State of the City - Q2 (Connected)

This series is exploring the "State of the City" as of June 2018. The "State of the City" used to be a one-time report, prepared by staff, and given by the Mayor at the "Meet the Mayor" event in April (see Photo). I thought I would follow the practices used by most public companies, issuing quarterly reports to keep people up-to-date with what's going on.

The outline in this report comes from the Goals and Objectives set by the Council in the Strategic Planning Session. Under each category, achievements are listed chronologically. I'm going to go through each area and at the end I will summarize.

The Council created 3 major categories/goals with 3 sub-categories/priority areas under each. I added 2 (ethics, quality of life). Yesterday I talked about the "livable" goal (Click Here). Today we'll discuss the second goal (and the corresponding sub-categories)

GOAL B - "Our connected city is engaged, informed, and technologically current. "

2.1 Engaged

• Mayor Pro Tem Basile (Monday) and Councilman Cagley (Thurs) begin having office hours - Jan 2018. Now 3 Council members have office hours.
• Mayor’s Councils – Approved Feb 2018. HOA Roundtable March 2018, Business Roundtable April 2018.
• Expanded “Shop and Dine” week to month long – Approved Feb 2018. Scheduled August 2018.
• New “Welcome to Lake Forest” video – Completed Mar 2018
• New slide show for people waiting for City Council meetings – Completed Feb 2018
• New Greeter for City Council meetings – Completed Feb 2018
• Weekly “Mayor’s Minute” video – Started Mar 2018 and continuing.
• City Information Kiosks – Model kiosk presented to HOA Roundtable in March. Now being used at city events.
• “Pop Up” City Halls – Approved Feb 2018. First one in April 2018. Second in May. Planned to have one per month.
• Closer ties with Chamber of Commerce – Approved Mar 2018. Promote “block parties” at local shopping centers, regional workshops, topic-focused special events.

2.2 Informed

• Single online source for all new laws/regulations – June 2017
• Live Streaming Council meetings on FB – Started Feb 2018.
• Production Assistant for more informative council meetings – Started Feb 2018
• Updated City Events Calendar to Yearly – Completed Feb 2018
• Takeaways – Approved Feb 2018. We now provide takeaways after Council meetings, promoting local businesses and upcoming events.
• City Manager Report – Approved Feb 2018. First report April 2018.
• Council Committee Reports – Approved Feb 2018. First report March 2018
• Weekly “Mayor’s Minute” video – Started Mar 2018
• City Information Kiosks – Model kiosk presented to HOA Roundtable in March 2018. Now being used at city events.
• “Pop Up” City Halls – Approved Feb 2018. First one in April 2018.

2.3 Technologically current

• The “Shop and Dine Lake Forest” mobile app. - Oct 2017.
• Mobile App 2.0. Beta version available Summer 2018. Release Winter 2018.
• Live Streaming Council meetings on FB – Started Feb 2018.
• Weekly “Mayor’s Minute” video – Started Mar 2018. Produced one per week.
• Live Streaming other events – Started May 2018 (Budget workshop)
• Crimemapping – Started June 2018.

Next time we'll look at the third goal.

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 Aug 16 at 7 pm at the Lake 1 Clubhouse (Ridge Route).