Should Have Been 'Regulate and Mediate'

Dear Editor,
    Louis Black’s response to Dave Shapiro’s letter to the editor, Dec. 7 [“Postmarks”], is backward when he wrote “one of the primary jobs of government is to mediate and regulate that conflict.” Actually, “regulation” must come first and then “mediation” can follow. The first and most important job of government is to enforce the ordinances and codes, which are the laws of the land. How can public interest sit at the same mediation table with special interests when not on equal footing?
    First, there is need for regulation. An example is City Ordinance No. 030320-23, in part three of the Neighborhood Plan Amendment Process, which is the city’s conflict of interest law. It states, “If a member of a neighborhood planning team has a [financial] interest in a development that requires a plan amendment, the member … cannot participate in any decision concerning the project, including the decision of the planning team to submit an application for a plan amendment, nor the decision to support or not support the project.”
    In the past, planning team members with a financial conflict of interest have led the discussions concerning the plan amendment at neighborhood meetings and have been the only speakers for the plan amendment at Planning Commission meetings. They have participated in discussions to submit an application for a plan amendment and then submitted the application for the plan amendment to the city.
    Aren’t those violations of the ordinance and show a need for regulation, first?
    This ordinance puts the onus on the people who have financial gain in a proposed neighborhood plan amendment. Everyone must come to the mediation table equally. Those with a financial conflict of interest can neither instigate nor participate in any discussion to persuade the city to give them a golden egg.