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23� COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM Community Planning (continued) CHANGE OF MOTION Councilman Norris moved, seconded by Councilman Biagi, to table the motion to eliminate certain ob�ectives from the Community Planning Ob�ectives and one , Planner position. It was pointed out that the motion can be lifted from the table at the May 14, 1977 Budget Study Session at which time the Manager's report on the impact of elimination of a planner position will be available The motion to table carried unanimously by voice vote Bruce Albin, 569 Compass Circle, referred to a review of the Planning Department by an outside agency which allegedly gave the department a low productivity rating. Mr. Albin complained of the Department's expenditure for postage to mail him the General Plan when he claimed he would have been satisfied to have received a postcard advising it was available He sug- gested the Department be scrutinized to determine productivity In response to questions, Mr Albin acknowledged that the re- port to which he referred has not been published, is not avail- able to the public and has not been reviewed by Council or staff It was pointed out that remarks regarding the Planning Department may have been taken out of context, and the report data may or may not support the conclusion drawn by Mr Albin It was suggested that it ts not appropriate to make reference to a report which has not been published and made available for ' review Should the material be published and details made a- vailable, the staff and Council would like to review it Lou Byrne (see above) advised he has considerable experience tn planning and suggested that an arbitrary reduction of planning effort may be counterproductive He noted that much planning workis not obvious and that citizen committees and others may not realize their impact on the workload of the Planning Depart- ment He said that a planner puts together information regarding advantages, disadvantages and costs in an orderly manner, and that a study of the Planning staff may reveal that an increase in planning personnel could reduce overall costs Mr Fales advised that it is his intention to return to Council with a report listing planning services and programs which would be reduced or eliminated, if a planner position is eliminated (The Council recessed for lunch from 11 55 to 1 35 p m) Attention was called to the desire of Council to have wide citizen participation in planning decisions in attempting to bring government closer to the citizens and the need to recognize that such efforts cost money by increasing Planning and other depart- ment workloads. ' Ad�.Mtg. -5- 5/7/77 Budget