What’s inside:

mportant business will take
place at the City Council
meeting of Tuesday, June 18.At
that meeting, budget items for 2003
will be discussed and finalized. Future
City Councils will find that their
ability to budget has been seriously
hampered by this Council.

In my view, every Laguna Beach
citizen should be aware of what is
happening in the budget. The future of
our city is at stake.

This whole issue is devoted to City
finances. I hope you read it. I hope
you will attend the Council meeting on
June 18 at 7 p.m. to let us know your
desires with respect to the budget.

o you know someone who
should be receiving this
update? Please e-mail me
their name and e-mail address and
I’ll add them to the list!

My e-mail address is
Cheryl@LoveLagunaBeach.com

Love Laguna Beach! is prepared
by Cheryl Kinsman, member of the
Laguna Beach City Council, as a
service to the people of Laguna
Beach. Not prepared, printed or
mailed at taxpayer expense.

Love Laguna Beach!

June 16, 2002(Volume 2, number 3)
byCheryl Kinsman

man walked into his bank and was told
his checking account was overdrawn. He
replied, “I can’t be overdrawn–I still have checks.”

Like that bank customer, Laguna Beach seems committed to
spending millions of dollars on non-essential long term projects
that will put the city in debt for years to come. As a result, many
essential projects have either been underfunded, postponed far into
the future, or removed from the budget entirely. Some of these
include:

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El Toro Reuse Planning Authority (ETRPA). The fight to
keep an airport out of El Toro is not over. For Laguna to
continue to have influence over this process, we must remain
part of the organization that has carried the fight this far. We
have not budgeted our full dues to this organization for next
year.
A new fire station for South Laguna. The one currently in
use is too small to hold a modern fire engine.
A modern accounting system for city finances.The city is
currently using a 20 year old mainframe system that is no
longer manufactured and whose programs are outdated and
inadequate for managing an increasingly complex city.
A lifeguard headquarters at Main Beach. The one currently
in use is in a bad state of disrepair.
South Laguna Village revitalization. Laguna Beach has two
downtowns. The “second” downtown, in South Laguna, has
run down and badly needs new sidewalks and additional
parking to revitalize it. This southern entrance provides many
visitors with their first impression of Laguna Beach.
Move or rebuild the corporate yard. Arnold Hano, a Village
Laguna member who often sees things from a different
perspective than I, recently inspected our corporate yard. The
corporate yard is the place that our city employees
work–maintaining vehicles and doing the other maintenance
that a city needs. Arnold told me after his visit that “Our
employees are working in tin shacks worse than those in
Guatamala!”

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Seven years ago, the Village Entrance Task Force
recommended moving this facility to the Act V parking lot.
Over $250,000 was spent on this now-abandoned project. I
believe this project should be completed. If the council refuses
to move forward with a corporate yard at Act V, the corporate
yard must be repaired to meet minimum safety standards for
our employees.

I

D

A

In addition to the above items, we need a comprehensive parking, traffic and
circulation study for downtown. We have engaged inpiecemeal planning for parking,
traffic and circulation in Laguna for many years. Some of the plans under consideration
today are:
•Build a 200 space, two level underground parking structure at the base of the Third Street
Hill (this item is already in the budget).
•Close the Third Street hill to vehicle traffic.
•Raise parking meter fees from $1.00 per hour to $1.50 per hour.
•Build a three to four level parking structure behind the Laguna Playhouse. (Money to
study this structure is in the budget scheduled for adoption Tuesday night.)
•Build a pedestrian underpass under Coast Highway at Broadway.
•Use police officers to direct traffic at busy intersections during the summer.
•Increased downtown parking at the Village Entrance site (next to City Hall). Even
though a design competition has been held, all further money for the project has been
removed from the budget.
•Turn Forest Avenue into a pedestrian mall.
•Increase parking meter times from 2 hours to 3 hours.
•Provide resident only parking in some areas,
•Provide regular free tram service with peripheral parking at the Act V lot in Laguna
Canyon.

It may be that some or many of those items are the solution to our parking, traffic and
circulation problems. However, it is not clear what mix of solutions will be the best for
Laguna. Therefore, a comprehensive study should be undertaken to provide that mix before
adopting any of these projects.

I do not believe that the business of a City is to provide everything for everybody. I
would love for Laguna Beach to be able to do that. We just don’t have the money. And if
the citizens of Laguna Beach want to borrow to do projects, they should be given the
opportunity to vote on those projects directly, not when we are out of money and must
borrow to do things that everyone agrees are absolutely necessary.

If you believe, as I do, that we should get back to the basics of running city government,
make your views known at the City Council meeting on Tuesday, June 18, 2002, at 7 p.m.
Your views can make a difference.