Council Meeting 10/11

I attended Council on Monday 10/11 and this is what I heard.

MPF
Dave Zack (my neighbor) did a nice job clarifying the background and focus of the Vision Plan. I applaud their vision and foresight. If Nolen were alive today, he would be tweaking our plan and making it relevant for today. MPF is doing just that.

Economic Development Committee
2 schools of thought on this: Committee of Citizens with Council or Committe of Council with Citizens. I favor the latter. Jeff Andrews has been talking this for months, and he's right on. We need to make this a focus of Council, not a bolt on, but a structural element to our jobs. Probably would involve combining 2 committees into 1 and adding Econ Development as the 6th. We need to do this to prop up our financial position via tax base

Zoning Change Exception
I have grave concerns about any exceptions to a process. In this case, we're approving a zoning change before we get even a rendering of what is planned for the space. Many will say "still room for the Village to pull out if it's bad". While this may be true, it eliminates much of the flexibility built into the process, tying our hands. We have a process in place for a reason. If it doesn't work, change the process. Mr. Spinneweber is a proven developer and an honorable guy. However I don't think anyone deserves an exception. It only opens us up to accusations of unfair behavior.

New Fire Gear
I heard in Safety Committee that safe gear means more interest in working for the Fire Dpt. This is a good spend.

Voting
I voted in the affirmative on all the votes since they were more ceremonial in nature, Fire gear was more substantive, and I voted Yes. However I voted No on one: Zoning change, for reasons above.

Cortney