Lake Forest 2018 Part 5 (Improving How Govt Works)

I’m spending a week going through our achievements during the past 4 years. So far we discussed Finances, Safety, Communications and Business, Quality of Life and Promoting the City. Today we’ll discuss Improving the Way Government Works.

GETTING GOVERNMENT TO WORK BETTER

• Real Term Limits. Councilmen Voigts and Robinson created a system that allowed people to serve for 24 of 26 years. Mayor Pro Tem Basile and I pushed for a term limits of 8 years and it passed with 80% approval by the voters.
• Mayor’s Award. I wanted to recognize outstanding achievement by staff so I initiated and got approval for a “Mayor’s Award” and the first one will be given in December. Mayor Pro Tem Basile is helping with this project. (See Photo)
  
• Traffic and Parking Commission. For years I pushed for a Traffic and Parking Commission. Councilmen Voigts and Robinson opposed me every time. This year, with Andrew Hamilton off the Council, we approved a Traffic and Parking Commission that began in September. Curiously enough, Voigts and Robinson voted in favor. With Jim Richert at the helm they are already getting lots of things done.
• I pushed for mandated written reports from the City Manager and from Council members who sat on committees. I added weekly reports from the City Attorney. All these measures have helped us communicate better.
• Mayor Pro Tem Basile and I pushed to get City Hall open 5 days a week every week. Previously the City Hall was closed every other Friday. (See Photo)
• Tracking List. In past years issues and projects got lost, sometimes for years. I asked for a tracking list for all Council agenda items, and we’ve been able to stay on track. (See Photo)
• Office Hours. I instituted office hours and spent over 300 hours being available to residents. In that time 100 people showed up and we helped resolve more than 40 problems/issues. Mayor Pro Tem Basile continues to offer office hours.

Our City government has never worked so well. We are making fewer mistakes, the quality of our reports has grown enormously, we are getting more done in less time, and staff are energized and looking to achieve excellence. It's a dramatic change. Needless to say some Departments are doing better than others.

POINT OF VIEW

I’ve spent some time going through my achievements. The list is long and impressive. On some of these I have been the sole author and on most of them I have been the major mover. On all of these, the assistance of the staff has been essential, and on many of these, some members of the Council have also contributed. But make no mistakes, the impetus to achieve all the items listed in these articles came from me being on the Council, even when the original idea came from elsewhere. For example –

• The idea to make us debt-free came from the Finance Director who came up with it when I prompted him “What else can we be doing?” So kudos go to him for setting this in motion.
• The idea for a Veterans Park came from discussions on Lake Forest Town Square. I took it to the Council and got support from Mayor Pro Tem Basile and Col. Tom Cagley.
• The idea of opening up City Hall 5 days a week every week came from Adam Nick, but he wasn’t able to get support for it. When Col. Cagley joined the Council in January we had enough support to make the change when I introduced it. Once again Mayor Pro Tem Basile was a big supporter.
• The idea for a South OC Entrepreneur’s Academy came from Economic Development Director Carlo Tomaino from a committee I created on Business Development.

With these exceptions, the impetus for doing everything else came from me. It’s unusual for a Lake Forest City Council member to take such an active stance in determining the direction that the City goes in. For almost the entire history of the City, the Council took its direction from the City Manager and rubber stamped his ideas. To me that was never an acceptable model. The City Manager is there to carry out the wishes of the Council, and the Council is there to carry out the wishes of the people. Having a Council sit back and wait for their directions from the City Manager is not how government should work, at least in my opinion.

I campaigned on the basis of the new ideas I had for how the City should change, and unlike many other Council members, I did what I said I was going to do. The City is stronger today as a result of this.

Next time I’ll add the progress the City made in other areas in which I was less involved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest where he serves as Mayor. 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.