Letter From
Alderman Moore
From : AldMoore@aol.com>
Sent : Saturday, February 25, 2006 7:36 AM
To : rogersparkreview@hotmail.com
Subject : Re: Zoning and Land Use Advisory Council Meeting
Dear Rebecca,
Thank you for your e-mail regarding the 49th Ward Zoning and Land Use Advisory Committee. I'm glad you and Gary were able to attend the meeting, and I encourage you to attend future meetings. I think you will find the members of the Committee to be thoughtful and engaging members of the community whose primary goal is the betterment of the 49th Ward community.
I will forward your suggestions about the meeting format to the Committee. While I appoint the Committee members (with the exception of the Rogers Park Community Council, the Howard Area Community Center and DevCorp North who appoint their own representatives), I do not tell them how to run their meetings. However, the Committee generally follows your suggested format--considering all new business before going into executive session. I'm not sure why they departed from that format last Tuesday. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the Committee's chairman, Kevin O'Neil, was unable to attend the meeting and the Committee was chaired by a substitute.
The Committee also generally considers "old business" at the end of the meeting rather than the beginning. I know they departed from that practice as well, owing to the fact that one of the Committee members, Jay Johnson, had a proposal before the Committee and had to recuse himself from consideration of that proposal for obvious reasons.
With respect to your Open Meetings Act suggestion, I know you are aware that the Act does not apply to the Committee. The Committee is not an official governmental agency or committee, but is merely an advisory body for the Alderman. I view the committee as akin to my cabinet. The President, the Governor and the Mayor have cabinet officials who advise them on important matters of policy. Their cabinet meetings are not open to the public because those executive officials want and need candid and free flowing advice and discussion from their close advisors.
Similarly, the 49th Ward Zoning Committee acts as my cabinet, at least with respect to zoning and land use issues. I want and need their candid and unvarnished advice to help guide me in making decisions on some often difficult and contentious neighborhood issues. I will receive the best advice if committee members can discuss these issues in an atmosphere where they are free to be candid without fear their words may appear on some blog somewhere. That is why Committee deliberations are held in executive session.
Nevertheless, I want to balance my need for good and candid advice with my desire for transparency, which is why presentations of new zoning proposal to the Committee are open to the public. During the New Business portion of the Committee meeting, you and any other members of the public are free to observe the presentations and the questions asked of the presenters by the Committee members. It is also why I hold community meetings on every significant zoning proposal brought before me. The community meetings provide members of the general public the opportunity to ask probing questions and make comments on zoning proposals.
In the spirit of transparency, I will also post on my website, www.ward49.com, the agendas of all future 49th Ward Zoning and Land Use Advisory Committee meetings and the results of those meetings. I will also continue my practice of posting notices of community meetings on major zoning issues.
I hope you find this e-mail responsive to your concerns. You may post this response on yours or any other web site or community blog.
Alderman Joe Moore
Alderman Moore
From : AldMoore@aol.com>
Sent : Saturday, February 25, 2006 7:36 AM
To : rogersparkreview@hotmail.com
Subject : Re: Zoning and Land Use Advisory Council Meeting
Dear Rebecca,
Thank you for your e-mail regarding the 49th Ward Zoning and Land Use Advisory Committee. I'm glad you and Gary were able to attend the meeting, and I encourage you to attend future meetings. I think you will find the members of the Committee to be thoughtful and engaging members of the community whose primary goal is the betterment of the 49th Ward community.
I will forward your suggestions about the meeting format to the Committee. While I appoint the Committee members (with the exception of the Rogers Park Community Council, the Howard Area Community Center and DevCorp North who appoint their own representatives), I do not tell them how to run their meetings. However, the Committee generally follows your suggested format--considering all new business before going into executive session. I'm not sure why they departed from that format last Tuesday. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the Committee's chairman, Kevin O'Neil, was unable to attend the meeting and the Committee was chaired by a substitute.
The Committee also generally considers "old business" at the end of the meeting rather than the beginning. I know they departed from that practice as well, owing to the fact that one of the Committee members, Jay Johnson, had a proposal before the Committee and had to recuse himself from consideration of that proposal for obvious reasons.
With respect to your Open Meetings Act suggestion, I know you are aware that the Act does not apply to the Committee. The Committee is not an official governmental agency or committee, but is merely an advisory body for the Alderman. I view the committee as akin to my cabinet. The President, the Governor and the Mayor have cabinet officials who advise them on important matters of policy. Their cabinet meetings are not open to the public because those executive officials want and need candid and free flowing advice and discussion from their close advisors.
Similarly, the 49th Ward Zoning Committee acts as my cabinet, at least with respect to zoning and land use issues. I want and need their candid and unvarnished advice to help guide me in making decisions on some often difficult and contentious neighborhood issues. I will receive the best advice if committee members can discuss these issues in an atmosphere where they are free to be candid without fear their words may appear on some blog somewhere. That is why Committee deliberations are held in executive session.
Nevertheless, I want to balance my need for good and candid advice with my desire for transparency, which is why presentations of new zoning proposal to the Committee are open to the public. During the New Business portion of the Committee meeting, you and any other members of the public are free to observe the presentations and the questions asked of the presenters by the Committee members. It is also why I hold community meetings on every significant zoning proposal brought before me. The community meetings provide members of the general public the opportunity to ask probing questions and make comments on zoning proposals.
In the spirit of transparency, I will also post on my website, www.ward49.com, the agendas of all future 49th Ward Zoning and Land Use Advisory Committee meetings and the results of those meetings. I will also continue my practice of posting notices of community meetings on major zoning issues.
I hope you find this e-mail responsive to your concerns. You may post this response on yours or any other web site or community blog.
Alderman Joe Moore
12 Comments:
> I view the committee as akin to my cabinet. The President, the Governor and the Mayor have cabinet officials ...
WOW
Has this guy got a head on his shoulders or what?
Moore and President, Governor, Mayor in the same sentence. That's scary.
What does he think this is? This neighborhood is our home, not a nation-state.
> I will receive the best advice if committee members can discuss these issues in an atmosphere where they are free to be candid without fear their words may appear on some blog somewhere.
Wow, this could be Dick Cheney talking.
Moore's "community" zoning committee is institutionalized back-room, smoke-filled room decision making.
This is pure smoke. I don't follow this reasoning. Is this Moore speaking, or the committee speaking? Who is it that insists on the "executive session" Moore or the committee members who he claims represent US? What might they say that they would "fear their words may appear on some blog somewhere?" The committee members represent us but they are not accountable to us?
Fear of blogs is the reason the meetings are closed? Moore's "extensive community review process" was closed long before the first blog.
> The President, the Governor and the Mayor have cabinet officials who advise them on important matters of policy. Their cabinet meetings are not open to the public because those executive officials want and need candid and free flowing advice and discussion from their close advisors.
THANKS for the civics lesson, Joe!
Now, here's one for you: Presidents, Governors, and Mayors are EXECUTIVE offices, and you are supposed to be a LEGISLATOR. That is, if you were doing your job you would be. I've got some bad news for you: you are not the Chief Executive Officer of the 49th Ward, you are supposed to be a representative of the people. Sorry to disappoint
Legislators don't have "executive privilege." While there might be some justification for an executive to hold private conferences, under certain limited circumstances, it is difficult if not impossible to understand the need you insist on for secretive processes. You were elected as representative of ALL of your constituents, not just a select, hand-picked inner circle.
neighbors-
what i object to is the guise of an open process in that we were told to sit SILENTLY as the presentations were given. then the community meetings are held after the closed door executive session.
there is no available avenue for us to express our concerns or even our enthusiasm during the public portion of the presentation.
by the time the public meetings take place, the decision has, in most cases, been already decided.
all of us present at the public portion of the presentation did what we were told and acted in a responsible manner at all times. we played by the rules we were given. this should be instructive to leadership that this is a possibility going forward.
leadership should not fear our input.leadership should welcome our responsible concerns. leadership should embrace our engaged involvement in our own neighborhood. after all, whose neighborhood is it?
Rogers park Review Mission Statement: "As moderators, Rebecca and Gary will not ask questions or make comments to the candidates or participants."
What's it going to be, are you guys going to respond to every posters comments?
This isn't the first time you violated your own policy of not making comments.
Don Gordon said about the RPR blog..."Thanks for your efforts in creating this blog and maintaining such professionalism."
I'm starting to believe the e-mails I'm getting telling me this blog might just be a pro-other guy blog, shining light in his favor for the u-pcoming elction one year away.
craig-
49th Ward Alderman Candidate Forum Invitation
gary or rebbecca will not ask questions or make comments to the candidates or participants.
this sentence is written in the "Forum Invitation" post.
the "Forum Invitation" is not our mission statement.
the alderman and the one known candidate have accepted our invitation to participate via simultaneous email that contained the same message. they will both receive a follow up phone call on the same day to discuss possible questions.
the alderman and don gordon, the one known candidate to date, have been treated equally in every step of this candidate forum process.
I think Gary has clarified Craig's concern adequately. I will just add the following:
We will not ask questions during the "live" portion of the forums and we will not make "editorial" comments either - any comments we make will be strictly as moderators, and will conform with the "rules of engagement" we plan to post along with the announcement of dates. We will organize the questions for the forums - that organization will be based on the prevalence of the questions from commenters in posts leading up to the forums e.g. questions about crime, questions about development policy...whatever people ask most. And, of course, questions we solicit for the forums that appear in the comments will be part of the public archive of the blog. Just to clarify further, we would not include our own questions here!
We realize that this forum idea is somewhat experimental. We will be in touch with all candidates who accept our invitation to ensure a fair process. And, of course, any candidate has the right to withdraw at any time...there are no contracts here folks...
Naturally, these rules do not apply to everyday posts (i.e. posts that are not the forums). We have no policy of not making comments to everyday posts, and we never have had. We will continue to comment in these posts as we see fit - this is consistant with our mission statement. I really don't see that there is any ambiguity here, Craig....
> I will receive the best advice if committee members can discuss these issues in an atmosphere where they are free to be candid without fear their words may appear on some blog somewhere.
> I hold community meetings on every significant zoning proposal brought before me. The community meetings provide members of the general public the opportunity to ask probing questions and make comments on zoning proposals.
Joe, are the comments from the general public at community meetings less than best because they are NOT secret?
Wouldn't we all be better off if we banned community meetings? So many people listening in... It would be a shame if you made a decision based on less-than-best advice. The effect of the crowd might be such that, for example, you could spend 2 or 3 hours in a room full of constituents, expressing themselves, and you could inadvertently come away with the impression that your constituents are divided on an issue, when in fact they are not! That would not be good.
Speaking for myself, I know that there have been many times in a public forum where there were things I wanted to say to you that I could not because I felt stifled by the crowd. That's not good.
As a suggestion, it might be best if you asked your constituents to first translate their comments into Navaho, write them in mirror writing, and seal them a mayonnaise jar, before delivering them to you, to ensure their confidentiality. That would be best, wouldn't you agree?
Hi, Joe. Your old pal Hugh here again.
Middle age is hell, isn't it? Who of our age is not struggling with the distance between where we thought we would be and where we find ourselves at this point in our lives? Looking out the same office window as 15 years ago, same job, same title, same headcount, same responsibilities.
Like you, I'm sorry you are not a high-powered executive somewhere, with a massive staff, including a cabinet of loyal advisors. But you're NOT. You are an Alderman. You are a legislative representative. Deal with it. Stop playing make believe with the office of Alderman.
and Your old pal Hugh here again and again and again.........
thank you, mr. devlin.
Joe wrote...
> ... one of the Committee members, Jay Johnson, had a proposal before
> the Committee and had to recuse himself from consideration of that
> proposal for obvious reasons.
Say Joe, last fall, when the Adelphi was before the "community" zoning committee, as it was more than once, did "community" zoning committee member David Fagus recuse himself for obvious reasons?
7/12/2005 $1,000.00
Golden Hands Construction, Inc.
Cedomir "Chad" Zuric, Secretary
1741 W. Crystal
Chicago, IL 60622
to
Democratic Party of the 49th Ward
David Fagus, Chairman
Source: Illinois State Board of Elections
> I view the committee as akin to my cabinet.
> I do not tell them how to run their meetings.
Wouldn't a better analogy be to the Supreme Court, in that you appoint the members, and then they have no accountability whatsoever to the people they are supposed to represent?
Post a Comment
<< Home