by Venturans for Responsible & Efficient Gov’t staff
Ventura voters paid little attention to the City Council’s revamped process for committees and commissions. That’s too bad because the new course is the first step towards improving the city.
Voters elected a new City Council in 2018 seeking bold changes in the way Ventura operates. Because of the revamped process, Ventura will become more business-friendly. Moreover, the new procedures will make it easier for residents to improve their homes.
Unlike in the past, the Council recognizes that the development process is cumbersome. There are too many planning and review layers to navigate and not enough certainty. The Council is breaking down decades of ineffective planning, permit processing and internal red tape.
Proposed Changes To Committees And Commissions
The Council has proposed some significant changes. They include:
Streamlining, improving and simplifying the current design review process.
Disbanding the Historical Preservation Committee. Replacing it with staff review and, where needed, outside consultants.
Merging the Cultural Affairs, Library Advisory and Public Arts commissions. Three members of each commission stay on to form a nine-member board.
The most significant change is the appointment of Planning Commissioners.
Under the proposed changes, each City Councilmember will appoint a Planning Commission member. Commissioner terms would run concurrently with that of the elected official. The appointing Councilmember may replace them at any time during their tenure.
Increased Accountability For Committees And Commissions
Every Planning Commissioner would be accountable to the Councilmember who appointed him or her; the same Councilmember whom we elected. It is less likely they will obstruct progress.
The proposed system eliminates duplicated efforts. It also saves the city staff time in unproductive meetings.
City staff will assume the responsibility of the Historical Preservation Committee. Combining the Cultural Affairs, Library Advisory and Public Arts Commissions reduces three meetings down to one.
City staff spends time preparing, attending and summarizing the findings for these meetings. They will no longer need to do so under the proposed changes.
The new system offers less duplicated effort, fewer meetings and allows the staff to do more work. City staff will spend less time in meetings. They will save the time they’d otherwise spend preparing for, attending and summarizing the meetings.
The proposed changes don’t please everyone. The immediate resistance came from some existing committee members and commissioners. There are two main objections. Some complained about the process. Others believe there will be less transparency and citizen involvement.
Those annoyed by the process claim the city should have notified members in advance about the change.
Committee members and commissioners serve at the pleasure of the City Council. It’s unimportant if the Council or city staff notified them in advance of proposing any changes.
Others feel the new process will reduce the number of voices participating. The criticism is unfounded. All the committee and commission meetings are open to the public. Any interested citizen can attend and take part. That includes all ex-committee or ex-commission members.
The City Council acknowledged Ventura could improve. They’re taking steps to change that; starting first with the committees and commissions. No one knows what impact these changes will have. What we do know is that doing the same thing and expecting different results will not work.
Supporting these recommendations may move Ventura forward. We applaud the Council’s effort to infuse more responsibility into city government. The new initiatives will improve transparency.
