tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3611639517962742486.post7682976442942363615..comments2024-03-29T04:05:35.407-07:00Comments on We Live In A Political World: #156 / It Didn't Occur To MeGary A. Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049925834933920507noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3611639517962742486.post-18983185283587917452017-06-05T09:02:59.264-07:002017-06-05T09:02:59.264-07:00Thanks, Stanley. Naturally, I will be happy if the...Thanks, Stanley. Naturally, I will be happy if the Planning Commission takes account of the public testimony. Several members of the Save Santa Cruz group did stay to listen. The fact that the Commission deferred the staff presentation until after the close of public comments made it impossible for any comment to be made on what the Commission was going to discuss, and this did not send the signal that public participation was welcomed. On the main point I made in this blog posting, while I understand the "normal" process, this is a situation in which what is happening at the staff / Commission level is causing great public consternation. The situation is NOT "normal." I think the Council should try to figure out what's going on, so they can apply any corrections they might decide were appropriate BEFORE everyone has to spend the next six months fighting about something that maybe doesn't even have to be fought about. I do have some experience in what elected public officials can and should do to make sure that the government of which they are in charge is actually responding to what the public officials want. What they can and should do is to question what's happening, and get some direct experience. The "trust the staff " approach can lead to some real problems, as the Theranos example indicates. The same phenomenon does happen at the local government level!Gary A. Pattonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15049925834933920507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3611639517962742486.post-27770824547034559012017-06-05T08:38:30.587-07:002017-06-05T08:38:30.587-07:00Gary,
The city government has a hierarchy of decis...Gary,<br />The city government has a hierarchy of decision making and advisory bodies, as you know. For the planning and zoning decisions, there is a process which involves first the planning commission working through the details, alternatives, public input, and discussions. That's what they've been doing. Then after the Commission and staff work out a recommendation including alternatives, the matter goes to the City Council. From what I've seen, the lower levels (staff and Planning Commission) have been doing their duties to get public input on their proposals. If you had remained through the last Planning Commission meeting on the 4-corridor rezoning plan, as I did, you would have seen that the public input that you and many other residents provided that night had an effect on the commissioners' decision. The zoning plan was altered to alleviate some of the concerns of the public. I don't see any reason that the City Council should step in and take the process away from the Planning Commission at this time. Let the process continue, keep up the public input, be vigilant and don't walk out of the Planning Commission meetings prematurely.Stanley Sokolownoreply@blogger.com