Planning Commission looks to streamline

The Planning Commission has been looking at ways to improve its meetings and keep the caseload at a reasonable amount. To that end, Commission Chair James Shieh has been working with city staff liaison Andrew Rivera to plan ahead and make adjustments the Thursday before meetings, and consider postponements. The commissioners have also been working to ask staff questions they have regarding cases prior to meetings in order to save time on the dais. At the Oct. 23 meeting, Commissioner Conor Kenny expressed his deep concern with the functional structure of the commission and joint subcommittees’ ability to send recommendations directly to Council, and Commissioner Patricia Seeger agreed, but noted that the purpose of their recent work was to revise the way they conduct meetings and not to make fundamental changes to the system. Rivera commented that bodies created by City Council could only be changed by Council.