Time for Supervisors to fix their broken Midcoast Council
HMB Review Editorial by Clay Lambert
Published Wednesday, Jul 30, 200
The Midcoast Community Council is simply not working.
Two of the seven seats are vacant again. The chairman is quoted in a story on Page 1 of this newspaper as saying he isn’t interested in the views of one of his newly elected peers. And that man, Neil Merrilees, says he’s so embarrassed by the tenor of debate at the meetings that he won’t invite speakers any longer.
None of which can be called “news” exactly. The council, which is supposed to advise the county’s Board of Supervisors on matters of importance to local residents far removed from machinations in Redwood City, has been like this for years.
It used to be frustrating. Now it simply isn’t right.
As a result of a completely ineffectual advisory board, voters in unincorporated areas between Half Moon Bay and Pacifica are woefully underrepresented in county government.
A year ago, county Supervisor Rich Gordon declined to approve a pair of nominees to fill vacant seats. He said he wanted to see how November’s election played out before tipping the balance of power toward existing council members. And that made a lot of sense at the time. Merrilees and Deborah Lardie were subsequently duly elected and, for a time, it appeared the council would benefit from new blood.
This time Gordon should try another tack.
This time, Gordon should appoint two candidates of his own. Forget waiting for the ideologues on the council to put forth their candidates for rubber-stamping. You would have to wonder about anyone who would even want such an appointment to such an ineffectual board.
Instead, Gordon should seek out a couple fair-hearted, civic-minded Coastsiders who want to improve the lot of their neighbors. The Midcoast is blessed with many thoughtful professionals who would step forward if they didn’t think they were subjecting themselves to endless nights of purgatory.
Gordon should appoint them chair and vice-chair and tell them that they report to the Board of Supervisors, not to any existing council clique. Tell them to run efficient meetings that begin on time. Tell them to treat constituents the way they would want to be treated and not as lesser citizens simply because they don’t know what can’t be done. With any luck, a couple of the current council members would be so taken aback by their own loss of perceived power that they would quit. Then Gordon could appoint a couple more solid citizens. Pretty soon, the Supervisors would have a council we could all count on.
It’s too easy to ridicule the Midcoast Community Council. This time, let’s fix it.
— Clay Lambert
