- EXCERPT: BECAUSE IT didn’t take any public comment Tuesday morning before voting to establish a committee that would oversee a proposed weekly outdoor market downtown, the Carmel Community Activities & Cultural Commission will have to discuss the matter and vote on it again at a new meeting scheduled for July 17 at 2 p.m.
Open & Public IV: A Guide to the Ralph M. Brown Act
—2nd edition, revised July 2010—
LEAGUE OF CALIFORNIA CITIES
- EXCERPTS: THEY WERE approved - for a month. After the Carmel Planning Commission in June finally OK'd plans to build permanent bathrooms above the beach at Scenic and Santa Lucia, commissioners voted Wednesday to rescind their approval and ask for a litany of changes that could
send architect Rob Carver back to the drawing board.
With commissioner Steve Dallas dissenting, Carver outlined the history of the project, which started a decade ago with discussions of where a permanent building should go. His stone-fronted, low-profile design was inspired by the public restrooms at the foot of Ocean Avenue, and throughout the course of the hearings, the plans were downsized in scope and floor area.
Now, he said,
“I’m getting conflicting direction from the citizenry ...pretty much this
getting arrows from all directions. Some people want it raised. Some people
want it lowered. Some people want to flatten the roof or tip the roof. I think
we ought to be careful that we don’t end up with a camel when we’re trying to design
a horse.”
REFERENCE: Commission withdraws OK of beach bathrooms, MARY SCHLEY, The Carmel Pine Cone, July 13, 2012
REMEDY: Given that “The City’s General Plan recognizes the need to provide adequate facilities at the beach that will serve the needs of the public, mitigate damage to the environment and respect the character of the surrounding neighborhoods. The General Plan also establishes a goal of replacing the existing temporary restrooms located near Scenic Road and Santa Lucia Avenue with a permanent restroom facility” and the LCP was certified in 2004, a Community Planning & Building Director would have provided the leadership necessary to shepherd the Scenic Road/Santa Lucia Avenue restroom facility project through construction by now. Furthermore, a Community Planning & Building Director would educate current Planning Commissioners Keith Paterson, Michael LePage, Jan Reimers, Donald Goodhue and Steve Dallas on their duties and responsibility per the Municipal Code, General Plan/Local Coastal Land Use Plan and Design Guidelines so that Planning Commissioners, the Mayor and City Council Members do not act as architects and micromanage projects. Remedy: Hire an experienced Community Planning & Building Director.
- EXCERPT: JUST TWO people spoke during the Carmel Planning Commission’s hearing on the revised environmental impact report exploring the city’s plans to sell Flanders Mansion Wednesday, and only one offered criticism of the new report.
The latest EIR for the long-sought sale considers additional options, including selling just the building or cutting the lot size by a third.
Skip Lloyd, whose request that the previous EIR further analyze alternative options for selling the historic Tudor-style mansion on a smaller parcel led a Monterey County Superior Court judge to find the EIR inadequate and overturn a public vote to sell the house, said the new EIR doesn’t do the job, either.
Correction/Clarification: “The report should determine the option that will have the least impact on the adjacent Mission Trail Nature Preserve, he (Skip Lloyd) said, and considering the small lots in Carmel that command high prices, the size of the parcel on which the mansion sits could be further reduced from its 1.252 acres.” Skip Lloyd did not use the word “adjacent” as reported by Mary Schley since the Flanders Mansion is within Mission Trail Nature Preserve, not “adjacent” to the Park.
REMEDY: Given CEQA and the City’s General Plan/Local Coastal Land Use Plan, the last asset the City should be proposing to sell is the Flanders Mansion Property in Mission Trail Nature Preserve. Moreover, a Community Planning & Building Director would have focused Planning Commissioners’ attention on their duties and responsibilities involving upholding the Goals, Objectives and Policies of the General Plan/Local Coastal Land Use Plan and not have allowed the sale of Flanders Mansion to become politicized. Remedy: Hire an experienced Community Planning & Building Director.
5 comments:
Wow, Jason Burnett's administration is hitting a lot of bad notes for sure. Guess he was not all that CRA said he was!
It appears we have traded one dysfunctional city government for another. A small group of activists wants to control the town and the town leaders seem to be working against the best interests of the town’s businesses while proposing new restrictions on the residents.
But they say, trust us. We’ll spend the two million dollars from the new sales tax measure wisely on all the many issues.
On Tuesday, 17 July 2012, Assistant City Administrator/City Clerk Heidi Burch, (City Staff Member assigned to the Community Activities & Cultural Commission) wrote, in part, “I was informed this morning that you have printed incorrect information about my participation in the Community Activities and Cultural Commission meeting last week. I was out of town last week and was not the City staff member in attendance at the meeting. I would appreciate you correcting the information when you have the opportunity.”
RESPONSE: It is the responsibility of Heidi Burch to make certain that the City Staff Member substituting for her at the 10 July 2012 Community Activities & Cultural Commission meeting is competent, specifically in this case, knowledgeable about the Brown Act. City employees understanding that they are expected to accept responsibility for their decisions and the resulting consequences is the crux of accountability. Without that understanding, city employees erode public confidence and trust in city government and their respective positions. Ultimately, City Administrator Jason Stilwell is responsible and accountable for the actions of city staff members, including Brown Act violations.
Well, what's violating the Brown Act compared to enabling a former city administrator to harass and retaliate against a woman manager and profitted from it? Jane Miller's legal record describes how Heidi Burch personally harassed Jane Miller. But wait, it gets better. Heidi Burch conjured up the phoney case to disqualify Jane Miller's attorney. Of course, once Michael Stamp eviserated her lame arguments, she had no credibility. But that does not stop some Carmel residents happily participating in a continuing cover-up. But hey, the more things change, the more things stay the same in quaint, little Carmel-by-the-Sea.
I experienced my first Carmel-by-the-Sea Planning Commission yesterday afternoon- WHAT A JOKE!! Has NO ONE noticed that the "commision" is made up of OLD WHITE MEN! They have ONE female member, and NO person of color, and I'm pretty sure not ONE person under the age of 50 (and that would be the youngest by far! How do these people get on the commission? When the majority of ANY board or commission is made up of one predominant demographic (nearly ALL old white men) it ultimately leads to bias, grandstanding and abuse of power. TIME FOR CHANGE!
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