5.1. - 5.3. SR 03-29-1999 - Laserfiche WebLink

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In addition to these functions, a good planning commission has many other functions that justify its existence. A few of the most important are: a. A planning commission is a splendid training ground for future officeholders. The one in my town has graduated knowledgeable people familiar with the major problems of government into council seats for years, and it continues to do so. Experienced commissioners also make fine civic leaders, because they've taken the heat on major public issues. They've not only made tough decisions; if they've done their job properly, they've established clear grounds for those decisions. b. A planning commission that is doing its job is looking into the "futurity" (defined by Peter Drucker as the impact that actions taken now will have on the future) of the actions that may be taken in contrast to most elected officials, whose long-range concerns may not extend beyond the next election. A corollary to this concern for the future that marks the good commission is respect and awareness for the traditions and heritage of the past. In many communities the image of the place is projected by the irreplaceable structures and spaces of earlier times. A good commission should be and has been the community's first line of defense against mindless visual pollution and destruction of the values of the past. c. The good commission, having no political axes to grind, can work toward consensus solutions for problems requiring a lot of technical study, and can send up an objective course of action that the more politicized elected officials might never evolve. d. When politically "hot" issues arise, the commission can and should act as a lightning rod to draw out and clarify the positions of people on all sides of a question. Once this is done, the politicians upstairs can more safely and rationally make "statesmanlike" decisions. e. It has been widely held that the commissioners, rather than the council members or supervisors, are a better group for achieving intergovernmental cooperation, such as joint planning with school districts. utilities, and neighboring jurisdictions. This is because commissioners are not authorized to (and should not) fly the flag of local sovereignty or elected authority or carryon the manipulative pushing and pulling that characterize "playing politics." ~":~---~.,.."!:-~ .~ '. ',.' -'. ..... .,.. -,.. '- . . 7 .