The resignation of Don Turner III from the borough planning commission is unfortunate but not surprising. Turner joins the ranks of a dozen or more members who’ve quit the planning commission in the past 30 years after sensing that elected leaders either didn’t appreciate or didn’t embrace their work. Turner quit apparently from frustration of working more than a year on a resource extraction ordinance that ultimately found little assembly support.
The causes of Turner’s frustration can and should be remedied by changes in policy and law. In policy, major work by borough commissions and committees needs to come to the assembly early in the process to ensure that our leaders support what their advisors are putting together. (An earlier review of projects by elected leaders would help avoid debacles like the boat harbor expansion design project, in which the ports and harbors advisory committee produced – after several years’ work – a design opposed by many residents.) Another needed reform is changing code so the borough’s most powerful committees and commissions are elected, not appointed by the Mayor, as is done now. The assembly and the planning commission currently serve different masters. As long as that’s the case, their views will often differ. Commissioners and committee members elected by citizens are more likely to reflect the citizenry at large, not their own interests or the interests of the Mayor.
That kind of synchronicity would tend to build agreement right out of the chute.
Tom Morphet