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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPC Nomination Info - Hal Cloer April 5, 2005 To: Charter Review Committee From: Hal Cloer Re: Possible problems with mayoral nomination of planning commissioners Attached is a memo I sent to the past 5 chairs of Ashland's Planning Commission, and their replies. My query is stated in the last paragraph of my memo: to what extent did they observe questionable mayoral nominations to the commission? In the memo I mentioned two concerns I have about a possible proposal to shift nominating authority from the mayor to the council. I believe that mayors are in a better position to make such appointments than is the average councilor, and I believe focusing that responsibility provides better accountability. As some of the former chairs mention, the appointing official needs as many viable suggestions of nominees as possible--and councilors are excellent sources for that--and, of course, they have veto power over nominations. I also ran the memo by John McLaughlin, Community Development Director. His response was "Under three mayors I not only saw no problems with the present system, but see that system as a real plus as it is. Changing to council initiative could. foul up the process from time to time, depending on council make-up." (I probably should run these quotes by him, to be sure they accurately state his opinions on the matter). A somewhat related issue is the facilitation of council action. I'm wondering if the council president's duties and authority should be somewhat spelled out in the charter. While a principal duty of the mayor is to facilitate council functioning, there have been instances in which majority opinion of the council has been at odds \vith mayoral opinion. The mlunicipal structure that a majority of "experts" seem to prefer is "strong mayor, strong council, strong manager." I'm wondering if a council's strength would be improved by increasing (or at least elaborating) the powers of its elected president. r d be very interested in your reactions to all of this. March 22, 2005 To: Steve Armitage, Neil Benson, Russ Chapman, Mike Gardiner, Barbara Jarvis From: Hal Cloer Re: Nomination of planning commissioners 1'm a member of the Ashland Charter ReviewiRevision Committee. One of the committee members has suggested that the power to nominate planning commissioners should be moved from the authority of the mayor to authority of the council. The suggestion arose from the controversy over Alan DeBoer's decision not to re-nominate Colin S~/ales, after his term expired. The contention is that planning commissioner power is so important to the city that nominations should be "more representative of the city." That possible change in authority is being considered by our committee. I have two concerns with this possible change proposal: First:, I suspect that the committee will be proposing that the mayor no longer be the CEO of the municipal corporation. I can support that proposal, but I note that many experts of municipal structure claim that various versions of the classic Council/Manager governmental form exhibit a deficiency of political leadership--so I'm interested in augmenting, not diminshing, the poltical powers of Ashland's mayor, in any attempt at moving more in the direction of professional management of the city. Second, having spent two or three years with L WV working through possible proposed changes to the county charter, I'm very aware of the need to craft proposals that would pass the objections of ' 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it," and "'if uncertain, vote no." And it's partly with that issue that I'm seeking opinions of 5 past chairs of the planning commission. If the current situation is not "'broke", I'd rather we didn't add another issue for voter consideration. Judging from the number of citizens who wrote letters to the Tidings expressing concern that the mayor had exerted unacceptable political judgement in not re-nominating Colin Swales to the planning commission, that opinion did exist among Ashland citizens. However, it's important that any proposed change be based on more general evidence that the present system is "broken." During your terms on the planning commission, to what extent did you observe mayor nominations to the commission that you felt were unacceptably deviant from validly representing the views of Ashland citizens regarding planning commission issues? Could you write your observations on the back of this, and return it in the enclosed envelope? I will be very grateful for the time and effort involved. Sincerely, Hal Cloer Hal, Thanks tor soliciting the opinion of the past Planning Commissiom::r Chairs on this issue. I will jot my thoughts down in a somewhat random order. 1. Appointing Planning Commissioners should be as non-political as possible. Giving the task to the most political body (council) would be a mistake. Planning Commissioners would fmd themselves "in the pocket" of particular council members. 2. During my time on Planning Commission (8 years) there was only one commissioner that I am aware of who was not reappointed after one term. I was consulted with, as Chair at the time on the issue, by the mayor (Cathy). She saw the same issues as I saw with the particular commissioner and I believe she made a difficult but important decision that made the commission run better. 3. I wrote letters to the mayor about the inappropriate behavior I observed from Colin Swales on numerous occasions (speaking before council AGAINST the decision of the Planning Commission of which he was a m(~mber). You are not supposed to be political on most issues before Planning Co:rnmission and Mr. Swales had a difficult time observing this "rule". The mayor (a different one this time) made a difficult but appropriate decision. 4. You can not assume anything from the Letters to the Editor about these kinds of issues because Planning Commissioners are appointed not elected and it is not a popularity contest. The vocal ones in the paper start to think if they can get more people to write letters then they are correct. 5. Directly to your question at the end of your letter. During my term as Chair I was consulted on by the mayor when it was time to review applicants for the commission. The goal was to pick people who would PROBABLY understand the importance of their role on commission. Cathy was very concerned about keeping a balanced commission that represented a cross section of the community but not appointing people she thought would be disruptive to the commission. During my time there were never very many applicants at one time when there was a vacancy; usually less than 4. Cathy never shared the: actual application letters with me but we always discussed what was lacking from the commission. We needed people with expertise in various issues, a good gender balance, a good age balance and folks who could show from past experience that they knew how to work on a team. To be clear Cathy never asked me WHO I would want; just give her a perspective about the current balance; she always made the decision. I did not disagree with any of those appointments and several of them went on to hold other important positions in the City, including Counlcil. Thanks again Hal tor asking. I would be glad to share my view \vith others or discuss this with you in person some time if you need further assistance. ~:- ,d. /7 ~ CJ \ ~'-.,; '-- ~~- tf ~ ({{Lej /1 1.. I~ -r-- \ r \ )1tl~/M- 1 ~ 1:VL ~~t1 i~AvV~~Vu2-v;:f J---v'- ~ . ~ /1 ' rv-v~~' ~ /~DL I ~~~{/~ ~ ~~ # .: .~ /1 F~~' . ., ~ ,t4U~ ~~::& ~ ..~ ~~ J- LG'-OAf- ~ {~. T'c c ( tJ G CMY-- O-V~ YIUL C~~ duv-ir . 07 '[ Y-;LA-~~ c! O'yv~ -+0 /ly~J cud- ~ N2f:~~f, ti CTW\Y r~ ' 1 .J (r Ji;/~ 17J~ 1O-d-/D--z# --/ ( r--;7~ ' / /}~C:J~ /Ie? Dear Mr. Cloer 3/26/05 Thanks so much for asking this important question and giving people like myself an opportunity to respond. We just returned last night from a trip so that is why my reply isn't more timely. Just because a citizen or group of citizens doesn't get their way, doesn't mean the process is flawed. I have a bad feeling about the possible rancor and time invo lved if every councilperson got to put forward 2 or 3 names to consider. If there is any change, maybe it should be that the various chairpersons should get to pick the me:mbers as it is us who have to work with them! I know that's not going to happen and was said tongue in cheek, but you get my drift. I actually believe that the council and mayor should only be involved in hiring the administrator and that the administrator should then be able to hire and fire his department heads. I think department heads are filling a professional position, not a political one. . Anyway, I digress. I think the Mayor already knows that if his appointments are somehow outrageous that the Council does have the power to block them and council members can suggest nominees as well. As far as the nominations to the planning commission that I've observed, I can't complain. I know that everyone gives it their best, and at the end of the day, that's all you can ask. Thanks, I hope I've been of some help ~ -_7 ~ .---:..- >>- . ./,~~-..tV~ y ~-.::;. / / Russ Chapman Thanks Hal for your letter of inquiry. I'll cut to the chase and say that in my seven years on the Ashland Planning Commission, the last four as Chair, I did not at any time feel that either Mayor that I served under made less than the best possible nominations for open positions on the commission. One must remember that there are often too few willing volunteers to choose from, while at other timl~s the pool of applicants may have agendas that are perceived as a bad fit for the business of the Planning Commission. In any case it is no easy task to try to piece together a commission that will function effectively as well as portray the most representative cross- section of our community. I was sitting 'in the chair position when Alan brought forward his idea of asking Colin to become part of the commission. Quite frankly I had already had quite enough of Mr. Swales at just about every regular meeting, study session, Tidings' article, you name it, he had an opinion. But Alan convinced both the Community Development Director and me that this would be the right thing to do and it was done. The mayor reached out and made a bold nomination. F our years later (I had since moved on to the Parks Commission) I believe that once again the mayor made a bold move in sighting the conflict of Colin's numerous positions against planning actions and specific developments and the cities position of fair and open government. I did not view this as '"unacceptably deviant" behavior when Colin was not re-nominated. Planning commissioners have an interesting job. Sometim(;~s it is difficult to predict how well or how poorly an appointee will perform. My fee:1ing is that the Council could do just as good or just as poor a job of trying to select the right individual to fit the position. I agree with the position "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." I feel the current mayor and the past mayor and the past mayors before them are there to do the best job they possibly can. Engaging community individuals and coaxing them into being part of the process is no easy job, but I would leave the nominating of commissioners in the hands of the mayor. Mike Gardiner ~~, ./ ~~ ~ ~_.~!~ ~~~~~~~, ~~/ ~.~ ~FJ~~ ~~~r~~~~ -CLtv ~ ~ ~ ~~ (3-ffid ,cAd '~~ :::ch ~ :ff ~~ tUt) ~'7"La~~~- . ~~~oh~/~ p~ ~-~ ~t~ ~ I -/ I /I .~~ ~.N'A - /7_-/_ ~ ~ ~.~ ~ >C7 ~ -C ~ .Ld ~!