State of the City - Q2 (Healthy)

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. 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). On Thursday I talked about the "livable" goal (Click Here). On Friday we looked at the "connected" goal (Click Here). Today we'll discuss the third goal (and the corresponding sub-categories).

GOAL C - "Our healthy city government is sustainable and well-run with committed people."

3.1 Sustainable

• Payoff unfunded pension liability – Sept 2017
• Fee Recovery analysis – Approved 2017 Ongoing. Expected early 2019.
• Expanded “Shop and Dine” week to month long – Feb 2018.
• Payoff Bond Obligation – Approved Mar 2018. Payoff before Dec 2018. This act will make us completely debt-free, save us $1,000,000 in interest payments.
• Closer ties with Chamber of Commerce – Approved Mar 2018. Promote “block parties” at local shopping centers, regional workshops, topic-focused special events.
• Business Executive Roundtable – April 2018

3.2 Well-run

• SVUSD sub-committee – Report Dec 2017. Ongoing
• City Manager Report – Approved Feb 2018. First report was April 2018. Next report due July
• Council Committee Reports – Approved Feb 2018. First report March 2018. Second report June.
• Weekly Legal Issues Update – Approved Feb 2018. First report March 2018. Ongoing
• Mayor’s Award – Approved March 2018. Given as appropriate. First time will be October
• New Greeter for City Council meetings – Completed Feb 2018
• Intersection Collision Report – Completed March 2018. Used continually.
• Ethics Committee – Approved Feb 2018. Expected Summer 2018.
• Traffic and Parking Commission – Approved Feb 2018. Expected to begin July 2018.
• New Civic Center - Contract management oversight initiated Nov 2017. Ongoing. $70,000,000 project is on time and on budget. Garage finished in May 2018.

3.3 Committed people

• City Hall opened 5 days a week every week – June 2017
• Chamber of Commerce Inaugural Charity 5K Run – December 2017
• Special Election - Jan 2018
• Traffic and Parking Commission – Approved Feb 2018. Expected to begin July 2018.
• First Responders Support “Grab and Go” – Started March 2018. Continues. Other cities now adopting.
• Roundtables with Stakeholders – Started March 2018 (HOAs). Second one in April (Businesses). More coming.
• Committee on Homelessness. Started June 2018.

Next time we'll summarize.

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).