Given how exciting the last few City Council meetings have been, this coming meeting looks like a snoozer. One reason it’s so dull is that a truly important issue isn’t on the agenda at all. That’s the recent escape from Musick Jail of an inmate who had a long standing history of felony arrests, including narcotics, burglary, author theft, and resisting arrest. Not the type of “minimum security” inmate we were promised when the City Council voted unanimously to expand Musick Jail in 2010. Where is the City report on this vital issue? Perhaps the report escaped as well!
AFFORDABLE HOUSING (Items 11 and 12)
Shea-Baker is selling 6.3 acres within their 387 acre property to Meta Housing who plan to build 187 affordable housing apartments, and Meta plans to float $41 million tax-exempt bonds to help finance the $45 million project.
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The project will consist of 10 3-story buildings with 1, 2, and 3 bedroom units ranging in size from 656 to 1,153 square feet. The project will have a pool and recreation building, barbeque area, kid lot, and community garden. The units will serve families who have annual household incomes of $45,750 (very low) and $54,900 (low).
Construction is due to begin on or before June 2014 and be completed by December 2015.
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WASTE WORKSHOP (Item 13)
The City Council is continuing to dicker about the RFP for waste management services, one of the biggest contracts the City has. Last time the controversy was about whether or not City Council members could meet in private with contractors. On August 6 the Council decided to re-insert the “no contact” provision, hoping this would prevent any impropriety. Of course, if the City Council REALLY wanted to stop impropriety, they would have enacted a provision which says that none of them would accept any campaign contributions from any bidders. Forget about who meets with whom. It’s who stuffs their pockets with whose money that counts.
This time it’s about whether or not to hold a workshop from prospective contractors. It turns out there are 6 companies that are interested in the project. The Council must decide whether or not to hold a workshop. Given how poorly written the City’s RFP was, they certainly should hold a workshop so the prospective contractors can clarify many of the issues that were poorly specified in the RFP. BTW – the City has been quiet about the impact of the new contract on traffic in the City. I’ll have a special report later this week on this very issue.
LEGISLATIVE CONSULTING SERVICES (Item 14)
Legislative Consulting Services, aka “lobbying” is on the plate, and the City wants to hire Emanuels Jones and Associates (EJA) for a 3-year period for a total of $102,600 or $2,850 per month. This is a pretty lucrative contract so I looked at the details to find out just what the “deliverables” were. IOW, what is the City going to get for the $2,850 we are paying each month. It’s all included in Exhibit A which basically involves assisting the City with tracking, sponsoring, supporting, amending or opposing legislation, including arranging meetings with legislators. For EJA this is a great deal, since they already do this for other cities, so doing it for Lake Forest is merely an incremental cost.
Exhibit B is the “schedule of services” and for some reason this page is blank, apart from the phrase “as directed by the City.” You’d think for all this money, there would be some kind of schedule. Since the Council meets twice per month, shouldn’t the lobbyists provide a report for each of the Council’s meetings? Since it’s pretty obvious what EJA’s responsibilities are going to be, shouldn’t they have a template which the Council can approve as part of the contract?
SAVE LAKE FOREST
The deadline to submit signatures to put the Trumark project on the ballot is due this Thursday. People who have signature packets to drop off can do so outside the City Hall from 6:45 to 7:00 pm just before the meeting. As of Sunday morning, we were only 380 signatures short of having 10% of the registered voters in Lake Forest sign the Trumark and/or the Brookfield petitions (and in many cases, both). If you haven’t already signed, please come by and add your signature to the 3,500+ people who have already signed.
