Today the City Council will be awarding, extending, and/or initiating more than $2,000,000 worth of contracts, and as far as I can tell, none of this money is going to people or businesses in Lake Forest. The biggest hunk will be a $2,000,000 extension to the $3,450,000 contract with Interwest Consulting from Huntington Beach. Two Irvine companies (Stantec Consulting and White Nelson Diehl Evans) will be getting nearly $200,000 and a San Macos firm (Maris Imaging) will be getting $135,000. So $2,000,000 of new money will be spent and not a cent will stay in the City.
What about the money already spent? If you look at the Warrant Register, here are the top 10 companies that received checks from the City this month –
Interwest Consulting - $259,120.34 (Huntington Beach)
Find out what's happening in Lake Forestfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Anderson Penna - $66,002.50 (Phoenix)
Nieves Landscape - $53,942.69 (Santa Ana)
Find out what's happening in Lake Forestfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Esri Software - $53,990.06 (Los Angeles)
Hartzog & Crabill - $38,107.22 (Tustin)
RJM Design Group - $31,913.95 (San Juan Capistrano)
SVUSD - $27,538.40 (Mission Viejo)
RBF Consulting - $19,982.45 (Pasadena)
Computer Service Company - $17,605.99 (Baldwin Park)
All City Management Services - $12,663.20 (Pasadena)
Again, not a cent of the $500,000+ stays in the City. If you combine how much we paid with how much new monies we authorized to be paid, you have in excess of $3,000,000 and not a penny of it will go to people or businesses in Lake Forest.
Maybe that’s why when UCLA and Chapman College projected growth in sales tax revenue for OC cities in the next few years, the average was about 5%, yet in Lake Forest the estimate is only 2%.
The Council will also authorize RFPs for several new contracts, including graphics design, newsletter printing and mailing, and managing the Community Development Grant Block monies. As far as I can see, no measures are being taken to find a Lake Forest person or business that can handle these new contracts.
As I’ve pointed out many times before, this Council spends 2% of our annual $35,000,000 budget on people and businesses in our own City. Council member Voigts says this ain’t so and prides himself on how many “grand openings” he attends. But he never tells you how many businesses just closed own. Nor does he ever talk about the empty storefronts that litter our City, which appear to me to be far more than other cities. We have some shopping centers where more than half the stores are empty!
Mayor Robinson drones on about being “business friendly”, and then sets up workshops that promote City business mostly to people and businesses that aren’t in our City. He’s proud to announce that businesses are now able to put up even more and even bigger signs, but the most common sign you see in Lake Forest is “For Lease”.
Until the Council recognizes the serious problem we have in Lake Forest and spends more of our $35,000,000 on people and businesses in the City, the mini-recession we still suffer from will not be alleviated. Let’s start by looking here in Lake Forest for people or businesses who can perform graphic design and who can do newsletter printing.
