2019 August 28 Plan Commission
From Minutes:
Staff recommends approval of the Minutes of the Regular City Council Meeting of October 28, 2019.For Action Draft Minutes of the October 28, 2019 City Council MeetingMEETING MINUTES PLAN COMMISSION Wednesday, August 28, 2019 7:00 P.M.Evanston Civic Center, 2100 Ridge Avenue, James C. Lytle Council ChambersMembers Present: Colby Lewis (Chair), Peter Isaac (Vice-Chair), Terri Dubin, John Hewko, Jane Sloss Members Absent: Jennifer Draper, Carol Goddard, George Halik, Andrew Pigozzi Staff Present: Scott Mangum, Planning and Zoning Manager Meagan Jones, Neighborhood and Land Use Planner Hugh DuBose, Assistant City Attorney Presiding Member: Chairman Lewis1. CALL TO ORDER / DECLARATION OF QUORUM Chair Lewis called the meeting to order at 7:13 P.M.2. APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES: August 7, 2019 Commissioner Dubin then made a motion to approve the minutes, seconded by Commissioner Isaac. The Commission voted, 4-0, with one abstention to approve the minutes of August 7, 2019.3. OLD BUSINESS A. Text Amendment Special Events in the U2 District 19PLND-0032 A Zoning Ordinance Text Amendment pursuant to City Code Title 6, Zoning, to Section 6-15-7-2 of the Zoning Ordinance, to revise permitted uses of the U2 University Athletic Facilities District.
Chair Lewis stated that though there is a quorum for the meeting, there is not a quorum for this agenda item due to a new commissioner not being fully up to date on previous hearing information; therefore no action could be taken and the hearing would need to be continued. Commissioner Isaac made a motion to continue this item to the September 11, 2019 Plan Commission meeting.
Commissioner Dubin seconded the motion. A voice vote was taken and the motion passed, 4-0, with one abstention. Ayes: Dubin, Halik, Isaac, Lewis, Sloss Nays: Abstentions: Hewko
Below see the August 28, 2019, PC Transcript of the YouTube City video 1:10- 7:25 [only re text amendment proposal]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyg0LbmPr5sAugust 28, 2019, PC Transcript
1:10 - 4:03
Chairman Lewis: …tonight on the agenda we have two, two items. One is a continuance of old business, and the other is a new business item. We have run into a little bit of a problem regarding the old business item, which is the text amendment continued from Aug 7th, 2019, regarding special events in the U2 District. Although we have a quorum for the meeting, we do not have a quorum for this item. One of the Plan Commissioners is a new member of the Commission, and has not had an opportunity to fully, fully reviewed the documents regarding the case, so he has not been able to watch the entire video from last, last time. So, therefore we cannot take action on this issue tonight, so I am looking for, I think our alternative is to postpone or continue the meeting until the next, next this, oh I’m sorry, this item not the entire meeting. We will still be able to hear the second item on the agenda, but this item to the next scheduled meeting of the Plan Commission, which is Wednesday September 11. So, I believe we would need a motion to continue -
Isaac: I move that we continue this matter until September 11, at 7pm
Lewis: Commissioner Isaac motion, commissioner Dubin second. So, the voting members can be just the members relevant to this to the four, four members, so what I think you should, yeah why don’t we just call, call the roll for the 4 members that act the action
[Dubin, Isaac, Schloss and Chair Lewis say yes]
Lewis: Alright. So, we have a, we have postponed this meeting, continued this meeting until this, I’m sorry, this item, thank you! until September 11th at 7 o’ clock. I’m sorry everyone, but it’s the procedure, so.
Audience grumbles.
Lewis: I’m sorry. We have business to conduct tonight, so if you can please continue your meetings out in the corridor, so it would be great, but we need to move forward with the meeting, thank you.
4:03-7:25
The video records the residents' reactions, but not their words.
Ken Proskie, Mary Rosinski, and Laurie McFarlane approach Meagan Jones (Neighborhood & Land Use Planner) and Chairman Lewis, in order to have several power points taken off the City server. Minutes before the PC meeting the residents had uploaded them, following M. Jones’s directions to do so, rather than uploading during the meeting just before each speaker would present their power point. The residents made sure to have Jones confirm unequivocally that the uploaded power points would be shown at that August 28th meeting.
It’s hard to believe that Jones had no prior notice from Chairman Lewis about the postponement of the meeting, whcih occured barely fifteen minutes after she had urged the residents to upload the power points. We also believe that the postponement's reason was ambiguous at best, since the new commissioner was hired at least three weeks before the video.
While the three residents are discussing with M. Jones and Chairman Lewis the matter of removing the power points from the City server, the video does register the words of Scott Mangum (Division Manager Planning and Zoning):
Mangum: It’s part of the government record now
and Mr. Mangum refuses to discuss the matter.
Mangum: Not right now, we are going to need to continue the meeting.
7:25
The residents leave and go in the ante-room to wait .
At the end of the Council meeting, the residents approach the Chairman and M. Jones, and again bring up the issue re. power points. The video did not record this discussion.
The residents were worried since they did not want the material to be available to NU , i.e. via FOIA, in the weeks before the September 11 PC meeting.