Laguna Woods Turns 1

After a rocky year that saw its mayor step down amid accusations he hogged the council microphone and one hubbub after another, Laguna Woods, the city composed mostly of retirees in Leisure World, celebrated its first anniversary with a birthday cake and a sense of accomplishment.

“Happy Birthday, Laguna Woods,” Orange County Supervisor Tom Wilson told a cheering audience of 150 that filled Ficklin Hall at United Methodist Church. The hall is where the council conducted its inaugural meeting as the nation’s first gated city for seniors.

Resident Ed Ciechanowski said at the celebration he is proud of the infant city’s progress and how it has focused on the needs of senior citizens.

“If we didn’t become a city, someone might have taken [Laguna Woods] as part of their city and we would abide by their laws,” Ciechanowski said. “Now we can govern ourselves to fit our needs.”

A lot of the city’s success can be measured in what didn’t happen.

“We have survived and it’s been exciting,” said City Manager Leslie Keane. “We had a lot to deal with including, hard questions from residents about the city’s effect on Leisure World. They wanted to know whether the gates or walls might come down and children might be able to move in and whether the city would run out of money.”

None of that has occurred, and Keane, with the help of the City Council, has smoothly guided the transition from gated community to city.

Much of the work during the past yearinvolved transferring property and sales taxes and negotiating contracts for city services with outside consultants and the city’s four employees, who work out of a rented office that serves as City Hall.

The new city of 20,000 residents also struggled while learning basic operation.

“We spent too much time as a city council tabling important matters and discussing what protocols we should have and what the relationship the council should have to the staff,” said former Mayor Jim Thorpe.

Thorpe removed himself as mayor amid criticism of the way he ran the meetings by some city council members. He remains a city council member.

“It’s easier to work on things you’re interested in if you’re not the mayor,” Thorpe said. “In Leisure World, there are more than 200 clubs and they all want you to speak to them if you’re the mayor.”

Thorpe and Bert Hack, who succeeded Thorpe as mayor, attribute the council’s early problems either to personality clashes or the newness of it all.

“Yes, there were personality conflicts in the beginning,” Hack said. “But it was a learning process. First we had to hire a city manager then a staff. You have to remember that things happened fast. We passed the election March 2 and by March 24, we held our first council meeting and then we received our first city check April 15. There was no lag time.”

Though residents had approved cityhood, it was by a slim 52% to 48% margin. Initiating leadership and city services was a priority to allay any fears among those who voted against incorporation.

Incorporation was motivated by the threat of a proposed commercial airport at El Toro and the fact that three county supervisors comprised a pro-airport majority on the five-member Board of Supervisors, said Hack.

Consequently, the first order of business for Laguna Woods was joining the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, a coalition of eight South County cities opposing the airport.

One of the high points in the city’s brief history was voter turnout in the recent primary election. Measure F, an anti-airport initiative, was approved by an overwhelming 93.4% of the city’s voters.

Laguna Woods also led the county in voter turnout, with 68% of registered voters going to the polls, according to election data.

Some of the issues facing the city include negotiating with The Irvine Co. for a piece of property in Laguna Laurel, and processing the Town Centre project, the city’s only major development. It includes a hotel, restaurant and several office buildings.

An ongoing project is finding out what residents want. To do that, the council is looking to the vast pool of retirees right in the city’s backyard for help, recruiting them to sit on a variety of volunteer advisory committees.

“We are still finding out what the needs are but because it’s Laguna Woods, we’re not going to be building soccer fields,” said Jan Nelson McLaughlin, 74, who heads the social services advisory committee. “We need to tailor our needs to our residents.”

The council, which is sensitive to its residents’ lifestyles, schedules its once-a-month meeting in the daytime rather than at night.

What they want, the city has learned, is more public transportation to take them shopping and to medical appointments.

One idea under discussion is a system of paths for golf carts.

“Once you’re past the point of operating a vehicle, you’re flat out of luck,” said Hack. “You have to hire taxis. We are looking at a series of paths for golf cart transportation because the carts cannot be driven on public streets.”

“Tailoring the needs that can become a model for other communities,” Hack said. “That’s what we’re about.”