tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post1818835070751876051..comments2024-03-28T16:54:44.319-07:00Comments on The Emeryville Tattler: School Board Rams Through Approval of Environmental ReportUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post-30787358727158584772013-07-16T09:21:40.447-07:002013-07-16T09:21:40.447-07:00I believe that the Board was in a tough spot here,...I believe that the Board was in a tough spot here, given the time and resources it had devoted to its consultants on this report; a group of non-experts, the Board relied upon the assuaging responses of the hired consultants to bless this project. <br /><br />I strongly urge the Board in future proceedings to consider a better process for representative community engagement. The Board's consultants spent months compiling data and interviews and then merging those into a substantial report released last month. The Board, individually through each member's own analytical reasoning, and corporately through consultant discussions and legal consultations, was able to dig into the mitigated negative report according to its job duties. Public stakeholders, with the real stakeholders being busy parents with family responsibilities and jobs, had 30 days to review the report and provide written responses. The Board then spent a long weekend with public comments AND consultant responses to community responses before last night's meeting. In addition to the consultants' initial report and responses (which as Brian pointed out were not adequately made available to the public before the meeting), the consultants were allotted 20 minutes of presentation time to kick off the meeting. By contrast, public comments were limited to 3 minutes.<br /><br />This kind of A-B-A posturing works well for plaintiffs, movants, and appellants in litigation, but this is not litigation. Josh Simon said last night that he appreciated public engagement. I found his demeanor sincere, but I hope that upon reflection he will recognize that the process undertaken in vetting this report substantially deferred to the contracted consultants in negative mitigation against public input.kevin christophernoreply@blogger.com