The Sunnyvale Sun
Letters & Opinions
Letters
City urged not to
restrict rights of
commissioners
On Jan. 29, the Sunnyvale City Council will reconsider city staff's proposal to restrict commissioners' communications with council. In the past year, one or two commissioners have directly addressed council on issues, instead of following established commission procedures. One individual has repeatedly appeared to air his grievances before council. In response, a clearly annoyed city staff proposes restricting some direct council communications to commission spokespersons only. Needless to say, many commissioners are displeased.
A city council meeting is a special institution. Anyone from anywhere in the world can walk into Sunnyvale's City Council Chambers and command council's attention on any topic for three minutes. Every week, members of the public tell council, "This is wrong, and you should fix it.'' This is a uniquely American tradition that Sunnyvale should encourage. Instead, under the new rules, anyone can speak to council on any topic--except for 52 specific residents.
I value the proper commission process, and I dread the notion of seven commissioners all demanding three minutes before council. I sympathize with staff, and I condemn the self-serving actions of the most blatant of the offending commissioners. But most commissioners behave responsibly, and I fear punishing the majority for a few ill-advised actions. One board member called this change "condescending, patronizing and demoralizing."
Eliminating commissioner rights that every other resident (and non-resident) enjoys is highly disrespectful to the city's most active volunteers.
Councilmembers are smart people, well-versed in telling good advice from bad and identifying a speaker's underlying motives. Council can already discipline, remove or refuse to reappoint individual commissioners who misbehave. I urge the Sunnyvale City Council to respect the commitment and goodwill of Sunnyvale's commissioners when considering staff's proposal.
Jim Griffith
Dunsmuir Terrace