Next week on Wednesday night (March 26) Mayor Robinson will present the annual “State of the City” address, which for some reason is also called “Meet the Mayor”. Because Mayor Robinson is so busy having a great time attending all sorts of events, I thought I’d do him a favor and draft some notes for his talk. For the “State of the City” I’ll focus on public safety, the local economy, traffic, and city resources as well as the functioning of the Council and the Commissions. For “Meet the Mayor” I’ll focus on Robinson’s record of achievement since coming to office. This multi-part week-long series will continue through next Wednesday.
PUBLIC SAFETY
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Everyone agrees that the first duty of a city is public safety. That’s why the biggest portion of any City’s budget goes to police and fire. In Lake Forest, nearly 40% of our budget goes to the OC Sheriff’s Department (OCSD), and it’s been increasing steadily for nearly a decade. How are we doing? How “safe” are we?
Lake Forest is the “Murder Capital of South Orange County”. Based on statistics released by the OCSD, there were more murders in Lake Forest in 2011-2013 than all other South OC cities combined. That’s pretty disturbing. Stop and think about that for a moment. There were more murders in Lake Forest in the past 3 years than in all the other 9 South OC cities combined!
Find out what's happening in Lake Forestwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Equally disturbing is that while the overall number of crimes in Lake Forest (and virtually everywhere else) declined, in 2013 murder, forcible rape, robberies, offenses against children, DUIs, narcotics and weapons violations all increased! While it’s great that many other crimes saw decreases, quite frankly, it’s really worrisome that the INCREASE in crimes has been in such important categories.
When you look at the 9 other cities in South OC that are managed by the OCSD, our crime rate in 2013 for serious crimes was the 4th highest. In other words, 5 neighboring cities (RSM, AV, LW, LN, MV) had lower serious crime rates than we did, and 3 of the 4 cities (DP, SJC, SC) that had higher crime rates are tourist cities where the actual population is significantly higher than the registered population.
Bottom line – we are doing poorly. We need to take a close look at Police services. Our neighbor, Laguna Hills, recently did just this and we should do the same. This is unacceptable.
(Crime statiatics for Lake Forest can be found at the City's website at http://www.lakeforestca.gov/depts/police/crime_statistics.asp)
THE LOCAL ECONOMY
In 2013 our City spent less than 2% of our $35 million budget on our own people and businesses – we are at an all-time low. The sad truth is that the City hires entertainers, plumbers, electricians, maintenance workers, and bee keepers from other cities, even when we have these people living and working in Lake Forest. We buy office supplies and printing materials from other cities while locally we have these same businesses struggling to stay open.
As a result of this, sales tax revenues for Lake Forest businesses are expected to grow at less than half the rate of our neighbors and the rest of the County (based on studies at Chapman and UCLA).
Add to this the Council’s recent decision to sign a new waste management contract with CR&R that will mean an average 25% increase to businesses in the costs of hauling trash, and some businesses will increase nearly 50%.
Walk around the City and you’ll see “Vacant” and “For Lease” signs everywhere. Other cities have recovered from the recent recession, but Lake Forest still has a disproportionately high vacancy rate.
RESOURCES AND AMENITIES
As of 2014, Lake Forest has fewer amenities and resources than any of our neighbors with few, if any, plans to create more. For example, all of our neighboring cities have civic centers and senior centers, but we have neither. All but one has a dog park and all but two have a local animal shelter. We have neither.
Six of our 7 neighboring cities have a Traffic Committee, but our Council continues to refuse to start one. Five out of 7 neighboring cities have community foundations, but we have none.
Why do our neighbors get to have these amenities and resources while we have none of these? It’s not for lack of trying. Residents of Lake Forest have been asking for all of these resources, but to date, only the civic center is on the drawings boards (where it has been for years). Perhaps this is why, in recent studies of resident satisfaction, people who live in Mission Viejo and Laguna Niguel were more satisfied and a higher percentage of them rated their quality of their life as “excellent”. When did we become the dregs of South Orange County?
Tomorrow we’ll look at Traffic, Parks, and our Finances.
