Planning chair forced to resign

Jenny Marder

Mayor Connie Boardman asked Planning Commission Chair Randy Kokal to

resign on Monday after watching her appointee make two crucial

mistakes at last week’s meeting.

Kokal violated protocol, she said, when he allowed a new member to

be elected vice chair of the commission rather than follow the

group’s bylaws, which require the rotation of seats to be based on

seniority.

The election of veteran Planning Commissioner Tom Livengood, who

had just returned to serve on the board two weeks before, came

moments after novice Commissioner John Scandura admitted to violating

the Brown Act by privately contacting a majority of commissioners

before the meeting. The Brown Act mandates that all public business

must be done in public.

“I watched the last meeting, and I was disturbed by the violation

of the Brown Act and the failure to follow protocol,” Boardman said.

Kokal announced his resignation during public comments at Monday

night’s City Council meeting, to which a handful of other citizens

showed up to rally behind him in support.

“The loss of Kokal is a big loss to the city,” said Mark Bixby, a

local environmental activist and government watchdog. “The city needs

more Randy Kokals participating in government, not less.”

Kokal, who brought a huge pile of documents to the meeting to

demonstrate his hefty workload, said he felt that Boardman was making

“much ado about very little.”

“Scandura made a mistake,” Kokal said. “Quite frankly, I have to

believe that it’s good when people make mistakes. We shouldn’t

crucify them.”

Kokal also denied that the commission had erred by appointing

Livengood as vice chair rather than Ron Davis, whom the title should

have fallen on automatically, according to the bylaws.

“I thought an exception could be made, and I thought, in this

case, if there was an exception we would have a more functional

commission next year,” Kokal said. “I thought we had an exceptional

opportunity to bring somebody in who knows how a planning commission

can function effectively.”

The idea of rotation by seniority, however, was meant to keep the

commission balanced, Davis said. Holding an election can create a

divisive commission.

“The issue is one of protocol and how you do things,” Davis said.

“Whether or not [the bylaws] are legally binding, they’re still

ethically binding.”

Livengood resigned as vice chair on Tuesday.

Boardman and others also said that the commission had moved too

slowly on the proposed Poseidon desalination plant, which had been

stalled in the council chambers since May.

“I’m hoping that by replacing the commissioner, we’ll see things

move along faster,” Boardman said.

Kokal, who referred to himself as a Socratic leader, said that his

theory on leadership is to ask questions and give commissioners time

to “do what they need to do.”

“We’ve got a group of people trying to make sense out of the

world,” Kokal said. “We’re trying to make an intelligent decision.

Speed it up, hurry it up -- it’s hardly a way to make good

decisions.”

Boardman said she hopes to appoint a new commissioner within the

next two weeks.

“It’s unfortunate,” Davis said. “Some mistakes were made, and some

people suffered some consequences, but we need to go on as a Planning

Commission and heal ourselves and do a better job.”