Good News Lake Forest - Things Are Getting Done

Earlier this week I discussed the “same old stuff” that came up at the Feb 21 City Council meeting. We had more examples of the corruption of the democratic process when City Council members take money through their campaign committees from developers and people with City contracts and then vote to give them what they want. We also saw the “group-think” of the Voigts-Hamilton-Robinson cartel who vote together more than 90% of the time on issues while independent Council members vote together about 50% of the time. And we saw how poor the staff reports were from our Planning Department on the Gateway center.

But there is good news as well. Yesterday I reported that our efforts at graffiti abatement were wildly successful, even if the approach did start a little late. Today I want to report about some of the progress we are making in getting things done.

VOIGTS’ VOID IN DANGER

For years I have been bemoaning the fact that we have dozens of items on the back burner and sometimes it can takes years before an issue comes to fruition. When I worked in Internet Marketing this approach would mean going out of business quickly. I could not ever get a list from the City about what the items were. They magically appeared or did not appear, seemingly at random. Of course a great deal of the blame has to go to the people who occupied the Mayor’s seat. Had they been more insightful and forceful they might have squeezed the blood from the turnip: but they weren’t, and the turnip wasn’t willing to yield either.

Just last week we received an “Assignment List” that covers more than a dozen items waiting to be handled. Some of them can wait and some should go to the head of the line. But until now we had no list so assigning priorities was difficult. This is a big step forward in getting our government to work better (I'll have more about this list in a future article and I'll see your opinions about what items to push forward).

WEBSITE MODIFICATIONS

People on Lake Forest Town Square were wondering about the Community Development Block Grant program, a process by which the City can give money to nonprofits that help Lake Forest residents (Click here). I went to our website and searched for the information, but couldn‘t find it. So I sent an e-mail to the City Manager asking where it was, and the next thing I know, there are multiple links on the website directing people to the information (Click here or here). In the past I’m accustomed to being told that decisions about modifications of the website are complicated, that the city staff needs to get direction from the Council as a whole instead of the ideas of any one member, etc. etc. This meant that almost nothing got done. Now suddenly changes got done, and not merely done, but done quickly.

SIGN OF THE TIMES

For years I’ve been embarrassed by the make-shift signs that the City uses to advertise our events. It looked like something your granddaughter would make to advertise her lemonade stand. Imagine my surprise when I was going to one of the last events and the City had upgraded our signs. I’m not sure they yet reflect the signage you expect from a $42 million a year company, but they are so much better than what we have been using for 25 years.

TRY A BETTER WAY

I’ve been a member of the Parade Committee for a decade, and every year 50 residents volunteer their time to put on a great event. We begin meeting in January and continue right up until the event. But a lot of what we were doing was repetitive and maybe not the best use of time. So imagine my surprise when at the first meeting of the year, the new staff coordinator said that she wanted to streamline the process. She figured out a way to save time and use people more productively. When was the last time you heard a City staff member make a change to improve things and be more effective. It does happen, every so often, but it’s been a rare event indeed. I’m looking forward to more positive changes.

Next time we’ll look at some more positive changes.

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.