As the days leading up to the New Year dwindle down, several residents who attended a Dec. 7 meeting of the La Jolla Community Planning Association (LJCPA) told board members that the bylaws, which have been a source of ongoing controversy this year, should be voted on during January’s meeting.
Ed Ward, Rob Whittemore and Orrin Gabsch, La Jolla residents and three of the 18 members appointed to the bylaws subcommittee, attempted to persuade the board to add the bylaws vote to next month’s agenda. The bylaws are a document that governs LJCPA trustees and resident members.
“In a past meeting, the board said we would be voting on the bylaws in the New Year, and many of us took that to mean January,” Ward said. “And that’s what the public expects.”
More than 100 residents attended an October LJCPA meeting to protest a bylaws amendment vote, since many people would not be able to cast a ballot due to current guidelines that state a person must have attended a minimum of two meetings within the last calendar year. The LJCPA voted to table the vote until the next calendar year, when many residents would gain membership and meet the voting requirements.
At Thursday’s meeting, LJCPA President Tim Golba, joined by trustees Phil Merten and Joe LaCava, pointed out that the bylaws vote could not be placed on January’s agenda unless a request by the subcommittee as a whole, and not just individual members, was submitted to the LJCPA.
The bylaws subcommittee was scheduled to meet Wednesday, Dec. 13, as the Village News went to press, to vote on certain provisions within the document that have been contentious within the committee, according to Golba.
“We want to do it in January, as well,” Golba said, referring to the bylaws vote. “Where the city is in the process of updating its shell, they may use the La Jolla bylaws as a model so they don’t have to do the work.”
The city recently learned that community-planning groups are under the Brown Act, a law that requires public notice of and access to meetings, and it must now change its bylaws guidelines to reflect the act.
“The Brown Act basically holds community planning groups to a higher standard as far as protocol and public noticing,” Golba said. “The previous city attorney said the Brown Act was not applicable for these groups. Now the city is looking at multiple months to revise its shell, and even if we [LJCPA] adopt the bylaws in January, it will still have to be tweaked one more time to be in compliance with the Brown Act.”
Subcommittee members have been working steadily since October to update the bylaws document so that it can be approved by the LJCPA and then be passed on to the city council.
April was the original deadline presented to the LJCPA for a finished bylaws document, but the city has since extended that date because of the Brown Act implementation and has not issued a new deadline, according to Golba.
If the subcommittee reaches a quorum vote at Wednesday’s meeting, it will then be able to place the bylaws vote on January’s LJCPA meeting agenda, Golba said.
The subcommittee has already made significant changes to the bylaws, including revising the meeting attendance requirement for membership to one meeting per calendar year.
In other business:
“¢ City Council President and District 1 Councilman Scott Peters’ La Jolla representative, Chanelle Hawken, announced her promotion within the office and introduced a new representative, Keeley Sweeney, who will take over the monthly report at LJCPA meetings. Sweeney is a graduate of UCSD law school and recently passed the Bar exam. Hawken said she was sad to leave the position.
“¢ Trustee Phil Merten made a motion to remove Yvette Marcum from the LJCPA board of trustees because the status of her La Jolla business was unknown and she had only attended two meetings during the 2005 calendar year, according to Merten.
“I’ve been in contact with her, but she refuses to address the issue of her membership,” Merten said.
Golba added that LJCPA secretary Mark Lyon had tried to contact her and it was thought that her business might have closed several months ago. The board resolved to attempt to contact Marcum one last time, and add a vote concerning her status to next month’s agenda.
The next La Jolla Community Planning Association meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 4, 2007, at the La Jolla Recreation Center, 615 Prospect St. The LJCPA meets the first Thursday of every month at this location.
For more information, call (858) 456-7900, visit www.lajollacpa.org or e-mail [email protected].