| Mr. Gaber indicated that the process in place at the City of Rochester Hills takes a lot |
|
| longer with one of the main reasons being the delay in the approval of minutes. It is |
|
| Mr. Gaber’s understanding that if the city was trying to improve customer service, one |
|
| of they ways to do this would be to bring items in front of the City Council before the |
|
| Planning Commission minutes are approved. The City Council would then rely on |
|
| draft minutes for the approval of a project which could reduce the approval process |
|
| by approximately four weeks. |
|
| Mrs. Goodwin pointed out that it would not necessarily save that much time. When |
|
| an item has appeared in front of the Planning Commission, it then has to go on to the |
|
| City Council (i.e., plat, special land use, rezoning). Once the Planning Commission |
|
| has reacted, the minutes are then prepared and all other accompanying documents are |
|
| assembled and the resolutions are prepared for City Council. The package then |
|
| moves forward along with the approved minutes to Mayor Snell for review then it |
|
| goes to the City Council President and staff for scheduling. |
|
| Mrs. Goodwin said that in many cases the minutes are actually approved by the |
|
| Planning Commission before the item actually reaches the City Council table. What |
|
| needs to happen is that the entire package needs to be moved forward with draft |
|
| minutes to get it into the que so that it is going through the scheduling process. By the |
|
| time it actually hits the table there would be the potential for the minutes to have been |
|
| before Planning Commission and any corrections made could then be placed before |
|
| the City Council at the same time the package is being reviewed. Updates could be |
|
| provided when the project is being reviewed. The streamlining in the process could |
|
| take place where City Council would be acting on something without any additional |
|
| review by the Planning Commission this might be somewhat remote, however, in the |
|
| past, there have not been any substantive changes between what would be sent |
|
| forward in draft form and what would be considered a final approved set of minutes. |
|
| Mr. Nowicki commented that in the 25 years that he has been on the Planning |
|
| Commission, he doesn’t recall any particular copies of minutes that were changed so |
|
| much that they would affect what the City Council would be acting on. Based on |
|
| Mrs. Goodwin’s comments, it is a matter of timing and there is a possibility that it |
|
| could be noted from the Planning Department that no minutes have been approved |
|
| with no changes or with minor changes without providing a reedited copy of the |
|
| minutes to the City Council. Mr. Nowicki has always felt comfortable with this |
|
| process. This allows the secretaries in the Planning Department to have two checks |
|
| against themselves; that being the tape and the notes that are being taken. Mr. |
|
