Vision 2030 concerns raised

Barbara Diamond

Some folks don’t see eye to eye with the City Council’s decision to

oversee the implementation of the Vision 2030 recommendations.

“Implementation needs a monitoring committee outside of the

council,” Jean Raun said Monday. “You don’t monitor your own

actions.”

Raun moderated a public meeting Saturday at the Unitarian

Universalist Fellowship that included residents who are interested in

participating in the implementation phase of the vision process. Some

of them expressed concern that the approved procedures will edge out

the general public and not get adequate city staff support. An

estimated 50 people attended, many of them familiar faces.

“We were not happy with the council’s decision, as we understood

it,” Raun said.

Saturday’s meeting was scheduled weeks before the City Council

voted 4-0 on March 4 to accept the Vision Committee report and put

itself in charge of the implementation process. The council also

decided to delegate the seven elements in the Vision 2030

recommendations to already existing groups, including

council-appointed boards, committees and commissions. Applications

for leadership roles will be reviewed by the council and selected at

a publicized meeting, date to be announced later.

“I definitely feel the council should be the oversight committee,”

Councilwoman Elizabeth Pearson said Tuesday. “It is our job to

prioritize projects and budget items for the city.

“The council needs to go through the city committees and

organizations to identify who could best implement each element of

the report and identify priorities for them.”

Pearson and Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman sponsored the Vision 2030

hearing at the March 4 council meeting.

Councilman Steven Dicterow, who was absent from the meeting, said

last November that he had his own vision for implementation. He said

then that he could not vote to accept the Steering Committee’s report

or a proposal to refine and implement the report worked out by some

committee members and retiring Councilman Paul Freeman that was

presented to the council at the Nov. 19 meeting. Freeman withdrew his

proposal for lack of support.

“Some of the group that met Saturday felt that our meeting

prompted the council to finally take action, but I understand that

Elizabeth had been working with various groups for some time,” Raun

said.

A committee was appointed on Saturday to recommend some way to

establish an outside group to monitor the implementation process. The

ad hoc committee will include some former mayors who attended the

meeting. Raun will chair it.

“I would like wiser minds than mine to recognize that this is a

30-year process, not a particular council’s or a particular

committee’s,” Raun said. “We need to recognize that the vision will

change and there has to be a mechanism for that change. It will be

difficult to arrive at that structure.

John Thomas, one of the editors of the revised Steering Committee

report, said people at the meeting appreciated the efforts of Pearson

and Kinsman to get the report accepted by the council and for

recommending the entire report be posted on the city’s Web site.

However, he points out that the steering committee recommended an

independent implementation oversight committee.

“It would have the responsibility to report progress to the

council and to the public,” Thomas said Tuesday. “Its job should be

to simply say these action items are being accomplished, these are

not; not to evaluate the items.”

Some recommended actions will be accomplished without the city

being required to take a role or funding them, Thomas said. He

believes that it would be appropriate to include some of the action

items in the city’s general plan.

Former Mayor Ann Christoph said at the meeting that there should

be an official city process where projects are reviewed for

consistency with the vision report in the same manner that projects

are reviewed for consistency with the general plan.

She also believes that without public participation, “the city as

a whole will go its own way and visioning would be left as just an

interesting experience.”

Carolyn Wood, a member of the city’s Parking, Traffic and

Circulation Committee, also expressed frustration.

“Something funny is going on that I don’t understand,” Wood said

Monday night. “It’s different than anything I have ever felt before

in Laguna. The council is coming up with ideas and going with them

without looking at all the facts or the whole picture.”

Steering Committee member John Keith said it might be a little

late for the council to step in as the oversight committee.

“If they had been an active part of the visioning process, then

they would be qualified to continue in the spirit in which it was

headed,” Keith said.

“New faces and new ideas are in the vision report. Now, it can be

handed over to existing groups where it is appropriate and come back

to an oversight committee that understands the vision.

“The council isn’t qualified to do that, but that has never

stopped the council before.”

Mayor Toni Iseman seconded Keith’s comments.

“The magic of the visioning process was the emergence of new

voices and new faces from the community,” Iseman said Tuesday. “We

are narrowing the process and giving it back to the usual suspects.”

Iseman said she voted for Pearson’s motion because she supports

the visioning process, but would like to see a more inclusive

procedure for implementation.

Many of the usual suspects attended Saturday’s meeting.

“It has to be a partnership, but the implementation oversight

committee should be separate from the council,” said former Mayor

Wayne Peterson, who will serve on the ad hoc committee created

Saturday. “The committee could have council members on it, but it

should not be solely the council.

Peterson endorsed the participation of the Chamber of Commerce as

the lead organization for the Economic Sustainability element.

In her presentation to the council, Councilwoman Pearson suggested

that such groups as the Planning Commission, the Design Review Board,

the Heritage Committee, the Housing and Human Affairs, the Arts

Alliance and Ocean Blue as possible leadership organizations. She

proposed excluding political action committees from consideration for

a leadership role.

Village Laguna is the only community organization in town that is

an active political action committee.

Individuals and groups who would like to participate in the

implementation process may contact council members. For more

information, call 494-0704. Council members’ home telephone numbers

also are listed.