Loading ...COUNCIL STUFF
There’s nothing like getting back into town, throwing all your stuff on the floor, running to the suburbs where dinner is waiting and running all the way back downtown to cover city hall. There was a lot of stuff tonight, so here it is.
Republicans announced their committee leadership team.
Public Safety - Ryan Vaughn, Rules & Policy - Bob Lutz, Administration & Finance - Marilyn Pfisterer, Public Works - Ben Hunter,Economic Development - Jeff Cardwell, Municipal Corporations - Mike McQuillen, Community Affairs - Kent Smith, Parks - Susie Day, Metropolitan Development - Lincoln Plowman, Monroe Gray Investigation -Virgina Cain.
The appointments must be approved by the Council’s Committee on Committees on January 7.
On the Democratic side, Joanne Sanders will be taking over as Minority Leader. Council President Gray “took himself” out of the running, so the only opposition was Cherish Pryor. Sanders also justified the introduction of two proposals concerning tax abatements and a citizen referendum on issuing certain tax bonds. Sanders says that they introduced the measures late because they spent the early part of the year working on the budget and they had to campaign in October. However outgoing minority leader Phil Borst says the measures won’t fly because they run contrary to state law.
December 3rd, 2007 at 10:45 pm
Cherish Freaking Pryor as Minority Leader? Just what we need. Another public servant who knows almost nothing about gut-level politics.
Praise the political Gods for seeing to it the right minority leader was elected.
Monroe took himself out. That’s rich. What a loser.
Committee chairs: Lincoln Plowman chairing anything is just scary. When he pulls up to a stopsign you can see his lips moving. And Metropolitan Development, to be honest, is in disarray. After all, that is the department that employs Judith Mrs. King Ro Conley. Complete with her ridiculously stupid zonign decisions.
If Ballard is smart, he’ll retain Maury Plambach as director of DMD. Maury isn’t political, and that staff is udner siege right now with Mrs. Conley’s nonsense. They’re basically nonpartisan and professional.
December 4th, 2007 at 9:38 am
I think once Mrs. Conley is removed from the zoning boards, a lot of the problems will resolve themselves.
December 4th, 2007 at 11:06 am
Sir Hailstone,
I certainly hope that you’re correct with regards to zoning problems.
One of the primary hurdles that citizens face is that most new mayors, regardless of their political orientation, receive training and guidance from the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The organization holds annual and semi-annual conferences, they distribute regular guidance information, and they train new mayors through programs like the Seminar on Transition and Leadership held regularly by the Kennedy Business School at Harvard.
Some might ask why that’s a problem, and what that has to do with zoning. Without writing a book on the subject, the problem resides in the alignment of the U.S. Conference of Mayors with the United Nations program for global sustainable development. One of their primary training elements is related to zoning and re-zoning, using UN environmental policy as a baseline for development and population re-distribution.
That’s why we have nonsensical zoning policies coming from people like Mrs. Conley. Instead of meeting local needs, the zoning policies meet the requirements of global UN guidelines. Mrs. Conley most likely has no clue about the UN’s global sustainable development plan, which includes everything from property rights to education, and business development to human settlement planning. But based upon guidance that she and other city chairs and mayors around the country receive on a regular basis, she’s doing her best to implement programs that she’s been trained to believe in as part of a national effort to build better communities, and that bring in federal grant (bribe) money if she maintains alignment with them..
And now, our new mayoral elect Greg Ballard has just attended his first three day seminar by the U.S. Council of Mayors to instruct new mayors on how to run their cities. I’m sure that he’s heard guidance on environment, on sustainable development, and how implementing specific programs will provide long-term benefits to the city and to the nation.
In other words, if Ballard is committed to following the guidance that he receives, expect no change in zoning policies. They’ll continue being constructed to meet environmental sustainable development planning guidelines, as handed to the U.S. Conference of Mayors by the United Nations. And our new mayor will have no clue that this is the agenda he’s following. He’s simply placing his faith in the planning and so-called “best practices” that are recommended by former mayors, and by planners from esteemed institutions like the Kennedy Business School at Harvard.
Keep your fingers crossed. Ballard might be a stand-up guy and reject these guidelines in favor of meeting real needs and real people. But he also may be completely unaware of how UN policies get implemented through these programs and training, and he could follow in the footsteps of mayors around the country who implement them in order to get more federal grants for their cities. Only time will tell.
December 4th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
oh! oh! oh! Scary United Nations!!! Shorebreak must be a shill for the Illuminati, Bilderbergers and the Tri-Lateral Commission by not mentioning those shadowy cabals as well! Maybe the black helicopters were getting too close to his keyboard? Did his tinfoil hat come loose?
December 4th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
Shorebreak, I’m havily involved in the zoning process…have been for a long time.
Mrs. Conley is an unmitigated disaster because she does not understand the stautory requirements for rezoning. Among them: the developer demonstrating a hardship if he does not get the rezoning. Or a competitive disadvantage to a similarly-rezoned nearby property.
She never understood it because altho she’s a lawyer, you can’t tell. That stupidity has nothing to do with the UN.
If a Zoning Hearing Officer’s decision, affirmed by the MDC, is to be appealed, it goes to thenfull council. King Ro held court there, on more than one occasion, and threatened fellow Dem caucus members if they abandoned his wife’s position, however ridiculous it was.
Add in a goofy Repulbican from time to time, like Ike Randolph, who voted on the Kite Whole Foods rezoning after he cashed a $5,000 2003 campaign contribution from Kite…and you have chaos.
It’ll take years to undo the damage she’s done. The professional staff is befuddled.
And, there are other examples. Sue Shively was on a Zoning Appeals Board, and, along with manmy others, never fuly understood the statutory requirements. She voted for every bleeding heart case that came her way, ignoring the statutes. In short, some of her positions were contrary to law.
If you don’t follow the law, and don’t use the well-developed Comprehensive Plan as a baseline, you’re asking for long-term trouble.
It’s checkbook zoning in this city now. Unfortunately. And the rezonings she allowed, become precedent for neighboring proeprties. This is not idle play…this is serious stuff. Decisions ahve logner-lasting implications than most other areas of government: you cannot undo zoning damage easily. It has long tentacles, into othoer cases, other properties, other zoning lawyers…
Talk about your domino effect.
December 4th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
Wilson, don’t be a knob. Illuminati? I said United Nations.
And Gimme a Break, interesting specifics. I’m quite certain that the zoning system is faithfully abused by those who stand to benefit. Local corruption knows no limits.