Lake Forest 2014 - 6 Month Review

We are 6 months into the new year and it’s time for a review of what’s been accomplished. After a disastrous 2013 in which Scott Voigts established the City record for the longest and most rancorous meetings with the least achievements, 2014 couldn’t get any worse. And it hasn’t. But that isn’t saying much. Let’s take a look.

VOIGTS VOID

We started 2014 with more than a dozen major issues that were not resolved during 2013 due to the inability of then Mayor Voigts to effectively run a meeting. In fairness to Voigts, the endless prattle by Councilwoman McCullough and the constant bickering between Council members Nick and Herzog were not helpful. Here’s a list of the unresolved items –

• PROTECTING LAKE FOREST FROM MUSICK JAIL EXPENSION
• INCREASING SPENDING IN LAKE FOREST ON OUR OWN BUSINESSES AND PEOPLE
• ESTABLISHING LAKE FOREST COMMUNITY FOUNDATION
• ESTABLISHING TRAFFIC COMMITTEE
• CLEANING UP VILLAGE POND PARK
• ESTABLISHING DOG PARK
• ESTABLISHING REAL TERM LIMITS
• REPLACING BBK & OOPS
• IMPROVING WEBSITE TRANSPARENCY
• ESTABLISHING SUNSHINE ORDINANCE
• PCN REVISIONS
• ESTABLISHING COMMUNITY GARDEN
• IMPROVING THE EFFICIENCY OF COUNCIL MEETINGS

So far, only 3 items have been discussed. The Council turned down the idea of the Traffic Commission (Feb 18) and the Nonprofit Foundation (April 1), and in their singular attempt to improve the efficiency of the council meetings, they spent several hours and decided to eliminate the Investment Oversight Review (Mar 4) – a savings of a few minutes per year. There’s a joke in there if you read carefully.

Bottom line – not much progress on the Voigts Void, and this is a serious problem because there are major issues sitting there.

BUSINESS AS USUAL

A lot of what happens in City government is business as usual – the endless series of projects, proposals, contracts, and reviews. Suffice it to say that the City did not declare bankruptcy, close down, or otherwise suffer any shocks. That’s good news.

Some of the items that continue to progress include –

• Construction on the sports park is on schedule

• We continue to expand the number of traffic lights that are synchronized, although we are nowhere near completion.

NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

Setting aside business as usual, we can see if any notable achievements surfaced during the past 6 months.

On the positive side,

• The Council voted to loosen regulations on business signs (Jan 21) and on campaign signs (Mar 18), which hopefully will not create an aesthetic blight. Thanks to Voigts and Robinson for the business signs and Nick for the campaign signs.

• The Council passed the supermajority ordinance requiring 4 out of 5 votes before a tax or fee can be increased (June 3). Thanks Mayor Pro Tem Nick.

• The Council voted to stiffen the Council travel expense policies (June 3) in the light of suspected abuses. Thanks to Nick for pushing this one.

On the negative side,

• As already pointed out, the Council rejected the idea of the Traffic Commission and the nonprofit community foundation.

• The Council voted to spend $14K a year making their lives easier by allowing FPPC forms to be submitted electronically.

• The Council voted to start giving tickets to people who don’t move their cars on street sweeping days, without first trying a system of warnings. (Note – Council members accept money from the street sweeping company)

• The Council denied the request from mobile park residents to add a layer of protection in the case of the sale of their park (Note- Council members accept money from mobile park owners).

That’s a lot of negative activity and only a few positive achievements.

Tomorrow we’ll look at the heroes and villains so far this year. Following that we’ll summarize and look forward-