[Editor’s Note: The City Council is resting during the holidays and will not re-convene until 7 o’clock on the evening of Monday, Jan. 7.]
Two and a half months ago, while cleaning my gutters, I slipped from the ladder and broke my wrist.
I was off work for six weeks. Now I am going through physical therapy.
I mention this because as I drive around the city, I see people up on ladders, cleaning gutters and putting up Christmas lights.
I caution them to be very careful as they clean their gutters or take down their lights. One careless moment can drastically affect their lives for many months.
While sitting around recovering, I turned on the television and switched to the City Council.
They were discussing the appeal of the Planning Commission denial for a car wash at a gas station. I switched to a regular program. Later I switched back and the discussion of the car wash was still going on.
I was having trouble sleeping. So, after midnight, I turned on the television. They were still discussing the car wash.
This was a discussion longer than four hours.
I thought this was really unfair. Not to the City Council or the participants in the car wash discussion but to people interested in other items on the agenda.
There has to be some way to shorten these discussions.
I don’t know what is required by law. But why can’t these appeals be handled as they are in our legal system?
The applicant is appealing the decision by the Planning Commission. The appellant can be given several minutes to make his case. The representative from the Planning Commission can have several minutes to describe how they arrived at their decision. A representative of the other side could be chosen to make a presentation.
The staff could provide a summary of the number of speakers at the Planning Commission meeting for and against the project.
The City Council has transcripts of the Planning Commission meeting that members can go over at their leisure before the meeting.
After both sides have presented their cases, the City Council could have time to question the representatives from both sides before they decide on the appeal.
If the appellant’s case is that he has made changes to solve the Planning Commission concerns, the project should be sent back to the Commission for resolution. This is the task of the Commission.
There is no reason the City Council needs to be micro-managing activities in the city. Using this type of approach, the 4 1/2-hour discussion could be shortened to about a half an hour.
Mr. Supple can be contacted at
tomjsup@ca.rr.com
