Time to correct an imblance...

The City Commission meets at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow, Monday, June 29th to interview applicants for the Library Board, Planning and Zoning - Historic Resource Preservation - Nuisance Abatement - Sign Appeals Board (PZHRPB), and the new Sister City Board.

Above is an aerial view of the city that shows the residence locations of the current members of the PZHRPB. There are seven (7) regular members and two (2) alternate members of the Planning and Zoning Board. There are nine (9) regular members of the Historic Resource Preservation Board. These are two boards that are currently combined together, but there is a movement afoot to make them separate boards - which will be further discussed during budget considerations. It's surprising that this interview process is not taking that into account, but it hasn't happened officially yet. This board is one of the more important boards of the city and deals with many zoning/land use/site plan and preservation issues.

There are a total of five (5) terms expiring on July 31, 2009 - these are seats currently held by full members McGunagle, Foreman and LeBlanc. The two alternate PZB and full HRPB seats are up for re-appointment every year. City Clerk Lopez, in her cover memo, indicates that only one there is one vacancy since only Foreman has chosen not to re-apply. But, in reality, there are five (5) open positions.

Historically speaking, there has always been a lack of representation from the western half of the city. Of the current members, only McGunagle and Exline live west of Dixie Hwy. While I was on the board for eight years (Chairman for five, resigning in December 2006 in order to run for the District #3 Commission seat), there was NO representation from west of Dixie Hwy.

This imbalance was a major flaw as planning and zoning is such a geographic-based discipline and in a city the size of Lake Worth, your view of the physical and social world is related to where you happen to be living. The concentration of members east of Dixie Hwy. distorts the decision making process of the board and, in a very negative way, can contribute to an "us against them" dynamic that really has no place on such a board or our city. I have always maintained that if we had balanced representation from various geographic areas of the city, we would not have had the situation with the Sunset property. It might have been the same ultimate recommendation, but with broader geographic representation, including members from the southwest part of the city, the decision would have been more credible and not as subject to claims of "they didn't listen to the neighbors, etc.."

Above is the same aerial of the city with the locations of the current applicants to the PZHRPB. These include those current members that are seeking re-appointment due to an expired term. The aerial below shows the applicants' residence locations along with members of the board that do not have expiring terms - Paxman, Spinelli, DeVito, Hoctor - all of which live east of Dixie Hwy.

Beyond qualifications and experience, which you can review by clicking on the title of this post, I really believe that the variable here that is most important is geographic location. We are lucky to have a lot of qualified applicants in this batch of applications - some of which live west of Dixie Hwy. I wouldn't mind seeing all the appointments coming from there, however it is important to have representation of an architect on the board and there are two - one existing and one potential member - that are architects. Both happen to live east of Dixie Hwy. And, besides the east and west distinctions, you need to take into account a north and south potential bias. I have always thought it is good to have a few around the traditional downtown area as lots of requests spring from that area.

It's actually good news that we have an opportunity to correct a distortion of representation on one of the most important city boards. Let's hope the City Commission feels the same way after the interviews when they make their appointments. I'll be sharing this sentiment with them via e-mail.