Looking Back - Part 4

It’s always good to take stock of what you’ve done and what you haven’t done. In addition to looking at the City, I like to do an annual review of my own achievements on the City Council, and here is my latest, covering 2017 but also the last 3 years.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

• Held nearly two dozen town hall meetings, attended by a few hundred people. These meetings not only let me tell people what’s happening, they proved to be an excellent source of opinion about how we can do a better job. Ideas raised at these meetings made their way onto the dais and sometimes into law.
• Wrote over 1,000 articles that appeared in The Patch. Most of them are informational about what’s happening in the city, but in addition I wrote a pre and post Council article for nearly every Council meeting. Occasionally I dipped my foot into politics, but these articles, as memorable as they may be, were in the minority.
• Edited a Facebook page (Lake Forest Town Square) where residents and I communicate everyday on hundreds of issues. We now have nearly 700 members. Ideas raised on this forum made their way onto the dais and sometimes into law.
• Attended over a dozen meetings of homeowner associations and community groups to better communicate.
• Attended over 300 city events and ribbon cuttings. On nearly half of these I was the only City Council person present.
• Conducted more than 200 office hours at City Hall where anyone can show up and talk to a Councilman. I’m pleased to say that Mayor Pro Tem Basile now conducts her own Office hours.
• Produced three dozen “monthly reports” published on The Patch and distributed to more than 1,000 residents.
• Made over 5,000 entries on online pages ( Neighborhood Watch, Better Council, Lake Forrest, El Toro, etc.) discussing city topics and providing information and resources to people.

HELPING RESIDENTS

• I personally helped more than 200 residents with their problems with the city. Examples include speeding on streets, noise from IRWD facilities, upswing in crime, parking issues, storage of city property, fountains not working, etc. City staff, especially Public Works, was very helpful in getting these things done.

• I worked with a dozen groups (e.g., El Toro Mobile Estates, Lake 1 HOA, Bennett Ranch HOA, Woodside HOA, Catholic Church) to assist them with issues such as traffic, parking, creek erosion, city owned landscape, etc. The support of Councilman Adam Nick and Mayor Pro Tem Basile was helpful in many of these actions.
• I acted in a defacto PR capacity for many nonprofit groups (e.g., Soroptimists, Kiwanis, Marine Support Group, Garden Club), advertising their fund-raising and other activities on the Patch and on my Facebook page.

WISE STEWARDSHIP

When I came onto the Council I noticed that several of our policies seemed to be illegal, or at the best, questionable. City staff assured me that I was being alarmist and that the City had operated this way for years with no problems. I persisted, and eventually some long entrenched practices were revised or put under revision (e.g., permit parking, granting alcohol licenses). In the meantime, cities have in fact been sued over these issues. Through my intervention we have been spared the expense and trouble of lawsuits. In fact, during my 3 years we have been less litigious than ever before. In 2017, for example, Council members Hamilton and Voigts tried to challenge a law firm who had been successful in winning millions of dollars from cities, but I fought against doing this, and with the help of Council members Robinson and Basile we avoided a multi-million dollar expense.

Tomorrow I want to focus on legislative issues.

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 town hall meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be Feb 15 at 7 pm at the Beach and Tennis Club.