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Councilmember McGovern said the Council did not talk about the sub-regional planning element tonight, but there are quotes regarding focusing our vision and entrepreneurship, etc., and she questioned if it was important that the Council has or has not read these different proposition papers and knows what they say before they are included in a regional plan. City Manager Fialho said they certainly site them and he felt staff could continue this dialogue. Councilmember Thorne said he had a difficult issue to discuss; it seems to him there is a considerable disconnect between the policies, objectives, goals, directions of this Council and the leadership of the Planning Commission. He voiced concern about it as he was receiving feedback from the public that challenges the relevance of the commission. He felt the Planning Commission was important, people have indicated they do not want to go through the process, and he asked how to reinstate the credibility of that value. Councilmember Cook-Kallio agreed, felt the average citizen does not know the intricacies of how commission work, thinks individuals have a right to express their opinions, but when you express an opinion and attach a title to it, the presumption is that you are speaking for an entity. Since appointments to commissions were under the purview of the Mayor, she questioned if this should be further investigated. Mayor Hosterman said a long time ago she was hearing comments as well, got in touch with each Planning Commissioner except for the Chair to discuss with her the role of the commission, relationships between and amongst one another, and their relationship with the Council, the public and with staff. Since others were having this issue as well, she suggested making another attempt to discuss this with the chair and follow it up with a letter. Councilmember McGovern said she likes diversity on any boards because of looking at things from a broad perspective, said she has no problems with the Planning Commission, uses them as a right arm, reads their minutes, and asked for examples if necessary. Councilmember Sullivan said he has served on the Planning Commission, felt there were many times when Councils and Planning Commissions conflict, which is natural. He agreed with Councilmember McGovern in supporting diverse opinions, but if there was a specific issue with a commissioner not fulfilling their role, this should be dealt with. But, because there are 4-1 votes and diversity of opinions and people in the community are upset, he does not believe this is a reason to come down on them because he felt they were doing their job by doing this. He felt the Council discussing this in this format was not the right way to do it also. Mayor Hosterman said she would like to interview the full Commission prior to reporting back. Councilmember Cook-Kallio felt the 4-1 vote was not the issue; one thing good about this Council is we are all over the place, but the issue was taking a vote and then behaving at cross purposes, but she did not also know this was the situation. Councilmember Thorne felt it was an issue when the leadership of the Planning Commission takes an adversarial role to the Council and to other commissioners. He agreed with the Mayor discussing this with Commissioners. COUNCIL REPORTS Councilmember McGovern noted that she Councilmember Thorne attended the LAFTA meeting on Monday and they are adding 15,000 service hours next year. They are also working very closely with the school district and they have made changes in attendance areas, made some choice areas, and worked with the business park as well. City Council Minutes 15 June 5, 2007