Looking Back - Part 5

Yesterday we discussed my attempts to involve more people in government. Briefly –

• Held nearly two dozen town hall meetings.
• Wrote over 1,000 articles that appeared in The Patch.
• Created and edited a Facebook page (Lake Forest Town Square) where 700 residents and I communicate everyday
• Attended over 300 city events and ribbon cuttings.
• Conducted more than 200 office hours at City Hall
• Produced three dozen “monthly reports”
• Made over 5,000 entries on online pages
• Personally helped more than 200 residents with their problems
• Worked with a dozen groups to assist them with city issues.
• Acted in a defacto PR capacity for many nonprofit groups

CONSENSUS

Since I joined the Council the majority of the consensus items every year originated with me. The majority of the rest of the items originated with either Councilman Nick (2014-16) or Mayor Pro Tem Basile (2017).

SUCCESSFUL LEGISLATIVE EFFORTS

2015-16

For the first 2 years I was on the Council, the voting was controlled by the “Gang of 3” who voted in unison 90%+ of the time, so many of my efforts were thwarted. Despite being outvoted much of the time I managed to produce some notable results –

• My complaints about how little interest income the City earned led to an ad hoc committee composed of Andrew Hamilton, the City Manager, the Finance Director, and me. We tweaked the policies and doubled our interest income.
• I pushed strongly for a Traffic Commission, which was defeated, but I did manage to get a new Traffic and Planning Commission so that our parking and traffic issues could be better dealt with. Adam Nick was a big supporter of the Traffic Commission.
• I pushed for a local no-kill shelter, which was defeated, but managed to get an animal adoption center started and managed to get the Council to require better data management from the County. I got a lot of help from Adam Nick, Rose Tingle, Cherie Anderson, and other animal activists.
• For years the city had no idea how much property it owned, what it was worth, where it was located, etc. I managed to get a comprehensive list and then got action going on using this land. We sold one piece of unused and unslightly land for nearly $1,000,000.
• I fought for and got a new dog park in the proposed Portola Hills community park which should be completed next year (Prior to getting on Council, as a private citizen, my efforts created the first dog park which is next to Baker Ranch).
• I fought for and got the end of the Saddleback Ranch Rd dangerous modifications, despite claims that it couldn’t be stopped. I got a lot of help from Councilman Adam Nick and Leah Basile and her community group.
• At my instigation we revised completely the procedures surrounding the granting of alcohol licenses. Though I’m saddened by the number of alcohol licenses that continue to be granted, at least we are instituting better controls now.
• At my instigation we rethought the way we deal with parking issues and came up with a comprehensive policy. I got a lot of support from Carlo Tomaino, Councilman Adam Nick, and from dozens of residents who came to the Council. We still have a long way to go, but at least we have a comprehensive policy in place which already has shown some limited successes.
• I took the lead on moving forward with the plans for the Civic and Senior Center, attended all the public meetings, and met often with staff to move the project along. Debra Rose was a big help to me in getting this done. Prior to my involvement the Civic Center project was sitting dead in the water. I am still meeting with staff to make this a truly excellent resource for the city.
• I took the lead on developing better procedures for awarding CDBG grants, including more rigorous data collection. Jessica Gonzales was very helpful in this endeavor.
• I took the lead on getting the wildlife feeding prohibition passed. Councilman Nick helped get this done. Once Village Pond Park is reopened, I have assurances from the new City Manager that it will actually be enforced.
• I’ve been the strongest advocate for people with special needs and with my encouragement we have expanded our dances from annual to quarterly, introduced the Special Needs Resource Fair, and dramatically increased our classes. Recreation Director Scott Wasserman has been an enormous help here, and I’ve had lots of great input from parents.
• I took the lead on and pushed for a revision in the City’s website to make it more responsive to citizens. This led to a broadening of the calendar, an entire section called “How do I”, listing crime statistics, etc. We need to do more, but it certainly is better than it was.

The items listed above are issues that I took the lead on and managed to get accomplished under difficult circumstances. Obviously I didn’t accomplish these things by myself, but in each case I was the driving force.

2017

In 2017 Mayor Pro Tem Basile joined the Council and since that time I have been able to get the following accomplished –

• Mobile apps. I took the lead on pushing for mobile apps in the city, not only for our shop and dine but also for all city functions. In September we launched our mobile shop and dine app and I am looking forward to the city-wide mobile app being up by mid- 2018. These apps will make communication between the city and the residents much more effective and efficient.
• Saving $1,000,000 on General Plan. I urged my fellow Council members to do a focused General Plan that would give us guidance on those things that are important for the future of the city. They agreed. The new General Plan will come in under budget and 1 year earlier, and it will avoid meaningless narrative and get down to those issues facing our city – revitalizing retail areas, avoiding more overcrowding in the schools and more traffic in the streets. Mayor Pro Tem Basile and Councilman Robinson were big supporters of this initiative.
• Created Veterans Park. I got the inspiration for this idea from a comment on Lake Forest Town Square. Councilman Robinson joined me in promoting the idea and we are well on our way to having a park to memorialize the service of Veterans to our community. Mayor Pro Tem Basile attended many of the planning meetings with me and about a dozen veterans.
• Transitioning to district elections. Years ago Councilman Nick and I urged our colleagues to move to district elections, but we lost. In 2017, under threat of a multi-million dollar lawsuit, I got consensus to move ahead and we are now positioned to have the 2018 elections based on districts, despite opposition from Councilmen Hamilton and Voigts. Council members Basile and Robinson helped enormously here, as did the Cityy Attorney.
• Affordable housing for Veterans. I pushed for and got consensus to begin using our affordable housing funds. They had been sitting there for years, unused, even while everyone recognizes the need for affordable housing. I hope this project will begin before the end of 2018. Council members Basile and Robinson were helpful here.

There were many issues that I contributed to (e.g., paying off the unfunded liability, parks renovation, resolved affordable housing at Saguaro, etc.) but these are not listed, as I was one of several people who contributed to these efforts and I didn’t take the lead on these issues.

TEAMWORK

None of the things that have been accomplished could have been done without the support of the city staff and at least a few members of the Council.

FAILED ATTEMPTS

Along the way I have a pretty long list of failures to go with the successes. These are initiatives I tried to pass but were defeated. Here’s a sample -

• Create a No Kill Shelter
• Pass an Anti-Corruption Ordinance
• Establish a Community Foundation to help the needy in our city.
• Establish a Public Safety Committee to help reduce crime
• Allow Meals on Wheels to use vacant space in City Hall
• Get IRWD to supply Lake 1 and Lake 2 with recycled water for the lakes.
• Get TCA to offer free one week pass to new residents to use on the 241 toll road.
• Stricter street sweeping regulations and better operations.

These failed initiatives are not dead and I hope to revisit some of them them in 2018.

IN THE HOPPER

I pushed for several initiatives that the Council will be considering in the near future.

• Expanding the Child Safety Classes from the existing one class to a second more advanced class.
• Extending the Leadership Academy from the existing course to an advanced course designed to prepare people to sit on Commissions and on the Council.
• Improving communication between the City and our major stakeholders (e.g., HOA Presidents, top employers, church groups, nonprofit groups). Councilman Robinson is helping me on this.
• Creating an ordinance to define how to fill a vacancy if a Councilman resigns, dies, or otherwise leaves office.
• Creating an ad hoc committee to work with SVUSD on issues such as busing, overcrowding, traffic, after school programs, etc. Mayor Voigts is particularly supportive of this initiative.

THAT’S ABOUT IT

I leave it to you to decide whether or not my achievements to date are satisfactory.

Next time we'll look forward and see what needs to be done to improve performance.

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.