Selecting Planning Commissioners

Yesterday we looked at two of the issues coming before the Council tonight and today we’ll look at Planning Commission Appointments (Item 11). The comments and questions posed came from the mini town hall meeting conducted last Friday.

Tonight the Council will make one of the most important decisions we make – appointing people to the Planning Commission. The Planning Commission is responsible for making decisions that directly impact our lives – where we can buy homes, shop, and go to stores. Moreover, their decisions impact our traffic, not only in the total sense, but also in regards to directionality. There are 4 open positions and 9 applicants.

There was much controversy in the past few years about Commission appointments going to friends of the Council members, and about the quality of performance of the Commissions, especially the Planning Commission. Readers of The Patch should be familiar with these issues.

Here are the questions and comments posed by the participants -

• We should announce the rules before the meeting begins and stick with them. No changing in mid-stream as was done previously.
• Recommend each Council person list their top 4 choices, and then Clerk accumulate and the top 4 from all lists gets the position. If it goes to a second round, eliminate those candidates who received no votes in the first round.
• Commission candidates should disclose any involvement with Council members and if appropriate Council members should recuse themselves if their social and/or financial relationships give the appearance of compromising their objectivity (See Ethics Code sections 2.3 and 2.4).

With regard to this last point, here are the relevant responses from the applicants to two questions posed in the application.

Question 11 – “Do you have any social or business relationships with anyone on the City Council or other Commissions? If yes, please describe:”

Question 12 – “Have you endorsed, assisted, or made contributions to any campaign initiated by any member of the Council?”

Here are the relevant responses

BARAJAS

#11 “I have worked with council member Scott Voigts in the past on a volunteer basis and have maintained a friendship since.”

#12 ”I have openly personally endorsed council member Scott Voigts for city council and have assisted him during his campaign by sending out an email invitation for him.”

FUENTES

#12 “I contracted non-reportable amounts to Scott Voigts and Andrew Hamilton”

LUDDEN

#12 “I supported Scott Voigts and Andrew Hamilton for City Council.”

RICHERT

#11 “Friend of Jim Gardner – served with him on Lake Forest Community Council. Served with Ludden & Fuentes on LF2 Board”

#12 “Endorsed Jim Gardner and Dave Bass”

VERPLANKE

#12 “Yes Scott Voigts 2014”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook and you can share your thoughts about the City at Lake Forest Town Square on Facebook. His comments are not meant to reflect official City policy.

Reminder – I have office hours today (Tuesday) from 2 pm to 5 pm. Come to the City Clerk’s office and check in.