A New Lake Forest - Part 2

This article is the 2nd in a 5-part series. Yesterday we discussed the changes made to our City Council meetings since I took office a little more than a month ago. Here’s what we’ve done so far –

• A greeter meets everyone at the door and orients them.
• We show a slide show with information about the City.
• We broadcast live on Facebook
• We re-order the agenda to fit the people present
• A Production Assistant who displays relevant agenda reports
• We created a welcome videotape.
• We introduced an 8 pm “necessity break”
• We offer take-aways (e.g. upcoming events, new businesses, pets available )

Today I want to discuss some major legislative initiatives, above-and-beyond the normal course of business, and new business-friendly measures we’ve taken.

MAJOR LEGISLATION INITIATED

"A good compromise, a good piece of legislation, is like a good sentence; or a good piece of music. Everybody can recognize it. They say, 'Huh. It works. It makes sense.'" Barack Obama

We set in motion new legislative initiatives that will improve the quality of life for everyone. (Click Here) These include

• Introduction of campaign finance reform in order to lessen the impact of special interests.
• Creation of an Ethics Committee to be a watchdog looking at the behavior of Council and Commission members to insure that we represent the highest standards of conduct.
• Creation of a Traffic Commission to deal with the traffic and parking problems that plague our City.
• Introduction of a real term limits ordinance (what we have now is an ordinance that restricts Council members to 24 of 26 years –in other words, a joke)

These initiatives were originally introduced by Councilman Adam Nick years ago, but defeated by the Council in power at the time.

I need to thank my fellow Council members all of whom supported some if not all of these initiatives. Col. Tom Cagley has been particularly supportive of the Ethics, Campaign Finance, and Traffic Commission initiatives. Mayor Pro Tem Basile pushed for the Term Limits ordinance.

EVEN MORE BUSINESS FRIENDLY

"We're all working together; that's the secret" - Sam Walton

Lake Forest has always been business friendly, but we plan to be even friendlier. We already set in motion various projects and plan to introduce even more. Here’s a list of what has been approved and what is waiting to be approved –

• Take-away flyers at City Council meetings promoting upcoming ribbon cuttings and highlighting new businesses.
• Inclusion of ribbon cuttings in the pre-meeting slide show during Council meetings. (Click Here)
• Inclusion of ribbon cuttings in “Mayor’s Minute” – a weekly video from the Mayor about life in Lake Forest. First broadcast was Feb 24th (Click Here)
• Creating a Business Executive Roundtable in which the city and business leaders can sit down together, exchange information, and plan for the future. First meeting is in April.
• Working with the Chamber of Commerce to promote “block parties” in various shopping centers in order to promote businesses.
• Continuing to refine our “Shop and Dine” mobile application. (Click Here)
• We are expanding the "Shop and Dine" week to a month-long celebration of business in the city.

These innovations were made possible through the cooperation of the Department of Economic Development (Carlo Tomaino, Adrian Grijalva) and the Chamber of Commerce (Mary Visconte, Jeremy Olson). Councilman Dwight Robinson was instrumental in making this happen.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about ways in which we’re reaching out to residents and ways in which we are improving our quality of life.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest where he serves as Mayor. 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 Twitter handle is @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 May 17 at 7 pm at the Lake 1 Clubhouse (Ridge Route).