We started with the Best and Worst Council Moments, then the Best and Worst Commission/Committee Moments, so it’s time for the City Employees. Tomorrow we’ll finish up with the Citizen Awards.
BEST CITY EMPLOYEE
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STEPHANIE SMITH (and her staff) – For her excellent work getting website transparency in shape and for dealing with all the extra meetings.
HONORABLE MENTION - RON RIVERA (and his staff) – For his excellent work year after year on the Parade Committee.
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WORST CITY EMPLOYEE ACTIONS
BOB DUNEK – This extremely highly paid City Manager routinely signs off on staff reports that have all the sophistication of freshman college reports.
DISHONORABLE MENTION - GARY MAGILL – The man responsible for unsuccessfully heading up the search for a dog park, a plan for Village Pond Park, and vested with the responsibility for the Lake Forest Community Foundation which does nothing.
BEST CITY REPORT
WARRANT REGISTER – Compared to all the other cities in Southern California, our Warrant Register is the most comprehensive and detailed. Too bad it consistently reports that we spend very little of our $35,000,000 annual budget on people and businesses in the City, but that’s not the fault of the report.
WORST CITY REPORT
TRAFFIC COMMITTEE – Authored by City Manager (Dunek), Public Works Director (Tom Wheeler), and a traffic consultant (Doug Anderson), these three people are paid collectively more than $1,000,000 per year, yet this report contained so many errors it required four separate articles to summarize them.
BEST BUSINESS FRIENDLY ACTIONS
PLANNING COMMISSION - Easing some of the rules regulating the use of signs and banners.
HONORABLE MENTION - ADAM NICK - Proactively reaching out to a Lake Forest business forced to relocate, and trying to get them to stay in the City.
WORST BUSINESS FRIENDLY ACTIONS
CITY COUNCIL - Spending less than 2% of our $35,000,000 annual budget on people and businesses in Lake Forest - a new all-time low. Then refusing to set up a Committee to correct this problem.
DISHONORABLE MENTION - DWIGHT ROBINSON - Organizing a workshop to help businesses get more contracts with the City, then more than 80% of the businesses attending were not from Lake Forest.
Tomorrow we give out the Citizen awards.
