Another Failure to Respond: Brian Roseth, Principal Planner

CITY OF CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA
HISTORIC RESOURCES BOARD
MINUTES
23 January 2006

PRESENT: Julie Wendt, Chairperson
Erik Dyar
Kay Holz
Erling Lagerholm
Paul Coss

Selected excerpts from the HRB’s 23 January 2006 Minutes, as follows:

VIII. ORDERS OF BUSINESS

1. Consideration of recommendation to the City Council identifying one goal for the Historic Resources Board to incorporate into the City’s fiscal year 2006-2007 budget.

Board member Holz move to send a recommendation to the City Council identifying an updated Context Statement for Post 1940 to 1960 homes be incorporated into the City Fiscal year 2006-2007, seconded by Coss and carried by the following roll call vote:

AYES: COSS, DYAR, HOLZ, LAGERHOLM, WENDT
NOES: NONE


Meeting Date: 6 June 2006
Prepared by: Brian Roseth, Principal Planner
City Council
Agenda Item Summary

Name: Consideration of a Resolution authorizing the City Administrator to sign a Consultant Services Agreement for an amount not to exceed $21,750 to retain the services of Archives and Architecture to prepare an update of the City’s Historic Context Statement for the 1940 through 1965 period.

City Funds: $21,750 ($19,775 for Consultant plus 10% contingency).

CONSULTANT SERVICES AGREEMENT
THIS AGREEMENT, dated this 13th day of June 2006 is by and between the CITY OF CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA, a municipal corporation of the State of California, hereinafter referred to as "City", and ARCHIVES AND ARCHITECTURE, HERITAGE RESOURCE PARTNERS, hereinafter referred to as "Consultant".

ARCHIVES AND ARCHITECTURE:
Leslie A. G. Dill, Partner and Principal Historian
Charlene Detlefs Duval, Partner and Principal Historian
Franklin Maggi, Partner, Architectural Historian and Preservation Planner
Jessica Kusz, Preservation Specialist


MINUTES
SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING
CITY OF CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA
June 13, 2006

B. Consideration of a Resolution authorizing the City Administrator to sign a Consultant Services Agreement for an amount not to exceed $21,750 to retain the services of Archives and Architecture to prepare an update of the City's Historic Context Statement for the 1940 through 1965 period.

Mayor McCloud announced that Item B. had been pulled from the Agenda.


August 2006 Correspondence with the City, as follows:
An e-mail originally sent to Franklin Maggi, Partner, Archives & Architecture, then forwarded to Brian Roseth, Principal Planner, requesting clarification of the Consultants Services Agreement between the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea and Archives And Architecture on the 13 June 2006 City Council Agenda yielded the following response from Brian Roseth.

“Leslie's contract is for review of alterations to historic resource properties only. She has not been engaged by the City to do any work on the Historic Context Statement. The City Council will be reviewing consultant proposals in September or October to contract for the Context Statement update project."

In reply, the writer wrote to Brian Roseth, as follows:

“As you are aware, the information provided the public for the 13 June 2006 Special City Council meeting included an Agenda Item Summary (dated 6 June 2006) prepared by you recommending authorization by the City Administrator "to enter into the Agreement" with Archives & Architecture for the preparation of an update to the city's Historic Context Statement for the period 1940-1965. Additionally, the 5 page "CONSULTANT SERVICES AGREEMENT, dated June 13, 2006, was included.

QUESTION: Why was the contract with Archives & Architecture not signed on June 13, 2006? And will Archives & Architecture be considered when the City Council reviews consultant proposals in September or October?”
No Response from Principal Planner Brian Roseth.


COMMENTS:

The Historic Resources Board, in January 2006, unanimously voted to recommend to the City Council that an update to the City’s Historic Context Statement be included in the city’s Fiscal Year 2006/07 budget. Since the beginning of FY 2006/07 on 1 July 2006, an Agreement with a consultant for the update of the Historic Context Statement has not been executed and has not been placed on the September or October 2006 City Council agendas, as Brian Roseth stated.

It is axiomatic that unresponsive local government is symptomatic of a failure to understand that all public servants should treat their positions as a public service and a public trust. And again, when a city government is seen as acting to protect staff from public accountability, rather than protect citizens from unaccountable public servants, then there is citizen disrespect and distrust of government.