Council to discuss appointments’ key points

Deirdre Newman

With two planning commissioners becoming City Council members

tonight, the council will discuss options that include taking power

from individual members when choosing a commissioner and giving it

back to the majority of the council.

It was almost two years ago when the council decided to

concentrate its appointment power by allowing each member to choose a

commissioner, whose tenure on the five-member commission mirrors the

appointers.

But not every council member thinks it’s a good idea for one

person to have so much control over one seat on a body that

recommends approval or denial of development projects to the City

Council.

“I know it’s a concern of the public, and I am certainly open to

changing our appointment process [back to the way it was],”

Councilman Allan Mansoor said. “I think it’s an option we certainly

have to consider, and it may be time to do that.”

The election of Planning Commissioners Katrina Foley and Eric

Bever to the council, and their swearing in tonight, translates to

four vacancies on the commission. Chairman Bruce Garlich’s two terms

are up after his appointment four years ago by former Mayor Karen

Robinson and reappointment by Councilman Mike Scheafer. Scheafer lost

a bid to keep the seat he got when Robinson left to become an Orange

County Superior Court judge. Dennis DeMaio’s seat will also be up

after having been appointed by Chris Steel, who lost his reelection

bid.

Commissioners used to be chosen by majority vote of the council.

Bever and Foley said they weren’t eager to return to the process

of appointing commissioners by majority vote.

“I don’t see that there were any problems with the way that it all

played out the last time they changed it,” Foley said.

It would cause a delay to change the process now, because by the

time the second reading of the policy enabling the change occurred

and the 30-day waiting period for changes ended, it would be February

before any new commissioners could be appointed, Foley said.

Mayor Gary Monahan put the issue on tonight’s council meeting

agenda to see if anyone wanted to make changes, he said.

It will be up to the new council to find a process it can live

with, Bever said.

“I think we’re all adults,” Bever said. “We’ll be able to come to

a reasonable consensus. I think if we go into it with a little bit of

planning, it will be OK.”

Former Mayor Linda Dixon will also be sworn in tonight.The council

meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall, 77 Fair Drive.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers government. She may be reached at (714)

966-4623 or by e-mail at [email protected].