Tuesday, February 10, 2009

council

i came out of the work session feeling bad that this is taking up so much of everyone's time. but then i don't have any control over the fact that the leadership of the fcac won't hold a discussion with us.

basically, the fcac laid out the process to date. council members clegg & eberle expressed the opinion that a decision reached through consensus with the engagement of the user group had a better chance of succeeding, and that every use impacts the resource, maybe it should be addressed globally.

Council member Shealy said he has his mind made up on the issue and the public would find it difficult to change it. he appears to be of the opinion that stricter rules should be enforced immediately. Councilman Tibbs also seemed to be leaning that direction.

Chairman McDevitt cited degradation, and mentioned that the charter of the committe is conservation. Shirley Randolph brought up dogs running through the FLC grounds. Note to anyone who brings this up- there are no dogs allowed in that area, so any owners who are letting their dogs run through are in violation of the rules. ticket them. if there are no owners in sight impound the dogs.

the committee was asked to come up with a recommendation, and a facilitator was offered to help that happen. fcac member baskin basically said that he is tired of the whole thing and would just as soon let council decide.

here's the part i don't get. i know that we don't speak for every dog owner, but most of the dog owners we have spoken with are ok with staff recommendations, other than wanting to see a loop in lower hull's gulch. we said as much in our letter.

we would like to establish baseline behavior & better understand the science so that we can get buy in from dog owners to follow the rules. we suggested an annual review, which is more often than staff or the working group suggested.

we are not that far off. i do not understand why we can't work together on this. but that's not the path fcac leadership has chosen.

will keep you posted-

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