Guest Commentary
Note: Plaintalker is deviating from its rules to publish this commentary because the writer, Donna Vose, has a unique perspective as both a current Planning Board member and a former City Council member.
He who writes the first draft controls the agenda. That political truism is an important, though rarely discussed, aspect of outsourcing the functions of local government. In New Jersey we tend to talk about the outsourcing of municipal work in terms of political corruption, bossism, cronyism, payback, kickback, and other assorted malfeasances. However demoralizing these problems might be, there is another less obvious effect: Loss of local control over the quality of life in the community.
There is currently a proposal in Plainfield to outsource the work of the Planning Division to an engineering firm in Haddonfield. The local planning department is the professional staff charged with developing land use policy to be approved by the Planning Board and subsequently the City Council. In effect, the local staff write the first draft.
The first draft matters. Local staff know the community, both its people and its land. They know the history, culture, and especially its urban legends. They are likely to develop land use plans which are consistent and compatible with those values. When the plans then go to the decision-makers for amendments, deletions, and general tweaking, all the players are likely to be in the same book, if not on the same page.
Contrast the local staff to the outside engineering firm. The latter has no idea how we got to where we are today, where the skeletons are buried, where the sacred cows graze. The plans they draw are drawn in a vacuum, pure, pristine, uncluttered by a sense of community. When their first draft goes to the decision-makers, the local folk can amend the document, but will be unable to make it their own because the basic premises are foreign, devoid of local context. No matter what amendments they make, they are reacting to a first draft that was not a reflection of the culture of the community.
Having said that, when redevelopment is on the agenda there will be winners and losers. The community is the presumptive winner of course, but the economic and emotional pain felt by those displaced in the project can create rents in the social fabric of the community. Consider the example of the East 3rd Street and Richmond Street Redevelopment Plan. The proposed plan envisioned elimination of both a successful old Plainfield family business, Thul’s Machine Works, and the carefully planned building project of a public agency, Plainfield Municipal Utility Authority (PMUA). Those parties should have been part of the planning process, but were not. It is not sufficient to simply send them the required legal notice. They are our community. The Planning Board was dismayed to hear for the first time at an angry public hearing that those most affected by the project had not been involved in discussions with the planners. The first draft was drafted without local input.
Another small, but significant, example of why local planners are important for writing any draft on which a government body will make a decision: The Planning Board discussed the need to have environmental building standards made a part of redevelopment contracts. These “green” standards, codified in development terms as LEED standards, are commonplace. Other New Jersey towns, such as Cranford, require them, as do cities such as Boston. When the draft of a redevelopment plan was presented to the Planning Board, there was no reference to LEED. The outside planner was asked to advise the City Council that the Board recommended LEED be incorporated in the redevelopment contract. Of course the developer preferred cheaper construction, so the language the Council received and voted on was language that made LEED desirable, but not mandatory.
So who are the winners here?
He who writes the first draft truly does control the agenda.
--Donna Vose
He who writes the first draft controls the agenda. That political truism is an important, though rarely discussed, aspect of outsourcing the functions of local government. In New Jersey we tend to talk about the outsourcing of municipal work in terms of political corruption, bossism, cronyism, payback, kickback, and other assorted malfeasances. However demoralizing these problems might be, there is another less obvious effect: Loss of local control over the quality of life in the community.
There is currently a proposal in Plainfield to outsource the work of the Planning Division to an engineering firm in Haddonfield. The local planning department is the professional staff charged with developing land use policy to be approved by the Planning Board and subsequently the City Council. In effect, the local staff write the first draft.
The first draft matters. Local staff know the community, both its people and its land. They know the history, culture, and especially its urban legends. They are likely to develop land use plans which are consistent and compatible with those values. When the plans then go to the decision-makers for amendments, deletions, and general tweaking, all the players are likely to be in the same book, if not on the same page.
Contrast the local staff to the outside engineering firm. The latter has no idea how we got to where we are today, where the skeletons are buried, where the sacred cows graze. The plans they draw are drawn in a vacuum, pure, pristine, uncluttered by a sense of community. When their first draft goes to the decision-makers, the local folk can amend the document, but will be unable to make it their own because the basic premises are foreign, devoid of local context. No matter what amendments they make, they are reacting to a first draft that was not a reflection of the culture of the community.
Having said that, when redevelopment is on the agenda there will be winners and losers. The community is the presumptive winner of course, but the economic and emotional pain felt by those displaced in the project can create rents in the social fabric of the community. Consider the example of the East 3rd Street and Richmond Street Redevelopment Plan. The proposed plan envisioned elimination of both a successful old Plainfield family business, Thul’s Machine Works, and the carefully planned building project of a public agency, Plainfield Municipal Utility Authority (PMUA). Those parties should have been part of the planning process, but were not. It is not sufficient to simply send them the required legal notice. They are our community. The Planning Board was dismayed to hear for the first time at an angry public hearing that those most affected by the project had not been involved in discussions with the planners. The first draft was drafted without local input.
Another small, but significant, example of why local planners are important for writing any draft on which a government body will make a decision: The Planning Board discussed the need to have environmental building standards made a part of redevelopment contracts. These “green” standards, codified in development terms as LEED standards, are commonplace. Other New Jersey towns, such as Cranford, require them, as do cities such as Boston. When the draft of a redevelopment plan was presented to the Planning Board, there was no reference to LEED. The outside planner was asked to advise the City Council that the Board recommended LEED be incorporated in the redevelopment contract. Of course the developer preferred cheaper construction, so the language the Council received and voted on was language that made LEED desirable, but not mandatory.
So who are the winners here?
He who writes the first draft truly does control the agenda.
--Donna Vose
posted by Bernice at 6:15 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home