Visalia Mayor Jesus Gamboa says he had no intention of denying developers a chance to comment on issues affecting their work. The developers say the mayor has not regularly opened meetings for public comment. –DB
The Fresno Bee
May. 21, 2009
By Lewis Griswold
Developers in Visalia complain they are being ignored when issues affecting their industry come before the Visalia council during work sessions, and they blame Mayor Jesus Gamboa for not opening the floor for public comment.
“According to the Brown Act, you have to have an opportunity for the public to comment,” said planning consultant Darlene Mata, the face of the Visalia Community Forum, a council watchdog group backed by developers.
But Gamboa said he routinely seeks public comment at work sessions. And when he hasn’t, “it’s an honest oversight on my part,” he said.
Furthermore, Gamboa said, all Mata and any other member of the development community — all are on a first-name basis with council members — need to do is stand up and ask to be heard.
“Since when did they become bashful?” Gamboa asked.
For developer representatives, the issue has been brewing for several months.
Visalia council meetings take place every two weeks and are divided into an afternoon “work session” for staff reports and an evening “regular meeting” for public hearings and other matters. Both are open to the public.
At the regular meeting, public comment is formally sought at the start of the meeting and also customarily when the issue gets discussed.
But at work sessions, council members sometimes seek public comment and sometimes not. Lately, a line has been added at the top of the agenda mentioning public comment.
When work session topics were merely informational and no votes were taken, little attention was paid to the formalities. But more and more, work sessions have become like regular meetings, with votes taken and issues hashed out.
The public comment issue first boiled over last year when Mata complained to City Manager Steve Salomon that council members made a key decision at a work session on an issue of importance to developers, but no public comment had been sought.
Mata made “a very legitimate comment,” Salomon said, which he brought to the mayor’s attention. Since then, the city staff has sought to make sure the mayor doesn’t forget to open it up for public comment, he said.
But Monday, it happened again.
The council voted 5-0 at a work session to move forward on a proposal that would require developers to pay a fee to save farmland from development.
Bob Keenan, executive director of the Home Builders Association, was in the audience waiting to explain the HBA’s position, but the mayor didn’t seek public comment. Keenan got up and left, muttering to Mata on his way out.
“Every meeting I’ve been at recently, they haven’t asked if anybody had any comments,” Keenan said.
“I’ll take the rap,” Gamboa said later. “I’ll try harder next time. I’m sorry.”
Copyright 2009 The Fresno Bee