Report summarizes efforts of La Cañada Flintridge city staff
The inner workings of La Cañada Flintridge were recently considered when City Manager Mark Alexander released his annual report of 2016 city activities to the City Council.
Alexander submitted the 35-page document to the council in a Feb. 21 regular meeting. The report summarizes the efforts and accomplishments of employees working in four primary sectors — the Administration, Finance, Community Development and Public Works departments — and reflects a tremendous amount of work, the manager said.
“With the size of staff we have, it’s amazing,” Alexander told the City Council. “You don’t realize it until you see it all compiled together in one report exactly how much is done by so many people.”
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Some parts of the report take a comprehensive look at a department’s activities, while others aggregate statistics into charts that compare data from one year to the next.
For example, the city offered 53,079 free shuttle service rides in 2016, a 37% increase over last year’s figures and 88% higher than 2014 ridership levels.
Officials also noted a total of 429 public records requests were made, compared to 340 last year. Alexander clarified the bulk of public information requests made to the city clerk came from area businesses.
“We get a lot of requests from vendors, who put [the information] into a format they can resell,” he said.
The report indicates that in 2016, the Finance Department issued 1,835 business licenses, comprising 1,400 renewals and 435 new permits that brought in $204,257 in general fund revenue.
Lanterman Auditorium on Cornishon Avenue, a venue operated under a joint-use agreement between the city and La Cañada Unified School District, was booked for 1,568 hours in 2016 and generated $171,665 in gross revenue during Fiscal Year 2015-16.
The Community Development Department logged 391 code compliance calls last year, fielding 7,901 customer service calls and 4,732 walk-in visits at its front counter.
Also in 2016, the Public Works Department processed 285 requests for service pertaining to traffic and road maintenance and 6,098 requests for tree-related service and spraying. A total of 5.94 miles of city streets were resurfaced, while 73 traffic studies and investigations were conducted.
Councilwoman Terry Walker thanked employees for all the work that went into compiling the report.
“In reading it, I’m very proud of our city staff,” she said. “They’re very lean and mean, and they get a lot of stuff done.”
Mayor Jon Curtis agreed.
“It really does highlight how much good work goes into keeping the city the way it is,” he said of the report.
Alexander said elements of the documents would be presented at the annual Mayor’s State of the City address, a luncheon sponsored by the Noon Kiwanis Club of La Cañada , likely sometime later this month. Anyone interested in accessing the report can visit the city’s website at www.lcf.ca.gov or call (818) 790-8880.
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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com
Twitter: @SaraCardine
