Remarks by Angela Smith
14 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 1
“And you said last meeting we could leave for the restroom.”
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
“Is that really our purpose to discuss them publicly?”
“I voted yes last time and I will vote yes this time.”
“I just have some comments. I appreciate all the work that you did with the community to get their ideas. I think it's a really good start. But just some feedback, because I do see with the Land Development Code some modifications to improve it overall. One overarching theme I'm seeing is I'm really seeing what looks like two different two different sections, and I think more could be done to tie them together, because I know we have the residential section and then we have this public section, which is much smaller, but I think that we just need to do a better job from a development…”
“I'm sorry, I don't understand. A liaison to whom?”
“I know that. I disagree with this. I don't understand. I am going to speak on this topic. I don't understand why we're pushing this. My opinion is this is not our role. It is not our role to comment on legal matters affecting the city. I'm not comfortable with it. It's not the oath I took. With all due respect, Chairperson, I respect you a lot, Sarah. I just don't think this is our role. It's making me very uncomfortable. We had a legal opinion that was written that said we're not an independent body. We're not entitled to independent counsel. I don't know why we're doing this and dividing…”
“Let me clarify when I say backroom. Backroom to have a better understanding. We shouldn't be talking about this in a public forum because this isn't the role of the commission. The role of the commission is to look at applications and... compare them to the land development code and to vote on those applications. I've heard a lot of comments about politics and the city and decisions and council's out to get us and personal about whether I personally am gonna be on planning commission next year. And I just thought it's not appropriate for this forum. It's not, that's my opinion. I'm not…”
“One of the members or something said that from the city that they can't share all the information with us.”
“No, I haven't. But I know that one of the statements from the city or from I remember reading it said that they can't share all the information they have publicly about this legal matter. I remember reading that.”
“That stuck with me because if you don't have all the information, how can we be a judge and jury when we don't have all the information, number one. Number two, it's not our role. There's people that are hired in the city to do this work. I'm not an attorney. I'm a volunteer. I'm here serving on the Planning Commission. I took an oath for the Land Development Code to vote on applications. I'm not comfortable. I'm not an elected official. I'm not going to sit up here and comment on the politics of the city or their legal decisions. I'm here to vote on applications. That's what I'm here to do…”
“I'll just reiterate, it's not an excuse, it's that it makes me uncomfortable is one thing, that's how I feel, but the fact is, it's not our role.”
“I just wanted to reiterate that again, it's not our role. Our role is to vote with the land development code. This is about a past vote that became a court case and the city is settling a legal matter. It's not coming to us as an application anymore. I don't understand why we're getting so involved and why we're becoming a liaison to sit to the city and it's just not our role. It's not appropriate. It's not what I took an oath to do.”
“I'm just going to leave. I'm not comfortable staying for this. I'm sorry. This is too contentious for me. I'm just going to leave. Thank you.”