Local News Comments

I am curious if all these planning commission members are being paid....or do they volunteer their time. It does seem a bit out of line that all of the counties listed have only one commission and TC has four. Reminds me of the many school districts this county has in place - which seems unbreakable.

Correct me if I am wrong...but it looks like the liberal counties have advisory committees up the wazoo...(wonder if they are being PAID) and the conservative counties don't.

I am REALLY leery of having BEV in control of a single commission.
She's got enough in her tentacles.

I would like to knoww how many busineses have gone elseware because of the red tape caused these commissions dragging their knuckles on the ground.

Each commission/advisory committee is a chance for citizens to be involved in their governance. Reducing the number of commissions limits the say of the people and hands power to the few.

I am REALLY leery of having BEV in control of a single thing. Her oversight of the mine in Jamestown was suspicious and unforgivable. I think these people should be elected and not appointed, volunteers or not. A lie detector now and then would be in order too. Just to make sure they are not getting " gifts " from developers.

Citzen commissions are a foundation of this country. There are those who what to put power into ever so smaller groups. Beware.

Personally, I would like to see them all disappear. Their very existence is to tell other people what they can and can't do on their private property. How about they just butt out. How long was Jebs tied up because the siding wasn't approved by the commission? That's reprehensible.

If these unnecessary committees are being paid for by the taxpayers of this county they should be eliminated. There are better uses for these funds.

An easy equation is, if the agency doesn't pay it's own way, get rid of it.

Planning Commissioners are not paid, they are volunteers and are appointed by the Board of Supervisors. And Ms. Shane does not have "control" over the decisions made by any Planning Commissions or the Board of Supervisors.

The Lorax makes an excellent point. These various commissions and advisory committees exist in theory to give the ordinary citizen a voice. Sometimes that happens but in my experience in sitting on many over a couple of decades in Calaveras County, those in charge do what they want to do because it has always been so and are often not open to new ideas. Minutes are not publicly published so many of these committees operate in a vacuum. And those representing the county get paid for attending meetings where the citizen does not. Still, we need to try or we have no voice at all.

Its a mixed bag. Sometimes they are good , sometimes bad. The biggest problem to me seems to be the fact that you have a lot of people sitting on these comittees that really have no idea about what they are doing. If you are going to sit on a commitee you need to educate yourself on whats going on. Most commitee memebrs show up at the meetings unprepared and have to depend on those in the audience to educate them. For others it is a social hour. I do agree that Bev has way too much power the way it is. I believe she does a good job some of the time but she is also "Power Drunk" most of the time. Sorry Bev :-)

WHAT THEY NEED TO PLAN FOR IS WHERES THE WATER GOING TO COME FROM? WE ARE MAXED OUT NOW.