New Items for the Mid Year Budget Review

Yesterday we looked at the mid year budget review and reported that the City is in a healthy financial position. Unfortunately, the three programs singled out for review (4th of July Parade, Whispering Hills re-model, and Police cost savings) had too little information associated with them for us to be able to offer any constructive ideas. In addition the mid year budget review seems to have missed a few items, so I am going to list them here and then raise them at the meeting.

Dog Park

Several people have complained about the lack of shade at the new dog park, so we should be looking at adding shade.

Also, the dog park is missing an outdoor display case which can be used as a resource for pet owners.

In addition, we’ve discussed the idea of having Pet Days at the dog park and using this as an opportunity to help adopt pets, promote spay and neutering, get pets microchipped and licensed, and otherwise make life better for the people and their pets. All of these concerns could have been examined and wrapped neatly for us by a Dog Park Committee which I suggested we establish nearly a year ago, but my colleagues (Vogits-Robinson-Hamilton) voted against it. Now we will have to go ahead without their advice. Although in the long run, Pet Days will result in savings for the City by promoting responsible pet ownership, there are some upfront costs. We need to allocate them.

Animal Care

The proposal I offered at the last City Council meeting will result in better service, better care, and lower costs than our current contract. City staff is working on this proposal now, although it’s clear that what will emerge will not necessarily look exactly like I proposed, and may even look better than I envisioned. In any event, one of the keys to better service, better care, and lower costs lies in the way in which we use preventive intervention and education, through such programs as TNR (Trap-Neuter-Release), spay and neuter programs, microchipping, etc. One of the fundamental under pinnings of this approach is a realignment of our laws to foster these types of activities. To do this we need to establish an Animal Welfare Commission and we need to bring on staff to implement these changes and also to manage the transition from using the dreaded County to our own system.

In my proposal, I estimated the costs of transition staff at $120,000 which should result in a 10% to 25% reduction in our costs. Given that are costs are in excess of $600,000 per year, this means the savings should approximate the costs. Therefore I will also ask for $120,000 to be ear-marked for the transition costs assuming that the proposal will be approved.

SVUSD

On August 4, 2015 we agreed to look at changes in the cost sharing model used with SVUSD Recreation Dept. Specifically we were looking at the “Kid’s Club After School Programs”, which incurred a 14.6% increase in the 2014-5 fiscal year to $489,700 per year. Prior to 2015 the program was free to the approximately 800 children involved. In January 2015 the City imposed a $25 fee per semester to cover the $540.38 cost per child

See you tonight.

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 March 26 at 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library

!R