Comment: MCC member looking for insights and suggestions

(I'm not sure which thread to include my comment on - I hope this will be relocated as needed).

I have lived on the coastside 9 years, so consider myself a "medium-timer". During that time I needed a few permits (requiring MCC meeting attendance, many visits to Redwood City) and I've also attended some Planning and Supervisor meetings to give feedback on proposed actions.

Since I work in SF, visits to Redwood City (particularly during the day) and even MCC meetings in the evening are hard to accommodate. That doesn't mean I don't care, just that I can't participate that way. The web has provided a fabulous resource for connecting communities and providing feedback without traveling to a county seat about as far across the county as we can get.

I support the MCC in concept absolutely. I am blissfully ignorant and eternally optimistic about the MCC in reality.

I hope that Deborah isn't discouraged too quickly, since it sounds like beginnings of a great plan to reinvigorate the MCC. This particular website might not be the best place for a formal MCC forum, but the software is readily available and it would be great to have agendas, issues and discussions online so that our decentralized community can provide the feedback and input the MCC needs to function.

Since I became webmaster for the MCC website around a year ago I think I've been pretty good about getting the agendas online. http://mcc.sanmateo.org

While it has been suggested that we host forums there, there are technical and logistical reasons why that's probably not going to happen. I think it's perfectly reasonable to use Town Hall on Coastsider for any such discussions.

For those (like me) who don't want to have to remember to go check the web site periodically for agendas , I have set up a Google group called MCC-Agendas for distribution of the agendas. I had to work out a problem with it, but I think it may be ready to use. You can subscribe to it here: http://groups.google.com/group/mcc-agendas?hl=en It's announcement only -- posting is restricted to MCC members posting MCC agendas (and possibly other MCC-related announcements.)

There are additions planned to the MCC web site which should improve visibility and public participation. Stay tuned.

Having the agendas posted is great and the Google group for notifications is even better.

The Planning & Zoning agendas used to be posted in the post office, but I rarely see them and didn't notice anything online - have these reviews been discontinued? It's often the only way to find out what is happening when the property isn't immediately adjacent.

Also, are any minutes available for the meetings? It's great to have agendas to show what is planned, but I'm not sure how to find out what actually happened at the meetings.

The MCC Planning and Zoning Committee hasn't met in quite some time. The Council has discussed committees, but no firm decisions have been made yet. Stay tuned and/or express your opinion to the Council. Councilmember contact information is on a page at http://mcc.sanmateo.org , or you can come to a Council meeting and speak to the Council.

We're still getting up to speed on the minutes. Minutes from this year are pending approval. I am planning on putting approved minutes up on the MCC web site. Potentially they could also be emailed out via the Google Groups list for MCC-Agendas. Since posting to that list is restricted to the MCC chair and vice-chair, opinions can be posted here as to whether that list should also be used for distribution of approved minutes.