City Council Preview - March 4

This week at the City Council meeting there are several items of interest, not the least of which is the selection of the new waste management franchisee. This is the biggest continuing contract the City enters into, and it literally impacts everyone.

HUMAN RELATIONS (Item 2)

Ever wonder what the OC Human Relations Council does? That’s the first topic for discussion and a member of the Council will be there to present their annual report. BTW – The City refers to them as the “Council” but the website says they are a “Commission”.

MORE HOMES!!!! (Item 6)

Here we are with major traffic problems and overcrowded schools (as well as stressed public services such as the library and post office) and the City has 4,500+ new homes about to come on line and further exacerbate these problems. Virtually nothing is being done for the schools, post office, library, DMV, and court systems that serve Lake Forest, and most of the changes proposed to help manage traffic are questionable. Into this chaos comes a proposal from Baker Ranch to build even more homes than the 2,200 already scheduled for the North East part of the City. This new project is proposed for a 30 acre site at the Northwest corner of Portola Parkway and Rancho Parkway, just a minute or so down the road from the existing Baker Ranch project.

Tuesday night the City will consider hiring a firm to do the environmental review required by the State, at a cost “not to exceed” $69,610. The city could save the $69,610 by just looking at the situation. Not only do we have the problems enumerated above, but the County, with the enthusiastic cooperation of the City, is about to build a multimillion dollar jail with maximum security prisoners just a few minutes down the road. Do we really need an EIR to tell us the City cannot absorb more new homes now?

COMMUNITY BLOCK GRANT (Item 7)

The Federal government’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program for 2014 is up for review, with some $521,937 under consideration. Here’s how the City proposes to spend the money –

• ADA access ramp improvement project - $175,000

• Housing rehabilitation loan program - $168,009

• Neighborhood Pride Paint Program - $40,000

The organizations that will be blessed with $6560 in federal monies from the City include Age Well Senior Services, Camino Health Center, Fair Housing, Families Forward, Human Options, Kiwanis Club of LF (Boys and Girls Club), Laguna Beach Community Clinic, South County Outreach, and Saddleback Valley USD.

PARK IMPROVEMENTS COST MORE THAN ANTICIPATED (Item 8)

The City originally contracted $2,069,860 for improvements to Rimgate and Tamarisk Parks, then added $131,304 and extended the project for 47 days (it was originally supposed to be completed on Jan 6). Now the City is back asking for $167,717 more as well as an additional 41 days for completion. Apparently most of the additional costs are for problems that pre-existed the start of construction and were missed when the City originally proposed the improvements.

NEW WASTE MANAGEMENT PROVIDER (Item 10 )

Tonight at the City Council they will select a new franchisee for waste management services. The consultant firm and the City are recommending CR&R Incorporated, a company that gave Mayor Robinson $1,000 for his 2012 campaign. Apart from having the good sense to “grease the wheels” of local politics, the new company is proposing to reduce the residential rate by $0.45 from the existing rate. Compared to other OC cities, this would give us the 7th lowest rate. In the commercial area, CR&R proposes to give us the 5th lowest rate in OC.

According to the City, the reviewing panel unanimously recommended CR&R and out of a total possible 200 points, CR&R received 187 while Waste Management received a mere 105. Apparently one of the big differences between the two proposals was the flexibility of CR&R compared to WM.

THE VOIGTS VOID

Mayor Robinson has yet to bring back and resolve any of the dozen plus issues left over from the disastrous Mayorship of his BFF Scott Voigts. Even worse, he’s started building his own list of carried over items (e.g., the traffic issue). At some point we will have so much unfinished business that the Council will need to schedule weekly meetings. Is this the kind of leadership Mayor Robinson promised when he campaigned in 2012?