OXNARD : City Defends Plan to Streamline Panels

A proposal to streamline the appointment of Oxnard residents to the city’s advisory committees would also make the Planning Commission more reflective of the council’s will, the city attorney said Monday.

The proposed change would reduce the Planning Commission from seven members to five and make each commissioner an appointee of an individual council member.

The Planning Commission has opposed the change, claiming it is an assault on the independence of the planning body.

The proposed changes are intended to reduce the number of commission decisions that are appealed to the council, City Atty. Gary Gillig said.

“There was a feeling that the Planning Commission needed to reflect City Council members’ viewpoints to a greater extent,” Gillig said, referring to council study sessions in July and September in which the proposal was made.

“My feeling is, if we have a Planning Commission that the City Council has greater faith in, we would have fewer appeals,” Gillig said.

The Planning Commission presented a letter to the council in October voicing its objections to the proposed appointment policy.

“I think it is necessary for there to be an independent Planning Commission,” said Ralph Schumacher, the commission’s chairman.

“If we have five people that say ‘yes sir, yes sir, yes sir,’ then we have defeated the role of a Planning Commission,” Schumacher said.

The policy would also allow the mayor to make all the appointments to five advisory boards that are now made by the council. The change would end the presence of staggered terms of board members, whose terms would all expire at the end of the mayor’s term.

The five advisory groups are the Commission on Aging, the Cultural and Fine Arts Commission, the Library Board, the Parks and Recreation Commission and the Relocation Appeals Board.