(revised 9 p.m., 9/16/2011) A Wednesday or Thursday consultation between Los Alamitos Mayor Ken Stephens and City Manager Jeff Stewart resulted in the cancellation of this Monday’s regular City Council Meeting.
According to Stewart, “The cancellation was purely staff driven. There was very little business to conduct, and nothing was time sensitive.”
Advertisement:
According to Council Member Kusumoto the decision was apparently made after Stewart discussed the light agenda with Mayor Stephens:
Here’s what little I know about the reasons for canceling the normally scheduled Council Meeting based on a couple of conversations that I had with the City Manager:
1) The City Manager and I spoke on Wednesday regarding an upcoming Agenda item that could possibly be ready for our 9/19 meeting, but Jeff informed me that there was the need for more work and coordination on the Agenda item and it was highly likely that this Agenda item would not be ready for Monday’s meeting. (Jeff also mentioned that the overall Agenda is turning out to be very light with few items for the Council Meeting).
2) The City Manager called me on Thursday around 10am and left a message on my phone. When I finally spoke with the City Manager, he advised me of the Mayor’s agreement with him that Monday’s meeting should be canceled (I’m guessing that I’m the last one that Jeff informed of this cancellation since I returned his call around mid-afternoon, and I believe I recall that Jeff also mentioned that the other Council Members did not have any issues with the Council Meeting cancellation.)
With City Manager Stewart temporarily serving double duty as City Clerk and a light agenda, I can see how cancelling the meeting might make sense logistically.
Evidence of a lack of long term focus?
Still, my initial thought was “Really? There are no long or short term needs that need addressing in Los Alamitos right now?”
In any case, the cancellation seems indicative of one of a lack of long term focus, and a lack of proactivity.
In other words, all too often the Council’s default tendency seems to be to react to whatever is put before it, rather than to proactively explore ways to make our community better.
If we’ve finally dealt with all the minutia, why not focus on some of the big picture items. How about a workshop on making our community safer, especially after the brazen high-nood attempted burglary in front of our Bank of America?
Or how about a workshop on long term goals and vision for the city?
Or needs & proposals for our parks? Or our Seniors? Or ways to improve traffic flow? Or work together with our schools?
From my perspective the cancellation of a scheduled Council Meeting seems indicative of an ongoing lack of vision, organization, and long-range planning. Still, given our current Council majority’s more limited focus on a few short-term issues, I can see how it made sense to the Mayor and his colleagues.
Related posts:
