What Has Councilman Gardner Done?

I received some comments concerning my recent articles about Councilman Hamilton’s achievements (Click here and here). Most of the comments were very favorable – people appreciate it when I provide information about what’s happening in the City. But a few people thought I was a little hard on Mr. Hamilton, saying that not much can be expected of anyone in their first term. “Fair enough” I thought. “Let me see what I’ve done since Hamilton and I started together in 2014". That way I can compare what I've accomplished with what he accomplished. Here’s my summary of my achievements to date –

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

• Held 15 town hall meetings, attended by a few hundred people. These meetings not only let me tell people what’s happening, they proved to be an excellent source of opinion about how we could do a better job.
• Wrote over 250 articles that appeared in The Patch. Most of them are informational about what’s happening in the city, but in addition I wrote a pre and post Council article for every Council meeting. Occasionally I did dip my foot into politics, but these articles, as memorable as they may be, were in the minority.
• Edited a Facebook page (Lake Forest Town Square) where residents and I communicate everyday on hundreds of issues. We now have nearly 600 members.
• Attended about a dozen meetings of homeowner associations and community groups to better communicate.
• Attended over 200 city events and ribbon cuttings. On nearly half of these I was the only City Council person present.
• Conducted more than 100 office hours at City Hall where anyone can show up and talk to a Councilman.
• Produced more than two dozen “monthly reports “ published on The Patch and distributed to more than 1,000 residents.

FWIW – Hamilton held 0 town hall meetings, wrote 0 monthly reports, held 0 office hours, and wrote 0 articles (unless you count the ones from James Ross).

HELPING RESIDENTS

• I personally helped more than 100 residents with their problems with the city. Examples include speeding on streets, noise from IRWD facilities, upswing in crime, parking issues, storage of city property, etc. City staff, especially Public Works, were very helpful in getting these things done.

• I worked with a dozen groups (e.g., El Toro Mobile Estates, Lake 1 HOA, Bennett Ranch HOA, Woodside HOA, Catholic Church) to assist them with issues such as traffic, parking, creek erosion, city owned landscape, etc. The support of Councilman Adam Nick and Mayor Pro Tem Basile was helpful in many of these actions.
• I acted in a defacto PR capacity for many nonprofit groups (e.g., Soroptimists, Kiwanis, Marine Support Group, Garden Club), advertising their fund raising and other activities on the Patch and on my Facebook page.

I’m unaware of Hamilton acting in this capacity for anyone. In fact, recent information indicates that he initially offers to help and then doesn’t follow through (Click here).

CONSENSUS

Since I joined the Council the majority of the consensus items every year originated with me. The majority of the rest of the items originated with either Councilman Nick (2014-16) or Mayor Pro Tem Basile (2017). Councilman Hamilton accounted for less than 10% of the consensus items originated overall, and in the first Quarter of 2017 he originated 0. Let’s say that again - in the first Quarter of 2017 Hamilton originated 0.

SUCCESSFUL LEGISLATIVE EFFORTS

For the 2+ years I’ve been on the Council, the voting has been controlled by the “Gang of 3” who vote in unison 90%+ of the time, so many of my efforts have been thwarted. Despite being outvoted much of the time I’ve managed to produce some notable results –

• My complaints about how little interest income the City earned led to an ad hoc committee composed of Andrew Hamilton, City Manager, Finance Director, and me. We tweaked the policies and doubled our interest income.
• I pushed strongly for a Traffic Commission, which was defeated, but I did manage to get a new Traffic and Planning Commission so that our parking and traffic issues could be better dealt with. Adam Nick was a big supporter for the Traffic Commission as were several community members including Col. Tom Cagley and Jim Richert.
• I pushed for a no-kill shelter, which was defeated, but managed to get a city funded animal adoption center started and managed to get the Council to require better data management from the County. I got a lot of help from Rose Tingle, Cherie Anderson, and the animal activists.
• For years the city had no idea how much property it owned, what it was worth, where it was located, etc. I managed to get a comprehensive list and then got action going on using this land. Mayor Voigts supported me in these efforts.
• I fought for and got a new dog park in the proposed Portola Hills park which should be completed next year (Prior to getting on Council, as a private citizen, my efforts created the first dog park, helped by Mary Altoff and Bob Holtzclaw).
• I fought for and got the end of the Saddleback Ranch Rd dangerous modifications, despite claims that it couldn’t be stopped. I got a lot of help from Councilman Adam Nick and Leah Basile and her community group.
• At my instigation we revised completely the procedures surrounding the granting of alcohol licenses.
• At my instigation we rethought the way we deal with parking issues and came up with a comprehensive policy. I got a lot of support from Carlo Tomaino, Councilman Adam Nick, and from dozens of residents who came to the Council.
• I took the lead on moving forward with the plans for the Civic and Senior Center, attended all the public meetings, and met often with staff to move the project along. Debra Rose was a big help to me in getting this done.
• I took the lead on developing better procedures for awarding CDBG (community development block grants), including more rigorous data collection. Jessica Gonzales was very helpful in this endeavor.
• I took the lead on getting the wildlife feeding prohibition passed. Councilman Nick helped get this done. It had been stalled for more than a year.
• I’ve been the strongest advocate for people with special needs and with my encouragement we have expanded our dances from annually to quarterly, introduced the Special Needs Resource Fair, and dramatically increased our classes. Recreation Director Scott Wasserman has been an enormous help here, and I’ve had lots of great input from parents and others.
• I took the lead on and pushed for a revision in the City’s website to make it more responsive to citizens. This led to a broadening of the calendar, an entire section called “How do I”, listing crime statistics, etc. City Clerk Stephanie Smith has been a big help here.

The items listed above are issues that I took the lead on. I didn't do any of these things without help, but I was the major mover on the Council in each case. There were many issues that I contributed to (e.g., paying off the unfunded liability, parks renovation, resolved affordable housing at Saguaro, etc.) but these are not listed.

FAILED ATTEMPTS

Along the way I have a pretty long list of failures to go with the successes. These are initiatives I tried to pass but were defeated. Here’s a sample -

• Create a No Kill Shelter
• Pass an Anti-Corruption Ordinance
• Establish a Community Foundation to help the needy in our city.
• Establish a Public Safety Committee to help reduce crime
• Allow Meals on Wheels to use vacant space in City Hall
• Get IRWD to supply Lake 1 and Lake 2 with recycled water for the lakes.
• Get TCA to offer free one week pass to new residents to use on the 241 toll road.

Generally speaking I was defeated in each of these initiatives by the "Group Think" voting of Hamilton-Voigts-Robinson, and generally speaking Councilman Nick supported these initiatives. In addition a great many community leaders supported these efforts.

WISE STEWARDSHIP

When I came onto the Council I noticed that several of our policies seemed to be illegal, or at the best, questionable. City staff assured me that I was being alarmist and that the City had operated this way for years with no problems. I persisted, and eventually some long entrenched practices were revised or put under revision. In the meantime, other cities have in fact been sued over these issues. Through my intervention we have been spared the expense and trouble of lawsuits. In fact, during my 2 ½ years we have been less litigious than ever before.

IN THE HOPPER

I pushed for several initiatives that the Council will be considering in the near future.

• Creation of a mobile app that will strengthen the ability of residents to communicate with the City. Mayor Pro Tem Basile is helping me on this as is Interim City Manager Debra Rose.
• Re-doing our way of electing Council members and moving to a district system with 6 Council members elected by district and 1 elected citywide as Mayor. This issue was originally raised by Councilman Nick.
• Expanding the Child Safety Classes from the existing 1 class to a second more advanced class.
• Extending the Leadership Academy from the existing course to an advanced course designed to prepare people to sit on Commissions and on the Council.
• Improving communication between the City and our major stakeholders (e.g., HOA Presidents, top employers, church groups, nonprofit groups). Councilman Robinson is helping me on this.
• Creating an ordinance to define how to fill a vacancy if a Councilman resigns, dies, or otherwise leaves office.
• Creating transitional housing for homeless veterans. This was originally emphasized by Councilman Nick and will soon be discussed in closed session.
• Finding land in the City where we can house a Lake Forest Boys and Girls Club. I’m a member of Kiwanis and Planning Commissioner Dave Carter has been the moving force behind this project.
• Creating an ad hoc committee to work with SVUSD on issues such as overcrowding, traffic, after school programs, etc. Mayor Voigts is particularly supportive of this initiative.

THAT’S ABOUT IT

I leave it to you to decide whether or not my achievements to date are satisfactory. More to the point, you'll want to look at what Councilman Hamilton has done in the same time period.