02-23-2015 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, February 23, 2015 7:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 15 of 19 9. VIDEOTAPING PLANNING COMMISSION MEETINGS (continued) Walsh stated the Planning Commission is where a lot of the original vetting gets done on the issues and that it is interesting to see the passion that some people have in those discussions and the issues that were debated prior to it reaching the City Council. Printup stated it is also helpful to be able to watch it versus just reading the minutes. Printup noted at times there are items that are brought up at the Planning Commission that are not discussed at the City Council meeting. Cornick stated he did attend the February meeting and that the Planning Commission indicated they are neutral to negative on it and that in his view their input should be taken into consideration. Denise Leskinen, Planning Commission Chair, stated the Planning Commission did discuss this item briefly at their February meeting and that of the five Planning Commissioners who were present, two were neutral and three were opposed. Leskinen noted the points raised were the fact that the Planning Commission is a recommending body to the Council and that any actual decisions are made at the City Council level. A question was raised regarding why the City would want to expend the money to videotape the Planning Commission meeting when the Council is where the decisions are made. Leskinen noted there were only five commissioners present at the meeting when this was discussed but that the consensus was opposed to videotaping. Leskinen stated if this is something the Council is seriously considering implementing, she would like to have the opportunity to discuss it when there is a full panel of the Planning Commission present in fairness to all of them but that ultimately it the City Council’s decision. Levang stated she raised this issue more than a year ago when the City was able to contract with Mediacom and when the City was looking at what could be done with the PEG channel. Levang indicated she did attend a Planning Commission meeting back then and asked them for their input but heard that they did not see any reason to add that in. Levang stated as she started to think about it a little more, she changed her mind and now feels that there is really no good reason to videotape the Planning Commission meetings since there would be redundancy with the applications. Levang stated when people come to their first planning meeting, the residents do feel intimidated and that this would add further intimidation. Levang stated the City wants people to participate in the process and that the residents are given ample notice of the meetings and asked to participate. Levang stated she was also informed by one of the Planning Commissioners that because they are appointed, they do not wish for the kind of scrutiny or the invasion of privacy like Council. Levang stated the City Council should respect that and that she is not in favor of videotaping the meetings. McMillan indicated she has never felt strongly one way or the other on this issue in the past but that the City now has the ability to videotape the meetings. McMillan stated she does have a couple of concerns and the first is that the City has a number of residential applications whereas Wayzata and Minnetonka, which film their Planning Commission meetings, have more commercial applications. McMillan noted