000 annually.

May 19, 2015 – Refused to reduce the street sweeping schedule by 25% and save $200,000.

June 16, 2015 – Refused to allow Councilman Nick and me to set up an ad hoc committee to look at ways to save money in light of the $900,000 increase in the Police services budget.

(Note: Andrew Hamilton was not on the Council for the votes in 2013 and 2014)

Of course there’s nothing to say that you have to be fiscally conservative to be in government. Most elected officials are not truly fiscally conservative, which is why we all face economic challenges at the local, state, and federal levels. But to be elected in Orange County you have to paint yourself with the “fiscal conservative” brush – yet one look at the picture itself reveals the truth.

If there were “truth in advertising” laws that applied to elected officials, my colleagues would be at risk.

Personally I don’t know how to describe their philosophy, if they have one. And of course, as elected officials, I respect their right to vote their conscience and to do what they think is in the best interests of the City. But I do get annoyed when I hear, as I do all the time, that they are “fiscal conservatives”.

Note to my colleagues – If you want to call yourself a fiscal conservative, then vote the way a fiscal conservative would. Let’s trim budgets. Let’s save on government contracts where we can. Let’s not over-use the City’s money on travel expenses for ourselves. Let’s not vote for contracts that favor developers over taxpayers. Let’s get as many competitive bids as we can on all the services we contract for.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Apart from pointing out the discrepancies in what my colleagues say and what they do, this series of articles suggests a few changes should be implemented in the way government is functioning. Here are some changes I will recommend and I welcome your suggestions:

1. Require that all proposals be submitted to the Council at least one month in advance of the final date so that the Council has time to review, ask questions, get more information, etc. so that we can make the best decision possible.

2. Request that we spend more time on the budget process. Specifically, ask each Council member to be responsible for reviewing one Department in depth to offer cost savings suggestions.

3. Ask my colleagues to join me in giving preference to local businesses and individuals in spending City money.

4. Insist on competitive bidding on all projects, with no exemptions apart from such obvious examples at electricity, water, and other utilities.

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 over 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.

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