Open committee meetings to the public
Next month, City Council will select a new mayor and appoint a few fresh faces to some of the city, county and regional committees and boards on which council members serve.
These routine actions are taken once each year, usually at the council’s first meeting in December. Allen Castellano, who’s scheduled to replace Mike Duvall as mayor, will be in charge of proposing the new committee lineups, subject to approval of his colleagues.
The council has five ad hoc committees and two standing committees with two members each to study specific city issues and make recommendations to the full council. Council members also serve on four county boards and 11 other local and regional organizations.
Current ad hoc committee topics include trash hauling, the cable TV franchise, the Brea police contract and Town Center. The panel appointed by then-Mayor Keri Wilson in 2005 to write arguments against Measure B on the June ballot probably will be dropped.
Interestingly, along with the Town Center Ad Hoc Committee, created in June 2005 with members Castellano and Ken Ryan, there’s a Town Center Standing Committee, created in May 2002 with Castellano, Ryan and two council-appointed Planning Commissioners.
Among the regular participants in the ad hoc meetings was Greg Brown, a partner in the Old Town development team that held an exclusive negotiating agreement with the city. Brown took extensive notes during the group’s gatherings in late 2005 and early 2006.
Brown says that city officials and developers worked together closely to fight the citizen-initiated petition drive against the council’s now-rescinded zoning ordinances, which would have allowed added residential and commercial development in Town Center.
But City Manager Tamara Letourneau has denied Brown’s charges that the developers were asked to fund an anti-petition campaign to obtain an extension of their agreement.
Such “he says,” “she says” situations could be avoided if the city’s ad hoc committee meetings were opened to the public with topics to be discussed announced in advance.
The Yorba Linda Water District has seven committees that study, discuss and make recommendations to the five-member board of directors regarding district and water-related issues. Each committee includes two elected directors and appropriate staff.
Committee members meet monthly at regular times and places. Most importantly, they follow an agenda, allow public input and record and publish minutes for each meeting.
The council needs to adopt a similar policy to avoid the perception that important city business is conducted behind-the-scenes, away from public scrutiny. Open committee meetings certainly would match council’s desire to better communicate with the public.
A FINAL NOTE
One hot issue is the amount of time to give speakers to address the council: departing Mayor Duvall’s recently imposed three minutes or the previously allotted five minutes.
The argument that five minutes per person holds up scheduled business isn’t accurate, since longtime policy allows comments to be postponed until after the public hearings.
Maybe incoming Mayor Castellano will suggest a compromise: four minutes would give speakers enough time for unhurried presentations and eliminate some pointless rambling.
Of course, fair and consistent enforcement of time limits and other podium policies--such as the rule against naming individual members when addressing the governing body--can be a difficult task, but it’ll be a good test of the incoming mayor’s leadership capabilities.
These routine actions are taken once each year, usually at the council’s first meeting in December. Allen Castellano, who’s scheduled to replace Mike Duvall as mayor, will be in charge of proposing the new committee lineups, subject to approval of his colleagues.
The council has five ad hoc committees and two standing committees with two members each to study specific city issues and make recommendations to the full council. Council members also serve on four county boards and 11 other local and regional organizations.
Current ad hoc committee topics include trash hauling, the cable TV franchise, the Brea police contract and Town Center. The panel appointed by then-Mayor Keri Wilson in 2005 to write arguments against Measure B on the June ballot probably will be dropped.
Interestingly, along with the Town Center Ad Hoc Committee, created in June 2005 with members Castellano and Ken Ryan, there’s a Town Center Standing Committee, created in May 2002 with Castellano, Ryan and two council-appointed Planning Commissioners.
Among the regular participants in the ad hoc meetings was Greg Brown, a partner in the Old Town development team that held an exclusive negotiating agreement with the city. Brown took extensive notes during the group’s gatherings in late 2005 and early 2006.
Brown says that city officials and developers worked together closely to fight the citizen-initiated petition drive against the council’s now-rescinded zoning ordinances, which would have allowed added residential and commercial development in Town Center.
But City Manager Tamara Letourneau has denied Brown’s charges that the developers were asked to fund an anti-petition campaign to obtain an extension of their agreement.
Such “he says,” “she says” situations could be avoided if the city’s ad hoc committee meetings were opened to the public with topics to be discussed announced in advance.
The Yorba Linda Water District has seven committees that study, discuss and make recommendations to the five-member board of directors regarding district and water-related issues. Each committee includes two elected directors and appropriate staff.
Committee members meet monthly at regular times and places. Most importantly, they follow an agenda, allow public input and record and publish minutes for each meeting.
The council needs to adopt a similar policy to avoid the perception that important city business is conducted behind-the-scenes, away from public scrutiny. Open committee meetings certainly would match council’s desire to better communicate with the public.
A FINAL NOTE
One hot issue is the amount of time to give speakers to address the council: departing Mayor Duvall’s recently imposed three minutes or the previously allotted five minutes.
The argument that five minutes per person holds up scheduled business isn’t accurate, since longtime policy allows comments to be postponed until after the public hearings.
Maybe incoming Mayor Castellano will suggest a compromise: four minutes would give speakers enough time for unhurried presentations and eliminate some pointless rambling.
Of course, fair and consistent enforcement of time limits and other podium policies--such as the rule against naming individual members when addressing the governing body--can be a difficult task, but it’ll be a good test of the incoming mayor’s leadership capabilities.
posted by Jim Drummond at 12:00 AM
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