It’s now 2 months into the New Year and the Council has yet to bring up a single one of the dozen plus important issues left over from the 2013 session – something I’ve named “The Voigts Void” in honor of then Mayor Voigts who presided over the longest, most contentious, and least productive year in the history of the City. His successor and BFF, Dwight Robinson, seems intent on matching Voigt’s performance, a result no one anticipated. Here’s what happened last night -
PLANNING COMMISSIONER
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The main event was the appointment of a new Planning Commissioner. The Council seems to have accepted their inevitable decline into incompetence, as there was nary a single question about any of the applicants’ background, skills, or experience in planning (Duh – it’s a “Planning” Commission, shouldn’t “planning” be a qualification?). Instead, two council members didn’t even bother to ask any questions of anyone, and the other three droned on about “city assets” and “dealing with conflict”. You would have thought this was an interview to appoint someone to your local “Welcoming Committee”, rather than putting someone on a City Commission that deals with planning the city’s future.
There were several very impressive candidates, on paper and in person, but the Council went with Tom Ludden, a member of Lake 2’s HOA board. Ludden had no particular background, training or education in planning, although he did say he spent several years working as a project manager for owners of restaurants and retail stores, and in that capacity he obtained “sign approvals” and “zoning variances”. His education was in Industrial Technology and his work was in that area as well as medical device manufacturing. He’s well regarded by the Lake 2 people I know and he seems affable, but with so many well qualified people with education, training, and experience in urban planning, it made no sense to go with Ludden. Of course, the appointment of Fuentes (who sat through the meeting) made no sense either. What Ludden and Fuentes have in common, in addition to being members of Lake 2 HOA, is their personal connection to the existing Council members. Ludden, to his credit, noted on his application that he had been friends with Council member Bass for 15 years and also listed Voits and Nick as acquaintances. In fact, these were the 3 votes he received.
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TRAFFIC FORUM
The Council approved with enthusiasm a plan for three “education” forums about traffic. The Council recognizes that people are unhappy with the traffic problems in the City, but rather than set up a Traffic Committee that could look into these problems in depth, the Council believes that these "education" forums, in which people are told what the City is doing, and then “engaged” by the staff, will solve the problems. Here are the details –
Dates – unknown
Time – unknown
Day of the week – unknown
Place – unknown
Duration – unknown
Cost – unknown
Instructors – unknown
Curriculum – unspecified
Evaluation – unknown
Key Performance Indicators – unknown
The unknown cost factor is particularly disturbing, since one of the reasons the Council rejected the idea of a Traffic Committee was the costs involved. Of course, in the staff’s report on the Traffic Committee, a cost was never determined, nor was it listed in the current proposal. One can only imagine that a Traffic Committee, run by volunteer citizens, would have a minimal cost, while several forums with highly paid staff in attendance, and extensive reports by these same highly paid staff, would surely cost considerably more. It’s curious that Council members like Voigts, Robinson, and Nick drone on about saving money, and then make a decision like this which will not only cost more money, but which is likely to have minimal results. One has only to look at the “engagement process” with the Village Pond Park to see how such a process can be costly and unproductive.
CURIOUS COMMENTS
Mayor Robinson, who has been known for saying one thing and doing the other, concluded the PC application process by encouraging the 9 unsuccessful applicants to “stay involved” in City activities and said there were plenty of other opportunities. A few minutes later, he rejected the idea of a Traffic Committee, which of course, would have been an excellent vehicle for many of these people to stay involved.
Councilwoman McCullough was apparently upset about something, because she rambled on about “gossip”, “false accusations”, and “trusting the truth”. She wasn’t more specific, but she did add that she didn’t “do the blogs” and also noted that she didn’t read newspapers either lest she be influenced by public opinion. In the unlikely event that Mrs. McCullough was referring to anything in any of my blogs, I invite her to submit her claim that anything in my blogs are “false” and I will be more than happy to look into it. A lot of the content in these blogs are fact based, and I like to think that all these facts are true. Of the tens of thousands of facts I’ve published, I can think of only a few rare cases where the “facts” have been incorrect. OTOH these blogs also contain opinion, which may be based on the facts, but nonetheless are opinion. Opinions are neither true nor false. For example, it’s a fact that the “Voigts Void” includes more than a dozen issues brought up in 2013 which were postponed, carried over, or otherwise unresolved . It’s an opinion that this signifies what an “unproductive” year the Council had. If Mrs. McCullough knows of any facts that are incorrect, she should let me know. If she’s unhappy about the opinions, that’s her opinion and she’s entitled to it.
