A whole new meeting

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- The decision to give up his position as chairman was

easy. And it was a long time coming.

Last week, Planning Commissioner Walt Davenport, who had been chairman

for about 14 of his 21 years on the commission, nominated Commissioner

Katrina Foley for the position.

“One of the reasons I served as chair for so much of the time was that

nobody else wanted to job,” Davenport explained. “At this point, somebody

else did want the job, so it was time for her to have it.”

Foley was unanimously voted in by the commission, which also voted

Commissioner Katie Wilson in as vice chairwoman after she was nominated

by Commissioner Bill Perkins.

Wilson will replace former Commissioner Chris Fewel, who resigned from

the commission in December.

Wilson said that she is happy about her appointment, but she isn’t

expecting too much extra work. She doesn’t think she’ll have to run a

meeting since Foley is never absent.

“I think the only time she missed a meeting was when she gave birth to

her son,” Wilson said. “So I may not have the opportunity as vice chair

to do much except for wait to hopefully be chair.”

Davenport has played a major role in the history of Costa Mesa, Foley

said.

“He’s done a good job in his role of planning the city and he’s been

committed to the city,” she said. “Not many people will serve their

community for that long. And he runs a pretty efficient meeting. I

appreciated his nomination for the position of chair. It is probably more

comfortable for him to be the chair at this point than for him not to

be.”

Davenport said he applied for a commission position 21 years ago at

the request of a City Council member, whose name he declined to disclose.

“After I got started, I found out I liked it,” he said. “I like being

involved in what direction the city is going.

His favorite part of the job is “dealing with the easy ones,” he said,

adding that the toughest part is dealing with contentious meetings, when

the commission has to send at least half of the audience away unhappy.

Wilson said Davenport impressed her as being “probably the best

parliamentarian I have ever witnessed.”

“He knows how to run a meeting, the proper rules and procedures,

Robert’s Rules of Order,” she said. “Likewise, his knowledge of planning,

which we still will have the benefit of, exceeds that of many planners I

know.”

Perkins agreed that Davenport’s knowledge distinguishes him as a

commissioner.

“[Davenport] knows what needs to be done, where to go with everything,

how to build consensus,” Perkins said. “And as a chairman, he knows how

to keep his cool. Under pressure with the meetings, when people are

getting frustrated or going over the line, [Davenport] is able to keep

the meetings under control.”

Perkins said he thinks meetings will be completely different with

Foley as chairwoman.

“She is, by profession, a lawyer, and I think she will look at things

objectively, but probably more deeply than anyone else on the

commission,” he said. “ Not that everyone doesn’t look deep, but she will

look for detail.”

Foley said she ran her first meeting Monday based on how Walt ran his

meetings.

“I will tell you that [running a meeting] is more of a challenge than

it looks because you have to juggle participating and leading at the same

time,” she said. “[Davenport] makes it look pretty easy... I have the

tendency to let more people speak and to try harder to resolve

differences. Certainly, I’m more hands-on than someone like [Davenport]

and I’m more likely to explain something to a person who doesn’t

understand.”

Foley said she would like to see the commission take a more active

role in city planning by making recommendations to the City Council

instead of waiting for staff to make a recommendation first.

Davenport said that he is sure Foley will do a great job and that he

will not miss the constant pressure of running the meetings.

“I can sit back and relax a little bit now,” he said.

BIO BOX

WALT DAVENPORT

Age: “Old enough to vote. I don’t often get carded at the bar.”

Family: Wife, Sally; children, Bob and Jill; grandchildren, E.J.,

Joanne and Luke; cat, Scooter; and cockatiel, ‘R Bird

Occupation: Owner of SoPhTec International, a company that

manufactures water conditioning products

Education: Bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration

from the University of Hartford