How to get rid of a bad planning commissioner

Visitor Question: One person on our city plan commission is just perpetually unprepared for the meeting and uninformed. She comes up with some of the stupidest questions ever, such as asking why the plan documents for our planned development were printed in black ink instead of blue. I guess that might be a subject of some curiosity on the part of an audience member, but I expect more from the people that our mayor puts on the planning commission.

More seriously, she has obviously not read the staff report or even glanced at the excellent concluding paragraph that our planners write. Then she has to ask the most elementary questions to figure out what is being proposed.

Sometimes it is even worse, I suppose, in that she just sits there looking bored and not participating in any questioning or discussion, but then just votes "no" without explanation. Our commissioners are generally pretty good about explaining themselves or at least giving an indication of what they are thinking when they are opposed to an application.

Who does a plan commission member actually report to? Can anything be done to replace this person? She is obviously not only an aggravation to developers like me but also an embarrassment to the city.

Editors Reply: Whether a planning commissioner can be removed from office would be subject to either your state laws or your city’s charter, if indeed you are a charter city. However, I would be surprised if either of these actually address the situation you have described.

If you like, you could ask the mayor to talk with this woman to see if her behavior can be modified. (You may find that while the mayor makes the appointment, it must be ratified by the city council. Still, the mayor, or whoever originally proposes planning commission appointments, would be the one to approach.)

Instead, I could imagine some scenarios where your city's attorney would be the right person to initiate this conversation, since attorneys are accustomed to having difficult conversations and also since the attorney could probably imagine a situation in which this person's lack of preparation could be a detriment for the city in a legal case.

Another option is to ask the chair of the planning commission to have this conversation, if you are on good terms with the chair.

I would strongly advise you not to ask these officials to approach the negligent planning commissioner while you have a case pending before the commission, however. That would complicate the situation considerably and possibly have legal implications. If this is your own city, and one in which you plan to do business in the future, any delay will be worthwhile.

A planning commission member actually does not "report to" anyone, so that is why I have suggested that persuasion is the best approach, and probably the only one open to you.

Depending on the situation, you might feel like making a lighthearted comment right to this planning commissioner after the meeting, or even a direct request that she be better prepared for the next meeting. Occasionally a board or commission member naively thinks no one will notice that they haven't read the material, and a direct request could put that notion to rest. Most likely you don't want to do this, but it is an option to consider.

You also mention you are irritated because she doesn't explain "no" votes. This is more straightforward, and you have every right to ask why she voted this way and to ask in public, if the chair of the commission allows you to do so. If you approach this with sincerity, humility, and the appearance of an openness to learning, this question is entirely appropriate, providing of course you can do so without showing anger. This is worth a try. Again, the subtext is that you are watching, that you care about the integrity of the process, and that her actions have consequences, all of which are completely appropriate within a governmental structure.

If this person is not removed from the commission, you won't be able to do anything about what you characterize as stupid questions. However, a little subtle pressure applied by you or someone else could help her be more self-aware about her role on the commission and how people are perceiving her.

This is a reminder to every planning commissioner that it pays to read all of the material, try to understand the situation based on staff reports, and generally ask intelligent questions that are relevant to unanswered questions about the proposal, not to style.

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