A painful civic lesson at City Hall

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

Listening to the newly formed City Council is as painful as

sitting through a child’s first clarinet lesson.

Their squawking seems to be a disjointed stream of snips at each

other and is uncomfortable to sit through. New members are trying to

bluster through songs they don’t know and the veterans are impatient

teachers.

It is a wonder to me that Director of Planning Howard Zelefsky

remained calm as he was hit with a barrage of questions about the

proposal to cut back the number of Planning Commission meetings from

two to one.

He is there to answer questions, true, but it was more of a

uninformed attack by some of the newcomers, save Councilwoman Jill

Hardy, who asked her more informed questions in a Bambi-esque way.

Councilwoman Cathy Green seemed determined to solve the problem,

but without a clear understanding of how things worked. That would be

forgivable if her tone wasn’t power soaked.

If there was any doubt that Gil Coerper was once a police officer,

he cleared that up Monday night.

“Are you telling me you don’t really need the Planning Commission,

that you can do away with them?”

His accusatory, black-and-white questions would have made me

consider clamming up and getting an attorney if I were Zelefsky.

“Sounds like what you’re trying to do is diminish the capabilities

of our planning commissioners by not having them meet so many times.

Is that the objective right now?” Coerper asked.

Zelefsky, to his credit, patiently tried to explain that that

wasn’t the case.

That whole segment of the meeting was an awkward time that made a

viewer want to jump in the middle and act as an interpreter.

Then there was the gun range discussion, which needed either a

referee to call unwarranted nastiness, or a baby sitter to put people

in time out.

Coerper, not surprisingly, raised the issue of building a gun

range in the city and asked that a committee be formed to study the

idea.

Councilwoman Debbie Cook immediately pointed out that there had

been a committee, the issue had been studied at length and wasn’t

feasible.

Green’s response was anything but subtle.

“As Councilman Coerper said, there are some of us that are new

that would like to look at this,” Green said. “I realize there are

some that are probably bored or uninterested in it right now. But

personally, I am interested. I would like to look at it.”

And yet, when the motion was amended to hold a study session

before forming a committee, Green cast the dissenting vote.

We can only hope practice will improve this group so that it may

eventually act in concert.

* DANETTE GOULET is the city editor. She can be reached at (714)

965-7170 or by e-mail at [email protected].