02/23/10 Laguna Hills City Council Meeting
All City Council Members were present

PRESENTATIONS AND PROCLAMATIONS – NONE

PUBLIC COMMENTS - A resident of Carriage Hill Lane in the Indian Creek Association made a request for permitted street parking. He said Residents of the Bella Tierra Community have permit parking for the West side of Indian Hill Lane. On the East side of Indian Hill there are only 8 parking spots, so the residents who need extra parking from the Indian Creek Assoc. would also like to get parking permits to use Indian Hill for their extra parking and would agree to pay parking fees. Council Member Melody Carruth requested a review of the parking matter in the Indian Hills Lane area. Mayor Bressette advised that the matter will be referred to the Traffic Commission for Review.

LHHS STUDENT LIAISON REPORT - by Jason Brower - Jason stated that the "Every 15 Minutes" Anti Drunk Driving 2 day event was a spectacular presentation and the city police and fire department were involved in the active re-creation of a drunk driving car crash with teen fatalities. The arrest and trial of the teenaged drunk driver was played out. This drove home the point of a BAD CHOICE as opposed to a mistake. A speaker, with a history of being a drunk driver involved in a fatality stated, "It's Not An Accident". He stressed full accountability and recounted the effects of his action over a life time. Mayor Bressette and Council Member Carruth attended the event. Jason confirmed that this event had a serious impact on the students. International Week is being planned and will be a week long event of cultural presentations for increased understanding and acceptance including booths displaying the culture of foreign countries including food. The purchase of food will fund the International Club presenting the event. The LHHS Instrumental Dept. will present a Jazz USO re-creation of historic American USO shows with food and live dancing on Sunday, Feb. 28 at Laguna Woods.

CONSENT CALENDAR *(The Consent Calendar consists of multiple items, including the Warrant Register, on which the city council votes as a whole unless an item is pulled for individual consideration )

Item 4.2 - The Warrant Register = $802,126.33 including the following:

Bank of America - $3,716.30 for Departmental Operating Expenditures in Jan. 2010
Discount Warehouse - $1,364.78 Office and computer Supplies, Community Services Jan-Feb - 2010
Faubel Public Affairs - $7,625.00 Professional Fees for the "City Views" Spring publication, 2010 - **See a review of "CITY VIEWS" at the end of the City Council report.
K F Studios - $1,357.25 Event Promotional Services 1/2 Marathon & 5K Event May, 2009
Renegade Racing - $15,000.00 for Event mgmt. Services to 1/2 marathon & 5K Event May, 2010
Stone Imagery - $18,210.19 Professional Fees Public Art at the Civic Center

Item 4.3 - Weed Abatement Specifications & Authorize & Advertise for bids for the Annual Weed Abatement Pgrm. City's contract for weed abatement services with Steelclad Inc. will expire on June 30, 2010 so city staff is asking to advertise for bids for weed control services for the next 5 years. Steelclad Inc. declined to continue services for the city for an optional 2 year extension period. Budget for 2009-10 Weed control is $55,000.00

Item 4.4 - Community Services Dept. Year End Report - Community Services Dept is composed of 6 full time staff, 2 regular part time staff and 30 part time & seasonal employees. A recreation facility needs assessments was conducted by the city in 2009 and concluded that the recreational facilities are adequate and meet the needs of the community. City Staff also adjusted the rates at the Community Center upwards to cover costs and make money. Because the fees had not been reviewed or adjusted for 10 years there is now a built in automatic inflation adjustment for the fees every 2 years. Kiosks were installed to collect batteries and CFLs from Laguna Hills residents at the Community Center to divert these items from local landfills.

Item 4.5 - Volunteer Connection Day - April 17, 2010 when the city asks residents to come together to help clean up the city. The Parks and Rec. committee has recommended that Trail & wet land clean up and tree planting be the activities for this year. There will be No E- Waste Collection for Citizens at this event because the commission says it was not used enough last year and because Laguna Hills Residents have unlimited curb-side pick up of E-Waste such as computer monitors through CR&R trash pick up services - does everyone know this? In 2008, 95 people participated in this event and in 2009, 97 people participated in this event. Those numbers are down from the 124 people that participated on April 22, 2006 but up from the 33 that participated on Sept. 16, 2006. The expense to the city for this event is estimated to be $1000.00

ITEMS PULLED from CONSENT CALENDAR - Item 4.5 Volunteer Connection Day was pulled by Mayor Bressette. Mayor Bresette pointed out that every year trees are planted near where he lives and he is a bit embarrassed about that. He suggested that the trees be spread around to other areas in need of trees this year.

**Editorial Comment - We don't know how his neighbors feel about his suggestion, but it was refreshing to hear this from a politician.

Council Member Melody Carruth said she favored painting projects that are popular with the younger crowd and cited that tree planting has been a popular family activity. Council Member Joel Lautenschleger stated he did not want any planting or painting to be done except by professionals related to planting the trees properly so they will flourish and the additional work that needs to be done related to preparation for painting, etc. It was decided that the city would hire professionals to do the painting and the tree planting and trash pick up issues were left to the staff to decide.

Vote - This item and the rest of the Consent Calendar passed 5 - 0.

PLANNING AGENCY PUBLIC HEARINGS

Item 5.2 - Conditional Use Permit (CUP) request from Verizon Wireless to install and operate a wireless communication facility on an existing So. CA. Edison utility Pole located on city owned property North of Via Lomas Dr. and West of the Community Center. This item has been continued several times for the applicant to review the 40 conditions of the CUP. The city requires the applicant to enter into some form of financial/lease agreement which will provide compensation to the city but the city has not disclosed any details about this compensation in the extended agenda printed on the city web site. ** See report online at the City web site under Agendas and Minutes Feb. 23, 2010. It was noted that the Electro Magnetic Field radiates from 65 feet in the air at the top of the pole and there were 41 final conditions of approval to which Verizon agreed.

Staff Recommendation: Approve Vote - Passed 5 - 0

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS

Item 6.1 Cox Communication Rate Increases - was added by City Manager Channing as an emergency condition, with a 5 - 0 vote of the council - Need for Immediate Action on New Rate Increases for Cox Communication Services in Laguna Hills - Due to some confusion related to waiting for an FCC Ruling, the Cox Cable Rate increase was added to the Agenda re.
(1) the New Maximum Permissible Rates for Basic Service and
(2) Form 1205 - the MPR for Equipment Charges, both effective March 1, 2010.
Per Channing - Cox cable apparently assumed that the FCC would have acted on their application before this time but that did not happen. Cox petitioned the FCC to get relief from regulation by the local agency due to Cox's ability to demonstrate successfully that competition exists in the boundaries of the area they are serving. So the petition was made, but not yet acted upon by the FCC. After review of the documents by city staff the new maximum rate for basic service was set at $26.50, assuming council approval, but Cox may charge less than that rate. Cox currently charges $23 a month for Basic Service. Cox Cable Representative stated that rate increase notices were sent to Cox customers beginning 30 days ago. Vote-This item passed 5 - 0

MATTERS PRESENTED by MAYOR & CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS

Council Member Allan Songstad commended the City Finance Staff for their Budget Presentation. He said they received a Distinguished Budget Presentation Award from the Government Finance Officers Association. The staff members noted were Janice Mateo-Reyes, Melissa Au-Yeung and Don White, Assistant City Manager. Songstad noted there have been some comments from some citizens that the city budgets are not understandable but he doesn't understand that.
*** Editor's Note - We are delighted to explain this to Mr. Songstad and we thank him for the opportunity. The Budget, published on the city web site, is much like the city in that it looks good but functions poorly for the public. As stated on the city web site - "Finance is committed to developing and maintaining a proficient financial planning and reporting system, in order to provide the City Council, City Manager and other City officials with financial information on a timely and meaningful manner." The problem is not with the financial staff but with the lack of transparency for the public. **Example - We tried to find the $60,000 car purchased by the city for the City Manager in the Budget and could not find it anywhere. Citizens are not allowed to ask specific questions such as "Where is this item?" and receive an answer from the city, so we had to resort to requesting public records twice to learn that this $60,000 purchase was not in the budget. A $60,000 item not being in the budget seemed odd to us when at the January 12, 2010 city council meeting Council Member Craig Scott said about the Anti-Drunk Driving "Every 15 Minutes" event to be presented at the High School "Not to forget the budget issue here. When the school came to us we broke from our normal financial practices and we authorized $2,500 that was not budgeted, now the request is that it's another $6,000."

Mayor Randal Bressette dedicated this city council meeting to the memory of Mike Eggers, former Dana Point Mayor who died a week ago.

CLOSED SESSION - The Public Performance Evaluation the City Manager produced "No Reportable information"

A Review of the Spring Laguna Hills "City Views" Publication

What CITY VIEWS says and does not say about Keeping City Government Costs Down

CITY VIEWS says on p.5 paragraph 1 - "Laguna Hills maintains a small and efficient staff of 27 full time employees and a personnel budget of 25% of the total operating budget. The City has retained a small staff in order to keep costs down."

*Editorial Comment - CITY VIEWS does NOT say - In this small city of only about 34,000 people the management team of 3 (City Manager, Assistant City Manager and Deputy City Manager) are paid almost $1 million a year, by the city, in salary and benefits to supervise the "small staff" of 27 full time employees. See - City Manager Benefits top $170,000 http://www.ocregister.com/news/city-218145-insurance-salary.html 2008 Salaries and benefits for the City Manager and the Assistant City Manager alone (Excluding the city manager's new $60,000 car in 2009) = $725,412.73. Add the salary/benefits of the Deputy City Manager to reach for a $ million.

Additionally - From the City Council Policy #105 Financial Policies Biennial Budget FY 2009/10 - 2010/11, we see that the city has a Competitive Salary Policy of paying higher salaries - The city will strive to maintain a highly competitive salary and benefits program which sets the top step of salary ranges at 5% above the County Average for each comparable position. The city manager will annually conduct a market survey of similar positions in Orange County and recommend to the city council salary adjustments in keeping with this policy.

What CITY VIEWS says and does not say about Retirement Benefits

CITY VIEWS says on p.5, paragraph 2 - "Laguna Hills is the only city in Orange County and one of 13 in the State that still offers the original PERS pension program of 2% at age 60. The pension tsunami that is certain to hit other cities will not affect Laguna Hills."

**Editorial Comment CITY VIEWS does NOT say - City of Laguna Hills Agenda Report from Administrative Services Dept. 4/27/1999, Item 4.4 - staff investigated amending the City's PERS contract to 2% at 55...... an examination of the 2% at 55 program revealed some inherent inconsistencies.. Fundamentally, the advantage of the program is greatest if one retires at age 55. From that point forward, the value of the program declines until age 63 when there is no monetary difference between the 2% at 55 and the 2% at 60 programs.... Staff investigated other programs and made a recommendation that allowed the city to provide a supplemental retirement plan with the following noteworthy advantages over PERS 2% at 55 - Instead of declining in value after age 55, the PARS defined contribution program would continue to increase in value offering employees an incentive to remain with the City.

The City of Laguna Hills Pays both the Employee and Employer Contributions to CalPERS - Resolution # 2004-06-08-4 - The contributions made by the City of Laguna Hills to CalPERS although designated as employee contributions, are being paid by the City of Laguna Hillls in lieu of contributions by the employees who are members of CalPERS.
In Resolution No 20076-06-12-2 regarding Retirement - Additional Benefits shall include the following: One year final compensation, Post-Retirement Survivor Allowance, Pre-Retirement Survivor Allowance, 1959 Survivor Benefits including Third level Benefits, Extension of reciprocity Rights of Elective Officers and the city shall provide a supplemental retirement program as set forth in Resolution # 99-05-04-1. T

The city also provides and pays for medical, dental and vision insurance plans for all full time employees including elected members and their dependents. In addition to the annual stipends for each part time city council member of $7,483.92, the City pays from $22,428.96 to $23,825.60 annually for each of 4 city council members for health, medical, dental, & vision coverage, $11,300.76 annually for Mayor Bressette and paid $1,324, for each council member, last year into the California Public Employees Retirement System.

What CITY VIEWS says and does not say about Animal Care Services

**Editorial Comments - CITY VIEWS does NOT say:

1. The City of Laguna Hills has chosen, over the objections of the citizens, to retain the worst Animal Care Services available for its citizens through the 67 year old dilapidated and consistently overcrowded (impounded 43,000 animals in the past fiscal year) Orange County Shelter that has a 40 - 50% overall kill rate, and is 20 miles away in the City of Orange. The city has also hired a canvasser, for $40,000, to recover all of the city's modest cost (about $65,000 per year) for County Animal Care Services. The canvasser will knock on doors and look over fences to find dogs for which no license is recorded and cite the owners for a fine and a license fee if owners have not licensed their dogs by May 15, 2010.

2. Your pet is not safe at the Orange County Shelter because it is understaffed, overcrowded and its services are paid for only by cities who demand the cheapest services available. It is understandable that citizens would not want to support bad services for citizens, but we strongly encourage you to license your pet and get a microchip ID because it is true that if you pet ever gets lost your pet has a much better chance of surviving the County Shelter with a license and a microchip ID. Also the fines are hefty if your pet winds up at the County Shelter without a license.

3. The City of Laguna Hills had the opportunity to join the Mission Viejo City Animal Shelter in 2005 but turned that down because the City refused to pay more for better services close to home. The Mission Viejo Animal Shelter does not canvass for license fees, instead it provides the incentives of good, humane services close to home and lower license fees than the County Shelter to encourage people to license their pets. Aliso Viejo wisely took the spot with the Mission Viejo Animal Shelter that Laguna Hills turned down, so now there are only 4 cities left in South Orange County who still contract with the old County Shelter, Laguna Hills, Lake Forest, Rancho Santa Margarita and San Juan.

4. It is important to note that the City of Laguna Hills never had any Pet Vaccination and ID Chip Clinics in Laguna Hills until the South County Animal Shelter Coalition told them that this service was available through the County Shelter and should be used. Since that time the city has still had only one Pet Clinic a year in contrast to City Shelters that have several every year for their citizens.

5. There is a Low Cost Spay and Neuter Clinic in Laguna Hills but the City of Laguna Hills had nothing to do with that. It was created and run by Dr. Matthew Wheaton, DVM and it never received any incentives or vouchers or any help at all from the City of Laguna Hills. Dr. Wheaton has now sold that clinic to another Veterinarian.

Laguna Hills Crime Watch

Laguna Hills Crime Watch for the past 3 weeks go to:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/police-crime-blotter-2087713-arrest-burglary?City=Laguna Hills Laguna Hills Crime, What's Happening in your Neighborhood by
Alejandra Molina, Reporter, Orange County Register. Keep up with crime in Laguna Hills, where it's happening and how it might affect you. This column is continuously updated.

How to Support the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Division Adopted by the City of Laguna Hills? No one knows???

OC Register News Stories and blogs

Laguna Hills term limits proposal kicks off
http://www.ocregister.com/news/city-232184-council-hills.html

City manager who got car now gets performance bonus http://www.ocregister.com/news/city-223526-bonus-manager.html

City Manager Benefits top $170,000 November 06, 2009
http://www.ocregister.com/news/city-218145-insurance-salary.html

City manager won't comment on $60,000 car
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/city-channing-car-2635479-year-hills

Laguna Hills buys its city manager a $60,000 car - in Tustin
http://taxdollars.freedomblogging.com/2009/10/30/laguna-hills-buys-its-city-manager-a-60000-car-in-tustin/41479/

It's the Health Insurance, Stupid
http://taxdollars.freedomblogging.com/2009/11/05/its-the-health-insurance-stupid/42089/

Full benefits for part-time elected officials are reasonable, mayor says
http://taxdollars.freedomblogging.com/2009/11/05/full-benefits-for-part-time-elected-officials-are-reasonable-mayor-says/42213/

Laguna Hills City manager gets $23,000 bonus over objections
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/bonus-council-channing-2253011-scott-city

Laguna Hills City Council Members Say the Darndest Things in Public

Feb. 1, 2010 - Laguna Hills Mayor Pro-Tem. Craig Scott commented on KOCE TV that Term Limits are undemocratic and shift power to Career Bureaucrats, campaign consultants and those who have other than our best interests at heart.

*Editorial Comment - Mr. Scott seems confused about this considering that a career is a field for or pursuit of consecutive progressive achievement especially in public, professional, or business life and a Bureaucrat is a term that usually connotes someone within an institution of a government. Craig Scott has been a Laguna Hills City Council Member without a break for 19 years so far and is expected to run again in 2010. So, by definition he is already a Career Bureaucrat and he achieved that without Term Limits!

Dec. 4, 2008 - LHCC Member Craig Scott stated ".... based on what is recited here I think it is fair comment to say that Nellie Gail was not remarkable. "We did some research on this issue and if that's the best we can do, a school teacher, 2 daughters and ran the ranch until turning it over to her children, I submit that's not necessarily remarkable."

* Editorial Comment - Really, Mr. Scott, would you say you are a "remarkable" city council member and how would you define that? ***Craig Scott is speaking about Nellie Gail Moulton (1878-1972) who was born in Irving, KS on Dec. 8, 1878. Nellie Gail spent her childhood in Nebraska and came to California with her family in 1893. Upon receiving her teaching credentials, she taught school in the state of Washington near Seattle at the turn of the century. On one of her summer trips to visit her family in southern California she met Lewis Moulton whom she married in 1908. The couple settled on a ranch of 22,000 acres. When her husband died she ran the 22,000 acre ranch while raising 2 daughters. She was also a school teacher, and an artist. Most of her paintings appear to have been done in and around Laguna Beach. Nellie Gail Ranch, in Laguna Hills, is named for her. Be sure to see the exhibit of her Remarkable life at City Hall!

June 10, 2008 - LHCC Mayor Allan Songstad said - "We have to go through a bidding process and sometimes the low bidder is not always the best contractor, but sometimes that's what we're stuck with."

*Editorial Comment - Thank you Mr. Songstad, that is exactly what we have been trying to tell you about the Laguna Hills City Council "sticking us" with the same bad vendor - The Orange County Animal Shelter for the past 18 years.

On May 27, 2008 - LHCC Member Craig Scott stated, "I am on the toll road every day and I don't want the tolls to go down, I want them to stay where they are or go higher and I'm ready to pay that price and I'd prefer NOT to have others do the same."

* Editorial Comment - Are there any volunteers willing to support a resolution proclaiming that the 73 Toll Road be set aside for the Exclusive Use of Laguna Hills City Council Member Craig Scott until such time that this pesky congestion problem caused by less entitled people, like the rest of us, is brought under control? OR - maybe people would like to e-mail Mr. Scott at ccouncil@ci.laguna-hills.ca.us to encourage him to broaden his perspective. He has been a Laguna Hills City Council Member for 18 years)

October 25, 2005 - Mayor Allan Songstad, speaking about the Laguna Hills City Council said, "When you've been doing business in a certain way for 13 years you're not likely to change that." *Editorial comment - So true, Allan, so unfortunately true.

Reminders & Letters to the Editor

To write letters to the editor of the Orange county register newspaper: letters@ocregister.com Provide your name and telephone number (telephone numbers will not be published). Letters of about 200 words will be given preference. Letters will be edited for length, grammar and clarity.

You can contact all of the Laguna Hills City Council Members at:
ccouncil@ci.laguna-hills.ca.us phone: 949-707-2610 fax: 949-707-2614