Should commissioners have term limits?

Should Yorba Lindans serving on the city’s four commissions be subject to term limits?

That’s a current topic of discussion among City Council members who name the five individuals to each of the Planning, Parks and Recreation, Traffic and Library panels.

The most contentious debate concerns the Planning Commission, which includes two members who have served 27 and 24 years, well more than the maximum 12 years residents are allowed to sit on the council under an ordinance approved by voters in 1996.

Planning commissioners drew the ire of some residents, including newly elected council members John Anderson and Jan Horton, when they approved controversial new zoning rules for the Town Center during a single meeting in November 2005.

In the 2006 council campaign, Anderson and Horton told a Yorba Linda Residents for Responsible Redevelopment gathering that the commission needed five new members.

Anderson wants the planning commissioners to resign, with the council reappointing two for historical knowledge and selecting three new members, and Horton suggests planning and possibly traffic commissioners be limited to three four-year terms.

Mayor Allen Castellano and Councilman Jim Winder appear to favor the current system, under which commissioners are appointed to four-year terms, subject to council renewals.

(The council seems ready to restore traffic commissioners to the four-year terms that were cut in half in a years-ago dispute over the commission’s areas of responsibility.)

The longest-serving commissioner is Carl Boznanski, who was named to the planning body in 1980. He took a swipe at commission critics when he stepped down from his sixth one-year term as planning chairman earlier this year.

“The unfounded statements that have been bandied about…by those who have never attended the Planning Commission proceedings do not understand the functions and objectives of the…Commission,” Boznanski stated, according to the Jan. 10 minutes.

Other planners and their appointment dates are Ron DiLuigi (1983), Jim Pickel (1996), Dennis Equitz (2000) and Mike Haack (2002). The first planning commissioners were named about two months after the city incorporated.

Of 31 planning commissioners since 1968, four have been elected to the council: Irwin Fried, Doug Groot, Ron McRoberts and Ken Ryan, with Carolyn Ewing serving briefly after her single council term.

The second-oldest commission is Parks and Recreation, with 20 members since 1980; currently serving are Paul Doty, Bill Gorman and Rich Pepin (1994), Mark Thompson (1996) and Don Rabbitt (1999).

The Library Commission has had 14 members since the city took control of the Yorba Linda Library District in 1985. Current commissioners are Randi Noell (1994), Gene Searce (1999), Marilyn Allen-Adams (2000), Lori Katz (2005) and Cheri Hansen (2006).

Two new traffic commissioners were named last week: Mary Carbone and John Rafter will serve with Sandra Sutphen (1997), Larry Larsen (1999) and Jim Wohlt (2003). Of the 21 members since 1987, John Anderson and Keri Wilson were elected to the council.

A FINAL NOTE

Fortunately, if council members decide to replace some commissioners or establish term limits, many well-qualified residents are willing to serve on the council-advisory bodies.

Twenty-three citizens applied for the two open spots on the Traffic Commission, and 22 sought appointment to Mike Duvall’s vacated council seat, so if new blood is needed, there’s no lack of residents eager to devote long hours to city service.