Questions raised on Proper meeting notice for planning commission

Last night at the Evansville Planning Commission meeting, Kendall Schneider, the chairman of the Town of Union raised the question of whether it was a legally constituted meeting-----whether notice of the meeting had been proper.

The City clerk, James Bielke, responded that the agenda was properly posted at City Hall, but it had come to his attention that the agenda had not been distributed through the internet. This was consistent with the experience of The Observer who after not getting the agenda by automatic email, had sought the agenda at the Eager Library and not found it, had requested the agenda by email, but not had a response, and in the afternoon of the meeting had gone to city hall and received a full agenda with supporting documents. I did post a brief post about the meeting, but not the complete agenda.

There was also a complaint from those folks who appeared regarding the rezoning of 39 West Church Street, that short notice was given and it was not clear that all the residents in the proper area were notified.


Sevaral things became clear after the discussion:

1. Due to holiday schedules, notice has not been effective if the sole notice is the Review and the City Hall. Electronic notification of the agenda is easy and very cost effective. The effect of cutting off the Internet news channels, which is what was done, has the real effect of providing no notice to citizens. Yes...citizens could go to City Hall each day to review posted agendas, but only Ace Ventura Pet Detective could do this.

2. Through subscription to RSS feed or email request, it is very easy to send agendas to any citizen that wants to be on the mailing list.

In Summary, As the Evansville Observer, I recommend that any citizen that wants to be on the list of electronic recipients of agendas for city meetings be allowed to receive this notice. The cost is almost zero. It would provide effective notification rather than just theoretical notice. It would be an improvement. After all, if my wonderful readers can receive the very latest from the land of make-believe, Normal, Mn., why not in the real world too?