July 12, 2011 - Laguna Hills City Council Meeting
All Council Members were present
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*** City Council Meetings have now advanced one more step to Video as well as Audio on the City Web Site. - Continue to see information for Win-Win -Wednesdays under - INFORMATION, COMMENTS QUESTIONS and CONCERNS from Watch Dog Readers: Contact Laguna Hills City Council Members at - ccouncil@ci.laguna-hills.ca.us  

Headline for this meeting - City Staff Creates City Policy for their own Compensation - see below under Administrative Reports.   

PRESENTATIONS and PROCLAMATIONS - 15 year Anniversary Awards of a pen and pencil set and certificates of recognition for City Employees Jan Thomas Frainie - Parks Supervisor and Janice Reyes - Finance Manager. Congratulations to both of them!

PUBLIC COMMENTS - Allen (couldn't hear his last name clearly) Resident of Laguna Hills who lives across from the High School in the Aspan Creek Community requested a study of speeding on the streets where he lives. He said they have a down hill slope problem and it is not safe for to exit the community and there is the noise related problem. This resident was referred to the Traffic Commission, that meets every 2 months - next meeting with me July 20. He was also referred to Ken Rosenfield, City Engineer/Director of Public Services. Ken said he would contact the Resident to hear the complaint to start a process.

LHHS STUDENT LIAISON REPORT by Kylie West alternate Jeena Bonutto. - No more reports until school resumes in the Fall.

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 approved for publication until the next city council meeting so there is a long delay for the public related to timely documentation of information from the city.

CONSENT CALENDAR - Warrant Register = $551,559.79

Items of interest from the Warrant Register - None

Items of Interest from the Consent Calendar: **Items on the Consent Calendar are placed there by City Staff:

Item 4.3 - Extension of Tentative Parcel Map - On Sept. 8, 2009 the City Planning Agency/City Council approved a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for CT Realty Corporation to make improvements in and around an existing 2 story building (currently used by the Superior Court) for condominium purposes. Once the condominium ownership is established, and the Superior Court moves out, the applicant intends to sell and the convert the existing general office space to occupancy and ownership by medical offices. The superior Court has not moved out so the applicant requests a 2 year extension of the CUP.

Item 4.4 Solid Waste and Recycling Consulting Services Agreement with EcoNomics, Inc. Staff is requesting another 2 year contract with this same company for $70,000. This cost is reportedly funded by the City's re-cycling funds. Staff report says this company assists the City with solid waste franchise administration (with CR&R), compliance reporting to the State, and recycling program administration. A representative from CR& R was on the panel that interviewed applicants for this service.

Item 4.5 Amendment to City's Landscape and Maintenance Service Contract with Nieves Landscape, Inc. According to the Staff Report the City made an error in the contract agreement with Nieves that became effective on July 1, 2009 which has now resulted in what originally appeared to be a potential $250,001.08 increase to the contract but after further explanation now appears to be a maximum increase of $55,001.08 or about 22%.
(Staff Report states " In reviewing the contract agreement, however staff has determined there was an inadvertent cap placed upon the total compensation value in the Contract Agreement that is inconsistent with the intended scope of work and regular practices of the City. Specifically, the Contract Agreement used the base service cost as the maximum compensation of the Contract Agreement which did not take in to account such regular expenses such as addition of new landscape areas for routine maintenance, non-recurring extra work as needed, and a contemplated cost of living adjustment in this fiscal year.")

(Editor's Note - From the Laguna Hills Watch Dog Report of the June 9, 2009 City Council Meeting we found that there was a change from Spectrum Care to Nieves Landscape Inc. for citywide landscape maintenance beginning July 1, 2009 at a cost of $869,998.92. That contract amount will now be increased to a maximum of the amount allotted by the current Fiscal Year City Budget of $1,120,000 broken into $925,000 for landscape maintenance, $175,000 for tree services, and $20,000 for rodent and pest control. Although this is confusing apparently the cost for the Landscape Maintenance portion of this Contract can now be increased by a maximum of about $55,001.08 as needed including the Cost of Living Increase for Nieves employees and additional work orders as needed. So the increase is from $869,998.92 to $925,000.00 rather than from $869,998.92 to $250,001.08 because $175,000 of the $250,001.08 is for tree services and $20,000 is for rodent and pest control services. Nieves does only the landscaping.)

Council Member Bressette pulled this item from the Consent Calendar for an explanation by Ken Rosenfield, City Engineer/Director of Public Services. Ken Rosenfield explained staff identified a potential inconsistency in the initial landscape contract with Nieves. He said in the contract format the City used at the time (2009) the project specifications take precedent over the contract agreement if there is a dispute between the 2 instruments. There was no dispute but Nieves recently requested a consumer price index adjustment to their contract and in reviewing the contract there appeared to be a conflict in the maximum payment cap which is inconsistent with the format of the specifications. He further explained that they worked with the City Attorney's office to draft a contract amendment to clarify those issues and established a contract agreement. He said this was an administrative clean-up. The current Fiscal Year City Budget of $1,120,000 broken into $925,000 for landscape maintenance which Nieves specifically addresses.

Item 4.6 Civic Center Budget - The Staff report says the budgeted net income is $107,427 and there will be no drain on the City's General Fund in there 2011-2012 budget for the Civic Center.
Office Space 320A is expected to be leased effective Oct. 1, 2011
Office space 200 is expected to be leased effective January 1, 2012
Office Space 320C is expected to be leased effective March, 2012
Office Space 330's lease is expected to be renewed effective May, 2012
Office Space 301 will remain vacant after Aug. 2011
Office Spaces 100 and 205 will remain vacant throughout the year.

Items 4.7 and 4.8 - Claim of Ralph Colombo for Damages of Unreasonable demolition of improvements to personal property at Saddle Rock Place in Laguna Hills. Report states City of Laguna Hills is denying this claim stating the claim is late, not presented within 6 months of the event.
VOTE - All items in the consent Calendar were passed 5 - 0, except Item 4.5 which was passed 5 - 0 after being pulled for explanation by Council Member Bressette

Items Pulled from the Consent Calendar for Discussion - Item 4.5 Amendment to City's Landscape and Maintenance Service Contract with Nieves Landscape, Inc. was pulled by Council Member Bressette for an explanation.


PLANNING AGENCY PUBLIC HEARINGS -

Item 5.4.1 - Conditional Use Permit to establish a Grades K- 2 Charter School at 25201 Paseo de Alicia in the Alicia Office Park, a Neighborhood Mixed Use Zoning District. School will be doing business from 7 am to 6 pm Monday through Friday with 100 students. Staff Report states this school has decided to occupy an alternative site within the Capistrano Unified School District which will better serve their needs, so their request for a CUP is withdrawn.

Item 5.4.2 - Site Development Permit/Master Sign Program Conditional Use Permit request by Hodgdon Grp. on behalf of Ashley Furniture to redevelop commercial property at 24001 El Toro Rd. (the former Circuit City Building).

The remodel will have 2 tenant spaces, one for Ashley furniture and one for another tenant through a large addition to the existing building - plus a separate drive through Chick-fil-A restaurant in addition to all new signage and landscaping. Staff report says 3 comments have been received from the community - One from the City of Laguna Woods with concerns about traffic, noise and air quality. One from the Golden Rain Foundation asking for an extended period for public comment and another from United Laguna Hills Mutual with concerns about traffic, air quality aesthetics and glare.
Staff Recommendation - Conduct a public hearing and overall the project makes a positive improvement in a key commercial area of the City.

Council Member Bressette recused himself from listening, discussing and voting on this item because of a possible conflict related to having a client associated with Chick-fil-A.

There was approximately a 2 hour discussion of this item which boiled down to the City Council Members rejecting the Ashley Furniture's Trademark 40 x 40 foot 4 sided tower structure over the entry to their store.  Ashley's argument was that this was their trademark structure on the other stores they had built, the tower displayed their name on all 4 sides and could be seen from the freeway and the nearby streets. They agreed to all other restrictions but stated they did not want to give this up because it is recognized by the public as their trade mark, is good looking and their stores that have this trademark design are more successful than their rented stores that don't have it. The City Council Members argued that the tower was out of balance with the rest of the building and 5 times larger than City Code permits. There was a deadlock and the applicant was sent literally back to the drawing board to redesign the tower and return at a later date. The council is in recess until August 23.
VOTE was 5 - 0 to reject the proposed Tower Structure on the remodeled building.

Planning Agency Public Comments - The only objections from the Public to the building were from Carol Moore representing an HOA in Laguna Woods and the Coralee Newman representing the Golden Rain Foundation with complaints that they had not been notified of the Mitigated Negative Declaration and were neighbors in this area. They inquired about additional noise, flood control in the parking lot, increased traffic, agreed that the tower element was too large and asked that signs/lights on the building be turned off daily by 10:00 pm.

Laguna Hills City Attorney, Greg Simonian explained that the City of Laguna Hills is currently and has at all times been in full compliance with CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) with respect to Notice Requirements. Golden Rain Foundation United, Third Laguna Hills Mutual, none of these neighbors are in compliance with public resources code section 21092.2.  For purposes of record he referred these interested neighbors to public resources code section 21092.2 and added it would be advisable that they refer their counsel to this code section now and in the future because we have heard this same argument before from Golden Rain Foundation and from United that they are not receiving notice. They are not in compliance with CEQA standards and with the notice of requirements themselves. It's a special noticing provision that once triggered legally obligates the City for a one year period to these concerned agencies with respect to any and all CEQA notifications concerning the City not just the Urban Village or other special projects. He noted he believes there is an inherent disconnect between what CEQA requires and what the neighbors are expecting.

(Editor's Note - There are many opinions about the City's Building Code. It is necessary to have some kind of uniform code that is applicable to all, equally enforced to avoid significant problems, that keeps the City looking good, keeps businesses in business and residents happy, but in the 6 years we have been attending Laguna Hills City Council Meetings we have frequently heard from business owners and developers that Laguna Hills is one of the worst cities to work with. This huge Circuit City building has been vacant for years and this is an excellent opportunity for 3 new businesses to occupy this space and bring much needed tax revenue and jobs to this city, so as Council Member Kogerman said perhaps the City's needs to look at some code changes?

Another example of the City Code problem was a struggling strip mall on La Paz and Mc Intyre at the June 14, LHCC meeting when Mr. Ron Bamburger, retail developer, told the City Council that the old sign for the strip mall he is re-developing looks dated but conforms with City Code at the 20 foot height limit so will be left as is rather than replaced unless the City might be willing to look at the possibility of allowing some exceptions for this location. He emphasized that he did not mean to be disrespectful in any way and this was simply an economic reality. Before that when Total Women's Gym came to the Laguna Hills Mall they requested their company's trademark color of approximately Kelly Green letters on the sign on their building, but the City Council argued for white. The Gym eventually changed their letters from green to white.)

CITY COUNCIL PUBLIC HEARINGS - Confirmation of 2011 Weed Abatement Cost Report Approx. 550 property owners were identified in this program and through City notices and reminders, etc. only one property owner did not comply and the City was forced to perform the weed abatement at a cost of $415.15 to be added to the owners tax bill.
Fiscal Impact to the City - Total Weed Abatement Budget for FY 2010-2011 is $40,000 for private and public properties.


ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS - **These Items are authored by City Staff

Item 7.2 - 2011-13 Salary and Benefits Resolution for City Staff

City Staff's Recommendations for City Policies for City Staff's Compensation - Establish Salary Ranges and Benefits for classes of City Employees to replace Resolution No. 2009-06-23-2

Staff sited the recent City Employee Compensation Study from Ralph Anderson & Assoc. commissioned by City Management Employees and approved 4 to 1 by the City Council (Council Member Kogerman was the only No Vote, and said she wanted to address policy first). Council Member Bressette stated that he voted yes to receive and file so he could open the matter up again if he wanted to. He said a yes vote made no comment about the validity of the report, only whether or not to receive and file.

City Staff Compensation Policy Recommendations were:
1. Maintain 5% above market average position
2. Monitor health insurance costs and market trends
3. Consider administrative leave for management positions
4. Monitor market changes in retirement formulas as agencies introduce tiers for new employees
5. Staff report states in the past the City's policy was to pay 5% above the County average and Ralph Anderson & Assoc. suggested using the approved comparator agency average (meaning using only the 17 cities used for this study in the future instead of the 33 cities in Orange County that were previously used.)

Staff is recommending that cost of living adjustments be granted to all non-management and extended part time employees on their current salaries and retroactive to July 1, 2011. The maximum adjustment is 2%. Future increases will be subject to annual performance evaluation and be based on merit and budget constraints.

Non-Management Employees (full time) - Staff recommends that these 21 salary ranges be benchmarked to 5% above the market average. Staff states 13 of these employees salaries are currently below the 5% above the market average benchmark. 8 of these employees are currently at or above the benchmark. Staff also recommends that one position be re-named from Assistant City Engineer to Associate Engineer and given a 10% raise.

Management Employee Positions - staff is recommending that the benchmark adjustments be deferred for 2 years. For full time management positions staff says the City's study supports adjustments for 4 of the 6 management positions and cost of living adjustments for all 6. Staff says there have been no benchmark or Cost of living adjustments for management staff since July 1, 2008 but staff does not mention raises or bonuses since 2008.

Extended Part time Positions - hourly ranges have been increased by a 2% cost of living allowance with the exception of Administrative Assistant 1 that has been increased 0.66%.

Part Time Positions - Staff says hourly ranges for Community Services Leader 1 and 2 have not been adjusted and another part time position has been of Administrative Intern. has been added related to a maternity leave.

City Manager's Discretionary Power to grant up to a 5% salary adjustment to all employees who have reached their top step - Staff report says this power has been deleted because the new City Compensation Study provides up to date benchmark comparisons.

City Manager's Discretionary Power to grant both salary and cost of living adjustments for the 2nd year for the budget cycle has been revised to allow the City Manager to grant cost of living allowances based on the April 2012 consumer Price Index.

Retirement - There are no recommended changes to the City's retirement plans.

Insurance - Staff Report states the study found the City's expenditure for Ins. benefits is generally higher than comparator agencies, but no changes are recommended over the next 2 years.

Vacation, Holidays and Leaves of Absence - Report says the City's Compensation Study noted that the City did not have Administrative leave for management employees but no changes are recommended at this time.

Additional Compensation (Auto Allowance) - 4 employees are given a monthly auto allowance from $300 to $650. The City's Compensation Study noted the market average for auto allowances among comparator agencies was $375 a month and 76% of private employers have auto allowances ranging from $500 to $842 a month so no changes are recommended. (Editor's Note - Only in this one isolated case did both the City Employee Compensation study and the City decide to look at and use Private Sector information that was more favorable to them regarding Auto allowances.)

Additional Compensation (Management Incentive Program - annual bonuses - Report states the City's Annual Management Incentive Program began in 1992 and allows management employees to earn 0 to 10% of their annual salary for outstanding performance. This was reportedly defunded in the current Biennial Budget 2011-13.

Fiscal Impact to the City - According to City Staff total budgeted personnel costs are $4,525,904 in 2011-12 and $4,690,156 in 2012-13 or 27% of the operating budget.

(Editor's Note - What the Staff is suggesting is to correct, through increases in compensation, what their city employee compensation study reports as everything below the 5% above the market average point in the 17 cities studied (in their recent City Employee Compensation Study) and to leave in place but not add anything for 2 years to what their study reports as everything above the 5% above the market average point. They propose to use the private sector info. from the study only for car allowances that their study said were much higher in Laguna Hill than in other cities and they failed to mention the "provided cars" that are paid for by taxpayers but given to the City Manager and the Assist. City Manager for their exclusive use. This was a practice which their study reported to be "not common" in other cities. The taxpayers/City will continue to pay all of the employer's and the employee's contributions to Employee Retirement Plans for management employees with 10 years of service and for Employee Health Ins. Premiums including those for the City Council Members.)

City Manager Don White restated the information above from the Staff Report and added that possibly sometime in the future the City would add having employees contribute some of their employee portion of their retirement benefits plans after we see how other cities are operating.

Council Member Bressette asked Assist. City Manager Don White where it is stated or suggested in print that from this time forward the City is now supposed to use the average annual compensation of only the 17 cities chosen for this study rather than all the cities in Orange County to calculate the 5% above the average pay for Laguna Hills employees? The report only states maintain 5% above the market average position.

Assist. City Manager White responded "In the Consultant's mind the market is the Comparator Agencies" and those comparator agencies are the 17 Cities that were approved by the City Council. White said he talked with the Consultant and he clarified that our market is always now the 17 cities.

Council Member Kogerman asked Don White what the difference in numbers would be with using just 17 cities rather than all the 34 cities.

White responded no studies were done but it is close.

Bressete responded that previously we had all 34 cities so just using these 17 would likely result in a higher average compensation amount.

Mayor Songstad said, "I would disagree with that as pure speculation."

Mayor Pro-Tem Carruth said all 5 Council Members approved the 17 cities for the study so why a complaint now?

(Editor's Note - The reason to complain now is that there was never any public suggestion during this entire process of a mandate to always use only these 17 cities, that were selected for this one study, in the future to determine the average salary ranges for calculating the average salary + 5% for Laguna Hills Employees.  Additionally of the 17 Cities studied only one was smaller in population than Laguna Hills and that was Laguna Beach which much more complex full service City. 16 of the 17 cities studied were larger. Only 2 of the larger Cities Dana Point (2010 population of 37,000) and San Juan (2010 population of 34,593), were close in size to Laguna Hills (2010 population of 31,178) The 17 Cities studied were Yorba Linda, Tustin, San Juan Capistrano, San Clemente, Rancho Santa Margarita, Orange, Newport Beach, Mission Viejo, Lake Forest, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Beach, Irvine, Fountain Valley, Dana Point, Cypress, Buena Park, and Brea)

Council Member Lautenschleger said he was happy with this recommendation and thinks the compensation study was accurate.

Council Member Barbara Kogerman proposed a substitute motion for a Revised Resolution containing the following compensation revisions for council consideration but did not receive a 2nd to discuss her motion so none of her proposed changes were discussed. Mayor Songstad insisted these changes would make Laguna Hills not competitive in the market place.

Council Member Kogerman's revisions that were suggested but not allowed to be discussed at the Council Meeting for lack of a 2nd to Kogerman's motion were:

1. RETIREMENT
Strike the current practice of the City paying “. . all employees’ contributions to PERS as deferred income.”
Substitute “. . . require all employees to pay an additional 2% of the employee’s share annually until the employees and the City are each paying 50% of the total plan cost.
”Will read: “The City shall participate in the California Public Employees Retirement System’s (Cal PERS) 2% @ 60 Program and require all employees to pay an additional 2% of the employee’s share annually until the employees and the City are each paying 50% of the total plan cost.”

2. RETIREMENT
“Retirement benefits shall be calculated based on the highest 36 months’ pay.” [Not final year]

3. VACATION
Change language to read, “Upon termination, all employers shall be compensated at their current pay scale for their accrued vacation leave balance at the pay scale for the year in which the leave was granted . . . ..”Add at end of paragraph: “Accrued vacation leave which the employee elects to cash out shall be compensated at the pay scale for the year in which the leave was granted.”

4. VACATION
Paragraph E: Strike entire paragraph. (Refers to granting management employees a one-time allotment of 40 hours of vacation leave to the employee’s vacation leave balance every ten years)

5. ADDITIONAL COMPENSATION
Paragraph A (monthly automobile allowance granted by the City Manager in lieu of mileage reimbursement): Cap at $400.

Council Member Bressette reminded the council that the Compensation Study Consultant insisted that employees want to retire at 55, but the CalPERS web site shows the average retirement is age 60 so if the Consultant had more accurate information his conclusions would have been different. Also, contrary to what the consultant said, there actually is additional financial benefit for waiting until age 60 to retire. He noted that at the 2% at 60 formula, if you retire after 30 years of employment at 55 your % of your last year's salary is 43.8% but if you wait another 5 years you go from 43.8% to 60%, and if you waited another 5 years your retirement would go to 70%. Bressette said in view of this he could not vote for the Staff's Resolution because the Compensation Study the Resolution was based upon was not accurate. He noted other problems with the salary ranges and made a substitute motion to adopt the staff recommendation with the exception of using all the other 33 cities in the future rather than just the 17 and he also received no 2nd for his motion and his proposed change was not discussed.

Mayor Songstad challanged Bressette with what if the survey of all the cities turned out to be higher, you would be good with that?

Bressette responded, Yes he would.
VOTE was 3 to 2 to accept Staff Recommendations For City Compensation Policies for Their Own Compensation as presented by City Staff. The 2 NO Votes were Kogerman and Bressette

Public Comments - CITY COUNCIL PUBLIC HEARINGS – None

Item 7.3.1 Designation of Voting Delegate for League of CA. Cities annual Conference - Mayor Songstad was selected with Lautenschleger as the alternate.


OTHER BUSINESS - **These Items are authored by Council Members - Appointment of a Labor Negotiator

Item 8.1 - Appointment of Labor Negotiator for the City Manager's Contract - Agendized by Council Member Kogerman and continued from the June 28 City Council Meeting

At the June 28, 2011 Council Meeting the council directed the City Attorney to return with names of 3 qualified labor negotiators to facilitate negotiations concerning the Contract of the City Manager. The City Attorney brought back these 3 names of attorneys who specialize in labor relations: Daniel Cassidy, Mark Meyerhoff and Jeffrey Freedman from the law firm of Liebert, Cassidy and Whitmore. The professional hourly rate for these attorneys is $300 and hour. The City Council has the option of selecting a City Council designated labor negotiator that can be a City Council Member or Members, an agency counsel, a human relations staff, a professional facilitator/labor negotiator or a special labor counsel to serve as the City's designated representative. The Report also states - In the event that City Council votes to retain special labor counsel, it is recommended that the City Council also authorize the City Attorney to execute a retainer Agreement for special counsel services.

City Attorney's Dept. Report states The City Council must first place the appointment of a labor negotiator on the open and public session of the agenda and select a labor negotiator prior to discussing compensation in Closed Session. Under the Brown Act the Council must take final action of changes to compensation in Open Session after conferring with the council designated representative during Closed Session.

Mayor Pro-Tem Carruth selected Dan Cassidy from the list of labor negotiators selected by the City Attorney and made a motion for a 1st meeting in September. Council Member Lautenschleger protested that this may be a duplication of effort because this is always done at the end of the year. Council Member Kogerman reminded Lautenschleger that the City Manager's contract provisions have not been changed since his new contract was approved by the council in 2003. Mayor Songstad insisted that this is a total waste of time and he is a Contract's Attorney and negotiates contracts for a living and unless there are 2 parties that both want to negotiate there is no negotiation. (Editor's Note - Many citizens have expressed to the LH Watch Dog - Where was Songstad, the Contracts Attorney, in 2003 when the City Manager was given his current contract and why was Songstad not serving the voters he was elected to serve rather than the City Manager?)

VOTE was 3 - 2 in favor of the attempting to negotiate the City Manger's Contract to see if any common ground can be found for negotiation. The 2 NO votes were Lautenschleger and Songstad.

MATTERS PESENTED by MAYOR & CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS - Nothing

CLOSED SESSION – Conference with Legal Counsel - Initiation of Litigation - 1 potential case.

The City Council is taking a recess on July 26 and August 9. The Next regular City Council Meeting is Tuesday August 23, 7 pm, at City Hall. Contact Laguna Hills City Council Members at - ccouncil@ci.laguna-hills.ca.us  
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City Council & City Manager Report Card - Categories - (T) Transparency for Citizens, (A) Accountability to Citizens, (CI) Championing Citizen Related Issue, (AG) Achieving Citizen Related Goal Grades - (P) Pass, (A) for Authoring a Citizen Friendly Item, (F) Fail, (A+) Extra Credit. City Manager will be scored related to online and agendized Staff Reports and Requests.

Bressette - P for Voting against the Resolution by the City Staff to determine their own Compensation Policy for the City. A for authoring a City Friendly alternative Resolution for City Employee Compensation Policy. P for voting for the Citizen Friendly Appointment of a Labor Negotiator to attempt to re-negotiate the City Manager's Contract.

Carruth - F for Voting for the Resolution by the City Staff to determine their own Compensation Policy for the City without discussing alternative Resolutions from council members.  P for voting for the Citizen Friendly Appointment of a Labor Negotiator to attempt to re-negotiate the City Manager's Contract.

Kogerman - P for Voting against the Resolution by the City Staff to determine their own Compensation Policy for the City. A for authoring a City Friendly alternative Resolution for City Employee Compensation Policy. P for voting for the Citizen Friendly Appointment of a Labor Negotiator to attempt to re-negotiate the City Manager's Contract. A for authoring the citizen friendly Item of re-negotiating the City Manager's Contract and A+ for getting that item passed.

Lautenschleger - F for Voting for the Resolution by the City Staff to determine their own Compensation Policy for the City without discussing alternative Resolutions from council members. F for voting against the Citizen Friendly Appointment of a Labor Negotiator to attempt to re-negotiate the City Manager's Contract.

Songstad - F for Voting for the Resolution by the City Staff to determine their own Compensation Policy for the City without discussing alternative Resolutions from council members. F for voting against the Citizen Friendly Appointment of a Labor Negotiator to attempt to re-negotiate the City Manager's Contract.

City Manager - F City made an error in the contract agreement with Nieves that became effective on July 1, 2009 which was not discovered until 2011 and has now resulted in a maximum increase of $55,001.08 or about 22%.  F for not volunteering to re-negotiate his City Contract and Compensation that makes him the highest compensated City Manager in all of Orange County.


INFORMATION, COMMENTS QUESTIONS and CONCERNS from Watch Dog Readers:

City Staff Dictates Their Own Compensation Policy?
Letting the city staff dictate their own compensation policy to the city council is letting the inmates get to run the asylum. Is that what we voted for in Laguna Hills? Thank you to Kogerman and Bressette for NOT voting for that! Kathryn

Total Disregard for Taxpayers by City Council Members
I am just disgusted with this whole compensation issue because it clearly demonstrates total disregard and lack of respect by the City Council (minus Barbara Kogerman) for the taxpayers of the City of Laguna Hills who trusted and reelected them in good faith. Now, we find that the same City Council members are beholden to the management of the City, especially the City Manager that they are supposed to supervise, guide and direct on behalf of the hard working taxpayers of the City. I continue to be appalled that we are giving higher than market salaries and COLAs while some of our neighbors have lost jobs, homes and/or have been furloughed in this recessionary economy. In addition, the situation is compounded by the fact that our State and federal budgets are out of whack, not to mention that the European economies are crumbling around us. It appears that our City Council operates without a vision and, in fact, in a vacuum or a bubble that will burst in time. Only Barbara Kogerman on the City Council is thinking ahead about the best interests of the City and planning ahead for the rainy day. I wish they were more focused on the quantity and the quality of services the City provides now or could provide in the future based on the real needs of our people, especially our youth. Disgusted in Laguna Hills

No More Hired Experts - Do It Yourself!
No more experts. That is what the City Council is supposed to be. All they have to do is think about how they would like to be compensated or how they have been compensated when they worked or hired people. It's not that difficult. How can it be that a City Council who has, for the most part, worked with this City Manager and Assistant City Manager for twenty years is unable to talk about and negotiate fair compensation? What kind of rapport exists or is missing from this picture? They might even say, "Bruce, you are too talented for a city of our size and complexity." "Bruce, you do deserve $500,000 a year because you can move mountains, but we don't have any mountains that need moving." "Bruce, we wish you well, we owe you the generous severance package approved by prior City Council's, now help us find a more economical replacement." Bill Enholm

More Pets are Killed - What's it going to take to get the Coyote Problem Agendized for a City Council Meeting?
I would really like the City Council to address the problem we have in Nellie Gail with coyotes!! I have several neighbors and friends who have lost loved pets to coyote attacks. We lost our beloved dog “Millie” Tuesday evening to a coyote who was with a pack and my husband chased them while they had our dog in their mouth. We never found her and my family is heart broken!!!! My son searched for 2 days all along the trails looking for some sign of her so we could bury her!!! THIS NEEDS TO BE TAKEN CARE OF!!!!! How many people have to lose their pets before you all take notice!!! I want answers, I have friends that have gone to meetings and had been promised something would change. WE NEED HELP!! I have two other dogs and I don’t want to lose them to our backyard preditors!!! Kathie Lauderdale

WIN WIN Wednesday! - Make it a habit! - Here's the lineup for - WWW Global Cuisine - Please Download your flyers to give to each restaurant to get the 20% for Win-Win-Wednesday's Safe & Sane Grad Night for LHHS at http://www.winwinwednesdays.com/  

JULY - SUMMER's THEME
July 20 - Subway (LH) at Mcntyre/La Paz
July 27 - Genghis Khan Mongolian BBQ (LF) El Toro Rd.

AUGUST
Aug. 3 - Beach Pit BBQ (AV) – 26541 Aliso Creek Rd.
Aug. 10 - Baja Fish Tacos (LH) – 23020 Lake Forest Dr.
Aug. 17 - King’s Fish House (LH)  – Laguna Hills Mall
Aug. 24 - Chick-Fil-A (LN) – Greenfield @ Crown Valley Parkway
Aug. 31 - Mimi's Cafe' (LN) - La Paz Rd.  Breakfast Lunch or Dinner - all day


HOW TO SUPPORT THE 3rd BATTALION, 5th MARINE DIVISION - Adopted by the City of Laguna Hills

Donation checks can be made specifically to "Laguna Hills Team Dark Horse" and mailed to - Team Dark Horse, 27251 Lost Colt Dr., Laguna Hills, CA. 92653. The Non-profit Corporation 501 (C) (3) status has been approved so all donations are tax deductible. E-mail Mike Bland at 35bland@gmail.com with questions, suggestions, etc. The city's e-mail for the 3/5 is 3/5-support@ci.laguna-hills.ca.us  City Clerk Peggy Johns is the City Liaison to the 3/5 Support Committee. Go to the City web site by clicking on this link - http://www.ci.laguna-hills.ca.us/

Please see the Laguna Hills 3/5 Adopted Marines Facebook page by clicking on this link - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Laguna-Hills-Team-Darkhorse/132765660119128  and share it with your friends!!


NEWS STORIES AND BLOGS ABOUT LAGUNA HILLS: Click on the links below to see the stories.

**NEW - Which city council makes the most money? http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2011/07/11/which-city-council-makes-the-most-money/88311/#comment-169311

LA Times: Laguna Hills City Manager Salary
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-oc-salaries-20110621,0,1126677.story  

In O.C., city pay can be steep, but it’s not ‘abusive’ June 20th, 2011 http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2011/06/20/in-o-c-city-pay-can-be-excessive-but-its-not-abusive/85631/#comment-165059  

June 9, 2011 ORANGE COUNTY GRAND JURY REPORT - Compensation Study of Orange County Cities http://www.ocgrandjury.org/pdfs/comp-study-oc-cities/Compensation-Study-of-Orange-County-Cities.pdf  

City manager says compensation is fair
http://www.ocregister.com/news/city-303264-channing-compensation.html  

Political rebel faces an uphill battle
http://www.ocregister.com/news/city-303262-kogerman-channing.html  

Councilwoman: Public pay report inaccurate, self serving
http://www.ocregister.com/news/city-299908-report-council.html  

OC Watchdog Lavish health benefits slashed in Laguna Hills, Tustin http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2011/05/12/lavish-health-benefits-slashed-in-laguna-hills-tustin/82833/  

After attacks, city-manager-compensation sleuths win state award March 21st, 2011, posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer
http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2011/03/21/after-attacks-city-manager-compensation-sleuths-win-state-award/78545/#comment-139633  
Click on http://www.publicceo.com/  for more of this story.

No more $60,000 SUVs for city manager?
http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2011/02/09/no-more-60000-suvs-for-city-manager/75030/  

Gold-plated benefits? New councilwoman just says ‘no’ http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2011/01/18/gold-plated-benefits-new-councilwoman-just-says-no/72532/  

OCREGISTER: Laguna Hills councilwoman says no to health benefits http://www.ocregister.com/news/city-282972-benefits-council.html  

O.C. cities lavished health benefits on council members http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2010/12/06/oc-cities-lavished-health-benefits-on-council-members/69544/  

Who has the best-paid city council in California? (updated) http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2010/12/02/who-has-the-best-paid-city-council-incalifornia/69418/  In Laguna Hills the Taxpayers pay the entire cost of heath care premiums for the elected part time city council members and their families. In addition, the City Manager's contract states "To the extent that payment of all or any portion of the dependent rate of premium, is not approved by the city council for all city employees, Channing shall be entitled to a salary increase or cash payment sufficient to cover the amount of premium or rate for dependent coverage not provided by the City plus applicable income taxes on that amount."

OCREGISTER: Kenneth Frank: In defense of city managers http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/city-277030-manager-laguna.html  "Citizens, in turn, must do their part to foster civic pride. They should demand that city council and planning meetings be televised and streamed online. And they need to become involved. In Laguna Beach, we have numerous homeowners associations and environmental, business and labor groups that encourage the exchange of ideas and enhance the interactivity between residents and elected officials.

OCREGISTER: Chris Norby: Local officials susceptible to 'Bell syndrome http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/elected-276253-city-syndrome.html  "Bell syndrome thrives where elected boards vote in lockstep, where groupthink is elevated, and skeptics are ostracized, and where top staff are seen as irreplaceable experts – with rubber-stamped salaries to prove it. Bell syndrome thrives when self-congratulation trumps self-examination."

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/  


CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS SAY the DARNDEST THINGS IN PUBLIC? Memorable and surprising Public Quotes from City Council Members

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 Mayor 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.

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 unless you change members of the city council.

August 19, 1994 - LHCC Member Allan Songstad - From the Los Angeles Times Newspaper Article Collections - Orange County Focus - August 19, 1994 LYNN 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 2011 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."


CRIME IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD

For a roundup of Laguna Hills police calls - published May 11, 2011 click on: http://www.ocregister.com/news/block-300013-disturbance-drive.html  and go to - www.ocregister.com/saddleback for more.

OCREGISTER: A roundup of Laguna Hills police calls http://www.ocregister.com/news/block-306743-thursday-tuesday.html


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