Times: Hercules promises better notification of meetings
— by Jeffrey Wisniewski — 28 January 2010 — 1 comment below »
The real issue with the govern-by-subcommittee practice the City Council has adopted is that the subcommittee meetings are primarily during the working day (although the councilmember position is supposedly part-time), where very few residents can participate, or even simply review the decisions and discussions of important City business. It is government of the few (who are available from 10 to 11 on a Wednesday morning).
At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, before adoption of the consent calendar, Councilman Joe Eddy McDonald noted that eight items had been discussed at the Finance Subcommittee meeting of Jan. 20 and recommended for approval. That subcommittee consists of McDonald and Mayor Kris Valstad. Later in the meeting, before adoption of the redevelopment agency board consent calendar, McDonald noted that its five items, too, had been discussed and recommended for approval at the Finance Subcommittee meeting. [...] The calendar on the city Web site, however, mentioned only a Public Safety/Mail Box Security Subcommittee meeting Jan. 20, at 3 p.m. That subcommittee also consists of McDonald and Valstad.
There are no minutes kept of subcommittee meetings.
Ridiculous. Million dollar no bid contracts are supposedly “discussed” at improperly noticed committee meetings that no one knows about, and then passed by the council on the consent calendar with no discussion. No wonder so many fishy looking contracts to the Affordable Housing corp. run by the City Manager’s daughter have been approved without a whiff of dissent. There should be a budget oversight committee composed of citizens who scrutinize these contracts.