Mayoral Meddling Yields Dysfunctional Government

City Council Agenda
Regular Meeting
November 7, 2006

XI. Orders of Council
A. Review issues related to the historic preservation program and provide policy direction.

Mayor Sue McCloud: “On the Design Review...the Design Review Board is taking on more of what the Planning Commission had been doing and they are not in sync. I think that’s the problem that we need to work on is getting the Design Review Board and the Planning Commission not making different decisions on similar projects.”

COMMENTS:

As originally recommended, the Design Traditions Project had a sub-committee of the Planning Commission handle design review issues, in part to avoid Design Review decisions not being “in sync” with Planning Commission decisions. But, instead of adopting the Design Traditions Project recommendation, Mayor McCloud created an independent Design Review Board; but now, she admits the Design Review Board and the Planning Commission are not “in sync.”

Similarly, Mayor McCloud’s decision to create a Community Traffic Safety Commission, which she and City Council Members recently unanimously voted to terminate, substituting an Ad Hoc Traffic Committee, which will only meet on an “as needed basis depending on the number of traffic and safety issues that are submitted for review,” represents another of Mayor McCloud’s governance failures.

Simply put, Mayor McCloud meddles in government areas beyond her level of expertise, witnesses the dysfunctional results of her meddling, and then reverses the original meddlesome decision; Mayor McCloud redefining bad government downward!