Put Lake Forest First - Part 3 (The HOA)

In Part 1 and of this blog I talked about the fact that based on data in July 2012 it looks like the City of Lake Forest spends less than 5% of its budget each year inside the city. Yesterday, an anonymous commenter asked me about the practices in my HOA to see whether or not our HOA money was being spent in Lake Forest.

I have been on the Board of my HOA for 5+ years, spent 2+ years as President, and have been very active (as anyone who lives there knows). So the question is a legitimate one.

I already noted in my response to the anonymous commenter that several years ago I started a “Biz Net” group in our HOA to promote the businesses of HOA members. I also asked our GM to place preferences on HOA members and then Lake Forest members whenever we purchased services (e.g., notary, car repair, food, etc.). Beyond that, it’s fair to ask - Do the HOA hiring and spending practices at my HOA reflect my call to "Put Lake Forest First"? Let's see.

Hiring

• Almost all the top managers hired by the City of Lake Forest live outside Lake Forest. They live in Riverside County, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Mission Viejo, RSM, etc.
• Almost all the top managers hired by my HOA live inside the City of Lake Forest.

Spending

• Less than 5% of the money spent by the City in July went to businesses/people that live in Lake Forest.
• 32% of the money spent by my HOA in July went to businesses/people that live in Lake Forest.

In other words, my call to "Put Lake Forest First" is already at work in the
HOA where I am on the Board and I have been the strongest advocate of hiring
our own. Of course this isn't always possible (e.g., utility bills), and both
the City and the HOA have constraints on our spending for major projects, but
it is a goal to seek and I believe that we have done a good job at the HOA,
while the data for the City speaks for itself.

BTW - if you do the math you'll see that if the City spent as much inside Lake Forest as my HOA does, nearly $10,000,000 of additional City dollars would be spent inside the city. That would go a long way to helping our neighbors who are struggling in this economic crisis.

Every year the city sponsors “Shop & Dine in Lake Forest” to encourage people to come out and sample the great food we have in Lake Forest. That’s a good thing and the city should be commended for doing this. But it’s peanuts (pardon the pun) compared to what the city could be doing with our own dollars. Let’s “Put Lake Forest First”.

If I can spend 48% of my budget on my city council race inside the city, and if my HOA can spend 32% of its budget inside the city, why is the city spending only 5%? I can't tell you what % they should spend, but I can tell you without doubt that 5% is not enough!

The city needs to “Put Lake Forest First.” It’s not really that hard to do. I can do it,
and my HOA can do it, and the city could do it too if it really wanted to. And
it would make a terrific difference to our citizens.