Sent: Fri 9/26/2008 9:00 AM
To: Garcia, Jesse; Gochnour, Caitlin; Jeske, Dorrene; Johnson, Blain; Stephens,Doug; Stephenson, Brandon; Wicks, Amy
Cc: Patterson, John; Cook, Bill
Subject:
City Council,
I got back into town late last night and received a briefing of the work
session. I'm deeply troubled by several of the accusations that came from that
meeting.
I was told that Caitlin stated that the Landmarks Commission voted the way they did because they were "threatened" by the Administration. Will you please tell all of us who made that claim? I understand that Amy then commented quietly "that wasn't the first time this happened." Amy, will you please let me know on what other occasions this happened? If this had bearing in your decision making, why didn't you let us know of this claim? Why wouldn't you vet such an accusation? Why did you just assume it was true? I have spoken with Dave Harmer and no one from his organization "threatened" or lobbied the Landmarks Commission. Nobody from my office has ever called to inappropriately influence the Landmarks Commission in anyway. Our job is to provide them data and our planning staff will let them know what their opinion is in regards to the issue at hand, but we don't lobby or pressure. What would we be threatening them with? They are volunteers and are getting nothing from us. Doreen commented last Tuesday that the Landmarks Commission can't be trusted, in essence, because we "cleaned house" this year. We made three changes out of nine members and you approved the names that were submitted. How does that constitute a "house cleaning"? We need to get to address these kinds of issues. Someone is not telling the truth and it's important that we all know who that is. It's not fair to have these secret accusations that are influencing public policy. These things should be in the light of day for all to see. I look forward to your response. Thanks. Matthew
