Our readers write: Issue of July 7, 2016
Need for board?
Regarding “Planning board wants to have a say in projects,” (News Journal, June 16) I must say I agree with Vice Chairwoman Robin Kaufman’s statement that “There is no need for a planning board … if every project is ministerial”.
We live in a community that is over 90 percent built out, which for the most part tends to reduce the real need for a planning board. What I am having a problem with is a planning board that doesn’t seem to know the difference between a ministerial permit and a discretionary permit. The former requires permits to be issued as long as the project meets the requirements for a permit, so when you go down to get a permit to change your water heater you are not subject to one of the various discretionary permitting processes the city has. You get the permit and the inspector signs off when you have completed the work per the regulations. On the other hand, if a permit is discretionary then there may be public hearings or input required prior to the issuance of a permit.
Just which one of those processes do you think most people want to go through? And now that we have seen that the planning group seems upset that they didn’t know or weren’t consulted, I would say that makes the choice even clearer. Coco’s to IHOP or Burger King to McDonald’s, are these people serious? How many times in this community have our banks or other businesses changed their names or done a facelift? Does that require community input? No, but if the business would like, it certainly can come to the community for assistance or input.
Kris Sykes
Rancho Bernardo
Suspend city manager
Poway City Manager Dan Singer donates $10,000 of Poway residents’ money to the Tony Gwynn memorial. (News Chieftain, June 22.) It’s a backroom deal that he negotiated to erase $90,000 in SportsPlex rent owed to Poway that was not collected due to errors at City Hall.
Singer agreed to settle the debt for $15,875 with $10K going to the memorial. He told nobody until the Union-Tribune asked to see the lease. Councilman John Mullin called the deal wrong financially and wrong morally. I highly agree.
Then there is the $800,000 uncollected in another error involving Pomerado Hospital water bills. The worst, in my opinion, is the $20 million (maybe $30 million or more) that the council has approved to tear down and rebuild a perfectly good Community Center in Community Park. The council rejected the notion that that a remodel might be a better way to improve the complex. It’s other peoples’ money.
Back to Singer. I asked the mayor and council to suspend him pending a full investigation. I got no response. I mean, a councilman found his conduct immoral? We know of two bad deals. How many other backroom deals do we not know about?
Jonathan Ryan
Poway