Politics & Government
Naming Veterans Park
Did the City adequately notify residents about the name change?
Three residents showed up at the November 7, 2017 City Council meeting complaining about the re-naming of Village Pond Park to Veterans Park. Their major objection was their perception that the process had been hidden from the public. So here is a summary of the efforts made to publicize the decision to re-name the park.
Efforts to communicate with the residents about the name change were made by me, by the City, in the OC Register, and through the HOA (Lake 1) that borders on the park. The impetus began from a comment on Facebook’s Lake Forest Town Square and was first mentioned at the City Council by me on June 20, 2017. It was on the agenda for the July 18 meeting and again on September 5.
OC REGISTER
The OC Register covered the story in an article “Lake Forest to honor fallen heroes” published July 19 (Click Here).
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On September 6 they followed up with an article “Lake Forest approves slight budget increase for construction of recently renamed Veterans Park” (Click Here). Here is a quote from the article -
“In addition, the city council voted unanimously to dedicate $15,000 toward the design of a veterans monument, which will be included in the total of $60,000-$100,000 for design and construction of the veterans monument within the park.”
MY EFFORTS
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I send an e-mail to a few thousand Lake Forest residents every month. Beginning in May I noted among my priorities –
“Get Village Pond Park renovation under way. Achieved – now let’s get it re-opened by year’s end. I’ll offer a proposal to change the name to “Veteran’s Park”
I continued to talk about the name change in every report since.
REPORTS ON THE PATCH
I usually post my monthly e-mail report on the Patch. Here are the links to my reports since June, all of which talk about the name change.
“Get Village Pond Park renovation under way. Achieved – now let's get it re-opened by year's end. I'll have a proposal to change the name to "Veteran's Park"
“Honoring Veterans. With Councilman Robinson and Mayor Pro Tem Basile we proposed re-purposing Village Pond Park to Veterans Park and also honoring Police, firefighters, and others who gave their lives in the service of the community by updating Heroes Park. Click Here”
“Honoring Veterans. With Councilman Robinson and Mayor Pro Tem Basile we proposed re-purposing Village Pond Park to Veterans Park and also honoring Police, firefighters, and others who gave their lives in the service of the community by updating Heroes Park. Click Here”
“With Councilman Robinson we are re-purposing the Village Pond Park and converting to a Veterans Park, and re-doing Heroes Park to make it more appropriate as a memorial to fallen heroes. Click Here”
COMMITTEE UPDATES ON THE PATCH
I published 6 reports about the Committee’s work. Comments were made by members of the public on 5 of the 6 articles, none of them opposed to the name change, and some in favor of the change. Here are the links.
Aug 16 - (2 comments from the public)
Aug 22 - (4 comments from the public)
“The renaming of Village Pond Park to Veterans Park sounds like a great idea, I'm so glad this is going through. Thanks Dr. Gardner for the hard work and all the updates within the City”.
Sept 12 - (2 comments from the public)
“Thanks. Good report of what happened and where things now stand”
Oct 12 - (3 comments from the public)
Nov 8- (2 comments from the public)
“Thanks, Jim. A question though following last night's Council session and the complaints of some of the neighbors, will this be revisited. I hope not. The argument that a veterans' recognition would be better located at the civic center so that there could be ceremonies, etc, misses the point of the reflective intent. I am sorry some of the residents are upset at this, but others, some came to the planning meetings, seem quite content with it…”
ADDITIONAL STORIES/NOTICES ON THE PATCH
Veterans Park. Citizens began meeting this week to plan the Veterans Park. There will be a second meeting Sept 6 at 6:30 pm at the City Hall.
Stories about the renaming of the Park appeared on the FB page Lake Forest Town Square several times –
· Oct 12 (3 likes, no comments)
· Oct 9 (5 likes, 3 comments)
· Sept 12 (5 likes, 4 comments)
· Aug 23
· July 2 (3 likes, 14 comments)
On July 2 I initiated a survey of residents asking them for their opinion about the name change. Here are the results –
· Rename VPP to Veterans Park - 28
· Make Heroes Park the place to recognize veterans & others – 24
· Do nothing. Leave everything the same - 5
CITY OF LAKE FOREST
The City advertised the name change in several manners – through the agendas, through the minutes, and through online efforts
AGENDAS
City Council agendas and minutes are posted on the website.
June 20
The idea of the name change was first proposed on June 20. It appeared in the minutes (Click Here) -
“Council Member Gardner sought consensus to agendize a discussion to consider changing the name of Village Pond Park to Veterans Park and incorporate aesthetic changes in the park such as memorials or monuments to reflect the idea of being a Veterans Park. Council Member Robinson and Mayor Voigts provided majority consensus. Council Member Gardner further sought consensus to agendize a discussion to begin utilizing Heroes Park for events and incorporate elements to honor fallen heroes. Mayor Pro Tem Basile and Council Member Robinson provided majority consensus.”
July 18
The item appears on the agenda as #16.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: 1. Exercise City Council discretion regarding whether to rename Village Pond Park to Veterans Park and provide direction regarding potential revisions or additions to the approved park design for the Village Pond Park Improvement Project.”
The minutes of the July 18 meeting noted three speakers (Click Here), all of whom spoke in favor of the name change –
“Tom Cagley, Lake Forest resident and Veteran, spoke in favor of naming a park after Veterans and was appreciative of the Mayor’s efforts to involve children. He continued, stating Lake Forest is a friendly military town, citing the various support activities of community groups and the City Council. He suggested choosing a separate park to honor Veterans.
Larissa Fellick Clark, Lake Forest resident, spoke in favor of honoring veterans separately from heroes. She stated her opinion a Veterans Park should be a place of solace with learning opportunities for children. She further suggested programming and Veteran outreach from a park dedicated to Veterans.
Martin Henderson, Lake Forest resident, stated Village Pond Park was his favorite City park. He suggested creating a park that honors Veterans separate from heroes.”
The motion was passed unanimously.
Sept 5
Item 14 on the agenda read – “THIRD AMENDMENT TO THE AGREEMENT WITH NUVIS LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING FOR DESIGN SERVICES FOR VETERANS PARK submitted by Director of Community Services.”
The minutes of the meeting state –
“Discussion of design fees relative to the intricacy of the Veterans feature ensued. MOTION: It was moved by Mayor Voigts, second by Mayor Pro Tem Basile to approve a $15,000 increase to the contract with NUVIS for design of a new park feature honoring veterans with a total project cost not to exceed $100,000.” (Click Here)
CITY WEBSITE
The City website front page contains a headline “Village Pond Park Improvement Project” (Click Here). Since July 18 that page contains this notice –
Village Pond Park is Getting a New Name. On July 18, 2017, City Council agreed to rename Village Pond Park to Veterans Park upon completion of the construction project and re-dedication of the park.
OTHER CITY ACTIONS
- Aug. 1 – Twitter: News release posted to City’s Twitter account. 1,380 impressions; 2 retweets
- Aug. 1 – Facebook: City News release posted to City FB page. 1,700 people reached; 82 post clicks.
- Aug. – Webpage: Call for participants for 8/16 committee meeting. Specifies park renamed.
- Aug. – Webpage: First committee meeting advertised on home page slider. Specifies park renamed.
- Aug. 1 – News release sent to OC Register for use in “Our Towns” Section.
- Sept. – E-Newsletter: Update on park construction prominent in e-Newsletter. Specifies park renamed.
OTHER CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS
In addition to my own efforts, Council members Robinson and Basile have also done outreach to communicate our efforts on this project.
LAKE 1 HOA
Most of the people who live closest to Village Pond Park are part of the Lake 1 HOA. Since June I attended two of their meetings and specifically spoke about the name change process. No one at those meetings objected to the change.
The minutes for July 19, 2017 state –
“Mr. Gardner notified the Board and members of the closing down of a local Nursery that will now be a U-Haul and the possible renaming of the Village Pond Park to Veteran’s Pond Park.”
The minutes for Aug 16, 2017 state
“Homeowner Larissa Clark spoke of the completion of the crosswalk button for notification to alert cars of pedestrians crossing at Rockfield between Ridge Route and El Toro. Ms. Clark also spoke of the renaming of the Village Pond Park to Veteran Pond Park and asked if Lake Forest Community Association is going to become involved or have LFCA residents join the committee to assist in the process of choosing a new name.”
The HOA Monthly newsletter in September, delivered to every resident, states –
“…The homeowner also spoke of the proposed renaming of the Village Pond Park to Veteran Pond Park and asked if Lake Forest Community Association is going to become involved or have LFCA residents join the committee to assist in the process of choosing a new name. Interested residents should contact the City of Lake Forest to request information on joining the newly formed committee.”
SUMMARY
Notice about the name change began in May and continued through the present.
- The OC Register had two articles on the topic (July and Sept).
- Thousands of e-mails went out monthly from June to the present listing the re-naming among other items.
- Beginning in June details were published on The Lake Forest Patch on more than a dozen occasions, either as separate articles (6 times) or included in articles about multiple subjects (7 times).
- Articles about the name changed appeared on the Facebook page Lake Forest Town Square (700 followers) 5 times between July and October, and a survey in July found 28 people in favor of renaming and 5 people wishing to keep everything the same.
- The name change was reported in official City of Lake Forest minutes and on agendas 5 times, starting in June.
- The name change was brought up at three different monthly meetings of the HOA with homes bordering on the park, and appeared in the minutes of the Board meetings (July, August) and in the monthly newsletter (Sept).
In the comments on the Patch stories and in the appearances before the City Council when the items were agendized, no one objected to the name change. In comments on the OC Register and at the HOA forums no one objected to the name change.
It appears there was a very rigorous, multi-dimensional, and exhaustive attempt to reach everyone in the City, and particularly to keep the HOA informed. In this 6 month period, with few exceptions, the comments have been positive.
