1999-02-20 Charter Commission Minutes

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INTRODUCTION OF COMMISSIONERSPage 23 of 29 BALOG: So in other words, you’re saying that you’d like, in your case you feel you "hat:" means that since you were appointed to this commission to go and hold your own meetings, get some information from them, share what you have and bring it back. HERKES: Yes. SANTANGELO: And to piggy back on what I felt was my responsibility as a commissioner was different. Because I argue with that. I argue that you, or any person goes out and speaks for the Commission on an individual basis. What I saw myself is possibility taking the representatives, and the hired staff of this commission at least on one or two occasions to the district and being present and oversee their presentation of what this commission is supposed to do and then getting input and bring it back, then at some point, this commission could hold meetings, business meetings, not all of them, but some of them in the district, once the district has been brought up to speed, given input and we’ve got some work done and we’ve got something to show for it. RAY: And who would that staff be? SANTANGELO: The lawyer and the secretary. RAY: I don’t necessarily see either the lawyer or the secretary speaking, I didn’t envision that as the role of those employees speaking for the commission. It think their roles are more specific. The Police Commission has the Police Department, the Planning Commission’s got the Planning Department, and there you’ve got that built in expertise. The department goes ahead and makes this presentation. I don’t think we have that kind of organized department behind us. I’m not sure just who that would be or how that would work, so I think we need to talk about that. BALOG: More or less my fear of any of us going out and holding our own meeting is things that can be said and then other things of what is done on this commission or board and I can tell you, it personally happened to me. On the Planning Commission, meet somebody who testified in a hearing and say, oh well you know, ah did a good job, thank you for coming, blah, blah, blah, what, why didn’t you say you know, if you need more information. They served on another county board or commission, go see so and so. Never talked about the specific subject that they testified on. It was voted on already, I could have never brought it up and letters went into the Mayor, asking for my resignation, telling me about how I dress, how I shave, the presence. I mean, it was a mess. And it was the best of intentions and you know, I always felt funny even before that and I always stayed away. People knew me sometimes a shrewd person, cause I didn’t like talking to the public, serving in any capacity, whether you are a chair or just a commission member, I wasn’t always a chairman. And you get into this real technical problem, what people will assert that was or wasn’t said at any meeting that you were at or had, as any body or any board or commission. And I had to learn the hard way. So I would feel, I think it’s great that Marni would want to do that on her own, but I would at least say that if we’re gonna do that then you have to go back to the first page and say lets set up sub-committees that could go into different districts and make presentations, or at least have that person from the district, plus two others, they would go to a presentation, so nobody could say that Marni Herkes would then have credibility. That Marni Herkes said this, and you’d have at least somebody else there who would say, "Eh, wait a minute, we were there, we were the other two people assigned to her when she gave her presentation, that wasn’t half what was said." Cause I just don’t know, when you go one on one it’s bad news, it can turn into bad file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 2-20-99.html7/1/2011