A smart bit of planning

Costa Mesa officials avoided one of those nagging little black eyes

-- maybe it’s more like a paper cut -- by quickly and smartly

bolstering the ranks of the Planning Commission, so the group had

enough members to meet on Monday.

For those who missed this case of the stars aligning poorly for

City Hall, here’s how things settled: After the City Council wins by

commissioners Eric Bever and Katrina Foley; a change in the way the

council makes commission appointments that has delayed Bever and

Foley’s replacement; and the back surgery of one of the remaining

three commission members, the Costa Mesa Planning Commission was down

to just two, Bruce Garlich and Bill Perkins. And two members don’t

amount to the proscribed quorum needed for the commission to meet.

The lack of numbers likely would have amounted to just that

metaphoric paper cut -- a few speakers would have chided the city for

a bad bit of planning, perhaps a newspaper would have editorialized a

few times about the situation -- had a couple of items not been

looming on the commission’s agenda that, owing to state law that

mandates planning decisions be made in a timely manner, would have

been approved by default if no meeting took place.

And so the City Council had to act. And for Monday’s meeting, it

added as capable and knowledgeable a member of the community as there

is: former Mayor Sandy Genis, who once worked as a city planner in

neighboring Newport Beach. It was a great choice in two ways: It

allowed the commission to meet and it ensured that the third,

temporary member would understand the issues and have a deep

commitment to the community.

Now, as the council prepares to pick permanent members to the

commission -- which is expected to happen Feb. 7, when the new

appointment process becomes effective -- we hope city leaders are as

keen as they were when deciding Genis was the right person for the

one-time job. It was a promising precedent.