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John Mattson
Member
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Posted: Wed Mar 5th, 2008 11:50 am |
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I am all for a competitive selection process for any committee. As far as the Land Use Committee, it was originally suppose to be 11-13 members, then Commissioners Stotler and Swain brought a combined 15 names forward - some of which did not even volunteer and neither Commissioner had talked to them about joining the committee. In addition, Commissioner Stotler nominated himself as the Chair of the Land Committee - in essence chairing a committee that reports back to himself, which is totally wrong.
The Planning Commission needs to do a Complete study on growth, land use, land management, ordinances, zoning and anything related. Once all the data is gathered, it needs to be posted on the governement web site - which is way behind the rest of the country - and it also needs to be printed in multiple copies so that everyone can understand the complete picture. Then a few options need to be determined and then put those options to a vote by the people and let them decide.
I agree with you that we don't want any form of zoning to be a tool similar to what community associations often use - as in your comment about how many doors or windows you can put on your house. Those types of things are ridiculous. We do need rules and if if we do utilize zoning, we still need rules to limit the use of zoning. A good example of what I mean is take a look at the new Land Use Committee - what is their specific purpose/funciton? They don't really have specif direction - other than they are not allowed to look at zoning. Every committee should be required to have a charter that addresses the specific funtion of each.
Trust is hard to come by for any government official or politician - trust must be earned. All I can say about me is that I have nothing to hide, I am pretty straight forward, I don't know everything - but I do know how to utilize my resources to gather the facts, I came from a town smaller than Berkeley Springs and know exactly where people's concerns are coming from and I have only lived here for three years and don't know a whole lot of people - so you could say there are no "lobbyists" in my pockets to support any group/individual's specific cause - other than the people of Morgan County themselves.
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Rusty Shackelford
Member
| Joined: | Mon Mar 3rd, 2008 |
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| Posts: | 7 |
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Offline
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Posted: Wed Mar 5th, 2008 12:53 am |
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| If indeed zoning were put out to a referendum, and succeeded, would you be for or against organizing some sort of election, instead of appointment to the planning board? Not some grand drawn out election with signs and yadda yadda yadda, but just a short concise election. I was very disappointed with the appointments made recently, especially Wayne Omps. He wasn't elected to the commission largely due to his stance on development, but yet he is still an integral part of deciding how our community's land should be governed. Is there a better, fairer, more representative way of putting together a planning commission? What would you do to limit the powers of that commission to stop zoning laws from becoming too strenuous. I don't see the point in determining how many windows or doors my house has to have. Also, recently on my website pfa2190.blogspot.com I took a poll concerning zoning laws and found overwhelmingly (especially among teens and I suspect the greater population) most people don't know much at all about zoning. The number one response to the survery was "What's Zoning." What would you do to inform the people of what they were ultimately voting for? Also, how does one expect the citizens of this community to invest such trust to a obviously broken government as to determine what they can and can't do with their private lands?
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John Mattson
Member
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Posted: Wed Mar 5th, 2008 12:20 am |
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Rusty,
I totally agree and this is the core of my platform. In fact, I am briefing such Propositions to the County Commission on Friday at 3:00 PM and will present to them a list of topics I feel need to be on the May 13th Primary ballot. I agree that in today's computer voting technology, adding Propositions/Referendums to the ballot up to 30-days prior to an election should not be a problem.
I will post my recommendations to the Commission after I brief them. There shouldn't be any issues requiring a Special Election. However, there are enough issues that there should always be Propositions/Referandums on the May Primary and November General elections.
Any funding for large projects should be voted on by the people. When I was 19, in the US Air Force and stationed in Italy, I cast my first absentee ballot ever. One of my local home state Propositions was whether or not to spend several million dollars on a new library. That is the same thing that needs to be done regarding the courthouse. I have debated with myself that maybe a dollar amount should be set - i.e., anything over $1 Million or anything over 1% of the county's budget would be put to a vote by the people.
You are also correct about Zoning, but before we vote for or against Zoning, I think we need to do a Complete planning, land use, and land management study encompassing every possible outcome - than put the entire package to the voters. This way they will have as much information as possible to make an informed and responsible decision.
I hope this answers your questions. If you have any other questions or comments or want more information, don't hesitate to ask.
Thanks,
John
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Rusty Shackelford
Member
| Joined: | Mon Mar 3rd, 2008 |
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| Posts: | 7 |
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Offline
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Posted: Tue Mar 4th, 2008 11:25 pm |
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| It has become painfully obvious that most politicians are either not fit to or do not care to govern by the needs or desires of the people they are to care for. If this is the case shouldn't more direct democracy be employed. This doesn't fit so much on the national level where 300 million votes would have to be counted, but technology allows for instantaneous results in modern day voting. So my question to you is, do you think that major decisions should be put out to a referendum? I don't think that whether or not to spend money on the study of channel bats should be put out to a referendum, but issues like zoning most certainly should be. I think by putting more important issues out to referendum would set a good precedent by taking power away from the county commission and giving it to the people that elect them. This would solve problems like with our current presidential elections where there is indeed no perfect candidate. Would you be willing to remove youself from unlimited power in order to step aside and give more power to the people? Instead of spending money on the study of channel bats through Robert Byrd's new rail trail why shouldn't we spend that money to put zoning out to a referendum? I guess my question to the candidates and the commissioners is, why aren't referendums used more widely in small communities like ours where they are economically sensible? Last edited on Tue Mar 4th, 2008 11:27 pm by Rusty Shackelford
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