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Health & Fitness

Moving from a village to a city

     Attending Lake Forest City Council meetings can be frustrating, unless one has the patience to endure pontificating and getting down into the weeds on issues.

     At the last Council meeting, Dr. Jim Gardner spoke, again, about the fact that a lot of discretionary funding for the city goes to vendors not from the city.  He also spoke about the need to activate the existing umbrella foundation that could be used to fund such activities as the recently cancelled formal public event recognizing the city’s adoption of the 1st Marine Law Enforcement Battalion.  There are people willing to donate to causes like this, and other Orange County cities have these 501(c)(a) foundations set up to provide a place to deposit money and pay for these activities, which could include boys and girls clubs, community gardens or any number of community support activities.  It seemed the Mayor Pro Tem was at odds with the facts when she said the Foundation was up and running. It may be, but there doesn’t seem to be a record of it.  Yes, it exists, and has been properly registered with the State for several years, but other than that, the paper trail seems to disappear.  There is little evidence it has been, or is being, used.

     What was more bothersome, however, was the violation of Lake Forest ethics rules by the Mayor Pro Tem.  Lake Forest has one of the most easily accessible and transparent ethics code of any of the 34 Orange County cities.  One of the items under Conduct of Public meetings says that, to paraphrase, everyone will be treated with respect, without belittling.  Another section of the same code says that members of the Council, committee, or general public will limit their comments to five minutes.  It really seemed, in the words of the Bard, the Council was protesting too much.

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     Lake Forest has grown from the small village it was decades ago, and since its incorporation in 1991.  It is now the 13th largest city in Orange County, and will most likely move up to number 11 or 12 within the next few years.  It is way past time to get out of the village mentality and develop a vision for the future.

     I never knew Peter Herzog all that personally.  I do know he served on the Council for a very long time, and perhaps his abrupt departure from the City Council will be very beneficial to the City. I am not much in favor of term limits(I prefer to let the voters determine 'term limits' at the ballot box), but new blood is needed, and this markedly changes the city leadership.

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      Since 2008, with the appointment of a replacement for Mr. Herzog, the Council will have seen an 80 percent change in membership. With this change, perhaps we will see development of a long-range vision, and many of the commissions, committees, or advisory boards that can be utilized to develop communits will come to fruition.

      Finally, all members of the Council should read the Ethics section on Conduct of Public meetings.  Perhaps we will see an end to pontificating and the arrogance of members on the dais refer to Lake Forest as “my city” or the City Attorney as “my attorney,” both comments made at the Council meeting.  Lake Forest belongs to all of the 80,000 or so residents, and the City Attorney works for them as well.

   

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