Someone needs to be a better job planning for the Planning Commission. Only a few meetings ago they cancelled a meeting because there wasn’t enough to do. Thursday night the agenda was so jam packed the meeting went for nearly 5 hours and still 2 of 5 agenda items were postponed.
Before we get into the nitty gritty of the meeting, what can be said about improving the process. Long meetings are not good for the minds or the hind quarters. If you require someone to discuss issues for hours and hours, then ask for a decision, research shows the chances are the decision will be flawed. Indeed, as the meeting droned on, some Commissioners lost their train of thought and some stammered.
Suggestion 1 – shorter meetings, with mandatory cutoffs.
To make matters worse, for the Commissioners and the 50 people who showed up, the City doesn’t provide refreshments. Council meetings get cookies and coffee. The Parade Committee gets a full dinner. On Thursdays the City’s senior program feeds people from all over South County. But if the public take time out from their busy lives to attend Commission meetings, they get zippo. If a meeting goes for an hour or so, no big deal. But a 5 hour marathon surely requires some sustenance.
BTW – Lately the Commission meetings have been better attended than Council meetings. Parks and Recreation had a dozen people two weeks ago and Planning just hosted 50.
Suggestion 2 – provide some light refreshments for Commission meetings.
One of the reasons last night’s meeting went so long is that a lot of people wanted to talk, and each person was given 3 minutes. 20 people x 3 minutes = an hour. 10 of 11 people who lived in Lake Forest were opposed to the Brookfield project. 10 out of 10 people who did not live in Lake Forest, almost all of whom were employees, contractors, or associates of Brookfield, were in favor of the project.
Somehow it doesn’t seem right for Brookfield’s “insiders” to be taking up so much time in what was basically a repetitive mantra about how great Brookfield is and how we will benefit. But none of the Brookfield “insiders” apparently felt the project was so good they were going to move here.
When there are a lot of speakers…
Suggestion 3 – limit the time to 2 minutes, instead of 3.
Suggestion 4 – try to create a system that avoids repetitive commercials from “insiders”
Another cause for the extended length of the meeting was the scheduling of two major topics on a single night. Last night it was (1) a “workshop” on the Portola Center Project and (2) the Brookfield project.
Suggestion 5 – schedule better. Don’t put two major projects on at the same time.
Yet another contributor to the 5 hour marathon was the need of the two new Commissioners to talk. If you review the tape, you’ll see that Commissioners Hamilton and Broward took up the vast majority of Commissioner comments. Well, it’s natural for the “new kids in town” to want to explain themselves. And most of what they said showed they did their homework and thought about the issues. Yet the more experienced Commissioners were able to ask their questions and render opinions in considerably less time.
As much as I believe “new blood” is good for any system, perhaps having 2 new commissioners at once is not the best idea. And in 2014 we might even get 3 new commissioners, meaning that Commission meetings may have to put out cots in the future.
Suggestion 6 – consider an annual appointment of new commissioners, instead of bi-annual appointments of 2 and 3 commissioners.
Around 11:30 pm the Commissioners were trying to decide what would happen if they made no decision, and how they could best decide that. Even city attorney Steve Smith dropped by to give his younger colleague some advice. At this point I left, so I can’t tell you for sure how much longer this went on.
Suggestion 7 – Staff take a more assertive role in moving meetings along and helping Commissioners make decisions.
Commissioners and the public deserve a process that works. The city should look at the process and try to make it better. I'm not saying it doesn't work well most of the time now, but I think it could be better.
Next time I will talk about what actually went on at the meeting. Stay tuned. There were some interesting dynamics.
