State of the City - Q2 (livable)

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). Today we'll discuss the first category (and the corresponding sub-categories)

GOAL - "Our liable city is well planned, attractive, and safe"

1.1 WELL PLANNED

• New parking ordinance – Designed to clear up the streets from over-sized vehicles so people have more room to park. Approved Jan 2017
• Single Family Residence Ordinance –Designed to save the character of our neighborhoods from becoming motel-like. Enforcement ongoing. Approved June 2017.
• New Civic Center - Contract management oversight initiated Nov 2017. Multi-million dollar project is on time and on budget. Garage finished April 2018.
• Affordable housing contract – Expected to produce 80 new affordable homes in 2019. Approved Dec 2017
• General Plan revision – Designed to help us create a better city in the next 25 years. Approved Dec 2017. Expected by Fall 2019. First public visioning workshops held in May and June 2018.
• Independent analysis for Nakase proposal – Approved Jan 2018, however, in May 2018 Toll Bros. refused to conduct the study.
• Traffic and Parking Commission – Designed to address our serious problems in these areas. Concept approved Feb 2018. Ordinance approved May 15, 2018. Expected to begin July 2018.
• Intersection Collision Report – Designed to help us understand where we need to focus our efforts on street planning. Completed March 2018 and proving to be a valuable new tool.
• Animal Services Monitoring – Designed a data collection system to examine progress with the Pet Adoption Center and performance by the County for Lake Forest animals. – Started March 2018.
• Police Parking Citation Analysis – Designed to refocus Police efforts to better solving our parking problems. Completed March 2018. On going.
• Revision to street sweeping – Underway. Mayor Pro Tem Basile and I are working with staff. Proposal expected in July.

1.2 ATTRACTIVE

• New Civic Center - Approved 2017. Ongoing.
• Sports Park Landscape makeover – Sept 2017. Ongoing
• Veterans Park Created – October 2017. Expected Fall 2018
• Portola Park Started – October 2017. Expected 2019
• Upgrading 10 parks in the City – Approved Dec 2017. Comes to Council Summer 2018. Construction 2019.
• City adopts Pavement Management System – Approved Mar 2018. New standards set at 80% (“very good”).
• County repair to Aliso Creek riverbed – After months of negotiations, in March 2018 Mayor Pro Tem Basile got the County to respond appropriately.
• Clean-ups to Serrano and Alicia Creek. Extending creek clean-up to areas around Heroes Park. Expected July 2018.

1.3 SAFE

• “Don’t Make it Easy” Program – Report shows success. Started Sept 2017. Continuing.
• Initiated 14 city study of Police Services – Designed to reduce costs of Police contract while keeping quality of service intact. Approved 2017. Report expected by end of 2018.
• Increasing classes on safety for children. Designed to keep our children safe. First one Feb 2018. Advanced class offered in April 2018
• Doubled up on Homeless Liaison Officer – Started January 2018 in anticipation of Santa Ana riverbed cleanup.
• Reviewed active shooter protocols with OCSD and SVUSD - March 2018.
• Revised Emergency Training Program – First one started in March 2018.
• New catch basin to prevent pollution – Approved Mar 2018.
• Prevented County from building a 400-bed homeless shelter in Trabuco Canyon - May 2018
• Hired Crime Prevention Specialist who is certified to inspect child safety seats – June 2018.
• Put crime mapping software online – June 2018.
• Re-allocated School Liaison Officer to homeless patrol during Summer 2018.

Next time I'll discuss the second goal on our list.

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).