Council at impasse over Planning Commission

Planning Commission drama continued at the Sonoma City Council meeting on Monday, when consideration of a typically perfunctory “consent calendar” appointment of nominee Lynda Corrado as the commission’s newest member ended in a stalemate.

With Councilmember Madolyn Agrimonti absent from the April 3 meeting, the four-member quorum deadlocked on a pair of motions regarding Corrado’s appointment – the first, Councilmember David Cook’s call to postpone consideration of Corrado until Agrimonti’s return; the second, Mayor Rachel Hundley’s motion to appoint Corrado then and there.

Given that neither motion mustered a majority, no action was taken and Corrado’s nomination will indeed have to wait upon Agrimonti.

The Corrado impasse is the latest in a recent string of hiccups for the Commission, as it heads toward much-anticipated decisions about multiple downtown development proposals.

The topsy-turvy times for the typically staid Commission began earlier this year when Commissioner Bill Willers, under threat of legal action, announced he would recuse himself from entertaining the controversial First Street East Project in light of previous public statements he had made about the hotel-restaurant-residential project prior to it coming to the attention of the Commission.

Then in March, when Commissioner Ron Wellender was up for reappointment at the end of his first term, Mayor Hundley bypassed him in favor of recently named Commission “alternate” James Bohar – a move that spurred longtime commissioner Chip Roberson to resign in protest.

The whirlwind continued last week when it came to light that Bohar had, like Willers, also made previous public statements questioning the viability of the First Street East Project – statements Hundley said she was not informed of despite having queried Bohar on the subject during the Commission-nomination process.

Meanwhile, the seven-member Planning Commission remains one member shy, with Roberson’s seat still vacant, and, in regards to the First Street East Project, short again with Willers recused. The Council will also have to fill the still-vacant “alternate” seat.

The situation has frustrated City Council members and members of the public alike.

Mary Martinez spoke during the public comment period to express doubts about the lack of experience of current planning commissioners – five of whom, once the open seat is filled, will have served less than two years.

“I’m very concerned that we have vacancies on the Planning Commission when we have very big projects coming before it,” said Martinez, who suggested the City should require commissioners be given training to understand the city development code.

Resident Joe Aaron read from a letter he’d sent to the Council (and the Index-Tribune) outlining the recent changes on the Commission and accusing Mayor Hundley of “attempting to hijack the Planning Commission and democratic process.”

Corrado herself spoke at the meeting, defending her experience and positioning herself as a potentially valuable Commissioner and fierce affordable housing advocate.

J.J. Abodeely, one of the partners in the proposed First Street East Project, said the important thing is to appoint “planning commissioners who look at the development code as it’s written and (are) objective.”

Tension over the Planning Commission appointment process simmered with the City Council, as well, as members are still smarting from a small kerfluffle more than a year ago when the experience of then-Mayor David Cook’s nominee Michael Coleman was challenged by Hundley and Councilmember Gary Edwards.

The City of Sonoma’s Planning Commission appointment policy allows the Mayor and one other council member to act as a two-member ad hoc committee – conducting brief interviews with applicants for open Commission seats, with the Mayor holding the final authority to bring a single nominee to the rest of the Council for a vote of approval.

Hundley stressed that her considerations about commission appointments are weighted heavily with an eye toward the upcoming update of the city’s General Plan.

“I felt it was my duty to pick whoever was the most qualified,” said Hundley.

Cook, having overseen multiple Planning Commission appointments during his time as Mayor in 2015, said he wants “to see this process changed.”

“There shouldn’t be secrets at City Hall,” said Cook, referring to a perceived lack of transparency in Planning Commission appointments. “Whatever process that we’ve had in the past is not working.”

City Manager Cathy Capriola concurred that the current policy puts “a lot of authority in the Mayor’s seat.”

Councilmember Amy Harrington redirected the discussion back toward consideration of Corrado, defending the Mayor’s right under current policy to nominate – or not re-appoint – applicants in a way she felt would best serve the city. Harrington also suggested a bias within the City against women serving on the Planning Commission.

Prior to her successful run for City Council, Harrington had applied to fill the open seat on the Planning Commission in 2015 that eventually went to Coleman. At the Monday meeting, Harrington alleged that during her bid to serve on the Commission, she was told, “Women don’t apply for the Planning Commission because there’s lots of reading. Women like to be on Design Review (and Historic Preservation Commission), because Planning Commission is hard.”

Harrington did not elaborate as to who made that statement.

Councilmember Edwards, who served for several years on the Planning Commission prior to Council, reflected that if a Commission candidate had made a public statement on a particular project, then he’d “have a problem with that.” He joined Cook in calling to postpone filling the open seat until the full five-member Council could consider the matter.

Both Cook and Edwards said they’d received somewhere between 50 and 70 emails about the issue.

Email Jason at jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.