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