I thought the following article from the Minnesota Daily would be of interest to the list. It looks at how council members differ in understanding their role vis a vis the City's Zoning code. That's worth understanding, but the part that made me think of the Mpls Issues List was material at the end of the article which bears on the conversation the list has been having about the pros and cons of having some at-large council members--which I happen to think is a good idea. A bit about me, since I haven't posted before. I live in Seward and work for the City in the Planning Department as one of the City Planners. If I end up posting in the future, I may at times need to distinguish between offering information about stuff I'm involved in professionally, or offering my general views on an issue from my professional or personal experience but not in any kind of official capacity. We'll see if it gets tricky. Tom Brady-Leighton (I go by Tom Leighton at work--easier to say and remember) Seward Governing style subject of debate in City Council Mike Oakes - Staff Reporter "There's that sort of formal way that the city is supposed to work and, of course, there's the way the city does work," according to Minneapolis City Council Member Barret Lane. That notion epitomizes a dilemma inside City Hall lately and is raising discussion focused on how council members govern the city. One problem arises when a city council member supports a constituent at a non-city council meeting and votes on the issue when it comes before them at City Hall. For example, Council Member Lisa Goodman has been criticized by some colleagues for voting on a resolution in which she had taken a stance at a non-council meeting. A more pertinent issue is some council members see city ordinances as black and white, and others see them as oblique. Council members are divided on what the role of a city council member should be. Some members say they prefer to act as constituent advocates, involving themselves in certain aspects of a constituent's agenda. Others maintain the council should act solely as a governing body whose job is to make decisions and avoid political bias. Those council members say to do that means the council member cannot be an advocate either way for a constituent's agenda. The concrete notion agreed upon by all council members is the governing body must operate within the law. And to some that means following the law word for word; to others it means exercising as much discretion as is allowed without crossing the line. The issue of the role of a city council member arises most often at the Zoning and Planning Committee and usually involves the word "variance." In context, a variance is usually granted when a person or business cannot live or operate within a current zoning law. But most council members said variances are often granted even when a person can live comfortably within a zoning law. That is where a certain amount of discretion comes into play. "The thing I often ask myself is, 'does it do any harm?'" said Ward 2 Council Member Joan Campbell. Campbell said in cases where a variance does not meet the requirements to be granted, she takes into account other factors -- for example, if the variance would upset neighbors -- before voting for or against the variance. But Lane, who joined the council in 1998, said he sees variances as precedent-setting. He said he expects people to live within the rules and, if they do not like them, to try and change the rules. And Lane will not change them for his constituents. "Do you want somebody who will kind of work the system, or do you want somebody who's going to kind of make everybody live with the same process?" Granting a variance An applicant must take certain steps to be granted a variance. First, the applicant takes his case to the Minneapolis Board of Adjustment, an arm of the city's planning department. That meeting is a public forum. Through the application or other means, the applicant must prove five things to be true, including that adherence to zoning code regulations would cause undue hardship. For example, Roger Aronson, an attorney who lives in south Minneapolis, was hoping recently to add on to his kitchen. To do that, Aronson needed to apply for a variance. On December 13, Aronson pleaded his case at a Board of Adjustment hearing. The board, whose decisions are final but subject to appeal in front of the Zoning and Planning Committee, found Aronson could not prove his present kitchen caused him undue hardship. That decision not only upheld the city ordinance but a state statute as well. Lane represents Ward 13, the ward in which Aronson lives. "Everybody thought that this was a good project, 'He's a good neighbor, we like keeping him in the city,'" Lane said. "And my response is well, all those things are true but irrelevant. "The statute doesn't say, 'Give everybody who's a nice guy a variance.' It doesn't say 'Give everybody who's going to add to the tax value of the city a variance.'" Aronson appealed the adjustment board decision to the Zoning and Planning Committee. That committee overturned the board's decision, and the full council voted 8 to 4 to uphold the Zoning and Planning decision. The City Council overturns 58 percent of appealed Board of Adjustment decisions. Council members Lane, Lisa Goodman, Paul Ostrow and Dore Mead voted against Aronson's appeal. Campbell and seven others voted for it. "I didn't think it was doing any harm," Campbell said. "If there had been a large neighborhood opposition to it, it might have been different." But Lane says following the rules goes both ways. "If (Aronson) qualified under this, and there were 80 neighbors surrounding him saying, 'We don't like it,' I'd be standing up telling those same 80 people, 'Look, he meets those standards, he qualifies, he gets his variance ... whether you like it or not.'" The Seattle method In Seattle, nine city council members each represent 550,000 constituents, Seattle's population. That means the council is not districted, as Minneapolis' is. Seattle City Council member Judy Nicastro said a reason council members there don't want to represent a ward or district of the city is a fear of looking at the city only through the eyes of a district's constituents. "You want to insulate, I think, for fairness, the elected officials, to be fair," Nicastro said. "Where elected officials have to make those individual decisions, it becomes much more political. "And that's part of what's important of a democracy and of fair governing, to insulate the politics." Meanwhile, the debate in Minneapolis ensues over how far politics should come into play in the council's decision-making process. Campbell maintains the Minneapolis council should balance fairness and political agendas. And that includes using personal judgment, Campbell said. She said it's good that all members of an elected body bring life experiences to the decision-making table. "Whether it's baggage or it's good stuff or bad stuff, they bring it all there and make decisions," Campbell said. Campbell says the system works well. Lane says the system is sufficient but could be better. He suggests more frequent meetings that dictate how the City Council should deal with issues like variances. And Lane said he is willing to talk about changing ordinances. But as long as a law is in place, he will follow it without deviating -- even if deviating wouldn't hurt anybody. Lane said he also has one important goal as the new council is assembled later this year. "If we could have some serious thought and serious thinking about our public process and reforming our public processes ... I think that would be a great benefit to the city." Campbell said she doesn't see the need for discussion. "When our own ordinances allow for things like variances or waivers or things that indicate to me that there is some level of judgement in there, we ought to be able to exercise that judgement," she said. _______________________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
