Letter of the Day: Council debate is over which commissioners to ignore

Editor, Index-Tribune:

I’d like to think that the time the City Council is spending arguing about the Sonoma Planning Commission seat is worthwhile (“When It Comes to City Appointments, the Devil Is in the Details,” May 29), but I’m afraid I don’t. Here’s why: Sonoma has established a formula-store ordinance to prevent stores that don’t “fit” Sonoma from opening on the Plaza. Such a store was identified by the planning commission in 2012. It is Peet’s Coffee and Tea. If we all remember, then-Mayor Joanne Sanders appealed that decision and the council went on to overturn it and allow Peet’s to open within the boundaries of that ordinance. They did it again with Williams-Sonoma. I have nothing against either of those stores, but they don’t meet the criteria set forth by the very same City Council that very year.

The message that was driven home by the City Council was that the planning commission, whom we are supposed to trust to make sound recommendations based on the laws in Sonoma, doesn’t matter. What does matter apparently, is that the City Council will do what it wants according to personal taste without regard to the opinions of those who live here, vote here, and care about the character of our town.

So really, who cares about the qualifications of the planning commissioners? The City Council is just as likely to ignore them the next time one of their personal favorites wants to move to town.

Tom Fogle

Sonoma