A Vision for Lake Forest - Summary

We spent all last week discussing my vision for making Lake Forest a better place to live. Several people asked me to summarize, in one article, the main points, so they would have something they could forward to their friends. Here goes…

INVOLVE MORE PEOPLE

Lake Forest has an abundance of wealth in our people. Our Council needs to take advantage of this pool of talent. We need to establish Committees or Commissions to deal with some of the challenges which we face, which the current City government is not able to adequately address. Here are some examples –

· Traffic Committee

· Public Safety Commission

· Non-profit Community Foundation

· Animal Care Committee

MORE RESPONSIVE GOVERNMENT

Government is best when it stays closest to the people. Here are some easy ways to bring people closer to their government

· Establish an HOA advisory panel

· Develop online survey capability

· Have regular hours when people can meet with Council members

· More community forums on important issues

IMPROVE THE PLANNING PROCESS

· Appoint qualified people to Commissions and Committees. Don’t appoint your friends, your campaign workers, and/or your campaign contributors unless they have the qualifications.

· Get Universities and Colleges Involved so we can take advantage of the manpower and the skills.

· End the influence of special interests. We should control our own destinies and not have our future “for sale” to the highest bidder.

· Be Proactive, Not reactive. The Planning Commission should actually be doing some forward planning, and not just simply reviewing what is put in front of them

BETTER DECISION MAKING

· Stay on Track. Don’t spend months/years constantly postponing actions.

· Use data based decision making techniques. Don’t rely solely on the feelings and experiences of individual Council members.

· Develop feedback mechanisms so that we can assess the impact of our decisions, and in that manner, improve future decision making.

· Use key performance indicators in all program evaluations.

SUMMARY

None of these improvements would be costly nor are any of them “revolutionary”. They are simple tried and true techniques used across the world in virtually all industries and governments where excellence in service is the goal.

About Jim Gardner

Dr. Jim Gardner is the editor of CITY WATCH on The Patch and a contributing editor to OC Politics and Voice of OC. He is running for City Council in Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook.