03 Staff Report - Council/Planning Commission RetreatDRAFT Council/Agency Meeting 12/17/07
Item #
TOWN OF LOS GATOS
TOWN COUNCIUPLANNING COMMISSION RETREAT
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2007
8:00 A.M.
TOWN COUNCIUPLANNING COMMISSION
MEETING CALLED TO ORDER
Mayor Joe Pirzynski called the meeting to order at 8:00 a.m.
ROLL CALL
Council Member Steve Glickman, Council Member Diane McNutt, Council
Member Mike Wasserman, Vice Mayor Barbara Spector and Mayor/Chair Joe
Pirzynski were present.
VERBAL COMMUNICATIONS
Opened Verbal Communications
Mr. Davis
• Commented that he felt that Planning Commissioner Thomas
O'Donnell favored the developers when making land use decisions.
• Called Planning Commissioner O'Donnell a "whore" and was ejected
from the meeting.
Planning Commissioner Thomas O'Donnell
• Commented that Mr. Davis' remarks were inappropriate.
Mr. Crites
• Expressed opposition towards the Linda Avenue proposed development
project.
Closed Verbal Communication
DISCUSSION
The attached exhibit (Exhibit A) provides summary notes from the Town
Council/Planning Commission Retreat.
ADJOURNMENT
Meeting Adjourned at 10:00 a.m.
Attest:
Jackie D. Rose, Clerk Administrator
SUMMARY OF TOWN COUNCIL AND PLANNING COMMISSION RETREAT
NOVEMBER 7, 2007
The Mayor made introductory remarks and turned the meeting over to the Facilitator. Les
White, who provided an overview of the handouts including brief comments by the
Planning Director about additional information regarding projects referenced in the
planning process work paper.
Key points raised at the meeting include the following:
It was stated that it is important for the Chair to run the meetings and ensure that
Commissioners direct questions and comments through the Chair, and that the
Chair's first priority is to conduct procedurally sound meetings. The Chair needs
to ensure that participants are treated with respect and that their views are heard.
The Chair needs to exercise authority over the meetings to ensure order and
fairness in the conduct of the meetings.
Most of the Retreat was spent on the first of the Five Key Issues ---an improved
understanding of the roles and relationships of the Council, Planning Commission
and staff. There was confirmation of the role of Council to adopt and have
ultimate responsibility for interpreting policies and to determine action on certain
planning matters, that the role of the Commission is to make recommendations
and if it has concerns about policies to take those up separately with the Council,
and the role of the staff is to provide objective and factual analysis of planning
matters.
In interpreting its policies, Council benefits from the experiences of the
Commission in applying those policies in the context of the review of permit
applications. The importance of the Planning Commission being as factual,
objective, and working within the context of existing planning processes and
policies was underscored. Council members emphasized the importance of
Planning Commission deliberations being as separate and independent of
individual Council members' influence as possible.
It was also stated that if the Planning Commission wants to understand the
reasoning for Council actions on items that the Commission should review the
resolutions documenting Council actions on planning matters and other written
documentation, as well as reviewing Council meeting videos, and having
dialogues with staff. These three approaches will generally offer sufficient
explanation of Council actions.
In addition, the Planning Commission needs to explain how rules and regulations
are applied to specific planning issues to help the Council in understanding the
Commission's reasoning and assist in guiding the Council's decision-making
process.
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EXHIBIT A
The Council was very clear that dialogue with individual Council members before
a planning matter is acted on is strongly discouraged. It was also noted that if a
Council member or Planning Commission member plans to attend the other's
regularly scheduled meeting, the Mayor or Planning Commission Chair should be
advised in advance, as a courtesy.
The Town Attorney provided an explanation of the process for accepting and
weighing evidence. The Town Attorney's written summary of that explanation
was provided to the Town Council and Planning Commission members after the
Retreat.
While little time was spent in reviewing the Best Practices document, it was
agreed that much of the discussion about roles and relationships centered on
aspects of this document and that Commissioners, Council and staff should
periodically review the six concepts spelled out in the paper.
The Mayor and Chair of the Planning Commission offered brief closing comments about
the importance of the candid dialogue that had occurred, the importance of the Mayor and
Chair effectively running the meetings, and the need to understand respective roles of the
Town Council and Commission while respecting the importance of factual, objective and
independent perspectives of each body. It should be noted that no concerns were
expressed regarding the quality of staff work by the Planning Department or the Town
Attorney.
Summary Notes Prepared by: LES WHITE
Facilitator
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