Report to the People - Mar 2018

This report covers the period from Feb 1 to 28. It represents the views of Mayor Gardner and does not reflect official City policy. These reports are produced monthly. Past copies are available on request.

INVOLVING PEOPLE

One of my main concerns is to involve more people in our local government.

Office hours are every Tuesday from 4 pm to 6 pm. Inquire at the Clerk’s office. Occasionally things change, so be sure to check first. BTW – Mayor Pro Tem Basile has office hours on Monday from 10 am to 12 pm.

Town Square – Lake Forest Town Square has over 700 members and growing, providing valuable input on issues facing the council as well as general issues. Your votes and opinions are used to guide my decisions. Please join.

Minute with the Mayor – Every week I produce a 1-minute video summary of what’s going on in the city. Check it out here.

Listen and Learn – To date I’ve met with over a dozen groups around the City. If you have a group and want to share your concerns, let’s get together.

Town Hall Meetings – Last meeting was Feb 15. Next meeting will be May 17 at the Lake 1 clubhouse at 7 pm.

The Patch – In case you were unaware, I post a column in the Lake Forest Patch, usually 3 to 5 times a week (to date there are over 1,000 up there), and you should feel free to comment there.

BTW – I started a 5-part series on The Patch detailing our progress in the past few weeks since I took over as Mayor. Here are the first few articles. The series runs until March 2.

• https://patch.com/california/lakeforest-ca/new-lake-forest-journey-begins
• https://patch.com/california/lakeforest-ca/new-lake-forest-part-2-1
• https://patch.com/california/lakeforest-ca/new-lake-forest-part-3-0
• https://patch.com/california/l...

Twitter – I now have a twitter account. Click Here. You can reach me @DrJimGardner.

MY PRIORITIES

Here are issues that are well in motion -

• The new “Shop and Dine Lake Forest” mobile app is out.
• The Civic/Senior Center project is on schedule. Ground breaking was May 12.
• Village Pond Park renovation is under way. However, due to unanticipated problems, it will probably be delayed until the end of 2018.
• Comprehensive plans for upgrading 10 parks in the City will go to the Parks Commission in April and the Council in June.
• Reptile Rescue opened in March and the Adoption Center opened on April 24. At my instigation data about Lake Forest animals now available online (Click Here). Fees for seniors and for neutered dogs reduced. New public education officer project was a complete disaster and discontinued after 3 months.
• Developed a comprehensive ordinance to provide balance and cohesiveness to single family residential areas. Now in effect and efforts being made to enforce.
• We are re-purposing 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
• General Plan. With the help of Councilman Robinson and Mayor Pro Team Basile, the Council unanimously agreed to restructure the General Plan to make it quicker, less expensive, and more focused. Click Here

Here are the issues I am currently working on

• Pet Adoption Center to take on more responsibilities (e.g., counselling for owner surrender and owner requested euthanasia). Monthly data to be coordinated with County data. Discussions under way to handle strays in the future.
• Mobile App 2.0. Just saw the first working model of our new mobile app. It needs a lot of work, but it looks like it will be the most innovative and far-ranging mobile app to improve communications between residents and the City. Stay tuned.
• SVUSD. We are trying to improve services by SVUSD and also improve traffic around some of the schools with the possibility of re-introducing buses in some areas (e.g., FHR)
• Crime – In 2015 major crimes were up nearly 30% but in 2016 they were down 16%. Last year (2017) we were up 5%. The biggest increases this year are in robbery (+85%), aggravated assault (+20%) ,burglary (+23%), and rape (+12%). In Jan thru Dec 2017 there were 19 rapes and 90 aggravated assaults in the City. To check it out for yourself, Click Here. In a related matter, the Council voted to join with a dozen other cities to explore need ways to provide police services. Councilman Nick and I proposed this study a few years ago, but we lost 3 to 2 and the study had to wait.
• Working with the Council we agreed to move forward on the following issues: (a) Creating a Traffic/Parking Commission, (b) Finding an alternative to county animal shelter, (c) Term Limits ordinance, (d) Creating an Ethics Commission, and (e) Expanding the number of committees. You can read more about it here.

VOTING RECORDS

More than 90% of the votes by the Council are unanimous and relate to ordinary business of the City. In about 10% of the votes, there are not unanimous votes. Here are the results for 2018 for votes that were not unanimous –

• Approve EIR contract (1/16) – Gardner opposed
• Drone ordinance (1/16) – Basile abstained
• Voigts to be on TCA committee (1/16) – Gardner opposed
• Drone ordinance (2/6) – Basile opposed
• No raise for Council members (2/6) – Cagley, Robinson “yes”, Voigts abstain
• Put Council raise on ballot (2/6) Cagley abstain, Robinson opposed.
• Campaign contribution limits (2/6) – Robinson opposed, Voigts abstain
• Campaign contribution disclosures for RFPs (2/6) – Voigts abstain
• Grant consulting contract (2/20) – Voigts abstain
• Lease park lands to private non-profit to build clubhouse and parking lot (2/20) – Gardner opposed.
• Adopt drone ordinance (2/20) – Basile opposed.
• Spend $60,000 to study community choice aggregation (2/27) – Gardner opposed
• Spend $40,000 to study no-kill shelter feasibility (2/27) – Voigts abstained
• Purchase video equipment instead of using staff’s own equipment (2/27) – Voigts abstained

FWIW – During the recall campaign critics claimed that I, Leah Basile and Tom Cagley (if elected) would form a new “Gang of 3” and attempt to rule the Council with collusion and group voting. After the first few meetings it should be obvious that the 3 of us are independent thinkers. On the 14 non-unanimous votes, the 3 of us voted together 36% of the time. Compare that to the Hamilton-Voigts-Robinson coalition that voted together as a block more than 50% of the time and had an overall 80%+ agreement on non-unanimous decisions.

Note, also, that when Voigts isn’t abstaining, which he does nearly half of the time, agreement between Voigts and Robinson is still 80%+.

NETWORKING

I attended the following meetings/events (along with fellow Council members)

• Feb 2 – Portola Hills Elementary 25th Anniversary (Gardner, Basile)
• Feb 5 – Parade Committee (Gardner)
• Feb 5 – Parks Workshop 1 (Gardner, Basile)
• Feb 6 - Office Hours (Gardner)
• Feb 6 - City Council Meeting (All)
• Feb 7 – Ribbon Cutting (Gardner, Basile, Voigts)
• Feb 7 – Parks Workshop 2 (Gardner)
• Feb 8 – OC Assoc. of Mayors (Gardner)
• Feb 8 – Parks Workshop 3 (Gardner)
• Feb 9 – Seminar on Homelessness (Gardner, Robinson, Voigts)
• Feb 10 – Special Needs Dance (Gardner, Cagley)
• Feb 13 - Office Hours (Gardner)
• Feb 15 – Ribbon Cutting – Top Notch Fitness (Gardner, Basile, Voigts)
• Feb 15 – Town Hall (Gardner, Cagley)
• Feb 17 – Police and Firefighter Awards (Gardner)
• Feb 20 – Ribbon Cutting – Board and Brush (Gardner, Basile, Cagley, Voigts)
• Feb 20 – Office Hours (Gardner)
• Feb 20 - City Council Meeting (All)
• Feb 21 – Human Resource seminar (Gardner)
• Feb 21 – Chamber Mixer (Gardner)
• Feb 23 – South County Economic Forum (Gardner, Cagley, Robinson, Voigts)
• Feb 23 – Meeting with SVUSD Superintendent (Gardner)
• Feb 23 – OCFA Award Ceremony (Gardner, Basile, Voigts Robinson)
• Feb 27 – Talk to Lake 1 preschool (Gardner) (See photo accompanying this article)
• Feb 27 – Office Hours (Gardner)
• Feb 27 – Strategic Planning (All)
• Feb 28 – Educational Housing Forum (Gardner, Robinson)
• Feb 28 – Agewell Subcommittee (Gardner)

That’s a total of 74 hours for the month just attending meetings and events, not including the preparation time. nor staff meetings

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Mar 1 – Dog Park Shade Ribbon Cutting (3 pm – Barker Ranch Dog Park)
• Mar 2 – Read Across America (8:30 am – Olivewood)
• Mar 5 – Gayle Ackerman 25th Anniversary (3 pm – City Hall)
• Mar 5 – Parade Committee (6 pm – Sports Park)
• Mar 6 - Office Hours (4 pm – City Hall)
• Mar 6 - City Council Meeting (6:30 pm – City Hall)
• Mar 7 – Emergency Preparedness (6:00 pm – City Hall)
• Mar 7 – Private Ribbon cutting – OC Animal Shelter – 10 am – 1630 Victory Rd, Tustin)
• Mar 8 – OC Assoc. of Mayors (7:30 am – Dana Point)
• Mar 8 – Planning/Traffic Commission (7 pm – City Hall)
• Mar 10 – Pet Expo (10 am – Sports Park)
• Mar 13 - Office Hours (4 pm – City Hall)
• Mar 13 – SCORE Seminar – Legal Issues (5 pm – City Hall)
• Mar 14 – Chamber of Commerce Mixer (5:30 – Reborn Cabinets, El Toro Rd)
• Mar 15 – Parks Commission (7 pm – City Hall)
• Mar 20 – HOA Roundtable – By Invitation Only (11:30 am – City Hall)
• Mar 20 – Office Hours (4 to 6 pm – City Hall)
• Mar 20 - City Council Meeting (6:30 pm – City Hall)
• Mar 21 – Meet the Candidates (6:30 pm – Lake 2 Clubhouse)
• Mar 22 – Planning/Traffic Commission (7 pm – City Hall)
• Mar 24 – Bunny Blast (10 am – El Toro Park)
• Mar 24 – Egg Hunt (11 am – Etnies Skate Park)
• Mar 24 – Public Opening – OC Animal Shelter – 10 am – 1630 Victory Rd, Tustin)
• Mar 27 – Office Hours (4 to 6 pm – City Hall)

Most of the events are FREE but some may charge admission. Be sure to check. I plan to be at most of these events so please come by and say hello.

CONTACT

You can discuss issues at the Facebook page Lake Forest Town Square.