Butler: Affordable-housing policies open few doors in Nevada County

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 11:30:00 -0800

Affordable housing is and will continue to be a key issue for this area, but maybe we need to rethink the idea that yet another policy is going to fix it. It seems that these extraordinarily detailed policies drafted in the halls of government are the beginning of the end for the programs they purport to serve.

Steve Enos

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:41:07 -0800

Reading Pat Butler’s editorial in the last issue of the Advocate I wondered what the Advocate… advocates.

In this case it’s not the facts and it’s not the Brown Act, commonly called the open meeting law, which states:

“The Legislature finds and declares that the public commissions, boards and councils and the other public agencies in this State exist to aid in the conduct of the people's business. It is the intent of the law that their actions be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly.”

Grass Valley City Council established their “Affordable Housing Subcommittee” in April 2007. I have claimed and the subsequent District Attorney investigation and determination agreed this Subcommittee is subject to the open meeting laws of the Brown Act, a position sadly denied by the City.

Meetings of this Subcommittee over years have been in direct violation of the Brown Act, not just an “innocuous mistake at one meeting” as Pat claimed. Pat also claimed the “third city councilor at the (January 7th) meeting reported the violation to the Grass Valley city attorney when she learned of it”.

Fact, it wasn’t an “innocuous mistake at one meeting”. Fact, I was the one that notified the City after the Subcommittee meeting where three Council members attended and participated in yet another violation of the Brown Act.

Over years the “invitations” to the Subcommittee meetings have been to a hand selected group of developers, the very same developers of approved projects that now want their affordable housing requirements canceled.

Pat wrote, “the source of the complaint is a longstanding and well-known opponent of growth”. I’m not an "opponent of growth", I’m an anti-sprawl, "smart growth", walkable-sustainable communities, mixed use land use planner.

The only project I have been against in Grass Valley is opening a cyanide leach mine in town. In all other cases I worked for better design that respects our great community.

The Brown Act states:

“The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created”.

Government must be transparent, inclusive and responsive to the public. Trust between our elected representatives and the citizens to conduct the people's business openly, with public notice and not behind closed doors with hand-selected special interests is the foundation of our democratic system of representative government.

This trust is sacred and must be respected and protected with the highest level of consideration. It was very sad to read that Pat Butler and the Advocate don’t support this cause.

Steven B. Enos

Former Grass Valley City Council member, professional land use planner and advocate for sustainable, smart-growth development and the Brown Act. Steve can be reached at senos@localnet.com

Nevada City Advocate - A free news & entertainment Newspaper Serving Nevada City & Greater Nevada County

Butler: Affordable-housing policies open few doors in Nevada County

Steve Enos