Meeting the Challenges of Engaging the People

We’re discussing how to meet the challenges of the new Lake Forest which is emerging. We’ve discussed the need for improved quality assurance, enhanced research capabilities, better public safety, and creating an atmosphere in which staff can flourish. Today I want to discuss creating an atmosphere in which the residents can become team members in creating the new Lake Forest.

WHAT NOT TO DO

The easiest thing is to point out what not to do. We’ve suffered enormously in the recent past by mistreating our residents to such an extent that we underwent two recall efforts. Look at what Councilman Hamilton did during his stint as Mayor –

• Threatened people with Police action because they were talking even though he demanded that they be silent.
• Treated residents and staff like 6 year olds by putting them in “time out” until he got over his temper tantrum.
• Cut people off in mid-sentence when they were talking about a topic Hamilton didn’t want discussed.
• Violated the Brown Act so that he could personally attack a resident, and when reprimanded by the City Attorney, continued.

etc. etc. Click Here to read the depressing story.

When you read it now you think this can’t be right. Did this happen in an American city at City Council meetings over a period of 12 months? Yes it did, and apart from a few hearty people with high levels of self-respect, few people criticized him.

Many people who attended those meeting never came back to a City Council meeting.

It seems ludicrous to point out that if you want people to be involved, you treat them with respect. But this sophism masks a little nasty secret. There are people on the Council and on the staff who don’t want people involved. They don’t want to be second guessed. They have their special interests to protect and promote and they don’t want anything distracting from that.

In the upcoming strategic planning sessions we need Council and staff to re-dedicate themselves to being public servants, and to accept everything that this implies. There is no single action more important for a new Lake Forest to be successful.

HOW DO WE ENLARGE THE TALENT POOL?

We need to do more to get people engaged in government. I’ve asked the City Manager to add a new Leadership Academy course aimed at people who intend to get further involved. Our one existing course is great, but it’s merely introductory. More time to explore government problems and processes will make for an informed community.

Of course we’re going to have to take a look at how we appoint people. Almost all of the appointments made by the Gang are to their small circle of campaign contributors and close friends. Shamefully, this is done even when there are better candidates for the roles. The result is we have Commissions with people who don’t show up to their own meetings, who can spend a year and never actually make a motion or even second a motion, who rarely show up at city events, who have no experience by education or training in areas where it takes more than a nice smile to make a contribution. The Traffic Advisory Group did such a poor job even the Council dismissed it, and then revived the important issue by tacking it on to the Planning Commission. These actions would all be funny if they didn’t impact our lives.

HOW CAN WE TAP INTO OUR STRENGTHS

CEO FORUM - Councilman Robinson and I are helping organize a Top CEO Forum where we hope to draw on the talents and experience of our largest businesses, not merely hoping to assist the City, but looking for ways the City can help the businesses. There are all sorts of public/private projects waiting to be started that will enhance the businesses prospects while improving our quality of life. I’m hoping this CEO Forum will evolve into a Business Council and work closely with the City as we re-vitalize our industrial and commercial areas.

HOA FORUM - Mayor ProTem Basile and I are working on an HOA Forum in a similar fashion to the CEO Forum. We want to bring together representatives from the residential parts of the City (including non-HOA areas too) to talk about how the City can better serve them, and also open up lines of communication that will improve everyone’s quality of life. I'll also continue to recommend that HOAs and other civic groups invite Council members to come by and meet residents. I've done this with nearly a dozen HOAs and everytime found it to be very valuable giving me new insights.

SVUSD AD HOC COMMITTEE - With Mayor Voigts we’ve started an ad hoc group talking about the School districts and our obligations and responsibilities to each other. I’d like to see this evolve into a bi-annual meeting with the district officials and the 10 school principals and PTO groups so we can solve existing problems and work together.

SUMMARY

We are doing so much more now to involve our people in government, but there is more we can do to expand this win-win collaboration –

• CEO Forum
• HOA Forum
• SVUSD Advisory Group
• New Leadership Academy Course

For these new initiatives to be successful we need to

• Re-dedicate ourselves to serving the people.
• Recruit and appoint people based on their abilities, not their political contacts.
• Have a senior staff member responsible for “talent management”

The costs to the City will be minimal. The gains to the people and to the City will be remarkable.

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 3 pm to 5 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a mini town meeting every month. The next meeting will be on June 10 at 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.