Commentary: A lack of transparency

EDITOR,
Scotts Valley politics at its worst was again on full-fledged display at the Nov. 4 City Council meeting. Mayor Randy Johnson and Vice Mayor Jim Reed seem to fail to understand the importance of transparency and the negative impact the lack of it has. This was evident during Reed’s Gateway South Commercial subcommittee report.
During Reed’s report, he revealed that on Oct. 22, the city had received a letter from Title II regarding the proposed retail project at Gateway South. In that letter, Title II asked that all references to “Target store” be changed to “retail store.” He stated that he considered this “significant” or “meaningful” information.
Because of this, Reed and Johnson contacted Target representatives early the week of Oct. 26. In the phone meeting with Target representatives, Target revealed that “they are not under contract with Title II” and that “they are not part of this project”.
Why did Johnson and Reed wait until after the 5 p.m. Nov. 4 deadline for comments on the Gateway South SEIR to reveal this news? Did they believe that this information was not important enough to share with members of the public who were working feverishly through hundreds of pages of documents to frame appropriate comments and questions regarding the SEIR? Reed even mentioned in his remarks that consultants had earlier informed the Gateway South Commercial subcommittee that the impact a Target store has would be significantly different than the impact of other stores.
Why was the public not informed as soon as possible about this news? What state secrets needed to be preserved? Were other City Council members kept in the dark as well?
The actions of councilmen Johnson and Reed were not only disappointing, they were disrespectful and a disservice to the community. The public deserves better.