Changing the rules of the La Jolla Community Planning Association (LJCPA) isn’t only about the future. It’s rooted in past and present procedures that some community members find inadequate and unfair.
The bylaws subcommittee met on Aug. 23 to discuss and vote on changes to the bylaws, amidst a handful of vocal residents agitated by the entire process. Committee members Gail Forbes, Lance Peto and Marty McGee were present.
Community planning groups throughout the city are required to update their bylaws by April 2007, but La Jolla expects to complete its revisions by this coming October, in part due to a lawsuit brought against the planning group in May.
The city’s Planning Department is seeking to streamline the bylaws for all planning groups, rendering La Jolla powerless over some of its regulations. For example, the Planning Department has fully outlined the process for reporting a violation against a trustee and against the entire planning board.
In other areas, the LJCPA is asked to choose from a set of options. Membership eligibility was first on the list of contentious issues. The committee voted to require locals to attend two meetings in order to become members and vote. Currently, the LJCPA mandates that locals attend three meetings in order to be informed voters, which some community members liken to a literacy test or tax poll. McGee opposed reducing the meeting requirement.
The Planning Department’s bylaw shell provided several options for membership eligibility, including simply allowing every community resident, business owner or property owner to vote, or also requiring that members attend one, two or three meetings.
Term limits were the next item of dispute. Options included eight- or nine-year term limits, and Forbes lamented the Planning Department’s lack of creativity for not including a six-year option. McGee and Peto selected a term limit of nine consecutive years, with McGee reminding the attendees that if they didn’t like certain trustees, they could vote against them after their three-year tenure. One resident refuted that reasoning.
“I understand that, but that doesn’t seem to be the history and I’m not certain that it’s going to be,” she said.
McGee applauded the service of the long-time members.
“My personal opinion is that there are some pretty good guys on the CPA and they’ve been there for a long time,” he said.
The committee also voted to continue the current three-year term for trustees, rejecting the two-year and four-year term options.
The committee next voted to expand its voting practices by allowing mail-in ballots along with the March polls. McGee objected to this provision, saying he couldn’t support it without assuring that the group has the money and manpower to send out the ballots. One audience member suggested that those factors shouldn’t matter in a wealthy, active community like La Jolla.
Finally, the committee voted to allow write-in candidates, which McGee said gives members the power to choose the candidates that they want. Forbes opposed the option, saying that it does not contribute to an orderly election process.
The bylaws subcommittee did balk at the Planning Department’s requirement that all subcommittees be chaired by a planning group trustee and comprised mostly of trustees. La Jolla has five active committees, including the planned district ordinance and coastal development permit committees; asking trustees to staff them all would be overwhelming and would exclude the community, the committee said. Deviating from the bylaw shell, however, will likely require the LJCPA to get approval from City Council.
All planning groups are forbidden to allow proxy voting, in which one person asks another to vote for him or her. The LJCPA currently allows proxy voting.
Bylaws aside, the community used the gathering as a forum to voice complaints and suggestions for how the planning group should conduct its meetings. When McGee asked the committee members to vote on the items before taking a room count, as that’s “the way it’s always done,” one resident called the procedure “absolutely absurd.”
“If you’re interested in our opinion, then you should do us the courtesy of inviting our comments before you vote, not after,” he said.
The same local also urged the board to hold at least some meetings on the weekends, since some people, such as himself, cannot attend the LJCPA meetings on Thursday evenings. In response, the bylaws subcommittee changed its meeting time from mid-afternoon to early evening.
The Planning Department hopes that updating the group’s bylaws in a fair and public manner will help dispel allegations of impropriety that the LJCPA is facing. La Jollans for Clean Government Inc. sued the planning group for “holding secret meetings, manipulating board votes, denying membership to residents, destroying or altering public documents, engaging in conflicts of interest and threatening those who raised questions about their activities.”
The litigants dropped the lawsuit on the condition that the LJCPA update its bylaws and that the city investigate the allegations. The city attorney’s office is currently mediating between the plaintiffs and the LJCPA. Assistant City Attorney Karen Heumann said she expects that the dispute will be resolved.
The final bylaws subcommittee meeting will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 12, at 5:30 p.m., and the results will be published at www.lajollacpa.org. The committee will then present its recommendations before the LJCPA at a special meeting on Thursday, Sept. 21, at 6:30 p.m., in which the public will have its final input.
LJCPA trustees will vote on the recommendations during the next monthly meeting on Thursday, Oct. 5, 6:30 p.m. All meetings will be held at the La Jolla Recreation Center, 615 Prospect St. For more information, call (858) 456-7900 or visit www.lajollacpa.org.