An excellent CITCOM meeting

For one thing, there were only ten Public Comment speakers, and they finished by 8:05. About the Human Rights Ordinance, there was one pro presentation and one con. For the rest, residents spoke of such matters as the rights of a property owner who lives in one of a two-unit property and rents the other; parking problems; wasting taxpayer money on repeated surveys; and what was essentially a campaign speech by one candidate for city commissioner.

For another, even though soon-to-be-gone Jim Rasor, as usual, spoke more than anyone else (18 clicks in my tabulation, to 9 for Fournier, 6 for DuBuc, 4 for Ginotti, and 2 for Poulton -- Goodwin was absent) he didn't speechify as long as usual.

For yet another, Mayor Jim was at his best in chairing the meeting.

One more thing, the 15-item agenda was loaded with lightweight items like  appointments and permitting the Zoo to operate more bars and run movies (on the Royal Oak portion of the zoo). The most vigorous discussions had to do with Permit Parking, a lightweight item to everyone except permit holders and seekers. So casual was the evening that there were frequent references to looking at problems from 30,000 feet in the air.

The most substantive decision was to direct Staff to explore how the Planning Commissioner might technologically and financially post complete meeting packets on the city's website. And, permission was granted to fill two or three vacant staff positions.

The meeting adjourned at 9:15.