City Council Preview for Sept 2

Tuesday night the Council will hear two more appeals from the decisions of the Planning Commission (PC).

MORE APPEALS

As readers will know, since Scott Voigts and Dwight Robinson stuffed the PC with their cronies and apostles, we’ve seen more resignations, more appeals, and more overturned decisions than in the previous 20 years combined.

DOING LESS IN MORE TIME

Under the new Chairman, Andrew Hamilton, the PC postponed nearly twice as many issues as they did under the previous Chairpersons in the pre-Voigts era. Their meetings average twice as long as they did under the two previous Chairpersons, and the Planning Commission actually has much less on their plate now than they did before. “Doing less in more time” characterizes the new PC.

MORE ABSENCES/CANCELLATIONS

Curiously enough, or perhaps causally related, this PC takes more holidays and has more absences than previous PCs. Perhaps if they spent more time at meetings the meetings they have would take less time.

FLIP-FLOPS

The Commission has seen more flip-flops in less time by more people than in the history of the city on any Commission or any Council and recently all it took was a brief bathroom break to completely reverse a decision made only minutes earlier.

MORE COSTS

The cost of employing outside help has increased enormously as the PC seems unable to make decisive decisions. One recent visitor asked “Is it always like this?” and another remarked “These guys are clowns!”

DOING HARM

As if the structural damage were not enough, the decisions coming from the PC are actually harmful to the quality of life for the residents. Some examples –

• Approving 250 more homes to be built in an area that is already slated for 4500 new homes and where traffic is already problematic.
• Approving a special deal with a developer to give the kids who live in their project privileges which our own kids don’t have.
• Approving an unmanned natural gas fueling station in the busiest party of town, which will bring more traffic, add to the congestion (natural gas vehicles are notoriously underpowered), and present dangers of explosions.
• Approving more stores selling beer and alcohol in areas where they are already over-saturated, and knowing that more access to beer and alcohol results in more crime, more violent crime, and more DUIs.

REFUSING TO DO GOOD

Hamilton and Fuentes have been staunch in their belief that the Planning Commission should do no planning. They should merely sit back and review anything that their masters in the Council deem appropriate for them to do. Hence they’ve refused to consider an advisory group on traffic. When it was suggested that they look at ways that the City could deal with the drought problem, blank faces stared back in response.

BOTTOM LINE

If they weren’t doing so much harm, the Planning Commission would be a joke. The two additional appeals coming up testify to the fact that the Commission is no longer a viable entity. It needs to be disbanded now, and Voigts and Robinson need to put aside their hubris and appoint people who can do the job, not cronies in return for political favors.

Tomorrow we’ll discuss the two appeals.