Garden Grove Exits OCAC - Bad News for Lake Forest

Just as I warned last week, Garden Grove did the right thing for the residents of Garden Grove – they axed the Orange County Animal Care Service (OCAC) and instead are going to an alternate service system that will cost them half as much and provide better service and better care.

Duh!

Who wouldn’t want better service, better care, and a lower price?

ANSWER

The Gang of 3. Lake Forest’s own inimitable City Council members known for taking special interest money, appointing campaign contributors to City positions, being disrespectful beyond belief to their own residents, and now as the only City Council to study alternatives and decide to stay with the County.

RSM – gone

Laguna Hills – gone

Garden Grove – gone

This has very bad implications for the City of Lake Forest. It means that our share of the construction costs and the operating costs will go up enormously. Unlike RSM and Laguna Hills, Garden Grove was a major user of the County service, in fact, the third major user. In 2014 (the most recent data available even though it’s 2016) they had 3,172 animals at the shelter, had 5,354 field services, and licensed 13,777 dogs. Lake Forest had only 431 animals, 2,277 field services, and 8,201 licensed dogs.

Taking Garden Grove out of the equation will raise our construction and our operating expenses. The OCAC Director Jennifer Hawkins was questioned about this by me last week and she was completely unable to give any answers. (Click Here). Our City staff recommended staying with OCAC but they too were completely unable to tell us what the implications were if Garden Grove left. (Click Here). Nonetheless the Gang of 3 voted to go ahead and wrote a blank check to OCAC. Now we know for sure that whatever that check was going to be, it is going to be higher.

At the next Council meeting I will recommend that we leave the OCAC in light of the Garden Grove decision. I’m pretty sure that the Gang of 3 will vote this down again, but I am ridiculously optimistic that they will do the right thing now that we’ve learned that Garden Grove has defected.

The right thing to have done, last week, was for the Gang of 3 to let the Lake Forest alternative plan go forward and delay the decision to go with OCAC until the end of May, which was allowed under the law. But they didn’t do that. In fact they have been voting to stay with OCAC for nearly a year, regardless of the Grand Jury reports, regardless of the wishes of the residents, and regardless of the economics.

FWIW - Decisions made by the City Councils at RSM, Laguna Hills, and Garden Grove were all unanimous. Lake Forest will be one of only two cities south of the 55 Freeway to remain with OCAC. 

This was one of the reasons that residents rose up and recalled the Gang of 3, and right now we are waiting for the results from the Registrar of Voters to confirm the 8,100+ signatures calling for a special election. In the meantime, the Gang of 3 have been asked to resign to save the City from the costs of a special election.

You can help. Sign the online petition just created that asks Voigts and Hamilton to resign. Click Here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebookand 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 August 13 at 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.