Should the Planning Commission be Disbanded?

We’ve been discussing the Planning Commission this week and one of our readers prompted me to go back and look at what the PC has accomplished since the Voigts-Robinson takeover in 2013.

SLACKERS

Just how hard are the current PC Commissioners working? Here are some broad strokes -

• At nearly half of their scheduled meetings not all 5 Commissioners are in attendance.

With so much time on their hands, you’d think there was more than enough time to take on some substantive issues, such as –

• How the city can preserve water, given the 5,000 new homes and the major new HOAs that have been approved?

• How the City can manage the new traffic problems as a result of 40,000+ new vehicle trips per day?

• In a time of electricity brown outs and with the closure of San Onofre, how can the City work to reduce electricity usage?

• How should City resources be changed to reflect the increasing numbers/percentage of seniors?

• What should we be doing about all the vacant city land?

But it seems the PC Commissioners would rather go home early than discuss the substantive issues which face the City and will impact our quality of life.

In a not unrelated issue, the PC does on occasion hold special meetings. For example, on July 11, 2013 they held a special meeting in Portola Hills to be on site and discuss the issues of concern to residents. Previous special meetings were held on 6/6/2013 and 7/12/2012. Since the Voigts-Robinson cronies took over the majority of the Commission, there hasn’t been a single special meeting.

INDECISIVE

The ability to make a decision is one of the characteristics that differentiate effective people from ineffective people. It’s what separates a leader from a follower. Previously we’ve discussed the Voigts Void – that list of more than a dozen major issues that arose during Voigts stint as Mayor in 2013, were postponed or continued, and never came back to be resolved by the current Mayor, Voigts’ BFF Robinson.

If Voigt and Robinson have both been ineffective as leaders in resolving issues, it appears their cronies reflect this trait. Under the new Chairman Andrew Hamilton, in 10 meetings over which he presided, half of the meetings resulted in items being postponed, and in total he postponed/continued 7 items which is almost as many items as they made a decision about. Moreover, the items were all time sensitive, including residential parking standards, granting alcohol licenses, and approving business signs.

The previous Chairmen had a better record, although only marginally so. In 13 meetings they postponed items on 4 days and there were a total of 5 postponements/continuations. Nothing to brag about, but marginally better than Hamilton did.

Under Chairman Hughes, the 10 meetings between Jan 24, 2013 and June 27, 2013 had only 4 meetings in which an item was postponed and only 4 items postponed. If you look at the PC’s performance before 2013 when Hamilton and Brower joined, you find 14 meetings and only 4 items postponed.

Looking at the entire 2 year time period, we’ve seen a slow but steady decrease in the ability to make decisions without postponing or continuing items. As more and more of the Voigts-Robinson cronies have been appointed, the PC has become less able to make decisions. The PC did best before Hamilton and Brower joined, and as each new Voigts-Robinson sycophant has joined, the ability to make decisions has decreased.

FLIP-FLOPPERS

You might consider flip-flopping under the category of “indecisive” but this conduct is so egregious it deserves its own section. Earlier this year it looked like the PC was going to support the Planning Director’s decision to deny 99 Cents Stores the ability to sell alcohol in two areas that are already oversaturated with stores selling alcohol. Then they made a U-turn and supported the idea. Then they put on the brakes and did another U-turn. In the middle of that U-turn, they made another U-turn and just to top it off, finished with a final flip flop. People on both sides of the issue looked on in disbelief, contempt, and bemusement. Never before has so many changed their minds so often in such a short time. Commissioner Brower gets the “flip flopper of the year” award for his performance, with Commissioner Hamilton a close second.

(FWIW – Next week I’ll have a detailed discussion of this fiasco)

INEFFICIENT

Under Hamilton, the average meeting takes more than 2 hours, which is nearly twice as long as meetings under Verplancke and/or Zechmeister. Are we getting more as a result of the expenditure of more than twice the time? Let’s see -

• Under Hamilton, we discussed granting alcohol licenses, just as we did under Zechmeister and Hughes, only Hamilton took more than 4 times as long to reach a decision.

• Under Hamilton the PC approved a whole bunch of minor changes (Sheriff’s sub-station, campaign signs, a/c units at Baker Ranch) as they did under Zechmeister (Sammy’s Nightclub, Sycamore Plaza frontage) and Hughes (Towne Center sign, Shea Baker sign, Crown Castle wireless)

• Under Hamilton we agreed on parking standards for multi-family projects, but under Zechmeister we approved more than 1000 new homes and under Hughes we did a similar amount.

• Under Hamilton the PC approved only one major change (e.g., Gateway Center) while under Zechmeister there were several major changes approved (e.g., Mirage Cultural Center, Wildfire Gym, Portola Hills EIR, CNG gas station) as there was under Hughes (e.g., Brookfield, Artemis Defense Institute, Crossfit Gym, remodel Jack in the Box)

IOW – Under Hamilton we take much more time to do even less. That’s not very comforting.

In fact, in the first 12 meetings under Tim Hughes in 2013, the PC examined more information and approved more major and minor issues than in the 20+ meetings since Hughes resigned. Hughes did this with a total of 21 hours of meetings compared to 44 hours for the rest.

And let’s now forget there is a cost to this inefficiency. Under Hamilton we are spending more money on outside council than we did under any other comparative time period. Not only are we wasting time, we’re wasting money.

SUMMARY

As the Bard remarked – “Something is rotten in Denmark”. The injection of political cronyism by Voigts and his crew has transformed the Planning Commission into an inefficient, indecisive group of slackers who spend more time, more money and achieve much less. One can read the record in terms of achievements, time spent, postponements, and costs and see that as more and more of Voigts political cronies have joined the PC, things have gotten progressively worse. It’s a disgrace.

Next week we’ll look in detail about the recent history making flip flops and reveal the heroes and the villains in one of the most infamous performances by a Commission in our City’s history.