Meeting scheduled to discuss and clarify how information flows
through City Hall
Gilroy – New regulations that could affect thousands of residents are bubbling up from City Hall without any sanction from elected leaders, says one councilman who is taking issue with the policy-making process.
During a day of informal policy talks next week, Craig Gartman will ask his fellow council members to clarify how information should flow through City Hall, and how public employees should execute the will of council.
The city’s roughly 270 employees work within one of several overarching departments, most of them within administrative services, community services or community development. Staff members, especially those involved in the development process, advise council on policy matters and enforce the decisions of elected leaders. But in Gartman’s view, the people charged with implementing policy are starting to stray from their traditional roles.
“It appears at times policy changes seem to die at staff level,” he said, “and at other times policy ideas seem to appear.”
He pointed, for example, to an effort to firm up an ordinance limiting the size of housing projects allowed to bypass Gilroy’s growth control law. The proposal, which goes before planning commissioners Thursday, would force most projects exceeding 12 units to pass through a housing permit competition that takes place every decade. The Small Project Exemption currently allows council to approve projects exceeding the 12-unit cap when the development would help complete a larger subdivision.
The SPE is one of several exemptions from the housing competition designed to encourage smart growth. Council crafted the regulation during lengthy debates several years ago and city leaders have never requested an update of the policy, Gartman said.
“I don’t understand why staff went through all this time and is bothering the planning commission with it,” he said. “Staff needs to bring these things to council before they spend time and money on them. They need to bring these changes to council to see if we want them to move forward on them.”
A one-page report or inquiry could serve as a simple way to keep city staff in tune with council wishes, Gartman said. Managers of the community development department were not available to comment.
The SPE debate is not the first staff-initiated policy to raise eyebrows. Elected officials expressed surprise and frustration last fall after learning about a proposed ordinance to restrict alcohol consumption in the city’s two biggest parks.
The idea emerged last summer in response to an inquiry from a member of the Parks and Recreation Commission, said Community Services Director Susan Andrade-Wax. The commissioner, she said, was curious about the effects of alcohol consumption on wider public use of Christmas Hill Park and Las Animas Veterans Park. The latter site has a reputation for attracting gang members and homeless people during the daytime.
After consulting with police, Andrade-Wax received permission from parks and recreation commissioners to study how other cities handle alcohol in parks.
Eventually, commissioners gave her the go-ahead to draft an ordinance that would either ban alcohol consumption in parks or only allow it by permit.
The draft ordinance has yet to be publicly aired before council but it has already stirred strong opinions. Many residents, including council members and Mayor Al Pinheiro, think the ordinance would punish the wider community for the actions of a few people. Yet the ordinance has support among parents who avoid Las Animas park because of daytime drinking.
Complaints about such issues often reach city staff members and appointed commissioners sooner than city council, Andrade-Wax pointed out. She said information and ideas therefore flow in two directions: “from the top down and bottom up.”
“But some of these issues have been politically charged,” she acknowledged. “The bottom line is that (council members) don’t want surprises.”
Planning Commission Chair Tim Day recognized the right of council members to set policy direction. Such decisions often determine how staff members spend their time and city resources.
“But that doesn’t forestall other levels such as the planning department or parks and recreation and anybody else from bringing ideas forward and proposing policy changes,” Day said. “If we get to the point where council dictated all of what should be done, we really don’t have advisory staff anymore, we just have clerical people. The creativity and ideas need to come from all different levels.”
Council will debate the policymaking process next week during a full-day policy summit. The discussion, scheduled to begin 2pm July 14, will take place at the meeting room in the city’s Corporation Yard, 613 Old Gilroy St.
