Foothills Sentry March 2021

Page 3 Foothills Sentry March 2021 Expires 03/31/2021 Orange council says by-district representation in citizen-based committees will evolve over time By Tina Richards The Orange City Council ma- jority agreed, Feb. 9, to maintain the membership status quo of the committees, commissions and boards that review and make rec- ommendations on various facets of city government. What started as an effort to limit the responsibilities of the Design Review Committee (DRC), restricting its purview to historic districts only, evolved into a review of the efficacy, membership and mandates of all city citizen-based committees and commissions, from parks to preservation to planning to traffic and investment. The broader review was undertaken when residents pushed back against the perceived hobbling of the DRC. The council postponed a decision on that committee’s viability until it revisited all of them. The initial review revealed that several committees had not met in years, had no members or members serving under expired terms. The council opted, during its January meeting, to deal with committee membership first. A broader view In the interest of refreshing the membership of citizen commit- tees, Councilmembers Arianna Barrios and Ana Gutierrez sug- gested that many of them should include by-district representation. Since the city is now voting by districts, it made sense, they not- ed, to broaden the membership base to include residents from all parts of the city. The planning commission, specifically, should be expanded from the current five members to seven, they asserted, represent- ing each of the city’s six districts and the mayor’s citywide view. While city code indicates that those members are appointed by the mayor, they have, for the past two decades, been selected by individual council members. Incoming councilmembers have been encouraged to recommend candidates for planning commis- sion seats and, if approved by the mayor and the council, those can- didates have been appointed. Mayor Mark Murphy was quick to point out that it was he, when serving his first term as mayor in 2000, who initiated council member choice for plan- ning commissioners. That tradi- tion has continued ever since. Some, but not all During the February membership discussion, it was agreed that several of the committees -- investment advisory, audit, design review -- required specific expertise and did not necessarily need to reflect districts. The park committee, which has been inactive since 2014, was considered a good candidate for by-district membership. “Every district has a park,” Murphy said. “I recommend going to seven members and asking staff to put together a report on roles and responsibilities. It will be a different committee than it was. It’s a good way to test the by- district theory.” The planning commission, he said, was not. “This is one com- mission that’s working the way it is. There’s no need to move it to seven. We can fill it in by districts as seats are vacated.” He also not- ed that, of the five commissions, three were serving under expired terms, and that he would support renewing the three that are up. Barrios disagreed with the mayor’s position. “It’s unfair to the full city that we have a concentration of commissioners from one district,” she insisted. Four of the current commissioners live in District 1, the fifth lives in District 6. “And having nowomen on this commission is a problem,” she said. “There are no people on it with skills or background in historic preservation. Of all the commissions, this one is second in power to the council, but its membership does not reflect the council.” Gutierrez suggested that planning commissioner’s whose terms had expired should be asked to reapply to “level the playing field.” She agreed that it should have seven members. Five is fine Chip Monaco stressed that he would not support a planning commission expansion. “We need to maintain a citywide perspec- tive,” he said. “These people have been doing that for a long time. I don’t see changing the number so a council member can appoint their own person.” Councilman Jon Dumitru also believed the commission should be expanded to seven to better represent the community, but not simply to allow new council member appointments. “I can see where this is going,” he conceded. A subsequent council vote on the number of planning commis- sioners was 5-2 in favor of five members, with Barrios and Guti- errez as the dissenters. Dumitru voted yes, but emphasized that “this will be addressed again.” For now, all members of all committees whose terms have expired will be reappointed if they are willing to continue. All have reported that they will serve. One DRC member and one library board member have served 12 years, which, according to city code, is the maximum allowed. The city will put out the call for applicants to fill the seats on committees with vacancies. Asked and answered Barrios made one last reference to the planning commission, reminding Murphy that he previously said that new council members could bring someone forward. She asked if the three commissioners to be reappointed were selected by current council members. “If they were appointed by a current council member, that’s fine,” she allowed, “but if they were brought forward by a former council member, the new council members should prevail.” Murphy assured Barrios and her colleagues that they would be consulted when vacancies occur. He said that he did not remember the provenance of all the sitting commissioners, but “would do some homework” on it. The vote to reappoint everyone currently serving on city commit- tees or commissions, who is not termed out, was again 5-2. Bar- rios and Gutierrez were opposed. Kathy McCarthy, left, representing the Assistance League of Orange “Soaring With Valor” philanthropy, delivered over $500 of See’s candy and Valentine’s cards from the Assisteens Auxiliary to spinal injury patients at Long Beach Veterans Hospital; Andrea Lennon, right, accepted the cards and candy on behalf of the veterans. Scholarship deadline looms The final date to submit appli- cations for Assistance League of Orange scholarships for graduat- ing high school seniors is Sat., March 27. Assistance League of Orange has offered scholarship assistance since 1948. Students graduat- ing from an OUSD high school or residing in the OUSD atten- dance area are eligible to apply for a general scholarship, or one of three specialized scholarships: the Eugenia Love Arts Scholar- ship; the Alfreda Niewig Nurs- ing Scholarship; or the ALO Me- morial Scholarship for Special Needs. A Richland High School scholarship is also offered to a student who has attended that high school. See alorange.org for the schol- arship application; contact Chair- men Karen Goodwin or Tanis Nelson at scholarships@alor- ange.org with questions.