Looking Back - Part 2

Yesterday I looked at how well the city handled the normal government work during 2017. I concluded –

“We’re not particularly doing a better job, but we are handling more issues and addressing more problems, while additional stresses were placed on the staff.”

A few months ago I took great pride in thinking that during the 2017-8 years our City would do more than previous Councils had accomplished in any comparable time period. We would

• Transition to district elections
• Update the general plan
• Conduct professional level strategic planning
• Get Civic/Senior Center project started and completed
• Upgrade Village Pond Park
• Upgrade 10 neighborhood parks
• Carefully examine the provision of Police services
• Get a handle on the traffic and parking problems
• Move toward a no-kill shelter option

In the harsh glare of reality I am forced to re-evaluate my enthusiasm. Let’s look at what we’ve actually done over and above the normal machinations of government.

DISTRICT ELECTIONS

We hired a company who used a software program that was generations behind the times. This meant that anyone who tried to use the program experienced problems, which may account for the false positive submissions and the overall lack of submissions.

Then the company failed to meet almost every agreed upon deadline for publicly posting the maps.

When they showed up at our Council meetings, they were not particularly helpful, and for the final meeting they didn’t even show up.

When tasked by the Council to provide data, they didn’t comply, claiming that they didn’t know the answers.

The final result was a split decision on a topic that should have had a unanimous decision given how important it was. Moreover, the final map chosen was a map that split several communities of interest, which was something we were supposed to avoid if possible.

The entire process and the results are nothing to be proud of.

STRATEGIC PLANNING

What a disaster! We came out of this strategic planning process with nothing, apart from wasted time, energy, and expenses.

Even worse, the Council had delayed making some important decisions pending a successful strategic planning process that would aide us in making those decisions.

It was clear months ago that this process was going to be a disaster. Right after our first meeting with the consultants it was clear that they knew almost nothing about the city, nor were the questions they asked anything more than the bare basics. When the preview report appeared, it too was a disaster, showing clearly that the process was askew.

Then we had to suffer through the actual day-long session.

Once more, the entire process and the results are nothing to be proud of. Another waste of time, energy, and money.

VILLAGE POND PARK

The upgrade to Village Pond Park (VPP) has been a series of disasters after another. Failed estimates of the nature of the work have impeded the project from the start. The people tasked with moving the animals doubled the price they charged us, and given the circumstances, we were forced to pay. Problems with the wall and unstable ground are threatening to dramatically increase the costs of the project and add months to the projected completion.

Once more, the entire process and the results are nothing to be proud of. I suppose when you undertake such projects you do risk running into these types of problems, but it isn’t a requirement, and I have to wonder whether a better job could have been done analyzing the situation in the first place.

TRAFFIC AND PLANNING

Mayor Pro Tem Basile and I urged that we create a separate Commission but our colleagues on the Council forced the traffic issues to go to the Planning Commission.

More than 6 months later, what do we have? Nothing! Not a single proposal has come from the Planning/Traffic Commission, and according to what I’m told by people who attend the meetings, no one on the Commission seems to know what they are doing. They complain that they have no guidance from the Council, yet 3 members of the Council gave them specific areas to examine and even a budget to get this accomplished.

I’ve asked for a report summarizing what they’ve done, so I’ll have to reserve my final judgments until I review the report, but I’m not hopeful.

ANIMAL CARE

The Council decided to see what would happen if we added a Public Education Officer (PEO) to our budget. Would we see more dog license income? More fines for dogs off leash? Quicker responses to picking up dead animals?

We decided to do a limited test. I asked for criteria to be developed so that we were in a position to evaluate the results. I wanted before and after comparisons so we could do an adequate evaluation, and I wanted agreement on these issues so that everyone knew what we wanted to accomplish and whether or not we accomplished it.

Somehow the person got hired even though the criteria were never established. It cost the City $6,000 per month for August through October. For our $18,000 here is what we got –

• 10 citations
• 1 dog license

If that seems pathetic, it is actually a marvelous achievement, considering that in the same 3-month period in 2016 the PEO issued no citations and obtained no dog licenses. Don’t ask me why we have PEOs who issue no citations or obtain no licenses.

Once more, our achievements are meager. Wasted time and wasted money.

OTHER AREAS

I could go on, but surely the most enthusiastic supporters of the City must be alarmed. Briefly, here are more problems in the last few months –

• For months, maybe even more than a year, we’ve been promised a comprehensive accident data base report, but it never appears. Staff makes decisions about traffic and traffic signs in relationship to accidents, but no one seems to know if any given accident at any given intersection is more or less in frequency and severity than anywhere else. What kind of a way is that to run government?
• It’s been more than a year since I tried to get a shade for the new dog park, and still we don’t have it up yet. Can it really be that hard to select, buy, and install a shade. My wife did it in 2 weeks for our patio.
• The Police Dept. told us that they could help with the parking problems if we gave them a new officer at a cost of $120,000 per year and $30,000 for the car. I toured one day and looked at what they were doing and it didn’t seem to address solving the parking problems at all. So we asked the Police to provide us with some key performance indicators so we could determine whether or not the $120,000 (+$30,000) was actually addressing the problem. Months later we have nothing. Fortunately the Police are so slow to fill this position that we haven’t lost any money yet, as we did with the animal care officer. Should we just throw money at a problem with no plan and no objectives?

I could keep going but it’s just too depressing.

On the other hand, there were a few successes and I’ll cover these next time.

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. Follow him on Twitter @DrJimGardner. 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 mini town meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be Thursday Feb 15 at 7 pm at the Beach and Tennis Club.