In our week-long look at the "State of the City" yesterday we examined the Council. Today we’ll look at the staff and the Commissions.
CITY STAFF
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With a few exceptions, the City staff has been producing reports that would not receive a passing grade in any introductory college class. We’ve looked at many of them on these pages. They’ve included –
The recycling report where the basis of comparison was completely erroneous, yet based on this comparison, a critical part of the RFP was developed. Partly because of this flawed RFP, only 2 companies responded, seriously limited our options and resulting in higher rates than might have happened had more companies applied.
Find out what's happening in Lake Forestwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The traffic commission report that failed to look at the costs and/or benefits of having a traffic commission. Partly because of this, we still have no Traffic Commission despite all the traffic problems.
The CNF report that puts a potentially dangerous fueling station at the most critical part of the city without any valid idea of the traffic the station will create.
The street sweeping investigation that failed to have any adequate intervention and then failed to do any follow-up. As a result, the city plans to introduce parking tickets in 2 areas of the City.
The parking planning report that included so little data even the Planning Commission had to ask that the report be revised, and even after it was revised, the staff were sent back to revise it again. As a result, we still have no comprehensive up-to-date plan for parking regulations in the City.
This is so depressing I’m going to have to stop here, but surely you get the idea. Our extremely highly paid staff are turning out reports that would embarrass any competent manager, and the Council and Commissions are making decisions based on these deeply flawed reports.
PLANNING COMMISSION
So much has already been written about the Planning Commission I’m not sure how much can be added. In 2013 we had two resignations, more appeals and overturned decisions than in the prior 20 years combined, a 20%+ meeting cancellation rate, and high absenteeism. Three people were added to the Commission that have no background, training, or education in planning, and two of these Commissioners continually refuse to do anything except what they are told to do by the staff. Enough said. We are in real trouble.
PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION
As they get ready for the long awaited opening of the Sports Park, and busy themselves with the very aggressive recreation program that services thousands of Lake Forest residents, the PRC has uncharacteristically fallen down in two major projects – finding a dog park and cleaning up Village Pond Park. So while the PRC has a good tradition behind it, going forward they seem to have lost the magic touch. The errors made in looking for a location for a dog park and in attempting to clean up Village Pond Park are numerous and have been detailed on the pages of The Patch. If this is any indication of their performance going forward, there is little solace for the people.
SUMMARY
If it looks like the lunatics have taken over the asylum, that’s only a slight stretch from the reality of what we face in Lake Forest.
Tomorrow we’ll look at Mayor Robinson, Bring your bi-focals, because there are two distinct Dwight Robinson’s, and we’re going to take a close look at both of them.
