Summing Up - Part 2 (Looking Forward)

Looking back over the 30+ blogs, I wanted to bring together the various recommendations that appeared. Because the topics sometimes overlapped, this list is a combination.

Change in Ethics

There is no issue more pervasive than this one. The flow of money into the hands of city council members’ election committees undercuts every aspect of government. We need to stop the vested interests from shaping the future of our city. Here are some steps we can take. I propose that the Council adopt the following rules -

1. I will not accept any money or gift of value from any person or business that has a contract with the city.

2. I will not accept any money or gift of value from any person or business that comes before the city seeking a concession that will improve the financial situation of that person or business.

3. If I have accepted money or a gift of value from a person or business in the past, and that person or business comes before the Council for a contract or a concession, I will either (a) return the money/gift or (b) abstain from voting.

4. These guidelines apply to the businesses as well as any employees or stockholders in the businesses, and any associated companies, and these guidelines apply to myself as well as persons in my direct family.

Better Problem Solving

We are confronted by major problems that tax our abilities. We need to harness the enormous power that sits out there among our citizens and get to work solving the problems that confront us. Here are a few of the problems we should tackle and some ways we can tackle them.

1. Traffic

a. We need a temporary halt to all new housing developments until we solve the existing problems. How can we add thousands of new homes, people, and cars to an already bad situation?

b. We need to establish a high level Commission, on a par with the Planning Commission, that deals solely with our traffic problems. In addition to anything else they do, they can work closely with the existing Planning Commission with regard to traffic impacts on proposals before that Commission.

c. That Commission should deal with the traffic problem as a whole (traffic flows) as well as in detail (poor intersections, use of dedicated turn lanes, signal timing) and it should consider the macro environment (mass transit, electricity, water, sewer, schools).

2. Safety

a. The percent of our budget allocated to police services keeps rising as we are sucked into the County’s mounting problems with pensions. Soon we will reach unsustainable levels. We would be better served if more civilians helped (as they do in the STARS program) and if police were restricted to doing police work rather than work that could be done by non police personnel. Let's do a better job recruiting volunteers to help with non essential police work.

b. One of the major sources of crime is urban blight, and urban blight has been growing in our city, partially because of the economy, and partially because the City has not addressed this problem in an effective way. Money is being spent beautifying our roadways while walls are in bad shape, lights don't work, abandoned cars stay too long on our streets, people are living in garages, etc. I'd like to see the Planning Commission set up a committee on urban blight and I'd like to see some affirmative action in this area. Other cities have done this with much success. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. We need to be as serious about preventing crime as we are dealing with crime.

c. Let's do a better job informing the public. Since 70% of us live in HOAs, I'd like to borrow the good idea from Jim Richert, former Lake 2 HOA President, who formed a council of HOA Board Directors that used to meet monthly to discuss common issues. I'd like to revive that idea at the City level, and have reps from all of the HOAs come to the city once a month to meet with the Council and the Commissioners and share concerns, especially about safety, but we could deal with a host of areas of common concern

d. We need to oppose the changes to Musick Jail which bring more convicts with more serious crimes into our neighborhood. Our City should not be the home for thousands of maximum security criminals.

3. Animal Services

a. We need a committee working under the Planning Commission to review all of our services to pets and animals. Among other things, they need to study the economics of establishing our own shelter, especially with our neighbor Cities.

b. We need to create “pocket parks” for dogs and their owners. There should be one pocket park in every major part of the City.

c. We need to extend the voucher program and start the TNR program.

Better Communication

1. We need a better way for citizens to register their opinions about important issues so that the Council can have this information. It would be easy to use the existing website for a registered user interface where we can pose questions and people can respond. The Council can do a better job if they have their finger on the pulse of the city, and with modern technology this is possible.

2. Right now the city puts Council and Commission hearings on video. We should extend this to all important community issues, such as the recent workshops about traffic.

3. The City spends $35,000,000 a year but very little of that money stays in the City. We need a place where registered Lake Forest residents can find out what kinds of opportunities exist for their services and products. This needs to be an affirmative action program where the City reaches out to us. The Chamber of Commerce should be involved. No service or product should be used from another city if there is a comparable service/product offered in our city at a comparable price/quality.

Better Quality Assurance

At the end of the day, a City is a business just like any other business, even while there are unique issues that every business has to deal with. No business can do well without adequate quality assurance. The City does a pretty good job now evaluating bids in response to RFPs, but with respect to internal controls and the evaluation of outcomes, we leave a lot to be desired. Perhaps my standards are too high – my years as a University Professor, research, and consultant to some of the largest companies on Earth probably gives me a sensitivity to high quality research which others don’t have. That being said, shouldn’t we strive for excellence?

In these blogs I’ve pointed out some of the poor ways in which the City has handled information – e.g., the animal shelter report that forget to look at revenue and the dramatically incorrect reporting about crime are the two most glaring examples. Go to my website – GardnerForCouncil.com – and you’ll find an entire section called “Competence” with many more examples of the poor quality of our internal and external controls.

The bottom line is we need to elevate substantially the quality of our internal and external controls and do a better job evaluating how we spend our money.

This is a very ambitious agenda but we have the talent and the resources in our City to achieve it. Laker Forest is a good city, but we can be better. If we adopt these steps, we can be excellent.