As just about everyone knows, just by saying something is true — that does not make it true.

And just by calling something by a certain name — that does not make it be what you call it.

Does simply changing the starting time of the Planning Commission’s regularly scheduled meetings — from starting at 6:00 PM to starting at 5:30 PM — make this a “Special Meeting”?

Wouldn’t a “Special Meeting” have to include, er, a special topic? A special item on the agenda? If it’s the same topic and the same or similar agenda items, does starting a half-hour earlier make it “special” ?

How is it that each of the “Regular Meetings” has now became a “Special Meeting”?

Planning Commissioners:

 

Ask yourself this question:  Are Special Meetings what you voted for?

Is the reasoning that a regularly scheduled “2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month” with a  6:00 PM starting time — that if this meeting starts at 5:30 PM it then becomes a “Special Meeting” … automatically?  Or maybe the reasoning is that if a Regular Meeting is “cancelled”… then any meeting that replaces it then by definition is a “Special Meeting”?

Planning Commissioners: Ask yourself this question — Is this what you voted for, on March 14th?

Planning Commissioners (and everyone) can see the 6-minute portion of the video of that meeting — and read the complete transcription of what was said by the Commission and by David Loya — at this article here.
(As a reminder, there is no sign-in, and I cannot track anything to see who comes to Arcata1.com. Visiting the website is entirely anonymous. I cannot tell if you’ve been there.)

So what’s the big deal?

Most importantly, a “Special Meeting” can have just one time for public input, and that the public comment be on matters on the agenda only. That is, a person cannot speak on matters that are not on the agenda.  That is the minimum legal requirement.

This is in contrast to a “Regular Meeting” at which, at a minimum, there needs to be an open comment period where the public can speak on matters not on the agenda, and then a period for each business item where the speaking is on that topic only. 

The Chair can open up public comment more times than the minimum, if he or she wants.

We saw at the April 11, 2023, meeting how the attempt to have only one public comment session backfired, and the Chair opened up the public comment to both the early time period and then for each business item. (On that meeting’s agenda, the instructions for the Public Comment period had probably been copied from the instructions for a “Regular Meeting” and and thus were, as the Chair said, “a little confusing.”)

Additionally, a regular meeting is required to be “noticed” (that is, have notification made to the public, along with an agenda) at least 72 hours prior to the meeting. Here in Arcata, this is normally done on Friday afternoons for both Planning Commission meetings (which meet on Tuesdays) and for City Council meetings (which meet on Wednesdays).

A special meeting does not, by law, have to be noticed until 24 hours prior to the meeting. For a Planning Commission meeting that would start at 5:30 PM on a Tuesday, in theory that meeting could be announced to the public at 5:30 PM, on Monday, one day earlier. If a meeting were to be arranged and notification given to the Commissioners (i.e. by e-mail), then by law the public needs to be informed at the same time.

The Planning Commission has a problem

The Planning Commission has a problem. And, really: I feel for you. I am not being sarcastic in any way. You’re trying to get work done. And as the Chair Scott Davies remarked on April 11th, “more than 40% of our meeting has been turned over to public comments.” (He wasn’t too far off — I measure it at 37%, including time between speakers.)

But cutting out public comment — in any way — is not the answer.

By law, if 100 people show up at a meeting wanting to speak, the Commission has to allow all 100 time to speak. The Chair can change the time allotted for each speaker from the usual 3 minutes to, say, 2 minutes per person, as long as this is announced in advance and applies to all speakers. The Court has ruled that it cannot be shortened to a length of time shorter than 2 minutes, as that becomes what is considered an unreasonably brief time for comment.

At the April 11, 2023, meeting, there were 21 speakers in total. There were two main times to speak, and not all speakers spoke at both times. But suppose there were 30 actual speakers  — and there was the standard “Consider the Gateway Area” business item plus the early public comment time, and the Chair allotted 2 minutes for each speaker. That’s a potential total of 120 minutes of public comment — two hours of public comment in total.

The answer (for now) is that this hasn’t happened yet. So we’ll have to see.

One answer is to have the Planning Commission meetings be organized in a more efficient manner. And that is the topic for another article.

Links to other articles:

How and why did the Planning Commission change their meetings from 6:00 PM to 5:30?

Discarding the democratic process even further: The Planning Commission meeting – April 11, 2023