HomeMy WebLinkAboutIV(d)_Additional Materials Received_MosherJanuary 10, 2024, GPAC agenda comments - Jim Mosher
Item IV.b. General Plan Update Committee Procedures and Outreach
Discussion
There is a Brown Act problem with Suggestion 4 (“Outreach and Engagement Materials and Events”)
in the memo presented to the GPUSC.
To ensure the public’s business is done in public, the Brown Act requires committees such as GPAC
to deliberate and make its decisions exclusively in public, at noticed meetings, announcing the topics
to be considered, with opportunities for public comment before the decisions are made.
Subcommittees of less than a majority of the whole can deliberate privately, but only if the sole
purpose of that deliberation is to make a recommendation for public consideration by the full GPAC.
I believe the GPAC is free to empower its Outreach Subcommittee to make decisions on behalf of the
larger group, such as guiding staff or the consultants, but if the GPAC chooses to give the
Subcommittee that power not only will the GPAC need to do so explicitly, but all subsequent Outreach
Subcommittee meetings will need to be properly noticed and any guidance it gives must be given, by
vote, in public, just as the full GPAC would have to do.
Item IV.d. Reviewing 2023, and Setting Expectations for 2024
This same item appeared on the Steering Committee’s agenda for December 20. The entire
discussion there took less than three minutes (see video [mislabeled “December 21”]). There was no
discernable review of 2023. The expectations for 2024 were that the GPAC subcommittees would be
better “empowered,” and that Dudek’s outreach plans would be clarified.
I hope the GPAC members will want to more thoroughly discuss what happened in 2023 and what
their aspirations are for 2024.
I seem to recall being told at GPAC’s organizational meeting to “be bold, and eat before coming
because the meetings will run long.” That advice seems a bit incongruous to me now.
I also recall a long-running expectation that a greater degree of organization and purpose would
emerge when the consultant was brought on board. That, too, seems, at best, a work in progress.
As to expectations for 2024, I am a bit bothered that much of the anticipated outreach seems to focus
on educating the public about general plans. It seems to me it is the GPAC’s job to get educated
about general plans, and after getting itself educated, to ask the public for input on the specific
questions we need answers to, not to teach the public about general plans.
In that connection, I have long hoped we would hear if there are better, more modern and more
effective ways to organize a general plan than the format adopted in 2006. I have also hoped to
receive instruction on what topics are appropriate to be addressed in a general plan, and which not. I
still hope to receive that education.
General Plan Advisory Committee - January 10, 2024 Item No. IVd Additional Materials Received
Reviewing 2023, amd Setting Expectations for 2024