Put Lake Forest First - Part 2

In my last blog post I noted that based on spending in July 2012 it looks like 95% of the city’s money is being spent outside the city. Take a second and consider that finding - 95% of the city's budget is spent outside our city!

Who’s making the big bucks? Let's exclude personnel, utilities, etc., because the checks for these businesses/people generally go outside anyone's city since there are only so many electric providers, water providers, etc. So excluding these, here’s a list of the top 15 checks written in the month of July, along with the city.

• GMC Engineering, $796,331.46, Tustin
• EBS General Engineering, $248,553.28, Corona
• Environmental Construction, $187,211.21, Woodland Hills
• Spectrum Care, $111,835.18, LAKE FOREST 
• Sukut Construction, $68,020.50, Santa Ana
• Civilsource, $66,388.75, Irvine
• Synoptek, $51,446.57, Boise, Idaho
• Marina Landscape, $49,920.72, Anaheim
• LGC Geotechnical, $35,967.50, San Clemente
• Bonanza Steam Cleaning ,$34,119.64 , San JuanCapistrano
• Psomas & Associates, $33,713.18, Los Angeles
• Athense Services, $25,918.21, City of Industry
• All City Management, $22,793.76, San Diego
• Hushmand Associates, $13,520.00, Irvine
• Anderson Penna, $13,061.88, Phoenix

A total of $1,758,801.84 was spent and only $111,835 was in Lake Forest. IOW, 94% of these payments went to companies outside our city

This is troubling, especially since it repeats my findings in 2008 and 2010.

The City should go out of its way to find people &  businesses in our City with whom they can contract for services. While we don't want to hire people who are less competent or businesses who overcharge, it's hard to believe that there aren't some equivalences in our city. Heck I know hundreds of people who live in Lake Forest - we have great photographers, lawyers, CPAs, dog trainers and groomers, interior designers, handymen, general contractors, maintenance men, landscapers, etc. All of them could benefit from city work and I'm sure the quality of their work is just as good and they charge comparable rates.

And I know plenty of businesses in Lake Forest that have good food, office supplies, sell T-shirts, sell supplies for special events, etc. Why aren't we using these people and businesses?

The City Council should establish a "Put Lake Forest First" program and actively solicit proposals from local people and businesses.

This additional money to local people and businesses would go a long way to helping during these tough economic times. Personally I don't want to lose another one of my favorite shops and I don't want to see another friend or neighbor have to worry about being behind on their rent or mortgage.