More thoughts on the appointment process...

Yesterday, I received an e-mail from the Community Development Department that I had indeed been appointed to the Historic Resource Preservation Board (HRPB).  The next meeting is scheduled for July 13th and there will be items on the agenda.  The agenda is not out yet.

First of all, I really do appreciate being appointed to a board where I can use my experience and knowledge to benefit the city in a direct way.  You should also remember, though, that I applied to three boards - the CRA, P&Z and HRPB - in order of preference.  I am generally satisfied with the appointments made to the CRA as it appears that they are people that have a material interest - property/business owners - in the CRA district.  I have never seen that as a conflict, as long as there is a balance on the board and it is therefore not an overwhelming influence.  Regardless, everyone is still subject to Florida law related to the declaration of a conflict of interest if one exists - or appears to exist.  I think that the Inspector General will do a good job at policing that.

The peculiar result from the City Commission board appointment meeting is that they did not appoint anyone to the Planning and Zoning Board and are going back "to the well" to achieve some sort of diversity they didn't think was present in the current crop of applicants.  I have said many times here that one of the most important considerations in appointments to the P&Z is geographic diversity.  In the course of the board's work, you are dealing with actual physical situations and conditions throughout the city.  Sometimes, in order to make a good decision on a given application, you need more than a "drive-by" in the week before the meeting - you need to know what it really is like living in a certain location on a day-in and day-out basis.  That was one of the weaknesses of the board while I was on it - we had heavy representation from College Park, the downtown and South Palm Park/Lakeside, but no representation from west of Dixie Hwy.  That was a flaw in the recruitment and appointment process, which led to sometimes difficult to defend decisions - like the Sunset property.  I maintain that if the board had representation from that area of the city, our eventual decision would have reflected that input and may well have resulted in a different outcome.  We will never know.

I believe, at this point in time, the Planning and Zoning Board is at the most critical juncture of any of the boards.  It also has the fewest people that have a background in urban planning or zoning - especially since Ms. Fitzhugh did not re-apply (she is a planner for Palm Beach County.)  Right now, we have a largely unworkable situation where we have major inconsistencies between the city's Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Code (aka: land development regulations -LDRs.)  Most people with businesses and/or serious money to invest are not going to look at Lake Worth simply because they are not sure of the regulatory environment.  Investors and businesses are willing to go along with many things - exactions, conditions, height limitations - if they know what they are going to be at the start and if they know that a timely, predictable outcome is likely.  Right now, Lake Worth cannot give those assurances with a straight face.

The city has been in an interminable process of re-writing it's LDRs for the past FIVE YEARS!  I last was on P&Z in December 2006.  Throughout most of 2006, we were meeting every week - one week to deal with development applications and the other to address Comp Plan and LDR issues.  Through a half a dozen Planning Directors since that time, little has been accomplished.  It seems like the most important issue of the current board is that they want a strike-through and underlined version of the LDRs so they can see what was and what changed.  The concept had been to have a complete re-working of the code so that it was more user-friendly - with large sections added, removed and altered - which does not lend itself to a neat presentation.  However, each member of the planning board should be able to assess what is put before them as part of a clean slate.  The first official edition is not going to be a perfect document - it is a starting point upon which future amendments will be made as weaknesses are identified and conditions and opinions change in the city.  I don't think the current board has an appreciation for that.

During my interview with the City Commission, I stressed my experience creating, writing and reviewing code language - it's in large part how I make my living.  I got a real sense from Commissioners Golden, McVoy and Vice-Mayor Mulvehill that their minds were made up that I should be placed on the HRPB - all three asked questions exclusively about that board and what I could do for it.  Now, I don't know how all of them independently came to that decision, but it was apparent they had.  Eh hem.

The HRPB is a relatively new, independent board that used to be part of P&Z.  This was done so that the HRPB could be a "watchdog" over the Planning and Zoning Board - which was thought to be more about development.  I always thought that was a false distinction, but it is what it is.  When the new board was created, the number of regular voting members was reduced to five, with two alternates.  An alternate only votes when one of the regular members is absent and is subject to re-appointment every year - not a three year term like the full-voting members.  So, in a way, you can look on my appointment as sort of a "probationary" one.  It is also interesting to note that, in order to maintain the board's certified local government (CLG) status, it has to have a requisite representation from a number of professions - including urban planners.  Being a certified urban planner means that I fit the bill and help the city maintain its CLG status with the State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO).  It is also a way to "keep me on the farm" and dissuade me from making another attempt at a run for elected office - since you have to resign from an appointed board at the time you file to run.  It's also a little ironic since some of the negative campaigning about me from this group concerned the number of demolitions that we done under my watch when I was on the board.

That being said, I hope it was more than that and it was a way of the group in power to acknowledge that we have people on the city that should be part of the official process, even if we end up on different sides of issues often in our current political situation.  And, it bears repeating, that I am grateful to be appointed to a board - even though it was my third choice and think that the better place for me would be on P&Z.  They didn't happen to think so.