City of Minneapolis: Committee of the Whole Planning Commission
The City of Minneapolis City Planning Commission’s ‘Committee of the Whole’ is a meeting that occurs at Minneapolis City Hall twice per month. The objective of these meetings is to provide a public forum where City staff and project applicants can discuss proposals in an official forum outside of the public hearing process. My particular meeting occurred at 4:30 PM on September 22nd, 2016. The vice president of the Planning Commission chairs the public meeting and leads the nine other commissioners through the meeting agenda. At my meeting, there were only six commissioners in attendance, including the vice president.
The September 22nd meeting had three discussion items. The …show more content…
Is it right for the concerns of people who feel like they have a stake in the issue to be heard only if they manage to interrupt the meeting? Because many people consider this conduct rude and disruptive, it takes people of uncommon confidence to be able to interrupt the meeting and handout flyers like the residents did. The ability to engage successfully in this kind of conduct in government and business forums is an ability (or privilege?) that all individuals do “not equally” enjoy. For those not invited to the table, the public forum was not …show more content…
Rebecca Abers suggested in her book, Inventing Local Democracy: Grassroots Politics in Brazil, that the belief that governments and administrations wanting to prove their “competence can rarely ‘afford’ to allow important decisions to be made through slow and inefficient participatory forums” is misguided. Abers cited Porto Alegre, Brazil as an example where the government expanded the process and increased “its control over the governing process.” In the Committee of the Whole case, the goal of the meeting, at its core, was to have a conversation about whether or not the projects met certain standards and whether or not they advanced the City’s comprehensive plan. The structure indicates that this is a result driven, methodical
The City of Minneapolis City Planning Commission’s ‘Committee of the Whole’ is a meeting that occurs at Minneapolis City Hall twice per month. The objective of these meetings is to provide a public forum where City staff and project applicants can discuss proposals in an official forum outside of the public hearing process. My particular meeting occurred at 4:30 PM on September 22nd, 2016. The vice president of the Planning Commission chairs the public meeting and leads the nine other commissioners through the meeting agenda. At my meeting, there were only six commissioners in attendance, including the vice president.
The September 22nd meeting had three discussion items. The …show more content…
Is it right for the concerns of people who feel like they have a stake in the issue to be heard only if they manage to interrupt the meeting? Because many people consider this conduct rude and disruptive, it takes people of uncommon confidence to be able to interrupt the meeting and handout flyers like the residents did. The ability to engage successfully in this kind of conduct in government and business forums is an ability (or privilege?) that all individuals do “not equally” enjoy. For those not invited to the table, the public forum was not …show more content…
Rebecca Abers suggested in her book, Inventing Local Democracy: Grassroots Politics in Brazil, that the belief that governments and administrations wanting to prove their “competence can rarely ‘afford’ to allow important decisions to be made through slow and inefficient participatory forums” is misguided. Abers cited Porto Alegre, Brazil as an example where the government expanded the process and increased “its control over the governing process.” In the Committee of the Whole case, the goal of the meeting, at its core, was to have a conversation about whether or not the projects met certain standards and whether or not they advanced the City’s comprehensive plan. The structure indicates that this is a result driven, methodical