LAGUNA HILLS WATCH DOG SPECIAL EDITION - April 19, 2011

LAGUNA HILLS CITY COUNCIL BUDGET SESSION - Summary of some of the Major Issues. - You can listen to the complete audio content of this 5 hour meeting online on the City web site.

EXPENSES AND CUTTING COSTS

Assistant City Manager Don White spoke for almost 1 1/2 hours about City expenses and defended the City's personnel costs. He said personnel costs have ranged from 25 to 27% of the operating budget and city management staff costs are 36 to 41% of that amount. The fiscal year 2012-2013 budget is expected to use about $1 million, 678 thousand for city mgmt. staff. He noted that management staff receives COLAs (Cost of Living Allowances) in addition to all of their other compensation benefits. He said PERS retirement plan costs increase every year, and noted how this city had retained the 2% at 60 retirement formula. He noted that the City did delete the Mayor's breakfast and cut the Management Retreat back to having it at the Brewery in Aliso Viejo this year to save money. City Manager Channing offered that health care rates recently dropped from $179,000 in 2009-10 to $80,000 for 2012-13 because the City has found a composite rate rather than continuing to pay the previous age banded rate.

(Editor's Note - It's good for the taxpayers that this change finally happened but the problems with the old health care plan that was costing the taxpayers so much were clearly published by the Orange County Register Newspaper's OC Watchdog in November of 2009 in the 2 reports below that everyone can still read online by clicking on the links. The question is why was this City Manager not ahead of the game on finding a more economical Health Insurance Plan for City employees including the City Council? Why did this take the City until 2012-13 to make this change when the problems were so clearly defined for the taxpayers in 2009?

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/

In answer to a question by Council Member Kogerman, White said the City Manager's $60,000 car in 2009 is NOT considered a personnel cost and it's cost would be under Capital Outlay as an asset of the city. (Editor's Note - This is the method the City employs for the City Manager's and Assistant City Manager's car purchases rather than showing their cars as a purchase or a car allowance or an annual payment on the balance of the amount owed for the car in the online At A Glance City Manager's Compensation Report)

Council Member Kogerman asked Assistant City Manager Don White how much the City collects from COX Cable annually and White responded that the amount was about $480,000 that goes to the general fund to safeguard the public's interests in the absence of competition. Kogerman asked if we could use some of that for Video streaming the Council Meetings rather than the audio only streaming that we have now. White explained that this money is for the purpose of being sure all the companies who pay it (Cox, Edison, SDG&E and for a time Solid Waste disposal) are all following the law.

Council Member Kogerman also suggesting putting City Views online to save significant expense in publishing and mailing it. Mayor Songstad countered that it can't be sent out online because we don't have all the citizens e-mails. (Editor's Note - Publishing City Views online on the City web site would allow citizens to go there to see it.

Bressette, Kogerman and Carruth questioned the amounts of car allowances for City Management Staff and Kogerman asked about having a pool of autos for staff to drive on the job. City Manager Channing responded that car allowances are needed because department heads are expected to have a personal vehicle available to them for their travel to meetings throughout the County. Council Member Bressette noted that car allowances deserve more scrutiny because from the figures in the budget an employee would have to average 100 miles a day in business travel to make up for the allowance amounts provided. He added that a 10 year old truck was replaced but questioned it's mileage. Ken Rosenfield, Director of Public Services, City Engineer responded that the truck had about 100,000 miles and may have been able to continue in service for another 100,000 but old trucks don't look good to the community so are replaced to avoid projecting a poor image.

DISCUSSION OF NEED FOR MORE SHERIFF'S DEPUTIES IN LAGUNA HILLS

Assistant City Manager Don White continued with a lengthy discussion of the Sheriff's contract that he said is up to 39% of the operating budget.  Mayor Pro-Tem Carruth asked if there has been any consideration given to sharing deputies with other cities to keep the numbers of deputies that are needed up and the costs down.  City Manager Channing responded that no other cities have asked about this and we can consider this if they ask. (Editor's Note - What is preventing our City Manager from asking other cities about this?  Don't we pay the City Manager to be thinking ahead creatively rather than playing catch-up?)

Council Member Bressette questioned eliminating one traffic deputy from 4 traffic/motor deputies when traffic problems are the primary Public Safety problem for Laguna Hills. City Manager Channing said he worked this out with Lt. Doan so that Doan could put an officer in the Special Enforcement Team (SET) that is now not staffed. He said the City operated with only 3 traffic officers all last year because one was out and the number of collisions was down. Bressette noted that the number of citations was also down by 1500 so he questioned that and added that the money from the lost citations could go toward supporting another deputy/officer because Public Safety is the highest core priority for the City.

Lt. Doan was called upon and corroborated that one traffic office was out last year due to an injury and was not replaced by substitutes. He also said he thought that now that we have 4 motor officers again pulling one this year for the vacant SET (Special Enforcement Team) was a good idea. (Editor's Note - We asked Lt. Doan why the traffic/motor officer was not replaced and he told us - The only position that I did not fill with overtime was the vacant motor position. The main reason I chose this route is that the Sheriff’s Department doesn’t have a contingent of motor deputies that are available to fill motor vacancies. The motorcycles they ride are City property and the logistics of having a motor from another City work on overtime is overwhelming. Additionally, it makes no sense to fill a motor vacancy with a deputy in a patrol car because they typically do not have the training/ experience to use the electronic speed measuring devices that we utilize in traffic enforcement (radar, laser, etc.) Because of these hurdles, I chose to run the one motor position vacant for most of the year. Whenever a position goes unfilled, the City doesn’t pay for that position.)

Council Member Kogerman agreed that the $345,000 brought in last year by hazardous motor citations would help to fund another officer/deputy.

Mayor Songstad said he wouldn't put these 2 officers back if we had plenty of money and continued that our preventative patrol time is just fine, you can put a police office on every corner or in everybody's driveway but that would be foolish.  We were overstaffed before and still are probably over staffed.  He then switched the subject to the city retirement plan of 2% at 60 and that he said the council was so wise to keep and said he doesn't want to temporarily suspend or eliminate any of that to pay for more police and called this a political issue. (Editor's note - he did not mention that the city pays for both the employer and employee's contributions to the retirement plan.)

Council Member Lautenschleger agreed with Songstad and protested vigorously that there was no safety issue.

Mayor Pro-Tem Carruth reversed her previous position on this issue and her vote for this Major Plan for the City on this issue and responded that due to the bad news about economic recovery now she was not for adding deputies. She said reassigning deputies until the financial picture changes for the better, maybe in 2014 is a good idea.

Council Member Bressette responded that this is not a political issue, public safety is a core priority. He said the force is stretched to the point that the numbers may begin to deteriorate and he said he is especially concerned about taking away a motor officer. He said there are lots of other ways to save money such as temporarily defunding PARS and the $100,000 for Urban Re-forestation could be delayed, COLAs could be suspended, car allowances could be cut, Stockport Park Renovations could be delayed, Step increases for staff and vacation buyouts could be suspended as well to protect public safety.

Council Member Kogerman said we can look again at the City Manager's and Assistant City Manager's compensations and look at the Compensation Report and see if some shifts could be made to better serve the citizens.

Mayor Songstad said then tell Lt. Doan not to do that, leave the officer in motor rather than putting that officer on the SET team.  He continued that you are willing to jeopardize some of the programs that make the City competitive in being able to attract high caliber talent to fund police officers. He asked how many officers do you want , 10, 20, 30, 40? He noted that the 4 rapes in the City were all by people who knew the victims, not someone jumping out of the bushes.

Council Member Kogerman stated she is assuming that this issue will not be decided until all have had a chance to look at the Compensation Study Report and work on compensation issues, etc. The City Manager responded he was not sure about that, it would depend upon when that report comes back to the council.

DANGERS ON THE ALISO CREEK TRAIL RUNNING THROUGH LAGUNA HILLS

Ken Rosenfield, Director of Public Services, City Engineer spoke about the $16 million Capital Improvement Budget over the next 6 years.
Mayor Pro-Tem Carruth asked what can we do to ask the County of Orange to set aside funds for the outrageous lack of maintenance at the Aliso Creek Watershed? What about funding for emergency projects?  Ken Rosenfield, Director of Public Services, City Engineer explained this began about 10 years ago when the County of Orange was partners with the Army Corps of Engineers. They were doing an Aliso Creek Main Stem Study all the cities including Laguna Hills were stake holder/funding partners in the process. It was anticipated that we would eventually be asked to contribute about $500,000. The study was completed and the project was never funded. The County then started a new process to potentially fund an Aliso Creek restoration project that is well downstream of our location. It is unclear if in the future we would be participants in this funding. It is just there to give some expectation in the future that there is some expectation of helping Aliso Creek.  A short term goal would be to change the County's priorities.  In the long term this Capital improvement is so costly it is hard to predict that will ever be funded. He said have recently been putting pressure on the County for the section of the Aliso Creek between the I-5 freeway and Paseo de Valencia. No resolution yet and he said he can report back if we need to go higher up the ladder. Kogerman stated if we do not receive sufficient response from the County she is hoping the council will direct the City Manger to send a strongly worded letter to the County about safety and that they are derelict and this is something we could agendize.  Ken Rosenfield responded the County suffered a significant washout of a bike trail at the underpass of the freeway and there was a stated federal disaster declaration so his expectation is that the County is trying to get the funding though that process and eventually put a project together to fix that and he is 'hopeful" that they will then include some of the eroding slopes further down the stream, but he doesn't know that at this time.

SKATE PARK AND ROLLER HOCKEY FACILITY

Kogerman suggested some safety enhancements and supervision for the Skate Park. Ken Rosenfield responded that the topic of the roller hockey and skate park improvement have been discussed. Roller hockey roof was discussed but the roller hockey vendor, the Ca. Street Hockey Association, has not been able to be a partner in this but improvements to one of both facilities could be considered together or independently.

AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN

Council Member Kogerman stated she checked and found that the Kid's Factory is not a duplication of the TLC Program. Kid's Factory is a drop in program that both Lake Forest and Mission Viejo fund for each of the elementary schools in the Saddleback District Pgrm. in their cities. The program at each school costs about $29,000 a year and runs for about 2 hours after school and costs the parents about $25 to enroll their child for a year. The TLC Program is more of a full time childcare program and very costly. She said she talked with the principal at Valencia Elem. School and he said he really feels the lack of the Kid's Factory here after having worked at a school in Mission Viejo. He said kids who have no place to go here just hang around the library after school and then drift away. If we funded this program the district would staff it for children who are otherwise out on the streets drifting. The total cost would be $87,000 a year for the 3 elementary schools in Laguna Hills.  Mayor Pro-Tem Carruth stated that none of the council members were interested in expanding the role of government, most of us want to reduce the size of government and no one here wants to create an entitlement program, it isn't the city's responsibility to pay for day care.

FINAL RESULTS OF CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS RATINGS OF THEIR FAVORITE MAJOR PLANS FOR THE CITY

Major Plans cannot move forward unless they get a Vote of 1.6 or better per the City Manager. All council members can vote 0, 1, or 2 on each item and the votes are totaled then divided by 5 for the final rating.

PLANS ORIGINATING FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS

Aliso Creek Trail Loop from Carruth - 1.2 rating-failed
Votes - Songstad-0, Kogerman-2, Lautenschleger-1, Bressette-1, Carruth-2

Exercise Sheep Hills Park IOD, from Carruth - 1.6 rating-approved but Unfunded.
Votes - Songstad-1, Kogerman-2, Lautenschleger-1, Bressette-2, Carruth-2

Increase the number of sworn deputies sheriff positions by 2, from Bressette - 1.2 rating-failed Votes - Songstad-0, Kogerman-2, Lautenschleger-0, Bressette-2, Carruth-2

Investigate the installation of a barrier on PDV between Mobile Station Community Center, from Bressette - 1.2 rating but eliminated after investigation
Votes - Songstad-0 , Kogerman-2, Lautenschleger-1, Bressette-2, Carruth-2

Implement Kid's Factory after school program, from Kogerman 0.6 rating-failed
Votes - Songstad-0, Kogerman-2, Lautenschleger-0, Bressette-1, Carruth-0

Respond to proposals from other cities to provide animal services, from Kogerman - 1.6 rating-passed Votes - Songstad-1, Kogerman-2, Lautenschleger-1, Bressette-2, Carruth-2

Video Stream Council Meetings, from Kogerman - 1.8 rating-passed
Votes - Songstad-2, Kogerman-2, Lautenschleger-1, Bressette-2, Carruth-2

PLANS ORIGINATING FROM PARKS AND RECREATIONS COMMISSION

Acquire rights for a park/trail in the Edison Easement - 1.6 rating passed
Votes - Songstad-1, Kogerman-2, Lautenschleger-1, Bressette-2, Carruth-2

Implement a citizen volunteer program to enforce City Codes in Parks - 0.6 rating-failed Votes - Songstad-0, Kogerman-1, Lautenschleger-1, Bressette-0, Carruth-1

Develop a Community Garden - 0.2 rating failed
Votes - Songstad-0, Kogerman-0, Lautenschleger-0, Bressette-0, Carruth-1

PLANS ORIGINATING FROM CITY MANAGER

Negotiate a property sale agreement for the La Paz-Moulton Center to allow for additional retail space - 2.0 rating passed
Votes - Songstad-2, Kogerman-2, Lautenschleger-N/A, Bressette-2, Carruth-2

Work with Fritz Duda to facilitate the recevelopmemt of Oakbrook Village to a mixed-use development - 2.0 rating passed    Votes were all 2s

Work with Simon Properties to redevelop Laguna Hills Mall to a mixed-use development - 2.0 rating passed  Votes were all 2s

Establish collaborate working group of stakeholders within the Urban Village - 1.6 rating passed but Unfunded.
Votes - Songstad-2, Kogerman-2, Lautenschleger-1, Bressette-2, Carruth-1

Develop Legislative strategy amending State law to allow the transfer of excess housing funds from Lake Forest- rating 2.0 passed.   Votes were all 2s

PLANS ORIGINATING FROM CITY CLERK

Convert existing imaged documents database records management system to SIRE - rating 2.0 passed   Votes - were all 2s

PLANS ORIGINATING FROM ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES DEPT.

Work with OC Animal Care Services & other contract cities to facilitate construction of new OC Animal Shelter - rating 2.0 passed   Votes were all 2s

Explore use of on online social networking to increase citizen participation and public information - rating 1.4 failed *City's published work sheet states this passed but it did not receive a 1.6 rating?
Votes - Songstad-1, Kogerman-2, Lautenschleger-2, Bressette-0, Carruth-2

Work with OC Animal Care Services & other contract cities & Board of Supervisors to create OC Animal Care Public Advisory Board - rating1.6 passed
Votes - Songstad-1, Kogerman-2, Lautenschleger-1, Bressette-0, Carruth-2

Investigate Costs/benefits of a Laguna Hills Houseing Authority to benefit Via Lomas Area - rating 1.6 passed  Votes - Songstad-2, Kogerman-2, Lautenschleger-2, Bressette-1, Carruth-1

Update November 2009 Staff Report regarding ballot initiative to increase City's Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) - rating 0 failed

PLANS ORIGINATING FROM COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPT.

Update development code to comply with new General Plan and new State laws -rating 2.0 passed - Votes were all 2s

Work with Simon Group and Fritz Duda Company to implement a Catalyst project in the Urban Village - rating 2.0 - Votes were all 2s

Implement a sustainable development program - rating 2.0 - Votes were all 2s

Conduct a study to convert the City's existing permitting system to paperless system - rating 2.0 - Votes were all 2s

PLANS ORIGINATING FROM PUBLIC SERVICES DEPT.

Assess sidewalks & ramps to update City's self-assessment for compliance with the American Disabilities Act - rating 2.0 - Votes were all 2s

Initiate NPDES inspection program and inspect existing structural controls implemented in Water Quality Mgmt. Plans - rating 2.0 - Votes were all 2s

Upgrade City's geographic Information system (GIS) by adding layers - rating 1.8 passed but Unfunded   Votes - Songstad-2, Kogerman-1, Lautenschleger-2, Bressette-2, Carruth-2

PLANS ORIGINATING FROM COMMUNITY SERVICES DEPT.

Implement a regional commercial food-waste recycling program - rating 1.8 passed
Votes - Songstad-2, Kogerman-2, Lautenschleger-2, Bressette-2, Carruth-1