My First Year in Office - Part 3 (The Council)

This is Part 3 in a series in which I try to sum up my first year in office. Part 1 dealt with individual achievements. Part 2 dealt with my contributions on the Council. Part 3 deals with Council achievements in general.

These are achievements I participated in, but the impetus came from staff or other Council members.

· REVISED INVESTMENT POLICY - Working with Mayor Pro Tem Hamilton, I helped revise the City’s investment policy which should result in hundreds of thousands of additional dollars in interest income. (Mar 17)

· UNFUNDED PENSION LIABILITIES - The Council agreed to pay down the unfunded pension liabilities, thus saving the City $5.9 million over the next 30 years. (Oct 20)

· CANCELED LOBBYING CONTRACT - When I questioned the usefulness of a lobbying contract, my colleagues assured me that we needed it, but by mid-year we were all in agreement that the contract could be cancelled, saving the City $30,000 annually. (June 2)

· PLANNING COMMISSION – The Council reduced their meetings from 2 to 1 per month, saving the City money and limiting the damage they could do. (April 7)

This may not seem like a long list, but you have to also factor in the list of accomplishments I discussed yesterday in talking about the achievements I believe I was the driving force behind. Put together, that list and this one indicates a substantial amount of achievement.

One of the two central problems in achieving anything is the reactionary stance of my colleagues, Voigts-Robinson-Hamilton. I discussed this earlier in my article Putting Lake Forest Last and it’s worth repeating here. As long as Councilmen are afraid of change and cling tenaciously to the status quo, our City will find it difficult to move forward, except at a snail’s pace. Why are we one of the few cities without a nonprofit community foundation and about the only City without a senior center or a civic center? Why do most of the cities in South Orange County use alternatives to the County shelter while we are the only one embracing it? Why did it take 25 years for us to get a dog park when so many other cities had one?

Given the roadblocks to moving forward, it’s amazing that we managed to get this much done without the “Gang of 3” preventing any progress whatsoever.

Tomorrow I’ll focus on what I consider to be my failures.

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 4 pm to 6 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a Town Hall meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be on Dec 12 at 2 pm at the El Toro Public Library.

tHe