2000-04-29 Charter Commission Minutes

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Transcript of Meeting of April 29, 2000Page 6 of 64 having one person appoint all those people - It’s true that Council does approve or reject people, but it never does it. It seldom does. Mr. Balog is the only one that’s ever been rejected by the Council, as far as anybody can remember. The Council doesn’t reject them. Now, Council person Tyler has been subjecting appointees to much more scrutiny lately, but generally they’re going to pass if the Mayor has put them out there. I’m saying that for Boards and Commissions which are oversight, the idea of having more than one person appoint those Boards and Commissions makes them more likely to be unbiased in a politic sense. SANTANGELO: So, then I’m going to re-frame it in my mind and see if you agree with it. Then we have a Legislative policymaking body. We have an Executive Branch that has to carry out the day-to- day operation of our County and implement this policy. So these oversights aren’t overseeing the Council, and they’re not really overseeing the Mayor, but they’re overseeing the effect of that Administration. PRANKE: As a general rule. SANTANGELO: I don’t want to go into particulars, but is this what you mean in an overview? Is this basically what we’re looking at, or am I mistaken? PRANKE: Oversight? Yes. The Police Commission only overlooks activities by the Executive Branch so, for me, that’s a no brainer. The Ethics Board could oversee things that happen on the Council, but as a general rule, they’re usually only overseeing things that have to do with the Executive Branch. However, they would have a little bit of a conflict of interest there. But being appointed by different members, and perhaps if the terms were five years, they might carry over and might not have been appointed by the people there. The Planning Board of Review. Again, the Planning Commission is the arm that works for the Mayor, or that works to implement what is supposed to be best for the community under the control of the Mayor. But the Planning Board of Review should be the citizens court without having to go to court and actually pay all the legal fees and lawyer fees to have whatever the Planning Commission decides overlooked. SANTANGELO: Okay. But we are predominantly overlooking the effect of government on the people. Okay, so having the Council appoint that, there is a slight conflict you see there and yet, this would be the policy helping to oversee the Administration part of it. PRANKE: Yes. SANTANGELO: And I do agree that the more people that you have involved in that, probably the greater the mess. But sometimes I get confused in what’s theoretical and what really works practically. And you’re a pretty common sense person in that. In the case of the Planning Commission, if that was to happen - Again, I come from an opposite viewpoint. I’ve worked with people like John Ray and other politicians. I know them to be very upstanding people, so generally we’re trying to do better for the people. So in the case of a Planning Commission where you have to have a certain amount of dedication and expertise and wherefore all, it appears that the smaller the group, the more you could choose that. On the other hand, the larger the group, generally the better diversification you get. With that in mind, you would still think that we could get a good Planning Commission that would really work well for the island if the Council was appointing them? PRANKE: No, I wouldn’t have the Council appoint the Planning Commission. The Planning Board of Appeals is what I would have the Council appoint. The oversight committee. file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 04-29-00.html7/1/2011