Building Moratorium in Sequim!! Nevermind, False Alarm
The local builders/real estate lobby sure does move quickly. No wonder they had such an easy time trouncing that initiative for saving farmland several years ago.
A rumor went out that the Sequim City Council was going to establish a building moratorium. The e-mails went flying. General Quarters! Man your battle stations! Every contractor and real estate agent in a ten-mile radius answered the call and appeared at the next City Council meeting.
Gotta admire that kind of mass communication and coordination. Environmentalists and slow-growthers could use a little bit of it.
Everyone sat there for two hours while the city council plodded through their agenda. Then Louie Torres, development consultant for Wayne Enterprises, stepped forward and told them to cut to the chase about a moratorium: “Everyone's been very polite” while waiting for the council to address the m-word. “But I don't have that kind of time.”
After a few minutes, Torres again told the council that he’d appreciate “a straight answer” about whether a building moratorium was being planned. He was followed by former councilman Don Hall, who said “These people are waiting for an answer.”
It turned out there isn’t a building moratorium being planned.
But this city council meeting certainly provided some useful information. I had no idea that when you go to a city council meeting and the council members are tending to an agenda that you aren’t interested in — all you have to do is stand up and tell them that you want “a straight answer” NOW. Remind them that you “don’t have this kind of time.”
Here I was thinking that when you attend a meeting of the city council or planning commission — or any other local government agency — you have to just sit there and wait for them to plod through their agenda.
Can everybody go to a city council meeting and just tell them to cut to the chase, “answer my question NOW”? Or does the building/real estate lobby get special treatment?
A rumor went out that the Sequim City Council was going to establish a building moratorium. The e-mails went flying. General Quarters! Man your battle stations! Every contractor and real estate agent in a ten-mile radius answered the call and appeared at the next City Council meeting.
Gotta admire that kind of mass communication and coordination. Environmentalists and slow-growthers could use a little bit of it.
Everyone sat there for two hours while the city council plodded through their agenda. Then Louie Torres, development consultant for Wayne Enterprises, stepped forward and told them to cut to the chase about a moratorium: “Everyone's been very polite” while waiting for the council to address the m-word. “But I don't have that kind of time.”
After a few minutes, Torres again told the council that he’d appreciate “a straight answer” about whether a building moratorium was being planned. He was followed by former councilman Don Hall, who said “These people are waiting for an answer.”
It turned out there isn’t a building moratorium being planned.
But this city council meeting certainly provided some useful information. I had no idea that when you go to a city council meeting and the council members are tending to an agenda that you aren’t interested in — all you have to do is stand up and tell them that you want “a straight answer” NOW. Remind them that you “don’t have this kind of time.”
Here I was thinking that when you attend a meeting of the city council or planning commission — or any other local government agency — you have to just sit there and wait for them to plod through their agenda.
Can everybody go to a city council meeting and just tell them to cut to the chase, “answer my question NOW”? Or does the building/real estate lobby get special treatment?
Labels: former councilman Don Hall Sequim, Louie Torres Wayne Enterprises, Sequim building lobby, Sequim building moratorium, Sequim city council, Sequim farmland initiative, Sequim real estate lobby
posted by Tom Harper at 8:06 PM
7 Comments:
That tactic would never work with the P.A. city council. They'd have you slapped down and dragged out of the chambers by police.
The Sequim City Coucnil now knows who's the real boss and who's the straw boss!
Wow, you can make demands on your government for answers? And it works? Who'd have thought that?
Better stop that quick before some precedent gets set and everyone starts asking questions.
The new council in Sequim are environazis. Next they will be taking private property via "eminent domain."
hey, if the "farmers" aren't doing anything with that land it should be turned into condos, shopping malls, used car lots or whatever.
Maybe those "environazis" can help prevent Sequim from turning into Renton or Silverdale.
Someone ought to send those people a fake "emergency" e-mail right before every meeting of the planning commission, city council and every other agency. Every meeting packed with wall to wall contractors and realtors, all for nothing. LOL
council members are spinless wimps....
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