Two Los Al City Council Meetings set for Monday
August 16, 2012 in Uncategorized By: Dave Emerson
(Los Alamitos, 8/16/2012) Interesting agendas are now posted for a 5 p.m. Special Council meeting to interview and appoint or reappoint various Commission Members and the 6 p.m. regular monthly Council Meeting.
5 pm Special Meeting:
Vacancies are on the Cable (1), Personnel Appeals(3), and Planning(2) Commissions. The seven applicants are:
- Steven Hammond (Cable)
- John Underwood (Cable
- Daniel Patz* (Personnel Appeals)
- Marilyn Bates (Personnel Appeals)
- Cathie Salai* (Personnel Appeals)
- Ben Sutherlin* (Planning)
- John Riley *(Planning)
*Incumbent, applying for reappointment.
Each applicant is only allowed five minutes for their interview, which involves answering five questions. Seems like it was at least ten minutes not that long ago when I interviewed for the Traffic Commission.
One of the downsides of going to one Regular Meeting per month appears to be the time to interview Commissioners got cut in half, not a great deal of time for such an important appointment.
On the other hand, the lack of competition for all but the Cable Commission vacancies may make the shortened meeting adequate. Sadly, only one non-incumbent (Marilyn Bates) and two incumbents applied for the three vacancies on the Personnel Appeals Commissions, and only the two incumbents applied for the two Planning Commission vacancies.
As several readers have noted here, the median age of our Commissioners appears to be well over 60, and it seems to be well past time for some new recruitment techniques to fill these important volunteer positions.
This is not meant to disparage any of our current Commissioners. Kudos go out to every single Commissioner who is willing to give up his or her time to serve our community.
I hope to get up a post on the second meeting’s agenda tomorrow, but a number of interesting and potentially explosive topics are on tap, from purchasing four additional police cars (one undercover) to dealing with the alleged Brown Act and Municipal Code violations that have plagued the Council this year. [ad]
Click here for the agenda for the 6 pm Regular Meeting followed by attachments and staff reports.
As always, your comments and insights, diplomatically expressed, are welcome!
Gee, let me go way out on a limb here and guess who will get reappointed to the commissions. How about the mayors neighbors for starters. Troy Edgar has appointed Ben Sutherlin and Kathy Saila before so they will be in again. And a new one this time will be Marilyn Bates all $$$$ supporters to his campaign. Talk about a conflict of interest. At least he is consistent in giving back all the way to his contributors.
Way to stack the deck Mayor Edgar.
Mrs Bates? I could have sworn that we were done with the Bates’ when her husband resigned from the City Council with just two months left to his term.
JM: Yup, Mrs. Bates. Like I’ve written here again and again, I’m not making this stuff up. I’m not that creative!
Come to the city council meeting to meet the Golden Girls of Water Polo. Then stick around for the real fun that is the Los Al city council meeting.