A good plan to watch the city

There is plenty of talk among residents -- especially those most

engaged in City Hall watching -- about the troubling state of city

government. It is easy to understand why ideas as extreme as

establishing an official oversight committee are being proposed with

a second mayor in less than a handful of years facing criminal

charges, following a string of resignations on the Planning

Commission and after a series of questionable spending decisions,

notably the $1-million Sports Complex foul up.

Still, such dramatic changes to any part of our system of

government should not be made rashly or uncritically. Our nearly

230-year-old government, with its system of checks and balances --

the will of the voters being the ultimate one -- remains an

astonishingly successful and resilient invention. That is true from

the halls of Congress to the cubicles of City Hall. In other words,

we have an oversight committee already, one voted on by the residents

of Huntington Beach: the City Council. Fixing it should be the goal,

rather than replacing it.

And so it is gratifying to see proposed changes coming from within

our government.

Planning Commissioners Steve Ray and Bob Dingwall, the

commission’s chairman and vice chairman, are intent on pushing

through a series of reforms that should go to great lengths to

rebuild the public’s trust in its top city decision-makers. The

central change is a new ordinance that gives the public more time to

make presentations and should make going before the commission a far

less stressful task. Other pieces to their plan would extend public

hearings to give applicants a better understanding of the process and

create a forum for the public to ask questions about new

developments.

The changes are a good start toward making the commission more

accountable to residents. Members of the City Council and the

Planning Commission should be thinking up others as they work toward

renewing faith in a battered city reputation.