October 12, 2010 - Laguna Hills City Council Meeting
All Council Members were present
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Presentations and Proclamations - None

Public Comments - Laura Dickson, Laguna Hills Citizen, stated in the last budget deliberation, June of 2009, it was recommended by staff that Laguna Hills reduce our Sheriff's deputies by 2. There was a 3 - 2 vote in favor of this with Council Member's Craig Scott, Lautenschleger and Songstad voting to eliminate the position and Council Members Melody Carruth and Randy Bressette voting against the reduction. Council Member Craig Scott recently was campaigning at our house. When I asked him about these cuts he told me I was misinformed. He said that both the deputies were out on disability and the decision was made not to replace them, but in campaign literature from Carruth and Bressette they both speak about restoring the positions to a previous level. She said her question was - How have the votes of this council affected the number of law enforcement officers serving our community? She asked the council members to please speak plainly in answering her question and added that she truly believes that the citizens, if given the choice whether to cut sheriff's positions or give bonuses to staff they would choose to keep police protection. Mayor Bressette answered the information about this is on the web site. If you look in the biennial budget in the section that talks about all of our expenditures you will find that 2 sheriff's deputies were cut from the budget for Fiscal Years 2009-2010 & 2011-2012.

Council Member Craig Scott protested, "my name was invoked" and added that Mayor Bressette's answer was inaccurate. Mayor Bressette responded to Scott that he would have a chance to respond under the council rules at the appropriated time in the agenda, following Public Comments.

Bob Dickson, Laguna Hills Citizen said the Compensation Report posted on the City's web site, that was said to be clear, is a tough read. He said Craig Scott told him Channing (the City Manager)was in 1 retirement plan but he appears to be in 3 retirement plans from what is posted on the web site but it's hard to know for sure because the report is tough to read. It's complicated, there's a resume' for Bruce Channing in there, don't know who wrote the report, but hope it wasn't Bruce and didn't take too much of the staff's time. The easiest way to do these reports would be to take the year end pay stub, we just want to know the compensation. The 1st 4 pages of this report were just fluff. We don't need to see resumes, just a compensation report. He added that Joel (Council Member Lautenschleger) talks about retirement plans as 2% at 60 but a lot of people don't know what that means so use dollar amounts to clarify and examples.
Editor's Note, FACT CHECK - Mr. Dickson is correct. It is NOT True that the City Manager has only one retirement, he actually has 3 retirement plans - calPERS + 2 supplemental plans PARS and a 457 plan. Council Member Craig Scott also neglected to say that the City pays both the employer and the employee contributions to the Management Staff Retirement programs (Resolution # 2004-06-08-4) including the City Manager's retirement and paid over $44,000 last year into the City Manager's retirement insurance programs.
See - Online compensation report becomes law in Laguna Hills
http://www.ocregister.com/news/city-270929-compensation-report.html

Jim Haines, Laguna Hills Citizen stated he lives on White Alder and brought a map of the area in which he lives along with a couple of residents (about 60-70 residents) from his community to illustrate the need for speeding mitigation in the area where they all live. He thanked Ken Rosenfield and Chief Doan for the help they have given to date with this problem and he thanked the City Council. He noted the problem begins with cars coming down McIntyre St. to go to the newly refurbished shopping center that includes the Claim Jumper and 24 Hour Fitness. He said the traffic has increased significantly to and from the shopping center and people are also using the neighborhood as a cut through to get to other places while traveling at excessive speeds. He expressed an urgent need for 3 way stop signs on both ends of Knotty Pine, and at the bottom of the hill at McIntyre. He also noted a need for 25 mph signs in his neighborhood where there is presently only one 25 mph sign and there are no stop signs. He said the neighbors would also like to have stop signs on both ends of White Alder related to the danger backing out of driveways there. He noted a similar neighborhood on the other side of La Paz that already has a lot traffic mitigation measures such as 3 way stop signs and 25 mph signs posted on every street that are operating successfully.

Council Member Melody Carruth asked if a more comprehensive approach to the traffic problems in this area could be undertaken rather than the incremental consideration of one stop sign at a time, etc.

Ken Rosenfield, City Traffic Engineer, stated the city is in the process of collecting traffic speed and volume data in this area and a pass through traffic analysis. All this information will become an Engineering Report to compare the data collected against State and National Standards for the installation of various traffic controls. This report should be at the Traffic Commission Meeting on November 17. He added that stop signs are not technically for speed control but for right of way assignment at intersections. He said stopping at stop signs do have an effect on speed but there are studies that show motorists accelerate much faster between stop signs.

Many residents from this area spoke. Citizens expressed that children were not allowed to play out in front of their homes now due to the volume and excessive speeds of traffic, and that residents are in danger when backing out of driveways. Residents expressed dangers related to riding bicycles in the neighborhood now. Neighbors noted that cars parked on residential streets had been hit by vehicles traveling through with one car winding up in a neighbor's yard. Residents stressed that this is a highly pedestrian community that feels the danger now of just walking their children to school and back and have had to change routes to accomplish that safely. One resident stated his street experienced some brief relief from speeding when his roommate who was a CHP officer parked his car in the driveway and stood beside it. Skyler who said she is 11 years old stated she is no longer allowed to ride her bike to school due to the speeding traffic. Allan, a Civil Engineer noted that the old street in front of the updated shopping center is no longer wide enough to handle the new influx of traffic in the area. Residents noted that they will continue to come to city council meetings until these significant problems in their community are appropriately addressed to restore safety.
Editor's Note - We have noted over the years that large numbers of citizens dedicated to appearing at council meetings to stress the need for services in their communities is the most effective way of dealing with these issues with the Council Majority. We will be monitoring the progress of traffic mitigation measures in this community and reporting on that.

Council Member Craig Scott answered Citizen Laura Dickson's question in Public Comments of - " How have the votes of this council affected the number of law enforcement officers serving our community?" Scott stated "In our June 2009 budget discussion Chief Doan ... brought to our attention that there were 2 positions that had been unfunded because individuals from the Sheriff's Dept. were out on disability. They had been gone for 18 months. (NOT True - see Chief Doan's actual statement below) The question then came up, Well what do we do at this juncture and we asked Chief Doan if we do not, on a temporary basis, fund these positions do you believe it will have an adverse effect on crime statistics in the City? His very firm response was No. There won't be any effect, he didn't anticipate any problems (NOT True at the June 23, 2009 City Council Meeting where this matter was discussed - see Chief Doan's actual response below) and in reality since we have seen that there has been no effect. There is the suggestion by saying that we have cut deputies, which is not true, we temporarily unfunded those positions which again I emphasize were vacant, there is a suggestion that somehow we in Laguna Hills are unsafe. If you compare us to 7 south county cities, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, we spend as a city more per capita on putting police on the streets than any of those other cities. We have more officers on the streets than any of those other cities. (Look at the Statistical Section of the Budget on the City of Laguna Hills web site on page III-21 to see (under public safety) that the Full-Time Equivalent Personnel Allocation for Public Safety in Laguna Hills has been reduced from 32.13 in 2002 to 29.19 in 2009) There has been a comparison to suggesting well, we shouldn't give management bonuses of some $20,000 (Correction here - That bonus was actually $32,000. It was $23,000 + an additional $9000 in additional vacation days) because we could buy 2 deputies. (It was Not Suggested by anyone at this City Council Meeting that the City could buy 2 deputies for $20,000 and Council Member Bressette and Carruth were asking on June 23, 2009 to save 1 of these deputy positions not both) Well, the comparison frankly is a little absurd. The 2 deputies cost some $400,000. It's not an apt comparison. We are not at risk, we are not suffering crime we were not (something?) deputy positions. When we take up our 2 year budget again we will look at whether it makes sense to fund them, but nobody should fee unsecure or unsafe because we temporarily didn't fund 2 positions."
Editor's Note: FACT CHECK - We at the Laguna Hills Watch Dog attended, recorded and reported the June 23, 2009 City Council Meeting to which Council Member Craig Scott is referring in his comments above and what Chief Doan actually said in the city council meeting was this: "While it's true those positions have both been un-staffed for quite a while, it's not that we chose to run those vacant, but we were dealing with promotions and transfers out of the city, we've been running one that's been vacant for very close to a year and the other one we started running vacant right around the 1st of the year, so they have been vacant for quite sometime and when council asked me those questions during the budget process I told you that in addition to going through the special process we were going to look at the way we do business here and we were going to conduct a patrol beat on it in an effort to make sure the work load is remaining consistent among the various locations in the city and we're also in the process right now of looking at the schedule for alternative ways that we can be as effective. We are not going to change or lower any of our performance indicators that we look at every year which are the crime statistics and the response times for the priority ones through priority four calls, which we've done a very good job at maintaining those standards, and another of the standards that we are going to work on maintaining is the preventative patrol time. It's going to be a task that we are going to have to look at an see what we can do better to continue to maintain those but I have every confidence in the people who are working here in the City of Laguna Hills that we're gonna be able to operate and still maintain those performance indicators. At this point that's my intent and I hope to be able to come back to you next year at this time and tell you that I was able to do that, but I can assure that we are gonna work very hard in making sure that the citizens don't notice any deficiency in there law enforcement services that they have here." Editor's Note - It is important to note here that there were 2 deputy sheriff positions eliminated (or "Unfunded" as Craig Scott prefers to say) from the city budget and Council Members Bressette and Carruth asked for the return of 1 of those 2 positions. The word temporary used by Craig Scott in this case is very misleading because the Fiscal Years 2009 thorough 2012 is the time period for which these deputies were "Unfunded" so we can't possibly know if this is "temporary" until one or both are funded again or after 2012. Lt. Doan, in June of 2009, confirmed that 1 deputy position had been unfilled for about a year and clarified that the other deputy position had been vacant only since January of 2009 (almost 6 months).

**The last city survey was conducted in Feb. of 2009 and Joel Lautenschleger quoted the city survey as proof that there was no perceived change in safety by citizens with 2 deputy positions gone, but in Feb. of 2009 when the citizens were surveyed the 2nd deputy position had been gone for only 1 month which is not long enough for citizens to notice a difference to report in a survey.

Council Member Joel Lautenschleger responding to Citizen Bob Dickson's question in Public Comments about retirement benefits and the 2% at 60 (60 years of age) that Laguna Hills has, etc. 2% means for every year you work 2% of your final salary will be added to your pension program. So if you work 20 years multiply that by 2 and 40% of your final salary which would be your retirement benefit from Laguna Hills.
Editor's Note FACT CHECK - Just like Craig Scott, Lautenschleger failed to mention that the City of Laguna Hills pays both the employer and employee retirement program contributions for Management and elected officials and that Management has 3 retirement plans, calPERS, PARS and a 457 plan and that the city paid $44,000 last year into just the City Manager's Retirement plan.

LHHS Student Liaison Report by Mike Spain - Homecoming Week was last week. LHHS won their Homecoming football game against University High School on Friday night. Saturday night was the Homecoming Dance. This week included the regular Monday late start which is a big success at LHHS, students are very pleased with it. The next few weeks are very quiet.

Minutes - Recommendation that the City Council Approve the Minutes of the previous City Council Meeting for publication on the city web site. The minutes from tonight's meeting will not be edited and approved for publication until the next city council meeting so there is a long delay for the public related to timely information from the city.

Consent Calendar - Warrant Register = $218,773. 65 - The Consent Calendar consists of multiple items, including the Warrant Register, on which the city council votes as a whole, with no public discussion unless an item is pulled for individual consideration.

Warrant Register Items of Interest - None

Items of Interest from the Consent Calendar:

Item 4.3 - New hours for Commercial and Charitable Solicitation in Laguna Hills to the Municipal Code - No Person shall Solicit between the hours of 6pm and 9am. Also adding that No Solicitor shall place hands, legs, or any portion of their body in the doorway so that it reasonable appears that the door may not be closed, unless permitted to do so by the occupant. Also adding that a solicitor receiving money or anything of value shall give a written receipt for commercial solicitation that shows the name and address of the solicitor, the solicitor's organization, the date and the amount received. For Charitable Solicitation the receipt given must comply with all IRS provisions for Charitable Donations.

Item 4.4 - Adding a Requirement for the Annual Update and Posting of a Public Officials Compensation Report on the City's web site beginning Feb. 11, 2011. It also adds that if new laws are passed requiring changes to the reporting, the City Attorney will approve the annual report changes required to ensure compliance with the new law.

Item 4.5 - Biennial Review of City's Conflict of Interest Code - Section 4 states Persons occupying designated positions shall file statements of economic interests with the City Clerk of Laguna Hills which will make the statements available to public inspection and reproduction. The city council members and the City Manager are NOT listed in the "Designated Positions" of this Ordinance but there is a clause that states: " The Council Members, City Manager, City Attorney, City Treasurer, Planning Commissioners, and other public officials who manage public investments are required to file Statements of Economic Interest pursuant to Government Code Section 87200 et seq. therefore they are not included as designated positions in the Appendix." "It has been determined that the positions listed below manage public investments and will file a statement of Economic Interests pursuant to Government Code Section 8720 - Assistant City Manager, Finance Manager."

Items Removed from the Consent Calendar = 1
Item 4.4 Removed by Mayor Randal Bressette (Requirement for the Annual Update and Posting of a Public Officials Compensation Report on the City's web site) who stated he wanted to thank the council for adding the report but expressed disappointment that it is not an easy to read document and looks forward to a legal requirement for posting it in an easy to read category in the future. Council Member Melody Carruth and Mayor Bressette asked if there had been any changes made to the document since it was first published. Staff responded that there had been no changes made.
Editor's Note - The changes to which Mayor Bressette and Council Member Carruth are referring are the addition of more complete information for the public such as adding UNUSED VACATION PAYOUT to the Compensation Report. Council Members, Craig Scott, Lautenschleger and Songstad have consistently refused to do this.

City Council Public Hearings - None
Planning Agency Public Hearings - None

Administrative Reports - City Manager Channing announced that the State had finally adopted a budget that is mostly smoke and mirrors.
Editor's Note - Still no Report from City Staff on the "City Study" requested by Craig Scott, Lautenschleger and Songstad of how to Support the 3/5 Marines the City adopted in 2007 with a Public Ceremony in 2008, but then failed to support. The 3/5 Marines are now in Afghanistan again. Council Members Bressette and Carruth studied the previous problem and the solution but the other 3 council members ordered additional study of the situation with no end date for that study specified.
Matters Presented by Mayor & City Council Members:

Council Member Melody Carruth said, in response to the Public Comments question by Laura Dickson and the answer by Council Member Craig Scott, that she did not think anyone on the city council had ever suggested that a City Manager's $23,000 bonus plus extra vacation days could cover the cost of a deputy Sheriff. (Laura Dickson - replied "Thank You" from the audience). The fact is those 2 deputy positions were eliminated and there was an attempt by 2 council members (Carruth and Bressette) to find ways to cover the expense for 1 of those positions.
Council Member Carruth continued with an introduction to her request to make the Evaluation of the City Manager Process more open to citizens to create public awareness:

Item 8.1 A - Council Member Melody Carruth requested Changes to the City Manager Evaluation Process to encourage transparency for more Public Awareness and Understanding of the process:

1. That this year the City Manager's Review be scheduled for Oct. 26 in Closed Session following the City Council Meeting to avoid the final evaluation session being held during a holiday which reduces citizen awareness.
2. That the Final City Manager Evaluation in Closed Session be held prior to a regularly scheduled city council meeting, rather than after a city council meeting to encourage greater public involvement.
3. That following the final Closed Session evaluation on Nov. 9, the city council will discuss and vote on the salary and bonus in public in the council chamber to allow the residents to listen to the council discussion, and understand the process and the different viewpoints of council members prior to the vote.

Mayor Bressette supported the motion, Council Member Songstad said he thought this was a good idea but had problems with times earlier in the day than 5pm for discussion because he has prior commitments, Council Member Lautenschleger said it would be okay if they could work out the hours for the council members and the public council meetings which may be difficult to do. Council Member Craig Scott argued that this process takes so long that it would be very difficult to complete it in a shorter period of time and we ought not to be inconveniencing the public. Council Member Carruth added that the council should have selected a labor negotiator for the city manager's evaluation on this date at this council meeting as clearly stated in the City Manager's Agreement that this is all supposed to take place in Oct. and Nov.
VOTE - passed 5 - 0 to attempt to change the hours and dates to make the process more open.

Council Member Melody Carruth noted that she and Mayor Bressette attended the annual "Bash Before The Clash" which was a wonderful community alumni Homecoming Event. Mayor Bressette said he was privileged to represent the City at the Board of Education Meeting and presented a Certificate of Recognition to Dr. Gilbert who has been on the School Board for 29 years. He is retiring to serve his country and has been assigned as a Lt. Col. in the US Army Reserve.

Additional Public Comments - Laura Dickson, Laguna Hills Citizen stated, "I think it is difficult to speak here and I spend a lot of time before I do come and speak, I do prepare and I choose my words carefully, so in response to Council Member Craig Scott, I never said the City Manager's bonus would fund a Sheriff, I never used those words. He said it was an absurd thought, it wasn't my thought....I also never said the word unsafe when I spoke to the council I was simply stating what is important to the citizens."

Council Member Lautenschleger responded to Laura Dickson with, "When we asked the Chief of Police if this had any effect the answer was a definite NO. (Again, this is NOT TRUE of Chief Doan's remarks at the June 23, 2009 City Council Meeting where this was publicly discussed - see Chief Doan's remarks about this above from the tape of that council meeting). He continued that we have a Master Plan and all these things in place so we can't just do something for a year and he does not believe we are underfunded related to police protection.

Closed Session - Conference with Real Property Negotiators re. leasing of office space at City Hall.

* Elections Information - Special Feature - http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/principles-269212-guiding-candidates.htm - Click on "Data" to find the city and candidates you what to know about. This link is from the OC Register Newspaper and is an interactive site where The Register has asked a series of questions of the candidates and published their answers. To date the only Laguna Hills Incumbent Council Member who has failed to participate is Craig Scott.
City Council Candidates Campaign Signs are ready for placement in your yards. Look for Candidate Meet and Greets in your neighborhoods or host one for your favorite candidates.
Barbara Kogerman - Kogerman4council@cox.net , Melody Carruth - www.melodycarruth.com/ , Randal Bressette - www.BressetteLH2010.com , Craig Scott -craigscott4lh.com , Pierre Gilbert www.gilbertforcouncil.com , Saeid Hiriri - http://votesaeidhariri2010.webs.com/platform.htm , Randal Scott Oakley - www.oakleyforcitycouncil.org/ , Ali Diowharzadeh - http:www.smartvoter.org/2010/11/02/ca/or/vote/djowharzadeh_a/ or e-mail Vote4AJ@gmail.com

Editor's Recommendations for City Council - Please Vote and encourage everyone you know to vote. We can't make any changes in Laguna Hills if you don't vote!!!!

Of the Non-incumbent candidates - Only Barbara Kogerman has delivered - the Term Limits for the Laguna Hills City Council Initiative "Measure T" which will be on the November Ballot and Transparency and Accountability in her study of the Total Compensation of All City Manager's in Orange County that led to State Legislation requiring Transparency in Public Reporting of Compensation for city staff and elected officials.

Of the Incumbent Candidates - Only Mayor Randal Bressette and Council Member Melody Carruth are both Voting for and stressing the need for more Accountability and Transparency in a uphill battle against the council majority.

* Craig Scott is the only Incumbent Candidate Voting AGAINST more Transparency and Accountability for citizens and his campaign has been very loose with facts. He also has been a long time negotiator of the bloated compensation for the City Manager.

** After observing, for 6 years and recording and reporting city council sessions in Laguna Hills, we at the Laguna Hills Watch Dog believe the City would be much better off in the hands of Barbara Kogerman, Melody Carruth and Randal Bressette who we believe will bring accountability, transparency and citizen, rather than city management staff, oriented spending priorities back to the citizens. We also believe that your vote for Term Limits- "Measure T" will prevent this city from having another 20 year Monarchy reigning our city with an attitude of "Just Trust Us and Don't Question, because Only We Are Capable of Deciding What's Best for You".

* INFORMATION, COMMENTS QUESTIONS and CONCERNS
from Watch Dog Readers:

We learned from Council Member Melody Carruth and Mayor Randy Bressette that citizens who have concerns about the city, their neighborhoods, etc. should address them to the City Council Members at: ccouncil@ci.laguna-hills.ca.us . That way all the city council members will be equally aware of the concerns of citizens. Council members can route complaints to appropriate departments and/or answer concerns individually as needed. If citizens address concerns only to individual council members or to staff, those concerns often do not reach all council members to allow appropriate feedback.

On the City web site we see that "Craig Scott is the author of co-author of six books in his field of legal specialization. Soon to be published is his Severance Agreements: 6 Steps to a Better Deal ( A How-To Guide for City Managers and other Public Executives)..." So, Craig Scott advertises on the city web site that he can get the best deals for City Managers and he also negotiates our city manager's bloated compensation with no apologizes and no explanations. In addition to all of that the Laguna Hills City Manager is the Vice President of the League of CA. Cities City Manager Dept. so is in a great position to assist Craig Scott with referrals to other City Managers. Craig Scott also voted Against requiring any Checks and Balances, Against City Council Approval and Against even Notification to the City Council when the City Manager gives annual raises and bonuses to staff at the June 23 2009 Laguna Hills City Council Meeting. Why is none of this addressed in the city's Conflict of Interest Code? Worse yet, if we don't vote this guy out he will be our next Mayor in Laguna Hills. Get rid of Craig Scott in this Election and Take our City Back for Citizens!

I am disgusted that this City Council majority would take liberties with our City's reputation by knowingly posting an incomplete, misleading Compensation Report on our City's Web site. Mayor Bressette began his battle to have UNUSED VACATION PAYOUT added to the Compensation Report back in August. Much support for this followed. The CA. League of Cities, The Orange County Register, our State Legislature, and our citizens at council meetings including Bob Dickson were all calling for Box 5 of the W-2 to be used for calculating City Manager Compensation. Unused Vacation payout is included in Box 5 and is compensation. Our Citizen, Mike Bland, gave the best explanation I have heard at a council meeting saying, " If I am paying an employee a yearly salary of $240,000 and he receives a month of vacation (takes his full 20 days of vacation during the year) he is costing me $240,000, but if he does not take his vacation, I have to pay him an additional $20,000 for us unused vacation payout. This is definitely a cost for me and compensation for him." LH Citizen who skipped Bible Study to attend this City Council Meeting-Perhaps Providence led me here?

Councilmember Lautenschleger (a City Official who did not want to be named) in the OC Register Watchdog blog of Sept. 22, was e-mailing back and forth with a reporter re. the City Manager's compensation and in one of the e-mails, "The City Official agreed that the $20,000 of Unused Vacation Payout was compensation..." but he did not vote that way. Councilmember Songstad said, " I just don't understand the problem, the compensation report is fine the way it is" and blocked Mayor Bressette's attempts to add the Unused Vacation Buyouts. Councilmember Craig Scott is reportedly one of the top labor and employment law attorneys in CA. who wrote a book entitled, " 6 Steps to A Better Deal... A How To Guide for City Managers...." A book on City Manager Deal Brokering would have to include a compensation discussion, but Scott failed to assist his own City with his expertise in this area. He voted with Songstad and Lautenschleger 3 to 2 to block Mayor Bressette's motion for complete transparency in the Compensation Report that is now on the City's web site. I guess if our City wants Craig Scott's expertise we will just have to buy his book. Vote OUT Craig Scott!

* How to support the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Division
Adopted by the City of Laguna Hills -
The 3/5 Division is now back in Afghanistan but the 3 members of the city council majority (Craig Scott, Lautenschleger and Songstad) who requested a "study of the situation", have not concluded their study so there is still no support from the city for their Adopted Marines - Council Member Melody Carruth told us - If you want to serve on a new Support Committee for the Adopted Marine Division and/or make a contribution contact Richard Nagle at rnagle74@cox.net
See more about Laguna Hills Adoption of the 3/5 Marines in these OC Register stories:
OCREGISTER: City to look at renewing support for Marine battalion
http://www.ocregister.com/news/support-266469-city-battalion.html
OCREGISTER: No support committee just yet for Laguna Hills' adopted battalion
http://www.ocregister.com/news/committee-266605-support-city.html

* News Stories and Blogs about Laguna Hills:

Transparency honor goes to Brandman students, law passes
http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2010/09/01/transparency-honor-goes-to-brandman-students/63589/

OC has two of state’s best-paid city managers
http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2010/09/17/oc-has-two-of-states-best-paid-city-managers/64492/

Laguna Hills posts compensation report
http://www.ocregister.com/news/calpers-266010-city-contribution.html

OC Register Editorial: City pay data belongs in daylight
http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/city-261556-compensation-cities.html

Proposed California law would sanction cities that pay excessive salaries
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-bell-legislation-20100812,0,4204782,email.story

Mad scramble to yank veil off city salaries begins
http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2010/08/05/mad-scramble-to-yank-veil-off-city-salaries-begins/62215/

California's city officials scramble to limit damage from Bell scandal
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bell-impact-20100729,0,6243085.story

OCREGISTER: Editorial: Maybe call it the city of Alarm Bell
http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/city-258416-bell-county.html

Editorial - Orange County Register on Friday, May 21, 2010 -
Managing some big pay packages begins with "If you require a fresh source of indignation over public employees' perks, look no further than Laguna Hills,"
http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/compensation-249743-city-public.html

Top city manager compensation: $460,809, report says
http://taxdollars.freedomblogging.com/2010/05/17/top-city-manager-compensation-460809-report-says/57287/

Controversial city manager compensation report now online http://taxdollars.freedomblogging.com/2010/05/17/controversial-city-comp-report-now-online/57357/

Frustration, lack of transparency mar quest for city pay data http://taxdollars.freedomblogging.com/2010/05/26/frustration-lack-of-transparency-mar-quest-for-city-pay-data/57991/

Prof defends students, study, in wake of city manager attacks
http://taxdollars.freedomblogging.com/2010/06/01/prof-defends-students-study-in-wake-of-city-manager-attacks/58291/

Laguna Hills defends city manager pay increases
http://www.ocregister.com/news/city-251558-manager-channing.html

OCREGISTER: Kogerman submits term limit initiative
http://www.ocregister.com/news/city-251580-council-kogerman.html

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

* City Council Members Say the Darndest Things in Public?
Memorable and surprising Public Quotes from City Council Members

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.
Council Member Craig Scott seems confused about this considering that a career is a course or progress through life, or a distinct portion of life and a Bureaucrat is a term that usually connotes someone within an institution of a government. Council Member 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 has achieved Career Bureaucrat status and he achieved that without Term Limits. Congratulations Mr. Scott!

Dec. 4, 2008 - LHCC Member Craig Scott stated, ".... based on what is recited here I think it is a 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.
" Really, Mr. Scott, would you say you are a "remarkable" city council member and how would you define that? Council Member Craig Scott is speaking about Nellie Gail Moulton (1878-1972) Born in Kansas in 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 a summer trip to visit her family in Southern California she met Lewis Moulton whom she married in 1908. They 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 in the lobby at City Hall!

June 10, 2008 - 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."
Thank you Council Member Songstad, that is exactly what we have been trying to tell you about the Laguna Hills City Council "sticking " the residents with the same bad vendor - The Orange County Animal Shelter for the past 19 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.
" Are there any volunteers willing to support a resolution proclaiming that the 73 Toll Road be set aside for the Exclusive Use of 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 19 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."
So true, Allan, so unfortunately true.

August 19, 1994 - LHCC Member Alan Songstad - From the Los Angeles Times Newspaper Article Collections - Orange County Focus August 19, 1994LYNN FRANEY - Laguna Hills Councilman Declines to Run for Reelection With Councilman L. Allan Songstad Jr. declining to run for reelection, at least one newcomer will gain a seat on the City Council this fall. Songstad said he never intended to run for a second council term and that he is not a "career politician." That leaves space for at least one of the challengers, Cindy Greengold, Saeid Hariri, Grant R. Marcus or Charmane Riggs.
Now, in 2010 with 18 years on the Laguna Hills City Council we are guessing Council Member Songstad has changed his mind about being not being a "career politician."

* For "CRIME IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD" *** Update - go to OCREGISTER: Crime in your neighborhood - http://www.ocregister.com/news/reported-257761-block-road.html Also: www.ocregister.com/saddleback scroll down to "Local Maps" move the map to your area, and click on the crime icons for details that show calls to the OC Sheriff's Department. You can also see stats for Crime in Lake Forest & Laguna Hills on Fridays in the Saddleback Valley News that is delivered to our area. There is also more information at www.ocsd.org (the OC Sheriff's Dept.) click on "E-Services" for the pull down menu, next click on "Sheriff's Blotter" then click "Laguna Hills" for the 7 or 30 day view.

* Reminders & Directions for Newspaper 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